Hello to the members of the LCT board!

As my partner Hiro and I come closer to the date of our cruise, a few questions have popped into my head and I thought that I'd ask you nice people for some advice. Hiro and I have cruised on "Song of Flower" as well as "Diamond" so we're fairly familiar with the RSSC experience, but this will mark our first time on "Voyager".

Specialty Restaurants: Which evening do you recommend for Signatures or Latitudes?

Bordeaux: We don't arrive in port on Friday, September 2nd until 7:30pm. Is there something special planned for that evening on the ship that would entice you to stay on board, or are any of you going to book a restaurant in the city? I looked at the viamichelin.com website and there are two "One Star" (IMHO, one Michelin star equals approximately a 24 rating on "Zagat Guide")restaurants in Bordeaux. Or are some of you going to eat on the ship and then stroll around in town?

Le Cordon Bleu Workshops: How does one find out more info and prices? According to the RSSC website, it's limited to 16 persons, yet there is no link or info tab which leads to availability or price. And if it's limited to 16, then one would assume it'll be fully booked once on board.

Formal Nights: Anyone know how many formal nights are scheduled for this cruise and on which nights they occur?

My appolgies if any of these questions have been addressed elsewhere...

Cheers!

Eric

Eric,
Welcome to the board. I took the Le Cordon Bleu Workshop on the Atlantic Crossing. They are not offered on every cruise - especially port intesensive cruises. I booked mine through the travel agent at booking time. Have your agent check to see if their is a class and availability. I loved every minute of it. They did only allow 16 per session ; yet they had three sessions. I liked the smaller classes because each individual is truly involved in the preparation (and eating) process of the selected gourmet item. You also have a graduation dinner and other events only for those taking the class.
Deanna

Thanks Deanna,
I'll ask Ngaire, since she helped book this cruise for Hiro and I.
Cheers,
Eric

Hi Surfside66 - welcome from the So Calif Contingency of LCT'ers. We are just west of you off the 101 in Westlake Village. We are also on the Monte Carlo to Dover itinerary in June.

The Cordon Bleu class was great fun. We did ours on the Panama Canal itinerary. When you do the class, there are two dinners. One will be in Signatures and the other for our cruise was in La Veranda. Ships officers joined us at each table and there was a special menu. There were a number of events for the Cordon Bleu participants. We had more than 16 in our program because a cooking expert was on board with her own following and they all wanted to take the class. I will probably do it again on the June 2006 cruise. It's mostly technique but a lot of fun.

I will be very interested to hear about your cruise, since I will be on the reverse route next June (with ChatKat.)

Particularly interested in hearing about the full-day trip to Santiago de Compostelo. Very much wondering if it is worth it, or if something like it could be done with private guides (complicated by the fact that the ship moves port during the day.)

And of course the other ports we have in common, like Lisbon.

Eric - there you are. My husband and I will be on this cruise with you and we chatted on this board several months ago, but I can't find the thread now. Looking forward to meeting you. There are, I think, about 4 other LCT cabins on this cruise as well.

We hadn't really thought about going to dinner in town the night we arrive in Bordeaux, but that might be fun, just hadn't thought of that possibility. We also definitely plan on Signatures and Latitudes at least one time during the cruise. We are staying on for the next segment to Rome, so hope to eat in Signatures and Latitudes again on that portion.

RSSC told me there would be two formal nights on the cruise the second night out, and the Thursday night before arriving in Monte Carlo on Saturday.

I did the Cordon Bleu class with ChatKat above on the TransCanal cruise - it was really fun and it was fun doing it with someone - probably won't do it again this particular time, but I would do it again. They will also have an open cooking demonstration that anyone can attend - the private events were fun like Kathy said, we had two private dinners, we also had two private cocktail parties as I recall (right Kathy?) It definitely needs to be booked ahead of time, I waited too long and ended up on a waitlist, but then when onboard they notified me I had gotten in, probably because of the reason Kathy mentioned above, they added some additional sections, and then I just traded with someone to be in the same section with Kathy. So I'd check with Ngaire as soon as possible.

Anyway - hope to meet up with you and share some fun cruising time. I was going to post another Roll Call thread around the 1st of August, so we could all organize a get together. We are in cabin 862 FYI. See you onboard!!

Well, that class was one of my best cruising experiences and probably because we did it togehter and we sure laughed a lot. They did have 3 sections, but we ended up with about 24 in each because so many wanted to do it.

I am looking forward to hearing from all of you on the trip so we can plan ours for next year.

JoAnn - we are looking forward to seeing you and Frank on Friday!

I'd love to know what you cooked in
these classes. Were the special dinners
a sampling of these same dishes?

Well lets see, the first day we did an appetizer, it was crab in an asperagus ring, the second class we did filet mignons with some kind of sauce (Kathy, help me out here I can't remember) and the third day we did a dessert, flaming fruit crepes with a sauce, it was fun, each day I took mine up to the bar where my husband was and shared it with him!!! I don't remember what the chef cooked for the open demonstration.

