Dreamer68

Thanks a million for this, @CCJack! I've sent a WhatsApp message and "Chris" responded immediately. I do my best to check reviews before booking. Something we did not have pre-Google days. LOL! Malta looks AMAZING and I'm guessing this first taste will have me wanting to return for more.

@CCJack, we are thinking about booking a half-day tour (Blue Grotto + Mdina) with this company because of your suggestion. I'm looking for some reviews on them but unable to find any. I'm guessing because their name is so generic the search term has gotten me everywhere but specific reviews for them. Would you say more about what tour you took and what it included? Thanks lots!! We'll be in Malta in about 4 weeks' time. Really excited!

Appreciate the added story and perspective, @PurpleTraveller! What an adventure you had! I was wondering if any of you might have an opinion about The Malta Experience...? Skip? Keep?

Thanks a million @Zana711! It is indeed our first time to Malta and yes, Valetta sounds like a glorious full-day visit in itself. I figured we might just share a cab between the 4 in the group for quick access to the Grotto. I found this half-day tour that looks great, starting at 9 am, details in the link in paranthesis (covers Blue Grotto, Rabat & Mdina) and gets us back to Valletta for an afternoon of exploration...and then we just switch our credits to get an excursion in Olympia instead. 🤷‍♀️ BTW - I bookmarked your blog to check out all your DIY ideas for all our stops to ensure I do not miss out on something I failed to read during my months of research. Awesome find!

Thanks for your question, @livetravelcruise07! We leave Barcelona the week after you on the Celebrity Equinox with Valleta being our first stop. Loving all the recommendations here. I've spent some time scouring the threads for several months now and I'm starting to get indecisive about what to do with our 8 am to 6 pm stop. We are currently booked on a 4-hour excursion (thanks to OBC) to visit 3 cities (Cospicua, Bittoriosa, and Senglea continuing to Marsaxlokk <-- we are interested in this fishing village, for a look)...plus a cruise around Valetta harbor. The problem is, the excursion start time is at 8 am (same as arrival time into Valetta). AND half of our 4-person group really would like to see the Blue Grotto. And I really want to hear about the Knights Templar. How might we enjoy the sail-into Grand Harbour in the morning, do the excursion we booked, find a way to see the Blue Grotto (read your blog DIY @Zana711 (thanks!! Your "sweat index" was helpful. LOL!) and back to walk around Valetta by 5pm? I have a feeling we need to drop something (the ship excursion)...or perhaps design our own DIY that prioritizes going to see the Blue Grotto in the morning after sail in, and then return to visit Valetta as per recommendations from @PurpleTraveller and @edinburgher? Any insights from you who know Valetta well? Thanks LOTS!

What an adventurous mind and palate! 😍I always have a "To-try/ To-eat" list set up before I travel. It's such a privilege to travel, indeed, why not get to know new places and people through the food they enjoy. I was in Belize last year, one of the Caribbean stops of the Celebrity Apex and we enjoyed a simple Belizian curry chicken stew with rice and beans and coleslaw which was cooked by one of our tour guides' mom! And boy, was it ever good! It was like coming home to a meal cooked by Mama, indeed. 😍 I'm working on my list now for our Mediterranean cruise coming up in less than 30 days!! I might just ask on this Foodie page what people recommend not to miss.

Thanks @Northern Aurora! That gives me some hope! We are trying to travel light, especially since pulling off traveling with just carry-on luggage on our Caribbean cruise on the gorgeous Apex last January...but that was just for 7 days, to a hot place.... and this time around, we're staying a few days in Barcelona before embarkation and a few days in Rome after disembarkation so... there's no way around packing a bit more AND doing laundry this time around. I remember a long time ago on our first cruise on HAL, there were laundry machines onboard. Gosh, I've aged! 🙂

Oh my!!! That's tiny!! For a charge of USD $50 or thereabouts per bag? Horrors. We're boarding the Equinox in May for an 11-day cruise and will have to do laundry...yikes! Can you even get a pair of long pants in there? DH is 6ft tall. I've seen videos on how to fold/roll clothes strategically to benefit well from the laundry bag but gosh, this looks like a shoe bag. 😭

In my suburb in Montreal, they plant select vegetables in some of our parks scattered all over their territory. One year, walking my dog, we found...yes... asparagus next to chives at the park closest to our home. Very cool! Someone else had appreciated the asparagus and had cut a few stalks Hahaha! Then, at the public library in the big concrete flower pots, there were tomato plants growing and nasturtiums (I plant nasturtiums at home to use their flowers to perk up my salads)... so awesome to see these edible designs and intentions. I wonder what they will plant this spring and summer. I'll share some photos if there's anything interesting.

