mrsgoggins

The Captain has informed us that tomorrow the temperatures dip below 20C ‘reminding us we are on our way back home’. We have had gloomy skies and some drizzle today, so looking out onto our balcony is also a reminder. It looks like yesterday, Tuesday, was our final hot day. We are now only 2 hours behind the UK. This morning we attended 2 guest lectures, a fascinating one by Chris Martin on DNA forensics and the law - he qualified in medicine before training to be a lawyer and became a Medical Lawyer. I was impressed that after the talk he came to the front of the theatre and gave everyone who wanted to speak with him time, and from what I could tell, advice. We were sitting in the front row reading books on our phones, waiting for the next speaker, who I had mistakenly thought would be the excellent actor and raconteur, Robert Daws, but was instead the graphologist, David Bennett, who filled 45 minutes with examples of the handwriting of the famous and notorious and what their handwriting revealed. I have my doubts - he claimed a colleague on seeing Gordon Brown’s handwriting said ‘this person is a bully’ and he personally did not believe that Boris Johnson was a liar from his handwriting. We had lunch in the MDR (we were given a table for 4 to ourselves following my request of ‘a table for 2 if you have one please’) and we both gave the food 10/10 for taste. DH had soup and salad and I had a ‘bagel’ (which in P&O world is more like a bagel-shaped bread roll) with smoked salmon and cream cheese. The great British pudding was warm Bakewell tart and custard; which neither of us could resist, despite our initial plan of ‘fruit salad, if we have anything at all’ 🙄. Our TV has been giving intermittent trouble for days now and finally after 4 visits from the electrician, a new one was provided. I like to keep up with the news but the screen is so small and the audio quality not great, so DH still gets his news from The Times which we download. We both enjoy the occasional episode of Shaun the Sheep however 😄. This evening we ate again at The Beach House and despite the amount of food, (much of it left) we were satisfied what we did eat, although my salmon was overcooked. The carrot cake is in the fridge and may be eaten tomorrow. Tonight was formal night, which we decided we were ‘done with’ after 2 of them, hence our reason for choosing the Beach House, which is a relaxed venue that we like. I would say that about half of the people who dined were nevertheless formally dressed. Potato skins with incinerated bacon pieces Supercharged salad in a tortilla cup Hickory glazed cedar plank salmon Southern fried chicken tenders Warm apple and pecan pie Carrot cake The theatre went to 3 performances a night from 2 nights ago and thank goodness for that! On some nights it was virtually impossible to get a seat for the 8.30 pm performance after 8 pm. Now performances are 7.15, 8.45 and 10.30 pm. Last night we were treated to a very good soprano, Georgi Mottram and there were plenty of seats at the 8.45 pm show. Tonight was the Headliner’s show ‘Centre Stage’ and again, seats were still available at the start of the very lively performance . I imagine there would have been a lot of complaints about being unable to get seats prior to the changes. I will post Thursday’s Horizon in the morning. I stuck to my guns and had a very chilled day; no MDR seating stress ☺️.

A good account. So pleased it all worked out well for you despite your misgivings in advance. Welcome to the wonderful world of being able to take holidays outside of term time 😁

Some fabulous photos from your outings today and another great review. I especially loved the shot framed by the window. The lack of suspension struck home with me after a couple of our trips! Boy have we been bounced around. I didn’t have a stiff neck when I came away, but I do now 🙁 - hoping it’s temporary! I hope your cold is short-lived.

I love the term ‘buggers muddle’ 😄. We now have 35-night cruises booked for January ‘25 and ‘26 and I am going to request to change to Club dining, and just hope we are allocated a table for 2. It’s taken me almost 4 weeks to cotton on to what was happening with ‘reserved’ tables, probably because we have dined in other venues, and the fact that I wasn’t prepared to queue for 20 minutes each night for the dining room doors to open, and so assumed I was being told the truth about ‘only shared available now’, until my eyes told me otherwise. My next cabin neighbours being allocated a fixed table for 4 their personal use after complaining, shows that the squeaky wheel appears to get results. The fact that we were offered a table for 2 this evening despite being 10 minutes after opening may not have been a coincidence either! I have actually enjoyed the shared tables (with just one exception 🤐) but with the background noise of the MDR I really do need to be sitting opposite DH if he stands any chance of hearing me, let alone anyone else. Thanks for your insight.

