LIVE from the Ocean Princess - 28 days from Rome to Singapore 10/15 - 11/12/2011

Welcome aboard the Ocean Princess; live from Civitavecchia, Italy. I hope you will join me for the next 28 days as we cruise along from here to Singapore.

Just a short blurb before we get started, which by itself is fortunate because we almost didn’t get here. Our first flight left an hour and 20 minutes late for no apparent reason except we were told “air traffic control had a problem.” That problem got us into Philadelphia with less than ½ hour to make our Rome flight. That is one monster airport and without hijacking two guys with those handicap transport vehicles, we would still be there. Plane was already loaded and ready to close when we reached our gate. They left exactly on time fully knowing that there were many passengers who had yet to make their connections. This is why you never fly internationally the same day you board a ship. We had bought an all inclusive package from Hotel SanGiorgio and they were there to meet us upon arrival. Transfers, hotel room, dinner, breakfast and transport to ship. Easy peasy.

I am creating this masterpiece off line since there is no internet available. In fact, there is no system running at all, since we checked at the purser’s desk for our first printout and were told it was all out and probably would be until after sail away. We got on board about 1:00 PM, which at that time was a 5 minute operation. We grabbed some lunch and by 2:30 our bags had been delivered. We are in a BC balcony on deck 7 and on this small ship you get from here to there in 2 seconds. It is now 5:40; muster just completed and we have 6:00 PM dinner seating. Will check in later and hopefully be fully live at that time.

Hello…… and really LIVE now. It’s almost 9:30, we walked out of the welcome aboard show and shipboard life has begun. Our captain is Roger Bilton whom we’ve had the pleasure of sailing with previously and our maitre d’ is one of my very favorites - Guiseppe Franchina. We have a great table; table for six set for four and this is the way it will remain. Our friends with us are Donna and Dennis from Hawaii. The CD is Peter Roberts; don’t know a thing about him since I’ve never seen him before.

Since we are still a little “off” because of our travels and travails, this opener will be a bit brief. I’d really like to try and get a good night’s sleep and our first port is tomorrow morning; Sorrento. We are due to arrive at 7:00 and it’s a tender port. Our friends are planning to take the ferry to Capri and since we’ve been there twice before we will probably walk the town and reminisce. We spent a wonderful week in Sorrento about 15 years ago and hope it hasn’t changed too much. Since tomorrow is Sunday, I wonder whether anything will be open.

I am going to bid you buono notte for now and see you again tomorrow. Oh, by the way, I did manage to blow $10 in a slot machine in a m atter of 4 minutes. Who said the machines are loose on the first night? :mad:

Donna here - Pia managed to lose - DH managed to win a bit, I am about even on the slots. We've had Peter as a our CD before on Royal Princess. Nice young man. The CC get together is on our first sea day. Will chime in as we go along. Still trying to adjust to the time zone as my body clock is around 12 hours off, so not much more to add at this point but goodnight.

PIA and DONNA,

Have a great cruise.

JIM

Hi Pia and Donna,

Have a great cruise and many thanks for the Live From.

Its a real epic journey this time.

Looking forward to hearing of your adventures

For others following on Cruise Critic ,

here is a map and the itinerary for Ocean Princess

as she heads to Singapore...

Itinerary

Date Port Arrive Depart

Sat 15/10/11 Civitavecchia (Rome) / Italy 18:00

Sun 16/10/11 Sorrento / Italy 07:00 16:00

Mon 17/10/11 At Sea

Tue 18/10/11 Piraeus (Athens) / Greece 08:00 17:45

Wed 19/10/11 Kusadasi / Turkey 07:00 16:00

Thu 20/10/11 At Sea

Fri 21/10/11 Passage Suez Canal / Egypt 01:00 17:00

Sat 22/10/11 Sharm El-Sheikh / Egypt 06:00 18:00

Sun 23/10/11 Aqaba / Jordan 07:00 19:00

Mon 24/10/11 Safaga / Egypt 07:00 23:00

Tue 25/10/11 At Sea

Wed 26/10/11 At Sea

Thu 27/10/11 At Sea

Fri 28/10/11 At Sea

Sat 29/10/11 At Sea

Sun 30/10/11 At Sea

Mon 31/10/11 Dubai / United Arab Emirates 07:00 17:00

Tue 01/11/11 Muscat / Oman 13:00 19:00

Wed 02/11/11 At Sea

Thu 03/11/11 At Sea

Fri 04/11/11 Mumbai / India 07:00 18:00

Sat 05/11/11 At Sea

Sun 06/11/11 Kochi / India 08:00 17:00

Mon 07/11/11 At Sea

Tue 08/11/11 At Sea

Wed 09/11/11 At Sea

Thu 10/11/11 At Sea

Fri 11/11/11 Port Kelang / Malaysia 07:00 18:00

Sat 12/11/11 Singapore / Singapore 07:00

Traveled Distance: 15,716.21 km/8,486.07 nm

Buon Giorno from California..Grazie for taking us along on your journey. I look forward to your "live from" to places I would love to see and visit.

