Thedonkeycentrehalf

In Feb this year, no booking of theatres but using the app to book MDR dining was simple and we rarely waited more than 10 minutes for the message to say our table was ready. Muster drill was turn up at your station but to misquote Phil Collins, no life jacket required.

From our recent cruise, Grenada was one of my favourite islands. The people were very friendly and it is a beautiful island. If you look further down the board, we did a JnJ tour and Standley was a great guide. We visited a spice place, the volcanic lake, saw Mona monkeys and also visited a run factory but you can tailor your tour to your needs

If you search for freewalkingtourcuracao you should find their website. The tour is free and the guide - Rayay - relies on tips afterwards but he is a great guide.

If you know and like Elizabeth House, can you not stay there but then either walk or get a bus/cab down to West Quay where there will be plenty of places open for dinner?

We did the free walking tour of Willemstad which took us to some interesting buildings and local art which gives some good photography options.

We were on Britannia around the Caribbean in February and it was fine. The only issue we had was with hot water in the bathroom sink and that was fixed within a few hours. We are not fans of sea days so visiting so many different places was great for us and would take port choice over days on the 'floating hotel' any day.

We saw Tom Lister on Britannia a few weeks ago. We hadn't heard of him either but he was very entertaining with his stories and, as someone who has been a West End lead, has a good voice.

I think you are mixing up tours - they have a Grand Tour and a City Tour with Beach Splash on the website. We did the Grand Tour

We did the Grand Tour. We met them at 9am and I think we got back at 4pm but they will check your ship arrival and departure times. It began with a brief tour of Basseterre before we headed up to Romney Manor. Thenford escorted us around the gardens, giving great information about the various plants etc and he and his nephew made sure we all got great photos. We were not rushed and had time to look around the batik making area and grab a drink at the cafe. From there we went up to the fort where we had plenty of time to have a good look round. After that we drove to Friars Beach with a stop at Timothy Hill to get the view across Frigate Bay. We were given around 90 minutes at Friars Beach so plenty of time to enjoy the beach, have a swim and also to get a nice lunch from the beach bar (the jerk pork sandwich was great). We had great information from them ahead of our tour, confirming times etc and also arranging PayPal payment if required.

A ventriloquist act?

We also try to avoid the sometimes uncomfortable mini bus tours. Following recommendations on here, we booked a private tour with Island Man. We had a nice air conditioned vehicle to ourselves and our driver Ricardo adapted our schedule to get ahead of the cruise tours so it wasn’t mobbed when we got to the sulphur baths or falls. They will also tailor your tour for you so I would recommend having a look at them.

We also went to Copacabana but on a P&O excursion. Looks like it would have been cheaper to DIY but we had OBC to use. The beach club was fine but a couple of minor bits we were not so happy with. The secure store for your bags seemed to be open most of the time and there wasn’t always anyone on the reception desk next to it. Likewise, there was someone walking around in a polo shirt with “Security” printed on it but he did nothing about the suspicious local lady walking between the sun beds. My wife nudged me as she noticed the woman looking under my sun bed. Finally, not sure if this is a P&O thing, but the menu was supposed to have hangar steak but this was replaced with a lamb stew which seemed to be more bones with a ‘spot the meat’ competition.

Another tip is that if you want to get some fresh milk for your room, order cereal on the room service breakfast and you get a nice jug of milk you can keep in the fridge for a couple of days. You could also use one of the water cups and fill it with the milk next to the tea station but you might not be popular with your fellow cruisers.

Maybe Starlink has changed this as I often had both my iPad and my wife's phone using the hotspot on my phone while on board. Either that or the VPN I use fooled the system.

@Selbourne not sure I should say this on here but when we were on Britannia recently we got around this by setting up a hotspot on my phone and linking my wife’s phone that way. We did the same on land as I get data roaming on my contract and she doesn’t. Simple to set up and worked really well.