Hong Kong to Athens (leaving in Singapore) 2008.

Several months ago as I was just enjoying my first cup of morning coffee the phone rang.

“Hi this is Frank Del Rio from Oceania cruises. Is this Jack from Washington?” I about spit my coffee out on the leather chair! We talked a few minutes, he shared some Oceania stories with me, asked about my parents and invited me to come on Oceania as an all expense paid guest lecturer. “Well, I can tell you are going to do just fine. Sometimes people write well but aren’t interesting to talk to, but I can tell you are going to be great—you talk well and write well and I think your fellow passengers will enjoy listening to you.”

I’ll be the first to admit it sounded like winning the lottery and when Mr. Del Rio magnanimously invited me to come back to Oceania and share some of my experiences as a passenger I was as happy as a little leaguer winning his first ball game.

Since then some reality has set in; I have had dreams that I get on Nautica’s stage, stare at the expectant faces and find myself with nothing to say. For anyone who knows me, that isn’t very likely—I am not often at a complete loss for words—but a pervasive feeling of insecurity quickly follows hoping I have something unique and worthwhile to share with my fellow Oceania passengers.

On last years trip from Hong Kong to Athens with my mom and dad I met so many well-traveled, intelligent, educated and friendly passengers that it feels like the height of hubris to go up on stage (not to mention having to see myself rebroadcast all day long on the in-room TV’s) and presume to have sometime valuable to share about the cruise.

Fortunately Frank Del Rio has proven himself to be a genius in the cruise industry (he now runs my two favorite cruiselines: Oceania and Regent formerly Raddison) and his confidence in my ability along with my desire not to embarrass him is a welcome inspiration. Also, my book, ‘Crusing with Mom and Dad’ (most of which is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=528321) has some great encouragement from fellow cruise critic posters in it. I am going to read it again before I come on board and hope to find some inspiration from reading others posts and revisiting my own experiences on what was the best trip of my life.

Two weeks from today I leave for Hong Kong and a few days later board Nautica, this time as a guest lecturer. It is pretty humbling! Even though Oceania invited me to come on the entire cruise, I have a personal commitment the last week of April, so I am only going 12-days from Hong Kong to Singapore. In a way this is a good thing as if I went from Hong Kong to Athens I would have been asked to give ten lectures! Due to my shortened cruise I was asked to give four lecturers. Since Oceania is paying for my trip I want to do a good job, but I don’t know how to use Powerpoint and I haven’t ever done anything like this. Despite that I am foraging ahead in search of how to recognize and communicate useful things I’ve learned.

One lecture will be a passenger perspective on the exotic ports-of-call. One lecture will be tips and tricks of how to make the most of 35-days on board Nautica—kind of an “Unofficial Guide” to being on board. One lecture will be a reading from ‘Cruising with Mom and Dad’ and interspersed with all the lectures will be a theme of sharing the memories of this trip of a lifetime and some time for questions.

In case anyone is counting that’s only three lectures. My brother, Jeff, is joining me this year. He is currently serving as the head of the political section of the US Embassy in Athens, Greece, so I am planning to use his political and high-profile diplomatic position in a lecture about Greece that will feature him talking about his meetings with the Greek Prime Minister, current state-of-affairs, etc. I figure if Jeff is sharing a cabin he can help me out a little. He is familiar with Powerpoint and lecturing intelligent audiences and will do a great job.

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have written an outline of what I am going to say. Regardless of the lectures success or failure I am looking forward to meeting many new people and sharing the excitement of being at sea—Oceania is sublime.

If anyone has any great tips to share for my lecture on tips and tricks please let me know. You can post here or email me at jackh49@aol.com.

Thanks,

Jack

Hi Jack

I emailed you. This is just to make sure I am subscribed to this thread. :D

Jack, you are going to be fantastic -- just by being yourself!

Have a great cruise.

Let me be the first to say, "Welcome back, Jack." I am thrilled to see that you are posting again.

See you onboard.

-Sukey-

We are looking forward to hearing your presentations on board the Nautica. We discovered your previous thread and found it to be very enjoyable and informative. See you on the Nautica! Dave and Janine

Jack,

The lucky Oceania passengers that will get to enjoy your special story-telling gift in person. I know you will be a big a hit!

