Lintee

Mero beach = easy to reach by taxi or, if you are brave, the local bus! It is a black sand beach with loungers provided free by beach-side bars if you buy a drink. There are a couple of rustic bars providing simple food and a great atmosphere and we saw the local fishing boats come in and land their catch assisted by a few old gentlemen who were paid in fish - very interesting. Sadly for us our itinerary has changes this year with Dominica being dropped and St Vincent added instead - very disappointing. Enjoy your day.

We always prebook - have done since the option was offered. For £30 each we are sure of sitting together, having a window and aisle seat, being near our friends and having the same seat on the return journey. We don't have to get to the airport ridiculously early in order to be at the front of the queue. Looking at the flight seat booker for our flight to Barbados next Friday all the window seats are now prebooked and most of the ones in the inner section too, so folk arriving to check in without prebooking will very likely be separated. We wouldn't want to take the risk but others don't t

Hi Leogoldie. As well as the four official formal nights you (and we!) will be on board for Burns Night which will give you another opportunity to wear your wonderful national costume. This is usually celebrated well on board, addressing the haggis etc., so for sure you will not be alone. Wear it with pride but try not to burn your knees in the wonderful sunshine we are expecting - spoils the look somehow!! Enjoy our cruise!!

True indeed but if the choice is between plated meals and self service I would certainly always opt for the former and leave anything I didn't particularly like. I have never yet been hungry on a cruise and always avoid the self service restaurants. We do use cabin service on occasions though, particularly if we are late back from shore and miss lunch.

Personally as long as the food is 'served' at my table by a pleasant and friendly waiter I don't have a problem with plated meals - if you watch Masterchef they would hate to have their artistically presented meals spoiled by adding your own dollop of veg! If this is the way of ensuring the food is served hot bring it on! When the day dawns that all meals are of the self-service type my days of cruising - and hotel holidays for that matter - will be over. The main pleasure of so called self-catering holidays is in the choosing of a restaurant for the evening so that would be my way forward.

Given the recent appalling weather conditions at sea and the news that pilots in Southampton were taking their passports with them as ships sailed out in case they couldn't get back, is there point at which the forecast would be deemed too dangerous for the ships to sail? Also, if already underway, what do cruise ships do if they are caught in open seas in severe storms and hurricane force winds? I have friends who were on their first cruise on the Marco Polo departing Tilbury on Christmas Day heading for the Canaries and have been very concerned for them!

Brewer's Bay, Tortola - our special place!

Please don't spoil this forum with petty squabbles and abusive posts. It has started so well and there seem to be some very helpful and friendly posters - it could turn in to a valuable resource for new and experienced cruisers alike. Let's give it a chance to develop without the need for too much policing by administrators and prove that we are mature enough to self-regulate.

Only thing I can add to all the above - and I totally agree these are the most stress-free holidays possible thanks to the slick organisation by P&O (we are about to go on our 13th such cruise) - we like to pre-book our seats on the plane. For £60 you can choose and book your seats for both journeys which takes away the anxiety around ensuring seats together etc when checking in at the airport. This is in the economy class, of course - the premium seats pay a lot more but we feel it is enough for us, the rest of the cost can be well spent on board ship!!! We have also found in latter y

Curacao has better shopping and an interesting swing foot bridge which opens to allow large vessels up river. If you are caught on the 'wrong' side,it is temporarily replaced by a ferry crossing. Grand Turk has much better beaches and a purpose built dock area with sandy beach, free loungers and very expensive bars! Taxi away to another beach for a more authentic and less expensive experience. We did a good (shallow) river-kayaking trip suitable for less experienced 'paddlers' in glass bottomed boats and had the excitement of seeing a ray swim directly under us.

You are a star!! We are a party of six and prefer to spend our extra pennies on Captain's wine package etc rather than on premium seats but we do feel it is worth the extra to ensure we can pass the eight hour flight in each other's company. Thanks. Lintee

Having suffered from norovirus at home - caught at a New Year's Eve 'do' I believe - I can confirm how horrid and debilitating it is. I can also confirm that it is possible for only one person in the home to have it - we managed to keep my husband free from it by vigilance with separate towels etc. daily bed linen changes, constant cleaning of all hard surface with an anti-bacterial and anti-viral spray and common sense. Given the regular deep cleaning undertaken in affected cabins, which we have witnessed in nearby cabins, I can understand why it is permitted for unaffected room-mates to move

Hi hturtle - how kind of you! We fly from Birmingham on 17th January and I have been checking the website every day. I notice today the bit about 9 weeks before seems to have been removed and all that remains in the paragraph next to the seat booking button below the flight details on the cruise personaliser page (if you get my drift!) which says approx. 12 weeks before departure. As we are now less than 12 weeks away I am getting fidgety! Lintee

We have used Bolsover many times and, as said by previous poster, always do plenty of research through other web sites prior to the phone call. That said, they always recognise you from your phone number, always offer to call back, so bearing the cost of the call and are all very knowledgeable and helpful. We did, however, prefer the old days when the agents were given leeway on cruise prices to offer their own discounts. We used to like the challenge of ringing around to find the best deal - usually with Bolsover I have to say but not always! I agree that in these days of fixed prices

For the past few year we have been able to pre-purchase our flight seats on P & O Caribbean fly-cruises - some don't feel it necessary but as we travel with friends we prefer to cough up to ensure we can sit together on the long flights. It has usually been possible to book from 12 weeks prior to departure, although their was a glitch last year when the web-site was down. As we depart 12 weeks on Friday I checked the cruise personaliser to see if, by chance, they had been released early only to find that, under the flights section in 'Before you Go' there is conflicting information