Dreamer68

Thanks @Northern Aurora! That gives me some hope! We are trying to travel light, especially since pulling off traveling with just carry-on luggage on our Caribbean cruise on the gorgeous Apex last January...but that was just for 7 days, to a hot place.... and this time around, we're staying a few days in Barcelona before embarkation and a few days in Rome after disembarkation so... there's no way around packing a bit more AND doing laundry this time around. I remember a long time ago on our first cruise on HAL, there were laundry machines onboard. Gosh, I've aged! 🙂

Oh my!!! That's tiny!! For a charge of USD $50 or thereabouts per bag? Horrors. We're boarding the Equinox in May for an 11-day cruise and will have to do laundry...yikes! Can you even get a pair of long pants in there? DH is 6ft tall. I've seen videos on how to fold/roll clothes strategically to benefit well from the laundry bag but gosh, this looks like a shoe bag. 😭

In my suburb in Montreal, they plant select vegetables in some of our parks scattered all over their territory. One year, walking my dog, we found...yes... asparagus next to chives at the park closest to our home. Very cool! Someone else had appreciated the asparagus and had cut a few stalks Hahaha! Then, at the public library in the big concrete flower pots, there were tomato plants growing and nasturtiums (I plant nasturtiums at home to use their flowers to perk up my salads)... so awesome to see these edible designs and intentions. I wonder what they will plant this spring and summer. I'll share some photos if there's anything interesting.

LOVE this quote @CHPURSER! I'm an educator in a school where at any given time, there are at least 25 cultural groups represented. One of the best books I read my students taught them not to yuck someone else's yum. It was great hearing the kids say this quote throughout the rest of their school years whenever recess rolled around and interesting things came out of people's lunch bags. 😍 I've shared the quote with our church's mission teams before their travels abroad and I've been blessed with intriguing culinary adventures they dared to take overseas, especially when they were invited to humble meals of thanks from the recipients of the help the teams were bringing. 😍 PS - I think the quote is a general one about opening one's eyes to the amazing diversity of our world, about developing an open mindset in general. I'm thankful for my dad who traveled quite a bit for his work and therefore encouraged his kids to be readers and travelers. There are always individual circumstances that do not fit the general mold. I am sorry to hear you are homebound for the foreseeable future @lenquixote66. I hope you have amazing memories of your years of travel to keep you smiling and to keep sharing. It's been wonderful to read people's experiences here.

That's unfortunate that you've never eaten these. I understand how odors can deter anyone from trying something new. I am fortunate to have tasted wonderful dishes which included each of these... I have to thank my late dad for all the opportunities he offered his kids to taste as much of the world as possible. 😍

I'm curious. Why would you NOT eat these? Also, how were these served to you the first time you had them?I wonder if they were served differently if your palate might expand to include them...

Interesting, that's probably the only time I chew gum, when flying. 😂

Definitely cold! Give me a tall glass of anything when the temperature is over 28 Celsius. 🫠

Hi! I just confirmed a booking for my party of 4 for Rome for the first week in June. I've been checking since December. Prices have definitely gone up since then but we found at least half a dozen hotels under CAD $350/nt (our budget). For my first step, I used a Google search term, "hotels near Piazza Navona" as that was the area we wanted. When the list of properties showed up, I then used the price filter to indicate the minimum and maximum I was willing to pay per night and got about a dozen properties available. I double-checked all the reviews including stairs vs elevator (I hear you on that!) and managed to get a decent looking property with good reviews within our budget within a 5-min walk of Piazza Navona. I definitely checked to see if the hotel website gave the best deal. Most of the hotels on this thread were out of our budget range. Hope you find something suitable for you. PS - I also looked at VRBO and Airbnb.

How did you enjoy it? Calamansi is common where I spent a good chunk of my childhood (Malaysia). I love(d) it in a drink called "limau asam boi" made with calamansi lime and sour plum, a wonderful mix of sour and sweet (sugar syrup) especially served in a chilled glass mug filled with ice. Calamansi enhances several amazing chilli-based condiments in Chinese and Malay cooking in Malaysia. Yum!

Indeed, this is our first visit. I've already told my group we are waking up early enough for the sail-in. 🤗 I read there were a bunch of things we can see and do near the port so, we'd do that after returning from the Blue Grotto and Marsaxlokk. 👍 I'm very interested in the history of the Knights Templar. Wondering if the Malta Experience is worth it...?

Thanks! I'll check for Valetta bus schedule online. I'm presuming you used cash? Here's the ship excursion that we were interested in that's sold out.

Thanks LOTS @edinburgher ! I had seen the DIY thread but will go through it more slowly. IF it looks like we can just build our own day - walk around Valetta near the dock, take a taxi to get a boat out to Blue Grotto and see Marsaxlokk...that's good to know. I wonder if we can write Shore excursions at Celebrity to see if there is a waitlist??

Hello! We are a group of 4 stopping in Valetta, Malta at the end of May. We are interested in seeing the Blue Grotto but my search here on the forum keeps bringing up the Blue Lagoon which is not the same thing. Has anyone taken a boat tour out to the Blue Grotto and if so, which tour operator did you go with? There is a Blue Grotto + Marsaxlook + Valetta highlights option on a known site but at $1500 for a half-day thing, that's over our budget. Thanks for any leads!

Why feature "only" when you can feature "and"? When I travel, I enjoy the balance (if possible) of a taste of what's familiar to me and what's local and therefore foreign to me. In the absence of the former, I fully embrace the latter. 🙂So a cruise I'd enjoy would have many options of food. That's why I enjoy buffets more than MDRs (yes, I'm probably in the minority). I love variety. And technically, because I am from Asia originally, foods from the UK or English-speaking USA are considered "ethnic" to me. 😉