mrsgoggins

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thankfully it’s not our first US port, so we won’t have the immigration issue. We have that joy tomorrow in Port Canaveral and I’m on an early tour - if I get to go on it. 

I wish you all the luck in the world. I've had my share of issues with US Immigration in the past - an uncomfortable 2 hour wait to enter Orlando airport about 6 years ago, followed by being taken to a side room, made me vow never to enter via that airport again, and I haven't, despite flying into the USA every year. 

2 minutes ago, arlowood said:

I think @Selbourne's first port of call is Port Canaveral, not New Orleans, so he not have to suffer the immigration woes you refer to with that port.

I'm so pleased to hear that because whilst not wanting to be a 'Debbie Downer', forewarned and all that, good news.

44 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

As we are in New Orleans for 2 full days, I will most likely try the trams at a time when I’m off the ship on my own. Was the tour that you went on a P&O organised one or something you found independently? I don’t believe that there are any accessible tours like that on our cruise. 

We are doing the 35-night January Ventura cruise next year, and I've lost count of the number of 'regulars' who have told me that when New Orleans is your first US port of call, as it will be for us, book an early tour to minimise the immigration wait, followed by some horror stories.

I realise this might not be easy/possible for you so I wish you well with your ordeal and hope that you are able to post that I was wrong and that the port is now a model of efficiency 🤞

Wonderfully entertaining as well as informative. I laughed at the description of the woman who shouldn't be allowed to dress herself, and, like, the American girls!

3 hours ago, lincslady said:

I don't know about anyone else, but amlopidine hasn't half brought my blood pressure down with a bang.  

I was prescribed this 18 months ago after my shoulder replacement op where they told me that the top figure (systolic?) was 200 just before they put me under anaesthetic, which I wouldn't have thought was too surprising.

After the op, my BP was monitored regularly during the next 24 hours and was back to normal - top figure around 120, but I was still prescribed them. I assume because it can go high. No side effects that I can recall however. Agree, worth mentioning to your GP

1 hour ago, Fionboard said:

Always get the local bus to Grand Anse beach. One of my favourites. 

Not really beach people. Are there other things there? Bars etc? Planning for next time 😉

In my last post, I managed to get a gap between my photos - anyone know how I did that please because I'd like to do it again 🤔?

Last night's theatre entertainment was excellent IMO - the Blue Jays, a 4 piece rock band who play 50s and 60s music. The lead singer had played Buddy Holly in a touring version of The Buddy Holly Story and did a few of his numbers including Rave On, the title of their own touring show, which I intend to Google. A packed theatre of course.

Today we are in Grenada and although it was a rainy humid start, it wasn't a bad backdrop to my friends' WhatsApp video clips of their gardens covered in snow. I took a look at the CCTV of our own snowy drive and tried to suppress my smug feelings. Actually, 2 weeks in and I am missing my friends and our activities. I can't imagine ever signing up for a cruise longer than this, despite being happy with most things.

On to my gripe of the day.  Of the 6 mid ship lifts one has never worked from the start.  One of the remaining, one goes down intermittently and this morning 3 of the 6 displayed the dreaded X.  By afternoon that was up to 4 working. Hmmmm!

We have been on a Grenada tour previously and have sufficient nutmegs to last many years, so we only took a walk into the terminal building/shopping arcade and had a short stroll outside, but it was too hot and humid to stay long. Photos attached I hope.

We are starboard on C deck and today is the first day we have had full sun on our balcony, and the first time we have had heating gizmo set to cool.

Today's menus again are the same as those posted by @Selbourne and so I was able to select the cheese and onion pie before going down for lunch thanks to him - and delicious it was too.

2 hours ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Selbourne - thoroughly enjoying this thread but am becoming a bit apprehensive about the Iona 35 nighter I’ve booked on for next January as you seem to have now had a fortnight without any really hot and sunny weather.  🤔

Not Selbourne obviously, but we did a similar course for the first week. There are lots of repeat passengers on my 35 night Ventura Caribbean cruise and they all say the conditions have not been what they normally experience, so you will probably be fine.

We've had warm sunny mornings in both Barbados and St Lucia with showers (sometimes heavy) in the afternoon. I'm writing this having a welcome rest in the Grenada port terminal where it is hot, sunny and humid outside. Sure that would appeal to you 👌

Today in St Lucia

Another great balcony breakfast in lovely St Lucia.  We had an enjoyable brief visit to the Pink Plantation House and gardens and a short tour, complete with refreshments.

