jasperado

A lurker for many a long time and reading the posts makes my day. Also came off Brittania last Friday. Very busy but a great cruise, but now hubby and I are quite unwell with you know what. A lot of people were having room service every day but to be honest we didn't witness too many folks showing symptoms. Ah well, onwards and upwards.

3 minutes ago, brian1 said:

We've just booked 2 caravans at Lower Hythe for May bank holiday.Hope they're still gonna be there.

If they last til tomorrow they will definitely be there in May.

I'm on the Isle of Wight, really quite bad here. 122mph gust recorded at the Needles a short while ago. We've lost the plastic edging to our roof tiles, hope that's all that happens. Take care.

Well, it's happened! Last night even before Disney Magic had cleared the Solent, there was a medical emergency and coastguard helicopter was called out.Paramedic winched on board and casualty airlifted off to Southampton. Dramatic scenes just off Osborne Bay on the island.

Just tracked her. She is heading south of the island, should be off St Catherine's point within the hour, not attempting to go the usual north route. Weather is fine here, no wind, rain, or fog, so I think she is just parking up. 

I just googled and camsecure.co.uk has cameras from the royal yacht squadron and cowes yacht club. They have great views. I am following her progress on cruisemapper.com. Iona is close to Brighton now. I'm no 0photographer, but will try and get some happy snaps as she goes past here. Would be great to get an IOW ferry in the same photo to get the scale. Fingers crossed 🤞

9 minutes ago, tring said:

I was looking round stuff this morning and came across a possible link to a camera feed that would show Iona's arrival to Southamptom tomorrow morning, but have nor been able to find it again so I can save it.  Anyone know about webcms which show Southampton Water, or going up to it?  I see from the previous thread that she is due to dock about 11am tomorrow morning.

 

Hi, there is a live webcam at Cowes which shows the entrance to Southampton water. I'm no good at sharing links but if you google cowes live webcam,  I think you can find it there. I'll check 🙂

Hi, I'm in Ryde on the Isle of Wight and can pop down to the seaside to see her go past.  I'm sure she is not going to sneak up southampton water under cover of darkness like all cruises usually end, because she is to be escorted by 2 fire boats with horns a-sounding and hoses a-firing. So she will have to wait up somewhere. I'll keep an eye on the tracker , who knows,  she might wait at the end of Ryde Pier to let us all have a good look?? 🙂🙂

Iona is now off St Leonard's, next passing Beachy Head. It's not going to take her 18 hours to sail to Southampton, so where do we think she will "park up" for the night?

Hi all, I may have missed a couple of posts, but could someone please tell me when Iona is expected to pass the Isle of Wight on her way into Southampton. I live in Ryde and can get down to the seafront to view her as she passes by. I should think she will go past Ryde Roads maybe an hour and a half before she docks in Southampton, but I'm really unsure. Would love to see her go past.  I will post photos 🙂. Thanks for reading.

6 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

The company made a decision very early to change some of the cruises, unfortunate for those who cannot make it but like I said earlier, the decision was made early so should not stop those who wish to book with other companies, those who never intended to go on them will take the opportunity to attack the company, but luckily for us we’re happy to do seven days rather than the 3 we had booked.

May I ask......are you getting the 7 days for what you paid for the 3 days? I'll admit I am just being nosey and had not previously booked anything so I will understand if you do not reply 🙂

I'm a bit unsure of the dates cancelled. Are the 3 night ones now cancelled, and the 4 night ones now 7 night ones? Will the new 7 nighters be the same price as was charged for the old 4 nighters, or will they be increased to the previously advertised 7 nights ( or was it 6)? Good grief, what a way to instill confidence in a recovering industry.

Do you think that P and O have just realised that to turn a ship around with a completely new group of passengers twice each week is going to be "very busy"? No B2Bs were being allowed so everybody off. 

There is a previous thread concerning this issue, and pax have cancelled and received full refunds.Im sorry I dont know when the thread was started, but please search and Im sure you will receive guidance there,

Good luck

We did this cruise a couple of years ago and a good while before going I bought Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports book, which I used almost like a bible.

He gives suggested walking tours and tips for getting around in each city, while highlighting the most "must see" sights realising that there are only a few hours in which to get a feel for the place.

He even suggests (sacrilege but sensible) to split the book into the various cities so you only carry a small bit of the bible with you each day.

We had to spend money to see St Petersburg, but the rest of the ports we DIYd

The most popular independent tour for St Lucia is Cosol Tours. We have done this, we booked on line before we left the UK and had a wonderful time.

The Caribbean is so easy to DIY and for less cost than ship tours.

There is a ports of call section of cruise critic which will cover all the islands you will visit.

Homepage/ports of call/caribbean..........then the island you wish to research.

Please look at these because your question has been answered in this section more than once.

Have a wonderful time, and I send you my best wishes for a happy married life.

:):)

:)

Im going to be no help to you whatsoever, but curiosity was killing me!

Had to google.

That's some serious champagne!

