Fionboard

4 hours ago, pete14 said:

Thanks for that. I think most people on here have been through Biscay and beyond several times and know exactly the experience you have had. I suppose the advent of Canaries and Med fly cruises has reduced the number of crossings but of course not entirely. Mind you, the two worst sailings I have experienced were not Biscay, but north of Iceland and down the coast of Norway through the North Sea. Have a great cruise now you are in calmer waters.

I have done BoB over a hundred times and have had much worse in North Sea,  Atlantic and Med. Mind you BoB on Dad's sailing yacht (when I was young) was the most scary! 

Got rid of landline as we only use our mobiles now. Don't need it for internet and it was just a waste of money. 

7 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

I agree that there was a good selection of veg on our Ventura cruise last week.  One thing I found unusual (because it's never happened to us before) is being handed a pack of the 12 nights' menus with the outer signed by our waiter and assistant, who were excellent throughout btw.  I didn't bin them, despite having no use for them, but they are printed on quality stiff paper and so I thought they would make good drawing paper for a young great nephew.

 

Did this happen because we had fixed dining, which we don't usually?

This always used to happen. Maybe to save on their recycling costs! I never kept any of them. 

Wind seems to have reached its peak here in South Devon. Lots of ships sheltering in Lyme Bay. 

There is a ferry from ship to Toulon waterfront. Toulon old town is  lovely. There is also a lovely beach which you can get to on the land train. Nice place for lunch.

52 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Nice to hear the weather is hot in the Canaries.We're docked in Gran Canaria on Christmas day.One of the excursions offered is a day at the beach.Having been there before,I did warn everyone on the Celebrity roll call that it is a nudist beach.Which reminds me,what dickie bow am I wearing that night,1st world problems again😉.

Never been in port on a Christmas Day. Always been a sea day. Lucky you. Maspalomas beach is enormous and only a small part is nudist. Nice place for a wander and lunch. 

Anyone see Rip Off today on BBC? Article about cruise cancelled for taking wheelchair on board. 

38 minutes ago, LondonLad60 said:

The last time I was in the Caribbean (admittedly this was in 2019), on St Lucia there was a bar which went by the rather apt name of Rum Therapy, and they did a number of rum based cocktails which were BOGOF. These were very good and although I can't recall the exact prices they seemed pretty reasonable.

Love Rum Therapy! 

Lyme Bay is relatively sheltered which is why we see so many ships sheltering in there during stormy weather. 

3 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I get the impression that P&O are struggling with a shortage of staff across the fleet. I imagine that they must have lost a lot of highly trained people during the long Covid hiatus, and they appear to be finding it difficult to attract and train new people. Perhaps now poverty is hopefully becoming less widespread in third world countries, being away from your home for months on end no longer looks like an attractive option.

As I mentioned before, word is that chefs are particularly in short supply, affecting operation of speciality restaurants. Maybe P&O is not offering them enough money! 

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Funnily enough, the salt and pepper cruets probably get the most handling and if there’s anything unpleasant anywhere that’s doubtless where it’s hiding!

Glad they got rid of those wooden? menu covers. Unnecessary and bacteria sponges! 

7 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Ahhh……the annual Christmas card dilemmas. Cards or emails with charitable donations? Letters with the cards? Handwritten or printed? Which charity cards? First or Second Class (that’s a very easy one!)? Letters with pasted bits or not? Hand delivered or Royal Mail (another easy one in a village)? People you haven’t seen for 50 years and don’t particularly want to? People who didn’t send a card last year? Sticky printed address labels on the envelopes? RNLI cards (definitely!)? Are your cards too small? When to post them all?

 

Or am I overthinking this?

Just send an email wishing everyone a good Xmas and then go off on a cruise! 

16 hours ago, jake 26 said:

Just returned from 2 glorious weeks on Azura. We're long standing patrons of P&O but this was our first time back since 2019.

Both of us are physically fit but old. I celebrated my 80th on board and my wife is 78. We always book a balcony cabin and enjoy the peace and sunshine that can offer.

One day last week on a sea day afternoon we decided to visit the Breakers Bar area for a drink and some sunshine which wasn't available on our balcony at that time.

We're familiar with the sunbed wars situation on sea days, but that doesn't affect us because getting off one can be awkward!

So chairs are welcome. On this occasion the deck around Breakers was busy but we spied 2 adjacent chairs. One was vacant but the other was occupied by some clothes. My wife sat on the vacant chair and I stood by the other hoping the owner of the clothes would show up so I could request the chair for sitting on.

