Scottishclover

Really enjoying your report. Thank you for taking the time. Cruising in Norway is spectacular and I can’t wait to see what you get up to at all the ports. Remember to get up early for the sail into Geiranger. We are just back from a cruise to Italy and Greece on the Beyond. We are big DIYers normally but with lots of OBC we did a couple of Celebrity tours and were also pleasantly surprised. Enjoy the rest of the cruise 😀

I know, summer in Northern Europe can be unpredictable. We had very mixed weather the last time we were in Norway. Personally, I found we just about got away with the heat on this cruise. It would have been a lot more comfortable if it had been 10 degrees cooler. Mid 20s is my sweet spot😎 I did enjoy waking up though and not worrying about the weather. We are not used to that here😂

DH didn’t eat in Raw on 5. Japanese food is not his thing. The big issue I see with eating there gluten free is soy sauce. I use gf soy sauce at home when I’m cooking but not sure if they could accommodate at Raw on 5. Maybe others will have some experience of this? Sorry.

KOTOR What did we do? Hiked the Ladder of Kotor first thing and then had a wander around the old town What did others do? Some people did boat trips in the bay and visited Lady of the Rocks Church at Perast. Judging by how busy Kotor was after our hike, I think lots just went to the old town. Need to Know Kotor is a tender port. Tickets for tender were available at Craft Social. Journey around 15/20 mins. Old town was about 5 mins walk from tender dock. DH and I got out on deck for around 6 for a very serene sail in to Kotor. A friend at my Zumba class and father in law had both suggested this. The morning light was very pretty. After a quick breakfast we donned our hiking gear and caught one of the first tenders around 7:30. We were so early, tickets weren’t required at that stage we just walked straight on. Kotor Bay from the tender dock. There’s information booths just at the entrance to the old town and we got some maps and directions. We had to go old skool as our roaming data did not include Montenegro. It took us a little while to find the start of the hike and it’s not really well signposted. It’s left of the old town over a bridge then head for the path up by the Pekara Bakery. We were on the right path but it’s not obvious. When we finally started the hike it was 8:30am and already hot🥵 We each had our own filled water bottles with us plus a Celebrity water bottle too. We didn’t consider the hike to be too strenuous as it’s a series of switchbacks which cut out the steep incline. You can go even further up than us but after about a 2 and a half hour climb amongst stunning views, we decided to turn back. It’s best to do this hike as early as possible as parts of the path are shaded in the morning. If you are fit at all I would really recommend doing this hike. You don’t even have to go too far, as far as the fort would give you the views. The view from every corner was just wow. I just hope the my pictures do it justice. I’ll let the photos talk for themselves…. Early on we had an exchange with this man and his donkey who told us he was “ a proud Croat”. A tall ship sailed into the bay as we were walking. The fort, about a third of the way up. You can access it via steps from the old town. Can you spot the Beyond? The path was not well defined in parts. Hiking boots would be ideal but we just had our trainers. The sweat on my back is evidence of how hot it was!! You can see the switchbacks here. There were a lot of mountain goats around. There were a few people hiking but we mostly had the path to ourselves. We just kept going higher…. ….Until we got to this point on a kind of plateau and decided to turn around. Just checking The Beyond is still there on our way back down! By this time it was getting so hot. So hot in fact that the snakes were out sunbathing. Yes, I got a bit of a fright when a black snake slithered across the path in front of me. I’ve googled - it might have been a Whip snake. Needless to say I did not stop to take a photo and increased my speed to get off that damn mountain! I’m not going to lie, it was harder going down. The monotony of the switchbacks was beginning to get to me and DD1 a bit and we were trailing the others. To make things worse, our water was now getting to a premium. Nearly down….. but still pretty. In total we had been hiking pretty much nonstop for 4 hours out and back. The Ladder of Kotor hike does go a bit further but I don’t think the scenery gets any better. Once off the mountain, we headed in to town for a much needed drink and look around. The old town is set against a beautiful backdrop. Kotor was a bit like a mini Dubrovnik but more authentic.It’s pretty but tiny and still has a bit of an undiscovered feeling about it. I will say it felt a bit swamped by all the cruise guests. I couldn’t imagine spending more than an hour or two here. Doing the hike was a great idea for us. Just so you know there are a lot of stray cats lurking about in Kotor. I am not a cat lover and found this a bit off putting but I know lots of people find this cute. After a potter about, we decided to head back to the ship. We did have about a 20 minute wait to get the tender and the cold towels and water came in very handy while we were hanging around. Kotor Verdict I think you can probably guess what I’m going to say here. It was our favourite port but that was probably due to the hike. We are not good at just looking around and shopping, we need to be doing something active. I think you would be hard pushed to beat Kotor for scenery anywhere in Europe. It’s like Norway but with decent weather. By the way, the deck was still busy at 7pm for the sail out. Plan on eating your dinner later that night.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the Silhouette. Another possibility for us for next summer is Baltics again ( some different ports from last time). Just not sure about Silhouette after being on Apex and Beyond.

