Will Work for Tiramisu

Mr Wavelength - If I recall from reading liner notes on English Invasion LP's from back in the day (ie Rolling Stones), isn't a "stone" about 14 lbs.? based on your above statement, I fear you are wasting away, without benefit of being in Margaritaville! If cruise lines, including SS, are in fact going to adopt same food service as gas stations, perhaps there IS a new marketing opportunity - "Cruise with us and Starve!" Lots of folks are looking to drop a few lbs/kilos, so this is bound to be a success!

Actually, we were pretty deep into a Muse cruise from Barcelona to S Hampton, here stopping in Bordeaux; one of my favorite ports - up the river and tied up in town. Bordeaux is a pleasure to walk in, and the Wine Museum is over-the-top interesting - like a window into the French soul.... The cruise fare and beverages had not succeeded in raising my waist line, despite my best efforts. Of course, perhaps I was subconsciously trying to channel 1991 BB style.

Your Waviness - I think they might be in posterior position, holding up my shorts, which are clearly rather de classe with regard to length. Alternately, my dear departed daddums lost both his forearms and his sight to a landmine, as a sapper in WW2. Perhaps I had him in mind...

Takes one to know one....

We are sailing on Muse out of Anchorage in June. My agent at SS said we should expect to see a package in the mail that would include info on our transfers to and from Seward by the scenic choo choo about 30 days out from sailing. We are not doing pre cruise hotel; she says that pax who are going to do the SS train to the ship meet at the Egan Center in Anchorage, a public conference facility, and take bus to the train terminal to board. I assume if you are doing pre cruise hotel with SS, they will pick you up at hotel. (Maybe picks you up first, then swings by Egan to pick up all us cheapskates who got our own hotels.) The train station in Seward is located a short walk to the dock, where Muse awaits. For those returning to Seward, the train goes to the station located across street from the airport.

We had about 25% cover in Oregon, still fun to see. When last we had near totality, it was interesting to see birds getting really confused! Chickens went in to roost, just get settled in, then all of a sudden it is morning again. What the heck?!?

Since "retiring" have been making bread regularly. Having done baguettes lots of diff ways, recently tried a ridiculously simple recipe on back of a Bread Flour bag - mix yeast and water in bowl of Kitchen Aid mixer, add other ingredients, and thrash it with the dough hook for 10 minutes. Let rise, divide and roll out, put in loaf pans, rise again, pop in ye olde oven. This is whole wheat (about 30% WW, balance unbleached white). Cooked in convection oven, with pan in bottom with water, for steaming. We also have a Gaggenau steam oven, which works well, and you can control steam with a dial. I increased the recipe to get these four loaves; I keep one out to eat, freeze the others, or hand out to older neighbors. We use honey from our hives in this bread, and the smell when baking is wonderful. It isn't flashy bread, but toasted it is mighty tasty, and I like the "Grandma Called It Roughage" aspect of the WW. Perfect for a tuna sanny...

Striking a nautical note, I suggested they take a long walk on a short pier....🤪

Your Waviness - Some bad news and some good news. Indeed, some people on left side of the pond do, indeed, nuke cups with water & God knows what abominations have been substituted for proper English Breakfast. It happens - get over it. I'm happy to report that our family has an electric kettle, and tea is made in proper manner - notwithstanding that the ladies prefer all manner of exotic botanicals & such. During years of my being in business, when I would set up a first meeting to discuss with potential clients us building a house in exchange for fleecing them of all spare cash they had lying about, I would tell them "We'll put the kettle on." It set a civilized tone, I thought. I'm reminded way back in the day, when I would do three day cross country ski trips around Crater Lake in Oregon, mid winter, at high elevation snowy camping spots in the dark stormy nights 50 miles from nearest warm pub, we would visit other tents and ask if they would like some tea. We had a little white gas stove, and would do it up proper. No tents were burned down, btw. For certain members of the general population, we would also have a flask of Drambuie, just in case. Just because you're in the wilderness doesn't mean civility has to be abandoned...

When I was but a young sprout, my family would spend a few weeks every other year in New Brunswick, in the summer. (Father was from there.) I was a Serious Fisherman (having read The Compleat Angler), and had my way with many a small stream full of brook trout. The mosquitos were unrelenting. A local person told me the trick was to smoke cheap cigars. So, I would buy like Swisher Sweets or Havatampa, and smoke 'em whilst wandering up little nameless creeks, catching fish in every successive beaver pond. I survived. Too bad I didn't know then about beekeepers hats with the mesh! I tried bug spray - fuhgeddaboudit!!

