Sue & Jim Royal Princess World Cruise 2009

Some Final Thoughts

2009-05-10T16:10:00.002-06:00

We are home from our big adventure. Laundry is in process and the rest of the stuff is getting put away. My Roomba robot is vacuuming up 4 months of dust on the floors. The fridge is empty and the cupboards pretty slim so Jim was ready to head to King Soopers and … the car battery is dead.

Good heavens, no one brought our breakfast to the room this morning or made the bed. Speaking of the bed – oh, it felt good to sleep in our own bed. The bed on the ship was really bad and the pillows were feather which neither of us cares for. We asked for a different kind of pillow but our steward said he was all out of them.

Although we are dealing with our usual jet lag and I’m not sure I’m completely coherent, here are some of my basic thoughts about the cruise and the ship.
· It was a great value – a wonderful experience for the price paid. This cruise on Princess was considerably less cost than similar ones on Holland America or Cunard.
· We survived the regular size balcony cabin. Again, I have to look at the value – there was no way we could ever have afforded to do a World Cruise in a full suite so it worked just fine for us. We put the balcony to good use
· I love the small ship. It truly felt like home within a few days and only took a minute or so to get from one place to another. The downfall was that there was only one real show lounge where they had to do all the big lectures, movies and presentations as well as work in rehearsals for the cast.
· We were incredibly lucky with our weather. We had some really rough days at sea but they were all in the early part of the trip where there were many sea days. It was 70 degrees when we did our overland tour to Beijing; the week before when the Tahitian Princess was there it was snowing.
· Our cabin steward kept our cabin clean but his attitude was awful. It did improve towards the end of the cruise. Our laundry would come back a day or two late… just generally poor service. Basically he acted like he hated his job. Here is an email I received from a person reading this blog (I’ve removed their names and cabin number): My wife & I sailed with you on the same voyage between Sydney and Hong Kong. Our cabin was on the same deck (Cabin 60XX) - and our steward was Allan from the Philippines. I believe you had the same steward and consequently, I was interested to read your comments.
Our experience was very similar. Initially, Allan was really surly and almost rude although admittedly, he had occasional good days. He also failed to deliver order forms for Elite canapés on formal nights and on several occasions, he "forgot" to collect our clothing from the laundry.
We were so annoyed that we did consider whether to opt out from paying gratuities via our cabin account. We did not opt out, because Allan did keep the cabin clean and tidy - and opting out would have affected other members of the crew (including the excellent waiters in the restaurant and buffet). Furthermore, I suspect that Princess have cut back on staffing levels, because cabin stewards seem to look after more cabins than a few years ago. However, we did not give any extra gratuity to Allan, who was conspicuous by his absence, when we vacated our cabin at Hong Kong. I am sure he knew our feelings.
· These small ships have no special area or planned activities for children (unless there are more than 25 onboard). There were 3 kids onboard for the entire cruise. Except for the first couple days when I’m sure they were feeling a bit lost, they were well behaved and seemed to settle in perfectly. I bet they are glad to be getting home to their friends now.
· The special “Overland trips” were first class. The hotels were 5 star and all the guides, destinations and food were exceptional.
· Other than the gift of an etched crystal globe commemorating the cruise, nothing was done for the full World Cruise passengers to make them feel special. No special cocktail parties, lunches, dinners, etc. It was pretty much business as usual onboard. This was the most common derogatory remark heard over and over at the end of the cruise. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of the passengers; Princess needs to do better in making this experience feel special.
· I found that a number of the passengers who were on the cruise had survived a serious illness or had been diagnosed with one. I received a similar comment from a friend (and client) that was just on the Holland America South America/ Antarctic Grand Voyage. He said “Wish we had done this cruise 10 years ago -- you have to be fit to see many of the places and to really see & enjoy them. My wife did better than I hoped for, but still missed some good tours.”
· Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! I loved it.

Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones that you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream.
Discover.

Mark Twain

The Fat Lady Sang

2009-05-07T21:34:00.001-06:00

Oh my god..... it's 5:00 on May 8. The cruise is over. Heading to the airport very soon. Will post more later.

Cannes, France

2009-05-07T00:13:00.001-06:00

It is one week prior to the Cannes Film Festival and several mega-yachts have already arrived; we can see them at two of the marinas from where we are anchored. 107 days at sea and this is only our second tender port - you can’t get much luckier than that. Our tenders carry about 100 people comfortably so the ship empties with very little waiting.

We waited until about 10:30 and headed in - a tender ride of about 15 minutes. This put us only a long block from downtown. As this is the center of the French Riviera the beaches stretch in both directions as do the hotels. We walked up the hill to the Muse¢ e de la Castra; a 12th century watchtower and castle ruins. We then walked back down into town and went down the oldest street. Very narrow and lined on both sides with cafes and shops. All of the buildings off the main street (facing the harbor) are very picturesque and everywhere you go there seem to be two types of people - the very rich and then the tourists. We stopped at a couple places and read the menus thinking about having lunch but there is something about spending over $100 Euros for lunch that just doesn’t hit me too well. So we stopped at one and had a drink and then continued on our way. After about 4 hours of walking around we headed back to the ship and had lunch in the buffet just before it closed.

It is only about an hour from here to either Nice or Monte Carlo by train so many of the passengers were heading off to one of them. Cannes is very pretty - built up into the hills that surround the port. It’s easy to see how it became the playground of the rich and famous but I prefer the cities that have some historically significant buildings or ruins to visit or those with more exotic cultures.

Barcelona, Spain

2009-05-06T01:35:00.003-06:00

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe. We have been here a number of times and have toured, taxied, hopped-on/-off and wandered through many parts of the city. I love the Gaudi houses and apartment buildings, the Sagrada Familia (cathedral) and his Parc Guell. Since I made those the primary stops on other visits, this time we just took the ship shuttle to the Christopher Columbus monument at the bottom of Las Ramblas and walked that area.

Las Ramblas is a pedestrian area lined with shops, restaurants, bars and hotels. It is “the” place to go for tapas and people watching. I didn’t do much picture-taking as it is mostly strolling people (tourists and locals) until we went into the market. As many of you know, I love shooting the stacks of beautiful fruits and vegetables and the fish and meat stalls. Somehow King Soopers just doesn’t have the same atmosphere! I’ve put a few pictures below - you just don’t find this at our local grocery stores and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen pig’s noses for sale anywhere before.
We finally stopped and sat in one of the cafés; I had an ice cream and Jim had a beer and we did about an hour of people watching and then headed slowly back to the shuttle stop and back to the ship.

The final voting for the photo contest was held… Jim took second over all and I didn’t get anything. What’s up with that?? My ego is shattered.

The onboard atmosphere is changing a bit… it’s rather quieter as people realize that the trip is almost over. I’m dreading the packing and the whole disembarkation stuff, but at least we are going home in business so it should be comfortable.

Messina, Italy

2009-05-04T08:41:00.005-06:00

We woke up early enough to watch as we came into the harbor on Sicily. Jim spotted Mt. Etna through the clouds… I think I saw it, but then without my contacts it could have just been another cloud. The harbor has a tall column with a golden Madonna at the top that blesses all that enter the port - quite a lovely site with the sun shining on her. After about a 30 minute delay because a ferry was still in our berth we made it into port.

We had nothing planned here because the trip to Taormina didn’t seem worth it with 3 hours of bus ride and one hour to see the town. Also it is a Sunday so most of the local businesses and stores are closed except the souvenir shops which you can always find in any tourist destination.
We headed into town about 10:30 to see the clock tower at noon when all the mechanical scenes start working. Huge crowd by 11:45... Then again, there isn’t much else to see in Messina. Finally the clock struck 12 noon and then the Lion roared, the cock crowed and the religious scenes started moving.

I’m sure this would be a delightful area on any day other than Sunday because there were many local shops, restaurants and bars but only a couple were open so they were packed with waiting lines. It made a nice relaxing day with beautiful weather and nothing really pressing to do. We got back to the ship about 2:00 and had a buffet lunch and then settled down to read until sail away at 4:30.

Our cruise is coming to an end soon and I have mixed feelings; one part of me is ready to go home, and the other just wants to stay on the ship. More thoughts on this later.

Special post for Laurie

2009-05-03T01:38:00.003-06:00

This is a special post for my sister Laurie. I just found out that you are reading this. I hope all is well and we will see you soon.

Here is a special picture for you... I wasn't going to post it because it looks silly without Jim in the picture, but he had to move to the front of the gondola to take the picture.

Venice

2009-05-02T09:15:00.005-06:00

Good heavens why haven’t I been to Venice before this? It was absolutely magnificent. It is everything I’ve seen in pictures… and more. There was only one drawback to the day; it was May 1st which is a holiday in Italy and most of Europe so Venice was packed with people and some museums, shops and things were closed. None of that affected our day other than we chose not to go to St. Mark’s Square which was wall-to-wall people.

Our small ship was able to go through the waterway to the cruise port so we were able to see much of the skyline and buildings early in the morning and again in the evening as we left the port. What a sight!

We boarded the shuttle boat at about 9:30 without any wait - the short ride was about 15 minutes and it dropped us off fairly near St. Mark’s Square. We started off in that direction, but as the crowds grew heavier and heavier I decided not to deal with them and we headed off in the opposite direction. For us it was the perfect choice. We wandered along the sidewalks and along the canals crossing the bridges and taking whatever turns we wanted. Every block brought new wonders; I couldn’t stop taking pictures. We saw houses, shops, cafes - all the parts of real life in Venice rather than the stalls selling stuff for tourists.

At about noon we happened upon a couple gondoliers who ask if we wanted a ride. Why not, it is something I wanted to do anyway. Even though they are only used for tourists these days I just had to do it. Not cheap… but worth it. We had about a 40 minute ride through the small canals. Our guide pointed out several buildings and told us about them; Casanova’s house, several Doges houses, Marco Polo’s house. Now whether or not they are all true I don’t know… but it was a great time.

At about 2:00 we came out from between the buildings and realized we were back at the sea. Except it didn’t seem quite right. After studying our little map for quite a while we realized we were all the way across the island. We headed back in the direction we needed to go and eventually reached the place to catch the shuttle back to the ship.

I have heard all the stories: Venice is sinking - it looked fine to me. It stinks… I didn’t smell anything bad at all. It wasn’t even musty smelling. The buildings are falling into ruin… it seems to me they are doing everything possible to restore and save them. Many are 600 years old. I can’t imagine how they have stood for this many years in the water without crumbling away.
I’m tired and sore but what a day it was. This is now my number one “have to go back to” city. I need several days here with no time constraints (and no holiday). It’s quite expensive, but I’ll figure a way to do it.

The picture below gives you an idea of how crowded San Marco was.

Athens, Greece

2009-04-30T01:33:00.006-06:00

Note from Sue: Since I have visited this area before I asked Jim to write this one so you get his impressions.
Arriving in Piraeus, the port city near Athens, we were planning on meeting our friend, Joyce. However a few days ago, through e-mail, she said she had received an appointment at the embassy for the same day we were going to be there. To change the date of the appointment could be very difficult and it could take several hours. We all decided getting together at a later date , whether Greece or Colorado, would be the thing to do. Since we have been to most of the historic sites in Athens we decided to go to the Plaka, which is a shopping area but it is in the old part of the city, just below the Acropolis. Outside the port terminal it seems all of the taxi drivers speak English and all are competing for your business. The prices quoted were all the same so we picked one and we’re off to the Plaka.

The temperature is rising and the sky is clearing; it is turning into a beautiful day. Time for some real coffee. We find an outdoor café and have coffee which comes with two small sweet rolls, very good. Near this café are some ruins that we could not identify but are great for some photos. For the next couple of hours we just roam this area, very narrow streets - up stairs - at the base of the Acropolis - down stairs - dead ends - looking in some of the shops - and taking lots of pictures. There are many ancient ruins throughout this area just mixed in with the newer buildings. Sue finds a fur shop. This may take a while. I am offered a chair and she heads up to the second floor with a sales lady. The owner of the shop comes to sit with me. He speaks very good English and soon asks if I smoke. When he hears I do smoke he is very happy and we light up. He is very happy, saying no Americans smoke anymore and explaining that since he enjoys smoking, he enjoys being with people who smoke; he says we should have a drink. Out comes a plastic bottle of homemade Raki from his uncle. After about 20 minutes of chatting, smoking and drinking, Sue comes down with a coat so she has a drink too! A deal is made and after more hugs and air kisses we depart.

Heading away from the Acropolis soon we lose our bearings and are lost, but still taking lots of pictures, especially when we find the meat and fish market. After a bit see some taxis. None of the drivers speak any English and we do not speak any Greek and since we have gone through this before (barely getting to our destination) we decided to look for the Metro. Half a block away is a Metro station. Having used the Metro the last time we were in Athens and luckily not having to change trains, we made it back to the port easily and for much less cost than the taxi.

Istanbul

2009-04-29T03:47:00.006-06:00

We had an interesting arrival in Istanbul. We were watching out our balcony door and on the TV (bow camera) as we entered the port. We were on the great side of the ship and could see the Blue Mosque, St. Sophia, Topkapi Palace and many other interesting buildings through the morning fog. As we got closer to the pier I thought it looked like we should be turning more to come up alongside the dock (but then what do I know??) Suddenly the Captain came over the speakers “All Personnel, BRACE, BRACE, BRACE”. He had the propellers in full reverse and the bow thruster going… the engines were really roaring and the ship was bouncing and shaking. He got it stopped with only feet to spare! A really great save. He came on the speaker again in a little while and said we had gotten caught in an unpredicted current. All’s well than ends well.

This is one of the ports we have been really looking forward to; we met our friend Kagan who was our guide for 4 days a year and half ago. I had told him we were looking forward to some Turkish coffee so that was our first stop. Then we met his whole family for brunch at a restaurant overlooking the water on the Asian side of the city where they live. We had met Lala, his wife, for only 5 minutes on our previous trip and it was really fun to finally meet his two daughters. We also met her sister- and brother-in-law (Lala’s sister). Sadly we didn’t know about this in advance so we had already eaten breakfast and couldn’t begin to even taste all the wonderful looking foods on the buffet.

After brunch we headed to a shopping mall; no, I haven’t suddenly become a shopper but I wanted to get a special lens for my new camera. But… we couldn’t find a store that carried Sony lenses. We drove through many of the modern neighborhoods - the Asian side is mostly residential. Very lovely homes. Then we headed back across the bridge to the Europe side. We visited a very small church that we hadn’t been to before and took many pictures. Then we wandered down the main shopping street on our way to visit the watch tower. I got my box of Turkish Delight and Jim got the little coffee pot for brewing Turkish coffee. These are all modern shops with very few touristy things, but they are in historic buildings and it is a pedestrian only area so it was a nice walk. At the watch tower the line for the entrance was quite long so I decided that I didn’t want to wait… we would put it on our list for the next visit.
This is a city that is very high on my come back list - maybe even number 1 on the list. It is just fascinating and I want to have a chance to wander around the streets of the old city with no time constraints.

As I think Kagan is the best guide I’ve ever had anywhere I am particularly happy to hear that his business in really doing well. He has expanded and now has a few guides that work for him and owns his own transportation vans of several sizes. This is probably the only city in Europe right now that isn’t impacted by the economy… the prices are still fairly low so it is getting all the business!

Ashdod, Israel

2009-04-25T08:46:00.009-06:00

I had expected our tour here to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be one of the highlights of the trip. When we left in January this port was still questionable with the attacks from Gaza but as things have settled down we were able to make the port.

