picsa

Presumably they misunderstood that the captain isn't the hotel general manager on board the ship, as that is an entirely different role with that person having overall responsibility for Food and Beverage, Housekeeping, Customer Services, On Board Revenue, Entertainment and all associated Support Services. Captains are for making sure you get to where you want to go and don't sink. Hotel general managers are for making sure you have a good time whilst you get there.

The optimist in me says that Prenetics could be ultra efficient and have many many trained staff ready at 7.30am to pounce on any tests that came in and rigorously check that the photo of the test submitted does actually confirm a negative result and then arrange for a certificate to be sent within five minutes of the test arriving. The pessimist in me suggests something else…

If you count ‘required’ as you need to wear a jacket P&O will lend you for the 30 second walk to the table and then take it off and hand it back as ‘required’ then yes it is - but looking around the MDR at the number of men not wearing jackets and the answer might be considered somewhat different. And then comes the question of what is a jacket? All sorts of comedy DJs are accepted as jackets. A suit jacket on its own with casual trousers seems to be considered a jacket. A casual jacket seems to be considered a jacket. So is anything worn over a shirt that opens at the front a jacket? And as for the ties, anything sort of tied, or more likely half tied, around your neck seems to pass muster.

Each or in total. Either is cheap, but if the total then £25 a day is very cheap.

Given the two second glance they gave the Randox 'certificate' I had been emailed and printed (quite how they determined in that two seconds that it was genuine and I hadn't created it myself that day I am not sure) then I would say - 'not rigorous'. But then as others have said it can be done anytime the day before embarkation.

I saw guys in proper DJs and black tie, guys in comedy DJs, guys in comedy DJs and wearing comedy ties, guys in dark suits with a tie, guys in light suits, guys in shiny suits, guys in jackets and trousers, and nobody had an issue getting into the dining rooms. As I mentioned before the women's dress code is now 'anything, something, whatever, just not a swimming costume but if you insist that will be ok' and the men are now following that precedent.

On my recent Azura cruise I was in the MDR so didn't use the booking app, but chatting to another couple as to how it was going they said they hadn't bothered with it and just turned up and had the old "would you like to share" and were immediately shown to a table (although whether choosing to share is a good idea at the moment is a personal decision).

For the price I paid and the cruise I did it was fine, but... Would I want to do an cruise where there are lots of sea days and watching something on tv in the cabin would be nice - nope, I want a nice big flat screen tv like Iona (and all the other modern ships). Would it be nice to watch a film in a proper cinema rather than the pathetic 'sea screen' - too right it would. Can I deal with the 1980's style cabin furniture - well I don't spend a lot of time there so it's OK, but it is rather dated; and shower curtains, good god I can't remember the last time I had to deal with a shower curtain. Would it be nice to have outside chairs that aren't grubby and ripped - yes it would be. Would it be nice for the public areas to have clean carpets and not have handrails and door thresholds fixed with bits of tape - yes it would be. The Azura is no 'rust bucket' but it isn't going to get anyone going 'wow, look at that'. So for a 20 day cruise... not for me.

It’s incorrect. If you haven’t booked the show then just turn up anyway as the likelihood of seats not being available is minuscule. For the formal nights, for women these days the dress code is ‘whatever’ and for men - well a guy on the cruise I just got off turned up to the MDR wearing a shirt and tie but without a jacket, so they just loaned him one to walk to the table were he took it off, handed it back and sat down and had dinner.

Well back from my two weeks on Azura bobbing about in the med and my final thoughts are - Because the Azura cruises are effectively a series of one week 'back to backs' with some staying for a week and some staying for those two weeks and some staying for the other two weeks (and some staying for three or more) then with the lack of staff to operate the restaurants the availability to book in the Beach House might be possible for next week, but not this. Eventually Sindhu opened for the second week for a few bookings; but then instantly sold out for the whole week, but Epicurean remained closed for the entire time with no sign of opening. I have no idea of the exact numbers who were on Azura, but it certainly wasn't busy. In the MDR you looked out at a sea of empty tables on the 8.30 sitting, never and issue getting a table in the cafeteria, never an issue getting a seat in any bar or the theatre, no queues to get on board, to get on shuttle busses or tenders, etc. It seemed that almost everyone I spoke to this was that this was their first time on a cruise - part of the reason being the absurdly low prices that P&O were selling these Azura cruises fly cruises at, and partly because it seemed people were looking to book package holidays rather than independently booking flights and accommodation due to the airline chaos and the lingering uncertainty with the pandemic. It also seems that an awful lot of the traditional cruisers haven't returned yet, although I did have the misfortune to be sat in the MDR near a 'Hyacinth and Richard' where every meal it was "It's not like it used to be" with him nodding in silence. The staff are as they ever were; hard working and glad to be back working again. Entertainment - you may have seen the Headliner's shows before, but they are performed well. The other acts were a bit hit and miss, but then they always were. Azura is starting to show its age with the cabins looking a bit dated in comparison to the new ships (the new cruisers were just laughing at the tiny pointless TVs in the cabins), and the lack of money being spent on replacing aging furnishings - the seating on the promenade deck was rather dirty and tired. And given the current circumstances P&O seem desperate to be nice - an incredible example of this was that two people traveling independently into Rome and not on a ship's tour missed their connection and were going arrive back into Civitavecchia almost an hour after the ship had sailed for Valetta. The Captain decided to delay the departure and wait for them.

