MEET & MINGLE

[blackpool belle]

I know this has nothing to do with P & O but I just wondered if anybody had ever done a Rhine/Danube river cruise?

 

What sort of age group, any evening entertainment on board? That sort of thing. Any info much appreciated.

[johardy]

Hello everyone, sorry I've not been on the boards recently I lost the threads but found my way now,what have you all been up to ? I'm looking forward to our mini cruise in 4 weeks,with Marge, Chris my other sister, and 4 more girl friends, Marge has had a bad start to the year her husband who works in west africa came home on leave with a mystery illness and was off work for 3 months it was diagnosed as some from of strepacocle, he's back at work now and doing fine, then last week Marge went into hospital for an operation on a frozen shoulder she,s suffered with for years, but the operation had to be cancelled as she arrested when under the anasthetic, she has made a full recovery but it was a frightening experience for everyone and she has to wait to see if there's any alternative way to have the operation. We areall watching eagerly to see the Aurora back in action as that is the ship we are sailing on she's under going sea trials at the moment.I've bought everyone in our party a cystic fibrosis trust tee shirt from asda to wear when we board the ship, they are realy nice tee shirts as well as supporting a good cause(we'll be thinking of you Cheryl) speak soon JO

[johardy]

Me again, re your question about the river cruise, we went up the Rhine about 8 years ago for christmas we enjoyed it although we thought it would be better in the summer months,the facilities on a river boat do not compare with a cruise ship and there is little or no entertainment, my husband was wanting us to try it again this summer but I'm not sure ,the age group is a bit higher nobody under 50 , I've made some enquiries and the cost is higher , I've been quoted £1385 per person for 7 nights! overall I think the cruise ships are better value.Princess have a great deal in June Oslo,Copenhagen Hamberg etc 10 nights from £595 from Southampton no flying. Jo

[blackpool belle]

Jo,

 

We have actually booked up for the cruise you mentioned but have had to pay more because we are going in July and also that price was for the bottom deck. Don't think I would like that. We are 3 decks from the top.

 

I am sorry to hear about Marge.Please give her my best regards. I really hope she makes a good and full recovery. A girlie trip sounds like just the tonic she needs.:D

 

I can't believe it was almost this time last year we were all corresponding on meet & mingle and everybody was getting excited about the Jewel.

 

Cheryl & Graham. Have a great trip on the 24th.

[johardy]

well done I hope you have a great time I'll be interested to know what the princess line is like, not long to wait now, do they hold meet and mingles?

JO

[blackpool belle]

Jo,

 

No sadly they don't have meet & mingle but I have joined the thread on Princess roll call and we exchange messages on that but I'm afraid they are not very vocal. However, no doubt we will get around to meeting up on board for a pre-sail cocktail or two.:D

 

The ship is called The Golden Princess. I'll let you know what I think when I return. Did you read that article about a couple on the Jewel. They had terrible bites and on inspection of their cabin when somebody removed the headboard it was crawling with BEDBUGS:eek: I was really sad when I read that to think that the beautiful Jewel had come to that in such a short space of time.

[glum]

Cheryl & Graham. Have a great trip on the 24th.

 

Graham here :) watching the Aurora web cam at the mo. not sank yet and appears not be in the same place twice to the engines must be working!!

 

here's hoping we don't see too much of the Solent.

[johardy]

Just checked out the Aurora web sight and she is on her way home to Southampton, the sea trials must of gone well. Jo

[glum]

shes just passing through the dover/calais maelstrom :)

[blackpool belle]

Cheryl & Graham,

 

Glad the Aurora got underway. So far so good:D

[blackpool belle]

Chez & Graham,

 

Hope I've got this right and it's tomorrow (10th) your due back. Can't believe 17 days have gone. Hope you both had a great time. Let us know all about it.

 

We are at last down to single figures. 9 weeks today for us.

[graham uk]

Hi Chez & Graham

 

Was just reading through earlier posts and notice the CF posts. My newphew has CF (20 years old now) and I have wanted to take him on a short cruise with myself and my partner but as he has been in hospital far more over the last year was wondering about insurance arrangemnets. Have you got a company you use? We are thinking of Oriana in Nov for a 2 nighter (an extra to all others booked this year!) - but would ideally like to go on a longer one with him. Any advice about insurance comapanies would be much appreciated. Graham

[bayofbiscay]

We do the New Year cruise down to Madeira for the fireworks.If you have not seen them you are missing something.The weather was brilliant as well.:)

[blackpool belle]

Does that entail any flying? How many nights?

