Love the details, Olivia ... and especially the insight on the WC cruisers! Sounds like Marcie's vouching for your gossip! ;)

Masaki

Olivia, thanks for all your posts. Your observations make for great reading. The trip sounded like so much fun and especially to spend time with Tom and Marcie!

Olivia and Marcie, thanks for posts that are pure delight to read as i imagine most of us picture ourselves on board watching all of this unfold..
Olivia, you have such a refreshing perspective as a traveler--it is a joy to get your view..thanks

Olivia, 5/10 posts--you met half you goal--good work.

Marcie, that new tradition sounds like fun, thanks for sharing.

r/wes

Thanks for all the info and impressions, Olivia. Sounds as if there's not much emphasis on dancing with the group aboard for the WC. We'll try to change that if we have decent music. One question - do they still have the old system they had previously aboard Voyager/Mariner for the computers, in that you had the option of using your own ISP or using a ship account with a ship assigned e-mail? I found the system aboard Diamond and Navigator to be a real pain, since using my own ISP brought up all my historical e-mail and really burned up time. As a result, I didn't use it on either ship.

Olivia and Marcie, What fun reading this...I'll never get a thing done this morn.! Marcie, maybe it should be "The Old and the Restless" instead of "As the World Turns"! Isn't it fun to meet the characters on a cruise and reminisce later? Both of you should write a book.

Thanks Olivia and Marcie. I loved reading these posts. Nancy

The grieving widow. Marcie you have a grieving widow lose with a new romance on the world cruise. You can tell.

This is better than tivo

Olivia, welcome home. Thanks for the great mini-novel on your WC cruise segment--it sounds wonderful. Do you have anything else planned between this cruise and NINJA? Looking forward to meeting you in person in Iceland--we can people watch together. Peggy

Olivia & Marcie,

Very entertaining posts, ladies. I am really enjoying all the stories. Keep them coming!!

Betty

I'm loving these posts and all the gossip. Makes me feel like I never left.

Just exactly how much did they want for the bridge climb? I went during the Olympics and it was about $150 Australian but it would have been about $100- $120 (based on time of day and day of week) if I had waited until after the Olympics. Then again, I had to get myself there and get myself back to where I was staying.

Well, worth it in my opinion.

Isn't there someone out there who wants to adopt me? I read these stories by Olivia (most articulate!) and my gambling buddy Marcie and I just start to drool! Now I know slobbering at the mouth is not the most gentile thing to do, but I cant help it! I am so glad you good folk are having such a grand time, and I totally rejoice in your adventures. I just wish there was some totally nice person out there who needs a pet Sheik to pamper with a WTC!!!

Welcome home Olivia I've missed you.
Marty

Olivia, I really enjoy your spin on things. Should we ever cruise, I hope you will definitely have dinner with us! I was thinking about the complaining cruisers you mentioned. I know now and then we all experience something gone awry. And then there are those who will always find fault. They have lost sight of how fortunate they truly are to be there.
Keep posting the gossip!!!

Olivia,

So glad you had a great time and love your reports. More, more!!!

Okay, I can post because I am no longer aboard. That widow lady was young. She lost her husband last year.


Colleen, bridge access is about $180 Australian on the weekend, and about $150 Australian during the week, when we were to be there.

These reports are terrific, Olivia and Marcie. I love to people watch and sailing on the world cruise sounds like a fantastic venue to do so.

I think it's really miserable to be around people who constantly complain and I, too, would avoid being around them. It's awful that they don't realize how fortunate they are to have the wherewithall to afford such a luxury. I guess there are some that are never pleased, regardless of how good they have it.

Looking forward to hearing more and more!

What a story!! Storms at sea!! The Ladies in Waiting!!! The young widow finds new love in the arms of ..... Bungee jumping and hearts a thumping. I mean I've had great cruises, and made great friends, and gotten lost in strange cities, and almost didn't make it back to the ship (twice) and saw a pet pig try to make mincemeat out of a poor shipmates rolex, but it appears my adventures pale. Oh well, we'll try again a week from Saturday. Jeff

Jeff, you must tell me more about the Rolex eating pig!

