Megabear2

Excuse my ignorance but what is the north side of the ship?

Whilst I very much enjoy the Cunard disembarkation method if my recollection is correct this was an introduction after the pandemic restart and prior to that the system was much the same as P&O's. That being said it is far better and I cannot think of a reason why it would not work on P&O.

This seems to be saying that your point is not about availability of accessible cabins but the width of the door, ie the entrance to the cabin for wheelchairs. This is of course a very personal subject as all wheelchair users do not have the same type of chair. The rules on booking one of the adapted cabins as a result do not distinguish between size and type of wheelchair being used. For instance none of the five people I mentioned in my previous post have the same type of mobility vehicle or wheelchair but every one of them needs an accessible cabin. When I cruised with my mother her manual wheelchair could actually fit through the door of any cabin on a ship as she herself was tiny and as a result had a smaller chair, however only an adapted cabin could offer the adapted bathroom which was essential for her use and safety so a fully adapted cabin was the only option. Door width, if indeed that is your designation of an accessible cabin, had little to do with her requiring the adapted cabin. As others have pointed out, in a serious emergency specific trained crew members are allocated to evacuate those unable to use the stairs. This description of unable to use the stairs quickly and safely has recently been adjusted to include people with walking sticks, rollators etc and as a result stricter controls over these people have been introduced. Cruise lines do not forensically challenge passengers on why they require an adapted cabin because to do so would be intrusive and very impolite, indeed if they did insist on doing this they would surely be more at risk of being discriminatory for doing so. At the end of the day accommodation providers, including cruise lines have rooms to sell. If nearing the final point of sale the options for the adapted rooms have not been sold to a disabled person it is not unreasonable for them to sell the accommodation to an able bodied guest rather than hold it empty. I can confirm as a solo traveller fairly frequently I book very late hotel rooms and am often told the only remaining room is an adapted one which I am welcome to take as it's late in the day, there is generally a proviso I may have to take a lower grade room if a disabled guest does require the room on the day. I can confirm I've never not been given the room they allocated however as generally the disabled guests do not book last minute and plan meticulously to prevent problems.

Are you trying to say if someone is disabled they have a right to travel on any cruise of their choice or they are being discrimated against, no matter if the cabins are already sold to others? There are pretty stringent rules being applied by P&O and the sister Carnival companies regarding who can book and travel in an adapted cabin and these have been very much tightened up in the last nine months or so. There are regular posters on this board including daiB, Selbourne, TigerB, Sundancer and Terrierjohn who are very experienced on travelling with wheelchairs and mobility scooters and I do not recall any one of them saying they and their partners or family are in any way discriminated against. Yes, they do say that most of the time they have to book early for the obvious reason, using Iona as an example, that of the 2,614 cabins 55 are accessible or partly accessible. I assume your point is you believe the ships should offer more accessible cabins but aside from the maritime law requirements it is surely a commercial decision of the cruise line of how many of each cabin type they wish onboard.

But surely it is supply and demand that drives the need to book early. What exactly are you suggesting they address? If maritime law states only a certain number of disabled should be onboard for safety reasons then there's nothing the cruise lines can do. Having just booked three cruises this week, two on Cunard and one on P&O, the first question I was asked for each was about mobility requirements such as walking sticks and the like. It was suggested that a full time walking stick user should request assistance for stairs in an emergency. Taking all these new requirements into mind, the number of staff to mobility impaired and disabled guests obviously has to be finite.

You're very welcome to ours! The local paper ran a piece saying since January 29th we have had only four days with no rain at all. Everything here has floods and lying water, I need my wellies to walk down Town Path to the city as the water from the river Avon is currently right over the path. The Environment Agency is currently building a water park which involves widening the river. Ironically in January houses nearby were flooded for the first time ever and at a recent meeting to discuss what's happening their spokesman said they have been taken by surprise at how much water there is! It was a lively meeting shall we say ... rivers and rain making water, who would have guessed!

An exhausting night with very little sleep. Thunder and lightning started around 8.00pm and continued to roll around until 3.00am. Now we have a damp dreary morning with a stiff breeze and according to my phone should expect heavy rain and more thunder at around 10.00am. With my luck it will hold off until 11.00am when I go to pick up the click and collect groceries. Actually that was an interesting one too! Tesco informed me that hot cross buns and Lindt golden bunnies were only available for delivery/collection until 27 March which was very strange. Luckily my husband called into Sainsburys on his way out to swimming this morning and they had no such embargo.