Yes, your summing up in your first paragraph is spot on. To be clear, it was my cabin neighbours who saw a nearby empty 2-top table set up with wine in place. I only witnessed empty 2-tops (good ones with 2 chairs) tables after being told there were none available. We now just have 1 week left of our 5 week cruise, but it may be useful to someone else in future to challenge this at the start. Last night I did ask ‘ …. What would you do if I had just taken the empty table?’ and was told that would be okay if you came back to the podium to give us the table number! I fully understand the tipping scenario you mention, and of course that will be why on Celebrity, they try to seat you with the same servers, if not the same tables. They appear to have more tables for 2 however. Tomorrow I’m reverting to ‘chill’ mode, and will post more about the actual cruise rather than my personal gripes 🤞

Today’s post will largely be a rant, so feel free to pass by, as it’s definitely a first world moan 😉 It began last night when we were at the dining room on deck 5, Cinnamon, a few minutes before opening and so joined the queue, which does move fast once they open. I requested a table for 2, but as usual in the evening, was told they had all gone and so accepted to join a table for 6 with good grace - first come first served and all that. After all, it is freedom dining and not fixed. And then I noticed a few prime tables for 2 still awaiting their occupants! I took this up with the podium attendant who said they had all gone, on the way out. This was followed by waffle, some of which was plainly untrue. Tonight we didn’t go down until 10 minutes after opening and when I requested to join a 6-top (assuming the 2s would definitely be gone) I was told, with a smile, there was a 2 available! It was one of the banquette tables, but still better for us. As a reminder, DH is quite deaf even with hearing aids. We would still choose to share rather than take a pager and hang around (and that is why I preferred the booking system). When we reached the table, who should be on the 4-top table immediately behind me, but our 2 cabin neighbours. We swapped information and it turns out they had complained about exactly the same thing and had been given their own table for 4 to themselves. We both agreed that the situation was ridiculous for freedom dining, and especially for the coveted 2-tops. They reported seeing one of the ‘better’ tables already set up with wine before the guests arrived. Magic or what? I can understand why large parties are accommodated in this way, or those with special needs, but what is going on here? My neighbours also pointed out the tables nearby which were occupied by the same people nightly. Why not just do fixed dining? I believe I said earlier when comparing P&O with Celebrity, having to share is never an issue, because we dine early with them also (shortly after opening) and more often than not end up with the same table (on Anytime dining, their version of Freedom) and if it has been taken (it happens) will be seated nearby with the same servers. I will be writing to complain, but would anyone care to defend P&O in this? I would be genuinely interested.

Apparently the ship left St Maarten at around 1 am, so 7 hours later than planned. According to other guests, the Jamaican band, the Blue Jays did not have the correct paperwork to disembark. They are no longer on board so a solution was obviously found - do you think the Captain is provided with ‘slush’ money? 😄 Here’s today’s Horizon for the first of our 5 sea days. We heard the actor, Robert Daws’ first presentation and I found it very interesting. I will definitely attend each one he does, despite the temptation of our balcony on this warm, but breezy day.

