Grubby guests

Diva’s 3^rd tantrum was bigger, prolonged and entirely justified. She ran her morning bath and it was completely cold.  A phone call to Reception established that a pipe had broken and the whole ship was without hot water. TSH and Diva did their best with a cold wash-down but this is nightmare territory for clean-freak Diva. TSH had his own tantrum whilst shaving with cold water. Diva was further incensed by the usual cheery announcement from the Cruise Director with docking information and the instruction to ‘enjoy your day’. No mention of the cold water. So when she passed the Hotel Director’s office she popped in to ask about the lack of any apology. ‘The Cruise Director probably does not know’. ‘The pipe broke, caused a flood and we are working very hard’. ‘Apology comes later’. Diva’s (M.A.) linguistic analysis skills suggested that this narrative was coming from the perspective of the pipe and she pointed this out, saying that empathy with the guests would be useful. They agreed to leave it there and she stormed out. Half an hour later the Cruise Director was back on the PA system with a (lukewarm) apology. Result. TSH and Diva were shocked by many of the crew and many of the guests being unaware of the problem. Many people had not tried to access any hot  water that morning. Hot water was restored an hour or so later.

The rest of the morning  seemed more like the old normal. TSH left the suite alone to go to the top deck to take pictures and then he collected the daily puzzles from the other end of the ship and made it back safely. He then rushed around the Liverpool waterfront with his camera and Diva trailed along to keep an eye on things.

A  note from the previous night: In the bar, Diva ordered a limoncello and TSH a non-alcoholic cocktail. A different waitress brought the drinks and offered Diva the non-alcoholic one. Clearly not familiar with hard-drinking northern England women.

Mersey modification

Diva’s first tantrum of Day 1 was during the disorganised embarkation. The second was during dinner when an enthusiastic wine waiter at the next table continued loudly to explain options during the Captain’s announcement.  She missed most of it but eventually discovered that due to an impending storm, Plymouth and Fishguard were cancelled and the next port would be Liverpool. So if they had forgotten anything (which they haven’t) they could go home to collect it.

The Atlantide menu has changed completely (jury still out on that) but the filet mignon and lemon meringue pie are excellent as ever. Wine (Diva)and sparkling water (TSH) very palatable. At breakfast, TSH enjoyed his first Danish pastry of the voyage.

Ricardo reset

 

The bags were packed in good time and the driver picked them up the night before departure, as arranged, checking that everything (as well as TSH and Diva) would fit into his car. As usual, Diva catastrophised many scenarios. The car and contents would be stolen. The motorway would be blocked for many hours. All 3 of their alarms would fail to go off. She would forget the passports. Etc. etc.

Pick-up was due at 5:45. They got up well before the planned time of 4:45.  Just before 5:45 Diva spotted a text telling her that the driver was ill – suspected Norovirus – and was not fit to drive and did not want to risk passing it on. Fortunately, this is an organised company and another driver – Ricardo – was drafted in at short notice. The previous night’s pack turned out to be a disadvantage, as the luggage needed to be collected and transferred to Ricardo’s car.

A harrowing wait and eventual departure at 6:15 was followed by an eventless journey and arrival at Southampton at 11:00.  Many thanks to Ricardo for helping out. Chaotic embarkation onto Silver Spirit started at 12:00. By 13:00 they were in La Terrazza eating lunch and Diva had her champagne.

Suites ready at 14:00, with the luggage already there.

Celebration

Diva told the butler that they wanted a speciality restaurant booking for their wedding anniversary. Mistake.  In the early evening, the butler appeared with Prosecco on ice and two glasses. Following his stroke, TSH does not drink alcohol so the Welcome bottle of champagne was not finished and about half of it was still in the fridge. They did not explain this to the butler and hoped he was not too offended when he returned later to find the Prosecco untouched.  In the Nepalese speciality restaurant, after the main course there was much banging of trays and several waiters gathered round their table to sing ‘Let it be you’.  They had already ordered carrot cake but an elaborate chocolate cake and two more glasses of Prosecco appeared.  TSH refused his and they both cancelled the carrot cake. The photographer ordered TSH to move from his seat to sit beside Diva for a photo. TSH refused on the basis of his reduced vision. So Diva had to squeeze out of the narrow space to move to sit beside him. The photos have not appeared yet.

