P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Dermotsgirl]

19 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Cannot see it myself as too close to the Bank Holiday on Monday 29th May. It would mean 2 BHs in the same week on a Monday and a Friday.

They could move the bank holiday - they've done that for the Jubillees

[davecttr]

Just back from a cruise and confirmed my flu jab in Boots next Monday and booked my COVID seasonal booster for next Tuesday in my local health centre.

[Josy1953]

I have just had a surprise telephone call from customer relations at Princess.  I filled in the post cruise questionnaire after our July cruise and made a comment about something that I was annoyed about.  I never expected to get any response, especially almost 3 months later, but it seems they do take the questionnaires seriously, apparently they took up my comments with the ship and and the ship confirmed that we had spoken to the pursers desk about the problem.  The outcome of their investigation is an offer of £200 obc added to our account for our next cruise.  We already have £200 obc as part of the deal for the cruise so I now have £400 to waste onboard on an all inclusive cruise.  DH says there must be a piece of jewellery or something that I could find to buy.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Josy1953
I can't spell

[Eddie99]

7 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

Good morning everyone, I  hope you are all well.  We have lovely blue skies at the moment though it is a little chilly.

I spent over 7 hours at the vaccine hub yesterday and was exhausted by the time I got home.  It was the worst shift I have ever done, nearly everyone was an old person and many were annoyed that they had to queue. I had a sore throat from shouting because a lot of them were hard of hearing but didn't  have hearing aids.  I was so tired that we had a takeaway for dinner then I went to bed at 7 o'clock.  I am now thinking of stopping going to help out.  I did have my niece's neighbour and she had brought a large bar of chocolate incase I was working so that was really nice.  I am seriously considering whether I want to continue volunteering at the hub.

That’s a ridiculous way to use (abuse?) volunteers, and feels like the best way to lose them.  Whoever is organising should get a grip and arrange shorter shifts with more support.

 

I hope it’s not like that when I go for mine on Friday.  It’s at the site we had our booster in November, so I think it’s mostly manned by zero-hours, minimum wage, admin staff, alongside trained jabbers.  I think I described the set up as amiably amateur.  Will report back

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Eddie99

[Eddie99]

The weather is brilliant today.  Cloudless skies, no wind, very warm.  We walked round the shore, as the tide was out.  Had to wash the dog on our return, as there is a bit of clay amongst the sand and pebbles.

I was pleased with my pics of The Fleet

 

 

 

 

[Dermotsgirl]

2 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Just back from a cruise and confirmed my flu jab in Boots next Monday and booked my COVID seasonal booster for next Tuesday in my local health centre.

If it's Boots in Chatham, my husband had his flu jab there this morning and it was well organised and quick.

 

Are you going to Parkwood for your Covid Booster?  My husband had his notification via the My GP app, saying he could go to Parkwood, but when he clicked on the link, it didn't offer Parkwood.  He tried for a few days and Parkwood never came up, so he thought he'd try his second preference, which was Boots in Chatham, but Boots had disappeared off the list too !  In the end he booked for Lordswood Health Centre.  Not terribly convenient, but it least he's now got something booked.   

[pete14]

We had our boosters yesterday. All staff and helpers were friendly and polite as I hope their ‘patients’ were. We turned up pretty much on time and within five minutes were done. Not feeling great today though, but it will no doubt pass. 

[Josy1953]

9 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

That’s a ridiculous way to use (abuse?) volunteers, and feels like the best way to lose them.  Whoever is organising should get a grip and arrange shorter shifts with more support.

 

I hope it’s not like that when I go for mine on Friday.  It’s at the site we had our booster in November, so I think it’s mostly manned by zero-hours, minimum wage, admin staff, alongside trained jabbers.  I think I described the set up as amiably amateur.  Will report back

 

Most of the admin staff in most of the sites are volunteers, so not even minimum wage.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Josy1953

[Eddie99]

9 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I have just had a surprise telephone call from customer relations at Princess.  I filled in the post cruise questionnaire after our July cruise and made a comment about something that I was annoyed about.  I never expected to get any response, especially almost 3 months later, but it seems they do take the questionnaires seriously, apparently they took up my comments with the ship and and the ship confirmed that we had spoken to the pursers desk about the problem.  The outcome of their investigation is an offer of £200 obc added to our account for our next cruise.  We already have £200 obc as part of the deal for the cruise so I now have £400 to waste onboard on an all inclusive cruise.  DH says there must be a piece of jewellery or something that I could find to buy.

A watch, perhaps

Depending on timing, could you get Xmas or birthday presents?  Bags, perfume, booze,  sunglasses, books?

