JeanieC,Aston

On Iona in Feb it looked like the gangways were on Port side. In Hamburg overnight those gangways were open to the Atrium,,two of them on Deck 6. With the doors open it was freezing in the Emerald bar and Costa coffee.they closed one gangway but the other one was open all night. Of course they may use another deck.

Hi. If you ring them to book they will let you know if you have loyalty discount from previous use.

The centre of Florence is traffic free so the coach to do Florence on your Own or Florence Tour is not much different apart from the tour you are at the mercy of the guide and punctuality or not of the other 50 passengers on the coach,,,on both trips you are walking around. The shuttle is probably half the price of the tour. ps…the coaches park alongside the River Arno about a 10 min walk from Santa Croce.

In Olden the hotel has a huge speaker outside of the hotel. Every cruise ship on leaving gets the same farewell Andrea Bocelli singing Time to say goodbye. Its blasted all across the fjord,,,makes the hairs stand up on your neck.

Visited Florence a few times,,,in my opinion a tour is a waste of time,,,there is not much difference to ‘Florence on your Own’,,,,the coaches on both drops you at the same place,,,Florence is small enough to see most things in a day but not in depth. I would swop Academia with timed entry to the Uffizi Gallery and its magnificent art. Outside of the Uffizi in the piazza is an almost exact copy of Michelangelo's David. Inside Santa Croce is a must,,,hundreds of places for lunch,,,,and don’t forget to rub the wild boars nose for luck in the Mercator Nuevo just along from the Ponta Vecchio. The centre of Florence is really walkable. Try one of the many food cafe bars for lunch in Mercado Central.

In the UK in that scenario the insurance policy would cost more than the cruise,,,,that’s if you could get a company that would cover you.

Nice swerve!!

Scotland is not part of England.,,,,you never mentioned the UK. And I still believe most people including Scotland live south of Blackpool. The population of Scotland is 5.5m add in a few towns north of Blackpool are you still saying most of the UK is north of Blackpool when the population of the UK is 65m plus.

As you say Carlisle is not in Scotland,,,,,so no most of the country is not north of Blackpool,,,it’s probably at least (at a guess) 40 million out. Last time I looked England is one Country,,Scotland another. Having priority Is different than being penalised by a petulant company. P&O used to proactively be unreasonable to Eavesway passengers not Eavesway the company.

I have traveled north of 20 cruises with Eavesway and not had one problem. Intercruises do use Ellisons from the NW but they often use clapped out coaches from firms along the south coast for the return,,,,,I know I’ve used them. Pre covid I asked a Ellisons coach driver for the WiFi password,,,sorry no WiFi H&S. Eavesway terminated the contract they had with P&O a few years ago as P&O got greedy wanting more of Eavesway cut. Then P&O started playing silly beggars with Eavesway customers with petty rules,,,making them wait to board,calling them last to debark etc. Eavesway customers remember that,me included,and stayed loyal to Eavesway. Its only lately that P&O upped their game with Intercruises,,,they used to use the cheapest most clapped out oldest coaches going. The relations are better now,,,they allocate ALL coaches passengers the same debarkation time,,,,,before 08:00. ps,They pick up in Blackpool,,,I never knew the majority of the country lived north of Blackpool?

Exactly…sail past the Seven Sisters waterfall you see it all as the ship sails past from a balcony,,port or aft. For those who say you might be on the wrong side,,,there is no wrong side in the Fjords. If you miss sailing into the Fjiord you see it sailing out. Ive never understood this clamour for Aft balconies you only see something when you have past it. Plus I like the overhang,,the Fjiords get a lot of rain (Bergen is the wettest place in Europe),,with the overhang you can sit on the balcony take in the scenery and stay dry. With IV cabins the bridge will probably shut the window when it rains.

If based purely on itinerary I would have gone for the Brugge,Bergen,Flam trip. Stavanger,Olden and Alesund while ashore are pretty boring.

