snaefell

I agree about the appearance of the Keel & Cow in videos,the food looks good in the same videos. We will eat ashore if we are comfy where we are,sometimes we have been in too nice a place to move!

The subject of food reminds me of our last cruise,it was preceded by a 3 night hotel stay in Beijing along with complaints about the food....It was Chinese,or more importantly not what people were used to,RCI regulars were keen to assure us that the food on board would be fantastic...It wasn't!

Their IT & Digital teams need to wake up,the map for the Med Cruise on Arcadia on May 14th is still showing Gibraltar as one of the stops,whatever they are getting paid it's too much!

We are all different & things change,both in & out of our own little worlds! We married in 1974(OMG big 50 next year!),cruising was a glamorous game,we were full of energy & adventure,I had an overwhelming desire to explore the whole of the USA & so Road Trips over there dominated our first 30 years,with smaller more local trips in between,flying was the only way to go,it would take too long to get to the USA by ship,work schedules made that a no go. My Wife worked for an hotel chain so we could get hotels really cheap. When the finance crash happened around 2007/2008 the price of flying to the States doubled,we must have been getting old too as we both felt like we had had enough of airports & flying,since then we have either cruised or travelled by Ferry,one exception was a trip to Canada,wonderful but an overnight return flight full of screaming kids meant no sleep & further enforced our hatred of flying,the real death knell was our last cruise out East in October 2019,2 return flights of over 8 hours each from Singapore via Abhu Dabi on quite the most uncomfortable aircraft seats we have ever experienced had us in pain for weeks! Now both retired we have the time to play with,we are off on a Med cruise on Arcadia next month,my Wife is of a mind that she doesn't want any more long haul flights,I am of a mind that after the Med cruise there isn't really anywhere else I would want to Cruise to from the UK,there are other cruises I really fancy but they involve long haul flights,how persuasive can I be,watch this space!

When we went to Alesund we went into a bar near the cruise terminal,4 hours later the owner had his accordion out,everybody was singing & we were having such a good time the price became pretty much irrelevant!😂

Gibraltar was on our bucket list & one of the reasons for booking,shame!😎

We are on Arcadia on May 14th,why,we usually go somewhere for our Birthdays(me 26th March & my Wife May 14th),in the past we have had limited time for these trips due to work commitments,now we are both retired we are free for longer trips so finding a cruise leaving around my Wife's Birthday going to places we haven't been to or are on our bucket list,leaving from the UK was reason enough. When we booked I did notice that Arvia was doing a similar,shorter, itinerary on the same day but I have serious reservations about the new ships,nothing to do with size,our last cruise was on RCI's Quantum Of The Seas,beautiful ship,quirky artwork,light,bright & airy & never felt crowded even though she was near capacity. Having had a standard balcony cabin on Britannia where we found the balcony way too small we were attracted by reports on CC of decent sized balconies on Arcadia along with the fact that her itinerary was slightly longer. As for Iona & Arvia videos I have seen have done nothing to attract us,the Conservatory Balcony Cabins on Deck 8 look awful & as for the atrium area to me it looks like a multi storey shopping mall,not welcoming or in any way impressive,but then we are all different!

In English please!?!?😮

That is applicable to all cruises from the UK surely,unless you are on a cruise of the UK you need a day or two to reach any destination.

Not great cruisers,about to do our fifth,but nearly 30 years of road trips to the USA saw us staying many,many times at Anaheim,there is something safe about knowing somewhere so well,no time wasted finding your way round,you know the best places to eat,shop & to get your mixers for your duty free! closer to home we keep going back to Ireland(North & South),The Isle Of Man & The Netherlands. Hindsight is a great thing though & having just hit 70(OMG where did that come from!😮),& with the last couple of years having been trashed travel wise by the pandemic,there is some regret about our past choices,there are places in the USA in particular that we never did get to see & probably never will now that my Wife really hates the thought of flying. So be careful guys,by all means enjoy your favourites but if there are places you really want to see get it done,it may be later than you think!😎

We did this on Britannia in 2018,there was a marvellous Caribbean band on board,they performed by the main pool at Midnight,felt sorry for them the last couple of nights,the crowd had dwindles as the temperature dropped & they just didn't look the same wearing coats,scarfs & gloves!😆😆

Depends on what you are comfy with technology wise I guess!

Reminds me of a guy called Chris who ran a bar in Liverpool some years ago,he had Doc Martens in an incredible variety of colours,he used to hold 'bad taste' nights to see if anybody could outdo him,good old days,there aren't characters like him around these days😔

When we book a cruise the important points are the date of departure & where it is going,which cruise line it is & what the dress code is tend to be less of a consideration.