Or an expensive excursion you wouldn’t normally take?  I’m not at all keen on ship’s excursions but Princess do some superb ones

[SarahHben]

13 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Just back from a cruise and confirmed my flu jab in Boots next Monday and booked my COVID seasonal booster for next Tuesday in my local health centre.

I hope you had a good cruise.

[Josy1953]

2 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

A watch, perhaps

Depending on timing, could you get Xmas or birthday presents?  Bags, perfume, booze,  sunglasses, books?

Or an expensive excursion you wouldn’t normally take?  I’m not at all keen on ship’s excursions but Princess do some superb ones

We don't usually do excursions now because most of them are what we have done on previous cruisesand now we like to explore places at our own pace.  It might be a good idea to look to see if there are any that look particularly interesting  It is to the Canaries so not a lot that we haven't already seen, first world problem of having done over 50 cruises.

[Josy1953]

7 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

I hope you had a good cruise.

+1

[P&O SUE]

I’ve just booked my Mum and Dad in for their covid boosters, for the Medway people I’ve booked them into the Chatham Boots. To my surprise I got a text today from my GP to book one but it was for strange places, I don’t ‘know’ any of them, I’ve clicked the link but it’s coming up no appointments at all of the ones offered 🙄

I’ve booked my flu job at my work for a couple of weeks time so that’s one done!

 

We did a couple of errands for my parents this morning and then went to Bluewater. I’m shattered now! Back to work tomorrow after three days off.

[P&O SUE]

8 hours ago, indiana123 said:

 

 

We walk past that quite a lot and keep saying we must go in but we don't know much about what to order with tapas so usually end up somewhere else. We must give it ago.  Is it all small plates?

 

In your picture of Minster, Lees,  OH's  house and business was just above the lady in red and my house

was just a bit behind that.  I like where we are now, but really miss the sea.

It’s not all small plates, there were main dishes too. Hubby didn’t have tapas, it’s better when we both do because we can share! You can get carried away and order too much but he has calmed down now 😀

 

How lovely about your old house! I would love to be so close to the sea!

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I have just had a surprise telephone call from customer relations at Princess.  I filled in the post cruise questionnaire after our July cruise and made a comment about something that I was annoyed about.  I never expected to get any response, especially almost 3 months later, but it seems they do take the questionnaires seriously, apparently they took up my comments with the ship and and the ship confirmed that we had spoken to the pursers desk about the problem.  The outcome of their investigation is an offer of £200 obc added to our account for our next cruise.  We already have £200 obc as part of the deal for the cruise so I now have £400 to waste onboard on an all inclusive cruise.  DH says there must be a piece of jewellery or something that I could find to buy.

Buy some shares,  and get even more obc! 

[DamianG]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:27 PM, kalos said:

Decided to go out for Sunday lunch yesterday and decided on a night out ,so opted 

for the Hilton ,pretty new hotel (2018). 

The view this morning was pretty stunning as well .

 

 

 

 

Is that Sunny Donny? Looks great!

[majortom10]

5 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I have just had a surprise telephone call from customer relations at Princess.  I filled in the post cruise questionnaire after our July cruise and made a comment about something that I was annoyed about.  I never expected to get any response, especially almost 3 months later, but it seems they do take the questionnaires seriously, apparently they took up my comments with the ship and and the ship confirmed that we had spoken to the pursers desk about the problem.  The outcome of their investigation is an offer of £200 obc added to our account for our next cruise.  We already have £200 obc as part of the deal for the cruise so I now have £400 to waste onboard on an all inclusive cruise.  DH says there must be a piece of jewellery or something that I could find to buy.

Good for you we had some serious issues on our cruise on Emerald Princess in June and we reported them to Pursers Desk onboard and even asked for a Complaints Form at the end of cruise and was told they dont do Complaints Forms and he gave me a blank piece of paper and an envelope. We filled in the post cruise questionnaire sent to us by e-mail when we got home and have heard nothing since. Perhaps they dont read them all just token ones and you were one of the lucky to have been read. Having said all that whatever they offered me whether it would be an offer of onboard credit or cruise discount we wouldnt take them up on the offer as it was that bad it will be a long time, if at all, before we cruise with Princess again.

Edited September 21, 2022 by majortom10

[Josy1953]

18 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Good for you we had some serious issues on our cruise on Emerald Princess in June and we reported them to Pursers Desk onboard and even asked for a Complaints Form at the end of cruise and was told they dont do Complaints Forms and he gave me a blank piece of paper and an envelope. We filled in the post cruise questionnaire sent to us by e-mail when we got home and have heard nothing since. Perhaps they dont read them all just token ones and you were one of the lucky to have been read. Having said all that whatever they offered me whether it would be an offer of onboard credit or cruise discount we wouldnt take them up on the offer as it was that bad it will be a long time, if at all, before we cruise with Princess again.

