New Years Day -- Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Today is New Years Day and the last day of our cruise.  It has been a lazy day for us.  The sea is still rocking and rolling so we are staying in our room most of the day.  We did go to the Pinnacle Grill this morning for breakfast and it was a total madhouse.  I noticed how crowded it was and our server apologized for the service.  He said that everybody decided to come eat at once this morning.  There have been times on other ships that Krista and I would be the only ones in there eating.  This is quite different.  I decided that I would try for my Special K cereal again this morning since I had seen it at the Neptune Lounge yesterday.  They said that they would see if they could find it.  When he brought my food it was the same junk he had served me yesterday saying that it was Special K.  I told him that I didn't want it and to take it back.  He said it was Special K but it had come out of a big box.  I told him that no it wasn't Special K that they had served it to me yesterday and that I didn't like it.  I asked him just to bring me some toast which he did.  After we finished eating I told Krista that I wanted to stop by the Neptune Lounge.  I found my Special K and I am saving it for breakfast tomorrow.

We had to go to the special Disembarkation meeting this morning where they tell us what all we are supposed to do tomorrow morning.  I know all of this stuff by heart but always go in case they change anything.

We have been hanging out in the room the rest of the day.  Krista went to the Lido to get some bread pudding and I got a hamburger.  We have decided not to go to the dining room tonight.  They have a weird menu and don't really want any of it.  We will go eat in the Lido when it is dinner time.

Right now we are watching TV waiting for the Ball to drop in NYC.  We missed all the parties on board last night so thought we would welcome in the new year with the U.S.  

We will be staying in Sydney for 2 nights at the Shangri-la where we will have free internet.  I will try and get more pictures posted at that time.

This has been a good cruise but I am ready for it to be over and get back home.  We have another crazy airline schedule when we fly out on Friday.  The only thing that worries me is that we are flying into Chicago.  I just hope they don't have any of their winter weather and we are able to get home ok.  Of course if we are stranded I would rather be stranded in the U.S, than anywhere else.

New Years Eve -- Monday, December 31, 2012

It is New Years Eve today and we are on our way back to Sydney.  We have 2 sea days and then we will be there early Wednesday morning January 2, 2013.  We gained an hour last night and will gain another hour tonight.  We slept in this morning but got up early enough to eat breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.  We weren't as late as we were yesterday morning but pretty close to it.  I ordered Special K and they said that they didn't know if they had any or not that they might be out.  I gave them a second choice in case they didn't have my Special K.  I told Krista that I knew the ship wasn't out but that they probably were out in the restaurant.  I have had that happen in the past.  I would order something from room service and they would tell me they were out and I would just go somewhere else on the ship and find it.

When they brought my cereal he said that he was able to find the Special K but it looked a little different because it came out of a big box instead of the small box.  I am not sure what he was talking about because what he brought me was anything but Special K.  It tasted like cardboard but I ate it anyway.  After breakfast we went to the Neptune Lounge to pick up a daily New York Times paper and what did they have but Special K.  What is so funny about this is that the Pinnacle Grill is the restaurant that supplies the Neptune Lounge with food.

The ship is rocking and rolling today so we aren't wanting to do much but lay around.  Two hours after we had breakfast we had a Indonesian Suite Luncheon in the Pinnacle Grill.  We went to that but I wasn't really that hungry.  This luncheon has a preset menu of Indonesian foods.  We had an appetizer, salad, soup, entree and dessert.  The appetizer, soup and salad were good.  When they brought out the entree I couldn't believe the amount of food they had on the plate.  It was way too much.  I just tasted a little bit of each type of food and then pushed the rest of it around on my plate.  For dessert we had rice pudding which was good but once again I wasn't hungry.

We went to a talk from the Destinations Expert to hear what she had to say about Sydney.  We will be in Sydney 2 nights after the cruise and need to decide what to do during that time.

They had a Deal or No Deal Game show today.  We stopped by to see the last part of it.  I thought the lady was going to win big but she ended up winning 1 cent.  I am sure she was disappointed but she was a good sport.  I would have been a nervous wreck up there trying the decide which cases to open.

We didn't do much the rest of the day.  When we went to dinner they had party hats and noise blowers for us.  I was still so full from lunch that I couldn't eat much.  I don't remember any other cruise where I was as sick of food as this one.

After dinner we went to the spa.  The water was really sloshing around in the pool so we didn't stay long.  

We went  back to the room to rest.  There is a Countdown Party at 11:00 pm but I don't think we are going to make it.  We are calling it a night.  It will still be 2013 in the morning whether we say up or not.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Today we were in Bay of Islands (Waitangi), New Zealand.  When we woke up this morning it was pouring down rain.  Not a good thing for our excursion today since we were going to be on a catamaran sightseeing the different islands.  

We began the day at the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.  They were open until 9:30 am and we breezed in there at 9:25 am.  I am sure they were thrilled to see us come in so late but they welcomed us with a smile.  We made it easy on them and didn't order much.  I just had cereal and apricots with 1 cup of coffee and glass of orange juice.  Krista just had seasonal melon and oatmeal with a glass of orange juice.  We were finished eating in about 20 minutes.

After eating we went by the Neptune Lounge.  I wanted to check and see if they would still have our catamaran excursion in the rain and they confirmed that they would still have it.  This was a tender port so I asked them how far we would have to go to catch the catamaran once we got off the tender.  The confirmed that we would be picked up right there so that wouldn't be too bad.  Now if it would just quit raining.

They said to allow 30 minutes for the tender ride to port and our excursion was to be at Noon.  We went and got in line around 11:15 am with everyone else.  There was quite a line.  Soon our tender came and we boarded.  It was still raining and it appeared the the windshield wipers were not working.  It was obvious that the guy driving the tender couldn't see well.  I began to get a little nervous.  He kept trying to open the hatch and look out but for some reason it wouldn't stay open.  Finally he said something to someone and they brought him a towel which he used to prop the hatch open and he stood and poked his head out the top so he could see and we were good to go.  Once we got to land the rain had let us.  We were directed to a building to go and wait until the catamaran was there.  There were some ladies selling some snacks so I got a muffin and I got Krista a bottle of water.  We were going to buy some when we got off the ship but there wasn't anyone there selling it.  I only had $6 NZ dollars remaining and this purchase cost $4 NZ.  I gave Krista the remaining $2 NZ for a souvenir.

The catamaran was soon there and we began to board.  There was a level inside and 2 outside decks.  I asked Krista where she wanted to sit and she said to sit inside.  That was a good decision because it soon began to rain again.  We were taken to the different islands and given the history of each one.  There was one particular one that we were supposed to go to but couldn't because the sea was too rough.  They said it was the Hole in the Rock or something like that.  I think it was something like the one we saw in Cabo.  They opened up the front deck and 2 teenage boys went out there and were having a blast.  Every now and then some old people would go out there and try to look at things but it was pretty hard for them to keep their balance so they didn't stay long.

The tour lasted 3 hours and I was glad when it was over.  At the end of the tour they took us to see some dolphins.  They were right on my side so I got to see them easily.  Once we got back to shore we had to get on a tender to go back to the ship.  As we were going to get on the tender it started raining again and then the tender starting having problems and pulled away from the deck.  We were instructed to go to the top of the ramp and wait out of the rain.  Soon the tender circled back around and we tried it again.  They said that the tender only had one motor running and that was why it was having problems.  I wasn't really sure whey they were putting all of us on it but we did make it safely back to the ship.  There was one woman on our tour that got really sea sick and it didn't make it any easier riding the tender back.  I felt really sorry for her.  The crew was working to get her back on the ship as quickly as possible.

When we got back we went straight to the Lido to get something to eat.  It didn't dawn on me that it was only 2 hours before time for dinner and when I went to dinner I just picked at my food because I wasn't hungry.  Of course they think something is wrong with the food if you don't lick your plate.  I had to explain that I wasn't hungry.  They accepted my explanation but I don't think they liked it.

