Waju

But it's very interesting if you're from Derbyshire!

😲 who would so such a thing? 😉

Yes wowzz there is a little booklet that has all that information. I have written the emergency number and our Nationwide account number on the front of ours and it 'lives' with my travel documents Haven't done it for a few months but there was somewhere on the Flexplus website (or the UKInsurance website as they are the Company you are insured with) where you can get a confirmation of cover letter and just print it off. This was a requirement last time we travelled with P&O. I don't know if this has already been mentioned but I have phoned UKInsurance a couple of times and they have always been super helpful/friendly. Its really easy to get an extension for more than the allowed number of days or, if it is a very expensive cruise, you can extend cover for the higher cost,

This worries us too - not witnessed it with P&O yet but have on another line. It seems the cheaper the cruises get the more we dislike the cruisers (or should it be cruisees?) 😒 I imagine it's a bit better on longer cruises or out of school holidays.

Santa isn't real? 😢 😲

We've just got home from a couple of weeks away at our sons. When we checked through the fortnights mail (99% junk mail) there was a travel agents leaflet for the Black Friday Offers, a 16 night Baltic cruise on Aurora immediately caught my eye as the price was 'from' £824' a bargain price for Aurora. I was very excited as I checked the P&O website for the price now and it is 'from' £1199 😲 Do you think I might get lucky and they'll have some good January sale prices 🙂

If I could just jump in - we had 3 nights on Virtuosa starting 24th September. This was our 2nd cruise on her, our first was the 2nd maiden voyage (apparently there were 4!). She is a beautiful ship, very glitzy and shiny, but if anyone offers you a cruise including alcohol run a mile!!! I don't know why, as an experienced cruiser, I didn't even consider that it would be like a very poor holiday camp at sea. I know I'm going to get shouted down in flames, but the hard working bar staff just could not keep up with the amount of booze being requested. 40 minutes was about the average wait to get a drink, we had a one hour wait for breakfast on the first morning in the MDR and heard 'fellow passengers' effing, blinding and screaming at staff on 5 occasions. I wouldn't do another cruise on Virtuosa which included a drinks package if it was given to me free of charge and a large number of the passengers are not people I would like to meet on a cruise ship ever again! .

Sorry Paul I can't help with single cabin questions but I don't think there are any cabins that open onto the pool/terraces at the back of Aurora - in fact I'm 99.9% sure there aren't. If you choose a cabin towards the aft, even an inside, the 'tiers' are all lined with chairs and tables and a really nice place to sit.

I don't think (in the past 10years anyway) it has ever been a requirement to wear formal dress in the theatre - I stand to be corrected though!

I am in awe of everything you pack into a day Josy. You don't ever seem to sit still ☺️

I'm going to Zeebrugge in a couple of weeks. I read, but please don't ask me where 🙃, that you can get a train to Bruges from Blankenberg which is very close to Zeebrugge for about 12 euros each. I'm looking forward to seeing the replies as they may be helpful to me too.

Thanks for posting this, I got an appointment on Friday for my husband. I'm going to go with him (I'm a 62 year old youngster) to see if they have any spare!

I love the smell of Brut ☺️

Thank you! You obviously love Virtuosa 🙂

Can anyone please tell me if there are tea and coffee making facilities in the Virtuosa cabins? The website seems to indicate not but, if my memory is correct, they did have them on sailings from Southampton. Thank you.

I'm hanging on and hanging on but no news yet 😕 I've only got 13 days left so not holding out much hope that they drop the covid tests!

Thank you Nunagoras and Hamrag for your helpful replies. We would always dress smartly for dinner and although we love to dress up on Gala Night it's just not worth it on such a short cruise.

Hi, we have a 3 night cruise coming up aboard MSC Virtuosa. Can anyone please tell me if there will be a gala evening? I have looked but can't find the answer anywhere! If there is would we be allowed in the MDR without it? We really don't want to lug suits and long dresses sown to Southampton if not strictly necessary. Thank you.

They might well love it but I thought it was awful, there was more rubbish in the sea than I've seen anywhere!

Oh dear I'm in trouble 😉 It just goes to show how much we all want different things out of our cruise. I was just trying to put across how I felt about our recent experiences. We have taken lots of local buses, trains and water taxis but I love a morning or afternoon on a lovely sandy beach and don't come across that many without having to travel - one of my favourites is a little beach in Corsica, right next to the ship and then wander round the corner for a beer and a spot of people watching. Our day in St Maartin was one of my best ever days on a holiday, we took a boat trip to Maho Beach and I bobbed about in the beautiful clear water for an hour and a half watching the planes go overhead. On our last holiday we went to Taranto in Italy and thought it was an awful, dirty place but I'm sure someone will come along and tell me they loved it!

I'd like 'thruthful' ports! Le Havre (for Paris) is one that I see regularly, Paris has got to be 3 to 4 hours away from Le Havre, so if you did a tour you certainly wouldn't get very long in Paris. We did the Caribbean just before covid and I was hopeful of stepping off the ship onto a beautiful beach but in reality that rarely happens. Usually the beaches are an expensive taxi ride away and when you add on sunbeds and parasols and maybe a bucket of been you've spent nearly £100. Earlier this year we went on Azura and did some Greek Islands, Dubrovnik and Malta and we honestly didn't see a single sandy beach! I have to say that some of the ports we've visited have been amazing but quite a few have been very disappointing with a trip (sorry Shore Experience) needed to get anywhere nice. Are these ports cheaper for the cruise companies to dock at or necessary because the ships are larger?

Yes we occasionally use a speciality restaurant but we don't really use the shops - shopping isn't my thing! We do have shareholder benefit and this gets used up first, we also still have to register a credit card. This method works for us, of course you don't have to use cash you can just budget for £40pppd on your card - I still think most wouldn't spend it all.

We were undecided about the drinks package many moons ago when it first came out and this is how we resolved it - we took with us £40 each per day in cash and deposited it with reception. We then drank whatever we liked without any restrictions - we have not yet had a cruise where we didn't bring a substantial amount of our 'drinks package' home. If we had paid for the package and not used up the £40 per day it would be lost. On a sea day it is not too difficult to use it up but on a port day we would only probably have a couple of glasses of wine in the evening. It works for us 🍷

How much 😲

For some reason I assumed Mondo87 was a man, but it doesn't matter if they are a man, woman or pink and green giraffe as long as they are in love x