Sea This!

So I’m sure a lot of you saw this already, but if you didn’t, I finally uploaded pictures of the first two months of my ports onto Facebook. It’s public, though, so if you’re not my friend you can still see it (lucky you).

Also, expect a port wrap up soon.

Photos, Ports facebook

Wow, I’ve fallen even more behind on my port wrap-ups than the last entry, so here’s an attempt to catch myself up again. Keep in mind I’ve been to a few of these ports more than once, so some of the stuff starts blending together. I will do my best, though. Note that all of these ports were all new to me so I hadn’t been to any of these places yet. Yay for new places. After these two cruises, all my places are repeats.

Up until this point I had been doing two-week cruises, but now I am going to wrap up my first two ONE WEEK cruises. They are both good and bad. The week cruises are nice in that there are more ports with less sea days, so I don’t have to teach as much. BUT the week cruises can be hectic because we have twice as many embarkation days which means I have to do all the end-of-cruise and pre-cruise prep twice as much. Also, if I like the passengers, I only get a week with them instead of two weeks.

Brussels/Bruges (Zeebruge), Belgium (May 23) – I hung out with some fellow crew members. The original plan was to take the train into Bruges, but that was a little more time consuming than we thought. So luckily, a group of us hooked up with another group and we got a taxi straight into Bruge and back for 50 euros each way (around 6 euros a person). We got door to door service and we didn’t have to bother with trains. Not bad! Once in Belgium I got myself a take-away waffle (with ice cream) which I enjoyed eating on the street. I also got myself some fries with some weird sauce. And of course chocolate. No beer, although I almost bought myself a Frambois (or however you spell it).

Copenhagen, Denmark (May 25/May 26) – This port we were in for a long time – almost overnight and over the span of two days. We were here until 3 AM so I planned to enjoy myself. It would be one of the few times we would actually be on land during the night .. how strange. Some fellow crew members and I went everywhere. We went to Tivoli Gardens, the Danish Disneyland. Since it was early in the day there weren’t a whole lot of people, so we walked around a bit and planned to come back at night, but never did.   We also went to the canal streets where we had different types of herring (a Danish speciality). Then we went to the King’s Library (which was difficult to find the entrance for), the secret garden (which was kinda secret), and the Royal Palace in which I got to see where the Prince and his wife are going to live (they have way too many rooms). I had myself a Danish pastry (of course) and then I went back to the ship for dinner, because Denmark is expensive – yo! The walk back to the ship though was much longer than I thought, and it was raining. Blech.

Normally, that would be it for the day and it was time to set sale. But we had the whole night in Denmark, so I decided to go out again. This time I hung out with a new group of people to see the nightlife. We took a city bus and stopped at a Scottish pub first, but a group of them were interested in a Jazz Club so we set off to find that. On the way we ate a hot dog (another Danish specialty). After a bit of stumbling around, we made it to the jazz club and I had myself an apple cider alcoholic beverage. I know – can you believe it?? I don’t think my friends realized what a rarity this was for me. After the Jazz club we decided to walk back to the ship. We didn’t think it was that far, but it was. The mean part is you can see your ship for a good 30 minutes of the walk, but you’re still not there. Either way, we made it back just in time for the ship to set sail around 3 in the morning!

Helsingboro, Sweden (May 26) – I already wrote a little bit about Sweden with my earlier picture post, but I’ll write some more. This was a tender port (blech) but I was looking forward to seeing what Sweden had to offer. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t very Swedish at all, especially since I was on the hunt for Swedish meatballs. They just happened to have an international food festival which had every country but Sweden, which was still neat. I met up with some fellow passengers and we stopped by city hall. We also climbed this large tour called “The Keep” that I think was once a military fortress or something. It had a very nice view of the city and I could clearly see Denmark from the top across the water – it was amazing how close we were. After much searching, we did find a restaurant that had Swedish meatballs, although I would later learn that too was lucky since they didn’t offer them everyday. If anyone’s wondering, they tasted like regular meatballs to me, but at least I can say that I’ve had them.

** We didn’t go to Norway because of possible protests, which I was very upset about. I had a tour planned and it was a very nice day. Protestors seem to be a common theme throughout this cruise. Boo. Don’t worry, I do eventually get to go, but it’s only one other time this cruise. I’m also going to skip detailing the next port, Southampton, too since nothing interesting happened there (or I can’t remember). I probably just shopped and/or went online. How exciting, I know. **

Vigo (Santiago de Compostela), Spain (May 31) – Well, it’s the start of a new cruise already, can you believe it? And I get to go somewhere new in Spain. I found it interesting the area was called “Galicia” because the now defunct county my ancestors are from is named “Galitzia”. Pure coincidence, but still kinda neat. I actually went into Santiago de Compostela. I went to the St. James cathedral, and since 2010 was a holy year, they also let us into his tomb… ooooh. During this time I hooked up with some other American passengers and we had ourselves a grand time around the city. I also found another pressed penny machine. Woohoo.  The city was very holy – they had crosses on everything including baked goods. And it was weird to be in a place where everyone spoke Spanish and people didn’t know too much English.

Lisbon, Portugal (June 1) – Another new county – woohoo! Went up yet another tower, had myself some Cod, and went into an abandoned church. I was interested in going to Portugal and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as cool (or clean) as the other Med countries I visited. I heard that taking the cable car up to the older part of the city is better, so maybe next time I’ll do that. Also, it was really hot in Portugal (not as hot as Florida, but still..) What was kinda cool, though, is that as we were leaving, the ship actually went under this huge bridge that looked a lot like the Golden Gate. Not sure why I was so amused by this, but I was. I went up to the top deck and looked up as we went under. Not too many times you get to see the underside of a bridge.