I hope you and your friends enjoy your champagne and have a lovely break.

Best wishes (and apologies for being nosy!)

:):)

Hello Kathy, no you are not talking nonsense you have put a lot of thought into this and I thank you so much for your input. However, P& O will not allow us to postpone till next year. My TA enquired as to why they would not allow this change and they categorically stated not on this occasion with no explanation as to why not.

To add insult to injury we actually received an e-mail from P&O today to inform us that our flight seats which we picked, booked and paid for in advance have been changed due to seemingly change of aircraft ( which can happen) but they never even gave us the opportunity to pick other seats so what was the point in booking and paying for seats in advance, just told us we had been moved and allocated seats. I honestly am loosing faith in P&O and and don’t have the time or energy to have any more contact with them. As a sweetener they informed me that should we wish to change names of passengers that there would be no fee for this, I was already aware of this because we booked a Select Fare and in the terms and conditions it states no fee would be applicable if we required to change names.

So sorry about me ranting on , I do apologise.

Oh, my Dear

You are not ranting, so apologies are not necessary.

I have put a bit of thought into your problem for a couple of days, but with your information today regarding the flight situation just seems to be rubbing salt into the wound.

I regret I cannot buy this holiday from you, I wish I could, but to be honest, I just hope that your family are going to be ok and b*****ks to the money and "the company". (this might be deleted lol)

Take care xxx

Slugsta, in the overall picture of things the cruise really does not matter it was just a thought about selling our cruise because P&O have been very unhelpful. as we have paid the cruise in full and I did request to P&O they transfer this cruise to another one next year 2019 and requested that my son and his partners name be transferred over to the 2019 booking but unfortunately P&O have stated NO. However, their name could be changed to this cruise on Azura in November but under the circumstances that is not possible as I explained to them but P&O they are not interested even though we have previously cruised with them on 40 cruises before. So it was a last resort to try and sell our cruise.

Thanks for your best wishes.

Hello

I am wondering............I realise that the health dilemma that you are in, also affects all of your family at this moment in time, so a transfer of this holiday to another member of your family will not be prudent, and that you cannot see yourselves cruising in the near future.

But, what if you transferred the cruise to family members now, and then THEY postponed the cruise that is now theirs to a later date next year when you will all know what you are dealing with. Just keeping the holiday in the family. How many times can a cruise be postponed and re-booked? I know there will be penalty and administrative costs, but if my theory could work, the money and cruise stays in the family and will not be totally lost.

Or am I talking nonsense?

My thoughts and prayers are with you

Regards Kathy

Hello

We had inside cabins on Oriana for the first time in June having previously had balcony cabins on other P and O ships and to be honest in future we will save money by going inside again.

The cabin size was 150 sq ft and was more than adequate and it even had a small sofa. I am unsure what the square footage is on Arcadia and Aurora but in Oceana the cabins are only 135 sq.ft.

One thing I will suggest following advice given on here, is to go for the twin bed configuration. This was also a first time for us, but the "double space" in the middle of the two beds seemed so much more than the two "bedside side table" widths on either side of a queen bed configuration.

As for lighting........put them all on! Bathroom, entrance, over bed lights, table lamp.......have a lovely time.

Unless you are in a suite where there are flutes and wine glasses, there will only be two long drink glasses and two for shorts.

Although rhetorical in nature I have to ask the following questions.

Could a bottle of water contain any clear liquid?

Or could a bottle of Coke contain anything of an identical colour?

I have considered this..........say, for arguments sake, one disembarks cruise ship in Cadiz, with a 500 ml bottle of P and O mineral water each (1 litre) or is "plastic friendly" and takes their own pre-purchased plastic drinking bottle ashore, and re-fills the said bottles with alcohol purchased in the port. Will the liquid be tested on return to ship?? :evilsmile::evilsmile::evilsmile:

In the early 70s my mother made a trip to Southern Ireland and obtained a small bottle of poitin which is "potato moonshine". She had it in a small "kia-ora" bottle and had primed herself with the story that if she got caught at customs she would say it was "holy water", but if the customs man tasted it, it would blow his head off!! ;p;p

That's bringing it down to just over £400 each for 7 nights? That really is a great price at a fine time of the year! We cant act yet, we are still hoping to make the 3 week re position cruise. Final payment for that is due November so that will be our cut off point, but of course the June cruise will have risen in price. The reason we book the re position cruise was because the 5% deposit deal was running then.............NOW,, if that deal was still running for THIS cruise, the deposit would only be about £20 each!! Would be worth a punt! Have to wait to see what husband's bosses are going to agree to....he wont let me go to the Caribbean without him lol xx

Hi.....no, not booked yet because we have paid a deposit for the re-positioning cruise for Britannia from the Caribbean in March 2019 but we are unsure if we can make this because of work issues. So if we have to cancel the March cruise we will definitely have to have something else in the pipeline. I realise the the price wont probably be as great by the time we will know if we need to book it, but it does no harm to keep an eye on prices. ;)

See you on board then :D:D:D:D