highplanesdrifters

8 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

Bumped into Norman who has just joined.

Norman the sommelier?  If so, he did an amazing job on Cloud last month for us!

22 hours ago, canderson said:

Especially with regard to the amount of red chili flakes used!

 

 

For Chili flake lovers,  check out Flatiron Pepper Co.  

@jollyjones Thanks for allowing the hijack . 😃

Loving all your posts.

5 hours ago, canderson said:

Especially with regard to the amount of red chili flakes used!

 

 

Great minds. I travel with my own chili flakes. Gives me street cred. 😃

20 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

About to join our Qatar flight to Doha, Q suites here we come 

Oh what fun! 

2 minutes ago, BillK400 said:

When I go to the page the only choices / Links I get at the bottom of the page are Expeditions and Special Offers. Nothing for Explore Voyages such as shown in your post/screen pic. Thanks for your help.

I'm not surprised. You've probably already done so, if not perhaps try a different browser or device. 

17 hours ago, jpalbny said:

It was delicious the first time I had it. I anticipated having it again on my subsequent cruise but it was such a disappointment! You just can't make a real ragu with ground duck meat!

Agree with you and our excellent OP @jollyjones.

FWIW I found the Amatriciana excellent on our last voyage. Of course it's all Chef dependent. 😄

16 hours ago, kej1 said:

A snorkeling trip (over $200 paid).

 Totally understand your position.  I'm still wondering why we're paying expedition prices and having to pay for expeditions.  

I do feel bad for the EL's. Seabourn (and Silversea) just throw them on the ship and they have to sort out the muck with sometimes zero prior planning.The mother ship is a mess. If it's weather, no biggie we all roll with that punch.

As for E&O, we play a guessing game based on the name of the dish, what is it actually going to be?  Lovie once said: "If you dont know what it supposed to be, it actually quite good".

Wine lunch looks great.

20 hours ago, BillK400 said:

Found the tracker but not the blog/log? The ship is identified as to location and it provides a link to voyages but no blog/log for the current cruise or location.

We all know how excellent Seabourns websites are..Ha ha.   It can be a bugger to find depending on your device.

Try this:

Bottom of page click on Explore Voyages. 

Should pull up a menu. Click on preferred ship.  FYI, some ships have nothing.

Click on year and it should pull up their different voyages. 

Hope this works.

How can you pass up a "sake museum exclusive"?

1 hour ago, moabkayaker said:

We recently concluded the 25-day Stepping Stones of the Atlantic trip on the Venture starting in Ushuaia, and because (after the Falklands and South Georgia) this was new territory for them, we had no idea what excursions might be offered until just before a destination.  That said, they did a great job of providing several included options in each port (think Saint Helena or Tristan da Cunha) and we were not disappointed in any of them.  I think Seabourn does not want to "promise" excursions in places that they may have to cancel or substitute, since that just creates more headaches. We did have a layover day in Ushuaia between an Antarctic cruise and the next one, and booked a third party excursion that day, since Seabourn does not seem to offer excursions on change-over days.  Personally, I think one of the interesting things about the expedition travel is a bit of uncertainty combined with flexibility, and knowing that the best things that happen may be something substituted for the original. 

We're booked on Pursuit going across the Pacific west to east this August/September, and have seen many of the "possible excursions" listed, and are excited about these, as well as snorkeling and Zodiac, but know there are no guarantees.  

See you onboard.

1 hour ago, Gourmet Gal said:

 

Sorry, off-topic but I have a cruise planned on Nova…what were some of the exciting events?

Sorry, this was on the Cloud in South Africa.  Perhaps @FauxNom can chime in.

22 minutes ago, FauxNom said:

Welcome home! I'm sorry it hit you at all, but I guess home is the best place for it. Indeed, I and all my circle of friends were hit hard. It's not shocking, but so disappointing when you have to miss so many of the incredible events they produced for this cruise.

Yikes! What a bummer. So sorry for you and the pack.  There were so many exciting events on that leg. 

And yes much better to deal with it at home.  Hope all is well and life on the flip side is treating you well.

Thanks again for all the answers and great intel. So valuable.  Sorry about the sloppy execution by expedition staff.  Frustrating. Thanks for taking one for the team.

We are also in the snorkeling camp.  The tours you've mentioned are the exact ones we did on the Quest years ago. We had the same issues of ship not being allowed to operate their own Zodiacs in many areas.

Why are we paying expedition prices when we're getting traditional ocean cruise options and turning into  ATMs?  Organize and revolt! 😁

22 hours ago, JSR said:

@BBGrace273 I am glad this thread has given you some insight and some excitment about your upcoming trip. Several things I would recommend:

 

-Know that a transpacific will have lots of back to back sea days. You could encounter foul weather, rough seas or just the opposite. Have an indoor plan and an outdoor plan. There will be bridge lessons, cooking classes, lectures, trivia games, etc. Decide if any of these are for you or your dad and get involved at the beginning, you can always drop them but  bridge and trivia maybe hard to join at the last minute. Cooking class sign up is at the first open house, again easier to cancel though the waitlist works well as does just showing up on standby. 

