Whispering sweet nothings.

[drron]

Seeing Pushka and LTL have moved into an owner's suite together mrsdrron and I will settle ourselves into the 2 bedroom Royal suite.Enough room to have some of you over for drinks and nibbles.

 

[tgh]

Aaaaah ...the suites…..
It always creates a buzz in the tgh cabin (waaaaayyyy down in steerage) when one of "those" magical cards appears.
There is great consternation as the wardobe is carefully examined , the vocabulary and diction refreshed , and a feeling of general unease as the butler opens the palace door at the appointed time.
He usually inspects our invitation carefully and slowly while presenting as somewhat disappointed ,perhaps pondering the the demeaning necessity of providing champagne to such upstarts.
Finally after an interminable pause (during which the tension is almost palpable) , and with a slight toss of his head says .. well hello Mr and mrs tgh .. do come in and meet sir and madam…..

 

[Pushka]

Pushka, the owner's suite is free - at least we are not in it. We are so far below it we will be looking at the fish. As to for planes, it is a 777 to Auckland, a 737 back and a good old 747 of course to SFO. Choose appropriately.

Woo hoo. I’m in!

We are in a 747 next May. We’ve booked the two single seats each side in the pointy end. Is that appropriate?

 

[drron]

Don't worry tgh.You're invited.

 

[turtlemichael]

While we are waiting to really start this trip when we head to AKL tomorrow I thought I’d explain the SYD-AKL, AKL-SYD-SFO routing.

The world cruise deal included business class fares from MEL-SFO and LHR-MEL at the end. Having enough points I decided to take a hefty discount off the cruise fare and use the points. Easier said than done. We would be travelling at peak time and I knew I’d have to be flexible. I watched as the booking date approached and up popped MEL-HKG-JFK on CX. I figured we could have a few days in NYC and then backtrack to SFO in time for the cruise. My finger said yes!

It didn’t take long for buyer’s remorse to set in. First Turtle 2 hates flying (why, who knows?) and this would be near 30 hours airport to airport arriving in JFK at 2230 on December 23. Did I hear about that! I could count on December 24 being a write off, the following day was Christmas Day. We’d have at best 2 clear days in NYC before needing to get to SFO to meet friends prior to the cruise. The bad weather over the holiday period last year introduced more uncertainty.

A month later I reluctantly cancelled and paid the penalty. Of course, nothing suitable could be found on points so we paid real money (who ever heard of such a thing) and booked AKL-SYD-SFO. The best deal I could find to get to AKL outside Y was Y+ on NZ and, with a night at the Auckland Airport Novotel (we would have had to pay for a hotel in Sydney anyway) I was still substantially in front of the cost of SYD-SFO alone.

The return flight LHR-HKG was easily got on VS.

The lesson was act in haste, repent at leisure, to be a bit philosophical.

 

[zig]

Was wondering about the SYD - AKL, AKL-SYD-SFO routing, so thanks for illuminating us. The air in the owners suite is too rarefied for me, so I'll be down in a Vista suite.
Sounds like a fabulous trip, hope you have a wonderful time.

 

[docjames]

Looking forward to an interesting sounding TR.

What are the ports visited on the cruise?

 

[Major]

Wow, this is one hell of a trip

 

[Blinky]

I’ll be following. My wife has declared her cruising days are over. Interesting, because we met on a cruise in 1970. Hmmm.

Anyway looks like a dream trip.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

TM when you are in Sydney on the Whisper we board the Silver Muse @ White Bay - the two Silversea ships are side by side. And when you sail into London Tower Bridge on the Whisper in May we will pass you sailing out on the Silver Wind. Do you know semphore ??

 

[turtlemichael]

We are in San Francisco now so there is a bit to report before the cruise starts in 8 days. I'll get down to doing that tomorrow.

 

[turtlemichael]

Looking forward to an interesting sounding TR.

What are the ports visited on the cruise?

Here we go docjames:

 

[turtlemichael]

TM when you are in Sydney on the Whisper we board the Silver Muse @ White Bay - the two Silversea ships are side by side. And when you sail into London Tower Bridge on the Whisper in May we will pass you sailing out on the Silver Wind. Do you know semphore ??

