sakaara

Beaujolais, Mudhen,

You are both very welcome!

Hope you have a great time in Ireland.

:D Kinderdjik.

Beautiful!

Ireland to bask in Sunshine this Bank Holiday weekend, with Temperatures to reach 19 degrees Celsius.

Met Eireann Ireland’s Forecaster predicts the weekend to be mainly dry.

A nice welcome for all arriving on the Muse.

Those sound wonderful!

Any recommendations for Cork/Cobh? I think we're just hoofing it around town so a traditional pub would be a great and wonderful thing (sorry to go off topic!)

Hi Mudhen,

For Traditional Irish music’ Sin e’

on 8 Coburg Street. Possibly evening music only but great atmosphere.

Also , Oliver Plunkett pub on 116 Oliver Plunkett St.

A nice place for food beside The Oliver Plunkett is Market Lane - they use produce from the English Market.

My personal favourite place to go in Cork is Kinsale. A small picturesque harbour village. Fishy Fishy is the place to go eat and pubs to visit are The Bulman, The Spaniard and an easy scenic walk on Compass Hill approximately 1/2 hour loop walk overlooking Kinsale Town and Harbour.

Hope this helps planning your trip.

Apologies for hijacking Thread Spinnaker2 :halo:

Those sound wonderful!

Any recommendations for Cork/Cobh? I think we're just hoofing it around town so a traditional pub would be a great and wonderful thing (sorry to go off topic!)

Hi Mudhen,

Don’t miss The English Market.

I have a friend from Cork, I will ask her recommendations, and get back to you.

Thought I would post a recommendation for 2 traditional Irish pubs in Galway for anyone without tours planned that would enjoy The Craic while wandering Galway city.

Tig Coili has great pints and Fantastic atmosphere. It has no Tv’s so great for conversation. Best pub for Trad Music but it starts at 6pm, and I’m not sure if Muse will have sailed by then.

The other is Tigh Neachtain a very old pub which my OH describes as a cross between a library and an old curiosity shop.

Thank you so much Spinnaker2 for another wonderful onboard report.

Travelling vicariously with you on the Muse.

Shame the weather hasn’t been as favourable as hoped, but delighted to see you are enjoying yourselves.

If you get a chance I would really appreciate a sample menu of lunch in Atlantide. Is it similar to what lunch was in The Restaurant? We are visiting Silver Spirit for lunch in Dublin when she arrives in June.

Also if it’s not too much trouble a photo of the New Indochine menu.

I’m not sure if it has changed since Les37b very kindly provided sample menu from when he was onboard.

We get on for a dinner and tour when you get off, and are really excited to see Muse.

We have no Cruise booked for this year so are extremely lucky to be fortunate to board our favourite Spirit and also Muse without leaving Home.

Your photos from your trips could be in National Geographic!

Enjoy the journey and hope the Atlantic

Yields better weather over the coming days.

Kindest Regards

Sakaara:)

- and I've been told it is a sold out voyage to Dublin. Imagining they are taking on a load of Irish in New York.....:rolleyes:

Dusababy

?????????

On our first ever Silversea cruise aboard Spirit in 2011, our bath was never cleaned between voyages.

I alway use a fresh white face cloth with Shower gel to examine cleanliness of bath prior to bathing. The white cloth was filthy. I was disgusted.

I alerted our Butler who blamed the stewardess. It was our Butler's job to oversee her work so ultimately it came down to him. He was useless our entire cruise and we didn't take any further action because we didn't want to get our stewardess into trouble.

We never use the jets in a bath while travelling as you can never trust when or how well they have been disinfected, same goes for those Pedi chairs.

SarniaLo, I will try and see if I can post photo from my mobile phone online.

Keith Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated.

No, we didn't see the Stone's house. Too much to see, too little time.

Will just have to return!

Yes, we drooled all the way past David Niven's house to the Port. I believe Keith Richards has stayed at one of the large villas next to the Royal Riviera.

What is the name of your little breakfast place? We had torrential rain on the day we walked to Beaulieu so we didn't stay long.

I have heard that The African Queen in Beaulieu was good, by American guests in our bar. It was quite funny actually because it was about 1 am and we were the only 2 drinking in the bar when we were joined by another couple.

The Differences between Europeans and Americans… They Arrive in and immediately start by asking "What ya do for fun around here?" well I had just been invited around the back of the bar for a lesson in how to make my own cocktail before they came in and we were having great fun with the bar staff.

It turned out that this guy knew people we know as he spent a lot of time in Dublin. Crazy really.

Jeff you are incorrigible! Wish I could have seen that!

