Selbourne

A couple of shots from deck 16 in La Palma this morning. Currently a humid 25 degrees with a breeze. Looks like a bit of a trek into town, but we’ll manage.

Probably, especially if they had to wash the glass pots before recycling but, as @TigerB has pointed out, the food waste must have gone up as a result 🤔

Yes, as I said, the odd thing is that we eat at around that time at home, but as we rarely find the entertainment on cruises to be of interest, a late meal is our main evening activity 😂 We also like to have a lazy afternoon / early evening watching the departure from ports. It’s great for us that most people prefer early dining as if we book a Saver we hopefully have a much better chance of getting allocated dining that suits us. I hope that theory works for us on Aurora next year as it’s the first time we’ve booked a Saver on her 🤞

Thank you. The people in question would have had absolutely no idea why we left as we weren’t on their table and we asked to be seated in a completely different area well out of sight so as not to cause any potential embarrassment. We are not insensitive to these issues, but could not have eaten where we were, nor should we have to.

I’ve no idea David, but regardless of the cause we couldn’t sit there I’m afraid. It was overpowering. My wife has a serious disability and if that caused the same issue and she was unaware of it I know that she would want me to mention it and help address it, and she certainly wouldn’t want to be sitting in a busy dining room up close and personal to other guests. Same with me. We would both be mortified. I suspect in this case that neither were aware but, of course, I have zero knowledge of their circumstances, just the consequences. Either way, very sad.

DAY 6 - Thursday 2nd November (Tenerife) Another reasonably decent nights sleep. Very little creaking although the cabin is still too warm for me, even with the air con on the coolest setting (I swear that P&O have turned the air con thermostats up as part of their cost cutting drive). I’m delighted to report that we don’t have noisy neighbours either side of us or above us on this cruise, as we are often cursed with at least one. Lay-ins are never possible though, as there is a crew access area directly opposite and at 7am every morning the cabin servicing trolleys come out, bumping over the threshold, and one is always parked outside our cabin. The early risers also feel the need to greet the stewards at the top of their voices as they pass, regardless of the “We Are Resting” signs on all the other cabin doors 🤔 A later arrival into Tenerife today (scheduled 10am) but an equally late departure (all on board 8.45pm). Obviously we only have short distances to cover between the Canary Islands, so I assume that we will have some other late departures until our departure for Cadiz. We went down to the Bay Tree MDR and were seated at a table for 2 in a banquette style. I’ll admit that I have a very keen sense of smell, unlike my wife who smells hardly anything and swears that I “make smells up” (is that even possible?) but we were both hit with a very strong odour that indicated that a neighbour had some serious personal hygiene issues. I won’t go into detail, other than to say that it wasn’t sweat 🤢. I’m afraid that neither of us could sit in that smell, even if we weren’t planning on eating, so we got up again quite quickly and returned to the MDR reception desk and asked for a table in a different section. I’m just relieved that we had a table for 2 and hadn’t shared, as nobody else was affected by us leaving, but I’m now slightly anxious that we might encounter the ‘source’ of the odour again in the future. If my wife couldn’t tolerate the smell then it must have been bad! We had been warned by our evening waiters that breakfast service in the Bay Tree is very slow and it is. This isn’t an issue for us as we take our time in the mornings, but my wife overheard a few people complaining about it. If, like us, you like a slow leisurely breakfast in a less crowded environment then it’s a great option, especially as it isn’t even advertised as being open for breakfast, but if you have a tour booked or want a quicker MDR breakfast then Saffron is probably a better bet. One very positive post Covid change that I have forgotten to mention is that the cut off time for breakfast in MDRs is now 10am on sea days and 9.30am on port days. Pre Covid it was always 9.30am on sea days and 9am on port days. When we were on Britannia in July there was a mix of the old and new times, which was a bit confusing, but it’s consistently been the later times on Ventura. We see this as a very positive change, as we take a while to get going in the mornings and we are on holiday after all. We disembarked after breakfast for a walk around Santa Cruz de Tenerife. There had been announcements that there were long queues for shuttle buses and there were no accessible shuttles, but it wasn’t far so we had intended to just walk into town from the ship anyway. We’ve only been to the Canary Islands once before when the kids were young and we did tours to the main sights back then. This time we have decided to just explore the towns that we dock in. It could be that we didn’t see the best of the town, but it didn’t particularly impress. There are some nice old buildings but immediately surrounded by what our now King would describe as ‘carbuncles’ 😂. It was 26 degrees but there was a bit of a breeze, so it wasn’t too bad pushing the wheelchair. We returned to the ship for lunch and afterwards my wife enjoyed a few hours reading on the balcony. We are on the port side and are overlooking the island, as we were in Madeira. There has been no TV reception all day due to the topography, so we could be at war for all I know 😂 An afternoon cuppa at Tazzine and we were both absolutely staggered to watch an enormous queue build all the way from the Cinammon Freedom Dining MDR right back across the entire width of the atrium and beyond? The queue started at around 5.30pm and didn’t start moving until 6pm. Apparently this happens every day and on deck 6 as well. What is it with all these people wanting dinner so early and being prepared to stand in a queue for up to half an hour for the privilege? What is ‘freedom’ about that? Great news for us though with our next cruise on Aurora, as we have booked a Saver and we either want second sitting Club or Freedom (where we will dine at a similarly late time). We would absolutely hate first sitting, but I’m guessing that it will be over subscribed anyway given the numbers of people who prefer to eat very early🤞 We went to Metropolis again for pre dinner drinks. The excellent pianist wasn’t present (for those who asked, his name was Tony Williams) but a lady was there playing an accordion. I’m afraid that it didn’t work for us at all, nor did it for the others we saw leaving with full glasses in hand. It also didn’t work for the chap on the next table who said to his wife “it sounds like a 3rd rate busker”. We had to agree. They left as well and we soon followed. We don’t like the aft show lounges but there was a male singer in there called Jayson Keeler. We only caught the last song and a half but he was excellent. We shall look out for him in future. Another very good dinner in the MDR. We both had the Mahi Mahi with macadamia crust and sweet and sour accompaniments with fried rice. Very tasty. Deserts always seem to be the weak point of most meals with P&O. We had a chocolate fondant (that was dry) and salted caramel ice cream. Pretty naff but thankfully we enjoyed the starter and main. My wife was ready for bed after dinner and I did a partial lap of the promenade deck (some bits were closed - no idea why). There are huge numbers of smokers and vapers on this cruise, as opposed to the handful of diehards that you tend to see on most other cruises. I went along to Tamarind to catch a bit of Pulse doing ‘Country & Western ‘bangers’’. I didn’t know that there were such things! Unfortunately it was really warm in there so I didn’t stop. I do hope that they aren’t going to be as stingy with the air con on Aurora when we go to the even warmer Caribbean next year! We have a new Captain from today - James Brown. It sounded like he stalled the engines during our departure from Tenerife, but I’m sure that he will master the clutch before long! Tomorrow La Palma.