LOVE this quote @CHPURSER! I'm an educator in a school where at any given time, there are at least 25 cultural groups represented. One of the best books I read my students taught them not to yuck someone else's yum. It was great hearing the kids say this quote throughout the rest of their school years whenever recess rolled around and interesting things came out of people's lunch bags. 😍 I've shared the quote with our church's mission teams before their travels abroad and I've been blessed with intriguing culinary adventures they dared to take overseas, especially when they were invited to humble meals of thanks from the recipients of the help the teams were bringing. 😍 PS - I think the quote is a general one about opening one's eyes to the amazing diversity of our world, about developing an open mindset in general. I'm thankful for my dad who traveled quite a bit for his work and therefore encouraged his kids to be readers and travelers. There are always individual circumstances that do not fit the general mold. I am sorry to hear you are homebound for the foreseeable future @lenquixote66. I hope you have amazing memories of your years of travel to keep you smiling and to keep sharing. It's been wonderful to read people's experiences here.

That's unfortunate that you've never eaten these. I understand how odors can deter anyone from trying something new. I am fortunate to have tasted wonderful dishes which included each of these... I have to thank my late dad for all the opportunities he offered his kids to taste as much of the world as possible. 😍

I'm curious. Why would you NOT eat these? Also, how were these served to you the first time you had them?I wonder if they were served differently if your palate might expand to include them...

Interesting, that's probably the only time I chew gum, when flying. 😂

Definitely cold! Give me a tall glass of anything when the temperature is over 28 Celsius. 🫠

Hi! I just confirmed a booking for my party of 4 for Rome for the first week in June. I've been checking since December. Prices have definitely gone up since then but we found at least half a dozen hotels under CAD $350/nt (our budget). For my first step, I used a Google search term, "hotels near Piazza Navona" as that was the area we wanted. When the list of properties showed up, I then used the price filter to indicate the minimum and maximum I was willing to pay per night and got about a dozen properties available. I double-checked all the reviews including stairs vs elevator (I hear you on that!) and managed to get a decent looking property with good reviews within our budget within a 5-min walk of Piazza Navona. I definitely checked to see if the hotel website gave the best deal. Most of the hotels on this thread were out of our budget range. Hope you find something suitable for you. PS - I also looked at VRBO and Airbnb.

How did you enjoy it? Calamansi is common where I spent a good chunk of my childhood (Malaysia). I love(d) it in a drink called "limau asam boi" made with calamansi lime and sour plum, a wonderful mix of sour and sweet (sugar syrup) especially served in a chilled glass mug filled with ice. Calamansi enhances several amazing chilli-based condiments in Chinese and Malay cooking in Malaysia. Yum!

Indeed, this is our first visit. I've already told my group we are waking up early enough for the sail-in. 🤗 I read there were a bunch of things we can see and do near the port so, we'd do that after returning from the Blue Grotto and Marsaxlokk. 👍 I'm very interested in the history of the Knights Templar. Wondering if the Malta Experience is worth it...?

Thanks! I'll check for Valetta bus schedule online. I'm presuming you used cash? Here's the ship excursion that we were interested in that's sold out.

Thanks LOTS @edinburgher ! I had seen the DIY thread but will go through it more slowly. IF it looks like we can just build our own day - walk around Valetta near the dock, take a taxi to get a boat out to Blue Grotto and see Marsaxlokk...that's good to know. I wonder if we can write Shore excursions at Celebrity to see if there is a waitlist??

Hello! We are a group of 4 stopping in Valetta, Malta at the end of May. We are interested in seeing the Blue Grotto but my search here on the forum keeps bringing up the Blue Lagoon which is not the same thing. Has anyone taken a boat tour out to the Blue Grotto and if so, which tour operator did you go with? There is a Blue Grotto + Marsaxlook + Valetta highlights option on a known site but at $1500 for a half-day thing, that's over our budget. Thanks for any leads!