I look forward to following your continued adventures.

Lauri

After reading last year's entertaining & informative review, we were inspired to book our first Oceania cruise, this year's Nov. 18 50 day cruise from Rome to Sydney. And we can hardly wait. If it is anything like our favorite, Regent, we will not be disappointed.

Looking forward to your posts, but really wish we were there to meet you and hear your talks.

Happy Sailing,

Joanne, the chocoholic

Hi Jack,

Not long now until we finally meet up. You have a birthday coming up soon as well. We are so looking forward to the cruise as all our Roll Call members are. Only 12 more sleeps until Peter and I leave for H.K. We have all our visas, our tours are booked and we are raring to go.

We are looking forward to seeing and hearing all your lectures. I hope they won't clash with "learning to play bridge", trivia and dance classes!!

Jennie

We are looking forward to hearing your presentations on board the Nautica. We discovered your previous thread and found it to be very enjoyable and informative. See you on the Nautica! Dave and Janine

Dave and Janine,

Love your Cruise Critic name and a big welcome as well. We have a Roll Call going for this trip if you are interested in joining.

The link is: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=410529&page=36

I know we are up to page 36, but there is quite a bit of information on the pages beforehand if you have the time to read through it. We are a friendly bunch of people and would love to have you join us.

Jennie

Jack:

I was with you on that last cruise from Hong Kong to Athens. My wife and I just returned home from a cruise aboard Nautica's sister ship, Insignia, from Santiago to Rio (28 days - 2 cruises, back to back). It was fun and definitely worthwhile but not the magic of the cruise last year. I think it was partly the amazing ports of call and the fellow cruisers who were willing and able to commit to 35 days.

Jack, you have the charm and insight to make wonderful presentations. The key, is the reason your writing works, it is personal, honest and presented as a story. Everyone enjoys a good story and you tell (write) them well.

I urge you to include some tips in your lectures about how to write a journal that captures the experiences and memories of a cruise.

Anyway, my wife and I are booked on the Nautica again next February to complete Asia - Bangkok to Beijing - maybe you'll be our lecturer.

I'd wish you good luck, but, you don't need. I look forward to following your trip through this thread - we're coming along on your adventure.

Larry and Janet Anderson

Jack - I e-mailed you but just wanted to concur with Larry and Janet re tidbits on journaling. A good idea.

See you on board.

Betty and Lowell Rego

Jack -

I've just finished 4 hours of reading your last thread after finding a link on the Africa ports of call page. WOW! Are you still accepting orders for the book?

I've subscribed to this thread as I want to be there for every posting instead of a year late - although finding you late was better than never!

Jack - looking forward to meeting you in a couple of weeks! one question - no Ty? I was looking forward to meeting him. Don't worry you'll be a hit! I'm bringing your book to get it autographed.

See you soon

Cathi

Jack, although I have yet to sail Oceania, I followed your thread last year. I'm so happy for you and what a terrific opportunity....congrats!!!!!

Nancy

PS. I have good friends that will be getting off the ship when you board...bummer for them.

A FEW REPLIES:

Lahore, thanks for your email and ideas.

TenerifeSharon, thanks for the vote of confidence.

Seasoned, thanks for the greeting—(even though I never lost touch with you).

1000places2C, please come up and say hi. I look forward to meeting you on board.

Lauren Spray and sable1, I will do my best to share some of the experiences this time. Wish you were with us.

Aussie Gal, April 4th is almost upon us. I’ll toast your anniversary from my seat on Cathay Pacific from Vancouver, Canada to Hong Kong while flying on our birthday/anniversary

Mikesierra, I fondly recall you from our cruise and our bridge classes. I have taken your (and a few others) advice to heart and I will talk about how to write a journal.

Lumhai, sorry I didn’t get your email. If you want to try again is jackh49@aol.com I have a better personal one I can give you in the future, but I don’t want it available here for every spammer to try to increase my wealth and sex life and decrease my weight.

WeBeGone, glad you enjoyed the thread from last year. We had an amazing time. Yes, I would be happy to send you a book. Just send an email to jackh49@aol.com with your address, etc. and please make a donation to your local Red Cross or similar charity to pay for it. I even pay the postage so it's a heck of a deal.

