The Big Adventure

Karmacat · 30 December 2017 at 2:42PM

Thanks Goldie, those posts are really valuable.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

We are not big drinkers, and at £23pppn we'd never get our money's worth! P&O don't do drinks packages at present, so we've always just paid for drinks when we buy them - the prices are comparable to UK pub prices, maybe a bit less.

Neither of us are big drinkers either, though I'm very partial to a cuppa tea

In September on CMV, there was a drinks package at £17pppn, but we still felt that was too much for the amount we drink. However, in March we are with Fred Ilsen, and when we booked, the drinks package was a £10pppn, so we have booked it. We may have an extra glass or two, and we were comfortable that the price was ok for us.

That sounds more realistic, though I still wouldn't do it every day.

The excursions are another thing which are entirely optional. Sometimes the ship docks in the centre of town, so only have to walk off the ship to be in the middle of everything. If the ship docks out of town, then there's often a shuttle bus into the town centre. It's often possible to take local buses or trains if you want to go further afield. Other times, due to distances and available time, a ships excursion works better. We normally do some ports ourselves and others as a coach trip from the ship. Ship excursions are expensive, so we are quite choosy about what we do. One advantage is that the ship waits if a cruise line excursion is late back - they might not wait for individuals who've been delayed!

Some very good points there! My sister is brilliant at plotting holidays from online information, and our Norfolk rellies have been doing cruises for years (but I don't feel like asking them typical mse questions

) I think I'd better cut and paste all your notes into an email to my sister

We are currently looking at excursions for our cruise to Norway in March. They are terribly expensive, but Norway is an expensive country. I haven't yet totaled up the 'possibles' that we have selected, but we will almost certainly cut a few. Otherwise, I'm sure it would be over £1000, and that is a ludicrous amount of money!

My sister just found an "Ilsen" one to Norway, 10 days at £1035 - we're looking for around £100 a night for the basic price, so that sounds good. Vision Cruises? I'll be checking they're legit, of course.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

BTW, was your first cruise on Uganda by any chance? <any people speak very fondly of Uganda.

Yes :j:j:j

Corunna, Lisbon, Tetouan, Gibraltar. Educational in the very best sense, though nobody told me about fascism and Franco (he was still in power, it was 1968) and I do think I was old enough to be told.

I forgot to mention, tap water is perfectly fine. P&O provide a couple of free small bottles of mineral water in each cabin, Once we have drunk them, we fill them up with tap water and take them ashore for when we are walking round the town.

If you sail from a UK port, nearly all ships have a kettle in the cabin, as British passengers insist on it. Its just like a hotel, with tea bags and coffee sachets, and small milk cartons. You can also go to the buffet to make yourself a tea or coffee at any time of the day or night. If you want sometime like a latte from the bar, that would be chargeable.

This is all extremely good news! I really want a kettle in my cabin - I'm very British in that way

CathT · 30 December 2017 at 5:30PM

All this talk of cruises is making me consider one. The children want to travel and aren't too impressed we are off to Rome without them. I'd love to take them on a cruise though so we can visit many places.

Lovely to see you back GG, hopefully regular walks will help tidy up your thoughts too and reduce your anxiety.

Goldiegirl · 30 December 2017 at 5:47PM

Hi, ATB, glad to hear you are trying a cruise. From what I've seen, the children love the kids clubs. They have so many activities to do and they are well looked after.

KC, I've heard of Vision Cruise, they are well known cruise specialists. I think they have their own TV channel. I haven't heard of 'Ilsen' though. You don't mean 'Olsen' by any chance? If so, I'm with Fred Olsen in March. £100pn is a good price. Sometimes there's late availability bargains, and you can get as low as £50pn, but you often end up with the cabins no one else wants, so it can be best to book in advance and get your choice of cabin.

