Redking

Some shots of our salubrious taxi

Back on board and mixed ourselves a Brandy Fruit Cup. Very pleasant even if it is lacking some fruit and mint accoutrements.

Lautoka 

We had nothing booked for this port. A chance conversation with another couple at breakfast in Luminae saw us heading into town on the shuttle, where we picked up a taxi to take us to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant.

The Gardens are about a 30 minute drive from Lautoka. It's a beautiful orchid and tropical garden originally owned by William Burr of Perry Mason fame.

Our taxi ride was somewhat interesting,  a touch of irony intended there. I'm thinking of starting a thread on the most entertaining and nerve racking transport experiences you've had on shore. Photos to follow will hopefully give you the just.

Tuscan day 3

This will be a brief review. For the third time in recent years we didn't enjoy our dining experience at Tuscan.

Findlay's Branzino looked and tasted like leather and he said his ceaser salad failed to impress.

My tuna was uninspiring.

Etc etc.

Service felt perfunctory. 

It's really not the Tuscan of some years ago.

That's my twopenneth. Thankfully we all have different tastes and preferences in food.

Back to Murano tomorrow!

3 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

We will be returning to the Eclipse in March for a B2B2B2B series.  When we were on the Eclipse in April 2022 the Michaels' Club concierges and the Suite Manager were all excellent.  The Suite Manager remembered us from when he  was a Luminae waiter in 2016.  In any event, who is the current Suite Manager?  Do you have one or two Retreat Concierges?

 

Enjoying your posts.

We met the suite manager the other night he seemed very approachable. Unfortunately I can't remember his name. Marlene is the Concierge and was previously on Beyond. She is a magician! I think she is the only Concierge.

Enjoy your cruise, sounds amazing.

Love having a coffee machine and kettle in our suite. Enjoying our selection of Forte Teas.

Excited for Evening Chic night. Love a good dress up.

Loving the colours in the sky.

Gliding past Viti Levu, Fiji.

First stop Lautoka 

Sea Days One and Two

As I sit here enjoying our afternoon cheese and charcuterie plate, I can’t help but reflect on just how outstanding the service has been thus far.

Luminae

The staff in Luminae cannot do enough for us. Findlay could quite easily have nothing but the soups for lunch for the entire cruise. Bingo, Roberto our waiter was onto it. The past two days Findlay has been served “upsized” versions of the soup. In fact, today he had two bowls of upsized chicken consommé, the prefect remedy for a slight hangover after a fabulous night in Murano last night. I’m gluten intolerant though not coeliac and have always been well looked after on previous cruises. Roberto has taken it to a whole new level, planning ahead with me for our dinner plans in the coming days and arranging for gluten free versions of menu items on days we plan to dine in Luminae. This morning at breakfast I made my standard off menu request for some avocado to have on my toast. Roberto explained that he thought the fresh avocados onboard might not be ripe enough, but he’d go and check. As expected, the little green pears were not yet playing ball and he instead offered me some Guacamole as an alternative which I accepted. Guac on my toast with bacon might become my new normal! When I thanked him for going to so much effort, he said we never want to say no!

Sea Day One

We had a very relaxing day yesterday starting with breakfast in Luminae. We planned to skip lunch after having a big breakfast, but you know ……………………………. The compromise was that we selected soup and salads from the appetisers and we may have somehow slipped a dessert in there.

We then enjoyed a lazy afternoon chez nous which found me mixing a French Mule from our now completed bar set-up. Thank you to @groryjim for your cocktail tips. I’m loving the Difford’s website and am now the proud owner of the latest edition of the Difford’s tome. Cruise Critic is the source of so much information. Gordon our butler par excellence even delivered a proper cocktail shaker, no doubt after spying my pathetic plastic effort. He also dropped off a couple of martini glasses. Once again exceptional attention to detail.

Officers’ Soiree and Dinner at Murano

Five thirty swung around and it was time to head off to Michael’s Club for the Officers’ Soiree. We were greeted on arrival by Captain Theo or should I say, I knew it was Captain Theo. Findlay, not being diligent in reading his embarkation day reading material, reached out to shake his hand and promptly asked “and you are?” whilst checking out the Captain’s badge. I guess it could have been worse, he didn’t ask if he was the bloke that drives the boat! Drinks and canapes were wonderful and the Appletinis flowed per @NZ1 wonderful review. We caught up with a fun couple from Sydney that we met at lunch on the first day. We both had reservations at Murano, with ours being half an hour earlier than theirs. We’d not long sat down at our table when we saw them come in and we decided to dine together. A wonderful dinner was paired firstly with a Chateau Neuf La Bernadine (one we enjoy at home) and then with a Penfolds Bin 389. Fin had the goat’s cheese souffle, the lamb and Grand Marnier souffle. I had the crab parfait followed by the venison and the GM souffle. I’m hoping @NZ1 will do the honours on food pics from Murano. If not, do not despair we have another three reservations to come at Murano. We were the last to leave the restaurant and decided to head up to our suite with our new chums to give the Grand Marnier a further nudge. Hence the slight hangovers this morning.

