P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[terrierjohn]

19 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Hey - just picked up a swanky new iron from Argos today!  Us ironing bro need to hang tight !

My iron of choice has been a Tefal Ultraglide for 11 plus years, and my wife's for probably the same number of years before that. (Not the same iron I should add)

Edited January 12, 2022 by terrierjohn

[wowzz]

Fortunately,  our choice of casual clothes,  especially in the winter, require very little  ironing, especially the Primani "hoodies".

 

[tring]

Not sure where to put this and do not want to intervene in important discussions, but thought some may be interested that Fred has put the dates back for Balmoral and Braemar to commence cruising, not sure exactly how long but they were due to start up in spring and summer respectively.  I wonder if P&O will make any similar moves.

 

I have also heard that NCL have cancelled or delayed sailing of three more ships and RCI are to start using another two ships as quarantine ships (they have to date had two ships serving that purpose).

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by tring

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, tring said:

Not sure where to put this and do not want to intervene in important discussions, but thought some may be interested that Fred has put the dates back for Balmoral and Braemar to commence cruising, not sure exactly how long but they were due to start up in spring and summer respectively.  I wonder if P&O will make any similar moves.

 

I have also heard that NCL have cancelled or delayed sailing of three more ships and RCI are to start using another two ships as quarantine ships (they have to date had two ships serving that purpose).

 

I must admit I was wondering if Arcadia's return at the end of March might be delayed. 

I suppose it depends if Spain can downgrade the Covid situation to an epidemic, thus eliminating the current quarantine issues, which is obviously concerning the entire Spanish tourist industry.

[zap99]

40 minutes ago, tring said:

Not sure where to put this and do not want to intervene in important discussions, but thought some may be interested that Fred has put the dates back for Balmoral and Braemar to commence cruising, not sure exactly how long but they were due to start up in spring and summer respectively.  I wonder if P&O will make any similar moves.

 

I have also heard that NCL have cancelled or delayed sailing of three more ships and RCI are to start using another two ships as quarantine ships (they have to date had two ships serving that purpose).

 

I thought that they had been sold for scrap 🤔.

Obviously not.

Edited January 13, 2022 by zap99

[tring]

42 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I must admit I was wondering if Arcadia's return at the end of March might be delayed. 

I suppose it depends if Spain can downgrade the Covid situation to an epidemic, thus eliminating the current quarantine issues, which is obviously concerning the entire Spanish tourist industry.

 

Not sure if Iona is sailing to the Canaries, but have mentioned on the Iona thread that Bolette passengers been told The Canaries will no longer accept ships with anyone at all isolating on the ship.  Hence Bolette's Current Canary cruise curtailed - ship returning to Southampton.

Edited January 13, 2022 by tring

[tring]

14 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I thought that they had been sold for scrap 🤔.

Obviously not.

 

Boudicca an Black Watch were sold as accomodation ships when Fred bought the ex HAL ships and both have since been scrapped.

[tring]

I have also heard that the CDC have said on the cruise ships they are monitoring, the number of infections have gone up to thirty times the number of crew and pax who were infected two weeks ago.  Apparently numbers going up very quickly on land as well though. 

[Josy1953]

8 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I have a Michael Kors shirt, it's the worst shirt I have ever had to iron, just saying........

I have never tried to iron any of my MK bags lol

[ann141]

7 hours ago, tring said:

 

Not sure if Iona is sailing to the Canaries, but have mentioned on the Iona thread that Bolette passengers been told The Canaries will no longer accept ships with anyone at all isolating on the ship.  Hence Bolette's Current Canary cruise curtailed - ship returning to Southampton.

Has bolette got cases onboard at present?

[grapau27]

Good morning.

5°C clear blue skies here after overnight rain.

Pauline irons all of my clothes and uses a steam iron.

I do all the driving and Pauline's car spends most of the year in our garage.

Take care and stay safe everyone 😷.

Graham.

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, tring said:

 

Not sure if Iona is sailing to the Canaries, but have mentioned on the Iona thread that Bolette passengers been told The Canaries will no longer accept ships with anyone at all isolating on the ship.  Hence Bolette's Current Canary cruise curtailed - ship returning to Southampton.

Iona is due back in Southampton on Satyrday to start a 14 day cruise to the Canaries. I have not heard anything that suggests P&O are cancelling or amending the itinerary of this cruise.

[Son of Anarchy]

Always do my own ironing.  Usually do The Ole Lady's as well.  I never iron jeans though.  Ironed jeans are just wrong.

[zap99]

9 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Always do my own ironing.  Usually do The Ole Lady's as well.  I never iron jeans though.  Ironed jeans are just wrong.

I wouldn't dream of going to formal night unless my 501's had a nice sharp crease. I did ask DW to stop starching my underwear.🤣

[Son of Anarchy]

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I wouldn't dream of going to formal night unless my 501's had a nice sharp crease. I did ask DW to stop starching my underwear.🤣

Oddly enough, I saw some of those Dominic Westwood documentaries where he was doing different jobs in the USA.  On the one where he was a cowboy for a day he was criticised for not starching and ironing his jeans!  Apparently the starch helps waterproof them.

