Season 9 cruising wrap up

Now that we’ve finally arrived in Hawaii, I thought I’d publish a wrap up post of our cruising season.. Though this will be my final blog post for awhile, I will continue to publish a few photos from Hawaii, especially if the sunsets are as spectacular as those we enjoyed last year. 

G asked me last week if I would consider doing extended cruising in Southeast Asia again, and I think he was taken aback when I quickly said “No!” (and I might have even added an “Oh hell” before the “no!”). ;-)  It isn’t that I haven’t enjoyed every day of this segment of our season, and, if we had not yet visited Southeast Asia, I absolutely would do exactly what we did this year.  It’s a “must-see” destination, for sure. But now that we have… 

We knew from the beginning that this would be a challenging season. Happily, Europe turned out to be easier than I expected. Sure, the pace was fast, but the beauty of most of the Mediterranean ports is that the tourist sites are located close to the port, and we could start each day on our own schedule. However, the Asian ports were every bit as challenging as I expected, and then some. The travel times to the cities, the early meeting times for the ship’s shore excursions, immigration requirements, currency issues, the size of the cities, the heat and the humidity and the humidity and the heat. It’s one thing to spend 10 or 15 days doing one big city after another; it’s quite another to do it 38 days in a row. 

We would love to return to Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore or Hong Kong for a land stay. We especially enjoyed those countries. We are counting on returning to China in the future; if we hadn’t already locked in dates for Hawaii, and if I hadn’t already traveled to China, we might have planned to spend more time there at the end of this cruise.  But spending five and a half weeks consecutive weeks cruising these ports again?  I don’t want to have to work that hard!

G has been humming Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” a lot lately, as in we traveled around the world this season and did it our way. It’s led me to think…well, yes, about strangling him occasionally, but also about the few regrets I have about how we handled our travels this year. Here are some things I wish I’d done differently:

• Three quick dry short sleeve T-shirts were one too few. They are lightweight enough that I shouldn’t leave home without four. 

• Three pairs of shorts were one too many. Since these were quick dry also, I could have gotten by with two pairs, or one pair and a skort. 

• In addition to our new iPhones (with their new batteries), and one powerful external battery pack, we really needed piggyback cases with power. Battery management was a constant issue during our long days of sightseeing, taking photos and using the local cellular network for GPS. We made it work by having one of us keep his/her phone in Airplane Mode and saving the external battery for the other phone but we arrived back at the ship nearly every day with exhausted batteries.

• If it weren’t for Hawaii sunsets, I could leave my Nikon camera at home. I haven’t used it yet; every photo has been taken with my iPhone Xs. But when it comes to sunsets, the Nikon is far superior. 

• Although we improved over the season, we still try to squeeze too much into a day of sightseeing. Our most enjoyable days were those where we simply wandered around, people watching and taking in the vibe of the cities we visited. I think we’ve finally learned that it’s not about how much we see, but about how much we enjoy what we see that is most important. 

• I brought a travel umbrella and used it just one day in Venice. It’s not worth the space, and it’s hard to have a free hand to hold it and take photos while sightseeing. A Tilley hat and waterproof jacket work even better. 

• Regardless of how many pairs of reading glasses and reading sunglasses I bring, they won’t be enough. For some reason, these things are short-lived when we travel, and are nearly impossible to replace. 

• I recommend using money changers instead of an ATM in Thailand. They assess a national ATM fee on all foreign transactions that results in a poor rate of exchange. While i had issues two times in different countries getting my ATM card to work, I was always able to find another machine where it did. 

• However, if visiting only 5 or 6 countries, I would always recommend leaving home with a starter amount of local currency. Money changers and ATMs in the port terminals- if they exist at all- have long lines that cut into sightseeing time in port. 

Things that we got right:

• Our packing in general was excellent. I learned how little I really can get by with…provided I bring the proper type of clothing. Quick dry items we can wash out at night and wear the next day are perfect. Sure, we’re tired of these clothes (sick to death of them, in fact),  but it’s the only way to move around, and unpack and repack as much as we did. 

• It’s easy to get by with just three pairs of shoes/sandals for four months. 

• The insulated 22 ounce aluminum water bottle and carrier with a cross-body strap I purchased for the trip saved me. It kept water cold for entire days in the Southeast Asia heat. And it greatly reduced my reliance on plastic water bottles, which is a good thing for the environment. 

The water bottle I used

The carrier I used

• A cross body day pack allowed me to keep valuables in front of me and not on my back in pickpocket prone areas (which is just about everywhere) when it was too hot to wear a travel vest or jacket. 

The day pack I used

• Not being a slave to hair coloring nor paying high prices to have it done on the ship was incredibly freeing. And I never saw a single box of Dark Golden Blonde hair color in Southeast Asia anyway. 

• I left behind the valuable jewelry items I usually cruise with (diamond ring, good watch and tennis bracelet) because we’d be moving around so much. I purchased a dressy looking watch for $12 before I left home and wore it or my $9 plastic waterproof watch all the time. No one even noticed. 

