jpalbny

Absolutely agree, sad to say. It was delicious the first time I had it. I anticipated having it again on my subsequent cruise but it was such a disappointment! You just can't make a real ragu with ground duck meat! So I found a recipe and I make it at home now and then. Les posts now and then, but Stumble doesn't post or read here any more. I'll tell him that you were asking for him though.

Have a great trip Silver! Looking forward to your reports.

Fantastic, Ron! Great shot. One could say it's perfect!

After years of only cruising Silver Wind and Silver Cloud, we too felt a little disoriented making the big move up to Silver Spirit. Can only imagine the quantum leap that you're experiencing! Looking forward to hearing about it in due time. Enjoy!

The abbreviations and acronyms in the medical profession drive me nuts. The kids these days make complicated descriptions out of everything, but then turn them into garbled acronyms. A simple concept like heart failure, which can be systolic or diastolic, has morphed into "Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction" or with "Reduced Ejection Fraction" which they write HF-pEF or HF-rEF. But they say "heff-peff" or "heff-reff" which sounds so silly. And since they can only speak in this weird new language, they can't explain things to patients very well. OK rant over. Just get off my lawn!

Ron, not much smoke from that hot rock! Did you ask for a cold rock so that you didn't overcook the filet?

I've almost been there. In fact from a technical point of view, maybe I have? We've stood at the corner of Argentina and Brazil, where we could see Paraguay, waving to us from the opposite shore. We've been on a boat ride along the Paraná River, and we definitely crossed the midpoint, but we didn't touch the opposite shore. So we were in Paraguayan waters. And the most objective evidence? Naturally, I picked up a cell phone signal and got the message, 'Welcome to Paraguay! Your T-mobile plan gives you..." So, have I been there? I didn't put a star on my map. But, awfully close! Great journalism. Hook the audience with a stunner in the first line, and they can't stop reading until the question is resolved!

Now that you mention it... Is this a new move by RCL to cut down on food costs?

Wow! Thanks @Reef Knot, for sharing. We'll be on board in less than 8 weeks, hopefully the waves aren't as bad.

I just emailed them, after I'd made the reservation. It was hertz@hertz.is I think. Double check on their Iceland website.

I hear you...

Beautiful horses! Beaux chevaux! Wunderschöne Pferde! Thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to following along! Did you grab any extra anticuchos de anaconda for the trip? Sounds like a nice lunch special for the grill.

Devizes is known for its large horses too? I'd only heard of large ears! "There once was a man from Devizes, Whose ears were of two different sizes! The one which was small, Was of no use at all, But the other won several prizes!"

He's probably out food shopping!

Fletcher, taking one for the team!

Much more risk of cloudy skies. It would be spectacular in that location but I don't trust the weather! That eclipse reaches the Med too I believe. Maybe better luck there? Egypt should have a much better chance of clear skies, and the duration of totality is supposed to be over 6 minutes (!) for the 2027 eclipse. Thus my desire to see that one.

I have not done this itinerary but I'm on a similar Ponant voyage at about the same time. We'll be in Tromso on October 17th and I'm expecting the lights to be there to greet us! I expect cloudiness to be more of an impediment, than the lack of the Aurora, per se. For clothing - prepare to dress warmer than you think you need to. For our Ponant voyage (Reyjavik to Tromso) I'm bringing warm clothing and also our Silversea Parkas (both layers). We did a trip to Northern Finland in November 2022, and while the lower-intensity Aurora looked like a gray film, the brighter ones were definitely colorful and we could see the greens with our own eyes. It was spectacular! But it's true that the less bright the Aurora, the more gray it appears.

A few phone pics of today's eclipse. Here in Albany we got to about 97% totality. It was.dark enough to .ake the outdoor lighting come on, and it got noticeably colder during the maximum. Samsung Galaxy S22, about 20x zoom, eclipse glasses over the lens. Anyone up to visit Egypt in 2027? It should be spectacular!

Yes. The airport isn't that far - between 5 and 10 miles? There is at least one bus that runs from the airport to the city center. Looking at my trip report from April 2016, we took the 200E bus and connected to the metro line, then it was a short walk to our hotel (Four Seasons Gresham Palace). Depending on where you decide to stay, one bus vs the other may work better. We used public transport all over Budapest for four days. It got us everywhere we needed to go. If you buy the "Budapest Card" online you can pick up your card at the airport, and that will serve as your public transportation ticket. So you can just get on the bus from there without buying any more tickets. If you want some ideas for what you can do in Budapest, this is my trip report: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2254214-uniworld-river-beatrice-41016-budapest-to-passau/

Yes. The charge is not applied until you have actually dined in said restaurant.

Ron, we have some friends on board who told us about this, and sent video of the chopper coming in. Hope it's smooth sailing from here on.

We are signed up for two Gastronomy cruises (Dec '24 and April '25). We are excited about both! We've done two expeditions. In our experience they do a really nice job with these. Corsica was a good mix of cities and wild places with very few people. Indonesia was excellent. Nothing really felt touristy. I posted full trip logs here. We really like expedition cruising. We have not sailed in the Caribbean since about 2000, so I can't answer your specific questions about what Ponant does in that area.

Oh fun! Their first question - "How many cruises have you taken in the past 5 years?" Gee, fewer than usual, you think? Wasn't there some issue during that time frame that limited our travel? Knuckleheads! My options were the No fee, 250 credit after 1000 spending, 3% back on Silversea / 1% on everything else. "1% back is pretty low. I already get more rewards elsewhere and they aren't limited to use on Silversea. Honestly the Silversea product has slipped so much that I'd not be interested in tying myself to a credit card that is only redeemable on that cruise line." And option 2 was $499 annual fee, 500 credit after 1000 spend, 4% on Silversea, 2% non-cruise travel, 1% everything else. $200 OBC every Silversea cruise. $100 GE or PreCheck credit, Priority Pass. "This is AMEX lite. Way fewer benefits, almost as expensive. I already get more from AMEX so completely uninterested." Oh, and then they wanted my opinion about a Silversea "Gift Card" that you could buy. Why? They are definitely barking up the wrong tree here. And I'm in a more cranky mood than usual today so the timing was good (or bad).

I hear that 1816 was a good year.