Megabear2

They mainly work Britannia to fill in between their stage and tv commitments. We saw what they described as their last ship appearance for some time at Christmas. Speaking to them later they mentioned quite a lot of tv and theatre work coming up. We also had Chesney Hawkes who was okay but very keen to sell DVDs and CDs particularly while we were eating. He also carried a £10 premium for being a "star". John Partride was a third offering on our cruise this year as well. In 2021 we had Eric & Ern, Cheryl Baker and John Partridge. They have also had Three Poofs and a Piano on Britannia before. I understand the acts are on a rotation and mainly contracted to one ship. The acts at Christmas on Britannia included the Military Magician who apparently won Britains Got Talent. He was the main big act for the festive period. Incidentally Queen Victoria's big Christmas act was Midge Ure, perhaps P&O could upgrade their acts to people like that.

This is the point I made on the Arvia maiden thread. There is as far as I know no limit to the amount of time people are spending at their tables with freedom dining. That means the diners, particularly the earlier ones, could be occupying their tables for far longer than planning intended. If RC were aiming for 75 minutes with increased staff for each diner on their megaships but say that 90 minutes is more realistic (remember they also have fixed club dining restaurants running alongside) then as ICF says the mathematics will be wrong. He is speaking about one day a year creating a problem but P&O will be dealing with this 365 days a year. That equates to either more staff needed or a possible maximum time for passengers to be at the table.

I understood the move to fixed dining was only on the maiden and had reverted to freedom on the transatlantic. Perhaps Bobstheboy will clarify when he posts on his return. I understand he had a meeting with the beverage and dining managers so hopefully more news soon.

Have a great cruise.

Thank you, a most interesting perspective from someone who has actually sailed on the ship! I note your observation that the families in particular were expected to move away from the main dining rooms to the more casual eating establishments. Having come across the thread from cruisemummy regarding her experience on the Arvia maiden I wonder if the misconception made by P&O is that they thought families would gravitate towards the more "junk food" end of the food onboard? Looking at the menus posted there for those restaurants I would imagine that many responsible parents would use these restaurants as a once or twice treat but would not be keen on allowing their children to eat the food offered for more than that. In my experience most modern mums wouldn't want to feed their children a repetitive diet of chips etc. I’ve no children or grandchildren personally but am surrounded by family and friends with children ranging from a month old to university age and all of them would I think view 6th Street Diner and Olive Grove menus as treats not regular meals for a fortnight's holiday. Hopefully this link won't get me in trouble and is allowed. It goes into quite a lot of the menus. https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/po-arvia-restaurants/

Arvia is on her way to the Caribbean so we will soon find out .

Are your friends in a suite?

It's dearer now so you have a bargain! There seem to be copious amounts of insides left and quite a few deluxe balconies and mini suites. You may get lucky yet.

If it's bought onboard does it not still incurs the tax liability or do the gallery cover this. I thought if you bought something on the ship of value over your allowance it was taxable. If a watch at £1,000 is liable wouldn't a picture of the same value be regardless of how it gets to you?

I think they wanted the seating on the prom deck as the open deck space is apparently quite restricted with outside eating areas etc. Looking at Grapau's picture on the suite cancellation thread the chairs seem to be against the glass screens. Assumedly if they had access from the terrace/balcony they couldnt this. It's also meant to be narrow in places.

Mind you on a February winter cruise it might not be too bad. I have just been quoted £1100 plus £240 OBC for one of these as a single. Luckily the OP has a deck 9, still a disappointment for her but a lot better. I don’t think I'd take one on a hot weather cruise tho7gh.

I was in town this afternoon and walked past an art display that looked very familiar. My sister in law stopped too and we realised why it was familiar as it was identical to stuff we'd seen on our recent cruises. Considering we sailed on different ships it would seem there's quite a lot of this stuff in Whitewall Galleries ashore so I'm not sure why you'd buy it onboard particularly as Devonuk points out tax would need to be paid to "import" it.

Did you book a balcony or is it an upgrade?

Good idea. If that's something you booked especially for they will hopefully help. Interestingly there are 14 mini suites on deck 8 remaining to book on the website yet only 1 balcony cabin. A dummy quote for just me was cheaper by £9 on select than saver - £1124 plus the OBC. I think that's all a bit unusual so maybe there have been others affected. Somewhere on another thread there was a poster allocated a deck 8 balcony on his saver inside fare for this cruise. Sounds like a lot of musical chairs for something showing very limited availability.

Thank you. I see that all deck 9 mini suites on that are apparently sold out with only deck 8 available. Those are selling at £2258 with £370 OBC at present or £1698 for a saver. Any change to deck 9 most likely meant someone else being shuffled to make room for you. I assume they just told you its this cabin take it or leave it as there's nothing else available. Are you keeping your Epicurean breakfasts etc or is that just swept up in the 50%?

When did you originally book and what type of fare as a pure matter of interest? Is this the G304 Western Europe cruise or the Canaries one

There's been a few posts coming in from the world cruise but they've mainly been about not being able to call at ports. There was apparently Norovirus onboard so a deep clean took place in Fort Lauderdale after the Bahamas refused entry. Not much else heard since then. Suggest you keep an eye out on the various threads as some do have friends onboard or joining along the route.

Are you happy with that? It must be a disappointing but are they giving you ample compensation if you accept it, there's presumably a big difference in the fare. 50% refund sounds a lot but did you book a long time ago, book a select fare or get a big OBC at that time. Surely there's OBC at least for your disappointment, even £50 or so.

Apparently the one on Ionabis meant to be fleet wide. Will be interesting to see it.

As the big OBC has currently bitten the dust for most cruises and the thousand pound gap between select and saver fares is back , I wonder who they think will be buying these highly priced items on a ship that is clearly far from high class cruising at present.

I appreciate that but as they're now clearly avoiding it in its purest form. Clearly available if you pay so cost is most likely but I bet they'd use one of the other reasons if you challenged them!

Freshness? Allergies? Religion? Risk of food poisoning - sadly the freshness of buffet salad left a lot to be desired at Christmas after the first week.

You do access it in airplane mode on the ship. You effectively piggy bag on the ship's WiFi with just limited access. That way you can use it without buying WiFi.

Mr and Mrs is extremely popular on Princess. They, of course, have a dedicated gameshow room on their ships which are extremely popular it seems with versions of a large number of tv gameshow adaptations. They even do Deal or No Deal in the main theatre which the US and Australian guests seemed to love.

Well I suppose they could give me a microwave to do some McCain micro chips ... would go well with my fish finger sandwich mentioned on another thread by someone.