Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

I'm feeling all inspired to go and bake my absolute favourite, Challah Bread.

When I find a spare bit of time i'll have to go and bake a loaf and be sure to put a piccy up.

You should try your hand at bagels or onion bialys .... they are extraordinarily rewarding ... and saves a long journey to Brick Lane.

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Ooooo the times I’ve queued outside the doors in Brick lane at 3am for a Salt Beef bagel! Those were the days.

Why not try making them?

Challah - fine - but you can buy a reasonable one or simply shrug and have a decent brioche loaf. But you cannot buy decent bagels except in a very few shops who make them fresh. An hour later and they are no longer bagels. Before Brick Lane "was the place to go" there was an old traditional bagel baker long since closed by Hanbury Street. It had a wood fire and I use to always get the charred ones (as you can tell from my piccies those are what I like) and it was the place the taxi drivers went to so you know it was the best. I use to go there every morning at 5 or 6am after my stint in Soho. It's funny my favourite bagel is still gouda. Onion Bialys were always called onion platzels until New Yorkers decided to rename them back to the place they came from - a very small stetl.

There must be a moment when your place is quiter in the wee hours when you can really do with some self time and take yourself into the kitchen and in that lovely quietness at that time in the morning make a few and perhaps freeze a few for another nights treat. They will be constantly calling you from the freezer ..... "Eat me ....Eat me ...."

Are they not a thing of wonderous beauty?

This is making me hungry! I’ve only ever made bagels once. You can’t buy anything like that around here! Sometimes, but not very often and never for very long, I do miss living in a city.

mmmmmm! says it all!

I think I may have been a bit too ambitious with my gouda order. 6kgs. Anyone like a slice?

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Now that’s proper cheese! Thought you were on a diet?

Wow!

I like cheese a lot but I think that amount would defeat me. :D

Drool worthy!

I think I’ll be dreaming about bagels tonight. They look fantastic Jeff. Especially the bien cuit bits

Oh those bagels look AWESOME:D……….and I love cheese:D

Davey, I love Challah too:D

Ultra Luxury? SS was the first Luxury Line I have ever sailed...…..all the others were mainstream.

The difference is 180 degrees...…...I think (just my opinion) one of the biggest difference is the SIZE of the ship

and the amount of guests on board...…...then I would break it down into categories.

I think I’ll be dreaming about bagels tonight. They look fantastic Jeff. Especially the bien cuit bits ��

The illness all starts with that.

I kept going through many, many years after I left London thinking about bagels. One night it was so bad, I drove at 3am from our home not far from Stonehenge all the way up to Brick Lane and bought a dozen slightly charred bagels. Of course on the way home, the bagels were warm and they were fragrant and the smell filled the car (can you smell them ..... :) ) and so I thought I'd just have one. "After all 11 is more than enough left in the bag". I started to munch away until there was just three left. My wife got up in the morning and I had buttered all three for her and she said "where's yours?" and I owned up that they never reached home. She took pity and shared.

I then realised that I needed to make perfect bagels at home. Not perfect looking bagels - I like rustic and individual personality within a bagel and I feel the home made look is essential to the charm - but perfect tasting bagels. And so I read. What was interesting was that if you read some of the stuff written by bakers of bagels (isn't the internet wonderful) many of them aren't making them correctly mostly because they allow a second slow rise which compromises the crumb - but it was the old fashioned Jewish bagel makers that preserved the correct process.

I then got it into my head, and couldn't shake the idea that probably 99% of the British population - perhaps more - had never tasted a freshly baked authentic bagel because most only taste the supermarket stuff or stuff made by traditional bakers who don't boil in malted water and retard the second rise. I know that once tasted they leech into the mind and become almost drug-like and you yearn for them and I started to wonder whether there was a niche for a national franchised clearly ethnic bagel chain. I got as far as talking to a franchise consultant and he thought it would be bigger than doughnuts. Then I suppose other things distracted me and the idea disappeared out of main memory. So now it is a solitary late night occupation when I can't sleep. A glass of Armagnac and kneading, boiling and baking bagels.

This proves what an utterly pointless way I have spent most of my time. But the more you learn that there is no point to life but only doing really important things like making and eating bagels, I feel that it is only then that you can claim that you really understand the meaning of life. :)

:)

Afternoon Coolers! I Have a question for you.

