Spirit-ing Istanbul to Athens

[Randyk47]

Wellseasoned - Interesting comment about Moss Hills. While we thought he was a nice enough fellow, and obviously famous and a true hero among cruise directors, but we thought he was a bit distant. We spent 16 days, a 9 and 7-day back to back, on the Spirit this summer and if we hadn't have played trivia on the first leg we wouldn't have gotten to know him at all and even then it was barely. On our cruise he was seldom on deck and rarely mixed with the passengers. We missed Colin Brown who we had on three previous Wind cruises.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Randyk47

[duct tape]

Thanx, Wellseasoned, for picking up the thread. It was a pleasure sailing with you both again. Continue to improve and enjoy the voyage!

[SeaEyre]

So glad you are well and regaining your usual mobility, Dieter. I think you'll enjoy your excursion to Nazareth, even though the day is long. Look forward to hearing more as you continue the trip.

[Wellseasoned]

Randyk47, obviously opinions vary, so I can only give you mine regarding Moss Hills. We have sailed with him on three separate long cruises, Shadow in far east, Whisper fall crossing, and the current Spirit eastern Med. I think he has become more relaxed since the first, but he is now visible all around the ship and is always greeting and chatting with passengers. He was right at the gangway when we boarded, is on the dock when tours are departing, and is always smiling. The entertainers, whom he supervises, love him. That's just our experience.

[Randyk47]

Randyk47, obviously opinions vary, so I can only give you mine regarding Moss Hills. We have sailed with him on three separate long cruises, Shadow in far east, Whisper fall crossing, and the current Spirit eastern Med. I think he has become more relaxed since the first, but he is now visible all around the ship and is always greeting and chatting with passengers. He was right at the gangway when we boarded, is on the dock when tours are departing, and is always smiling. The entertainers, whom he supervises, love him. That's just our experience.

 

I never talked to the entertainers about Moss so I don't have that input. Interestingly he did none of the other things you mentioned other than occasionally being dockside when tours were departing. Guess we caught him a bad time. Like I said he was pleasant enough when we did get to chat with him but it was rare that he was out. I also thought it was interesting that he wore a uniform 90+% of the time. Maybe I haven't paid much attention to CDs before, on big ships you often never meet or even know who is the CD, but on SS they typically are pretty out and about.

[Wellseasoned]

Although the Ashdod port and ship Jerusalem tours were cancelled, some passengers arranged private jerusalem tours from Haifa, and I believe that they went well. Some passengers were a bit late returning to the ship, but the Spirit did wait and simply departed an hour or so late. At Haifa, we did a nice ship's tour to the ruins of Caesarea, a very interesting historical site.

 

Yesterday the port was Limassol, Cyprus. Lovely weather. We visited a lovely small town, Omodhos, known for crafts and a wine, though the product at the wine tasting was not really to our liking. Yesterday was Venetian day, many Venetians aboard. At the reception, Captain Pontillo noted that we are expecting some bad storms with rough seas and wins in two days, heading toward Rhodes, and that the Sunday Santorini port may be a problem. We shall see. The singers did their opera/show tunes show, which was very good. Dramatic soprano Evelyn is terrific!

 

Today we are at Alanya, Turkey, with an 11 P.M. departure. A spectacular location with much history, but it rained much of the day. Tomorrow Antalya, Turkey, not far away.

 

Internet has been just fine, decent speed for a cruise. There is two hours of free internet per day on these Med cruises. I did not use it all on the first segment, and it carries over. Still have about 700 minutes left with three plus days to go, and I haven't been skimping. No problems downloading newspapers, etc.

 

Many people playing trivia, but we have another winning streak underway. The passengers and crew remain happy.

[jpalbny]

Alanya, Antalya, and Rhodes... Three very nice stops on our itinerary last year! Your postings are bringing back some very nice memories for us.

 

Enjoy - hope you're continuing to recover and can get out and about a bit.

[duct tape]

Thanx for taking me along. Still.

[Silver Spectre]

Glad you are enjoying your cruise Dieter, and not at all surprised at your winning Trivia streak.

 

If you make it into Rhodes and fancy something different, look out for the local mastiha and especially for Skinos. Best served ice cold from the freezer.

 

Enjoy the remainder of your trip.

[Wellseasoned]

Today is Sunday, our last full day aboard. We are anchored at Santorini, cloudy and windy but still beautiful.

