Maizyday

We are sailing on the 17th September  and received confirmation  of upgrade a week ago.I was surprised how early the bids were confirmed 

On 3/14/2022 at 8:06 PM, F14Scott said:

By my casual observations, at 61 and 65, you would be about in the 75th percentile.  The middle of the curve is probably 45 to 55 years old.  I've seen a couple of elderly and a few early 20s, but most of us are "middle aged," my wife and me, at 53 each, included. You'll be fine, especially if you are young-acting people (like to dance, laugh, drink, work out, have fun, etc.).

Well no to dancing and working out  lol

We were booked on one of the recently  cancelled cruise and have rebooked  one of their we are sorry cruises out of Barcelona .I am worried that we will be the oldest on there (61 and 65 ) normally we cruise with friends ,but this time its just us

Are we going to stick out like sore thumbs ?

This is a personal choice.

 

Donkeys are used all over the world for thousands of years for labor. (and so are Oxes, Bullicks, Horses, etc.)

 

Personally, find animal smell (donkey or horse or mule or whatever) too much to ride them anywhere.

 

However, I was surprised to notice that CONTRARY to what is commonly heard, these donkeys were quite well fed and strong. (Obviously there was no way to verify any abuse behind the screen)

 

Again, this is personal choice.

 

Bit also interesting to observe that people who scream the most about animal abuse usually are the ones who eat animals for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!!

Surely this can only be classed as persona; chice if the Donkey chooses to be ridden !!

I have seen the donkeys in Fira , that is one hell of a climb with large tourist on your back , they certainly do not look fine at all

( Btw I do do not eat meat , and I would say the people who scream the most , in my experience , are people who dont eat meat )

I guess as some one who tries to stick to a vegan diet I am going to struggle !

I would prefer to eat Vegan , but looks like I will have to veggie on this line , tbh i hadnt thought about any other cheese than parmasan being non vegetarian

As an Aise I was on P&O Ventura a few weeks ago and they couldnt do enough for me ref Vegan food , very very impressed with them

We have done 2 ruise visits and our going to be visiting an Oceana boat in August . They are a great experience , they say you cant visit if you have already cruised with that line , although our first visit was to Celebrity Solstice , and we have cruised on Celebrity ...we had 'won' the visit in a charity auction , maybe they didnt check or maybe they cant check if you have cruised with them before ?

There is only one place to have a coffee and watch the 'expensive' world go by and that is the Café de Paris is Casino Square. We have visited off a cruise on a couple of occasions and spent an hour or more sitting having our coffee and OH will enjoy watching all the expensive cars driving past. It is definitely the place to see and for others to be seen.

One of our favourite places , only we like to have a glass of Champagne lol

Contactless is accepted on London Buses, you simply "Touch In" with the contactless credit card instead of your Oyster Card. It should be noted that a London bus journey will be £1.50 irrespective of whether you travel one stop or twenty stops. The difference with Oyster Card/Contactless Credit Card is that Oysters have a daily charge cap but credit cards do not. Whether your credit card company do a foreign exchange transaction charge per use is another thing to think about but as a safety net you do not intend to generally use could negate the problem with short term use until you top up the Oyster.

 

Regards John

Not true

Bus

It’s £1.50 for one bus journey or for two bus journeys within one hour with a contactless card. If you use the buses all day, £4.50 is the maximum amount deducted from your card.

There are no zones for bus travel in London.

If you have a contactless debit or credit card you wont need an oyster card

We once waited an hour for the hop on hop off in Gothenburg , only to find it was the coach marked up Malmo that we had be sat beside , so if you decide to do it make sure they tell you what to expect ! We did a fun trip around the ' moat' on a boat , it wwas late September and we had to duck further and further down until the last but obe bridge when we had to get on the floor lol ( there was only about 6 inch clearance on the last bridge so they decided it wasnt wise to try ! ) I would highly recommend it , it was the highlight of our weekend there

A 2 day taster will not give you a good idea of whether you would enjoy a longer cruise on Ventura.

