the penguins

you will be on local time at every port. Private excursion companies and private guides will all operate to match the time the ship is in port. No need to stress - relax and enjoy. As you haven't been to Europe before the following may help: Credit cards are widely accepted (make sure you have one that doesn't charge you a fee) and don't let the Credit card company/shop do the conversion i.e. leave everything in the local currency. You will need a little local currency (Nor). If you have any small bills left don't change them back just use them for any extra tipping on the ship -

ask as soon as you board if you can swop to Anytime - there may well be passengers who are trying to swop to Fixed

How many people save? Not the majority otherwise X wouldn't be offering the packages.

Princess are using Sky 14 days from Southampton - we will book if and if with a refundable deposit will hope to switch to X but only if its S class.

Not stupid. We we watch it before boarding. Go straight to the cabin pick up key, drop bags, go to muster station (usually the MDR on Deck 4 for the cabin we like) then to Al Bacio for our first lattes - job done.

We have already "pre booked" with our TA for Princes' Solar Eclipse cruise which goes on sale 23 May - X is way behind with this.

perfect explanation. For sure if it goes wrong at check in crazyank won't be there to take the flack. As an aside Southampton for one is a port that checks (or at least it did last time we cruised from there) that the whole party is there before even allowing you access to the terminal building.

If you really want Fjords fly direct to Bergen and take the 12 night Classic Round-trip on Hurtigruten - 22 ports, right up to the North Cape - no need to take the more expensive Exoedition Cruise. You visit Fjords that lines like X, HAL, Princess etc can only dream of. Great local food served on the ship. Excellent viewing areas. Wide range of tours - don't miss the exclusive night concert in the Arctic Cathedral. Not your classic cruise but a true adventure. All the ports you stop at in the day going North you stop at in the night coming back and v.v. We went over Christmas and New Year. Also been on X and Royal both good in their way but no comparison with the Hurtigruten experience ( we have also been to the Antarctic with H hence our CC name).

Please see Post 27 above for the proof that there is.

Thanks to BeasleysMom66 - for the written proof.

have a great cruise. Love your CC name - it's the boss's (Anita's) initials and maiden name. Our grandson lives in Dallas and we will be staying with him in November sadly flying both ways whereas normally we do one way as a Transatlantic cruise.

All passengers on a booking are required to check in together so yes they will ask. If you are in the UK you have to tell your insurance company of any likely claim "as soon as possible" and therefore waiting until your return would not be an option.

Decent thing? 1) Your suggestion would make no difference to the total price. 2) you know the current way the tips are presented as "optional" are really only done that way because it's normal in the US and 80% of the cruise lines passengers are from the US/Canada. 3) having tips separately has I believe tax advantages to both the cruise line and the crew. 4) you have the option to book with cruise lines that include tips (P and O, Virgin etc). 5) you also know that removing the tips means some crew work for less or have you found a way of tipping for example the laundry staff? We would like to see taxes, port charges and tips all included in the basic price but until they are we will not penalise the crew. By all means lobby the cruise line but in the meantime please don't penalise the crew.

X asks you to stick to the times. Some ports enforce the times some don't - remember port staff are not X's employees. If you decide to turn up early just accept that you might be asked to wait - it's your choice.

Great choice. Eclipse is one if our favorite ships and the one we chose to celebrate our Golden Wedding on. We love all the S class ships. You haven’t mentioned your cabin but for us deck 7 or 8, rear facing balcony on the hump and with the bed next to the balcony is just perfect. My wife has mobility issues and having the couch nearest to the door gives us much more space. The forward facing Sky Lounge has great views and a variety of seats. As we don't drink alcohol our "go to place" is the Cafe Al Bacio. Shows in the main theatre will be 7 and 9pm - the latter the most popular. We have Anytime Dining precbooked for 6.30 always at a sharing table (we eat as a couple every day at home) which works great with the theatre time. Enjoy.

The Boss (Anita) makes sure ours is wisely invested in the Casino.

in our experience it's standard practice for the ship to show the event on the cabin tv's as it keeps passengers off the deck.

Don't know your route but if you have any left over currency for example Euro, use that for tips rather than change it back. The ship will change/handle any currency for the crew at better rates than they give passengers.

true, but we have always been able to order any of drinks served from those machines in the MDR.

That obligation was dropped a long time ago - wrongly in my opinion but that's a different issue. To my knowledge all restaurants in the US pay their staff a minimum wage but the tips there play a much bigger part than here in the UK.

The "auto grats" included in your fare are split as shown below. The figure shown for the Room Steward is not shared. The behind the scenes people ( laundry, cleaners get their share from the $2 figure. All drinks bought on the ship have grats added or included automatically. The Somellier is not included in "auto grats" but a grat is added /included to any bottle you purchase. No obligation to pay any additional tips. The current grats and how the ship divides/shares them are. You can get a copy from Guest Relations - just ask.

Lemonade, cranberry basically anything you can get from the self serve machines in the Buffet.

UK /European Law does not require the Daily Grats to be included in the basic price as the Grats are technically optional. The only things that must be included are "non optional items" for example port charges and taxes which are charged as extras in the US/Canada.

neither we nor any of our UK friends remove the auto tips. Removing auto tips has only one result - some crew members will be working for less than they would otherwise get. None of the restaurants we go to in the UK include the service charge (unless it's for a group booking). When tips are included in the drinks price in say the Al Bacio this inevitably results in the prices being "rounded up",

After The Costa Concordia disaster we attended a number of onboard presentations where the Captains explained how X’s way of operating was different to Costa’s including the point about all the Officers having to sign off on the route every day. On our Solstice Transpacifics we had a number of “coffee break” discussions with the Environmental Officer which covered a whole range of topics including how each days route had to include/allow for dumping of waste water/ only using lighter fuels in some areas/avoiding certain areas etc. Glad you liked the photos - the trip was our retirement gift to ourselves 90 days total including 60 on Solstice.