Megabear2

If you can improve their swimming enough the turtle swim in Barbados is in warm water that's quite shallow. Everybody wears a life vest so they will float. Noodles are often provided if people are nervous. I'd say that one is okay if you can get them water confident. St Lucia - have a look at the aerial tram. It is child friendly, even infants can go and it's something a bit different. St Kitts - not the best beaches here. Maybe have a look at the train ride or train plus boat. The port area in St Kitts has lots of shops if you don't fancy an excursion. Again if you can get the kids water comfortable the stingray trip in Antigua is good. The water is only about 5 feet deep and the stingrays come to the guides. It's a bit different. La Romana has swim with dolphins which is the number one thing to do there. If I were you I'd concentrate on gettingbtye girls competent and happy in the water as most of the best things out in the islands tend to be water based. Kayak trips are very popular with families and also the boat trips, again involving snorkelling with life vests and if needed noodles. I hope that helps.

Personally I dislike the place, judgment being coloured by my friend and I being robbed of every penny we had between us travelling from the port to our hotel back when we were 18. The police response was for us to eat a large breakfast as we were b&b. There were no cards or mobiles them so we had four days wandering around looking for free things to do! I've been back twice since once with my mother when we did a coach trip after visiting Floriade. Quite an experience when some Ajax fans took her under their wing and took her to a smoking cafe to "ease her arthritis pain"! The last time was with my Austrian friend, by day we did museums and art galleries but one evening was interesting when we ended up in a live sex show in a theatre after stupidly joining the queue for what we thought was a nightclub queue.

It's the Ludlow bonus - 99.9% agree

Reading that thread it's pretty obvious that a lot of itineraries on many lines have already jumped across to Rotterdam. There are countless posts from people who have been moved across. None of the passengers seem particularly worried to be arriving elsewhere it would appear to be perfectably acceptable and no one is stressed about it. It should be noted from one of the later newslinks posted yesterday Yahoo states no time frame has been decided yet for the port closure.

I buy one in advance. https://www.easysim.global/destination/united-states-of-america/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2eilBhCCARIsAG0Pf8tlxYHLE0NvQN3-ltzbNoF8IsYoDkNghhFW9flh3BkkspmMWkc9us8aAnAGEALw_wcB Recently I actually forgot my old phone and organised a 24 hour access on my own phone with EE. That only cost me £5.00 for 500mb for the day which was ample for what I needed - I just switched off my wifi after I'd used Uber or looked up a place of interest.

You are all doing very well compared with us ...

Don't forget you can use Uber - very reliable in the US.

Most will accept the US dollar. Martinique will takes Euros, very hard to spend US$ there. Credit card will be fine - not been to La Romana but as its Dominican Republic they'll most likely want US$ as it's such a poor place. All the other islands are very tourist orientated and you'll have few problems. Tortola is the least touristy, the interior is beautiful to visit. When paying by card some islands will take money in the local dollar rather than US. That is generally a far better deal for you. If you see a price tag check it and generally there will be two prices. You'll have a wonderful trip, the islands are fab. Be careful of personal possessions and property, particularly in St Lucia.

Neil Lockwood is brilliant. He was part of ELO2 and also played with the Alan Parsons Project. You are extremely lucky to have him onboard, he's one of the best acts on P&O in recent times and his shows are always fully booked. The 710 Club is only bookable on the app. When you get to Southampton connect to the app before boarding if possible - you can use the last 6 numbers on your boarding pass to log in. Book 710 Club there and then. It will be nigh on impossible to get in if you wait, there are only 100 or so admissions per show. Your restaurants will probably go live tonight at midnight as they generally follow 24 hours after entertainment - some will most likely be full by tomorrow. Yes, if you can stay up go for it.

Not on P&O. I frequently saw my cabin steward helping in the restaurants in the evening and others were cleaning public areas. Since the pandemic cabin stewards multi task on various jobs.

The OP is nervous because of her own personal experience in May not because of "grumpiness" by others no matter how true your observation may be.

Very many thanks for the highly enjoyable diary of your voyage. I'm so pleased that you appear to have enjoyed it so much. I found your "blog" informative and amusing and very much look forward to hearing how your Iona trip goes. I recall your trepidation on reading other people's experiences so it just goes to show every cruise is different and going with no preconceptions is the only way to go. Once again thank you for taking so much time and effort to inform and entertain us.

This is not the case. Yes a lot of British of all ages visit Amsterdam land based but they most certainly do not come by cruise ship and the trouble with excess drinking, drug use and prostitution is not just the preserve of UK visitors. The article appears to trying to tie several issues into one and as a result sends false signals as to why the port will close. Amsterdam chose the path of offering drugs, sex and booze years ago and this aspect is not exclusively British. A local decision to change the profile of Amsterdam and curtail the excesses of all tourists was taken after the pandemic but the discussions about the Red Light District have been rumbling on for around 8 years due to issues of modern slave trade and in particular Eastern European gangs running them The real point the Guardian article is highlighting is a new bridge being required by the city and there will be height issues with ships.

