Thoughts, impressions, and observations for the World Cruise.

[BecAus]

I think I’ve worked it out, the photos I couldn’t upload were too big and I think I’ve worked out how to resize them so they’ll post!

 

The Sir Selwyn Clarke Market in Victoria

 

Note the bird and (might not be able to tell in the photo) huge amount of blow flies on the fresh fish in the market - seafood anyone?

 

 

 

[BecAus]

some photos I tried to add in my 1st post 
 

The Butterfly Garden at T3 Singapore Changi Airport

 

 

 

Our view of the Burj Khalifa and fountains from our upgraded room

 

[pstone1]

2 hours ago, BecAus said:

Might have to work on my photo uploading as I’m not sure the photos I added have uploaded properly 

I only have my phone with me which is a bit of an annoyance, not that I know how to upload photos from my laptop anyway!

Thank you for posting your beautiful photos!  They give many of us the opportunity to see the world!  I know it takes time and effort to post, and it is much appreciated!

[BecAus]

As mentioned by Lala (& John) on the previous page there is a little bit of weather out this way.

 

The Captain had to cancel our stop the next day at La Digue Island, Seychelles - very close by Mahe. It was a tender port and deemed too rough to tender and it would be a sea day. That was at 7am.

 

In his noon address the Captain further advised that we would not be able to proceed to Madagascar as planned either.  This was also a tender port. We were due to be there tomorrow but it was forecast that there will be a cyclone / hurricane type event in the area at the time we were scheduled to be there so it is a no go.  That one is a real disappointment for a lot of guests including us. I was really looking forward to going there and our excursion to Amber Mountain National Park to hopefully see Lemurs, Chameleons and other wildlife.  It’s not a place that we will ever likely be able to get back to.

 

As they say though, ship happens! Safety must come first for passengers and crew.  I know the FWC’s have had to miss a few things on this adventure - just the way it goes sometimes when travelling.

 

So, we are bypassing to the east of the worst of the weather and headed to Port Louis, Mauritius. We will arrive a day early on Saturday morning & overnight there before going on to Reunion Island & then on to South Africa a few days later.  It’s a little rocky out here tonight but not too bad.

We will be leaving the ship in Cape Town and rejoining in Ravenna 24 days later. We had no interest in the west coast of Africa. I’m immunocompromised and can’t have the Yellow Fever vaccine and just no desire to do that leg.

We are able to retain our cabin whilst off the ship and will just take what we need with us. We received a full refund for the 24 days we’ll be off and also the 25% refund for the 18 days affected on this leg.  Royal have been extremely generous with their offer for this (IMO) 

It took a bit for them to sort it all out and their communication left a lot to be desired but it’s worked out in the end!

 

So, another sea day tomorrow then we should be docking in Mauritius the next day if all goes to plan from here : )

 

[lovesthebeach2]

15 hours ago, CSHS1979 said:

Lots of weather in area. Skipping two tender ports. Headed early to Mauritius 

One of the suite concierges from our last cruise lives there and said that most of the sugar we get imported to the US is from there. It looks beautiful! 

[RFerrington]

I read something about a fire onboard.  True ?

[lovesthebeach2]

3 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

I read something about a fire onboard.  True ?

Where did you read that?

[RFerrington]

6 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Where did you read that?

Dan read it on one of the Pinnacle FB pages.  

[BecAus]

1 minute ago, RFerrington said:

I read something about a fire onboard.  True ?

 Yes - happened yesterday. It was in a stateroom on our deck (7) There was a Bravo announcement and staff were running - they were straight onto it and it was handled very quickly and calmly by the staff. They are so well trained!

 

I heard, but cannot confirm so don’t know for sure, that a guest had a fan blowing near some clothes, possibly to help dry them, and items fell onto the fan & caught fire. 🤷‍♀️

I do know some passengers were bringing fans onboard. I assume they aren’t electrical as they aren’t allowed I thought?

 

Anyways, no idea if that was the actual cause but it was dealt with swiftly and there was no panic.

You could certainly smell a smoke type smell in our corridor last night. Not super strong but it was definitely there. 

[RFerrington]

3 minutes ago, BecAus said:

 Yes - happened yesterday. It was in a stateroom on our deck (7) There was a Bravo announcement and staff were running - they were straight onto it and it was handled very quickly and calmly by the staff. They are so well trained!

