Yes, that time is upon the site once more where I keep the main blog entries ticking over to feed the WordPress updating algorithms that steadfastly ignore my travel portfolio content just because I had the audacity to host my own site like some sort of crazy control freak.
Latest Travel Content
As always I’ll start with what’s changed on this site first. Other than a little more filling out of the About page to explain the licencing terms for all content on this site, the following posts have been added into a few of the portfolios.
In the nascent category of Photo Rework I’ve added two more reprocessed travel photos from the past so if you’d like to see a moody picture of the Atlantic Ocean before sunset or a cooling picture of people skating on an ice rink and what I did new to the images then click on any of those links.
The cruise diary entries from our South and Central American cruise aboard Star Princess have had three new additions.
In Star Princess At Sea And Specialty Dining At The Crown Grill I take a walk around the cruise ship on the second of three sea days on the Pacific Ocean so some shots there in case you’re interested in the promenade deck views or what the pool looks like on a hot day in the middle of nowhere (inviting is the answer). The post finishes with coverage of restaurant dining aboard the cruise ship in its signature steakhouse and crossing the equator at midnight.
In Crossing The Line Ceremony With Princess Cruises I explain how the American cruise line conducts the maritime rituals you’ll find on vessels all over the world when you move between the northern and southern hemispheres. Expect mess and soaking wet bridge crew.
In White-Faced Capuchins At Puntarenas, Costa Rica we reach Costa Rica (you probably guessed) after three days at sea and immediately headed out on a ship’s excursion to the country’s capital. This first post merely covers arrival in Puntarenas and the start of the day’s travelling which included an unexpected stop to feed wild monkeys by the roadside.
Cruise Competition
Would you like to win a week’s cruise in the Mediterranean between May and August 2020? Would you like free flights and transfers to/from London and Athens? Would you like port taxes taken care of, no gratuities to pay, and three excursions thrown in for free? Does the idea of visiting Kusadasi in Turkey along with Rhodes, Heraklion, Santorini, Milos, and Mykonos in Greece appeal to you? How would you like to win that cruise and get your drinks aboard included for free too?
Well, it’s that time of the year again: it’s World Of Cruising magazine’s WAVE awards time. To be in with a chance of winning that cruise just pop along and vote in one or more categories. They’re all pretty much the same as last year so I won’t go through them (and you wouldn’t care if I did) and you might also notice that there’s a Favourite Cruise Blogger of the Year category again in which this site is nominated. Do not vote for this site. This is not reverse psychology. I really mean it: do not vote for this site. There are some worthy nominees there and there are some who don’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as other people. There are also only a handful of people who can possibly win because it’s a popularity contest so your vote probably won’t make the slightest bit of difference anyway but my recommendation, for what it’s worth, is select at random. The important thing is to get yourself in the running to win a week at sea next year because it’s good for you and I’m only thinking of your wellbeing.
If you want to know who I voted for then the answer is nobody because we haven’t got that sort of annual leave left to take next year already. And by not voting I’ve just increased your chance to win! What a great guy I am!
Emerald Princess Cruise Concerns
Our next cruise will be at the end of August, a week’s cruise in the Mediterranean and something I’ve mentioned before. At the time of writing there are grumblings about strikes at Heathrow Airport (which we’re due to fly in and out of) and strikes by British Airways pilots (with whom we’re due to fly). The airport strikes shouldn’t affect us based on the dates and from what I’ve heard about union negotiations. The pilots strike might yet do so and we possibly won’t know until two weeks before we head off so there are some concerns there. We’ve booked through Princess Cruises’ EZAir system so they should sort things out for us there but there are matters such as airport parking and hotel arrangements that might yet end up being stressful pains to address.
Marella Discovery Cruise Concerns
When we booked our week’s cruise aboard Marella Discovery (for November this year) we did so in the full knowledge that we would not be getting Princess levels of service because of the price and ship. Go in with lower expectations and hope to be impressed was what we thought.
However, as time goes on there are little niggles starting to make themselves known which are triggering concerns about this upcoming cruise. Information, for me, is key. Give people information. Let people know what is happening and what will happen. TUI or Marella are doing a bloody awful job of this so far. The crux of the matter is that we chose a cruise that hit Jordan and left the following day. This gives us a chance to see Petra on the first day. We know that the flight – all handled by TUI – is mid-afternoon the following day. All we want to know is: what happens overnight after Petra and in the morning of our departure day in Aqaba? Can we leave the ship? What time are we disembarked? Are there disembarkation excursions? If we wanted to arrange our own thing what time would we need to be back at the port?
Nothing from TUI after emailing them. Nothing from someone who works for them despite saying she would let me know. Nothing on the website. Nobody’s ever recounted the experience online. We can’t plan for this at all. It’s so frustrating because I wanted to cruise with Marella with no preconceptions but now I have some.
And that’s not all. In a bid to see if anyone had some information they’ve buried behind the walled garden of Facebook I joined two groups specific to Marella Discovery. Only one accepted my request to join and after two days of seeing posts in it from Brits complaining about how rescuing migrants spoiled cruises so they should be left to drown followed by a joke that Bernard Manning probably used in working men’s clubs in the 1970s I made a swift departure from that. If these are typical Marella cruisers then this might be our only cruise with the line.
Travel News And Views
And the regular look at what’s caught my eye online since the last post.
Let’s start with [no longer present interview] because there are a few things I want to mention. Firstly, the Princess refers to Victoria of Lost Ashore who isn’t an actual princess but might be one day. But she is rather fond of Princess Cruises and since we are too that makes her better than a princess, none of whom to the best of our knowledge have much of an opinion about the cruise line at all.
Anyhoo… from the interview…
So when CLIA first announced [cruise blogger association] I liked the idea of it, mainly, as I appreciated that CLIA had finally understood the importance of bloggers! […] I eventually decided that it wasn’t for me purely because it seemed like a money pit – I live up North and the constant travel to Southampton would have bled me dry.
But after watching it play out it has definitely made me squirm […] founding members were simply gifted [their membership]. However, everyone else in the exclusive club has paid and well if I am quite frankly honest it seems like paying your way.
And let’s see what I wrote ten months ago:
It’s difficult to see the benefits for us on a personal level, though. Work commitments mean ship visits are almost never a possibility […] At the back of my head there’s this worry too that the members of this group […] will end up simply becoming another coordinated advertising mechanism for the cruise industry at large and, bizarrely, will be paying for the privilege.
It’s disappointing to see my fears were founded because had this turned out to be something that actually rewarded people for doing what they love and encouraged more natural enthusiasm for the industry and access to it instead of just trying to become one great London-centric hub of targeted promotions for the pretty and popular people then we’d have been interested in joining up.
Moving on…
“Only you know if we did it” refers to a monument erected in Iceland to let future generations know that we can see how the climate emergency is affecting the planet and how it’s shrinking glaciers and that we know what we need to do to stop the problem.
Returning briefly to the cruise to Jordan with Marella, we’ve booked an excursion for our time in Petra that will see us climb the 800+ steps to the monastery. This was mainly because we’d read a few articles, including this one – Not-so-epic hike up to the Monastery – Petra, Jordan – where it seems it’s not as hard as it sounds. That appeals to us because death doesn’t.
Finally, the traditional video share features Allison Anderson, a solo traveller, and her first experience of cruising, a gifted trip aboard Seabourn Sojourn to Alaska so setting the bar nice and high. She’s someone who is surprised that there are elevators on cruise ships so it’s wonderful to see that level of innocent wonder but the whole video is superb: great scenery, great videography, great editing.