Above, Captain Nino Pontillo with bambini on Silver Cloud. The good captain married Tour Desk manager Heidi some years ago. It was nice to see my old friend Heidi with her two really cute little girls and baby brother Giuseppe close on the way. It was fun to see the usually serious now very proud captain melting with his bambini.
Now for the "Mindless" part. It is an observation of frequent guests on Silver Sea Cruises' small ships that each cruise segment has a different "feel". The ships are quite small--Silver Cloud was full with 280 revenue guests on our 2nd segment from Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. Lauderdale--so a handful of people can set the style of the entire cruise. Unfortunately, about 3/4ths of the guests on this segment were very similar and locked the mood in from 1st to last day of this 10 day cruise segment.
This was not an unfriendly group. They were just NOT friendly. I guess older, country club types (actually most are country club residents), who choose a very low weather and travel risk cruise. They proudly announced that they drove from resort islands in Florida and didn't fly ("I don't want to pour my liquids into small bottles.") and just visited the diamond dealer or tee-ship shops in very similar ports to them. (If you don't venture beyond the diamond dealers and gift shops, then the ports are all very similar.) These folks certainly are taking little risks in their recreation. And did I mention that these folks were very well off. Lots of diamonds around pool! F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "The very, very rich are not like you or I". Never having thought much of this before, I realize now that what he meant was that they are very, very spoiled to the point of not being able to experience joy. These folks on this segment sat around in small groups talking serious country club talk such as, "I am having dinner tonight with Buddy and Pam," or "Our island had a weed problem but it was dealt with, somehow." No laughing, no joking, no mingling with the 1/4 of us who weren't very, very (or even slightly) rich, but worse of all by far was that eye contact with us didn't yield an "hello" but rather an aggressive stare. Barbara and I walked onto the deck behind the Panorama Lounge (8 Deck, Aft) on the first evening of this segment and were greeted with two country club couples including a distinguished looking gentleman behind a double vodka and tonic who without looking up said, "This is OUR SPACE on the boat." I smiled and said that it was a ship, but my comment didn't mean anything to him. We also learned from the Hotel Director that this crowd--that is, the country club crowd majority on this segment--gave the crew the hardest time all season and were complaining about just about everything. Very weird since the ship, the crew, the food, and service in general were fantastic and probably the best I had ever experienced. Nothing made these folks happy or appreciative.
Fortunately, these folks were as I said "not friendly" rather than grumpy or even unfriendly. They were a constant source of enjoyment for the rest of us and made us (the not very, very rich) a ship within a ship sub-group. Ya never know. A cruise is truly like a box of fois gras, or something like that.
Next, after I get home, Part 2 on the management of the ship and how perfection has only downward potential.
These Country Club types were also very much in evidence on my recent Regent Seven Seas cruise around South America, fortunately although they didn't represent 3/4 of the guests. Unfortunately, however, they are very free in expressing their profoundly conservative views, likes and dislikes. This wasn't the case on the previous cruise in the Indian Ocean.
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