Sekhmet

Interesting topic to bring up. After some time spent digging, following our return from our last cruise, which was our 50th, we seem to have spent 571 nights on board ship, and 171 sea days. The reason I can be pretty accurate is that my wife and I have almost always taken a notebook on all our holiday trips, both land and sea, over the past 50+ years to write down where we'd been each day, what we'd seen and, importantly, what photographs I'd taken. Part of the reasoning was so that, should we return to a particular place, we could look back and reread what we'd done before, and look at the pictures. The other part of the thought process was that when we get too old and doddery to travel far and wide, we'd at least be able to see what we once managed to do. That of course depends on me still being able to remember how to use my 35mm slide projector (younger readers may have to Google what that is), and a digital photo viewer. On the side question of 'popular' ports of call, we have five we've stopped at four times each (Dubrovnik, Corfu, Madeira, Cadiz and Barbados), but we have cruises booked for 2025 which will promote Madeira and Cadiz to joint number one with five visits each. Now just wondering what other quirky statistical query someone might come up with?

Interesting. We've just completed our 50th (Ocean) cruise, and we've used 44 different ports - embarkation only at 11 of them, disembarkation only at another 7, and both on and off the ship at the other 26. We've also got a good few river cruises under our belt, but I'll have to do a bit more digging to quantify them.

I always wondered what the Official Name for the form was😀

Glad to hear this is still running - we did it some years ago (including walking down at the end - long walk, but great views) and had just recommended it to someone as a possibility to investigate, but wasn't sure it was still an option.

It's a good while ago, but on one of our visits to Santorini, we picked up a local boat trip at the tender dock which sailed up the coast to Oia, supposedly be the most photographed village in Greece. A bus then carried us up from the jetty to the village, and after we’d walked around for an hour or so, it took us back to Fira. After spending some time there, we opted to walk down the 600ish steps back to the tender dock, a long walk but some spectacular views. This does avoid the cable car difficulties, and might be worth investigating something similar.

For our last two trips to Australia (most recent Dec 22), the eVisitor 651 has been used with no problems at all, but this one isn't appropriate for US or Canadian citizens. We've found a few times that the general entry requirement recommendations provided by the US-based cruise lines are relevant mainly to US/Canadian citizens. This seems fair enough to us - the majority of their passengers are from North America and they can't be expected to list out every nationality/citizenship possibility. Anyway, our first port of call (excuse pun) when investigating what's needed is the Foreign Office website www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice which holds links to the relevant country's official information sites. Hope this helps.

I believe the rules have changed a little (or may be changing for 2025), and the included transport is no longer distance limited. The Saga website FAQs has the following answer to the "Is the UK Travel Service available from anywhere?" 'Our return UK travel service is available to anyone in mainland England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight and Channel Islands. We're not currently able to offer the service to those in the Scottish Islands, Isle of Man, Sark or the Isles of Scilly.' Hope this helps?

This brings back memories - we sailed with her twice in 2009/10, especially for the itineraries and the guest speakers. The first was around the Black Sea, the second was Budapest to Alexandria, but chiefly for three stops in Libya during that brief period when travel there was permitted. At one stop, there was only one ship excursion, to Leptis Magna, and basically everybody went. Older ships can be very good - we've sailed two of the Marella 'new' acquisitions which were ex-Celebrity (and we'd sailed them in their earlier incarnation), and maybe because they were a good original design, they didn't seem particularly dated to us.

Somewhat old information from a British Isles cruise 10 years ago which I've dug out from a review I wrote at the time, but hopefully it might be of some use? Tobermory, Isle of Mull. The local tourist information facility supplied us with a number of walking routes, and we chose to do the coastal path, mainly through woodland, with lots of good views of our ship anchored off shore. The path turned inland into a large park with waterfalls and an artificial loch, and the route back passed Baliscate where there are some prehistoric standing stones, apparently the only ones found in the Western Isles. There are also remains of early Christian settlement, which featured on the Channel 4 “Time Team” programme a couple of years ago.

Another UK passenger here - we just received the blue pack for our April cruise, with the luggage labels, decorative tags and the glossy ship book. Getting close now!

Much the same for us on Regatta last year. We celebrated our Golden Anniversary on board, and on returning from breakfast found our room decorated and an anniversary card. In the evening, after our Polo Grill lobster, discovered the usual evening chocolate had multiplied into a heart-shaped display. All very welcome and appreciated.

There is an old adage which runs along the lines of "If you actually look like your passport photo, you are probably too ill to travel"??

Try the Wiki page for each cruiseline where the current and former fleet ships are listed, including their build date. Looked at a few and all seemed to have this information. Of course, your friend would then have to find what itineraries each of the 'newish' ships is doing, but as CruiserBruce says, there shouldn't be too many to investigate. Hope this helps?