We came back to the room to get ready to go to the spa.  Krista said she wanted to rest first.  We ended up not going and just staying in the room.  That was fine with me.  Krista is having a tough time getting over the congestion that she has.  She may have to go see the ship doctor before we get off the ship.

Last night I told you about some truffles we were supposed to have in our room when we got back from LeCirque.  Well we got them tonight.  They are in the cutest little box.  I doubt we will eat the truffles but I will bring the box home as a souvenir.  At least we know that someone else didn't get ours.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Today we were in Aukland, New Zealand and we had nothing at all planned which was kind of nice.  We docked at 7:00 am with all aboard time of 4:30pm.

We started out a leisurely morning in the Pinnacle Grill eating breakfast.  Around 9:30 am we decided to get off the ship.  We were docked at a big cruise terminal.  It took forever to get off the ship because we had to go through the terminal building.  As I mentioned before, we are not allowed to take any food with us off the ship.  As we were going through the terminal building they had security with a dog.  We were told to just walk along and hold our bags down so the dog could smell them.  We walked right on with no problems but I turned around and looked at some people behind us and I guess they had something they weren't supposed to have in their bags.  When the dog got to them, it just sat down and looked at them.  It was really kind of funny.  Well anyway, we didn't stick around to see what they had.  

Our main thing we wanted to find was a pharmacy.  I asked the woman at the Information Center and she gave us a map and told us where the pharmacy was right across the street.  Right across the street sounded easy except that we still had to get out of the cruise terminal area so it did take a while to get to it.  When we got there it wasn't quite 10:00 am so it wasn't open yet but they opened shortly after we got there.  We went over to the medicines and I was kind of confused as to the cough drop selection.  They didn't look like the ones we have at home.  The pharmacist came out to answer questions and tried to get me to buy some that Krista had bought earlier in the week.  They were good but didn't seem to be doing the job.  I opted for something else and Krista needed Mucinex which they had.  My cough drops were $23 and I think the Mucinex was $27!  You never want to get sick in New Zealand.

We had seen a hop on hop off bus and decided to get tickets to it.  It was a nice way to ride and see things.  The City was really spread out.  There were several stops we wanted to get off at but we really didn't have the time.  We opted just to do the Sky Tower.  We went to the very top which was 722 feet.  We were lucky that we got there before the really big crowds.  The lines were terrible when we left.  They had a restaurant at the top that rotated but we didn't go check it out.  In the same building as the Sky Tower they also had a casino.  I  told Krista that I would like to just walk through there and see what it was like so we went up the escalator and as we were about to walk into the casino area, they stopped us and wanted to see Krista's ID.  They also said she would need to check her back pack which had her camera, money, etc. in it.  I told them that we just wanted to look but we would be on our way.  From the best that I could see it looked just like the casinos we have at home.

We went back downstairs to wait for the bus and it came shortly.  The next stop was the one down by the water.  We got off there and continued our quest for free wifi.  We finally found an ice cream shop that had free wifi with a purchase.  We each purchased a Coke Zero for a total of $8 and we were able to get 2 codes for the internet which was good for 60 minutes.  We sat there for a while to get caught up to date on our emails and other things.

We then decided to go check out the souvenir shops.  The only things I have purchased so far have been for Kylie and I figured I should get myself something.  After that I saw a Burger King and I really wanted a hamburger.  I went over and looked at their menu.  It is different than we have at home.  They didn't have the little hamburgers but they did have a Whopper Jr for $7.60.  I decided that I wasn't that hungry and could wait until I got on the ship to eat something.  I guess cough drops are not the only thing expensive here.

We took a leisurely stroll back to the ship.  It was really warm outside so I didn't want to rush since we still had almost 2 hours to be back on board.  We got on board and went straight to the Lido to get a bite to eat.  We then went back to the room for a while and then went to the spa to relax.  Tonight we have dinner at the Pinnacle  It is their special LeCirque menu.  When we got on board and tried to make reservations for it the only time they had left was 9:00 pm.  It is not quite 8:00 yet and I think I will go to sleep before I get to eat dinner.  To top it off, we got something in the mail telling us that when we got back from dinner tonight there was going to be truffles waiting for us to enjoy in our stateroom.  This is the first time they have done this so I don't know what they are going to be like.  This should be interesting and I am sure I won't be hungry for them after dinner.  Now if they would bring them now, I could probably eat them.

Just got back from LeCirque.  It seems to me the menu might be different than it was in the past but it was good.  There was a couple at the table next to us that was having wine with their meal and they were really enjoying themselves.  The said they were Canadian and they were speaking a mixture of English and French.  As the meal progressed it was fun to watch them because it was obvious they were feeling their wine pretty good.  In fact at one point in the meal they had the waiter to pour himself some of their wine and taste it.  They said that they carried the wine on board with them so it was something that could not be purchased on the ship.  When they got to the main course they ordered the lamb which was the same thing that we got.  It was very good and tender.  They both liked theirs so much they were picking up the bones and gnawing on them!  Krista and I were a little bit more lady like than that.  At the end of the meal they had the cellar master at their table getting him to try their wine and to get his opinion of it.  Krista and I stayed to see what he thought about it.  He did all the stuff you are supposed to do to test the wine and in the end he said it was very good.  They were excited because they said it wasn't expensive wine.  It was only $45 a bottle!  The last thing I said to Krista before we left was that it had better be good at that price.

We got back to our room wanting to see the truffles that were supposed to be in our room and there was nothing there.  At the end of the meal they did give us a plate of some little candies.  Maybe that was what they were talking about.  I just tried one of them and it wasn't very good so I don't think I will be asking where our truffles are.  It is late anyway and time for bed.

Friday, December 28, 2012

I wasn't sure what today would bring.  I knew Krista still wasn't feeling well and I tossed and turned all night long coughing.  When we got our wakeup call at 6:00 am I asked Krista if she wanted to go on our excursion today and she did so that meant I needed to get up and get moving.  It is my job to get my shower first so I can get out of the way and she can have all the time she needs to get ready.  I got my shower in a hurry (with no hot water) and jumped out as quick as I could.  That shower was freezing!  I told Krista that I couldn't get hot water in the bathtub but I had it in the sink.  We also have a shower stall and I told her she might try that.  Well Krista took her shower and I asked her if she had to use the shower stall and she said no -- the bathtub.  Well this puzzled me because I took a cold shower this morning and last night.  I tried everything I could think of to get hot water to no avail.  Krista just calmly said you have to push the red button in.  Of all the cruises I have taken on Holland America I had never been told I had to push the red button in to get hot water.  I guess I have been lucky all these years.

Our breakfast was delivered around 6:30 am.  I usually don't eat a heavy breakfast.  I just have cereal and a bowl of apricots and coffee.  This morning I didn't even drink the coffee.  

We had an excursion where we had to meet in the Vista Show Lounge at 8:20 and the tour left at 8:30.  Just as we were disembarking it started raining.  This thrilled me because a big part of our tour was outside today.  We were going to Hell's Gate & Rotorua highlights.  The first place we drove to was Hell's Gate and it took us a while to get there.  In fact this woman on the bus went and asked the bus driver when we were going to have a restroom break and he said it would be about 20 minutes.  She was sitting right across from me and I could tell she needed to go bad.  After 20 minutes we weren't there yet so she went back to the front of the bus and told him he had to find somewhere for her to go to the restroom.  He finally found somewhere and we had to wait on her about 10 minutes.  I am not sure how far from the road she had to walk to get into the place.  When she got back on the bus she was all happy and sat down next to her husband and said I had too much coffee too late this morning.  I would have been so embarrassed to do something like that but I guess if you've gotta go, you've gotta go.  About 10 minutes later we arrived at our destination.

