9265359
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Everything posted by 9265359
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Those ships did not have the space to set aside for dining rooms large enough to avoid table sharing. Short of space = cramped. Well yes! And that's why the head of the non-sailing bits of all cruise ships has the title 'Hotel General Manager'.
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You don't have to phone to get a paper copy if you don't have the NHS app, but can do it online (at least in England) - Get an NHS COVID Pass - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
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Lisbon it is worth getting the shuttle from the ship, to either use as a starting point to explore the upper parts of the city, or more likely to then walk back down through the town, and eventually back to the ship. It certainly isn't worth making your way back to the shuttle bus for the ride back to the ship. Madeira it depends how far along the ship is moored along the quay, if it is at the far end then worth it, but if closer then the walk down from the CR7 is quite pleasant.
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Theoretically yes, but probably no. Last month the check in staff were simply asking if you met the vaccination requirements and if you offered to show proof then your offer was quickly and firmly rebuffed. Yes, there is a date next to the QR code on the paper copy.
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If you went into a restaurant other than on a ship and they asked if you minded sharing with some random strangers you would think the restaurant was bonkers, so why put up with it at sea. Then you have the COVID issue that if you share a table and they come down with it then you will be locked in your cabin as ‘close contacts’ for a few days or more. Then you have to eat at everyone else’s pace, and you get stuck with the starter and soup people. Then if unfortunately something is wrong with your meal and you would like it replaced will you say anything as it will delay everyone else’s meal. Then there is the risk that the random strangers will hold some view that you don’t and are gauche enough not to take the hint and so continue. And some people actually enjoy their partner’s company so don’t feel the need to eat with random strangers. Shared tables date back to the times when ships were small and cramped and there was no other option. Life has moved on - take a look at the new Virgin ships, they don’t even have any MDRs.
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You sleep on your balcony? You eat all your meals on your balcony? You never leave the balcony to get off the ship. OK…
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Plenty of places you can do that on the ship, and £50 an hour or so to rent a bit of outside space is rather over the top.
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Cabins are used for three things, none of which need a window, let alone a balcony!
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Good to hear there are some willing to pay the excessive balcony rental rate to subsidise me.
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Hang around to next March and I have no doubt those deals will be available on Iona’s med cruises from Southampton - a Select inside cabin for £799 for two weeks with £160 OBC each and included free car parking - the net cost is down below £560 (£40 pppn). Now sure you can pay for a balcony, but the hourly rental rate for the time it is in use is pretty exorbitant.
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To attract more staff = paying staff more = increased prices If people want better service then other Carnival brands provide it, but at higher prices, and Carnival have obviously decided that P&O is the ‘value’ brand. No, because either you book for both people in the cabin and then the other person cannot book because they are already booked, or if they book just for themselves there is only one seat booked. There is an issue with the Olive Grove (and Beach House) where if you look to book for two (or one) there might be no availability, but book for three or more and there is, and so you could book for three and only two of you turn up, but that doesn’t really impact general availability. My experience was with the 7pm and 10.30pm shows, and going a dozen times I only ever saw a few empty seats, but appreciate that might not have been the case at the 8.30pm show with people delayed at dinner or the 12.15 show with people too tired. I did, and to be frank it was an absurdly cheap price for what was delivered.
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Yes, completely dumb idea - those dining there are doing so in the ambience of an airport terminal. That's just the design of every modern hotel in the world and done that way to make it quicker to clean and check empty on changeover days (money, money, money...) Every hospitality business across the world is experiencing the same issues - the staff they previously employed have discovered they actually prefer not working the unsocial hours demanded. The problem P&O have is that the traditional older customer who liked dining at 6pm isn't booking as much as they used to, and certainly not on ships like Iona. If P&O tried to sell to 'normal' people for whom dining at 6pm is late afternoon, then they wouldn't buy and so there is 'freedom dining' which doesn't really work when the vast majority want to eat at 7.30 to 8. An individual solution is just to develop Spanish dining habits when on-board - go and have lunch just before service closes in the MDR at 2pm and then go and have dinner at 9pm (although that is a bit too early for a Madrileno). Still will have eaten in time to catch the late 10.30 show. The system won't allow you to book things that occur at the same time, so you can't make multiple choices and decide which to attend. You can book lots of stuff in advance and then cancel (or just not turn up), but that isn't the same thing. You can and I have done on many occasions. What cannot be done is if one person booked on their 'app' then their partner cannot cancel on their 'app' even though they are part of the booking (and now cannot book anything at that same time slot). Rock and a hard place. When I sailed on Iona a year ago then there were queues all across the atrium before every show. Obviously P&O didn't like the look of that so introduced a booking system. And it seemed to work as when I sailed on Iona in September and went to the 710 club every night then it was full with people who like me had booked, with perhaps only two or three couples being let in just before show time to fill any empty seats. Hard for P&O to improve when they are charging under £40 a night.
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Exactly the same thing - it isn’t, but feel free to believe that. Their purpose was to provide a negative result to satisfy political demands and not actually identify positive results - rather like the “did you pack your bags yourself and is there anything there shouldn’t be” question at the airport. Because insurers don’t like paying out money and not complying with the terms of the policy is an easy exclusion and reason for them to reject the claim.
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Well the evidence was the clear requirement set out in the insurance policy! If someone wants to gamble that their more liberal interpretation will result in a refund of thousands of pounds, then go for it. But the reported experience of people making claims with insurance companies is they do tend to be sticklers for what it says in order to avoid paying out.
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The problem is the remote tests are not carried out by a registered medical practitioner, but by you and they are then processed in a laboratory. Not the same thing at all as your insurance requires.
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And so a completely and utterly different scenario to the one you postulated - an in-person test performed by a qualified doctor and not something done remotely and supposedly supervised by ‘medical professionals’.
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They are only less likely to produce a negative result than an LFT, but as the LFT has already produced a positive result that is irrelevant. Supervised by a “medical professional” that’s amusing. Anyway it is irrelevant as insurers policies don’t refer to such tests then, but actually require a report from your own GP.
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Why would an insurer believe an unattended remote PCR test more than an unattended LFT.
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So do you not want to say how you can get the “not rocket science” attended PCR once you have a positive LFT without being dishonest, or don’t you actually know.
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Weight is tight? Without the formal night it would be easy enough to travel with only hand-luggage.
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Please explain the “not rocket science” of getting an attendee PCR test without dishonestly failing to disclose you have already received a positive LFT.
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I assume you mean PCR rather than LFT in your last reference, but that wasn’t the advice. The advice on getting a positive LFT was to stay at home and not go wandering around looking for other tests and potentially infecting others. But how are you going to get an administered PCR without lying ? None of the commercial companies will test you if you already have a positive LFT and neither will the NHS.
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And when there were LFTs then that process stopped. With P&O’s voluntary test policy you would have to be stupid if you intended being dishonest. Insist on mandatory tests and a proportion of people don’t book. Don’t insist on mandatory tests and a proportion of people don’t book. Rock and a hard place. Neither do the cruise companies, which is why they have removed the generous offers they had previously made to get nervous customers back to booking, but as the ships fill then those offers are no longer needed.
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No that wasn’t what happened during the pandemic (which hasn’t actually ended). If an LFT showed a positive result you certainly didn’t then go book a PCR test, so requiring someone to get up close to you in order to perform a PCR test and likely infecting them.
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Are you seriously suggesting that someone books and goes to an attended PCR test *AFTER* they have received a positive lateral flow test! Words fail me.