BillPizzaiolo
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Posts posted by BillPizzaiolo
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The classes accommodate 24 students so book early they fill up fast.
I have the handout and notes from the course prepared by Chef Kathryn Kelly. The class is very hand’s on and you get to eat everything you make. Don't plan a big dinner the afternoon or day you take the class. Each team of two has a cooking station with everything needed. Flavors, nutrients, ingredients are all described. The class varies by the chef instructor and the ports of call if specific ingredients are needed or local technique is unique. The recipes featured include: Pan-seared Lacquered salmon, Wasabi Mashed potatoes, Coconut pan-fried shrimp with chili garlic sauce, Shallow-poached fish with creamy butter sauce, Golden semolina-quinoa-spinach cakes, Deep poached salmon salad, court bouillon, Baked Chiliean sea bass in miso sauce, Baked Shrimp scampi, Brazilian scallops with coconut lime glaze and coconut rice, Aquavit-cured salmon, Tropical beach Ceviche.
The techniques covered in the class were: Pan-searing/sauteing, Pan Frying, Poaching both shallow and deep methods, Grilling, Curing, Baking fish.
The chef’s tips included: instant polenta, acid marinade, entertaining tips on advanced prep, buying fish.
We are fairly good cooks. Our son is a chef and a chef instructor in a public school vocational program. We have owned a restaurant with him and worked both front and back of the house, while we worked at our professional careers. We are retired now, thank God, and enjoy learning and cooking. We learned something new at every class or demonstration we have been fortunate to attend on board (12 so far). The learning is very differentiated so that beginner to experts can enjoy and learn new skills. Highly recommended for foodies.
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Has anyone taken the onboard culinary class called "What Mermaids Know"?
We have and it is about how to cook seafood.
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We just came off the Nautica. We heard that rumor as well. I guess we will see in the near future.
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If everyone is fastidious and follows good hygiene practices then we can keep from getting sick or sicker. What do you suggest?
These are 7 things I do to minimize chances:
1. Wash hands, W/warm water & Soap, sing three verses of Happy Birthday then rinse-frequently. Always after bathroom, blowing nose, etc.
2. Avoid touching stuff, handles, knobs, rails, shoes, etc. with bare hands and then touching face without sanitizing hands.
3. Take a Probiotic capsule, daily, regularly before traveling and while traveling.
4. Eat unsweetened Greek Yogurt on occasion.
5. Sanitize hands after handling menu, and make sure menu doesn't touch eating utensils.
6. If shaking hands, avoid touching face until after sanitizing hands.
7. Never touch food on display with bare hands.
Even with all that there is still a chance that some critter will make it's way to try to make me ill. The Probiotic flora in my gut should help my immune system take care of it quickly.
The crew of the ships we have traveled on seem to be fastidious in trying to keep it clean. We can only help by not bringing it on board from the ports we visit. I remember after a day of touring in Casa Blanca we had to sanitize our shoes before boarding by walking through a disinfectant mat.
Please share what you do to stay well. May be it will help others.
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With wonderful New York values. Lol
New Yorkers values are mostly respect and tolerance for most anything except greedy landlords
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I love the Bronx. Born there. Lol
Some people think ny is scary
I prefer to go where I want to go. I am not afraid.
NYC is one of the SAFEST Cities in the world. It has had its moments but there is no other place I would rather be. We grew up in the BRONX ! BTW it is having a housing resurgence and perhaps is one of the most affordable places to live in NYC. It is the only Boro that is connected to the Continental US and is not an Island.It has the BX Zoo, Botanical Gardens, Yankee Stadium, Arthur Ave Little Italy, City Island, Van Cortland Park and Hunts Point Markets among other things We may live in NJ now but NYC has always been my hometown. The only downside is the traffic. But traffic is bad in every big city. Most hostage events in USA are homegrown gun toting crazies in soft targeted places.
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What he said! =)
I forgot to mentionWednesdays mid day can be problematic as it is the Matinee day for the theatre district and lots of people drive in at that time (Lincoln tunnel traffic). Friday evenings can be bad too as well as holiday weekends or summertime commutes in and out of the City. Week before Christmas and New Year's can be tough as well. Add that to all the other things that can impact traffic and you have a typical NYC day.
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I live in Manhattan. Any of the airports will work. Taxis & car services are abundant & can get you anywhere in the city quickly. Book whatever airport gives you the best value.
Quickly is a relative time frame depending on traffic and whist might be happening in the City on the day you need to get to the port. Remember that the UN is in NYC and it and other events can impact the cross town traffic coming from JFK and LaGuardia. Commuter traffic going through the tunnels from NJ's EWR (Newark) in the mornings and may have significant delays. Always allow for extra time. Super Shuttle, Dial 7's, Uber and Yellow cabs are all excellent. Prices are competitive and somewhat similar. Price out the various air fares to the various airports. JFK usually has the best schedule and gets the most flights with landing priority over the other two airports. IMHO it is most distant from down town and the West side ports. Be sure to spend extra time in the City that never sleeps there are so many things to see and do. Take advantage of them and enjoy your trip.
