Selbourne

A few shots from a cloudy but still warm (24 degrees) Gran Canaria. There’s a huge beach with a very long (and wheelchair user friendly) promenade. Also, the sand is the right colour here 😂

I don’t doubt that it’s cheaper as that would undoubtedly have been the motivator for the change. Where it falls down (other than food waste) is that I have seen waiters move uncovered pots table to table - presumably if they think the previous occupants didn’t use them. Problem is those occupants may have still coughed etc over them. We’ve also notice a few flies in the dining rooms that must enjoy this approach also 😂 It’s a minor issue though. Come to think of it, I might take some of the leftover conserves to try to lubricate the creaking joints in our cabin. I got the idea from one of the maintenance guys. We couldn’t loosen the shower head adjuster. He couldn’t either - even with grips. His solution? Smear the pole with shower gel 😂

….and as it is on the menu every single night people might just rumble it 😂

In all honesty I haven’t noticed butter smears in any of them. If I had I would have sent them back. For me it looks unappetising, is wasteful and if someone else on another table has coughed over it or whatever……

Tonight’s MDR menu

Not been to the buffet, but in the MDR the new approach means one of two things - regular re-cycling between tables (🤢) or an awful lot of food waste.

😂 Here are the two tubs that greeted us this morning. Look as though they’ve done the rounds a few times already 🤢 😂

Yes I can’t say I’ve ever learned much from them that I hadn’t already heard, but I have retained every Horizon and Britain Today from every cruise we have ever done, with a view that when we can no longer cruise we can look back and reminisce 😂

Can’t say I’d noticed it myself, but I agree the conserves thing is daft and unhygienic. I don’t understand why they have a different approach to retaining unfinished bottles of wine by ship. We are in club and have wine waiters, yet they don’t do it 🙄

For us, location is critical so we always say no to upgrades. We had a deluxe balcony cabin on Iona that was in the perfect location. We would have absolutely hated a Conservatory Mini Suite on the Promenade deck and the sole accessible suite is in a poor position directly above the aft Sunset Bar. Both would have been a negative move for us, even though deemed upgrades!

Yes, May price lists on here as well.

DAY 7 - Friday 3rd November - La Palma The creaking in the cabin started again last night, even though the movement was only slight. Nowhere near as bad as the first few nights, but still annoying. If this cruise was longer than 2 weeks I’d have to get engineers in here to see if they could do something, as it is disturbing our sleep in anything other than slight seas. There’s also a mechanical motor noise that we hear every 5 minutes. It sounds like a lift motor but it can’t be, because it lasts exactly the same length of time (around 10 seconds) every single time. Unlike the creaking, it doesn’t in itself wake us, but just adds to the aural delights! I’m just so relieved that we have quiet and considerate cabin neighbours, but I wouldn’t book this cabin again. I think we’d have been better off with an accessible standard balcony cabin. We were pulling in to La Palma when I got up at 7am and we have another sunny day. We are facing the ocean this time. The pier is very long and we are at the far end. There is a port provided free shuttle but it’s not really worth it when you can easily walk. We only just got to breakfast a few minutes before the 9.30 cut off and we had to wait 10 mins for a table but, to their credit, the waiters didn’t rush us at all. In fact, we haven’t met a poor waiter yet. After breakfast I made my usual trip down to the Library to pick up a copy of Britain Today but, for the second day running, they didn’t have any (“technical issues”) so we did our usual circuit of deck 16 to get our bearings. After sorting ourselves out we headed off into the town. Much the same as yesterday in that there are a some nice buildings, hemmed in by some ugly ones. It’s good to see these towns, but anyone who is coming to the Canary Islands for a one off cruise would be well advised to take tours to see what the wider islands have to offer (as we did many years ago when we came when our kids when they were young). The ports themselves have limited appeal. We were back on the ship for a late lunch at the Glasshouse. We both had the trio of small plates. Very good, but the giant prawns had far too much greasy batter on them, which we both cut off. I particularly enjoyed the Thai beef salad which had loads of beef for a small plate and tasted delicious. My wife wimped out on a pud but I had the Asian Fusion trio, which was presented differently to the other ships. As a result It wasn’t as good, but I’m still glad I had it. I enjoyed a large glass of ‘Money Spider’ with my lunch and my wife had a cocktail, which she also enjoyed. BTW, during this cruise a few people have said to us that they think that Ventura needs a refit and we have overheard a number of similar comments. In all honesty, I’m not entirely sure what aspects they are unhappy about, so I will have to ask when it next comes up in conversation. As far as we are concerned it all looks fine. Yes, it may appear a bit ‘dated’ to some after the likes of Iona and Arvia, but we significantly prefer what I’d call the ‘classic’ look of this ship to the more modern airport terminal / conference hotel look of her bigger sisters. We haven’t noticed any obvious maintenance issues or areas looking shabby. One thing I have noticed is that internal branding and signage is in woeful need of updating, and has been the case for many years. Sindhu is still branded ‘East’ and the lift directories still call Epicurean ‘The White Room’. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the names of both restaurants change around 10 years ago? Certainly more than enough time to update the signage 😂 We went to Metropolis again for pre dinner drinks, as the pianist was back. We then headed down to the Bay Tree for dinner. It was the second formal night and branded as a Celebration Night. I had completely forgotten about the Signature Selection (extra cost) menu that is being trialed in the MDR on Ventura, as it had never been mentioned to us, nor is it advertised at all. It is still available and I ordered all 3 courses for a supplement of £14.95. I remembered to take photos of each course (see below). The starter was nothing special. I had expected a lobster claw but it was a small amount of chopped up meat. The main course was the best of the 3 courses and, unlike Epicurean, the beef was cooked exactly as I’d asked. I didn’t rate the pud at all. Far too rich and sickly, even for me. I’m glad I tried this menu, but wouldn’t do so again. I doubt very much that it will last, especially as it is kept a secret and the waiters don’t promote it 😂 It’s nice having a wine waiter. I was dithering over which wine to have and he recommended a Portuguese blend called Silk & Spice, which I enjoyed. After dinner we attended our very first theatre show of the cruise, the postponed Duo Esencias performance. A lively combination of a classical violinist and a flamenco Dancer. We always enjoy these unusual shows far more than the Headliners shows or the endless singers, and tonight was no exception. Tomorrow Gran Canaria.

