Silversea Water Cooler: Part 3, Welcome!

[Tothesunset]

For those who kindly took an interest in my disappointment at our Apr 2019 Wind TA's change of itinerary I can report that, after refusing SS's first offer to compensate for the loss of 2 days and the disappointment of losing 3 ports of call in my homeland, they came back with a much more respectable figure which I have accepted.

 

While I remain unimpressed with the changes - OH in particular wanted to visit Dublin (I know, she's not really missing too much but try telling her that) and I rather fancied arriving in my home town of Belfast on board a Six Star cruise ship having left, all those years ago, on an appaling overnight sailing on the Heysham ferry - I am impressed by the speed with which SS have acted. Also, Mrs TTS is mollified to a degree by having Cork added to replace the other ports of call since I have convinced her that Cork is where we should go to gracefully descend into fuddled old age surrounded by spectacular scenery and plenty of Guinness.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

J...your new toy looks like fun! The second picture gives a better idea of the size. From just the first picture it looked like it held one can of beer. Obviously it holds more than that!

 

Your Kippers look yummy. I did have to look up what Sarsons was though. Learning something new everyday!

 

Have a great day all!

[jpalbny]

Glad to hear, TTS. Too bad about the changes but glad they made you an offer you're relatively happy with.

 

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[mysty]

TTS...Very happy to hear that SS has stepped up to the plate for you both! Hopefully Cork will be a silver lining to the clouds of missed ports!

[UKCruiseJeff]

TTS, it really is a mixed bag of emotions for you both really.

 

Some years ago one of our clients realised they would have to recall a whole popular series of their portable laptop computers because the battery was overheating. Some may remember the issue or indeed were customers.

 

We worked with them and convinced them that a highly energetic pro-active fully disclosed action plan needed to be put into place. Whilst taking the few days to design this and engage fulfilment support, we were monitoring our monthly customer satisfaction indexes which we ran for them on a world-wide basis. This involved feedback from very roughly 100,000 customers per month.

We then announced the recall programme firstly to all customers via their guarantee registrations, and it hit the press and TV in all the countries they distributed. The press gave our clients a real slating. The programme offered all customers their choice of either a full refund and a discount on future replacement purchase or a managed 14 day free premium carrier return and repair and return to customer the choice being at the customers option. It took around six months to manage the full refund or replacement programme and cost them many many millions of dollars and pounds and yen etc .....

 

The interesting thing was that because the first customers heard about it was from the manufacturer and then the press and TV, with a very clear, honest, and generous programme, subsequent months satisfaction indices increased with them and the loyalty indices increased strongly. What it shows is that customers are not only forgiving but their admiration and trust increases when they know that when there are problems, that those problems will be managed in a trustworthy way that puts the customer first and immediate gain second. Ironically, when the programme was reviewed a year or so later, they ascribed a jump in revenue to the perception of the way they handled the recall by both exisitng but more importantly from new customers who were atracted to what was seen as an old fashioned ethical company, and on balance although it cost them initiall, in the longer run they proved to themselves that they profited. I know it is used as a text book way of dealing with a crisis and we used the methodologies we developed with the computer company with a subsequent client in an international car recall where possible brake failures were causing concern.

 

Anyway, hopefully you can turn the situation to a net advantage for you both.

 

M, yes it holds min-barrels of just two litres. `it isn't cheaper beer but is supposed to taste of fresh refrigerated draft beer. I'll know in a couple of days ......

[Tothesunset]

Glad to hear, TTS. Too bad about the changes but glad they made you an offer you're relatively happy with.

 

We are fit, comfortable and very privileged compared to 99% of the world's population. In perspective I think we realise that we will still have a great trip but the stubborn Irishman in me needs to know that he has been fairly dealt with.

[Tothesunset]

TTS...Very happy to hear that SS has stepped up to the plate for you both! Hopefully Cork will be a silver lining to the clouds of missed ports!

It'll be a great trip and there are many worse things that a small itinerary change. Glass half full.

[Joc123]

Jeff,

I'm constantly amazed and impressed by your kitchen gadgets. You must have a large kitchen with lots of storage.

For years, my family have given me the latest "maker" for Christmas, eg, pie maker, ice- cream maker, pizza maker, crepe maker etc. (it's become a bit of a joke). After the initial enthusiasm, they all sit in the cupboard taking valuable space.

[Camillus112]

Joc, the latest toy my DH got (from DD) was a Veggetti and we love it, especially for making spaghetti out of zucchini.

[Joc123]

Joc, the latest toy my DH got (from DD) was a Veggetti and we love it, especially for making spaghetti out of zucchini.

 

LOL, got one of those too!

We need a new house for all my "makers"

 

JP

Not sure when you are planning to arrive in Adelaide March is very busy here and it puts a strain on accommodation.

Womadelaide (world music festival) 9 - 12 March

Adelaide Festival 2 - 18 March

Adelaide Fringe 16 Feb - 18 March

Adelaide 500 Car race 1 - 4 March

To name a few of the events.

If you want to stay out of the CBD, Glenelg is a local beach area which is only 11 km out of town and easy to reach via public tram.

