twotravellersLondon

We're both really sorry to hear that you've all had such a perturbing experience. Even given the best will in the world, there's sometimes no fathoming the inner depths of some folk's minds... they're just so difficult to understand and deal with in any normal way. Thank goodness that the great majority of folk have the good grace, consideration and charity to be able to deal with these situations and move on with the determination to react by spreading a little joy and happiness where it's needed and appreciated! We've just had to change that last line... the AI spelling bot thought that... "happiness" should appear as hippyness! "Flower children?"... not quite our scene these days... although we once did have unisex jeans, cheesecloth shirts and at least one (then very, very trendy) Afghan coat... and we were known to have perfumed our flat with sandalwood incense. Naivety was bliss when we were so young... and innocent! Apart from all that wander along memory lane... it's a very, very nice day, bright sunshine a couple of cotton-wool clouds in the far distance and a balmy 10˚C... why be so happy... well the forecast is for overcast and a wind blast. Today it's a delight that the weather folk have got it so wrong again! Look out garden... "Here we come! (Ooops... the idea of a "second childhood of fun in the garden" has just crossed the mind... perhaps we do have inner "Flower Children!)

The real problem that we've often found with FOCL is the uncertainty in the run-up to the cruise of when the ship is expected to arrive and leave a port. On several occasions we've had people doing their own thing as independents arrive back in the half-hour or so between the "back on board time" published the evening before and the sail time. It used to be that late passengers were fined but no idea if that's still the case. One day in Greenland we were called back to the ship because, the rest of the passengers were all back on board an hour before the "given time" and the captain wanted to leave early. It was a pain! But... the captain invited up to his table a couple of days later! What we've done, once the excursions has been published, is to try and assesses the arrival and departure times from that... bearing in mind that on some occasions... excursion groups will be given priority before independents. So most often we have opted for the excursions. They are expensive but many people who travel on FOCL are cruising at less than cost price and so that's why there are so many pay for extras and the excursions are, as you say, a tad expensive. However in the past we've found that the best ones are often very worth-while and saves the hassle of the DIY approach. These are a few pics of a very similar cruise that we did on the Balmoral a few years ago... including the excursion to the Briksdal Glacier (The one we did was well worth the money!) There was a little shuttle, the Troll Car, from the visitor centre up to close to the ice-front... a good idea if the walk is a bit daunting... The walk is about 5k and 200m... but a good path.) The Troll-car has an additional charge and probably needs to be booked in advance... easy to find on the net. When we did a very similar cruise on the Balmoral we were so impressed that we booked on board for the following cruise and did a back-to-back. The company were so impressed we were upgraded and we had the second cruise gratis... those were the days! Very much hope that you enjoy your cruise.🤓😀

Good Morning! We have sunshine, we have blue skies, we had pretty birds on the garden feeder, we have "Christmas" Roses in bloom, we have fresh coffee and marmalade on toast for breakfast. Our blood sugars are perfect, our blood pressures would be the envy of 30 year olds and we're both hale, hearty and raring to make the most of the day. So decided to keep it that way and read this thread... rather than flick through the freebie on-line "Daily Dreads!" Later this evening... a touch of "mine dining" with "Oh!Yes! cuisine." A dietitian told us that the perfect plate is an "Eatwell plate" and we should look at it and see ⅓ vegies, ⅓ protein and ⅓ carbs... so the pea shoots are essential camouflage... aren't they! Hope all are well.

By contrast with the North-East we have 9˚C this morning, fine weather and the promise of some sunshine later. A chance today to tidy the garden a bit and cut back a Berberis hedge... trying to work up enough excitement to wash the car! Best wishes to all

Two years later... things have now changed significantly... Sweden is newly a member of NATO and is finding that it needs to very seriously beef up it's military presence on Gotland. Finland is also now a NATO member. There are reports today and yesterday in usually authoritative and trustworthy newspapers (and copied by some others as well) that as a result Russia plans more intensive exercises in the Baltic... both from Kaliningrad, where the Russian Baltic Fleet is now based, as well as from the rest of Russia. We've very recently cruised to within sight of Russian waters in the Baltic and the ship's Captain and the cruise-company were willing to do so. Long may that continue. Probably worth noting that cruises have continued unabated up the Norwegian coast despite various military exercises in recent ears.

