Nowhere near LIVE trip report - The Schmoopies' Escape Mediterranean cruise madcap recap

[Sugar Magnolia]

7 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Being a fan of palindromes, I noticed that pretty much immediately after undertaking that language. By the way, not only do you need to learn how to speak Cambodian, you also need to learn how to read it. Not easy, since, to the untrained eye, it looks like hieroglyphics.

 

I'll bet you didn't know that Schmoopie spelled backwards is eipoomhcS.

 

You must conduct a master class on the Joy when we sail in February...about both the Khmer language and palindromes, with extra credit given for Khmer palindromes.

 

[schmoopie17]

29 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

You must conduct a master class on the Joy when we sail in February...about both the Khmer language and palindromes, with extra credit given for Khmer palindromes.

 

The Cambodian word for room is spelled phonetically as putup. That may be as close as I can come. The word for bathroom is putup tuk (literally "water room".)

 

You're welcome to use it when searching for a bathroom on your next visit to Phnom Penh.

[Sugar Magnolia]

4 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

The Cambodian word for room is spelled phonetically as putup. That may be as close as I can come. The word for bathroom is putup tuk (literally "water room".)

 

You're welcome to use it when searching for a bathroom on your next visit to Phnom Penh.

 

Duly noted...and hope no one slaps me across the face (should it turn out to be an insult to the Khmer people and a cruel joke from you).

 

[schmoopie17]

47 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

Duly noted...and hope no one slaps me across the face (should it turn out to be an insult to the Khmer people and a cruel joke from you).

 

The first things they taught us were all of the dirty words. Wanted to get those out of the way. The two I gave you aren't among them.

 

But they still come in handy when someone irritates me (which is nearly all the time) and I can throw a couple of those words in their direction and they have no idea what they mean. But I feel better for having said them.

[schmoopie17]

Today was Cannes. As you probably know, Cannes is a tender port. We normally avoid tenders like the plague, but because we already had a couple of days where we didn't get off the ship, we decided to bite the bullet. (Not the Bulleit,,,which is something you drink, not bite). Anyway...

 

As I mentioned yesterday, we received a voicemail saying we could have "priority" tendering to Cannes. Yippee! Actually, priority status didn't really get us anything. We had signed up at the theater the previous day for the 10:30 tender. We decided to take a late tender to Cannes, so we chose to go at...amazingly enough...10:30. We showed up outside the theater and we ended up at the end of the line...pretty much where we would have ended up without "priority". Anyway...

 

Getting onto the tender was an adventure with Mrs. Schmoopie still having some mobility issues from a broken leg. Miraculously, after nearly doing an Olympic-quality "split" with one leg on the ship and the other on the tender (which suddenly decided to move away from the ship) she managed to embark on the tender. However, the waves were pretty darn active and the tender was rocking a whole lot more than my waterbed back in the 70's. I mean, serious rocking. And, of course, they wait until the tender is full, so that meant several more minutes of rocking, rolling and furiously searching for a barf bag (of which there were none). Luckily we were able to suppress the urge to **** (insert your own word here) and we were finally on our way to the safe, secure land that is Cannes. (I should note that neither of us is prone to seasickness on a cruise ship. Little boats, on the other hand, are quite a different story.) Once we pulled away from the Escape (escaped the Escape) the tender immediately settled down. I'm not a physicist. nor do I play one on TV...and hardly ever stay at a Holiday Inn Express, but apparently the waves bouncing off the ship were the cause of the rocking. The rest of the 10 minute voyage was fairly uneventful.

 

We had ported (is that a word?) in Cannes two years ago and did an excursion to Nice, Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze, so we didn't book an excursion this time. We strolled/hobbled out of the port area and down a very nice street filled with bars, restaurants, etc. We ended up having drinks in one sidewalk cafe, and then awesome crepes in another cafe. It was a very nice couple of hours. Even nicer was the tender ride back to the ship, where about two minutes into the journey we were passed by a mega yacht with at least six topless women romping on the deck. (I say romping because somehow that makes it more interesting. At least to me.) I furiously fumbled for my phone to capture the moment for posterity but in my haste to take a picture, my thumb ended up obscuring all the good parts. And trust me, there were a number of good parts. Oh, well...as they say in Cannes, "C'est la vie."

 

That night we ate in Cagney's. However, as is our wont, we stopped at the bar between Cagney's and Moderno (we actually opened the bar...which is also our wont). While sipping on my second (or was it my third?) bourbon with one ice cube, I noticed something peculiar. Moderno was admitting guys in shorts and t-shirts. Seriously? I was going to go ask the hostess if there was some sort of dress code change for Moderno, but I somehow lost track of time after my third (or was it my fourth?) bourbon with one ice cube...and our Cagney's reservation time had arrived.

 

Cagney's dinner was its usually delicious self. The crab cake appetizer was very good (not good enough to request the recipe, but still very good). Mrs. Schmoopie's wedge salad was also good...but seriously, what can you do to screw up a wedge of lettuce? She had the rib eye and I had the filet...both cooked beautifully (as Gordon Ramsay would say). I know I had dessert, but for the life of me can't recall what it was. I just know that whatever it was, it was good.

