mrsgoggins

Saturday, 3rd February - part 2

I thought I would add the coffee and remaining cake picture from Angra bar.

We followed our excursion with another really good meal in Epicurean.  I had celeriac soup, which as it’s cream coloured, I won’t post, but DH had the Jambón Pata Negra Ibérico de Bellota, with aged Manchego cheese, Spanish olives, country bread and almond oil, prepared tableside.

We had the Miso glazed rack and slow cooked lamb belly, which DH enjoyed so much the last time, that I had to give it a go, but the star was the rack of lamb, which resembled 2 thick lamb chops. Didn’t bother with potatoes either as chips or new since I think that’s a weak link in their dining, or maybe I’ve just been unlucky.

I ended with crepes Suzette yet again and DH with cheese. So long as the journey home doesn’t get too rough, we hope to dine here one last time 🤞.

The evening came to a close in the theatre with a girl group from the Netherlands, Magnolia Road. I really enjoyed their performance but I felt that I was in the minority and comments leaving the theatre and in the lift confirmed I was correct. They didn’t have the best voices, but they were enthusiastic and did a decent job, and at last we had stuff that wasn’t 50-65 years old or from Phantom or Les Mis! Their set included Shut up and Dance, Hello (Adele hit), two Dolly Parton songs and two which were done by Lady Gaga in Star is Born. I was happy 😁.

That concludes my review as we have only sea days left. Doing this has actually been a useful aid to memory, since it’s so easy for the days/Caribbean ports to blend together in my mind. I will answer questions though, and may post a few after thoughts when I get home. I’m already on my list of what I should have brought with me but didn’t and what I did, but could have done without.

Thanks again for reading, and my two photo-insertion advisers @TigerB and fabulous cat, and of course @grapau27

Saturday, 3rd February - part 1

We did the same Ocean to Ocean tour in Barbados last week, but in reverse order - tropical garden first. However, I’ve got to say that you got the (much) better shots at Bathsheba beach - just stunning. Having been there, I also know you are likely to have timed it well to get a clear shot of the rock, with everyone else doing the same thing!

Like you, I’ve now developed a chesty cough that’s worse at night, and our air conditioning works well but it’s still not aiding my sleeping, which is why I’m catching up with your posts in the middle of the night as we head back to Southampton, docking on Wednesday.

I was relieved when the Caribbean band left the Ventura and the peace of the balcony was again restored.  I hope you won’t be subjected to the ‘din’ for much longer.  
 

Wishing you and Lady S improved ship conditions as you continue with your adventure 🤞

5 hours ago, brian1 said:

Just a dry liver and bacon for us last night.

On the liver and bacon theme, here's mine from last night's Ventura MDR menu. The taste was good but don't think I would have put gravy on the bacon 🤔. The potato part was allegedly colcanon but you needed magnifying glass to find any cabbage or anything other than potato!

3 hours ago, Slugsta said:

@mrsgoggins I see that they are still running 'vocal workshops'. Do you happen to know whether these are more like the pre-covid passenger choir? I participated in the 'workshops' on Iona last year and found them a waste of time and was hoping there would have been a return to passenger choirs, at least on the smaller ships.

I don't know much about the choir, pre-covid or now (although I did consider joining but the time of the sessions put me off). However, I was on a large table at lunch a few days ago with 2 women and the husband of 1 of them who did attend. I was interested and they all seemed quite enthusiastic about the choir. I was told about 100 attended with sopranos to the right and altos to the left. The man said that a few women were with the men.

The ship's orchestra pianist was accompanying them and was obviously popular. They had had a change of members of the ship's singers leading them. 

I hope that helps.

27 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

It is sunny and 11°C here this morning.

I hope everyone has a happy day.

I get the 'all's well with the world' feeling when I see your in-car posts Graham. Such a pity it isn't though 😞. Long may your coffee by the sea posts continue. Thanks 👍

Thursday, 1st February and @TigerB, yes far more jumpers and cardigans to be seen around the ship, although there are still plenty dressed as though we are still in the Caribbean! Not me though, I’ve possessed a good supply of cardies (and cosy slippers) most of my adult life. Alluring or what? 😂

This morning both guest speakers in the theatre were excellent yet again. The medical lawyer, Chris Martin, gave a fascinating insight into his world of litigation and he was followed by Robert Daws who is just so entertaining and funny, with tales from his busy acting career - and he can sing too. Alas today was his third and final talk, despite staying with the ship until Southampton.

To more mundane matters. Yet again today three out of the six mid ship lifts were out of action at lunchtime and one of the forward lifts. One of the two lamps above our bathroom sink has failed after flickering for days (lamp man came, lamp man left - two days ago). On reporting it to reception I was given an immediate apology and ‘ … we don’t have any lamps to replace it with …..’.  Needless to say (engineer) mrgoggins has had quite a bit to say about the maintenance issues 🫢.  
 

