Tothesunset

Ooof!

I suspect there may be an interested party from SS now contributing to, and therefore reading, this forum. Pre-virus (ie the RCLvirus) there would be occasional reports by dissatisfied cruisers but most posts were positive. That situation now seems to be reversed. Whether SS has been eroding its standards or whether people are emboldened to complain because the cheerleaders are conspicuously absent is hard to determine. I really want our cruise on the Wind next month to be as good as all previous ones but the current tenor of reports on this forum concerns me. However, sailing SS ain't compulsory. But I hope it's still amazing!

Why can't humanity be more like my labradors:

5 weeks from now we will be boarding the Wind. It's going to be very hard to approach that voyage with our normal excitement in view of the opinions expressed in this thread (and elsewhere). Of course, some aspects of the experience will have changed since our last trip on her in 2019; that's normal, things change. What we don't expect is change for the worse. And what we certainly don't expect is overt penny-pinching, upselling, mediocre food, diffident staff or gauche fellow passengers (although there's always a few...). Hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

The benchmark.

That typo could have been much worse.

Yes it did. Twice! Stopped updating my signature a while back. There's a couple of Silversea and Saga cruises to add but haven't got round to it. Good excuse though - laziness.

One thing I don't understand. You get off the ship at, say, 9.30 for the 3 hr trip home. The other passengers need a loo stop after a couple of hours. Fair enough. But do they really need to spend 45 minutes having a cup of tea, a faceful of food and a wander round the retail outlets? They've only just had breakfast for crying out loud. L'enfer c'est Les autres

Even that is too difficult for those turning into McSilversea.

What eclipse? I'm in the dark about it.

She has a right to unlimited stays in the EU as long as she is accompanying an EU spouse (me!) but it would be much safer to have an exit stamp. Your response is most reassuring.

On 17 May we arrive in Lisbon by air from where we take a cruise ship calling at ports in Portugal, Spain and France before arriving at Tower Bridge to disembark. Now, I'm Irish so can enter and leave the EU freely; however, OH is a British Citizen and will have her passport stamped on entry - the problem is will she also acquire an exit stamp at some point? Does anyone have experience of a similar situation?

He may well be recounting the same story on the Chinese site Tourist Critic.

I invoked the wrath of the Shanghai police when we visited 10 years ago. Walking along the Bund there was a statue of Mao affixed to the plinth of which was a small plaque written in Chinese characters with a small-type translation (I assumed) underneath. So I strolled over to look at it which provoked high-pitched whistling, everyone - the locals at least - stood still and a Chinese copper came running towards (at?) me furiously blowing his whistle. I was given a good old dressing down (actually he was shouting in Chinese so for all I know he might have been giving me his favourite pulled pork recipe). Apparently, I had commited the offence of approaching the statue. But how else to read the plaque? Top tip for Mysty. Take binoculars.

That makes me feel so homesick as an erstwhile New Territories resident. The best place we ever lived. 😢