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We've had a few sunny spring days and yesterday we went for a walk along the Thames at Henley. The river is still very fast and code red as it has been for months now, so no boats allowed out. Here's a picture of the weir and lock at Henley Today is back to cloud and rain with high winds

Which ship? Vision and Radiance class of ship don't have pre bookable shows. No reservations required. Though there will be some onboard activities such as cupcake decorating or ships tour that you can book in advance.

Oooh are you doing the Brilliance cruise? I'm looking at either that one or Independance MIA to SOU Both good ports for a transatlantic and prices are good too. I've never known RC to end in Portsmouth before

There are some great NA beers around including Guinness 0.0 which apparently is very good, but I've yet to taste a good NA wine. NA liquors (Gin, Rum lookalikes etc) are widely available in supermarkets and pubs now and great with tonic water or coke, so I really don't understand why Royal Caribbean is so slow to include more NA choice.

Oh no , sorry you've got aviation delays. Are you at the airport all this time ?

There's now a big choice in the shops and pubs of non alcoholic drinks, beers and wines. Unfortunately I haven't noticed much from Royal Caribbean apart from one or two choice of beer and the non alcoholic cocktails (which are usually too sweet for me). Hoping in the future more will be offered

Reading about what happened when I woke this morning. What a sad day for Israel and the world. Thankfull that the defenses worked well Dear Dani @dani negreanu my thoughts and prayers are with you and Aaron and your family. And with Bonnie's in laws @BonTexasNY I pray for peace in the region and for our poor world

Very Happy belated birthday wishes from me too 😊 @ReneeFLL

Oh my goodness, what a shock She was the sweetest little pup. How awful for John and Laura. 😔 RIP little Bella

Bonnie Tyler was on the radio this morning. In her 70s now, 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' just came back into the charts

Well they're more expensive than my local pub, though agree similar to a city centre restaurant or sporting arena. The difference being you may only spend a couple of hours at that football or musical event, or occasionally visit a city centre bar. On board you're a captive audience for maybe several weeks with no other choice apart from port stops. Personally if I didn't have my diamond drinks I would pay per drink. No way could I bring myself to pay so much hard earned money on an alcohol package, especially on the longer cruises with long port days that I prefer. Oh for the days pre covid when a) prices were more reasonable B) they had wine and beer packages C) they had the 10 drink cards which were shareable and at a discount

So cool, thanks guys for your personal experiences. Still watching on TV. One guy said he's seen 7 total eclipse since 1972

Following the rolling TV coverage as the eclipse slowly makes it way across the States and Canada

Fascinating, this is so truly a world cruise in every sense. Great photos and sounds a great day

There's a story in my online Times about Brits going to USA just to see the eclipse. You're so lucky it's in your neighbourhood. Enjoy !!

Ah maybe just in the 5 min zone, more than us in the South anyway

Thanks Lenny and Debbie @Sunshine3601 I'll add it to my list of programmes to watch. what was the flaw ?

Thanks Graham. I think we may give them a go maybe in a year or two. BTW I'm not sure exactly where you live but there's a chance you may see a partial eclipse of the sun tomorrow,7.55pm

Hello Graham 👋 752 children does seem a lot for the size of ship , especially if it's not the hols in the States. Over here it's still Easter holidays this week and next so maybe it's all the Brits gone over

Food photos look fab as always Graham. I've been spending a bit of time over at the P@O CC pages as it's at the back of my mind to give them a go as they're year round from UK. The prices seem comparable to RC but on board charges for drinks and extras seem more reasonable. Which is your favourite ship?

I presume its based on the book and film The Talented Mr Ripley? Apparently the author wrote a few books with Ripley as the main character so you never know

Good reason 👌

Sorry you've been feeling ill Debbie, get well soon 😊

Depends really if you want to spend some time in a particular city before or after the cruise. Purely on logistics for boarding the ship, Barcelona is best as its right in the city, half an hour or so from the airport. Very organised, last years Symphony cruise we were off the ship and at the airport by 7am. Rome port is actually Civitavecchia, a town about an hour plus from Rome. Lots of info on the Europe cruise port pages of CC about both ports.

We had it on Spectrum in February. We had booked MTD and pre-booked slots to fit in with tours and shows, only to find a card in our room on boarding saying we had been given 6.30. It was also printed on our sea pass Would be happy if we had it on Serenade this July. Normally we have late or MTD but hubby asked for early instead. This is our first early and in my opinion is too early. There's only 2 sea days (16 night cruise) and half the time we'll still be ashore at 5.30