No the special dinners were not the food we did in class, it was just a special menu that Fredrick, the Cordon Bleu chef decided on.

The filet was in a truffle and cabernet sauce, the Fruit Crepes were in a Sabayon sauce (I was making the sauce on the induction stove and Joann was making the sauteed fruit and crepes when the french trolly burst into flames and we had a fire alarm on board! - JoAnn ran off with the fruit otherwise we'd have not had any for our Sabayon sauce). We made French style baby vegetables in butter. I did nickname the class "Cooking with Butter and Cooking with more butter"

Hi JoAnn, Eric and Hiro. My wife Mona and I also will be on this cruise. I think there's another couple from the DC area too, Scott and his wife.

We've been on the Voyager before. My personal feeling is that I would eat in Signatures and Latitudes any night but the formal nights. Only because the menus in the Compass Rose are a little more special on formal nights. But some passengers prefer to eat in the specialty restaurants on formal nights because they are more intimate.

I must admit I never really thought about taking the cooking classes on this trip. It is so port intensive I wonder when they would have time to conduct the classes.

Looking forward to meeting all of you on the ship. Tom.

HaHa Kathy - knew you'd get the fire thing in - just knew it!!! Thanks for remembering that I saved our dessert, and you are right, I grabbed that pan and ran like hell! So did the person sharing the trolly with me, who was our next door neighbor - oh I can't remember her name now! And yes, that was the filet sauce! It was sooooo goooood!

Tom - yes you are right, Scott and Judy, I think. Also there is another couple, Jayne and Dennis, but they are not from the DC area.

So.......do we want to try and meet up somewhere before "sailaway" or after? Or should we just wait and post a Roll Call around the first part of August? And then work it all out? Do you have a cabin number yet? I remember that you were on a guarantee.

Hi all!

As noted in the thread above, my wife, Judy, and I will be on this cruise (#704). Judy is registered for the Cordon Bleu workshop so thanks for the info that some of you have supplied. The cost is $395 and as noted by many, limited capacity so (Eric) book it now if you still can. I agree with Tom G's comment about Compass Rose on the formal nights unless it is a special occasion. Another reason is that, unless it has changed, Latitudes is a single seating because on the Voyager, it is a show with an open kitchen (unlike Mariner where you can reserve times from 6:30-8:30 or so). Signatures is also a reserved time (but with a range) so with either, you are on a fixed schedule as opposed to just eating when ready in the Compass Rose.

Just to clarify, JoAnn, is the first formal night Thursday, 1 September (St. Malo)?

FYI, as I described in a review I posted, we really enjoyed Latitudes on the Mariner in May (and on the Voyager in 2003) and will probably try to eat there 2-3 times if we can (and the first experience bears out). On the 12 day Mariner cruise, they changed the menus at both Signatures and Latitudes mid-way so maybe that’ll happen on this cruise. Also, but probably not this case this time, the demographics of the Mariner cruise made it real easy to get into both Signatures and Latitudes multiple times though they started off with the “one each per cruise” booking rule.

We look forward to meeting you all on the cruise. Eric/Hiro, I thought we should wait until about 6 weeks out (mid-July) to reconfirm the post-cruise arrangements with Alain for the four of us.

Hi Scott,

Frankly, I missed the fact that our cruise featured the Le Cordon Bleu classes until by chance I looked at the website a few days ago. I'm convinced that when I originally saw the cruise listed on the website much earlier this year, the Cordon Bleu "ad-blurb" was missing.
Naturally, I contacted Ngaire yesterday and was informed that it's sold out. They waitlisted me, so we'll see what happens.

Yes, we'll contact each other closer to the cruise and confirm with Alain.

BTW - Slightly off topic to the group, but Hiro and I are booked on the Oceania "Regatta" 14 Day Eastern Mediterranean & Greek Isles April 23rd, 2006 in a Cat. A3 stateroom. Anyone have any experience with Oceania? Some friends are going and so we thought we'd give it a go. The prices are 2 for 1 including air, but we opted to take a credit for the air since we always use Star Alliance mileage to upgrade to business or 1st.
The cruise starts in Istanbul, and ends in Venice with ports in Greece, Serbia, Croatia, and Italy.

Regards,

Eric

Scott - you are correct according to the information RSSC told me, the 1st formal night will be Sept 1, I think we leave St. Malo around 4:00pm anyway.

Eric - Saw that cruise as well, but we've opted to try a Caribbean in Feb on Oceania. I have several clients who swear by Oceania, two couples sailing in the fall this year, and six couples sailing in Asia in January. You are right, the A level rooms are a little smaller than the standard suites on RSSC, but being in the concierge level will give you some nice amenities, which I will know more detail about after oct when my two couples sail. I'm sure Ngaire has told you all of this. Your cruise sounds so great, would love to do that, but since we also are booked for MUSH in Sept, we needed something a little earlier in the year. Might reconsider though, I'll check it out.

See you all onboard, maybe as we get closer, we can set up a get together.