Ardennais

I would also avoid Deck 8 on Iona. I think these 2 photos I took give you a good idea as to why!

Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

I’ve never seen a bun fight, whatever that is, in the buffet and I use the buffet a lot. Almost reached Caribbean level, but the free alcohol wouldn’t entice me at all.

Didn’t get that far on Iona as they were already full! Whereas on Britannia a few months later there was plenty of room and I can’t say it was cold!

What a lovely day!

During February half term, on Iona, we fancied a film on the first sea day, but we found all the cinemas were full when we turned up which was a good half hour before screening.

What sort of forms do you have to fill in on the way there?

I agree! And where’s the butter?

My brother became a grandfather a few months ago so we have 4 generations in our family now too. Such excitement!

I don’t about Snowden, but I can almost see Snowdon from here and I have simply no inclination to climb to the top! Why would I, when I could let the train take the strain?

I’m sure he’s great company as are most young people.

I remember being told as a child that patience is a virtue (possess it if you can). What is it with people that they want to be the first on and then first off these ships??

Selbourne - I understand your frustration. Shame I can’t book on your behalf as I never go to bed before 1am!!

I have, and many are delightful indeed!

Or even have a cuppa in the station and then go to the terminal at the correct time.

No, I booked through my usual TA.

I got the emails this morning for our family cruise next year too. 6 of the 8 travellers will be under 30.

We did one cruise on Balmoral s few years ago (a very good price tempted us) and we had a great time, although we were the youngest pair by about 20 years! I quite often look at the FO cruises leaving from Liverpool, which would be quite convenient for us, but the prices are very very high, coupled with the fact that the balconies are mainly terraced balconies on Borealis. I can’t justify the additional expense.

We had craft classes on a 35 night cruise on Ventura to the Caribbean - they were held on the sea days. The 17 nighters on Aurora pre-covid had art classes too, again on the sea days. In both cases, they had specialists, not just crew. I haven’t noticed anything on the shorter cruises.

Can’t say we noticed any vibration on Britannia recently, but there was a huge leak on deck 7 with dehumidifiers blowing for a few days. There was a musty smell there for a while too.

P&O have never caused me stress on boarding! Neither have Princess, Cunard, RCI, Carnival, FO, NCL or CMV.

I quite understand, but I honestly don’t think anyone can predict what will actually happen! Lots of people here have reported long waits with CPS over the years, but I can honestly say that we’ve never been in a queue in over 20 cruises from Southampton. I just take the view that it is what it is!

Not directed at you at all, just a general feeling that people are getting stressed about things well before their actual holiday. We had no boarding delays before our February half term holiday on Iona which had over 6,000 passengers. We had a fairly late boarding time, and as per usual, we arrived within 30 minutes of our allocated time.

We feel exactly the same!

No, of course not! It just seems to me from reading these boards that people are over-thinking the parking/boarding process and getting worked up unnecessarily.