Saga Rose Greenland Voyager August 2007

[Kapricorn]

There was an interesting article in this morning's Vancouver Sun, under the headline "Recession chops cruise traffic by a third." Vancouver saw 27 ships make 177 voyages this year, compared to 35 ships and 256 voyages in 2009. The port spokeswoman explained that the drop was "anticipated as the fallout frrom a global economic collapse in 2008 continued to resonate."

 

The article stated that Oceania Cruises' Regatta and Disney Wonder will debut in Vancouver 2011, along with a return by Crystal Cruises.

 

Donald.

[Druke I]

And we are hoping that Oceania will return to Vancouver & Alaska in 2012, with one of their newbuilds, Marina or Riviera.

 

We were talking about that just last night, hoping there might be a San Francisco/Canada/Alaska in 2012 (there is one is 2011).

[Saga Ruby]

There was an interesting article in this morning's Vancouver Sun, under the headline "Recession chops cruise traffic by a third." Vancouver saw 27 ships make 177 voyages this year, compared to 35 ships and 256 voyages in 2009. The port spokeswoman explained that the drop was "anticipated as the fallout frrom a global economic collapse in 2008 continued to resonate." Donald.

 

Those numbers are quite interesting. Maybe it explains why I saved 65% off the published brochure for next year. Silversea has already raised one of my cruise segments by $1,000 for new bookings after September 8th of this year. Whew! It will be interesting to see which way the bell curve goes on cruise prices next year. Any bets?

 

Donald, I also wanted to ask if your cruise ships to Alaska provide umbrellas in individual cabins or do we bring our own for the September season?

 

Ruby

[Conte Di Savoia]

SilverSea provides umbrellas in all cabins, but not rain slickers. Just one of the many perks you get travelling with them.

[Host Sharon]

An early, sincere Bon Voyage for the maiden voyage of QE. Do you expect that she will be shipshape and Bristol fashion, or will you be tippy-toeing around work crews putting in the final planks around the pool(s)? What size is this ship and how many passengers? Will it have an endless number of specialty restaurants to sample?

 

Is MMDownUnder back home in Oz yet? I wanna hear about the train trips and cruise!

 

Ruby

 

Hi Ruby - five days and counting...QE arrives in Southampton tomorrow and I think the work crews will have finished by the weekend. I can't see things still being finished off with the Queen touring her on Monday after the Naming. I just pray the toilets work :eek: unlike those on the Azura Maiden! It is my first Maiden Voyage as I always said I wanted things to settle down before I sailed, but then, being a ship buff thought I ought to do at least one - and if I was going to do one I wanted it to be Cunard, with its heritage. She is around 90,000 tons but comparatively (by today's standards) low passengers numbers at 2000 with nearly 1000 crew. The decor looks very elegant from the photos so far, and is influenced by Art Deco and the original Queen Elizabeth. As far as I know there are three speciality restuarants, but we will only try and book the Asian one. Personally I prefer the main dining rooms as a rule. There is lots about her here.

 

http://www.cunard.co.uk/Ships/Queen-Elizabeth/About-Queen-Elizabeth/

 

The timing is good anyway- the day I get home they are posting out the proofs of the Royal Princess book for checking so no chance of post cruise blues :)

[Kapricorn]

Those numbers are quite interesting. Maybe it explains why I saved 65% off the published brochure for next year. Silversea has already raised one of my cruise segments by $1,000 for new bookings after September 8th of this year. Whew! It will be interesting to see which way the bell curve goes on cruise prices next year. Any bets?

 

Donald, I also wanted to ask if your cruise ships to Alaska provide umbrellas in individual cabins or do we bring our own for the September season?

 

Ruby

 

Umbrellas were provided in my cabin on Mercury, but I do not know if that is the case in each cabin, or because it is provided as a courtesy to Elite-level members.

 

Speaking of Silversea, my friends in Los Angeles asked me if I'd like to join them on a 30-day circumnavigation of Australia in January 2012. That would be a dream-come-true, but first I would have to win the lottery to be able to afford it.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

A festive holiday wish to our Canadian friends. Do y'all do the turkey, pumpkin pie and Puritans with muskets thing, or is there a different way of celebrating?

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

Ruby, thanks for the holiday wish. We do the turkey, pumpkin pie and cornucopia - largely influenced by the Americans who migrated to Canada during the 19th Century. No Puritans, though, as that is strictly part of American history.

 

Donald.

Edited October 9, 2010 by Kapricorn

[Saga Ruby]

I've been doing my homework on Silversea and have questions:

 

Was your Norwegian Silver Cloud cruise fully booked or were there upgrades whisking around the corridors? At this time, Silver Shadow is in Asia and has 282 or so pax onboard so upgrades were the order of the day.

 

Silversea has a smoking policy more liberal than several of my last ships. Oceania has a very limited smoking policy which can be positive or negative depending on which side of the fence one stands. Do smokers have an effect in public areas on Silversea? Were there comments plus minus about smoke on balconies? Oh. Excuse me. Verandahs.

