Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[Bill B]

4 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

Bill, are you familiar with Cobble Hill then? 

 

Sure... I'm intimately familiar with ALL of Vancouver Island. In fact, the whole B.C. coast (including the Charlottes). I've been places no one else has ever been (I have worked: for the Provincial Parks Branch, commercial fishing and Coast Guard). 

[Tothesunset]

Great photo DW. Wonderful to have such memories. 

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

I echo TTS DW!  Lovely photo and warm memories!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great day all!

[mysty]

10 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I can picture you being flung around Jaipur in a tuktuk M. 😀 think you might be able to find a more climatic retirement a bit closer to home though. 

Thanks DW!  Now that image is firmly implanted in my brain!  OK, so maybe not India!  🙂 

[besberry]

22 hours ago, mysty said:

OOOPS besberry!  I guess the lovely folks of Milton Keynes are not best pleased with Canadians on that score.    You drove a bus to India?  Where did you start the journey?  Sounds like a fascinating adventure!  I really enjoyed the 70's!  Before all the being adult and responsible nonsense began.  I graduated university in 1974 and started working as an statistician.  Still had fun in those years.  Fond memories!  And Vancouver is lovely!  Pricey to live there now though!

Mysty, we love Canadians here in MK!   We started and ended in the U.K.  It was the Commonwealth Expedition, hence the Canadians.  I saw countries I wouldn't dream of visiting now, like Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.  I even drove through the Khyber Pass.  It gave me a taste for travel and one of my ambitions was to visit 100 countries.  I hit 102 in February and will hit 104 on my next cruise to the Gulf.

[mysty]

22 minutes ago, besberry said:

Mysty, we love Canadians here in MK!   We started and ended in the U.K.  It was the Commonwealth Expedition, hence the Canadians.  I saw countries I wouldn't dream of visiting now, like Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.  I even drove through the Khyber Pass.  It gave me a taste for travel and one of my ambitions was to visit 100 countries.  I hit 102 in February and will hit 104 on my next cruise to the Gulf.

Wow besberry!  That's amazing!  What an adventure that must have been!  And driving through the Khyber Pass.  You must have nerves of steel to navigate a bus along that route!  Our country visit count stands at 50.  We will add 18 new countries by the end of May 2019.  And yes the travel bug has bitten deeply!  🙂 

[jpalbny]

I'm jealous. Stuck on 86, and that's counting the expanded way (Traveler's Century Club). They list a lot of territories that technically aren't countries in their own right. But they are considered "different" enough from the parent country to count as independent destinations. For example, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Continental US count as three destinations on their list. European Turkey and Asian Turkey are two destinations. Tasmania is its own entity. Etc.

 

Need to get cracking, though as long as we are doing this well so far we should eventually get there. We need to start making progress on Asia.

 

Mysty, see what you can do with their list: http://travelerscenturyclub.org/countries-and-territories

[mysty]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

Mysty, see what you can do with their list: http://travelerscenturyclub.org/countries-and-territories

 

Thanks so much JP!  That is definitely an interesting way to define countries!  I think I can add a few more to the list now.  🙂  But nowhere near 100!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Morning  Coolers .....

 

Lovely to see some regrouping after what has been a quiet period here on the Cooler.  I guess we muct start to take down some of the Christmas decorations and get the bar ready for the NYE countdown.

 

JP loved that pasta.  I must admit to being really lazy now and feel that for a lazy bloke like me that bought stuff is lazy but fine.  What I'd be temted with though is what you do and that is stuffed pasya / ravioli as you cannot by decent stuff with quality fillings.

 

Dave, did I see you and your chum at the top of those stairs?  And di my eyes deceive me  - or are you really venturing back  for a future cruise!  Good luck with your plans!

 

Bill, it feels like in a week or so we won't be too far away from your neck of the woods and if you feel like popping over for a beer and some satay .....

 

Besberry, I'm a great admirer of MK.  The shopping in MK was way ahead of it's time and so spacious and airyu and light./  And you can park.  And they pioneered allowing people to deisgn and build there own houses.  Great place that nearly tempted us some time ago. 

 

Jan .. lovely to read of your community efforts .... 🙂

 

Silkis ... hope that Sassi gives you pleasure for some time ...

 

TTS .... good to see you keeping your spirits up there. Do you remember that rather dumb girl who use to call it East Angular?!

 

And too all ..... mentioned or not ...  all the best for a great NY and for a healthy and pleasureable 2019.

 

🙂

[Daveywavey70]

Good to see you Jeff,

‘yes that’s me at the top in the middle, in desperate need of a haircut! Hope you had a good Christmas. 

