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

[Grey Nomad]

Hi Waynetor, Thanks so much for continuing with this thread. I am hoping to book for this cruise next year in the next couple of weeks. Is there anyone else reading this thread who is on this cruise and went into Bangkok where you could do your own thing. Please enter this thread if so and let us know what this tour was like. I would very much appreciate it. In the meantime, Wayne, I am reading and enjoying every little detail you have to impart.

[Waynetor]

One further note on our stop yesterday for Bangkok. There has been a fair bit of news about floods there but the area affected is not where the tours were going. One tour was to have some time on a boat ride but that was the only part that was changed. Our guide lives in the Bangkok suburbs and has to wear a hip-wader type outfit to reach her home. Also I mentioned it was over an hour and half drive to the city – actually it was more like 2 and half hours so you use half your day just travelling to the city and back.

Today was a sea day. Weather started out mostly sunny and slowly got cloudy. A heavy rain off the starboard side briefly clipped us around 4 pm. Seas continue quite calm.

Activities included an ice carving at the pool deck (an Angel Fish in seaweed), a port talk on Vietnam and a lecture on the life of Winston Churchill. There were 10 teams for the Princes version of Jeopardy. A couple questions were open for interpretation such as what percent of the earths water is in oceans – some people would include the various seas and others would not and another question on Flags was something like ‘it is generally credited with inspiring the design for the stars and stripes’ – the answer was Betsy Ross, - people are not usually referred to as ‘it’. Nobody complained so all is good. Only 1 team got the last question – What is ‘officially’ the worlds largest defined lake (did not say surface or volume) – the answer is the Caspian Sea.

Sitting around the Casino lounge after dinner the captain came by and chatted with passengers. This is the second time I’ve seen him doing this. I think it’s great to see him out and about. Other senior officers are also often seen and are friendly.

Tonight’s entertainer, Nick Page was late getting to the ship in Singapore but managed to catch up with us. He is a Brit and sang show tunes from London’s West End. The songs I liked the best were from the Jersey Boys but despite his great voice hitting those high notes was a bit off to me.

After the show I asked Sammi, the CD if there would be any more cultural shows on board for this segment – answer none planned until Auckland on the next segment.

For Donaha – I talked to Sammi today – asked if the name Donah Brown rings a bell. She certainly remembers you and reminisced about the birthday card you sent her.

[Grey Nomad]

Hi Waynetor. We have now booked this cruise for next year, so we are very interested in your postings. You obviously have quite a following. Thanks so much for the information you are posting. Just one question on alcohol. We like to sit on our balcony of an evening and have a drink before going to dinner. Can you please let me know the cost of bottles of spirits on board from room service to have in your room. Last time on Dawn Princess they were more in line with Australian prices, eg $20 for half bottle of scotch. In Australia scotch, jim beam or gin are in excess of $30 per bottle whereas in US/Hawaii they are $10 to $20 per bottle. What is the price on the Ocean Princess. Thanks.

[Bucky3]

We are really enjoying your continuing posts. Really appreciate all the little details. Thanks for taking us along!

[paul929207]

Hi Waynetor. We have now booked this cruise for next year, so we are very interested in your postings. You obviously have quite a following. Thanks so much for the information you are posting. Just one question on alcohol. We like to sit on our balcony of an evening and have a drink before going to dinner. Can you please let me know the cost of bottles of spirits on board from room service to have in your room. Last time on Dawn Princess they were more in line with Australian prices, eg $20 for half bottle of scotch. In Australia scotch, jim beam or gin are in excess of $30 per bottle whereas in US/Hawaii they are $10 to $20 per bottle. What is the price on the Ocean Princess. Thanks.

Last spring, a liter of Dewars (scotch) was $20 on the Ocean Princess in the duty free shop. FWIW, the same bottle was $34 on the Dawn Princess last month.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Some shots from the cam at busy Phu My..

 

 

 

 

[Grey Nomad]

Paul

Thanks for the reply. I shall definitely by some from the shop before disembarking, but do you know how much it is to buy from room service to have in your stateroom.

[paul929207]

Paul

Thanks for the reply. I shall definitely by some from the shop before disembarking, but do you know how much it is to buy from room service to have in your stateroom.

You can only get 375 ml bottles from room service. I think they are $15 or $20 each depending on the brand. Some are higher.

