Halifax, Nova Scotia

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

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Clay was up too early today. Marina had its outside decks closed because they were too wet. It was very foggy, but for some reason they didn’t start blowing the fog horn until we were at breakfast. Halifax is the world’s 2^nd largest port, so although we’ve spent 3 days and 2 nights here before we were really looking forward to the sail in or even the sail out. No luck. Halifax was completely socked in by fog. You couldn’t see the Citadel up on the hilltop or that there was a hill. You couldn’t see Dartmouth across the harbor, nothing. A block away and you couldn’t see the Marina. It would have been very sad if this was our only time in Halifax.

Clay had to kill a half hour or so waiting for the fitness center to open to get his walk on the treadmill. He says from here on out, he’ll just plan to arrive at the gym when it opens to walk on the treadmill and give up on track walking outdoors.

I was sound asleep and didn’t wake up until he came back in the room. That put us at Terrace for breakfast after 8am. Well there was nothing to see and nowhere to go, so why not. Clay had his usual. I had the raspberries and blackberries again with Greek yogurt. They haven’t had vanilla again for past 2 days so I had plain. I heard complaints today about the missing blueberries so I guess tomorrow by berries will be gone again. I have looked for Swedish pancakes every day since I saw them the first morning and didn’t have them, but they haven’t come back yet. Eggs Benedict has been available every single day though.

We docked on the port side today so we couldn’t watch the docking process. We had a card on our bed last night that our balcony would be cleaned and painted today so to plan to keep off it. (We don’t think anyone worked out there today though.) Today was also fuel bunkering and they were right outside our balcony (no smoking!) and we could smell fuel through the closed door when we were in the cabin briefly. We saw the bunkering barge or whatever the call it leaving as we came back from Terrace at lunchtime.

The weather here was predicted to be 65F and partly cloudy. Not even close. I don’t think it got above 50F all day while we were here. It was cold and rainy when the ship cleared about 10:15am. We had been waiting in Horizons for our cabin to be serviced when it was announced. Clay called in the rainy day backup plan which involved not leaving Pier 21 where we docked. Pier 21 is the home of the Immigration Museum. It has been voted one of the 7 wonders of Canada. I wonder what the other 6 are, cause it was interesting enough, but honestly it was just to stay out of the rain and cold and because there were no views with the fog. So, I cannot report how the complimentary shuttle to the Public Gardens went. The museum cost about $20 for the 2 of us to enter. Half our time there was spent watching a film of living immigrants talk about their experience and Clay slept through that. They had a family research center and we went in and asked about my father’s Friia cousins who had immigrated to Canada. They had pages of Friia and Frijia names that had come from Naples but not Sebastian or John Batiste. He could also search New York and did not even find Peter though we know he entered through Ellis Island. Oh well.

We came back onboard for a light lunch. I asked the customs guard that checked us back to the building if he thought the Beavertails kiosk down the waterfront would be open this afternoon and he acted like I was crazy to think it would not. He answered that there is a cruise ship in town, they are in business to make money, so of course they’re open. (You must already know they’re not! I was sure they weren’t and that is why I asked.) We had to go outside between the ship and the cruise terminal each time and it wasn’t rainy when we came back. We decided to eat something in case Beavertails was closed. Then walk down the waterfront this afternoon and have a poutine and Beavertails. Clay stopped again at Foxhill Cheese House and bought curds again. It was a long cold boring with no views walk all the way down there and every one of those kiosks was closed up tight. The good news was that I had my delicious hot Beavertail yesterday. The bad news is that now I was cold and miserable and a mile from my comfortable home! The fog dissipated enough on the walk back that I spotted Alexander Keith’s and Clay didn’t remember much about it and he wanted to stop and have a beer. I agreed to go in hoping they’d have poutine anyway. He got a Keith’s Red Amber Draught and I asked for a menu. There was no poutine on the menu and only sweet potato fries were listed. Clay asked the barkeep if they served poutine and he said yes we do. So, they made them up al a carte according to Clay. I don’t think that actually means off menu ordering. The bill said potato wedges were 3.99, cheese was .99 and gravy was 1.99. His beer was 6.52 so about the same price. It was more than we could eat. A little poutine goes a long way.

We got back onboard about 3pm. For some reason, we were heading against traffic as we left and thought we must have to be back onboard at 3:30pm instead of 4:30pm.

About 4:10pm the fog opened and there outside our balcony, maybe a football field away, was a lighthouse on an island with a fort on it! We hadn’t been able to see anything out there all day! We could see all the way to the other side of the harbor. As I type this, the land on the other side has disappeared again though the island and lighthouse are still dimly visible.

We have dinner reservations at 6:30 tonight at Polo Grill, the steakhouse. Clay is really looking forward to it. Tonight at 9:30pm is One More for the Road, a Jean Ann Ryan production of the Las Vegas Strip. I liked their last show, so I will try to go. I might take a nap this afternoon!

We’ve just received a message from Alla Tours that there is a bridge in Germany that has been found structurally unsound and deficient to support our tour bus northbound from Berlin. Because of the detour route our tour to Berlin has to be shortened by an hour. If we also deduct an hour from the departure time that O has been routinely doing so far, this tour will soon be a nonstarter. We’ll keep you posted.

Back from Polo Grill. This was by far our favorite restaurant so far. We have yet to try Red Ginger, that’s on for tomorrow though. That will complete all our allowance of specialty restaurant reservations. People say it may be possible to get extra reservations once onboard, but I don’t think we’ll be doing that. I had French Onion Soup that was 1000x better than that served in Jacques. How does a French restaurant screw up onion soup? Tonight I could taste sherry and butter as well as onions and beef broth. Jacques was just a huge pile of onions and a little beef broth with bread and cheese on top. I had a 7oz filet mignon that was butterflied and cooked well done as requested. I got potatoes au gratin and green beans, both good. I had 2 desserts after they brought out a little tray of apricot and black currant jellies which we also really liked. I had a trilogy of handmade vanilla marshmallows in caramel, strawberry & chocolate sauces. Nothing like the chocolate fountain marshmallows from Terrace. I also had 7 layer Belgian chocolate cake. It was cut in a triangle, so it had 3 points and no back! Magic! Very good. Clay had 3 oysters Rockefeller, the 32 oz. Porterhouse (he ate it all!) and the chocolate brownie with Tahitian vanilla ice cream and the brownie was a round cylinder enrobed in molten dark chocolate. He liked all of his as well. Now we just have to try to stay awake for another hour and a half to make it to the show tonight. Unfortunately, in addition to the now thick fog and foghorn, we have a rough ride. I’ll wait until tomorrow to report on the show if we go.

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Saint John, New Brunswick

Monday, May 11, 2015

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We went to bed at around our normal 9pm last night, after moving our watches and clocks ahead by an hour. We still must have felt the hour’s loss or else we slept really well in calm seas because I was up first this morning at 6am. I thought I was getting up to pee in the night but it was light outside the curtains and Clay was still asleep. I think he was completely flummoxed and confused. He missed his morning deck walking and it was the first morning that we weren’t fogged in!

