Ruminations from the Silver Muse.

[drron29]

Tomorrow we fly out but in typical fashion it will be 2 weeks before we board the Muse. Spending 6 nights in Bangkok,3 nights in Tokyo and 3 nights in Yokohama before we board on October 9th. Will give a few brief highlights before we board and then hopefully a reasonably current report from the ship.

 

Our cruise is 3 segments for 44 days in total. They are Yokohama to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore to Cairns. From there we will fly home the day of arrival.

[mysty]

20 minutes ago, drron29 said:

Tomorrow we fly out but in typical fashion it will be 2 weeks before we board the Muse. Spending 6 nights in Bangkok,3 nights in Tokyo and 3 nights in Yokohama before we board on October 9th. Will give a few brief highlights before we board and then hopefully a reasonably current report from the ship.

 

Our cruise is 3 segments for 44 days in total. They are Yokohama to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore to Cairns. From there we will fly home the day of arrival.

 

Sounds spectacular @drron29 !  Have a glorious adventure! 🥰

[Dimity]

We're on the second segment and will look forward to your reports. Cheers from Sydney

[jpalbny]

What a nice itinerary! Looking forward to following along.

[turtlemichael]

It will be a splendid cruise. I'm also looking forward to your hotel reports.

[Daveywavey70]

Have the most fabulous time both of you xxx

 

[Stumblefoot]

Man, you have spent waaayyyyy more time in Bangkok than one night over the course of your life.  Have fun at all of your favorite haunts!

[drron29]

17 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Man, you have spent waaayyyyy more time in Bangkok than one night over the course of your life.  Have fun at all of your favorite haunts!

Indeed we have. Our last stay at the SGS (Sheraton ) was our 101th. We also have stayed a lot at the Millenium Hilton and Royal Orchid Sheraton. Also 9 weeks in 3 stays at the Mayfair apartments.

I'm thinking they should grant us Thai citizenship.😉

 

 

[Silver Spectre]

I have very fond memories of the Muse, still the best Muse class ship in the fleet. Have a fabulous time.

[drron29]

Disaster strikes on the first day. Left my pink jacket at home. Looks like I will be the only one wearing a dinner jacket at informal dinner nights.

 

Unfortunately the senior moments are getting all too frequent.

[tgh]

If you can get someone to post it down, we  can deliver it to the Conrad on Sunday for you to collect.

 

[Grand Duchess]

2 hours ago, drron29 said:

Disaster strikes on the first day. Left my pink jacket at home. Looks like I will be the only one wearing a dinner jacket at informal dinner nights.

 

Unfortunately the senior moments are getting all too frequent.

Senior moments! I will treasure that expression. Having a few of those lately...😂

[Stumblefoot]

12 hours ago, drron29 said:

Disaster strikes on the first day. Left my pink jacket at home.

Don’t worry, good doctor, as pink jackets are for sale everywhere this summer.  Something about dressing like Ken is all the rage now. So, head on over to Pinky Tailor Shop at 888/40 Mahatun Plaza Arcade Phloen Chit Rd, Lumphini, Pathum Wan, in Bangkok and pick up a new one.

[drron29]

We struck the Trifecta on our first flight from Brisbane to Sydney. Late arrival of the plane, a passenger who had checked in couldn't be found so bag had to be removed which then led to the Captain running out of hours so waited for a new pilot. (0 minutes late.

Good flight from there. The couple across the aisle were talking about cruising and they looked vaguely familiar so when I heard one say Silverseas - yes they put an S on it - I asked if they had done a Silversea cruise. They hadn't but were off to catch up with the Nova for their first Silversea cruise.

 

Then met up with our granddaughters and daughter in law for an early dinner at the airport hotel.

Our Grandson was at Cadet camp.

Whilst our son was in Berlin having a run with Eliud Kipchoge. It of course was the Berlin marathon and he was chuffed having done a PB for a marathon.

[drron29]

 

 

And I went with a Balinese duck salad with bean shoots then the beef brisket. When it came to the time for desert I then ordered the pork belly Bao much to the server’s amusement.

 

 

 

 

The food was excellent apart from the brisket which was tough and little taste.

 

Then settled down to some plane spotting.

 

And an upside down 747 courtesy of the random realignment of photos by the wizards behind the iPhone.

[Silver Spectre]

And there was me thinking that the random upsidedowness of photos was totally the fault of the CC photo loader.

[TLCOhio]

On 9/22/2023 at 6:35 PM, drron29 said:

Tomorrow we fly out but in typical fashion it will be 2 weeks before we board the Muse. Spending 6 nights in Bangkok, 3 nights in Tokyo and 3 nights in Yokohama before we board on October 9th. Will give a few brief highlights before we board and then hopefully a reasonably current report from the ship.   Our cruise is 3 segments for 44 days in total. They are Yokohama to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore to Cairns. From there we will fly home the day of arrival.

 

YES, agree strongly that you deserve honorary Thai citizenship!!  Lots of time in that fascinating city.  Kind people there in Bangkok, but hot and busy.  

 

For your three nights in Tokyo, what's on your agenda/plan there?  In early 2024 after a Silver Moon cruise from Mumbai to Singapore, we have three days in Japan.  First time there.  What are your top loves and tips for Tokyo and nearby?  Suggestions for that large, busy city with its great history and culture?

