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It is the question we dread, we really do like to keep ourselves to ourselves, however we are far from anti social and will not avoid people or places , dining been the exception

As we always have freedom dining moving to another table would not work ,its rude to get up and ask for another table after ten minutes🤣 So to avoid embarrassment we stick to a two even if it means waiting until a table becomes available. The one problem is the two's are so close so as to be a split four and you feel as though you are intruding on to the next table

That maybe the case , we have done a lot of cruises so its possible its opened up the odds of dining with people we are not comfortable with ,and to be fair we like each others company, we did get on an eight once, and because of the way people sat it ended up been four sets of two holding a conversation with each other, also had the misfortune to sit on a six when four of us skipped dessert, coffee and cheese board just to get out , if anything it taught our travelling companions, who up to that point would always share, that they were finished with sharing

Pleasant conversations at dinner are something we avoid , had too many rude/know it all /that's enough about me now lets talk about me types to put us off for life , more than happy to dine as a two or as a four when our travelling companions are with us, however each to their own

It is pretty obvious that at this present time P and O are between two stools, and to some extent in a state of transition, they could , and should have had two different identities under the P and O brand

Interesting article ,Tring, could you tell us what you thought of Azamara as we are going with them in November?

Often wondered about fake goods , perfume especially, bit late when you try it on unless you test it before leaving the shop , my sense of smell is hopeless so the other half would have to be "the tester"

Thanks for a good ,balanced and factual review, always nice to get first hand accounts. We have always been at the front of Ventura, and Azura, and only once have we heard a very loud metallic bang when we were told the crew thought we had run into a rogue shipping container. Glad you enjoyed your cruise

Like some of the American ships the shopping area on Iona was quite comprehensive and well laid out , the exception been the Pandora outlet which was way to small, not really a shopper but felt the prices were more generous than on the other ships in the fleet, although Men's clothing was still pretty expensive

We now have the most beautiful green lawns thanks to two days of steady and heavy rain and the ground underneath is now softening up , wind is now picking up so if it does stop raining it will dry things up again

Agree totally , feel the chance was there but the moment appears to have gone to do it , unless something unexpected happens, never say never!!

TBH I wish it would , its been a dreadful weekend😓

By the end of our cruise a lot of the duty free shelves ( of drinks) were empty , so can only assume by those that know better than me it was "competitively priced"

Well in the case of the handbags I'm the wrong person to ask what's marked correctly, however three different females all said that the original price was on a par with shops at home and so the price reductions were quite generous

On our last cruise on Iona every female member of our party bought top branded handbags with 25% off and of course they bought them on our account to get another 10% and we also noticed how much the duty free offers were been snapped up ( we didn't buy any ) but the queue to collect it on the next to last day snaked around the shopping arcade, of course these are not electrical items as previously mentioned but it shows how much revenue ,if priced correctly these outlets can bring in. We have, over the years purchased many items from the Whitewall gallery on board and the orders are then processed to our local gallery for dispatch without any problems, so we feel that the on board shops are worthwhile, or at least my good lady does !!!

Some ports we would gladly visit again if it was on the itinerary, others not so much , its a balancing act as some ports are nailed on and if you want to go to the odd one or two new ones you have to accept visiting frequent ports ,as such we tend to be quite selective now with both Itinerary and cruise line . Even if we have visited a destination many times we always get off the ship for a wander

As our Ta has said on a number of occasions " your both not ready for Fred yet "

Well if I thought the rain yesterday was bad today its just torrential , heavy enough that the noise woke us both up and not due to hitting the windows as there is no wind, its possible that the great British summer has bypassed us, If anybody is about to encounter a hosepipe ban we have plenty of cheap Yorkshire water here🤣☔

One way or another we are going to have to learn to live with Covid, maybe green beans are an antidote that P and O have kept secret 😆

But after a few visits the novelty wears off

Well you can have some of hours ,weather has not improved all day so the forecast of clearing skies by tea time is inaccurate, the lawns are now greener than they have been for weeks and I suppose it saves me watering all the flower beds and planters😒

Our pleasure ,today there appears to be plenty to go around ☔

You can bet your life on the great British weather cant you? My good lady has arranged for her dance troupe (approx. 15 people) to descend on us for a garden party and bbq and at the beginning of the week Saturday had the best forecast ,sunny with light winds , what do we have? Heavy intermittent showers and not a chance of sunshine breaking through this cloud ,and not overly warm either Luckily some years ago I came to realise that if you plan anything outdoors in the summer it will nearly always rain so built a large permanent undercover area with seating for around ten , so if everybody turns up , and they will knowing them as I do , some had better bring brollies and waterproofs!!!!! There are times (quite a lot actually )when we wished we lived in the Med, Italy would do us fine

You can change the clothing but you cant change what's in it, and yes its horrible to watch the way some people treat staff, and embarrassing

No problem with well behaved families , unfortunately an ever increasing number of parents appear to think ,right were on holiday and the kids can do what they want, and they do, also have to add this is not just confined to P and O or cruise ships in particular but on other types of holiday too