Megabear2

There's also a lot of pride in these churches which are often the centre of village life. In Barbados for instance there's traditionally a rum shack immediately next door to the church to facilitate celebration after the services. Most of the "traditional" islands have a very high percentage of church goers.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Whilst having a lot of sympathy with all those affected by the dreadful delays they can and do happen regularly on far more well known airlines, unfortunately it is in particular a post pandemic problem with lack of aircraft. I assume if you felt unsafe you had the misfortune to be on the flight which encountered severe turbulence which must have been extremely frightening. As to the business contract who is to say how many aircraft P&O's flight agent asked to be available. If it was the bare minimum to move everyone on a set schedule then that is not Maleth's error as the agent must be aware aircraft go out of service and should have ensured that the necessary spare planes were available. The knock on from the damaged aircraft being stranded was clearly huge and affected a very large number of flights. If on the other hand the three aircraft were all that were available due to Maleth's other commitments then P&O's aircraft procurement team should have pointed out to their client P&O the risk involved and P&O consider whether it was wise to attempt the full programme for the season whilst literally flying by the seat of their pants. They could perhaps have allowed those who wanted to cancel after the announcement of no premium economy to do so without loss of deposit or even halted sales, particularly of the 7 day Arvia cruises. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but truthfully the whole thing has been a dog's dinner in how it has been handled and the very least P&O can do is assist those claiming their legal entitlement from Maleth by applying commercial pressure. At the end of the day the only ones losing here are their customers and this is not just of Maleth's making.

Late 24.

I was offered the dubious option of enjoying his bamboo by the guy with the wave runners while negotiating a price. When I declined politely (I had no idea what he was referring to) he gave me a can of Dragon stout for my OH as it would make him have good bamboo too and I exited red faced when it dawned on me what I'd been discussing!

Good to hear. We found it that way too.

The amount of compensation owing will be very high. So far none has been paid from what we can see. Unless P&O paid them an absolute fortune Maleth will probably rue the day they ever took the contract. From being an unknown airline they have unfortunately become the devil incarnate on some websites (not here thankfully) with any slight normal problem being highlighted and magnified as a "disaster". I too feel a little sorry for them, it isn't their fault they were the only available airline and unfortunately they have just been out of their depth particularly after the CAT incident which made the lack of aircraft even more acute.

Yes, that was confirmed some time ago. Paul Ludlow announced to the trade in the week that P&O will be announcing their additional partner shortly so clearly there will be another airline announcement shortly. I booked a Britannia fly cruise this week and my flight is already confirmed as TUI - I took the last two premium seats and availability in cabins was also quite restricted.

You must be reading my mind! I'm looking at the Aurora cruise a week or so later and was also going to ask for views on weather, ports etc. Perhaps the nice Scandinavian experts could give both of us their views on general aspects. Regarding Britannia she is my favourite P&O ship and although I have no experience with children personally on all my cruises on her thr children and families all sem to be very happy with the offering. I assume you are referring to there being no internal pool as your worry in inclement weather. Apart from this I'd say that Britannia would offer the same sort of facilities as Ventura. I have sailed Arvia and would say apart from the indoor pool offering Britannia's are superior being considerably larger and less crowded.

I hope your Mum feels better soon. It's good to know that her home and medics erred on the side of caution as bumps to the head are always tricky to decide on whether to seek medical help or not. They sound so trivial but we should be less blasé really.

I can well imagine they aren't, Jamaica being only second to Haiti as the poorest country in the entire Caribbean. Back in the mid 80's we spent a week in Ochos Rios after the US started the trade embargo against them when the Jamaica government did a deal to sell sugar and bananas to Russia. There were green mouldy loaves on the shelves of the local shop with people queuing to buy them. A very sad sight based on some misguided political choices. The people back then were stoic and incredibly friendly and welcoming, unfortunately not I hear so much now. Hopefully Tortola will be made in time. You are certainly having some great adventures!

