Blackduck59

That looks a lot like one I make, although I would have a swirl of heavy cream just before serving. It looks like you used parmesan cheese. Typically I use tarragon and dill is the herb enhancement. I always have bacon and smoked salmon in the mix, usually shrinp, clams and some firm fleshed fish. I'm going to make chowder for my mother in law for her90th birthday on the 10th of December.

Thanks for the encouragement. It's not our first cruise, it's our first cruise with HAL. We like Celebrity but their East coast cruise doesn't have as good of an itinerary. I like that this is a one way itinerary. I think for us it's a bonus that we don't know what HAL "was" like so we can't be disappointed by some perceived short coming from what used to be.

Do they use that awful name in OZ too? I hate it, a sale for what is supposed to be "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" called black Friday? To me (a child of depression era parents) "Black Friday" was the start of the stock market crash which signaled the beginning of a world wide depression that only ended by the horror of the second world war I wish they would find a new name.

Thank you, I wasn't aware we won. Of course all eyes are on the Football (AKA Soccer here) world cup.

I always liked the boxing day sales now we have been infected by the "Black Friday" sale out of the United States. Of course why would you wait for boxing day when you can have it right now. We bought our new UHD TV and UHD DVD player last year on boxing day. It was a good purchase and more "Canadian" for us.

@MMDown Under The "deal" is time sensitive. There is this thing called "Black Friday" up here and there are a bunch of sales on, they expire on the 1st of December. We will see how much the fare is and what deposit they want.

Ahoy Les, good to hear from you. Thanks for the price correction because a dinner like that would cost $35.00 to $50.00 here as well. Good thing I cooked it on my excellent grill along with a bone in chicken breast for Lynn.

I've been told you can get a dinner like that for about $20.00 down there. The raw steak cost $23.00 here. We are looking at new options for our down under adventure. We were at a "Celebrity" cruises presentation yesterday and we got a quote for one of their cruises. It was almost sold out and the only cabin we could get didn't suit our needs, we passed on that. We are now looking at a longer cruise on Holland America, Noordam. We are waiting to see what the price is. That is in late February 2024.

It is a re-stuffed baked potato. the potato is baked then cut open and the flesh is scooped out then mixed with sour cream, bacon bits, cheese and green onion. Then everything is pot back in the skin and reheated. I only ate half of the steak, it was a large porterhouse. Very tasty but way too big for one meal.

Well it was a nice dinner in the MDR of our goid ship in Canada 🇨🇦.

I have really enjoyed reading this thread. It has been fair and balanced. It gives me hope that my wife and I will enjoy our first ever HAL cruise on Zaandam for a New England/ East coast Canada next summer. There seems to be so many threads complaining about this that and the next thing isn't what it used to be. WE don't know what used to be so we hope we like what it is. We look forward to the next post from @sayvan with their thoughts on the ship and entertainment.

Crikey Les, talk about a Catch 22. I hope they can find something to relieve the situation. I wish I knew a better Voodoo chant to make everything better.

Best of luck for a good result from your surgery Les. Lynn and I both send our most positive energy for you. Thanks for keeping everyone in the loop. Deepest Regards from the Ducks in that "other" Victoria

Victoria, is an anomaly in Canada. We don't get snow often and each time we do it doesn't stay on the ground long. There have been notable exceptions though. The "Blizzard of 96" was more than a meter of snow fell in a few days around Christmas. There was over 100 Million Dollars in Damage. That amount of snow is small change in much of Canada but here it was devastating. This feels early for snow but it doesn't feel like it will stick around.

Well we went from summer to winter in less than 2 weeks. We have had our first snow of the season. There is no accumulation around here but there is 10cm expected at higher elevations. I'm happy we got the winter tires installed on Saturday. We keep winter tires and wheels all mounted and ready to go. We leave the Venza parked if it snows and use the Subaru.

For us the Celebrity "S" class are our favourite ships. Alas we have not sailed in one since before the shut down and lament the 2 cruises down under that were cancelled because of the pandemic. We have sailed on Viking Orion since the shutdown and I'm sorry, for us it was NOT good value for money spent. We have chosen to try HAL because of the itinerary and hope that it is a pleasant encounter. We have no idea what the HAL experience "was" for us we will see what it is. I'm sorry for those who lament what the experience was in the other 42 cruises over the last 30 years but those days are over. I live in a tourist town with many restaurants and attractions. Some of the best attractions are gone, many of the best restaurants from even 10 years ago are gone and the others are mostly a shadow of what they were. It's not just cruising, change is afoot everywhere. The question everyone must ask themselves is "does it still represent good value" among all your vacation choices. Keeping in mind that fabulous restaurant you loved in some far off distant land 5 years ago may be gone or changed so much you don't recognize it. So I guess there are decisions for people to make and perhaps that means a different line or even a different type of vacation.

Best of luck for positive results Les, hopefully they can gain some knowledge to help formulate a treatment plan. I had one of those scans once, not at all good for someone as claustrophobic as me. Take care mate, we're sending positive thought from Canada. Lyle & Lynn

Sounds like a great time Mic. I sometime wonder whether we have a better chance of meeting you and Rosie at someplace other than OZ.

It was Lynn's last work day today, she is officially retired and happy to be finished there.

@Clay Clayton Hey Clay welcome back. I just wanted to say thanks for your thread on the HAL page. It was interesting reading your posts as they came in. I mention this here only because a thought you should have the final post on your thread over there.

That is unfortunate.

Are these people from that large country to the south of mine?

Yes as a matter of fact the Zaandam does allow smoking in the Casino and that is a major detraction for us. One of the many things Celebrity does right is there is no smoking anywhere indoors on the ship including the casino. And no smoking on verandas either (although some "entitled" cruisers still do). I think most cruise lines prohibit smoking in cabins and on verandas. One of the positives of the Oceana product is that there is no smoking indoors on their ships.

On the Celebrity "Edge" class ships the port and starboard cabins that on an "S" class ship would be traditional veranda cabins with various sizes of outdoor space, have been replaced with a space that is separated from the cabin by doors. The "Veranda" part comes from a large horizontally sliding window. Hence my characterization of an ocean view cabin with an opening window.

I think that our down under adventure may have to wait until after I retire in 2024. I don't think Carnival is for us. We shy away from the "party boat" lines. Our preferred line is Celebrity (not that we have cruised enough to have a solid handle on any cruise line). Unfortunately Celebrity seems to be putting an "Edge" class ship down under and I don't like them (to be fair we haven't sailed on one) but they are ugly. And the "Infinite Veranda" is just an ocean view cabin with a large window that opens (unless it's turned off by the Captain)