I know there’s at least one person interested in Horizon for a long cruise, so as previously promised, here’s todays:

3 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

This Freedom dining is odd. I actually thought about having fixed dining and having a table for two for my cruises this year but you can’t guarantee a table for two can you? Plus we’d choose 6.30 and as we’re going on Aurora I expect it will be booked up. Then my Britannia one I’ve only just booked so I probably wouldn’t get first sitting either!

That’s my dilemma too. No guarantee of a table for two even on fixed. Today at lunchtime, and unprompted by me, another couple at our table for eight were lamenting on the fact that you can never get a table for two …… well, some people can! I realise the option is there to take a pager, but we don’t want to dine late either, so go with the lesser of the two evils.

There just are not many tables for two on Ventura and they fill up fast. Maybe not such an issue on other P&O ships. Certainly on Iona we had no trouble getting one at all. Good luck getting what you want on your upcoming cruises 🤞

17 hours ago, TigerB said:

Thanks for the report; I'm glad you found time to chill.

 

Was that salmon on a waffle? Is so, was it a sweet waffle or a potato waffle.  🎶Birdseye potato waffles, they're waffley versatile🎶  (Sorry, I couldn't resist, but you are welcome to that ear worm!🤭)

Anyway, they don't have that on Iona; nor do they have either of the desserts you both had.

 

Jumper tomorrow?🥶

The only Birdseye song I remember is 🎶 Birdseye peas, sweet as the moment, sweet as the moment when the pod went pop 🎶 - I suspect you won’t know that one being a relative young ‘un 😉, and if you do, you’re welcome 😄

The salmon came on a ‘plank’. I didn’t examine it closely but assume it to be wood. Here’s how it arrived at the table, wrapped in a paper parcel (I’ve done this myself in the past, meant to retain moisture). The red sauce was too spicy for my liking but DH enjoyed it with his chicken tenders.

We did have the carrot cake this afternoon with coffee, and it was surprisingly good; a cream cheese type topping, which I like, rather than a heavy icing, which I don’t.

One of our best meals at The Beach House, although as I’ve previously said, we like this venue and the attentive staff. An oasis of calm compared with the MDR.

The Captain has informed us that tomorrow the temperatures dip below 20C ‘reminding us we are on our way back home’.  We have had gloomy skies and some drizzle today, so looking out onto our balcony is also a reminder. It looks like yesterday, Tuesday, was our final hot day. We are now only 2 hours behind the UK.

Potato skins with incinerated bacon pieces

A good account. So pleased it all worked out well for you despite your misgivings in advance. Welcome to the wonderful world of being able to take holidays outside of term time 😁

Some fabulous photos from your outings today and another great review. I especially loved the shot framed by the window. 
 

The lack of suspension struck home with me after a couple of our trips! Boy have we been bounced around. I didn’t have a stiff neck when I came away, but I do now 🙁 - hoping it’s temporary!

I hope your cold is short-lived.

30 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We really embraced Freedom Dining when it first came out and for many years used it without problem. However, we’ve gone right off it now as a result of it no longer operating as originally intended (i.e. first come, first served).
 

The combination of allowing people to reserve tables (which now seems to happen on all ships, including currently on Aurora) and multiple ways to get a table (app, pager, walk ups) has made the whole thing, to use a technical expression, a buggers muddle! We have reverted to Club dining as a result. 

I love the term ‘buggers muddle’ 😄.

We now have 35-night cruises booked for January ‘25 and ‘26 and I am going to request to change to Club dining, and just hope we are allocated a table for 2.  It’s taken me almost 4 weeks to cotton on to what was happening with ‘reserved’ tables, probably because we have dined in other venues, and the fact that I wasn’t prepared to queue for 20 minutes each night for the dining room doors to open, and so assumed I was being told the truth about ‘only shared available now’, until my eyes told me otherwise.

My next cabin neighbours being allocated a fixed table for 4 their personal use after complaining, shows that the squeaky wheel appears to get results.  The fact that we were offered a table for 2 this evening despite being 10 minutes after opening may not have been a coincidence either!

I have actually enjoyed the shared tables (with just one exception 🤐) but with the background noise of the MDR I really do need to be sitting opposite DH if he stands any chance of hearing me, let alone anyone else.

Thanks for your insight.

25 minutes ago, TigerB said:

Am I understanding it correctly, you cannot book on My Holiday, and neither is there an opportunity to join a virtual queue for freedom dining? It's a case of get there sharpish for a decent table, or take a pager, or take what they have?

 

I'm with you on the apparent inequity when it comes to them dishing out two-seaters.  Sometimes, I think they make it up as they go along.

