jollyjones

A quote - "Vicki van Tassel is the new CD on the Symphony. She took over last evening when Russ went on vacation. I will try to upload her bio from Reflections when available. Welcome aboard Vicki."

Sorry about the download thing, I'll see if these load as pix. If you click on them they should come a bit bigger. Again, this is the entire menu - 3 antipasti, 2 primi, 3 pasta, and 6 main - 2 fish, 2 meat (both cow) and 2 vegetarian. Very stodgy vegetarian offerings at that. I hope they change it every three days as usual, or I'll have to cancel all the bookings I have made for this cruise.

Sorry, Port, I don't want to hijack your thread but I am on board now and feel the need to report on a change that quite startled me and may be of interest to some SS oldsters. Last night I went to La T for dinner as I always do on the first night of a cruise and after being given the menu I wanted to ask 'where's the rest of it?' Having become accustomed to the La T menu over my previous 500 SS days (oh, so accustomed) I wouldn't have minded a change but I really didn't expect on my SS day 501 to face a micro-miniaturised version - below is the entire menu, I hope the pix load OK and are adequate, I was so taken aback I didn't pay attention to quality - the only thing unchanged is the desserts, and they could definitely have done with an update, although I bailed out and went to the Arts for sweet things as I often do. PS the quality of my food was fine, it was just the choice I found lacking. IMG_0260.HEIC IMG_0258.HEIC IMG_0259.HEIC

Sorry, but I still beg to differ. Your statement is just not accurate - "No through way from the cabin to the rest of ship. You must go outside in the cold and rain to cross from Forward to Aft." If you are in a cabin on deck 8 and want to go to, for example, La Terrazza on deck 7, you can take the forward elevator down to deck 7 and walk aft indoors to the restaurant. This is exactly the same distance as walking across the pool deck and taking the aft elevator down to deck 7. And it is the most logical way to get from deck 9 cabins as the aft elevators do not service deck 9. And it's the only way up to the Observation Room. Or perhaps did you somehow miss the fact there there was a forward elevator? And stairs? Opposite cabins 833 and 933. Wherever you are going on the ship, the horizontal distances are the same, the only choice is whether to move vertically by the forward or aft elevators (or stairs). And it's not like the horizontal distances are endless on such a small ship, even with limited mobility.

Sorry, but that's just a bit silly. Use the forward stairs or elevator down to deck 7 or below, then walk aft indoors. Hardly difficult.

That's the really important improvement!

Generally crossings are reasonably priced and carry only a 25% solo supplement so there's always a lot of solos - 90 is rather more than most but may reflect interest in a novel ship. I am boarding the Dawn (my favourite ship) next week for the crossing - I chose it for the more southerly route (Lisbon-Canaries-Puerto Rico-Lauderdale) as it'll be warmer and maybe calmer - but I too am very interested in the Nova and am very much looking forward to my sail on her through the Panama Canal next April.

Are there any fiction books in there or is it all non-fiction?

Actually Lois, we are eagerly awaiting your thoughts. So far it's only the closet that looks like a negative to me - while that could be an irritation, it'll be a very tiny irritation compared to the pleasure of exploring a new ship ... I hope ... Please carry on!

Vest in US, waistcoat in UK. Vest in UK is what US calls undershirt, (or even 'wifebeater' - ugh, how I hate that term).

Hi Lois, That's not the point. I'm lazy, I like to keep all doors open all the while as I do at home (I live and cruise solo) and I ought to be able to do that and still see a tidy closet with everything neatly put away in the drawers. Having so much storage on open shelves seems a faulty design decision on a ship that might meet rough weather. PS But thanks for posting the pix!

Hi Candy, Stick with the new ships! I only look at the Moon, Dawn, Nova and Ray now (altho' the pics of the Nova closet Lois has just posted are disturbing). There's gotta be Spaccanapoli and the Arts Cafe or I'm not interested. And the much bigger and better bathrooms (compared to Wind and Cloud). Don't give up, I keep hoping we'll meet again aboard SS somewhere.

OMG I hate hate hate front to back hanging rails, you have to pull the front stuff off to get at the back stuff. Don't like the look of this closet at all. Don't want to have to nearly crawl on the floor to get stuff out of the drawers, and def. don't want to have the alternative being to leave everything on display on the shelves. Sigh ...

I'm glad to have read this information but only because forewarned is forearmed. What a dreadful way to end a cruise but I fear I shall have to follow rog747's mode of exit because I can't bear the thought of being stuck forever in long queues to get into the US, then get a taxi to the airport to get out of the US shortly thereafter. Sigh ...

I wonder where they moved it to? Is it just a question of the sound bar being hard up against the wall or moved out as far as the width of the mirror top allows? Can't see where else it'd go but moving it a small distance to completely solve the problem seems almost too good to be true.

They're youngsters.

Hi Ron, Not quite clear what you mean by the ‘sound bar’?

It's not because of being a connecting room. It's a design error in all cabins, some guy being 'clever'. It's because the TVs are in the mirror so you could think of them as acting as a 'connecting door' in that they are actually back to back in the space between the walls of adjoining cabins. The only solution, which seems to be happening when they can fit it in, is to rip out the mirror/TV unit and replace it with an ordinary mirror and a TV mounted on a bracket sticking out from the wall, as you see in all the other ships.

I don’t usually do roll calls, I’m a very self contained cruiser, some might say not very sociable. I don’t join in much except trivia. But I am visible around the ship, always carrying a book and my iPad.

Americans call scones-biscuits, cheese biscuits -crackers, biscuits -cookies, jam -jelly, sweets -candies, chips -French fries, crisps -chips …

I think they are usually 8am to 10pm.

I have been wondering too as she’s definitely still in Lisbon according to MarineTraffic live, and I’m due to board her on 25th in Lisbon, after she’s been to Barcelona and back. Where’s the error? PS the Cloud also appears to be unmoving in Chile so maybe it’s MarineTraffic live that’s wrong?

Yowser! I'm not a morning person but I may have to just grit my teeth and go for a walkoff at the earliest time allowed. Anyone else got thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks all for the info. Looks like a trade off between hating having to get going so early in the morning, and hating standing in queues. What happens if you wait till after the rush? Presumably latest time to disembark is 9.30 or 10am (I know I'd be out of my cabin before then) - would I be at the back of loooong queues or would they have started to go down? I'm not in a mad rush, I have to overnight somewhere on the way home, so I've got all afternoon to get to wherever I choose that somewhere to be.

Interesting input. I am disembarking from a crossing next summer so could you give me a guesstimate - say, for example, if disembarkation started at 8am. I would be walking off with my bag (only ever have carry-on, never travel with checked bags) am a UK citizen but have Global Entry, and would need a taxi to La Guardia. As a lowly Britannia with no status with Cunard, what time could I reasonably expect to be in a taxi? I currently have to choose between two flights - 2pm or 3.38pm - and am wondering if 2pm is too early? Thanks.