[Waynetor]

Today’s port of call was Phu My, Vietnam, the gateway to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh. We docked at 8 in an industrial port. The weather was mostly sunny and temp in mid 80’s. We could see a RCL ship way off in the distance in another part of the port. There was no cruise terminal – you just stepped off to the buses or vans/taxis. Walking in the port was not allowed.

This is another port where you spend a lot of your excursion just riding in a bus. It takes about an hour to reach the city border and another hour plus to reach the city core. There is a port in the city for even smaller ship than ours such as the Yachts of Seaborn. The route to the city is mostly 2 or 3 lane highway. Outside the city there are no lane markers but in the city there are but it makes no difference – everybody just drives where they want forcing themselves into spaces. There are a few traffic circles and a few traffic lights but for the most part it’s a matter of whoever is in a spot gets it until someone forces them to move. Excluding buses and trucks motorcycles easily makes up over 80% of the vehicles. Most are only 100cc, some 150cc but rarely bigger. They are used for transporting just about anything that can be tied to it. I twice saw motorcycles with big screen TVs strapped on. Purchasing car is very expensive with various taxes added to base prices. Like Thailand, many areas here have all their hydro and other wires above ground making for some very tangled messes on poles.

The city is now officially called Ho Chi Minh but most locals including business signs use Saigon.

Our tour included a palace and its underground bunkers used during the Vietnam war, the property has two tanks that burst through the gates at the end of the war. We also stopped at a temple and the Ho Chi Minh Museum of History which has a lot of displays going back to the earliest recorded evidence of mankind in Vietnam. There was a Water Puppet show which is an art form that goes back quite awhile included. Several Princess tours ended up at the same hotel for a buffet lunch. Our last stop was at a Lacquer Factory where we could see products being manufactured and then shop for them. We didn’t have much chance to do any other shopping.

Although the country is communist, the people seem happy and do have many freedoms. As our driver says, they are free to think and say what they want, they just can’t act on it.

On the way back to the ship we had a brief shower but when we got back on board we found out the ship had been hit by a heavy storm with lots of lightening.

Tonight’s production show was cancelled around 7:30 due to illness (I think it is the female singer) and replaced by a show with just the male production show singer and the band. – We have seen him do a show before and did not go.

We are now heading south and will have 3 days at sea which includes crossing the equator.

As far as buying bottles from room service I'm not sure. Paul's numbers are probably correct as they should be consistant across all ships. I brought on several litres of wine in Rome along with a bit of beer. There has been no station set up at any port to take away bottles being brought on. There does not seem to be any restriction on beer but that is always subject to change.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

[Pia1913]

Hello from Kusadasi; sitting in Starbucks using their free wifi. Always makes me happy not to use Princess minutes. Weather is sunny, but cool and windy.

 

Now then, back to the Pacific thread; where I now belong. ;)

[Waynetor]

Well Friday was a quite day at sea. Mix of sun and cloud and very calm. The other day I got talking to the CD about a passenger she knew well (Donah) and the CD mentioned she knew Donah from Cruise Critic. She noted that there had not been a meeting since she got on and we should have one. So Friday morning a meeting appears in the Patter scheduled just before trivia. We had 25 people show up, a few did not know what CC was and a few were just lurkers but several members were also there so we discussed what CC was about and the success we had with private tours on the Rome/Singapore segment as well as some of the ports still to come..

After that we lost a tie breaker and got a second place at trivia, otherwise just did reading. Evening show was an Irish/American comedian George Casey that did mostly reflections of his life and relationships with various ethnic groups in his life. After being on a ship for a while you start hearing very similar jokes – he had 3 that were very close to jokes others have used on Ocean Princess since leaving Rome.