• I love Thai and Balinese silver jewelry designs. I thought I might buy a ring somewhere along the way, but ended up buying a ring handmade in Thailand before I even left home through Novica.com. Novica is a National Geographic project that offers a marketplace for genuine local handicrafts by artisans around the world. For $40 delivered to my home, I got a ring that I wear everyday in lieu of my diamond. In the end, I saw nothing even remotely as nice in the ports, just the same bags and T-shirts that are offered everywhere. 

Novica.com’s mission

• Tilley hats. We wore them every day in Southeast Asia. For sun or rain protection, they’re the best.

• We didn’t do the 28-night repositioning cruise from Rome to Singapore. Changing our plans at the last minute, as crazy as that was to go through, was the best thing we did. We are simply not repetitive sea days people. We loved the two cruises we did instead, and spending time in Dubai was a most memorable way to celebrate our 35th anniversary. 

• Princess’ On Your Own excursions worked very well for us. We are extremely independent and don’t generally like doing tours with others, even independently arranged small group tours. We simply need the assurance that we can safely get to and from the distant large cities from the port, and then we enjoy exploring on our own. 

Thank you so much for again following along as we travel our way through life. I just looked at the statistics for my blog for the first time this season and I’m always amazed that so many people are traveling vicariously with us (I should keep an eye on those post views while I’m traveling to keep me motivated on those evenings when I’m typing in my sleep!). I appreciate your patience with my typing and grammatical errors. The amount of time I dedicate to editing while traveling is very short indeed; I use our time at home to re-read, be embarrassed by my most blatant goofs and make corrections. Thank you, too, to those people who email with encouraging words while during the season. You have no idea how much your emails mean!

When we get to Hawaii, we generally give each other much more space than we do when traveling internationally. It makes sense; we are frequently apart running errands and doing things at home, because we are so easily connected by technology, and Hawaii is much the same. People might think that traveling the world with your best friend is all hearts and flowers, and much of it is, of course, but let’s face it- we’ve been living in 160 square feet for nearly three months. We know by now how to make that work, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. When one of us goes into the bathroom to wash hands or brush teeth and the other one has forgotten he/she has socks or underwear soaking in the sink, “I’m so thrilled to be able to travel with you, my dearest!” are not the first words that spring to mind. In fact, these are the most commonly used phrases between us this year:

• Don’t stand between me and the toilet right now. 

• Don’t go in there for awhile. (Just to be clear, that’s not one of mine.)

• Can’t you do your thinking sitting on the bed instead of the middle of the room or in the bathroom? (That one is.)

• Smell this T-shirt. Can I wear it another day?

• But I got ready first last time. It’s your turn. 

• I told you to close the door to keep the humidity in the bathroom!! I’m blow drying my hair out here. 

• Cough. Cough. Sniffle. Sniffle. Sneeze. Sneeze. Where did you put the (insert one): Sudafed, Guafenesin, Dextramethorphan, Tylenol?

• Before you go in to shower, ask me if I have to use the bathroom. If I do, and I hear that water running…well, just ask me, ok?

• Just once I’d like to have a few square inches of clear space on the vanity to set something. Just one damn time. 

• Does that music really enhance our dining experience?   (Heard Every.Single.Day., in response to Princess’ truly horrific playlists in the dining rooms and buffet.)

• Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to lunch. 

• Do you have the (insert one): Ringgits, Dongs, Bhats, Rupiahs, Won, Yen, Dirhams, Euros, Pounds, Kunas, or Dollars (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, US) we need today?

• But I gave you the passport copies/ landing cards/ excursion tickets to hold on to. 

• Turn the TV down a notch. Another notch. Another notch. Another notch. 

• Turn the AC up a notch. Another notch. Another notch. Another notch. 

• Haven’t we already watched that Alaskan Bush Wilderness Testosterone show ten times?  I don’t care if it’s a different episode; they’re all the same. Let’s watch a romantic comedy. Or football. ;-) 

• I’m on hold with room service to change out minibar items. Still on hold. Still on hold. Still on hold. 

• Who used my last clean washcloth?

• Question: What excursion do you want to do tomorrow? Answer: Where are we tomorrow?

• Just take a picture of it and we’ll figure out later what it is. 

• I really don’t need to see another (insert one) cathedral, mosque, temple, shrine, monument, statue, market, museum.

But, lest I’ve painted too realistic a picture, every day also includes, as it has for years: I love you, I appreciate you, thank you for making today possible. 

We don’t often take time to really think about what we’ve done and seen since we left home nearly three months ago. We simply stay focused on the next day and maybe one day after that. But sitting on Chaweng Beach in Ko Samui earlier this cruise, we did spend some time reflecting. G thinks that time has passed in a blur; I feel quite the opposite, like we’ve been gone for a year. If told that our climbing the bell towers in Pisa and Messina occurred last season, I’d be in complete agreement.  

We talked about the diversity of our experiences this year, and they have been quite remarkable, from every perspective. We’ve seen huge wealth and poverty and everything in between. We’ve been bitterly cold and sweaty hot and had near-constant humidity at both extremes. We’ve visited the colonizers and the colonized and pondered the effects of colonization on both. We now realize that these Southeast Asia countries are not all the same. We’ve learned about several major religions and wondered at the way everyone thinks theirs is the “right” one (be honest…no one knows for sure). We’ve climbed the Acropolis and gone to the top of the world’s tallest building. 

