SarahHben

The Entertainment tab for our August Ventura cruise has been blank for a few days. It is back today, but it no longer has the banner saying we can book entertainment from a specific date, so I assume no advance booking is available now.

I usually have a real book on the go at the same time as one on the kindle so I’ll have both with me 😊

This made me laugh. We've just got back from a week's holiday on the Isle of Wight. We had no Wi-fi in our accommodation so when we went to a pub for dinner we all dived on the internet checking tennis match results etc

I love the feel of real books too! The trouble is we're running out of room in the house for all our books so I have a Kindle too. I try to only buy real books from certain authors now, books from any other authors go on my kindle. I like to read late so reading on the kindle means I don't need a light on which would disturb Mr B.

We are travelling from North Kent to Portsmouth today, traffic is very heavy, very glad we aren’t rushing to embark on a cruise, I’d be getting stressed.

Hubby can be Pongo, I’ll be Perdita 😂

Thank you. This will be a 14 nighter and we wouldn’t be in bed before 11pm anyway so hopefully it will be fine

Thank you 😊 How much soot should we expect, enough to mark clothes? 🥴

Have you had an aft view cabin on Britannia before? We have F727 (parents in F726) booked for a Med cruise in 2025 and wondered if we’ve made a mistake with the Live Lounge 2 decks below us? Next year we have a C deck deluxe cabin for a Norway cruise.

Have a great time, looking forward to reading about it, especially as we’re on Britannia next year and 2025

Has this changed recently? When we sailed on Iona last May, when we used CPS, we left the car but had to take our own cases to the loading point. It wasn’t far though and there were plenty of luggage trolleys available. The only people in our party to have an offer of a porter were my parents and that was because mum was in a wheelchair.

We used those quieter area’s most days when we were on Iona last year. The only time we had difficulty finding a seat there was lunchtime on the sea day home when it was too wet to eat outside. The club house became the Quays overflow.

Yes, just a bit 😏 Fortunately it's one of the phrases my 80 year old Dad knows not to say, in front of us ladies anyway!

As one of 2 sisters and as a mother of 2 girls and as someone who volunteers in a primary school, I would just like to say that 'little girls' are equally as likely to play hard and play to win as boys are.

If I’ve got it right this time, this is a video of the same grade cabin in the same position but opposite side of the ship

Sorry posted a video but then realised I’d read the cabin number wrong

I think many of us did the same at that age, I know I certainly did, we didn't know any better. I hope your wounds start to heal properly very soon.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on, we're going to the Canaries on Ventura this August. We have a deck C cabin booked and have splashed out and booked the Retreat for the fortnight as it will be school holidays

We have a weekend booked in Portsmouth later in the year as well as our overnight stay this month. We are driving Mum and Dad to Southampton for their Arvia cruise in September and then collecting them so we thought we'd make a weekend of it and visit the dockyard. We're staying in the Portsmouth Holiday Inn rather than the Gunwharf one.

I've just looked back through my messages from when we were there last May and 4pm was the "all back onboard" time. We took the P&O excursion to Geiranger and the ferry back was delayed so if I remember rightly Iona left around 4:30pm

I can only echo what others have said. Please don't be put off, go expecting to have a great time. We went on our first ever cruise last May, we went to the Norwegian Fjords on Iona. Before going I was excited and nervous in equal measure, and we had a fantastic week, it was so good that we now have 3 more cruises booked ☺️ I think Norway is a good first cruise option, only one sea day each way and the scenery in the fjords is beautiful!

I remember feeling the same! 🥴

Portsmouth is the closest for us, but when we went to I of W in ‘21 we booked a WightLink ferry but they changed our booking the day before to a 3am crossing 😳 My husband cancelled the ferry booking and made a new one with Red Funnel and vowed to never use WightLink again … until he saw this year’s prices 😂 We’re intending to visit Jane Austen’s house on the way to Portsmouth, then do some shopping at Gunwharf in the morning before meeting up with eldest daughter & her family and getting the ferry. We’re staying at The Lakes Rookley and got a discount on WightLink crossing

We wanted to go from Southampton when we go later this month but the ferry from Portsmouth was much cheaper so we opted for that. Even with a hotel stop In Portsmouth the night before it worked out cheaper 🥴

You’ve got lovely weather for your trip! Did you go up the really steep steps up the castle wall? Looking forward to being there at the end of the month. We’ve treated our daughters to English Heritage annual passes especially for our visits to Carisbrooke and Osborne House. Enjoy the rest of your trip!