What we dislike about tours in the Caribbean especially is the way the seats are often crammed and with poor leg room. DH is 6'2" he always tries to get the middle seat at the back. However, as we are getting older and are lucky enough to have visited Caribbean ports many times, I can see us less likely to bother with shore excursions in the future.

A photo of his knees pressed against the seat back included for your delight 😄

Note to self - attempt precis! Apologies for the length of the recent post. I'll try brevity 😁.

Now a Metropolis photo of that great New York wall. I had hoped to add a small video but it was taking too long to load.

Epicurean, no Marmite butter for us 😉

Barbados photos first 🤞. 

Thursday, 11th January update

Today I ventured into the laundrette for the first time and was aided both times by men; apparently the machines are new and I was pleased to see that the washing machines give you how long your chosen programme will take. Great as you can leave and return just before the end, but I wonder why the driers do not do likewise - they give you the percentage of moisture remaining in your load, so it’s guess work.  If you are reading, I’m sure it’s not for my laundry details so I’ll press on.

Alas our dining experiences at both breakfast and lunch have been frustrating and not up to scratch.  My ‘go with the flow’ resolve was tested. We have a table for 2 at breakfast and DH’s yoghurt, muesli and thick toast came out in reasonable time (ie, not speedy).  The juices were all mixed up in our section and my promised replacement arrived …… eventually.  So far, no big deal.  I had strayed from my usual order of fruit salad and toast to try an egg Benedict with 2 croissants.  DH sat with his food in front of him for 20 minutes before I went to find a manager to ask about mine.  Another 4/5 minutes and said manager brought out my food. I asked why the croissants couldn’t have been brought out first, if the issue was cooked food and he said he intended to find out.  We had the regular problem of trying to get refills of drinks.  Service at breakfast on P&O has always been a weak spot for us. Tomorrow it’s a return to my normal breakfast.

At lunch I chose badly.  We both had the macaroni cheese, which I thought lacked flavour and was only lukewarm.  I requested a replacement of mackerel pate which was just okay but would have benefited from a bit more Melba toast. I’m sure I could have got some, but getting a waiter’s attention is a skill I have yet to hone!  Unusually, the dining room was not very busy, possibly due to today’s lunch menu (and is the same as posted in Selbourne’s account).

It appears that tonight is formal night on Aurora, but not on here and we are dining at the Beach House, which I postponed from yesterday because of the movement of the ship. Instead we dined in Cinnamon on a shared table that included Guest entertainers, dance teachers Karen and Harry.  It was an interesting and entertaining dining experience.  I had bream and DH had roast beef, both tasty.  Green beans jokes were made, although I didn’t get any.

Sunday 14th January update 

Well I guess I’ve been too preoccupied the last few days and so I’ll attempt a bit of a catch up, even though I’ll be looking back so I hope it’s not too confusing.

As we had shared a table with Dale Templar and friend at breakfast on Friday morning, we attended her final talk on Saturday on the making The Human Planet, the BBC TV series and it made us regret not having been to her earlier lectures.  A selection of interesting speakers was one of the things I really wanted from this cruise and I wasn’t disappointed. Today Barbados, was our first Caribbean destination - after 6 sea days.  All of the guest speakers and most of the guest entertainers disembarked, as did, or so I’ve been told, the Captain. 
 

Sunday was excellent from start to end.  We enjoyed our first balcony room service breakfast.  I had selected 7-7.30 for delivery.  It arrived at 6.40 am when I was just out of the shower and DH had gone off in the hope of them opening the pool a little early!  

We were the first ship in port and I watched the Viking Sea take pole position at the dock, and they were soon joined by a TUI Marbella ship. Because of our location in a busy industrial port, passengers were told they must use the provided shuttles to get to the cruise terminal building.  We took a Barbados Coast to Coast excursion, which we quite enjoyed even though only one of the stops was new to us; a tropical garden, where we were given tokens for either a rum punch or fruit punch.  It was a charming brief stop - and had free WiFi which enabled DH to download 3 books to his phone whilst I took a look at the gardens.

Photos will come when I’ve changed the internet over to my phone.  We also visited St John’s church and Bathsheba Beach.  The evening saw us back in Epicurean for the B menu; so no crepes Suzette alas, but a very good Dover sole for me and lamb for DH followed by a trifle concoction for him and cheese and biscuits for me, though he also ate more of the cheese than I, as I dislike any blue or goats cheese, and there were both in ample quantities.  Another good dining experience.