The ones that we used were.

A very provocative sky this morning... 50 shades of grey! It's currently 11˚C and the forecast for later is a tad windy. The first excitement today is a small supplementary grocery shop... cupboard essentials that we keep in "just in case"... just can't have too many cans of mushy peas.... How the retired live between cruises! A Very Happy Birthday to Pauline... And... Best Wishes to all...

Really sorry to see that you were overcharged. We've never had a problem with taxis in Maderia... and time in port if often limited so they are, for us, the best option... unless where we want to go is a pleasant walk. Prices are fixed by the Regional Government and the Regional Taxi Drivers’ Association with set prices for common routes. There should be a list on the back of one of the front seats. Like in the UK it's usually you to approach the first taxi in the queue but often by agreement someone else from the line might be better placed to take the fare. Wheelchairs should be carried at no extra charge. However... is the afternoon tea still glorious... a great experience and a treasured memory?

So many people are booking that the ships are virtually full! Performance across Cruise, Travel and Money are on track. The Ocean Cruise underlying Profit Before Tax, cash flow, load factor and per diem are all ahead of the prior year. Net Debt at 31 July 2023, was lower than 31 January 2023 with available cash of £180.7m... Company is on track to deliver significant double-digit growth in both revenue and Underlying Profit Before Tax for the full year... it's ahead of current estimates. So there is no business reason to change. As you may suspect... we're waiting for a call!

Hope this helps... https://www.fredolsencruises.com/faqs/on-board/whats-the-dress-code-whilst-on-board

Proverbial storm in a tea-cup! Sorry this photo has been manipulated... we plead guilty as charged yer Anti-Social-Mediahship! 😇🤓

Very, very wet. Rain set in for the rest of the day. Cold 9˚C but feels colder. Good day to book our next holidays! Hope that all are well.

We would check very, very carefully. We've had the same suggestion and after a little research removed the email from our system, removed all cookies and deleted all history. Why... we've not used that antivirus software for over 10 years and that was on computers that have long since gone to the IT-graveyard in the cyberspace. There is currently a Microsoft windows defender security warning doing the rounds... it's a phishing scam used to gain to the a device.

Many thanks for the facts. It will be interesting to see how things pan out. The letters/emails to the Council by local residents are available and whichever way the court case went some folks were always going to be unhappy. The arrangements between the Town and the Cruise-lines always seem to have been handled in a professional and collaborative manner so that augurs well. Of course, the Town has a few Ace cards. It controls the cruise-coaches parking and pick-up, drop offs and it licences other facilities. As far as the UK market is concerned... one UK company that's taking cruises across to that part of the world has two newish ships with less than 1,000 capacity. So it will be interesting to see just what happens in the next few months. Thanks again.

So very true! This was a well-known P&O Ship which we took a pic. of in 2019... Manipulation is a matter of fact for virtually every photo published in the press... and it has been for decades. Trained as a magazine art editor in the early 1980s... I had a team of folk at big desks with photo negs, surgical scalpels and photo shellack. The did things like tidying up Princes Diana's hair when the photo had been taken on a windy day or removing a distracting background from around Boy George... later used the photo on the front cover of a popular magazine. Leap forward almost half a century, and just look at the free-to-view internet press... there's hardly a pic that hasn't been enhanced, cropped, redefined, sharpened, had the colours altered and the dynamics changed. Pictures used for advertising... even more so. There's nothing malicious in this... it's just to make things look their best. and remove and awkward things... perhaps the position of hands or awkward shadows. And this is our original pic... all changed or "manipulated" in the time that it takes to read these couple of paragraphs...

So grey here today that a troop of Elephants could hide against the horizon. Currently 7˚C, The "Sun has got his hat on"... as well as his raincoat, scarf, gloves and is so camouflaged that it would be easier to spot those Elephants. So... a warm and cosy day indoors today planning hols and outings! Best Wishes,

Happy Mother's Day! The best thing about Mother's Day is the chance to show love and appreciation for Mother. When that's not possible it's good to be able to look back, see and share a moment or two of happiness... so here it is... WWII over... men back from the war... village reunited... hope for the future... population booming... families growing. Mum's the one on the motorbike... (supported by Daddy)... she certainly seemed to be having a good time... "Grannie figure" in the background left holding the "bairn!" If only they could see what their hard-work and sacrifice achieved for their children. Today we have so much to be grateful for.

