Days 82 & 83 - At sea yet again - but fun!

With a four day run now to Darwin, time to really relax – then we have a five day run afterwards to Sydney.  This means of course that on the runs of port days, the passengers can get a bit tired, but on the sea day runs, the staff get tired!  The regular advancement of the clocks makes it even tougher for staff who may be working the bars until 11pm, plus cleaning down time, then the Patisserie bar on deck five, reopens at 6:00am for coffees (and stronger drinks for those who have a need), so staff are back on duty at 5:30am.  That they are always so cheerful is a real credit to them.

I only found out at bed time when doing my diary, that today was ‘International Day of Older Persons’ (and also World Vegetarian day, but we’ll ignore that one), but we did note lots of ‘older persons’ around today.

Neither of us slept well again and we can’t blame coffee for keeping Paula awake as she only has a half strength hot chocolate at night.  The TV was back on from 2am until at least 4am, so I was watching the ‘Cake Boss’ show then a programme about living in the wilds of Alaska.  Very informative, but I would rather have been sleeping.

The 10:30am trivia was our first venture out followed by an atrium coffee and a small filled roll. It is called the ‘Patisserie’ on deck five, but it is a bit of a misnomer.  There is a tray of small pastries (replaced regularly) during the morning and that switches to a tray of small filled rolls, sandwiches and other savouries round about 11:15am until 2pm. 

After blog updates, a very late lunch of a small plate of chilli con carne and rice.

We didn’t win afternoon quiz and we rushed off to Jammers for another Dawn Nomad’s meet.  This time, it was the tacky souvenir gift exchange.  As usual, some people missed the point and donated remarkably good cheap prizes which were much sought after and ultimately pirated. Tacky souvenirs included two packs of Greek erotic playing cards, a small solid teddy bear covered in small sea shells, weird salt and pepper pots, snow globes etc.  The good stuff included a bottle of wine, Turkish Delight, a sari, a box of chocs, a scarf etc.  Good fun but the star prize was undoubtedly Arnold’s chicken that squawks when you wring its neck!

The early show was the high energy and acrobatic Dave Stephens.  Excellent.  An 8.5 or maybe even a 9 out of 10 for a well-balanced, well-produced show that moved along very well.  The singing was good, but we have had slightly better singers.

Dinner was a Country and Western theme.  With a 90 day cruise, it is inevitable that menus get recycled maybe 3 times but overall, the variety is pretty good.  We still feel that the evening vegetables are a bit lack lustre, so more often than not, my plate isn’t left clean.

We have now crossed the equator several times on a ship and the traditional crossing the line ceremony has previously been held during the middle of the day.  Just for a change, this time they held it at 9pm, which was a good idea.  As we are late sitting at dinner, we missed the start, but still managed to witness staff captain Michele (correct spelling this time) thrown into the pool and the dancers having a ball(!) covering the polliwogs with all sorts of coloured goo. The entertainment staff were in fine form so we see Bernie making a pass at King Neptune (Alex), accompanied by Marcus, Mark and Nando. The deck party was a bit loud so we retreated to the quiet atrium deck 5 area for our late night coffee, along with M & M.

Bed 11:30pm but the clocks on another hour tonight.

Wednesday October 2^nd

We were both awake at 4am…  It is not getting any easier!  It must be the clocks as we finally surfaced at 10am!  We headed straight to the Wheelhouse bar on deck 7, for Australian Immigration.  No queue and two extremely pleasant female Immigration officers.  Ironically, I can’t remember them swiping our passports to see if we had a current electronic visa.

We skipped breakfast altogether, saving ourselves for the tropical fruit buffet at 11:30am, so we did what we usually do and headed for a coffee. We were about third in the queue fir the fruit and settled for papaya, mango and lychee (or something very similar!) and banana.  This time, there were no fruits we were unfamiliar with.  I couldn’t resist checking out the lunch buffet on deck 14 and emerged with three pieces of deep fried crumbed chicken between us!

We didn’t win the afternoon quiz and I had a break from blog writing, which is acceptable on a run of sea days, as most of this is just drivel anyway!

