DamianG

44 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

Morning all, what a lot to catch up on! 
 

Hope everyone is ok, the only thing I’ve done of note lately is a trip to Broadstairs on Saturday where there was a food festival. The weather was amazing for nearly October and we had a lovely ploughmans sitting outside!

 

 

I love a ploughman's lunch and that looks a particularly fine example, all the right components and not bulked out with too much salad or an apple (often added in an attempt to make it look bigger than it is).

On 9/30/2023 at 5:11 PM, Peanut006 said:

Curry and chips, chips and gravy, chips and mushy peas, I love them all!!!

 

Going to World Firework Championships tonight in Blackpool - weather dependent, currently heavy rain here. 
 

I did “a Graham” and called at Greggs today, unfortunately I ate the sausage roll before I took the photo

 

Michelle

I paid a rare visit to Greggs yesterday. The coffee machines both ran out and there was just one lady trying to serve the big queue and refill the machines at the same time. 
When I finally got to the front of the queue the cavalry arrived and a 2nd staff member finally came out to serve customers. I was stood right in front of him with armfuls of goodies but he looked straight past me and said “Can I help anyone?” 
I honestly think I’m invisible sometimes.

We had no problem at all as a family when boarding at the same (earliest) time together on Arvia in August despite different embarkation time slots.

Quick update on Teddy and the rear left occasional limp that is now into a second month. He went for X-rays last week & nothing showed up so it’s a case of waiting another month before visiting the vet again for a further check. He was anaesthetised for the X-rays so has the usual shaved patch on his leg which is irritating him enormously (hence the sock to stop him licking it).

He is full of energy so it’s just a case of trying to make him do the right exercise (e.g., walking & running is okay but no jumping around chasing squirrels in the woods) but that’s easier said than done. His groom was cancelled by the groomers last week so he is very shaggy but hopefully he’ll have his haircut next week.

The third photo shows him in his usual position in my spare bedroom office while I’m working!

Farewell @Dermotsgirl @Eddie99

I may not post very often on here but I do read everything and have enjoyed your contributions over the years. 
Best wishes to you both.

On 9/21/2023 at 9:07 AM, Josy1953 said:

The morning started well but is going downhill.  I dropped my niece's children of at school but the daughter had forgotten her keys to get back in this afternoon so I had to detour back to their house to get them from her dad before he goes to see my niece in hospital.  Dad then told me that they haven't told the children yet but she is terminal and will be on morphine now until the end.  They have an appointment with her oncologist this morning to see whether or not they are prepared to let her come home.  I am going round to see my sister now because I can't imagine how she is feeling knowing that both her husband and daughter are both terminal.

I'm belatedly reading this and so sorry to hear your sad news. Take care.

2 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

Sad to log in and learn the reason for kalos’ absence. 
Get well soon kalos and best wishes to Mrs k too

 

We have a very wet and windy day forecast.  Due to have started already, but so far so dry.  Fingers crossed it’ll last another half hour so we can at least get out & stretch our legs.  I think there’s a cricket ODI v Ireland due to take place today?  20 September sounds awfully late in the year to be thinking of cricket in the British Isles

 

Have a good day everyone. Be aware that there’s a lot of it about at the moment and please take appropriate precautions 

It's been a wet morning so far, I don't have much hope of them starting on time.

On 9/17/2023 at 3:13 PM, pete14 said:

I must admit, I don’t mind listening  to a saxophone. There was a guy who was on Britain’s got Talent’ several years ago who did a couple of shows on a cruise we are on, who was excellent but nobody is like the late great Clarence Clemons from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band who also had a superb bass singing voice he kept well hidden for some reason. 

Loved Clarence, his nephew Jake is brilliant too.

50 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

I will not be happy if dress codes are not adhered to, especially in MDR and Crows Nest. I want a relaxing cruise but won't stand any nonsense !

I’m neutral on whether there should be a dress code or not but if there is one then I think it should be observed (which it clearly wasn’t on our cruise).

2 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I had lunch with my sisters, (sorry no food pictures), baby sister has just come back from a cruise on Iona and was telling us how much they enjoyed it but was annoyed that the app allowed passengers to book more than one venue for the same time.  They shared a table at dinner one night with a lady who took great pleasure in telling everyone else that she booked several things for the same time so that she had a choice of which one she felt like going to when the the time came around and she said that she didn't bother to cancel the ones that she didn't go to.

