Thejuggler

Remember premium cabin attracts extra air passenger duty of about £100 over economy for flights to Caribbean,

Just google 'cruise ship passenger space ratio'. Add the name of the ship in the search if you want a specific figure.

If you don't want overcrowding you need the 'space per passenger figure'. Arvia has a figure of just 29. Mid 30s is the figure to look for.

Local paper regurgitating sensational nonsense! It 'crashed' after 'hurtling' into an oil tanker.

Not all children are from the same mould. My daughter was never one for the kids clubs, but thinking back I can think of a reason why. With us both working full time my daughter was in nursery/school from 7.30am until 5pm every day so she barely saw us. We think she saw kids club as a continuation of her usual routine so hardly a holiday for her and maybe just wanted to be with her mum and dad for a change, so we sacked it and enjoyed time with her. She's well into her late teens now, independent, part time job, good mates, but long days at school and we hardly see her. We had a week in Scotland last week and she came along, It was great doing stuff together, walking, fishing, picnics by quiet lochs, even simple card and board games around the kitchen table was something we never do at home I wouldn't force it, enjoy the family time and in ten years you'll be thankful of the memories.

Taking children that can't yet move far is easy (!) and a cruise is no different to taking a 7 month old to a holiday in a hotel. You need to take the usual baby items, a compact 'tent cot' may be worthwhile. Formula can be made up if required, stired in the room fridge, warmed in hot water, baby food can be heated, if using bottles sterilising tablets or fluid. How port visits work depends on the cruise.

Trollstigen and Troll Wall from Alesund is worthwhile, but the downside is you can't book the weather. If the weather is poor your only idea of what you should be seeing will be from the photos in the visitor centre,

If they are light sleepers they do need ear plugs as there are 1001 other things generating noise which may disturb them. Other passengers, banging doors, general engine vibrations, side thrusters, capstans noise when pulling chains and ropes, crew calling each other etc etc especially when preparing docking which can happen from v early in a morning.

Traditional fish and chip shops aren't a common sight in central London. However Mayfair Chippy will provide what you are looking for. Being in Mayfair it will also mean a large bill, but scraps (a rare thing in the south) are free!

35-45mph north westerley winds whipping up 5-6m waves all along the coast of Norway.

On our first cruise we were unfortunate to have a cat 1 medical - death on board. The call went out during dinner. It wasn't until we went back to our cabin we found out it was someone two cabins down from us. Even though we didn't know the person we were treat well as we couldn't access the corridor. Next day the cabin steward said he had been up all night as he had additional duties to undertake when such an event takes place.

We used to use an agent as they had access to more fare options than online, in particular guarantee fares.

For me the only benefit of premium economy are larger seats and ability to recline and have better sleep. Better food, drinks, larger screens etc really aren't of interest.

It is possible to book hotel rooms for the day. Dayrooms and Dayuse are two options. Otherwise most hotels have public bars you can while away a few hours in for the price of a drink.

If you want water ask for an ice bucket and put it in the fridge to melt. The water tastes funny because its made by boiling the water and condensing the steam.

Email P&O and they will provide details. Crazy system.

Depends on the port instruction, Captain request, tides etc.

No food in buffet was a thing when we cruised with P&O over ten years ago. Early evening closure was to allow families to take children for a child oriented tea (lots of 'brown food', awful) and change from afternoon to evening meal options. The later time was to allow the change from evening meals to late evening light bites.

If you have good mobility nowhere in Manhattan is that far from a subway station. We took the subway to just outside Battery Park to get the Staten Island Ferry, Walking is also a good way to see NY life and its difficult to get lost in the grid system of midtown and above, We estimated we walked about 30 miles over a 5 day stay!

Never sailed in suites, but have done two cruises on Ventura and two on Celebrity Eclipse, all in balcony cabins. Much prefer Celebrity as an overall package. Better designed ships, prefer ABP parking at Southampton. Food options and buffet far better on Celebrity, its more of a food court with cooking stations. We had two really good prices for balcony cabins (one a guarantee fare) both included drinks and enough OBC to upgrade to the full drinks package. It made the trips all inclusive. Only downside was the second was fixed time dining and on Celebrity it is too early if you do afternoon excursions. They do however have far more tables for smaller groups than the 8+ which P&O favour.

I'm on their mailing list for offers. It must have been from when I booked parking many years ago.

Once you get your head around the fact the subway runs on route numbers and not lines (so each line runs a number of different routes) it is as easy to navigate as the London underground. Just ensure you use the entrance for the line direction you want as many entrances only serve one platform and entrances for the different platforms may be some distance apart. You then need to check the route number on the train before getting on, If you want to pay contactless by iphone or android you need the OMNY app. Taxis are plentiful, but don't expect drivers to have 'the Knowledge'. You need to tell them the junction you need to be dropped off at, eg 5th and 53rd street as apart from the very popular sights drivers may not know specific buildings, hotels etc A great youtube resource for all things NYC is 'Here be Barr'. I watched most of his vidoes before visiting. What to see, what to avoid, how transport works etc,

Email from Manchester Airport with parking and lounge discounts landed in my inbox just this morning.

You also need to ensure any app updates will only be done when there is wifi coverage and aren't automatically done when the phone is connected to a mobile network. My phone updated 11 apps this morning, that could be many megabytes of data to pay for!

On ship turn data roaming off, or use aircraft mode. Alternatively you can keep roaming on, but turn off automatic network selection so you have to choose the roaming network before it connects. As regards non EU countries check your provider. I'm with Smarty and free Norway roaming (up to 12 gB data) is included.