Second full day at sea today en route to Easter Island. The weather has been perfect: warm, bright sun, soft breezes, and a few passing clouds. We are both suntanned and relaxed. Unfortunately, the Internet connection is quite slow, so I don’t know how long it will be before you actually read this.
There has been seen gastrointestinal illness on board the ship – enough cases that we are at Code Red and have many protocols in place for containing the outbreak. For instance, the crew is now using a stronger antimicrobial cleaner on a stepped up schedule. The rolls, butter, salt, etc. are no longer on the dinner table, but are served to us one at a time by the wait staff. At the buffet, we no longer serve ourselves, but ask the staff to put our selections our plates for us. The tea, coffee, and water station at the buffet is no longer self-serve, rather is poured for us by staff. The restrictions put an increased burden on the staff, who not only have to serve more food, but also have stricter requirements for handling linens, etc. And of course, some of them have also been sick, so the well ones must be required to absorb additional work duties for those on quarantine.
One of the ill passengers was Jerry. He went to the Medical Center and was given an antibiotic (Cipro), electrolytes powder to dissolve in water, and Imodium. He was also put on cabin quarantine for 48 hours and limited to a special menu from room service, which included clear soup, toast, baked potato, and jello. He tried to order a tuna fish sandwich, but was told that he was on a restricted diet and could not have one. Our regular cabin steward no longer cleaned the cabin or turned down the bed. A specially trained member of the crew in a haz-mat jump suit took over during the quarantine period. The carpets were not vacuumed, perhaps to avoid spreading the disease from cabin to cabin. Frequent reminders were given to passengers about hand washing, and a liquid that smells like pure alcohol replaced the dispensers at the entrances to public rooms. This is a very serious matter on the ship and all of the efforts by everyone onboard have begun to pay off. The number of cases is now heading down.
Captain Ravera has been visible and communicated information to us on a daily basis. He is a charming man and appears to be a fine leader. At least his management style is one that I admire: management by walking around. The man is everywhere! He has a friendly greeting for everyone and is gracious speaking to passengers and answering our questions about the most mundane matters. His pride in the ship is evident and he often expresses his appreciation to the crew for their excellent performances.
We have been outdoors on the open decks many of the daytime hours from breakfast on the back deck to watching the sunset from the recliners on Deck 5. Today we went to bridge lesson in the morning in the Steakhouse and played bridge with another couple for about an hour in the afternoon. I returned my library book and borrowed another one, but I really have very little time to read with all of the lectures, lessons, meals, sun-tanning, walking, shows, chatting with people, and eating. There is so much to do it is hard to find time for a nap!
Continued the day before Easter Island
Our last of sea days before we reach Easter Island. We have busy days at sea. We have been sleeping late for some reason, getting up with barely enough time for breakfast before we go to bridge lessons. After the lesson, we go to a lecture in the Cabaret Lounge. Today’s was “Easter Island Giant Moai Statues” given by Dr. Jim Rowe and very informative. Then we play bridge in the shade on the pool deck with a very nice couple for about 2 hours before we have to stop for lunch. Lunch is barely finished when it is time for another lecture. Today’s was the third one by Les Evans, formerly a pilot on the Concorde for British Airways. He talked about the technical and unique aspects of the Concorde. Then quick change into swimsuits for sun and swim at the pool. Now it is already time to shower and dress for dinner.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Callao/Lima
We have had a day and a half docked at Callao, the port for Lima. The dock is about a 45-minute bus ride into the center of the city of Lima. Although Callao and Lima used to be separated, they have now merged into a metropolis of 8 million people. That is a huge and busy city to navigate in such a short visit.
The port itself is an active container port, which cannot be walked at all. That meant one kind of a shuttle or another once we were off the ship. The docks are home to an incredible number of sea birds, mostly sea gulls. I have no way of estimating their numbers, but there are hundreds of containers on the docks covered wing to wing with birds. I don’t know if there are thousands, tens of thousands or more. Let me just say that one of the enduring memories of this port will be the pervasive stench of their droppings.
There was a free shuttle from the ship to the port’s gate, where taxis could be hired for tours or transportation to sights. Princess offered a very inexpensive ($5 per person each way) shuttle service from the dock to a Marriott Hotel in Miraflores, a lovely neighborhood on cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. The shuttle bus ride itself became a tour as we rode through neighborhood after neighborhood of varying economic levels, mostly poor. Since it almost NEVER rains here, everything is very dry and the vegetation is sparse except where people make the effort to garden. The houses all have open, unroofed areas so certain are the people living in them that it will not rain. The streets are paved, highways fast, but congested. Like the port, Miraflores is on the ocean, so much of the ride was along the beaches. Some of the beaches are used even though instead of sand, they are covered with black stones. Many young people are surfing and body surfing the waves.
