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

[grapau27]

It was raining this morning but cleared by lunchtime so we took a picnic and drove to North Shields to see Oceana.

[Adawn47]

Mine's been a real downer of a day. Stuck inside all day because of the rain and then Frank decided to cheer things up by breaking my expensive glass kettle😣. Oh joy. Roll on tomorrow.

Avril 

[P&O SUE]

Hope today is better for you Avril. Day off for me yesterday and the weather wasn’t as bad as predicted.

I went for a socially distanced walk   With a friend and we ended up in a park. Sat on an end each of a long bench and had a chat. Was good to see someone!

Today very dull and dismal, at ‘work‘  now, writing this between calls!

[Cruiserjules]

 

Can I join in again?  Have been so busy at work, doing 12 hour days, 7 days a week seemed to be the "new normal" for me, but at last things are slowing down very slightly, and I have come up for air.  I just spent a blissful hour catching up with all the posts on here, glad everyone is OK

 

Of course, now that I have a bit of time...... the weather's changed!  

 

We're contemplating fish and chips from the local chippie tomorrow - first food we haven't prepared ourselves since mid-March, it feels very strange to be excited over chippie chips!

 

 

[grapau27]

20 minutes ago, Cruiserjules said:

 

Can I join in again?  Have been so busy at work, doing 12 hour days, 7 days a week seemed to be the "new normal" for me, but at last things are slowing down very slightly, and I have come up for air.  I just spent a blissful hour catching up with all the posts on here, glad everyone is OK

 

Of course, now that I have a bit of time...... the weather's changed!  

 

We're contemplating fish and chips from the local chippie tomorrow - first food we haven't prepared ourselves since mid-March, it feels very strange to be excited over chippie chips!

 

 

Welcome back.

Enjoy your fish and chips.

[drsel]

It was raining this morning but cleared by lunchtime so we took a picnic and drove to North Shields to see Oceana.

what are the salient features of Oceana, which made you choose it in the past?
what are its pros and cons ?
how does it compare with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival? Thanks

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, drsel said:

what are the salient features of Oceana, which made you choose it in the past?
what are its pros and cons ?
how does it compare with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival? Thanks

We first sailed on Oceana in September 2005 and she was like a sleek super yacht and only 3 years old and still lovely.

Next time was November 2018 in an aft Suite which was lovely but the ship was looking tired.

Our D+ Royal benefits plus their ships are much better.

Celebrity are on another level.

NCL restaurant choices are their USP for me.

Never fancied Carnival.

Princess service and food better than both P&O and RCL.

 

[majortom10]

35 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We first sailed on Oceana in September 2005 and she was like a sleek super yacht and only 3 years old and still lovely.

Next time was November 2018 in an aft Suite which was lovely but the ship was looking tired.

Our D+ Royal benefits plus their ships are much better.

Celebrity are on another level.

NCL restaurant choices are their USP for me.

Never fancied Carnival.

Princess service and food better than both P&O and RCL.

 

Oceana was built in 2000 for Princess cruises and was named Ocean Princess and was transferred to P&O in 2002 and had her official naming ceremony in 2003 but by then was 3 yrs old.

[grapau27]

21 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Oceana was built in 2000 for Princess cruises and was named Ocean Princess and was transferred to P&O in 2002 and had her official naming ceremony in 2003 but by then was 3 yrs old.

Thanks for clarifying.

It says 2002 in the current P&O brochure.

We also sailed on her sister ship Adonia when they were called the 2 sisters.

Adonia which started as Sea Princess reverted back to Sea Princess a few years later and we sailed on her again as Sea Princess.

[Vampiress88]

Flights look like they are taking off from 20th July. 
cruise ships seem to be far behind then if they are stopped an extra 3 months!

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, drsel said:

what are the salient features of Oceana, which made you choose it in the past?
what are its pros and cons ?
how does it compare with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival? Thanks

Couid I suggest you start a new thread every time you want to hear comparisons about various lines, ships etc. You currently have posted in 4 or 5 threads on here,  all basically asking the same question, but totally irrelevant to the thread in question. 

 

 

[terrierjohn]

38 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

Flights look like they are taking off from 20th July. 
cruise ships seem to be far behind then if they are stopped an extra 3 months!

but until the FCO travel advice changes we can't go abroad except for essential travel.

[Josy1953]

For us it is good day, I got up this morning to a message from my niece, she went into work last night and was told that next week will be her last week working on the Covid ward, she will be going back to her regular work so will be out of the red zone and back in the green zone. 

 

This is obviously also good news for the community at large because it means that if locally the cases have dropped to a level that the nurses and doctors can move back to regular wards then people will be able to get routine operations and treatments that they have been waiting for albeit that the waiting lists are now longer.

 

We all just need to keep with the rules so that we don't get another wave that takes us backwards.

