mrsgoggins

I'm so pleased that you have been reassured that you were not the target of anyone's displeasure. Count me in as one who has followed all of your planning (and trip report) posts and was delighted that you and your wife have a bargain. I've done cruises with Celebrity, Princess and P&O (2) this year, but only with the P&O Iona cruise did I experience several people sharing how little they had paid. As previously reported, one comment was.... '£50 a day, i can eat more than that'. I wasn't at all upset at the people who had got the bargains, and congratulated them on their good fortune. I was irritated at myself for having booked at launch and definitely not a bargain price and with P&O! I'm very familiar with fluid pricing, particularly with airlines, and have had more than my share of good deals over the years, being quite a savvy consumer, but I'll be very cautious with P&O should I book with them in the future. The only cruises I would now look at for launch bookings (with P&O) would be 'one off' itineraries or if I needed popular holiday times.

Me too Avril, and what a good idea 👍. Marzipan is something I always make from scratch with just a bit of brandy added. As a near non-drinker my Christmas cakes get a good slug of brandy one way or another 😁

That’s the one I use too 👍

Thank you for taking the time to write about your trip. We have not been on Arvia but have been on Iona - the cruise we enjoyed, the ship not so much! Your review has confirmed that we won't be on Arvia either, but was very interesting to read about nonetheless.

I know what you mean! We limit ourselves to one Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast per trip, because that sees you right through the day 😋😋 …. Well, more or less 😉

Any recommendations for other places you ate Graham? We always have at least one meal at Carrabba’s, a lunch at a Cheesecake Factory (the lunchtime barbecue ranch salad - my favourite - has more than 1200 calories 😱), Miller’s Ale House and like to try the occasional new place, so suggestions would be welcome. I hope you are managing to stay awake given that you flew back overnight. I really dislike the flight back; it takes me days to recover. Next year we are sailing back, yeah!

I know both resorts well Graham! I'll be heading to Vero Beach, followed by Old Key West myself before the end of the year and am booked in at the Boardwalk next year. Are you a member or just visiting? We rarely visit the parks these days (but still have non-expiring tickets) but they are lovely places just to chill IMO, and we have friends not too far away. Shame about the exchange rate though. It's a few years since we've been to the Longhorn steakhouse - looks good. You've brightened up my Sunday no end 💐

‘Thirty Bob Kid’, an autobiography written by Dave Dutton, a journalist-turned-actor, contains a few chapters on the years when he was a scriptwriter for Doddy and is quite enlightening about Ken Dodd’s relationship to money. So much so that a fellow scriptwriter to Doddy suggested they should write a book and call it ‘How tickled we weren’t’.

😁 Funnily enough, I’d only just been reading the ‘food poisoning’ (which wasn’t) saga and had just concluded I have too much time on my hands! Not strictly true though - I like to read of others’ experiences and what you are all up to, it’s much easier than doing things I’ve been putting off. Please to read your toe is in good condition again though 😂

@lincsladyand @indiana123, I too was up in the wee small hours. This time I ate a banana, took one sleeping pill (a combination pill of paracetamol and sleeping aid bought in the USA) and one paracetamol and decided to check recipes for apple cakes - as you do at 4 am 😉. I printed out the Dorset apple cake after last week’s tempting picture, but I’ve also found a Delia chunky apple cake recipe I’d been meaning to try. I may give both a go given the number of apples I have. I’ve already prepared and frozen lots of pie/crumble packs. Alas DH doesn’t care to eat any of the varieties we grow and so there is still a Tesco order for Pink Lady or Jazz etc 🙄. Today’s busy after my slow start so the cake making may be tomorrow. Also the second brandy feeding (upside down) for the Christmas cakes made on Sunday will be done. @brian1 I hope the rest of your journey back is uneventful. I was a bit jealous (again!) when I read that you were near Como, since it’s a few decades since I was there by the lake. Sigh!

Silhouette out of Southampton in August, show times 7.00 pm and 9.30 pm

That’s reassuring for me. I didn’t read your post before I did mine 😉

This is one of the reasons we have selected Cunard for a special occasion cruise next year. I don’t care for all the dressing up involved, but we are really hoping for interesting speakers. Our one and only Viking cruise had 4 excellent speakers.

Wot, no carbs? 😱

That cake looks very tempting! I'm off to take a look at the recipe as I too have lots of apples to use up this year 👍

I'm annoyed with myself for missing a half price 'Which?' Do Your Own Wills offer as I've held on to the flyer for ages! I think it's now just 30% off. Do I wait until the next offer rolls around? Maybe not. We do have Wills but they need amending. We updated our Lasting Power of Attorney documents using the Which? pack - all online with their notes and then they check it for you and return it to you before you complete it. After that jolly topic, here's a much nicer one: I've just measured out the dry fruit for the 2 Christmas cakes I am making this year. The fruits will soak in brandy until tomorrow and later I'll line the baking tins and check I have all the ingredients so I'm good to start in the morning. I love the smells that linger after the cakes have been cooked. I think we'll go out to lunch and just have a sandwich before Strictly. All in all, looking like a pleasant day. I hope you all have nice plans for the weekend, whether you are in the cool temperatures with rain @Eglesbrech or 'basking' in the sunny south east.

