More bad publicity for P&O

[zap99]

54 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Earlier someone mentioned the app logging you off if you moved around the ship. Maybe the WiFi access points are zoned and the design does not allow for logged in phones to move to a different zone. If do BAD system design IMO.

 

I like the portal system they have on Marella. This is in addition to the onboard 'app' . The portals are large touch screen, 32" that you can access by scanning your cruise card. This gives you the 'app' without a smart phone and you have big virtual buttons to hit. Booking stuff also allows you to print out the paperwork then and there. Best of both worlds and it saves a lot of questions at reception.

 

For those on Iona and Arvia? you can see your onboard account using the cabin TV

On Britannia in October. Our 'app" behaved quite well. We could view our account on the TV....unfortunately. No problems with the virtual queue. We joined a queue whilst getting ready for dinner. It caught us out a couple of times with being too quick.

 

 

 

[carlanthony24]

We were on the waiting list for the Beach house  it was a good job we checked the app the next day since they had allocated us a time. 
 

Wish it was an actual app then it could alert us of anything that comes up.

Edited January 2, 2023 by carlanthony24

[pete14]

8 hours ago, tring said:

Everyone has the option to write reviews or comment on their cruises and all should be able to do so freely, without anyone else implying that they are not telling the truth.  

 

People reading reviews can make their own mind up about reports and the more options to read about cruises the better from that perspective.  Different people will have different experiences and there is certainly differences on different cruises.  For instance we went on Azura in October and there were a good number of problems on the ship regards dining and some other things, yet on Aurora in November everything, including the booking system on the app and service was working very well indeed in the freedom dining Mdr's.

 

I completely agree with your first paragraph but I hope that you don’t include my response to the post that claimed the Britannia maiden was a disaster. Maybe the person who made the comment had some problems, if so, hopefully they sought a response from P&O at the time. To equate this with a disastrous cruise in general is incorrect, as others have reinforced, it wasn’t. 

[Bazrat]

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

On Britannia in October. Our 'app" behaved quite well. We could view our account on the TV....unfortunately. No problems with the virtual queue. We joined a queue whilst getting ready for dinner. It caught us out a couple of times with being too quick.

 

 

 

You strangely had the same experience as us on the TA we was on, we booked a time got ready than went to dine really not difficult, we had the same experience as well actually soon after the app came out.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Bazrat

[tring]

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

I completely agree with your first paragraph but I hope that you don’t include my response to the post that claimed the Britannia maiden was a disaster. Maybe the person who made the comment had some problems, if so, hopefully they sought a response from P&O at the time. To equate this with a disastrous cruise in generally is incorrect, as others have reinforced, it wasn’t. 

 

I do not even remember the post of yours which you mention, so nothing personal at all.  I would agree that going off to the media is going a bit far imo, but nowadays some people (mainly younger ones), seem to live their life on social media. 

 

I have myself been quoted in an article referring to a comment I made on these boards, under my name I use here, not that my comment was in any way incorrect, nor would I have changed my comment with hindsight.  Just pointing out the media will get their info from anywhere they can.

[tring]

6 hours ago, davecttr said:

Earlier someone mentioned the app logging you off if you moved around the ship. Maybe the WiFi access points are zoned and the design does not allow for logged in phones to move to a different zone. If do BAD system design IMO.

 

 

We were on Azura in Oct and Aurora in Nov and the onboard app worked far better on Aurora, even working in the cabin (as long as the phone was not taken out onto the balcony) as well as around the ship without dropping out. 

 

On Azura the app dropped out even if walking around the atrium waiting to go into the midship restaurant.  We had a pager one night on Azura and even that did not work after we merely crossed the atrium and went into Brodie's.  Occasionally the app worked in the cabin on Azura, but even then it dropped out if we went from there to the public decks.

 

On both ships our cabins were very near the midship lifts, deck C on Azura and deck B on Aurora.

[No pager thank you]

Currently in Lisbon on the aforementioned cruise, I will leave a fuller review upon return; great and good, bad, and downright ugly.

 

From my experience, can confirm that whilst the WiFi and Christmas Dinner gained the most attention, these are not the only issues on Arvia, and it has been more difficult than we would have expected for a maiden voyage; this being our fourth for comparison purposes.  Some of the issues are "baked in," and partly come of the fact that the MDR restaurants are more popular than yhe two new options, 6th Street Diner (American) and Olive Grove (Mediterranean). 

 

Service standards improved for New Years Eve, food quality less so; but the main act, Ronan Keating was excellent and made for a great evening.

