A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
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Topic author - First Officer
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A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
I had wanted to book Oriana to Greenland to celebrate my 70th but because it is treated as worldwide for insurance purposes we decided against it and instead booked Arcadia to the Med which had 4 new ports for us and my sister and husband from Sheffield - two completely opposite cruises. It wasn't a good start at Southampton. We arrived early and given priority cards as we are Baltic and then sat and waited to be called. Suddenly an announcement was made calling me to Customer Services. With my stomach churning, thinking that something had happened to my sister and brother-in-law coming down in the car, I walked towards Customer Services where a lady with Security written across her coat asked me to accompany her to the back area. I had to go through security and taken to a back area where one of our cases was on the x-ray system. Something suspicious had shown up !!! I was asked to open the case and retrieve an item showing up near the handle of the case. It turned out to be my husband's swiss army knife it its holder. I had done ALL the packing as his idea of packing is bung, bung, bung. Apparently he had chucked it in the case thinking it would be useful. As it was within the allowable limit it was not confiscated but we were advised in future to put it in our hand luggage, the opposite of what happens when flying I think. I was advised that the case would not be delivered until much later than our other cases.
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- Commodore
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Oh dear. Has he come out of the dog house yet
That's the thing with packing, we let you do it because your so much better at it than us useless men
That's the thing with packing, we let you do it because your so much better at it than us useless men
Last edited by Stephen on 09 Aug 2018, 09:44, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
I had exactly the same thing happen to me a couple of years ago. This, to me is one of the nonsensical security issues - they need to ensure that you do not take a fixed blade, or blade over a certain length, on board and completely overlook the fact that there are at least 5,000 fixed blade knives already on board (how did they get through security )
Last edited by david63 on 09 Aug 2018, 09:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Topic author - First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
The first evening was Walk Like A Man. An excellent show.
The first sea day the Captain announced that he had been advised of a dead whale floating on the surface which we did eventually pass by - very sad
24/7/18 OPORTO - we decided not to go into Oporto as we have been there twice within the last 12 months and as much as we enjoy the River Douro we decided instead to stay locally in Leixoes and have a wander along the beach to the small fort at the end (turning right as you come out of the port). The beach is huge and gorgeous with fine sand and was very busy especially with lots of young really slim healthy looking children running around playing games and not sat staring at phones, ipads etc. We reached the fort, went inside and found a small bleak looking cafe with an elderly lady serving who didn't speak English and, like an idiot I hadn't checked the words for two teas in Portuguese. As the two fingers etc didn't seem to work I said coffee totally forgetting that a lot of Europeans drink that disgusting espresso in the mornings and they were duly produced much to our horror. I asked for hot milk which she did seem to understand and then we drowned it with sugar and drank it like that. We left to search for another cafe where English was spoken. I sent a email to my son saying a nice 23 degrees here to which he replied 'Pitiful - 29 degrees on IOW.
The first sea day the Captain announced that he had been advised of a dead whale floating on the surface which we did eventually pass by - very sad
24/7/18 OPORTO - we decided not to go into Oporto as we have been there twice within the last 12 months and as much as we enjoy the River Douro we decided instead to stay locally in Leixoes and have a wander along the beach to the small fort at the end (turning right as you come out of the port). The beach is huge and gorgeous with fine sand and was very busy especially with lots of young really slim healthy looking children running around playing games and not sat staring at phones, ipads etc. We reached the fort, went inside and found a small bleak looking cafe with an elderly lady serving who didn't speak English and, like an idiot I hadn't checked the words for two teas in Portuguese. As the two fingers etc didn't seem to work I said coffee totally forgetting that a lot of Europeans drink that disgusting espresso in the mornings and they were duly produced much to our horror. I asked for hot milk which she did seem to understand and then we drowned it with sugar and drank it like that. We left to search for another cafe where English was spoken. I sent a email to my son saying a nice 23 degrees here to which he replied 'Pitiful - 29 degrees on IOW.
