peteukmcr

Glad all are safe

 

Heading to do a final clear and clean of my late mothers home :( the Sale goes through on 1st Sept so another chapter in my life closes.

 

Glad all are safe

 

Heading to do a final clear and clean of my late mothers home :( the Sale goes through on 1st Sept so another chapter in my life closes.

 

Peter you an I are a different type of Gay Man :D I would love a hotel full of men in Footie Gear

Peter - I'm in shock - we've been staying in a knocking shop over the last couple of years.:eek: Anytime we've stayed in the Britannia, it's been in a superior room and as I said, the rooms were a bit tired but clean. The guests were mostly Man Utd fans or visiting fans as you see them all wandering about with their football tops on.

It'll be the Aurora or the V&A in future.

Mhairi

Maybe it's because I'm a gay man but my expectations are far higher than this and so would never recommend this or similar establishments to anyone visiting my great city for the 1st time.

Peter

I was going to stay in the Mint but at £129 a night and the Premier inn at £39 there was no question, what issues did they have so that i'm prepared ? I also looked at staying overnight at the Airport but thought a few drinks in Canal Street would be more fun, car parking will not be an issue as I am coming by train.

The Travelodge Manchester is the most DISGUSTING HOTEL I have stayed in anywhere in the World, we only lasted one night.

The Premierinn Manchester (Portland Street) has a good deal at the mo £39 per night, I will there 14th and 26th Sept :)

 

Stay inside and safe all on the East Coast

 

Peter enjoy your trip.

 

Heading to Leeds on Tues to visit a friend for two nights, going by train and using the Ribblesdale Viaduct Route which I have wanted to do for years, fingers crossed for a nice day as the Scenery is supposed to be spectacular.

We've stayed in a number of hotels and find the Britania and Sachas often have offers on and they're right in the city centre - Rooms are a bit tired but clean and they have great buffet breakfasts.

 

The Arora International in Princess St is a lovely boutique hotel - some of the rooms have Cliff Richard memorabilla in them! (we didn't have one of those).

 

Nicest hotel was the Marriott Victoria & Albert on Water Street - nice comfy high beds.

 

With them having the car, maybe something outwith the city centre would be best as parking charges in the city centre can be steep. Tulip Inn at the Trafford Centre and The Britannia Country house hotel were both nice and there was plenty parking.

I agree the Aurora is a good hotel and was used extensively by ex employer for both clients and employees.

Do beware of the Britannia Hotel at the airport in Manchester. It often comes up on sites as a low cost option. It has seen better days, is very tired and not somewhere we would choose.

 

Corinne

Hotels I would recommend are:

Hilton (tallest building in Manchester)

Radisson Edwardian

Novotel

Malmaison

Ramada Piccadilly (multi million pound refurbishment of the rooms)

Aurora

Crowne Plaza

Hotels I would not recommend:

Britannia

Portland Thistle

Ibis (any)

Travelodge

Midland

Palace

Budget hotels I would recommend:

PremierInn Mosely St

Holiday Inn Express Oxford St

Jurys Inn Bridgewater St

There are many 'aparthotels' in Manchester which are apartment type hotels that provide much more space for little extra cost and include full kitchen and laundry facilities. The best of these is 'Roomzzz'.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Peter for the Invite To Facebook....As you can see I accepted you....You will see our life now here in So Cal....If anybody does facebook, lets become friends....I am on everyday and I am a big Picture telling guy...nothing to hide.

 

For everyone else in the path of Irene, stay safe.

Karen - well done on your AVE tickets.

Its probably just a fluke but the only place that Ive had issues with purchases is the terminal shop that sells wine in Barcelona. The clerks were using an ancient looking credit card reader and told me the card wouldnt clear. I knew no reason for that so they ran it again. Still it wouldnt show 'good'. Hubby was looking at me like it was time to go so I paid cash. Both charges showed up on credit card bill. It took ages to get it straightened out. Lesson learned from the credit card company if that happens is to have the merchant immediately call the number on the back of the card.

 

Matthew, Peter, daughter has decided to stay at the Ruebens and has given me their next destination. Would you believe its Manchester for two nights? They are looking for a more reasonable hotel in a nice part of town. A good restaurant near by would be good but not necessary as they will have a car. Night life nearby isnt necessary as Connor goes down about 8. Any ideas?

As for hotels, it depends what their budget is and whether they wish to be in the city centre (it is very compact and easy to walk around) or outside the city. Let me know and hopefully I can make some suggestions when we get back home.

