tjcox9

3 hours ago, sfvoyage said:

A new zero-proof cocktail program (consisting of 6 mocktails) just rolled out on Seabourn, only on the  Odyssey so far. 

Very good news! 

Mister and Mrs WhateverDam ship you were on. It was an attempt at getting people to interact......

Our AAA does them. Not sure if you need to be a AAA member to get them taken there though. Did a nice job on mine last time.

All HAL needs is more included excursions! There don't seem to be enough to meet the need for the HIA program, at least it seems to me...........

Not the several times this has been a turn around on B2Bs for us. Things can always change though.

8 hours ago, tjcox9 said:

I had an S8 that stopped working with the Source shortly after our last SB cruise. That cruise ended in late February, so at least since then. Others were having issues at that time as well. I upgraded my phone and am fine now.

Oops, sorry mentioning Seabourn and the Source on HAL, but we cruise on both and the Navigator and the Source are basically clones. Forgot which board I was on. 

I had an S8 that stopped working with the Source shortly after our last SB cruise. That cruise ended in late February, so at least since then. Others were having issues at that time as well. I upgraded my phone and am fine now.

Infrequent poster, but occasional reader here. Since Skjolden is the port of the day and we were there recently, I thought I'd post a picture or two of the docking area. I believe this is the most pastoral place we've ever docked. There is a small terminal and directly across the street are farms with sheep in the pastures.........a first for us. 

Cute little place that we were supposed to tour the surrounding mountains from, but tour was cancelled due to illness of driver or guide so we just strolled into town. And you've seen pictures of that. The fjord is absolutely beautiful. I believe we entered it at around 4:30 AM and reached Skjolden at noon.

Yes, we've purchased olive oil many times in Europe when on HAL.

11 minutes ago, ottahand7 said:

The seafood soup was my husband's favorite and the carpaccio was mine.  We ate there weekly on the Grand SA.   We'll give the new menu a try. 

Also our favorites! New menu BLAH to me ....

Thanks for info on clearing cache and data. Worked for me after logging in again......android.

So, do tours on tender ports meet onboard and tender off together or are you on your own to meet ashore? 

56 minutes ago, shark b8 said:

When we did the Serengeti five years ago, we saw this behavior (quite a ways away), and our guide said it was as close to “fighting” as giraffes get. But these two, according to this guide, were just adolescent males being playful with each other.

 

 

MG_6489.MOV 6.65 MB · 1 download  

 

 

 

We saw the same type of playful behavior between to young males in South Africa a few years ago and were also told that it is just kids being kids.

Love the baby elephant videos and the heli videos from the falls. Thanks for taking us along with you on your amazing voyage!

On 3/19/2023 at 7:19 AM, Mary229 said:

I hope that doesn’t become the norm but likely they will make it more difficult not to buy a package.    A manager put it succinctly, “ HIA is paying the mortgage”.  
 

 

Yeah it is because they are not stocking the bars...........

From what I have read about the Rotterdam 150 year anniversary crossing, no shortages have been noted, but then perhaps I've missed something. It all seems to have been rather elaborate (for these times) when we see so many shortages of  liquour, wine and food items on the other ships. I'm sure that if I am mistaken, I will be corrected! 😉

We were booked on this and the last two versions during the C shutdown. Due to so may uncertainties, we decided to cancel and am now more certain than ever that we made the correct decision. I was beginning to feel that is was going to be such a let down after our 27 day, 3 nine day B2Bs on the Diamond Princess right after they started focusing on Japan. It was a wonderful experience and right now, we are feeling rather thankful that we cancelled this current voyage and the crossing. We will just continue to enjoy our memories from the Diamond.

8 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

And as a postscript, I’ve ordered room service on a few early mornings and do appreciate the dependable delivery timing and the fact that it is available at no charge. I’ve found one tasty breakfast option is the egg-white frittata with spinach and asparagus topped with Humboldt goat cheese and chili flakes. Surprisingly good! Unfortunately the hash browns delivered on the side have not been equally tasty (at times have tasted almost like they were fried in rancid oil).

 

Are you really getting Humboldt Fog as stated on the menu? Unusual if you are as it is usually plain goat cheese when I've had them. It's been Humboldt Fog a very few times. 

Third Avenue West????

Been that way the times we've been on Cunard. So many people have said they would never cruise with Cunard due their "class" status. Now, it seems many, not all as far as I know, have somewhat similar cabin/dining structures.

If you are really fortunate, you will arrive in the Lofoten Islands when the cod are hanging on open air racks and you will have the opportunity to enjoy the aroma of drying cod. Once when we were there, we had that opportunity and the other was evidently after drying season and we only saw empty racks without the added fragrance.

It is indeed a spectacular place!

2 hours ago, iramack said:

To Quote the famous and now very deceased Michael Jackson......."Just Beet It!"

 

Meantime I Love the damn things!! Especially the ones in the salad bar at my local Dallas "institution" Dunston's Steak House !!

I've been enjoying the humor, but also must take serious offense at the beet hatred I am detecting on this thread! Having grown up with the last name almost identical to beet, just one letter off and getting referred to as beatnik, perhaps you can understand.

Also, I grew up eons ago on a nearly self sustaining farm in fly over country in the US and one of many staples were beets. we had pickled, boiled and harvard beets. If they are so awful, how the heck did they get a name for a preparation named for such a venerable institution?? 

So glad Seabourn is taking me back to my roots! More beets please............

1 hour ago, Mr Luxury said:

Kimono

Possibly true. We enjoyed 27 days on the Diamond Princess right after they "Japanized" it with noodle bar, Japanese baths, and Sake opening ceremony at the beginning of each of the three legs we did. It was a delight to see the "locals" in their formal night kimonos. 

1 hour ago, Buckwheel said:

We purchased some tea towels with a cartoonish poster image of our state and some reusable Trader Joe's bags. 

 

Did you wrap yours? A wrapped gift is likely not to look very good after traveling that far in my suitcase. However, everything I've read is that in Japan, wrapping a gift is almost as important as the gift itself. I'm thinking of bringing some ribbon so I can at least put a ribbon with a bow around the gifts. 

 

What is your experience with gift wrapping? 

Wow, as I recall we just had a nice small golden box in which we put the small item and some simple ribbon as a tie. I wouldn't do any thing elaborate. Don't remember for sure, but it was something simple that we could carry with us throughout the day in our bags.

When we used a Goodwill guide in Tokyo a few years back, we did present her with a gift from our home state and she gave us a small gift also. It's really the "proper" thing to do in Japan, I believe.

2 hours ago, margbem said:

We bought the most expensive wine package with our onboard credit, were helped by Elena to choose some bottles but weren’t made to choose them all at the beginning (as we had to last year on the Quest) because passengers had complained that it was a silly system (it was!) as they didn’t know what they were going to be eating. Seabourn had changed this so we could have some put to one side if they hadn’t many bottles and then choose others as we went along with Elena keeping track of what we were spending. Pity the message hadn’t got through to other Sommeliers in the Restaurant. One evening we chose a bottle of Cloudy Bay. It was brought to us but the Sommelier wouldn’t put it down on the table. He held tight to it whilst telling us that we had reached the end of our package and asking us whether we were we going to pay for this one. The discussion went on for a few minutes with other passengers listening intently. It was only when we realised that he thought all our chosen bottles had been put away for us that the matter was resolved. A bit embarrassing!

 

 

And the message has not gotten through to the Quest as when we asked about selecting bottle by bottle, we were told that was not possible. So, it still is was the silly system 1/27 to 2/21, quite recently.