Cruises and Destinations - Our Cruise Reviews

A Sunny HOT day in St Thomas

2010-09-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

Igor was not in evidence anywhere near St Thomas. It was just HOT there.

We tied up at Havensight about 7AM and shortly thereafter we saw the Oasis heading for the other dock (crown bay?) followed by the Epic which was pushed into the harbor by a tug boat. The Epic was docking in back of us and stern to stern. From our aft balcony, it seemed to come closer and closer and closer with no signs of stopping. As we were thinking we could shake hands with the people in the aft balconies on it, the thrusters kicked in and they went sideways to the dock. They left about 6 or 7 feet between the ships but it was amazing to me the way they handle these ships. Later in the morning, the Freedom of the Seas tied up in back of the Epic .. but that captain left a lot of room!

We met Godfrey’s Tours outside of the port and embarked on a day of shopping, sightseeing, banana daiquiris and beach time. We met our open air vehicle about 9 and Pete, our driver, immediately took us downtown for shopping, until 12:00 which was plenty of time to buy a ring and have it sized .. so far the day was looking good! Unfortunately it was pretty much downhill (or I should say up and down hill and around bends) from there.

We were taken on a sightseeing tour, but we couldn’t understand a word of what was said over the loudspeaker so I have no details of what we saw. Mountaintop has burned down and the reconstruction is no yet complete, so we stopped at a botanical garden for banana daiquiris and then on to Megan’s Bay for the beach.

When we arrived at Megan’s Bay they wanted $4.00 per person and we were only going to be there an hour.. we said no so Pete took us to Sapphire Beach. Both of these beaches were extremely crowded so some of the crowd stayed at the beach and the rest of us returned to the ship.

It took almost an hour to get back through the traffic. It just was a day that never quite jelled into what we were expecting but hey I got that ring so it was not a total loss.

We returned to the ship, and by the way did you hear me mention anything about food in the above paragraph? No? That is because when we returned to the ship at around 4PM we hadn’t had any food all day so it was off to the buffet .. oh wait .. it isn’t open. So we got a piece of pizza (mushroom, roasted garlic and something else.. quite tasty ) and went back to the room to relax until time to get ready for dinner.

We left port late because we had to wait for the Epic to leave first. It managed to slide out between ships and sail away and then we were off. St Thomas was beautifully lit up as we sailed away.

Dinner was a mixed bag. One of the items on the menu was “Assorted Sea Food in Newburg Sauce” and the description said black tiger shrimp and scallops so I ordered that. I started with the Cream of Potato soup which was fantastic. Then they brought the Newburg and it had Mussel shells on top and was full of mussels which I truly dislike. So I sent it back and had a bowl of the potato soup for dinner. Those that like mussels said it was really good but I would not have enjoyed it.

After two days of sun and sun .. we were tired. After dinner, we sat outside of the Ocean Plaza and talked for awhile with our new friends and then called it a night.

Today was a sea day. I think I mentioned earlier that I love sea days. This is the part of vacation where I can sleep in and just relax. The weather was perfect, not to hot and a nice breeze. We just sat outside and enjoyed the rocking and rolling of the ship and it has been rocking and rolling a lot today.

Tomorrow I will try to post a wrap up and summary of the good and the so-so and the not so good on this cruise. We have had a great time!

Random Winds of St Maarten …

2010-09-14T21:51:00.001-07:00

Today we arrived in St Maarten at 11 AM and met Diane from the Random Wind for a day of sailing, snorkeling and overall FUN. The weather was absolutely perfect with lovely breezes and a few clouds for random shade.

We walked over to the boats (our group had reserved a sailboat and a catamaran for the day) which was the only low point of the entire day. It was a longer walk in the heat and with my bad feet than I had realized it would be. I made it, but just barely and immediately took the glass of ice water offered and poured it over my head!!

Bill and I were on the sailboat which had a lovely shady area. Trevor and Diane were the crew (and she is the owner) and they treated us fabulously. We sailed around past the famous airport where obliging planes were landing and taking off, always a fun sight, to a beautiful cove where we anchored for some snorkeling or swimming and one of the best meals of the cruise. Diane had prepared a wonderful curry chicken, potato salad, relish and green salad for us and served heaping plates. The fun part was when some of the people on the catamaran couldn’t get over to the sailboat for lunch so taking two plates at a time she swam them over to them!!

After lunch, Trevor rigged a “tarzan swing” and those that wished swung out over the water and dropped in. It was hilarious to watch all the middle aged people playing like kids. In fact it looked like so much fun I even had a go at it.

We had a shorter day than planned, but it was completely enjoyable. We sailed back to the dock and by now we had heard that there were water taxi’s available to get us back to the ship docks. I was all for that idea. We asked where the taxi could be boarded, and an obliging young man on the dock yelled over to a taxi and it came to the dock we were standing on. Ten minutes later we were back at the entrance to the port. Much more enjoyable than the walk I can assure you.

I heartily recommend Diane and the Random Wind when in St Maarten. They have a web site and if you just google it you will find them and you can make arrangements easily.

Sea Day on the Carnival Dream

2010-09-13T16:27:00.001-07:00

I always love a sea day and particularly the first sea day. It is a time to relax and explore at whatever pace you set. We seldom get up early. We just like the quiet time in the morning and this morning was no exception, we didn’t leave the room until about 10:30. Usually we would have room service bring coffee for the early morning since we are big coffee drinkers, but we did that yesterday and the coffee was all but undrinkable. This may have been a onetime thing, but we decided not to try it this morning. I think we will order some tomorrow and see.

