Day 23 - Sea day - August 17th

With this day at sea also designated a lazy day, I don’t think this blog is going to be too long. (Sounds of rapturous applause from across the globe...)  One reason for that designation was that Paula still wasn’t quite 100%.

Between yet another very light breakfast and the fish buffet at lunch, we really didn’t do much.  That outdoor fish buffet didn’t really appeal after a walk down the line, so we ate inside instead.  We had fish...  A very nice, light, fresh breaded fish and also snapper. The pineapple has been very nice and ripe,  so we have usually had a fair bit of that too.

We managed Alana’s dance class – swing jive.  Nothing new, but we enjoyed it - and the exercise.  We stayed on with Darryl and Sue for the entertainment trivia – Movie Posters.  A good job Sue knows her stuff as we didn’t contribute a thing.  The usual afternoon coffee before yet another failed trivia attempt.  You do have to hand it to the entertainment staff, as there is always something to do.

Our pre dinner concert was guitarist George Sakellariou. Although technically excellent (he studied under Segovia), it wasn’t a riveting performance to be honest and we weren’t the only ones who thought the same.  We probably didn’t expect it to be so classically based.   We knew that M & M were hob-nobbing elsewhere for dinner and ended up as the honeymoon table (just two of us).

It was a busy evening in the main theatre and we went along to support the passenger choir for their concert but opted to skip the crew show and even Alan & Alana’s post choir session, for an earlier night than usual.

I even managed to upload a blog and hallelujah, read my emails.

Shanghai tomorrow and we don’t really know what to expect as we are newbies to China.  With 23 million people, thank goodness it is Saturday when we arrive.

 

Day 22 - A wettish day - at sea - but who cares? August 16th

Fortunately, it appears that I must have logged out successfully last night as I still had minutes left!  So far I have used about 300 of the 1,000 allocated between us.

After a decent sleep I seemed to be awake quite early and lay around for a while, not wanting to put the TV on for the Wake Show.  Now the staff on board know that most people on board may well want a bit of a lie in, so I was somewhat surprised to hear the vacuum cleaner going out in the corridor at 7:30am.  Sure enough, that is what my NEW £2 ASDA travel alarm said. When I double checked with my older flat alarm and my watch, it was in fact 9:25am!

We dived out as we wanted to go to the Beijing port lecture at 9:45, so it was breakfast afterwards with M & M.  To be truthful, this was more like brunch, as by the time we had finished and (I had succumbed to a bacon & fried onion sandwich in addition to the healthy muesli/yoghurt/raspberry parfait), one side of the buffet had already started serving lunch!

Paula was really suffering from the long, hot walk yesterday and was happy to do virtually nothing, as she had aching legs, feet, knees etc.,  even using the lifts for a change.

Once again, I couldn’t get any internet access to my emails but did manage to send.

Back to the atrium for a coffee about 3:30 and we were conned by M & M to have a go at the putting competition.  Unlike most competitions, with just one winner, everyone who managed to putt through the “hole” qualified for a glass of champagne and had three attempts before going  to the back of the queue for another go.  The competition lasted until all four bottles of champagne had been emptied.

I managed successfully on my second putt and Paula her first, though hers was belting shot that would have gone about 50 yards if Kim hadn’t intercepted it!

A rather miserable 9/20 for the quiz just wasn’t good enough, though the winners only managed 14.

We went to the early  show in the Vista lounge, an English comic, Paul Adams.  I don’t know what it is with some of these audiences, but they seem very slow to warm to a performer they haven’t seen before.  We enjoyed his show and his material was fresh with no reliance on old cruise ship jokes that most have heard many times before.  We writes his own material and skips around a bit which is far preferable to the lazy ones who are just word perfect but rely on the same material show after show, season after season.

Surf and turf for dinner was enjoyable and Mal has requested a jacket potato each night – I think I might just do the same.

The late show was an American banjo player – Jim Coston.  A very good show indeed as he keeps most numbers down to three minutes and plays a good variety of tunes.  I think the only vocal was a George Formby classic.

