A muse on the Muse to NZ.

[mrs.dr.ron]

i had never heard of the crew fund until they did the auction on the last night and certainly no mention of guests contributing to it. We did the charity contribution.

The Crew Fund benefits all the crew, buys things they need for their staff room, takes them on excursions when in port, etc.

The "charity" fund is set up by the SS founder in memory of his sister who had cancer, it is an ITALIAN fund and only benefits italian "children".

In the early days of our cruising the "charity" donation was compulsory - but then came the opt out function, to now I believe it is opt in.
There was a big thread on the SS "charity" for quite some time on Cruise Critic..

 

[Flying mermaid]

The Crew Fund benefits all the crew, buys things they need for their staff room, takes them on excursions when in port, etc.

The "charity" fund is set up by the SS founder in memory of his sister who had cancer, it is an ITALIAN fund and only benefits italian "children".

In the early days of our cruising the "charity" donation was compulsory - but then came the opt out function, to now I believe it is opt in.
There was a big thread on the SS "charity" for quite some time on Cruise Critic..

yes the charity donation was optional - they put it on the bill and you could ask for it to be taken out if you wanted to. I didn’t mind doing it. I would have been happy to have contributed to the crew fund as well (or instead of), but there was no mention of it at all until the last night when they auctioned a map of the voyage and then they explained what the fund was and that the auction money went into it - still nothing about contributing to it. They raised US$5,000 from the auction.

 

[drron]

A couple more of the islands.This time Cape Barren in front and Flinders behind.

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This time the low Clarke island in front,then Cape Barren and with the naked eye you could just see the higher Flinders behind that.

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Another bird.

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The last one is an albatross.Wouldn't come any closer.

 

[drron]

Tuesday night and we had dinner in La Dame.It is a $US60 surcharge per head.The menu.

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And drron gets into the mood with the complimentary champagne.Yes Silversea have gone back to champagne not prosecco.Had a couple of glasses each-helps that we knew the 2 waiters and they both remembered us.

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[drron]

Mrsdrron started off with the pan fried foie gras with apple whilst I had the caviar-nearly pays for itself as anywhere else on the ship caviar sets you back $US40.

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Getting the most value out of it I then had the scallops and the porcini cream soup with caviar.

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For mains we both had the lobster with caviar once more.

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For desserts we had the souffle-no photo.
All the dishes were excellent.The porcini soup exquisite.

 

[drron]

There possibly will be a break in transmission until I can upload some more photos.Just won't cooperate over the last 48 hours.

 

[drron]

Finally able to upload some photos to flickr so we set sail again.
After Melbourne it was 3 sea days so not many pictures apart from food.There wasn't much different there as 2 of the nights we were in a group so photos took second place.First a lunch in Atlantide.We do try not to overdo it at lunch so we had the mushroom pasta and a funny apple crumble.

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They were both quite delicious.
Then a lunch at Kaiseki-sushi and it is complimentary.Very nice and well presented.

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One of the nights we had dinner with our trivia team.We have bonded pretty well-3 seconds and one first so far.The dinner was in La Terraza.For us they put out 2 boards of antipasto before we ordered.

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The dinner was good.

 

[OATEK]

A real foodathon!

 

[drron]

After those 3 sea days we cruised Milford and Doubtful Sounds.The weather mostly was miserable.These photos were taken in colour mode.

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[Pushka]

After those 3 sea days we cruised Milford and Doubtful Sounds.The weather mostly was miserable.These photos were taken in colour mode.

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So grey!

 

[irv]

After those 3 sea days we cruised Milford and Doubtful Sounds.The weather mostly was miserable.These photos were taken in colour mode.

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Yes i have a few of those which I shall post in my TR

 

[drron]

As we got into the sound the weather improved just a little.

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Caught up with another tourist vessel.

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[tgh]

Rolling along in wind and rain, we swung into Milford.
As if by holy proclamation , the heavens cleared and we sent a magical few hours cruising the sound with clear skies.
I was a bit surprised to later find that most passengers assumed that this was the way it usually was…...

 

[Milboo]

You struck it lucky then! Milford Sound is the wettest place (inhabited) in NZ, and high up in the list for world wide too.

I grew up further south, and further west of there and long dark winters and rain were par for the course!

 

[Flying mermaid]

We were in Milford Sound in late January a few years ago and had terrific weather. We were staying in Queenstown and drove down for a few days. Beautiful scenery driving down as well, but Milford Sound is spectacular.

 

[drron]

Milboo we have only just entered Milford sound.There will be rain.
We did stay there in 1974 and had fantastic weather.

 

[drron]

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[drron]

A few of the other vessels plying Milford Sound.

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Even another large white ship-

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Oceania Regatta.
This though i doubt is the best vessel in these conditions.Might get a little miserable.

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But back to Milford.

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[drron]

The weather changes yet again.

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[drron]

The weather changes again.

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