[cheza]

hi guys, sorry I haven't been on for ages & yes Gail unfortunately we are back from our cruise now (got back last wed). We had a good time & the weather was really good apart from the last 3 days, not that we saw too much of the outside world as both Graham & I were full of cold (could have been worse, we could of got it at the begining of the cruise).

 

Venice was our fave stop, it was so romantic, and lots to do, we didn't do the gondala ride as when a taxi or a bus passes you it make the gondala's rock a lot and I didn't want to pay all that money to have 'sea sickness'. Apparently the Beckham's were spotted in St Mark's square by people from the ship, but we must have missed them. It was really busy so unless you walked right passed them you would never of spotted them.

 

Olympia was also very interesting, not much at all in Korcula & cephalonia (certainly couldn't go there for a two week holiday). Dubrovnik was stunning, it took us about 3 hours to walk round the wall of the city, my sister gave us good info to go up the wall first, we were on it for 9.30am, by the time we came down it was heaving at both the entrances for the wall and the streets within the wall were very crowded. We found a map & unfortunately I spotted the word department store. The courtesy bus was abandoned for the return journey to the ship which was about 3 miles away and we set of walking in the general direction of the ship (passed the dept. store). It was a lovely walk and finally got to the dept store, but it was easter sunday so it was closed...... can you believe it. So my only purchase in Dubrovnik was a tacky 2 euro pen from the tiny stalls at the side of the ship.

 

Jo, I hope Marge is now ok and back to her normal self. Have you anymore cruises planned for this year. Well done for buying the cf t-shirt, I didn't know anything about them until something was mentioned on the cf chat board.

 

Gail, not long to go for you now, you will definately have to let us know how you rate the princess line. Americans rate them very highly. I will e-mail you shortly.

 

Graham uk As you know it is very hard to get insurance when you have cf however here's the info you requested. We used Marks & Spencers insurance and have done for the past 2 years now. I did have to gloss over the truth a little on one of their 5 questions, which was have you had any treatment within the last 6 months in hospital or home. If you say you have only had planned i.v's that is acceptable to them. It cost £106.88 for the year for both my 'normal' husband and myself, and it was world wide as we were traveling to Russia last year which is out of europe, but this August it should be cheaper as we will just get one for europe. M&S were the cheapest at the time, but if you go onto the cf chat room there is always someone asking about it.

 

http://www.cftrust.org.uk/scope/page/view.go?layout=cftrust&pageid=169

 

this connects you to the different chat boards, move down to the click onto adults message board, go to select forum and type in holiday insurance and everything discussed comes up.

 

A couple of tips I will give you, we have just spent two weeks on an inside cabin, never again, we booked 3 weeks prior to sailing & that is all that was left, we normally get a balcony. The airconditioning has done me no favours and I got a cold which has now gone onto my chest & I am starting i.v's tomorrow. Take a course of ciprofloxacin justs in case a chest infection starts. A visit to the doc starts off at £50 and then meds on top and they wanted to charge me £4 for one single ventolin neb, (I'd packed them away by mistake on my last night & the cases had already gone, you DO learn by your mistakes). I didn't bother and managed on my ventolin inhaler. This also taught me to pack a going home bag of tabs & nebs which I leave in the carry on bag. I also pack all my tabs in little ziploc bags 2"x1", they were about £1.50 for a 100 off ebay, but you can get them at hobby shops as people use them to put beads in. I sort all my tabs out before I go into B/fast, lunch & dinner as there is no way I want to be emptying 60 tabs a day out of various tablet bottles. Ask the cf doc for some sea sickness tabs (don't reley on the doc on board as he may not know anything about cf and may prescribe something that could cause a reaction with our normal cf drugs). I am diabetic too and all cruise lines we've been on do provide a sharps bin for my needles, just tell them at the time of booking. I also take a copy of the prescription too. Finally just enjoy yourselves. If you think of anything else let me know.

 

luv

 

Chez

:-)

[bayofbiscay]

[quote name='blackpool belle']Does that entail any flying? How many nights?[/QUOTE]

[i][color=red]No flying involved and its 11 nights.[/color][/i]

[blackpool belle]

Sounds good to me. Better start saving up:D




55 days to the Golden Princess:)

[blackpool belle]

Chez & Graham,

Sorry to hear you were ill the last few days of your cruise but hope you are both back on top form.

In a moment of madness (or maybe it was because of the balance of the bank statement):D we booked an inside cabin and I am beginning to regret it now :( especially after hearing of your experience. I shall miss not having a balcony. I have been watching the boards and hoping for an upgrade but according to most of the Princess websites now the ship appears to be full apart from the suites so I can kiss that idea goodbye.