Can't comment on post pandemic changes as yet,we are on Arcadia's Med cruise next month but pre pandemic we had 2 cruises on P&O & 1 on Royal Caribbean. Our P&O cruises were both on Britannia,we found her a bit dark inside,balconies too small,a bit of a challenge to navigate,loved the Crow's Nest(a long way from aft cabins at the end of the night!),Boadies was a lovely room but as we hate Karaoke,quizzes & bingo & the entertainment was poor we didn't spend much time there,we saw some great shows in the theatre,food was good although the selection seemed reduced on the 2nd cruise,the 2nd cruise was in March 2018,T/A from Barbados,there was a marvellous Caribbean band on board who played by the main pool at Midnight,felt rather sorry for them the last couple of nights as the crowd had dwindled considerably in freezing conditions & they didn't look so colourful in their coats,hats,scarfs & gloves!😆 Our 1 Royal Caribbean cruise was October 2019,a repo cruise from China to Singapore on Quantum Of The Seas,what a beautiful ship,so light & airy,quirky artwork,superb cabin,quite spoiled us for other ships,the food was varied,first night in a speciality restaurant we had good food,great service but mean portions IMO,second night in the MDR the food & service were abysmal,the rest of the cruise we used the buffet,we like buffets & spent some quite magical nights in the South China Sea dining outside while watching distant lightning,she also has the Northstar,I Fly & Flowrider,Bumper cars & goodness knows what else! The entertainment was mixed,some good,some awful,the English Pub was,IMO,too small,a very popular place,the main entertainment being 2 girls doing acoustic & instrumental versions of songs you wouldn't expect & it worked,they were superb! We dressed smart/casual for the first night in the speciality restaurant on Quantum,after that every night was a shorts night,heaven to me as I hate formal nights & am not going to be getting dressed up for every formal night on our upcoming Arcadia cruise,there are 5 of them!😮 Having said that we have only done 1 Royal Caribbean cruise,it should have been more,soon after booking the Far East cruise we booked a T/A repo cruise on Anthem OTS in April 2020,starting in New York,calling at Halifax,Ponte Delgado & La Havre,soon after booking they dropped Halifax(the reason given being that the Atlantic can be rough in Winter!😮),we changed that for a six night cruise on Quantum from Singapore in March 2020,that suddenly morphed into repo cruise to Tokyo without notice,we changed that to a 5 night cruise out of Singapore,all a waste of time as Co vid brought the World grinding to a halt! End result being we wouldn't book with RIC again due to their constantly changing the itineraries,the one we did out East kept changing as it went along,having said that P&O have annoyingly changed the itinerary for our upcoming cruise,dropping Gibraltar which we really wanted to see!

We are on Arcadia's Med cruise departing May 14th,just after paying the final balance I received an email advising that the shore excursion I had booked in Gibraltar was no longer available,when I checked what replacements were available I found that Gibraltar had gone & Malaga had taken it's place,last week I got an email advising of the change of itinerary,many people have said how lucky we are as Gibraltar is a dump but it was a 'bucket list' thing & one of the reasons we booked the cruise,the main reason for not booking Royal Caribbean any more is because they were forever changing itineraries,our one cruise with them changed as it went along!

It has happened to both of us at a number of hotels in the past & in 2018 on Britannia an route to Southampton from the Caribbean,on my Birthday we woke to find the cabin door decorated & a card under the door,we sail on Arcadia on May 14th,my Wife's Birthday,it will be interesting to see what happens!😮

We did Iceland & Norway with Princess early August some years ago & the weather was mixed,first sea day in the Irish Sea & most passengers were wearing coats,hats,gloves,scarves,etc.,they were not a hardy bunch! we were lucky in Bergen,it was sunny until about 0900hrs,just time to take the funcular to get the mountain view before the rain set in. is Iona really too big for Bergen,we berthe d at the container terminal & were bussed to the centre,surprised if she can't do the same.

In 2018 on Britannia we had tables for 2 but after 2 nights in the MDR with one guy very much the worse for drink,accompanied by his teenage daughter who split her time between trying to shut him up & apologising to people,everybody felt sorry for her,we tried the Glass House,guess who was in there😵!

We have met so many we really wished we hadn't on shared tables,trouble is so many of the tables for 2 are so close together you might as well be sharing!😒

Hope you do better than we did in 2018 after our TA on Britannia,it was Good (?)Friday & ended up taking 7 hours,not fun!😮

Perhaps they should try an approach once described by Joshe Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age about a restaurant where he grew up in Palm Springs frequented by the likes of Dean Martin where it was a requirement to wear a jacket to enter,they had a supply of jackets at the entrance which would be given to those without,a member of staff would accompany them to the table,remove the jacket & return it to the front door,kept somebody in a job!😎

What we are expected to wear on board never comes into how we choose a cruise,where it sails to,when it departs,the price & how good a value it seems are what matters. I really don't care what everyone else is wearing,as long as I am comfortable is all that matters,I would never get annoyed about what anyone else wears,that is their choice,or at least it should be!

I have read that Ferry companies are changing LNG powered vessels to be able to burn oil also,the LNG option obviously seemed a good idea at the planning stage but the Ukraine situation has changed things. There is a long time between ordering & entering service,a changing World can make what seemed like a good idea look less attractive,ports looking to restrict passenger numbers must surely make building bigger ships a strange strategy too.

Indeed,seeing a 7 night cruise to Norway advertised at £499 surely can't be bad value for money,how much is accommodation in Norway,not cheap last time I looked!