Category Archives: Cruising

Oct 2017

Holly Doyne Posted on by 3

As I was looking over posts from Oct 2017 – I realized that lack of cheap internet access on the NCL Sun meant that I never got around to posting pictures from Fleet Week, the Blue Angels, the Bridges, San Francisco, or the SF Bay. Since I finally found the old photos on a back up hard drive (and yes, sorting by year, month, date is the only way to go), I decided to share. It is not like otherwise there is a lot of thrill in seeing garter stitch scarves or listening to me whine about lack of progress on those papers still hanging over my head.

Fleet Week

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

is just starting in San Francisco. In the back of my head, I sort of had filed the information away along with all the other local events that are interesting but don’t elicit any personal interest in participation.

Then I noted some rather low flying, fast, expensive aircraft buzzing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Right – Fleet Week – when Navies get together and show off – their ships, their abilities, and, in the case of the US Navy – the Blue Angels.

I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing last year – but I remember 5 Oct 2017. I was headed round trip through the Panama Canal on the NCL Sun in the company of good friends from Australia. We were due to pull out from San Francisco at a reasonable time of the afternoon. And then the fun started. It was a Friday afternoon. The tannoy announcement informed us that we were going to be delayed secondary to the Blue Angels rehearsing. Along with dozens of others, I went and staked out my territory on the upper deck. Up at the bow with a good camera and excellent lens. I checked the old post to discover that I hadn’t uploaded pictures at the time. And since I have changed laptops since then, I have to find the connector, pull out the backup drive, and find the photos.

Right.

Anyway. It is Friday. And what started out this whole train of thought was seeing what I thought was a low flying aircraft out of the corner of my eye. George’s window mostly faces another section of the Long Building. I can see toward downtown (East) if I look out and too the right between the two wings of the building. Huh? Walking to the lounge at the end of the hall, I had a clear view of the stretch of Bay which separates San Francisco from Marin and includes the Golden Gate. Contrails slowly dissipating. Oh – ok, Fleet Week, Blue Angels.

Back to my audio books and knitting.

NCL Bliss back

Holly Doyne Posted on by

NCL Bliss

 

and it is board today for a quick trip back (well, quicker than my trip over…)

 

our route

 

Date Port Arrive Depart
Saturday, April 21 London (Southampton), England 5:00pm
Sunday, April 22 At Sea
Monday, April 23 At Sea
Tuesday, April 24 At Sea
Wednesday, April 25 Ponta Delgada, Portugal 9:00am 6:00pm
Thursday, April 26 At Sea
Friday, April 27 At Sea
Saturday, April 28 At Sea
Sunday, April 29 At Sea
Monday, April 30 Halifax, NS, Canada 8:00am 6:00pm
Tuesday, May 1 At Sea
Wednesday, May 2 At Sea
Thursday, May 3 New York (Manhattan), NY

The Brilliance (OTS)

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

Brilliance

of the Seas is a ship which I haven’t been on since 2010. At that time, it could only be said as the worst ship/cruise I had ever taken. Partly from the fellow passengers and mostly from crew attitude. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that way since there have been serious changes on the ship since then.

Anyway – I am headed across in the company of others. It is one of those times when I could kick myself for not having travel insurance since there is enough going on at home that I might rather be staying.

In any case –

Date Port Arrive Depart
Thursday, April 5 Tampa, FL 5:00pm
Friday, April 6 At Sea
Saturday, April 7 At Sea
Sunday, April 8 At Sea
Monday, April 9 At Sea
Tuesday, April 10 At Sea
Wednesday, April 11 At Sea
Thursday, April 12 At Sea
Friday, April 13 Ponta Delgada, Portugal 8:00am 5:00pm
Saturday, April 14 At Sea
Sunday, April 15 At Sea
Monday, April 16 Cork (Cobh), Ireland 8:00am 5:00pm
Tuesday, April 17 Dublin, Ireland 11:30am 10:30pm
Wednesday, April 18 Waterford (Dunmore East), Ireland 7:00am 4:00pm
Thursday, April 19 At Sea
Friday, April 20 Amsterdam, Holland

I haven’t ever sailed out of Tampa – so that is the “port” that is new to me.
When you read this – I will be underway….

