Eglesbrech

6 minutes ago, Bin man said:

Thanks again .You said even for breakfast ,did both mdrs open for breakfast and was that for a table for 2

No that was for any table regardless of size. We would have shared happily.

We went to the buffet when informed the queue was too long for the MDR. The buffet also had queues and cool food on offer.

6 hours ago, Bin man said:

If you ask fir freedom dinning do you still have to queue or take a buzzer or are you able to use the app if they use it 

Yes you have to queue and take a buzzer (even for breakfast).

It seems to change radically from cruise to cruise as some people have reported a really great experience with few issues and no waiting and others not.
 

Our most recent cruise (April 24) was dreadful with long waits to the point that we requested a move to fixed dining as that was better than the constant and endless waiting with a pager.

All packed and off on our travels tomorrow. Catch up with you all in 2 weeks. Will pop in as WiFi allows.

Stay well all.

22 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Nope, it was cancelled along with most BA flights to London this afternoon/evening, we are told they don't think we will get back to London today by BA.  Airport hotels are now officially no go so caught the airport bus back to Waverley and now booked on 17:30 train to Kings Cross arriving 22.08.  Then we plan on using underground or Elizabeth Line back to Heathrow for our car which is at Hilton Terminal 5 - a taxi from the airport hopefully followed by the 2 hour drive home.  All of this assuming the London trains work, otherwise we head east to my sister in law in Hornchurch and back to Heathrow tomorrow. Thankfully I overbooked the parking by two days so not a problem there I hope!

 

BA not really able to help as total confusion.  Hopefully we will get compensation as we should have flown yesterday evening.  They have confirmed to hold all receipts and submit claim.  

What a rotten end to your holiday. I hope the trains go according to plan and you get home. As you say they should pay for everything as you would not be in this situation if the flight had gone last night.

BA have a bad habit of pulling Scottish flights on a regular basis if they need staff or planes for just about any other route. It happens frequently then they wonder why we get annoyed.

Some of my lot are stuck abroad in Budapest and they are struggling to get a way home. 
 

I hope you enjoyed the visit at least before all this annoyance.

@Megabear2 I hope you get home soon.
 

Some of my family are stuck abroad as well with long flight delays. It’s not fun or a nice end to your break.

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

Just looked it up,a sprinkle of cheese might enhance it.By the way,I found out last year with my Ancstery DNA that I'm 24% Scottish.

My husband is about the same English as his lot came from the Lake District originally.

Actually some people do serve it with cheese scones.

3 minutes ago, brian1 said:

That was also when I was introduced to Arbroath smokies 😋.

I love smokies heated up with garlic butter. First had it in a restaurant in Carnoustie, just down the road from Arbroath.

I make Cullen Skink with them too, have you tried that?

31 minutes ago, brian1 said:

When I worked in Dundee for 7 weeks,I had black and white pud and square sausage every morning in our digs,lovely jubbly.

I can understand that, lorne (Scottish square) sausage is tasty and much more convenient for putting on a roll than links. I like white pudding too.

My personal favourite with breakfast if I’m having a cooked one is potato scones. 
 

I’m hungry now!

9 hours ago, brian1 said:

On our recent river cruise they had local German blood sausage for brekkie.Now I love black pudding but when I cut into it OMG the sludge inside was from an alien horror film.

Try some Stornaway Black Pudding. Delicious (and no internal sludge)

2 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I was also bought on home cooked meals and it has stuck with me, we rarely have processed foods and both of us are careful about fats and sugars.  My parents were both diabetic mum type 1 insulin dependent and dad type 2 and I would hate to go down either road.  We are far from perfect when it comes to food choices but things like burgers, sausages, bacon, red meats and sweets are all rare on our table but we both enjoy eating out and will sometimes have things that we don't eat at home.

I am off to Amazon now to order Ultra Processed People, it sounds interesting.

Josy, I got the audible version and it’s Dr Van Tulleken who reads it. 
 

Wait until you get to the chapters on big business and what they do to get people hooked on surgery, fatty foods.
 

Like you we are by no means perfect and occasionally enjoy the “bad” things. My personal bete noir is bacon which I love but I go on the basis of all things in moderation.

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

You are absolutely correct in saying singing about the ‘ownership’ of Gibraltar was inappropriate and wrong. As a football fan, attending 20+ matches a season, I condemn it completely. However, a small minority of English fans (as far as we know not players) also bring disgrace to the game and whoever they represent by, for example, singing the theme from Dambusters aimed at German teams or making reference to tragedies such as Hillsborough. Only a small number, most football fans condemn it, but sadly we are as guilty as others.  

I was not aware of that re the Dambusters etc, you are correct that is just as bad.

I wonder at what goes through some people minds or perhaps they simply don’t think.

