Our recent move to Kissimmee (Orlando) area will give us plenty of opportunities to visit and check out new places. Besides all things Disney, there’s Universal Studios, Sea World, Discovery Cove and of course the Tupperware Confidence Center! But before we can begin our explorations, we must first explore the DMV, local stores, salons and restaurants.
While I thought for sure our first exploration of the area would be the Tupperware Confidence Center, we headed to Winter Park instead! But only because the Center was not open on the day we were able to be out and about! Winter Park is a cute town, especially in the historic area. We started with the Farmer’s Market, where we enjoyed waffles smothered with fresh strawberries (me) and bananas (Karen). Then we walked along a few of the city streets and checked out various shops. We even managed to get in a pedicure for Karen and a manicure for me! Afterwards, as we drove away from the downtown area, we stopped at a diner for a late lunch.
Another exciting development is that we decided to buy a Sea World season pass. We’ve never really been to Orlando’s Sea World and the pass allows us to attend several of the special events so we felt it was a good idea. We plan to make that our next excursion when Karen has her next day off.
As has happened with most people, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives and our plans. It left us little time to wander about our new area before shutting everything down. Once the threat passes, and we are ‘back to normal’, we will once again be out and about and writing about it. In the meantime, everyone please take care of yourself and your loved ones, buy only what you need, and most of all remember to be kind to others. I’ll be back soon with more travels and pictures!
Well, right now, we don’t know. We canceled our plans to go to Australia and New Zealand for December 2020. COVID-19 canceled our plans for our Paris to the Swiss Alps river cruise. We have a friend who wants to experience a river cruise with us, most likely in 2021. I have a high school reunion coming up in 2021 in Rochester, NY, so I guess I can say that’s our next known vacation. While Karen has vacation time, the new job has different high volume times than we are used to at this point, so it will be a wait and see type of thing. But! We have already started checking out new river cruises and new river cruise lines! I’d love to go back to Holland at tulip time or perhaps visit St. Petersburg, Russia. We’ve already done much of Germany/Austria and the Mediterranean. I’d also like to visit Scandinavia but that’s an ocean trip, not river. I’ve heard Portugal is beautiful too. We like to visit as many countries when we travel as possible. Some river cruises are just 1 or 2 countries with several different port stops within. At this point, I’m either in for a Holland/Belgium river cruise or a Northern Europe ocean cruise. Time will tell!
“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.”
Ship: Viking Herja Dates: March 28-April 8, 2020 itinerary:
03/27/20 Friday
Depart Washington IAD
03/28/20 Saturday
Arrive Paris
03/29/2020 Sunday
Paris
03/30/2020 Monday
Paris
03/30/2020 Monday
Bus to Trier
03/31/20 Tuesday
Trier & Bernkastel
04/01/20 Wednesday
Cochem
04/02/20 Thursday
Koblentz/Scenic Cruise
04/03/20 Friday
Maintz
04/04/20 Saturday
Speyer
04/05/20 Sunday
Strasbourg
04/06/20 Monday
Basel – Bus
04/07/20 Tuesday
Zurich
04/08/20 Wednesday
Zurich
Planning Status – July, 2019 We are about 8 months out as I begin this post. We have our Viking River cruise paid in full. Our non-stop air to Paris and return from Zurich is booked. Now it’s a waiting game until the Shore Excursions get posted. We are looking at current excursions and hope that most of them will be available to us. Many of the included tours are walking tours. We may or may not participate. It will all depend on my mobility at the time. Many river cruise walking tours offer a tour for those of us who cannot keep up with the faster walkers. Another variable is that we are going in March, so certain excursions definitely won’t be available due to weather. But, we are planners and planners start planning months in advance!
Planning Status – September, 2019 True to many past experiences with Viking, we found, once again, disappointment with their guest services, from their AirPlus division. We called to inquire about a possible business class upgrade, but upon finding out that Viking wanted to charge several hundred dollars more than the airlines, we declined. Unknown to us, a charge for the business class ticket was placed on our ship account. When we noticed this charge, to our previously zero balance, we called Viking. The agent we spoke to removed the charge and also removed our round-trip non-stop flights! Unbelievable! Luckily, we were able to, once again, contact Viking and re-establish our original flights. WHEW! It just seems that we are always experiencing a more than small difficulty with this company. A letter has been written to corporate about this latest snafu. Hopefully, we will get a favorable response.