Cathi, I will be delighted to meet you—we are practically neighbors. Unfortunately Ty couldn’t come but my brother is delightful, well traveled and loves to cruise. If you don’t want to haul your book to Nautica I do intend to have about 70 books with me onboard. I will ask everyone to make a donation to the crew welfare fund since I won’t be selling them.

Nancygp, thanks for posting and traveling vicariously with us. You’ll love Oceania when you finally get on board.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for all the ideas and encouragement. I have received some great ideas here and in emails and the consensus seems to be that I have to talk about how to record and share memories—especially in a journal. I’ll make sure to incorporate that. Fortunately the lectures are only an hour each and I’ll try to select some good readings along with my lecture “topics.” As I mentioned to Cathi above, I am bringing 70 books to give out on the cruise so I am hopeful that will balance any deficiencies in my lecturing ability.

Like everyone else embarking in Hong Kong in a few weeks I am trying to wrap up all the last minute details before a trip of this length: getting the dog situated, paying property taxes, playing income taxes, filling prescriptions, paying bills, etc ad nauseum. Every night about bedtime I think of something new to add to the list. I do have the advantage of having done this last year—I seem to vaguely remember my enthusiasm for the trip being tempered by the stress of resolving all my loose ends.

I do intend to write about the trip and share what it is like to share part of this journey again from a slightly different perspective. My mom and dad both wish they were joining me, but they are enjoying staying at their condo in sunny St. George, Utah while the Pacific Northwest experiences the drizzle and gray it is famous for daily. I am actually looking forward to the oppressive heat and humidity in Bangkok.

Jack

Jack-

A request from one of those who really, really, really wish they could join you.

Should you have a moment would you post your lectures? Maybe not all three

(you might want to save them for the next "Jack cruise") but the one with the hints on "journalling". It's something I've never done well and we all know you do superbly.

I'm sure there would be a lot of interest here but then again I suspect anything you write would be well received.

Have a wonderful trip.

Raffeer

Hi Jack,

Having read your dayly writings from this trip last year, we were inspired to book for ourselves. We had just got back from a cruise on the Statendam from Hong Kong to Vancouver, but have never been on an Oceania Cruise before so this will be a new venture for us. We are also flying from Vancouver on Cathay Pacific 2:55 am. on Sunday 6 th. Is this the flight you will be on? If so, we will look out for you.

Just 12 more sleeps, bought new suitcases today, now we have to pack them.:D

Phyll & Roy

Hi Jack,

Welcome back.

We are looking forward to meeting you and hearing your lectures.

Like everyone else who is coming on the cruise we are counting down the sleeps until we leave for Hong Kong and boarding Nautica.

Our to do list is almost complete. Now the packing begins.

Happy Birthday for the 4th.

Judy

Jack,

We sure would like to get a copy of your book as we start the cruise. We had already booked this year's cruise when we discovered your postings to CC when you cruised last year. Your excellent writing was a joy to read (we've gone through our printed copy of your postings several times) and helped us make numerous decisions in preparation for our cruise this year.

Hopefully you will be joining us at the "CC" meeting the first day of the cruise and we can obtain a book at that time.

We look forward to meeting you in person, even though we feel we already know you from last year.

~Gary & Doris~

Gary and Doris Selin

When Jonathan Seagull joined the Flock on the beach, it was full

night. He was dizzy and terribly tired. Yet in delight he flew a loop to

landing, with a snap roll just before touchdown. When they hear of it, he

thought, of the Breakthrough, they'll be wild with joy. How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there's a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!

FLY JACK! FLY! :D

We have enjoyed reading about your trip last year and look forward to meeting you on the ship this year. Your tips have already been helpful.:rolleyes:

Putmeonaship - Are you sailing with us on this year Hong Kong to Athens? If so why not check in our roll call? It's quite a good group that is growing as the days go by!

Cathi

The trip has begun. The last few days were a whirlwind of paying bills, paying taxes, taking care of Rusty, my wheaten terrier, celebrating my 45th birthday yesterday(today I am officially closer to 50 than 40---I can no longer deny I am in middle age) and attempting to foresee any problems that might arise at work.

I left for Nautica on Cathay Pacific flight 835, a non-stop trip flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong.

As we approached the Hong Kong airport, fourteen hours after leaving Vancouver, my seatmate Rosie motioned at me to take off my head phones.

