A wonderful week!

Sailor's.........we had such a fabulous week on the Pride! The service and food was THE best ever. The ship was full......and I met wonderful Seabourn-ites that I had not sailed with before.

Our Prickly Pear Island picnic was a blast........as always! A beautiful day! Richard Branson and his family were on his Necker Island, but didn't come and visit with us. I did ask about them and they do come to the beach almost daily, as they spend the month of Dec. on Necker. (cost for 1 day rental is $36,000--but it sleeps 40.......we could all "pool" our resources and go spend a few days. Hahaha Like Oprah!) A truly fabulous Virgin Island retreat.

mcboo........Nelson DID save mint for me! Oh, his Mojitos are the best! He remembered YOU! Thank you for reminding him.

The "Eggnog Social" was a hoot and a holler.......and alot of fun! Captain T.T. strollin 'a round with his formal crystal nutmeg grater, gratin' the guests egg nog! Officer's and staff all decked out in Santa hats and raindeer antler horns. The hostess wearing white angel wings and her halo (pity she had to buy one)........Jacques playing the Christmas carols on the piano and we all sang.......we did have a great time and made wonderful memories.

Even though my good friend HD was ill we had a most enjoyable time.....

Am trying to "re-coup" today.......and getting ready for Christmas!

Howdy and 'Hola to shipmates, chairsin, Jane, Brian, Tony, Jeff and Celeste!

I send each of you a big "Feliz Navidad!"

Miss M.

Martha B,

Glad Nelson had the mint for you. He makes a great mojito and in a totally different style than I have ever had.

Was Eric DeGrey still onboard? When I spoke to him he said he may still be on board on the 12th.

Welcome back.

mcboo:):)

mcboo~~~No Eric left on the 12th for his vacation. We boarded about 10:30 am so I did visit with him. He had not felt well for a couple of weeks and was anxious to fly back to Canada for a much needed rest. His friend Fran was flying in as well.......he was anxious to see him. Eric's parents winter in South Texas, near Mission. Wonderful folks........Marion and I talk on the phone often.

I was sorry he was not on board.......I missed his "Back to Broadway" show.

MB

Sounds like you had an amazing time! I am so sad that I did not know about Nelson's mojitos- we spent most of our daytime hours in the presence of Nelson and I would have loved to try one- they are my favorite. My husband became slightly addicted to his Bloody Caesars. Happy Holidays!

We had an AWESOME time on the Pride. My husband is addicted to caviar!

Brian and I had a wonderful time on the Pride last week. We met a lot of really great people on board (passengers and crew). We especially enjoyed the company of Martha, Celeste, Jeff, Eric, and Steven! Martha's Egg Nog Social was a lot of fun (Thanks for the invite Martha!). The crew was top-notch and the food was outstanding.

Despite what many on board said, we 1) Were not the entertainment and 2) Are not employed by Seabourn or any other cruise line or travel-related company. Boy were the rumors flying! We just happen to be a long time couple (11 years) with great taste in vacations! We're hooked for good! I'll post more details of our trip in a later thread. Thanks to everyone on board for making this a truly special vacation!

Tony

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Thought I would post this here, for Miss Martha..the Sailors' Fudge is divine and some of my friends have already made it as well, and delight in quizzing those devouring it as to the basic ingredients!

Thank you for sharing and a very Merry Christmas to you and all the Seabourn sailors.

Jane in PHL

Jeff and went looking for you the last morning. We wanted to exchange biz cards. Saw Eric and Stephen later at the airport and they told us you were all down in the Restaurant. Sorry we didn't say goodbye. We really enjoyed your company as well, and I agree the cruise was AWESOME! I am hooked. Tried to see about Bangkok to Singapore, but I think all is sold out.

Hope to see you soon! Merry Christmas!

I'm sorry we didn't get to see you and Jeff before we left... You know how crazy the last morning is. I'll e-mail you our contact information so we can keep in touch. We are looking at possibly doing the same cruise next year. We're definitely ready to sail again! Thank you your company on the ship. It was wonderful meeting you both. Have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Hope to see you soon!

