Selbourne ‘Live’ from Ventura

[Selbourne]

27 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Different strokes, I prefer my beer well chilled, tepid  beer reminds me of my youth and the awful mild beer at our local WMC, when we assumed that  pretending to enjoy warm beer was a rite of passage.

Lager or light beers chilled. Darker beers / ales not 😂 

[Selbourne]

23 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

they now seem to have little bits of folded ready made eggy things masquerading as omelettes.

In all fairness, that does describe my ‘omelette’ quite well 😂 

[david63]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

an excellent pianist arrived and played some brilliant James Bond film sound tracks including No Time to Die

Was that the little American chap who has been on P&O for years (cannot remember his name)?

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, david63 said:

Was that the little American chap who has been on P&O for years (cannot remember his name)?

No he was English. Probably late 40s. He was very good. 

[pete14]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

Different strokes, I prefer my beer well chilled, tepid  beer reminds me of my youth and the awful mild beer at our local WMC, when we assumed that  pretending to enjoy warm beer was a rite of passage.

I would always drink lager cold but not a decent bitter or ale. Guinness seems to be served chilled nowadays whereas in the past, when I enjoyed a good glass or three of Guinness, it was always served at room temperature. I wonder whether serving draught ales chilled makes storage and serving easier with less waste. Perhaps there is an expert on here who can tell us.

[Selbourne]

Todays MDR menus for lunch and dinner. 
 

 

[Selbourne]

and a few more shots from Tenerife. 26 degrees but a decent breeze. 

 

 

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Lager or light beers chilled. Darker beers / ales not 😂 

A matter of personal taste IMO.

[Selbourne]

18 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

A matter of personal taste IMO.

Of course. 

[TigerB]

On 10/28/2023 at 5:29 PM, Selbourne said:

Day 1 (Embarkation to departure)

 

We had a good run down to Southampton in glorious sunshine, until we got to Hampshire when the heavens opened! We arrived at Mayflower Cruise Terminal at midday and wondered where everyone was! There were dozens of CPS staff waiting and we were checked in immediately. As before, they kindly offered to call a porter for us and one appeared quickly. There was a short queue of early arrivers being held outside, but as priority boarders we were waived straight through. We checked in at the assisted boarding desk and were through security and on the ship bang on our 1215 slot. Very impressive. They didn’t offer us assistance, which was a bit naughty, but we coped fine.  

 

First impressions as we embarked were ten times better than when we boarded Iona. Rather than look like an airport, this looks and feels like a proper ship. Also, as we walked around it looks like a quality environment and not like a conference hotel, as Iona does (to us anyway). Doubtless we shall miss the excellent dining options on Iona, but I have to say that we feel instantly at home. 

 

After checking in at our muster station we went to the MDR for the loyalty lunch. We asked for a table for 2 but this was impossible apparently 🤔 Anyhow we ended up on a table for four and actually got on really well with the other couple. Wine service was painfully slow compared to Iona and Britannia but both myself and Ray (the other chap) were equally assertive in ensuring that our glasses were kept topped up 😂 Lunch was very pleasant and was a waiter served meal (menu below). 

 

After lunch we went to our cabin (accessible Superior Deluxe balcony cabin and our cases were already there. The cabin is huge, almost like a mini suite, with separate lounge and bedroom areas. Being wheelchair accessible there is plenty of floor space in all areas. The wardrobe and cupboard space is vast. We had two very large cases and have not even used half of the wardrobes, cupboards and drawers. Never had that luxury before. 