To all of you in the path of Irene or likely to be affected by her, please stay safe.

Off to North Wales soon after taking Charlie to the cattery for his weekend 'away'.

My parents have no internet access, so the next time I'll check in will be Sun as we cross the Irish sea to Dublin onboard the Stena HSS.

I don't know why I am doing this but......

 

IT'S REAL...I JUST COMPLETED OUR SET SAIL PASS AND PRINTED IT :D:D:D.

 

Got a chill when I hit the print button. Almost hesitated. Stupid, yes, but just 65 days........after more than a year.

Yes it is exciting after final payment it makes it seem more real...we booked this in March 2010 so it has been a long time coming....don't really like booking this far in advance but usually have to to get the best prices and the cabin you want.

 

I have several friends, clients etc. that live in the path of Irene hope they and everyone else stays safe. First an Earthquake and now this how awful.

There is a 'duty free' liquor store (and some other souvenir stores) after check in that you pass in Terminal B immediately before you board. There is a small selection of liquor and wine I believe and others have reported that as long as you put it in your hand luggage you'll be OK. We haven't done it as always concerned about another security check and scan before boarding, but there has never been one.

If you bring bottles from outside the terminal these will be detected during the security scan at the entrance to the check in hall.

Looks like everyone went out today. Im not used to seeing this roll call so far down the list.

All of you experience RCL cruisers, I was looking at the wine packages and wonder if they will be available for purchase on board if you run out? Also will the soda card be available for purchase onboard at all or is it just a precruise deal?

 

Thanks,

Donna

As for wine packages we normally order on day 1 after we board and as Jill said there will be several tables set up for you to order (normally outside Vintages on the Royal Promenade and outside Windjammer on deck 11). Again, I'm not sure if you can purchase these during the sailing, but I wouldn't see why not as you are purchasing a set number of bottles.

Thanks for letting me be in the NC :D

 

Different subject, altogether, (ok no Airplane jokes): noticed a kayaking excursion for Malaga. Is the weather and water temp going to be appropriate? Are there any ports that a beach day might work? I know that we are supposed to be touring the old buildings and shopping for trinkets but being from California it might be nice to try a beach day.

Don't be shocked if you see us hardier northern European types in shorts or George in his mankini as anything over 60F is tropical to us!:D

Spent a few hours this afternoon in panic after I read a thread indicating that your passport has to expire 6 months after your return or you could be denied boarding. Mine expired in 5 months of our return to FLL :eek:. Now $170.00 poorer to the US government I should have a shiny new book in 2 weeks. My little contribution to deficit reduction.

Morning all. Glad to hear all are OK with the quake and hopefully Irene will not cause too much damage. But remember, buildings can be repaired/rebuilt, possessions replaced, but the human body can take a while longer to recover.

Anyway, as for Halloween, thanks for the link Paul, but with the baggage limits not sure what we can do either, although the drag bag here contains some great pieces, but too heavy to haul over to BCN. Will have to think on this one.

Both of us have got bad head colds, mine came on all in 1 day. Not sure how this happened and I have to attend my 'assessment' at the Job Centre shortly. That will be entertaining - not.

Sherry - glad you enjoyed the film. Will have to look out for that one when it finally gets over here.

Just reading news of an earthquake measuring 5.8 centred 9 miles from the town of Mineral in Virginia and could be felt in Washington and New York.

I hope all my fellow sailors are safe.

 

Why I dont go out on my bike much :D

Off out to meet an ex colleague, hopefully she has gossip!

Sherry I thought the oriental women was going to start doing a show with ping pong balls ;);)

 

Good afternoon everyone.

Sorry Mike & Bill, couldn't match the scenery in your pics when I went out for a ride today. But proof I got the bike out of the shed!

Good morning!

Mike - thanks for sharing the photos, great shots. Just catching up on the news from Libya.

Sherry - yes, the X Factor was good for the 1st show, I normally can't stand the ones making a fool of themselves as they are deluded!

OK, off to the morning chores of job hunting!

Peter: Dave & I along with Dal diva (Diane & John) have also booked the excursion to Loro Park :p

Good Evening folks

George, thanks for the jokes, very welcome.

Mike, Paul, great to hear from you all again.

Paul - I'm not that an experienced cyclist to do an Aids bike ride, but perhaps I should gain experience.

