drron29

That night it was our trivia team dinner in Indochine so a lively night of discussion. Only took one photo of the Tom yum soup as it was excellent. We awoke the next morning docked in Hakodate next to a Museum ship. Mt. Hakodate. Two of the rarely seen deckhands doing a great job on the hand rails - sanding then varnishing. Only got to see them as our excursion was moved from an 8.30 start to a 1.30 start.

I had a long afternoon walk on Deck 11. Sunset was quite early so I watched it progress.

Some views from the ship. There were some mosaics on the wharf.

A different Lawson's. This is in the north of Honshu between Hirosaki and Aomori and the mountain is Iwate. The locals dub it Fujisan. 5 days after that picture we were in Kawaguchiko for 3 days and drove past the famous Lawsons several times. But that was before it hit the news so no pictures taken.

The Japanese farewells are done by the locals. Silversea does not pay for them. As I gave said before our best Japanese farewell was at Kanazawa but we were on a Hebridean cruise ship.

A few shots from the bus back to the ship. Aomori is known for it's apples. The Fuji apple was first grown by the Agriculture research Station at Fujisaki, Aomori in the 1930s but wasn't commercially grown until 1962, now the largest growers are China and the USA. So this are one of the extensive apple orchards in Aomori. Back on the ship for lunch which we had at the Grill. Mrsdrron had her Caesar salad and I had a burger. Much improved from the one on the first sectot probably because of many more Americans on board for this sectot around Japan. J am aware some did complain about the terrible burgers.

It’s probably a meeting of the SS experts committee who meet onboard a ship every two to three months with the CEO. Our TA is a member of that committee and she is away at present.

I think either the Restaurant manager or the HD was leaving in Yokohama when we got off on April 17th but not completely sure.

Very interesting @dawntrdr. Why would they have needed a bargain purchase of the Whisper?

I think a ll the ships have a limited range of OTC stuff. It certainly was that way on the old Silver Explorer. But again very expensive. A shampoo I use was $US15 on the Muse last month. When in Bangkok I bought 2 50% larger bottles for just under $US6.

Hey Le Bernadin was the best before 11 Madison Park even existed. The year 11Madison opened Eric Ripert was aclaimed the best chef in New York. Our son worked in NYC for 7 years and between 2002 and 2018 we went to Le Bernadin nearly 20 times. Not bad for an Australian.

Well apart from the Ray SS has 7 other classic fleet ships. Their total crew is 2792. The Ray will have 544 crew so if they have 80% experienced crew that will be 435 of them. That is 16% of the total. Which means if an even distribution that would be 48 from the Whisper. However I believe it will be less as we talked to quite a few of the Experienced staff on the Muse and many told us that their next contract is longer. So when the Ray commences there will be less experienced crew between contracts than usual so more available than usual.

And some more hotel views in Sydney. This time from the Club Intercontinental. First at night then in the morning. It was a very wet weekend in Sydney.

The crew might all be starting new contracts but for most it is unlikely to be their first contract therefore not inexperienced crew.

Though for this Muse cruise the Maitre'D of Atlantide said you have to ask the restaurant manager the first time we asked. The change came from higher up. As well although the Maitre'D in Indochine kept a table for us he did say it wasn't a reservation. I was told by both the HD and restaurant manager that as Atlantide and Indochine were listed as no reservation required tables could not be reserved. I replied that not required doesn't mean can't be done. They didn't agree saying that if someone turned up and requested the table we may have reserved before we arrived they would have to seat them there. Absolute rubbish.