Megabear2

Did you go to see the offshore registration building with the plaques showing you who had investments? I found it fascinating to see they'd run out of space! The tour guide was very proud to show us Mick Jagger and Bono in particular but I was astonished at how many individuals names I recognised and the really interesting one was the Welsh village who were making a protest to the UK government. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/crickhowell-inside-the-welsh-town-that-took-itself-offshore-in-tax-protest-a6752511.html

The cost of living in the Cayman Islands is extremely high. I can recall in 2014 watching a lady in a supermarket buy a box of 10 fish fingers for a sum I calculated to be around US$15. I dread to think how much now. This website gives interesting information on cost of living for people considering relocating to live permanently, I find it very interesting to get a rough idea of basic costs when I travel. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Cayman+Islands&displayCurrency=USD

I have a completed bathroom so no need to go to the swimming pool for a shower tomorrow morning. Negotiations with Ovo re my complaint are finished as well with profuse apologies offered. An interesting insight into the state of British customer service. No doubt you are very much aware I intensely dislike receing bad service and will not hesitate to fight my corner. At the beginning of Februaty I opened a Nationwide Flex account to be able to take advantage of the travel insurance for myself and in particular my husband. I opened the account with £25.00 with a view to starting to make payments in monthly from 1 March. However during the months of December, January and February I have accumulated cheques from the various organisations where I've had big problems and ended up complaining. Because I have been unwell I have been putting them in a drawer. Following today's discussions on the plumbing issues I have been told a cheque for £250 will be winging it's way to me so I decided to take all of the cheques out of the drawer to pay them into this new account. Imagine my shock to find they add up to over £1,050 with this £250 due on top. These payments for poor service are from banks, insurance companies, retailers, telephone providers and an electrical supplier in other words lots of types of organisations. Add to this £20 Sainsburys gift card for return of out of date food and although a very nice little collection I find myself despairing at the state of customer service and the reliability of staff to carry out fairly normal and mundane things I've paid them for. On the other hand it will make a nice inroads into my required cruise deposit for Cunard on 5 March!

Is this the Barbados Immigration form you're looking to complete?

Strangely this one had developed a hole, the metal casing actually had frayed. The plumber said he's not seen one do that before as it's usually the valve that fails. Probably just typical of my luck!

There's also the new Queen Elizabety fly cruises from Miami which may take some of the people who are able to fly and are seeking the sun rather than just the cruise experience. We are looking to book on at least two of these and add on extended stays in Florida with our friends through January and February. In January 2025 we have opted for the 35 night QM2 cruise rather than our traditional P&O Christmas/New Year fly cruise with the decision made purely on the repeat P&O itinerary with no change of island calls. Although the Cunard itinerary is very much of the same ilk to the Iona offering the passenger ratio being lower on QM2 and a superior daytime activity offering on seadays made the decision quite easy.

Just for info, this is from trade magazine last year explaining Aviva's acquisition along with "buying" Barclays Home Insurance Book. Towards the end it mentions that Aviva did this deal with Nationwide in May 2023 for the travel insurance. It would appear they are in quite an acquisitive phase in their business. https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/property-insurance/aviva-announces-major-home-insurance-swoop-453638.aspx

There are many companies putting their names to travel insurance and designing their own products, however there are actually very few travel insurance underwriters. Aviva is one of these as is UK Travel and they underwrite for a large number of third parties including leading banks, big corporate companies such as M&S, John Lewis etc. The design and terms of the product belong to the headline name, in the case under discussion this is Nationwide but it could just as easily be M&S or another company. It is confusing but none of these products are actually the underwriters policies. Even more confusing the Aviva insurance arm and the Aviva underwriting arm are actually two different entities. However your contract of insurance is issued and owned by Nationwide, hence your monthly fee, but managed on their behalf by UK Travel/Aviva on their behalf. These are the details for the presently in place Nationwide insurance as provided by them on their website. It clearly shows UK Insurance Limited is the Underwriter not the Provider. "U K Insurance Limited Nationwide FlexAccount Travel Cover is underwritten by U K Insurance Limited who are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority."

The plumber came and we are no longer in a comedy farce. Thankfully this one knew what he was doing. Stopcock loosened and operational in 10 minutes and the leak under the bath sourced and a solution offered. Basically it is a hole in the extendable stretch pipe to the hot tap. He worked for 20 minutes and removed it and is going to come back tomorrow at 9.00am with a new one and fit it. He was aghast the previous one claimed it couldn't be repaired and said although fiddly it's quite simple so with today and tomorrow no more than 90 minutes work. He has told me of Ovo refuse to cover the bill it will be no more than £150 for his work, the part and resealing the bath. A great relief to have someone who knows what they're doing and actually care. Tomorrow a follow up conversation with Ovo complaints manager looms ...

