TouchstoneFeste

Thanks so much for these toughts. I feel better about our preferred flight.

Sugar-free drinks are available everywhere. Mostly you will see bottles, not cans. Two years ago right after the pandemic restart they actually ran out of bottled/canned but it was still available in the lounges from the "tap" (=fountain). This wasn't a problem on our most recent crossing.

Sorry "they're onboard entertainers"

Ents are the tree-people in J.R.R. Tolkien's books - a popular crossword puzzle answer if nothing else. (I know their also onboard entertainers.)

That must have been on a very large bus, but at least you wouldn't lose them in a crowd at a tourist site.

Curious ... what are "other duties"? Do the same conditions apply to the "headliners" (the lounge pianists and harpists)? I presume not to those who appear in the theater?

Yes, it's the traditional "can I make my flight?" posting, this time from the port at Livorno to Pisa International (PSA). We'll be disembarking a small ship about 8am (per the cruise company) on a September Sunday and want to catch a 10:30am flight. I know the drive time to the airport is around 1/2 hour. So .... 1) Is this remotely feasible? 2) Are there reliable car services available? Would a taxi work? (The cruise line offers free transport, but we don't know when it would depart.) 3) How manageable is PSA? If we get to the airport before 9am, do we have a chance of making it through the pre-boarding ritual in time? We can change to a different flight, but it would involve considerable inconvenience. Anyone with experience, your response is welcome.

These are the ones we use. The steel cables make them very secure-feeling.

I bow to your wisdom :)

I was in Sir Samuel's - and the seas were quite high and violent - when the early announcement chimes came, and several of us looked at each other with (mild) concern. When the captain announced the anemomenter had failed the woman at the next table and I just started laughing and I said, "Don't TELL us that!". Later, the captain's noon announcement mentioned the Pilgrim crossing and I said to a nearby women, "Imagine crossing this in a wooden 100-foot sailing ship". She said, "I'm Irish. We ROWED it."

A good piece of advice I heard for the Library and Book of Kells is to get the earliest appointment you can (it opens at 9:30am) and zoom past the exhibition area to view the Book before that room gets crowded, continue on to the library proper, then double back to look over the exhibition (which is also excellent).

The book removal is a temporary measure for cleaning. When we entered my wife said she wished we'd been around for the book sale. In fact, they've replaced books onto the first few shelves so you can get a good visual of what the library would look like full. Best thing we saw in Dublin.

Sleeting out on deck this morning. Hope it may clear up as we approach land. Got our disembarkation materials yesterday :(

Yes. Not the best coffee ever, but perfectly acceptable morning fuel.

Apparently we had the first "backstage tour" they've managed to give since the pandemic shutdown. VERY enjoyable. We were able visit the bridge, and got the chief engineer's take on the engine control room. The room has been completely refitted with new electronics. Speaking of which, I was amazed (after going through the bridge - which is heavily electronic and where the ship is normally driven by a joystick) to see the workings of the mooring deck, which is nearly completely driven by men with bulging muscles, heaving ropes and calling out "more slack" / "pull harder".

We belong to a group that has large multi-course feasts, and one tradition is a "Polite Food Fight". One table will send a bit of food of food to another table with a (verbal) message, like "Whatever celery they're giving you, it's too much." (Not always a rude comment, just a food pun.) The second table is obliged to respond. I've seen them go on for hours.

Oh, Joy! A new IT snarl to complain about! (Actually, I had to reset my password, but that was easy enough. I'm getting 404 errors for the details page, but I'll give 'em a day and try again.)

There is an entire "sticky" thread on transfers between the airports and Southampton here in the British Isles/Western Europe Cruise Ports forum: As you can see, a predecessor thread was 34 pages long, so they just restarted it (but link to the original thread). There is a poster there who goes by "John Bull" who is particularly reliable.

I can't tease out from the advertising I've seen, but I suspect not. Illy ("our new pods") is claiming compatibility with Nespresso machines, but that doesn't mean it works the other way around. It isn't just a question of size and shape, with Nespresso at least. My home machine "reads" the capsule to determine how much water to process. I understand being hooked on your own brew, but maybe try to find Illy capsules in similar flavors?

While at first glance it appears that Sir Samuel is wearing a turtleneck, I believe that is a cravat over a wing collar.

Since what really made your first voyage marvelous was largely your delightful attitude, I suspect it would be a good choice.

Good idea. Regarding the "login" link, I may have been remembering excursions to the GB-en site.

Sheesh. Weird, of course, not wierd.

Ah, yes, I see. If you click "Account", then "My Cunard", then "Visit My Cunard", you arrive at a page where you can enter booking number, names and birthdate. This used to be a single click at the top of the page, along with "Login", which would take you directly to the account login, as I recall. So, yes, the functionality is all there as I said before ("Manage my booking" is still available on the menu at the bottom of the page)... it's just harder to get to.

Nope, that's the part that's missing. (I don't need to get to my account per se, just noticed that "login" was gone. Can still get to "manage my voyages" through the link at the bottom of the page.)