Harters

Just a few minutes stroll from the Royal Yacht, is this restaurant which I can thoroughly recommend for lunch or dinner . Last time we ate there, we were staying two hours drive south and made the trip just for lunch. It majors on seasonal Scottish produce. One of my favourite restaurants in the UK https://thekitchin.com/

Although no-one questions the posters who often contribute "real time" accounts of their cruise. Usually praised for giving up their time to give information to the rest of us.

Absolutely. That's what I was trying to suggest in my post #25 (although you phrase it better). Snails, Fois Gras, Lobster Thermidor - all dishes from decades back that foreign tourists might expect in a French restaurant. Until the last few years, I visited northern France regularly, staying in small towns and villages. And, of course, eating in restaurants where foreigners would be comparatively few and far between. Catering for locals, even in the more upmarket places, you simply wouldnt generally find these old classics.

Definitely good, IMO. In particular, the "package holiday" protection in case, for example, a TA or operator goes bust. It helped at the beginning of Covid when we had a Canada holiday (including Alaska cruise) cancelled. The company tried to persuade us to take a credit against a future booking. We knew we had the law on our side and with effectively a "see you court" threat, got a full refund.

We did our first cruises with P & O, back in the late 1980s and early 90s. Then became disenchanted with the formality and, apart from a couple of short very casual cruises, didnt properly cruise again until we discovered Oceania in 2017. My parents in law however, loved the formality, Britishness and, of course, relative cheapness of the line. I still like the idea of driving to Southampton to go on holiday and might see what O is doing in 2025 that's a round trip.

I think it depends on which cruise line. We used a well known online cruise specialist TA for our recent cruise on Nautica. No discount but just easier to deal with than with O direct. Almost every week they send a brochure of their deals. There's never an O cruise but plenty for what I would regard as British lines - P & O, Fred Olson, Saga, etc. I presume that means that with Britons only being a small proportion of O's customer base, there isnt the financial support to allow discounting to any great degree. Think how few Britons post to this sub-forum, then check out the nationalities of those posting on the P & O one. In 2022, our most popular holiday destinations, in order, were Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, USA. Spain is way out in front - twice as many visitors as second place France. I'm not surprised by that - we holiday in Spain at least once a year (usually a winter sun break for two or three weeks). This year it will be twice (or possibly three times if the two nights in Barcelona before the cruise count as one).

On our recent cruise, I learned that O's customer base (in order of number) is from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It rather surprised me that 5 million Kiwis provide more customers than nearly 70 million Britons.

I've been to areas of my own very small country where you could certainly make that case. And I've been to areas of your country where I would also make the case. But, yes , good food and service are very subjective matters. And the latter can also be subject to national differences in restaurant culture. Aspects that are praised (or criticised) by Americans may well be reversed by Europeans. I look at like this - Oceania is essentially an American company, catering to an overwhelming proportion of American customers. It would be very silly of me to bring my European restaurant experience as a comparison with service onboard.

Wouldnt that depend on their particular country? And, of course, it would depend on them declaring the income.

I so, I do. John

Where I am in the world, it's commonplace for service charges or tips to be pooled and distributed amongst all members of the crew. At one of my regularly visited restaurants, the conditions of employment mean that tips paid by card are distributed to the whole, but cash tips are distributed to just FoH. But then a recent survey here reports that only about 30% of people tip in restaurants and the practice has all but died out amongst the under-30s.

Al-Jazeera reports that the two ships were called Unity Explorer and Number Nine.

On the other hand, if it did go into a tip pool then staff, who have not received cash tips from the likes of me, would also benefit. So, your generosity would be touching more people than you realised.

That's certainly how I'd be approaching it on a future cruise.

One of which well have been from me. We stayed there for two nights in June. Lovely hotel. As I recall, we had no need for the air con, as just opened a window. More recently, we stayed in an apartment (owned by a hotel) in Mallorca in September. There was certainly a limit to which the air con could be set. Not sure but think it was 27 or thereabouts, so quite warm. It's always a treat to have the cooling effects of air con. It's not something we have at home or come across very often when we travel.

Last September, we did a Canaries cruise, from/to Barcelona, on Oceania's Nautica. I have it mind Oceania operates this cruise a few times a year. Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - particularly seeing Mt Teide from the sea, as opposed to seeing from the air on our annual Tenerife holidays over the last 25+ years.

The recent ballot brings to a close the RMT's dispute over the 2022/23 pay issue, Just in time for negotiations to start on the 2024 pay negotiations. And, if the government (under the guise of the train operators) sticks to its position as previous, then a new round of strikes later next year seem to me inevitable.

Lots of discussion on this lengthy thread from early November https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2946003-zeebrugge-to-bruges-diy/

I understand that, rbtan. Food doesnt generally travel well and will usually be adapted to the majority tastes. I regularly go to a well respected Cantonese restaurant in our local Chinatown. It's good, I think. And has an almost exclusively Anglo customer base. Yet, if I go to the "back street" Hunanese place round the corner, the customer base is almost exclusively East Asian. Now, I'm not a believer that lots of minority ethnic customers is a guarantee of good food, but it's a starting point. And I suppose catering to majority tastes is what you expect a company like Oceania to do. Many folk on this forum praise the food in Red Ginger but our only meal there was under flavoured in comparison with what I'd expect in a good Chinese/Malaysian/Vietnamese at home. OK, but still disappointing. But, speaking of great seafood, I've had some wonderful meals in New England where quality seems to be more readily available than on my small, cold damp island, where we don't seem to prize the food that's swimming all around us. And, while I've eaten great BBQ in various southern states, I've never eaten better than OK BBQ in the north. And, yep, Scotch eggs are snack/picnic food.

Yes, indeed. It's what made pinotlovers original remark so funny. An American criticising British food for relying on immigrant flavours. I did, literally, laugh out loud when I read it.

Exactly.

Yes. For info, here's the menu at one of our favourite local bistro type places. No need for Aussie or Kiwi lamb when it's farmed in the next county. https://www.thelimetreerestaurant.co.uk/images/AutumnMenuOctSample.pdf But I always enjoy the food when we travel to foreign countries. And I've always reckoned the States is the most foreign that we visit, in spite of the language being broadly similar. So different to other European countries we visit.

I had never heard of Jacques Pepin until we took a cruise on Marina in 2017. Thought the food was fine. I suppose its plus point is that it serves the sort of dishes that foreign tourists expect to find on restaurant menus when they visit France - but rarely will, as French restaurants are generally catering to a French customer base and not stuck with the traditional. I'm looking forward to trying Ember as another restaurant serving "foreign food".

Thanks, both.

I don't drink alcohol but, from time to time, do enjoy a glass of alcohol free beer or wine, as a change from sparkling water. Does anyone know if these are available in the SM lunch & dinner deal?