Megabear2

Many did pay, particularly the Strictly cruises - I cannot dance very well but paid £150 to have a half hour lesson with Gorka! However, joking apart the lessons were provided by the professional dancers who were part of the entertainment. They like a lot of the other entertainers were not salaried and any money paid to learn to dance was not going into P&O's coffers but rightly to the skilled professional. The drive for the cruise lines to keep any money guests part with is what is leading the drive to remove these "unpaid" staff - not just the dancers, remember the people talking about the art and craft classes, bridge classes etc? Most of these were provided by non salaried staff and things are changing. The theme now seems to be the cruise lines want to earn from these types of activities. It is clear that professional dancers don't feature very high up the list and as such won't feature much going forward, victims of the "new cruiser" ideal. Strictly or not the cruise lines seem to be of the opinion that the new cruise demographic would find ballroom dancing boring. They aren't going to have a 7 or14 night cruise paying someone for one or two performances and the professionals (which would be needed to teach a very complex and sophisticated art) would not I'm sure be happy to have to undertake other duties. Think Hi Di Hi and Barry and Yvonne Stewart Hargreaves if you like!!

Prior to the pandemic there was a link with Strictly and P&O when themed cruises regularly took place. They were exceptionally popular, particularly those on Britannia. The whole entertainment was worked around the theme with outfits, demonstrations of dance, talks and even a guest Strictly dance competition. You could have dinner with the stars and pay for lessons. Iona's inaugural season was actually pencilled in for 7 night Strictly cruises, although as we now know ballroom dancing onboard her is virtually zero. All of the ships offered ballroom dancing with a demonstration by professional dancers on most cruises and the opportunity to have dancing lessons from these professionals on offer. Unfortunately the move towards non traditional cruising has led to their apparent demise. Cunard, known for the ballrooms on their ships, have in recent times threatened the removal of their dance hosts and professionals but following an outcry from their very loyal ballroom dancing passengers are having to think again. Unfortunately the new identity and drive to "modernise" by adding pay restaurants, extra bars etc thereby turning ships into entertainment palaces rather than "old fashioned" is going to remove the ballroom dancing in the not too distant future. Sadly it will become a victim of the requirement for every space on a ship to "earn" its place, no chance of money across the bar while couples are up on their feet dancing, much better to have them seated watching and drinking.

You jogged my memory. This link from last year has a lot of prices offered on Virgin Antigua flights last year. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2893762-arvia-antigua-flights-–-the-wait-continues/?do=findComment&comment=64303447

Do you mean on a purchased flight or one provided by P&O last year?

No point in me watching it now then

There isn't any guarantee that anyone will fly with any specific airline. TUI can and do swap in other airline's planes if one of their own isn't available for any reason. I hope you are lucky.

It's released for advance booking at 14 nights out. Yes it sells out.

Epicurean is open and serves a special Christmas menu complete with wines. It is not the normal Epicurean experience and if my memory serves me correctly it is £65pp - there is an upgrade at extra cost for champagne and better wines. We have had Epicurean Christmas Dinner on Britannia for the past 6 years as we prefer a quite ambience and to dine alone. The MDR you are allocated your table if you are on freedom dining and may end up sharing with complete strangers.

Not filling lifts has become very common since the pandemic, not just on cruise ships. People have just become more conscious that ramming into a tight sealed space is not such a good idea because of spreading colds, coughs and other things. It's now in the psyche and will be hard to remove.

Thanks. Telephone wouldn't be of use, itsxall laptopped based for access to clients files. It's very helpful, much obliged and thank you.

We have a need for full Internet connection for emails, Internet and occasional video use. Both of us are technophobe so no complicated set ups can be considered. I am Diamond my husband is going to be on his second and third voyages, he will be working and requiring Internet access on both. The voyages are 14 nights Queen Anne on 8th September 2024 and 35 nights QM2 11th January 2025. I had assumed I would buy my Internet in advance as we usually do but reading all this I gather that is not the case ? Any advice on what is required for me to secure the necessary access would be gratefully received and also if anyone could actually do the mathematics and give me a rough idea of what each voyage is going to cost based on current figures I'd be extremely grateful. Thank you.