‘I’m thinking about it because it’s one of the very few cruises that works date wise for us both all year and I’d so love to see my cousin again. It also works out to a really good price with the credit so wouldn’t be risking a fortune if it all went nipples up again. Still have many reservations though. We’ll see 😀

[Bill B]

6 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Bill, it feels like in a week or so we won't be too far away from your neck of the woods and if you feel like popping over for a beer and some satay .....

 

I'd LOVE to pop over... if you're going in, or close to Vung Tau, Vietnam. While I was born & breed in Victoria, B.C., I haven't lived there for 13 years.

 

I'm a little confused as to where you're going to be in a week or so. 

[UKCruiseJeff]

Dave, I do so hope the plans work out .... compelling reasons!  You'll have to consider taking your toasty maker with you to keep you sustained!

 

Bill we've got two to three weeks in Singapore.  We might delay return and will edecide once we're there for the first week or so .....

 

For Coolers who enjoy menus the BA flight menus are below .... 

 

SIN JAN19 WINE.pdf

SIN JAN19 FOOD.pdf

BACKTOLHR JAN19 WINE.pdf

BACKTOLHR JAN19 FOOD.pdf

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Menus look like delicious fare J!  And positively decadent!  🙂  Enjoy!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Myster and I are not quite here yet although she does resemble the image of me from my side of the bed.

 

Have a great day all!

[Bill B]

1 hour ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Bill we've got two to three weeks in Singapore.  We might delay return and will edecide once we're there for the first week or so .....

 

Ah ha.... I was in Singapore last week and a couple of weeks before that. I lost track of the 'cooler' and what everyone's doing because, while my laptop in my room would connect to the ship's wi-fi, I could not get internet - computer's too 'secure'. I used the Internet Cafe computers just to clean up emails.

 

You should pop in to Saigon and grab a 'Limo' (8 pax van) from the airport to Vung Tau for a beer (or two ) and some Pho Bo on your way back to Heathrow (I assume).

[besberry]

On 12/27/2018 at 3:44 PM, mysty said:

Wow besberry!  That's amazing!  What an adventure that must have been!  And driving through the Khyber Pass.  You must have nerves of steel to navigate a bus along that route!  Our country visit count stands at 50.  We will add 18 new countries by the end of May 2019.  And yes the travel bug has bitten deeply!  🙂 

My count was around 50 or so until I retired.  Cruising helps!  The world cruise in 2013 added places like Papua New Guinea, that I have to say were never really on the radar before that.  My current travel ambition is 50 Hard Rock Cafes.  I only drink or eat in them, never buy the merchandise.  I'm currently at 39 with hopefully two more (Malta and Bahrain) within the next few weeks.   Boy I love retirement 😁🛳️

[UpstateJan]

JP, thanks for the travel site link!   From their site, I'm at 50 with 3 more coming in 2019.   I've been using MostTraveledPeople (mtp.travel  or mosttraveledpeople.com), on there, I look like I've hardly left the county    My count is 92 sites out of 891, and 37 of 193 UN Countries.   Not too bad considering I only started travelling in 2007.  Jeremy has me beat, he travels for work, and lived abroad BJ  (before Jan!).

 

Running heards of reports this morning, will get a bunch of things ready to go for Monday (year end!!!!).   This weekend we are hosting a neighborhood open house, great way to get to know the neighbors that you only see in the car. Almost embarassed to admit, I know more of the neighborhood dogs than I do the humans.  It's a fun event, we get the usual suspects showing up, and a dozen or so newbies that walk up to introduce themselves.  They follow the bbq smoke!

 

Hope everyone has a good weekend & holiday!   

 

Jan

[mysty]

13 minutes ago, besberry said:

My count was around 50 or so until I retired.  Cruising helps!  The world cruise in 2013 added places like Papua New Guinea, that I have to say were never really on the radar before that.  My current travel ambition is 50 Hard Rock Cafes.  I only drink or eat in them, never buy the merchandise.  I'm currently at 39 with hopefully two more (Malta and Bahrain) within the next few weeks.   Boy I love retirement 😁🛳️

 

I am officially retired and have been since 1992 (Freedom 40 🙂   ). Myster has semi-retired (works on contract for 40 hours a month).  Time is not the concern so much as disposable income.  We have been very fortunate and are certainly NOT complaining.  Our next big adventure will satisfy a lot of our travel wishes.  We will play it by ear after that.  Good Luck with the Hard Rock Cafe safaris!  