This has to be the most miserable shore excursion I’ve ever been on…most people I talked to agreed. For the second time we were on the bus with the screaming toddler and to add to that the mother lost her at one of the churches. Our guide was extremely poor; we had radios and earpieces so we could hear his explanations without him having to shout. Mostly he forgot to raise his microphone to his mouth when he was talking so we didn’t hear much… except one time when he was shouting “we must find the baby, we must find the baby”. He wouldn’t hold our group sign in the air so we could find him; since he was fairly short this was a real problem as everywhere we went was absolutely packed wall-to-wall with people. Occasionally, we would hear things like “ok, we are moving on, follow me” Except no one could see him to follow him. I don’t think I got any useable photos the entire day with everything so filled with people. Ok, I’ve bitched, now a little about what we saw…. Or tried to see.

From the port we traveled about an hour through the countryside and mountains. It was quite beautiful, green with farmlands throughout. As we got closer to Jerusalem we began to see more and more houses; all fairly new and much like those you find in the U.S. The houses became much more dense and then it turned into a big city with everything you would expect - big apartment complexes, businesses, government buildings and schools and universities.
Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives overlook where we could see the Old City - this is where we were headed. Then we stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was very small and had the ancient olive trees surrounded by flowers. Next to the garden was the Church of all Nations. Back to the bus for a short ride and then we were at the Western or Wailing Wall. Men and women had to enter the area in front of the wall via different portals. This is where you write your prayer on a slip of paper and put it into the wall. From here we entered the old city using the Jaffe gate; an arched tunnel. We then walked part of the Via Dolorosa passing three of the Stations of the Cross (V, VI, and VII). All along the way the sides of the walkway were lined with shops and vendors. It probably would have been fun to browse here a bit, but there was no time as we all had to continually make our way through the hoards of people. This walk was all up hill with many steps; at the top, most people were moving quite slowly. At the end of our walk was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is believed to be the site of Christ’s crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection. This church is shared by many different religions and denominations. There were a number of very steep stone steps that were difficult for many of the people in the group. It was impossible to get anywhere near the actual holy sites, but our guide did allow 10 minutes for anyone wanting to pray. Then we retraced our steps through all the shops (downhill this time) back to the bus for the short ride to lunch.

Lunch was a buffet in a very nice 5star hotel (neither of us can remember the name). It was a bit rushed as they were feeding all 12 bus-loads of us. Luckily for us our bus was one of the first ones which gave us a good head start on the food and for the restrooms. The women’s room had three stalls… let’s see, each bus had about 38 people - probably at least half of them women; times 12 buses… it was still a very long line when we were leaving.

After that we headed to Bethlehem. At the Palestine border our guide had to get off the bus as he isn’t allowed across the border. We went through 2 checkpoints and then another guide boarded the bus for our tour of the Church of the Nativity. This part of the trip was actually quite nice; there weren’t nearly the numbers of people. There was a service going on as we entered the church which made it even more interesting and all the lights were on… I may have gotten a couple good shots here. We went down steps in an area under the alter; a silver star in marble marks the place where it is believed Christ was born. Although this is a very small area and there were quite a few people, we were able to see this.

Back on the bus… then a 40 minute stop at a typical tourist trap for shopping. Finally, people finished buying their stuff and we headed back to the border… through 2 checkpoints again and our original guide got back on and we returned to the port.

Port Said, Egypt

2009-04-24T05:05:00.005-06:00

Many of the people on the ship went to Cairo to see the pyramids and sphinx; about 10 bus-loads. Their tour meeting time was 5:30 am. Since we have already visited them, we got to relax and have our regular room service breakfast. At about 10:30 we decided to head out and see a bit of the city.

We walked around for about an hour looking in shop windows and past a beautiful mosque before returning to the port. Back at the port we hired one of the horse and carriages for an hour tour - we should have done that to start. It really is just a city, but our driver, Muhammad, did a good job telling us about most of the major buildings… his English was broken, but we got most of it. The area I liked best was in the oldest part of the city where all the streets were a giant bazaar. It was just the type market that I love to visit, but no vehicles were allowed in that area and we decided not to take a taxi back from the port.

Here is a picture of the Star Clipper sailing ship that we followed through the Suez Canal.

Suez Canal

2009-04-22T07:44:00.004-06:00

Our day in the Suez Canal actually started at about 1:00 in the morning when we were awakened by the sound of the anchor being dropped. We were at our place to wait for the morning transit. Jim got up about 5:00, but I went back to sleep - at 6 he called me and said we were starting to move toward the canal.

The southern entrance to the canal is the city of Suez. The city was really big - it seemed to stretch for several miles after we started through the canal. There were industrial areas, apartment buildings, houses, mosques… just about anything you could think of. The canal doesn’t have locks like the Panama Canal; it is just a canal that links the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. It was built in the early 1900’s. We were lucky to be on the port side of the ship as I thought there was much more interesting scenery on that side. Our side was green and had villages, farms and houses; the other side was desert.

All along the canal were guard posts with armed soldiers in towers and fortifications on the ground. We could see a highway not far from the canal that had the same guard posts. We must have passed at least 25 of these in the 100 (or so) miles of the canal. The soldiers were all friendly and waved and whistled at the ship as we passed. We followed one of the Star Clippers four-masted ships all the way… it’s too bad her sails were not up. It was fascinating seeing the way people actually live and the many little boats they were using for fishing or just local transportation in the canal. One of the unique things we have only seen in Egypt are the pigeon houses; they look like giant bee hives. They breed the pigeons to eat.

We arrived in Port Said about 4:30 in the afternoon and docked right behind Star Clipper. It was funny watching all the vendors scrambling to get their stalls set up as we were about an hour early. More about Port Said in the next segment!

Safaga, Egypt

2009-04-21T02:54:00.005-06:00

Our tour started at 6:30 in the morning; it is a 3 ½ bus ride to Luxor.Not many options at this port… you either went on the 4 day overland or the 15 hour tour to Luxor or stayed on the ship. Since we have already been to the Pyramids and Cairo we didn’t do the overland.

Right after we went through the small city of Safaga, we were into the mountains; big, dry desert mountains with no vegetation and few signs of life - but the highway was good. We wound around through the mountains for about a two hours and then were into the valley. Slowly it turned from desert to the green Nile valley. Once the farmlands started, it was beautiful and extremely interesting. The farmers still use donkeys and work the fields by hand; great photos!
Luxor is a huge modern city and our first stop was at the ancient ruins of Karnak Temple. So much to see and only an hour to see it, but in the 102 degree heat 1 hour turned out to be just fine! Huge columns (134 of them) and statues… all the stuff I love. The ram-headed sphinxes were wonderful. After Karnak we had lunch at the Sonesta St. George. It was a very nice buffet lunch overlooking the hotel pool with the Nile in the distance. All along the Nile in this area were the huge Nile River cruise boats - wow, they look really nice, but there were so many of them I’m wondering if the river doesn’t look a bit like the freeway at rush hour.

After lunch we went to the Valley of the Kings. This is where the Pharaohs decided to be buried after the pyramids… people kept digging into the pyramids and stealing the treasures - just digging hidden tombs into the mountains seemed a better idea. It must have worked as they have only discovered 67 tombs so far. Our entrance ticket allowed us to visit any two tombs except for Tut’s tomb. Luckily they had a little tram that took you up the hill from the entrance. Our guide told us about 4 of the tombs and then we had our hour. We chose one easy one and one a bit more difficult. They only allow 10 minutes inside the tombs and they really keep the lines of people moving - aaack, no pictures allowed! The original paint colors are still brilliant - it was amazing. Apparently one guy (not on our tour) took a picture with his cellphone and they immediately took it away from him. As we exited the tomb, he was still there arguing with the guards to get it back.

Next we went to the Temple of Luxor. That was my favorite of all the stops on this trip. More columns and statues. There was a row of human headed sphinxes. More rooms many areas where the original paint colors could still be seen.

We also had quick photo stops at the Collosi of Memnon and Queen Hatshepsut’s Tomb and then it was time to start the long drive back to the ship. The Sonesta had provided boxed snacks for our dinner. It was 10:00 when we finally got back to the ship and probably close to 11 before we got through security and back to our cabin. We had a couple cocktails on the balcony and watched as we sailed away from port. Then I hit the bed and slept like the dead until 7:00 in the morning.

I would like to spend a week at Luxor sometime in the coolest month and really take some time to see the area… then do a Nile river cruise on one of the luxury cruise boats.

At Sea

2009-04-18T05:24:00.002-06:00

Today is April 18 and we are well over half way through the Red Sea. Yesterday we were talking with a fellow passenger when the subject of “Pirates” came up. She thought that half of the passengers were relieved and half were disappointed. We were in the half that were disappointed, not to the extreme of being hijacked and taken to Somalia, of course, but just for the unusual type of adventure some encounter may have provided and the possibility of some great photos! Speaking of photos, we were on our balcony just as we were leaving the Gulf of Aden and a Canadian military helicopter flew over the ship and then right down our port side. Our cameras were through the closed balcony door and at the other end of the cabin - no photos - we waved to the man in the open door of the helicopter and he waved back.

Heading almost due north now, the temperature is getting cooler, which is half relief and half disappointment. Tomorrow morning we will be docking in Safaga Egypt at 6:00 a.m. The forecast temperature there is 86 degrees. It will be a long day as our trip to The Valley of the Kings is scheduled for 15 hours.

That’s all for now as we need to get things ready for tomorrow - it will be an alarm clock morning.

Note from Sue: I've been having some pain problems for the last couple days and finally asked Jim to get the computer out and type this one.

Gulf of Aden

2009-04-15T23:00:00.001-06:00

Nothing to report except a lovely day at sea. We saw many ships in the eastbound shipping lane. There is a pretty large distance between the east and west bound lanes so they are pretty far off on the horizon. We only saw one military ship and it was in the eastbound lane. I had to use my really long lens to get this picture. (you can see a tanker in the background - the military ship was passing it)

Salalah, Oman and entering the Gulf of Aden

2009-04-14T23:03:00.001-06:00

lI don’t have much to report on Salalah as we decided not to find a car and guide to explore. It was about 97 degrees and 50% humidity… I thought it was a good place to stay in the cool ship. Different people gave different impressions of the port - some said nothing to see except Jobs Tomb which was interesting. Others that hired private cars had a great day seeing the tomb, many beautiful beaches, the city and then a ride up into the mountains overlooking the sea. They said they saw about 100 camels along the roads. Hmmm, I probably missed some good photo ops. We stayed in port until 10:00pm as the Captain had been given the location that the ship should be at at10:00 this morning. In order to maintain a fast speed and be at the right place at the right time… he delayed our departure.

This morning we are entering the Gulf of Aden. (It is 8:00 am as I write this) The Royal Navy has directed us to a certain location where we will apparently be part of a convoy of ships through the gulf. Right now there is nothing to report except that there are crew standing watch on all open decks and the bridge wings. The sonic device is mounted on the wing and we did see (and hear) them test it a couple days ago… although they just did a split second chirp with it - it was really a loud piercing tone.

Tahitian Princess went through this area 6 days ago with similar procedures and my friend emailed me that there was nothing exciting. They rarely even saw any other ships, even those that were supposed to be in the convoy. She said they did see a couple military ships, but they did not have an escort.

I’m sure the events of the last couple days have those in charge watching everything carefully. We are turning the TV to CNN or Fox quite often to get updates.

I’ll add reports if there is anything of interest!

At Sea & Happy Birthday to me

2009-04-13T04:05:00.000-06:00

We are in the Arabian Gulf heading toward Salalah, Oman. The heightened security and watches are already in effect for the piracy threat although the area in which most of the attacks took place isn’t until after Salalah. They are utilizing all of the crew to stand watch in four hour blocks on all open decks and also on the bridge wings.

Our ‘Anti Piracy’ exercise was this morning; a five second blast on the bells and whistle and then the announcement Code Papa Code Papa. All passengers had to return to their cabins and stand in the open doorway until they were marked off by crewmembers and then remain in the cabins for further instructions. All of the crew also participated in their various assigned special duties. The entire drill was completed in less than a half hour and everyone went back to their regular activities. We have all been following the stories on CNN of the American Captain that was held by the pirates and were much relieved to see that he was finally rescued. Captain Kent, in some of his announcements, has mentioned different things about the piracy issue; my favorite comment was that these guys are not like Johnny Depp.

Happy Birthday to me! I made it another year so I guess I’ll go for another one. After the world cruise what can I do that is bigger and better??

We finally have some waves today - not rough or even moderate seas, but at least it feels like we are at sea. The whole last segment was so smooth we could have been on land except that we went 6400 miles. We have gone about 26,000 nautical miles since we left Fort Lauderdale.

Dubai, UAE

2009-04-12T20:23:00.003-06:00

Money, Money, Money. That pretty well sums up Dubai. It is really something to see - an architect’s dream world. Twenty percent of all the tower cranes in the world are in the UAE with the most in Dubai. It has 47 shopping malls with the two biggest in the world; one includes the indoor ski hill. Our guide said that is all there is to do for the rich Arabs and others that live there. They live in their huge palaces and mansions and go shopping during the day. I think I saw more Rolls Royces, Bugates, Bentleys and any other exotic and luxury cars than anywhere.

Our tour started with Tea at the Burj Al Arab Hotel. That is the huge hotel shaped like a sail that has come to be the symbol of Dubai. We were able to take pictures throughout the parts of the hotel that we saw. Sadly I didn’t get to see any rooms; I had thought the Tea would be the last stop of the tour and I had taken my travel agent IATAN certification card hoping that I could get a tour… no such luck. Anyway, it is pretty spectacular; the cheapest small suite goes for about $2000 a night (as our guided said “without breakfast!”). There was a row of white Rolls’ parked outside to cater to the guests needs… no doubt, shopping. Tea was just tea… finger sandwiches, scones and sweets. I did love every drop of the two cups of coffee (remember, I’ve been drinking ship coffee for over two months). If you were to book this tea on your own it costs about $150 a person… not even the little paper thin piece of gold on my sweet would make it worth that, but as part of the tour it was quite an experience. We were under a dress code for this tour, long pants, no jeans and covered shoulders, no t-shirts- ok that’s fine, everyone dressed accordingly. But, obviously if you can afford to stay there no code applies; there were many very skimpily dressed women and men in shorts that were obviously guests in the hotel.

The other part of the tour was a boat ride that we thought would take us out through the islands of “The World”… nope, we cruised along and just as we could start to see those manmade islands starting to show above the waves we turned around and started back. Why would we want just a boat ride when we have all been onboard a ship for this length of time??? Everyone was a bit put out.

The best part of the tour was just driving around through the city and looking at the buildings. They are spectacular. Our driver got us to one location quite close to the tallest building in the world for photos… it took me three shots to get it all in top to bottom from that distance. It is TALL!

You can tell this wasn’t my favorite tour but I’ve wanted to see that hotel for about 8 years, now I can mark it off the list; been there - done that.

Turnover day

2009-04-10T22:40:00.000-06:00

We just docked in Dubai; end of segment 3 and the beginning of seg 4. Less than a month to go… I don’t want to go back to real life! Who will cook? Who will make the bed? I’ll report on Dubai after we return.

I won the Segment 3 photo contest with a shot taken earlier in the cruise in Callao, Peru. Now I’m ahead… then again, Jim didn’t enter one this time. The category was architecture, buildings and towns. The next category is open and artistic… should make for interesting entries.

