VMax1700

€15 round trip per person.

I am slightly confuddled here.....you say you have never encountered them in your life, but you are shocked that someone else (HAL) has never had them before?? Unfortunately they are everywhere and even though I have spent my life travelling and sleeping in 'strange' beds, I also have not encountered them. If I did have a bed that was infected and notified management I would expect them to fumigate the bed/deal with the problem, that is it. Nothing more.

It is possible to upgrade just one passenger as the offer comes to each individual device/passenger. We both had Have It All, but I was able to upgrade myself without problem, DW was upgraded later.

In June of this year (2022) the train schedule was down to a minimum. Below is a pic of the schedule. There were buses available to go to Olympia at € 15 each, however be advised that they would wait until the bus was (nearly) full. It is a 30 minute drive to Olympia and then you have 2 hours of free time. The guide appeared to have excellent english. Also available at the end of the dock were taxis, scooters to rent, cars to rent and ATV's to rent.

Aer Lingus? Then you will pre clear US Customs and Immigration formalities in Dublin before departure which is a major positive for arriving in Miami, where the queues for Immigration are ghastly. If you are staying in Fort Lauderdale area then I suggest that you use Larry's Limos https://www.larryslimo.com/ to transfer you to Fort Lauderdale. The driver will meet you at Baggage and take you directly to the car. So worth it. After a transatlantic flight we find it money well spent. Uber/Lyft requires data on your mobile phone which you may not have, or wifi and then you have the difficulty of locating the car when you exit the terminal and lose the wifi. We prefer to stay in Miami for at least two nights pre cruise, and use Larry's to take us from our Miami hotel to Fort Lauderdale cruise port (Port Everglades) and also to collect us at the end of the cruise and transfer us back to Miami.

Your cheese plate on the flight reminds me, to remind you........... crackers 😉

For a DFW to BCN flight my first call would be BA (britishairways.com) and my last would be United or Delta. But that is probably just a European perspective. Regarding the Iberia/Finnair flights - do not be concerned. In all probability it is just being ticketed through these airlines and you would fly on another airline's plane, probably British Airways. This is because these airlines are all part of the same airline group and sell each others flights.

Apart from the big supermarket type stores within the shopping malls ('Centro Comercial' in Spain) you will find a Carrefour store half way down Las Ramblas on the West side. They have a good selection of wine and the usual supermarket stuff - toothpaste, sunscreen, deoderant, chips 😉 etc.

😁😁Well known proverb - 'Best grease for a locked door is a greased palm!'😉

The price charged and paid pre cruise is the full price including the service charge. Onboard your account should reflect the 25% discount on the price without the service charge. Check your account (stateroom TV) and if after a couple of days, the discount does not show, then form a line at Guest Services.

No, I think it means that you need to replace the ink cartridge in your printer 😁 I believe that each ship has a different colour to their luggage tags and perhaps NS is orange, but hey, let's hope that it is an upgrade 😉

Have a great cruise everyone! European temperatures are still very mild for almost November. (we should have been on this one! 😭)

I knew this day would eventually arrive......after so many cancellations and ship transfers it is almost time we should have been flying to Barcelona to join you all on Oosterdam, but perhaps another time, another ship. Jacqui wishing you a wonderful cruise. Have a memorable time. Colin

If your B2B is on two different booking numbers then the chances are they will assign two different cabins. Not their fault as they assign cabins cruise by cruise. However, if you are assigned two different numbers try calling the Inventory phone number 1.888.628.8107 or 206.626.7381and explain the situation. I have done this successfully a couple of times. It helps if you have checked available cabins by making test bookings and tell them which cabin is available for both cruises.

HA HA! Great start to the Friday Morning Maths Test! Hit that EDIT button now!

Not a high speed (AVE) train, but regular RNFE stock. 3 stations on the way to the City. Also the airport station is at Terminal 2B so it is necessary to take a shuttle bus from T1 to T2B. https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/airport/barcelona-airport-transport.html Better to take the Aerobus or a taxi (fixed fare).

there is no bluetooth function on the TV's and no way to attach a bluetooth dongle to them.

As you are doing a TransAtlantic, it may be beneficial to check air transport through your cruise line. Trans Atlantic one ways are very expensive specially for Business or PE. Presuming that your Trans Atlantic is for Fall 2023 I would be inclined to hold off on booking just yet unless you can get a flight with your cruise line that is cancellable and fully refundable (or pay at Final Payment date).

On our recent Rotterdam cruise we met a guy who was wearing one of these ribbons. It really seems to be an 'award of the people' and a great honour.

If you are from N. America don't you guys have the 'luxury' of being able to cancel before Final Payment? I would book now and then see if you get a better offer onboard.

MSC has just climbed stratospherically in my estimation!

Just thinking about it, I have never seen anything in the pools, except people! DW mentioned that she seems to remember a notice at the pools about no lifeguards etc and she thinks that there is a mention on the notice about no devices, but cannot be certain. However, I would be inclined to think that it would be a no-no.

Oosterdam will be commencing her westward Trans Atlantic on November 5th from Barcelona and there is every possibility that there will be a 'Live from' thread during the cruise by a very long standing HAL cruiser @kazu. That will give you an indication of what will be happening when the ship returns towards Europe next spring. One very important element will be your Roll Call. The Roll Call for the October cruise can be found here. It is a pretty special Roll Call that is almost 90 pages long with over 2000 replies. Read it at your leisure over the coming months! Some people on the roll call had booked a previous TA that was cancelled because of Covid and this sailing will be the culmination of many months of waiting and many ship changes, as well as many heartaches and life changing events. Enjoy your cruise, but enjoy your planning too.

Currently, Yes you can. I say currently, because they recently changed the 'rules' regarding 'wine packages' (multiple bottles of wine purchased from the ship) and it is now not permitted to drink the wine packages in bars, only the restaurants or your stateroom.

It really feels like the end of one season and the beginning of another. The birds are starting to fly home for winter. PE looks dark and desolate this morning, but in a few weeks we will be enjoying multiple sailins and sailaways again, watching the (hopefully) blue skies of Fort Lauderdale while enduring a (hopefully) not too cold winter in Europe. (Why am I so full of melancholy this morning? 😔)