Reminiscing

[Adawn47]

Never having been on a cruise and having absolutely no idea what to expect, I went into the  TA and said that I wanted to try a cruise. Then came the questions. Which line, which ship, where to etc etc. I sat there and stared. 'OK' she said 'If I was to ask you what you're ideal cruise would be what would you say?'   'Sailing around the Mediterranean with Hercule Poirot. Minus the dead bodies'. Straight away she came back with Arcadia. I've  no idea how she came to that comparison but she was spot on. We still have a soft spot for her and have booked her for October 2021. November 2020 as well but best not mention that 😉.

Avril 

[AndyMichelle]

3 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Never having been on a cruise and having absolutely no idea what to expect, I went into the  TA and said that I wanted to try a cruise. Then came the questions. Which line, which ship, where to etc etc. I sat there and stared. 'OK' she said 'If I was to ask you what you're ideal cruise would be what would you say?'   'Sailing around the Mediterranean with Hercule Poirot. Minus the dead bodies'. Straight away she came back with Arcadia. I've  no idea how she came to that comparison but she was spot on. We still have a soft spot for her and have booked her for October 2021. November 2020 as well but best not mention that 😉.

Avril 

I've always thought that if I got on a train and Poirot was there, I would get straight off again... 

Put me right off the Orient Express... 😊

Andy 

[pete14]

44 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

I've always thought that if I got on a train and Poirot was there, I would get straight off again... 

Put me right off the Orient Express... 😊

Andy 

Same reason why I would avoid Midsomer if I saw it on a signpost. Far too risky. Ditto Oxford in the days of Morse and Lewis. 

[annieuk]

I have two favourite cruises if that's allowed.  Our very first cruise back in 2003 was with Fred Olsen on Braemar, fly cruise to the Caribbean.  It was our Silver Wedding Anniversary and we didn't know what to do to celebrate.  My brother said that we'd never been to the Caribbean and he really thought we'd enjoy it.  As some friends had recently been on a Braemar fly cruise to the Caribbean and loved it we thought we'd try it.  One of my worries was that for a greater part of his younger life my husband had been a yachtsman, sailing in dinghies and on bigger boats - he had done the amazing Fastnet Race.  Now yachtsmen used to look at the cruise line and say deprecatingly that it wasn't real sailing.  However, my friend's husband was in the Royal Navy and he'd enjoyed the cruise so we decided to try it.  I had never been even near a cruise liner so really didn't know what to expect.  When first saw Braemar in Bridgetown I thought she was massive - of course compared to today's ships she's incredibly small.  We'd booked a Balcony Suite which I suppose on Braemar is about the size of an ordinary balcony cabin on say Aurora.  We thought it was magnificent and as it was classed as a suite we found we had decanters of Scotch and Sherry in our cabin - never got close to finishing either!  We loved all of it, the amazing islands, the schooner trip we went on, the beach BBQ on Antigua etc.  The service on the ship was fantastic and it all ended too quickly for me.

After that we didn't cruise again until 2005.  The friend I mentioned before had then gone with P&O on Adonia - the old Adonia, child free, quite a novelty in 2005.  She and Oceana had been transferred from Princess and introduced as the White Sisters.  Our friends had been impressed with the extra space, more things going on and the price compared to Fred Olsen.  We chose an Aft Mini Suite.  It was at this time that I first discovered Cruise Critic.  Once I found out that Adonia was originally Sea Princess I was able to find out a lot about the ship by using the Princess forum.  She had been altered since leaving Princess in that the children's area had been removed and was transformed into a sort of coffee lounge from what I remember called Easy Like a Sunday. I found out quite a bit about the ship and about our cabin at the back of the ship before we got there.  Some people may say it's better to have a surprise when you arrive but I loved reading about other people's experiences and thoughts and about the cabin - found the measurements and pictures of the cabin.  Anyway we were very impressed both with the ship and P&O.  We flew to New Orleans and stayed overnight there and then went to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Grand Cayman and eventually to the Eastern Caribbean finishing at Barbados.  We should have visited Jamaica but the weather got incredibly windy and we couldn't stop there.  It was a lovely cruise.  After our next cruise, on Oceana to the Eastern Caribbean it did show us that we preferred the Eastern to the Western Caribbean, the smaller islands attracted us rather than the larger, Western ones.  So this Adonia cruise was the beginning of our P&O cruising.  We've now done over 25 P&O cruises and have really enjoyed them all.  For the future, well assuming there is a cruising future, we are starting to look elsewhere as we really don't like the huge ships which is the way P&O are developing.  We still love Aurora, Oceana and Arcadia and at a pinch Azura if she's going somewhere we really want to go.  We'll see.  

