Bloodaxe

Just booked our first Saga cruise after many cruises mainly with Celebrity and Azamara Our last Cruise was in June 2019 with Azamara in the Adriatic, not cruised since for family reasons. Since we no longer wish to fly to join a cruise we decided that Saga may be a good fit for us, the huge ships have no interest for us at all. What size are the bathrooms in the standard cabins and do the showers have doors,? on Azamara they are small and showers have clingy curtains which some people hate but we have always managed.

We did the Antarctic cruise a few years ago and agree that it is spectacular. However we had better Whale sightings in Alaska and New Zealand. The best ever was on a Whale watching trip off the coast of New England in the Spring,

I grew up not far from Thoresby, Clumber and Sherwood, this was long before it was a Hotel Used to cycle all around that area, Thoresby had a large herd of Deer, they were often found on the the Cricket ground.

I have just remembered another cruise which goes to show how fickle the weather can be. Our transatlantic was from Rome to Miami with a few ports in the Med before the crossing. The weather in the Med was wild, particularly between Corsica and Sardinia. Our last stop in the Med was Gibraltar and some people left the ship saying they could not face the Atlantic. The crossing was fine so you just have to go with the flow has you never can tell what lies ahead.

We did that about 10 years ago, have also done several Miami Europe both East and West Crossings. The on!y really bad weather was a New York to Rouen crossing on Journey which I believe was a one off. It' was in April 2012 the repositioning cruise after the special cruise to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic 100 years before. That was a real traditional crossing with no ports between, the last few days were very choppy.but we enjoyed it.

Swinegate is the name of a York street, if my post is removed for that reason, look it up. York has lots of good Restaurants Italians are well represented.

We were in York today and are a half hours drive away, we usually shop there weekly but not always in the City Centre. Which Italian Restaurant did you use?, we frequent Lucias in Swinegate

Snickleways in York Avril, there is a book all about them.

I agree the atmosphere and the pastries are good but there are good smaller Cafes who's names escape me, next time I will take note. We are in York frequently and never use Bettys but the tourist obviously love it. If you like Italian food Lucias Wine Bar is very good.

Lots of other options in York just has good and without the queues A new Premier Inn is being built on the edge of the City Centre opposite the City Walls. The Selby bus is very frequent and calls at the Designer Centre. We often park there are bus into the City using our passes.

Talking of the Beatles, in 1962 I went to see Roy Orbison who was touring the UK, another great singer in my opinion. On the same show was the Beatles who had just released Please Please Me which had made No 1 in the UK.

Yes time does fly, the event I referred to at Ellis Island was in April 2012. I remember it particularly because the cruise prior to our transatlantic was a special one to the site of the sinking of the Titanic 100 years before. There was a display in the Manhattan cruise terminal with lots of information about the survivors arriving in New York.

It's not often I post these days but I do follow along and sometimes cbip in, Your mention of Angela Lansbury jogged me to respond. About 10 years ago we were joining a Transatlantic cruise from New York. Before joining the ship we did a tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. On Ellis Island they were presenting awards to Immigrants who had become famous later in life. We watched the award being made to Angela who had emigrated from England has a child, she was in her eighties at that time.

I can understand why, once on boarding we found ours broken with jagged edges, very dangerous, don't know why the steward had not reported it. They came and rep!aced it once I had reported it.

Unless it has changed recently, it is Famous Grouse.

Quest and Journey had this available, Pursuit didn't, not sailed on Onward.

Lots of people, we have always had a standard balcony on our many Azamara cruises and have at least 50% of our evening meals in the Speciality Restaurants, you can buy multiple packages which are good value even without OBC.

The picture of the Steakhouse really jogged my memory from 30 years ago. A while ago I posted about us missing seeing Sinatra at the Radio City and then managing to see Alan Alfa in a play instead. We then had a great meal in a Steakhouse near the Theatre, could that have been the same one 30 years ago?, I seem to remember that display of Steaks.

I am not a regular contributor to this board but often read your interesting threads, they remind me of many happy holidays we have spent all over the US. The mention of Sinatra reminded me of a visit to New York around 30 years ago, we live near old York in the UK. We had just arrived at our Hotel and I picked up copy of the New Yorker magazine with a picture of Sinatra on the cover. He was performing at the Radio City Music Hall, it was probably one of his last times has he was already getting on. My Wife was a big fan so next morning we went straight to the box office and managed to get tickets for the Sunday show. We arrived at the show to find that it was cancelled, he had a sore throat and could not perform. They offered us tickets for another later show but we would be back home by then. Has a consolation they gave us a free tour of the theatre which was very interesting. Afterwards we went down to the ticket office in Times Square and got last minute tickets to see another of my Wife's favourites Alan Alda in a play, so all was not lost.

Not really sure about that but probably not, the Ferries to Europe dock in the Humber River but closer the sea at Hull. It had been planned to build a cruise terminal in Hull but that seems to have been forgotten for now. Some cargo ships do go up river under the Bridge to Goole a port 40 miles further inland.

We did the same a few weeks ago but our Baxi was over 20 years old and had only recently been much trouble but availability of spares was becoming a problem.

Hopefully if power cuts happen they will. be rotated like in the 1970s, this reminds me of an incident that happened then. I worked in the Power Industry at that time, our small estate had two different supp!y lines, sometimes only some houses had power. One night a knock came at our door, a neighbour stood there saying you have power and ours is off, I bet it's because you work for the Generating Board. I said actually I bring home a bucket full every night.

We keep a old type landline phone for just such an emergency, have only needed it once in years.

We enjoyed wa!king around Livorno, the waterfront further along from were the ship docks is interesting. In the town is a good indoor food market and outdoor stalls se!!ing shoes and c!othing. A!so canals and a Fort you can visit, the Cafe's in town are much more reasonable than in tourist areas of Italy

I am afraid the rules are set by Buckingham Palace and are well known