Joc123

We are also onboard - haven’t noticed the smell so it must be one particular stairwell.

Love being on a new ship - lovely fluffy towels and gowns. So far everything is working, if there are problems they are covering them up well.

They have found a use for the deck space at back of TK. It is now a fresh fruit, juice and smoothie bar, open for breakfast and lunch. You can also order from the Colonnade menu for breakfast and lunch.

Internet seems to be better but that might change depending where we are.

So far so good.

To all Coolers who are members of the Commonwealth, let the Games begin.

The opening ceremony is about to start - love it (just don’t mention the cricket!)

JP and Chris welcome to South Australia and a big thank you for bringing the rain:D We have had an extremely dry summer so any rain at this stage is welcome - there won’t be much so I’m sure it won’t hinder you.

I do hope you have a lovely time here, it is vintage in the Barossa so there is lots going on.

Wonderful photos - thank you. I thought I had some good photos but yours leave mine for dead.

It's a real shame, considering how important the appointment clearly is to you that you couldn't have made it a greater priority and found a few moments. :(

Jeff, I’m with you. Nothing is more important than your health. DH is a medico and thinks he is indispensable. I tell him in years to come his patients will say, “ I saw a Cardiologist, can’t think of his name”. Put yourself first because if you don’t who will?

I have been off line because we have spent the summer at our Shack (beach house) on the beautiful Yorke Penninsula, Hardwicke Bay to be precise.It is 2 1/2 hours drive from Adelaide but the internet is patchy at best, a bit like being on a ship!

JP and Chris, I know how you feel. It’s dreadful. I have 3 little pots in my wardrobe with our cocker spaniels in them because I can’t bear to be far from them - we lost the first 27 years ago! We no longer have a dog but are on call to dogsit Lilly - another cocker spaniel belonging to our son. The best of all worlds.

JP, are you still coming to Adelaide? If so you have timed the trip perfectly, the weather is beautiful. The Festival season is in full swing and vintage is about to start. It is a little late this year due to the slightly more humid weather over summer but it should be a good year for our red varieties.

I guess you are all organised, but if I can help just ask.

Please do not tip in Australia, not even in top end restaurants. The prices charged and the wages paid cover all this.

Words fail me - there is nothing that can be said to ease the pain for all who are near and dear to Captain Larsen.

Gone to young but doing what he loved.

Our thoughts and love go to his family.

I feel as though I should justify my comments re our Ponant Kimberly cruise. I have traveled extensively through France (cities and country) so I do know what the French cuisine is like. I also realise that food is subjective but as I said Ponant Australia did answer my comments about food, service and other parts of this cruise. Their response was, several crew members were sick and they were very short staffed. They also said, because of the remote area, fresh supplies were difficult (not sure I accept that as this line goes to Antarctica) but I was impressed that they replied. I was by no way the only person onboard who was disappointed with this particular cruise. Was it a one off? I don’t know, I suspect it could have been, but it was well below what we were expecting (and I think the people from Ponant who were onboard thought so too). I hope everyone who is travelling on Ponant in the future enjoy their cruise but we will not be going again - sad because we do enjoy the smaller ships.

Thank you Henry, as usual, a wonderful video.

We really dislike block parties, dislike the concept and really can’t see the purpose. We are people who always greet others as we pass them in the corridor so would consider ourselves as sociable. We have had bad experiences with these get together. Once we were the only ones who turned up, how sad for the poor crew who really don’t want to be there and the Officers who have to tour the decks. The next time we decided not to go. We were then locked in our room because people congregated outside our door. This group seemed to get on extremely well because they refused to breakup the party. We were stuck inside ,looking through the peep hole to see when it was safe to venture outside. Frankly I consider these “parties” on a par with towel animals, very happy if both disappear

We sailed On Ponant (Australian Kimberly Cruise) in August. The ship was ok although the room and bathroom were very small (bathroom was ridiculous). The food was the worst we have ever had on a ship (been on HAL, Windstar, Silversea,Seabourn) which was such a disappointment for us. We thought being a French line the food would be a highlight. I wrote to the Australian office for Ponant re our disappointment and to their credit they did reply. They definitely aren’t a luxury line and if they what to do well in Australia, they will have to improve a lot - we will never know if things improve because we will never sail with them again.

One of the joys of being dyslexic.

 

I try my best and rely heavily on spell check. It's a strange affliction, you can string together a cohesive sentence but you have no idea how to spell the words making the same mistakes time and time again. When proof reading you miss double typed words as well.

 

I will often find alternative words if I'm struggling, for instance I was going to use "bizarre" (sp?) in the last sentence but couldn't work out the correct spelling from predictive spelling on my iPad.

 

The other thing worth mentioning is if we should ever bump into each other I won't remember your name. I will remember what you do for a living, hobbies and interests, any odd facts you told me, how many Pina Coladas you had at lunch but not your name. I wish there was a magic button for that one as it makes networking impossible.

 

You should have seen my school reports for English :)

 

Henry :)

I think we must be twins. I can relate to all of that. I really hope one day, we meet on a cruise, I think we would get on rather well. By the way, my name is Jocelyn, will you remember? :D

We did that cruise in October this year and I have to say, we loved it.