[Host Sharon]

10 hours ago, tring said:

Not sure where to put this and do not want to intervene in important discussions, but thought some may be interested that Fred has put the dates back for Balmoral and Braemar to commence cruising, not sure exactly how long but they were due to start up in spring and summer respectively.  I wonder if P&O will make any similar moves.

 

I have also heard that NCL have cancelled or delayed sailing of three more ships and RCI are to start using another two ships as quarantine ships (they have to date had two ships serving that purpose).

 

Indeed. Somewhat cross a cruise to the Greek Islands and Corinth Canal, booked in 2019, has been cancelled for Septemer this year. FO are delaying Braemar's return to service for another 12 months.

 

[delgirl]

When my youngest daughter was with her previous partner she used to iron all his clothes wrong!!! she also used to stack the dishwasher wrong!!. So he did all his own ironing and used to stack the dishwasher. I often used to wonder which was the clever one🤣

[Eglesbrech]

21 hours ago, ccpm said:

Lunch is sadly not to be one of the girl is breathing very funny so unless the vets have lunch facilities thats lunch out off.

How are things today? Well I hope.

[Guest ccpm]

37 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

How are things today? Well I hope.

Thank you they are I have just collected her. She had a piece of gravel lodged in her nasal whatevers which they removed. As she is a real scavenger I suspect she was sniffing after some perceived tasty morsel or other in the garden beds. I have explained at some length to her that her "snack" has cost me 10 times what a gourmet lunch would be for me let alone her. She however seems a tad unconcerned about that for my liking.

 

To cheer myself up yesterday I booked a cruise on Britannia for the Caribbean late November. No worries, just started on the insurance quotes and Holiday Extras want £1500 for silver cover for the single trip. More research required but my poor TA may well have to get that transferred smartish to something from Southampton maybe to the Isle of Wight if prices are escalating so much.

Edited January 13, 2022 by ccpm

[grapau27]

43 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

Indeed. Somewhat cross a cruise to the Greek Islands and Corinth Canal, booked in 2019, has been cancelled for Septemer this year. FO are delaying Braemar's return to service for another 12 months.

 

The 2 HAL ships Fred bought were a marked improvement on what he had.

We live 15 minutes from North Shields cruise terminal where Fred has sailed from for year's and we regularly pop along there to see the ships and some of the Fred Olsen ships looked like they needed a good freshen up at least.

Graham.

[Eglesbrech]

7 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

 

 

7 minutes ago, ccpm said:

Thank you they are I have just collected her. She had a piece of gravel lodged in her nasal whatevers which they removed. As she is a real scavenger I suspect she was sniffing after some perceived tasty morsel or other in the garden beds. I have explained at some length to her that he "snack" has cost me 10 times what a gourmet lunch would be for me let alone her. She however seems a tad unconcerned about that for my liking.

 

To cheer myself up yesterday I booked a cruise on Britannia for the Caribbean late November. No worries, just started on the insurance quotes and Holiday Extras want £1500 for silver cover for the single trip. More research required but my poor TA may well have to get that transferred smartish to something from Southampton maybe to the Isle of Wight if prices are escalating so much.

Glad all is well (except the bill of course).

 

£1500 is eye wateringly high for a single trip. I would transfer if as well if I were you. These type of added costs will put people off US / Caribbean cruises to some extent (unless they are young, have no health conditions etc). We did our annual cover excluding them for that very reason. 

Edited January 13, 2022 by Eglesbrech
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[Harry Peterson]

Ironing - or not?  Pretty pointless activity in my uninformed view, but it’s a view shared by our daughter, who irons virtually nothing.

 

She does possess an iron, spotted by our granddaughter when she was about 3:

 

”Mummy, what’s that boat on top of the fridge?”

 

[tring]

1 hour ago, Host Sharon said:

Indeed. Somewhat cross a cruise to the Greek Islands and Corinth Canal, booked in 2019, has been cancelled for Septemer this year. FO are delaying Braemar's return to service for another 12 months.

 

 

I have been wondering for a while if Braemar will ever return to service, though they do have a large up front number of bookings.  If she does not return, I think many of our previous Fred cruises will be replaced by other cruise lines (e.g. Azamara).  We had a Black Watch cruise booked, which, when replaced by Borealis had three of the ports changed because of the larger ship (did not take place in the end of course). 

 

Braemar will be a pricey ship to run though because of her small size.

Edited January 13, 2022 by tring

[tring]

10 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Ironing - or not?  Pretty pointless activity in my uninformed view, but it’s a view shared by our daughter, who irons virtually nothing.

 

She does possess an iron, spotted by our granddaughter when she was about 3:

 

”Mummy, what’s that boat on top of the fridge?”

 

 

Love it.  Reminds me of when my then 3 or four year old son saw me with a bucket of water cleaning the patio windows.  He looked extremely puzzled and said, "What ARE you doing". 

[tring]

3 hours ago, ann141 said:

Has bolette got cases onboard at present?

 

I should think so.  From what I understand there was very little or possibly even non on both ships when we sailed on Borealis mid December, but both Christmas cruises saw cases and even resitrictions on some services because certain staff were isolating.  Hence letters were sent out to all passengers on both post Christmas Cruises telling them that, with an offer to change the bookings for later sailings, though those letters were not sent until the day before those cruises began.

 

Lovely day here so must get out, but will dig a bit further later.  Happy new year to you and Mark,

 

Barbara