 

Thursday evening in Alanya, Turkey we arranged our special once per cruise dinner of Dover sole and our AMEX bottle of Dom Perignon. The CD, Moss Hills, did his solo show, which was again spectacular. He sings and plays guitar, piano, harmonica, and saxophone and really brings down the house. Much talent concentrated in one person.

 

Friday in Antalya, Turkey was a weather bust. Pouring rain all day. We stayed aboard. The ship quickly added some sea day style events. Horrors, we finished third at trivia! Seas a bit rough at night, but not as bad as anticipated.

 

Saturday we docked at Rhodes, Greece, which was added to replace Ashdod, Israel. Nice morning, good walking tour of old town. Thunderstorms in the afternoon. This was the last formal night. We had dinner with Flavio, the HD. I asked about the addition of hamburgers to the menu in the MDR. He said that this is a trend in upscale restaurants and that about 20 percent of the diners order one of the burgers on any given night, which amazed me.

 

Well, time to go ashore and then finish packing. Heading home tomorrow from Athens.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Wellseasoned
Forgot to mention that Moss Hills also played drums, his orginal instrument

[oregon50]

When a hotel manager tells you such a fib about the number of hamburgers served, do you believe anything else the man tells you?

[UKCruiseJeff]

If it were true .... which I doubt ... it would say more about the rest of the menu than about the quality of the burgers or change in Silversea's passengers preferences.

 

That number of people don't take a cruise to eat burgers in the restaurant in the evening unless the rest of the food is rubbish.

 

He is either fibbing or the rest of the menu is poor.

 

Jeff

[spinnaker2]

Safe travels and thanks for posting.

[specialcruisegirl]

Looks like the burgers are to stay then...Rudi it appears is going with the flow of land based high end restaurants who serve them as 'Gourmet' which is fine..one does not have to eat them....The Ivy springs to mind....

 

I never had a problem with the restaurant menu and found the alternatives very good with many choices ...but then l am quite simple to please and couldn't give a monkeys toot about the burgers....if one doesn't like them then don't order them despite what is being said!

 

Just my humble opinion of course.........Sophia [emoji4]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[UKCruiseJeff]

Looks like the burgers are to stay then...Rudi it appears is going with the flow of land based high end restaurants who serve them as 'Gourmet' which is fine..one does not have to eat them....The Ivy springs to mind....

 

I never had a problem with the restaurant menu and found the alternatives very good with many choices ...but then l am quite simple to please and couldn't give a monkeys toot about the burgers....if one doesn't like them then don't order them despite what is being said!

 

Just my humble opinion of course.........Sophia [emoji4]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Was it your impression that one in five diners around you every evening were eating burgers every night? If so this implies that either 20% of the passengers had them every single night or pretty much everyone had them fairly often ..... It just doesn't sound very likely to me. And if it is a bit of a fib, it indicates he feels pressure to follow a "company line" which might indicate other pressures rather than loud clamouring customer demand. Therein I think is the concerning issue. :)

 

With this apparent demand for burgers at night it rather poses the question as to whether SS might have realigned Terraza and might it be better converted into an informal burger and eating diner / bar for down dressers and burger eaters. What is currently served there would be easier to serve in the MDR. This would better gain them more of the customers they think are looking for these things ie infomrality and burgers.

 

I think the Ivy is different for many reasons. Firstly people have more of a choice not to go to the Ivy and go somewhere else than an SS passenger does. Secondly it doesn't pretend to aspire to the same ambience as SS claim. It is far more inclusive. And I think we would need to do a taste test to establish whether the SS burger is comparable to the Ivy one. :eek:

 

Offering burgers wouldn't be an issue to me either, except what I think it indicates about SS against and alongside the background of the other stuff they are doing. I also think it dissapoints a large number of other people who might think this is out of sync with what the MDR and SS is currently supposed to be. To me it seems a cost saving measure and a way to pad out the menu.

 

:D

 

Jeff

Edited October 25, 2015 by UKCruiseJeff

[duct tape]

Thanx, Wellseasoned, for the continuing reports. Hope you get home comfortably and safely. See you both next time!

[WesW]

Wellseasoned/Dieter (and Debbie); Thanks for another well done on board Spirit post, safe travel home. We look forward to seeing y'all (in Barbados/late January) on board the Spirit.

[Emtbsam]

Is it possible that the burger consumption figure is based on daily consumption - including the pool grill and room service? In any event, I don't really care either since I can always find something on the menu or off menu that I really like.

 

Wellseasoned - I hope you have an easy trip home. How do you like your dover sole prepared?