“I think something is wrong,” Rosie said.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Look at our flight,” she said pointing to the blue television screen embedded in the seat in front of her as she raised her eyebrow.

She was right. Our flight had circled 180 degrees away from Hong Kong and back toward Taipei. As we pondered what this might mean the airplane speaker crackled.

“Ladies and gentleman. This is your captain speaking. As you may have noticed we have a problem. The weather in Hong Kong is very foggy and no forecasts predicted that we would be unable to land. We don’t have enough fuel on board to circle around Hong Kong so we are going back to Taipei to take on more fuel. We hope to refuel in Taiwan and get all of you to Hong Kong as soon as possible. In the meantime please relax and enjoy Cathay Pacific’s cabin service. We’ll let you know as soon as we have additional information.”

A mostly well humored but collective groan came from the aircraft.

“I guess I didn’t need to pay for the early arrival to my hotel,” I said to Rosie. Our flight was scheduled to land at 5:20 a.m. and I had paid to arrive early to avoid waiting until the standard 3:00 p.m. check in time.

We touched down in Taipei and taxied over to the fueling area.

It was Rosie’s first trip to Asia. We had just met on the plane but enjoyed a pleasant conversation over dinner before her sleeping pills sedated her for most of the flight. “Well Rosie, at least now you can see you have been to Taiwan.” She smiled as we both attempted to make the best of the problems that often accompany travel.

As the plane parked and the engines turned off the pursers voice abruptly came over the speakers, “Ladies and gentleman. We are in Taipei. We may be here for some time. We will let you know.”

Little bits of laughter emerged throughout the cabin. We all knew we might be here a while.

Although Oceania had offered to pay for an economy class flight to board the ship in Hong Kong, I have many frequent flyer miles, I already felt they had done enough by giving me a free cruise, so I chose to pay for my own business class ticket using a frequent flyer award. When the cabin attendants opened the curtain separating business class from economy class a woman smiled and waved at me. A few minutes later she came over.

“Are you Jack?” she asked. She seemed really excited

“Yes, I am.”

“I am Cathi! I know that was you! Look, over there are Dave and his wife. We are all on your cruise!” I looked over and two more future fellow Nautica passengers waved at me. Cathi and I spoke a few moments and I remembered the bon voyage and birthday present from my mom. Packed in my computer case was a one-of-a-kind photo book entitled ‘Our Dream Vacation from Hong Kong to Athens.” The cover featured a photo of mom, dad and me smiling with the great pyramids silently standing over us in the background. My mom spent many hours learning how to create a book using her computer. I opened it yesterday for my birthday and couldn’t believe the amount of work she put into it and that she was able to do it. I was very proud of her and it was a generous and timely gift.

“I wanted you to have it for your trip,” Mom said. “I think other passengers will enjoy looking at it and it is a great way to show them how to share memories with our friends.”

I let Cathi borrow the photo book and after she and her husband looked at it she passed it on to Dave and his wife Val.

I walked over and introduced myself to Dave and Val. They are from Burnaby, Canada and only live about fifty miles from my home in Bellingham. I felt a little sheepish that I was in sitting in business class and they were in economy---we were only twenty feet apart but there is a distinct difference in comfort and service.

After we had visited a few minutes I decided to let him know that Oceania hadn’t put him in economy while they put me in business call. “Well Dave I want to clarify something. Oceania didn’t put me in business class I used an award.”

“That’s OK Jack, Val or I are happy to accept a donations of use of your seat whether Oceania paid for it or not,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I could tell I was going to like Dave. “So are you ready for your lectures?”

“Sort of. I think I know what I intend to say but I still need to figure out which pictures to show while I am talking,” I replied.

“Well we are looking forward to hearing you. We’ll be in the peanut gallery throwing peanuts.” His wife nudged him good-naturedly and they both smiled.

“I loved this photo book your mom made.” Val said. “I can tell looking at this that you had as good a time as you said you did in your book.”

“We did have a great time and I am sure you will too. It’s going to be a great trip.” With all the preparation for the cruise and worrying about not disappointing my fellow passengers with my lectures, I hadn’t really felt excited yet about going back to Nautica. It really hit me when I saw how excited Val, Cathi, Dave and Bruce were how lucky I was to get to return to some of the most beautiful places in the world on Oceania, and get to enjoy it with a whole new group of enthusiastic fellow explorers.

