jpalbny

Ome of my two favorite natural phenomena, mimicking the other! Nice picture. Hopefully off to the Loire Valley on Friday.

Welcome back, and have a wonderful trip! Is this your itinerary? The map is from the Ponant site, but for the cruise following yours. I hate that you can't see the itinerary for ongoing cruises on any line's website. There are some really nice stops on this trip! In Promise Bay, if they offer a hike to Winglass Bay, take it. Really nice views. And the Tamar Valley is another very pretty setting. With wineries! Looks like fun, though I'm disappointed that you don't stop in the town of Penguin! I'll look forward to your ongoing reports while we are freezing up here in chilly Upstate New York.

All that, and what you shipped ahead? Are you moving in? 😉

I hope @mysty, myster, @drron29, and @rojaan19 have a fantastic "meet and greet" in Bali! Just wish we could be there too.

No. You can dress one category lower than the evening's dress code in LT, and the Grill is always casual. Quoted from the website: https://www.silversea.com/travel-informations/general-information.html "Evening attire falls into three categories: casual, informal and formal. On casual evenings, pants, blouses, skirts and casual dresses for ladies; open-neck shirts and slacks for gentlemen are appropriate. On informal evenings, ladies usually wear dresses or pantsuits; gentlemen wear jackets (tie optional). Appropriate formal evening wear for ladies is an evening gown or cocktail dress; gentlemen wear tuxedos, dinner jackets or dark suits. Tie is required. On formal nights, guests may dine in La Terrazza and choose to dress informal; dresses or pantsuits for ladies, jackets for gentlemen (tie optional). This option also applies to Seishin on board Silver Spirit, Kaiseki on board Silver Muse, Silver Moon and Silver Dawn. Dining at The Grill and Spaccanapoli is optional casual all nights."

Glad you are on the mend, Lois! Hope all goes smoothly from here.

It is indeed. We have sailed with him once. You are in for a treat!

We saw it last year. Was lovely!

Tips have been included on both of our cruises, with no additional gratuities expected.

Sounds like a bit of a pain. Especially the airport to Miraflores to Callao run! Callao may be a large mostly industrial port that severely limits traffic within? So maybe the Silversea bus has special permission to enter, but not a private taxi? I'm reminded of Guayaquil, where we embarked independently once. Our driver could not enter. We had to go to the entrance of the port and check in, but then we could not walk to the ship. And this was the only time anyone ever wanted to see a cruise ticket... We then had to ride the port shuttle between the ship and the gate. Our friends who arrived by the Silversea bus said they just drove in and were let off at the gangway.

Are they working with the cable TV company? That's quite a window.

I was wondering why you were there 10 years prior. Chris and I watched the wall come down on a tiny TV in her dorm room, during her first year of med school. 1989 sounds right for that.

We sailed with Kirk on Silver Wind, in June 2012! I think it was one of his first assignments with Silversea, because I wrote in my Live From thread that he was the "new" cruise director. We liked him then but I don't think we had the pleasure to sail with him again.

Hope springs eternal... This does sound silly. Hopefully for your sake (and your fellow passengers') they get those documents out soon. In all of my SS cruises, the only place I remember being asked for my cruise ticket before they would let me in the terminal building was in South America (Ecuador). Other places don't seem to care. Yes, Peruvian cuisine is delicious! Hope you get a good chance to enjoy it. The ceviches are divine. It's too bad that the ship has to dock in Callao when all of the action is in Old Town Lima and Miraflores, which are both quite distant. Last time we were in Lima (July) we used an app called inDrive to get around. It feels a little sketchy but it works well, and it's cheap. You need to have local cash to pay, though, so it may not be practical for all to use. I would definitely use it again; we went from Miraflores to Old Town for less than $10 each way (20-30 minute drive depending on traffic) while the hotel wanted something like $50 to arrange transportation.

Chris visited in High School and told me about that. Then when we went to Berlin together in 2017 we read about it at one of the museums.

So after six months without a cat in the house, we caved a week ago. Our friends were fostering these two little ones for a while, so now they have a new home! Dora And Duma. Duma rhymes with puma which fits him well, even though it's Swahili for cheetah (which is why we chose it). And if (when) he does something stupid we can call him Dumb-a. It's a good multipurpose name. Side by side you can see that Dora is such a fluffball. Her tail is epic! If only she would help with the dusting. They are quite energetic, now that they have stopped hiding and are comfortable in their new home. I hope we can keep up with them!

It's really not that bad. Have done it numerous times with suitcases. The RER line from CDG is easy to negotiate, with a sensible amount of luggage. Even if you have to make a change somewhere. Yup. Did that too, last Christmas. On the older Piccadilly line, not the new Elizabeth line. I agree, Heathrow Express is much nicer and so fast! It just depends whether or not Paddington Station is a useful destination for you. Since our hotel was in Covent Garden it made more sense to just use the Tube. Finally did that in 2015, Paris to Lyon. And Paris-Geneva the year after. The view from the upper level, as two trains pass at full speed, is crazy. We use a lot of trains or other public transport to/from airports in Europe. Sometimes Chris gets exasperated following me with her small suitcase in tow. But with the money I save avoiding taxi rides, I can buy her extra wine. So she ends up happy!

In our case it was around sunset, before dinner. It was very pleasant out on the back deck, close to the water. With the quiet electric drive system you hardly hear anything but the ocean rushing by. And no diesel fumes to interfere with the taste of your wine! Chris brought a simple white linen dress that took minimal packing space. It was useful in other parts of the tropics as well.

Use it all. We'll buy more!

LOL. Good one! I don't think we even own that many suitcases. Using them all on a single trip would be a whole 'nother level!

Yes, I took a look and this was on a sea day.

Very convenient. Have done this a few times on different trips. We have flown to Frankfurt, then taken the train to Nürnberg or Würzburg. Have also flown to Paris and then taken the TGV to Genève.

We.had a white party on our Indonesia cruise in March. It was a pre-dinner event on the back deck and everyone did follow the suggested dressed code. We had brought white outfits so we blended in. We did not have one on our 7-day Corsica trip the year prior.

We have always enjoyed the food on Ponant. But then again I rarely meet a meal I don't like - unfortunately!

Pretty cool! Thanks for pointing us to it.