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sbt518

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  1. Have you ever tried the Bitter French cocktail? I, like you, adore all things bubbly and drink a lot of sparkling wine, champagne, prosecco, cava, basically whatever I can get! And I adore a French 75 but the Bitter French is delicious too and if you make friends with any of the bartenders around the ship (which, of course, being your effervescent self, of course you will) they will make you one assuming they have the ingredients. Bitter French Ingredients 1 ounce Plymouth gin 1⁄4 ounce Campari 1⁄2 ounce fresh lemon juice 1⁄2 ounce simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water) Champagne Garnish: 1 grapefruit twist Basically mix all the ingredients and top with champagne serve as a French 75 or other champagne cocktail. Again, thanks for sharing your trip with us and I had to laugh at GenZ's breakfast with your mom, because as an overindulgent aunt myself, I've definitely fed my niece ice cream multiple times a day when she visited. But as my sister said, that's why it's called vacation and you don't do it every day!
  2. I am so sorry for your loss. Also sad to see that Jeremy could not make it on the cruise but so many bonus points to him as the husband of the year for sacrificing his vacation for you. I'm looking forward to your review. We had to reschedule our spring cruise due to some family events so I have to occupy myself with something until May.
  3. @Robert de Beaumont I can't speak for the others but we plan to. We just got home from London yesterday and have not done it yet.
  4. We just got off the Silhouette on Friday August 25th and were also very disappointed in the MDR. We normally cruise aqua class but that has gotten so expensive we went with a veranda instead. We did do the TajX Indian dinner, Lawn Club Grill, Tuscan and Murano so only ate in the MDR 3 times. And on each night, our meals were well below the quality we expected. Some of the problems we encountered were, very fatty cuts of meat, to the point of being inedible, overdone meat, long wait times for wine (well into the main course before wine was brought), cauliflower and cheese side dish had very little cheese and was burnt. My husband does not drink wine so he ordered a very simple 2 ingredient drink of liquor plus mixer and the mixer was wrong, it took so long to get the server's attention, he wound up going out to craft social to get his own drink. We also spoke to people at the tables next to us and they said they were disappointed with the food too. As I said, we normally cruise in Aqua so we were not really aware of the menu changes, there was always one thing on the menu we were willing to eat but the quality was really disappointing. We decided after this trip that if Aqua is still too expensive, we will book verandas and just do specialty dining every night because the MDR was really not enjoyable for us.
  5. How far in advance are the train strikes announced? I just looked at the national rail website and they have events listed through August 12th. Is that it for August or could there still be more announced for later in the month?
  6. I hope you are enjoying your cruise! Thanks for taking us along. I do love an orange cat from the Tri-State area so shout out to Fozzie the bear cat!
  7. Our cruise in March was our first cruise as Elite and we walked into Tuscan one morning to check it out and we just stood there near the entrance and no server spoke to us or told us we were welcome to sit anywhere or offered to seat us so after about 5 awkward minutes we just gave up and went to Blu. We did want to try it and I think we'll try again in August because we are not in Aqua class and will want a smaller venue for breakfast than the buffet or MDR on some mornings. Is it a seat yourself kind of thing? We'll be on Silhouette if that matters.
  8. There is a lot of information on how to get to/from Southampton on the British Isles board. We are cruising out ofSouthampton inAugust and we are taking a bus tour that picks us up at our London hotel the morning of the cruise and stops at Stonehenge on the way to the ship.
  9. 🤣 That is what I worry about, knowing how I feel about tourists and their luggage on my morning commute in NYC (which is also only TWTh) But maybe the train to WAT and then a taxi or uber to our hotel would be OK.
  10. Is the train from Southampton to Waterloo a commuter train? We will be traveling on a Friday morning if that matters for crowding. I just don't love the idea of being in the midst of the morning commute with our luggage, given that I commute every day on the train in NYC and worry London will be just as crowded.
  11. Hello, seeking some input on getting from Southampton Cruise port to the Holborn area of London after a cruise. For the way TO the cruise we are taking the International Friends Bus that stops at Stonehenge and then drops us at the ship. On the way back, we don't really want to spend all day on a bus tour, we'd like to go directly back to London. We are balking at the cost of a private car service, although it is a long ride so it makes sense, it's just a lot. And as native New Yorkers, we understand the challenges and annoyance of taking luggage on the subway (tube) during rush hour and up and down stairs etc. It's not something we would do at home to get to the airport or ship. So why would we consider doing it on vacation? This would be a Friday morning, probably right during rush hour and I hate to be that super annoying tourist in everyone's way while I lug my stuff around the stations and on the train. On other trips, we've shared a van with other couples from our cruise critic roll call after the cruise (from Civitaveccia to Rome for example) but our role call for this cruise is really quiet. Are there any shared vans or anything like that back to London? I have looked online but not seen anything. Or should we do the National Express bus? Or spend the money on a private car? Secondary question, when we land at LHR (Virgin terminal) can we just go to the taxi stand and get a taxi into London or should we pre-book one?
  12. I just googled your cruise date and found something called post thanksgiving cruise if you eliminate the spaces and add .com to the end of that you will see a travel agency that has a group on the Apex on Dec 2, 2023.
  13. Congratulations to you both! Have a fantastic and well deserved trip. We did the ABC islands on Equinox in March and it was great. We just walked around Curacao, over the bridge and went to the Jewish museum and synagogue (oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere) it was really interesting. Then we stopped and got our obligatory blue drinks as we wandered back to the ship. It was a nice, relaxing day.
  14. Have a fantastic trip with the Queen! I'm excited to follow along on your mother/daughter adventures. These are two great itineraries you are on, should be so much fun.
  15. Hello, we just booked a cruise this August going to the Norwegian fjords and one of our stops is in Olden. We are there from 8am-5pm and I am trying to decide if we should do the Loen Sky Lift or a bus trip to Briksdal glacier. I don't think we have time to do both. The Skylift website says it opens at 9am so we could be there right at opening. How much time does one need there? I guess it would depend on how much hiking we wanted to do at the top? And then the trip to the glacier leaves at 12pm so we'd have less than 3 hours to do the whole sky lift experience and get the shuttle bus back to the port area to be picked up to go to the glacier. I've read a few posts here that say the best thing to do in Olden is the sky lift, can someone provide more info as to why? Or maybe there's a third option in Olden I haven't found yet? We do have an aft balcony so we plan on viewing the sail in and out of Olden from there. Oh and if it would affect your decision, below are our other port stops and our tentative plans Bergen - probably wander around town a bit and then do the roundtrip fjord cruise to Mostraumen Stavenger - another fjord cruise on the Lysefjord to view the pulpit rock from the bottom Kristiansand - maybe a cruise ship excursion called Mircobrewery and Fish Market or we'd try to just do that on our own because ship tours are so overpriced and we already know enough to know we like beer and can eat fish! Thanks!
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