Back to the Atrium for Alana & Alana where there were still several people around at 11:30pm when they finished.

A late night as we were just chatting afterwards and bed – 12:40am.  No rush as another sea day tomorrow before our first true port of call in China.  Apparently, Hong Kong doesn’t count, as they still stand apart from mainland China in many respects.

Day 21 - Hot Hong Kong - August 15th

Although we were booked on a tour, the 9am start was not an issue and we were up and about just before the ship docked after a 180 degree turn, alongside the local ferry terminal.  Downtown Hong Kong can currently only cope with two cruise liners at once and as tourism is a major industry, apparently they are building a new cruise terminal at the airport, capable of dealing with 5 ships.  Oh boy, that will be fun with about 10,000 cruisers arriving in one hit.  Can you imagine the logistics of that exercise? We are not sure that they meant locating near the new airport or the old one, but whichever it is, the effects on this very crowded city are just mind boggling.

Yet another light breakfast parfait before meeting at the vista lounge for our call – coach 3 of 8 doing just this specific tour.  These are 49 seater coaches, so work out the numbers.

Our tour guide today was Jupiter. She spoke excellent English and had a great sense of humour and an infectious laugh.  I hope the lady in front of us who was coughing and spluttering for the whole trip isn’t infectious. The coach bullied its way into the very busy morning traffic and headed through the tunnel under harbour to the base of Mt Victoria to catch the funicular railway to the summit.  At this point – probably 10am, the queue was horrendous and even though we had tickets and were shepherded towards the front, we still had over 30 minutes of waiting time to board this very popular attraction.  We were advised to try and sit on the right and it goes without saying that by the time we could climb aboard, every single right side seat had been taken!   From what others who were doing their own thing said later, they gave up queuing, so be warned, if you are not on an organised tour, the wait may well be over an hour and that is with just two ships in port, so it is not going to get any better, particularly on a clear day.  Many spoke of earlier visits where a trip to the top merely meant a nice view of the cloud cover from within it.

A nice ride to the top where there is a modern shopping mall.  Paula wanted an ice cream and had no HK dollars.  It cost her $6USD for one scoop...

Back on the coach and down the mount to Aberdeen village and a leisurely 20 minute sampan ride past the largest floating restaurant in the world - Jumbos.  I think it might have been around here that I lost my Puntarenas hat and I don’t know how.  Drat.  That is $5 wasted.  On then to what was billed as a “jewellery factory visit”. I don’t know about you, but my definition of a factory is of a place where the majority of the employees are involved in the manufacturing process.   What we actually got was a modern showroom, with mirrored walls and about 50 people in smart suits, selling, or trying to sell, expensive jewellery and just one artisan behind a glass screen making rings.  A stop that was way too long and unnecessary, especially as we were running a bit late.

The final stop was Stanley Street market where at least people could shop if they wanted.  We spied our favourite atrium waitress here who was on our tour and we helped her choose an appropriate hat!  On the trip back to the dock, she was getting increasingly anxious as we were supposed to be back 2:30pm but didn’t get back until 3:40 – and her shift started at 4pm!   She made it OK.  We could have skipped the jewellery factory and no one would have minded – especially the men.

Meanwhile, we headed up to the buffet for refreshments before part two of our day.  The ship was due to leave 11pm as scheduled, as the cyclone or typhoon or bad touch of wind, was no longer deemed a problem, not to the captain anyway.

We had been given the addresses of one or two shops selling dance shoes, by the ever helpful Alana, so we headed off on foot, to 242 Nathan Road (just in case you dancers are interested in the future).  It was hot and sticky and like most cruisers I suspect, we popped in and out of several establishments on the way, to take a temporary advantage of their air conditioning.  It was a fair old hike in the heat of the late afternoon and we arrived at the approximate place around 4:50, but there was no sign of the shop we wanted!  There was a sign pointing upstairs to “Joy dance shoes”.   (Joy, if you are reading this back in NZ, it must be nice to know you have your own establishment in Hong Kong, but this is to let you know that the staff are sneaking off early, as it was closed.)