Just counting

Holly Doyne Posted on by 6

As I was sitting here this afternoon – I starting thinking about my old tag line from Cruise Critic –

400 + nights at sea – too bad they aren’t all on the same cruise line

which is obviously and patently no longer true, the nights I mean. It is more than 400 nights over the years still certainly not on the same line but the differences have been interesting. So I decided to see if I could add them all up. First – there are the Rivers which I decided to count since they qualify both as ships and water –

2000 – Donau
2007 – Yantzee
2008 – Nile
2014 – Donau (Phoenix)
2017 – Columbia & Snake – American Queen Steamship

which I guess leaves me the Amazon, Mekong & Volga as rivers I would seriously like to cruise.

On the high seas – the first ship we were on was 2004 – Costa something in the Baltic the summer after I returned from a lovely 15 months in Kuwait and related garden spots. Since then – I think it has been Costa x 4 total (One TA), MSC x 3 (2 TAs), Celebrity x 9 (1 transpacific, 1 Panama), Royal x 56 (14 TAs, 1 Circumnavigation of Australia and NZ, Panama, 1 TransPacific, 2 Suez), NCL x 15 (1 TA, 2 Panama). Then there are the One of’s. Princess, La Ponant, P&O, Phoenix, Crystal (TA). I think that adds up to around 92 cruises.

The reason that I noted the TransAtlantics, TransPacifics, Panama and Suez is that they average 14 days. That is around 275 days right there. Even if the other 65 ocean cruises were 7 days each plus the rivers it puts me over 900 nights.

Perhaps I will change the tag line when I hit 1000?

Cruise Critic

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

“Twas brillig and the slythe tov….

Oh wait – this is not Alice through the Looking Glass or an alternate reality but the MSC Seaside. Today, after several false starts (first meeting scheduled on Day 2 of the Cruise was cancelled. Why bother before Barcelona when you can combine the Trieste boarding people with those getting on in later ports and hold only one meeting). So that you then go for the 9th and have the front desk tell everyone that the meeting will be at 1100. But then you send out invites that spe “Twas brillig and the slythe tov….

Oh wait – this is not Alice through the Looking Glass or an alternate reality but the MSC Seaside. Today, after several false starts (first meeting scheduled on Day 2 of the Cruise was cancelled. Why bother before Barcelona when you can combine the Trieste boarding people with those getting on in later ports and hold only one meeting). So that you then go for the 9th and have the front desk tell everyone that the meeting will be at 1100. But then you send out invites that specify 1000. At least it was always scheduled in the same location.

MSC ran the meeting well which left no room for comments, completes or even a chance at the rare compliment. They plied the group with alcoholic drinks, hi end hor’dervs and a piece of fancy cake after the group photo.

I lasted all of 30 minutes, avoided the photo and decided that I would much rather be up in the Jungle Lounge with the sun shining on me.

I finished the fourth of 36 pages on my cross stitch and trying to stay mellow when asked all the usual questions about “how long, how much more and will I finish before the end of the cruise.” The answers, of course, fall somewhere along the line of “when I am done, however long it takes and no.” cify 1000. At least it was always scheduled in the same location.

MSC ran the meeting well which left no room for comments, completes or even a chance at the rare compliment. They plied the group with alcoholic drinks, hi end hor’dervs and a piece of fancy cake after the group photo.

I lasted all of 30 minutes, avoided the photo and decided that I would much rather be up in the Jungle Lounge with the sun shining on me.

I finished the fourth of 36 pages on my cross stitch and trying to stay mellow when asked all the usual questions about “how long, how much more and will I finish before the end of the cruise.” The answers, of course, fall somewhere along the line of “when I am done, however long it takes and no.”

