Harry Peterson

They might - but I bet they don't know what Aldeburgh was like in the mid-1960s! Or Snape Maltings for that matter! Suffolk was just Silly Suffolk - a rural backwater - then. Kids doing music in the sixth form at our (state) school used to visit Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears for tutoring back then and thought nothing of it. And George Ewart Evans hadn't long finished what became an 'A' level text about Suffolk life and the village of Blaxhall. No airs and graces in Suffolk back then, but even Felixstowe looks to be going upmarket these days.

Great idea! Everywhere has its own appeal, even Benidorm and Torremolinos. Been to both, admittedly when we were first married (married might be a bit of an exaggeration there!), and thoroughly enjoyed both. We didn’t have much money and they were great. Likewise Skegness, Yarmouth etc now. In any place there’s something to enjoy - it’s what you make of it. But I still prefer Aldeburgh!

Abigail’s Party?

Stay there and just wander - lovely place to stroll round and explore, probably warm and sunny, occasional coffee, occasional ice cream, occasional pastry. Perfect! 😀

This cheese wheel discussion got me curious. A bit of digging into Google suggests the most frequent discussion of the term might be on these very forums! Then I found this: Then I started digging a little further - I now sort of wish I hadn't! Though on the bright side we now have a new family insult to sling around. 😇

Simple economics, unfortunately. CPS will charge the highest price they think the market will bear, and they’ll have researched that price. They’ll lose some custom, but that’ll very likely be more than outweighed by the additional revenue. And if forward bookings do drop below their predictions, they’ve always got the option of discounting, so they can’t really lose. Some will park elsewhere - there are cheaper options - but many more will just pay up.

I’ve been to Butlins, and cruised with P&O. Butlins was incredible - great food, great entertainment, great pool, great dodgem rides and great donkey rides. I was 13 at the time. Our daughter goes every year. She hates it, and her husband doesn’t go. The children absolutely love it though, hence the yearly visit.

I think the level of satisfaction depends very much on your own level of expectations. Some people are delighted with today’s P&O, but others on the same cruise think it’s awful. I happen to think Aldi is a great place to shop - others will say it’s the pits. Same level of potential disagreement with anything, particularly in the leisure industry where prices and ‘quality’ vary so much. Plenty of people wouldn’t be seen dead on any kind of mass market cruise! Personal perception is everything. Only you can really judge.

How accurate this is I don’t know, but it looks authentic: The CDC is investigating a Norovirus Outbreak linked to the P&O Cruises Arcadia from December 29, 2022 to January 3, 2023. 84 passengers have reported being ill during the voyage out of a total of 1,986 (4.23%) passengers onboard. of the 818 crew members, 10 have reported being ill during the voyage, that is 1.22% of all crew. The predominant symptoms are vomiting and diarrhea. The Arcadia current location is at the North West Atlantic Ocean en route to the Port of Freeport in the Bahamas.The gastrointestinal illness cases reported are totals for the entire voyage and do not represent the number of active (symptomatic) gastrointestinal cases at any given port of call or at disembarkation.In response to the outbreak, P&O Cruises and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions:- Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to the ship’s outbreak prevention and response plan- Collected stool specimens from passenger and/or crew gastrointestinal illness cases- Notified embarking guests of the situation onboard and encouraged illness reporting and good hand hygiene.VSP monitored the situation and the ship’s outbreak response and sanitation procedures.Norovirus is very contagious and is easily transmitted from person to person most through the oral/fecal route. Considering that hand sanitizer does NOT work against this virus, it is important to wash your hands with soap frequently. Use bleach to clean and disinfect surfaces.In case you experience vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea, report it now. It can help to detect & resolve outbreaks early and prevent others from being harmed, and it enables better surveillance. If symptoms persist, seek medical care.Source: cdc.gov

I’m sure you’re right. But that glowing review ends with these words: “And no, I don't get paid to say that!” So it must be genuine. 😗

Avril, Zap's quite right. I was unfairly boasting about my anti-leopard skills, but in reality we employ Def Leppard when they're not touring - very reasonable too, and just down the road from you. Leopard-free for many years here. I believe they spray it pretty liberally all over the garden, but we've never actually seen them because it's far too noisy and we have to hide inside with ear plugs and covered in heavy blankets.

