OMG - What have I done?

[terrierjohn]

18 minutes ago, nosapphire said:

Perfectly safe to turn the water off if you want to - won't affect the heating side at all, as this is a sealed system, water does not enter (or need to enter) unless you manually turn on the filling loop - which normally is only done when the system has been drained for work, extra radiators, etc..

We have had a combi for years, and usually turn off the water but leave the heating on low if we go away in winter (have to leave the water on in summer so neighbour can water the plants).

 

 

 

Am I imagining this or does my combi boiler not keep switching on for short periods, especially noticeable in the summer when the heating is off, which I assume is to maintain the reservoir of hot water ready for instant use, and will this not dry out if the mains water is off?

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

Am I imagining this or does my combi boiler not keep switching on for short periods, especially noticeable in the summer when the heating is off, which I assume is to maintain the reservoir of hot water ready for instant use, and will this not dry out if the mains water is off?

That is a pre-heat setting that Combi boilers have. I turn that feature off as I’m tight fisted 😂 

[TigerB]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That is a pre-heat setting that Combi boilers have. I turn that feature off as I’m tight fisted 😂 

 

I didn't know you could turn that off. Right, I'm on it now! #Yorkshire😉

[zap99]

On 10/20/2023 at 8:19 AM, Selbourne said:

That’s interesting John. Sadly, whilst my current provider (GiffGaff) is absolutely brilliant within the EU and many other European countries (as usage there is at no extra cost whatsoever), they don’t appear to have a roaming passport. There are just (expensive) fees per country. When we did our USA and Canada cruise some years ago we managed to get free WiFi very easily in every port. I suspect that might be more challenging in the Caribbean and Central America.

It's really nice to see you getting excited about your cruising again. This one looks special, so a live report with lots of pictures would be much appreciate. Enjoy and I look forward to you sharing it with us.

[happy v]

I knew I had read this but have just checked to make sure. There is an integral frost protection and the unit will turn on if the temperature falls below 5°c. Even when it is turned off 

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

It's really nice to see you getting excited about your cruising again. This one looks special, so a live report with lots of pictures would be much appreciate. Enjoy and I look forward to you sharing it with us.

Thank you. Much appreciated. Like many people, we had some reservations having read all the comments about the post Covid cruise experience, but our two P&O cruises so far this year have reassured us that we can still enjoy it. Most of the widely reported cutbacks didn’t affect us, and those that did we mostly found workarounds for. We are reverting to fixed dining on Ventura next week, for the first time since Freedom was introduced, following some of the challenges that we had with Freedom on Britannia. Hope we don’t regret it, as we subsequently had no issues with Freedom dining on Iona! Good that we have a choice though. As you often say, we won’t go hungry 😂 

 

I will endeavour to do a ‘Live from’, especially as it will give me something to do on sea days, which I sometimes struggle with. I’m too mean to pay P&Os internet prices for the whole cruise, but I’m planning on following the excellent tip of buying the odd 24 hours pm to pm to give some coverage over 2 sea days. 

[Selbourne]

7 minutes ago, happy v said:

I knew I had read this but have just checked to make sure. There is an integral frost protection and the unit will turn on if the temperature falls below 5°c. Even when it is turned off 

We had a new Combi boiler installed at the end of last year, and when I switched it to ‘hot water only’ for the warmer months this year I noticed that it had a default frost protection setting. I think ours is 7 degrees. I’m thinking that I might leave the heating on 10 degrees at night (as we do when in the house, as I don’t like the heating coming whilst we are sleeping) and maybe 12 degrees during the daytime. Hopefully that should be enough to keep potential problems at bay!

[P&O SUE]

On 10/13/2023 at 8:10 PM, Selbourne said:

Now I hadn’t considered the ‘Live From’ 🤣. I might spare you all from that one, although I do get very bored on sea days and there’s plenty of them 🤔😂

I saw your second thread before I saw this one and the ‘live from’ was my first thought!! 😁

[Harry Peterson]

First, congratulations on what’s very clearly a stunning bargain on a fascinating cruise.  I’d be equally chuffed, equally excited, and I’m delighted you found it. We picked up a bargain Penthouse Suite on Azura once post-Costa Concordia at a fraction of the normal price and couldn’t believe it either!

 

We’ve never done long cruises like yours, though I can certainly see the appeal. You and I both dislike sea days for the same reasons I think - nothing like enough to keep the mind stimulated and prevent boredom setting in. 
 

I’m pretty sure you’ll be doing this anyway, but just in case not, do make sure you have Amazon Kindles with you. Absolutely invaluable on all our cruises - even when they were so unusual that they attracted funny looks! Limitless reading matter for those dull moments between exciting bits.

[jh1809]

3 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

First, congratulations on what’s very clearly a stunning bargain on a fascinating cruise.  I’d be equally chuffed, equally excited, and I’m delighted you found it. We picked up a bargain Penthouse Suite on Azura once post-Costa Concordia at a fraction of the normal price and couldn’t believe it either!

 

We’ve never done long cruises like yours, though I can certainly see the appeal. You and I both dislike sea days for the same reasons I think - nothing like enough to keep the mind stimulated and prevent boredom setting in. 
 

I’m pretty sure you’ll be doing this anyway, but just in case not, do make sure you have Amazon Kindles with you. Absolutely invaluable on all our cruises - even when they were so unusual that they attracted funny looks! Limitless reading matter for those dull moments between exciting bits.