UPDATE: We finally received a written response, as we requested, to our inquiry. We were given 24 hours to have them change our flights to business class. HAH! After all the time we waited for a response?! I think not. Besides it was more expensive that what it would have been had we’d booked it when we originally inquired. This is the type of guest services that we have come to expect and not care for from Viking. We were granted $100 OBC/pp for our inconvenience and to regain our trust in Viking.
Planning Status – October 2019 Our excursion options have finally been posted! It’s time to get serious about what we want to see and do while on this great river cruise! As I usually do with our trips, I started a spreadsheet for all the details – itinerary, excursions, misc information, etc.
Planning Status – December 2019 You know when the trip is getting closer and you can begin to get even more excited when the countdown calendar changes from months to days then from days to hours! Karen has been researching each port city to help determine what is feasible and what isn’t this time around. Lots of good suggestions from her efforts! Definitely looking forward to this calm water trip!
Planning Status – February 2020 Our documents have arrived! It just keeps getting more real every day! We are definitely looking forward to this cruise after moving out of state for Karen’s job. The stickler at this point? United Airlines will not combine our two tickets to create a seamless trip. Since moving, we have had to add on a connecting flight for us to reach our original embarkation point of IAD (Dulles). Viking couldn’t assist us even though we have AirPlus. United said they wish us luck and maybe a nice gate agent will check our bags all the way through to CDG (Paris), but not to hold our breath! So that means, we have to deplane in IAD, claim our luggage, check back in at the United counter, surrender our luggage again and pass a few hours waiting to get on our non-stop overnight flight to Paris. Not sure why it has to be this difficult? But, we will use the time wisely and head to Global Entry to initiate our address change and have a ‘decent’ airport dinner before our next flight.
Planning Status – March 2020 We are ready and raring to go on this much awaited vacation! BUT! With the current coronavirus, will our river cruise be impacted? It’s all the buzz on social media and the news. Cruise industry and tourism in general are suffering as a result. Daily, more people are stricken with the virus and many are dying. While we don’t wish to sound the panic alarm, we are seriously hoping that we do not come in contact with anyone who is carrying the virus. I’ve been watching my Viking Journey page religiously, but no cancellations or missing ports reported yet. Just 26 more days to go before we embark on this journey! Viking has just made an incredible offer to fully refund our trip with a voucher good for 24 months for future travel. We have decided to wait until 1 week before our travel date to make a final decision on whether to go or cancel.
UPDATE March 12, 2020
Viking has canceled our cruise due to CoVid-19. I guess that saves us from having to make that decision ourselves. If we had canceled earlier, we would have lost out on a much better offer for future travel. Now, we just hope that United Airlines will be kind and refund our flight from Orlando to Washington, D.C.
And that ends this blog post about our river cruise! Another cruise…another time! When the world is healthier!
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find” – Walt Whitman
Customer and guest services just aren’t what they should be in most businesses. In today’s world, it’s all about the paycheck and being a ‘warm body’. The pride in doing a job well, well…it’s just not usually there.
I retired from managing a corporate guest service/trainer position with a major gaming corporation when I lived in Las Vegas. Prior to that, I was always in a position one way or the other where I was expected to do my best in taking care of customers for next to minimum wage. It’s called work ethic.
With the high usage of the internet, response time is expected to be quicker than taking days. It’s generally expected to be within a few hours, if not minutes, depending on a company’s expectations. When calling a business number to speak with a customer service representative, you are usually greeted with a recorded message reminding you that you can find the information on the company’s website. That doesn’t help much when you want to actually speak with a live person! I do, however, personally prefer to have everything in writing. And that has saved me over and over again. Most recently in dealing with a travel agent who promised, in writing, to extend a pre-paid gratuity and just days before we embarked were told that it was not paid to the cruise line.
