terry2

On 8/6/2021 at 12:23 PM, Brummijam said:

 And by the time it reached Southampton there wouldn’t be a lot of leeway for boarding  (part of the journey is the A34 and is notorious for delays).

 Yes, the A34 is generally overloaded. It is worth remembering that the bit near Oxford should be avoided at any times near the rush hours.  If that is likely to happen, stop off and have a coffee/snack/meal and wait until afterwards - you will feel much better, and probably will not be much later.

On 8/6/2021 at 8:41 AM, Jammy Bun said:

We're outside the included 250 miles, and I do know that we can pay extra mileage costs and still use the Saga transfer service to get to the port - but can any of you that have travelled from further afield tell me what time you were collected for the journey?  And was it stressful, wondering if there might be delays on the way to the port?  

not quite the same but sort of relevant.  We used to use the Titan pick up service from northumberland to heathrow, but the projected pick-up times were far too early. So we used to get them to pick us up the day before and take us to a hotel near heathrow, where we stayed the night.  The (shared) cars took up to four passengers.   

Were you trying to login using your email address or using the booking reference number?  In the past I have had the situation where loging into your account via the email address would not show the recent bookings, but using the reference number it would - and they didn't seem to be able to tie the two things together.

17 hours ago, tring said:

 

Looks like people have been contacted today about cancellations of Balmoral cruises for the autumn.  Looking at his website it now appears that the Balmoral cruises commence with a cruise on 6th December from Southampton.

 Yes our cruise on Balmoral on 17th November has gone.  Now we will have to decide what to do next. 

On 5/23/2021 at 3:34 PM, rooney9 said:

Thanks for all replies.I have looked into it and if you go cruise only you have to book two seven nights back to back.

Yes the marella terminology is a bit confusing.  Unless the cruise is starting in the UK, then the UK web site is only offering packages including flights (which are mainly on TUI (marella) aircraft)(*).  So generally you can book a flight+cruise or flight+cruise+holiday or flight+holiday+cruise or flight+cruise+cruise, but not what you were looking for. 

(*) these flights will also be carrying passengers just going on hotel holidays. 

1 hour ago, MX-Drew said:

It is options 1,2,3,1,1

You can only get a letter if you are traveling in the next 4 weeks.

  Many thanks -  I had to end up asking them to send me a text - then them noticing that I was on a landline and asking me to hang on to speak to someone. 

4 hours ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Have phoned 119 this morning to request vaccination status for myself and hubby easy peasy don’t know why but I was expecting it to be difficult or being on hold for hours whole thing took less than 3 mins.

what options did you try to get to the correct place - I couldn't work out anything sensible, I seemed to be stuck in them wanting to give me a test. 

On 3/28/2021 at 12:06 PM, Windsurfboy said:

 

UK cruises are provisionally permitted  NO earlier than May 17th.  That date is still to be confirmed.  

 er, no - the goverment has NOT yet published any information about ocean cruises restarting.  That information is supposed to be included as part of the overseas travel recommendations/decisions that should be published on April 12th.    

14 hours ago, 1160451 said:

We always book direct with Fred 

 I always try and make the booking via topcashback, as I get a bit back that way.

8 hours ago, comcox said:

Just tried that webpage and got "OOPS, WE CAN’T FIND THAT PAGE!"

  yes the original link ends with a . (fullstop) - see below - which isn't in the required url. 

On 3/18/2021 at 1:17 PM, Britboys said:

FAQ's now published on their website. https://www.fredolsencruises.com/travel-confidence.

 

 When you get the error message just delete the . from the url line and it should all work.

3 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

As I said, neither you nor I yet know all the facts. All we have is a summarised version. I imagine the vaccine will prove perfectly safe, but judgments need to be based on full facts - not just brief summaries, newspaper headlines and sentiment.

 The information is out there - you just haven't bothered to look.  The MHRA produces a list of all the vaccine side effects reported (updated weekly) -  many pages of conditions that many of us will never have heard of before.  

On 2/15/2021 at 10:49 AM, comcox said:

I just read a post the Royal Caribbean is going to require vaccines as well.

Apparently, they are also going to require the crew to be vaccinated as well.  Maybe Saga should do the same.

8 hours ago, grapau27 said:

That's good he checked.

My 75mg Aspirin is for life after my mild heart attack.

Graham.

 

Probably not, they have started moving people off asprin at age 70  onto another blood thinner - that happened to my wife.

11 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

But if that were a normal occurrence then would  we not all suffer when we had our 2nd Jab?

Well, more people are reporting side effects and over a longer period, after the second jab.  there was an earlier link given to the bbc  (reporting onthe side effects) and that linked to this: https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/covid-vaccine-pfizer-effects .

