Month: December 2009

Contributed by: filbert Saturday, December 12 2009 @ 07:00 AM CST

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-seven

December 1 (Tuesday, Day 34, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean) –

Breakfast Tea

We woke up (Snookums had been up since 5:15 AM) and our morning timing allowed us to enjoy breakfast together at La Veranda. Filbert has been on a huge hot tea kick and drinks 2 or 3 pots at breakfast. Most recently he’s been enjoying orange pekoe, but he sometimes has black currant, Irish breakfast or English breakfast.

More after the jump . . . While we were eating we saw 4 volcanic islands (Martim Vaz Islands) in the distance and as we got closer the captain came on the intercom and said that they belong to Brazil but since they weren’t fully charted, we weren’t going to get any closer than 8 miles. An hour later we passed a much larger island, Trindade, which was 12 miles away from our ship and houses 32 members of the Brazilian navy.

Martim Vaz Islands

While yesterday’s weather was extremely calm, today was very, very windy. Nonetheless, the Voyager hosted “The Country Fair” on the pool deck for all of the guests. Every department on the ship (galley, provisioning, stewardesses, shore excursion, casino, bars, boutique, chefs, etc.) puts together a carnival booth and then the guests “play” each game and win raffle tickets for one of 10 prizes at the end of the hour long fair. Some of the booths are very clever considering it’s all homemade and it doesn’t look like they really get any budget to use. For instance, the boutique staff (which consists of 4 total people) had the “human slot machine” where one man stood and you moved his arm down like a slot machine’s lever and then the other 3 people pulled pieces of fruit out of their bags and if the 3 pieces matched, you won. The chefs had “Splat the Chef” and we got to throw sponge cake smeared with thick whip cream (maybe loose butter cream frosting – it was pretty tasty!) at 3 chefs. The 9 singers and dancers were in the pool and they were the human ring toss. We had to throw hula hoops and try to ring a person with each hula hoop. It was fun and the crew really seemed to enjoy it, too, although it meant extra work for them with the set-up and clean-up. But, since it gets them outside, they probably really do enjoy it. (Stewardesses, for instance, NEVER get outside other than when they clean the cabin balconies or when they have some time off when the ship is docked so you know they enjoyed it.) Filbert, however, stayed in the room to process pictures from Cape Town through today for this journal. (And, no, Snookums did NOT make him stay in the room and work!)

The Country Fair

Splat the Chef

Snookums was tired and ended up ordering in for dinner and had a chef salad and potato chips and Filbert had his oatmeal and hot tea.

December 2 (Wednesday, Day 35, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean)

Snookums woke up and worked out and so did Filbert. However, we didn’t have breakfast together since our timing wasn’t quite the same. Snookums did laundry since we’ll be busy with Rio de Janeiro tours for the next 3 days. Filbert went to the lecture about uncharted lands in South America and then Filbert and Snookums went to the lecture about what diplomats really do. Snookums was discouraged to not learn anything and Filbert reminded her that Ambassador Samuel Hart is a diplomat and therefore doesn’t say anything. The speaker did say that a lot of foreign service jobs are held by contractors and he doesn’t agree with that. He also doesn’t think that ambassadors should be political appointees. Filbert thinks that most ambassadors shouldn’t be speakers on cruise ships . . .

After lunch we went to the food lecture on foreign food markets by Paulette Mitchell and saw her slide show of the various markets she has been to around the world. We had been to a lot of them (Bangkok, Apia, and Saigon just to name a few) and were surprised she didn’t have a slide of Tokyo and the Japanese department store basement food halls. We guess she hasn’t been to Japan.

It wouldn’t be a cruise without a helicopter medical evacuation. Sure enough, around 3:00 PM the captain made an announcement saying that we diverted course a little bit (by turning due west) in order to get closer to Brazil for a medical helicopter evacuation. We will still dock in Rio tomorrow as scheduled, though. Snookums heard that a woman was having kidney problems.

