highplanesdrifters

Ironic that Barney Frank was on the board of Signature Bank and lobbied for the changes.🤣

I bought some with my Bear Stearns profits. 😂

It's always such a challenge trying to figure out where to stay pre and post cruise hotel if planning on a few extra days when SS provides a hotel stay. Sometimes we'll just bite the financial bullet and stay where we want to stay. Or, our TA will sometimes make 2 reservations for us when we suspect we know what the "simply" hotel might be and if that is where we want to stay. One reservation will be for the days before the trip excluding the night Silversea supplies. The other reservation is for all the days pre/post cruise we want to stay. Once Silversea announces the hotel, we can then decide which reservation we want to use. As mentioned earlier we would most likely not stay at the Grand again. Would seriously consider The Thief as@brumagin1 mentioned. Great location on the warf!

High Jinx, Demon Drinks, someone to help organize? Where do I sign up?

OUCH! That's going to leave a mark. Silicon Valley Bank

Great analysis of the current curve, completely agree. And this says it all: "The Fed has IMO moved from a proactive to reactive stance so the upcoming data remains very important." Rarely take a spec position anymore. But there is regular portfolio rebalancing which requires some timing and speculation. Just think of 3:30 as a late lunch. 😃

Most interesting information. Thanks! Fascinating that Silversea is a small fish in a big pond and Seabourn is a minuscule fish in a massive pond.

Care to share some of the details from your Narwhal Safari. Sounds interesting.

In June 2022 SS put us up at the Raddison Blu airport location. Our charter had just flown in from Tromso. Very convenient for a one night transfer. Not a great location for touring the city though. FWIW, in August of 2022 Seabourn put us up at The Oslo Grand. Beautiful historic hotel, but extremely noisy form the street and the rooftop bar that blasted club music till 3 a.m.

Ditto, B2B, we start in Fiji, PNG, Carins, and then up. We're on Silversea Explorer. Haven't decided if I'll do a live yet. But will report at least a little bit. 😃

Thanks so very much for posting. We will be there in May. I was just starting to get ready for the trip. Now I'm really excited!

Perfection in a bottle.

Chart of the week. Island reversal anyone?

As of last November by corporate decree, Cigar smoking was allowed anywhere cigarette smoking is allowed. There has been quite a bit written about it on previous threads.

I have no idea what is going to happen in Q 3 & 4. But for now its hard to get a seat on a plane, table in a restaurant, or room at a resort. Lots of conflicting stats that can make a bull or bear case. Real estate, credit card debt, earnings just to name a few. One problem is folks looking at year over year data. It doesn't work when the previous year or two is skewed from extraordinary circumstances. I'm trying to analyze things based on historical data. I'm still in the range trade to higher camp.

I would have never thought of asking for something like this onboard. Brilliant! We've been on a seafood tower quest lately. Thanks for the tip.

Treat yourself to The Retreat at The Blue Lagoon post trip. You deserve it. Fyi, they do not allow cameras in The Retreat section of the Blue Lagoon.

After looking at the eyewatering tour prices and no cars in that area I searched and searched and found someone to give us a private tour. Our guide was closer to Vopnafjordor which is where we docked. But I believe he does tours out of Seyfisfjordur also. He and his wife run the Farm Holiday place below. Should you find yourself in that area again I highly recommend reaching out. One of the best tours we have ever taken.

Spouse? I'd not sure I could take myself in that small space.

@cruiseejthanks for the interesting stats! Would love to know different profitability numbers for different ships. We need an insider.😃

The Google machine tells me it is available in many places for under $5. Might have to give it a shot. Perhaps a side by side tasting. Caviart is a caviar style black seaweed pearl that simulates the taste and texture of caviar. Season Brand has been around 100 years and has strived to maintain the highest quality standards in all our products. Gluten Free Vegan Certified Sustainable Cholesterol Free Cholesterol Free Imported from Denmark

I may be an outlier here, but the Flam railroad wasn't a great experience for us. Visibility was limited as it often is in Norway. Lots of crowding and jockeying for seats along with wait time in the rain when we switched trains. Lunch was meh. Perhaps that helps soften the blow for DW. Maybe others had a better experience. We did meet some folks who did the Flam train on their own. Booked tickets in advance which beat the crowd and felt it was a better experience, but still didn't see much due to visibility.

The Devine Ms. M to the rescue!

If a perfect tech world yes. Sadly on 3 cruises last year, on both SB and SS the apps and TVs continually had problems. When they did work it was quite nice to have info at your fingertips around the ship. But, not ready for prime time.

I guess this answers the question of whether luxury cruising will return. But I am thrilled that we can be out and about again even if expectations will need to be tempered. A friend was telling me about a fake caviar that Walmart has which has fooled her guests. Perhaps that's next.😁