Coravel

We have received a letter from FOCL to say that they now only require passengers to take a lateral flow test 24 hours before embarkation but proof of a negative test must be provided upon checking in. This must be the spent test cartridge - a photo won't do. Not sure how that would make things any safer as it would be easy to submit someone else's negative test instead! They will take a few random tests at the port but anyone who turns up without proof of a negative test will be charged £25 each. Face masks are no longer required by passengers or crew but can be worn by those who feel more comfortable wearing one. I see this as good news and more in line with what we were used to before the virus struck.

During the past 10 months we've slept in three different cabins on the Bolette and all would have been very quiet if it hadn't been for bawdy behaviour by Fred Olsen staff late at night.

So sorry to hear of your nightmare scenario Egelbrech, it’s a horrible situation to be in. When the same problem happened to us on that ship our maximum speed was just 10 knots and we had to use a deep way harbour in San Diego to get it fixed. The ship was crippled basically.

I should imagine many potential customers are too worried about rising bills to book a cruise at the moment.

We may have had the discount because the captain was to blame for steering the ship through an area known to contain fishing nets. There were a number of retired BP tanker captains on the cruise and they kicked up such a fuss that the captain was replaced in San Diego.

That must have been incredibly annoying since Sorrento and Amalfi were the highlights of the cruise. Did they give you a voucher for a discount on a future cruise? When our Californian cruise was ruined because of a fishing net getting wrapped around a propellor we had to rearrange the itinerary because our speed was halved and ports were cancelled. Everyone was given a voucher for 10% off a future cruise.