MY FINAL THOUGHTS

April 28, 2011   Boston, MA

Am I actually home?  I sure am and guess what.  Even though I’ve been away 111 days, nothing’s changed.  Jack and Lisa on the channel 4 news are still talking about the same things;  Emily on Greater Boston looks a little older but still asks the same questions.  Whole Foods is still there and the popcorn I made Tuesday night was just as good as ever.  I was concerned that being away so long, I would miss something.  All I missed was a very snowy January/February and the Bruins/Celtics seasons.  Would I do it again?  You bet your ’57 Edsel!

While Gina is all about where we’re going and what we’re seeing, I’m more about ship life.  I read 33 books, 17 fiction and 16 non-fiction.  I simply would not have the time to do that if I were home (the library on the ship was excellent).  The ship’s entertainment, while sometimes lame (Mitzi Gaynor and a washed up Wayne Newton) was also very enjoyable at times, particularly Vegas favorites Ronn Lucas and The Scintas.  But I think what I enjoy the most, now this is really weird, is the new friends among both the passengers and the crew, particularly the crew.  Holland America’s Filipino and Indonesian crew members are so far superior to other cruise lines staff that it isn’t even close.  I would be untruthful to say no tears were shed as the cruise drew to a close.   

The cruise director, Bruce, does an exceptional job.  His daily at sea “Good Morning Amsterdam” (think Oprah) show was standing room only by the end.  Here’s how he handled the dreaded disembarkation talk.  NOBODY goes to these things but for this cruise there was not a seat available.  Thirty minutes before the talk in the main lounge, free mimosas were served while the ship’s photography staff showed a collage of the photos they had taken since day one.  Then when Bruce came to give his talk, the place was full. And by the time the talk was over, literally EVERY member of the crew, from Stateroom attendants to laundry room workers was on the stage with him.  They were all applauding US!!!

I’ll try to paraphrase Bruce’s final words from the Day 110 newsletter.

On January 5, 2011, nearly 2,000 excited guests and dedicated crew embarked on a journey which was to be like no other.  True to its title, “Gems of the World”, the 2011 Grand World Voyage laid out in a spectacular array the gold of Incan Peru;  the turquoise-blue of the South Pacific islands;  the emerald hillsides of New Zealand; the opalesque colors of the Great Barrier reef;  the pearls of the Orient;  the rubies of the rajahs in India; the ancient treasures of the Valley of the Kings;  and the sapphire blue waters of the Mediterranean.  The M/S Amsterdam, our elegant home-away-from-home, is designed to navigate the seven seas in a truly grand style featuring gracious and attentive service, exquisite art and antiques, fragrant flowers, beautiful music, sparkling entertainment and delicious food.  Truth be told, the most precious gems of this 110 day cruise are the people.  Old friendships rekindled; new ones made.  How can we ever forget the faces of the people all over the world in which we were privileged to travel?  Happy, smiling people who welcome us to their country; the wild smiles of the world’s children, eager to be seen with you; and the grateful smiles of those men, women and children who were the beneficiaries of our generosity through donations to the Red Cross (New Zealand and Japan).  When we are home, long after the bags are unpacked and the photos and videos sorted; long after souvenirs and gifts have been delivered, one truly lasting memory will remain.  YOU, our dear guests and cherished friends, are the real GEMS of this Grand World voyage. 

There was more but you can’t make this stuff up - and I believe he was sincere.

We visited 6 continents, 27 countries, 41 ports, 2 canals, had 10 overnights in the same port and traveled 32, 230 nautical miles.  We received 19 gifts, every formal night, ranging from a World Cruise logo wheeled duffle bag (which we both needed) to jigsaw puzzles.  AND, I came back 9 pounds lighter than when I left, not realizing my goal of 10 pounds.  

We’re booked for 2013.  I hope it comes to fruition.

