Sekhmet

I believe the rules have changed a little (or may be changing for 2025), and the included transport is no longer distance limited. The Saga website FAQs has the following answer to the "Is the UK Travel Service available from anywhere?" 'Our return UK travel service is available to anyone in mainland England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight and Channel Islands. We're not currently able to offer the service to those in the Scottish Islands, Isle of Man, Sark or the Isles of Scilly.' Hope this helps?

This brings back memories - we sailed with her twice in 2009/10, especially for the itineraries and the guest speakers. The first was around the Black Sea, the second was Budapest to Alexandria, but chiefly for three stops in Libya during that brief period when travel there was permitted. At one stop, there was only one ship excursion, to Leptis Magna, and basically everybody went. Older ships can be very good - we've sailed two of the Marella 'new' acquisitions which were ex-Celebrity (and we'd sailed them in their earlier incarnation), and maybe because they were a good original design, they didn't seem particularly dated to us.

Somewhat old information from a British Isles cruise 10 years ago which I've dug out from a review I wrote at the time, but hopefully it might be of some use? Tobermory, Isle of Mull. The local tourist information facility supplied us with a number of walking routes, and we chose to do the coastal path, mainly through woodland, with lots of good views of our ship anchored off shore. The path turned inland into a large park with waterfalls and an artificial loch, and the route back passed Baliscate where there are some prehistoric standing stones, apparently the only ones found in the Western Isles. There are also remains of early Christian settlement, which featured on the Channel 4 “Time Team” programme a couple of years ago.

Another UK passenger here - we just received the blue pack for our April cruise, with the luggage labels, decorative tags and the glossy ship book. Getting close now!

Much the same for us on Regatta last year. We celebrated our Golden Anniversary on board, and on returning from breakfast found our room decorated and an anniversary card. In the evening, after our Polo Grill lobster, discovered the usual evening chocolate had multiplied into a heart-shaped display. All very welcome and appreciated.

There is an old adage which runs along the lines of "If you actually look like your passport photo, you are probably too ill to travel"??

Try the Wiki page for each cruiseline where the current and former fleet ships are listed, including their build date. Looked at a few and all seemed to have this information. Of course, your friend would then have to find what itineraries each of the 'newish' ships is doing, but as CruiserBruce says, there shouldn't be too many to investigate. Hope this helps?

That would have been Marella Cruises "Explorer 2"? Galaxy has become Marella's "Explorer" and Mercury has become "Marella Voyager". (Why they didn't continue the sequence and call it Explorer 3?). Oddly enough, we have sailed with both Century (in 1998) and Galaxy (2001), then more recently with both of them in their latest incarnations - Explorer in 2020 immediately before the COVID lockdown, and Explorer 2 earlier this year. Both ships have stood the test of time pretty well, thanks to a basic good design which still works well. The biggest change I can remember is that the Casinos have been converted to regular lounges/bars, with just a small casino area on one side of Deck 12 Observation lounge at the front.

Just thought the following might be of amusement value, and to illustrate another change over the years. Going through some old cruise-related files, and found a copy of a Celebrity Ship review published on one of the cruise sites, dated 2001, describing Galaxy, Mercury and Century. We'd printed it out before embarking on our second Celebrity cruise on Galaxy in July that year. It starts "The three sister ships of Celebrity Cruises provide an upscale, elegant setting where the atmosphere is warm, friendly and, at night, quite lively". The next sentence starts, and the emphasised type is mine - "At 77,000-tons, these ships are in the mega-liner category"

A grand total of 20 so far (plus a few river cruise lines, too) (Those with an asterisk * are no longer in business). African Safari Club * Azamara Celebrity Clarkson * Cunard Fred. Olsen Galapagos Tourism * Holland America Hurtigruten MSC NCL Noble Caledonian Oceania P&O Australia P&O UK Princess Regent Saga Thomson/Marella Voyages of Discovery *

Must be a different incident, as our HAL Rotterdam cruise was a little later, in November 2006. But perhaps illustrates quite well that one shouldn't take landing in some places for granted.

This hasn't happened to us, but a good few years ago we were on a HAL South America cruise and had to abort the landing in the Falkland Islands due to high winds - we just had a sail around close enough to be able to see penguins ashore. Afterwards, we were told that not long before a Princess cruise landed its passengers but then could not get them back as the weather and sea conditions worsened. Apparently, the passengers had to be accommodated somehow onshore for the night (including in the Port Stanley Village Hall), and "rescued" the following day. Moral: the decisions made by the professionals may just be the right ones.

I've often wondered why, of all the elements ending in "ium", it seems only to be Aluminium/Aluminum which has an alternative spelling and therefore pronunciation. Other common elements, like Calcium, Uranium, Potassium, Magnesium, Titanium, Sodium etc., are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, aren't they? Any ideas for me to think about while I wait for our next Oceania (however it's pronounced) cruise in May?

I'd add one more thing concerning staying in the port after an excursion, rather than returning to the ship with the rest of the tour group. If you choose to do this, it's a good idea to let the tour guide and/or coach driver know that you're leaving and not wanting transporting back to the ship. This way, they don't have to worry about bringing back fewer passengers than they started off with, and saves the rest of the group from an unnecessary wait.

