Invincible

We also got off on Thursday, no problem with hot water when we got up at 6.30. As long as it's fixed not a problem for the cruise as they have 4 days to get to Madeira

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We have been before on a cruise and our daughter was married there 18 years ago, at that time we were there for 2 weeks so many of the tourist attractions we have already seen, just looking this time for somewhere to walk to, have a beer or three and chill. Will check out Vigie beach

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Don't have a clue about Charlotte don't even know where it is but when we've been before midweek there is a small market area with a bar in the corner and a small selection of shops near the alternative dock to the one we've always used

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We will be here in January on a Sunday, we visited once before on a Sunday and walked into the town but practically everywhere was closed, couldn't even find a bar for a drink before returning to the ship. That was a few years ago, is this still the case does anyone know.

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Thanks everyone I think we are going to hire a car then do as much as we can in the day, certainly the volcanoes national park and crater rim drive look like a good starting point but not sure how much of the day that will take up.

Stopping off for a day in Hilo early April, been once before and did helicopter trip over volcano, then the Hilo Hatties bus to their store, looking for different things to do this time, already have a quote for car hire any suggestions most welcome.

We will be stopping in Jeju-do in late March this year 2016. As always the ship excursions are expensive for even the most basic tours, does anyone know if we are likely to be able to pick up a tour on shore when we arrive at a more reasonable cost.

What weather can we expect this time of the year

Depends on what you want to do, if you enjoy using the spa, the casino and visiting the shops onboard then yes you're ideal HAL clients likewise if you enjoy good food as that's also pretty good but if you like lots of daytime activities great and varied entertainment you may want to think again.

Agree the Unexpected Boys were good but I've seen better (check out The Octaves on facebook) and their silly play acting between numbers rather than personally connecting with their audience was amateurish and annoying, wasn't over enthused by the pianist in the piano bar but accept that's down to personal taste, comedians were poor, there was a ventriloquist and magician that would struggle to get a booking at a kids party and while the singers were good on their own the singer and dancers shows were poor, I'm sure they're all talented performers but the production and direction was very weak compared to what I've seen before, indeed we were on another ship for 17 nights during the summer and the very professional group of singers and dancers did 7 different full shows on Zuiderdam over 27 nights we saw 2 shows twice, we'll make that 1 twice in error we didn't go back to the other.

We did still enjoy our cruise but it's a shame that it could have been so much better, we had cruised a year ago on Statendam but we'd hoped that being on a bigger ship there may have been more activities, needless to say we've learned our lesson and unless an incredible deal or itinerary is on offer we won't be cruising with HAL again.

We have just returned from 4 weeks on Zuiderdam, to be honest the entertainment particularly in the Vista Lounge was the worst we had experienced on any cruise ship by quite a margin. Dave and Joel, the cruise director and the show host obviously worked very hard but appeared to have no other support so daytime activities were a bit thin if you didn't want to use the spa, casino or shops. Other ships we've been on have an entertainments team of anything from 5 to 8 all supporting each other why do HAL think that 2 people can entertain nearly 2000 guests successfully.

Another issue to comment on, we had cabin 309 forward on the starboard side, it was very noisy at times and we spoke to many others on the same deck further back who said they experienced a lot of noise from the kitchens immediately above them.

Actually I think it's called lower promenade deck on board but it's the deck you can walk around on the outside. We had a cabin which looked out onto this deck, the windows have some sort of privacy film on them which stops people looking in to your room, this is fine in daylight but at night when the lights are on in your cabin and it's dark outside be certain to draw your curtains securely as the privacy film does not work then, we were surprised one evening walking around the deck to see one elderly gentleman sitting in the cabin in his underwear as he had decided to open his curtains. We are not nosey people but the light from a cabin does draw your eyes.

HAL have a roll call in the area where you muster until everyone is there nothing continues, there are reports of people being disembarked because they didn't attend the muster drill but I'm not sure if that's true or not. The only time we avoided it was on an MSC cruise, we embarked in Barcelona and had what you could only call a token muster when we were shown how to put on a life jacket and little else, the full muster took part the day before we got off and we stayed in our cabin. Cruising again with HAL in the autumn and expecting 3 separate muster drills as the cruise is sold as 3 separate cruises.

