Some Final Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.