I subscribe to a news feed that sends me Carnival Corporation’s news releases. These cover the whole of the Carnival empire, so I receive notifications about news releases to announce new ships, new developments, occasionally information about corporate share dealings – and very occasionally, something about P&O UK. And yesterday there were not one but two notifications. Boy, was I excited! (I live a quiet life.) And then I read them.
One was about new flavours of ice-cream. They’ll come from an award-winning supplier called “Jude’s Ice Cream“, and they’ll be available “across all the ships in dedicated deck areas”. There will be eight flavours in individual 120ml tubs (Very Vanilla, Truly Choc, Strawberry Tease, Salted Caramel, Ginger Spice, Gin & Tonic, Brown Butter Pecan and Flat White Coffee). Family friendly ships will additionally serve the following nine flavours in cones: Very Vanilla, Truly Choc, Strawberry Tease, Salted Caramel, Mint Choc Chip, Honeycomb, Raspberry Ripple, Malted Banana and Dairy Free Coconut Sorbet. Here’s the link to the news release. So there’s another factor to consider when choosing your P&O ship: if you go on an adults-only ship you won’t be able to buy Mint Choc Chip, Honeycomb, Raspberry Ripple, Malted Banana (?) and Dairy Free Coconut Sorbet flavours of Jude’s Ice Cream. They don’t like to make it easy for you, do they?
I was still adjusting my world-view to accommodate this when the second news release arrived. This one was about new names to headline the Limelight Club on Britannia. I won’t go through the full list of names, but it includes Anne Reid, the star of Last Tango in Halifax – apparently she has enjoyed a career as a cabaret performer in addition to acting. Another name is “The One and Only” Chesney Hawkes. (Here’s a question for you: without looking it up, name any other Chesney Hawkes hit.) Plus there are other people who’ve done well on TV talent programmes – actually, “done reasonably OK” might be more accurate. Here’s a link to this news release.
I’m sorry, I know I ought to be more enthusiastic, but it’s a struggle. The Anne Reid thing sounds good – she’ll have a raft of memories to regale us with between songs, and that will probably produce a great show, but I can’t get excited about the others. But horses for courses. I ought to say that I’m not against the Limelight Club in and of itself. We spent an evening there with Jaki Graham in 2016. But she was a seasoned performer and entertainer and did a good show, even if her music wouldn’t normally be my first choice, and we enjoyed our evening very much. Am I perhaps being too judgemental?
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