In an attempt to help @wineoclock to persuade her DH to go on the Beyond, here’s my thoughts on the food. First know that we are not foodies and have food preferences/ restrictions. I don’t eat meat, DH is has coeliac disease so needs gluten free and both daughters are vegan. I’m pretty sure the servers hearts must sink when they see us coming😂. Oceanview Cafe We ate here for breakfast everyday and lunch most days. Fantastic selection. If you can’t find something you like, there’s something wrong with you. I thought the quality of what we ate was excellent. Typically this was: dishes from the Vegan corner ( 2 daily), Indian food, Salad Bar, hummus/meze station. Can’t comment on meat etc. On occasion, I had grilled mackerel and salmon with salad, which was nicely cooked. I also appreciated the Make your own Greek Salad station. At breakfast and lunch there is a dedicated gluten free bread and dessert section. DH thought choice had improved since our last cruise. The girls felt there were lots of vegan choices at lunch. Breakfast was slightly trickier but they coped. I think some vegan pastries would have made their day. A few criticisms: 1) Labelling needs to better. There’s actually a lot of vegan food throughout the buffet but not labelled as such. Cakes labelled as gf and vegan in the buffet were then just labelled as vegan at Cafe al Bacio🤷‍♀️ Bottom line be proactive and ask if you have food allergies. 2) DH was royally fed up with the gf bread by the end of the cruise. Even in Eden his bread offering was 2 slices of toast. Surely Celebrity could source some decent gf rolls? MDRs Chic night in Normandie. Overall I think the food in the MDRs was slightly better than on the Apex. I do like the 4 room concept. I had booked times in advance on the cruise planner but there was really no need. We normally ate between 6:30 and 7pm and there was never a queue. We preferred Cosmopolitan and Normandie but I think there are just certain servers you hit it off with. In our case the very sweet Dewi and sommelier Randy, who enjoyed a good joke with DH on his girly drink choices. The girls got a vegan menu each night ( last year the chef just veganised the veggie menu) . There was only a choice of one main course though for them. On 2 nights they didn’t like it but no biggie, they just went up to Oceanview to get something. DH didn’t order the night before like last year. We did look ahead ourselves on the app and if anything needed modifying he just requested it. Standouts for me were the Toasted Israeli Couscous cake and the speciality cod dish from cosmopolitan. I do think the menus are too meat heavy and the vegetarian option relies too much on goats cheese and mushrooms. If you don’t eat a lot of meat ask for the vegetarian menu for more choice. Eden As we had a lot of OBC I managed to wear down DH into agreeing to go to Eden. You should book well in advance as it’s popular and with good reason. We both loved everything about Eden; the food, service and atmosphere. We were seated at the window directly at the wake, which just added to the experience. For once, I did take some food photos. Amuse Bouche - no cracker for DH. DH had mulligatawny soup for starter. I sometimes make this at home. Eden’s was better. I had the crab cake (delicious but filling) and we shared Bouquet of Garden Greens. I had Corvina cooked in olive oil for main course. DH had Filet Mignon ( gf minus the wellington) I had the Meyer lemon Tart for pudding ( and yes I could taste a hint of Lavender) Petits Fours. Sorry started eating before I took the photo. I think I got enough for 2! You can see DH had a separate plate in the background. He also had butterscotch crème brûlée for dessert. Even DH admitted it was an amazing meal. There was also lovely acoustic guitar coming down from the Eden lounge area. We also had more of a chance to chat with our servers, which was nice. My only criticism and this is really in general with the food. I don’t think there is enough sourced locally. For example in a specialty restaurant like Eden all fish should be locally caught. I was told my fish was from Panama 🤷‍♀️ There was a lot of salmon on board. On a Baltic, British Isles, Alaskan, Norwegian cruise I would expect this but not on warm weather cruises. Raw on 5 So the girls like to eat out a lot at Ramen places at home, so we said they could use some of our OBC to go to Raw on 5. There’s not a lot of vegan choice on the menu but the chef happily modified. They ended up having vegetable ramen no egg, mango and avocado ‘sushi’, edamame and yuzu sorbet. They also indulged in a cocktail - I think a gingertini and a tea leaf. They both enjoyed the whole specialty restaurant experience and complained the next night about having to dine with the ‘plebes’ again😂 The chef didn’t skimp on presentation for the vegan sushi. The restaurant was sold out that night, so it pays to book in advance. Thank you so much for all the lovely replies so far. Next up… our favourite cruise day in Montenegro.

