Megabear2

An exhausting night with very little sleep. Thunder and lightning started around 8.00pm and continued to roll around until 3.00am. Now we have a damp dreary morning with a stiff breeze and according to my phone should expect heavy rain and more thunder at around 10.00am. With my luck it will hold off until 11.00am when I go to pick up the click and collect groceries. Actually that was an interesting one too! Tesco informed me that hot cross buns and Lindt golden bunnies were only available for delivery/collection until 27 March which was very strange. Luckily my husband called into Sainsburys on his way out to swimming this morning and they had no such embargo.

I've just double checked my itinerary and its Glengoyne. Is that a good one? Funnily enough I have a bottle of Auchentoshan which was produced for the last sailings of the QE2 which my mother bought for me. I'm making substantial notes in my travelling notebook with all your great tips and information. I'm really very grateful.

Really don't like this no table cloths thing as ridiculous as it is I felt less special in the one without. Shock horror, I've just seen a mention on the Cunard board that there appears to be a dearth of table cloths in the mock ups for Queen Anne. Standards, sir, standards!!

I've never seen either but doubt P&O would book any acts which could cause offence to guests. The only people I've I've actually seen single out an audience member in Limelight Club were ironically Eric and Ern.

Thank you so much for all this excellent information, I am extremely grateful. My OH and I are flying into Edinburgh on 11 July for 5 days. On the Saturday we are seeing Paul Weller at the Castle but apart from that we are going to be real tourists. Reading all the information on things just outside Edinburgh we wonder whether we should perhaps hire a car just for a day to take all this in and make best use of our time. I assume Edinburgh like all major UK cities is now anti car, so would it be best to go out of the city to organise the car pick up/drop off, and if so where would be best to set us off towards Falkirk? We are planning on using public transport and walking for our time there. My husband is taking the train to Glasgow to visit one of his clients for half a day. Having chatted to my husband last night we are going to add Stirling Castle to our July trip. Our hotel is called the Market Street Hotel and apparently (unless you know differently!) very near the main railway station so taking trains hopefully will be fairly easily achieved - unless you know differently ... Regarding my cruise visit, yes we are tendering so based on this I'm going to go with the Linlithgow idea as it seems a nice easy option seeing some things I hadn't considered at all. Bass Rock and The Isle of May are listed in the itinerary for sail by so hopefully birds will be seen. Kirkwall I've now booked the 2 1/2 hour trip which takes in the Italianite church as it leaves the earliest at 8.30am so hopefully I can then wander round on my return and find somewhere for lunch and trying a dram of the local offering. Cunard do the same as P&O with vague descriptions of when they sail but Kirkwall states early evening so fingers crossed I can fit everything in! Interestingly I just noticed Liverpool is an afternoon departure which is a bit of a disappointment. With the naming ceremony taking place there I was hoping for a longer stay and perhaps some fireworks. I am so grateful to everyone on here for their help with this trip which was a real impulse buy! Normally I plan meticulously for months beforehand if I'm travelling alone so this is to say the least a whole new ballgame.

Thank you for this information, perhaps I'd better wait until July when we are land based to do the Falkirk trip. It was suggested on the cruise roll call that Greenock is a better option for this visit but I've booked to visit Loch Lomond and a distillery with a drive to see various other Lochs - I thought it would be a good opportunity to see something scenic? Unfortunately the Stirling Castle trip was sold out and the general opinion was the Trossachs tour was a long ride with too little time. Invergordon I've booked Loch Ness and Inverness as again a large number of options were sold out. The Linlithgow idea sounds a great idea. Would I need to book a taxi in advance or are there plenty at the port? I was thinking I could seek out a travelling companion either on the roll call or once I'm onboard. It does appear quite a few are on the roll call but no one is putting alternatives to Edinburgh city visits at the moment. I assume that if I take a morning trip in Kirkwall to see some of the sites, I can look around the Kirkwall afterwards as suggested by yourself and Ardennais. I seem to have three tour choices via Cunard, one 3 1/4 hour panoramic, one going to something called the Yesnaby Cliffs and Ring of Bridgar and one doing the "Scenic South Isles" which takes me to the Italian church. The latter two are around 2 1/2 hours. Strangely the private tour operators show no ship in port the day we are scheduled for. Perhaps they doubt we will actually get there! Thank you so much for your help and ideas.