They are beginning to make noticable preparations onboard for our transit of the Gulf of Aden. Yesterday they ran a test of the ‘anti-pirate drenching system’. It is a setup of firehoses connected to some mounted nozzles on deck 5 (the open deck). They also will behaving crew members standing watch on all open decks… that also started yesterday. They are going to use all crewmembers for these watch positions in 2 or 4 hour blocks. Yesterday the one we saw was an attendant in the buffet. He was wearing the Orange security vest (and looked a bit uncomfortable or bewildered). I had a report from my friend on Tahitian Princess about the procedures they had in place; much like ours. She also reported that nothing interesting has happened so far except for some military ships and aircraft.

We are docked two berths away from QE2, Costa is between. I am happy I have this last chance to say goodbye to her and was particularly happy that the red funnel is still in place. I’ve taken a number of pictures of her.

John Maxtone Graham - Hi John, I hope you get the google alert on this. I wanted you to read the part about QE2. We miss you and Mary!
Sue

Mumbai, India

2009-04-08T21:33:00.007-06:00

Fascinating. That’s the only way I can sum up our day in Mumbai - I can’t say I really liked it or I’d want to return, but it was certainly fascinating. It reminds me of New York City burned out on drugs. It is a solid mass of people; slums intermixed with very nice buildings.

Our tour was called Temples and Shrines. It was an all day tour and included lunch at a local hotel and the obligatory shopping stop. There were only 20 of us on the tour and the bus was a 36 passenger one so we had plenty of room again. Our first stop was across from the Taj Mahal hotel (one of the hotels bombed by the terrorists last November), although we didn’t have time to go into the hotel I was able to get some pictures from the outside.

After that quick photo stop we headed for the temples; we actually got to see a great deal of Mumbai and a couple suburbs as the temples were fairly far apart. You weren’t allowed to take photos in most of the temples so the best parts are only in my memory, but I did get some shots of the outsides. At the Hare Krishna temple we were allowed to take photos on the interior so it was a lot more fun for me. Our guide was excellent - she explained much about the different religions in India, including Hindu, Jain, and Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and several others. I found it very interesting watching the rituals performed by the people praying in the different temples.

Perhaps the actual ride through the city was more interesting than the temples… It would have to be seen to be understood. Every inch of useable land is being used either as a shop/stall or a dwelling. People (and some cows) are everywhere; sidewalks and streets are packed, there are no crosswalks so people just weave between the moving cars to cross the streets and roadways. The roads were completely filled with cars, taxis, motorcycles, trucks and buses - They don’t allow TukTuks in Mumbai proper, but when they were added to the mix in the suburbs it was unbelievable. When our guide said that it was slightly better than usual because it was a bank holiday and many people were off work we just all kind of sat there with dumb grins on our faces. Our driver did a great job… two traffic cop fines and only one car hit us.

The women in their brightly colored saris or Punjabis all look beautiful; even in the worst of the slums the women were all wearing the beautiful colors. I purchased a beautiful Sari and a Punjabi. Before our return to the ship, the tour bus took us to the ‘recommended’ store for shopping… not what I was looking for - I wanted to go to the real shops and stalls across the street so after a few minutes of watching people dodge their way through the cars we decided to give it a try. I’m writing this so you can tell we made it. This was the kind of market I enjoy, it was a mixture of clothing, hard goods, soft goods and even some produce. They didn’t seem willing to bargain but I was able to get them to knock off the odd couple dollars on both purchases. Now we have four days at sea prior to Dubai.
------
Right after I wrote the report above the movie Slum Dog Millionaire came on the TV. (They had shown this academy award winning movie in the lounge just prior to Mumbai, but I don’t like sitting in those chairs so we didn’t go.) We decided to watch it. I’m glad we saw it after our trip into Mumbai as I don’t think I would have really understood how accurate it is. The only scene that isn’t accurate (our guide told us this) is the one where the Indian movie star is mobbed by fans. She says they do not do this in India. Everything else is exactly as we saw Mumbai.

Random Thoughts

2009-04-06T02:30:00.001-06:00

Our Cabin steward has developed a new personality; he is happy and cheerful. Is he (or his boss) reading this blog?
The Princess Captain’s Circle (past passenger) benefits seem to be the best of any of the cruise lines we have been on. The free laundry and many free internet minutes have been wonderful on this cruise. Toting a bag of dirty laundry to the launderette doesn’t look like fun to me.
The little 9x6 inch computer I bought for this trip has been wonderful. The WiFi onboard is very good in most all locations including our cabin and the computer is small and light enough to just drop in my bag to carry ashore. A drawback is that it’s awfully tiny to look at my photos, but then I’m used to my 21” monitor at home for that.
The ocean is endlessly fascinating. From glass-smooth to crashing waves I love to watch it. “Sea-critters” are fun to look for; one afternoon we sat on the balcony watching about a half dozen birds for an hour. They would fly along side our balcony working their way up higher and closer to the bow. All of a sudden they would come diving down to water level trying to catch a flying fish. We actually did see a couple of these birds catch a fish, then it would fly away from the ship and land in the water. We presumed they were eating the fish and then they would rejoin the hunt. Considering the length of this cruise, we haven’t seen a lot of “critters”. Early on there were some whales and we’ve seen dolphins about 5 times and flying fish almost every day.
Trivia became less fun when one team started bringing books to challenge the answers. Good heavens these are games - if you win you get a little green voucher. You can cash in the vouchers for things like a tote bag or a baseball cap. Wow that’s something to get all worked up about.
I’ve received a number of emails lately asking if we are still enjoying it and if we would do another one. Yup, we are still enjoying it and YES, if I another one came along at a good enough price I’d do it without question.
I’m going to get questions about who would I recommend do a world cruise. The answer is anyone that has the time and money and wants to experience many different countries and cultures in one cruise - the caveat would be that you would have to be comfortable with many sea days.

Port Blair, Andaman Islands

2009-04-03T03:54:00.001-06:00

The Andaman Islands are a territory of India along with the Nicobar Islands. Originally this was a penal colony.

I’m not too sure what to say about this port except that it was quite undesirable; hot, humid, dirty, smelly… pretty bad all the way around. One woman commented that she hadn’t seen anywhere with so much trash except Egypt - from what I saw she was right. We had planned to take a tuktuk and do a short tour of the area and a visit to the bazaar but we talked to a number of people who were returning to the ship and decided to skip it. There was no bazaar or local market like we like to visit - people said there was a street with some shops. There didn’t seem to be any local handcrafts, what they were selling were mass-produced items (probably from China). There are supposed to be some nice resorts here, but they must be located some distance from Port Blair.

It should have been a clue when the Captain was talking the previous evening in his regular announcement - he said we will dock at about 10:00 and expect to have clearance by 10:30 and you can go ashore… and at 11:00 you’ll be back onboard. He wasn’t kidding.

Now we are on a four sea-day stretch before Mumbai.

Singapore and Port Kelang

2009-03-31T23:52:00.002-06:00

Monday, April 30 - Singapore. We had no tour booked here and since we missed shopping in Hong Kong with our late arrival back from our Great Wall tour we decided to just wing this port. We were docked at the Harbour Front Cruise Centre which had two large malls attached. We got off the ship and browsed around a bit and met one of the ship’s photographers. We all decided to take a taxi into the city to visit Lim Sim Centre - the electronics shopping area. We bought a couple more portable hard drives and then I decided to look at the new camera I’ve had my eye on… bargain -bargain- bargain… it did end up following me home. It was less than US price, but I still wonder if I could have gotten it for less. Then it was back to the ship.

The next day we were docked in Port Kelang, Malaysia. We choose not to do one of the tours into Kaula Lampor and instead did a tour that included a stop at a traditional house and stops at a Mosque and Palace and little India. The house was quite large as the family uses it for a bed and breakfast at times. The surrounding yard area was entirely turned into a tropical garden filled with orchids - great photos, but the temp was over 90 and the humidity about the same… way too much for me! If it were a bit cooler or maybe less humid I would have loved to spend a week there. The Mosque and Palace were just quick photo stops but we had a little time for shopping in Little India - I actually made a couple purchases there!

Now we have two sea days until Andaman Island for my back to recover a bit… and to study my new camera!

At Sea

2009-03-29T04:00:00.001-06:00

Another lazy Sunday at sea… The special Sunday Brunch Buffet in the main dining room is wonderful and then the rest of the day is usually spent napping and reading. They did do a preview of the DVD created from our trip to the Great Wall; the videographer onboard is great. The video is a combination of information given by the guides and then just wonderful shots of the places we visited backed by music.

On Thursday evening we went to a special cocktail party for those passengers that went on the Great Wall tour and spent about 20 minutes talking with the Captain. I was curious about the special plans they might have for when we go through the Gulf of Aden. What he could tell me was that he is going to be briefed by the Royal Navy when we are in Singapore and that all passengers will receive a briefing and participate in a drill. Ok… enough on that (I guess my old career isn’t really gone).

When we got back to the cabin that night the phone rang and it was a dinner invitation from the Captain for last night (Saturday). It was really a nice surprise because they don’t do the formal Captain’s Tables on Princess - the Captain actually asks whomever he wants for whatever night. Pretty cool!!! Anyway, we had a great dinner with Captain Kent and two other couples and now we feel really special.

Bangkok, Thailand

2009-03-28T03:35:00.004-06:00

[Jim's tour]

March 27th I awoke prior to the alarm clock, and we watched the sun come up and our arrival in Thailand. We were being escorted by a small ship with a manned 50 caliber machinegun on its bow.

Arriving in Bangkok the traffic is horrendous - 11,000,000 people. As usual our driver handles it with ease only this time I noticed and our guide pointed out no horns honking. I don’t recall hearing 1 horn for the entire 8 hour tour. This was very unusual from our latest tours. About this time our guide informed us that we would not be seeing the Golden Buddha. Great! I was looking forward to seeing 5 ½ tons of solid gold in the shape of one of the world’s largest statues of the Buddha. She explained that a new temple was being built for it on the same site. A quick drive-by of this location and we could see it was almost finished. Driving through the Chinatown district we see at least a million flowers for sale. The sidewalks are crammed with umbrellas - underneath are small tables covered with flowers.

Wat Pra Keo - known as the Royal Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, this is one of Buddhism’s most magnificent monasteries and one of the most celebrated sites in all Thailand. Although it was about 95 degrees and 95% humidity it was being celebrated in abundance today. This is one of those places you have to see to believe. At the heart of the monastery is a chapel containing a Buddha carved from a single piece of emerald-green jasper, perched atop a gilded pedestal. To enter the chapel - no shorts - legs covered to within 5 inches of the ground ( they supplied tie-on skirts and shawls for those who were not covered enough ) - no hat - shoulders covered - and shoes removed. No pictures in the chapel. We could take pictures through a doorway from outside the entrance. I didn’t know if I would like digital cameras at first but after a few years using different ones they are great. I can set mine to an ISO of 3200, which I did and got a fairly good shot of Buddha and then entered the chapel. Next was the Grand Palace - we could not enter the palace. The king does not live here anymore but it is used for royal ceremonies and state occasions. The Wat and palace take up about a 2 city block area and armed guards are posted throughout. It is very difficult to describe this place in text. We spent about 2 hours here and just skimmed the surface.

From there a short walk down the street and through a market to the river where we boarded a boat for our river cruise. Our boat was about 8 feet wide and 30 feet long - inboard engine. Some of the other boats on the river looked familiar - our guide said they were called the James Bond boats. One of the Bond movies was filmed here. These boats are about 20 feet long and narrow. What makes them different is the way they are steered and propelled. The engine, which most of the ones I saw were 4 cylinder turbocharged gas fueled, is mounted on a pivot near the stern above the hull. A long pipe is mounted forward that the driver holds for steering and throttle then behind the engine is a long shaft that terminates at the prop. Very fast - I had to shield my camera as we were splashed a couple of times. Heading south on the river we slowed and turned around at Wat Arun. Our guide gave us another history lesson - we took pictures and then we head north. Bangkok is hailed as the “Venice of the East” so up river about a ½ mile we turn into one of the canals. Our guide and her assistant start passing out pieces of bread and stating that it is not for us, although it smells very good and I getting hungry as it is about 1 o’clock now. Soon she says we are going to feed the catfish, but we can not feed them in front of the temple that is now on our left. As soon as we pass the temple she says “Now” and we all tear our bread into bits and through them in the water. The catfish are hungry - in about two seconds they are swarming on the bread. Turning around we head back to the river and continue north to the dock of the hotel where we have lunch.

Back on the bus we are heading for our last stop - the dreaded shopping, at least in my opinion. We pull into a parking lot that is gated and guarded and about the size of half a basketball court. There are marked places for about 30 cars - all full and in the middle 5 places for busses - all full. Pulling up to the door we exit the bus and are warmly greeted at the door which next to it is a uniformed guard with an AK-47. Inside we are individually assigned a personal shopping assistant. First I am led through the jewelry making factory of about 40 workers. On to the store. I’d guess about 15,000 sq. ft. it could easily be more. Sue always says “Diamonds and Gold” - that’s what I tell my personal assistant. Diamond aren’t big in Thailand so this department was small but that means not many choices. Couldn’t find anything that I thought she might like but out of curiosity I pointed to a piece I estimated at 3 to 4 hundred dollars. How much? For the forth time he tells me how cheap the labor is in Thailand and announces 2 thousand something. NO! Again he says labor is cheap while I look around to see at least 100 employees in this store and recall about 30 in the parking lot trying to keep traffic flowing ( most busses had to leave to be called back by guides when needed ). I thank him and ask “where is the exit”. He points. Now I am entering the cheap area - T-shirts trinkets etc.- evidently I was not the only one that did not care for the prices in the big store - I could not even see the floor. It took me 5 minutes to go 30 feet it was so crowded. I spent about 30 minutes outside till the rest of the group was finished shopping then the bus was called. Traveling a different route we arrived back at the port in about 2 hours. Overall a good day - some of it could be eliminated, but for $100 I didn’t expect it to be perfect.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

2009-03-26T01:30:00.005-06:00

Ok folks, I’m officially a wuss. The heat and humidity have knocked me completely. Plus I’m still recovering from the 3 hours of bus ride on the Viet Nam trip; it bumped and swayed all the way… a real killer for my bones.

Yesterday was Sihanoukville, Cambodia. This port is about 3 hours away from Phnom Penh - no tours there were offered. We docked right next to the old fishing village; the new city is about a mile away.

We chose to ride the shuttle into town. We left a little before 10 hoping to beat the worst of the heat. The minute I stepped off the bus I was surrounded by TukTuk drivers all wanting to give us a tour. We finally worked through that crowd and decided to just wander up the street a bit - one TukTuk driver stayed next to us the whole time trying to convince us to ride; he must have burned a fair amount of gas before he finally gave up. We walked for about 30 minutes and then decided maybe a tuktuk might be a good idea…it was HOT. We booked a hour with a nice young man that spoke pretty good English . He took us up to a temple and then around town. That was plenty of time in the heat for me and after a quick stop in the MiniMart we came back to the ship.

The MiniMart had potato chips!! I ended up buying 5 little bags; who could resist Garlic Softshell Crab, Hot Chili Squid, and Seaweed flavored chips?? I also got some cheese chips and a bag of original. Believe it or not they are made by Lays (Pepsico). I wonder what would happen if I went into King Soopers and asked them to order hot chili squid potato chips?

Back at the ship we had a quick bite of lunch and then I lay down to read… an hour and a half later I woke up. The rest of the day was just about the same except I did go to the Cabaret Lounge for the Folkloric show which was very good and lasted about an hour. The costumes for this one were especially beautiful.

