High Life on the High Seas: SDII crossing Tenerife to Miami 11/03/2007

Greetings from the Rural Victoria, a most charming off-the-beaten-track hotel in Orotava, Tenerife.... lovely old restored building, very comfortable and with great views of the sea from the third floor terrace where my room is located. I arrived before noon yesterday after a mostly uneventful trip.. the one bit of excitement was being met at my flight in Madrid by a wheelchair (necessitated by my equine misadventure a few months ago) and young woman who was determined that I make the flight on to Tenerife in spite of the short connection time. What followed was an incredibly hair-raising 25 minute ride across the airport to the other end, up and down elevators, through food halls, stopping only for immigration and passing through security... I had my roll-aboard and bag on my lap so couldn´t see too well and that was probably a good thing. And miraculously we did make it in time for me to board with about five minutes left over!

As soon as I settled in to my room I thought I´d have a short rest before lunch... then next thing I knew it was 7 PM. Tried getting out of bed for dinner but it was too much effort so had a long and restful sleep until 11 AM this morning! I wandered around the town, it is very attractive with lots of character, bought a few odds and ends then came back to await the arrival of ctbjr. I´m now in the lobby writing on the communial computer, wanted to let everyone know that as far as I´m concerned the blog has begun! When ctb shows up I´ll edge him over this way...

Ran into Alan and Maggie on the plane, they had opted for the later connection to Tenerife from Madrid which I think was a very good idea... I could never have made it without my wizard wheelchair agent!

alita... who is very happy to be at Rural Victoria and will be even happier to be on SDII tomorrow;)

Greetings, all. I too have arrived at the Rural Victoria and also mostly uneventfully. I flew from Orlando to Atlanta to Barcelona on Delta and then to Tenerife on Spanair. Arrived in Barcelona on time, had a comfortable 3 hour layover (as opposed to the 50 minute layover at Gatwick that BA was suggesting), and then was 15 minutes early arriving at Tenerife North.

Had my luggage and was in a cab in 15 minutes and was having lunch with alita 30 minutes later.

There are at least 5 of us who will be on the SD2 Crossing staying at this hotel. It is as alita describes and very charming as well. Kudos to alita for discovering this gem of a place.

Tonight we're convening for drinks and dinner at 7:30 and then I expect it will be early to bed so that we're ready for the short trip to the port tomorrow afternoon.

Stay tuned. More High Life to come.

FT should be there soon, last I heard she was at gatwick. Please let those of us who are landlocked know the link to your crossing blog or to DS's site.

Glad to hear that alita and ctbjr have arrived ... and that FT is en route!

Please pass on my best regards to Alan and Maggie! I didn't know they were part of this happy band of travelers as well!

FT has arrived safe and sound. DJ, I guess that I hadn't mentioned that Allen and Maggie will be with us. They're at the Sheraton so I haven't seen them yet but alita flew with them Wednesday from Chicago to Madrid. They and alita were on the infamous SD2 "fire" cruise last year. Will be good to catch up with them. As I recall, it was 2 years ago that they were with you, Mr. DJ and us on the Palm Beach-St. Thomas trip. I wonder if Allen brought a magic CD with him this time??

6 of us who will be on the Crossing had a delicious dinner at the hotel tonight. The rabbit was especially tasty. Of course, the wine (selected by alita) was pretty good too!

Our party of five moved from the bar into the dining room for dinner around 9 PM. I had a SD shirt on and a single lady sitting at an adjacent table asked if we were going to be her shipmates for the next 11 days. We promptly introduced ourselves to CC lurker Barbara, invited her to join our table and our group increased from 5 to 6.

We've all planned various levels of activity and wake up call times for tomorrow. Suffice it to say that we'll all be on board SD2 tomorrow afternoon and will be posting updates as our very busy (!) schedules permit.

For those of you interested in following our progress across the Atlantic, here's the link to the website that will be updated daily:

http://www.freewebs.com/seadream02

our little party is getting ready to leave Hotel Victoria and make our way to Sea Dream II - at least most of us are. CTBJR and another cruiser, Ted, were last seen drinking muy grande cervezas at the bar up the street. this should be an active board as we cross.

FT

Glad to hear that you arrived safely FT!

Sounds like a good time was had by all in TEN. I do hope ctbjr and Ted find their way to SD2:p

You are right (as usual) ctbjr. It was indeed two years ago that we saw Allan and Maggie on SD. Allan was even kind enough to send me a copy of that CD. Sometimes when I am driving back from taking DD to school I play it and sing along:eek:

Thanks for the link to the crossing site. Will check it several times a day!

