S2305 – Limping Home

May 15, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 8 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Crowning Glory, I described our visits to two ports on Caribbean Islands, Road Town in Tortola, and Basseterre in St Kitts. In this post, the final one for this epic cruise all around the world in 80 days, I will cover the long voyage home across the Atlantic, including a stop at Ponta Delgardo in the Azores.

Days 72-76 – At sea

After sadly leaving the lovely island of St Kitts, we then had 5 consecutive days at sea sailing out of the beautiful blue Caribbean sea and out across the open Atlantic Ocean towards our final port of call in the Azores.

For the first few days I was very busy sorting photographs, then writing, assembling and posting my previous blog post about the Caribbean.

The first evening at sea was a formal night, and we were lucky enough to have Iain Gibson, the Hotel Manager, join us at our dinner table. Regular readers might remember that we also had the other Hotel Manager on this cruise, Hermann Stingeder, join us at our dinner table earlier in the cruise. Although Iain has quite a different personality to Hermann, he was equally brilliant company, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed our evening together – in fact we were all so absorbed in the laughter and conversation that we barely noticed that the second sitting passengers were arriving in the dining room while we were still there! We had to make hasty apologies to our waiters and leave before we caused further disruption. It was a good job that our table was not used for second sitting.

The third day at sea was the Coronation Day for His Majesty the King, which I covered in my previous post.

The remaining two days were mostly spent relaxing. As we sailed further north it was noticable how the temperatures dropped day by day, and strong cold breezes made sitting out on our balcony much less appealing.

On the afternoon of the final sea day before the Azores we were lucky enough to have a tour of the Galley, given by David Buchanan, the Executive Chef. David had asked Guest Services to only book 9 people per tour, but when we all met at the entrance to the main dining room we were nearly twice that. Extra aprons and hats had to be sent for, and once we were all suitably dressed we went through to the Galley to begin the tour. Carol and I had done a Galley tour before on Boudicca, and it was interesting to see how much bigger this one was.

David gave a wonderful tour, and spent some time explaining how the food is prepared and then plated up to order, the importance of precision and consistency, and the focus on reducing waste as much as possible – he even showed us the scales used to weigh the waste before storage and disposal. From the way he described his day, the constant monitoring, checking and administration, tasting of the dinners for that day and two days hence at 5pm, and managing the food going out for the two dinner sittings, it is a wonder that he has any time to rest or sleep. Neither Carol or I would want such a demanding and difficult job for anything.

Thank you David for a brilliant and very informative tour.

Day 77 – Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel Island, Azores

As usual Carol and I were awake early, and watched our approach to what was sadly our last port of call from our balcony. We were sailing into Ponta Delgada, the capital of the Azores archipelago of Portugal. As we sailed in it all looked so different to what we had become used to – gone were the blue seas and sunshine, instead it was a grey choppy sea, mist and dark clouds – very much setting the scene for our return to the UK.

We had both been to Ponta Delgada before, in my case many times, so we were content not to book a tour, but instead just have a wander around the town. We were also on a mission, as some friends of ours not on this cruise had asked us to look out for some of the pineapple produce, for which the islands are famous.

As we left the ship it was gently raining, so we had to wear raincoats for the first time in what seemed months, but fortunately the rain soon stopped and we were able to shed them.

We spent a happy morning wandering around the town, and managed to find from different shops a nice selection of the pineapple products. For once my mind was not on photography as I had photographed the town several times before, but I did take a handful of snaps to include here.

We returned to the ship in time for lunch, and spent a quiet afternoon relaxing. When it became time for our sailaway we were both surprised how emotional we felt, setting sail for home after what has been such an epic and wonderful cruise, full of such amazing and wonderful experiences and memories.

After dinner we sat out on the balcony with our friends watching the sun set over the last land we would see for several days.

Days 78-80 – At sea

Leaving the Azores we then had a further three days at sea sailing back towards our disembarkation port, Southampton in the UK.

Having brought so much luggage with us, rather than have an epic job packing on the final day, we decided to spread the load and do some on each of the three days. It is always a sad time, dismantling what has very much been our home for nearly three months. At least when packing at the end of the cruise it is a case (if you pardon the pun) of fitting everything that is there into the cases, whereas at home before we sail, lots of decisions have to be made on what to bring.

Unusually, the final formal night was held on the first sea day – usually it is held on the penultimate day of a cruise. To our surprise we had another officer at our table, this time it was the Chief Engineer. We enjoyed another lovely evening of conversation, and he was interested to hear that Carol and I had been on a river cruise to the Danube Delta, near to where he lives in Romania, as part of our river cruises on Brabant (see R1907 – By Gheorghe !). We have been so lucky this cruise, dining at both the Captain’s and Hotel Manager’s tables, and having two Hotel Managers, the Food and Beverage Manager and the Chief Engineer at our table – it is always lovely to have the chance to get to know better the senior staff on board.

After dinner it was the one showtime that we never want to miss – the Crew Show. This is when ordinary members of the crew, for example cabin stewardesses, deck hands and engine room boys, come on stage to sing and dance for us. The show started with a very clever and amusing film, where members of the crew were going about their work when a light flashed or a bell sounded to remind them it was time for the show, and they hastily dropped what they were doing to get ready for the show. As always it was very entertaining – for some reason Carol always particularly enjoys the dance routines by the deck hands and the engine room boys. We are always moved when they all come on stage at the end to sing “We are the world”, and as usual they got a standing ovation.

During the sea days we have been enjoying the enrichment talks given by Roy Paul, in particular the two part talk about the history of the Fred. Olsen company. Roy has been saying in his talks that although he only joined the cruise late on, he had been keeping up to date with the cruise from the two blogs he was following – mine included. With my permission at the end of the final two talks he very kindly both advertised and gave the web address for this blog – thank you Roy it is very much appreciated – as were your talks. We had met Roy before on the Boudicca Grand Voyage in 2019/20, and hope that our paths will cross again on a future cruise.

Just after lunch on the final sea day we were surprised to have a letter delivered under our cabin door. It said that the UK Border Force had decided that they want to do a face-to-face interview with everyone before they leave the ship in Southampton the next day. To do this we will be called by the usual luggage label colour around half an hour earlier than expected, and have to make our way to the Neptune Lounge, where our names and cabin numbers will be logged by Guest Services, Border Force will check our passports and ships cards, and then we will be given a special Red Pass, which we will need to disembark the ship. In all our days of cruising, we have never experienced this before. I am sure the ship’s crew don’t need all this extra administration either with so much else to do on an always extra busy change-over day, especially as we understand that over 1200 passengers will be embarking for the next cruise to Norway.

At our final dinner with our friends that evening we took photos of each other and with our wonderful waiters. Afterwards there was a lovely sunset, rather appropriate as the sun was also setting on our very special cruise.

Day 81 – Southampton

Yes, I know it is confusing having a day 81 on a cruise that is Around the World in 80 Days. Basically time has been confusing all the way around. We have had 25 days that were 23 hours long, 1 day that was 25 hours long, and 55 days that were 24 hours long – not to mention two Good Fridays on consecutive days!

Actually we have had 81 days in the same time that everyone back at home as had 80 days – and all the short days allowed us to have that extra day. There – clear as mud!!

For us it was an even earlier start than usual on the final day of the cruise, as we knew we would be called for the face-to-face interview just after 7am, and then we could leave the ship – we had expected to disembark at around 7:30.

When we pulled back the curtains around 5:30 we were already docked, and the skies (like usual) were grey. After breakfast soon after 6:00 we went down to the Oceans Bar to wait to be called, and were surprised to see it was raining – it wasn’t forecast. While we were waiting we got talking to another couple who had a very, very long journey home ahead of them – they lived in Auckland, New Zealand – it made us feel extra lucky just to have an hour in a taxi ahead of us.

The face-to-face interview was quick, and after a successful game of hunt the suitcases we were soon on our way home. We were indoors and facing a mountain of post before 9:00 am!

Conclusion

Although we love our home and our life here and are glad to be back, we are both still very sad that such an epic and wonderful cruise has had come to an end. We had been so lucky with the weather all the way around – any rain was almost always when we were on the ship so we hardly got wet, and while the seas got a bit lumpy a couple of times, we were never troubled. It is so unusual for a really long voyage like this, that we made it into all the ports – usually there is bad weather somewhere and we have to divert, especially for anchor ports.

As I have said many times throughout this cruise, the officers, staff and crew on board are simply wonderful – nothing is too much trouble, and they go out of their way to make you feel so welcome and so special. Of course the brilliant thing about a long cruise is that there is time to really get to know people, whether it is the crew or your fellow passengers, so you always come home with new friends.

As you might expect, we enjoyed some of the ports more than others. For us the outstanding ones were in Japan for the cherry blossom and for seeing Mt Fuji in perfect conditions; and San Francisco for sailing under and over the Golden Gate Bridge, seeing Giant Redwood trees and riding the iconic cable cars (see S2305 – Hakata Sakura, S2305 – Fuji on Film and S2305 – California Dreaming.

While the last thing we want to do after being lucky enough to experience such a magical cruise is complain, I would like to mention a few things that with a bit more thought and experience could have been done better.

A long cruise, whether it is a world cruise or a grand voyage, is different in nature to the more usual short cruise of one or two weeks or so. On a short cruise, passengers want to make the most of every moment of every day. On a long cruise passengers are there for the long haul, and you simply can’t party around the clock for week after week, especially with lots of time changes thrown in. Also there will be long runs of consecutive sea days, for which extra entertainment by day is needed.

On this cruise, neither the Entertainment Manager or her deputy had done the role before on a long cruise, and we, and other seasoned long cruise passengers very much thought that it showed. We missed the extra day-time activities we had enjoyed on previous long cruises – getting passengers to build a model boat from recycled materials found around the ship or something to protect a raw egg when dropped onto the deck, the inter-department crew tug of war competition, ‘Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook’ and ‘Can’t Pot, Won’t Pot’ (always a good laugh) etc etc. There was no tea dance. There were only two events to recognise Diamond Elite passengers, a coffee morning and an afternoon tea.

The timing of some events was strange too. Long films were put on which overran dinner times. A murder mystery play was put on – lovely – but starting at 10:30 at night it was way too late for us.

Enough – I don’t want you to think I am just full of complaints because I am not – it just frustrates me that if only a little more thought was put in the cruise could have been even better than it was.

What I would like you to go away with is the thought that long cruises – world cruises or grand voyages – are very different and very special, and that if there is any way that you can manage to experience one then grab it with both hands – even if you do have to spend the kid’s inheritance! Travelling to far-flung and distant places is so rewarding and so enriching – to quote again Simon Reeve, who makes those brilliant travel documentaries, the best travel is at the edge of your comfort zone. Go for it!

Postscript 1

Nearly every day on this cruise, apart from when we had an early tour departure, we have enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room. As we approached the dining room we were greeted by three lovely ladies – Maria Salvaleon a waitress, and two seating hostesses, Judy Faith Urbina and Luzmarie Narvas. Their warm and lovely smiles were a wonderful start to the day, so a big thank you from us both – we will miss you.

To all the waiters and waitresses too numerous to mention, who served us so well at breakfast, and occasionally at lunch too, a big public thank you.

Postscript 2

Given that the ship sailed back to the UK normally, you may be wondering why I have called this post Limping Home. Well, it wasn’t the ship that was limping, it is me! As I walked through the Neptune Lounge to have my face-to-face interview I felt something strange in the back of my left knee. As the day wore on it got more painful, and now I am having to rest with my leg up most of the time, just hobbling around when I have to. I feel so guilty, my wonderful wife Carol has been a superstar and done all the unpacking unaided, and I keep looking out of the window at all the gardening that needs doing which I can’t start. I guess it is better that the injury happened now, and not part way around the cruise though.

Postscript 3

A couple of years ago we were delighted to find that we had badgers visiting our garden at night, even though we live in a very suburban area. They are not a problem to us as we don’t have any lawn for them to dig up – lawns are not compatible with long cruises! We put out any scraps we have overnight for them to eat, as well as peanuts and sometimes peanut butter sandwiches, and watch recordings of their visits on our wildlife camera the next day. After nearly three months away not being fed we wondered if they would still be around, but on our very first night we had furry visitors – and one is clearly a mother!

S2305 – Crowning Glory

May 8, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 2 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Hot and Sticky, I described three hot and sticky days spent in transit through the Panama Canal, and visiting the ports of Cartagena de Indias and Santa Marta in Colombia, and a hot and sticky night when the ship’s air conditioning failed.

In this post I will cover our next two ports of call, which were Road Town on the Caribbean island of Tortola, and Basseterre on the island of St Kitts.

Day 69 – At sea

After three such busy days, and then a broken nights sleep from the heat, we had a very restful sea day sailing towards the first of our Caribbean islands.

Day 70 – Road Town, Tortola

As always Carol and I were up early on our balcony to watch our sail in. We knew that a large Disney ship, Disney Fantasy, was also due to be in port that day, and as we approached the port we could see that she was already tied up alongside the single long pier. As we got closer we could see Dumbo the Elephant on her stern.

We had booked on a three and a half hour ship’s tour called Island Secrets Discovered, which described in the tour guide as a scenic drive around the island on an open-air safari bus.

There was a little bit of confusion and waiting down on the quayside as none of the safari busses were numbered, but eventually our driver/guide led us to the correct bus, and we clambered aboard. The busses had a roof but were open at the sides – on the right hand side there was a low side wall and a rail, but on the left side, the side we were sat, it was all open where the steep steps were. I Sat on the outside and jambed my left leg and foot across to make sure there was no way I could fall out should the bus do a sharp turn.

