Ardennais

4 hours ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

@grapau27 condolences on your sad loss and hugs to your lovely Sarah ❤️❤️

 

I hope the person who laughed (and we can see who it is!) feels suitably ashamed of themselves!

To be fair, it’s not always about laughing at somebody. The smiley face could mean ‘glad you had a nice time’. 

It will be strange not having your daily report. I’ve so enjoyed reading about your adventure and hope that you will soon make a full recovery once you’re home. I’m glad that you’ve enjoyed the Paul Stickler talks as I know that this aspect is important to you. I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be in the least bit interested in his area of expertise - never watched any crime programmes/dramas. So it’s luck of the draw I suppose! Safe journey home from Southampton. 

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

It is very sad to see churches closing, unfortunately it is not restricted to Anglican ones.  The loss of a church is unfortunately a sign of the changing demographic of the population of the UK.  The removal of things like morning prayers at assembly in the name of inclusivity has served to move young people ever further from the organised church.  It is a sad state of affairs.

 

As someone living in the main diocese of a great cathedral I find it quite ridiculous that to visit for prayer, sitting in reflection or lighting a candle of remembrance I am asked to join a queue of tourists paying £9-£10 each and produce photo id to allow my free entry. The two local  parish churches are locked apart from the times of published services, this giving the impression worship or prayer can only occur when the organised church says so.

 

On a visit to St Paul's Cathedral with friends from Australia last year we were asked to pay £25.00 each to enter so £100 for the four of us.  This for visiting a building I grew up knowing as East London's main church, head of religion for the region's working classes and which through my working life was often my lunchtime refuge for prayer and peace if work was a bit too hectic.  While on that visit a young German lad climbed onto a lectern to have his photograph taken and was reprimanded and spoken to very harshly by a member of staff.  My friend went to the boy's defence telling the staff member "hey mate, when you charge so much for entry you've turned your cathedral into a theme park, not a place of worship". Although surprised at this reaction it was suitable food for thought, particularly with over a quarter of Britain's cathedrals now charging substantial entry fees. I'm not quite sure what I feel about these charges now as a result.

We visited St Paul’s as a family about 18 years ago. Having paid a considerable sum to get in, we were suddenly ushered out after about half an hour - I think they were going to hold a service there. The ushers were quite rude and abrupt!
 

I did think that £18 was quite steep for York Minster last month, but to be fair, they had volunteers there who were more than eager to tell us more about the window restoration project and the museum in the crypt was well laid out and very informative. 

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

On both the questions of cost and quality of the desserts, pre covid one of the best choices for desserts was the variety of ice cream sundaes that P&O offered, which I am sure must have been quite inexpensive, but always good quality and very popular, and yet none existent now.

They were nice weren’t they! 

19 hours ago, Selbourne said:

What a relief. From the opening comments of your post I thought that some disaster had befallen you. What a lovely surprise (again). Our kids have said that they are always happy to join us on our cruises …… as long as we pay 🤔🤔 

We’re treating our 3 and their partners to a Fjords cruise in a few months. Can’t wait! 

BT Openreach have electric vehicles in this area. It’s a nightmare for the engineers as they’re having to consider where and when to charge them. Charging points are few and far between around here. 

I thought that £18 was rather steep for York Minster last week. Having said that, we spent nearly two hours there. 

Just been reading about problems aboard Norwegian Dawn. Scary! 

We took a coach holiday to Scarborough last week. 4 very enjoyable nights there, and trips to Whitby, Goathland, Beverley and York. My expectations weren’t high as it was so cheap but fair play, it was fine. We also had afternoon tea at Bettys. 

How lovely! I’m really enjoying your posts. 

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

We book select and get CPS parking included. I can't be bothered with messing around to save a few quid.

We’ve always done that too, but we have a Princess cruise booked and P4C is around £100 cheaper. 

Just now, devonuk said:

There’s no security at all… if you’re happy go with it 👍

Well I don’t even lock my car at night, so that probably tells you that security isn’t something that I even consider. They’re all jam-packed there so I don’t know how somebody could actually get to the car in the first place! 

4 minutes ago, devonuk said:

They’re running out of room to park around Southampton but they won’t tell you where they’re going. This is where mine was parked last time in Totton which was moved several times in the fortnight I was away 😡👇

That wouldn’t bother me one bit! 

36 minutes ago, devonuk said:

I once used P4C as my go to for parking. Never again after mine and others recent experiences 😡

What happened?

I remember my husband and I standing on the our balcony as Ventura was leaving Southampton in January 2020. It was a Friday and I said something like “we’ll be back here in six Fridays”. It was a wonderful cruise and the 35 nights flew by - we had done a few 18 nighters before then. I would happily cruise to the Caribbean and back on Ventura again. 

Easter holidays in Wales begin on Friday 22 March - end of Spring term, not half term. 
 

Iona is a family friendly ship and rightly caters for children. I love seeing children around, but what I find annoying is the reduced service when at full capacity. Even worse, the passengers on these school holiday cruises have paid more. 