Still Sunday night here in the Caribbean. It’s 9.15 pm as I write and we should have sailed at 6 pm. Around 6.15 pm the Captain announced the delay was due to ‘paperwork’ and that he would update us; since then not a peep. Speculation has ranged from ‘medical emergency’ to lots of loud banging taking place on the port side - we are starboard and have heard nothing. Anyhow, my meal outside at the Beach House was for nothing as we plainly didn’t get the final outside Caribbean sail away experience that a few of us were hoping for. I’ve eaten in the Beach House on a few occasions and have never been especially thrilled with the food but quite like the venue itself. Here’s tonight’s offerings: I had the double burger and maybe ate a third of it. To be frank, the size of it puts me off. DH had the brisket and managed two-thirds plus most of my fries. When I ate outside at the Beach House last week I had the Lava rock steak - again too much. You could share one meal at this venue and still leave feeling full. The dessert of fudge cake for me and Key lime whatsit for himself was quantity over quality IMO, and we had about a half of our respective desserts. A bit of a disappointing dining experience saved by the attention of Mark, our server, who remembered our conversation with him last week and showed interest. In turn, we were interested in him and will be filling out one of those ‘made a difference’ forms for him tomorrow.

Apart from posting the occasional Horizon, I don’t expect to post much as we head back in the direction of the UK from this evening, so I’ll do an update of today in St Maarten, which was another warm 26C day with some cloud. We docked at the side of Mein Schiff 3, which was a 5-10 minute walk to the port’s shopping area, although there were elongated golf buggies for people with mobility problems. Although we had been here before, many years ago, nothing about the port was familiar and so I’m assuming it has been built since our visit. We had pre-booked a shore excursion here, similar to one we had done many years ago - A glimpse of St Maarten and Margot Bay, which on that occasion was in a full-sized modern coach. I see from my notes that, after discount (5%) today’s trip cost £34.20 each. My current thinking is I would pay that much not to endure one of those small buses, with feeble air conditioning, common in the Caribbean, with 2 seats on one side, 1 on the other, and the potential to fold down another seat across the aisle. Again we managed to get the back seat so that DH could stretch his legs a little. If we had got on and discovered that the only seats available were those over the wheel arch, we would have got off pretty sharp. Rant over, I do realise that there are many much smaller people who would not even register this as an issue. The tour itself lasted 2.5 hours including a 45 minute stop at Marigot Bay. It being a Sunday, shops were closed but the colourful market was doing a good trade. The tour was just okay and we had a singing tour guide who treated us to a rendition of God Save the King! She herself was actually from St Kitts, a former British colony (where Ventura failed to make it into port a few days ago) and told us that she had to sing God Save the Queen every day in school as a child. We have booked the Beach House this evening for 6 pm so that we can have a table outside for our last Caribbean port sail away. The Caribbean band who have been on board, Blue Flames, and played by the pool, have now left the ship, and so a late afternoon sitting on our balcony is relatively peaceful again, although I do appreciate that it added to the Caribbean vibe all around the ship - last night people were encouraged to wear their Caribbean shirts, dresses, etc. I’ll try to remember to take food photos this evening, but actually what we really like about the Beach House most of all is the guaranteed table for 2. I’m happy enough sharing tables some of the time but you can have too much of a good thing. I’ve reached that point!

My holiday itinerary tells me that this is day 25 and we are in beautiful Tortola, British Virgin Islands. It might have been a good idea to insert the itinerary back at the start, but it’s only now, thanks to @grapau27 and @TigerB that I have the ability to do such things without fretting! Tortola is one of the few places on this itinerary that we have not visited previously. However, the fact that none of the P&O tours offered showed them using proper buses, I decided to check out the vehicles on offer at the port for leg room and accessibility - some of them have very high steps up. We found what we were looking for in the form of a $25 pp, 2 hour tour of the island on the bus below. We were happy with the legroom and I managed to haul myself in - although a few did require a bit of gentle ‘hands on backside’ shove from partners/companions. That is me on the back seat btw, and you can see there is plenty of room, and we were not packed in. They only collected money towards the end of the tour and had they attempted to do so, we would have got off before it started. Something you can’t really do with a pre-paid ship’s tour. I am going into detail here, because it’s the sort of information I would have wanted, so it may be of some use to someone else. The tour did a couple of photo stops, a stop at the place in the photo immediately below, where some of us bought drinks before taking in the views. Additionally there was a rum tasting stop - $1 a shot I understand - and also those who wanted it to be a 3 hour tour were dropped off at a pretty beach, with the driver arranging to pick them up again at 2 pm, so they had an hour by the beach and an additional amount to pay when he returned for them, which I think was $5 pp. Finally a couple more photos from this most scenic island (with a few scary hairpin bends it must be noted!). I will not add the photos mrgoggins took of missing bus front wheel nuts or rust holes, which he said would be useful to the Coroner when they were found 😂). This final one shows Ventura in the distance We keep being reminded that we must visit our Muster stations this afternoon, so I shall wrap up now and do my duty.

