Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

J...glad you enjoyed the fireworks! Thanks for the Clarkson article! This one was a little disjointed but I did enjoy it! :)

Miss S. Glad your lunch went deliciously! Your London plans sound awesome!

Sunday greetings from the west coast of Canada, where the sun is just peeking over the horizon. Temperatures are expected to reach the high 20s this week so we'll be sticking to the shady bits.

All sorts of activity in the strait recently. We enjoy catching glimpses of the cruise ships going up to and back from 'Alaska'. We live on the bit of the mainland that is to starboard the first evening that ships leave Vancouver, or to the port side on their last day back to Vancouver through the inside passage. But, the additional noise of search and rescue helicopters when someone falls off the boat is a bit disruptive. We can't blame it all on passengers - the last rescue was for a couple of crew! Add in the activity from the occasional fire fighting helicopters and water bombers, and there's always something to watch!

I looked at the Virgin Cruises information. I don't think we'll be trying it out any time soon. I don't think we're their target demographic. The first item to catch my eye was '2700 passengers', which is approximately 7 times more than my ideal. The other was the quote from Richard Branson about the tables being strong enough to dance on. Just ... no.

Glad to hear Lois had a good time on the Whisper, to counteract Jeff's experience.

I have to admit that we were part of a (admittedly very small) sales incentive group for our very first cruise with Silver Sea. The bulk of the cruise was a very large alumni group from a prestigious US east coast university. I wonder if our group of a dozen 'sales! people', and their partners, caused consternation among the other 'paying' passengers. We did have a good time. We didn't try to sell any products to the other passengers, but our group certainly did lower the median age. But we had many pleasant encounters with others on the cruise, including at dinner and on excursions, and it hooked us on that style of cruising.

The manufacturing company that paid for our cruise had an sales incentive trip every year, and you had to earn your passage. From a worldwide professional sales group, only the top 10 sales people (and their 'plus 1'), plus a couple of factory people, would go on these all-expense-paid trips. I was quite often in that top 10. Over the years my husband and I got to go to the Bahamas, Mexico (multiple times), Hawaii (multiple times), and on that cruise. The Cloud cruise won as 'the best ever' SPIF trip. (Shortly after the Cloud cruise the sponsoring company changed ownership, and they cancelled the SPIF trips. :( )

We had always avoided cruising as my husbands hates crowds and lineups, so when we experienced the Cloud, he turned to me and said "We're screwed", meaning "We now know this exists, and we're going to have to do this again, because I'm having a really good time." We don't cruise as much as others here, but spend our hard earned Canadian dollars and Aeroplan points to do one every year or so.

Now, I need to run around the house and open all the windows, and then once the sun is moving around the house, strategically close the shades to keep the house at a reasonable temperature until we can again air it out in the evening. In the past we only had a couple of days a year that we had to do this, so air conditioning has never been justified, as we always have a nice ocean breeze to cool things down. But I guess with climate change our winters are going to be colder and our summers hotter, so we might have to break down and do some form of unnatural 'air conditioning' thing. Give me an ocean breeze any day and I'll be happy.

Hope everyone else has an enjoyable day.

Greetings Coolers!

MLeh...your introduction to cruising must have been very enjoyable! Nice way to test the waters. :) We have also been watching news from the West coast. Hopefully things will improve!

Today's funny.....

Have a great day all!

Good morning, first day back to work...……:eek:

Hope everyone has a good day:)

Good Morning Coolers.

Jeff, hope Helga is ready willing and able for the trip home from Seaside for you today - hopefully the heat won't get to her!

I've been trying to search your Singapore posts and the vagaries of CC's search facility have made it quite a challenging task :D I've had to go 'back to front' and I'm currently reading your posts from January 2017.

At that time there had been changes at the IC that you weren't entirely happy with.

I see you mentioned Blacklane. I've used them successfully in the U.S.A and Canada so would be happy to try them in Singapore too. Do you use them for your aiport transfers?

I've noted Maxwell Center for Hainan Chicken. I've been to Singapore previously but didn't use the hawker stalls, would like to find good char sui pork and anything else that isn't too spicy. Szechuan for example often has a touch too much 'kick' for me.

There are some fabulous pictures on the posts from your Jan 17 trip of the Botanic Gardens so that is a must do for us.

Also interested in the Tiong Bahru Fried Kway Toe (toe??!). I read that the owner was 97. I'm not familiar with Kway Toe, what is in it? Seems to be two types of noodles and some type of fish?

