Dateline: In the Gulf of Saint Laurence off Gaspe Point: October 20, 2007 2200 hours Atlantic Time Canada (6 p.m. in California).
This is our third day at sea. Lots of photos and cool stuff to share. Check out the photo album at Google Picasa Photos. It has been a beautiful trip so far, it is dark outside right now and we are about 138 nautical miles from our first stop in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It is cold, beautiful and foggy outside, and as soon as I am done writing this, I have a date with our balcony, a Cuban cigar and a glass of Cabernet….busy “First Formal Night” last night so Carol is in the rack dreaming about shopping in Corner Brook bright and early tomorrow morning. The ship is moving quite a lot, both up-and-down, as well as side-to-side, so it will be a great night to sleep.
Again, we begin with thanks to Matt Knowles for getting us to the ship, WITH our baggage, on-time and together. Frankly, the cruise line business is not what it used to be. We Americans have FUBARed the business up quite nicely, thank you. A whole shitload of people lost their stuff en-route to the debarkation port of Quebec, and the attitude from the people on the ship appears to be, “Your problem, mate.” Many of the people we speak with working on the ship barely understand English, and are not much help. We met two women yesterday who literally have NO clothes, including underclothes, until their luggage can catch up with them (which at the earliest will be tomorrow morning in Corner Brook, Newfoundland). We were processing our laundry yesterday, and Carol offered them some of ours, but they politely declined. I guess neither of these young women felt they would look good in my Jockey shorts… anyway, it is really amazing. The ship’s stores don’t sell any chonies and it’s hard to wear a tux to gym class and sweats to the Captain’s reception.
For those of you who served in Southeast Asia with me, it is like hitting the bar and whore districts all over again at the age of 59! When they say these cruise trips are “all inclusive” do NOT believe it. Instead of “You buy me drinkie or BIG boom boom G.I., it is you buy anything else, rich tourista…” We have been literally hounded to purchase everything from soda cards to coffee cards, jewelry, alcohol, to photos to whatever. It is a constant hassle keeping these people out of your way in order to enjoy the actual cruise. It truly is as bad as the street corners in Las Vegas, and it has really placed a damper on the other joys of the trip. The people from the U.K. (who are the coolest people on the ship) are like, “What the HELL is it with you Americans and money???!!!” As an American it is truly embarrassing. Anyway, enough about that crap.
The ship itself is beautiful, appears well maintained, and run with precision, except for the fact that a lot of the crew do not appear to understand English. The muster and “emergency at sea” drill was really funny (only because I was half in the bag during the drill), and with us being in “Titanic Country” you had to be here to enjoy the humor. Leah, think of your 911 stories at Sac Fire on steroids!! If this tub goes down I know I’ll most-likely end up driving a lifeboat while under the influence, and God Have Mercy!!
The ship sailed right on time, and we spent yesterday touring the lower Saguenay River en-route to the Gulf of St. Laurence. Dinner (as with all of the meals) was grand, and we had a very nice time on our first “formal night.” The Captain came along and said “Hi and Welcome” and that was about it. He is Italian and seems kind of shy. However, he must have an awesome responsibility for the correct operation of this ship, If you think about the Captain of a 747 with 450 people on-board, this guy is responsible for a ship that weights 109,000 TONS (that is NOT a misprint) and is almost 1,000 feet long, 3,000 passengers and another 900 crew people. We have been traveling in what the ship’s crew calls “moderate” seas and pea soup fog and Force Six winds all day, and we have been thumping and bumping a lot. Mr. seasick patch came for his first visit today, as for us landlubbers it has been rough in a mild sort of way. We are expecting even more rough seas in the North Atlantic in late October and early November.
Carol and I speed-walk two-to-three miles every day we are not going ashore to tour, which is abut nine laps around the ship’s promenade deck. Each lap is 1/3 of a mile, which gives you some idea how big this thing is, and yes, there is even a guy out there hassling us to purchase Irish Coffees while we exercise. We have been eating like pigs (and it shows!!), and are taking a French language class from this young woman who is truly an amazing teacher and funnier than Hell. How did the French get a reputation for being such ass holes (even she says they are the rudest people it the world, especially Parisians!)? There is more stuff to do than there is time to do it, and while there are a few “younger” (and I use that term carefully), many of the passengers are seniors, and one does have to be very careful about being run over by a Rascal or Lark at the bar… there is a huge “under the stars” movie theater on the 14th deck (we live on deck 11) that is the size of one of those old drive-in movie places.
Well, time to sign off and get to that cigar and glass of wine. More later when we get a chance. BTW, Internet access is like REALLY expensive on this ship, so we will be shooting emails and updating this travel blog when we hit port and find Internet access for less than $.50 per minute (no shit….:-))!