Over the years, I’ve heard and read some pretty horrific stories, from workers spitting on food and then delivering it, to expecting guest services to hang the moon and jump through almost impossible hoops. Sometimes I wonder why some people feel so entitled? The way I feel is that no one forced you to take that job or that pay, you decided to yourself. If you don’t want to do the job as detailed, then quit and find your passion someplace else.
Today’s world presents what should be an easier attempt to receive customer satisfaction over the internet, with access to Contact Us forms. Generally, these are easy to use, unless your current situation doesn’t have a line item in the drop down box and you are forced to choose something similar. This happened recently to me. I received an empty envelope package (that was never sealed). I was instructed to return the item (that I never received). So, I took the empty unsealed envelope down to our concierge desk for UPS to pick up. I was informed they are not allowed to accept empty envelopes, but are apparently allowed to deliver them! I’ve tried contacting 5 different customer service email addresses and they’ve all bounced back without any information on who to contact other than referring me back to where I started. I’d really like a little help here, people. I’m out over $20 for the item never sent or received. I don’t think I should have to pay $20+ for an empty envelope!
UPDATE: Refund received. Threw away the empty envelope!
More unhappiness with my health insurance company. I’ve been fighting a $719 doctor bill since I was in the hospital in July 2019. The reason: The doctor in the hospital is out-of-network. Hardly my doing! I was admitted through ER and a patient in an in-network hospital. I’ve contacted my health insurance company numerous times and filed an appeal more than once. As of December, the doctor is turning me over to collections for non-payment. In talking to the insurance company, I offered to pay the $719, if I would get reimbursed. They did not recommend it as I might NOT get reimbursed because I used an out-of-network doctor! Sheesh!
UPDATE: I received a letter finally from United Healthcare saying they have reversed their decision and will pay the doctor! Months of calls, letters, appeals, perseverance paid off…FINALLY!
Another fun insurance item I’m currently working on is being denied a dental claim from a dentist who has since retired and sold his business. I’m sure you can imagine my frustration and the multiple hours I’ve spent on the phone and writing letters to get them to pay this bill. *sigh*
As I mentioned in another post, we decided to try using a travel agent for the first time in years. All because we wanted to receive extra benefits and discounts (who wouldn’t, right?). Again, no guarantees that you are going to get someone who loves their job and does it well. We didn’t, unfortunately. We’ve had to chase him down for answers over and over again. It seems he was more interested in getting the booking than maintaining it and establishing a good rapport and repeat business. Currently, we are discussing possible solutions with the CEO/Co-founder and the Director of Sales of the company, trying to come up with a compromise we both can live with. No guarantee that we will like the outcome, but at least we are still in the cooperation stage of negotiations.
UPDATE: After multiple emails with the CEO, they finally submitted for our refund. It was like pulling teeth to deal with this company. Definitely not worth it all in the long run.
Whenever I encounter poor guest services, it brings me back to my corporate job, where I supervised and trained almost 90 agents at any given time across the country and helped them achieve excellence in customer service. I just have a hard time dealing with people who don’t know or like their job. It makes me want to develop a business of training people how to be more effective with their customer service attitudes and professionalism. I did write a training manual and tested agents on a regular basis as well as coach them in using correct terms and responses. Yes, I was passionate about my job. If a complaint reached the corporate office and my desk, someone somewhere had a service failure. And there’s nothing worse than a ticked off customer who’s tried to resolve an issue and hit a brick wall. Believe me…I know!
Heres a little advice when trying to resolve an issue. Keep your temper, harsh tone quiet and some words unspoken. That’s not the way to win an issue. All you are doing is setting yourself up for a possible heart attack. If you don’t feel that you can speak calmly and reasonably, write a well-worded letter. The great thing about writing a letter is that you can write and re-write and word-smith the heck out of it to get your point across. Whereas, in a face-to-face discussion, there’s body language and little time to think before you speak. I have hung up on abusive callers who didn’t believe me when I said I would hang up if they didn’t refrain from using foul language! No one gets paid enough to be sworn at by an abusive caller. Years ago, in retail, a male customer called back 3 times before he talked calmly and nicely to me. We then proceeded to resolve his issue to his satisfaction in a much calmer, civilized manner.
