drron29

What a shambles. Poor planning. No one knew that the Brazilian government was going to limit the length of ships for the Narrows? It certainly was one of the highlights of our Amazon cruise on the Cloud when she still was a classic fleet.

We have 4 booked cruises. 3 are roughly the same price as we booked with this promotion but 1 was $A6000 dearer than the price we booked for.

Success. View from the hotel in Kawaguchiko now. Fuji plus cherry blossom.

Well my walking track on the Muse is from the forward lifts on deck 8 then up the stairs to the Panorama lounge then back to the forward lifts and repeat. It is my track for when the top deck is too hot, too humid, too cold or too windy. I take 400 steps on this track which is very close to what I do on the deck 11 walking track. The long corridors sound like they would be ideal for walking.

Now to the gardens.

The greatest thing I taught medical students to do was to talk to patients in language they could understand. Some actually listened to that advice.

In Yokohama my sister and her husband boarded. this was their first ever cruise. so that night we shared dinner in Atlantide. So much to catch up on so no photos of the meal. I did have the filet which my sister also had and we both thought it excellent. however the reason I ordered the filet was because it was not on the menu but it is on the in room dining menu and anything on that can be ordered in the restaurants. So that was the practical demonstration that it can be done. The lesson was even better as our waiter was on his first contract and said we couldn't order the filet so I suggested he go to the kitchen and ask. He did and we had our filets. If he hadn't I would have asked for the maitre'D. He hasn't been in the position long but will do virtually anything to make the pssenger happy. Unfortunately his current contract finishes on May 1st. The next morning we were in Shimizu. As usual we had our breakfast in the Arts Cafe. Simple but nice and no temptation to overeat. My sister and her husband had breakfast in their suite every day. A little treat that they thought was excellent. Shimizu is known for it's views of Fuji so I was looking forward to this day. It was cloudy but appeared to be clearing as we set off on our excursion to the Mt. Fuji Sengen shrine followed by a sake brewery. But already the clouds were getting worse plus mist appearing at higher altitudes. Well at least the cherry blossoms were nice. But this gate normally frames Mt. Fuji on a clear day.

We decided to go to lunch before too many of the new passengers had boarded, I had been disappointed with the lunches at the Grill and didn't feel like pizza so despite Mrsdrron's protests we went to the buffet at La Terraza. After that I still don't get why it is so popular. The sashimi was watery and tasteless. Kaiseki is much better, The Sushi rolls were OK but they are made in Kaiseki. So a pictorial of the buffet. unny a blue cheese on the buffet when i was told a few nights before in La terraza that there was no blue cheese for the cheese plate.

Now back on the bus to the ship.

A wedding reception at the Residence.

I climbed up to the pagoda.

I felt sorry for those on the photo shoots.