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1 hour ago, 2BACRUISER said:

We are due to go on a cruise in a fortnight starting in Malaga taking in Cadiz, Motril and Gibraltar to name our Spanish ports of call and wondering how we may be affected.

The worst flooding was in the region between Valencia and Tarragona which is nowhere near where you are going, but there were warnings for heavy rain on the southern region bordering Portugal which may impact your visit to Cadiz and Gibraltar - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-flood-map-valencia-region-weather-rain-b2639394.html

For Malaga, Motril, and the trip to Granada I rather doubt there will be any impact.

11 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

One thing I've discovered ('revealed' by copying images to the PC) was that the camera on the iPhone does some 'enhancements' that I really don't like - such as, blurring foreground / background objects, etc.  When I copy images to the PC, I get two versions - IMG-1234, and IMG-E1234.  The 'E' version is the 'enhanced' version. I often prefer the non-E version. On the PC, this is easy to handle - it's just two files, two images to compare. On the Mac, does it 'expose' the non-E version when an E-version is present, and/or, is it easy to view the enhancements and discard them if you don't like it?

If you use iCloud to back up the photographs you have taken on your iPhone, and then view them in the Photos app on the Mac you only see a single photo.

However if you connect your iPhone to your Mac by cable and then use the Image Capture app (which is part of the Mac OS and is used for transferring images from phones, cameras, etc. to the Mac), then you do see the two separate image files and can select just the 'non-E' versions to transfer

14 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Hotel parking is not appropriate, as travel to Southampton will be on the day as the journey is only a few hours.

I have used the Elizabeth House Hotel for parking in the past as they offer parking for people who are not staying there (I had been due to travel down by train but at the last moment a strike was announced).

You do have to leave your keys with them, but my car didn't move in the couple of weeks that my car was there.

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

There has been much debate on the P&O forum about the change in travel insurance provider from U.K. Insurance Ltd to Aviva.

Following the change to Aviva I took a look at the Nationwide offering (the whole package of cover of mobile phone, breakdown, etc. was interesting, and I already have a free Nationwide account)

My annual worldwide travel insurance for the last few years has been provided by Aviva as a free benefit to my HSBC account (it is a free account, but it does have certain requirements that need to be met). With that Aviva policy from HSBC there is a reasonably long list of existing medical conditions that are automatically accepted without the need to notify them or pay any additional fee.

Looking at the Nationwide Aviva policy there is no such list of automatically accepted medical conditions, and going through the on line medical screening process it revealed a cost of several hundred pounds for some pretty standard medical conditions that (I would guess) an awful lot of people past middle age have.

So although the Nationwide Aviva product might be cheaper than standalone insurance elsewhere, I did think it was interesting that compared to the HSBC policy, Nationwide have obviously bought a cheaper version from Aviva to include in its paid for accounts, cheaper because it excludes most existing medical conditions without payment.

14 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

What I can't figure out is, can I simply remove the one entry (icon) for airplane mode (actually the two relevant entries - airplane mode and cellular data) while leaving everything else in place?

You can't at the moment with IOS 18 but apparently you should be able to next week when IOS 18.1 is rolled out.

14 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

I do 99% of my 'secure access' stuff (banking, etc) on my Windows Laptop. So I would need to install the password mgr on my windows laptop - which is apparently possible - https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud-windows/set-up-icloud-passwords-icw2babf5e03/icloud .

My wife uses a Windows desktop, along with an iPhone and iPad, and that is exactly what she uses and it works well for her.

Passwords created on the iPhone and iPad are available on the Windows machine, and passwords created on the Windows machine are added to the iCloud database and are available on the iPhone and iPad.

14 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Once you take this route, I presume backing out is hard. To stop using the password manager, you'd need to sign in to each account, then use the account's 'change password' feature to set up a manual password that is outside of the control of apple passwords

The Apple password app isn't controlling the passwords, it is just storing them and offering to fill them in - and you can turn off the autofill part in settings, or if you want just choose another password manager to do the autofilling.

14 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

The biggest barrier for me to using the MacBook (I bought a top-of-line Macbook Air 13" a few years ago to try it, AND a Macbook Pro 15") is the keyboard. I'm a lifelong PC user (40-year career as programmer / IT / etc) and can type like a banshee. I use ctrl-c, ctrl-v, ctrl-x (copy/paste/cut) without thinking.

Pretty much the same - and like you I tried all the key mapping options, etc. In the end I just bit the bullet and accepted it is what it is and over time I did (mostly) get used to the new key combinations. 