Hell's Gate is a Geo-thermal reserve that you walk through seeing all of these boiling hot springs that smell like sulphur.  I have seen things like this before in Portugal and more recently in Iceland.  Both of those times we had guides that drove us to each location.  Well this was a walking tour!  I did most of it but turned around and came back right before they finished it.  It was so hot and I was starving and thought I was going to get sick.  I just wanted to get back to some cool air.  They had a little gift shop there and I thought maybe they would have some crackers or something that I could buy but all they had was ice cream and sandwiches so I opted for nothing.  I just drank on my bottle of water.

After this stop we went to Rainbow Springs.  We had a guided tour here also and it was also a walking tour.  We were running short of time so we just sped through things and once again I was really light headed from being so hungry.  They showed us different kinds of fish and also a kiwi house.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in the kiwi house but I did see a couple of them in there.  It was very dark in there so it was hard to pick them out.  At the end of this tour we had a choice of riding a log ride or having a snack of coffee and scones.  I opted for the snack.  I probably should have gone on the log ride.  The coffee was the worst in the world and the scones were pre packaged in the Civil War days I think.

Our next stop was to Mitai Village for a Maori cultural performance.  I really enjoyed this.  There was some walking but not a lot and there were places to sit.  At the end of the performance we went inside and we were fed lunch of a traditional hangi meal.  I don't think they explained it to us but I had seen this before in Portugal.  They put everything together and cook it in the ground.  Everything was delicious.  We had a salad, corn, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken, lamb and garlic bread.  For dessert we had a choice of fruit salad or some kind of strawberry dessert.  I didn't have either but Krista said the strawberry was good.  Keep in mind that I had breakfast at 6:30 am and they served us this meal at 2:30 pm!  That was the reason I was about to pass out.  We are not allowed to carry any food off the ship with us so that is why I was starving.

After this it was about an hour ride back to the ship.  We were going to try and walk to the shops but it looked like it was too far to walk to so we came on in and waited for dinner.  Dinner was good tonight but I wasn't very hungry since it hadn't been long since we had eaten.  They did have one of my favorite desserts -- Cappucino Bomb!  They had some kind of problem with it though and didn't make very many of them.  I got one of the few and I sure was glad!

After dinner we went to the spa and relaxed for a bit and then back to our room for the night.  There is a pool party at 9:00 but I don't think we will be making it.  Tomorrow we will be in Aukland.  We had planned on doing America's Cup Yacht but when I got sick I wasn't sure how long I would be sick and didn't want to be out in the elements I had Krista to cancel it because we were still within the cancellation period.  We don't have anything planned for tomorrow and I am looking forward to it.  When we go on these excursions they take up all the time we have in port and then we don't get to look at things in town so now we will have time to do that.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Today we had a short call in Napier, NZ.  Our tour guide said it had to do with the tides and we had to leave at 2:00 pm.  The tour we did was a Farm Visit and Tuki Tuki Valley.  At the farm we got to see another sheep dog demonstration and a sheep shearing demonstration.  This sheep shearing demonstration went more into detail than the earlier one that we went on.  They explained what kind of clothes they wore to do the job and why.  The man that did the demonstration said that he shears sheep for a living and has contracts with I think he said with about 1500 clients.  

The cafe across the street provided a restroom break and also coffee, tea and hot scones with jams, butter, and cream.  It was delicious.

After the farm visit we went to the top of a really tall mountain.  Our motor coach had to have a motorcycle escort to go in front of us to stop cars from getting in our way.  We had a  very good driver and he got us there safely.  It was really windy at the top with gorgeous views.  It was foggy early in the morning and they weren't sure if we were going to be able to go up there but the fog lifted.  Our driver also took us through several towns and explained what all was there.  To top off the tour we went to a fruit stand where they had really good ice-cream.  This was included in the cost of the tour so I had to eat some.

This area grows a lot of crops and they import help to harvest the crops from the islands and Thailand.  He said that they are flown in and given a place to stay in exchange for their work in the fields.  They stay and work 6 months and then they are flown home with a pocket full of money to provide for their families.  He said people from the climates of the islands and Thailand can more easily adapt to the hot weather in the fields than Europeans can.

We were back to the ship by 12:30 pm and we stopped by the Lido to get Krista some bread pudding which she loves.  We then came back to the room to take a nap.  I hadn't mentioned earlier but we woke up at 3:00 am this morning to go to the bathroom and we had terrible plumbing problems and the toilet was unusable.  I called the front desk and they someone right up to check it out.  They looked and said that the plumbers needed to come.  He then came back about 20 minutes later and said the pipe was fixed and checked it out.  However, whatever they did, did not fix our problem.  He asked me if I wanted it fixed by the plumbers right then or in the morning.  I told him I wanted it fixed right then and he said the plumbers would be down.  I stayed up until 5:00 am and the plumbers never came.  My alarm was set for 5:30 am so we didn't get much sleep so were tired today.  When we returned from our tour the plumbing was fixed.

After waking up from our nap and getting ready to go to dinner Krista is sick.  I think she has the same stuff I had yesterday.  I gave her some of the medicine that she got for me at the pharmacy.  Hopefully it will knock out what she has.  We have a tour in the morning at 8:30 am but if she is sick, we will just skip it.

Looks like we are in for the night.  I might go later and find something to eat in the Lido.  However, since I was sick yesterday I haven't really had an appetite.

Boxing Day -- December 26, 2012

This day is all a blur to me.  I woke up in the morning and felt really bad with congestion and cough.  Krista and I had plans to go into Wellington on the shuttle and FaceTime Miss Kylie.  After I took my shower it was obvious that I wasn't going anywhere I felt so bad.  Krista took care of me and got me something to eat for breakfast which I didn't even feel like eating.  She then called Craig and wished him a Merry Christmas and talked to him for a few minutes.  She then called Nanny and talked to her.  I didn't talk to either one of them but I could hear them talking.  Nanny sounded really good and I hope she gets well fast so she can get back on track.

I told Krista to go on in to Wellington by herself so she did.  She was able to FaceTime with Miss Kylie, Lauren and Chase and took a screen shot so I could see how precious she looked in her elf suit.  She was able to FaceTime some of her other friends as well.  There was a museum in town that she visited and she also went to a pharmacy to get me some medicine.  I had brought several things from home "just in case" but they weren't working.  Craig said I needed to go to the ship doctor but I am afraid they will quarantine me to my room.

While Krista was gone I finally got up around noon and got dressed and went up to the Lido and got a hamburger and sat by the window and watched people come and go downstairs.  Krista got back around 2:00 which was just in time because shortly after she got back it started raining.

We went to dinner and then to the spa for a short bit and then it was back to the room for bed.  Hopefully I will be better in the morning.

Christmas Day -- Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Today was Christmas Day.  We started out by eating breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.  We set the alarm so we could be there when they opened.  

At 9:00 am this morning they had crafts and Christmas carols in the Vista Show Lounge.  It was mostly children doing the crafts and they were also the ones singing to us.  It was fun watching them have so much fun in there.  They were also serving coffee, hot chocolate and egg nog.  However, why get it for free if you can go to the Explorations Coffee Shop and buy it.  I went up there and had a Cafe Mocha to enjoy as I watched the festivities.

Around 9:45 am Santa's sleigh landed on the ms Oosterdam and came to see us.  He had gifts for all the children and had his picture made with each one -- except for the ones that were crying and refused to go near him!

We finally decided to go back to the room about 10:45 am and rest a bit.  I am trying to get a cold or sore throat or something so wasn't feeling the best today.  I ended up sleeping an taking it easy the rest of the afternoon.

I don't know if I have mentioned lately or not but on the first day our cabin steward said he would like to send snacks to our room and what time would be good.  I said that 4:00 pm would be good.  I thought it was just one day but they have been arriving like clock work every day -- even those days we are not there.  We get a plate of cold snacks and 2 different plates of hot snacks.  The hot snacks are usually pretty good but the cold ones are not as good.  On the days we get back late from excursions we don't even have time to try them because we are rushing to dinner.  Since we didn't have lunch today, we looked forward to having our goodies delivered to us.  However, we didn't want to eat too much because we had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill for 5:30 pm.