This is our third day at sea. Lots of photos and cool stuff to share. Check out the photo album at Google Picasa Photos. It has been a beautiful trip so far, it is dark outside right now and we are about 138 nautical miles from our first stop in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It is cold, beautiful and foggy outside, and as soon as I am done writing this, I have a date with our balcony, a Cuban cigar and a glass of Cabernet….busy “First Formal Night” last night so Carol is in the rack dreaming about shopping in Corner Brook bright and early tomorrow morning. The ship is moving quite a lot, both up-and-down, as well as side-to-side, so it will be a great night to sleep.
Again, we begin with thanks to Matt Knowles for getting us to the ship, WITH our baggage, on-time and together. Frankly, the cruise line business is not what it used to be. We Americans have FUBARed the business up quite nicely, thank you. A whole shitload of people lost their stuff en-route to the debarkation port of Quebec, and the attitude from the people on the ship appears to be, “Your problem, mate.” Many of the people we speak with working on the ship barely understand English, and are not much help. We met two women yesterday who literally have NO clothes, including underclothes, until their luggage can catch up with them (which at the earliest will be tomorrow morning in Corner Brook, Newfoundland). We were processing our laundry yesterday, and Carol offered them some of ours, but they politely declined. I guess neither of these young women felt they would look good in my Jockey shorts… anyway, it is really amazing. The ship’s stores don’t sell any chonies and it’s hard to wear a tux to gym class and sweats to the Captain’s reception.
For those of you who served in Southeast Asia with me, it is like hitting the bar and whore districts all over again at the age of 59! When they say these cruise trips are “all inclusive” do NOT believe it. Instead of “You buy me drinkie or BIG boom boom G.I., it is you buy anything else, rich tourista…” We have been literally hounded to purchase everything from soda cards to coffee cards, jewelry, alcohol, to photos to whatever. It is a constant hassle keeping these people out of your way in order to enjoy the actual cruise. It truly is as bad as the street corners in Las Vegas, and it has really placed a damper on the other joys of the trip. The people from the U.K. (who are the coolest people on the ship) are like, “What the HELL is it with you Americans and money???!!!” As an American it is truly embarrassing. Anyway, enough about that crap.
The ship itself is beautiful, appears well maintained, and run with precision, except for the fact that a lot of the crew do not appear to understand English. The muster and “emergency at sea” drill was really funny (only because I was half in the bag during the drill), and with us being in “Titanic Country” you had to be here to enjoy the humor. Leah, think of your 911 stories at Sac Fire on steroids!! If this tub goes down I know I’ll most-likely end up driving a lifeboat while under the influence, and God Have Mercy!!
The ship sailed right on time, and we spent yesterday touring the lower Saguenay River en-route to the Gulf of St. Laurence. Dinner (as with all of the meals) was grand, and we had a very nice time on our first “formal night.” The Captain came along and said “Hi and Welcome” and that was about it. He is Italian and seems kind of shy. However, he must have an awesome responsibility for the correct operation of this ship, If you think about the Captain of a 747 with 450 people on-board, this guy is responsible for a ship that weights 109,000 TONS (that is NOT a misprint) and is almost 1,000 feet long, 3,000 passengers and another 900 crew people. We have been traveling in what the ship’s crew calls “moderate” seas and pea soup fog and Force Six winds all day, and we have been thumping and bumping a lot. Mr. seasick patch came for his first visit today, as for us landlubbers it has been rough in a mild sort of way. We are expecting even more rough seas in the North Atlantic in late October and early November.
Carol and I speed-walk two-to-three miles every day we are not going ashore to tour, which is abut nine laps around the ship’s promenade deck. Each lap is 1/3 of a mile, which gives you some idea how big this thing is, and yes, there is even a guy out there hassling us to purchase Irish Coffees while we exercise. We have been eating like pigs (and it shows!!), and are taking a French language class from this young woman who is truly an amazing teacher and funnier than Hell. How did the French get a reputation for being such ass holes (even she says they are the rudest people it the world, especially Parisians!)? There is more stuff to do than there is time to do it, and while there are a few “younger” (and I use that term carefully), many of the passengers are seniors, and one does have to be very careful about being run over by a Rascal or Lark at the bar… there is a huge “under the stars” movie theater on the 14th deck (we live on deck 11) that is the size of one of those old drive-in movie places.
Well, time to sign off and get to that cigar and glass of wine. More later when we get a chance. BTW, Internet access is like REALLY expensive on this ship, so we will be shooting emails and updating this travel blog when we hit port and find Internet access for less than $.50 per minute (no shit….:-))!
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