drron29

We have stayed at the IC,Mimi bay,Sheraton Denarau.Westin,Sheraton Villas and the Hilton. Prererence is for the IC. or Sheraton villas. Friends say the Sofitel is the best hotel in Denarau. Snorkelling is fine in the ocean off the IC or Marriott. It is the man made lagoon at the Marriott that has murky waters.

We were on the same cruise I think. Ours was in August. We also thought most excursions were good, a couple were poor. Though the 2 best excursions were the SALT tour in Livorno and the Virtuoso excursion in Kotor. We once did 2 excursions in a day and that was too hectic. All in all we were happy with the excursions.

The problem is that the good resorts are basically full of Aussies and kiwis as it is one of the closest OS destinations. Prices are through the roof. As for Denarau it is no longer a 20 minute drive from the Airport. We stayed there for Christmas 2019 and the road from denarau to Nadi was in shocking condition. In an ordinary car you had to take it really slowly. with the shutdown for 2 years I can only think it will have got worse. SS tring to book a hotel a week out was the problem. very likely nothing else left. On booking,com these are the only properties left in Denarau for 1 weeks time.

Well there was still personalised stationery on the Dawn in August. but pre covid it used to be an A4 pad which I had taken what was left to take notes. The stuff we got this cruise was 2 shetts of note paper. chalk and cheese. i did take a photo of the comparison but alas my computer totally gave up and that photo was one that didn't survive.

So did a bit of research on the EU VAT. It has been going on for a long time. Back to 2014 in one article I found from Travel Weekly. https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/On-Europe-cruises-getting-acquainted-with-VAT Even an early article from CC. https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/articles.cfm?ID=3242 Several cruise lines mention it. Now a couple say that if you buy your food and drink packages at home in a non EU country then you should be exempt from the tax except when in a port. We didn't get charged VAT on our August cruise but then Kotor is in Montenego which is a non EU country so during the cruise VAT should not be charged. So if the Moon cruise is a round trip from Lisbon and only visits Madeira,Azores and the Canary islands they are all in the EU. But if an African port or Gibraltar were included they are non EU so the tax should not be imposed throughout the cruise. Good to know as we are coming up to picking our free cruise and i picked 2 Lisbon to Lisbon cruises. The only major difference one calls in at Gibraltar and one doesn't. Simplifies the choice. however I don't remember being Charged VAT before when in European ports. Was SS including it in the price then but now wanting some extra return and so including it? One of the cruise lines that was charging it pre covid was RCL.

One of my all time favourites.

For our UK friends. It seems they have made a change to the front door of 10 Downing street. The Prime Ministers place for all our other friends.

Yep. That qualifies as vegetarian.

Us colonials always sit on that side as passengers. Some really lovely looking vegetarian food there. but being a meatatarian any vegetable served with meat is a vegetarian meal.😁

Well I saw this Dawn perform with Tony Orlando in Vegas and she was HOT.

The real name in NZ where itcomes from is Tiki. Both Australian and NZ wines are often renamed for overseas markets. Until recently you did get the original label on SS. And Oyster bay SB is $A16 on special here - $US10.50. But it just proves my point. A wine being cheap does not mean it is a bad wine. Just look at it's awards. https://www.oysterbaywines.com/au

And in response to all this talk about wine how would we respond to a question like this.

We got off the Dawn on August 31 after 18 days. For the first 9 days we had our temperature taken but told for the second 9 days it would not be done as the policy had changed. and yes it definitely wasn't taken those last 9 days.

I have been able to see the include wine list on one occasion on SS. Got on very well with the "sommelier". I had had several discussions with him about the included wines and stating although some wines were not to my taste they were not bad wines. And in my life of wine drinking, now coming up to 60 years of the pleasure, I have disliked some wines that are acknowledged by many experts as top quality wines. Also the Sommelier on our Dawn cruise when I told him I really liked the Chilean Carminere on board and I am a fan of that type of wine and also Argentinian merlot. On the next night we saw him he produced an Argentinian merlot for me. I rated that as good service.

A sommelier should have some qualifications in the study of wine to be called a sommelier. The problem is there are many organisations that can give some one the bit of paper to call themselves a sommelier. So someone acting as a sommelier but without an acceptable piece of paper could be called a wine consultant as they usually have some experience in the service of wine. It is interesting to look through the job advertisements for sommeliers on cruise ships to see what the requirements are, Here is one place to look. https://www.allcruisejobs.com/search/sommelier/ The line with the most stringent qualification requirements at present is Costa. They require a sommelier degree. Seabourn require an assistant sommellier to have a class 3 WSET award in wines whereas Silversea just says a WSET qualifications. Personally I would regard a sommelier as having a WSET class 4 Diploma as minimum requirement. https://www.wsetglobal.com/qualifications/?subject=Wine Ritz Carlton yachts only require a WSET class 2 certificate to be a Sommelier. Of current ads RCL.Viking.Azamara and windstar don't require any wine education to be a sommelier. Like many things with wine there is some pretentiousness in these terms. Ironic as most sources say that the name sommelier is derived from the old French word for mule driver.

