We had requested a table for six, but only two of the other table mates showed up the first evening. We didn’t like the fact that these people knew where we were from and also knew the same about the two who didn’t show up. We had never really thought about what information passengers are privy to, however, especially after meeting these people, we wondered what else they knew about us. We left the table that night with one of us considering this a horrible experience and the other finding our table mates fascinating and anxious to see how they would outdo themselves at the next meal. We hoped that the two absent people would show up the next night; they did.

Baked Alaska

What a contrast these two women were to the other couple. Astutely perceptive, or maybe not so much considering the cringed looks on my face, they quickly realized how miserable I was. Neither we nor they discussed the other couple the first night, not knowing if these people might have found anything unusual about them. It didn’t take long for them to say something later when we ran into them on the ship. We made a pact that we would let them know if we wouldn’t be coming and that we would do the same. Every night, they buffered us with their bodies that separated us from the offensive couple.

It seemed that the entire dining room staff surrounded our table on a nightly basis pandering to the demands of the high-maintenance couple; nothing was good enough for them. In actuality, there were only four or five staff catering to this couple. They requested the next evening’s menu so that they could make several selections cooked exactly as they wanted. Every night a special six item salad and a particular soup, neither of which appeared on the menu, had to be served. The soup came with a special cover on it and often times in spite of a huge cloud of steam that escaped when uncovered, the soup still wasn’t hot enough or didn’t taste like the soup mom used to make or had one too many noodles in it. Nothing pleased this couple, although they consumed more food than the rest of the table combined.

In addition to the excessive food demands, one of the couple had a nose that ran like a Class V river. It dripped on the table, onto plates. It went everywhere. When tissues were used to try to wipe the snot away, they ended up all over the table and on the large window sill next to our table.

Rejected Concerns

We spoke to our head waiter about the disgusting situation and were told that there were no available tables. He also informed us that it was the couples’ vacation and that they had a right to enjoy it. What about the other 600+ passengers? We didn’t appreciate that response. Some other passing guests overheard us and also chimed in as they had endured our table mates at lunch. The head waiter’s attitude offended them as much as it did us. We all agreed that Princess works hard to satisfy guests, but doing so at the expense of the majority of guests seems very short-sighted.

Not being buffet types and not wanting to abandon our other table mates, we returned to our table for dinner. Our good humored table mates saved the evenings for us. But, they eventually got disgusted with the unhygienic practices and the histrionics of the narcissists. The people at adjoining tables approached us during the day and asked what was going on at our table every night. They complained that their meal time dragged on due to slow service resulting from too many staff concentrating only on two people. We filled in our service comment card and deposited it into the box at the purser’s desk.

We never received a response and filled in a second card. The snotty-nose guy showed up to dinner with an IV port in his hand. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. When we saw our nice table mates, we informed them that we wouldn’t be eating at that table anymore. We just could stand it no longer. We decided that we would have to eat pizza for dinner, but then made a fortunate discovery. We had read about the Bistro, but just thought that was what they called the pizza place and buffet in the evening. We were quite surprised to get sit-down service and a menu. We were so happy to have an option that we enjoyed.

Destroyed Dreams
After we had eaten just two days in the Bistro, our table mates told us that the couple would be leaving the ship because the man was so sick that he would have to go to the hospital to recuperate enough to be able to take a plane back home. They disembarked and we had plans for a great celebration that evening. When we returned from our port visit in a state of elation, another passenger who knew of the situation told us that she saw these people return in a cab with their luggage and get back on the ship. Surely she was jesting and playing with us. She was not.

The return provoked a visit to the doctor. We know that there are confidentiality rules, but we had serious concerns about somebody who was so sick, who announced he supposedly had bronchitis, who was not responding to meds, who had an IV port, who was asked to leave the ship….. and then allowed to return. She couldn’t say much other than the person was supposed to limit contact with other passengers, but called the maitre d’ about the situation. That evening, we had another table. (Our original comment cards got overlooked somehow according to the Captain’s Circle hostess.)