Snookums and 4 other guests went on the 45-minute galley tour led by Executive Chef, Georg Hessler. Everything is made fresh on Regent ships – salad dressings, breads, desserts, ice creams, etc. One of the cooks was severely burned when a wind gust came from nowhere right before we got to Cape Town when he was working at the Pool Grill. His hand and arm are really bad (and it’s too early to tell if he’ll fully recover) and so they are a man short and that challenges the kitchen staff. We were also told that the Brazilian inspection team comes up with different rules every time a ship is in port in order to make a little money on the side (via bribes). Some of the kitchen staff was taking produce out of the cardboard cartons it came in and was putting it in big Rubbermaid totes with locking lids. Produce doesn’t store well in closed containers, but that’s beside the point. The Brazilian inspectors insist on it that way so the ship has to conform. The provisioning manager frequently purchases local products like fish and vegetables. Snookums jokingly asked if anything was purchased in St. Helena (since everything has to be shipped in) and was told that olive oil was purchased at $8 per liter since the ship was running a little short for dressings. Now the executive chef wished he would have purchased more since Rio de Janeiro is charging $22 per liter of olive oil! The executive chef also told us that sometimes the product that is ordered doesn’t come in. He said that he ordered baby spinach in Cape Town and got Swiss chard. He decided to call his Swiss chard creation “African spinach with peanuts”. Snookums remembered having that vegetable and commenting to Filbert that it wasn’t spinach at all but was some kind of chard or green. The chef shouldn’t try to fool the passengers!

The galley tour:

The medical evacuation happened around 6:30 PM. Snookums was standing on the top landing underneath the glass atrium roof and the helicopter was directly above her. She didn’t have a camera with her and Filbert had already gone to the Observation Lounge with his but Snookums had the better viewpoint. A few minutes later the Staff Captain ordered everyone to leave which made perfect sense from a safety standpoint. Snookums was wondering what would happen if the helicopter dipped a rotor just a little bit into the atrium’s glass ceiling with all the people underneath. It wouldn’t have been a pretty sight. And, the wind was very bad and the gusts were very strong so the helicopter pilot had the weather to deal with, too. The woman that was helicoptered off practically lives on the ship with her husband. Her name is Ronnie and they are both elderly and she actually seemed to be in much better shape than her husband. Anyway, she had an internal blockage and needed immediate surgery. As of Friday, December 4, we’ve been told that she is stable in critical condition. After surgery the doctors did not think she would survive but she is surprising all of them. She’s a spry one, that’s for sure!

Evac Helicopter

Tonight was formal night (the captain’s farewell for the guests getting off in Rio) so we decided to actually get dressed up and go. Filbert didn’t want to wear his Indian outfit so he wore his navy blue pants and his pinstripe suit jacket and looked dashing. (Remember that somehow his suit pants managed to stay home rather than get in the suitcase!). For dinner Snookums ordered the Iced Fruit Cup with Lychees and Citrus Segments, Butter Lettuce and the Broiled Fillet of Tilapia with White Truffle Sauce. Filbert’s dinner consisted of Brazilian Fish Soup, Butter Lettuce with Crabmeat, Tagliatelle Pasta a la Mediterranean Tossed with Lobster and Seafood Mermaid with Sauce Newburgh (scallops, shrimp, mussels and lobster tail on truffle pilaf rice). Neither of us had the intermezzo of Refreshing Aquavit Sorbet with Almonds to cleanse our palates prior to eating our entrees. Snookums’s desserts were the Caramelized Lemon Tart with Summer Berries and an order of Orange Ricotta Ice Cream since she thought it sounded unusual (and it was kind of different, in a good way). Filbert’s dessert was Low Carb Flourless Chocolate Cake and Sugar Free Cappuccino Chip Ice Cream. We were both very happy with our choices, although we thought that the butter lettuce was kind of bitter.

Formal night

Our current cruise segment (Cape Town to Rio) is around 60% occupied. Our first segment (Mumbai to Cape Town) was about 75% occupied. We’ve been told that our final segment (Rio to Ft. Lauderdale) is actually overbooked and that there is at least one couple onboard that wants to extend to Ft. Lauderdale but might have to get off in Rio as originally planned.

