Baggy178

Auto-gratuities.There's no transparency over who gets what and how much. I want to directly tip for good service I receive not top up the wages of someone working in the engine room. It encourages good service and ambition amongst workers to strive for the better jobs paying tips. Not a school sports day where everybody gets a medal just for competing. Pay decent salaries.

Yay ! No complaint from this buffet lover. Cookies ( biscuits 🇬🇧 ) are best slightly harder anyway as they're good for dunking into tea without plopping into it. And as we'll fetch them ourselves we won't have to pay the 20c gratuity. I tell you, the OVC is where all the good action is. 😅

I tell you something for nothing. They can take my macaroons but if they mess with my snickerdoodles they won't need a fortune cookie to know I'll go animal crackers ...

Funnily enough speaking of milk we used to get ours delivered every day to our doorstep by Ernie,who drove the fastest milk cart in the West. Now Ernie loved a widow, a lady known as Sue, who lived all alone in Lindley Lane at number 22. They said she was too good for him, she was haughty, proud and chic But Ernie got his cocoa there three times every week. She said she'd like to bathe in milk, he said, "All right, sweetheart," And when he'd finished work one night he loaded up his cart. He said, " D'you want it pasteurized 'cos pasteurized is best ? " She says, " Ernie I'll be happy if it comes up to me chest. " Sadly I start singing that ditty every time I open a carton of milk. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1xvyTdBZI

* ring ring,ring ring * " Hello, is that the Cookie Monster ? We have a developing situation. "

Speaking of chardonnay my wife was a young ingénue,mostly innocent about the finer things in life,when I first met her. Keen to make an impression with the first dinner she cremated,sorry cooked,for me she went to a local wine shop and asked the assistant for a bottle of white. " We have hundreds of whites madam. " " Well,he likes chardonnay. " " We have dozens of chardonnays madam " " What about that one there ? " " It's a classic Californian-style chardonnay with a very buttery taste " " Oh no,that won't do. He's on a diet. " That's my chardonnay story.

You say sliced tomato I say whole tomato - let's call the whole cruise off ?

90 minutes ? I was already in the pool by then. Perhaps we just arrived at a quiet time. We were pleasantly surprised by Denpesar. Quite a charming if slightly chaotic airport. Friendly staff.

My two cents for what it's worth. Cruising, like its traditional target audience, is changing and getting younger. What was once a speciality vacation is now freely available to the masses. The golden era of captain's tables and romantic dinners has gone. As more and more behemoths roll out of European shipyards quality is diluted by quantity. It's now all about the blingy Insta photo not a discreet dinner following by blackjack at the casino. COVID merely accentuated this change. If you've got 4,000 people to feed as a captive audience, many of whom might be first-timers, reducing the quality of food without losing significant numbers of future passengers is a no-brainer when faced with huge COVID losses. Food is now just part of the whole experience alongside the zip wires and all the other gimmicks that come along with each new vessel. Think Blue Plate Special rather than Blue Riband. Those of us happily chowing down in the OVC are the new target audience. Of course others may differ... 😉

Am I right in thinking this is an entire dinner menu ? And the protein choice is turkey or Irish stew ? No fish or seafood ? That Pasta Pomodoro is what we used to feed our kids when they were small and teething and would only eat bland mush. No wonder MDR regulars are spitting feathers.

Now, how to get that gin on board ...😉

We visited Bali a couple of months ago. You can either do the e-Visa in advance through the official government site or on arrival. At the airport it took us about 5 minutes on a computer or you can do it on your phone with WiFi provided free. They don't check anything - they're merely after the money. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't something similar at the port.

If you ever experienced Mrs Baggy's cooking you'd understand why I'm looking forward to pigging out on the Silhouette buffet 😉

A 20% tip is already included in the price of your drink. Bar staff are not part of the ship's normal gratuity system.

Sounds like us except the wife getting dressed up bit. We only ever travel with hand luggage so there's be no penguin suit in my backpack. We get that people like to dress up but there are others, like us, who really can't be bothered.

Oh you're quite right which is why I said people are entitled to spend their moolah as they wish. But fine dining as Americans call it - or cruise ship-style dining - is really an outdated concept in the UK. As is calling anyone holding a frying pan Chef. Yes Gordon Ramsay ( as he's known in the UK not Chef Ramsay ) and the like put on outrageously expensive grub in formal surroundings for the expense account brigade but all young, innovative cooks are eschewing that old formality. I'm eating at the hottest new restaurant that's opened in London this year on Tuesday. It's a Welsh/Spanish bare table noisy, fiery buccolic sort of place where I don't expect to get away spending less than £150 a head but it ain't fine dining.

I agree and I think it may be a cultural thing. The idea of a formal or at least smart casual dinner every night is not something we look forward to. We wouldn't do it on land on holiday so the fact it's on a ship makes no difference to us. Indeed the whole concept of " fine dining " is essentially an American custom where people are happy to pay a premium to be fawned over and eat off linen tablecloths. In Britain at least many people would probably regard this as passé and somewhat pretentious although of course people are entirely free to spend their moolah on whatever they wish. Even famous old restaurants like Simpsons in the Strand are auctioning off all their equipment like Drakes silver trolleys, from which beef joints were until recently carved by your table, as they embark on modernising their dining experience. Naturally the food in the upscale restaurants is better than the OVC/MDR and you pay for it but again the idea of paying for food when other food you have already paid for is readily available strikes us as odd. Perhaps it's just a British thing.

Sure did. Hence why I posted it.

Thank you all. 32 cans of light tonic water it is. Should get us to our first stop.

Always nice when someone joins us Flip-Flop Food Fans 🤣

It's quite extraordinary that anyone would contemplate $20 a day pp for a basic WiFi package that includes painfully slow and limited internet where you can't send images or access certain social media sites. Why even bother ? We did a P&O TA a couple of years ago where mid-Atlantic the reception was a joke. Walking past a crew area one day we overheard the captain over the crew speakers apologising for the lousy internet which had been happening since we left Southampton. Yet the ship continued to sell daily WiFi packages and nothing was said to the passengers. The crew confided in us that it was the same on every crossing and a total waste of money.

I'm going to have one more go at this before stomping off this thread in a hissy fit 😉 Has anyone had problems taking cans of soda or mixers on board ? Thanks

We only ever eat in the buffet anyway because we prefer relaxed to formal. And there's always been a huge variety of grub and most of it very decent. Western, Asian and Indian food nights and some Mediterranean style salads, soups and sandwiches for lunch. But it does seem extraordinary that people who book cruises specifically to enjoy the formality of the MDR every night give up so quickly and switch to the OVC. Surely the food and choice in the MDR can't be that uniformly bland ?

Thanks for that report - it confirms our general preference for always eating our meals in the buffet rather than MDR. We like to drink first and eat late so rarely have a problem with overcrowding. We have tried the MDR on P&O a couple of times but long waits for ordinary food made it all a bit of a faff. There just seems more variety at the buffet. We're on the Silhouette TA this Fall so will report.

The OP asked for advice about Barcelona and as a European and reasonably frequent visitor to Barcelona I can only offer the advice as seen from this side of the pond. It's more than likely the OP will have free Wifi at their hotel. I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel in Europe that charged for it. Even budget chains provide it as standard. Most bars, restaurants and coffee shops will also have it. I suppose the OP might be on the move somewhere and need a 4g/5g signal but other than that I'm not sure of the point. It's a bit like buying the Drinks package and needing to have eight drinks every day to make it cost-effective but only having five. Seems a waste to me.