We showered and went upstairs to Terrace for breakfast as we were approaching Saint John, New Brunswick. Clay had 2 eggs over easy and a trilogy of breakfast meats with a potato cake and 2 slices of whole wheat toast and 2 glasses of orange juice. I had Greek yogurt with raspberries and blackberries. The blackberries have been fresh and juicy for the past 2 mornings! I have figured out my perfect coffee onboard O. I take the coffee cup from the table to the cappuccino machine and fill it. Then at the table I let a roving waiter top my cup off with regular coffee until I feel I have had my normal size cup of coffee. The machine delivers a lukewarm drink. The waiters carry around scalding hot coffee. The combination is just right! Oh and Marina has Truvia stocked everywhere I’ve had coffee.

We arrived in Saint John right on schedule at 8am. The ship was not cleared to disembark until 8:45am. The floating gangway affixed to the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal is directly under our balcony. Disembarkation is through deck 6 today. We just stayed out of the way again since we were in no hurry. I only had one thing on my list of to do’s today. I had printed out the tide table for the day here and how to get to the reversing falls. We picked up an Uptown Saint John Map in the cruise terminal and a volunteer greeter gave us a collectible pin of the Three Sisters Lamp. We saw the 3 red lamps on a green pole as we were sailing in. It was gas in 1848 when installed and is now electric. It was a navigational aid to line up on to enter the channel. It has 2015 on it and the card says it is the first in a series of Saint John iconic images that sjport.com will distribute. Cool. There were a lot of volunteers in there and they were all giving different and largely incorrect information and none of them knew what time the tides were today. As you might expect, they could all sell you a tour though.

With only a little trepidation (mostly on Clay’s part) we walked up Water St and sat in the rain in the bus shelter and waited for and boarded Bus 1 and paid our $2.75 each and asked the driver for Reversing Falls. He called us to get off and told us where to go and where to stand to get a bus back and to ask any that stopped there if they could return us because his return route was called Bus 2 but Bus 7 and Bus 8 also stopped at Water St. So we wound up returned on Bus 8. We asked him for Water St. and again, he told us yes and told us when to get off and pointed out the ship. Several people we met walked both ways. They said it was a mostly scenic riverside walk on a pink sidewalk most of the time and took them about a half hour. So it turned out to be perfectly easy. The problem was the bad timing of our port stop vs. the tide times. All of our port stops have been at least an hour shorter than the published schedule for the itinerary. It happens. So we could not get off until 9am and all aboard is 3:30pm for a 4pm sailing. Low tide was at 12:10pm and high tide should be at 18:21. So we knew we could see the falls reverse. But, I had hopes of catching a slack tide of calm between the 2. I had told Clay we had no reason to arrive at the falls before noon, but whether the rain or his lack of confidence or what we were out at the falls by 10:15am or so. We watched tide bottom out and the regular falls emerge while we walked to both sides of the bridge and all the overlooks and all around the wooden statues at Wolastoq Park (where we saw a groundhog!) and to the floating wharf below the falls. I had set a goal to go wait for a bus by 1:30pm. We ate snacks we had carried out around noon. We only made it to shortly after 1pm before we headed back to the bus stop.

We had seen a closed Beavertail stand down on Water St. I told Clay I had hopes of a Beavertail in place of a slack tide and he despaired. He told me I was just continuing to set myself up for disappointment. Ha! It was open. I think the guy said they open at 11am. They had a bigger menu than the one we went to in Halifax. They had poutine and hot dogs served in wrapped Beavertails and Beaver Bites sundaes. (You’ll have to Google Beavertails if this is mystifying to you. It is a local specialty of fried dough and delicious!) I had maple and Clay had Nutella. We went through the Pedway (interior elevated walkway) to City Market, the oldest continuously operating farmers market in Canada. It opened in 1876 and the ceiling is designed to resemble the inverted keel of a ship. We stopped at one of 2 Tim Horton’s in the Pedway and I got a dark hot chocolate for $1.40. There was also a Starbucks in there. Clay bought a local candy bar in the Saint John Old City Market. It was a Pal-o-Mine and was some kind of peanut butter flavored nougat cover in chocolate and there 2 pieces in there. He says he wouldn’t get it again. I thought it tasted okay.

Back onboard and they are working to get the gangway disassembled. Hopefully we will finally disembark on time. It is a little disturbing when you reboard and hour or more than when you planned because the port time was reduced and then the ship is delayed leaving and you just sit aboard looking at shore. Oh well. I know it happens. I don’t have to like it. We did leave close to 4pm as posted today.

I signed up this morning for 4pm Evening Stretch at the Fitness Center and it is time for me to go. I’m back. Half an hour and probably a mistake. Oh well, ya gotta try.

We still haven’t decided where to have dinner. A shortcoming of Marina is no promenade deck outside. There is nowhere to walk even part of the ship outside on a lower deck. If you want out, it is either your own balcony or to the pool deck and above.

We have picked up a couple of phrases in our last few days’ touring. I didn’t take time to relate them on the day, but since we keep referring back to them, I’ll share now. In Central Park we learned Desire Lines or Desired Line. The designer or architect plans a path, or walkway and users “beat a path” that they desire. That beaten path is a desired line. Nice, huh? The other was at the Portland Observatory Tower. According to JJ, our guide there, every port along the Atlantic seaboard and probably worldwide once had a similar tower. The ship owners paid a monthly fee for someone to keep watch for their ships from the top of the tower. This one had a view 40 miles into the Atlantic and is the last one still standing in North America. Anyway, the spotter would see your ship that he was paid to watch for and he would run your flag up his pole so you could see it from all over town or for the port below. That would give the ship owner several to 7 hours to arrange a pier berth to dock his ship and unload or load his cargo. This gave rise to “your ship has come in”.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to be in Halifax, Nova Scotia from 10am to 6 pm. My only goal there had been to have a Beavertail, since I got that done today who knows. Clay said I could have poutine instead. I might have both! We haven’t toured the Citadel there so maybe that if it is nice weather. If it’s bad weather, maybe the Immigration Museum. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Oh, just read in tomorrow’s newsletter that the local port authority in Halifax will provide a complimentary continuous shuttle from the port to the Public Gardens! That is fantastic news as it is a slog all uphill! They say it is a 15-20 minute walk and I’m sure that is true but it is all uphill. It is right next to the Citadel so that will be convenient for us if it happens. Of course, in Boston when the shuttle situation only half way happened it was provided by Oceania so maybe tomorrow will be good. Stay tuned. Oh, also the newsletter shows this port has been shortened by an hour too. We leave at 5pm instead of the previously published 6pm. I think if you’re reading this and planning independent touring on Oceania, you need to be aware that on our cruise anyway uniformly every port stay has been shortened by 1 or 2 hours. I realize stuff happens, but this feels a little more like bait and switch. Sell a cruise with long port days and once they’re onboard plan to shorten the stay because there’s nothing they can do about it. Not classy. Feels sleazy.

Some comments about toiletries. Our cabin 7055 came furnished with Bulgari toiletries. None of the products stocked in our cabin right now contain any aloe. Aloe makes me break out in rash and hives like poison ivy, so this is a good thing. Clay is using it with no problem, since I didn’t know and we doing a lot more than O cruising, I brought my own supply.  The other thing is the big supply of Purell hand sanitizing wipes that Mom gave us for Christmas is not causing any problems. Even though Purell lists aloe as the 3^rd ingredient, there seems to be none in there because we are using about 10 a day right now and no problems!

