Selbourne

In all fairness, that does describe my ‘omelette’ quite well 😂

Lager or light beers chilled. Darker beers / ales not 😂

Yes it does Jean

and our approach into Tenerife this morning

A few shots from Funchal from yesterday

Epicurean menus from last night and our Crepes Suzette, prepared as it should be 😂 👍

I haven’t asked for Speckled Hen Graham, but suspect that they have it. I like it, but prefer Doom Bar.

About a year later, but just checked and as others have said it was an additional discount off the fare offered by the TA equivalent to the Blue Light OBC offered by P&O (but it was on top of the discount I’d already negotiated). This was the excellent specialist TA that many of us use.

Day 5 - Wednesday 1st November We had our first good nights sleep of the cruise, thanks to the much calmer seas and the creaking noises having pretty much subsided. We were already berthed in Funchal, Madeira when I pulled back the curtains and we had a glorious view overlooking the town and mountains. We were greeted with clear blue skies and 19 degrees, with a high of 25 predicted. We went to breakfast in the Bay Tree MDR half an hour or so after disembarkation had begun. Yet again we were told that there would be a wait (10 minutes) if we wanted a table for 2 but, as always, in reality this was less than 5 minutes. I ordered an omelette (interesting that they aren’t on the breakfast menu, but they didn’t flinch when I asked for one). I was glad that I’d added some bacon and beans to it as the omelette was tiny, but I felt that I’d over eaten a bit the day before so that wasn’t a problem! After breakfast we did a lap of deck 16 to get our bearings and then returned to the cabin to get ready to leave the ship. Disembarkation was easy (even the lifts were no problem) and we decided to use the accessible shuttle as it was still loading. I had to travel in the normal shuttle, but arrived 5-10 minutes before my wife so was ready to wheel her off the tail lift when she arrived. We picked our way through the lovely centre of Funchal as far as Rua Santa Maria, as I’d read that this was a very old street with uniquely painted doors. Not the easiest place to get around with a wheelchair (hills and cobbles) but we managed and it was worth it. On the way back we passed the market, but unfortunately it was closed as 1st Nov is a public holiday (All Saints?). We had to cross a main road to get back to the town centre and were shocked to see that there had been an accident where someone crossing the road in a substantial mobility scooter had been struck by a motor bike. The motor bike was on its side in the middle of the road and the poor scooter driver was still in the scooter which was also on its side. Traffic had come to a halt waiting for the emergency services. I do hope that those involved are both OK and that the scooter user wasn’t one of our fellow passengers. We walked back past the cathedral, and as it was quite hot and we are back in Funchal in 2 months time we decided to head back to the ship for lunch. As is often the case, we would have been far quicker walking back to the ship than using the accessible shuttle, as it took an age to load the 4 wheelchair users and secure them in place with straps etc. It’s commendable that P&O provide this service, but if the weather is OK in January I think we might walk / push back to the ship and avoid the shuttle as it’s a short walk, albeit the last few hundred yards to the terminal is a bit awkward with a wheelchair. We went to the MDR for lunch and one of the couples we shared with had done several World cruises (amongst plenty of others) and were able to give us loads of great tips for our Caribbean cruise in the New Year. The other couple had been on Arvia recently and said “never again”. They were unaware about booking speciality restaurants and shows before the cruise and claimed that they couldn’t get in to anywhere, which surprised me. They also felt that Ventura was in desperate need of a refit. Have to say she looks fine to us! During the afternoon we had a visit from the deck manager, as he’d heard from our steward that we’d had some noise issues from all the creaking etc. I played him my little video clip and he said that if it’s that bad on the way back he will send some engineers to see if they can do something. I can’t see what they can do, as it’s the ships design, but thanked him for his kind offer. As I’ve said before, credit where credit is due with P&O, in that they want us all to be happy and will do their damnedest to fix problems. As I’ve also said before, anyone using a cabin that we’ve had the previous cruise should be grateful that we’ve usually had all the niggles sorted that those before us have just tolerated 😂 We departed on time from Madeira at 5pm and it was still a pleasant 23 degrees and calm waters. A whale and dolphin tour boat was returning as we left and over their tannoy I heard the guide say that they had seen bottle nose dolphins, pilot whales and sperm whales. I stayed on our balcony for an hour after departure hoping to see something, but nothing (on our side anyway). Dinner was booked in Epicurean so we decided to have pre-dinner drinks in Metropolis as it’s above it. We hadn’t dared venture up there for the first few days as it had been so bumpy at the aft of the ship 😂 I managed to persuade the waiter to find me a Doom Bar that hadn’t been near a fridge and he excelled. He had to go to another bar apparently. It’s little things like this that make cruises special for me, especially when he said that he’d put a supply of un-chilled ones behind the bar for me for future visits! Lady S had her first cocktail of the cruise - a Ruby Rose Punch. She liked it at first but then decided that she preferred the Rhubarbellini that she’d had on Iona. I’d had a sip of the punch and liked it, so I ordered her a Rhubarbellini and said that I would finish the punch as my Doom Bar had disappeared at an unseemly pace. Rock and Roll 🤪. Around 15 minutes before we left an excellent pianist arrived and played some brilliant James Bond film sound tracks including No Time to Die. He obviously wasn’t the same pianist that we’d overheard at Sundays religious service, unless he has the same sort of warped humour that I do and he was doing the church gig under duress 😂 I wish that we could have stayed longer as I was enjoying it and had also spotted another cocktail that I fancied, but everything in moderation 😂 This was all whilst we were looking at a moving video wall of Time Square, which took us back to our USA and Canada cruise. We shall definitely return, especially when the pianist is due to perform there. I was wondering what sort of welcome we’d get at Epicurean, as when I’d dined there alone a few nights back around half a dozen of them all seemed to know that I would be back on the 1st for some reason. The wine waiter had even stopped me as I was leaving and said that he would look forward to seeing me again on 1st and would join me at the table. Hopefully when I arrive with Lady S in tow I won’t upset him too much 😂 The warm speciality breads are always a lovely way to start the meal. I particularly like the beetroot bread and the marmite butter! We both had the scallops with scallop tartare starter, which we thoroughly enjoyed. My wife had the Black Cod with Lobster Tail main (which she loved and said was cooked perfectly) and I had the Limousin Fillet of Beef. I always order steak ‘Medium’ but the one I’d had in Epicurean a few nights before was almost well done, so I decided to order ‘medium rare’ this time. It turned up ‘medium-well’ so my plan almost worked 😂 My wife had wimped out on wine having had a few cocktails, but I forced my way through a large Rioja. There was no debate about the dessert for me as it was Crepes Suzette, prepared table side with the theatrical Flambé. My Rioja hadn’t survived the main course, so a Sauternes to accompany it was only polite. On a roll, I decided to have a liquor coffee afterwards, with Amaretto. It’s a tough life, but the things I endure in order to provide some variety with my ‘Live Froms’ 😂 In all seriousness, it was a fabulous meal. It’s a great shame that there isn’t an Epicurean on Aurora, as it’s such an enhancement to the other ships. We still haven’t attended an evening show in the theatre so far this cruise. None has appealed. The postponed first Headliners show (On the Horizon) was on, but we remembered it being poor from previous cruises, so we called it a night. It’s such a relief that you don’t have to drive home after a night out on a cruise ship 🤪

