Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

 

[jpalbny]

Hi Coolers, less than a week until we fly to Reykjavik for our next cruise!

 

We fly out Thursday at noon, from Boston, and get in around 10PM. I'm excited about this daytime flight. Iceland Air Saga Class isn't great for sleeping, and the flights are super short so a red-eye is really unpleasant. We've done that too many times, and it's hard to get more than 2h or sleep. So the day flight is perfect. I hope they are still doing their G&T tasting menu in Saga Class!

 

On Friday we have an all-day tour lined up for an ice cave, and then a late dinner at our hotel. We're staying at the Reykjavik Edition, which supposedly has a great restaurant. Then we board on Saturday. Too bad the ship isn't in the Old Harbor, where we could just walk, but it will be OK.

 

This cruise will be an ocean voyage on Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot, from Reykjavik to Tromso. We're using it as a test voyage to see if we can handle a bunch of sea days in a row. Think of it as a mini-Transatlantic, only 5 days in length. We are looking forward to a few days of doing as little as possible. Our friends from Toronto are joining us and we will have fun catching up, and spending our OBC on the premium wine list, no doubt!

 

Then we have a few days in Tromso together, where we'll do a dogsledding and Northern Lights tour one day and hang out in town the rest of the time. 

 

When we come home we'll have only six more weeks of full-time employment. Time will tell if we go part-time after that, or retire completely, but negotiations are ongoing.

[drron29]

Well I retired fully just before my 60th birthday. Missed the work so went back doing locums. Saw a lot of the country, met lots of great people, really enjoyed teaching med students and residents the "art" of medicine and made a lot of money which we then gave to Silversea and various airlines.

The best part was the teaching of registrars. The first registrar I had doing locums is now a director of an ICU and the next 2 are Consultant Physicians.

But at the age of 75 I knew I had started on the down hill journey so really did retire when people still thought I could do the job.

[DavyWavey70]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

Hi Coolers, less than a week until we fly to Reykjavik for our next cruise!

 

We fly out Thursday at noon, from Boston, and get in around 10PM. I'm excited about this daytime flight. Iceland Air Saga Class isn't great for sleeping, and the flights are super short so a red-eye is really unpleasant. We've done that too many times, and it's hard to get more than 2h or sleep. So the day flight is perfect. I hope they are still doing their G&T tasting menu in Saga Class!

 

On Friday we have an all-day tour lined up for an ice cave, and then a late dinner at our hotel. We're staying at the Reykjavik Edition, which supposedly has a great restaurant. Then we board on Saturday. Too bad the ship isn't in the Old Harbor, where we could just walk, but it will be OK.

 

This cruise will be an ocean voyage on Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot, from Reykjavik to Tromso. We're using it as a test voyage to see if we can handle a bunch of sea days in a row. Think of it as a mini-Transatlantic, only 5 days in length. We are looking forward to a few days of doing as little as possible. Our friends from Toronto are joining us and we will have fun catching up, and spending our OBC on the premium wine list, no doubt!

 

Then we have a few days in Tromso together, where we'll do a dogsledding and Northern Lights tour one day and hang out in town the rest of the time. 

 

When we come home we'll have only six more weeks of full-time employment. Time will tell if we go part-time after that, or retire completely, but negotiations are ongoing.

Have an amazing time both. And happy pending/possible/maybe retirement! 

[mysty]

The wine tasting last night was a lot of fun!  One gentleman actually guessed the correct country 3 out of 5 times!  The winning white was an Austrian Gruner Veltliner and the winning red was a Hungarian Merlot.

[Lirio]

4 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Hi Coolers, less than a week until we fly to Reykjavik for our next cruise!

 

We fly out Thursday at noon, from Boston, and get in around 10PM. I'm excited about this daytime flight. Iceland Air Saga Class isn't great for sleeping, and the flights are super short so a red-eye is really unpleasant. We've done that too many times, and it's hard to get more than 2h or sleep. So the day flight is perfect. I hope they are still doing their G&T tasting menu in Saga Class!

 

On Friday we have an all-day tour lined up for an ice cave, and then a late dinner at our hotel. We're staying at the Reykjavik Edition, which supposedly has a great restaurant. Then we board on Saturday. Too bad the ship isn't in the Old Harbor, where we could just walk, but it will be OK.

 

This cruise will be an ocean voyage on Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot, from Reykjavik to Tromso. We're using it as a test voyage to see if we can handle a bunch of sea days in a row. Think of it as a mini-Transatlantic, only 5 days in length. We are looking forward to a few days of doing as little as possible. Our friends from Toronto are joining us and we will have fun catching up, and spending our OBC on the premium wine list, no doubt!

 

Then we have a few days in Tromso together, where we'll do a dogsledding and Northern Lights tour one day and hang out in town the rest of the time. 

