Silversea Water Cooler: Part 3, Welcome!

[Camillus112]

Great to hear, Spins! Congratulations, best news ever! I should know...we were left without power AND water for a full week in PR when Hugo visited. It was horrible!!!!!

 

Penny, good news for your cousin. Now, what is an SS PCC? In another thread there was a posting to the effect that such a person had been a failure...and presumably a supervisor, when the poster complained. What exactly is this person's role?

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good to see your post Spins!

 

Personal Cruise Consultant C!

[TLCOhio]

Hello all. Power just restored. More later!

 

Great news for Spins and DH. Getting that air conditioning running and having Internet really helps be back in "civilization". Look forward to hearing more details when you have time and more recovery.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 219,600 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[Solo mi!]

Great to hear, Spins! Congratulations, best news ever! I should know...we were left without power AND water for a full week in PR when Hugo visited. It was horrible!!!!!

 

Penny, good news for your cousin. Now, what is an SS PCC? In another thread there was a posting to the effect that such a person had been a failure...and presumably a supervisor, when the poster complained. What exactly is this person's role?

 

Yes, Jeff is correct. She is the person who makes my travel arrangements at Silversea. She looks after me very well and I was particularly impressed with her prompt attention to my desire for a particular wine......during this most stressful time for folks in Florida. She even told me that a tree had fallen in her yard and damaged her neighbor's house!

[Camillus112]

Thanks for clarifying, Jeff and Penny. I'm very glad you had the luck of the draw!

[Solo mi!]

With so much negativity regarding Silversea, I wanted to give credit for a job well done!

[Lois R]

Hello all.

Power just restored.

More later!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Hi, so glad to hear it:)...I have a good friend in Ocala who is still without power:eek:

[jillyf]

Interesting phone call from Silversea in Sydney yesterday. First time they have called.

Very personable lady said it was a while since we had sailed with them (2013) and had we sailed with other lines since?

We had sailed on Regent.

Asked why and I mentioned the itinerary was interesting and dates lined up for us.

She advised that SS now had "free" flights in economy and cheaper business class fares. Also mentioned the 2 new ships and when I named the new one ( moon) she was surprised I knew about it. Thanks CC.

I was asked what itinerary would appeal in the future and that she would keep in touch.

A new marketing approach for the Australian market?

[Lois R]

Good morning friends:)............

 

I received a call from my Dr's office yesterday.....I never spoke with him directly......the nurse called and then I called

them back later in the day but the Doc had already left for the day....but the news is good........first, the message was

to continue to hydrate (nurse's words).......so I still need to drink water every day.......1 to 2 liters......the kidney number

has reduced but he would like it to come down more...........and he wants me to stay off my diabetes and cholesterol

meds and control that stuff with diet..........which I have been trying to do anyway.

 

And,,,,,,,,,,,now they are saying my salt intake is low which makes no sense to me........I thought low salt is good........

I tried to get them to ask the dr to call me back again........she said if I have questions I would need to come in........why?

To just ask a follow up question?

Anyway, the new instruction is to drink 2 glasses of V-8 (Vegetable Juice) per day................

 

So basically, it is good.......no need to see a kidney specialist:)

 

Have a good day.

[Camillus112]

Dear Lois, thanks for sharing your good news with us. I understand your ambivalence with regards to the doctor's instructions... if you continue to feel that way, would you see another doctor for a second opinion? My warmest wishes for continued improvement!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lois,

 

I think we're all confused by the different advice with respect to salt. JP is our in-house medic as well as one or two others but my understanding is that salt is also good for you in moderation and for example helps blood sugar control by improving insulin sensitivity which presumably is helpful for those with diabetes or-pre-diabetes. I'm sure I'll be corrected if that is wrong. There's also lot's of other stuff, but with respect to salt being bad for you for every one of these studies there are those that think it proves it is bad for hypertension and those that believe the studies don't show it.

 

I'd take it as a good sign that the doc didn't feel the need to speak to you or call you in and you are suffering from what we all suffer from and that is fear of what you think you don't know. So I think what you have is good news. 1 to 2 litres of water is what I think all of us are supposed to be drinking anyway. Keeping hydrated is good.

