mrsgoggins

Really sorry to hear this, not a great souvenir. I hope you are soon starting to feel better. We really enjoyed this cruise for all the reasons you have covered. We self-disembarked at 6.40 am and were driving out of the port gates by 6.50 am, which resulted in an easy drive home as it was Saturday. We are on Sky Princess again October 24 for a Canaries cruise and also paid the £75 pp (refundable) as a future cruise deposit. I do have 2 further P&O cruises in the future, both 35 nights, which I am sure we will enjoy as we have already adjusted our expectations having taken 2 P&O cruises already this year.

For a few years Celebrity has been offering 2 fares in the US. A full fare where you could cancel and get a full refund up to final payment and a (usually much) lower fare with restrictions and penalties. I don't believe they are the only cruise company operating in this way in North America.

Oh Michelle, what a trying time for you right now with your own health issues to face at the same time as awful news about your dog. I'm so sorry. I wish you a speedy return to normal when all the treatment is behind you.

Funnily enough, I was thinking exactly the same thing earlier today, and even looked to see the last time he posted, which was in May. Let's hope he's just taking a grown up 'gap year'.

From my own personal perspective: a) November-April the choice of cruise lines from Southampton is very limited. b) Have you never been asked to complete an ‘How can we make things even better?’ questionnaire? How will P&O know if no one says? c) There are very many things to like about P&O. I’ve never been on any cruise I didn’t enjoy including my 5 with P&O d) The name of the website is ‘Cruise Critic’ - I would understand that to include posts containing warts and all, providing they did not give offence. You possibly were not aiming your remarks at me, but I would never make all the claims you attribute to some. I think pointing out things that could be done better is hardly a full-on assault of P&O, but it could be I’ve missed some of the posts to which you refer 😉

That would be a fair point if you had been able to select your arrival time IMO and then arrived several hours early. I've been allocated late arrival times with P&O twice this year, and complied because that's my nature. But I didn't like it. We choose to drive down from the NW and a 3.30+ embarkation time makes me feel like we have been in transit for 2 days! Especially as the departure time from a PI is noon. Now I'm sure all of the suggestions about how we could fill our time/travel by coach etc, are well meant but are not what we would want to do. I have posted previously of my self-selected 11 am boarding time last Saturday on Sky Princess (also at Mayflower and appeared to work smoothly) and my upcoming 11.30 am boarding with Celebrity. At the end of any cruise, we will self disembark and be on our way home at the first possible moment. To conclude - P&O's shout - their rules - but we don't have to book with them, and probably won't do so again, and this would be one of the contributing factors. We are lucky enough to have choices.

As you know, I'm on the same Sky Princess cruise, and having taken 2 P&O cruises this year (with a further 2 in the pipeline), it gives me no satisfaction to agree with you, but I do. Wholeheartedly.

I’m not sure I ever thanked you, but I purchased one of these the last time you mentioned it, and I’ve been very happy with it, so thank you. I think you said your GP had recommended it 👍

Nooooooo ……. please don’t say that! I enjoy your photos, whether it’s a McDonalds treat in the car by the sea, or the fine dining you so often do. By the way, I also chose fish and chips in Epicurean on our last visit just 2 months ago, and very good it was too 😊.

I do so agree with the emboldened part above! It was so refreshing to receive a 4-sided A4 leaflet at the start of our Princess cruise with exactly the sort of information you would want. I hope (🤞 ) to show below the inside pages. We had already pre-booked our excursions, and added one more whilst on board, and so the information did not change our plans, which I guess is what the cruise companies fear - and I know P&O are not the only ones with scant assistance to independent passengers.

Reading of the issues involved in getting a table in the MDR by both @Selbourne on Britannia and @terrierjohn on Sky Princess, where I am also at present, makes me feel very pleased that our normal habits are to dine early for each meal. What a performance! I’d definitely be looking at land-based holidays more if that were our experience. I’m really pleased that you are finding many good things to say about your cruise @Selbourne given the amount of planning you have put into this one, and your upcoming family cruise. Thank you for such a detailed account.

I'd just be guessing of course, that your young granddaughter might have similar views to my 13 year old grandson, whose own views (currently!) reflect those of his grandmother! 😁😁

We had the internet on both Iona (Canaries) and Ventura, (Spain and Portugal) this year - basic package - and it was good enough for our needs, which were downloading our daily newspaper, emails, browsing etc. I like that I could swap my usage from phone to iPad easily. I don't recall it dropping out or causing problems, but whether that would be the same in other areas I wouldn't like to guess.

