I posted this on another board, but thought you folks might be interested as well. I will post in parts as it is rather lengthy.
October 16
Left Jackson, MS airport aboard Delta for Charles De Gualle airport where we were to connect with Air France to Nice.
October 17
An uneventful flight until we set down in CDG. Our American Express travel agent booked the flight with a 55-minute layover in CDG before the flight to Nice. We arrived on time, went to the Air France ticket counter arriving 10 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart. The ticket agent informed us that we were too late to obtain boarding passes for the flight, plus the flight was full.
So, we went to another location to obtain boarding passes for the next flight to Nice. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we were informed that our original flight to Nice had been delayed for takeoff and were issued boarding passes on the original flight and told to haul butt to make the flight, which we proceeded to do. My wife went through check in without any problems, but I was prevented from boarding.
To make a long story short, after holding up the plane’s departure by an additional 20-30 minutes, I was finally allowed to board. Apparently, there was another person with my name and my seat had been assigned him. I don’t think I can do justice in describing the dirty looks that my wife and I received from the passengers when we were finally allowed to board. Never would have been a problem if the original ticket agent had issued us our tickets when we first asked for them. Welcome to France.
I knew there was no way our luggage would make it to Nice. Sure enough, Nice baggage claim - no luggage. We were then to take a helicopter ride from Nice to Monte Carlo, again booked through American Express travel, but there were no reservations when we showed up at the helicopter ticket counter. Come to find out, our travel agent had not redone our original helicopter reservations to reflect a different arrival time, since Delta changed our flights twice before the actual flight, and we arrived four hours after we were originally scheduled to land in Nice.
Lessons learned so far:
1. always allow at least 1.5-2 hours layover in CDG for connecting flights
2. always check all of your travel agent’s reservations before heading out for vacation
3. try to find a new American Express travel agent
There was no problem getting on one of the helicopter flights to Monte Carlo. This was our first helicopter ride and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It did not cost a great deal more than a limousine ride from Nice to Monte Carlo and saved a lot of time. There is something about arriving in Monte Carlo in a helicopter that just seems so, well, Monte Carloish.
We were staying at the Hotel de Paris for three nights prior to embarkation. The hotel was everything it was cracked up to be, and more so. The front entrance was swarming with Bentleys and the lobby was stunning, if you’re into that sort of thing, which we were on this cruise, this being our first time to Monte Carlo and all. We were upgraded to an ocean view suite at check in as part of our American Express benefits. The suite was huge and as nice a room as we have ever stayed in, comparable to the Four Seasons in New York, if not nicer.
Both of us rested the remainder of the day and then went out to eat at the Café de Paris in the evening. Certainly not cheap, but not outrageously expensive either, and the food was very good. The waiter was as charming a waiter as we could have wished for. In fact, all of our service was first rate during our entire stay in Monte Carlo and we were never made to feel unwelcome at any time.
Even though not required, I tipped throughout our stay as I felt like rewarding all of the service personnel at the hotel and restaurants as the service was uniformly that good. I guess tipping becomes ingrained here in the states and is a hard practice to give up even where it’s not expected. We then toured the casino - big letdown as I was expecting an Ian Fleming kinda experience. Our casinos in Vicksburg have more of a hustling, bustling gambling experience than the storied Casino in Monte Carlo, at least on this night. They certainly like roulette in this town -god knows why given the odds of that game.
October 18
Our luggage had arrived late the night before, so this was only a minor inconvenience. We had the first of three marvelous buffet breakfasts in the Cote Jardin restaurant, all of which were complements of our American Express card, and then proceeded to explore Monte Carlo on foot. I won’t bore you with the details other than my wife enjoyed shopping to the tune of a new Louis Vitton purse and diamond bracelet at Cartiers – ouch!, but I had seen this coming.
To be fair, I purchased some wines for the cruise including a 1994 Chateau Latour, 1985 Guigal Cote Rotie La Landone, 1996 Domaine Leroy Clos de la Roche, 1986 Leoville Las Cases, 1992 Domaine Leflaive Montrachet, 1996 Verget Batard Montrachet, 1990 Bollinger R D, 1995 Taittinger Comtes De Champagne Blanc de Blanc, and a 2001 Chateau d’Yquem. Surprisingly, the prices were not outrageous given this was Monte Carlo. Thank you, sweetheart, for your indulgence of my passion.
