Monday, December 30, 2019; Cabo San Lucas

Monday, December 30, 2019; Cabo San Lucas

The Royal Princess was scheduled to drop anchor after 10AM outside Cabo San Lucas, and our excursion wasn’t scheduled to meet until 11:30AM, so we decided to attend the morning trivia.  However, we ended up going to the wrong venue. All of the trivia games to date have been in the Princess Live venue, but this morning, there was a crew training going on.  We ultimately found out the trivia had been moved to the Vista Lounge, so we headed back there.  When we arrived, there were just 3 other teams playing, and they were on question #3.  We joined in late, and fortunately, the host was willing to repeat the first two questions we had missed after he had completed the quiz, but before everyone swapped papers for grading.  We ended up 3 points behind the winners, who have been our main competition so far.  They appear to all be well traveled and probably also Elites.  They won medals, so we didn’t feel like we missed out on much.  They actually passed up on that prize, and if it were us that won, we probably would have kept the prizes just so the kids would have them, but if it were just Janet and Ben, we would have also passed up on the medals.  

The process of going ashore via the tenders to Cabo San Lucas went smoothly.  The Royal Princess had anchored with a nice view of El Arco, the landmark that Cabo San Lucas is most famous for.  When we had anchored in the Viking Star, we had a similar vantage point.  This time, however, our ship had the best anchorage, blocking the views from the Viking Sun and Holland America Oosterdam, which were also anchored nearby.  The Carnival Panorama was also anchored closer in towards the harbor entrance.  Tender traffic combined with fishing and tour boats made for a hectic harbor entrance.  Our tender was following a sports fisher that was coming in after fishing in the morning when an enormous sea lion shot out of the water and landed on that boat’s swim step, nearly tipping the bow out of the water.  The deck hand frantically waved the sea lion off.  That was some display of boldness on the part of that sea lion.  

The marina was a zoo, particularly at the tender dock because there were 4 cruise ships all getting passengers to their excursions.  We had signed up for a “Camel and Mexican Outback Adventure”.  We had been under the impression that we would get to ride ATV’s and camels, but we had misread the brochure and were just going for a camel ride, walk through some desert dunes, and lunch with a tequila tasting.  

The venue was nearly an hour’s drive north of Cabo San Lucas.  This took us well outside the bustle of the city and into the picturesque coastline.  There are large cacti all over the landscape and lots of mountains to the east, while the Pacific Ocean was to the west with stretches of white sand beaches interspersed between rocky prominences with heavy surf action.  In the distance, we could see whale spouts, and Ben even saw one whale breaching with a huge splash.  The road was a surprisingly well paved and maintained highway right up to the point where our turnoff was.  The driveway to the venue looked entirely improvised with compacted dirt forming a ramp up to the highway just barely wide enough for our bus to traverse without sliding off either side into the cacti and barbed wire fencing.  

It was nearly 1pm when we got off the bus.  The facility was actually a very well developed site with modern bathrooms, a nice gift shop and outdoor restaurant.  It was set up to handle large crowds.  There were even 3 ladies rooms to each men’s room so tour groups could get through quickly and efficiently.  

They didn’t waste any time getting us into helmets camouflaged with white head coverings that made us all look like Arab wannabes.  They had a camel mounting station like the elephant ride we did in Bali, so the camels did not have to get down on their knees to load up, or stand up with passengers hanging on for dear life as they tipped dramatically forward and then backward in their usual camel fashion.  These camels were fitted with “modern” saddles with aluminum frames suspending a sling saddle, so we weren’t riding directly on the camel’s spines.  These were a big step up from the camel saddles we had encountered outside Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  

The camel ride was quite scenic, crossing over some low beach dunes covered with cacti, bushes and flowers, to a long stretch of golden sand beach.  There were Sea Turtle signs posted periodically, indicating some nesting areas, so vehicles were not allowed on those stretches of the beach.  The beach and surf were beautiful and majestic, as were the mountains and foothills on the upland side.  The camels ride in single file, even stepping in the same footprints of the animals ahead of them.  This creates efficiencies because the footprint is already compacted, and therefore requires less energy to travel in.  Looking at the tracks behind a caravan of camels, you really can’t tell how many animals are in the caravan because of this trait of following in the exact footsteps of the lead camel.  

While the ride was pleasant, and lasted about 30 minutes, even a smooth camel ride is a very rocky and pitchy affair.  This left Ben’s back a bit tweaked.  After we dismounted, we went to take pictures with camels, but this venue is extremely strict about not allowing any photography with the camels except by their photographers, who then sell you the pictures in the gift shop.  A set of photos started at $150 per person, so we ended up without many pictures.  They had actually forbid riders from carrying cameras saying it was a safety issue- they said you had to have both hands gripping the saddle bar at all times.  But we still managed to sneak a few pictures with our iPhones.  

There was a buffet lunch with included beer and tequila.  Our guide did a demonstration of making tortillas from hominy with volcanic grinding stones, and then did a tequila and Mezcal tasting with us.  Everyone had as much tequila, Mezcal as they cared for or dared to.  We started with a Tequila Plata, which is basically 100% agave distillate, and is a clear liquid. The next was a Tequila Reposado, which is aged in oak barrels to add character and flavors. This gives it a slightly amber color, and hint of smokiness in addition to the expected oak tones.  We then finished our tasting experience with a Guaycura Liquor de Damiana, which is fermented from a mint-like plant.  This produces a very sweet 60 proof liquor that is the Mexican equivalent to an after dinner sherry.  

We all left the tasting pleasantly buzzed.  We were loaded up in a Unimog 4WD truck bed and driven back over the dunes to the parking lot.  It was a hour’s drive back to Cabo San Lucas, but most of us ended sleeping off our Tequila buzz as the bus driver dealt with Cabo’s rush hour traffic.  We got back to the pier at 6pm.  The last tender back was scheduled to leave at 7PM, so there wasn’t much time to do anything else around the marina other than a quick peek into a few shops.  

Back on the ship, we got cleaned up, but since we had such a late lunch on our excursion, nobody really felt like having dinner, so we went to the 8PM performance by Zach Winningham, who is a guitarist and vocalist, who put on a good show of 60’s and 70’s songs backed by the Royal Princess Band.  

After the show, we hit the buffet, which on the Royal Princess for this itinerary, stays open until 1am. This is quite a change from our prior experiences where the buffet closes at 9pm.  But the demographics of this crowd is quite different than on most of our prior cruises- lots of much younger peoples who like to party late and have boundless energy.

