Being recently widowed, retrenched, retired and wanting for some time to go back to sea for a cruise, I booked a balcony cabin for two and since bunking in with 3 guys is no longer my thing. I asked my daughter to join me. ‘All expenses paid my dear’. I had backpacked with her in Portugal ten years earlier so I knew we could get on. (We mentally prepared for our fair share of ‘tut tuts’ from female passengers assuming we were a couple so my daughter started every sentence to me with ’Dad’, to establish our relationship for all to hear.)
The cruise date was based on her vacation time slot , the desired destination was a cruise in Asia after revisiting friends in China. It would also be a break from that popular first job after retiring: painting the house. The best fit trip advertised was from Beijing to Bangkok in November with Princess Cruises, on a much bigger ship than I would have liked at 116,000 tonnes and 3,500 passengers. Ports visits were to be Busan (Korea), Nagasaki, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Na Trang, Ho Chi Minh City , Singapore then disembarkation in Bangkok. However, the latest generation of ships are so big they have outgrown many regular passenger ship terminals and now have to dock at Container terminals which are always the backside of any port complex and some distances from actual advertised ports of call. So, the real cruise departure was from Tang Gu, not Beijing, calling in at Ho City Minh City meant Phu My, three hours from the city, Shanghai meant Bao Shan District some 40 kms from the CBD and, Bangkok meant Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri province.
The day before travelling to the departure point I was in Beijing’s Silk Street markets and met a Kiwi couple: easily identified by the obligatory All Black shirts. A quick chat informed me that, yes, they were on the same cruise ship but they told me boarding was delayed by four hours to allow for ship sanitizing after an outbreak of Norovirus. Oh? What’s Norovius?
My nurse daughter informed me on this unpleasant gastro intestinal virus and I also confirmed the delayed boarding mainly by word of mouth from hotel guests on the same cruise. I had received no direct advice from the Cruise line. It seems that Norovirus is an ongoing problem with large cruise ships with viruses ‘handed on’ from voyage to voyage. This departure delay had many passengers frantically ringing coach limo taxi companies to reschedule their transfer,
After news also of worsening weather, heavy rain and risk of snow, we left the hotel on our original schedule to travel to the cruise terminal, officially called the Tianjin New Cruise Terminal, but is nowhere near Tianjin, being closer to Xingang and Tang Gu.
At the new Beijing South station we bought tickets for the 10:30 am high speed train to Tang Gu, 189 Kms away. Buying tickets and navigating through this vast new station was very easy. Compared to my local Australian intercity, and even UK trains, this Chinese train was ‘state of the art’. Most of the way the train cruised at 290 kph with hardly any noise or vibration. The downside was the guy next to my daughter had the sneezes and I think she ‘caught’ a cold from him. Tang Gu Station, end of the line, was a bit of shock as very little was there beyond a car park lashed with rain, We waited out the rain and the blitzkrieg of taxi touts wanting to take us anywhere at a high price. After 20 minutes I approached a bored taxi driver and arranged to be driven us to the nearest 4 star hotel called the ‘Victory’ where we hired a day room until 4 o’clock. This was somewhere warm, dry and a short walk to many Korean restaurants as Tang Gu is the main port of entry for Korean passengers, food and goods.
At four o’clock the hotel concierge arranged a taxi and communicated with the driver to take us to the cruise terminal which was 20 kms away amongst the myriad container terminals. The driver told us the price but we used the meter as he wasn't quite sure where to go. (He came out slap on his estimate of 80 RMB). I had copies of Google maps and street addresses to help guide him as there were with no destination signs along the way instead passing whole cities of stored containers six high in this vast container port. On seeing a convoy of empty buses heading in the opposite direction I finally felt comfortable and the terminal was in sight. It was surrounded by an enormous parking lot of buses, limos and taxis that had come direct from Beijing. Passengers later told me the taxis, apparently blindly followed each other in hope someone knew the way. I felt vindicated on arriving close by earlier and not risk the weather.