Back from dinner. We chose to go to Terrace again because it is casual and because there is more dining flexibility of choices that in the Grand Dining Room. Like pizza, pasta and a wok station as well as a grill. I thought I would have either potato & veg curry with rice or coq au vin. I have had and liked both. I have even cooked coq au vin. When I got to the buffet, both dishes were in covered pots. I hated to ask to see in both, so I just ordered coq au vin (which the GDR menu described as served over tagliatelle pasta). I have never seen anything called coq au vin like what was in that pot. It looked like breaded, fried chicken in brown gravy with heart shaped potato cakes scattered around the top. I was literally agape and speechless. The server picked up a chicken leg and a heart and nestled them together and tried to hand me the plate. I shook him off. He offered to take the heart shaped thing away. I finally regained speech thanked him but told him I couldn’t take it because there was nothing on that plate that I would eat. I walked to the other end and got a wedge of fried camembert with cranberry chutney. Then later I went up to the wok station and got a custom cooked chicken lo mein. I liked it. There were no desserts I wanted. How is that even possible when they have a chocolate dipping fountain? Think Golden Corral. But, perhaps I dis Golden Corral unfairly because I have never tried there chocolate fountain. It might be yummy. The chocolate fountain on Marina is not very good. How can molten chocolate not be tasty? I have no earthly idea. Honestly, I find it mystifying. That’s it for me tonight!

Oh, Clay would like to register a complaint as well. The so called mini-fridges or minibars are perhaps cooling boxes. But they are not refrigerators because they never get or keep anything more than a little cool, certainly not cold. He's about to lose it! We're getting ice deliver morning and evening and still have to go up to Terrace to get more once or twice a day. I know we could call and get more delivered. We have asked for more when one of the stewardesses is out in the hall. But, it is a pain.

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Portland, ME

Sunday, May 10, 2015

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Today is Mother’s Day. Hi Mom! It is also our 30^th Anniversary. A big O anniversary being the reason we had originally booked O’s Around the World in 180 days to celebrate. This is our replacement and today is our day. It was a good day!

The fog horn started blowing about 2am and blew until well after sunrise about the time we reached Portland, ME. So, while Mom thought it was an impressive sail in and there are about 300 islands in Casco Bay, we saw nothing. We’ll hope to see it during sailaway.

We had decided to not try to go ashore until well after any issues had a chance to be resolved. Clay went up and walked. I slept in some. We went to Sunday breakfast in the Grand Dining Room. It was our first time there. It is a lovely room, low and aft on the ship. Lots of 2-tops around the edges by the windows. They escorted me to a table. Unlike other cruise lines we’ve been on they did not have any special for it being Sunday or Mother’s Day. Usually you are offered sparkling wine or mimosas or something like that on Sundays and holidays, but nothing special here it seemed. They were pleasant and efficient and we both enjoyed our meals. It was very empty in there so it is not clear if that was the reason for the service improvement over Jacques. Keep in mind that we entered the GDR after the ship had docked, so hopefully all the rude people were packed in the atrium. Our arrival was 8am and at 8:10am Julie announced that we could go ashore. That is more like it! But since we didn’t care today, it didn’t help us any.

After breakfast, we stopped by the blue desk of the local tourism visitor. She offered us a map and marked CVS and RiteAid for Clay. He is shopping for a pill cutter as I brought the lesser smaller travel one with me and left the larger better one at home. While there waiting, a couple before us was asking about Portland Discovery Tours. Clay wondered if we should do it and we looked it up online after we got back to the cabin. We could book a Portland City and Lighthouse Tour at 11:30am for $24 each. It would last about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Oceania offered the same tour at 9am for $69. Since we would still have time before and after and it would drive us places we would otherwise see, we bought 2 tickets online.

We walked right off at about 9:30am! We walked to RiteAid and got Clay’s pill cutter and a 6 pack of Shipyard Summer Ale and a 4 pack of Allagash White. (Take your own sacks, because they don’t provide them with purchase here! Fortunately, we each had a nylon string pack on us.) There are about a half dozen local breweries in Portland. Portland is Maine’s largest city with a population of about 60K. It sits on a peninsula that is about 3 miles by maybe a mile. It is one of the friendliest cities we have ever visited. It got quite warm here today. So warm, that when we came back to the ship to drop the beers that Clay changed into shorts and sandals and I changed shoes and socks for sandals. When we came back we got caught at x-ray and the gangway behind a huge delivery of fresh lobster and seafood! It occurs to us that part of the shore experience problems on Marina may be the lack of service hatches. On both Regent and Disney, crew and deliveries would be using alternate doors from the paying passengers for the most part. I mean the crew on shore leave use the same entry/exit but they don’t jam up lines of cruisers. Anyway, we headed back out about 10:15am and headed in the opposite direction on Commercial Street. I should note that there must have been a taxi line of more than a dozen cabs here. We have not seen a cab line at any other port so far! You could easily walk Portland too! The cab line had up a sign with fares to Kennebunkport and other places so I guess that was the point and not seeing Portland.

We walked right across the street from the port entrance and were stopped by a young man in a blue polo shirt from Portland Discovery. We told him that we’d just booked online and he pointed back across the street and said we could take a shuttle or we could walk on along the waterfront 4 blocks to Long Wharf and pick up our tickets. We opted to walk. When we got there the place was swamped with a large group of foreigners with their own guide. They were there until our tour trolley left! Fortunately another uniformed young man took our confirmation number and had us board an open air trolley to wait and he brought us our tickets before the tour left. We had JJ as a guide and he was funny and charming. We were glad we did it. I won a can of B&M baked beans which are produced locally for guessing that Michigan was the state with the most lighthouses.  Sadly, I had to return it because even as much as I love Boston Baked Beans I will not eat them straight from the can cold. JJ said there were exactly 239 beans in each can like it because B&M had determined one more would make them 240 (too farty). I think it is dialect or regional accent humor combined with a pun. While we waited to leave JJ told about how great and important their seafood industry is and the best places to get raw oysters. Now we had afternoon plans as well. The tour covered the East and West ends of Portland, with the Portland Observatory, Old Port and Arts District in between. We drove by the Shipyard Brewery and it was within walking distance of the ship. I believe I understood JJ to say that they do free brewery tours on the hour with lots of samples. He said he used to work there and we should all try some of the Summer Ale. We saw the home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Then we drove to Cape Elizabeth were the air was cooler and the homes more expensive. Our last stop we had the opportunity to get off the trolley for 20 minutes to take photos of the Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park. It is the oldest Maine lighthouse and was commissioned by George Washington. Behind it on a tiny rock islet in the bay you could see Ram Island Light that JJ said was the newest Maine Lighthouse.

