Selbourne

Well for those of you who have been enjoying playing ‘fantasy cruise dining’, I’m afraid that these are the MDR menus for our last day!

I would agree with your MPW comment! Yes the same Cheryl Baker. She still has a good voice, but the patter and style of performance was absolutely dire in both our opinions.

Day 64 - Wednesday 6th March - Sea day We were pleased to wake to sea conditions that still hadn’t worsened. There was some noticeable movement at times but nothing to upset anyone. We’ve not needed to resort to Stugeron and our return transatlantic is certainly proving to be far less bumpy than our outward crossing. The added benefit of this is that our cabin hasn’t been creaking as it did on the southbound leg. Long may that continue. Paul Stickler’s morning talk was on the Kray twins, reminding people that the ‘lovable rogues’ image that some people had of them couldn’t have been further from the truth. After that we spent the rest of the morning in the cabin as I wanted to watch the budget, just in case there was anything that might result in me having to urgently change any plans. There wasn’t! I’d warned my wife that we might have to miss lunch due to the Budget, but our final clock change doesn’t happen until tonight, so I was done with the budget in time for us to get to the MDR before it closed. We then had a short break before going to see the Aurora Vocalists (passenger choir) make their final performance in the theatre. This was followed with our afternoon visit to Raffles prior to attending Ben Kearsleys final classical guitar performance in the Playhouse. We are a bit confused as to why his final performance is today rather than tomorrow, given that he has been performing every other day and was only on yesterday. Perhaps they reckon that everyone will be packing at 5pm tomorrow. It was our final Black Tie dinner of the cruise. My dinner suit trousers were already ‘snug’ around the waist before the cruise and I had feared that from half way through the cruise we might have to opt out of black tie nights and eat in the speciality restaurants (where it’s always casual), but I can still do them up - just 😅. It was a Marco Pierre White branded menu but without his dishes highlighted 🤔. Having had plenty of meals on this cruise that sound great on paper but are underwhelming in reality, I’m pleased to say that it was very good indeed! We both had the tiger prawns starter and the beef and lobster mains. The lobster was tails (several of) in a cheese sauce. We’ve not had lobster before on this cruise so assume that they must have bought a batch of tails, as the rest of the lobsters are nowhere to be seen 😂. At 10pm we went to the theatre to see Cheryl Baker. Prior to the show there was a film shown on the screen with all the crew from this voyage waving goodbye to us. Nice touch. It’s a great shame that there won’t be a souvenir DVD for the cruise, but I guess that’s a negative aspect of not having photographers onboard, as they used to do them. We had no preconceptions about what to expect with Cheryl Baker so had gone with an open mind. Oh dear. She started by singing ‘Baker Street’, which is a song which I love - when sung by Gerry Rafferty. She has a decent voice but decided to ask for the house lights to go up 3 times during the song so that she could walk off the stage and say hello to audience members and ask if they’d had a nice cruise 🙄. Once that was over she then proceeded to do a sort of slide show. Im sure that to a certain demographic it was all fine, but to us it was cringeworthy and after 10 minutes, during which time a few glances were exchanged between us, my wife said to me “do you really want to watch this”? My answer was a resounding ‘no’ so we left. Am I correct in thinking that she’s an act that people pay to see in the Limelight Club? Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the air con problems that have blighted the lift areas, the lifts themselves and certain areas of the ship (including the corridor outside our cabin) have all but disappeared now that we are back in cooler weather. I’m no air con expert, but I’m guessing that the system is unable to cool the incoming air more than so many degrees in these areas. If so, those cruising in areas with more ‘normal’ temperatures hopefully won’t have the issues that we’ve had on this cruise. The clocks go forward tonight to bring us back to UK time. It’s a long drag cruising transatlantic, but at least there’s no jet lag! Tomorrow is our final sea day and when I write tomorrow’s update we should be in the English Channel on the final run to Southampton.