Hi There,

Try to take each ... so hope I don’t miss any.

The changes at the IC were very minor and it was perfectly ignorable. Things like instead of an afternoon tea buffet they pre-plated.

If I were you, I’d ignore the whole idea of going to a specific hawker center just to try a specific meal, with the execpetion of Tiong Bahru. Just go to a hawker center of your choice and simply queue up at a stall with a long queue. That way tou will be guaranteed a positive experience. Hawker stalls generally don’t survive if the food isn’t good.

Blacklane is fine for Singapore we now use them for most trips and it isn’t that much more than a taxi, but if you don’t want to faff to be honest it isn’t really necessary as the taxis are very well organised and very cheap. If you want a sort of once in a lifetime splurge then JetQuay offer a really unique service that we sometimes use. A buggy meets you at the plane door with a name card and you are taken through the airport by buggy to the private CIP terminal whilst their staff collect your baggage for you and bring it to the terminal. You pass through private immigration control with no queues and your luggage is placed into the back of a limo. The limo rings ahead to the hotel and they are waiting for your arrival. In our case the manager emerges to welcome you. The net effect from our point of view is that we do not touch our luggage from our home in the UK until it arrives in the suite in Singapore .... except to wheel it from kerbside at T5 to First checkin. Interontinental sometimes comped it for us.

If you decide to opt for a Heritage Suite then there are 5 of them with gardens. Our chosen one is always 358, but if that is a probelm them 360 which is next door. Never take 364. If you are firm with your dates and are happy to prepay then google intercontinental hotels friend and family and you will find a link to an unpublished rate you are perfectly allowed to use. We have special arrangements but the F&F are likely to be the best rates for most.

The stall at Maxwell for Hainan Chicken is hyped because Bourdain said ti was the best in the world. Americans go there because of Bourdain. But in my view it was hype. It is no better or worst than anywhere. In fact the room service memu at the IC has my wife’s favourite chicken rice which she soemtimes has late.

Leslie Tay is in my view the best guide to Singapore food. The food directory is really good. You can find out more about specific dishes, where the best are, or if you are going toa specific center what the standout stalls are.

http://ieatishootipost.sg/

If you can get hold of one of these it is very good.

http://www.sph.com.sg/media_releases/1884

Makansutra is also very useful .. they also operate Gluttons Bay ..

http://www.makansutra.com/

If you want something lovely a few yards from the IC I mentioned my friend Maggi’s place.

Ask anything more.

.....ps ......

You must try and make char siu at home if you love it.

This is mine.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks Jeff, this is so helpful. I'm now reading the posts from your June 2015 trip.

JetQuay sounds like something I'd be interested in. I'll see if it's possible on this trip. I used a similar service in Dubai or was it Doha once and it was excellent, and worth the money.

I'll be back shortly with more questions.

No probs.

JetQuay

http://www.jetquay.com.sg/quayside.php

http://www.jetquay.com.sg/full_description_of_services.php#quayside

Lovely funny M ........

I am a synanymist.

:)

Good one J! :) I look forward to some of your synanymisms! Not to be confused with shenanigisms.

Quayside looks to be just what I'd be interested in Jeff. I've just finished reading your posts from your 2015 trip, highly amusing read when you were trying to check with hotel staff if it was ok to order a takeaway delivery to your suite!

That char sui has my mouth watering.

I've just seen today's funny Mysty, ha ha good one!

Afternoon coolers,

Here’s hoping for a more sedate week but considering the schools have just broken up I doubt it.

Great funny M,

Jeff, loving the char Sui. I could eat char Sui all day long. I’m feeling inspired to go and cook some.

Lois, glad your home safe and sound.

The first night in Singapore is always a tradition and is always satay at satay street ...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

, highly amusing read when you were trying to check with hotel staff if it was ok to order a takeaway delivery to your suite!

On our last visit to Glyndebourne, we contemplated whether it was acceptable, socially or otherwise, to place a Deliveroo order.

Hotter than a hot seat in Hell here today, with no sign of let up this week. Very sensible, Miss S , to plan a visit in September and not in the foreseeable future. You might try Sheekeys for plaice?

We are off to the Northern Ireland at the weekend, where the forecast is for 19C. Oh bliss , oh rapture.

Rp

Glad the funny is entertaining!

J...the satay looks amazing! No wonder it is a tradition. :)

Rp...enjoy your Northern Ireland jaunt and the break from the heat!