Bon voyage!

Fair winds and a following sea...

Picture this: the Captain's table set for nine with ctb in the place of honor and his eight scraggly followers grouped around him all talking a mile a minute. Excitement builds and quotable quotes fill the air but they come so fast and furiously we scribes can't possibly keep up and they disappear only to be replaced by even more outrageous slings and arrows. ctb and I vow to place notepads and pencils on the table tomorrow night so that we can share with our readers the extraordinary ethos of this group; I would not be surprised to learn that SD has never hosted such an amazing lot of garrulous gabsters in the history of their company. We learn from Sean, the charming suave maitre d', that ctb will be the jefe of this table for the entire crossing, and he--ctb--graciously invites us to join him each night, which of course all of us are longing to do. I believe that many in the dining room are green with envy... and so they should be!;)

more to follow.....

alita

Greeting SeaDreamers!

Looks and sounds like it embarkation and the first night's dinner were quite a successful.

I spotted a few familiar faces in the photos posted on the SD blog! You all look wonderfully relaxed ... of course the champagne glasses are in hand:p

So does ctb now have an official rank, other than jefe? I can only imagine the fun you will all have at dinner!

Off to start making Thanksgiving dinner ... we will be on HAL the week of Thanksgiving so we are having our traditional dinner and celebrating DD's 15th birthday while my parents are in town.

Wishing I was there ...

Well, that was quite a post by alita. Alliteration and adjectives galore!! I do have to say that her description of last night's dinner was quite accurate except that she neglected to mention the fact that it was a delicious meal. If I recall correctly she had lamb and I had a superb piece of beef tenderloin. The Grand Marnier souffle wasn't so bad, either! Also, a fellow passenger at an adjacent table was celebrating his birthday and a few of us decided it might be a good idea to wander over to his table and sing Happy Birthday to him (Happy Birthday, Paul!).

After dinner, some of us visited the Top of the Yacht Bar where I was very pleased to discover that there was plenty of grappa on board. We had a bit of a sing a long with Roi on the guitar. Then it was time to visit the piano bar where a lively crew was enjoying their first night at sea. Finally, it was off to bed after a very enjoyable first day.

The morning dawned bright (at least so I was told) and it appears that somebody advanced the clock in my stateroom by several hours. That's my story, at least. As I told friends who asked when I got up, it was "before noon". That happens to be a statement that alita can't accurately make today, by the way.

Luckily I was up in time for lunch at which the normal first day dish of mussels was served. Delicious as usual. Later it was time for team trivia. There were 3 teams of passengers and a team of crew members. This will be a continuing event throughout the cruise. Our team got 13 of 20 questions correct. The leading team got 16 correct. I am embarrassed to admit that I steered our team wrong in answering that Cocoa Beach is north of Cape Canaveral. Living in Orlando I really should have known that it is south rather than north. It must have been the grappa from last night that caused me to miss that one.

The next big event is the Captain's welcome reception tonight and then it's dinner, etc. No shore excursions tomorrow and tonight we set our clocks back an hour (ah, the joys of travelling west). Hopefully I'll be able to answer a bit more specifically when asked tomorrow what time I woke up!

The group of passengers on board for this trip seems to be coming together quickly. Lots of very nice people from the US, Europe and I'm sure elsewhere also. Of the 66 passengers, 49 are prior SeaDream passengers.

Stay tuned. We'll be back with more reports as time goes by. With any luck, we'll get FT and some of the other CC posters and lurkers on board to chime in as well.

DJ,

FT never ceases to amaze me . She let her picture be taken and it is on the web site. She must have been in the bubbly. :)

IT look like they are having fun. I am anxious to see tomorrow's episode of the SD site.

To all the SDers have a great time. All of us land locked lurkers are envious!

DJ,

 

FT never ceases to amaze me . She let her picture be taken and it is on the web site. She must have been in the bubbly. :)

 

IT look like they are having fun. I am anxious to see tomorrow's episode of the SD site.

 

To all the SDers have a great time. All of us land locked lurkers are envious!

Zqvol ... I chuckled this morning when I spied FT on the web site. DH said he was impressed that he actually knew people featured in the photos:p

Ctb ... sounds like y'all are having a grand time!

We look forward to further installments ... as well as new photos!