We skipped breakfast but met our cc roll call group in the Scarlet Dining Room for lunch. I had the caprese salad and an omelet, both of which were wonderful. Bill wasn’t all that crazy about his fish sandwich but again we are talking personal taste here so others probably thought it was great. The service, however, was excellent, the best we have had on this cruise. I should also add that the dining room was not at all busy.

On the whole, I like this ship. The layout is good and there are some great little nooks and crannies to gather with friends. Last night was elegant evening and the photographers were out in force, but I didn’t think they created as much congestion as I have seen on other less crowded ships. They were doing a good job and moving lines really quickly.

We noticed that Caliente was really going strong after dinner and the crowd in the Ocean Plaza was a nice size to enjoy the music and dance. We have found that the outside deck by the Ocean Plaza is a really nice place to gather after dinner for conversation. The only problem is that there are few chairs out there. There are a lot of tables but not all of them have chairs. It seems odd, but there it is. Just inside the door is a bar which is good because there is no service out there. There is a hot tub, but we have not ever seen it open. It is, however, quiet and out of doors so it is really nice in the evening.

The casino doesn’t seem that crowded to me either. We weren’t winning, but we could always find a seat at a table or a machine to play. I have heard that there is a smoking area, but we haven’t noticed it and since we don’t smoke in the casino it hasn’t affected us.

Sam’s, the piano bar, does allow smoking, but I don’t think they allow it at the piano bar itself. I will check that out. It is a nice place to sit for a drink before dinner if you smoke. If not you probably want one of the many other bars. The Fun Times does say smoking is allowed in Caliente Club, but that club has been so crowded (and a bit loud) that I would find it hard to light up in there. (By the way, I am mentioning the smoking because we smoke and also because I think whether you do or don’t, you want to know where it is allowed and where it isn’t.)

This has been a great cruise so far, but it is not perfect (which cruise ever is?). All of the issues and any of us in our group have mentioned have had to do with service and particularly service in the dining room. It has been so so at best. Waiters ask if you want something, you say yes, it never appears. You specifically ask for something, maybe it will appear. Everyone asks for something, coffee last night, and all but one get it and the waiter is gone so long everyone else’s coffee is gone before you can remind him he missed that person. Again, I remind you, everyone’s experience is different and there a Lots and Lots of waiters so this is just our experience. Our room steward didn’t remove the luggage thing from the bed or turn down our cabin etc the first night. We were for some reason the exception in our area (we have friends in the same area) but the second night all was well. It is just the little things and we certainly would not let those few things detract from this great cruise, but they are noticed. I thought it was just us because this is only our second Carnival cruise and I just thought that Carnival perhaps did things differently, but the experienced Carnival cruisers have a whole lot more to say on the subject of service than we do.

One other thing I wanted to mention this time are the crowds. In my opinion, this ship is very, very crowded. There are lines and slow moving crowds of people everywhere. However, there does seem to be enough seating on the decks that despite the chair hogs (and they are of course aboard) it is very easy to find a place to sit. The pools are small, as others have said, but I have not seen them crowded. This may be due to the fact that we have seen very few children on this ship. I don’t know if they just aren’t here, or if they are all at camp Carnival or what, but I think I have counted about 6 so far and two of those were infants.

Tomorrow we are in Saint Thomas. Hope the weather is like today, lovely and not blazing hot!!

Kathy

Nassau on the Carnival Dream

2010-09-12T21:55:00.001-07:00

Today we arrived in Nassau at 8:30AM and joined the Majesty of the Seas and the Oasis of the Sea in port. I have had some foot problems related to some surgery so I am not a great walker at the moment and man that is a long pier! We decided just to go to town to “see” so we walked over and walked around for a couple of blocks and returned to the ship. I don’t think that Nassau will make our top ten. When we considered the crowds, the heat, the short time in port and the walk, it seemed to us that the Dream was a much better destination for this port.

Today I tried the Tandoor Grill and I really liked it. The seasonings were not overwhelming and the humus was particularly good. Bill isn’t so enthused with Indian food and had a good sized breakfast so he declined. We didn’t really do much of anything but relax (oh that almost sounds like a vacation doesn’t it ?)

Tonight is Elegant night and I always look forward to that, and Bill of course remembers his saying “Happy Wife Happy Life” and manages to dawn the Tuxedo. Tomorrow is a sea day, so I will be posting a much more extensive review of the ship itself.

I did want to mention something that is “Good to Know” and that is luggage express. I have read and read about this but the specifics have often eluded me so without further ado :

It costs $20.00 per person. The participating airlines are American Airlines, Delta, AirTran, Continental Airlines, US Airways, United, Southwest, NWA, JetBlue, Air Canada and Alaska Airlines. You must be flying out of Orlando on the same day as debarkation in the case of Southwest, by 8PM. If you have a connection, it must have the same Airline and Booking Locator Number and only domestic flights qualify. The $20 includes priority debarkation. They take your luggage Friday night, deliver your boarding passes and valet tags Friday night and your luggage is sent directly to your final destination airport.

We will absolutely be doing this since we are flying Southwest Air and after we return home I promise to post how it goes. Wonder what boarding number we will get this way ?? Perhaps we should have a lottery on that.

More from the Dream tomorrow …. Kathy

Embarkation and Sail Away – Dream Cruise to the Caribbean

2010-09-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

We have read that Port Canaveral is a very organized port and that embarkation from there is like clockwork. In this case, you can believe everything you have read. The Cocoa Beach Shuttle picked us up from the Days Inn at about 10:15 and we were on the Lido deck by 11:30. Most of the delay was caused by the fact that the buses carrying disembarking passengers were not all out of the area where the shuttle needed to drop us. Very smooth embarkation.