Dinner at the Pinnacle was excellent as always.  They had party favors on our plates in celebration of Christmas.  You were supposed to pull on them and make them pop and break apart.  I couldn't figure out how to do it so I just tore into it to get my prize out.  I had the filet mignon and it was some of the best meat I had eaten in a long time.  I wasn't able to eat it all.

After dinner we went back to our room and changed to go to the Hydrotherapy pool.  We got there around 7:20 and they told us that they had sent a paper to the rooms telling us they were closing at 8:00 pm on Christmas.  We didn't get that notice and I actually think they just decided to close early (they have done that in the past) so we didn't have very long in there but it was relaxing.

We didn't go to the show tonight and decided to call it an early night.  Tomorrow we are in Wellington and don't have any excursions booked.  We are just planning on going into town and see what is there.  There is a shuttle available for $10 per person so we will do that.  Krista looked up where the Starbucks is so hopefully we can go there and get free wifi and FaceTime Kylie!

I don't think I mentioned this earlier.  The ms Oosterdam holds about 1900 passengers.  There are 1400 Aussies, 400 Americans, and 100 other.  The Americans are definitely outnumbered!

Christmas Eve -- Monday, December 24, 2012

We have had a busy day today.  We had an excursion booked and were to meet in the show room around 7:00 am.  This was a tender port but we were on the first tender over.  We had to be speedy today so we could once again have good seats on the bus.  We were anchored in Akaroa.  After the earthquake in Christchurch, this is where they had to start coming.  They said that they are slowly getting the facilities for the cruise ships back in operation and can now handle the small ships but the larger ships have to go to Akaroa.

Our tour today was a train ride.   I guess I didn't read the description closely enough to see what a long day it was going to be.  It did say it was a 9 hour tour but I didn't realize that 7 of those hours were going to be on a bus.  The bus left port around 8:00 am and we drove 2 hours to a little town called Springfield.  They served us a snack there.  It looked like maybe we stopped at the community center and there was a family serving us.  They had instant coffee and tea.  They also served us biscuits with butter and jam which would have been delicious if they had been hot or even lukewarm.  They were hard enough to use as a baseball but I was starving so I ate the biscuit but passed up the butter and jam.  We were only there about 30 minutes.  

I felt sure that we were near the train station.  However, we drove another 2 hours or so.  We got to the train station for a restroom break and then he drove us to the top of this mountain for a lookout point.  I was sure the bus was going over the edge.  I had never been so uneasy before.  You should have seen the people that were at the lookout point staring at us.  They were probably afraid we were going to take their cars out.  In fact as soon as he got the bus parked I think all the cars that had been there left.  We were there about 15 minutes and it was a beautiful view and then we loaded back on the bus to go back to the train station to board it.  We had to walk through an underground tunnel and up a hill to get to it.  I was exhausted by the time I got there.  Of course we had to walk fast to try and get a good seat on the train.  There was another bus of people on board.  We did find this little table for 4 that we homesteaded.  I sat on one side and Krista sat on the other side.  Nobody dared to join us.  There really wasn't room for 4 people.  It would have been very uncomfortable.

We were to be served lunch on board.  As soon as we left the station they started bringing out the lunches.  I was about to have a fit.  The box lunches that they were bringing out only had fruit in them.  I thought surely we were getting more than a bunch of fruit.  We finally figured out that maybe that was the vegetarian option because she asked us if we wanted the regular lunch and we said that we did.  It had a sandwich, cheese block, 2 crackers, grapes and a chocolate mint.  For our drink we had a choice of bubbly, orange juice, or water.  After we finished eating they came through and served instant tea and instant coffee.  I know it was instant because I sat and watched her open all the packets.  However my coffee was good.

About mid way through they had a stop where we could get off the train for about 10 minutes.  We just stayed on board so we didn't run the risk of being left behind.  In about another hour we met up with our bus again.  We were on the train for 2 1/2 hours.  We then had to ride 1 1/2 hours back to port.  

We did see lots of pretty scenery and countryside.  A lot of what we saw today were crops planted.  We saw white clover and carrots planted and they said they had planted these crops for seeds.  They also grow lots of potatoes here for McDonalds.  Once again we saw lots of orchards of apricot trees, cherry trees, etc.  At one point we passed by a small town and they said that they had just opened up a powdered milk factory.  Someone asked what their main industry was there and they said they were mainly agricultural.

Our bus driver also drove us through part of Christchurch and we saw a lot of the destruction.  When asked what the timeline was to rebuild everything, he said 20 years.  There are still buildings standing that are scheduled for demolition, others that they have already started rebuilding and a lot of vacant lots.

We got back a little after 5:00 pm and then had to wait for a tender so we could return to the ship.  It was about 5:40 pm before we got on board and we were once again late for dinner.  We rushed back to the room to change clothes and made it to the dining room around 5:50 pm.  We weren't the only ones late.  At the end of dinner they had a parade of the Christmas Yule Log desserts.  We had already eaten our dessert so as soon as the parade was over we left and were still able to make it to the 7:00 pm show.

The entertainment tonight was an Australian guitar player -- Bob Howe.  He was very entertaining.  He was named Australia's Instrumental Performer of the Year.

There is a lot going on tonight.  At 11:00 pm there will be "The Sounds of Christmas Concert" which is Holland America Crew members Christmas Choir and we are planning on going to hear them.  At midnight there will be a Interdenominational Church Service.  Looks like we will be up late tonight and tomorrow will be an early morning as well because it will be Christmas and there is going to be a very special guest joining us on the ship!

Saturday & Sunday, December 22-23, 2012

This post will be for 2 days, December 22 & 23.

We had an early morning Saturday.  We were to meet our group for our overnight tour at 7:00 am which meant we had to get up super early that morning.  As we all gathered in the show room, we were getting our final instructions and waiting for the tender to come pick us up.  Then all at once we were told that the New Zealand Immigration officials were on the ship and they were going to search all of our luggage.  So one by one we all got in line as they went through everything we were taking with us from the ship.  They finished up right about 7:30 which was when our tender boat was there waiting for us.  We were told to bring luggage that we could carry ourselves.  I figured if we needed help getting it onto the bouncing tender boat that they would help.  Well I was wrong, it was all up to us to get our luggage on board.  Krista and I were able to manage ours.  We shared a small piece of luggage for our things and then Krista had her backpack with her camera gear in it and I had my purse which was, well sort of big, but it needed to be that way so I could cram things in it along the way.

Once we got off the tender there was a rush to get on the bus.  You see, there is always a rush to get to sit near the front of the bus.  There are 2 reasons for this.  One is if you tend to get car sick, it is easier sitting in the front and two you can be one of the first off the bus and beat everyone to the bathroom lines and be first in line to eat at the buffets.  Krista and I had already decided that I would take the luggage to the bus driver to put underneath the bus and Krista was to go push her way ahead of everyone and get us a prime seat -- and she got us a good one on the 3rd row.

We had a group of 40 on this tour plus the Shore Excursions Manager from the ship that was our escort.  Our bus driver (John) was our driver/guide.  After this over night tour I can honestly say that I didn't realize until now what a good group we had when we went on our Alaska Cruise Tour in 2011.  Everyone was always cooperative and ON TIME!

This group consisted of so many inconsiderate people.  There were a few that were back to the bus when they were supposed to be but so many people just didn't care and it caused the rest of us to lose time in other stops because we were running late. 