After we left the tour, we started walking to Even Tide Raw Bar at 86 Middle Street. We walked by this morning coming back from RiteAid and I had noted it, but Clay swore he never saw it. We stopped in a Cabot Cheese shop on Commercial St. We had a bunch of yummy samples and bought some curds. We stopped in a craft beer shop and Clay got 4 more local beers. Anyway, when we got to Even Tide and figured we could safely spend 30 minutes there to walk back in plenty of time before all aboard. There may have been some confusion because we are sure the sign at the gangway said all aboard was 2:30pm and departure was 3pm. But the newsletter says all aboard is 3:30pm and departure is 4pm. We departed at 4:15pm. Even Tide was very busy but it looked to me like there were 4 vacant stools right by the oysters on ice in front of the shuckers. Clay felt they were empty for a reason. I told him to ask and the answer was an enthusiastic yes we could sit there and be served and out in 30 minutes. It was great. Clay was in heaven. A dozen local oysters for $29. So Clay asked the waitress to get him 6 different Maine oysters in sets of two. They were serving 17 locally sourced oysters varieties today. He told her he wanted them plump and juicy. The shucker took real pride in his work and under took the task. He did an excellent job. From Damariscotta, Clay had Pemaquid, Browne Point, Glidden Point, Norumbega, and Dodge Cove. Then he had 2 really huge oysters from North Haven. He said they were even better than the ones he had in Boston at Durgin-Park yesterday. (By the way, those were locally sourced too, but we asked her twice and couldn’t understand the place name she gave us. Sorry!)  

We got back aboard uneventfully. The tide had risen about 8 feet since we last saw the ship. Because we still cannot get over the size of Marina, we looked online and Disney Wonder is bigger than Oceania Marina. Disney Wonder has 11 massive decks, a total length of 964 feet, a maximum width of 106 feet and a gross tonnage of 83,000. Marina has 16 decks, a length of 784.95 feet, a width of 105.646 feet and a gross tonnage of 66,084. Regent Voyager has 12 decks, a length of 677.49 feet, a width of 94.59 feet and a gross tonnage of 42,363. It still doesn’t seem like Marina should look or feel so huge to us!

We sat out on the balcony as we awaited the sailaway and had cheese curds and Clay drank beer and I had a glass of the Petit Frog white. We liked everything. We had an excellent day in spite of Oceania today. We have no idea if they really did a better job today or if we just did a better job of avoiding problem areas.

We got to see the sailaway past the Portland Head light and it was spectacular. There were a lot of folks out there waving us off.

All we have left today is our Toscana dinner reservation at 6:30pm. The clocks move forward by one hour tonight so I expect we’ll go to bed early. Tomorrow we should be in Saint John for the Bay of Fundy. We only plan to see the reversing falls on our own.

Julie, our CD, just came on shipwide loudspeaker to recognize, of course, all the Moms on Mother's Day. Since it had passed without any other notice onboard, I guess someone must have raised holy hell to generate that loudspeaker announcement at 5:30pm!

Dinner in Toscana was better than our experience in Jacques by orders of magnitude and that was not a factor of the different types of cuisines but because of the service. In Jacques, we waited 30 minutes to place our orders, I was wearing black and not offered a non-white napkin, Clay was never offered fresh ground pepper, they did not clean the bread crumbs up and the list goes on. In Toscana, we had prompt, happy, thoughtful service that included being offered a black napkin, pepper offered at every course and a full crumb clean up, plus more. Since Jacques was our first O meal we read a lot into it and I guess we see when we return but it is not indicative of the service throughout the ship. I had buffala mozzarella, the bread and olive oil and vinegar selection (spectacular) , potato soup (delicious), the pasta special (loved the tomato cream sauce) and chocolate lasagna. They also offered a trio of biscotti. The chocolate lasagna was just weird though it was the best chocolate I have had onboard, so I ate it. It was sitting in a pool of pistachio cream sauce so that was bad too. Mostly I objected to the weird textured things throughout the creamy center. The waiter said they were bits of tagliatelle pasta. OK. Clay had gnocchi with pesto (he liked it, I didn't), the bread/oil/vinegar (his selections tasted better than mine, we think it was his aged balsamic) salad (Clay wanted more goat cheese) and lobster Fra Diavolo with tagliatelle pasta and apple crumb tart. He loved his.

The last comment I have is that our travel agent relayed to us multiple times that she had informed Oceania that we were on this trip to celebrate our 30th Anniversary TODAY. I also filled out forms online for Oceania multiple times where I provided today's date and that the trip and the date were for our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Now there are people who would be livid about the fact that the milestone event that caused them to book a trip had gone unremarked. But, Clay and I neither one like a public spectacle, so it is always with mixed feelings that we notify a service provider of a special event. But, as Oceania asked specifically, we did expect at least say a card delivered to the stateroom. Alas, Oceania chose to completely ignore our special event. Just sayin'...

We sent laundry out Saturday morning and got it tonight. There were 6 pairs of socks, 2 jeans, 3 underwear, 4 tee shirts, and 1 shirt. This laundry service was priced at $52. We should have laundry service as one of the incentives offered to us for taking this trip, so hopefully the cost to us now will be $0. We see if that is the case when we get an interim statement in the next week or so...

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Boston, MA

Saturday, May 9, 2015

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Since we don’t dock until noon and it is Saturday, breakfasts all start later today than yesterday. We were up at the same time so had a bit more free time this morning. We received an invitation to an Extended Journeys presentation at 10am by the Oceania future cruise consultants. We might attend because clearly we have had an interest! Also, it is in the program so it is not clear how many were invited, like the entire ship, but they will have a $250 shipboard credit drawing. On the program, I see a 9:30am Coffee Chat and Needlepoint. Since I did not bring any knitting because of our luggage restrictions, I would like to go get some needlework to see if I can use that as occupational therapy for the tremor. We’ll see.

I apologize now for the disjointed, unedited, mostly unproof-read nature of this trip blog. Such is the nature of blogging on the fly in real-time vs. at home after the fact. I realize the photos not being pasted into the text is visually least appealing but again, we have to work as efficiently as we can.

Clay is working on getting a load of our complimentary laundry out this morning and it turned out that we had not been provided Laundry order forms, only dry cleaning/pressing forms. He did not assume that was the problem, but that they would not launder socks. That took some time and although I told him to just pick up the phone, he said he would handle it and then didn’t a minute after I picked up the phone it was over with the delivery of one proper form. I will leave a post-it for Henrietta requesting a supply of them be left in the room in the future.

We went to Terrace for breakfast and it was really swaying up there with the big gentle quartering swells. I had wanted Swedish pancakes, but they were not available today. I had a chocolate croissant (not recommended, so that has been done). I also found blackberries and raspberries today so had that with a Greek vanilla yogurt and cappuccino. Clay had the sticky bun which had been recommended by another passenger. He liked that it had walnuts but otherwise felt there was nothing to recommend them and that has been done for him. After, he had a toasted bagel with capers, cream cheese and lox. He said it was not a NYC bagel!

By the time we got back downstairs, we had turned inland toward Boston and had lost the swells and were back to our smooth ride. Hurray!

I got a small scissors case to needlepoint and she showed me how to do it. There was also an instruction sheet enclosed, so we’ll see how I get on. I have no scissors with me! She said if we finish our project that we can have one more. That seems reasonable, they are complimentary and include the needle and thread required so they are nice little kits.

The Extended Journeys presentation was an absolute farce and an hour of our lives we cannot get back. She had a slide show or PDF file of the cruise catalog and she displayed and read it. The catalog she was working from was not solely about Extended Journeys but just a calendar format for all the ships. It was more than 50 minutes of her reading before she hit any long cruises or the topic of the benefits of back to back cruises. By then she was just skipping through because people were leaving as Julie, the CD, had previously announced we would be sailing in and docking at least a half hour ahead of schedule and we could feel the ship slowing down. It was a major annoyance to us. Plus we did not win the drawing!

