Arrival and first day of two at sea

Posted on December 22, 2025 by patmathews

December 22, 2025

We are back on the beautiful new Oceania ship, the Allura. Two weeks ago, we were invited for a three day “inaugural” cruise so we got a preview and she is lovely. There are a few changes from the sister ship, the Vista, that we sailed on for the past two Christmas cruises with the family. One new addition that I will definitely try is the Creperie! It has, of course, many types of crepes but also Belgian waffles and gelato. What is not to like, I say! We didn’t get the chance to try it on our three day, so since we are on this trip for 2 weeks, it will be on the agenda for sure.

Mark, Adam and Ramsay arrived in West Palm Beach on Friday so we had a day to spend with them before arriving to the ship yesterday.

Since we all traveled to Miami together, our transportation service brought a huge van. The trip was an easy one and we boarded the ship fairly quickly, had lunch in the Terrace Cafe and explored the ship. It is beautifully decorated for Christmas and Hanukkah. They really outdid themselves with the gingerbread/village display – including trains, ferris wheel and ski lift. And there are plates of delicious cookies and cakes that are constantly refilled. Restraint is called for!

A video of some of the display

Our room has a large balcony and I know where I will be doing my reading.

Most of the football games are being shown on TV so with the NFL and the bowl games happening over this two weeks, we will be able to watch if we want to.

We did go to the Hanukkah candle lighting before dinner. Three passengers led the service for the 8th and last day of Hanukkah. The ship served the wine, mini challah and latkes.

We all chose to have a casual dinner outside at the Terrace Cafe and it was lovely to see the lights as we sailed out of Miami on our way to our first port, Aruba.

The casino manager is Tony – I met him on the last world cruise we did in 2023 and he recognized me immediately. I think that is because he plied me with Baileys and coffee as we sailed around Antarctica on that trip!

The show was the introduction of the entertainment team and various performers that we will see during the cruise. There are three shows by the team – I saw two of them on the three day cruise – and enjoyed them so will see them again. There are also guest performers that will join us during the cruise.

This morning during breakfast there was a beautiful rainbow. The picture really can’t do it justice but I am putting it in anyway.

Plans for the day – I am doing a 10 am class on using the iPhone for video. After lunch, I will play in the blackjack tournament and then we will join the family for 4 PM trivia. Tonight is the Captain’s cocktail party and then our dinner plan is in Jacques where Norm and I had the most wonderful fish on our 3 day cruise – will definitely repeat that tonight! It is sea bass in puff pastry for two.

Tomorrow will be another sea day and as usual, many things to choose from to keep us busy. I will schedule a massage one day soon. The spa deck also has the heated tile lounges – I spent several hours on them on our 3 day and look forward to relaxing on those soon.

It’s a great start to another wonderful family adventure.

Posted in At Sea, Caribbean, Christmas 2025, December, Food | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Holiday cruise starting soon

Posted on December 16, 2025 by patmathews

December 2025

For the third year, we will be traveling with our family! We will be visiting some places that will be new to them and that we haven’t been back to in years. Here’s the map of our travels, and yes, I will be posting to the blog.

We will be sailing on the newest addition to the Oceania fleet, the Allura. We were lucky to have a three day preview earlier this month, and she is indeed beautiful.

We look forward to some sea days, warm breezes and fun excursions.

Posted in Caribbean, Christmas 2025 | 2 Comments

Libourne, France

Posted on April 18, 2025 by patmathews

April 18, 2025 (Adam’s birthday)

We spent the night in Libourne and had an extraordinary experience on board – the progressive dinner. Our group of 11 started at the front desk with a glass of champagne, then we proceeded to our first stop, the galley. After seeing the galley on the Oceania Vista, this was certainly tiny in comparison but so is the boat and the number of passengers! We had our first course of a creamy vegetable soup with ginger cream. The chef talked to us about the process of stocking supplies and needing to estimate what would be needed very carefully since they do not have much storage space. The good thing is that on the river cruises they are always close to places to restock.