The Dream is pretty impressive. We are not experienced Carnival cruisers since this is only our second trip on Carnival, but the décor is not at all as gaudy as I had been led to expect. It isn’t conservative or demure, but it is really pretty interesting. The first thing that you see, as usual on cruise ships, is the atrium and it is actually lovely. There will be MUCH more exploration later but when we arrived, the first thing we wanted was food and something cold to drink (well Bill, of course, wanted coffee) so off to The Gathering we went.

Bill will have to tell you about the buffet because I opted for a hot dog and fries. My meal was o.k. not the best hot dog I ever had but the fries were hot and fresh. I really like the fact that iced tea and lemonade are available all the time since I have come to really appreciate a good “Arnold Palmer” (for the uninitiated that is ½ iced tea and ½ lemonade).

We wandered out to the aft pool and discovered that there are some smoking tables on the port side of the aft and if you sit in just the right place you get a nice breeze when someone goes into the Gathering. So we sat and talked and enjoyed the breeze until the rooms were ready at 1:30 promptly. We are in 7454 which is an aft wrap cabin so we went down three decks and around the corner and checked it out. This is a small stateroom with a great balcony and good use of windows. There is no couch, ok there is no chair either but hey .. there are two chairs and table and a lounger on the balcony and who wants to be inside anyway?? We dropped off the carry-ons and checked out the room and decided to go explore the ship. We got sidetracked when we almost fell over our luggage outside the door by about 1:45, now that is impressive to me. So we unpacked and then went exploring.

The main indoor activities all seem to be centered on deck 5 so we wandered around there for a bit and found the coffee place to get espresso and cappuccino, or in my case and Iced Americano and some truly wicked looking desserts. You do pay for these, but the iced Americano was truly excellent so I will be back there frequently this week.

Then it was time for the Muster Drill, or as it is officially called, the Safety Briefing. We went to the Scarlet dining room without the life jackets and listened to the instruction which took about 20 minutes and it was over. We were back at the aft bar to meet our friends in plenty of time for sail-a-wau. There was a sail-a-way party in the mid-ship lido area but we had arranged the meet & greet for the aft which worked out just fine.

A little relaxation on the balcony with our kindle and net-books to read and then it was time for dinner.

Dinner was a mixed bag tonite. Some of us loved out dinners (my ribs were wonderful and Bill’s enjoyed his linguine) and some sent dinners back (the tilapia was way overcooked) and some said just OK. I particularly enjoyed the gazpacho for a starter. Our servers seem like they will be good but rushed tonight, but I never judge the dining room on the first night so I will have more on that when I know more.

After dinner a few of us took the opportunity to enjoy the outside deck of the Lanai and get better acquainted. Most of us took a short spin in the casino and paid our dues and now I am ready to do a bit more of that relaxing with my Kindle.

One more quick note, there a many packages for the internet usage and since we know that we will be trying to upload not only this review, but the same review as our blog and some pages with pictures to our website while we are cruising, we opted for the most minutes with the least per minute cost which was 480 minutes for $159 which works out to 33 cents per minute and they threw in 20 minutes for signing up on embarkation day. The speed is the best we have ever seen at sea.

More tomorrow - Kathy.

Traveling From Portland to Orlando for our Caribbean Cruise on the Dream

2010-09-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

The only drawback I have ever found to cruising is the travel it takes to get to the port. Today is a perfect example. We live in Portland, Oregon and we will cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida on Saturday. You will note that in the lower 48 that is close to as far as you can go.

Conventional wisdom, and in this case I believe it whole heartedly, maintains that you should get to the port a day early just to compensate for any travel problems along the way. In order to get from Portland to Port Canaveral on Southwest Airlines, which we used because we had free tickets, we left Portland at 9:15 AM and arrived in Orlando at 9:15PM. If we headed directly to Port Canaveral, we wouldn’t arrive until 10:30 or so. Then we would be up bright and early to sail the following morning.

We opted to break that up into one day of travel to Orlando and then on to Port Canaveral tomorrow so that we will have time to relax before the actual cruise.

Now, for a travel day, things really went smoothly. The town car to take us to the airport was right on time, the traffic moved quite well through rush hour, there were no lines at curbside check-in, short lines at security (Bill didn’t even set off the metal detector), time to get coffee, organized fast boarding and an on time departure. All was well. We arrived in Kansas City early.

It is an easy airport to grab a cigarette outside and a bite to eat. Again going back through security was quick. Another flight, to Orlando, which landed 15 minutes early. Luggage all arrived and then we got a taxi to the hotel.

The taxi was a whole different kettle of fish. We told the driver where we wanted to go and it was “no problem, mon!” And then the driver promptly got lost. When I asked the clerk at the hotel how long it would take us to get there in the morning, he told us 7 minutes.

Our taxi ride was closer to 25 and a lot of it was AFTER Bill called the hotel, got the address and the driver plugged it into his GPS! He even stopped at another hotel for directions. Ah well, we are here and that is what counts!

I booked us a room at Amerisuites at the Orlando Airport and it is just like all Amerisuites everywhere, clean, comfortable and courteous staff. They even had a menu for an Italian Restaurant that delivered our dinner to the room.

So, the first leg of the adventure is over and it is off to the leg 2 tomorrow.

Kathy

Our Caribbean Cruise On the Carnival Dream

2010-09-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it is finally here! We booked this cruise in May of 2009 and it seemed like it would never get here but tomorrow morning at 7:30 we leave for PDX to fly to Orlando and then it is on to Port Canaveral on Friday. We will finally board the Dream on Saturday.

Today was a bit wild. I started with “the pamper-me” appointment. You know the stuff... eyebrows waxed, manicure, pedicure, hair color and cut. I am ready for my close¬-up Mr. DeMille  . Then it was off to do all of those last minute errands. The bank, the post office, last minute shopping (cat litter trays and batteries along with a darling little shirt and a wonderful fascinator made for me by Anne Bocci of the Anne Bocci Boutique) and finally the dry cleaning needed to be picked up. Whew, I am tired before I even start the packing!