Today (Saturday) has been another mix of sun and cloud. The sea is incredibly calm. We changed time forward again so we are back again to 13 hours ahead of North American Eastern time. We passed a few islands but for the most part it's water as far as you can see with a few small fishing boats and tankers. The highlight of the day was crossing the equator at 8:34 AM. At 1:30 PM we had a Crossing the Equator deck party where King Neptune decreed us all worthy of crossing the equator after ceremonially punishing several first timers for various crimes. I seen these ceremonies on the Star Princes 3 times and each involved the pool but todays ceremony did not. If you are familiar with the 9th deck layout, there is a stage in the center towards the buffet. On that there was the throne for the King. In the area between the stage and the pool they laid out very large plastic sheets and placed chairs on it. Those charged (4 passengers and 2 crew) were selected to represent all the first timers for crossing the equator. There were brought out, read the charges, automatically found guilty and punished. The punishment included things like pouring whip cream, chocolate sauce and spaghetti all over them - all meant in fun. The problem I found with the show was most of the ’guilty’ were facing the stage, all the cruise staff were standing around blocking a lot of the side view from deck 9 and the ships photographer and video camera man managed to block the view from the pool side. Once finished with the above part of the ceremony they had the CD lie on a table, partly covered her with a blanket and performed a ‘funny bone removal’ operation. This is a very funny and messy process with bones and food flying all over. By the end of the operation all the cruise staff were a major mess and needed a major clean up and shower. With tonight’s Patter we each got a Crossing the Equator certificate.

Tomorrow will be our last sea day before Bali.

[DonahCBrown]

Aloha Wayne - glad you got to have a chat with Sammi - she's a delight - do give her our best and also wish her a belated happy birthday - sent an ecard but not sure she got it.

 

Have a great time in Bali - such a beautiful place, and we had a really great tour there with a very charming young man who had just gotten married and took us by his family's compound so we could meet his wife and see all the decorations that were still up from the wedding. Very special.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Thanks for the report on crossing the equator.

 

Thats always a great day. Also a chance for the staff to have a fun day

and let off a bit of steam as well:D.

 

Have a great time in Bali.

Caught this dramatic sunrise this morning from the bridge cam..

 

[Kiwi Kruzer]

They are at Benoa, Bali, Indonesia today.

Looks like they have a very impressive visitor in the bay with them.

Wonder if that's the Indonesian Navy?

 

 

[5326jan]

They are at Benoa, Bali, Indonesia today.

Looks like they have a very impressive visitor in the bay with them.

Wonder if that's the Indonesian Navy?

 

 

 

Looks like it could be an amphibious assault ship. Note the "trap door" on the stern.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

[Waynetor]

Sunday was our last of 3 sea days in a row. It was a good mix of sun and cloud and once again very calm. We passed one quite large island but otherwise a quite day. I was fighting a cold so did not do much.

For Monday our port of call was Bali Indonesia which is on an island not far from the mainland. This is our last Asian port with the next 2 days again at sea. After Monday we are 14 hours ahead of American Eastern time. We have another half hour change before Darwin. As we head towards Australia I think everyone, especially the ladies will be glad to get to ports where washrooms will resemble something close to what they are used to.

President Obama left Bali a couple days ago but some delegates were still around and there is still some extra security including a couple US Naval ships. The ship in the photo above is US. I could see several helicopters on it. It was hard to get a good picture as the sun was behind it when we left and the sun was setting when we returned.

Bali was a tender port. One of the tenders got a bit off coarse due to other traffic and got stuck on a reef. The coast guard was in the area and gave it a tow. There was no damage and no one was injured but it’s a good example of why they insist you sit down in them.

For our tour the first stop was at a temple. Everyone had to put on a sarong which was supplied. It was quite beautiful but involved climbing 30+ stairs. From there we went to what is described as a traditional village. We wandered around this small town and the women would be out front inviting us into see their meagre homes. Each one had some small item that they tried to sell as souvenirs. The main areas were accessible but not around the homes and gardens. From what I could see there was no sign of anything that would be considered modern amenities. Our lunch stop was at a hotel/restaurant that had a fantastic sweeping view of a lush valley. Straight across from the restaurant is a large, active volcano (last eruption 17 yrs ago) and to the right a nice lake. Across the lake clouds were moving in that were lower than the altitude of the restaurant. Shortly after leaving the restaurant it started raining heavily. At one point on this narrow road several trucks/vans had parked along the road. In an effort to get around them vehicles were coming into the oncoming lanes, then vehicles in that lane had to stop and quickly a tangled mess formed so that no one could move. After a delay, the bus driver assistant had to get out and direct traffic getting each vehicle to move a little bit so that the bigger buses could squeeze by. A huge backlog developed that cost us over 20 minutes to go just a couple hundred feet. From there is was all shopping – a general shopping area with a market where you could bargain and fixed price stores (got a picture of a huge rat in a variety store that sold some food such as bags of chips) and then a stop at a silver jewellery store. We were back to port along with several other buses just at the time of the last tender but we ended up on the last tender about 40 minutes later.

