zoe sproodle

I’m going all exotic with the H’s - Hull and CMV’s charming little Astoria after a 2 nighter from Portsmouth last year. She was already destined to leave CMV’s fleet before they hit their troubles and I’m not sure what her fate will be.

2 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

It looks like it to me too. I'm glad the macaques didn't pinch their camera, they nipped off with my sun glasses. The little monkeys😁

Avril

It was only a little 'pocket' camera with I think a 4 x optical zoom, I'm not into the technical stuff when it comes to photography and just want something easy to carry.

During the trip when the first photo was taken a lady had filled her bag with fruit and other goodies, presumably purloined from the buffet, and despite being warned had taken them up the Rock.  You can guess what happened.... 

2 minutes ago, DamianG said:

 

Impressive zoomed photos. From the Rock?

Thank you, yes from up on the Rock.  With camera securely attached to wrist lest thieving monkey made off with it!

I forgot Gibraltar!  Ventura and Grand Pricness, Azura and some random ships...

A few from Geiranger:

Azura (and Ocean Princess)

Aurora

Le Boreal

Sapphire Princess

As Edinburgh has cropped up here's Marco Polo there.  I was waiting for 'L' for this as I'm sure someone will point out its actually Leith....

I guess Flaam is going to be popular so here's a couple of Azura.  Also Oceana in Funchal.  I'm glad I went looking for these pictures as I found a lot of Oceana's interior that I'd forgotten I had.

I wanted to do QE2 in Dubai but was beaten to it so it’ll have to be AIDAprima instead.

I’ll throw in Brilliance of the Seas in Dublin as well.

Azura in Cartagena

Thank you DamianG for starting this thread, it’s great to see so many different places and ships, not just the P & O variety either, with plenty more to come I’m sure. Hang in there everyone and I’m sure that before too long we can start visiting these places for real again.

Enjoying this thread, here’s Oriana in Amsterdam 

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Bit of a trek to Stonehenge from Portsmouth.  Adds about another 20 miles on what was a fair journey from Southampton to begin with and that extra bit of road/motorway can be very slow moving at certain times.  Better things to see from Portsmouth as you have mentioned, though I am sure it will not stop some of our US cousins from taking the journey mind 🙂

I was in a taxi to Southampton airport one morning a few years back and the driver was telling me that his next job was to collect an American couple from a cruise ship that had just docked in Southampton, take them to Stonehenge and then deliver them to Heathrow for their flight home. Nothing like trying to cram it all in and I bet that wasn’t a cheap day out, but I suppose if you’re only here the once and you really want to see it it’s worth it.

As a resident of Portsmouth I wish I could say it has more going for it than Southampton but I'd find that hard, even if our tasteful blue shirts are nicer than those 'orrible red and white ones!  The Historic Dockyard and Gunwharf are great for visitors as are Old Portsmouth and Southsea, but as a cruise port I can't ever seeing it rivalling Southampton - complementing maybe but I'm not sure about direct competition.  There was much noise in the local press about the improvements to the terminal which wouldn't be too hard to access via shuttle busses to/from the railway station, Gunwharf and the Historic Dockyard all of which are located virtually next to each other - there's a good system of bus lanes which would avoid the worst of the traffic.  Apparently Saga were to hold the naming ceremony for their new ship here, rumour has it that this was to be held on the jetty adjacent to the Historic Dockyard with HMS Victory as the backdrop and that there were plans to base the ship here, but I'm not sure how much of that was fact. 

36 minutes ago, woodscruise said:

Just checking the P&O cruises website, Oceana is blocked out, which is understandable, but interesting Britannia is also blocked out. I am just doing a general search with no cruise destination or dates. 

 

 

I've just had a quick look and Britannia is showing up now.  It finally sank in this morning that Oceana is going and I'm annoyed/upset on 2 counts - first I'm sad to see her go and second that's 2 years summer cruises in a row cancelled now - we were booked on her next July and at the moment P & O aren't offering any viable alternatives.  We didn't really like Oceana the first time we sailed on her then had an excellent New Year cruise in 2017 and were on her for the repositioning from Dubai last year.  We chose both those cruises primarily for the itinerary but really warmed to the ship during them - so disappointing that we won't get to sail on her again.  

We should have been finding out next week, we had L242 booked!

23 minutes ago, Evelyn9597 said:

Thanks for all the replies - I seem to have started quite a big debate!
 

