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SempreMare

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  • Posts

    885
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Austin, Texas
  • Interests
    Exploring cities, herb gardening, marksmanship, scarfs, the Pacific Northwest
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Viking, Holland America
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Alaska on HAL, British Isles Explorer on Viking

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  1. Wow, didn’t know that @OneSixtyToOne Added to the London Must-See list!
  2. I believe I added this to the favorite “British Isles Souvenirs” topic but (related to alcohol and British Isles Explorer itinerary…) —> the Warner Castle gift shop has an amazing small-size gin selection. I bought 4 and wished I had bought multiples.
  3. @deec a White Lady was my sail away drink on both Viking Ocean cruises I’ve taken!
  4. @loriva thought you might be interested. ( @Azulann our cruise had to skip Gdańsk and this amazing excursion because of weather / too much wind to make pulling up to the port safe. Thanks for your posts and photos!)
  5. Nothing as intense as that, but the guided tour I took of the NYFD Museum by a retired NYC fire fighter was life changing. I will never forget the stories he told. One random tip: When in a burning building, use the BACK of your hand to touch-test door knobs for heat. Because… If the door knob is flaming hot, you won’t burn your palm which you might need to use to hang on to a tool or a fire fighter if you need help.
  6. One Room Service tip I found true for both Viking and HAL: --> Order double the protein. Ex: HAL room service: the chicken salad sandwich + fries had excellent everything, but only maybe 1 teaspoon of a truly delicious chicken salad inside a very fresh bun, lettuce, tomato. It was a cruel joke when to someone really hungry! (BTW The fries really were excellent. Clearly they knew the chef trick to double-fry the fries at low-then-high temps to make crispy exterior-moist interior french fries.) Ex: Viking room service: served a scant amount of turkey on an otherwise very good club salad. Definitely < 1 oz / 27 grams. However, since Viking room service doesn't "close", I could simply call for another serving of turkey. The problem with HAL room service was - I was so taken in by the Alaska coastal scenery and picture taking that I'd frequently skipped MDR dinner and ordered "late" in the dinner room service window. So if there were problems, it was too late to fix it. Oh! ALSO, heads up: If their advertised closure time was 9:00 pm, HAL room service would sometimes say it was too late to order if I called at 8:40 pm. Multiple nights on that Alaska cruise I recall trying to sleep with my tummy growling.
  7. @Heidi13, you might be interested in Captain Albert’s blog CaptainAlbert.com
  8. @Vineyard View When you say there are two ships, do you mean two classes of ships or two ships?
  9. Andy, I'm sorry you've had to deal with this predicament with Viking. On the good, it's exciting to hear you exploring new cruise lines, given how you think through things I hope you'll update your blog with all the interesting detail. My only other cruise line was my first cruise with HAL on the Westerdam, Seward to Vancouver, and I loved it. It struck me as a "handsome" ship. I feel the Neptune Suite provides a better room layout and much better value than a Penthouse Junior Suite, especially if it's in close proximity to the Neptune Lounge. Most of all, I LOVED the Neptune layout where the desk directly looked out on the BIG window and the changing scenery. I could write, eat breakfast, whatever, and watch the beautiful changing coast go buy directly through that window. The "magic shelves" in the closet were genius. (Shelves that pivot down or up depending on whether you need shelves or clothes hanging space.) The main downside for me is they allow kids, and I really enjoyed the all-adult experience.
  10. Hey there and Thank you @daleybread Your posting happened to help me remember the name of the castle I couldn't remember when posting the above. For the port of Dover, I chose the AM Walmer Castle excursion and PM Sandwich town walkabout. Totally enjoyed both. The Walmer Castle was interesting and historic, with a great cafe and place to enjoy tea. Most importantly ;-), it has an unmissable gift shop !! I particularly enjoyed the fact that the gift shop stocked SMALL portions of interesting gin available for purchase. I especially like Elderflower. I purchased the Elderflower & Rose, St. Clements, and the sampler shown below. I did not purchase but was intrigued by these Damsons? What the heck are Damsons !?! So yes, I can google and found this. I wish they had stocked a small version of that gin. Is anyone here a Damson gin fan? Just curious to hear more about it. I regretted not purchasing that Raspbery preserve. I was thinking about room in my suitcase, but it would have been fun to try and share with people I met on the cruise.
  11. @Heidi13 what is the scope of responsibilities for the master of the ship versus other officers’ roles near it in responsibility?
  12. FYI @loriva that color means “30” knots? note where Aalborg is - middle - vs Oslo - top - thats a lot of time in orange :: sniff :: on the good, a 16 hour fast ( now - 7 am) begins to induce autophagy 🧐
  13. Viking Jupiter is currently in Aalborg, Denmark, our Plan B to Skagen Denmark, which we could not sail into because of the high winds. Had a fabulous excursion to a lighthouse that they predict will disappear within 20 years due to the strong winds in Denmark in general. We took a bus, then we’re pulled by a tractor across the sand and then hiked to the lighthouse. I have sand everywhere, but had a great time. Oslo next. Captain just made an announcement: “Be sure to Hang onto the handrails when walking around the ship as we head into Oslo tonight.” sounds like a strong hint for rough seas ahead going to skip dinner
  14. Definitely The hard thing is remembering, in the moment, why Search isn’t finding the All Excursions doc even though I thought for sure that I had 1) saved it 2) made it available offline maybe the answer is: make a 1-sentence google Doc where it simply links to the PDF Then goog Doc search will inherently remind me it’s there.
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