Last but one formal night so we dressed up early and headed for the 6:30pm Vista lounge show.  Sheena Crouch’s Dusty Springfield tribute.  A very professional show.  I was never a huge Dusty fan once she broke up with the Springfields but Sheena also sang Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black and Petula Clark songs and sang them very well. A 9/10 performance though and the audience loved it.

No lobster on formal night, but we didn’t care, as once again, head waiter Robbie had organised a curry for table 7!  An excellent Indian chicken curry and also a dish of spicy prawns each.  There was plenty of food and we made the most of it.  It was so good that we asked Robbie to fetch the chef so that we could thank him.   Allus, the chef, was a bit embarrassed as by this time he was quite grubby but Robbie lent him his Darwin apron!  Robbie took it back again straight afterwards as he was doing the crepes Suzettes – again.  A double portion this time and no ice cream…  We don’t think Allus was used to fronting up to passengers but we all decided to submit the ship’s own thank you cards for their consummate host programme - C R U I S E.  (This does NOT stand for ‘Cannot Really Understand Italians Speaking English’, as explained by one senior staff member!)

On then to another show and this was one of my favourites.  Australian Impressionist and comedian Danny McMaster, who covered dozens of characters, including the Muppets (loved the Swedish chef!), Warner Brothers cartoon characters, plus the usual film stars, politicians and singers.  I’m giving him a 9.5 out of 10 as the ’12 Drinks of Christmas’ went on just a bit too long.

Afterwards, we chatted to some of the entertainment staff for so long that we were too late for coffee, so we opted for a small glass of port instead.    

Day 81 - Port Kelang, Malaysia

Memories of our last visit to Port Kelang were of my least favourite Princess guide on the city tour of Kuala Lumpur, who rabbited non-stop all day long and ended each sentence (there were many…) with “Right? All right?”  His mannerisms were such that I was just about ready to throttle him by the time the tour ended.  We had already decided that the alternative this time, of the Princess coach dropping us off in town, then collecting us 4 hours later wasn’t for us either, so we settled for the shuttle to town ($16 return).

As the Klang shopping centre wouldn’t be open until 10am anyway (why does NZ open at 9am, when the roads are still clogged with commuter and school traffic?) there was no rush to get up and out.  Perhaps as well, as once again, not a good night’s sleep, waking at about 2:30am.  We went up to the Horizontal Court at about 9am and I enjoyed my  sausage, beans, hash browns and an English muffin, washed down by two glasses of orange juice.  You can only go so long ignoring the good food on offer.

At 9:45am, there was a crew drill.  Every crew member (including people such as port lecturer, entertainment staff etc.) has to take part in a crew drill at least once per month.   The company takes this very seriously and their systems are very thorough. Unless you have put the privacy notice on your cabin door, every cabin has to be checked and staff are stationed on each landing on all stairwells, dressed appropriately with their fluoro caps and with lifejackets.  As we went through the atrium, staff were obviously taking part in an evacuation type drill and not doing the conga (see pic).

We walked along the covered way, through the terminal building and straight onto the coach.  In the two years since we were here last, roading around the port area has been completed and there was ample evidence of progress on local housing, with many smart modern blocks, recently completed, but still with apartments for sale.

We were dropped outside a super modern shopping centre and were glad to get inside away from the heat.  As far as modern shopping centres  go, this was as good as they get.  Nice atmosphere.  Immaculately clean and a decent number of shops and food outlets.  As it wasn’t much after opening time, 95% of the shoppers were wearing cruise lanyards, carrying Princess shopping bags or Princess backpacks.

By the time we were thinking of taking a drink, we conveniently bumped into Col and Jude and we settled on Starbucks.  They didn’t take anything other than local currency or Visa, so Visa it was.  The card came out again not long after as Paula found a nice pair of sandals for the equivalent of about $22.  Overall, another cheap day! 

We did spend a bit of time in Harvey Norman’s photographic dept., where the assistant patiently ran us through the current Canon compact camera range. He also sorted out immediately why I thought my camera was slow.  It was my fault for setting the review image time from 2 seconds to 9 seconds… Duh!

We spent a few minutes at the pet shop, watching the baby hamsters.  Fascinating, even thiugh my pic isn’t too sharp, taken through glass and a Perspex enclosure, we were intrigued to notice that when not trying to sleep in the wheel, hamsters only ran in one direction on the wheel.  We are not sure whether or not hamster wheels are one direction only or hamsters have an instinct for heading in one direction.

