pete14

Merry Christmas to all ‘virtual friends’ on here (and a couple of actual ones) wherever you are and especially to those who are not well. Loin of pork for dinner today and turkey tomorrow when we have at least the immediate family all together. I hope whatever you do and whoever you do it with, everybody has a wonderful time, even if it has to be slightly delayed. Cue loads of pictures of turkeys and the trimmings in a few hours time, but please, no Costa, MacDonalds, Greggs etc today.🎅🏼🥳

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I would happily pay more because Lisbon is one of my favourite ports. For such a small amount, I am fairly sure P&O would absorb it as an extra cost, at least until the cruises for summer 2026 become available.

I can’t see why any work would be needed. As Moley says, ships are maintained daily and the distance travelled on a world cruise can’t be much different from 100 days of shorter cruises. The ships don’t normally have any rest with the quick turnarounds in Southampton. Last month I went to Arctic Norway on Aurora. She had just returned from a trans Atlantic cruise, and when we returned, she did a short Northern Europe followed by the Canaries and back.

But let us not let the facts as you have so helpfully provided get in the way of another ‘scare story’ based on no evidence apart from their age. Aurora last month was excellent, comfortable and a pleasure to sail on.

So sorry to hear of another long hospital stay. Hopefully you are now back at home and on the mend. Have a great Christmas and thanks for your efforts at keeping us in order again this year.

I agree that those are imperative, just check that the financial level of cover meets P&Os requirements. I presume it will, but best to make sure. I mentioned the extras that cruise cover provides because I know some get disappointed when they fail to get cover for things like missed ports because they do not take out this extra cover.

For Christmas Day, you could probably use last year’s copy because it rarely changes year from year. I expect it will include Eastenders, Coronation Street, Dr Who, Call the Midwife, a couple of ‘celebrity’ game shows and a spin off from Strictly Come Dancing.

Covering cruises and cruise cover can be different things. Covering cruises can be interpreted as meaning they will cover a cruise in the same way as any other package holiday. Cruise cover is likely to cover extras such as missed port cover along with the more basic things.

Another thing to find out is whether they provide the minimum level of cover that P&O require.

I hope you enjoy your cruise and manage to see the lights as we did.

I agree with what people are saying about this being a common but unwelcome and in some cases misleading marketing ploy but just to say that whilst onboard Aurora recently, my son bought himself an expensive watch which was about 25% cheaper than he could have bought it for online. The 10% loyalty discount reduced the price and increased the saving further.

I don’t really know why I was not upfront about naming Times Radio but I just felt the hint was preferable. Despite the ownership of the paper, I think it gives good news coverage but the presenters are more informal than on R4 as they don’t have the apparent requirement for complete seriousness. However, as with every media outlet, selective listening could give grounds for complaints of bias if listeners have such an agenda.

I may tell you about it sometime but it is associated with a famous broadsheet newspaper that is not the torygraph. Only on DAB radio though.

Obviously neither of us are on their mailing lists. I don’t know for certain whether this is a conspiracy theory or not, but I heard it on a reputable radio news channel (not BBC) this morning.

I believe that a certain right wing party / company for which he is principal shareholder and a TV news channel for which he works both sent lots of emails to their supporters asking them to download the I’m a celebrity app and use the 5 free votes every night to keep Farage in. It doesn’t quite seem within the spirit of the programme, although I presume others had backing within social media groups.

I disagree with your logic. The speciality restaurants are there for anybody to use, regardless of their cabin grade and can fill up very quickly. Reducing availability for 95% of passengers in favour of the few who choose to have a suite is unfair. An extra restaurant specifically for those in suites would be fairer, just like at breakfast (which uses a speciality restaurant that would otherwise be closed). How easy would it be to find the space for such a restaurant exclusively for the use of suite dwellers I am not sure but that way, existing restaurants would not be affected, in fact it would increase availability for the rest. It would almost certainly increase the price of suites though.

If I were selfish, I would agree, but it is hardly fair on the 95ish% of people whose chance to experience speciality restaurants would be decreased further.

Please behave! We have had our share of ‘Mad Nath’, it must be somebody else’s go. 😱

After yesterday, it was clear his time was up. I have never seen such a dreadful game and weird substitutions. I am not sure about Mowbray, but looking at the bookies’ odds, the field is not extensive and his odds are quite short. You are further into the process than us so hopefully we won’t be squabbling over the same person. We are at home to Swansea on Tuesday and I think they are in a similar situation re a manager.

Social elite or those who consider themselves to be some sort of social elite?

I agree that suites are not worth booking if the extra cost is so high. When we book them, we are careful to choose cruises where the differential is smaller than you quote. Just to correct something, in a suite the room service is completely free and includes the cost of the food, not just the service charge. Only a benefit if you use room service.

Pyjama day watching Judge Judy? Wow, you know how to live. 😉

I think booking prior to departure has a small discount but not huge. Trips do sell out, especially those that cannot take large numbers and it may not be possible to put on more. If comparing P&O trips with independents, P&O use reputable companies to operate their excursions which lessens the chance of you booking with a ‘rogue operator’ whose attitude to health and safety may be questionable. If your P&O trip returns late for any reason, the ship will wait for you. If an independent tour operator/ taxi is delayed, you may get back in time to see the ship disappearing into the distance. My advice is to stick with the P and O trip, book in advance, especially for popular activities that may sell out quickly and enjoy whatever you choose.

Thanks for your report. All seems very positive which is good but I couldn’t help but pick up on your point about the slimmed down MDR menu in the evening. It seems as though this may be a Carnival thing because Aurora was the same a couple of weeks ago.