All a matter of opinion I guess. They are being gradually removed from our City centre and one of the reasons given is the fact we have high pollution levels. Unfortunately due to being in a bowl with only four main roads we suffer a lot of bad air. Certainly my experience as a former Councillor up in Essex was that they were often put in to roads where no accidents had ever occurred but because the residents pestered for them. I actually live on a road which was a "B" Road but since the advent of electronic road guidance has found itself upgraded to "A" and into the trunk road system, it has a 30mph speed limit which over 50% do not adhere to at the last measurement and count. There are numerous accidents which are not acknowledged by the police or council as they are 'property damage" not accidents and as such are not officially recorded. Unless there is serious injury or death they are apparently minor and do not count in accident statistics. Finally, after many years, the highways agency has installed speed indicator signs which has slowed the traffic a little. Speed humps were discussed and disregarded as old fashioned, often dangerous in certain environments and polluting.

Following all the emails backwards and forwards regarding fibromyalga and walking sticks, I have been advised I need to complete the Needs Questionnaire. Having done this I note that the questions appear to have an option as follows: "I do not need to make you aware of any additional on-board needs" I have therefore submitted the form having chosen this option and hopefully this will be the end of the matter.

Have you considered the specialist Norway cruises on Hurtigruten or is cost a factor for looking at P&O? Those cruises are very much designed to get you out to nature.

Thankfully speed bumps are being removed in a lot of places. Apparently they increase pollution.

The £509 is another increase too! It was £409.00 this year. P&O are rather taking the PE now.

It's P&O setting the price, not the airline. There has been a large increase by them this year and they charte it whoever the charter is from or where it's going.

There's been some positive feedback elsewhere so maybe as we said earlier it's a storm in a teacup. Mind you there are some excellent Caribbean offers at present for next season Could be the outcry put people off. For instance we can get an aft suite on Britannia for £1,500 less than we are paying for deluxe balcony this season. Very tempted but we are doing 35 nights QM2 beginning of January 2025, mind you I can never get too much Caribbean!

That's interesting. They aren't scheduled to fly A340 for P&O, the two aircraft chartered are A330s.

Unfortunately that is correct. You actually pay £90pp as you have no option but to buy returns. Sorry.

It was! Many thanks.

Thank you. That is exactly the scenario I though may occur (possibly regularly) as these aircraft go in and out of service as they often do. Obviously if a fleet has no aircraft with identical layout passengers will see a difference whereas if s fleet such as TUI's is involved the interior layout is identical and they'll never know a change occurred. I hope you're having a great holiday and look forward to your report. Meantime have a safe journey home.

Looking at the port schedules very few lines leave later than 6.00pm. There are a number of Costa ships leaving 9.00pm and 10.00pm but they arrive around 1.00pm. The time P&O spend in any port is actually pretty good compared with some lines. The walk you mention is not something that most P&O passengers would normally undertake and I believe most of P&O's excursions reflect this. You may have seen this review on TripAdvisor where a man did do the trip. Very interesting reading but do take note of his final paragraph that five people didn't make it back to the ship! https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g2416812-d317604-r610115989-Pulpit_Rock-Forsand_Municipality_Rogaland_Western_Norway.html

Probably a menu written by ICF ... he'd love a 'wild' mushroom to go with his 'roast' tomato soup.

There will be more than one flight on each day so only P&O can advise which one they will allocate you. The airline used will be a charter of either TUI or Maleth Aero. Maleth use terminal 1 TUI use terminal 2 The timings for this coming Saturday are as follows: Maleth depart at 9.30am TUI depart at 11.35 these times should apply all season. Hope that helps.