DJ,

 

FT never ceases to amaze me. She let her picture be taken and it is on the web site.

ZQVOL: I had nothing to do with this.

She must have been in the bubbly. :)

No comment.

Monday Morning; 7:45 a.m.

Spitting rain right now but looks like a lovely day later. The Chief Officer last night explained the ship’s efforts at avoiding (“hiding from”) the developing low at dinner. As always the crew is doing a wonderful job at making us comfortable. The lovely Thai ladies even offered flowers to the sea for a calm voyage. Speaking of the spa – the “prepare for tanning” session should not be missed.

Made it to the gym this morning – had to after Jes’ front loading the menu last night with a number of Sea Dream special dishes – such as steak tartare, escargot, lobster, and the infamous “chocolate fondant” –

Hope to join the walk later – The Captain, James and several other officers are leading the morning walks around the deck – yesterday was a mile, today is two miles and the rumor is that some are training for a marathon.

First Saturday without hearing “Rocky Top” this file – didn’t get the football scores until this morning – but such a small price to pay for this have on the seas. The wonderful Jeralyn has restocked the mini fridge, even remembering the tomato juice, and its so nice to have someone pick up after me --- last time I took the “please make up my room” sign home – hung it on the bedroom door – but no one ever tidies up for me.

As Alita notes, the room upgrade fairy struck – I’m on the 4th floor – only a few doors down from the spa . . . .I hear a treatment calling.

and ZQVOL - I thought the camera flash didn't work -I about hit the floor last night when I saw the pictures.

Thanks CTBJR nothing like damning with a no comment.

Frequent Traveler

Thanks for the update FT ...

Don't know if you saw the First Day at Sea photos but I think I spied you pool side in a long shot ... and I know for sure I saw you at dinner, although not at ctb's "jefe" table:D

Ctb ... I see that you had lunch at the office on the First Sea Day:p I also see that someone is making good use of "my" Bali bed, although they look like they were chilly or avoiding the sun.

Looks like a smooth first day at sea ... hopefully this trend will continue!

Looks like you are off to a great start. What a beautiful shot of calm seas. Wish we were there. Congrats FT on the upgrade fairy. Never had it happen to me yet. Maybe in December. Keep up the good work and keep sharing with us landlocked SD junkies.

Jim.

FT

You missed many renditions of Rocky Top this past weekend, and hopefully next too. You are becoming quiet the camera hog, there are at least 8 or 10 that have managed to find, you - not hiding well are you- LOL.

How is deck 4?

....and the action is still in full swing. At the top of the yacht the fellows are enjoying smelly cigars while the piano bar jumps with much singing and some rather exotic dancing by our own LeeAnn. I'm calling it a night so that I can get my 14 hours of sleep and still make it to lunch tomorrow...

Our special table continues to sparkle with wit and witticisms, and the head scribe has been recording them for future use though I doubt that they will be shared on this board, more likely they'll be tucked away for some nefarious purpose in the future. The dining room was far from full tonight which isn't surprising as the seas have been moderately heavy producing lots of 'motion on the ocean'. But we understand that tomorrow will bring sunshine and calm seas...

I have had amazing amounts of sleep thus far, never realised how sleep-deprived I've been in the past few months until I arrived in Tenerife. The crossing is a great tonic... no one twisting your arm to be anywhere and no announcements at all in the staterooms makes for all the quiet time one could ever wish for.

I've met #534 and SW18 and we look forward to having them join us for dinner one of these nights... there are still a couple of unidentified ccers lurking around here, if you're reading this please do introduce yourselves... you won't be able to miss us at the large table in the center of the dining room!

Must mention the special attention and care I receive from Jorge (aka George) who was on my Rio crossing last year... it's great fun having him with us, brings back memories of that (in)famous cruise... people are still talking about it one year later!

ciao......alita

As always, I'm behind alita. We had a wonderful day and evening today. I awoke to FT's post about the spitting rain and didn't even bother to open the window shades, knowing it that she was on top of things.

Once I got up I went up to the Fitness Center and did my 2 miles on the treadmill and then wandered up to the TOTY Bar knowing that I'd be able to watch James, the Captain, the Housekeeper, Nina the Concierge, Paul the Birthday Boy and regular crossing passenger and others do the 2 mile walk around the deck. Tomorrow is 3 miles. Good luck to them.

After the walk, we had the crew fire drill so it was unfortunately impossible to get a drink for a few minutes. Most of us survived though.