[terrierjohn]

Our first cruise was a 4 nighter to the Bahamas on Canivals Carnivale in 1992, an old Canadian Pacific liner, which we had booked to cover part of our second week in Florida after spending the first with my wife's sister and family from Canada.  Our next cruise was not until 1997 so it was not love at first sight for us, but we still enjoyed the experience, even though, or maybe because, it was full of spring break holidaymakers from America.

Probably my over-riding memory is that the Cruise director, or entertainment manager as he would now be called, used every opportunity to tell us how much gratuities we should pay to our steward, waiters, head waiter and even Maitre D,  we would have envelopes left in our cabin on our last sea day, but if we wanted more to tip our wine and bar waiters we only had to ask! 

We did two further cruises with Thomson, Emerald in the Med and a fly cruise and stay holiday to Phuket on Superstar Gemini, but it was our fourth cruise that really hooked us, a 10 day Caribbean cruise including a partial transit of the Panama Canal on the then fairly new Coral Princess, which was only its second season.  She really did have the wow factor for us and, because it was both our 60ths that year, and it was Pauline's whilst we were on board, we pushed the boat out and booked our very first balcony, an expensive long term but very worthwhile mistake.

That was it we were hooked, and although we still did some land holidays as well, it was always our cruises that we looked forward to most.

[majortom10]

My first cruise to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary in 1997 was to fly to New York on Concorde 4 nts in Waldorf Astoria and then 6nts return to Southampton. My favourite cruise for place we visited if not for the ship was to NY Alesund/Spitsbergen.

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, pete14 said:

Same reason why I would avoid Midsomer if I saw it on a signpost. Far too risky. Ditto Oxford in the days of Morse and Lewis. 

I'm gonna open an undertakers in Midsomer... 

Got to be a winner... 

Andy 

[AndyMichelle]

53 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Our first cruise was a 4 nighter to the Bahamas on Canivals Carnivale in 1992, an old Canadian Pacific liner, which we had booked to cover part of our second week in Florida after spending the first with my wife's sister and family from Canada.  Our next cruise was not until 1997 so it was not love at first sight for us, but we still enjoyed the experience, even though, or maybe because, it was full of spring break holidaymakers from America.

Probably my over-riding memory is that the Cruise director, or entertainment manager as he would now be called, used every opportunity to tell us how much gratuities we should pay to our steward, waiters, head waiter and even Maitre D,  we would have envelopes left in our cabin on our last sea day, but if we wanted more to tip our wine and bar waiters we only had to ask! 

We did two further cruises with Thomson, Emerald in the Med and a fly cruise and stay holiday to Phuket on Superstar Gemini, but it was our fourth cruise that really hooked us, a 10 day Caribbean cruise including a partial transit of the Panama Canal on the then fairly new Coral Princess, which was only its second season.  She really did have the wow factor for us and, because it was both our 60ths that year, and it was Pauline's whilst we were on board, we pushed the boat out and booked our very first balcony, an expensive long term but very worthwhile mistake.

That was it we were hooked, and although we still did some land holidays as well, it was always our cruises that we looked forward to most.

Sounds fantastic John, thank you for sharing. 

Lets just hope we can all get back to cruising safely soon. 

Andy 

[AndyMichelle]

25 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

My first cruise to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary in 1997 was to fly to New York on Concorde 4 nts in Waldorf Astoria and then 6nts return to Southampton. My favourite cruise for place we visited if not for the ship was to NY Alesund/Spitsbergen.

Concord and fist transatlantic... 

Sounds fantastic. 