 

All passengers have been provided with £150 per person (£300 per cabin) of OBC to recognise the poor service received.  Note this was provided automatically, the hunch of a previous poster was correct.

 

There is also a rumour that Paul Ludlow has been flown in to the Canaries to oversee the recovery.  I haven't seen him, although the Captain has been seen a few times.  Next cruise down to £779 for two weeks, they are still pushing the fill rate.

[tring]

30 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Currently in Lisbon on the aforementioned cruise, I will leave a fuller review upon return; great and good, bad, and downright ugly.

 

From my experience, can confirm that whilst the WiFi and Christmas Dinner gained the most attention, these are not the only issues on Arvia, and it has been more difficult than we would have expected for a maiden voyage; this being our fourth for comparison purposes.  Some of the issues are "baked in," and partly come of the fact that the MDR restaurants are more popular than yhe two new options, 6th Street Diner (American) and Olive Grove (Mediterranean). 

 

 

I hope you have a good last couple of days and disembarkation, as well as a really good day in Lisbon, which is a favourite port for us.

 

Please forgive me as I have not been following this fully, but has P&O provided two new non extra payment restaurants in the hope people will use them instead of the MDR's?  If so, sounds pretty bad to us as American often seems to mean a burger bar, (like the Beach House), and Mediterranean often means a pasta and pizza joint, rather than some much more upmarket continental restaurants.

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by tring

[No pager thank you]

Just now, tring said:

 

I hope you have a good last couple of days and disembarkation, as well as a really good day in Lisbon, which is a favourite port for us.

 

Please forgive me as I have not been following this fully, but has P&O provide two new non extra payment restaurants in the hope people will use them instead of the MDR?  If so, sounds pretty bad to us as American often seems to mean a burger bar, (like the Beach House) and Mediterranean often means a pasta and pizza joint, rather than some much more upmarket continental restaurants.

 

Thank you, yes, today is cooler, but sunny today in Lisbon, an improvement on Cadiz yesterday, weather has been great overall. 

 

On Iona, there are the Aqua, Coral, Pearl and Opal MDR restaurants, all serving the same menu largely.  On Arvia, the two smaller Iona equivalent restaurants have been replaced with the American and Mediterranean restaurants.  This means that there are only two MDR restaurants, Meridian (Deck 6) and Zenith (Deck 7). 

 

One of the issues is that the quoted demand level for "formal dining" cannot be serviced properly with just these two options.  This gets worse when the table allocation and waiting on ratios are further reduced.  Quality is variable. 2 hours plus for MDR dinner standard.

 

This is because, despite being free of charge, P&O cannot move the residual demand to the new options in the same degree.  As it happens, we like the American restaurant, particularly the breakfast option, but for an evening meal, it is not traditional "formal dining."  The success relies on the guests choosing to pay for the upgrade options, and availability being available - for example Sindhu, The Beach House, Epicurean, Limelight Club, Keel and Cow etc.  Also, people appreciating the buffet option and expanded informal dining like The Quays.

 

Essentially, the only way to avoid significant queuing for dinner is to both book early and use the paid upgrade options.  But, being positive, because the fares are being lowered, the value for money is still there.

[kalos]

23 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Next cruise down to £779 for two weeks, they are still pushing the fill rate.

 

Wow people are paying more for a Premier Inn around here !

I wonder if the press will be quick enough to print the good things that are happening now?

I am surprised they have not printed about Queen Victoria in dry dock today with passengers

onboard . (I would have loved that experience 😊) But can you imagine the papers headline ?

Read all about it .."Cruise line leaves passengers high and dry "

 

Hope you are enjoying your cruise 😊

[Denarius]

28 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

  Some of the issues are "baked in," and partly come of the fact that the MDR restaurants are more popular than yhe two new options, 6th Street Diner (American) and Olive Grove (Mediterranean). 

 

 

I fear that this may be so. In the days when the only dining option for dinner was the MDR (speciality restaurants had not arrived and the buffet only opened for breakfast and lunch) it had the capacity to seat all passengers, albeit on two sittings. Ships of the vintage of Aurora still do as they predate these developments. Nowadays I suspect, ships like Arvia are designed on the assumption that on any given evening a large number of passengers will eat dinner elsewhere and MDR capacity has been reduced accordingly. But if more passengers wish to use the MDR than was assumed then problems are created and are unlikely to go away. Unless of course one or more speciality restaurants are redesignated as MDRs!

