Discussion
PRTVR said:
In Saint Lucia at the moment, sat in a bar called Rum Therapy, and it appears to work 
ship is p& o Britannia , no complaints so far.
I did 3 weeks on there.ship is p& o Britannia , no complaints so far.Scene of the infamous 'buffet riot':
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/27/pa...
paulguitar said:
PRTVR said:
In Saint Lucia at the moment, sat in a bar called Rum Therapy, and it appears to work ship is p& o Britannia , no complaints so far.
I did 3 weeks on there.ship is p& o Britannia , no complaints so far.Scene of the infamous 'buffet riot':
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/27/pa...
Well this has escalated quickly.
Aside from Cunard Queen Anne June 25 booked today, we've just booked -
MSC World Europa, Yacht Club, Sept 25, 7 nights, Barcelona around the Med
MSC Virtuosa, Yacht Club, Apr 26, 12 nights, Southampton to the Canaries and back.
Havent done Yacht Club before with MSC but been watching some youtube videos today and it looks pretty impressive. Proper ship within a ship. I didnt realise all the cabins were in that Yacht Club area too, so you can go from your room to the Yacht Club areas without being in the main ship.
Aside from Cunard Queen Anne June 25 booked today, we've just booked -
MSC World Europa, Yacht Club, Sept 25, 7 nights, Barcelona around the Med
MSC Virtuosa, Yacht Club, Apr 26, 12 nights, Southampton to the Canaries and back.
Havent done Yacht Club before with MSC but been watching some youtube videos today and it looks pretty impressive. Proper ship within a ship. I didnt realise all the cabins were in that Yacht Club area too, so you can go from your room to the Yacht Club areas without being in the main ship.
Deep Thought said:
We did QV in December last year in Northern Europe. We did enjoy it. Limited of course by not being able to use the outside space.
Food was great, we did like the more formal dress code from 18:00, entertainment was good, live acts were great, MDR was great.
We found service to be slow in the bars, but that really only affects your first drink as you can time your next order accordingly.
Its a smaller ship so doesnt have a wide range of venues and restaurants but they do make the most of the space.
I love the Queen Victoria. Probably my favourite Cunard ship. Back on it from Istanbul to Soton in October.Food was great, we did like the more formal dress code from 18:00, entertainment was good, live acts were great, MDR was great.
We found service to be slow in the bars, but that really only affects your first drink as you can time your next order accordingly.
Its a smaller ship so doesnt have a wide range of venues and restaurants but they do make the most of the space.
I’m on the maiden of the Queen Anne in May and also booked it for November 2025. Some pretty good deals available on it right now.
A cruise was going to be a once in a life time thing for my honeymoon. I may as well start working for Carnival the number I’ve been convinced to do (they make for a super easy holiday with a toddler that doesn’t feel too kid focused though).
We are on the Euribia at the moment, on a Northern Europe cruise. At less than £400 a day it seemed to good to say no. Premium drinks on top for about £20 a day also good value.
Early days but my comparison with P&O is food in mdr mediocre, but specialty restaurants huge leap in quality and cost.
Entertainment is well above P&O standards and Carasoul home to the big band superb.
Interior room is ok size way, but short on storage…
j
Early days but my comparison with P&O is food in mdr mediocre, but specialty restaurants huge leap in quality and cost.
Entertainment is well above P&O standards and Carasoul home to the big band superb.
Interior room is ok size way, but short on storage…
jsurveyor said:
We are on the Euribia at the moment, on a Northern Europe cruise. At less than £400 a day it seemed to good to say no. Premium drinks on top for about £20 a day also good value.
Early days but my comparison with P&O is food in mdr mediocre, but specialty restaurants huge leap in quality and cost.
Entertainment is well above P&O standards and Carasoul home to the big band superb.
Interior room is ok size way, but short on storage
Did you mean £400 a day or £400 a week?Early days but my comparison with P&O is food in mdr mediocre, but specialty restaurants huge leap in quality and cost.