Maybe this explains the “fully booked” but empty tables scenario that’s often been reported (at least until the 15 minute period after being paged lapses)?

2 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Well, for those of you who have been following my numerous rants concerning my anxieties regarding the inability to book select dining venues and the Retreat for our cruise in January, I wanted to post to let you know that we have had a response from Carnival Senior Guest services and ..... I have to say, my jaw is still on the floor as it was not what we were expecting - not just excuses and waffle but really helpful and reassuring. 

 

Really impressed and it has really gone some way to restore our faith in PANDO.

 

Thanks to everyone on here who helped us with the contact address.

I also got a similar call this week and we now consider the matter of all our issues that we had on our Arvia cruise closed. The lady I spoke to was lovely and a credit to the company.

My thanks as well for the contact information provided.

2 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

Yes the are from Michelin, it is good perk for being a Michelin pensioner.  I think that it is a dying perk, you only get it if you are a current employee or had a qualifying number of years service when you retired but younger people don't tend to stay at one company now.  It is the same with pensions, we used to have a final salary pension scheme which for people like me is great but they changed that to a money purchase scheme just after I retired and that is not as good as the final salary scheme where we get annual rises in January in line with interest rates.

I sometimes think that we were the lucky generation.

I was on a final salary pension scheme but was bumped off it a few years ago (like lots of people including my wife) and it has made a huge difference to any retirement plans we had. Glad you got it though and we don’t begrudge anyone from our organisations who got what we won’t.

6 minutes ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

On our Arcadia cruise last month on formal nights we saw one man being asked to leave the mdr and another to leave the Crows Nest for not meeting the dress code.

If they had done that on Arvia during our school holiday cruise the MDR's and Crows Nest would have been half empty and we might not have had such long waits for a table! 😆

46 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

Really ? In the MDR at dinner ? I am onboard on Sunday and hope that doesn't happen.

Yes, we ended up with a fixed dining arrangement in one of the MDRs and a chap on the next table wore a t-shirt, jeans, trainers and baseball cap every evening (except for the formal night). We sat next to another group wearing t-shirts, shorts and trainers in the Crow's Nest. The dress code was posted in the Horizon everyday but was not enforced in any way.

Maybe your cruise will see it observed better (being outside school holidays).

1 hour ago, indiana123 said:

Bit strange though, as it was a casual cruise, sitting for dinner next to a table in shorts, tee shirts sandals and caps.   Also not a complaint just an observation.

Just like our recent cruise on Arvia then!

I took Teddy for a walk at lunchtime and just as we got onto the next street I could see an old lady approaching up the road on a mobility scooter. I didn't want to Teddy to react or bark so I held him back whilst she passed, only for her to stop in the middle of the road then start barking at him to get his attention! Naturally he got upset and started barking back at her then she shouted "What's his name?" I repeated it several times but she couldn't her me until eventually I shouted "TEDDY!" at which point poor Teddy thought I was shouting at him so sat down with his ears pinned back looking really sad like he'd just been told off. Meanwhile the lady drove off singing "How much is that doggy in the window?"

If I see her again we're definitely going to turn round and walk the other way.

1 hour ago, Purdey16 said:

Morning all we had a very long day yesterday and it was hot , we were on a coach then a boat ride then and train ride and back on a coach all in all a 10 1/2 trip to visit the five small villages that hug the coast and at the end some pictures of the marble mountains.

Wow! I’m feeling tired just reading about it! Fantastic pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them all & the updates. 
Relaxing today?

Just thought I’d share the weather forecast from BBC Look North this evening. 
 

21 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

P&O, so i am still confused as to P&O indentity. They are not Cunard yet they are not Royal. They seem to be in the middle. Now for us with children i would say the ship needs more. Water slides are a must. The sky dome, yes great for shows but a lot of the area was wasted when no shows on. The stage area for example. Use it for shows yes but got to have a better way of covering the area. The pool would close between 4-6pm to prep for the shows. Which were good. 

I think that P&O is confused about its own identity at the moment, for example posting a dress code in the Horizon every day which was largely ignored on Arvia when we were onboard. I agree about the activities for children on board as well, a half hearted attempt on Arvia in my opinion.

21 hours ago, posford said:

As a precursor to this review, I’m afraid it will not be of the standard of the excellent Selbourne, Damien or Paris Hilton. I was 45 years an engineer so my reports are more factual than whimsical.

 

This is our 42nd cruise, 37th with P&O and 3rd since Covid.