Then, we moved to the galley where we had a delicious soup. The chef talked with us about the limited space and how challenging it is to maintain the correct supplies.

Next we visited the laundry. Again, it is a small space with just a few staff. They work in two shifts and close at 10 PM.

We walked through the crew quarters and saw the envelopes that Roberto said are used for crew members to leave complimentary feedback for a colleague. The captain and Roberto, the general manager have their own rooms and the other crew members share either double or triple rooms. We ended at the crew mess which is where they eat their meals, relax, watch TV, etc. We had our appetizer of spring rolls and shrimp here.

Next, it was on to the bridge where we were greeted by the incoming captain (who looks quite young to me). He showed us all of the navigation. We were away from the dock during the mascarat (which happens twice a day) so it was amazing they let us in. We were served Aperol spritz here. The current captain was on the outside steering mechanism but still took time to pose for a picture with us.

Our last stop was in the private dining room where we had main course and dessert. Norm had the steak and I had the salmon. Dessert was some type of coated banana in a vanilla cream sauce.

At the dinner, Roberto talked to us about Uniworld and answered our questions, He worked on ocean ships (Princess for 16 years) but now loves river cruising. He also is so complimentary of Uniworld policies. During covid, for example, senior managers got 80% of their salaries during the time ships could not sail, and other crew got 100%. It is no wonder they are so happy with the company.

After dinner, we relaxed in the lounge and listened to the singer, Jeremy. He was a busker on the riverwalk where the boats dock in Bordeaux and one day about 10 years ago someone from Uniworld approached him to see if he would want to sing on the boat. He is here every Thursday! He was really good. He said that 22 years ago, he went to Liverpool to learn English (Not the best place for that, he said) and to learn all he could about the Beatles (went well!)

Last night Norm wasn’t feeling well, and it continued into today, so I went on the tour alone. It was to Moulin de Porcheres, a flour mill in the countryside of Libourne. It was about a 30 minute drive, past a huge business that makes barrels for the wineries. Our guide was Nikki.

She gave us a lot of information about the area and her own journey to France. She is British and owned a company there when she and her husband decided they wanted a different lifestyle and moved with their daughter to Libourne. She now considers herself French!

We were greeted on arrival to the mill. We had a demonstration of bread making and of the types of loaves you can make. We were then escorted through every part of the mill. It was built in 1847 and is now a historical monument and no longer in use. We got thorough explanations at each step and I marveled at the engineering that was involved to build the mill and to add different techniques along the way. Some of the machines were added in 1937 and the mill was operating until 2002. The process of making the flour took 1 week from start to bagging.

At the end of the tour, we each got a recipe, a tote bag and a small baguette that was baked during our tour. A very interesting day.

The last part of the tour was to the farmer’s market but we only had 30 minutes until the boat was going to sail to Bordeaux. I skipped it to see how Norm was feeling – not too well yet.

Here are some pictures from our sail back to Bordeaux. An option to have lunch on the top deck was available and I took it!

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This is one of the many fishing huts along all of the rivers

This afternoon, there is a “wine and paint” class and tonight we will be back in Bordeaux and will have an after hours experience at an old submarine base – Bassins des Lumieres. Hope Norm is up to it.

Tomorrow we have a full day in Bordeaux and will have a walking tour and packing for our trip to Paris to join the next boat.

Posted in April, Excursions, France river cruise 2025 | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Saint Emilion, France

Posted on April 17, 2025 by patmathews

April 17, 2025

Last night we had a trivia competition in the lounge. Our group did not win but we had lots of fun. There were 42 questions!

We sailed to Libourne where we the boat will spend the next two days. We will explore Saint Emilion today and Libourne tomorrow.

