Blackduck59

Looking at the 2 pictures above the top picture is the Atlantic (Americans like to call "Maine") lobster. The bottom photo is Spiny (Rock) Lobster, note the large white spot on the shell. I don't think the bottom lobster has been anywhere near a broiler.

So scanning back many months @NSWP Uncle Les mentioned Robertson Pie Shop and Hayden's Pies. I'm thinking if Uncle Les drives 45 minutes to get some Hayden's pies they must be good.

It took a long time to find this thread again. We are starting to put together the great down under meet and greet tour. Most discussion of that will be on the different thread. That being said we will be checking out pies along the way. @lyndarra has already filled in the Harry's stop (we shall raise a pie to Mr. Gut). I will read back to see some other places mentioned in this thread. I know there is one that gets mentioned often, that seems to be along our route. Looking for suggestions, Unfortunately time constraints will limit this tour to NSW and Victoria.

Each to their own but what some people may think of as a novelty that will get them noticed is just a pain in the a** for the person they are trying to impress. Remember your tip has no keepsake value for the recipient, to them it is just part of their pay packet. Tipping with "Uncommon" US bills to get "noticed" would be like me tipping with a $2.00 Canadian coin, it will get me noticed but perhaps not in a good way. If you want to give a cash gratuity, over and above those you already paid, that's all well and good. Just make it easy to spend.

That depends on where you are.

Veranda cabins are getting scarce on that cruise. We had booked the 14 day segment previously and just added the 29 day last week. With a little bit of luck and some good work from our TA we were able to get the same cabin throughout, in a good location. Book now if you want any chance of a preferred cabin location.

I think Lynn said she paid $2.99 per 100 grams for the sockeye we had tonight. We call ocean run trout "Steelhead" and they are a prized catch for anglers. Steelhead has a more orange flesh than sockeye which is quite red. Of course many people pay a premium for "Chinook" often called spring salmon or king salmon. Around here the really big Chinooks (more than 30 pounds) Tyee salmon. Many people really like Chinook (and of course the local "southern resident" Orcas are rather picky eaters and pretty much only eat Chinook). We prefer sockeye and coho. Another species are pink salmon which are very oily and to me and many others only suitable for smoking. We never buy farmed salmon.

Much of our commercially available fish is actually frozen at sea. The only way to be sure the fish is fresh is if it has the head on and gills intact. When I see that, I will check the eyes and gills and if the eyes are clear and the gills nice and red then I'll buy the whole fish and process it at home.

An excellent service from your fish monger. We have only one actual fish market here and a couple grocery chains that have good fish/seafood sections (including live tanks for crab, lobster, clams and muscles. I don't think any of them would scrape the scales for me. If I'm expect guests I will buy whole fish and scrape and filet it myself.

Then I would have to scrape the scales off (a loathsome task) Of course I would do it if a I had a guest who enjoyed the skin 😉

Thanks Linda, Sockeye is our go to salmon, It has a nice colour and pleasant flavour. Put us on the cooked fully list of salmon lovers, we don't really like the skin, so I start the fish presentation side down and then flip it over, if the skin sticks to the pan that's okay you just run the flipper between the skin and the fish, leaving the skin in the pan.

Oops forgot the picture

Sockeye salmon for supper.

@Iamthesea that looks like one of the series, the next one says they left without the offending parties. I just watched it but it doesn't say their gear was offloaded (I guess I just assumed it was). Even better, they are stuck in Venice with no gear probably no passports (we don't leave the ship without ours) as many choose to leave them in the safe for fear they will be stolen. These videos are from 9 years ago, I wonder if public shaming over the PA system would be forbidden now.

Rather interesting that you would choose to start a thread here before calling, emailing or dropping in to the TA's office. When we booked our next cruise while on board, we gave our TA a heads up by email while we were still on the ship, to expect the booking and we received our invoice by email a short time later. That booking has grown considerably since then, the 14 day booking is now combined with a 29 day sailing to make a B2B of 43 days. Hopefully a quick attempt to contact your TA will give you the answers to ease your mind.

