Harters

Other than my suggestion upthread, my other advice would be to look at sites other than CC. There are Oceania Facebook groups which might have a more relaxed attitude to mention of TAs. The Tripadvisor cruise forum also has no restrictions on naming names - which, seeing as it owns CC, makes CC's ban not only unhelpful but just downright weird.

Basically - put a lot of business O's way. And, in return, getting "perks" - which probably include cash incentives (probably a reason why it often appears that North American customers can get a better deal than customers from other countries) Google found me a letter from O welcoming a new company to the group. Obviously I can't mention the company, so have blanked out mention of their name but it should help inform about the "Club" "On behalf of the entire team at Oceania Cruises, it gives me great pleasure to welcome (deleted) into our Cruise Connoisseur Club. Your contribution to our success as well as the significant business you’ve booked with us for the future has qualified your agency to be a member of this prestigious club. As you may have heard from industry colleagues or your Regional Sales Director, the Cruise Connoisseur Club is Oceania Cruises’ recognition and rewards program for our top producing travel agency partners which provides an array of benefits and perks. It is our pleasure to present (deleted) with a personalized recognition award to commemorate your club membership. Again, we deeply appreciate the outstanding support of Oceania Cruises that you’ve demonstrated and we’re delighted to be able to recognize you in this new and exciting way. We look forward to working closely with all of our Cruise Connoisseur Club members and to enjoying a mutually successful relationship for many years to come."

Oceania has a group of preferred travel agents known as the Oceania Connoisseurs Club. A Google on this name may well find companies who mention their membership on their website. Only of help to O's customers in North America as all the companies are based there/

Not the hop on/off then but a normal public bus service (which seems to run between the Plaza and Castle). Could you not just give your taxi driver the address of the castle? If your fishing destination is within the Barcelona municipal area, the taxi will have a city licence and the driver is bound to know the castle. If some distance away, where the driver may not know the city well, maybe get the taxi from the fishing place to, say, the Plaza and get the bus or a taxi from there.

Is this the hopon-hopoff bus? If so, then it operates on public roads just as a taxi would. I cannot recall which stop for the Castle would be the best (I think there are three stops on Montjuic - and we only got off at the one for the Miro gallery, but, if you could work that out then you would have a destination to be able to tell the taxi driver. Getting a taxi back after the castle may be an issue - I can't recall seeing taxi ranks up there (although I wasnt looking for one).

O will have an agent at each port. You could ask O if it would be possible for this company to receive it for you and pass it on when the ship docks. By the by, I'm impressed at the dedication to your country's democratic process.

I'm sure you're right but, in Belgium, you will often find that the likes of mussels are off the menu in the summer months.

I've seen a couple of websites discussing recommendations. My plan is to work out our sight-seeing walk and then see which recommended ones are near the walk, so we can combine being tourists and being eaters.

Not least because of folk like me who don't carry a mobile phone of any sort, let alone a smartphone.

Absolutely. A leisurely MIchelin starred lunch may be a possibility but I think it may cut into our sightseeing time a bit too much. More likely we'll look to sample pintxos in a couple of bars and leave a fuller food experience for a long weekend trip.

Wouldnt the difficulty be in not knowing when the ballot paper would arrive, therefore not knowing which port to have it sent to? The law may well be different where you are but, here in the UK, an absentee ballot paper would only be sent to the address registered on the electoral roll. I have a similar interest. We may well have a general election sometime in the autumn and we're going to be in Cyprus for a couple of weeks. We are registered for postal votes but hopeful that the timings won't clash. Nothing we can do if they do.

Thanks. The first link is particularly helpful - seeing a ship in the bay. As you say, the tender point must be the small marina/port at the northern end. I can plan my walk round the "old town" from there.

They will have just made the assumption, as I did, that everyone uses A4.

No need to guess about my decision. It's exactly as you write (as I mentioned at #33), although I'm not sure my decision is particularly polite. It's just a decision.

I've been to two funerals in recent years (both my in-laws). There was no dress code and I don't think anyone wore a jacket.