Ben soaked his tweaked back in a hot tub while the Movies under the Stars was showing the Peanut Butter Falcon movie, which we had watched in our stateroom on the Sapphire Princess just a couple of weeks ago.  It was actually very pleasant to watch the film outdoors on the pool deck.  There were lots of people doing the same from the pool chairs, which are covered with pillows and blankets for Movies under the Stars at night. 

Tomorrow we arrive early to Mazatlan, so we retired early. We have a tour of three traditional villages in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains.  

Sunday, December 29, 2019; At Sea, San Pedro (Los Angeles) to Cabo San Lucas

Sunday, December 29, 2019; At Sea, San Pedro to Cabo San Lucas

Our clocks went forward an hour during the night so getting up in the morning did require some effort to get breakfast before the 9AM morning trivia.  The kids wanted to do the Tai Chi on the pool deck at 8AM, but it was too cold and breezy to do that comfortably.  Price and Ciara managed to find treadmills in the very crowded fitness center at that hour.  

The kids’ room was quite cramped with the 3rd berth pulled down because it was over the only open floor area between the desk and refrigerator.  It was possible to go in and out through the sliding glass door to the balcony, but you had to duck and shuffle under the bunk.  We eventually figured out how to unlock the bed platform so that it could be rotated back up, restoring access to the floor between the desk and refrigerator.  We did open the divider between our two balconies, so it gives the kids a bit more space to roam, but they will likely spend most of their time in the public areas of the ship.

Ben and Janet traded their minibar set up for coffee cards, so we stopped by the International Cafe after breakfast and got some Chai Lattes and Cafe Latte drinks to go to the 9AM trivia.  

Apparently, after the time change, 9AM was too early for most people because there were only 4 teams and a handful of others in the Princess Live venue.  This host was cracking down on extra clipboards, paper and pencils, insisting that each team have only one, so we have to say answers to each other out loud, making it possible for surrounding teams to eavesdrop, but since the 4 teams were spread out over the theater this morning, that wasn’t really an issue. 

This was a typical general knowledge trivia, and we managed to win with 18/20, bagging some Royal Princess silicone coasters.  They will go towards completing our collection of coasters from the fleet of Princess ships.  We didn’t know who or what  Cymbeline was the king of, according to Shakespeare. We also had no clue who was the first woman to win the US Open golf championship.  

We went back to our rooms to find our stewards working on them so we headed to the atrium to hang out, and discovered Zumba going on. It was very crowded on the floor of the atrium, but there were a few balconies adjacent to the Panoramic elevator shafts where you could have done the Zumba.  Ciara attempted to join the crowd, but felt too much at risk for getting an eye poked out, so she retreated to the balcony to hang out with Price and John until that finished.  

We were finally able to return to our rooms to brush our teeth and freshen up a bit before the 11:15AM trivia.  This time, the room was packed to capacity, so there was a lot of competition.  This one was hosted by Marcus, the cruise director, who is from Toronto, but is a Filipino who greets everyone  by asking them to say Ola Marcus!  This was another general knowledge trivia, and we managed a second win for the morning.  This one was a bit more satisfying because the competition was quite keen.  We got 20/21, missing only one Greek mythology question- what youth was known for his beauty. We incorrectly answered Narcissus, instead of Adonis.  

We stuck around for a Beatlemania trivia at 12:30pm.  We thought we had done pretty well, but ended up getting creamed by a team that had a nearly perfect score, out scoring all the other teams, including ours, but at least 10 points.  They had a real Beatles savant on that team because that trivia had a lot of very difficult and obscure questions like what was the second A side song that was released together with Day Tripper, and what 3 Beatles songs were banned by the BBC.  There were other questions like who inspired the song Eight Days a Week, and what was the inspiration for the song Norwegian Wood.

We had lunch in the buffet and then did some walking and napping.  It took a surprising amount of effort to get the kids to show up for the 3:45PM afternoon trivia.  Price was do deeply asleep that he couldn’t be awakened for the trivia, and John was engaged in exercise, so it was just Ben, Janet and Ciara.  We had scored 18/20, making a 3 way tie for first place, but lost the tie breakers.  There were two- the first was who was the only boxer to defeat Mohammad Ali.  None of the 3 teams got that right.  The second tie breaker was to list as many countries bordering Germany as they could in 30 seconds.  We managed 8, but there were 9 (we missed the Czech Republic) and one team did manage to get all 9.  

This was our first of two formal nights, so we got dressed up and then had our dinner. Ben wanted to see if we could be reseated at a different table because the blue light emanating from a lighted pillar at the table made everyone look cyanotic, and the food oddly colored.  Fortunately, the dining room staff were able to change the color of the pillar with the flick of a switch to a more neutral amber color.  There was no lobster for this formal night, so we had to settle for lamb shank, prawns, and beef tenderloins.  They did have the Chocolate Journey Hazelnut bars for dessert.  

The Captain’s champagne fountain reception followed, so we were able to pick up a few glasses of champagne.  One waitress actually “carded” Ciara and John by scanning their medallions.  Price, who was sporting a 1 week beard growth, passed for being old enough to not need to be “carded”.  

We carried champagne into the Princess Theater for our first Production show of this cruise.  This was a new Stephen Schwartz produced show called The Secret Silk.  The show was very elaborately costumed and choreographed.  The sets were amazing and there was a lot of music and dancing going on, but it was hard to make sense of the plot, and the lead vocals were a bit muddled making the lyrics hard to make out.  It was a show that was beautiful to watch and listen to, but it was hard to really connect with it.  There seemed to be an Asian theme to the sets and costumes, but the music used a lot of contemporary pop and rock songs that seemed oddly out of place with the sets and costumes.  The two other Stephen Schwartz produced Princess shows we have seen- Magic to Do, and Born to Dance, connected better with us as an audience, so we have enjoyed both of those shows each time we have watched them.  Maybe we would pick up more of this show on a second viewing, or with better lead singers.  

The club band had quite a crowd dancing in the Atrium after we left the theater and had a late night snack at Alfredos, the Pizza and pasta venue in the atrium.  The Royal Princess’ version of Alfredos has a much more extensive menu than the Sapphire Princess’ version.  That wrapped up the evening for us.  

Tomorrow, we arrive at Cabo San Lucas at 10AM.  We have an excursion that includes ATV riding and Camel riding, so that should be a bit of an adventure.  We will have to anchor outside the harbor and use tenders to get ashore, so that will take some time.  Our excursion doesn’t meet until 11am, so we will probably do the 9am early risers trivia and then grab a late breakfast before going on our excursion.