17 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

Not really. Remember Typhoid Mary, you can carry the virus and transmit it without being sick yourself. 

That's totally different - that's transmission/infection without showing symptoms. 

17 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

We're not talking about infection rates, I'm referencing TRANSMISSION. If you cannot transmit the virus you wouldn't need a mask. 

Essentially they are the same thing: no transmission means no infection; no infection implies no transmission. 

2 hours ago, kalos said:

 

 What I did not like is some " no show up's " jabs being offered to the practices friends and buddy's being given the jab rather than have someone entitled on standby .

The main problem is the lack of notice they can give, as it isn't until close to the end of the day that they will know how many are likely to be spare.

 When using Pfizer our local centre phones patients from about midday asking if they can come in that afternoon, and when they can then extra paperwork is done at the vaccination centre so that it is recorded properly. However when they can't find enough patients, then the surplus vaccine is offered to the volunteers helping to run the centre at that time (usually only in the last half hour of the day).   With the Pfizer vaccine they know how many doses have been defrosted for the day; so know the extra numbers needed whenever there are misses early in the day.

However with the Astrazenica vaccine they only have to completely finish any vial (8 or 10 doses) that has been started (any unjabbed vials are fine staying in the fridge for another day), so they don't know until very late how many doses will be surplus. So it is a question of finding people who can get to the centre in the next FEW minutes.

17 hours ago, Rupert2251 said:

Been to Pompeii. Amazing place, to think that it has all been excavated.

 Only about 70% so far, they are still excavating there.   There was a report in November of a recent find: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55029538 

19 hours ago, Rupert2251 said:

Just finished watching a programme on the Titanic conspiracy not being the Titanic that sank. I found it fascinating. All the evidence is there, that the ship which actually sank was her sister the Olympic. Right up to the final photo of the wreckage on the ocean floor, that sealed it for me, evidence beyond any doubt. Insurance fraud. It was on CCXTV if it gets repeated its worth a watch.

 Given that the olympic was a troopship in the first world war and didn't sink until 1934, I find this somewhat implausible. 

6 hours ago, sandancer said:

That’s because Saga is a British company and CDC rules only apply to cruises out of the US. However right now the UK has a “no sail” advisory and I don’t see that being lifted anytime soon. 

I was asking a question about a post from a US member, for whom the CDC would naturally be the prime reference.  It had nothing to do with Saga themselves.  

5 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

A vaccine that prevents illness might still allow people to become infected and harbor the virus in their noses long enough to transmit it.

New data from Moderna suggest that its vaccine may reduce transmission. Researchers found that people who had one shot were less likely than those in the placebo group to have symptom-free infections in their noses — and therefore less likely to be contagious.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/health/covid-moderna-vaccine.html

That is a comparison with the PLACEBO group (ie the ones that did not get any vaccine).  Any  vaccine that gets approval would be expected to have  a similar effect.  There is as yet no comparative data about ongoing possible infection rates for any vaccine (unfortunately).

On 1/23/2021 at 3:11 AM, cruzsnooze said:

I'm reading the Maderno vaccine prevents the virus from attaching to a host so you won't be a typhoid Mary but the pfizer does not so I won't take anything but Moderno.

  Where did you read that?  I can't see anything relevant on the CDC web site?

1 hour ago, DamianG said:

 

Thanks Terry, I hope that you are well.

 Yes thanks - the received wisdom is that after 3 years  there is no further recovery, and I had it about 15 yrs ago so I'm stuck.  I manage reasonable well but can't walk as far or as fast as I would like, and I have problems with my hands.  

 I just hope your father makes progress: the important thing is that he needs to keep trying to do things.

1 hour ago, DamianG said:

 

 

In late August my dad suddenly became ill and couldn't move his torso, arms and legs. We kept getting advised that steroids would put him right but eventually I spent over 2 hours making over 100 calls to get through to a specialist who told us to get him to A&E straight away. He's now been in 2 different hospitals and an infirmary over the last 10 weeks and has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome so will need to go into full time care.

 Well, I've had GBS, and most people do make a partial recovery but very, very slowly.  I would suggest  you contact your local GBS support group to see how they can help.   The charity is  https://gaincharity.org.uk/  and the local support info is at  http://gaincharity.org.uk/information-support/social-get-together/gain2gether-near-me/

 Hope things do improve for you.

19 hours ago, lucky13uk said:

If we can't get our deposit back, I'd be ok with our deposit being held and then used towards a future cruise.

 

 probably the most sensibly thing to do at the moment.  I suggest you try that phone number - one of the options is for people with existing bookings.