First Cruise Questions - P&O

Hello,

My husband and I are going are going an Caribbean Cruise on the Britannia with P&O in two weeks for our honeymoon and this is our first ever cruise so have a few questions. Apologies in advance for the long list! :o

1) Evening wear - on a non black tie evening, are there any restrictions/guidelines for what we should wear.

2) Evening wear - on a black tie evening, can we wear normal clothes if we are just going to the buffet? We are using freedom dining.

3) Room service - we know there is a daily charge for tips on our cruise card but if we order room service, would we be expected to tip the person who delivers our food?

4) Cruise card - is there a way we can check the balance of this and can we pay it off everyday?

5) Any other hints/tip/guidance for newbie cruisers would be much appreciated! :D

Congratulations on your first cruise and on your honeymoon and welcome to Cruise Critic.

For those items 1 thru 4 that are cruise line specific I would recommend asking about them on the P&O board which can be found at:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=38

Keith

Thanks Keith :)(y)

Hi, Mr & Mrs, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

1. Dress code for non-formal nights is smart-casual. For guys that's long trousers & collared or polo-neck shirt, much as you'd wear in a half-decent restaurant in the UK. Not gaudy t-shirts or football shirts.

On some of their ships / cruises, P&O have required gents to wear tie & jacket even in hot climates, but that rule has been dispensed with on Ventura & Azura,. probably on Britannia in the Caribbean, and possibly they've dropped that requirement altogether. If you don't get a definitive answer here, ask on the P&O forum.

2. The formal evening dress code is DJ or dark suit & tie. A few wear national dress eg kilt, a few wear uniforms, a few wear blazers. The code is strictly enforced in the main dining room & some bars. I'm not keen on formal but if there's a dress code then its pretty pointless if it's not enforced - as you'll find out on a some US ships.

But casual is fine in the buffet. Most wear long trousers but the code is only no bare feet & no bare chests.

It's worth making the effort for at least one formal night, some ship's officers are very entertaining at the captain's cocktail party. Usually a long queue for an over-priced photo with the captain - just by-pass that line if its of no interest.

3. Yes, it's usual. A couple of £ or $.

But there's tea & coffee makings in your cabin, and that's a lot quicker than room service. So just use room service if you want a romantic dinner on your balcony.

4. Yes, you can check your statement at any time via the interactive TV in your cabin. Or if you're as technologically-inept as yours-truly you can ask for a print-out at purser's desk / reception / guest-relations / call-it-what-you-will. You'll also probably have an interim statement slid under your door halfway thro your cruise.

You sign for everything and get a copy each time. Keep them in a drawer to check against the statement - mistakes are rare but can happen.

You can pay off as much as you like (or even put your on-board account into credit if you wish) at any time during your cruise, with cash sterling. But most folk don't - they allow their credit card to be charged with one lump sum at the end of the cruise. If you prefer to use cash or debit card, post again & we'll explain the pitfalls.

5.

And 6, 7, 8, etc.

P&O have a very liberal policy on taking your own alcohol aboard for drinking in your cabin. There are rumours that this is about to be tightened-up - if you have a couple of hours to spare, read through pages of comments about this at https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2538198

Unless their policy does indeed change, do take advantage of it. We usually take aboard a few bottles of wine. Plus a bottle of Pimms (bought at Barbados cruise terminal duty-free shop) & some lemonade - steal some greenery (but I've never found mint) from the buffet, and any time is Pimms o'clock on the balcony. :)

All that said, P&O's drinks prices are about the same as provincial pubs & no drinks service charge - much more reasonable than on US ships.

Don't rush to book ship's shore excursions. Most things in port are very cheap & easy to do using taxis or minibuses lined up on the pier.

See the relevant part of my post on https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2566148

(refers to a Thomson ship, but the shore excursions bit applies)

US dollars are accepted pretty-well everywhere - mebbe not all outlets if your ports include Martinique or Guadeloup, where the currency is the euro.

As per the Thomson post linked above, take US dollars with you.

I'm presuming you've booked the P&O fly-cruise package.