Joe Wagg

Some Final thoughts

April 28,2011

Some final thoughts

Unfortunately in my post  cruise haze, I reversed the last two postings. Madeira  was the last port. Sorry

The questions I ask myself now that I have been home two days is,  did I enjoy it and would I do it again. The answer to the first question is the jury is still out. I am very glad I took advantage of this opportunity however. I loved cruising in the same direction with some of it north or south. it was so interesting to me to see the cultures of these countries merge as a result of the trade routes so long ago.  As you can imagine this is not like any other cruise. You are busy, even with all the sea days. There is a lot going on. The hardest parts were the rudeness of some of the other passengers and the length. Number 2 question answer is probably. Now that I know the ropes it would be easier. In fact Joe booked us on the 2013 sailing. This one goes to the the West coast of Australia and the East coast of Africa, neither of which we have seen.

Also, I failed in my goal not to gain any weight. As of this morning I am 6 pounds heavier. Time to get to work

Gina Wagg

Cadiz, Spain

Cadiz, Spain

April 17,2011

Unfortunately for us, this is Palm Sunday, a very big holiday in Spain. I wanted to go to Seville for the day and knew I could get there by train. We walked about a mile, met other passengers along the way, to what looked like the ticket office for the train station next store. I never saw a train put Joe insisted it was a train station. He bought round trip tickets for us and one other couple. Then someone pointed out to us that this was the bus station and Joe had bought bus tickets.

Going  to Seville by bus was probably the best way. It was clean, efficient and took only 90 mins. So here we are in this big city with no map, a language barrier and no plans with the exception of having lunch somewhere. I like to have a plan and this situation caused to me to have a meltdown, vowing never to be in this situation again. I spied a hotel and we got a map there and headed to the river as our experience with travel has been that usually that is where things are. We started walking as the crowd of families and others started to build. The people were dressed like they were all going to a wedding, even the children. Beautiful expensive shoes and clothes on everyone. Most of the men were wearing ties. As we walked further into the narrow streets with restored buildings and churches, some decorated with ceramic tiles, we saw hundreds of young people forming a possession, dressed in costumes,mainly white with tall cone shaped masks, just like the KKK. We have no idea what these represent. We did see a sign that said this is not the KKK. This town on this day was party central. Hundreds of thousands of them. At one point we were trapped in a very narrow area and lost.

For lunch we had some form of a Paella made with broken spaghetti instead of rice and tapas of ham and cheese with wine and beer, in a fast food kind of place if you can believe it,  called Boston Burger. We were lucky to find a seat anywhere.

When you travel by ship you have a one shot deal to see the area. This was a once a year event and was fascinating, however I think I would have liked a regular day there.

Gina Wagg

Funchal, Maderia Island Portugal

April 19,2011

Funchal,Madeira ,Portugal

This is our last port. Unfortunately, we had only until 3PM there. This seems to always be the case for this lovely place as it takes a long time to get to the mainland from here in either direction. We stopped here 3 years ago on our way to Africa. The island now is more tourist friendly with a new passenger terminal that is basically just a building so far and also there are hop on/hop off busses.

There are flowers everywhere in this temperate climate, the home of Madeira wine. After some heated discussion, Joe and I went on one of the busses. This island is of volcanic origin, so you can imagine the amazing views. I was hoping to get to the other side, but as I found out this time the Island is huge and it would take all day. The bus did take us to a high overlook and a cute fishing village called Camera de Lobos. We got off there for a short look around. We ended up back in the down town area had a not so good hurried lunch before it was time to catch the shuttle back to the ship.

I find it so frustrating to have just a little time in some of these wonderful places. You have to make a decision about what you want to do and without internet access a good part of the time, you rely on information from the ship. Holland gives out very poor maps, so you are looking shoreside for good ones which often times are not available. 

Now, we head southwest  to Ft Lauderdale for the next 6 days  of which 5 of them will be 25 hr days since we crossed the international dateline more than 2 months ago.

Gina Wagg

Cartagena, Spain

CARTAGENA, SPAIN, 16 April 11

Well, another lovely day in another lovely port.  Cartagena is on the south coast of Spain, Mediterranean side.  Old is the word here, dating back to the Carthaginians conquest.  But the real joy for me here was the fact that Holland America’s newest build, Nieuw Amsterdam would be sharing the dock with us.  All Amsterdam passengers were allowed to tour the Nieuw Amsterdam in the morning.  An incredibly beautiful ship with all the new ship bells and whistles.  While many of our fellow guests considered her “too big”, it’s obvious that nobody in the mass market cruise lines will be building any 65,000 ton ships like the Amsterdam anytime in the future.  Holland’s fleet is aging, the Prinsendam being the oldest but in a special category.  The Statendam class ships debuted in 1993, making them close to twenty years old.  Holland’s core market is the senior citizen and they don’t like the ships any larger than what they are now accustomed to.  I’m not sure how this is going to play out over the next ten years but Holland has some serious thinking to do regarding their core customers.