Saturday, December 28, 2019; Los Angeles (San Pedro), Embarkation onto the Royal Princess

Saturday, December 28, 2019; Los Angeles, Embarkation onto the Royal Princess

We’re off on another cruise, but this time, we are traveling with our adult children, John, Price and Ciara.  Our “children” are all in their 20’s and we decided to give them the cruise for a Christmas gift since memories take up very little storage room in a small apartment.  Because they are all working full time, it is hard for them to get away for too long, so this is a short cruise of only 7 days, starting in Los Angeles, running down to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.  

The demographics of this cruise are quite different from some of our more recent journeys.  The vast majority on this cruise are Americans, and most are from California.  The second largest group is Canadians, although they make up less than 5% of the Americans.  There are a smattering of people from Australia, India, the UK, and a few from another 30 or so countries around the world.  That this occurs during an American Holiday season is quite evident by the large number of children on board.  There are also a lot of young adults like our own children.  Most are with parents and many are with grandparents.  These cruises make a convenient destination for family reunions.  

First and last days of any trip are always the least pleasant or memorable because they entail a lot of fatiguing travel.  In this case, we had to leave our home at 2:30AM to arrive at Seattle Tacoma International Airport 90 minutes before our scheduled departure to clear security.  That leaves us feeling a bit like zombies for the rest of the day, even though this trip only involved a 2-1/2 hour flight to Los Angeles.  Because we were traveling as a group of 5, we drove down together and parked the car in an off-airport lot with 24hr shuttle service.  But that also means driving for over 2 hours in the wee hours of the morning, long before daybreak.  

Our flight arrived about 30 minutes late to Sea-Tac, but fortunately, we had a significant tailwind heading south, and our pilot was able to land on time, having made up the 30 minutes in the air.  It is always comforting to see the Princess representatives at the baggage claim area when we go on our cruises.  The bus transfer from LAX to the cruise ship terminal at San Pedro takes nearly an hour in light traffic.  

Princess seems to have been working hard to iron out the bugs in their Ocean Medallion system, so the check in process did go more smoothly than in the recent past. They have made the medallion scanners faster and more reliable.  We had no troubles getting onto the ship in time to have lunch in the buffet.  Our room stewards were still in the final stages of cleaning and preparing our rooms, but they were kind enough to allow us to drop off our stuff in the rooms.  

The Royal Princess is the first of the Royal Class ships, and older sister of the Regal Princess, which we sailed in the Baltic and Caribbean.  She lacks some refinements that her younger sibling has, such as the upgraded food venues on the Lido deck (no Ernesto gastropub- just the Trident Grill with hot dogs and burgers) and to our surprise, the room was not as nice as the one we had on the much older Sapphire Princess.  The Royal Princess balcony was a tiny fraction of the size of the one on the Sapphire Princess (4’ deep vs 10’ deep), so it is just barely big enough to sit two chairs and a tiny coffee table on it.  There is certainly not enough room for more than one person to try to lay out to do any sunbathing.  The furnishings are also not as up to date.  Most notably, on the Sapphire and Regal Princess, there are USB power ports in the walls and bedside lamps.  Not so on the Royal Princess.  There are only two accessible 110v grounded outlets above the desk.  Fortunately, the desk still has 3 real drawers, and the night stands each have two real drawers and a enclosed shelf.  The closet is a tiny bit smaller, but there is still plenty of storage room for all our clothes.  

Our kids have an identical room adjacent to ours.  There is a bunk that folds out of the ceiling next to the sliding glass door. This is not nearly as useful as the bunk beds that have folded down from the ceiling adjacent to the closet wall because it obstructs access to the balcony when the bunk is down.  The kids were able to crouch under it to access the balcony, but the ladder has to be removed to allow this.  The bunk will only be left down in the evening after dinner, and will get restowed into the ceiling after the room is made up, usually while we are having breakfast.  The Caribbean Princess, which we took on the British Isles cruise had a bunk that was adjacent to the closet wall and could be left down the entire cruise like a real bunk bed. 

The buffet has a terrific selection, and the food quality is excellent. We were happy to discover the fruits to be properly ripened, and the layout of the buffet is identical to the Regal Princess, with multiple Islands serving different types of foods.  

The ship does seem more crowded than what we remembered from the Caribbean or Baltic on the Regal Princess, but perhaps this cruise is simply running closer to full capacity, or the larger percentage of younger people make it seem more crowded because they are more active and move faster.  Still, there are plenty of strollers, scooters and walkers to deal with in the hallways and elevators. 

After lunch, we toured the ship from top to the Plaza deck, and from the Princess Theater to the Horizon Terrace overlooking the wake. We got in a game of crochet on the golfing green, which on this ship is a multi-purpose patch of astroturf with a variety of lawn games, in addition to putting.  

We had our mandatory muster drill and then our first sit down dinner.  The dining room is large and elegant, but for some inexplicable reason, the large pillar behind our table is illuminated an obnoxious blue color, which casts an ugly hue over the table.  We will have to see if we can be reassigned to a table further away from the blue pillars.  The featured entree was prime rib, which Ben and Price enjoyed, while everyone else sampled the other fine menu items. Nothing was a disappointment.  

Our first evening’s entertainment started with a comedian from Puerto Rico.  His act was a bit novel, but he spoke very quickly and used a lot of inner city idioms and colloquialisms and mannerisms that would seem more at home in the body of a Brooklyn gangster wannabe.  It unlike any other comic we have ever seen on a cruise ship, and he probably did appeal more to the younger elements of the audience.  

We wound up our evening with a Name that Company Logo trivia.  We scored 19/22, but the winning team had managed 21/22, so we were soundly beaten.  But it was fun and challenging.  

Our clocks move forward an hour tonight. Tomorrow is a Sea day and our first formal night.  There are so many activities to choose from that we will have to do some picking and choosing which will certainly mean there will be several trivia activities that we will be passing on because of conflicts with other things, and we will see how willing our kids are to indulge us in our trivia habits. 

Wednesday, December 18, 2019; The Long Trip Home

Wednesday, December 18, 2019; The Long Trip Home

Without a doubt, the least enjoyable part of any journey is flying to get to and come back from your destination.  On this trip, which began for us on October 26, 2019, we have circled the Earth in a eastward direction, including crossing the International Date line and the Equator.  

The Swisshotel Stamford in Singapore is a very nice hotel, and after our tours of Singapore, we have found it to be relatively central to most of the tourist attractions.  As far as amenities go, it was nice that they had USB charger ports on the night stands and desk, and a non-polarized 110v shaver power outlet in the bathroom, so we could have used our Sonicare toothbrush chargers.  The other outlets are 220v, but have a universal plug pattern so no travel plug adapter was needed for universal voltage electronics.  

