David Wheeler

Yes, well, it just shows that we like different sorts and periods of music. And that is fine.

We have to use cruise ships as ferries. One of us will not fly, so to get anywhere we have to travel by ship. The number and destinations served by long-distance ferries is ever reducing - 50 years ago you could take a ferry to St Petersburg, or Helsinki, or Stockholm, from Tilbury. Very very cheaply. So what to do on these cruise ships on a longish crossing is quite important. We like pre-20th century music.Earlier the better. Is - or was - P & O the only company which catered for this? I do not mean the token classical pianist who plays short popular excerpts for half an hour twice a week. Even that seems to be vanishing. Are there any other music festivals on cruise ships? Operating out of UK ports?

That is interesting. The organizers of the Celebrity event seem to have been bold and devoted the whole cruise to music. That is quite different from recent P & O Music festivals which were effectively an add-on to the existing standard on-board entertainment. It may be bet hedging, but it risked failure to satisfy either the festival devotees or the non- festival passengers - the publicity for these festivals was so low key that many passengers were quite unaware that it was a music cruise, at least at the time of booking. They were not big name events such as the Celebrity bodes to be. It is the skill of Mrs Williams, the Festival organizer to blend a group of musicians all competent but some more competent than others, into an harmonious whole, drawing in the audience as well. Whether you will get this on such a huge Celebrity ship I don't know. One of the attractions of the Williams P& O festivals is that the passenger was almost part of it - you could find yourself sitting next to a performer at another's concert, or sharing a bus trip with one, or standing in the queue for the late night snack. It would be a real loss to some of us if all this experience and skill is lost. There seems to be nothing arranged by P & O before October 2019. That is why I use the past tense. I am none too hopeful despite placatory messages from Carnival

I agree with the comment that Adonia wouild have been an interesting venue for an all-out music festival. Of whatever era. Most so-called classical music was pop of its day. Why not a 50s - 60s music festival? I would go for it. Some of it is as good as anything that has gone before.

We enjoyed the recent Oriana Music Festival as well. It raised, for us, a standard cruise to an outstanding one. We hope there will be further Music Festivals, but the omens do not look very encouraging: there were three festivals for 2017, and only one scheduled for 2018. On Adonia. Now, most sadly, sold. Brochures for P & O cover the period to October 2019, without mention that we could see of any prospect of a Music Festival. So it is singing and dancing troupes comedians and illusionists and indifferent lecturers on whatever standard cruise you chose. All very much the same. And without flying, the ports served from the United Kingdom are limited. Having travelled on 14 different ships and 20-odd cruises from the UK in the last three years the entertainment becomes rather the same, whichever company you chose or which ship. Hence we like the Music Festivals. Because they are not the same. But it does all depend on what you like, of course. If you like Headliners or their equivalent on any other line, you will perhaps get more out of the voyage than we do.

Oh dear. We emailed P & O to ask about 2018 music festivals and we were told that due to the disposal of Adonia, the festival schedule would be 'rearrranged'. Which means nothing of course. But the Adonia festival was the only one arranged for 2018 in any event, I think. That alone may tell us something. It would be a great shame. The music festival brought the cruise away from the standard singing and dancing regime, where we see and hear much the same, albeit with differing levels of talent. Some of the programme last year went well beyond light classical - it was demanding. What pressure can we place on P & O, apart from not booking...?