Silver Spectre

We were on the Moon ta from Lisbon to Ft Lauderdale last November and there was no VAT imposed.

Heading out of Lisbon into roughish weather, 12 to 15’ waves and 30 to 40 knots of wind, getting worse tomorrow and tomorrow night. The Captain is modifying our course to try and avoid 30’ waves tomorrow.

It was a footnote in the Chronicle, and it was only 10% for food and alcohol. I was informed a couple of days ago that it wouldn’t apply once we got into International waters, however we now have Portuguese VAT of 23%, including alcohol and 13% for La Dame and Kaiseki for the entire voyage. More EU gouging.

One thing that really sucked on this voyage was the imposition of a 21% Spanish Vat charge on every additional service onboard. This included La Dame, the Boutique, the Spa and any purchased service such as Premium Wine and the Premium Wifi. Its not SS’s fault, but the authorities should be happy for cruising to return and not be gouging guests!

Thanks Spins. We took the included intransit tour to Cascais and Sintra this morning instead of either sitting in the Panorama for three hours while the suites were sanitised or walking out in the blustery conditions. We didn’t manage to find Fernando, although we did like Cascais. Sintra was altogether too busy. Dinner in Atlantide produced our first fail, a Green Thai Chicken curry that was returned. Too much potatoes, thin sauce with no or very little coconut, dry chicken and rather bland. It looked like the BBC recipe rather than a real one. Forced myself to eat a medium rare fillet instead, which came within 5 mins. All the other food on the segment just completed was good to excellent.

Thanks for your review @Gourmet Gal

It’s the HD and the Maitre D. Gilbert and his head waiters have enforced it on here. Not sure who Gilbert’s replacement is today, but we will see if anything changes.

We got followed by the Iona!

Time to say goodbye to 450 guests and sod off to the one ignorant and abusive Brit, and welcome to about 380 newbies for the next segment.

Spanish sunset

If you are asking for advice on here, then probably yes. We spent 5 weeks onboard in February and March and everything was outstanding.

The ship is in great shape. Exactly why are you concerned?

Yesterday’s big sister is here. And this is BIG, 5209 passengers.

Today’s companion

So far I have identified Maple Joe from Canada, in individual portions, but there is a rumour of a jar somewhere.

Have a safe flight. We will try and keep the ship looking good for your arrival.

Apparently they have NZ Ned on the Cloud right now.

Good question, any particular brand?

Can’t wait for that first sea day!

Not sure why but the Wifi on here is pretty bad, standard is really sluggish and the premium service is running at about of that on the Whisper in March. Even at 1am with most of the ship asleep it’s bad. And of course my general bugbear, PressReader newspapers, on here the English ones are being loaded around 6pm! Luckilythe weather is still good. We have 210 Venetians onboard with 5 guests over 1000 days. So that’s an awful lot of newbies.

Hi there, Captain is Zanello, who was on here last year, HD is Daniele Franco, who was on the Shadow last September. We get off when the ship gets back to Lisbon on Oct 30th.

In port about 25/26c, inland today about 28c. Malaga tomorrow 26c. We now have our first guest identified with COVID, no crew at present.

Cartagena on another lovely sunny day

29 guests on our tour bus of whom 7, including us wore masks. One lady coughing a bit. The bus was half full, with most guests at the front. The wine tour itself was good. A Spanish sub and some fancy yachts

Cheers, I would say better than OK, it’s living up to expectations. Going on a wine tour this morning so will be able to assess the tour bus masking compliance.