Andy 

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, annieuk said:

I have two favourite cruises if that's allowed.  Our very first cruise back in 2003 was with Fred Olsen on Braemar, fly cruise to the Caribbean.  It was our Silver Wedding Anniversary and we didn't know what to do to celebrate.  My brother said that we'd never been to the Caribbean and he really thought we'd enjoy it.  As some friends had recently been on a Braemar fly cruise to the Caribbean and loved it we thought we'd try it.  One of my worries was that for a greater part of his younger life my husband had been a yachtsman, sailing in dinghies and on bigger boats - he had done the amazing Fastnet Race.  Now yachtsmen used to look at the cruise line and say deprecatingly that it wasn't real sailing.  However, my friend's husband was in the Royal Navy and he'd enjoyed the cruise so we decided to try it.  I had never been even near a cruise liner so really didn't know what to expect.  When first saw Braemar in Bridgetown I thought she was massive - of course compared to today's ships she's incredibly small.  We'd booked a Balcony Suite which I suppose on Braemar is about the size of an ordinary balcony cabin on say Aurora.  We thought it was magnificent and as it was classed as a suite we found we had decanters of Scotch and Sherry in our cabin - never got close to finishing either!  We loved all of it, the amazing islands, the schooner trip we went on, the beach BBQ on Antigua etc.  The service on the ship was fantastic and it all ended too quickly for me.

After that we didn't cruise again until 2005.  The friend I mentioned before had then gone with P&O on Adonia - the old Adonia, child free, quite a novelty in 2005.  She and Oceana had been transferred from Princess and introduced as the White Sisters.  Our friends had been impressed with the extra space, more things going on and the price compared to Fred Olsen.  We chose an Aft Mini Suite.  It was at this time that I first discovered Cruise Critic.  Once I found out that Adonia was originally Sea Princess I was able to find out a lot about the ship by using the Princess forum.  She had been altered since leaving Princess in that the children's area had been removed and was transformed into a sort of coffee lounge from what I remember called Easy Like a Sunday. I found out quite a bit about the ship and about our cabin at the back of the ship before we got there.  Some people may say it's better to have a surprise when you arrive but I loved reading about other people's experiences and thoughts and about the cabin - found the measurements and pictures of the cabin.  Anyway we were very impressed both with the ship and P&O.  We flew to New Orleans and stayed overnight there and then went to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Grand Cayman and eventually to the Eastern Caribbean finishing at Barbados.  We should have visited Jamaica but the weather got incredibly windy and we couldn't stop there.  It was a lovely cruise.  After our next cruise, on Oceana to the Eastern Caribbean it did show us that we preferred the Eastern to the Western Caribbean, the smaller islands attracted us rather than the larger, Western ones.  So this Adonia cruise was the beginning of our P&O cruising.  We've now done over 25 P&O cruises and have really enjoyed them all.  For the future, well assuming there is a cruising future, we are starting to look elsewhere as we really don't like the huge ships which is the way P&O are developing.  We still love Aurora, Oceana and Arcadia and at a pinch Azura if she's going somewhere we really want to go.  We'll see.  

Loving people's personal memories, we don't get to hear them much. 

Thank you Annie. 

Andy 

[majortom10]

3 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Concord and fist transatlantic... 

Sounds fantastic. 

Andy 

It was seeing that we had originally booked a 8nt cruise to the Med on QE2 and was cancelled as QE2 was chartered out to a company for the Ryder Cup in Spain but Cunard failed to tell me my cruise was cancelled. Only found out about it after reading about the QE2 being chartered in the Mail on Sunday and it said all people who had original bookings had been offered other cruises. Unfortunately not me and neither did my TA until I went in on the Monday and showed them the paper. Just proves that even before Carnival ownership Cunard still made mistakes. BA also would you believe left one of my suitcases at Heathrow  when flying to New York and it took them 3 days to get it to me which was a worry as it was the suitcase with my dinner suit and formal attire.

Edited April 4, 2020 by majortom10

[Cruiserjules]

Lovely thread.

 

For us, our cruise dream began on our honeymoon in 2006 when we saw the Fred Olsen ship Black watch, docked in Barcelona, and one day, vowed to go on "one of those big cruise ships".  We have since had so many happy cruises aboard P&O, but I guess the first was the best in October 2010 on Ventura to celebrate my 50th birthday and belatedly celebrate Dave's retirement from the fire brigade.  Those few months of excitement, planning, hoping, dreaming, buying clothes, videos of me walking towards Dave in my posh shoes to see if my evening trousers were long enough, my worrying that we wouldn't fit in.