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

For us it is good day, I got up this morning to a message from my niece, she went into work last night and was told that next week will be her last week working on the Covid ward, she will be going back to her regular work so will be out of the red zone and back in the green zone. 

 

This is obviously also good news for the community at large because it means that if locally the cases have dropped to a level that the nurses and doctors can move back to regular wards then people will be able to get routine operations and treatments that they have been waiting for albeit that the waiting lists are now longer.

 

We all just need to keep with the rules so that we don't get another wave that takes us backwards.

Great news, I bet you’re relieved she’s off the Covid ward.

[Josy1953]

15 hours ago, Cruiserjules said:

 

Can I join in again?  Have been so busy at work, doing 12 hour days, 7 days a week seemed to be the "new normal" for me, but at last things are slowing down very slightly, and I have come up for air.  I just spent a blissful hour catching up with all the posts on here, glad everyone is OK

 

Of course, now that I have a bit of time...... the weather's changed!  

 

We're contemplating fish and chips from the local chippie tomorrow - first food we haven't prepared ourselves since mid-March, it feels very strange to be excited over chippie chips!

 

 

We had fish and chips from the chippy last night yum yum, like you it was the first time we had had food that I hadn't cooked.

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, P&O SUE said:

Great news, I bet you’re relieved she’s off the Covid ward.

Thank you, we are really pleased, it has been a real worry for all of our family particularly her parents.  Her 10 year old face timed to tell me this morning to tell me that they are coming to visit one day next week if there is no rain so that we can sit in the garden, we are looking forward to that because we usually see them several times a week when we get them from school.

[Adawn47]

13 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thanks for clarifying.

It says 2002 in the current P&O brochure.

We also sailed on her sister ship Adonia when they were called the 2 sisters.

Adonia which started as Sea Princess reverted back to Sea Princess a few years later and we sailed on her again as Sea Princess.

We were on Adonia in 2015. A beautiful small ship. She's Azamara Pursuit now and moored up in Glasgow at the moment. 

Avril 

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

We were on Adonia in 2015. A beautiful small ship. She's Azamara Pursuit now and moored up in Glasgow at the moment. 

Avril 

Hi Avril.

The Adonia in 2005 was almost identical to Oceana and they were called the 2 sisters then and a different ship to the small Adonia you were on in 2015.

Graham

[Adawn47]

Just now, grapau27 said:

Hi Avril.

The Adonia in 2005 was almost identical to Oceana and they were called the 2 sisters then and a different ship to the small Adonia you were on in 2015.

Graham

We didn't begin cruising until 2010 after our flying days ended, so she's the only Adonia I know. We would have liked the old Adonia then, as we like Oceana.

Avril 

[grapau27]

30 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

We didn't begin cruising until 2010 after our flying days ended, so she's the only Adonia I know. We would have liked the old Adonia then, as we like Oceana.

Avril 

They were both fabulous when we sailed on them.

We sailed on Adonia first in May 2004 then Oceana in September 2005.

In May 2006 we sailed on Adonia again but she had gone back to being called Sea Princess again then.

Graham.

Edited June 5, 2020 by grapau27

[brian1]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

They were both fabulous when we sailed on them.

We sailed on Adonia first in May 2004 then Oceana in September 2005.

In May 2006 we sailed on Adonia again but she had gone back to being called Sea Princess again then.

Graham.

Our first ever cruise was the Sea Princess from Montego Bay in 2007.We thought it was great even though the pool grill was burnt out for the whole 2 weeks and people were traipsing around the buffet in their cossies.A lot of people weren't happy and knowing what we know now we wouldn't be,but we were greenhorns and still enjoyed it.

[DamianG]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

They were both fabulous when we sailed on them.

We sailed on Adonia first in May 2004 then Oceana in September 2005.

In May 2006 we sailed on Adonia again but she had gone back to being called Sea Princess again then.

Graham.

 

We cruised with Carnival and NCL but it was our first P&O cruise on the original Adonia that got us hooked. Lovely ship.

[grapau27]

5 minutes ago, DamianG said:

 

We cruised with Carnival and NCL but it was our first P&O cruise on the original Adonia that got us hooked. Lovely ship.

Great photos.

[DamianG]

14 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Great photos.

Thanks Graham, looking back at these I noticed how polite and well mannered the queue for the BBQ is! Nothing like the scrum we find ourselves in on school holiday summer cruises these days! 🙄

[grapau27]

55 minutes ago, DamianG said:

Thanks Graham, looking back at these I noticed how polite and well mannered the queue for the BBQ is! Nothing like the scrum we find ourselves in on school holiday summer cruises these days! 🙄

We have no kids so we always avoid school holidays.

It was nice seeing Oceana at Newcastle but she looked slightly unloved with lots of rust stains running down the side of the ship from several windows.

Oceana is 20 years old now and I wonder if she will be sold rather than refurbished when Iona comes into service.