the penguins

Happy to help

So do I but at my age I can no longer eat a whole one.🤣

If you have Julie as your Guest Relations Director be sure to see her performance in Liars Club. Be warned she has a wicked sense of humour and her motto is " if I can't fix it, it ain't broke". She is "off" chocolate" but loves Pringles to share with her team, please say hello to her from Geoff and Anita.

If you go into the cruise planner page of your cruise it shows you the date online check-in opens.

A very simple "trick" that works on every ship. On every floor just outside the elevators is a clock. The clock is in exactly the same position on every deck. Your cabin is either the side with the clock or it isn't. It's also useful for meeting people as you arrange to meet under the clock, deck 7, forward or whatever. Hope this helps.

The cabins on the humps have a few partially forward or backward facing balconies. These show clearly on the deck plans.

This is an annual dilemma. Out of UK kettles are permitted but not allowed in the US. X’s solution is usually to remove all kettles before the sailing otherwise they would have to collect them in the last day before arriving in the US and you can imagine the chaos that would cause. The kettle saga resulted in one of the funniest situations that we have ever experienced. We have repeated to story to friends in the UK for many years and the American couple involved have continued to do the same with their friends.

I believe it’s fairly straight forward. Food at the bar contravenes hygiene protocols which are fixed/legally binding depending upon where the ship is sailing from. Just like the rules about serving food in carpeted areas instead of tiled ones or not filling take away cups on Al Bacio. Use of the solarium is is a rule that Celebtity has decided to introduce mainly for marketing purposes. I totally agree that X should enforce all the rules it makes as I consider such rules to be part of the deal I signed up for.

It was worth a try. Others may benefit by changing before major problems arise. Enjoy your cruises.

Always order 2 appetisers but they come one at a time. If all came at once the table could be mighty crowded - imagine a table of six with 12 entrees. Even with 1 main each there is hardly room for the extra dish of vegetables I always order.

Following my earlier reply you got me thinking ( don't worry I didn't stay up late I am with my grandson in Dallas). Just looked at the Nationwide site and it has a "portal for new customers " where you can enter your medical / age details and it will tell you how much the extra cost would be to cover your conditions before you sign up for the account. Just might be a case of "the computer says yes".

Nationwide Plus current account - see post 34 for more details. Hope this helps. Geoff

Such a shame. We have had the account for 40 years and as long as we keep paying the cover just rolls on. Our age and pre existing cover excess is only £120. A friend has a Barclays account with similar benefits which might be worth looking at.

Hi Jeanie, I think you are paying way over the odds. We live in the UK, are both over 75 with preexisting medical conditions. Our annual policy covers us worldwide (including USA), unlimited trips upto 30 days, extra days for a small premium. Suggest you look at Nationwide's Flex Plus account : the account includes all the travel insurance detailed above, breakdown cover on your cars and mobile phone insurance for less than the premium you are paying just for the travel. Travel policy has great service, we had to cancel our last cruise on day of departure as I was taken ill literally as we were leaving the house. Claim settled in full within 5 days. Several other claims made, all settled quickly and with no increase in premiums due to the claims.

I see on your profile you live in Halifax. Is that Halifax UK? If yes I can help, if not then sorry but I can't.

Sounds great, just not our experience. The biggest problem, which you also mentioned, is that the service varies depending on the ships position and is not something you can rely on.

Not possible on Silhouette. X is clear that the basic is exactly that - it won't even let you post onto Cruise Critic.

Doesn't sound a lot. We were hospitalised with food poisoning in LA and the total for 2 nights was $15,000. Total bill including new onward flights to Auckland was over $20,000 all settled direct without us paying one cent.

Did it last year. No need to check in all handled on-board just like any pre booked B2B.

We never travel anywhere out of the UK without full travel insurance. Our annual insurance overs us for an unlimited number of trips worldwide with a maximum of 30 days per trip at a total cost of around $260 ( cancellation, baggage, medical and repatriation. A small price for peace of mind.

Is the upgrade good value? Well for most probably not , you need to do the maths. If you order a drink over the "classic" price you only pay the difference in price plus the gratuity on the difference. Unless you drink mainly from the premium list it will be cheaper to just pay the extra for the odd drink. If this wasn't the case X wouldn't selling the upgrade for the price that they offer.

Your first example is what I said a change of starting or finishing port which indeed qualifies as a "significant" change. Your second would more debatable and probably was the result of "goodwill" on the part of the cruise line rather than your "rights" under the UK Law. The debate over what is "significant " comes up frequently with airports and surprisingly changes between London airports are not considered to be "significant".

Which ship? The way the air-conditioning works varies.

Every cabin has a kettle on sailings from the UK

Waiting until you get home is not the solution. Take it up with the Guest Relations Director and/or Hotel Director on the ship. No need to "rant" explain the actions you have taken and ask them if they would please get the staff to enforce the rules.