The shopping centre was certainly getting busier at lunch time and although my pic is of a Thai menu, the locals seemed to be flocking to a Japanese restaurant for lunch.

As many cruise people by now are rubbled out, cathedralled out, museumed out, walled cityed out, even HO-HO’d out, visiting a modern shopping mall and a return to westernised normality, isn’t as silly as it sounds, as we near the end of this busy 90 day adventure.  Most, especially those who boarded in Sydney, now have so many memories and photographs, that remembering all the ports is a bit of a test.

We were back on board about 2:15 and I finished off the last but one can of cider – which has lasted quite well.  Once again, I wasn’t able to upload the blog or read emails.  (Internet access can be very erratic at times.)

Our table at sailaway, opted to skip the dining room and invade the pizzeria at 7pm.  We were joined by Deb & Bob, making 12, then later by the two Sharons, David and Peter.  The manager is getting used to us…  We ate very well indeed – too well in my case, but we still managed a late coffee with M & M and hit the sack about 11pm.

We have now cleared our last overseas port (we’ll count Australia as local) and have 4 days at sea before Darwin (again).  We have been to distant Darwin more times than Melbourne in recent years.  Theoretically, almost home now, yet we still have 11 days to go.  Amazing.

We have just booked a Princess Sydney City tour ($35) on the way to the airport, as our Air NZ flight is 3:30pm.  Those with earlier flights have the option of a $29 direct transfer.  It means we don’t kick our heels for the day.  M & M are on a QANTAS flight leaving about midday and we thought that the earlier NZ flight (11:30am) landed in NZ rush hour and might have been a bit tight if there were any delays leaving the ship (which can happen).

day 80 - Still at sea but a - memorable one for Megan.

At 3.30am, neither of us had been to sleep!  Not too much sleep afterwards either – until it was about time to get up.  As is often the case lately, it was quiz time before breakfast, but no win.

We were up on the open deck again for the 12:30 Tug o’ War between the various ship departments.  This appears to be an annual challenge that we haven’t witnessed before.  Several teams didn’t have gloves – which was a bit of a surprise - so by the time the successful ones had complete two or three rounds, several people seemed to have suffered rope burns. 

It was a real spectacle with some teams having great support from their departments.  Tiny orchestra manager Sarah, didn’t add too much weight to the entertainment staff team, as they were knocked out in round one.  There was a huge crowd of passengers cheering them all on.  It was hot in the sun though and we were happy to return to the cabin to cool off.  Oh, the deck team won – well, it was their rope…

We congregated outside the Venetian dining room for the Dawn Nomad’s second ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ about 3:20 and as usual, a brilliant turnout, supported by three of the entertainment staff, who had a first-hand taste of the Nomads.

Someone got an award for being the Maddest Hatter – a trophy I’ll cherish of course!

Thanks once again to Ros who has really gelled the Cruise Critic group and we have certainly added to our circle of friends – again.

Well, the big event of the day wasn’t the Captain’s cocktail party up on deck, but at table 7 in the Florentine dining room, where we celebrated Megan’s birthday, with the guys al wearing the Turkish Fez ‘just like that’, and our ladies with Arab head-dresses.  Our forward looking ladies had even purchased suitable headwear for Megan and Malcolm and had also arranged a birthday cake.  Sadly, the ship had run out of fresh strawberries (it was probably Megan who ate most of them anyway…) so it was a strawberry coloured layered sponge cake.

Somewhat inevitably, photo opportunities were created and head waiter Robbie kindly provided the box of Turkish Delight!  Megan was in fine form and we think she thoroughly enjoyed the evening, rounded off with an atrium drink.

NZ’s clocks are now 1 hour forward and we have Port Kelang (gateway to Kuala Lumpur) tomorrow.  For the many Australians on board, this is the last stop before home, whilst for the Kiwis, last but one of course.  We are just heading for the Klang shopping centre as we did the KL city tour last year.

Days 78 & 79 - back at sea yet again

I forgot on an earlier post, but good friends cruising friends from South Australia are going through some very tough health hiccups at the moment - and I don’t have their email address with me.  You know who you are and I know you read this blog, so all I can say is that we hope everything comes good and we are thinking of you.