Shortly after we switched tables, the pleasant companions became severely distressed. The sick guy touched everything. Even seeing him touch the salt and pepper shakers or a menu was enough to cause disgust. They joined us and for the rest of the cruise, we had quite enjoyable dinners. We will never understand why this couple and their foolish needs took precedence over the rest of the passengers. And why did no one ever bother to respond to our complaints? The maitre d’ did say to us that he was surprised that we lasted at the table as long as we had and also commented that these were some of the most difficult passengers he had to deal with. Well, considering the demands on the staff and the amount of time devoted to attending to this couple, you might think that he would have been proactive in this situation.

Well, I guess that there is more about the food to talk about, but in our case, we could definitely say that as far as dining, the experience was everything.

Next time: more about the food.

Sail Away

Dover Terminal

We headed to the Dover Terminal after having toured the Dover Castle, definitely worth the effort. The last time that we visited Dover as a port of call on the Crown Princess, we hiked up the White Cliffs and out to the lighthouse. This time we wanted something different. The views from the castle are spectacular and we could see our ship in the distance.

Dover Cruise Port

The actual boarding process went smoothly. The past passenger line was longer than the regular line, but moved quickly enough, although we would have been checked-in sooner if we had gone to the general boarding line.

To the ship in Dover

We had booked an inside guarantee and didn’t have a cabin assignment prior to boarding. It was a nice surprise to have been assigned cabin 4006, an ocean view stateroom. We found the cabin comfortable with plenty of storage space and in a good location. We did have trouble with the air conditioning and although maintenance promptly looked at it, we never did get our room cool enough for our tastes.

Ocean Princess Cabin 4006

The beds have just a duvet as a covering, which we found to be far too hot especially considering that we couldn’t cool our room adequately. We simply requested a top sheet to help with the situation and our excellent attendant provided one from then on.

As much as we appreciated our upgrade, there was one reason to curse it: the light. Being far north, we didn’t ever experience total darkness. That made sleeping difficult for us. Yes, we could have worn eye shades, but we don’t find them especially comfortable and forgot to pack them. Instead, we came up with some interesting ways, mostly involving cushions from the sofa and towels to block out the light. It would be nice if ships had a drape system that could block out all light, especially on itineraries that travel to destinations with extended daylight.

We liked the fact that we could turn to a specific television station to hear the announcements in our room. That is so much simpler than having to run and open the door to hear what is being said. It seems that announcements often come right after stepping out of the shower or in the middle of getting dressed when it isn’t convenient to hear them.

Next time: dining.

Sail Away

Ocean Princess in Seydisfordur

The Ocean Princess Ship
We are honorary godparents of the Ocean Princess, a fact that didn’t impress even the Captain, who may have been unaware that Princess has many honorary godparents for this vessel, formerly the Tahitian Princess. So if you are also an honorary godparent, don’t expect any special treatment or recognition when sailing on your ship.

Carrying 680 passengers, the Ocean Princess is the latest rendition of the original Renaissance R4, from the now defunct line. The smaller ship allows calls to ports of call that can’t accommodate larger cruise ships. Sailing on a ship this size has both advantages and disadvantages. The obvious advantage is the ability to visit a wide range of ports. The ship is easy to navigate and it is easy to make acquaintances with other passengers who you will run into all the time.

The disadvantages include running into the same passengers – especially the annoying ones; the limited bar spaces and other public meeting spaces, smaller and less lavish shows and fewer activities in general. For those who cruise for the ship rather than ports of call, this could be a drawback. For us, we really enjoy the smaller ships, but admit to not really being show people. We always find a way to entertain ourselves without resorting to the cruise line offerings.

Due to the longer itinerary and the ports of call, most of the passengers were experienced cruisers and there were few children, but those few children were left to run wild on the ship. There is no kids club on this ship, which should have been a big hint to some passengers to choose a different ship for their hooligan children. Of course, even passengers on ships that offer facilities for the children, don’t appreciate unattended and unsupervised children creating havoc throughout the ship.

Adult games and events were attended by the children causing adults to abandon the activities. Shipboard staff seemed not to care even when the events took place in the nightclubs, where children under a certain age and after a certain hour shouldn’t be permitted in the first place.

