OzKiwiJJ

I wouldn't exactly call much of the limited and poor quality wine offered under the Plus package enjoyable. But at least you get 25% off buying better wines by the bottle.

I'd rather have a Nespresso machine, and have them in mini-suites as well like Cunard does.

I'll be taking my Camilla collection on the world cruise. Sadly Cunard didn't have pheasant in PG. I hadn't thought of combining fennel and raddichio. That would be nice. I love roasted raddichio. Now that would go well with kangaroo, as does roasted beetroot.

Try pancetta. Buy in the piece if you can but not the spicy one. You might be able to get guanciale at one of the markets, like Prahran. Guanciale is cured with lots of black peppercorns which enhances the pepper flavour in the carbonara.

My GD gave the kaarage quail recipe from the cooking school restaurant menu and I really want to try it but I haven't seen any quail in local shops for ages. I'll have to see if my butcher can get some in for me. I miss pheasant! When I lived in NZ and worked part time in Rotorua there was a pheasant farm nearby so a couple of the local restaurants used to have it on their menus regularly. Princess used to have pheasant on one of their formal night menus for the first few years we were cruising but it diasappeared off the menu around 2018 or 2019. I had grouse at a restaurant in London once. It came with all the trimmings, which were excessive! We're the same as you re rare meats, sashimi etc. I made a scallop ceviche last week. It's very yummy served on witlof.

We've got used to the pecorino taste but sprinkle extra Grand Padano on top which mellows out the pecorino, and I would go back to using that in a pinch. But I don't think I could go back to not using guanciale! I don't speak Italian either. 🤣

There was a border checkpoint at the South Australia border when we drove through from Broken Hill in 2021, checking for fruit, tomatoes etc.

It's really nice - similar to venison. It's a very lean meat so it has to be cooked very rare or it goes tough.

There are so many variations of carbonara but I have never ever used cream. A while ago I started trying to make it as traditional as I could since we're now able to get guanciale (cured pork cheek) at Harris Farm Markets. OMG,it's so good! Then I started using pecorino instead of parmesan - it has a slightly different taste so it took a bit of getting used to. Then I tried not using garlic and decided I liked it that way best. I prefer to use one whole egg with an extra egg yolk as using only egg yolks makes it too rich for my taste, but too whole eggs isn't rich enough. Who'd have thought a simple dish like that could become so complicated! 🤣

Happy Easter everyone. I decided to try something different this Easter - hot criss bun bread and butter pudding (RecipeTin Eats). Unfortunately I used Coles hot cross buns which were a bit too light and fluffy so turned to mush. It still tasted good though.

Happy Anniversary, Leigh.

Nooooo! I love Bravo! I prefer it to Encore. It hasn't been on many of the Australian cruises for ages so I was delighted to see it on Diamond last November.

Yes, we always put our laundry on the bed before dinner. We've always done that, it just seems more sensible.

But those who don't have free laundry might like to have a laundry package. I'm not suggesting options within drinks packages, just bundling the selected standard drinks package of whatever type with whatever is chosen from the other things. But those who don't drink alcohol might like to be able to choose a no-alcohol drinks package bundled with internet and gratuities say. Essentially every item would have a bundle price and the chosen items added together would give the package price for that person. It actually wouldn't be technically difficult to implement, especially with the medallion technology.

Not completely individual but being able to select between a few options would be good. Celebrity used to do this in the past - you could choose between the drinks package, internet, gratuities and OBC. Any combination from one to all. For example Princess could offer: - Drinks packages - full, no-alcohol but coffees etc, sodas, coffees only - Internet - Gratuities for non-Australian cruises - Speciality dining x number per y days depending on length of cruise - fitness classes x number per y days depending on length of cruise - OBC or Excursion credits - Laundry package (like HAL has) Select your options then the package price is shown which you can accept, change or decline

It's actually not a surcharge as what they seem to have done is remove the lowest category in cabin classes, typically the "F" category, for being booked directly so the pricing that shows for "choose your own" is one category higher so slightly more expensive. However it's annoying for people who preferred those blocked category cabins.

Some of the current Princess ships I've been on have pools with steps. The Lotus Spa pools on the Grand class ships, the Retreat pool on Royal, the Sanctuary pool on Coral.

I think there was a ramen station in the buffet.There was also a miso soup station where you could add various things to the soup but I can't recall if that included udon. I don't recall anywhere to make your own sushi either.

All the menus on that cruise were good. Plus we had a waiter team that actually understood wine service and, since we were buying wines by the bottle as the Plus wines didn't suit us, they sourced Riedel glasses for us every night. It was an exceptionally good Princess cruise. Unfortunately I suspect we will be brought down to earth with a thud, foodwise, when we embark on the Australian world cruise next month.

True. Again, it's usually the newer ships where a high percentage of public space is shops not lounges/bars. That's why I was pleasantly surprised by Virgin.

It depends on the size of the ship, I guess. Bigger spaces are needed for some things, especially trivia, but we found the small bars on Resilient Lady really nice for a quiet drink at times, and if one was crowded then we moved on to a less crowded one

True! Virgin wasn't too bad though. There seemed to be little bars tucked away all over the ship, inside and out.

I suffer from insomnia so those bright night lights are a health issue for me as they wake me up and it can take hours for me to get back to sleep. My "bits and pieces" kit now contains masking tape (painters tape). Sufficient layers of that blocks the sensor nicely.

I prefer twice daily cabin servicing, especially if I'm in a balcony cabin or lower. Why? There is nowhere to sit in those cabins other than one desk chair or stool so someone has to sit on the bed, and it's much nicer if it's been made up. We shower in the evenings and I hate having wet towels around the bathroom all night. They never seem to dry properly on those miniscule towel racks and there is nowhere else to put them except on the floor.

On one cruise we ended up next to a door slammer, ones where they were slamming the door hard against the wall when opening it. After a couple of days of constant slamming we waited until they came back to their cabin, complete with the usual door slam. As we left our cabin I slammed our door as hard as I could against the wall. We never heard another door slam out of them for the rest of the cruise! 😊