 

L, the key thing is that YOU HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN BAD NEWS! So drink the water and put this behind you.

 

Penny, good you had some good experiences. I don't think the issue is about positivity or negativity it is simply about the unacceptability of variable quality. The key component that people pay for is consistency. Everyone has paid for and expects the good service you received and it shouldn't be a lottery. I'm hoping that Sarah has a member of her social media team (or her ...) becomes a regular attender here and perhaps even publishes a generic email address. As you know we cannot exchange PMs here - so she might hacve a generic email produce for people to contact her and her team. The issue that SS has on CC is that when things go well, and I have no doubt they do for the majority - then that 's fine and it is what SS customers should expect. The issue is that when people have problems their problems do not always seem to either get resolved quickly and professionaly or sometimes it seems at all. The length of time even small issues take to be reolved has a real influence over how satisfied people are and things mustn't fester. Some TAs are good and some not so, and they will often blame SS and if you aren't happy then they will simply switch sell customers to a different brand and they do not lose, but SS does, sometimess needlessly. So, a small SS investment of having someone being a point of contact for the remedy of questions and problems here will have an extraordinary payback for SS. Sarah knows that because she is extremely highly and uniquely qualified and experienced in social media and it is her real passion. She has solid qualifications and that is backed up with extremely wide experience over several leading brands and industries - but in premium brands - and I'm hopeful that her arrival here may herald both the chance for interaction with established and potential SS customers and may be the start of some positive stuff for SS and CC'ers.

 

If she does tip her toe in CC and perhaps even the Cooler water and gives CC'ers access to her, it is extremely important that CC'ers reciprocate by being sensisitve in how they respond to that and treat the opportunity to interact with moderation and appropriateness. We shouldn't be taking Mark or Sarah's time up with trivia or asking questions that can easily be resolved by the use of google or reading the SS website, or asking a TA or posting a forum question or finding out elsewhere. Respect will pay off for us all! If things prove a waste of time or uncomfrtable then everyone loses. We must entice her with our widespread niceness and welcome. :)

 

Hi Jilly ..... that looks extremely positive!

Edited September 14, 2017 by UKCruiseJeff

[spinnaker2]

Lois,

The salt advice sounds counterintuitive, but it isn't.

I am sure JP can explain it well.

Glad your numbers coming down. Your body is responding.

Good work!

 

On another topic, thanks all for your kind words of support and encouragement. They helped me very much although I could not read anything or get on Internet during power outage and storm.

We have been through protracted power outages before, but we were younger, had better adrenaline reserves and we didn't have the high heat and humidity that Florida is having right now. I mourn those elderly and infirm nursing home patients who died in their beds from the high temperatures. I can not imagine the agony of that death.

Seeing the destruction in the Keys is horrific. Those people have nada, but their attitude is that's the price for living in paradise.

We had plenty of water which was ok to drink, but tepid.

I wrote of my experience on the thread entitled Hurricane Irma.

I won't duplicate it here, but if you want to read it, you can find it there.

 

Now the clean up continues and we try and pack for the cruise. Eloise, our border collie, has not sprung back yet. She has a mournful look in her eyes. I tried to explain it, but she doesn't understand.

[TLCOhio]

Interesting phone call from Silversea in Sydney yesterday. First time they have called. Very personable lady said it was a while since we had sailed with them (2013) and had we sailed with other lines since? We had sailed on Regent. Asked why and I mentioned the itinerary was interesting and dates lined up for us. She advised that SS now had "free" flights in economy and cheaper business class fares. Also mentioned the 2 new ships and when I named the new one ( moon) she was surprised I knew about it. Thanks CC. I was asked what itinerary would appeal in the future and that she would keep in touch. A new marketing approach for the Australian market?

 

Appreciate the updates from Lois and Spins in Florida. Sorry, I know no nothing on salt, other than that I like it. Temperatures in South Florida are a little improved today, but tomorrow the "real feel" for the combination of the heat and humidity goes back above 100F tomorrow. Continuing warm, humid, plus showers and thunderstorms for the next couple of weeks in that part of your state.