And we’ve had the time of our lives.

Life is good. :-)

Days 80 and 81: Shanghai to Honolulu

We slept so well and so hard last night. The bed was wonderful, and it had just a comforter in the softest, smoothest duvet to cover up with. After the blanket we’ve been sleeping under on the Sapphire Princess, it felt heavenly. We awoke to a Shanghai just as foggy and dreary as the day before, but it didn’t change our plans for the morning.

First up was the included breakfast buffet, and I was instantly reminded of my trip to China in 2004. Our tour had promised us American breakfasts, and we had no idea how important they’d be to us. It was the only meal of the day where we had food we could really eat. Lunches and dinners were served family-style, meals not of our choosing, and these were all at high-end restaurants. Every table was round, seating about eight of us, and in the center was a lazy susan. Dish after dish was set on that turntable, and we’d spin it around and help ourselves. The food was so strange to us, and, frankly, somewhat repulsive, with fish heads and tails and eyes looking up at us. Those items, and anything indistinguishable, would go round and around untouched, but if something even remotely resembling American Chinese food was served, we each hoped it was set down in front of us, because otherwise it was gone by the time it got around. We lived on rice…and watermelon. When the watermelon was set down, we knew the meal was over. 

Today’s breakfast buffet had a Chinese side and an American side consisting largely of things I can’t eat (eggs, breakfast meats, caffeinated tea and coffee), so I had oatmeal and peach slices. While we ate, we quickly put together a plan that hinged on two things: a late check out and an ATM. G took care of the former and I the latter and we took a taxi to the Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa. It was so foggy that we knew we wouldn’t see a thing from the top, but we were not deterred. 

Once we arrived, we were warned that visibility was negligible, but we could look up and see that was the case. The top of the building was in the clouds. Still, we weren’t the only crazy ones going up, there were several others that we could tell were from around the world doing the same. The display at the bottom was worth the price of admission (less than $20 each). There was an entire history of skyscrapers- well, the first one was a 55-story building, but due to its construction it qualified- and it pleased us to no end to see several that we’ve visited. The elevators in the Shanghai Tower were touted as the fastest in the world. Wait, wasn’t that what the Burj Khalifa claimed about theirs, too?

Looking up at the Shanghai Tower in the clouds

Looking up at the Oriental Pearl Tower, the iconic TV and radio tower that is the third tallest in the world 

At the base of the Shanghai Tower, a great exhibit with lots of familiar iconic landmarks

Dubai skyscrapers tower above the clouds

Been there, done that...

...and saw the building commonly called the Gherkin...

...and The Shard...

...and Tower Bridge

Singapore’s Merlion statue...

...and the Marina Bay Sands

G remarked that we should go there one day ;-)

The Petronas Towers

(ditto) ;-)

Hong Kong’s skyline

More skyscrapers that any other city 

The International Commerce Center we visited during our 

Hong Kong stop is the building on the far left

The Shanghai Tower at sunset 

with Shanghai Wirld Financial Center on its right

We were on this double cloverleaf going back to the Longemont Hotel


The Pearl Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Shanghai Tower





The Shanghai Tower records  

We stepped out on the 118th floor to the inside of a cloud. However, as we made our way around the building, we could see momentary clearing. In fact, the view of the Bund was clearer than what I had seen in 2004. I was shocked by the changes in Shanghai in the past 14 years. I’ve read that the 19th century belonged to the British, and the 20th to the US, but that the 21st century will be China’s turn. I believe it. 

A clearing in the clouds gave us a great view of the Shanghai World Financial Center,

118 stories tall

 

The Jin Mao Building, 93 stories tall

The Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai view from 119 floors high

We couldn’t dawdle; we went back down and took a taxi back to the Longemont Hotel, arriving just before our check out time of 1pm. We met in the lobby for our 1:30pm shuttle to the airport.  There were just three couples in a van, and again, thankfully, we had an English speaking escort. He told G and I that our flight would be leaving from Terminal 2 but we already knew that wasn’t correct and decided between us to get off at Terminal 1.  By the time we arrived (it took nearly an hour), he had corrected himself and we felt better not going rogue. 

I knew we were going to have issues with our flights, and the first one involved where to go for check in. Our flight numbers were Korean Airlines but it was a China Eastern codeshare flight to Seoul and a Hawaiian Airlines code share flight to Honolulu with only 75 minutes between flights. We went to the China Eastern counter and our bags could be checked through to Honolulu (yay), but we could not get the boarding passes for our connecting flight in Incheon/Seoul. This didn’t bode well. 

Still, there was no use in stressing over it. Instead, we each moved a pair of undies and clean socks from our large suitcases to our backpacks (in case we were spending another night in another city), checked our bags and, with exactly one hour to spare, headed to our next ‘shore excursion’ of the day: the world’s fastest train, called the Maglev. 

The world is just one big amusement park to us, isn’t it? ;-) Tallest, longest, fastest...we always were avid roller coaster fanatics. 

The Maglev (for Magnetic Levitation) is German technology that China wanted to install. The entire line is only 17 miles long, from between Terminals 1 and 2 at the Shanghai Pudong Airport, and takes exactly 8 minutes. The fallacy is that it doesn’t really go into the CBD, or anywhere that people might need to go, so from there some other form of transport is required for most people. But it was constructed as proof that the technology works. As soon as G heard about it in Destination Expert Narelle Froude’s lecture on Shanghai, it attracted him like a bee to honey. 

