mrsgoggins

We're shortly going on a P&O 35 night Caribbean cruise on Ventura and I'm busy making a list of extras I might take.  I've done a few back-to-back cruises but this will be the longest cruise by far, and I confess to being a bit apprehensive about being away from 'my life' for 5 weeks, but then again, it is January and I know we are lucky to be able to do it.  On my list are:

Wire coat hangers (I've never liked the fiddly steal-proof ones, but since I had a shoulder replacement last year, they are even more difficult to use)

Decent coffee

Squash

Mid-size towel for drying my hair

Magic leaves laundry sheets

Stugeron!

Considering taking a jar of quality jam for breakfast toast since P&O dispensed with pots of Bonne Maman

Packet (or 2) of favourite biscuits/chocolate

Anyone care to add anything that you would/do take on a long journey?  Thanks

15 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good evening.

It is our Sarah's birthday on Christmas eve and I am bringing her to ours on Christmas day and she will stay at ours.

Pauline has the table all ready.

That all looks fabulous and so inviting Graham!

It's DH's birthday on Christmas Eve and we are going out for lunch to our favourite Italian restaurant.  Christmas Day is spent with our son and family.  His DW is vegetarian, so I cook the turkey crown and a veggie main and set off 40 miles up the M6.  The turkey will be well rested by then!

Good wishes to all whose lives I follow on here, those who are semi-lurkers (like myself) and also full-time lurkers.  A happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas and New Year to all.

7 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Have you tried the weekly Today podcast by Nick Robinson and Amol Rajan? 
It’s extremely good, very incisive and pretty informal!

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r

 

 

I like the Newscast podcast with Adam Fleming and Chris Mason. I've tuned in to them since Brexitcast 

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

Me too.  I find it fairly balanced overall, compared with some of the others.

Me too!  We've been with the Times for years now after trying out the other broadsheets many years ago.

8 hours ago, Somerset Cruiser said:

We did a trip, albeit with another cruise line, last year. Getting to the beach involves a little uneven ground, but other than that it wasn't bad. Having said that our trip didn't include the Botanical garden. There may have been some uneven ground at the harbour but otherwise the town was quite easy. The Police Station is excellent and just as you see it on TV,  only the vehicles were missing. 

We really enjoyed the trip and if you are a fan of the programme then it's not to be missed IMO. We were also fortunate to a sea seat next to the water in Catherine's bar with a reasonably priced beer. 

I took another look at the details of the P&O tour I have booked and it says nothing about a Botanical Garden, so probably similar to your tour.

I do like to watch Death in Paradise and so I’ve decided not to cancel but to ask on board at Shorex where the one and a half hour walking fits into the tour.

Thanks to all who have responded.

I have the 'Death in Paradise tour and beach' booked on an upcoming cruise.  Taking a look at the details I see that it mentions one and a half hours walking over uneven ground.  Could anyone give any information on this please?  My walking ability may not stretch to one and a half hours alas!  Not really interested in the beach part of the tour and DH is not interested in the tour at all so I am wondering if to cancel.

Thanks

13 hours ago, sandancer said:

Best attitude. We found ourselves comparing everything with Celebrity which is our favourite cruise line. Not the way to go. Once we settled down we accepted that they are different cruise lines and both have advantages. Once thing we really appreciated was that the onboard currency is £s. Also that drinks and speciality dining is way more affordable than the US cruise lines. 

Exactly the same for me, even down to Celebrity being my favourite cruise line.

We appreciate being able to sail from Southampton during the winter/early spring months when the American ships are elsewhere, mostly sailing around the Caribbean out of Florida ports.

Agree also about the dining, even though on X we have (when they were better value and the exchange rate better) dined in all of the speciality restaurants on the S-class but would not pay the prices they are asking now.  On the other hand we have really enjoyed our Epicurean dining on P&O and are happy to pay for it at least a few times per cruise.

To the OP I hope you really enjoy your cruise.  Our first ever P&O cruise was on Azura in 2018, although not at Christmas, and for what we had paid, we were impressed enough to book again.

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

Not all intercruise coaches, especially the return ones from Southampton are luxury ones, we had some Canadian relatives return from Ventura with them, and my BIL was very disappointed not to have the  advertised wi fi, and someone elses left over sandwich in his seat back.

Interesting. But we won’t be using Intercruises whatever. It will either be Eavesway or driving and a PI (as usual).

10 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

In my experience the coaches used by Intercruise are the same as those used by Eavesway. Your situation with weather delays causing last minute arrangements is a different thing altogether and should not deter you from using Intercruises. 

