kochleffel

Thanks. That doesn't seem to be widely known yet.

My experience has varied. Some have made group reservations for both shows and specialty restaurants, some haven't done it at all. One exceptional host, on a Jewel-class ship with only a small solo contingent, even reserved seats in the theater, where it was otherwise allowed only for Haven passengers.

You mean a LOT earlier, several hours on some cruises. I was on one where people didn't move from their seats all morning or all afternoon. It's most marked on winter cruises, where people also line up for bingo more than an hour in advance.

I taught two classes this morning but must not have been completely awake. In the first one, I began the wrong lesson but discovered it quickly. In the second I taught the wrong lesson almost all the way to the end. It may have stemmed from poor sleep two nights in a row. Right now I really want a nap but it might be prudent to go to the supermarket, because there's likely to be s-n-o-w later.

I hated lining up in military formation and waiting and waiting on RCI a few years ago. Some "soldiers" violated orders by keeping their earbuds in and they were dressed down for it. NCL now requires just watching a video on the TV in your stateroom -- and the TV won't work for anything else until you do -- and going in person to the muster station so that you know where it is. The muster check-in is open all afternoon and if you don't do it they do track you down.

I understand. A tour probably makes the most sense if you want to visit places that are harder to get to.

I've visited Astoria, Oregon, but not by cruise ship. I had been thinking that the meal suggestions came from HAL menus, but there have been some recently that were unlikely, and I really doubt that HAL galleys have rows and rows of Instant Pots. Will skip the drink--I'm suspicious of drinks that call themselves some kind of martini but have nothing in common with a real martini except the shape of the glass. I answer the Junior Cat's questions but she seem to think that most of the answers are wrong. In the spreadsheet for the Spanish Farewell, one person asked in the comments column about private tours. I hadn't given private tours any thought, because I've been pleased with Spain Day Tours, which will take individual bookings and organized the groups themselves, and they operate in all our Spain ports plus Lisbon. But they don't operate in Funchal, and I remembered the discussion here last month (December 16). So I've posted an offer to reserve the date with Daniel Madeira Taxis, but so far no takers.Maybe no one is thinking that far ahead.

If this happens on my next cruise (I have type O), I'll be no help, because I'll have donated blood too recently.

I neither smoke nor gamble, but I know that there is a very strong association between gambling and smoking. It even affects church bingo.

I've visited Cannes once, on the NCL Epic, but was there only long enough to rent and return a car, because three other passengers and I made a DIY excursion to Vence to visit the Chapelle du Rosaire, designed near the end of his life by Henri Matisse. For the car, I expected a Skoda Octavia or Hyundai Elantra, but we actually had an Alfa Romeo Giulia! The Chapelle du Rosaire isn't on any standard tours, and has only street parking. It could be part of a customized tour for a small group. I don't have photos, but pictures are on its website. We had lunch in Tourettes-sur-Loup at La Barbacane, recommended by @marazul. It's one of the few occasions on which I have spoken any French in France; my French is essentially limited to talking about food. Another in our group was a French teacher. In French cooking, BTW, cacciatore would be chasseur and would almost always mean that the dish includes mushrooms, theoretically gathered in the forest. I don't know what dinner here will be, only that it won't be chicken but will include chard, now that all the bok choy has been eaten. I had the leftover Broccolini with lunch. I think that the drink of the day would taste like (expensive) old-time cough medicine. The Junior Cat has resumed using her heated bed, after not lying it at all so far this winter when the house was colder than it is today. She is a very small, short-haired cat, so likely to feel the cold.

This is almost, but not quite, a reason to switch to Disney.

Same experience here. My left arm was the one that was broken and I had an IV in the right arm, and because of some unexpected test results, they seemed to want blood draws about eleven times a day. At one point I thought they were going to try to draw blood from my neck, the way the v-e-t does with cats.

It seems to be the same on every cruise ship with open seating. I think that the embarkation sequence puts everyone on the same schedule, plus fewer passengers have booked specialty dining for the first night or made entertainment plans. For my cruise next month on NCL I've booked the Italian restaurant.

Yes, that's it. Over here, Broccolini is a trademarked name for it. At least one seed company calls it Aspabroc, as if to imply that it's like asparagus, which it isn't.

I'm usually interested in tofu recipes, but this dish seems to come from Sichuan, which makes me wary--much Sichuan cooking is way too hot for my taste. Dinner tonight will probably be vegan sausage, sweet potato, and "baby broccoli," which I think Graham might recognize as "sprouting broccoli," as it was listed in the Thompson & Morgan catalogue. Teams at Youngstown State University in Ohio are known as the Penguins, from an away game during severe weather in 1933. No other Division I team uses the name Penguins. I wonder why not.

Did you happen to learn his first name? There are more Rabbi Starrs (Rabbis Starr?) than one might think.

