heatherb1958

I can live with once a day service, got used to it now with Royal, P& O and I think it was once a day on Silhoutte in June . We were just on Sky Princess for 24 nights to Canada and New England round trip from Southampton . After a couple of days of twice a day service I told our room steward he could have the night off for the rest of the trip from doing our cabin . We made sure we had the privacy button lit up all night incase a supervisor did a spot check.

I am just reading about it now. P&O cruise ship Iona 'picks up three bodies' as British cargo ship sinks in North Sea off Germany https://mol.im/a/12665147 via https://dailym.ai/android

That could be taken either way , give me a clue 😆 😆 🤣. Will look out for you on 7th October 😉 😉.

And Virtuosa is still there too , I know which ship will have the better pricing

We were on Vision of the seas in Costa Maya with strong winds , Captain got us in OK but we had two tenders pushing us up against the dock all day . Must have cost a pretty penny paying those fees ... After we had docked a Costa ship arrived , it made 3 attempts to approach and in the end they gave up . Apparently we had the best dock position for the direction of the wind but still needed those tenders all day .

I hope the folks who are having to fly home are able to leave their main luggage onboard and it is delivered to their home..can you imagine the excess baggage charges.. I know we never travel light out of Southampton We are due on the next cruise.....then maybe we are not now. I will still pack until I hear otherwise.

The call sign with RCI for an impending collision either by the ship or too the ship is Echo Echo Echo. For those of you onboard right now did you hear a call sign over the PA or was it just the blast of the horn ? ..Enquiring minds need to know for future reference .... Thinking about it don't think we have heard call signs on P&O not even for medical which is Alpha Alpha .

Following . We will be on Sky soon , our first cruise as Platinum members. Can you use your drinks package at the event or is it set cocktails from a list ? I was thinking if the ship is busy it might be a venue where we can get a seat at night before dinner . I remember seeing on Regal in May a sign advertising the exclusive event outside the Vista lounge where every where else was busy .

The programme is complete and utter rubbish and if any newbie cruisers were thinking of going on a Princess cruise it doesn't sell itself well with the guests they chose . I watched the first episode and thought this is dire the next one must be better , nope , it wasn't. Not going to get those 2 hours of my life back .

Fabulous report and photos . Glad you had a good time . We have been on Ventura twice and will be returning in December to repeat a cruise we did December 2021.

Bergen is the wettest city in Northern Europe , you did well 👏. We have been to Bergen many times , explored independently and also done hiking tours from the top of the funicular plus on one visit we went to a brewery and gin distillery 😆.That was a brilliant tour😀. On our very first visit it was the month of May in a heatwave and the wood festival was on , you guessed it lots of wood sculptures in town , interesting . Bergen is a lovely city , your time was too short there sadly , thank you for posting your photos .

Loving following your report as we have been to Norway many times and did Iceland and Norway last July on Enchanted princess in an aft balcony. Looking at your photos with the ship's flag included our cabin was one deck below your equivalent on Sky 😂. A736 we had. Absolutely the best views for the itinerary. We join Sky on 23rd September for the Canada & New England round trip.

AGREE! Been to both .

Love Cartagena, been there many times with different cruiselines, last time was December last year and the weather was gorgeous. All the museums on the water front are free , the shopping area is flat and pedestrianised and best of all the ship docks right in front town.

We didn't start cruising with P&O until October 21. If you cruise a lot like we do you'll soon rise up the ranks 😆. We are soon to embark cruise number 7 with them and already have 74 nights at sea .... woo woo 7.5% discount onboard and a welcome glass of champagne . P&O's loyalty programme is nothing like RCI or Celebrity but their cruises are far cheaper so you can do many more ...

Beautiful photos. We have visited all those places on your tour when we hired a car when we holidayed on Lanzarote staying at Playa Blanca, twice !. I don't think the island deserves it's nickname of Lanzagrotty as it is just beautiful in a unique way. The story behind Haria if I remember correctly is that the town was saved/undamaged when a volcano erupted and the lava flow by passed it. In thanks thereafter for every child that was born a palm tree was planted ...

To the OP if booking a balcony on Iona definitely do not book GZ grade , be careful if booking saver rate and it mentions this grade as these cabins do NOT have sofas . We sailed Iona in Jan 2021 and had booked that grade not realising luckily I managed to catch it and paid £50 pp more to move up to the standard balcony GTY and ended up with cabin 14524. We have cruised equally with Celebrity and P&O, our most recent Celebrity cruise was on Silhouette in June 23 . The food on there in the buffet for choice was outstanding much better than in the dining room. The speciality restaurants are too expensive on Celebrity for us , on P&O they are very reasonable and we don't hesitate to go 2 or 3 times during the cruise , Limelight club is a great concept, meal and a show . The cabins , standard balcony , on Silhouette and Iona were both lovely , tea and coffee in cabins are standard with P&O . We never book drinks packages with P&O as you are allowed to take onboard a litre of spirits each for in cabin consumption and bottles of wine are not exorbitant in the restuarants plus they do wine packages which we always purchase. Gratuities are always included with P&O. At the end of the day itinerary and price win.