16 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

I just bought an Apple device

What you may want to do if you are concerned about security is within Control Centre (swipe down from top right) to remove the option to set airplane mode. Control Centre is available by default even when the phone is locked, and allowing the ability to set airplane mode whilst locked allows a thief to disable the ability for you to send the 'kill' message or to use Find My.

16 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

but I enter all the passwords myself, and obfuscate them. Eg - I may have a password HelloDolly1234, but I would store that in the manager as HD# ; I know how to read it but if anyone hacked the manager, they still wouldn't get the pwd.

The risk with that is you end up with passwords that are more easily compromised than the secure but impossible to remember kazsad-xodHej-9jijzy.

16 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

and don't care for the way Apple products work overall

Yes, they are 'different' aren't they...

But the advantage is that they do work together nicely. I can now access my iPhone when it is next to my MacBook or Mac Mini (that is I can access all the apps and information on the phone).

Text messages to my phone appear on the MacBook and Mac Mini, as do notifications.

Easy to share things with other Apple users, and as for passwords the Apple Password App allows you to create family groups to keep shared passwords in.

16 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Also, I want to load over 1,000 MP3 files locally and play them locally. This was a piece of cake with Android, but is way more difficult with IOS

It is possible with Apple Music, but it isn't elegant if you are using a Windows machine.

4 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

I called today post cruise area answered within 5 minutes. Claiming a refund for seats we did not get on return journey due to aircraft swap.

And the last time I needed to contact them it took numerous calls and it took over an hour for them to answer.

Perhaps they are now answering every call within five minutes (although that is four and half minutes too long), but I rather doubt it.

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

We've booked direct now for a number of years after we had bad service off some TAs. Suppose it's what suits you as an individual and if you are lucky enough to find a great TA. Suits us missing out the middle man.... 

The issue for me is that after booking P&O never answer the phone but TAs do (or at least the one I use does).

Now if you never need to speak to anyone after booking then one is as good as the other, but who knows whether you will ever need to or not at the time you book.

Quite simply it is a Win/Win scenario for me - the price is the same (or actually fractionally less for me booking through the TA) but the customer service with the TA is better.

If P&O want me to book direct (which they should to save the TA commission) then they need to pull their finger out and deliver a FAR superior service than they currently do.

59 minutes ago, alpha whiskey said:

Got stitched up by a couple of TA's during the pandemic wanting 'admin fees' and then holding on to refunds for weeks on end, when the cruise lines had already reimbursed them. 

With the TA I use the payment goes straight to P&O and not to them, so I would expect any refund to take the same route.

Plus if there was an issue, which I did have with a recalcitrant travel agent for a non-cruise booking, then a s75 claim resolved that without drama.

And as for 'missing out the middle man', then is there really a 'middle man' if I phone someone who has direct access to P&O's systems to see which cabins and flights are available, can take that booking there and then, and then when I book the payment goes straight to P&O?

Rather seems to me that the 'middle man' is simply the customer service that P&O ought to be offering itself.

On 9/19/2024 at 8:47 PM, Larainerenee said:

Is it a good way to get an overview of the area?

Not really, because an awful lot of the interesting areas within Funchal are not places that the bus can go. 

If you cannot walk it is better than nothing, but not the best option if you can.

35 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

oh.. what's the max?

Within zones 1 and 2 it is £8.50 per day or £42.70 per week (Monday to Sunday).

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/caps-and-travelcard-prices?intcmp=54720

1 hour ago, Steerpike58 said:

Do all these apps require RE-AUTHENTICATION at time of use?

The Apple passwords app certainly does (I cannot speak for anything Android).

1 hour ago, Steerpike58 said:

By that, I mean - you 'unlock' the phone using your biometrics, that's good. But if someone grabs your phone after you've unlocked it - like, when you are reading your phone on the platform, or - if you've finished reading your phone but put it in your bag or pocket without explicitly locking it (and thus, relying on the 30-seconds to 5 minute 'timeout') - can the thief then launch the password manager app without further authentication?

No they cannot.

Even if the phone is unlocked it requires a further biometric authentication to unlock the passwords.

Apple also introduced Stolen Device Protection last year, which when turned on introduces a security delay if you are away from home from doing some things such as changing your Apple password to give you time to mark your phone as stolen and to lock it down.

Also recent changes with Apple's iPhone and iPad software allows you to put an additional biometric lock on any app, even if the app does not support it.

Plus the new update allows you to hide any app behind a biometric lock so nobody even knows it is there - cleverly there is now a hidden folder on every iPhone and iPad that shows as empty unless unlocked, so a thief or snooper has no idea whether anything is actually hidden or not.