 

A longer cruise can be relaxing as everyone is not trying to cram everything into 2 days. Real usp for me are the speciality dinning venues and Glass House. The food in MDR is nothing special.

 

As others have mention, taster cruises are great options for people celebrating. So if crowds of people drinking a lot troubles you, I would avoid this type of cruise on this type of ship.

I would agree with this , and add that sometimes a longer cruise can give you the wrong idea too, our first cruise was a Caribbean cruise with RCI , and we hated it so much we said we would never ever set foot on a cruise ship again ! A few years later we went to Alaska , and as you really need to do at least some of the trip by boat we reluctantly booked an inside passage cruise , and loved any minute . We concluded that we liked the smaller boats that kept closer to land , so thats what we have stuck with so far . So I would suggest you try and narrow down what you would like from a cruise ie quiet / laid back or busy busy party party and reserch research reserch

I have to disagree with your statement that very few people get the full value out of a drinks package. We have purchased a package for our upcoming sailing with RCI during a promotion. This results in a cost per day of £39.82 per person. So for 2 people for a 7 night sailing that equates to £557.44. Convert that to USD and thats equivalent to approximately $780 at todays exchange rate. Now that's less than we spent on our very RCI cruise 14 years ago when packages didn't exist.

 

As a result of this pre purchase we will have a very small onboard account at the end of the cruise but will have enjoyed unlimited beverages (a package doesn't just cover alcohol which people seem to forget).

 

So the fresh squeezed orange juice at breakfast $4

A speciality coffee during the day (Latte $4.25)

A beer at lunch ($7.25)

A soda (soda package included in this package and a soda is $3.50)

A couple of pre dinner G&T's ($8.95 each)

A cocktail and at least 2 glasses of wine during dinner and the rest of the evening (wine average $12 per glass, premium cocktail $13)

 

So that totals $87.20 (including 18% gratuity) if I were to pay as I go. However, I can have the above for approximately the equivalent of $55.71 per day which includes the 18% gratuity.

 

I believe I get value out of a package without really trying especially as 1/3rd of those above are non alcoholic but still cost.

It could be said that you got your monies worth because the drinks are over priced in the first place. A glass of wine $12 plus tax (that was on Celebrity a few years ago ) You can buy a whole bottle of wine for not much more on P&O

We were on Arcadia post refit in November last year, and have to say that the staff certainly didn't seem unhappy - quite the reverse in fact.

As to the MDR- as we were on freedom [or whatever it is called] dining, we ate in various locations in the MDR. The only area we felt uncomfortable was right at the mid-stern position, but other than that, no issues.

We like Arcadia as it has a proper prom deck - not sure if Ventura has one?

WE were on her in June, freedom dining , and opted to eat in Sindu twice , and the other speciality (which I can't remember name of ) much nicer experience .We met a lady at dinner one night who told us the staff had gone on strike during a Carribean cruise

Ventura appears to have a prom deck , Its a much larger boat then we would normally pick , but it's just a 2 nighter with friends, so worth the risk to try it ,plus first ever to have an outside cabin ,instead of a balcony. Personally I love Oceana ,but for me it's about destination first ,so will be trying Thompson out later this year .....I refuse to pay thousands for the same sights too , so that rules out the high end cruises :D;p

Hi...I would certainly avoid 2 night cruises unless you are a " party animal" as they certainly don't give a true reflection of what cruising is about. I find that I need at least 2/3 days just to get my bearings on the ship....sometimes a lot longer than that! I would say a 7 night cruise ....to start with....is the best way to go if it is your first cruise. At the start of any cruise it seems a bit " frantic"....where is my cabin....where is buffet....where is this & that and then the Muster so it takes a few days just to "settle in" and relax into it. C deck is good on Ventura/Azura as that deck has larger balconies in standard cabins.Everything doesn't all happen on the higher deck....that's for the outside "happenings" and buffet. Decks 5/6/7 have the inside " happenings" ad main dining rooms. I personally like P deck but it doesn't have balconies just inside/outside cabins but very handy for the atrium and coffee shop and to watch the dancing/entertainment without bothering about lifts but that is my personal choice.