Initially we did a short tour through the town, before setting off around the coast of the island on Waterfront Drive. For this section of the tour I was on the inland side of the bus, and so was not able to get as many photographs as I might have liked – it is swings and roundabouts, later in the tour I was on the best side to see and photograph things. At one point we had to stop quickly as a huge well-laden lorry came towards us taking up nearly all of the road.

We drove along the coast as far as a community college, before we turned inland and started a steep climb up over the scenic Ridge Road. As we climbed higher we started to get amazing views down across the beautiful coastline and out to neighbouring islands. We stopped by the side of the road where the views were particularly stunning, and my camera was working overtime.

Further on the stunning views were to my side of the bus, looking down over Road Town, and more neighbouring islands looking idyllic in the lovely blue sea.

A little further on we drove slowly past an amazing long wall painted with murals – I always keep an eye out for murals on coach tours, but I am struggling to remember a seeing a wall with so many and such good paintings, telling the story of life on the island.

Driving on, we had views down over Road Town again, and this time we could see both of the ships, and from on high we could get a better sense of just how much longer and taller the Disney ship was compared to ours. The turquoise sea looked breath-taking.

We then drove on to our refreshment stop which was at a bar and gift shop called Mountain View, located at the entrance to Sage Mountain National Park. We were given a token for a free soft drink, but given all the other tour busses were also there at the same time, there was quite a queue for the drinks so we just went to look at the gift shop, which proved rather disappointing. The tour guidebook had promised views of a list of islands and features, these proved to be not as extensive as I had imagined either.

For the final part of our tour we descended very steep and winding roads back down to Road Town. There were several steep hairpin bends, and I made sure my leg was keeping me safely wedged into the bus. Reaching the town, it was a short ride back to the quayside.

Would we recommend this tour – absolutely yes – it gave us a good tour around the island, and the chance to see absolutely stunning views of the coastline and neighbouring islands. My personal view is that the refreshment stop did slightly let down an otherwise brilliant tour. We both thought our driver was really good and we both felt quite safe – it can’t be easy driving the bus up and down such steep roads with tight hair-pin bends. However later we heard and also read online that some passengers on the cruise were not happy with their drivers and had refused to continue their journeys, whether that was due to a difference in standard of the drivers, or a different perception of what is comfortable I cannot say – all I can repeat is that we felt safe and really enjoyed the experience.

We had a quick look around the shops near the quay, but they seemed to have a limited range and to be rather expensive, so we soon made our way back to the ship.

We decided to eat Poolside, and were so glad we did, as we were able to say hello and have a few words with the wonderful Wilmar Casa, who used to be in the Fred. Olsen Entertainments team and who was visiting the ship from the Disney ship, where he now works. Regular readers might remember how I sung Wilmar’s praises in previous posts (see T2203A – Reflections) – as well as being lovely he is an astonishingly gifted and talented man, and we both miss him and his wonderful shows hugely.

That afternoon we sat out on our balcony to admire the views across the bay – but it wasn’t long before we both fell asleep!

Day 71 – Basseterre, St Kitts

Early the following morning we sailed into the second of our Caribbean ports, Basseterre, the capital of the twin island country of St Kitts and Nevis. Once again we were out on our balcony early to watch our arrival.

We needed a quick early breakfast, as we had to check in by 8:10 for our ship’s tour. We were booked on a three hour tour called St Kitts Scenic Railway, which, surprise surprise, was a tour around the island on a scenic railway. The railway – the last one operating in the Caribbean – was originally built to transport sugar cane from the fields to the sugar mills.

To reach the train station, just 10 minutes away, we boarded small but comfortable coaches. On the way our driver/guide pointed out the neighbouring island of Nevis in the distance.

Arriving at the station, we had a choice – each carriage had two decks. The lower deck had large windows and was air-conditioned, while the upper deck, where we went, was open-sided. Climbing a steep spiral staircase we secured seats at the back, facing the direction of travel, and it was soon clear that the elevated position would offer better views of the island.

We travelled along at around 10 mph, which was plenty fast enough as the carriages bumped and swayed on the historic track. On each carriage there was a lady serving complimentary drinks (alcoholic or not), and a commentary was relayed to each one – early on, ladies were advised to hang on to their hats and their husbands!

As we trundled along we had lovely views of the coastline and of the mountains – at one point we noticed a large flock of sheep (or were they goats?) clustered under the shade of a tree. We passed several schools, where the children waved frantically to us as we passed.

A couple of times two male dancers came onto each carriage to perform – they must somehow have clambered from one carriage to another. When we were in the coach earlier, the driver had told us that the island’s electricity was generated using diesel fuel, which surprised and disappointed us in such a sunny island. However we did pass an Eco-park with lots of solar panels outside, I just hope that is the start of greener things.

Eventually we reached the terminus, where we alighted and reboarded our coaches. Waiting there were another batch of passengers, who were clearly doing a later version of the tour in the reverse direction.

We had quite a long drive further around the coast to reach Basseterre and our waiting ship. On the way the driver continued his interesting commentary, for example pointing out the church where John Newton, who wrote the well-known hymn Amazing Grace, was the rector, and a tree full of roosting egrets.

This is another tour that we would both definitely recommend – it provided a good and different way to see most of the way around the island.

This time we looked around quite a few of the shops close to the ship, and thought they had a better range of products on offer, and at lower prices than Tortola.

After lunch on board once again we settled on our balcony to enjoy the scenic views, and inevitably fell asleep again – we are both really struggling with all the time changes and shortened nights on this cruise.

Later I went out on the Observation Deck on deck 6 to take some photographs, and later took a few more snaps as we sadly set sail for home – we have a total of 8 sea days ahead of us crossing the Atlantic Ocean back to the U.K., with just one day in the Azores just after half way to break it up.

That evening they held an additional Grand Buffet and Barbecue up around the swimming pool on Deck 8, this time with a Caribbean theme. Carol and I always associate bright colours with the Caribbean, but the optional dress code was to wear all white. It was the same noisy party as we have had many times before, so once again we stayed away and just went to dinner as usual in the main dining room, dressed in brightly coloured clothes!

What we did think was a big shame is that because there is so much preparation required for these events, much of the crew, particularly waiters and chefs, were unable to go ashore that day. It seemed a particularly daft decision to hold it that day, when we had 5 sea days in a row immediately coming up, when the crew would not be missing out on time ashore.

Postscript

While I will cover all the remaining sea days, and our visit to Ponta Delgada in the Azores in my final post for this cruise, I thought it appropriate to cover the Coronation Day events in this post while it is still current.

Ironically Carol and I awoke slightly later than usual, and while Carol settled down to watch the build-up to the Coronation on our cabin television, I wandered around the public areas to see and photograph the decorations that had been put up overnight. The ship seemed eerily empty, while some passengers were watching in either the Morning Light Pub or in the Neptune Lounge, most had clearly done the same as Carol and were watching in their cabins.

At midday there was another party around the pool, and then at 2pm there was a Coronation Day Street Fayre – an exciting afternoon of fun and games, and also a prize raffle – all held to raise money for the Heart 2 Heart U.K. charity. We went up soon after it had started, and as we approached we were hit by first a wall of sound (echoing under the closed roof), and then a vast crowd of people. We worked our way around, stopping to chat with our friends Darien and Brian who were running their craft stalls, and Wendy and Dawn who were manning the tombola. It was lovely to see crew also there to enjoy the fayre – for example there were quite a few stewardesses around the ‘pre-loved’ clothes stall. While we would have liked to have stayed longer, the noise under the roof, particularly from the hoopla game for bottles of drink was just too much for me, so we escaped back to the peace of our cabin.

Well done and a big thank you to all those – passengers and crew – who worked so hard to put on a great fayre, and who raised a lot of money for a good cause.

S2305 – Hot and Sticky

May 6, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 3 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – A Walk in the Clouds, I described our visits to two ports in Central America, Acapulco in Mexico, and Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. In this post I will cover our transit of the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, and our visits to two ports in Colombia, Cartagena de Indias and Santa Marta.

Day 65 – At sea

Knowing we had three busy days ahead of us, we were very content to have a quiet day relaxing – apart from completing my last blog post of course!

Day 66 – Panama Canal transit

A transit of the Panama Canal is always very special and interesting, however many times you are lucky enough to do it. This was to be my third transit, and my first travelling from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean – my previous transits were on the 2017 and 2018 World Cruises sailing the other way. For Carol it was her 4th transit, as well as the two transits we shared on those World Cruises, she had already done a Pacific to Atlantic transit BG (Before Graham).

I covered lots of information about the history of the Panama Canal, and about what it is like to transit the canal with its 3 sets of locks with their mules in my post about my first transit, see https://grahamscruiseblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/w1702-a-man-a-plan/.

I decided that I would like to be up on the Observation Deck at the front of deck 6 as we sailed at dawn under the iconic Bridge of the Americas road bridge which spans the Pacific entrance to the canal close to Panama City.

For the remainder of the transit we decided to take advantage of our balcony, and spend as much of the day out there as the heat and humidity allowed watching our progress.

We watched as we entered the first set of locks, the Miraflores Locks, and then decided it would be a good time to go and have our breakfast while the restaurant would be quiet.

We returned to our balcony as we entered the second set of locks, the Pedro Miguel locks. Here I noticed a tug boat ahead of the locks spraying water in a fountain, I have no idea whether that was for the maiden transit by Borealis. Running alongside the locks we could clearly see the second wider canal built for the huge container ships.

We sailed on up the Gaillard Cut, passing under the Centennial Bridge. After a while we passed the Radiance of the Seas cruise ship sailing the other way, and there was quite a flurry of ships hooters as the two ships acknowledged each other.

It took some time to cross the huge Gatun Lake, and we kept a good look out for any wildlife on the banks and islands, but this time we were not lucky – in the past we had seen a crocodile, and both seen and heard howler monkeys.

Eventually we reached the final set of locks, Gatun Locks, which being the steepest are the most spectacular to watch. The routine was very familiar – the little row boat bringing the ropes to the ship (interesting that with modern technology that is still the best way to do that), securing the ropes to the mules which keep the ship straight, the dings of the bells on the mules as they signal each other and the ship, the rising or falling of the ship.

When I looked back at my original post from 2017 I noticed that the lighthouse was painted all white, curiously it is now painted all black.

By the time we had left the final locks we were both so ready to return to our air conditioned cabin and cool off – it had been a very hot and humid day outside.

Day 67 – Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

Having sailed overnight and most of the morning, we arrived late the next morning into our next port of call, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. For both Carol and I it was not only our first visit to the port, but also to Colombia, so we were both out on the balcony watching with interest and excitement for our approach.

At first we could see beach resorts with small boats streaming around, which reminded us slightly of approaches to Bali that we had done in the past. That soon changed though, when huge tower blocks came into view, which reminded Carol of her visits to Florida. We had to smile when it became clear that we would be docking to one side of a huge container port – I could see another entry coming up for my mythical book!

The ship’s tour that we had booked was not until the evening, we had the afternoon to ourselves. Our friends Darien and Brian had tipped us off about Port Oasis, an ecopark full of birds and some animals within the port area, just a short walk from the ship – and better still it was all free!

Walking into the park we were immediately struck by a riot of colour and noise from all the birds around us. It was lovely to see that most of them were able to fly free, and that clearly they chose to be where they were.

The monkeys were a bit more camera shy, but I did manage to catch a squirrel and an anteater.

It took some time to wander right around in the hot and humid air, so it was a relief to go into the gift shop there, which we also thought was lovely, and we ended up buying quite a few things for ourselves and for our family.

As we left to walk back to our ship, we could see that the sky was getting ominously black, and we heard a couple of claps of thunder, so we quickened our pace and just made it back onboard before very heavy rain started.

We needed to check in for our three hour tour at 5:45, so we were clearly not going to be able to have our normal dinner that night, so instead we had an early meal Poolside.

The tour we had chosen was called Carriage Ride Through The Walled City – a horse-drawn carriage ride through the historic walled part of the city. To get there we travelled in coaches, but in all my years of travelling I don’t think I can remember one that made so many squeals and squeaks from the suspension as the one we travelled in as we bumped along the fairly rough roads.

For the first part of the coach journey we passed though some quite poor areas, and it concentrated our minds on just how lucky we were to have what we have and live where we live, especially when the local guide told us that there were no social benefits, you had to earn to live.

We had one short photo-stop outside Castle San Felipe de Barajas, but with the sun already set and in very poor light, to be honest I did not think it worth getting out of the coach to get a snap.

Arriving at the stop where we transferred to the horse drawn carriages, Carol and I were the last off the coach. We were seated four to a carriage, and it worked out that Carol and I were an odd couple (no comments necessary!!), and what’s more, there didn’t seem to be another carriage available either. Our local guide spotted the problem, rustled up another carriage from somewhere and we got to ride with him – which turned out really well as he was able to give us some private commentary as we went around, as well as kindly taking some photos for me – of us and of the scenes behind us.

I will be perfectly honest – when we saw that the carriage ride was to be after dark in the evening we wondered why. Regular readers might remember that earlier in the cruise we were booked on a tour which should have been at night, but which we were due to do in the afternoon (see S2305 – Day or Night?) – we thought this was going to be the exact opposite and a day tour was being run at night. However after just a couple of minutes or so we completely changed our minds, and realised that the tour was much better done in the evening. The pretty narrow streets were beautifully lit, and there was a great atmosphere from all the people around – the whole ride was a magical experience.

The ride in the carriage was quite understandably a bit bumpy, and this combined with the low lighting made photography something of a nightmare. Alas the majority of the photos that I, or the guide on my behalf took came out as a blur, here are some of the better attempts – I am sorry they are not up to my usual standard, I hope they can still give an impression of how lovely the ride was.

