Denarius

Or there is a public bus service which picks up at the port entrance and takes you right into the centre.

St Peters basilica in the Vatican has similar restiction, and I remember men wearing shorts which finished just below the knee being turned away. All was not lost however as local tradesmen were doing a roaring trade in long overtrousers which satisfied the dress code!

In Vigo cruise ships tie up at the cruise terminal, right in the centre of town and close to the seafood bars - oysters a speciality.

Dress codes in religious building vary from country to country and even within them, and I have no personal experience of them in Malta. As a general rule however, I have found that in Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox establishments the general rule for both sexes is that shoulders and knees must be covered. Which for you means a short sleeved tee shirt would be fine, but not a sleeveless one. And long trousers not shorts. As regards your wife, a knee length dress with sleeves would probably be fine as would be jeans or other long trousers with a sleeved top, but not shorts. Perhaps someone has specific details of the establishment you are visiting.

But a 2 years ago in Stockholm the public loos were card only! I suspect that the larger cities are largely cashlesss but smaller places have yet to catch up.

One thing to watch out for is that whilst the initial single supplement for sole occupancy of a twin cabin may be a reasonable 50% or so there is a limit to the number of cabins available at this rate; once they have been sold the supplement increases substantially. So late bargains for couples may not be so for singles when the higher single supplement is taken into account, as I have found out a number of times over the years.

Interesting. I sailed recently on SofA and we too had formal nights on port days although there were plenty of sea days available. Tradition used to dictate that only sea days were formal. The formal nights coincided with onboard functions such as the captain's reception, the Britannia Club get together and the farewell gala dinner so there was some logic to it. But it meant that passengers were encouraged to dress for dinner on nights which many would have preferred not to. Having said that, the majority of passengers did although there were noticably more men wearing lounge suits rather than dinner suits than I have experienced on previous Saga cruises. The the fact that (according to the captain) some 400 passengers were new to Saga may well explain this, but it may be a sign of things to come.

There is Chardonnay and Chardonnay. Or more precisely it ranges from the big and relatively inexpensive wines of Australia to the much more refined - and expensive - white wines of Burgundy. The former may well be included in a standard drinks package but the latter will probably not; they would fall foul of the maximum price limitation. Best to find out more precisely what the package includes - and what it does not - and whether it includes wine you would choose to drink before commiting yourself.

Just leaving port and they‘re shooting at us! A gun salute from one of the old forts. Blanks I hope.

We have! Weather quite pleasant, about 15c, mainly sunny, light winds, no rain forecast. Then back to Britain’s cloud and rain 😕

Not quite. At present on Saga cruises the lead passenger must be 50 or older, companions at least 40. On my understanding what is being suggested is that as long as the lead passenger is at least 50 companions of any adult age, ie at least 18 would be accepted. This would allow people to be accompanied by their children or grandchildren.

Yesterday morning the captain announced that 9 cases had been identified the previous morning but none since. Preventative measures were being introduced however whilst the situation was monitored. Since then we have not heard a word from him but the restrictions appear to have been tightened; all interactive activities appear to have been cancelled and the books and board games have been removed from the library. To say that this cruise has “gone down the pan” is perhaps an understatement. All we need now is for our one remaining port to be cancelled …,,,

Nearly. Revised itinerary maintained but a minor outbreak of noravirus - 9 cases according to the captain- a couple of days ago has caused preventative measures to be implemented. So all close contact activities like bridge and craft classes have been suspended and the books have once again disappeared from the library. They really do need to rename the latter!

Nice to see a positive post to counter the constant sniping of those with axes to grind.

It isn’t is it. We have lost one half of our Canaries ports. Personally I would have rather we had lost El Ferrol and kept Gran Canaria!

Schedule is one day later than stated above, ie Madeira Fri evening and all day Sat La Palma Sun Tenerife Mon Then on to El Ferrol as per original schedule So we have lost Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, two out of our original six ports.

Currently mid Biscay. Captain announced this morning that revised itinerary nearly finalised and that he expects to be in a position to announce it at about lunchtime.

Under way again, three days behind schedule. No revised itinerary yet but expect to lose at least two ports. Hope one is El Ferrol rather than Madeira or or some of the Canaries!

Not under way yet unfortunately. Captain recently announced that results of generator tests still awaited. Further announcement will be made in due course. Passengers not happy bunnies!

All bookcases in corridor next to library filled with books. Still only cardboard replicas in main part of library. Maybe this is the new normal.

This is correct. At approx 10:35 yesterday evening the captain announced that there had been a fault on one of the ships generators. This had been rectified but he needed to get it checked before venturing into Biscay. He had taken the decision to return to the UK coast for this to be done. So we woke up this morning off the coast of Dorset, almost back where we started. He announced an hour or so ago that the checks should be completed this morning, when a further announcement would be made. Even if we set sail immediately we will have lost nearly three days of our cruise and probably at least two ports.

On our way nearly two days late. Ship moving a bit but not excessively. Expect captain to make announcement later re itinerary. Speculation is that we will miss out Funchal and sail straight to La Palma, with rest of itinerary unchanged.

Just looked again and there are in fact three small bookcases of real books tucked away in the corridor adjacent to the library. Odd. Maybe they were missed when the rest were removed and replaced by the cardboard replicas. On wider issues there is an obsessive emphasis on handwashing onboard, particularly when entering the restaurants. Widely interpreted as a precaution against norovirus although no evidence of cases onboard. Maybe this explains the disappearance of the books.

A shuttle bus service has been arranged to various locations in Portsmouth. Captain hopes to sail tomorrow morning weather forecasts permitting.

On SofA at the moment and the books have gone again; the cardboard replicas are back. Just what is going on?