molecrochip

Except the decision was taken in, say, 2017 and no one predicted a pandemic.

Sorry you won't be booking P&O again - bye bye. No one is ignoring your emails or messages, they are just being dealt with in order of receipt and clearly they have not got to yours yet. If you want to use the FCC there is a process to sort it out so that you can make your booking. No one is ignoring your calls either - they are busy on other calls. The admin staff are amazing however there is not enough of them and they are stretched thin. They are trying their best and more staff are being recruited to support them every week. Please bear in mind that this is a company that has had $billions of losses through no fault of its own over the past two years so throwing money at extra staff is not a simple decision. So be annoyed that the entire process start to finish is taking too long, but don't attack the staff who are trying their best

Re mask mandate in the theatre: P&O have a duty to their stage performers who a performing without masks as much as they do to their passengers. They reasonably discharge this duty by enforcing the mask rule on entry/prior to lights out.

Masks must be worn in the embarkation terminal until you are on the ship. This is because there may be people in the embarkation terminal who are unknowingly positive. Beyond that, mid-cruise embarkation/debarkation follows local rules. Back at the final terminal for final debarkation, it is strongly recommended. But if like me, you managed to pack your pile of mask/disembarkation documentation in your suitcase the night before, you'll find that they still let you off without issue.

On the app, yes. But call the holiday helpline or visit reception or the theatre podium before the show and its fine.

Do consider that some of the Facebook groups are run by travel agents who may be moderating the content.

Lift restrictions went at the end of March if not earlier. At same time, all seats in Theatre in use except for front row. Theatre, Cinema, Spa and Medical Centre still require masks. Sounds like either a trial or misunderstanding on Britannia. The reason for taking cabin numbers on the way in to the Theatre is to match against bookings - its not Covid related. There has been some good feedback re the bookings for the Theatre as opposed to those who used to turn up and not get seats.

The obligation (legal) is on the TA to refund within 14 days, not on P&O to refund the TA within 14 days. So whilst unfair, it doesn't matter. If you take a broken TV back to Currys, they refund you straight away. They then send TV back to manufacturer for refund. You wouldn't find it acceptable if Currys said you can't have your money back until Samsung give us our money back. Travel bookings work exactly the same (well within 14 days).

Very much however Norway is still seen as a very good introduction to cruising. It has the Wow factor, new ship, no shuttle busses, no tenders, generally very polite nation and once you get on shore, you realise exactly how cheap it is to buy alcohol on board! I see in the press yesterday, NCL being touted to order $4bn of new ships. I'll predict that JW will arrive and one of his first big things will be to lay a big order of new greener ships for delivery from 2026 onwards. Shipyards are heading quickly towards the end of their orderbooks. Get into early next year and the steel cutting will begin on the final ships on their books (deliveries late 2024/25). Now would be a good point to negotiate new-build ship prices. As a company, you're correct that they weren't hitting break-even from cruise fare however with 17 smaller ships exiting the fleet, I believe that balance has now tipped. Prices will go up. Some of the bargains which are out there are capacity fillers which are more prevalent at present whilst post-Covid confidence returns. Re Princess, see my final comment below. I do think that some of these will continue by I suspect it will be the Grand class ships (Ventura, Azura, maybe another once the two ships leave) which would undertake them. What is interesting is that since 2019, Ventura has done, or be scheduled to do, at least one 35 night Caribbean/US trip in early January. These cruises have been selling out therefore despite these being bigger ships there is still the interest. Princess is currently cheap in the UK, but I do expect prices to rise. The UK has been very easy to add capacity too during the pandemic recovery. Additionally, the UK has been the testbed for the Princess plus package which has gone down very well.

I think the expectation of families has changed a lot since the 1990s in line with cruising. P&O would not have much luck adopting the approach of minimal children's activities on a family ship. They woudl be heavily criticised.

Whilst I do have sympathy for the confusion information contradictions which are out there, (I really do - as I think its confusing too), my previous comments do remain. Its P&O's ships, they set the rules for embarkation. - including testing.

During Covid, the cruise lines 'protected' the commission of the agents - i.e. the cruise lines took that hit rather than the agent even though the cruise was cancelled. This has set a precedent that agents want to stick to whilst cruise lines want to go back to contractual agreements.

Matters not whether agent has received their commission (or anything) back, you are still due 100% back from the agent within 14 days. Standard terms are that agent losses commission on cruise cancelled by either side. Travel agents are refusing to pay out to customers until they get their commission and are using this as leverage against P&O by informing customer its P&Os fault. Even well respected agents. It’s awful.

Likely that FCO only shows rules for entry by air. Malta or a subsequent country may require it for young cruise passengers.