[tring]

3 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Thank you, yes, today is cooler, but sunny today in Lisbon, an improvement on Cadiz yesterday, weather has been great overall. 

 

On Iona, there are the Aqua, Coral, Pearl and Opal MDR restaurants, all serving the same menu largely.  On Arvia, the two smaller Iona equivalent restaurants have been replaced with the American and Mediterranean restaurants.  This means that there are only two MDR restaurants, Meridian (Deck 6) and Zenith (Deck 7). 

 

One of the issues is that the quoted demand level for "formal dining" cannot be serviced properly with just these two options.  This gets worse when the table allocation and waiting on ratios are further reduced.  Quality is variable. 2 hours plus for MDR dinner standard.

 

This is because, despite being free of charge, P&O cannot move the residual demand to the new options in the same degree.  As it happens, we like the American restaurant, particularly the breakfast option, but for an evening meal, it is not traditional "formal dining."  The success relies on the guests choosing to pay for the upgrade options, and availability being available - for example Sindhu, The Beach House, Epicurean, Limelight Club, Keel and Cow etc.  Also, people appreciating the buffet option and expanded informal dining like The Quays.

 

Essentially, the only way to avoid significant queuing for dinner is to both book early and use the paid upgrade options.  But, being positive, because the fares are being lowered, the value for money is still there.

 

Must be horrendous.  We have recently been on Azura and Aurora and formal nights were slower moving on both of them, said to be because of the extra course. 

 

Azura was very bad to begin with though, so after our first week we skipped the mdr for the rest of our 23nights in favour of paid options, though we had been given a lot of extra obs, so not an overall cost to us.   That restaurant was not working well at all on Azura, with wrong items delivered at times and wait staff  just could not cope, so tended to be offhand and just not good, though to be fair it was not their fault at all.

 

Thanks for the reply,

 

Barbara

[Froxfield]

For me it is good to hear that people are not flocking to the American Diner or Olive Grove (particularly the latter) in preference to MDR. This would mean more room for us!  Frankly we did not use the MDR much at all on Iona, although we liked Aqua as a place.The Olive Grove seemed to be the big success on Iona as it always seemed over subscribed. I suspect that may be why P&O sought more space. Similarly the diner part of Quays was popular ( less so with me as it was only fried chicken and burgers!) and must have led designers to think there would be demand.  Best laid plans and all.

[tring]

11 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I fear that this may be so. In the days when the only dining option for dinner was the MDR (speciality restaurants had not arrived and the buffet only opened for breakfast and lunch) it had the capacity to seat all passengers, albeit on two sittings. Ships of the vintage of Aurora still do as they predate these developments. Nowadays I suspect, ships like Arvia are designed on the assumption that on any given evening a large number of passengers will eat dinner elsewhere and MDR capacity has been reduced accordingly. But if more passengers wish to use the MDR than was assumed then problems are created and are unlikely to go away. Unless of course one or more speciality restaurants are redesignated as MDRs!

 

Presumably that also explains why our dining experience on our Aurora cruise was excellent, though I think it was especially so as we were freedom dinning and from what we heard, the set dining option restaurant was relatively full.  It was a four week Caribbean so a lot of pax were older people happy with the traditional cruise style of set dining.

 

I think our decision to go with more land hols is the correct one, though have three more cruises booked on Aurora.

 

Thanks for that enlightenment,

 

Barbara

[Bazrat]

We usually only use the mdr on formal nights, we prefer the paid options and the buffet, but what I have been reading they have now got there act together and hopefully learn by there mistakes.

[Chrish2]

1 hour ago, No pager thank you said:

This is because, despite being free of charge, P&O cannot move the residual demand to the new options in the same degree.  As it happens, we like the American restaurant, particularly the breakfast option, but for an evening meal, it is not traditional "formal dining."  The success relies on the guests choosing to pay for the upgrade options, and availability being available - for example Sindhu, The Beach House, Epicurean, Limelight Club, Keel and Cow etc.  Also, people appreciating the buffet option and expanded informal dining like The Quays.

Going on Arvia this Friday.