Great pleasure was mine when while onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam I ran into an old friend, Mike Feeney.  He was the Royal Caribbean sales rep back in 1989 when I was with Admiral Cruise Center.  After several cruise line changes he became my district sales manager for Holland until he made an extreme career decision and became an onboard future booking consultant.  This means he and his wife live on Holland ships 8 months a year.  They’ve leased their home in New Hampshire and for all intents and purposes are world vagabonds.  He looks hale and fit and seems to be enjoying his new life style.  

Cartagena itself is a tourist’s dream.  Traffic-free streets, plenty of shopping, sidewalk cafes and street performers.  The streets are paved in marble, the buildings look like a set for some movie about the crusades and prices are affordable.  We went off the beaten track a little bit, as we are wont to do, and found a small grocery store where we purchased a 2 litre bottle of Cola light without caffeine for .40 Euro.  A 750 ml bottle of red table wine, not too bad either, was 1 Euro.  A great day in a very enjoyable port.

Joe Wagg

Port for Rome

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy  14 April 11

Here in this summer resort for the Romans, street life is very active in the mornings before the 2 PM siesta so common throughout the Latin countries.  A huge open air market dominates the upper portion of the main pedestrian street and it was surprising how busy it was there at 11 AM.  Fresh fish, cheeses, cold cuts, bread and really good looking produce, not to mention the adjacent flea market selling K-Mart like quality clothing, hardware, etc.  The thought occurred to buy some bread, cold cuts and cheese along with a small bottle of wine and bring them back to the ship for lunch but the overwhelming attraction of another real pizza was the deciding lunch factor.

Probably 60% of the ship went to Rome for the day.  How can you not like Rome?  The ship offered outrageously priced tours plus a transfer only for $94.00.  Some people opted to take the train for 13 Euro round trip which is what we would have done had we been so inclined.  We’d never seen Civitavecchia before so the time was spent here wandering the streets and finding a lunch spot.  One huge problem here and probably throughout Italy is that EVERYONE smokes.  We went into one cafe where the proprietor was concurrently making a cappuccino and lighting his cigarette.  Sidewalks are littered with cigarette butts and, quite frankly, at close proximation, these folks stink of old smoke in their clothes.

The town itself is pleasant enough even though the season has yet to begin.  There is a lovely promenade walk along the oceanfront that is currently under construction (although nobody was constructing on a Thursday), a pedestrian zone/shopping area with some upscale and not so upscale shops but a minimal amount of outdoor, sit-down cafes so common in other parts of Italy.  We could not find a place to have coffee on our second trip to town in the afternoon, other than sitting next to chain smokers.  Lunch consisted of a pizza at double the cost of the Herculaneum pizzas, a very fine tossed salad and local beer and wine.

Gina and I were discussing this morning our favorite parts of this odyssey.  We both came to the conclusion that eating the local foods in a local setting tops the list.  It doesn’t matter if it’s Sydney, Papua New Guinea or Safaga, Egypt.  You can only see so many ruins, cathedrals and botanical gardens before they all run together.  People and food give the best flavor even if they smoke.

They’ve just announced the 2013 World Cruise and it looks like something I’d be interested in doing.  Anyone want to come along????

Joe Wagg  

Naples,Italy

Naples, Italy    12-13 April 2011

In the words of the immortal Victor Herbert’s (?) Italian Street Song -” Ah my heart belongs in Napoli” -  As a cruise port, there are so many things to do here that even two days, as we had, only touches the surface.  Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Ischia, Pompeii, Herculaneum, museums, pizza and more pizza.  I think this is our third trip here and on the other two trips we did not really see the city proper, venturing out to the tourist areas of Amalfi Coast, Positano, Ischia and Pompeii.  This time we decided to stay closer to the city.