They have been moving cruise ships out of Amsterdam for a while now, To Rotterdam for the big ships and Ijmuiden for the smaller ships. P&O moved from Amsterdam a long time ago,,,they run shuttles from Ijmuiden to Amsterdam. Even the UK to Amsterdam ferries never actually docked in Amsterdam,,,,they docked in Ijmuiden by the locks to the North Sea. The P&O ship Iona in Rotterdam…..they will never stop cruise ships docking in Rotterdam,,,,it’s the biggest port in Europe and can handle any number of ships.

I have used Eavesway many times from Burtonwood Services,,pick up usually 07:45. Get ther 20/30 mins before for a coffee in Starbucks and get the paper from WH Smith. Used ‘free’ coach a couple of times,usually with Ellisons coaches,lovely coaches,,,but they pick up at 09:15 so a later arrival in Southampton. Eavesway is about £180 for two of use,,,,do the math to see if it’s better to take OBC and book Eavesway or take ‘free’ coach.

The plan is to reduce numbers visiting the city,,so if your hope that the numbers drop comes to fruition Amsterdam would welcome that. Have you been to Amsterdam recently?,,,it’s crowded with drunks and druggies,,,it’s that that they want to stop plus they want to build a bridge from the city across the river and the cruise terminal is in the way.

Just to wet the appetite this is Flam,,,the train station not far away. You can book tickets for the trip on the Flam Railway online,,,far cheaper than Celebrity’s excursion,,,,or even walk up for a later train. The first train is usual full with trips and advance bookers.

Met Office forecasting temps of 100 deg F for most of the day,,,those decks need some cover.

Yes,,my wife just reminded me it was our one and only Aurora cruise. It learnt me never to tick the yes to an upgrade box.

What happens if you arrive say at 14:00,,,do you go to the front of the queue or are you given a new time? It doesn’t matter what time I’m given I arrive by Eavesway around 13:30 and go straight in with the time they are calling even if my time is later.

Enjoying the review on probably my favourite P&O ship (Iona my least fav). The noisy neighbours comments reminds me of one episode with P&O,,,I can’t remember the ship but I had an upgrade to a balcony cabin on a better deck than I was on,,,,alas it was next to one of the poshest suites on the ship that had as its feature a Grand piano,,,one of those that played automatically as well as manually. In the suite was a couple and 2 young children,,,,,all day long it was plink plonk,,no tune just plink plonk plink plonk. The husband invited my wife and myself in to look around mentioning the Grand piano. I don’t need to see the piano I said I can hear it all day long,,,,I think he got the message the plink plonking stopped.

The 91 service goes round the island clockwise, 92 anticlockwise. The complete circuit takes about 90 minutes..the buses do get crowded on cruise ship days. On those days the bus company lays on special buses for less than £10 with photo stops at all the main sights.

Be careful in Athens tomorrow it’s forecast for 45 deg. Plenty of water and don’t forget they are closing the Acropolis from early morning to early evening due to the suffocating heat,,,,no shade on the Acropolis.

They had it on Silhouette in May,,,the version doesn’t fit well with Brits as it is the American version with 75 balls whereas the Brit version is the 90 ball bingo. The Brit version is faster and easier to understand. My wife went years ago and couldn’t make head nor tail of it.

Posted Saturday at 09:44 PM Bo on Saturday you wrote…. ‘Every time I have called over the last few weeks for various things, the longest wait was ten (10) minutes and the Reps spoke 'perfect' english and understood what I needed’ Then on Sunday you wrote in the above post… ‘Many of us use agents to handle issues so we do not personally need to be on the phone for 'hours' at a time to get resolutions/answers/responses’ What made you contact X in the last few weeks that your agent couldn’t do? Just asking!

I agree Sunset is the thing in Santorini,,,,this year sunset was about 20:25hrs. With Bummers ship sailing next year at 21:00 he should be OK.