Mostly Working

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

 

The ship is interesting – in both a good and “needs improvement” kind of way.  This is the first cruise; occasional hiccups are to be expected.

On the positive side: new, shiny, wide range of things to do, buy, eat and drink. And the staff is fantastic which is great especially since all of them transferred in from other ships quite recently.

The passengers present a wide range of nationalities, backgrounds and levels of politeness leading to a higher than expect amount of rudeness coupled with a bit of pushing and shoving. We are at sea, it is not like the food item isn’t going to be there when it is your turn. Failing that, it will be replaced with fresh from the galley. There is something to be said about new and fresh from the galley.

There are some challenges – and most of them are nothing that anyone other than engineering can do anything about and perhaps not even them. Example – the aft (fancy/expensive) balcony cabins on our deck aren’t hooked into hot water. No one is sure why, but a number of folks have had to truck to the Spa/Fitness area to shower. To find out that there is no soap or shampoo in those showers…. Huh? Really?

The lights flickering this evening can be completely ignored. The rhythmic thumping in the wall/ceiling that started about noon and has continued perhaps not. I certainly don’t find it thrilling but then, I am probably tired enough to sleep through anything about this point. I am wondering if there is something lose in the walls or perhaps it is those hot water pipes that don’t connect?

The open area around the Centrum is a mix between Royal’s Centrum on the Vision/Radiance Class ships and a Promenade. It is lovely, clean lines and colors, extending from Deck 5 to Deck 8. It is also extremely noisy. There seems to be no sound baffling. I was routinely recording 85db sitting at one of the tables.

The color scheme is mostly neutrals complemented by a lot of chrome and walls of glass (I am wondering how long before they have to do something with the glass walls to prevent people walking into them. There is a great illusion of increased space in a number of the corridors which might just mitigate the low ceilings. This is not a ship for basketball players. For that matter, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone in the 6’4”/2 meter range. Then I remember this is Italian. They are not a tall people….

The food – no surprise – has been remarkably Italian so far. From 0630-0200 you can find food in the Deck 8 Market Hall (buffet). FYI the piazza is excellent.

Tomorrow we are in port. The day after is a sea day. I will fill you in about the wonders of unlimited access to cappuccinos, lattes, expresso and take-away gelato.

 

MSC Seaside

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

MSC Seaside

Is not a small ship. Carmen and I are sailing her on her first trip across the Atlantic. Originally she was to be leaving from Venice. That city very sensibly decided that mega ships were no longer welcome, especially at the inner city docks. Might be they learned from the damage a few other ports have sustained from the wake of very powerful thrusters?

In any case, MSC most sensibly decided to offer free bus service from both the port and the airport in Venice so that those who already had plane/train/ship arrivals scheduled for Venice would not be too badly inconvenienced.

The Route

 

and the day to day schedule as it currently stands – always – of course, subject to revision…

Date Port Arrive Depart
Friday, December 1 Trieste, Italy 11:59pm
Saturday, December 2 At Sea
Sunday, December 3 Messina, Sicily, Italy Noon 8:00pm
Monday, December 4 At Sea
Tuesday, December 5 Palma de Mallorca, Spain 9:00am 11:59pm
Wednesday, December 6 Barcelona, Spain 10:00am 6:00pm
Thursday, December 7 At Sea
Friday, December 8 Cadiz, Spain 8:00am 6:00pm
Saturday, December 9 At Sea
Sunday, December 10 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal 7:00am 4:00pm
Monday, December 11 Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands 8:00am 4:00pm
Tuesday, December 12 At Sea
Wednesday, December 13 At Sea
Thursday, December 14 At Sea
Friday, December 15 At Sea
Saturday, December 16 At Sea
Sunday, December 17 Antigua 7:00am 4:00pm
Monday, December 18 San Juan, Puerto Rico 8:00am
Tuesday, December 19 San Juan, Puerto Rico 2:00am
Wednesday, December 20 At Sea
Thursday, December 21 Miami, FL 7:00am

 

American Empress

Holly Doyne Posted on by

was another ship in her former life. Go to Wiki if you want to read the background…

What she is at this point is a diesel driven paddlewheel ship owned by the American Queen Steamship Company plying her trade on the Columbia and Snake Rivers ported out of Vancouver Washington. Her full complement of passengers would be 223, but according to the lovely young people at the information desk, she is sailing not completely booked on this last cruise of the season.