 

I was all unpacked after an hour or so and after looking through all the literature (sail away vouchers, dining confirmation, Horizon etc) we decided to go and check out our dinner table. We are second sitting club (as confirmed) but the table for 2 is always ‘requested but not confirmed’. There was nobody at the Bay Tree restaurant so we just wandered in and found our allocated table. We are very happy. It’s a nice stand alone table for 2 (not the banquette type) very near the window. The menu for tonight suits us both, which is good as the first night menu can be weak. Any menu with lamb suits me just fine 😂 

 

We then headed to Tazine for a coffee. Again, unlike Iona (where it’s just part of the atrium) it’s a nice dedicated space - like a proper coffee shop. Service was immediate as well, even though it was almost full (Iona was a struggle as there was one poor chap on his own half the time and people ended up queuing up at the counter rather than waiting). Also, on Iona you got a free wafer thin slice of banana loaf, but on here it was a big choice of pastries and cakes. We both had full size apple and cinnamon muffins - complimentary. 👍

 

We are back in the cabin now and the horn has sounded and the thrusters are on. We shall wave to @TigerB as we pass Iona on our way out. The captain has just said that we are expecting 5 to 6 metre waves tomorrow as we head to the Bay of Biscay 🤮 That should be fun 😂 

 

So far so good and the most noticeable difference so far is that the ship feels so quiet compared to Iona (which felt rammed). Next stop Madeira on Wednesday. Wish us luck 😂 

 

What a great cabin!👍  So, that'll be the same cabin type you'll have in January, for which you paid next to nowt?😉

[TigerB]

On 10/28/2023 at 5:46 PM, Selbourne said:

Here’s tonight’s Jean. I’m having the roast lamb, which I know you’d hate 😂 

 

 

That is exactly the same menu we had for the first night here on Iona. Our lass really enjoyed the pork loin, even though it looked like a school dinner.  Knowing what the portion sizes are like, I had to have two pieces of the stone bass fillet.😉

[TigerB]

On 10/28/2023 at 6:28 PM, Bin man said:

5414 passengers on Iona 104,% capacity 

 

It feels like it too! When I went to reception on the first day, the lad said (his words) the ship is rammed, sir.😂

One of our waiters said there were 1500 kids on the last cruise.

[Selbourne]

6 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

What a great cabin!👍  So, that'll be the same cabin type you'll have in January, for which you paid next to nowt?😉

Not quite. This is an accessible Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabin on Ventura. It’s 466 square feet which is bizarrely 17 square feet bigger than the sole accessible suite on this ship. On Aurora we have an Accessible Balcony Cabin (although the specification is Deluxe Balcony cabin). Can’t find the size but I reckon it’s closer to 350 square feet. 
 

However, I’m glad that we don’t have this cabin for our Caribbean cruise for 3 reasons. Firstly, you cannot see the view out from the cabin from either the bed (due to a wall between the bedroom area and lounge area) or from the lounge area (due to a wall between the balcony doors and a fixed panel). See photos below.  You can see the view at all times from both the bed and sofa on Aurora. Secondly, the balconies on Superior Deluxe cabins are completely uncovered. Neither of us sunbathe and we always choose to sit in the shade, which we can do on Aurora as the balconies are covered and slightly enclosed. Finally, whilst the TVs on Aurora are still poor (the accessible cabins didn’t get the full size TVs at the last refit 😡) they are still better than the pathetic little things on Ventura. My desktop computer in my study has a much bigger screen 😂 

[Selbourne]

11 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

It feels like it too! When I went to reception on the first day, the lad said (his words) the ship is rammed, sir.😂

One of our waiters said there were 1500 kids on the last cruise.

Try it with 5750 as we did. Ventura feels like an oasis of calm in comparison 😂 

[Presto2]

14 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Try it with 5750 as we did. Ventura feels like an oasis of calm in comparison 😂 

We retire at Christmas and, though I will miss many things, having to sail in the school holidays when, to use the young man's term above, the ships are 'rammed' really is not one of them at all! Its going to be a whole new experience not to have to sail at peak times.

 

Re your opinion of your cabin, Selbourne. We only had a deluxe balcony cabin once on Ventura and never again. I felt like I was too far away from the balcony and like you like to be able to see the sea when relaxing. We hardly used the area with the settee in it at all - just felt dark.

