Final Cruise Summary

February 27 to April 30, 2012

Singapore to Venice, Italy

Ports Distance(Nautical Miles) Speed

Singapore to Phuket     520 14.6 knots

Phuket to Chennai       1120  17.8

Chennai to Mumbai       1477  17.7

Mumbai to Manama      1378  17.0

Manama to Dubai            298  18.1

Dubai to Salalah               945  15.9

Salalah to Aqaba            1900  17.4

Aqaba to Safaga               182  15.2

Safaga to Suez Canal        222    9.3

Suez Canal to Alexandria  152   13.2

Alexandria to Dubrovnik    929   16.4

Dubrovnik to Koper            319   18.0

Koper to Venice                  101    9.8

Total Distance Travelled from Singapore to Venice

9,543 Nautical Miles = 10,974 Statute Miles

Total Distance Travelled from Fort Lauderdale to Venice

31,936 Nautical Miles= 36,707 Statute Miles

Venice, Italy Cruise End !!

April 30                         

We arrived here at 7:00 a.m, which brings to an end what will most likely be our last World cruise but we have said that before. We are very thankful to be able to travel like this. Even though at times I have not been thrilled with Princess Cruises, I would sail with them again. The dining room and buffet staff we associated with were excellent although most of the supervisory staff in this area was lacking in people skills. We felt like our room steward was part of the family, sometimes we couldn’t get him out of the room. The Cruise Director was just average, he didn’t add much to the cruise overall. The food on this ship was excellent, especially the Italian and Mexican. Lunch was usually the best meal of the day, we could have skipped dinner. (But we never did.) The only complaint I had was that they repeated the menus too often. We are not big dessert eaters so not a good judge, but by looking at some of the people that have been on the complete voyage, they liked it. As people walk around zippers are being pushed to the maximum holding power. The best part of this cruise was the people that we have met from all over the globe, hopefully we will keep in touch and may run into each other in our future travels.

We visited many locations that most people will never see in their lifetime. The highlights for us were Tasmania, Thailand (who can say they have had an elephant massage!), Fiji, Jordan, Japan, Korea, China, Croatia and Slovenia. Sailing past Iwo Jima was special and the memorial done by Princess was very touching. These were all new visits for us, we also enjoyed going back to New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.

Renewing our Marriage Vows was another highlight of my life. I am so grateful to have Betty in my life and to be able to do what we do.

I hope that all of you enjoyed reading the blog and the pictures I posted. I will have another 1000+ pictures that you could view if interested once I have them printed or put on a disk. (I bet you are all just lining up for that!)

We are scheduled to fly from Venice today at 5:30p.m. and will be in Dublin, Ireland by 10:30 p.m. We’re staying in Dublin until May 4th and then will fly to New York City and stay for a few days. I’m going to Belmont Race Track to watch the simulcast of the Kentucky Derby. We will then drive home making a few stops on the way and plan on being home around the middle of May.

Koper, Slovenia

April 29   Last full day of the World Cruise

Early this morning we continued through various traffic separation schemes as we approach Koper. We embarked our pilot at 11:00 a.m., we then set a south easterly heading to our berth and were docked at noon.

During it’s long history, Koper has been part of  the Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy and the former Yugoslavia.

We went ashore as soon as the ship was docked, the weather was just gorgeous, around 65 degrees and sunny. Once on shore we followed the shore line, as this is Sunday lots of little sailboats were in the water. People were also sitting on the beach and some were swimming.

We were looking for the old section of town so we turned inland. Along this road there were many shops and a pavilion where young adults were free dancing, apparently something that was happening in three cities across Slovenia. We continued up the road and there was a Olive Oil Festival, Betty stopped at a couple stands and sampled some of the oils.

She might have bought a bottle, but there is no room in the suitcases. As a matter of fact the two we shipped home are overweight, hopefully they won’t charge us. Up the street was a open air market and the fresh vegetables looked fantastic as did the figs. Every stand was also selling Olive Oil. We then headed into the neighborhoods with crooked alleys that cars used too. We stumbled on many old palaces, churches and shops. 95% of them were closed and most of the restaurants in this area were also closed. We then came to Tito Square, the former Platea Comunis and today’s central town square. It is flanked with secular and religious buildings boasting a mixture of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque features. The Cathedral of the Mary’s Assumption was built in the 15th century in the mixture of the Gothic and Renaissance styles, it acquired it’s Baroque interior in the 18th century renovation. The city bell tower that leans on the Cathedral's façade was originally a fortified Romanesque structure converted into the bell tower between the 15th and the 17th century. Also on the square was the Praetorian Palace, the symbol of Koper, built during the 1400’s in a combination of Gothic and Renaissance styles. Atop the palace is a statue of Cybele whom the Romans worshiped as their goddess of fertility and nature. Also on the square is the City Loggia, a beautiful arched colonnade that was designed and built in 1462. It is the only surviving loggia in Slovenia.