Getting on the ship was a surprisingly well organised operation with 3,500 people quickly separated from luggage bags to be delivered direct to cabins and passengers shepherded on board. Passports were reluctantly handed over to cruise staff as immigration officials for each port inspected all passports en-mass during the voyage to each port. I expected the ship security would impound my two bottles of Great Wall red wine, a bottle of fiery baijiu liquor and a few cans of Harbin beer. In trying to keep to a tight schedule this inspection was bypassed. (Alcohol is normally limited to one wine bottle). The balcony was as good as the brochure, . The cabin had two single beds, a reasonable en-suite bathroom and wardrobe area, LED TV with satellite channels and CCTV broadcasts. The best cabin feature was the sliding glass doors leading onto a private balcony, a relief for my daughter who gets a bit claustrophobic, and my own deck chair. Computor WIFI was available but the satellite link was slow and expensive.
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The room access swipe card was also the on-board credit card for drinks and non-food services all charged in USD. Although the ship is registered in the Bahamas, it operated under US law. Standard beers were around $5-6, wine for dinner started around $22-25, rocketing up to snob prices if you wished to impress others.( I didn’t need the assistance of the on-board sommelier to choose what I would drink or pay for something wet.)
So what nationalities were on board? Predominantly they were people of the British Commonwealth. The Yanks were less conspicuous as they are travelling less post-GFC and 9/11. The cruise lines now market heavily in Europe and Australia to fill the voyages. Cultural clashes was inevitable. The Brits complained about the Germans putting towels on pool deck chairs before breakfast and commandeering all the good spots, The Russians massed in tank formation to acquire territory from the Germans. They were clearly the noveau bourgeois of the New World Order and wanted at least their fair share of everything. Travel companies set up daily information noticeboards for the Russian, German, or Spanish speaking passengers as Tannoy announcements were only in English, An interesting issue was what side to pass on in the miles of passageways. (I soon became prepared to step quickly to the right if they looked like non Commonwealth pedestrians and not willing to give way. It was better than waltzing with a fat Russian women to get past her.) A farcical incident occurred in a lift shared with a German when my daughter pressed floor buttons confusing nine and Neun!
Looking after all these nationalities were 1500 staff, predominantly hard working Filipinos and a handful of Thais doing their 9 month contract of 7 days a week.
I soon discovered that many people cruise every year and it was almost a pecking order thing on ‘how many cruises have you done’? During the cruise it was announced that a couple from Tasmania had spent 1800 days on Princess cruises. Loyalty awards must be good. Some single elderly passengers will cruise 9-10 months of the year as it is as cheap as and more fun than a full service room in a nursing home. One little old lady had been on 13 cruises. Statistically the age distribution bell curve seemed to be centred around 60 years of age.
Entertainment included trivia contests, ‘expert’ talks on upcoming ports, deck game competitions, jazz bands, Middle of the road bands, discos, comedian and dance shows. The entertainment staff worked hard to create fun. Most passengers were determined to have fun by doing everything.
Breakfast was buffet style in food courts which had so much on offer I soon limited myself to muesli and fruit. Many passengers loaded large plates with everything from English breakfast to Indian and Asian food then went back for seconds. To combat Norovirus spread, passengers were required to use antiseptic hand wipes before entering the food court and before entering toilets.
Lunch could be taken similarly or A La cart from three restaurants which had themes such as English Pub Lunch or, Italian menus.
Evening meals were generally allocated times and tables. This meant were stuck most nights with a warring couple from Middle England. Pay a surcharge and we could escape to a grill room or an Italian themed room with new friends. Wines bought at the table were held over until the next night to avoid ‘having to finish the bottle’.
Many public toilet areas had doors propped open, where possible, to minimise hand contact. Despite these measures there were still people catching the virus. And of course with the age of passengers there falls, breaks, heart attacks etc., but mostly these were handled low key by the medical staff.
Most of the entertainment bars lounges theatres restaurants were centred around one deck and in the centre of that was a casino equipped with slot machines backgammon and roulette tables. You had to pass through the casino to transit to other venues. Casinos are anathema to ne.
