CASHIPman

I was on Queen Elizabeth 2 sailing from Southampton, UK to New York when 9/11 happened. On the afternoon of the second day out, I returned to my stateroom and turned on the TV to watch some news. What I saw was image of the Twin Towers burning so I assumed that was a movie and change the channel. Obviously, it wasn’t. All channels were showing the same images. Shortly there after, the captain came on the loudspeaker and said, “I’m sure you all have heard about the tragedies that have befallen, New York and Washington today. As a mark of respect, dancing will be canceled this evening.“ It sounded like a silly announcement, but, really, what else could we do? 2001 was before widespread Internet on ships and the QE2 had one computer room with about 20 computers that would connect to the Internet. Pretty much the entire ship’s  passenger complement waited on line to send messages to loved ones. Time at the computer was rationed to about 10 minutes per person so that everyone would be able to get a chance to use it. Life went on aboard the ship with many folks gathering in the Golden Lion Pub to watch news. We were due to dock in New York on September 16th, but, of course, New York Harbor was closed. We were diverted to Boston’s Black Falcon ship terminal. However, as we approached the port, we were stopped … there had been a bomb threat made against the cruise terminal, and we were made to wait until they sorted that out. Once we finally arrived in Boston, Cunard Line was spectacular. They had buses waiting take take everyone down to New York, and they had bused up stevedores from New York harbor to handle the ships luggage, etc. There were many passengers on board who were sailing to the USA to tour, but once September 11 happened many of them went to the cruise consultant‘s office to see if they could book passage on the return trip. Some were lucky, but an announcement was made shortly thereafter that saying the return cruise had been fully booked.

Feel better Mysty!!! We leave tomorrow. It was lovely to meet you and Mystyr!!

MV Silver Shadow at anchor in Savusavu, Fiji

There are only 13 Baha’i Temples in the world. The Baha’i faith places importance on the number 9 which is why each temple has 9 sides, (as is evidenced by the ceiling pic ). 
The lone congregant in the pic is @MuseCruiser  😂

2 hours ago, Tothesunset said:

WAC? 

Women’s Army Corps. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Army_Corps

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Maybe I'm naive, but my thought was that since they had to make it for Mysty they decided to make more and offer it to everybody.  So Mysty was even more special, because she created the night's 'special.'

 

[My Mother was a baker in the WAC, and after she died we found a file of her WAC recipes.  Lemon Meringue Pie:  squeeze 120 lemons...  Hard to scale that down to 1 pie!!!]

 But Mysty wanted chicken, IIRC and the kitchen served her, Mystyr and everyone in The Restaurant beef?

32 minutes ago, mysty said:

Shadow is now at dock.  The meal in suite was delicious.  It was beef and not chicken.   I'm fairly sure it was exactly what was on offer in the Restaurant tonight.   What a coincidence! 😅  A photo will follow tomorrow. 

On one cruise we had ordered a special meal. That night the entire special meal we ordered was the meal they offered on the menu in The Restaurant. Didn’t make us feel “special”. 

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

Mysty - I see that Seabourn Sojourn was/is docked where you are?  Maybe she has to move before you can go in?  (One of my favourite ships)

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

Here’s the Sojourn leaving!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Including passengers and crew there are about 600 of us. If we’re not cleared by 2PM local I say we take to the tenders, storm the beaches and take over the country in the name of Silversea!!!

Who’s with me?!? 😂

For our anniversary, the kitchen prepared for us an amazing Indian feast!!
 

Onion Bhalji
Vegetable Samosa
Raita
Chutney

Chicken curry
Lamb curry
Pilau (rice)
Cauliflower something
Dal (lentil curry)
Papadum
Naan

4 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

 

The naked and famous is an IBA official cocktail, consisting of equal parts mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, and fresh lime juice.

 

Sounds delicious! I think I'd be infamous after a few of those.😀

 

And in case you're wondering.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBA_official_cocktails

 

Miss M - thanks for another diversion.