We were getting hungry and headed back to the waterfront area where we hade a couple steaks. Mine was like shoe leather and the gnocchi was just parsley  potatoes. But the cold Slovenian beers were good. Service was slow but we enjoyed sitting in the outside dining area. After lunch we went next door and got a couple gelatos and found a bench where we enjoyed the fresh air as we watched the locals. Then we headed back to the ship and stumbled on more great building, gates and fountains.

The cylindrical rotunda baptistery of John the Baptist

Saint Nicholas Church, Seat of the former Brotherhood of Fisherman and Sailors in 1594

It was a very pleasant afternoon. It was nice to visit a city on a Sunday afternoon, with no one trying to sell you anything or taxi drivers trying to rip you off. These were very friendly people and we would definitely come back here to visit.

 

They love their dogs here too!

And Whimsical Statues too!

Back aboard the ship we finished packing our suitcases and had to put them in the hallway. We sailed away from Koper, Slovenia at 7:00 and only have 101 miles to get to Venice so apparently we will be doing circles during the night as we are scheduled to arrive at 7:00 a.m. The Venice airport will not let anyone into the airport earlier than 3 hours before your flight. We will be able to stay aboard the ship until 2:00 tomorrow afternoon but have to leave our room by 9:00 a.m. We might be able to go ashore in Venice if the dock is near anything. They will then transport us to the airport and we will be off on our little visit to Dublin, Ireland.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

April 28

Few countries in the world have as many geographical and natural diversities on such a small land surface as Croatia. Stretching from the northern most harbor of Rijeka to Dubrovnik in the south. Croatia’s coast is a stunning seascape of rare beauty. The true highlight is the legendary Dalmatian Coast where pristine beaches and deep blue waters merge into the cool Mediterranean. With approximately 1200 islands the Dalmatian Coast boosts the largest archipelago but also the cleanest and clearest waters in the Mediterranean. Dubrovnik is situated on the southern most section of Croatia. It is one of the most unique cities in the world, it is a place of ancient streets lined with stone palaces, Venetian style buildings and bell towers. It was recognized in 1979 as one of UNESCO’s world heritage treasures due to the numerous restoration projects executed over the past several centuries. Its people take pride in their uncompromised commitment to the restoration of the city at all cost.

We went ashore at 9:00 a.m with John and Maureen and took the shuttle to the ancient entrance at the Pile Gate of Old Walled City.

Pile Gate to Walled City

The walls were built between the 13th and 17th centuries. They are 3 to 19 feet thick and are 6200 feet long with several bastions and two great fortresses guarding each approach. We entered the walled city and it was unbelievable, the only problem was that there were 12,000 people from the 6 cruise ships in port. We avoided a lot of the crowd by taking side alleyways. Our first stop was the world’s oldest working pharmacy operating since the 14th century. Next to it was the 14th century monastery. John had to have his morning coffee so we stopped at a small cafe. I had a beer instead, it will be posted to the Beer List. We decided to do a little shopping, then had lunch. Our friend Shirley said the Bolognese Spaghetti was good here so we went to the Barracuda Spaghetti and Pizza Restaurant. It was excellent and we had a few more cold ones. We then walked around the city and enjoyed the atmosphere and shopped a little more. As if we have room to pack it for the journey home. The old walled city is just beautiful and clean. We ended up going to the café where we had coffee in the morning and had a few beers, which I will list shortly. It was getting late so we had to head back outside the walled city and get the shuttle back to the ship. We all wished the ship would overnight here. Once aboard the ship, we sat on the balcony as we cruised back out of the harbor. This is a place we would love to return to some day.

Old Port

Franciscan Priest on Placa Street

Old Saviour Church

The old pharmacy

We went to the buffet for a light dinner and were joined by John and Maureen so in John’s honor I had a Foster’s Oil Can with my dinner.

We sailed back out to the Adriatic Sea and set a west north westerly heading passing the islands along the Croatian coast before we alter onto a North Westerly course then at midnight we enter a traffic separation scheme as we head toward Koper, Slovenia.