We then took a cab to the Grimaldi Palace. My wife told me there was no way we were spending time in Monte Carlo and not go see where Grace Kelly lived much of her life – whatever you want, sweetheart. The outside of the palace is surprisingly plain and unadorned, and the interior was not as opulent as what I was expecting the palace of the Grimaldi’s to be. For me, the most interesting part of the tour was the portrait of the Grimaldi family. Princess Grace was at the center of the painting, and Prince Rainer and the children were arranged around her, almost as an afterthought. I don’t know what to actually make of a U.S. citizen at center stage in the House of Grimaldi, nevertheless, interesting.
We then walked back to the hotel through the numerous gardens nestled along the coastline. Lots of Aleppo and Umbrella pines and, interestingly enough, Southern Magnolias scattered throughout the gardens - definitely worth a lazy stroll through the gardens.
We had planned on eating at Alain Ducasse’s Louis XV restaurant at least once during our stay, but come to find out, it’s only open Thursday-Saturday during this part of the tourist season, and we were there from Sunday to Wednesday. It would have been nice to have this information on the hotel’s website as I had already picked out the wines we were going to have from their wine list available on the restaurants website (fantastically outrageous markups). Instead, we had drinks every evening in the American Bar and dinner at Le Grille, one evening of which was gratis as an additional American Express amenity. The food was very, very good and service was impeccable. My wife particularly liked the Champagne cart with a number of very good ones to choose from that was rolled out at the beginning of the meal. We are talking civilized here.
October 19
The weather had been overcast and much warmer than we had expected since we had arrived, but today the weather took a major turn for the worse – a bit cooler and pouring down rain all day. As a result, we cancelled a limousine tour we had scheduled for the Cote d’Azure. We had both been looking forward to the daylong tour, but there was just too much rain to enjoy traveling along the coast – something for next time. It rained continuously all day long and we found out later that they received more than half of the average October rainfall in this one day. So, we spent a lazy day in our suite before dinner again at Le Grille. I actually enjoyed the rest before going on all the excursions we had planned for the cruise.
October 20
We took a limo transfer from the hotel at 10:30 am for early embarkation (another American Express amenity) on the Silver Shadow and were escorted to our Silver suite (room 729) where another American Express amenity consisting of a bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon was waiting for us. This was seriously good champagne, one of the best vintages in the last couple of decades.
This was our first stay in a Silver suite, and my wife promptly informed us that we were not ever riding in the back of the bus again, if there is such a thing as the back of the bus on Silversea. The closet was huge, and it’s a good thing as my wife just about filled it up. There is actually way more storage spread throughout the suite than one could ever use on a 10 day cruise. On an extended cruise, a silver suite would be the only way to go.
Gripes. One thing I was surprised at was the rather small, conventional TV’s in the suite. I expected a larger LCD or plasma screen in the Silver suite at these prices. Hopefully, this will be rectified during the next dry dock. Other things wrong with the suite included the doors to the bedroom that would not shut completely due to a locking mechanism that was broken, in room speaker that didn’t work, a toilet that would periodically stop flushing, and a shower that scalded me several times during the cruise. Additionally, the automated wakeup call did not work two times during the cruise. This was not just a suite 729 problem as others had the same problem. Next time we will try to get a Silver suite a little further towards the bow as 729 is directly below the deck chair area and we were always greeted upon awakening by the mellifluous sound of deck chairs banging around above us. We also had a hard time getting the stewardesses to automatically refill my wife’s diet cokes every day.
We ordered our in room liquor setup from our cabin stewardesses Gordonia and Gabriella (both highly recommended, always greeted with a genuine smile) and then ventured forth with champagne glass in hand. We had lunch at the restaurant and were served by Aniko (I believe this is how her name is spelled), one of the surliest waiters I have ever had the misfortune to wait on me. There were only the two of us in The Restaurant to serve lunch to as regular boarding had not yet commenced and there were apparently very few on an extended cruise, but the service was slooooow and it was clear that Aniko would rather be doing anything else other than waiting on us. More on her later.
Later that evening was a typical Silversea dining experience, very good food, comparable to the food at Le Grille in Monte Carlo, with a great waiter and sommelier named Bomba who brought out the good wine glasses for the La Landonne. Marcel Guigal is truly a national treasure in the world of fine French wine. What a great wine to go along with a very good meal.
Early to bed as we were early to rise the next day.