Today is a sea day - we have nothing planned. Tomorrow is Thailand but we have been notified that we will port far from Bangkok so I am going to cancel my tour; I can’t face 5 hours of bus rides right now. Jim is still planning to go on the tour to Bangkok.

Saigon

2009-03-24T04:03:00.006-06:00

The name was officially changed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1975 but most people still call it Saigon. When we woke up at a little before 6:00 we were already in the river heading toward the port. Along the side of our ship we saw mostly jungle. About every ¼ mile there were about 4 or 5 small fishing boats anchored in a row perpendicular to the shore. It was just getting light and on some of them we could see people up and what looked like a small fire for cooking breakfast. Since these small wooden boats have a unique shape, we took lots of photos. Further up the river we encountered more large ship traffic. Getting closer to the port the captain announced that we were being assigned a different docking spot and that the new spot was still occupied. Both events would delay our arrival slightly. We were putting along near our dock - we knew it was our spot because of all the buses and about a dozen ladies dressed in traditional Vietnamese clothing were lining the dock holding balloons. Soon the freighter pulled out and we moved in. Next the chimes rang and the captain announced the gangway was open and that the captain and the first officer of the freighter had apparently gotten into an altercation and one of them was forcibly removed from the ship. Now there was a rush to get tour groups going to try to keep to their schedule.

Our tour, which was scheduled for all day, was for the Mekong Delta. Although the bus ride was about 1 ½ hours long it was very interesting; lots of all types of businesses jammed together. Each one about 10 feet wide and 25 feet deep with a house behind. Some of the houses were 3 stories tall and very beautiful. Traffic was crazy even though 90% was scooters. Our guide, Thimh (Tim), told us they are not scooters or motor bikes, they are all called Hondas no matter who manufactured them.

We finally made it to the delta and boarded our small boat for a short ride on the river. The bus had an attempt at air conditioning - now it is really hot and humid. At least there was a slight breeze while on the river; we didn‘t know it at the time, but that was our only relief from the heat until we got back on the bus. Getting off the boat at a garden area we walked for a while then were served a local variety of fruits accompanied by local musicians and singers.

Then we boarded sampans, which hold 4 people and 2 paddlers and traveled very narrow canals for about ¼ mile. Getting out at a different village we were treated to tea and candied ginger. Next we walk on a path through the jungle for a while to the restaurant for lunch which is still pretty much surrounded by jungle. Lunch was all local foods and included elephant ear fish and big sticky rice balls that looked like a dinosaur egg. More beautiful gardens surround this area.
Back in the river boat we head for our bus which has been moved to a close location by our guide so we have a better chance to get back to the ship on time. Same route back and just in time - 15 minutes to spare.

We spent the evening on the balcony watching the shoreline go by until it got too dark to see.

Beijing Part 4

2009-03-23T20:39:00.004-06:00

We traveled about 30 minutes on the bus and then had lunch in one of the smaller villages. This place was a huge tourist stop… an enormous souvenir shop with a restaurant. The food was the same as we had had all along but it was fun looking around the shopping area. I’m just not a great shopper for souvenirs… I used to buy them but after a couple years they just become dust collectors.

After lunch we went to the area of the Ming Tombs. There are 13 tombs throughout the area built by emperors of the Ming Dynasty. We visited the grand tomb of changling built for Emporer Yongle in 1427. The actual tomb is in the hillside behind the structures and you don’t go there, but the main building had been turned into a museum and was interesting… anyway I love the ancient Chinese architecture.

After this we did a leisurely walk down the Sacred Way. A stone pathway lined with statues and stone animals… another great photo op!

This was pretty much the end of the tour. We headed back to the hotel. Many of the people were heading out to dinner and shopping but I didn’t have one ounce of energy left so we stayed in and hit the bed early as we had to meet the bus at 6:30 in the morning for our return to the airport.

Alarm clock at 5:00 am and bag outside the door by 5:30... Aaack, but we did it and then had a bite of breakfast… then on to the bus. The airport went quite smoothly although I did give in and use a wheelchair (as did a couple others) - a good thing… I’d still be walking. It was a loooong way to the gate.

We landed at the Hong Kong airport, claimed our luggage and then boarded the buses for the ship. It was a good hour ride to the port, but all we really saw were huge apartment buildings and many bridges. They welcomed us back onboard with a glass of fruit punch… we headed back to the cabin and doctored ours with a shot and sat on the balcony to relax. The night ended with the light show on the Hong Kong harbor as we sailed away.

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE THIS HAS BEEN.

Cruisephobic - you asked what place I would return to so far. I think I would like to actually see Shanghai. We didn’t get to see it as we left for the overland tour. Easter Island would be my choice as a complete getaway from people. I’d like to rent a little house overlooking the sea and spend a couple weeks… then I’d miss King Soopers and it would be time to go home.

Beijing part 3

2009-03-22T05:47:00.005-06:00

[Jim wrote this section to give me a break]

We got up early and had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. Then boarded the busses. Leonard said that since we were all so good at being on time, we could have a quick stop at the Olympic center. The temperature was a little cooler this morning because of wind out of the north last night which also eliminated some of the smog and the sky was bluer. We saw the “Birdsnest” and the water sports building. It was a long walk and we didn’t have much time so pictures were on the fly. Back on the bus heading to the “Great Wall”.

There are 5 circular highways that encircle Beijing for better traffic control. Once we were on the 5th ring, even during rush hour, the traffic wasn’t too bad. Soon we were in the countryside and could see the mountains. Leonard pointed out the village where he grew up and said he used to ride his bike to the Great Wall in 30 minutes.

10 minutes into the mountains we could see some of the Great wall. What a sight. We are actually looking at the Great Wall with our own yes - not a picture, not a video shot from the space shuttle, and not in a movie. Traveling on into the mountains for about 20 minutes we stop at the Ba Da Ling area of the Great Wall. Leonard said construction started over 2,000 years ago and continued off and on until about 1,000 years ago. It is approximately 4,473 miles long. A lot of what we saw had been restored but we did see some that had obviously not been touched. Leonard said we could go left or right from here. Left was a tougher climb but less people. Looking to the right the wall is covered with people. We were allowed 2 hours before our meeting time.

We went left. Quite a few steps up to the first tower - a moderate incline up the stone walk - then some stairs up to the 2nd tower. Sue was having a difficult time at this point. Knowing that this was the highlight of the trip for her, I decided to urge her (with help from me and the railing) to the next tower. This was a very steep incline with just a few steps into the next tower. We made it and Sue was ultimately glad to come this far. Back to the meeting area with time for shopping where we purchased our “I climbed the Great Wall” T-Shirts. Next was back on the bus - time for lunch.

Beijing Part 2

2009-03-22T01:37:00.006-06:00

Lunch was at the Regal Palace Theatre Restaurant and was made up of typical foods; first cold dishes, then hot, then soup and then fruit. Way too much food. I tried a bit of almost all the dishes - most I liked… some not as much as others.

I think I’ve forgotten to mention that while we were all planning for very cool weather - it was hot; almost 80 degrees. We were all a bit too warm in the clothes we had packed. So the lunch and beer were a nice break. Afterwards we headed for the Temple of Heaven which was only about a ten minute drive away.

The Temple of Heaven was built in about 1440 and was where the emperor would go to pray for a good harvest. The architecture is unique in that it is round instead of rectangular. When we got to the site, Leonard told our lost guy to stick with him like ‘white on rice’ this time! I really liked this site, especially the old trees and gardens. The temple any many of the other buildings are built only with wood (no nails, etc). The supporting columns are cut from one tree - that is why they are built in tiers; no tier can be taller that the available trees. After a couple hours here, we headed back to the hotel for a freshen-up and then it was off to a special dinner.

Dinner was at the Quanjude Restaurant for Beijing Duck. I was expecting some quaint small restaurant… this place was huge; two stories and packed with people. Again, it was served in the same courses; cold, hot, main, soup, fruit. Way, way too much food here and it was almost all duck, except for a few vegetables. Deep fried duck leg with wild pepper, diced duck with cashew, sweet and sour duck… you get the idea and those were only the pre- main courses. Then the chef rolled in a cart and hacked up the ducks tableside. This is the Peking duck we are used to - only far better than I’ve ever had at home. (Peking / Beijing… same thing different pronunciation)

While we were eating a lady in full costume came out and went up to several tables (not ours). She was surrounded by photographers and a TV camera. Naturally I had to run over and get pictures too. Our guide said she was an opera star.

We finally waddled out of the restaurant and went back to the hotel for another early start the next day.

Beijing part 1

2009-03-21T03:38:00.005-06:00

After a buffet breakfast at the hotel we boarded the buses. First stop was Tiananmen Square; the largest city gathering spot in the world. It really is huge; they say that it will hold a million people - probably true as there were several thousand there while we were and it almost seemed empty. Our tour buses parked right across the street from the square - the only ones allowed to do that; we had seen other tour groups walking in from blocks away. The second photo here of the guards marching by gives you an idea of the smog - it was right in front of the monument which is almost hidden in the smog. We had about an hour to walk around and take pictures and then we headed for the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was built in the last dynasties, the Ming and Qing dynasties. It covers about 250 acres and includes pavilions, halls, courtyards, gardens, and gates. I could have spent a couple days here, but we did have a fair amount of time. Leonard (our guide) would stop and give us a short briefing on a building or other site and then 15 or 20 minutes free… then on to the next special area. It worked well; everyone seemed satisfied except one. He took off on his own and said he would meet us at the end. Well, he never showed up and after the group looking for him our guide reported him as missing and we went on to lunch. (this is the man that’s doing the big CruiseCritic post on this cruise). It had a good ending… but expensive for him as he said he had to pay $100 for a taxi to the restaurant.
(will continue soon!)

Shanghai to Beijing

2009-03-20T21:10:00.002-06:00

Shanghai
Wow what city. We were well into the port area this morning at 5:30 when we woke up. Our room service guy said we had been in the port for several hours. It runs upriver for many miles. The buildings were magnificent; beautiful skyscrapers with wonderful designs. We docked directly across from the building with the two red globe-shaped areas. Also nearby was the port building that had two huge glass world globes; one at each end. I’d love to be able to see the inside of some of these buildings but this trip we won’t see any more of the city except on our bus ride to the airport.

We cleared immigration on the ship in about 10 minutes, but we were the last group through. The earlier tours had a considerable wait in line until the Chinese officials actually started processing people. After that we went up and had a buffet breakfast and then killed a couple hours on the balcony watching all the boats and ships go by in the river. Then it was time to meet for the tour.

There are only 81 people on the tour and we have 3 coaches so it won’t be crowded. The ride to the airport was about an hour and then the guides handed out boarding passes and passports and we progressed through security to the gate. All very quick! The airport is very nice and there were a number of shops on the concourse. [written at the airport at the start of the trip]
------------------------------
[written after the tour]
The flight to Beijing was only an hour and 30 minutes and we proceeded through the airport quite quickly and were loaded onto three buses to take us to the Great Wall Sheraton - 5 star hotel.

Good heavens - the smog; so bad you couldn’t see ¼ mile. We did get to see some of the city. With a population of 20 million it is completely packed with tall apartment buildings. The roads are jammed with cars (our driver, Tom was unbelievable throughout the whole trip). All of the Chinese guides have ‘working names’; our guide was Leonard. He, too, was excellent. He was an English major so we had no problems understanding him and each day he did Chinese lessons for us to help us speak a couple words. The ride to the hotel took a little over an hour and then by the time we got checked in and to our rooms it was time for dinner… then I was too pooped to do anything except go to bed.
Stay tuned….

We are back from the Great Wall

2009-03-20T16:25:00.001-06:00

We are back from the Great Wall. Fantastic trip. I will be writing and organizing pictures and posting very soon.

At Sea

2009-03-16T03:40:00.002-06:00

This was a foggy and very cool sea day. We attended the last presentation by John Maxtone Graham. He and his wife, Mary, did a series of short plays. The subtitle was "Everything you have always wanted to know about passengers but were too polite to inquire." It is very funny and a great ending for his series of lectures. They get off in Hong Kong so we won't see them any more after today.

Tomorrow is Shanghai - We leave for our Overland tour to Beijing for the Great Wall. I'll have my computer with me, but I'm not sure how much I will be able to post. We will be back to the ship in Hong Kong, 4 days later.

Incheon, Korea

2009-03-15T23:11:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning we arrived in Incheon. The approach to the pier was quite interesting as it is a very sheltered harbor controlled by a flood gate (lock). There was a tug at the stern to help keep it centered in the lock, but it was very windy and the Captain had to use the forward thruster all the time to keep us from hitting the side bumpers… We did hit them a few times so there is probably some paint missing from the side of the ship - there were marks on the bumpers. It was quite interesting to watch - we went in and out quite a bit alternating hot coffee and warm cabin with the balcony.

was quite cold but it was supposed to get up to about 50 so we waited until noon to head out. It seemed most people were heading to Seoul either by tour or on their own for shopping. How much shopping can people really do??? I guess not being a shopaholic saves me a good deal of money.

When we went ashore we realized that since it was Sunday most everything near the pier was closed but we found our way to the Sinpo local market and wandered through just looking and taking pictures. I have to admit the prices had me a bit baffled… the exchange rate is about $1.00 = W1,300. So the rack of jeans with the sign W5000 cost only $4 ??? Now, these weren’t Levi’s, but still a pair of jeans for four dollars is awfully cheap. I mostly enjoy the stalls with the food - took many shots of those.

Then it was back to the ship to get out of the cold - I think the 50 degrees was a wish. We left port about 8:00 and after that I crawled into bed to read.
We will have one sea day and then Shanghai where we leave for our overland trip to the Beijing and the Great Wall.

Hiroshima, Japan

2009-03-12T17:33:00.009-06:00

Friday, March 13 8:00 am (it is 5:00pm in Denver). We are approaching the port in Hiroshima - it is gray, foggy, and raining. COLD Part of our scheduled tour is a 2 mile walk… I’m debating whether to go…. I really want to ride the bullet train, but the walk doesn’t sound appealing.

Our weather was beautiful yesterday, cold (35F) early and about 50F at 1:00 when we returned to the ship but the sun was shining. Last night we cruised the Inland Sea which would have been great in the daylight with all the islands, boats and towns along the way.

There were 60 people on our tour and divided into two coaches so they weren’t full. We left the ship and went directly to the train station for our bullet train ride to Iwakuni to visit the Kintai Bridge and Samari houses. The train is fantastic - comfortable and quiet; no clacking along the rails. Our ride was only 20 minutes and there were many tunnels through the mountains. The speed was about 200MPH. Amtrak needs to go this way and maybe people will actually take trains again… I probably would.

In Iwakuni we had a short coach ride to the bridge which has three large curved spans and two smaller ones. The frame is built without nails. Very impressive. It was raining and the sky was very gray and foggy but I took a number of pictures - the umbrellas sort of added to the ambiance. We crossed the bridge and wandered a bit among some shops and houses and then returned to the bus to get out of the rain.

We then went to the Aki Grande Hotel for lunch. The lunch was completely laid out for us when we arrived and consisted of many different little dishes… kind of a taster meal. It was quite good. Jim even ate the sashimi… he said it was like fish flavored bubble gum. (He’s one of those that wants food cooked!)

After lunch we had a ride through the countryside back to Hiroshima and a stop at Peace Park for the A-bomb dome. There isn’t much that can be said about the dome; it is a silent reminder of the power of nuclear weapons. Then we went back to the ship. Good ship tour - I’ll give it an A. The weather was bad but so far we have been very lucky and our bad weather has pretty much been sea days.

