lisiamc

I know you’re also a Viking enthusiast, and we were on Neptune for New Year’s Eve this year. It was a very good party, beside the pool. No one went for a swim, appropriately dressed or otherwise, but there was lots of good music, and many sociable people.

I can tell you without even taking a sample home, that the water on every ship we’ve been on is better (usually MUCH better) than our tap water at home. We live in a hard water area, and the water is safe to drink, but tastes vile, even after filtering.

I had some friends receive an email that was somewhat similar. They run a B&B, and were asked if they could accommodate a fairly large group of people, provide meals, etc. Something about the wording just sounded a bit… off. They responded asking for more information. They were then told that because this was being organised by a hospitality group, the B&B bill would be paid in advance with a bank draft. It would be for a set amount, more than twice what the actual bill would be, and the B&B could refund the extra to the organisers. Since this was obviously a scam, they didn’t take it any further. I don’t think the “organisers” actually had a group looking for a place to stay. The approach to you could be something along the same lines.

I don’t know your age group, but Virgin ships seem very popular with those who enjoy all the bells and whistles. They’re quite a bit smaller than RCCL mega-ships, but I hear very good things about the food and the entertainment. They started out looking for a very young crowd, but seem very popular with late-40s, 50s, and young-outlook 60s.

In your shoes, I’d be tempted to book a b2b with one of the cruise lines who do a horseshoe-shaped itinerary for a few trips in the winter. Viking did a few Panama Canal cruises with Mars this winter, I think. Trip One: From Florida, through the canal, up to California. Trip Two: From California, through the canal and up to Florida. I think that would be fun - about two weeks each leg. I’d love a month on the ship!

You’ve had some great suggestions. If you start from the most recent end of that really long thread about restaurants and work backwards, it won’t take you even two minutes to get a load of recommendations for Rome. I think you’re safe to choose whichever restaurants sound good to the foodie adults - I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a restaurant in Italy for lunch or dinner that didn’t have at least a few kids in it, happily chowing down. They won’t all serve pizza, especially at lunchtime, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t serve pasta of some sort.

If I had to take a guess, more people own cell phones/smartphones these days than own conventional or digital cameras.

That’s cute! I often buy a cheap supermarket shopping bag as a souvenir when we travel. My two current favourites are one from Albertson’s in Idaho, and one from New Zealand. They weigh very little, and fold nicely flat. Easy to get home, and handy to use on a cruise!

I would say don’t bring a lovely, new, expensive bathing suit on a cruise, or if you do, only use it for sunbathing. I’ve heard so many stories about the chemicals/salt water really giving a bathing suit a beating. (I don’t know first-hand. I can swim, and I will swim to avoid drowning, but I don’t enjoy it. And I’m really not keen on the “human soup” effect of loads of people sharing small pools and hot tubs!) Bring an old but still presentable suit if you can. That way you won’t mind so much if all the colour leaches out of it!

We are late to bed, so we’re quite likely to be some of the ones having a nightcap up there! I also hear that when Mr Motivator is on board, his class starts at 9.30. Perfect for us.

I was booted out of a cocktail party on a Celebrity ship because my sandals with high heels and jewelled straps were dubbed flip-flops because they had a strap that went between my toes. I wasn’t terribly happy, but I did accept that if they wanted to enforce the rules (no flip-flops) there were going to be some interesting judgement calls. It did make me laugh that I could have worn my wellies and been allowed in because they were not flip-flops. You can trust that I would have worn them, if only they had been with me! 😀 That may be one of the many reasons we no longer sail with Celebrity, but it isn’t one of the important ones.

Vanishingly unlikely. No cruise line is going to send crew, passengers, or ships into harms’s way.

I think our cruise (17 March) Adriatic at Easter, seems fairly full, although I don’t know that for sure. Today, we were allocated our cabin, on Deck A, under the Britannia Lounge. We’re in a nice location, IMO.