I've never even heard of "letter size" - and years back, I used to be responsible for stationery purchases (amongst many other things) for the government agency I worked for. I remember that, when I was at school back in the 1960s and before we had metric sized paper, the standard paper size was "foolscap" (8 x 13 inches, so Google tells me). I'll file this one away in my mental "learn something every day".

Absolutely. I have no issue whatsoever about a cruise line, or a restaurant on land, having whatever dress code they want. If they make clear what it is, then potential customers can decide whether or not to go. There was a Michelin 2 star restaurant in London that I wanted to go to for many, many years. They had a "jackets required" policy so, of course, I never went. They were increasingly out of step with the modern restaurant "scene" and , in due course, changed their policy to "smart casual" as most upmarket places specify if they have a policy. Needless to say, we quickly booked our hotel and four hour round trip train journey to go and enjoy it. Had an excellent time.

I'm genuinely gob-smacked that the US does not use A4 paper. I assumed it was the generally accepted international standard. That said, it explains why, when I've bought paperback books in the States, they're a different size to those here. The link in #2 is obviously one way forward but one which wouldnt be a help to me as I don't carry a mobile phone. If you do feel the need to have a print copy (as I obviously would), then download the tickets to your computer and then print (playing around with margins. or a "fit to page" button if needed to fit whatever your paper size is).

I imagine the vast majority of my fellow Britons might well agree with you. It seems to represent a bygone age that is no longer typical of my country. I wouldnt touch them with the proverbial barge pole, even if it was free. But then I have no interest in sailing with any line that has what I consider to be old fashioned dress codes. I don't go to any of the tiny minority of land based restaurants here that require a jacket and I've no intention of going anywhere on holiday that might require me to wear one (or feel out of place if I didn't).

Palma is a lovely compact, very walkable, city where you could happily spend a day. I know the Soller area well - my nephew and his father originate from there. The train used to be the way that locals would get to/from Palma, often for work. Since the opening of the tunnel through the mountains, in the late 1990s, folk will now more generally travel by road. In consequence, the train is now much more of a tourist attraction than "locals lifeline". It's a pleasant journey through attractive scenery. Soller is a nice small Spanish town. Good for a bit of a wander about through it's pedestrianised streets, like the Calle de la Luna. The big tourist draw is the tram, which connects the town to seaside resort of Port de Soller. It dates to 1913 and the cars, still in use, were purchased in, I think, San Francisco (where they were being replaced with new models). The small resort is not particularly interesting - while family members do holiday there, i am not amongst them (preferring the Pollensa area on the northern coast). If you are going to get the tram to the Port, make sure you allow enough time for your return to town. The trams do get full, particularly in high season. Also, a family member noted on a trip last year that taxis, once plentiful, are now few and far between with drivers preferring the more lucrative journeys to the airport.

That doesnt seem likely. If the ship was going to the port then surely it would dock there, rather than tendering.

We recently booked on board. As I recall, the discount was limited to 250USD, together with a similar amount offered as onboard credit (which we used on that cruise, rather than the future one). So, quite a small amount in itself. If you choose to do so, you can reallocate the cruise to a travel agent of your choice, so long as you do that within 14 days of the cruise ending. That's what we did, negotiating further discount. Taking both the onboard deal and the TA's deal together, the saving on the website "promotional fare" was about 12% As regards gratuities, these are now included in the cruise fare for British customers (and, I think, other Europeans),as they have been for Australia and New Zealand customers for some time.

Assuming this cruise is tendering at San Sebastian, does anyone know where the tender boats come ashore?

When we did our first cruise with O, in 2017, the crew's name badges also included their nationality. I think I counted over 20 - including one fellow Briton.

Catalan is the local language in Barcelona. Spanish (Castilian) is their second language. In the Balearic islands, they speak a dialect of Catalan - my partner's sister lived on Mallorca for many years, early in her marriage. She's fluent in Spanish and has workable Catalan. It was (and may still be) a requirement that children at secondary schools learn English and reach a certain level of competence. She offered private coaching to students in conversational English. The use of Catalan was suppressed under the dictatorship so its probably no surprise that it is fiercely protected. I'm sure it forms part of the political movement for Catalonia to become independent from the rest of Spain