We're on it too 😁

Eye of the beholder and all that .... It looked fine to me!

Interesting. It is a Duo of smoked salmon (hence the difference in appearances) with rye bread and was carved very delicately table-side from 2 distinctly different sides of salmon. It was very carefully placed, so I assume that is the way it is meant to look. It was delicious.

A brief update on last night’s meal in Epicurean which was really good again, with the exception of the potatoes (or chips for that matter, as selected on last visit). I had already decided to mention them, when, lo and behold @Selbourne mentioned them first. Everything else tasted freshly prepared, but the potatoes and chips have a reheated taste, one piece of boiled potato was firm to the bite. It was no matter since there is more than enough food without potatoes. My starter is obvious from the photo, but DH had a cheese mousse (menu B). We both had the lamb next which we both enjoyed but DH thought the lamb cooked two ways on menu A had the edge, so I’ll be trying that next week. I didn’t photograph my dessert, which was a pleasant, if unremarkable panna cotta accompanied by a tasty black charcoal coconut ice cream. DH had the cheese plate, which is huge and I reckon that must contain in the region of 1000+ calories alone! We brought the fruit cake back with us to have with afternoon coffee. The evening was rounded off nicely with a visit to the theatre to see the MacDonald brothers, who had apparently done very well on the X Factor 18 or so years ago. Again, by 8.10 pm it was standing room only so I remain puzzled as to why they do not bring the timing of both shows forward by one hour so that a 9.30 pm performance would be more appealing to most, than the current 10.30 pm performance! They were excellent by the way, and rounded off their show with a great Audience participation rendition of ‘I’m gonna be (500 miles)’ although in my head I was singing ‘Bobby Davro’ as in the Peter Kay version done for Children in Need 😁

What an excellent and detailed account of yet another challenging day for you both, so my hearty thanks for doing it 💐. We have previously enjoyed a stay in New Orleans under our own steam, and it looks so very different in the sun of course. Glad to hear you enjoyed the beignets, as no visit would be complete without. We also tried our first Po' boys there. On the subject of food, I completely agree about P&O and potatoes! I'll be touching on that topic on my next write-up. I'm not a prayer, but I really hope it's not too long before you are able to refer to your cruise as one of two halves, with Miami being the exception in the first half, and with the second half being a dream 🤞

That looks miserable. It must start to improve soon.

Anthem now leaving St Kitts, whilst a Marella (stopped predictive text from changing to Marbella in time this time!) ship is still in port ….. smirking 😉

I look on @Selbourne's post of the menu each day to see what we will have here on Ventura. However tonight is (another) Epicurean night 🎉 Thanks again for the lesson on inserting photos, by jove I think I've got it ☺️

See the Captain’s explanation in my long post.