Glad you enjoyed your Baltic Cruise. I think Scandinavia is probably my favourite part of the world. We’ll set up for families too. As for next year 😂 Well we actually have a cruise booked to Japan at Easter, but are in a bit of a quandary. We booked it ages ago and got a great deal. For once we even booked 2 rooms. However, it turns out neither of our girls can come. DD1 will be in Germany on an internship as a foreign language assistant in a school and just gets 1 week off at Easter. DD2 starts her degree at St Andrews University in September and they have unusual semesters compared to the rest of the Scottish Universities and actually gets no time off. Her exams start shortly afterwards too. Now DH and I could still go on our own but we have left it so long to decide that the flight prices are a bit out of reach. We haven’t made a final decision yet. We are looking at Norway and Arctic Circle next summer as an alternative. We’ve done Norway before with Disney in 2016 and loved it. The Celebrity Apex cruise has different ports and we can hike in them all, which is our activity of choice( you will find that out when I post the Montenegro section of the review). Also the girls would be happy to come with us too. Only drawback is it sails from Southampton which is a bit of a hassle to get to for us. Amsterdam or Copenhagen is so much easier.

Yes, I agree maybe we should have just bit the bullet and walked the walls. DH would have taken a bit of persuasion to shell out that kind of money for an hour of so. The issue we have is that we are always paying for four and invariably an activity for 4 for one hour almost always comes in well over €100. It soon mounts up. I think that’s why we enjoy hiking so much - the mountains cost nothing. You are quite right about walking the walls early though. As we got the shuttle back to port the narrow steps on the walls looked quite congested compared to earlier in the day.

I have heard that since the currency changed from the Kuna to the Euro prices are much higher. I suppose 15 years ago Croatia was still up and coming and prices were reasonable. I think for prices like that Albania might be a good shout. I noticed the ferry going there from Corfu was very busy!

The Beyond is really an amazing ship. It just feels so luxurious. Next summer the Beyond will be in America so this might be your only chance. We do a lot of trips in houses/Airbnbs but it’s not quite the same. It’s so nice to be spoiled once in a while and we found the level of service from the crew to be exceptional.

DUBROVNIK What did we do? Caught the Celebrity Shuttle into the Old Town for a wander, came back to port and went to The Red History Museum nearby. What did Others do? Cable car, town walls, kayak trip Need to know The port is quite a walk from the old town. Celebrity offered a shuttle at $12 person ( we succumbed and used OBC) but there was taxis for a fixed rate or the local bus from outside of the port. There is a big supermarket right at the port to stock up on essentials. Prices in Dubrovnik old town are extortionate. This will be an unpopular opinion,I’m sure, but Dubrovnik was probably my least favourite port of the trip. While the old town within the walls is drop-dead gorgeous, there isn’t a lot to it. Yes we could have walked the walls for half an hour but for €35 a person. I think not. Cable car? Again totally overpriced. Coffee/coke… not at those ridiculous prices. €5,90!!!! I could get a cappuccino in Italy for half the price. I just felt like tourists were getting completely ripped off and it left a sour taste in my mouth. The shuttle dropped us just outside Pile Gate. We walked through into the old town and spent some time exploring. There were maps on walls showing the devastation to buildings in the town during the Balkans War in the early 90s. We got an early shuttle and the streets of the old town were very quiet. Rector’s Palace There were a lot of shops and cafes up all the narrow alleyways. We came across a market selling berries. Fleecing the tourists again with really high prices😩 Coming from Scotland, I know the going rate for local berries and it is not €5!!! This sign made me laugh. The Walls This little bay was just outside the walls. Mid morning we felt as if we had seen enough of the old town. Now we love to hike and half had the idea that we could climb Mount Srd. I knew there was a museum up there about the war that would be interesting. The issue was we were not dressed for a hike in 35 degrees. So we decided to go back to the ship, have lunch and go for the hike in the afternoon. On the shuttle ride back I spotted a little museum about 200m from the ship. It was called the Red History Museum and was €9 entry ( more in our price range😂) . We spent some time there learning about socialism in the former Yugoslavia. It was very similar to an interactive museum about the DDR we had been to in Berlin. It was informative and was a nice escape from the midday heat. From there we went to a large supermarket called Konsum right next to the ship. We enjoy having a wee poke about foreign supermarkets. In comparison to the UK, prices of things were quite a bit more expensive. We were pretty shocked. What kind of wages are the locals on? Our afternoon did not go as planned. It turns out we would have had to buy another shuttle ticket to go back into town for our hike. Come on, Celebrity that’s just being cheap. DH was not having any of it so we just stayed on what was a lovely quiet ship. We even managed to swim laps in the pool. Even the whirlpools were empty. Dubrovnik Verdict Looking back, one activity we probably should have done was a kayak tour. They were reasonable at €35 for a 3 hour tour. Had we been organised we could have hiked early on, then explored the old town. I’m sure we would have enjoyed our day there much better, doing these activities. As it is, all I will ever remember about Dubrovnik is how overpriced it was.