Then it was time for lunch and most of us enjoyed it on Deck 6 in the "Office". Threre was a variety of selections on offer. I heare no complaints about anything.

This afternoon, it was team trivia and the pasengers soundly trounced the crew 15-8! Then it was dinner. I had the steak which was delicous. Also had the tomato and basil soup and the hearts of palm salad. The dessert choices were all so good that I passed. After dinner we were all surprised to find the top of the yacht bar closed due to inclement weather. We made do by bringing our own drinks up there and then then Tibor was kind enought to bring them to us. After that it was entertainment in the casino and the Piano Bar. As best I can recall all your CC scribes are now in bed.

All for now. More tomorrow.

Thanks for the updates alita and ctb!

Alita ... I think the thing that I would like best about the crossing is the ability to catch up on sleep as well:D From the sound of things, I bet there will be quite a few candidates from your table for Liar's Club!

Ctb... glad to hear that all is well at the "Office." DH was quick to point out in the last posted photos from Sunday that you were in starboard not port office, lol.

FT ... it's rainy and very windy here. Hope that the weather is better there!

Hope to see photos from Day 2 ... we have to count the FT sighting:eek:

The Day 2 photos are now up. I'm sure that some of you out there will spot some familiar faces.

Today (Tuesday) dawned (at least so I'm told) a bit grey but it has now cleared up and we've had a beautiful day. The deck walking group did 3 miles today and are planning for 4 tomorrow. I'll stick to the treadmill, thank you very much.

Enjoyed the lecture this morning. Fascinating talk about Iran. Next topic is Turkey.

Lunch on deck 6 in the Office was excellent and our group sampled just about all of the available choices - except alita who was having breakfast while the rest of us enjoyed lunch.

This afternoon was the Tuesday installment of Team Trivia. Alita and I and 2 new friends were a team. The subject was Name that Musical. Thanks to alita and others on the team (not me) we did manage to beat the crew. We did not beat the other 2 passenger teams.

Tonight is the Club Member's party. With so many repeaters, it's in the Main Salon rather than the Piano Bar/Library.

DJ, your DH is indeed correct that I've been occupying the starboard side Office this trip. It's been a bit less sunny and wet over there so that's how I ended up there so far.

At dinner 9 or 10 of us continue to occupy our same table and the conversation has remained interesting and very entertaining.

I'm sure that alita and FT will be chiming in later with their view of today's events. We have a few other lurkers/infrequent posters on board and are hoping to get them to join in as well.

6:15 p.m. Sea Dream II time, somewhere in the Atlantic

Had a bit of rain yesterday afternoon and again this morning, but looks like we are through the front and on to smooth sailing. Last night the TOYC was closed due to weather but it looks like the grand reopening will occur right on time tonight.

So far the animal spotting has been whales (those of inside gearing up for dinner missed this treat but James assured us there were two "breaches"), dolphins, flying fish, and two birds today.

So much to do, so little time. Yesterday involved a trip to a lovely boutique. Nina arranged an early opening so that I could replace my smashed sunglasses before a two mile walk around Deck 6 - did you know 16 laps is a mile? Torture on the open seas - today's circuit was 3 miles. The group that finishes will have done a marathon or something like that by the time we reach Miami

Then there was all the heavy lifting involved with multiple Perriers with extra lime poolside. So strenous that turning more than 40 pages in a novel was just too much work. Had to end the day with a reflexology session at the spa

We hear that there is more caviar at tonight's cocktail hour - our 64 passengers went through the offering very quickly a couple of nights ago -though I understand that we have the self-proclaimed champion caviar eater on this crossing. We lost count after his 6th refill but since he graciously shared his bounty, all was right in our small world.

Poolside offerings at noon today were mini hamburgers and mini hot dogs along with Bloody Marys. Monday was tapas and sangria.

Movies and concerts abound . . . I hear the lectures are well attended -haven't made it to one yet . . . so much to do, so little time.

Frequent Traveler

Hi FT:

Enjoying your posts. I too am always amazed how I never seem to get everything done and on a ship with no rock climbing wall at that! Have fun.

J & L.

Glad to see that Day 2 at sea photos are up:D

Saw some very familiar faces who look like they are having a relaxing time!

Have you been singing alita?

Sounds like trivia is great fun! I am sure you'll put a dent in those books FT!

Sunny but windy here ...hoping that your winds aren't as strong:eek: