Saga Rose Greenland Voyager August 2007

[Host Sharon]

Well said Ruby. It is a great achievement, especially keeping it fresh and interesting. Thanks for the invitation to join in - when was it? Seems like yesterday!

 

BTW, Sovereign of the Seas is now just Sovereign and is operated by the Spanish company, Pullmantur.

[Host Sharon]

I've managed to edit down my 1500 odd photos to around 200 for public consumption. They are here for for anyone interested

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/114801993219771801790/CruiseOnAdoniaToWesternMed2012#

Edited May 23, 2012 by Host Sharon

[MMDown Under]

I've managed to edit down my 1500 odd photos to around 200 for public consumption. there are here for for anyone interested

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/114801993219771801790/CruiseOnAdoniaToWesternMed2012#

 

Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos of the ship and ports of call, Sharon. I look forward to your comments on the ship.

[MMDown Under]

Thanks for being the glue that keeps this interesting and entertaining thread together, Ruby.

 

This is a priceless resource for those with an interest in both old and new ships and cruising in general.

 

I'm looking forward to experiencing an old small ship, Fred Olsen's Black Watch. I figure it must be seaworthy, as it still does world cruises.

 

Sharon, I recall you were impressed with a visit to the Hermitage at night? How did you organise that?

[Host Sharon]

 

I'm looking forward to experiencing an old small ship, Fred Olsen's Black Watch. I figure it must be seaworthy, as it still does world cruises.

 

Sharon, I recall you were impressed with a visit to the Hermitage at night? How did you organise that?

 

Hi Marion . My friends love Black Watch - a proper traditional ship and once the Royal Viking Star of course.

 

My Hermitage visit was a Fred Olsen ship's tour. I am not sure you can organise it independently as the ship would have booked the evenings you are in port. It was expensive but IMO worth it to have the building virtually to yourself. It also left the day free to explore other sights as there are so many in St Pete's!

 

I have posted my review of my Adonia cruise here

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=102991.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Host Sharon

[MMDown Under]

Hi Marion . My friends love Black Watch - a proper traditional ship and once the Royal Viking Star of course.

 

My Hermitage visit was a Fred Olsen ship's tour. I am not sure you can organise it independently as the ship would have booked the evenings you are in port. It was expensive but IMO worth it to have the building virtually to yourself. It also left the day free to explore other sights as there are so many in St Pete's!

 

I have posted my review of my Adonia cruise here

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=102991.

 

Thanks Sharon. Good to hear that your friends love Black Watch. Being a proper traditional ship, I'm sure I'll love her also. She already has a bit tick for being small enough to get through the Kiel Canal!

 

I'll look into Fred Olsen ship's tours, which have an impressive selection of choices.

 

Enjoyed your review of Adonia. I'm trying to recall whether I saw that ship in Sydney last year?

[Host Sharon]

Enjoy the Kiel Canal Marion. I did it on Vistafjord and last year on Balmoral, and of course Adonia can pass through as well. Unfortunately last year, they were doing some mainentance and instead of a daylight transit, we didn't start to enter until nearly dinner - thank goodness I was on late sitting. It was quite a site still, although there is no lowering or raising the ship at the locks.

 

 

By the way - if you are in St Petersburg for three days (I think only FO stay that long), and you have the chance to visit Novgorod, I woudl thoroughly recommend it.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Host Sharon

[MMDown Under]

Enjoy the Kiel Canal Marion. I did it on Vistafjord and last year on Balmoral, and of course Adonia can pass through as well. Unfortunately last year, they were doing some mainentance and instead of a daylight transit, we didn't start to enter until nearly dinner - thank goodness I was on late sitting. It was quite a site still, although there is no lowering or raising the ship at the locks.

 

By the way - if you are in St Petersburg for three days (I think only FO stay that long), and you have the chance to visit Novgorod, I woudl thoroughly recommend it.

 

Thanks for photo, Sharon. Ours is a night transit also, but I hope to see some of the transit with the longer daylight hours.

 

We are in St Petersburg for two days. However, I'll remember your recommendation for Novgorod, if I make a return visit. My plan was always to visit St Petersburg via ferry from Helsinki.

[Saga Ruby]

Donald - are you home yet? How was the cruise and the Panama Canal?

 

Sharon - you said something that caught my attention about Adonia. Do you sit out on those lovely promenades in a deck chair and watch the world pass by? I loved those promenades on Royal Viking and have many years of happy memories of pretending to read while I watched the dark blue oceans pass by from my teak deck chair.

 

It occurs to me that the new apartment barges are inwardly oriented. Are there decks where one can sit and read quietly or does everyone wind up sitting on their balconies or Pool Deck?

