Megabear2

Well that's interesting. Presumably the first of the responses on feedback that Moley referred to a couple of weeks back.

Are you on 18th March trip? I haven't looked at the sailing time for Tenerife so didn't realise there may be an evening trip.

Thank you. I assume then it's walkable as Fionboard says above? I'm hoping to do something in the evening so walkable sounds ideal!

Thank you. The berth for Lisbon is something called JTab on What's in Port which rather confused me! I assume it is called something else.

Not having sailed Iona nor having been to the Canaries for 13 years I wonder if anyone can give me an idea what to expect! First thing: itinerary is Madeira, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Cadiz and Lisbon overnight. Question: which ports will I need a shuttle for - I'm on a saver so need to pay. Question: When I booked for Canaries last October (cancelled due to my aunt's situation) there was a trip to the solar observatory on a day trip. This doesn't seem to exist via P&O on my trip. Has anyone done this independently and if so how difficult is it to do? Question: No idea what to do I Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, any ideas gratefully received! Question: Cadiz, never been at this time of year, what should I expect weatherwise? Suggestions for where to go for something other than a stroll around which I normally do would be great. Question: Lisbon. I love this city but have never stayed overnight. As I'm travelling alone any suggestions on something to do there that's both safe and uncomplicated - I'm fine for daytime activities. If anyone has ideas or can point me to information which might be useful I'd be extremely grateful. Thank you

You can download an app from your mobile phone providers store. Most are compatible on all smartphones and are free. They are useful in supermarkets as the QR codes often carry excellent health and nutrition details if the labels are a bit vague.

Thank you for the explanation. Just to note again I do not have social media accounts and my comments on reviews refer only to CC reviewers and P&O's direct link to Feefo. I totally agree with your observations about how many trivial and downright wrong things are listed on social media - that's why I have no accounts myself, preferring to read more reliable sources.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I'm not sure why you've decided to quote me though?

I'm not suggesting that everything is wrong. I am however pointing to Cruise Critic reviews recently posted which have a common theme of the food quality and selection being the let down. I do not use social media, I do however read the reviews on this site (not just on the P&O boards), Feefo and via the travel trade press to get an overall feel for cruise passengers experiences. Most of the reviews over on the Cruise Critic review section are currently 3* which is nowhere near where they were previously and I'm sure would be worrying to P&O who are strithing to be 4* plus. Likewise Moley has said P&O are operating below standard. That acknowledgement is not me or anyone else stating they are not as happy as they could be with the product. It is the unofficial P&O mole who kindly updates people here of what is being discussed in Carnival House. Frankly there's nothing to be gained by turning on me for asking if it is known which of the issues P&O are hoping to address first. I'm just one individual and I doubt that the acknowledgment of slipped standards has anything at all to do with me! I appreciate that a great many don't wish to query if this is the best that can be expected but others do have opinions and it is clearly those unknown parties who are writing the reviews. For my part I've booked three P&O cruises, two of them in recent days. I therefore have an interest in what if any improvements I might see in the immediate, near and further future.

Thank you for that information. I note the hope we can expect improvements in time which appears to be an acknowledgment that many of the things we have been discussing here are facts rather than us just being nitpicking. Is there an order for addressing the issues, ie the supply issue is presumably more urgent than say finding and training staff. The new menus onboard are clearly quite contentious for instance, are the passengers being listened to - there is a repeated reference in reviews of the lack of choice and quality. Whilst appreciating all lines are adjusting menus to save food costs, P&O really do appear to be at the bottom of the pile at present, words like bland, repetitive, tough and stale make uncomfortable reading on the review pages and social media. It's not a pretty picture. The customers would I'm sure appreciate honesty and possibly a proper statement by Paul Ludlow or someone high up to let them know how things are going to improve and most importantly by when.

Could be sooner than expected ...

Thank you for the explanation, although old that makes total sense. I doubt the younger generation would be too interested in what they perceive as an old hat war judging by the overwhelming support on Britannia for the Argentinian football team!. It seems it's much easier to "hate" France than Argentina these days.

My latest advertising missive from P&O has just hit my inbox. New offers of large onboard credit being offered on selected cruises. Checking them out the majority are Iona Norway 7 nighters and the Arvia Mediterranean cruises over the entire on sale range. You may be right ... Also included are every other Norwegian cruise on any ship. It runs to 14 pages of cruises with the offer and I'd guess 11 pages are for Norway. It's no wonder the Norwegian people are getting fed up with cruisers - they must be inundated!

There's supposed to be people with tablets asking the questions but I don't know anyone who's actually had recent experience. A lady at the airport when we flew just asked about covid symptoms nothing else.

