David Williams

The advantage of BF is that it gives a choice of routes and crossing times to allow us to pick what suits us, we all have different requirements. I did Plymouth / Santander this year, however as I live in London we chose to spend a night on the way to Devon, I would not do that to Portsmouth. BF publish the timetables and costs and we select what we want (or not). I was actually unimpressed with the Pont Aven, the glass lift looks a very cheap version of one in a cruise liner and the paddling pool looked out of place., however I did like the Nespresso machine in the Commodore lounge.

The mascot looks like it came from Stena ! https://shipsmonthly.com/news/ships-monthly-august-2021-issue-out-now/

Update on testing, we took the Randox day 8 tests yesterday and received the negative results around midday today. The day 2 results were received by 9am the next day. Both were better than the quoted service level of midnight. We did have some questions re despatch of the day 8 set (as we had originally just ordered day 2) and did get sensible replies on facebook messenger. Therefore, it seems to be good value (the airline discounts are better than the BF one !) and reliable, however the kits should be ordered well in advance of need, they are not put though door (left with neighbour) and it is vital to ensure you have a dropbox or DX depot close - the dropbox is especially needed around weekends. Total cost of tests were 25 Euros in France to return and £86 for day2/8 in the UK per person (ie less than £110 per person in total). Note that in Scotland and Wales kits are twice the price ! Totally sick of the daily calls, with one exception they all wanted to read through their scripts as fast as possible with no attempt at clarity. I was surprised just how much tension is caused by taking the 3 tests. Re leaving France, I don't see the point of taking any test other than the Antigen, it is all properly controlled with a nice printed certificate in 10 mins - just make sure that the contact details of the Pharmacist are stamped on it .

pi ( π) is fine, however I not so sure that many would know phi(Φ ) and psi( Ψ ) They would have been far better off sticking to the phonetic alphabet which was invented by the United Nations in the first place for air travel before it became known as the Nato Phonetic alphabet - it was even designed with some redundant letters for the French to leave off !

I once spent an hour in Tahiti & was surprised on landing to see the officials in French uniforms !

And is this the furthest from a thread topic that we have gone ?

I am looking forward to my 2 night crossing on the Galicia next year, I think that the timings are excellent. Hopefully by then the restaurants will be running as planned.

That’s the one that will be replaced by Amorique III aka Cotentin.

An alphabet with pi, phi & psi is not great for International use !

So far we have got to the easy greek letters, it is going to get confusing from this point in.

So that is how to get moderator intervention, ignore History !

Reunion and France are on the Amber list separately and the special note just refers to France https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england#amber-list

They have not got their brightest ministers on duty today, I note that Reunion is Amber and not Red !

Don’t forget that there will probably be a second Armorique !

Yes it can be an Antigen test, the rules are very precise on the govt website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-for-people-travelling-to-england