Have you been back since? The poor woman giving you her condolences on your poor uncle! Unforgettable, fantastic dinner party stories.

Regards

SarniaLo, I believe the EP with 60 underneath stands for Europcar or so our Taxi said?

Thanks

M

Thanks Hlitner, and SarniaLo for your kind words.

As they say in France C'est La Vie!. Wow Hank trouble seems to have followed you this week! But you do let it all go when you have the fine food, wine and scenery.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Regards

M

Jeff, I know you enjoy your Rose.

We had a bottle of Chateau Miraval Pink Floyd for lunch at the Royal Riviera and it was fantastic. Have you heard of a company called Millesima who export wines from France ? They seem to be the main people to buy it from in Ireland.

I don't know much about them.

I was surprised it was so good as I would have been dubious about so called 'celebrity' wine.

We loved dining in Villefranche, amazing atmosphere. We ate in L'Oursin Bleu which was lovely. The hotel restaurant was outstanding.

Really miss the tomatoes, at home they taste of water.

Are you going to Singapore soon?

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for response. We had a fabulous time, and loved the hotel.

We did walk from RR to Beaulieu Sur Mer and funnily enough there is a little road way outside the hotel that has a sign saying You have entered Cap Ferrat, crazy really because one minute you are in Beaulieu and you cross a tiny street and you are in Cap!

I agree we should have cancelled immediately but Alain was so reassuring, and I didn't think we would have such a disaster. I only panicked after the new time of 12.30 and then we were told driver was practically outside.

I will use Andre next time as his Taxis are like limos anyway.

I read that Sloop was one of Michael Winner's favourites and asked the concierge but he told me to avoid it. Please let me know why you loved it?

We took a lovely scenic walk to Paloma Beach, which was recommended and we loved it. We actually spoke about you and your Watercooler during our lunch as I was determined to post piccies of our superb Crudities basket and Red Snapper but I realised we hadn't snapped shots early enough and it didn't look so tempting after being half demolished!

Anyway I'm off topic and will retreat to watercooler .

We decided to use Dream Tours after reading glowing reports by trustworthy cruise critic members here on the Silversea board.

We booked Dream tours for an airport transfer from Nice Airport to Our hotel the Royal Riviera in Cap Ferrat as their return quote was €110.00 and our hotel was €170.00 each way.

On arrival at Nice on 29th May everything went smoothly. Our driver Frederic was pleasant and he offered to take us on the scenic route. No problems except the mini van was just ok. A Fiat that had a very strong cigarette odour.

For the return on Monday 02 June I confirmed a 12.00pm pick up and also enquired if this was sufficient time for a 3pm flight. I was assured it was.

On Monday morning we were contacted to advise that our driver was delayed in traffic in Cannes and would pick us up at 12.30pm. We were assured not to worry we had plenty of time.

At 12.35 I was worried as there was still no sign of a car. I called Alain who assured me all was ok, he would ring me straight back and advise where our driver was. Alain called me and said our Lady driver was at Villa Ephrussi just beside our hotel.

By 12.45 still no driver. I called Alain again, I was very upset and annoyed by now. He gave me her number but not her name.i couldn't reach her as she wasn't answering her phone. Alain then called to say she was at reception but we had already left! I told him I was standing in reception and no one had come in! Lies, Lie, and more Lies!

We asked the concierge to call us a taxi. Our transfer arrived at 13.10 and concierge cancelled our taxi.

The Dream Tours car was better this time, an Estate black Mercedes.

We asked our driver if he could drive as quick as possible and explained our previous car hadn't arrived. He apparently had NO English! shortly after leaving our hotel we arrived at a dead end!

I didn't know if he was trying to delay us further or if he honestly hadn't a clue where he was going…It was a scary situation.

We demanded to be brought straight back to the hotel, and I rang the concierge at the same time to reinstate our taxi. This was so embarrassing as i had previously cancelled our transfer with the same concierge. I felt like a cheapskate and a total idiot.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because both the concierge and our subsequent taxi told us they noted the licence plate of our driver, (I photographed his licence plate too), it had EP 60 on the side which is a EuropCar rental. An Illegal driver! Rental cars have numbers 76,01,60 as a way of identifying the rental company.

Apparently there is a big problem in France, whereby a lot of non licenced people rent corporate cars and travel down from Paris and Lyon for work but have no Insurance to drive people.

The driver is insured but not the passengers in the car. This was widespread during the taxi strike at the most recent Cannes Film Festival our driver explained to us. He also advised me to contact Alain in Dream Tours and find out who would have insured us in the event of an accident… Would Dream Tours ?

