purplesea

We (an extended family of 7) were on Birtannia in September and had a really enjoyable cruise, no problems at all.

Hope everyone is well or on the road to recovery.

Colder of late down here, but a least it's dry and the sun is trying to come out, after what seems to have been months of wet and windy weather. It's been very mild despite the rain and the daffodils in our garden up coming up and some are in bloom on the roadsides. 

Took Christmas decoration down yesterday afternoon, so now just need to get them back up into the loft. 

Expecting a parcel of material to be delivered today. I decided to make some dresses to take on my cruise in two weeks, as I don't expect the ones I have will fit. Am I mad?

Hope you all have a good day.

16 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

Good morning. Best wishes to those of you not in the best of health.

 

Cold but not icy so my drive to Manchester Airport should be okay. Staying at the Radisson overnight then a 0600 flight to Tenerife to join the Azura for a couple of weeks. Looking forward to some warm weather, it seems a long time since our summer ended. Always disliked our winters but count ourselves fortunate we can escape, we have a trip to Paphos booked in April to also look forward to.

Have a lovely time. We board in two weeks time, so please leave her nice and tidy🤣

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us, it is an interesting read. I hope the sea calms down for you and that you have a great cruise.

It's my turn to cruise is two weeks.

Morning all,

A very wet day down here with torrential rain and colder than of late.

Avril, good to hear that Frank is on the road to recovery and his problem has been diagnosed, so treatment can begin. The worst thing is not knowing. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before he is home again. Remember to look after yourself and take care.

My day has go off to a good start. I've won £30 on last night's lottery, with a free ticket and bookings have opened up for dining on Azura, so have booked Epicurean for my birthday.

Hope you all have a good day.

Sorry to read about your problems arriving and embarking.

Hopefully things will go smoothly from now on and you will have an enjoyable cruise.

Look forward to reading the upcoming episodes.

I would go, get away from this awful weather and enjoy the sunshine.  

Hope you have a lovely time. 

We are joining Azura on the 19th for 2 weeks so will overlap with you by a day.

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

I just received an email from Princess offering us the opportunity to bid for an upgrade, we spend a lot of time choosing our cabin and always say no upgrade because we like to be sure that we are in what we consider to be a quiet position on the ship.  I just don't understand why Princess would even think that we would be tempted  to consider paying for an upgrade when we have already marked our booking as "no upgrade"

We are due to join Azura on the 19th and yesterday received an e-mail telling me it was not too late to bid for an upgrade, although we too have "no upgrade" on our booking.

Although (unless their are some very recent cancellations) my friend booked the last available cabin a few weeks ago.

7 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

Looking forward to Selbourne's travel experiences. We are cruising ourselves on Saturday on Azura, no internet package but data when alongside via our mobiles. He will still have another 7 weeks when we return !

If you are on board for 2 weeks we will overlap by a day as we board Azura on th 19th. Have a good cruise.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and calm seas.

Look forward to reading all about your experiences.

Enjoy.

2 hours ago, Peanut006 said:

Good morning everyone, hope you are all well today.

 

Not a good start to the new year for us unfortunately. Some of you may remember I had DCIS (early breast cancer) last year and I had my first follow up mammogram in Dec, they rang me last week, “chalky” deposits found so had to have a further more magnified mammogram yesterday, just waiting results now.

 

Our dog was diagnosed with an ulcer in her eye over Xmas, she has been having antibiotics six times a day plus her own blood serum into her eye. Saw vet again last night, it has got worse, appt at 9.15 to see eye specialist in Penrith. She either needs surgery to make a new eye flap (if they can)to try save her vision or she will have to have her eye removed. So it’s an early start for me today as it’s over an hour to Penrith even with no hold ups on M6.

 

Hope all goes well for everyone with appointments, treatments etc 

 

Michelle

Sorry to read this, but hope all goes well for both of you.

I used the app on Iona and Arvia, although when on Arvia there were more problems with it as it crashed on several occasions.

I do not want to have my days booked, planned, etc.  I had enough of living to a timetable when bringing up the children and working. I am on holiday and want the spontaneity of doing what I want when I want without having it mapped out before hand.

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I don’t think it’s about affordability, but there are a lot of particularly elderly people who find smartphone technology to be bewildering. For your idea to work, P&O would have to provide a solution for these people that doesn’t include allowing walk-ups. 

It's not about affordability. My mother does not have a mobile phone, of any type. The reason - she has no signal where she lives, and there are quite a few black holes down here.   

Happy New Year to all my CC friends. Hope it is a good year for you all.

Had a quiet night last night, just watched TV and the London fireworks to see in the New Year. We can normally see the fireworks in St Ives from home, but were not able to this year.

Had a busy day with visitors. Firstly one of my daughters this morning, then my two eldest granddaughters this afternoon so it has been like a second Christmas exchanging presents.

Avril, I'm glad to hear that Frank is improving and hopefully will be home soon.

Would like to say thank you to everyone for their support and friendship, even if only virtual, over the past year.

A Happy and Healthy New Year to all.