I had ambitions of spending regular time in the ship gym, but the 'Gym Junkies', those extra fit committed super humans, were always there. As I was holidays, instead I decided to just occasionally circle the ship decks for a daily walk. To go from the restaurant to my cabin was a leisurely walk as well. I made to a rule to always use the stairs and not the lifts: up as well as down.
Busan: My Daughter’s Korean girlfriend was dockside in Busan and gave us a tour of the town including the fish Market where we had lunch at an adjacent fish café. The next day my daughter suffered cramps and classic shellfish/food poisoning symptoms. The ship's on-board hospital were consulted and drugs dispensed. Thank all the gods for that. It still dampened our visit to Shanghai but she had spent a few days there three years ago.
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Hong Kong Cruising into Hong Kong Harbour and amongst islands in the early morning is spectacular. Again we docked at a container port near Kowloon and were coach shuttled to Harbour City mall near the ferry Terminal. We had decided to go across to Hong Kong Island then Ferry across to Lantau Island and satisfy my daughter’s wish to go to the Big Buddha Temple. This required a 30 minute bus trip from the island wharf. Many Expats were trekking, biking running on this island that is quite a contrast to Hong Kong. We also rode past the passing the Shek Pik maximum security prison.
The Big Buddha temple was crowded and my daughter could tell who the Buddhist devotees were as many were circling the temple in the wrong direction. A very commercial temple but that day shrouded in cloud.
After returning by ferry to Kowloon we moved on to the shuttle pickup point early only to join huge queues waiting for buses. The shore staff were exasperated by the size of the queue and the complaints. A nice German behind me held forth about how Germans could have organised efficient people moving much better, (like they did in the war)?
At least the ship departure was timed to pass through Victoria harbour as the nightly laser show lit up Hong Kong Sky scrapers.
Na Trang Being the only port visit by Tender or small boat between ship and shore was Na Trang. If you were patient and followed instructions we were ferried ashore and bussed to the shopping district and yes another big Buddha we just had to visit. Although a beach resort Na Trang just had no appeal for me and it certainly had its share of Russian tourists.
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I can say the South China Sea is not a lonely place. There was always an oil rig or shipping in sight: night and day. At night gas flares identified the oil rigs on the horizon and the many squid fishing boats were brilliantly lit up. Looking into the seawater it was surprising the amount of plastic and lost fishing lines that were continually floating past the ship.
Laem Chabang The vessel arrived at Laem Chabang at 4 am. ( Laem Chabang port appears to be predominantly for exporting cars.) The early docking allowed time for the luggage to be offloaded to the dock and placed under marquees. Compared to arriving at Swampy airport it was a reasonable way to handle 3000 people. Some 70 buses were lined up take passengers to the airport or cruise line organised hotels. Of course anything organised by the cruise line is priced to your pocket so it would have been $49 per head.
We picked the 7.30 am time slot to disembark and collect our luggage then meet our limo service for the trip to Bangkok. Four passengers, (sharing the limo and cost with an American couple) , 6 big bags, two hotel drop offs for a cost of 3700 Baht. The ship was back at sea at sea by 6 pm with 3500 new passengers and restocked with victuals heading for Australia and the Down Under cruising season. Some passengers were staying on to Sydney and beyond.
Before the cruise I joined an internet forum with a message board centred that particular cruise. I think people mainly used it to club together and organise shore excursions, card games etc. I trotted along to the ‘meet and greet’ event once we sailed. As expected the women were the main organisers for their partners. Some were very dominant, ‘isn’t that right dear’? I faded away and never saw any of them again on the cruise.
Incidentally another’ meet and greet was being arranged for cruising LGBT’ passengers. I thought I might wonder along to see what that was about. My daughter said ‘Aw Dad, LGBT means Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals’. Oh? Probably more fun than the other ‘meet and greet’ group.
Would I do it again, ignoring the cost? Not on such a big ship, not with those ports again. Many aspects were good and I can see why many people return to cruising just as they do to four star resorts. it’s all done for you so it’s not an adventure
Any cost cutting clues would be helpful besides Petes boat.