Arrivederci

P.S. That is the extent of my italian!! Good Day, Thank you, and Good Bye

Pia & Donna-

Have a wonderful time! I'll be hanging on your every word....:D

Pia,

Glad you are taking us all on your journey.

Love Sorrento. First time there 46 years ago. Last time on the Ruby, in 2010,

side trip there. It has grown but still so charming.

First time bought a music box that played Come back to Sorrento. Still have it.

:D

Did ya'll have any effects from the "riots"/protests in Rome today that we are seeing on TV here. Seems there is tear gas and water cannons in use so I was curious.

WOW thanks to Pia and Donna and also to David for the information on the cruise itself.

will be traveling along and wishing you a wonderful trip!!!!

Hi Pia (and Mike),

You know I don't post much, but I'll keep in touch with the thread.

We did almost the identical sailing on Azamara a couple of years ago.

See you on the Pacific Princess in a couple of weeks.

Bon voyage,

Bruce and Gail

Thanks so much for your "live" report, I have enjoyed some of your other ones and look forward to this one.

Thanks also to David for the itinerary map, now I know where all your stops are, looks like a wonderful trip. Hope you guys have great weather.:D:D

What a perfect thread for me to come back to the Princess boards with

after being away for a year cruising on other lines!!!

A live from ...from Pia...Yippee!!!!

Have a wonderful adventure!

K.

Thank you Pia. Have a fantastic cruise. We will be following along!

Donna here - Pia managed to lose - DH managed to win a bit, I am about even on the slots. We've had Peter as a our CD before on Royal Princess. Nice young man. The CC get together is on our first sea day. Will chime in as we go along. Still trying to adjust to the time zone as my body clock is around 12 hours off, so not much more to add at this point but goodnight.

Hello Donna,

We read that you arrived in Civatevecchia early and were looking for some good wine shops. Did you have any luck and if so would you be willing to share the names? We are boarding the Pacific at the end of November for the Transatlantic crossing and would love to take some bottles with us. We also hope to finally meet Pia on this cruise.

Hope the cruise is wonderful and the weather is good.

Thank you

Midge

Pia and Donna,

Have a wonderful safe cruise ! I look forward to your posts. I will be on the Emerald 11/8/11 and hope them internet won't be too slow !

Sali

Bon Voyage!! :)

Have a great cruise. We had Peter on our last cruise on the Royal. I wasn't so taken with him but his friend and Assistant C.D. was terrific and really knew how to run things.

I hope the Ocean is still in tip top condition. We are looking forward to being back on her in March - Sydney to Singapore.

Jennie

Have a Great Cruise!:) Thanks for taking the time to do this "Live from" :D

We're really looking forward to your "Live from...", Pia! Thanks for sharing!

Great map, David, it really helps put us in the mood for some exciting travels ahead.

Wishing you red skies at night and a wonderful time.

-Ann

Looking forward to your report. The spring (reverse) cruise was wonderful, although I thought that 120+ degrees in Luxor was a bit much. Also hope that Sorrento is a bit better for you ... there were 6 ships in the vicinity, and it was a total zoo. Enjoy!

Look forward very much to the posts.

Oh and better luck next time at play Pia.......Heather.;):)

Thanks in advance for your efforts...we loved our two weeks on the Ocean last September, and will look forward to hearing about this great-sounding itinerary!

Is Captain Ravera on a break? He was such a great captain...and so charming!!;);)

Pia and Donna, what a great tandem. This is going to be a fabulous Live! Will be able to follow along with you for 10 days before going on our own TA. Then home just in time to cruise along with Pia on her adventure across the pond.

David, thanks for always adding to make Pia's Lives extra spwcial.

Looking forward to following along, at least until our next cruise in two weeks.

Have a wonderful cruise! I'm very excited to read your "live from" as your itinerary looks so interesting.