Day one was sunny and bright, an ideal day for visiting Herculaneum, along with Pompeii a victim of the 79 AD Mount Vesuvius eruption.  At Pompeii, people were buried in the ash and really didn’t have a chance.  At Herculaneum, the city was buried in a slow moving mud, allowing residents the opportunity to flee.  As a result, structures are in a much better state of preservation at Herculaneum.  Some of the frescoes still remain on the walls of the homes and their colors are amazing.  Excavation here was first begun in 1736 and continues to this date.  While Pompeii is certainly better known, I enjoyed Herculaneum better and would recommend it over Pompeii if you could only do one.  On the way back to the train station to return to Naples, we stopped for a very enjoyable pizza at a tiny cafe.  Since the pizza was only 3 Euros, we figured they would be individual sized and so ordered two.  Big mistake!  Two full size (12”?) pizzas arrived which we knew we could not finish.  Wrong again!  Ate them both along with two beers and a jug of wine for 15 Euros.

Day two dawned overcast with spotty rain showers.  Undaunted, we put on our rain gear and commenced the 45 minute walk to the Archaeological Museum.  Just a few sprinkles along the way to the museum which was free for some unknown reason (as was Herculaneum).  The rooms we visited were artifacts that had been removed from Pompeii and Herculaneum plus some statues from the Farnese Palace.  A poorly organized museum with very little security and no air quality.  Reminded me of St. Petersburg.  We got drenched on the walk back which meant no second pizzas.

Off to Civitavecchia for Rome tomorrow.

Joe Wagg

Kusadasi, Turkey

KUSADASI, TURKEY      09 APR 11

Two days in Kusadasi, home of arguably the best preserved ruins around, Ephesus.  This is definitely the thing to do in this port, but having been there before we opted for two lazy days around the town itself which is really an enjoyable tourist destination in itself.  Pedestrian friendly main drag with all kinds of interesting alleys, each lined with non-aggressive and playful vendors.  We’ve “run the gauntlet” in various tourist shopping areas throughout the world but this was actually fun, even though the only things we bought were honey, cheese, beer and a couple of scarves.  The shopkeepers try to engage you in conversation with excellent English, French, German, Italian or whatever language they thought you might speak judging by your appearance only.  Many are actually quite funny and the experience was positive.  Even the signage on the shops was comical.   

We had lunch both days at the same restaurant, Kings Place, a waterfront view with very few customers.  Excellent food, freshly prepared at about 1/2 the price of a lunch in Boston.  To be fair, it is not “season” yet and most places are just opening up and doing the painting and repairing necessary for the upcoming summer.  

On day 1 we walked along the waterfront for about twenty minutes to Pigeon Island, which was actually a peninsular.  A fort commands the harbor from here but it was not open to the public and looked like it hadn’t been used in a hundred years.  There was a very picturesque circumferential walk around the fort which was enjoyable in the lovely weather, low 70’s.  Day 2 found us riding the local jitney or minibus to  Ladies Beach, a rather forlorn and actually quite dirty beach of about 200 yards in length located about twenty feet below the street level which was lined with restaurants.  Again, it is early times seasonally here, so I’m sure if it were July it would have been more customer friendly.

This was my fourth time in Turkey and I always come away with positive feelings.  Lots of history, scenery and, once again, friendly people.  Should the opportunity arise to visit Turkey, do not hesitate to avail yourself.

Joe Wagg

Athens, Greece

Piraeus, Greece

April 10,2011

Piraeus is the busy port for Athens, about 7 miles away. This was the last of the four escorted tours we were responsible for and it lasted more than 7 hours. Again, we had three busses and we decided to put the vision and mobility impaired guests on our bus to assist them without burdening the other guests. The tour was called the best of Athens, and if you have been here, you know about the difficult and slippery surfaces at the Acropolis. People could not stay on the bus, so Joe took a couple of them to a cafe and I went up to the Acropolis. It has been 10 years since we have been here.The view from the top is amazing. Even in early April it is very crowded. The city looks a lot cleaner and there is a new metro. This came about for the 2004 Olympics.

