jh1809

I can only echo what everyone else has said, and wish you a most enjoyable cruise.

I've never cruised with Ambassador, but have just been looking at their website, and their prices seem amazingly cheap, especially for someone like me who wants a single cabin. I've generally cruised with P&O, who I've been very happy with, but Ambassador's prices for a single cabin seem to be about half theirs. I like small ships, and the age of their ships wouldn't be a concern. So I'm left wondering what the catch is, if any.

I suppose there's always the risk of Carnival doing what they initially did with Adonia, and transferring her to another part of the company.

I loved Adonia. I only was able to cruise on her once. Two more cruises I had booked on her got cancelled because P&O loaned her to another part of Carnival before then selling her. I liked her so much that I was tempted to book a cruise on her when she became the Azamara Pursuit. But it seemed very expensive, so I didn't. Now, having read about how good Amazara are, I'm regretting that decision.

I suspect that P&O would be reluctant to give up on an annual round-the-world cruise, and I believe that Aurora and Arcadia are their only ships small enough to go through the Panama Canal. Yes, a RTW could go via Cape Horn instead, but it would add substantially to the length of the cruise, and also I imagine that some potential passengers would be reluctant to brave the Cape, with its reputation for storms.

If you don't know, then shouldn't you have put a question mark at the end of your thread title? I initially read it as saying that P&O would be charging it. But if it's only 2 euros then I'm not too bothered whether P&O explicitly make a charge for it or not.

I reached Caribbean this year. I received my first-ever calendar with my most recent Moments magazine, but sadly no diary. From what others have reported, it all seems rather random as to what one will get.

Perhaps I should have done that when mine arrived, in the same envelope as Moments, a few days ago, but I'm afraid I just bunged it in the bin. I think you need to be Caribbean or higher to get the calendar, as I think it's the first one I've had, but I thought that all Peninsular Club tiers got the magazine. Anyone who isn'rt getting them might want to check which categories they've ticked regarding info that they want to recive from P&O by post.

I'd expect the Tab key and/or the right arrow key to take the pointer from one option to the next, and the Return key to select the option that the pointer is currently on. The mouse, as suggested by another poster, would probably work too.

Of course there are never any guarantees, but I believe the chances of clear skies are greater in February/March than in November/December. The hours of daylight are also longer, which would be an advantage for day-time activities though of course means that the hours during which the aurora might be visible are reduced - though there will still be at least 12 hours of darkness.

And if a flight isn't included then you are covered through ABTA so long as they are members (which I think is pretty much universal).

I'm on a cruise in April/May on Aurora to the Baltic. I wouldn't normally book excursions this far ahead, but the Black Friday offer inspired me to do so - which was probably the object of the exercise from P&O's viewpoint. Only a handful of excursions had the 20% off Black Friday offer, and they tended to be the cheaper ones, so the possible savings were limited, especially as I didn't fancy one of them. Still, I've saved £18, which is better than nowt. I did wonder whether their accounting might be slack enough that, if I waited till the excursions were full price again and then cancelled them, they might in error refund me the full rather than the discounted amount. 🙂

As well as avoiding the buffet, I try to avoid thing like rolls - or toast at breakfast - that you have to eat with your hands, just in case somebody else with dirty hands has just handled the butter knife.

Good luck!

I suppose you could look at it that way. But if you took that idea to extremes, presumably you'd never buy a coffee on board, as you could always get one from the machine in the buffet. I suppose if you had enough of your OBC left to cover it, you could even argue that Sindhu was free.

I think the trouble with the Internet is because the further north you go, the lower in the sky the satellite providing it will be, and hence the weaker the signal, as the satellite has to be in a geostationary orbit above the Equator.

Glad you're having such an enjoyable cruise, Pete. "I know select dining is not cheap..." That's the only thing in your reports that I would disagree with. I think it's amazingly cheap. You wouldn't get a meal in a typical High Street Indian for what Sindhu charges, and of course Sindhu's quality is fat better.

It was a buffet in August (apart from the wine etc), but it could have changed since then.

I never seem to get very much OBC on my cruises. I always thought it was a bad thing, but now I realise that it might have been a good thing!

Thanks for the interesting report. I'm glad you had a good day. Regarding the "signature menu", how well publicised has it been? If nobody else realised that it was an option, that may be why you were the only (or at least the first) taker.

Maybe you should have asked for a 2-egg omelette - or even a 3-egg one! The default might be one egg.

For some reason omelettes aren't advertised, but you can order them (at least you can on Arcadia and I think Aurora - I haven't sailed on the other ships).

There were some tiffin lunches on sea days in Sindhu on Aurora at the end of last year; not every sea day, though, and you had to keep your eye out for the announcement in Horizon as to when they would be. I never had any trouble booking a table, however. IIRC they were all during the second half of the cruise. It was very similar on Arcadia this August, though they didn't use the little tin container things in a stack that they use on Aurora, just porcelain bowls IIRC.

Even including coffees not with meals, I can't imagine drinking 15 drinks a day. Four or five would be more like it: a couple of coffees; a cocktail, G&T or cider (I don't like beer); and a glass of wine or two with dinner. So the drinks package wouldn't be good value for me.

I've not been on Iona, but all the ships' MDR menus seem to be much the same. If my memory is right, there's usually one or two desserts on the menu with "(ls)" after them for "low sugar". Not being diabetic myself, I haven't paid a lot of attention though. You might want to look at the menus that Selbourne has posted on his "Live from Ventura" thread.