There are certainly no guarantees that you will always find someone who enjoys what they do, knows how to do it and does it well. But most people are reasonable and will listen if you state your issue calmly and with a sense of professionalism. No one likes to be on the receiving end of a customer or guest who has fire in their eyes, a red face and is using loud profanity! NO ONE! As always, feel free to ask to speak to a manager or person in charge. Many times the employee is not empowered to resolve certain issues, sad but true.
Accept nothing less than excellence in customer service…always!
2002 Holland America – ms Statendam – Alaska – 30th anniversary cruise
2006 Royal Caribbean – Majesty of the Seas – Bahamas/Key West
2010 Carnival – Paradise – Caribbean
2013 Carnival – Breeze – Bahamas/Jamaica
2015 Norwegian – Pearl – Alaska
2015 Disney – Dream – A Very Merry Christmas
2016 Carnival – Fascination – Eastern Caribbean
2017 Viking Ocean – Star – Empires of the Mediterranean
2017 Viking Ocean – Sea – In the Wake of Vikings
2018 Royal Caribbean – Empress of the Seas – Cuba
2018 Viking River – Hermod – Danube Waltz
2019 Viking Ocean – Jupiter – Iconic Western Mediterranean
2019 Carnival Sunrise – Fall Splendor – Eastern Seaboard
2019 Oceania – Stars of the Vine – Pacific Coast
2020 Viking River – Herja – Paris to Swiss Alps – CANCELED due to COVID-19
2022 Viking River – Segrun – Tulips and Windmills
Celebrity – The cruise nightmares are made of! I blocked it all out of my mind!
Norwegian – Sun – Pacific Northwest
What a difference in ship design and size from our first cruise in 1988 to our most recent in 2019! I wish I could remember all the ship names and information over the years, but…I did several of my cruises when I worked for a Rochester area travel agency. As you can see, I’ve sailed all over on many different cruise lines. Some lines I will not travel on again unless it’s free, which is doubtful! Many travelers choose a specific cruise line and sail on nothing else, which can be a plus as they earn certain perks based on the number of days at sea. As you can see, I have only sailed a couple cruise lines enough to warrant any special deals onboard or pricing. I need to work on that a bit more I think! I hope to come across some more pictures of the ships we’ve traveled on, if I do, I will add them to the picture gallery above.
Why do we cruise, you may ask? Well, it’s a great way to see many different ports in many different countries, be well taken care of onboard with good food, daily housekeeping service, unpacking once, excursions and transportation, all rolled up into one package. Not sure you want to cruise? Try a short one first.
One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. -Unknown
A brief respite from the cooler temperatures of the D.C. area, our long weekend in Orlando brought us much welcomed sunshine and temps in the low 70’s. We enjoyed a complimentary stay at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando hotel again. Unfortunately, the lazy river, which we’ve enjoyed before, was closed and for us it would have been too cold to enjoy it anyway. Once again, our swim suits traveled but didn’t get out of the suitcase!
We rented a car and spent a couple days reacquainting ourselves with the area. A plus side to this trip was meeting up with friends, Sam & Darrell, for pizza goodness at their daughter’s restaurant for some good old conversation. Of course the topic of our high school’s upcoming 50th reunion was discussed. We hope that out of a graduation class of over 500, many will want to make the trip back home for this momentous occasion.
Besides the stay at Four Seasons, part of the reason for this long weekend trip was to check out apartments for our future home. At this time, it was only on a what if? But, Karen was offered the job before we left for home. On our first day out looking, we found it! A 2 bed/2 bath 1st floor apartment (Yay! no more stairs or non-working elevators!) with a view of a small community lake! We also looked at a couple of other properties nearby, which were much older and it showed inside and out. I’m happy to have a pool that I can use again as well as a nice walkway around the lake.