Thank you both for the suggestions. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. I’m sure I read your review in preparation. Re the demographics, you need to remember our cruise was during school holidays. Celebrity is a good fit for our family. When we moved on from Disney Cruises, I think the girls were a bit worried that there wouldn’t be a lot of teens on board. They enjoyed the ‘vibe’ ( their word, not mine😂) so much last year on Apex, they were really keen to cruise again with Celebrity. You just have to listen to the music played around the ship to get an idea of the market Celebrity is aiming for. Our daughters informed me that the music played in Oceanview cafe was really current. Also, DH noted that 80s Flashback at The Club was much quieter this year than on Apex as most people on the ship weren’t around in that decade. For someone just turned 50, that was a bit of a reality check 🤦‍♀️

Thank you so much 😊 I’m sure it is a bit wordy for some but I learned so much from these reviews/ trip reports before going on our first Celebrity Cruise.

If you have been on the Edge, you will feel right at home on the Beyond. I can only compare to the Apex but differences were minimal. It is basically a carbon copy. Some I noticed: The resort deck has more sunken seating near the bar and I’m not sure but it seemed like the pool was a bit smaller to compensate for this. The Apex pool seemed longer. I could be wrong about that. There are 2 extra plunge pools and lovely, shady seating at the aft near the expanded Sunset Bar. The Rooftop Grill looked a bit different and I think the Rooftop Garden’s seating was set up a wee bit differently. My daughter says the track takes a bit of a different route than on Apex and that one lap is not as long. Again this would need verified. Maybe the heat was affecting her judgement😂 I’ve already mentioned the Mast Bar and Sunset Bar improvements above. Some of the shopping is possibly different. I don’t pay much attention to that side of things. I’m not sure that there was a chocolate outlet on the Apex but who is paying that kind of money for a bar of chocolate? I felt sorry for the assistant there- she must have been bored out of her mind. Le Voyage is a new addition. Sorry can’t comment as we chose to go to Eden instead ( opinion to come later). Also, there is The World Class Bar and a little kind of bridge over the atrium on deck 5. The Martini Bar is more central in the Grand Plaza and there is more seating in that area. Overall, I think there is more seating. My favourite area is Eden. Exactly the same as on Apex. The weird, sparkly corridor to get there looks different but just as challenging to navigate. Of course the 3 production shows are different but the shows in Eden are similar to Apex. The show by the Eden cast in The Club was called ‘The Jazz Joint’ Last year it was ‘Caravan’. If you liked Edge, I’m sure you will love The Beyond. You asked about the cabin and I will add some info to my report later on the week. They are essentially just the same as on Edge.

Fantastic photos bringing back lots of lovely memories of our Alaska cruise in 2019. I am really enjoying your report. Thank you for taking the time to share. We also did whale watching and Mendenhall. I would have loved to see some bubble feeding! We did see some breaching though and a pod of orcas swam right up to the boat. It was a great trip.