Because this is a smaller ship, there is no option for Anytime dining. That caused a problem for us as we found our table mates to be poor dining companions, but that story is for another post. Not being buffet types, we don’t usually eat there, but there are two specialty restaurants that alternate operating days. However, the buffet becomes a bistro during certain hours and has a more casual sit down service.

The library had a nice collection of reading material and put out a sometimes inadequate supply of Sudoku and trivia quizzes. The book exchange was well supplied with books in several languages.

Next time: Cabin 4006

Sail Away

We personally did a scattering of ashes on the Celebrity Millenium. We had a private ceremony with the ship’s officers, one of whom read a poem selected by us. Due to the weather, we had to reschedule the scattering as ships must comply with federal and environmental regulations. After the ceremony, we were presented with a certificate noting the latitude and longitude of where the ashes had been scattered.

Cruise Bug Vacations can help with the arrangements and plan the cruise for you. Isn’t this a much better option than the traditional somber wake that so many people experience?

Sail Away

But, getting to the Canada Place in Vancouver is quite simple using a combination of public transportation and walking. In contrast, Ballantyne Pier is best accessed via taxi. The neighborhood isn’t the best and the passenger terminal is in an industrial area.

For the many options to the ports, take a look at Oliver’s Walk to My Cruise Ship site.

When using public transportation, be sure to check on the frequencies and schedules along with any restrictions that might prevent you from carrying large bags on buses or subways. And do think carefully about whether or not you can handle all those bags on the steps into the bus and up and down the escalators at the subway stations. While it might take 30 minutes to get from the terminal to town, in the end it could take several hours if service is infrequent.

Sail Away

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Baked Alaska

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Come back to hear about our 18-day cruise in the far north.

Sail Away

Doubtful Drapes
Our drapes didn’t totally block the light no matter what we did. Light seeped through the top of the drapes where they were attached to the rail. We did everything that we could to block the rays of light that shone in our room all hours of the night.

Solutions
If you have problems sleeping in a room that is too light, consider the following, especially if you will be traveling in the lands of the midnight or most-of-the-night sun:

Whatever you do, enjoy your cruise.

Sail Away

Whenever we travel, we also labor over how to best carry money for use when in port. It’s so convenient that the cruise line uses a cashless system onboard.
But, getting money when traveling in foreign countries always presents a problem. First, it is often hard for us to judge exactly how much money we will need while ashore.
We hate carrying large amounts of cash to convert to the local currency and we don’t want to change too much. We always hope that we will be returning to a destination where we seem to have excess currency, but that isn’t always the case.

Our Solution

We did some research and found a credit card that does not charge foreign transaction fees on purchases. We hated seeing an additional 3% charge on all of our purchases, so did some research and found a Capital One credit card that does not charge extra fees for foreign transactions. We aren’t huge shoppers, but those fees can add up. We are especially thrilled that we didn’t have to pay this surcharge when we purchased a carpet in Turkey.

We solved the problem of fees on credit cards, but exchanging money still posed a problem. Every time we used our debit card, we got slapped with at least one fee. And we didn’t want to use a credit card because a cash withdrawal equals a cash advance in their eyes and we refused to pay the exorbitant rate for a cash advance.

A little bit of research found that Bank of America belongs to the Global ATM Alliance. That means that we could use an ATM at the following banks without a service charge:

Barclays (United Kingdom)

BNP Paribas (France)

China Construction Bank (China)

Deutsche Bank (Germany)

Santander Serfin (Mexico)

Scotiabank (Canada)

Westpac (Australia and New Zealand)

This obviously misses a few countries, but it is a start. HSBC is a bank that we see all over the world, so it may be worth investigating them to find out if they have any charges at foreign locations.
Our only concern now is that we have a six-digit pin. The help desk in India said that we simply use the first four digits of the pin when abroad. We sure hope that is correct.

One last thing to do before travel is to call your credit card bank and let them know that you are traveling so that your card isn’t blocked when charges in foreign countries appear.

Sail Away