Let me know if I can help with more information.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Morning all, from a wet and Armagnac lubricated Blighty!

 

Yes, Joc, I over indulge in kitchen gadgetry. Luckilly we have lots of racking in a sort of cold toom cum pantry, and I fastidiously relegate rarely used stuff. I also get the obsessions about perfecting this or that, but the fads pass. The double Lincat fryer is in the garage. So is a complete home brewery. And the Gaggia machines (coffee and ice cream) ..... but some persevere and remain in the kitchen.

 

I have an industrial strength Neapolitan pizza oven that reaches 950f and bakes authentic pizza in 90 seconds. I have an indoor lava bbq, and French bread steam oven and a spit roaster, and convection oven. The Zoji fuzzy logic rice cooker is regularly used .... and lots of other indulgences. But I love my kitchen and it is my main hobby, and we don't really eat or drink out. Some people buy new cars every year, I buy eating independence.

 

:)

[UKCruiseJeff]

The new beer machine is wonderful. 2c fresh Pilsner with a mousse head ........ just a sip in a small frozen glass each time you pass .....:D

[jpalbny]

 

JP

Not sure when you are planning to arrive in Adelaide March is very busy here and it puts a strain on accommodation.

Womadelaide (world music festival) 9 - 12 March

Adelaide Festival 2 - 18 March

Adelaide Fringe 16 Feb - 18 March

Adelaide 500 Car race 1 - 4 March

To name a few of the events.

If you want to stay out of the CBD, Glenelg is a local beach area which is only 11 km out of town and easy to reach via public tram.

Let me know if I can help with more information.

 

Thanks, Joc123.

 

As the schedule is now, we will be in Barossa the 17-19 and (probably) spend the overnight in Adelaide on the 19th, before we head out to KI for our stay at Southern Ocean Lodge.

 

Haven't thought about where we're staying; that depends on whether we chance the ferry, or fly. I did get your earlier advice to fly rather than chance the ferry given the possibility of cancellation.

 

And thanks also for the advice on wine touring in Barossa; much appreciated. Should have time to look at things a little more this weekend. Has been hectic; still not fully caught up from the SF overnight trip.

[jpalbny]

Jeff, your beer cooler would be deadly for me. It's bad enough that I already have a wine refrigerator!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Jeff, your beer cooler would be deadly for me. It's bad enough that I already have a wine refrigerator!

 

Hi JP, ..... you know what .... I think in practical terms it will be the opposite. Sort of counter logic. Because you are not opening full cans from the fridge ... but possibly taking a small 25cl glass out of the freezer and pouring a small slug which is just like that uncontrolable mousse you and I know you always get in German or Austrian kellers ... I think differently. In the same way that it is the first few chips from a chip shop that does the job, I think it is the first frozen sip that does the job. So I think an enthusiastic imbiber might drink less quantity but more often and each morsel will give much greater pleasure.

 

I've been somewhat bemused by the other thread about Spirit and it does seem to me that a few issues seemed to have got smashed up together to produce some interesting opinions. And for what it's worth ...... I certainly cannot be accused of being an SS apologist but I do think some of the emotion is understandable but a bit unfair and OTT. I admire TTS who has been really well balanced about it. A sort of "some you win, some you lose ... but as long as on balance it seems OK .. let's move on." is a solid and admirable and decent well-balanced and adult approach.

 

There seems to be three seperate issues. The first is how SS decided to do Spirit in a time zone that impacted current bookings. The second is the way in which (a minority of) existing customers found out before their TAs or SS told them. Finally the offers they received to put the issue right. These seperate but related issues I think seems to have smashed together in peoples' minds and umbrage has been taken.

 

I'm not convinced that anyone knows why SS picked time in the current planner to do this, but they did. The deletion of the cruises a day or so before TAs were informed was also unfortunate and cack-handed. But I don't agree that the terms they ***appear*** to have offered are ungenerous. The problem is that a cruise isn't a vacuum cleaner. Each and every cruise on every different ship on every different week for countless different ports of call for a completely different set of customers from different countries and TAs a etc and with or without economy or business flights or this or that discount makes the permutations exponential. They appear to be offering customers on cruises the discounts they would have got with an additional discount on a range of different cruises in the future. This seems generous to me. They handled it slightly less optimally and they haven't justified the timing. But they are a business and it seems to me they have done the best they could do in a very complicated situation. They do stuff because they think it is of benefit to them.

 

It is also ironic that when the chips are down, and when there is some howling to be done, all this stuff about "the reason why I sail SS is because of the wonderful staff ...... and I do give generously to the crew fund" seems to be "out of the port hole" and subjugated to an emotive argument about entitlement and discounts etc etc. And you never know ... there might be a few offers in the next few days that sweetens the medicine a touch more .......