 

We ended up going to Tobacco Road, to be able to scope out the line for Rumours. The show started at 8:00, but the line was forming at 7:10. We got in line shortly thereafter and we were inside within a couple of minutes and seated in pretty much the same seats we had for "Prom NIght"...which is to say, prime seats. As usual, the show was very good, but we agreed that "Prom Night" was better...and much more fun. (More fun than my actual Prom Nights in 1970 and 71.)  Yes, I'm that old...

[Fredrik]

On 10/2/2024 at 5:53 PM, schmoopie17 said:

We interrupt all of the MAS, FAS+, etc., confusion for another episode of our trip. Feel free to disregard and go back to all of the speculation/angst on those threads.

Now, where was I...?

 

Arrived in Barcelona to open the balcony curtain to see dismal, dreary skies, cool temps and pouring rain. Luckily, we had nothing planned for the day, as we had been there before and didn't feel the need to get off the ship. However, the weather was not conducive to lounging at the pool and showing off my Grandpa bod, so we had to come up with a way to kill the 12 hours in port.

Luckily, the bars had signs saying additional taxes would not be charged if you have the drink package (which we always do...don't leave home without it). So things were looking up.

 

Had an underwhelming lunch in the buffet. I just don't get the attraction. And yet somehow we went back. Oh, well...

 

The Freestyle said you could get tendering tickets on your TV. Well, ours was obviously not a Smart TV because there was no way to do it via the TV. Went to the theater box office, where the helpful young man was able to get us assigned to a tender for 10:30 the next morning. What the helpful young man didn't do was remind us that Latitude members get priority tendering...of which we were reminded by a voicemail message on the phone later that day. There have been numerous discussions about how various ships handle the priority tendering and it remains a mystery how they can be so different. Or what actually comprises "priority". (We were to receive a glimpse of the process when we actually endured the tender process the next day). Stay tuned.

 

Did Bayamo Ocean Blue (home of my previous favorite appetizer, prior to my new-found snail infatuation) for dinner. The spicy shrimp appetizer (I know it has a name, but can't recall it at the moment...maybe it has "Blazing" in the name...) never fails to wow me. After practically inhaling the bowlful of scrumptiousness, the waiter asked me if I'd like a second helping. Be still my heart...first two servings of escargot...now this! I honestly don't recall what I ordered for my entree...and truth be told, I really didn't even need an entree after two servings of the shrimp.

 

Speaking of appetizers, Mrs. Schmoopie ordered the scallops. The sauce was wonderful and the scallops were seared perfectly. (I've watched enough Gordon Ramsay shows to know what properly prepared scallops should look like.) Once again we were visited by a Maitre d' who asked how everything was so far. Mrs. Schmoopie asked if she could get the recipe for the scallops. The next morning, the recipe magically appeared at our cabin. (NOTE: On a previous cruise we asked for the recipe for the spicy shrimp appetizer, and again it was delivered to our cabin the next day. Now I just need Mrs. Schmoopie to actually make them..)

 

We typically are red wine drinkers. Almost without fail. However, with fish or seafood, I never drink red wine because I feel it enhances the fishy taste of fish and seafood. (Mrs. Schmoopie thinks it's all in my head. After all, she knows what my taste buds are sensing better than I do.) So I ordered a Rose wine, instead. It was a very good Rose (I know, it's pronounced "Rosay"...but I don't know how to properly type the little ' mark above the e). She sarcastically said that it was very "masculine" of me to order the wimpy wine...but I liked it, anyway. And I will be looking for it at our local liquor emporium to have with fish/seafood at home...especially the scallops or spicy shrimp (assuming she ever makes them). 

 

 

 

Feel free to post the recipe for the shrimp. It is my absolute favorite app on NCL. Almost as good as Bang Bang shrimp over at Bonefish Grill. 🦐🦐🦐🦐

[QuattroRomeo]

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

but we agreed that "Prom Night" was better...and much more fun. (More fun than my actual Prom Nights in 1970 and 71.)  Yes, I'm that old...

yes but not too old to enjoy the "romping on the deck"!!

[Joanne G.]

On 9/30/2024 at 3:26 PM, schmoopie17 said:

 . . .I find it galling that NCL tries to pass this stuff off as "Ice cream", especially to someone such as myself, who hails from America's Dairyland. Actually, the big thing around here is frozen custard, which is far and away better than ice cream...and miles and miles and miles above that frozen mess on NCL. . . 

A fellow Culver's fan!  😄

 

I'm enjoying your review.  I was on a Celebrity Mediterranean cruise last month, which ended in Rome.  I was also disappointed that the magnificent fountains in Piazza Navona, as well as the one in front of the Pantheon, were shut off and covered up for restoration.  Preparation for the 2025 Jubilee year.  

Edited yesterday at 12:25 AM by Joanne G.

[schmoopie17]

16 hours ago, Fredrik said:

Feel free to post the recipe for the shrimp. It is my absolute favorite app on NCL. Almost as good as Bang Bang shrimp over at Bonefish Grill. 🦐🦐🦐🦐

I would love to help you out, but first need to find it. We got the recipe a couple years ago and we have moved since then, so who knows which box it may have ended up in or if it somehow got tossed (Heaven forbid). I'm hoping it will eventually turn up.

[graphicguy]

@schmoopie17...I love me some Paris, but agree about Cannes.  I really love Cannes, too.