Now the packing is a bit tricky. As soon as we get the suitcases out, the cats get suspicious and run for the door. They like to be in and out all day and while we are gone they are in for the duration. We do have a lovely young woman coming daily to feed and water and check the litter box but they are pretty anti-social unless it is us, so she probably won’t see them. We will be forgiven when we return, but Bill does have a bit of trouble with this particular part of traveling.

The other vital bit of business was to load up the Kindle, and download the correct books for the Kindle on the Netbook, the Kindle on the PC and the Kindle on the Iphone. Sounds redundant? Well actually not since I will read the Kindle and Bill will choose between the other devices depending on where we are and what is available. It does make it pretty convenient. I read voraciously and he reads occasionally and mostly non-fiction so I am attached to the Kindle and he is just looking for some time killing on all day flights and layovers. It should work pretty well.

I’m off to pack but look for our blog from the ship, we will try to blog every day.

Kathy.

Bill’s turn.

Well, tomorrow will be an ordeal. Not like going through a flood, tsunami, earthquake or hurricane, but still, across the country on Southwest Airlines… that shoots down an entire day. I suppose it’s worth it though. I am expecting to have a great time.

I’m going to try to be a little more organized than on previous cruises as far as my website goes. I plan on getting some good cruise videos of our group too. I will try to make those members who did not go jealous!

So hopefully… until tomorrow!

Bill

Our Next Cruise, The Carbbean aboard the Carnival Dream is coming up fast!

2010-09-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

In a couple of days we board a Southwest flight and begin our journey to Port Canaveral and a Caribbean Cruise on the Carnival Dream cruise ship.

Time to put together a list of things not to forget to pack. On our various cruises I've managed to forget things like a cable for the camera to download the pictures, my tux shoes, a dress shirt, swim trunks, cuff links and studs for the tux, toothbrush charger etc. I have to wonder what I will forget this time.

The Caribbean isn't really our favorite cruise destination, but we are taking this particular cruise to cruise with our group of crusing friends. A few cruises back, a big group of us who had been reguarly visiting the roll call page or something at cruise critcs, had so much fun that we decided to get together and attempt to take over more cruises. This is about the 3rd or 4th one where a bunch of our cruise critic freinds have cruised together.

I've found some photos of the cabin we will be in, cabin 7454. We got what looks like perhaps the best balcony you can get without going to a suite. That's the criteria Kathy deems the most important... what the balcony is like.

Here are some pictures of the cabin we will be occupying on our Caribbean cruise:

Interior of Cabin 7454 on the Carnival Dream cruise ship

Stateroom 7454 on the Carnival Dream

Cabin interior - Cabin 7454 - Carnival Dream

Photo of the balcony for cabin 7454 on the Carnival Dream

In a few short days Kathy and I will be doing daily blogs as we cruise the Caribbean aboard the Carnival Dream with our cruise critic friends!

Pictures of the Forbidden City – Beijing China

2010-08-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

Another item on our “must see” list is of course, the Forbidden City!

The Forbidden City, or Palace as it is sometimes referred to, is in the middle of Beijing. For about 500 years it was the Imperial Palace. The place is not small, with 800 buildings, 8000 plus rooms, and covering 720,000 square meters. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1977 as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties".

The Imperial Palace is located directly to the north of Tiananmen Square and is accessible from the square via Tiananmen Gate. The Palace Museum is one of the most popular tourist spots in the world now. As you can tell from some of the photos with the scaffolding, they are renovating it. The Olympics was coming up…

When we visited there was a Starbucks coffee shop on the grounds, but it was pretty controversial and was removed in 2007.

There won’t be a lot of narrating because we never got around to captioning the photos… and now I don’t remember what was what. This will be more of just a slide show.

The Entrance to the Forbidden City that we used.

The throne in the Palace of Heavenly Purity

And this is the other end of the Forbidden City. And that's all for this blog or slide show...

Pictures of the Great Wall of China – Orient Cruise on the Star Sapphire

2010-08-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

One of the places I never thought I would be visiting was the Great Wall of China, until we decided to take a cruise to the Orient.

Our trip to the great wall was actually after the cruise had ended. The Cruise finished up at Beijing, where we would be spending a couple of more days before flying home. It turned out pretty good. We inquired at the hotel about seeing the great wall, and they told us it was no problem to get a private tour to the wall.

We ended up with a guide and a car with a driver to take us to the wall, about an hour or so from Beijing. The cost was about the same as if we had taken one of the bus tours.

It was great. Having the guide right there with us was wonderful. We asked her all kinds of stuff and she was very informative. They took us to a part of the Great Wall of China that required us to take a cable car up to the wall… from what we understood it was a less-often visited part. Whatever… it worked out well for us.

The drive was very interesting. I’ve never seen such big power line towers. Those things were HUGE! It seemed to us that everything being built was really big. Big power line towers, big apartment buildings, big highways…

We knew we were getting close to the wall when we spotted the street vendors selling tourist type stuff on the side of the road.

Huge power line towers… The reason for the darkness of the photo is AIR POLUTION! Amazing how dirty the air was. You could look right at the sun… like looking through smoked glass.

Looks pretty inviting doesn’t it?

purses, hats, umbrellas, stuffed panda bears… everything you could ever want. Those steps on the left lead up to the cable car.

The steps that lead up to the cable car. Kathy had to take a little break...

This is a veiw from inside the cable car as we approach the great wall.

We made it! Kath and I standing on the Great Wall of Chinal!

Notice that there are people actually walking way down there... looks like an ok walk going down... but you have to come back up...

Inside one of the little guard towers... The guards lived in these little guard houses...

