Ardennais

4 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you for your nice words.

I'm so sorry to hear about your experience at the game in the 78/79 season.

 

Chelsea were even worse the following season, but we won that game I think!

1 hour ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

So are you from Wrexham? That’s my wife’s home town, now city.

No, not from Wrexham, but the wilds of Mid Wales! It was a 100 mile drive there and back every other Saturday. They were good days and the good days are back again! 

4 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Now you're drifting back to the days when there was the word 'Sportsmanship' when people enjoyed the friendly rivalry of the sport.  We now have violence and segregation of fans. Such a shame.

Avril

I remember being at Wrexham’s last home game of the 78-79 season as a 14 year old with my grandfather. Sunderland were the visitors and they were in with a shot of promotion to the old First Division. The atmosphere all season had been good, until this last game when some Sunderland supporters managed to get into our enclosure. I was scared stiff and had never heard such abusive language before! Some of them were p……ing on the terraces and my elderly grandfather did his best to shield me! They were also pushing down on us and we tried to stand in front of a rail to prevent us from toppling over. So there was plenty of violence then too!

I’ve reassessed my opinion of Sunderland folk (for the better) since coming across Graham on this forum! 

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

He probably will. One of these days.

And get the best seat in the house! 

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I have always liked to think that the close ties the 4 UK countries have rise above petty differences, and that we have far more in common than any differences that define us.

Clearly I seem to be wrong.

No you’re not wrong. But it’s also good sometimes to celebrate our differences and to remind others that differences do exist! We don’t want to go back to the bad old days of the 1880s when The Encyclopaedia Britannica stated ‘For Wales, see England’. 

50 minutes ago, happy v said:

I feel sure he would have still gone if it had been Wales in the final.

Of course he would but we all know which way the wind blows! 

1 hour ago, Grandad John said:

If there’s one thing you can say about the Welsh, they take parochialism to the nth degree.

Well if that’s the one thing you think you know about us, then pity you. All I can say is, since being a member here, I’ve also learned how many members take pride in having Yorkshire or Lancashire roots or celebrate their Cornish or London ties (other areas are also noted) and I applaud that, nothing parochial about it. 
 

As regards to having a limited or narrow outlook, I would, as a proud European, suggest that recent history shows that huge swathes of the UK have shown such tendencies! 
 

47 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But neighbours are often only rivals when playing each other, I normally support close friendly neighbours when they are playing someone else. 

Do you reckon that United diehards support City when they’re playing in Europe?  Would Swansea supporters cheer Cardiff if they played someone else in a cup final? Don’t think so somehow. 
At least the ‘Prince of Wales’ was there to cheer you on - oh, the irony! 
 

19 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Do you see England and Wales as rivals.?

Neighbouring countries are sporting rivals all over the world! 
 

England and Scotland are rivals. Wales and Scotland are rivals. Ireland and Wales are rivals. Not just England so don’t take it personally Zapp! 
 

I could write an essay on the topic, but work beckons! 

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

Funny how some of the home nations and principalities enjoy seeing England lose. I wonder if it's because they're teams are rubbish.??🤣

It’s like a local derby. Why would you want your rivals to win? 
Anyway, I’ll be gentle with you today! Sore heads and all that. 🥹

1 hour ago, Vampiress88 said:

oh no. We are on the Caribbean princess next month. I think maybe we are picky as we don’t like the buffet on msc or royal Caribbean and even though I don’t rate the buffet on P&O I do still prefer it to other cruise lines. I just don’t like the lay out or removal

of trays 

No trays on Caribbean Princess either! I’ve posted some comments about our cruise in the general thread. Hope you don’t get our creaky cabin!! 

40 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

 

The sky over our part of the world tonight.

 

Red sky at night, Spanish delight. 🫣

Really enjoying reading your posts! Shame that you found the buffet lacking! We thought that the buffet on Iona was good in April, much better than Caribbean Princess last week. 
 

Your girls are lovely. 

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Did a Spanish bloke do well at tennis?  Didn't watch any of it. How did the Welsh do?.

There aren’t many tennis clubs in Wales - we’re not posh enough! 

I think it’s going to be Spain’s day! 🤞

That’s interesting Josy and seems very like our cruise on Caribbean Princess last week! 
 

I’d forgotten about the lighting in the cabin - we also had lights suddenly coming on during the night! The food wasn’t as good as previous Princess cruises either, not that I have high expectations when it comes to their desserts! 
 

I think that Princess send their older ships to Southampton which is a shame. 

10 minutes ago, zap99 said:

One things for sure. Wales won't win either🤣

True enough, but we have punched above our weight in recent years! 

Things not going well for Novak thus far! 
 

The photos I posted last week were from Klaipeda. We chose this 12 night cruise on Caribbean Princess due to the interesting itinerary and 7 ports of call. The 2 new ports for us were Visby and Klaipeda but we were also keen to revisit Stockholm and indeed had a brilliant day there.