 

Glad the noise has calmed down for you. Looking out of my window now the sea is roaring in here so am glad I am in a static caravan not on the sea. Thanks for keeping us all in the loop with your cruise and both your and Lady S have a great time

[TigerB]

On 10/30/2023 at 3:41 PM, Selbourne said:

 

DAY 2 - Sunday 29th Oct (Sea Day)

 

We had a poor nights sleep due to the rough seas. Our cabin creaks and groans very loudly in multiple places. Usually I do a bit of investigating and find the source of the noise and stuff some toilet tissue in to suppress it, but this is way beyond that. There is extensive wooden coving around the tops of all the walls and this seems to creak loudly where it meets the metal ceilings and moves against it. I can’t imagine that the maintenance guys can do anything about it, so I fear we will have this racket until the sea calms down. 

 

I did a few laps of the promenade deck before breakfast and also went up to deck 16 as we have members of ORCA aboard doing whale and dolphin watches (as well as talks). We enjoyed that on our USA & Canada cruise (when several ORCA members were also on board). The lady reported that she’d seen some common dolphins but that it was far too rough to see anything else. 

 

The only MDR advertised as open for breakfast is Saffron, but we’d been given a hot tip that Bay Tree also opens and as it’s not advertised it’s much quieter. So that’s where we went. Unfortunately, as it’s an aft restaurant, there was considerable movement in there and within a short period my wife announced that she felt unwell, so I had to get her to the bathroom quickly. We returned to the table for breakfast (we had managed to get the table we have for dinner) but my wife ate just one mouthful and a dry slice of toast. 

 

After breakfast we did a lap of the promenade deck which was, shall we say, bracing 😂. It’s really nice being back on a ship with a proper covered promenade deck that you can use in all weathers. On our two previous P&O cruises this summer we either had no promenade deck at all (Britannia) or a completely exposed one (Iona). One thing that baffles me on Ventura (and seems illogical) is that in this rough weather the forward and midships exits to the port side of the promenade deck are closed, yet if you go out on the Starboard side you can walk all the way around (apart from the raised front section), including the full length of the the port side of the promenade deck 🤔

 

When we went back inside we decided to have a meander through the inside public areas on the lower decks. We first wandered into Havana, being unaware that a Sunday religious service was being held. Neither of us has a religious bone in our bodies, but a bit of me wished that we’d stayed, as there was a pianist present whose playing style was pure Les Dawson (for those old enough to remember). The bum notes were every bit as frequent and almost had the same comedic timing. Problem is I’d have had death stares from my wife,  as I would have lost it and it would not have been the time nor the place. I really hope that we come across this pianist again though, as he or she beats many of the comedians we’ve had on board previous cruises 😂 

 

After a bit of a hunt we discovered where the Britain Today papers are placed. Not at reception (like on Britannia), nor the coffee shop (like on Iona). On Ventura they are in the library. Forgot to say that we paid a visit to the Library yesterday. It’s very small and not well stocked. Ten times better than the pathetic effort on Iona but not a patch on the excellent library on Britannia. My wife was still feeling a bit out of sorts, so we went back to our cabin. Our steward was still working on it, but invited us in and we sat in the lounge area whilst he finished. Have to say he seems excellent. Very thorough, although he was struggling to do his job as the ship was moving around so much. I tried to watch the news but struggled to hear it over all the creaking noises in the cabin (yes it really is that bad - I have recorded a short clip of it which I shall post when I can so that you know I’m not exaggerating 😂)! I am feeling OK thanks to Stugeron. BTW many thanks for the advice of those on Saturday who advised me to buy some Avomine from reception, which I did whilst they still had some. I’ve never used it before but we only have enough Stugeron to last another couple of days and the sea seems to be getting even worse. I’m glad that our daughters and partners aren’t with us. Some of them thought that Iona was moving around when we couldn’t feel the slightest thing, but there’s no denying that we are in rough seas now.

 

Talking of Iona, I’m pleased to report that the lifts seem bigger on Ventura (in spite of having around half the passengers) and normal lift etiquette is adhered to on here, so we’ve had none of the lift issues that we experienced on Iona. Fingers crossed that continues. There are a lot more kids on board than we expected, considering that any school age kids will be skipping school for at least one of the two weeks. 