This was followed by an evening visit to Metropolis to listen to the pianist which I only discovered as a daytime lounge last year, and had no idea it was such a great evening venue!  The New York street scene moving wall kept us both entertained.  Great.

Time to swap over now for easy photos posting.

I've just caught up with your thread and I'm still enjoying it. I'll add to my own soon but wanted to tell you that we have had similar conditions to you both with sea conditions and overcast skies.

Today is our first full of 'like glass' sailing conditions and with full sun, although being on the starboard side we have yet to get the full benefit in our cabin.

The talking non stop in the theatre is very annoying, but so far has only affected us in Tamarind, where we had gone to see a vocalist. A party sitting behind us continued with 'normal voice' conversations throughout. I restrained DH from saying anything because a) it's not the theatre and b) we are very likely to see them again, possibly when dining!

We are still at sea and dock in Barbados in the morning (Sunday). I hope you had a good time in Bermuda (we had a boat trip around the fabulous homes near the port there last year) and that you and your wife managed the US Immigration palaver without difficulty.

Tuesday, 9 January update

I need some donkey ears!  I spent ages doing a new post, tried to add photos that wouldn't upload, left the page to check the internet connection hadn't dropped out, lost what I had done, gave up and read some more of Richard Osman's latest Thursday Murder Club book! So here I go again, but probably in less detail.

As with @Selbourne on Aurora, we are taking a different course to minimise adverse conditions, so although the weather is warm, the ship is rolling a little too much for my liking, but I've experienced much worse. We are at sea until Barbados on Sunday, 14 January.

Last night's theatre performance was by Roy Locke, and since others knew about him, I guess he may be a regular on P&O. Forewarned, we arrived in the theatre for 7.55 pm and by 8.15 pm a young woman was at the front pointing newcomers in the direction of spare seats in an entertaining fashion. Lots stood for the show, which I really enjoyed. He opened with 'Oh what a beautiful morning' from Oklahoma and followed with songs from other musicals, all of which I knew 🎉. This pleased me since I have been on many cruises where I might have only known a few songs from the shows - and I don't think I'm only stuck in the past; I listen to Elaine Paige on a Sunday don't you know?  😁.

I really do think that P&O should reconsider the timing of their dining and shows on some sailings. I've heard people complain that their second seating fixed dining at 8.30 pm was too late and ditto the second show at 10.30 pm. I know there are 80 odd year olds who are happy to keep going until late in the evening but I'm sure they are in the minority - certainly judging from the numbers at early breakfast, ie lots!

This morning I enjoyed the second talk by Barney Broom (gremlins now fixed in his excellent audio visual presentation) and intend to see them all on different aspects of the history of Hollywood.

There was a new guest speaker this afternoon - Dale Templar on The Human Planet; the production secrets. However, our dining companions at lunchtime were so interesting that we missed it. One of them had chosen this 35-nighter as her first ever cruise and was loving it. And she was alone. Just brilliant!

I'll close today with some pictures of today's lunch. DH had a veggie concoction with rice, which he enjoyed and I had a tasty fish pie. My dessert, opera cake?, looked better than it tasted and so was left largely untouched. Made me feel good about having a bag of mini Maltesers with my afternoon tea 😇.

2 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

There is also a roll call on the Princess forum.

We are using the Intercruises bus for this one as I am finding the long drive down is getting a bit tedious.

One thing that may interest you is that we are scheduled to dock in Manhattan as opposed to the usual Brooklyn berth when we get to NY.

We're on that cruise too (thanks to you mentioning it 👍) and tonight on Ventura we dined with another couple also on it. I've not looked at the excursions for a while (though have booked a few) but got the impression the ship would dock at the Brooklyn berth because of the HoHo bus details. How do you know it's Manhattan Phil?

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Todays MDR menus for those who like to see these things. 

Again for those interested, I can confirm that these were the same menus on Ventura today.

22 minutes ago, nicki-k said:

We loved our Ventura cruise in August, the food was good, the staff were amazing and we experienced no issues with queuing for the restaurant (generally eating around 7 pm) or getting seats in the theatre. Thank you for sharing your cruise with us mrsgoggins, I hope you continue to have a super cruise.