Thus if you are concerned about a thief seeing your banking apps then it is now possible to both hide them and to put a biometric unlock on them even if they only supported an old fashioned password unlock (which you would still need to do anyway).

1 hour ago, Steerpike58 said:

If you do go down that path, then give serious thought to what you would do if you lost the device that has the authenticator. If you have it on your phone, and your phone is lost / stolen, and it's the ONLY source of authentication, you could be locked out.  

If you use Apple devices the authentication in their password app is backed up into iCloud so is available on any other Apple device you have, and will be automatically reinstalled on your replacement phone when you log into with your Apple account.

If you do not use Apple then there are plenty of authenticator apps that will back up, for example both the Google and Microsoft authenticators will back up to their respective cloud storage.

1 hour ago, Steerpike58 said:

The good thing about most US banks...

I am not in the US but the UK and all the banks I use you can still call.

There are some 'challenger' banks in the UK that appear to be more like tech companies than banks, who don't offer a phone service to call them but do everything through apps, but frankly I think you would be insane to use them as your main account.

17 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Have traveled all over Europe. Yes, have encountered some pay toilets. But not even close to "most". I mean, we were in Amsterdam and several cities in France, including Paris, for a two week trip, and never paid to use a toliet.

Needing to pay is far more prevalent in southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain, etc.) than in northern European countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, etc.).

That doesn't mean that there are not some places in northern Europe that do charge and some place in southern Europe that do not, but it is just the trend. Train stations are the odd exception, with the larger stations frequently charging but the smaller stations usually not. 

11 hours ago, david63 said:

If you quoted the full paragraph then you would have noted that I did say you can request any size table but may have to wait if one is not available.

That wasn't what you said, which to quote you in full was - 

21 hours ago, david63 said:

Freedom dining only applies for dinner - breakfast and lunch are "open sitting" where you are shown to the first available table but if you are not happy with that table (too large) then just ask for a smaller table and if one is available you will be shown to it - if one is not available then you will have to wait, and it could be a long wait.

And that is simply wrong.

You are not "shown to the first available table" with nobody saying anything at the host stand and a waiter simply taking you off to the next open table, but it operates exactly the same as for dinner and as you arrive you are asked by the host whether you would like to share a table or not.

Of course you may have to wait, but my experience has been that only occurs at lunchtime and never for breakfast, and even then it tends to only be on sea days if you choose to dine at a popular time. 

7 hours ago, david63 said:

Freedom dining only applies for dinner - breakfast and lunch are "open sitting" where you are shown to the first available table

That isn't my experience as you can still request a non-sharing table - and frankly who on earth wants to share a table for breakfast!

As for sharing a table for lunch in the MDR it usually doesn't work because I will often only want a single course, and asking the waiter to bring your food with everyone's starters so you can eat and leave never goes down well with anyone.

4 hours ago, pete14 said:

If you book direct with P&O, they will give you flight departure options

From my experience there is no upside booking direct with P&O compared to booking with a travel agent, only downsides.

And frankly I find that odd as you would have thought that P&O would have wanted to give people a 5 star gold plated service to encourage them to book direct, and as a result avoid paying the agent's commission.

36 minutes ago, vwgolf2 said:

I've been through the booking details on the website and it seems very vague as far as flights are concerned

Use a decent travel agent instead of booking through P&O and they will tell you what location flights are available from (not the timing as that isn't confirmed until far nearer to the cruise).

As for booking seats - you can, but I never have as I think it is a waste of money. There are seats on the aircraft for us and on a short hop down to Tenerife then one seat is as good as another.

24 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

Collect cases take them to the coach, when you arrive at the terminal porters take cases off the coach while you head to check in.

And on the return the cases are left outside the cabin as normal and the next time you will see them is when you arrive at the airport in the UK.

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I thought that might have been the case with our household insurance, which only covered us for 60 days, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they fully cover the first 60 days and it is only any extra days above this that they won’t cover. I guess that some travel insurers may adopt the same approach? 

That's slightly different as that is adding days, not just taking the first X number of days and then buying a policy for the days beyond it elsewhere.

My annual travel insurance that is free with my bank account covers up to 30 day trips, but if you want to extend the cover then you can do in blocks (14 days, 28 days, 56 days, etc.) at a pretty reasonable cost.

But their policy is clear - it is a trip of up to 30 days that is covered not the first 30 days of a longer than 30 day trip.

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

I believe we have had this discussion before.

I don't believe we have.

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

My insurer at the time was Lloyd's Bank and they confirmed the cover was in place.