La Rochelle, France (June 3) – This is the first port that I forgot either of my cameras – D’oh! But I did remember my laptop (and my iPhone). We had to take a shuttle into town, though, so it wasn’t worth it to go back.This port wasn’t bad. It was nice and quaint with old castles and streets and buildings. I didn’t go into any of them, but they looked nice from the outside. I also remember buying a particular food item that I really wanted, but now that it’s been over a month I can’t remember what is was. Sorry. It was a sandwich of some sort with cooked meat. I ordered it with a side of fries and they actually put it on the sandwich. I’ll think of it eventually.

Guernsey (St. Peter Port), England (June 4) – Yes, I’m going to England to a different place other than Southampton, woohoo! I had one goal and one goal only in this port – to stock up on some clotted cream fudge. I was really hoping to find a fudge shop that makes them right there, similar to what I found in St. Ives, but no dice. I just found a lot of tourist shops that sold clotted cream things. At least they had it, but I was really hoping for a homemade fudge shop. I went exploring a little more and also found a candy store that was going out of business, so I bought some other kinds of candy. I also learned that not only is there clotted cream, but there is Guernsey cream as well – so even more combinations of candies to be made. At the end of the day I bought too much clotted cream and Guernsey cream treats; not just fudge – caramel, toffee, and shortbreads. But, I can justify it by saying a lot of it were gifts for friends

Southampton, England (June 5) [5] – Yes, this was my fifth time (on the fifth of June) going to Southampton.  This is usually my “errand” port because there isn’t always enough time to really do anything since we have to be back early. This time, instead of going to the mall like I usually do, I decided to be adventurous and go to Ikea (which was 4 floors – huuuuge) and another shopping strip on the edge of town that had stores you’d recognize (like Staples) and stores you might not (like Tesco Extra). One of these days I plan to explore a little bit out of Southampton, but we’ll see…

Ports belgium, bruges, cophenhagen, denmark, england, france, Guernsey, helsingboro, La Rochelle, lisbon, portugal, Santiago de Compostela, southampton, spain, sweden

I’m way behind on my port wrap-ups, so I thought I would catch up on some more ports so I don’t fall too behind! This list covers both the second half of my second cruise, and all of my third cruise. The number in brackets [] denotes how many times I’ve been there (if more than once).

Cannes, France (May 2) – Went to both Nice and St. Paul de Vence. I think I liked Nice better, because in St. Paul de Vence there was a huge hill to get up to the city! But both were very cool ports. I did a tram ride through Nice, and I think next time when I’ll go I’ll just explore on my own. There was a big market there and I think the president of France (?) just happened to be there making a speech. In St. Paul de Vence, I went to the Museum of Death Penalty AND the Museum of Torture. They were as gruesome as they sounded, but I had to go just because it was so bizarre. I really like Cannes in general and it’s one of my favorite ports that we go to.

Barcelona, Spain (May 3) – This day wasn’t the best. I got locked in the bathroom (see earlier entry), it was raining really badly, and I lost my group. Just when I was about to leave, though, I ran into a couple passengers I knew. Together we walked around to the good part of the city (Las Ramblas). It’s just one long giant street that sells everything you can imagine – including pets! Also, they have 20 different variations of everything in Barcelona. For instance, want your portrait done? They have 20 different artists ready to do it.

Gibraltar (May 5) – At the last minute I got a tour – woohoo! I got to ride the cable car up and see monkeys. They’re like pigeons. They’ve everywhere and just come up right next to you! Afterwards, we went to the WWII tunnels which were neat but involved lots of climbing. After the tour, they dropped us off in the city where I proceeded to find a decent internet signal near the Cobacabana Restaurant.

** Nothing too exciting happened in Southampton or Malaga, Spain so I’m going to skip those **

Barcelona, Spain [2] (May 13) – Yes, we came back to Barcelona relatively quickly. We go there a lot, so I’ll get to know it well. This time it was nice and sunny. Ahh.. what a difference the weather makes. This time the market was even more crowded than before. Found more internet and just wandered the city. I found really fast internet in this giant market square, but it kept on cutting out – how frustrating. So eventually I just gave up and went to McDonald’s for internet. I don’t like to, but reliable internet is best.

Cannes, France [2] (May 14) – Originally this was supposed to be Monte Carlo, but I think because of the Grand Prix they changed it. Today it was the film festival and I knew I had to get out and see what I could see.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see any big BIG stars, but I did get to see a lot of red carpet and security. I also met up with a paparazzi photographer and friends and hung out with them for a couple hours hoping they might know the best spots to go. I did see as couple of French stars, but since I don’t know French movies, it wasn’t that impressive. I also saw a couple behind hounded by the paparazzi with cameras down the street. That’s something you don’t see everyday.

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy [2] (May 15) – This was the second time we went to Civitavecchia but the first time I went to Rome. The roommate and I took the train into the city even though it was raining. We went to St. Peter’s Basilica, which has officially spoiled me as far as churches go – everything else just can’t compare. We also waited an hour and a half to get into the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. Even when you’re in, it’s still a long walk to get through! But, it’s a very cool sight and it’s amazing how much depth everything has.

We didn’t go to Naples because of rough seas, which stinks – but it happens. Also, when a port day turns into a sea day, I have to teach. So, it’s a double whammy. But the nice thing is, classes are busy, which makes things more fun.

