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.