At the end of the carriage ride, which was around three quarters of an hour long, we stopped at former dungeons in the walled city ramparts, which were originally built to store provisions for the troops. Here there is now a local handicraft market, and the tour guidebook promised free time for shopping there. However when we got there, only two of the stores were still open, something that didn’t particularly bother either Carol or I as we are not great shoppers, we had done the tour for the carriage ride. However we stood there open mouthed as many of our fellow passengers vented their anger on the poor local guide – it clearly wasn’t his fault and there was nothing he could do. One furious lady said that she had specifically booked the tour for the shopping. With or without all the market shops being open we would both recommend this tour.

With this reduced shopping opportunity we left earlier than planned, and also given that we took a quicker route back to our ship through the modern high-rise area, we were back at the ship a good half hour or so early.

Carol and I were actually delighted with this, as we were unexpectedly back in time to see the whole of a Colombian Folkloric Show being put on that evening – we had thought we might only catch the end of the show from the back of the theatre. The show was an absolute delight from start to finish – the costumes were so bright and colourful, the dancers so energetic, and we especially loved the way the girls swirled their very full skirts, it was so effective.

As soon as the show was over we returned to our cabin and tucked up for the night, as we had a third busy day in a row ahead of us the next day.

Day 68 – Santa Marta, Colombia

We sailed into our next port of call, Santa Marta, also in Colombia, early the next morning. We were only able to watch part of the sail in before going for our breakfast, as we had an early start for our ship’s tour.

The tour we had chosen was a five hour tour called Tayrona National Park. The tour description in the guidebook talked of a place of outstanding natural beauty and wide range of wildlife habitats and a paradise of sandy beaches, dense green forests, secluded coves and lagoons, rocky mountains and colourful vegetation – it all sounded idyllic.

It took around an hour and a half to drive to the National Park. We were in a similar coach to the day before, but at least the suspension was quiet this time – if there was one. On the first part of the journey there were lots of sleeping policemen – humps in the road to slow traffic – and the driver had an interesting technique to drive over them, slowly and carefully driving the front wheels over, then accelerating away so that the back wheels, over which we were sat, bumped over the hump and came down with a huge jolt. We did our best to spot when they were coming up, but missed plenty and definitely arrived shaken and stirred!!

When we arrived at the park we were each given two armbands to wear, one to give us entry and one to show we had insurance cover – encouraging!

After a short comfort stop we drove on to a car park, where we alighted for a walk through the forest. Before the tour Carol and I had speculated on what wildlife we might see, but that was all in vain. We weren’t walking though a forest amongst the wildlife, instead a large group of us just walked a long a wide open track with motorbikes and vehicles driving up and down it, and which serviced campsites, restaurants and horse-riding stables. The guides did point out some trees and plants used by the indiginous people, but the only creatures we saw were a land crab and some leaf-cutter ants.

After a while we stopped at one restaurant, where we were each given a voucher for a ‘free’ drink, and an hours free time. The restaurant was very close to the coast, and it was a short walk on to both a cove and a large open beach.

The weather was incredibly hot and humid – even the local guides said that it was worse than usual, so Carol was content to rest in the shade of the restaurant with the drinks while I explored the coastline.

I walked to the cove first – here there were wooden loungers and umbrellas, and lifeguards were keeping watch. I understand some of our fellow passengers on the tour did go in for a swim – it was a shame that the tour guidebook did not mention that swimming would be possible on the tour.

I then walked back past the restaurant and on to the large open beach. Here I only saw one other person on the beach, and there was a large sign warning that it was very dangerous to swim due to the strong currents. While I was busy near the waterline taking photos of the waves and the beach, a particularly big wave came in and soaked my feet and ankles – and yes I still had my trainers and socks on, so guess who squelched their way back!

We repeated the same walk back along the track to pick up our coach for the journey back to the ship.

It was quite dark in the coach anyway as parts of the windows were painted out with black paint, but it got even darker as heavy clouds rolled over, and suddenly the skies opened and the rain absolutely poured down – it even came in the window next to me so I had to move seats. Very quickly water was gushing beside the road in torrents, and everyone outside had rushed for cover.

It was still raining hard when we got back to the ship, and we thought it silly that they tried to unload several coaches at once, so that lots of people had to queue up outside in the rain.

Would we recommend this tour? Definitely no if you are looking for nature and wildlife. If you are happy with a three hour drive for around an hour on quite a nice cove beach then maybe, but of course that is not what the tour guide says the tour is about. At around £100 each it wasn’t exactly cheap either, so in hindsight it is one we very much regret booking.

Later when the Captain gave his pre-departure briefing, he said that our departure would be delayed as coaches were still not back from tours due to the very wet conditions. Later we heard that one coach had to make a long diversion due to floods, and another broke down in a flood, and alternative transport had to be dispatched to get the passengers back to the ship.

When we did eventually sail out, we noticed a lot of rubbish and debris in the sea, at one point making a very distinct line in the sea – we assume that the extreme rain had washed it down the drains and out to sea.

Leaving Santa Marta we had a much needed day at sea to rest before reaching our next two ports in the Caribbean – our adventures there and in the Azores will be the subject of my final post on this epic cruise.

Postscript

While we waited to set sail that afternoon, we became aware that our cabin was getting warmer and warmer – clearly the air conditioning was not working. Carol reported this, as must have lots of other passengers, and eventually the Captain announced that yes, there was a ship-wide problem with the air conditioning which might take many hours to fix. Of course things like this alway happen at the worst time, when the equipment concerned is most needed.

At dinner the waiters had been allowed to take their jackets and waistcoats off, and then their ties. We kept our menus, so that we could use them to fan ourselves between courses. Then, to make matters worse, the escalator that the waiters use to bring the heavy trays of food up from the kitchens broke down, so they where having to climb up with them too. Despite their shirts clinging to them with sweat they remained as cheerful and helpful as ever – such a credit to the company.

Carol and I were so thankful that we had a balcony, for with the movement of the ship it was much cooler out there than in our cabin. I actually slept out on the balcony all night long, while Carol moved around from the balcony to the sofa to the top of the bed trying to get both comfortable and relatively cool.

The air conditioning was slowly restored starting around 11:30 pm, but of course it took many hours to cool down the entire ship. We understand the crew were allowed to sleep where they could, some up on deck, some in the gym for example. After three hot and sticky days, it was a hot and sticky night to remember!!

S2305 – A Walk in the Clouds

Apr 28, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 10 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – California Dreaming, I described our visits to our two Californian ports, San Francisco and San Diego, as well as days at sea which included dinner with the Captain and a tour of the ship’s bridge. In this post I will cover the next two ports we visited, Acapulco in Mexico and Puerto Caldero in Costa Rica.

Days 58-60 – At sea

After our very busy, tiring but thoroughly enjoyable time in the two Californian ports, we were very glad of our three days sailing south along the Mexican coast – indeed it was the fact that it took three days made me realise just how big a country that Mexico is.

I had literally hundreds of photographs from the Californian ports to sort and process, and plenty to write about, so this blog took up quite a bit of that time – a huge public thank you once again to my wonderful wife Carol for being so patient and understanding when it comes to all the time and energy I spend on my blog.

Of course we spent lots of time out on our balcony, always keeping a watch out for any wildlife. We loved seeing the flying fish, I am always amazed just how far they fly. The boobies (seabirds rather like gannets) flying around the ship also spotted them, and plummeted into the sea to catch some of them.

Day 61 – Acapulco, Mexico

When I write my blog posts, they are always a reflection of my own personal thoughts and opinions on the places we visit and the things we see and do, off and on the ship. Other people, whether on this cruise or on previous ones, will do different things and have different experiences, and therefore will inevitably have different opinions. This is absolutely fine, and I always welcome comments from my readers.

Based on what Carol and I experienced in Acapulco, and on what I have read about the port since we left, anyone who feels very positive about the port or our visit there may wish to move on to the next section, as sadly I am going to be rather critical.

I will admit that I had been rather casual about my research on Acapulco before our arrival there. None of the ship’s tours had particularly interested us, and so we had decided to make it one of those ports where we just wander ashore and see what we find. I did identify a few “must see” places, which I would use to guide the direction we might start in, but we usually enjoy playing it by ear as it were, seeing where looks interesting and heading off in that direction.

As usual, Carol and I were awake very early, and around 6:30 went out onto our balcony to watch the sail in. Just looking out our window we could see how murky the sky was, so we knew as soon as we set foot outside the hot humid air would hit us – which it certainly did.

I took a sequence of panoramic photos as we made our way to the cruise terminal.

Waiting and watching on the quayside were a number of well-armed soldiers, and outside the port there were several police pick-ups also with plenty of well-armed police making a very conspicuous presence. Hmm.

While we were at breakfast, Sammie Firbanks, our Entertainment Manager, made the usual ‘welcome to port X, I am pleased to report we now have clearance…’ announcement, but this time she added very strongly worded advice about not taking any jewellery or valuables ashore, and about the need to being extra vigilant while ashore. She referred to information printed in the Daily Times, which neither Carol or I had noticed. Studying the Daily Times I found it – it proved to be a tiny paragraph in small print on the back page, which I am sure almost all readers will have missed, as it was tagged onto the end of the otherwise identical notices which appear there every single day. Was this adequate – surely it should have been very prominent on the front page?

After breakfast we went back to our cabin to get ready to go ashore – we wanted to go early before the weather got even hotter and more oppressive. We made sure we removed all jewellery, mobile phones, cards, and all but a small amount of cash. What we did take was plenty of cold water, and Carol had her battery operated fan at the ready too.

Once we had finally convinced the taxi drivers that we did not want their services, we turned left and set off at a slow pace walking towards Zocalo de Acapulco, the main square, and the first of the “must see” places I had noted.

We actually walked on past the square along the waterfront before returning to it, and it was only while we sat in the shade there taking on cold water that I finally took out my camera and secured it to my wrist – we were that underwhelmed by what we had seen so far. The thought that went through my mind was Acapulco is a big dive – and not just the ones that those brave men do from the high cliffs!

Off the square was the cathedral, Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, and a statue of Catinflas, a Mexican comedian, actor and filmmaker, which provided something to photograph.

Neither Carol or I were enjoying our walk, or feeling that comfortable. Neither the urine smell in the air, or the armed police standing around in groups and on the back of pick-ups were helping. Rather than explore that area any further, we decided to retrace our steps back along the main road, and explore a little way to the right of the ship.

In this direction the bay sweeps around a long way, but we only had the enthusiasm and energy to go a fairly short way. I did find a few more things to snap.

It wasn’t long before the combination of the uneasy feelings we both still had, and the lure of a cool air-conditioned ship encouraged us to return to our cabin.

During the afternoon I took a couple more photos of the bay from our balcony as the skies cleared.

I know two things which did not help us – that less than a week earlier in San Francisco it was only 12 degrees, so we had had little time to adjust to a very humid 35 degrees; and both the Californian cities had been so clean and so nice, again it was a sudden change to adjust to.

I am sure I have written before about how Carol and I went to see a talk by Simon Reeve, the British television presenter who makes brilliant travel documentaries. He said, and we both so agree, that when travelling the best experiences come at the edge of your comfort zone. Unfortunately, where we went and how we felt in Acapulco had taken us beyond our comfort zone.

Later that day Carol asked me an innocent question that I didn’t know the answer to – how many cruise ships come to Acapulco? When I looked at the cruise timetable I was shocked – in the remaining 7 months of this year there were only 5 ships coming. Time for a little more research on the internet – something I wish I had done sooner.

I soon came across a website from Travellers Worldwide, last updated on 10th March, entitled Is Acapulco Safe to Visit in 2023? Safety Concerns – you can read it here. Their verdict – No, it is not safe to travel to Acapulco right now. Although the situation has calmed down slightly since the worst violence in the 2010s, the city still has an exceptionally high crime rate… Acapulco is no longer Mexico’s murder capital, but it is still perched in second place. For this reason and many others, Acapulco is not safe to visit. Unless you are a seasoned adventure traveler, you probably won’t want to visit anyway. Hmmm!!!

I know how some websites and journalists can slant things to make their story, so I thought it was more than time to consult the United Kingdom Government’s foreign travel advice website – which is the oracle as far as UK travellers and the UK travel industry is concerned. Their full advice is here, but here are some extracts about Acapulco, and Guerrero, the state that it is located in:

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to:
The state of Guerrero except:
The city of Acapulco …
There have been several instances of armed crime both within and outside tourist areas in Acapulco…
Due to an increase in violent crime, you should be extra vigilant in Acapulco and surrounding areas.

Guerrero is an extremely violent state plagued with a history of insecurity. There is a strong organised crime presence throughout the state, including in central Acapulco and Chilpancingo. There have been several instances of armed crime, including shootings and executions, both within and outside the tourist areas in Acapulco. The local authorities work to reduce the risks to tourists in the touristic zone in Acapulco, but you should take extreme care and avoid walking outside of your hotel at night and avoid leaving the touristic zone.

The U.S. Department of State advice (here) is simple: Do not travel to Guerrero state due to crime.

We have talked to other passengers who were on ship’s tours, and they enjoyed them, but they were almost certainly as oblivious to the above travel advice as we were. They also told us that they had talked to the tour guides and taxi drivers, and they did not know that the ship was coming in until the morning we arrived. I have to wonder whether the authorities did this so that bad people did not have time to plan anything nasty?

The big question is should the ship have called into Acapulco in the first place?? The cruise is about following the route of Phileas Fogg in the book Around the World in 80 Days, and he never came anywhere near the port, so that is no reason to have done so. Carol and I have our own strong opinions, I will let you form your own.

Days 62-63 – At sea

After the difficult day in Acapulco, we enjoyed a relaxing couple of days sailing further south towards our next port.