 

The first officer made the noon announcement and is clearly a well read fellow as we had countless Greek and Shakespearean quotes (all of which went above my head) but the gist of it was that we have just entered the Bay of Biscay and it is throwing it’s worst at us. We already knew that, but at least he was admitting that it was rough, as they often talk it down as being “a bit of movement” 😂 

 

As my wife hadn’t really eaten any breakfast we decided to go for lunch in Saffron. We were told that if we wanted a table for 2 we’d have to take a pager, which we did. I asked how long we could expect to wait and was told around 30 minutes. Annoyingly, there is nowhere to sit and wait near the MDR on deck 6 so we had to get a lift up to deck 7. We grabbed some seats and I ordered a glass of wine. The couple sat next to us said that they’d been on Ventura last year and the ship had been using virtual queueing back then, but that now appeared to have been ditched and it was back to pagers. Thankfully we were paged after 15 minutes. We were seated close to a well travelled couple of gents, one of whom works for Saga cruises, so it was interesting to chat to him about the differences, when I was telling him that we fancied Saga but were struggling to justify their high prices. 

 

There were only two things of even the remotest interest on today and, Sod’s law, both were scheduled for 2pm 🙄 It’s a bit like all the good TV programmes always being on at 9pm, but at least you can record those! One was a talk on whales and dolphins by ORCA and the other was a talk on art thefts. As it happened, we didn’t end up leaving lunch until 2.20pm and by then we couldn’t get a seat in the ORCA talk! We went back to the cabin and my wife had 40 winks whilst I did another circuit of the promenade deck. The waves and spray are something else now. Bumped in to Ray who we’d had the priority boarders lunch with the day before and enjoyed a natter, before I went to Tazine for a Mocha, where I’m writing this. Although busy, service was impressively quick again. 

 

Whilst our cabin is huge, apart from the loud creaking there is another thing that is a bit unfortunate. You cannot see out unless you are stood in front of the balcony doors! There is a wall between the bedroom area and living area (which completely blocks any view from the bed) and when you are sat on the sofa in the living room there is a wall panel between the balcony doors and a separate fixed window pane that completely obstructs your view out from that area. Shame, as we spend quite a bit of time in the cabin and love watching the world go by outside. I’m rather relieved that we don’t have this cabin for our 65 night cruise to the Caribbean. The cabins on Aurora are smaller and the sofas are more uncomfortable, but at least you can see out from both the bed and the sofa! Plus the balcony on Aurora is covered, which makes it more usable. For this cruise (creaking aside) it’s fine though. 

 

My wife was continuing to feel sea

sick and decided that she would remain in the cabin for the remainder of the day. I decided to give Steve Terry, a comedian who also sings, a try in Havana. A few segments were moderately funny quick fire humour but the majority was quite old fashioned and predictable (the type when you guess the punchline before the comedian delivers it). As my wife didn’t want anything to eat I decided to see if I could get in to Epicurean, as if I was dining alone I might as well go there! Unfortunately, on the way there I had to navigate gingerly through a stretch of the corridor on our deck where somebody had vomited profusely on the carpet. The stench clung to my nostrils for some time afterwards 🤮

 

Epicurean was extremely quiet and I was given a warm welcome. As the restaurant is on deck 17 aft the movement is quite noticeable and on a couple of occasions  there was a sudden bang and lurch when my glass of wine nearly went over. I knew it was bad as there was a scream from the kitchen, and they are far more used to rough seas than we are 😂. Service was excellent. I didn’t like my starter at all (shredded duck leg meat with supposedly some form of caviar, which I didn’t notice at all - just a green foam). I had a sirloin steak which was OK and cooked perfectly, but wasn’t the leanest. The highlight was the crime brûlée with white chocolate spehere, which was my favourite pud on Britannia but is enhanced further in Ventura as it is prepared table side and is a work of art. 