Please remember it is not Aviva you are insuring with, it is Nationwide and they will be "buying in" underwriting from Aviva not selling their policies. This means Nationwide will have effectively "shopped" the underwriting market to find a provider matching as near as possible their current offering or what they wish to offer under a new contract. This will then have been adjusted and negotiated between the parties before Nationwide "bought" their package to offer to their customers. The Nationwide offering has for very many years been a big selling point to their customers so they won't want to cause too much discontent amongst them however the underwriting market has changed massively since the pandemic with many leaving it (as UK Insurance have chosen to do). A large number of these packaged bank accounts in particular have had to look elsewhere - Halifax/Lloyds losing AXA in November 2021 and moving to Allianz for example. Although your policy is underwritten by Aviva it will still be Nationwide setting the terms. Aviva will, however, be responsible for setting the underwriting for things like medical issues with Nationwide having little say in the policy costs. It is almost inevitable there will be some increase in the cost of these but it is not just an Aviva/Nstionwide but across the whole insurance market in some cases as much as 40% but averaging 20%. Things like the 85 year cut off with Aviva may not apply to the Nationwide one - presumably the age add on people used to buy covered people beyond that age (I have no personal experience of this so assume it to be the case). As Nationwide state you no longer need an age addition it may be that they have negotiated this with Aviva - Nationwide should be able to explain this even before the Aviva policies go live as someone in their organisation will have negotiated the policy and terms. Again with the cruise add on being cruise by cruise instead of one add on, it will have been a policy decision by Nationwide not Aviva. At a guess I would say that over the past few years payouts on this section will have greatly increased and it will have been a commercial decision based on this. I've looked at the new policy as I'm approaching my 70th and my current insurer won't insure me from September and I intend to swap as the benefits look very good even under Aviva. Hope that helps.

Pole dancing??

For thr Key West stop you were the only ship due that day. However the next day's calls by a Virgin and RC ship were both cancelled with the RC ship going to Miami and Virgin staying at sea. In no way defending P&O but there was a very high rip tide warning for the whole southern Florida coast for the entire week and knowing the entire Keys area and Miami to Palm Beach when these run they are extremely strong. Regardless of the purported £29,000 tug offer P&O/Carnival understandably may be being more cautious after last year's Britannia and Queen Mary 2 line breaking incidents. The Britannia incident in particular drew a lot of publicity and no doubt they wish to avoid any unnecessary problems.

The whole systems, no matter what or whom, seem to have gone into complete failure. It's no wonder we keep reading about the number of people sick due to mental issues and stress. Even the simplest thing seems to lead to huge problems and anguish. I do hope it all gets sorted for you soon. Yes, I agree chocolate is an excellent idea and blow the consequences!

Thank you. I actually feel better just writing the above rant! I truthfully think if I wrote a book no one would believe it as my life is like one giant fairytale at the moment.