Corsica (Ajaccio), France (May 17) – I really like France, and this was no exception. It was another quaint port town with lots of little shops to walk around in.  Also, it had amazingly fast (and free) internet. The only downside was that you could only go on for twenty minute increments, but it was still amazingly fast. I found a nice little café, had myself a weird flavor of Nestea I had never heard of before, and enjoyed myself. I also stopped in the casino, but since everything was in French, it was hard to play.

Gibraltar [2] (May 19) – I had my heart set on finding a pillow. Not just any pillow, but a pillow that allows you to lean against it for support and has “arms” on the side to rest your elbows. I found every other variation I possibly could, but none quite like the one I had in mind. I even went to a pillow specialty store. But, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. So, I gave up and went back to the Copacabana for some internet.

Southampton, England [3] (May 22) – This was the day everyone gets off and the day new people get on, so I thought I would try to find a pillow one more time. I had a huge mall just waiting and I figured it might just be here. I found something very close to what I had in mind, but it just wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Plus, it was kinda pricey, so I didn’t get it afterall. I figured that IKEA might have what I’m looking for, but that’s not close, and by this time I wasn’t sure if the large pillow I was searching for was really worth it.

So woohoo – glad I’ve caught up a little bit on my ports. I’d love to write more, but they just come up so fast. I still have two more cruises I still have to talk about, but I’ll do that sometime later.

Ports barcelona, cannes, corsica, france, gibraltar, italy, rome, southampton, spain

It’s time for another port wrap-up. This marks the start of my second cruise (right now I’m on my third) and the voyage number was A010. This cruise was a roundtrip from Southampton, so 90% of the passengers were British. Definitely a sharp contrast from my first Transatlantic which most of the passengers were American – and from Florida. But, it was still a good time. There are a few Americans on the ship, and when I do find them, I gravitate towards them like a magnet!

Anyway, let’s talk ports:

Cadiz (Seville) – April 27 – This was my first time in Spain and it was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the architecture and the general feel of the city. – I got picked for the biggest and best tour: “Best of Seville”. Woohoo! As soon as I got off the ship we were on our way to Seville. The busses were fantastic and probably the highest quality I’ve seen. They had TV screens and nice luxurious seats! On our tour they took us to the Cathedral of Seville, the Royal Alcazar (which had a ton of rooms), and the Santa Cruz Quarter. I can’t believe how luxurious the churches were, although I hear they are quite a dime a dozen in Europe. For some reason, they put two crew members/escorts on one bus, so I got to hang out with one of the videographers. Man, even when they get to go on fun tours, they still have to work hard and film! I just take pictures with various strangers

Lunch was fantastic. They took us to what was called the “Hotel Macarena”. Yes, we did the dance of the same name by the hotel and it was on film. So somewhere, there is a Princess DVD of me doing the Macarena – albeit very poorly! During lunch, we were treated to a Flamenco show. I never realized how much stomping there is in a Flamenco show. They seem so mad! It reminded me a lot like “stepping” from high school. The only downside of this day was I didn’t get to spend any time in the port of Cadiz, so maybe if I don’t get a tour, I will go out and explore.

Alghero (Sardinia) – April 29 – Didn’t get a tour today, which was a bummer. Also, because it’s a tendering port (i.e. the ship anchors and we have to take a boat ashore), I have to wait until all the passengers get off before I can leave the ship. Because things were behind schedule, I didn’t get off the ship until close to 1, and since we had to be back at 4, it didn’t leave too much time. But, I tried to make the best of it. The town was very nice once we got off the tender. To get myself acquainted, I took this little train around the city just to see everything there was. I saw a lot people riding bikes and I think this would be a fantastic place to take a bike for the day. I will have to consider that, since the ship does rent bikes to crew.

After I took a tour of the city, I sought out Internet, even though it was mostly a bust. I couldn’t find any dedicated internet cafes, and since it was France, I didn’t really know how to ask for them. I just gave up and went to the one place I knew would have internet – McDonald’s. I really hate going to McDonald’s, but when it’s the only place that has usable wifi, you have to make do. The internet speed wasn’t great (and I’m not even sure if I was actually on the right network – I was on someone’s wifi). After sitting there for a while, I started to get hungry; because I didn’t want to move, I really had no choice but to eat at McDonald’s. With my broken French, I managed to order a salad with sliced meat and some Coke (although it took a couple tries). I really think the Coke was American (i.e. not sweetened with sugar) so that made it worse – boo.

All in all this day wasn’t so great. Wish I would have gotten a tour. Didn’t have much time out, didn’t really find that great of Internet, and I broke down and bought McD’s. Next time I think I’ll just rent a bike (unless I get a tour).

Civitavecchia – April 30 – While I really wanted to go into Rome that day, I had to do various things on the ship, and so by the time I got out, it wasn’t worth it. It’s about an hour and a half to get to Rome, and since I wasn’t familiar with the train station, I didn’t feel like chancing it. So, I just walked around the town (which took me forever to learn how to pronounce – Si va cha veck ee ah, by the way) to see what I could find. I ran into some new crew members, one of which was also from Florida. We all sat at a café, ordered pizza, and bonded over the fact we were eating a meal off the ship. Afterwards, the other Floridian and I wandered around to find Internet. We found one place, but it smelled weird, there were people everywhere, and the prices weren’t so great. We remembered there was a place closer to ship, so we went there. While there were many computers there, there was only one space for you to plug in your own laptop. The nice Floridian gave it up to me since she was going back to the ship anyway to take a nap.

