Thejuggler

As long as its near a metro station getting to sites won't be a problem. If you are struggling to find somewhere I can recommend the Hotel Exe Cristal Palace, north of Placa Catalunya in L' Eixample, the heart of the upmarket shopping area and 5 minutes walk from Las Ramblas. Its on a quieter cross street so no traffic noise disturbance. Passeig de Gracia Metro station a short walk.

About the only time you will spend less than £5 on anything in London are public transport fares and they are cashless anyway. Buses you just tap the reader when you board as its a flat fare, the tube you tap on entry and on exit so the fare can be calculated. Most readers are on the ticket barrier gates at the station. Some stations don't have barriers, but you are unlikely to venture to them if you are staying central. As a result the majority of people use cards or apple/google pay. I'd certainly set up every card on a phone as its a useful alternative.

The trick with Celebrity is to book when they have an OBC offer. You can then use that to upgrade to the full drinks package and the cruise becomes almost all inclusive.

HOHO are great for an overview and the commentary is always useful if you get a knowledgable guide as there is so much history in London. However to get from one area to the next public transport is better. Underground for longer trips, but for shorter hops use the buses. They are plentiful, have a flat fare of £1.75 per trip (regardless of distance) and a daily cap, you just need contactless or Oyster payment cards (one per person). It needs some planning to know which bus and which stop, but Citymapper app can provide all this information. My last visit I took a seat on a bus and happened to be sat near a guide who had some visitors. I had a free HOHO experience between the Tower and Trafalgar Square as he explained what was being seen along the route! Joolz Guides is a fantastic youtube channel if you want to know interesting facts about different areas of London.

Rabbie's are a long established tour company that do dozens of tours every year. I am surprised they have not told you where you need to meet them.

Le Verdon. Not seen it on a trip for a long time. Nothing worth getting off ship for, but after a day at sea you may want to. Small town and huge beach. Cartagena smaller Spanish town, Barcelona and Cadiz offer more.

The tour you have quoted was once called 'Norway in a Nutshell' a and it's the trip we did in about 2010. This may be a contentious opinion but the poorest part of the whole day for me was actually the Flam railway! The coach drive through tunnels, along valleys and alongside the fjord was far more interesting. Voss is not a particularly attractive place, being quite modern, but it is a main centre for outdoor pursuits. Its built on the edge of a lake and on our visit there was barely a cloud in the sky, lots of paragliders, even had a floatplane land on the water. The buffet lunch in a local hotel was brilliant. Had we paid it would have been about $80, so probably nearer $100 now (hence the price of the trip). The train from Voss climbs up the valley side to Myrdal before you change trains for the descent into Flam on the railway, a lot of which is in tunnels and avalanche shelters which reduces its impact. On our visit the trip ran in both directions, so some did the Flam and Voss trains first before lunch and then returned on the coach. The day is expensive, but with a $100 (ish) cost of lunch it is well worth doing as you see so much more than the Flam railway in both directions,

As an alternative catch the local bus. Bus station is next to the railway station in Sorrento, tickets are cheap and its great fun. First part is cross country over the headland, you then hit the coast road down into Positano, then on to Amalfi. The full trip takes about 90 minutes. https://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/sorrento-to-positano-bus-schedule

As someone who spends many hours of winter outside coaching and watching rugby its all about layering rather than brands. Merino wool baselayer, both top and bottom. Thin long sleeve sweatshirt or t shirt Fleece or hoodie Then either a down jacket if its dry or a rain jacket in the wet Fleece snood for the neck and a decent thick woolly hat Fleece inner gloves and waterproof outers. Thicker outdoor down trousers with a pair of waterproof outers, Thick long skiing socks. Darntough, Bridgedale are a couple of brands. Now is a good time to buy as many stores will be having end of season sales. TKMaxx is worth a visit. They had lots of outdoor gear on sale a few weeks ago as its end of season. I also rate Decathlon if you have a store nearby, Helly Hansen has been my go to brand for outdoor coats for many years. Sale on their website at the moment.

No problem. The car rental offices will be landside you just need to get yourself there and pick up as normal. I once had a courtesy car following an accident and pick up was my local UK airport.

P&O Ferries successfully argued the UK minimum wage legislation doesn't apply to them and had very bad publicity until the day after they took the decision to sack everyone, they are still operating ferries, The UK Equality Act will be no barrier as they aren't a UK land based company. They are getting bad publicity for being useless at vegan food so a day or two of bad publicity for removing it probably won't affect them too much.

Its a few years since we cruised, but the food court style buffet set up on Celebrity Eclipse was outstanding and streets ahead of similar sized P&O and Princess ships.

Providers need to make a choice. If they are going to state vegan food can be catered for it needs to be and be done well. An excellent menu would have dishes which are so tempting even non vegans would choose them, as is the case with an Indian restaurant I visit regularly and I'm not vegan. They are 100% vegetarian and over 50% are vegan dishes. However if the vegan option amounts to little more than variations of boiled rice with a few pieces of veg take the bad publicity and stop offering it as an option.

Both Flam and Gerainger are many many miles from the sea (Flam is on Sognefjord which is almost 130 miles from the coast at the furthest point!) as soon as you leave the North Sea you are therefore entering the fjord and will usually be cruising overnight, although depending on time of year it may not be dark for long. Get up as early as possible. Head to buffet, coffee and enjoy the slow cruise to the port.

I can understand why it is difficult on a large bus to do both as a Vatican visit can be 5-6 hours if you do everything. We visited Rome for a few days and had a 4pm Vatican tour, but even then had to meet at 3pm as it took an hour to walk to the ticket office and get through the ticket office 'quick' line! That leaves little time to go inside the Colisseum which is also a couple of hours, more if you want to see all the levels. A private tour will probably be the only way, signing up to the roll call may offer opportunity to join other passengers on smaller trips.