Reassuring that you like P deck , as we and another couple have booked outside cabins on this deck (only ones available ) We have only had balcony cabins before but as we are only doing a 2 nighter to Guernsey ,we didn't want to pay a lot for such a short break?........but worried that we would feel like we were close to being underwater lol.Hopefully the restriction on the amount of booze allowed will mean it won't be too much like a booze cruise

Yes, Venice is very easy by yourself. Out of the port and follow the signs to the People Mover - little train which takes you to Piazzale Roma, then pick up the Vaporetto (boat) down the Grand Canal to the main square.

In my opinion the Vaporetto trip down the Grand Canal is amazing .I liken it to sailing down a painting ,it's the only way you should enter Venice

We are doing Ventura in June for a mini cruise so can't comment ,but we were on Acardia last year, and wouldn't be first choice to go on again. The MDR must be over engine ? As it was very noisy and it made it hard to have a conversation. The main impression we got (And others also said the same) it seemed to be a very unhappy boat , hard to put a finger on it but the staff seemed very unhappy .Another guest said have you noticed their shoes .....non of them fit !

The drinks on P&O are much cheaper then other cruise lines . Realistically, it's only going to cost a few pounds extra to buy a bottle on board then the cost of buying a bottle at home

First cruise.

Do the Ships Excursions.

DO NOT D.I.Y. to save a £10 here and there. You are on holiday, spending thousands of pounds on a cruise, saving money by travelling on your own is not really worth it.

The added bonus of doing ships Excursions is:

A) if the port is cancelled, you get an instant refund.

B) if the ship is late into port, you don't miss the excursion.

C) if you are late back (after ship sail away time) the ship HAS to wait for you. On your own, the ship won't and it will cost you so much more to get to the next port on your own.

D) the whole excursion in a foreign country will be in English for you.

E) there is so much to see and do, the choices are great and you can plan in advance.

 

Enjoy

Well maybe not for a first cruise , but your post implies that D.I Y tours are to be avoided at all costs. in my opinion cruise ship tours , like all package trip tours should be avoided where at all possible , they tend to be over crowded and give you a very poor excursions , Its not rocket science to do it yourself , especially if you use outside tour operators who know full well when the ships arrive and leave and have a vested interest in getting you back on time , We have never missed a boat yet , and tbh I dont think anyone else on any of the cruises I have been on have missed one either. Although there is always someone slowly sauntering back after official time

The water they were in is basically hot spring water.

I was obviously not paying attention , tbh I was surpised people were in the water ( as in not one of the hot springs ) lol

Venice is brilliant for just wandering around , even wandering aimlessly we have never got lost . Doing Venice on an organised tour would be hell in my opinion

Yes it was one of the half day ones I wanted to go on but ONLY if it was in the morning. If they cannot guarantee that I won’t book. Seams a crazy system. All of the other cruises I have been on you can pick a time. I know exactly which excursion I want to do so will just wait to see the situation on board.

Have you tried sourcing the same trip through a private company ? We rarely use the cruise organised trips

The programme was filmed in September as that is when the sheep are brought down from the mountains to over-winter nearer the farms.

But one clip showed blue skies and people seemed to be in the water and she was talking about long days . She saw the lights too , which is I admit sometimes possible in September

Having not long got back from a long weekend in Iceland , I found the programme confusing as to what time of year she was supposed to be there ( to me it seemed as tho it was a tourist board info commercial showing bits of iceland at different times of year )

I would suggest that you dont cruise around iceland but go and stay there in the summer and drive round ....you wont see the lights because its too light obviously . Or stay in Winter in Rekyavik , do a few of the tours ( and still probably not see the lights lol ) Iceland is lovely

I have been on P&O Oceana twice and love her , and did consider going on her this year , but the port visits on Discovery 2 were of more interest to me , so we are trying Thompson for the first time