Eurovisionfan

As someone "of that ilk", we've only been on one other Fred Olsen cruise and as far as we were aware, we were the only paying LGBT couple onboard - the rep from Titan and his husband were onboard too. On a small ship, it's fairly easy to spot other same sex couples.

On our last CMV cruise, one of the passengers requested an LGBT meetup and from then it was always in the daily newspaper, but we didn't see one on the Ambience, but could have asked. As on every cruise we've ever been on, there was a Queen night - but with a twist. The music was set around a women's football team and there was a same sex storyline involved, I won't give too much away, I'll just say that the show got the biggest applause I've ever heard. It was genius and I bet you can all imagine the song they sing at the end.

Last week, we disembarked the Saga Spirit of Discovery (for our 35th anniversary) and there was a smattering of LGBT guests. I'm surprised they didn't put on some sort of reception for us (instead of just having a little space in the bar, with Saga I'm fairly positive it would have included some fizz and food). Funnily enough, one of the LGBT guests was travelling with her mum - who just happened to be called Dorothy, so we did have our own Friends of Dorothy group by the end of the cruise!!

An LGBT/Friends of Dorothy meeting is a lovely addition, but not a deal breaker for us. Not really sure what to expect on our forthcoming Fred Cruise in this respect. 

We were on a lowly P&O ship, but it shows that whatever you pay doesn't stop the weather interfering with plans!!

We're on the same cruise. It was an offer too good to miss. We've been to many of the ports, including Neum, Saranda and Kotor which we've done on land based holidays to Dubrovnik/Corfu, but not Venice (we ended up in Trieste because of fog) or Split (always been on our list). It'll be the second longest cruise we've done (we were on the Marco Polo to Canada in 2019 for 30 days).

On CMV, their Greek and Italian nights have the waiters dressed up, rather than the passengers. Makes much more sense. Glad to hear the news about an Indian night. I still don't understand why you'd want a British night if you're on a cruise to somewhere else. Of course it would be appropriate if you're going round the British Isles, but elsewhere it seems completely bizarre and jingoistic

There was a very informative session where the cruise manager interviewed the cast. Apparently the shows for three ships (I think the Braemar is the exception) are done by a small company in Suffolk, and I'm sure it's far cheaper for everyone to have the same costumes rather than lots of different ones (having said that, red white and blue could do for a fair few countries!!) 

At least the Phillipines, Indonesia and Thailand were represented in the staff show! And we really enjoyed everything else.

Well, we survived the evening! I wore a blue shirt with a yellow bow tie - those who cottoned on to the flag it might represent gave me some very positive comments, much to my surprise! 

I also wore a red, white and blue rosette, which could have been bleu, blanc, rouge...  We were genuinely tired that evening, and on second sitting, so we watched the show from our cabin. We were hugely astonished to find that not only the Boomtown Rats, but also Debbie Harry and Meatloaf were "the best of British"! If there's one thing our country excels at it's music, so why have Irish and US songs? We discussed this at our table the next night and with regards to the Boomtown Rats, I was told that it's all GB, after all. I excused myself and went to the toilet to calm down. Even Northern Ireland isn't in GB, let alone the Republic! We're the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is why our friends in Belfast refer to us as their friends from GB. 

Not wanting to spoil anyone's holidays (least of all ours!), we really shied away from watching the news - and making any mention of Brexit (although we did find a likeminded family and had an occasional vent with them!), but eagle eyed passengers did spot an anti-Brexit sticker on my mobile phone.  

By the way, if there was an American evening on an American ship (especially if people got "blacked up" to sing slavery songs), I'd also run a mile (as would many Americans at the moment, given their leader)!  However, if there was a celebration of nations and how we can all work together, I'd definitely be first in the queue and would be happy to wave lots of flags.

Having said all that, we had the most wonderful time and I'm busy writing my review!

We're going on the Balmoral on Friday and wondered much the same. We usually love shipboard entertainment, but a British night doesn't really float our boat! I just think it's a shame that you go abroad for a holiday and they want to give you a British night - probably due to cost - it's cheaper to bulk buy Union Flags than actually do something more appropriate for the location you're cruising in. It's our first time with Fred - we've cruised lots of times, but only done one P&O cruise and their British Sailaway from Gibraltar was hilarious for all the wrong reasons. The fuel pipe got stuck, so we didn't leave on time - the entertainment team left with guests still waving flags whilst we were somewhat marooned! We certainly didn't rule any waves that day!

So it looks like the westerners will go to the old spa rather than the Japanese one, perhaps! Shame about the price of sushi, we like it as a mid-afternoon snack, rather than a full meal. We can get good sushi here in Birmingham (UK) at the same price or even less, so doubt we'll be partaking of nude bathing or overpriced sushi!

Well, I've just been having a look and have found the menu - with charges... http://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/Onboard_Experience/KaiSushi_DI_SP_SampleMenu2014.pdf

With so many Japanese people onboard, I do wonder if there will be less expensive sushi available at the buffet, without the expensive fish on top.

We're excited to be on this ship in September and are bemused that it's now registered in London! I've just asked my husband if he wants to dissolve our civil partnership and get married onboard - the laws have recently changed over here in the UK to include same sex marriage, but the government is still working out what to do with people in a civil partnership, so at the moment we're in a strange limbo state of not being able to get married unless we get divorced first! There's a public consultation going on at the moment, results are due later this year!

Hubby's answer was simply to quote Oscar Wilde - murder often, divorce never!

On another note, we also wonder how much the Japanese bath will cost and also if there's a charge for the sushi. We loved having a late afternoon sushi snack on the Celebrity Century which was simply part of the evening buffet. That meant we could see the entertainment first, then have a later dinner.