sunbeams101

Second what everyone else has said - kids facilities are ace.

if you are at all worried about your children while they’re in the kids club, you can dial the club extension number from any ship phone (lots of deck phones dotted about on Britannia), to confirm with staff that they’re ok. 

On embarkation day you will need to register them with the club (you can print the forms from the p&o website before you go if you wish), before they use the facilities. From memory you can do this at any time on embarkation day (may have changed but I’m sure this used to be the case), or 15 minutes before the start of each session.

Have a blast and try not to worry - it’s the best holiday you can do with very young children, IMHO. 

Hello, yes we’ve used their travel cots several times.

Loads of room left if you put the cot in the recess where the open plan wardrobe is (opposite the bathroom door, under neath the hanging rails). You can still get in and out of the bathroom easily enough but the door won’t open fully. The steward gave us a bit of a strange look when we moved it but it does make sense, and you can still hang lond dresses etc to one side of the cot. 

You can put it in the main area, but we preferred having the baby slightly out of the way so we could have the telly on/access the balcony etc in the evening or during nap times.

we also always used to ask for the steward to put extra sheets/towels on the base of the travel cot - they are quite hard otherwise, and in my opinion need padding out. 

Slightly off topic but just to reinforce - the children’s facilities are ace, even for under two’s, be sure to use the night nursery in the evening; it was a godsend for us when the kids were small, for us to have a few ‘nights out’ (on the ship). 

Have a good time!

Hello,

We did the Fjords in 2016 with a then 2 year old and a 5 year old.

We stopped at Bergen, Flaam, Andalsnes, Stavanger.

From memory we did the following at the ports you mention:

Bergen: funicular up to to the National Park (lovely play park at the top but loads of walking/adventure trails too). We did this independently, we only queued about 15 minutes to get tickets at the funicular station but got there early.

Flaam: the railway - booked through P&O. Where the ship docks, there is a park, and a river, and a really nice flat green. After the railway we came back and just pottered around by the park and river.

Stavanger: we just wandered around and explored, but again we found several public play parks, intertwined on the hills between the historical buildings. We found small slides built into the hills- kids loved it.

Hope that helps, we found Norway to be really child friendly, the kids loved it.

We found play parks at every destination

Our flight to St Lucia last year was from LGW and departed at around 0930.

I got the email and have responded.

One query though.. my husband hasn’t had an email, and obviously my young children won’t have had an email.

I’m guessing this email I received is for the individual not us as a group; I assume P&O would write to those who don’t have an email address associated with their peninsular club # so that my husband and kids can reaffirm their loyalty points!?

Hello. We went in May ‘16 with our two young children. From what I can remember, The temperature varied between 10-20 degrees, but we saw quite a lot of sun - we were very lucky, and it only rained for one afternoon (Flam afternoon). There might have been an odd shower but no other persistent rain. Also, when we were travelling back down the North Sea to Southampton we were out on deck sunbathing with many others.

I think this is probably the exception rather than the norm for the Fjords, but my best piece of advice is pack for every weather eventuality. If your boys are anything like mine, they would have enjoyed the holiday just as much jumping in puddles as wandering around in t shirts! Have a great time, we loved the Fjords and would happily go back with our kids.

youre welcome, just grab the first person you see when you de-plane, to explain that you need the pushchair ;p

Hi, we’ve done this with a buggy twice, (once we landed in Barbados and last year in St Lucia) and both times we spoke to the ground crew straight after disembarking, asking for the buggy to be offloaded.

At Barbados this wasn’t an issue as they (the Gatwick ground crew)stored the buggy in the front hold. In St Lucia the ground crew didn’t know where the buggy was so they had to do some digging in the containers, so we were on the last bus to the ship. However, it only took about half hour or so. The team at Barbados seemed fairly used to this request, and it took a matter of minutes to track it down. It was worth it too - We had a bit of a wait in check in hall at the port so having the buggy to hand was a god send.

