UKCruiseJeff

Chundered chowder.

Where do they get their entertainers from? Maplin!

Lirio, Such a shame to hear about the cancellation. Reading what happened it sounds like you have had a narrow escape to what sounds like almost certain disappointment Those platters are impressive particularly with the cheese knife set and is that walnut loaf … with a touch of honey perhaps? Tonight’s supper was Mortadella and salad with mayo in focaccia panini and a mug of house white.

Mange tout mon cher petit pois.

Love your humour Fletch. Do keep it up. The humour that is. 😀

Thanks so much for the kind comments! She was right about 801. We had most of our meals there and in those days you could order what you wanted and everything was wonderful. It was like having your own boat without any of the palaver. Or cost. Or noisy neighbours! No one passes 801. For a couple of ports we were able to grab 802 which was vacant and had it set out boardroom style and in those days you could easily invite guests on board for the day. And to my surprise, no charges. SS considered it marketing. We had clients and friends who joined us in Barcelona, Monaco etc etc and SS put up a great seafood table and manned our private bar for us on each day and never has our client meetings gone so exceptionally well and so fluidly. I think the cruise more than paid for itself a few times over. Not many people have gone to work in 801/2. It certainly killed the idea of my own boat. To salivate, here is “wife on a shelf” and some more. Thanks again. Jeff

One thing I have learned, is that sometimes “Less is More” 😄 Jeff

Good afternoon Coolers, Today was chicken in white wine sauce with mash and peas! As an aside. My memory just sparked up. Did someone use to pop up in Cooler history and shout out “PEAS!” every time I posted a piccy of peas? 🤔 Anyway, in sympathy with Rojaan19 we have smaller portions for the dietary compromised. 😦 I’m proud of the parsley because a year or so back I was bored and we got heavily into hydroponics for fresh stuff and as a result we have been overtaken by stuff including parsley. Hydroponics is a wonderful thing. Today it was house wine. Jeff

Hi, The issue that might be factored into your thoughts is that an entrant into the uber-luxury game needs to be clear what it wishes to achieve. I’m so distant from the innards that I can only go on my instinct. It seems to me that the general upscale opportunity in cruising isn’t in expedition. I say this because it seems to me that the opportunity for even higher diems is low - it’s already quite high and the limiting factor of the size of ship is inevitably small’ish so there are no scale savings and the opportunity for quality improvement therefore is limited because there might not be so much revenue increase opportunity. It seems to me that the opportunity is the larger opportunity of mainstream ocean cruising. You mention upgraders and to me that implies something “a bit better”. I think the opportunity is in way more. I think it is for what is now currently routinely promised and not provided by anything I read about. It is where SS started. I mean genuinely exceptional in all respects. There is also a ship size sweetspot which seems to increase each year and I believe there is a growing pent-up demand for something better than what’s currently on offer. Your point seems if I have understood you predicated on the idea that a luxury line needs a high volume of defectors from cheaper lines. In fact it seems to me that it needs a much smaller number of people looking for exceptional product and aren’t too bothered about the cost within justifiable reason. For example our move to our first cruise with SS was my wife’s insistence that I should stop nagging about having my own cruiser but instead have a better experience and save money by booking 801 on Whisper for our first trial cruise. She was right. It was a stunning experience. Re expeditions. I’m lucky, I’m not nimble and the idea of getting off of a ship into a dingy so I can see some penguins seems a daft idea when I can stay at home and watch them on youtube with some cake and some booze and my own bed at nights. But I’m just a lethargic. Jeff

Hi Spins, You may recall as we've both been here for a while that we worked with Manfredi and SS for a while on this very topic ie CS and how to best "harvest" high-value relationships ie us punters for the longer-term. He was incredibly proud of his line and I wonder how many of the senior people that were appointed over time supported his visceral motivations. I was thrilled that we worked with them for a while. What I can say is that he was totally 100% emotionally committed to expanding and growing his line whilst preserving exceptional quality. To remind you with the contemporary context, this was at a time when the only viable competitor too SS's first few ships was SB, but they didn't have balconies. I think in those days it was Wind, Cloud, Whisper and Shadow but my memory isn't what it was. These were great days to be an SS customer. I saw the long-term opportunity as an open goal. I believed then that SS had an extraordinary opportunity. However there is a difference in the way that you can grow. You can grow organically and grow in line with your customer growth ie only building ships when you believe you can fill them at a viable diem and therefore can guarantee you can afford to protect the high level of quality you need. This is the best way of growing ie in sync with your growing customer base and therefore gives you the best long-term shot IMHO. It is slower but self-sustaining. Or you can make your aspiration for say 11 ships as quickly as possible being your guiding impetus. This implies you running after the volume you need to underpin the growth which inevitably (and in my view invariably) compromises quality. It has always seemed to me that this inevitably means moving down market. The problem is that as you crawl down market to sustain your debt-base and you inevitably increasingly disappoint and lose your existing loyal customer base. This is where I think following growth overly aggressively will almost always compromise your long-term goals. I remember very clearly expressing it at the time as being. "You have a choice. You can grow aggressively and force yourself to compete below the clouds with all the lower cost lines to steal some of their volume or you can go above the clouds where there is currently no competition and grow more slowly but more certainly - but with the advantage of little or no competition". It was this exact philosophy that won us the relationship. It was clearly accelerated growth rather than organic growth that was the strategy that was pursued and you and I and others have therefore been left as orphans and deprived of somewhere to spend our hard-earned cash. I remain sadly and pathetically upset that such an enormous opportunity has still yet to be grasped permanently by any line. But what do I know. Jeff

Thanks Spins, FWIW, as a result of some lines too aggressively “making hay whilst the sun shines” I have no doubt at all that the extraordinary surge in cruisers converging with the overly compromised quality issues will inevitably open up in time an enormously attractive and highly profitable opportunity for a cruise-line to fill the vacuum with a top-notch product roughly where SS was when it started. There is an enormously lucrative market for the taking, This is inevitable, When is the question. Good luck with your plans. Jeff

Only recently (it turns out that I am a very slow learner …..) had I decided to write down exactly what I do when making stuff so that I can then make adjustments for “next time” rather than relearn from scratch every time. So what I did was: 1. Boil two whole extra large oranges for one hour, then cut open and de-pip and then blend it all to a fine pulp. 2. Blend 5 eggs with 250gms of ground almond and 250 gms caster sugar with a squirt of honey and a teaspoon of baking powder - and add the orange pulp and bake. I’d not adjust this recipe when I make it next. I don’t think the baking powder will harm you. This makes two loaf cakes. Jeff

It’s a real shame that you need GF. Can you tolerate a small amount of gluten? By coincidence yesterday I made some lovely orange almond cake that was very good. It is gluten free and although it is unphotogenic it is extraordinary. It seemed a waste to have it with tea and so Amaretto is a proper substitute.

That dough edge is something you should be proud of. A very nice pie! 🙂 Jeff

Supper was rusticly simple.