pete14

Possibly. Gary Barlow may have turned some music lovers away from the cruise (only kidding!). I guess it has more to do with cost, and artists not being willing to commit themselves to regular 3 or 4 day breaks on a cruise ship in a cabin lacking some of the comforts they may be used to.

From that list, it seems as though the “Limelight acts’ are a level or two below what they used to be. I am sure they are very good at what they do and will provide an enjoyable evening, but they are hardly household names (as some of them used to be).

Although I am not particularly a royalist, it is a terribly sad day and the end of an era. Like most people, I have never known a time when Elizabeth was not the Queen. Now she is gone from all of our lives.

Which is another reason why having a thread such as this is important because it allows us to highlight such a scam more widely to save victims from a difficult situation.

I think you will find that it is a scam. They are trying to get you to tell them your bank details in order to pay the £1.49 that you don’t owe for a package that does not exist. Once they have your details, they can use them to take money from your account. Clotted cream every time for me.

In June, we took out a 2 year fix at £190 per month. Unit prices are still a bit higher than current variable rate but that will change in our favour come October. It is a crazy situation all round. Utility bills for what we use in our static caravan have to be added to the monthly spend and of course when we are at the caravan, we still use a surprising amount of electricity at home.

I just hope that instead of increasing the price of a portion of chips, they reduce the mountain of chips you get in a portion to a large hill. We don’t have them often, but a standard portion provides enough for us both, with some left over.

Working on the basis that fish and chips from the chippy is never sold with a side salad, rather than increasing prices, remove the superfluous greenery. Or is it so you can say you had a healthy salad for lunch without mentioning it was a fish and chip salad? 🥴

We have an aft suite on C deck for the end of October which we booked when the bookings opened. The other suites are sold out so if this area is still for isolation, they will have to downgrade us. There are 3 adults booked in the suite but I don’t suppose any downgrade will be available to comfortably house 3 people. Interesting times ahead perhaps.

The excursions were not yet available a couple of days ago when I last checked.

We have a ninja air fryer, grill, bake, roast cooker at out static caravan in order to limit the amount of expensive gas we would have to use for cooking. It is absolutely brilliant and far more economical than using either the cooker or hob.

Without wanting to prejudge outcomes, I am sure they will be back up to nine in the team before long. I am not madly interested in either aeroplanes nor the military but the free display they did on Saturday and the partially completed one on Sunday were incredible and watched and enjoyed by hundreds of thousands in the surrounding area. It would be a shame to lose them. There were other amazing displays as well, especially a pilot making a typhoon jet do things you really wouldn’t think were possible and at considerable speed.

We had three of them land on the grass in front of our static caravan on Saturday before the Rhyl air show started. Not the same ones I guess because they would need to have travelled a long way whilst travelling back in time. Just glad that the poor Red Arrows pilot who had his canopy smashed by a bird off Rhyl yesterday got back to where they were based safely. A great pity they stopped the display but entirely understandable.

Instant pies and apple sauce if they are Bramleys. 🥴

I think he checked in a few days ago and said he is fine but is pursuing other interests that are more in keeping with his views of the world on forums on which he is allowed to post such opinions.

Blists Hill in Ironbridge is an excellent open air museum but it can involve a fair amount of walking if you choose to see everything it has to offer. A nice dry day helps of course but cannot be guaranteed ☹️

It seems as though if this takes off, the days of free upgrades for those who opt to take the chance will be severely diminished. Selling something that once was free is a a good way of increasing profits with few objections in this instance.

As I said in my original post, I have checked my insurance and I am covered. When I took out the annual policy, there were two sets of Europe cover to choose from and only one of them, possibly a bit more expensive, included Morocco. However, the one that did not include Morocco did not include Spain either and Spanish ports are on the schedule anyway. The other one includes both Spain and Morocco. Still best to check, although I think these classifications are pretty standard.

It appears as though Iona is still scheduled for Lisbon on that day.

Thanks for that. I think an excursion will be the order of the day.

Wow, that’s encouraging ☹️. Thanks for your honesty. Looks like an excursion rather than a wander around.

We received notification of a change to our itinerary for Ventura N230 to Portugal and Spain at the end of October. For operational reasons probably because there are several more ships in port that day, including Iona, we will not be calling at Lisbon on Nov 9, but instead, on Nov 8, we will be calling at Tangiers. Has anybody been there? Are there any interesting excursions you may have done because the city itself doesn’t look very attractive? I have checked our insurance and Morocco is covered on our Europe policy which is good.

We have had a notification of an itinerary change for our upcoming Ventura cruise late October, early November. For operational reasons, we cannot go to Lisbon and instead, we will be going to Tangiers. Have any of you well travelled folk ever been there because I don’t recall ever seeing it on an itinerary before?

Maybe not worth doing that and losing deposit

We went to a wedding at the inn on the lake last summer. Beautiful surroundings and food / bar but not so impressed with the room we had.