The rest of our tour was a stop at the new archaeologic museum, a lunch and a little panoramic city tour. The restaurant  waiters was like watching the three stooges in action. It was so understaffed and disorganized, some tables got service twice, while others got none. I got up twice to ask for the promised beer and wine with no luck, while Joe was enjoying his beer at a different table. Finally at my insistence Joe went into the kitchen to get more service. 

After our lunch, we needed to walk uphill for about 15 mins to get back to the bus. We knew this would take forever with these folks, so with no help from the guide, we took matters into our own hands and got a taxi to take them back to the bus. So, that my day in Athens.

I find the tours stressful when there is a lot of walking for the elderly, probably more so than Joe as I can see the potential for falls from all my years of being a nurse.

Gina Wagg

ASHDOD

ASHDOD, ISRAEL      6 Apr 11

Ashdod is Israel’s #1 port and the gateway to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, not to mention Massada and the Dead Sea.  Having been to all the aforementioned in November, we opted for a ship’s tour to Jaffa and Tel Aviv.  Jaffa is an old city and Tel Aviv is a big city.  Neither offers anything of real interest unless the tour skipped all the good stuff.  Our tour guide appeared to me to be an elderly homeless person although she did have quite a sense of humor and wit.  Her walking pace on the tour was glacial.  And still, other passengers were always way behind.

O.K., time to talk about ship’s tours.  We generally try to avoid them like the plague.  They are overpriced by 100% and attract the least adventurous of the passengers, many of whom opt to stay on the bus rather than exert  themselves by walking anywhere!  They whine if there are stairs to climb, distances to walk, no restrooms available, no time to shop for junk souvenirs and postcards, can never get back to the bus by the assigned time and always talk over the guide who is giving meeting times and then want to know what time to be back.  Not that they will be on time.

Back to Ashdod.  Unfortunately, all the must see sights of Israel are a minimum two hour bus ride and that’s without traffic, of which there is plenty.  But to be able to visit Jerusalem, see how it works and watch the interaction (or lack thereof) between the people is well worth the ride.  Likewise Mossada, located on top of a mountain overlooking Jordan and the Dead Sea and on the ride, passing by the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found is pretty nice stuff.  We just did the wrong thing this time.  I would not advise attempting to arrange your own tour on the pier with the cab drivers, which is a common method of avoiding ship’s tours.  The distances are too great and traffic can be unbelievable, jeopardizing your chances of getting back before the ship sails.

An intriguing destination with a very high hassle factor.

SUEZ CANAL

SUEZ CANAL    5 APR 11

This being a two-canal trip, comparisons are in order.  The lush green of Panama as opposed to the dusty brown of Egypt; No locks in Suez, ocean to ocean; both have lakes for holding areas and both are one way at a time.  Here, the ships go through as a convoy, 10-4 rubber ducky style.  Also here people can be found anywhere along the way, usually smiling and waving.  In Panama, there are “viewing stands” at several locations. 

I don’t know what the Egyptian defense budget is but again, 20’ towers with armed guards all along.  There are military bases everywhere along the route.  The west bank of the canal is green and fertile, a result of Nile River irrigation.  The east bank is barren desert.  The majority of homes seen in this area are in a state of construction.  No home seems to be complete and there is a reason for this.  Once the home is complete it is subject to taxes.  By living in an unfinished home, these taxes are avoided.  This should be an insight to how government hasn’t worked.

Towards the northern end of the canal looms a huge, newly built bridge, connecting Africa with Asia, built by the Japanese for Egypt in a token of friendship.  This obviously prior to the economic slowdown.  Has this new bridge affected the ferry traffic at this location?  NO WAY!  As we watched for traffic on the bridge, little could be observed.  A couple of trucks and the occasional car traversing from the populous west side to the barren east side.  Right next to the bridge was a ferry serving the same purpose of getting from one side to the other.  The vehicle lineup for the ferry was at least a mile long with truck after truck bumper to bumper waiting.  I might add that this ferry could only handle one truck at a time so the wait had to be several hours for those in the back of the line.  Obviously the charge for using the bridge is so overbearing that a two hour wait is still economically worthwhile.  Either that or the vehicles are seriously overloaded and unable to meet weight restrictions.

