Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[Daveywavey70]

2 hours ago, Fletcher said:

Some several postings ago I showed you a picture of a venison wellington I had cooked as a sort of dry-run for our main Christmas Day dish.  Well, yesterday we bought two lovely loins of red deer and put them in our freezer.  However, we may not be eating one of them on Christmas Day after all as we have rashly booked a three-night Christmas Package at a luxe hotel in Gwynedd, North Wales.  The devolved government in Wales are a stern bunch and have today banned the sale of alcohol and have effectively closed down all pubs, restaurants and hotels, a situation to be reviewed on 17 December.  However, our hotel is confident about being open for the Christmas Holiday even if they will be unable to serve us alcohol outside our room.  In that eventuality I plan to have a hip flask filled with Tignanello with a tube to the mouth.

 

https://www.palehall.co.uk

 

PS : We are thinking seriously about booking a Silver Wind trip in April 2022 to the Amazon.  Fab itinerary, just our sort of thing.

 

Its a lovely Hotel Fletcher, you'll have a great time. With regard to the ban, the Senedd are trying to get it overturned. They have managed to get a debate scheduled for Tuesday but he might still block them having a vote on it. It is absurd that he can do these things without even informing the Members (They all find out on FB). I Don't know if you caught it but he has been barred from every pub in Conwy. I Wrote to him to inform him he was barred from my hotel too. I Also Wrote to him on Tuesday regarding his scientific evidence that he has so far failed to produce. Needles to say, the response was meaningless.

I Hope you have a great Christmas here in beautiful North Wales. 

[TLCOhio]

4 hours ago, Fletcher said:

We are thinking seriously about booking a Silver Wind trip in April 2022 to the Amazon.  Fab itinerary, just our sort of thing.

 

Sounds wonderful for Fletcher to be mentioning and seriously considering that Silver Wind April 2022 "adventure" in, around, up and down, the amazing Amazon River.  We have fun, fond memories from our sailing on the Silver Cloud there, exploring around Manaus, etc., in 2015.  Glad that brimary and Stumblefoot made mention about these Amazon options.  There is no river in the world as big, powerful and special as the Amazon. 

 

Below is a map for that April 2022 sailing, plus a couple of our best memory visuals from doing this sailing in 2015.  Good luck with this future planning and travel.  Be sure to report back after your sailing as to what you loved most.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Amazon River-Caribbean 2015 adventure live/blog starting in Barbados. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, San Juan, etc.).  Now at 67,679 views:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

 

Here are two of the best, most fun memories from our 2015 Amazon River adventure on the Silver Cloud.  First is with our private guide in a smaller boat to explore some of the waters that feed into the Amazon.  Super enjoyed lots of wildlife, unique nature growths, etc.  Second was north of Manaus in the rainforest as we hiked, Indiana-Jones-style, through these unique areas.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these visuals larger/better!)

 

 

Lots of new, unique stops along the Amazon for this April 2022 Silver Wind sailing.:

[lincslady]

Fletcher - where there is a will there is a way.  I am sure that you will find a way to have some wine with your lovely meal - maybe taking in a cup or mug  or two from your room, with the 'room service' wine in?  I remember having beer served in a tea mug in India, where it turned out that it was not allowed; can't remember why.   I would certainly trust Pale Hall to have a strategy!

 

Lola

[QueSeraSera]

North Wales - thanks to the posts above I did a little on-line exploring.  It looks like a beautiful destination, added to our bucket list

[zqtchas]

[Noggins]

16 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Agree, that itinerary caught my eye as well.  I like that it sails to and from Manaus with so many interim stops.  Hopefully SS will offer it again in 2023.

If I may offer a 'top tip' for anyone considering an Amazon cruise. We were lucky enough to cruise from Manaus on the Cloud a few years back (and passed through the Breves Narrows - an extraordinary experience). But the highlight of the whole trip was a week on a small boat (MY Toucano Riverboat) that took us up river from Manaus. It gave a totally different insight to the region and really got us up close to the real river and Amazon rain forest experience. A little more hard-core than the Cloud (!) but Magical.