This fashion suggestion from a popular song from 1959: "He wore, tan shoes and pink shoelaces, A polka dot vest and man-o-man, He wore, tan shoes and pink shoelaces, A big panama with a purple hat band". I'd like to show up at a SS dining venue in that get up!

Well, it started as a cold, snowy Saturday morning in western Oregon. At such times, one's thoughts turn to a nice warm loaf of bread. (Jug of wine and thee beside me, singing in the wilderness - comes later...). So, cranked out some whole wheat honey loaves (using honey from our bees). Caught early afternoon sun for final rising of the loaves (under a towel). Then into the oven, with a pan of water in the bottom for steam. After baking, I check them for internal temp of 205F, then onto the rack. It is the baker's prerogative to take the first slice, slather with Normandy butter and some Bonne Maman Blueberry jam. The determination: Starvation will be narrowly averted!

Folks, I agree with those who say they base cruise booking decisions on itinerary first, and then other minor details like creature comforts. That said, I ain't going on any 6000 pax hulks, thank you very much. Incidentally, I'm very seriously looking at a Crystal cruise in N Europe (Baltics) next year. No one else has an itinerary that is close to this one, and I looked at them all. Also, I have this crazy idea that Mr Manfredi bought these two ships, poured $150M into them, and is essentially going to re-do the Silversea niche. I may be wrong, but I think there might actually be a real value opportunity in early years where he gets these two ships, stabilizes things, fills them with pax, makes them happy, then get funding to build new ships. Who knows, but chances are good I will at least tie up a cabin on C Serenity for a 15 day trip next summer (2025). My wife and I took a 4 year hiatus due to covid, and are doing one cruise this summer on SS - slowly stepping back into the pond. Regarding SS vs Seabourn, we've done 4 SS cruises, and last cruise was Seabourn, Venice to Athens, 3 weeks, on Odyssey (2019). I got covid in N Italy, BTW, although they didn't know that was what it was at the time. Coughed until I passed out, cracked chin open on floor - bad stuff. But - re: comparing cruise lines - food was generally comparable, really, maybe SS a little better. What really sticks with me, however, is - while on SS, everything was clean, tidy, "shipshape". Every morning I get up early and walk 2 - 3 miles on deck. On SS, I had to hide my water bottle, because staff that goes out to police the public areas in early morning would find my bottle and take it away. This never happened on Seabourn. Also, on Seabourn, my walking route passed in front of the bar on deck above the pool. There was a low area on deck with water puddling there. As I was doing 20 - 30 laps, I put a towel down in the puddle, so my shoes wouldn't get wet. (At my early hour, I'm only person out there.) While I'm doing my laps several Seabourn employees come out, make sure deck chairs are in order, wipe stuff down, walk over my sodden towel in the wet area. But then a guy wearing dress whites (an officer of some sort), comes out, makes the rounds (presumably to make sure everything is in order), and has to step ON my soggy towel in the wet area by bar. Does nothing; when I'm done walking, I pick up the towel and put in dirty towel container. This spoke volumes to me. On SS, the standard of cleanliness was almost too much - you can't leave something for 2 minutes without it getting picked up. On Seabourn, the officer type walks around and steps on a soggy towel on the deck and ignores it. Sheesh! I'm sure Seabourn does lots of good things, but this really struck me as indicative of - something! Granted, early morning before sun is up, is like the curtains haven't been opened on the stage yet. But I felt it showed a very different mind set about setting the stage for a top flight deluxe passenger experience. And of course, with my opinion and $5 you can get a latte.

I'm booked to do a P2P trip Seward to Seward later this year (June), with (paid for) train trip both ways. My understanding is train leaves from station adjacent to the airport. If you are staying in a "Silversea Hotel", I believe you get a shuttle to the train. I think Hotel Captain Cook is "official" SS. We made our own reserves at Marriot Downtown, which SS has used before. I'm hoping they will swing shuttle by to pick us up, but - lacking that - expect to taxi to the train station. If you look at map of Anchorage, you can see there is a branch of RR line that runs to the station by the airport. I understand the SS pax are on cars that are exclusively for SS. (Hopefully with champagne & what not!) What's in Port shows only Silver Muse in port for our board/disembark days, so maybe just a few cars in our case. But these trains are different that the public train. I'd love to know when the SS train leaves Anchorage, and arrives in Seward, and vice versa. Am bugging my SS agent after make final payment.

