Well we have been at sea for a day and it’s a lake out here. I passed on lunch, Kim went to lunch. She met a wonderful lady named Carol. Kim told me all about her when she returned to the room from lunch.
After that, I went up to the pool deck and took my usual table, usual seat. A couple sat down next to me and as usual, I started listening. She asked the guy at the table on the other side of her if he knew what the 3rd flag from the left was, the pool deck was rimmed with flags, he didn’t know. I volunteered that it was the Philippines, she thanked me and continued to ask what the significance of all the flags ringing the pool deck were to which I replied they represented all the countries we would visit on the World Cruise.
Side bar for educational purposes. The World cruise this year is called “The Ring of Fire”. The ring of fire is a volcanic reference to a ring of techtonic plates that loosely rim this part of the Pacific Ocean. The plates are moving on top of each other ever so slowley. This causes friction, which in turn causes heat. The heat cuuses the rock to heat up to the point of melting and the pressure caused from that pushes up and breaks through the earth’s crust and we have what we commonly call Volcanos. When Volcanos erupt, the molton lava creats mountains, like Mt Hood or Mt St Helens, for example. Most volcanos are under water and we almost never hear about them. They don’t cause any damage, so it is not news worthy. This eventully creats new Islands. Mountains in Alaska, Western Canada, Western America, Hawall, French Polynesia…Check our cruise itenery for more locations, we are loosely following the ring all the way around.
Meanwhile, back at the pool, we continued chatting and several crew and a few passengers came to me with hugs, hand shakes and greetings and welcome backs. The lady at the table next to me finally asked me if I knew everyone on board, it’s great to see people I knew from before. This is another great example of why we sail with one small company exclusively now. My friend Sheila and her late husband sail and sailed exclusively on Holland America, for the same reasons.
So, a lady came along looking kinda lost obviously wanting to sit down and I offered her a seat at my table. We were having a nice conversation when she asked me where I lived. Well, Kim and I decided a couple years ago that we would answer that we live on the Oregon Washington border on the Columbia River, Before that we said that we lived in Washington, even when we said Washington State, most people thought we lived where the White house is. When I said that, she asked “ is your wife Kim?” Oh, you must be Carol, I replied. Yes, I had lunch with her, she said, more proof of how small the community is here. Another couple walked by and commented that they were having a Déjà vu moment. I heard him say, That guy was sitting at that table, in that chair every day last time we cruised and that couple on the other side are still sitting there drinking champagne. Familiar territory I said. They laughed and moved on.
Well, now it was time to pick where we were having dinner tonight. The choices are the dining room, the buffet, the specialty restraunt, room service or Sushi. Kim was busy unpacking and was not hungry, that’s makes my choice an automatic sushi bar trip.
I headed up to the club and took my regular seat at the bar. You know, the one closest to the Sushi Chefs. They of course recognized me for before. The bartender also knew me and what I wanted to drink, I’m telling you, these servers are amazing.
I sat next to a guy named Mark. He is from Michigan, nice guy, nice conversation. New to Seabourn.
While I was eating, Sean, the bar manager walked up behind me and asked, “ why am I having a déjà vu moment? I laughed and replied because we’ve been here before. I asked him if he ordered enough IPA and he laughed. Two years ago when we left LA , the ship ran out of IPA in the first 3 days. He said he had never scene so many IPA drinkers in all of his years of sailing on cruise ships.
When we restocked in Auckland, he had a case sent to my room and told me not to drink it yet, keep ordering from the bar, so that when we ran out again, I would be in high cotton. It’s good to befriend the crew.
That said, becoming a crew member on Seabourn is a goal that all crew members try to achieve. That’s another reason I love sailing with Seabourn. They treat the crew like first class sailors and family. They pay them well. Don’t get me wrong, they work long hours, 7 days a week, but every crew member I’ve ever asked says that they are very blessed to have a job with Seabourn.
Right now I’m sitting on our veranda. Most of you would be cold. It’s 10:15 PM and I am loving the sound of the waves, the seagulls flying around, the moon peaking around the clouds. Life is beautiful. When I climbed into bed about midnight, I could not wipe the silly smile off my face. This truly is my happy place.
When I got back to the hotel last night From my outing with my kids, I went out on the balcony to see what I could see and get some fresh air. I saw one of our favorite restaurants about 2 blocks away, Din Tai Fung. So, I made a reservation for 11: 00 AM for us to have a light lunch, it’s a Taiwanese restaurant.
The food was delicious as usual. Great treat for us. They make the best Xiao long bio.
They have windows into the kitchen so you can watch how they are made.
Kim went to the original restaurant when we were in Taiwan, 2 years ago. She says the US ones are better.