[Fletcher]

17 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

 

Its a lovely Hotel Fletcher, you'll have a great time. With regard to the ban, the Senedd are trying to get it overturned.

 

Thanks for all that David.  I just checked that infections in N Wales and roughly 40-50 per 100,000 and 250 per 100,000 in Cardiff and a scary 360 per 100,000 in Swansea.  So like England and Scotland it's a case of different stories in rural and urban settings but with one rule for everyone.  

 

We know N Wales fairly well.  For our American friends here, it's famous for a series of monumental castles built by Edward I to suppress the Welsh heathens.  There are dramatic stretches of coastline and marvellous mountain roads through the Snowdonia National Park.  

[Fletcher]

Thanks Terry, Stumblefoot, Noggins and others for your thoughts etc about the Amazon trip.  Part of its appeal for me is that the Silversea itinerary visits all three of the Guiananas.   We had a good, close-up taste of Amazonia itself just prior to our Silver Galapagos cruise two years ago when we stayed at Sacha Lodge in Ecuador . . . 

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Fletcher

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe day all!

[spinnaker2]

[spinnaker2]

[zqtchas]

[Lois R]

And this year, Snoopy even knows how to get into the spirit in a healthy way.........

[zqtchas]

[zqtchas]

On 12/1/2020 at 11:11 AM, Tothesunset said:

Very good. 

 

Point of order: something can't be new and improved. It's either new or improved. 

Would " newly improved" be OK?

[Lois R]

27 minutes ago, zqtchas said:

Would " newly improved" be OK?

Sounds like it would be ok to me👍

[FlyingScotSailors]

On 12/1/2020 at 11:11 AM, Tothesunset said:

Point of order: something can't be new and improved. It's either new or improved. 

 

Unfortunately, an existing product is often revised or updated, and therefore qualifies as "new",  and is inferior to the previous version.  When something is both revised and made better, it is worth being advertised as "new and improved".

[SteveH2508]

4 hours ago, zqtchas said:

Would " newly improved" be OK?

New and improved is a red flag to me. I remember as a kid when 'New and Improved' Grape Nuts came out - they were not improved.

[Lois R]

39 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

New and improved is a red flag to me. I remember as a kid when 'New and Improved' Grape Nuts came out - they were not improved.

Hi Steve, funny how certain things bring up childhood memories...I remember trying 

Grape Nuts and for some reason I thought I was going to love them----after 2 spoons,

I could not eat them.......I just hated them.😧

[Tothesunset]

44 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

New and improved is a red flag to me. I remember as a kid when 'New and Improved' Grape Nuts came out - they were not improved.

Nor new. 

[SteveH2508]

8 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Hi Steve, funny how certain things bring up childhood memories...I remember trying 

Grape Nuts and for some reason I thought I was going to love them----after 2 spoons,

I could not eat them.......I just hated them.😧

I did quite like them - though the thing that sticks in my mind (and my teeth) was the lumps of Grape Nuts stuck in my molars that I was sucking out all through morning school. They were still nicer than the mystery meat, lumpy mash and cowpat greens we got for school dinners.

[zqtchas]

[QueSeraSera]

1 hour ago, Tothesunset said:

Nor new. 

My gosh, I finally get it now TTS and you're right.  I probably shouldn't admit things like this, but keeps me humble...

[mysty]

My bit of joy for today....our small town cancelled the Santa Claus parade this year because of the nasty.  They came up with an alternative plan.  It was a Santa and Mrs. Claus drive by.  They divided the town into 3 routes on 3 different nights and Santa and Mrs Claus travelled on the back of a flat bed trailer surrounded by police cars with flashing lights and fire trucks with flashing lights.  Tonight was our route.  Myster and I bundled up and headed out to wait with young families and other folks from our seniors' apartment building.  What the procession lacked in finesse it made up for with heart!  The kids were so excited and the oldsters were as well!

[spinnaker2]