I think that the last time I cooked a turkey breast was New Year's Day in 2018. It had been intended for Thanksgiving, but I broke my arm that week. Although I was home in time, I realized that I couldn't lift a pan with the roast in it. I was pleased by the tofu and bok choy stir-fry last night. I have enough left of both to make it again, and the bok choy needs to be used, but I think I will make something else. I cooked the last few stalks of asparagus, from earlier in the week, for lunch. I was at Kusadasi in May, on the Norwegian Jade, and I think I posted pictures then, but maybe only of the cats. Others that I could post are much like those already posted today. We arranged a private tour in order to include the Terrace Houses within our ship's short time in port (we called at Patmos later the same day), and omitted the house of Mary in order to do so.

After the surgery on my arm, my hand was badly swollen for at least ten days. I remember giving a talk to a Kiwanis club during that period and wishing that I could conceal the hand while I spoke, but I was under orders to keep my arm in a sling.

Winnie the Pooh was one of my roles when I worked in puppet theater--Pooh on one hand and Rabbit on the other. The Pooh puppet had too much stuffing to manipulate effectively, so I always put Pooh in my left hand and Rabbit on the right; the role of Pooh is done mainly with the voice. I'm wary of any dish described as Mexican, because sometimes that just means "composed mainly of chili peppers," but the alternative won't work for me, either. Dinner tonight is likely to be a stir-fry of tofu and bok choy.

Yes. In my experience, vegetable portions are not large on any cruise line (well, the few that I've traveled with), but it's always OK to ask for additional portions, including vegetables that are being served with the other main dishes or, sometimes, even that aren't.

I don't think that Raest is open for lunch, or that any other restaurant serves fermented lamb. I went to a cultural evening at a hotel, with a Scandinavian buffet plus examples of Faroese storytelling, music, and dance, and the buffet was no different from anything you might find in Denmark or Norway, except more fish and less pork than Denmark. The entertainment was geared to tourists and presented in English with some introduction in German. Most of the guests were from the U.S. and Canada, but there was also a tour group from Germany. I was seated with a student from Canada, a science teacher from Germany, and a Faroese couple who had lived for many years in Denmark. I wasn't there for a cruise--it was a five-day visit that would have been longer, had I not missed a flight connection in Iceland. Atlantic Airways flies to and from Reykjavik only three times a week in the summer, two times in winter, and on the weekends the plane is used for Faroese vacation packages to warmer, sunnier places. Service to Copenhagen runs two or three times a day. BTW, in the Faroe Islands, pay for anything by card if you can, or try not to get any Faroese currency in change, as it's hard to exchange. It's interchangeable with Danish currency and you can request Danish notes, as both circulate. I think most visitors now try to avoid getting any currency in change throughout Scandinavia, because each country has different money, and their economies are probably the most cashless in the world.

I like lamb but, as usual, don't have the ingredients to make today's dish. I would prefer a version without carrots: although I very much like carrots cooked with beef, the combination with lamb doesn't please me as much. I didn't make any New Year resolutions. In the Faroe Islands the traditional methods of food preservation were drying (especially of fish) and fermentation. There is restaurant, Raest, that has revived the traditional techniques and I ate there. Here's the menu: The lamb is actually more fermented than dried, and it would be fine with me not to have it again unless I were in the Faroe Islands and starving (population crashes due to starvation occurred many times in the history of the islands). Rhubarb is the only fruit-like plant that grows well in the Faroes and it is even more ubiquitous there than in Iceland. Raest's "Menu and beverages" includes a different alcoholic drink with every course: sparkling wine, white, red, sherry, beer (not necessarily in that order--they are matched to the courses, but I didn't understand the logic), and "all inclusive" adds cognac. I had the "all inclusive." They serve full portions of all the drinks, not tasting portions, and afterward I had to sit on a bench in the harbor for half an hour before I could walk the short distance back to my hotel. The weather report says freezing rain here, too. In a little while I need to take out trash and then go to acupuncture. I have a carbide-tipped hiking stick in the car and may use it.

Once I received a message on the phone in my cabin to go to a specific desk in passenger services before disembarking. That was also for a cash refund. Would you prefer to wait , possibly for 6-8 weeks, to receive the check? In many large businesses, issuing a refund check requires multiple levels of approval even if the reason is obvious.

I'm trying hard to do nothing, but it isn't working. I have to go to my office, but I hope for only a few minutes. I'd be pleased with chicken Marsala, and I like Pinot Noir, but I'm not sure that my palate is refined enough, or my bank account full enough, for a Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru. No on the cocktail. Have not been to Hiroshima or anywhere in Japan and my efforts to rebook a Japan cruise have been unsuccessful.

The Eurodam was at the adjacent pier when I was boarding the Nieuw Amsterdam in January 2020.