And your hair too. Stick to Vosene - the only product guaranteed to remove leopards and dandruff.

Funny you should say that. I’ve been using it to keep the leopards out of the garden for much the same time. Works a treat I recommend it to all gardeners.

Did you get them in Scotland too? Those freeloading, tax evading, Australian dentists did enormous damage to teeth in the London area. My wife’s teeth were wrecked by them when she was a student nurse.

Unlikely that these unauthorised debits are a deliberate fraud by P&O - but quite possible that they’re the result of some kind of employee fraud. How far would you trust their IT systems to identify it?!

Same here. No visits to the hygienist in 20 years, but I claim absolutely no credit for that - all credit to a decent electric toothbrush, flossing, a water flosser and interdental brushes. My teeth are typical boomer teeth (pre-fluoride) but recommendations of various dentists do seem to have worked, at least in that respect. Just out of curiosity, who’s still got an NHS dentist? We still have, but I suspect not for much longer.

There are anaesthetic throat sprays which dentists sometimes use to help - might be worth asking.

Given that the incidence of a certain highly infectious disease was around 1 in 20 last week, queueing like this in confined spaces like this looks like utter, cavalier, madness. I suspect certain firms of solicitors will be licking their lips with anticipation.

You’re quite right to. Our favourite cruise visit, bar none - beautiful, calm, relaxed, charming, gentle. Just delightful. You’ll have a great time!

Paul Ludlow: ……..“99.9% of people went away delighted”………. ……..“5000 guests”…….. Hmmmm. That’s just 5 people who didn’t go away “delighted”. Take your pick from: 1 I have no concept of basic arithmetic. 2 Paul Ludlow has no concept of basic arithmetic. 3 Paul Ludlow is overfond of Porky Pies, a celebrated East End delicacy.

I’m a little envious! The Netherlands and Scandinavia have always appealed, particularly over recent years and the toxicity that’s crept into the UK. Rudeness seems now to be endemic - almost as if it’s a right. If we were younger we’d have emigrated, but too late now. Putting me in mind of all the time we’ve spent in the Netherlands - it’s a country that just seems to get on and do things, planning ahead, rather than just shouting about things, posturing, but achieving very little. We seem to be stuck in the past here, and maybe that’s the problem with the P&O management mindset.

I agree entirely. All sorts of things become ‘big’, with attendant economies of scale, but not all of them continue to look after customers properly. A lot of large companies provide appalling service but thrive despite that - I’m thinking some of the big banks for example. Others like Worcester Bosch excel at customer service, despite their size. We had some really excellent cruises on Azura and Ventura when they were the largest ships in the fleet. Pretty much faultless in every aspect - so we kept going back. As time went by, though, that changed. The ships were no bigger, but staffing levels changed and there were other increasingly obvious cuts. So we started looking elsewhere. P&O won’t miss our custom - it can easily be replaced with younger higher spending families - but the size of the ship isn’t the issue for us. It’s the service and services provided on the ship, and on both Ventura and Azure they were once first rate.

That’s a splendid looking breakfast, Damian!

Very much the same feeling here. It was a brand I identified with and very much liked - but now it isn’t. Nothing wrong with that, and I’m sure they know their intended market. I’m equally sure that they won’t miss my custom, because it will be replaced by a rather younger customer much more inclined to spend freely onboard. And perhaps rather more keen to wander around in a vest than I ever was. Not an exaggeration - just outside the MDR.

It is possible, of course, that the product is consistently good, or indeed bad, but that different customers have very different requirements and expectations of P&O. P&O likes to trade very much on its past reputation, and that might be another factor. If it still suits some customers perfectly, that’s great. But for others it may not be the right ‘fit’ and they’ll probably be upgrading to something like Saga.