After two weeks of massive reorganisation and throwing things out, normality has returned to my home, with the return of my husband from his annual ski trip with friends in Austria. Small problem there - no snow! Ironically he came home Saturday and on Sunday night a large dump of snow finally arrived. Yesterday I finally got round to sorting and booking my cruises that I've been discussing and doing nothing about! Successfully transferred our Queen Anne September Mediterranean to a three week Queen Mary 2 transatlantic next July taking in Norway, Iceland, Canada and New York and booked the replacement Aurora Scandinavian 16 nights in August. Whilst talking to Cunard I experienced a rush of blood to the head and booked myself on the May Queen Anne Festival of Britain cruise taking in her naming ceremony. That one is a real leap of faith as I've booked the very cheapest inside forward cabin on TBA saver, something I've never done on a ship I don't know, but it was ridiculously cheap at under £2,000 for the 14 nights and a chance to hopefully see a bit of history being made. Today is being spent to figure out what to do in Kirkwall, South Queensferry (without going into Edinburgh as I'm going there with my OH for the first time in July and don't wish to spoil that) and Cobh. Unfortunately the archaeological trip in Kirkwall is full, so any ideas for there much appreciated along with Cobh. I was wondering if getting to the Falkirk Wheel might be an option from South Queensferry? Big irony, never been to Scotland in 68 years and now I'm getting to lots of places in one year!

I have added a second guest previously in 2021. My original booking was an outside cabin for solo occupation and incurred the charge for this. Some months after booking my aunt wished to join me. The cabin was repriced for two passengers at the price on the day of booking. This resulted in a new invoice where I was refunded the solo supplement and my aunt was charged for her fare. It was a simple administrative exercise. There was never any mention of safety requirements, the booking was just amended to two people.

It could be because your laptop is "outside" the definitions for functionality. Not a laptop but I have two Samsung tablets my favourite of which is old and going to stop being updated by Samsung at the end of this year. My Nationwide and TUI apps no longer function on it and I get exactly the same message as you see. My much loved S7 has just been replaced - it still functions perfectly - as a large number of apps (including P&O's) no longer function correctly on it. The problem with apps is they often require the newest software within your phone/tablet and cease to function once they consider your equipment too out of date. Having been pushed into changing by all this I purchased a new S24 Ultra phone and A9 tablet as Samsung have guaranteed they will support and upgrade for 7 years. Many people will not want to chase this continual new sales drive and I for one was quite upset to see perfectly good working equipment rendered useless by designers.

I have a mere 37 on a brand new Samsung S24 Ultra, the thought of 200 horrifies me! Reminded virtually every day that a number of them are draining my battery and asking me to shut them down. If I use the phone for calls, email and texts I can charge every three days. Use of apps and internet probably halves the time until charge. I guess it depends on which phone and what you do. My husband uses WhatsApp and goodness knows what on his Oppo and I think he charges twice a week.

Apps also take up a lot of storage and many of them want to run continuously in the background which drains the battery. It is possible to shut the background down but many wouldn't have z clue how to do it. I keep the P&O and Cunard links on my phone permanently because its such a palaver putting them back and granting the necessary permissions that my virus protection requires. Although convenient having too many apps does drag battery life considerably.

Currently 50/50. If the ground dries he runs, any more rain it's doubtful. My last update was last night. He's currently 20/1 which is considered will drop on the day, but again it is down to if the ground dries. He's looking fine for an old boy, came back off his holidays carrying good condition and is full of beans. Obviously everyone is in the same boat with the first official run of the season.

On to happier things for me! Just been notified of my beautiful new arrival. Born this morning at 3.55am, a filly ex Miranda by Cracksman. Her grandad is the mighty Frankel so she is a big tick on my bucket list.