 

When we come home we'll have only six more weeks of full-time employment. Time will tell if we go part-time after that, or retire completely, but negotiations are ongoing.

Every year I promise to retire the next one......I just accepted a board position for the next 4 years and just hired a new junior director for my company....But I promise I will retire soon.....

 

Have a great trip! I stayed at Edition in 2022, I enjoyed. Check the spa!

[TakingFlight]

We flew Saga Class REK to SEA in July. Sadly, no Gin tastings that our friends had raved about. Lots of gins to choose from so I guess you can order several and make up your own tasting! The seats were ok until the guy in front of me lowered his seat into my lap. The food left a lot to be desired as did the service. Flight to Seattle was longer than yours and we were tired after our 2 week Arctic expedition so maybe that colored my experience. Your short flight should be just fine-unless the guy in front of you decides to take a nap. 😴 Good luck!

[jpalbny]

3 hours ago, Lirio said:

Every year I promise to retire the next one......I just accepted a board position for the next 4 years and just hired a new junior director for my company....But I promise I will retire soon.....

 

Have a great trip! I stayed at Edition in 2022, I enjoyed. Check the spa!

 

It's time for us to slow down. We're both running ragged and we don't need to. Time to enjoy it while we can.

 

We didn't leave any time for the spa, but we did make a reservation for the tasting menu. I guess that gives away our priorities...lol.

 

7 hours ago, drron29 said:

Well I retired fully just before my 60th birthday. Missed the work so went back doing locums. Saw a lot of the country, met lots of great people, really enjoyed teaching med students and residents the "art" of medicine and made a lot of money which we then gave to Silversea and various airlines.

The best part was the teaching of registrars. The first registrar I had doing locums is now a director of an ICU and the next 2 are Consultant Physicians.

But at the age of 75 I knew I had started on the down hill journey so really did retire when people still thought I could do the job.

 

Ron, that could happen at some point. I will definitely miss the teaching. My pulmonary fellows are saying that they will miss me, at least for the moment... And I'm a little younger than you were, at what may be my first retirement. 

 

Locums is tempting. Will see how I feel next year, and whether any part-time opportunities materialize. 

 

7 hours ago, DavyWavey70 said:

Have an amazing time both. And happy pending/possible/maybe retirement! 

 

Thanks DW. We will have to use some of our free time to come visit!

 

1 hour ago, TakingFlight said:

We flew Saga Class REK to SEA in July. Sadly, no Gin tastings that our friends had raved about. Lots of gins to choose from so I guess you can order several and make up your own tasting! The seats were ok until the guy in front of me lowered his seat into my lap. The food left a lot to be desired as did the service. Flight to Seattle was longer than yours and we were tired after our 2 week Arctic expedition so maybe that colored my experience. Your short flight should be just fine-unless the guy in front of you decides to take a nap. 😴 Good luck!

 

On occasion, Iceland Air uses lie-flat 767s which make a world of difference! No such luck on our route. But it's scheduled for 5h15 which probably means 4h30 in the air.

 

Agree, their food isn't great but we'll have lounge options at Logan, and a few hours of dieting won't hurt us.

 

From what I remember, the G&T "tasting" is like you described it. A number of options, and choose what you want to try. We are ready! 

[Lirio]

14 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

It's time for us to slow down. We're both running ragged and we don't need to. Time to enjoy it while we can.

 

We didn't leave any time for the spa, but we did make a reservation for the tasting menu. I guess that gives away our priorities...lol.

 

 

Ron, that could happen at some point. I will definitely miss the teaching. My pulmonary fellows are saying that they will miss me, at least for the moment... And I'm a little younger than you were, at what may be my first retirement. 

 

Locums is tempting. Will see how I feel next year, and whether any part-time opportunities materialize. 

 

 

Thanks DW. We will have to use some of our free time to come visit!

 

 

On occasion, Iceland Air uses lie-flat 767s which make a world of difference! No such luck on our route. But it's scheduled for 5h15 which probably means 4h30 in the air.

 

Agree, their food isn't great but we'll have lounge options at Logan, and a few hours of dieting won't hurt us.

 

From what I remember, the G&T "tasting" is like you described it. A number of options, and choose what you want to try. We are ready! 

The spa has a running hot water jacuzzi one side for man and other for woman (back of the following picture. the correct way to describe it according to the website is "thermal plunge pool") a hot "rock" to to lie down in the center and high pressure showers (not showed in this picture). 15-20 minutes is more than enough. Very different from other spas I know.

 

Learned a new word today: locums.

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Lirio

[lincslady]

Or should it be 'loca'?  Never thought of that before.  Why does my brain ask me such silly questions - probably not enough important  stuff in it.