We did arrive in Boston before noon. We were tied up behind a HAL ship by 11:50am. They were hoisting the gangway below our balcony. So, we went to Terrace to have a quick snack. It was a seafood buffet so I had a slice of cheese pizza. I liked it. Clay had fishy stuff. We shared two odd desserts that I didn’t like, so Clay ate them. We got back to the room and they still working on the gangway. The ship was announced cleared at 12:30pm. The past 2 days make me despair of the days that we have private tours booked and those people expect us within 15 minutes of published arrival pretty much uniformly.

We’re back. I have to say that so far no matter how badly Oceania cluster cusses the going ashore experience that we have still managed to do everything on our list of things to do. I am not sure that reflects at all positively on Oceania at all and is probably only a matter of informed dumb luck on our part. We watched the gangway get set up. We saw the first 2 passengers walk down after the clearance announcement was made about 12:30pm. When we got downstairs the line snaked in a big loop around the reception atrium, through the elevator lobby and down the starboard hall and into the theater. The ship’s tour groups were all seated in there and were being repeatedly advised to stay seated in their groups and they would be called when the could exit the ship and go right to their buses. I didn’t even try to get to the Boston tourism/hospitality woman at the blue desk again for a map. We had seen her come aboard with what looked like hundreds of maps under her arm. I figured that I’d get one when we reached the curve of the line past her. I broke out of line about 6 people away to ask for a map and she gave her last one to the woman there in front of me. She told me to stop at the stand in the building we’d walk through to get to the buses. I did.

So, it took us a bit more than 20 minutes to exit the ship, 30 minutes after scheduled arrival and 50 minutes after we tied up at dock. We walked out and were 6 people away from boarding the complimentary shuttle parked there. We heard from other passengers that if we had turned right as we left the building that we’d have found a cab line. No idea if that was true because the tourism woman who gave me the map answered Clay’s query of where to find the T stop with, just go out, turn left and get on the free shuttle to Quincy Market. OK. We walked that way and in about 10 feet stopped at the back of the free shuttle line. We were moving along until the bus filled as we were 6 people from stepping off the curb. Then all hell broke loose for the next 40 minutes, or more. The woman running the line (or trying, bless her) said the driver had left the bus because he did not know how to find the drop off point. After about 40 minutes, they took all those people off that bus and put them on a newly arrived bus. Now, we never saw a shuttle bus leave with passengers during the 40 minutes we stood out there. But the woman running the line swore 2 had left already. Only one came back in that 40 minutes. Now, I grant you that Oceania stated in the handouts that this was first come/first serve and meant to supplement tours and other methods of transport like taxis, but come on. The 2 women who were working that shuttle line needed police or the National Guard with arrest powers to control that mob. Oceania passengers were yesterday and today the worst behaved I have ever experienced and that includes on Disney. Right now I am of the opinion that I would not be able to return to or recommend Oceania Cruises because of the shore procedures or lack of/bungling of.

After 40 minutes out there I show Clay the map I had picked up and been trying to study. It had directions from the cruise terminal to anywhere we might want to go. It claimed you could take a scenic walk from here to Faneuil Hall (Quincy Market) in 30 minutes. Clay asked me if I really wanted to do that and I had to admit that no after spending the last hour on my feet to travel 100 yards or less while being abused and buffeted I really wanted a good cry and a nap, but… As the crowd erupted in madness over line breakers and it looked like blows were about to be thrown by the Boston woman who was trying to control the line while being verbally abused, I balked. I had earlier gotten from her the address where the return shuttle could be found so, I just started walking. Clay ran after me yelling, do you have any idea where you’re going. I said some idea, but mainly out of here. I can’t take it anymore. What the hell is the matter with people? More to the point though is what the hell is the matter with Oceania that this is how they run their shore visits? I mean we might have thought yesterday was just a fluke, or that today was, but given they are our only 2 days with Oceania they are an ugly pattern and our only experience. We walked down the block looking for the HAL cab line that was signed and we were told was there. There wasn’t one and the cabs dropping off arriving passengers told us they were permitted to pick up. We asked a traffic cop at the corner where to find the T stop to catch the SL2 bus to South Station. We could walk from there and by this time we had picked up another couple from our ship who had not found taxis in the other direction either and were falling back on the T. While our handed out maps were informative they were in the format of cartoons and not all the streets were labeled or to scale. So without knowing already, the map was confusing. He pointed out the bus shelter and told us what to do. None of us knew the bus fare. In fact the couple who were looking for Dunkin Donuts because that was opposite the T stop had been told it was free until when they would pay their fare to exit South Station. That was completely wrong about the fare. It was $2.65 per person for about a 15 minute ride. None of us had exact change and I told Clay I don’t care if I have to give him one of my $20 bills to get out of here. We’ve been in Boston for close to 3 hours and haven’t left the cruise terminal complex yet! The bus driver agreed that we could overpay, but we couldn’t underpay. I think both couples ended up overpaying by 30 cents per couple. As I told Clay, I’d have happily paid more than that to have left an hour earlier. Another hour of our lives that Oceania can never return to us.

So we exited up an escalator from South Station and in one of several directions we would still wind up in the same place in about 15 minutes of walking. We came upon the Old State House first, about a block from Faneuil Hall visible in the distance. We went in and saw the Great Hall, the museum was closed on Saturday. I got a NPS patch. I used the ladies room and when I came back Clay had found himself in the line for the 3pm free guided ranger tour. We got our stickers and looked around for a while before going downstairs to meet the ranger.

At 3pm a female ranger came and told us about the Boston’s key role in the history of the American Revolution. We walked through about an hour of the Freedom Trail from Faneuil Hall to the Old North Church. It was interesting. Along the way, we saw loads of string tied boxes from Mike’s Pastry. It was like the Voodoo Donut box in Portland, OR. We walked past the shop on Hanover St. on the tour and somehow neither of us noticed it. When the tour ended, Clay googled it on his phone, got the address and we pointedly headed there. About a half block before arriving, we hit the line outside. Clay got in line and I walked up to see what was for offer. All I could see was gelato and cannoli. I walked back and Clay said Mike is the King of Cannoli! He had seen it on a van parked out front at the curb. I didn’t want any but Clay did and so we waited it out and got a pistachio for him and a chocolate ricotta for me. We walked on back to the Quincy Market area and found the Oceania shuttle bus stop. There must have been over 75 people crowded around some poor guy with a sign. We walked on and Clay started using his phone to route our walk back to South Station. The last shuttle back would be at 7pm before our 11pm sailaway. I was willing to take a wait and see attitude. 