I just don’t get the switch from little jars of conserves to large open tubs. Makes no sense to me. There was nothing environmentally unfriendly about glass pots that could be recycled. The large tubs, which I’ve seen be moved around between tables, seem unhygienic and, as you say, far more wasteful food wise. Bonkers IMHO 😂

I’m so relieved to hear that you are getting on OK with the lifts. I hoped that you would, given that other wheelchair & scooter users who had been on Iona at quieter times than us hadn’t experienced the problems that we did. The extra 500 passengers that we had, along with our cabin being by the busiest midships lifts were aggravating factors for us. We learned to walk the length of the ship to use the forward and aft lifts. Our experience on Ventura has been chalk and cheese, thankfully. The lifts are bigger than on Iona to start with and with around half the passengers the ship never feels crowded (Iona felt packed to us). We haven’t had an issue once with lifts (including getting in and off in ports) and our fellow passengers are all very considerate - something that was sadly lacking on Iona.

Maybe it’s us Jean, but we are now 3 P&O cruises in this year (Britannia, Iona and Ventura) and we have been very happy with the MDRs and food in them on all those cruises. Yes, there is definitely less choice now (something that is masked by the always available items being used to pad out the main menu) and there are more vegetarian options than before, but there has only been one menu so far on this cruise where neither of us really fancied anything and, thankfully, we were already booked in to Epicurean. In all honesty, even if speciality restaurants didn’t exist, or we couldn’t afford to use them, we’d be happy with the MDR every night.

Sorry to hear that but I’m sure that you will still have a lovely cruise, especially with your extra spending money!

😱

Thanks Jean. Our last stop is Lisbon next Wednesday, so hopefully we might be OK on the way back to Southampton then? 🤞

Can the weather and shipping experts on here please provide some reassurance that we are well clear of all these storms down here in the Canaries? We don’t start heading back North until Sunday night. Is it likely to all be done and dusted by then? Thanks. 🤞

It’s a shame that our Captain has disembarked today, or I would have pointed out to him that his announcements that “the BoB was throwing it’s worst at us” were incorrect. I mean, if even he doesn’t know where he is, what hope do the rest of us have 😉

Interesting. I didn’t know that. I’ve never known October half term going on until mid-November, which is when we get back. Must be a new thing! At lunch today there was an elderly lady several tables away from us exclaiming in a very loud voice that “the parents of these children will be blaming everyone but themselves for their underachievement at school”. 😂

No worries. It’s absolutely fine for this cruise though.

I found the comedians on Wheeltappers and Shunters quite funny back in the day. Humour has moved on since though - but not on cruise ships 😂

Try it with 5750 as we did. Ventura feels like an oasis of calm in comparison 😂

Not quite. This is an accessible Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabin on Ventura. It’s 466 square feet which is bizarrely 17 square feet bigger than the sole accessible suite on this ship. On Aurora we have an Accessible Balcony Cabin (although the specification is Deluxe Balcony cabin). Can’t find the size but I reckon it’s closer to 350 square feet. However, I’m glad that we don’t have this cabin for our Caribbean cruise for 3 reasons. Firstly, you cannot see the view out from the cabin from either the bed (due to a wall between the bedroom area and lounge area) or from the lounge area (due to a wall between the balcony doors and a fixed panel). See photos below. You can see the view at all times from both the bed and sofa on Aurora. Secondly, the balconies on Superior Deluxe cabins are completely uncovered. Neither of us sunbathe and we always choose to sit in the shade, which we can do on Aurora as the balconies are covered and slightly enclosed. Finally, whilst the TVs on Aurora are still poor (the accessible cabins didn’t get the full size TVs at the last refit 😡) they are still better than the pathetic little things on Ventura. My desktop computer in my study has a much bigger screen 😂

How was your crossing of the Bay of Biscay? Probably a lot smoother than ours was on Ventura 😂

Of course.

and a few more shots from Tenerife. 26 degrees but a decent breeze.

Todays MDR menus for lunch and dinner.

You have to haggle Jean. I get a lot more than that.

No he was English. Probably late 40s. He was very good.