Yellow Chartreuse is nearly impossible to find so I bought génépy, a worthy substitute, in Honolulu and gave it to Peter to hide for me so he can make the N&Fs. 😀

Views of King Neptune’s visit to the Silver Shadow! Good fun!

18 hours ago, ropomo said:

The international leg description for business class is clearly stated on their website and in all brochures.

I wish it had been clearly stated by the Silversea rep. 

We’re booked on the shadow from San Francisco to Fiji in JAN24 and purchased the business class upgrade to/from Chicago. After we booked, the documentation said that business class is only on international sectors. 
(I booked directly with Silversea and the agent never mentioned that fact!)

Does anyone have any experience with this? If we’re flown Fiji-Hawaii-Chicago, will Hawaii-Chicago be in economy?

I’ll be less than happy if we shelled out nearly US$ 5K for most of the air to be flown in economy. 

I’m looking at this stateroom ... anyone have any experience with it? Is the balcony a standard balcony or is it larger? The deck plans almost make it seem that it wraps around.

Thanks!

Hi Ilene...

I've sent you an email!

Wes and Duct Tape...thanks for letting me know of the message.

oh .....dear .... you are a bit confused. That thread was for Silver Spirit ..... which in fact I named. :p

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=5381753&postcount=7

 

 

 

You were only one ship out. :)

I would say that Messrs Rolls and Royce beat your choice of "Silver Spirit" by a good 25 years. My name of "Silver Muse" is more original and came to fruition. :D

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=73868795

Not for nuthin' but I suggested "Silver Muse" as a name for a newbuild back in 2005!!

My tuppence...

1) I do not like this idea. To me, "all-inclusive" should refer to onboard offerings, not land offerings.

2) I take offense at Silversea using the world "free" because as some of you have already found out, Silversea wants to upcharge existing bookings. Also, is anything really "free"? I'd be fine with them using "included".

3) So far it's only on Med cruises? I'm hoping that Silversea is only trialing the program and that the results will show it's not what the customer wants.

4) This won't stop me from sailing Silversea unless it causes their pricing to be out of whack with their competitors.

5) See (1).

Is the free WiFi two hours total for the length of the cruise?

Our preference is to do something on our own, either a taxi or a private tour. If we're at a port where there's a concern about getting back to the ship on time or where there's no good private tour option/taxi service then we'll go with a SS excursion. We've always found that booking on our own is better and usually less expensive.

Case in point:

We were in Walvis Bay, Namibia on Silversea and booked our own excursion. The "comparable" SS excursion was more expensive. In addition, one thing that was listed as something to see on the SS excursion was flocks of flamingos. When the tour buses returned to the ship our fellow passengers said they didn't see any flamingos because they had already migrated.

Well...

We were just on the Cloud in 731. One noise issue is that this (and I imagine adjacent) stateroom is below the pool deck so you can easily hear staff moving tables and chairs in the morning and evening.

Craig,

 

Hope you're enjoying your current cruise.

 

Is it your impression that the included excursions are a done deal?

Thanks! It was great.

The survey asked a bunch of demographic questions and then separately showed two Silversea adverts. After each advert the questions dealt with what I thought would be a low price and a high price...how much would I pay for these cruises. The flaw in the survey was that neither cruise "offered" would be one I'd be interested in, (i.e. a San Juan round-trip), so they couldn't pay me to take that cruise! :D

Anyway, to your question...both adverts had the same "All Shore Excursions Included" stamp on it.

So, although there was no specific mention of the all-inclusive tours, I was admonished to "read the advert carefully".

I figured that they survey was really about how much would people pay for cruises with the tours included without overtly asking about it.

Been missing you Craig and just yesterday Wes brought me up to date where.

Glad to know you're still sailing -- :)

aka Mary Ann

Hi Mary Ann!!! It's a delight to "hear" from you!!! I hope you've been well!!! Where's next for you?

Just wondering where it said the responder would receive a code. I completed the survey also, and didn't receive a code either at the end of the survey or as a follow-up afterwards.

I received an email with a 5% discount certificate today.