We walked to the station (all underground between the terminals, with McDonalds and Starbucks and other restaurants and shopping), bought round trip tickets for 70 Yuan each (about $10), went through security and waited just a few minutes for the train to arrive. It looked every bit like a bullet train, and seats inside were three on each side. At exactly the scheduled time, the doors closed and off we went. A display in each car showed the speed in kilometers per hour, and, sure enough, just as promised, we reached 431 kph, or 268 mph. The ride was smooth except for that half a second when we passed a Maglev going in the other direction and that was a quick bump. I have never gone that fast on land (our plane to Honolulu lifted off at 175 mph) and it is a little difficult to focus on individual things outside the windows. Cars on the expressway seemed to be standing still. 

The entrance to the Maglev Station at Shanghai Pudong International Airport

 

A model of the Maglev train

Reaching peak speed

The conductors salute the trains as they leave


Our train

We arrived at the end station and then immediately exited and went through security and the turnstiles and reboarded the same train to return to the airport. At just a few minutes after 4pm, the time we could first go through immigration and security, we were in line for that. When G had said at breakfast that he wanted to do both things before we left Shanghai, I was a bit incredulous that it was even possible, given our tight time schedule, but I should never have doubted his determination. 

Our flight to Incheon/Seoul was less than 2 hours and we were served a meal. A meal. It consisted of things we didn’t recognize, of course, but we ate the rice and the watermelon and a roll. Chinese food déjà vu! Korea landing forms were handed out, and we were told that all passengers needed to fill one out, but that there were none in English. Okaaayyy. Were we going to have to go through immigration just to change planes?  We’d never make it. We decided that we were simply going to try to go to the gate for our next flight, and see how that worked. As soon as we landed I turned on my phone and saw that we were landing in Terminal 1 and taking off from Terminal 1. That sounded hopeful. 

This was funny. My iPhone battery was at 8% when we boarded the flight to Incheon/Seoul because we hadn’t stopped running all day. The USB charger in my seat didn’t work, nor did the chargers of my two closest seat mates. I stretched my 10’ cord three seats away and plugged it in at these three friends’ suggestion (conveyed through sign language).

Relying on the kindness of strangers. People are so wonderful!

As proof that, at some point in our lives we must have done something good, as soon as we exited the jet bridge, there were two Korean Air reps holding a piece of paper with G’s name on it. Huge sighs of relief!  They told us to do exactly what we had planned to do- go directly to the gate- to get our boarding passes and that Hawaiian Air knew we were coming. We asked how they knew that we might have an issue and the check in agent in Shanghai had flagged our reservation. 

So while everyone else on their flight had to take their landing cards and go through immigration, we  took a train to another part of Terminal 1, went though transfer security (and had to leave behind the water on which I had just spent our last Yuans in Shanghai) and arrived at our gate when the plane was mostly boarded. We were given boarding passes with two seats together (amazing, on a totally full plane) and asked to see our baggage tags, which we hoped meant they were checking to make sure our luggage was on the plane. We were seated and the plane left the gate just minutes later. I had to take my contacts out at my seat (always scary…I can’t imagine trying to find a tiny piece of plastic on the dark floor of an airplane), but even that went well. 

The plane was full of Korean honeymoon couples going to Hawaii, and I felt (and surely looked) very old.  In fact, we may have been the oldest ones on that flight. It was a rather strange realization! Shortly after takeoff a dinner was served that was basically the same meal we had on the flight from Shanghai, but this time the mystery meat was chicken and we had a cookie instead of watermelon. We also had kimchi. I eat kimchi, I really do, but only occasionally, and in choosing between kimchi and a cookie, I prefer the cookie, so dinner #2 was white rice and a cookie. I obviously had not been able to special order vegan meals. G  fell asleep immediately and I, of course did not. 

I had downloaded the second season of Anne with an E on Netflix when we had WiFi at Taipei101 (I think) and started making my way through them. The flight was just under eight hours, and how far have we come with this travel thing when that doesn’t seem too long, but I did start to really drag about two hours before landing. Global Entry is worth every penny and then some we paid for it; we were through immigration in seconds but still had to wait quite a while to see if our luggage made it. I can’t tell you how relieved we were to see it appear on the carousel, although the wheel on my suitcase that had been fixed on the ship is now lost for good. Luckily, it’s a double wheel and the one that’s left still rolls...kind of. 

We got into our room by 12:30pm and I face planted on the bed and slept all afternoon. We had dinner on the beach and then walked along the beach afterward. Sunset #1 was absolutely beautiful, as so many here are, and we are in our room with our balcony door open right now, listening to the acoustic guitarist playing at a barefoot bar nearby.

And now we begin the third segment- the recovery segment- of our around the world adventure. 

Life is good. :-)

Day 79: An unplanned night in Shanghai

Captain Ravera was right in his assessment last evening that the Sapphire Princess might be late docking at the Port of Shanghai today. At 7:40am he announced that, though visibility remains poor due to fog, the port was re-opening and the Sapphire Princess, being a passenger vessel, would be the first to enter today around 11:30am. Shortly afterward, Guest Services made an announcement that all passengers with flights departing before 5:50pm would be unable to make them. Our flight to Beijing departs at 4:15pm. 