Dec. 2 sunset, through the sea-sprayed veranda glass door

Next: Rio!

Contributed by: filbert Friday, December 11 2009 @ 08:16 PM CST

On December 11, 2007, I posted:

Here’s what the plan was: We would fly out on Tuesday afternoon, in order to be in New York in plenty of time to board our cruise ship on Wednesday for our 10-day Caribbean cruise. Everything was in order–hotel reservations, airline tickets, everything.

Then . . .

ICE STORM!!!!!!

Ice storms are not good. Ice storms are bad. Ice storms are very, very bad. Ice storms are, if you will, not at all cool.

So, on Monday, the National Weather Service says “We’re putting out an ICE STORM!!!!!! WARNING at 6 p.m. on Monday until noon on Tuesday.” (They may have left off the all-caps and the extra exclamation points–I’m not sure.)

ICE STORM!!!!!

Snookums gets a call from her mother at about 9 a.m. Monday. “Your brother thinks we might want to get a hotel room next to the airport tonight.” Since all of Kansas City is at least 30 minutes from the airport (and our house is closer to 45 minutes away), this is good advice. We decide to take it, so we get ready to bug out. Snookums’ mom likes to worry about travel, so she’s already on board with the plan. Snookums’ dad is cool with it, and her sister, who has just arrived from Wichita, is up for the change of plan as well.

So, we get to the Airport Fairfield Inn at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. We dump Snookums’ parents in their room, dump our luggage (and Snookums’ sister) in the other room, and head over to the airport long-term parking to drop off sister’s van. Then we take the parking bus to the terminal, in order to transfer to the Fairfield’s bus which will pick us up and take us back to the hotel.

In the meantime, we decide to check to see if we can check in. Snookums runs inside. I flag down the bus and ask the driver to wait. Snookums returns and says that all of the early morning flights on Midwest out of Kansas City for Tuesday morning are canceled. Well, our flight is an early afternoon flight. The check-in person told Snookums to call Midwest’s reservation line.

She calls, finds out that there’s a 6:50 p.m. flight on Monday night that has seats. OK, can we switch to that flight?

Sure! says the reservation agent. Do it! says me.

So, we hustle back to the Fairfield, burst into Mom and Dad’s room, and tell them to pack it up, we’re going to New York TONIGHT!  And BONUS! the Fairfield Inn doesn’t even charge us for either room that we already messed up.  We decided we like Fairfield Inns.  A lot.  Go stay at a Fairfield Inn tonight.  For us.  For the children.

Anyway . . .

We get packed up, get on the Fairfield’s bus, get to the airport, get checked in, have plenty of time for a sit down dinner, get on the plane, fly to LaGuardia, get in a cab that holds all of our luggage and a wheelchair, and get to our New York hotel like clockwork.

Oh, yeah, when we got to the baggage carousel, there is a TV screen of the next few Midwest flights.

The 6:30 a.m. departure from La Guardia to Kansas City is already canceled.

You know, every time since last Thursday when I’ve looked at the weather forecast for Kansas City, it’s gotten worse. This time, at 11:45 p.m. Monday night, is no exception:

In the bizarre world of the NWS, “occasional” is more likely than “likely”. Looks like KC’s gonna get some freezing rain.

The more I look at that National Weather Service graph, the more I’m looking forward to the Caribbean.

Contributed by: filbert Friday, December 11 2009 @ 07:00 AM CST

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-six

November 28 (Saturday, Day 31, Jamestown, St. Helena, UK) –

Jamestown

Snookums woke up at 5:30 AM and read her book. Around 6 AM she looked out the window and realized that a huge chunk of rock was out there. Okay, it was St. Helena. While we were eating breakfast Snookums asked the St. Helena policewoman onboard (who was also eating) about getting a pedicure while on shore. She said that there was one shop that did that. Snookums hates paying $65 for an onboard pedicure and tries to get them during our port days if at all possible since she literally is not capable of polishing her own toenails.