On the first of the days we saw a whale, a pod of dolphins leaping out of the water and flopping onto their backs, and several turtles which was magical.

Day 64 – Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica

While Carol has visited Costa Rica before (BG – before Graham), this was my first visit to the country. As usual when we are sailing into a new port, we were up early to watch us sail in. Puerto Caldera is a commercial port close to Puntarenas, and the stacks of containers on the quayside made it yet another contender for the mythical coffee-table book of scenic Fred. Olsen ports that I keep joking about.

Here there were several tours that looked appealing, and in the end we booked on a six and three quarter hour tour called A Walk in the Clouds – which promised a walk around a cloud forest on Costa Rica’s mountaintops, one of the most unique environments in the world.

What the tour guidebook didn’t say was that it was a long drive – at least two hours each way along narrow, twisty and very bumpy roads. On our way there we got stuck behind a queue of lorries for quite some time which slowed us down, eventually the coach raced past them uphill close to what seemed to be a blind bend, rather scary but we made it in one piece. We were also delayed by roadwords, with a section of single traffic which took over 10 minutes before it was changed to our direction. Consequently we did not have a comfort break, and it was around two and a half hours before we reached San Luis Park for our walk in the clouds. Our local guide told us that she had a degree in Ecology, and spent the entire journey talking to us with barely a stop for breath. It is good that she was so passionate about her country and the environment, but both Carol and I find it so tiring when there are no breaks in the commentary.

Arriving at the venue, everyone piled into the restrooms, before we were divided into two groups of around 25 people or so each for the walk – one group had someone from the Park guiding them, and our group had our tour guide. We were led down some steps and a narrow stony path to a more open area, where several birdfeeders filled with a sugar solution encouraged hummingbirds to feed. We did see one or two birds dart to the feeders but soon dart back, but with such a crowd of people there it was not surprising they did not linger – hence it was very diffiult to see the birds properly yet alone photograph or video them. All I managed was one shot of a hummingbird in a tree, but you would need to look not twice but three times to spot it and recognise that it was a bird.

We carried on down the path, it zig-zagged its way down quite a steep hillside, with lots of rough steps of different heights, sloping hairpin bends and a rough gravel surface – so it needed a lot of care and concentration to navigate it safely, making it difficult to take in the cloud forest scenery, flora and fauna at the same time. Every so often we crossed a suspension bridge, sometimes these crossed a river.

As the path was so narrow, we all had to walk in single file, so with such a large group it was difficult for the guide at the front to point out anything of note that we passed. She did manage to point out the shed skin of a spider, and a small and well camaflaged snake which she told us was quite venomous. Also the other group were right in front of us, and the groups from another coach right behind us, so there were a lot of people which would have frightened off any wildlife.

Some of the bridges were both quite high off the ground, and quite long, meaning that depending how vigourously people walked across them, they were prone to shake and wobble rather a lot – between this and the open mesh sides and floor to the bridges, some people found them rather unsettling.

Having descended all the way down, it was a long and steep climb back up the hillside, and we were all thankful when we finally reached the top.

Here we were supposed to go into a restaurant area for a buffet lunch of local food. However in the restaurant was a local band playing music extremely loudly, and there was no way either Carol or I could face going in there and enduring it. The band had been playing the entire time we had been at the venue, and we could hear their music the whole way around the walk – this made a nonsense of the request from our local guide when we arrived to keep as quiet as possible so that we could take in the sounds of the forest! Carol went in the restaurant briefly to tell the local guide that we were not coming in and to ask what time we had to meet up, and she literally had to shout in the ear of the guide to make her hear, the music was just so loud. Later I raised the issue with the local guide, she said that going around the walk she was not aware of the music, maybe it is because she has been there so many times before and is just used to it and blanks it out.

While the others had their lunch, Carol and I sat and waited on a terrace area behind the buildings. Here some bananas had been fixed to a branch, and being there on our own, we were able so see some lovely birds come down to feed on them.

I also used the chance to walk back down to the hummingbird area, and being there on my own was magical – the hummingbirds came down and without the crowds to frighten them, they stayed to feed. I was able to get some lovely photos and video footage of them hovering and feeding.

We returned to the ship on a partially different route, and this time I took some photos as we drove along, initally past lots of flower farms. The local guide only spoke for part of the way back, which was much better.

This time we did have a comfort break, and it was at a very good souvenir shop – lots of lovely local made products at very resonable prices, and we didn’t have to stay too long!

By the time we returned to our ship we were more than ready for a shower and a long rest after quite a physical and long tour.

Would we recommend the tour? For once I think Carol and I would give different answers. Carol found both negotiating the pathways and the bridges difficult, and so wasn’t able to take much in of the forest, and thought it just wasn’t worth it for the long journey each way there. For me, it was the time away from the crowds, when I was able to see and photograph the birds that made the tour – but of course that was not part of the official tour. If you go, be prepared for difficult terrain, and be prepared to not see much wildlife unless you escape the crowds.

With any wildlife tour of this nature, if there are too many people around it makes it almost impossible to see the wildlife that people book the tour to see. Understandably this was a popular tour, and there were four coach loads – two left the ship at the same time, and the other two just half an hour later. It would have been much better if the coaches set off one at a time with a decent gap between them, so that fewer people were doing the walk at any one time. Also when we arrived at the venue, half of the coach could have had their lunch while the other did the walk and vice versa, further cutting down the numbers on the walk. Just some thought and better planning could make all the difference to peoples experience.

Carol and I were safely tucked up in bed and sound asleep when we set sail at 11pm. After a day at sea we were due to sail through the Panama Canal, en route to our next port, Cartagena de Indias in Colombia.

Postscript

Acapulco was also sad because it was time to say goodbye to two of our senior officers – Captain Rommel Pineda and Hotel Manager Hermann Stingeder, who have both worked so hard and who have both been so lovely throughout the cruise. Following departures from the company, we had vacancies for our number one favourite Captain and our number one favourite Hotel Manager in the fleet, but I can say that both positions are now very firmly filled!!

S2305 – California Dreaming

Apr 21, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 3 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Hawaii Thousand – 0, I described the seven days sailing from Japan to Hawaii, and the three port calls we made in lovely Hawaii – Honolulu, Lahaina, and Hilo. In this post I will cover the four days at sea sailing towards California, and the two port calls we made there, San Francisco and San Diego.

Days 51-54 – At sea

After three consecutive days in port and out on tour, we were glad to have some sea days to relax and recharge, especially as we knew that the next port coming up, San Francisco, was going to be so hectic. We had three more advances of the clock by an hour to deal with – we are finding going around the world west to east so much harder than the east to west voyages we have done before.

On the evening of the second day, they held a Hawaiian themed night, with the usual deck party, grand buffet and barbecue held around the pool. Talking to those who went, as usual it was very crowded and noisy, we were content to don our colourful Hawaiian shirts and dine as usual in the main restaurant.

On the third day it was a formal evening, and we had the honour of being invited to the Captain’s Table. Carol and I have been very fortunate – we have been lucky enough to have done this a few times before with other Captains. This cruise is the first time we have sailed with Captain Rommel Pineda, and we were already taken with how friendly and approachable he is, and a wonderful evening with so much laughter around the table only added to our very high opinion of him.

At the end of the meal the Captain was kind enough to invite us all to a tour around the Bridge the following morning. After being escorted to the Bridge by Security, we were met by the Captain, who welcomed us and introduced us to the Bridge Officers on duty. One of those, 2nd Officer Alex Chadwick, then gave us a brilliant tour around, explaining everything so clearly in simple terms that we could all understand and appreciate. He told us about how the navigation is all done by computer and GPS these days – no paper charts to be seen – but that they still have the sextants and the knowledge to do things the old fashioned way should the need ever arise. He also told us how everything is duplicated with back-up power systems, so we came away feeling very reassured.

Carol and I found it very interesting when he talked about the procedures coming into port. I knew that the ‘wings’ of the Bridge allowed the officers to see down the length of the ship (we see them watching there from our balcony as we approach the quayside), but I did not know there was a glass panel in the floor so that they could see below the Bridge too.

Thank you Captain for a wonderful dinner and a fascinating tour of the Bridge.

Day 55 – San Francisco

I am sure there are a lot of passengers who, like Carol and I, would relish the chance to tweak the itinerary of a cruise that they are doing to better suit themselves – of course while we might like to drop port ‘A’ and spend a second day in port ‘B’, I totally understand others might think the exact opposite.

On this cruise we need to get around the world in just 80 days so that we do what it says on the tin as it were – and with 25 to 30 days less than a typical world cruise, sadly there simply isn’t time for many 2 day stops in ports.

Neither Carol or I had been to San Francisco before, and when we looked that all the things there were to do there, it was definitely one where we would have relished a second day in port, but somehow we would have to manage with just the one.

When we looked at the tours brochure we were spoilt for choice, and struggled to choose which one we wanted to do. In the end we booked a four hour highlights tour – our thinking being that if this was our only visit to the city we would try and see as much as possible.

However during the voyage we changed our mind, and rebooked ourselves onto a different tour. Carol and I both love nature, and especially trees – we are lucky to live somewhere less than an hour from the New Forest, and love to spend days out there. We therefore decided to rebook for a four hour tour called Muir Woods, offering the chance to walk amongst giant coastal redwood trees, and also to drive over the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Our new plan was do to this tour in the morning, and then explore parts of the city ourselves in the afternoon and evening.

As we sailed across the Pacific Ocean towards San Francisco, we were keeping everything crossed for favourable weather, especially no fog, for which the port is renowned.

A highlight of not just the day, but also of the whole voyage, was to sail in under the Golden Gate Bridge. The Daily Times informed us that the Forecastle – the deck area at the very front of the ship – would be opened early, and that is were most of the passengers flocked. However Carol and I wanted to be higher up, and so we set two alarms for very early-O’Clock so that we could get a good position on the deck 6 forward viewing area.

We were so lucky – the weather was clear and bright, and whales and porpoises were even putting in an occasional appearance as we sailed towards the bridge. Crew were out serving doughnuts, the String Trio were there to serenade us. As we approached the bridge itself, Sammie Firbanks, our Entertainment Manager gave a commentary with all sorts of facts and figures and then a poem.

After we had passed the bridge, we retreated to our balcony to watch as we sailed past the infamous Alcatraz Island. As we sailed in we were escorted by an armed Coast Guard boat.

We were very surprised that we did not have to show any documentation going ashore for our tour to Muir Woods. Our coach took us first along the seafront, passing places that we planned to visit in the afternoon, which was very handy.

We then drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, so that within a couple of hours we had both sailed under, and driven over this iconic symbol of the city.

As we drove towards Muir Woods, our local guide told us the history of how this small area of very old redwood trees had been saved for the nation by making it a National Monument, while so much of the land around had been cleared for timber. She also told us that guided tours are not allowed in order to preserve the peace and quiet of the woods – something we very much approved of. Our route down to the National Monument took us down a very steep, narrow and windy road.

Arriving at the woods, we were given an hour and a half of free time to explore. There were a series of paths to explore, many of them boardwalks, and it was important to stay on the paths. It did not take long to realise we had definitely made the right decision – the trees were so majestic, it seemed like they stretched all the way up to the sky, and it was so peaceful and serene there.

The coast sequoia or redwood trees are the taller and slimmer brothers to the iconic giant sequoia trees, and are the tallest living things on Earth, the tallest anywhere is 379 feet high, the tallest in Muir Woods is over 258 feet high. Most in Muir Wood are 500 to 800 years old, while some are over 1000 years old.

We very reluctantly returned to our coach for our return journey, which included a short stop in the waterfront town of Sausalito, known locally as the ‘Capri of California’ due to its Mediterranean climate, a feature caused by the hills around it. The town was quite quaint and interesting, but it was not long before we had to meet the guide for our ferry ride back to San Francisco. This took us back past the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and our ship.

At the ferry terminal in San Francisco we re-boarded our coach for a very short drive back to our ship.

We had throughly enjoyed this tour – the drive across Golden Gate Bridge, the drive through attractive countryside to and from the Woods, of course Muir Woods themselves and the visit to Sausalito. We would therefore definitely recommend it, especially as a way of seeing a completely different side to San Francisco.

We returned to the ship for around an hour to have a late lunch and to recharge, before setting off again by ourselves on foot.

We walked along the waterfront from Pier 27, where we were docked, to Pier 39, a famous tourist spot. We were a little surprised just how many shops and restaurants there were along the pier, but we walked past them all on our way to the end of the pier, as we knew that this was where the sea lions were to be found. We smelt them before we saw them, and while most were just laid out basking in the sun, a few were swimming and it was fascinating watching one or two come out of the water onto a pontoon.

Leaving the pier, we continued to walk west along Beach Street for what seemed a long way, until we finally reached our goal, the start point for the iconic Powell-Hyde Cable Car Line. There are just three of the historic cable car routes left running up and down the steep hills of San Francisco that are so much an image of the city from films and television series, and this is the most scenic of them.

We planned to buy our ticket at the kiosk there, but that was closed, so while we waited in quite a long queue I downloaded an App onto my phone and bought the tickets online. A tip – each journey costs $8, but an all-day ticket costs only $13, so if like us you plan to do a return journey or even more, the all-day ticket is much better value.

As we waited we watched the cable cars being turned around by man-power on the turntable. There was quite a delay before each cable car set off, so it took quite a while before it was our turn to board. The front half of the cable car is open, and has seats facing outwards – this is also where brave people can stand on the outside of the cable car holding tight to the poles. The rear half of the cable car is enclosed with glass windows, and the seats face inwards. It worked out that we were some of the first to board our cable car, and we therefore managed to get a couple of the outward facing sets towards the front, which I thought really added to what is a very memorable experience. Climbing the steep hills was dramatic enough, but crossing the brow of the hill and looking down the very steep hill the other side was quite exhilarating – the operator had a very responsible and skillful job operating the various levers to control our ascent and descent. At first we were surprised when the cable car stopped in the middle of road junctions blocking any traffic crossing, but then we realised that on a hill that was the only flat place for it to stop.