The show was a variety – 1 number by the production team dancers, a session by a saxophone player and by the comedian that both performed before.

Tuesday was another pleasant sea day with a mix of sun and cloud and calm seas. Although the sea swells were only about 2 feet the ship was doing a slow rocking that was quite noticeable. We passed one very large island (Sumda) that took about 2 hours to sail by. The female singer has recovered and we had the Cinematastic show.

Along with a port lecture on Darwin, there was a special interest lecture ‘Through Paradise with Capt. Bligh’ which I did not yet see but heard good reports about.

The assistant cruise director is getting off in Sydney, having a short break and then getting on the Sea Princess in late January. I have not yet heard of any other changes in Sydney.

For this segment the nautical mile distances to ports are

Singapore to Ko Samui – 632

To Laen Chabang 220

To Phu My 608

To Benoa 1,366

To Darwin 943

To Cairns (pronounced Cans) 1,250

To Airlei Beach 276

And to Sydney 959

Total 6,254

[beg3yrs]

got a picture of a huge rat in a variety store that sold some food such as bags of chips

 

Wayne - WOW! A rat selling bags of chips? Please post the picture ASAP.

 

;)

[Grey Nomad]

Waynetor you have done an excellent job carrying this thread on. I check in most mornings to see what we will be doing next year on this cruise. The 2012 cruise will be slightly different as it goes to Lombok instead of Bali and misses out on Cairns which is a shame as we love Cairns. It also overnights in Sydney and disembarkation is after spending a whole day and night in Sydney. Thanks once again for an informative trip.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Joining in with thanks Wayne for your informative updates on the cruise.

Your Bali tour sounds very much like the one we did, Temple, Volcano, Shopping, then back to the port to join the crowds for the last tender.

We too had to wait when returning to the ship , but it all went smoothly and they used a local catamaran to help shift the crowd, as well as the ships tenders.

It sure is is a long ride ashore at Benoa...:eek:

 

[cruiserus]

Hi Wayne! We hope you and your lovely wife are having a great time. It was sad to leave the Ocean Princess and so many nice people in Singapore. We did have a wonderful three days there though. The afternoon thunderstorms were quite exciting and fortunately didn't slow us down any. We did a night ride through Chinatown by trishaw one night, had dinner and bargained for gifts for our grandkids, and then took a bumboat cruise along the waterfront to see all the lights of the city. Awesome! We enjoyed meeting you at the Hotel San Giorgio in Civitavecchia, and of colurse, during our cruise to Singapore.

 

Happy sailing!

[Waynetor]

I was going to wait until after Darwin to do another update but we had a special announcement around 5:30 this afternoon. The captain announced that there had been an increase in number of people reporting sickness to the doctors and anyone showing signs of diarrea or similar must report to the doctor immediately. He emphasised the importance of proper cleanliness and what to do when sneezing etc. At dinner in the dinning room nothing was different but an evening wine and cheese event by the art director was cancelled. We will see tomorrow if there are any changes in the buffet area.

Otherwise today was a very nice day, mostly sunny, calm seas, temp in high 80’s but humid. Unfortunately someone fell near the pool and hit his head on the tiled area getting a bad cut. He was wheel chaired to the doctor’s office and a 4 person team did a thorough sanitation cleanup of the blood.

About a hundred passengers attended a meeting with the cruise staff including dancers and singers. They each gave their background and how they got into their field. Passengers got to ask questions and then tour the area back stage. The change rooms are very tight and they have to choreograph the process of doing outfit changes quickly in little place in order to be ready for their next number. Each of the female dancers got into dancing very young while the males did not start until early teens. The 3 females and the males dance share 2 assistant, the 3 male dancers share 1 assistant and the female singer has 1 assistant.

Tonight’s show was 20 minutes of singing by the Sammie the CD (she has a cabaret background) and 30 minutes by a pianist that had preformed earlier. Not my type of music but both very talented.

We have to go through immigration in Darwin tomorrow. Since getting on in Rome only in Thailand was there any mention of not taking food off the ship and that was only a statement with no kind of enforcement. Australia is much tougher on what can be taken off the ship with much sticker enforcement.

[paul929207]

We were on the Dawn Princess last month. At most Australian ports, they hand checked any bags being carried off.

[cnd crsr]

As Paul said they check all hand bags and when we were there a few years ago they also has dogs that were sniffing for food as you walked out.