.......idle jottings

[Jim Avery]

Ho hum's curious Jim.

Any kids ? Teens ?

Hum's thinking there must have been a LOT and if so ho hum would have a supplementary question.

And what was the make up of the waiting crew in terms of nationality ?

Would have loved to be at that party between Huston & Wayne.....legends.

 

A fair amount of kids/teens but they have their own venues. The only place that felt crowded was the pool area. Only one pool on the ship which was strange. Mostly, in the many bars for adults, you never saw any kids. All the difference in the world when they have kid things to do and spaces to do it in. Crew was the now standard Phillipino/Indonesian with Dutch officers. A friendly and hard working crew. I suspect the ship would be really nice with a "normal" passenger load. Huston and Wayne were famous drinking buddies. I am sure they had lots of help with Richard Burton when he was there filming with Liz Taylor.

[ho-hum]

Well ho hum is off on his hols tomorrow ........ but before ho hum goes ...Happy New Year to you all.

[Jim Avery]

Well ho hum is off on his hols tomorrow ........ but before ho hum goes ...Happy New Year to you all.

 

And a Happy New Year to you and Blondie as well. Who knows? We might just end up in the same place at the same time in the coming year. I hear Raggy has a nice house.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

This is the house ol' Ragnar spends most of his time in....

[ho-hum]

And a Happy New Year to you and Blondie as well. Who knows? We might just end up in the same place at the same time in the coming year. I hear Raggy has a nice house.

 

.....never been invited Jim so will never know.......hear the swimming pool is in the shape of a dog bowl .... seen pictures and everything

Of course you and Raggy have been invited to stay with ho hum anytime but no invitation reciprocated.........well what do you expect of those commie pirates with their first class healthcare system !

[Jim Avery]

.....never been invited Jim so will never know.......hear the swimming pool is in the shape of a dog bowl .... seen pictures and everything

Of course you and Raggy have been invited to stay with ho hum anytime but no invitation reciprocated.........well what do you expect of those commie pirates with their first class healthcare system !

 

I appreciate the invite and fully remember I have a debt of hono(u)r to pay at your local. You should be here now, approaching snow storms! Saguaro cactus looks rather strange with snow on them. So, stay warm and Happy New Year to all the SeaDream clan.

By the way, Raggy's Famous Dog Bowl Pool is one of SoCal's wonders and has been seen from the space shuttle. It is that large. Nothing small scale out West!

[Poppy1966]

Happy New Year Ho Hum. My old IPad kicked the bucket so got a new one. Enjoy your holiday. Lucky you, it's freezing here. The olde diet starts Monday here for the big trip in Feb. Have a great cruise:)

[ho-hum]

Ho hum, you amaze me with your knowledge. Happy new year.

 

Hahaha and HNY to you too piratelook

 

@Zimmy: If ho-hum is onboard - cancel the booking for this cruise or you will need another four weeks holiday after the trip with this posh guy ... :D

 

@Ho-hum and blondie: We wish you nice and pleasent trips and cruises in 2015 and a prosperous and Happy New Year! :)

 

Hahaha and a HNY to you and frau gcmv too

 

The rumour is, SDII is being chartered by Germans over New Year.......hell they will expect very high standards in ALL areas !

Gcmv, tell ho hum, how does Europa compare to Sea Dream ?

From memory are you not going on a Europa cruise ?

 

Wish I was with Yall. Yes, the bright side is I no longer need to worry about a game. I have a buddy from Ohio, big Buckeye fan, we had a bet........Now I have to wear an OSU t shirt with those silly bead necklaces they wear and post it on Facebook.:eek: Oh the humanity. Or is it humiliation?:D:D Have a great trip and drag us along.

 

Hahaha and ho hum expects you to post the photos here too !

 

 

Happy New Year Ho Hum. My old IPad kicked the bucket so got a new one. Enjoy your holiday. Lucky you, it's freezing here. The olde diet starts Monday here for the big trip in Feb. Have a great cruise:)

 

Hahaha......HNY to you too. What on earth is the "oldie" diet ?

 

 

Blondie and ho hum are dieting too.....the food and wine in this supposed quality resort here in the Barbados is truly awful and the service....hard work.