Kathy poses with our guide...

This is what awaits you after you get off the cable car at the bottom...

Is there no end to the steps? Yes these are fairly steep steps.

One last shop, and it's back to Beijing.

Visiting a Chinese Cloisonné Vase Factory and Market - Sapphire Princess Cruise

2010-08-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

On our return trip from visiting the Great Wall of China, we stopped at a factory and market where they make cloisonné vases.

It was interesting to discover that they start with a copper vase that is hammered into shape over a mold. There numerous steps, gluing on tiny little pieces of copper, then filling them with ceramic material and firing them, etc. and then painted and polished. Making a cloisonne vase is a lot of intensive work.

Naturally I got some photos of each of the steps to making a cloisonné vase and at the end of our tour, guess what! Yep a cloisonné vase store! Wait till you see how big some of those vases are.

So here are the cloisonné pics...

This is just inside the gates of the factory. All the little rooms around the square house little workshops were the various steps are being followed to make the vases.

Here we go... Start with a copper vase hammered out to the shape you want.

They have some inventory

Looks like the cloisenne vases are in various stages of progress

Here some workers are gluing the little pieces of copper to the vases.

More craftsmen using tweezers to glue the bits of copper to the copper blanks.

See the little pile of copper bits she is picking up with her tweezers...

Here is where the ceramic matgerial is filled into the surface of the vases.

Modern mechanized well lit factory.... well at least there weren't any kids working...

These have been filled and fired once, but they still have a ways to go..

Fired and filled twice....

This is the oven where they do the firing.

This is where the vases are polished after being fired.

Filled and fired and awaiting more filling and firing

And finally this is what you end up with... cloisonné vases!

This was not a small shop... doesn't much resemble the cloisonné vase factory.

A very large vase!

Quite a bit of detail... and after seeing how they make these things I'm double impressed.

How many years worth of work do they have here? Incredible!

Not just vases... all kinds of stuff.

Kathy was of course, compelled to make a few purchases.

And now you know how to make your own cloisonné vase!

Pearl Market in Beijing China - Sapphire Princess Cruise Review

2010-08-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Now that we were finally in Beijing we were anxious to visit the Pearl Market that we had heard so much about. We decided to go to the Peal Market and see what they had to sell as soon as we got checked in to our hotel. We grabbed a cab to the market.

The bell boy who obtianed our cab for us a cab said it would be about 40 yuan for the ride. When we got to the Pearl Market I handed the cab driver 50 yuan, but he would only take 30. How odd, but nice. The ride back was during a busier time, took longer, and cost 40 yuan. Go figure.

Well, this must be the place...

This is the 1st floor of the Peal Market... looks more like a clothing store to me.

This is the 2nd floor I think... the higher the floor the higer the prices...really.

The open booths begin to give way to enclosed shops.

No shortage of pearl necklaces...

Yes... those are big plastic bags stuffed full of pearls of all colors.

I found a balcony I could go out on near the top of the pearl market building. This is a shot of the street below in Beijing China.

Kathy makes her move...

We were in the Peal Market so long that the sun went down while we were inside. This is the same shot as the first one on this blog... but it looks different at night.

That's it for the Pearl Market In Beijing China on our Princess Saphire Cruise to the Orient.

Visit to a Chinese Kindergarden School On A Cruise To The Orient

2010-08-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

Third blog in a row about our shore excursion to Dalian in China. It was a very busy day. One of the most interesting and fun stops was at this kindergarden school. The school had it's own little zoo. This id a private school, one of the better and more expensive ones. They said the children begin to learn English at the age of 3. Jeeze, I didn't even go to kindergarden until I was 5. Interesting.

Well lets take a look at the photos...

This is our guide for the shore excursion tour for the day. His english name is Luke. He said he was an English major in college and being a tour guide for american groups allowed him to practice is English. The college proffessors assign English names to the students.

This is the main entrance to the school

Just inside the front gate...

Here the kids are playing in a sandbox... pretty nice.

Another shot of the sandbox

This school had it's own little zoo...

They had some chickens.

They had rabits

Monkeys

They even had goats.

This is a picture of the playground.

This little group of students put on a little skit for our enterainment.

More of the skit...

Talk about cute kids...

Check out the kid 2nd from the right... he has a long white beard.

And that concluded our tour of the Chinese Kindergarden school in Dalian China.

Visit to Beijing China

Dalian China - A Visit to the Fishmarket

2010-08-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

My last blog was about our visit to a Chinese family's home in Dalian. I'd like to make this blog about the same shore excursion to Dalian China, but this time it will be about our visit to the Fish Market.

This scene is just outside the fish market, which is inside the building. A little farmers market I guess.

Thats the entrance to the Dalian Fish Market on the left.

I don't know what these were... they kinda look like conch shells.. or Abalone maybe?

Looks like baracuda on the left... and those yellow things way over on the far left are called "sea cucumbers" and seem to be quite popular in restarurants.

Just imagine how good this fish market smells... Question: How long can one hold his breath?

Look at the guy on the left side of the photo... he is eating something! OMG! I would not be able to eat anything in this atmosphere... I'd be afraid to light a match in fact...

You know... this stuff is just not my cup of tea...

Ahhhh... back outside and fresh Air!

Well, I wasn't really impressed with the fish market. It smelled terrible and stacks of raw fish of every variety just does not interest me. You win some and you loose some. Fortunately the fish market was only a small part of our Dalian experience. Yet to come... our visit to a really neat elementary school with it's own zoo.

Visiting A Chinese Family In Dalian – Another Fantastic Shore Excursion!

2010-08-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

On our cruise to the Orient on the Sapphire Princess included a stop in Dalian where a high point of our day was to visit a Chinese woman in her home and visit with her for awhile.