The weather in the ports was very good (Skagen, Warnemunde, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Klaipeda) but we were unable to dock at Visby and Kristiansand due to sea conditions. I guess we’ve been very lucky in the past having only missed 2 ports in 30 cruises! Never mind. 

So how did this cruise compare with our Fjords cruise on Iona a few weeks ago? 
 

Caribbean Princess is very dated and our cabin creaked and rattled. The air conditioning was SO loud - like a tractor - and we hardly slept the first night. They did try to resolve the issue the following day and it was marginally better, but still noisy. My husband did his best to locate the source of each creak and rattle and stuck pieces of paper here, there and everywhere to minimise the annoying noises! We had heavy rain one night. There was a few inches of water in the balcony and the carpet by the window was soaking the following morning. 
 

On the plus side, we had drawers and proper bedside tables! 
 

The food on Iona was much better, especially the buffet. They ran out of butter and served marmalade with scones one afternoon as they had no more red jam! I rarely have a cooked breakfast but my husband reported that it was very poor on Car Princess, nothing like the great breakfasts on Iona and also on Queen Victoria back in January. The desserts were tasteless but the International Cafe had a good selection of free cakes and snacks. I had pre-booked dining for 7.40 in the MDR and we were ushered in every night and always had a table for 2. 

We had two very good casual dining meals as part of the Princess Plus fare in Planks and Steamers - vastly superior to the MDR. 
 

Entertainment - 4 good production shows, and a very good singer in Crooners Bar every night. Also a good Celine in Vegas act. Otherwise, a magician and a balloon artist in the main theatre - I’m sure they were good, but their shows just didn’t work in such a big venue. You couldn’t see anything from the back of the theatre. 
Lots of ‘fun’ games in the atrium - ping pong balls in water and paper aeroplanes etc. To be fair, there was a great atmosphere there and the officers joined in with enthusiasm. The entertainment as a whole just didn’t compare with P&O in our opinion anyway. 
 

However, Princess win hands down when it comes to service. The staff were so happy and always seemed to have time to chat and of course the cabin was serviced twice a day. Whether there was a better ratio of crew to passengers, I don’t know, but tables were promptly cleared and the Medallion App is such a nifty little thing which allows you to order drinks and beverages easily in all locations. I think Iona is understaffed at the best of times, but this is a huge problem during school holidays as we experienced last year. 
 

Embarkation - we could turn up any time between 11 and 3. We were there around 11.30 and the whole process took well over an hour. I prefer the P&O system as we always turn up at the allocated time and never have to wait. I was wondering how this would work this time, as I know from this forum that folk generally can’t wait to embark! Sense told me that there would be some waiting if everyone turned up just after 11. In future, I would probably turn up later on Princess so as to miss the initial surge. 
We opted for late disembarkation and were off just after 9.30 - very smooth. 
 

In conclusion, we think that P&O and Iona provide excellent value for money. We paid extra for the Princess Plus fare which covers grats, wifi and drinks up to $15 each. We don’t really drink alcohol but it was nice to order Mocktails and good coffees. So all in all, this was a dearer cruise, and to be honest, we expected things to be better overall! I think our expectations were slightly higher because we had a brilliant time on Enchanted Princess two years ago - but that was a new ship and Caribbean Princess is getting on! Atmosphere wise, it was still fun. The Brits were in a minority and so many different languages were spoken which made us feel at home because English isn’t our first language. 
 

One last point - we also had to pay for parking and this was our first experience with Parking4Cruises as they were nearly £100 cheaper than CPS. We still find CPS easier, but this was also OK and well worth the saving. We would definitely use them again. 
 

7 hours ago, Angel57 said:

Good morning all.

Gosh, it is very quiet on these boards at the moment.

I am hoping Spain wins at the tennis but loses in the football today!!

A close call for Trump - whatever one’s thoughts of the politics over there, it was shocking.

Have a great day everyone.

Gill

 

Shocking indeed.

I’m hoping for a Serbian win first, then a Spanish win!! 

On Caribbean Princess last week the casual dining options were Planks (BBQ type) and Steamers. Open alternate nights in the back end of the buffet. You can’t book via the app so we went up there and decided to book one meal in each one (as per Princess Plus). Lovely meals and well worth the cover charge if you’re not on Princess Plus. 
 

Just back from Caribbean Princess. The hairdryer was in a casing attached to the wall and it was difficult to release it. It had two settings - 1 and 2 - and you don’t have to press it continuously. I have short hair so it was sufficient but probably not enough power for long hair. I imagine that it would also be difficult to style longer hair as it didn’t have a nozzle. 

And all so unnecessary! 

We are here today!

What a great review - many thanks. We have very fond memories of fantastic cruises on Aurora. 

No more singing the blues here in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿. 😉