Quayside looks to be just what I'd be interested in Jeff. I've just finished reading your posts from your 2015 trip, highly amusing read when you were trying to check with hotel staff if it was ok to order a takeaway delivery to your suite!

That char sui has my mouth watering.

I forgot about that episode .....

You will find more amusement with JetQuay. On two trips we have climbed into the buggy only to be followed by other passengers. They sort of run towards it, nudging others out of the way. They have no idea where the buggy is going but presumably they feel that if it is good enough for us it is good enough for them. They sort of sit and wait and will not budge when asked to get out. The buggy driver takes your luggage tabs, asks the colour of your luggage and radios through your luggage details to a colleague to fetch your luggage whilst you are taken to the CIP terminal.

On one trip an elderly lady climbed into the buggy and refused to get out. We explained that the buggy was going to the CIP terminal and she said “That’s fine - I’ll go there!”.

It took a very determined JetQuay person to persaude her to get out and take the travellator to luggage reclaim. It’s great fun whizzing through the airport in the buggy. :)

Greetings Coolers!

Today's funny...

Have a great day all!

Hi Coolers......it’s hot and muggy but raining.....hopefully will be enough to water my pots as a hosepipe ban is imminent!

Hope Helga transported Jeffers and his lady back home safe.....

RP...hope all is well with you...tried Sheekeys a few years ago and was very disappointed.....they don’t seem to fillet the fish and l found a huge bone so had to leave it...when the md asked what was wrong l said l didn’t like the bone to which he arrogantly replied “Madam, fish have bones” ...it was supposed to be a haddock fillet!

Been up to the farm shop this morning....delicious old fashioned pork chops on offer along with fresh chicken breasts so today it’s chicken curry...

Happy Day 😊

Good Afternoon all ...

Thanks S. Yes Helga performed well. We left just after 1am and made it back just over 2 hours. But it was so hot I didn’t bother with bed. I suspect Big Bettha will be switched on in the lounge and Little Bertha in the bedroom ie our two noisy throbbing air-cons ... they are so good but so noisy.

M, the second mouse also gets fresh meat ....... :D

Fwiw ... for the Brits .... tickets for the Cruise Show at the NEC are now available. They are ‘free’ but you pay an ‘admin’ charge.

Could be good for a day out.

The exhibitors list seems to be in a state of flux at the moment, I presume more will be added to the list later as it is nowhere near as comprehensive as last years?

SS, RSSC, and others are shown as attending.

Sent from the magic box!

Hi Coolers!

Six weeks from tomorrow, we fly out of Newark to Heathrow to start our Wind cruise a few days later. Planning furiously. Chris has about a week's worth of activity penciled in for each port stop. My job is to get us to these sites without getting lost. I think we will be fine.

It was a tiring weekend, as we were both on call. Even though it wasn't hard work, it was still enough to disrupt our sleep. So we are zombies. I can't complain though...

My poor brother and SIL, and the two girls, tried to fly home from NY to Denmark on Sunday night. They ended up sitting on the runway at JFK for several hours, and they arrived at Madrid having already missed their connection. So instead of arriving at CPH on a direct flight MAD-CPH in the afternoon, they got to CPH at 10PM, after being rerouted through London. An extra stop. Then they had a 4h train ride to Aarhus - where they arrived home at 2:30 AM Tuesday morning. And then my poor brother had to catch a 5AM train to Bonn that day for a meeting! Good thing he's younger than I am!

***

We did cook a fair amount of yummy food these past few days. Tonight I was craving bacon-wrapped scallops, so here they are accompanied with rice and green beans. Love the crunchy sea salt on those beans...

They had a horseradish aioli (actually, the base was mayo blended with sour cream) for an accompaniment.

Over the weekend we had grilled chicken with a mushroom and kamut salad. Kamut is an ancient grain, and one that requires some pre-planning, so I don't get to use it very often. It cooks like barley but needs about an hour. Less if you pre-soak it. Some sauteed shallots, and lemon with olive oil, finish the salad. It was substantial, and flavorful.

By the time Sunday night rolled around we were too tired to cook a full meal. So we snacked on fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden. Over bruschetta. Simple but so tasty.

Time to invent something to eat for lunch tomorrow. Good night all!

Good Morning All ....

Lovely plates as usual JP.

Rotten reading on a sunny day but our Whisper review.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=626958

Greetings Coolers!

JP...your meals look amazing! YUM!

J.....your review will bring tears to the eyes of many! :( Sad decline of a once great line.

Today's funny.....

Have a great day all!