That would have been Marella Cruises "Explorer 2"? Galaxy has become Marella's "Explorer" and Mercury has become "Marella Voyager". (Why they didn't continue the sequence and call it Explorer 3?). Oddly enough, we have sailed with both Century (in 1998) and Galaxy (2001), then more recently with both of them in their latest incarnations - Explorer in 2020 immediately before the COVID lockdown, and Explorer 2 earlier this year. Both ships have stood the test of time pretty well, thanks to a basic good design which still works well. The biggest change I can remember is that the Casinos have been converted to regular lounges/bars, with just a small casino area on one side of Deck 12 Observation lounge at the front.

Just thought the following might be of amusement value, and to illustrate another change over the years. Going through some old cruise-related files, and found a copy of a Celebrity Ship review published on one of the cruise sites, dated 2001, describing Galaxy, Mercury and Century. We'd printed it out before embarking on our second Celebrity cruise on Galaxy in July that year. It starts "The three sister ships of Celebrity Cruises provide an upscale, elegant setting where the atmosphere is warm, friendly and, at night, quite lively". The next sentence starts, and the emphasised type is mine - "At 77,000-tons, these ships are in the mega-liner category"

A grand total of 20 so far (plus a few river cruise lines, too) (Those with an asterisk * are no longer in business). African Safari Club * Azamara Celebrity Clarkson * Cunard Fred. Olsen Galapagos Tourism * Holland America Hurtigruten MSC NCL Noble Caledonian Oceania P&O Australia P&O UK Princess Regent Saga Thomson/Marella Voyages of Discovery *

Must be a different incident, as our HAL Rotterdam cruise was a little later, in November 2006. But perhaps illustrates quite well that one shouldn't take landing in some places for granted.

This hasn't happened to us, but a good few years ago we were on a HAL South America cruise and had to abort the landing in the Falkland Islands due to high winds - we just had a sail around close enough to be able to see penguins ashore. Afterwards, we were told that not long before a Princess cruise landed its passengers but then could not get them back as the weather and sea conditions worsened. Apparently, the passengers had to be accommodated somehow onshore for the night (including in the Port Stanley Village Hall), and "rescued" the following day. Moral: the decisions made by the professionals may just be the right ones.

I've often wondered why, of all the elements ending in "ium", it seems only to be Aluminium/Aluminum which has an alternative spelling and therefore pronunciation. Other common elements, like Calcium, Uranium, Potassium, Magnesium, Titanium, Sodium etc., are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, aren't they? Any ideas for me to think about while I wait for our next Oceania (however it's pronounced) cruise in May?

I'd add one more thing concerning staying in the port after an excursion, rather than returning to the ship with the rest of the tour group. If you choose to do this, it's a good idea to let the tour guide and/or coach driver know that you're leaving and not wanting transporting back to the ship. This way, they don't have to worry about bringing back fewer passengers than they started off with, and saves the rest of the group from an unnecessary wait.

Thanks for this information, and such a prompt response.

Wonder if anyone can help us with a question? We have a Riviera cruise booked for next year, and are starting to look at shore excursions, particularly as we have some credit against their cost as part of our package. Our query concerns the "Buy 6 excursions and get 25% off"; if we go ahead and pre-book six, and then later on, maybe even when on board, add another excursion to the list, does that also automatically qualify for the 25% discount? Any information gratefully received, thanks.

Hope some of you might find the following interesting/relevant. I've mentioned on the boards before that I am a volunteer on a Heritage Steam railway, and one of my roles is Buffet Car Steward, serving drinks (hot & cold, alcoholic & soft) and snacks to our passengers. Until fairly recently, the signal for card machines wasn't strong or reliable enough across most of the rural parts of our line, so cash was the only choice. The signal now is good enough, so card payments were introduced, and the cash option withdrawn i.e. cards only. However, that quickly led to a number of complaints from some customers, and to lost sales, so the cash payment option was reinstated. Since then, some analysis has taken place to try and work out if we've got it right for our passengers. So far, letting the customer choose how to pay has resulted in about two thirds paying by card, one third paying with cash. As was said earlier, even small value transactions by card are not uncommon, but the average value of a card sale on our trains has been around £6.50 ($8.30).

There can also be some advantage with Marella fly-cruises, given that they will (usually) use the parent company airline, TUI, and have special baggage handling arrangements in some places. For example, we recently returned from Explorer 2, flying to and from Dubrovnik. On the last night, we put out our bags as normal, and instead of having to claim them after disembarking, transfer them to a coach and check them in at the airport, the next time we saw them was on the baggage carousel in Cardiff.

With the not unexpected exception of Cunard - the following request is from their FAQs (my bolding). "Every night on board, after 6pm, we ask that you wear smart attire or Gala Evening attire in most of our bars, restaurants and entertainment venues. Of course, if you prefer to spend your evenings in more relaxed attire, a selection of casual dining and entertainment venues is always available for your enjoyment. Feel free to dress casually as you visit any of the following venues: Kings Court, Lido Buffet (Including Al Fresco), Golden Lion, Casino, Carinthia Lounge, Winter Garden, Garden Lounge, Yacht Club, and G32. Non-ripped, jeans are appropriate, but after 6pm please refrain from wearing shorts, sports attire, swimwear or sleeveless t-shirts outside of the gym, spa and deck spaces"