Nell Gwynn

21 hours ago, jencruzin said:

If yours ate the black pudding - it was STEAMED and red inside (it was raw). Mine ate his at windjammer and had the same results, only for one day though. 

Sorry to hear your hubby suffered too.  It wasn't the black pudding for mine, not sure what, but people on Facebook have been blaming undercooked chicken!  I guess we'll never know. 

We were on the June 4 cruise out of Southampton to the Canaries and I totally agree with Pandemonium. 
 

The price of the drinks package was utterly ridiculous.  The cocktails and other drinks were all overpriced and looked cheap - seriously only a quarter of a slice of lemon! I know it's petty to mention that but it goes to show the level of penny pinching involved.

The sun bed situation - yes agree again although I personally sometimes prefer to sit in the shade.  The promenade deck on other ships has always been a good place to sit for a different view and some peace, but on Anthem you can't do a complete loop and there was no seating available.

As to the tips, my husband got severe diarrhoea on this cruise and I understand he wasn't the only one.  He was stuck in the cabin for three days and missed 2 ports of call - based on that maybe housekeeping earnt their money! 

I’m sure you would really enjoy a visit to the historic dockyard at Portsmouth - I know I did and the tour of The Victory (Nelson’s flagship) was the highlight for me. If you can fit it in then you won’t be disappointed.

I’m from London and I would recommend:

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben - I think you need to pre book a tour. (1/2 day)

St Pauls Cathedral and its Whispering Gallery, but only if the you have a good head for heights and are fully mobile. (1/2 day)

The Shard - make sure you spend a penny (= visit the restroom). Possibly combine with a visit to Borough Market and a walk along the south bank/visit or walk past the Cutty Sark (nice little pub right next door) (1/2 day)

The Tower of London

And for shops Oxford Street - Selfridges or John Lewis maybe. Or somewhere like Stratford with Olympic stadium nearby.

You would probably also want to visit Buckingham Palace for either a tour or to watch the changing of the guard (check timings)

Lower down my list would be Covent Garden, the London Dungeon (Black Death & Jack the Ripper story), Leicester Square, The London Eye and Trafalgar Square in that order.

And of course parks, theatres, art galleries & museums.

Yes of course!

Embarkation was really fast and efficient even though we were a couple of hours early. Our room steward and all the restaurant staff are amazing, nothing is too much trouble. The pools are warmish and the jacuzzis are even warmer and aren’t being used much. I haven’t tried it yet but the mulled wine smells wonderful. If you book an early sitting at Sindhu they give you a free bottle of wine. The cinema is a fair size, the biggest I’ve seen on a cruise ship. The entertainment choice is poor, but the comedian really was very good as were the singers, the guest flautist and Oriana’s musicians. Tonight we have a comedy magician so fingers crossed!

Really sorry for the people booked to sail on Oriana next but I have to disagree with deanreed. I’m on the same cruise and it’s not great. Motion discomfort bags have been out in the stairwells on all but 2 sailings so far. The ship is pitching and rolling really bad making it difficult to sleep. I heard a rumour today that the repair is needed because one of the stabilisers is broken.

This was billed as a festive cruise with extra special touches... well they have Christmas decorations out. Apart from a very good comedian who did 2 separate shows and a group of singers (again 2 shows) the entertainment has been really poor. We are 10 days in to the cruise and there have been no game shows, the entertainments manager is almost invisible and the captain not much better. Last night was our second black tie night and we had the choice of headliners in the theatre (on for two nights in a row) or a film in the cinema. Even the pianist didn’t show. There was nothing else on until the black tie ball much later hosted by the dancing pros and we ended up going to bed at 9 :(

I’m so disappointed we’ve considered getting off early and flying home, but we have a lot of luggage and the car is in Southampton. We will not be cruising with p and o again.

Very sorry for those about to sail but I feel it is only fair to warn you.

Does anyone know what will happen to the crew while Oriana is in for repair? I'm booked on the cruise to the Canaries in December and from a purely selfish point of view I'm wondering if the crew are going to be mega grumpy or happy to get a few extra weeks paid leave.

I'm also a little bit worried that the ship is going to break down and leave us stranded in the Canaries over Christmas. It wouldn't normally be a problem, but I really need to be home for Christmas this year. We were booked on Ventura for the same cruise last December and had to cancel just 2 days before sailing because a close relative was taken seriously ill and later died. Last Christmas was pretty grim and I really don't want anything to go wrong this year. Obviously I was not in the right frame of mind to think about the consequences of cancelling a cruise so close to departure last year but I'm now thinking how mean of P and O not to give us any loyalty points - they still got our fare after all and I'm also wondering if the tips we prepaid would have found their way to the crew or stayed in P and O's coffers.

Thank you! So detailed and fast - just what I needed :)

Apologies if this has been answered somewhere else, I've tried searching and just got myself more confused.

This will be our first trip to NY. Our flight arrives at Newark from UK around mid-day and we are booked to stay a couple of nights at the Hudson. What are our options for travel from airport to hotel and how much should I expect to pay? Should I book online ahead? There are two of us travelling and we don't have any disabilities.

I'm also needing some advice on how to get from hotel to Cape Liberty on Sept 11 - Is travel on that date tricky?