We did this Vigo, Lisbon, Porto and Guernsey (though Coruna instead of Guernsey because of the weather) on Ventura 8 weeks ago.  We enjoyed the cruise so much we decided to do it again hoping to get to Guernsey this time. The only problem with the Ventura cruise was the dire food and the chaotic dining organisation.

I wrote to Paul Ludlow and he agreed with me and kindly gave me £200 obs to spend on my next cruise.

 

Now the review.

 

As we booked late, all that was available were outside F deck. After researching that I could get one without pull-down Pullman beds we booked a cabin opposite the front lifts/ stairs.

What a revelation, NO noise, NO vibration, NO movement the whole cruise.

Just along from Palm Court for embarking and disembarking.

Next to the front lifts, and Mr and Mrs Selbourne, I thought about you every day, they were nearly always empty. 
Huge lifts empty.

So on embarking, after the lunch and numerous drinks, I went to the freedom restaurant.

I asked the head waiter the best way that I could get a table for 2 about 7.30 every evening.

He said come down at 6.30 and ask for a table for 2 at 7.30, go and get ready for dinner and take a pager and come down at 7.30.

So we did. Sometimes the pager would go off as we were walking down, sometimes it would go off, in our cabin about 7.15 and sometimes it would not go off at all.

Never mind we got a table every night, always by a window.

The head waiter was a joy. The first night it was a table by a window, the next night a romantic table, the next a romantic table with candles, the next a table with candles and roses, the next candles, roses and a choir. He ran out after that. Just to say I am 70!!
 

Now the food, I was going to say that it was pre Covid standard, but it was much better than that, it was the same standard when we were last on Aurora in 2015. Very well done P&O.

I will be mailing Paul Ludlow to tell him

 

There was only one critique that was with the Beach House. The food, waiters and especially the head waiter were very poor.

 

It was a lovely cruise with if I can say it, a very traditional P&O passenger dynamic.

 

We are on Iona in 3 weeks. Hoping for the best.

 

I'm flattered to get a mention! 👍

Great write-up, succinct and tells the story of your cruise. Oriana used to be our favourite but Aurora was a close second and we would sail on her again in a heartbeat if it wasn't adults only these days.

We liked Iona and had none of the issues that we faced on our recent Arvia cruise, hopefully you'll enjoy it too.

Best regards

Damian

On 8/21/2023 at 12:57 PM, zap99 said:

Does the package include paracetamol.?.

Gavascon is only included in the Deluxe Package 😀

On our recent Arvia cruise we signed up for the Classic Drinks package (for myself, wife and son aged 13) on day 2. It wasn't worth it for us on day 1 as we took some drinks of our own and used the sail away drinks voucher. We didn't have a lot of onboard credit so that wasn't a factor in our calculations.

We thought very carefully before taking the package but ultimately it worked out for us paying for 13 days onboard (therefore missing the extra 10% pre-cruise discount) but including our Peninsular Club discount. On a typical sea day we would have teas and coffees from Vistas, wine with our lunch, another drink mid-afternoon, Proseccos in the cabin whilst getting ready for dinner, a pre-dinner drink, something with our dinner then one final drink afterwards. We also had plenty of bottled water. Our son didn't go crazy with his drinks package (included with ours) as it was restricted to Pepsi or lemonade on tap, or hot chocolate. He didn't have the latter and got fed up of the same drinks every day. 

Naturally we had less drinks on port days but there were only 6 of those in 14 days. We too made a conscious decision to have less long lunches in port apart from one day. My only criticism of the drinks package was the limitations, both for our son and us. Even we got a little fed up of the restricted choice of the Classic package, not so much the cocktails but more the wine list especially as some included were not available.

We have an included drinks package on our next cruise with MSC (a new cruise line for us) which appears to be more inclusive in terms of drinks offered. For our next P&O cruise we have substantially more onboard credit so if the offerings are the same at that time we will probably just pay as you go.

Thanks for the update and photos @Purdey16 all looks great so far.

We had a pleasant late afternoon watching the ships depart from Southampton and I took the below photo of my laptop screen capturing 3 out of 4 on the Solent.

11 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

What was there before? I thought that period is usually a Canaries cruise in previous years - it seems to be in 2025 as well.

I have no idea, just thought I'd take a look at the future cruises online and spotted the gap.

Looks like Britannia has a gap in its schedule 6th to 20th April 2024 so likely to get a full repair then?