The shuttle dropped us off in front of H Stern, the jewelry store, no coincidence there. The jewelry was all Inca and Peruvian motifs. Across the street there is a mall overlooking the ocean at the bottom of the cliff. The mall is built into the cliff and barely visible from the Marriott. There is a Starbuck’s, restaurants, jewelry stores, and clothing shops. There was also a desk for city tours that turned out to be the bargain of the port. However, we didn’t discover it; friends told us about it back on the ship.
We visited the Artisans Marketplace, admired several items, but in the end decided not to buy anything. Less to carry is always good. It was hard to resist the alpaca sweaters, but we so seldom wear sweaters in Florida it doesn’t make sense to purchase them.
We went back to the ship for lunch on the shuttle and after lunch watched a movie in the lounge. The daily paper, The Patter, said it was a Russell Crowe movie, which it was not. It was, I believe, The Women, a film that has not one male character on the screen. After dinner we went to the folkloric show, performed by a troupe from Lima. They sang and danced a variety of traditional pieces wearing some fantastic costumes, with clever use of so many bright primary colors.
Today we were in port until only 12:30 which wasn’t really enough time to travel on our own back to the city, so we enjoyed a day on board, mostly by the pool.
By the way, we have not as yet changed our clocks. Look at a map of the world if you, like us, think that is strange.
The port itself is an active container port, which cannot be walked at all. That meant one kind of a shuttle or another once we were off the ship. The docks are home to an incredible number of sea birds, mostly sea gulls. I have no way of estimating their numbers, but there are hundreds of containers on the docks covered wing to wing with birds. I don’t know if there are thousands, tens of thousands or more. Let me just say that one of the enduring memories of this port will be the pervasive stench of their droppings.
There was a free shuttle from the ship to the port’s gate, where taxis could be hired for tours or transportation to sights. Princess offered a very inexpensive ($5 per person each way) shuttle service from the dock to a Marriott Hotel in Miraflores, a lovely neighborhood on cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. The shuttle bus ride itself became a tour as we rode through neighborhood after neighborhood of varying economic levels, mostly poor. Since it almost NEVER rains here, everything is very dry and the vegetation is sparse except where people make the effort to garden. The houses all have open, unroofed areas so certain are the people living in them that it will not rain. The streets are paved, highways fast, but congested. Like the port, Miraflores is on the ocean, so much of the ride was along the beaches. Some of the beaches are used even though instead of sand, they are covered with black stones. Many young people are surfing and body surfing the waves.
The shuttle dropped us off in front of H Stern, the jewelry store, no coincidence there. The jewelry was all Inca and Peruvian motifs. Across the street there is a mall overlooking the ocean at the bottom of the cliff. The mall is built into the cliff and barely visible from the Marriott. There is a Starbuck’s, restaurants, jewelry stores, and clothing shops. There was also a desk for city tours that turned out to be the bargain of the port. However, we didn’t discover it; friends told us about it back on the ship.
We visited the Artisans Marketplace, admired several items, but in the end decided not to buy anything. Less to carry is always good. It was hard to resist the alpaca sweaters, but we so seldom wear sweaters in Florida it doesn’t make sense to purchase them.
We went back to the ship for lunch on the shuttle and after lunch watched a movie in the lounge. The daily paper, The Patter, said it was a Russell Crowe movie, which it was not. It was, I believe, The Women, a film that has not one male character on the screen. After dinner we went to the folkloric show, performed by a troupe from Lima. They sang and danced a variety of traditional pieces wearing some fantastic costumes, with clever use of so many bright primary colors.
Today we were in port until only 12:30 which wasn’t really enough time to travel on our own back to the city, so we enjoyed a day on board, mostly by the pool.
By the way, we have not as yet changed our clocks. Look at a map of the world if you, like us, think that is strange.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Panama Canal
We went through the Canal with the Queen Victoria.
We are in our cabin and using the WIFI which has been pretty fast most of the time. Right now we just went through the Pedro Miguel Locks and are heading toward the Miraflores Locks, both of which have webcams. You can probably google those terms and find links to each one. The Queen Victoria has been just ahead of us all day passing through the canal in the same direction as we are going. You can see the canal at any time because of the webcams at both the Miraflores Locks and the San Miguel Locks.