I've just double checked my itinerary and its Glengoyne. Is that a good one? Funnily enough I have a bottle of Auchentoshan which was produced for the last sailings of the QE2 which my mother bought for me. I'm making substantial notes in my travelling notebook with all your great tips and information. I'm really very grateful.

Really don't like this no table cloths thing as ridiculous as it is I felt less special in the one without. Shock horror, I've just seen a mention on the Cunard board that there appears to be a dearth of table cloths in the mock ups for Queen Anne. Standards, sir, standards!!

I've never seen either but doubt P&O would book any acts which could cause offence to guests. The only people I've I've actually seen single out an audience member in Limelight Club were ironically Eric and Ern.

Thank you so much for all this excellent information, I am extremely grateful. My OH and I are flying into Edinburgh on 11 July for 5 days. On the Saturday we are seeing Paul Weller at the Castle but apart from that we are going to be real tourists. Reading all the information on things just outside Edinburgh we wonder whether we should perhaps hire a car just for a day to take all this in and make best use of our time. I assume Edinburgh like all major UK cities is now anti car, so would it be best to go out of the city to organise the car pick up/drop off, and if so where would be best to set us off towards Falkirk? We are planning on using public transport and walking for our time there. My husband is taking the train to Glasgow to visit one of his clients for half a day. Having chatted to my husband last night we are going to add Stirling Castle to our July trip. Our hotel is called the Market Street Hotel and apparently (unless you know differently!) very near the main railway station so taking trains hopefully will be fairly easily achieved - unless you know differently ... Regarding my cruise visit, yes we are tendering so based on this I'm going to go with the Linlithgow idea as it seems a nice easy option seeing some things I hadn't considered at all. Bass Rock and The Isle of May are listed in the itinerary for sail by so hopefully birds will be seen. Kirkwall I've now booked the 2 1/2 hour trip which takes in the Italianite church as it leaves the earliest at 8.30am so hopefully I can then wander round on my return and find somewhere for lunch and trying a dram of the local offering. Cunard do the same as P&O with vague descriptions of when they sail but Kirkwall states early evening so fingers crossed I can fit everything in! Interestingly I just noticed Liverpool is an afternoon departure which is a bit of a disappointment. With the naming ceremony taking place there I was hoping for a longer stay and perhaps some fireworks. I am so grateful to everyone on here for their help with this trip which was a real impulse buy! Normally I plan meticulously for months beforehand if I'm travelling alone so this is to say the least a whole new ballgame.

Thank you for this information, perhaps I'd better wait until July when we are land based to do the Falkirk trip. It was suggested on the cruise roll call that Greenock is a better option for this visit but I've booked to visit Loch Lomond and a distillery with a drive to see various other Lochs - I thought it would be a good opportunity to see something scenic? Unfortunately the Stirling Castle trip was sold out and the general opinion was the Trossachs tour was a long ride with too little time. Invergordon I've booked Loch Ness and Inverness as again a large number of options were sold out. The Linlithgow idea sounds a great idea. Would I need to book a taxi in advance or are there plenty at the port? I was thinking I could seek out a travelling companion either on the roll call or once I'm onboard. It does appear quite a few are on the roll call but no one is putting alternatives to Edinburgh city visits at the moment. I assume that if I take a morning trip in Kirkwall to see some of the sites, I can look around the Kirkwall afterwards as suggested by yourself and Ardennais. I seem to have three tour choices via Cunard, one 3 1/4 hour panoramic, one going to something called the Yesnaby Cliffs and Ring of Bridgar and one doing the "Scenic South Isles" which takes me to the Italian church. The latter two are around 2 1/2 hours. Strangely the private tour operators show no ship in port the day we are scheduled for. Perhaps they doubt we will actually get there! Thank you so much for your help and ideas.

