Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog

Daily Travel Photo – Melbourne, Australia

Gary — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:09:16 +0000

Skyline, Melbourne, Australia

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Aboard the Crown Princess – Day 3

Gary — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:37:23 +0000

Day three was much better than day two. There were two big highlights of the day. The first was the backstage tour of the boat we were given. What was original supposed to be a three hour tour of the ship ended up being a five and a half hour tour. We visited backstage of the theater, the galley and food storage areas, the environmental and engine control rooms, the laundry (which was surprisingly large), the smoke stacks and finally the bridge where we got to meet the captain and sit in his chair.

I’ve always been fascinated more by the behind the scenes stuff than I have the public face of things. I took the backstage tour at EPCOT center and thought it was equally as fascinating. The level of organization necessary for a ship with over 3,000 passengers and crew, with all the food, laundry, machinery, and people pooping, is really impressive. It all seems to run like clockwork.

I have a ton of photos I took on the tour, but there is no way I’m going to be able to upload them from the ship. While we are given complimentary internet access (which other wise very expensive), all the data has to go to a satellite so it is very slow. Text is OK, but big images are a different story.

The other big event was dinner. We had dinner in the on board steakhouse, the Crown Grill. I know I’ve been harping on this point the last several days, but this meal was exceptional even by land standards. I had fois gras with scallops for a first course, tomato soup with prawns, lobster tail for the seafood course and then a porterhouse steak for the main course. All with a great bottle of wine. It was really exceptional. So far, the highlight of the cruise has been the food, which I never would have guessed would be the case.

Today we are in Grand Cayman were I will go SCUBA diving and swimming with sting rays. I will also get to eat dinner at the Chef’s Table, which should be fun. I am now looking forward to dinners on the boat. The bar has been set pretty high now.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Daily Travel Photo – Jerusalem

Gary — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:06:31 +0000

Walking the Via Dolorosa on Good Friday, Jerusalem

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

This Week in Travel – Episode #13

Gary — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:10 +0000

Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via RSS

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Aborad the Crown Princess – Day 2

Gary — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:28:07 +0000

Our cruise itinerary was changed because of a hurricane in the Caribbean. What was to be our last stop ended up becoming our first stop. It was the place I was looking forward to the least. In the previous post I mentioned that Princess owns a private island in the Bahamas. It turns out that isn’t quite true. They own a small spit of land which is connected to a much larger island via a mangrove swamp. I suppose in a technical sense it might be an island, but it is really just a hunk of beach on the much larger island.

According to the sailing schedule, this was the day I was least interested in for the entire cruise. I’m just not a big beach guy. Especially crowded beaches which is what this was. None of the activities which were available really appealed to me: snorkeling, kayaking and banana boat riding. The snorkel area was a small roped off area and you had to wear a life jacket.

Brett also didn’t want to sit on the beach, so we left the area and headed inland. We probably walked for over and hour round trip and only saw a few houses, most of them abandoned. Most of the houses were painted in the aqua or pink colors you so often see in the Bahamas. We even found an abandoned church and what I presume is the new church a few minutes up the road. In the end, we didn’t find the village we were looking for. We very well might have taken a wrong turn. I later found out there was a bus trip to the village, but I didn’t know about it.

We walked back to the beach and parked ourselves at a bar and waited to find other people who were in our Twitter group. Mostly I drank which I felt was acceptable because it was after noon.

Getting back on the boat I mostly wandered around. I ran into an art auction (they have an art gallery on board the ship) with some pieces selling for over $200,000.

As I said before, the food on board has been above my expectations. We had dinner at the Italian restaurant which was one of the places on board you needed a reservation for. The meal took three hours for all the courses to come out. We started at 8pm and ended at 11pm. Given how long it took to eat, I didn’t feel full by the end of the meal.

We’ve also been moving through rough seas, so several people in the group ended up getting sea sick. Surprisingly, I was not one of them. Given my history of motion sickness, I was sure I’d be one of the first. The restaurant was also on the 16th floor in the starboard aft part of the ship, one of the worst places to be to experience motion.

Today looks to be better. We get a behind the scenes tour of the ship and I get to have dinner with the captain tonight.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Daily Travel Photo – Brugge, Belgium

Gary — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:04:24 +0000

Sclupture in town square, Brugge, Belgium

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Aboard the Crown Princess, Day 1

Gary — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:04:47 +0000

This was written in The Bahamas at 24 35.9107′ N, 76 02.5875′ W

The first day aboard my first cruise has come and gone. Somethings surprised me and some totally met my expectations.

The moment people get on board the ship they enter into vacation mode. Just walking around after I put my bags away, I saw the pool area already full and guys were already half way through a bucket of beer bottles. There is no need to wait for the ship to pull away. I sat next to one guy in a bar who wanted to try all 52 martinis on the menu before the cruise was over.

I’d say at least half of the people on the cruise are of retirement age. The rest is a mix. I saw one guy during the mandatory fire drill which took place before we left, who said he was 89 years old. This part pretty much met my expectations.

I sort of assumed I’d be eating at buffets most of the time which sort of scared me. I enjoy a buffet as much as the next guy, but eating them all the time didn’t appeal to me. The first dining area I found walking around the ship was the buffet which had the smell of buffet in the air. Thankfully, the dinner I had was at a sit down restaurant and was actually pretty good meal. I think I can totally avoid the buffet while I’m here. In fact, given that you can eat for free anywhere, I don’t get why you even need to have a buffet on the ship. The whole ship is a buffet.

This cruise is sponsored by Princess Cruise lines and is their attempt at reaching out to the social media world. I’ve never felt so much like a rock star. In reality, at least the check in procedure was the same as what you’d get if you were a member of their “frequent cruiser” program.

The staff-to-passenger ratio seems high. The restaurant was crawling with staff. They seem to be everywhere. It is also extremely international. Since I got on board I’ve been keeping a list on my iPhone of the home countries where the crew members I’ve met live:

Philippines
India
Mexico
Ukraine
Macedonia
Germany
Scotland
England
Portugal
Serbia
Hungary
Romania
Thailand
Italy
Turkey

I suspect that list will grow over the next few days.

The ship moves and the fact that you are on a moving vessel is obvious, but it is not enough to make you sick….at least not me. I get motion sickness very easy. I puked on a boat in the Great Barrier Reef and another in the Red Sea. So far nothing here. The ship is just too big.

Speaking of big, I’ve never even been on a boat close to this size. It is enormous. You can easily get lost on it.

Today the boat stops at Princess’s private island in the Bahamas. The agenda today is just sitting on the beach, which is something I usually don’t do very well.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

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Daily Travel Photo – Venice, Italy

Gary — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:02:26 +0000

Abandoned staircase, Venice, Italy

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Daily Travel Photo – Black Hills, South Dakota

Gary — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:58:19 +0000

Where the antelope play, Black Hills, South Dakota

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Daily Travel Photo – Luxor, Egypt

Gary — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:40:15 +0000

Workers during an excavation in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt

The Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from the current city of Luxor, is the known resting place for most of the rulers of Egypt. Many of the famous tombs such as that of King Tutankhamen were found here. There are still a few pharaohs who’s tombs have never been found.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.

Daily Travel Photo – Tonle Sap, Cambodia

Gary — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:01:35 +0000

Kids playing in the front yard in a floating village, Tonle Sap, Cambodia

Tonle Sap is a large lake in the middle of Cambodia which is actually a part of the Mekong River. When the river rises each year Tonle Sap dramatically increases in size, with water levels rising over 10m. There are several floating villages in Tonle Sap that move with the seasonal changes in the lake. These kids are playing on the closest thing they have to a front yard.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.