No idea, but none of the doors open anywhere near areas where people are sitting. I’m sure there must be a reason, but it seemed to defy logic!

Our TA was able to add Blue Light Card benefit for our daughter long after we booked.

Thanks. We are due back 11th as well (Ventura). Hopefully it will all just be a bad memory by then 🤞

Delaying departing cruise ships is one thing, but are there any P&O cruise ships that will be heading back to Southampton through it?

I think we had two different menus on Iona and that was just over 1 week. There’s definitely two different menus on here, because it’s a different menu for each of our two remaining visits. I’ve never been able to work out when they change though!

What a lovely send off for your Mum and how nice that Cunard handled it beautifully. My dads ashes were in a bio-degradable container, so no environmental issues there.

…..and tonight’s MDR menu. The first one that hasn’t appealed to either of us but, thankfully, we are booked in to Epicurean tonight. Am tempted to just walk into town in Funchal, but there’s an accessible shuttle and the walk includes a tunnel to get off the pier, so maybe that’s best?

Thanks. Interesting. The lady was clear that she didn’t want to actually scatter them and didn’t want a ceremony, but as that’s probably unusual they just applied the normal rules. She had mentioned that she hadn’t read about the certificate requirement on the P&O website, but I haven’t looked myself.

Last nights MDR menu for those who like to see them

It could well be for that reason but, as I say, once you got outside all areas of the promenade deck were accessible, both sides, bar the raised front section!

View from our balcony this morning

We can’t cruise to Switzerland so won’t get caught out by that thankfully 😉 I only use the data for emails, internet and What’sApp etc so should be fine.

Blimey. We had 6-8 metre waves in the Bay of Biscay and lots of people were suffering with that 🤢