Why feature "only" when you can feature "and"? When I travel, I enjoy the balance (if possible) of a taste of what's familiar to me and what's local and therefore foreign to me. In the absence of the former, I fully embrace the latter. 🙂So a cruise I'd enjoy would have many options of food. That's why I enjoy buffets more than MDRs (yes, I'm probably in the minority). I love variety. And technically, because I am from Asia originally, foods from the UK or English-speaking USA are considered "ethnic" to me. 😉

Thanks LOTS @KKB for sharing your thoughts on your MSC cruises. I will keep my mind as open as possible about MSC, probably follow the MSC board for a bit before trying it out, if ever. A friend of mine tried the Divina 5 years ago. It was her first cruise and she thought it was wonderful. It could be first time rose-tinted glasses which I sometimes have on as well. I did spend half a dozen years as a travel agent for a global travel company and we went on "Fam trips" (familiarization trips) and so my expectations for customer service are quite high because of what I've seen and experienced and my having won an award or two for that area as well. I also know to adjust expectations appropriately for different places in the world. E.g. don't expect North-American-style of spacious rooms in historic centers of European cities... or in Japan, to take my shoes off in a great many places. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your frugal life tips as well. They mirror ours as we live debt free before turning half a century. 🙂 I just haven't been able to convince DH to switch to a points credit card as we are getting good money back from ours. I'm glad I found this thread on CC...as often, the reviews and comments elsewhere on the CC board are from lifestyles that are so unlike mine, I do not know how to relate.

Joining this thread as well. My cuisine of choice depends on why I'm eating. 🙄🤷‍♀️😂 On date nights with DH, or girls' nite out, I'm generally about adventure and exploring what I do not normally serve at home or something that is prep-intensive that I do not have patience nor time for. Lamb is generally on my list (nobody at home likes it) and I try to leave room for dessert. I am blessed to live in a city of culinary delights so I'm spoiled for choice. When I'm feeling down or blah, nothing is better than something that reminds me of my mom's home cooking. So, anything along the South East Asian traditions would be my choice on those days. A sizzling ginger scallion Chinese beef dish or a warm meat curry over basmati rice or fluffy naan or a simple pork/ scallop rice congee would perk me right up. That plus fried bananas...with or without a dollop of vanilla ice cream on the side. 🙂

This one made me smile. You'd have peanut butter on a pizza but not sausage or mushroom? 🙂 Indeed, as the French say, "à chacun son goût" (to each, their own taste 🙂😋). Really nice to read what others enjoy on this thread. In general, I enjoy a good thin-crust pepperoni pizza. Or a quattro formaggi with Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheeses. A few months ago, I had a transit in Chicago and tried a deep dish pizza and my tastebuds were not persuaded to switch alliance from thin-crust to deep dish. Over the years though, I've realized I crave some vegetables on my pizza. This came from an unplanned stacking of a piece of ultra meaty pizza (pepperoni, bacon, sausage) atop a deluxe vegetarian slice (onions, tomatoes, green peppers, green and black olives, mushrooms, grilled zucchinis and artichokes) resulting in a messy open-style calzone that had a great explosion of flavours.😋 These days, I enjoy experimenting and have enjoyed pesto, chicken and artichokes as toppings for my last 2 pizzas. I'm looking forward to returning to Rome next spring after a 3-decade absence to try the pizzas there. Perhaps my more mature palate will appreciate a good Margherita pizza now more than I did as teen. 😉

Considering how widely you have cruised/ travelled, I did not expect to discover this of you. Especially considering up till recently, lobster was complimentary, and also part of the final sea day menu of most cruises I know. Why have you never tasted lobster, @lenquixote66? I love lobster! My love affair with it began as a student travelling through Shediac, Canada, trying lobster for the first time in a place known as the "lobster capital of the world." I've enjoyed this crustacean simply boiled with some garlic butter, or as part of an overstuffed lobster roll in Eastern Canada and the US, or most recently as part of Chuck Hughes's menu item of Lobster Poutine in his Montreal restaurant, Garde Manger. Hughes' Lobster Poutine "reigned supreme" over Iron Chef Bobby Flay some years ago. Or when I'm visiting friends and family in South East Asia, it's so satisfying to have lobster and other seafood cooked in 101 ways or more, from steamed to stir fries, cooked in curries, fried with salted egg, etc etc. Yum-oh!! Sadly though, lobster is not part of our normal day-to-day budget and so I'm intentional where I choose to have it. Incidentally, I enjoyed the lobster I had on the Apex in January 2023 before the Celebrity cuts rolled in. 😋