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Topic author - First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Yes, Stephen but it took a few days and David, thank goodness it isn't only us - I was so embarrassed.
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Topic author - First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
25/7/18 - At sea. As we sailed past Gibraltar at 9.30 pm we saw a very large pod of dolphins.
The Headliners did Destination Dance and it was excellent and I had forgotten how good the Palladium Theatre on Arcadia is for special effects.
26/7/18 ALMERIA -A new port for us and we got off early to climb to the Alcazaba with its steep steps. It just got hotter and hotter so we probably didn't do it justice and eventually headed down from the walls to find a little bit of shade in the town. Almeria looks very stark and dried out and apparently outside the town is a desert area where a lot of the spaghetti westerns were filmed. Ken would have liked to have visited there but we were struggling with the heat so headed back to Arcadia.
27/7/18 At sea. Peninsular Lunch. Had an early, light evening meal then went on deck to see Total Eclipse of the moon but a bit of a something and nothing as there was some cloud.
28/7/18 CALVI - Calvi in Corsica is a tender port and is an absolute gem. Another hot day, 33 degrees, but we staggered up to the old Citadel. Mad dogs and Englishmen springs to mind. Later, after wandering through the town which had a bit more shade, we sat on the seafront looking at all the gorgeous yachts/cabin cruisers etc.
Fogwell Flax was the entertainment but I'm afraid he did nothing for us although someone behind us obviously thought he was very funny.
The Headliners did Destination Dance and it was excellent and I had forgotten how good the Palladium Theatre on Arcadia is for special effects.
26/7/18 ALMERIA -A new port for us and we got off early to climb to the Alcazaba with its steep steps. It just got hotter and hotter so we probably didn't do it justice and eventually headed down from the walls to find a little bit of shade in the town. Almeria looks very stark and dried out and apparently outside the town is a desert area where a lot of the spaghetti westerns were filmed. Ken would have liked to have visited there but we were struggling with the heat so headed back to Arcadia.
27/7/18 At sea. Peninsular Lunch. Had an early, light evening meal then went on deck to see Total Eclipse of the moon but a bit of a something and nothing as there was some cloud.
28/7/18 CALVI - Calvi in Corsica is a tender port and is an absolute gem. Another hot day, 33 degrees, but we staggered up to the old Citadel. Mad dogs and Englishmen springs to mind. Later, after wandering through the town which had a bit more shade, we sat on the seafront looking at all the gorgeous yachts/cabin cruisers etc.
Fogwell Flax was the entertainment but I'm afraid he did nothing for us although someone behind us obviously thought he was very funny.
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Topic author - First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
29/7/18 CIVITAVECCHIA -As temperatures in Rome were expected to be over 37 degrees and there were 5 ships in, we decided to give Rome a miss. We visited there about 20 years ago and would have liked to visit again but not with queuing in that heat so we just wandered around the local area. When I went to the Belvedere buffet on Arcadia to get a glass of water a woman was filling her water bottle. The bottle opening was completely covering the water spout and touching it. I'm not usually very brave but I did point out to her that the notice did say not to do it but she just walked off. Have these people never heard of norovirus?
Went to the Headliners 'Money makes the World go round' based on Cabaret. Obviously a lot of people enjoyed it but not one I would go to again.
30/7/18 SALERNO - Another new port although we had visited Sorrento along the coast in April. We decided to visit Amalfi. The shuttle dropped us at Santa Lucia and then we had a 20 minute march along prom to the Travel de Mare where we caught the 9.40 to Amalfi. It takes 35 minutes. It was heaving as it also goes to Positano but that would take longer. It cost 8 euros each way per person. We visited the Cathedral and wandered the streets then caught the 12.45 boat back to Salerno so that we could have a quick look round there. Had a heavy downpour as we arrived back.
Went to the Headliners 'Money makes the World go round' based on Cabaret. Obviously a lot of people enjoyed it but not one I would go to again.