Back downstairs and there was a tiny, tiny shoe shop in the corner, with dance posters on the wall and a good range of shoes. With a bit of help from a lady who popped in, who managed to persuade the elderly owner to accept US dollars, as his English wasn’t too good, Paula emerged with a bag containing not one, but two pairs of dance shoes.  If you want to know the name of the shop, it is “Wankee Shoes”.  Absolutely no comment from me deemed necessary.  Mission accomplished, we trudged back to the ship and through “Harbour City”, a new and very large shopping mall that forms the entrance to the cruise terminal – which isn’t signposted too well I might add, until you are just about on the steps to the terminal entrance anyway.

Hot and sticky we staggered into the atrium and found our waitress, who sorted out my usual complex coffee order and a berry smoothie for Paula.

As it was open dining (meaning that anyone could take dinner in the dining rooms any time on any table), there was no problem crashing out after a shower, then heading to the upper deck to see the highly acclaimed laser light show using 44 of the buildings on the harbour.

I think we were badly misled here, as you really needed to be on shore to see it and experience the sound.  From the ship, we heard absolutely nothing and saw very little.  It is a 15 minute show at 8pm every night and I think we missed out.

Back down to the dining room at about 8:30 for dinner, where we were joined by M & M just for a cuppa as they had eaten, plus Sue & Darryl, Teri & Alex. I think ours was the only table in the whole room with more than two people on it and as there was also a couple on from the normal first sitting, making 8, Allan & Ronaldo were the hardest working staff in the room.  One of the reasons for eating was that the menu was appetising so after the prawns, Paula had the lemon chicken and I had the pork spare ribs.  Very nice too.

A busy day and it continued as there was a cultural show in the theatre that included one chap throwing chopsticks at a plywood target like a dart board and piercing it.  He invited a couple of men from the audience to have a go and they couldn’t even hit the target, let alone pierce it! 

Alan & Alana had their first night off since about May after the ship refit, but we all went up on deck for the sailaway at 11pm.  Just as we were almost at the open water, there was a thunderstorm and heavy rain so we went to the cabin instead.

I tried for ages to get some sense out of the internet, but no luck at all, so although I managed to upload, I still couldn’t access any emails and the computer didn’t want to log off their system.  The danger here of course is that if you don’t successfully log off, the system continues to charge you by the minute, so as I crash out, I have the nagging feeling that by the time I get on again, there won’t be too many minutes left, so the first job tomorrow morning is to try and log on so that I can log out!

Well that three weeks has been an interesting one as this first part of the cruise is mainly covering countries and cities we are either not too interested in or have been to before.  Now Paula has been to the hot, sticky and crowded Hong Kong, she has no wish to return!  Curiosity has been satisfied.

 

Day 20 - Yes, another sea day - August 14th

Guess what?  Another light breakfast.  Much as I love a cooked eggs, bacon, tomatoes, toast etc., for brunch at about 11:15am at home, if I ate a full breakfast on the ship as well as a hearty lunch, plus a large evening meal, I’d need a totally new wardrobe, so a light breakfast it has to be.  Mind you, the prospect of an Indian speciality lunch may have coloured that decision a wee bit.

Before that delight, we had the Shanghai port lecture.  These lectures are always informative especially as we have not been to many of the ports before.  As with just about all activities on board (with the notable exception of dinner) these are a maximum of 1 hour and many are just 45 minutes, which suits me fine.

Whilst Paula worked on her hair, I was trying get the blog up to date (bear in mind this is usually written at least a day later) but the internet is extremely slow on this cruise and that means that after waiting for ages for a connection, it sometimes takes too long to upload and also read the emails on line, so my apologies if you have written but had no response.  Nowadays, just about everyone on board is email savvy and many have iPads, notebooks or lap tops, so it is inevitable that access can be limited.  The signal strength in the cabin isn’t too good either and often, the connection is dropped altogether, which is why at most ports, you see hordes of passengers (and crew) heading for Wi-Fi hot spots, McDonalds and Starbucks etc., primarily for the free internet.  We don’t,  as we are limited by weight restrictions when flying, so the laptop battery stays at home.

