Tag Archives: Statendam

September 7, 2012 · 5:40 am

Revisiting Le Cirque—the MS Statendam Version

This blog article may seem familiar to you. That’s because we did something similar aboard Holland America’s MS Ryndam this past April, on our transatlantic voyage to the beaches of Normandie and beyond.

Holland America’s ships have an upscale restaurant that is well worth trying at least once every voyage. These dining rooms are called the Pinnacle Grill, and they are indeed worth the extra amount you’ll spend in them. But even more special is Le Cirque night in the Pinnacle Grill, and you’d better make reservations well in advance if you want to partake of this very special culinary treat.

At least once each voyage (and more on longer voyages), the Pinnacle Grill staff creates a special dinner using signature items from Sirio Maccioni‘s legendary Le Cirque restaurant founded in New York in 1974. Such a dinner is made even more delightful when it comes the evening following a full day of cruising Glacier Bay.

The captions below speak for the individual courses we had that enchanting, romantic evening. The waiter pictured with Ursula is an old friend—a friendly young chap who had served us many times before, during our numerous trips to the Pinnacle Grill aboard Holland America’s MS Prinsendam during a 54-day voyage back in March through May of 2010. Yes, he recognized us just as quickly as we did he.

: Catching up with an old friend from a previous ship

: An interesting and creative take on the Napoleon

: Chocolate soufflé with vanilla gelato

: Châteaubriand, Horseradish Flan, and Sweet & Sour Beets

: Don’t forget the wine—Famille Perrin Côtes du Rhône, 2010

: Le Cirque’s take on the Ceasar Salad—with poached egg on the side

: Le Trio-Caviar, Smoked Salmon, Pâté de foie gras

: Lobster Salad ‘Le Cirque’

: Paté Mousse over Raspberry Reduction

: Le Cirque’s signature charger plates

: Le Menu

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Filed under Photography, travel, Wine & Food

Tagged as cruise, Holland America, Le Cirque, photography, Pinnacle Grill, Statendam, travel

September 3, 2012 · 6:00 am

Spending the Day in Skagway

Skagway, Alaska, is a very popular cruise ship destination. The town has a quaint, distinctly frontier feel about it. But, let’s face it, Skagway’s primary raison d’être is to extract green pieces of paper from the leather holders carried by tourists. Oh, and they take plastic, as well. There are probably more jewelry stores per capita than just about any other place on the face of the planet. Likewise, you’ll have little difficulty in finding fur anything. Then there’s the gauntlet of souvenir shops one must run along the main street . . . and saloons, and restaurants, and crafts stores, and, well, you name it.

There’s also the White Pass & Yukon narrow gauge railroad. It’s a nifty little train ride which Ursula and I did during last year’s voyage, and which we decided to skip this year as it’s getting ridiculously expensive. Worth doing once, but it’s hard to justify making an expenditure of that nature twice. So, this time we just stayed in town. I photographed whilst Ursula souvenir shopped.

Photographically, Skagway shines with little architectural gems frozen in time, frozen in history, and very frozen in winter.

: Street Car Tour

: MS Statendam on the left—some Mickey Mouse cruise outfit on the right.

: Note the building on the right—a façade made entirely of weathered tree limbs.

: The Yellow Home

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Filed under Photography, travel

Tagged as Alaska, photography, Skagway, Statendam, travel

August 24, 2012 · 12:00 am

Having a Whale of a Time on the Water

I don’t usually blog about cruise legs between destinations. But this leg was rather special. The setting sun played magnificently upon the calm, reflective waters. The beautiful Sea Princess rode beyond our stern, catching the golden rays that filtered between the clouds.

And, oh, yeah . . . I nearly forgot to mention the whales. Humpbacks gave quite a show for nearly half an hour, blowing spray in the distance and occasionally venturing nearby.

Unfortunately, the whales were beyond the useable range of the Canon G1 X lens. I had to resort to my trusty Panasonic ZS6, but the diminishing light meant upping the ISO to where digital noise became all too apparent. That means cropping the images was simply out of the question.

Nevertheless, snapping photographs of whales is still fun to do no matter what the limitations.

Make sure to stop by next week, because this cruise is only just getting started. There’ll be a lot more to see in upcoming installments.