We can see her from our hotel window.

At Pier #1 Vancouver Washington

and yes, a real paddlewheel

I just looked at the website – and it doesn’t look like they are offering this particular cruise again which is roundtrip Vancouver Washington. Next year there are short cruises of five days roundtrip or 9 day one way Vancouver <-> Clarkston. This makes sense as you complete avoid any of the backtracking that otherwise occurs.

We sail this evening at 1800 (and yes, there is the mandatory emergency drill….)

Our stops include Astoria, Portland, The Dalles and Stevenson before disembarkation in Vancouver on the 27th.

From here on in, posts will be done from my phone which will present a bit of a challenge as that will be my source of wifi…

Birdies

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

The first time I came through Cartegena I visited the Old Town, various museums and really enjoyed myself. The following couple of times I have pretty much stayed in the port area. Smart marketing here, nice shops in the port area and multiple species of birds.

The two ships in port today are us and the NCL Pearl which followed us through the canal. Most seem to have gone off on tours.

I am ignoring the “opportunity” to buy eneralds, coffee or trinkets.

I am also ignoring the feral kittens and the guy with the parrots and his hand out. Two more sea days from here then Miami on the 20th.

North to go East

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

For those who don’t remember, the Panama Canal runs a SW to NE course through the isthmus.

According to the info we were given the pilot was going to be boarding ~0500 and we would be to the first lock about 0700. Accordingly several of us got up early and staked out our normal places in the observation lounge.

Naturally there were those not happy when they arrived as we approached the first lock to find both the lounge full and the forward railings crowded.

Duh.

I spilt my time between wandering out to enjoy the travel through the locks and my cross stitch.

I will have photos when I am somewhere that I have real internet.

 

Four Meals

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

When I booked this cruise I could pick two perks off the list. The Internet was obvious. No interest in the drinks or shore excursions which left the 4 Meals in a Specialty Restaurant.

Tonight, after a relaxing day I went to Le Bistro. Great food, wonderful service. Will go back (unlike one of the others).

Shuttle Bus to nowhere

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

Having been here before (Costa Rica) I was looking forward to a relaxed wander through town.  And then we turned  out to be ship #3 in port. There are two berths in town. The commercial port is not either next door or walkable. In fact the only thing you can do after you shuttle from the ship to the port entrance is get on another bus ($15/return) if you want to go to town or go back to the ship.

Not hard to figure out which I chose.

We stop here again on the return journey and I will plan on getting to town regardless. Meanwhile, there is a hot tub in my future after I finish a bit more of the cross-stitch.

Stitching at Sea

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

There wound up being four of us hanging out this morning and stitching. There also were knitters. Aren’t there always knitters?  And I am not one this time.   Anyway, it was a lovely time in the observation lounge.

Sunrise

The rest of the day was more of the same, topped off by a dinner in one of the specialty restaurants.  Food was good, service not quite there.

Small port in Mexico

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Ok. Not all that organized today.

We are stopped in a lovely little port with almost nothing here. An outdoor bar& cafe (no wifi) and a crafts/tourist junk center. Their wifi is expensive and overloaded. So here I am two fingering it on my phone.

If I had been organized I would have gone out to pre-Columbian ruins. But I am not; enjoying the breeze and walking a bit of distance in a straight line.

-Holly

Huatulco

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

 

On the Pacific Coast line of Mexico, this town in Oaxaca is a whole lot smaller than those of our previous stops. It features bays, beached and more beaches. Docking at 0800, the passengers were practically trampling each other to get off the ship since they obviously need more than the cruise so far with deck chairs full of people baking in the sun to attempt to further their sunburns.

