Chanbre

On our cruises they served proper hot puddings adjacent to the OVC's ice cream station, but only one choice per day. I remember things like sponge puddings with custard, chocolate puddings, rice pudding with jam. They even served spotted dick (although it was named differently, I have no idea of why they disliked a "spotted" pudding). One cruise the OVC served several different trifles one evening. They are mixes of fruits, sponge, cream, and custard. Beyond that, I went for the cream brulee or the ice creams.

I recall that nuts and some berries were available at breakfast in the Silhouette buffet. Just head for the muesli station. I think that nuts were also available as toppings at the buffet's ice cream station.

Painful? What part of going on enough cruises - on beautiful ships with wonderful food and entertainment - to earn Zenith status is painful?

My August 2022 dailies from the Shilouette show: Ensemble (deck 5) and Sky (deck 14) open until 1am; Casino and Martini (both deck 4) open until "late". We never tested what "late" actually means! Most other inside bars are shown as closing at midnight.

From the Silhouette daily in August 2022. We used the shuttle, I think it cost about 10USD per person.

Guest Services, on one of our Silhouette criuses, had a book with a whole variety of things that could be ordered (for a fee) to enhance our celebration. I remember seeing things like flowers, champagnes, cakes, room decorations, etc. I don't remember the full list.

Borealis had line dancing in June 2022.

I have had some fine deserts in the OVC on the Eclipse and the Silhouette. Just next to the ice cream station they served proper English puddings, often with custard. Puddings like fruit crumbles, steamed puddings, cobblers, rice puddings. They even served Spotted Dick, although they gave it another misleading title.

There are nearly two weeks remaining for Celebrity to let me know that I have won. T's&C's 5.1 says "The draw will take place within three (3) working days of the close of the Competition. The winner ... will be notified ... within 14 days of the draw." T's&C's 2 says "The Competition ... concludes at 12:00hrs GMT on Thursday 9th February 2023."

Yes, Superman. I mentioned him on post #8 of this topic.

After about three days I have had one of the five codes, for Barcelona, acknowledged. Still waiting for the other four. My wife also sent her five codes and she has not had any acknowledgements yet.

After each number was entered the web page said I would be sent an email. Two days later I have not received any email. Have other people received entry confirmation emails?

From the T's&C's: "2 COMPETITION PERIOD The Competition commences at 07:00hrs GMT on Thursday 26th January 2023 and concludes at 12:00hrs GMT on Thursday 9th February 2023."

Just leaving the Barcelone cruise port in April 2019 took ages. Our preboooked taxi arrived an hour late because of traffic around the port and our taxi ride was very slow for first mile or so on leaving the port.

T's&C's include "3.1 The Competition is open to residents of the United Kingdom who are over 18 years of age." I really liked the Barcelona picture. We have visted there a couple of times and it was great to see some of the places we visited. Parts of the Barcelona picture are fascinating. There are several "incomplete" people: legs without heads and shoulders, or heads without legs. There is a the rear half of white car that appears as if a red car has reversed over it. Clearly the whole image is made by combining several photos. Superman is flying over one roof. There is a big advert for the iPhone 7, suggesting that the picture is from 2016

We have done the tour twice. First was in 2014 on the Eclipse, then in 2022, last year, on the Silhouette. Both tours visited the bridge, the engine control room, some food storage areas, the I95 and the main galley. The Eclipse tour also visited a (cold and windy) forward area where the mooring ropes and anchors are controlled. We also visited back stage of the theatre and some crew areas. The Silhouette tour was somewhat shorter, the other main spaces we visited this time were a garbage room and the laundry room where sheets and towels and similar are cleaned. (They mentioned that there is another laundry room where uniforms are cleaned.) I thought both tours were very interesting. We saw more places on the Eclipse. Maybe Covid protocols have led to the shortening of the tour. Each area was described by someone from that area. Different people have different abilities in talking about their area; maybe their langauge skills vary, maybe we were one of the first groups that some had ever spoken to. Most of the presenters were proud of their position and seemed very happy to talk to us and to answer questions. In most places the group had more questions to ask and we would have been happy to stay longer, but the tour leader had a schedule to keep. One memorable, but minor, part of the Silhouette tour: We were accompanied throughout the tour by two of the ship's security officers. After the bridge we took a lift down, we filled the lift. The security officer touched a key fob (not their sea pass) to a place on the lift control panel and then the little display in that panel in the lift read "Priority". I guess that our group were important.

With regard to keeping medicines cool, may I suggest going to any bar on the ship and asking for some ice cubes. Put them into a Ziploc plastic bag and put that into the medicines bag. Repeat as necessary until you have access to a fridge.

Here is an excerpt from the "Dine & Drink" section of a Silhouette daily from August 2022, showing afternoon tea.

How do you know what is behind the faceplate of the wall-socket that has outlets for mains electricity and a USB? How do you know what wonders of technology are behind the USB socket at your aeroplane seat? There are many suspicions that some East European and some Asian countries do everything they can to collect Western information. The UK press has very recent accounts of an MP's mobile phone being infected with malware.

Some people recommend using a "USB Data Blocker" when charging from power sources that you do not own or control. I generally use one when charging my personal phone from my work laptop. A "charge only" usb cable should also be sufficient. The downside of a charge only cable is that you then need two cables (one for charging and one for connecting phone and laptop) and remember which is which. The data blocker is a very small box.

We often ordered extra vegetables when dining in Blu. Normally they served a bowl of steamed carrots, brocolli and cauliflower. One evening they served nice haricot beans with the main. The next day I asked for, and was served, extra haricot beans. The same the next day, I like haricot beans. I asked for them on the next day, but none arrived. When desert was served the maitre'D came and apologised for not serving extra beans. He had sent runners to every other restaurant in the ship but none had ordered beans from the store rooms. He ordered beans specially for me for the next day.