drron29

We visited on the Silver explorer and anchored in the harbour with a zodiac ride both ways.

Sorry to rain on your parade Stumbles but the best interaction I have had with a penguin was a king penguin on South Georgia. We landed over a kilometre from the king penguin colony. It was the last trip of the season for South Georgia. The young male fur seals were practising aggressive moves and would charge at you. A king penguin sensed that I was exasperated and came over to say hello. He said goodbye to the group he was travelling with. And signalled to me to follow him. From then on if a male fur seal charged he charged right back. When we were past the fur seal colony he bade good bye. Just one of those incredible interactions you can have with animals.

Well when we went on the Explorer we just did the Stanley highlights. I enjoyed it and a very good local guide. You then have plenty of time to walk around the shops. The only problem a Quark ship was in and 95% of the passengers were a Chinese tour group. We ran into a few of the 5% and they were regretting booking that cruise.

You don't have to be speeding to break windows across the Drake. The Silver explorer got hit by a freak wave and the bridge window got smashed. https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2013/01/articles/rough-weather/another-close-call-in-antarctica-silver-explorer-damaged-by-large-wave/

The only news I can find on the incident as yet. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2022/11/30/larry-and-ann-mah-take-antarctica-trip-on-which-woman-is-badly-hurt/69687733007/ But there is a Silversea link. The Captain of the Polaris is captain Maggie who we sailed with from Iceland to Canada on her first voyage as a Silversea Captain on the Silver Explorer.

Breaking news the new Viking Expedition ship has had a zodiac accident today with a bladder bursting on a zodiac and 2 thrown into the water. One woman apparently has a fractured leg and the ship is heading for Ushuaia.

We really love both Bangkok and Japan. This Christmas will be our 80th stay at the same hotel. We had over 20 visits before we graduated to the Sheraton grande Sukhumvit. And well over 50 visits to Japan. loved it so much that after our first trip 28 years ago I went back to university and did 2 years of Japanese. Unfortunately basically have forgotten it but now I find it is actually better to murder a few words of Japanese and then the person you are talking to will not lose face by making mistakes in their English.

We have a simple plan to prepare the house for Christmas. Go on holidays. 2022 it is Bangkok. 2023 Japan.

No problem at all. I have no problems though taking a jacket and wear it on the plane. Handy for putting extra things in the pockets for going through security.

We only did one SALT excursion when on the Dawn recently. It was the cheapest by a long way and we thought it was worth the price. It was a BBQ lunch and wine tasting in a Tuscan vineyard.

So true!

The football was fantastic,Australia won.

I'm old enough to remember when cosmetic surgery was rarely discussed in mixed company. Nowadays, people often chat about Botox and don't raise an eyebrow

Sad news indeed.

When we boarded the Dawn in August we arrived at ~ 1pm. Did the formalities and boarded a bit before 1.30pm. There were already a few on board then.

Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving license. The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a clutch purse and hands it to the officer. The officer examines the license. He looks quite puzzled. Officer 2: Thank you, ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a license, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked up the owner. Older Woman: Bet the liar told you I was speeding, too.

Well we are doing our own comparison. On the Dawn 3 months ago,will be on the Moon in April,May and on the Muse October,November.

Will look forward to it.