The breakfast buffet was very extensive and very well presented- about as nice looking as they get.  But the food itself, despite a very wide selection, was just OK in quality.  They had odd waffles that were almost like puff pastry rather than the usual quick bread batter.  You could get eggs made any way you want, and also had a variety of soft boiled eggs held at very specific temperatures.  

We were expecting a bus to pick us up for our airport transfer, but instead, we had a private car- a nice full sized Mercedes with plenty of leg room in back, but one of our suitcases had to ride shotgun because the trunk couldn’t hold all our bags. 

Singapore and Hong Kong both have fabulous international airports that really make most of America’s airports 3rd World by comparison.  The bathrooms are huge, marble, wood and glass and even have some stalls with bidet toilets.  There are attendants that make sure there are no stray bits of paper towel on the floor, or splashes around the sinks.  And the stalls are big enough to enter with luggage.  And even the toilet paper is very nice.  You come to really appreciate that after traveling through Europe, the Middle East and Asia. There are huge duty free shopping malls and free wifi that actually works.  There are also ample places to sit and furniture that hasn’t been languishing since the 1950’s.  Free charging stations abound, and there are even free internet desktop computers and iPads scattered about.  

Our flight from Singapore to Hong Kong was 3 hours in duration.  We had economy seats, but our wonderful travel agent booked us nice bulkhead seats with plenty of legroom.  You can actually even stand erect during the flight.  The second flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver, BC, was premium economy.  This featured recliner-like seats with leg rests and about 30 degree recline, so it was possible to get some sleep.  That was on a Boeing 777 with dual aisles.  We only had one alcoholic beverage service, so that wasn’t as nice as Delta’s Premium Economy, where you could get as many drinks as you wanted to.  

Cathay Pacific had a decent variety of movies to choose from.  Since we had recently had a Star Wars Trivia, Ben decided to work his way through the original Star Wars Trilogy, and the last 2 movies (The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi).  They didn’t have the silly prequel movies (Episodes I, II and III), so no Jar Jar Binks.  

We had a preview that there might be some troubles with our itinerary when we were unable to confirm the final leg of our trip, which was from Vancouver, BC to Seattle on Alaska Airlines.  Apparently, they wanted us to present our passports in person.  But a complication arises in that our Cathay Pacific flight into Vancouver BC dumped us off at the isolated Customs and Immigrations and security quarantine area, and you could not proceed through Customs and Immigrations without a boarding pass.  They had an automated kiosk for those without pre-printed boarding passes, but our passes failed to print because the airline needed to check our passports.  They ended up sending someone from their ticketing counter through some secret passageways into the quarantine area with boarding passes, but that took nearly a half hour.  

Then the bags that were checked from Singapore through to Seattle, had to be matched up with each passenger before passengers were allowed to proceed with Customs and Immigrations.  You had to show them the actual baggage receipt tags while tags on the bags were scanned remotely.  Once a match was made, the bags get sent on to the next flight without any passenger contact, and the passenger is allowed to go through Customs and Immigrations.  But even after nearly an hour, our bags were never scanned coming off the Cathay Pacific flight, and we were held in quarantine until after boarding began for our flight.  We had to beg to have an exception made for delayed bags so that we could make our flight, and we were the absolute last people on our flight.  

When we arrived at Sea-Tac, our son John had arrived several hours earlier and we were all booked on a airport shuttle home.  Our flight sat on the ground in Vancouver nearly a half hour waiting for clearance to take off, so our flight arrived a half hour late, giving us just 10 minutes to get from the gate to the pickup lane.  So Janet went with our carry on bags and rode the shuttle with John, while Ben had to wait for the luggage to not arrive so he could file a delayed or lost baggage claim.  He ended up on the next shuttle, which was 2 hours later.  

But we completed our journey, arriving home safe and sound, despite missing our checked bags.  Hopefully those will arrive in time for our next cruise in just 10 days.  

Tuesday, December 17, 2019; Disembarkation and Singapore Tours.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019; Disembarkation and Singapore Tours

Princess has made disembarkation pretty simple and efficient, so long as you pay attention to their instructions.  We had our large suitcases out in the hall last night at dinner time, leaving our carry on sized wheel-on’s in the room so we could brush our teeth and do our bedtime routines.  But we forgot to get the small bags out by 10PM, the deadline for all bags going ashore via porters.  But no worries, it was no trouble to wheel our carry on suitcases off the ship with us.  

We had our last breakfast in the buffet and bid the ship’s crew members who we have come to know adieu.  We made an attempt to check in for our flights in the Internet Cafe, but all our attempts failed and we ended up burning up the last of our complimentary internet minutes in the attempt.  We then went to our designated disembarkation lounge and were lead off the ship right on schedule.  There were no long lines to contend with.  We pretty much just walked off the ship, presented our passports for immigrations stamps, collected our luggage, and then were met by the greeter for our disembarkation Singapore tour, who escorted us to our bus and loaded our bags.  

There were about 30 passengers doing the disembarkation tour in a 50 passenger bus, so we could spread out, and it was a very modern and comfortable tour bus. 

Our guide is a Chinese Singaporean.  His great grandparents immigrated to Singapore and his family has remained ever since.  We learned a little more about how Singapore ended up separating from Malaysia after only two years in the Federation from 1963-1965. Looking around, it is quite apparent that Singapore is 70% ethnically Chinese and not a Muslim majority like Malaysia is.  It boiled down to racial and religious tensions that were sorted out peacefully and diplomatically.  You’d think that maybe Israel and Palestine might think of following Malaysia and Singapore’s example someday.  

Our first stop was a drive up Mt. Faber, which is Singapore’s second highest peak, which is all of 300m high, but it does afford a natural view of the harbor, and is the cable car station linking Singapore with the waterfront.  It is one of Singapore’s very few National Parks, surrounded by lush tropical jungle.  It is quite a contrast with the very modern and clean city which glimmers with glass, steel, water and concrete.  

Our next stop was the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We visited the National Orchid Garden, which has over 1000 species and 2000 hybrids of orchids- the world’s largest display of orchids.  There are gardens dedicated to orchids named for various world leaders and celebrities, including hybrids named for Jackie Chan and Princess Diana.  While the gardens are beautiful, we found ourselves caught in a monsoon rain, which made it a bit challenging to get pictures and see the gardens without getting soaking wet.  