Our tender picked us up at Milford Sound.  Once on the bus our first stop was to see the Chasm.  We took a nice peaceful stroll on a trail and mid way through saw some really beautiful waterfalls.  At first I wasn't going to go on the walk and Krista went on ahead.  I then decided to go for the walk.  I figured if it was too hard, I could turn around and come back.  It was a very nice walk.  At first John said it was a 10 minute walk, then he said to be back in 15 minutes.  As we started walking the trail there was a sign that said it was a 20 minute walk.  I have no idea how long it took -- probably close to 30 minutes for everybody to finish.

We then got to go through the Legendary Homer Tunnel.  The tunnel was 1 lane and we had to sit at a stop light until it was time for us to go.  I don't remember how long he said the tunnel was, but it took a while for us to get through it.

There was such beautiful scenery on the whole drive.  We saw different types of scenery -- forests, rocks, dry barren land and beautiful flowers.  There were lots of sheep, cattle and deer.

We stopped for lunch at Kingsgate Hotel in Te Anau.  They had a buffet all set up for us and it was very good.  Lots of food to enjoy.  They had some sort of dessert that people were raving about.  Krista got some and all it looked like to me was meringue.  I tasted it and that was what it tasted like.  They call it Pavlova.  I didn't see any desserts that appealed to me so I just got fruit to eat and it was so good.  Free wifi was available, so after lunch we decided to go outside to check our emails.  I decided to give Craig a call since it had been several days since I had talked to him.  I was standing there minding my own business and some woman came and looked at me to move because I guess I was standing in front of a flower that she wanted to get a picture of.  This was while I was in a conversation.  I then walked across the parking lot and stood by the bus and continued to talk.  I look up and this woman had followed me over there to take pictures.  I guess she was taking pictures of the rocks in the driveway or something because there was nothing.  I then was very annoyed so I went around the corner and found a curb to sit on.  I stayed there until they opened the bus for us.  The woman made a comment to Krista that I must had gotten some bad news because I seemed upset.  Krista just straight out told her that some people needed to be aware of personal space.  I doubt if the woman even understood what she was talking about.

After the lunch stop, our next stop was supposed to be Queenstown.  However, some man asked if we could have another bathroom break about an hour after lunch.  Then John had to find somewhere to take us and of course everyone was supposed to hurry because this was not a scheduled stop.

When we got to Queenstown we rode gondola up to Bob's Peak.  It was way up there!  We were also supposed to have the opportunity to luge or bungee jump.  Of course we were stretched for time, so we didn't think there was time to do anything but go up to the top, look around and come back down.  We were supposed to be back on the bus at 4:15.  We were back by then and one other man and woman were back.  People started trickling back one by one and the last ones came back around 4:45.  I guess we would have had time to do something else after all, but we were trying to follow directions.

We then went to our hotel -- Hotel St Moritz.  It was very nice.  The beds were really comfortable and Krista and I had a balcony.  I don't know if the others did or not.  Our room was on the same level as the front desk and I notice everyone else riding the elevator.  The only problem with it was that it was up a steep hill from town so it wasn't the most convenient it you wanted to go into town.

We had about 20 minutes to get settled into our rooms and then we had to get on the bus again.  John took us to get on a historic steamship 'TSS Earnslaw'.  We had about a 30 minute cruise on Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak Station.  This is where we had our evening meal -- Colonels House.  It was a buffet with all sorts of things available -- all very good.  The gardens around the house were so pretty.  All the flowers were in full bloom.  

After the meal we got to see a sheep dog demonstration.  These dogs are so smart and it was really interesting to see how they handle the sheep.  After that demonstration, we got to see the man shear a sheep.  That was interesting also seeing how the sheep just played dead hoping the man would go away!  It was amazing seeing him shear the sheep.  After the show there was a gift shop we could browse through.  I didn't spend much time there as our ride -- TSS Earnslaw was waiting for us.

I forgot to mention that there was a man playing a piano on the steamship on the way over.  Then when we got to the house he was in there playing as well.  On the way back he was playing again and had books for us to sing along as he played.  I read through the book as he was playing but I don't think anybody was singing.

After we got back to town, some people opted to stay there and walk back.  We rode on the bus and went back to our hotel.  It was 10:00 pm and still bright outside but it had been a long day for us and we had another one ahead of us the next day.

Sunday morning we got up early again and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  It was a buffet and had lots of things to choose from.  I tried not to overdo it.  After breakfast we were to be at the bus at 9:15 am.  We were sitting in the lobby around 9:00 and one of the women in our group went into the restaurant to have breakfast.  Give me a break -- she was eating breakfast 15 minutes before we were to leave.  Guess who we had to wait for?

Shortly after we left Queenstown we stopped at Arrowtown, a small gold mining village.  We were able to walk around for about 30 minutes or so.  It was a quaint town and I wish there had been more time there.  I feel like there was lots more to see.  After this stop we went down the road a bit and stopped to watch the bungee jumping at the Old Kawarau Bridge.  We watched several people jump and once again, there wasn't enough time to try it ourselves.  However the cost was $180 per person so that could have had something to do with why we didn't try it.

We drover through several other towns and then on to lunch.  We ate lunch at the Packing Shed restaurant.  The buffet line was set up on the lawn under the trees and they had tables set up for our group under gazebos.  The food was good but the service was really slow.  The dessert was fresh apricots with ice cream.  It was delicious!  Earlier we also had stopped at a fruit stand and they had lots of fruit there for sale.  I think it was all grown locally.  I wanted one of everything but resisted.  I did buy a little bag of dried apricots.

Since the service was so slow at the restaurant we only had one restroom stop the rest of the day and didn't get to stop anywhere else.  We did drive through several more towns but didn't have time for anything else.  We had to be back to the ship by 5:30 pm because we were sailing away at 6:00 pm.  We got there about 5:20 pm and the Immigration Officials came on the bus and had to look at everyone's picture ID and their room key.  One man didn't have his with him.  His was packed in his suitcase under the bus so we had to wait for him to get off the bus and get his stuff out of his luggage to show to the officials.  Once he did that we were on our way.  The gangway was steep incline which was tough to get up pulling a suitcase but I did it.  Once we got back to our room it was 5:40 pm which meant dinner had already started so we had to rush to dinner.

After dinner we went to the hydrotherapy pool for a bit and then came on back to our room to get ready for tomorrow.  We have to meet at 7:00 am tomorrow morning.  We will be riding a train and it will be an all day tour. 

Tomorrow will be Christmas Eve for us and they have lots of things planned on the ship tomorrow night.  I will tell you about that tomorrow.

Friday, December 21, 2012

This morning we made it up early enough for breakfast to eat in the Pinnacle Grill.  It was very crowded in there.  Usually there are only a handful of people in there, but today they had people seated everywhere and the staff seemed to be having a hard time keeping up.  However, we got service with a smile and we didn't have to wait too long.  They asked us if we were on for the 14 day cruise or the whole 28 days.  Unfortunately we only get to cruise for the 14 days.  I think the next 14 days they are going to Fiji.  Now that would be nice.

After breakfast we went to the showroom to hear a presentation of the shore excursions on some of the ports.  We still don't have something booked in all the ports but we are slowly getting there.  In Aukland we have the America's Cup Yacht booked there.  I am thinking about changing to something else where we would really get to see part of Aukland instead of racing on a boat.  We may go see the glow worms but we haven't decided yet.  I guess I need to decide in a hurry.  One of the excursions we wanted was sold out so we had to get on a wait list.  They did say there was a good chance they would be able to do another group and we would get to do it.  It is a Catamaran Cruise to Cape Brett.  This will be at the Bay of Islands port.

There was the Mariners Brunch today that I always look forward to.  It is the only time on the cruise that they serve quiche and it is absolutely delicious!  We were also invited to a reception prior to the brunch.  This is where the Captain hands out the medals to various passengers for sailing a certain number of days.  We opted out of the reception and just did the brunch and the food was as good as I had remembered it to be.