What does the term ultra luxury mean toyou?'

A high passenger space ratio; quality construction/materials; rigorous maintenance; truly 'all-inclusive'; excellent cuisine; premium liquors & 'fine' wines; attention to detail and refined but unobtrusive 24 hr. per day service.

I’ve seen many comments on this site about the differencesbetween mainstream, premium, luxury and ultra luxury but how wouldyou define the difference? Is it the service, the surroundings, thesmall details or the overall experience? What is the one thing thatyou think sets apart one category from the next?

There is no "one thing". It's all the above, combined into the overall experience. While "ultra luxury" may be difficult to define, it's not difficult to say what it isn't.

This is something I've spent some timeconsidering recently following looking around at several cruise linesand would be fascinated to hear other peoples views.

 

I'm not talking about one particularbrand v's another within the same category but I have spent some timerecently looking at a line that some seem to look down their noses atbecause its only “premium”. Everything I've seen about thatparticular brand seems really appealing. The ships look beautiful,the food and service both seem to receive high praise. It looks, all in all, a fantastic experience. I Know itsdifficult to tell without first hand experience but it looks farsuperior in many ways to my recent ultra luxury experience.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing youropinions.

I think the 'problem' lays in the fact there is no set definition of what, exactly, constitutes: "mainstream, premium, luxury and ultra luxury." It's similar to hotel/resort 'star ratings'. A well-run, 3-star hotel with a happy staff and like-minded guests may be infinitely preferable to a 5-star place with thread-bare towels, sullen staff and partying 'spring breakers' next door (even though it has more 'amenities').

I have no experience with "luxury" or "ultra luxury" cruise lines. My cruise history is:

- 16 Princess

- 2 HAL

- 2 Costa.

It's subjective; however, in my mind, out of the 20 cruises, the best was on HAL and the worst was on HAL (that's saying a lot when I've been on the Concordia - truly one of Joe Farcus' dog's breakfasts :eek:). We all know what happened to her.

A cruise is just a snapshot in time of part of one frame of a moving picture. All is flux. I think many cruise pax come to believe the propaganda parroted by the captain, crew & staff i.e. a cruise line exists to provide them with an excellent vacation experience (which is true to a point). However, ultimately the lines exist for one reason and one reason only - to turn a profit. If they could take the lifeboats off and install revenue-generating balcony rooms they would... all the while telling pax "Safety is number one". :rolleyes:

No matter what they say, in the end, you're just a number to the line. While individual crew/staff may 'care', the line doesn't.

Bill...I agree with much of what you posted. The "distinction" in many ways is a meaningless label. It is intended as a marketing tool more than anything else to my mind. The determining factor (sometimes only recognized post-cruise) is how well the cruise line satisfies individual expectations for paying customers (obviously those traveling on a free pass are in a different category). And individual expectations do not necessarily correlate to the labels. The key to success is how well (or not) the cruise line did relative to individual expectations. Promising less and delivering more earns points! Promising more and delivering less earns demerits. Irrespective of the label.

But the more you learn that there is no point to life but only doing really important things like making and eating bagels, I feel that it is only then that you can claim that you really understand the meaning of life.

I believe the specific number is 42 bagels. ;)

I believe the specific number is 42 bagels. ;)

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Greetings Coolers!

Today's funny........

Have a great day all!

Good Morning all!

Lovely funny M

Afternoon Coolers! I Have a question for you.

 

What does the term ultra luxury mean toyou?

 

I'm looking forward to hearing youropinions.

I suspect that the very dry answer to you would be simply a cruise (or other product or service) where most of the passengers or customers of other products or services who have experienced "luxury" before feel that their expectations had either been met or exceeded ie implying "ultra luxury" and that very few customers are disappointed ie what they had been expecting hadn't been provided. We had one client in the hospitality industry with whom we had set a target that 92% or more of their customers rated "met expectations" or "exceeded expectations", the 8% being partly the tendency of self-selection would be that a number would feedback at that moment in time simply because they were specifically unhappy. Some clients set the bar much lower and we worked with them to get it higher.