For the first time ever (over 200 days on Seabourn), we booked a V1 guarantee. As we got closer to sailing time we started to worry about where we might be so when the TA offered an upgrade to penthouse (I forget the price but it worked out to be considerably cheaper) we accepted and we were given 1015. Now I’m sure most people would not pick this room because of its proximity to OB, but we loved it and have decided to try and book it again when we next sail O Class.

I wouldn’t worry about being near elevators (been there on decks 8 and 9) as there isn’t a problem with noise but if you are concerned about position then you shouldn’t book a guarantee - we won’t again, even though it was much cheaper and we kept telling ourselves it didn’t matter where we were. It the end it did and that’s why we jumped at the upgrade when offered.

On our recent cruise on Quest the HD told us they currently have 350 crew onboard - they are training crew for Ovation. I don’t know if the other O class ships are also carrying extra crew but if they are, it looks like they will be ready for the launch in May

We did a cruise on the Sojourn a few years ago from Dover to Quebec and had an assistance dog on board, Lucy. Her owner was in a wheelchair and Lucy would help her in the cabin and if she dropped anything ! Perfectly behaved, delightful cruise companion (better than some human passengers !). We went through a force 12 gale going up to Greenland and she was calm and sat with her owner to protect her from the rolling !

(by the way did you mean autistic?;))

Yes I did mean autistic - auto correct!

We have just returned from Quest, Boston to Montreal and before I say anything else, this was a great cruise - very happy feel on board, great food, lovely weather, no complaints.

The thing that took us by surprise (it didn’t worry us, just not seen it before) was we had a dog onboard.

Has anyone else experienced this? This little puppy came everywhere - all over the ship (if I wasn’t so useless I would post a very cute photo of her on a chair in the Square) on tours and in restaurants (she was in her carry bag for this) Apparently, she is being trained as a Companion Dog for artistic kids or the elderly. I stress, this didn’t worry us just not seen it before.

The other thing I found interesting was the number of people discussing how they could fit the alcohol from their fridge into their luggage. I must admit we have never thought of doing this and I’m wondering if we are the only ones who leave it behind (I have been guilty of taking soap and shampoo from hotels if it’s good quality - just not Molton Brown!)

The Retreat is a big mistake but so is the outdoor space at the back of TK Grill - no one seems to mention this. The space needs be rectified on Ovation, not sure how because “The Great Chef” will not allow his food to be served outside ( obviously doesn’t know about the Colonnade!)

The worst food i have had on a cruise ship was on the Silver Whisper, everything was overcooked, and everything tasted the same. SB's food does vary, but it had greatly improved on our last cruise, and at its worst moments is never anything like as bad a SS.

The worst food we have had was on Silver Shadow - it was the cruise before they failed the health inspection and when food was stored in crew cabins. We have never sailed on SS again!

Generally speaking, people only post when they want to whinge about something. It's human nature.[/quote

 

I’d like to think this isn’t true but I’m afraid it might be.

 

We board Quest October 12th. Can anyone me who the executive chef is please? Not that it really matters because we can’t change things :D

We do find the quality of the food depends greatly on who is in the kitchen - just like home really.

 

I’m hoping for lobster, lobster and more lobster ;)

Thinking of all who are preparing and waiting for the hurricane.

Also those who are experiencing the bushfires (wildfires) in California.

Mother Nature can be brutal.

Friends of ours had the same experience.

When they saw the fare (which was ridiculously cheap) they checked with Seabourn and a travel agent. Each confirmed the fare was correct so they went ahead with the booking and paid the deposit.

Then Seabourn sent an email to say the original fare was incorrect and the new fare was quoted.

I don't know if they are going ahead with the cruise.

Once again I'm way behind with the cooler news due to the time difference.

Just read about your mishap with the deer Camillus, so sorry and a terrible inconvenience. We have a similar problem here with kangaroos. They come out at dusk and it's not uncommon for the car to be a write off.

On Saturday we are going on a Ponant cruise - Darwin to Broome. People are very happy to tell us how bad Ponant are but I think we know what to expect. It is an expedition cruise so it's not going to be as luxurious as other lines we have sailed on. At least we will escape the awful winter weather and have 10 days in the mid 30c so it can't be all bad.

Love all the food photos - I think you all serve better meals than I have had on ships! Am I the only one with a husband who doesn't know where the kitchen is?

Mysty

We are on a cruise Boston - Montreal in October. The east coast of North America is one of the hardest places to get to from Adelaide. We have to fly to Sydney or Melbourne, then LA or San Fran then New York ((sometimes via Dallas) then on to Boston.

Getting back from Montreal is even harder. Too many flights, too many stops, too many opportunities for things to go wrong.

We decided to fly Qatar via Doha as they fly direct to Boston and out of Montreal. It means we have two 12 hour flights each way but with only one stop there is less opportunity of holdups - that's the plan. After 24 hours in the air, plus 2 hours transit in Doha it will be interesting to see if we can string two words together :D

Coolers,

 

I have just been reading the leaked complete transcript of the call between Malcolm Turnbull and Doris Trump. Is that transcript authentic? Has it been accepted as a genuine leak? I cannot believe it is real.

It has been reported here as genuine.

Says a lot about both "leaders"