Alain was really useless as far as i am concerned. I would never use them again and I highly recommend others not to either.

Alain never replied to my question about insurance or where our first driver disappeared to. With regard to the driver who got lost, his explanation was laughable… Dream Tours use 2 other companies the trust when they are busy

and our driver was new but he is also a body guard, with a licence. He must think we are idiots!

We luckily didn't miss our flight as thankfully it was delayed until 4.20pm. I was never so thrilled to see a flight delayed!

I wanted to advise prospective cruise passengers to be aware of the dangers of booking through a company such as Dream Tours that uses second and third party companies with unvetted cars and unlicensed drivers, and finding out the hard way that a missed flight would be the least of your worries, having no insurance is a very serious position to unknowingly be in should there be an accident.

Should anyone be in need of a reliable, safe , luxurious transfer from Nice or a driver around the Cotes D'Azur , our Driver was Andre From Andre Taxi who owns the main company for taxis around St Jean - Cap- Ferrat.

He is a charming man who also drove us to VilleFranche for dinner one evening

and who the Hotel Royal Riviera uses as their taxi company. Incidentally he charged us €70.00, an excellent deal.

Andre - +33(0) 6 84 78 16 84

+ 33(0) 6 99 37 60 60

andretaxicapferrat@gmail.com

Hi Rockedge,

You could try Andre TAXI based in Cap Ferrat. They are recommended by the hotel I stayed in last week Royal Riviera.

We paid €70 from our hotel to Nice airport, in a luxury Mercedes.

andretaxicapferrat@gmail.com

+33 (0) 6 84 78 16 84

+ 33 (0) 6 99 37 60 60

What ever you decide, ensure you use a reputable company as there is a scam in France at the moment whereby people are pretending to be taxis/limo drivers but have no licence. You will not be insured in the event of an accident!

This was a problem during the Cannes Film festival, a person rents a corporate car and drives from Paris etc, and pretends to be a legitimate taxi.

I found this out when booking Dream Tours (recommended by TripAdvisor) and here on Cruisecritic, and have given my account of events on TripAdvisor.

Avoid Dream Tours at all cost!!!

Hi Cruisinlivin,

I recommend Andre TAXI, who are the main Taxi company in St Jean-cap-Ferrat.

We were rescued by them last weekend when our transfer to Nice booked through Dream Tours ( highly regarded on Cruisecritic and TripAdvisor) never showed and we almost missed our flight. This was not the worst though. The subsequent car sent by them was from an unlicensed driver of a hire car with no insurance for passengers! We demanded they take us back to our hotel because driver got lost on way to airport! Be careful!

My full review is on Trip Advisor under Dream Tours, and on the Silversea forum.

Andre our driver owns his company and is recommended by our Hotel Royal Riviera in Cap Ferrat.

To give you an idea of cost for us from Cap Ferrat to Nice Airport was €70 in a luxury Mercedes.

andretaxicapferrat@gmail.com

Andre Taxi +33 (0) 6 84 78 16 84

+ 33 (0) 6 99 37 60 60

hope this helps.

I have also posted this review under 'Limo from Nice Airport to Eze'

We decided to use Dream Tours after reading glowing reports by trustworthy cruise critic members here on the Silversea board.

We booked Dream tours for an airport transfer from Nice Airport to Our hotel the Royal Riviera in Cap Ferrat as their return quote was €110.00 and our hotel was €170.00 each way.

On arrival at Nice on 29th May everything went smoothly. Our driver Frederic was pleasant and he offered to take us on the scenic route. No problems except the mini van was just ok. A Fiat that had a very strong cigarette odour.

For the return on Monday 02 June I confirmed a 12.00pm pick up and also enquired if this was sufficient time for a 3pm flight. I was assured it was.

On Monday morning we were contacted to advise that our driver was delayed in traffic in Cannes and would pick us up at 12.30pm. We were assured not to worry we had plant of time.

At 12.35 I was worried as there was still no sign of a car. I called Alain who assured me all was ok, he would ring me straight back and advise where our driver was. Alain called me and said our Lady driver was at Villa Ephrussi just beside our hotel.

By 12.45 still no driver. I called Alain again, I was very upset and annoyed by now. He gave me her number but not her name.i couldn't reach her as she wasn't answering her phone. Alain then called to say she was at reception but we had already left! I told him I was standing in reception and no one had come in! Lies, Lie, and more Lies!

We asked the concierge to call us a taxi. Our transfer arrived at 13.10 and concierge cancelled our taxi.

The Dream Tours car was better this time, an Estate black Mercedes.

