Planning to cruise

Equally, UK nationals should be aware that from November there are additional controls and requirments to enter Europe. This would affect flights to join cruises, or any other reason to visit.

Im not sure it is a case of chasing or upselling sales (although I can recall one sommelier who was very good at trying that) but needing to produce results. No doubt the fact that bar staff work hard rather than hang around can be noticed. Efficiency and sales volumes are the key to promotion. Not sure if there is an opposite result of not making the grade. The young man I refer to was pleased to be upgraded from wait staff to bar server (all some years ago) and the next step he hoped for would be effectively bar manager on a shift. Of course drinks staff are there to serve non alcohol as well as the more expensive alcohol.

The Boardwalk cafe has been in use in warmer southern hemisphere climes.

That is why it is called the Kings Court perhaps. Better than an Artisans Foodhall anyway

I am not a teetotaller and often like a glass of wine with dinner and / or more or less only on Cunard a pre dinner drink. I am just not over fussed about alcohol. It is a drink, there are others I might prefer. Call me old fashioned but tea or elderflower are often the go to choices anywhere. There is an emphasis on alcoholic drinks on all ships. I once got to know a Cunard barman well, not because we were good customers - we werent - but because being far from home he seemed to want someone to chat to and we always did so every time we met. He worked round the clock and when I asked him if he got fed up serving all these drinks even early in the day he said that in the end it just passed them by, the emphasis was in his words for them to sell, sell, sell.

Losing local housing stock to holiday use is a problem in popular, usually coastal and or rural parts, of the UK. Second home purchases have reduced supply of homes for locals and pushed the prices out of their reach. In places, such houses have recently attracted much higher taxes than non holidaybstock, to the protest of those owners. These areas attract large numbers of visitors and get very overcrowded in high season with traffic and people congestion without necessarily creating economic benefits.

Speaking for myself, I would sincerely hope not.

When we have been to what Cunard bills as Cairns the ship has docked at Yorkeys Knob some miles north.

I am sure that you will find more than enough to do. Enjoy!

I think there is more problem at Mayflower.

Club on QM2 is a separate room, 2 in fact since extra cabins were added. They are as you say at the back of the MDR which means going through the dining room unless you access via the D staircase near the QR. Walking straight into the dining room to walk through can attract some pained looks when it is thought you are queue jumping. We tend to say Club to the MD as we pass. Noisy? Not really although we once had a table next to the wall with the kitchen on the other side. Some noise penetrated but it was probabaly still quieter than being next to a service station in a dining room. It depends where the cabin is on the top decks. We felt movement in a very forward Club room on deck 12 during a rough TA crossing in January. That was unpleasant at first until we found our sea legs. More midships rooms are better. We quickly learned to think vertically not horizontally in Club on QM2. The A stairs / lifts give speedy direct access to the Commodore Club, launderette, library, Kings Court via the salon, and the rear of the theatre. The trek along the length is only necessary for the dining room.

I have found the most interesting speakers to be on TA crossings and on a world cruise where they change on segments. The best whilst also being great speakers often have academic credentials rather than being say TV people. I have heard and chatted with Maureen Ryan and Stephen Payne on such cruises. Although I do think its rude to do so I did in fact walk out of one talk some years ago along with a number of other women. It was between Australian ports, the speaker was Australian, as were great numbers of passengers. Although he was unknown to others he was apparently some sort of personality in Australia and the Australians were excited to think he was to talk and flocked to the theatre. He was so rude, sexist and misogynist, a few got up and others followed. Each to their own.

At the end of a cruise last year my husband ended up helping an elderly couple with their cases in the shed at Southampton. He is not the fittest passenger but this pair with whom we had spoken in a bar on baord were clearly having trouble with their small cases and wobbling on their sticks. Porters?

Triva every evening at 8 pm in the Explorers Lounge on port days on our VO cruises this year. On the one sea day it was around 12 noon in the theatre.

The timings above are the reason why we have now decided to try to arrive on board earlier even if it means overnighting in a hotel. Travelling on the day of departure has resulted in more than one arrival on company transfers during the talk or the start of dinner without time to freshen up. We share cdn polar s views about getting unpacked and settled.