 

When I was on Constellation many years ago, I was in an inside cabin with a connecting door and my neighbors were heavy smokers which came into my cabin with ease. So I stuffed towels tightly around the pass-thru door and enjoyed my voyage.

 

Thoughts?

 

Ruby

[Conte Di Savoia]

Allegedly the North Cape cruise was a sell out but apparently there were at least two cabins available. I know two passengers who encountered issues with their booked cabins and wound up elsewhere on the ship, both upgrades to verandah suites. I did not expect an upgrade on this voyage because it was fully booked. I wasn’t disappointed in that assessment. We were upgraded on our March Caribbean cruise which had space available. That was the first time we were ever upgraded on SilverSea despite having made several cruises with them in years past.

SilverSea bans smoking in most public spaces such as all dining rooms, show lounge etc. but there is a smoking area on the port side of The Bar and Panorama Lounge and one area outdoors. Pipes and cigars are to be smoked only in the Connoisseur Lounge. I’m not sure about smoking on verandahs. I checked our boarding information booklet and it did not mention a ban on verandah smoking. We did not find that smoking was a major issue but the number of nicotine addicts varies from voyage to voyage. I never liked the idea of confining smoking to a port or starboard side of a public room. Smoke never seemed to understand that it MUST NOT cross the midship line.

[MMDown Under]

 

Is MMDownUnder back home in Oz yet? I wanna hear about the train trips and cruise!

 

Ruby

 

Hi Ruby,

 

I am back home Down Under again, after a wonderful holiday.

 

When I get settled, I'll write a review of our cruise.

 

Amtrak from Manhattan to Niagara Falls was wonderful for the spectacular fall colours alone.

 

Via Rail's Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver was a disappointment, because it didn't deliver on the dream. Seems freight is king on that rail route. We spent too much time waiting for freight trains in the middle of no-where or rushing to be ahead of a freight train. In addition, on a few occasions, our spectacular mountain/lake view was blocked by long two story freight trains. We were really looking forward to our scheduled 1.1/2 hour stop in Jasper, to have it reduced to 25 minutes, so we'd be in front of a freight train. To add insult to injury, many of us bought our own lunch in Jasper, because only brunch was scheduled in the morning because we were due to be in Jasper for 1.1/2 hours over lunch. Didn't see any wildlife. It was an expensive lesson.

 

Positives -

 

Our 4.1/2 hours scheduled stop in Winipeg, where we went on a tour of the town, was wonderful.

 

Met some of the nicest interesting friendly people.

 

Relaxing way to travel.

[Saga Ruby]

Amtrak from Manhattan to Niagara Falls was wonderful for the spectacular fall colours alone.

 

Great news to hear that your land/sea holiday was a success. I can now admit that I was concerned about your travels on Amtrak in the US. I've heard many, many stories from foreign visitors about their train being 8 hrs late and variations on that theme so a big Whew! that all went well on our side of your trip. Perhaps Amtrak has improved since I heard the stories but, regardless, it sounds like your overall experience was good.

 

We look forward to hearing about the ocean part of your journey.

 

Ruby

[MMDown Under]

Great news to hear that your land/sea holiday was a success. I can now admit that I was concerned about your travels on Amtrak in the US. I've heard many, many stories from foreign visitors about their train being 8 hrs late and variations on that theme so a big Whew! that all went well on our side of your trip. Perhaps Amtrak has improved since I heard the stories but, regardless, it sounds like your overall experience was good.

 

We look forward to hearing about the ocean part of your journey.

 

Ruby

 

I know what you mean about Amtrak's reputation first hand, as I took our family on a return trip from Orlando to Montreal one December, which was quite an experience! Toilets not cleaned and airconditioning not working were two of the problems. At one stage, my younger daughter stage whispered that the man behind us had shower caps on his feet. It was that cold!

 

I have submitted my review on our cruise, but it takes a few days to download.

[MMDown Under]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=73914

[Druke I]

Thanks for providing the review.

[Saga Ruby]

I enjoyed your review. But, as usual, I have questions:

 

Does MSC not send luggage tags in some kind of documents thingie or have them available online to fill out and print ahead of embarkation?

 

What were your thoughts about "the meat meals were also good"? Could you elaborate on that? Did you not like the quality of the meat offered onboard Lirica?

 

Your lowest rating was for Embarkation. Was that due to the wait for the lengthy lines to abate? What size ship is Poesia? I saw her or another MSC ship docked up the line in Istanbul. Aren't they painted white? Oops, sorry - evidently almost all cruise ships are painted white nowadays.

 

About your review being posted - I thought there was some kind of process that individual reviewers had to go thru before their review was put on the boards which, back in the day, could take weeks if not months. In the past, the editorial oversight took so long that the fun of a new review was deflated. Evidently, things have changed for the better on CCritic.