 

As for the two-seaters you have seen empty or with wine on, when you have been told there were none available, I wouldn't be surprised if they were blocked out by the waiters on those sections for their repeat guests; something that will benefit both sides: a regular 'reserved' table for the guests, and the high likelihood of a decent tip for the waiting team.

Yes, your summing up in your first paragraph is spot on.

To be clear, it was my cabin neighbours who saw a nearby empty 2-top table set up with wine in place. I only witnessed empty 2-tops (good ones with 2 chairs) tables after being told there were none available.

We now just have 1 week left of our 5 week cruise, but it may be useful to someone else in future to challenge this at the start. Last night I did ask ‘ …. What would you do if I had just taken the empty table?’ and was told that would be okay if you came back to the podium to give us the table number!

I fully understand the tipping scenario you mention, and of course that will be why on Celebrity, they try to seat you with the same servers, if not the same tables. They appear to have more tables for 2 however.

Tomorrow I’m reverting to ‘chill’ mode, and will post more about the actual cruise rather than my personal gripes 🤞

Today’s post will largely be a rant, so feel free to pass by, as it’s definitely a first world moan 😉

Apparently the ship left St Maarten at around 1 am, so 7 hours later than planned.  According to other guests, the Jamaican band, the Blue Jays did not have the correct paperwork to disembark.  They are no longer on board so a solution was obviously found - do you think the Captain is provided with ‘slush’ money? 😄

Here’s today’s Horizon for the first of our 5 sea days.  We heard the actor, Robert Daws’ first presentation and I found it very interesting.  I will definitely attend each one he does, despite the temptation of our balcony on this warm, but breezy day.

Still Sunday night here in the Caribbean.  It’s 9.15 pm as I write and we should have sailed at 6 pm.  Around 6.15 pm the Captain announced the delay was due to ‘paperwork’ and that he would update us; since then not a peep.  Speculation has ranged from ‘medical emergency’ to lots of loud banging taking place on the port side - we are starboard and have heard nothing.

Anyhow, my meal outside at the Beach House was for nothing as we plainly didn’t get the final outside Caribbean sail away experience that a few of us were hoping for.  I’ve eaten in the Beach House on a few occasions and have never been especially thrilled with the food but quite like the venue itself.  Here’s tonight’s offerings:

I had the double burger and maybe ate a third of it.  To be frank, the size of it puts me off.  DH had the brisket and managed two-thirds plus most of my fries.  When I ate outside at the Beach House last week I had the Lava rock steak - again too much.  You could share one meal at this venue and still leave feeling full.

The dessert of fudge cake for me and Key lime whatsit for himself was quantity over quality IMO, and we had about a half of our respective desserts.

A bit of a disappointing dining experience saved by the attention of Mark, our server, who remembered our conversation with him last week and showed interest. In turn, we were interested in him and will be filling out one of those ‘made a difference’ forms for him tomorrow.

Apart from posting the occasional Horizon, I don’t expect to post much as we head back in the direction of the UK from this evening, so I’ll do an update of today in St Maarten, which was another warm 26C day with some cloud.

We docked at the side of Mein Schiff 3, which was a 5-10 minute walk to the port’s shopping area, although there were elongated golf buggies for people with mobility problems.  Although we had been here before, many years ago, nothing about the port was familiar and so I’m assuming it has been built since our visit.

We had pre-booked a shore excursion here, similar to one we had done many years ago - A glimpse of St Maarten and Margot Bay, which on that occasion was in a full-sized modern coach.  I see from my notes that, after discount (5%) today’s trip cost £34.20 each.  My current thinking is I would pay that much not to endure one of those small buses, with feeble air conditioning, common in the Caribbean, with 2 seats on one side, 1 on the other, and the potential to fold down another seat across the aisle.
 

Again we managed to get the back seat so that DH could stretch his legs a little.  If we had got on and discovered that the only seats available were those over the wheel arch, we would have got off pretty sharp.  Rant over, I do realise that there are many much smaller people who would not even register this as an issue. 

The tour itself lasted 2.5 hours including a 45 minute stop at Marigot Bay.  It being a Sunday, shops were closed but the colourful market was doing a good trade.

The tour was just okay and we had a singing tour guide who treated us to a rendition of God Save the King!  She herself was actually from St Kitts, a former British colony (where Ventura failed to make it into port a few days ago) and told us that she had to sing God Save the Queen every day in school as a child.  

We have booked the Beach House this evening for 6 pm so that we can have a table outside for our last Caribbean port sail away.  The Caribbean band who have been on board, Blue Flames, and played by the pool, have now left the ship, and so a late afternoon sitting on our balcony is relatively peaceful again, although I do appreciate that it added to the Caribbean vibe all around the ship - last night people were encouraged to wear their Caribbean shirts, dresses, etc.