We are going on an overnight excursion tomorrow and had to go to a meeting today at 2:00 pm to get our instructions as to where we are to be and when.  We have to be ready to go at 7:00 am in the morning and meet in the show lounge.  At 7:30 am we will ride on a special tender boat which will take us to the motor coach that will take us on our tour.  We will spend the night in Queenstown and there are various activities planned for us along the way.  We will meet back up with the ship on Sunday evening.  There are 40 from the ship that will be on this tour.

At 4:00 pm we were in our room thinking about getting ready for dinner and there was a knock on the door.  There was a man standing there with FOOD for us once again.  I guess our cabin steward sent it to us again.  Once again we had 2 plates of hot appetizers and 1 plate of cold appetizers and once again we tasted a few things and made it look like we ate more than we did.  I sure hope they don't continue to do this each night.

Dinner tonight was good and fast.  They really have this down pretty good.  We are in and out within an hour which is a record on these ships because they usually like to drag it out.

We decided to try the 7:00 pm show and see how it was.  The entertainer was Patrick McMahon who is an Australian singer, songwriter and recording artist.  His show lasted about 50 minutes and was very entertaining.  I will admit that sometimes I had a hard time understanding him because he seemed to talk so fast.

After the show we went to the spa hydrotherapy pool again to end our day.  We are back in our room now trying to get things ready for our tour in the morning.  We will have to be getting up REALLY early and want to get as much done tonight as possible.  We were hoping that we would have free wifi in our hotel but it looks like we will have to pay for it.  I told Krista that maybe there will be a coffee shop nearby that would have free wifi.  It will probably be a few days before I post again.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Well we had the best of intentions today to eat at the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.  However, they only serve until 9:30 and we didn't wake up until 8:45.  There was no way we could both get ready in time so we didn't even try.  When we did finally get ready we went to the Neptune Lounge to see what they had to eat and they still had their breakfast food out so we got a quick bite to eat in there and just relaxed while we decided which other excursions we wanted to book.  I think we have something booked in all except 2 ports and we haven't yet decided what to do in those ports.

We decided to check out the ship since we didn't look at it all yesterday.  We found the shops and tried to look around in there but they were very crowded so we didn't stay in there long.  I forgot my waterproof watch on this trip and I did find one for $10 but don't know if I will go back and get it or not.  After that we walked through the casino.  It wasn't very busy and it looked like there weren't very machines in there but I tried not to linger because I didn't want to be lured in there.  We decided to go to the Culinary Arts Center and watch a cooking demonstration with the Chef of the Pinnacle Grill.  He made a lobster salad and Creme Brûlée.  I was glad we went because they gave us all a sample of the Creme Brûlée which is one of my favorites. 

When the cooking demonstration was over it was time for lunch.  I didn't want to eat a big lunch so we went to the Lido.  I opted to just have a sandwich and it was very tasty.  Krista had the same thing but she did go hunt the bread pudding down and I watched her eat it.  It looked very good.  For the first 48 hours on the ship we can't serve ourselves and they have to serve everything to us.  I guess that isn't so bad because I like being served.  However, it was really slow waiting in line to just get a glass of water to drink.

It is really a lazy day.  The ship is rocking and rolling quite a bit and it is very gray outside and looks to be windy.  

We came back to the cabin to rest for a while.  Finally I told Krista that we needed to get out of the cabin for a while and maybe we could go to the Neptune Lounge for an afternoon snack.  We went down there for a while and then walked through the ship again.  We got back to the cabin around 4:00.  I was in the shower and heard someone come to the door.  I thought it was probably Krista's cleaning that she had sent out and requested back for formal night.  When I got out, there was this huge plate of food there that our cabin steward had sent to us.  There were 2 plates of hot snacks and one plate of cold snacks.  We weren't hungry but tried to eat some of it and made it look like we had eaten at others.  I was hoping he would take the rest of it away when he made up the room that night and he did.

We were dressed in our finest for formal night, well Krista was anyway.  There's not much an old woman can do, but she can try!  Dinner was once again fast.  This is something that we have never experience before.  However we are not ordering all the courses so that probably helps.  It also seemed that the dining room is not that full.  However, the first night we were sailing away during dinner and some people might have opted to do something else for dinner that night and last night being formal night, some people don't wish to dress up and go to the lido.  

The show was to be the Captain's welcome aboard toast and then the singers and dancers.  It was to start at 7:00 pm.  We got down there at 6:30 pm and the doors were still shut so we opted to skip the show and go to the Thermal Suites, so that is what we did.  We also lose another hour of sleep tonight.   We are setting an alarm so we don't miss breakfast in the morning.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Today was a busy day.  We got a full nights sleep which was much needed.  The beds at the Shangri-la were so comfortable.  We didn't set an alarm and got up when we woke up and of course I woke up at 5:00 am but I was nice and let Krista sleep a little longer.  We took our time getting ready and then went to the restaurant for breakfast.  It was a buffet and very good.  They had lots of choices and I tried to not make a pig of myself.  After all I have 14 days on the ship to do that!  They had quiche and I do love quiche.  However, this was one that I don't think I had ever seen before -- it was pumpkin quiche.  It was good but nothing that I care to try again.

We asked what time check out was and it was 11:00 am.  I asked if we could stay until noon and they said that was ok.  We weren't sure what time we would be allowed in our cabins on the ship so we didn't want to get there too early.  Krista had someone to come get our bags and get a taxi for us.  It was a short taxi ride down there.  In fact we had walked down there yesterday, but it would be difficult to do it with bags with all the hills.  Check-in was a breeze and we were on the ship very quickly and the cabins were ready.  We immediately searched for free internet connections and found one but it was very slow.  It was called SOH Guest.  It took me a while to figure out that it probably was for the Sydney Opera House.

We had a couple of things we needed to have taken care of so we went to the Neptune Lounge and asked the ladies there to help us.  First thing was that our wonderful travel agent had given us a Pinnacle Grill dinner and it was booked for tonight.  We asked if we could change it and we were told yes.  We were able to change it to Christmas night.  That will be a formal night so that is a good time to eat there.  We also wanted to have the LeCirque dinner in the Pinnacle.  I had tried to book it before I left home and I was told it was full.  We checked on it and the early seating was full.  We had a choice of getting on the wait list for the early or we could eat at 9:00 pm.  We said that we would do 9:00 pm.  I just hope I can stay up that late!

Our next thing we wanted to check out was where our table was located in the dining room.  We always request a table for 2 by the center rail.  They don't always do what they are supposed to do so we wanted to check it out.  The dining room wasn't open but there were others in there checking out table locations.  We were having trouble finding our table and someone yelled out to me -- Mrs. Anderson.  I thought who in the world knows me.  Well it was the dining room manger.  I still don't know how he knew who I was, but he did.  I guess they have my picture posted somewhere telling them not to make me mad.  Anyway he said your table is right over here.  He knew exactly what we were looking for.  The location was PERFECT!  I told him we would see him for dinner and off we went.

We then went to the dining room for lunch.  On embarkation day they have lunch in the dining room for HAL Mariners -- those that have sailed with HAL before.  I wasn't really that hungry but hated to pass up a meal.  They had a avocado bacon burger which I ordered without the avocado.  It was good.  I wasn't going to get any dessert but Krista was ordering some and I didn't want her to eat by herself.  I ordered no sugar added coffee ice cream.  Whatever they brought me didn't have a coffee flavor.  I think it was chocolate fudge or something and I really didn't care for it much.

We wanted to go on a spa tour and purchase our hydrotherapy pool/thermal suite pass for the cruise.  We got a really good tour where everything was explained in detail.  I told the young man giving us the tour that I had purchased these passes many times and been on many spa tours and he had done the best job explaining things that we had never been told before.  Of course don't ask me now what he told us that we hadn't been told before because I couldn't tell you, but I know I had never heard the info before. 