 

And then that moment when we arrived at Southampton and saw the ship, the excitement of getting onboard, our wide eyed amazement at the length of the corridor when we got a rear lift and our cabin was 6 from the front,  our joy at the size of that cabin and balcony and those hundreds of photos, before we even sailed - of the cabin, the bathroom and the buildings at Southampton! 

Muster drill and then the announcement .........sorry folks, not sailing tonight to avoid a storm in The Bay!   

 

But there began the most wonderful two weeks -  rough seas,  watching the water in the covered pool hitting the ceiling, sharing tables with delightful people, eating fabulous food, meeting the waiters, discovering the art gallery, the cocktail of the day and "Black Russians in Metropolis".  I spent the whole two weeks feeling as though I had stepped into someone else's shoes.  Amongst all the other lovely warm Mediterranean ports, my actual birthday was spent in Rome followed by a dinner in Epicurean with champagne, a dozen red roses and an eternity ring.  So many happy memories I couldn't begin to list them all, and I cried when we got off.  

 

Suffice to say, that began a habit which so far has lasted 10 years, and fingers crossed will last a good many years longer,.  It has seen us make so many good cruising friends, and seen me grow in confidence, knowledge and definitely weight! 

We've worked our way up to Caribbean Tier; our Iona Maiden has, of course been cancelled but we are looking forward to being back onboard in 2021 for our 4 week Caribbean and re positioning cruise on Britannia.

[AndyMichelle]

36 minutes ago, Cruiserjules said:

Lovely thread.

 

For us, our cruise dream began on our honeymoon in 2006 when we saw the Fred Olsen ship Black watch, docked in Barcelona, and one day, vowed to go on "one of those big cruise ships".  We have since had so many happy cruises aboard P&O, but I guess the first was the best in October 2010 on Ventura to celebrate my 50th birthday and belatedly celebrate Dave's retirement from the fire brigade.  Those few months of excitement, planning, hoping, dreaming, buying clothes, videos of me walking towards Dave in my posh shoes to see if my evening trousers were long enough, my worrying that we wouldn't fit in.

 

And then that moment when we arrived at Southampton and saw the ship, the excitement of getting onboard, our wide eyed amazement at the length of the corridor when we got a rear lift and our cabin was 6 from the front,  our joy at the size of that cabin and balcony and those hundreds of photos, before we even sailed - of the cabin, the bathroom and the buildings at Southampton! 

Muster drill and then the announcement .........sorry folks, not sailing tonight to avoid a storm in The Bay!   

 

But there began the most wonderful two weeks -  rough seas,  watching the water in the covered pool hitting the ceiling, sharing tables with delightful people, eating fabulous food, meeting the waiters, discovering the art gallery, the cocktail of the day and "Black Russians in Metropolis".  I spent the whole two weeks feeling as though I had stepped into someone else's shoes.  Amongst all the other lovely warm Mediterranean ports, my actual birthday was spent in Rome followed by a dinner in Epicurean with champagne, a dozen red roses and an eternity ring.  So many happy memories I couldn't begin to list them all, and I cried when we got off.  

 

Suffice to say, that began a habit which so far has lasted 10 years, and fingers crossed will last a good many years longer,.  It has seen us make so many good cruising friends, and seen me grow in confidence, knowledge and definitely weight! 

We've worked our way up to Caribbean Tier; our Iona Maiden has, of course been cancelled but we are looking forward to being back onboard in 2021 for our 4 week Caribbean and re positioning cruise on Britannia.

What a lovely Post Jules, thank you.. 

Andy 

[Eglesbrech]

5 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Our first cruise was a 4 nighter to the Bahamas on Canivals Carnivale in 1992, an old Canadian Pacific liner, which we had booked to cover part of our second week in Florida after spending the first with my wife's sister and family from Canada.  Our next cruise was not until 1997 so it was not love at first sight for us, but we still enjoyed the experience, even though, or maybe because, it was full of spring break holidaymakers from America.

Probably my over-riding memory is that the Cruise director, or entertainment manager as he would now be called, used every opportunity to tell us how much gratuities we should pay to our steward, waiters, head waiter and even Maitre D,  we would have envelopes left in our cabin on our last sea day, but if we wanted more to tip our wine and bar waiters we only had to ask! 