 

From jillyf's above posting, that is interesting and smart marketing to reach out to your past customers, ask good questions, seek to determine our interests, factors involved as we make travel decisions, etc. Hope they continue with such outreach to past customers.

 

Agree with Jeff about Sarah, the new SS person for social media. She does have a decent range of past job experiences. Smart as Jeff noted: "We shouldn't be taking Mark or Sarah's time up with trivia or asking questions that can easily be resolved by the use of google or reading the SS website, or asking a TA or posting a forum question or finding out elsewhere." "We must entice her with our widespread niceness and welcome."

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 187,008 views for this posting.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

So very nice to read your words again Spins! Warm welcome back to the bar! Hope all goes smoothly for you now and that you have an awesome cruise!

 

Lois....Excellent news about the "numbers". Must be a big relief! Thanks for the update.

 

There have been a number of "developments" lately pertaining to our education system here in Ontario and in Canada. In Canada, education is a provincial responsibility with some federal involvement at the university level. Some of these recent news stories are distressing.

 

"Only 50 per cent of Grade 6 students met the standard for mathematics for the second straight year, the province's EQAO report card shows. The number of Grade 3 students and Grade 9 applied math students that met the standard both declined by 1 per cent compared to last year, the report says." There are standardized tests for Grade 3, Grade 6 and Grade 9 students. Only half of the Grade 6 students met the bench mark. How is this considered acceptable? Surely these kids will continue to run into difficulties in Grade 7, 8, 9.......

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/half-ontario-students-fail-math-1.4268616

 

Next issue....."A group of Ontario high schoolers will be invited to negotiate their final grades this year as part of an experiment that is challenging the preoccupation with marks and how teachers and students think about academic achievement." OK....Seriously? Negotiating a final mark? Can you imagine how universities will handle admission requirements when they will not have confidence in the applicant's educational attainment?

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/ontario-high-school-students-to-negotiate-final-grades-in-experiment/article36162866/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

 

Thirdly....."The Marketplace investigation revealed more than 800 Canadians could have purchased a fake degree. " And following from the above news item maybe grades won't matter because people will be buying their degrees online from a Pakistan-based IT firm called Axact.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/diploma-mills-marketplace-fake-degrees-1.4279513

 

Myster and I are both graduates of Ontario universities. Our kids are graduates of Ontario universities. Now our kids have kids who will be making their way through the education system. And I despair!

[Lois R]

Hi again:).........well, I spoke with Dr today....he did call me back:)............and he explained to me about the sodium

number........that when drinking so much water it can affect the salt in the system and I only need to drink the V8 for

2 weeks........2 small cans per day for 1 week and then reduce to 1 can for another 2....so from now until the end of

the month and the salt number is not :BIGTIME low...........he said it should be about 135 but mine is 130 and the juice

should bring it back up and continue to drink the water.

 

Thanks to all of you for caring:D

[TLCOhio]

Next issue....."A group of Ontario high schoolers will be invited to negotiate their final grades this year as part of an experiment that is challenging the preoccupation with marks and how teachers and students think about academic achievement." OK....Seriously? Negotiating a final mark? Can you imagine how universities will handle admission requirements when they will not have confidence in the applicant's educational attainment?

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/ontario-high-school-students-to-negotiate-final-grades-in-experiment/article36162866/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

Now our kids have kids who will be making their way through the education system. And I despair!

 

Understand fully your legitimate concerns about certain education "games" and practices by the "elites" to show their "concerns", caring for kids and ways to escape accountability by concerned parents and for future employers. Abolishing legitimate "standards" does NOT help our children and grandchildren be prepared to succeed in a future, more competitive world.

 

THANKS for bringing to our attention these "enlightened" practices that fail in the long-term! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean adventure that started in Barbados, here is the link for that live/blog. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.):

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 52,911 views for these postings.

