drron29

Sorry for the second picture above. I thought I had worked out how to prevent the iPhone doing this but obviously not quite.

Flowers in Dolce Vita. I attended the first lecture. Probably going to be the best attended lecture on this leg beings a sea day.

Though cooked to the request of medium rare. But I will change to rare from now. Now breakfast at the Arts cafe.

Though cooked to the request of medium rare. But I will change to rare from now.

Yes they are.

Well I have just tried to log in and can't. I know my details are correct so hopefully they have disabled the site.

And the food. We both had the days asparagus dish to start then I had the potato and leek soup. Then Rojaan had the schnitzel and I the fillet of beef medium rare. I had a very reasonable Portugese red and Rojaan as usual a Sauvignon blanc. The desserts. Rojaan had the daily special and I the pear and blueberry crumble.

The first menu in Atlantide.

Getting to the Moon. A few views from our suite. And our neighbours.

Well our run of recognition continues. We have just done the compulsory muster. For the first time ever I was first to a lifeboat. Relegated Rojaan to second. Not every day that I can do that.

We only have the little bottles. But we do have an orchid.

Subtitle 54 Days on the Moon to mark 60 years since the film 55 Days in Peking was released. I enjoyed it then and even more so now having met someone who was there for the Boxer Rebellion. We had a good time in Portugal although with a few hiccups. Great treatment by the 5 hotels we stayed in. A really amazing embarkation experience. Left the Intercontinental by taxi just after 1pm. The taxi driver missed the entrance to the cruise port twice so the second time we got out of the taxi on the road in front of the terminal. Not far to the SilverSea baggage collection and then upstairs to fill in the health questionnaire and photo taken. Downstairs again and a short walk to the Moon. From the time we got out of the taxi to the time we completed formalities at the top of the gangplank was 30 minutes. Then straight to the Panorama lounge for a drink. At 2pm they announced the suites were ready. When we got to our suite we knew they knew who we were. There was the usual orchid and champagne. Rojaan was having trouble connecting to the internet so was heading for the wi fi consultant in Dolce Vita when she met the butler from our las voyage on the Dawn who brought her back to the cabin and fixed it quickly. No wonder we love SilverSea.

And they know who we are. Arrived in our suite to find this - And they found an orchid for our suite

These were pre Covid and I never bothered to check the website after booking.

What an awesome embarkation in Lisbon. Arrived by taxi on the road outside the Cruise Terminal at 1.25pm and on board at 1.55pm. Annoucement that the suite was ready at 2pm. But we already were having our first drink in the Panorama Lounge.

This has been happening for years with airlines and hotels. Also with SS. We have been having emails from an Australian travel company who have used Silversea for at least the past 12 years. They book 30 to 40 cabins. However they sell them as part of a tour so hard to know what discount they get. For airlines it does come with certain caveats. We used such a channel to book our Emirates business class flights Singapore to Frankfurt saving $3000 but came with no lounge access which didn’t worry us but what not said was no seat allocation even if it cost extra. So found ourselves in different rows in middle seats. Yes the EK 777s come in a 2-3-2 in business class. We did manage eventually to sit together though.

Being a lot older than JP we take doxycycline along. So far only used it in malaria areas.

Welcome to Lisbon. Will be joining those staying on this afternoon.

The dancers are remaining on board for the next leg. One informed us on the roll call.

Today in Lisbon was grey clouds at sunrise but a perfect blue sky day later. High 21C (70F). Forecast the same for the next 3 days. Unfortunately you are scheduled to berth at 0400 so we will miss you sailing past our window.

The weather in Lisbon much better today. Blue skies,no clouds but a gentle wind.

May I recommend one of SS’s fiercest competitors. MV Sikumi. An 8 passenger crab boat that does cruises of the Inside Passage. They have kayaks aboard and one day we were in a 2 person kayak and a humpback whale surfaced about 2 feet away beside us. Fantastic looking into that huge eye. There were hundreds of whales and all we could hear was whale song. But as well an eagle flew over head with a large salmon in it’s talons whilst on the shore a black bear was watching us.

Found some wine for one of the connoisseurs on Cruise Critic.

At present we are on the Atlantic coast of Portugal and the weather is miserable. Cold, cloudy and trying to rain. Just as well you have a few days before Lisbon.

But having lost considerable weight I will no longer be popular in Laos. Very sad.