It has been a perfect day for transiting the canal, there have been some clouds that have kept the temperature comfortable most of the day. We entered the first lock before 9 am Whenever the full sun is out, we really feel the heat and the humidity. What an accomplishment it was for the Panama Canal to have been built so brilliantly so early in the 20th century.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Sea Day
Here we are onboard the Tahitian Princess. The ship is lovely, smaller than we are used to and quite different inside from most cruise ships we have sailed on. The interior décor is very traditional with dark wood, draperies, paintings, and artifacts that are reminiscent of an era long past. Our cabin is a nice size with space for all of the stuff that we brought with us. That is after the cabin steward lifted the bed legs onto towels to make it possible to store the suitcases under the beds and use them as drawers. All of the built in storage units are dark wood and the floor to ceiling mirror is framed in the same dark wood. There is a recessed picture window with both sheers and heavy drapes. I had been concerned that I would lose the dark cave effect of the inside cabin, but the draperies block out nearly all of the light making it barely possible to tell when the sun has risen.
The beds are very comfortable with the perfect weight comforter in a duvet and feather pillows for sleeping and a heavy bedspread for daytime. Right now I am sitting on the love seat in the cabin using the laptop on my lap. Jerry is lying on the bed and watching CNN on the television. There have been some small problems that the crew has remedied for us.
The skies have been overcast and the seas a little rocky right from the beginning. Because of the winds, the Captain made the decision about tendering in to Georgetown, Grand Cayman at the very last minute after the ship was at anchor. It turned out to be the perfect decision. We have been on tenders when we were tossed around a lot, but not this time.
We were on the first tender going ashore after the passengers on the ship’s tours were delivered to shore, so we had a nice long day in the port. We wore bathing suits under our clothes and headed to the beach. My guidebook gave instructions for getting to the public bus near the public library and we had no trouble walking directly to it. The bus was actually a 9 passenger van which dropped us off at the Public Beach on Seven Mile Beach for US $2.50 each.
Since it was early, the beach was nearly empty when we arrived. White sandbox sand slopes down to a cordoned off swimming area in the Caribbean blue water. We spread out our ship’s towels and soaked up the warmth of the sun. (Between the a/c and the overcast skies, we had been cold on the ship.) After a while we went down to the water, ouched our way across a little coral patch and dove into the water as soon as it was deep enough. At first, the water felt cold, but as soon as we were all wet, it was perfect. So we had a little swim and float and returned to the towels to dry off.
Because, of course, I had to eat lunch. We packed up our things and walked along the beach headed toward Gateway of India, a restaurant on the road back to the cruise ship terminals. We walked along the beach for about 45 minutes and arrived at a path to walk from the beach back to the road. While the beaches in the Cayman Islands are all the public, the access routes are not. Fortunately, there are many places between properties that are labeled for public access. We sat on a stone wall beside a lizard who seemed to be saying that the wall was his territory and he was not about to give it up just because we wanted to use it to put our shoes on. In a parking lot we saw an iguana/lizard at least two feet long, so I guess the critters are well fed and secure.
We easily found the restaurant, asked the cost of the buffet lunch and had a great meal. When we told the owner we were vegans, he made a dish of channa dal for us because there were only two vegetarian dishes on the buffet. It was so good! Then the server brought the check. Stupid us! We had not engaged our travel brains as yet. The price quoted was Cayman Island dollars, of course, since we were in the Cayman Islands, but we thought they were US dollars. We had no idea what the exchange rate was, but it turns out that a CI dollar is US$1.25. We never take much money ashore, especially to a beach, so when our $12 each lunch quickly turned into $36 with dessert, currency exchange and whatever, and we were left with very little cash. The change was CI $2.50 which at that point was useless to us. Lacking the money to pay for another bus ride, we had to walk all the way back to the ship. I had a nervous eye on my watch, giving us until 4 pm before I would begin to look for a way to get to the docks without enough money to pay for a ride. But by 4 pm we were at the terminal where the tenders were operating. We stepped into the nearest tourist trap and spent CI$2.24 on postcards, boarded the tender and returned to the ship.
Today I have bandaids on my toes that rubbed together and blistered on our long walk. Now hopefully our travel brains are fully engaged and we will be smarter about currencies and exchange rates.
The beds are very comfortable with the perfect weight comforter in a duvet and feather pillows for sleeping and a heavy bedspread for daytime. Right now I am sitting on the love seat in the cabin using the laptop on my lap. Jerry is lying on the bed and watching CNN on the television. There have been some small problems that the crew has remedied for us.
The skies have been overcast and the seas a little rocky right from the beginning. Because of the winds, the Captain made the decision about tendering in to Georgetown, Grand Cayman at the very last minute after the ship was at anchor. It turned out to be the perfect decision. We have been on tenders when we were tossed around a lot, but not this time.