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Sign up for the STEP program with the US Department of State. They will indicate where it is not safe and where it is. We did before we went to Egypt last November. the STEP web message was to avoid Sinai, we stayed in Cairo and cruised the Nile, flew to Abu Simbel and Luxor. We felt as comfortable as we do walking in the streets of NYC. BTW all the tourist sites were not crowded with huge numbers. The lines were manageable the traffic was interesting.
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We have two upcoming Oceania cruises planned. I hope that they are not marred by any unhappy, disgruntled folks. Whether the cruises contain such folks or not we refuse to be tainted by their actions. We will have a good time meeting new friends and learning about new places. Happy Healthy New Year to all.
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It is interesting to note that all the bad ilk is being posted around the time when the 10best dot com online voting is taking place in all categories. Which in itself seems biased to the lines with largest passenger load either per ship or overall. I wonder if they take that into account. Is it something worthwhile to base a travel decision? I think face to face word of mouth based upon real experiences trump any online forums. Some folks are very entertaining in their creative writing.
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Yeh,thanks ORV...:D
A few years ago we were visiting relative in Sicily and after driving all over the island, we were to fly out of Catania. One morning while eating breakfast outside i noticed that there was what I thought was pepper sprinkled on my plate and table. It was the fine dust from the volcano. You couldn't see it fall but it was in the air. Later we saw folks shoveling the dust the same way we do snow. It was an experience I'll never forget. We were to drive up to the view points but they closed the roads. Then we found out that the airport was closed because they didn't want the dust to get into the engines of the planes. We had to drive back to Palermo to fly. Lesson learned keep an eye on the "mountain weather reports."
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..and what makes you think that people would listen to these instructions any better when they ignore perfectly clear color instructions?
I find it interesting that this "disembarkation problem" comes up over and over ONLY in Miami. Everyone can make their own conclusions on this.
It is the One big reason we avoid taking cruises out of US Ports. If we want to be in big crowds we go to the Port Authority Bus terminal in NYC by bus from Jersey. It is no different. Somehow overseas we behave a bit better. Maybe because there are foreigners watching us. But wait, over there we are the foreigners.
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FYI I really prefer White Castle burgers, a bag full at a time. Some folks call them sliders, yes, the real thing. No one makes them as good. Yum.
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I am a big believer in Personal responsibility. This means that I use the Clorox wipes myself in any public gym, just like I do in the grocery story and Target when I take a shopping cart. I would never depend on or expect anyone else to sanitize inbetween customers.
I agree. If you catch something. It is because you didn't protect yourself and you touched your face or food with dirty hands or contaminated your eating utensils or menu. We always sanitize after touching the menu before eating anything anywhere. You have to be germ phobic when you travel world wide or out in public.
My two cents on the subject.
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Is Oceania offering to do anything for the passengers on Riviera? Seems to me they should offer something for missed ports and all the areas of the ship that are closed. Sounds like they have not even offered anyone a drink. Pretty cheap on their part. Not the cruise that all have paid for. Let's see if Oceania steps up and does the right thing.
Personal hygiene is very important when living in a community such as a ship. All must take various steps to prevent the spread. Washing hands frequently, using hand sanitizers, avoiding touching one's face near mouth, cleaning hands after holding a menu before eating, especially after using bathroom, etc., etc. We all know that but some folks forget. We have found that even using all the precautions might lead to a case of mummy tummy so to speak. So in addition we make certain to boost our flora with a few weeks of Probiotics and yogurt before the cruise. If you do decide to do that check with your Dr. first. So if there is one weak link on board we are protected as best we can be. There are no guarantees even with all the precautions.
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Just saw that the U.S. State Dept has issued a worldwide travel warning thru Feb. 24th 2016. Kind of scary. Do we do something, or nothing? Cancel, not cancel? Have Feb. booked in Carib. and July booked in Europe. I guess just wait and see. Any other thoughts? :confused::confused::confused:
We saw a recent Rick Steves video on the topic. Unfortunately he equated the terrorism with actuarial events like car accidents and US gunshot events. It is much more than that. Yet still, the odds are in our favor because there are many more of us than them. I only hope we and our allies wipe them out quickly and not leave a vacuum for another crazy group to rise up. Maybe that is why they posted the February date.
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Don't understand why you are asking us when your passports expire?? Only you know that based on the date on the passport. Nothing in what we have discussed changes the expiration dates. Putting pages in your passports has no effect on your passport beyond more blank pages
It has to do with the two month cancellation notice mentioned in an earlier posting. I could not find it. Fortunately, I don't believe now that it pertains to my passport expiring in 2019. We hope we have three years to fill up the extra pages before getting new passports.
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We are in the process of waiting for our passports to be returned with extra pages and a China Visa for a cruise in March. Is it true that the passports will expire in two months. Will that mean we need to get new passports now?
Doesn't mention the two month expiration. Where did that come from?
Bill
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We are in the process of waiting for our passports to be returned with extra pages and a China Visa for a cruise in March. Is it true that the passports will expire in two months. Will that mean we need to get new passports now?