Thursday 25th January, bobbing around off the coast of St Kitts as a previous post explained. We’ve heard guest speaker David Bennett’s fill-in talk this morning about how he came to be a ship’s guest speaker - his subject is graphology (handwriting) - along with some interesting anecdotes that filled 45 minutes pleasantly. Otherwise we have spent time on the balcony reading and snoozing. Along with additional fit steps classes etc, they also, by request, put on another showing of the film Oppenheimer, which we would both like to see, but as it’s 3 hours long, are minded to await its TV debut when we can watch it over 2 days. I’ll do a brief, cough cough (I’ll try!), run down of the last few days. Tuesday, 23rd, Guadeloupe As previously posted, I had already cancelled my eagerly anticipated Death in Paradise tour largely because of my fear of the amount of walking (1.5 hours) they cautioned in the blurb. I had wrestled with this decision however, but the final push to cancelling came by the BBC’s weather service forecasting rain for much of the day in Guadeloupe - and they proved to be so very right! It rained for most of the day with just a few brief let-ups and many passengers on tours got soaked. However, about 10 am, it had stopped for a while and so we went out to explore the port, about which we had heard not one good thing. Mrgoggins found it fascinating 😀, whilst I thought it merely lived down to expectations. He said ‘it’s just like the back streets of so many scruffy parts of some French towns’ and asked if I didn’t think it resembled the back streets of Calais for instance, where (thanks to his job) we spent much time back in the day. Anyhow, we found a good supermarket, purchased some pear juice, a packet of palmiers biscuits and a supermarket cool bag with Guadeloupe writ large on it, which DH will look after. He asked if he resembled Roy from Coronation Street as we made our way back to the ship. He did. When we got back to the immediate area by the ship, the tour group we should have been with approached, and judging by the passengers with walking sticks and walkers going for the bus, others obviously didn’t worry about it the walking as much as me. Had it not been for the forecast weather, we would have taken private transport (modern looking vehicles) to do the Death in Paradise tour, for which the going rate seemed to be 40 euros per person - one hour to get there, an hour’s stay and an hour back to the ship. For anyone considering this in the future, I have been told that independent travellers must pay to enter the police station/jail, but not on the ship’s tour. Here’s hoping I make it in January 2026 🤞. Wednesday, 24th January I’m failing to be brief again so I’ll try with Antigua, where we have visited 3 times previously and done tours, so we had nothing planned, it supposedly being the day after a trip and a ‘chill day’. Enchanted Princess was already docked in pole position when we arrived and so we had a long walk in blistering heat, with no shade or seating along the way from our berth to the port’s shopping area. For fit people, probably little more than a 5 minute walk, but as you may have gathered, that’s not me so by the time we returned to the ship after a walk around said retail area, I was ready for a snooze after lunch; something I very rarely do back in real life. Up to date again now, and I’ll go quiet again for a few days, especially since tomorrow is a sea day en route to Tortola. Captain James Brown (no singing that song as you read) has just been over the tannoy to announce that he is now preparing to lift anchor and set sail and he did a recap of why we were not able to make it into port when 2 others did - they proportionally had more power; Anthem of the Seas has 50 knot capability and she made it in. The combined wind and current was 40 knots and this ship only has 30 knots capability so even with the aid of a tug, was unable to make it. It will please a few people from breakfast who weren’t getting off anyway, and have ‘missed port’ insurance cover. I’ll attempt to add a photo of Guadeloupe now, but for balance I must say that those I have spoken with who did tours, say it’s an island with much beauty.

Too high winds. Even with the aid of a tug, unable to stop sideways motion. Ship anchored off St Kitts because refuelling here and expecting tanker.

No, it's an infinite veranda stateroom and yes, the top window comes down (push button). Essentially what is your 'balcony' becomes part of your room, but can also be closed off if that makes sense. They are lovely rooms but I missed a traditional balcony. I believe the suites at the back of the ship have 'proper' balconies.

We are doing it with 2 android phones and an iPad on Ventura.

I you are on a shared table with 5 others there's barely enough room for everyone's food, juices, toast etc as it is. Nice idea though.