Tony:)

Jane~~~~I had given the Christmas fudge recipe to Cheffy Pascal and the Pastry Chef. I received an e-mail this morning from him saying that he had made it for the Crew mess hall and also had sent a tray of fudge up to the Bridge for Captain T.T., Staff Captain, Kai, Thomas, Miss Grey, and the other officer's. I had to chuckle when I realized, "Southern Holiday chocolate fudge for Norwegian Officer's, sailing in the Caribbean!" (I am guessing he purchased the "Velvetta cheese in St. Thomas.......") It is a wonderful recipe! And so easy!

BITTER COLD here in West Texas.......Friday, wind chill of 7 degree's! (actual temp's have been 15 and 16 deg's.) AND ice! South Texas has snow.......1st time in a 100 years, I think!

Hope all of you are well and safe........

Happy Trails and Sails!

Martita B.

I hope you are keeping warm down there - fly up & join us on teh Dawn on Thursday....perhaps we can convince Charlotte to sail also(it will be tight in teh cabin but fun)!

All the best to you & yours in 2005!

And of course - lots & lots of champagne!

We are planning our next trip w/ Seabourn. Our first experience was on the Pride on November 7th (Barbados/Bridgetown) and we LOVED IT. We can't wait to cruise again soon. We loved Eric and many of the other staff members. We are wondering, we had such good luck, should we stick w/the Pride? Or venture any of the other Seabourn ships?

Also, over Xmas, did anyone see Patrick the bartender or Andrea (Andy) one of the wine servers (he has highlights in his hair like Eric). We just LOVED them.

Thanks!

Also, over Xmas, did anyone see Andrea (Andy) one of the wine servers (he has highlights in his hair like Eric).

Andreas is quite the character. Not only did he party a little too hard in Monte Carlo earlier this year and miss the ship but he gave several of the crew a shock in Istanbul where the markets were full of life-size cardboard cut-outs and posters of him in nothing but his boxer shorts. Apparently he used to be a male model. Lovely guy.

Phildo

That is hilarious! Why doesn't that surprise me? Between him, Patrick and a few other bartenders . . .they made our evenings in the lounge quite the blast. What a doll. Thanks for the reply.

Phil, hey, Quick question since you are a former crew member: We sent some thank you notes to a handful of the crew a few weeks after we left the ship. What are the odds that the notes actually made it to the people they were intended to? And is that an OK/acceptable thing to do, as we didn't get the opportunity to thank them in person on our last day. Would have sent an email, but we doubted there was access? Thanks.

Phil, hey, Quick question since you are a former crew member: We sent some thank you notes to a handful of the crew a few weeks after we left the ship. What are the odds that the notes actually made it to the people they were intended to? And is that an OK/acceptable thing to do, as we didn't get the opportunity to thank them in person on our last day. Would have sent an email, but we doubted there was access? Thanks.

To be honest there is very little chance of them getting to the right people, especially if you sent them to Miami. Crew mail is useless and you are far better off sending emails and asking them to be passed on. Crew.pride@cunardmail.com

I had a package sent to me to be delivered in NYC. Seems the crew purser had been giving out the old address for the port agent for over a year after they moved, despite being informed of the new address. Mail was not returned and now I have to take Seabourn to small claims court to claim the value of the package back since they will not take any responsibilty (it was a rare box set of DVDs).

Phil

That is too bad about the mail. I will try the email address you mentioned. It just doesn't seem very personal if it has to be delivered through another person before reaching the intended recipient. Is it actually given to the recipient, or posted on a board somewhere?

I guess next trip, we'll have to bring Thank You notes/envelopes along with us and have them ready to go before getting off the ship. This was our first cruise, and had no idea what we were in for.

Thanks for all the inside information!

:)

That is too bad about the mail. I will try the email address you mentioned. It just doesn't seem very personal if it has to be delivered through another person before reaching the intended recipient. Is it actually given to the recipient, or posted on a board somewhere?

:)

It will normally be given direct to the recipient via the crew purser if it is address direct to them. It will sometimes have to go through their head of department.

Hope that helps

Phil

Thanks Phil. That does help. I appreciate all of your help on this! With luck, the thank you's will get there, as I remember now we had also included some photos our group that were taken at the bar/lounge. (They may have forgotton who we were, so I thought the pics would help remind them.) :)