Osaka, Japan

2009-03-12T15:45:00.003-06:00

We got in line at 7:15 this morning for immigration and customs - it was already very long even though everyone had specific times to report. As I looked around us I saw people holding 8:00 and 7:45 time sheets… you know how that goes they feel they are so special they don’t need to wait for their time. Anyway, we got processed in plenty of time for Jim to grab a bite of breakfast and then we met the bus for our tour.

I hate to admit that I wasn’t listening too carefully to our guide in the bus, but I was fascinated just looking out the windows. But a couple facts I did pick up - the prefecture of Osaka has 8.8 million people; the city was virtually flattened in WWII. There are beautiful sky scrapers and many bridges. The road system is amazing in some areas there are stacks of 5 or maybe more roadways curving in all directions.

Our first stop was the Sumiyoshi Shrine. This Shinto Shrine is a Japanese Treasure. It was a wonderful place for photographs. It wasn’t too crowded and many of the people were not tourists; they were there to pray. I did quite a bit of “shoot from the hip” as I didn’t want to impose on their worship.

The other stop was at the Osaka Castle. I wish we were two weeks later… they cherry trees were just about to bloom; the buds were big but not quite ready to open. The castle itself is a museum and was rebuilt in 1931. It is exactly what you picture for a fairy tale Japanese castle; White with the dark green/black roof with the upswept corners and lots of gold trim and it is surrounded by a moat. What’s not to like there?? I’ve always wanted a moat around my house. The whole park area is huge and includes a baseball field, playground, band-shell and beautiful gardens and bridges.

We had a fair amount of time at both stops to wander and take the photos I wanted so I was pleased with the tours.

This is the Royal Princess’ maiden (inaugural) call in Osaka so there was a band playing on the pier as we arrived and there will be a ceremony at 5:00 for the presentation of the plaques with city and ship officials followed by a ninja show.

At Sea

2009-03-10T18:07:00.000-06:00

This is the last of our 3 sea days between Guam and Osaka, Japan. We filled out and returned (to the Purser) our immigration and Customs paperwork yesterday. We will report to the lounge tomorrow morning at 7:15 to be processed. This will include face to face interviews, photo and fingerprinting for all passengers. We will leave at about 8:00 for our morning tour.

Last night was really rough. It kept us awake until about 2:00 in the morning with the ship slamming into the waves and swells. It felt like the ship was slamming into a wall; each time there was a slam and then a ripple shudder through the ship. This is the first time in 30+ cruises that the sea has ever kept me awake! It is much better this morning, but we slept until 7:30 - our room service steward said he wondered what happened to us.

Congrats to the chef! Last night was formal night and we went to the dining room. I ordered the prawns and lobster for the first time in years… The lobster was perfect although about the same size as the prawns. I quit ordering it a long time back as it always seemed poor. There really is no way to cook that much seafood and expect it to be really good. Another benefit of the small ship!

Guam

2009-03-09T15:56:00.003-06:00

Ben - See comments.

We were in Guam on Sunday. Our only plan was a trip to Kmart. The there was a free shuttle from the ship to the Duty Free mall in the Resort area of Tumon and then there were local shopping trolleys that you could hop to go to different malls and hotels. We decided to taxi from the ship to Kmart and then trolley to the DF mall. $50 for the taxi to Kmart - aaack!… but we got there fairly quickly and did our shopping. I now have undies with elastic, some scissors for hair trimming and a few other assorted things we had on the list including POTATO CHIPS. I’m all better now, my craving for chips is fixed!

This was a short port stop - only 5 hours. We were back in about 3 hours and the air conditioning felt good. At 5:00 a group of local children boarded and did local folkloric dances. They were very good

Monday was another of the laid back sea days for us. We didn’t do anything of note except attending one of John’s lectures on the Normandy (the ship, not invasion as some of the passengers were expecting).
The temperature in Guam and Rabual was near 90 with very high humidity. Hot, Hot, Hot. We are now headed northwest to Japan and it is noticeably cooling - temps there will probably be near 45. They we head to China where it is very cold. The temps we have been seeing for Beijing are in the 30s.

Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

2009-03-05T15:39:00.003-07:00

This was the best stop so far. Rabaul has been a German, Australian and Japanese possession. It is best known as the huge Japanese base during WWII. It included 5 airfields, a seaplane and submarine base and support facilities for up to 100 ships with 200,000 personnel. To escape the Allied air attacks the Japanese dug hundreds of tunnels in the surrounding mountains.

It is also in the Ring of Fire, the harbor area is actually a caldera formed 1400 years ago… the last major eruption in 1994 buried the town and surrounding area in 8 feet of ash. The people escaped, but returned a few days later to find only the tops of the tallest structures visible. Most people relocated to Kokopo, a town further around the coast from the volcano, but some remained and have dug out some of the buildings or built new ones on top of the ash. Prior to the eruption, this was a large thriving town and tourist center; today it is quite primitive.

We booked a private van at the market; Helen was our guide and Richard our driver. They were both completely bilingual as both English and their native language are taught in the schools. They took us to the island (separated from the mainland by a sandbar which we were able to drive across) where she lived prior to 1994. Nothing will grow in the ash so the people that are trying to live there make their slim living by fishing. The houses were ramshackle, built of whatever could be gathered. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time; the people were so friendly and the kids very cute and shy.

They also took us to the tunnels built by the Japanese and we were able to go into a couple of them and we visited the site of a Japanese airfield. One aircraft has been dug out of the ash (WWII - over 60 years ago). After that we went to the earthquake monitoring center on the mountain above the town.

They only get 6 cruise ships in a year, so our visit was one of the real exceptions to their daily routines. After our return we spent the time on the balcony watching the volcano and some of the local people circling the ship in their dubout canoes until our departure at 2:00 (short port stop!).

Today (Friday, March 6) is the Equator crossing ceremony for the new pollywogs onboard. Jim and I became shellbacks when we crossed the equator some weeks ago and “Golden Shellbacks” when we crossed the dateline on the same voyage. Wow, aren’t you impressed??

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2009-03-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Let’s start with Superb:
The breads, pastries and desserts; the best I’ve ever had. I have never had a great sweet-tooth but I am eating so many of the desserts I might actually gain some weight. (In my case that is a good thing).
The best desserts are actually in the buffet at lunch time (on sea days). They have a whole table of beautifully presented desserts to choose from.
John Maxtone Graham’s lectures. He is truly the best speaker I think I’ve ever heard. We have really enjoyed getting to know them better.
The library. I have been getting a new book almost every other day - there are 4000 to choose from and it is a beautiful room with comfortable furniture too.
Brunch. It is beautifully presented and has a great choice of breakfast and lunch foods and, of course, the desserts.

Good: Most everything.

The ship is very clean and our steward keeps our room in good shape.
Morning room service arrives in 5 to 10 minutes each day.
Food is good with a couple meals even better.
Entertainment. We haven’t seen many of the evening shows, but the reports from others are that they are quite good. The daytime activities are good and we have attended a number of them ranging from trivia to lectures.
Ship staff. Since this is such a small ship, the crew and staff have to perform many extra duties; the dancers also act for the cruise director hosting things like trivia and meetings.
Passengers - almost all are very friendly and well-traveled. Many of them have done long cruises like this before. People are willing to share ideas and experiences. This is not a ‘beautiful people’ cruise and other than formal evenings dress is extremely casual (perhaps too casual as in the very large ladies in the tiny bikinis at the pool each day - oh, perhaps that should be below in the section below).

The Bad:

The bed. Even though Princess is supposed to have replaced all the bedding on all the ships the mattress is bad. We have a 2 inch foam topper and it now feels like foam on concrete. The linens are nice.
$60 for a haircut. I went up to the salon for a haircut expecting $30 which was what I paid for my last onboard haircut (different cruise line). I about fell over when she said it was $60. Since I have really short hair right now I thought that it was ridiculous but since I had already been cut I was stuck (lesson: ask first). I’ll just get shaggy from now to the end, or trim with nail scissors.
Our room steward’s attitude. He keeps the room nice and clean, but he is the surliest person we have ever met on any ship. He acts as if he hates his job.
The chairs in the Cabaret Lounge. They are really back-killers and because of their barrel shape you can’t curl up at all to get comfortable. It isn’t just my complaint - everyone agrees.
The laundry. It’s hard to complain when we have free laundry service (elite benefit) but they are ruining much of what we have sent. T-shirts come back stretched several sizes larger and the elastic is completely stretched out on all my undies.

Great Barrier Reef

2009-03-02T20:33:00.002-07:00

We docked yesterday morning right near the city center of Cairns, Australia. It is a large city, but has no high-rise buildings.

At 8:00 we went directly from our ship onto the Reef Magic catamaran for the 90 minute trip to the reef. The boat was really big with air conditioned / enclosed upper and lower decks as well as some outside areas. Jim decided he would do the Resort Dive Course (for first time divers) and took part of the instruction while we were heading to the reef. The Reef Magic platform at the reef is huge - there was plenty of room for everyone without any crowding. They provided snorkel equipment free and also rides in a semi-submersible sub. Diving cost extra. There were also helicopter rides (for a considerable fee) which we passed. A buffet lunch was also provided.

I wasn’t sure how my legs/pelvis/back would hold up to using fins so I stayed pretty close to the platform and did quite well. There were many many bright colored fish of all sizes. I followed one bright blue parrot fish for quite a while as he swam through the reef in search of nibbles. I couldn’t see what he was eating, but he seemed to find plenty of it. There was much coral right near the platform. We were lucky here that we took the ship excursion as we heard from some others that had booked private excursions that the coral was way too deep to see and that there were almost no fish.

Jim made it through his first dive and was exhausted and very pleased with himself. They put him and one other lady in the last class as neither of them were good swimmers and had no experience diving. He said he loved seeing everything but didn’t feel like he could relax at all. We bought a picture of him with Wally; a huge blue Maori fish that is very friendly. I got to pat Roxie, a smaller Maori that was in the snorkeling area. I assumed that the guides fed these fish to bring them in, but they said no - since it is a protected area they don’t feed them at all except in a special “feeding” (right before we left) and the food type (all fish) is strictly controlled - no scraps. The Maori fish just like people and come to socialize. They have to realize that they are pretty much the stars! It was as much fun to watch the people as the fish as the fish would rub up against you and nudge you if you didn’t pay attention to it. I wish I could post the picture of Jim and the fish, but it is hard copy and I don‘t have access to a scanner. It will be in the slideshow video we will post a couple weeks after the trip. There will be a link from the Luxury Cruise & Travel website.

We ate a sandwich supper right after getting back on the ship and had a cocktail on the balcony as we left Cairns. Then I hit the bed completely pooped out.

This evening we will have dinner with John and Mary Maxtone Graham. We realized that they will be off the ship in Hong Kong when we return from our overland tour to the Great Wall in a couple weeks.
We have two sea days before Rabaul.

At Sea

2009-02-28T16:17:00.001-07:00

It is Sunday, March 1, our second day at sea between Brisbane and Cairns. What a beautiful morning; we woke up at about 6:30 and looked out the door to see islands very close. If you want to get our location, we are just slightly south of Townsville. We spent most of the morning on the balcony drinking coffee and watching the islands drift by… we are only going about 12 knots and the temp is about 75 so it is really perfect. We will go to the Sunday Brunch at 10:30 and I’ll try to add more later.
----------
After a great brunch we did NOTHING. We spent the day reading and napping.

Brisbane, Australia

2009-02-27T14:11:00.001-07:00

We encountered a very strong current during the night and were an hour late getting into port in Brisbane. We were docked far from the city at the grain terminal. They have some tents erected at this dock for cruise passengers (think DIA). Since we were on a tour it didn’t make much difference to us, but it did mean that there was a 45 minute shuttle ride to the city center for those going on their own.
Brisbane is another beautiful city; it’s very young, the average age is just 33 and the city reflects that. There are not many old buildings - it’s mostly new glass skyscrapers.

We had booked an afternoon tour to the Koala Park, but it was canceled and we were moved to the morning tour. We usually book afternoon tours as they are less full - this time it wasn’t full enough to happen. Oh well. Since the ship was an hour late into port we only had an hour at the Koala park which wasn’t enough time but the schedule was dictated by having to catch our “riverboat” for a cruise back to the city.

All in all I give this tour a C- ; pretty much what I usually expect of a ship tour. The park was very commercial and most of the Koalas and other animals were sleeping. I did pay the $$ to hold a koala and have my picture taken - she was pretty cute. (BTW those aren’t wrinkles on my face… they are funny shadows). The river cruise lasted about 1 ½ hours and just passed many multi-million dollar houses bordering the river.

Ben- My hiking and bridge climbing days are probably over. I had an accident a couple years ago that shattered my pelvis and has left me somewhat disabled. I thought you might have noticed the cane in a couple of the pictures.

Sydney, Australia

2009-02-25T15:48:00.002-07:00

What a beautiful city! We didn’t rush off the ship as most people did but we were off and at the Hop-on Hop-off bus stop by 10:00. We did the loop of most of the city and then got off at the Aquarium. There were only about 6 people in line to buy tickets so we made a restroom stop - bad choice. When we got back to the ticket area it was packed - tour buses had arrived. We got a couple espressos and waited a bit to see if it would thin out, but it stayed full for a long time so I decided I really didn’t need to see it that bad. Waiting in lines is not something I like to do! I decided to finish the bus tour and return to the ship and Jim took the monorail to the Maritime Museum to tour the Destroyer and submarine.

Sydney is a beautiful mixture of historic Victorian buildings and modern skyscrapers. It reminds me a bit of Denver as the historic buildings are about the same age, but they have done a much better job of preservation. Way too many of the buildings in Denver were torn down in the 50’s & 60’s before they realized their value and started the preservation efforts.

This was also “turn over day”. Those people that were only on segment 1 disembarked and we have new faces onboard. We also have a new Captain and some changes in crew and staff.

Bernie, Tasmania

2009-02-22T18:21:00.009-07:00

We docked at Bernie at about 8:00 this morning. It is a gray and cloudy day with temps about 65. I’m hoping it might clear this afternoon for our tour to Wings Wildlife Park. We waited until 8:30 to go to the buffet for breakfast so that all the morning tour people would already be gone. After we ate we looked down at the pier and saw a person in a red robe greeting people getting off the ship. We quickly came back to the cabin for the camera and went down to meet him. He is the Mayor of Bernie and he and his wife greet all the cruise ships. They will have 23 this year - three of which are this week. We talked with them for some time and I was disappointed to learn that they have penguins here…. But they don’t come into shore until after 6:00pm and we sail at 5:30. I want to stay and see the penguins!

Our tour was wonderful. We were in a 55 passenger bus with only about 25 people so Jim and I could each have a window. We drove through some wonderful country side and small towns. It is very pretty here with all the flowers, but our guide said they are in a drought so the fields are dry.

Wings Wildlife Park is a private family run animal rehabilitation center. It is a great place to visit as you can get in the pens with a number of the animals to feed them. We saw the Tasmanian Devils just as they were being fed. They are cute but quite vicious - I wouldn’t want to have one mad at me. They also had wombats, koalas, kangaroos, birds, reptiles, emus, and even a couple camels and a buffalo. Since there wasn’t a guide around when we got to those pens I couldn’t ask how they received them.

