Today we were supposed to be in Sorento.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to Naples instead.\u00a0 There\u2019s not really a storm outside at the moment, but as the captain explained last night, the seas are too rough for passengers to be rocking from ship to shore in tenders.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a big deal for us.\u00a0 We\u2019re currently taking a vacation from our vacation and had cancelled today\u2019s shore excursion before the itinerary was changed.<\/p>\n
Tonight, rather than going to the regular restaurant for dinner, we have a reservation in La Dame, a very small and intimate dining room on Deck 7, just down the hall from us.<\/p>\n
This is our seventh Silverseas Cruise, and our seventh cruise onboard this ship, the Silver Whisper.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I blogged in detail about our first cruise adventure, but in this instance, as my mother would say, perhaps it\u2019s worth chewing my cabbage twice.<\/p>\n
Our first cruise was to the Norwegian Fjords, starting and ending in Copenhagen.\u00a0 We had booked an extra night at a hotel in Copenhagen at the beginning of the trip, and that was the only thing that saved us.<\/p>\n
On the day of our original departure, we had checked in for our British Air flight and were in the departure lounge when they announced that the flight had been cancelled.\u00a0 I went out and got in line at the ticket counter in hopes of rebooking while Bill went downstairs to retrieve our luggage.\u00a0 Rebooking took three hours and by the time Bill collected our luggage and brought it upstairs, he had hurt himself, reigniting an old back injury.\u00a0 We flew out on Delta the next day, flying through Amsterdam.\u00a0 Bill\u2019s back was in a world of hurt.\u00a0 When we got to Amsterdam, we had to go from one end of that massive airport to the other, and none\u2014not one\u2014of the moving sidewalks was moving.\u00a0 By the time we finally made it to our gate, we were among the last people to board, and Bill was in worse shape than ever.\u00a0 When we finally reached the ship in Copenhagen, we were among the last people to board.\u00a0 Whew!<\/p>\n
As we were checking in, I asked if there was any availability for the small dining room, then called La Champagne.\u00a0 There was one reservation available\u2014for that night\u2014and we grabbed it.<\/p>\n
On board the Silver Whisper, there are hand rails up and down the hallways, and those were lifesavers.\u00a0 By using them Bill was able to get back and forth from our suite to the elevators and to the dining room.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, later that afternoon during the muster exercise out on deck, I heard the words Man Overboard uttered during the safety briefing.\u00a0 So in case anybody is wondering where I get my ideas, there\u2019s one.<\/p>\n
That night, when we went to dinner we were absolutely jubilant.\u00a0 Yes, Bill\u2019s back was bad, but we had made it\u2014despite all the odds, we were on board!\u00a0 So we were in high spirits and a celebratory mood.\u00a0 One of our fellow diners was not.\u00a0 As noted above La Champagne, now known as La Dame, is a very small room.\u00a0 One of the guests in the room that night\u2014an ugly American, I regret to say\u2014was not a happy camper.\u00a0 He sent back not one, not two, not three, but FOUR bottles of wine before the last one finally measured up to his exalted expectations!\u00a0 There was nothing about the food or the service that was good enough for him.\u00a0 He complained throughout the dinner, and when he finally took his leave, everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Bill and I were busy enjoying everything in sight. That evening, June 22, happened to be the anniversary of the day we met years earlier.\u00a0 At the beginning of dinner, our waiter had asked if we were celebrating anything, and we mentioned that it was our anniversary.\u00a0 When it came time for dessert, our waiter serenaded us with a delightful operatic solo, and at the end of that, when we were leaving, the entire crew of waitstaff in the room autographed our menus.<\/p>\n
The whole evening was magic.\u00a0 Just typing the story now, has made me smile.\u00a0 We never got off the ship that cruise.\u00a0 Bill\u2019s back simply wasn\u2019t up to it.\u00a0 We enjoyed watching the scenery pass by from our deck and were thankful to be able to do that.\u00a0 And the crew onboard the ship took great care of us.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing like great service to turn customers into repeat customers.<\/p>\n
So tonight we\u2019ll return to the now renamed restaurant one last time.\u00a0 The Whisper will be continuing on a world cruise, I believe, and when that\u2019s over, the ship is headed to dry dock for a complete refurbishing.\u00a0 I expect we\u2019ll be back on this ship again in the future, but I also suspect that when we return, that small dining room will be much changed.<\/p>\n
That means tonight\u2019s dinner will be a hail and farewell of sorts.<\/p>\n
Boun Appetito.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today we were supposed to be in Sorento.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to Naples instead.\u00a0 There\u2019s not really a storm outside at the moment, but as the captain explained last night, the seas are too rough for passengers to be rocking from ship to shore in tenders.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a big deal for us.\u00a0 We\u2019re currently taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t