With two more sea days, you could almost fill in the blanks yourselves by now.

The major news announced at afternoon quiz was that Garry’s daughter has produced another grandson for him.  We had already scanned the evening dining room menu and opted for the buffet, so we missed the blue balloons on the table!  Congratulations anyway.

I went to the tour desk and they printed out my feedback on the Columbo tour so apart from an acknowledgement of receipt, we’ll see what happens.  Glenda on the tour desk was very busy inputting from the pile of feedback sheets and I suspect most of them contained a negative comment, despite enjoying Columbo itself.

After a very nice beef stroganoff (more like a beef goulash) and a nice piece of fish plus fresh vegetables, we decided to see what was on in the Vista lounge and managed to catch the ‘Liar’ show.  For those not up with it, a weird word is displayed on screen and rather like the board game, ‘Balderdash’, the contestants give their explanation and the audience has to guess who is telling the truth, by casting their written vote.

Food and beverage Director (Gareth) and the staff Captain (Mikele – no idea how to spell it!) were real stars ably supported by Alex from the entertainment staff, Steph as dance captain and Dawn, Circle Host.   We had more belly laughs at this than one or two so called comedians!

Clocks on 1 hour again tonight, which appears to be taking its toll on several people.  Not jet lag, but time change hiccups.

Saturday September 28^th – the last day of winter nights for kiwis.

Another straightforward day and no change from the normal routine other than we (mistakenly!) thought that the others weren’t going to the dining room - so we went to the buffet again!  We enjoyed the Thai vegetable curry and also the Thai chicken curry, mixing freshly cooked prawns accompanied with another piece of fish.  We are trying our very best to eat more fish, but it often isn’t labelled, so we have no idea what it is…

On to the theatre to see Rochdale lass Lisa Lawton.  A very nice singing voice and a warm, homely sort of show.  Although not a huge fan of singers generally, this was a good show and Lisa deserved an 8/10.

A late coffee to round off the day of course.

Another hour on tonight, so we are rapidly approaching Australian time again, with I think, just another hour to go, probably in two half hour chunks – just as NZ moves forward an hour anyway.

   

Day 77 - Columbo - Lots of potential, but...

Paula last came to Sri Lanka 51 years ago, but not to Columbo.  Not a brilliant night and apparently my snoring in the early hours was enough to render the alarm clock superfluous, so we were up and about as the ship docked about 6:30 in the very industrial port.  Sadly, we just caught the news of the NZ Americas Cup defeat just as we left the cabin.  Shame.  In some respects, we’re probably glad we don’t have to suffer the aftermath in the NZ media, but well done to Oracle for pulling off a win when all seemed lost, with 8 wins on the trot.

Somewhat subdued, we dragged ourselves up to the buffet and noticed that in the deck 14 seating area, just outside the buffet, there were brand new tables and chairs, part of the ongoing tidy up.  Too little to call any work a refit or modernisation, but there is always something going on.

With nothing more than a chunk of melon and a chunk of pineapple (part of a self-imposed minor regime of cutting back…) we headed back to the cabin for a brief call, before assembling in the Vista lounge at 8am.  Our plans were to do the Princess City Drive Tour (CMB-290) from 8:30am to 11:15am, giving us enough time then to catch the shuttle bus back to town ($16) as we had an all aboard time of 7:30pm.  That was the plan anyway.

A decent start with bags of legroom in the air-conditioned coach and although the tour guide wasn’t a particularly fluent speaker, not too bad.  All went well for the first stop, the Asokaramaya Buddhist temple, decorated with amazing murals of early 20^th art and colourful statues.

We piled back onto the coach and headed for what was described as a stop for pictures at the Colombo National Museum.  It was at this point that things started to go a little awry.  The tour guide hopped off the coach (containing one or two passengers with walking disabilities) and after less than a third were off the coach, simply strode off into the distance, (the museum entrance was around a corner, past the banyan tree) without any notification as to how long we were stopping or where the washrooms were located.  By the time the last passengers were off the coach, he had disappeared out of sight.  We caught up and asked him how long we were stopping and were told 30 minutes.