So do we 😂

I suspect it’s nothing more than having to ‘rest’ a promotion for a while in order to trumpet a ‘new’ offer in the future, a bit like the 28 day rule with ‘Sale’ prices. Standard marketing ploys. Call me a cynic, but I also strongly suspect that certain grades are temporarily placed ‘off sale’ in order to show as sold out or with limited availability (to encourage bookings), only to magically reappear at a later date. I’ve seen that happen with cruises that I’ve monitored. I suspect that the marketing team at Carnival more than pay for themselves - unlike their IT team 😂

I think that’s what I’m having, minus the cheese plate (I have the benefit of knowing what they’re like) 😂

Today’s MDR menus. Final Black Tie night.

I can well believe it. My wife had the hanging speciality seafood kebab in the Beach House last night. What did it come with? Yep. Green beans 🙄😂

As would many of us, hence the fact that prices never stay as they are for long. I’m sure that they will drop again in the future. Now that launch prices are no longer certain to be the cheapest, we have a target net price per night (cruise fare less OBC) and monitor these prices for any cruises that we might be interested in. If we can get the cruise for less than our target price we will book it, whether that’s at launch, after balance due date, or any time between. As our target price is quite low, if the price drops after we book we know it won’t be by much at all. Whilst I fully understand supply and demand, cruise companies don’t do themselves any favours with these huge fluctuations in fares. The 65 nighter we are currently on (and indeed next years) are classic examples. Admittedly this is down to saver versus select fares, but there are people on the ship who paid £10k-£12k more than us for the same cabin type in return for £1k OBC (or £2k if booked on board under an ‘offer’). Some of these folk are buying things for the sake of it to use up OBC, as we would be if we’d had that much, and would obviously have been far better off with a lower base fare. Over the last few weeks, quite a few people on this cruise have booked next years 65 nighter whilst on board, again to get high levels of OBC that they may struggle to spend, yet only yesterday I received an email from our TA stating ‘just announced’ price cuts of several thousand pounds for that cruise. This sort of thing must infuriate people when you think you have got a good deal, only to find out the next day that it was actually a bad deal.

Day 63 - Tuesday 5th March - Sea Day Sea conditions didn’t feel any worse this morning, which was a relief. We haven’t had to reach for the Stugeron yet! I handed our steward the final bag of 10 items for the service wash, so as to lessen my workload when we get home. We got to breakfast comfortably (no clock change last night) so didn’t have to rush for Paul Sticklers 10am talk on ‘The Rillington Place Affair’ in the theatre. Even though I’ve read the book and watched the film, the story still raises eyebrows. Our cabin steward appeared mid morning with the two suitcases that we couldn’t fit under the bed. We hadn’t asked for them and don’t intend packing until the final afternoon, but I guess he wanted rid of them. Ironically we still have almost as much time left as the entire duration of the next cruise, yet it feels as though we are being told to start packing! Either side of lunch we just lazed in the cabin reading and getting up to date with things for when we get home (the WiFi package paying dividends again). At midday in the Captains announcement it was mentioned that it was currently force 6 but would worsen later. Stugeron still on standby. MDR for lunch, which I didn’t enjoy, other than the summer pudding. It looked good when my wife had it at dinner last night and I’d half joked that I’d have it when it re-appeared for lunch the next day (as many puds do). My prediction had come true! We considered attending the 3pm Ukulele performance but decide that neither of us was that bothered! We did, however, attend Ben Kearsleys penultimate classical guitar performance in the Playhouse, followed by a cuppa in Raffles (minus the free cake again as too late). Dinner was in the Beach House and was to be our last (of 5) visits there. Amazingly, I had to send back the nachos starter. Having had it every time we’d been so far this time it was lacking virtually any cheese and the chorizo that I’d paid extra for was nigh on invisible (Ok, the extra cost was just £1 but there’s a principle at stake here). I couldn’t make up my mind what to have for the main course. I always used to have steak but having had such excellent steaks in the Glasshouse I knew that what I would cook myself on a hot stone wouldn’t be as good. In the end I went for the ribs and they were good. I ordered the cheesecake and I’ve still yet to have a decent dessert in the Beach House! My wife liked the look of it so I swapped with her ice cream. We asked for cups of tea to finish, but rather than put the tea bag in the cup and add hot water, as they do in the MDR, the waitress came out with a pot. Now this would be fine, but for the fact that the pot had previously been used for coffee. Anyone whose been to a conference or meeting where tea and coffee are served in flasks will know that unique taste that’s part tea, part coffee 🤢 The 10pm show was the well known entertainer Tucker - so well known that neither of us have heard of him, so that was another one to skip. Thankfully, as of when we retired to our cabin, the sea condition didn’t seem any worse than earlier in the day. Tomorrow day 2 of 3 sea days to Southampton.

