Mike B Landlubber

For years I’ve heard retirees say that for those who don’t worry about using up vacation days, cruises are the best way to cross the Atlantic. In May I will find out for myself on my first retirement trip, taking MSC Divina from Miami to Genoa on May 15-June 3! I will attend a Road Scholar trip in Italy, then go back to tradition and fly home on a cheap airline ticket! 🙂

I find solo travel doable for the most part, though harder than being in groups. I’ve become kind of a fan of Road Scholar for areas where the language and practicality barriers to solo travel are more intimidating (Eastern Europe, Asia, etc.).

There is a museum in Maine (probably the Maritime Museum, but not positive after over 25 years) where one of the exhibits is an 1840 or so letter signed by inmates in a Maine prison to the Warden asking oh-so-respectfully could they please have something other than lobster to eat one day a week! Before the invention of refrigerated railroad cars lobster apparently covered the sea bed and weren’t well-esteemed in the area it could be shipped to without refrigeration.

I just signed up for a cruise on Oosterdam in March-April 2024, going from Chile to Florida through the Panama Canal. I’m intrigued that HAL offers a very expensive shore excursion leaving from Lima and going to the Galápagos Islands for a few days. That’s a place I’ve always wanted to see, but I’ve been put off by the high cost of most trips. Using that excursion would let me see the island wildlife for myself for a brief time at a high cost but lower than a special trip. I’m hoping either that will satisfy my desire to see the islands or possibly confirm for me that I think they’re really great and will be willing to spend the high cost for a specialized trip. I don’t see much discussion of that excursion here. Does anyone have experience with the HAL Galapagos excursion they can share? Separately, my package includes a $500 OBC. From older postings here, I see that the credit couldn’t be used till onboard the ship, though there was talk of complaining and hoping for a policy change. Is there any sign HAL might relent and allow use for pre-booking? I’m a little concerned about waiting till I’m on board for many items, especially shore excursions and specialized restaurant reservations. Don’t want the desirable stuff to sell out!

I appreciate this, I am interested in going back to Egypt for a classic land tour (this would be my first time back since my first visit in about1997) and adding this tour on. I am intrigued by the chance to at least see a little of Saudi Arabia. I’m eager to hear anything you have to share!

This. At least the TripIt part. I use the mediocre Apple Notes app rather than Evernote. I have used TripIt for almost ten years, and can’t imagine traveling without it. I’ve paid for the Pro version for most of those years. in an app that goes on my iPad and iPhone (also accessible on the web) I have a nice listing that shows all my dining reservations, plane tickets, shore excursions, etc., filled in automatically from my emails. Here is a screen shot from a recent trip. When I click on each item, I get more information, such as confirmation numbers, phone or email for hotels and tour providers, etc. There is a space where I can type in notes, or add screen shots or photos. I highly recommend it!

My memory is vague, but I am pretty sure I ate in the Lido that day. It was my first cruise in over four years, and boarding had been easy when I had feared the worst over Covid restrictions, and I was in a bit of shock the first few hours! 🙂 So I doubt I knew at the time, and certainly don’t remember now!

On my cruise on Noordam that just ended, two bookings at Canaletto I had made and paid for in advance weren’t listed by the ship when I boarded. Weirdly, pre-bookings for Pinnacle were showing correctly. I went to customer service and it was resolved in five minutes. Sorry your experience has been tougher! It is definitely smart to carefully compare what shows in the Navigator app to what you know you booked!

That is CoPilot GPS. I bought it because It includes all the data so you can navigate without a data connection. I’ve used it for years and been happy. You do have to buy a package of data for each region where you want to use it, and the data uses a good chunk of phone memory. I have used it overseas and in remote parts of the US for years and recommend it. https://copilotgps.com/en-us/

I looked out the window of my hotel room, and there went the Noordam from Sydney! Anyone who boarded in Sydney, here is your departure photo! Sorry about the rain effects!

Since these got some interest, here are some pics from earlier in the trip before I started this thread: A cockatoo shows his stuff at the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, fireworks in Sydney, an airliner window view of arriving in Sydney, and Pinnacles Rocks near Perth.