My take on Celebrity v P&O - I appreciate that this will only be of interest to a few, so a warning, it’s wordy so don’t even start it if easily bored 😉 As I have declared that we are taking at least 2 more P&O cruises, I hope you would take it that I have no intention of talking P&O down! This cruise is our fourth time on Ventura and we have also been on Azura and Iona once each - less keen on the latter but have enjoyed our time on them all. However we are Elite plus with Celebrity, and find the loyalty perks very useful. We are happy with either international passengers or mostly British, but the things we do value about Celebrity are: 1. Hardly ever needing to share a table - tables for 2 can be close together but there are no banquettes as far as I can recall. Even if your preferred table is occupied, they like to keep you with the same servers even on Anytime dining unless you request otherwise. My DH is quite deaf and so in a noisy MDR sharing a table can be difficult as I’ve previously said. 2. The morning breakfast service is usually very slick with someone constantly going around with tea and coffee, another with juices and another with a tray of pastries, in addition to your own table wait staff, who take care of the items you order from the menu. It’s also the same on Princess btw. On P&O trying to get refills at breakfast is a bugbear of ours, as I do believe I have already mentioned! 3. I’m not a fan of buffets ever, but the Celebrity buffet before it get crowded can be a thing of beauty whereas the P&O ones on this class of ship have a poor layout in my opinion. I’ve heard others speak well of the Iona buffet, but we were not impressed when we tried it - the fish and chip counter being the exception. 4. Being able to wander into the theatre 10 minutes before start time and get a good seat. On this Ventura cruise especially, it’s common to stake your claim to a seat 40 minutes before a performance with hardly any left 10/15 minutes before the show. I do put this down largely to the timing of the theatre shows, which are 8.30 pm and 10.30 pm on Ventura with the vast majority of us wanting the 8.30 show, unsurprisingly. Both shows would be much earlier on Celebrity (and Princess). 5. I like the Celebrity cabins and bigger bathrooms (no shower curtains) but miss the wardrobe/dressing area of P&O. I like that Celebrity does not have fiddly theft-proof hangers (but Princess does 🙄). Celebrity still offer a nightly room service with a chocolate on your pillow. I would prefer not to have this so a win for P&O. Photos are from Celebrity Apex, which will be berthed in Southampton this coming season. The 2 things that most often come up in comparisons are food and price of the cruise. Our take is that meals are going to be better presented on Celebrity and geared more to American taste, but we are happy with both. Over on the Celebrity boards they complain of it not being what it was with regard to food, much the same as some do on P&O! Price is an interesting one. I have a spreadsheet of every cruise we have taken, price, what is/is not included etc and I would say it’s not always as clear cut as it might seem. I have posted a few times before that one of my Celebrity AI Caribbean cruises last year cost less per night than my 2 week Canaries cruise on Iona, booked on opening and with little OBC but with parking! I accept that Celebrity is usually more costly than P&O for similar itineraries once you have added in gratuities if not on AI, but not always. As elite plus on Celebrity we get free drinks (from a menu) between 5 and 7 pm, 125 free high speed internet minutes each, 2 x free bags of laundry each, and the perk I value most of all, free specialty teas and coffees. We also get diamond status on Royal Caribbean (Celebrity parent company), so good loyalty perks I think. There are no laundry rooms for personal use on Celebrity but I’m not sure they have many cruises of more than 12-14 nights. A P&O laundry room is a big bonus. Celebrity ships IMO are quite classy with art works on display throughout the ships. We have sailed on the Millennium class, Solstice class (favourites) and the newest Edge class. Different classes of cabins can have different dining rooms, with the majority using the MDRs, but Aqua class guests dine in Blu restaurant (a favourite with DH, not so much me) and suite guests in Luminae restaurant (we’d never see the value in a suite for us). The speciality restaurant prices can bring a tear to the eye, but that was not always so before the pound ‘tanked’ against the dollar (🤐 @Harry Peterson) and we have dined in them all, but would not pay the prices now. Epicurean on P&O however, would be good value in my book even without generous OBS, and certainly Sindhu and the Beach House if you care for them. I’ll stop now and try to add a photo of a Celebrity stateroom/cabin (who do they all think they are kidding with the ‘stateroom’ nonsense?) If anyone is still with me and wishes to ask anything specific, please feel free. Thanks to those who lasted to the bitter end 👏😉