• Breakfast or Lunch in 6th Street Diner is appealing and we *might* also try it one evening.
• Limelight Club Club is booked for one evening just to try it.
• We probably will give Epicurean a miss this time (no special event in the family).
• My impression (without seeing it first hand) is Keel and Cow is a glorified wetherspoons so the up charging don't appeal to me.
• Green & Co we might try for lunch one day.
• Sindhu tends to be when on promotion but I don't think they do that on the a la carte mode on Iona/Arvia
• Beach House with the increased costs is no longer good value so probably a miss
• Olive Grove is the only alternative to the MDR we may consider for 3 or so nights but not for formal nights
• Unless something unexpected happens we don't plan to go to horizons or quays for evening meal

 

So over 15 nights we are probably looking at 5 nights outside the MDR and 10 nights in. This feels rather typical to the proposition offered. Currently the number of non MDR nights is up compared to prior propositions (e.g. Azura). The key caveat on this is formal night changes the dynamic with 0 nights expected outside the MDR. The only alternative on these nights would be Epicurean. I do wonder if this factors into why there is only 1 formal night a week (instead of 2).

 

If MDR quality deteriorates and there is any feeling we are been "pushed" to other venues then we probably will reconsider if P&O is right for us. After all on Virgin Voyages we effectively had a rotation (you can pre book each one once for evening meal) of high quality, high concept restaurants included in the fare.

[Mad4WDW]

17 minutes ago, Chrish2 said:

Going on Arvia this Friday.

• Breakfast or Lunch in 6th Street Diner is appealing and we *might* also try it one evening.
• Limelight Club Club is booked for one evening just to try it.
• We probably will give Epicurean a miss this time (no special event in the family).
• My impression (without seeing it first hand) is Keel and Cow is a glorified wetherspoons so the up charging don't appeal to me.
• Green & Co we might try for lunch one day.
• Sindhu tends to be when on promotion but I don't think they do that on the a la carte mode on Iona/Arvia
• Beach House with the increased costs is no longer good value so probably a miss
• Olive Grove is the only alternative to the MDR we may consider for 3 or so nights but not for formal nights
• Unless something unexpected happens we don't plan to go to horizons or quays for evening meal

 

So over 15 nights we are probably looking at 5 nights outside the MDR and 10 nights in. This feels rather typical to the proposition offered. Currently the number of non MDR nights is up compared to prior propositions (e.g. Azura). The key caveat on this is formal night changes the dynamic with 0 nights expected outside the MDR. The only alternative on these nights would be Epicurean. I do wonder if this factors into why there is only 1 formal night a week (instead of 2).

 

If MDR quality deteriorates and there is any feeling we are been "pushed" to other venues then we probably will reconsider if P&O is right for us. After all on Virgin Voyages we effectively had a rotation (you can pre book each one once for evening meal) of high quality, high concept restaurants included in the fare.

Hi 

I think your impression of The Keel and Cow is a bit off, it's nothing like a Weatherspoons IMHO. You should maybe try it before writing it off 🙂 

 

Is it also fair to make a comparison with Virgin Voyages? Thats a more expensive product isn't it?

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Me personally for myself and my family we like the fact there are less MDR places and more free places to eat rather then mostly the buffet. 

I get there are lots who enjoy the MDR and sevice? But there are also a lot of us who like to experience different venue's, food and service. However on most cruise lines those extra venues always cost a premium £££.  

Christmas meal was always going to be extremely busy in the more formal MDRs, so was this a one off extremely busy time or is it like that every night. 

We honestly cant wait till we go on her in Aug. 

 

[mygo1999]

On 12/29/2022 at 9:04 PM, doog442 said:

 

Has it made the Mail yet. Can't wait for my mum to ask me what boat we're going on again in Feb.

 

Incidentally many land based resorts, restaurants and hotels creak, groan and sometimes fall down at this time of year so I'm hardly surprised with a new ship and crew. 

We have just come off Iona, she had exactly the same problems. There were too many passengers and not enough crew. We enjoyed the cruise but the dining experience was extremely poor. Unless you were lucky enough to book dinner at 5:30 (but we don't like to eat dinner at 5:30 maybe we are not old enough) on the first formal night after waiting for almost 2 hours for a table in the mdr we gave up and went to the Horizon buffet. The next day the hotel manager made a tannoy announcement blaming the passengers for the problems. She said passengers must use the 'MyHoliday' to join the virtual queue and wait in their cabins until called.

On Christmas day it was another formal dinner we were told the virtual queue would open from 7:30pm it didn't open until 8pm we joined the queue but weren't called until 9:05. The table wasn't set other tables had Christmas crackers when we asked about them they just Brough a pile and threw them on the table, and I really mean threw! The service  was very slow and we didn't finish the meal until 11:15pm and that's without coffee/tea. So we missed all the entertainment for that night. 

We gave up on eating in the MDR's either using speciality restaurants or Horizon buffet. 