We talked a few more minutes about how they were spending their time in Hong Kong and then it was time to return to my seat.

“Ladies and gentleman the plane is now refueled and we are going to try to fly to Hong Kong. Please return your seats to the upright position and turn off any electronic devices,” the purser announced.

“Wow that was quick!” I said to Rosie. We had only been on the ground 45 minutes. I stood up to place my laptop in the overhead bin and the plane immediately started to taxi while I struggled to get my computer case in the compartment.

“That captain doesn’t waste any time,” Rosie said. We both smiled, pleased to be on our way.

The hour flight from Taipei to Hong Kong passed quickly.

“I hope I won’t be late. I have an appointment at eleven,” Rosie said as the blue screen revealed we had almost arrived in Hong Kong.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” I assured her.

As we drew nearer a familiar sight repeated itself. Our monitor showed our aircraft starting to circle away. As we started to discuss it we were interrupted by the PA system.

“Ladies and gentleman this is your captain. I regret to inform you that the weather and fog in Hong Kong has seriously deteriorated in the last fifteen minutes. All aircraft are being diverted to other airstrips. We have enough fuel to remain in Hong Kong air space for another ten minutes. If the weather hasn’t improved we will need to return to Taipei. We apologize for this, but sometimes Mother Nature does the unexpected and we don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s safety.”

A collective groan came from all sections of the aircraft. Passengers were starting to get tense and several rows back I heard a baby starting to cry---we had been on the plane 16 hours and had at least another two hours before we returned to Taiwan.

I reclined my seat---I was going to spend a few more hours in it and wanted to be comfortable. Rosie looked disappointed. All of a sudden I sensed the airplane descending.

“Did you feel that?” I asked Rosie.

“Yeah, it feels like we are losing altitude,” she replied.

“Ladies and gentleman this is your captain. The weather has unexpectedly DRAMATICALLY improved in the last few minutes. We are going to attempt a landing NOW. Flight crew please immediately take your seats.”

All the passengers in my section looked at each other, each of us appearing slightly confused. It was good that we might not have to go back to Taiwan but no one felt assured by the captain’s offer to attempt to touchdown in dicey Hong Kong weather. As the landing gear descended from the belly of the jet Rosie and looked at each other optimistically. I crossed my fingers.

As we descended through the clouds and fog I couldn’t make anything out beyond the planes windows. The blue screen indicated we were at an altitude of 300 feet when I suddenly saw part of the Hong Kong airport emerge through the fog.

“I think we are going to make it,” I said to Rosie. She smiled. We both felt a little nervous, didn’t want to jinx our chance to land and quickly looked away. I knocked on the faux wood tray between us.

BOOM! The wheels suddenly hit the ground. The plane bounced hard and settled down on all her wheels. The spontaneous and growing sound of passenger applause and whistles echoed throughout every compartment. I couldn’t believe we had landed and only arrived to Hong Kong four hours late.

Immigration was a breeze---no other aircraft had come in so there were no lines---and before I know it I was past customs and telling the airport hustlers I didn’t need their help finding a ride to my hotel. I stopped a few minutes at baggage claim to talk to Cathi and her husband Bruce---I wanted to make sure they got all their luggage (as a pseudo-representative of Oceania I wanted to make sure they were well situated and knew how to get to the Marco Polo Hong Kong hotel and the ship on Tuesday) and made plans to see them on board.

My brother arrives from Athens tonight and tomorrow Sukey, Robert (Nautica’s concierge) and some of their friends and I are going to dinner at my favorite Kowloon restaurant, the Spring Deer.

It is good to be on the ground and looking forward to a new adventure.

Thanks for reading.

Welcome to Hong Kong Jack! Jeff and I (ok mostly me) will be anxiously waiting to hear all about your experiences.

I'm nearly 3/4 the way through my second read of Cruising with Mom and Dad. It's even better the third time! And I'm not just saying that.

Have fun!

Cheers,

Joe & Jeff

Jack,

The episode about your flight to reach the Nautica cruise will make a great first chapter for your newest book!! Glad everything turned our well.

Have a great time -- you'll have lots more new fans after this journey!