Entertainment is well above P&O standards and Carasoul home to the big band superb.
Interior room is ok size way, but short on storage
I think you can buy the speciality restaurant bundle even when on board, but for four speciality restaurants you can get a bundle for £109 from memory (might cost a bit more when on board).
We've done Virtuosa (sister ship of Euribia) on that Northern Europe run, and did World Europa around the med last summer.
Like yourselves, we have found the main dining room offering to be not fantastic but we'd rate it as ok. What we did to mitigate that a bit was if there was a couple of starters we fancied we'd maybe order an extra one, or if we got something we didnt like we'd ask them could they change it. They are more than happy to do that. Mains tended to be ok as you could predict what would be ok and what was likely to be weird. Starters tended to be a bit basic and small, hence we usually ordered a couple, deserts were reasonable.
We did do the four restaurant bundle which meant we only ate in the MDR three evenings.
Ola! is good value at £17.99 for all you can eat. It also opens at lunchtime too.
Teppanyaki has three pricing points - £29.99, £39.99 and £49.99 with the only variance being the mean types you get - you otherwise get the same show / experience. We did the £49.99 one last time and found it not to be worth the extra.
Robotayaki we are looking forward to trying - Euribia is the first ship its been on.
Le Grill is the same as Butchers Cut on the other ships. Again you can do a £39 option that gives you a good selection of starters, mains and deserts.
Carousel looks to be an amazing space, looking forward to it in May.
We did an inside room on Virtuosa - not a world of storage space but theres a lot of room under the bed so we opened up all our cases and put them under there. We also left clothes we didnt need yet in the cases and clothes we'd worn and wouldnt be wearing again.
We did the fjords from Southampton on the Virtuosa and a Med round robin on the Seashore last year.
MDR food on the Virtuosa was OK-good. It was poor-OK on the Seashore, with breakfast being particularly bad. Absolutely rammed into the room, so much so that there was no chance of getting up and down to the help yourself stuff. Had to rely on waiter service which was slow and lots of stuff never turned up despite reminders. We had the package that lets you have room service breakfast at no extra cost, so we switched to that in the end. We reckon they tailor the offering to the audience. It was 95% British on the Virtuosa, but mainly Italian and Spanish on the Seashore.
We’re 5 weeks away from a repositioner on the Divina which is going to start in Miami. We’re hoping they will up their MDR game for a mainly US audience. I can’t see Americans putting up with some of the stuff we were served on the Seashore
MDR food on the Virtuosa was OK-good. It was poor-OK on the Seashore, with breakfast being particularly bad. Absolutely rammed into the room, so much so that there was no chance of getting up and down to the help yourself stuff. Had to rely on waiter service which was slow and lots of stuff never turned up despite reminders. We had the package that lets you have room service breakfast at no extra cost, so we switched to that in the end. We reckon they tailor the offering to the audience. It was 95% British on the Virtuosa, but mainly Italian and Spanish on the Seashore.
We’re 5 weeks away from a repositioner on the Divina which is going to start in Miami. We’re hoping they will up their MDR game for a mainly US audience. I can’t see Americans putting up with some of the stuff we were served on the Seashore
Cruise virgin here and we are looking to do a taster cruise this year preferably from Southampton and returning there. The Med is quite appealing as it would seem to be a good variety for just over a week. Are there any cruise lines to avoid? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
robinh73 said:
Cruise virgin here and we are looking to do a taster cruise this year preferably from Southampton and returning there. The Med is quite appealing as it would seem to be a good variety for just over a week. Are there any cruise lines to avoid? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
Depends on budget and what you want from it. Deep Thought said:
surveyor said:
We are on the Euribia at the moment, on a Northern Europe cruise. At less than £400 a day it seemed to good to say no. Premium drinks on top for about £20 a day also good value.
Early days but my comparison with P&O is food in mdr mediocre, but specialty restaurants huge leap in quality and cost.
Entertainment is well above P&O standards and Carasoul home to the big band superb.
