Ranchi

Used Starlink on a Princess ship and it was absolutely fine- didn’t once find an area without a signal. Nothing like the hit and miss cover that you used to get on ships.

We did the ships tour ( by boat) to the Cinque Terre. Quite happy with it. You could do the trip by rail or even commercial boat from the port but we weren’t too sure about timings.

Hi Sandancer, We sailed on Sky P last year out of Soton on a western Med cruise. We hadn’t sailed with Princess before but have sailed P&O quite a bit & also Cunard. I have never had a problem with formal nights (in fact I prefer black tie as it saves thinking about what to wear.) I was aware that Princess may be a a bit more flexible with dress than I was used to I decided to take a dark blue lightweight suit and wear a dark linen jacket to board. As it happened there were a lot of dinner jackets on formal and whilst I didn’t feel out of place in a lounge suit I would have been quite happy in my usual DJ for formal night. Have a great cruise

If you are thinking about a visit to the Falkirk area (on a land based break) then Culross is certainly worth considering (even if, like us, you haven’t seen Outlander!) We had a lovely day from Edinburgh including the Kelpies, Falkirk wheel and Dunfermline and Culross.

Our favourite ship is Aurora. Having said that we were underwhelmed by the offerings in the MDR. To be honest since the Covid hiatus we have not been wowed by the MDR (initially putting it down to training, experience and numbers of staff.) We have had better meals on Britannia and (whisper it) Ventura. This got me thinking; how important is the head chef in the quality of food presented? Also, do some ships have hardware that is better suited to certain types of dining arrangements? Certainly head chefs change regularly and we may have been luckier on some ships than others. Some ship’s galleys may by design be better suited to the demands of freedom dining whereas others better suited to club dining. Just some musings. PS I still find difficulty navigating the options in the lunch menu (if I had a £ for every time I’ve muttered ‘I didn’t see that on the menu’ as we left the restaurant we’d have booked an extra cruise this year!

There was a shuttle in summer 2022. As mentioned it is quite a distance. There is a new cruise terminal there and you can walk through it to the town (& small beach.) Presumably you could get public transport but I’m not sure of the advantage of that over the shuttle bus (£ v convenience). We were really taken with Oporto. Walking over the bridges to the old town.

What is it about cheese in the MDR? It used to be really good (ok, 20 odd years ago) but more recently has been satisfactory. The last couple of years on P&O the ‘choice’ (actually Hobson’s) has been poor. We were on a Princess ship last summer and their MDR cheese was even less inspiring than P&Os but here’s the point; wander up to the Princess buffet and there is an excellent selection of well prepared and presented cheeses. They had the stuff on board but just didn’t serve it in MDR.

I must admit I never liked the Whippy type ice cream served in the UK. On Sky Princess we both quite liked the soft stuff served on sun deck. On the other hand we were less than happy with the gelato served in the atrium. Perhaps it’s down to expectation; didn’t expect much from the soft stuff & it was fine, higher bar for the gelato and it was just ok. We had the plus package but we rarely used up our ‘allocation’ at the gelato outlet - and when we did we ordered the premium desserts and after the first time we requested no cake, no sauce, no sprinkles and no cream.

It may be of interest GOQ, Halifax will now give details of your holding to third parties e.g. P&O or StockPerks. In the past they have refused to inform details of your holding with them to P&O/Princess/ Cunard etc. quoting GDPR. For the past x years I have gone through the rigmarole of downloading/screenshotting/redacting holding details and forwarding to the cruise line. Last year I got two benefits cards ( for a different holding) due to Halifax automatically applying and myself applying as an individual. I phone Halifax last week & they confirmed that they will now liaise with third parties for shareholder benefits.

Or perhaps they are. Some say it comes from graved lox (buried salmon) and has evolved through grav’d lox to gravalax.

Thank goodness you didn’t have a fourth drink -a ‘Dorothy Parker’. Thoroughly enjoying the reports btw.

It will be interesting to see how the new system works for passengers who have shares held by HBOS companies. In the past, HBOS have refused to pass on information of shareholding to third parties claiming it was an against GDPR (cynical me thought they just didn’t want the hassle.) To get your obc you had to send a screenshot as mentioned above. Having said that I have another holding with a perk and for the first time in many years I got the perk without applying for it so perhaps HBOS companies have had a change of heart.