OK, Jeff...Time to share! Rolex eating pig?????

I admit, I'm curious about the timepiece consuming porcine as well.

Masaki

Wow, Olivia and Marcie sound like they're watching a soap opera in action! And what's this about a Rolex eating pig? Very expensive tastes for a pig.

Now THAT would make one heck of a ham sandwich!

Ok, well I can tell this group hasn't spent time on the Celebrity boards in some time....last winter we were on the Summit and one of the stops was on St. Kitts. With another couple we took a taxi out to Turtle Bay. It's a beautiful spot, with a great view of Nevis, monkeys in the trees, a pleasant little bar and restaurant and sometimes some decent snorkeling. Well, and someone there has a pet pig. This extremely large, hairy gray porcine spent most of the morning sleeping in the shade and we pretty much forgot about it. Then we had one of those quick heavy downpours, and we grabbed our stuff and went in to have lunch. When the storm broke, the pig had woken up and was wandering around, sticking its snout in various places and on various lounging people until it found a Celebrity Beach Bag with some tasty morsels inside. The pig got in the bag and was quickly having a snack of some fruit someone had taken off the ship, then it reached in for more and came out with the guys Rolex!! One of our friends was brave enough to chase after the pig and threw an apple at the porcine, at which time the pig figured the apple might taste better and it dropped the watch and she retrieved it and put it back in the Celebrity beach bag. The owner of the bag had been out snorkeling and was totally oblivious to the activity until he came back about 20 minutes later and was informed about what happened. The pig also almost ran off with another lady's swimsuit top. She had untied it and was laying face down when the pig came over, stuck its snout into the lady's left....and tried to pull the suit away, but alas, was unsuccessful. After about 45 minutes of excitement, the pig got all worn out and went back to sleep. My own personal adventure that day was getting hit by a rogue 3 or 4 foot wave while snorkeling and got crashed down onto some coral. Ouch! Well, that's the pig all. Jeff

OMG!! Howling! Great story...

Susan/Jeff: I only know about monkeys on my Silversea cruise on the Shadow that I already posted. Pigs I do not know.

Continuing on for this cruise, you all know that we were stuck with stiff seas, and that Capt. Dag turned us around, fortunately, to get out of th way of the seas that were going on in the Bass Straits. By the time we left, they were 40 ft. and they rose to 60 ft. after he made his decision. I'm glad he did, and I hope to revisit this area! Sydney was great! It is that sort of city where you don't feel the need to visit museums, palaces, etc., as there are none that are considered not to miss! On my first day, I did a walk along the cliff from Bombi Beach to Tamarama Beach, and it was beautiful!! Lots of surfers and beautiful views. Hope I can soon post my photos!!

Jeff - hilarious!

Olivia - awaiting the photos with bated breath!

Masaki

Jeff,

HAHAHAHA!! Funny story about the pig!

Olivia,

Bring on the photos, please.

Betty

Jeff, what a great story! I wish there were pictures, too!

Jeff, loved the pig story. Right up there with "pearl before swine" which Ted loves to quote . I think it is in the gospel of Matthew but I haven't got them memorized.

Olivia - I'm late in welcoming you hame. Love reading your posts - you and Marcie let us feel like we've been there!

Wonderful reports, Olivia! I'm so glad your long-anticipated trip turned out to be a memorable one. Thanks for taking us along through your posts.