[TLCOhio]

Hi again:).........well, I spoke with Dr today....he did call me back:)............and he explained to me about the sodium number........that when drinking so much water it can affect the salt in the system and I only need to drink the V8 for 2 weeks........2 small cans per day for 1 week and then reduce to 1 can for another 2....so from now until the end of the month and the salt number is not :BIGTIME low...........he said it should be about 135 but mine is 130 and the juice should bring it back up and continue to drink the water. Thanks to all of you for caring:D

 

Great, Lois, to see these details, this follow-up by your doctor, etc. Sounds like a reasonable path forward. Keep up the good attention to these important health issues.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Dozens of nice visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc. We are now at 227,426 views for this live/blog re-cap, including much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

 

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[jpalbny]

Yay Lois! In a nutshell, we are rethinking whether salt is really as evil as we used to believe. Probably not, for most people. Now it seems that sugar is the new evil...

 

Have an extra pretzel. [emoji1]

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[Camillus112]

Mysty, thanks for sharing this new development for Canada's elementary education. I've not read the articles yet, but I remember some years ago (when Spain was probably doing better than today, but still economically lagging to many other countries) their elementary students were doing much better than the US students and other EU nations. When asked, officials indicated that students went to school to learn, and not be distracted. Even homework was done in recess time. There were very few extracurricular activities, and mostly educational (not sports). When children arrived home they were free to play. I don't know if this is being followed to date, but at the time Spain was not very much under Japan and China's standing. Here in the US, public schools expect children to engage in many extra curricular activities; they arrive late from school, with no time to interact with family and friends as homework needs to be done... the model is practically replicated from their parents' work requirements (long extra hours, etc.).

[MissSophia]

So lovely to see Spins back albeit the work that beckons with the clean up.....hopefully look forward to seeing her on board next week.

 

Good news also for Lois...good to hear that you are keeping your chin up with positive thoughts.

 

Mysty.....the cruise rail is now ready for transferring into the cases on Saturday......tissue paper will reduce creasing!

Last few days of the usual pre cruise pampering which relieve the pressure.....

:)

[mysty]

Thanks Terry and Cam! Terry...it is a little terrifying to consider what this will mean for future generations. Already kids are not learning to spell...why bother when there is auto-correct. Grammar has gone the way of the dodo bird so communication is suffering. Cam...yes I agree that the extra-curricular stuff can have a detrimental effect. Some of the best universities in the US apparently require excellent grades AND a fine showing in extra-curricular endeavours. What are we doing to the children?

 

Miss S. happy to hear that the wardrobe is ready for packing! Your pre-cruise pampering sounds wonderful! Let the enjoyment begin!

[Camillus112]

So happy for Spins and MissS.!! Spins particularly deserves the pampering, after successfully dealing with such an ordeal. Looking forward to their respective postings on the cruise.

[mysty]

One more article of interest. Apparently a man (old enough to know better) in Toronto is angry because he discovered that the Master's degree that he paid $8,100 for is a fake. Big surprise...the degree required no studying, no exams and no academic work. Seriously????

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fake-degree-toronto-investigation-1.4287347

[TLCOhio]

What really is coming with the posting at the top headlined as: "Exciting CruiseCritic.com Changes!"??

 

There is not really much in the way details when they said: "Over the coming days we will be launching a slow rollout of a redesigned CruiseCritic.com. In addition to making it easier to navigate our site, the redesign will deliver the following benefits to you:

• New itinerary pages with details about each sailing

• New maps and larger, more engaging photography

• Easier access to the content you need to plan your next trip"

 

BUT, then they say "Forums design will remain the same."

 

Any guesses or reactions?

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean adventure that started in Barbados, here is the link for that live/blog. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.):

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 52,911 views for these postings.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Morning Coolers, from a sunny Blighty! A crisp Autumn (Fall) morning .....

 

Mysty, I have been pondering on your angst overnight with respect to the quality of Education and I wonder whether the issue is much more fundamental than that. It seems to me that the real issue is that education, training and schooling generally is totally failing to keep up with the real changes that have taken place in global society generally.

