Just back

We have just spent three weeks on Whisper. There are few spheres of life in which it is reasonable to expect perfection, but here even perfectionists might find little to complain about. Even the weather was good (and this trip included and early transatlantic crossing ending in Lisbon).

 

Here are some random notes that may be of interest.

 

• The default cosmetics seem to have changed to Acqua di Parma, which were perfectly OK. Half-way through the trip, Bulgari equivalents appeared, the well-known green tea products. I'm not sure whether they were using up old stock or whether there was some other reason.
   
  
• The production show troupe, the Jean Ann Ryan Company, has been increased to eight: two singers, four dancers and a Latin dance couple. At last there are enough of them to really fill the stage and we enjoyed their shows. As usual, they double up as daytime cruise staff.
   
  
• The band is back to a Polish quartet, both competent and versatile.
   
  
• Other entertainers changed roughly weekly, generally including a singer and an instrumentalist or duo. All were praised and most were sociable around the ship.
   
  
• Staff on board this trip included:
  Captain: Gennaro Arma
  Cruise director: Michael Gregurich
  Executive chef: Dirk Martin
  Maitre d': Paolo Vitali
  Cruise consultant: Teresa Binding
  If there was an unhappy crew member, we didn't meet him or her. This was a particularly sociable group of passengers too.
   
  
• There was a guest chef from Spain. Though he spoke little English, he added some innovative dishes to the main restaurant menu and hosted Spanish evenings in the Terrace cafe.
   
  
• The resident chefs provided a cook-off event in which three of the sous chefs competed to produce a dish from ingredients provided, with Dirk as the MC. It was hilarious.
   
  
• Among a number of noticeable upgrades since our last trip on Whisper (August 2004), the patisserie has been improved. An omelette station has been added for breakfast in the Terrace cafe (where the pasta station is at lunchtime) but at breakfast much the easiest way to get hot food is to ask a waiter for it. Also in the Terrace cafe, it is a real achievement to carry your own food from the buffet to the table without being intercepted by a waiter. We called the rare occasions that we managed this a "home run"!
   
  
• No list of the 30 or so complimentary wines was available, but the wine stewards were knowledgeable and eager to open an alternative bottle if we didn't fancy whatever was being poured.
   
  
• We took only two organised excursions, one other having been cancelled by the operator. We enjoyed them, and they were well organised. Shuttle buses were provided wherever needed and they ran on a convenient timetable. Tenders in ports where we anchored ran pretty much on demand.
   
  
• We had no lines anywhere, for anything with the sole exception of the pool deck barbecue. We must have waited all of five minutes in that one!

Good to read your report, jgibbs, and glad it was such an enjoyable time! Can you expound a bit on the SS excursions you did take - what they included and approximate prices? Did you take others on your own? Welcome home!

We did the rain forest aerial tram in Dominica and a conventional tour of Gibraltar including the siege tunnels. Both were afternoon tours and they were about $79 and $59 pp IIRC.

 

In Dominica, we took a minibus to the tram. This was a journey of about 50 minutes going high into the hills on very poor roads. The driver navigated us around huge potholes and over rough ground. The tram is an unconventional cable car. It is 18 months old and seems well built; it took eight years to construct. The cars are very narrow, taking two passengers across in four rows plus a single seat for a guide at the back, making nine per car. The cars are open air apart from a plastic canopy to keep off (some of) the 300-400 inches of rain a year. We were lucky and had a dry trip.

 

Instead of running side by side, the cars go first uphill through the forest floor, climbing perhaps 1,500 ft, and then turn around and come back through the canopy, 60 ft or so higher up. The tram stops frequently to load and unload passengers. At the top, you have the option to walk a short way downhill, crossing a (very deep!) gorge on a steel suspension footbridge. This takes about 15 minutes, and you are reunited with the rest of your group at a station a bit further down the hill. A full trail is being constructed alongside the tram.

 

The whole ride takes just over an hour. At the end, we were offered a drink and then returned to the ship on the minibus. Never having been in a rainforest before, we found it fascinating. There are steps at the stations, but otherwise it is physically undemanding.

 

The Gibraltar trip was a variant on the default "drive around with stops" tour aimed at first-time visitors. It included a cable car ride to a high lookout on top of the Rock, with views of the whole area; then back to a middle point where the Barbary apes live; where we rejoined our minibus. From there, we went to the siege tunnels, an amazing feat of military construction right inside the cliffs; a 100-ton gun; and a museum. There was plenty of driving around the heavily built up area of Gibraltar so we saw a good deal of it. At the end, we had the option of getting off at the shops, 10 minutes' walk from the ship, or returning direct to the ship. There is some walking on this trip and the tunnels involve some steep sections and a low roof in places so tall people need to stoop, but only for a few yards at a time.

 

Almost everywhere else, we did our own thing, mainly on foot but (obviously) using shuttle buses or tenders as needed. In the Caribbean ports, we mostly walked around the area near the port but in Grenada we made a point of finding the spice market and paying our tourist tax: it seemed immoral to haggle. On the other side of the pond, we particularly enjoyed walking around the Baixa area of Lisbon; Funchal had a flower festival on the day we visited; Cadiz is a favourite port, where the ship parks right in the centre of town and the old town is completely untouristy; in Casablanca, having been there before, I'm afraid we just stayed on the ship.

Thank you for the very compehensive and interesting report. It is nice to hear that everything went well. Welcome home!

jgibbs

 

Thanks for your recent report.

 

Was the ship sailing with all suites full?......just so I can get an idea of service levels.

 

Do you know if Captain Arma was staying on?

 

Thanks

p.s. I was asking because we are sailing on the Whisper next month and I know that the cruise is sold out.

Was the ship sailing with all suites full?

Actually, that was a surprise. We were on two consecutive cruises. The first was as full as can be -- about 377/380. The second was about half-full, 190/380. We noticed only one service difference: on the first cruise, we had to queue for the pool barbecue for, oh, all of four or five minutes. Really no perceptible difference. Obviously, public areas were busier on the earlier cruise but the ship has so much space that it can be more sociable when full -- shades of the Marie Celeste on the later cruise!

 

Do you know if Captain Arma was staying on?

Sorry, don't know.

jgibbs

 

Do you know if Captain Arma was staying on?

 

Thanks

 

Arma is scheduled to disembark mid-May, 2005.

Crew Zer

 

Thanks for the info.