More tales of woe all round here! On Monday I had a quick shower before getting ready for the doctors. Got out to puddles of water and thought crikey you've been a bit messy girl. Mopped it up and started to leave the room then realised more water is appearing at a rapid rate. Investigation and the water is hot, very hot! I then realised I could hear water still running. I'm now paddling in it, no sign of stopping it. Go to the stopcock which is also in the bathroom total panic when it fails to turn in any direction. There I stand dripping wet wrapped in a towel and alone in the house thinking the end is nigh. I tried the bath taps - the shower is over the bath - and realised this stopped the flow out from underneath significantly not completely but enough to buy me time to get out our emergency plumbing policy with Ovo and send for help. Guy listens to the problem says I'll put out an emergency call and plumber will be witn you in an hour. Great ... call the doctor to say can't make 10.10 and they rearranged for 15.10 there's me thinking it will all be over. No plumber appears in the hour, I've now used every towel and sheet in the house holding back the tide and am frantically trying every local plumber's number for help, of course none available as out on jobs. Two hours pass, I'm now trying to use a wrench to turn off the stopcock but nothing turns. I ring my OH who's out at a clients office some hour and a half away in desperation and ask him to come home. He arrives back at 1.20pm tries the stopcock and agrees its solid. The bathroom, our only one is tiny so having taken the bath panel off he tries to lie flat (actually impossible) to find a screw to disconnect the taps under the bath. Reaching in he bangs his head very hard and we then have him laying there stunned with blood gushing out from his head but he tells me he has found the screw and to get him a flatheaded screwdriver from the kitchen which thankfully I find instantly and he is able to turn the water off. Now we have to get him out and up - I've mentioned before he has chronic fibromyalgia and a major heart condition so manouevre ability is not good at the best of times - which on this occasion turns out to be no mean feat with a slippery flooded floor, very limited space and blood running down under his glasses so he cannot see. Thankfully I get him out after 10 minutes of trying and am able to tend to the wound at least. Back to the telephone and Ovo for the missing plumber. 2.20pm ahh yes we have your "claim", I will put the call out. What? The call out was for an urgent stopcock and major leak. Errr yes I'm afraid it's a training issue the adviser didn't put it as urgent. Cue light blue touchpaper, Megabear in full best furious argument mode! Whilst demanding urgent action Mr Megabear receives a text, Ovo plumber will arrive between 4.00pm and 8.00pm. Lots more furious discussion ensues. I let Mr Megabear take over the conversation and leave for the doctors. Arrive home an hour later to find Mr Megabear still discussing the merits or not of an Ovo emergency insurance policy - apparently they'd called him back three times but no plumber in sight. Plumber eventually makes contact 5.20pm. He's in Somerset and at least an hour and thirty minutes away. I ask about the stopcock as he mentions he has to isolate a leak nothing more. Absolutely adamant he isn't doing anything except stopping the leak which of course was already done. Turns up at 6.45pm, looks under the bath, not covered under the policy, photograph it, gone. Total times 4 minutes, not looked at the stopcock, zilch. More irate calls to Ovo, an acceptance they've done it all wrong new plumber will be there between 9.00am and 1.00pm Tuesday, text received to confirm. Will confirm 1 hour window Tuesday ... yeh right, ha ha. 1.00pm Tuesday new text received: we have booked your plumber for Wednesday pm between 1.00pm and 6.00pm .... Meantime Mr Megabear goes to the doctor Tuesday morning to be told he's got a mild concussion, all of his vital signs are raised and he's actually now quite unwell with urgent change of medication etc required. Customer service calls 5.00pm on Tuesday, sorry we know we've cocked up ...

I'm certainly not taking issue with your opinions and apologise if you believe that to be the case. I think we both broadly agree if you book you should turn up or cancel. The difference of opinion you expressed was actually with someone else not me and my reply to you was because I thought you believed those who cancelled to free up reservations lost their money which they don't.

If we had purchased 12 bottles individually it would have cost £564. The 12 bottle package was £334 so an excellent saving.

Assumedly when you wanted a reservation at a select restaurant while onboard if no availability when enquiring you were asked if you wanted to join any waiting lists, either with the restaurant or reception? Certainly on cruises in recent times that has been the case in my experience. I assume when you say going from restaurant to restaurant you are saying you did this as you were hoping for a cancellation other than joining the waitlist? Leaving my own case out of this as it is rather unique those that cancel even outside of the 24 hours do get their money refunded, they don't lose it. They are then "fined" £10pp including it appears the Besch House where it exceeds the cost of their original booking. Because of the demand you rightly describe other guests on the wait list are offered the reservations in the order they went on the list. When they accept they are charged for the reservation. At this point P&O are not out of pocket for anything but have acquired an extra £20 for that seat. The "selfish" people you refer to who don't turn up or advise in advance do lose their money and get fined as well, however those trying to do the right thing and ensure those on the waiting list do get an offer or if no waiting list then the vacancy goes back to the restaurant or via the app are also punished and P&O make an extra profit for the people trying to do the right thing, ie stopping you hiking around the ship as you put it. Actually in my conversation it was mentioned to me that there are actually minimal reservations across the whole fleet which are not reallocated almost at the point of a cancellation and this is intentional to stop people being disappointed and turning up hopefully at restaurants looking for the odd last minute no show of which apparently there are now very few. Prior to 2019 there was apparently far less demand for extra pay venues - again not from me but in general conversation with P&O - and with the increase in demand they wanted to ensure a bottom on every seat available to sell.

Hmm ... so I'm under the ship's doctor, confined for 24 hours then sick for the remainder of the cruise under P&OS care and they can't use discretion? As I said I was too ill to argue the case and didn't give a damn. Whatever picture is painted if the reservation is resold regardless of the less than 24 hour cancellation P&O are not losing any money and are actually gaining from someone's misfortune by fining them. Obviously if someone just doesn't turn up or they can't resell the reservation then the "fine" is reasonable. My point is the "fine" when the reservation is resold and filled by someone else is a nice way for P&O to increase revenue. Incidentally this is a quote from an email sent to me two days ago by P&O customer care in Southampton: "I am also sorry to note the issue you had regarding your reservation at the limelight club, I understand that due to the circumstances you would not have been able to cancel within the time-frame usually given, therefore I would expect that discretion would be used on a case by case basis".