I believe that Intercruises is an Agency and sub contract.  Eavesway have their own fleet of luxury coaches and even invited us along to their depot for a look inside when I phoned up to ask about legroom before our recent trip with them (DH is tall).

Your anecdote was interesting but we would prefer to self-drive rather than end up on a coach with poor leg room for 5+ hours, so definitely won’t be using Intercruises and taking a chance on its being okay.

4 hours ago, FangedRose said:

If you choose the coach as a "perk" (instead of free parking, or OBC, depending on the offer in place) it  certainly is part of the cruise package. If you book the coach independently you are correct. Even then if you choose Intercruise as "preferred partner" you will be in a better position than if you book Eavesway.  

This is very interesting to me at the moment.  We normally park by the ship regardless of who we are sailing with. In October we did a TA on Celebrity Silhouette and flew back from Florida into Manchester and so paid for one-way coach to Southampton. We were very, very impressed with Eavesway.

Our ship was delayed due to weather conditions and so our luggage was taken from us and a shuttle into Southampton centre was laid on.  It was a coach from a Yorkshire company and the legroom was dreadful and nothing like the lovely journey we had on Eavesway and has put us off getting any other company.

To get to the point, I only discovered yesterday that with P&O if we choose the perk transfer option with Intercruise for our upcoming cruise, it will definitely NOT be Eavesway.  We are considering taking the OBC and paying out of pocket for Eavesway.

Have there ever been any recorded instances of P&O passengers missing their ship because they used Eavesway?

Right, thanks all - I’ve calmed down now 😂.  It was 59 minutes before a person answered, which I think is shocking.  I was, of course polite to the person who answered, it not being her fault, and she sorted out my straightforward issue quickly.  I can’t imagine ever needing to call them ever again 🤞

@zap99, also on my ‘to do’ list is to call HMRC alas!

@Harry Peterson you were correct, it was time sensitive and I am hopeful that the not-to-be-mentioned TA will be better because the booking process with them was very good.

Thanks for all the support and suggestions 👍

Any tips?

I've now hung on for 57 minutes listening to that woman's 'sweet' voice.  I feel like chucking the phone through the window!  I tried this morning and had to give up after 25 minutes because I had places to be.

Thankfully my only other P&O booking is via a TA; one that many use on here.

I've been a bit lax in my reading of these boards lately, so forgive me if this has been mentioned before. Booths, a high-end northern supermarket chain is axing self-service check outs at most of its stores as a result of customer feedback!  What a novelty.  I have one not too far from me and having regular Tesco deliveries I don't visit that much, but I am intending to up my visits from now on.

25 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

The thing is the chances of getting a ship full of well behaved children and delightful parents on ships this size is slim to none

 

This might be so with the bigger ships but I’ll share my experience of 2 cruises that spring to mind.

Celebrity is the cruise line we use most.  Our 1st and 2nd ever cruises with them were back-to-back on Constellation in 2015 in the Med out of Venice.  The first cruise was August and had many young families with children and I remember being impressed at seeing the Kids’ club activities around the ship and when they were brought into the theatre towards the end to entertain us.  They added to my enjoyment.  The follow-on cruise was into September and it became virtually adults only with an older demographic and had a completely different feel.

My first ever P&O cruise was a 7-night Easter holiday cruise with many children on board.  Again I was totally impressed by the many children we encountered, so much so that we booked an almost identical cruise taking our own grandchildren the follow year.  They were not warm weather cruises however, and I have found that this can play a part in the types of folk you get on board - let’s say that the ‘liveliest’ passengers we have encountered have been on Canaries cruises out of Southampton with Royal Caribbean and to a lesser degree, P&O (not Celebrity however).  
 

We are lucky enough to cruise often and even the ‘lively’ behaviour referred to was only occasional, and chalked up to experience and has not put me off either cruise line.  I should perhaps add that we don’t sunbathe and have never sat by a pool on a ship, so would never experience poor behaviour in these areas.

4 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

So very true - everything they get their hands on is cheapened and ruined.  At least we still have alternatives to brands like Hershey's, notorious for tasting of vomit!

Oh Harry - at first it was the Lindors we disagreed on and now Hershey’s 😂😂.  Only this afternoon I enjoyed a small Hershey’s with whole almonds!  I do agree with you about the regular bars though, so we can go back to our usual harmonious ‘relationship’ 😉

I’ve read Gervase Phinn books and am quite envious that he’s a guest speaker on Aurora right now.  Looking forward to following along, so thanks.

