drron29

Well I have now proven the best way to improve your golf is to drink G&Ts. I have entered the putting competition on this cruise 5 times. Twice with no drinks and didn’t get a single point. Once with a G&T and had a hole in one. Twice with a double shot G&T. First time a hole in one and third. Today a hole in one and a winner. Pity I didn’t take gin with me when I played golf!

We went to Atlantide for dinner. Quite a few don't like it but it basically is our favourite restaurant for dinner. Ususlly a decent selection of dishes which change regularly. Always has a menu of the day. As well the last vestiges of Covid behaviour have gone. You are asked when you arrive whether you want to share a table with others. We like to do this but not every night. We shared with another Aussie couple and a couple from Wales. So the menu. The day's menu photo wasn't any good so the last 3 pages. The menu has been pruned and a fair bit which was available every day has gone. As well the Soups and Salads section has gone. The made up an intermediate course so now 3 courses rather than 4. I started with the Seafood chowder. Not a chowder and an extremely small amount of seafood. Mrsdrron had the Argentinian prawns which were OK. And I had the beef char sui. Disappointing. The desserts haven't changed. I have decided not to partake of desserts as my walking distance is less than on the previous cruise. Rojaan had the Pavlova which she enjoys. No picture this time, We start off with 3 sea days. Great for relaxing but can get a little boring. Great moment when a ship passes by. Lunch in Atlantide. Always quiet at lunch with most eating in La Terraza for the buffet or up by the pool. We prefer the much more relaxed atmosphere and smaller serves so easy to keep your intake of calories down. So to the menu. It changes every day. I had the Cajun chicken wrap and the sea bass on a vegetable ragout. I liked both. The fish was cooked to perfection. Rojaan had the penne and the crumble. I continued to decline desserts. But in between lunch and dinner was trivia where we again have a great team. No Americans this time but a very knowledgeable Canadian. In fact we won the first 3 days though on the 4th hit rock bottom. Then there was the Captain's welcome introducing th Senior officers.

I developed a viral illness just after boarding. running nose,cough, a few aches and pains but no energy . That and 3 sea days has meant I have had a lot of time getting to know my pillow. Two days ago I got motivated to start walking and hopefully today begin to post some more. So here we go. On Sunday we had a lunch invitation from 2 of the World Cruisers on the Silver Shadow. Turned out we got on exceptionally well with @mysty and myster. We had lunch in the main dining room. I only took a photo of my main course a vegetable Biryani. quite tasty. There is always an Indian chef somewhere on board. We had got a Bali Blue Taxi from the IC. He was just the first in line. A safe driver and the cost was at the bottom of the suggested rate that we were given at the hotel. We knew what time we were leaving the ship so got him to take us back as well arranged for him the next day to take us back to board the Silver Muse. Dinner was as usual grazing at the IC Club. And because I have never tried it before I drank Arak Madu and enjoyed it. The next morning we had truffled scrambled eggs for breakfast. Very nice. Then at 1120 a long check out process as they were without electricity for 2 hours. Computers worked but pretty dark. At 1130 picked up by our taxi driver in cab 007. Arrived at the port at 1150. When we got there we had to take a seat as check in only opened at Midday. But we were able to do some of the paperwork so pretty much straight through when it opened. We were the second couple to board. We went to the Dolce Vita lounge and I had a gin and tonic or two. We decided not to have lunch. The lounge and one of the orchids. Lots of them around the ship. And a lovely sunset before we went to dinner.

A bit hard for me to get it back to the title as we are 5 days from reaching Japan. Our first port is Naha, Okinawa. Somehow I don't think I am going to see Fuji from there.

In our case when they did the same to the Muse earlier this year it was to a new booking not an already booked cruise. But inconsistent behaviour by SS is probably to be expected.

That afternoon we decided to have afternoon tea because we could and it cost nothing. The menu. And the food. I had mine with mint tea. We then decided we had better do another walk. That didn't stop us from going back for Happy Hour. The nights canapes. no picture though. But also nibbles for the weekend. Plus a special dish from one of the restaurants. The fellow putting it together only knew it as a special dish. Plus a couple of other different additions to the buffet. And Sunday breakfast. Avocado toast for Rojaan and Okonomiyaki for me.

It was decimated the last time we were on the Muse October/ November 2023. Haven't changed Indochine yet.

No they had gone on our last cruise. When you arrive in the suite there is still a bottle of champagne and the 9 little bits of chocolate in a box. No other edibles at all. And I am wondering whether the lobster tail and caviar are going to disappear as they have disappeared from the Everyday menu.

By the way my beef fillet last night was back to the normal serving size and cooked exactly how I like it. Tender and tasty.

