P&O v Fred

[david05]

10 hours ago, nosapphire said:

Saga have a dedicated smoking/vaping area on deck 11, outside at the rear.

Smoking/vaping is not allowed anywhere else.

This was true on Adventure but on a recent cruise on Discovery there was also a smoking area at the back of A deck (as was the case in the pre-covid days) but the smoke/smell was not noticable to us on the other rear open decks.

Edited August 7, 2023 by david05

[nosapphire]

3 hours ago, david05 said:

This was true on Adventure but on a recent cruise on Discovery there was also a smoking area at the back of A deck (as was the case in the pre-covid days) but the smoke/smell was not noticable to us on the other rear open decks.

 

We were on the Discovery in June this year, and the smoking area is the back of deck 11.

Which is also known as A deck.

Saga using letters and numbers for the decks has caused a lot of confusion - it was worse when the Discovery came onto service and the lifts and stairs signage used one version, and all the passenger paperwork used the other. Nobody knew where they were.

 

 

[Britboys]

On 8/6/2023 at 11:58 AM, tring said:

It is the itineraries and ship environment, service etc. that have made us book with Fred.  We are quite prepared to travel to a port for those, even Dover which we always vow never to go near again due to having to drive around London and lack of appeal in the area.  We often spend more than one night pre cruise or stop off somewhere on the way to lengthen the holiday.  We had a lovely three days near Newcastle last year, before a Fred cruise and really enjoyed that time, including our visit to the Farne Isles, when landings were still allowed.  DH is from the Portsmouth area, but even though his parents are no longer around, we still go there from time to time and meet up with some of his school friends and generally just enjoy a few days around there, so Southampton not all that bad to us.  We have a Christmas cruise booked from Liverpool which is really good though as we would not want to travel south about the 21st Dec and return shortly after new year.  Would not be keen on. P&O ship at that time either nowadays, but have done it in the distant past, though Fred was cheaper than Arcadia for comparable cabins anyway.  We have paid almost £200pppn for a standard balcony on the P&O smaller ships, they are not as cheap as the big ones.

 

Fred has been offering free port transport for some cruises at times, but we would never want to be up at silly o' clock to be taken down, probably in a minibus, and board a ship the same day.  People talk about that with Saga, but their itineraries are no better than P&O so would never be worth spend that astronomical cost on them as the other perks do not appeal either.  Fred or P&O are the only UK departure we would generally consider now, but we often keep our eye on expedition cruise lines which we would consider splashing out for.

 

Yes, Dover is pretty dour...

There are however same nice places places in Kent, such as Canterbury, Whitstable and Rochester - which has a Castle and Cathedral plus (in neighbouring Chatham) the Historic Dockyard museum. There are also some great National Trust properties like Knole, Ightham Mote, Sissinghurst and Bodiam Castle.

[david05]

7 minutes ago, nosapphire said:

 

We were on the Discovery in June this year, and the smoking area is the back of deck 11.

Which is also known as A deck.

Saga using letters and numbers for the decks has caused a lot of confusion - it was worse when the Discovery came onto service and the lifts and stairs signage used one version, and all the passenger paperwork used the other. Nobody knew where they were.

 

 

OK understand. On Discovery there is also another smoking area on one side of an upper deck (13 or 14?) and this was the only smoking area available available on our last Adventure cruise? The lack of a smoking area at the back annoyed the smokers as the upper deck was closed in bad weather, although one or two did duck under the tapes to get access to the open deck for a smoke.