I sat down at the one and only internet terminal (which you also had to plug in) and I got to Interneting. Oh my gosh, the speed was so incredibly fast, I couldn’t believe it! I was getting 1 Megabit down for speed, which is really good. It’s probably nothing to all of you folks with your readily available high-speed internet, but to me and my internet misadventures it was wonderful. The chair for the internet was extremely uncomfortable, but I didn’t care. I wanted to stay there forever, and I almost did. Bless you high-speed and it was only 1.50 euros an hour – not a bad price. So far on all of my adventures, this has been the best internet I’ve found. If I could, I would always come back to this port and use this wonderful internet. But, it’s really the port to see Rome, and I can’t justify turning down Rome for internet, no matter how fast it may be. Also, there’s only one spot, so if someone sits down or hogs it (much like I did), you’re really screwed.

Florence/Pisa (Livorno) – May 1 – Okay, enough internet talk. I managed to snag a Tuscany tour this day, so I was once again excited. At first I was disappointed that I wasn’t going to either Florence or Pisa on my tour. But then, when I read the description closely, I noticed I was going to Volterra. Fans of Twilight should recognize how cool that is – it’s the home of where the vampire royalty live (and an important place in the second book). For those of you who aren’t fans, though, it’s still pretty cool. I really like Volterra and wish we could have spent more time. They gave us a tour and let us wander on our own, but there was so much to do there’s no way I could do it all. Or maybe I just thought it was so exciting because I read about in Twilight first. Either way, it was neat. At first, I didn’t see much Twilight stuff around, so I figured Volterra downplayed the whole thing – but I was dead wrong. While wandering on my own, I went into the Tourist office, and they had New Moon stuff everywhere. Then, they gave me a map of all the places they talk about in the New Moon book. It was a Twilight fan’s dream come true. I only wish I had one of my Twilight friends there to squeal with. None of the passengers seemed nearly as excited as I was.

In between our next stop, we went to a nice little farm (which really looked like a garden to me) for lunch. It actually turned to be a combination lunch and wine tasting (which surprised the passengers, too). I’m not much of a wino, and there was so much wine, and so much was wasted on me. But they also served us lots of different types of food to try with the wine, including a lasagna that was the best. It was soft, chewy, and extremely cheesy. Of course Italy would make the best lasagna, right? I also tried a sweet balsamic vinaigrette and my eyes are now open to the possibility of balsamic vinaigrette beyond what they give you at the restaurant table. I almost bought some, but it was so expensive, so I decided to leave it as a pleasant memory.

After that, we headed to San Gimignano which is on a really big hill. I had a bit of trouble walking up the hill, so I can only imagine how the passengers were struggling. If you want a workout, you should definitely go here (or San Fransisco). They let us on our own for an hour here and so I went and explored more. They had two interesting museums – Museum of Torture and Museum of the Death Penalty. It was so bizarre I just had to go. And let me just say, it was very graphic and hard on the stomach at times. I never realized there were so many different ways to kill or torture someone, but there are. It was hard being in there, but it was a part of the history, and it’s also something they would never have in America. I saw mothers take their kids in as though it was no big deal. It was an interesting experience to me how unaffected these young children were. After the museum(s), I went shopping for a bit, but the prices were high and it was just a little too touristy. I think I liked Volterra better. I tried to get gelato, but there just wasn’t enough time, so I made my way back. I’ll be in Italy plenty of times, with many opportunities to get gelato, so I wasn’t too upset. 

On our way back, I asked our Italian tour guide various Italian phrases. I’ve forgotten most of them, but I do remember a lot of them sounded like Spanish, so maybe if I just talk in Spanish, they might be able to make out what I’m saying.

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And that wraps up part one for my ports of my second cruise. Never knew I could talk so much about the internet, eh? It may seem silly to you, but remember that internet is hard to come by on the ship, so we do what we can when we’re in port. I’ll talk about the next few ports in a later entry. Hope you all enjoy these wrap-ups, even if they are a little bit delayed.

Ports alghero, Civitavecchia, florence, livorno, pisa, seville, spain, volterra

Finally finished uploading all of my Scotland pictures to Flickr. That only took a month. It’s harder to find good upload speeds than download speeds, unfortunately. Click below to see the full gallery.  I had to do it in stages

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fork/sets/72157623920765990/detail/

I’m in the process of uploading my Ireland pictures, although there are quite a lot of those, too. I think what I may eventually do is pick a few “highlight” photos and upload an album of just that. Whenever I have time, though. For now I’d like to work on just getting my photos uploaded. Hope you all are enjoying them.

Photos, Ports scotland

Since I have some downtime, I thought I would continue my earlier entry about my ports of call. I still need to write a general entry about ship life, but that will have to come later. I’m already into my third cruise and I still haven’t finished talking about my first yet, so let’s get that out of the way. Also, as of writing this, I have been sailing on the Grand Princess for one month now. Happy anniversary to us! My contract is for five months, though, so I have some time to go. I’m toying with the idea of extending it so I can go to Greenland and Iceland, but we’ll see if that’s even a possibility. Everyone else on board seems to think that’s a terrible idea

Anyway, let’s talk about some ports!