So to the subject of excursions. I have never been in favour of excluded excursions though I am a bit of a hypocrite having done more days on the Silver Explorer which of course had included excursions. But then in most of the places we went there was no chance of a private excursion. So for this Dawn cruise. Majorca. Soller and train ride. We liked this excursion. I researched private tours for 2 people which is what we have done in the past. We do dislike bus tours but at least on Silversea there are usually some that you know. So looking at some sites we have used before the exact same tour for 2 would be $US 751. So I would rate the SS tour better value. Palermo. We would have done the Dali museum and Gala's castle anyway. A tour for 2 was Euro 350. line ball. Marseille. Avignon on your own. Again we would have done this. I found a private tour that would have been better as entrance to the papal museum included. Lunch on your own dime. It was E600 for 2. Another line ball. St.Tropez. Found the same tour with Pt. Grimaud and the mountain village for $A900. SS wins. Menton Villa d'ephrussi . Didn't bother looking this one up as I was quite happy with our choice. Besides I was beginning to suffer sticker shock. SS fares aren't the only thing to have gone up substantially. Livorno. This was a SALT excursion to a vineyard with lunch so we didn't use the included excursion. Olbia. We enjoyed the first half of the tour to the ancient civilisation ruins but not the second. A better tour for us was a private tour but then an inland village with lunch. Cost $US550. Citavecchia. A tour without the olive oil tasting was $US420. A bus tour from the port to do the olive oil tasting was $US56 a head. Win to SS. Sorrento. Quattro Pasti wine tasing privately $US590. Win for SS. Pompei. Private walking tour. $US407. Win for SS. Catania. Ancient Syracusa. Private tour $US770. We had a good guide so win to SS. Malta Same tour for 2 was $US144. Would prefer that. Kotor. Another place we didn't use the included tour as we used the Virtuoso excursion which was excellent. For us the Effective price was $US150 as we gave up their OBC. Win for virtuoso. Dubrovnik walk the old town plus countryside with wine tasting at lunch. Similiar tour for 2 $US810 but it did not sound as good as ours as you paid extra for the wine tasting and lunch. Win to SS. Split. Trogir and tnhe Palace. Same tour for 2 $US500. Win for SS. So overall we liked the SS excursions. However we would obviously like to go on a private tour some times or simply stay on the ship or walk or shuttle into town. So we are paying unnecessarily. Much better if the excursions were as previously and we could make up our own minds whether it was value or not compared to what we could arrange. Or decide to have a day off which we find essential as we age. So although generally we felt the excursions were usually well run we would like to make our own decisions. Having included tours takes away that choice. We would hope Port to Port fares were bought back so we could make an informed choice. We take annual travel insurance which we would hope covered the deposit on the Port to Port fares.

Well the Moon is in Fort Lauderdale a few times from January to March next year so I hope she is fitted with Starlink when we board in Lisbon late March.

I agree completely. I feel the same at restaurants that say they are fine dining and here in Australia it is often the Oyster Bay Sav blanc on the wine list and it is also not the cheapest on the list.

Now to a topic that is sure to cause a bit of discussion -food and wine. The problem is that these things are subject to an individuals taste so there will naturally be different opinions on what is good and what isn't. but to those that have travelled a lot we know there are foods that swe can't stomach but in their countries of origin are considered delicacies. Andouille, Hakarl, surstomming and insects such as grasshoppers,spiders and witchetty grubs but I have eaten all those insects. So to Silverseas food. I have in this report supplied menus from 5 of the restaurants. the choices are many and up there with fine dining restaurants. Being able to have caviar,lobster and foie gras on the everyday menu is relly good. We found the quality of the food quite good. In particular I found the quality of the beef excellent on this cruise. I was told they had just changed suppliers for their beef and it now comes from Texas. Of course different kitchens may cook it differently as terms rare,medium and well done are interpreted differently around the world. Variety was not a problem with Atlantide, SALT and La Terraza all having a changing daily menu as well as their everyday menus. The everyday menu for Atlantide and SALT also changed for the second 9 days of our cruise. Now where the real arguments come. The wine. I consider that the everyday list of wines in the SS restaurants is consistent with restaurant wine lists. It is wrong to criticise a wine because it can be bought at a store for $10-20. Restaurants also buy for that price or less but it appears on the wine list for a lot more. I have done a little research since the cruise. I had a wine at a Michelin starred restaurant in the UK. I liked it. It was 50GBP on the wine list but in Tescos it was just over 10GBP. Similiarly last week we ate in a fine dining restaurant in Melbourne. I noted that the current vintage of Penfolds St. Henri shiraz was $A450. In the wine stores it is $A100 if bought in a 6 pack but $A 117 if bought by the single bottle. Yet you can get it on the Silversea Connoisseurs wine list for $US130. A ridiculously low mark up for a fine dining establishment. As to the comment that the wines are bad I disagree. bad wines are faulty badly produced wines that do not appear on Silversea. There are wines that I have tasted on Silversea that I don't like but there have always been others that are quite agreeable. However if you only like premier cru French wines then you won't find anything you like on an SS everyday wine list. But elsewhere you will pay a lot for the experience. And some of them are on the SS Connoisseurs list. Now I have drunk complimentary Dom Pérignon Brut Champagne 2009,Krug Brut Champagne 2004 and Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2007 in Singapore airlines First class flights or lounges. But you will pay as much for a flight as a SS cruise. Fortunately I was on award flights. So that's my 2 bobs worth. Next Excursions.

Certainly in the past there was no formal wear. I used to wear a jacket at times but there would be only 1 or 2 other men that did.