Agreed, or if you have an Android laptop or phone you can download a Kindle app for it (and if you also have a Kindle device you can sync with it, so that any content on one you can read on the other).

[Winifred 22]

1 minute ago, jh1809 said:

Agreed, or if you have an Android laptop or phone you can download a Kindle app for it (and if you also have a Kindle device you can sync with it, so that any content on one you can read on the other).

You can download to  iPhone or iPad as well . 

[terrierjohn]

Just as an addendum to the flex plus account for travel insurance, money supermarket reports to me monthly on any credit rating change  and this month mine has gone down, the reasons are my new bank account, and the fact that my credit balance has increased.

Now maybe I can understand that a new bank account could possibly be a cause for concern, even when its saving me thousands on travel insurance.  However since my balance is paid off in full every month, and has been ever since my first credit card going on for 40 years ago, then I would expect my credit rating to remain unchanged unless and until I fail to pay it off in full.

I do wonder what sort of an impact a genuine financial crisis in my affairs might have on my credit rating.

[Selbourne]

10 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Just as an addendum to the flex plus account for travel insurance, money supermarket reports to me monthly on any credit rating change  and this month mine has gone down, the reasons are my new bank account, and the fact that my credit balance has increased.

Now maybe I can understand that a new bank account could possibly be a cause for concern, even when its saving me thousands on travel insurance.  However since my balance is paid off in full every month, and has been ever since my first credit card going on for 40 years ago, then I would expect my credit rating to remain unchanged unless and until I fail to pay it off in full.

I do wonder what sort of an impact a genuine financial crisis in my affairs might have on my credit rating.

Interesting. Just checked mine and it’s also dropped, but because I have used over 50% of my credit card limit by paying for our 65 night cruise. Suspect it will jump back up again in a month because, like you,  I pay off in full monthly. 

[Selbourne]

Seeing as how this thread has been resurrected, I was surprised to see that our long cruise on Aurora is now sold out unless, that is, someone wants a suite at a bargain £68k 😱😂

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Interesting. Just checked mine and it’s also dropped, but because I have used over 50% of my credit card limit by paying for our 65 night cruise. Suspect it will jump back up again in a month because, like you,  I pay off in full monthly. 

I must admit. I haven't got a clue what my credit rating is. Is it just me that doesn't care ?. Should I ?

[yorkshirephil]

24 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I must admit. I haven't got a clue what my credit rating is. Is it just me that doesn't care ?. Should I ?

Me neither, however we have just opened a joint Nationwide account to take advantage of the insurance, mine was open almost instantly whereas Mrs YP's took several days and we got an email saying that they were checking into her credit.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

I must admit. I haven't got a clue what my credit rating is. Is it just me that doesn't care ?. Should I ?

I dont really care,but some of the decisions it makes does make me wonder why any business would want to rely on this data before providing someone with credit.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

I must admit. I haven't got a clue what my credit rating is. Is it just me that doesn't care ?. Should I ?

Not really. The only reason that I know mine is because my bank informs me of my revised rating every month as part of their normal service. It’s only really relevant to those seeking finance for mortgages, loans etc where a low rating may be problematic. I suppose that it’s mildly interesting to see how certain things affect it, but it doesn’t really make a blind bit of difference in the scheme of things for those without loans. 
 

One thing that was interesting was that one of my pension providers was subjected to a data breach, and paid for members to have high level advanced credit and security monitoring. I discovered that there was an address associated with me that I had never lived at (or even visited) so I was able to get that ‘association’ removed. It was also interesting to see what information is retained about you. 
 

 

[zap99]

 It

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

Me neither, however we have just opened a joint Nationwide account to take advantage of the insurance, mine was open almost instantly whereas Mrs YP's took several days and we got an email saying that they were checking into her credit.

When we retired I paid a lump sum cheque into my bank. After I few days I queried in the branch when it would be cleared. It is going through a credit check, but its from a very large plc. No your credit.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

Me neither, however we have just opened a joint Nationwide account to take advantage of the insurance, mine was open almost instantly whereas Mrs YP's took several days and we got an email saying that they were checking into her credit.

I'll check ours. Its a joint account, so I can see what DW has been up to.🤣

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

I'll check ours. Its a joint account, so I can see what DW has been up to.🤣

Tut tut 🤣

[jh1809]

Getting free travel insurance by opening a Nationwide FlexAccount sounded like a good idea, so I did a web search and turned up this on Nationwide's website:

 

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/help/travel-insurance-flexaccount/

 

According to the first two paragraphs, they no longer provide travel insurance as part of their FlexAccount package.

[Waju]

1 minute ago, jh1809 said:

Getting free travel insurance by opening a Nationwide FlexAccount sounded like a good idea, so I did a web search and turned up this on Nationwide's website:

 

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/help/travel-insurance-flexaccount/

 

According to the first two paragraphs, they no longer provide travel insurance as part of their FlexAccount package.

I think it has to be a FlexPlus account.

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, Waju said:

I think it has to be a FlexPlus account.

It does, that is what we have just opened

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexplus/travel-insurance/

[Winifred 22]

It definitely is still available on FlexPlus.  Only this week I paid the £40 extra to renew my annual cruise cover add on.