My advice - if they don’t want to retrieve it out the hold for you, persevere and insist, even if you have to wait.

Have a great holiday!!

Not that I can recall when researching whether to book one. The ones towards the rear of the ship ( G600's I think) were the most obstructed as the lifeboats were taller /bigger /different shape towards the back. That said, i don't think it was a total obstruction, after taking a peak during changeover day.

I wouldn't hesitate to book a higher grade obstructed balcony again, as the view was fine, and particularly as we got the sofa bed in there too.

Not very obstructed :) there was I think (rubbish memory, sorry!)a strut or pillar supporting the lifeboats to my left as I looked out the balcony, but not much else, apart from down below us (below our balcony floor level) there was a lifeboat - but we could see over it when sat down x

Hello, yes, we did, with a 6 and 3 year old. We also were able to have a double bed and the Pullman was above the single sofa bed.

Our cabin number was G331. From memory it was an IB grade (obstructed view) cabin.

You could get to th balcony when both beds were out, but it was a bit of an effort (squeezing past sofa bed while bending down to avoiding banging our heads while the Pullman was in place!). We still managed it without waking th kids up.

Yep - we shall see you the second week!

I will be at the night nursery every night signing in the youngest (he will be 3 so will still qualify to snooze up there, he could go into the kids club, but I think he'll be too tired judging on our last cruise), so I will probably see you there if no-where else! :)

One thing I remembered too - when your aircraft lands at Barbados, you will get straight on a bus, next to the aircraft, to go to the port (no immigration etc, as the cruise pax are all pre-cleared). So, if you want the pushchair, make a point of asking the ground handlers for it at the foot of the steps, before you board the bus. Otherwise the next time you see it, it'll be in the cabin. We asked for ours (and to wait a few minutes for them to dig it out the front hold), but it proved useful because we had a bit of a queue at the port before boarding (saved my arms!).It was also handy to have it, and go straight up on deck when we boarded. Things might have changed since, but I suspect this is still the drill (the last time we did the fly cruise was 2013, we've sailed from Southampton the last couple years).

Hello there,

Once your flight number is confirmed on your cruise personaliser (MT for Thomas Cook, TOM for Thomson, from memory), have a look at the LGW website to see which terminal your applicable airline is operating from:

http://www.gatwickairport.com/flights/which-terminal/

Some airlines are moving terminals but I think it's only BA, EZY and VS.

Hello,

I can't give you any tips on the quad biking, but I can offer some info on the travelling with the baby part of your question!

We first cruised with our daughter around the Caribbean (on Ventura, in 2013) and it was fantastic. She was a little older than your baby will be; she was 20 months.

The Reef Children's club team are exceptional. We have since cruised another two times with P&O, purely because of the fantastic children's facilities, particularly for the younger ones (under 5's). You need to register on the first day (or 15minutes before the morning/afternoon/evening sessions start), even though she won't be old enough to be put into the daytime activities without parental supervision, she will still need to be registered to use the night nursery.

Make sure you make full use of the night nursery, if you can. It's free, and you take the baby up to the night nursery from 1800 every night. You settle them in a cot, and sign them in, and the Reef team will give you a pager so that they can contact you in case your little one wakes up or is unsettled persistently. Assuming all is well, you can pick them up anytime before 02:30

You can leave the pushchair by the entrance to the Reef for when you collect her. We had 13 date nights on our first P&O cruise thanks to the night nursery. It's a fantastic service.

WRT the rest of the Reef facilities, depending on which ship you're on and when you're going, they may allow you to use the softplay area in the age2-4 group, if this group has been combined with ages 5-8 (this sometimes happens when there are less children onboard - i.e. during term time). This varies though. the under 2's do have their own room for supervised play, but you may also get access to the other room if it's available.

The dedicated under 2's room on Brittania was lovely, and the 2-4 room had a little softplay and loads of toys and games.