Our next stop was a nice restaurant in Chinatown for lunch, and a chance to dry out completely.  Singapore is home to Hainan Chicken Rice, which is a poached chicken dish served with seasoned rice and dipping sauces.  Unfortunately, that was not on our lunch menu, but they did have some unique baked dumplings with an almost black bun surrounding a crab filling that looked so striking that some Australians at our table refused to even try them, but they were actually quite good.  We also had shrimp dumplings and vegetable dumplings along with steamed Bok Choy, sweet and sour fish, and fried rice.  It was among the best excursion lunches we had on the trip.  Another oddity was Marmite Chicken.  It looked like it might be General Tsao’s chicken, but when you tasted it, it was savory, and not sweet at all.  Oddly, the Australians didn’t seem to care for that either, but it was certainly an interesting uniquely Singaporean dish, reflecting a British influence. 

We took a walk through Chinatown where they have a huge Buddhist temple featuring another Buddha tooth relic.  We didnt’ go upstairs to see that, but it apparently is on the fourth floor and surrounded by 24kg of solid gold.  Across the street was something called the Chinatown Complex, which was built to tidy up Chinatown, consolidating all the street hawkers into a modern mall with sanitary facilities, and a large wet market in the basement where fresh vegetables, fish and meats are brought in daily.  The place is extremely popular with locals who flock to the food vendors on their lunch breaks because the food is inexpensive, fresh and familiar.  Apparently the wet market in the basement also used to sell all manner of exotic animals including monkeys and turtles, but more recently, it is just domestic animals and all manner of animals from the sea.  There are blocks and blocks of 3 story buildings that are now being preserved as historical structures where people lived in the upper stories while working in shops and businesses on the ground floors since the 1800’s. There are shops filled with colorful merchandise and restaurants all over the place.  You could easily experience sensory overload here.  

Our last stop was at Marina Bay, which is actually a huge fresh water reservoir.  This used to be a tidal bay, but about 10 years ago, Singapore realized it had a critical strategic reliance upon Malaysia for drinking water that it needed to wean itself from, so they cleaned up the Singapore river and as part of it’s Marina Bay redevelopment plan, they built a dam to keep fresh water in, and salt water out.  We were a little bit shocked to learn that because the water in the bay is actually brown in color, and not sparkling clear blue, like you’d hope a major city’s drinking water source would be.  But Singapore still imports fresh water from Malaysia, desalinates sea water and purifies water from Marina Bay to satisfy it’s fresh water needs. It’s becoming increasingly clear that wars in the future will be fought not over oil but over fresh water.  

We had seen Marina Bay from the vantage point high up on the Marina Bay Sands Hotel Observation deck- the ship shaped structure balanced atop the Marina Bay Sands Hotel’s triple towers.  This time we got to stroll the Esplanade and get a better look at the glass and aluminum domes of the Esplanade Theaters, and Singpore’s Merlion mascot- a sculpture of a mythical creature with the head of a lion and body of a mermaid- spouting water into the bay.  

Our tour concluded with dropping us off at the Swisshotel Stamford hotel.  This is a very nice and modern hotel with an enormous room complete with a California King sized bed and a sweeping territorial view of Singapore.  It was nice to get showered up and cleaned up after having been rained on and sweaty from humidity and heat.  The rain has kept the temperatures to the lower 80’s, which the locals consider a cold spell.  Our morning tour guide said if the temperatures dropped another 5 degrees, people would be wearing their heavy coats and gloves. 

After we got settled in, we got a call from the Princess host, wanting to confirm our airport transfer details for tomorrow morning.  We asked if she knew of any tours that we might take in the evening.  We had heard of a night time zoo tour, but since it was likely to rain, she didn’t recommend it as much as she did a city tour with dinner in Chinatown, a Tri-Shaw tour around Chinatown and Little India and a boat tour of Singapore river and Marina Bay.  We had considered just relaxing in the hotel, but then thought, what the heck- it’s not every day you’re in Singapore, so we had her sign us up.  The tour operator accepted credit cards, so that was one less obstacle to doing a little more sight seeing before heading home.

We changed into more rain appropriate gear and headed off for our evening tour.  The tour operator picked up two more couples from another hotel.  One couple was from New Jersey, and had been on the Sapphire Princess with us, although prior to this tour, we had not run into them on the ship.  The other couple was a couple of women from Vancouver, BC. They have been touring Malaysia and Singapore on their own over the last week with land based tours.  

Our first stop was back to China town.  We approached it from a different direction than we had in the morning tour, and saw both the Mosque and Hindu temples that are both nearly 200 years old.  We also saw the historic district of Chinatown, whose buildings are protected monuments now.  The upper two stories have shuttered windows of various architectural designs and colors, while the ground floors are filled with shops.  We were lead through a maze of shops and up a long set of stairs to a restaurant called Chow Yum.  It reminded us of restaurants in China because it had free standing air conditioner units in the corners of the dining rooms. We thought that was a good sign that the food would be something special, but what they had ordered for us was pretty bland fare consisting of fried rice, broccoli with garlic sauce, sweet and sour fish, and chicken with soy sauce and scallions. There was also a corn soup.  It was good food, but it would have been nice to have something a little more exciting or regional like the Hainan Chicken Rice or Singapore style noodles.  

After dinner, we walked around the streets of the historic Chinatown, which were lit up with strings of Christmas lights and paper lanterns shaped like people and holiday figures.  One unusual find was a very modern shop entirely dedicated to the Tin-Tin cartoons.  There were hard bound copies of the books,  movie posters, figurines, dioramas, and models, as well as T-shirts and hats all decorated with characters and scenes from the Tin-Tin comic series.  

Our guide then gathered us up and then walked us over to the Chinese Buddhist temple with the Buddha Tooth Relic, and the Chinatown Complex.  We got back into the van and then headed to Bugis Street where we loaded up into modern day rickshaws called Tri-Shaws.  On the surface they look like bicycles with 2 passenger sidecars strapped to their sides, but on closer inspection, we spotted hub mounted motors, so these are actually e-bikes in disguise.  The drivers do supply significant energy to make their rounds, but the e-motors allow them to keep up with traffic and work all day.  Singapore is rather flat for the most part, and the route we took from Bugis Street and through Little India was all on the level.

When the British colonized Singapore, they had no qualms with racially segregating populations, and they imported people from China, India, and even Arab countries to provide the labor they needed to make Singapore a shipping trade center.  The city planners created separate neighborhoods for the Chinese, Arabs, Malay, and people from India in separate corners of the city.  Our Tri-Shaws took us through the colorful and busy streets and shops of Little India, which were lit up brightly and filled with people in traditional costumes of India.  

Our van rendezvoused with us and then took us to Clarke Quay, which is a very lively night spot in Singapore filled with night clubs, bars and restaurants.  We boarded a tour boat, and learned that these were special all electric non-polluting boats specifically designed to be operated on the city’s fresh water reservoir.  We cruised down the river past the landing site of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. Seeing the city’s sky scrapers from the water was quite scenic.  We passed under several landmark bridges and past several historic buildings on the waterfront.  We eventually entered into Marina Bay, motoring past the Merlion statue, and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  The giant Ferris wheel on Marina Bay used to be the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, but that didn’t last long. It was lit up, but our guide said that it had suffered some sort of mechanical breakdown and was not operational.  But it was still capable of doing it’s multicolored light show display.  

