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| Tom Cassidy Updates | |
OCEANIA CRUISES ROLLS OUT EXTENSIVE NEW MENU FOR GRAND DINING ROOM
Oceania Cruises has announced the successful completion of an extensive new menu rollout featuring 85 new dishes for its Grand Dining Room on the line's newest ship, Riviera. The remainder of the Oceania Cruises fleet will incorporate the new menus over the next three months.
"Since the founding of Oceania Cruises 10 years ago, we have held a reputation for serving cuisine that is the finest at sea and even rivals the best restaurants ashore," said Kunal S. Kamlani, the line's president. "Our latest innovations in the Grand Dining Room are inspired by classic European fare, with a contemporary, creative touch. They reflect our ongoing commitment to provide an exceptional dining experience that starts with a thoughtful and meticulously researched menu concept, the highest-quality ingredients and the perfect execution of traditional culinary techniques."
Oceania Cruises devotes extraordinary resources to cuisine. While most cruise lines employ a single corporate chef, Oceania Cruises has an entire team at the helm of its culinary program, including its executive culinary director, renowned master chef Jacques Pépin.
Fleet Corporate Chef Franck Garanger, who travels the world sampling international cuisines to inspire his creation of dishes, led the team in conceiving the new menus. The Oceania Cruises culinary team has spent the past eight months designing and rigorously testing the new menu items. As the menus in the Grand Dining Room change daily, the rollout features a total of 85 new dishes, including three new lobster dishes and 10 new pastas and risottos.
New creations include dishes such as Pancetta-Wrapped Jumbo Shrimp with Kalamata Olive Sauce and Vegetable Julienne, Roast Segovian Suckling Pig with Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes, and Diver Scallops over Orange-Braised Endive with Vanilla Vinaigrette Salad. The new dishes also feature unique, high-end ingredients such as Castilla-La Mancha saffron, Lessatini olive oil from Nice and Ibérico de Bellota pork. There is also a selection of new Canyon Ranch® dishes, including Dover Sole Meunière in Lemon Butter Sauce with Sweet Leek Puff Pastry and Steamed Potatoes, as well as Pulpo a la Gallega: Octopus on Warm Potato Salad with Sweet Spanish Paprika de la Vera.
The rollout includes an array of new wines by the bottle as well as an extended list of wines by the glass.
Oceania Cruises' flagship restaurant, the Grand Dining Room, is a tribute to the five-star restaurants in Europe's grandest hotels, which inspired its dignified and elegant ambiance. Tuxedo-clad wait staff graciously serve course after course featuring classic European fare or delectable alternatives such as healthy, savory Canyon Ranch® selections or
Jacques Pépin's signature dishes. The Grand Dining Room features open-seating and accommodates parties from two to 10.
New creations in the Grand Dining Room include Diver Scallops over Orange-Braised Endive with Vanilla Vinaigrette Salad, Pancetta-Wrapped Jumbo Shrimp with Kalamata Olive Sauce and Vegetable Julienne, and Roast Segovian Suckling Pig with Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes.
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E NEWS SUPPLEMENT...by Bill Miller
February 4, 2013
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Greetings!
I want to thank all the members who have sent in the thousands of reports cards on their 2012 voyages. Believe it or not, I read every one with great interest before adding them to our tabulation.
I greatly appreciate your input and was thoroughly impressed with some of the voyages members took in 2012, as well as some of your cruise histories! We had a unprecedented year with many members breaking the magical 50, 75, and 100 lifetime cruise barriers. We even have one who has surpassed 200. Wow!!!
Looking forward to another great year !!
Your Friend & Editor!
Tom Cassidy
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 Added Amenity!
Complimentary drinks packages will be offered aboard the Celebrity Eclipse & Celebrity Infinity during select European cruises this year
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Biggest yet!
Construction at the Fincantieri Shipyard has begun on the Costa Diadema, a 132,500-ton, 4,947-bed cruise ship that ranks as the largest in the vast Costa fleet as well as the largest yet built in Italy. |
Falkland Islands - Change in plans! 
Both the Seven Seas Mariner & Oceania Regatta canceled stops in the Falklands scheduled for next month. Tensions & uncertainties have increased between the UK & Argentina over territorial rights. |
High Marks!
The Queen Victoria - like the similar Queen Elizabeth & the much larger Queen Mary 2 - are three of my favorite ships. It has been a long, wonderful ride, in fact, 29 days in late December-early January - I've been sailing on Cunard for 43 years, since my very first trip on the QE2 back in November 1970, and been lecturing on their ships for 33 years. Their ships have some great qualities, but if I had to name the 5 top points for the Queen Victoria on the Jan 10th 8-night, Southampton-New York crossing, I might put them in this order:
1st Total warm ambience & friendly atmosphere
of the ship
2nd Wonderful decor throughout
3rd Diversity of lecture program & speakers
4th Maintenance & loving care given to the ship
5th Overall service - perfection!