More after the jump . . . We took the tender to beautiful Jamestown and started searching for a pedicure for Snookums and a haircut for Filbert. Snookums was in luck and made an appointment for 11:30. The local beautician/barber, though, was fully booked so Filbert will just wait until we get home. (He doesn’t like his hair getting “mask hair” from his sleep apnea mask.) Main Street is about four blocks long and is wonderfully preserved example of Georgian Architecture from the 1700s. One of the landmarks on the island is “Jacob’s Ladder”. It’s 699 steps up the steep side of the cliff and it was built in 1829 to carry manure to the countryside. Snookums wanted to climb it, but she had on the wrong shoes due to her pedicure. Going down is supposedly harder than climbing up since it’s so steep.

The Gate

Jacob’s Ladder

St. Helena is the island that Napoleon was exiled to. After spending 5 ½ years here, he passed away. It’s 5 miles by 10 miles. Around 4,000 people live on St. Helena (down from 6,000 residents about 10 years ago) and there is NO airport. It is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Namibia and Brazil and gets mail service once a month via the Royal Mail Ship (RMS St. Helena). Two cruise ships have anchored at St. Helena so far this year.

Clock tower

St. Helena is a British Overseas Territory and the residents, many of whom are subsidized by the British government, have British passports. St. Helena has two radio stations and a newspaper and gets its three television channels from South Africa via satellite. It has a hospital and schools, but if someone needs emergency care that the hospital can’t provide, that person has to wait for the mail ship’s monthly visit in order to get off the island. Then it’s at least a two-day journey to Ascension Island and its airport. (This is also how you leave the island for vacations and jobs and for any other reason you want to leave the island. Many residents go to the Falkland Islands to work.)

We went to the bank and got St. Helena pounds and also visited the post office for 4 post cards. The RMS St. Helena is coming on November 30 so the post cards might make it home before we do on December 18, or they might not! The grocery stores had lots of canned goods (and they were kind of pricey – $1.75 for a can of corn) and a little bit of fresh meat. The produce consisted of picked over carrots, cabbage, potatoes and onions and lots of empty display space. Fresh items come on the RMS St. Helena and immediately sell out. Most people have gardens with lettuce and tomatoes and they can grow year round due to the climate. It was 75° and sunny today.

While Snookums was getting her pedicure, Filbert enjoyed a sausage roll and pot of hot tea in the Consulate Hotel café. Lots of locals were there, too. Snookums’s pedicurist seemed to be in her late 20s and she was born and raised on St. Helena. She went to the UK for 8 months for training and now has her own shop. She almost didn’t make it to training since her scheduled trip on the RMS St. Helena didn’t happen due to mechanical problems. She was very fortunate, though, that there was a cruise ship coming and she was able to get on that and go to Ascension Island to make her flight to the UK. If that cruise ship hadn’t come, she would have missed out on her training since she would have been at least one month late!

School chorus

Her Majesty’s Prison

There was a little craft market set up on Main Street to take advantage of the ship. We didn’t buy anything since there wasn’t much to buy.

Craft market

Town park

The view up Main Street

We visited the most remote distillery in the world, though, and learned that the man retired to St. Helena and then decided to start a business. Ten years ago when he started, he thought St. Helena was getting an airport. (Two months ago the British government once again said “no” to an airport. The RMS St. Helena will need to be replaced in two years due to safety needs so people are thinking that the UK government will build an airport rather than buy a new mail ship. This most recent “no” was a major setback.) Anyway, he distills prickly pear cactus liqueur, coffee liqueur and spiced rum. Filbert tried all three and bought everything but the coffee one (made with St. Helena coffee). This man bought topnotch distilling equipment from Germany and paid $47,000 just to get it shipped to St. Helena. Then he decided to buy special bottles from Italy in the shape of Jacob’s Ladder and had to order 20,000 bottles. Snookums doesn’t think he is ever going to turn a profit and the man doesn’t think he will, either, unless the airport is approved. Right now he exports it to the UK and South Africa, but via the RMS St. Helena! There is little to no tourism on the island, either, since it would take someone one week to get on and off if the RMS St. Helena did a twice a month route, which it sometimes does.