The Koalas were very cute but I fell in love with a baby wombat… they wouldn’t let me bring him back home with me. I also really liked the pen with the kangaroos; we got a handful of grain and were able to hand-feed them. There was a mother with a baby - he was out of the pouch eating leaves as I approached. Even though I was very slow and stayed fairly far away he ran back and jumped into the pouch. In about a minute you could see him turn himself over (that can’t be too comfortable for mama) and out came his head. He stayed in there the rest of the time even as we were feeding mama kangaroo.

We had over 2 hours to explore the park and then the bus took a slightly different route back to the ship. We traveled through some mountains that were very beautiful with all the unique trees and large ferns. Our guide was pretty good and named many of the trees and other flora we were seeing and also points of interest. For a ship tour I give this one a high rating.
When we got back to the ship there was a Pipe band playing on the dock for our sail-away. We watched them for a few minutes and got a few pictures and then went to the finals of the boar-building contest. There were 4 entries - one tipped and lost the required cargo (a six-pack). Two of the boats were quite exceptional; their builders had put a lot of time building them. The other two were just trays with plastic bottles underneath for flotation and a bit of decoration on top. The winner was the one built by the kids even though the “Ghetto Princess” the other detailed one was probably better … it’s hard when you are competing against kids.

Cruisephobic - I am aware that we can check the news and stocks via the web... and we have also had FOX network all along, but it's been easier (at least more pleasant)to be oblivious!

One-third of the trip is finished

2009-02-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is our third sea day; one more and then we port in Burnie, Tasmania. We just cleared Australian Customs and Immigration (7:00 am) in the Cabaret Lounge. It’s the first time I’ve been dressed that early! It was a pretty painless process - a real benefit of the small ship is no long lines.

Note to Peter - you are listed as our emergency contact for Australia as yours was the only address we could remember while standing there. If we are bad and go to jail you can come to get us out. How is Fred?

The sea was really rough the last couple nights and all day yesterday. They had a some of the outside decks closed. We could step out onto our balcony, but the wind and spray sent us back inside quickly. We heard people from the starboard side saying their balconies were flooding from the spray. We are port side and were sheltered from the wind… If our side was sheltered I can’t imagine what their side was like. It is a bit calmer this morning, but still pretty choppy. I am so impressed with the way this small ship handles the rough seas. It rocks far less than the larger ships we have been on. I guess it is the see-saw (teeter-totter) effect. When the board is short the high end isn’t very high but when the board is very long it goes way up… and what goes up must come down.

By now we recognize everyone onboard and have talked with many of them. When there is a new face it is an entertainer - they have changed at several of the ports. We will be loosing about 200 passengers in Sydney - that’s almost 1/3 of the ship - they must have run a real promo on that particular segment. Many of those people have said that they booked primarily for the chance to go to Easter Island. Segment 2 will have the lowest passenger number and then I’ve heard we fill back up in Dubai.

What are you folks doing to the DOW??? We have CNN back and Jim just said it’s under 7500.

Entering the Tasman Sea

2009-02-18T17:58:00.001-07:00

We are rounding the North Cape at the tip of New Zealand to enter the Tasman Sea this morning. It is gray and raining a bit this morning. We have traveled 9564 miles so far.
Auckland was a beautiful city. The population is over a million so it is not a small place. The city is a mixture of Victorian buildings and modern buildings with many skyscrapers. We took the hop-on hop-off bus around the city to the Sky Tower and got off. We rode the elevator up to all three levels and took some pictures and then had some ‘real’ coffee (I.e. not miserable ship coffee) and then walked about 8 blocks back to the ship.

We were docked right next to the ferry terminal and the ferries ran all day - an amazing number of them and all filled with people.

Last night we had one of the special shows; a group from NZ came onboard and preformed the Maori dances. It was interesting, but when you try to crowd about 600 people into the Cabaret Lounge which only seats about 200 it was a bit too crowded for me. I tried to get a few pictures and then ducked out the back. We had a cocktail on the balcony watching the reflection of the sunset in the buildings and then I hit the bed. Jim stayed out on the balcony reading (with the book light) until we sailed at about 10:00. We are really turning into lazy bums as we slept until 7:00 this morning.

NOTE: I’ve adjusted the date on my computer, but not the time… it still has the Denver time.

Auckland, New Zealand

2009-02-17T11:56:00.001-07:00

We awoke this morning just as we were approaching the port in Auckland. It was still dark and the skyline was magnificent with all the lights and the sky tower lit up. The port here is within walking distance of the city center so we will do a bit a walking and perhaps ride the Hop-on Hop-off bus. I think we have only had one port in two weeks so even I am looking forward to a day on land. I’ll report more after we go ashore.

I added pictures to yesterday’s post. The bakery in the galley; a shot showing the Maitre d’, the First Purser for food & beverage, me, and the Master Chef (he did the tour for us). I also added a shot of the albatross that was with us all afternoon and evening… is that good luck or bad?

Cheryl, CruiseCritic is a website (http://www.cruisecritic.com/) with much information about cruising. You can find your upcoming cruise on the appropriate roll call board and meet others on it. It is a good way to get and share information on the ship, ports and even plan group events or excursions. Just remember, like all websites… the info you read is all “someone’s opinion” so take it for what it’s worth. J We have met many wonderful people over the years, some of whom we are still in contact with.

The Case of the Missing Monday

2009-02-16T12:59:00.002-07:00

It is Tuesday, February 17th, yesterday was Sunday the 15th. We crossed the International Dateline so there was no Monday the 16th ; the crew is quite happy as they get paid for it! We also had a weird time change… the night before last we set the clocks back 1 hour (as we have been doing quite often) and then last night we set them forward 1 hour. Now tell me why with no port call it was necessary to make those changes???

Since I mentioned the crew above… what a hard working bunch of people. It seems that they get a day off about once in three weeks and, as you know, their hours are long. By now most of them know the names of the passengers and everyone seems quite comfortable. I don’t imagine that this is a difficult passenger base, but I think many of them are dealing with a bit of boredom and probably a slightly lower income as this is not a drinking and spa-going group of passengers as they would get on a 7 or 10 day cruise.

We have a special Galley tour at 10:00 this morning for the CruiseCritics. I just got the invite late yesterday afternoon so we tried to spread the word quite quickly - I hope most people heard about it. I always like visiting the galley - it is really remarkable how they manage to feed the entire ship - even more remarkable on he mega-ships.

Is the albatros good luck or bad? He was with us all afternoon and evening.

Rock’n and Roll’n at sea

2009-02-15T19:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Valentine’s day and the ship was completely decorated for it. They did the “Marriage Game” (newly wed game) and the 4 couples ranged from the newly wed to the nearly dead… and the ages fit well. It was very entertaining. I had told Jim if they needed participants I would volunteer us, but they had enough and we escaped! Jim had ordered flowers for me… when it was delivered it is so big we almost need a bigger cabin! It was a formal night and the dinner was wonderful. I had pork - it was called Wild Boar… but whatever it was it was great and had a wonderful mushroom sauce that didn’t skimp on the mushrooms.

Late in the afternoon the ship started hitting large swells that really had us bouncing. About 9:00 the seas got quite rough and we were rocked to sleep; just the way I like it. At about 2 in the morning both Jim and I were awakened by the rough seas - it was really really rough for several hours. We did get back to sleep after an hour or so and it had calmed pretty much by morning. There is still a bit more movement than we have had since our first couple days; people are using the railings in the halls and stairways, but it does make it seem like we are actually on a ship…

Trivia… we seem to lose by one point almost every day! We have a team of 3 to 6 people almost every day now depending on who shows up. Ian and Judy are the two real brains but we all seem to have pretty good input AND we keep it fun. If people start taking it too seriously it stops being fun.

In the Cook Islands

2009-02-12T11:41:00.002-07:00

NOTE: 15 minutes after I posted this the storm broke loose. The Captain rang the chimes and announced that the stop was being canceled.

We just dropped anchor at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Again we have an afternoon tour so we are having a lazy morning. The sky is very cloudy right now, but the island looks wonderful; you can see all the green jagged peaks. It is far less populated than Papeete… much more what I was looking for in a South Sea island. No sign of Saga Rose yet. (Bob, thanks for the spelling correction, I should have known it)

We have several sea days until our next port and there is only so much I can report on sea days even though I love them! If you have questions, this is the time to ask them in the comments area. I will try to answer them all as I have done with the one below.

Cheryl, As you probably are aware Royal Princess is a twin to the Azamara ships so you will feel right at home. Our regular size balcony cabin is working out very well for us even when we are used to the much larger suites on Celebrity and HAL. This cabin is lacking a bit in storage space, but we have found it to be ok… just don’t over pack. It does have a launderette, but we have free laundry service and have made much use of it. We also have a small desk/dressing table with two U.S. plugs (and two European plugs) so we have been able to keep everything charged with no problems. There is also a loveseat sized couch and a too-small coffee table. On the balcony we have two chairs and a little table. It is actually a pretty good size for a balcony cabin. I’m thinking it is actually a bit larger than the regular size balcony or CC cabins on Celebrity’s Millennium class… but that’s a guess. Our steward, Allan, has kept the cabin perfectly - no complaints that area or with any of the service. We have the same room service attendant every morning for our coffee and he greets us each day with Good Morning Mr. James and Good Morning Mrs. Susan.

Our longest cruise before this one was a 20 day cruise so this was a big jump for us too. We have done a number of transatlantic crossings and a Hawaii roundtrip from LAX so we knew that all the sea days would be just fine with us. There is plenty of entertainment, in fact, people are complaining as things overlap and they can’t attend everything they want. You won’t find belly flop contests or other raucous activities although they did have a pool volleyball contest passengers /vs. crew - they didn’t get enough passengers so they had to add the crew. I am enjoying all the activities I’ve attended; many of them are things I would have skipped on regular length cruises. Each day they have one or more Connections@Sea for groups like veterans, crafters, antique lovers, book lovers, police officers, submariners, etc. It is a great way to meet some of the other passengers with similar interests. The card room is full almost all day and you see people playing all sorts of games at tables throughout the ship. May I stow away in your suitcase next year??? We aren’t even half way through and I’m ready to do another one.

Tahiti

2009-02-11T11:53:00.002-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we did a 3 hour tour on Tahiti. We went inland to the national park and saw a dozen (or so) beautiful waterfalls. It is very green and lush and hot and humid, humid, humid. There were six of us in the back of a Land Rover with open sides so we had a wonderful view. The tour warned that it was not for folks with back problems… I went anyway and spent the whole time hanging on to the top bar to relieve the bouncing on my butt (to save my broken pelvis!) - This morning my right shoulder feels like it’s the size of a weight lifter’s, but actually I came through it very well. The light wasn’t particularly good for photos, but we took a bunch anyway.

Did you know that the highest peak in Tahiti is over 7,000 feet? I didn’t realize they were anywhere near that height. All of the major peaks are actually around the rim of the caldera; at one point on our tour the guide pointed this out and you could look around (and way up) and see that we were near the center of the circle of peaks.

When we returned to the ship it was another rush to the shower… we were so dusty there was actually dirt and sand left on the floor of the shower when we were done. We had hoped to attend the Island Deck Party later in the evening, but, weenies that we are, we were asleep before it started.

My thoughts on a Tahiti vacation… Spend a couple days near Papette and visit the inland area like we did and then head to Bora Bora and spend the rest of the time in one of the beautiful overwater bungalows. The water is beautiful; I wish we would have had time here to visit Moorea or Bora Bora and do some snorkeling.

2009-02-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over Tahiti. We woke up a bit early this morning… about 5:30. We have set our clocks back 5 times in the last 6 nights. Tahiti was already in sight although shrouded by mist. We watched the sun rise sitting on the balcony while drinking coffee. I do believe I could do this permanently! Have I won lotto while I am gone??? We are now in the port just about to dock.
I have a couple corrections to make from earlier posts. First, Sega Rose was Sega Fjord, not Vista Fjord (now Sega Ruby). Bingo has not been canceled, just moved and is only held every couple days.

A few more misc. thoughts: Royal Princess has the best desserts and breads we have had. Thank heavens I’m on a mission to gain some weight and can eat all of them I want! The food has all been good and the presentation is better than we have been finding on the other Premium lines. The lunch buffet has a different theme each day - it has been excellent. It is a bit crowded as there is only one main food station and the salad and dessert station is directly across from it with too little space in between. Almost everyone onboard is very polite so there isn’t a real problem.

There have been a couple funny errors… the t-shirts on sale for Easter Island say Eastern Island and the world cruise t-shirt has the itinerary map for the Tahitian Princess world cruise - not ours. Oh well, I bought the WC one anyway. So far that’s my only purchase… I’m not exactly a great souvenir shopper.

They just rang the chimes to announce that people can disembark. We’ll go to the buffet in a little while - our tour isn’t until this afternoon. In the distance we can see Sega Rose approaching.

Ben - there is a review of Eurodam on our website…

Another day at sea

2009-02-09T14:13:00.001-07:00

Another sea day. Tomorrow is Tahiti. We have an island 4-wheel drive tour in the afternoon.

I attended the presentation again this morning by the Master Chef. He should retire from Princess and get his own show. He puts on a better show than any of the chefs on TV.

I can’t think of any really interesting news so I’ll fill in with general info. This is not a “drinking crowd”; the ship is selling less alcohol than they had planned. The casino is getting a little use, but mostly the penny machines. I have seen a few people at the tables in the afternoon, but they have lowered the limits to $1 from 3 to 6. I did feed one of the starving slots $5, so I’ve probably saved it from starving. They actually canceled Bingo! That is a first on any ship I’ve ever been on - there wasn’t enough attendance for them to break even. They said they would try again after Auckland (the end of segment 1). We have 200 people getting off in Auckland and not nearly that many boarding so the ship will not be full for that segment.

All of the lectures and presentations are completely full… In other words, this is an adult, well-traveled passenger cruise that doesn’t need much entertaining. The library is very busy -- a bit of déjà vu: I just finished a Greg Isles book and in reading his bio I see that he plays guitar in the Rock Bottom Remainders.

Pitcairn Island

2009-02-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

We are approaching Pitcairn Island. Sega Rose is already anchored… it seems we will be following her around the world. She is the old Vista Fjord and will soon be retired; scrapped? I hope she will be used somewhere as the old liner-type ships are so beautiful. The day is beautiful with a clear blue sky and almost calm seas. We don’t go ashore here (damn), but I will add a pin to my map anyway. We will be at anchor for several hours and the locals will come onboard to sell handcrafts and a local speaker will do a presentation on the island.

Yesterday was a very laid back day and I decided to go to the dining room for lunch - wrong decision! The buffet was seafood and had crab legs and lobster claws… Oh well, we have 88 days left and I imagine we will have a chance again. Last night we took John and Mary Maxtone Graham to the Sterling Steakhouse for dinner and had a wonderful dinner and a great time. He is such a character… He wore a beautiful Chinese jacket as his jacket for the tux and uses a small magnifying glass on a gold chain instead of reading glasses.

We just had to take a quick break from writing this as they rang the chimes and announced that the locals were approaching the ship in their long boats on the starboard side… earlier they had said they would approach from Port side so we were ready on the balcony. By the time we made it to an outside deck, all the railings were packed. Jim got a pretty good shot from deck 9, but I didn’t get anything good from deck 5. The boats we saw were not the “native-type” long boats we had been expecting, so it’s not a big disappointment.

Some additional tidbits: we won trivia again yesterday with a team of 5. We have now traveled 5900 miles! We are doing remarkably well in the regular size balcony cabin. The last few nights it has been nice enough for Jim to sit out on the balcony to read after I want to go to bed… even when he comes in, he uses his book light and I’ve been able to sleep!

