P&O SUE

I’m so pleased you’re home now. How many nights did you have to stay in the hotel?

Hope your house is ok, have a lovely cruise.

It was terrible wasn’t it! We were at Hempstead Valley getting some shopping for my parents and we could see it gushing down the glass roof bit near M&S like a waterfall! When we got to their flat their car park was partially flooded! Crazy weather.

Have a lovely time, yes please to photos!

Evening all. I’ve been in the office today and then over to the parents this afternoon. This means I’ve just had a little nap on the settee! It’s a bit late for a nap, I hope I sleep ok, I’ve had some awful sleeps lately but with the long weekend forced myself to have little naps earlier in the day! Mum is looking rather tired and not her normal self. All very worrying. Also nipped to our local railway station to see if there were any ticket office staff about to see how we can get some train tickets in a couple of weeks. There wasn’t but there was a very helpful chap who showed us how to use the machines (we’re not tech phobes but have had trouble with the machines there before and given up!) I have got tickets online for the major part of the journey but I tend to just buy local tickets for the first part of the journey to London.

Good to see you back Sharon, I hope you continue to improve, what a long recovery you’re having.

I’m enjoying your report, happy memories of our cruise to Amsterdam in June. Loved the transit through the canal in the daylight, previously we have arrived overnight and woken up to find us docked. Your picture reminded me that lots of people in the office could be seen at the windows taking photos of us with their phones! Enjoy the rest of your trip.

I think when passengers were first being asked no one would have known about the air traffic control problems. It was August bank holiday so everywhere full and from the first reports I heard it appeared they were being flown straight home they wouldn’t have expected to stay one night let alone two and certainly not in an unsuitable hotel. I feel very sorry for them as they probably thought they were flying straight home. No way I would have volunteered, i have a fear of flying. I expect we’ll find out soon enough how their hotel experience was.

Just seen a positive post of some pax enjoying celebration night as they sail off!

Afternoon, John is off today (he was working all weekend) I was hoping for a trip out somewhere but we couldn’t decide where to go so we popped to Mum and Dad’s and did a few things for them then just went to a local pub and had some lunch. Nice food but a very long wait. It was very dark inside and there was a garden but the sun was going in and out. We decided to take our coffee outside as the sun was out and that was very pleasant.

Where are you actually staying? Bowness is the main town on Windermere so I don’t think it matters which route you take really. We travelled from Lakeside as our apartment was near there and Bowness itself was hard to park in some days. This was July though and most people were holidaying in the UK so it hopefully won’t be so busy when you go. We were so lucky with the weather and it was my favourite day of the week.

We stayed near Windermere in 2021 the main place was Bowness but it’s very very busy and we had trouble parking there some days. We were staying near a stop called Lakeside so we decided to do the cruise to Bowness and back. That worked well but I wished we’d stayed longer because everyone starting queuing about half hour before the boat back 😂 This was still covid times so we had to book the boats in advance, I would have liked to stay longer. I would think you don’t need to book now. Years ago I think we stopped at Ambleside but I can’t remember much about it!

I hate flying which is why I cruise! If I had to in this circumstance I could but I’d be incredibly stressed and hope there would be enough volunteers!

Re Aurora I will be onboard for the first time next March, I’m only doing short cruises at the moment. We should have gone on her in 2014 but it was cancelled due to the big refit when she had the flag painted on the bow. Looking forward to finally getting onboard!

So sorry you had to go through that. It’s great to be I dependent but sometimes they don’t help themselves. They made that generation tough (my parents born in the 30’s) In the last 5 years my Mum has survived stomach cancer and a stay in hospital last year when they said don’t expect her to come out!

Yay, you’ve got your sea legs 😊😊

Indeed I always think a week is good for a first one. We’ve been on a few 4 night ones, no problems. We did have a pretty busy 3 night one on Britannia last Easter but it was the Easter weekend and we had a balcony so we’re happy to sit there rather than fight for space on deck!

It’s all very odd this illness. Perhaps you did have it but for some reason it didn’t show up! 🤷‍♀️ My son’s partner had it two weeks ago but she knew no one else who had it including my son and grandson! She wondered if she got it from the cinema but again no one else had it, all very strange. Hope you all recover soon.

Thankyou again from me, just caught up with your last posts. I’m pleased you enjoyed Ventura. The first time we cruised on her was ironically to the ports you’re going to on Britannia next time. How I wished we could have afforded a balcony then as it was so cold everyone sat by the windows and we couldn’t get a window seat anywhere leaving the ports! We would be up on deck to watch us leave port but then go inside quite quickly but obviously everyone else had bagged their seat at least half hour before! Our best sail out was a window seat at the Beach House sailing out of Olden. Sorry you got ill, it’s strange I hadn’t heard anyone had it for ages and suddenly I’m hearing it quite a lot.

I will look them up later!

They are new to me! I’m going to look up the others recommended on the page before, I do like a YT video now I can watch them on my tv! 😃

I’ve just caught up with the rest of your blog Damian, brilliant as always and hasn’t Kyle grown! Thought it was lovely how much time he spent with his Auntie. Looking forward to your MSC vlog, my friend went on one this year and hated it but it was a 3 night cruise and had loads of parties onboard! Re vloggers, I like Jamie too and Paul and Carole are very good as well.

I don’t blame you, Selbourne, for being a bit worried about disembarking a few days before, which is a real shame as that’s half your cruise! We always do self disembarking now (I know it’s not an option for you) and we use the buffet for breakfast and get back to our cabin for 8am! Even then we find it stressful getting a lift because more and more people seem to do self disembarking now. The very first time we did it was on a 12 night cruise so we had quite a bit of luggage and I was worrying a bit for a few days before! I’m looking forward to your final thoughts. Some a shame about the lift situation, obviously now I take my mum places I understand more the stresses having to use the lifts but I can’t believe the bad behaviour you’ve encountered on your cruise. I keep wondering about trying Iona but I’m not sure we’d like it .

It’s been a very long time though …

I know I haven’t caught up on all the thread but is Wowzz still missing? 🙁