Cant wait to get onboard ! Weather very nice though. As you say better than home....brrrrr.

[Jim Avery]

Bon Voyage Mr & Mrs Ho-Hum. Looking forward to your postings again. We will be in French Polynesia on Paul Gauguin. Hoping for a near SD experience. Have you ever sailed Paul Gauguin? Not sure about posting my penance photos here on CC. Host Dan might hurt himself laughing and pull the posts.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Jim Avery

[ho-hum]

Bon Voyage Mr & Mrs Ho-Hum. Looking forward to your postings again. We will be in French Polynesia on Paul Gauguin. Hoping for a near SD experience. Have you ever sailed Paul Gauguin? Not sure about posting my penance photos here on CC. Host Dan might hurt himself laughing and pull the posts.

 

 

Yes Jim, we have been on Paul Gaugin, some very dear friends from Seattle invited us to go along with them. They are in the high end travel industry and we felt very comfortable with their choice. We met them on SD and they became our agents for many years until exchange rates inflated costs. We are still great chums. They know Sea Dream very well.

 

Ho hum recalls staying at the Four Seasons, Bora Bora when we heard that an Icelandic bank in which we had deposited a significant amount of money can gone bust !!

We subsequently discovered that half of the local authorities in the UK and the Metropolitan Police also had sizeable deposits with the bank !

This was good fortune for us because the government bailed us out.

 

Getting back to the trip, It was a lovely trip and the food was very good. They love ceviche as does blondie, so the chef made it for us every lunch.....they were in heaven.

 

Let us know all about it.

[ho-hum]

The classic one to-day whilst taking lunch at this "establishment", voted really quite high up there on Trip Advisor and the only adult only establishment on the island (stop s******ing Butch & Sundance ! Not that kinda place guys........please).

 

Ho hum to gormless waiter: do you have a wine list.

Gormless waiter: Yes (and continues to stand there looking at ho hum with a gormless, vacant expression..duh !)

Ho hum to gormless waiter: well would you be a dear and get it please.

Gormless waiter: what now ? (Amazed at the novelty of the request)

Ho hum to gormless waiter: well if thats ok with you ?

Gormless waiter: sure, why not ? (Obviously amused by the whole idea ! As if to say "i'll go along with this crazy idea")

 

Then he proceeds to provide an ice filled wine stand, cloth for bottle, opens bottle expertly, lays cork on end on table, fills for tasting whilst showing label of bottle (again, forgot he did it first time) and pours one third full......oh my ! (Impressed). Great job. Not so gormless after all then.

 

Then the food arrives........yuk...."well you should have had what I had" blondie smugly states as she digs into her flash grill fresh tuna on a bed of lettuce whilst ho hum pushes around the plate, gunk filled, deep fried, balls of supposed salted cod with a Marie Rose dipping sauce.

 

Oh well at least the wine was nice-ish. Just one more full day.......then real service !

[ho-hum]

For some curious reason CC has deemed S N I G G E R I N G is a rude word !

How extraordinary is that ?

What the hell are they thinking ?

[Zimmy]

We are looking forward to meeting you and Blondie, Ho-Hum. Sorry your hotel has not lived up to your expectations. How nice would it be if more hotels lived up to SD standards?

[ho-hum]

We are looking forward to meeting you and Blondie, Ho-Hum. Sorry your hotel has not lived up to your expectations. How nice would it be if more hotels lived up to SD standards?

 

How very thoughtful Zimmy.

And we are similarly looking forward to meeting your good selves too.

My, how you have "hit the ground running" !

Posh catamaran and fabulous restaurants....you could teach us a thing or two !

And we are always willing to learn from a Master such as yourself.

 

Last one to the TOYB buys all the champagne for the entire trip !

[commander courageous]

Well, it seems that many of the Idle Chat correspondents are now aboard SeaDreamII

while we are back in the Canadian wilds freezing our butts off and bemoaning the fact

that we were ignored in the owners annual dispensing of ginsu knives or Popiel platinum rotisseries. We once, many years ago, did receive a nice coffee table picture

book of Sea Dream destinations but since, seem to have fallen off the radar.