We did two further cruises with Thomson, Emerald in the Med and a fly cruise and stay holiday to Phuket on Superstar Gemini, but it was our fourth cruise that really hooked us, a 10 day Caribbean cruise including a partial transit of the Panama Canal on the then fairly new Coral Princess, which was only its second season.  She really did have the wow factor for us and, because it was both our 60ths that year, and it was Pauline's whilst we were on board, we pushed the boat out and booked our very first balcony, an expensive long term but very worthwhile mistake.

That was it we were hooked, and although we still did some land holidays as well, it was always our cruises that we looked forward to most.

Was Captain Kontrossos on the Emerald when you travelled? He was such a real charecter, larger than life and very interesting.

[terrierjohn]

18 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Was Captain Kontrossos on the Emerald when you travelled? He was such a real charecter, larger than life and very interesting.

I can't say I remember the Captain's name but I do remember as we were waiting to disembark in Palma whilst sitting in the upper deck lounge, I suddenly noticed that the skyline view had changed, then there was an urgent crew tannoy announcement, followed fairly shortly by a passenger announcement for us all to disembark the ship promptly via the stairs.

It turned out that during refueling they had over filled one tank and upset the balance of the ship, and we could clearly see the list once we were ashore. However it did not put us off cruising, and we are still enjoying it over 20 years later.

[happy v]

I'm sorry I need another 'turn'. I forgot about about my magical cruise, science and nature really, but that hasn't got the same ring!

We went to see the Northern Lights, OK I know lots have, but we also saw the Total Eclipse. In my last post when I said it was the only time the whole ship was on deck I lied because we all were this day too. Wow talk about heart stopping and quite emotional. The ship as one took a deep intake of breath. As I said magical.

That's what so good about cruising, every days brings something new.

I'm loving all the stories. It lifts the spirit. Keep them coming.

[Bennybluehat]

A memory I will never forget was the cruise on Aurora to Northern Norway. There’s no guarantee you will ever see the Northern Lights and I would have been happy to have seen the slightest activity but the display Mother Nature put on for us that night was truly spectacular. We took a private tour in Alta with a Sami as our guide which was a huge privilege in itself but I could only have dreamt of the light show we got that night, not to mention it coinciding with a meteor shower at the same time. It was definitely one of the best experiences I have ever had and it wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t taken that cruise. 

[AndyMichelle]

23 minutes ago, happy v said:

I'm sorry I need another 'turn'. I forgot about about my magical cruise, science and nature really, but that hasn't got the same ring!

We went to see the Northern Lights, OK I know lots have, but we also saw the Total Eclipse. In my last post when I said it was the only time the whole ship was on deck I lied because we all were this day too. Wow talk about heart stopping and quite emotional. The ship as one took a deep intake of breath. As I said magical.

That's what so good about cruising, every days brings something new.

I'm loving all the stories. It lifts the spirit. Keep them coming.

Don't be sorry, have as many goes as you like... 

Loving hearing your experiences, cheers me up. 

Andy 

[pete14]

4 hours ago, Cruiserjules said:

Lovely thread.

 

For us, our cruise dream began on our honeymoon in 2006 when we saw the Fred Olsen ship Black watch, docked in Barcelona, and one day, vowed to go on "one of those big cruise ships".  We have since had so many happy cruises aboard P&O, but I guess the first was the best in October 2010 on Ventura to celebrate my 50th birthday and belatedly celebrate Dave's retirement from the fire brigade.  Those few months of excitement, planning, hoping, dreaming, buying clothes, videos of me walking towards Dave in my posh shoes to see if my evening trousers were long enough, my worrying that we wouldn't fit in.

 

And then that moment when we arrived at Southampton and saw the ship, the excitement of getting onboard, our wide eyed amazement at the length of the corridor when we got a rear lift and our cabin was 6 from the front,  our joy at the size of that cabin and balcony and those hundreds of photos, before we even sailed - of the cabin, the bathroom and the buildings at Southampton! 

Muster drill and then the announcement .........sorry folks, not sailing tonight to avoid a storm in The Bay!   