There are two elements to quality which is a sub-text of "Ultra Luxury". The first is obviously service delivery but equally important is consistency. Customers do not like a product that has random outbreaks of excellence because they wish to have that luxury and to be able to rely and count on it and not experience disappointments. The one frustrating element of high quality is that it often tends to be invisible. In other words, apart from the "show-time" elements of high quality people tend only to notice when things go wrong rather than when all the things that might have gone wrong have have instead all seamlessly "gone right."

An example. The reason why we love the Intercontinental Hotels so much is that it doesn't matter which one we are in they know and respond to every one of our preferences unprompted, from the times we prefer that our suite is serviced, to the contents of the mini-bar and to the brand of bottled water we prefer. It could be Cannes, Paris, Vienna or Singapore but all will give us a highly personalised service and their system learns about you the more you use them. In all the properties we always have the same suite which is in effect a home from home and even the furniture layout is adjusted to a way we prefer and our suite in Singapore for example where we have a small garden it always has a table and two chairs for eating and reading brought in preparation. Our favourite table in the lounge is prepared and reserved for our first night with my favourite sauvignon on ice and waiting. This means that it doesn't matter which of those cities we are in we will feel at home and "familiar" as soon as we arrive. We needn't remind them because it is always done seamlessly.

The best and most committed luxury brands have a senior director responsible for the "customer experience" who will use various tools and mechanisms including social media and external consultants to ensure that every contact with the product and service meets or exceeds expectations. The reason why using external consultants is so important is not just because they are experts (or should be .... ) and can be unbiased, honest, and precise with their feedback but they can feed back two other elements. They can tell you what it is that you do that is important - and therefore unimportant to your customers. It might be a waste of expensive resource to target areas that are relatively unimportant to customers at the cost of resource to important areas. Too often directors of companies feel that they already know best what their customers priorities are, but you will be surprised how shocked they are when their instincts are replaced by the hard facts of actual customer feedback in "their own words".

The other element that is often a surprise to new clients is that you can detect for them critical elements that haven't been complained about the most important probably what is charged for the product or service. This is an essential piece in the jigsaw because we have worked with luxury brands where we have bought to their attention that none or too few of their customers have complained about their prices and we were able to work with them to increase prices and use the extra cash to improve important service elements. We monitor comments about price comments until it has reached an acceptable level of customers complained about the charges. We have helped turn around many clients who were providing excellent products and services but were simply not charging enough for them and were needlessly unprofitable

The reality is that the term Ultra Luxury is actually a puff marketing term more often than not used in order to set unrealistic expectations higher than is likely to be provided. It is better to under promise and over deliver than over promise and under-deliver.

:)

G’Day All from a bright and sunny wales albeit a tad windy!!

My front driveway is coming along fine but could do without the 7am start every morning...🙄

Enjoying the foodie pics and great discussions along with M’s daily delights!

Very difficult to define ‘ultra luxury’ today.......is anything ever perfect....very rarely I’ve found.

Can one expect first class service with a smile and never having to hear the word ‘No’....

There are hotels that l love and have delivered to a degree but it only takes one miserable member of staff to ruin the experience...

Cruise wise l have to say the QE2 was and still is top of my list as l never ever recieved anything less than perfection on her.....forget about verandas or balconies....that ship oozed class and luxury.....she was a greyhound on the North Atlantic yet could turn to ‘cruising’ with equal style.....sadly Cunard stuffed up and carnivalised the fleet.....and so ends the Cunard glory days....

Right now SS suits me as a solo guest....fares are competitive and l don’t have to worry or be embarrassed when ordering drinks if l meet new people.....do l really need a butler? No......pleasant enough as it is l don’t ask much of them and they do vary from perfect to not so......and l just don’t allow much to spoil my voyage.....but do understand those that have expected more...and when SS advertise so then they should deliver.

Jeffers...l admire your ‘white flag ‘ post on the ‘Official’ SS thread.....whatever ‘Official ‘ means......guess the Silversea Family Spirit will no longer exist now they’ve sold out to RCI......not that it ever did when it came to posting on here....

As we used to say in Yorkieland........

‘Nowt As Queer As Folk’......such a damn shame when most of us only wish to help others and not try to brag, be jealous or indeed aim to be Top Dogs.......

For those interested in the Jane McDonald voyage on the Muse CH5 have released a short trailer on YouTube....apologies that l can’t link....

