Food poisoning at sea

[James Curry]

Never cruised but would like to do a river cruise sometime. I have had the misfortune of being on a Ryanair flight or may have been Easy jet heading out to Spain. The behaviour of some, bloody hell Stag do's Hen do's, have fun but really get hammered in the bar before even boarding the out bound plane.
When I was with BP they supplied a Priorty lounge pass so you could sit and relax before your flight. Then these passes became popular with Joe public. One of the nice things about the pass was it got you into a lounge were you could have a drink a light meal and relax.
Next thing is the lounge has a family with a load of kids running riot. Bloody disgusting behaviour. One guy took exception to this. Big lad , he told one of the kids to behave, Kid tells his dad, dad came over and started mouthing off, lol, picked yhe wrong bloke to be having a go at. Dad missed the flight as he reuired medical treatment. Got to the stage I never bothered using the pass in a UK airport. A lot of Brits on holiday or travelling on holiday really are assholes. I can imagine what large family groups going cruising (Booze Cruise) may well be like.

[Des Jenkins]

Hi Johnny
Bogan is an Aussie term, comes from the Bogan Moth, a big bugger that swarms at certain times of the year, They seem to be around Canberra, maybe old politicians, The Aboriginals eat them, think their the best thing since sliced bread arrived here.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

The Bogans we had were ordinary people who did not stand on ceremony.
Same clothes each day, in the bar, big groups in the buffet making a lot of noise.
But never caused trouble, just out for a good time even though it may look a bit rough to us.

[Johnny Kieran]

My problem is, that I see cruising as a very peaceful and relaxing time spent away from everyday life, that's how cruising was at one time, for everyone on board. I just can't stand that constant noise on ships these days. From early morning till late at night, there's loud crap being played. Up on the decks, music is blasting out and nowhere to hide from it. Same thing down below, bars roaring out music, quiz's, bingo, you can't escape it.
But I will escape it after our next cruise, I just won't be going any more. Unless, as I said before, it's a freebee.
I suppose the likes of P&O are in the cruising game to make money, not to please miserable old git's like me.

Oh I forgot to mention the food. That was another attraction for me, but these days the food is crap generally. They tend to cater for fast feeders, and all the old menu's have virtually gone. I must add, that I have had the odd lovely meals lately, but only the odd ones.

[happy daze john in oz]

Never has any od those problems with Princess but must admit the only one we ever did on P&O Australia was like the cruise from hell.
Had it been our first doubt we would have done another.

But we find you can enjoy the cruise in so many different ways,
The menus are good, music is restricted to certain parts of the ship, in the buffet but not the dinning rooms.
In the theater and crooners bar but not the others.
It all depends on what you like or want.

Royal Caribbean are just too big, have done 3 with but on smaller ships, only about 78000 tons.

[Johnny Kieran]

One of the problems for me, is the bars are not closed off. They're just another open area as you stroll along the deck. I like the Jaz bar on the Sky Princess, proper doors either end and decent music. Foods pretty good in the buffet too.
My favourite cruises were always on the P&O Oriana, not overcrowded, good food, and plenty of places to lie in the sun on your own in the quiet.
But, like everything else, not big enough for making loadsamoney from loadsapeople, so replaced with floating holiday camps.