 

-People on these and other social media like to hear themselves talk. (as you see I can go on and on). Take it all with a grain of salt. Despite things being presented as fact, they are just opinions and they are the opinions of a minority of people. The percentage of actual cruisers on any one given platform is minimal. Humans these days seem to be resistant to change, glorifying the past, blah blah. Also, peoples preferences are different, one person's perfect ship is someone else's least desirable ship. 

 

- IMHO Every experience in life is a product of what you bring to it. When we headed out on our journey we said, we have no idea if this will be too much and be a one and done or something we love and want to do again, or something in between but no matter what we would have fun and enjoy ourselves. We met people for whom the Nova was not to their liking for the future but they still embraced the present. We only met one couple that complained everyday and were making lists of short comings. My solution was not to engage with them beyond a polite salutation when I saw them.  Bring your positive attitude and ignore those that do not. 

 

- Have an amazing  time. We are looking at the same cruise you are doing for 2026 so I look forward to hearing about the trip. 

 

All the best Jean

 

 

 

Excellent! 

32 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Good afternoon Cooler inmates.

 

Not suggestion these are “funnies” just food’ish.  🙂

 

Today was our first oysters of the year.  Scrawny and small so a couple of dozen all shucked bloodlessly by me and supported by some lovely ficelle and Laurent Perrier Blanc de Blanc ie the absolutely original non sugar dosed but naturally sparkling champers.  

 

It was lovely to have a slow going lunch today with my extraordinary long-suffering partner in crime. These piccies are of eatings and empties.

 

Have a great day all Coolers. 🙂

 

 

Just sublime! 

20 hours ago, FauxNom said:

I hate to tell tales, but there was a massive outbreak of gastroenteritis on the Cloud in late March, Walvis Bay to Port Elizabeth. We were not told of a precise diagnosis, though it did take you out for 1-3 days, and usually responded to antibiotics. Rumor was that AGE is rampant in Cape Town, where many about-to-embark passengers had spent time before coming on board in Walvis Bay.

Hope you weren't one of the victims and your final leg was great. After a week in the bush we returned through CPT .  Gastro issues nailed us after we returned home.  Now it all makes sense. Thanks for that update. 

Hiroshima Castle looks lovely.  Thanks. 

Brando looks fabulous. Thanks for the pics.  Were you on the snorkeling side?

Sounds like a rough expedition start.  Hope they get their legs under them. Not sure I like the idea of paying for snorkeling on an expedition.....hmmmm.  There seems to be a lot of poor planning by the mother ship and inexperienced EL's.

Glad they opened the restaurant for lunch on a sea day and dinner was good.

Signature Suite question - can you control the hot tub temp or do you have to get Seabourn to do it? We finally scored a SS for an upcoming trip.

Thanks again for answers and reports.😃

Crikey!!!  What a ride.

Thanks for sharing @Reef Knot

I'm ready!

Thanks for the in depth review and especially the whale shark videos.

Thanks much for the added snorkel info @kej1

 We tried to Hilton last visit and it was nice, especially being next to the mall. But Lovie loves the Pu Pu platter at the IC, so it's back there next time.😃  Enjoy.

8 hours ago, commodoredave said:

Great news! I went up to the Pool Grill today to see if I could pre-order a freshly made hamburger for tomorrow lunch rather than the pathetic pre-processed, frozen and thin burger we received a few days ago (see below photo). To my complete surprise and delight, I was told that the Grill was no longer serving these burgers, and had returned to making their own fresh and plump burgers. They even took me behind the counter to show me the fresh burgers. Wow! What a fantastic mid-cruise course correction by SS.! Thank you!! Having one of these new burgers tomorrow and looking forward to it.

 

 

Well done!  Or should I say medium rare.😃  Thanks for helping right be done.

Fantastic new.  Glad things went smoothly.  Love that SFO PPT direct.

Sounds like The Brando is delivering.  Yay!  Thanks for being the Guinea Pig.  😃   Can't wait for more details and pictures.

Any expanded info on snorkeling would be much appreciated. 

7 hours ago, shark b8 said:

well, what with time zones and international travel - we woke up in Shanghai on Wednesday morning, quite a while ago it seems like, and now we're back home in Hawaii....Wednesday afternoon.  Thanks so much for coming along, we've got a few more trips in our back pocket so maybe we'll crank this up again in the not-too-distant future.  Aloha.

Thanks for taking us along! Great Live report. Look forward to the next adventure.