And that is fine.

However they would seem to have changed the wording in their policy now to exclude cover for such longer trips as the policy on their website explicitly says that your trip must start and end at home and be no longer than 31 days - hence my words of caution to anyone who might assume they could do the same without checking.

What Lloyds, as my bank does, is offer extensions to that 31 days at a cost, not the option that you were offered of taking the 'free' 31 days and then buying cover for the additional days elsewhere.

On 10/18/2024 at 10:20 AM, Megabear2 said:

For my Cunard voyage in 2019 I was able to use my own annual insurance for the first 45 days and then purchase a specialist policy for the remaining two segments on a specialist policy which allowed cover to start while travelling.

I am quite surprised that your annual travel insurance actually covered you for the first 45 days, as those policies normally have a condition that they only apply to trips under a certain length, not the first X number of days irrespective of whether a trip is longer than that.

I am sure you actually read the T&Cs of your policy to ensure you were covered, but before anyone else does the same they really do need to check that their insurance covers such 'open ended' trips rather than find out the hard way that it doesn't.

6 hours ago, downundermatt said:

if anyone has done this drive, feedback would be most welcome too ! 

Driving on Madeira is fine and not like forty years ago when it involved driving up and down hairpin bends over the top of mountains, as these days it is mostly tunnels straight through.

The main issue is that some roads, particularly in Funchal, are exceptionally steep - so steep that starting off from stopped is a challenge, and too many junctions are T junctions with you pulling out from the side turning whilst trying to do a hill start from a hill that seems to be 45 degrees - at that point renting a small car with a tiny engine doesn't seem such a good idea...

As for Porto Moniz, it is a pleasant place but I doubt you would want to be spending more than a couple of hours there - take a look at the tour itineraries for the places that they go - or just take one of the small mini-bus tours that the operators in Funchal offer.

If a VPN did work on the essential package then it would rather defeat the purpose of having two packages where you could stream video on the more expensive and not on the cheaper, since if the VPN worked on the cheaper it would prevent the DPI identifying the streaming and stopping it.

As for needing to use a VPN... it seems there are a lot of effective adverts persuading people to buy.

10 hours ago, HDS said:

Check the Viking Ocean thread.  Passengers docked at Fusina this week report a 1.7km (30-40 minute) walk through industrial area from cruise ship terminal to public ferry wharf for the public ferry to Venice.

From reading that thread, those were the passengers who chose not to take the direct water shuttle the ship was offering, but wanted something cheaper.

And realistically a 1.7km / 1 mile walk should take way less than 30-40 minutes.

It is 25km (16 miles) by water or 50km (32 miles) by road between Chioggia and Venice, so it isn't ever going to be quick getting between the two.

Fusina is 5km (3.5 miles) by water so although won't be that quick, it will be an awful lot quicker than Chioggia.

9 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

Again, other way round in this case, surely?

Not really, as Ylva Johansson the Commissioner is only in her position because she is a politician and has been for the last 40 years.

If anyone has been pushing back, it won't have been the politicians (at any level) but the technical staff on the ground trying to tell people it won't be ready to work in time for the political deadline.

On 10/13/2024 at 12:16 AM, whataboutport said:

Or can we use a credit card everywhere?

Just make sure it is a Visa card, or at a push a Mastercard, as Amex and other such cards are unlikely to be accepted.

Three dining rooms, one Club dining with 6:30pm and 8:30pm fixed sittings, and two Freedom dining restaurants open 6pm to 9.30pm  (iirc, it might be slightly earlier at 5.30pm and close slightly earlier at 9:15pm).

You get to express a preference for Club or Freedom if you book a Select fare (and which sitting if you opt for Club), but if a Saver fare you get allocated to one or the other (and the sitting) and then can request (not guaranteed) to change. Requesting a change from Club late to early is unlikely to be possible, but early to late is easier. Requesting a change from Club to Freedom is chancy, but Freedom to Club late sitting is often possible, Requesting a table for two in Club - depends on the sitting with late being more likely to be possible than early.

For Freedom there appears to be a limited opportunity to book, but only for very early times 6pm and perhaps as late as 6:30pm.

Otherwise it is register on the app on your phone that you want dine (how many of you are there and are you prepared to share a table) and then you go into an online waiting queue to be called, when the app will inform you and you have 15 minutes to get to the restaurant to claim your table.

At peak times (7:30 to 8:15pm) and on Black Tie nights the queues can be lengthy, particularly if you want a table for two (and it can be busy early at 6pm if it is an old person cruise). If you are happy dining late at 9pm or so then there are no queues at all.