Spent whole dayin St. Kitts at South Friars beach? Since our last visit, they have built a new restaurant -Carabana - the opposite end from the Shipwreck bar, with facilities equal o a 4/5 star hotel. OK so not the authentic Caribbean isolated beach but we hired a very comfortable sunned with thick mattress and umbrella, had loads of showers, first class toilet facilities and waiter service on the beach. Lunch was very good indeed, so a nice day of luxury. The snorkelling on the shallow reef just off the shore was very good, loads of fish of varying sizes, starfish and turtles. A good sailway, as the Emerald Princess was in with us so a lot of flag waving and singing as we said goodbye.
In Dominca, we did the Favourites of Dominica tour, through the botanical gardens, up to the rain forest to the falls - bus broke down - but a replacement was soon with us.Then on to the Emerald Pool, a bit of a hike but worth it. It rained - but it was the rain forest and it was hot! Back in port, it was a public holiday and carnival day and what a parade we were treated to - have never been to Notting Hill carnival, but people were saying it was better than that - loud, colourful and very, very friendly - brilliant........
In Tortola, we took a trip to Jost Van Dyke and again spent the morning in the sea - very pretty bay, with powder white sand. Loads of brown pelicans have us a wonderful fishing exhibition! This coupled with a lovely journey from Tortola and a great crew on the catamaran made it a great trip - a definate "must come back some day" one for me. For ease, we jumped in one of the brightly coloured buses and went to Cane Garden Bay for a couple of hours in the afternoon, a nightmare as really busy and with the Costa Lumosa In port as well - it was very noisy with a lot of animated Italians on the beach
Can't remember what night we did what, but we saw a couple of Headliners shows, which were average at best. Steve Larkin as Freddy Mercury - very good. Tucker - a comedian I found very funny indeed. A very low key Tropical night, not well adververtised so consequently not well attended, although it was very windy on deck that night. Oh yeah and my mission was completed on Tuesday night when we, along with 4 others won the quiz with a fantastic 44/45 points.
As I write this report, in bed, we are in Barabdos and Steve is on his way down to sort out the immigration formalities. We leave Ventura at 12:30 and will be back on the UK around 5 am tomorrow.
CRUSE SUMMARY
FOOD
Good to average in MDR, cut backs include steak no longer being an option if you don't like what is on the menu, choice of vegetables limited and all in all a little bit repetitive.
Buffet was always good, with a wide choice - but people still save seats with a bag, an orange juice etc. I REFUSE to do this and Steve and I get our food together, find a seat together and eat together and it was never, ever a problem. We laugh at the couples who do the Waterside relay
as we nicknamed it - one of them (2nd leg) sits down and saves the seats, the other (1st leg) gets their food and comes back and as the tray touches the table, the 2nd leg gets up and goes and get their food ... however we did witness some illegal "change overs" where the second leg were on their way to the buffet before the 1st tray was on the table.The one meal we had in Ramblas
Excellent in Beach House
SERVICE - Very good, apart from Reception which leaves a lot to be desired
CABIN - no issues at all, was apprehensive about an inside, but did not really miss balcony, as I did not use it as much as Steve. Also made the days longer as we tended to get up earlier and go on deck. Our cabin steward Rajeesh was the best, always willing to help, great sense of humour and always smiling. Nominated him as Employee of the Month..
ENTERTAINMENT - Guest acts on the whole were good, however for the first time ever I was not impressed with the entertainment team or the Headliners shows. Entertainment needs a complete refresh as do the shows, as out of all of them there was only one we had not seen and one was revamped. It just seems very disjointed and unorganised this time.
SUNBEDS - I accept that they are packed in and I accept that towels will be on them if the occupants are swimming or perhaps have gone for a short walk. BUT P&O have to do something about the number of beds that are saved before breakfast, it is ridiculous - again something we refuse to do, The couple we met had a good suggestion I.e. that a couple of crew members should patrol the decks, with shirts on saying "bed patrol" which would put people off of leaving them saved for pong period sof time and that ALL towels on sunbeds that are unattended before 9am should immediately be removed by the crew - I would hazard a guess that not many people are really using them before this time!
VENTURA OVERALL - now looking a bit tired and definately in need of her refit. Endless pool was now endless with machine not working all of the cruise! Some showers not working, iron in launderette broken etc........
CRUISE OVERALL
Very good and we had a fabulous time, but then we always do. However, the back to back just does not work, the middle Friday on board is awful with not much going on, continual tanoy announcements and overall mayhem. Evening is very disorganised and communication on what is happening is poor, no wonder they have changed back to the normal 14 days next year. That said we met some lovely people and as always the Caribbean did not fail WOW us and to make us smile. Would still go back on Ventura and little issues where still not enough to make us change cruise lines - especially when we asked to other paxs about other ships they had been on - overall opinion seemed very much in favour of good old P&O.
Now in the cruise terminal in Barbados for some last minute purchases -hope you have enjoyed my reports.. Will be back on duty looking after the Ships forum from Sunday - hope you have all behaved yourselves and not given the admin team too much grief in my absence......... Bye bye..
- it's bl***y cold!!!! Going to bed for a couple of hours and then will start to tackle washing. Will catch up on all the forum news tomorrow.