An interesting phenomenon happens here called mascaret. It is a tidal bore in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river, reversing the direction of the river or bay’s current. It is a strong tide that pushes up the river against the current. We were told that twice today, morning and evening, we would need to be untied from the dock so that we are not caught in the current which would tear the ropes away from our boat and the dock. They say that in some areas the effect of the mascaret enables people to surf!

I was lucky enough this morning to get this sunrise picture with the beginning of the tide effects.

Today we spent our time in Saint Emilion. We were here in 2017 and I do have a blog post about it. It is only about a 20 minute trip from our boat.

We went around a lot of roundabouts (circles to many of us in the US). Our guide said that the French don’t like traffic so this eliminates the need for traffic lights but sure makes it harder for bus drivers to navigate – so do the narrow roads.

In Saint Emilion, there is an upper town and a lower town. We walked down to the major site here, the 12th century underground church. Photos are not permitted inside but you can read about and see pictures on this site:https://www.saint-emilion-tourisme.com/en/explorer/les-incontournables/les-12-monuments/l-eglise-monolithe-et-son-clocher

It is the largest medieval underground church in Europe and perhaps in the world. The town is full of restaurants, wine bars, wine shops and lots of interesting buildings. There are only 270 people living here and our guide, Virginie, lives here. They do get 1 million visitors each year and luckily we are early in the tourist season so it wasn’t very crowded.

Virginie

Here are some of the other buildings and the church steeple.

After our walking tour and the exploration of the church we headed to a winery, Chateau Grand Mayne, for a tasting. The main wine produced here is merlot. There were vineyards as far as the eye could see on or way. Pesticides are not used on the vines here. They use “natural cruelty” which means that they use a female pheromone to distract the male insects away from the vines! They use these tractors which for everything from trimming to planting to harvesting. Not all vineyards use horses!

You can see that the wheels fit between the vines

We enjoyed the wine tasting. Here are some photos of our guide there, the owner and the tasting room. The blurry picture is of the wine cellar with the oldest bottle from 2014. Sorry it didn’t come out clearer.

We went back to Saint Emilion and enjoyed a terrific lunch with new friends Warren and Terry from Denver. We had to have the appetizer of local white asparagus.

We will be in Libourne overnight and will explore the town tomorrow. One of the highlights will be the market.

Tonight on board we are doing the progressive dinner- will explain with photos tomorrow!

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Blaye, France

Posted on April 16, 2025 by patmathews

April 16, 2025

Yesterday afternoon we were treated to a cancan workshop with Kat – she will also did the cabaret show with great singer, Cindy. Three people volunteered to learn some cancan moves – Leslie, Chris and Terry. Here is a picture of them before the action.

It was both fun and informative to learn the history of the cancan and see some demonstrations. After dinner we enjoyed the show. Kat did 4 wardrobe changes for her performances and cancan was the last dance.

Here’s Chris showing off his moves after the show!

We sailed early this morning from Bordeaux to Blaye. When we got off the boat we saw this rainbow – a harbinger of a good day.

Our excursion was limited to 20 people and we were so happy that we signed up early. We visited Bordeaux Village Blaye which consists of rental apartments, owner units, a bar/restaurant, winery and art gallery. The owners are Leslie and Clarissa and they treated us to a wonderful morning. We walked off the ship, met with Clarissa and walked to their village.

Over the course of several hours, we toured all parts of their apartments, winery, wine cellar and artist loft. Leslie is a wine educator and wine judge for over 45 years – and he does have stories to tell. He entertained us with great descriptions of the process he uses in the winery and things he has learned along the way. They produce mostly red (6000 bottles in a good year) but do a small bottling of white (800 bottles). We tasted 3 reds and a white. The wines have a great rating and are some of the most expensive in the area because of both the scarcity and the integral method they use.

The method is very different from anything we have seen before. Only 10% of all winemakers in France use it and it is very labor intensive. They do not crush or press the grapes but fill the tanks with whole grapes taken off the bunches. The tanks are on wheels so that they can be turned 360 degrees four or five times a day for 6 weeks. The pressure of the grapes squeezed against one another releases the juice. Grapes are like us – they don’t like brutal treatment.

