We had an uneventful 3 sea days on the way to New Zealand. We spent the time learning the new ship, which in our opinion has a bizarre layout. We are told that it is common for “Princess” ships to have a deck plan where one needs to walk up a deck, than down a […]
Cruising
Celebrity Solstice
Dharmaniṣṭhuya. In Kannada, a Dravidic language spoken by forty-four million people in India, the relief of the downhill slope. The sensation an exhausted walker has when they come to a downward stretch of the path. — Gómez-Jurado, Juan. White King: A Novel (Antonia Scott Book 3) (p. 241). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. We […]
Ha Long Bay
We were looking forward to the cruise on Ha Long Bay for a while. It is comprised of 1,969 islets, most of which are limestone karst. We’d hoped for a luxury cruise, and the bus we boarded early in the morning suggested that we’d lucked out. The journey took about 3 hours, with one stop […]
Cruise Ship Culture
The Rhapsody of the Sea is a medium size (75,000 tons, vs. 2000 tons for the big ones) for a cruise ship. Not that that was a consideration in choosing this cruise. We later learned that ocean cruises, crossings as they are known, are best done on this size or bigger for calmer trips. Our […]
Barca
Cruise Update The cruise ended in Barcelona. For us. Which is a good thing. Not that we didn’t enjoy it, we had a fine time. The night after they left the ship ran into some serious seas. A “rogue” wave hit the port bow deck three (where our cabin was), and knocked out the windows […]
Sweet Malaga
We’re just going to have to skip a post for Tenerife, having lost the pictures with the camera. It was our first port of call after the crossing, and it felt strange to be planning the day’s activities after a week of not doing so. We liked it quite a bit. Not having time to […]
Lost at Sea. and Other Stuff
Lost at Sea So we had already spent the day in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, had dinner, and gone to the show. Somewhere after that, my beloved camera disappeared. Fortunately, I try to upload pictures every day or two, so you won’t be seeing any shots of the Canaries. You also won’t see some […]
Salvador
Salvador de Bahia is the third largest city in Brazil. In 1776, it was the largest and richest city in America, much larger than Boston and New York. Being the center of the slave trade, as well as the main port for Brazilian silver and gold really helped. We debarked independently of a tour and […]
Rio
Did you know that Rio de Janiero is a misnomer? The Portuguese explorer who first came here thought that it was the mouth of a river, or “Rio,” and that the month was January, or “Janiero.” A few days earlier would have been Deciembre. In fact it is not the mouth of a river, rather […]
Sao Paulo
If you’re reading this the cruise has started (in fact, we’ve crossed). We barely slept on the way from Bogota to Sao Paulo. We found the shuttle, but an accident closed the highway and we were delayed several hours waiting, primarily with Germans. My German came back a bit, and they were quite pleased that […]