30/7/18 SALERNO - Another new port although we had visited Sorrento along the coast in April. We decided to visit Amalfi. The shuttle dropped us at Santa Lucia and then we had a 20 minute march along prom to the Travel de Mare where we caught the 9.40 to Amalfi. It takes 35 minutes. It was heaving as it also goes to Positano but that would take longer. It cost 8 euros each way per person. We visited the Cathedral and wandered the streets then caught the 12.45 boat back to Salerno so that we could have a quick look round there. Had a heavy downpour as we arrived back.
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Topic author - First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
31/7/18 CAGLIARI, Sardinia. Another new port for us as we couldn't get in on the last cruise. Another very hot day which limited what we did. We wandered up through the town eventually arriving at the Bastion, a large marble building, but it was closed so he headed back to the sea and arrived near a military establishment where there was a wooden walkway which would take us further round to the left. As we stood debating whether to walk any further in the heat, suddenly the water in the harbour started to bubble and a huge amount of large fish jumped out. It happened in various places in the water and we assumed that there must have been some dolphins under the water rounding them up as we had seen a couple of dolphins in the harbour when we were having breakfast.
The tourist maps and WiFi were both chargeable in the port but you could pay to rent a gadget for the wifi for a period.
2/8/18 GIBRALTAR - short visit to this old faithful. Caught up with emails and Debenhams and MS.
3/8/18 and 4/8/18 At Sea - heading home.
The tourist maps and WiFi were both chargeable in the port but you could pay to rent a gadget for the wifi for a period.
2/8/18 GIBRALTAR - short visit to this old faithful. Caught up with emails and Debenhams and MS.
3/8/18 and 4/8/18 At Sea - heading home.
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- Deputy Captain
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
If people must insist on filling water bottles from the chilled water in the buffet, the least they could do is decant it from one or more of the plastic glasses.
Better still do like we do and fill them in our cabin the night before then keep them in the fridge.
John
Trainee Pensioner since 2000
Trainee Pensioner since 2000
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- Senior First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
I keep the screwdriver from my sewing machine in my handbag - amongst the pens- and I've lost count of how many security scans its been thro' - never once been found!
Meg
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
We had one of those corkscrews with a little knife to cut the foil in our hand luggage on one cruise and they spent ages discussing whether it exceeded the critical size (it didn't by a mile) while I pointed out the large number of steak knives on board and freely available if I really wanted to.kill someone
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- Captain
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Hi Maureen
I think you were very unlucky getting stopped at security, especially for something as small as a swiss army knife, when l last disembarked from a cruise l walked straight through with a near full canteen of cutlery eight plates and two serving spoons
I think you were very unlucky getting stopped at security, especially for something as small as a swiss army knife, when l last disembarked from a cruise l walked straight through with a near full canteen of cutlery eight plates and two serving spoons
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
We were pulled aside a few weeks back with our caravan. The Border Force chap inspected the caravan and asked if we were carrying any knives. " Yes " said my husband." in the cutlery drawer"
The officer asked for his reassurance that they would remain in the drawer for the crossing!!
The officer asked for his reassurance that they would remain in the drawer for the crossing!!
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- Senior First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Yep. Same for usFinker wrote: ↑09 Aug 2018, 21:55We were pulled aside a few weeks back with our caravan. The Border Force chap inspected the caravan and asked if we were carrying any knives. " Yes " said my husband." in the cutlery drawer"
The officer asked for his reassurance that they would remain in the drawer for the crossing!!
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- Second Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
happened to me last November.... never want that again.
regards gilly.
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- Senior First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
OMG, if I'd got the name call from customer services I would have been in a frenzy!!
After a fraught start, the rest of the cruise sounds good.
Thanks for telling us about it
After a fraught start, the rest of the cruise sounds good.
Thanks for telling us about it
Gill
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
So it was you, Maureen who was called off the ship!!! We were on the same cruise. Never seen a whale before so that's one ticked off my bucket list even if it was a dead one. Big thing (language Timothy!!) wasn't it but it looked as though it had been floating around for a while.
