Saturday, June 22, 2013
June 20/21/22
June 20, at sea in the morning and at Gibraltar for the afternoon and evening.
I've never given any thought to what's at Gibraltar besides The Rock and its apes, other than I once saw a tv show about how difficult the airport is for pilots due to crosswinds and a major road that crosses the middle of the runway. Now I've seen that runway, and seen planes land and take off, and I plan to never fly into Gibraltar. Past the runway is what appears to be an isthmus connecting the area around the rock to the Spanish mainland. The coastline curves around in a huge bay. There's a lot of ship and boat traffic in the bay, and there's about to be more. A ship docked next to us carrying at least a dozen gleaming new pleasure boats. They were in the cabin cruiser to small yacht size range. By afternoon, it had off-loaded its cargo and sailed away. I didn't see where the pleasure boats went.
I didn't go ashore because to get off the dock area is about a mile hike, and there weren't any excursions that would accommodate my wheels. Even to get to the buses was over a quarter mile, and I really didn't want to try that without the walker. But the weather was really lovely, so I enjoyed the view and the sunshine on the open deck. I talked to one woman who came back from a tour most disappointed, so I figure I didn't miss much except a look at the famous Barbary Apes (actually tailless monkeys) about 60 of which still live there and, by legend, keep it a British territory. Mark took a tour that went to some WWII tunnels.
I did win at trivia this afternoon, but only because just 6 of us showed up, so we played as a single team. We had fun with some fiendish questions like "How many flowers are on one side of an Oreo cookie?" (no fair peeking).and "What is the second-most widely spoken language in the world?" I then decided to splurge at the spa with a pedicure today and a manicure tomorrow.
Since Mark's tour was a late one, we had a nice quiet dinner without the rest of the group. However, after dinner, we went up on the Sports Deck to get a good spot to watch the big, loud, Latin-themed Sail Away Party that began about 10:30 p.m. and met the group there. There was supposed to be a big fountain and light show on the Lido Deck. The previous night it didn't happen because of some problem with a pump. Last night it happened, but was somewhat less than spectacular. After that, I went back to the cabin and watched us actually sail through the Straits of Gibraltar. As we turned eastward, I could see lights on the coast of Africa, and sea gulls swooping past the ship's lights made white shadows in the night against the faint silhouette of The Rock. It was really neat.
June 21, Malaga, Spain. I had originally planned to go ashore here, but when I found out that the process would involve at least two and maybe three shuttle buses just to get from the ship off the pier area and to town, I decided to give that experience a miss. After a late breakfast, Mark and I spent the morning at the back of Lido Deck with the best view of the city. Mark wrote postcards, and I chatted with a couple from the Hill Country of Texas. The weather was pleasant, temperature-wise, but there was a heavy mist, almost a fog, that obscured much of the view from our port side.
This afternoon Mark and I were invited to tour the Bridge! Mark has been on bridge tours before, but I hadn't, and this _is_ a maiden voyage, after all, so we were reasonably excited about the prospect. It was a great tour with only 8 of us passengers. This ship, brand new as she is, is totally state of the art, and the tiniest joy-stick on the bridge is the one that steers the ship when the computer isn't doing it. There is redundancy upon redundancy upon back-up upon back-up for every system. Every zone of the ship has all services needed in an emergency like a galley, water, vacuum system for toilets, etc. No Carnival debacles for this ship! They had the bell from the original Royal Princess which was christened by Princess Diana in 1984, and which my mother and I sailed on in the mid-1990s. That will eventually be displayed in a case downstairs in the public area. It was a really neat tour.
Right after that I went off to get a manicure before formal night. While I was gone, Mark received a lovely arrangement of roses and other flowers in honor of this being his 50th cruise on Princess. We figure that is why we've been getting a number of extra little perks all along. It certainly wasn't because we have so many days on Princess, as the winners in that category are a couple with over 2,000 days, and together Marl and I have about 600. Formal night began with the Captain's Circle cocktail party where we met up with Janet, Roy, Mike and Jeff. Next came dinner, followed by a very high energy show by a group reprising the Beatles and their music ... just the right thing for the demographic on board. A fun end to a good day.