Crossing the Mediterranean Sea

April 26     Day 1

Last night we left Alexandria, Egypt and headed north westerly to our next port, Dubrovnik, Croatia. We will be at sea for 2 days for this crossing, the last 2 sea days on this World Cruise. We’ll be packing more of our clothes as well as giving away some clothes and other items to lighten our load when we disembark in Venice, Italy.

Woke to a nice sunny morning but there is a chill in the air, we were able to sit on the balcony as long as we had the sun. Our team tied for first place in trivia today but unfortunately lost the tie breaker.  Tonight is the last formal night, but we packed our formal clothes (on purpose). It is also the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail Party, which we will also skip as I hate fighting for a drink. Instead we went to the Bistro, Betty I & both had a cocktail before dinner. Then we had a great dinner, I had the best lasagna I ever ate. We were joined by our friends Irene and Richard and spent a couple hours talking. It was a great evening.

We had a port talk on Koper, Slovenia and look forward to being able to visit this country as we have never been there. It sounds very interesting.

Our cabin steward’s wife had a baby two days ago and showed us a picture this morning he was so cute. He is part Romanian and Part Thai, an interesting combination. At 7:00p.m we pass Gavdos Island which is off the Greek Island of Kiriti.

April 27   Day 2 and Last sea day of this cruise.

Woke to another beautiful sunny day with calm seas, but it is cool. During the day the ship will set more of a north-north westerly heading as we travel through the Ionian Sea passing along the coast of Greece. We will enter the Adriatic Sea and transit the Coast of Albania, Yugoslavia.

Betty attended the last culinary class and received a diploma. Maybe she can get a job when we get home. 

Trivia today was the last we played as the next two days are port days. Let’s just say we had fun playing, winning isn’t everything! We also had our last Scholarship at Sea with John Renninger on The Balkans. Tab Hunter also talked on his 1958 movie Gunman’s Walk.

Tonight we went to dinner for the last time in the Dining Room as I am sure we will enjoy eating ashore in both Croatia and Slovenia.  Tonight’s show was a comedy juggler named Jonathan Stamp which we skipped, decided to get to bed early as we plan on a long day ashore tomorrow.

Throughout the night we will continue to transit the coast. As we approach we will set various courses through the inner waters making our way towards our berth in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Alexandria, Egypt

April 25

Today we opted for a tour as we didn’t want to deal with Egyptian taxi drivers and their games with fares. The port here is very nice and clean with a big modern terminal, but nothing in it. There was a row of small shops outside the terminal filled with items from China, the merchants did not hassle you too much. Once outside the port gate this is what we saw.

It looked like a war zone. We passed some parks that were filled with garbage, our tour guide said the garbage collectors were on strike. Our tour guide was excellent and spoke very good English. (Since the revolution the country is very unsettled, no one is sure who is in charge of anything.)

We visited the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, also known as the New Library of Alexandria. It is a new library as the original burnt down in Roman days. The library is a modern building 11 stories high, with 4 below sea level. The computer room was staffed with over 250 computers, everything state of the art. The website is www.bibalex.org, check it out as it is free and has lots of info available. As seen in the pictures, quite a modern looking building for Egypt. It also houses several museums and a Planetarium.

 

  

We then visited the medieval Qait Bey Citadel aka as Fort Qait Bey, built by Sultan Qaitbey in the 15th century to defend Egypt against the threat of the Turks. It occupies a narrow peninsula and was built on the ruins of the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Next we toured the Roman Amphitheater, which stands in the center of Alexandria. This is an archeological site being dug by a team from Poland.

Above is one of the many sculptures uncovered. It is believed that under the Roman Theater sits the ancient city of Macedonia. They had to make a decision as to which of the ruins was more important to the history of Egypt. They are still looking for Cleopatra’s tomb which is believed to be nearby. The buildings in the city are so beautiful but very rundown as there is no money for upkeep. It was a pleasant day and the weather was perfect. We have been very lucky regarding weather on this cruise.

We departed at 8:00 p.m after all the passengers returned from their trip to the Pyramids, Sphinx and Nile river cruise. We did all that 4 years ago so explored the city instead. We set reciprocal tracks through the outer harbor and buoyed channel and took a north westerly heading toward Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Suez Canal Transit

April 23

This morning at 7:00 a.m. we entered the Traffic Separation Scheme through the Strait of Gubal. The strait runs through the Gulf Of Suez. We will continue to transit the the separation scheme as we approach the Suez Canal.

Today Betty attended the 9th Culinary Class by Master Chef Alfredo Marzi. She has learned some good things by attending these. (Not that I will ever use them.) Our full team was back for trivia but we still can’t win. This afternoon we had a port talk on Dubrovnik, Croatia. We are excited about this port and got some good information. We are planning on going ashore with John and Maureen, our friends from Australia.