They have now pruned the Atlantide dinner menu. First a menu from our last cruise on the Muse in October/November 2023 Now a current menu. So the choice of 3 vegetarian mains, 5 seafood and 5 meat has become 3 of each.Plus the Intermediate course with soups and salads has been cut completely but with 1 soup and 1 salad added to the starters but a reduction from 7 to 6 of the other choices. And here was the seafood chowder from the first night. Lots of seafood? definitely not

And there are a lot of other problems on our current voyage including scrubbing all our restaurant bookings. No fruit bowl. No nuts and dried fruit. Think we must be the guinea pigs for the essentials fare.

And back out into the hotel grounds. Then I wandered outside the hotel grounds. Not that much. Reasonable prices at the Turkish restaurant. Put $A in place of the K and a decimal point in front of the last number and you have the Aussie price. $US 2/3rds of Aussie price. Then I went into a large convenience store. Very clean and a good range of food and drink. lovely fruit. I nearly bought some mangosteens. I did buy a cold pomegranate juice. Ticket said 18500 so I handed over a 20000 note and got 5000 change. I then went outside to drink my juice. they had a few tables and chairs out the front. whilst I was drinking A woman came up and sat down beside me. Asked where I was from then asked where I was staying. I said the IC and she replied that is an expensive place. I have no money but I can make you happy. Time for me to leave and retreat back into the hotel grounds.

I am a daredevil.Like taking a risk 😉. But seriously we normally are on a widebody leaving Australia and sit in the centre as mainly the business cabin is 1-2-1. But back to Bali. Later that afternoon I went for another walk. Down to the beach but turned right rather than left. But lots of rubbish on the beach side of the tree. And a view across to the airport. The hotel villas. A long way from the facilities. And behind the villas a veggie garden.

It was from the email from SS re the new Essentials fare.

We booked a cruise for December 2025 just 1 week ago. The P to P fare is nearly $A6000 dearer than our D to D fare minus air. I really am starting to believe we have booked our last SS cruise. This in the explanation of the D to d fare means that is definitely out of the question for us. "Our industry-leading Door-to-Door All-Inclusive fare available on all voyages; air must be purchased through Silversea as an air credit is no longer available on this fare type."

There are always some days when wine is just not strong enough and a large gin is what’s needed.

Well if is official SS food has gone down hill. The soups have disappeared from the Atlantide menu as well as the available everyday menu. Scallops and filet much smaller and the large Australian prawns replaced by smaller Argentinian shrimp.

After breakfast we had a stroll around the property. The fish were obviously used to being fed. The beach wasn't much with quite a bit of rubbish. I don't think this sign achieved much. A lot of the sun lounges had towels but no people. And only 2 people where on the beach. There was a wedding on later that day. Then past their Convention centre.

Wandered down to the lounge for breakfast about 0930. Here is the breakfast menu. And the buffet. For our hot dish Rojaan had the avocado toast and I eggs Benedict with salmon.

We were told we had access to the Singaraja lounge and went there first. not impressive so we asked where the Club IC was and went there. Obviously at checkin they hadn't got the lounge pass into the system. Showed it to them and everything OK. An impressive area,good selection of food, very friendly staff but not as well trained as in Bangkok. First the menu for drinks and the nightly canapes. The canapes. There was also a buffet selection. For winesRojaan had a French Sav Blanc and I decided to try an Indonesian cab Sav. It wasn't bad so I kept drinking it. The garden lights on the way back to the room. It had been a long day so we fell into bed at ~ 8pm local time and woke up at 0830. That was 1030 QLD time. A very relaxing sleep.

So to the Intercontinental. We got what appears to be the usual upgrade to a room on 2 floors with the bed upstairs. But it is comfortable. Two separate showers and a standalone bath which also has a hand held shower. Should be acceptable to even the fussiest guest. I'm using the bath as the shower floors are marble and way too slippery for me. So the bathrooms. First downstairs and then upstairs. And the downstairs room. Our little gift. And the view.

The first sight of Indonesia was Nusa Penida an island just off Bali. And now on approach to Denpasar airport on Bali.

Not long after that Lunch was served. Harissa hummus as an appetiser, rojaan had chicken with spicy potatoes which was ok and I had Thai vegetable curry wich was awful as well as bland. Fortunately the wines were better. Rojaan had a nice pinot Grigio. And I had one of my favourite labels - Petaluma Pinot Noir which was great. We also had a fantastic FA. always happy, chatted to everyone but always kept an eye on everyone so always got a refill long before I finished my wine. It helped that she and her family were going to Tokyo in May and was vey appreciative of all the tips I could give her. Now flying over rural Queensland is generally quite featureless and different shades of brown. But this has been a very wet wet season particularly in the Far North. I have never seen so much green. Now all those streams drain into lake Eyre in the centre of South australia but every few years it fills and the water birds come from everywhere. So if you are in Australia from May to October try and get to lake Eyre. It is a fantastic sight when full. Now after 4 hours of flying from Brisbane the northernmost State Capital in Australia we finally crossed the Australian coast with just 90 minutes to go to Bali.