June 22, at sea. It's the last day of the last cruise. A quiet day getting organized and packing. Mark and I had a nice lunch in the dining room with the couple I met yesterday morning and two men from Toronto. Lots of lively conversation. I plan to go to Trivia with our group one last time, then, of course, our final dinner.
It's been an excellent trip, even though I had various health problems. But this time I am looking forward to being home again. See y'all next cruise!
(The answers to the above trivia items are 12 and French.)
Thursday, June 20, 2013
June 18/19
June 18, Vigo, Spain. I am again released upon an unsuspecting world. The "HazMat" team came by one last time. Mark was impressed because he'd never seen that aspect of shipboard life in operation before.
Vigo is the port from which most tourists go to visit the shrine/cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. That, however, is a long day's tour, so I didn't sign ip for one. I mostly wandered around the ship and took a few photos. In the evening we met up with Jeff, Mike, Roy and Janet plus an assortment of other interesting characters for drinks before dinner. After dinner most called it an early night as they had all partied hearty the night before when I was in isolation.
June 19, Lisbon, Portugal. Up early to watch as we sail up the Tagus River under the spectacular 25th of April bridge which is reminiscent of the Golden Gate bridge. Mark had a tour out of the city to two villages, one in the mountains and the other near the coast. I had wanted to do that one, but was convinced by the Shore Excursion guy not to, so I did a short city drive around and take photos thing instead. It was a pleasant tour with some sunny spots and some overcast. We saw the main monuments and city squares, going past some of them several times. On return,
After the tour, I grabbed a bit of lunch then had a nice nap before meeting the rest of our group for. afternoon trivia. We didn't win. Dinner with the usual crew of Mark, Janet, Roy, Mike and Jeff, was quite a manic experience this evening with a great deal of confusion about limoncello, shot glasses, blue cheese and port wine. Fortunately, I was rather at the periphery of things so didn't feel I really had to keep it all straight.
Changing time yet again tonight for the third night in a row. It turns out that Portugal doesn't do daylight savings time.
Monday, June 17, 2013
June 16/17
June 16, Southampton. The beginning of cruise #4 aboard the brand new Royal Princess. I wasn't the first person on board, but was certainly in the first hundred or so, maybe even the first fifty. My walker and main suitcase were at my cabin before I got there, but my carry-on was a no-show. One of Mark's suitcases showed up about an hour later, and he arrived about half an hour after that.
Our cabin is one of the ADA fully-accessible ones, and is hugely spacious. Instead of a closet and dressing area like most cabins, we have a large bathroom with roll-in shower and grab bars everywhere, and in the main part of the room, a triple wardrobe with tons of hanging space and a set of shelves. For each twin bed, there is a nightstand with 4 big drawers and a shelf. There's a desk area with a fridge and 4 more drawers. Mark and I are so used to making do with small amounts of storage space that we are positively rattling around in here.
Oh, I forgot to mention the balcony which has an ingenious ramp arrangement so you could get a wheelchair out there along with the 2 comfortable chairs and a little table. The whole cabin is wider than usual to allow space for a wheelchair to maneuver. And, instead of a small sofa/sitting area, there are two chairs and a little table (which we immediately shoved under one end of the desk area). There is a gigantic flat-screen tv with the most minimalist remote I've ever seen. It will take us all week to figure that one out.
We did some slow exploring and had lunch at the Horizon Cafe on Lido Deck. The pool area is lovely and has a nice variety of seating options from lounge chairs to tables and chairs, to big round booths to couch and easy chaIr groupings. We walked past the SeaView area which sticks out beyond the side of the ship and has a glass floor so you can look down to the water. There's not enough money in the world to get me out there!
The buffet area at Horizon is just as crazy as the one I've already ranted about on the other ships. It does have multiple lines, but at least they don't go in circles. However, at the very aft end of the Horizon, there is a nice outside area with variety seating again and its own set of coffee/tea machines. When/if the temperature warms up some, that should be a nice spot.
About mid-afternoon, we connected with Jeff and Mike and their friends Roy and Janet, at Crooners which is one of the bars at the Atrium. Mark and I invited them to our cabin after the Emergency Drill to share our balcony and bubbly while we sailed down the Solent. We were a bit disappointed that there weren't more people quayside to watch her go for the first time.
