THE ASIAN PORTION OF THE CRUISE

 

Our first crossing of an ocean by sea .... What to expect??? It will be 5 days of NOTHING to see, just adapting to the rhythm of the ship and enjoying the amenities on board. Would we be bored out of our little craniums? Would the sight of a lifeboat hanging on its davits cause thoughts of jumping in and heading anywhere to find land? This will be an interesting experience.

Every afternoon in the Princess Theatre there are lectures etc. to entertain our little grey cells and keep us from going totally soft in the head -- as well as the belly. One of the lecturers was a Maritime Historian by the name of John Maxtone-Graham. This guy was fantastic!! He had the ability to hold the rapt attention of over 500 people in the Ship's Theatre in the palm of his hand. His topic was the grand Liners of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His lectures "talks" were complete with pictures and personal stories. He has made over 500 crossings and could tell fascinating stories about the ships, the crew and the passengers. It was intriguing to just sit and listen to him. When he came to talk about the Titanic, he walked on stage with no props, pictures etc. and over the next 45 minutes you could hear a pin drop in the theatre. WOW!!! Elsie and I never missed one of his lectures. It was the highlight of the day .... excluding dinner, of course.

For Maxtone-Graham's Bio and on board lecture topics click here ....

What else did we do for the 5 days, you ask??? Well we ate ... and ate ... and ate .... Oh yes, and we read a great deal. If you look at the picture of the stern of the ship we took in Ketchikan, you will notice on the 18th floor running the total width of the ship and even sticking several feet over the ship's side is walls of windows. These floor to ceiling windows are in a Bar called Skywalkers that was not used during the day. Very comfortable leather chairs and absolute silence were the two chief attributes of this place. Elsie and I would curl up in these chairs and while away the time with our books. It was a reader's heaven .... until the bible study group would invade and destroy the silence. The many very dirty glances thrown their way by all of the avid readers had absolutely no affect ... they were oblivious to others. A little ironic, don't you think????

We lucked in again with our dinner table mates. We stayed at the same table as the Alaskan part of the trip so Kerboom and Allan remained as our stewards, but we we introduced to a new dining couple. We were at a table for 6 but as happened on the last voyage we only had 4 of us there. That, of course meant more food for us .... sigh.

Owen and Rita were from Detroit and proved to be a great couple to talk with over the fantastic dinners. Owen worked for GM for many years and Rita worked for Sears so the conversations ranged from economics to politics to ????? We really enjoyed meeting them and dinner conversations were never predictable!

The weather was good for the first day or so and then, as we headed south, we came under the influence of the southern typhoons that were raging in the Sea of Japan. The Captain came over the "tanoy" (P A system)and announced that we were changing directions a little to avoid the worst of the storms --- 150 miles to the west --- Good idea we thought. Up to that point, the seas were always either flat calm or moderate, and we were getting just a little cocky ... silly us!!! It must be noted at this point, that in all staterooms the beds went east/west so with a ship this size ( 1000 + feet long, 123 feet wide, 116,000 tons of weight) it would take one hell of a blow to make the ship rock up and down. With the bow stabilizers out (23.8 feet on each side like huge wings) there was very little side to side motion.

As we headed further south in open waters, the seas changed from moderate to rough. Rough means waves in the 17 to 25 foot height range. A testament to the size of the ship and the length of the stabilizers, all we felt when we went to bed was a gentle -- for the most part -- rocking. I would hate to have been in those seas in a smaller boat. As it was on the Diamond Princess, there were very few cases of reported sea sickness. Even Elsie was OK ... Thank Gawd!!!

I must be said that one of the best parts of Repositioning cruises is that they go to ports that are not on the usual tourist map. This is also one of the bad parts of these cruises. These ports are not accustomed to dealing with an influx of 3,000 people suddenly landing, for an 8 hour window, on their door stoop. There is a reason that they are not on the tourist radar as desirable ports to visit ... there is very little there that would be of interest to the casual tourist. But, what is interesting is the level of effort many ports put out trying to encourage the tourists to return. Most of the ports put on a free shuttle bus service from the ship to the town centre. But, of course, there is always the highly overpriced Princess Tours you can sign up for.

As we had not been to any of these ports before, we gritted our teeth and paid Princess's inflated prices. I will mention the ports below briefly, and include a few pithy comments. For most information, have a look at the picture page.