Anyway, to the person who said - am I sure it’s 26th June for balance. I’m fairly certain, I had an email from cruise.co.uk which gives this date. 

 

i think we’ll probably pay the balance. I can’t honestly see the cruise going ahead, but IF it does, I think the quarantine restrictions will have been lifted (fingers crossed). 
 

It’s a bit of a gamble, but the thought of sailing on Iona’s maiden voyage is quite appealing - especially if not at full capacity!

 

Thanks again everyone. 

That was me that mentioned the balance due date, sorry for any confusion. We booked direct with P & O and our payment date is 26 Jul, however if you booked through a TA then I can understand if your date is different.  

1 hour ago, Evelyn9597 said:

Hi, I wonder if any of you very knowledgeable people can help me.

 

I’m booked on this cruise (G024) and the balance is due next week. I’ve asked the travel agent I booked with, if they know what would happen if quarantine restrictions are NOT likely to be lifted by 24th October. Ie, can we get any kind of a refund if we cancel close to sailing?

Like most people on board, we need to get back to work on the Monday after, therefore should I just cancel this cruise (or rebook another 2021 cruise - at much greater cost!)?  It’s a bit risky - I can’t afford to lose the entire cruise fare, but can swallow losing the deposit. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

Are you sure your balance is due next week?  We are booked on G024 and the balance is due on 26 July.  We were discussing what we'd do if the quarantine is still in place and like you would need to get back to work, I could probably push to another week off but not an additional 2.  We're hoping by the near end of July that there might have been some more positive developments.

16 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I think that the problem they will have with Iona is her fuelling requirments. There are still a limited number of ports which can fuel her, hence the decision to debut with a season in Norway. If Norwegian ports are still closed to cruise ships, difficult to see where else she could go.

This one is Hamburg, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge so Norway won't be a problem. Those ports not accepting cruises may well be though so I'm not going to be too optimistic.

3 hours ago, ozzysdad said:

Will Iona be seen this year or will they hold her back till 2021? I'm booked to go on her on the 24th October cruise so theoretically could be on her maiden voyage.

We are booked on this cruise too and the same thought had occurred. I'm not being too hopeful but will see how things develop before the balance is due towards the end of July. Personally I think that if there's any way they can get Iona cruising they'll try it, and to use her to get things started again could be seen as a decent bit of publicity.  There's a while to go until October though and I'm not even going to try to guess what could happen here or internationally between now and then.

Our first cruise was on Ventura, 10 years ago next month, I took this pic from the tender returning from Cannes.  Our last cruise was on her too, in Feb this year, and we're booked on her in Oct 21 which seems like forever but hopefully all will be good by then.

I'm working from home here on the outskirts of Portsmouth and from my window can see the M27. Normally at this time of day it would be solid with traffic heading into Portsmouth and on towards Southampton, but today its just like a Sunday morning.

If I look from my other window I can see Portsdown Hill with great views over towards Southampton, its a great spot to sit in the evening and watch cruise ships as they pass through the Solent, but before that is the Queen Alexandra hospital and seeing that really brings things into perspective.

Stay safe everyone...

When this thread first started we were quite adamant that we wouldn't cancel but since then the doubts have started to creep in, so many 'what ifs?', but we'd decided that we'd still cruise at the end of June unless it was decided otherwise for us. Today's announcement means we've got just over 3 months to see how things develop - all being well we'll still be going and with the OBC we've already got will have a cheap couple of weeks.

10 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

I wouldn't read to much into which cruise you had received the notification from.  I have 5 cruises booked with P&O, with 2 in April this year, however they chose our Iona cruise in June this year to Norway and our Arcadia trip in October 2021 for Northern lights.  

You are absolutely right, I've just checked again and I've got 2 emails, one for June and one for Oct 21 to the Canaries, but nothing for the 3 we have booked between those 2.

Has anyone else had an email from P & O today outlining the steps they are taking to counter corona? I'm interpreting it as trying to reassure but also hinting that some port changes may be expected. In our case it refers to our cruise to the med on Azura at the end of June which has a couple of stops in Italy. I've yet to pay the balance on it yet but I intend doing so and, like others, it will only be P & O who cancel it.

They didn't take our photos at the desk when we used on line check in a couple of weeks ago, and I was most impressed with the whole process. I didn't time it but I reckon it was no more than 15 mins from dropping our bags to being on board. The only slight snag I had was I couldn't print the boarding passes from my iPad and I had to log on using the PC to get them, but I'll be ready for that next time.