Our thoughts and hearts are with you all.

We never, ever take a plate of food... or even a shared picture of food... for granted. It represents care, hard-work, compassion, love, achievement, warmth and a natural heart-filled generosity. It has special meaning. We were both brought up in the dire days just after the end of WWII... when the menu of the day was "Eat it or Starve." Times were tough... never enough to eat... despite a mother and father who worked every single hour that God sent. For me growing up... Food was an achievement... obtained by hard graft, timeless dedication, raking the rocks for buckies (winkles), searching the hedgerows for berries. Sometimes fisher-cousins would give us some codlings... too small to sell... to help us out. We spent school holidays gathering seaweed from the shore and dragging it up the cliff to use a green fertiliser for the garden, gathering seafood by the hundred weight to sell to the fishmongers and then loading onto the train that would take them all the way to Billingsgate Market in far, far off London. Sometime I would crawl on my hands and knees through the shallow water of the sea sloughs with a crab pole... sometimes I would be lucky... most times not. At weekends, I would walk eight miles to and from a neighbouring village to buy some roasting beef and some eggs from a local butcher who would sell them cheap. (He was a distant cousin... and sometime my lovely great uncle would give me some strawberries from his garden.) My father earned £5,00 a week... the food budget was 10/- (ten shillings in 1960 would only be worth about £14.50 today)... five growing children to feed! In the spring we would walk the fields planting potatoes, in the summer we would gather beans, strawberries and raspberries for the local farmers (30 mile round walk there and back) In the autumn (holidays) we would collect the potatoes that we'd planted in the spring. That was a great time... part of the "pay" was to be able to take away as many spuds as we could carry at the end of each day... and if we were very ,very lucky a farmer would allow us to take what remained of the leftover turnips over (grown as cattle fodder). In wintery weekends... the ones that Burns described as "An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin, Baith snell an’ keen! An’ weary Winter comin fast," we gleaned the fields wearing hand knitted woolly mittens.. The spuds were what kept the family going; that was our staple; that's what we stored all winter and it was our wages that helped put the food on the table... me and my two younger sisters... in all weathers including ice and frost and snow... that and double digging a huge garden and eating kale, kale, kale and (you've probably got it... more kale! All supplemented with a tablespoon full of NHS cod-liver oil every morning. The treat in the sock at Christmas was for all of this backbreakingly hard-work was... one apple and one orange. I was 10! So married and decades later... we both consider food as a precious item. It's still an achievement to put a fresh healthy meal on a table and to be invited to eat with friends and family at their home or in a restaurant is a privilege that we personally can never, ever take for granted. Sharing food brings people together, it creates and strengthens bonds, forms unbreakable friendships. Nothing brings people together like good food and it always tastes better when eaten with friends and family. Even better? The warm-hearted, generous folk who are willing to befriend us, share their food with us, to engage in convivial conversation and to make life so much more enjoyable for all concerned. In today's world... it's good to see folk enjoying themselves, having something nice to eat and a having happy family time... nothing can be better.