That experience came later in the day. First we had a few other stops. It was a very busy day. No big narration for this particular blog… I think I will just put up photos and caption them.

I'll save the fish market, the zoo, and the childrens school visits for another blog at another time. I'll start with photos of the niegborhood as we arrive in our bus to visit a Chinese home and the lady of the house... her husband was at work and her son was off in the military I think...

Street picture as we get close to our destination.

It could be a street in my old neighborhood back home...

Now we are walking along the sidewalk for a block or two before finding her house...

There were a number of these vendors along the way selling their wares...

Here is the entrance to her home.

Members of our tour group in the Living room and or family room.

Another view of the same room... that is our interpreter...

Same room... let's call it the pink room... that poor husband...

This little tiny room... about 4 feet x 6 feet... was the sun room.

This doorway lead to the kitchen.

Here we are in the kitchen.

A view of the ktichen from the other end. The house was so tiny it was hard to get any good photos.

I think this was her sons room before he joined the military... I'd of joined the military too

I don't know why, but the ceiling was decorated.

Well, thats about it for the visit to a Chinese family home in Dalian China. We were all told before the cruise we should bring a small gift for the hosstes in appreciation for her showing us her home. We gave her a really nice little jewelery box made of wood, and it looked like it would fit nicely into her collection.

Osaka Japan - A Brief Visit to Osaka On Our Cruise to the Orient

2010-08-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

Our orient cruise began in Osaka Japan after an 11 hour plane flight. We were exhausted by the time we arrived so we didn't see as much of Osaka as we would have liked.

We checked into the beautiful Rihga Royal Osaka Hotel and we were very impressed with our room and the hotel in general. Our hotel had about 6 or 8 restaurants in it, some Japanese and some western styule.

One thing we quickly discovered is that you don't tip in Japan. We tried a few times, but no one will take the tip!
It was late, and we found a restaurant in the hotel, had some Japanese food, and went to bed.
The next morning we had Western style eggs and bacon and some of the best coffee I have ever had at the hotel "Coffee Shop."

Our room in the hotel in Osaka...

This was our toilet in the hotel room... Uh... Where is the instruction manual.

This was dinner... No wonder breakfast tasted so good.

A canal that ran along in front of our hotel with nice foot paths on either side.

This was neat... you drive your car in and a forklift like thingy stacks it on one of the shelves...

There were vending machines everywhere we looked.

There was this huge complex of high end stores underneath the hotel.

We only had a few hours to walk around Osaka before we had to head out to the ship, which explains why I don't have that many photos.

Mykonos - A Port of Call on our Mediterannean Cruise on the

2010-08-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

On our Crown Odyssey cruise through the Greek Islands one of our favorite stops was the port of Myknonos. Mykonos is a quaint little town with really narrow streets. Kathy enjoyed the shopping and we spend several hours wandering through the narrow little streets shopping for tourist stuff. We saw a UPS delivery guy go by on his delivery bicycle... no way a truck or even a car would fit on those streets.

We found a neat little internet cafe where where we could upload our photos and web pages for our website and check our email. The owner of the internet cafe was named Lea and she was really nice. We spend quite a while chatting with her.

This is our first view of Mykonos as seen from our cruise ship.

Windmills! Why aren't there sails on the windmills?

There were a whole lot of these streets, but very few cars driving down them...

OK... sometimes they do drive cars down some of the streets...

The streets near the harbor are pretty busy... lots of neat shopping.

We had lunch at a nice little outdoor restaurant right next to the water, and the guy at the next table had red snapper... Do you see those teeth? I didn't know red snapper had those nasty looking teeth.

What is it about clothing stores and women?

Kathy and Lea, the internet cafe owner... she was actually from France.

And there I am using probably the only computer in the cafe... LOL

Someday Kathy and I will be back there again.

Cruise Food Pictures From HAL's Oosterdam - Baltic Cruise

2010-08-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

My last blog was about the food on the Crown Odyessey and so I thought I'd do this blog about the cruise food we encountered on our Baltic cruise aboard HAL's Oosterdam. This was our first HAL cruise, and I was very impressed with both the food and the service.

As far as I am concerned Holland America Lines has the best food and service of any of the cruise lines I've sailed with. In the dinning room the waiters were attentive and alert to whatever we wanted.

Usually I have a hard time getting waiters to bring me a cup of coffee with my dinner. I have to remind them for several days. On the Oosterdam I told the waiter about my coffee addiction the first evening as I always do, and that was the last time I had to mention it.
Again, in the dinning room, the presentation of the food was spectacular. We always eat dinner in the dinning room, second sitting, at a large table with a lot of people if possible. We never fail to meet interesting and friendly people at dinner, and dinner at our table is usally more entertaining than some of the shows.

Another great food related item... the Oosterdam has an omlet bar! Kathy loves to have custome made omlets in the morning. Shall we start off our food pictures with one morning's breakfast...

Kathy's custome made omlet cooked perfectly, in her opinon, a few potatoes and a couple of link sauges and you have the perfect breakfast, at least for Kathy.

As for me, a couple of pieces of french toast and a couple of strips of bacon and I'm good to go.

Another thing about the Oosterdam that I found nice was they have trays of fresh baked cookies, really good cookies, out 24 hours a day. It was all I could do to not grab a cookie everytime I walked by one of those trays.

Here is one of those trays of fresh cookies. Often still warm. I especially like the ones with the macadamia nuts in them. The chocolate chip cookies were really tasty as well.

Have to get in a few photos of the buffet lines on the Oosterdam.

Some salad fixins...

Chicken on the left and Roast Beef on the right.