Ashdod tomorrow!

AQABA,JORDAN

Aqaba, Jordan

   If you look out the windows on the ship, all you see is blue water and pretty lights in the distance, but if you look on at the GPS map on your television, you see that the lights are in Eliat, Israel, the tall buildings to the south are in Saudi Arabia and you are in Aqaba Jordan. Aqaba is a duty free port in the southern tip of Jordan. From here tours leave for Petra or Wadi Rum. The city itself is like any other resort town. It was really nice to see paved streets and sidewalks, and families together. You would never know you were in the Middle East until you tried to read a sign, as they were all in Arabic. You also  encounter an occasional young man riding his camel on the sidewalk. I assumed they were Bedouins trying to make money from the tourists. The men never said anything. They waited for you to ask for a ride or a take a picture.

We have been here before in the November and took the fantastic trip to Petra. I was really tempted to go back, but Joe wanted to see Wadi Rum. It is about an hour to get to the visitor center from the ship. We went on one of the tours, but you could probably get there by taxi. The Arabian desert is right outside of the city. After a stop at the very nice visitor’s center, we climbed into the back of beat up pick up trucks 6 persons to a vehicle. The two hour ride through the Wadis <dried up river beds of long ago> with photo stops is very dusty and bumpy but a lot of fun. We saw a few bedouin camps, lots of camels and beautiful rock formations, somewhat like our Southwest only bigger. Before heading back to the ship, we had a final stop at a camp that actually was a motel. I use that word loosely. You can stay in these numbered tent like structures all in a row covered in wool blankets. There were mattresses on the floor and blankets. I bet it gets really cold out there at night. We were offered sweetened tea, sesame cookies and dates. The bathrooms were rundown modern with running water.

After our tour we took the shuttle bus in to town for lunch as I love this type of food. Joe wanted to eat at McDdonalds and use their free WIFI, but I balked. We eventually found an empty restaurant and had a great lunch, but did go back to the yellow arches so we could do some posts.

As of this writing we have now sailed about 25,500 nautical miles. My total estimate for this trip is 32,000 nautical miles. We have 22 more days to go.

Gina Wagg

EGYPT!!!

Safaga, Egypt       02 APR 11

A very emotional moment today.  A few days ago the captain came over the intercom to announce yet another itinerary change.  It seems that our rapid progress through the pirate area had put us way ahead of schedule.  Combined with the U. S. state department’s easing of the travel rules to Egypt, he announced, we would be calling at Safaga, Egypt for tours to Karnak/Luxor and Valley of the Kings.  An amazing piece of work to put that together in two days time, arranging tours, pier space, immigration formalities, etc. etc.  So here we are, the first ship to call here since the January uprising.

I’m sitting in the back seat of a bus heading to the Valley of the Kings.  Our tour guide, May, is speaking of her experience during the uprising.  She cannot complete her story due to her emotions.  A brief respite of quiet interrupts her dialogue several times.  This is her first day of work in the tourism industry since January.  She resides in Cairo and is VERY proud to be an Egyptian!  She had no axe to grind with Mubarak, but now, after the fact, she is angry with him.  She traveled to Tahrir Square during the last days of the unrest.  She spoke of the long lines to get through security and, here’s what got me, the overwhelming “smell of freedom”.  What commenced as a small gathering of unhappy students swelled into a celebration of millions.  History was made and this lovely lady was there.  She admits it will be a long road to the kind of government they are hoping for but the first steps have been taken.  I wished her health, wealth and a stable, secular government.

The tour itself was an 11 hour tour with 45 minutes in the Valley of the Kings and 45 minutes in Karnak, and an hour and a half cruising the Nile and having lunch, kind of ridiculous if you hadn’t been there before.  The problem is that the westbound road from Safaga to Qena, gateway to Luxor, is littered with “checkpoints” complete with armed guards every 5 kilometers.  Busses must slow down to almost a stop to cross the speed bumps, losing valuable momentum each time they stop.  There are towers, maybe twenty feet high, containing guards armed with machine guns.  But this is not new!  It was this way in November when we were last here.  I’m not sure what the hell they’re protecting us from, but it is really absurd.  One thing we did notice was that the trash that seemed to be everywhere was no longer visible.

