Harters

Are all the pasta dishes available as appetizer portions? I do like to go the traditional Italian four courses route when I'm in a upmarket restaurant setting.

And with high hedges, so you don't get to see too much scenery while driving about. It can be almost like driving in a tunnel. We spent a week in Mevagissey a few years back. If anyone has the slightest interest in gardening the Eden Project and Heligan are thoroughyl recommended.

It's years since I last visited Gran Canaria and can't remember the airport at all. But I'd generally agree with John Bull that the 10.05 could be do-able if everything goes well but the later one will be much more stress free.

Thanks for the explanations as to why cruise lines may require all their customers to produce passports for a British Isles cruise.

Ah, if only it was that straightforward, the question wouldnt have come into my mind. But the UK and Ireland have had a "Common Travel Area" agreement since Ireland's independence which means, amongst many other things, we don't need a passport to travel to each other's country. I could get a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin and, in the unlikely event that I was stopped, my bus pass is sufficient proof of ID. Nothing more formal needed. It's the original "free movement". Hence the original question about whether cruise lines require passports from British & Irish people when we don't need them if we were travelling in a different way. .

Out of curiousity, do cruise lines require folk with UK or Irish nationality to produce passports for such a cruise? It seems odd to need a passport to travel round my own country.

Me too, babs

I agree. Much too broad a question for me to answer with any conviction. I like food from my own cultural heritage and my favourite "foreign" cuisine is Middle Eastern if that's any help. If it helps more, all three meals today have been, or will be, enjoyable. Breakfast - bacon, scambled egg, mushrooms. Lunch - a fry up of roast pork and veg leftovers from Satruday night. Dinner - mutton hotpot, with pearl barley and salsa verde, followed by cheese (Red Leicester). And this week's restaurant meal is at our favourite Mumbai street food place where they've been putting on Sunday evening tasting menus from various Indian states and communities - this week's is from the Sindhi community (to which one of the owners belongs).

Perhaps the really "odd" aspect is his unwillingness to claim on his insurance. As his costs were as a result of a medical diagnosis (however wrong it proved to be), so you'd expect his insurers to pay out (unless he has undeclared pre-existing conditions)

That's been an interesting read. We had originally planned to take that cruise (after missing last year's version on Sirena?) but had to wait for some things in life to sort themselves out. In the event, by the time that was resolved almost at the last minute, the cruise had become waitlisted, so we booked a different one. Maybe third time lucky if there's a repeat next year.

What do you find lacking in the flavour, from what you'd expect? I am not the baker of the couple, but the one who is tells me that, at the most basic level, a cookie only has three ingredients - flour, sugar & butter. Flavour would be richness from the butter, sweetness from the sugar. So, as already suggested, a cutback on those ingredients or a substitution can really be the only reason for a lack of flavour

Lamb shawarma & a mixed mezze plate from Jaffa (on Manchester's "Curry Mile"). https://www.hungryonion.org/t/rusholme-manchester-jaffa-2023/33612

Mushrooms. My "best ever" pizza was at the Pizzeria Bardolino, in Bardolino on Lake Garda. It was everything you want from a pizza - crisp base, good tomato sauce, a restrained use of toppings, including cheese, cooked so that it was still a little undercooked in the middle. It's a few years since I was there but I've not had one to match since. Maybe it's because they include a "free" aperitif and digestif.

The UK version of the website currently offers the 4 category upgrade (on 83 cruises, available till 30/6) and Extraordinary Savings (on 51 cruises, available for a "limited time")

If you've not already done so, you may be better posting this to the MSC forum, where cruisers from all nationalities will see it.

Is that pudding as in any dessert? Or a more specific type of dessert? Reason for asking is that in British English pudding/sweet/dessert are pretty much interchangeable words. But, for now, I'll stick with a dessert that has the word "pudding" in ita name. Favourite at this time of year would be Summer Pudding but, in the cooler months, it'd be Sussex Pond Pudding. Although, in our date night restaurant meal this week, I finished with a lovely tangy Raspberry Bakewell Pudding.

Thanks for the advice. Emailed the TA's sales agent to ask. Now just waiting for their customer service team to get back to us. By the by, I spotted online that Regent send their email at 14 days before, so maybe O will also be that (in which case, I'm still outside the date)

Or, perhaps not if you're in the UK. Completed check-in and printed boarding passes last week but, as yet, no "summary" email. Would it be telling me anything I don't already know (boarding pass tells me the where and when and our online reservation has details of excursions and speciality restaurants).

I'm presuming that, unlike some others, I'm not getting the blue book for our cruise in a couple of weeks. But should I have received the Final Cruise Summary email by now?

I know that the OP is North American, as are all other contributors to the thread, but I'd be interested in reading any experiences, about perks, from British cruisers who have booked through a TA here. Have you received any of the perks that seem to be commonplace on the western side of the Atlantic? I have a sense that the TA industry operates differently on this side of the "pond" but confirmation, one way of the other, would be good.

We all eat what we like to eat. But, I'm curious about language - are these not "ethnicities" to you?

I'd head for the beach at Barceloneta which is very central to the city (almost at the end of the Ramblas). Nice beach and general area. Lots of casual restaurants (with top quality seafood, IMO) and bars Last time we were there, it was a major fiesta. Regular customers from the various bars dress up in costumes and parade round the area, stopping at each bar on the way round. https://oldbcn.com/es/agenda/604-festa-major-de-la-barceloneta-2

Yes. I say that based on the argument that developed at a family gathering only last week. There were the proponents of the " protest now urging something must be done" point of view, and others of the "protest is not legitimate about this" view. It got heated.

Our upcoming cruise is on Nautica and, like the OP, I'd looked at deck plans without success. So, thanks for the posts, I've found it now. We're in a PH so have the three "free" bags of laundry, which will be fine, but I understand these come back folded but not pressed, so I'll be needing that iron & board. Any suggested times when it's likely to be not too crowded?

A good rule. We generally adopt that unofficially even for any family gatherings (let alone a wider circle). But, from time to time, issues get mentioned. There are family members who have a very conservative political outlook and others have a very progressive outlook. It never ends well.