XBGuy

Hojotoho

From 'Tosca." one of my favorites -- E Lucevan Le Stelle

Yeah $67 is a bit spendy for a domestic Chardonnay wine, David Ramey is an outstanding winemaker. In my humble opinion (And whose opinion is more humble than mine?), he is a particularly terrific Chardonnay producer. Single vineyard designated wines are, generally, more expensive than those with a geographic designation alone. Also, Rochioli is particularly proud of their grapes, albeit, deservedly so. In addition to multiple single-vineyard bottlings, Ramey also produces much less expensive Chardonnays with Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley designations that, while they don't get quite as high evaluations from the professional critics, are outstanding wines. The Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley regions (called American Viticultural Areas or AVAs in the wine geekdom) are superb growing areas for Chardonnay grapes. These Ramey versions can be had from purveyors such as Total Wine for less than $40.

Are there any Elks Club members here? In my working days I would make one or two trips to Hawaii--mostly, to Honolulu. The local sales rep, Charles, was always a more than gracious host taking me to some very interesting local hangouts. On one trip he told me that he'd joined the Elks Clab and asked if I would like to visit. It was terrific, enjoying pupus and cocktails.. The club definitely had a mid 20th century vibe. It was almost like being in a time machine. After retirement, we scheduled a cruise to Hawaii. I contacted Charles and asked if we could get together on our Honolulu stop. Charles arranged for the two local field engineers, Danny and Stacy--two of the very best people I have ever met--to join us for a dim sum lunch in China Town. After lunch, Charles took Mrs. XBGuy and I to the Elks Club. The XBGuys at the Elks Club and outside on the deck Over the course several years of visiting Hawaii, I did accumulate a nice collection of business-appropriate Aloha shirts. Now, my best opportunity to wear them is on cruises. My understanding is that the Waikiki Elks Club had plans for some major enhancements. I hope it retained the charm that I enjoyed. Anyway, if anybody is a Elk, and has a visit planned to Honolulu, you should consider dropping by

Yuck

Sadly, I have had the exact opposite suite breakfast experience. I suppose I should assign responsibility to the parents, but the children were annoying to other patrons in the room. After three days, I had breakfasts in the buffet for the rest of the cruise. We usually dine fairly late in the specialty restaurants. The only other time I recall seeing a child in a specialty restaurant was a toddler in a high chair. He/she did not make it through the meal. Dad carried him/her out while the rest of the party (five or six adults) finished their meal. My suspicion is that the fussing was not allowing Mom to enjoy her "grown up" evening. Great move, Dad.

Yes. "West Coast" ships are, pretty much, dedicated to Alaska itineraries from April/May through September. Some of those ships are deployed to Los Angeles or San Francisco from, roughly, October to April for the Hawaii roundtrip crudrouises. Interestingly, a few months ago Princss, which still hasn't deployed all its ships after the COVID pause, announced 2022 Hawaii roundtrip cruises from Los Angeles on the Sapphire Princess starting in, I think, July. My brother booked one for August. Then most of those cruises were cancelled. The common assumption was that the Sapphire Princess could not be refitted to return to service in the timeframe that Princess originally hoped. My brother moved his cruise to October. Nobody knows what 2024 will bring, but I would be surprise, and pleased, if the Hawaii itinerary made a summer appearance.

Perhaps not, @cat shepard. Monastrell is a Spanish name for the grape that in France is called Mourvedre. Interestingly, in different regions of Spain, the same grape is called Mataro.

They're orange on ships, also.

OK, now I understand. There were two maps. I apologize, but thank you for the clarification.

It is not surprising that this wine is hard to find, nor is it surprising that you've never heard of this grape. Carrignan is grown in several areas of France, Italy and Spain in regions were the tradition is to blend multiple grape varieties to make their wines. Years ago Carignan was widely planted in California where it was mostly used for the production of jug wines. The emergence of the American wine-drinking publc in the latter half of the 20th Century corresponded with the move among domestic winemakers to produce single-variety wines. Wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes drew much attention because of their importance to prestigious Old World wine regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy. Grapes such as Carignan were (are) not considered "noble." and, so, few makers bothered to make single-variety wines from them. However, Carignan pops up in many field blend wines from makers such as Bedrock, Bucklin, Carlisle and Ridge. Invariably, these are wines sourced from old vine vineyards. My experience with California Carignan varietal wines is that they are hearty, full-bodied wines that are perfect with a grilled steak. The Wirz Vineyard, the source of the grapes for today's wine is listed in the registry of the Historic Vineyard Society. Planted in the 1960s, it is a fairly young for the designation "old vine." (There is no legal definition of the term "old vine." The commonly accepted convention among California makers is 45 years.) Outstanding Riesling wines have been made from Wirz fruit. I have six bottles of Carignan from four makers in my collection, and I am always on the lookout for more. I had never heard of the Big Basin winery--no big whoop, there are thousands of wineries that I've never heard of. I checked out their web site to see what they are all about. They have numerous wines available for sale on their web site--both varietal wines and blends. This 2018 Wirz Carignan is not one of them, but the 2019 vintage is available. I may put in a modest order.