Tonight was another formal night to honor past Regent cruisers (our second “honoring” that we’ve skipped) so we went to La Veranda for its Italian-themed menu while wearing our casual clothes and had a nice, quiet dinner.

November 29 (Sunday, Day 32, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean) –

We woke up and both worked out — Filbert in the gym and Snookums in “Muscle Mix”. Filbert went to two back-to-back lectures. The first was about a 19th century naval hero followed by a lecture about the culture of today’s South America. Snookums did laundry which she does every three days. Snookums REALLY, REALLY likes that Holland America allows you to pay a set amount per cruise to have all of your laundry done by the ship’s staff. In fact, that’s a major reason we won’t be sailing on Regent when we sail on a world cruise in the future.

The day was sunny and warm (mid-80s) and lunch was by the pool. We enjoyed the special German buffet today and had various German sausages. Two men joined our table and we found out that they are paying passengers on the ship but they work for H. Stern which is a leading jeweler. They sail this itinerary (Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro) on many cruise lines in order to sign up other passengers to take the free tour of H. Stern with the hopes of selling them some gems. They were very nice and didn’t try to push themselves on us at all. After Filbert left, Snookums continued to talk to one and found out a lot of things about Rio such as that spectators must pay to watch Carnival. She thought it was like a U.S. parade – show up, find a place along the route and enjoy the show. But, nope, there are stands built along the route and you have to have a ticket to watch. A bleacher ticket is around $150 and a great seat will cost $1,000. There are 12 Samba schools and 6 perform each night so Carnival is only two nights long.

We also learned that there was a cruise to St. Helena once that ended up having to leave 39 passengers behind since the weather turned and the captain deemed it unsafe to use the tenders. Those passengers had to take a cargo ship to Ascension Island and then the Royal Air Force flew them to London and then they took a commercial flight to Rio to catch up to the cruise ship!

Monica and Joel invited us to dinner at Prime 7. They knew about our experiences at our first two Prime 7 dinners were interested to see if things would turn our right this time. We had a wonderful dinner with them and it was free of any challenges. We left Prime 7 just in time to see the comedian, Sarge. This was the first show we attended and it was pretty good.

November 30 (Monday, Day 33, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean) –

Snookums woke up and walked on the treadmill before going to the fitness class, Fabulous Abs. Then she ate her Special K and blueberries (she’s trying to watch her weight!) outside at La Veranda and enjoyed reading her book. Filbert woke up with a sinus headache and ordered his hot water for oatmeal and hot tea and ate in the cabin and then spent the rest of the morning on the balcony reading and listening to short-wave.

Snookums went to the backstage tour and learned that there are 6 shows that the singers and dancers know and these 6 shows stay in rotation for 3 years and cost $1 million each. 2 of the 6 are the same on all 3 Regent ships. The costumes have to last 3 years, too, and each singer/dancer is responsible for cleaning (usually hand washing) the costumes while on their 6-month contract. While Snookums was learning this, Filbert was sitting on the balcony listening to his iPod and writing his novel. The weather was beautiful (78° and sunny) and the ocean was as smooth as it could possibly be.

Before we ate at Signatures, we went to the Latin Dance demonstration and saw two Brazilian dancers do 5 different dances for around 40 minutes total. They were very fast and their facial expressions were quite entertaining. Our Signatures dinner was excellent and we both enjoyed the beef entrée and the dark chocolate tart for dessert. Then, to make things even better, we returned to our cabin and turned our clock back.

Next: Breakfast tea, and Splat The Chef!