We rode the cable car all the way to the other end of the line, where we had to alight and join another queue for the return journey. This time there were more ahead of us boarding the cable car, so we had to settle for seats in the enclosed part – although it did mean we got to experience both ways of travelling, and also by then it was getting very cold outside so we were glad to be enclosed anyway.

Leaving the cable car back at the original Hyde St end, we walked down to the waterfront and Jefferson Street to begin the long walk back to our ship. Our plan was to find somewhere to have an American steak or burger for our meal, as by now we were too late for dinner on the ship. However we spotted an Italian restaurant, and the lure of a plateful of pizza, something we don’t get on the ship, was too great and we went there instead. Knowing how large American portions can be, we ordered one portion of garlic bread and one pizza to share between us. The pizza was particularly scrummy, and by the time we had munched our way through it all we had to waddle the remainder of the way back to our ship. It was all a bit puzzling though – Jefferson St runs parallel to Beach St, but we are both convinced it wasn’t nearly as far walking back as it had been walking towards the cable car!

When we got back to our cabin I checked my mobile phone, and it said we had walked nearly 7 miles that day – and our legs certainly agreed! We were exhausted but elated with what had been an epic day – another of those (impossible) 11 out of 10 days. We were in firm agreement that in the end we had made the best possible decisions on how to spend our one day in San Francisco – the wonderful tour among the trees in the morning, and the dramatic and exciting rides on the iconic cable cars in the afternoon – thoroughly recommended all round.

Once it was dark I somehow found the energy to walk around the outside of the ship taking photos of the city lights.

We were both tucked up in bed and asleep long before our departure time of 11pm.

Day 56 – At sea

After such a long and tiring day in San Francisco we were content to have a lazy day at sea, although I did spent most of the morning working on this blog post.

Day 57 – San Diego

We were due to dock in San Diego at around 6am, long before it was light, so we did not bother to set any alarms. However I woke around 5:15, probably disturbed by the change in engine noise, and looked out our balcony doors to see we were already making our final approach into the port. I did not want to go outside in case I woke Carol, but did try taking a few snaps through the glass of the door.

To be honest we were a little underwhelmed when we looked at the tours on offer in San Diego, so after checking on the internet we decided a much better option for us was to use the Hop On, Hop Off (HOHO) bus to see the various sights around the city. Here the HOHO bus is actually a single-decked trolley bus, with large open windows ideal for seeing and photographing the sights as you go around.

We bought the tickets online at a small discount, and it was only a very short walk to reach a HOHO stop from the cruise terminal. There was a ticket office at that stop, so I showed them the ticket on my mobile phone, and received in return a comprehensive map booklet, and stickers to wear so that we could just hop on and off freely throughout the day.

The stop where we boarded was the third of eleven stops on the route, and we decided just to stay on board and see what the area around each stop was like for most of the way around. Our lady driver was also the guide, telling us all about the places as we passed them, and also suggesting things to see and do from each stop.

We drove first along the waterfront to Seaport Village (where Carol was interested to see the local firemen working out!), before driving through the historic Gaslamp Quarter.

We then drove up onto a freeway which took us high up over the Coronado Bridge, giving us spectacular views.

We descended onto Coronado Island, over 32 square miles in size, and which the driver/guide told us was a city in its own right. Here there were lovely houses (no doubt at sky-high prices), hotels and wide sandy beaches – somewhere we thought would be very nice to live.

Staying on the trolley bus we then drove back over the bridge, and on to Balboa Park. This huge park – 1200 acres – is one of the oldest in the US dedicated to public recreational use. As well as gardens and open spaces, it has loads of museums and art galleries, sports facilities, and the world-famous San Diego Zoo. It looked like a place that you could spend the whole day at, and in the unlikely event we were to return to the city we might well do that. However we decided to remain on board, and we passed some beautiful buildings on the way.

The next stop on the tour was Little Italy, and here we decided to alight the trolley bus and explore on foot. A short distance from the stop there was a farmers market, and we enjoyed walking through all the stalls and seeing what was on sale. We also stopped at an Italian coffee shop where Carol really enjoyed her cappuccino, but my iced coffee wasn’t nearly as good at that from the Bookmark Cafe on board ship – see the postscript to my previous post.

We then wandered back to the bus stop to wait for a trolley bus to continue our tour. This time the driver/guide was a man, and he was quite different, there was much more interaction with the passengers, and he wanted everyone to sing along to different songs he played. I’m sure a lot of passengers would have enjoyed this, but it rather grated with our reserved English nature. He took us to the first/last stop on the tour, the Old Town State Historic Park, where everyone had to alight.

The Old Town State Historic Park is a state-protected historical park commemorating the early days of the city, and which includes many buildings from the period 1820 to 1870. There are museums and lots of shops to explore, and I am sure we only wandered around part of the park.

We had decided that we wanted to explore the Seaport Village area some more, and then walk back along the seafront to the ship from there, so we waited for a trolley bus to take us there. When one arrived, who should be the driver – the same man who had brought us there from Little Italy! So we had lots more interaction and sing-alongs as we drove back past the floating Maritime Museum and our ship, and then on to Seaport Village.

We enjoyed wandering around this Spanish-style open-air waterfront village, full of shops and restaurants, and of course boats.

Some snacks from one of the shops gave us an energy boost ready for the walk back to our ship. On the way we passed two iconic sights of San Diego – the Kissing Sailor Statue and the USS Midway Museum. The statue, some 25 feet high, recreates the embrace between a sailor and a nurse following World War II. The USS Midway was the United States’ longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century, from 1945 to 1992, and is now a much-visited museum.

We returned to our ship tired, but very contented with our day in San Diego – using the HOHO bus was a really good decision, allowing us to be flexible in where and when we went, and we would both recommend doing this. We had also been surprised and delighted with the weather, it was much warmer and sunnier than forecast.

We set sail around 6:30pm, while we were at dinner. We have three days at sea before we reach our next port of call, Acapulco in Mexico. Our adventures there, and in the following port, Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica, are likely to be the subject of my next post. As we sail south, I am sure I will be dreaming about our wonderful days in California!

Postscript

A feature of this world cruise, is not only that is it sailing the ‘wrong way’ around, it is also that it is sailing wholly within the Northern Hemisphere. The two world cruises we are so lucky to have done before were largely in the Southern Hemisphere, which in the first few months of the year is in summer and not in winter. Consequently this time around the weather has generally been much colder, and the seas often more rough too, than we have experienced before.

San Francisco was particularly cool at around 12 degrees celsius, and we were so glad of our padded jackets ashore – especially in Muir Woods. As I said earlier, thankfully San Diego was warmer than forecast at around 18 to 20 degrees, which was very pleasant. As we sail south it is getting warmer and warmer, and today I was thankfully able to break out my t-shirt and shorts again. No doubt by the time we get to the next few ports, and the temperatures are in the 30s, us fickle Brits will be complaining that it is much too hot!!

S2305 – Hawaii Thousand – 0

Apr 15, 2023Apr 17, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 5 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Fuji on Film, I described our visits to our third and fourth ports in Japan, Nagoya and Yokohama. In this post I will cover 7 long days spent at sea sailing towards Hawaii, and our visits to three ports of call there, Honolulu, Lahaina and Hilo.

Days 41 to 47 – At sea

It is a long way from Japan to Hawaii, more than halfway across the vast Pacific Ocean. In order to get there the quickest, the ship does not follow a straight line as you might expect, instead it follows a curved arc, in what is known as a great circle (see here). This meant that when we left Japan, instead of sailing south-west, we actually sailed north-west, which meant for the first three days the weather got colder rather than warmer. Unfortunately the weather was not good either, with gale force winds and very rough seas, which meant we were unable to do our daily deck walks for fresh air and exercise.

The fourth day at sea was Friday 7th April – Good Friday, during which the winds slowly abated and the seas calmed. The next morning at around 7am we crossed the International Date line (we didn’t feel the bump!), and so that day also was Friday 7th April. It was all very confusing, especially when I looked on Facebook and it showed me posts made tomorrow!

That afternoon they held a Crossing the Line ceremony to mark the event. Having been fortunate to have done so many long cruises we are all too familiar with these – as well as crossing the International Date Line, we have had them for crossing the Equator many times, and also for crossing the Arctic Circle. It’s basically a chance for the Entertainment Team and Theatre/Show Company to dress up as King Neptune and other aquatic characters, and for senior officers – including the Captain – to face ordeals like kissing a raw fish and being thrown in the swimming pool. You can read about our previous Crossing the Line ceremonies here. We watched proceedings from the deck above the open roof of the pool.

On the next day an Oceans Cocktail Party was held for all Oceans loyalty club members who are Silver or above. During this cruise I clocked up an astonishing 1000 nights on board Fred. Olsen ships (I did say we had done lots of cruises!), and so I was called up on stage to receive a Landmark award from the Captain – a bottle of Lansons champagne, a bouquet of flowers for Carol, and a voucher for £100 to put towards another cruise!

On our last sea day before Hawaii – Easter Sunday – they held a crew swimming gala, where different pairs of departments held relay races against each other, in order to find the champion department. One of the best things about watching such competitions is seeing all the crew members up on deck cheering on their colleagues. I watched some of the early heats from the same vantage point overlooking the pool, but it was very hot up there in the sunshine so after a while retreated to the cool of our cabin. I later found out that the reigning champions, the Entertainment department, won again.

Day 48 – Honolulu, Oahu Island, Hawaii

We were both up very early to watch our sail in towards Honolulu. Although we could see a bright yellow sun rising ahead of the ship, we could also see some very heavy and ominous rain showers around, one over Honolulu itself. Fortunately by the time we sailed in, the rain had stopped, and there was a lovely rainbow arcing across the sky. We hoped that was a good omen for the day ahead.

As this was our first port of call in the USA, everyone on the ship had to do a face-to-face interview with the immigration officials. A couple of days before we had been given an offical form to complete, which we had to bring to the interview with our passports. As we expected, when we went to the Neptune Lounge to check in for our tour ashore, the room was full of other passengers on earlier tours still waiting to be called down to the terminal building for their interviews. Slowly the tours started to be called, and several times we were told that we were being held back in the lounge as it was better to wait there, than standing in a long queue in the terminal building.

Eventually our tour was called, but alas when we reached the terminal building what did we find – a very, very long queue zig-zagging back and forth at least 8 times up and down a big hall in the terminal building. They only had around 8 desks in operation, so it took best part of an hour before we were processed and on our way to the coach – and no, they did not want to see the forms we had so carefully completed!

We had booked on a four hour ship’s tour called Natural Highlights of Oahu, which took us for a drive along the south and east shores of the island. Usually ship’s tours have a driver and a separate local guide, but here (as on the next two islands), the driver performed both jobs simultaneously. While this obviously saves money, we are not convinced about the safety of this, especially when the driver/guide likes to wave his arms and hands around to emphasise a point he is making!

Our coach had screens dotted around which showed a live map of where we were driving which was nice, although at one point it appeared that we had gone off road which was a bit disconcerting!

Our tour initially drove through iconic Waikiki, full of tall hotels and luxury shops It was good to get glimpses of the famous beach, and we were immediately struck on just how many parks with lovely green trees there were everywhere.

We continued along the coast past Diamond Head, an extinct volcano that features shiny rocks that sailors of old mistook for diamonds. Our first photo stop was at Halona Point, where there is a blowhole in the rocks, which at certain states of the tide and weather can cause the seawater to shoot up to 30 feet into the air – needless to say when we were there nothing much was happening.

We continued our scenic drive along the coast around Makapu’u Point, before heading inland to Waimanalo for a comfort break. We were each given a local coconut ice-cream as we left the coach for a 45 minute break. There were a just few shops where we bought a few souvenirs, but not enough to justify such a long stop. I did manage to snap some murals across the road between the traffic.

Returning to our coach we continued inland, climbing higher and higher to the Pali Lookout in the Ko’olau Mountains. Here we had another photo-stop to see absolutely breathtaking panoramic views across to the eastern coast. What was also breathtaking was the extremely fierce wind, which made even standing upright difficult, and which Carol is blaming for her bad hair day!

The coach then drove on, down the mountainside and back into Honolulu. We both very much enjoyed the tour, apart from the overlong shopping stop disguised as a comfort stop, and would both recommend it.

Instead of returning to our ship, Carol and I decided to have a little walkabout. We did not find a huge amount of interest apart from a couple of historic landmarks – Ali’iolani Hale, which is home to the State Supreme Court, and Iolani Palace, home to Hawaii’s last monarchs. We did continue to be impressed with the parks, trees and flowers though.

Hot and tired, we returned to our ship to rest and relax before dinner. We decided to have a quick dinner in the cafe, so that we could go to the early showing of the evening show, which was a Hawaiian Hula Show put on by local dancers. We were both absolutely captivated by this show – the older dancers were so elegant and the young ones so cute – we both thought it was one of the best ‘local’ shows that we have seen on board ship.

After the show we sat outside and viewed the lights of the city before we sailed late that evening.

Day 49 – Lahaina, Maui Island, Hawaii

It was another early arrival at our second Hawaiian port, Lahaina, but this time we were at anchor, meaning we had to go ashore by ship’s tender to reach our coach for our ship’s tour.

The choices of tours on this island were quite limited, and we decided to book a three hour tour called Maui Tropical Plantation, which as it says on the can, took us to and from a tropical plantation.

