Britboys

The accountants in Carnival Towers won't be happy...😁

Bon voyage to you too. Have a wonderful cruise!

Had a busy day today. Picked up my new car late this morning and am very pleased with it. I had the old one for 13 years so the new one with all it's technology and automatic things is certainly going to be a journey of discovery. Once I had collected it, I took a drive to a nearby NT property to have lunch there and have a wander around the grounds. By then it had turned into a lovely mild, sunny afternoon.

Belated birthday greetings to @grapau27 and @Splice the mainbrace for today. Hope your days have been going well so far!

Bon voyage both of you. Have a wonderful cruise!

Yes, P&O - and most lines are now berthing right in the city again rather than out at Ijmuiden. I was on the first call to Ijmuiden aboard Azura and it was a nightmare. That was a 4 night cruise too and I didn't experience any poor behaviour. I think the 4 night ones are generally less of a booze cruise than the 2 night ones.

Started very dull here but then turned to sunshine and showers and now beautifully sunny. Quite mild. Had a few garden bits and pieces that I needed to get to the tip (broken pots, old trellis etc) and thought it sensible to do it whilst I still had the old car, so got that done. Then had a light lunch in the Old Town. After getting back I emptied the car of my belongings and gave it a quick hoovering inside so it looks nice and tidy ready for part-exchanging tomorrow. Out tonight for dinner with some friends.

Definitely one of the better menus for my tastes...

I'm not a keen shopper but Gunwharf is my favourite Outlet Mall.

I second what Brian has said. Gunwharf car park is great - one of those with little green or red lights to tell you which rows have spaces. Well positioned for the Historic Dockyard as long as you are fairly mobile and right by the Outlet Mall for the shops and Spinnaker Tower. Plenty of waterside restaurants in Gunwharf too.

I was away at the time of your original post so have only just seen it. I was on a cruise (not P&O) that called in at Amsterdam last December. The Christmas Market was open but to be honest was pretty pathetic. Maybe a couple of dozen stalls very few of which were selling really christmassy stuff. Lots of hats & scarves and some food. Fortunately we also called at Hamburg so were able to visit the wonderful Christmas Markets there.

That's the one...

It's because 99% of P&O pax prefer hexagonal roasties...

I have seen entries in the Horizon sheet for 'Social Media' group meet ups but as @Selbourne has said, they are not hosted. They don't even host the Solo Passenger Coffee Meets any more...

It's taken P&O many years to perfect their 'non-roast roast potato'... 😀

No, I don't think they will be phasing out included meals in a mdr. What is however more of a possible issue is whether the mdr food budget will be deliberately cut, thereby (deliberately) lowering the quality with a view to getting more pax to stump up cash for the extra-charge items. It could also be possible that they could increase the number of extra-charge items at the expense of the number of included items. Of course, it would all be as a result of passenger feedback...

"Better return for your spend" is an interesting question and of course can be quite different from 'value for money'. My own situation is that I regularly travel solo which does affect the question too. I guess for me, I look at the overall cruise experience and what that gives me. More recently, whilst I don't have any real complaints about my last two cruises they just haven't given me the "I don't want to get off and go home" feeling at the end of the cruises that I always used to get pre-Covid. The mdr menus are certainly a big part of that but I do recognise some of this is down to my own tastes. There has been a number of nights when there really wasn't a single starter I wanted. There were also a number of occasions when I had to resort to the steak because there were no other main courses that suited me. Taking off the obc I had for my last cruise, I paid around £2k for 12 nights in a mid-range standard outside cabin. For me, paying that sort of money, I don't expect to struggle on several nights finding food that suits me. An additional factor is that having been lucky enough to have cruised for over 20 years, the itineraries on offer just don't inspire me. I only wish to cruise aboard the 2 smallest ships and they are heavy on 18/19 night itineraries, mostly calling at the same old ports (okay, the odd different one thrown in now and again). I used to get excited at the new brochure launches but now I tend to think 'oh, it will be more of the same'. So, taking that all into account, whilst there's a lot of good about a P&O cruise, they don't at present provide me with a great return for my spend. I've pretty much accepted that I'm going to have to spend more to get a holiday that does give me a better return. I have looked at Cunard but their itineraries are as dull and repetitive as P&O. For next summer I have booked a european river cruise. It is costing more for 7 nights than my 12 night cruise on Aurora this August, although it does include all excursions, drinks with lunch and all-inclusive drinks from 6pm. Being a river-boat only taking about 160 pax, I am hoping standards are going to be generally higher than those on P&O now. Only time will tell but I am already looking forward to it more than I have my last two P&O cruises. Sorry to be long-winded but hopefully I've been able to explain my thoughts.

Yes, I'm sure he is. At the end of the day, like most things personal taste comes into play. Some of us prefer a more gentle, low key approach and others like a more lively one with a few 'jokes' thrown in. Personally, Ant & Dec have no appeal to me whatsoever but many thousands seem to love them. As with everything, horses for courses.

I understand what you say and agree with much of it but feel it is more complicated than that due to the nature of P&O's fleet and the diversity of their passenger demographic. Cruising with P&O can be a pretty cheap holiday if, for instance two of you are travelling and you are happy sailing on the larger ships, especially in an inside cabin. On the other hand, if you wish to cruise on one of the two smaller ships and in a balcony cabin, it's certainly not so cheap. Even more so if you are sailing solo. Other issues are the age/attitude of their more long-term pax and the fact that some of us who have a long-term history with P&O find the plethora of changes over recent years hard to like. I personally don't have any real (significant) complaints about the current quality of food on P&O but very much notice the reduced choice for my particular tastes. This is in itself a result of cutbacks in that vegan/vegetarian and low sugar dishes were previously on a separate menu and obviously incorporating them into the main menu will be a cost saving. I certainly would not welcome additional cost dishes being placed on the mdr menus but appreciate that it may well be attractive to cruisers new to P&O or to those picking up 'cheap' fares on the likes of Arvia & Iona. I also fully appreciate we all have a choice and that's probably why I don't have any cruises booked with P&O at present.

The Entertainment Manager in question seems to be the primary one for Aurora. He was on for my cruises in August both this year and last year. Trying to guess ages is always difficult but I'm guessing he is mid-fifties. I met him several times around the ship on both cruises and on a 1-2-1 basis he is a very pleasant guy but I do agree with others on this thread that his presentation on stage etc is very 'holiday camp' style.

Blimey, you'll get overtaken by sailboarders at that speed...😂

Sadly, waiting ages for discharge meds seems to be a perennial problem in most hospitals...

You are fortunate to be in Málaga today. The weather there yesterday was horrendous!

A more interesting set of main courses but for me, overall the mdr menus are very much a weak point in P&O's offerings these days. It is one of the reasons I haven't been tempted to book anything for the next two years...

Very dark, dreary and damp here but strangely calm. Trees and shrubs hardly moving so can't be too windy. A very mild day, 13⁰c at the moment. Friends in Spain have been having rough weather too. Malaga Airport was diverting ALL flights for several hours yesterday evening due to high winds, heavy rain in some parts of Andalusia and the first snows fell on the Sierra Nevada. I need to pop out and get some birthday presents today and may get a swim in this afternoon.