Docked in Sydney and I am now off the ship! (Sadness) I will come back in the evening and put up a few more pics. This was one last view from my balcony.

It is workable but not great. Very very laggy. Twice it mysteriously quit working for several hours. I find for my iPad it often stalls while loading a page, but touching the screen causes it to rapidly catch up. I was astonished that streaming video worked when I tried it once for curiosity, then when I tried it again later it worked for a couple of minutes and permanently stalled. Considering that I am getting usable service miles at sea in the southern hemisphere, I actually think it is okay, but it is not your home internet service. If you would miss the internet and keep your expectations realistic I think it is worth the price. Of course wise people will ignore the internet and take in ship activities! 🙂 oh, and you can use the HAL app without internet service.

Had a small ‘moment” on this sea day while eating lunch in the Pinnacle. A freighter passed close by during lunch! Kind of cool…

It wasn’t a great day for photos but here are a few: The fish look back at the local aquarium, an octopus’s garden at the aquarium, and custard with dragon fruit for lunch!

I boarded in Perth, almost two weeks ago. I posted at the time about a disturbing experience when VeriFly suggested I needed a supervised test even though the HAL info for the cruise said self-administered would do:

Masks are required and compliance is fair. I had to show a negative self-test when boarding, but not a whisper about testing since. Our captain announced on the intercom that despite a supposed rumor that he had Covid, he was fine and on the bridge with the crew at that moment! 🙂 I haven’t heard of any cases among passengers, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few they kept quiet!

I’m going to guess it was auto color correction by the IPhone, trying to match the shaded balcony to the surrounding water. As you say, the wood is natural colored. I just now stepped on my balcony for an in--Sun shot: (added later) I did this in a hurry and it is upside down, but the intelligent and sophisticated people here will figure it out! LOL

For a moment I thought I’d seen some unusual maintenance yesterday, but it was just was the ship’s photographer setting up.

Docking in Eden this morning. It is a windy, but beautiful day!

We docked in Eden, though the Captain described docking as “very challenging” because of the wind. Apparently the storm is expected to peak tonight, so instead of leaving in the evening and cruising overnight and tomorrow to get to Sydney the next day we will stay overnight in the harbor here, then head to Sydney tomorrow. This is supposed to give us a calmer night. I actually did not think the shaking was as bad last night as it has been the previous two nights, didn’t notice anything unusual. I am about to head out, will try to post some pics this evening! I’m sad because this is the last port before I disembark in Sydney!

There was a huge rush out of the ship when we docked, I didn’t participate since I had a later excursion. Mayor may have been there, but I didn’t hear about it (but am not that social or wired in). I left the ship about two hours later to meet at gangplank as directed, had a lengthy wait in chilly windy conditions because they were short of buses due to our late arrival. No politicians in sight! 🙂

Eggs Benedict in classic English Breakfast on a sea day. We really are headed north as promised. Shore excursions for tomorrow in Eden appeared in the Navigator app as promised this morning, so those who want to can book. I’m glad to see the option, though I would rather have seen Hobart!

The big news today is that weather, especially high winds, continues to dog us. We left Melbourne several hours late last night, and had a rough night voyage to Burnie. I’m in a stern verandah cabin which I’m sure made it worse, but it was worse than the famous Drake Crossing for me. We arrived in Tasmania late this morning. But were able to do most or all shore excursions. But—We were supposed to go further south to Hobart, Tasmania. That has been cancelled because of rough seas that among other things make us late getting to Sydney were many of us disembark in a few days. We will head back directly towards the Australian mainland instead. A port call at Eden, Australia has been substituted for Hobart. They are arranging shore excursions, but we cannot schedule yet. Should find our options during our sea day tomorrow. The Saga continues! 😉

Photos from today in Burnie, Tasmania: A Tasmanian Devil at the wildlife center looks ready to eat Bugs Bunny, a beer company shot out the bus window, and two port shots. One port shot shows a GIGANTIC pile of wood chips being accumulated for export to China, and one shows a semi-truck full of wood chips being unloaded by tiling it upwards so the chips fall out the back! I tried to post a video of two Devils squabbling over a meal, but no luck.