Have I mentioned how happy I am to have Princess EZ Air, Princess Platinum Vacation Protection, a Princess transfer to the Shanghai airport AND a full China visa?  No, I haven’t, so I’m mentioning it now. ;-)

Princess EZ Air is looking at the reservations of passengers who booked air through Princess. Passengers who booked onward travel independently have to change their own travel plans, but Help desks for air and hotels have been set up on Deck 6.  Phone and internet are being provided free of charge. We are in our cabin at 9:30am, awaiting further information.  

I’m not sure where we’ll be spending the night, but, as you’ve heard me say many times in the past, if I can’t remember something in ten years or if it will make a good story, it’s not worth stressing over today. The question is, will this episode be the former, or the latter?

2:30pm update:  We received our new flights about noon. We are now leaving Shanghai tomorrow evening and arriving in Honolulu a day late. We were lucky; some people still don’t have new Princess EZ flights and others who do don’t leave for two days. However, there is much confusion about hotel arrangements and transfers. Our original disembarkation group has just disembarked and we have been told to stay in the Casino with others similarly affected. 

5:45pm update:  We are off the ship and on a bus. Never have I ever been so happy to go somewhere I don’t know where I’m going. Dark, cold, rainy night...this is like Nice all over again. 

8:00pm update:  We arrived at our hotel at 6:30pm, were in our room by 7:30pm and will asleep in minutes, I think. We were wiped out after that long day. To Princess’ credit, in the end, because of our EZ Air, they did the right thing, but (and I know I said this same thing after Nice), getting to that point was neither easy nor straightforward.  As G jokingly said several times throughout the day, “We’ve been Shanghaied!”  

When it came to flights, we were the lucky ones. We are now flying through Seoul tomorrow evening, without the long layover we would have had on Air China today. Some people were still waiting for flights until we were told we had to disembark the ship, and adamantly maintained they weren’t leaving without flights. I don’t know how that got worked out. 

Our confusion (frustration, really) started after we were given our new flights. We were told we had to go to Guest Services to get information about hotels and transfers. I was at the desk being told we were on our own regarding an overnight hotel and transfers and at the same time I overheard the person next to me being told by someone else at Guest Services that they were being arranged for us. Meanwhile, we went to our assigned disembarkation lounge at our assigned time and were told there that if we didn’t get on the bus to the airport right then, we were forfeiting the $69 each we paid for Princess transfers. 

That’s what we were dealing with.

People were sitting everywhere in the Casino, which was being used as a disembarkation lounge as well as housing the just over 100 passengers in the same boat, so to speak, as us (some of whom couldn’t fly out until two days later). While a microphone was being used to make disembarkation announcements, and despite the fact that several of us asked over and over to get updates regarding our situation, we were told they wouldn’t do that. So every 30 minutes or so, we had to go up and ask the Guest Services staff person about our status, and then walk around spreading the news (or lack of it) ourselves.

Twice we left, around 1pm and again at 5pm, to go to the buffet to eat something, not knowing what the rest of our day would bring, but even then, one of us would return to the Casino every 10 minutes to see if there was an update.

The lowest point came at 4:30pm, after there were no more regularly scheduled disembarkation groups filtering through the Casino and we were the only ones left. Then an announcement was made (yay) and we were told that the port agent was working on finding us rooms for the night, but because it was the weekend and because we needed 51 rooms, it was proving difficult. We were told we had to be off the ship at 5:30pm and continue waiting in the terminal, or we could make our own arrangements. I asked if there was an ATM or money changer in the port terminal and was eventually told there was. So we went to the buffet and grabbed that last meal and I found a Ramada near the Pudong International Airport with two rooms left and was one click away from reserving it when we checked in one last time in the Casino and-yay- we had rooms and a bus to get us there. Excursion stickers were slapped on our coats and we were on our way. 

Of course, we still had to get through China immigration and customs, and the arrival and departure cards we had already filled out had to be re-done, because our departure date and flights had changed, and, at that point, we still had no idea where we were going, so we left the hotel name blank and hoped immigration wouldn’t notice. And then it got very bleak…once in the terminal there was no one to direct us where to go despite the fact we had been told a Princess rep would meet us. Our group grew as more of us got through immigration and had no idea what to do. 

I was still glad, though, that we weren’t venturing out on our own. The line for the money changer was very long, but the line for a taxi stretched endlessly as people waited in the dark and drizzly evening. Finally, G, who has always been a take charge kind of guy (all those years in the military, I guess) went outside to see if he could find a bus waiting for us. He was gone a long time, but finally returned to get the rest of us. I have no idea how he found the bus, I really don’t, because of all the buses and people out there and it was pitch dark, but he said he kept pointing to that excursion sticker and finally found someone who pointed him in the right direction to a bus a fair distance from the terminal. 

We loaded up the luggage (I think there were two or three buses for our group), and, as I got on the bus, I said exactly what I said in my earlier update, about never being so happy to go somewhere I didn’t even know where I was going and everyone laughed and totally agreed. We were so done. 