The rain that had dogged us earlier in the day had turned into a light sprinkle when we went to dinner, and had stopped for the most part during our Tri-Shaw ride.  During the cruise, it just sprinkled lightly on and off, so we managed to get by quite OK regarding rain during our tour.

After the boat ride, we were dropped off back at our hotels, winding up our evenings with repacking our suitcases to put our rain gear back and recheck the weights of each bag.  Tomorrow begins the long trip home back across the Pacific.

Monday, December 16, 2019; At Sea, Bali to Singapore Day 2

Monday, December 16, 2019.  At Sea, Bali to Singapore Day 2

It is a good thing to have a couple of sea days before disembarkation so we can adjust ourselves to the idea of heading home.  It has taken a fair bit of discipline not to accumulate items to bring back because our luggage was at maximum weight allowance at the start of our trip.  As we finished our morning rituals, more clothing and items got packed away into the suitcases, filling the larger ones first to maximum weight allowances.  Then we were off to the International Cafe to burn up the last of our coffee card punches and then head off to morning trivia.  Unfortunately, the quiz was a repeat of one from about a month ago, so we had heard the questions before, and it was a matter of testing our short term memories.  Apparently our short term memories are still OK because we won the trivia, and gave away the wine bottle stoppers to some of the ship’s crew who we have come to know over the last few weeks.  

We watched a movie called Bernadette, Where’d You Go.  It starred Cate Blanchett as an architect who goes crazy after her creative genius is stifled, but who cures her crazy by running off to Antarctica to find a new project to pour her genius into.  It was largely filmed in Seattle, and in Antarctica.  It was interesting to see the Antarctica scenes since we have been contemplating whether or not to add it to our bucket lists.  Cate Blanchett seems to have become type cast in these odd rolls since this movie reminded us a lot of her performance in Blue Jasmine, for which she had won an Oscar.  We then got some exercise and lunch, and then packed up our workout clothes and shoes.  

We got our Trivia team together for the last time to play the afternoon trivia.  We were happy that it was not a repeat, and had some good questions.  We ended on a high note, winning notebooks for our team, which we also gave away as gifts to crew members.  

We had our last sit down dinner in the dining room, but skipped out on dessert to do a new Star Wars trivia.  We knew upfront that this was not going to be a good one for us. There were a lot of young kids playing, but we were interested to see what kinds of questions there would be.  We ended up with only 10/25, while a group of kids ran away with the win with a score of 20/25.  

The Princess Theater had a hypnotist on stage with about 20 volunteers, but it was such a lame display of mind manipulation that we left about 10 minutes into the show, as did a lot of the rest of the audience.  I guess if you had a family member on stage, you’d feel obligated to sit through the whole show, which was apparently why he had to have 20 volunteers.  

We finished up our cruise watching Skyscraper, a really dumb action/triller with Dwayne Johnson.  We wouldn’t recommend wasting your time watching this one.  Tomorrow, we disembark in Singapore and will take a disembarkation tour.  This will show us the main sights and then drop us off at our hotel after the check in hours are open.  

Sunday, December 15, 2019; At Sea, Bali to Singapore Day 1

Sunday, December 15, 2019; At Sea, Bali to Singapore Day 1

We were surprised to see that it was after 9am when we awoke this morning.  We skipped breakfast and just hit the International Cafe to get some coffee on the way to our morning trivia. We managed to win with 16/20, and got some aluminum water bottles, which we will give to our room steward.  

After trivia we worked to get our exercise rings closed before lunch.  During lunch, we noticed a petite Filipino gal having lunch who really looked out of place, even with all the younger passengers on this cruise segment.  She was rocking some 5” stiletto heels and the legs of a dancer on the production team, but we didn’t recognize her as anyone on the entertainment staff. She appeared to be dining with her husband and relaxing in the buffet.  They both appeared much too young to be on this cruise as passengers, but perhaps they were traveling with parents or even grand parents.

The weather has been in the 80’s with occasional monsoon downpours that send streams of water across the pool deck.  There was supposed to be an ice carving demonstration on the pool deck but the rain made conditions too slippery to proceed with ice carving, so it was canceled.  We got a chance to talk a bit with Kaitlyn who was going to host the ice carving and learned that she had spent some time in the Army before starting to work for Princess, where she has been for about 3 years.  Her family recently moved from Southern California to Puyallup, so she’s actually from our neck of the country now.  It is rather unusual to run into many Americans who work on these cruise ships.  

One of the AAA benefits we have been getting is a free photo print. We usually get a voucher good for a Free 5x8 print, which is usually a gangway pose or other casual shot around the ship, but we learned from Ben’s brother Franklin that sometimes you can get one of the 8x10’s, if they are feeling generous.  We were able to get a nice 8x10 during our Rome to Singapore segment, but when we tried to pick one out for this 10 day Singapore round trip segment, the gals at the photo desk said we’d have to pay an extra $10 to get the 8x10.  That made Janet quite sad.  Later in the day, we ran into the photo department manager, with whom we had made friends with because his girlfriend and us connected on the Pompei excursion, and also later on the Petra excursion.  Janet told him of her sad tale, and he said “No problem, we can make it right”. That turned her frown upside down and made us both very happy.  A little kindness can sure go a long ways.

Our trivia team got beat by one point in the afternoon trivia when we got our Caspian and Black seas mixed up and we couldn’t come up with the father of the Pleiades.  But we wouldn’t want to be hogging all the trivia wins.

This was our last formal evening for the cruise.  We had just got our last batch of laundry back so Ben’s shirt was nicely starched and pressed.  We had lobster, of course.  

We did a Broadway Trivia after dinner and were happy that it was an all new trivia.  Broadway has never been our strong suit because we usually only see shows that are available on DVD.  In the past, it was always helpful to have team mates who had ushered in theaters who knew a lot of the shows, but we had no such luck tonight.  We did well enough not to embarrass ourselves, but were beat by 2 teams that each had 3 points over our score.  Their tie breaker question was how many performances of Phantom of the Opera have there been as of November 2019.  FYI it is over 13,000!  