Kodiak Alaska:

In port too short a time to take the plane trip to see the bears. We just wandered around as the sun was shining for a change. The Safeway Liquor Outlet sure made a bundle from this ship. I don't think many came on board without some libation in hand. With the costs of alcohol on board, this was the last chance for a reasonably priced drink in your stateroom. People were coming on board with multiple cases of American Beer, boxes of wine and lots of bottles of hard liquor. Good ole Princess never said "peep"!

Muroran (Sapporo) Japan:

All we heard about the cleanliness of Japan is true. We had a 1/2 day tour in the afternoon, so in the morning, we took one of the free shuttle busses and went into town. We stumbled on the tourist office where they had people dressed in traditional costumes who were involved with paper folding (origami), flower arrangement, calligraphy etc. It was a neat place to visit. In the afternoon we took the Realm of Fire tour and went up Mount Usu (gondola up a small mountain side). Think of a 1/2 size Grouse Mountain .... We then drove along the shore of Lake Toya where there were many hotels that thrived on the ever present Hot Springs. There will be another G8 meeting there next year so you can tell it is a very nice place with gorgeous hotels.

Valdivostok Russia:

This was the USSR's naval port on the Pacific, and as it was closed to all travel during the cold war, it was always shrouded in mystery. A Russian naval base that close to the USA always seemed to be a threat .... although Sarah Palin could probably see it from her house in Alaska.

When we pulled into port, it was a real let down as there was only one Russian Warship there, and the Diamond Princess absolutely dwarfed it as we docked along side. It was just a huge port with lots of freighters and absolutely no menace. We even found out that it no longer is the western terminus for the Trans Siberian Railroad ... Beijing is .... ah well... progress does march on regardless of our childhood fantasies.

We did the Historical Tour for 4 hours. It seemed longer! Each tour is rated by Princess as to its level of difficulty, and the number of stairs involved. This one was rated as easy with 50 stairs mentioned. After walking several miles and visiting several museums, I lost count at 200 steps. Then we had to climb up to the Artillery Battery to see how the port would have been defended if the Allies had been stupid enough to invade during the Cold War. Our Guide was a young fellow whose father was a retired naval officer on the Pacific Fleet. He was obviously raised with a strong sense of discipline ... and a love for any and all types of guns. In one of the museums we were whisked through the art gallery portions and spent our time being lectured to about the stopping power and range of fire of so many different types of weapons --- I slowly became disengaged. But ... the steps remained.

 

Pusan Korea:

A very clean and striking city. Lots of high rises and parks. The Koreans hosted an APEC Conference here several years ago, and they built a meeting place for the delegates that stands today as the APEC Center -- it hasn't been used since as all the desks were set up exactly as they had been during the Conference. Apparently, they were going to host another APEC Conference there next year so I guess it is worthwhile ....????.

The bus was very comfortable, and we did spend several hours just wandering around the area. Just think ... riding in the bus with no steps ... after the hike to the APEC Centre this was a real plus!!!

Kagoshima Japan:

After going through yet another Japanese Immigration finger printing and eye scan ordeal, we first were taken to a Park for an hour and a half. If I have to wander around another Park pretending to be interested in flora and no fauna, I'll go nuts!!! We then drove by an Observatory and stopped in yet another museum. I had totally OD'ed on museums by this point.

The highlight of the day was a ferry ride to an island where we could climb yet more steps ... have these people never heard of elevators ....and look at yet another small mountain in the Ring of Fire configuration that had steam coming out of one side. The ferry ride was a hit with Elsie as on the Ferry there was a Class C motor home made by Okanagan Campers. Just what it was doing there we never did find out as we had to be back on the bus as the ferry docked. Oh well ... thrills are where you find them.

 

Dalian China:

We just took the Easy Tour of the City and ended up in a couple of Parks. Imagine a Park that would be several city blocks long and wide, and made up of cement paths running through the most beautiful manicured grass fields. This is in the City Centre of a city with nearly 4 million people. It turned out though, the grass was beautiful because no one was allowed to walk or even sit on it. All for show .... I'll end this bit on Dalian with that comment....

Xingang (port of Beijing) China:

This is where the ship docked ... about 2 hours outside of Beijing. We only landed there and got in a shuttle bus to head into Beijing. The only thing I will say that after yesterday clearing customs in Dalian, we were kept onboard for 2 hours as China Immigration had to clear the boat all over again ... sigh .....