Eglesbrech

It’s 2% of all U.K. exports but 26% of U.K. food and drink. It’s one of the largest net contributors to U.K. balance of trade.

Hope you get over it completely soon. These bugs take time to shake.

Anyone been watching the Eurovision knock out rounds. Some interesting offerings to say the least.

2% of a massif market, £278m in 2023.

Many thanks, I’ll look out for that. India is one of the biggest markets for whisky in the world, good fo our exports!

I like some of the Penderyn range and tried them while in Wales. The St George English has some interesting offerings too. I’ll look out for the Norfolk, do you have a name (might be St George?) I’ve tried numerous Japanese but haven’t found one quite to my taste. We were in Ireland last year and came across Red Breast whiskey while trying a tasting flight in Galloway City. We had the 12 year old Pot and it was excellent. We asked mine host if the 25 year old would be better and the honest man said no, just more expensive but not better. Had several bottles since. And don’t get me started on Scottish offerings as I can (and have) bored people for hours in on the subject. We had Cullen skink for dinner on Sunday as I managed to get fresh Arbroath Smokies and had a dram of Smokehead (cheap and cheerful from the Macleod stable of distillery’s) so it’s doesn’t have to be expensive to be good if paired with the right food!

@daz1107 I didn’t want to go off topic on the drinks thread but as a fellow whisky (and whiskey) enthusiast can I recommend one from a fairly new distillery. We were in Fife last year and visited Kingsbarns which is less than a decade old. Their Balcomie Sherry matured malt is really good and very well priced for the quality, I’d say cheap for the flavour profile. Rosebank is also opening again in June after 25 years sleeping so looking forward to going for a tour there. You are correct, the selection is pretty safe and pedestrian for anyone who knows and enjoys their whisky.

ICF has not been around much recently, unless I have missed posts.

I can’t say what the P&O policy is but Princess have the same 15 units drink limit and yes they do indeed let people move to paying by cruise card after that. Seen it several times as the person at the bar is told they have used their daily allowance but a drink is served and charged. In fairness the people we have seen were not rolling drunk so there was perhaps no obvious reason for bar staff not serve them (except perhaps liver damage). As they are the same group perhaps the same policy? Maybe someone else knows definitively

That would be much appreciated. Have a lovely cruise.

I have only ever sailed with MSC with a drinks package so I haven’t seen any costs for drinks. A friend is thinking on sailing on MSC and asked about the extract below from the MSC FAQs (as she knew I had cruised with them) but I can’t answer her. Anyone know if the 15% is added to drinks prices on ex U.K. cruises or is this already included in the list price for drinks? And for my idle curiosity does anyone know if it is added to drinks if for example you selected a top shelf whisky above the price included in packages? Do you pay the difference and 15%? “Onboard bar purchases will incur gratuities, automatically added to all purchases: 15% gratuities on European, Emirates, South Caribbean, Red Sea, South America (Brazil and Argentine) and Far East itineraries, and 18% gratuity on North America itineraries.“

Im also old school and I agree, I would not try to take on contraband and I think most people will hopefully be the same. I am disappointed by the change as we always take on a decent malt to have in the cabin and P&O don’t offer anything vaguely like the whisky we take in their bars. That said I am versatile and they do offer some decent wines so we can manage for the time onboard. The wine selection has however reduced along with all the other choices and the list, even in the Glass House, is a lot more pedestrian than to used to be. I think what annoys people is unilateral changes after cruises have been booked. I appreciate that P&O will make policy changes from time to time but would it not be better to do so when launching a new season / brochure, so people know what to expect. This was a unique selling point for P&O, getting rid of it may be one more reason for people to look at other lines if they are all becoming homogenised anyway.

Yes I got dragged to Monica and made to “walk” the course. I don’t know if you are aware but MSC have F1 simulators onboard and OH did that and enjoyed it (I didn’t, if I had got in to that car I would have struggled to get out again!).

Not another F1 fan. OH watches it all the time, he even made me go with him to Silverstone- I was the official photographer!

Welcome to cruise critic. This is an old thread with the last post being in November 2023 so in terms of any issues with Noro, it is out of date information. Are you cruising on Ventura in the near future? If so I’m sure there is nothing to be concerned about, P&O are usually very quick to get on top of any issues like this.