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This was in today's International Business Times and other news publications:
"The U.S. government will stop adding extra visa pages to existing U.S. passports beginning Jan. 1, the State Department announced Thursday. Previously, U.S. passport holders could buy an additional 24 pages when they ran out of space in their passports for necessary visa stamps. Within two months, however, they'll need to scrap the old passport and get a new one."
Therefore, you shouldn't have a problem obtaining the extra pages in December…but "shouldn't" doesn't necessarily mean "won't."
I guess that this is another instance that CNN or the instant internet news cycle does it again. Maybe someday in the near future we will get the story straight.
My wife and I heard it so I wonder now if we heard wrong. I doubt it. Thanks for the info.
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Oceania offers the opportunity to get your visa from their subcontractor's service. You can also at a substantial savings do it yourself. That is good if you live near where the consulate is located. We tried that once. It worked, but was time consuming and a bit troublesome. We decided this time to use the service offered and pay the fees, albeit dear. Now only to find out because of the myriad of stamped pages our passports were almost full and China has a particular need for facing blank pages were necessary.
We need to pay an additional fee to get added pages put in by the Department of State through the visa servicing company. Whew! it is adding up fast.
Now, today on CNN we hear that Dept. of State will no longer put extra pages into passports due to passport violations that they expect due to the international situation. I hope we are in the pipeline for the extra pages, plus the Chinese visas. We won't know until mid December if we need to get new passports. That cuts it close to our travel dates.
Has anyone in the US had experience with the extra pages issue or using the visa services or are you in the same situation as we are?
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We got home last night from the long flights from Cairo. It was well worth the effort. Our Uniworld Nile River Cruise experience in Egypt was as if we were on a 5 star VIP private tour with an expert Egyptologist. Hatem was very knowledgeable and led our group through the historical sites holding our attention every minute of the trip. He watched out for us and we felt very safe and secure throughout.
Before and after the cruise we stayed overnight in the Four Seasons Cairo at Nile Plaza. It was part of the cruise package. We had room service dinner on our balcony overlooking the Nile and Cairo both evenings. Upon visiting the sights the only thing we experienced that was uncomfortable was desperate attempts of the souvenir vendors selling their wares. Our guide insulated us from the hassle. As we were transported, in AC comfort, from site to site people and children waved friendly waves. Everything was excellent. The chef on board met every request. The staff was friendly, efficient and very competent. The food and presentation was perfect. The chef even made a near eastern cooking demonstration on deck one afternoon.
Seeing the infrastructure designed for the huge tourist industry sit idle was bad for Egypt but a big advantage for us. There were no lines, no waiting anywhere. I would do it again it was a bargain and a once in a lifetime experience. Not very ADA accessible at the sites if you have walking issues, lots of stairs and rough paths along with the heat of Egypt. After all, the sights were built and designed thousands of years ago. It is one of the must see places in the world if you are willing to make the effort.
Included Ports and key tour locations all accompanied by a (college professor Egyptologist) Hatem Abdel Aziz and an armed security guard (thankfully needed only for peace of mind).
Day 1 & 2, Cairo = Hotel stay Four Seasons Cairo Nile Plaza
Tour of Cairo's Old Citadel of Salah al-Din with Alabaster Mosque and Egyptian Museum.
Day 3, Flight to Luxor, Temple of Karnak & Embark on River Tosca, evening visit to Luxor Temple
Day 4 AM visit to Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Light show at Luxor Temple
Day 5 AM visit to Valley of the Kings, Hatsheput Temple and Colossi of Memnon, Galabeya party in evening
Day 6 visit Kom Ombo Temple, cruise towards Aswan, bird-watching boat ride & visit to an island Nubian Village. Evening Belly Dancer & Whirling Dervish dancer exhibition on board.
Day 7 visit unfinished obelisk, Philae Temple then Aswan High Dam, Afternoon visit Felucca boat ride to have high tea at Old Cataract Hotel. Evening Nubian show.
Day 8 early AM Took optional visit to Abu Simbel PM cruised to Edfu via Kom Ombo
Day 9 Visit Temple of Horus cruised back to Luxor
Day 10 Disembark at Luxor flew back to Cairo, Evening Sound and light show at the Pyramids of Giza. Ovenight in Four Seasons Hotel Cairo Nile Plaza.
Day 11Visit Memphis & Sakkara then Great Sphinx and camel ride around Pyramid in Giza entered either Khafre or Menkaure.
Day 12 Fly home - Thankfully we didn't get a final exam before leaving. We thoroughly enjoyed learning all about Egypt and the Nile with Hatem.
Here are a few of our photos.
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I failed to mention that we were interviewed by an Egyptian TV station. http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/showphoto.php?photo=36402
What Mermaids Know
in Oceania Cruises
Posted · Edited by BillPizzaiolo
We all have choices to make in life and you made yours. We found the onboard classes entertaining as well as informative. We have also attended cooking schools in Budapest, Saigon, Florence, Lyons, Maine, and the CIA in NY. I think the class on board is a value well spent for the time spent.