 

The Headliners show had been cancelled due to the rough seas and as this is due to continue for another 24 hours, the captain has announced that Mondays Black Tie dinner has been put back to Tuesday. I hope that my wife copes better with it tomorrow and I continue to feel OK, if a little weary with the constant rocking, lunging and vibration.

 

 

That would have been funny to see, the Les Dawson tribute act!😂  Eric Morecambe comes to mind too. What was it he said to André Previn, "I'm playing all the right notes sunshine, but not necessarily in the right order"?

 

The comedian you saw later, with the predictable punchlines; straight off Wheeltappers and Shunters, was he?😉

Edited November 2, 2023 by TigerB

[TigerB]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Not quite. This is an accessible Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabin on Ventura. It’s 466 square feet which is bizarrely 17 square feet bigger than the sole accessible suite on this ship. On Aurora we have an Accessible Balcony Cabin (although the specification is Deluxe Balcony cabin). Can’t find the size but I reckon it’s closer to 350 square feet. 
 

However, I’m glad that we don’t have this cabin for our Caribbean cruise for 3 reasons. Firstly, you cannot see the view out from the cabin from either the bed (due to a wall between the bedroom area and lounge area) or from the lounge area (due to a wall between the balcony doors and a fixed panel). See photos below.  You can see the view at all times from both the bed and sofa on Aurora. Secondly, the balconies on Superior Deluxe cabins are completely uncovered. Neither of us sunbathe and we always choose to sit in the shade, which we can do on Aurora as the balconies are covered and slightly enclosed. Finally, whilst the TVs on Aurora are still poor (the accessible cabins didn’t get the full size TVs at the last refit 😡) they are still better than the pathetic little things on Ventura. My desktop computer in my study has a much bigger screen 😂 

 

My mistake, I had it in my head that you were on Ventura in January. Yes, I've read in your subsequent post about the problems with no direct line of sight. That's a shame but, as you say, you won't have the same problem in January.

[CarlaMarie]

Hope you are having a good time (despite the fabulous weather!) @TigerB. Sorry to read you have had shuttle issues! 

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

The comedian you saw later, with the predictable punchlines; straight off Wheeltappers and Sunters, was he?😉

I found the comedians on Wheeltappers and Shunters quite funny back in the day. Humour has moved on since though - but not on cruise ships 😂 

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

My mistake, I had it in my head that you were on Ventura in January. Yes, I've read in your subsequent post about the problems with no direct line of sight. That's a shame but, as you say, you won't have the same problem in January.

No worries. It’s absolutely fine for this cruise though. 

[TigerB]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:56 PM, Selbourne said:

Bit of an odd one tonight. Formal night has been postponed to tomorrow due to the adverse sea conditions, yet we still have the formal night menu. Tomorrow we shall be in our best bib and tucker for a casual menu 🤔

 

Unlike your first night, which had the same menu as ours, our first formal night menu was totally different. There was no split menu, the whole thing was a Marco says your choices are this affair 

[TigerB]

On 10/30/2023 at 6:01 PM, Selbourne said:

This was my yummy dessert in Epicurean last night. I think that’s the P&O logo?

 

If that the pastry chef awarding you with a crown? They must have heard about your live-from blog😉

Edited November 2, 2023 by TigerB

[jeanlyon]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Todays MDR menus for lunch and dinner. 
 

 

Yep, remember that one.  Nothing on there that suited me so I had the Avocado and herb thingy which was quite nice.

[TigerB]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I found the comedians on Wheeltappers and Shunters quite funny back in the day. Humour has moved on since though - but not on cruise ships 😂 

 

Yes, indeed!  On our first week we have a Spanish comedian who, I read, was brought up in Wales. I'll give his adult only show a go tonight.

[Sussexboy]

Back in the mists of the 2010’s we saw a comedian on Azura that I remembered from the TV show “The Comedians” back in the 70’s. Turns out I remembered all his material as well. He had certainly aged better than his jokes. I believe it was Roy Walker, but cannot be certain.