Easter Island

2009-02-05T14:08:00.002-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we did a tour of Easter Island. The tender ride was long, not because of the distance, but tenders for our ship and Sega Rose had to alternate and only one tender could approach the pier to load and unload so there was a waiting line of several tenders.

We had a tour called Easy Easter Island in a 16-person van. We visited 3 sites and the artisan market. It was very good; our guide would do a short talk about the site and then we had time to take photographs. You could get within about 10 feet of the statues, but not actually touch them. They stand about 17 feet tall - some restored to better condition than others. One site all the statues were toppled and no restoration had taken place. I should have studied a bit about Easter Island; I thought the statues faced out to sea to ward off invaders. They don’t - they face inland and guard over burial grounds.

It is a beautiful island, I could easily spend a couple months there - very peaceful and laid-back. It was a beautiful hot sunny day and we came back sunburned and very dusty! I hit the shower within 5 minutes of coming to the cabin.

I'll come back and add photos when I have a better connection.

The Southern Cross

2009-02-04T06:39:00.001-07:00

Last night we went to deck 11, the topmost observation deck for stargazing with the onboard astronomer. They turned out the ship lights so we were able to see hundreds of stars… but the clouds rolled in very soon. This morning we went out on our balcony at about 6:30 and the Southern Cross was right there and even upright.

As we approached Easter Island as the sun was coming up, we kept scanning the shoreline for the statues. Finally we could see some; a group of 4 and two others. It was still too dark for any photos and now that we have dropped anchor we are on the wrong side of the ship. Sega Rose is also anchored and will start tendering before we do. Many people are unhappy as there are supposed to be only a few taxi’s. We have a ship excursion this afternoon so at least we are sure to visit some of the statues.

At Sea

2009-02-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

Satellite reception is very spotty. I’ll post as I can hit it.

This morning when we woke up at 7:30 (late for us) the sunrise was just beginning and the sea was like glass. We are still on East coast time; after Easter Island we will do 5 time changes in 7 days. That should mix everyone up pretty good… is it called ship-lag instead of jet-lag?? The water is truly like glass - I can’t believe we are in the middle of the Pacific. I hope it isn’t the calm before the storm.

Not too much to report today except with the addition of 3 more people we won the trivia contest yesterday afternoon. People seemed a little put out that the smokers won. Actually they seem put out that we exist. There are only a couple designated smoking areas on the ship; one in a sheltered area by the pool and another up in the Royal lounge (where trivia is held). We haven’t had any problems, but several of our friends are telling of people making extremely rude statements even when they are sitting in the smoking areas.

Oh, I found out that the lady that lives onboard is the Godmother. Wouldn’t that be the life?… she gets it all free!! I wonder how I can become a Godmother? One of the cruise lines (I think it was RCCL) did make a travel agent a Godmother for one of their recent ships. They ran a contest; the agent that won was heavily involved in a number of charities. I remember reading her story - it was a good choice.

This is a good place to say thank you to Michelle. She’s been working her tail off with a couple clients I had to pass to her when I left.

At Sea

2009-02-02T06:08:00.001-07:00

Satellite reception is limited so I’ll post as I can hit it. The TV addicts are beginning to Jones!

We have now traveled 4020 miles; Easter Island is 760 miles away. This is day 14 of the cruise and would be the day on many of our past cruises when we would have to repack to disembark… this time we have 93 days to go! We have had wonderful weather and calm seas except for the first two days. You wouldn’t even know that we are far out in the Pacific; the seas are as calm as the Caribbean.

We went to the special Sunday Brunch when it opened at 10:30. It is a really impressive spread; everything from prime rib to seafood… including caviar (well, it was probably salmon eggs, but it served the purpose) It was impossible to even taste everything that looked good. Thank heavens we will have 93 more days to try more of the food. So far I’m rating the food above that that I’ve had on either Celebrity or Holland America in the last couple years.

Last night for the Superbowl Princess paid for a special downstream of the game so the satellite disruption didn’t bother it. They decorated the Cabaret Lounge with balloons of appropriate colors and provided a munchies buffet of chips guacamole, salsa, pizza, etc. The room was filled. That is our only large showroom on this small ship. It isn’t like the theatres on the large ships with the tiered seating; it is much more like a night club with chairs and tables; very nice, but often difficult to see the stage area.

They make use of every possible space on the ship for multiple purposes. Computer classes are taught in the specialty restaurants and they will schedule smaller (quiet-type) events in both sides of the Royal lounge (forward top deck) at the same time.

2009-02-01T15:10:00.003-07:00

NOTE: WE WILL HAVE VERY SPOTTY INTERNET CONNECTION FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS

Yesterday, a sea day, I attended a talk by the Princess Master Chef, Commendatore Alfredo Marzi. Commendatore is an honorary title in Italy similar to Sir or Lord in England. He is onboard for about half our cruise training the staff. He is quite a character. He will be doing 10 cooking demo classes and I’m planning to attend if I have time.

At noon we had a special luncheon for the CruiseCritic members. I had set it up several days ago and it was to be just a section of the main dining room, but on Friday the Maitre d’ called me to meet with him again and said the Master chef wanted to move it to Sabatini’s and he was going to prepare a special menu for us. Judy (another CC member) and I did all the invitations and all 28 members attended. It was the best meal we have had; they even included wine. For desert we had a wonderful cake (Italian Wedding cake?) with CruiseCritic World Cruise 2009 on it with ice cream and strawberry sauce for desert. At the end of the meal the placed the plate of little candies (there is a name for these, but it’s not coming to me right now) on the table… they were to die for but we were already too full to enjoy them. The First Purser for Food and Beverage, Melania Parnisari, was seated next to me and I commented that I wished I had a doggy bag to take all the leftover candies back to my cabin. Within 10 minutes of returning to our cabin there was a knock on the door “Room Service”; when I answered it was a plate of the goodies. They are so rich it will take us a couple days to eat them all.

We are attending far more onboard activities than any of our past cruises and finding them to be really enjoyable. We gained another Trivia Player so yesterday we became an official team for the first time.

I’ve also put up a picture of some of the dolphins we saw yesterday- there were hundreds in this pod racing along side the ship.

2009-01-31T05:08:00.002-07:00

I thought you might enjoy an entry from Jim - This is his recount of going to see a submarine museum yesterday prior to our departure from Callao at 1:00.
-----------------
A few years ago I became fascinated with submarines. During my research of this cruise I found there is a retired submarine/ museum near the port. Departing the ship there is the familiar “You want a taxi mister?” OK My Spanish was as good as his English. After a bit I gave up on the word “Submarine”. “It is near the Real Felipe fortress”, I say. His eyes light up. We are off to the fortress.

Attempting to recall my 6th grade Spanish again - “Como se llama”, big smile - “Orlando” is his name. At the fort I say to the guard “submarine”. “Si” and he proceeds to tell Orlando how to get there. As soon as I see the sub and point, we stop on the street in front of a big gate, through which I can see the submarine. Off I go and he will park down the street. Upon entering the gate there is a man in overalls near what looks like a ticket booth. More attempted communication. He understands that I am interested in the submarine, but this is as far as I seem to get. Then he shakes his head, points to my camera and I hear “no photos”. More Spanish, then I here “dinero”. I once knew what “how much” in Spanish is, but it’s not coming to me now. I really do enjoy attempting to communicate with someone when neither of you speak the other’s language. Sign language comes in very handy. I rub my thumb and forefinger together - he says “biente” - I say “diez American” - he says “siete American” - OK!

I’m heading to the sub taking pictures. Walking to my left toward the access, there is a 10 foot wall and a locked gate. Now what? Back out the gate - wave to Orlando - on down the street. Here is another large gate, except this one has a picture of a submarine above it. This must be the place. Another attempt at communication. When this is completed, 6 people have been involved, I paid 4 American dollars and received change. Much better deal than next door. An education costs money. Heading onto a clear path to the sub, a gentleman comes up behind me. He introduces himself and will be my guide. He speaks a lot more English than I do Spanish, but still close. He was actually on this submarine for 3 years and on another for 12 years. This is a Sierra class American sub - commissioned in 1942 - purchased and renamed by Peru in 1957 - decommissioned in 1998 - museum in 2004. He and I were on the sub for about an hour alone. He would try to recall a word in English for an item or function and I could usually say it from the reading I have done on the subject. About half way through the tour he played an audio recording of a torpedo attack on 2 targets, then there was a simulated attack of the sub in the aft torpedo room (one of the pictures ). Fantastic tour - I loved every minute of it. We were walking back to the entrance when he shook my hand and we thanked each other, then off he went. At the entrance there was a large group waiting. What perfectly lucky timing I had.

2009-01-30T05:43:00.001-07:00

We are docked in Callao, Peru for Lima. Yesterday after breakfast we took a shuttle to the Marriott Hotel. They were nice and gave me a password so I could use their internet at no charge. I spent a bit of time catching up… checking bank accounts, TA stuff and my photography sites and doing a few personal emails.

After I finished playing computer, we booked a car and did a two hour tour of Lima. We had a great driver that spoke good English, he told us about a number of the buildings we were passing and did a walking tour of the Plaza Mayor which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many of the buildings were built in the 1500s and 1600s; they are very ornate; the churches are especially ornate - their style would probably be called Rococo. Then he dropped us off at the ship. We had missed the lunch buffet so we had soup and sandwiches at 3:30 which meant we weren’t hungry at all for dinner.

So far we have traveled 2743 miles. Our next port is Easter Island which is 2032 miles away. We leave Callao at 1:00 today and then have 4 sea days. This is day 11.

At Sea

2009-01-28T06:39:00.001-07:00

Today is the second of two sea days. Yesterday was fairly busy for us as I had signed us up for a couples massage class… Jim whined a lot about having to go, but seemed to have a good time once he was there. I managed to get a double massage out of it as I offered to be the demo person too!

John’s lecture yesterday was on Titanic survivors based on the book he edited for Violet Jessup who was one of the survivors. We had lunch with them yesterday and had a very interesting discussion on cruising today versus 10 years ago.

We have also been going to the afternoon trivia sessions when we can. We don’t join a real team since we are not good at it, but we do get a pencil and paper and sit nearby - over in the smoking area and play by ourselves… we are really bad… or the questions are really hard. What is the plural of cul-de-sac? OR In the U.S. the most used language is English; second is Spanish what is third? (see comments for answers)

Tomorrow we dock (for two days) in Callao. We will be taking the shuttle in to Lima to the Marriott Hotel. I’m hoping they will have free wifi so I can write some personal emails. The internet here on the ship is quite good and they certainly do not overcharge you for minutes… I’m doing pretty well keeping my time down. I can use my tiny laptop in the cabin (sitting on the bed) and pick up the wifi signal if we open the cabin door it increases the signal strength, but it seems to be ok without doing that. So…. Just like at home in the morning, I’m sitting here in my jammies drinking coffee and doing my computer stuff. I wonder how I ever had time to go to work???

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier… it is not hot, the temperatures have been in the 70s, That surprises me; I thought it was supposed to be HOT at the equator.

2009-01-26T09:44:00.001-07:00

We docked at the Port of Manta, Ecuador this morning about 6:30. This is an industrial port and they are running a shuttle into the city every 30 minutes with stops at a mall, a handicraft market, and a Marriott. There were ship tours to Quito and some of the surrounding areas. This is also where the people on the multi-day tour to Machu Picchu disembarked. They will rejoin the ship on our second day in Callao (for Lima). We are staying aboard today except for a short walk on the pier so that I can officially add the pin to my world map.

We are watching the ship next to us unload grain and the one next to it unload tuna - it sounds boring, but it’s really fascinating. I’ll hit the therapy pool on the spa deck a little later. In other words… it’s a really laid back day!

We are now Shellbacks

2009-01-25T14:56:00.005-07:00

Princess did a great Crossing the Equator celebration. We are now shellbacks. The passenger volunteers and a couple crewmembers were thoroughly drenched in ice cream, chocolate, whipping cream, fruit punch and flour. King Neptune and his Queen were wonderful and had a lot of fun.
Now we will see if these tiny photos will upload in a reasonable time.

At Sea & Panama Canal report

2009-01-25T05:06:00.001-07:00

We did the transit of the Panama Canal yesterday. At 5:30 when we woke up we were already in the channel and were entering the first Gatun lock a little after 6:00. Early in the day it was heavy clouds and some rain, but by 9:00 it cleared and it was sunny and hot all day. I alternated between the private spa deck (above the Bridge) with a great forward view and our balcony which was on the shade side of the ship the whole day. The Canal is one of those “must see” places in the world. The early 1900’s technology is still functioning perfectly! Besides being very interesting, it is just beautiful. Between the two of us we probably took 450 pictures… they are now downloaded on the Epson 2000 Hard Drive. I’ll weed through them some today if I find time. I love digital - shoot, shoot, shoot, and erase the bad ones. Think what the film processing would have cost!

There are 640 passengers on the ship so with the extra cabins for the entertainment and lecturers we have a full ship. The median age is lower than I had expected; I’d guess it is between 65 and 70. We aren’t the babies - there are a few couples younger than us and I have seen two children onboard. I’ve seen the little girl, who looks to be about 8, several times with grandma and she is constantly saying “I’m bored- there’s nothing to do”. I can’t really figure why people would bring children on one of these small ships for a 107 day world cruise knowing there will be no children’s activities.

Today is another sea day and it looks to be a little better sky but showers are predicted. It is nice and warm out on the balcony. Our favorite lecturer, John Maxtone Graham is onboard and will be starting his first 3 lecture series today based on his book The Only Way to Cross - my day will be planned around his lecture time. He also did a lecture two days ago on the Panama Canal. - Jim just handed me the Patter (the daily program) and it is at 11:30.

At 9:45 astronaut Russell Schweickart is speaking and at 3:15 gossip columnist Sue Cameron will speak. At 1:30 this afternoon we will have our CROSSING THE EQUATOR CEREMONY where King Neptune will promote us from polywogs to shellbacks! Ok, go ahead and laugh… this is a big one for me; even with all our cruises we haven’t ever crossed the equator so I will be very glad to get my certificate!

That’s all for now folks!

At Sea

2009-01-23T18:09:00.001-07:00

Sunshine! Today was a sea day and it was beautiful; hot and sunny with a few clouds. Seas were very calm all day. I bought the access pass to the spa deck and therapy pool for the whole cruise. It is a private deck right above the bridge. They only sell 20 access passes for the entire cruise, although some day passes are available. So far there has never been more than one other person up there. I have been going in the morning after our coffee in the cabin. The pool itself doesn’t begin to compare with those on Mercury or Galaxy, but it is a nice heated private pool with a couple jets and a bubble lounger.

Tonight was the first formal night and the welcome party. It was quite nice with all the officers and primary staff introduced. Perhaps ¼ of the men were in tuxes and almost all the rest in dark suits - - very few gowns for women but almost all in sparkly tops and black skirts.
Tomorrow is the Panama Canal - Jim is going to get a 1 day pass to the spa deck. The view should be wonderful and a complete contrast to our last trip through the canal where we were in the Penthouse on Infinity which is the aft corner of the ship.

Finally we have internet access!

2009-01-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here is our first onboard post. The internet has been down for servicing so I’ve not been able to post until now. This is a combination of posts from the time we left Denver until now; the morning of day 3 - heading into Grand Cayman.

We’re onboard. Our flight yesterday went perfectly; no delays of any type. We spent the night at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66; nice room with a balcony on the 12th floor.
We stayed at the hotel until 12:15 on Monday as I wanted to watch the inauguration. Then a quick ride over to the port and we were onboard 15 minutes after getting out of the van. It’s a small ship and we have a regular size balcony cabin. The cabin is very nice, but has little storage - actually we did very well putting things away and stored our clothes for much cooler weather under the bed in a suitcase.