 

Ruby

[MMDown Under]

I enjoyed your review. But, as usual, I have questions:

 

Does MSC not send luggage tags in some kind of documents thingie or have them available online to fill out and print ahead of embarkation?

 

What were your thoughts about "the meat meals were also good"? Could you elaborate on that? Did you not like the quality of the meat offered onboard Lirica?

 

Your lowest rating was for Embarkation. Was that due to the wait for the lengthy lines to abate? What size ship is Poesia? I saw her or another MSC ship docked up the line in Istanbul. Aren't they painted white? Oops, sorry - evidently almost all cruise ships are painted white nowadays.

 

About your review being posted - I thought there was some kind of process that individual reviewers had to go thru before their review was put on the boards which, back in the day, could take weeks if not months. In the past, the editorial oversight took so long that the fun of a new review was deflated. Evidently, things have changed for the better on CCritic.

 

Ruby

 

Administration in Australia is not one of MSC's strong points, Ruby. They use an Australian travel agent as their local representative.

 

They had to courier a copy of my tickets to my daughter's place in Canberra, as I hadn't received my tickets by the time I left home.

 

I received my actual tickets on the day of departure, as did other Australians. This included luggage labels, which we had to complete, before we dropped our luggage off at the wharf.

 

Yes, one soon discovered that meat was to be avoided on Lirica. However, I had some delicious meat meals on Poesia.

 

Yes, embarkation on MSC always seems a shambles to me. However, Keil was better than Genoa. With the number of sailaways they do, I can't understand why they aren't more organised. We found it best to just come back later.

 

Poesia is part of MSC's Musica Class - 93,330 tons (length 293.8 m Beam 32.2 m passenger decks 13 lifts 13).

 

MSC has the youngest fleet of ships and is privately owned. Yes, Poesia is white. I thought it was a beautiful ship.

 

It was only a few days until my review was downloaded to Reviews.

 

They announced on the ship that they will be bringing a MSC ship Down Under in 2012, which is why they have been marketing Poesia to Australians.

[Saga Ruby]

Are you back from the maiden voyage of QE? I hope your cruise was a great success and, as always, we want to hear the details, pros and con.

 

One assumes that you will bask in the glow of your QE cruise as you await publication of your new book in September.

 

Ruby

[Saga Ruby]

Are you back from the maiden voyage of QE? I hope your cruise was a great success and, as always, we want to hear the details, pros and con. One assumes that you will bask in the glow of your QE cruise as you await publication of your new book in September. Ruby

 

 

Ships cat's book "Artemis" will be coming out in December. I should know better than to write a post without doing the copy editor thing!

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

Hi everyone - thanks for asking Ruby - yes I got back the day before yesterday and Queen Elizabeth is certainly one beautiful ship - and I even got to press the button that the Queen used to name her :)

 

I will write a review as soon as I can, but at the moment I have to do proof reading :)

 

For anyone interested, this is the link for the book on Royal Princess/Artemis. I assume it will also be available on Amazon.com too? Seeing the page proofs was a great thrill - I didn't realise it would be in full colour throughout :)

 

Artemis: The Original Royal Princess by Andrew Sassoli-Walker & Sharon Poole

Permalink: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1445600943

[Druke I]

I have signed up to be notified when the book is available, with the US side of Amazon.com.

 

Looking forward to a good read!

Edited October 27, 2010 by Druke I

[Host Sharon]

I have signed up to be notified when the book is available, with the US side of Amazon.com.

 

Looking forward to a good read!

 

I hope you enjoy it Michael. Have just been through the page proofs with a fine toothcomb, I have to say we are extremely pleased with the end result - which is so much better than we could have dreamed of when we started this project.

[Saga Ruby]

Have just been through the page proofs with a fine toothcomb, I have to say we are extremely pleased with the end result - which is so much better than we could have dreamed of when we started this project.

 

As the author, are you responsible for being your own copy editor or is your job to follow up on the proofs to be sure the content is correct? Did your "fine toothcomb" find anything akimbo?

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

As the author, are you responsible for being your own copy editor or is your job to follow up on the proofs to be sure the content is correct? Did your "fine toothcomb" find anything akimbo?

 

Ruby

 

We write the text and get it as good as we can. It then goes through an editor, whose job it is to check grammar etc and to make sure it will fit into the required number of pages etc. They do change a few things, but hopefully not too much, then we have to proof read it again. I normally find a few spelling or house-style errors that slipped through on our first draft. Repetitive words are another issue that sometimes need resolving. The trouble is you know the text so well by then, you see what you expect to see, rather than what is actually on the page so the long break in between is good. Thankfully very litte of the text had been changed and only one photo dropped so it should go to print next week. Phew !

 

I have written a long report on the Queen Elizabeth which can be viewed here if anyone is interested. Photos to folow at the weekend.

 

http://www.crowsnestonline.net/forum/showthread.php/13606-Queen-Elizabeth-Maiden-Voyage-report

[Host Sharon]

And photos here.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/sharonp4...64930375509618