We don't actually get to Tower Bridge but we are scheduled to stop at Greenwich. There is even a little debate if we'll get beyond Tilbury. In any case I'll be the blimp, at that point of the cruise, on the top deck though I may certainly, after 133 days, have some company! At White Bay in Sydney I'll be waving.! What time do you sail? I think we are at 6.00pm.

 

[Pushka]

Here we go docjames:

View attachment 148495

Wow. Fabulous.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

We don't actually get to Tower Bridge but we are scheduled to stop at Greenwich. There is even a little debate if we'll get beyond Tilbury. In any case I'll be the blimp, at that point of the cruise, on the top deck though I may certainly, after 133 days, have some company! At White Bay in Sydney I'll be waving.! What time do you sail? I think we are at 6.00pm.

The Muse and the Whisper sail into Sydney on the 02/02 at 8am according to the White Bay cruise schedule and the Muse sails out at 6pm that night but the Whisper doesnt sail till 6pm on the 03/02.

 

[VPS]

Colour me very green for that cruise - fantastic and can't wait to sail along with you

 

[turtlemichael]

Well, off we go. First stop on this grand tour was Auckland for an overnight. We went over from Sydney on NZ104. It’s my first time on an NZ plane for many years. The last time was LAX-AKL in business premier and I thought it right up there with the others. This time it was Y+ and I thought the product very good. Legroom on the 777-200 was excellent and, though I didn’t measure it, it appears roomier than QF J domestic. Food was all you need, and service was fine.

We overnighted at the AKL Novotel in an Executive room. Again, no problems with a good bed, quiet and views of the tarmac if that sort of thing turns you on. The highlight was the food in their restaurant. We used my Accorplus membership, compliments of Amex, which meant we got two very good two course meals, a complimentary sparkling and two more glasses from the check-in voucher, for the grand total of $NZ52.00. Deal of the week! The included breakfast was fine too.

In the morning we went for a walk in brilliant crisp sunny weather and got confronted by a man who must have thought we looked like Kiwis. We didn’t have shorts or jandals on either. He sounded as if he was Australian.

The conversation went: "Excuse me sir, can you tell me if it's usual to have the sun and the moon out at the same time in New Zealand?" To emphasis it, he pointed to them. I responded "yes, it is". He said "well they ought to publicise it. Would be great for tourism here". Hmm. Maybe he has a point.

NZ 777 legroom in Y+

Starter and dessert on NZ104


Executive Room Auckland Airport Novotel.

 

[Pushka]

There are a lot of Americans who just disembarked or about to embark on the Viking Orion (my ship for Alaska next May) which has been in harbour for a few days. Some of the questions they’ve asked on FB are hysterical.

 

[ellen10]

Wow sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to your reports.

 

[turtlemichael]

Auckland to San Francisco via Sydney.

We were across to the International terminal around 11.15 for our 14.05 B737 QF144 to Sydney. We used the QF lounge which was quite empty on arrival and groaning by the time the flight was called. We didn’t try the Emirates lounge because when I told Turtle 2 some people had been turned away, that was the end of that.

The flight left a little late but was basically on time on arrival. We had no issues with the flight though the seat was less comfortable and the meal less appetising than the one the day before in NZ Y+. Service was friendly and professional.

After a bit over an hour in the QF J lounge in Sydney we were on our way on QF73 to SFO. We had two seats on the upper deck. To say the plane was tired was an understatement. Does anyone know which plane flew QF73 on December 28?

The seat droop was very pronounced, the seat controls needed the FA to poke around before they’d work and then only occasionally and the video screen and dated system were so cloudy it was near impossible to watch anything.

The meal, pre-ordered, was poor in appearance and quality. I got a mini-lecture at breakfast for ordering the yogurt without the fruit. That was not done but they’d made a special exception for me and served a small dish. I’m glad, I didn’t ask for the caviar.

But it was full, or near full, so I guess Qantas does not worry too much though this plane should be pensioned off. It served the prime purpose of getting us there in one piece and a little ahead of time so that is a good thing.


QF73 barramundi main


Breakfast with said bowl of yogurt


Stunning day as we cross the Californian coast.

Now on to the delights of San Francisco.