To take photographs INSIDE the museum, you purchase a licence – which we didn’t bother with, as after just one small hall, I turned round headed off back the way we came, to use the washrooms located in a different (modern) building that also contained a coffee shop, and joined a long queue, as there were about six Princess coaches there.   Just two gents flush toilets and two ladies toilets…  Clean and modern maybe, but not suited to several coachloads arriving at the same time.

By the time the hands were washed it was about five minutes before coach boarding time.  We were not really impressed with the guide at this point.

The drive through Columbo itself was interesting and notable for the fact that the streets were clean, no graffiti and widespread efforts being made to update the pavements/sidewalks.  Most interesting buildings seem to have been credited to the British involvement.  There were 100’s of Tuk-Tuks and the driving was marginally less scary than in India.  At this point, the tour went off the rails and what followed elicited a number of written complaints to Princess (not just from our coach) as we stopped at a high class jewellery store – for 30 minutes.  (Museum 30, jewellery stop 30?)  Most passengers went in just for a look and promptly sat down in a corner, grizzling about the sky high prices then re-boarded the coach early.  Although the tour was off the rails, the passengers united (as they often do) and there was a lot of humour and banter as each passenger boarded – empty handed. When we challenged the guide as to why we had stopped, he tried to tell us it was on his schedule.

Despite the groans of the passengers, the tour guide then insisted we’d be stopping at another jewellery store – but cheaper this time and including handicrafts (see pic).  It could hardly have been more expensive.  Half the passengers stayed on the coach in silent protest (on another coach, apparently, they all stayed on!) but three returned with small purchases, not of jewellery, but of tea.  The passengers were distinctly annoyed at this point, (aimed at tour guide) yet there were lots of laughs as from then on we didn’t really listen too closely to what he was talking about anyway and there was a lot of good natured ribbing – certainly around our section of the bus.

It then descended into pure farce as we were not only over an hour late, but we then stopped for ‘refreshments’ at a beach side hotel on the edge of town, but the queue of Princess passengers was already right out the door of the foyer, whilst the fortunate ones from a couple of earlier coaches were sitting out on the terrace, whiling away their time.

We queued up for so long (this was a one hour stop!) that the more infirm needed chairs and the waiter walked through with our ‘refreshments’ on plates whilst we were still standing.  One club sandwich each and a slab of dry sponge cake.  Wow!  Quite why we even stopped here, given that our original ship return time was 11:15 and our return to the coach time after this stop was 1:15, was soon explained and formed the basis of a written complaint to the Princess tour manager.

When we eventually did sit down, we skipped the free cup of tea and bought a small glass of overpriced juice for $2 instead and shared it.  As Paula had chatted amicably to the guide at the Buddhist temple, he approached us and handed her (and only her…) a feedback sheet, with his copy of the “Lotus Tours” printed schedule, complete with times at each venue (silly man), thinking no doubt that Paula’s comments would be positive…

I went through the sheet with Paula without marking anything and noted at the foot of it, a rubber stamp ‘XXX Jewellers  Ltd.’  It didn’t take long to put two and two together and I challenged him as to why we were taken to two jewellery shops, when it wasn’t on our schedule.  He insisted it was until, I pointed out to him that there was no mention of the jewellery shops on his own printed-out schedule, so why did we stop twice, wasting an hour?  He then somewhat sheepishly admitted that he worked for the jewellery company…

We were eventually dropped back at the ship at 2pm, not the 11:15am we had expected.  When we looked at the Princess tours list, it appears that we had had tour CMB-200 anyway, due back at 1pm.  So we had a longer tour than we expected but we opted to not return to town even though there was time .

Most returning passengers had similar experiences, plus those with experiences of tour guides who said nothing at all, coach seats that were loose, no PA system and so on. Those on longer trips (Elephants of Pinnawela and a tea plantation – where they ran out of tea and used tea bags!!!) recounted tales of scruffy roads out of town, scary driving and so on, but overall, most thought it a great place, with lots of potential but the tour company operation needs a massive shakeup.  Several made the comment that within the city, in terms of cleanliness at least, Columbo is what Mumbai could and should have been like.