Cork (Cobh), Ireland (April 21) – I already posted a mini photo album in a previous entry about my misadventures in Cobh (pronounced “cove”, fyi), but the short story is I missed my tour bus and so Hillary and I caught a Mercedes cab to the Blarney stone to try and catch it there. Hillary was actually right on time for hers, but she decided to accompany me along for an exciting adventure – thanks, Hillary! We rushed up the stone, and rushed to our bus, but we did eventually make it. From there, we took the bus to Kinsale, went to a pub, got some cider (which I successfully consumed) and then took it back to the port. Before we got on the ship, we stopped at another pub near the ship. You can’t go to Ireland without going to at least ONE pub, right? Both Hillary and I enjoyed our second day in Ireland much better than our first, despite the mishaps.

Cornwall (Falmouth), England (April 22) – I escorted a “Best of Falmouth” ship tour that went to several different places. First, I went to St. Ives (but didn’t meet a man with seven wives – yuk, yuk). I also didn’t get any lotion … But I did discover the miracle of two English delights – clotted cream and pasties! Clotted cream is like a cross between butter and whip cream and it is delish! I bought some clotted cream fudge that I considered sending home .. but, uh… I slowly worked my way through the package and now it’s all gone. Sorry, folks. But man, that clotted cream was delicious! And the pasties (pronounced “pass-tees”, not “paste-tees”) were also good, although I don’t want to think about how many calories were in them, either. They were like a fancy hot pocket – but they were pretty cheap, too! It technically wasn’t lunch time when went to St. Ives, but I bought lunch there anyway. The guide warned me there was a “cafeteria” at our next stop, but after my bad experience in Dublin (see earlier entry), I feel like I learned my lesson and I should buy food earlier. I also bought a crab sandwich to eat later, since St. Ives is on the water and they catch the crab fresh. Yeah, I got a lot of food. :-p

After St. Ives, we went to Land’s End, which after asking around I believe has NO connection to the clothing company. But, it’s known for being the southernmost point in England. The closest point is New York, which is 3,147 miles away. It’s pretty neat to little point, but it’s a lot more touristy than St. Ives was. Also, I’m very glad I had the foresight to buy lunch in St. Ives because the cafeteria in Land’s End was not as good and overpriced. But, the men behind the counter were nice enough to give me two packages of clotted cream for free, so I can’t be too disappointed. I also learned that clotted cream tea does not mean the cream goes IN the tea, but instead it goes on a scone and some jam and the tea is consumed with it. D’oh! After Land’s End we went to St. Michael’s Mount, which is this castle in the middle of an island. You can’t get to it, you can only see it. It was okay, it was mostly just a beach scene, and I see plenty of that in Florida. St. Ives was probably the highlight. I wish I had more time there. But I enjoyed the time I did have.

Le Harve (Paris), France (April 23) – See my earlier entry about how the protestors almost ruined my fun in Paris. But, I did end up going. Unfortunately, we only had two and a half hours, which wasn’t nearly enough. Yes, we took a three hour bus ride EACH way, just to go to Paris for less than that. But, I had never been, and I might not go back for a while, so why shouldn’t I take the opportunity? In Paris I found a couple crew members, and we bought a ticket for the hop-on/hop-off bus. It was 25 euros for a 2-day pass, which is really a rip because they know we’re only there for a day. But, it’s really the best way to get around, especially when you have as little time as we did. We went to the Eiffel Tower (of course!) and we also went outside the Louvre. Unfortunately we didn’t have any time to actually go into the actual museum part, but we got to take pictures around the area (like the giant pyramid). We also ate a café right outside the Louvre and I had a croissant sandwhich and a coffee. I had to have something French and so it was either that or a crepe. But, after the café, we were out of time so we had to go. Would have liked to see Notre Dame and some other stuff, but that will be for another time. We’ll always have Paris We ran to catch our bus and made it with plenty of time to spare, and as we drove away we go to see the Champs de L’eysee (or as I call it – “that big bridge thingie”).

I do have to say, people warned me before I went to Paris that the people were rude and it was very dirty – but I thought exactly the opposite. I thought Paris was very nice and clean and I found the people very friendly (although I didn’t try to speak too much French). I could easily have spent a day or several days in Paris alone. Also, I really enjoyed my time in Cannes, Nice, and St. Paul – which I will talk about in another entry. So, even though the Paris protestors ruined my morning, I still like you France

Southampton, England (April 24) – This was the port for both the end of one cruise and the beginning of the next. Or, as we call it on the ship, “turnaround day”. People asked me before I took this job how much days I would have between when people got off and when more people got on. The answer? Oh, about a few hours. Cruise ships don’t waste any time! I knew we’d be coming back to Southampton every 14 days or so, and I wanted to take the opportunity to explore my new home. There is a free crew bus that goes from the port to the mall. And the mall is friggin’ AWESOME! It’s three stories and there are plenty of stores that I’ve never heard of (but will learn to love). And that doesn’t even include the stores around the area. I was initially bummed when I learned Southampton isn’t that close to London, but since it’s so built up, I don’t think I will mind.

Apparently, according to other crew members, we are very lucky to have an embarkation port that has so many things. They told me about other ports that all they have is a grocery store or the port is very far away. But to have a three-story mall on TOP of a grocery store is just pure bliss. When I got to the mall, I explored a little bit, but I was really in desperate need of wireless. Luckily, I found a free hotspot by the Apple store (thanks Apple), took a seat on a bench, and didn’t move for several hours while I caught up on my internets.

So, that’s a wrap-up of all the ports of my first cruise. Now I have to work on another entry about the ports on my next cruise. And I still need to upload pictures. It’s so hard when I don’t have steady internet. I think I might just upload a few select pictures from each port and worry about the rest later. I just have too many pictures to handle!

