Blogs from Oceans and Seas

April 9 Another lovely sea day. Dinner last night was interesting. The Matre de came over to be sure all was well with me. It’s like Cheers where everybody knows my name. All in response to my critique on the ship web site. Dinner was good. They had a chilled soup on the menu but it wasn’t very good. They used to be so delicious. This one was watermelon with a ton of salt. After dinner I went to the casino but the cash game was a no go. The Rolling Stone Rock Room was overflowing with not a seat to be had. No obvious option but to enjoy an early night. This morning I played in the poker tournament again. Unlike yesterday when I came in five out of six, today I was number two ... read more

April 5 The hotel lobby is rocking. There are five ships in port. Shuttle ride uneventful and then the fun begins. Missed the wheelchair at the entrance so had to navigate check in, then took the escalator up to a packed waiting room. Signed up for a wheelchair and waited about half an hour. By then the waiting room was empty. Had to go to the Lido as the cabins were not ready and now at 12:30 they are still not ready. It’s a beautiful day, severe clear blue skies. My stateroom is spacious. Unpacked and ready to go. Delightful dinner companions .sThere were three of us cat people. Enjoyed dinner, Hake with mussels (2), clams (2) and one shrimp. Delicious pear tart for desert. Decided on an early night, read in bed and enjoyed the ... read more

Cruise Day 3 - Mon 19 Feb Slept in till well after 7 - what a shock! We went downstairs for breakfast and requested, and given, a private table for 2. Tom had cereal, eggs Benedict and a Danish. I had smoked haddock poached in milk, smoked salmon on a beautiful bagel (not super dense like our supermarket ones), and a Danish. After brekkie we went up to the library and read the newspapers and did sudoku until it was time to go to the Carinthia Lounge for trivia. They decided to do riddles instead of general knowledge this morning (e.g. what is the end of everything? What do Winnie the Poo and Alexander the Great have in Common?). We were pleased with 15/20. After Tom attended a talk on the Australia II (Americas cup, decades ... read more

Today we boarded our ship, thanks to Sophie and Cory driving us to Fremantle docks. We offloaded our large suitcases and went upstairs to the waiting area. As we entered they called for all people with cards #18 to proceed to checkin - the lady at the door gave us #18, so there was no waiting. The checkin lady was a Perth lady who used to work for Qantas, but then she retired and she and her husband do this for Cunard about 12 times/year. From checkin we went to the next room which was security and X-ray machines. We were all ready to hand over the newly purchased Margaret River gins and Shiraz that we had EXTRA to our allocated one bottle of bubbly each (plus our bubbly stopper and two plastic crystal-look flutes). But ... read more

After leaving Dutch Harbor it was a five day passage across the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean to our first port of call in Japan. Every night we added an extra hour of sleep as we crossed multiple time zones and then lost a day as we crossed the International Dateline. There was plenty to do on those sea days as Silversea packed the daily schedule with interesting events and activities. The Assistant Cruise Director gave iPhone lessons and he even set up my phone with a SIM card so it would work in Japan. There were two Arts and Crafts instructors on board offering jewelry making classes, water color painting, dot art and origami folding classes. There were dance and bridge lessons available. We played ping pong and in the process met some ... read more