Having only been to one island it’s difficult to say. I feel as though I saw the best of the island in one day, so didn’t feel the need for longer. Nice though it was, I wouldn’t feel the need to return.

In 63 nights and counting we’ve never had Banana Butterscotch ice cream on Aurora. I’m off to register a complaint 😂

Yes, both Cunard cruises are Club, the concept of which very much appeals to us. We are also looking forward to being on a brand new ship with all that entails, but (hopefully) not the issues that put us off Iona and, by association Arvia.

Thanks. Probably not, but for several reasons, mostly my wife’s health. Another year or two of deterioration and I fear that it wouldn’t be possible. Other reasons are cost (we got it at a great price which I doubt we could get again, so it’s been great value - I’m not sure that we would have considered it such great value if we’d paid the Select price). Also, we feel that we’ve ticked the box now. The attraction of this cruise was the number of new ports. We will never get that again. A World cruise doesn’t remotely appeal to us - far too many long runs of sea days and not enough time in places that we’d want to see. Never say never, but plenty of people on here have already booked next years 65 nighter and we don’t feel in the slightest bit envious. In fact, I’ve just had an email from our TA announcing a big price drop for that cruise. If word gets out amongst those who have booked whilst on board there will be a lot of unhappy people!

No. May and November, both Queen Anne.

We’d love to be on that cruise. The itinerary is even better than the usual Northern Lights cruises. Fingers crossed for you. We’ve been twice. The first time there had been a massive solar flare that made the news and we had a sky full of lights, with greens and reds visible to the naked eye, not just the camera lens, but the second time we went (exactly the same week one year later) we saw absolutely nothing. Such pot luck.

I might do a summary on here afterwards along the lines of @Dermotsgirl excellent one ‘P&O cruiser does Saga’ as I found that to be extremely helpful in our deliberations as to whether or not to try them.

We have 2 more cruises booked for this year, but both are with Cunard. As I’m not ‘known’ on the Cunard pages I am looking forward to having a break from doing blogs!

Day 62 - Monday 4th March - Praia da Vitoria, The Azores We woke in the night to considerable movement and feared that our port call to The Azores might be in jeopardy. However, we managed to get in OK. We made it to breakfast with 2 minutes to spare and afterwards got our bearings from deck 13. Thankfully this is a port where coaches for excursions and shuttle buses come right up to the ship. Two pleasant surprises. Firstly the shuttle was free, which was handy with us having booked a saver and the excursions are on proper coaches, not those dreadful minibuses that we had to suffer around the Caribbean. We needed a wheelchair accessible shuttle and thankfully one was provided. We only had to wait about 15 minutes which was lucky as it can only take two at a time. We were dropped by the fire station and walked down Rue da Jesus (the main drag) down to the promenade. Praia da Vitoria was nothing special, but pleasant enough and frankly quite like a British seaside resort, but without the tackiness. We had a wander around for an hour and headed back to the ship, again waiting around 20 minutes for the wheelchair accessible shuttle to return. Chatting to the driver there is almost no crime on the islands and they feel that it is a great place to live. He said that they see the ocean differently to us. They don’t see themselves as isolated, but rather in the middle of a highway that can take them anywhere. Interesting concept, although I feel that the Isle of Wight can be a bit isolated and you can see the mainland from there 😂 We managed to get lunch in the MDR prior to me going on my final excursion of the cruise - South Island sights and Angra. The tour started with a long climb up to a viewpoint over a vast area that had been created following volcanic activity in the past. Apparently there are still two active volcanoes on the island (although not actually at risk of eruptions any time soon). Incidentally, I had no idea that the island was hit hard by a major earthquake in 1980 and around one third of the towns had been wiped out, so a lot of the current buildings were built afterward. We then made our way towards Angra and stopped at Fort Brazile which overlooks the city from afar. To get to the viewpoint the driver had to take the coach thorough a short tunnel with about 6” clearance each side. Finally we made our way down to the city where we had just over an hour to explore. This could either be done independently or with our guide. I opted for independent once she’d shown us where the botanical gardens were. Angra was a delight. A lovely place with cobbled streets and pavements, buildings with the shallow railed balconies and pastel coloured properties with contrasting coloured window sills. Most of the photos in today’s post are from Angra rather than Praia da Vitoria. I’d bought some Pastel du Nata in a bakery so when I returned to the ship I took my wife to Raffles for a drink to enjoy them with. As it was our last sail away of the cruise, and the Azores is a major hotspot for whales of all sorts (including Blue, Humpback and Sperm whales) who rest and feed there on the migration north for the summer, we put on jackets and stayed on our balcony until the light had faded. We managed to see…….nothing 😂 Dinner in the MDR was quite good. Piri Piri chicken was a first appearance and a nice change. We had considered going to see a new act afterwards called iHoppers, who do 50s and 60s music, but there was already a lot of movement and with the theatre being right at the front we didn’t fancy our dinner going up and down, so we gave it a miss. In his pre departure announcement the Captain warned us that sea conditions will worsen with 4 to 5 meter waves. Good job we found the spare Stugeron on the way down. Tomorrow is the first of our 3 sea days back to Southampton.