Back upstairs for the lunch.  Now most of us are aware that the efficient way to run any buffet is to duplicate the dishes, start at either both ends or both sides.  It also pays to have a good look to check it out first (which I always do...).  In this instance, there were two large hot dishes at one end and two at the other, but what many didn’t realise was that they were all different.  Later, we spoke to several who had missed out on the pakoras, the chicken curry and the onion bahjee and the fish curry, or had missed out on the lamb and pork curries!  The carrot soup was nice too.  Washed down with the house lemonade/squash, it was all delicious.

We blobbed out for a while then headed down for a decent coffee about 3:30 and a copy of our on board statement.  Oh dear! We had been charged for the laundry, so back we went to get that reversed, before the quiz.  We didn’t win and with a score of 12/20, were unlikely to.

Cruise director Warren has been shuffling the evening programme around a bit and has put on the early shows in the Vista and the theatre at a time that suits second sitting diners far better (6:30 & 9:45 or 10pm).  This meant we could go to the Theatre for the 6:30 show by Pingxin Xu – an instrumentalist.  I think he was on an earlier cruise and I was under the impression he played violin.  He plays the dulcimer and this was a stunning performance.  With tunes ranging from Brubeck’s “Take Five”, to Joplin’s “Entertainer Rag” and a load of popular and classical music such as “Rondo a la Turk” and “Flight of the Bumble Bee”, this was a classy act by a very talented performer and I am sorry we missed the previous show.  We bought the double CD...  Sarah, the orchestra leader on piano, once again was also a great support.

Dinner highlight was a lamb rack with thick chops, but the picture is a bit of a cheat as it shows three cutlets but one was originally on Paula’s plate.

To cap off a great sea day, we had another of Alan’s “Sherlock Holmes, Murder at sea, Radio show” mysteries.  This was a premiere presentation and the capacity crowd in the Vista loved it.   Alan had shifted the keyboards and other equipment to the vista for an earlier session and this meant there was no atrium dancing.  Far from an early night, at 11:30pm A & A were still reassembling the equipment!  Along with Daryll and Susan, Boris and Roma, we called at the Wheelhouse bar instead, to dance/listen to the “Moonlight Duo”, who seemed glad of an audience, as we were just about the only ones there. They were pretty good too.

The captain had made an announcement that weather conditions in the area (typhoon) might just mean an adjustment to the schedule that could even mean an extra day in Hong Kong and cutting out Shanghai, but he’ll make an announcement tomorrow.

A long stop in Hong Kong tomorrow and Paula has plans to add to her dancing shoes wardrobe, after a five and half hour morning tour, that luckily for us, doesn’t start until 9am, so a 12:15am bed is not really a problem.  Looking forward to Hong Kong as we haven’t been before.

 

Day 19 - A really steamy Nha Trang (Vietnam) August 13th

Thank goodness, no early start, but once again, the sound of those electric motors powering the lifeboat booms confirmed we had anchored in  a pleasant cove at Nha Trang.  We know little about the location other than we gather it was a popular place for the American military for a bit of R & R.  Across the bay we could see a cable car but the port lecturer was adamant that feedback about it was that not only was it a bit rickety, but breakdowns weren’t exactly uncommon either, so the bird’s eye view of your ship departing as you swung in mid air might make a good picture, but it would be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

As a tender port, a light breakfast is essential and we ambled down for the assembly and ticket collection point for all none black card holders.  Mal and Meg were already waiting but we ended up in the same tender anyway and we had the usual performance of the mobility challenged slowing proceedings.  Maybe Princess should consider one tender boat scheduled specifically for these people, so that there is plenty of manpower on hand to assist?  The problem is only going to get worse and it is already noticeably worse than the WC last year.  A tender boat rocking and rolling is bad enough for the fit and agile, so it is really tough for those on walkers and dependant on wheelchairs and with dodgy knees or ankles.  Mind you, thinking about it, very soon, the fit and agile might well be in the minority!