Ports cornwall, england, ireland, paris, southampton

Instead of writing a detailed report about my misadventures in Cobh, Cork, Ireland, I thought I would say it with pictures.

I’ve created a mini-photo album on Facebook that details all the excitement and adventure. Go look!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2569773&id=5102860&l=3b51939c23

Photos, Ports cobh, cork, ireland, mishaps

So it’s been a while since I’ve made a blog post. The crazy thing about being on this never-ending vacation is that I don’t have much downtime to write about what has already happened, because I’m on to the next port exploring new places. It can be exhausting – but fun! The nice thing about the ports coming up is that I get to go to them more than once, so there is no rush to cram in as much as possible. Like, today, I went to  Civitavecchia. Rome is about an hour away – and I do really want to go to Rome – but I’ll be back here at least five more times, so I don’t have to rush to get out to Rome.

Anyway, I doubt I’ll have the time to write a blog entry about every single port, so I decided to give a paragraph or two about the ports in the last cruise. I do plan to update about ship life and teaching in general (perhaps make a video), but that will be in time. I know everyone cares more about the ports. So, here we go! And don’t forget to check my pictures that I’m in the process of uploading for more of a visual representation.

Bermuda (April 12) – Nice little town. It’s like the Caribbean, but cleaner. Since this was my first day in port after a couple crazy days of teaching, I took it easy. Was going to take the ferry to Hamilton, the major city, but the line was long so I took the bus instead. I didn’t realize the bus ride was going to be an hour though, eek. About half-way through the bus ride I realized we were driving on the left side of the road! And man, those roads are narrow. I’m definitely going to scratch “Bermuda bus driver” off my future job list. Walked around the town, had some ice cream (which didn’t live up to expectations), enjoyed my free wifi at the library, and then took the ferry back. Plenty of time to make my ship.

Greenock (Glasgow), Scotland (April 19) – My first time on European soil. Hooray! Also, I got picked for my first tour. Would have liked to go to Edinborough, but free is free! Got to go to the Inveraray Castle, which is huuuuge, and has a very impressive collection of armor. After that, we went out for lunch, in which I found free wifi and kept the world updated on what I was eating (whether they cared or not). After that, they dropped us off in a town nearby and we got to walk around and enjoy ourselves. Since lunch was disappointingly normal, I sought out haggis. And yes, I know what’s in it AND how it’s cooked. But I was only in Scotland once, and I had to try it. For those wondering, it really wasn’t bad. It tasted like mashed up black beans with some spices in it. Stopped at various other cliffs and spots, but those were the highlight. I really enjoyed being a tour escort

Dublin, Ireland (April 20) – I chose to do a tour planned by a group of people on the CruiseCritic message boards I frequented; both I and my cruise buddy Hillary that I mentioned in the last post were a little underwhelmed. The tour was more driving and less stopping than I would have liked. We didn’t stop anywhere in Dublin, which was really disappointing – we just drove right through it. Goodbye Trinity Church, Guinness factory, and a various assortment of pubs. Hellooo countryside, and lots of it! We stopped at the Powerscout Gardens (which was not included) and had an hour to spend there. Yeah, the gardens were big (and they reminded me a lot of The Shining), but I wanted to see more Dublin-y stuff. There was a giant tower, though, that Hillary and I spent way too much time climbing up, down, and taking each other’s pictures in. Apparently there was lots of “good shopping” in that area, too, but thankfully Hillary isn’t much of a shopper, just like me! As we were getting back to the bus, we asked people what they thought of the gardens, and they didn’t even realize there were gardens – they just spent their whole time in the shops

After that gardens we went to lunch at a carvery which was so poorly organized. They gave us a whopping 45 minutes for lunch (which they thankfully extended), and since all the busses stopped there, the line was practically out the door. Not to mention when we finally got our food, it was so mediocre. By this point, Hillary and I were both counting the tour as a bust; I wanted to see more of Dublin and she wanted to spend time in a pub chatting with the locals. Hindsight is 20/20, but if I could do it over again, I would have done a more specialized Dublin tour with the ship. That’s okay, I know I’ll be back, not on this cruise, but sometime in my lifetime. It wasn’t so much that the tour was bad, it just wasn’t what I was really expecting. I still had fun, though, and got to see parts of Ireland I probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Well, that’s all I have time for now, but I promise to post about the remainder of the ports later. I’m going to be a good person and go to the gym, since I’ve been eating more these past few weeks that I usually do. I can’t help it – the food is everywhere. But I’ve been trying to be good. They took away the running track on the top deck, so I’ve been trying to make due. Maybe I’ll go take a jog around the promenade deck, or just go to the gym proper (even though the gym is kinda boring).

First Week, Ports bermuda, dublin, ireland, scotland

I have had quite the adventure so far on this cruise, and I will pick up where I left off and continue my earlier story … later. For now, I have to journal about this Paris mis-adventure that I’ve had so far. What a wild and crazy day it has been, and it’s only 10 o’clock.