It was then time for my favorite part of the cruise -- the life boat drill.  I just hate those things and I know they are necessary, but so many people wait until the very last minute to come down for the drill and it slows the rest of us up.  It lasted about 15 or 20 minutes and once it was over it was time to go to dinner.  I know, it seems all we have been doing today is eating.

Dinner was good and fast.  We got very good service.  I haven't been on a HAL cruise since 2011 but back then we had a waiter and an assistant waiter.  Tonight we only had a waiter and he was very efficient.  I ordered chilled pumpkin soup which was interesting but I probably won't be ordering it again.  For my main entree I got prime rib which was ok, but for dessert they had red velvet cake.  It was out of this world.  After we finished eating the dining room manger stopped by to chat and I told him of all the cruises I had been on that this red velvet cake was better than any dessert I had ever had!  He told me to just wait until they served his favorite but he wouldn't tell me what it was.  He said I would have to wait.  This dessert was so good I was tempted to go to the buffet to see if they had any up there but I was good and resisted the temptation.

They had the Christmas tree lighting ceremony tonight at 7:30pm so we went and joined in to watch it.  We sang Christmas carols and 2 children pulled the switch.  There were gingerbread houses that were so cute.  They were also serving ginger bread cookies that looked cute but I didn't try any.  Once that was over we went back to our cabin to change into our swimsuits so we could go to the hydrotherapy pool.  It was so hot in there I could barely stand it but we did get there before there was a crowd.  When we left there looked like there was about 6 people in there.

Tomorrow morning we will be going to eat breakfast at the Pinnacle Grill.  This is one of our favorite places to eat breakfast.  I'm not sure what else we will do but there are a lot of things planned.

Just an observation -- for those of you that have not cruised before, let me explain something to you.  Once on a cruise ship, it is a cashless society.  The only thing that is needed is your room key.  If you want to purchase ANYTHING at all, just show your room key and it will be put on you bill.  There is nothing else that is needed.  Now that I have explained that, I don't understand why since all you need is your room key, why do women carry around purses the size of suitcases that bump into you every step you take………………..

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I will pick up where I left off.  We boarded our flight in Bangkok for Sydney.  The plane was nice with the biggest "personal space" of all the planes we had been on so far.  However, by the time I boarded this flight, I was totally exhausted.  All the flights and lack of sleep were finally beginning to catch up with me.

As I sat there waiting for the plane to take off it was all I could do to keep my eyes open.  I think we probably took off a little late which just added to the problem.  I was dozing off as they were giving their little safety speech, trying to listen, but was obviously a lost cause.  They gave the speech in 3 different languages (I think) and their English was difficult for me to understand.  At one time I thought they said that the whole crew were alcoholics and were going to be drunk for the duration of the flight so not to bother them.  I know that is crazy, but that was what I heard.

I was going to help them out and not bother them any longer than necessary.  Usually as soon as they gain altitude on one of these night flights they start dinner service.  It seemed like it took forever for them to start and when they did, everything was in slow motion.  I was really too tired to eat and what I did eat, I just picked at it so they would take it away and move on to the next course.  Finally when I half ate my entree they wanted to bring me something else (I don't remember which course it was (not dessert) because there were so many of them), I told them that I was really tired and didn't want anything else to eat that I just wanted my bed made up so they rapidly did that and I was asleep in a flash.  I don't know anything else that happened that night.  I think I woke up a couple of hours before landing and I felt rested.

I had told them the night before what I wanted for breakfast.  All I had remembered was the omelet -- I really didn't want that but that choice sounded better than the other options.  When they brought it to me I started eating it and it was pretty good.  Then I noticed that the 2 flight attendants were looking at my food and it was obvious the male flight attendant was mad.  I asked if I had done something or if there was something wrong with my food.  They said that I was eating the vegetarian option.  I told them that was ok and that it was good.  I started thinking later, I wonder if somebody had ordered the vegetarian option and it was the only one that they had and I was sitting there eating it.  Oh well, too bad, so sad.

Krista's entertainment system wouldn't work so she was unable to listen to any music, watch movies, etc.  She asked them to fix it and it couldn't be fixed.  Toward the end of the flight they told her as compensation for the entertainment system not working they would give her something from the Duty Free book free (up to $200 value).  She looked through it quickly and found some ear buds that were worth $100.  That turned out to be a good deal for her.

Once we landed in Sydney, things went smooth.  We were given an Easy Pass to get past the lines and zoomed straight through.  Our luggage was among the first to come out.  We got through the hordes of people and found the driver that was there waiting on us.  As he drove us to our hotel, he gave us lots of pointers on what to do in Sydney both today and after the cruise.

When we go to the hotel we were able to go to our room immediately, which was nice.  It was only about 9:00 am.  We were able to clean up a little bit and then took to the streets of Sydney, walking a LOT and found something to eat, found Diet Dr Pepper for $4.50 each and walking some more.  It is so hot here.  Of course I guess it should be as this is their summer.  I looked up the temperature and it said it was 79 degrees which in Dallas would be pleasant.  Well let me tell you, it is not pleasant.  My clothes were soaking wet by the time we got back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel we rested and cooled off and then off we went again.  Krista had forgotten a few things so we had to go find the shopping mall.  There were lots of stores and lots of people.  It was a very festive place with lots of street performers doing their thing.  It is hard to believe it is Christmas with people walking around in sundresses and shorts.

When we got back to the hotel we rested some more then went up to the Horizon Club.  They upgraded us to this level when we checked in.  They had free drinks and snacks so that was our dinner.  Krista asked if they had diet soda and they told her that they didn't have diet soda, they only had diet coke so we both said we would take one of them then.

As we were leaving the club, I told them we needed more towels and she said that she would get them sent up "straight away".  They did arrive "straight away" with our towels -- only towels -- no wash cloths.  Krista and I discussed just using towels for wash cloths and I figured that would be one huge mess so I called back and asked for wash cloths.  They did send someone with those, but not "straight away".  It took a while, however he did bring us 2 bottles of water so I guess it was worth waiting for.

Since we were upgraded to the Horizon Club, breakfast it included.  Our plans are to have breakfast in the restaurant in the morning and have a leisurely morning, check out of the hotel and head over to our home for the next 14 days -- the ms Oosterdam.

Once we are on the ship our posting will slow down because we will be having to pay for it.  I will try to get some pictures posted before I get on the ship.  I did share a few of the pictures that Krista had taken on my Facebook page.

Monday, December 17, 2012

We had a short night last night in our  Shanghai hotel.  I wish we had been able to stay longer and not check out so early this morning.  The room was really nice  and comfortable and the service we received from the staff was top notch.  

We got up at 3:45 am to make sure we had plenty of time to get ready for our day.  We decided to go downstairs at 5:30 am to check out of the hotel and wait on our car that was supposed to be there at 5:45 am.  We were both starving.  They had given us a fruit basket the night before and I tried cutting up part of an apple but that didn't quite hit the spot.  When we were checking out, we spotted a tray across the room that had pastries on it.  I asked if they were complimentary and they were so we both got a chocolate croissant and ate while waiting for the car (dropping crumbs all over the lobby floor).  The care got there promptly and took us straight to the airport.  

Once inside the airport, we found the Royal Silk Class (Business Class) check in line for Thai Airways.  We were the first one in that line and they were not opening until 6:30 am so we had a little bit of a wait.  Once they opened, they were very quick.  We had to go through several check points to get into the secured portion of the airport but I must say it is the most painless experience of ANY airport I had ever been in.  I will gladly transit in Shanghai airport any time.  When we went through the security scan, there were lots of lines and they would only let one person through at a time with a security guard.  I explained to him about my artificial knee and he said no problem, I started to take my jacket off and he said no problem, we got to keep our shoes on.  I just had to take my computer out.  I went through the scanner and nothing went off.  Once Krista and I got through we looked at each other in disbelief in how easy it was.