I will add little things as I go along and remember backwards. For one, I did not enjoy the Virtuoso amenity tour in Hobart. It started at around 8:30 in the morning. We seemed to drive around the town in circles for awhile, and though it was nice to see some of the nicer residential areas (these people love fretwork on their porches and eaves, by the way) I was waiting for more. Then we were deposited at the Yacht Club, where we had "morning tea" and the Commodore of the Yacht Club (a most charming lady) gave us a little welcome. Since I had just had breakfast, it was like, "what's next, let's go!" for me. Then we went to the Museum which was great. About half-way through my visit there, they were collecting to group to continue on, and I told the leader I was dropping out, as the rest of the thing was lunch at some fancy restaurant, supposedly the best in Tasmania. Well, for me, food just isn't that important, and it takes too much time. So I enjoyed the rest of my time at leisure in the museum (I actually was surprised that they had so little about the Aborigines in the museum) and then I went back to the ship for a quick lunch and off again to explore the town way before the Virtuoso group got back on. There is a nice shopping area very close to the ship in a more historic area. That's where I took my picture of the Amnesty International sign that you will see in my pictures. There were lots of nice little shops along the way, and one of the big sellers here is yarn! Knitting is a pretty big thing now in the US, and they had the prettiest mohair, and kits for scarves that included too many strands for me to keep track of for one project all at one time!

Just a point about Virtuoso. I have only been on a couple of their amenity excursions. Once was on VJ7 when we did a dinner at a castle/villa in Lisbon, and we had a lot of fun because we ended up at a table with a lot of folks from NYC. I think those people know no strangers, and we just had the best time. The other was in Juneau, where we had one of those whale-watching boat trips and then a salmon-bake on a little shore. Weather was good, we saw whales, and the kids (I had all 4 of them on this cruise had a good time)

On Leg 2, and perhaps for the rest of the WC, they have to be very sensitive about the mobility challenges of a lot of the world cruisers, and I appreciate this. However, if you are one one of these long cruises with RSSC, and are very mobile, you may want to look closely at the itinerary so see if it is really what you would enjoy. On a WC, there are a lot of passengers who rarely get off the ship for these reasons. And the Virtuoso excursion seemed to attract them. Had I to do it over again, I would have picked some other ship tour in the morning, and been on my own in the afternoon.

Okay, back to the widow. She is really a lovely lady, not past 50 in my view, and not one of those "tight-faced" ones Joanna is talking about. (I have my own ideas of who her Sandra Dee people are). Anyway, she booked this cruise because she said she didn't want to have to deal with the phone calls on the first anniversary of his death! So she got on board, and lo and behold, here is this single man aboard and presto! The chemistry worked, and I enjoyed competing against them, and their other friends I also liked, at "Smoker's Trivia"

Other little things I am still just recalling:

Room service dinner does NOT come course by course, it comes all in one tray, but you do get a full bottle of wine of your choice (just put the leftovers in your fridge)

All New Zealand wines that I saw on board, and also in the wine shops seem to have screw off-caps! When my waiter for room service tried to very professionally remove the cork, he seemed to be having a problem. I looked at the bottle, and saw the cap. He was most embarrassed, and we had a good laugh about this!

[img]C:\My Documents\My Pictures\2004 Cruise Pics\30[/img]

Sorry, seem to be unable to copy my pig pics into this forum. If there is a special way to copy JPG pics into forum, please let me know. Jeff

OK - pictures are now posted at the ofoto site so many of you are using to post pics. The album title should be self explanatory. Have also included pics of us, as most everyone else has their pic somewhere, and thought it would be nice to share. Guess the pig was more brown than gray. Jeff

Olivia,

Love all your observations and details!

Jeff - thanks for posting those! That's one big pig!

Olivia - so the room service dinner didn't come course by course? Is this true on Voyager in general or is this new for RSSC?

Masaki

Masaki, on my very few experiences with room service dinner on any RSSC ship, I never had more than two visits from room service for a dinner meal. Not a problem for me, but I just wanted those expecting "course by course" not to be dissapointed. Perhaps it was the rough seas, and the staff was busy. I left dessert and coffee for a separate phone call. Everything was hot and delicious, just all before me at the same time. So nice to have this option in whatever fashion.