We discovered the first day after leaving Singapore on our final cruise segment that our coffee card punches did not expire, and we each had quite a few left over from when they were refilled for the Dubai to Singapore cruise segment.  So for this final cruise segment, we didn’t have to exchange our mini bar for coffee cards.  The ship came up short on whisky and bourbon mini bottles (apparently a shipment wasn’t received in time in Singapore) so we got coupons good for any 2 cocktails.  We sipped those tonight while watching the production show Bravo.  We have seen and enjoyed this show several times before, and every time, it’s been a little different.  Earlier in the cruise, they had to work around a missing male lead singer, and also swapped out a female lead singer since we boarded in Rome. The production team has finally procured a replacement male lead singer, and he is really very good.  This show also features a guest soprano, and when she came on the stage, BINGO- it was the mystery woman we had seen in the buffet at lunch with the stiletto heels.  She is petite, but boy, can she belt out the arias and hit those top notes dead on.  We learned she is Filipino but calls Taiwan home.  She certainly deflates the stereotype of operatic sopranos being the fat lady with the horns on her helmet.  

We began the sad process of getting our suitcases repacked since our disembarkation instructions and luggage tags arrived on our door in the morning.  We will be doing a disembarkation tour of Singapore, ending at the Stamford hotel, where we’ll spend the night before our flights back home the following day. Our main suitcases will hold anything we won’t be wearing in the next 2 days, while our carryon sized suitcases will just need to get us through our last night in Singapore.  

Once our packing was done, we watched a funky movie called the Peanut Butter Falcon, staring a Down Syndrome adult who breaks out of a nursing home to go on a Huckleberry Finn like adventure on the Gulf coast with a fugitive sociopath who ultimately proves to have redeeming features.  It turned out to be a cute little movie despite the odd title and premise.  

Saturday, December 14, 2019; Benoa, Bali, Indonesia

Saturday, December 14, 2019; Benoa, Bali, Indonesia. Elephant Safari Park

The Sapphire princess was just approaching its anchorage off the southern tip of Bali outside Benoa harbor.  The final approach to the Ngurah Rai International Airport is over the harbor. This is our last excursion for this journey, and it would require tendering to the dock inside Benoa Harbor.  The ship employed all 4 of its tenders, in addition to two Bali based passengers ferries.  It took about 45 minutes to motor into the dock from the anchorage.  The conditions were calm, and it was warm and humid.  There is a small terminal building without public wifi.  There was a parking lot on the outside of the terminal building so excursion buses could park onsite- a big improvement over the situation in Phuket.  

The buses were actually mini-buses, with a capacity of 25 passengers.  There were 18 on our bus, so we could spread out a little. The AC on the mini-bus was no match for the heat and humidity of Bali, so it was a little warm inside the bus, even with the AC running full blast.  While we have all seen idyllic pictures of white sand beaches with blue water and palm trees, what we encountered on the streets of Bali were quite a different scene.  

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, behind China, India and the USA.  It seems that all that population lives within a few hundred yards of all the narrow roads that serve the island. Development along the roads is extremely dense- buildings are shoulder to shoulder, with few side roads or alleys apparent.  From the port of Benoa to the northern outskirts of Denpasar the shoulders are lined with open front shops and businesses.  It seemed for a stretch of several miles, there was one yard after the other of building materials businesses, with inventory stacked up in the open- Roofing here, appliances there, yard and garden supplies, lumber and statues in one business after the next.  There seemed to be very few cross streets and with the density of development, it was nearly impossible to see what was more than 300’ from the roadway.  

In close proximity to Denpasar, the capital of Bali, there are a few 4 lane roads, but the denizens of the island use the lines painted on the roads as mere suggestions of how traffic should be distributed on the roads. The vast majority of roads are more like paved 2 tracks that are barely 20’ from one edge of the pavement to the other.  Businesses have their wares right on the edge of the pavement where there are no sidewalks, and where there are sidewalks, these are no more than 18” wide. 

Struggling within this paved strip are at least two lanes of vehicular traffic mixed with motorcycles and scooter that weave in and out in just about any direction with no regard to human life or safety.  In short, it is utter madness.  It doesn’t help us that they try to drive on the left side of the road when they can but there are frequently illegally parked vehicles squeezing all that traffic into 20% less width of roadway. 

While helmet use among two wheeled conveyances is common, it is also not uncommon to spot toddlers standing up between the legs of mothers or grandmothers piloting scooters, or straddling fuel tanks on some motor cycles.  Sometimes there are up to 4 riders on a scooter ranging from toddler to grandparent headed somewhere in the insane traffic.  

Our bus made a bee line from the Port of Benoa to the Elephant Safari Park in the center of the island, which is a nearly 2 hour drive in the traffic.  The entire island is less than 60 miles wide but the traffic is terrible, so it can take several hours to go from one side of the island to the other.  There is a mountain range running across the center of the island from East to West.  This includes several impressive looking shield volcanos.  Some are active.  It wasn’t until we were well north of Denpasar that we could see these mountains.  As we got further north, we passed through several “villages” which were indistinguishable  from each other, but marked with roadside temples and schools. 

Speaking of temples, Bali is largely Agama Hindu, which is a local version of Hindu combining animism, ancestor worship and a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs.  This is a contrast within the world’s most populous Islamic nation, the Republic of Indonesia.  Their temples and shrines are inhabited by a variety of fantastic creatures.  On Bali, in palaces and larger temples, most of these are elaborately carved from sandstone. As such, they are inherently less colorful than the brightly painted sculptures seen in Buddhist and Hindu temples in Malaysia.  Another interesting feature is the common practice of wrapping clothing, mostly in the form of colorful saris around the statues, and the adornment of many with flowers.  Offerings in the form of various flowers and fruit in small flat trays woven from palm leaves as frequently stacked high in front of some of these shines. There is also incense burning, but not to the extent seen in some other countries.  

As we passed through one of these villages, we drove past a motorcycle accident where the motorcycle driver was lying on his back on the edge of the pavement with his motorcycle on its side. He looked conscious, but in obvious pain.  Our bus crawled pass him as it worked its way north through the traffic.  About 20 minutes later, an ambulance passed us headed south towards the scene of that accident.  

This was not the only unfortunate sight on Bali.  There seems to be no evidence of organized regular trash pick up, so there are heaps of trash visible peaking out from the tropical growth in the rare undeveloped bits of land visible from the street. We did see a few piles of burning trash near the road that included plastic bags being burned.  

90 minutes north of the Port of Benoa, there were brief stretches of open between roadside store fronts that revealed lush terraced rice fields interspersed with fish ponds, banana and coconut groves and mango groves.  There are tiny shrines interspersed between the fields and we were surprised to see scarecrows erected in the rice fields.  Some had ducks running about.  Closer to the city, one would have no idea that tropical jungle and rice fields existed beyond the solid store fronts along the islands’ roads. On either side of the road, there were irrigation canals with periodic cascading waterfalls, lending an bit of exotica to the shoulders.