Yes it did seem steep. It is this one as quoted from the Commodore package. Villa Maria ‘Seaspray’ Sauvignon Blanc New Zealand | Crisp and Refreshing Expect lively acidity and flavours of kaffir lime, capsicum and fresh herbs, plus a distinctive briny seashell character. Our waiter actually encouraged us to choose this one as it was the dearest on the menu, others hovered around the £30 mark.

This might help. Anything with a "C" is available. There are other wines etc which do not appear on these menus, including some expensive ones at around £16-£17 for a 250ml glass. Strangely one of those was a Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand which was on our Commodore wine package yet on the MDR menu for £47 a bottle and £16.50 for a 250ml glass in the Atrium bars. My-holiday-menus.pdf

As I said I didn't say anything about the charge personally, I am merely adding to the overall conversation about charging when a seat is resold. As it happens it cost us nothing as we had a very large amount of OBC which P&O were able to not pay out. All of our booked from home cancellations were refunded back to our credit card so we are not out of pocket. However it does remain that the dining cancellation charge when a reservation is resold means that P&O are making a profit above and beyond the sale price of a booking. Our upfront reservations which were refunded were replaced by a new booking charged at the on sale price that day. Therefore P&O were not in any way out of pocket by our cancellation at 8.30am when I was advised not to leave the room for 24 hours. Contrast this with excursions who immediately they were informed cancelled our trips, refunded the money and made no cancellation charge due to it being a medical situation. I am aware they too resold the trip which was sold out. Regarding those who just don't turn up, they are quite rightly automatically charged the £10pp. The P&O lady who rang to check on my well being actually stated that she was disappointed reception did not use their discretion to waive the late cancellation fee as they were aware I was unwell rather than just cancelling because I didn't want to go. She also mentioned my husband was unfortunate in telling reception when the honeymoon couple he spoke with were told he couldn't give them our reservation. She actually suggested he should have just told them to quote our cabin number on entry and arrange an under the counter financial transfer between them! I can confirm we actually left over £400 obc on our account when we left the ship as it was of little relevance to us and we chose to write it off as my health situation was more important. My insurer has been outstanding with no dramas and immediate pay out. As a result we have not lost a penny. Thank you for your good wishes on my health. I am still under my GP and apparently my cough/sore throat is now being treated as something called "the 100 day cough". I do this week thankfully finally feel better and have some appetite back.

To clarify we did receive our refund for the booking made from home. The "fine" was due to the less than 24 hours rule. My comment to the lady who called me - not someone I know or have dealt with previously - was made as it seemed like a pretty good earner for P&O as effectively the penalty charge was giving them a bonus payment as the "seats" were resold so to speak. P&O received my £20 for two people and then resold the seats at £50 to the replacement couple thereby actually receiving £35.00pp for the table instead of £25.00. Seemed a pretty good return for P&O to me. No complaint or discussion occurred on the ship save my husband saying he hoped that the lack of notification to waiting list guests would occur before 4.00pm as having been disappointed on previous cruises with being unable to book speciality dining he knew how frustrating it was to miss out. At the time I was too unwell to deal with anything myself so have no idea whether notification to the waiting list guests was done by reception or by The Limelight Club. I do know my husband was a little upset that he was told he could not just give the reservation to the couple who were enquiring at the same time he was cancelling as he told me he got the general impression reception were told to place emphasis on the fact we would be charged.

Yes, exactly what we thought which is why I asked about the policy when they called me. At the time I was just hopeful someone else would be able to go as it was sold out the whole trip. The "fine" was applied to our OBC so i didn't query it as at that point i was too unwell to worry about such trvia. Strangely the excursion team were well within their right to charge for cancellation and yet they did not.

Non alcoholic beers are made using identical brewing process and then the alcohol is removed. This actually makes them considerably more expensive to make with the result publican (and assumedly cruise companies) can actually make very high profits on them. Diageo said the following in August 2023: "The alcohol-free and low-alcohol category was worth £255m in 2022, according to Mintel1 and it is now estimated around 40% of GB adults are trying to moderate their alcohol consumption, with the behaviour more prevalent among 18-24 year olds". I'd guess that's a pretty lucrative market P&O should be catering for.