We disembarked Arcadia on 20th July . I loved the ship , our cabin , no issues at all with service but Freedom dining was chaotic . We like to eat early and the queue was round the corner and as far as the actual bar in Spinnaker some evenings . We prefer a table for 2 but there was no chance , saw a couple of irate people return the pagers back to the hosts in a not so gentile way. In the end we went the sharing table route and met some lovely people but the dining experience was not a relaxing affair . We booked last minute so getting our preferred early fixed dining wasn't going to happen but we had a lovely cruise on the ship and would go back on her again if the itinerary and price was right .

Just wanted to add as I don't think it has been mentioned, a big difference between the 2 companies is that P&O is predominantly British guests and Princess is a cosmopolitan crowd with a lot of Brits out of Southampton but you will also meet Americans, Canadians , lots of folks from Asia too. We prefer a multinational crowd, makes for more interesting conversations at the dinner table 😆.

Sorry this is happening to you OP. 1) Years ago I personally saw a sniffer dog at night onboard a Royal Caribbean ship patrolling the corridors seeking out drug users so yes they do live onboard , the cruise was in the Caribbean. I even saw their toilet box too , aft of the outside promenade deck. 2) I have never smoked and the sweet ,sickly smell of Cannabis makes me feel sick . My neighbour's EX Son in Law was a dope head. Whenever he smoked in the back garden I had to shut all my windows . Then one day the smell was something not of this world , absolutely disgusting. My neighbour on the other side could smell it and said it was Skunk . OMG not a smell I want to smell ever again 😫 so OP I feel for you having that permeate your cabin. Hope the culprits get found , off loaded and barred for life cruising MSC.

Yes that is a shame about the new changes with Princess, second or even 3rd major change in less than 12months .... We paid £30 pp per day for our Plus package last year on Enchanted , no Premium then. It was just for drinks,WiFi and gratuities . Then Plus went up to £40 and then £50 when they introduced Premium with extra bits for Plus and Premium and now it is changed again. As much as we were beginning to love Princess again moving forward we will only book when there is a deal on like the recent half price Plus package at £25 pp per day or a last minute cheap deal. Bad move on Princess's part they have alienated a lot of loyal customers .

You over pay for wine in pubs and restaurants on land in the UK, not counting Wetherspoons 😆. P&Os wine prices fare comparably with pubs and restuarants and are cheaper in some cases if you buy a wine package with the OBC . As far as buying chocolate onboard never ever would I buy that . We check out land prices for goods in the onboard shops and bought a camera , watches and anything left over buy a bottle of booze to finish it off . Never had a bill at the end of the cruise .

I agree whole heartedly about P&Os Atriums , they are so boring , they have no heart even though they are the heart of the ship . The only one we do like IS Britannia because at least you can grab a bottle of wine there at the Glass house and sit and people watch 😆. Princesses newer ships have a fab Atrium , I was up dancing nearly everynight to the bands playing there on Enchanted and Regal and with all the bars on different levels never had a problem getting a seat. We are on Britannia again soon followed by Sky a couple of weeks later . Will enjoy both I am sure but Sky will have the edge .

We have done many side to side cruises out of Southampton i.e. transferred from one ship to another as opposed to a 'back to back' where you stay on the same ship for the following cruise . In October 2021 we transferred from Anthem to Britannia, Anthem was at City Terminal and Brittania was at the Mayflower, P&O were still doing Covid testing at the dock then so what we did then is not the same as what we do now in 2023 . The idea for calling into the Holiday Inn on Herbert walker avenue and purchasing coffee etc is a good one whilst you wait but there is no guarantee for luggage storage whilst you go off into town for purchases and as others have said that hotel gets busy . Whichever way you look at it at some point a taxi is going to be required to get you to the second ship and also depends on your boarding time for the second ship. If we have a late boarding time for the second ship we take a taxi to the Standing order Wetherspoons on the high street , spend a couple of hours there taking it in turns to watch the luggage while each of us goes shopping for supplies if required, we have food and drinks then when ready take an Uber to the next ship. If we have an early boarding time for the second ship we just stay onboard the first one until last call then take a taxi to the next one .

You already do , have been for years , it is called an ESTA. Edit: Hubby was reading today that the delay in implementing the European visa is due to the Olympics being held in France and they don't want anything jeopardising tourists visiting during that period .