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Ah thanks a million, don't go to too much trouble, you know what teenagers are like, a million ideas but trying to get boys to follow through isn't easy. I pass the webaddress onto him Thanks again Sue

I agree, we mostly left our afternoon snacks on our Beyond cruise last month. There's always food around the ship if you want something . Just a waste and I would ask them not to deliver in future

@aussielozzie18my nephew has deferred his uni place so is having a gap year until Sept 2023 and is thinking of having a working holiday in Australia. Do you know if its easy to get casual work in Sydney now maybe in the bars or cafes? He's 18 years old. I guess he would have to get a special gap year visa that allows him to work. My eldest did a gap year but it was after uni so he was that much older. Just wondered what the employment/job situation is like at mo in Sydney? Thanks Sue 😊

We don't have little ones anymore but I can give you a some advice about Greece. We were there two weeks ago, it was hot but not impossibly so. I guess with young children you need to factor in shade and sun protection. A lot of ports you can just get off and do your own thing. Rhodes you dock right next to the centre of the old city and a there's a fair amount of shade. Mykonos and Santorini we anchored in the bay and tendered to land. Mykonos has very narrow pedestrian only streets but can get crowded. Maybe book a beach tour? Santorini you can take the cable car up to Fira but again the streets are very narrow and crowded. You could hire a car or stay in Fira. Ensure there are child seats if you book a car on line Katakolon is the port for Olympia and the ship docks right in the port with the shops and restaurants a few minutes walk. I would advice giving Olympia a miss and stay in port which is very nice. There's a cute land train tour that the children would like Athens would be a good port to take a private taxi tour or stay on board. Lots of info on the port pages of cruise critic for Greece. Enjoy your holiday

Here you go, this was concierge class on Silhouette a few weeks ago, octopus maybe?

Over 75s here, happy to wait till Oct/Nov to have the second booster along with flu vaccine as we go into the Winter. Had Omicron in Feb and my online NHS covid info says I have protection for 180 days , though with the new Omicron variants B.4 and 5 I'm not sure if that still holds true. A lot of younger people seem to be testing negative after 5 days with the new variants To the OP, hope you all feel better soon and make a full recovery

Agree, I said to hubby it's designed for the instagram generation, stunning to look at and the photos look good on your instagram account but not always comfortable or practical. Also really miss the forward facing top deck lounge that we found on Silhouette. My DH doesn't like too much sun and really enjoyed sitting in those rocking chairs on Silhouette sky lounge looking out over the bow of the ship. Having said this, all in all I did enjoy our Beyond cruise Sue

Wow,beautiful pictures

Usually someone has a party locally as there are often fireworks heard late at night on the 4th. Think a lot of ex pat Americans will celebrate but its pretty low key The two big occasions in the UK for fireworks is Guy Fawkes 5th Nov and New Years Eve. We don't really have big national celebrations in England like the Irish do. We do have St Georges Day but it's very low key and often passes unremarked

Happy Birthday to your wife, can we all come round for the party 🥳 😁

I was there mid June and the Rome airport Hilton website said it was suspended. We were there late and left early the next day, so no time to check it out

So I was on the same cruise as Dani (really enjoyed meeting you and DH). We ate most of our evening meals in the four included dinnng rooms. There were good things about the cruise but also disappointing things, and the food generally was one of the disappointing things IMO. Most of it was ok, occasionally very good but never outstanding. We're pretty easy going and for the first time in all our cruises had to send a meal back because the steak was cold. When it came back the six artfully arranged chips (frys) it came with were hard and unedible. My husband said some flavouring on the steak would be nice, it was bland. On Silhouette in May we always asked for extra veg, we didn't bother on Beyond as it was always very undercooked There were some good things. The bread baked fresh on board was lovely, Fresh stir frys in OV was nice as were the ice cream and freshly made pizza. . My husband liked the Mast Grill for lunch . I liked the freshly made coffee in the spa cafe for breakfast and enoyed the fruit plates there. We didn't do any specialised restaurants First time in an infinity balcony which we Iiked, made the room much bigger. Our room attendant was excellent as always. I also enjoyed the long pool for doing lengths and the sunset bar was our go to bar, staff were great and the views stunning. My husbands biggest concern was no forward facing top deck lounge for non suite guests, probably a deal breaker for him. Entertainment was generally good, especially Elements which was probably one of the best shows I've seen on stage. I also found the sound too loud though. Captain Kates talk on the last day was interesting and well worth attending The sculptures and art work were interesting, would be nice to have more information about them . We did find the seating in Eden uncomfortable and it didn't really work as an entertainment venue as limited capacity and sight lines weren't good. Ports were fab and our one ship tour in Malta was excellent and good value Other ports we did our own thing