9 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

  Ive just got back from the hospital' Frank was admitted yesterday morning at 5.20am and it's been hectic. After tests he has Pneumonia,and severe anemia.which needed 2 tranfusions.To top it off he probably has a heart murmer too, he's having a heart xray  to see what it is or could be. 

In his 78 years it's the first time he's been in hospital and everything's come at once. Almost 59 years married and the first time we've not not slept in the same bed, it's really strange and I'm not sleeping. Sorry for the late post, but I needed to chat.

I'll try and read though the posts tomorrow.

Avril

So sorry to read this Avril, but I am sure that he is being well looked after and getting the best medical care. Hope Frank makes a speedy recovery and is home soon. No need to apologise, you have been supportive to me and many others on here, now it's our turn to be supportive of you. Will be thinking of you both. Take care, stay strong and look after yourself too.

Pam 

Dark chocolate with ginger is a favourite for me. Although I like most chocolate. I had a box of Lily O'Brians, that one of my daughter's gave me, and once opened they have gone!

Booking has opened up for me to check in online and print off our luggage labels for next month, so I decided to sort out our train tickets to get to the airport, therefore took a trip to the ticket office in Penzance this morning to get them sorted. Couldn't do so adding the bus link between the station and the airport at a suitable time for the return journey, so have only train got tickets as far as Bristol Temple Meads, now need to sort out the bus link. I thought flying from Bristol, as it is nearer than Gatwick, would be easier for us, but it isn't proving to be.  Lesson learnt, for the future - fly from Gatwick, it's easier to get to by train.

Good Morning all,

It's very quiet on here this morning!

Torrential showers here, but the sky is blue, and mild (12c) although it's still windy which is making it feel colder.

My granddaughter is due to fly down from Edinburgh today for the New Year, so we will have another family Christmas. It has seemed odd this year as one daughter went away, another has her MIL down so we haven't seen them either or my youngest son, although we will catch up with at some point.

Enjoy your day.

24 minutes ago, sweep2907 said:

You will love this! We landed on time around 1650, waltzed straight through passport control in under 5 minutes..then went to baggage carousel and I kid you not, our two bags were in the first 4 that came out. I've never seen such fast service, our bags almost beat us to carousel and we waltzed out door and bus was just pulling up for silver zone car park. We drove out car park half an hour after landing! Impossible to have done it any faster. I may write to Guiness Book of Records.....

Thank you.

Fingers crossed things are the same for us.

3 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

No healthy diet for me. I'm off on a cruise in 10 days.q

 

Nor me. I wait until February as my birthday is in January, and we too have a cruise booked from the middle of next month.

On 12/25/2023 at 11:43 AM, sweep2907 said:

Summary

 

Although I tend to cruide with Celebrity these days, I am still a fan of P&O and this was my first cruise on P&O for 12 months since Ventura and Britannia.

 

Have to say food in MDRs was excellent and a lot better than the other ships mentioned a year earlier. Epicurean was as good a meal as I'd had in that venue ever as was Glasshouse.

 

As mentioned the moodiness or lack of warmth from staff in MDRs was noticeable this cruise and a far far cry from the interaction you get on celebrity. I've never experienced this before on P&O and wonder if the company are not looking after them as well??

 

For what we paid the cruise was amazing value, and I wouldn't hesitate to do this cruise again every winter! Azura and ventura remain my favorite ships in the fleet. I asked a lot of other passengers about Arvia and was put off from trying it so for now will stick with the older ships in the fleet. Well done P&O for a great cruise with good entertainment all round, good food and overall a positive experience. 8/10 

Thank you.

Can I ask as you flew to and from Bristol, what was the return journey like?

As I have said earlier, we too are flying in and our of Bristol and my concern is the return journey. I realise that things can be different from day to day, but how long did it take for to get through customs and for luggage to be collected? The reason for my concern, is the last train home  leaves Bristol about 7.30 pm, which could make things tight. TIA

Morning all,

It's raining very heavily and very windy out, but still mild at 13c.

I was going to go out, as I need to buy a new watch and train tickets, but with think I will wait until tomorrow when the weather is forecast to be better. 

Hope everyone has a good day and stays safe.

Evening everyone,

Just had a read through the last couple of days posts, and hope those that are poorly are feeling better and on the road to recovery.

Glad to hear read that everyone has had a good Christmas. We've not been back long from Mum's were we spent yesterday and today. Yesterday there was just the three of us and it felt very quiet as there are normally more there, but today the number for lunch increased to ten and that is still short of our normal number.

Going to Mum's as is our Christmas tradition. Only a small gathering this year, but will be joined tomorrow by other members of the family for lunch.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable day.

1 hour ago, Dorset cruise fan said:

We re confined to home as covid has struck so all family celebrations cancelled.

1 hour ago, mercury7289 said:

Same here!

Sorry to hear you're not well. Hope you only have mild symptoms and recover quickly. Hopefully you can celebrate at a later date.

OH and I were poorly (not covid) last Christmas so had Christmas late!