Once again we had a driver/guide, who like unfortunately almost all guides, thought that they had to speak continuously the whole duration of the journey. Without any silences to take in and absorb what has been said, we find that after a while we both get brain overload, and we stop taking anything in which is a shame.

Arriving at the plantation, our driver/guide told us that we first had 50 minutes free time in the shop, before we had to meet up to board the little land train that was to take us on a 40 minute ride around the plantation. To say we were both shocked and horrified was an understatement – I understand the need for a little shopping to give something back to the island, but when that is longer than the purpose of the tour then something is very wrong.

We wandered around the shop for about five minutes, before going outside to eat our free slice of banana cake (which was very nice) – we could also have had a free coffee if we had wanted one. It was then a case of killing a lot of time once more – I wandered around taking some photos of the gardens.

Finally it was time for our ride around the plantation. The lady driving the train gave us a commentary about the various produce being grown, and at one point we stopped so that she could demonstrate how to husk a coconut, which involved a lot of hard work and a very sharp looking metal spike.

The train tour continued around the plantation before returning to the shop.

Returning to our coach we drove back to the port, passing an old church and churchyard on the outskirts of the town.

We both had big reservations about the content of this tour, and would hesitate to recommend it in its current format. For us, we would have much preferred less time for shopping, and another place or some more scenic driving added to the tour – even if it meant extending the tour time a bit – so that we could have seen more of the lovely island.

We decided to have a wander around the town, which was rather quaint with it’s old-fashioned looking stores. We walked past a vast banyan tree which is over 150 years old, extending for at least 100 feet in each direction. Banyan trees are from India, and spread by dropping arial roots, which form new trunks once they reach the ground and take root. Most of the shops seemed to be selling t-shirts and other clothing or souvenirs, but we did see some lovely wooden carvings outside on stalls.

It was very hot and very busy, so after a while we were content to catch a tender back to the cool of our ship for a restful afternoon. We had a fabulous view of the coastline and the dramatic mountains from our balcony, the latter being enhanced by the shadows of the clouds moving over their contours.

While we were at dinner we set sail for our final Hawaiian port, Hilo on the Big Island.

Day 50 – Hilo, Hawaii (Big Island), Hawaii

We sailed into Hilo early the following morning, to be greeted by yet another industrial looking container port, another candidate for my mythical coffee-table book of non-scenic ‘Fred’ ports.

Once again there was not a great choice of tours, we booked on a four and three-quarter hour tour called Best of Hilo & Akaka Falls. The tour description in the tour book said that it visited three of Hilo’s leading attractions, but only detailed two – more on this later!

Our driver/guide this time was the most distracting of the most – we think he must be a frustrated actor, scaring Carol when he kept taking his hands off the wheel, and telling us everything about his life and his house – even down to what water filters he had recently installed!!

He drove out of the port and along a road lined with many more banyan trees, these had been planted by all sorts of politicians and famous people over the years, and then past a Japanese garden and a pretty small island offshore.

After a while we passed an uninteresting looking town centre, and then set out to our first stop, the Akaka Falls State Park. On arrival he told us that there were two footpaths we could choose, the first was a short and easy one to view the Akaka Falls, the second was a much longer and harder one with lots of steps, to also view a second waterfall – this would take us 45 minutes. He then gave us a return time to the coach which was just 30 minutes later – so no choice then!

We took the easier walk to the Akaka Falls which were stunning – the water plunges some 442 feet into the gorge below.

We spent quite some time there enjoying the view and taking photographs, and eventually the ship’s escort came by and told us there had been a mistake, the meeting time was 15 minutes later than previously stated. This was so annoying, if we had been told this in the first place I would have had the time to scoot around and see both falls, but not now. When we got back to the coach the driver/guide just laughed off his mistake – if I was more cynical I might think the ‘mistake’ was so that he could get this part of the tour over quicker so there was more time for the shopping part!

I took a few snaps as we drove back to Hilo, first of the tumbledown shops in a little township we passed, and then of the town centre in Hilo itself.

We were driving to our second stop on the tour, the one not mentioned in the tour description, which was the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens. Now neither Carol or I are fond of zoos, especially small ones where the inmates have little room to live and move around in, so had we known this, we probably would not have chosen this tour. When the destination was announced by the driver/guide, other passengers on the coach also voiced their discontent. Again, if I were more cynical, I could well think that the zoo’s omission from the tour description was no accident – it was to boost sales.

We entered the zoo though a small shop, where I did buy a lovely t-shirt with the face of a tiger on the front – well it occupied some of the time. We wandered around slowly, mostly looking at the plants and flowers.

We did stop for a while outside one enclosure, where two stunning tigers, one white one orange, were lying in the shade looking very majestic and posing beautifully for my camera.

It was then quite a short ride to our final stop, Big Island Candies. Here the tour description promised the chance to view the production of handmade sweets at one of Hawaii’s oldest confectioners, but this was just a glass window through which we could see a few ladies dipping biscuits into melted chocolate. Of course in reality it was another shopping stop, with very expensive biscuits and sweets for sale. Some of the decorations around the merchandise was quite pretty, but 5 minutes would have been plenty not the 45 minutes we endured.

Our coach then took us back to the port and our waiting ship.

Would we recommend this tour? That depends. The waterfall and national park were stunning, and if you like zoos, then the second stop is fine too – but I have to say we were really lucky seeing the tigers so well. For us it was badly let down by the long stop at the candy factory.

In the Daily Times we were told that there would be free shuttle busses into town all day, but there would be only three, each taking just 10 passengers at a time, and that the service could well be delayed by traffic for a large craft festival taking place in town. We both decided it simply was not worth trying, so stayed on the ship for the remainder of the day.

As we set sail just before dinner I took some last shots of Hawaii from our balcony.

We would have four days at sea sailing towards the first of our two Californian ports, San Francisco. Our adventures there, and in the other port San Diego, are likely to be the subject of my next post.

Conclusion

We both loved our first introduction to Hawaii – we thought the islands themselves were very beautiful – so lush and green and with such lovely beaches and mountains. The local people were so friendly and welcoming too.

If my post comes across as a bit negative or critical then that is not my intention, it is just that we have come away rather frustrated by the tours on the second and third island, which gave so little chances to see more of the lovely islands – and maybe that is to some extent our fault for the choices we made. Carol had the thought afterwards, and I am sure she is right, that the tours (which are bought in) are geared more towards the American market, and we all know how the Americans love to shop on holiday.

Postscript

It is often said, and Carol and I would be the first to agree, that the best thing about cruising with Fred. Olsen are the crew on board the ships. They are so friendly and welcoming, nothing is too much trouble and they always want to do anything they can for you with a big beaming smile. They also have an extraordinary ability to remember passengers – their names and their likes and dislikes – even from cruise to cruise and year to year, despite the fact they must encounter so many passengers across all the cruises. They really do make you feel like you are part of one big family and coming back on board is like coming home again.

It is difficult to pick particular crew out for a mention as they are all so good, but there are some that I would like to highlight:

On our first Good Friday we had Afternoon Tea in the Observatory with our friends Darien and Brian. We had booked the tea at Guest Services a few days earlier, and informed them that two of us had dietary needs – Brian has a food intolerance, and I am diabetic. When we arrived at the Observatory, somehow our booking had gone astray – possibly due to the confusion of two Fridays, but it is really not important. What is important is how the team, led by Ramil Trinanes, the Assistant Bar Manager, took it all in their stride, and still provided us with a wonderful afternoon tea. They provided both Brian and I with the different foods we needed at zero notice, kept topping everything up and gave us a wonderful time. In my recent post about Singapore (see S2305 – Day or Night?), I said I thought that afternoon tea on Borealis was better than at the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore, and once again this experience confirmed it. For example, at Raffles as a diabetic I received no cakes or pastries, just a double lot of sandwiches and some fruit, and the jam provided was 60% sugar! On Borealis I received diabetic cakes and pastries, and proper diabetic jam. Well done everyone at such short notice, and we will certainly be back for more before the cruise is over.

Something I have enjoyed occasionally on previous cruises has been an Iced Mocha in the Bookmark Cafe on board. Early on this cruise I tried one, and it was heavenly! So smooth and creamy and yummy – made to perfection by April Love How, the Bar Waiter there, and often served by Vigelyn Enguito, one of the Bar Waitresses there with her lovely smile. To be honest I am pretty much addicted to the Iced Mochas, only limited by the pounds twice over – the pounds that go on my waistline and the pounds that go on my onboard account if I have too many!! Now every time we go there or pass by, even in the distance, we get big waves and smiles – it’s lovely.

Normally at dinner Carol and I share a table for 6 with four other friends. Recently the other four went to the Colours and Tastes speciality restaurant, so Carol and I were dining alone. Our waiter, ‘Super’ Mario Gnanasigamony, moved us to a nearby table for two, and added beautiful flowers and a candle so that we could really have a romantic table for two – so thoughtful!

S2305 – Fuji on Film

Apr 6, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 2 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Hakata Sakura, I described our visits to our first two Japanese ports, Hakata and Osaka. In this post I will cover our visits to the two remaining ones, Nagoya and Yokohama.

Day 39 – Nagoya, Japan

We sailed from Osaka overnight, and arrived in Nagoya around 10am the following morning. There was quite a long sail in past lots of container ports and under a big bridge, before arriving at – for once – an attractive quayside with a park, an interesting looking port building with an observation deck on top, a shopping mall and another ferris wheel.

Although our cabin is on the port side, as usual we were not going to be on the port side, so we went up onto deck 8 aft to watch our final approach. As we walked out onto the open deck we could hear a thundering noise, and looking ashore we immediately saw why – there were a large number of young people in costume playing traditional Japanese drums very loudly on the quayside to greet us!

There was a mixture of boys and girls playing, all with great enthusiasm and precision, it was such an impressive and even moving experience watching and listening to them play. Different pieces had different combinations of drums, sometimes the players switched drums whilst playing, and sometimes others held up welcome signs or danced with brightly coloured fans. The drums were mostly hit very hard, we were so impressed with their stamina. After playing to us for quite some time, they then turned around, and played some more for the small crowd who had gathered to watch them from the park. We were astonished when they then announced that they would be playing again at midday – the energy of youth!

To be honest, when we received the tours book, we struggled to identify a tour that we really wanted to do in Nagoya – we wanted to do a ship’s tour in every Japanese port as we felt it would be too difficult a country to go out and about on our own, especially at it is our first visit to the country. In the end we chose a two hour tour called Scenic Nagoya, which was basically a guided coach tour around the city, and which did not leave until the afternoon.

Alas there was remarkably little to see of interest, mainly modern buildings that could be anywhere. Just three things stood out, cherry blossom trees – some in darker colours than the white we had seen up until then, a bullet train which by chance arrived into the station just as we drove past, and Nagoya Castle with its tree-lined moat. We had hoped to ride on a bullet train while we were in Japan, but the only tour to do that coincided with the cherry blossom tour we did in Hakata, so actually seeing one made up for that a little.

When the tour thankfully returned to the port, Carol and I walked around for a while before returning to our ship.

While we were at dinner that evening we set sail for our final Japanese port, Yokohama. As we sailed out we could see the ferris wheel was also lit up with coloured lights, but it did not look as good as the one in Osaka the previous night.

Day 40 – Yokohama, Japan

We sailed into Yokohama early the following morning, once again sailing past lots of container docks and under a bridge, before docking near yet another ferris wheel. For only the second time this cruise, our port side cabin was on the port side. I only grabbed a couple of snaps as our focus was in having a very early breakfast and getting ready for our tour, which had an 8am start time.

While we had struggled to choose a tour for Nagoya, we were spoilt for choice in Yokohama. It would have been nice to have gone to see nearby Tokyo, although I do wonder if I would have soon lost interest in yet another modern city. The standout tour that we did choose was an 8 hour tour called Mount Fuji & Hakone National Park, which we hoped would give us a chance to see rural Japan and weather conditions permitting, distant views of the iconic Mount Fuji, very much a symbol of Japan.

Not surprisingly it was a popular tour, with five coaches making the trip. When we boarded our coach, our local guide did warn us that she was not sure if we would get to see much of Mount Fuji due to the weather, so we crossed our fingers and toes more firmly.

It took some time to drive out of Yokohama, with little of interest to see other than brightly coloured miniature houses close to the port. For most of the way for this part of the journey there were concrete walls either side of the freeway, presumably to reduce noise and pollution for the nearby houses, but which made it difficult to see much.

Carol and I were sat at the very back of the coach, so when the local guide told us that she could see glimpses of Mount Fuji from the front windows of the coach it was rather tantalising and frustrating. However the brilliant news was that she was astonished how clear the mountain was, and we were both blown away when we got our first view from our side window of the coach a few minutes later.

After a while we stopped at a huge service station for a comfort stop, which also gave us a chance to see and photograph the mountain, looking so amazing with the white snow shining in the bright sunshine. It looked particulary good with some blossom trees in front of it, provided of course you cropped out the lorries and public conveniences in the foreground! Carol and I just kept pinching ourselves, we just could not believe we were seeing the mountain in such idylic conditions, and from much closer than we had dared imagine.

It was soon time to resume our journey, which was to the Hakone National Park. After three days in the other ports, where our tours remained more or less within the cities, it was fabulous to be out in the countryside and to see so much green.

At one point I started to photograph some cherry blossom trees beside the road, when Carol urgently asked me whether I had spotted the trees the other side of the lake behind, which I hadn’t. Quickly taking in the whole scene it was stunning, one that will last for a long, long time in the memory, even if it was sadly over in a flash. I did try to divert my camera and get some shots, but unfortunately not very well.