 

While not in Ho-Hum or Lord Fauntleroy's class, our loyalty would seem to warrant

at least a posted Christmas card or e-mail, should the promo budget not allow. Oh well, maybe next year.

 

Please provide reports from the Toy Bar when the ship and passengers are steady, as

we still have more than a month before we can enjoy the warm rays of the

Caribbean and SD hospitality. Enjoy your time aboard kids!

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Avery]

Well, it seems that many of the Idle Chat correspondents are now aboard SeaDreamII

while we are back in the Canadian wilds freezing our butts off and bemoaning the fact

that we were ignored in the owners annual dispensing of ginsu knives or Popiel platinum rotisseries. We once, many years ago, did receive a nice coffee table picture

book of Sea Dream destinations but since, seem to have fallen off the radar.

 

While not in Ho-Hum or Lord Fauntleroy's class, our loyalty would seem to warrant

at least a posted Christmas card or e-mail, should the promo budget not allow. Oh well, maybe next year.

 

Please provide reports from the Toy Bar when the ship and passengers are steady, as

we still have more than a month before we can enjoy the warm rays of the

Caribbean and SD hospitality. Enjoy your time aboard kids!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commander, I do believe you are the only people left in Canada judging from the license plates on the cars getting in my way here in Arizona.:eek: Only 65 F and sunny today. Wouldn't you know it, I have Cousins from the Near Posh Part of the UK arriving today. With 75 and sunny in the forecast, I might never get rid of them.:eek::D

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

We would be interested in hotel and sightseeing suggestions in Barbados, so would appreciate if the SeaDreamers sailing out of Barbados include Barbados in their trip reports - thanks!

 

Jim, ditch the cousins and come to SoCal! You, and ho-hum are welcome any time, or at the same time! The palazzo has three guest rooms with king beds, with a large doberman on-call to pre-warm them :D No pool (yet), but we can fill the dog bowl with warm Perrier so you can take a jaccuzzi....

 

Speaking of relatives visiting, all the guest rooms (and couches) will be filled the first week of Feb as family from various points east snowbird out to sunny, warm San Clemente. One of the horde is a 10 month old :eek:!:eek:!

[gcmv]

The rumour is, SDII is being chartered by Germans over New Year.......hell they will expect very high standards in ALL areas !

Gcmv, tell ho hum, how does Europa compare to Sea Dream ?

From memory are you not going on a Europa cruise ?

 

Dearest ho-hum,

yes, there’s indeed a rumour, that a German cc-member from Heidelberg was inspired by a posh Englishman to charter the boat for his chums. And the Germans always deliver without delay – sometimes they only need 20 minutes to reflect upon something!

As always, ho-hum is a bit fluffy in reminding important facts: Herr and Frau gcmv will be onboard of EUROPA 2(!) which is a tremendous difference.

EUROPA is very elegant and snobby, as EUROPA 2 is more in SEADREAM-style. The size of the ship is bigger (around 500 pax) and all the cabins are in a suite-size and have a nice balcony.

Here is a very interesting cruise blog link about this vessel written by an Englishman (ho-hum has to decide if it is reliable?!).

http://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2014/10/03/europa-2-raising-the-bar/

 

Enjoy the cruise!

Edited January 5, 2015 by gcmv

[ho-hum]

Ho hum is going to get in first !

Zimmy and Lady Zim are two of the finest people you will ever meet.

At pre-embarkation they bounded over and introduced themselves with charm and sincerity.

When asked how did they know it was blondie and ho hum, they immediately said they recognised blondie from photos !

Lady Zim confided she booked the restaurants in Barbados an age ago .......... how frigging organised is that !

Dont forget we are talking New Year here ! And they did three of the top restaurants.

Truly there is a lot to learn from these guys.

 

Well as soon as "sail away" got underway, it became quite "choppy" though not as choppy as the voyage to Barbados, as informed by the crew.

 

Before moving on, the crew reported that the New Year was chartered by a very nice man from Germany and a "good time was had by all". Well at least there is partial satisfaction that the crew had a good time also.

 

Meeting up with previous passengers is always great and there is re-acquaintance with the crew, the glorious crew. One new addition that impressed us immediately was an Austrian barman called Christian. Very attentive, very accomplished and extremely nice. Turns out he last worked on SD 9 years ago and was prominent in the Sea Goddess days. It will be great to hear of "them days".

