matamanoa

I imagine that there will be many fireworks displays cancelled. The last thing we want is more smoke and more fires. Yesterday here in Toronto, the air quality was the worst in the world and while I am looking at blue skies this morning, the smoke is expected to drift over the city again later today and the air quality will decrease. It makes me sad to hear of how much forested areas we have lost this year due to wildfires. Our smoke is even drifting over to Europe. This should be a much needed wake up call but I wonder what, if any, changes will come about from this year's devastating fires. Barb

If anyone is ever in Bath over an evening, check out the Bizarre Bath walk. It was very entertaining! Barb

Thank you for thinking of us - that is very sweet of you! Barb

Thank you so much for all the information and work you put into this document. It will certainly be a huge help in planning what is to be our first trip to Melbourne. Barb

Thank you, that's probably the one that my friend is referring to. I can now see by the brochure that my friend probably misinterpreted the meaning of the complimentary destination collection and took it to mean that there might be no charge for a Princess transfer at a specific destination. She asked me if I had ever heard of this and of course, I said no. I'm familiar with transfers and had never heard of one being complimentary. I should have seen that right off the bat. Anyway, thanks again and I'll relay the info to her. Barb

A friend in the UK brought this to my attention and asked if I'd ever seen this brochure or heard of this complimentary destination collection. She was told that it doesn't apply to bookings done in the UK but sent a picture from the Princess site which states that a "destination brochure" is automatically e-mailed to residents in the US and Canada who are Platinum and Elite. Have any of you ever seen this brochure and what exactly does complimentary destination mean? Barb

I would vote for staying at Gatwick overnight in order not to stress out with possibly missing your flight. This is what we do and it takes the worry out of missing the once daily flight to Canada.

Taking the train from Cobh to Cork is exactly what we are planning to do in August. I have researched what there is to see and do in Cork and I've planned out a walking route which we can do on our own and still see some of the city's sights.

Southampton is one of the most civilized ports we've sailed out of. Their porters are friendly and never have their hands out for tips as you see in a lot of American ports. They take your bags, say "thank you" and "welcome" and you're on your way. One of the many things that we love about Southampton. Barb

I agree that the Caribbean has a lot going for it for all the reasons you stated above and we will most likely continue to cruise in the Caribbean when we no longer are able to travel further afield in comfort as we age. We only wish that we had discovered cruising to other places when we were younger and had health on our side. At our age, traveling to far flung countries is becoming more difficult as time passes but we'd rather keep exploring new options while we can and rely on the shorter, less expensive trips to the Caribbean when we can no longer venture too far from home. Barb

Why limit yourself to cruising only in the Caribbean. My husband and I are also in our 70s and discovered many years ago that there is so much more to see and do while cruising further abroad. We now regret that we took the same Caribbean cruises for many years in a row and while it was a nice break from cold winters, we finally took a cruise in Europe and that started many years of cruising to different continents and places. Do something different while you are able and you won't have to regret saying that you should have done it while your health and wealth were good.

Sorry for not answering your questions as above but I did just want to say that my husband and I cruised the Caribbean for many years and enjoyed our winter getaways down south. Once we took the plunge to start cruising abroad, we found a whole new world waiting for us and we haven't looked back since. It is a bit more daunting to travel to other areas of the world but don't limit yourself to just the familiar places. We have cruised to countries that we had only dreamed of and yes, there is a lot more to plan but we have met many interesting people and traveled to far away destinations which have been fantastic experiences. So, go for it and enjoy all the new experiences while you can. Best of luck and bon voyage, Barb

The Bay of Biscay was very rough when we went in Oct. too. Barb

Euros

Don't know about the weather in November as we were there in Oct. and it was warm with very little rain. If all you want is shopping and to walk around a town, then you are missing some of the best things to see in the Canaries. We did a full day tour with Up Mountain Madeira which we enjoyed tremendously. We took one Princess tour in Tenerife - the Best of Tenerife and it too was excellent. In Gran Canaria we took an amazing tour with Sky Rebels. In Lanzarote we took a full day tour with Blackstone Treks and in Vigo we did a four hour tour with Cruising Excursions. Each of these day tours was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed each destination. If you would like me to go into more detail about what we saw on each tour, you can e-mail me at brsinger@outlook.com. I didn't go into detail here as it would have read like a novel but trust me, there are fantastic sights to see in the Canaries. I don't know how Covid affected each of the tour companies which we used but I can provide you with e-mail addresses for the companies we used and hopefully they are still in business. Hope this helps. Barb

I hope you all realize that Quebec City is almost a three hour drive from Montreal.

Our first cruise was to Alaska on Royal Caribbean and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Have been cruising for the past 25 years.

Thank you for the patters. Very helpful! Barb

I am wondering if the magicians (husband and wife team from Canada) were the ones doing the show. We saw a magic show recently on the Enchanted and the couple were so boring and there was very little magic in the show's content. They were trying to be funny but really needed to work on their routine.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - don't try to take a flight that early since it will only stress you out. With no other flights available to you that day, you will be stuck trying to make alternative plans. Book a hotel for overnight and fly out the next day. There are any number of factors which could delay your ship getting into port on time, getting off the ship on time and getting to the airport on time to make your flight. Why put yourself through that and be stressed at the end of a wonderful holiday.

There are still some factors that might impede with your getting to the station to catch the earlier train, such as the ship getting back to port later than anticipated and then waiting to get clearance so that passengers can disembark. There are so many things to consider and we have learned from experience not to fly out on the same day as the ship returns to home port. We fly out the following day and have a less stressful end to our holiday. Good luck with your plans - I hope it all works out for you. Barb

Just reporting back that my husband went on the chat line and found out that the excursion we are booked on is sold out and Princess isn't offering a waiting list for this one. Why they wouldn't just label the excursion sold out on the port excursion's site is beyond me but in any case, we now have our answer.

We were not able to find, under any category, a clld notification. I have a feeling that this shore excursion has been taken off the list for that port stop so we'll just keep checking back on our booking to see if we get a refund or notice of cancellation. Our cruise isn't until March of next year so we have plenty of time to straighten this out. Thank you for you input.

Thank you all for your responses.

Thank you for the suggestion.