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Certainly is, hence the 95% empty restaurant. Given what has happened to Sindhu over the years, and now that menu is little more than 'roast meat with an Indian name', then the 'fusion' aspect of this Asian menu rather hints that this will be the same.

The Green & Co menu is vegan, and the sushi offering is from the Mizuhana part, hence the name 'Green & Co feat. Mizuhana'. Because they are offering a niche menu to a niche audience, and most of that audience are not on P&O ships!

Neither soap nor alcohol destroys norovirus, unless the soapy water is above 60c which would scald your hands. Washing your hands properly with soap and water simply removes the norovirus from your hands, but the important bit is properly, and not just showing them the to the tap.

The Green & Co part of the restaurant isn't vegetarian it is vegan which is substantially different. And yes some customers order vegetarian dishes in restaurants that also serve non-vegetarian dishes, but there is a choice. The issue with the Green & Co part is that like most vegan restaurants they only sell vegan food, because vegans seem to get very upset if they sell non-vegan food, even if it is just vegetarian food. That is an issue for most people who are not vegans, hence lots of vegan restaurants going out of business, and if as well as the vegan dishes, they had vegetarian dishes, and non-vegetarian dishes then the place would be an awful lot busier than it is now.

They wouldn't have been, as the many vegan restaurants that are closing in the UK are finding out. Less than 4% of the UK population is vegan, and that falls to under 2% for those age 50 and over (which is a substantial proportion of the P&O demographic). No matter how well you try and sell vegan food as an idea the vast majority of your customer base is going to give it a miss. If you suggested running the Crows Nest bar as an alcoholic free drinks bar to appeal to the 20% of the population who don't drink then you would be decried as completely crazy - but that is what the Green and Co restaurant is trying to do.

So P&O has finally realised that having a faddy vegan menu that only appeals to a tiny fraction of the population wasn't a smart move, and actually having a menu that most people actually want to eat (and pay for) would be a good idea.

That ship sailed in 2016, although fortunately some of us have ancestry that mean it does not apply.

It's complicated - Microsoft PowerPoint - Seatrade 2024 - EU Border Systems CLIA presentation (cruising.org) But it would seem to be that for cruises starting and ending in the UK with Schengen area stops that ETIAS (when it comes in) would need to be checked on embarkation, but EES is not needed since, as now, the ship is effectively confirming that passengers have returned back on-board. So the old 'Southampton to the Med and back to Southampton' cruises are not getting involved with EES. For cruises starting or ending in a Schengen area port and ending or starting in a non-Schengen port (mainly repositioning cruises) then EES (and ETIAS if arriving) does apply as that is when you are entering or leaving the Schengen area. For cruises starting and ending from a Schengen area port and only Schengen stops then nothing is required, because the EES and ETIAS would be done when you entered and left the Schengen area, for example at the airport. However for cruises starting and ending from a Schengen area port that include non-Schengen stops then whether to process EES is down to the Schengen member states involved and the risk profile of the passengers. So that is potentially problematic for Gibraltar (at the moment, unless they get their way to join Schengen), Cyprus, north African ports, (and very theoretically, Ireland - but I doubt there are any cruises that start and end from a Schengen country and take in Ireland as a stop but don't take in the UK). So all fun and games, and I would expect that some cruise companies who do cruises out of Schengen ports but which include non-Schengen stops to north Africa or Gibraltar will now be thinking about whether it is worth the hassle in future.

It was certainly there last December, and it was so bad they eventually closed the doors at each end to prevent people walking through that area. Also there were buckets out and the carpets were wet with whatever was causing the foul stench - it wasn't just a mild 'whiff'.

The Entry/Exit Scheme (EES) starts on the 6th October 2024 and it is the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) that has been pushed back and is now due to start in mid-2025. EES is the system that requires you to provide fingerprints and a facial image on your first entry to the EU. EES is the system to replace the 'wet stamping' of passports and will record the entry and exit of non-EU nationals on a computer system to track that they have not exceeded the time they can spend in the Schengen area - normally 90 days in a rolling 180 days. Individuals will be able to check that website to see the number of days they have spent in Schengen and how many days you have remaining that you can spend, but EES is going to catch out a *lot* of people who have been playing fast and loose with the 90/180 rule. Theoretically EES should identify family members of EU citizens as although their details are recorded, the time they spend in the Schengen area with their EU citizen family member doesn't count against the 90/180 day rule (time spent on their own does). ETIAS is different to EES and is a travel authorisation for visa exempt non-EU citizens. ETIAS requires you to proved lots of information, not only name, address, and date of birth, but also such information about education, occupation, criminal convictions, past travel in certain areas of the world. The ETIAS authorisation lasts three years or the expiry of your passport if earlier, and costs 7 euros unless you are over 70 or under 18 or a family member of an EU citizen - those people still need to apply for ETIAS, it is just there is no cost. Essentially EES tracks *when* you have been in the EU and ETIAS allows the EU to identify *who* they don't want to let in.