 

5 minutes ago, UpstateJan said:

JP, thanks for the travel site link!   From their site, I'm at 50 with 3 more coming in 2019.   I've been using MostTraveledPeople (mtp.travel  or mosttraveledpeople.com), on there, I look like I've hardly left the county    My count is 92 sites out of 891, and 37 of 193 UN Countries.   Not too bad considering I only started travelling in 2007.  Jeremy has me beat, he travels for work, and lived abroad BJ  (before Jan!).

Jan

 

Jan using JP's suggested site I bumped our count up to 64 (although to count the province of Prince Edward Island as a separate country seems weird when the province of Newfoundland does not count as a separate country).  Enjoy your party!  🙂 

[jpalbny]

Ooh - 87. Forgot Tunisia! Will pick up South Georgia in an year or so, hopefully.

 

I have to look at our old cruise itineraries to see if we missed any islands. I can't remember if we ever were at St. Bart's. I haven't counted it as I'm not sure.

 

Looking at Namibia/Botswana/Victoria Falls in a year or so which could help nudge the count up too. So much to do!

 

Jan, have fun! We are working this weekend otherwise we'd drive by and look for smoke.

 

Mysty, I agree the list is odd in some ways. The poor Newfies already have an inferiority complex so to have PEI be more special than they are does seem unfair. But I'm sure they purposefully didn't make Quebec its own separate entity, even though it probably should be, just to make them mad!

Edited December 28, 2018 by jpalbny

[mysty]

9 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Mysty, I agree the list is odd in some ways. The poor Newfies already have an inferiority complex so to have PEI be more special than they are does seem unfair. But I'm sure they purposefully didn't make Quebec its own separate entity, even though it probably should be, just to make them mad!

 

Ha Ha JP!  Those were my thoughts exactly!  🙂 

[jillyf]

Tasmania!  I think they would like this.

They feel neglected as it’s often left off the Australian map. 

[Bill B]

7 hours ago, jpalbny said:

The poor Newfies already have an inferiority complex so to have PEI be more special than they are does seem unfair.

 

I had a Newfie crew on a dragger. One of the deckhands only had one arm... I could make fall out of the rigging by waving at him. "I'z zz bi..."

 

I 'sailed' at 20:00... they 'cast the lines' at 20:30. 

 

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great day all!

[Bill B]

There's nothing natural about airplane travel... or Al Gore. 

 

LATAM Air Lines tried to 'steal' from me -

 

On July 8, 2018, through the LATAM Airlines (English language, Canada) website, I purchased a one-way ticket on flight LA893 departing 11:20 LPB (La Paz, Bolivia), arriving 15:20 SCL (Santiago, Chile) for March 5, 2019. I paid CAD $354.87 with my Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) - issued) VISA card.

 

- September 14, LATAM informed me the departure time had changed to 08:30. I did not accept the new departure time; and I requested a refund. The same day, I received an email (in Spanish) stating they had received my request for a refund. They left the ‘Document No.’, ‘Amount’ and ‘Currency’ blank.

 

- September 26, LATAM informed me I would be refunded CAD $98.55 (with no explanation of how they arrived at that figure); and my VISA card was credited with that amount.

 

- September 29, I filed a complaint on the LATAM website requesting a further refund of CAD $256.32 ($354.87 minus $98.55). LATAM acknowledged the complaint and assigned me case # XXXXXXXX.

 

- October 18, I emailed LATAM to ask what was happening with my case. On October 19, I received a reply from Sergio Polo at LATAM Customer Support stating my case was “...being dealt with” and “we will contact you again to provide a response”.

 

- November 15, I had not heard from anyone at LATAM. I emailed Mr. Polo. There has been no response.

 

- December 2, I phoned LATAM Canada’s Customer Support Centre. After waiting two hours, I was able to speak with an agent who informed me she could do nothing because the complaint had been assigned to Mr. Polo. She said she would contact Mr. Polo and ask him to contact me. There has been no response.

 

December 9, I emailed Mr. Polo's supervisor:

Mariloly Cabello
Lead Agent
Presidente Riesco 5711, piso 3
Santiago, Chile 
Mariloly.Cabello@lan.com 

There was no response.

 

- December 20. Mr. Polo (nor or anyone at LATAM) had responded. It had become apparent he (and LATAM) were ignoring me in the hope I would 'give up' and drop the matter. I contacted RBC and initiated 'Charge Back' procedures on my VISA card. I WILL get my money back!!!

 

Screw every airline and all the horses they rode in on. 

[tgh]

Bill , may I share this ?

[Bill B]

Just now, tgh said:

Bill , may I share this ?

 

Sure... I want the whole world to know what kind of crooks the airlines are.