Now I'm even more confused! Isn't P&O part of Carnival which is a US company? Cunard are surely equally British by that reckoning and I saw Fred mentioned earlier. Anyway this is the "leaked" QV itinerary I've seen and it most certainly includes Argentina. There isn't any Falklands though so maybe that's the problem as P&O go there I believe? Queen Victoria 2025 South America Circumnavigation 04-Jan-25 Hamburg 06-Jan-25 Amsterdam 07-Jan-25 Rotterdam 08-Jan-25 Zeebrugge 09-Jan-25 Southampton 13-Jan-25 Praia da Vitoria 20-Jan-25 Port Canaveral 21-Jan-25 Fort Lauderdale 23-Jan-25 Grand Turk 26-Jan-25 Bridgetown 30-Jan-25 Fortaleza 02-Feb-25 Salvador 04-Feb-25 Buzios 05-Feb-25 Rio de Janeiro 06-Feb-25 Rio de Janeiro 09-Feb-25 Montevideo 10-Feb-25 Buenos Aires 11-Feb-25 Buenos Aires 14-Feb-25 Puerto Madryn 17-Feb-25 Ushuaia 18-Feb-25 Cape Horn (Cruise-by) 19-Feb-25 Punta Arenas 20-Feb-25 Amalia Glacier (Cruise-by) 21-Feb-25 PIO X Glacier (Cruise-by) 23-Feb-25 Puerto Montt 25-Feb-25 San Antonio 26-Feb-25 Coquimbo 28-Feb-25 Arica 02-Mar-25 Callao 03-Mar-25 Callao 06-Mar-25 Manta 08-Mar-25 Panama Canal Transit 10-Mar-25 Oranjestad 13-Mar-25 Nassau 14-Mar-25 Fort Lauderdale 15-Mar-25 Port Canaveral 18-Mar-25 Bermuda 24-Mar-25 Ponta Delgada 28-Mar-25 Southampton 30-Mar-25 Hamburg

Thank you. About right for the moronic man he appears to be. However what is his association with P&O not being welcome? Was it their advert or something?

Excuse my ignorance and with fear of opening a can of worms what is the Clarkson debacle, assuming you're not referring to his latest faux pa with Meghan?

That's good news. The problem with HE is they were a family business grown rapidly on mainly the airport car parking hotel business. A couple of management buy outs led to them trying to expand into all things travel. For a very long time they had big links to Thomas Cook who were their main market. Like many when the pandemic stopped everything overnight they were caught out, sacked and furloughed nearly all their staff and struggled to survive. They earned a dreadful reputation in the car parking/hotel side in the pandemic era with the ridiculous cancellation charges and vouchers you couldn't use. They have a big tie up with the major travel agencies which doesn't help either. If you look to book parking through them nowadays they only offer their own subsidiaries whereas previously you had a lot of other options. Rumour has it there were so many problems with the vouchers etc that some hotels and operators didn't want to do business with them, no idea of course if it's TRUE! I'm guessing, only a personal opinion, that they pay handsomely for the recommendations and tie ups and keeping things under one umbrella suits the big companies. Holiday Extras were not always P&O and Cunard's preferred insurer it's a fairly recent deal (if I recall around 5 years). Their previous recommended company pulled out of the travel insurance market following something of a scandal with the claims company (they weren't the only company to be affected). They also had to change their claims handler/underwriters when TIF moved out of the market. Great Lakes are the people offering this service now and they are slightly better for the customer. I think your timing put you in the middle of that financial crisis/mess up unfortunately. Looking forward to hearing how you get on. HE's history if anyone is interested: https://www.holidayextras.com/about-us/company-history.html#:~:text=1983 - Holiday Extras founded as Apple Booking Company&text=Gerry decided that this was,worked solely with travel agents.

You may find Cunard a little easier on disembarkation days. When I sailed with my mother one lift was designated wheelchair only and you were invited to either go to a special area with other users or on our last cruise before she died wait in your cabin until your disembarkation time. I understand the latter has remained in force through the post pandemic so hopefully will continue.

It's great to be cruel sometimes! On supermarkets I get very vexed by mother and child spaces when there are none for limited mobility rather than disability. In Waitrose one day I had my mother in law with me who was awaiting a hip replacement and as a result in severe difficulty walking. I pulled into to a mother and child space as it was nearest to door. You can't park here she said as an irate mother glared at us. Oh yes I can I replied opening the door to the buggy bearing woman. Pointing at my MIL i said very firmly "Mother" and then pointing to myself "child", i cant see any age restrictions can you so we're staying. The 20 odd year old lady was gobsmacked and rapidly departed.

I sympathise on the insurance although I'm surprised Holiday Extras didn't allow you to move the insurance once the cruise was rebooked as this is what happened with my family members. Unfortunately with Staysure your policy was in place - was it a single policy rather than annual - and as you had been directed to them by P&O they will have treated your policy as in effect as you attempted a claim and obviously this was dealt with after departure date. I suggest in your negotiations with P&O you try to negotiate some extra compensation for the insurance costs stating it was their wrong information which meant you will be marked as using the policy. The excursions nd and restaurant bookings should have been refunded directly to your card used to pay for them. Check your statements again and if you haven't had the refunds telephone P&O and ask why not. These refunds are not in dispute and are owed under P&O's Terms and Conditions. As such the normal telephone channels should be able to deal with the refunds immediately. I hope that helps, if I can offer anything else please let me know and I'll do my best!