 

It creeps me out how enclosed the new ships are. My grandsons will be going to Alaska in July on NCL's Epic. During a recent visit, I explained to them that I call that ship the S.S. Rollover. They are experienced cruisers and I can't wait to hear their reports about Epic. For an 11 yr.-old and 13 yr.-old, it should be an interesting story.

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

Ruby - yes I absolutely do sit out on the prom decks and read, watch the ocean of just drift away! It's my idea of heaven! I agree about the new apartment barges being inwards-looking. It's what I hated most about my visit to Independence of the Seas, but of course they want you in the ship spending more money.

 

Below - the best view in the world ! (Transatlantic on QM2)

 

I'm off today to stay with a friend in her flat overlooking Southampton Water for the long Jubilee Weekend. On Tuesday the Cunard Three Queens are all in port together for a big event. It should be spectacular as they will be sailing with fireworks and a display by the Red Arrows RAF team.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Host Sharon

[Conte Di Savoia]

It occurs to me that the new apartment barges are inwardly oriented.

 

John Maxtone-Graham said it best in his 1992 book Crossing & Cruising when he described a sailing from Narwiliwili:

 

"That evening, as Narwiliwili's pier receded astern, I discovered the balcony's most insidious spinoff. Since more than half of Crystal Harmony passengers have balconies, half the ship's passengers are not on hand for traditional Promenade Deck gatherings during arrivals and, especially departures. On board every ship at the end of a port day, once the gangway is up, passengers reunited within their shipboard domain, reaffirming, if you will, their passenger fellowship en masse at the rail. Now, as we slipped out of port, craning over the rail, I could see that every balcony, both forward and above, was occupied by its owners. And it struck me that we had been compartmentalized, locked within our own private decks and detached from our less fortunate shipmates. Regardless of their convenience, luxe, and always, the additional income they generate for the company, in the final analysis, I fear that cruise-ship balconies diminish the shipboard experience, fragmenting and segregatating the passenger corpus irrevocably."

 

In other words, balconies are anti-social amenities.

[Kapricorn]

Donald - are you home yet? How was the cruise and the Panama Canal?

Ruby

 

I disembarked this morning, in the typical Vancouver weather conditions of overcast sky and drizzle. I just wasn't able to bring the Mexican sunshine with me.

 

The 20-day cruise was mostly favourable and I met an interesting variety of fellow cruisers. The second-day cabin crawl which I organized was a tremendous success and was a great ice-breaker among the participants who did not know each other.

 

The cats were very happy to see me back. Right now I am doing five loads of laundry, as well as planning tonight's dinner, and will tell more about the cruise later.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Donald - I'm sure you're up to your neck in laundering, putting cases away, reading the mail, petting the cats - trying to decompress. We look forward to hearing all about it - cruise v. itinerary. Sounds like the cabin crawl was tons o' fun!

 

Speaking of rain and drizzle greeting you at disembarkation, I was watching the Thames celebration of the Queen's Jubilee and thinking of Marion who is onsite as we speak. It is pouring rain and a tip of the fascinator to those many Brits cheering their Queen in this typical English downpour.

 

In Norway, as our ship was docking in a heavy downpour, a British woman stepped up to the rail beside me. I asked her if she was going on the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour and she confirmed that she was. This Texan said, "We don't usually go out in this kind of storm." She replied, "If we Brits didn't go out in rainstorms, we'd never go out!" I took her point and enjoyed so much the shore excursion.

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

I am still decompressing, but I can report that for me the highlight of the cruise was a trek up the side of an active volcano in Guatemala, in which about 40 of us participated. I was concerned about the ability at my age of doing such an undertaking, but to my pleasant surprise I managed it very well, both going up and down. Conte, the ship did not offer tours to Tikal.

 

Ten days into the cruise, an overhead water pipe burst in the corridor outside my cabin, pouring water into it and five other cabins. The carpeting in the affected area had to be replaced. I was moved to another cabin a deck higher and given $200 onboard credit for the inconvenience. At the end of the first leg in San Diego, I moved back to the original cabin for the cruise to Vancouver, as other passengers had booked that cabin.

 

The ship's Solsticization was not completed, and there were complaints. Many among the catering staff were mostly new and untrained, and there were not enough servers in the Elite lounges to serve drinks. They had trouble balancing their trays of drinks - one of them spilled a glass of wine on a man seated near me.

 

I was seated at a table in an inferior location in the dining room near the entrance, but when I met a maitre d' whom I knew from two other Celebrity ships, he promptly moved me to a centrally-located table with a spectacular view of the room.