PORTS So we are very much DIYers in ports, primarily to save money. I find ship tours vastly overpriced and even the price people pay for private tours boggles my mind at times. Sometimes you look at the base price of a cruise, think it’s ok, but by the time you add up all the tours and activities on port days, it can cost an arm and a leg. Our aim on port days was to have a good variety of activities and keep the cost down as much as possible. We had $800 OBC so I did plump for ship excursions at 2 of the ports on this cruise. I would say book your ship excursions as early as possible. They rose significantly in price, the closer we got to the cruise. KATAKOLON What did we do? Ship Excursion:Best of Olympia. Trip to Olympia Archaeological Site and Magna Grecia Olive Farm What did Others do? Not sure - there’s not a whole lot of options here. I think a lot of people just walked around in the town ( which isn’t so big). Need to Know The ship docks about 10 mins from the main tourist area, I did spot a ho-ho bus, don’t expect much from Greek plumbing😜 I actually quite enjoyed our tour. Our guide was from the Ministry of Culture and he knew his stuff. However, I think there was probably information overload for some people, especially the rude people on the bus who thought it was fine to talk loudly over the guide😡 You did need to have a wee bit of knowledge of the Ancient Greeks to get the most out of it. It was really hot at Olympia and there was little shade. Something to consider. The Phillippeion. Temple of Zeus - the main draw at the site. The Olympic Stadium. DD1 was a pretty good sprinter at school, winning medals at Scottish Schools Championships but alas it was too hot to break any records here. You really need a guide at Olympia to make it worthwhile, otherwise there’s not a great deal of information about the ruins. It’s hard to comprehend the age and beauty of everything.There was some excavation going on, so archaeologists are still discovering many treasures. A lot of what had been discovered is now preserved in the museum. We had a short tour inside before going to the olive farm. Sculpture of Nike, goddess of victory by Paionios. This was made around 400BC. Incredible! Apollon of Olympia. Probably the highlight of the museum - a large group of sculptures found at the Temple of Zeus. It took about 10 minutes to get to Magna Grecia Farm. After a welcome drink of white wine produced on the farm, we got a talk from the owner about the olive oil production. Then there was a tasting session with different grades and flavours of oil. This was followed by lunch, which was quite substantial. More wine ( and they weren’t stingy), meze and Greek salad, what looked like chicken souvlaki and rice ( didn’t partake as we don’t eat meat) and then baklavas. In truth the meze would have been enough - looking around the table there was a lot of food waste, which I never like to see. Then the inevitable Greek dancing and time to shop…. not my thing. I would have preferred a proper tour of the farm. DD2 really enjoyed her time at Magna Grecia Farm Katakolon Verdict This was our first time ever in Greece and we enjoyed the day. The 2 different parts of the tour were in complete contrast so it was a good choice. Driving through the town, I think a tour is the way to go here. CORFU What did we do? We explored Corfu Town on our own and visited the Old Fortress. What did others do? I’m pretty sure lots went on boat trips and had a beach day. Need to Know Theres a long pier here. Shuttles ( at a cost) into town. We walked- it’s 30 minutes tops. The Greek for Corfu Town is Kerkyra. I loved Corfu Town. It had lots of charm and was so pretty. I would advise hitting it early though. The difference between crowds at 9 am and 11am was astonishing. There’s some good value shopping here, if that’s your thing. Views from the Old Fortress The New Fortress, which is still quite old! We found Corfu to be very green. The old town is filled with narrow streets like these, everywhere you turn. It’s easy to get lost. The streets were very clean. The Pier. DD1 spent a good hour or so in afternoon running up and down it to change up her training. We came back to the Beyond early afternoon and sat outdoors to have lunch at OV. The views from the ship were lovely. One really cool thing about Corfu is that the airport is very close by and the planes taking off went right over the ship. Corfu Verdict Corfu really surprised me. The island was really green. It’s definitely somewhere I’d like to return to, maybe to do some hiking when the weather is a bit cooler. Next up….. thoughts on Dubrovnik and Kotor.