7 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

@Eglesbrech

I'd never heard of momento mori, so looked it up. Very interesting.

You're never too old to learn, every day is a school day.

Avril

Same here!

9 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

 

Apologies for the delayed report. No internet problems, just a self inflicted issue that will become apparent as you read the report 😳😂

Day 46 - Saturday 17th February - Roatan, Honduras, Central America

 

At first glance, it didn’t look as though there would be much to see when we berthed. The whole area (Mahogany Bay) seemed to be trees with a few scattered buildings, but no town as such. We could see a beach resort but assumed that this was a hotel. Going ashore we were to be pleasantly surprised!

 

The cruise pier was very wheelchair friendly as it was just smooth concrete. There were smartly dressed ‘security’ personnel in white uniforms who were very welcoming. At the end of the pier was a modern air conditioned shop (like an airport duty free shop) and then this lead out to a wide pedestrian slope up to a cruise village. The security staff were on hand, even with a wheelchair, to offer assistance to anyone who might need it. The cruise village was very large with lots of shops and a bar, all well spaced and nicely landscaped. Again, fully pedestrianised, very wheelchair friendly and all the buildings were air conditioned. 

 

From the cruise village there was a wide concrete path leading to a private beach resort called Mahogany Beach. It’s private in that it’s for the sole use of cruise ship passengers, but it’s free. Judging by the number of sun loungers it can accommodate thousands, but as we were the only ship in the Aurora passengers barely touched the sides. It was lovely and, yet again, very wheelchair friendly. I even managed to get my wife onto the beach! We had a wander around, walked down a jetty which looks back across the resort and then sat in a beach front bar with a rum punch. There was even a cable car between the cruise village and the resort for those who didn’t fancy the short walk! We returned to the ship having had a very enjoyable morning in a lovely place. 

 

No time for lunch because I was booked on a tour - Snapshot of Roatan. This was a bit of an odd one. We were crammed in to one of those awful minibuses that they use in the Caribbean and first we were taken to a not terribly impressive viewpoint. Then the next stop was Archie’s Iguana sanctuary. That was quite a place. Hundreds of the things in all shapes and sizes freely roaming around. They are only caged up to a few years old to protect them, but once released they hang around as they know they will be fed by the visitors. Quite an experience. There was also an enclosure on the waterfront with absolutely ginormous fish in it that the guide fed, along with an amusing pelican who knew that the odd bit of food may come his way as well!

 

From there we went to a beach resort where over the course of a few hours quite a variety of things occurred. After a welcome iced tea we were taken along to watch a traditional tribal dance by some locals, and then shown how two food items, one savoury one sweet, were made from yukka (or similar sounding name) and coconut. Next a short boat trip into a mangrove reserve and then around a shipwreck, which also afforded good views of Aurora. 

 

Dropped back at the resort we were then taken to the beach bar where the flamboyant bar tender explained the Coco-Loco cocktail and the buy one get a free refill offer. This was my undoing. I was chatting to a very nice chap who also adopted the ‘when in Rome’ philosophy and as we downed the first one it didn’t seem that strong. The second one was stronger and then my drinking buddy managed to get a third one free, so not to be outdone……

 

In all honesty the rest of the day was a bit of a blur and I shall not make that mistake again 😂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great photos! Sounds like a very enjoyable day.

Just now, Ardennais said:

I was tempted by that last year. How would you rate it?

I am referring to the ice cream afternoon tea of course!! 

14 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I appreciated you not mentioning us by name until we got home.

We stayed in a hotel overnight on the way home so didn't get home till Sunday afternoon.

It was a lovely surprise when you said hello in Ripples where we had just eaten an ice cream afternoon tea.

I was tempted by that last year. How would you rate it?

@Interestedcruisefan is your best source of info. I think he did this cruise last year and he flew out to Barbados yesterday for the same cruise again. 
 

Hopefully he’ll post something soon! 

No, Iona was a 7 nighter, Northern Europe. 
 

February half-term 2025:

All of Wales:  Mon 24 Feb - Fri 28 Feb

Essex: Mon 17 Feb - Fri 21 Feb 

Durham: Mon 24 Feb - Fri 28 Feb

I’ve checked Essex and Durham as being representative of South/North as I know from experience that Northern England tends to have the same Feb half term as Wales. Scotland is another different story, as you probably know!

I presume your cruise is a 14 nighter, and in theory, children in state schools shouldn’t really be off school for a fortnight. The reality is however very different (and a bl…y nuisance for secondary school teachers as I well remember), and I imagine that a lot will take their children out of school for 14 days of educational experiences (sun) in February! 
 

Do you want to avoid children or just avoid a busy cruise? Iona Feb term last year was heaving! 

Can I ask, do the main cabin doors of accessible cabins open automatically? As I said, my mother found the door extremely heavy this time around (standard balcony), so I was wondering how some of you cope with when using mobility aids. 

My mother found the cabin doors extremely heavy - something that she hadn’t noticed before.