I have one shining light in my garden. I have a camellia in a large pot which belonged to my father and is approaching 60 years old. The first bloom astonished me when it appeared mid December and it is continuing to offer a new flower every day. Rain, and yet more rain do not appears to stopping it's enthusiasm. Incidentally fellow gardeners, any idea what could be eating and stripping my daffodil flowers? Every one in my beds has a been stripped back to just the stamen yet the ones in pots are beautiful upright soldiers.

Hope you have your tin hat on when Presto2 reads that!!!!

I read it that the travelling group were all between 18 and 85, not that they wanted a no kids place. They specifically were requesting a pub, so assumedly most of those don't have a large number of children frequenting them anyway.

As someone who has encountered baby buggies/strollers in corridors, particularly on Arvia last year, I was surprised that Carnival seem to have omitted mention of them from their circulation to travel agents and passengers. Certainly been a lot of discussion elsewhere on CC about the enforcement. https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-cracking-down-on-mobility-scooters/125481 https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-notifies-guests-of-specific-policy/122283

I believe Moley mentioned on the closed Maleth thread that the Britannia Barbados flights were confirmed and signed up with TUI and P&O were looking to source for Arvia, particularly the Antigua sailings. The first post in this thread appears to confirm these are the flights not decided yet.

+1

There were three price increases last year with another one pending. The alcoholic drinks are apparently tax free and pure profit. The glass of wine I purchased at £16.50 in January was very nice, but as another poster told me way back in this thread the bottle is currently available in the UK for around £19.00 tax paid. That bottle to purchase onboard was £47.00. The "base" drinks are relatively cheap to us southerners yes, but my northern friends take me in pubs and bars local to them where a pint of decent beer is around £4.00 and a standard glass if wine is not much more. I'm not so sure they'd consider it so reasonable, mind you they looked quite faint in my local at the £6.35 Peroni lager.

I appreciate you personally do not want to know her medical details, but unfortunately the newspapers and news outlets most certainly do. I'd guess the photograph was released to stop some of the ridiculous speculation and probably was picked hastily. With all that's going on with the family at present that's hardly surprising to be honest. Manipulation of photographs ... unless the suggestion is that Catherine or someone else wasn't in the original picture then we seem to be talking about what you or I would call editing, most likely to make the photograph look nice. I was very interested to know what "manipulation" means to the press agencies and found this item on entries for the Worldpress Photo of the Year competition. It's fascinating reading in light of what's going on, although I doubt Prince William was intending to enter his family snap into such a competition. https://www.worldpressphoto.org/contest/2024/verification-process/what-counts-as-manipulation

Even better, you get mentioned in the same line as me. I'm obviously flattered! I agree the speciality dining is currently good value, however TigerB seems to have gained the impression that those prices may well be included in these new price increases. With such a push to sell these restaurants and the very many times people are complaining they can't get s booking, the cynic in me wonders whether there could be a plan to hike these prices considerably or to start offering a dining package. Certainly the other Carnival lines have been doing a form of this, even the new Cunard ship is going to be inundated with these pay extra restaurants.

Thank you for that information as I will be going through Madeira in the next few months. Are the taxis metered or show a registration number somewhere? Otherwise I assume it just look at the list or maybe there's something in the port building as there is in other places?

A very Happy Birthday to Pauline, wishing her a wonderful day on which I'm sure she'll quite rightly be spoiled rotten!

Maybe because it's completely unnecessary and nothing to be gained by doing so? Here is the news: young lady is unwell and requires medical intervention. Rightly she asks for privacy. Who amongst us would like our private medical details exposed to all? Let's be honest, you can't even access your own partner or other family members' medical records without express written permission, not even if a person is in hospital and unable to communicate. You need to fill in an access form and it goes in your records. The newspapers and media seem to be saying that shouldn't apply to the Princess of Wales or even the King. I wonder how those journalists and commentators would feel if any Tom, Dick or Harry could ask to see their private medical information.