Happy Day.....😊

Agree with all you say Sophia on the difficult subject of defining quality,ultra luxury etc.We have always considered SS luxury but the degree of luxury has diminished from 98% on our first cruise in 1999 to our seventy first cruise in 2017 (84%).Hoping the 5 booked for 2018/9 start reversing the trend.By the way ‘Nowt as queer as folk’ is part of the regular lingo of Wakefield West Yorkshire!!

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Ultra Luxury is certainly not rigidly defined, I agree. I also agree that it is more of a marketing tool that's used to try to one-up the competition. I am reminded of the credit card companies who have gone through the periodic table in an attempt to make their cards look better. Silver, Gold, Platinum, Carbon, Titanium, etc... If everyone has a Platinum card, we need a better one to feel exclusive! Similarly, if everybody calls themselves luxury, we need ultra luxury. Six stars, not five.

I can honestly say that our first few SS cruises managed to exceed our expectations quite a bit. Coming from Oceania, I was nonetheless impressed with pretty much everything. The last cruise exceeded my expectations too, and that is saying a lot because after 100 nights on board we've come to expect a certain level of quality. I didn't expect it to be even better than I was used to.

I am not sure whether this will be the case on Silver Wind or not, but we will see in September. I doubt that it will be as good as last cruise but I won't hold that against them. Not every travel experience (cruise, meal, hotel stay, etc) can be the best one of your life. As long as it is acceptable to us, we are pretty happy.

We'll keep enjoying and if it gets too far from what we consider luxury, Chris and I know that there are plenty of alternatives (cruise and non-cruise) out there. We do a good mix anyway, as it is.

Speaking of which, today I have put the final touches on the South America trip for her milestone birthday in January.

We fly from Albany to Santiago, then catch a flight to Calama, and spend 3 nights in San Pedro de Atacama. Back to Santiago for a night, then fly to Puerto Natales for 4 nights in Torres del Paine. Back to Santiago for a night, then we customized a private wine tour with an agency and guide who we've used before. We start in Colchagua with wine touring, then go north of Santiago for more, then drive through the Andes to Mendoza, where we have another full day touring Mendoza after we arrive. From Mendoza, we fly to Iguazu Falls for 3 nights. We end with an overnight in Buenos Aires, and we are there all of the next day too, before our midnight flight home.

Luckily my planning work is done, as the lodges where we are staying are all-inclusive, and they just happen to be ultra-luxurious! Haha, define that... They are a set of lodges run by a company called Awasi (http://www.awasi.com). They look unbelievable - we can't wait to experience it. Each stay includes all food and beverages, though they do have higher-end stuff you can pay extra for. And each stay includes a private vehicle and guide/driver who is at your disposal for the duration of your stay. Customized, private excursions based on what you want to do, planned for you, with your input. Looks amazing. I'm a little jealous - my big birthday was amazing but hers will be even more so.

This is what our labrador considers ultra-luxury!

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JP, what a fabulous trip you've planned! You can be my TA any day!

TTS, wonderful shot of your pooch....how handsome! or should it be, how lovely?!!!

 

What does the term ultra luxury mean to you?

 

I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions.

I've enjoyed reading all the varying opinions thus far. I'm sure there will be more!

My response would be 'it depends upon your expectations'. It starts with what has been advertised, versus what was delivered.

Thick towels, thick doors, thick carpets, comfortable beds, and lots of space per passenger are prerequisites. And never ever having to wait in line.

Next, a level of cleanliness throughout the ship. It doesn't have to be new, it just has to be pristine. Glasses polished, no dust or cobwebs in evidence.

But I think the major difference is in service. There are certainly bare minimums of service required for all categories, but the higher you go in category, the more 'seamless' the service should be. Ultra luxury, to me, means my needs are anticipated and met without fuss or bother. That something is done for me before I even realize I need it, and that the level of service is high enough that any requests are met with an 'of course', or 'my pleasure'. Staff shouldn't be harried and reasonable requests should be fulfilled within a reasonable period of time.

Of course, "what is 'reasonable'" is always the question!

And ... JP ... you can be my TA anytime too! Your upcoming trip sounds wonderful.

Wow JP. What a wonderful trip you’ve arranged for Chris’s birthday.

I hope you will blog about it. We loved Patagonia and thought we were doing it in luxury at Explora. You have found something very special.