 

This morning we are in Bequia and its lobster pizza for lunch !

 

The weather is gorgeous: partially overcast on occasions but that is OK by us. Quite windy too.

 

Mechanically everything seems to be working satisfactorily but ho hum will check whether the ice makers are ALL working

Two teens onboard, two young men and a baby with doting parents proud of their new addition as they happily jaunt around the vessel to be met by fellow passengers welcoming them as if they had contracted ebola ! No they were'nt jumping overboard screaming "run for your lives, baby onboard" !

No real problems encountered but a youngster with a most offensive inscription emblazoned on his t-shirt was reprimanded by a regular British traveller who some would know as "big Paul". The inscription read : go and reproduce with yourself ! But a more abbreviated term was employed used by rap singers and the like !

 

The dress "code" has been a tad of a problem for some to achieve and a Norwegian gentleman onboard expressed this opinion to blondie in the gym this morning. Disgusted, not of Tunbridge Wells but Trondheim !

 

There is a large family group from Commander Courageous's favourite US state and what a nice group they are too: all 27 of them !! Yee-ha !!

 

Well a little bit of intrigue spices up the voyage does'nt it ? Certainly nothing to get excited about. And its sooooo nice to have decent service in the Caribbean.

Toodle-ooo, drinky-poo time !

 

Sorry cant upload photo of Bequia.....internet still not that good for uploading.

[Zimmy]

We would be interested in hotel and sightseeing suggestions in Barbados, so would appreciate if the SeaDreamers sailing out of Barbados include Barbados in their trip reports - thanks!:!

 

Ragnar, we didn't do any sightseeing in Barbados. We did love our catamaran snorkeling tour, which I reported on in another thread. We stayed at the Hilton, which has beautiful pools and beach. We really didn't dine there, other than a light breakfast and lunch at the pool. But I did not hear great things about the restaurants from other htel guests. Of the three restaurants we dined at, we recommmend The Cliff and The Tides. Book prior to your visit or you may not get in.

 

If you should choose to stay at the Hilton, try to book one of the deluxe king rooms which are at the corners. Obviously there aren't many of them but they are quite nice. Since DH is Hilton Diamond, we were upgraded and comped to the attached sitting room. Really not necessary; but it did give us a second bath, which was nice.

[Zimmy]

I did answer your email but it is sitting in my outbox and won't go through. Don't know why. Maybe later - who knows?

[Zimmy]

Can't add much more to Ho

-Hum's post regarding Bequia. DH felled by mal de mer and we never made it to dinner last night. And we had such a nice outside table reserved, too. Tonight is dinner outside for all - dI don't think we sail until morning. We are at the pool right now and a bit later will go into town. I think there is going to be a run on lobster pizza.

 

We and Ho-Hum and Blondie are on the same lifeboat, so if we abandon ship we do it together. We also were offended by the young man's shirt at lifeboat drill, but we missed the "interchang" with the other passenger. Good for him. I wish I had had the nerve.

 

So far no problem with the baby or the kids. But if theyk attempt to put the baby in the pool or the hot tub all bets are off. We had that in the Norweigian fjord trip this summer. We didn't tolerate it then and we won't now.

[ctbjr1309]

h-h, thanks for the update. Glad to hear that your voyage is off to a successful start.

 

I remember Christian - for a long while, even after he had left, the Seabourn/SeaDream promotional material included a photo of him smelling (I'm sure there's a more refined term but it escapes me at the moment and I'm too lazy to look it up) a glass of wine. We'll look forward to catching up with him one of these days.

 

Glad to hear that Paul is helping to enforce the dress code. If that is the Paul who I know, I'm not at all surprised!

[Jim Avery]

Thanks for the update and hoping you have fair seas the rest of the way. I believe the classy young man with the T shirt was on one of my voyages. I am surprised the little scholar didn't express the proper pronunciation of said shirt when pressed about it. :eek:

[CDreamer]

Bequia has such a pretty little harbor and the crew introduced us to lobster pizza at Mac's Pizzeria. Great memories!