Anyway, we landed OK at the wharf and it really was steamy but the (free) shuttle to town was a pleasant ride.  It appears that maybe Princess have listened to the many complaints about overcharging for shuttles (flat fare last year was $7 or $8US, regardless of distance), so the free shuttles are appreciated.

The drive along the sea front was extremely pleasant with some very attractive topiary, sandy beaches, smart modern buildings and a generally clean environment.  The shuttle turned off left and dropped us off outside the Martinez restaurant, and we had to run the gauntlet of pushy pedicab and taxi drivers and postcard sellers who totally blocked the narrow pavement.  We dived into the Martinez to catch our breath and purchase a street map ($1US).  Plenty of cruisers were already sitting down and enjoying  a cool drink and you could buy cans of soft drinks for a dollar from the cabinet or a beer for $2.  Good value compared to $6 or whatever, on the ship

Obviously, the influx of  a couple of thousand tourists is a magnet and also a potential bonanza for the hawkers and taxi drivers not to mention stall holders and shop keepers.  With M & M, we headed for the market, a five minute walk and the contrast between the affluent sea front and the side streets or back streets was very pronounced.  By the time we had passed the street stalls and got to the (covered) market, we had already lost M & M and we were steaming hot.  To the right is the food market, where judging by the smell, dried seafood is the predominant produce - so we veered left.  This place is amazing as each section concentrates on one type of product.  First you have the clothing, then the table ware, then jewellery, shoes and so on.  Shoes... Paula really wanted some evening shoes or dance shoes.  There must have 20 or 30 stalls, each stocked very extensively, so with about 30,000 pairs to choose from, you’d think that she’d walk out with a couple of pairs at least, as the prices were OK.  Paula’s usual problem is that she can’t get shoes small enough for her dainty feet.  The Vietnamese must be really tiny people, (they are!) as she couldn’t get what she wanted in a large enough size!  After a frustrating  hour (or was it 5 hours?) we gave up and headed back towards the Martinez, but on the way, our progress was interrupted by a line of about 1,000 pedicabs, each with a sweaty cruiser on board. (OK, that might have been a slight exaggeration, maybe about 50 or 60 – but they were still sweaty.)

They finished their organised tour (which was a sell out by the way) just as we decided we have a coke then head back. With this mob descending on the small buses, we supped the coke rather quickly and managed a seat at the rear of the bus.

Once back at the wharf – about a ten minute ride, there was plenty of time to wander through the stalls.  Two or three vendors were selling cold beers and soft drinks from chilly bins.  One very pleasant and cheerful Vietnamese lass was quite endearing.  She opened with the words “Hard sell!  $5 for six cans.”  I bought six cans and even though I don’t normally drink beer, persuading the Princess bar staff to pour some lime juice into a glass so that I can add the beer later makes it palatable.

An easy ride back though the mobility challenged affected the efficiency of the operation. It goes without saying that the first stop was the buffet.  Cream of spinach soup, a chunk of belly pork, several wedges of sweet fresh pineapple and the (free) lemonade.

I managed to start the previous day’s blog, but was overcome with a bout of tiredness and the next minute, I was snoring way...  When I woke, it was too late for the quiz anyway so down to the 5^th floor of the atrium for a coffee, where we sat next to a couple who are on the adjacent table in the dining room.  Another pleasant couple of hours slipped by effortlessly.

Dinner was up to the usual standard, though I wanted to limit myself to two bread rolls.  I failed.  The rolls were still warm and the chicken liver pate came without bread, so three it was.  A nice seafood soup and roast lamb. No dessert as I don’t want to be seen to be over-eating.

Although the singer had already done a couple of shows, we had heard good reports, so we decided she it was a worth a look.   Fantastic! Lovena B. Fox is her name and she has a tremendous voice and a couple of numbers were stand out brilliant.  One was with a simple piano accompaniment from orchestra leader Sarah.  I think it was called “Angels”.

Although it was a tiring day, we still headed to the 7^th floor atrium but there was only Sue and Darryl dancing, so we joined them.  Clocks forward 1 hour tonight for a change but with a day at sea, who cares? 