Unfortunately, I had another meeting with the floor. As I was getting dressed in the morning before leaving for the airport, I was attempting to put on my damned compression stockings. Got one on no problem. The other…well hello floor! My foot slipped out from underneath me and down I went, in what seemed to be slow motion. Ow! Ow! Ow! And Karen came running. First the knee met the floor, then my right side, with my elbow (strongest bone in the body!) settling into my ribs. I got on the plane an hour later and made it through the weekend. BUT! as soon as we landed back home and put the luggage in the apartment, we headed to Urgent Care. There, after a minimal wait, I was taken to X-ray and it was confirmed that I have a fractured rib. Poor timing on my part for sure! Even though we have moving pretty much down to a science, I cannot lift anything for 2-3 weeks. In case you’ve never experienced a fractured rib, this injury is quite painful. . But I get up each day and do what I can to function and pack all our worldly possessions. We took a very nice donation to Green Drop consisting of items that we didn’t feel we needed any longer, or wanted to move again.
So, what else did we do while in Florida? We napped, Karen met with her new managers, we ate, we napped, we enjoyed the warmer weather, we ate some more! Boy! that new pool and walking track around the lake is going to come in handy! We went to Disney Springs and walked around for the better part of the day, shopping, people watching and enjoying Florida sunshine. We are excited to, once again, get a Florida Resident Disney Pass. Our original intention was to snack our way through the day in a food crawl way, but once we had our first stop at the Cantina for nachos, that did us in. Have you ever heard of nachos with brisket? Well, now you have! “Disney Springs is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. The complex opened on March 22, 1975, and has been expanded and renamed over the years. In 2013 plans were announced for a three-year renovation and expansion of the complex, and on September 29, 2015, the name officially changed to Disney Springs.”
A very serious note for those of you reading this who experience mobility difficulties! DO NOT have Uber/Lyft pick you up past the ‘old’ Cirque tent! That walk is way too much to do, with no place to sit and rest. A good drop off point is near the Marketplace. However, I am unsure if you can also pick up there, but I would imagine yes, you can. Better to walk back along the sidewalks of Disney Springs (Downtown Disney) where there are multiple places to sit and rest before continuing on than the other alternative. There are new parking garages nearby as well, if you have your own vehicle. It certainly has drastically changed since the last time we were there, when it was under construction.
From our room at the Four Seasons on the 15th floor, we could see the fireworks at Disney. Some really pretty ones for sure. Imagine what it must cost to put on that 20-minute show every night! We could also enjoy them from the terrace of Capa on the 17th floor, while sipping a cold drink. Add another entry into Karen’s Beers of the World! Saturday’s late lunch and local beer was at the pool restaurant PBG. We enjoyed an excellent dinner with churros for dessert at Capa on Sunday. The food was served by a very personable server who was a delight. Karen met up with a DC co-worker who was on task force and they enjoyed another night of fireworks on the heated terrace.
Before we returned our rental car, we took a quick drive through Celebration. Love that town! The houses and the waterfront shops and restaurants call to me. Luckily, it’s not far from our new apartment so I’m sure we’ll enjoy visiting often. “Celebration is a census-designated place and a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida, United States, located near Walt Disney World Resort and originally developed by The Walt Disney Company.”
“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain
One of the fun things we like to do on trips is create our own traveling food crawl. We pick an item that we want to enjoy throughout the trip and sample it in as many places as possible. It’s a great way to take your time by stopping at interesting places along the way, stretch, chat with locals and get a snack. And it can all be done…20 steps at a time!
Key Lime Pie Crawl On a trip down the Florida coast to Key West, we decided to sample Key Lime Pie. We had frozen Key Lime Pie. We had Key Lime Pie on a stick. We had Key Lime cookies. We had Key Lime fudge and taffy candy. Key Lime Pie with a graham crust. Key Lime Pie with a regular pie crust. Key Lime Pie with whipped cream spread on top or in dollops. We even picked up some free Key Limes to bring back home. There are shacks and stores along the route from Miami to Key West, with several more shops in Key West that boast the best Key Lime Pie. You decide! Fun Fact: While on a cruise last year, a friend (that’s you, Marc!) stated that he did not care for Key Lime pie. By the end of the cruise he was ordering it for dessert every night that it was on the menu!
Goulash Crawl While in Europe a few years ago, one of our first stops was Melk Abbey. We decided to grab a quick lunch before our tour and ordered the goulaschesuppe! . It was served with a tasty roll. Hmm.. we said…what if we try different goulash recipes on this trip? That’s exactly what we did! Each was flavorful, but I think our favorite was the first one. As you can see, there are many variations of goulaschesuppe!