Thanks Cathy. P&O go to Lanzarote on Sundays - when all the shops are closed! Suppose they have to be somewhere on Sunday, but it’s a shame it’s the ugliest place 🙄

Many thanks. We had no creaking whatsoever on Iona (deck 10 midships on the ‘bump’).

You may well be right. We were midships on Iona though and felt nothing. We were aft on Britannia and there was a pretty constant low level vibration at sea. Can’t remember what the thrusters were like. As I said, I don’t mind them as they are infrequent and not in the night.

Don’t waste too much time on that one ICF. Never going to happen 😉

A definite improvement Cathy. Well done.

I can’t remember what ship you are going on Cathy, but are those ‘proper’ upgrades (I.e. to a better cabin type - e.g. inside to outside, outside to balcony) or what P&O calls an upgrade, which can be an identical cabin but just in a slightly more midships location which may bring problems that you wouldn’t have had in the original cabin? 🤔

I’m going to suggest to my wife that we go down for a coffee shortly. Watching that enormous queue build up from 5.30pm yesterday and snake all around the atrium was quite a spectator sport. We’ve not long finished lunch 😂

Yes I’m afraid that all the ships have forward and aft thrusters and they can indeed shake you out of bed at times 😂. I don’t mind them because they don’t keep us awake at night. We like aft cabins but they do often suffer from vibration that you don’t get elsewhere.

When we were on Britannia in July we discovered that whilst each bar only listed a few cocktails or mocktails they would do others if you asked. On Iona they wouldn’t. However I only recall two mocktails being listed in the menus! Yes it’s Tetley tea if you want the freebie stuff. Tea Pigs in the Costa if you are happy to pay for it.

@Megabear2 I haven’t forgotten that you asked me to find out about on board offers for future cruises. Every time I pass the future cruise desks they are either closed (bit of a cushy number, if you ask me) or have people waiting, which is why I’ve never booked whilst on a cruise as I don’t do queues 😂. As far as I can tell, the ‘offer’ is extra OBC (possibly x3) and a lower deposit. This is all I’ve managed to get promo wise. I’ll check again later in the cruise but I know that they tend to get busier then

A couple more shots from La Palma plus tonight’s formal night menu (apologies for the poor angle, but the menus behind Perspex are difficult to photograph without getting your reflection all over them 😂)

The deck manager offered them. I don’t think they would have made a big enough difference in all honesty.

Very interesting and I’m glad that I recorded ours as well, because there would be some who think that I’m exaggerating. The video clip is of course not as loud as it is in the flesh. Like you, we’ve done a lot of cruises and the movement and a degree of noise is all part of the experience, but when it prevents sleep it’s another matter. We also have a regular mechanical motor noise every few minutes, but that in itself doesn’t wake us. We are by the forward lifts on deck 9. Hopefully it will be OK where you are. We’ve had Superior Deluxe cabins before and not had these noise issues. We usually suffer from noisy neighbours, but thankfully those around us are as considerate as we are, so we wouldn’t want to move and replace one problem with another 😂