Luckily, we had a guide on the bus who told us in English which hotel we were going to and how long the trip would be (about an hour). And then he wrote down our cabin numbers and which kind of room we wanted (king or two beds) and gave us cards to that effect. That was when the whole thing was rather reminiscent of Nice- the bus, the dark, the rain, the cold- and once we arrived at the hotel, G immediately went to get us checked in and I rounded up the luggage. We remembered in Nice that the difference between a short check in time and a long wait was dividing and conquering. 

And, finally, about 7pm we were in our very nice room on the 31st floor in the extremely nice Longemont Shanghai. I went back to the lobby to see if the line to get information about tomorrow’s shuttles had gotten any shorter and on the way back, stopped at the pool and fitness center on the 26th floor to check it out. It was gorgeous, this long infinity pool with a large hot tub and a view of the lights of Shanghai. If I had any energy at all, I would have gone for a swim and soak. G swore he was going to…but we will both be asleep in about 10 minutes. I had slept only 3 hours the last night on the ship, watching the ship’s webcam to see if we were entering the port of Shanghai or still at anchor with all the freighters, and we had remained at anchor all night. 

Regardless of what it took to get there, the day ended well, and G was already counting on squeezing in a visit to the top of the Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world, tomorrow morning. Stay tuned. 

Life is certainly never dull. :-)

Day 78: At Sea

It was so nice to not only gain an hour back overnight, but to have no reason to wake up early either. Naturally, that meant we did awaken early, by 6am, but at least we didn’t have to spring out of bed and make our way to the Horizon Court Buffet as soon as we opened our eyes. Our day was still chilly, but not as cold as the last two days, with a high in the low 50s, and it was rather grey and we had rain showers on and off all day. Thankfully, we were in rather protected waters en route to Shanghai, and the seas were very calm.

The first thing I did this morning was to go back and re-read last night’s post. That’s certainly not the first time this season I’ve basically written it in my sleep…but it is the last time! The very nice thing about this season’s blog posts is that, with the exception of a few days early on (which I will remedy when we get to Hawaii and high speed WiFi), I have already uploaded most of the photos to the daily posts. (Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!) Thank you, Jenny, for encouraging me to do that. 

With the exception of the posts I made before I left home, and the London and Dubai posts, every blog post was typed and all photos were uploaded using my iPhone. There’s a reason I type a banal caption under every photo: once the photos are uploaded, all I can see are boxes outlining the photos’ positions and the captions under them; I can no longer see the actual photos in my post because WiFi speeds don’t allow them to be displayed. I write the blog posts hours later, in Microsoft Word (because BlogTouch Pro doesn’t support a landscape keyboard on the iPhone) and then copy and paste it into the draft post in sections, using the captions as a guide. It’s cumbersome, but it works. 

G loves breakfasts and lunches in the International Dining Room and still enjoys sharing tables with fellow cruisers. On the other hand, I become increasingly asocial as the season progresses, and while I am not opposed to sharing a lunch table with others, I simply can’t face it first thing in the morning. So G went one direction this morning and I went the other this morning, arriving in the Horizon Court Buffet early enough that I had a table all to myself. The waiters look after me so well. One brings my soy milk and another my decaf coffee and they even point G in my direction when he joins me after his dining room breakfast. Spoiled…I am so spoiled. 

Somehow, I was motivated to start packing right after breakfast. Part of it, I think, was concern about meeting Air China’s strict baggage limits (oooooooh, we are right at the limit), but most of it is that, after our last port of call yesterday, my mind is switching from cruise mode to Hawaii mode. This happens every year, and is why I say every season is exactly the right length. I’m not ready to leave the ship until I know it’s time to…and then I definitely am. 

G would not be denied one final lunch in the International Dining Room, and we were seated with a family from Brisbane and a lady from Perth who was originally from the Seychelles. The Seychelles!  My eyes lit up and I asked her several questions about the islands. I am still lobbying hard for that Norwegian Spirit cruise from February to April 2020. I know the timing is wrong for us, I know that we would suffer without internet and laundry on the ship, I know it will be very pricey, but none of that has hampered my enthusiasm for that wonderful itinerary. If we want one final season that goes to places that are largely new to us, that would be it. 

There were all sorts of sea day activities still taking place around the ship, including the culinary demonstration and galley and backstage tours. G attended the final lecture by Destination Expert Narelle Froude, this one about Shanghai, China, and returned to the cabin full of excitement about the Shanghai Maglev train, the fastest train in the world. It travels 268mph and G is convinced that, if the port of Shanghai is re-opened (read on), if the Sapphire Princess gets in on time, if China immigration goes smoothly, if we are off the ship and at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport on a timely basis, and if we can check our large suitcases well ahead of time, we need to ride that train tomorrow. That’s a lot of if’s. Stay tuned…

I readied extra gratuity envelopes and wrote thank you letters this afternoon, and happily began this blog post when I could keep BOTH eyes open at the same time (I love it when that happens). I finally watched the movie The Amazing Showman on TV because…Hugh Jackman. ;-) While we enjoyed watching movies on MUTS while we were in Southeast Asia, we felt disinclined to do so once the weather turned cold. However, not everyone was similarly dissuaded; there are people out there every night- rain, cold, no matter- bundled up in coats and blankets watching movies. 