Jill/Joyce - thanks for the support, still very slow over here though.

Sandy, glad to hear you had a good time last night, I bet it was good to chat about this sailing.

Karen - hope your grandkids are running you ragged! :D

No cycling today as we went to the cinema to see 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and then had a very long walk around the city centre to go shoe shopping for Patrick and ended up with food from M&S for dinner, a new shirt each and a pair of sunglasses each!

Just reserved 2 excursions for this sailing. MG12 - Panoramic Malaga (only 2.5 hours which suits me) and TF38 - Loro Parque (http://www.loroparque.com/en/) which I think is not bad value as it is £42 pp. If you look at the cost of a 1 day ticket it's €33 which is about £30 so £12 for the return transfer is not bad IMHO. It's a 6.5 hour excursion but that gives us a good 5 hours in the park.

Now off to reserve a hire care for when we arrive in Fort Lauderdale. We want to go do some shopping at Sawgrass and even though we now have new flights with BA departing at 5:15 pm, BA insist that their check in desks now close 2 hours prior to departure in Miami to allow time for the increased TSA security checks. So not too happy with the timing of the RCI excursion to Sawgrass and not sure it will get us to the airport in time.

As we will be using small bags for this trip we will probably do self disembarkation and get off early to get to the RCC at FLL.

Great to hear that there is now a RCC at Miami as the last time we rented from this airport, most car rental locations were off airport in fairly suspect areas IMO. Also better news is that the MIA Mover will start on Sept 9th providing an elevated journey for the 1.25 mile from airport to the rental car centre.

I am like you...anything sweet!

 

Peter,

 

I like how we are winding down our day/night.....listening to serius radio...the 60"s and getting ready to have hamburgers for dinner and you are getting up to enjoy your Sunday...I believe one day soon we will be on the same time schedule....but we will still be drinking late into the night...VACATION...:)

 

Mike

Yes, 69 days (no pun intended at all!) and we'll be in the same time zone! mmm, that reminds me of Britney (In the Zone) :D

Mike's Ride everyday.......Along the beach.....3 of my 10 miles...I am soooo SPOILED!! :)

 

But then again you can't miss me in this :D

Peter...I had to laugh at this post....I use to ride my bike....a dozen times a year along the beach and that was it. I knew I wanted to take off some weight before we went on this cruise and since I am pretty active any way...I decided to start riding my bike to work. So about Mid May...I knew I had 5 months until the cruise. I bought a scale and step on it...213 lbs...but hide it well. But still, wanted to lose some of that. So 3 months later and about 900 miles of peddling...I am down to 192 and will try to get to 180 before we leave. I have not even tried to diet...just smaller portions of everything I eat...MY DOWNFALL...DESSERT...every night. I am addicted to Ice Cream. Weekends are my drinking nights so I enjoy that. So with that...Happy Biking...we are looking at a few biking tours while on the cruise...Maybe you will join us. Basically the same type of tour that you do on a Bus..but we peddle...just more room for all of that food on the ship....and COCKTAILS also.

I didn't realise there were biking tours, maybe something to look at.

Sherry love the Pics

 

Peter glad you got the flight sorted :) BA have canceled my LHR to Glasgow on the 22nd Nov and have given me another 2 hours in the Club Lounge before a later flight at 12 noon.

 

Been on a downer here this weekend :( one of my best freinds Morag aged 59 passed away on Thursday :( another victim of Cancer - All I seem to do these days is lose the ones I love to this horrible disease.

 

On a brighter note only 23 days until I set off for the Vision and Istanbul.

As for airlines, their lack of concern for the passenger when making changes completely baffles me. Part of my role was to manage customer expectations, so this type of attitude is so alien to me.

Just been having 6 days of backwards and forwards dealing with another example of incompetence with a hotel in Dublin. They keep processing my card payment as a Visa credit card, not a Visa debit card and so it keeps getting declined by my bank. I have never had this problem with any other establishment and they insist it is my fault. So, enough is enough and I've cancelled the hotel and told them we will stay at another rival hotel.

Off to see the Rise of the Planet of the Apes today, followed by another bike ride if the weather holds.

Back later

Yep, looks as though CC has sorted itself out.

Sherry - fantastic photos, thanks for sharing and I hope all goes well tomorrow!

Off to pick up a new bicycle so I can get some fresh air and exercise instead of sitting at a computer all day whilst I'm 'resting'. Probably be saddle sore later!