EMBARKATION It was finally cruise day👏. The big question on these boards is always what’s the best way to get to Civitavecchia. Well, you know we are cheapskates, so you can probably guess how we did it …… but you would be WRONG! We had booked a private transfer to get us from the port to airport after the cruise but we thought we would save some money by catching the train to the port. However about a fortnight before leaving the UK, I had read about a strike on the 7th July, panicked and booked a shared transfer. It was the best decision I made. Turns out the strike was just local transport and wouldn’t have affected us anyway but our shared transfer ( which turned out to be private in the end) was just so hassle free, I would do it again, without a doubt, over the train and bus. And bear in mind this is the opinion of someone who is totally fine with lugging luggage and using public transport. We used RFT Rome Fiumicino Transport and the service was good. They got in touch the evening before to confirm the time, sent a photo and name of driver and vehicle registration. Our driver was prompt and it was an air conditioned Mercedes minivan. Very comfortable for the hour journey to the terminal building. Our check- in time was 11 o’clock and it took no more than 10 mins to get on the ship. We were impressed! No waiting whatsoever. There was nobody there as we were boarding. Was this going to be a quiet cruise? Now there is no denying it - the Beyond is a beautiful ship. Watch a video on YouTube, lots of TAs do tours of the ship. Having been on Apex last year, we loved the familiarity of the ship. We noticed some wee differences straight away. These swing chairs are a new addition just outside Cafe Al Bacio. We were pleased our favourite place on board hadn’t changed too much from the Apex, other than some different seating. I think Celebrity has done well with the tweaks. The biggest improvement is definitely the Sunset Bar. The space here is just lovely and we used it quite a bit throughout the cruise compared to last year. The weather difference may have played a part here though. Try the signature Marrakesh Mule cocktail, it’s delicious. I love the way the bar is over different levels and has lots of different seating options. Another addition to the Beyond is the Mast Bar, kind of tucked away on deck 15. DD1 is training for a half marathon so did a lot of running on the track on the cruise and the bartenders here kept her well hydrated with water. We found them so friendly, possibly because it’s a bit quieter than other bars and they have more time to chat. The mast bar has some comfy seating and a TV behind the bar for watching sports. They make a good Spritz too but I’d love to know why Campari spritz is in the classic drinks package but aperol spritz is extra🤷‍♀️ Now I need to talk about numbers. Last year on the Apex there were only 1200 passengers on board. This year there were 3450. So quite a difference. In all honesty, no matter where we were, we could always get a seat, never had a wait for dinner and always got served pretty promptly.However you could tell the crew were working extra hard. Last year, in bars and restaurants the crew were much more relaxed. In the evenings there was a buzz about the whole place, which was missing a bit from last year’s cruise. On the Beyond, there were times when things felt very busy, on the resort deck especially. It was difficult getting a lounger on sea days or any kind of swim in the pool. Also, some mornings in Oceanview cafe it seemed busy ( just head towards the far back of the ship for plenty of seating) but there were always quiet spots to be had around the ship. The crowds were most noticeable on our 2 sea days. The resort deck was heaving. As we are not sun worshipers, it didn’t impact us too much. Our sea days looked like this: Me- dance classes/Zumba, trivia, Cafe al Bacio DH - walking, trivia, table tennis, Cafe al Bacio DD1 - yoga class, long runs, cafe al Bacio DD2- walking, table tennis, cafe al Bacio DH and I also went to the 2 talks by cruise director Alejandro, which were entertaining. The first one about the pandemic was especially interesting. I do think there was a lot more activities/music last year aboard the Apex on sea days. For example, a lot of the guest entertainers did matinée shows. Maybe there is no demand for it on warm weather cruises when everyone is on deck sun bathing? Before I get to the ports ( and lots of photos of amazing scenery), let’s talk about demographics. This was a young cruise. I think the people on this ship were the exact target market Celebrity is hoping for with Edge Class. I saw very few elderly people. There were lots of older teens/ young adults on board but not too many children. At 50 I’d say we were definitely over the average age. In terms of nationalities, mostly Americans but quite a lot of large family groups from Latin America. Also curiously, loads of Scottish people. How do you notice Scottish people on a cruise ship? They’re the ones with ginger hair, sunburnt skin and sat at the bar getting value for money out of their drink package😂

Thank you for taking the time to read. Our thoughts on the Beyond and cruise ports coming up next.

I would definitely go to Lucca. It was so charming and even though we were there during the Summer Music Festival, it wasn’t overly busy. You could spend a very pleasant day there. If you like to DIY the trains go every half hour from Pisa Centrale. You wouldn’t love Scotland at the moment - the weather during the school holidays has been just miserable. We were lucky to be on our trip and missed 3 weeks of constant showers. Yesterday at noon it was wet, windy and 13 degrees😩

I think a cruise is the way to go for big family trips. You can all go off and do your own things during the day and then socialise in the evening. A recovery cruise - what a lovely idea. Best of health to your daughters.