We have done 37 cruises with Princess and I can only say that if the cruise on Emerald had been our first it would have been our last. 

Our last P&O cruise was on Oceana and was so bad that we said that we wouldn't go on her again and were happy to see her sold so I comp!etely understand how you feel about Princess.

We prefer Princess to P&O and do actually have one booked for next month so we will see what that is like before we abandon them for Celebrity and Cunard.

[majortom10]

16 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

We have done 37 cruises with Princess and I can only say that if the cruise on Emerald had been our first it would have been our last. 

Our last P&O cruise was on Oceana and was so bad that we said that we wouldn't go on her again and were happy to see her sold so I comp!etely understand how you feel about Princess.

We prefer Princess to P&O and do actually have one booked for next month so we will see what that is like before we abandon them for Celebrity and Cunard.

Our cruise in June was our 500-night cruise with Princess. Flowers, chocolates, certificate and proper bottle of champagne which was all very nice. Unfortunately, it very soon went downhill from then on and we enquired about getting off the ship 7-8 days it was that bad for us.

 

[davecttr]

7 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

If it's Boots in Chatham, my husband had his flu jab there this morning and it was well organised and quick.

 

Are you going to Parkwood for your Covid Booster?  My husband had his notification via the My GP app, saying he could go to Parkwood, but when he clicked on the link, it didn't offer Parkwood.  He tried for a few days and Parkwood never came up, so he thought he'd try his second preference, which was Boots in Chatham, but Boots had disappeared off the list too !  In the end he booked for Lordswood Health Centre.  Not terribly convenient, but it least he's now got something booked.   

Yes it is Boots in Chatham. For the covid booster I booked via NHS online (via a BBC link) and it asked for my NHS number, date of birth and postcode. Several venues came up including Parkwood Health Centre. I also have a confirmatory email. There was only one day available for Parkwood.

[kalos]

11 hours ago, DamianG said:

Is that Sunny Donny? Looks great!

It is and very nice it was too 😊

[Josy1953]

⁸I just saw on our foodbank site that they have had loads of flowers delivered this morning from Tesco who have apparently over estimated how many would be bought for the Queen's funeral last weekend.  It looks like our locals will be getting an extra treat this morning.  I  think that they over estimated house plants too, I just bought this one reduced from £12 to £4 and it even came with the ceramic pot.

Edited September 22, 2022 by Josy1953
Spell checker grrrrrr

[kalos]

Whilst seeking to save on electric I came across a solar table lamp that can also be charged by a usb lead that's supplied with it . The plan was to light up the bathroom when getting up in the middle of the night for the loo, as our bathroom has a heat lamp which uses a fair bit of electric .

The lamp has three soft light settings and on it's side a circle touch illuminated switch, that is red when charging ,green when full and a blue light if you leave the light in standby .

In standby it shuts down until dusk and then gives off a blue light without switching the lamp on and we have discovered that this is enough light to guide us half asleep to the loo ,without the need for any household lights . Nice for those warm summer nights sat having a drink in the garden .

Should we ever get power cuts we are sorted ,win, win all round . Anyone fancy one they are called .. Lancaster solar lamp ,we love it 😍 

                                                

[brian1]

Hi all,weather has turned here the last 7 days.Mid 20s instead of 30s.Sleeping with balcony door open still but ceiling fan off and single sheet on.Still lovely,hope Sicily is nice still @purplesea

Edited September 22, 2022 by brian1

[Sarah1974]

I had my private flu jab at Boots yesterday.  I originally booked it back in July (thanks to someone posting on this forum) for 19th September so I could pop out from work to go. 

 

Then it was the Queen's funeral on Monday, so when that date was known I went online to change my booking to Tuesday at 1.15 pm - perfect I thought as that's my lunch break.

 

I went to Boots on Tuesday lunchtime to find a notice saying they're closed for flu jabs between 12.45 - 2.15 pm for lunch!  I went to the pharmacy counter and was told I must have booked the wrong Boots store - no, I had the confirmation email.  They did agree I could go in at 8.45 am on Wednesday and they would do it then.

 

I went up to Boots on Wednesday and this time they couldn't find my booking health info (which you have to complete and pay for so they can vet if you're suitable) so I had to fill in a paper form.  What a palaver but at least I've had my jab and now have to reclaim the £16.99 back from work