 

Overall, though, the positives outweighed the negatives, and I enjoyed the cruise. About 10 of the staff recognized me from other Celebrity ships and greeted me cordially.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Ten days into the cruise, an overhead water pipe burst in the corridor outside my cabin, pouring water into it and five other cabins. The carpeting in the affected area had to be replaced. I was moved to another cabin a deck higher and given $200 onboard credit for the inconvenience. At the end of the first leg in San Diego, I moved back to the original cabin for the cruise to Vancouver, as other passengers had booked that cabin. Donald.

 

It always interests me what a corporation will do in a "make good" situation. Did you think the $200 OBC was good enough for a burst pipe and move to another cabin? On a scale from one to ten with ten being the best, what rating would you give this particular cruise?

 

Ruby

[Kapricorn]

It always interests me what a corporation will do in a "make good" situation. Did you think the $200 OBC was good enough for a burst pipe and move to another cabin? On a scale from one to ten with ten being the best, what rating would you give this particular cruise?

 

Ruby

 

I had started the cruise with a $300 OBC for having booked it aboard the Constellation a year ago, so with the $200 OBC for the water pipe inconvenience I had a total of $500 OBC. That significantly reduced my overall expense account, about which I cannot complain.

 

Though I looked for positives than negatives, overall I would have rated the cruise a 7 out of 10.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

Ruby - yes I absolutely do sit out on the prom decks and read, watch the ocean of just drift away! It's my idea of heaven! I agree about the new apartment barges being inwards-looking. It's what I hated most about my visit to Independence of the Seas, but of course they want you in the ship spending more money.

 

I'm off today to stay with a friend in her flat overlooking Southampton Water for the long Jubilee Weekend. On Tuesday the Cunard Three Queens are all in port together for a big event. It should be spectacular as they will be sailing with fireworks and a display by the Red Arrows RAF team.

 

I so enjoyed the photo of your piggy toes on vacation. Thanks for sharing. Were you able to stay a bit dry during the Thames flotilla? It was disappointing that the aerial flyovers were cancelled but, then again, it's English weather!

 

Ruby

[MMDown Under]

Enjoying the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in London, despite the English weather. Remembering the saying "there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing", I'm doing my best!

 

Was in the joyous crowd in front of the Palace to see the Royal Family on the balcony and flypast yesterday afternoon.

[Saga Ruby]

Enjoying the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in London, despite the English weather. Remembering the saying "there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing", I'm doing my best!

 

Was in the joyous crowd in front of the Palace to see the Royal Family on the balcony and flyover past yesterday afternoon.

 

Wadda gal to check in with us amidst the excitement of attending the ceremonies of QEII's Diamond Jubilee! Did Lilibet wave to you? The video of the fly-over of Buck House was spectacular as are the rest of the celebrations. Did y'all attend the concerts of Paul and Elton?

 

This Diamond Jubilee will be a wonderful lifetime memory for you and your family. What a great idea!

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

Glad you enjoyed the celebrations Marion. I was doing the same thing in Southampton where Cunard had all three ships Southampton in for the first time as part of the celebrations.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1646703

 

 

Edited June 6, 2012 by Host Sharon

[Kapricorn]

Sharon, the photograph of the ship with pinkish tinge in the sky and water is spectacular!

 

I have yet to look through the photographs taken during my cruise, but I expect to eventually post a few.

 

Donald.

[Host Sharon]

Thanks Donald - it's Queen Mary 2 at 4am !!

 

I'm looking forward to your pictures, especially the volcano!

[MMDown Under]

Glad you enjoyed the celebrations Marion. I was doing the same thing in Southampton where Cunard had all three ships Southampton in for the first time as part of the celebrations.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1646703

 

 

I thought of you, when I saw coverage on TV. Looked wonderful. Seems 400-500 Aussies are doing trip on all 3 Queens. We have an Aussie on cc reporting on his experiences.

 

Loved the photos, Sharon.

[MMDown Under]

Wadda gal to check in with us amidst the excitement of attending the ceremonies of QEII's Diamond Jubilee! Did Lilibet wave to you? The video of the fly-over of Buck House was spectacular as are the rest of the celebrations. Did y'all attend the concerts of Paul and Elton?

 

This Diamond Jubilee will be a wonderful lifetime memory for you and your family. What a great idea!

 

Ruby

 

Yes they all waved to me.

 

Hard to believe I braved that huge crowd in front of the Palace!

 

No, but I'd have loved to have tickets to the Concert. Tickets were by ballot for UK residents only.

 

 

Ah yes the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations were one of those once in a lifetime experiences, like Golden Jubilee before.

[MMDown Under]

Pleased you enjoyed your cruise, Donald, despite a few negative experiences. Look forward to seeing your photos on my return.