 

I heard, but cannot confirm so don’t know for sure, that a guest had a fan blowing near some clothes, possibly to help dry them, and items fell onto the fan & caught fire. 🤷‍♀️

I do know some passengers were bringing fans onboard. I assume they aren’t electrical as they aren’t allowed I thought?

 

Anyways, no idea if that was the actual cause but it was dealt with swiftly and there was no panic.

You could certainly smell a smoke type smell in our corridor last night. Not super strong but it was definitely there. 

Yikes !  So glad it was extinguished quickly and effectively.  Thanks for the confirmation.

[Ocean Boy]

3 hours ago, BecAus said:

We had 4 sea days to start and then had our 1st (and only so far!) port day in Mahe, Seychelles.  It was a lovely sunny day but VERY humid (in the 85-90% humidity range if I remember correctly) so it felt super hot and we were pretty sweaty.

 

i booked a private day tour / driver for the day through’Get My Guide’ - $280 AUD (~ $180 USD), just the two of us in a nice, air-conditioned van.

The guy was really lovely and gave us a really comprehensive tour of the whole island. He explained everything about the place and stopped constantly to show us plants, all the spices they use like vanilla, cinnamon and many, many more.

We saw pink bananas and pineapples just growing alongside the road!

We also got to visit with some 100 year old Giant Tortoises!

 

We saw many lovely beaches, lookouts, walked around the town of Victoria and the local market. A lovely waterfall, stopped at the Tea Factory, tried the various rums at the Rum Distillery and had a very nice, but expensive, lunch on the beach. A pizza, coke & 2 beers was ~ $50 usd - we paid for the beach location I think!

 

We had a really great, relaxing day and I was happy with the tour I booked, it worked out really well.

I’ll try and upload some pictures but I seem to be a little hopeless at it. I got a few to post above but not all the ones I intended 🤪

 

The Clock Tower in Victoria - modelled on Big Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you know why the bananas are pink?

[BecAus]

2 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Do you know why the bananas are pink?

Not really, just a different variety I think he said. They have several different varieties of the bananas (& pineapples) including the regular yellow ones.

He did mention that the pink varieties of both were particularly sweet.

l really liked the look of the pink pineapples. 

 

Perhaps Royal should have picked some up. The fruit onboard has been pretty average!  They might have stocked up in Dubai. The fruit we saw there in the supermarket like watermelon, rockmelon & berries that we tried were very average - don’t think it’s their strong point in Dubai!

[Ocean Boy]

1 minute ago, BecAus said:

Not really, just a different variety I think he said. They have several different varieties of the bananas (& pineapples) including the regular yellow ones.

He did mention that the pink varieties of both were particularly sweet.

l really liked the look of the pink pineapples. 

 

Perhaps Royal should have picked some up. The fruit onboard has been pretty average!  They might have stocked up in Dubai. The fruit we saw there in the supermarket like watermelon, rockmelon & berries that we tried were very average - don’t think it’s their strong point in Dubai!

Thanks. I thought maybe it was something in the soil but perhaps it is just genetics. I never heard of pink bananas and pineapples before. 

[lovesthebeach2]

To those who are doing the World Cruise, or even a large segment, I’m wondering if the dinner menus are the same as always which would be very boring by now?

I looked at some of the menus on this current leg and it appears they are! I would think they would mix it up. According to the answer to a question in Captains Corner an out crew meals, they answered that their menu rotation is I think at least 3 weeks or more before they repeat the same old, same old.  So are you all bored?

[BecAus]

From what I understand, the menus are on a 28 day rotation.  The chatter I saw from most FWC’s beforehand is that they wouldn’t normally have that sort of rotation at home and weren’t worried.

It would be interesting to hear if they are tiring of the meals.

 

 We haven’t made it to the dining room other than one day for lunch.

When we booked we were only offered MTD but then it got changed to 5.30pm without notice. That’s way too early for us.

 

We've just been eating in the WJ. We just can’t be bothered getting suitably dressed to go to the DR this trip so far!

The food and service has been excellent. There’s a specialty of some sort every day. A wok station. They’ve had the Tutti Salad bar option in there for lunch 2 or 3 times that I’ve seen.

It was taco’s last night. They were crunchy and delicious.

 

The food, everywhere, has been of a very high standard so far.