Sadly, the Sapphire Princess lost its ESPN signal beginning January 2, so we couldn’t watch a single bowl game played on January 1 (truly tragic). However, we got it back this afternoon and I happily watched Michigan beat Penn State in basketball. Hey, I’ll take the victories regardless of sport, and basketball is second only to football in my mind (and we will never speak of that Ohio State game again). 

And about the port of Shanghai being closed right now…Captain Ravera made an announcement about 5pm welcoming us to Shanghai, and giving us the bad news that the port has been closed (due to weather?  I’m not entirely clear on that) and that the Sapphire Princess was one of 2000 ships just outside the port, waiting for it to re-open. We should have been taking on our pilot about 7pm tonight and every hour that is delayed may delay our arrival. And then there’s China immigration to go through. As it was, with an on time arrival, some passengers were not disembarking the ship until after 1pm. We are not stressing; we have Princess EZ Air and a Princess transfer to Pudong International Airport and Princess Vacation Protection. We may have to phone our hotel in Hawaii to tell them we’ll get there eventually, but we just might get an overnight in Shanghai yet. 

By dinnertime, even G was mostly packed, and we enjoyed the Last Supper with waiters Joffrey and Yesi. We were so very fortunate to have wonderful waiters and a seasoned cabin steward this year. It makes a huge difference in our enjoyment of our cruise season. In fact, we’ve had wonderful waiters in the Horizon Court Buffet and International Dining Room for breakfasts and lunches, too. The Sapphire Princess and her crew has provided us a most memorable cruise experience; Princess food, however, continues its downward trend. As a seafood eater, I still have plenty of choice, but the beef offerings that appeal to G are getting harder and harder to come by. 

Production show Born to be Wild was performed tonight, and it was a wonderful way to wrap up the cruise. We have really enjoyed the entertainment on the Sapphire Princess. There have been cutbacks there, too, notably in the elimination of a second show option most nights, and not every show will appeal to every person, but we have seen some excellent entertainment on this ship. 

We returned to our cabin, set out our suitcases, and will savor this last night of sleep before (at best) a long, long travel day (and night) to get to Hawaii. 

And that was how we spent the final day of the second segment of our around the world adventure. 

Day 77: Nagasaki, Japan

Nagasaki, which means "long cape" in Japanese, became a centre of colonial Portuguese and Dutch influence in the 16th through 19th centuries, and the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region have been recognized and included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

During World War II, the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and, to date, last city in the world to experience a nuclear attack.

Nagasaki, Japan

Where in the world are we?

We had a looong day in Nagasaki, with over 18000 steps and hours spent standing- on trams, in a park, in two museums- and that alone would leave me tired, but today was also rather poignant, and brought up a lot of family memories. And, finally, it was the last port of this cruising season, and I have mixed emotions about that, too. It would be easy to let this post wait until tomorrow, but that’s not going to happen. So here goes… 

Our arrival in Nagasaki was scheduled for 9am, and, once again we drew the short straw and weren’t scheduled to go through face to face immigration until after 11am. We were willing to wait yesterday, but were feeling a little less compliant today, and talked ourselves off by 9:30am. A visa was added to the back of our passport copies and we turned the visa back in when we returned to the ship late this afternoon. We also had to complete a customs form and have any bags we were taking into the country x-rayed.

Greeted by musicians in traditional clothing

Once in the terminal, the lines to use the one ATM or the money changer were both extremely long and slow moving. Then we found out that we could purchase an all day pass on the city’s electric trams using US dollars ($5) as well as Japanese yen and that saved us at least 45 minutes in line and started us on our way. We walked out of the terminal down to the closet stop on the Green line tram. We rode that for just a couple of stops to transfer to a Blue line tram.  We stayed on that tram for 11 stops and got off at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Park. Three sites commemorating the dropping of the atomic bomb Fat Man from the B-29 called Bockscar over Nagasaki are located in close proximity: the Peace Memorial Park, the Hypocenter Park at Ground Zero, and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

We had prepared for today by downloading several articles about the day the atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki when we were in Busan yesterday, and had spent a couple hours reading them last night. I was reminded that my grandpa who died in 2000 at the age of 95 had worked on the Manhattan Project for Baker Brothers in Toledo, Ohio. Baker Brothers machined uranium rods into plugs. Gramps didn’t know until after the war just what he had worked on; all he knew at the time is that he was helping the war effort, but he was proud that he had played a small role in bringing the war to an end. 

Of course, as a young child, Gramps was my hero; as I grew older and wiser I did question the morality of what the US had done but, in the end, I truly believe that it was the lesser of several evils. Still, I have a feeling I know what Gramps would have thought of my visit today. He was of a generation that was slow to forgive, and maintained unwavering views on the subject until he died. 

So we were prepared to be moved, and we were. We started in the Peace Memorial Park which is probably the most benign of the three sites, focused entirely on a  world in which a bomb of this or much bigger magnitude never be used again. Several countries have donated sculptures or memorials, and for Korea and China, it was especially moving to see theirs dedicated to their own citizens who were killed in Nagasaki. Japan had essentially enslaved Koreans and Chinese and US and Australian-New Zealand Prisoners of War to work in the Misubishi munitions plant very close to Ground Zero, and most of them were killed either instantly or within two weeks from radiation poisoning. 

