Ardennais

I don’t about Snowden, but I can almost see Snowdon from here and I have simply no inclination to climb to the top! Why would I, when I could let the train take the strain?

I’m sure he’s great company as are most young people.

I remember being told as a child that patience is a virtue (possess it if you can). What is it with people that they want to be the first on and then first off these ships??

Selbourne - I understand your frustration. Shame I can’t book on your behalf as I never go to bed before 1am!!

I have, and many are delightful indeed!

Or even have a cuppa in the station and then go to the terminal at the correct time.

No, I booked through my usual TA.

I got the emails this morning for our family cruise next year too. 6 of the 8 travellers will be under 30.

We did one cruise on Balmoral s few years ago (a very good price tempted us) and we had a great time, although we were the youngest pair by about 20 years! I quite often look at the FO cruises leaving from Liverpool, which would be quite convenient for us, but the prices are very very high, coupled with the fact that the balconies are mainly terraced balconies on Borealis. I can’t justify the additional expense.

We had craft classes on a 35 night cruise on Ventura to the Caribbean - they were held on the sea days. The 17 nighters on Aurora pre-covid had art classes too, again on the sea days. In both cases, they had specialists, not just crew. I haven’t noticed anything on the shorter cruises.

Can’t say we noticed any vibration on Britannia recently, but there was a huge leak on deck 7 with dehumidifiers blowing for a few days. There was a musty smell there for a while too.

P&O have never caused me stress on boarding! Neither have Princess, Cunard, RCI, Carnival, FO, NCL or CMV.

I quite understand, but I honestly don’t think anyone can predict what will actually happen! Lots of people here have reported long waits with CPS over the years, but I can honestly say that we’ve never been in a queue in over 20 cruises from Southampton. I just take the view that it is what it is!

Not directed at you at all, just a general feeling that people are getting stressed about things well before their actual holiday. We had no boarding delays before our February half term holiday on Iona which had over 6,000 passengers. We had a fairly late boarding time, and as per usual, we arrived within 30 minutes of our allocated time.

We feel exactly the same!

No, of course not! It just seems to me from reading these boards that people are over-thinking the parking/boarding process and getting worked up unnecessarily.

Surely it’s not a problem if they don’t board exactly ‘on time’?

I thought that all printers were colour ones.

It’s worth using LOTS of staples!

Just the ones we print on A4 paper at home. You fold them so they’re incredibly strong and as I said, we use lots and lots of staples. I can’t tear them off after the cruise, but have to use scissors. Never had a problem with them.

The paper luggage labels are very strong. We use loads of staples and have to use scissors to remove them after the cruise.

I think a big factor is that so many of us here have been cruising for years and we now like the new arrangements because nothing interrupts our first afternoon onboard. We also know our way around a cruise ship. But yes, I definitely think that the old drill was useful, how useful I hope we never find out! Not necessarily wearing the lifejacket, just the memory of making your way to the muster station and actually reinforcing the idea that we are on a vessel, and that we have to be vigilant. Even better, on Marco Polo, we had to form a giant ‘crocodile’ and walk out on deck. You only have to read these boards to see that some cruisers can’t wait for their first few drinks after embarkation and I doubt very much whether everyone watches the safety video. We’ve also read reports of high numbers of first time cruisers. We were hopelessly disorientated for a good day and a half on our first cruise!

We had to have regular fire drills in school and it meant that the staff and pupils knew what to do, where to go, how to get there in an emergency. In 34 years of teaching, I experienced 3 fires and 1 bomb scare (yes, in the depths of the Welsh countryside!) and it was always good to know the ropes. I don’t think watching a video would be the same somehow.

I agree and I’ve been saying this for some time,

I understood straight away that you meant landmass and not population.