Interesting article from the trade press yesterday. https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/po-cruises-president-says-talks-ongoing-over-caribbean-airline-partner

Did you go to see the offshore registration building with the plaques showing you who had investments? I found it fascinating to see they'd run out of space! The tour guide was very proud to show us Mick Jagger and Bono in particular but I was astonished at how many individuals names I recognised and the really interesting one was the Welsh village who were making a protest to the UK government. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/crickhowell-inside-the-welsh-town-that-took-itself-offshore-in-tax-protest-a6752511.html

The cost of living in the Cayman Islands is extremely high. I can recall in 2014 watching a lady in a supermarket buy a box of 10 fish fingers for a sum I calculated to be around US$15. I dread to think how much now. This website gives interesting information on cost of living for people considering relocating to live permanently, I find it very interesting to get a rough idea of basic costs when I travel. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Cayman+Islands&displayCurrency=USD

I have a completed bathroom so no need to go to the swimming pool for a shower tomorrow morning. Negotiations with Ovo re my complaint are finished as well with profuse apologies offered. An interesting insight into the state of British customer service. No doubt you are very much aware I intensely dislike receing bad service and will not hesitate to fight my corner. At the beginning of Februaty I opened a Nationwide Flex account to be able to take advantage of the travel insurance for myself and in particular my husband. I opened the account with £25.00 with a view to starting to make payments in monthly from 1 March. However during the months of December, January and February I have accumulated cheques from the various organisations where I've had big problems and ended up complaining. Because I have been unwell I have been putting them in a drawer. Following today's discussions on the plumbing issues I have been told a cheque for £250 will be winging it's way to me so I decided to take all of the cheques out of the drawer to pay them into this new account. Imagine my shock to find they add up to over £1,050 with this £250 due on top. These payments for poor service are from banks, insurance companies, retailers, telephone providers and an electrical supplier in other words lots of types of organisations. Add to this £20 Sainsburys gift card for return of out of date food and although a very nice little collection I find myself despairing at the state of customer service and the reliability of staff to carry out fairly normal and mundane things I've paid them for. On the other hand it will make a nice inroads into my required cruise deposit for Cunard on 5 March!

Is this the Barbados Immigration form you're looking to complete?

Strangely this one had developed a hole, the metal casing actually had frayed. The plumber said he's not seen one do that before as it's usually the valve that fails. Probably just typical of my luck!

There's also the new Queen Elizabety fly cruises from Miami which may take some of the people who are able to fly and are seeking the sun rather than just the cruise experience. We are looking to book on at least two of these and add on extended stays in Florida with our friends through January and February. In January 2025 we have opted for the 35 night QM2 cruise rather than our traditional P&O Christmas/New Year fly cruise with the decision made purely on the repeat P&O itinerary with no change of island calls. Although the Cunard itinerary is very much of the same ilk to the Iona offering the passenger ratio being lower on QM2 and a superior daytime activity offering on seadays made the decision quite easy.

Just for info, this is from trade magazine last year explaining Aviva's acquisition along with "buying" Barclays Home Insurance Book. Towards the end it mentions that Aviva did this deal with Nationwide in May 2023 for the travel insurance. It would appear they are in quite an acquisitive phase in their business. https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/property-insurance/aviva-announces-major-home-insurance-swoop-453638.aspx

There are many companies putting their names to travel insurance and designing their own products, however there are actually very few travel insurance underwriters. Aviva is one of these as is UK Travel and they underwrite for a large number of third parties including leading banks, big corporate companies such as M&S, John Lewis etc. The design and terms of the product belong to the headline name, in the case under discussion this is Nationwide but it could just as easily be M&S or another company. It is confusing but none of these products are actually the underwriters policies. Even more confusing the Aviva insurance arm and the Aviva underwriting arm are actually two different entities. However your contract of insurance is issued and owned by Nationwide, hence your monthly fee, but managed on their behalf by UK Travel/Aviva on their behalf. These are the details for the presently in place Nationwide insurance as provided by them on their website. It clearly shows UK Insurance Limited is the Underwriter not the Provider. "U K Insurance Limited Nationwide FlexAccount Travel Cover is underwritten by U K Insurance Limited who are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority."