Just wondering if anyone has experience of renting a car in Honnigsvag and driving to the North Cape? We would be in port from noon to 9 pm. Looking for info on: - the car hire place ( think there’s only one) - any worthwhile places to stop on the way I know there are tours but there are 4 of us so a car is much more economical and we enjoy the freedom. Not worried about the roads, we have driven in Iceland before. Thanks.

ROASTING IN ROME Our final day in Rome was ann absolute roaster and was our Colosseum day. I knew I was going to struggle to get tickets through the official site, so I had booked a tour with Walks of Italy back in April called Gladiators Gate: special Access arena and colosseum tour at £54 each. 2 weeks before our trip they emailed to say they had moved us to another, more expensive tour and wouldn’t charge the difference. Of course this tour, while a smaller group, didn’t go down onto the arena. I was pretty annoyed. Anyway, we decided to make the best of it and in the end our guide, Ectore, was so good that I was just grateful to be on his tour. The tour was very well paced with toilet stops and time to refill water bottles and his knowledge about the colosseum and the Roman Empire was excellent. Knowing we were from Scotland, when he talked about the expansion of the Roman Empire he even joked with us that the Romans wouldn’t go near the crazy Celts (in reference to Hadrian’s Wall). Some different views from inside the Colosseum. View of Constantine’s Arch from the Colosseum. After about an hour and a half in the Colosseum we went over to the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum. I actually would have liked more time and information in the Forum but it was getting near midday and it was a furnace. When you’re down there is hardly any shade. View of the Forum from the Palatine Hill. After the tour, we headed back to the apartment for a long lunch to escape the heat. Then we went for ice cream at our local, Panna & Co where I broke my own rule of repeating a flavour. It was Sicilian lemon and I couldn’t help myself. We had a nice wander in the Non-Catholic Cemetery and then went back to Travestere for some Happy Hour drinks. Our time in Rome was nearly at an end but we were getting pretty excited about the next part of our journey on The Beyond. Rome: Top Three Tips 1. Don’t try to do too much in the one day. In the summer heat one big site is enough followed by some pottering. 2. Bring a reusable water bottle and fill up at the water fountains or ‘nasoni’ which you can find everywhere. Rome’s water is very clean. 3. Do venture out the main tourist areas. We loved the local feel in Testaccio and it is well worth a visit. Next up… finally the cruise! Apologies, I know it’s taken a while to get onto it, you’ve been very patient😀

Thank you. I’m not sure how much longer the girls will come on holiday with us, so trying to do as much as we can with them as possible.

TAKING IT EASY IN ROME So our feet hadn’t quite recovered and by luck this was the day with no real plans. The only thing on the agenda was a visit to The Pantheon. Now it used to be free to enter but 2 days before our visit a charge was introduced. It was minimal at €5 but I couldn’t find out how to buy online tickets beforehand. In the end we just went old school and queued up on the day. We got there around 9:20 am and had a 20 minute wait at the most, but it was in full sun. There’s different lines for cash and credit card so check you are in the right one. It was a little chaotic but I’m sure they will iron out the kinks in time. There was already quite a queue early on. It wasn’t too busy inside. It’s hard to believe quite how old this building actually is. The floor work is beautiful. Looking up towards the oculus. Afterwards we just went on a stroll nearby. Piazza Navona Bernini’s fountain at Piazza Navona Campo d’Fiori The girls were very tempted to remove the bottom melon😂 We began to walk back to our apartment via the Colosseum with a stop at the ‘wedding cake’ monument for some views and then coffee. This was a very cute espresso! Tip: espresso is cheaper if you have it standing at the bar. Once back in Testaccio we went to the market to grab some lunch and buy some fruit and veg. Prices were reasonable and lots of locals were there shopping. There’s something for everyone- even us vegan and gluten free weirdos - and there’s seating in the centre atrium. The afternoon was spent having a bit of much needed R&R in the Airbnb. DD1 had a bit of admin to do in preparation for her year abroad in Germany and I wanted to do some washing before we got on the ship. After a while we decided to head over to Travestere for a drink. It was a lovely area to explore. Still quite touristy in comparison to Testaccio though. Spritz anyone? Me - Aperol, DD 2 - Hugo and DD1- Campari. Coming up next ….. final day in Rome and Colosseum tour.