Interior room is ok size way, but short on storage
Did you mean £400 a day or £400 a week?Early days but my comparison with P&O is food in mdr mediocre, but specialty restaurants huge leap in quality and cost.
Entertainment is well above P&O standards and Carasoul home to the big band superb.
Interior room is ok size way, but short on storage
I think you can buy the speciality restaurant bundle even when on board, but for four speciality restaurants you can get a bundle for £109 from memory (might cost a bit more when on board).
We've done Virtuosa (sister ship of Euribia) on that Northern Europe run, and did World Europa around the med last summer.
Like yourselves, we have found the main dining room offering to be not fantastic but we'd rate it as ok. What we did to mitigate that a bit was if there was a couple of starters we fancied we'd maybe order an extra one, or if we got something we didnt like we'd ask them could they change it. They are more than happy to do that. Mains tended to be ok as you could predict what would be ok and what was likely to be weird. Starters tended to be a bit basic and small, hence we usually ordered a couple, deserts were reasonable.
We did do the four restaurant bundle which meant we only ate in the MDR three evenings.
Ola! is good value at £17.99 for all you can eat. It also opens at lunchtime too.
Teppanyaki has three pricing points - £29.99, £39.99 and £49.99 with the only variance being the mean types you get - you otherwise get the same show / experience. We did the £49.99 one last time and found it not to be worth the extra.
Robotayaki we are looking forward to trying - Euribia is the first ship its been on.
Le Grill is the same as Butchers Cut on the other ships. Again you can do a £39 option that gives you a good selection of starters, mains and deserts.
Carousel looks to be an amazing space, looking forward to it in May.
We did an inside room on Virtuosa - not a world of storage space but theres a lot of room under the bed so we opened up all our cases and put them under there. We also left clothes we didnt need yet in the cases and clothes we'd worn and wouldnt be wearing again.
Collectingbrass said:
normalbloke said:
My wife is headed out on a cruise next month around Japan on the QE for 19 nights. Any killer tips,tricks dos or don’ts before she heads off into the unknown?
Book a cleaner for the day before she's due to come back...surveyor said:
Yes a week! Oops!
Lol.Yeah thought at first you'd maybe went for a high end room and that was for the room.
But yes, £400 each for a week is a steal. We got the Dec 2022 one on Virtuosa along that route for £299 each. Drinking package for £199. The icing on the top was the crisp winter weather and the Christmas markets in Hamburg and Bruges.
robinh73 said:
Cruise virgin here and we are looking to do a taster cruise this year preferably from Southampton and returning there. The Med is quite appealing as it would seem to be a good variety for just over a week. Are there any cruise lines to avoid? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
I'd avoid P&O as you'd possibly never do another cruise if that was your first time. I do appreciate that they're relatively cheap by comparison to other offerings but I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for.robinh73 said:
Cruise virgin here and we are looking to do a taster cruise this year preferably from Southampton and returning there. The Med is quite appealing as it would seem to be a good variety for just over a week. Are there any cruise lines to avoid? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
When would you planning on going (school holidays impact cruise lines greatly in terms of experience)?Will you have any children with you?
Are you aiming for a value for money cruise or an upmarket one?
Are you interested in having a wide range of venues, shows, attractions, restaurants or does all that not bother you?
If you were staying in a nice hotel for the weekend, do you prefer traditional or fresh and modern?
Deep Thought said:
robinh73 said:
Cruise virgin here and we are looking to do a taster cruise this year preferably from Southampton and returning there. The Med is quite appealing as it would seem to be a good variety for just over a week. Are there any cruise lines to avoid? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
When would you planning on going (school holidays impact cruise lines greatly in terms of experience)?Will you have any children with you?
Are you aiming for a value for money cruise or an upmarket one?
Are you interested in having a wide range of venues, shows, attractions, restaurants or does all that not bother you?
If you were staying in a nice hotel for the weekend, do you prefer traditional or fresh and modern?
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