So, let’s start from the beginning. Since the start of this cruise, I knew I was going to dock Paris, but I’d be in for only one time. There are some ports – like Rome – that I go to many times during my contract. If something happens and I don’t get to do what I want to, that’s okay, because I’m coming back. But the first ports of my contract – Ireland, Scotland, Paris – I only get to come to once, so I knew I had to make the most of it. Also, technically we don’t dock in Paris, we dock in Le Harve, which is a good 2-3 hours from Paris. Not ideal, but still, it’s closer to Paris than I’ve ever been in my life, and I wanted to make every effort to go. My original plan was to sign up for a couple of ship tours that go to Paris as a crew escort, and if I don’t get that I would pay the crew price to go to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. As a crew escort, I offer my assistance in the morning before the tour, and I get to go on for free. Not a bad deal. But I wanted to go to Paris so badly I was willing to pay. Even as crew it would have been expensive, but I didn’t care. I really wanted to go to Paris, and I knew this was the only time I would get to do so.

As expected, the Paris ship tours were quite hot. Since there were so few tours, and passengers come first, there was no guarantee I would get picked for a tour. Even if I offered to pay for it myself, if there were enough passengers to go, I wouldn’t even get a chance to pay. After all, these people are paying to be on the ship, I’m not   I signed up for a couple tours, but I wouldn’t find out if I got them until the night before. I really wanted to go to Paris, so I started to explore other options incase I didn’t get a tour. So, I found out about a crew tour that was going to Paris (for crew members only). It wasn’t anything fancy – just a bus ride to and from Paris with 4 hours on your own. But, it was cheap, and it was a guaranteed spot for me to go to Paris. I figured if I did end up getting picked for a tour, I could always just sell or even ditch my crew tour without much loss. Life was good.

The night before I found out I did get picked for a tour. It wasn’t the Louvre tour like I wanted, but it was the river cruise, which I heard was also good. Whatever. It was a free ticket to Paris, so I can’t complain too much. But now I had this extra crew tour bus ticket. Normally I would have just let it go, but I heard about how the bus was full and they were turning people away. I’m lucky as a crew member because I can guarantee that I have all my port days off. But some crew members do not know until the night before, and by then it’s too late. So, I rushed around frantically trying to find someone to sell my ticket to. After talking to all the different crew, they told someone who told someone who got in touch with me.. It was this nice waiter who really wanted to go. We made the exchange and all was well. She was going to Paris, I was going to Paris, what could possibly go wrong?

So, flash forward to this morning. The tour I was going on started at 7:00, but as a crew escort I had to be there at 6:30. I didn’t get much sleep the night before, and my breakfast was pitiful, but I made it there in time to do my escort duties. Nothing too complicated – I was instructed to direct people coming off elevators to go into a line around the corner. I had done this before on my Scotland tour, so it wasn’t too bad. I should have known something was up when the line around the corner started to back me into the elevator. We were running out of room to queue up people and I was all by myself trying to control it all. It was total chaos. My duties as an escort were never this tough before. Eventually they opened up multiple lines based on what tour you were going on. It was madness. This is … Paris day on the Grand Princess.

Passengers start to ask what the heck is going on but I have nothing to tell them. I try my best to find someone knowledgeable. I learn that apparently there are protestors that are blocking the tour busses from leaving the dock! They are setting off smoke bombs, lighting tires on fire, and all sorts of crazy stuff. I have no idea what they are protesting – I’m sure it will be on the news later – I think they are the people that work in the ports. They have another cruise shipped blocked besides ours. Imagine how long they’ve been planning this. But all that aside, because of all the protestors, none of the tours have been able to get out. There were a few tours that were supposed to leave before mine – including the crew tour – but no one has left. So people are either waiting in line, waiting in the Princess Theater, or waiting on the bus. Can you imagine getting on the bus, ready to go to your tour.. and just sitting there for hours? At least they got a nice view of the protestors

So the word at this point is no one can leave until they get the local authorities to clear the area. But no one knows how long that will be. As of this point, it’s 7:30. My tour was supposed to leave at 7:00 and they are saying they possibly won’t know anything until 9:00. They make a ship-wide announcement that it will be a while, and if people want to get out and get something to eat, they can. They plan to make another announcement when things get sorted out, whenever that will be. They also offer the ability for people to get refunds, which a lot of people do. No one knows what’s going on, no tours are going out, and there’s really no need for me right now as “crew”. So, I find a few of my passenger friends that were supposed to go on my tour and commiserate with them. We go walk around just to stretch our legs and get some air. Since I haven’t had a real breakfast today, I suggest we grab some. On our way there, we run into other people who were on the same tour as well, and they tell us they heard an announcement that the Paris River Cruise – my tour – was cancelled. My heart just stops. I thought for sure I was going to Paris, and now everything seems to disappear in an instant.

So I say screw breakfast, and run over as fast as I can to the tour desk to try and get this sorted out. I’m getting to Paris, I don’t care what it takes. If my tour was cancelled, I want to go on another tour that is going. I will pay, I don’t care. It will be a while before I ever come back to Paris – if ever, so I’m willing to do what it takes to get there. Unfortunately, the tour desk is so swamped with passengers wanting refunds (or just information) that there is little they can do for me. Passengers come first, and a cruise escort, I accept the responsibility that my tour may be cancelled. They suggest for me to hop a ride on the crew tour – yes, the same one I sold my ticket for. So now I have a worthless ticket for a cancelled tour and the useful ticket I could have used is also gone. Had I known, I would have just kept my original crew tour ticket, but how was I to know this mess would happen? Even the shore excursion manager told me that he’s never seen anything like this before. This situation was completely out of Princess’s control, but they were doing their best to resolve it for the passengers. Unfortunately, as time passed, it was looking less and less like I was going to get to go.

