afcandrew

I can understand that sinbad. Thanks. I do however think they could have had a contingency with some compact pyrotechnics on the quayside to set off at the bottle-smash.

I must say that I was very underwhelmed. Half the ceremony was advertising for their various partnerships. I thought the ship was poorly lit and was very surprised that there weren't any fireworks. On the plus side, the tech worked very well!

Hope it goes well today!

As ever with P&O Marketing and IT, it is anyone's guess as to the rationale behind who has been sent the email. I got one, which goes to prove there's no monitoring of their social media as I have made it clear that Iona doesn't interest me. I have however accepted the invitation - but did wait until the shut-off date so as to hopefully not deprive anyone who is keen to go on her. I am interested in the naming ceremony but don't expect to ever sail on her.

Oh no - how rotten. Hope the pain is easing now and that you are feeling on the mend.

The joke was definitely meant more at P&O's expense, not yours. Lots of folk think that the name of the new ship is too close to both Aviva and Arriva. On another forum I use she has been nicknamed 'Our Vera'...

Is that Aviva or Arvia...🤔😉😂

Aurora became my favourite when they sold Oriana. I haven't sailed on Arcadia for years but only because Aurora's itineraries have held more appeal for me. Tried Azura twice and hated her on both occasions, so won't sail her again or try Ventura. Would like to see Britannia on a short cruise but not remotely interested in the two new ones.

Hopefully your luck will change now! As I am only interested in P&O's two smallest ships and not interested in the Caribbean, I knew there would not be much that would appeal to me in the winter release. I was interested in the World Cruise itinerary as I had a 39 night sector of this year's Worldie cancelled. Sadly, the nearest sector to that in 2023 is, at 71 nights, too long for me.

Agree with you OWT. On another board I am on there is currently much discussion about Travel Insurance - particularly as Carnival UK brands are specifying a high level of Medical Cover. It seems that Insurance policies normally only cover a lower level of cover when travelling within the UK. A further issue is around prices for drinks and in the on-board shops, which may be subject to VAT when not leaving the UK?

Yes, that's who I meant really sinbad. Can't be doing with these daft titles. A President runs a country in my book not heads up a division of a company...

Having released a series of three and four night UK cruises aboard Britannia on Monday of this week, they today cancelled six of them and replaced them with three seven night cruises. The reason given is that demand for 7 nights is much higher than demand for 3 or 4! To be fair, they have offered to upgrade booked pax from the short breaks to the 7 night cruise instead but there must be a number of people who cannot do a week or don't want a week at sea with one port of call and cruiseline excursions only. I somehow suspect that once the pandemic has, by and large, passed that we may see

Interesting to see that different lines are doing things in different ways. Disney cruises are the latest to throw their hats in the ring (or should that be English Channel?). It appears that they have not decided whether pax need to be vaccinated and children will be allowed on the cruises.

Good to see that despite Covid, some things never change. The P&O booking system crashed when they opened booking for these cruises this morning...🙄😂

I suppose it is early days still in respect of Vaccination Passports. The problems with the Track &Trace App don't exactly instill confidence. P&O have said that pax will need proof of both vaccination jabs before boarding but at this stage haven't confirmed what type of proof. The system varies a lot. I was given a card with a space for the batch number of the vaccine and there is a second space for the second jab. I am aware however that a lot of folks haven't been given any proof at all. As usual, P&O got in a right pickle with their communication over this. The details on