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River Cruising! 
Among the theme voyages in America's heartland will be an "Elvis Tribute" cruise. Others are "Dixie Fest" and "Baseball Legends"
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 Difficult voyage!
An estimated 10% of all passengers aboard a December voyage onboard the Amsterdam were affected by the dreaded Norovirus.
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Cautious Handling! 
The MSC Sinfonia was forced to remain in Capetown for as long as 72 hrs as 75mph winds lashed the port.
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Ocean Liner Collectibles - Polished Silver!
A rare tea pot from the 1920s Compagnie Sud-Atlantique, a French passenger line in Bordeaux-South America service, recently fetched $900 at auction.
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Ocean Liner History - Salvage!
In the winter of 1943, salvage was well underway at New York's Pier 88 for the capsized Normandie. The 83,000-ton super liner had caught fire on February 9th 1942, burned and then rolled over after being overloaded with firefighters' water.
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Hospital visits!
As many as 417 out of 1,700 passengers aboard the Oriana were struck with the Norovirus during an early December cruise out of Southampton.
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Heroics at sea!
On December 18th, the Island Princess rescued 5 boaters in the western Caribbean. It was a great relief to the men - they'd been adrift for 3 weeks! |
Breakdown! 
The 40-yr old Saga Ruby was waiting at her Southampton berth in early January, her world cruise delayed & the ship suffering from a major illness: a broken crankshaft. With her departure delayed and with some of the 500 passengers canceling their long, expensive trip, the repairs might take (according to today's reports) as long as 10 days. Expectedly, the itinerary will have to be altered & some ports of call dropped (and later reduced from 100 to 66 days). You might remember: The 24,000-ton Saga Ruby, actually due to be retired next year by Saga Cruises, was commissioned back in 1973 as the superb Vistafjord for Norwegian America Line. Bought by Cunard in 1983, she later changed names, becoming the Caronia in 1999, but then joined Saga in 2004. (Her onetime fleet-mate Sagafjord also joined Saga -- later becoming the Saga Rose, but was scrapped in China in 2009.
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Adventure Cruising!
Seabourn will begin cruising in Antarctic waters beginning next November. The newest ship in the fleet, the 450-passenger Seabourn Quest, will be used for the sailings.
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Ocean & Cruise News
Current & Past Issues Members can download a PDF of current and past issues using the following links
Past Issues of this "new" Email Supplement beginning with the Feb. 21, 2011 issue can be found by clicking our logo below
The above listed items are copyrighted material and are for the exclusive use of paid members in good standing. Any unauthorized duplication, transmission or distribution of this material without the written permission of The World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society is strictly prohibited.
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WORLD OCEAN & CRUISE LINER SOCIETY'S
HOSTED CRUISES
One of the great things about being a World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society member is joining us aboard one of our "Hosted" member cruises. Each cruise features low group rates, special amenities plus onboard lectures and events
We are currently putting together our cruises to follow our Jan 26, 2013 Celebrity Reflection cruise and working on updating information for our WOCLS Group Coordinator.....Please stay tuned!!
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 WOCLS E News & Renewals
If you've been receiving this E-news but not the monthly print publication chances are your subscription has expired. Please renew now as your E-news will stop shortly. Please renew online using the following link
Join or Renew Here
If you receive both...we ask you to please help us keep renewal mailing costs down. Renew today before we need to send you a notice.
In either case you may join or renew securely using your Visa or MasterCard. This form features VeriSign's Secure processing so you know your vital information is secure. You may also mail your check to The World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society - P.O. Box 329 - Northport NY 11768. A renewal ($30/year domestic -or- $36/ year foreign) will extend your existing subscription to both this "E-News" Supplement and Ocean Cruise News a full 12 months from the end of your current subscription
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About Bill Miller 
Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships --- from those "floating palaces" of yesteryear to the current generation of cruise ships, the "floating resorts". Called "Mr. Ocean Liner," he has written some 80 books on the subject: from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to other titles on their fabulous interiors, in post card form and about the highly collectible artifacts from them. He has done specific histories of such celebrated passenger ships as the United States, Queen Mary, Rotterdam, France, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Crystal Serenity.
