Harters

My niece spent her teen years living in the States and learned to drive there. When she returned to the UK, she found it easier to take our test just for an automatic, rather than having to relearn how to drive for a stick licence. And, yes, I agree , shifting with the "wrong" hand can be a challenge. We often rent a car when visiting Spain as villas we're staying in tend to be in more rural areas. For trips to Belgium and France, we've always taken our own car, passing through Dover for the ferry to Calais. Whilst not having any of the stick issues, it comes with its own safety problem - in trying to overtake, say a large truck, you have to pull out much further before you know if there's oncoming traffic.

Ireland is also an exception in Western Europe in driving on the left. Elsewhere on the continent, Cyprus and Malta also drive on the left. And Hank makes the point I always make to visiting North Americans that most of our cars here in Europe are manual shift (for the first time in some 50+ years driving, I currently have an automatic - a secondhand Skoda Karoq). Rental companies will usually only have automatics available on more upmarket models, so expect to be paying a lot more for one. I presume visitors can use their normal driving licence without problem but it will be worth folk visiting the UK to check this with the rental company. Reason for suggesting this is that we have two levels of driving licence here. One that only allows you to drive an automatic. The other allows you to drive automatics and manuals. The driving test is different for each.

Perhaps oddly, it wasnt the money that concerned me most. It was actually what I would do with my new life. Once I had my head reasonably straight about that, making the application was plain sailing. My employer (a government agency) ran pre-retirement courses, with a financial planner, and I was able to get on one of those. Very useful two day course I finished at the end of September and it felt weird until January or thereabouts. It felt sort of being on holiday and then realising that there wasnt a "back to work" date. I was a bit in limbo. Once Christmas was out of the way, I realised that I now felt "retired". Good luck with your plans.

Yes. When we were there last autumn, there were several waiting right outside the terminal building. You are never far from a cab in Barca.

I actually don't have it as a problem as I never go out to dinner, on land or sea, in jeans or shorts - always long trousers, such as chinos.

Cue another discussion over what are "casual" jeans and "dressy" shorts.

Work hard to make it happen. It'll be the best decision you make. I had the opportunity to apply for early retirement at 53 - no package and with just the pension entitlement I'd earned till then. Approval given and I was off within a few weeks - my new boss and I had a mutual disrespect for each other, so it was never going to be a problem . Never looked back - it comes up to 21 years in September.

The beach is about 12km from the cruise port so, looking at the official (metered) taxi rates, that's going to cost about €15 each way.

Restaurants are rarely perfect. For my 60th birthday, we went for dinner to the Fat Duck, then rated third best restaurant in the world. Of the 14 courses on the eye-wateringly expensive tasting menu, there were a couple that we didnt think were "right". But food is always subjective, so my opinion counts no more or less than any other customer or, indeed, the chef.

As do I. We got the booklet for our 2017 cruise but not for the ones last year and this year. Havent missed the booklet - as you say, everything you need is online and can be printed as required.

Graphic designer needs firing. It's always the graphic designer's fault. 😉

Me too (to quote a phrase). I make a comparison with a 5* hotel I've been to in Tenerife. O's GDR & Terrace food is generally as good as that. I'm looking forward to going to a 5* all-inclusive resort in Cyprus in the autumn which seems to have a comparable offer of "hotel services" to a cruise with O. If it does indeed match O's quality, or come near to it, then next year's Vista cruise may well be our last - as the resort is half the price of O.

Sofitel is fine. I've stayed there a couple of times. Location is its big selling point - it's within the terminal building, so only a short walk from/to Arrivals/Departures. And a reasonable price, for the convenience. Spacious room with comfy bed. We had dinner in the restaurant which was OK. But they do have an absolutely disreputable practice of adding a 12.5% service charge to the bill (which is fine) but then leaving the tip line open. It's intended to catch out foreign travellers who may not appreciate that the service charge IS the tip and NOTHING else is required or expected - so end up effectively tipping twice. It's a shameful practice.

Including CC's ports of call sub-forum and any cruise "port guide" you can find online. I find they are the two most useful resources

Or even national travel. Our next cruise is from/to Southampton. It's a four hour drive but we'll do that the day before and stay somewhere close to the port. Just so much more relaxing than doing it on the day. And our transatlantic earlier this year involved Terminal 5. Sunday - flew Manchester to Heathrow (cos otherwise is would be too close to call next day for Miami), stayed at the Sofitel. Monday - flew Miami. Tuesday - relaxing day at the Beach. Wednesday - boarded Vista.

I believe that Australians, like Europeans, have gratuities already included in the headline cruise price. If that's not accurate, then paying the gratuities would be the way to go. You could think about a "splurge" on an expensive excursion as a particular treat. I asked a similar question some while back, before Simply More came in and taking a credit was one of the possible "perks". My understanding from the responses then was that you could go shopping in the boutiques. Buy a nice watch, or something, as a souvenir of the cruise?

No worries, Kay. I'll have that as my "learn something new every day". 😀

I had to Google to find out who that was.

Yes, we still have the remnants of archaic culture. Although it's a long time since I saw a restaurant dress code requiring a tie (and that was also in Scotland).

Ah. So an American country club is simply what we'd call a golf club? In that case, my nearby club (of which I am most definitely not a member) has this as its acceptable dress code for men inside the club house (different rules apply for the course) - smart jeans, smart casual shirt (may be worn outside trousers) smart T shirt, polo shirt, smart tailored shorts (max knee length), caps or hats (with any peak facing to the front), smart clean trainers. Probably a good job I didnt find that for our first cruise on O and use it as a guide.

Yeah, training for cruise eating/drinking is always a good idea. We often stay at the Quay, so know Paysanne reasonably well (although we've not been since before Covid).

Is that Paysanne, Techno?

But it does have the locally infamous Platform 0 - for the trains to nowhere. 😀

Very valid point that, as you say, requires someone to check your card into the system. Funnily enough, the first time we were asked for a card, I asked why (as I'd forgotten the different levels of service applying). The odd thing was the guy said it was about stock-checking. When we thought about it immediately afterwards we realised that this was utter nonsense and it must have been to check if we were SM customers or not. But why trot out the nonsense?

I closely read the tour information before making a booking, to ensure that it's within our mobility limitations. A two hour walk round a city centre at the pace set by a guide is one thing, whereas a two hour walk round a city at our own pace (with stops as necessary) is very much another matter. It tends to mean that, if we take a ship's excursion it will usually be a panoramic one, accepting that it may not be as interesting as some others and we do our own thing in most ports. Happy with that - our holiday is mainly the "floating hotel", rather than where it visits.