On Azura at the moment and spoke to someone yesterday had just been released from quarantine. They had been doing a one week / two week ‘back to back’ and were compulsory tested at the end of week one. To be honest this makes no sense because there were were plenty of other passengers staying on board for the second week of their two week cruise who were not tested - a situation of ‘rules are rules’. Anyway they didn’t test positive then but felt unwell a few days later and tested themselves with kits they had brought - one was positive and the other not so they were tested again by the medical centre and one quarantined. Then a few days later the other tested positive so they had to quarantine. Discussing it with them we came to the conclusion that the only people likely to be quarantined were those who tested themselves or those who sought assistance from the medical centre. It seemed rather likely that there would be a significant number with ‘cabin cough’ that were roaming the ship who should be but were not. As an aside, although they had been quarantined they had nothing but praise about the way P&O dealt with them.

If you remove all the quarantine zones and don’t require passengers to test before boarding, then what do you do with those passengers who become unwell during the voyage and test positive then? Let them continue to roam the ship and infect everyone else? Lock them in their cabin for the duration? The point with the quarantine zones is most passengers were happy to be moved to the quarantine zone because they are nice balcony cabins with room to move for the week you are stuck there.

When I was last on Iona it was whatever had been in the cinemas in the UK about three or four weeks earlier - so look at your local cinema listings now and that will probably be it.

I have been known to ask in the MDR at breakfast for a bread roll, some bacon and a fried egg and assembled my own. Much to the amusement of the staff and the horror of some of the MDR ‘old school’.

Coming back to the UK - the passport channels are one for UK, Ireland, and EU, and then a separate for ‘others’ (I may have overlooked some others who are allowed in the ‘UK’ queue. So it isn’t the reverse of the EU where it is ‘you Brits, over there in that queue’ - much to the unhappiness of some.

But the denied boarding compensation will sweeten it a little. Anyway next time book Ryanair - for all their faults they don’t deliberately overbook flights like EasyJet do, so never deny boarding because of greedy overboooking.

Does it? Queue up with your EU spouse in the EU lane and if the border guard says ‘non’ then move over to the non-EU lane. I can’t see that many being that picky.

Surely just tell the waiter what you want and if you want more then ask?

Not necessarily. There is a thought that non-EU spouses of EU citizens can use ‘Part A’ gates (i.e. the EU gates) as referred to in Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 - but it all depends on whether the border guard understands that. See the Border Lanes section here - https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/schengen-90-days-in-180-day-ruling-for-non-eu-spouses-of-eu-citizens/

One of the vegan starters on Azura this week was - lettuce and olives…

Unfortunately the TVs on Azura are ancient relics.

My understanding is that even if you are an EU citizen then if you are staying in another EU country for more than three months in one go then you need to apply for residency. However there is nothing to stop you leaving that country just before the three months is up and then returning after a day or two. For the spouse of an EU citizen then a visa would be required if they were staying for over three months (and their EU citizen spouse applied for residency) but if they accompanied their EU citizen spouse in leaving the EU country they had been in just before the three months and then came back with them then they wouldn’t - the 90/180 rule not applying as it would be an infringement of the freedoms given to EU citizens - family life, etc. So effectively if you wanted to winter in the EU in the Schengen zone you can easily do so if one of you holds say an Irish passport.

Sunbed - no thanks, I have no desire to join those aiming for a colour somewhere between ‘that looks uncomfortable’ and ‘good grief’. And as for those who have been in the spray booth before the cruise and are a gingery colour - why?

As relaxing in the cafeteria eating food kept luke warm than in the MDR when you can sit and have someone bring it to you?

Risky if it isn’t stamped - there have been cases already where people haven’t had their passport stamped on either entry or exit and then been accused of breaking the 90/180 rule when they next try to enter or exit the Schengen zone (obviously not all of the EU is in Schengen and some outside the EU is). Break the 90/180 and you could be fined, but more likely banned from entering for a period.