 

But there began the most wonderful two weeks -  rough seas,  watching the water in the covered pool hitting the ceiling, sharing tables with delightful people, eating fabulous food, meeting the waiters, discovering the art gallery, the cocktail of the day and "Black Russians in Metropolis".  I spent the whole two weeks feeling as though I had stepped into someone else's shoes.  Amongst all the other lovely warm Mediterranean ports, my actual birthday was spent in Rome followed by a dinner in Epicurean with champagne, a dozen red roses and an eternity ring.  So many happy memories I couldn't begin to list them all, and I cried when we got off.  

 

Suffice to say, that began a habit which so far has lasted 10 years, and fingers crossed will last a good many years longer,.  It has seen us make so many good cruising friends, and seen me grow in confidence, knowledge and definitely weight! 

We've worked our way up to Caribbean Tier; our Iona Maiden has, of course been cancelled but we are looking forward to being back onboard in 2021 for our 4 week Caribbean and re positioning cruise on Britannia.

Some lovely memories. We were also booked on the Iona maiden and will be doing the 14 day repositioning cruise on Britannia next spring (but not the 2 weeks before).

[majortom10]

We were lucky enough to have a fantastic experience of the Northern Lights on Oriana in 2013.

[Vampiress88]

I’ve only every been on two cruises and I’m not sure I had the best experiences reading everyone else’s memories but something must have stuck with me. 
 

our first was in 2012. We were 24. I had just been given some medication to help conceive. It had been exhausting few years and I came home one day to my hubby who worked in a steel works at that time, his friend, much older had just come back from a cruise on p&o and was telling everyone about it. Hubby said he’d booked one and it was in three weeks! We got a bargain deal and the first ports in Gibraltar was amazing loved the monkeys and ajjacio We loved the little streets. He had booked it specifically for me to cross Rome and Pisa off my list. When it came to those ports I was actually disappointed. There are a few things that will always stick in my mind. I thought to myself if I get pregnant on this boat and have a girl her middle name will be azura. Crazy I know. Both me and hubby had a funny “allergic reaction” although how we had the same I’m not sure but our faces blew up. We ate in the buffet as couldn’t face the dinning room looking like that. 
I also got really drunk in Barcelona. We sat outside in a little restaurant and I had sangria as I thought I should while in Spain but it must have been so strong. Apparently we were sat there hours, I remember people walking by me in slow motion and I also agreed to rabbit in a paella. Not something I would have done at all. We really enjoyed it and we had always planned to go back on a cruise boat but we didn’t have the pennies so instead we saved to move house, and had kids instead. 

Come January blues 2019 we thought stuff it with houses for a bit. Booked 4 cruises. Two in 2019 and two 2020. 8 weeks later we had moved house and cancelled our fjords cruise. 
we did however keep a cracking deal of week for £950. The ports I don’t even remember much they weren’t for us and we had an awful night at sea but we had the kids now and they loved it. Everything from the dolphin out the window, kids club, chocolate on pillows and mocktails. It’s definitely a different experience with the kids but they make me see the world a little different. 
 

unfortunately for 2020 we cancelled August one last year due to issues and complaints. Our ventura one that should have been our first night on board tonight is no more. 
 

We have the bug young so I think we will always come to cruise if it’s here. 
 

I can’t quite put my finger on it as to why I like it. Neither cruise was without its faults but I still get a warm happy feeling when I think about going. 
 

onward we rebooked the cancelled fjord cruise for 2021. CAN NOT WAIT!  

 

[AndyMichelle]

10 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

I’ve only every been on two cruises and I’m not sure I had the best experiences reading everyone else’s memories but something must have stuck with me. 
 

our first was in 2012. We were 24. I had just been given some medication to help conceive. It had been exhausting few years and I came home one day to my hubby who worked in a steel works at that time, his friend, much older had just come back from a cruise on p&o and was telling everyone about it. Hubby said he’d booked one and it was in three weeks! We got a bargain deal and the first ports in Gibraltar was amazing loved the monkeys and ajjacio We loved the little streets. He had booked it specifically for me to cross Rome and Pisa off my list. When it came to those ports I was actually disappointed. There are a few things that will always stick in my mind. I thought to myself if I get pregnant on this boat and have a girl her middle name will be azura. Crazy I know. Both me and hubby had a funny “allergic reaction” although how we had the same I’m not sure but our faces blew up. We ate in the buffet as couldn’t face the dinning room looking like that. 
I also got really drunk in Barcelona. We sat outside in a little restaurant and I had sangria as I thought I should while in Spain but it must have been so strong. Apparently we were sat there hours, I remember people walking by me in slow motion and I also agreed to rabbit in a paella. Not something I would have done at all. We really enjoyed it and we had always planned to go back on a cruise boat but we didn’t have the pennies so instead we saved to move house, and had kids instead. 