I have been thinking about this for a while. The Inside Passage extends above and below the area where the alpha literal is depicted in the attached map.. The waterways that allow ships to cruise to Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Skagway are, in fact, part of the Inside Passage. I suppose the map could have little arrows from the alpha literal up to those waterways to show that the Inside Passage includes them, but that would make for a pretty busy depiction, Princess changed the actual map of the cruise where the arrows point where the ship is going and moved it from the "inside" route to the outside route. The map clearly shows that the ship's route takes it west of Vancouver Island and west of the Haida Gwaii Archipelago. It then has to enter the Inside Passage in order for the ship to reach the ports of Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Skagway. Yes, again, the map does not say "Inside Passage" in this section, but I do not understand what you are saying Princess changed. Is there anyting misleading about the map? From my perspective, I know the extent of the Inside Passage, and I think it is fine. Maybe Princess should just remove that "Inside Passage" literal from the map. I think that would actually clarify.

The definition of "Inside Passage" is much broader than most cruise passengers think. It is more than that little strait between Vancouver Island and the rest of British Columbia. It icludes the only routes to Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. If a cruise itinerary stops at any of those ports, and I would be very surprised to see one that did not, it will cruise through the Inside Passage. So, when an itinerary is described as "Inside Passage," it is, technically, correct.

Do you think that somebody at this enterprise has the easiest quality control job ever?

Yes. If you book a cruise for the two of you and the fare for that cruise is $2,000, you will only have to pay $500. If you book a cruise for the two of you and the fare for that cruise is $10.000, you will only have to pay $8,500.

Very interesting. Thank you for posting

That is very disappointing. Similar to @tetleytea, our one experience with the Suite Concierge was very satisfying. I used the concierge to make dinner reservations, he secured seats for us for the Chef's Table, and, after I told him that we were having a problem with the toilet in our cabin, a plumber was knocking at our door within 20 minutes. In a case where one couple is monopolizing the concierge, I have to question what need (real or imagined) that the couple had that required so much of his time. Ultimately, of course, I have to fault the concierge for allowing it to happen.

Well this is pretty disappointing. As you can see, my response was truncated. Good chance it was an operator error. I went on to make a few more points. but I am not going to try to recreate them now. My conclusion is that we cruise in suites just because we like them. We don't try to rationalize it.

To Mrs. XBGuy and me, the best thing about a suite is all the extra real estate. Mrs. XBGuy is more of a night owl than I am. It is nice that I can climb in the bed draw the curtain and isolate myself a bit from the light that she has on and the TV that she may be watching. As somebody has previously mentioned, the bathroom can be entered from either the bedroom area or the sitting room area. That works well. We have had aft-facing suites on the Ruby Princess and the Star Princess. Those are excellent. You are wind-protected out there, and, so, it is very pleasant while the ship is actually cruising. We have enjoyed multiple Ultimate Balcony Dinners on various cruises and the only time we actually had it on the balcony was on that

??? My understanding was that all the businesses at Icy Point Strait were locally owned. There are no Walmarts and no Diamonds International. The thing that I liked about Icy Strait Point/Hoonah was that all the money I spent there stayed in the community. On our one visit to Icy Strait Point I was very impressed with the hospitality and the sincerity of the excursion personnel. I do think that I read that NCL has built a second dock. I am sure that if another cruise company uses that dock, then money does flow to NCL. If I am wrong about all the other businesses being locally owwned, I would like to hear which ones aren't. Did you not know, by the way, that Carnival Corporation is a minority owner of the White Pass and Yukon Railway in Skagway. @GABunch Yes, you should definitely rebook to get the itinerary you want. If this is, in fact, the only opportunity you get to visit Alaska, it is important that you fulfiill your dreams. If you don't, you will always second guess your decision.