3 hours ago, Peanut006 said:

Good afternoon everyone, hope you are all ok today.

 

It’s a bit breezy here today with a mixture of cloud and sun, at least no rain for a change.

 

Yesterday my neurologist told me my problems with walking were more likely the progression of my MS. He just told me to drink plenty of water, take vitamin D, take some exercise and rest when I need to. I do all these already so there is not much more I can do apart from just get on with it and do what I can.

 

To cheer my self up I booked a cruise with the grandchildren on Independence of the Seas August 2025 to Baltic towns/cities

 

Off out for a walk(scooter) with the dogs now 

 

Michelle

It was possibly what you were expecting to hear Michelle, even though the word 'progression' when applied to medical conditions is one we would rather not hear.

So glad you managed to cheer yourself up by booking another cruise and going out with the dogs. Good for you.

In a day of fast-moving domestic news, I’m happy to restrict my comments to Strictly 😉

Anton is my favourite judge who always makes me laugh, and I’m pleased that Angela was kept in. I think she is technically very strong and if they marked her down, it would be for having a 79 year old body!

Now Motsi is another matter.  I deliberately start to watch the live programme 30 minutes after it starts so that I can fast forward Motsi’s comments and lose a minute of each of the contestants’ VTs.  It’s likely that Angela will go at Blackpool and I’d be delighted if either Ellie or Angela Scanlon won.

Off to brave the wind now to head north to Lancaster for my grandson’s birthday.  Think we’ll give the M6 a miss though; too many high-sided vehicles.

Don't you just despair at the behaviour of some passengers?  Very poor indeed.

Thanks @Cumbrian1 for a good, detailed account of your return flight.  It's because we are tall (and not slim either!) folk that I would never risk a cruise with P&O in the Caribbean.  We need to know we could get PE seats on booking our flights - and without sitting up until the wee small hours to get 2 by a window!

@Selbourne I completely agree about the preserves in the yellow plastic pots!

P&O is not our favourite cruise line despite having a few under our belts with more in the future, however the breakfast service always impressed until this year. I loved that the toast came in a rack and the glass pots of Bonne Mamman preserves. The pots were still available on Iona in March, but had been replaced by the yellow plastic on Ventura a few months later.  Some times it's the (very) small things you remember, but hey ho, cut backs are everywhere and are no real surprise given the bad time experienced by the cruise lines.

I'm pleased that you had such good dining experiences in the MDR and that your wife didn't have to endure the poor lift etiquette experienced on Iona.

Safe travels home and I look forward to reading your final review.

3 hours ago, LA30 said:

Does anyone have experience of this port?  We normally do our own thing - often just walking around and soaking up the atmosphere. 

I was there last Sunday - and there were five ships in port, which is not uncommon.  Crowds, tat sellers, combined with high temperatures made friends sorry they had left the ship!  We’ve been a few times, done a tour, done the walk round and so we happily stayed on board.

If there’s anyone who actually likes this port, I have yet to meet them! 

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Those two channels really are first rate!  I won’t pay for Sky, but I’m delighted Sky Arts can be had for free on Freeview.

This exactly in our house too!

4 hours ago, Beckett said:

Today's equivalents wouldn't know harmonies if they bit them on the arse John. I was lucky enough to see Crosby Stills Nash and Young at Wembley Stadium in 1970. Fab fab fab!  Jane xx

I really did laugh out loud when I read your comment Jane; almost spilled my coffee 😂.  I’m a fan of those who can manage great harmonies and enjoy it when BBC4 or Sky Arts (forget which!) show performances by Simon & Garfunkel or the Everly brothers for instance.

13 hours ago, Mysticalmother said:

Mysticalmother  ...... the passage up the West coast of Portugal was even worse than the BoB…imho.

 

I'm on Celebrity Silhouette which was delayed due to the weather - should have left yesterday but now leaving Southampton today - and one of the senior staff said exactly what you said!

An interesting read, thank you.

Thank you again @grapau27 and @purplesea. In the end I decided to try Uber for the first time and it worked like a dream! Lovely driver who arrived within the 1 minute the App showed! I did end up tipping double the £2 I had intended due to inexperience, but still less than £10. 

I'm now on the ship with a window table in Tuscan Grill, looking out at rain and Norwegian Star docked. I just need the storm gods to stay away for the next 10 days 🤞.

Wishing you all a good week but especially those of you who have challenges to face.