In all, he has also written over 1,000 articles for newspapers, magazines and nautical journals & newsletters. He even had his very own ocean liner quarterly, the Millergram. He has made nearly 450 voyages to date: Atlantic crossings, tropical cruises, coastal runs and even trips on container cargo ships and exotic banana boats. He has appeared in some three dozen video & television series, both in the USA, Britain, Europe and Australia, including Castles of the Sea, The Floating Palaces, The Super Liners, Inside the World of a Cruise Ship, Disasters at Sea, Deco: Age of Glamour, and Lady in Waiting: The Story of the SS United States. He has also appeared on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, NBC Evening News and many other news broadcasts. He has been guest lecturer aboard over 50 different liners, sailing with the likes of Crystal Cruises, Cunard, Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Radisson-Seven Seas, Saga Cruises and others. Miller was a public school teacher, in middle school and for social studies, for 32 years. He was named "Teacher of the Year" in 2002.
A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, the once busy port just across the Hudson River from New York City, Miller was named Outstanding American Maritime Scholar in 1994, received the United States Maritime Preservation Award and also the Ocean Liner Council's Silver Riband Award, both in 2004. Also, he has been chairman of the Port of New York Branch of the World Ship Society, deputy director of the New York Harbor Festival, served on the selection committee for the American Maritime Hall of Fame, created the passenger ship database for the Ellis Island Museum and currently serves as Curator of 20th Century Maritime History at Manhattan's South Street Seaport Museum. He has also organized a 14-week college course on liners, and helped to create & then served as historian at the US Merchant Marine Museum. His private collection includes 4,000 books on ships, over 15,000 photos and some 1,500 miniature ship models, most of them being passenger ships.
By 2011, Miller had 10 new books in the works, was curator to Decodence (an exhibit at the South St Seaport on the design & décor of the grand French liner Normandie) and himself was the subject of a one-hour film documentary aptly titled Mr Ocean Liner. In 2011, he hosted Cinematic Crossings: Ocean Liners on the Big Screen, a 5-day film festival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center. Currently, he spends some 200 days a year lecturing onboard ocean liners & cruise ships.
Follow Bill's look back at ship's of yesteryear..
Heard Along the Boat Deck
And his current and past cruise experiences...
Scribblings |
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William Miller Books!
 Along the Hudson - luxury Liner Row in the 50's & 60's
In the 1950s and '60s, countless passenger liners called at New York and usually berthed at Luxury Liner Row along the City's West Side. The cast includes the Cunard Queens, the Ile de France & Liberte, United States, Independence, Gripsholm & Queen of Bermuda. It is a grand assemblage of great ships -- both large & small. $29.95
Great American Passenger Ships  The story of American passenger ships over the 20th century -- from the Leviathan to the Lurline, Santa Rosa & America to the brilliant United States. Interesting text accompanied by lots of black & white photos as well as color. $29.95.  Great Liners Story
A fascinating "little book" about the great liners, those floating palaces, of the 20th century -- from the grand German four-stackers to the age of the Oasis of the Seas. Mostly color in this hardcover book. $15.00.
Great Passenger Ships 1910-1920
It was an age of evolution, when size and speed were almost the ultimate considerations. 'Bigger was said to be better' and ship owners were not exempted from the prevailing mood. While the German four-stackers of 1897-06 and then Cunard's brilliant Mauretania & Lusitania of 1907 led the way to larger and grander liners. White Star Line countered by 1911 with the Olympic, her sister Titanic and a near-sister, the Britannic. The French added the France while Cunard took delivery of the beloved Aquitania. But the Germans won out -- they produced the 52,000-ton Imperator and a near-sister, the Vaterland, the last word in shipbuilding and engineering prior to the First World War. They and their sister, the Bismarck, remained the biggest ships in the world until 1935.
But other passenger ships appear in this decade --- other Atlantic liners, but also ships serving on more diverse routes: Union Castle to Africa, P&O to India and beyond, the Empress liners on the trans-Pacific run. We look at a grand age of maritime creation, ocean-going superlative, but also sad destruction in the dark days of the First War. It was, in all ways, a fascinating period.
Last Atlantic Liners: Getting There is Half the Fun (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011 
RMS Caronia: Cunard's Green Goddess (co-authored with Brian Hawley) The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011 
Floating Palaces: The Great Atlantic Liners(Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011 
Great British Passenger Ships (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010) 
SS Nieuw Amsterdam: The Darling of the Dutch (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010) 
Cunard's Three Queens: A Celebration (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
Under the Red Ensign: British Passenger Liners of the '50s & '60s (The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
SS United States: Speed Queen of the Seas (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
And yet to come.....
I Was Born in Hoboken: Memories of the 1950s & '60s (Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ, due fall 2011)
The Last Great Dynasty: The Royal House of Windsor (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
Great Atlantic Liners of the 20th Century in Color (co-authored with Anton Logvinenko; Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
The Cunard Yanks (co-authored with Ian Wright; pending but due 2012)
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