I find my passenger friends again at the buffet, and I am a beyond bummed. I really wanted to go to Paris, and now it probably won’t happen. They were on the same tour I was which got cancelled, so we sympathize together, but they don’t seem nearly as broken up about it as I am. I always try and be happy and chipper on the ship to the passengers, but I can’t hide my disappointment. I worked so hard to ensure that I would get to go to Paris, but it all fell apart. I know – woe is me. Poor girl trapped on a cruise ship travelling the world and she doesn’t get to go to one place. Life goes on. But you know you would have been disappointed in my situation, especially if you have never been to Paris before, like me. So, I start to accept the possibility that I am not going. I tried my hardest, but there were just things beyond my control that I didn’t foresee. My best bet is to make the most of the day and try to move on.

All of the sudden, I hear a ship-wide announcement that they are starting to board people for tours. This is a good sign – action is finally happening. They do, however, confirm that the tour I was supposed to go on was indeed cancelled. Dang. I’m still not ready to give up yet, though.  Soon after, they make announcement that they are boarding for the crew tour. I’m surprised to hear this, since I was under the impression that it already left, but that’s not important now – this is my glimmer of hope. This is my last ditch effort. I know the bus is supposedly full, but I have to do everything I can to get on it. Before I head to the bus, I go to my room to grab $200 in cash to offer someone for their seat. That’s 8 times the original value of the ticket. I don’t care. I want it that badly. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I want to look back on this day and know that I did everything I could to get to Paris.

I find the crew bus and it’s surprisingly empty. There are plenty of seats, and even some people on the bus are not sure they want to stay on since no one is sure how long we get in Paris. I take a seat and set myself down, prepared to pay whatever it takes, but hoping it won’t come to that. Soon after the tour organizer comes on board and tells us what’s going on – we’re about to leave. We’ll get to Paris at around 12:30, leave at 3:00, and be back in time for the ship. So we get two and a half hours instead of our usual four. Whatever – I don’t care. I don’t care if we spend 15 minutes in Paris. Let’s get this bus moving so we can get out of here.
And so we did. And all the cash stayed nicely in my pocket. Now, I’m typing this from the road on my way to Paris. I can’t believe it. After all the mishaps this morning I am finally on my way. I’m still worried something is going to go wrong and I won’t get to go, but everything looks to be fine. Apparently the crew did board this morning, and like the other passengers, they were waiting for a very long time too. They all got off, came back to the ship, and many of them just gave up and tried to take a train. The few that stayed on came back to the bus when they heard the announcement like I did.

So, I guess everything worked out. I still ended up going to Paris for free – although I would have paid whatever it took, but it was such a nightmare trying to get here. I plan to enjoy my time in Paris, take lots of pictures, and treasure the moment. The madness doesn’t stop, though. I did offer my help in the internet café later tonight since there will be so many passengers trying to sort out their flight situation. It’s going to be a long night, I can tell you that.

Man, I knew this was going to be a tough cruise because of all the sea days, but I had no idea what I was in for. First the volcano madness, and then this Paris protest – this has been a highly abnormal cruise. But the good news is, if I can do this, I can do anything.

Oh, and by the time you’re reading this, I’ve actually already gone to Paris and now am on my way back to start the working part of my day. It was awesome, incredible, and as expected – you can’t do a whole lot in two and a half hours. But, I did the highlights, and I’m sure one day I’ll come back. For now, I can rest happy knowing I finally made it to Paris

First Week, Ports le harve, paris, protest

So I managed to snag 30 free minutes on the Bermuda computer at the library, so I’m going to take advantage of it. High-speed internet, how I’ve missed you so. Of course, of those 30 minutes I’ve spent 15 minutes checking various social networking sites, so now I’m down to half the time. Luckily I can type quickly – or at least I will do my best.

The past few days have been CRAZY busy. I need to write a more detailed report of my first few days, but once I got on the ship (which took a couple hours) and then got to my room (which took ANOTHER couple hours), I found out I had an open house scheduled from 7-10 pm. No time to rest for me! I barely had any time to unpack.

I’ve been spending the last couple days teaching in the morning/afternoon, and preparing for my class schedule at night. Since I’m not familiar with it, I’ve been going over the material so I’m as prepared as possible. My classes have been going well and people seem to be enjoying them. I’ve had a class as large as 8 and a class as small as 1! I actually like the different class sizes, because it gives me a chance to do different things based on the skill levels. And I’ve had a few repeat customers, so I must be doing something right.

I’ve barely gotten any sleep. Too much work/fun to be had. My job is extra social because I’m trying to get to know both the crew AND the passengers while still trying to find my way around the ship. I definitely have learned where the buffet is. Even though I technically have an hour for lunch, various things have cut into that time, so I usually have to sneak away really quick and wolf something down. Eventually when things calm down I’ll be able to eat like a normal human being again.

It is a very odd experience being on a cruise ship but not being a passenger. I can do passenger-like things, but I don’t get all the free time that I’m used to. Still, it’s fun to be on the ship and get to see all the areas that I don’t normally get to see.

As I mentioned earlier, I have six straight days of teaching starting tomorrow. Ick. The last two days of teaching were tiring enough, but these six days are going to wipe me out. All the while, I’m still trying to figure out how things go and what I need to do. It’s not easy, let me tell you. And since I’m a one-woman show, I’m all on my own.

Well, my internet time is nearing down on this computer, so I should say goodbye so I can allow myself a little time for proofreading. It’s the technical writer in me, I can’t help it.

Hope everyone else is enjoying themselves. I know I am. Pictures to come soon

Ports bermuda, free internet, library