When the fermentation and maceration are finished, the juice is transferred to the aging barrels and the skins that remain at the bottom of the tank are removed and pressed in a hand press.

Etalon (their label) is the highest priced wine in the region. We did purchase some of the 2019 vintage to send home – it was delicious.

Leslie is originally from South Africa and he supports artists from there. Their workshop and art gallery has an interesting mix of art. There is also a lovely outdoor area where they have wine tastings and gatherings. Friends and people who stay in the apartments are lucky to have this experience.

Leslie also collects vintage cars, bikes and motorcycles!

Clarissa has a painting that she invites people to contribute to. I was pleased to do so.

The red doors are all the properties that are owned by these folks. They say that the doors help when people come after drinking a lot

Here’s a picture from one of the apartments they rent out.

This is the vehicle they use to transport the grapes. Love the back of it!

After our wonderful visit, we walked through the market that was set up for the day. They say the Saturday one is bigger but this one was large enough.

We walked to the citadel which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were amazed at how big it is. there are many cafes and restaurants, shops and hotels inside. The walls are thicker than many others I have seen.

After lunch, I had a wonderful hot stone massage. Ahhh, relaxation.

Tomorrow we vist St. Emilion. We have been there before and are looking forward to returning. We will be out from 9 – 3 so will have lunch in the town.

We are lucky to have had really good weather. A couple of sprinkles here and there is all we have had. The weather is sunny and mostly in the 50’s. Hope it continues.

Here are shots of Laura, our cruise manager, and a favorite waiter, Patrick. He makes my cappuccino every morning – in my Yeti mug.

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Cadillac, France

Posted on April 15, 2025 by patmathews

We really enjoyed the singer last evening, Kania. She is from Montreal and she has a party vibe and a great voice. It was the black and white party night and the small group that was there certainly had the dress code right!

Today we traveled from Bordeaux to Cadillac. The same AMA boat docked first and we walked through to go to our tour of the surrounding wine appellation which is famous for sauterne wines.

Our guide was Anne. She is originally from the US, North Carolina and other eastern states. She married a French man and has lived here since. She was an absolute wealth of information on our ride to the Chateau. Here she is, on the right, with the owners of the Chateau. The owners are Louis and Caroline de Sabran-Ponteves. They greeted us on arrival.

The area around Cadillac is the site of an ancient Roman port. The hills in the area are full of oyster fossils. Unlike our previous area excursions in the Bordeaux region, this area is known for sweet wines, mostly sauternes. The vines are self pollinating so bees are not needed for that, yet many people keep bees for pollination of other plants. Also, water is the enemy of grape vines, so no irrigation is needed. Horses are used to dig up the spaces between the vines – I just missed a picture of two of them while we were traveling on the bus. Breeding horses is common in this area and lots of children take riding lessons.

Anne lives in this area and has children in the school. She says they have every Wednesday off (they do things like riding or art lessons on that day, 2 weeks off every 2 months and the months of July and August. She says they still complain!

The crops in season right now are asparagus (explains the various ways we have seen white asparagus prepared) and strawberries -there are 7 varieties grown here. Just the delicious smell of them in the market was amazing. We have wonderful food on our boat and also enjoyed our meals in Bordeaux.

Our tour today was to the Chateau de Cazeneuve which was one of the castles owned by Henri IV who was a Protestant king of France in the 16th century. It was built in the 14th century. Over the years, two other kings came to the chateau at a later date, Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The estate still belongs to the descendants, the SABRAN-PONTEVES, a famous family which has produced 5 queens, 2 kings, 2 saints and a pope. Members of the family live in an apartment in the castle. The last significant reconstruction was in the 17th century and many of the rooms have been redecorated as they would have looked in earlier times. We were not allowed to take pictures inside except in the first room and outside in the separate wine cellar.