We asked our driver if he could drive as quick as possible and explained our previous car hadn't arrived. He apparently had NO English! shortly after leaving our hotel we arrived at a dead end!

I didn't know if he was trying to delay us further or if he honestly hadn't a clue where he was going…It was a scary situation.

We demanded to be brought straight back to the hotel, and I rang the concierge at the same time to reinstate our taxi. This was so embarrassing as i had previously cancelled our transfer with the same concierge. I felt like a cheapskate and a total idiot.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because both the concierge and our subsequent taxi told us they noted the licence plate of our driver, (I photographed his licence plate too), it had EP 60 on the side which is a EuropCar rental. An Illegal driver! Rental cars have numbers 76,01,60 as a way of identifying the rental company.

Apparently there is a big problem in France, whereby a lot of non licenced people rent corporate cars and travel down from Paris and Lyon for work but have no Insurance to drive people.

The driver is insured but not the passengers in the car. This was widespread during the taxi strike at the most recent Cannes Film Festival our driver explained to us. He also advised me to contact Alain in Dream Tours and find out who would have insured us in the event of an accident… Would Dream Tours ?

Alain was really useless as far as i am concerned. I would never use them again and I highly recommend others not to either.

Alain never replied to my question about insurance or where our first driver disappeared to. With regard to the driver who got lost, his explanation was laughable… Dream Tours use 2 other companies the trust when they are busy

and our driver was new but he is also a body guard, with a licence. He must think we are idiots!

We luckily didn't miss our flight as thankfully it was delayed until 4.20pm. I was never so thrilled to see a flight delayed!

I wanted to advise prospective cruise passengers to be aware of the dangers of booking through a company such as Dream Tours that uses second and third party companies with unvetted cars and unlicensed drivers, and finding out the hard way that a missed flight would be the least of your worries, having no insurance is a very serious position to unknowingly be in should there be an accident.

I am still awaiting my promised refund!

Should anyone be in need of a reliable, safe , luxurious transfer from Nice or a driver around the Cotes D'Azur , our Driver was Andre From Andre Taxi who owns the main company for taxis around St Jean - Cap- Ferrat.

He is a charming man who also drove us to VilleFranche for dinner one evening

and who the Hotel Royal Riviera uses as their taxi company. Incidentally he charged us €70.00, an excellent deal.

Andre - +33(0) 6 84 78 16 84

+ 33(0) 6 99 37 60 60

andretaxicapferrat@gmail.com

We decided to use Dream Tours after reading glowing reports by trustworthy cruise critic members here on the Silversea board.

We booked Dream tours for an airport transfer from Nice Airport to Our hotel the Royal Riviera in Cap Ferrat as their return quote was €110.00 and our hotel was €170.00 each way.

On arrival at Nice on 29th May everything went smoothly. Our driver Frederic was pleasant and he offered to take us on the scenic route. No problems except the mini van was just ok. A Fiat that had a very strong cigarette odour.

For the return on Monday 02 June I confirmed a 12.00pm pick up and also enquired if this was sufficient time for a 3pm flight. I was assured it was.

On Monday morning we were contacted to advise that our driver was delayed in traffic in Cannes and would pick us up at 12.30pm. We were assured not to worry we had plant of time.

At 12.35 I was worried as there was still no sign of a car. I called Alain who assured me all was ok, he would ring me straight back and advise where our driver was. Alain called me and said our Lady driver was at Villa Ephrussi just beside our hotel.

By 12.45 still no driver. I called Alain again, I was very upset and annoyed by now. He gave me her number but not her name.i couldn't reach her as she wasn't answering her phone. Alain then called to say she was at reception but we had already left! I told him I was standing in reception and no one had come in! Lies, Lie, and more Lies!

We asked the concierge to call us a taxi. Our transfer arrived at 13.10 and concierge cancelled our taxi.

The Dream Tours car was better this time, an Estate black Mercedes.

We asked our driver if he could drive as quick as possible and explained our previous car hadn't arrived. He apparently had NO English! shortly after leaving our hotel we arrived at a dead end!

I didn't know if he was trying to delay us further or if he honestly hadn't a clue where he was going…It was a scary situation.

We demanded to be brought straight back to the hotel, and I rang the concierge at the same time to reinstate our taxi. This was so embarrassing as i had previously cancelled our transfer with the same concierge. I felt like a cheapskate and a total idiot.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because both the concierge and our subsequent taxi told us they noted the licence plate of our driver, (I photographed his licence plate too), it had EP 60 on the side which is a EuropCar rental. An Illegal driver! Rental cars have numbers 76,01,60 as a way of identifying the rental company.