I have never sailed on one of P&O's smaller ships, but one of my favourite cruises was with Viking Oceans - lovely ship, good speakers, okay entertainment, excellent food etc (and yes, it does come at a price). However I won't be doing another small ship, be it Viking or Saga (just under 1000 pax from memory) simply because they are small, and I am not a good sailor! I was in the theatre on Viking when it hit rough weather, and I 'disgraced' myself. This is not the first time for me either 🤢 - I have history; Hoverspeed from Dover (aka Mr Toad's Wild ride), Isle of Man ferry and on a cargo ship! So now, it's big ship, big stabilisers, mid ship cabin, not too high and a good supply of Stugeron. Iona coped really well with a named storm when we crossed the BoB on her earlier in the year and the Captain praised how well she handled the conditions. Despite that, she didn't suit us, so will stick with the large, rather than mega-large ships in future.

I have read (I think) most of your posts and you always make some good points. However, you are very fond of sweeping generalisations IMO! For instance: Older people prefer the traditional holiday camps to young of today who want more choice and more activities - especially outside in nature Really? As an older person I've never set foot inside a holiday camp and nor have any of my friends to the best of my knowledge - well, maybe Center Parcs, but I doubt that counts. In an earlier post you gave a few so called 'Facts' and my life is too short to go through them one by one, but I doubt there is actual evidence for some of your claims. We've been independent travellers for all of our married lives and have gravitated towards cruising as an 'ages and stages' development, plus I wanted to see Alaska, Fjords, places in Spain and the Canaries etc which were never on our radar, and can now see the ease and benefits of cruising for all ages, providing you do your research and know what you are buying. My first ever cruise was on Princess (Alaska) and my next 2 were with Celebrity, and these remain my favourite 'go to' cruise lines. For me, the biggest advantage of P&O is that we can sail from Southampton without troubling an airport, where I would guess we have spent more time over the past decades than most on these boards. I should add that we have enjoyed each P&O cruise and felt we had value for money with the one exception of Iona earlier in the year, and even then we enjoyed the cruise but it wasn't the value experience you are so fond of relating and we didn't really care for the ship. Anecdotal experiences aside, I think the comment about Ant and Dec viewers being P&Os target was very interesting and probably spot on, (without being demeaning). I know many young people who would not fall into that category, I also know many young people who spend quite a bit on alcohol - I'm a non-drinker. As I said, you make many fair points, but I think you would make your case better if you were to tone down the generalisations.

I feel your pain on a restless/sleep-deprived night, as do a few of us on here by all accounts. Maybe you can catch up a bit on the journey to Gatwick, unless you are the driver of course! Enjoy Sicily and the lovely weather - I love to watch Montalbano just for the scenery and the atmosphere.

We only discovered this halfway through our last Ventura cruise and it was like a little oasis at breakfast!

I'm at the hospital, having what I hope to be my final visit since having a shoulder replacement just over a year ago 🤞. On the way home I'm calling in at the Honda dealer to arrange collection of my new car; which I expect to be the last one I ever purchase - we keep cars a long time 😉 Then it's home to batten down the hatches in preparation for the expected high winds later in the day.

Pre-Covid, I suspect that we flew more than most people, largely due to DH’s job (weekly flights and I would often join him) plus at least 2 long haul per year and yes, very occasionally flights were changed and of course we’ve experienced everything over the decades - flights cancelled at the last minute, lost luggage, changed aircraft etc. But the ones that come to mind are BA once went tech flying back from Orlando (booked PE) and they put us on a Virgin flight, also in PE. Probably the situation that is most similar to what applies here is flying to Orlando with Thomson (pre TUI name) with the family some years ago (should have been Dreamliner both ways) and shortly before, the outbound aircraft was swapped for an Air Tanker with no PE section just a few weeks before departure. Now as DH is over 6ft and our son is 6ft 7in this caused us some concern, which turned out to be without foundation, because Thomson looked after everyone who had booked PE very well. Not only did they give us back the extra fare we had paid but they allocated a large separate section at the front of the aircraft for the exclusive use of those who had booked PE - and there were lots of empty seats; our group of 4 adults and 2 young children, were able to spread out with 2 x 2 at the side plus 2 x 3 (or was it 4?) in the centre section! The seat pitch was the same as in the back but the extra seats made all the difference. As is often the case, it’s how these things are dealt with that people remember. But, had I been on one of the affected flights now, and before final payment, I would be cancelling! If we were shorter, lighter and younger, maybe not 😉

This is so true ...... I'd taken to Googling Harry's name ...... which was quite interesting in itself, but didn't help me 'hunt' him down 😁

I’ll try Morrison’s 👍. Like you we have them with breakfast (along with raspberries for 3 days a week as they don’t keep so well) I won’t be planting blueberry bushes though; I planted strawberries this year in a trough and by the time I bought plants, compost and netting, I think they worked out at £1 a strawberry!

I'm impressed that you still have blueberries Avril. None in Tesco (delivery or in store) or M&S in my bit of Lancashire. Anyone else having problems getting them?