My prediction is that the individual pricing of items will eventually disappear after this trial, as it would make it more profitable if they were certain to sell three courses to each diner - and it isn't as if there isn't precedent as Epicurean is a fixed price for the whole meal. As for the menu, I see it hasn't changed from the 'roast meat that has seen some spices' approach that unfortunately they went down a few years ago.

Google doesn't reveal any company by that name.

They do, but would you hand the keys to your car over to them?

There is a company with that name if you place the word 'cruise' in front. I won't link to it as there are zero reviews of it and it seems to be run out of a residential house in Southampton, has only been running for 12 months, and the director's main business is a retail corner shop. I wouldn't.

If you wanted a situation where infected people are touching things that others will then touch after washing their hands and then use their fingers to eat with without again washing their hands, then utensils in the buffet has got to be a damn good choice. If people are careful (and the staff clean properly) then in most other circumstances you are washing your hands after touching common surfaces but before eating. Whereas in the buffet there is a lot of touching common surfaces after you have washed your hands, and I have rarely seen anyone get their food and then go and wash their hands again before eating. And miss out on the tepid food, the crowds, the fighting for a table...

Past not through. It isn't an industrial port where it would be dangerous to walk through and where shuttle buses are provided because of that. Anyway, didn't you like the oil barrel sculpture... Cruise terminal to the shuttle bus drop of point in Barcelona is two miles, whereas the centre of Haugesund is far less than one mile.

Even the roast that they always have on? Because on most cruises it is popular. At the time you went on your cruise it obviously wasn't but perhaps that was linked to the time you were there. Haugesund isn't in an industrial area that requires them for safety. Should they provide them for the 1 mile walk from the ship to the centre of town - perhaps, but they don't so paying £3 each way if you don't want to walk the 1 mile isn't exorbitant.

It is done to reduce the numbers going to the MDRs on what is normally a formal night because it is usually quite popular, and although a large part of the menu offering is Indian there is always a selection of non-curry food on as well. £6 return, not each way, and £3 vs an hours walk doesn't seem bad value.

On Ventura you have the choice of freedom or club dining if you book select (if you book saver you are just allocated and have to ask to change if there is space). With club dining you can express a preference for a table for two, and you might be lucky and you might not be. If you opt for freedom then you can join the queue and specify a table for two, although you are likely to wait longer than those who queue for a shared table. On Iona all the restaurants are freedom dining and there are an awful lot more tables for two than on Ventura so the queues tend to be far shorter. Plus the tables for two on Iona are not all shoved away into unpleasant corners as they tend to be on Ventura, or have horrible bench seating where the bench seat is far too low. Iona is far far preferable a choice over Ventura in respect of a 'table for two' matter.

Given the amount of norovirus rampaging around the ships at the moment, they are not exactly demonstrating it.

Still talking nonsense - Sources of Airborne Norovirus in Hospital Outbreaks - PMC (nih.gov) In conclusion, this study provides additional evidence that airborne NoV can be present in concentrations that are high enough to cause infections, and in particle size fractions that remain airborne for long periods and are easily inhaled.

It wouldn't be. The ships are designed so they can turn the tables at least twice, and if you allowed booking at any time the issue would be the number booked for the peak 7.30pm to 8pm slot, so making it difficult to turn the tables and so worse for those who couldn't book, and also worse for those arriving at that busy time as the waiters will be very stretched. The simple solution to waiting is to swap to 'Spanish time' when onboard and just dine at 9pm (although even that is far to early for Madrileños).

That isn't the case with UK banks - all cash withdrawals are treated as cash withdrawals irrespective of where they are made. The difference is that the T&Cs of the accounts might allow for a fee to be charged by the bank and will specify the basis of the exchange rate used, and those fees and exchange rates might be different whether it is a cash withdrawal or a purchase, and also differs between credit cards and debit cards. Thus you can have both a fee charged by the bank for making a cash withdrawal from foreign ATM plus a fee charged by the ATM itself and if you are not careful and exchange rate 'fee' as well. As for the fee charged by the foreign ATM, the bank makes clear that is nothing at all to do with them - I have an account with First Direct and they are explicit that they make no charges for foreign ATM withdrawals but they are very clear (and it is my experience) that most foreign ATMs still impose their own fees and those fees vary wildly.

As others have mentioned, with a trip to Teide you will undoubtably be far above cloud line so blue skies and the sun beating down. However the trip will realistically just be a scenic coach drive up a windy mountain road to park in a car park and then take in the views of the barren scenery - photo below taken in January. La Laguna on the other hand can be an interesting small and historic town to stroll around, but... it is 550m above sea level and has a far cooler and damper climate than the coast, so it could be far less pleasant in November than in Santa Cruz.

Not if you have a Santander account, even a non-Spanish Santander account, when withdrawals are fee free and with no exchange rate loading.