Well, now about the GALA. We have attended a few Galas in the past with Seabourn and although elegant, they lacked great food and entertainment. So , we were not really excited about attending the affair. However, dinner at Spago, a Wolfgsang Puck restaurant, was the best, I had slow roasted boneless beef short ribs, yes if you are paying attention you probably noticed that I had pork ribs for lunch, pictured, Kim had some wonderful grilled white fish. For desert, we had what is probably the best cheese cake ever. One thing I always appreciate about Seabourn is if they have to bus us anywhere, they hire luxury buses that can hold over 40 passengers, but limit each bus to 20 passengers. We’re not sardines, but they serve us caviar. So, getting to and from is a nice experience.
After dinner they wouldn’t tell us any details of what was happening. They took us the the Fox compound and to the sound stage. It was a large room, but with all the musicians and about a hundred of us, there wasn’t a lot of room to roam.
Then Wow, I’ll call it an experience that cannot be given a monetary value. Priceless would not even do it justice. An event that money could not possibly buy, okay, you got me again, I’m sure we paid for it in the price of the cruise.
This sound stage was built in the 1920’s and is where every song that every movie or show ever made by FOX is recorded. It’s also where people like Julie Andrew’s sang her songs in “the sound of music”. The orchestra is made up of not only great musicians, but also many famous and notorious musicians. The base player for example is Eric Clayton’s base player. Elvis even recorded in this studio for his movies. They proceeded to play theme song after theme song. With many stories in between. Many famous singers were there to perform for us too, like Henry Mancini’s daughter, for one.
At one point the speaker said that they were the ones who were getting the best entertainment out of the night. He said in all their years of producing music, they had never played a song in it’s entirety until tonight. Their job was to a part of a part of a song for 10 to 20 seconds then sit and wait, read a book or something while the director and the sound team made changes. They were given the changes and played the same stanza again then back to their book reading. This went on all day. When the director was satisfied with that segment of the song they moved on to the next few seconds and repeated the process. Some days later they were told they were done with that song, but never played or heard it in it’s entirety until the movie came out.
So, last night was;
1. The first time they got to play the entire song.
2. The very first and probably the last time they had ever performed for an audience in the sound stage ever. Talk about special. Some of the theme songs we were treated to were; Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Sound of Music, The King and I, the Pink Panther, just to name a few.
We are the only 100 or so people who will ever have that experience. How about that for a great start?
We made it to Los Angles without any drama. It was so nice to have a 2 hour flight to the boat, no jet lag here.
We arrived at our hotel about 4:00 pm and I had arranged with my grandkids to meet up at a local sports bar to watch Sunday Night Football at 5:15. Kim was happy to enjoy the quiet evening without me in the hotel.
My grandson gave me a ride from the hotel to the sports bar where I was met by my son and 3 more grandchildren.
It was your typical sports bar, noisy, crowded, and huge TVs everywhere. The only odd thing was there was no wait staff. You were to scan a “QR” code to place your order. So, as the old guy, I tasked my grandson with placing the order. By the time each of us had given him our orders, we were well into the first quarter of the game. I gave him my credit card and it was declined. All I could think about was Kim’s suggestion that I call the bank and let them know we were going to be traveling. You would think after 23 years of such grounded suggestions I would finally learn. But, in my defense I say, “hey, I’m me”, I’ll never learn.
So, I give him another card, same thing. Now I’m getting a bit angery, not to mention thirsty and hungry. My son took the hint and grabbed a worker that had just delivered food to the table next door, obvousily they knew the drill. After explaining that we had been trying for over a half an hour to order, he said that there was a way he could take our order for us. Finally at the end of first quarter, the food arrives, we are about half way though our dinner when I realize we didn’t have any drinks. Once again, Curt, to the rescue and our somehow lost drink order shows up.
Okay, so I’m not “in touch “ with new ways of the world. The food was great and so was the game. I was happy for the family time. They didn’t hesitate to add an automatic 22% tip to the bill, by the way, for what?
My son took me back to the hotel, Kim asked me to bring her a Dr Pepper. We stopped at a 76 gas convience store, they only had Mr Pibb. We went to Walgren’s, they were out. Oh well, forget it, right. Well, we saw a Ralph’s (Safeway), and tried a third time. They only had two 20 ounce bottles in the store. We snagged them both, life should not be so diffecult.
Back at the hotel, I too was enjoying the quiet time, however I was looking around and asking myself why this room goes for over $600 per night, I’d never pay that. What? Wait, i think you did. My answer is two nights in this room was part of the whole “World Cruise “ package. Still I can’t see what makes this so much better than the Hyatt Gardens we stayed at last night at the Portland airport for $116. I guess I just don’t have that classeiness in me, thank the lord.
Yes, it’s time for season 3 of Pool Chronicles, you just can’t make this shit up.
Our assigned seats on the plane from Portland to LA were row 2 A and B. But when we boarded, there was already a couple sitting there. A quick investigation found that they were supposed to be in 2 C and D. We told them that we would just sit in 2 C and D, no worries.