New Year's eve, we just ate fish and chips in the Quays so we could enjoy the shows we ended up in the Club House and Pulse were amazing it was a great atmosphere and evening. If we had gone to the MDR's we would have missed it all! Now I'm sure all the P&O fans will find all this is completely acceptable but unfortunately I don't! For the ones who say "Oh they're only looking for compensation, No I'm not! but not everyone is like you who will accept anything P&O throws at you! Some people have an expectation of a good quality of service and don't mind if somethings aren't perfect. The dining situation on Iona was not minor, it was AWFUL! Will I say we will never go on Iona again.... Well no, but if we did, we would assume we would only eat in the Horizon buffet or speciality restaurants and I don't like that idea very much. 

[TigerB]

3 hours ago, Chrish2 said:

Going on Arvia this Friday.

• Breakfast or Lunch in 6th Street Diner is appealing and we *might* also try it one evening.
• Limelight Club Club is booked for one evening just to try it.
• We probably will give Epicurean a miss this time (no special event in the family).
• My impression (without seeing it first hand) is Keel and Cow is a glorified wetherspoons so the up charging don't appeal to me.
• Green & Co we might try for lunch one day.
• Sindhu tends to be when on promotion but I don't think they do that on the a la carte mode on Iona/Arvia
• Beach House with the increased costs is no longer good value so probably a miss
• Olive Grove is the only alternative to the MDR we may consider for 3 or so nights but not for formal nights
• Unless something unexpected happens we don't plan to go to horizons or quays for evening meal

 

So over 15 nights we are probably looking at 5 nights outside the MDR and 10 nights in. This feels rather typical to the proposition offered. Currently the number of non MDR nights is up compared to prior propositions (e.g. Azura). The key caveat on this is formal night changes the dynamic with 0 nights expected outside the MDR. The only alternative on these nights would be Epicurean. I do wonder if this factors into why there is only 1 formal night a week (instead of 2).

 

If MDR quality deteriorates and there is any feeling we are been "pushed" to other venues then we probably will reconsider if P&O is right for us. After all on Virgin Voyages we effectively had a rotation (you can pre book each one once for evening meal) of high quality, high concept restaurants included in the fare.

 

We've booked a table for four in the Zenith at the same time every evening, apart from the 20th (not available to book) and those nights we know we are dining elsewhere.

We've booked one night in Epicurean and one night in Sindhu; my sister and brother-in-law haven't tried the latter before.

We've booked a lunch in Green & Co, and may well go there a few times for lunch. 

We don't fancy either of the acts in the Limelight, and are not fans of the limited menu, so will give that a miss this time.

Once onboard, we will definitely book to eat at other restaurants and cancel more nights in the MDR. I'm not a big fan of the Beach House, but we all like the Glass House, so that will feature. We'll probably give the Olive Grove a go, and Keel and Cow at least once.

I'm not a regular visitor to Horizon, just for snackage during the day or after a show; I would probably find the Quays and 6th Street Diner more appealing, and we have already talked about having a couple of breakfasts in the latter. We'll see how it compares to our go-to breakfast joint when in the US, Cracker Barrel.

[Chrish2]

2 hours ago, Mad4WDW said:

Is it also fair to make a comparison with Virgin Voyages? Thats a more expensive product isn't it?

 

I just used an online TA website to find a shortish itinerary on Arvia (they all tend to be longer). The first I found was in Nov 2023 so I looked up a "long" Virgin Voyages one (they all tend to be short) to compare in the same month. Without looking at prices I picked the first itinerary for both that came up for me what was of about the right length and ended up with 7 nights (P&O) and 8 nights (Virgin). This is what I found

 

P&O
K323B Eastern Caribbean from Barbados

11 November 2023 7 nights
With Flights
OBS £0

Prices per cabin (based on 2 sharing)

£2,506 Standard inside Saver (Select @ £2,820 with £180 OBS per cabin)
£3,004 Standard Balcony Saver (Select @ £3,510 with £300 OBS per cabin)

 

Virgin Voyages

Eastern Caribbean Antilles

18 Nov 2023 Sun (8 nights)

Current offer will give you $600 (~£500) "Sailer loot" (OBS) per cabin.
You will also get 10% discount if you pay in full today (not shown below).
NO flights included

Prices per cabin (based on 2 sharing)
£2,054.92 Social Insider  (£2,174.74 Insider )
£2,671.46 Limited View Sea Terrace (£2,846.20 The Sea Terrace)

 

Virgin Atlantic (KLM ticketed) flights direct from LHR to MIA are currently £373 pp on skyscanner and you are going to need a hotel the night before (~£150). Knock off the sailer loot (I assume you will spend that onboard anyway) and add on flights/hotel gives you

£2,450.92 Social Insider  (£2,570.74 Insider )

£3,067.46 Limited View Sea Terrace (£3,242.2 The Sea Terrace)

 

IMO (and this is subjective) price wise when looking at these two they are in in spitting distance of each other, if anything Virgin Voyages is better value given they are giving you 8 nights onboard for the price of 7 onboard P&O.  

