molecrochip

Your route should be fully open. This is currently the last closure planned.

Various statistics are compiled the night before each cruise begins and circulated to heads of department. Some get drafts earlier. This helps inform activity planning, onboard promotions, service levels etc. One of the senior offices had the summary sheet at a loyalty club event. They knew average age, number of newbies, number of kids, loyalty club info, special events on board, number of special assistance etc etc etc. So reception will have been able to answer your question accurately.

The average P&O age profile is actually dropping. There was an interview not to long ago (Paul Ludlow?) which seemed to suggest average age of all passengers on all ships across one year was down by about 5 years. This is actually a bigger decrease concentrated on the family ships with adult only ships staying level.

From my experience, when you have a late boarding both the terminal staff (who are employed by the dock not P&O despite wearing the right scarf/tie) and CPS become the most rude of people. I wouldn’t want to assume that a passenger is 100% to blame here, they might just be reacting to the staff. I have mentioned this point to P&O who apologised but said it was out of their hands.

Currently you have a NCL ship limping around the Med, you have Carnival Vista in the Caribbean with Azipod problems to name but two. No matter how good maintenance is, big machines will never be 100% fault free. It’s not just P&O.

Just to add a few points here: P&O cruises typically have more sea days that an average Caribbean cruise therefore the opportunity to offload at the next port is often longer away. P&O and Carnival operate a joint pool of medical staff including Senior Doctors and nurses. They operate under UK medical standards. Staff are recruited by Carnival UK who often hold medical centre open days when ships are in Southampton. There are more medical staff on board than ever. Decisions to medically evacuate passengers are taken ultimately by the Captain in conjunction with the senior doctor and the 24/7 operations team at Carnival UK in Southampton. When my mother was unexpectedly taken sick last year, the senior doctor carefully talked her through the decision making process and her kept her updated following each conversation with the Captain and Southampton. Once the Captain had approved, a discussion was then taken with the air ambulance and local ports to decide which was the best method of evacuation. For reference, it was agreed to evacuate by air at the entrance to the English Channel by the Portland air-sea rescue at 1am in the morning to Southampton hospital. Final decision to evacuate was at midnight and was following additional calls between the doctor and Southampton General. The doctor worked tirelessly all evening to bring my mothers condition to a position whereby she could stay on board a further 28 hours back to Southampton. Thanks to the skilful work of the medical team, she made it back to Southampton and was transferred straight to Southampton General by ambulance.

No is a fine answer. I only wondered as we’re on a linked booking. The last time parents had the suite, Butler was happy to sort tender passes / dinner in cabin for all. Priority Embarkation and disembarkation we all did together. Parents didn’t want to walk all the way back for breakfast on Azura so we never found out. Slightly different to ‘new friends’. That’s all cool.

Can you invite table quests? We are travelling in a suite in September but parents are not. Can we invite them to join us at our table?

Thankfully, the road reopened 37 hours early at 4pm Saturday.

Britannia - great ship. For me, has the best standards of service and food of the P&O family friendly ships. Unlike most I absolutely like the décor of the atrium and ship generally. It is nice to enter a ship that feels calm and relaxing rather than a ship that has bright lights and gold everywhere - its too gordy. Having recently sailed the Royal Princess which has an interior design in keeping with Ventura and Azura, I have a definite preference for Britannia. I also generally prefer the MDRs on Britannia to Ventura and Azura also because generally it feels like you are less likely to be put in a corner. The staff rotate through the club and freedom dining restaurants so you can sometimes find that one freedom dining restaurant has a better mix over others. Other than night one you can use either freedom dining restaurant so this does solve this issue. Theatre layout for me is the biggest mistake. Seats made small by the drinks holder and no side staircase.

Now they have formally delayed departure, they wont suddenly bring it forward again. If everyone is onboard they will look to go asap but if you've been told 2030 boarding instead of 1530 then you can safely assume that.

Especially if you have to wait with a buzzer on freedom dining, P&O staff actively encourage you to go get a drink. Nothing wrong with moving drinks from venue to venue.

I would agree - go enjoy yourselves. I think it’s still 99% what you make of it. I tend to find the Caribbean cruises to be more laid back and chilled. Certainly not like a four day break to Amsterdam!

That's interesting. When we were last on Britannia at the end of her Caribbean season in 2018, it was definitely on the cards - it was a senior officer who confirmed it as much as he said the changes would be the same as on Royal/Regal Princess. Cost saving?

B928 has always been the dry dock voyage leaving on 7 October. There was never a cruise on sale. It has a voyage number as the contractors are booked onto the cruise so it needs to be in the system. It has the traditional 2 night shake down following.