DAY 4 - Tuesday 31st October (Sea Day) The sea had calmed down considerably overnight. There was still noticeable movement, but nothing like we’d had the previous few days. Our cabin is still managing to creak and bang so yet another somewhat disturbed nights sleep. We went directly to the Bay Tree restaurant for breakfast and this time were shown immediately to a nice table for 2. I really like the Bircher Muesli that P&O offer and I added fruit salad, croissants and a smoothie to my order. The smoothies are a lot better on Ventura than on Iona and Britannia. Still a bit watered down compared to pre-Covid, but at least they have some flavour on here! I’ve only had one cooked breakfast to date but I overheard someone ordering an omelette, so I might give that a go tomorrow. I had a brief chat to the ORCA lady on deck 16 after breakfast but, in spite of the much calmer seas, no wildlife sightings whatsoever so far today. There was no entertainment of any interest whatsoever during the morning (as has been the case every day so far), so I used the last few hours of my 24 hour WiFi. As previously reported, it’s worked brilliantly in our cabin and public areas. Emails, internet, What’sApp etc have all worked very well. I’ve managed to post photos, even short videos, as well as a What’sApp video call, all on the Essentials package. I just hope that it’s this good on Aurora as it will help to pass the time on the sea days, especially if the drought on guest speakers is permanent. Whilst I was using up my last WiFi time, my wife was able to enjoy a few hours reading on our balcony in the sunshine for the first time, which she enjoyed. Menus for both lunch and dinner look fine again, so we are sticking to the MDR today but, as a point of interest, I checked the availability of the specialty restaurants for the rest of the cruise and there is loads of availability for every day (I only checked tables for 2). We had another sharing table for lunch and a solo lady traveller told us that she had lost her husband 3 years ago and had finally brought his ashes on this cruise to drop the very small urn (as opposed to scatter them) over the side, as had been his wish. She had gone to reception to inform them and say that she wished to do this alone and did not require any ships crew to be with her. Rather than suggest where the best place and time to do this was, she had been asked if she had a ‘certificate of cremation’ with her. As she didn’t (hardly surprising as it was 3 years ago and, according to her, there is no mention of this being a requirement on the website where this subject is covered), they had told her that this would not be permitted. I encouraged her to ask again as she might have encountered a jobsworth. It’s not as if there’s any question that he’s been cremated! I said that if I’d had that response I would have just done it anyway, and suggested a couple of quiet spots on the promenade deck where there is nothing underneath, but I can understand that she feels uncomfortable about going against ‘the rules’. With absolutely zero entertainment of interest, I resorted to watching Dominic Cummings give evidence at the Covid enquiry on Sky News. Yes it really has been that bad 😂. He’s certainly a man on a mission 🫣. I got irritated with Sky News constantly interrupting the coverage to make lengthy apologies for the bad language, so we gave up and went for an afternoon coffee in Tazzine. Max the busker was performing in the atrium, and this constituted the first live entertainment that we had seen since we boarded in Southampton on Saturday! It’s been years since we’ve had a Superior Deluxe cabin, so I’d forgotten that they provide seagull food (sorry, canapés) once a week. We also now have a bottle and a half of champagne (one for the cabin grade and a half for our loyalty tier) plus a box of chocolates still untouched. They wouldn’t have lasted this long at home, but we never feel peckish on a cruise 😂 As today was the postponed first formal night, we had the Captain’s welcome aboard drinks and address, prior to dinner. There are 3044 passengers on this cruise, which is 99% of the lower berth capacity. This compares to 5750 passengers (111% lower berth capacity) when we were on Iona. We can certainly feel the positive difference on this ship. With a fair few kids on board, many in upper berths, there must be a fair number of empty cabins on this cruise. We still have only 13 diners in our 28 section of the MDR. We have 1192 crew (13 below the stated normal number). We certainly haven’t experienced any of the staff shortages that we felt were noticeable in places on Iona. Service has been excellent everywhere. 843 passengers (or 28%) are either first time cruisers or first time on P&O. This compares to one-third of passengers being new on Britannia in July and two-thirds being new on Iona in August. It’s also worth stating that we continue to be able to move around the ship without any of the difficulties and poor passenger behaviours that we had to endure at the lifts on Iona in August. Our faith in human nature is well and truly restored. Another enjoyable dinner in the MDR. OK, it’s still early days on this cruise, but this is now our third P&O cruise this year, on 3 different ships, and in spite of reading countless critical comments about P&Os MDR food post Covid, we have been impressed on all 3 cruises. I don’t believe that we have low standards or low expectations either. One thing I have noticed is that the restaurant managers don’t seem to wander around and check if people are happy with everything on this ship. All they seem focussed on is talking to those with specialist dietary requirements and taking their orders for the next day. It’s a shame as my feedback on the food and our waiters would be excellent. Talking of feedback, P&O are clearly a bit spooked by Cruise Critic. This is now the 3rd cruise in a row where the captain, in his welcome address, has said that if anyone has any problems to please report them on board and not just raise it on Cruise critic when they get home! I have mixed views on this comment. If we experience a problem that can be fixed then I report it on board. If it’s something that can’t be fixed on board (such as creaking cabins and the lack of guest speakers) then I feel that it’s better to raise it in a review (or via a P&O feedback questionnaire). Interestingly, there has been no ‘first impressions’ feedback form on this cruise, which I think is a shame. Finally, and being quite blunt about it, if people are feeding back on similar things after the cruise then it’s P&Os fault and not the passengers. Don’t shoot the messengers, fix the problems. Whether these comments have been a swipe at me (having done ‘live froms’ on all these cruises) I know not (although I don’t wait until I get home to comment) but I will not be stopped from giving an honest appraisal of a cruise - good and bad. I stand by everything I have said and believe that my reviews are balanced. Wednesday is our first of five consecutive port days, so the next report will cover our stop in Funchal, Madeira. Much as we really like Ventura, we shall be glad to get off for a few hours and have a walk around.

We have arrived in Madeira! Yesterday was a lovely day and today looks the same. 20 degrees and sunny at present with a high of 25 forecast.

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