I've been researching excursions today. I'd already worked out that 2 ports were fine on a DIY basis, so I noted down the tours we liked the look of for the other ports and it came to £1049! We were thinking of doing the dog sledding, but we've dropped that as it was £185 per person. We'd probably have to get winter sports added to our travel insurance. So it'd be well over £400 for about 30 minutes on the sledge. Will probably sub it for a trip to the ice hotel, and I've worked out 2 more ports will be ok for DIY. Will think about it for a couple more days. Norway is such an expensive country.

I weighed myself this morning. Only a quarter of a pound put on over Christmas, so that wasn't too bad. I'll now weigh myself on the last Saturday of every month. Hopefully I'll be able to report a loss at the end of January.

Just seen Cath's post - I think cruise ships are great for families and it's so exciting to see several different places in a short time, and only unpack the once!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel · 30 December 2017 at 7:50PM

Hello,,

Like you I would like to lose some weight in the new year. We are going to be away on a trip to India for a few weeks so I am planning to stick to veggie food, walk every day, and come back half a stone lighter. I will let you know if it works!

michelle09 · 30 December 2017 at 11:18PM

I think the MFW board will also into a weight loss board next month! And I am going to join in.

Not a cruise fan here, but my grandmother is talking about going on another one and I can't turn an 89 year old down.

Karmacat · 31 December 2017 at 10:18AM

KC, I've heard of Vision Cruise, they are well known cruise specialists. I think they have their own TV channel. I haven't heard of 'Ilsen' though. You don't mean 'Olsen' by any chance? If so, I'm with Fred Olsen in March. £100pn is a good price. Sometimes there's late availability bargains, and you can get as low as £50pn, but you often end up with the cabins no one else wants, so it can be best to book in advance and get your choice of cabin.

Good to know - yep, I think she was looking at a tv channel when she heard about Vision Cruise. Their website made me want to kill myself/someone else

"Ilsen" - I thought you wrote that somewhere on the last page? I thought it was code for "Olsen" :rotfl:

michelle09 wrote: »

I think the MFW board will also into a weight loss board next month! And I am going to join in.

Not a cruise fan here, but my grandmother is talking about going on another one and I can't turn an 89 year old down.

I need to watch my weight, but thats a simple matter of not eating too late at night, and restricting portion size - maybe half a stone? Toning my muscles would do more

Michelle - I think your grandmother is in the target age group, as am I

I'd never have considered a cruise before this year. At your age, but being unmarried, I was solo travelling to the Greek Islands and bargaining for a room when I hopped off the ferry. Or sleeping on trains. Or, when I started to take a credit card, waltzing into a hotel that I liked the look of

Time does things to us! Though if someone your age had little kids, cruises seem to be a really good idea to get the best of both worlds - a portable sea and sand holiday, so to speak

michelle09 · 31 December 2017 at 10:42AM

I definitely need more than half a stone but walking on crutches isn't helping unfortunately. Ah well, maybe it's finally time to work on the upper body strength.

I think you and my grandmother aren't exactly the same age group, KC! But it's her 90th next year so I might suggest we do a family trip somewhere. Not a big one - she's not keen to travel too far anymore - but just to give her a big one. Your Greek backpacking sounds amazing, definitely something I'd love to do if there was more time.

Goldie - Norway and the dog sledding sound amazing. The northern lights are beautiful, one day I will attempt to see them again. Is March a good time for dog sledding? (We had issues in December in Iceland. Something about 'no guarantee of snow.)

Goldiegirl · 31 December 2017 at 5:33PM

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Hello,,

Like you I would like to lose some weight in the new year. We are going to be away on a trip to India for a few weeks so I am planning to stick to veggie food, walk every day, and come back half a stone lighter. I will let you know if it works!

Sounds like an exciting trip. Was it easy to get the Visa to go to India, as I've heard that Indian bureaucracy can be quite difficult to get through. Would love to go there one day, but not sure it will happen, as there's too many other places to go! Will be interested to hear all about your trip, and it seems a good idea to eat veggie while you are there.

