Sea Birds

On 10/12/2023 at 10:54 AM, bcummin said:

Thrilled to hear that you are enjoying this voyage.  I delight in each detail.

Your Meet & Greet sounds like a success.  I enjoy the Swiss Muesli.  Glad that the block parties continue.

Last year our 2022 Grand Africa Voyage had no speakers the first few days out of Ft. Lauderdale.  Olga is wonderful.  We had her speaking throughout West Africa.

Glad to hear about the live music.  Your volume is a welcome miracle.  Remember to use your Navigator to praise the good.

Enjoy this time of a lifetime.

Barbara

Thanks for the tip about asking for dry Muesli. I miss my Australian Muesli and even Nutra Grain! 

Hope we get to meet on board. I will keep my ears peaked for a Kiwi accent.

Thank you for all your awesome posts.

On the Grand Africa 2022 they had a wonderful "Crew Talent Show".

Any of the crew could enter. 

Disappointed that HAL changed the vegetarian menu.  Now most of the dishes have "Beyond Meat" which is beyond me! As an ethical vegetarian I do not want to eat something that tastes like meat.

Beyond Meat is struggling as a company. I guess I am not the only vegetarian who dislikes the Beyond Meat’s revolting taste.

On my recent (81 days) cruise I had quite a lot of trouble and anguish as a vegetarian, especially in the Lido. Items on the menu, both in the Lido and MDR, were not always marked with the vegetarian symbol. I had to ask every single time if an item was vegetarian.  This made it difficult for both passengers, servers and  waiters.

My worst experience was having to stand in line next to the carving section to get any vegetables.

At the pasta station you can ask them to use a clean fry pan. Make sure the servers use clean utensils for cutting your sandwiches or serving your vegetables.

The Asian section was quite good, but not to eat every day. The Lido salad bar was also good.

In the MDR I usually ended up with plain pasta and marina sauce. Once I had chili rellenos which were quite oily. Most nights the MDR salads had feta cheese or gorgonzola cheese etc. which I do not eat.

Luckily my wonderful waiter would bring me a salad with ingredients that I selected and could eat. Soups were questioned every time to make sure vegetable stock was used.

Not sure if this was Dolly.

There was a woman on the Grand Asia 2018 who had a companion pet cat. The woman used a walker and the cat accompanied her everywhere. She even took the cat to the various ports. One day the companion cat was at the Front Desk and the staff were the "cat-sitters"!  Popular cat. Sure brought a smile to the passengers and crew.

I posted this on another CC site:

Australia has closed ports for 30 days.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51894322

Amsterdam is heading away from Australia .

23 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

Fremantle is in Australia... Australia has banned all cruise ships...ergo Fremantle has banned all cruise ships...

See my post #114

Foreign cruise liners will also be banned from docking in Australia for 30 days.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51894322

Let's hope the crew are allowed to enjoy the pools and spa. Perhaps watch a movie or two and savor fine dining or even experience a week or two in a passenger cabin. I certainly hope so.

Time to relax and enjoy their unexpected cruise to "NOWHERE"!

Of course stay healthy.

I saw that "incident" on TV today. Hmmmmm.

 

Agree about Charo!

Wish I had some of Charo's energy. She is 76 years old.