 

Also, will be following along for what you do in Singapore.  Have three days there, first time.  

 

Keep up the great visuals, wonderful details, etc.  Will be looking forward to your interesting reports.  Also, will be wanting your impressions with Hong Kong since China has imposed more controls, etc., there.  Loved in 2018 visiting all over Vietnam.  Wonderful country and people there, too.

 

Safe travels with or without a pink coat!!  Love the Muse from our 2019 Alaska sailing on this classy ship.

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[drron29]

Terry Tokyo is a huge city with many different areas. We have visited over 50 times and still find places we haven’t seen before. 
There are many good tourist sites on Japan One that Ilike is The Japan Guide. Japan airlines also give a lot of tourist information. 
Just google Japan tourism guides and you’ll have enough reading for months.

[irvington]

Just heading home from the Muse and I had a blast. You will have a great time.

[drron29]

We have no doubt we will really enjoy the Muse. We are in trouble if we don't as we have 2 more back to back cruises on her.

March 2024 Bali to Yokohama followed by a cruise around Japan for cherry blossom time and then in 2025 Singapore to Dubai and then through the suez canal to Athens.

 

But onwards we go. Our fligt to Singapore was delayed by 5 hours. However the reason was on the Friday the plane coming from London had a serios problem and was 21 hours late. The crew that we had for the flight to Singapore had flown from London on the Wednesday and on Saturday night were to crew the plane that was to leave on Friday. So they flew on Sunday night instead arriving in to Sydney at 5.30am on the Monday. They are supposed to have a 30 hour break before flying back to Singapore but returned to the airport after 9 hours at their hotel to fly us to Singapore. A truly remarkable thing for them to do and I certainly felt grateful.

We were on a 789-9. But fortunately in first class.So much easier to get a bit of sleep'

 

 

 

However leaving late meant arriving into Singapore a little after 1am. Only about 8 left the flight so through Immigration very quickly but then a wait for the bags. 11 bags came out, we were the only ones travelling in first and our bag was the 11th.

Then thChangi Skytrain was down for Maintenance from 1.30am so a long walk via a very dark Jewel with only 1 bank of lifts still working then renovations at the Crowne Plaza meant only to bed at 3am. But we did sleep until 8.30 am.

Now there was 1 bit of good news. My aim was to get down to 81Kg by the time we left for this trip. Two days before leaving hit 80.8KG. So a loss of 25.5 Kg since March 1st 2022 or 56lbs - 4 stone.

 

On the other hand 4 days before we left I finally got to see a good neurologist and have been diagnosed as having a limb girdle muscular dystrophy. Got to get all my travel in reasonably quickly.

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

48 minutes ago, drron29 said:

So a loss of 25.5 Kg since March 1st 2022 or 56lbs - 4 stone.

 

On the other hand 4 days before we left I finally got to see a good neurologist and have been diagnosed as having a limb girdle muscular dystrophy.

Congratulations on the weight loss and boo to the rare disorder diagnosis.  Hopefully it will progress very slowly, over many years, and cause minimal disability

[TLCOhio]

10 hours ago, drron29 said:

Terry Tokyo is a huge city with many different areas. We have visited over 50 times and still find places we haven’t seen before.   There are many good tourist sites on Japan One that Ilike is The Japan Guide. Japan airlines also give a lot of tourist information.  Just google Japan tourism guides and you’ll have enough reading for months.

 

Appreciate this helpful follow-up from Dr. Ron.  Good tips and suggestions. Will dig deeper per your comments.  Good luck with your upcoming adventures.  Will be following along.   

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[drron29]

We managed to have a good sleep at the Crowne Plaza at Changi. We no longer ly through to anywhere if it means a change of plane.

So the next day was fling from Singapore to Bangkok this time on Singapore Airways.

 

I do like the Singapore lounge which usually is crowded but very quiet this time.

 

 

We fly this route at least a couple of times a year but still surprised to be greeted at the door by welcome back drron before I even produced my boarding pass,

 

Only a 2 hour flight this time on a new 787-10. I'm not particularly fond of the 787.

Met at the Airport for our limousine transfer to the fairly new Kimpton. The first time her. A very nice room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RetiredandTravel]

On 9/26/2023 at 10:08 AM, TLCOhio said:

 

Appreciate this helpful follow-up from Dr. Ron.  Good tips and suggestions. Will dig deeper per your comments.  Good luck with your upcoming adventures.  Will be following along.   

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Tokyo is a very cool modern and cultured city with great restaurants and shopping.  The Japanese people are fantastic.   Having said that IMO its just ok from a tourist historical basis.  If you have never been to Japan I'd try to take a day trip with a private guide to Kyoto.  Kyoto was the capital of Japan for a very long time, there are many great historical sites to see.  Kyoto was relatively unscathed by WW2 while Tokyo took an enormous amount of damage.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/07/asia/japan-tokyo-fire-raids-operation-meetinghouse-intl-hnk/index.html

 

enjoy your trip

 

 

[RetiredandTravel]

40 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

A day trip from Tokyo to Kyoto? You’re kidding right?

 

No