We spent years researching our family history. We don't find it surprising that some folk are wary! It's not for sissies! One of us found that found that the direct line went back to an ennobled Italian family... a younger son had joined a great European crusade led by William, the Duke of Normandy, against the Anglo-Saxon, Harold Godwinson, who'd taken the throne of England. After a well-known battle at a place called Hastings, that young Italian was rewarded with a small parcel of land and a mill on a manor just north of London and after half a millennium his descendants rose to the dizzy heights of Lord of a neighbouring Manor... but they were on the wrong side during the times of Cromwell and the family were then decimated by the plague and left virtually penniless. The other traced a descent through fisherman, farmers, and the estate managers of great pre-independence Scottish estates... la number of them left thousands of letters, signatures and details in what is now the Records of Scotland. Before that the family were the lieutenants of one of the last great Lowland Scottish Earls of Pictish descent... the title is now held by Prince William. The medieval bell of the family church is now in a museum in Edinburgh. That side of the family were also decimated by the Scottish plague in the late 1500s and early 1600s. They lost their lands, home, status, influence and virtually their identity. Only to bounce back generations later and found what's now one of the most important medical institutions in the North of England. On the way we came across many a tale and evidence that left us... shaking to the core. Whether it be the part played by the family in revolutions... the father and his sons decapitated by the guillotine in front of the Bastille... a will signed by a trembling hand on a plague death bed and witness by ten relatives... none of whom survived. Or the part played by these two families over the last 1,000 years in all manner of events that we're unwilling to discuss on a public forum. Our researches changed us both. Some of the information delighted friends and family... some of the information had the opposite effect. Whether it be an involvement in smuggling, the family's faith at any time on their rather tenuous links to well known people of centuries ago... some folks were shocked. For instance... one branch of the family have an unusual surname... traced and deciphered it's an adopted puritan name based on now obscure scripture and very specifically linked to one estate and one incumbent of that estate... but nobody in that family today want to live with the idea that they are most certainly descended from someone who joined the mob that destroyed the local churches, smashed the stained glass, ripped the brasses from the chapel floors, beheaded the effigies, scrubbed the medieval wall-paintings from the cathedral walls or smashed the tombs of the saints. Genealogy is unpicking the lock on a preverbal Pandora's box. As well as the hatches, matches and dispatches, the high-days and holidays and the passion... that will make people laugh, cry and shed a tear... it may also reveal the pride and the prejudice and all manner of other things that people may well take to heart... and once released from the historical time capsule of "Pandora's Box" it may be regarded as a ticking time bomb that can never be put back. If folk buy into real genealogy the best advice is “Caveat emptor!” (Buyer beware!")🙈🙉🙊 And to always but always... think hard and respect the beliefs and feelings of others before sharing.

You don't need luck Brian... just your very own wonderfully resilient. take in all in the stride, go getter, personality is all that you need! But "Good Luck!" anyway.

When they do that to me the result looks like a satellite photo of Mars. Well... think it's Mars... there are whole worlds of possibilities.😅😇

Really beautiful morning today. Bright sunshine, blue skies, 5˚C and the promise of a brilliant day to come. Squirrels chasing each other around a tree in a neighbour's garden and a woodpecker calling... and a nuthatch on the bird-nuts. The second batches of snowdrops filling up at the bottom of the garden. And the warming kiss of a rising sun. Groceries already delivered, sprayed, sorted and ready for putting away. Grey, driech days were made so that we could appreciate days like this one... at least in our opinion... but we find that mornings are always the best part of the day... a time to wake up to the glory of nature and the promise of things to come! OK... it's just a "nice day"... but we wouldn't miss it for the world. Hope that all are well and enjoying whatever joys the day can offer.

As we suggested it might, the Town of Bar Harbor clarified matters on Wednesday of this week following the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine upholding the local ordinance to limit daily cruise ship guest disembarkation to no more than 1,000 visitors. One of the biggest cruise ships, The Voyager of the Seas, carrying more than 3,800 passengers visited Bar Harbour in 2022. (By contrast, the Icon of the Seas, the world's largest cruise-ship, carries up to 7,600 passengers at maximum capacity.) The cap of 1,000 cruise guests per day is scheduled to begin with the 2024 sailing season... early May through late October. The Harbor Master will cancel, or reject, requests for reservations made after the town voted on the ordinance on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 for all ships with lower berth capacities greater than 1,000 passengers.” But the Council will honour reservations made before the town voted. Passengers from these 2024 ships won't be subject to the disembarkation limits. It's likely that most of the 2024 calls won't be changed. For 2024, it's expected that the visitor numbers will be reduced by about 50% from the peak year. The council is already reviewing the 2025 season. Reservations made and accepted after March 17, 2022 will be subject to the ordinance. Rules for enforcement were still being drafted on Wednesday and will be made public. Hope this helps to clarify things a bit amid so much speculation.

Hope that some pf these bring back some shared very happy memories... it did for us when we looked them out. We're so sad that the Braemar has been lost to general cruising and we do think that FOCL has missed a trick... we were booked on a cruise that was cancelled de to the pandemic and the ship has never cruised again. Standing ovation in the Neptune Lounge is that last pic... Happy Sailing!