The plumber came and we are no longer in a comedy farce. Thankfully this one knew what he was doing. Stopcock loosened and operational in 10 minutes and the leak under the bath sourced and a solution offered. Basically it is a hole in the extendable stretch pipe to the hot tap. He worked for 20 minutes and removed it and is going to come back tomorrow at 9.00am with a new one and fit it. He was aghast the previous one claimed it couldn't be repaired and said although fiddly it's quite simple so with today and tomorrow no more than 90 minutes work. He has told me of Ovo refuse to cover the bill it will be no more than £150 for his work, the part and resealing the bath. A great relief to have someone who knows what they're doing and actually care. Tomorrow a follow up conversation with Ovo complaints manager looms ...

Please remember it is not Aviva you are insuring with, it is Nationwide and they will be "buying in" underwriting from Aviva not selling their policies. This means Nationwide will have effectively "shopped" the underwriting market to find a provider matching as near as possible their current offering or what they wish to offer under a new contract. This will then have been adjusted and negotiated between the parties before Nationwide "bought" their package to offer to their customers. The Nationwide offering has for very many years been a big selling point to their customers so they won't want to cause too much discontent amongst them however the underwriting market has changed massively since the pandemic with many leaving it (as UK Insurance have chosen to do). A large number of these packaged bank accounts in particular have had to look elsewhere - Halifax/Lloyds losing AXA in November 2021 and moving to Allianz for example. Although your policy is underwritten by Aviva it will still be Nationwide setting the terms. Aviva will, however, be responsible for setting the underwriting for things like medical issues with Nationwide having little say in the policy costs. It is almost inevitable there will be some increase in the cost of these but it is not just an Aviva/Nstionwide but across the whole insurance market in some cases as much as 40% but averaging 20%. Things like the 85 year cut off with Aviva may not apply to the Nationwide one - presumably the age add on people used to buy covered people beyond that age (I have no personal experience of this so assume it to be the case). As Nationwide state you no longer need an age addition it may be that they have negotiated this with Aviva - Nationwide should be able to explain this even before the Aviva policies go live as someone in their organisation will have negotiated the policy and terms. Again with the cruise add on being cruise by cruise instead of one add on, it will have been a policy decision by Nationwide not Aviva. At a guess I would say that over the past few years payouts on this section will have greatly increased and it will have been a commercial decision based on this. I've looked at the new policy as I'm approaching my 70th and my current insurer won't insure me from September and I intend to swap as the benefits look very good even under Aviva. Hope that helps.

Pole dancing??

For thr Key West stop you were the only ship due that day. However the next day's calls by a Virgin and RC ship were both cancelled with the RC ship going to Miami and Virgin staying at sea. In no way defending P&O but there was a very high rip tide warning for the whole southern Florida coast for the entire week and knowing the entire Keys area and Miami to Palm Beach when these run they are extremely strong. Regardless of the purported £29,000 tug offer P&O/Carnival understandably may be being more cautious after last year's Britannia and Queen Mary 2 line breaking incidents. The Britannia incident in particular drew a lot of publicity and no doubt they wish to avoid any unnecessary problems.

The whole systems, no matter what or whom, seem to have gone into complete failure. It's no wonder we keep reading about the number of people sick due to mental issues and stress. Even the simplest thing seems to lead to huge problems and anguish. I do hope it all gets sorted for you soon. Yes, I agree chocolate is an excellent idea and blow the consequences!

Thank you. I actually feel better just writing the above rant! I truthfully think if I wrote a book no one would believe it as my life is like one giant fairytale at the moment.