jh1809

And if a flight isn't included then you are covered through ABTA so long as they are members (which I think is pretty much universal).

I'm on a cruise in April/May on Aurora to the Baltic. I wouldn't normally book excursions this far ahead, but the Black Friday offer inspired me to do so - which was probably the object of the exercise from P&O's viewpoint. Only a handful of excursions had the 20% off Black Friday offer, and they tended to be the cheaper ones, so the possible savings were limited, especially as I didn't fancy one of them. Still, I've saved £18, which is better than nowt. I did wonder whether their accounting might be slack enough that, if I waited till the excursions were full price again and then cancelled them, they might in error refund me the full rather than the discounted amount. 🙂

As well as avoiding the buffet, I try to avoid thing like rolls - or toast at breakfast - that you have to eat with your hands, just in case somebody else with dirty hands has just handled the butter knife.

Good luck!

I suppose you could look at it that way. But if you took that idea to extremes, presumably you'd never buy a coffee on board, as you could always get one from the machine in the buffet. I suppose if you had enough of your OBC left to cover it, you could even argue that Sindhu was free.

I think the trouble with the Internet is because the further north you go, the lower in the sky the satellite providing it will be, and hence the weaker the signal, as the satellite has to be in a geostationary orbit above the Equator.

Glad you're having such an enjoyable cruise, Pete. "I know select dining is not cheap..." That's the only thing in your reports that I would disagree with. I think it's amazingly cheap. You wouldn't get a meal in a typical High Street Indian for what Sindhu charges, and of course Sindhu's quality is fat better.

It was a buffet in August (apart from the wine etc), but it could have changed since then.

I never seem to get very much OBC on my cruises. I always thought it was a bad thing, but now I realise that it might have been a good thing!

Thanks for the interesting report. I'm glad you had a good day. Regarding the "signature menu", how well publicised has it been? If nobody else realised that it was an option, that may be why you were the only (or at least the first) taker.

Maybe you should have asked for a 2-egg omelette - or even a 3-egg one! The default might be one egg.

For some reason omelettes aren't advertised, but you can order them (at least you can on Arcadia and I think Aurora - I haven't sailed on the other ships).

There were some tiffin lunches on sea days in Sindhu on Aurora at the end of last year; not every sea day, though, and you had to keep your eye out for the announcement in Horizon as to when they would be. I never had any trouble booking a table, however. IIRC they were all during the second half of the cruise. It was very similar on Arcadia this August, though they didn't use the little tin container things in a stack that they use on Aurora, just porcelain bowls IIRC.

Even including coffees not with meals, I can't imagine drinking 15 drinks a day. Four or five would be more like it: a couple of coffees; a cocktail, G&T or cider (I don't like beer); and a glass of wine or two with dinner. So the drinks package wouldn't be good value for me.

I've not been on Iona, but all the ships' MDR menus seem to be much the same. If my memory is right, there's usually one or two desserts on the menu with "(ls)" after them for "low sugar". Not being diabetic myself, I haven't paid a lot of attention though. You might want to look at the menus that Selbourne has posted on his "Live from Ventura" thread.

I was on that cruise too. Luckily I'd gone on an excursion to Rome and only learnt about all the excitement I'd missed after returning to the ship. The high winds must have come suddenly and completely out of the blue, as the weather was unremarkable both when I left and when I returned to the ship.

Oh, of course they are! I can only blame a senior moment for overlooking that rather vital point.

And there's the occasional non-fly one from Southampton on Aurora or Arcadia, which with a baby might be preferable to flying. They are 19 days, IIRC, and call in at at least one port in Turkey as well as Cyprus.

Thanks from me as well, Selbourne, for your interesting and informative posts. I've always felt that Ventura and Azura would be too big for me, and have stuck to Aurora and Arcadia, but perhaps I should reconsider.

You can see why there are so many roasts on the menu. They must be among the easiest dishes to prepare in a timely fashion for huge numbers of people. (As well as being very popular, if not with everyone.)

I hope that the wine glasses and champagne flute were all empty at the time.

Looking at the latest menu, I feel a little sceptical about just how "wild" those mushrooms were. Given the quantities involved in cruise ship catering, I find it hard to believe that they were collected by people foraging in the woods rather than grown on a farm. There seems no reason why they should taste any better if they had been truly wild rather than cultivated, though, so it's probably not worth bringing a case against P&O under the Trade Descriptions act. 🙂

I'm glad there was such a satisfactory outcome. It sounds like a very good TA, if the person you dealt with is typical of their staff. It's a pity that forum rules don't allow you to name the TA.

No apology necessary. These glitches happen.

That dinner menu looks awfully familiar. I think you posted it yesterday as well.