Not sure which ship you're on, but I've been on both Ventura (twice) and Brittania with my children's ages ranging between 15months and 5 years old and there's always been plenty to entertain them. There is an outdoor play area on Britannia - splash zone, but it's not very big, but my son enjoyed this on our last cruise.

Lots of kids disco's/entertainers etc which we could join in with (but would have to stay at these) when we had an under 2 with us.

Kids tea every day at 1730 (I think that's the correct time anyway) in the buffet - this was a hit for our kids, and they didn't want to dine with us at dinner at all on our last cruise that we did! Lots of the usual children's favourites are on offer, spag bol, nuggets, pizza, veggies, sandwiches, jelly, yogurts, etc etc). Even if you decide to have your little one dine with you in the evening, waitors are very helpful and will source you a highchair easily. There is also a dedicated kids menu in the main dining room.

Cot in your cabin - if you're in a balcony cabin, have a word with your cabin steward, to move the cot into the wardrobe/dressing area opposite the bathroom. He may have to check that he's allowed to set it up there every night (ours checked with his supervisor), but we have done this on both Ventura and Brittania, and it means that you can watch TV, have more space by the bed, etc and not disturb the baby if they're asleep. If you do do this, bear in mind that it's a bit of a squeeze getting into the bathroom as you do slightly block the opening of the bathroom door. And you lose a bit of clothing space, but we just used the shelves for most things, and hung up the important things (dresses !) at the opposite end of the rail.

Sorry for the length response - hope you've found this useful !

You will love it, and so will your little one I'm sure :)

Incidentally which cruise are you on?! We are back on Britannia in Feb - B702D (St lucia Back to Back) we're taking our daughter (5) and son (3).

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I will let you know how I get on, we haven't decided whether to go yet or not, but I'd like to know what they say so I'll try and give them a bell when I can.

Bizarrely I could book an available four berth cabin under the Select Price for 4 of us, and I could book the same grade (obvs. not the specific cabin) under the Early Saver Price, but only for two of us.

Cheers all

:)

Thanks English lady for your reply :)

I have always managed to get prices online before for the early saver price for four of us in a balcony cabin, (as I can for the Azura cruise), but for some reason, I can only reserve the Select price when I put in 4 pax for the Britannia cruises.

I have a horrible feeling that they're planning on restricting early saver fares to 2people (that's just me being a cynic - not based on anything!!).

Many thanks again.

Morning everyone,

I've sailed with P&O Cruises, with my family (husband and 2 young children) twice (soon to be three times after May).

We're looking at booking a Caribbean fly cruise for February 2017.

All of our previous cruises have been Early Savers, which works best for our requirements (cost vs benefit).

Last week I saw that I could get Early Saver Prices on Azura Cruise A703 (or it may have been A703A), for the 4 of us in one cabin. However, the Brittania Cruise B702D (and others on similar dates in February) won't let me book an Early Saver Cruise for 4 of us in one cabin, but the Early Saver prices can be booked for 2 people in one cabin.

My question is - does anyone know if P&O are restricting the booking of Early Savers to those who are booking two people per cabin?

Hope this post makes sense.. it's been a while since I've been on here... !

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Hi there,

Not really a huge amount to add re the Night Nursery and Children's Clubs, other than they are an excellent resource and I'm sure your children will love them. The staff in the night nursery will try and settle your child(ren) back to sleep if they wake up and are upset (they did persevere with my son on a couple of occasions) and we only had a call to come back once in a two week cruise (he went in the night nursery every night).

We did get a few 'looks' from other passengers when we picked up the kids at 11pm and wheeled them back to their rooms (they were both in pushchairs and fast asleep). My husband overheard one woman say something like 'I don't agree with kids being moved around like that' . I was really angry about this (I didn't hear her and if I had I would have said something) - at the end of the day our kids had the best holiday to date, but you sometimes get the odd one person who think that they know best (when in reality they absolutely don't, because if they didn't want to see kids being quietly taken back to their cabins, they should have booked an adult only cruise!!). Anyway would she have preferred my kids to have stayed up late screaming and crying in the main restaurant ?! Doubt it!