Happy with our surprise visit to Egypt, we can only hope the people end up with what they so richly deserve.   

RED SEA

MUSINGS FROM THE RED SEA

31 MAR 11

Over the next few days, I will have lots of time to reflect on the past three months and the final month ahead.  There is no question that this has been an “experience” and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The positives outweigh the negatives by a huge amount.  I started a list of things I miss from home in early January.  Here’s the list in the order that I wrote them:

POPCORN

DRIVING

HD TV

FAST INTERNET

APOLLO CLUB

CHIPOTLE

CELERY

CELLPHONE

For some unknown reason, there has been no celery on the ship.  First thing I do when I get home is to run over to Whole Foods and buy a big stalk of celery, that is, after I make a batch of popcorn!

Of course I miss family. I really would have liked to have gone with Jeff’s Skeptours group cruise in March.  I would love to have gone to the concerts my two grandchildren are participating in and go to lunch at Luigi’s with my sister.  But I guess it ends there.  I’m really at home on a ship.

We have been averaging 23 nautical miles per hour since we left Salalah.  While this is not fuel efficient, the captain tells us the local pirates could not keep up with that speed.  There is 24 hour watch by security on the decks.  A mysterious wooden box has appeared on each side of the Promenade deck.  Its contents remain unknown but you can be sure there is some sort of security device inside.  I feel safe.

I’ve dropped out of HAL Chorale.  The amount of effort was not commensurate with the rewards.  My singing is now limited to the shower (pity the next door neighbors).  Part of the problem was the other male singers.  Their pomposity was only exceeded by their lack of pitch.  Particularly the fellow with the electronic pitch pipe who could find the note on his pitch pipe but never with his voice.  Then there was the poor (in my opinion) first performance.  Too many screamers and not enough singers.

Formal nights are always themed with the dining rooms decorated accordingly.  Many passengers then dress in the theme of the evening and seem to really enjoy doing it.  For example, last night was “Celebration Night”, celebrating all birthdays, anniversaries and the like that everyone will have during the course of the entire cruise.  Every place setting in the dining room had large party hats and helium filled balloons.  The amazing part is that a majority of the diners actually wore the silly things.  Folks were dressed in everything from tuxedoes to bed sheets wrapped around a large body with a weaved Omani cap. .  I could not help but think that this is just expensive adult day care. 

I’ve lost six of my ten pounds but the last four are a struggle. The food has been excellent and I can’t stay away from the ice cream bar at lunch.  We have six sea days between our last port and Fort Lauderdale.  I plan to devote myself to reaching my goal in that time frame.

Joe Wagg

SALALAH, OMAN

SALALAH, OMAN  29 MAR 11

When last here in November,  we had a lovely tour as part of the Vacation Vignettes program, visiting all the highlights.  There aren’t that many.  This time we thought we’d just visit the downtown area for a taste of local life and food.  The best laid plans, etc. etc.

The majority of the ports on this cruise have not allowed pedestrians in the port area.  If the cruise line does not provide a shuttle bus to a central downtown location, the port authority will provide a shuttle to the gates outside the port from whence you may take a cab to town.  That was the situation here so we rode the mile or so to the gates.  Upon arrival we were greeted by a horde of white robed, white head dressed, black bearded, beady eyed taxi drivers, each with his own white taxi and storming the shuttle bus for first dibs on the well-heeled tourists.  Mass chaos and understandable since it appeared that there were more cabs there than passengers on the whole ship!  The result of this was that every passenger on the shuttle (15) had his choice of three or four of these creatures, all of whom were fighting amongst each other for the opportunity of fleecing the tourists.

So what would we do in a situation like that?  We returned on the next shuttle to the ship.  Nobody would just take us to town.  All they wanted was a 2 – 4 hour “tour” at $20 per hour.  Ah, but all was not lost!  About 150 yards from the ship, across a blacktopped work area, was the Salalah Port Commercial Market.  This place had everything from screws and nails to refrigerators.  We spent at least an hour there and then went back again after lunch.  The big purchase was Omani perfume oil at $3.00.

Now, four days at sea heading to Aqaba, Jordan.