We got off the plane in Los Angeles and headed to baggage claim where we met by a representative from Seaborn, she explained that we were waiting for one other couple and then they would take us to our the hotel. Don’t get ahead of me here. Okay, you’re right, We were waiting on another World Cruise couple from, who knows where. What are the odds of that couple that stole our seats on the plane from Portland were also going on our world cruise? Yep, it was them! In 2024 there were a total of 84 passengers on the World Cruise, I except that will be true again this year, plus or minus. So, to even have 4 of those come from Portland Oregon is a one in a million chance, but to have them sit in our seats? Wait, I just shot my chance of ever winning a billion dollars on the power ball lottery. I just got my one in a trillion events unfold infront of my eyes.. What could the odds of either of those events ever happening.
This might look like a going away party, but it’s just our Friday “emergency” meeting.
Our friend Richard will pick us up at our house at noon tomorrow and take us to the airport. We will stop at Billigan’s Road House for a steak lunch in Vancouver. It might be the last good meal we have for a while. Haha. Well it might be the last meal we pay for for a while.
My friends were truly expressing their feelings about how they would miss me, and I have to say, I will miss them too.
We will stay Saturday night at the airport Hyatt Place, where I will watch the Seahawks beat the 49ers to win the the NFL west title and a bye for the first round of the playoffs.
We fly to Los Angeles from Portland at noon. We arrive in LAX at 2:30, where we be whisked by private limousine to our Beverly Hills Hotel, the Fairmont Century Plaza, where our “lifestyles of the rich and famous” journey begins. Sunday night we will find a sports bar with my son Curt and 5 of my grandkids to watch the SNF game with Baltimore and Pittsburg.
Monday night is the Gala event that kicks off the cruise at Spago, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.
Tuesday, they transfer us to the ship. We are on the same ship as season one and in the same room.
We docked in Darwin at 7 AM and were off the ship by 7:30 AM for immigration. Everyone had to remove everything and do a face-to-face inspection, even the crew. After the inspection was done we had to leave our luggage with them and get back on the ship. We will be on the ship until 10 PM, when we board a bus and go to the airport. Our first flight leaves Darwin at 1:55 AM and lands in Singapore. We arrive in Singapore 4 hours and 45 minutes later at 5:10 AM and leave for Seattle at 9:00 AM. We arrive in Seattle 14 hours and 45 minutes later at 8:45 AM. Yes, we do arrive in Seattle 15 minutes before we leave Singapore. From Seattle we fly to Portland arriving at 12:20 where Richard and Joan are picking us up around 1:00 P M Saturday. It will be a long flight for sure.
We went straight to breakfast when we got on and Kim said, “look at you eating at 8:13 AM”. Yes, it was pretty early, for me.
One of the expedition leaders is a professional photographer and he puts together a set of pictures he took and some that guests took. At the end of this blog, I plan to put several of these pictures for your visual entertainment.
But first, a few funny things I heard. Keep in mind, guests have been aboard for at least 2 weeks now and I got in the elevator on deck 4, I asked for deck 7 and another guy asked for deck 5. The guy pushing the buttons says, “deck 5 has no bar on it why would anyone want off there”? I told him that Deck 5 was the pool deck and there is the pool bar, and the restaurant has a bar too. I then asked him if he somehow got on board yesterday, it was a sea day, which got a laugh. Kim came back on board with a joke she had read about 2 guys preparing to open a new store front. They had had enough of people knocking on the door and asking what kind of store is it going to be. Well, this elderly lady knocks on the door and asks what are you selling? He replies, idiots. She says well business must be good, I see you only have 2 left. Today at lunch I saw the captain, so I walked up to him to thank him for a great trip and inviting us to dinner earlier in the trip. Then I added that I was glad his navigator does all the math for the ship, because last night at the Fairwell reception you stated some people have been on almost 5 1/2 weeks. Those he was referring to have been on board for 55 days. 56 days would be 8 weeks. He laughed, but his fellow officers at the table laughed harder.
Enjoy the beautiful pictures, I plan to write one more time next week so I can add some short videos that you will enjoy watching and tell about our long travel day.
Well, 47 people signed on to the hike in the dark to see the Bird of Paradice, I never heard if all 47 got up and went. I heard that they did NOT see any birds. During lunch, the captain moved the ship to the other side of the Island where there was some fantastic snorkeling.
I made the mistake of asking a German lady if she enjoyed snorkeling and about a half hour later, she excused herself because her champagne was getting warn. Basically, there were too many people, a lot of whom were using swim noodles, and bumping into her. She said, “I felt like I was swimming in noodle soup”. When she and her swim mate tried to get away from the crowd, the expedition leaders made them go back and stay in the group. I told her that’s what the feedback button on her Seabourn app was for. The next day at lunch she thanked me for reminding her that feedback was available. She complained and they listened. The next day, they separated the groups by about a half hour each so there would not be as many people in the same place at the same time.
Now, we have 2 sea days before we get to Darwin. Our flight leaves at 2 AM Saturday evening. We will stay aboard the ship until 10 PM Friday night then they have a bus to take us to the Airport, there are others on that flight. It’s hard to believe we will have been onboard 55 nights, it seems more like a couple of weeks.
Here are some pictures of Wayag Island, Indonesia.
Our route from Soloman Islands to Darwin Australia.
