CGTNORMANDIE

I hope you like Guinness Lois…lol. The Scots revere their Scotch whiskey. They drink it straight up. Bon Voyage Lois…hope you have a great cruise. Come back here and let us know if you discover any great drinks!

Hi Bruce, you are working on a luxury ship? We were comparing the comestibles on some of the giant mega ships. The typos and missing accents and often misspelling were due to the Greeks limited English. In those says the Chandris ships were all crewed by Greeks…unlike the multinational assortment of personnel you find onboard today.

Have they done away with the 30% discount on a future cruise???

Winter crossings on a ship built for warm waters???

Hi Lois, YES…the Friday Night Fish Fry at HoJo’s was nation wide.

Yarramar, LOL LOL 😂

Just shows us what an important component fine dining was in those days. Some of us were fortunate enough to have experienced this. I would also add that each preparation tasted wonderful.

Bermuda…the Bermuda Rum Swizzle! Bermuda produces the best Falarnum in the world. Falarnum is a necessary ingredient in the Rum Swizzle. Canada…Canadian whiskey of course. A fine Crown Royal will do. New England…Sam Adams Beer, of course. A mixed drink with cranberry juice like a Cape Cod for instance.

Howard Johnson’s was always a treat when we were on the road. There were many burger shacks where you could get a couple burgers, fries and a shake for less than a dollar! I remember cheese burgers when they were 15 cents! Most of the dining establishments back in the 50’s were diners and barrooms and a lot of them were very good. Urban renewal ruined most of the small restaurants in Boston. We had at least 5 outstanding delis in Boston and dozens of little Italian and ethnic joints…one better than the next. Chinatown had at least a dozen outstanding restaurants. I really miss them all.

Compare the above menus to the limited garbage being served on the mega ships today. Thank you Tufu for reminding us of how much we are missing. Those menus are wonderful!

Simply hand out envelops on the last night. The service in the YC is top grade and you won’t have to wave your wad around to get their attention. If you decide to go outside the YC and frequent one or two of the bars you might want to give a discrete $20 bill just so a particular bartender will remember you.

It will be a bit different from other cruises. You get to know your fellow pax better than you would on a Caribbean cruise. If you are a people person you will enjoy those sea days and getting to know other pax and crew. You will find that the mood onboard is more relaxed and congenial. RCI Freedom Of The Seas is a great ship to do your first TA. You will not get bored. Freedom has a great activity level for those pax who want to participate and there are plenty of spaces for those who want to chill. The weather should be mild 70’s and the seas on your southern route should be calm.

It is amazing to compare those menus with the mass production main dining rooms onboard the current gigantic circus ships. The level of service, quality of ingredients and attention to detail reflected in the above menus shows us a stark contrast to the mediocrity being offered today. Thanks again…it is a thrill to see how pax were feted in that golden era. You might want to post those menus over on the “Cruise Foodies”site. The gang over there would love to see them.

Pizza Today just named Modern Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut as the number one pizzeria in America. Modern Apizza uses oil fired ovens.

Cambridge still has a number of very good pizza joints…some…more upscale than others. There is a small shop over on Huron Ave. called Armando’s and it is rated as one of the best neighborhood pizzerias. There are also some newer brick oven shops in the Tech Square area.

Seen it, done that and been there. IMHO the classic Neapolitan Margherita pizza is not the be all end all. I’ve had better pizza baked in regular pizza ovens. Wood fired is very good but so is coal. To me the quality of the ingredients makes all the difference.

Like I said…really great pizza is hard to find. I’ve dined with the purists and found their pizza to be average to a bit above. The best pizza I ever had was onboard the Leonardo DaVinci and they cooked and seasoned the sauce. The dough was made 3 days ahead. They also added a basil leaf and they laid a strip of anchovy over the top of the pizza with an Italian black olive in the middle. I’m from Boston and we have several highly rated pizza joints…Regina’s, Santarpio’s and many others in the metro area. We also have hundreds of mediocre pizza joints…one worse than the other.

Really great pizza is hard to find. The dough should be made from a natural starter vs yeast and the dough should be aged for 3 days. The sauce needs to be cooked with onion and garlic, not straight out of a can, and properly seasoned. The cheeses need to be mixed not just mozzarella. The toppings need to be fresh and top quality. I love a fresh mushroom pizza or a Italian fennel sausage, fresh mushroom and fresh onion pizza.

For Heavens sake…shhhhh. That’s supposed to be a secret! You are supposed to tell them about the rough seas and hurricanes and the boredom of being at sea for six straight days!

Crossing the North Atlantic is always a big question mark. I have seen it as calm as a mill pond and as violent as a hurricane. On average…and don’t quote me lol…you should experience moderate weather and fairly warm temperatures 60’s-70’s in early September. But then again…???

C’est si vrai monsieur Hank!

Kidneys, tongue, beef-veal-lamb liver, pickled lamb tongue, pickled or smoked pigs knuckle, etc…no problem…love them all. Blood pudding…no thanks.

The French have a famous saying…”Vivre pour manger ou manger pour vivre”. Do you live to eat or do you eat to live. Foodies definitely live to eat!

I believe you are talking about Franconia II. Franconia I was from 1923. Franconia II was launched as Ivernia in 1956. Around 1958-1960 (extemporaneous) the name was changed to Franconia and she had a career cruising to Bermuda which is probably where you caught up with her. Caronia was a luxury liner in her own class…World Class…she was purpose built for cruising and about 10,000 tons larger than Franconia. So in response to your initial question…no Franconia was not a sister ship to Caronia. Caronia II was a very special purpose built ship.

And don’t forget the flaming Crepes Suzette!