We are now sitting in the Lounge.  I got some fresh fruit to eat for breakfast along with a coke lite.  They had other things that looked kind of shady to me so I didn't try them.  Krista was braver and got some of the other foods.  We are supposed to have a meal on our flight to Bangkok so I am holding out for that.

Krista spotted some massage chairs so she is over there checking them out.  I asked her if they were free and she said she didn't know that it was all written in Chinese and if they didn't ask for a pin number or a credit card she should be good to go!

The flight from Shanghai to Bangkok went good.  We were in Business Class because there wasn't a First Class Section on this plane.  The seats were nice and roomy and the service was good.  As we got on the plane, there were 2 flight attendants greeting us and bowed to us.  We felt special.  At the end of the flight as we got off the plane, there was a woman standing there holding a sign with our names on it.  I told her who we were and she whisked us off on a golf cart and took us to the First Class Lounge.  We rode quite a way so I am glad we didn't have to walk.  Once we got to the lounge they told us there was food, rooms where you could shower and nap and also free massages.  We sat for a while and got a club sandwich to eat that was really good.  After we sat a little while longer I went up to the front desk and asked how we could get a massage.  They quickly called and made us an appointment and then came and got us and walked us over there.  It really made us feel better and will hopefully help get us through this last flight to get to Sydney.  

When we got back to the lounge they brought us food menus so I ordered fresh fruit.  I'm not really sure what type of fruit it is but I will try it.  They are supposed to come get us when it is time to board our flight, which I think is about a little over an hour from now.  I am ready to get on the plane and go to sleep and wake up in Sydney!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

This day actually started out as Saturday, December 15, 2012 but ended up the evening of Sunday, December 16, 2012.

We left DFW early Saturday morning on a 6:00 am flight.  We made it to PHX uneventful and then on to LAX.  I had never been to LAX before and didn't know what to expect.  Of course there aren't many airports as easy to get around in as DFW.  At LAX nothing is connected so we had to go outside of security, find a bus and ride from terminal 1 to 7.  Once to terminal 7 we walked forever to find a door to go in.  We finally found one and it was baggage claim.  It seems we were supposed to have gone up the escalators outside.  We finally did find our way upstairs and the security line was short so that wasn't bad.  Once inside the secured side of the airport we then went to find the First Class Lounge.  We went in one and were told there was another one down the hall just for international departures so we went to that one.  It was nice but the elevator was broken so we had to walk upstairs.  The lady up there started giving us problems for not having a Chinese Visa.  You don't have to get one if you are in transit (which we are) but we had to explain it to every person we came in contact with.

The plane was completely sold out and they were late boarding.  Once they started boarding we were some of the first on board.  The only thing wrong with this picture is that we were on row 1 and they were boarding people from the front of the plane instead of the middle so it was heck getting our stuff in the overhead bins without people stepping all over us.

They told us we had to have everything stowed for take off an they showed us where there were some little bins next to our seat where we could put our things that we wanted to keep close by so we used those.  Right before closing the cabin doors Krista needed to get something out of her storage and it was broken and she couldn't get it open.  Well we were already late so what is a little bit more.  They had to get maintenance on the plane to fix it.  They told her she was good to go but she was afraid to use it anymore so she put her stuff on my side.

Pretty soon after we took off they served us lunch or dinner or whatever it was.  It seemed like they just kept on bringing the food.  It was all good.  For my entree I ordered some kind of steamed rice with shrimp, bell peppers and other stuff.  It was good but I was getting full so didn't eat it all.  The flight attendant wanted to know if it was any good and I told her it was.  She said I was the first person that had ever ordered it.  After dinner they came around with ice cream sundaes.  They looked delicious but there was no way I could eat anything else so I passed.

We had our own personal TV screen with a nice selection of movies, tv shows, games, etc.  I watched a couple of movies and some TV shows during the flight -- that was in between sleeping.

After one of my naps I woke up and I thought it said we still had 4 hours to go on the flight and they came around and started serving us breakfast.  We were actually only about an hour from Shanghai at that time.

Once we landed, we had to go through immigration and of course since we didn't have Chinese Visas we had to go talk to the supervisor to get things sorted out but they finally let us enter their country.  I will say that so far everyone here has been very nice to us.

Tomorrow morning a car is to pick us up again at 5:45 am to whisk us off to the airport for an 8:45 am flight.  We will fly to Bangkok and then transfer planes and on to Sydney.  That will be another long day and night.  We will get into Sydney the next morning around 7:00 am or so.  I am getting so confused as to the time and what day it is.........

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Well the time is fast approaching for me to leave for my next cruise.  We have been working on all the details for this trip for a long time and it is hard to believe it is almost here.  We were fortunate enough to have enough air miles for this trip and are going a combination of First Class and Business Class.  There was only flight that we are going Coach and this flight is a short one -- only a couple of hours.  Since we are using air miles, we don't have the most direct route.

We fly out Saturday, December 15 at 6:00 am.  We will fly on U.S. Airways to Phoenix and then on to LAX.  Once in LAX we transfer to United Airlines and will fly into Shanghai (PVG) where we will have to spend the night.  When I first planned this itinerary I thought this wouldn't be bad and surely there was a hotel attached to the airport like there is at DFW.  Well there is, but it didn't get very good reviews so I figured I needed to go to Plan B.  I researched LOTS of hotels.  Sometimes I think I probably do too much research.  I finally decided to stay at Kerry Hotel.  This hotel is part of the Shangri-La chain so I figured it couldn't be that bad.  In addition to that I was able to use my Capital One points and stay there FREE.  That was even better.  As it got closer I got worried about getting a taxi to take us to the hotel.  I kept reading horror stories about taxi drivers taking people a block away from the hotel and dropping them off or over charging them.  I decided to contact the hotel and see what my transportation options were.  I have arranged for the hotel to send a car to pick us up at the hotel and take us back to the airport the next morning.  It is more than I would have to pay for a taxi but I figured the peace of mind was worth it.  This will be a quick stay because our flight lands at 5:45 pm on December 16 and our flight leaves December 17 at 8:45 am.  The hotel recommended that we leave the hotel 3 hours prior to our flight so this will be a very quick night.

On December 17 we fly with Thai Airways from Shanghai (PVG) to Bangkok (BKK) and then on to Sydney (SYD).  We arrive in Sydney on December 18 at 7:45 am.  We have also arranged for the Shangri-La in Sydney to pick us up at the airport.  We will be staying there 1 night before boarding our ship on December 19 for our 14 night cruise around New Zealand.  We have a few excursions booked for a few ports but still need to decide what we will be doing on the others.

At the end of the cruise we will be staying at the Shangri-La in Sydney for 2 nights before heading home.  We haven't made all our plans for those 2 nights yet.  Krista is going on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb the first evening.  We have talked about going to the Zoo for a back stage tour.  I probably need to get that booked.  I'm not sure if it would be available on a walk-up basis.  In addition to this, we are going to be able to meet up with some people that we met on our Alaska Cruisetour in 2011 -- they live in Sydney and are going to come see us when we are there.  We are excited about seeing them.

I will try to post on a daily basis if possible.  Krista also has a blog and usually posts on hers regularly as well.  There is a link to her blog on the front page of my blog.  You might want to check it out.  I will be posting pictures on facebook.  If you aren't my friend on facebook, you won't be able to see them.  I do this to save on the time I have to be on-line and this seems to work pretty easy.  If I get internet time that I don't have to pay for I will try and post some pictures here on the blog if I can figure out how to do it.

I have told you about our flights getting to Sydney.  The flights returning from Sydney are similar.  We leave Sydney on the afternoon of January 4, 2013 and arrive back to DFW around 9:00 pm on January 5, 2013.

Thai Airways: Sydney-Bangkok; Bangkok-Shanghai
Al Nippon Airways: Shanghai-Tokyo
United Airlines:  Tokyo-Chicago; Chicago-DFW

So you can see we have lots of flights on this trip.  Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride...........