Karmacat wrote: »

Good to know - yep, I think she was looking at a tv channel when she heard about Vision Cruise. Their website made me want to kill myself/someone else "Ilsen" - I thought you wrote that somewhere on the last page? I thought it was code for "Olsen" :rotfl:

I need to watch my weight, but thats a simple matter of not eating too late at night, and restricting portion size - maybe half a stone? Toning my muscles would do more

Michelle - I think your grandmother is in the target age group, as am I I'd never have considered a cruise before this year. At your age, but being unmarried, I was solo travelling to the Greek Islands and bargaining for a room when I hopped off the ferry. Or sleeping on trains. Or, when I started to take a credit card, waltzing into a hotel that I liked the look of Time does things to us! Though if someone your age had little kids, cruises seem to be a really good idea to get the best of both worlds - a portable sea and sand holiday, so to speak

LOL. if I wrote 'Ilsen', it was a typo!:rotfl:

I've never been on Vision Cruises website, but I get increasingly annoyed with websites which are too complicated and you cant find the info the you want with ease.

I'd be over the moon with half a stone weight loss. A stone would be brilliant. I'm currently 3 stone more than I was on my wedding day 36 years ago. I'll never get back to that weight, but any decrease would do. It seems harder to lose weight these days. Another one of those age things I suppose.

I think cruises are for everybody, although the older generation often have the time (and the money) to do them more often. I'm 58 in March, and sometimes I still feel like one of the youngest passengers! But I don't go on the more family orientated ships, where the crowd is much younger.

michelle09 wrote: »

I definitely need more than half a stone but walking on crutches isn't helping unfortunately. Ah well, maybe it's finally time to work on the upper body strength.

I think you and my grandmother aren't exactly the same age group, KC! But it's her 90th next year so I might suggest we do a family trip somewhere. Not a big one - she's not keen to travel too far anymore - but just to give her a big one. Your Greek backpacking sounds amazing, definitely something I'd love to do if there was more time.

Goldie - Norway and the dog sledding sound amazing. The northern lights are beautiful, one day I will attempt to see them again. Is March a good time for dog sledding? (We had issues in December in Iceland. Something about 'no guarantee of snow.)

I like seeing the older people on board - it gives me hope that I'll still be cruising in 30 years time!

How lucky that you saw the Northern Lights, as I know nothing is guaranteed. Hoping we'll be lucky.

I think March should be ok for dog sledding in northern Norway, There's a big dog sledding race on at the time we are there, so I think there'll be enough snow. Not sure we'll be doing the dog sledding ourselves, it's very expensive. We're still thinking about what trips we'll book

Goldiegirl · 31 December 2017 at 5:48PM

Today has been a very dull and wet end to the year, and there was no chance of getting out for a walk.

I've got my diary ready for 2018. In 2017 I had a A6 size diary, but I was writing so much in it, that I've upgraded to A5 size for 2018. Then I did the meal plan for January, so that's all in the diary too. Feeling very organised now.

One of the things I've missed is getting ideas from other diaries. Watty mentioned that she'd applied for a credit card that doesn't have a fee for foreign transactions.

That got me thinking. These days, I nearly always use cards for spending in the UK, but still get currency for overseas. A credit card like Halifax Clarity would be ideal for incidentals when on holiday. It'd be better in Mr Goldie's name with me as an additional user, as his income is more than mine. But he gets huffy when I suggest any more financial shenanigans, so I might apply in my name. Halifax is my main bank, so they know me. My credit record is fine, but my income is low. But a small credit limit would be OK, as it'd only be incidental spending. Something to think about.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS · 31 December 2017 at 6:58PM

Hi GoldieGirl, we have a S@ntander card for when we travel. It killed me to take it out given our mortgage was with them when I started my diary and THEY DRIVE ME MAD but works well for travelling:)

Happy new year to you, Tilly xxx

The Big Adventure

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