We did the dinner buffet the first night and the food was very good. Tuesday morning we had our usual coffee and pastries delivered to the room after we awoke. Then we wandered around a bit more of the ship. She really is lovely; much ornate dark wood everywhere. The library is huge (well comparable huge - tiny ship but one of the biggest libraries I’ve seen except aboard QE2). The casino is very small but I don’t usually do much there except give my $10 charity to the starving slots. We had lunch in the dining room - it was very good and I’m glad to learn that it will be open every day - even port days. Dinner was in the buffet area in the Bistro which is offered more than the buffet dinner. It has two menus; an Italian pizza and pasta one and one that offers steak, chicken, etc. We will probably be having dinner there many nights.
Weather this morning is gray, cloudy, wet with moderate to high seas. We are expected to anchor in GrandCayman at 9:00am.

Thank you for the gifts. It was such fun to receive them.

Seas have been moderate to high and winds at 20 knots so we are doing a bit of rocking and rolling. This seems to be a well traveled bunch of people and I haven’t heard anyone mention seasickness. We did have some sun after lunch and spent some time sitting our on the balcony. Now I’m going to try to post this as it looks like I have access.

We are Packed

2009-01-18T11:15:00.002-07:00

We are either really good at packing or we have forgotten much stuff! We are completely packed in 4 large bags. 3 are at about 49 lbs. but one came in at 52 lbs… we will see if we get an overweight charge on it. Maybe it will slide through but at this point I really don’t care. I just want to see all 4 of them on the carousel in FLL.

David will take us to the airport in the morning and all arrangements are taken care of for the house. Fred is in charge of the house while we are gone - Peter and Beth will help.
I’m almost to the point where I can relax… then again probably not until we get to the hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

--Ben?? could that be Desert Vision Ben??

We received our Welcome Letter

2009-01-16T09:08:00.002-07:00

Dear Susan Clark Koenig,

Get ready to board the spectacular Royal Princess® for a voyage of a lifetime!

Throughout your journey, you'll mingle with fellow travel enthusiasts at grand celebrations, delight in authentic dining options with regional accents and enjoy fascinating lectures.

Part of your Princess experience includes a wealth of onboard entertainment and activities. We don't want you to miss a single event - so take a look below to see what's going on while you're onboard.

On behalf of the officers and crew of Royal Princess®, we look forward to welcoming you onboard and dazzling you during your Princess escape around the world!

Sincerely,
Peter Roberts
Cruise Director – Royal Princess

It included much information on the special events and activities we will have onboard. I've posted just a sample below - this is on the ScholarShip@Sea® and Guest Lecturers.
---
Princess Cruises®, the leader in at-sea interactive courses, invites you to participate in one of our many fascinating enrichment lectures. Learn to take professional-quality photos of your vacation; create a unique hand-painted plate; discover how to navigate a cruise ship; craft a vacation keepsake souvenir or sit back and listen to informative presentations and inspirational real-life tales.

Princess Book Club
Meet fellow passengers and avid book readers while engaging in literary discussion at the Princess Book Club. Book selections are drawn from The New York Times Best-Seller List. Selected book titles for Royal Princess® are:
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

Computers@Sea
Download your best digital photos and learn how Photoshop can make them even better. Unlock the secrets of the World Wide Web by surfing the internet with ease. Attach documents, photos, even short videos and e-mail them with confidence. Our Computers@Sea program offers passengers an array of fun and useful computer classes taught by our computer expert, Nancy Prince.

Learn to Play Bridge
As you journey around the globe, experienced bridge players can play bridge under the supervision of a certified Life Master Bridge Instructors and accrue points, while beginners can learn the basics of the game.

Photography Contest
Show your creativity and individual style by participating in the Royal Princess World Cruise Photography Contest. Prizes will be awarded over four segments with a grand prize. You don't have to be an expert to enter, so give us your best shot! The photo categories are:
Nature, Landscapes or Seascapes
People, Family or Friends
Architecture, Cities and Towns
Open, Creative or Artistic

Christian Religious Services
As you journey around the globe, celebrate Sunday religious services (including Palm Sunday and Easter) with Christian clergy, including a Catholic Priest.

Jewish Religious Services
When in the Mediterranean, celebrate Passover services with Rabbi Allen Mallar.

Guest Lecturers

January 20 – February 24, 2009

Russell Schweickart – Retired Astronaut
Takes you on a unique and beautiful tour of planet Earth from a distant perspective few have experienced.

Lynne Truss – Best-selling Author
What do the collapse of literacy, the breakdown of social cohesion, the beauty of a semicolon and the value of an apostrophe have in common? Keen observer of the world and best-selling author Lynne Truss humorously ties it all up in a common sense look at the world we live in.

Arthur Hiller – Director of Love Story and former Motion Picture Academy President
Countdown to the Oscar telecast show and let him regale you with tales from behind the velvet ropes, and lead you down the red carpet to the best seat in the house. And remember: "Love means never having to say you’re sorry."

Sue Cameron – Hollywood Journalist
Hollywood has never lacked for scandals: tantrums, cover-ups and murders. From Garbo to Kidman, veteran Hollywood journalist Sue Cameron has personally interviewed them all. Ask a question and she'll know the answer because she was probably with them at the time.

Dr. Dean J. Papavassiliou-Caribbean Destination Lecturer
Follow world traveler and former diplomat Dr. Dean J. Papavassiliou through the Caribbean and Central America as he explains the people, history, and culture of this wonderful and exotic region of the World.

John Maxtone-Graham – Maritime Historian
Relive heroic tales of North and South Pole explorations, the Titanic's gripping final hours and other maritime stories.

Les Evans – Former Concorde Pilot
Former Concorde pilot, talks about the glorious past of flying this technological marvel and casts his gaze forward to discuss aviation's future.

Norman Caisse – Astronomer
Embark on a fascinating journey from our own Solar System, through the Milky Way, and on to the edge of the known Universe. On clear dark nights Norman can be found surveying the South Pacific heavens. Be sure to join him on deck.

Douglas Pearson – Australasia, South Pacific and Polynesian Naturalist
South Pacific and Polynesian expert Douglas Pearson lives on the idyllic island of Moorea. His unusual selection of objects enhance his unique " menu of stories," giving depth and color to his talks.

February 25 – March 19, 2009

Donald Blair – Space Travel/NASA Expert
He amazes you with photos seldom seen by the public and explains some of the most complicated machines ever built by man – the Space Shuttle and Space Station. It's literally out of this world.

John Maxtone-Graham – Maritime Historian
Relive heroic tales of North and South Pole explorations, the Titanic's gripping final hours and other maritime stories.

Glenmore Trenear-Harvey – Espionage and Intelligence Expert
Receives regular briefings from MI5 and MI6, Britain's secret intelligence and security services. A featured speaker at conferences worldwide, he has been involved with the clandestine world for over 40 years.

Heather Clement – Japanese Cultural Historian
What obi should you wear with that kimono? What’s the difference between Shinto and Zen? How deep should I bow? Join us as Heather Clement de-mystifies one of the most advanced societies on the planet.

Marylou Blakeslee – Oceania, Micronesia Naturalist
From Australia's Great Barrier Reef to ancient turtles that swam with dinosaurs, to mammals of the South Pacific, explore the varied natural treasures this world has to offer.

Gunn Seawell & Don Schenzel – Ballroom Dance Instructors
Ballroom Dance Instructors teach the graceful movements of the Waltz, the rhythmic steps of the Salsa, and the fluid steps of the Cha Cha, among other dances.

March 20 – April 10, 2009

Michael Irving – Naval Maritime Historian
Naval Maritime Historian who has spent more time on water than on dry land. His personal favorites include James Cook, Lord Nelson, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Dutch, and the ravages of scurvy.

Hassan Eltaher – Holy Land Cultural Historian and Expert
The story of the Suez Canal is like sailing through World History. Senior Analyst for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs with the Government of Canada, Hassan Eltaher brings this part of the world to vivid life.

April 11 – May 8, 2009

Lainie Kazan – Hollywood Personality and Legend
You may know her from her 26 appearances on the Dean Martin Show, or her reoccurring role on The Nanny, or her critically acclaimed role in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Chanteuse and actress Lainie Kazan shares her life story, from her Brooklyn beginnings to her starring roles on Broadway.

Thomson Smillie – Opera/Broadway Lecturer
Celebrate the musical cultures of Italy, Spain and France, and learn about the turbulent life of Greek diva Maria Callas.

Debbie Fraioli – Mediterranean Cultural Expert and Port Lecturer
Explains the highlights no traveler should miss in the ancient and historical ports of Europe.

Watercolor and Calligraphy Instructor
Hone your artistic skills and then donate your finished art to a silent auction benefiting the Susan G. Komen Foundation to fight breast cancer.

PLEASE NOTE: All shows, entertainers, movies and events are subject to change without notice

2009-01-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

The first reports are coming in from the Tahitian Princess World Cruise. It left on the 14th, one week before ours. The itineraries are identical until we pass through the Suez Canal then they differ. Apparently there were problems at check-in when some people didn’t have the appropriate shots or their immunization records. Luckily we have gotten ours and have our paperwork all in order. A friend on that cruise just emailed that the closet and drawer space is much less than expected and to pack even more carefully.

Pack carefully for 107 days with temps ranging from 100 degrees to 40?? Ok, we’ll pack carefully and plan to store any extra clothes in the suitcases under the bed.

My Luxury Cruise & Travel office is now closed for the duration and my two agents are handling everything. Tomorrow we run the last minute errands and Saturday we pack. I’ll be glad to have everything finished. Sunday we can relax all day! The weather for Monday looks excellent for our flights – that is always a concern when flying out of Denver in the winter.

It's snowing

2009-01-12T16:24:00.001-07:00

It’s snowing today in Denver which only adds to the anticipation of heading to tropical weather. One week from today and we will board Royal Princess in Fort Lauderdale. We will fly in the day before and spend the night at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six.

The piles of clothes are getting pretty high. We won’t actually pack until the day before we leave and I’m sure I’ll change my mind about some of the stuff in the stacks.

A little about us

2009-01-04T10:43:00.001-07:00

Several people have emailed me that I should tell you a little about us. We are both retired from our first careers; mine in government and Jim in construction. We married later in life (in our 50’s) so kids are all grown and on their own. My real love in life has always been travel and photography so I met a perfect mate as he enjoys both. I have done travel destination stock photography for about 20 years and have two stock photo agencies that carry my images. You are beginning to understand why Luxury Cruise & Travel agency is my second career. I started the agency a year prior to my retirement to learn the ropes and give myself time to not get in over my head. I’m so pleased that we have been able to build a successful agency. I guess we will get a real feel for our success when we return from a 4 month hiatus… will my clients still be here???

Our travel history together started in 2000. I had planned to do a QE2 crossing as a 50th birthday celebration for myself and Jim agreed that he would like to do it with me; it was his first cruise. That was the start of our addiction to cruising. One of our next cruises was a 10 day cruise on Celebrity Mercury from Caracas, Venezuela to Ft. Lauderdale. It was on that cruise that we met Joyce Gleason Adamidis, the wife of Captain Adamidis. We struck up a great friendship that continues today. We sailed on their ships, mostly Millennium, 5 or 6 times… if you ever want to feel like Royalty, be good friends with the Captain and his wife. We certainly miss them now that they are retired and living in Greece, but are looking forward to visiting with them on our port stop there during this cruise.

We have done about 30 cruises, primarily on Celebrity and Holland America, but have sailed at least once on most of the major cruiselines. As some of you know we are suite cruisers… I’d rather go a little less often and do it first class when we go. We have had a couple of the Penthouse suites on Constellation and Infinity – these are 1500 sq. ft with 1100 sq. ft of private balcony. I think they are the most “over the top” suites available on any premium cruiseline. We also have had Royal Suites and Sky Suites on Celebrity and many S suites on Holland America. Our only other cruise on Princess we were in a Grand Suite on Grand Princess. That suite is second (in my opinion) in luxury on a premium cruiseline. We have also had an inside cabin while on a travel agent seminar at sea on Royal Caribbean and an outside cabin when we Hosted an Ensemble (our consortium) hosted Alaska cruise on Holland America. This world cruise will be our first regular size balcony cabin. I’ll give you my thoughts as to how we deal with it as we go along. Oops, I better say here that we have always paid full fare for our suites… there are no travel agent deals for them.

I just found a wonderful link to photos of Royal Princess. Thanks to Richard H. Wagner, the editor of that wonderful website.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

It is now 2009, which I hope will be a prosperous year for all of us. One thing that was good (for us) about the failing economy of 2008 was that it opened enough cabins on this cruise for Princess to offer the travel agent rate on some. Otherwise we would never even have thought about doing a World Cruise… well, perhaps as a Last Hurrah when we were old and gray, wait a minute we are gray even if not so old.

Jim has been working to get all our electronics ready to go; extra cards for the cameras, clearing out the Epson photo hard drive, he even bought a little speaker thing that plays music from flash drive sticks so we can have some music in the cabin. Since every plug strip we have is in use he also bought a new one for use in the cabin.

I have some things sorted to be packed, but very little already in the one suitcase that is on the bedroom floor. It seems I’m spending most of the time getting our clients taken care of before turning over everything to Michelle and Shannon. Ray and Joann headed out today for their Holland America S. America Grand Voyage on Prinsendam and Paul left a couple days ago for his Amtrak adventure to Ft. Lauderdale for his Holland America World Cruise Segment. Wow, the next file folder up is ours! How exciting, when we booked this back at the end of August, it seemed to be a fairly long time away. Now it is almost here.

December 27

2008-12-27T14:08:00.001-07:00

We had a very quiet Christmas; no real gifts to each other as it seems we have been picking up a number of things lately… all geared toward the trip. Jim has a new MP3 player and a speaker for use in the cabin; he’s busy choosing and transferring music from our media computer to it.

It seems that the world events on the news these days have a different perspective as we look at how they may affect our ports of call. This morning we heard about the bombing of the Gaza strip. I looked at a map and found that the strip is about 20 miles from Ashdod (our port) and about 50 miles from Jerusalem. We are also watching the Indian/Pakistan situation. It will be interesting to see what our final itinerary turns out to be. If you haven’t seen our itinerary here is a link: Itinerary

We are only planning one overland multi-day excursion, the one to visit Beijing and the Great Wall in China. There are also big excursions to Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat but financially and physically I think I can only handle one this time.

We are about three weeks from leaving and are starting a little more of the prep – we’ve gone through the toiletries/med. bag and replaced needed items and cleaned out all those little bottles of lotion and shampoo that seem to accumulate. I’ve sorted through my formal wear and decided what to take and Jim had his tux cleaned. It should be interesting to see what happens with the tux as there is no dry-cleaning available on Royal Princess.

December 19

2008-12-19T08:38:00.001-07:00

My first blog post. We are exactly 1 month away from leaving home; I'll post a few times to let you know how we figure out what to take for a 107 day cruise. We will have weather that ranges from very hot (crossing the equator) to fairly cool so we need to make sure we have it all covered. At least we don't need to pack for Antarctia this time as several of our friends are doing.

I just learned yesterday that the Post Office won't hold mail for more than 30 days; luckily our neighbors said they won't mind getting it out of the mailbox and holding it for us in a BIG box. We will owe them big-time after this!

Pardon this ad - it has to be somewhere for my counter to work >Cheap Florists