Be interesting to see how this pans out for different proxy holders. In the past I’ve had run ins with HBOS who refused to inform Carnival companies of my holding quoting GDPR (I didn’t believe it for a minute.) Last year I applied though they did automatically apply for a shareholder benefit (non-cruise) for me, so perhaps they have had a change of heart. As we have no cruises within the next 90 days I haven’t broached the subject with them. Last Sept. I sent a screenshot & that was accepted.

PS. The Wi-Fi on Sky was excellent. The medallion worked well. I also liked the usb sockets integral to each bedside light - bear in mind that there are no uk sockets in the cabin but each cabin is supplied with a uk 3-pin adapter. Also impressed with the motion sensor that activates subdued low level lighting if you get up through the night. No crow’s nest or equivalent. Huge casino/slots area where smoking is permitted.

Been a good few P&O and last summer tried Princess (Sky). Found some good plus points with Princess. Excellent boarding (15 min tops from taxi drop off to ship,) the app worked well. We pre booked 14 Nights table for two in the aft MDR before we joined the ship and cancelled as required if we wanted to use alternative dining. We’ve never bought the drinks package on P&O but did take up the ‘Plus’ option as it was being sold at a give away price which included gratuities. We don’t drink a great deal but add in a couple of coffees & bottled water through the day and it was excellent value (we had a pre dinner cocktail, glass of wine with dinner and the odd extra drink if we felt like it.) The waiter service via the app worked well. I was amazed. We ordered a drink, the app said ‘your drinks are being prepared’, a little ship appeared on the screen to indicate that our drinks were on their way and sure enough, there was the waiter who found us sitting by the window watching the sea go by from the future cruises office window (& that was one of the problems with Sky.) Our previous cruise history had qualified us for a high loyalty tier and we got access to a nice lounge for pre dinner drinks, entertainment & good canapés etc. Very nice. We also got complimentary laundry which is an excellent service (as the laundrettes will rush you $7 a go (if you need to purchase detergent as well.) Don’t all rush to the telephones…Princess have stopped carrying over loyalty points. Back to boarding: the staff will encourage you to go to the buffet for lunch but there is a very nice dining room available (Estrella in our case, for day1 lunch.) The buffet on board is very good in the main. When we were there there was an excellent range of cheeses available (cf to the miserable selection available in the dining room- Brie & Gouda…and for variation, Gouda &Brie!) We were not overly impressed with the food in the MDR. It looked very good but…. On the plus side the International cafe is outstanding as was Alfredo’s pizza place. We had several lunches there (& even one evening meal.) At the time it was free with the Plus package- I understand you now only get two free meals there per cruise. The gelateria was OK - the premium desserts were shocking but you could get by without paying if you ordered a gelato premium desert & requested no sauce, no sprinkles, no cake, no cream. I’m not a lover of Mr Whippy type ice cream but the stuff given out from the kiosk on sun deck was rather good! We used the Crown grill and also Rudi’s. Crown grill was quite good, Rudi’s ok (I accept it is at sea so its not going to as good as freshly caught seafood but we wouldn’t go again (unless we had loads of OBC to get rid of.) The theatre shows we much preferred to P&O ( maybe because we hadn’t seen them before.) The computer graphics- when they worked were very good (unfortunately the computers crashed during two of the shows.). The singing was less shrill than P&O and the sound balance was also better. On the not so hot side of things. The many of waiting staff appeared to be working to a tick box script and didn’t wait for or respond to any comments. The section waiter in the MDR came around every night and asked ‘Is everything fine?’ ‘Good’ and was away before any response could be made. The Princess Patter daily newsheet was chock full of activities - but almost all were un hosted. The cruise director tried hard but it was all a bit Ant & Dec (yes/ no interlude & getting passengers to repeat ‘one smart fellow, he felt smart..etc’) Our main problem was the complete lack of space. Passengers laying on towels on deck due to a lack of beds/chairs. No room in bars - hence drinking in the future cruises office. Did we enjoy it? Of course we did, it was a cruise. Would we go again? We have one booked on Sky this year. Do we prefer P&O. I think so!