I believe the Arvia booking times are between 6.00 and 6.15 although I haven't sailed on her - I'm on Iona on 18 March which I anticipate will be sold out as only insiders remain and a certain Mr Barlow is onboard. Another thing to consider is the age demographic of the new passengers, the 30 to 40 year olds. With children being born far later nowadays many of these will be with parents, far more than on other ships. As a consequence people will want to eat earlier, possibly with the children or to ensure they can go to entertainment if they need to pick up children from other places. Add into this mix people like myself who the app wouldn't work for - fine on Britannia not so good on the big girls - the people without telephones, the just plain stubborn and a long corridor leading to two restaurants with inadequate seating and it's very easy to see how the queues can arise. The reception podium has one computer screen allocating tables - I assume its the same on the new ships - and 2 staff who use it. If at 7.30 when the rush starts 30% of the seats are occupied (90 minute turnaround being RC's aim on their megaships) those two people and screen have to move prebooked people through, pass them to available waiters, mark them into the computer as to which table they've gone to, record Auntie Ethel looking for a table, check the computer to see if anything's immediately available if not give her a pager not doubt deal with her grumbles ... Then of course everyone in a party is in the queue to go in despite only one needing to check in, so Auntie Ethel could have Uncle Bill with her and Curt Cobain could have his wife, three kids and grandma and grandpa .... now we have the chaos we see in the photos and that's just my fertile imagination, imagine the reality ...

No need to apologise, I wasn't in any way offended. My point was that having been on both ends of the disabled conundrum with a wheelchair user and a hidden disabilities person it really isn't black and white. I'd guess on your latest cruise the out of order lifts exacerbated the problem too. You are totally correct about people's attitude to the disabled but unfortunately the ignorant and rude are just that. I have to say truthfully although people were thoughtless with my mother on the whole because they could see the wheelchair they would become embarrassed and give her room or apologise. With my husband however it's a whole different story. He receives glares, gets ignored when asking if there's room if a wheelchair is in occupation and told vociferously on one memorable occasion on Azura there's stairs over there mate. The worst occasion was when he had to rush to use the lavatory and went in the disabled one - there are very embarrassing side effects to his medication. On exiting he was confronted by an irate guest in a wheelchair who proceeded to shout at him he should be ashamed of himself for going in there and how he should be reported. End of our evening out and no trip to the theatre as he was devastated. The public on cruise ships unfortunately believe they have "rights" and also many are of an age where they believe that alone gives them a total right to ride while others wait or walk. Unfortunately we have become a somewhat selfish nation over these things.

The early booking between 6.00 and 6.30 if you are on freedom dining has been in place on Britannia since P&O first introduced the concept, it just wasn't well known and also the bulk of people using the dining room wanted to dine after 6.30. When I spoke to the maitre de the first time I was advised of this he told me the period between 6.00 and 6.30 was traditionally not popular as most passengers were used to a fixed dining time of 6.30 or 8.30. That made a lot of sense as he had staff ready and waiting for anyone happy to go in to dine at an early time. Traditionally on American ships the early dining times "sell out" first due to the culture outside of their major cities and conurbations of eating early, many restaurants apart from high end ones start serving "dinner" at 5.00pm. You mention QM2 and the Britannia Club restaurant, I assume you have dined there in which case you will know it is an extremely small venue in a dedicated dining room. Of the 1,360 cabins on the Queen there are only 76 Britannia Club staterooms and 30 of those were added in 2015 during the remastering. The Princess and Queens Grill account for another 170 or so rooms meaning the remainder of over 1,000 odd are served by the Britannia restaurant. Of course those dining in the three Grills and Club restaurants also pay a very large premium for that privilege. The increase in people booking Club is why the extra 30 rooms were added and obviously the Queen Anne is moving on more to offer these dining options and also very new for Cunard quite a lot of extra payment venues. An interesting experiment breaking very much away from the Cunard model. Recently another addition has been a form of freedom dining in Britannia restaurant. QM2 carries a maximum around 2,600. Arvia and Iona by comparison carry 5,200 with 2 and 4 main dining rooms respectively. If they were to adopt the club dining concept assumedly they'd need one restaurant with 1,000 cabins to use the space profitably and this would require a very large premium to be in the mould of Queen Mary 2. Remember the Club staterooms are more or less standard balconies with upgraded furnishings on the Queen and therefore that would have to be the offering on the P&O ships. Personally I doubt around 1,000 people on a P&O ship will want to do that?

Very sorry to hear you are unwell. I hope you both get well soon. How long is the Lloyd's PCR kit going to take to arrive? It might be useful to take another daily LFT and photograph. I would also suggest reporting your result to your doctor and asking for the record to be noted in your medical records. That way if there's any delay in the PCR and you are not showing positive at the time it arrives you will at least have a medical record stating you were positive. This if it helps was the information provided by Holiday Extras as to how they would accept proof if a PCR wasn't the first test taken. Obviously Aviva are different but they must be aware of the difficulties in obtaining PCR tests at short notice.