Diva, Thank you. While I've gone the whole sourdough starter route (& yes, I did kill my mother...) these loaves are from a recipe in "The Best Bread Ever" by Charles Van Over. It is ridiculously simple, you just dump flour, salt, yeast & water into a standard Cuisinart food processor with the steel blade, run it for about 45 seconds til it forms a ball, let it rise, divide into 3 portions, rest, roll out, rise, then bake on a stone with a pan with water below. I've been experimenting with various amounts of letting the dough rise, more or less yeast, and using up dribs and drabs of various flours on hand - rye, whole wheat, OO pasta flour, etc.. Hard to go wrong. Also did a larger batch with the dough hook on a Kitchen Air stand mixer, was very happy with end result - lots of gas bubbles and a nice crumb that demands a slathering of Irish butter on a warm slice, with some preserves my daughter put up last year.

Meanwhile, on the US upper left coast (Oregon) we're in Winter Wonderland mode! Roads are like a skating rink, but without Zambonis. Nothing to do but stay home, bake bread and enjoy the view. Most people think that in Oregon it rains all the time. Au contraire! Sometimes, the rain freezes!!

Was the bear heard to say - "Hey hey hey, BooBoo - whadda ya got in that pic-a-nic basket?" 😁

Way back in the day, when the Interweb was new (and you'd get a diskette from AOL in the mail every other day), I joined a chat group. They were fun, like this forum. My first nom de plume was "Abs Sixpack". I thought it was a fun name, but probably violated certain provisions of "Truth in Advertising" regs.

This seems like a viable option for gentlemen - nice slacks, a collar AND bowtie, cuffs & cufflinks - should at least work for non-formal nights...😁

Heavens! I wouldna toss me caber into that maelstrom, fer love ner money!! I'll sit on the sidelines and play a dirge on me fiddle.

Jazzbeau - I have recently both watched YouTube videos of various S & E movie reviews, and read some comments about them in particular & movie reviews (and the state of the movies) in general. Did they ever try to make you think they were the ultimate highbrows as regards film criticism? No; they're both from newspapers in Chi town, fercrissakes! But between the two of them, and their frequently differing opinions, you got a good sense of what and WHY they thought something was good. They served the mass market well. I liked them both, and saw a lot of movies I would not have otherwise pursued, that they reviewed favorably. As it relates to this august forum, I agree with your position. One hopes that if you post here, you already sorta like to cruise, knowhuttamean? And, maybe you kinda like to put on some nice duds and go doff a few beverages with the missus (or the misteress), and enjoy a classy meal. I like the comparison of the Chicago movie sensibility with the midwest cruise mentality. I suspect a lot of us who have friends who always want to nitpick everything and criticize everyone's efforts as not up to their higher standards, are left sort of out standing in their field. I've known quite a few very wealthy people in my town over the years, and around town, during the day, they were often wearing (literally) overalls or faded jeans & old shirts; but they had net worth in 9 figures. (The wealthy women were/are still wearing gardening or workout clothes or pants & shirts suitable for the grocery store.) Those folks could criticize something with the best of them, if there was reason to do so, but they didn't need to impress anyone with their superior critical abilities. My kinda people. Life is short (and getting shorter). While I agree we should get fabulous service and food and such for the big bucks we fork over for SS, we should also have realistic expectations about what one can expect to get on a ship at sea. Lobsters will be frozen; root vegetables will be more common than lettuce leaves; the passenger list will include some grumpy folks who are looking for stuff to criticize. Just like on shore.

Last time I was in Hamilton, Bermuda, banker types could be seen walking with their briefcases, with suit and tie & Bermuda Shorts. Like a mullet - business on top, party below the belt!! I think perhaps a new cruise line is in order, to take advantage of an obviously growing opportunity - Slovenly Seas! All casual, all the time, with maybe a few Bubba days interspersed. Combing hair optional! Hun, where's my flip flops?? Well-seasoned greetings to my fellow watercoolers....

FWIW, I looked at the website for the train, it says the "Coastal Classic" starts running May 10, 2024. The SS train isn't the same thing (SS is chartered), but at least the June 6 date appears to be "in season". It may be that if they don't have enough pax to transfer back and forth they claim logistics and you get to take the old school bus with the squeaky brakes and near sighted driver. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get the choo choo both ways, which we will have paid $840 for. Harrumpf!

Tvl4life - Some years ago, when researching doing an Alaska trip, I'd heard about this train, and after reading about it, definitely wanted to do it. (It had a bit to do with swaying us to take the plunge for this cruise.) I also had the impression that a transfer by train from Anchorage might be included (just the one way). I made my reservations for the cruise directly with SS (no TA) and asked that it be included, for which we paid additional $210/person each way, as I recall. We are doing P2P, ie not D2D - it may be that has some bearing on whether included in base package. I suggest you talk with who you're working with, and ask for clarity. I'm sure the view out the windows on bus is still nice, but we didn't want to bracket our cruise both ways with long bus trip.