Interesting! I also let Princess know of my displeasure at a large price drop some years ago and was allowed to re-fare and told it was a 'one time' thing. At the time I dismissed this as something said to a 'squeaky wheel'. Maybe not 😀

I understand about P&O being simpler. I'd watch prices and look out for offers from Princess as part of your research. For instance, Princess had a £1 deposit on cruises some months ago. It doesn't last long when they do it. They have also had a half price offer on a drinks/internet/grats package, which ended recently. Princess play the 'dynamic' pricing card like they all do, so it's always a case of buyer beware however. Good luck with the research Andy.

If you see an itinerary you fancy, I’d definitely suggest you give Princess a try. Up to now, the one (very) small thing that P&O do better is to bring toast in a toast rack! Everything else so far on Sky Princess has been excellent.

Good advice about looking at Princess IMO. I've done a few with them and always been happy. In fact we joined Sky Princess today and all is looking good so far.

That would be lovely; I'd love to meet you both. However as it's a 21 day cruise and I believe you're still a youngster with a job...... 😉 This exactly. Every word sums up how I felt after our Iona experience.

We took an Iona cruise in March and met quite a few who had paid very little for their 2-week Canaries cruise, one telling me he could eat more food than the £50 a day he had paid. The plates of food we had seen put before him, substantiated his claim 😄. Good for them - really, no green eyes here - but it is just one of the things that make me consider carefully, whether I would book with P&O in the future, especially as there is often such a large difference between select and saver fares. I enjoyed your review very much and thought it was very balanced. I'm just sorry that your Epicurean visit was such a disappointment as we enjoyed it very much on our 4 visits on our recent Ventura cruise. Well once DH had decided they could not do a rare steak and settled for fish! Happy to read that things settled down and you both found much to enjoy. I've booked QM2 for my next birthday, (4th July and it will be our golden wedding anniversary the following day) and I'm hoping we enjoy it from the very start (first with Cunard) with no 'settling down' of other passengers necessary 😉.

I think this must be every parent’s worst nightmare, losing a child, no matter how old. I was so sorry to read your post and I hope you have lots of good memories to comfort you in the future. Sincere condolences.

I have Josy, in May, and like you, I was on Sky Princess last year (and will be on her again shortly), and we were on Celebrity Equinox at the start of the year, so our taste in cruise lines appears similar. Our Ventura cruise to Spain and Portugal in May was enjoyable and the ship appeared fine to me, which is as well because we are on her for 35 nights next year. DH particularly likes the pool (he's in it by 7 am!) as it's the deepest of the ships we use. We had a lot of OBC on this cruise and so ate in Epicurean 4 times, Beach House twice and Sindhu once. Loved the Epicurean experience especially. I cannot comment on the bars since I'm a non-drinker and don't use them. We always requested a table for two on the 3 occasions we used the MDR for dinner and twice we were allocated the banquette seating where the neighbouring tables are only inches away, which I dislike, as my DH has very poor hearing and so if I spoke very softly he would never hear, so we eat and leave! We had been on Iona previously and I only recall being given proper tables for 2 each time. I think that's my only gripe. The cabins are dated and the TVs small but that wasn't an issue for us. Otherwise, it was a good cruise. Oh, and as I currently have an 11 am embarkation time for Sky Princess and an 11.30-noon embarkation time with Celebrity Silhouette in my near future, the P&O system of allocating boarding times (ours was 3.30 pm) was an irritation, which has been slugged out on another thread 😁.

Exactly what I do, but I was still surprised at the prices quoted for all the PIs in the Southampton area for next June. The cheapest convenient one was the airport at £108, flexible. Last week I booked a few nights at Fort William PI (flexible rate) for September when the price without breakfast, was £200+ on some nights 😱. I wonder how Fort William would be in December instead 😄.

I only spotted this latest yesterday morning - so a few other things I had planned remain undone, but it was worth it! Loving it, so thank you both. Germany and Italy are our favourite countries also, and if you did travelogues of those trips, I’d pull up a chair and settle down with a brew! Especially enjoyed the cat photo, your family visit and I’m pleased you had good weather for much of the holiday. Happy planning for your next adventure.

Seeing you post this made me count my cruises and it’s a similar number. I assure you I have seen this happen often - plate piling that is - but even more, I have seen groups depart from tables laden with barely-touched food and desserts - and it’s normally right in my sight line 😳. I should probably add that most of my cruises have been with American-based cruise lines; the majority sailing out of Florida or Europe with international passengers. I can’t say I have witnessed this on P&O (I don’t actually go looking 😉), but they make it possible for you to avoid the buffet if you choose, by opening a MDR at lunchtime, unlike the American lines. We do use the buffet on P&O on the odd occasion (back late from an excursion, afternoon tea etc) and have been surprised that staff with hand sanitisers are not positioned at the entrance to the buffet, as on other lines.

Thanks for this 👍. We’re doing a 35-night Ventura cruise next year and so that was a good saving.