For our March cruise next year we are transiting FRA on our way to Lisbon. As we do our own air we are spending a night in the HGI. And we are flying business class and paying due to Singapore airlines changing planes on us so losing our awards in First class. Now on paid Emirates flights which cost less than SS airs upgrade to business class. Plus we got ~ $A2000 back for not taking the air component. Win win for us.

Every year for 8 years we flew from Brisbane to New YorK via Narita on JAL. There was a 55 minute connection at Narita from the Brisbane flight to the JFK flight. We did this 2 or 3 times a year. We never missed a connection. You don't have to go through immigration but you do have to go through security which was the choke point. If we were delayed at all the JAL staff would escort us to the front of the security line. Being a domestic connection you would have to go through Immigration but the JAL staff does that for Immigration as well. We were actually taken to the staff line on the one occasion we had a late flight connecting from international to domestic. So I think the Tokyo connection would be fine les37b.

Well done JP and DW. But with all the shenanigans going on I decided to go and test my patience today. It was negative.

on our dawn cruise 2 months ago there was no Tiki. They had another Marlborough Sav blanc which was equal to Tiki. And my favourite lunch venue was Kaiseki. We have over 50 trips to Japan and many sushi restaurants here in Australia. The sushi was very good at Kaiseki even though they had a lot of rolls to cater for western tastes. I mean does a California roll sound like a Japanese dish. Some pictures of the food at lunch. The sashimi was of good quality and the eel,mackerel and sea urchin were very good. IMHO we know our sushi and wines.

I'm sorry but your wine experience is strange. I really haven't struck many bad wines on SS. Some of the included wines are excellent. on this last cruise a Sancerre and a Chilean Carmenere wine were very good.

I doubt it is all Silversea's fault. Airline schedules are all over the place ATM. Qantas is overwhelmed and many reports of disasters with bookings. Last week one fellow had his booking cancelled the day before departure with his family. Now that would really suck. We always have the air removed and get the credit because we usually stay a few days before the cruise and again after. As well we use points often. But talk about routing via Amsterdam. If an Australian wants to get an award on Air France from Paris back to Australia often you have to start the journey in Amsterdam or Rome to get the Paris to Australia segments. I really would hate to be a TA in these times.

We certainly got acknowledgement of our donation to the crew fund 7 weeks ago on the Dawn signed by the Captain and Human Resources Manager. as well as verbal recognition from several crew. On the other hand Silversea know me too well. signed up for an excursion in the Middle East to go dune bashing. It was listed as suitable for those UP to the age of 4. Fits my mental age perfectly.

Times are a changing with Covid. Mask mandates are going everywhere. Even South Korea has dropped the mask mandate as well as testing to enter. https://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/travel/destinations/south-korea-lifts-covid-19-test-requirement-from-1-october-2022/ Japan actually hasn't had a mask mandate as the Japanese do it anyway. Will be interesting to see if that changes after the 11th of this month when Independent travellers again can enter. https://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/travel/destinations/japan-to-allow-visa-free-independent-travel-from-11-october/ Even Hong Kong is starting to loosen up and has dropped quarantine though still quite restrictive. https://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/travel/destinations/hong-kong-ends-mandatory-hotel-quarantine-from-26-september/ So Asia cruising should be fine soon. As to masks the evidence is not clear apart from the fact that wearing a mask when infected will reduce transmission. Evidence from previous respiratory pandemics shows a properly fitted N95 mask can reduce your chances of picking up a respiratory virus. But it must be a properly fit tested mask. Having had to do this when my ward became an overflow covid ward I had to shave off my beard and still only 1 type out of 6 N95 masks the hospital had would fit properly. Naturally it was the most uncomfortable to wear.

We are going to test out whether we find the menus boring in March 23 when we are on the Moon for 54 days. i expect we won't have a problem as both SALT and Atlantide had a daily menu as well as the everyday menu. As well on the second segment of our recent cruise the everyday menu in Atlantide had a few changes. On top of that there are dishes I eat more than once even on a short cruise. on the first segment of 9 days I had the prime rib twice as it was fantastic. was told they had changed the source of their beef to Texas. Was fine by me.