Re the Superior Deluxe balcony - I think you could probably try and fix up a temporary line or something and then drape a towel over it, but I'm not sure you'd need to. With any luck the children will be so shattered from their fun days they'll probably sleep through anything! There are ceiling lights by the bathroom which you can have on, which don't really affect the darkness of the area with the sofa bed in. We used to have the bedside tables on and this didn't affect our daughter at all - the area with the sofa bed remained very dim.

One other thing re children - do make use of the Children's Tea (5pm every night at the Buffet) - it's brilliant for kids, and it means that afterwards they are ready for the children's club's evening activities (from memory I think they start at 6 or 6.30).

Have a great cruise, we have found that land based holidays can't beat the night nursery/kids club activities set up on the P&O family ships - we had our evenings back to have date nights, enjoy the shows and go to the casino.

Morning, we put the cot in the wardrobe recess, opposite the entrance to the bathroom, both in a balcony cabin and a superior deluxe balcony. Getting access to the bathroom was manageable, but the safe was a bit of a mission because we couldn't open the cupboard door fully. But putting the cot there meant we could watch telly/ access the balcony without waking up the baby!

I mentioned in a post a couple of months ago that when we went on Ventura in 2013, they provided a full thickness travel cot mattress (ie a proper cot mattress but travel cot size). I expected the same when we went a couple of months ago (Ventura again), but sadly this wasn't the case - we just got the standard travel cot mat. That said our steward padded it out with loads of towels so it was still comfy for my son.

Have a great time

P.S. not strictly cot related, but when we were last on Ventura (presume the same for Azura) we had cabin A747. This was the last cabin on the starboard side, at the aft of the ship. It had a bigger balcony (at an angle, so you could see down the length of the ship), but was so useful for putting the pushchair out at night (the balcony was covered).

Nope - we still used the hanging rail above where the cot was positioned for shirts, tops etc, and the cot left a small space either side in the wardrobe (if that makes sense!) for my dresses. There were also the shelves in the wardrobe bit which weren't affected by the cot being positioned there. We put our shoes under the travel cot too (poor kid, she probably didn't appreciate the smell :D)!

From what I remember they also put a thick travel cot mattress inside the cot - like a proper mattress, but travel cot size (IYKWIM). I had reservations about the cot being too hard, so I packed some extra blankets to 'pad out' the cot, but I needn't have worried.

We're going back on board in a couple of weeks (so excited!!), but this time we'll have a 4 year old and a 21month old. We've opted for a sup. deluxe balcony this time - hopefully the wardrobe arrangements will be the same as last time :)

Have a lovely cruise people :)

Second what Mattybarlow said - the night nursery is amazing and will give you your evenings back on holiday! This is for us the biggest benefit of P&O when travelling with young kids. It's a fantastic service and it's free! Just take the kids (aged 6months-4 years) up to the children's club from 6pm every night (last entry to the night nursery is 11pm). Settle them in a cot/toddler bed (they are set up in Splashers from memory), and the staff will give you a pager should they wake and can't be settled back to sleep. Then, you and your other half can go and enjoy dinner/shows/casino etc etc.

RE the stairs - we sometimes lifted the pushchair up and down stairs, but in general, we didn't have an issue with waiting for lifts.

:)

Not a stupid question at all!! When we took our (then) 21 month old on Ventura I wondered exactly the same thing. We had a standard balcony cabin. When we got into the cabin, the steward had read my mind and already positioned the cot in the little walk in wardrobe area opposite the bathroom.

I know you're on Azura but I think Ventura is pretty much the same in terms of specification.

It was great (apart from trying to go to the loo in darkness in the middle of the night !), as we had the rest of the cabin free to watch telly and relax, without fear of disturbing our daughter.

Hope that helps x