On the way home

May 6, 2013
Vancouver International Airport
This was a day of waiting, confusion and frustration.
This cruise has certainly been in wanted nothing more than pthe very tiop tier of cruises we have worked on. Our presentations were flawless.  The ports of call were fascinating.  The food, entertainment and service aboard was first-rate.
However the departure from the shipand the ground transfers, were nothing short of chaotic.
It seems as if each person on the shore side wanted nothing more than to pass us on to the next person, rather than attempting to really solve our problem relating to ground transportation .
I won't go into details, but we must have received 40 different "answers" from 40 different people between the time we exited the ship's gangway and finally got your ground transportation, which was supposed to have been provided.  We finally just grabbed a taxi and will deal with this matter when we get home.
Anyway, we still have a wait of at least six hours at the airport before our late Delta flight takes off for Salt Lake and transfer to Palm Springs.
Hurry up and wait!  :)

WE did make it home by 11:00 pm.  Two commuter jets, but smooth ride. 
It was actually cool here in Palm Springs!

A Few Hours in Victoria

The day dawned absolutely beautiful.  We will be rounding Cape Falttery, the northwest tip of Washington state, today.  After the rough water the past two days, this is quite a relief.
We spent much of the morning packing, but enjoyed some time by the pool in deck chairs.
Unlike other days, our presentation took place in the afternoon.
Our first five presentations have received rave review from both passengers and staff, with many personal comments and follow-ups.  We really couldn't have done better.
Entering the Juan de Fuca Straits, we were entranced, as always of the Olympic Mountains on the starboard side, and Vancouver Island on our port side.
The original schedule had us stopping for shore excursions and visits to Victoria at 6:00 pm.  the headwinds and heavy seas of the previous two day slowed our progress and we couldn't get ashore until 7:30, which made for a short evening on land.
We were greeted on land by our good friend, Brenda Hazelton, who lives in Victoria.  She is a port greeter and was dressed in the charming costume of the Victorian era.  She invited us to her home, where we were pleasantly surprised to also see our mutual friends, Steve and Janis, another couple from the Sands.  What a good time we had chatting about a wide variety of subjects!
All too soon, it was time to return to the ship for a slow-speed crossing to Vancouver, where our cruise will end on Sunday.
Brenda and Jim, thank you so much!

Brenda, Donna, Janis, Steve & Mokie

Jim, Brenda, John Steve, Mokie in Victoria

It's Show Time!

Donna enjoys a beautiful evening on the Promanade Deck

May 2-3

Two Days at Sea

We have enjoyed two days at sea. We were presented two shows that we wrote and produced on the history of the great ocean liners. The first one, on Thursday, took us up to 1930 and emphasized the history of the immigrant experience and also WWI. The Friday show continued with the saga of the ocean liners from 1930-1960 including the important war effort of these ocean liners.

The show lounge was filled with guests during our shows and from the comments that we received after each show, the audiences seems to enjoy our shows very much. We found that we have a ‘following’ of guests who have attended each of our shows. Many of the guests that boarded this week in San Diego mentioned that they wish that they could have been able to view our earlier shows. 

The guests with scheduling conflicts have watched the presentations on their stateroom TVs at their leisure. We haven’t been able to walk anywhere on the ship with out someone stopping to talk about their own family experiences on these ships and to tell us just how much they have appreciated having us on board. Our heads are growing daily with the compliments we are receiving. This has to be the largest amount of comments that we have ever received on our shows on any previous cruise. The compliments are definitely our “pay”. We love presenting our nautical series of shows for the hundreds of guests on board..

our venue, Showroom at Sea on the Statendam

After our morning show on Thursday, we went up to the Crow’s Nest which is a wonderfully positioned bar on deck 12 in the bow of the ship. Since this is an older ship, this area has not been filled with verandah staterooms  or a gym as is the case with the newer ships looking for revenue everywhere. While we were looking out the windows in this observation bar, we were lucky enough to see a variety of whales nearby. Many of them broached and all of them entertained us. There was a blue whale, a fin whale and humpback varieties all spotted. It was exciting to see these whales so close to our ship.

On Thursday, we went to a wonderful headliners show with all the band playing and two of the four singers showing their fabulous skills in operatic styles. This ship has the smallest entertainment crew that we have ever experienced with only two dancers, four singers and five musicians so they are busy everyday in the bars and on stage and they do a fabulous job each time we see them in various venues around the ship.

Friday found us off the northern CA coast with the first rough seas of the cruise. It was windy and choppy all day so we had difficulty walking our two miles on the promenade deck so we had to resort to walking the inside decks. Tomorrow is supposed to be calmer and this will be appreciated by the other guests and by me (Donna) as I had trouble standing on the stage to deliver our show and felt a little sea sick when we went up to the highest lounge, the Crow’s Nest.

Tomorrow we arrive in Victoria for the evening and some of the guests living on Vancouver Island will disembark. The rest of us will have the evening to enjoy this lovely city.

San Diego, a US Port of Call

May 1, 2013

San Diego, a US Port of Call

San Diego is always one of our favorite ports of call.  There is so much to do in the city.  Since we lecture on maritime themes, our first stop was the San Diego Maritime Museum, located right next to our ship’s docking area.

The museum is most famous for the windjammer, Star of India, the oldest merchant ship still afloat. 

In addition the Star, many other ships are included in the museum.  A replica of Surprise, a British brig-of-war from the Revolutionary War era is absolutely fascinating.  Also in the fine collection of ships are racing yachts in the America’s Cup class, as well as two submarines, (one Russian) and a classic San Francisco Bay ferry, restored to its condition 100 years ago.

When it comes to historic merchant ships, nothing beats the Star of India.  The barque-rigged, iron-hulled square sailer was built in 1863 and, over the years, hauled just about everything from bulk cargo to immigrants from Britain to New Zealand.  Of course, since one of our most popular lectures is about square riggers, we spent much time aboard, examining nearly every feature of this proud ship.  We were amazed at the amount of interior room below decks and also discovered that the crew of the ship numbered only about 25. Just sixteen of those were seamen who went aloft in the rigging. Comparing the British brig of the mid 1700s to the 1863 Star of India, we were surprised to find how far sail technology had advanced in just one century.

For any traveler to San Diego harbor, the museum is a must.

After catching up on our email, we spent some of the afternoon hours strolling through parts downtown of San Diego.  This central area lacks much in the way of retail space and is mainly occupied by government buildings, financial institutions and hotels, but we were still fascinated at the way their railroad service interfaced nicely with the efficient light-rail trolley service.

Our ship departed San Diego after dinner and we were soon heading north.  Our next port-of-call will be Victoria, three days from now.

Two Days at Sea

The Star of India was our next door neighbor in San Diego

may day
We are docked for the day in San Diego and the weather is lovely. About 400 guests disembarked here and we are added about the same today on the way to Vancouver. We have presented 3 shows on board with great reviews from the guests. We have 3 more to go. This is a lovely older ship, Holland America Statendam and we are enjoying the great service from the staff. Nice to be back in US waters.