The problem is these Beyond cruises aren't cheap, think is was over £2500 for an infinite balcony. Maybe you're right and we are all going to have to expect to pay a lot more post covid but I would expect decent edible food for my hard earned money

My husband would love to read them. He is an airplane nut and loves reading or watching anything about WW2 if it involves planes. His father was a flight engineer in the RAF in WW2 and did missions all over Europe dropping supplies and more to the partisans behind enemy lines

Happy 4th July. Hope you're all enjoying your long holiday weekend and celebrations 🇺🇸

I remember once on one of my first visits to the USA , I ordered dry Martini and lemonade , what our American friends would call vermouth and sprite, I got a weird look and was asked, what in the same glass? I know better now

Yes there's a lot of talk on Celebrity's page about some of the uncomfortable design features on Beyond. Whilst there is some strange designs, I think a lot is for the instergram generation but there is also some good features and interesting sculptures. One good thing I liked IMO they have put better use to the lawn area. It's more islands of plants now with comfortable shaded seating areas so you can watch the outdoor movies or just relax. The infinity pools are good too Thank you for you kind good wishes, no more holidays on the horizon unfortunately. Was hoping we could squeeze in a trip on Anthem before she goes back stateside but it depends on family commitments.

Gary's pot at the back of photo is plain tea, mine is chamomile tea

Went up to London to see son nbr 1 and family yesterday. We looked after little Isaac whilst they were starting packing to move. They are moving away from London and closer to us which is lovely but will miss our visits and the vibe of London. Enjoyed playing with him in the parks and tea on the pavement cafes

Dani, I'm glad you told your story so well, we had several conversations with you and others about the food on board. Even people in suites or specialised restaurants weren't happy. We mainly ate dinner in the four included restaurants. The food was OK but nothing to get excited about. Gary has escargot a couple of times (normally his favourite starter) and thought the snails were very small and below par. We're normally pretty easy going but for the first time ever Gary sent his steak better because it was cold (how is that possible). When the second steak came, the chips were hard. BTW there was just six chips artfully arranged on the plate. I did find the vegetables hard and very undercooked . I know this is common on ships but this was almost unedible. On Silhouette in May we always asked for extra veg, we didn't bother on Beyond. There were some good things, sir fry in buffet, real fresh coffee in spa cafe, Gary like the burgers and chips in the burger place on the pool deck, cookies in the cafe. I still managed to put on way too much weight but lost most of it in a week so think it was mainly water retention. As to Captain Kate, I don't really do social media (apart from CC) so had no prior idea or thoughts one way or the other . Agree with a lot of what Dani said, she mainly appeared at the big meet the officers events and didn't appear until her stage spot and disappeared soon after . I did see her in the cafe on deck five. And we spotted her in the photo shop area and she was kind enough to pose for a photo with us. It's an awful pic of me so I won't post it here 😏 I did miss that there was no big forward facing lounge as the suites have been given a much bigger area up front over several decks. This will probably be a deal breaker for us. But we loved the sunset outdoor lounge at the back of the ship . We also found a lot of the lounge furniture in Eden looked amazing but was not comfortable. It also didn't work very well for shows as not enough room or good line of sight . Heres a pic of the dark corridor that Dani was talking about , all mirrors and big hard objects, it was a lot darker than the pic shows. I actually saw one elderly man walk into one of the mirrors thinking it was the exit . Its a bit style over substance Gary said, let's go back to Royal next time, and I agree, though maybe this food issue is a thing on all ships now post covid. We haven't sailed RC since 2019

I have a couple of good recipes for courgette cake and courgette soup

As Dani said the best thing was only us and a much smaller ship in the bay. If you Google there's a website which tells you how many ships are booked in each day Late afternoon after a late lunch we were going to start walking down when we went past the entrance to the cable car and no queue whatsoever. We got on the next one . A couple of hours earlier there was a fairly long queue. It helped that we were in port until late evening so no rush to get back on board

Happy Canada Day celebrations to all Canadians 🇨🇦

Yeap, sorry I meant english schools

Continuing the air con conversation, very few private homes have air con here and often even hotels and public buildings don't. Which is fine for most of the year but we do have periods when the temp goes over 30c I find that I often get a sore throat from air con on cruise ships or countries when air con is the norm but I do like sleeping in a cool room