A while later we arrived at our first stop, the Sounzan Ropeway Gondola station. Here we all boarded a cable car to take us up the side of Mount Hakone to Owakudani station. Here there are thermal springs billowing steam into the air, with a sulphurous smell in the air – we were glad of our face masks to reduce the aroma.

After some free time we descended back down to Sounzan in the cable car, before taking our coach to our lunch venue, the Hakeone Senokuhara Prince Hotel. Regular readers might remember that Carol and I did not enjoy one bit our tour lunch in Hong Kong, from the vast size and noise of the venue to the local food served.

We were encouraged that the tour description had promised ‘western-style’ food, and as it turned out, everything was a complete polar opposite of our previous experience. It was a lovely hotel, with a light and airy dining room serving lovely food. Only two of the five coaches dined there, so it was quiet and peaceful too. One long wall of the dining room was almost all glass – some of the biggest windows we can remember seeing – offering amazing views across a valley.

Our coach then took us to our final stop, Hakone Shrine}, on the banks of Lake Ashi. Our local guide told us of a bad dragon called Ashi that lived in the lake, who terrorised the local inhabitants. One day a priest came by, and hearing of the problems, tied the dragon to the bottom of the lake. The dragon repented and is now a good dragon.

Here we had a choice – climb over a hundred steep steps to see another Japanese shrine, or descent a few down to the shore of the lake and see nature – sorry no prizes for guessing which one! At the bottom of the steps on the edge of the lake was a Torii, one of those iconic red wooden archways, under which someone was posing for photographs. A great long queue of people were waiting their turn to pose, with the time each person was taking I think the people at the back of the queue would have been there all afternoon.

We quickly decided to avoid the crowds and explore a path off to the left beside the lake, and were rewarded when it led to a traditional arched bridge. Here we stood for a while, drinking in the peace and beauty around us.

Alas it was soon time to make our way back to our coach for the return journey to our ship. On the way back we took a different route. We seemed to be going down quite a steep hill for ages, and for much of the time we were passing hillsides dotted liberally with cherry blossom trees which looked amazing – sorry but my photos just don’t do it justice.

As we travelled back through the city this time we could see either side of the roads, and it was interesting to see the Japanese houses, most of which seemed to have balconies with washing drying hanging from hangers. Although hardly any had gardens, we did notice quite a few allotments on the way.

By the time we reached our ship we were very tired, but elated after such a good tour. Carol and I often ask each other to score things out of ten, what we think of a port or a meal or a tour etc. In this case we both gave this tour the same score, and I know the mathematicians amongst you will protest, but we gave it 11 out of 10. Everything was brilliant – the weather, the scenery, the views of Mount Fuji, the guide, the lunch, the lake etc etc etc – a tour that will stay with us when others have long since faded in the memories.

It was so good to end our stay in Japan on such a high. Despite the disappointing tour in Nagoya we have both thoroughly enjoyed our visit – we were expecting it to be the highlight of this cruise and so far it certainly is. It was lovely to have four stops in one country, it gave us the chance to get to know the place a little more, far more so than the few hours we were in Vietnam for example. I realise it is like Americans claiming to ‘do Europe’ in a few days, but we did see and experience quite a lot of a very different and interesting country.

We now have quite a break, for when we set sail that evening, there are seven days at sea before we reach our next trio of ports in Hawaii.

Postscript

I am writing this post on Thursday, 6th April, on the third of our seven days at sea between Japan and Hawaii. Tomorrow will be Friday, 7th April. The next day will be Friday, 7th April. No, I haven’t lost the plot with all these sea days, the day after tomorrow will be our Groundhog Day – having crossed the International Date Line, we will get the day back for all those time we put our clocks and watches forward an hour during the voyage.

Groundhog Day happens to be Good Friday, but as we will have already had Good Friday, does that make it Even Better Friday?? Carol, like I suspect many of the ladies on board, actually wishes Groundhog Day had fallen on Easter Sunday, in the hope that she would get two lots of Easter Eggs!!

S2305 – Hakata Sakura

Apr 5, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 2 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – South China Sees, I described our visits to two ports on the South China Sea, Nha Trang in Vietnam and Hong Kong, the special administrative region of China. In the postscript I expressed my concerns at whether we would be allowed ashore in Japan due to the number of covid cases on board the ship. This post will provide the answer…

Days 33-35 – At sea

After our long tour in Hong Kong, we were glad to have three quiet days at sea to recharge ahead of potentially a very busy four port calls in Japan spread over just five days. We have also been finding having to put the clock forward an hour every few days very tiring – well at least that is our excuses for having a good siesta every afternoon!

As Japan was likely to be the highlight of the cruise for us, knowing that there were covid cases on board, we decided to be very cautious about mixing with people on the ship other than at dinner – so for example we watched talks and shows on the cabin television rather than attending them in the Neptune Lounge, and we ordered lunch on room service.

Day 36 – Hakata, Japan

We knew we had to be up early, as tour check in times were an hour ahead of the ticket departure times to allow time for immigration checks, but with the anticipation and concern ahead of us, neither of us needed the alarm clock and we were up watching our sail in bright and early.

As often happens, we were escorted to the quayside by two optimistic tugboats, and there we could see a line of officials waiting to board the ship for their inspections ahead of the big decision as to whether we would be allowed ashore.

Like so often, we docked in quite an industrial area, another potential candidate for my mythical coffee-table book of un-scenic ports used by Fred. Olsen.

After breakfast Sammi Firbanks, our Entertainment Manager, made an announcement that the ship was still waiting for clearance, and gave us a long reminder about wearing masks, keeping social distance and reporting any illness, which we were sure was for the benefit of the Japanese officials on board.

We went to the Neptune Lounge to check in at the appointed time, to find it already full with passengers already checked in on earlier tours. Although they encouraged people to also wait on the Lounge balcony, it rather made a nonsense of social distancing, and we wondered what the officials would say if they popped their heads into the Lounge!

At regular invervals either Sammi or the Tours staff announced that we were still waiting on a decision, and you could sense the tension rising in the room. Finally around an hour and a half after we docked, the announcement came that we had clearance, and an almighty cheer came up from all around the Lounge. Then, despite all this delay for clearance, the Tours staff then announced there would be a further delay as they were not yet fully set up for the immigration checks in the Terminal Building – you could not make it up! Fortunately that delay was only for a few minutes, and one by one the tours were called.

To be fair the procedure through immigration was fine, much faster than at Singapore, and it wasn’t too long before we were on our coach and away on our tour, only around 45 minutes late. As we boarded our coach we noticed TV cameras filming us, apparently we were the first cruise ship to dock since the pandemic and were therefore creating a lot of local interest.

We were booked on a tour called Spring Flowers, a must for us as we were so keen to see the iconic Japanese cherry blossom – sakura. The tour took us first to the Kushida Shrine, located on Old Hakata and reputed to date back to 757. Here our local guide showed us around, explaining about the shrines and other items of interest. One of the TV camera teams had followed us there, and were busy filming the guide showing us around, and even interviewed a couple of our fellow passengers who are on this cruise as their honeymoon (so last year, very regular readers might remember Carol and I did the 2018 World Cruise as our honeymoon!).

It was about a 40 minute drive to our second and final stop on the tour, the Umino Nakamichi Seaside Park, an absolutely vast area featuring children’s playgrounds, amusement park, a zoo, aquarium, swimming pools, and most importantly for us, flower gardens featuring loads of spring flowers including around 2000 cherry blossom trees.

We were immediately struck by all the brightly coloured tulips, and also birds that we took to be black kites flying around and into a tree above our heads.

The cherry blossom trees were fabulous, in full bloom with just the occasional petal falling down onto the people having a picnic underneath – a big Japanese tradition. Nearby there were sloping banks carpeted with small blue nemophilia flowers.

The park was far more extensive and open than either of us expected – some 4km from end to end. It would take many hours if not days to explore it all.

While Carol was more than content to sit by a lake with large fish, admiring the views all around, I scurried around taking more and more photos of the lovely flowers.

Sadly all too soon it was time to make our way back to the meeting point, for the coach ride back to our ship.

This was a lovely tour, and a perfect introduction to Japan and of course the cherry tree blossom, and we would definitely recommend it.

After dinner we went out onto our balcony, to see the port lit up just before we set sail for our next Japanese port, Osaka.

Day 37 – At sea

We had a quiet day at sea resting ahead of three busy days to come in the remaining Japanese ports. Alas our sailing through a narrow twisty channel was done in darkness in the middle of the night – when we awoke there were some ‘lumpy bits’ of rock still showing before we sailed out into the open sea.

A little later we were alerted by a WhatsApp post from our resident wildlife expert ‘Dolphin’ Dave Chilcott that there were humpback whales breaching ahead of the ship. We went outside on our balcony armed with our binoculars, and managed to spot one spouting. We were so lucky that they were on our side of the ship. Carol watched one of them breach nigh on vertically out of the water, unfortunately I was filming another on my camera at the time and missed it! However I did get a more modest breach, here are some stills from the video I took.

It is always such a treat to see these majestic animals in the wild.

Day 38 – Osaka, Japan

Once again I was awake before the alarm went off, and looked out the window to find we were already slipping past a container port and other docks, and despite still being in my pyjamas I popped out onto our balcony to grab a few snaps.

The time on our tour tickets said 8:00am, but we were relived to see in the Daily Times that the check-in time was not until later, at 8:45, so we were able to have a more leisurely breakfast than we thought.

When we got to the Neptune Lounge to check in, once again it was rammed with passengers waiting, as once again the Japanese authorities were doing an inspection of the ship before giving us clearance to go ashore.

Eventually clearance came – thank goodness – and the long tours were dispatched first, before finally it was our turn. At least we did not have to go through immigration this time, after a temperature check as we left the ship we were able to board our coach ready for the tour.

The tour we had selected was a three and a half hour tour called Osaka City Drive. Part of the tour was a guided drive around the city, but the main part was a visit to the Umeda Sky Building. This dramatic building has two tall towers, linked at the top by a circular observation deck, with a roof deck on top, from which spectacular views of the city far below can be seen.

Our drive to the Sky Building took us on now familiar looping ramps and freeways. As we approached, we could see what a dramatic building we would be visiting.

Our local guide led us through the complicated path to reach the observatory deck. First we took escalators up to the third floor, then a non-stop lift from there to the 35th floor. From there we took another escalator, which in a glass tube took us diagonally across to the 39th floor of the other tower, where the local guide collected entry tickets for us. Finally it was up one more regular escalator to reach the observation deck on the 40th floor, with huge windows on all four sides.

We spent some time here looking out of the windows to the spectacular views all around, but I would like to give you a tip if you ever do this tour – if you are able to go on the outside roof terrace, then find the staircase or lift to go there directly, as the views are the same but better without the glass in the way.

All too soon it was time to descend back down to the 39th floor and the shop, before making our way back down the escalators and lift to the gound. Unfortunately the long queues for the checkout in the shop and for the lift meant we were late getting back to our coach, and there was no time to look at gardens around the building – so thanks to our friends Darian and Brian for letting me have and use these photos that they had time to take.

The remainder of the tour was a guided coach tour of the city, and I had the usual challenges of trying to get some decent snaps from the window of the coach as we sped around.

The highlight of this part of the tour was Osaka Castle, where we briefly paused to allow those on the wrong side of the coach to stand and see it. The road then took us around the moat, and past a park with lovely cherry blossom trees, and of course people having a picnic beneath it.

Next we passed through a shopping area. During the tour, our local guide commented several times on how light the traffic was, due to it being a Saturday. We were obviously running ahead of schedule, and it soon became very apparent when we passed distinctive buildings that we had seen before that we were actually driving around in circles to fill in time. This was presumably so that we did not get back to the ship early and provoke complaints.

Back on the ship, and after a lovely lunch Poolside, I went up on the top deck to take some photos of the giant ferris wheel and bridge, both close to the ship.

Just before dinner we watched the sun set romantically over the container port!

While we were eating our dinner, we noticed that the ferris wheel was not just lit up, the coloured lights were making all sorts of lovely patterns. I managed to video it through the dining room window, and here are a few stills from the video to give you an idea of how lovely it looked.

We then set sail for our next Japanese port, Nagoya, which we would reach the following morning.

Our adventures there and in Yokohama will be the subject of my next post.

Postscript

As I write this we are sailing between Japan and Hawaii. Our last day in Japan, in Yokohama, was the 40th day of this Around the World in 80 Days cruise – meaning by time, we are now more than half way through the cruise. In a couple of days we will cross the International Date Line, meaning we will be halfway around by distance too. The first half of the cruise has gone all too quickly, and I know from experience that the remainder will fly by quicker and quicker. It’s a good job we already have a couple more booked!

S2305 – South China Sees

Mar 29, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 7 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Day or Night?, I described the lovely two days we spent in one of our favourite ports, Singapore. In this post I will cover our visits to see two ports in the South China Sea, Nha Trang in Vietnam, and Hong Kong, the special administrative region of China. For Carol and I this cruise has now got a whole lot more exciting, as both these ports, and indeed countries, are completely new to us. I nearly called this post New Territories, but thought that might be confusing as we were not visiting that part of Hong Kong.

Day 29 – At sea

Our stop in Singapore was the furtherest south that we will go on this entire cruise, still in the Northern Hemisphere, albeit by only about one degree. Leaving Singapore, we had a quiet day at sea sailing generally north again, towards our next port of call, Nha Trang.

Day 30 – Nha Trang, Vietnam

Carol and I were up early in the morning, so that we could have breakfast before watching our final approach into Nha Trang – we are always keen to watch our arrival in any new port and/or country. Nha Trang was the first of just two anchor ports on this cruise, the other will be in Hawaii.