On return to the suite, they found towels folded into the shape of swans and a Happy Anniversary banner. Many thanks to Saga for all their efforts.

Food and service are still excellent and TSH and Diva are looking forward to their last full day at sea before the return to Dover.

‘Feel like you’re on a ship’ mode

For TSH and Diva’s first time in the Isles of Scilly, they visited the famous Tresco tropical gardens. The clue was in the name. Diva wore her raincoat because the transfer to Tresco was in a partly open local boat, which, although it was not raining, was likely to be breezy. So by the time she had walked to the gardens she was very hot and exhausted. Fortunately, Saga had supplied a packed lunch so, along with most other guests, they treated the garden visit as an extended picnic. TSH covered himself in glory for once, as, despite his reduced vision, he was the first to spot a red squirrel. A few others appeared later but moved too quickly for there to be any chance of a photo.

Over dinner, TSH and Diva chatted to a couple whose male half was distressed at the loss of a pair of specs. They had retraced their steps around the ship and were unable to find them. Diva advised a call to Reception, who in the past had carefully looked after lost specs belonging to TSH. The female half was sitting on a cushion and when she came to leave she wanted to take it back to the cushion store. Fortunately she ignored TSH’s advice to leave it for the waiters to deal with. There under the cushion was the specs case – she had been sitting on it throughout the protracted wailing.

Some of the guests thought that there was a lot of motion of the ship during the night crossing to Eire. (TSH and Diva didn’t notice anything in spite of being 5 decks higher than their preferred location on Silversea). Some people mentioned this to Captain Jason and he explained that the additional movement was because he had set the autopilot to ‘feel like you’re on a ship’ mode. 

Sinking ships

On arrival at the Irish port of Cobh, Captain Jason put the Spirit of Adventure into a manoeuvre called Stop and Spin. This is exactly what it sounds like. The port welcomes cruise ships by encouraging their passengers into the Titanic exhibition and the heritage museum with a section about the Lusitania. TSH and Diva were assigned boarding cards with the names of two of the passengers – one from each ship. They never discovered if they survived but as Irish people in third class it seems unlikely.  

At breakfast, Diva asked for a brown roll to go with her Cumberland sausage. The sausage arrived but the roll came some time later because a waiter had to go to another restaurant for it – 7 decks away! And then they brought two rolls, which was too much for requirements.

The first use of TSH’s camera did not go too well – he had charged the battery at home but forgot to insert it back into the camera.

There have, as usual been timing issues. TSH’s phone decided it was in France and moved its time forward. So the alarm went off very early. It has now been instructed not to do it again.

Spirit of Adventure shows no sign of sinking and the food is excellent and the wine plentiful.

TSH stars in the blog already!

The day started with a rush. TSH and Diva got up early to have plenty of time before the car arrival slot of 8:25 – 8:55. At 7:20 came a text message to say that the car would arrive at 8:00. Which was better but slightly challenging. By 13:30 they were seated in the Grill on the Spirit of Adventure. The embarkation arrangements at Dover are second to none. Many many Saga employees to help and show the way. Security staff who are helpful and polite. Airports who have staff barking unintelligible commands could learn a lot from this.

The suite is a mirror image of the one they had last time. Interesting for anybody – daunting for the partially sighted. After unpacking her mountain of luggage, Diva realised that although she had charged her spare electric toothbrush before leaving home, she had not packed a brush head for it. She asked the butler if he could help. He thought that the shop might have one and the times when the shop would be open could be found in the daily schedule. Not an impressive start. Fortunately the shop did indeed have a toothbrush.

The first event was the mandatory safety drill. International Maritime Law. Captain Jason informed everybody several times that they would need to take their keycards to the muster so that they could be ‘swiped’ as having attended. TSH arrived at the muster point without his card, to much consternation all round. Fortunately they agreed that Diva’s ‘swipe’ could count for both.