yorkshirephil

3 minutes ago, Bartender1 said:

This may be a cynical view but how long will it be before P&O stop selling room service alcohol or when you attempt to purchase a bottle of your favourite tipple they've run out of stock.

If the accountants get there way probably sooner rather than later, as they will look at profit and not customer satisfaction or goodwill. Someone needs to help out with the Carnival dept mountain.

5 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Out of interest I note that quite a lot of the policy change  subtly mentions a lot about responsible drinking, which with some of the behaviours and antics witnessed and reported on some cruises over the past year or so isn't really a surprise.

 

However can anyone enlighten me as to the following, please?

 

"Why are you changing the alcohol policy?

We've reviewed our alcohol policy and decided to align with the cruise industry to adhere to HESS guidelines around our responsibility to serve alcohol."

 

What are HESS guidelines, and does anyone know what they say?  I'm quite intrigued.  

 

Some info here. Being the cynic I am this is being used as cover to push people to spend a few quid more in the bars.

https://theinsider.carnivalukgroup.com/what-we-stand-for-2/hess/

1 minute ago, Bazrat said:

Totally agree about falling standards because they let me onboard 

Us peasants are revolting.

3 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

Good grief. It’s quite amazing the way some behave isn’t it!

You can bet your bottom dollar that some of these scrotes will then complain about falling standards on P&O

7 minutes ago, Lee Jones Jnr said:

WELL... P&O want to change the game IMO, they are changing where the line sits in the market by offering bargain basement cruises and then recouping via extras, sort of a little more in the MSC direction.

You are probably right, however this suits us as we don't drink a lot and very rarely use wifi so are quite happy to pay as we go.

Another day of two halves weather wise today, the forecast was for a dull cooler day, which was how it started. I risked the shorts and T shirt for our breakfast run to Barnsley and it wasn't too bad. By 13:00 the sun was out and cracking the flags. So we took advantage and built up our vitamin D content. 

4 minutes ago, Peter Lanky said:

The fact that wine is a rip off in a pub doesn't make me feel better about it. At home I unscrew the lid, pour it, and after drinking I wash the glass. Somebody else doing those 3 simple tasks for me isn't worthy of a 500% price premium.

Especially when they don't even allow you to take your own wine in😄

7 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Excellent summary, thank you. 

We never fancied Iona, too big etc, but positive reviews like yours have made us look to give it a try. 

Andy 

The big ship little ship mindset is easy to fall into, most of our early cruises were on ships of 1200 or less and we loved them. Once the facecloth and cruise forums started appearing we got the usual "don't like big ship" mentality. We then tried Indy and loved her and have cruised on several big girls since. Horses for courses. 

We will be on Iona for several weeks to the Caribbean next year and are really looking forward to giving her a try.

45 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

My husband bought a new lawnmower in the Autumn but has yet to be able to use it die to the wet. Ironically while he was away last month we had two dry days and my friend cut it for me.  At least it's nice and green albeit rather long.

 

Returning to my moan about Water Parks the latest newsletter just arrived.  Apparently the trees which can't be planted have been bought and are now being given away to charities for their use. The Environment Agency will buy new ones in the Autumn. Me being me wonders why a charity will be able to plant them and the EA/builders can't, could it be actually that they're so far behind the trees will probably die if they don't get planted? These are mature trees, I'm so delighted the taxpayer can afford to give them away and buy more.  Bad enough they've planted marginals and water plants twice already only for them to be lost in the deluge they created. Anyway I've attached the Community Newsletter in case anyone wants a laugh or is planning a trip to our City to enjoy a picnic in the car and coach parks with a lovely view of the toilet blocks with the thousands of pounds murals painted on them.

 

As you might gather I'm not in a good frame of mind today ....

Community newsletter May 2024.pdf 1.02 MB · 1 download

This is our latest brainwave, these are planters in Huddersfield town centre and are 40 feet high and cost over 1/4 of a million quid. 

52 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Hi Phil.

How is your new hip doing?.

I'm pleased you have avoided the flooding in your area.

Graham.

 

New hip is great thanks Graham, I have had no issues and don't give it any thought now as there is none of the pain I had before the op. Are you thinking of getting yours sorted?

After a long warm sunny day it has started raining, just watching the news and seeing the flooding around us we seem to have got off lightly. 

just wait until the new P&O ship (Mayflower) comes out. Dormitories for each grade plain hammocks free, coloured ones with tassels an extra tenner a day. Trestle tables in the MDR with big troughs of baked beans.