The Peace Fountain, meant to resemble a doves’s wings. 

Peace Memorial Park had several water features; the Peace Fountain was the largest

Joy of Life statue donated by Czechoslovakia 

Several memorials had water bottles as offerings to the deceased who died of burns and thirst. 

The Peace Statue dominates Peace Memorial Park. The right hand upstretched points to the atomic bomb, the left hand points to peace and the face is in prayer for the victims. 

This photo is just because I loved the reflection in the water  

Near the Peace statue, we saw shrines with long strands of 1000 paper cranes each left as memorials, and we continued to see these at the Hypocenter Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum also. In the Hypocenter Park, a monolith surrounded by concentric circles marks the spot 1500 feet above which the bomb was detonated.  The monument’s empty tomb stands in honor of those who were never found. Physically being in this place was emotional in a way that is impossible to describe.

These are offerings of paper cranes tightly strung together in garlands. 

The paper cranes up close

Ground Zero in October 1945

Ground Zero today

Nearby, a scorched vestige of a wall from the Urakami Cathedral stands as a stark remembrance of the devastating blast. This was once the largest Catholic church in The Far East, and stood just a few hundred feet from the center of the explosion.

Urakami Cathedral wall remnant (500m from the hypocenter)

Brick damage from atomic blast

Just below the wall remnants, along the river, a window is cut into the bank. Looking in we saw the moment of impact preserved, the ground as it appeared immediately after the detonation… strewn with crushed brick, scorched rock, and melted glass. Most moving of all was the pair of pliers and belt buckle that had melted into the rock. 

The area around Ground Zero is raised now, but in building it up, the original earth was exposed. 

Original ground flattened by the blast

A wrench and belt buckle found melted into the rock

Then we continued up the hill overlooking the Hypocenter Park to what we knew would be the most emotional part of our day, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. I took few photos in here; some things, such as the human hand bones melted into glass, or photos of victims and survivors were just too graphic to want to record on this blog. A large relief map showed the approach of the bomber Bockscar over the city. In fact, Nagasaki was the second choice for the bomb drop that day; first choice Kokura was covered with clouds and so Bockscar moved on. Though Nagasaki was also covered with clouds, there was one small opening in them though which the target could be identified. 

I had been unaware until last night that Nagasaki had several US bombing raid during the weeks leading up to August 9, 1945. In fact, propaganda flyers had been dropped by the hundreds of thousands warning of upcoming devastation and telling them to surrender. After Hiroshima, Japan didn’t believe the US had the ability to duplicate that destruction with another bomb; Nagasaki proved otherwise, and surrender occurred just five days later. 

In short videos in the museum, Japanese and foreign survivors described their experience in the aftermath of the bomb. Every foreign survivor said that, as horrific as it was, it saved millions of lives. I guess I like to think of it that way. It’s by far more tenable than the alternative. 

Nagasaki in 1945

Clock stopped by the blast about 800m from the hypocenter 

Model of the bomb Fat Man dropped by B-29 Bockscar

After such an emotional several hours, we decided to turn our thoughts to something happier, and next visited the Nagasaki Electric Railway Museum. This was no easy find- we walked through tunnels under streets and along a river – but it was worth the effort.  But after time spent there, we were starting to wear down. We made our way back to a tram station where we once again were crammed in tight and holding on to overhead straps for balance. We then transferred to another tram and that one took us just two stops to the Cruise Terminal. We were shocked; the tram was empty when we boarded and we actually got to sit down on our final ride of the day. 

Nagasaki electric tram 

The only tram of the day where we got a seat ;-)

Digital signs on board make it easy to get around 

We re-boarded the ship around 5pm, did a quick clean up (showers weren’t required; the day had been as cold as Busan yesterday, in the 30s) and went to dinner in the Vivaldi Dining Room at 5:30pm. We ate in near silence. I was busy uploading photos to this post before we sailed at 7 pm and lost local service, and G was sending out texts to friends. (And that is why we love our table for two.)  The Sapphire Princess and it’s twin sister the Diamond Princess were the only Princess ships built outside of Italy, st the Mitsubishi Shipworks facility in Nagasaki. At sail away, local dancers and musicians were on the pier to commemorate that relationship. 

There was a female vocalist performing in the Princess Theater, and a physical comedian/mime performing in the Explorers Lounge, one of those rare nights there are two entertainment options. We chose the physical comedian simply because his show started at 7:15pm and we’d get to bed earlier. He was okay. If I had any energy at all I’d go out for the female vocalist’s late show, but, alas, I absolutely do not.

We’ve now completed the ports portion of our cruising season. We do have a long layover in Beijing the day after tomorrow, and, armed with our Chinese visas, intend to take a taxi somewhere for some sightseeing and dinner before returning to the airport, but that will be easy. The tough sightseeing is over. We’ve been very lucky…there have been no falls, no collisions with motorbikes, no injuries at all, no thefts, no losses, and, though we’ve certainly been lost, either alone or through the kindness of strangers, we always managed to get back on track.

Travel...there’s absolutely nothing like it. :-)