The evening began back at Crooners Bar on the top level (Deck 7) of the Atrium which is a truly spectacular space. I cannot begin to do it justice in a description. I would recommend that you go to www.princess.com and view the videos of the Royal Princess. The decor of this ship is several steps up the ladder of sophistication from other Princess ships that I've been on.
June 17 at sea. Well, I'm back in isolation in my cabin again after another flare up last night after dinner. Medical reports at three ships in a row! Someone at CDC is going to have fun tracking my peregrinations over the past several weeks from the forms I've had to fill out. At least here I have a window with real daylight and passing ocean to look at. I certainly wouldn't have been spending time out on the balcony today as it is very chilly and windy out there. In the morning it was solid grey overcast, but in the afternoon it got sunny, but still chilly. Also this time I have Mark to talk some of the time and to run errands for me if necessary. Supposedly I will be free again tomorrow morning, although I will be missing the first formal night's dinner in favor of lasagna from Room Service.
I forgot to update about our missing suitcases. Mark's second bag turned up just before the Drill, but my carry-on was still missing. So I started a complaint to Passenger Services. I got the expected answer of "we are still delivering bags, madam." By the time we had sailed, I was moving into harassment mode. Fortunately, I got a lovely young lady named Annabel from the Philippines at Passenger Services to work on my dilemma. She certainly went above and beyond for me harassing the Security Department, the manager for our floor's cabin staff, etc. and going after them multiple times that evening and reporting back to me. Eventually the silly thing turned up, tag less, sitting in a hallway somewhere. My name was in several places inside, and they had been pretty well sensitized by Annabel to look for my name, so it got to me okay.
June 14 again & June 15
June 14, again. Right after I posted the previous entry, the afternoon went from pleasant to totally frustrating. I got all the way back to my cabin and found that I had the wrong key card. So all the way aft and up to Metropolis. After some confusion there, it was back down to Reception, where it appeared that the cards had been switched in one of the shops where I had bought a small souvenir. Whoever wound up with my card had been having a good time at the shops and Bingo. Those charges did finally get cleared from my account. Meanwhile, they made me a new card. Number 4! By this time, I was totally exhausted from hiking around the ship, but I got downstairs to my cabin and Number 4 didn't work in my door. After trying it multiple times, I went back to Reception and had a nice fit of hysterics for their benefit and edification. The clerk looked at me as though I was crazy while maintaining that there was nothing wrong with the card and went away with it. After a long enough period for a new card to be made, he came back swearing that Number 4 was a good card. So I insisted he accompany me and prove it, which he did (damn it, I still think I'm now on card #5). I am not leaving this cabin again until time to get off the ship. I'll just order room service again. Pfui.
June 15, Southampton, England, also again. We disembarked at the same pier where the Royal Princess will sail tomorrow. There were already huge bouquets in place in preparation. I can't wait to see it all tomorrow!
Meanwhile I got back to the Novotel about 9:00 a.m. but my room wasn't ready until about 1:00 p.m. But now I'm in a room with a bathroom bigger than a phone booth! Lovely! And now that I've thoroughly enjoyed that, I'm watching the horse races on BBC4. Hmmm ... on to the weather forecast. It's odd to realize what a small area they're talking about and showing on the map as compared to our US weather maps. The UK map shows probably less area than just the South on our Weather Channel maps. The same sort of applies to news reports, like a missing teenager. The reports felt more like a state-wide alert back home. It really brings home the difference in the scale of life. I've noticed some of this in my travels to Norway in recent years. Many of the things I admire about the way their society operates in Norway would never be possible in the US because Norway is only dealing with a population of 4.5 million people.
Friday, June 14, 2013
June 14
June 14, at sea. This is the last day of cruise #3. The good news is that I don't have much packing to do because I didn't unpack much this week. So far there is no bad news ... at least not in my immediate world. I can hardly speak for that mess beyond the horizon.