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, December 10 2009 @ 07:00 AM CST

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty-five

November 26 (Thursday, Day 29, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean) –

Port lecture

The Voyager had its 2nd annual mini Thanksgiving Day parade that was quite cute. It consisted of 4 band members playing “When the Saints Go Marching In” followed by two waiters carrying a large banner. Then there was a steady stream of around 20 crew members wearing costumes that matched the helium balloons they were carrying. Winnie the Pooh was carrying a Pooh balloon and a turkey was carrying a turkey balloon. They were trying to mimic the Macy’s Day parade with its huge balloons. Santa was the final parade entry and he was escorting two “Radio City Rockettes”. The parade started in the 4th floor atrium and went up all of the atrium steps until it finished on deck 11 by the pool. We had a great view of this 3- minute parade from deck 7 by the elevator. It was really pretty clever and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Parade banner

The band, taking a break

Mickey balloons, Mickey ears, and . . . um . . . other stuff

It’s Batman!

Curious George

Santa and his, um, elves

After the excitement of the Thanksgiving Day parade it was time to eat lunch. Lunch was a huge buffet in the 4th floor atrium and then people ate in Compass Rose. The buffet had everything from caviar and steak tartare to chicken wings and sushi. There was definitely something for everyone. Filbert had a variety of German sausages and Snookums enjoyed the cheddar cheese soup and jambalaya.

Snookums did laundry and one of the dryers left big black grease marks on 4 of our t-shirts. She took them to the front desk and was shocked when they were delivered 2 hours later, washed, pressed and stain-free. Regent went way and above the call of duty on this assignment!! The problem with the dryer had been reported 3 days earlier (Snookums was in the laundry room when another passenger was telling maintenance about it) and Snookums noticed that after her incident the dryer was removed from the 7th floor laundry room.

Filbert ate his oatmeal and a Caesar salad in the room for his Thanksgiving dinner while Snookums went to Compass Rose (with her paperback) to see Regent’s interpretation of an American Thanksgiving dinner. She received two pieces of white meat turkey drenched in a very salty, dark gravy that didn’t seem to be turkey gravy. (She didn’t eat the turkey.) Under the turkey was a teaspoon of stuffing (NOT a tablespoon, just a teaspoon). There was a rosette of mashed sweet potatoes/carrots and 5 green beans all 1.5” long. Snookums ordered more mashed sweet potatoes/carrots (and wanted to ask for marshmallows to be broiled on the top, but didn’t!). When the waiter came to serve the cranberry/mango chutney (basically our normal cranberry sauce), she asked for the entire serving bowl which contained about ½ cup. The waiter was going to put a dab of cranberry/mango chutney on the plate, but she wanted more. She ordered the pumpkin pie and the lemon tart for dessert. The lemon tart was great, although not necessarily a traditional Thanksgiving dessert. The pumpkin pie was okay after she lifted off the 1/8” layer of sweet gelatin (maybe a thickened jelly of some kind?) off the top. It’s always interesting to see the ships’ take on American classics and we’ve seen a lot during our Thanksgiving cruises!

Sunset, November 26

November 27 (Friday, Day 30, Cruising the South Atlantic Ocean) –

We both went to the port lecture about how St. Helena is today (compared to yesterday’s lecture on Napoleon and his time in St. Helena). Today it was partly cloudy and 70° or so and the seas were very calm. Regardless of the temperature, though, there are always people on the chaise lounges by the pool in their swimsuits. Filbert spent the rest of the day writing his science fiction book and managed to write 7,500 words. Today was the first day he wrote any of his book. While Filbert was on a writing roll, Snookums went to three back-to-back 30-minute workout classes (Muscle Mix, Pilates Intro, Stretch). The Muscle Mix class is always a good one (i.e. hard), but the other two weren’t. She read her book and fell asleep around 6 PM and didn’t wake up until 8:45 PM. She decided to skip dinner and Filbert ate one of his protein meal replacement bars. We both fell asleep for real around 10 PM. It was obviously a hard day at sea for both of us!

For those of you that read our posts of previous cruises, you might have realized that Snookums isn’t going to any of the events where she could win Regent Rewards. She always participated in the Holland America Dam Dollar events. However, on Regent you can only get the “reward” (i.e. a paper chit) if you are actually the winner. Holland America rewards all participants so it’s easier to get enough chits for the free items that you can “buy” at the end of the cruise.

Next: Napoleon’s exile!