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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

I remember you posting about it Crystal

Same here 😏

Think Europe has now broken up from school. Our state schools usually break up third week in July

Beautiful pics Dani, you make me want to go for a proper visit

We did something similar regarding hotels for our Beyond cruise a couple of weeks ago. Because of the multiple changing of testing days by Italian authorities and because I wanted to test in UK we changed our 0700 pre cruise day flight on BA three times. Making a very reasonable £77 return ticket ending up as £240pp. We also cancelled the Civitavecchia Hotel at £72, and rebooked the airport Hilton for £125 as we were now arriving at 8pm instead of 10am. There were Celebrity signs in the foyer so there must of been a bus going from there to the port. Both our BA flights were on time and we only had to wait 10 min for luggage back at Heathrow Enjoy your cruise, will enjoy following along

Maybe try calling first thing in the morning when USA, the largest market, is sleeping Also try pushing the button for new bookings, we got through easier this way for Celebrity. Edited to say I've just read that you've tried different times of the day 🙃

Malta was our favourite port, the celebrity excursion was excellent and quite reasonable compared to other ports

Great link , thanks

We were on 6th floor on Beyond but bidded for upgrade to Concierge class for min of £80pp for 10 night cruise, and we were moved to deck 12. The bulge of the Solarium shaded our infinite balcony, but no big deal. Loved just walking up one flight for freshly brewed coffee in the Solarium spa cafe in the morning

Great blog, looking forward to more. I'm always exhausted after eastbound overnight flight, so well done doing what you did. Just for info there is a hotel attached to T2, Hilton I think. Also 10 min walk from T3. Then a few min walk to Heathrow central area for the underground to London Also if your layover is less than 24 hours and it's all one ticket they may tag your bags all the way to your final destination so you just need hand baggage in London. I worked at Heathrow up to last year, and my airline did that at our hub which all our flights went through. Looking forward to your next installment, its a cruise I want to do.

Dani, what a miserable way to end a great holiday. Hope DH continues to test negative and you have a rapid recovery. Your photos of Barcelona are great, I'm glad you got to spend some time shopping and sightseeing. Hang in there 🙏 thinking of you

I love that your California grandson gets to catch up and bond with his cousins each year. They're memories of the amazing summers will stay with them for ever. You should write a blog on providing perfect memories for grandchildren

Sounds like a wonderful childhood OB, simpler times......

For health reasons we're eating mainly healthy vegan, though with some eggs diet . I made some scrummy falafel burgers yesterday . The food is actually nicer than I would of thought Taking B12 supplements and may add in some salmon or tuna in a couple of weeks https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/falafel-burgers-0

Thanks, weather was perfect Not sure about any significance about the elephant, lots of sculpture and art around the ship ,made I think for the instergram generation Captain Kate was pretty visible. Saw her around the ship chatting to people . The first night she came on stage to welcome everyone. There were two meet the officers evenings for captains club and she gave a very interesting talk on the last day and kindly agreed to have her photo taken with Gary and I

Wonder why they don't just add it into their port fees . What does their form ask for that Celebrity's own form doesn't? Would think cruise lines will start dropping Bermuda from their cruises if this continues

Soooo lucky you had experts talk on board. Unless I missed it we didn't have any last week on Beyond. As someone who can only take so much sun I love the talks when they have someone interesting. The spa sounds great, We were on deck 12 just below the spa and I do regret not trying it. If you want a light breakfast the Solarium spa cafe is great and has freshly perked coffee

On our return from Barcelona last Thursday we just got to the front of the check in queue when they said they were closing for an hour (we were early) Not wanting to lose our place we stayed put and had a lovely conversation with a young couple from Vancouver who had spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. They did talk about the extreme weather last year. The time flew by

Love the sea, my favourite place. Congrats on your upcoming grand baby 👶

💕 sister from another mother, paraphrasing my sons when they were teenagers 😊

I was on the previous cruise, Greek Islands and Malta. On the last day one of the competitions around the pool was guess the number on board the next cruise, and it was 1680 expected. Ours was over 2000. I can highly recommend Elements show, it was amazing Also Captain Kates talk was well worth going to

You're eating very healthy Graham. Your lunches look amazing

I also have two brothers. I would love to have a sister

Unfortunately I'm a typical Brit and only speak English too (hubby speaks German too). I was surprised that all announcements, cruise director etc was in English on board. Most people who work in the tourist trade in restaurants and shops speak English. We didn't have any problems with language. Having said that learning a few words in language, ie thank you , hello etc is probably a good idea