Last evening on telly, I watched Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, christen the Royal Princess. Both the Duchess and the ship looked very fine. It's amazing how popular animal prints are over here, especially the spotted ones, although I'm just old-fashioned enough to think that might not have been the most flattering choice for her short, flippy dress at this late stage of pregnancy. Yet she carried it off better than many non-pregnant females aboard this ship.
They mentioned that the previous Royal Princess had been christened 30 years ago by Princess Diana. That brought back fond, if chilly, memories of the time my mother and I sailed in her from Montreal to New York. Mother wanted to do a "fall leaf color" cruise, I think it was in the mid-90s. There were several excursions, particularly one at Bar Harbor, ME, where I have never, before or since, been so cold. Of course, by the time we got home to Virginia, our own trees were turning the exact same colors we had spent so much money to go see up north! Sill, that Royal Princess was a lovely ship, and one of the earliest ones I ever saw to have any kind of "interactive tv system" in the cabins.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
June 12/13
June 12, Olden, Norway. Pretty much the same as yesterday. FYI, sunset last night at this latitude was at 11:35 p.m. and sunrise this morning was at 3:47 a.m. Makes me glad I have an inside cabin. When I got up about 8:00 a.m., sunrise was just creeping down the mountainside toward the town.
By the way, the info about flat, non-diet Coke having all the electrolytes you need comes from a perky blond British nurse named Stephanie. I just figured it was too useful not to pass it along. But I will say that it will be a long cold day somewhere before I drink another dozen 150 ml teeny tiny toy cans of flat Coca Cola in about 36 hours. It works, but bletch!
Yea! I am free! No more isolation (probably a politer term than quarantine). No more Niky and the HazMat boys (the real name for them is Hit Squad, but I like HazMat better). The first thing I did was to take a nice long nap. Go figure.
Olden is a really lovely little place, and I think I see a few shops right at the end of the dock, so I'm going to head that direction if my strength holds out. (I am rather wobbly after the better part of a week of being ill and no activity to speak of.). Yes, I wobbled over (after my card didn't want to let me off the ship), looked around, and wobbled back. My card not only didn't want to let me back on, it refused to rulet me into my cabin. So, up to the main desk for card #2.
After another rest and some rehydration, about the time we were to sail, I headed out to explore the ship for the first time and find a good place to watch our departure. The Captain announced that the strings were being removed, the engines' rubber bands were fully wound up, and he was going to pirouette around the other ship in the harbor. Sure enough, it all happened as he said, and he did the pirouette going backwards! with less than 100 feet to spare in any direction! Progress back down the fjord was slow and gorgeous!
Card #2 may have opened my cabin door, but it would not work correctly at any of the shops or bars, so back again for card #3. So far, so good.
Ventura is essentially the same plan as Caribbean Princess with a few differences in pool structure on the Lido and other upper decks (no flying Skywalker's equivalent although Metropolis comes close),, and a very different decor through the public spaces. Ventura is heavily urban-techno-modern (which probably isn't the right name for it). It has more character, and I actually like it a lot better, than Caribbean Princess, but that's a matter of personal taste. I can't say much for the public areas' background music which is too loud, hard driving, repetitive, mostly tuneless, and senseless, but that's true of most cruise lines and just about everywhere else these days.
June 13, Stavanger, Norway. It is raining today, but since I've been here and done the main tour of Lysfjord and Pulpit Rock here, I don't count this against the weather magic ... or at least not by a full point.
A fair number of people stayed aboard what with the weather being uncooperative, but I grabbed a good spot in the Metropolis with a great view of the harbor and the MSC Poesia next to us. Poesia left first, sailing straight out.at a good clip. We had to wait for some late passengers ... one pair of which were the same as yesterday's. Then the captain "let off the last strings," and did another backwards pirouette to get us going. Pretty quickly we got into a thick fog, so with nothing to see, I opted to go back for a nap.
For dinner, it was a formal night, and I had no interest in unpacking the suitcase down to the sparklies, so I nipped up to the Italian dinner buffet on Lido Deck for a quick bite. P&O's version of penne carbonara is definitely NOT my idea of the dish ...iIt was almost inedible. However, yesterday evening, their room service folks produced a truly superior bowl of spaghetti Bolognese. The sauce wasn't quite as good as Tom's home made version, but it was close ... very close!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)