Meats and Veggies in the Buffet Line

I think that's enough of the Buffet. There were often buffet lins set up elsewhere like out by the pool. Specialty buffets I guess... tacos, or German Food, etc. There is alwasy the hot dog bar and the pasta bar. I occasionally had an a la cart plate of spaghetti from the pasta bar... the bolognase sauce was terrific.

We always have a few hot dogs and burgers from the hot dog bars on our cruises. An lets not forget the excellent chinese buffet and the shushi. Food food food, everywhere you look.

Cruse Ship Shushi of Course.

A German buffet out by the pool.

Crab cakes in the dinning room. Presentation.

Filet Mignon and Bernaise Sauce - For Kathy

And I will have a perfectly cooked Rib Eye steak please.

For you desert lovers... how about chocolate cake and Ice Cream?

Don't remember what this was...

This one either.

Adios Amigos...

Cruise Ship Food From Our Millennium Cruise On The Mediterranean

2010-08-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of cruise ship food. What I wouldn't give to be able to eat like when I was younger... I used to be able to down a Big Mac, a Fillet O Fish, a large order of fries, and a chocolate milkshake in one sitting. Not any more! Now days if I have a hot dog for lunch I won't be able to eat dinner.

Can you imagine having to walk by the buffet about 20 times a day just wishing I could this or that. I love Chinese food, Mexican Food, pasta of all kinds, cheeseburgers, heck, I like everything. Kathy and I like to sit at the late sitting dinners at a large table with a bunch of people. We always end up making new friends and having a great time.

So I try to get by the buffet at least once a day and take a dab of this and a dab of that just to taste all the amazing looking food.

Once or twice on the cruise Kathy and I like to get up in time for breakfast at the buffet... although starting the day on a full stomach is unusuall for us, what the heck... it's a cruise!

Some cruise ships like the Millennium have "omlet bars" where you can have a custom made omlet... This is one of Kathy's favorites.

A nice variety of breakfast rolls and breads

Zulpubor our waiter recommending which desserts we should sample this evening - every night Z gave us the rundown on what was 1 2 3 and 4 on the desert tray. Zulpubor, no I can't pronounce his name, was a great waiter. He was from Turkey and was not only a great waiter but could do magic tricks and was a master napkin folder...

I'm tellin ya... he could really fold those napkins...

Lobester tail and baked potato... One of the neat things about eating in the dinning room is that if you want more it's no problem... Kathy alwasy has at least two lobster tails. Once when her 6 foot 5 inch 230 pound son had about 6 of them and it was no problem for the dinning room.

This was our buffet lunch at the Meena Hotel in Cairo, within eye shot of the great Egyptian Pyramids!

This was a tiny little restaurant in Monaco... Kathy claimed her salad had the best blue cheese she had ever eaten! I was apparently having spagetti.

This was a neat little market we stumbled on while shopping in the back side streets of Kusadasi....

The ship had a night called "The Grand Buffet" which was quite a big deal... at least for the food staff.

The ice sculpture means that it is now time for me to go take a couple of Tums antacid tablets...

Athens Greece – Visit During a Celebrity Cruise on the Millennium

2010-08-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

The ship actually docks in Piraeus, and you take a bus or cab to Athens itself, about a half hour trip as I recall. The ship of course has busses lined up for those who want to go to Athens for the day, but Kathy and I decided to just grab a cab.

Our visit to Athens was sandwiched between two “at sea” days. That’s the way I like it, rested up and ready for a new port of call. Then come back tired and have a sea day to rest up. In truth, Athens wasn’t all that exhausting. We had been to Athens on our last cruise less than a year previous, and so we just strolled around and did some window shopping in Athens.

We did go to a tiny little internet café to update our website. It was on the third floor of a very old rickety looking building. The only way to and from the café was a very narrow spiral stairway. It was a little scary. What if there was a fire or an earthquake or something?

We had lunch in an outdoor restaurant and of course I had to get photos of the food. Lunch was excellent. After lunch we wandered down some little side streets to kind of see how the local people lived. It was interesting. Everything is so old.

Here is a batch of photos from our day in Athens from our cruise on the Millennium.

Kathy online at the little Athens internet cafe on the third floor of an ancient Greek building....

And this is the view out the window in front of Kathy in the previous picture. You can just see the corner of the Parthenon atop the acropolis. Awe inspiring views wherever you look.

Still in the internet cafe... different side of the building.

One of those little side streets...

Kathy, in a nice little indoor mall.. directly ahead is the reataurant where we had our lunch on our day in Athens.

I had stuffed zuchinni... it was very good... much better than it looks.

Kathy had her usual... A Greek Salad! She loved the taste of tomatoes in Greece...

Brave little pigeons...

Another of those little side streets in Athens...

and that's it for this blog...

Our Visit to St. Maarten - An Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Caribbean Princess

2010-08-02T01:48:00.000-07:00

Shopping note: St. Maarten is a free port and has no local sales taxes. Prices on liquors, imported linen, quality fine perfumes and European chocolates can be as much as 50% less than those found in the U.S.

We had a private tour with our Cruise Critic friends Steve and Beth with a local guide, whose name was Joyce.

Joyce was a wonderful tour guide. She was very personable and knew everything about St. Marrten. She took us all over the island in her SUV which was air conditioned thank goodness.

We stopped and had some really good hot dogs at a hang out just past the runway at the airport, on the beach. After the tour we told her we wanted to purchase some Hawaiian shirts. She took us to a fantastic store that had some really great bargains, just the kind of stuff we were looking for...I got three very nice shirts for $20.00!

One of our first stops was to get a shot of the Caribbean Princess. There were a lot of these spectacular views on our little private tour.

That's me on the left, then Kathy, and Beth and Steve - Cruise Critic Friends - Joyce the Guide took the photo.

These two statues were appropriately enough at the entrance to the nude beach.