Apparently there is a big problem in France, whereby a lot of non licenced people rent corporate cars and travel down from Paris and Lyon for work but have no Insurance to drive people.

The driver is insured but not the passengers in the car. This was widespread during the taxi strike at the most recent Cannes Film Festival our driver explained to us. He also advised me to contact Alain in Dream Tours and find out who would have insured us in the event of an accident… Would Dream Tours ?

Alain was really useless as far as i am concerned. I would never use them again and I highly recommend others not to either.

Alain never replied to my question about insurance or where our first driver disappeared to. With regard to the driver who got lost, his explanation was laughable… Dream Tours use 2 other companies the trust when they are busy

and our driver was new but he is also a body guard, with a licence. He must think we are idiots!

We luckily didn't miss our flight as thankfully it was delayed until 4.20pm. I was never so thrilled to see a flight delayed!

I wanted to advise prospective cruise passengers to be aware of the dangers of booking through a company such as Dream Tours that uses second and third party companies with unvetted cars and unlicensed drivers, and finding out the hard way that a missed flight would be the least of your worries, having no insurance is a very serious position to unknowingly be in should there be an accident.

Should anyone be in need of a reliable, safe , luxurious transfer from Nice or a driver around the Cotes D'Azur , our Driver was Andre From Andre Taxi who owns the main company for taxis around St Jean - Cap- Ferrat.

He is a charming man who also drove us to VilleFranche for dinner one evening

and who the Hotel Royal Riviera uses as their taxi company. Incidentally he charged us €70.00, an excellent deal.

Andre - +33(0) 6 84 78 16 84

+ 33(0) 6 99 37 60 60

andretaxicapferrat@gmail.com

Apologies for any mistakes or errors in typing but i lost my review twice and had luckily saved it after losing my first draft!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sakaara

Hi Jeff, don't think we could wait until December to re-visit Vienna.

Considering a weekend a deux in September.

Will definitely Visit The SwissHouse then and also Zum Martin Sepp. Thanks for all the tips on Christmas Trees and Punch - Gluhwein. Look forward to tasting lots. We picked up a bottle of Stroh Rum at the airport, have yet to try it. I was thinking of coffee and hot chocolate.

Envious of you going to Vienna, you must keep us posted while you are there.

That's lovely.

Don't tempt me! Two weeks from today - at this moment - we will be contemplating lunch. I may ressurect and post my Nutcam in order to show the sorry state of Intercontinental Club Lounge nut bowls during cocktail hour ... as you may recall a crusade I have is to bring the return of the rare but beloved cashew nut to the bowl. I do have the odd cashew safari but they are unavailable in the lounge. These have been extinct for a year or so.

My campaign to bring the nuts and other nibbles to a narrow gap pourer has been successful or should I say more fruitfall and nutfall and crispfull. No longer can those nasty and unhygenic and selfish people take straight from the bowl and straight intoto their mouths. arghhhhh.

That is a battle I have won!

Re your September trip. We're also there from 15th and 19th September and if you happen to be around we'd love to bump into you. It's our birthdays ... I am 36 hours older than her ... and we will be drinking and eating with gusto and are determined to do absolutely nothing important other than that. I will no longer have a free IC mini-bar to invite you to in the suite as my Royal Ambassador IC membership will have just expired, IC Singapore have agreed RA benefits after my RA membership expires but we don't really need it at Vienna - as there is so many places for a beer or so as well as happy hours at the IC Club lounge.

It's lovely to hear you love Vienna so much. Don't get caught as we do. At least three trips per year for the last XR%$£ years ...

...................

Well done with the 'Nut War', it's a pet hate of mine too , ughhh yuk.

Double Trouble in Vienna in September, sounds very tempting!

Will let you know if our dates coincide.

Hi Jeff, don't think we could wait until December to re-visit Vienna.

Considering a weekend a deux in September.

Will definitely Visit The SwissHouse then and also Zum Martin Sepp. Thanks for all the tips on Christmas Trees and Punch - Gluhwein. Look forward to tasting lots. We picked up a bottle of Stroh Rum at the airport, have yet to try it. I was thinking of coffee and hot chocolate.

Envious of you going to Vienna, you must keep us posted while you are there.

Hi Jeff, your Opera story is hilarious, what an experience!

We are thinking of returning to Vienna for a few days before Christmas, any tips on the Markets?

We Fly to Florida for Summer but haven't decided what to do yet. We have never been to Key West so perhaps a few days there and Naples also.

How about you, any trips planned ?