 

If you think back to when we were kids, the changes say between 1900 and say 1960'ish were extremely moderate compared to say from 1960 until today. And the changes between say 1700 and 1900 wer quite small. The acceleration of change and the converging trends that access to travel, television, the internet, instant communications between a significant percentage of the world, the growth of government and the welfare state, etc etc causes, means that what our kids probably now require from their schooling should be signficantly different from what we had as kids, but how different is it?

 

You mention spelling, and perhaps us older people see that the changes we see in Education ALL signify a downgrading but perhaps it issimply differen from what we had and indeed needed. If our kids technology supplies the ability to calculate, perhaps they do not need to learn their times tables by heart. Perhaps so long as people understand each other spelling isn't so important. Perhaps we are failing both to accept change andperhaps because of our lack of flexibility perhaps we are failing to also to provide our kids with a changing face of education to reflect the changing needs of the society they are in. Perhaps we our allowing change to evolve rather than considering fundamental changes.

 

With more kids entering further education then perhaps it follows that paper qualifications becomes less of a differentiator between job candidates. Empolyers become more interested in how kids learn and use information they have at their fingertips. |Perhaps it is more about their behaviour than about how much knowledge and data they have stored. Clever people aren't people who know things, that is simply the ability to remember and recall facts. Clever people find out things they need to know and use that information wisely. The greatest change in society is that kids no longer need to programme themselves with things that are now easilly replicated by technology.

 

I suspect that what we need to see is a greater emphasis on anaylis skills and good old comprehension skills and how you apply analysis and comprehension to behavourial skills. In other words faced with problems and challenges in work, how do you gather information and how then do you act on it. Perhaps schooling should be more about how do you find and apply information to different challenges, and how should we as individuals and societies respond to what we have learned.

 

With respect to kids negotiating their own grades, then I'm fairly torn on the topic. When I worked for the corporation, I was expected to complete at one time around between a dozen and 30 appraisals of directly reporting people each year, something what would have taken a significant amount of my time to do, if done properly. As most of the people who joined my teams found us rather than us seek them, they knew what we had to do. I use to ask my team to write their own detailed annual objectives with landmarks and measures, and then we'd discuss and agree them. At the end of the year I'd ask them to draft their own detalied appraisals as though they were me, which we would then debate. I always had their rating clearly in my mind, and in fact they were not really flexible because as a manager I had to manage my teams to that average rating because salary increases depended on the ratings so the rating was pretty much set before the appraisal interview. My manager gave me an average I had to manage to. Old pass marks in the UK were defined by having say 5% at "A" so it isn't really that much different. What I found was that people generally were harder in their appraisals of themselves and of course more knowledgeable about the detail of their work than I would be. More often I would in practice be increasing their rating from where they had placed it because they were harder on themselves that I would have been and this meant that generally speaking the process was a genuine process of enlightenmnet for both employee and manager. Incidentally, many managers started to follow my approach as the benefits emerged. I don't see that the school scenario is that much different so long as the process is understood by bnoth sides and that the grade isn't a suprise at the end of the course but that both sides knew where it was heading. It is important to remember that as in my case a job rating, a kids rating should never be a suprise at the end of a course both sides should always be aware of where that projected rating would be based on moving and current performance at any given time. Perhaps those regular debates encourage kids to work harder and do better. . So I feel that if the mark these kids are getting is a subjective rating of their course work I don't see an issue with kids having a part in the debate of what grades are appropriate but unless they have information that an open minded tutor didn't posess then the rating already decided on should stand. Perhaps there should be more general judgements on issues not currently covered for topics such as team working, supporting others, speed of learning and acquiring new knowledge and skills, research skills, independance, expressing complex ideas, influencing skills etc etc. Perhaps we are also failing to provide better and earlier vocational guidance based on what kids are good at and what they enjoy doing.

 

Anyway ..... as usual I could go on, but I believe that the issues with our education systems is that they do not appear to be keeping up with the wider changes in society and it is those problems that perhaps we should be even more energised about.

 

Sorry about typos ;) I do go on when presented with a problem to think about .......

 

Today is roast shoulder of Welsh lamb with stuffed peppers. :)