Princess staff were flat out processing the feedback/complaints from the time we returned…

A welcome coffee on board and a natter and then we fronted up for the afternoon quiz, joining Norm and Marion, John and Anne Dormer.  It turned out to be a memory test as all but two questions we’d had before and the only question we got wrong, was the one about the number of costumes Liz Taylor wore during the filming of Cleopatra.  Although John was correct, the rest of us were not…  (Just in case you are interested, it was 65.)  So, 19/20 and no win.

As it was a later sail-away, it was another buffet meal for us - and we loved it!  It included lobster bisque soup and spinach stuffed cannelloni (delicious).

A quiet evening resting (as is normal after a port day) missing the sail-away yet again as we were dozing, then I wrote up my tour feedback (which is just one reason why this blog is late) before returning to the atrium for a 9pm drink – and a revision lesson in Portuguese from waiter Franchesco.  The deck 5 bar/coffee staff are excellent and they are quick to learn how we like our drinks.

Bed not too late but the clocks move forward 30 minutes tonight as we slowly return to Australasian time.

Ahead of us, 12 sea days and just two more port days, so back to the boring drivel again tomorrow.    

 

Days 75 & 76 - back at sea - and more curry!

After a late night (for us) and many people having had a long day yesterday, it was very noticeable that people were glad of a relaxing couple of sea days.  We slept well but were up relatively early.  Many either had breakfast in the cabin (room service would have been flat out) and surfaced late and many just surfaced late, so the Horizon Court was busy with breakfasts right up until the 11:30am changeover for lunch.

After a light breakfast we followed our usual routine of losing at trivia before the welcome Atrium coffee.  A tip here for those who like a LARGE coffee.  Skip the glass mugs or cappuccino cups and go for a large takeaway instead.  You get twice as much. You can always decant it into a glass mug if you wish, as the staff will happily provide one.

As is often the case, with a sea day, the internet was extremely slow and I couldn’t upload the blog or read the email messages on line.

A late lunch at 2:30 for a very tasty veal stew, rice and a nice piece of fish.  On board, all stewed meats appear to be very lean, well cooked and very tender with a good variety offered over the course of several days.

After our afternoon quiz, we rushed to Jammers (night club) for another Dawn Nomads get together.  For this one, Ros had devised a Travel Trivia Quiz, based on the various ports we had visited.   A good quiz but the standard joke on board at trivia when people get a bit stroppy is “Hey guys, you are not playing for a sheep station!”  So, in typical Ros fashion, the winning team each received the deeds to a sheep station…

Yet another formal night.  That meant lobster and monkfish on the menu, so that was my starter, as the quantity isn’t exactly large for a main.  In addition to the menu desserts, the head waiters prepared crepes Suzettes, which were small, but tasty.

Off then for yet another showing of “The British Invasion”. I think we have now seen it about five times.  The rest of our table were still outside the Wheelhouse Bar, chatting, so we joined them, before retiring.  Another sea day ahead so no alarm clock to be set.

Wednesday September 26^th

Probably the best sleep in ages! (Please don’t tell me it was because I skipped the late night coffee…)  Although I was awake 6:45am, I managed to go back to sleep again – but then we missed the early quiz...

Up to HC of course and ended up chatting with Terry and Sandra, who we know from a previous cruise and are originally from Nottinghamshire.  We carried on our chat down in the atrium with a coffee.

That took care of the morning before retiring to the cabin. Once again, no luck uploading the blog, but I did managed to deal with one or two emails.

We didn’t win the quiz but then we dressed up for dinner.  The guys wore their Arab gear and the ladies, Indian.  We hadn’t realised it was going to be an Indian food night and had already booked a curry, so we ended up with another prawn curry for the table plus one beef jalfraizie per couple.  Nice.

Back to an atrium coffee with M & M after a photo session (of course) where Mal made the most of being the big chief – though wearing long trousers and formal shoes could be classed as a wardrobe malfunction.

Two of our current atrium waiters are Allesandro (Alex - right) and Brazilian, Franchesco, and this was a good opportunity to show that there are other tall people around.

With the deciding race of the America’s Cup tonight, we are somewhat nervous, as the American boat seems to have gained a fair bit of speed recently and no doubt the English tactician they now have on board hasn’t done them any harm either.

With a day in port tomorrow (Columbo) and a Princess tour booked, the alarm clock has to be set.