I was called to security once just as you were. I had put my Leatherman penknife in the case and was called to open the case and I had forgotten the blade does lock so it was confiscated. I had to pay something like £30 to get it back a few weeks later. Why they can't hold it at the port until your return I know not but I had to jump through all sorts of hoops until its eventual return. Lesson learnt. I suppose they are the rules although I could hardly see a septuagenarium causing havoc with a Leatherman penknife, complete with scissors, scredrivers, toothpick, digger for horses' hooves etc when it would be a lot easier to do more damage with a steak knife.
Thank you for your review as it saves me doing mine.
In Salerno we had a tour to Herculaneum which was fascinating but much, much smaller than Pompeii. However there was still plenty to see. In the morning we went into Salerno which was a pleasant little place. The highlight for me was the crypt in the cathedral, covered in the most intricate patterns in marble and reputedly where St Matthew was buried. Whether or not he was we just have to accept but it was a beautiful place.
Pleased to hear you had a good time.
I was called to security once just as you were. I had put my Leatherman penknife in the case and was called to open the case and I had forgotten the blade does lock so it was confiscated. I had to pay something like £30 to get it back a few weeks later. Why they can't hold it at the port until your return I know not but I had to jump through all sorts of hoops until its eventual return. Lesson learnt. I suppose they are the rules although I could hardly see a septuagenarium causing havoc with a Leatherman penknife, complete with scissors, scredrivers, toothpick, digger for horses' hooves etc when it would be a lot easier to do more damage with a steak knife.
Thank you for your review as it saves me doing mine.
In Salerno we had a tour to Herculaneum which was fascinating but much, much smaller than Pompeii. However there was still plenty to see. In the morning we went into Salerno which was a pleasant little place. The highlight for me was the crypt in the cathedral, covered in the most intricate patterns in marble and reputedly where St Matthew was buried. Whether or not he was we just have to accept but it was a beautiful place.
Pleased to hear you had a good time.
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- Captain
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Hi foxy......just to save others having to do wot l had to do 'septuagenarium' is a person aged between 70 and 79.
Btw....l became a sixtyfiveuagenarrium on Saturday
Btw....l became a sixtyfiveuagenarrium on Saturday
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- Ex Team Member
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
You're nowt but a wee babby OL. But I can still remember being that young!
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- Second Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading it.
I think it confirms our view that the Med in JulyvandcAugustvis too hot for comfort for us
I think it confirms our view that the Med in JulyvandcAugustvis too hot for comfort for us
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- Senior First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
I don't think Maureen's review is finished yet?.....she is still heading home!!
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
For us it wasn't just the heat, it was the humidity. Like Maureen we didn't go into Rome but decided to have a little walk around Civitavecchia but being a Sunday some of the shops were closed although I must say many were still open. With four or five ships in that day I suppose it made sense. Of course the market was closed. We had a walk through the town, went into the church but by now it was so hot we decided to stop off for a coffee. We had intended to walk along the promenade to the sailor and girl statue but the sun was beating off the concrete and we were by now very wet with perspiration that we walked back in the shade and back to the ship. I have never known it to be so humid in the summer months.
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Topic author - First Officer
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Re: A Little Light Relief from Brexit & Boris
Hello young man. We arrived home Sunday 5th and I finally finished the washing and ironing today. Nothing too exciting to report for the last 2 sea days except going to see Killer Queen for about the 100th time but I always enjoy it and have been known to go to 2 performances in one night.
The most annoying thing about Sunday morning was getting back to Fountain Yard at Cowes on the Red Jet only to find that all parking including taxis, buses and private cars were not allowed in the Red Jet yard to collect passengers because it is Cowes week and parking is a total nightmare during this period. We, therefore, had to wheel 2 heavy suitcases and 2 small cases up a steep hill to reach where our son had pulled in hoping no traffic warden would walk by. What my husband hadn't realised was that he had wheeled one of the suitcase wheels through some melted tar (it could have been something worse) and it got wheeled all through the beige carpet in the hallway before I saw it.So the first hour home was spent trying to scrub it off the carpet.