We have our own special Marmots on the Island Mic, they are very endangered critters; and we don't bother them over trivial little weather superstitions. Ironically they make their home on Mount Washington, our island's major ski hill.

We have a nice fire going, and it is quite cozy. Unfortunately it is still snowing and it will freeze overnight so the already bad roads will be worse 😟

Okay that's enough already. I got in to work okay but it started to snow pretty heavily (for here), and the traffic reports came in. So being fairly confident my Subaru with all wheel drive and winter tires would be okay; I wasn't at all confident that others on the road would refrain from running in to me. I got home fairly safely although there were some slippery moments.

I think you will find the smoking pit on the Starboard side at the stern view pool. Unfortunately there is no dodger so the smoke drifts to all parts of that deck, rendering the entire space unusable to anyone with sensitivities to tobacco smoke. Also apparently they are making new "Non Smoking" casino areas, where they should be making enclosed "smoking" section casino areas. I apologize in advance for talking about smoking outside of the smoking thread, but I had to let @islandgirlejfan know that the indoor smoking is also very disappointing to us. We never encountered it in our cabin but we definitely had to avoid several areas of the ship because of it. @Shalandara I just wanted you to know that there are only a few ships in the HAL fleet that have no smoking in the casino. Unfortunately for us Westerdam isn't one of them.

While I agree with the concept of "leave them behind" it runs into a slippery slope with ship sold excursions which assure you that you will make it back to the ship or they will make sure you get to the next port. We have never even come close to missing the ship. We have only taken ship's excursions when they are "included in the fare" and fortunately we haven't had any "special" folks working on a different clock. How does the cruise line sanction the chronically tardy? Well a good keel hauling may get everyone's attention, but may not work in today's social climate. I think about the only way is to make the result of selfish time keeping to have real consequences. Late once a warning (I know that wouldn't have helped @Haljo1935 unless the same people were late more than once), late twice all future excursions are cancelled for that guest. These late incidents should also be noted on a guest's "Mariner" file resulting in loss of points. Oh oops you were rude by being late no points for you or maybe a suspension of your status perks the remainder of this cruise and also the next. I saw a series of you tube videos a while back where the same couple failed to make all aboard 3 ports in a row. On the 3rd time their cabin was cleared and their gear was left with the port agent. People have no idea how much it cost for a ship to miss their sail away time, especially when tides are involved.

Just order them, they are both basic mixed drinks. If you were to order a shot of Bourbon and a diet Coke as 2 separate things then it is 2 drinks, doubles also count as 2 drinks.

Let me clarify my position on this thread as there seems to be a bunch of newcomers to this thread that feel the need to scold me for my opinion, First the comment was made some time ago and someone decided they needed to scold me for it, then someone else thought they should call me names and accuse me of telling them how to spend their cruise. Let's be clear, this thread was started by someone looking for tips on how to tamper with ship's equipment to hook up a personal device. Just leave the ship's fixtures alone, they are above your pay grade. Now anyone else who feels the need to scold me or call me names, remember I didn't tell anyone how to spend their time on the cruise, and my opinion hasn't changed, This thread was dead lets let it fade away again.

And you resurrected this long done thread why? Thanks for your input, leave me out of it in future.

I'm not sure why we this old thread has been resurrected, the whole thing including the lame title was pretty petty. I'm having a hard time understanding how anyone gets bent out of shape because the cruise line won't give them a jug of distilled water, seriously? When the OP walks into a store at home to get distilled water, does he just walk out with the water and not pay? If you can afford the cruise you can afford the distilled water.

I'm certainly not a wine on a cruise aficionado but I do know if it's on the "Bottle" list you have to buy the bottle, and if it was available by the glass it wouldn't be covered by the $15.00 limit. Just think of it this way, if you were at a restaurant on land and they had a wine listed by the bottle but not by the glass; are they going to open that bottle on the off chance you may drink the whole thing? I hope you are able to find something by the glass you like, although I didn't really see much selection of "French" wine by the glass.