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Sorry you've been feeling ill Debbie, get well soon 😊

Depends really if you want to spend some time in a particular city before or after the cruise. Purely on logistics for boarding the ship, Barcelona is best as its right in the city, half an hour or so from the airport. Very organised, last years Symphony cruise we were off the ship and at the airport by 7am. Rome port is actually Civitavecchia, a town about an hour plus from Rome. Lots of info on the Europe cruise port pages of CC about both ports.

We had it on Spectrum in February. We had booked MTD and pre-booked slots to fit in with tours and shows, only to find a card in our room on boarding saying we had been given 6.30. It was also printed on our sea pass Would be happy if we had it on Serenade this July. Normally we have late or MTD but hubby asked for early instead. This is our first early and in my opinion is too early. There's only 2 sea days (16 night cruise) and half the time we'll still be ashore at 5.30

One of my favourite was years ago when pasta was still thought of as 'foreign food', the national breakfast show led with an article on how pasta grows on trees showing strands of spaghetti draped over branches .....and thousands believed it

Thank you very much Lady Z for the detailed reply. I find it fascinating to hear about the cruising experience for such a long time. Can't wait to hear about the African section. Looking forward to boarding for our short 16 day stretch. I think the European sectors are very busy but hope at least the Viking crown Lounge will be open in the evening.

Once you reach diamond level in the crown and anchor loyalty scheme you automatically get 4 drinks pppd added to your sea pass. Up to the value of $14 per drink. You pay the extra if it goes over but it covers most cocktails and wines

Looking at the current Symphony sailing, Vintage bar, in the app. They've got two Pinot Grigio's. One $10 and one $17 (plus mandatory tip of 18%). Other bars just show the cheaper version 🤷‍♀️ Believe the package is only up to $14 per drink, so you would still have to pay $3 plus tip for the more expensive drink even with the package

Spoke to soon, currently having a hail storm here 🌦️

Weather's been mixed but some sunshine which is a relief after all the rain we've had this winter. Had our big family get together on Good Friday. Saw my brother and partner on Saturday and Easter day spent babysitting Theo. Today, which is a bank holiday here, is clear and then childcare for Isaac on Tuesday and Wednesday. Just about to go out to cut the lawn

Agree with @firefly333 seems to be worse since covid, including so many excursions are deemed strenuous and not available to anyone who has ever had a mild heart condition or procedure

Wonder if they will franchise the wiggles to Europe. My kids might even come on a cruise with us if the Wiggles were there. Its the grandkids fav and I know most of the songs off by heart now. Ha ha to the slide, I'm a sucker for April Fools jokes

Happy Birthday to Eric for yesterday. Hope you had a fab day with your family (had to look up what spiral ham is 😋)

Thanks for the updates and photos @LadyZolt and @CSHS1979 Can I ask some questions about life on board to anyone there or who has been on part of the cruise. Are the headliners and ships singers and dancers still up to the same standard as normal for Radiance ships ? Do they change round the pub singer and other 'round the ship' musicians regularly? How often are the menu's repeated? Does the Captain hold regular Q@A sessions? Do they have guest lectures? And finally as a lowly Diamond on a ship full of Diamond + and Pinnacles is there any chance we'll get to use the Crown Lounge or indeed might the whole Viking Crown area be roped off for happy hour when we join in Barcelona . We love the Viking Crown bar for a drink pre dinner Thanks for any replies 😊 I would love to know how day to day life works on this unique cruise Thanks, Sue

We had evian with the water package on Serenade last September. I've booked it for Serenade out of BCN this July, and in the planner the pic is Evian

Some ships are better than others. Serenade great, Spectrum and Symphony not so great. Also where it is makes a difference. Love the Viking Crown area

Wow in a good way?

This is part of an unique one off world cruise (274 nights) so things may be different than normal. Because of its uniqueness there's a lot of people blogging on other sites, may be worth checking those out. There's also @island lady cruise critic blog but she's not on it at mo and it's gone a bit quite. On my four night cruise out of Singapore last month on Spectrum the headline acts were acrobatic and magic type. I don't remember any classical or jazz, just a pub singer. Serenade is one of the smaller Royal Caribbean ships

We did a four night cruise in February from Singapore. Sounds similar to ours. Over 5000 on board and 1000 children (Malaysian school holidays). Mostly, as expected, Singaporeans and Malaysian citizens. Wonderful cruise to Penang and Phuket, wish we could have had longer on board. The indoor family pool was packed with young children and the main pool also very busy. Bars very quiet, just a handful there at any time. Found entertainment to be good. Loved Silk Road in Two70 We had issues with the Singapore Arrival card. I scanned our passports in the app but it read the 0's as O's . On arrival the e-gates wouldn't work because of this and we had to queue and go through the manned channel. On arrival back into Singapore after the cruise I went in and edited the scan to correct digit and all well. I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and looking forward to hearing more

My 3 year old grandsons favourite programme.

Safe travels, Gary really wants to visit Japan, hopefully I'll pick up some hints and tips from you

you get a few bottles of water , seems to vary how many, once you hit Diamond level in the crown and anchor programme.

Cheaper I guess. If its a long cruise with long days ashore I buy the Evian in the planner. 12 litres waiting in our cabin, along with the Diamond water. Great for excursions and at night . But the ships water is fine too

We had a guarantee balcony on Spectrum. We knew on this class we would probably get a obstructive view on deck 6, which we did. But it was also a connecting cabin. We did an Royal Up to a unobstructed balcony for £35 each and got a nice balcony on 8th floor, not connected.

Thanks for the recommendation to watch The Gentlemen on Netflix. Saw the first two episodes yesterday and enjoyed it very much

We enjoyed it in Beyond. Would I prefer a proper balcony, probably yes, but it didn't spoil our cruise. We up'ed to concierge class which gives you a few extra perks and supposedly a better placed cabin. The infinity balcony gives you the feeling of more space as the balcony area is incorporated into the room The itinerary of Bella 3.75 sounds fab