crompton21

Nice to see the location of the vegetable being marked with an X

Departing Southampton whilst leaning over an aft balcony on Iona, a memory of leaving with a band playing struck me. To some amusement I realised that I couldn’t actually see the ground level at the midship area let alone stand any chance of hearing a band from where I was.

The same site has Tui with 58k reviews at an average score of 4.4 out of 5 against 1.6 out of 5 for P&O. No smoke without fire as they say.

I think that this site is mostly inhabited by people who enjoy cruising and to me there is a sense that the majority are now finding an overall experience that is mostly positive. A quick search through more generic review sites brings up a different perspective. One of the well known sites currently has over 1000 reviews with 75% rating P&O as one star out of five, or bad in their words. Finding (and keeping) a new type of customer may turn out to be more challenging than perhaps the new plan envisaged.

The plan is actually to serve some Quiche turned upside down, add some chips and a pea and then claim Marco Pierre White created it. Replaces the beef wellington on celebration night apparently.

If the judgement of P&O is that formal nights generate income, surely they would do more of them and not less? I think it's more to do with their perception of what customers want (which this thread clearly proves to be an impossible conundrum)

Brings a whole new meaning to meat and two veg....

Arcadia (2005) has Azipod propulsion, as do QE and QV, so hopefully a number of Captains have actually had a little time to practice.

I'd like to think that any Captain of a ship knew how to control it to the maximum of it's abilities before they took control. It seems a strange idea to set off with 7000 people with the vague hope that you will get the hang of it as you go along.

Isn’t that one of the wine smuggling kits that can be used when boarding? (as recommended on here a while back)

After much research and acting on customer feedback, P&O have made a small adjustment to the concept of onboard entertainment. Fine dining has been replaced with the all new “Find dining”. Coming later in the rollout will be a set time where the app will suddenly play a tune on your smartphone, when the music stops if you haven’t found a seat unfortunately you won’t be eating that evening. For those guests lucky enough to find a seat there will be mystery prizes randomly allocated to specific table numbers. It is currently planned to offer the lucky winners a host of additional luxurious options chosen by Ant and Dec. Early indications are that these extras will include prawn cocktail, grilled chicken and a third slice of cheese.

Use of a seat?

I once knew someone who went on holiday taking only one new pair of shoes, after a few days he was hopping mad 😠

As far as I can see, the event appears to include luxuries such as the provision of tablecloths and glassware with the added bonus of being able to be served at a reasonable time. It's quite a feat of marketing to be able able to persuade people that they should eat their "celebration meal" in the environs of the cafeteria whilst promoting it as an upgrade.

If I ask for the cheese wheel (still not quite sure what that was in reality), am I now led to believe I can have a Dairylea?

I see what you did there😀

The menus are clearly dated 2018. If you were going to try and make something look good, I personally would at least attempt to make the information look up to date. I think it's more inefficiency than subterfuge.

The feedback from Carnival towers appears to be a belief that the problem is the customers and not the product. Now there’s a slippery slope…..

I am happy to be corrected, but I think that I have read/seen that the deck 5 balconies may need to be covered in rough weather. If that is the case then the lowest ones may not be the best choice.

I believe the sauce is Marie Rose……

In November (on Iona) the ability to book a fixed early sitting at dinner was available on board. As we didn't use it I can't be exact but I think that what I read in the Horizon were details of being able to do a block restaurant booking for each day for a dining time prior to 18:15.

On Iona in November, prawn cocktail as a starter and salmon as a main were available every day. Others have posted that on different ships around the same period Caesar salad and chicken breast were available every day, but prawn cocktail and salmon were nowhere to be seen. Tomato soup and steak appear to have made it to all menus. I think that leads me to conclude that the menu varies by ship and is quite likely to be driven by availability at time of stocking rather than a specific ship being designated a prawn free zone. If that is the case, until you are on board the prawn cocktail conundrum will probably need to remain unsolved.

The Iona (and I assume Arvia) come with a unique layout for the suite balcony furniture which doesn't tend to aid enjoyment of the space. In this example, the weather was forecast to be force 8/9 in about 24 hrs time. On arrival, the balcony facilities included a couple of hooks and some rope discreetly placed in the corner, it became apparent what they were for later in our cruise. We lost the use of the balcony furniture for just under a quarter of the cruise, the furniture was thoughtfully put back out on the final evening prior to arrival in Southampton. Needless to say, we won't be paying for an aft suite on either ship again.

The 1751 Gin act (for example) makes me think that the problem may go back a little further than we might choose to believe.

If you booked a saver fare you didn't receive a brochure (or at least I never did), a select booking received a brochure. If 50% booked using saver fares then it's hardly surprising that people who were not sent printed labels didn't use something that they were not provided with.