soobs

If they offered either free or pay reasonable amount for mini bar that may appease some an example would be 2 small bottles of wine per day 2 cans lager and 2 bottles of spirits and mixer each day and of your choice. I would happily pay a nominal amount for this each day

Well just to clear up and reassure the person who very quickly judged me and assumed the bottles of gin I drink on board were litre bottles!!!

One of my holiday treats is to try new gins that I haven't tried before, I also collect the bottles, a lot of them are not even 70cl bottles!!!!! at count I have 30 different empty gin bottles on a shelf in my garage they look really good,

I know the gin you can buy on board is very reasonably priced until recently I thought if you purchased on board you din't get it until the end of the cruise but now understand.

I didn't say occasional drink I would say on an average day I have 3/4 gin and tonic's in the cabin/balcony this includes my night cap, we enjoy sitting playing cards or Rummikub on the balcony whist enjoying a drink!! hope this reassures the person who appears to be concerned about the volume of alcohol I consume. I buy my tonic on board and at dinner enjoy a nice (not low end) bottle of wine so I don't think I am abusing P & O's goodwill or making others suffer.

Has anyone seen any first hand evidence that P & O are policing the only one bottle of alcohol PP at embarkation only? For room use only I usually go through 3 bottles of gin on a 2 week cruise and my OH does the same with his whiskey so we used to top up in ports like St Maarten where is is a bargain this always subsidised what we bought on board in the bars and wine at dinner. Our bar bill is always in excess of £600 so P & O are getting a fair amount of money off me and I leave the auto gratuity on and tip where I have had an above expectation service.

Turn down my bed at night and leave me a chocolate, leave me ice and lemon for my G & T and greet me with a nice smile and hello makes my day

We tip and also leave the auto charge on our final bill and really the cabin steward get an easy time with us, we make the bed in a morning before going to breakfast unless it's changing day, we clean the bathroom apart from the loo when we have been in it and are tidy and everything is away in draws so easy to just wipe down, it has often been commented on by the cabin steward but we still leave a small tip. We are easily pleased in the dining room so again not too much trouble for the waiters we don't tip as we are freedom dining and rarely get the same waiter we have on occasions come across an excellent waiter so my OH always carries a fiver just in case

Do wish people wouldn't cancel auto tips as it just pushes the price up for those who don't

I too am waiting with interest about the Caribbean cruises for me it was a real bonus I loved a G & T on the balcony at all different times of the day. Not sure if we are doing our usual pre Xmas cruise this year last year we did a couple of land based Caribbean hols and really missed the ship so wont be doing that again.

I do like a drink but don't like fitting it into a specific time like to spread it out across the day. Our bar bill is usually £700 plus so we do use the bars so I am not the happiest with this little perk being taken away.

Tartanexile81 thank you for your advise we were thinking of Britannia because James Martin was on board we avoid Britannia if we can prefer the smaller ships and love Azura who we have cruised the Caribbean many many times on, we have never done a TA but have been tempted ideally we would like to do a TA but fit in Madeira which is on our bucket list.

promising I go from yes lets go to no lets not going to take another look at availability

thank you

thank you all for your replies we have decided to leave the March cruise I will have to live not meeting Jame M and do our usual pre-Xmas Caribbean cruise with less sea days the balcony rooms we can afford the balcony's are not big enough for sunbathing lovely to sit and watch the world go by though

Thank you Chrisbha think that has done it for me a TA back from the Caribbean has a lot of sea days and fighting for a bed is not my cup of tea

will look for other options as much as I would like to meet James M

Can anyone let me know what the entertainment has been showing this season we missed our pre-Xmas cruise this year so just interested in what has been going on

Well that looks really positive was it a sea day? looking like March cruise may be back on the agenda!!

It looks like it is still a problem finding a sunbed unless you get up at silly o'clock so not sure Britannia is for me

thank you for your replies

We sailed the Caribbean on Britannia on her maiden season and the towels on sunbeds at dawn and the squabbling about sunbeds was really not very good at all, since then we have have stuck to the Azura where we find it a lot better (still a bit of an issue if you are not an early riser though) Anyway my question is has it improved at all as I am thinking of the TA back to Southampton with James M on board.

Not up to much we have just done Barbados in and out and then Tobago in and out same films on both and not much choice but food better the TUI

I would go for a shear sparkly wrap no colour so no clash mine is the most used shawl I have because it doesn't clash with anything other than looks grubby next to my white evening dress so never use it then

Hope this helps the material is a voile type material which I bought from John Lewis and made into a shawl. A sewing shop would hem for a few quid I am sure.

Hi we have done the Caribbean a fair few times always in and out of Barbados we have never done the farewell trip for a few reasons:

We like the last day on board as everyone else is off ship so it's nice a quiet

If the flight is delayed they keep you on board until they know the flight has arrived or is going to arrive shortly

The farewell trip drops you at the airport so if there is a delay you are stuck at the airport and it's not the most comfortable of airports quite small and nothing to do or see

Hope this helps

Florry she's beautiful looks very regal, we have 2 border terriers one is excellently behaved the other is a little menace but we love them both dearly and it is difficult leaving them we have just arrived back from 11 nights in the Maldives to have 2 dogs glued to our sides at the moment.

For peace of mind I would suffer the coach.

Buy shampoo and conditioners or any hair products in Southampton that saves a bit of weight, if you are a reader use a kindle not books. Don't take hair drier use P & O's they are okay and I've got very long hair.

I always take a laptop bag (with laptop and i pads) and slip something heavyish in. I also take hand luggage up to my limit and my handbag which is always a bit heavy with the odd thing or 2 that saves a bit of weight in the main luggage.

Hope this helps I you have any hair products left over I give them to the room steward or stewardess they are always very grateful

We've done Caribbean cruises on Azura, Ventura and Britannia usually go in December but have done a few March - anyway the latest we have left port apart from Barbados was 7 pm and it was always all aboard 5.30 at the latest. One exception last year in New Orleans but that was different.

On our last Caribbean trip on Azura while waiting to check in I saw a couple with a very large bag which I guessed was a wedding dress my guess was confirmed when I saw the lady in the contents of the bag a rather large meringue type wedding dress (she did look very nice) not sure how she transported can only assume on the plane - maybe she paid more for it or got special treatment because she was getting married worth checking with the airline or P & O.

TC are much better the TOM IMO the food is better and so are the crew, we always ask for TC on our annual jaunt around the Caribbean just before Xmas don't always get it like last year flights were TOM and the outbound was really not good at all. The crew were constantly making announcements touting for business and giving us useless information in fact the couple sat next to me had a 3am start from Bristol to Manchester (no flights from Gatwick left) they wanted a snooze on the plance every time they dozed off another announcement came on it was a real over kill. The flight back from New Orleans was really good though one of the best return flights we have done a much better leaving time 14.30 than 17.30. So TC every time for us.

brilliant I have really enjoyed your travels thought may be I had a computer blip

I've really been enjoying the blog but it's stopped in St Lucia is it my PC that's not picking up?