I decided that getting off before 1000 was stupid. Standing in line is not my thing (unless it is in front of the Oakland Coliseum for an A’s game or at the airport to leave town). In those cases, it still is not my thing but a bit easier to bear.

Walking through town before finding a lovely little cafe on the outskirts where I am the only customer (Bossa Nova) it is lush, full of vendors near the ship and extremely humid. But I am sitting in a cool breeze and relaxing. I plan on doing the same as the other day. Thanking the young woman (I have maybe twelve words of Spanish not counting numbers and she has no English) and tipping generously for the kindest of sitting here for a couple of hours on only a cup of coffee.

The Second Draft of the Sphere Handbook was just posted Monday so I pulled that and will work my way through this revision. I am listening to audiobooks and cross stitching, making good progress on both.  Just finished the latest Peter Grant (Ben Aaronovich) novella in audio which I downloaded even though I own the eVersion just because the narrator is so fabulous.

I am skipping the beaches…

Tomorrow is another port day with a day at sea to follow, then Costa Rica then another day at sea with the Canal for about 12 hours on the 16th. There is a fellow Army retiree (actually both of the couple) who have a lovely forward facing balcony which I have been invited to visit during the canal run so hopefully will have good pictures. Otherwise – fore and aft come to mind.

Meal with an officer

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Cruise lines have loyalty programs which should come as no surprise. There is always a competition for passengers and hooking people into a single line increases profits. It also increases specifically cruises on a particular line if there is choice between several if someone is close to the number of points to jump a level in privilege. People like perks, like being treated as special.  I don’t really think it applies to the high end ships, except as a status symbol but for everyone else, the lure of free internet time, free drinks, free specialty meals or free laundry does have an appeal.

NCL in my opinion had a very sane and limited program up to this year. There was a cap on the levels that was achievable in a reasonable number of years (80 points/nights at sea). It got your a free bottle of ship wine, a free meal with wine for two, a bag of laundry free and some internet free. Overall not a bad deal and fairly consistent across the fleet. Then they changed it. Some how the naming convention and levels where the points cut seem to be eerily similar to Royal – right down to a [level] with the next one being  [level]Plus. Go figure. The perks have definitely increased and I now received invites for a meal with an officer and a behind the scenes tour (seem familiar?).

So there I was, getting back on the Sun in Puerto Vallarta and facing a 1900 meal with an officer. Unlike Royal, there doesn’t seem to be an official Captain’s table and you get the same menu as the rest of the diners. Not a problem as the food continues consistently good. It has the advantage of not increasing costs and providing a full range of choices thus avoiding all the special requests. The downside is that you don’t get the souvenirs (like anyone who has cruised a lot needs them). Besides the Hotel Director who was hosting there was a Canadian couple from Winnipeg, an English couple from north of Manchester, an American pair now retired to Florida and me making eight total.

It was a nice evening.

Today Jill and I spent a fair amount of time first in one of the lounges then later in my cabin doing cross stitch following which we went to supper. And so went Day 6 about the “Beautiful NCL Sun.”

Seems to be the same announcements out of the Cruise Director on every ship from every line. I generally ignore them, but that is a rant for another time.

Not the World

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

Ok, I will admit to having occasionally looked at the high end cruises and thinking they were really not worth it.