Wrap up for today

I’m struggling a bit with wi-fi, so much for Starlink, so I’ll post this for now without the photos and then post some snaps separately. Brendan, looking forward to your tips on the photo situation. Some sleuthing from your post on last night means I likely have an ID on you!

Having had a wee snooze we’re ready to get our party game on again and head off to Tuscan tonight. I’ve not been that impressed with Tuscan on our last couple of cruises, so will report back on our thoughts tomorrow.

Cheers for now!

1 hour ago, nz1 said:

 

You’re spot on, Jim! It’s on tomorrow night - Grilled Guinea Hen with spaghetti squash, pepitas, and sherry vinegar. Not really tempting me…

Would you believe I quite like the sound of it. I'm gluten intolerant and love spaghetti squash, assuming that's what I know it to be 🤣 Can't believe day 4 will be our first night dining in Luminae.

7 hours ago, dcbiker97 said:

You're in for a treat having Gordon as your butler. We sailed with him in November on our Sydney cruise and he was just fantastic.

He's wonderful. There were quite a few supply challenges on embarkation day which he has navigated like a pro.

We requested potato chips/crisps which they didn't have and he has given us a packet from his own personal supply!

After years of coveting, I finally pulled the trigger on a Mary Frances bag.

I may have agreed it was the bag OR spa treatments. We'll see!

It seems I've  managed to post my embarkation day review on @nz1 live food review for our cruise. Thanks for letting me know Brendan.

Absolutely nothing to do with hitting the cocktails too early on a sea day 🤣🍸🍹

10 minutes ago, nz1 said:

@Redking Wow your suite looks incredible!!

 

I think you accidentally posted in the “live food thread” rather than your actual live cruise report thread! Sorry if I confused things!! 

🤣🤣🤣Classic Kim!

4 hours ago, lexmiller said:

Hello, @Redking- can you please let us know how things went regarding this insurance issue with Fiji  - were you checked on boarding, is it actually an issue at all or are cooler minds prevailing?  What exactly is the procedure?  I believe Fiji is your first port of call......? Definitely want to hear about it, thank you!  I mean, it's absurd to think that Fijian government officials are going to sit around and evaluate every passenger's personal insurance policies!  And again as we've stated, we are in Fiji for a day, as cruise passengers - under no circumstance would covid insurance ever come into play in this actual situation.  If a passenger has covid, they wouldn't be allowed off the ship!  And no one is going to be like, oh wow, it's noon now on my one day in Fiji, I'm just got off the ship a few hours ago, I need to be back on board in a few more hours, but gosh I think all of a sudden I feel ill and will go for a covid test!  Never gonna happen.  I concur with you, that this is yet one more anti-cruise move designed to discourage cruise ships from coming.  The government says it's open to cruise passengers but naaaaahhh, not really.  Thanks in advance!

We weren't even asked about our insurance or covid tests on boarding. I'll let you know if we are asked prior to our arrival in Lautoka.

32 minutes ago, nz1 said:

Hope you’re having a lovely cruise so far, Kim! I must say I’ve been very impressed with the service and food.

 

I didn’t want to hijack your thread with my many many food photos I was going to post so I’ve set up a separate thread just for those 😊

 

Hopefully meet you in Michael’s at some stage during the voyage! 🥂

It's been excellent. They can't do enough for you in Luminae and SO5 last night was wonderfull, I could have grazed all night and the Saki was 👌

Great you're leading the charge on the food front!

Hope to meet up soon.

Some sail away shots

Bar setup with byo and after.

6 hours ago, nz1 said:

 

Great shots Brendan. 

1 hour ago, bluetardis said:

Drinks look delicious. Your little dachshund is adorable. This is my Niles

 

 

 

What a beauty!

The end of the last day of anticipation. 

10 minutes ago, nz1 said:

Those are gorgeous cocktails! We walked past the Voco earlier - looks very new! Hope you’re having a great pre-cruise evening ☺️🍸

They were stunning as was the glassware. Happy precruise evening 🥂

First cocktails of the holiday Bar Albert. Great roof top bar and views at our hotel, Voco.