My 4th time on Ventura (over a 5 year period) and I’ve never experienced this level of queuing either!  DH and I have just been discussing what time to go down tonight and have decided no way are we standing for 20 minutes before opening to secure a table for 2, so we will try 6.15 in full knowledge that we will be sharing; as indeed we were when we went down at 6, by which time all the 2s had gone and we still queued for 10 minutes.  I think if I were to do this cruise again, I would opt for fixed evening dining and share at lunchtimes.  That could be a happy compromise.

The only time I have ever queued to go into a ship’s theatre was maybe 5 minutes before the theatre doors opened when Gareth Gates was performing - free to see him on Princess btw 😉.  I’m likely to be getting through a lot of books on this cruise if the theatre continues to be full by 8.10 pm, which is no bad thing. 

6 minutes ago, SeaJane said:

We had 3 lovely meals in Epicurean on Ventura in May and were served by the waiter in your picture. On that cruise all our MDR meals were very disappointing so I’m pleased to see that they seem to have resolved that issue! 

It is strange how they can vary isn't it? We're definitely not foodies and have been happy with food on every cruise overall, our only slight disappointment was on Iona and yet others rave about it. We had a good few 'dud' meals on her last March.  Epicurean on Iona was good though - but crepes Suzette not made at the table on her 😉

Someone asked earlier about the activities on board such a long cruise. Now I've finally got the hand of posting photos, I'll attach today's itinerary.

I attended both talks this morning; Gilbert & Sullivan followed by the history of Hollywood and found both speakers to be excellent although the latter had technical issues with his presentation.  I'll be attending the follow-ons for both.

5 minutes ago, pennib said:

How lucky are you???? Having been to the Epicurean on Britannia for our Christmas dinner a few weeks ago, we wanted crepes suzette done by the table (which they always used to do) but were told that could not be done for health and safety reasons and that this was fleet wide now. So we had something else instead. This was the final straw for a poor meal ( no amuse bouche and no sorbet). The main course was also poor. So we decided that after years having our Christmas dinner in the Epicurean on various ships, that was it. Our last Caribbean Christmas on P&O so instead we are on Ventura for 35:nights in January 2025. Hope they continue doing crepes suzette by then!!

enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Hope you are as lucky!  We had both the amuse bouche and an apple sorbet - both very good. 

Monday at sea update

The clock went back an hour last night so there was a lengthy queue for 8 am breakfast opening even at the Bay Tree restaurant, which P&O don't even publish as being open! Again it moved quite quickly so I only mention this as part of my head's up to those who might be considering it.

Last night was our first Epicurean meal of this trip, and was excellent. The same server who did my crepes Suzette last May did so again, and even remembered where we had sat then - how do they do that? The prime rib was medium rare as requested (overcooked on our previous visits) and the celeriac soup was delicious. 

We have been very impressed with almost everything we have eaten on this ship so far 👍. I'll attach photos - the crepes Suzette tasted great despite not looking great when served.

@Interestedcruisefan I'm still pondering your posts, because despite taking very many cruises since 2016 (eg 6 last year, only 2 of which were P&O), this is the first time I have ever encountered the very lengthy queues for dining and the theatre being completely full 20 minutes before a performance.

I did ask 2 days ago why the App was abandoned for dining - it having (or so I believe) been in use on the similar long cruise on this ship last year, and definitely when we were on her in May. I was told by a Senior Waiter that 'it didn't work on this ship'. My cabin number was taken and I was told the Manager would contact me later in the day. He didn't! This was a laid-back exchange btw - I would have liked to know that's all.  I may raise it again but right now we are enjoying the cruise and going with the flow!

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

Some shots from the ‘Leisurely scenes of (misty) Madeira’ this afternoon. We were just unlucky with the weather. 

They are fabulous photos - I'd be sticking to food shots only from now on had we shared more of the itinerary  - you put me to shame 😁

3 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Great photos.

 

I am going to try harder, they weren't very inspiring but then down came the rain! Thanks to your tips (and inspiration - you know how much I love those coffee and breakfast pics by the sea) I now know how to post but I can't see how to place a comment beneath. 

In fact, totally unrelated to this trip Graham, here's a photo taken at my favourite Italian restaurant 😆 Not especially Italian being salmon, prawns with rye bread and butter, but although a starter, it was one of my best Christmas meals.

1 hour ago, Eddie99 said:

🦠..... would have been like you and left - even abandoned my meal

Is anyone masking?  
 

I have not seen anyone in masks.

Hopefully you will get some sun on your Iona visit to Funchal 🤞