We were on the first tender going ashore after the passengers on the ship’s tours were delivered to shore, so we had a nice long day in the port. We wore bathing suits under our clothes and headed to the beach. My guidebook gave instructions for getting to the public bus near the public library and we had no trouble walking directly to it. The bus was actually a 9 passenger van which dropped us off at the Public Beach on Seven Mile Beach for US $2.50 each.
Since it was early, the beach was nearly empty when we arrived. White sandbox sand slopes down to a cordoned off swimming area in the Caribbean blue water. We spread out our ship’s towels and soaked up the warmth of the sun. (Between the a/c and the overcast skies, we had been cold on the ship.) After a while we went down to the water, ouched our way across a little coral patch and dove into the water as soon as it was deep enough. At first, the water felt cold, but as soon as we were all wet, it was perfect. So we had a little swim and float and returned to the towels to dry off.
Because, of course, I had to eat lunch. We packed up our things and walked along the beach headed toward Gateway of India, a restaurant on the road back to the cruise ship terminals. We walked along the beach for about 45 minutes and arrived at a path to walk from the beach back to the road. While the beaches in the Cayman Islands are all the public, the access routes are not. Fortunately, there are many places between properties that are labeled for public access. We sat on a stone wall beside a lizard who seemed to be saying that the wall was his territory and he was not about to give it up just because we wanted to use it to put our shoes on. In a parking lot we saw an iguana/lizard at least two feet long, so I guess the critters are well fed and secure.
We easily found the restaurant, asked the cost of the buffet lunch and had a great meal. When we told the owner we were vegans, he made a dish of channa dal for us because there were only two vegetarian dishes on the buffet. It was so good! Then the server brought the check. Stupid us! We had not engaged our travel brains as yet. The price quoted was Cayman Island dollars, of course, since we were in the Cayman Islands, but we thought they were US dollars. We had no idea what the exchange rate was, but it turns out that a CI dollar is US$1.25. We never take much money ashore, especially to a beach, so when our $12 each lunch quickly turned into $36 with dessert, currency exchange and whatever, and we were left with very little cash. The change was CI $2.50 which at that point was useless to us. Lacking the money to pay for another bus ride, we had to walk all the way back to the ship. I had a nervous eye on my watch, giving us until 4 pm before I would begin to look for a way to get to the docks without enough money to pay for a ride. But by 4 pm we were at the terminal where the tenders were operating. We stepped into the nearest tourist trap and spent CI$2.24 on postcards, boarded the tender and returned to the ship.
Today I have bandaids on my toes that rubbed together and blistered on our long walk. Now hopefully our travel brains are fully engaged and we will be smarter about currencies and exchange rates.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Cobalt Blue Dresses
Someone started a discussion about Marc Jacobs on the Cruise Critic QE2 2008 World Cruise roll call and before you knew what had happened, we were all out shopping for cobalt blue dresses. Several times during the voyage we had nights of the cobalt blue dress and didn't we look smashing? I am taking my cobalt blue dress on the Tahitian Princess but I will miss the group every time I wear the dress.
Bags are packed
Three large suitcases, one garment bag, two rolling carry-ons, a computer bag/briefcase, leather carry-on and one canvas bag full of paperwork and books are now lined up in the guest bedroom. In addition, we will take a carton packed with a four month supply of toiletries and cosmetics and my handbag. The bags are all a couple of pounds under the airline's 50 pound weight limit for checked baggage and 26 pounds for carry-ons. Not all of the bags will be on the flights home since we will use up or leave behind the paperwork, books, and any remaining toiletries.
Much to my surprise we were able to fit everything into the bags. In fact, we still have too much stuff and clothing. Of course, if we had to fly to the port as well as home again, we would have had to pack differently. I would have had to be much more selective about the clothing to pack. But, lucky us, our neighbor will pick us up in the morning and 35 minutes later we will be at the port.
Now the question is what will we forget. One of us always forgets something important. For the QE2 WC, we forgot to pack scissors and a comb for me to use to cut Jerry's hair. We spent half a day in Montevideo comparison shopping for scissors! That half a day is best forgotten. When we went on a cruise to Alaska from our home in Florida, Jerry went without a jacket! Fortunately we arrived in Seattle the day before and went immediately to a shopping center where he bought a winter jacket. I forgot the garment bag on one trip on land and just got along without it. We arrived in Quebec in the summer with two teenagers and no raingear or jackets for the cold rain we encountered. Misery! We went to our lake house and left the cooler full of food on the kitchen table and since it would spoil and stink, Jerry had to turn around and make the trip there and back - another half day best forgotten.
Maybe this time we will not forget anything. I have never had such a good packing checklist to work with.
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