The same for me applies to living in an over 55 community. Yes, I have a number of very good friends who enjoy the life style, the security and the convenience. Maybe sometime in the future I would think about it. But not in California, it just wouldn’t make sense. Then there is also the privacy issue which is why we bought a house and not a condo when we moved back. I hate condo associations and boards.
Where was I? Oh yes, THE WORLD (their caps, not mine) is docked next to us here in Puerto Vallarta. Big whoop. I can remember a significant number of years reading something in a travel magazine right before it was built. You could buy your on ship condo at that time for somewhere between 1-5M$ US. Then you have the basic issues of food (meals not included) laundry (not included) housekeeping (not included). And condo fees? Did I mention the condo fees? For a measly $10k/m US you will have the privilege of   being on a ship with only a share vote in the itinerary and the ability to pay for additionals like meals in the restaurants or cleaning service.
To me that adds up to enough money to cruise continuously on any of the midship lines with everything taken care of. And the class of passenger is much, much better….
Again it is hot, humid and I made a quick shopping trip for a couple of essentials then will head back to the ship. It is three miles to town and I am too lazy to walk and too cheap to take a cab. Maybe next time?

The Giggling Bean

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

I had forgotten that Cabos San Lucas was a tender port. I don’t actually remember much from the cruise Noah and I took in April. I suspect that I didn’t get off the ship at all. Certainly I wasn’t in the mood for a tender operation. When Carmen and I came through on the Star Princess, I vaguely remember going from the ship’s tender down the dock and onto the whale watching zodiac that had been organized ahead of time.

This time I just took the tender in and set out from the port. I figured that if I walked a reasonable distance from the ship I would be able to find a cafe for coffee and wifi. If I strolled far enough, there wouldn’t be a lot of other cruise ship passengers competing for time and space.  Down the long avenue and up a couple of side street and I found a lovely little place called the Giggling Bean. They had extremely strong coffee, they had wifi. They had a four footed vacuum cleaner who wandered his fat self around to check out all the new customers. He decided I was good for a scratch but totally inadequate in the food offering department. Personally, I didn’t think he really needed anything else to eat. I spent a pleasant couple of hours getting this, that and the other thing updated followed by a meander back to the ship.

It was both warm (32*C) and extremely humid accompanied by bright sunshine. Photogray glasses were good, sunblock was even better. It was honestly nice to get back into the ship’s A/C.

Dinner was a progressive affair; we sampled the food in the Tapas Bar, then went on to the sports bar. As it turns out, it is the Sports Bar which is open all night in case one gets the munchies pretty much eliminating the need for after-hours room service unless you just can’t stand the thought of wings, hot dogs, soup or dip in the middle of the night.

Oh, and cheesecake. That would make an excellent 0300 snack.

Back an hour

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It seems like such a little thing, that hour of sleep lost, but it wreaks havoc with the best of us. After al, it is only an hour; the first of three we lose on our way to Miami and it is not like we are doing them all at once.

Jill and I spent the day in the Observation lounge working on our respective cross-stitch projects. Me with more than three dozen colors and needing to make changes every few stitches and her with black thread. Of course, I make up for it by using 14 count fabric while she is plying needle and thread through 28 count (double the thread count, four times the stitches per square inch).  We were thinking about keeping tract of all those who have stopped by to see our projects.

The highlight today was this lovely French woman, straight, slender, silver haired and elegant. Neither Jill nor I remembered much of our French, she spoke no English but it was wonderful to watch her pleasure in examining Jill’s current project. There was also an American or two, a Canadian, an Australian, a woman from the Philippines and more staff than we really needed. By the end of the day, I had finished somewhere around 1600 stitches (figure 16 10×10 squares) with 62 to go).

I have to mention the food. The observation lounge – forward on deck 12 – had coffee and danish out early and late. It fills that notch between needing food and just something to get you till breakfast. There is no 24 hour dining location on this ship like the larger NCL ships.  There are two main dining rooms – same menu in both. We have now eaten in both. No question both the food and the service are far superior to Royal in the last year. NCL apparently is not cutting costs in that area. Way too many Bingo announcements, but excellent quality on the food.

Tomorrow we are in Cabos. It is a tender port. I am going to wander out mid-day for a while. I had it mixed in my head with the next port which is the coffee shop/Walmart/old town stop. In any case, I will try for some wifi. I am not willing to pay the ship rates for connectivity so am being very sparing of my few free internet minutes.