Sunday, November 5, 2017; Kaohsiung Taiwan

Sunday, November 5, 2017; Kaohsiung Taiwan

We were originally scheduled to arrive in Kaohsiung at 10:00AM and our tour was scheduled for 10:45AM so we could have a leisurely breakfast in the dining room.  The ship had been rocking and shaking so much throughout the night that we could tell the captain had the pedal to the metal to get us to Kaohsiung because there would surely be a major mutiny on the Diamond if we missed yet another port of call.  As hard as it is to believe, after being seated for breakfast, the dreaded chimes over the ship’s PA sounded and the captain came on.  Everyone looked at each other in utter disbelief as the captain explained that due to weather and sea conditions, we would not be arriving at Kaohsiung on time, and would actually end up there at 1:00PM if all went well.  This meant that those with full day shore excursions would likely not be able to keep them, although arrangements were being made with the excursion providers to see if modifications could be made.  We had booked a 5 hour excursion so the status of our excursion was in doubt.  This means that 50% of our scheduled ports of call for this cruise were either missed altogether or delayed significantly enough to cancel shore excursions.

The captain then announced that in recognition of the delayed arrival time and disruption to the shore excursions, the ship would issue yet another $50 onboard ship credit.  But to head off an all out mutiny he also announced that a non-refundable future cruise credit would be issued based on 50% of the price paid for this cruise. This can be applied to any future cruises booked by 12/31/2018 or used on existing future bookings that aren’t already fully paid for.  Unfortunately, our Grand South America cruise is fully paid for already, but now we’ll have to shop for another cruise for next year.

Since we had been counting on our shore excursions to spend the $650 non-refundable ship-board credits that were a booking incentive, we were concerned we would be leaving a lot of non-refundable credits on the table.  We went to the passenger services desk to ask about the status of our non-refundable credits and learned that unlike on Norwegian Cruise Lines, the non-refundable shipboard credits can also be used to pay for the gratuities.  So we’ll have to look closely at our balances to see if Janet needs to make a last minute shipboard shopping spree to spend the last of the non-refundable ship-board credits.  

Because we were arriving late, we had time to get in a morning trivia game.  We  didn’t win, but scored within 2 points of the winner.  We then learned that our excursion was rescheduled to a later time, but would proceed, so that was a relief.  We had lunch in the buffet and watched as the ship threaded its way through a very long and industrial waterway.  

Our tour took us to Tainan, a city about an hour north of where the ship had docked.  We visited the oldest Confucian temple in Taiwan, which was showing its age, and a site that had been a Dutch Fort, but then became an administrative center after Koxinga drove the Dutch out of Taiwan.  The Fort was called Fort Provintia, but after the Dutch left it was called Chihkan Tower.  The Fort was a pair of 2 story buildings built atop the ramparts of the Dutch Fort.  It was funny that on the bus ride back to the ship, someone in the back of the bus asked “Hey, weren’t we supposed to see Chihkan Towers?”  He sounded really upset that the tour had skipped them.  Apparently he wasn’t paying attention to what had been going on, or he had some misconception that we were going to visit some modern skyscrapers.  The sun set very quickly and it became dark as the bus headed back towards the pier.  The city looks quite different with all the lighted signs and neon.  

The other thing that was quite notable was the number of scooters on the roads.  Many of the main streets have lanes dedicated to scooters, and they are parked all over the sidewalks.  As we were waiting at one intersection, we were nearly run over by a parade of motorized wheelchairs and disability scooters that were driving in the scooter lane.  That was quite an unusual sight.