Megabear2

Can you keep it for the next month or so, please? 29 days and counting for my trip now! We too have had a warm dry day. I've spent it in the garden and greenhouse planting up all my hanging bags and pots with the plants we grew over winter. Now debating if it's safe to start putting some out after the weekend because we still have the whole place rammed with baby plants and over wintered geraniums. Decisions, decisions... It was so nice to be out and sitting having a well earned cuppa and cake in the garden.

Are you covered under your own medical insurance in the US? If so would it only cover emergency medical costs or are you planning on self funding in an emergency? I have been involved in two medical problems one on Princess in 2022 and the second on P&O in January this year. The first was my aunt geing seriously ill in Italy and disembarkation to hospital. The immediate upfront charge on Princess was £4,000, followed by an immediate £2,000 requirement from the Italian hospital. Total medical costs for this incident ran into nearly £40,000. Even with full insurance cover we had to spend £9,000 in the first 24 hours. My own illness on Britannia (P&O's flagship) in January this year cost £2,000 onboard followed by a 48 hour hospital stay, 6 days accommodation once I left there, medication and a replacement flight home. Every penny of £8,000 but thankfully my insurer dealt direct with the onshore medical things and my flight. I still had to pay P&O direct onboard and claim the money back. Evacuation from the ship would be an extremely large sum. If you plan to self fund you must ensure you have immediate access to a five figure sum - this was the figure stated to me by Princess as what they consider "reasonable". I have no wish to be alarmist but I would suggest checking very carefully your existing cover via your bank, credit cards etc - I know a large number of US cruisers rely on Chase and Amex for instance. Sailing with absolutely no cover would be very risky.

It's difficult in both the US and Europe to get the £2,000,000 cover as the insurer simply does not offer such an option. A large number of my US sailing companions on Cunard rely on their own medical insurance and use an additional travel insurance attached to their credit cards for other things. The problem is well discussed on the Cunard boards. There is a CC insurance section in the general area which may help the OP. The UK has totally different laws on rights to the US, it is not allowed for a company to insist on the purchase of an item to allow a person to partake. It's a bit like the regular complaints over on the Cunard and Princess boards that US guests can book fully deposit refundable cruises. The problem us starting to be highlighted a lot more as a lot of US guests are now wanting to try P&O which wasn't happening much before.

I hope you had a great holiday. Certainly there were lessons to be learned last year. Personally I would always use the port bus as opposed to the shuttle as Marseille can be a difficult port at the best of times with it's very stroppy port workers! I'm glad to hear it was better although personally I've no wish to ever set foot on Arvia again.

It was a mystery to us too. Actually when I say bricks they were brick shaped aerated concrete but still no idea what they were doing onboard.

Mr Ludlow seems excited ... no doubt 99.9% will be as well! https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/po-cruises-britannia-sets-sail-after-multi-million-pound-refit

There are a great deal of engineering works planned on SWR in the coming months. It is probably a good idea to check the engineering website on a regular basis. It currently runs until July, the period shown is generally 12 weeks. Emergency engineering on top of these plans can occur, for instance last week a major gas leak occurred in Salisbury resulting in two days with no trains between Salisbury and Andover. https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/planned-improvements/planned-engineering-works?year=2024&month=7

Apart from some Arvia/Iona cruises which are in very late sale there aren't many if any at this price now though, at least from Southampton. Our 16 night Aurora in an outside cabin is costing £3,600 with £340 obc, I appreciate it's late August but even savers on the fringes are way over that amount in a balcony from what I can see at present. My only recent "bargain" has been on Cunard although I'm looking at a Princess at present which is looking decent.

I hope something has happened in the rooms. Our sofa bed collapsed when I sat on it in January and they "repaired" it with some bricks and slats of wood. I hoped the next inhabitants didn't need it as a bed as it could have become a princess and the pea moment for someone.

One thing I enjoyed on Celebrity Edge was being able to reserve my paid for restaurants immediately on booking my cruise. There were only certain times available but it was a fair spread. Once the released slots were full you could join a waitlist or just sort it out once onboard. It was a good incentive for early booking of the cruise as it was first come first served. We booked four months out and still managed to get all our first choices so not too restricted. Releasing at 120 days and 60 days is also used in WDW for their restaurants. Those staying in Disney properties have reservations opened at 120 days and those off site property start at 60 days. The reservations do not open in blocks but on a day by day basis, ie in a 14 night stay there are 14 releases of all restaurants on the properties. This system gives everyone access on the same day so those staying shorter periods also get a fair crack of the whip. Personally I really like this system, yes it is a little time consuming but it does stop en bloc bookings at X days out. P&O have a massive demand for very few slots overall in their restaurants and I understand from discussions that one of the big complaints their newer cruisers have expressed is that they have big difficulties in reserving those restaurants once onboard. Perhaps they will move to a different timescale to offer those who book earlier to have the booking timeframe as a "benefit".