The day after is Hong Kong and a very long stop as we don’t leave until 10:30pm, so this could well be a highlight stop. We may need to watch the weather in the area shortly too.  

Day 18 - Num Bum (Phu My - Vietnam) - August 12th

The alarms were set for 6am for the long day on a Princess tour to Ho Chi Minh City, with a meet at 7am for a 7:30am tour start.  Paula was out of bed 5:30am but the sail in is not a memorable one.

We boarded our coach on time with tour guide Tony, who was quite a personable character but the coach itself could not be called a luxury one.  The seats were not well shaped and in vinyl, got quite sticky.  The sound system on the coach was more suited to a karaoke bar, with a fair bit of reverberation and was quite loud which I found a bit uncomfortable, but that is probably just me.   The ride into Ho Chi Minh City is a bit slow.  To start with, it is due to the cart track road once outside the secure dock area, then once you leave the general port area, there is the traffic, even though we were two hours away – and it was a Sunday.  It may not be quite as dense as India, but there are 1,000’s of motorbikes and the frequency of traffic lights is about as bad as at home - other than the countdown clocks on red and green phases, which I quite like.

Last time, we had a potty stop on the way in, but this time we didn’t.  First stop was the history museum and guide Tony certainly didn’t need any amplification here, as his voice boomed off the walls of the small gallery rooms.  The main attraction though was the colourful water puppet show.  Probably a strange attraction for a museum, but very well done.  The 7 puppeteers are in waist deep water and hidden behind a bamboo screen.

On then to the re-unification palace.  We had just stepped into the grounds on our last visit but this time, we went inside.  Without going into the history of the Vietnam war (something on which I am decidedly unqualified to comment on), this appeared to me to be less of a palace and more of a command centre, housing the radio rooms etc. in an underground, steel lined bunker. Chatting to someone later in the day, they claimed that the Feng sui was so poor in the building that people were often transferred out quite quickly rather than staying for an extended spell of duty, as they hated it.

Next stop was another new one for us, a pagoda.  Basically a temple, just a ten minute stop, with hanging wooden incense coils giving a rather smoky environment, but overall, a pleasant enough stop.  A bit more of a city tour followed before six coach-loads of experienced Princess cruisers alighted to raid the second floor buffet at a riverside hotel.  In the small lobby, pity the poor souls who were trying to have their wedding photographs taken as the hungry hordes swarmed past them on the way to a much needed feed.  Much needed?  Well, it had been at least six hour since most people had breakfasted or had a drink.  Something we have often noticed on tours is that the tour guides are often not aware, that the early starts mean that people are usually in need of a drink after a couple of  hours.  We still cringe at the memories of the (private, not Princess) Israel tour last year, where we had to eat by about 6am and we didn’t get an opportunity to get anything else until 1:30pm – and even then it was very poor food!

The food at the buffet today was quite extensive, but even though we were the first group through, all except the soup wasn’t really very hot, which is a real shame.  The variety of food covered several local dishes, plus spaghetti Bolognese and what we would probably call Chinese dishes, with stir fried vegetables and meat.  With a beer or soft drink included, this was a very pleasant 50 minute stop complete, with a colourful local music and dance show.  The screeching instrument played with a bow was definitely not to my taste, especially at full volume, but the star turn was a quite brilliant rendition of “Never on Sunday” and I have no idea what the lead instrument was.  To look at, it was a cross between a horizontal Hawaiian guitar without frets but a raised string or strings with a wand arrangement at the end that also raised or lowered the pitch. It was played extremely well too.  Three of the four instruments seemed very local, with the fourth, very much banjo-like in appearance – but he didn’t get a solo. Shame.

Back to the coach and a return visit (for us) to the lacquer factory, which is really a showroom but with 4 or 5 people working to show the methods used.  Most interesting is the use of eggshells, cut to shape often with a small coping saw and then by scalpel.  This time, they were also using shells that had obviously been scorched to give a different colour.

The next part was a stop at the Post Office and a photo opportunity of the building across the road, a cathedral roughly based on the Notre Dame.  Even though it was a Sunday, as last time, it appeared closed.