Usually have a couple of bags of sweets from the £1 shop, what I'd really like to take though is a barrel ( or two) of good English ale on board, some of the insipid so called continental beers have no flavour or taste more like fizzy cats pi55.

I have to say I'm disappointed with our agent regarding this, at the time of booking we were assured that if we wanted to make this change before travelling it would not be a problem or we could do it once on board, we did actually press the agent over this at the time of booking. If it does become a problem I will not use this agent again, I don't want to identify the agent but the company is named after a town in Derbyshire.

Thank for the responses, I think in our case both girls are mature enough to share, indeed P&O publicised a video blog on Facebook by a14 year old actor ( I forget his name but he was in "Outnumbered" ) who was sharing with a friend while his parents were in another cabin. In our situation we are not next door to each other but fairly close on the same deck, we do not have a balcony cabin. Another point is that the 14 year old can come and go as she pleases from the kids club although we will have to sign the 12 year old in & out, I know this for a fact because I've had an email from P&O to that effect. I doubt that any 14 year old would want to holiday with their parents or Grandparents and be under constant supervision even at that age they need their own space.

We booked a few months ago now to cruise on Azura with our 2 granddaughters aged 12&14, as sisters are at that age they didn't want to share a cabin and as we were booking 2 cabins anyway they agreed that one would share with each of us. Our travel agent at the time assured us that P&O allowed children to share a cabin and we could change the arrangements at any time even when we got on board if needed. Now with a week to go they do want to share a cabin, we phoned our agent who contacted P&O and reported back to us that this is now something we can only do at check in or on board, does anyone know if this is going to cause us a problem. We know we can get around it by swapping cards but then we will be carrying someone else's card and it's not very satisfactory.

Just for the record we have printed our own labels for P&O, HAL, & Cunard in the past few years, it's not a problem for me I simply started this topic because from memory in the past the label printed full page, we then folded it twice and stapled it on, never had one come off yet. On an A4 page now you seem to need to fold 3 times and have a short blank area at the end of the label.

I've since printed one off, it's still big enough to wrap around a case handle and I can get a extra fold in making 4 thicknesses of paper so it will be even stronger, you can still see clearly the cabin number so I'll go with what I've got. Thanks for the replies the .jpg one was one I hadn't thought of.

We are off on Azura on the 14th, I've used the printed labels lots of times before with no problem, this time printing direct off the P&O cruise personalised page or saving as a .xpf and printing from there it only seems to fit around 2/3 of an A4 page. Always in the past it's fitted the whole page. Am I doing something wrong or have P&O reduced the size of the labels.

Last time with P&O we decided to arrive a bit later to avoid the crowds all getting there for 11am we arrived just after 2pm parking was much quieter, still waited around15 minutes to check in but the biggest delay was security, by the time we got on board it was after 3.30 and barely had time to get to our cabin before the muster drill. We too are on Azura on the 14th and our ticket suggests a 3pm check in with the latest check in 3.45, having to drive over 100 miles to get there I daren't risk getting there that late in case of traffic delays or the remote possibility of a breakdown, as we are travelling with our 2 granddaughters this time too who are on their first cruise we aim to arrive between noon and 12.30. We did do a cruise in June on Queen Victoria from the QE2 terminal got there around 1.30 and was on board eating lunch before 2pm.

And you can only use it for a "select fare" booking saver fares are not included. I made the mistake of paying out for one on my last P&O cruise, never again.

We are on Azura visiting Zakynthos next month with our granddaughters, they would like to visit the Blue Caves and shipwreck beach but the ship tour is sold out. There are lots of independents operating the tour from Skinari but that seems quite a distance from Zakynthos town where I expect we will dock, does anyone know if we can get a taxi and what sort of cost we should expect.

We cruised last September on Statendam to Hawaii and the South Pacific, we loved the cruise and visited some wonderful places but the ship was a bit dated and in the words of a fellow traveller rather dull activity wise. We said we probably wouldn't go with HAL again but an itinerary came up which we liked on Zuiderdam doing Alaska before continuing south to the Panama Canal and Florida so we booked it. How does Zuiderdam compare as a ship to Statendam?