Palaceman

I just wish that everyone, the press and people on social media including on this forum would leave Catherine alone. The Palace first announced that she was undergoing an operation and will be away from carrying out public duties until Easter. That is all we need to know!

Why not contact Holiday Inn. They may offer you a later check out time.

I have noticed that Devon Born and Bred's query about ways to get to Chania from Souda Bay has been moved to the Greece forum. One answer suggests that some ships provide a shuttle. Does anyone know if P&O do?

Wow!!! What a choice. Mrs P and I can't decide what we would choose with such a choice. Hope you and Lady S enjoy!

It's always worth getting off. A quick walk into the city centre for a couple of Pastel de Natas washed down with several glasses of Port. Yum

And he's probably the sort of person that then puts his walking stick on a table in the buffet together with his wife's handbag!! Yuk!!!

We had a very poor experience in the Epicurian on Ventura in March this year. We booked it online before sailing to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately, we had a very long wait (over an hour) after our starters and being served our main course. During this time the waiters were aware of the occasion and kept reassuring us that our main courses were on their way. When they finally arrived my steak was very overcooked (I asked for medium). At this point I asked to see the restaurant manager. He immediately saw how over done the steak was and offered me a replacement. Due to the wait I declined the offer as all I wanted to do by this point was eat and get out. My wife was now very upset as she wanted the evening to be special for me. The desserts arrived very promptly together with extra chocolates. On leaving the restaurant the manager could not apologise enough and insisted we accepted a complimentary return to the Epicurian, which we did. On our return a few days later the service and food could not be faulted and we both enjoyed an extremely good meal and experience, which included a lobster, which neither of us ordered, with our main course. Mistakes do happen and when they do it is best to bring them to the attention of those in charge rather than say nothing and complain later. It is the way the complaint is handled that matters. It was due to this that we booked another meal there later in the cruise, which again was very enjoyable.

I have to agree with True Devonian. Food may well be on a plate but seeing dirty bags on tables is disgusting. It's as bad as putting dirty shoes on a table.

We were there in March this year and it was as david63 describes then. Have a look at the excursions.

Hi Pete. We were on Aurora 30 night last month Canada and USA and needed Internet. We purchased the ultimate package with the 15% discount plus our loyalty discount. I don't know whether Aurora has starlink but we had no problems with the Internet at all over the whole cruise. It worked very well around the ship including our balcony cabin and public areas.

Thank you Selbourne. It was not a test, more about what others would have done. My wife and I are so glad we spoke up for what we wanted and we were not prepared to accept anything less. We did Top of The Rock the day before when the view was partly obscured by low cloud. It made an interesting sight with tops of skyscrapers appearing above the clouds! Nice photos, I'd put some of mine on here but I'm not that technically savvy.

Thank you for your responses, which do seem to vary. This was my wife's first visit to New York so during the three days there we concentrated on seeing the iconic sites and going to the top of the Empire State at night was to be a highlight. On hearing that there were no tickets my first thought was; "I'm going to do everything possible to get there". We were then told that we would be getting a full refund for the excursion. Many people on the coach were shouting at the guide, some wanted to return to the ship, while others wanted to continue with the rest of the tour, which included a visit to Time Square. I shouted that I wanted to go to the ESB. I was told by a fellow passenger that tickets were only available in advance but I was intent on doing everything I could. My wife also demanded that the coach took us to the ESB. We got our wish and got off the coach outside Macey's. To our surprise only one other couple got off with us. There was no offer that the coach would wait for us so we knew from this point we were on our own. We walked to the entrance of the ESB and to our relief were told we could walk straight in and purchase tickets to either the 86th or 102nd floor. We bought our tickets and within 20 minutes of getting off the coach we were looking down on the New York skyline at night. And what a view!!! Something I will never forget. The cost was £78 for the two of us. The four of us shared a taxi back to the ship, which cost £24 including tip. We received a full refund for the excursion, which was credited to our onboard spend account the next day, so we were not out of pocket. There were two other coaches doing the same excursion that evening and we later found out that the four of us were the only ones to get off and do what we did. What surprised me most was the fact that not more people got off the coach. Surely going to the top of the ESB was the highlight of the excursion? But I'm so glad we did and we can now look at our photos of our time in New York with no regrets.

Hi Slugsta. Boston was our first USA port. The US immigration staff came on board at about 7.15. Because we had booked a P & O excursion we were in the first group to be processed.

I've just returned from the 30 night cruise to Canada and USA on Aurora. One of the excursions we went on was to The Empire State Building at night. Having been taken across to Brooklyn to view the famous Manhatten skyline. We set off to the Empire State Building, looking forward to the night time view from the top. Unfortunately we were then told that due to an error there were no tickets for us and therefore our visit to ESB would not happen. As you can imagine, everyone on board the coach was very unhappy to say the least. We were told that we would all be receiving a full refund and we later learned that the error was caused by the booking agent and not P & O. I will post again to let you know what happened next, but I'm interested to know what anyone reading this would have done in this situation.

I was also on this Caribbean and USA cruise. Key West was removed from the itinerary due to a decision made by the Key West City Commission involving visiting cruise ships, which was totally out of the control of P&O. The decision not to dock in Bermuda was announced two days before our scheduled stop. From leaving La Coruna the captain continually altered his planned course to try to avoid storms north of our position as we crossed The Atlantic. On the day when we were told that we would be missing Bermuda we were experiencing force 12 wind conditions and sea states. As I have said in a previous post these decisions are not taken lightly, and involve taking much information from several agencies and importantly the safety of all on board into consideration. Bermuda has narrow navigation channels, which in addition to high winds makes docking difficult for many ships. As informed by the Deputy Captain later in the cruise, during her presentation in the Havana Bar, the protruding balconies on Ventura do present an added challenge in windy conditions. Between 8th March and 16th March a total of 5 cruise ships had their scheduled call into Bermuda cancelled. Ventura's stop was scheduled for the 11th. It is not possible to reschedule a stop at short notice therefore calling at Bermuda on our return would not have been doable. Missing Bermuda only added one more sea day to the cruise.

Decisions not to dock in a port due to weather conditions are not taken lightly. Much information is gathered including weather forecast, port authorities, knowledge of local pilots and individual ship's handling capabilities. The fact that one ship has docked does not mean that all ships can dock. During a presentation on a recent cruise the Deputy Captain on Ventura advised that the protruding balconies can impact on the ship's manoeuvrability in certain weather conditions.

As for "new to cruising market", before booking our first cruise we did our own research and on the basis that all travel insurers provided Cruise Cover as an add-on we made the informed decision to have this cover as it was clearly a possibility that a port could be missed. It is not any cruise company's fault if people do not do their research and purchase adequate insurance cover. If getting to a port is that important on short cruises, ie Bruges, then I would suggest that cruising is not the best travel option. Maybe flying would be preferable.

Simply because your insurance policy covers missed ports. If cruise companies offered recompense any insurance policy will not pay out. You can't have it both ways.

Yes there is hand washing stations on Arcadia buffet. Unfortunately on our 16 night cruise on her recently I could count the number of people I saw using them on one hand and one of those was my wife!

And of course, us retirees can sometimes act like children!!

I always pack a manuel toothbrush just in case I can't charge my electric one

Don't drink the Moretti too quick, it ran out on Arcadia earlier this month!!! Have a good cruise.

I was on the same cruise and was also amazed and disgusted by the lack hand washing before entering the buffet. In fact not only did people walk past the sink for washing hands and the hand sanitiser they also walked around the sign asking for people to wash hands!!

It was back from 6 June cruise, sea days only.