E by gum Doris can you remember the days when we had our own cabins, you could have a five ounce steak, and green beans, they had clowns and cheese wheels, you could even bring on your favourite rum for your daily measure of grog. I do Bert but it is good value when yer think about it.

Lovely day here, very warm this morning while we were sat out. We went to a 90th birthday party this afternoon, it was the landlady from my local when I was nobbut a  lad. It was a bit weird at first as everyone was eyeballing each other to try and figure out who was who. A lot of beer was drunk and a lot of reminiscing was carried out. Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.

3 hours ago, posford said:

Moley-If you sail next weekend, the change in policy is very last minute.

Fairer to change policy for those paying for cruises - say 12 weeks.

There will never be a good time for everyone, whenever a policy gets changed it will be last minute for someone. It isn't as if someone is going to cancel their cruise and lose the deposit because P&O stop them taking a litre of spirit aboard.

1 minute ago, enjoysailing said:

 

 

I agree the drinks menus have become restrictive, and although I moan inwardly I still find something to drink. I like a pre-dinner tipple in my cabin. But bottles can be ordered to the cabin, so not a complete dealbreaker, in my opinion.   

I am with you on this, I don't drink much these days but do have a couple of favourites which I usually take with me, however I will be neither devastated or sailing with another line because of a minor change. 

8 minutes ago, purplesea said:

If I remember correctly they were Tia Maria, Contreau and Grand Mariner.

As they are popular liqueur's I would expect them to have generic versions for making cocktails?

57 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

I can see both sides to this issue , however in relation to choice , a very popular whisky ran out within three weeks of our world cruise and was never replenished , despite various port stops where it could have been , and if you don’t drink gin (I don’t ) the onboard offers were very restrictive, the only other whiskey offered was top end malts which I don’t particularly like . I took onboard one bottle of my preferred whiskey and bought another whilst on board before it ran out , however with just the one drink on the balcony pre dinner it soon ran out , and I was unable to purchase any from any bars for the remainder of the cruise. If this new policy is implemented it is to be hoped the onboard stocks are sufficient to satisfy demand 

I can see both sides too, I am surprised it hasn't happened before now as I can't think of another cruise company we have used that allows a litre of spirits per person. We usually take a couple of litres of rum but I think we will muddle through. A bit like parties when I was a youth, sup the beer and spirits first, move on to the sherry and cheap Spanish wine then attack the cupboard under the sink to see if any cleaning products have alcohol in them.

10 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

There's a strange unidentified yellow object in the sky up here in Newmarket!  Strange rumblings and exclamations of excitement from the gathered ensemble in the breakfast room mixed with trepidation as to whether this could be an early sighting of the Death Star or a forewarning from the  Emperor of his latest devious plan to bestow us with hail stones and copious amounts of freezing rain.

 

The going is officially good, the forecast is for a dry and bright morning, turning to a cloudy afternoon with sunny spells with the threat of an isolated light shower. A small miracle - could it just be I might, yes really, not need that heavy duty raincoat this afternoon?

 

 

Good luck with Dutch Decoy, I have had a tenner on at 6/1 for an interest bet so good luck to me as well.

32 minutes ago, happy v said:

Last year on Britannia. I told the DJ if he looked around the room and most people had grey hair. It was safe to assume they didn't like rap. It worked for a couple of days inside. Out on deck he happily played to himself for a fortnight 

Rap has a silent C for a reason

Dullish here with rain forecast, it is quite warm.

On the eyebrow theme; Mrs YP asked me where the best place to get her eyebrows tattooed was. In typical Yorkshire fashion I replied " just above your eyes" 

There are deals out there with most cruise lines albeit not in the numbers we have seen in the last two years, it may be that they don't suit peoples needs. If we are just looking for a cruise because we fancy a break then we wouldn't be too bothered where we went and would seek out a deal whereas if it were a bucket list cruise we would book on day one to secure our cabin. It is clear that things are getting back to where they were BC when the cruise industry was still expanding. 

A day of two halves here, it was misty and cool until lunch time then the sun broke through and it is lovely and warm now. Just right for a beer while sat in the garden. 

Cracking day here, lovely and sunny all day and very warm. Sat out for breakfast then stayed out all day. I even got the shed painted. 

Happy Birthday Avril @Adawn47 and John @Grandad John hope you both have a wonderful day.