The vast majority will be flown on chartered aircraft, a few on scheduled flights. This is one of those rare occasions when a charter-flight is waaaay better than a scheduled flight. All passengers on the aircraft are on your cruise. Some aircraft are the Boeing Dreamliner, a very comfortable plane. After you check in your luggage at your UK airport you won't see it again until it arrives at your cabin door. In Barbados (I think its the same if your cruise starts in St Lucia) you don't go thro immigration or customs, in fact you don't even go thro the airport terminal. Instead you disembark the aircraft on the apron, straight to the transfer buses a few yards away, & direct to the ship- your luggage follows in a van.

All very seamless & civilised.

Usually at the end of a cruise you're thrown off a ship a by about 9am. But not on Caribbean fly-cruises. You have to vacate your cabin by about 8.30 but have the run of the ship, incl bars, restaurants, pools etc, until the transfer for your flight home is called. Again, very civilised.

A P&O ship to the Caribbean is the ideal first cruise for a Brit.

Learning about cruising the easy way.

And the Caribbean is best visited by cruise ship - all the islands are worth a day or two, but unless you're a sun-worshipper virtually none are worth longer.

Have a great cruise.

JB :)

Thanks JB for your detailed response! It is very helpful.

We don't have a credit card so please can you explain the pitfalls of using a debit card or cash.

We are visiting Aruba, Curaco, Tobago and St Vincent so I assume these will all use USD?

We are luckily on a chartered flight which is with the Thomson Dreamliner so definitely looking forward to that and we upgraded to premium economy seats too. It will be good not to have to go through the airport.

We probably won't bother with the formal evenings. We are not dressy people.

Thanks again!

Oh, I was meant to ask if there are any visa requirements for Caribbean Cruises. I found this very confusing on the Cruise Personaliser.

No visas required for Brits at any of the ports you mention. And yes, USD at all.

Almost always ditto with P&O 's ports in the Caribbean.

A Brit using cash on a sterling ship isn't too problematic - it's expensive if the cash you tender isn't ship's currency (eg using sterling on a US ship) because ships' exchange rates are awful. Same with all cruise ships, and the same with currency exchange at the purser's desk - one reason why you should get your shore-spending US dollars before your cruise.

But if you don't register a debit or credit card when you board, you'll be expected to pay in a chunk of cash on the first day and top it up as necessary to keep your on-board account in credit.

On the last day, whereas those who've registered a card don't need to "check-out" unless they think there's an error, you'll have to stop by at the purser's office & sort out who owes who & how much. Takes two minutes but you'll likely be in a slow-moving queue of folk disputing their bills or with other end-of-cruise queries.

Pre-pay debit cards aren't usually accepted, it needs to be a debit card linked to your bank account.

The big problem is the daily "hold" that the ship puts on funds in your account. They do this to be sure there's enough funds for when they want to charge your card at the end of the cruise.

The "held" money isn't actually taken from your account, it's merely reserved, therefore it doesn't appear on your bank statements. Even though you probably don't know it, you've probably had funds "held" in the past cos a lot of hotels, car rental agencies etc do the same in case of any extra costs eg hotel phone or bar bills, or rented cars returned with insufficient fuel or traffic fines. There's no hold facility with pre-pay cards, which is why they're not usually acceptable.

The banking system is very slow to release the "hold" - it won't be released until a week or so after the end of your cruise even though by then your card will have settled the on-board account. Ditto with hotels etc. The banks blame the merchants & the merchants blame the banks - but the result is that for that week or so, even though you've settled your on-board account and your account may show to be in credit, you can't access that "held" money. So if you run a low bank balance you risk being unable to draw cash or even have direct debit payments - eg for utility bills - dishonoured.

It's the same with credit cards, but most folk spend waaay under their credit limit so it's very rarely a problem.

I've not explained it well :rolleyes:

Brew a coffee & read it again.

If you don't fully understand, ask your bank about "holds".

JB :)

Oh, I was meant to ask if there are any visa requirements for Caribbean Cruises. I found this very confusing on the Cruise Personaliser.

Visa is not required in ports you mentioned for cruise passengers.

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Enjoy see you on the Britannia

Flying out from Manchester.

Ps our honeymoon was cruise

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I think JB has answered everything... there's usually two bars which ask for formal wear on those nights, so just go to one of the many others. We find that on P&O in the Caribbean, quite a few opt out of formal, and the buffet fills up towards the end of the cruise with people who've done one or two of the nights... that included us!