terrierjohn

I thought Fred only had 2 ships now, both of which are smaller than even Aurora, or is Balmoral now back in service?

Its next to the fwd lifts not the aft. Adapted cabins are 50% wider than standard cabins, to allow for a wheelchair to manoeuvre. The bathroom is set up as a wet room with full roll in wheelchair access and is on the right as you enter. The bed(s) are also on the right, and if set up as twins the right hand bed is up against the bathroom wall. The balcony has a ramp to allow for wheelchair access. The only drawback to all Azura cabins is that you need binoculars to see the tiny 20" TVs.

We thought Toulon was far nicer than Cagliari, and Alghero is a tender port so no good for us.

You could say the same for everything you buy, the seller has to have a profit otherwise he would not bother.

They should do, because P&Os terms state that up until balance date you only lose the deposit. In fact we have a fully paid cruise on Iona in Feb, and if we dont like her when we sail on her in October then I would possibly cancel and expect to get the balance above the deposit returned to us, sometime!!

They sell wine and spirits on board, as well as ciggys for those who still smoke, and there is also perfume and cosmetics.

I'm not sure that Marseilles qualifies as being outside the big cities though, and if you contract to provide a shuttle service surely it's not too much to ask that they at least cover one of the busiest periods of the day.

You don't get shorts and T shirts in freedom dining, so I have to assume that freedom is now the posh dining area.😁

So French trains and buses all stop for 2 hours at lunchtime then, do they? Surely if Marseilles expects to be a cruise port, then they need the shuttle bus drivers to work on a shift basis, which is presumably how most other countries man their cruise ports.

Dorset cruise fan said there was no tablet soap on Aurora, which is why my comment. It would be useful if others could comment on what is available, so we know what to expect.

Tablet soap is hardly a single use plastic issue, I'm fairly certain its wrapping is paper.

If they had no tablets of soap, did they have a separate liquid soap dispenser by the hand basin?

If it is due to pollution then I am not surprised after seeing the thick black smoke that Britannia was churning out one morning on our June cruise.

I think that may be different to OBC for loss of a port, it's a long time ago but we had a similar experience on Princess and the unused OBC was refunded to our credit card after the cruise. I would hope both being part of Carnival would have the same terms.

But mostly I believe those sort of OBCs are refundable if unused at the end of the cruise.

I guess that could work, but a phone or tablet is much more flexible, especially when it comes to adding photos.

But let's not do away with all lively discussion, where people have valid but opposing views.

That was also our experience on Britannia in June, everything was open and we had no problems with waiter service in the bars.

You have my sympathy MB, it must be very stressful for the whole family. I had a similar situation to your aunt where the paramedics ECG and tests looked normal but took me into hospital just in case. A&E did a further ECG which was OK, but to be safe my doctor then ordered a heart monitor test, which also proved normal. This was in between cruise bookings, but to be safe I contacted my insurer and gave them the ful details and this is now recorded on my pre existing conditions, and no extra cost was added. So hopefully if I have to claim in future for a heart problem they won't have any reason to invalidate it because it was not disclosed.

You really should advise them regardless of whether you need further investigations, otherwise if you did need to make a claim for anything, the fact you have not disclosed these tests could give them cause to dismiss your claim. And as I said in my previous post the insurer will want to know asap just in case they believe you will need to cancel this cruise.

Moley and P&O have both said that things should be more normal by the end of August, so I think your concerns about an October cruise are unfounded.

If you are filling the form in online and using a smart phone or tablet, then the form should tel you how to use your phone/tablet to take a photo of the correct passport page, and should help you to obtain a well focussed one. Perhaps you could check out the online Barbados form and do a trial run. We managed to complete our NHS apps which required a passport photo and the system generally helps you to do it correctly.

I suspect you only cancelled Iona to avoid being on the same cruise I will be on.😥

If the need for the investigation occurred after you arranged the insurance then I would hope that the insurance would reimburse any cancellation costs. However since the sooner you cancel the less you will lose, then I would expect the insurer will want you to advise them of this situation asap, otherwise they may limit your claim to what you would have lost at the point you knew about the investigation.

I thought it depended when you earned them, I wonder if they predate the point that Princess ceased accepting them, whether they would still qualify.