Today as we sailed thru the Gulf of Suez there was a lot of ship traffic as well as many fisherman. Also many oil rigs in the Gulf that we don’t remember being there before.

We had a special appetizer created by our Master Chef for dinner tonight of Red Snapper cooked in lime and Bacardi rum with avocado and papaya. We also had Mojito’s with our dinner of Surf and Turf. The food these last few days has been exceptional, I think they are preparing for the surveys that will be sent out. 

In the early hours of the morning we will set courses towards Suez bay. Once clearance has been received, the ship will embark our local pilot. With the pilot on board we will take our place within the north bound conveys and proceed onto the Suez channel.

 

April 24

This morning we set a course toward the eastern channel entrance,

Ships following us in Suez Canal

Military Guard Suez Canal

We passed the Gineifa Signal Tower and then entered Little Bitter Lake.  We passed the WWI memorial on the Port side. I went to deck ten to take some pictures where I got caught up in the deck party and drank too many Champagnes.

WWI War Memorial

New Mosque being built next to canal

We then altered onto a north-westerly heading and entered the eastern branch traffic lane leading into the Great Bitter Lake. From Great Bitter lake, we settled onto a north northerly track and maintained this course thru the eastern branch towards Deversair by-pass which leads to Lake Timsah. We then passed the War Memorial on the starboard side which is the AK-47 memorial to the Egyptian soldiers in the 1973 war. It is in the shape of a AK-47 bayonet.

AJ 47 Bayonet Memorial

We then then continued on our northerly course through the canal as we steamed towards the Al Ballah by pass. Once clear of this area we set a northerly course towards Port Said by-pass. The ship then entered the Mediterranean Sea.

A lot of new construction has occurred since we were here 4 years ago. I recall a lot more security the last time. It was actually cool aboard the ship today, very strange for Egypt, but we will take it. Once we get into the Mediterranean Sea it will start to cool off quickly as we head northeast.

It was Mexican Day at lunch and again it was very good. This morning we spent 4 hours in the buffet talking to people we most likely will never see again. We were just social butterflies today. Everyone skipped morning trivia while sailing thru the Suez Canal but we managed to lose in the afternoon just to keep our record going. We finally have ESPN back so I want to try and catch up on some sports. I see the Tribe has been hot! I hope to catch some of the football draft later this week too.

After we left the Suez Canal we set a North Westerly course before heading west through the Mediterranean Sea. In the early hours of the morning we will alter onto a south westerly course as we head towards Alexandria to embark our pilot. The ship will alter onto a south easterly course and make its way through the buoyed channel. We will then transit the Outer Harbor as we make our way to our dockage.

Safaga, Egypt (Luxor/Karnak)

April 22

At 6:00 a.m. we embarked the local pilot and navigated through the shallow waters of the harbor. We were docked at our pier by 7:00. Safaga is merely an industrial pier, no town nearby. This port is the gateway to Luxor, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings. We have done all three in the past so we stayed on the ship as the tours are very expensive and you spend 7 hours on a bus. The dock we are at is probably the worst we have ever seen including the one in Chennai in 2008. Nothing here, no welcoming party, no shops, just sand and dust from nearby work being done.

We are in port until 11:30 p.m. tonight as the tours are 14 hours long. It was actually nice on the ship today. Some people took the shuttle to the port gate and were harassed by cab drivers so they just took the shuttle back to the ship. We played trivia, then had an excellent lunch of Corned Beef, cabbage and potatoes. Dinner was good also as we had Irish Stew. Not bad from a bunch of Italian chefs. After dinner there was the Safaga Oriental Show of Egyptian Folk dances. Betty went early and got seats in the front row. When the show started, Betty said to me, the one time I get the front row the show is terrible and we just can’t walk out. Lucky for us the show improved tremendously as two of the men came out and performed the Whirling Dervishes dance for approximately 10 minutes without stopping. How they did all this without getting dizzy is amazing. I wish I brought my camera and took a movie of it. The Whirling Dervishes were originally a sect of Islam in Turkey taught to love everything. 

When they finished, one of the young woman came out and did three different belly dances. She was a beautiful, had a nice body and a belly dancers belly. Glad Betty got the front row seats, but again, wish I had my camera.

We left the dock at 11:45  and cleared the shallow waters of the harbor. Once clear we disembarked the local pilot, and altered our course towards the north. We will continue on various northerly courses throughout the night as we steam towards the Suez Canal.