Todays MDR menus

It’s always worse late afternoon and evening when, of course, we are always on the ship. I also have a sneaky suspicion that it might be the air con, which is why I feel that I’m stuck with it until I am home. If I still have it after a few days at home then I shall definitely see my GP.

Day 61 - Sunday 3rd March - Sea Day The clocks had gone forward again, so we are now just 1 hour behind the UK. We will make up that final hour after the Azores. Thankfully, Paul Stickler’s daily crime talk (today The Acid Bath Murders) was on at the far more sensible time of 11am. 10am was too early when last entry for MDR breakfast is 9.30am, especially with the clock changes thrown into the mix as well. Hopefully his talks on the 3 sea days between the Azores and Southampton will all be at 11am, but I suspect that the later time today was more to do with it being a Sunday and there being a religious service in the theatre before it. I walked a mile on the promenade deck before lunch. It was quite windy and the temperature has definitely dropped now, but thankfully the sea state was calmer than yesterday so the movement was negligible. As we had time to kill today, with there being no afternoon show, we had a leisurely lunch in the Glasshouse. I had some wine and almost instantly I could feel the discomfort in my throat again having had no issue (but also no alcohol) for the last couple of days. I don’t ever recall having a throat issue that’s triggered by alcohol before, but it’s almost like putting antiseptic on a cut. Very odd. During the afternoon we had a siesta in the cabin before attending Ben Kearsley’s 3rd classical guitar performance in the Playhouse. After that we had a cuppa in Raffles. The cakes had gone but we were still full from lunch. In the cabin, prior to dinner, the movement of the previous day had returned, so I hope that we won’t have any issues getting in to the Azores as we certainly don’t fancy 9 sea days in a row 😱 Back in the MDR for dinner. I didn’t fancy anything on the menu so had tomato soup and chilli tortillas which, despite being vegan, were fine 😂. The singer Shellyann was back in the theatre again tonight and, as with her first performance, it didn’t appeal so we went back to the cabin. By now the motion was very noticeable and, to make matters worse, my sore throat is back with a vengeance. What a ruddy nuisance. I think I need to get away from this ship to start shifting it and that doesn’t happen until Friday onwards. Tomorrow is Praia da Vitoria in the Azores (weather permitting) 🤞

Either way, I think it’s probably best avoided 🤢😂

I think it must be a fairly new thing as I’ve never come across it before. It was never advertised and I just happened to notice that in the restaurant listings in Horizon it had ‘Italian Menu’ in brackets. It seems as though it operates a bit like Tiffin Lunches in Sindhu or Chefs Table in the Glasshouse i.e. they are never advertised but just mentioned to those who dine in the venue earlier in the cruise. We had dined in there a couple of times previously and it was never mentioned to us.

Today’s MDR menus plus, for those who might be interested, the Italian menu from the Beach House last night. Apparently there’s a menu A and menu B for that as well and this is menu B which is the more popular one (so we are told).