Come January blues 2019 we thought stuff it with houses for a bit. Booked 4 cruises. Two in 2019 and two 2020. 8 weeks later we had moved house and cancelled our fjords cruise. 
we did however keep a cracking deal of week for £950. The ports I don’t even remember much they weren’t for us and we had an awful night at sea but we had the kids now and they loved it. Everything from the dolphin out the window, kids club, chocolate on pillows and mocktails. It’s definitely a different experience with the kids but they make me see the world a little different. 
 

unfortunately for 2020 we cancelled August one last year due to issues and complaints. Our ventura one that should have been our first night on board tonight is no more. 
 

We have the bug young so I think we will always come to cruise if it’s here. 
 

I can’t quite put my finger on it as to why I like it. Neither cruise was without its faults but I still get a warm happy feeling when I think about going. 
 

onward we rebooked the cancelled fjord cruise for 2021. CAN NOT WAIT!  

 

I love your honesty and openness... 

I think cruising is so different to normal life, that is probably why we all enjoy it so much. 

Glad you wasn't put off and can remember the good stuff. 

Happy cruising.. Eventually... 

Andy 

 

[DamianG]

On 4/4/2020 at 10:22 PM, Vampiress88 said:

I also got really drunk in Barcelona.........

 

 

Autumn 2011, we'd been trying to adopt for 2 years, finally passed the adoption panel so thought it was all systems go. Then a week later the "decision maker" overturned the approval (we were the 1 in 100 that this happens to). We'd saved work leave ready to adopt so with that now being deferred for a minimum of 6 months we used the holidays and cash savings to go on the Oriana Christmas and New Year cruise. We were crestfallen about the overturned decision and needed something in the short term to look forward to.

 

Anyway.....New Year's Eve in Barcelona, off the ship early, bought a T10 transport ticket and went to the Sagrada Familia then Camp Nou for the stadium tour. Not far from there we had our first tapas and drinks around 12:30pm. We then hopped on and off the metro all day, drinks and tapas at every stop. The day just flew by and we stopped for "just one more glass of Cava" at which point we realised 2nd sitting dinner was in 45 minutes (8:30pm)! We then had a mad scramble back to the ship for showers and to get in our formal wear, and the in-laws were knocking on our cabin door ready to go to dinner at 8:20pm.

 

By the time they were counting down to midnight in the Pacific Lounge party we were a bit tipsy to say the least! Every time we return to Barcelona we recall that day and giggle!

 

[P&O SUE]

Another lovely thread Andy. I’ve been mulling it over and I can’t think of a favourite cruise as I love them all!

So sorry to be boring, I’m going to mention my first cruise - it was 2012 on Azura for our 25th wedding anniversary. It was meant to be a special one off holiday but of course we were hooked!

Not the most exciting ports in the world - La Rochelle, La Coruna Bilbao and Guernsey- which was cancelled but they took us to Cherbourg instead. 
It was early June and not the fabulous weather I was expecting but my God I enjoyed every minute. 
The first time we spotted Azura our jaws both dropped - I can’t remember the terminal, I think it was QEII but the angle of it meant we could see the radar ‘balls’ of Azura over the top of some flats and I thought she was enormous!

Ive always loved the sea and just to be looking at the sea sitting up on deck or watching out the window makes me feel happy. No other holiday compares. I love unpacking once then waking up somewhere different each day.

 

Our Captain was the famous Camby and his address the last night brought a lump to my throat as he wished his crew a safe journey home as many were finishing that cruise. I remember I was grateful my husband was busy watching the tug boats as I had a tear in my eye! 
I was so so sad to get off and raved about the holiday to anyone and everyone!

I still get that slither of excitement as I see the ‘to the ship’ sign!

[moonstone01]

I am with you all the way P&O Sue, the excitement when we realise that Southampton is only a few more miles after travelling down from North Wales, it is also a relief as my wife tries to sing a song for every town we see...god help me when we get to the sign saying Winchester