Torquato

High fiber content

On our May 29 homelands cruise the captain decided that we were not going to go to Karlskrona and we spent an extra day in Gdanks. Did not hear anyone complaining about the change…

We were on a Viking cruise pre COVID and on the first day at sea I asked the waiter for a Heineken which he brought a few minutes later. The next day, at lunch, the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink and I said a Heineken to which she replied “ sir, we don’t have Heineken on board”😃 Not that I’m an expert but that original Carlsberg sure tasted like a Heineken. it’s been Carlsberg ever since. No Heineken on any Viking cruise we’ve been on. YMMV

LOL. I actually love their lasagna. I make it a point to eat it every time I have dinner at Manfredi’s. So good. I typically have a small serving. Must have had a premonition because the very last time I ate there I asked for a full serving. Glad I did. Note: I am not Italian but I’m married to one..

We were on the Jupiter earlier this month. Our 7th ocean/expedition cruise. We ended up eating at the world cafe more than in any previous ocean cruise because of the disappointing food and relatively slow service at the other venues. I ended up eating pizza twice. A first for me on Viking.

Wow! A massive overhaul… many of my favorites have disappeared. Mushroom soup, Dover sole, lasagna, lamb chops, and more. i’m very disappointed.

We’ve only cruised on Princess and Viking. 11 cruises on Princess and 8 on Viking. Presently on Viking doing the Viking homelands. There are pros and cons with either line.. We will continue to sail on both of them depending on convenience, itineraries, and price…

Oops.. I should have read your post before I replied.

I very much doubt that crime is a primary reason or even a top 10 reason. Since the Sunday after thanksgiving 2022, we’ve been on four cruises with Princess out of San Francisco. Crime was not a concern at all and the atmosphere around the cruise port was “we’re going on a cruise” festive. My take is that San Francisco has a very finite number of destinations for recurring cruises (Mexican Riviera, classic California coast, Pacific Northwest , and Alaska come to mind) that limit passenger volume. This has to do with distance to the nearest foreign port (Ensenada or Victoria/Vancouver) that adds days to the itinerary, and seasonal factors like the relatively short Alaska season. Repositioning is also a factor.

My wife has it lit and she first asks the barman if he knows how to do it. If he is clueless she just tells him what she wants in it besides red wine… Have you ever had a calimocho? It’s a popular drink in Spain, albeit not as popular as sangria. I personally like it and have had it many times on Princess. Very refreshing. Mix red wine and coke or diet coke. Half and half over ice. try it before you prejudge 😀 Enjoy!

If you're in the Apple world, FaceTime can also be used on T-Mobil for voice and video calls. Also, regular calls are free within North America (Canada, USA, and Mexico).

On the Royal I used one of the glass toppers from the bathroom made out of think paper, bent it a bit and squeezed it between the light and the ceiling. Worked great. I would remove it in the morning, tuck it under the life vests and reuse it at night.

At the Platinum/elite reception a few weeks ago on the Royal, the top travelers had over 1600 days. I did a quick calculation and it equated to 4.51 years…

A very big difference. The first two cruises we took with Viking we didn’t get the drink package. We found most of the wines that were served with the meals to be undrinkable. I ended up making calimochos with the red wine and DC. Since then, we’ve purchased the drink package. Big difference.

The ketchup is optional.

The one bit of good news is that up to now the calorie count = 0!

Internet on Princess is slower than molasses. I doubt that it will get better after the price increase. We’ve been on two cruises since thanksgiving and it was so slow it it was practically useless. I observed the bar tenders asking for the room number and writing it down along with the type of drink I ordered almost every time. I asked twice why they were writing it down instead of using the medallion. The answer both times was that the WFi was TOO slow.

There was a winemaker dinner held on the evening we left Cabo. The best part of the dinner was the service headed by Sergio and his two assistants (Mabel and another waiter whose name I can’t remember).. The wines served were from Silverado vineyards. The white was (in my opinion (I don’t really like white wine)) undrinkable. The red was excellent.. Now for the food: we started with an amuse bouche consisting of a couple of snails in puff pastry. The pastry was pretty hard. The snail lacked flavor. we then got a superb white bean soup. Very tasty. this was followed by gnocchi in a white sauce. Fairly edible. The main dish was tournedos Rossini. Now, I’ve eaten beef tenderloin with foie gras a number of times and it is one of my favorite dishes it was also the only reason why we chose to attend this dinner. Unfortunately what we got served was far from my expectations and apparently that of most of the 12 attendees since most of them ended up with most of the food left on the plate… while the meat was indeed tenderloin and edible, the so-called foie grass was nothing more than a slice of pate sausage that had an awful taste. The final item was a Napoleon that, while it didn’t look like the Napoleons I’ve eaten in the past, was very tasty. I will not be attending another winemaker dinner anytime soon.. As an aside, we attended the super Tuscan dinner on our cruise to Hawaii in late November. That dinned was superb in every respect. It elevated our opinion of Italian red by a considerable amount and the food, all of it, was fantastic

Served in the RCAF. I don’t recall receiving an acknowledgment but I’ve been getting Military OBC since I applied in 2017.

Emailed it this morning and it showed on my account by mid afternoon.

I’m a Madrid native. You’re in for a treat…There are plenty of travel guides that you can look at so I won’t bother you with lots of details. if you’re staying at the Intercontinental you’ll be ideally located since it’s on Madrid’s main Paseo. The museums are down the street And if you’re into soccer, the Real Madrid stadium, currently undergoing a $700 million renovation is just up the street. One of the best paellas I’ve ever had, and I’ve had plenty, was at the St. James restaurant which is about a15 minutes walk from the hotel. One more thing… the high speed trains in Spain are fantastic. Enjoy!