DamianG

Hi Jane So sorry to hear this, not least the 10 hour wait in A&E. My in-laws had the same experience (but thankfully less of an emergency than yours) on Tuesday when I dropped them off at 11:45am then picked them up after discharge at 10pm. Best wishes for a swift recovery. Damian

Thanks again for your ginormous effort in providing the biggest and best live blog I've ever read. 200k+ views and over 1700 posts tells its own story. One of the great pleasures of writing these (as mentioned by @Dermotsgirl) is being able to look back on them in future years and remind yourself of some of the better things that happened but may have faded in your memories.

Thanks again, we've sailed from Southampton many times but this has lots of firsts (Horizon Terminal, ABP Parking and a morning embarkation time rather than afternoon). Much appreciated.

Thank you, we have booked Travelodge in Buckingham which works for us.

Thanks both, great information and more or less what I was thinking. Hotel now booked to break up the journey South and get us to the port earlier than usual. Best regards Damian

Hi all. Generally speaking, what time does boarding start at the Horizon Cruise Terminal (Southampton) for those with priority please? I appreciate that we will be given a specific time nearer to our July cruise, but we're just trying to get an idea for our travel arrangements. Thanks in advance.

We've all got different tastes of course but for me that's the most appealing menu to date and I could easily choose five courses (though I doubt I could stomach it in reality) Also, there are two of our favourite wines (Gavi di Gavi and Silk and Spice) recommended to accompany it. It sounds like the cheese plate is a single variety (Stoney Cross). Has anyone experienced this on a celebration night previously?

What a fantastic summary! May I add the Polar Museum and the Mack Brewery as alternative visitor attractions in Tromso (depending on personal taste of course).

Thanks again @Selbourne for your continuing efforts in posting this fascinating blog. Your latest thoughts and pictures from Curacao certainly brought back some very happy memories from our visit there albeit it was a long time ago now. I used to regularly get a sore throat after a short while on cruises until we got into the habit of not having the air con in the cabin on the very lowest setting. That was suggested on Cruise Critic and seems to have worked for us even if it does sound somewhat unscientific, and I appreciate that your symptoms appear to be far worse. I also appreciate that it may appear somewhat ironic suggesting not having the air con at the lowest setting given all the temperature issues around the ship, but it maybe worth a try if all else fails. Wishing you a speedy recovery and that your Curacao visit sets the tone for the remainder of your cruise. Best regards Damian

Indeed, we watched the same recent Aurora vlog with all the air conditioning issues and I was going to mention it here. The worse part was the constant reassurances that it had been fixed when it clearly hadn't.

Chris Wells is brilliant. On one cruise he joined in with ballroom dancing in the Atrium, and invited several lady passengers to partner him. Whilst he was dancing a drunken passenger knocked over the champagne tower, but he just left the crew to sort it out and carried on focusing on his dancing partner. We saw him around the ship a few times and he always had time for a word with us, a true gentleman.

Thanks for all your updates so far @Selbourne , I know from personal experience how much effort goes into it. Talking of which are you keeping a word count? My Arvia blog last year ran to 25k+ words but I think you are going to eclipse that! Congratulations on breaking your launderette duck! You can now award yourself a white belt with a yellow stripe through the middle. I'm sure I saw someone wearing one of those in the MDR on Arvia on a formal night, not that any staff challenged them about compliance with the dress code. 😁 Keep at it, as you have a long journey ahead to become a 5th Dan Master in using onboard launderettes, like myself and @TigerB 😉 Wishing you and Lady S smooth sailing, great weather and fantastic ports for the remainder of the cruise. All the best. Damian

Thanks for confirming that I am not the only person who frets about the bin lid being fully down! 😉 Our recycle bins were collected last week and were similarly overflowing after Christmas. I made sure our contents were squashed down so that I could shut the lid properly but others in our area didn't and there was quite a lot of rubbish blowing around before they got collected. If there is any rubbish in the gutter outside our house or even the houses nearby I'll go pick it up and bin it but so many just don't seem to care.

Hi all. We are taking our first MSC cruise this year and a "Browse & Stream" internet package is being quoted at £140 for 2 weeks. Can anyone with experience advise the following please? 1) How much is the cost onboard if we don't buy a package in advance? 2) I've read that each package is locked to the original device that used it first (so no sharing by logging out on one device and logging in on another). Is this correct? Any other suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thanks & best regards. Damian

Happy New Year all, and special best wishes to @Adawn47 & @Host Sharon at this time.

So sorry to read this Avril, best wishes to you both.

Feliz navidad mi familia virtual. Remember to stay hydrated today even if you haven’t bought the drinks package.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas from Teddy... ...his mum... ...and his twin sister Bella: (Ted is busy looking at the treat I was holding trying to get him to sit still for the camera. Needless to say the other 2 are professional photographs shared online).

How lovely and what great timing on your part. Christmas to celebrate and a Caribbean cruise to look forward to in the new year, fantastic! Congratulations to both of you.

We used to have "getting to know you" staff features in a monthly work newsletter. One of the questions was "Name someone who you have learned the most from." One chap replied "I have 2 teenage sons, they know EVERYTHING."

I'm not being picky but which cabin have you been offered as I don't think there are any cabins on deck 15 (exactly) immediately below the infinity pool? I don't think that you will hear any music from the Sunset Bar on deck 8. Even if you did from memory it finished at 10pm. On our August cruise there was a "Silent" Disco one evening around the Infinity Bar deck 16 which finished at 11pm (and they are anything but "silent" with lots of passengers singing along). However, that may have been exclusive to an August school holidays sailing. Personally I'd take the risk and accept the upgrade as I'd much prefer a balcony cabin over an inside but only you can decide.

We've had aft cabins 14739 on Iona (Easter school holidays) and Arvia 10742 (August school holidays). Neither of those was splashed from the infinity pool above but we did see other balconies affected. Both times it was children throwing the water over the side so I'd hope that is less likely to happen outside school holidays. We couldn't hear any noise from the Club House in our (lower down) Arvia cabin but if you were out on the balcony mid to late afternoon you could hear the music from the Sunset Bar. It wasn't booming out when we heard it; if anything it was just rather uninspiring background music. Doubtless it will vary depending on the DJ and the audience they are playing to on each cruise. We loved both aft cabins and if you've chosen 11741/2 then I would hope that you wouldn't be affected by any balcony waterfalls or the noise below. There are a few photos of our Arvia cabin below.

Just for you Harry. I’ll be back to cattle class in the new year.

Hi all. Last London trip of the year for me and SeatFrog sent me a voucher for the seat auction upgrade which I ended up winning so it’s been a lovely stress free journey. My thoughts are with everyone having a tough time @P&O SUE @SarahBen @indiana123 @davecttr @Josy1953 & anyone I may have missed. Good news on your discharge @yorkshirephil & loving the photos @Purdey16 Good luck with the move @Peanut006 Best wishes to all. Damian

Fabulous photo, a contender for Cruise Critic Picture of the Year!