I’ll try to remember to take food photos this evening, but actually what we really like about the Beach House most of all is the guaranteed table for 2.  I’m happy enough sharing tables some of the time but you can have too much of a good thing.  I’ve reached that point!

My holiday itinerary tells me that this is day 25 and we are in beautiful Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  It might have been a good idea to insert the itinerary back at the start, but it’s only now, thanks to @grapau27 and @TigerB that I have the ability to do such things without fretting!

Tortola is one of the few places on this itinerary that we have not visited previously.  However, the fact that none of the P&O tours offered showed them using proper buses, I decided to check out the vehicles on offer at the port for leg room and accessibility - some of them have very high steps up.

We found what we were looking for in the form of a $25 pp, 2 hour tour of the island on the bus below. We were happy with the legroom and I managed to haul myself in - although a few did require a bit of gentle ‘hands on backside’ shove from partners/companions.  That is me on the back seat btw, and you can see there is plenty of room, and we were not packed in.  They only collected money towards the end of the tour and had they attempted to do so, we would have got off before it started.  Something you can’t really do with a pre-paid ship’s tour.  I am going into detail here, because it’s the sort of information I would have wanted, so it may be of some use to someone else.

The tour did a couple of photo stops, a stop at the place in the photo immediately below, where some of us bought drinks before taking in the views.  Additionally there was a rum tasting stop - $1 a shot I understand - and also those who wanted it to be a 3 hour tour were dropped off at a pretty beach, with the driver arranging to pick them up again at 2 pm, so they had an hour by the beach and an additional amount to pay when he returned for them, which I think was $5 pp.

Finally a couple more photos from this most scenic island (with a few scary hairpin bends it must be noted!).  I will not add the photos mrgoggins took of missing bus front wheel nuts or rust holes, which he said would be useful to the Coroner when they were found 😂).

This final one shows Ventura in the distance

We keep being reminded that we must visit our Muster stations this afternoon, so I shall wrap up now and do my duty.
 

2 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Tring that’s exactly what we will be doing as we’re on the same cruise, I keep checking for the excursions to come out and do something cheap and quick because we want to do our own thing .

We're on it too 😁

24 minutes ago, lincslady said:

The being carved at table explains the not very attractive appearance of the dish, of course.  Glad it tasted good.

Eye of the beholder and all that .... It looked fine to me!

7 hours ago, lincslady said:

I am no artist at food presentation,   but even I could have done better than the first plate of smoked salmon.  No doubt it tasted good, but it looks as it was plated up by a small child.

Interesting. It is a Duo of smoked salmon (hence the difference in appearances) with rye bread and was carved very delicately table-side from 2 distinctly different sides of salmon. It was very carefully placed, so I assume that is the way it is meant to look. It was delicious.

A brief update on last night’s meal in Epicurean which was really good again, with the exception of the potatoes (or chips for that matter, as selected on last visit).  I had already decided to mention them, when, lo and behold @Selbourne mentioned them first.  Everything else tasted freshly prepared, but the potatoes and chips have a reheated taste, one piece of boiled potato was firm to the bite.  It was no matter since there is more than enough food without potatoes.

My starter is obvious from the photo, but DH had a cheese mousse (menu B).

We both had the lamb next which we both enjoyed but DH thought the lamb cooked two ways on menu A had the edge, so I’ll be trying that next week.

I didn’t photograph my dessert, which was a pleasant, if unremarkable panna cotta accompanied by a tasty black charcoal coconut ice cream.  DH had the cheese plate, which is huge and I reckon that must contain in the region of 1000+ calories alone!  We brought the fruit cake back with us to have with afternoon coffee.

The evening was rounded off nicely with a visit to the theatre to see the MacDonald brothers, who had apparently done very well on the X Factor 18 or so years ago.  Again, by 8.10 pm it was standing room only so I remain puzzled as to why they do not bring the timing of both shows forward by one hour so that a 9.30 pm performance would be more appealing to most, than the current 10.30 pm performance!  They were excellent by the way, and rounded off their show with a great Audience participation rendition of ‘I’m gonna be (500 miles)’ although in my head I was singing ‘Bobby Davro’ as in the Peter Kay version done for Children in Need 😁

What an excellent and detailed account of yet another challenging day for you both, so my hearty thanks for doing it 💐.

We have previously enjoyed a stay in New Orleans under our own steam, and it looks so very different in the sun of course. Glad to hear you enjoyed the beignets, as no visit would be complete without. We also tried our first Po' boys there.

On the subject of food, I completely agree about P&O and potatoes! I'll be touching on that topic on my next write-up.

I'm not a prayer, but I really hope it's not too long before you are able to refer to your cruise as one of two halves, with Miami being the exception in the first half, and with the second half being a dream 🤞

55 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Another sunny day in paradise. Will it never end? 

IMG_1245.mov

That looks miserable. It must start to improve soon.