[barbeyg]

7 minutes ago, BecAus said:

They’ve had the Tutti Salad bar option in there for lunch 2 or 3 times that I’ve seen.

Sigh. I miss the Tutti Salads! 
 

And thanks to you, Laura and anyone else for keeping us up to date thru this stretch. 🙂

[lovesthebeach2]

28 minutes ago, BecAus said:

From what I understand, the menus are on a 28 day rotation.  The chatter I saw from most FWC’s beforehand is that they wouldn’t normally have that sort of rotation at home and weren’t worried.

It would be interesting to hear if they are tiring of the meals.

 

 We haven’t made it to the dining room other than one day for lunch.

When we booked we were only offered MTD but then it got changed to 5.30pm without notice. That’s way too early for us.

 

We've just been eating in the WJ. We just can’t be bothered getting suitably dressed to go to the DR this trip so far!

The food and service has been excellent. There’s a specialty of some sort every day. A wok station. They’ve had the Tutti Salad bar option in there for lunch 2 or 3 times that I’ve seen.

It was taco’s last night. They were crunchy and delicious.

 

The food, everywhere, has been of a very high standard so far.

Great to hear! I hope they offer the Tutti salad when we board in June.

[gatour]

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Thanks. I thought maybe it was something in the soil but perhaps it is just genetics. I never heard of pink bananas and pineapples before. 

Every so often I see ads for pink pineapples, never tried one and hadn't thought where they come from. My guess genetics.

[sgmn]

Thank you @BecAusand Laura for keeping this  world cruise thread going, its great to read about here on CC and hear about the great ports. 

Sorry to hear about Madagascar, I would of been upset too at missing that one,  but as you say, safety first. 

[Luckynana]

11 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Thank you @BecAusand Laura for keeping this  world cruise thread going, its great to read about here on CC and hear about the great ports. 

Sorry to hear about Madagascar, I would of been upset too at missing that one,  but as you say, safety first. 

 

+1  @CSHS1979 and @BecAus  A big thank you to both of you!

[CSHS1979]

The updated itinerary 

[BecAus]

(Another) Day at Sea:

 

They had a massive array of cakes as the dessert option today!

 

 

 

 

They also had one side of the buffet filled with every kind of roast meat option: Ham / Turkey / Beef / Lamb etc..

 

The lovely seating area out the back of the Windjammer 

 

 

 

Doesn’t really capture the chop out there today, it’s not too bad but there’s definitely a bit of a rock to the ship - barf 🤢 bags are out on the stairs!

 

Our first towel animal this cruise! 
I don’t need our room attendant to be doing these - he has enough to do!

This penguin was particularly cute though and appreciated 🐧

 

 

My first ever find of a duck - found a few days ago up in the Viking Lounge

[jldev]

Ahh, seeing these photos makes me miss being on the ship so much.  We only did the 15 nights from Singapore to Dubai but we were all settled into our lovely cabin and could have happily kept on cruising.  

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, BecAus said:

(Another) Day at Sea:

 

They had a massive array of cakes as the dessert option today!

 

 

 

 

They also had one side of the buffet filled with every kind of roast meat option: Ham / Turkey / Beef / Lamb etc..

 

The lovely seating area out the back of the Windjammer 

 

 

 

Doesn’t really capture the chop out there today, it’s not too bad but there’s definitely a bit of a rock to the ship - barf 🤢 bags are out on the stairs!

 

Our first towel animal this cruise! 
I don’t need our room attendant to be doing these - he has enough to do!

This penguin was particularly cute though and appreciated 🐧

 

 

My first ever find of a duck - found a few days ago up in the Viking Lounge

Wow!   Those cakes look delicious.   Was there a special occasion being celebrated?

Love the towel penguin, adorable😊

[BecAus]

3 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Wow!   Those cakes look delicious.   Was there a special occasion being celebrated?

Love the towel penguin, adorable😊

No reason I’m aware of this time.

Usually there is a reason when they do the big cakes - like the Mother’s Day one and I believe they’ve done one for certain milestones for the FWC like half way mark etc..

Perhaps they just decided to change it up for a bit rather than the standard fare of desserts offered, possibly also something extra special given the extra unexpected sea days we’ve had this week.

It was being well received and appreciated by the passengers I saw up there in the WJ  : )