 

I think that SS has handled this in the way that they always have done ..... avoidably cackhandedly perhaps ... but perhaps a touch better than normal ... it was after all only 24 hours or so after the enthusiastc CC'ers who check there cruises on the web site regularly or for some it seems 24 hourly discovered some cruises had gone .... so no difference there ... but the offer seems decent to me. SS will lose a pot of cash through this - not gain. People have heard stuff they do not wish to hear and some didn't hear it from the horses mouth, and it isundoubtedly a dissapointment, and they have handled it not as well as they might .... but is it a bad effort on putting it right? I don't think so. But what do I know. But we all are entitled to express a view. :)

Edited August 4, 2017 by UKCruiseJeff

[rpfarris]

The new beer machine is wonderful. 2c fresh Pilsner with a mousse head ........ just a sip in a small frozen glass each time you pass .....:D

Could you post a picture of one of the refills? I mean, how do you load the machine?

Edited August 4, 2017 by rpfarris
I didn't want it to look like I wanted to see a glass being refilled.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Could you post a picture of one of the refills? I mean, how do you load the machine?

 

http://newatlas.com/heineken-sub/29480/

 

https://uk.the-sub.com/age-gate/?origin=https%3A%2F%2Fuk.the-sub.com%2Fbeers%2F

 

48% discount for the red one ...... making it £69 ..... discount code is "UKROUGE"

[UKCruiseJeff]

The last day of pickling .......

 

 

 

 

 

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[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

J....So glad to hear that you are pleased with the output of your new "dispenser"! Your pickling efforts make a wonderful display of colour and ultimately yumminess! Myster asked if you make kimchi as well. :)

 

JP..The Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury is very nice. We stayed there when it was the Medina Hotel.

 

Have a great day all!

[jollyjones]

I feel very lucky that I wasn't booked on one of the cancelled Spirit cruises but I am very sympathetic to those who are.

 

To me, one huge annoyance would be why they chose to do this with less than a year's warning. I organize my traveling dates well in advance, and usually buy air tickets at least nine months in advance - with limited air options from here, that's when I find the best prices - so to have to try and find another cruise in the same time frame or move flights to other dates without a price increase is almost impossible.

 

If they had chosen to do the whatever - is she being stretched? - more than year away, very few people would have made any flight/hotel/pre- or post- cruise bookings that would need to be cancelled.

 

I'm also a little surprised at the timing because I have heard quite often (on these boards) that major dry docks must be scheduled years in advance because the shipyards are fully booked; at least, this is the excuse given when ships needing big repairs can't get them done expeditiously.

 

And ... sigh ... I like the Spirit - I have one, soon to be three, cruises booked on her for later in 2018 - I do so hope they don't make a mess of her.

Edited August 4, 2017 by jollyjones

[UKCruiseJeff]

M,

 

Some of the pickling does seem to accidently become kimchi like. I'm still learning and experimenting.

 

JJ, might it be that they have been that the dock has had a cancellation and the slot has been offered at a saving? I don't know, but it isn't an option that you think would be chosen lightly.

 

This is going to put a lot of people's plans out and they could have handled it a lot better. Good luck.

[Solo mi!]

Reading some of the recent posts on this and other SS threads, and knowing that some posts have been removed, I think the shoe posts on Lois's thread re:30 some days to go, have been great fun! Most of the Water Cooler posts are informative or amusing or thoughtful and the pics...especially the pickles, have been great!

Penny

[Tothesunset]

I must admit that we always book when the new itineraries are released, often nearly 2 years ahead of sailing, and tend to book flights as they are released - ie 12 or 11 months in advance of the date. For example, we are flying Qatar in Jan to Cape Town. Had this been one of the cancelled voyages we would have 2 return flights to either use or lose along with the bookings we have made for Heathrow parking and in Cape Town pre-cruise. Of those expenses the only cancellable one isthe Cape town hotel. So ican imagine that, had we had our cruise cancelled, we would do more than just tut and blame qismat.

 

I suppose you could say that making individual arrangements well in advance is taking a risk. I don't agree - if I've booked and paid for a service I expect that service. If SS (or anyone else) enter into a contract to provide a service it's not really playing the game to change that contract unless the contractee is fully reimbursed for expenses incurred on the strength of the original undertaking. I know that they are not legally responsible for consequential loss; in my mind they should be.

 

Having said all that it's a money making machine and not a charity and we are alll old enough to know that the world ain't a fair place. I take these events as a warning that, under the smiles, bonhomie and aspirational promotional material, we are just pawns in the money making machine. Caveat Emptor?

[mysty]

Reading some of the recent posts on this and other SS threads, and knowing that some posts have been removed, I think the shoe posts on Lois's thread re:30 some days to go, have been great fun! Most of the Water Cooler posts are informative or amusing or thoughtful and the pics...especially the pickles, have been great!

Penny

 

Very nicely and very diplomatically said Penny! I agree with you! Maybe we should get Cooler T-shirts! :)

[Solo mi!]

Thanks Penny, yes I agree. I was a bit saddened to see the childish name calling which seemed to me to be absolutely intended to be much more offensive than any opinion I exprssed or I said and the mods did the right thing to prune it.

 

I have a feeling that I have still have far too much to learn about pickling. Although I have had a sneaky shallott or three and they are already quite decent.

 

Today is crispy duck and some veggy.

 

My mouth is still watering for a doner kabab!!