Fish & Chips Crawl One of my favorite things is a good Haddock fish fry, which is only found in certain areas and restaurants. On a trip to Europe with a few days in London, we checked out a couple of places that offered Haddock fish and chips. Tasty! And just made me want to go back home for the hometown Haddock fish fry that I enjoyed on Fridays for years.
Kolaches Crawl As new residents of the great state of Texas, we enjoyed this treat at Hruska’s initially. Then several times more as we traveled the state. These can either be sweet or savory. Both are delicious! I even made some recently!
Image courtesy of Hruska’s
Bratwurst with Sauerkraut We first enjoyed this tasty sandwich in Europe at one of our first Christmas Markets. Since then, we have sampled it over and over again at other Christmas Markets. But, I have to tell you, none have tasted as good as that first one!
Cheese & Chocolate Crawl Our latest idea for a food crawl will take place while we are in Zurich in March. We plan to visit as many cheese and chocolate shops as we can. What better place in the world to experience the diversity of cheese and chocolate than in Zurich?!
Take the time to stop and smell the roses, no matter what else is happening. — Karen Rosington
Hello 2020! We should all see this year more clearly…I hope! What’s in store for us for 2020, you ask? Well…
Viking River cruise – A much anticipated (for over a year!) Viking river cruise from Paris, France to the Swiss Alps in Zurich, Switzerland is planned for late March into April. Lots of great cities to visit. Our cruise pulls in to a port in Germany that I can trace my many great grandfather from according to information I’ve gained from My Heritage. We are definitely looking forward to seeing the Alps and sampling local Swiss chocolate and cheese on our own devised Food Challenge Travel Crawl. We are hoping the rivers are kind and we can pass with a minimum of busing on this river cruise.
Road trips – These are fun and last minute trips that we take depending on weather and Karen’s work schedule. We would like to head to a couple more small towns near us and also travel to the Jersey Shore in search of lighthouses.
Moving – On a recent cruise, we received an email that our lease was up for renewal. Lots to talk about. At this point, we’ve decided to sign on for another year, and stay put even though there are drawbacks to doing so. This may be the longest we’ve lived anywhere since Karen and I became roommates!
Health – My health is generally pretty good. Seems they are always trying new medicines and you know what that means…adjustment time and return doctor appointments. I have a sleep study scheduled and am interested in those test results. Other than that, I’m hoping for no repeats of last year’s excitement. Would be nice to be able to do something about my hip pain, but I still get by…20 steps at a time!
Karen’s birthday trip – We have a couple ideas in mind, but nothing has been booked at this time.
Australia/New Zealand – Just trying to save enough money for the 17+ hour’s flights so we can book in business class. I have enough trouble on a 6 hour domestic flight, so almost 3 times that is going to be tough in a cramped middle seat. But we hope we can swing this trip. It’s on the books, but we are not yet fully committed to taking it. We did meet a couple from New Zealand on our last cruise and they are excited to meet us and show us around, which could be a fun way to see more of the area, rather than take a bus excursion.
And, for now, that pretty much wraps up our plans for 2020. But stay tuned as this blog continues to develop with stories and pictures of our travels, near and far!
It’s a very hard job with all the wonderful pictures that Karen takes, but, I’ve waded into the jump drive to find my all-time favorite pictures from each month in 2019!
January – One of our area’s heavier snowfall made for some pretty pictures..
February – I love this picture capturing the fountain illuminated by the sun in Vatican City.
March – A Viking cruise on the Iconic Western Mediterranean took us to Monte Carlo, among many other grand ports of call, where we experienced this gorgeous sunset after a great day in this popular location.
April brought us cherry blossoms in the capitol city with a back drop of the Air Force Memorial and old stone bridge.
May brought about a surprise Mother’s Day trip to Surfside, Florida. Soft sand, warm breezes and a beautiful Four Seasons hotel with history.