After two weeks of massive reorganisation and throwing things out, normality has returned to my home, with the return of my husband from his annual ski trip with friends in Austria. Small problem there - no snow! Ironically he came home Saturday and on Sunday night a large dump of snow finally arrived. Yesterday I finally got round to sorting and booking my cruises that I've been discussing and doing nothing about! Successfully transferred our Queen Anne September Mediterranean to a three week Queen Mary 2 transatlantic next July taking in Norway, Iceland, Canada and New York and booked the replacement Aurora Scandinavian 16 nights in August. Whilst talking to Cunard I experienced a rush of blood to the head and booked myself on the May Queen Anne Festival of Britain cruise taking in her naming ceremony. That one is a real leap of faith as I've booked the very cheapest inside forward cabin on TBA saver, something I've never done on a ship I don't know, but it was ridiculously cheap at under £2,000 for the 14 nights and a chance to hopefully see a bit of history being made. Today is being spent to figure out what to do in Kirkwall, South Queensferry (without going into Edinburgh as I'm going there with my OH for the first time in July and don't wish to spoil that) and Cobh. Unfortunately the archaeological trip in Kirkwall is full, so any ideas for there much appreciated along with Cobh. I was wondering if getting to the Falkirk Wheel might be an option from South Queensferry? Big irony, never been to Scotland in 68 years and now I'm getting to lots of places in one year!

I have added a second guest previously in 2021. My original booking was an outside cabin for solo occupation and incurred the charge for this. Some months after booking my aunt wished to join me. The cabin was repriced for two passengers at the price on the day of booking. This resulted in a new invoice where I was refunded the solo supplement and my aunt was charged for her fare. It was a simple administrative exercise. There was never any mention of safety requirements, the booking was just amended to two people.

It could be because your laptop is "outside" the definitions for functionality. Not a laptop but I have two Samsung tablets my favourite of which is old and going to stop being updated by Samsung at the end of this year. My Nationwide and TUI apps no longer function on it and I get exactly the same message as you see. My much loved S7 has just been replaced - it still functions perfectly - as a large number of apps (including P&O's) no longer function correctly on it. The problem with apps is they often require the newest software within your phone/tablet and cease to function once they consider your equipment too out of date. Having been pushed into changing by all this I purchased a new S24 Ultra phone and A9 tablet as Samsung have guaranteed they will support and upgrade for 7 years. Many people will not want to chase this continual new sales drive and I for one was quite upset to see perfectly good working equipment rendered useless by designers.

I have a mere 37 on a brand new Samsung S24 Ultra, the thought of 200 horrifies me! Reminded virtually every day that a number of them are draining my battery and asking me to shut them down. If I use the phone for calls, email and texts I can charge every three days. Use of apps and internet probably halves the time until charge. I guess it depends on which phone and what you do. My husband uses WhatsApp and goodness knows what on his Oppo and I think he charges twice a week.

Apps also take up a lot of storage and many of them want to run continuously in the background which drains the battery. It is possible to shut the background down but many wouldn't have z clue how to do it. I keep the P&O and Cunard links on my phone permanently because its such a palaver putting them back and granting the necessary permissions that my virus protection requires. Although convenient having too many apps does drag battery life considerably.

Currently 50/50. If the ground dries he runs, any more rain it's doubtful. My last update was last night. He's currently 20/1 which is considered will drop on the day, but again it is down to if the ground dries. He's looking fine for an old boy, came back off his holidays carrying good condition and is full of beans. Obviously everyone is in the same boat with the first official run of the season.

On to happier things for me! Just been notified of my beautiful new arrival. Born this morning at 3.55am, a filly ex Miranda by Cracksman. Her grandad is the mighty Frankel so she is a big tick on my bucket list.

I have one shining light in my garden. I have a camellia in a large pot which belonged to my father and is approaching 60 years old. The first bloom astonished me when it appeared mid December and it is continuing to offer a new flower every day. Rain, and yet more rain do not appears to stopping it's enthusiasm. Incidentally fellow gardeners, any idea what could be eating and stripping my daffodil flowers? Every one in my beds has a been stripped back to just the stamen yet the ones in pots are beautiful upright soldiers.

Hope you have your tin hat on when Presto2 reads that!!!!

I read it that the travelling group were all between 18 and 85, not that they wanted a no kids place. They specifically were requesting a pub, so assumedly most of those don't have a large number of children frequenting them anyway.

As someone who has encountered baby buggies/strollers in corridors, particularly on Arvia last year, I was surprised that Carnival seem to have omitted mention of them from their circulation to travel agents and passengers. Certainly been a lot of discussion elsewhere on CC about the enforcement. https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-cracking-down-on-mobility-scooters/125481 https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-notifies-guests-of-specific-policy/122283

I believe Moley mentioned on the closed Maleth thread that the Britannia Barbados flights were confirmed and signed up with TUI and P&O were looking to source for Arvia, particularly the Antigua sailings. The first post in this thread appears to confirm these are the flights not decided yet.

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