After about 10 mins I went to find a waiter for drinks. The drinks duly arrived and I carefully removed the clothes to a new resting position between the two chairs. After about 15-20 mins a man aged 45-50 arrived looking a little annoyed. He firmly made the point that we had removed his clothes, and we agreed with a smile. My wife said 'Sorry about that' and we handed him his clothes. Rather aggressively he said ' You're not sorry because you're smiling'. We said nothing as he seemed to be getting agitated. People around were quiet and watching him. He stood in front of us staring, and then turned and left muttering.

I think we were both holding our breath, and felt very relieved when he left. I did think he might attack me.

We didn't stay long as we were a bit shaken, but it does make us think we are maybe too old to go into areas where drink flows freely, and maybe on the wrong ship for our age.

However while we didn't venture to that bar again we didn't encounter any potential aggression anywhere else.

Did we do wrong in obtaining a chair as we did.? Maybe.

Wrong ship for our age? We loved the cruise and the staff, but maybe.

I try to stick to Arcadia or Aurora. Only aggressive people I have come across were on Arvia. Don't be put off. 

Believe she left in the early hours today, for Amsterdam, due to bad weather in channel. 

There appears to be a shortage of chefs. Maybe this is why we are told the speciality restaurants are fully booked when actually they are pretty empty. Maybe the cabin stewards are working in the kitchens?!!! 

37 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

 

The consequences for cruise companies - perhaps they will up their game and actually take more proactive steps to prevent infection, rather than just continue with the obviously ineffective measures they do at the moment.

 

 

Oddly it is incredibly rare for someone travelling on a coach, train, or aircraft to catch noro, but it seems to have become far more likely that someone travelling on a cruise ship does.

 

Now if the catching of noro is to be attributed to someone bringing it onboard then it seems very very odd that transmission of that virus only takes place when the persons feet are floating on water, and does not take place whilst they are on land or in the air...

Maybe because it takes time for the virus to "kick in" and you are not on the coach or plane for long before you embark. 

1 hour ago, Mymarina Bay said:

That's interesting, I presume you know because you had friends/relatives on the coach. Which ship and cruise was it? Why did they miss departure and what happened to the passengers ie overnight in hotel or another coach took them back home?

I was on that cruise. March on Aurora. Two coaches very late due to problem on motorway. Waited for ages. Intercruises turned up but ship did not wait for Eavesway one. Felt so sorry for passengers involved. 

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

We would usually have a bottle of wine with a meal but often we asked them to save it until the next evening. You can't do that now though .... 

On Arcadia they will keep your wine, but only in fixed dining of course. 

Original Pulse on Britannia (2015?) were the best band I have ever heard. Pulse groups vary a lot nowadays. 

Agree about noise. Live and recorded music in bars is uncomfortably loud and makes conversation impossible. 

19 minutes ago, alpha whiskey said:

Shame the towels weren't on a deposit system.

You could have scooped them up and cashed in!

Now there's a thought......same principle as the old lemonade bottles etc, perhaps 🤣

Have been to hotels in Caribbean where pool towels are obtained from a kiosk where a deposit is required, which you get back when you return the towel.

1 hour ago, Snow Hill said:

Back in my youth some friends and myself were on holiday in Majorca came back from a nightclub around 4am, we saw towels on the sun beds, so we removed them and hung them over branches in trees in the grounds, it helped that one of my friends was over 6 ft tall and he could reach the higher branches. They never found out who did it, but it was a topic of conversation for a few days. 😬

My sister and I did the same once. Threw all the towels in the pool and went to bed! 

Just off Arcadia. Lack of staff, particularly in MDR. Waiters overstretched and unhappy looking. Speciality restaurants "fully booked" for entire cruise (but reportedly fairly empty by those who managed to get in!) , coffee bar, grab and go, and deck grill closed. No pop up glasshouse. Dreadful entertainment scheduling and only 4 hosts. Generally not up to the normal excellent cruise experience on Arcadia. Lots of complaining going on. We put it down to upcoming refit (which had already started judging by the banging going on around the ship!) More than the usual number of toilets out of use. Trimmed back cruise without a trimmed back price! Hope things get back to normal after refit as she is still my favourite. 

Just off Arcadia. First cruise where steward said he was not allowed to supply facecloth. Friend on another deck got me one from her steward. ?? Not allowing face cloths is really going to save on the laundry, isn't it?! 

Behind the scenes tours used to be free, like lots of other things  (did them all on Celebrity).  Quite pricey now but interesting.