Thanks for this information, and such a prompt response.

Wonder if anyone can help us with a question? We have a Riviera cruise booked for next year, and are starting to look at shore excursions, particularly as we have some credit against their cost as part of our package. Our query concerns the "Buy 6 excursions and get 25% off"; if we go ahead and pre-book six, and then later on, maybe even when on board, add another excursion to the list, does that also automatically qualify for the 25% discount? Any information gratefully received, thanks.

Hope some of you might find the following interesting/relevant. I've mentioned on the boards before that I am a volunteer on a Heritage Steam railway, and one of my roles is Buffet Car Steward, serving drinks (hot & cold, alcoholic & soft) and snacks to our passengers. Until fairly recently, the signal for card machines wasn't strong or reliable enough across most of the rural parts of our line, so cash was the only choice. The signal now is good enough, so card payments were introduced, and the cash option withdrawn i.e. cards only. However, that quickly led to a number of complaints from some customers, and to lost sales, so the cash payment option was reinstated. Since then, some analysis has taken place to try and work out if we've got it right for our passengers. So far, letting the customer choose how to pay has resulted in about two thirds paying by card, one third paying with cash. As was said earlier, even small value transactions by card are not uncommon, but the average value of a card sale on our trains has been around £6.50 ($8.30).

There can also be some advantage with Marella fly-cruises, given that they will (usually) use the parent company airline, TUI, and have special baggage handling arrangements in some places. For example, we recently returned from Explorer 2, flying to and from Dubrovnik. On the last night, we put out our bags as normal, and instead of having to claim them after disembarking, transfer them to a coach and check them in at the airport, the next time we saw them was on the baggage carousel in Cardiff.

With the not unexpected exception of Cunard - the following request is from their FAQs (my bolding). "Every night on board, after 6pm, we ask that you wear smart attire or Gala Evening attire in most of our bars, restaurants and entertainment venues. Of course, if you prefer to spend your evenings in more relaxed attire, a selection of casual dining and entertainment venues is always available for your enjoyment. Feel free to dress casually as you visit any of the following venues: Kings Court, Lido Buffet (Including Al Fresco), Golden Lion, Casino, Carinthia Lounge, Winter Garden, Garden Lounge, Yacht Club, and G32. Non-ripped, jeans are appropriate, but after 6pm please refrain from wearing shorts, sports attire, swimwear or sleeveless t-shirts outside of the gym, spa and deck spaces"

We are due there in about a month, so my bit of research might be helpful, hopefully. The main recommendation I've found is to visit the old, ruined town of Stari Bar. It seems to be about an hour's walk from Bar (3 miles?), but there is apparently an hourly local bus service with a few stops in Bar, or local taxis for about EU5. In Bar itself, the Church of St Jovan Vladimir and the Palace of King Nikolai were also mentioned. Budva, about an hour by bus, and Lake Skadar, about half an hour away, are other suggestions I've seen.

This rings a bell with me, too, and I also have a blurred memory of the ship serving whilst still in the Spanish port, but not processing the payments through until out in international waters. But, as you accurately surmise, vagueness of recall is becoming increasingly common.

35 days, circumnavigation of Australia, from Sydney back to Sydney. Second longest 29 days, also Down Under, Perth to Sydney to Auckland, then continued to five South Pacific islands and back. Our rationale is that it takes such a long time to get from the UK to Australia and/or New Zealand that it wouldn't make sense NOT to stay for a reasonable length of time.

We've done this a few times. Once on Cunard for their Creamed Spinach Soup, and a couple of days later there was an envelope from the Maitre 'd with a copy enclosed. However, we had to do a bit of work to adapt it for home use, as the first line read "Take 75kg of washed spinach"! Our best example of customer service related to a recipe was from the American Queen on the Mississippi. We asked for a recipe (another soup, this time Beer & Cheese), but it didn't arrive before we disembarked. When we got home, we called the UK agents of the AQ, who said they would contact the US office as soon as it opened, and about five hours later an email with the recipe for this delicious soup dropped into our inbox. Very impressive, we thought.

Our first was in 1972 around the Greek islands, in a porthole cabin aboard the MV Delos, then run by a now defunct UK travel company called Clarkson's Holidays. The ship was built in 1951 as a ferry plying between France and Morocco, ran aground in 1987 and was cut up.

Yes that would likely be me; my screen name does give a clue to my particular interest in Ancient Egypt. And to the OP, the other higher end line which usually has good quality lecturers is Cunard, although they are not always relevant to the area being sailed. One further thought, we recently did the full Norwegian Coastal Voyage with Hurtigruten all the way from Bergen to Kirkenes and back, with 34 stops, some for as little as 15 minutes in the middle of the night. Every day there were relevant and very good talks on local geology, wildlife, Sami culture, how the Norwegian economy works etc. Hurtigruten also do somewhat more conventional voyages and I would assume also give appropriate talks on them, but they aren't 5-6*. Other lines offering expedition-type cruises might be worth a look.