French regulations on money/entry: What amount of resources must you justify? You must have an insurance certificate covering all medical and hospital expenses for which you may be liable for the duration of your stay in France, as well as medical repatriation costs and expenses in the event of death. If you are staying in a hotel, you will need to provide a hotel booking as well as a minimum amount per day of stay that differs depending on the Schengen country visited. For France, this amount is: 65 euros per day of stay in the case of presentation of a hotel booking; 120 euros per day in the case of non-presentation of a hotel booking; In the case of a partial hotel booking: 65 euros per day for the period covered by the booking and 120 euros per day for the remainder of the stay. If you are hosted by an individual, you must provide a certificate of staying with a relative validated in the town hall at the request of the person who invited you (note: at the border crossing you must also prove that you have, in addition to this certificate, a minimum amount per day of stay - this minimum amount is €32.50 per day).

Yes, so I hear. They actually called him first to start with as confirmed by my friend at the course. Onwards and upwards though. Back at Newmarket on 4 May all being well and I'll be there that day for the Guineas.

Huge celebration time!!!! Dutch Decoy just won at Newmarket priced at 9/1.

There's a message on my three current P&O bookings if I look at dining, it wasn't there yesterday. Quote Important Information Due to website issues with our Summer 2026 new collection this morning please call 0344 338 8003 to book.

I do not think this was in any way scaremongering, more trying to warn the unwary to prevent problems for them. It's very easy to walk into a high street travel agent or go online to book a land based holiday and expect them to be "experts" in requirements. My 78 year old very unworldly friend has just done exactly that for a two week package to Majorca in September. I can assure you he wasn't told anything about this or any other entry requirements that have changed since we left the EU. They don't have any access to banks apart from a Nationwide account run on a book, use the PO for their pension payments and despite my pleas to do otherwise use nothing but cash. Their answer to me is we want to be in control. I'm going to have to have a discussion as I don't want them walking round with wads of Euros.

Unfortunately I doubt that comes into it. My husband was asked to show finance arrangements going into Austria last month. They weren't interested that he was full board in a hotel and had prepaid for his ski equipment etc in advance. It's part of the gift that keeps giving that is apparently being applied vigorously by some countries going forward.

BBC are just running a piece on the €100 a day entry requirement. Most people shocked that s family of 4 needs to show €2700 available.

The wind has been very strong here but after downpours overnight so far no rain. Busy time building a new water feature this morning, very interesting in the winds but now running smoothly. More big excitement on the horse front, my latest new arrival has checked in, another beautiful filly foal by Perfect Power.

And me ...

My mother passed away ten weeks before our sailing, after full payment, and this is the clause Cunard directed me to. The insurance cover ceased on her death so no claim was made. I did not query it as at the time it was low on the priority list as I'm sure you'll appreciate.

The "flies" are actually gnats believe it or not. They do indeed come from soil in house plants. We have 10 large orchids and over winter these annoying little so and sos took hold as my friend watered too much while we were away in December/January. Once I dried the soil out by repotting they disappeared. https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/fungus-gnats

Having had exactly the scenario the OP is asking about, I can confirm that it is covered in the T&Cs at point 5. under the section Contract. Quote 5. A Passenger shall not have the right to exclusive occupancy of a stateroom with two or more berths unless the single person supplement is paid. If a cancellation results in a Passenger becoming the sole occupant of a stateroom with two or more berths, the remaining Passenger shall be liable to pay the single person supplement. If a cancellation reduces the number of Passengers originally booked in a stateroom together, the remaining Passengers shall each be liable to pay any increase in the fare arising as a result of such reduction. In the event that all Passengers who are booked in a stateroom permanently disembark the ship before the end of the Cruise, then the stateroom will revert to Cunard’s inventory. Unquote My travelling companion had passed away and I was directed to this clause when enquiring what my choices were. I subsequently added my husband to travel with me and a rather embarrassed agent had to charge me £100 for a booking amendment.

Thank you for your report which is very interesting. It sounds like a lovely trip. Regarding Apex and Iona the whole set up and experience on Apex would be very different from your cruise on an older ship, a bit like comparing Iona to Arcadia for instance.

Beautiful shades of green, it looks very restful.

We have a large Red Robin hedge at the front of the house which we have cut in February and September. I used to worry about birds nesting in it - we had blackbirds the first few times - but sadly as we live on a main road they all got killed every time. I therefore made the decision to actively discourage them and I'm pleased to say they've moved to the back garden and every year they nest in our neighbours holly tree but use our water features for baths and drinks, for us the best of both worlds.