I wonder how Marge & Dick fared on their Caribbean & Transatlantic? Waiting to hear from them.

[cheza]

Hi Gail.

I too hope Marge & Dick had a good (& smooth) crossing.

Well unfortunately I have ended up in Hospital with a very nasty viral infection(not my usual cf infections) and I am afraid I am putting it down to the airconditioning in our cabin. When we go again in August I am going to put some dare I say duck tape, (knew I would eventually find a use) as there is no way I want to end up like this again. My oxygen rate was 83% way below my normal of 97% and have been on 24/7 oxygen since my admission 1 week ago. some things are going up but they are not giving any going home dates yet.

On a more brighter side your cruise is getting nearer & nearer. P&O did call us on the saturday, prior to our cruise leaving the following day to offer a balcony (they have a balcony wait list), but they wanted 1,400 pounds each on top of what we had already paid for the inside cabin (wish I'd of paid it now). I was the brochure price and was on the top deck but wasn't a suite just a normaly room, so we didn't think it was worth it. There was a sign in reception when we boarded that there was no spare rooms so they must have sold it. Maybe you should give them a call & see if they have a wait list & ask to be put on it. Good luck


Chez
:-)

[blackpool belle]

Hi Cheryl,

Thought I had better reply to you before lights out. Ooh Matron. I tell you what, are there any spare beds in your ward. I feel like I have been completely steam-rollered. Not been to work for 2 days. Seriously though, Roger and I are really sorry that you are not too good right now but hey you are in the right place to get you back on your feet and I'm sure Graham is looking after you as well. Got to get yourself better for your next cruise. Where is that one to?

I have been reading a thread in the floating lounge section about a couple 69 and 75 (funny names) who are on the Jewel at the moment. All was going well until they hit St Petersburg and got left behind on an official RCCL tour:eek: Apparantly, the courier on the coach only did a head count and not a name check and 2 strangers had boarded in this couples place. Luckily they were able to get a lift on another coach back to the docks but quite scary for a couple that age. Even scarier is the total lack of secuity.Those two imposters could have been anybody.


Not heard a dickie from Marge & Dickie since their return. They will get around to it in their own time I suppose. Got quite a good roll call going now for our cruise, 48 days and counting, but as you know Princess dont hold a meet & mingle so we have arranged between ourselves to meet up in the Wheelhouse bar pre-sail. Also there are quite a few of us that have pre-booked train tickets from Hamburg to Berlin but whether we are all in the same carriage I don't know. Then back at Hamburg, we are there overnight, it's just a case of it's off down the Reeperbahn to find a Bier Keller. We used to have one in Blackpool and it was always a brilliant night out.

I have read on the boards that a lot of people take gifts to exchange when they meet up. I know we didn't last year but perhaps if any P & O or Princess
cruisers are reading this perhaps you could offer some advice. Do you take a gift per couple or just for the ladies or individual gifts and what sort of things do you buy and how much do you spend?

Well Chez, I hope it won't be long before you are back home. Believe it or not it is now 1/4 to 8 and I am going to dose myself up and get into bed.

All the best to you,

Gail xx

[cheza]

hi, sorry to read that you're not too well, hope you dosed yourself up enough to get through the day. The docs are going to take me off oxygen for a little today and see how my breathing goes unaided, hope it's good news as I feel like this nasal tube has become part of my face now......

Can you believe the couple in St.Petes, surely the other passengers on the trip must have noticed two different people on the coach & two people missing.

You must be getting well excited now for you cruise. I have tried on the p&o website but no one seems to be going on our cruise in August and the site is so rubbish, it takes forever and very hard to use. I have never heard of exchanging presents before, as if you don't have enough to do before you go & to add a 'christmas shop' for someone you don't really know. It will be hard, I thought it was just lovely to meet the people who we had been talking to for all those months.

Graham's car's gone off to the gararge today (clutch slipping he thinks), the warenty runs out in sept and he is thinking of getting rid of it as it had loads of problems since he bought it new. It's an Audi A4 soft top, it cost £350 for the first service & the 2nd one it cost £500, so far all the problems have been covered by manuf guarentee so we can only imagine what the costs are going to be for repairs. He was so cheeky when he booked it in yesterday as they gave him next tues to bring it in, he said can't it be any earlier as I'm having to drive the wifes smart car. The guy said to bring it in first thing this morning. Cheek, I love my little car, maybe it's a man thing......

Take care

luv

Chez :-)

[blackpool belle]

Hi Cheryl,

How are you feeling this morning? I am still off work and unfortunately so is Katie now, I have passed it on to her and Roger is getting nervous. As soon as he comes home from work the windows are wide open to get rid of our germs. Which hospital/ward are you in?