 

The virgin one appeals to a DIYer who might do something in Miami, Florida or USA before/after. The P&O one to someone who wants something simple "tell me where to turn up and when you going to get me back".

 

Based on the above I think its entirely fair to compare the products, especially the core onboard experience.

[Megabear2]

6 minutes ago, Chrish2 said:

 

I just used an online TA website to find a shortish itinerary on Arvia (they all tend to be longer). The first I found was in Nov 2023 so I looked up a "long" Virgin Voyages one (they all tend to be short) to compare in the same month. Without looking at prices I picked the first itinerary for both that came up for me what was of about the right length and ended up with 7 nights (P&O) and 8 nights (Virgin). This is what I found

 

P&O
K323B Eastern Caribbean from Barbados

11 November 2023 7 nights
With Flights
OBS £0

Prices per cabin (based on 2 sharing)

£2,506 Standard inside Saver (Select @ £2,820 with £180 OBS per cabin)
£3,004 Standard Balcony Saver (Select @ £3,510 with £300 OBS per cabin)

 

Virgin Voyages

Eastern Caribbean Antilles

18 Nov 2023 Sun (8 nights)

Current offer will give you $600 (~£500) "Sailer loot" (OBS) per cabin.
You will also get 10% discount if you pay in full today (not shown below).
NO flights included

Prices per cabin (based on 2 sharing)
£2,054.92 Social Insider  (£2,174.74 Insider )
£2,671.46 Limited View Sea Terrace (£2,846.20 The Sea Terrace)

 

Virgin Atlantic (KLM ticketed) flights direct from LHR to MIA are currently £373 pp on skyscanner and you are going to need a hotel the night before (~£150). Knock off the sailer loot (I assume you will spend that onboard anyway) and add on flights/hotel gives you

£2,450.92 Social Insider  (£2,570.74 Insider )

£3,067.46 Limited View Sea Terrace (£3,242.2 The Sea Terrace)

 

IMO (and this is subjective) price wise when looking at these two they are in in spitting distance of each other, if anything Virgin Voyages is better value given they are giving you 8 nights onboard for the price of 7 onboard P&O.  

 

The virgin one appeals to a DIYer who might do something in Miami, Florida or USA before/after. The P&O one to someone who wants something simple "tell me where to turn up and when you going to get me back".

 

Based on the above I think its entirely fair to compare the products, especially the core onboard experience.

I spent all day yesterday comparing my Arvia booking for 14 nights departing 22/12.  My 2nd grade balcony is priced at £7100 with £480 OBC.  PE flights and seat allocation to sit together will add at least another £1000 and then my OBS.  

 

Although there are no equivalent 14 nights cruises I have found comparable 11, 12 and 13 night cruises with Celebrity, Oceania and Princess.  The first I break about even on, the second extra spend of around £600 and Princess I have money. .if you take a late booking with P&O you seem to do okay, however booking in advance other better cruise lines seem to be a far better deal.

 

P&O are now in my opinion only for a quick break rather than planning something special.

[Fionboard]

Did have problems on Britannia maiden (2015 I think). However, back on her again within months and have cruised on her seven times since. One of my favourites now. Point I was making is,  do not take too much notice of bad press about maidens or let it put you off. 

[Host Sharon]

Can anyone on the Iona Xmas cruise confirm that some passengers turned up to Christmas dinner in the MDR in pyjamas, albeit Christmas ones?  It is what I am hearing. More to the point, they were allowed in.

[Selbourne]

10 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

Can anyone on the Iona Xmas cruise confirm that some passengers turned up to Christmas dinner in the MDR in pyjamas, albeit Christmas ones?  It is what I am hearing. More to the point, they were allowed in.

Given how late some of them had their dinner, can you blame them? 😂 I wonder if that comment was made in sarcasm due to how delayed things were? 
 

Edit - Thinking about it, wasn’t it Arvia that had the late Xmas Dinner problem or was it Iona as well? I’m getting confused 😂 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Selbourne