Building a house on the hillside.

One of the beaches.

Look at the color of the water... it was gorgeous.

Not too crowded either...

Had some food here... the airport is a few hundred feet away... luckily it isn't all that busy of an airport.

Another inviting beach...

Joyce our guide teaches us about Sea Grapes

Look how happy Kathy is when she is shopping!

Yes, she bought this dress.

Goodbye St. Maarten... We had Fun.

Mazatlan - Shopping for Jewelry, Vanilla, and Going Para-Sailing

2010-07-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

In Mazatlan we decide not to do a shore excursion. Kathy wanted to do some jewelry shopping and we wanted to pick up a few bottles of vanilla for a friend back home.

Mazatlan is a quiet little seaside town catering to tourists, and is known for its jewelry stores. Judging by the number of cruise ships tied up at the dock, Mazatland must be a very popular cruise destination.

In order to get from the ship to the area where we wanted to shop required a lengthy cab ride. I think the area we went to is called "the gold zone" or somehting like that. Kathy was looking for a specific type of gem, or jewelery made with it.

The taxi ride was one will not soon forget. I didn't get any pictures of the fear on our faces during that cabbies wild ride.

This is a view of Mazatlan from aboard our ship.

On the dock there were plenty of Taxi cabs waiting to take cruise ship passengers where ever you want to go.

Everywhere you look there are huge buses parked... obviously the shopping area is a popular destination.

Lots of People... lots of shops... and man was it ever hot!

This mall is supposed to lead to the beach... Looks to me like it leads to McDonalds!

This is a photo of the beach from inside a restaurant at the end of that mall. We had to stop and have a cold one. While we had our beer we watched the goings on at the beach. They were selling para-sailing rides and so after we finished our beers, we walked down to get Kathy a para-sailing ride.

There's Kathy, suited up and ready for take off...

And here is Kathly coming in for a landing....

Catching a taxi back to the cruise ship was a real pain. But we eventually got back to the ship.

We didn't find the jewelery Kathy was looking for, but we did get a couple of bottles of vanilla for our friend and Kathy got to go para-sailing. We had fun.

Santorini Greece, a Wonderful Cruise Ship Port of Call

2010-07-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Most cruises of the Greek Islands include a stop in Santorini. They dock in the port below Thira and you can go up the side of the volcano by cable-car, donkey or on foot if you are in good physical shape.

Santorini was one of the places we would like to visit again. No particular reason that we can put our finger on, we just had a wonderful day when we were there. We had an absolutely wonderful lunch at the top of the island. Rode the cable car up.

I was there back in 1969 just after graduating from high school. Back then there was no cable car, you had to ride donkeys up the cliff. You can still ride the donkeys, but we opted for the cable car.

The view from the cable car was amazing. As we at lunch at the top we could look down at the ship in the harbor below.

A view of the island of Santornini as seen from our cruise ship

I took this photo of Santorini from the tender bringing us in from the Crown Odyssey

Note the zigzag trail going up the side of the mountain... that's where the donkeys take you to the top.

Arriving at the top of the Island via cable car

See the Donkeys headed down the narrow path?

Thats the Crown Odyssey, Our Cruise Ship Photo taken from the cable car.

One of the spectacular views

Another amazing view of the island

The view of our ship from our table as we ate lunch. The thatched roofs are sun shades over the restaurant tables.

It was sometimes a little tricky finding your way around... kind of like being in a maze

And there we are... and that's all folks!

Puerto Vallarta On Our Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Oosterdam

2010-07-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican Riviera

Our Puerto Vallarta shore excursion wasn't going to be until the evening, so we had time to wander around in Pureto Vallarta and do a little shopping and sight seeing. We stopped in at Senor Forgs and had a Margarita. In the downtown area there were paitings on display by local artrists which was interesting.

The Oosterdam in Puerto Vallarta

Downtown Puerto Vallarta

Paintings by local artists being displayed along the beach.

This pirate ship ride was a shore excursion that we passed on...

On the Catamaran headed for our evening enterainment on the island of

A shot of the front of the boat. The sun is going down as we

approached the beach where the evening festivites.

Las Caletas beach where the party takes place

Some of the enterainment

Dinner was a great Mexican buffet... and it was excellent.

A version of a Mariachi band sort of...

After dinner there was a very nice floor show at a nearby amphitheater, but
pictures werent allowed, and it got too dark to get any photos of anything else.

So Adios Amigos!

Pictures of Berlin from Our Baltic Cruise on the Oosterdam

2010-07-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

Our shore excursion to Berlin began with a 2-1/2 hour train ride to Berlin from where the Oosterdam docked in Warnemunde Germany. It was one of those 6:30 a.m. excursions. Ugh.

There wasn’t really much countryside to photograph since the train seemed to alternate between dense forest and tall dirt berms.

There were plenty of nifty stuff in Berlin; check point Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg gate and other sights.

Without further ado, here are the photos...

Boarding the train to visit Berlin on an Oosterdam shore excursion

The train had a bar and smoking car... and this is it.

This is a typical apartment building

THere were a lot of canals such as this one around town

This a marker showing were East and West Berlin were separated.

That little guardhouse behind Kathy is the original real "Checkpoint Charlie".

Checkpoint Charlie from the other side and not so close up...

The World Famous Brandenburg Gate. There was some sort of exhibition going on
and they had this giant soccer ball set up outside the gate.

This is the hotel were Michael Jackson dangled his son over the balcony....

This was a UNICEF tour that hat a painted bear for each of 123 countries.

We found the bear from the United States... the Liberty Bear.

Ah... I found the "Einstein Bear".

This is a church that was bombed out in the war and is now a memorial.

One of the last reminants of the Iron Curtain

Thats all folks.