June took us to Nashville to celebrate Karen’s birthday. One of our stops was at an establishment that boasts the longest bar and it’s topped with silver dollars. Karen enjoyed a birthday Music City brew or two while there. We enjoyed our visit to beautiful, historic Belle Meade.
July was an uneventful travel month unless you call spending time in the hospital traveling. Traveling to x-ray, traveling to CT scan, traveling to other not so fun tests. Karen’s thoughtful co-workers sent me this beautiful, cheerful get well arrangement that was much appreciated after my scary ordeal.
August travels took us to Boston for the Downton Abbey exhibition and a side trip to Rockport, which we were enchanted with. There’s something about the water and lighthouses that draws me.
September took us on a fall cruise up the Atlantic coast into Nova Scotia out of New York City. Our ship’s captain expertly executed 360 degree turns so everyone got to see our beautiful Statue of Liberty as we left NYC.
October took us to Las Vegas – yes, it is my happy place! We had lunch poolside at Four Seasons with friends, enjoyed some gambling, and went up to Mt. Charleston for a memorable memorial visit.
November took us to Philadelphia where we checked out the crack in the Liberty Bell, shopped the Chriskindlemarkt in Love Park and checked out the new Four Seasons hotel.
December found us on another ship traveling the Pacific coast this time. We enjoyed our short excursion to Solvang with windmills, pastries, holiday decorations and shopping.
And, that’s a wrap for 2019! Keep up with us as we continue to travel the world in 2020!
And suddenly you know… it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings –Meister Eckhart
We decided to try something new, instead of using Viking, our old standard, we tried Oceania, a similar small ship. There definitely are pluses and minuses but in the end, we decided that we’d stick with Viking unless Oceania offers us a deal too good to pass up! I liked the ‘warmth’ of Oceania’s decor vs the Ikea Scandinavian decor of Viking. The ship we were on, Sirena, was recently refurbished after being bought from Princess Cruise Line. With only 630 passengers max, there was plenty of opportunity to meet fellow passengers and rarely a line at any food operations. Our cabin was typical in size and style. We opted for a bow-facing cabin, which we will most likely never do again as it hit the waves rather violently, but the view was nice. But that same view you can get on your cabin TV. Mid-ship is the way to go for a smoother ride. We brought along a little decoration for the cabin and enjoyed having it lit when we were in the cabin. It brought a smile to our face and to our cabin steward and room service personnel. We started the cruise with a complimentary champagne toast. And then we were off!
As I mentioned, there were pluses and minuses to Oceania. Our first minus was the bed configuration. It seems no matter what our profile states, we get a single bed, instead of two beds. I love my daughter, but do not wish to share a bed with her. And as you can see by the picture, even two beds are one bed with no space between! On most ships there is a nightstand placed between the beds to give each occupant a little personal sleeping space. On Viking there is complimentary beer, wine and soda with lunch and dinner. On Oceania, only the soda is complimentary. Karen had to pay for wine, and the glass of wine was rather expensive and a low pour. The food, especially the pastries were much better on Oceania. Viking needs to kidnap their pastry chef! Another difference is the airfare and transfers. With Viking if you purchase air, the transfers from airport to pier are included. Not so much with Oceania unless you have a pre or post hotel stay. For this trip, they wanted $89 per person, one way! Our Uber cost a fraction of that price! So, that extra cost needs to be factored in. The excursions on Oceania are rather costly and uninteresting. Why wouldn’t they have an excursion to Muir Woods while in San Francisco? We booked privately with GrayLine. With Viking, each port of call has a complimentary included excursion. Yours to take or not. The bathroom on Viking is twice the size of Oceania’s overall and in the shower and it has a heated floor! Depending on the type of cabin booked, Viking has a complimentary beer and soda mini bar with snacks. Something unique with Oceania is that even at the buffet, you are served. And the table area does not look like a cafeteria, like on Viking. Even at dinner time, the tables on Oceania had a tablecloth. We noticed an extremely ‘relaxed’ service in the Main Dining Room. It would take over 2 hours for dinner, with long waits in between courses.While there are times when Viking’s Dining Room service seems a bit rushed, at least I’ve never had to send my meat back for a re-fire! Tea time was also different on Oceania. A trolley was pushed around and you were served from various plates of sweet and savory bites. Best to get what you want the first time as they make the rounds of all the tables. On Viking, you are provided with a 3-tiered tray of bites. I wish the string quartet had played Christmas songs during tea. Going back to the pastry chefs on Oceania, their gingerbread display beats the pictures I’ve seen of Viking’s gingerbread display, hands down.
