christraveller

What a grand actionable list, arrived at by tireless collaboration on many levels incorporating customer culture, wants and need!

The marketing folks at Princess ought to have a great meeting when they realize they tried to market a nothing burger with fanfare.

Shockingly, it is an older demographic that is on cruises. I know, this is not the news the corporations like. This does open the door to opportunities in a competitive world. Knees and hips get painful with time. Seating surface heights need to be raised. Occupational therapists help with this issue. Hearing against a background of conversations or music becomes more difficult. Presbycusis is the word for it. Worth looking up in Wikipedia.com. Sound engineers can have a crack at this, so that the large number of hearing impaired folks can enjoy socializing. thanks!

Legionella resource from the Center for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/about/causes-transmission.html the facts from the ultimate scientific source.

Throwback? Sure. but… Healthy. Nice feature. Count me in with the pro- veggies crowd, along with my dietitian.

Yes, run, don’t walk and book yourselves in. SB checks all your boxes. We had a 14 day cruise between Barbados and St Martin this year. Simply fabulous. port hint: find an itinerary with lots of French islands. Guadeloupe, Martinique and their islands as they are amongst the safest and most prosperous. Sidewalks in good repair there, so much more pleasant for us with fear of orthopedic issues! Tour the ports on foot. You have built in beach time at Carambola Beach once a week. The 600 passenger size is just right. Fellow passengers were very nice, chatty, friendships easy to make.

We stayed at Eurostars Grand Marina in the port area at the foot of Avenida Parallel and La Rambla. . Easy walks to public transit, beach area. Modern, fairly expensive, value for money. Great breakfasts. Best to book on their website. Cab to ship took only minutes. Less expensive, nice hotel? Try an H - Hotel. Chain headquartered in Barcelona. Great locations. https://www.h-hotels.com/en. Pro tip: check out on a map how far the Metro station is, if you see yourself scooting around the city using public transit.

I cannot tell what the SS hotel is. Independent from that issue, we stayed in the Eurostars Marina. Superb location, (one SS cruise started literally downstairs, another a short taxi ride away), large room, friendly staff, awesome breakfast. I think we were in a junior suite. Booked through hotel website. You wouldn’t go wrong with that choice.

This may not be viable. IIRC most insurance (personal and for a cruise line) will not cover us when we enter war zones knowingly and willingly. Beautiful azure seas, Seabourn legendary service, gourmet meals, delightful fellow passengers… best enjoyed elsewhere! stay safe, everyone.

Now that Starlink has arrived, is the pricing as-is, ie one device per guest included, no streaming sites, or $20/day extra for no limitations?

Indian foods are as varied, if not more so, than European foods. sorry to hear that your experience was so poor. peace.

Bistecca fiorentina in Italy arrives at the table rare, precursor for being cut into slices. A good1/3 is bone. The slices that got to my plate were very rare, and needed adroit cutting to eliminate the 1/4 fat, gristle, and so on. 32 oz - 1/3 bone = 20 oz. 20 oz - 1/4 losses = 16 oz. Thus: each diner has 8 oz net. I prefer medium to medium rare, and hope the menu crafters add one or two more steaks to the menu at Solis. Or special order provision for steak.

We ordered an Indonesian meal, with advance notice, on an Atlantic crossing. Fabulous food! Not dull, authenticity hit 100%. strongly recommended.

Frozen fish is safe fish. Typically, frozen at the time of being hauled onboard a fishing boat. Freezing fish eliminates risk from fish parasites, which can be very problematic for humans. hooray! For freezing. All sushi in Canada is from thawed fish for this reason…

Guests arrive on board with many different culinary expectations, based on their own culture, experiences, and readiness to embrace “different”. Lukewarm foods that should be hot, under spiced, lack of variety…. my own pet peeves. I used to live in Guadalajara, so passing off Tex-Mex chili con carne as Mexican is horrifying to me. A thin Wiener Schnitzel, if covering the plate, on the other hand, sounds reasonably authentic. The breadcrumb crust should be wavy and bubbly, though. Otherwise the suspicion of factory made, and deep fried from frozen would arise, wouldn’t it? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_schnitzel