Dermotsgirl

I totally sympathise. I used to need a low salt diet for a medical reason. I used to mainly cruise with P&O, and on my first 'low salt' cruise with them, they did a brilliant job, and cooked everything to order without the salt. I was thrilled, as I'd had a trying year with my illness and it made me feel 'normal' again. However, on subsequent cruises with them, I had the same experience that you are having. Very bland and plain food. I found it very stressful, as I constantly had to keep explaining to them what I wanted, and occasionally they'd manage to do a nice curry for me, but the next night it was back to the plain fish or meat with steamed vegetables. I was fortunate, as my illness improved, and the need for a low salt diet was no longer a necessity, but the whole experience had a negative impact on the cruises affected.

What if your dietary requirement isn't there, such as low salt ?

+1 for Mountain Warehouse When we did a northern lights cruise we went to the Mountain Warehouse at the Dockside Outlet in Chatham and got ourselves kitted out. In addition to what other people have already said, merino wool socks keep your feet warm.

Hope all goes well on Monday

As someone who is currently embracing Warners, I can confirm they aren't an ocean cruise, but they are whole heap less stressful than the process of booking and preparing for a cruise. We had a weekend at Holme Lacy in Hereford a few weeks ago and next month we are on a Warner's road trip to Nidd Hall for a week and then on to Thoresby Hall for a few days. I think they are the properties closest to you, so I will report back with my findings. Quite a few of the coach companies do trips to Warner's so there is that option if you don't fancy the driving. As I've got no plans for a cruise in the near future I made some changes to my Staysure policy when I renewed it the other week. I've taken off cruise cover and have gone from European cover to UK only cover, and the price dropped by two thirds! However, I can reveal that we will dip our toe back into the cruising world in 2026. We've booked a week on Cunard's Queen Anne. There's 4 ports that are new to us, a solar eclipse and it coincides with our 45th wedding anniversary. It just seemed right, and I can tolerate the dress code for a week! As it's more than two years away, I'm not going to think about it much at the moment, but it would appear that I'm not completely done with cruising just yet!

I've been enjoying reading your reports. As someone who struggled on Saga due to the closeness of some of the tables in the dining room and buffet, I've appreciated the comments about the distance between tables, and I don't think I'd have had any problems with your Iona tables !

I think Catherine has been thrown under the bus, to be honest. They have people to advise them on PR, and any photo selected would have been carefully chosen to promote the desired image of healthy and happy Catherine. I'm finding it difficult to believe the idea, that that Catherine, who is still supposed to be getting better after her reported operation, just did some ad hoc Photoshopping and put the image out on Twitter, without any input from William and the Royal PR machine. Yet the apology has been worded as if she is the one who has to carry the can for what happened. It doesn't sit right with me. I wasn't expecting to see Catherine until after Easter as was previously advised, but there's been so much speculation, and the Royal machine seems to be making it worse every time they intervene, rather than reassuring people that all is well. They've been so ham-fisted, it does make you wonder what on earth is going on behind closed royal doors.

Thanks you @Selbourne , that's kind of you to say. I can well understand why you feel you might need a break from blogging after 65 nights of it! During my earliest cruises I'd write a daily diary in a notebook, then type it up when I returned home and would then post it online (not on this site). When I got my ipad, I'd type it all on the cruise, then post when I got home. As most of my cruises were standard length, it didn't seem onerous. In 2016 I did a 35 night cruise, and by the end I had had enough of daily reporting. After that, I always did a review when I returned home, and didn't do anymore daily reports. I never regretted doing the reports, as reading them years later, if brings back all sorts of small details that would otherwise have been forgotten. We nearly went on Cunard in 2021 and 2022, but it didn't happen, and we've gone past wanting to sail with Cunard. But I will be interested to read any after cruise report you may post.

Not the most inspiring menus today. seems heavy on the kale, too.

We did the Acapulco to Barbados cruise on good old Oceana in March 2010, for my 50th birthday. Selbourne's account and photos have evoked a lot of happy memories

I've never felt as if I got to the bottom of what P&O (and other cruise lines) did to improve air filtration on their ships. I think there may have been an assumption the hepa filters were fitted, but I can't actually find anything from P&O to confirm this. On their website, the said that air conditioning systems had been 'improved' to 'enhance' air filtration - but no mention is made of actual hepa filters. Perhaps this is something that @molecrochip would be able to clarify. However, air filtration alone isn't enough to stop airborne viruses, but there seems little appetite from the cruise companies and passengers alike to take further steps that may be more effective. I have to say, I would have taken the captain's remarks about 'not finding cleaner air anywhere', with a large pinch of salt! I'm not really involved much with cruising anymore, but I checked back from time to time to read your reports. It brought back happy memories of our 5 week cruise on Oceana in February 2016. In a different world, I would have no doubt done a similar cruise on Ventura by now. Thank you for all your efforts, and hope you feel better soon

This may be of interest to some forum members. Starting from April they are rolling out private jabs for the 'unmentionable illness', on a pay per jab basis, at a cost of £45.00 per shot https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/02/pharmacies-in-england-and-scotland-to-offer-private-covid-jabs-for-45 Hopefully the likes of Boots and the larger pharmacies will get on board with this. As I wasn't eligible for the NHS jab this winter I will probably avail myself of this service.

That's two of the reasons that I've currently got no cruises booked and no plans to book any. I'm really sorry to hear that so many forum members are ill at the moment. @Selbourne As I mentioned above, I seem to have moved away from cruising, so I'm not really active on the forum very much, but I do look in every few days to keep up with your adventures, so I really appreciate all the efforts you are making with your reporting.

When we were immigrated in at New York and New Orleans, it was done ashore, and everybody had to be 'done' before anyone was allowed back on to the ship. However, we did two legs of the 2017 Aurora World Cruise, and the first US port was Honolulu, Hawaii. I think the border force officers must have been flown out to either Fiji or Samoa, as immigration into the US was done on board on one of the sea days before we got to Honolulu.

I don’t know if anybody remembers Jo B on the P&O Ents team? She’s now working at Potters in Hopton