It was a bit of a slow ride back at times.  Inexplicably, the driver went really slowly for a while.  Maybe it was because someone had requested a stop to photograph a water buffalo, so whether or not he was trying to scan for them instead of just heading back to the ship, we don’t know. We didn’t see any.  Having been passed by several other tour coaches and the numb bums combined with the sticky seats and poor air conditioning, we were all getting a bit ratty, so when he eventually speeded up and proceeded to overtake a couple of coaches, the passengers cheered!  I think he then got the message.  However, this woke up Tony who in best tour guide fashion, carried on his commentary from where he had left off just after the post office, which woke up several passengers who had been enjoying a blissful snooze.

Back on board, the first stop was the atrium for a coffee for me and a berry smoothie for Paula.

A shower then to the sailaway on the back of deck 11 then to the early show at 6:30 for illusionist and magician, Ace McDermott’s “new” show.  Not too much was new (even most of the jokes were repeated). As with any of these acts, you really start to think how it can be done and the more you think about it, the easier some tricks appear to be, but others remain a total mystery.  Mind you, the choice of passenger to assist was cringe worthy, as she just had to come up with three words that were NOT associated with what was written on a piece of paper.  She struggled to come up with 3 words...

Dinner was another difficult choice – veal cordon bleu or lamb chops? I had both.   Just a couple of dances afterwards in the atrium and another 11:25pm retirement.

In port again tomorrow – Nha Trang, still in Vietnam, but another tender port.  No rush for us as we cancelled our previously booked tours opting for the free shuttle instead, so we’ll take our time.    

Day 17 - At sea yet again - August 11th

A good night’s sleep and a leisurely day at sea.  What could be better?  A slight touch of the sniffles being kept at bay with Coldral, otherwise, all is good. Another very light breakfast (I have become rather partial to the raspberry parfait – yoghurt, raspberry sauce and topped with a nice toasted muesli). Once again, we met a new couple at breakfast and the chat lasted until after 10:30!

Another enrichment lecture on the Vietnam war, from an intelligence perspective then to the buffet for a very tasty cauliflower soup and bits from the tapas buffet, notably prawns and guacamole.

Although we had a full team for the quiz, it didn’t do us much good!  It was good to catch up with staff member Kim again who shared the honours with Marcos.

We then headed to the Atrium with M & M, ostensibly for a cuppa, but succumbed to the fresh chocolate cookies... As we have a long day tomorrow with a 7am meet, we elected to eat early at the buffet and catch the early show in the vista – illusionist and magician Ace McDermott.  I love these shows and they have me totally baffled.

After that, up to the atrium for Alan & Alana’s “Spooky Entertainment” quiz. We weren’t last, but we weren’t first either.  Along with many others I suspect, an early night, which for us meant 11:25pm.

Vietnam tomorrow.

Just as an aside on a quiet blog day, I was talking to an elderly couple a couple of nights ago in the atrium before we went in for second sitting dinner.  They had just come out from first sitting then come via the theatre.  We laughingly refer to MOB’s as Miserable Old B*gg*rs (or Bats) and whilst talking to the male half of this duo, he told us his wife was putting in yet another, written complaint.  We generally manage to totally avoid these negative people, so it was interesting to kill time for a few minutes.

Apparently this complaint is that by the time they get to the theatre, (early show) there is no seating left...  And whose fault is that I wonder?  As there are always seats at the 10pm show, we kindly suggested that they go then instead.

Oh no, we go to bed early...

Well why don’t you go to bed late and get up late then?

Oh no, we can’t do that.

Why not?

We like to get up early.

Why not get up late as we are usually at sea anyway?

We don’t want to do that.

So what do you want them to do?

Provide more seats in the theatre.

But they already have 700 and each show is on 4 times, so don’t you think you can work your days around that?

No...

Talk about wanting the mountain to come to Mohammed.  You really can’t please some people, so our sympathies are nearly always with the cruise staff.

Maybe next year, our group (regardless of numbers) should be “The MOB”...