We were now on for dinner at Durgin-Park instead of lunch. That was OK with us. I ordered my crock of $5.95 Boston Baked Beans and Baked Indian Pudding. Two dishes for which they are famous. It came with cornbread which was also very good. Or maybe I was just really hungry by then. Clay had already said it was a good thing I had made us go have a light lunch while we waited for the ship to clear. Clay had a Sam Adams lager, a half dozen of the “world’s best” oysters on the half shell and fish and chips. He really enjoyed the lager, said the oysters were among the world’s best and he didn’t care for the fish. It was a frying problem and not a fish problem and he didn’t finish it. I ate his cornbread and he had some of my beans. The beans were great! The Indian Pudding was yummy with melting vanilla ice cream on it. I was very pleased and very full. Clay was ready to start walking back to South Station when I pointed out we were only a block from the free shuttle bus stop and we should check it first. We walked across the street and around the corner behind Hard Rock Café and near the corner of Surface Rd. & Clinton St. sat an Oceania Marina shuttle bus. We walked right on and sat near the rear. There were about 6 empty seats left 5 minutes later when we headed out. We saw different stuff. The ride on the T was mostly underground! The bus was on the surface (running a gas engine, I think) when we boarded but then it stopped and connected to overhead power lines (I know because I watched the one coming out of the tunnel at us stop by us and reverse the procedure) and then we went on into downtown Boston in a tunnel under the river. So, coming back on the shuttle bus we came over the river and along the waterfront. Both buses drove right past Harpoon Brewery which offers tours and was within easy walking distance of the cruise terminal. It was busy both times we past it.

We got back onboard and thought to have our cannolis but were both too stuffed. About 7pm, Clay insisted we leave so Henrietta could do turndown service. We walked out and put out the service sign and said good evening to her assistant as we left. We came back an hour later and the room had not been entered. (The cannolis were very good by the way, but I could not come close to finishing mine and we threw it away. But, Durgin-Park and Mike’s Pastry both get a thumbs up from me!) We went in and got things to occupy us while we sat in some other public space to give Henrietta more time. We came back shortly before 9pm and the room had still not been entered, so I called it. I flipped the service sign to privacy and unlocked the door. She can leave the newsletter on the wall holder.

Tomorrow is our 30^th Anniversary. We should be in Portland, ME from 9am to 5pm tomorrow. We have no plans and low expectations given the past 2 days. I don’t know about Clay, but I actually now feel that maybe we dodged a bullet of sorts when Oceania cancelled our 180 day World Cruise. I cringe to think of 90 port days handled like the last 2. Of all the things I ever thought might be a cause for concern this was not one. We’ve never seen anything like it and that includes a Disney ship with a lot more passengers. This bunch acts like they’ve never done this before, which I can only imagine to mean that they have never done it properly before. The future cruise consultant today said that over 700 passengers onboard were repeaters on Oceania. We haven’t not met or spoken to any other new Oceania cruisers. Anyway, all the experienced O cruisers seem as upset and mystified as we are by how badly the last 2 port days have been handled so something is different. Not having been on O before, I cannot say what. I just hope they get it sorted out and improve before we reach some ports where we have actually made firm plans and booked guides/transportation with appointment times soon after arrival times. Fingers crossed.

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Newport, Rhode Island

Friday, May 8, 2015

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Clay was up pretty early today, maybe 5 or 6am. He went up and walked on the aft Deck 15 Fitness Track. 10 laps is a mile. He said they were out squeegeeing water and replacing the cooler of cold bottle water as he started. He said it was still so foggy he could barely see anything outside the ship. I was up with the sun, by 7 or 7:30am and the sun was burning off the fog or else we were closer in to shore. I could see the cliff side mansions as we sailed past and the fog dissipated. We went up to the Terrace for breakfast. I had yogurt, coffee and a single Eggs Benedict just because it was offered. They also had Swedish Pancakes. Another cruise weekend special breakfast for me! Regent never had either of these at the buffet on a weekday. I will have to discipline myself on this long trip if I want to keep wearing my clothes!

Our first whole day on Marina and our first visit to Newport, Rhode Island. Not without hitches, but we accomplished everything I had planned plus some. The day did not get off to a good start. Evidently there was a medical emergency ashore very early and a tender was used to transport the Doctor, Nurse and a Medic ashore. So no time for passengers. That apparently set back the tendering process by an hour. We were in no hurry so did not go to the theater at 8am. We showed up at reception to turn in our Canadian customs forms and the guy there told us a local tourist office woman would be at a blue table out front in the reception area at 8:30am. We pointed out that it was 8:35am and he made a call. He told us she was on the tender on its way now and would be aboard within 20 minutes. We decided to wait. I wanted to visit The Breakers Mansion and do at least part of The Cliff Walk. We waited until 9am which was when we had decided we would go into the theater to get our tender tickets (after which you aren’t supposed to leave until you go to your tender!). We were first there and my main question was whether we had time to do what I had planned and how. She had brought 4 maps aboard and they were all snatched off the table before she could try to answer. She had forgotten to bring her maps. She knew they were in a pile inside the Harbormaster’s Office and she told us to look in there when we got ashore. She answered at least 3 of our questions incorrectly as we learned once ashore and she never offered the bus/tram/trolley service #67 to and from the Newport Mansions until asked. Then she told us the closest place to catch a ride on one was at Memorial and Bellevue. That was not true as we later saw the line at the bus shelters/stop lot behind the Visitors Center as we approached it. We walked on past the Visitors Center (which we later heard was a good thing from those who were sold expensive tours!) and past to Newport Gateway Center, a transit hub. There we saw the bus timetable of every 20 minutes today, a map of the route and the fare of $2 each way or $6 for a day pass payable to the driver onboard. We had about an 11 minute wait. The driver was hard to understand but he was very helpful to all the tourists and all the other passengers were Salve Regina University students, but it turns out they were going where we were going. So, by ignoring all questionable advice we turned the day into a success. Yeah!

After we got our Cream tender tickets, we sat in the theater for about 40 minutes before we were called. They did not call the last 2 ship’s tour tickets until after 9:30am. Those people and the 7 or so independent tickets before ours had evidently been in there waiting and holding their tickets since just after 8am and they were hot! It was hot in the theater again as it had been during the muster drill, plus they were angry. The ship’s tour of the Cliff Walk and the Breakers was supposed to leave at 9am and last 3 hours for $149. We did the same thing by showing up for tender tickets at 9:15am, getting a tender about 9:45am, took a bus at about 10:21am for $4 each roundtrip. We toured The Breakers at $20 each. We walked The Cliff Walk from The Breakers to Forty Steps, about 1/3 of a mile, for free. We took 67 bus back from the green trolley signed stop in front of Salve Regina Admin. Bldg. about 12:21, closer to 12:30pm. The driver offered to let the “ship people” off in the middle of the street about 2 blocks before the Gateway Center when he saw the long line for tenders. Technically, I think you are supposed to be dropped off or picked up at the round green trolley signs but it seemed to pretty much be on demand. We all accepted gratefully and jaywalked en masse. Not long after we got in line, 2 tour buses unloaded at the curb and the line extended for a full block! I would have been livid if I had been on a ship’s tour at those prices and many of them were. Regent would have radioed from the bus that they were on to the ship and a tender would have been waiting or arrived about the same time, in our past experience and if not someone would have been in trouble and there would have been lots of apologies.

We went to lunch at Waves Grill even though it was Mexican buffet lunch at the Terrace. I had the Q-ban sandwich and it was very good. There was a pretty good line to order at the grill so we knew we had a wait. The line at the ice cream place next door was not so long, so I offered to go get us cold drinks. I had a chocolate malt made with skim milk (which was not very good, but looked great) and Clay had a mango fusion smoothie which he did not much like either. Clay had a beef frank with crispy fried onions on top. He was disappointed in no chili dogs but he seemed to like it. We had a dining companion by this time, so I went and found the cappuccino machine after and I quite liked it better than morning coffee.