A couple of our ports of call involved tender (use of lifeboats for transportation) operations. In other words, we did not dock at a pier, but rather dropped anchor out in the water. Some tender trips were about 20 minutes each way. Once again, much appreciated assistance was provided by crew to step on and off the steady ship onto the bobbing tender. It can be done! We noticed a walker on the tender a couple of different times. So, if they can do it, so can you!
Our first port in Santa Barbara, we opted to take the ship’s tour to Solvang. The only reason we did this was because we didn’t want to miss the ship departing as our time in port was so limited and Solvang was a little distance away. We enjoyed Solvang, which is a quaint Danish-inspired village with shops, windmills and Christmas decorations. Back on the ship, we enjoyed our first specialty dining experience at Tuscan Steak. Unfortunately, the ocean was rough that night with 12 foot swells and we both ‘lost’ our delicious steak dinner. Through the courtesy of fellow passengers, Pat and George, we were able to enjoy a second trip to Tuscan Steak and managed to keep that meal down. Thankfully.
Our second port of call was San Francisco, where we arrived later than expected. That late arrival on top of a very bumpy night left us feeling rather drained. But, we had a tour bus to Muir Woods to catch. Which we missed ultimately. But with an unplanned Uber to Muir Woods, we caught up with our tour in the parking lot. I’ve wanted to see the redwoods for a long time, and was glad to see them finally, even though I really didn’t feel all that ‘normal’ yet. I was weak and my wonderful daughter, Karen, spotted wheelchairs and offered to push me along the paths. Bumpy ride on an empty stomach but much appreciated as Karen was not feeling 100% either . WOW! the tallest tree is 276 feet tall!!! We both made it back to the waiting bus for the ride to Sausalito. Originally we had planned to take the ferry back to San Francisco, but felt that we needed more land time instead of sea time. Of all the cruises we’ve been on, this is the first one to affect both of us so violently with mal de mer (seasickness).
Our third port of call was Monterey. Feeling better, we rented a red hot roadster (blinged out golf cart) and took a spin around to see the sights. We enjoyed the Old Fisherman’s Wharf as it was totally decorated for Christmas. After our roadster trip, we searched out a restaurant where Karen could get a chowder bread bowl and I could find something (yes, I’m a picky eater!).
Our fourth day was a Sea Day, which means staying on board, eating and napping and checking out the ship’s decorations.
Our fifth day port was Catalina Island. We rented a golf cart and toured the island. We saw Wrigley Mansion on top of the hill, heard the chimes from the tower, enjoyed a beer and snack looking out over the bay and did a little shopping. Shopping for us is always to find postcards, which is Karen’s souvenir as she writes about our day and mails them home for us to find in our mailbox when we return. We also look for locally made Christmas ornaments to add to our travel tree.
Our next port of call was Ensenada, Mexico. I always wanted to go there, but after walking around there, not sure why. We took an independent shuttle bus ($4 RT/pp) from the pier to ‘downtown’ as by now not only my hips but also my knees were screaming. I blame the knees on the heavy chairs that I needed to push back and the rocking of the boat. The hips were supposed to be taken care of with the two injections I received prior to the cruise. I don’t quite understand why Oceania failed to advise us about this shuttle, as downtown was about 2 miles away from the pier. There was no mention of it in the daily Currents publication nor in the morning announcements. The shuttle was a step saver for sure! Best suggestion: Use the back stairs as they are easier to ascend.
Back to LA for disembarkation and Uber to LAX to DCA and home. Always nice to come home, it means better grade of TP, my own pillow and bed. The downside is that I can’t bring a housekeeper or chef/cook with me.
As a last note, the Beers of the World post has been updated, courtesy of Karen!
Life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better. – Simon Raven
Twenty Steps at a Time 