Tin can

Excellent point, Barcelona and Rome especially. I wouldn't be so concerned about wearing jewellery as any risk will be from opportunist pickpockets. We have been to both many times with no issues and with very simple precautions you will be fine.

I applaud anyone who travels to a cruise with no checked luggage, three of us flying to New York from the UK this summer for 9 nights on Liberty and three checked bags.

Thank you all for your comments, you pretty much confirmed what I have learnt elsewhere that it can be a bit of a lottery. Plenty to think about I think as the cruise we are looking at only stops at the one Japanese port so the thought of being stuck on the ship for hours doesn't really appeal 😐

I think you will find that your fellow passengers on a European cruise will be a really varied mix of nationalities which can be great fun. I would expect it to be a bit more formal dress wise, and as others have mentioned, as it will be port intensive the vibe around the ship will be different to the Caribbean. Not better or worse just different. Depending on when you are going the Euro 2024 football tournament is being held in Germany, if your dates coincide expect any bar with a television to be packed and if it interests you at all the mix of Europeans on board will create a fantastic atmosphere.

Hi all We are looking at a cruise from Shanghai which has one stop in Japan. I've done a bit of research and it seems that Japanese customs are sometime ill prepared for the number of passengers getting off a cruise ship and some people have reported waiting hours to be called to be cleared. I was looking for some opinions on this please if anyone has any experience with this. Thanks

Even playing online you are signing up to this very loose t & c. The house will nearly always win.....

The only stress for us with RoyalUp is despite a number of minimum, average and a fair few maximum bids we have not had a sniff of anything 😐

Yes, have to agree it is much improved since restart.

I actually like it, I’m on a cruise and on holiday so I don’t necessarily want dinner to be like an experience I would have at a restaurant at home.

Yes the same reason we are looking into Spectrum from Shanghai, the prices are very reasonable.

You won't know this until onboard, the price will be dynamic based on online sales already made. Your son may get lucky buying on day 3 and save some money but I have never seen on board package prices anywhere near some of the online sale prices.

There are a few 8 nights dotted around the schedule and a good looking 7 night which goes to Yokohama (Tokyo), Kyoto and Osaka which we are looking at.

I wasn’t keen on the manufactured port area. After a lot of persuading of the security guards I took a walk into Falmouth. Right outside the gate was chaos and whilst there isn’t much in Falmouth itself, it was interesting enough for an hour. I got the impression that unless on a tour not many people go for a wander in Falmouth.

We have always had priority boarding with a JS. We are though looking at a cruise out of Vancouver as you are taking and my general impression is that boarding is very chaotic and no one seems to get priority…. only 2-3 hour waits in various queues.

Yes I agree, I can see big changes coming along those lines and a revenue based system. I may be way off the mark with this but I can also foresee a combined single RCI Group loyalty scheme with the ability to earn points across RCI, Celebrity, Silversea and whatever that Tui/Hapag German line is.