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Shipboard observations. First, new acronyms: PC = professional cruiser, a person who counts their cruises by the dozen, who really knows the ropes of cruising. Antonym: SAM (Susanne & me).
The PCs step right into the rhythm
of the cruise, taking part in the many activities...bingo, trivia, lectures,
workout room, bridge, etc. SAM are content with just chilling, showing up
for mealtime & trying yoga. And the
deliberately few shore excursions offered.
Oh yeah, yoga. The first morning, a class was offered at
7:30am “Sun Salutation”. Eager to start
moving, we showed up only to discover it was a breathing class. Go figure.
There were no yoga classes offered the second day, then two days in
port, hardly any class of anything offered.
Tomorrow we’ll try again.
Anyhow, I’m trying to figure why the
activity difference between PC & SAM.
Here’s my theory. At home between
volunteering, yoga, tango & just living, SAM are pretty busy. We go cruising to escape. Maybe the PC folks don’t have much to do at
home, so they jump into the structure here. The 5-6 cruises per year PC folks
can’t be doing much at home. Any comments???
The tour guides tell us that the
America’s Cup world competition begins in Bermuda in June; a matter of national
pride. The major U.S. team is the Oracle
group, you know...Larry Ellison, the master of conspicuous consumption. Well, the Oracle team has already set up shop,
building structures along the shore & practicing daily. One of their racing boats sped by our ship
earlier today.
Our tour was in Hamilton, the capitol
today, a lovely village with a very nice downtown. I was browsing in a wine shop, noticing prices
quite higher than the same label in the U.S.
In the meantime, two very athletic young lads were piling up the booze
for purchase. Their accents were
decidedly Yank. Then I caught a glimpse
of the back of their shirts... "CREW".
Hmmm; must be the Oracle gang.
Silversea is a deluxe cruise line featuring smaller ships that go to places where the big ones don’t fit. This ship could sail right into downtown
Hamilton while we’re stuck out at the Royal Naval Ship Yard. The ship looks large until you compare it to a larger one.
If you look at the photo below & note the two chains each in the foreground & background, below the chains is an opening with two vertical metal pieces on each side. With great pride, the tour guide noted that this is the world's smallest drawbridge, only 18 inches across.
OK, can anyone figure out what on earth is the purpose of such a small drawbridge? Will answer in a future post.
A Susanne-like photo, we took separate tours today. She chose the glass bottom boat (pics later), a better tour as it turned out. Anyhow, I'm torn between two titles..."Spring" or "This Bud's For You".
I'm going to devote a later post to life on the ship. This is a shot of the casual breakfast/lunch place called the Waves Grill, open 6:30am to 4pm. For breakfast, made-to-order eggs & fruit. For lunch, burgers, sandwiches, basic salads, fruit, an ice cream/shake bar and now a vegan juice bar.
That's Susanne on the left in red talking to the waitstaff. These folks knock themselves out for the passengers. Susanne wanted a dessert other than ice cream, not available here. A very nice young lady from Kazakhstan went over to the buffet dining room next door (even though it closed 20 minutes ago) and negotiated a selection of goodies for each of us.
Yes, the crew is very international. That means we pick through lots of different accents and we're not always understood as well as we think we are. They've learned the fine art of smiling,
nodding & agreeing despite the lack of understanding, hoping to pick it up as we go along.
The pool area in the early morning, too cool for the bathing "beauties" to be out. This is a decidedly older crowd. The motion of the ship causes the pool water to slosh all over the tan area, but it is contained. Two hot tubs at the far end.
Entering Hamilton, complete with old church, multicoulored (Brit spelling) buildings abound. You can paint your building/house any color you like but it is an unwritten rule to not use the same color as your neighbor. There's an upside to this...your friends find your place more by the color than the street number.
This is a British Overseas Territory, they drive on the left.
Technical note: An email subscriber reported that the photos didn't come through. They are there because I don't release the post unless I can see them in the preview. Just scroll up to the top of the post & click on "Steve's Travel Blog" to view the post with photos in your browser.
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