Neither of us really knew what to expect – we had not looked at photos of the port before we arrived to keep the surprise – and that is what we both got when we looked forward from the ship to see lots and lots of high-rise buildings in the haze. In front of the city were a line of red and white pylons in a line across the bay – researching later on the internet I found out that they were part of the Vinpearl Cable Car system, the world’s longest cable car over the sea, which is currently undergoing extensive maintenance.

As it was a new port in a new distant country, we had booked ourselves on a ship’s tour – a four and a quarter hour tour called Heritage & History. Once our tender had brought us to the shore, we transferred to our coach for the tour around the city. Driving along the waterfront, we soon reached our first stop, at Po Nagar, a historical complex dating back to the 8th century, and a sacred place of pilgrimage to Buddhists.

Our coach then took us across the city to the Dam Market. Here we walked right around the circular building, between stalls crammed high with local crafts and clothing.

Another coach drive took us to our third stop, the Long Son pagoda. Here a huge white Buddha sits on a lotus throne at the top of the hill, overlooking the city and several pagodas. There were 152 steps to climb up to the Buddha – and back down of course. While Carol wisely elected to wait in the shade, I decided to brave the heat and high humidity to try to reach the top.

When I staggered back down to Carol she had the wonderful offer of an ice cream – she had overheard another couple buying them for US$1 each. When we went to buy some the lady wanted US$3 for the two, until our local guide intervened and suddenly the price was back to US$2 for the pair.

After another drive through the city our final stop was at the Roman Catholic City Church.

We then drove back to the quayside, and joined quite a long queue waiting for a tender back to our ship. Guess what, the last people to get on the first tender were the couple in front of us in the queue! Fortunately a second tender was soon ready, and it wasn’t too long before we were back resting in the cool of the ship.

We both thought it was a very good tour, and would recommend it.

Later I took some snaps from our balcony of the Vinpearl resort which is at the far end of the cable car system.

Day 31 – At sea

As we sailed further north, away from the tropics and towards our next port of call, Hong Kong, it was noticeable how much cooler and fresher the weather became.

In the morning everyone had to attend the Neptune Lounge in order to do a lateral flow test for Covid, as a condition for entry into Hong Kong the next day. We had to photograph the test cassette on our mobile phones, and take both the cassette and the phones ashore with us the next day. Alas a few people tested positive and had to go into isolation, we are just keeping everything crossed that this does not affect our ability to visit Japan in the coming days.

Our third theme night – a Masquerade formal night, was originally scheduled for the day we were in Nha Trang, something we could not understand with so many sea days on this cruise. In the event it was moved to the next day, and Carol and I dressed appropriately for dinner. We did notice that while there was only a comparatively few of us dressed in masks for first sitting, as we watched the second sitting people go past a lot more of them were in costume.

They also held a Masquerade Ball Party, but this did not start until 10:30. While I am sure this would seem to be only half-way through the evening for the young things who draw up the entertainment schedule, for a lot of us more mature passengers this is too late, especially when the following day was a full-on day in Hong Kong with long tours having early starts. I don’t want people to think I am always having a moan or a complaint, but to me this is yet another example of where if they just thought of things more from the passenger’s point of view, a better decision could have been made which would have been to hold it when we have consecutive sea days and no one has to be up early or busy the next day.

Day 32 – Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China

Once again we were up very early so that we could have our breakfast ahead of sailing into port. As we sailed in on a maiden visit to the port, we were accompanied by a tugboat providing a water fountain. This time Carol and I knew more of what to expect to see, but even so we were a little taken back by just how many tall, and not very attractive tower blocks dominated the view.

Our ship docked at the new Kai Tak cruise terminal, which is some 14 kilometres from the centre of Hong Kong. For once a free shuttle bus was provided all day.

We were booked on a seven and a half hour ship’s tour called Full Day Island Tour. Our coach took us across to Hong Kong Island by road tunnel, which is where the entire tour was based.

The coach dropped us at station on the Peak Tram fenicular railway, where we boarded a train which took us to the viewing platform near the summit of Victoria Peak, which at 1800 feet above sea level should offer great views of the city and harbour below. The line is very steep, just boarding the train wasn’t easy, and we were soon pressed back in our seats as we climbed towards the summit.

At the top our guide led us around to the viewing area, and as he explained some of sights that we could see, he said that Hong Kong harbour was reckoned to be the third most lovely in the world – but with view impeded all the rain and mist around it was very hard to believe that it was better than several others that we have seen.

After some free time our guide led us to our coach, which the driver had brought up to the summit. From there we drove back downhill to our lunch venue, which our guide told us would be serving a traditional Chinese dim sum lunch.

The restaurant, on the 7th floor of a mixed commercial building, was absolutely vast, and was filled with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. To be honest I am not good in crowds and noise, and I really struggled with all the noise and commotion around me. The food seemed very much a marmite thing – some people on our table loved it, and eagerly tucked in, but both Carol and I decided we much prefered Marks & Spencer’s chinese food to traditional chinese food!

At the bottom of the building, and in neighbouring ones there were a number of high-class car showrooms. I definitely had my eye on the very nice yellow number in the McLaren showroom, but in the end decided that the logistics of getting it back home to the UK were just to great!!

As the coach took us towards our next stop, the harbour area of Aberdeen, we passed the Happy Valley racecourse, although it was very difficult to see or photograph anything with the rain. At Aberdeen we transferred to traditional sampan flat-bottomed boats for a tour around the harbour. The tour description in the tour book described seeing the “home to thousands of ‘water-people’ who live aboard junks and sampans”, but our guide had told us that the government had lured them into living ashore in council-provided tiny flats, so pretty much all we saw were lots of fishing boats, many actually from mainland China. I asked the local guide about the holes in some of the tower blocks, and he told me two explanations – they were either to let the dragons fly through the buildings, or to let the typhoon winds blow through – you take your pick!

The tour description also described visiting a local jewellery factory, but we did not do this. Instead we drove directly to Stanley Market, described in the tour description as “one of the world’s greatest bazaars”. Talking to some people who did this tour years ago maybe it was then, but it certainly isn’t now. We walked slowly around it in 10 minutes flat, and then had another 50 minutes to kill, which we spent slowly ambling around the waterfront and sitting on a (wet) bench, fortunately by then the rain had eased off.

It took nearly an hour to drive back to our ship, during which time I managed to grab some snaps through the coach window.

It was a long and tiring day, and we were glad to get back on the ship. We both think that the tour was disappointing – not helped by the weather which is no-ones fault – and the tour description definitely needs updating. At £99 each we would definitely hesitate to recommend it.

Carol and I had so been looking forward to visiting Hong Kong, and were left feeling rather disappointed by a city that just seemed ram full of unattractive tower blocks.

However once night fell, and we could see all the lights of the city from our balcony, then that boosted our impressions.

We set sail just after 10pm, heading for what we hope will be the highpoint of the cruise, our four ports of call in Japan.

Postscript

As I write this we are on the last of three sea days sailing towards Japan. Yesterday we had a letter in our cabins from Peter Deer, the Managing Director, informing us that due to Japanese COVID regulations, we need to start wearing facemasks in public areas and when moving around the ship, and asking us to keep social distance as much as possible. We know that there are quite a number of Covid cases on board, not least because we can see the extra waiters in PPE which have been draughted in to help with all the passengers in the quarantine cabins towards the rear of deck 6. Apparently when we get to Japan the authorities will come aboard and decide whether or not we will be allowed to go ashore.

We are rather concerned, all we can do is keep all our extremities crossed and hope for the best. My next post may or may not be about our visits to the first two Japanese ports.

S2305 – Day or Night?

Mar 23, 2023Mar 24, 2023 ~ Graham Alderson ~ 2 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – India n Ocean, I described our visits to three ports in India, Mumbai, Mormugão and Kochi. In this post I will cover our two day visit to the city state of Singapore.

Days 23 to 26 – At sea

We had four quiet days at sea sailing from India to Kochi.

As we sailed south past Sri Lanka on the first day, the Captain announced that we would be making a small diversion so that we could come to a stop off Colombo, so that a medical evacuation of a crew member could be made by a launch from the port.

On the evening of the second day we had our second theme night, this time is was Indian night. Just as with the Egyptian night, there was a big BBQ and party around the pool up on deck 8, but once again we were content to just wear our costumes to dinner as usual in the restaurant. After dinner Carol and I went up to see what was happening, but the very loud music and crowds very rapidly sent us scurrying back to the peace and quiet of the decks below!

Day 27 – Singapore (day 1)

Carol and I have visited Singapore several times before on cruises (see here), and as a child Carol lived there for a few years, and it is a place we both love to return to – we love the mixture of East meets West, old meets new, and how green and clean everywhere is.

As we sailed in there were very heavy rain showers, something we normally expect in late afternoon in Singapore, which made the visibility rather poor.

We had booked a ship’s tour for our first evening in Singapore, called Singapore by Night. In the tours brochure it was accompanied by this photograph of all the lights in the amazing buildings in Singapore shining brightly against a lovely dark sky. The tour concludes on the Observation deck on the 56th floor of the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel, offering wonderful views of the city below. We had done a similar tour before in the daytime, but we were really looking forward to having the chance to see the city all lit up in the dark.

A week before we arrived in Singapore, we were given a dilemma when we were invited to an Oceans loyalty club recognition event for Diamond Elite members during the afternoon of our first day in Singapore, which was for afternoon tea at the iconic Raffles Hotel – the problem being that if we went to the afternoon tea we would not be back in time for the Singapore by Night tour. After a lot of thought we decided that the chance to see one of our favourite cities in the dark won over, so we declined the afternoon tea.

However a couple of days before we arrived, we received our tour tickets, only to be shocked and horrified to find the tour was leaving at 3:30 in the afternoon. Given that sunset was not until 7:15, and it was not due to get fully dark until 8:24, there was no way that the four hour tour was going to be in the night as advertised. When we queried this with the Tours department, they just shrugged their shoulders – apparently there were other coaches leaving later but they were full. So it was time for a quick change of plan, we sadly cancelled our tour and managed to get the last two places on the afternoon tea instead.

In the morning we just went ashore to the two shopping malls that are adjacent to the cruise terminal – after we had queued for an hour to get through immigration.

On our coach trip through the city to Raffles Hotel we saw some familiar and not so familiar landmarks.

Arriving at the hotel we saw the famous concierge on the steps having his photograph taken with guests. Our guide led us through the grounds of the hotel before taking us to the Tiffin Room for our afternoon tea.

The afternoon tea was very enjoyable, but in my own personal opinion I think the one on the ship in the Observatory on sea days is even better!

One curiosity we spotted was a robot clearly designed to direct guests around the hotel complex, which has grown enormously since Carol used to go there when she was a child.

Carol had hoped to go to the famous Long Bar for one of their iconic Singapore Slings, but alas the queue was too long.

Our coach trip back to our ship took us past the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Merlion fountain.

Back on the ship, I took a couple of snaps from our balcony at 7:25pm, you can how dark or otherwise the sky would have been then at the end of our “Night” tour.

Day 28 – Singapore (day 2)

For our second day in port, Carol and I had decided to make our way independently to the Gardens By The Bay, which lie between the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the sea. While the gardens themselves are free to enter, we had booked tickets in advance online (discounted) for a couple of the attractions there – one of the two huge greenhouse domes (the Flower one), and the Supertree Observatory. The latter is at the top of the tallest of the man-made Supertree structures that dominate the gardens.

We travelled to the gardens on the MRT metro system – we have used this before on previous visits to Singapore and it is a great way to get around independently. We did get caught out by one change though – you used to buy tickets from a ticket machine, now you either have to buy a special card (a bit like a London Oyster card), or you can use a credit or debit card – either way you do a contactless swipe as you enter and leave a platform. Alas we only had one of our travel Starling credit cards with us, and as each person has to use a different card, we had to buy one of the special cards.

Arriving in the gardens we walked first to the Supertree Observatory, where we took the lift up to the viewing platform. The 360 degree views from there were amazing, and we spent some time admiring them before coming inside to the cool of a cafe for cold refreshing drinks.

We were about to take the lift back down when we spotted some stairs going up, which led to an even higher viewing area at the very top of the Supertree. Here the views were even better as the metal ‘branches’ of the Supertree were not in the way – we were so thankful that we spotted it.

Descending to ground level we slowly meandered our way through the gardens to the Flower Dome.

Inside this dome, which unlike the Observatory we had visited before, we wandered around admiring the flowers and plants, and also enjoying the cooler temperatures – unlike back home where greenhouse strutures are used to increase the temperatures for the plants, in Singapore they are used to lower the temperatures. We also got to see the cherry blossom, which was attracting a lot of attention. We have heard that the cherry blossom season is early in Japan this year, so we are keeping everything crossed that it is still out by the time we get there.

We then walked slowly back through the gardens to the MRT station and returned to the cool of the ship for a long rest – we had walked around 4 miles in very hot and humid conditions.

Late that afternoon the ship set sail for our next port of call, Nha Trang in Vietnam, which we will reach after a day at sea.

Postscript 1

Talking to some fellow passengers who actually went on that early ‘Singapore by Night’ tour, it turns out that due to the number of complaints they actually extended the tour a bit, so that for the last part of the tour on the Observation Deck of the hotel the skies were actually fairly dark. So we are left wondering whether we made the right call after all – especially as we doubt we will return to this lovely city.

Postscript 2

Talking to other fellow passengers who were on the later coaches doing the ‘Singapore by Night’ tour, it transpires that when they arrived at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the Observation Deck was closed for the night, so they did not get to see the view at night. It looks more and more like the Tours Department were not on the ball with the timing of their tours. Oh, and what was the right decision?