This is how the castle looked in early years
This is the chateau and area now
Bacchus – in the wine cellar

The area around the castle is quite beautiful. The location is built on sheer cliffs at the confluence of 2 rivers

We had a tour through the bedrooms, the gallery, the drawing room, Louis XVI bedrid, the dining room and the massive kitchen with its walls of hanging copper pots – wish I could have had a picture of that! It has a huge fireplace with the rotisserie. There are 2 salt chests. Salt used to be very hard to obtain, so those lucky enough to have it used to sit on it to keep it safe. There is a bread box on the wall which is not really a container but more of an open area with posts that are close enough together to keep the bread safe from rodents!

We heard a lot of stories about the residents of the chateau over the years including tales of infidelity, mistresses and murders.

After the tour, we had a glass of sauterne and some chocolate covered grapes.

Outside, we toured the wine cellar and went into the grotto. There is also a hole in one wall which used to be a place that prisoners were put into – then the ladder was removed so that they could not get back out. The underground flooded and that was the end of the prisoners.

Here are some other pictures of surrounding sights.

Just a couple of raindrops!
A local artist does these paintings
a flat bell tower – very rare sight

In the distance is the chateau owned by Selma Hayek’s husband – first in the 1855 designations. It is called Yquem.

Sauterne wines are generally quite expensive. This is because with other wines, generally one foot of vines can produce 1 bottle of wine. For sauterne grapes, it is 1 grape per foot! And they need to be picked individually.

The ideal lifetime for vines is 35 – 40 years. However they can survive much longer but don’t produce as much. Many vineyards we saw were just starting with new plantings.

Luckily the rain held off while we were out and sprinkled on our way to Bordeaux. Norm loves to be outside anyway!

We returned to the boat after lunch and sailed back to Bordeaux where we will be overnight. From there we will head to Blaye.

And we will have a Cancan workshop in the afternoon and a Cancan show on board after dinner.

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Cussac-Fort Medoc, France

Posted on April 14, 2025 by patmathews

April 14, 2025

We sailed from Bordeaux this morning and arrived in Fort Medoc. On our way, we had a lecture called “How Bordeaux Survived WWII”. Our lecturer was Jamie who grew up in New Jersey but is now a French citizen. He was a really good teacher. We learned about the human side of suffering, the stories of the French resistance and many stories of the people responsible for the suffering. The reason Bordeaux survived the war was actually because of the wine that the Germans loved so much, that they did not want to destroy it.

This is a picture of Jamie and our cruise manager, Laura.We docked and the passengers who were going to the oyster tasting got off at 11;30. We then had to move our boat so the AMA boat could come in next to the dock.

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After lunch, we went on our tour and our guide was Jamie! We did the Medoc Chateaux Route with private wine tasting. Jamie entertained us with stories about the region and the many Chateaux (which doesn’t mean castle!) There are 6000 wine estates in the Bordeaux region and vineyards as far as the eye can see. The soil is mostly limestone and the vines are much closer to the ground than in California for example. This is because of the rocky soil – it heats the grapes because they are closer to the ground.

Jamie talked about the types of wine produced here (90% red) and used songs to illustrate qualities of the wine. We had to guess the name of the song and the composer. Don’t ask me to repeat the exercise – the first one was from the opera The Marriage of Figaro and the piece he played was sung by Robin Williams in the opening scene of Mrs. Doubtfire.

We did learn a good deal about wine and the region. Our stop was at Chateau Camensac where we had a tasting to two different wines from the 2015 vintage. The guide at the winery compared the first one to eau de cologne and the second to eau de perfume, meaning that the second is stronger and more expensive. All red wines here are a blend of different grapes. These were merlot and cabernet Sauvignon. Both nice but we didn’t buy any.

Here are some of the local sights and chateaux.

At the last stop we saw some newly planted vines.