There is no reciprocity between them for the loyalty scheme (there was in the past with P&O points counting on Princess but that stopped in 2017) so unfortunately no, your Princess Platinum doesn’t get you anything on P&O.

Sorry I don’t know about the military service benefits, perhaps someone else will be able to answer that.

Well as you can see from the time stamp I am having a sleepless night. I don’t stress over it any more, just get on and do something, the something in the last hour has been making a curry for dinner tomorrow night so the house now smells of garlic, ginger and spices.

I was reading an newspaper article about the diet of many children now being two thirds ultra processed food, which is a worry.I was brought up on homemade food and the only UPF we probably ever had was the very odd Vesta curry (if anyone remembers them) but you were lucky if that was twice a year! 

We eat virtually no processed food even now with meals prepared from scratch, homemade bread etc. . It is much easier time wise since retirement so I can be more adventuress in my cooking but while I worked I still cooked fresh.

If I hadn’t already been a fresh food fan a book I read recently would have pushed me in that direction. Ultra Processed People by Dr Chris Van Tulleken gives an insight into just how bad all the processed food in an average modern diet is and how many hidden additives, sugars etc there are even in “fresh” pre prepared meals. The book is well worth reading.

Anyway I hope everyone else is in the land of nod having a good nights rest.

3 hours ago, pete14 said:

Do you think it would have been any different in the unlikely event that England had won? England were poor throughout the tournament and were lucky to reach the final. They won just two of their seven games within the scheduled 90 minutes, scored two last minute goals and a very dodgy penalty in the semi final. 

I have no idea, you may be right. I don’t see any equivalent with Gibraltar though?

I just found the Spanish chanting about something which has nothing whatsoever to do with sport or even winning inappropriate.

I see the Spanish Euro winning team have been totally inappropriate during their celebration in Madrid, according to reports.

Less than gracious in victory. 

5 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

Following our cruise from hell on Sky Princess I emailed Princess guest services with details of the problems that we had on the cruise.  I have just had a call from a very nice young man to discuss the issues and to let us know that they have applied a 25% future cruise credit to our account.

We are not sure that we want to risk another cruise with them but if we are feeling brave or stupid in the future 25% is a good saving on the cost of a cruise.

At least they have acknowledged that there were issues.
 

Might be worth using if you have ever wanted to do a longer cruise at a quieter time, good discount.

@Adawn47 how is the BP now? Better I hope.

10 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

No you’re not wrong. But it’s also good sometimes to celebrate our differences and to remind others that differences do exist! We don’t want to go back to the bad old days of the 1880s when The Encyclopaedia Britannica stated ‘For Wales, see England’. 

Tha cumhachd aig focail, cleachd iad gu ciallach.

Or

mae gan eiriau rym. defnyddiwch nhw'n ddoeth (With apologies for the translation).

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I have always liked to think that the close ties the 4 UK countries have rise above petty differences, and that we have far more in common than any differences that define us.

Clearly I seem to be wrong.

You are correct John.

I am Scottish and proud of that but I am also British. We have indeed more in common than divides us.

Great review, looks like you all had fun.

It’s funny seeing the girls grow up, tell them I love their very pretty frocks.

22 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

Right at the top of the mall and chargable but cool toilets. It spun around and cleaned the seat

Been in the same toilets. I went into the “family” toilet in the ladies by mistake. They have an adult toilet and a mini one for toddlers to use along with mum. The mini toilet had a daisy shaped toilet seat,  very cute.

I don’t mind paying 50 cents for a clean loo (and you got it back if you purchased anything in the mall).

7 minutes ago, showingdiva said:

 

I could lend you one of mine.   Craigleith.   She's currently on charter to Svitzer at Southampton / Fawley.   She's a mighty beast, well used to hauling the carriers in and out of Rosyth dockyard.

 

Did you take out the Queen Elizabeth carrier? We watched that.

Lovely sunny day here today. Yesterday was nice as well, I’m just hoping that the good weather extended south to Edinburgh so @Megabear2 could enjoy her adventures.

Forecast for a drenching tomorrow unfortunately.

If it moved it got washed today to take advantage of the good drying weather.

@gsmt47471015 there are so many of us in Scotland and North England who get fed up with the long journey South. You would think that one of the big cruise lines would look at that market and try to capture it, as the South is now saturated.

The only northern choices there seem to be are Fred and Ambassador, both small lines with older ships.

I hope you enjoy your first cruise with Fred. There are things you perhaps won’t like as much depending on who you have cruised with before but there will also be lots that you will hopefully really enjoy. An open mind is a good start.

2 hours ago, Priya2 said:

Thank you Eglesbrech. The FO board here is very quiet 🤫 

It used to be busier but there are now apparently several chat groups on other platforms and I think people tend to go there. Fred ships as smaller to start with so fewer people anyway.