I know what you mean about men and cars. Roger treats his like a precious baby.

I have decided not to buy anything new for my hols.(apart from shoes) I am gutted that I still haven't managed to lose the half a stone I put on from the last cruise. No midnight chocolate buffets for me this time around.

Hang on there's somebody knocking on the front door.


It was my mum. She's just come to tell me she's fallen over whilst walking up to the pharmacy. She has grazed her knee and hurt her right hand side. It's a bit of a worry really as she's had a few falls recently. Although she lives next door and I see her every day I have noticed a big difference in her over the last 12 months.

I had better close now and go and speak to her properly,

Take care,

Gail

[cheza]

hi Gail, Sorry to hear that Katie isn't is ill now too, Hope Roger manages to escape, (but if ones gets it, normally it does get passed arround). I hate getting cold as I normally always end up on my drugs. (usually at home though).

Well today is a bit of a milestone as they have taken me off the oxygen during the day except during nebuliser & physio. On oxygen my levels were 97%, but dropped to 92%, but they said that was ok, last week they were 83% when I came back from the loo. (I was pretty scared as that is really low and ended up in tears when all the doctors came in my room & asked if i'd any questions).

Graham's bringing me a curry in tonight, my first real food since I came in, I refuse to eat hospital food since I saw a documentary on how it's made, I have my own heinz soup for lunch and tea I normally have a turkey salad, something that isn't prepared by the company in wales who do the food (they did airline food too......) I am in my cf centre in leeds call Seacroft, my ward (G ward), is just dedicated to people with cf, there are 12 beds, but since two years ago we are unable to mix as we all carry different bugs. It was very hard as I have lots of cf friends. Last night I spent 90 mins on my mobile phone to my friend cf friend who is on the ward too & is 3 rooms away from me (they are very strict & you can be sent home if you mix).

Are you watching desperate housewifes. I have enjoyed it, but next week is the last one. I am afraid to admit that I am looking forwad to Big Brother tomorrow night. It's such a shame we don't have sky in our room as I would have it on all day too (I've nothing better to do).

I hope your mum's ok, it must give you real piece on mind seeing her every day and keeping an eye on her.

I have decided to buy a few evening dresses when we go. I had a cute little black lace dress that Graham likes, but had photo taken (normally avoid the formal night ones as we've got several now), but it was the captains c/tail party so it was easier just to have it done than say no. My legs looked really skinny. Then this woman on the next table to ours had some really nice dresses so that gave me inspiration to get some new ones too.

Well Graham's just arrive with my curry so I will close for now. Take care - give my love to Katie & hope Roger remains germ free......


Luv
Chez
:-)

[blackpool belle]

Good afternoon Chez,

Not seen much of this morning. Woke at 6am with a migraine. Took my medication and that was me out again until 10.45. How about you? I think the pair of us need shaking up. Mum seems to be ok now after her fall. Thankfully it doesn't seem to have affected her. She's a tough old bird.

Well how was your curry? I bet it never tasted so good.

I am looking forward to the start of Big Brother but I wonder whether it is worth watching it because of all the earache I get from Roger. He never stops moaning about it and says he cant understand why I watch anything so banal but to me it is better viewing than all the car progs he has on. Must admit not into Desperate Housewives though. Ended up last night watching Liverpool in their homecoming victory parade.

I just heard on the news that there has been a virus outbreak on the Oceana with passengers suffering a 24 hour sickness bug. Just what you need, right, on your holidays. Hope thats not the ship you are on in August.

I put a post on the roll call of the Golden Princess for the 1st June because they are doing the same itinerary as us and I asked a few questions they might be able to help with on their return. Through that I got to find out that there will be a wedding on board during that cruise. On the 6th June, so I am going to watch it on the Golden Princess wedding cam. I am a sucker for weddings. I really ought to get out more. LOL

It's my sisters birthday on the 6th June as well so I had better get cracking but I never know what to buy her. She is literally the woman who has got everything. One thing for sure I wont be going into Blackpool. Tomorrow sees the official start of the season so that is my cue to start doing my shopping in St Annes or Lytham. People just seem to go crazy when they come to Blackpool and do all sorts of stupid things they would never dream of doing back at home.


Any word from Jo lately? Hope her sister is back on form.

Hope you get home to enjoy the Bank Holiday.

All the best,

Gail

[cheza]

Gail i'm sending you an email, as people don't want my boring & depressing hospital life spoiling their holiday thoughts

Luv
Chez
:-)