We returned to the boat and had a delightful cocktail hour with new friends. The captain greeted us and introduced us to the staff. There are 73 guests and 52 crew aboard and all are personable and knowledgeable.

Tonight is a black and white attire party with a singer that will be on board – Kania Allard. We are looking forward to it.

We bought some flowers at the market in Bordeaux yesterday.

Tomorrow we will be in Cadillac and will tour a Royal Chateau with more wine, of course!

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Bordeaux!

Posted on April 13, 2025 by patmathews

April 13, 2025

We are here after our flights – Newark to Zurich and Zurich to Bordeaux. All went well with the travel and we checked into our hotel – Le Boutique Hotel and Spa. It is a wonderful place. For anyone coming here, I would highly recommend it. It seems to be a renovated building which has kept its charm. Each room is named with wooden wine plaques. We are in room 10.

We were welcomed into our room with traditional pastries and a personal note.

Here are some pictures of the hotel and our room. The glass reflection is the huge shower with 2 overhead shower heads and one on the side. Easily a family shower!

After settling in, we went for a long walk around town. This is our 4th visit to Bordeaux so you would have thought we would have a better sense of direction. We passed our street and walked a good bit out of the way on our way back to the hotel. But it was good to stretch after the flights.

We walked along the river and saw the boat we will board tomorrow. It is the Bon Voyage, not the Joie de Vivre – that one is for our second leg which will start in Paris next week.

We went to the restaurant for tapas and wine, then turned in to bed early to begin our river cruise tomorrow.

Posted in April, Europe, France river cruise 2025 | 2 Comments

Headed to France for a Uniworld River Cruise

Posted on March 31, 2025 by patmathews

Next week we will fly to Bordeaux, France and will stay in a hotel for a night before boarding the Uniworld S.S. Joie de Vivre for the first week of our three week trip. We will be on three different river boats, each for a week, as we make our way around the different regions of France. After we disembark in Arles, we will travel to Marseille for two days before heading back to LBI in New Jersey. Here’s a map of the trip.

As always, I will be adding posts each day. Bon Voyage to us!

Posted in France river cruise 2025 | 4 Comments

Last day of the cruise

Posted on December 27, 2024 by patmathews

December 26, 2024

It is always sad for us after enjoying time with family and also the special journey we have taken on cruises – when it is time to pack. We are pretty organized already this afternoon and enjoying the last relaxing sea day on the way to Miami.

I had a second cooking class this morning. it was called Brunch Around the World, and again, everything we made was delicious. We started with a muesli, originally a Swiss dish. This one had oats, almond milk, blueberries, bananas and strawberries, orange juice and honey.

Next we made scones and we ate them with clotted cream and raspberry jam.

Our final dish was a Persian frittata served with a yogurt topping combined with spices, dried cherries and nuts.

The frittata was served with Prosecco and a ginger liqueur. Mark, Ramsay and Norm joined at the end to tase the dishes. All got a thumbs up.


For some reason, the blackjack tournament was not listed in the daily Currents newsletter so less than half of yesterday’s players showed up. We had to have 4 qualifying games yesterday and only 2 today. No chance for me today with many bad hands but somehow it was better than losing by one chip! The same woman, Lois, who won yesterday was lucky again today!

Our final trivia was a good one. Then the prize redemption ensued. We saved our points from the spring cruise and gave them to Adam, Mark and Ramsay.

We had dinner at the final specialty restaurant, Ember, tonight. Delicious as always.

Our final show was Craig Diamond. Adam, Mark and Ramsay spent time with him during the cruise and had a lot of fun. We couldn’t figure out how he did some of his tricks.

I am writing this from back home in West Palm Beach where we are fully unpacked and settled in. Mark and Ramsay’s flight just landed and Adam’s is still in the air. Miss them so much already and are very happy we could all have this time together.

Ending this with just a few more pictures of the amazing gingerbread village!

Posted in Caribbean, Christmas 2024, December, Food | Tagged | 3 Comments