This afternoon I did some hand laundry and did yesterday’s blog entry while Clay napped here and there. The fog began rolling in again as we started to sail and only got thicker the further we go from the coast. We almost missed the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail party because I was so behind on everything and Clay didn’t really want to go because it meant changing clothes and he was asleep. But, our sailaway was delayed by at least an hour and a quarter and it seemed that the 5:45pm Captains welcome happened on a delay as well since we walked in 30 minutes late and got to shake his hand, get a free drink and see the presentation of the ship’s officers. They were given free booze in all the bars until 8pm, so the bars were full and the Terrace was pretty empty when we got there at 6:30 and when we left. We may never make it to the Grand Dining Room. The food in Terrace overlaps with the other restaurants and you can set your own pace. We waited 30 minutes the first night in Jacques just to place our orders. We could have been in and out of Terrace tonight in that time. I had a cheese soufflé, beef wok cooked to order and marshmallows and mini-eclairs dipped in a chocolate fountain. I had another decaf cappuccino because I want to go see the Jean Ann Ryan singers and dancers tonight. Clay had sushi, salmon and pistachio cherry torte with ice cream. He loved his. After dinner we looked for the Fitness Center, all the way forward on Deck 14 on the starboard side. We looked for Deck 7’s laundry which is all the way forward on the port side. There were 3 washers and 3 dryers all available for $2 per load per machine according to the signs. They take tokens to operate, but there was a token selling machine on the wall which took $1, $5 and $10 dollar bills.

The fog horn has blown all afternoon and evening in really heavy fog but calm seas. We are off to the show now, more later. On our bed, tomorrow’s newsletter states that Oceania will run a first come/first served free shuttle from the Black Falcon Terminal where we’ll be docked in Boston to and from the Quincy Market every 30 minutes or so. That will work perfectly for us since we had only planned to walk some of the Freedom Trail and I wanted to eat Boston Baked Beans at Durgin-Park Restaurant. We won’t get to Boston before noon and leave at midnight, so it will be a short day ashore for us anyway.

We both went to the Jean Ann Ryan Co. Backstage Pass show which was Broadway tunes. It was over-amplified as we have found all the music thus far but only those with hearing aids seem to mind it. Otherwise it was very good, as good as any show we ever saw on Regent, not as good as on Disney! The theater has airline pull up type tray tables in the armrests and bar service in there.

We got fog and rolling swells all night. The doors were swinging in the cabin some, so we knew it was definitely rougher. We still slept about the same.

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NYC and boarding Marina

Thursday, May 7, 2015

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We got checked out of the Holiday Inn Express and they stored our luggage for the day for us. We walked all the way across Mid-town Manhattan today! Well, nearly. We could see the Hudson River outside our window before we set out and we didn’t stop until we saw the Roosevelt Island Tram and the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge over the East River.

Our goal this morning was to join the free guided Southern tour of Central Park at 11am. We were there in plenty of time and got to see a lot along the way including Rockefeller Center. We found the spot where we were to meet the guide at 61^st and 5^th right inside the park and then wandered down to the Zoo and used the rest rooms and got Clay a smashed penny before heading back to the meeting spot. The tour asked us to arrive by 10:45am and we were there when the green-shirted volunteer arrived. There wound up being about a dozen people in our guided group. It was a nice introduction to Central Park. They do a free guided tour almost everyday and spend about an hour focusing on different areas for each tour. We saw The Pond and Kinder Berg and Wollman Rink where a big summer amusement park under a giant tent was being set up. The tour ended at The Dairy Visitor Center. We went through Playmates Arch and visited The Carousel on our own and then we left the park.

We had a 1pm lunch reservation at Serendipity III. It was about 5 blocks away on 60^th.  We stopped in at the giant candy store on the corner nearby but didn’t buy anything, just gaped and marveled. Lunch was ok. I had a One-Eyed Jack sandwich. It was open faced steak with a fried egg on it. I should have specified well done and then I might have liked it. I think it had fried plantains on the side, I don’t usually like these, but I did eat them and I don’t know what else they could have been. Clay had chicken salad sandwich on Irish soda bread (which has raisins) and he was having a gaggy kind of day so he chose not to finish his either. We shared a frozen hot chocolate which was delish and we finished it before our sandwiches arrived. So there is dessert first for ya!

We had phone-googled a grocery store near us while there and came up with a Whole Foods in the same block on 57^th. It was more or less in the right direction so we headed there. We had search last night without seeing a single carton of wine. I was certain I did not want to hand carry bottles on Marina. I had asked Norma, our Central Park guide, and she had assured me that she had seen cartons of wine in Trader Joes yesterday so it was available in Manhattan. We had already checked and all the Trader Joes in Manhattan were far from us or where we were going the rest of the day. So, after lunch we headed to Whole Foods. They had a large beer selection, but no wine. Clay asked and they told him to go to the wine shop across the street. Clay decided not to buy any beer. We walked back to the corner we had just crossed at and went back to mid-200 block of East 57^th and went in the wine store. I found 2 light French wines in cartons. They were bigger than I was planning, each equaling 4 bottles! But, got a light crisp white and a light refreshing rose, both from France. So, I haven’t tried either yet and only one at a time will fit in the minifridge, but they should last the whole 41 days! We spent about $60 for the equivalent of 8 bottles of wine and wine onboard is $42.50 each in a bundled, limited choice pre-purchased package of 7 bottles. So, I feel very fortunately frugal. The wines were Maison Cubi rose and La Petit Frog white. I will have to come back later as I try them to report whether I like them.

We walked about 1 block before we found a good spot from which to start trying to hail a taxi. It seemed like a long time, but was probably less than 15 minutes before we were in an SUV taxi. It was a challenge to drive back across town. It seemed much more congested than when we walked across. I guess since we were on foot then that we kept moving, while traffic back was all stop and go. He waited for us at the Holiday Inn Express while we ran in to retrieve our luggage and then quickly got us to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal at 55^th & 12^th Avenue at the Hudson River. Wow! Marina was much larger than we expected. It has larger cabins and holds a few hundred more passengers than Insignia would have but we didn’t expect it to be this large. We agreed we were both expecting something the size of Regent Voyager and we both reckoned Oceania Marina looked closer in size to us to Disney Wonder. The cruise terminal was nearly empty around 3pm or so when we arrived. Our documents only said embarkation began at 1pm and the ship departed at 8pm. It probably took us less than 15 minutes to get checked in. We heard others say they had been told to be aboard by 4pm, but we did not get that information. The good news was that we only had to wait about an hour to get in the cabin and another hour to get our luggage delivered. Those who had boarded at 1pm and were in regular cabins like us were laid out all over the ship and most were complaining at dinner time that they had to be aboard by 4pm but their bags didn’t. The mandatory muster drill was at 5:15pm. Again for a ship sailing out of NYC at 8pm, they should have stated in the pre-cruise documents that you had to be aboard for the drill.  Well, luckily we were.