Do we have any idea of a date or time frame? Ironically I am currently looking for an Amsterdam cruise for my OH and I.

Good news - who did you end up with?

So you make your own arrangements Scotland to Manchester and back or am I confused? That being the case I'd be tempted to look at my own transport from Scotland to Southampton as the coach journey will presumably necessitate you staying overnight in Manchester to guarantee you can make the early pick up time. Once you factor in that cost the own transport may be more economical.

Yes, exactly what happened to me, hence the £12.

I haven't been able to book anything speciality on Britannia since December 2019 apart from the Limelight. Yes, you can book Iona and Arvia in advance. I too loved Celebrity Edge but in reality you still needed to book a slot for your dinner in the speciality restaurants when we sailed on her last June and those with speciality dining packages had to make their reservations onboard much the same as on P&O. That meant no guarantee you'd get the time you wanted or even the restaurant despite having paid up front. To circumnavigate that uncertainty I have actually paid the premium for making single dining reservations with confirmed times on my next Edge and Apex cruises. In the world of cruising now all lines seem to be pursuing this booking to dine fantasy. On Cunard I encountered the app but most seemed to ignore it, current reports from Terrierjohn on his Princess cruise seem to indicate the system over there is unpopular with guests and staff but it is what we all have to live with on the major lines unfortunately. In the case of Britannia the speciality dining venues which fill up completely are Sindhu and Epicurean but reception at the restaurants is usually very good in helping with reservations and also main reception. Ironically my problem with these two restaurants was only 8.00pm plus dining available a lot of the time. I appreciate it's very easy to imagine problems as these boards in recent times have tended to dwell on them, but Selbourne's reports are in my opinion very positive and sound greatly improved on my last experience with the app on Britannia. If however it's the speciality restaurants which are your bugbear perhaps you should consider moving a day forward to the first day departure if that is a possibility?

That would be a shame. As you know my OH and I sailed Britannia Caribbean at Christmas last year. The app was operating then as well and we never found it a problem for most meals. Admittedly we do eat dinner earlier but the ship was full due to the low prices offered and there were no queues of any length. The walk ups and buzzer queues were no worse than they'd been in the five previous Christmas Caribbean cruises we had done on Britannia. Arvia, well that is a whole different ballgame and that is the reason we cancelled our P&O Christmas and moved to Celebrity. However my OH loves Britannia so we are going back to her for the January cruise. I really don't think there is any comparison between the two megaships and Britannia availability and the speciality dining situation is the same on all the fleet with the early boarders getting first choice.

Sorry! It's a huge bugbear for me. We can fight each other in the queue...

Iona has those windows together with a window seat in a lot of cases. They are very popular and sell to families as they are considerably bigger than the insides - I doubt the families will be on your cruise in vast numbers though.

Indeed that is my major gripe, particularly on cruises with two day embarkation when virtually every speciality dining slot has been taken.

Having checked the two fares you mention I see that this is indeed the Iona 11 January 2025 cruise. I notice that these are the lead figures for an early saver fare and that a select fare balcony is £6609 with £315 obc. If you take an early saver you need to be aware there are a lot of less desirable balcony cabins on deck 5, deck 8 and deck 9 which may be a disappointment. Deck 5 balconies for instance will be closed to you in rough seas, deck 8 balconies are actually on the promenade deck and you may lack privacy and deck 9 rear cabins may be affected by late night noise. If when you weigh these options up again you might want to read reviews and observations on these types of cabin to see if you would be happy with such an allocation.

If it's the Iona one in January 2025 have you considered the outside cabin? These rooms are quite a bit bigger than the insides on that ship and a lot have the benefit of a window seat. I often travel solo on long voyages and use outsides for natural light but at a reduced cost for the cruise over a balcony. Whichever cruise you are looking at a fair amount of time will be spent crossing the Atlantic and depending on time of year the weather may be inclement rendering your balcony pretty redundant on those sea days. Once you reach the hotter climates you will most likely be on deck a lot and the ports come up pretty swiftly while in the actual Caribbean so assumedly you will be ashore a lot. As Jean said £2,000 is a lot of spending money, it would probably cover a large amount of excursions on your trip. However if you feel you will spend a lot of time alone in your cabin then you may want the balcony just because of that. It's hard to say what would be more beneficial to you without knowing if you like to join in lots of onboard activities or mix with other guests a lot. If you are a solo who likes to keep yourself to yourself you may feel the balcony is best, however if you like to mix it up but are worried about natural daylight the half way option of an outside may be beneficial if its available.

I understood Norway not being in the EU one needed to check your individual provider's plan or is it automatically wrapped with the EU countries?