We often do land trips with friends, and we have worked out ground rules for sharing that work well for us. We split the costs by the number of people, but the person or couple who did all the organising gets first choice of the rooms, or in the case of a ship’s cabin, the bed. So the third person in the cabin with a couple would get the upper bunk or the sofa bed. For three or four friends sharing, the other three could do rock, paper, scissors to allocate beds! costs for extras on a ship are easier as everyone has their own account. On land, everyone contributes to a kitty for coffees, meals, and food shopping. That would work for shared shore time on a cruise, too.

Pax is ok with me. I have noticed that some cruise lines prefer to call us guests, and they have a Guest Services desk rather than a Passenger Services desk. There seems to be significant overlap with cruise lines who like to describe their cabins as staterooms. I personally prefer to be a passenger in a cabin. I’m not in a hotel, I’m on a ship and I’m going somewhere, if only around in a big circle. If I was looking for a “hotel experience”, I’d be staying in a hotel.

Yes, I have heard that the load shedding can disrupt the water treatment process in South Africa. Several fellow passengers had this problem on our cruise last year on Journey. As we changed the bottled water supplier in the Canaries, it seemed like everyone felt much better. DH and I didn’t get sick. We drank the tap water on the ship, which I believe undergoes rigorous testing, certainly more so than formerly trustworthy bottled water.

@shipgeeks - adverts in our newspapers are often somewhat breathless. They assure the interested reader that all meals are included, and all cabins have an en-suite bathroom, as if perhaps other cruise lines have a pay-as-you-eat policy, and shared bathrooms at the end of the corridor. So I can see why first-timers get confused sometimes! And many cruise lines advertise themselves as all-inclusive, when they don’t really mean it.

We found that there is a regular crowd in Torshavn most nights: it’s a very good late-night venue (well, later night, anyway) IMO. We enjoyed the Viking Band and the singers, and stayed, and danced, until the end of the last set (about midnight) most nights.

I agree that they should clean and restock the machines in the World Café one at a time, so outliers like you 😁 (and there are actually a surprising number of super-early birds on a cruise) have options. As much as I like and use the Nespresso machine in the cabin, it can’t make a cappuccino.

We tried our first MSC in October 2023, and it was ok, and we had a good time (we were with friends), but I would ONLY do MSC again if we were in the Yacht Club. If we were 10-15 years younger, (we’d be your age, OP) I would seriously consider Virgin.

One of our our favourite restaurants in Norwich (touristy-ish city, IMO) started including a built-in tip during Covid. We always get outstanding service at this restaurant, so we are happy to pay the extra charge. It’s usually a bit less than we’d pay if we were tipping cash!

Yes, great advice! I was just going to mention the lovely little open-face sandwiches served all afternoon in the Living Room. They are the same as Mamsen’s serves at lunchtime. If you’re back to the ship too late for the World Cafè, and the queue is too long at the Pool Grill, have a quick sandwich (or two!) in the Living Room to tide you over until you can have an amazing tea in the Winter Garden. It’s really hard to go hungry in a Viking ship.

You could have been on the cruise that inspired me to start cruising! The first cruise ship I ever saw was the Mardi Gras heading up the St Lawrence seaway in 1976. I was a teenager on the shore listening to their jazz band and absolutely drooling with envy at what a good time those passengers must be having. It took 16 more years to make that dream come true, but cruising is still my favourite holiday. Even if you weren’t on that exact cruise, thank you for bringing a wonderful memory to mind!

That may be the case for some items. The newer bistecca fiorentina (without the seasoning rub with mushroom powder, brown sugar, etc), is more authentically Italian than the old offering with all the sugary things. When we were on board Neptune (late December until early January) they were offering both. For me, the newer, less fussed-about steak (no mushroom powder, no brown sugar) was the better one.

They may be branching out a bit lately. We’ve seen several Filipino dishes on the menu, such as pork adobo and pork sisig. Plus there is the usual suckling pig, served in its entire, crisp, delicious glory. The dish itself is not that adventurous, granted, but the presentation always seems to startle a few people. I am a big fan of suckling pig, but I couldn’t compete with the lady ahead of me who asked for an ear! 😁