Our cabin 7055 is larger than we expected because we had been prepared for the even smaller Insignia cabins. The bathroom is especially roomier with both a shower over tub and a corner shower stall.  I think we consider all the balcony views on our deck (and I guess all those above) partially obstructed because you can’t look straight down. I think it is bothering Clay, but I can see it is just the way the ship is designed. Only those in the pricier cabins can go all the way to the front of the ship on other that the tiny forward part of deck 15. But even they have a big shaded glass wall in front, so that wouldn’t make us pay more anyway. We had documents in our cabin acknowledging our prepaid gratuities and free Internet but nothing about our free laundry. Henrietta, our cabin stewardess, came not long after we did and introduced herself and was quick about changing things we wanted done or telling us when they would be. She quickly brought a gift card for her prepaid tips for Clay to sign. I wound up going to Reception when we realized that we had found nothing and Henrietta had not mentioned free laundry. Reception said it was on our cabin account and to just use the laundry bag and inventory billing forms in the closet and it would not be billed. We haven’t done it yet, so we’ll have to report later on that.

We wound up on the fitness track area of aft deck 15 for our sailaway viewing. The sail out of NYC is spectacular. We went to the port side to see Manhattan and the new WTC tower slide by. At some point, we started wondering which side the Statue of Liberty would appear. It seems that would have been worth an announcement, but we heard none. It was a very cold, stiff breeze out there too. I walked around the front of the funnel and could see Lady Liberty in the distance on the starboard side, so I went back and got Clay. He stayed there, while I went down to 7 to watch from the protection of our balcony. Clay came down after we had past and I made him go out with the binoculars. Even at a distance, he said I had a better view on 7. Too bad the ship did not relay that information prior to sailing since at least half the cabins could have better enjoyed themselves. Anyway, in the distance we could see a nicely lighted George Washington Bridge right where it looked as if fog was rolling in. We were cold though so came in. At some point, I needed MotionEase and another meclizine and I told Clay I thought we were in open ocean and we must have crossed under the GW Bridge. I got up and opened the curtains again and it was just as we started under the bridge. Once on the other side we were in heavy fog for the rest of the evening as far as we could tell. The fog horn blew more or less all night and every time either of us was up and looking out it was foggy. The good news was that either the seas were very calm or the ship is very stable.  It was a pretty comfortable night.

We had dinner reservations in Jacques at 6:30pm. The muster drill at 5:15 ran about 45 minutes with most of that sitting in the theater in our lifejackets while they searched for several dozen people who were missing. It was not clear most of them had even boarded yet. If like us, they had not been told that they were required to board before 4pm or that there was a mandatory drill at 5:15 then they probably were not onboard. There was no explanation when we were finally dismissed. Our Cruise Critic online roll call had a meet and greet scheduled for 6pm. It started late and we were sorry to mostly miss it. By the time our organizer Carol (Thanks!) had distributed name tags several of us had to leave for our dinner reservations.

We did not really much enjoy Jacques. Clay really like his night’s special of veal stew, but my chicken and mashed potatoes were between disgusting and incomprehensible. I later learned all the mashed potatoes on the ship must be like that. We saw them later listed as Franck’s mashed potatoes. No one should want to take credit. A couple who ate a Polo and had them described them as like grits. I had described them as like polenta so you have some idea of the texture, taste and runniness. 

There was evening entertainment but we went straight back to the cabin after to dinner. I finished unpacking and Clay worked on his photos. Somehow he and I are both doing our blog work on the same machine instead of on different machines, so I guess we’ll be alternating days. I am not sure if that was always the plan or whether it just didn't get thought through.

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We're off - Day 1

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

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We got an early start this morning. Clay had ordered a Green Taxi for 7:15am to take us to the Amtrak station. We needed to be there by 8am to check our luggage for the 8:45am No. 92 train. We had 2 reserved coach class tickets for $170.20. That allowed us 2 checked bags at no extra charge. The bags did not exceed our carryon allowance, but we thought it would be easier to check them. First snafu of the day was the Green Taxi never showed up. Clay flagged down a yellow taxi in front of the house and he said he’d come back by after dropping his passenger. He did and Clay called Green Taxi for the 3^rd time to just cancel. We still made it to the station in plenty of time.

The seats were large and comfortable with power outlets, recline and leg supports and foot rests to make them like recliners. The ride was rough and long though. We made lunch reservations for the dining car at noon and each had a $10 Angus steakburger with chips. There were only 3 choices; ours, vegi-burger or Caesar salad. The burgers were good and it was a change of scenery for an hour or so. It is a toss-up whether it is better than flying. Maybe slightly less unpleasant because no TSA screening and a more generous luggage and personal space allowance. Anyway, the next snafu was picking up checked bags at Penn Station in NYC. Somehow they put the luggage out for pickup of a train that arrived after we were all lined up outside Baggage Claim. So, we got to wait for the small group from a train from Ohio who were all just showing up behind us to push through and get their bags before they closed it all off again. Then we got to wait another 30 minutes for them to bring up a whole lot more luggage for our larger and now angrier group. Since we had to wait over an hour to get our bags, it might have been a better idea to just carry it all on and off ourselves. But you never know. The train arrived right on time, but our luggage was late. Good news was all our luggage arrived intact!

We are at the Holiday Inn Express Midtown West at 538 West 48^th Street. We paid $288.08 for a room on the 8^th floor. It is about 10 blocks from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal 90 Berth 4 at 55^th and 12^th Ave. Too far to walk with luggage in my opinion. We got checked in and then walked to Daisy May’s for BBQ. Clay wanted a giant beef rib. Daisy May’s is a counter service dining establishment at 623 11^th Ave at 46^th. It was a convenient walk and I think we were both disappointed and I was even a little grossed out by the food.  Cold baked beans, Clay said the collards were hot. The Carolina pulled pork is mustard sauce, so while I have found that in the Carolinas, I have only seen it in a small area of the eastern part of the state of SC. It cost $50 for one giant rib at $30 and a pulled pork sandwich at $11.50. No tap water. A bottle for $1.50 and all beers all day at $3.50 each.

We were tired but still walked to reconnoiter the pier for tomorrow, when I decided it was too far without finding it. We looked in the other direction for Clay an ice cream and for a place to buy wine and/or beer for the ship. We never found anything either of us was willing to buy. Clay was sure he knew where a close Duane Reade was from the cab ride, but after 3 blocks without finding it, I felt a blister popping and told Clay I was done and we walked back. We got in after our usual 9pm bedtime!

The room at the Holiday Inn Express is nice enough though the Salvation Army is directly across the street for those who are bothered by large homeless congregations. I actually did not notice it until seeing the line up the next morning. The room is larger than the last one we had in NYC. The bed and pillows were wonderful and we slept well. Clay only pulled the scrim and we had a lot of light in the room, but there was another shade. He was using it to hang his handwashed shirt over the AC unit. The AC unit fan ran constantly and it was rather loud. The good news was that it acted as white news and I didn’t notice any street noise at all. The HI Express includes a buffet breakfast from 6:30am to 9:30am. It was good and well attended. It had a pancake dispensing machine that I love. But, it had either a waiting line or was out of batter the whole time so we didn’t get one. We both had already decided to have bagels in honor of being in NYC anyway. I also had a yogurt and coffee and Clay had a turkey sausage biscuit and juice. No ice water again. I had to come back to the room to make my own to take my pills.

We are off to tour Central Park and will post about the rest of the day and boarding Marina in a new post.

Photo Slideshow

(We won't take time on this trip to paste them into the text individually! Sorry!)