As we approached 2 hours north of the port, there were villages interspersed between rice fields and plantations with ongoing construction, but at these construction sites, raw materials like gravel and bags of cement lay obstructing one of the two lanes of the road, causing frequent traffic backups and more chaos.  A tourist would certainly be taking their lives into their own hands to try to do any driving- car or cycle- on this island.  

It seemed like civilization eventually petered out and we entered into the jungle as the road climbed into the foothills of the mountains, getting even narrower. We made it to the Elephant Safari site just about lunch time.  

Our bus was one of the first to arrive, so we were ushered directly to the elephant riding station which is an elevated loading platform. The elephants are fitted with a wide saddle that two adults can sit side by side on. The elephant driver sits on a simple pad on the elephant’s neck.  The drivers use voice signals and their bare feet on the tops of the elephant’s ears to get the elephants to do what they want them to do.  The drivers do not use any sort of stick or whips, and the elephants seem to have no qualms with participating in this activity.  It apparently is a welcome distraction for them to get to take tourists for rides around their park.  They also get rewarded by getting to interact with visitors and get fed treats.  

The elephant ride was certainly much easier on the bottom and back than camel riding, although one prone to motion sickness could easily find the motion to be a bit much.  We walked through the jungle and around the large park for about a half hour.  Chickens scratched about in the underbrush, and at one point, we ambled past a Balinese cow.  We learned that the elephant we were riding was a 30 year old female named Nikki.  We saw the bull that sired Nikki’s now 5 year old baby, tethered on a concrete pad with shade overhead and vegetation to munch and play with.  There are a lot of elephants on the site.  Some are allowed to wander about freely, while a few are tethered by their ankles on a chain.  They seem to find many ways to amuse themselves and are highly intelligent and aware of their surroundings.  We saw one pick up a fallen palm branch and use it to wave it about and brush things off its back.  They do spend a lot of time munching on vegetation as it takes a lot of vegetation to keep something as large as an elephant on the go.  

About halfway through our ride, thunder rumbled and shortly thereafter, the sky opened up with a torrential rain.  It was a good thing they gave us large umbrellas, which kept our heads and shoulders dry, but our pants and shoes got a good soaking.  Our ride culminated in a huge pond that the elephants get to play and swim in.  It wasn’t so deep that we got wet, but the elephants can submerge themselves in the center if they wish.  It is interesting to see how they use their trunks as snorkels in the water.  Those trunks are very useful appendages.  At one point, they elephant stopped and posed for the photographer, taking in a load of water and then spraying it out like a fountain on cue.  They are happy to sell you that photo at the souvenir shop at the end of the tour.  

After our ride, we dashed into the restaurant pavilion as the downpour was letting up and had a buffet lunch.  The food was rather unremarkable, but did feature some Indonesian fare.  I did manage to run into a tiny fragment of a very hot bit of a chili pepper.  They had a chicken curry that was bone in and quite mild while the beef curry was even milder and tough.  

Once we were fed, it was time to go play with the elephants and feed them.  They had several elephants lined up on one side of a simple rail and we could interact with them freely.  We had smuggled some bananas and apples from the ship to give to the elephants, but the park also had baskets of bananas, apples and other fruits you could buy for $4 to offer the elephants.  It is amazing what they can do with their trunks.  They could just about snatch your iPhone out of your hand if you weren’t paying attention, and they could easily pick your pocket.  Maybe the trainers have them do that to supplement their income.  The end of their trunks are surprisingly soft, while the hair on their heads and bodies are more like stiff bristles on a broom.  They are very clever and their eyes are remarkably expressive.  The new Disney Dumbo CGI has got the eye about 40 times too big and creepy.  Then we walked over to a different enclosure where they have a new mother with her 5 month old calf, who was just too cute for words.  It seemed to enjoy running around playing like a toddler, and didn’t shy from playing with visitors.  While we were posing for a picture the baby elephant got a hold of my cruise card on my lanyard and was checking it out.  The baby elephant’s trunk was so soft and supple, it was more like an octopus arm than the huge adult elephant trunks, but of course, it didn’t have suction cups.  

Then we had some time to just hang around, so we headed to the gift shop when all of a sudden, there was a loud trumpeting and splashing in the pool.  A group of 3 adolescent elephants were playing games, racing each other from one end of the pond to the other, trumpeting and splashing each other.  It was quite a show, and it was amazing how loud they can trumpet.  Then all too soon it was time to head to the bus for the long drive back to the port.  

As we returned to port, the scenery was quite altered by a huge monsoon downpour that turned the narrow road into a muddy stream in places. Our bus was drenching the poor motorcycle and scooter drivers that dared to pass us or were unfortunate enough to be on the side of the road as we splashed by, throwing up a huge curtain of muddy water. 

Traffic heading back into the port was considerably lighter than it had been in the morning.  Perhaps, most locals knew better than to be on the roads when the afternoon monsoons arrived.  We arrived at the dock over an hour late.  The last tender back to the boat was supposed to have left at 5pm, but there were at least a thousand cruise ship passengers in line waiting to load up onto the tenders.  Our bus was one of the first ones back, and we didn’t bet back aboard the ship until nearly 6pm.  At 7pm, passenger services made an announcement looking for a group of Russian passengers, asking them to call the passenger services Desk.  If they were still ashore on Bali, being more than 2 hours past the all aboard time, it looked like they would have to book a flight home.  We usually book our tours through the ship because they guaranty that they will hold the ship for us, and that is a big relief when you’re in a foreign land with so many unknowns regarding traffic and travel times.

We did participate in a Movie Quotes trivia, and got beat by one point.  We picked the wrong movies for “We come in peace, we come in peace”, and “Christmas tree? Buddy chopped one down in the park”.  

We watched a show by one of the Cruise Director’s staff, Emma, who has done many trivia games with us.  She did a tribute to singing Divas, and we discovered that she is really a very talented singer in her own right.  We then wound up the evening with a do-it-all magician/comedian/psychic who put on a pretty well choreographed show with good audience participation but we have seen all the illusions, and heard all the jokes, and knew the outcome of the psychic demonstration, even if we could never figure out how they are done.  We’ve just seen them so many times, we’re a bit jaded when it comes to magic and illusionist shows.  

It’s saddening now to think that we are on the very end of this cruise adventure for us, which started in Prague.  That now seems such a long time ago.   We have traveled nearly halfway around the planet on the Sapphire Princess from ancient Europe, through the Middle East and deep into exotic Southeast Asia. But in Singapore, the ship put out the Christmas decorations while we were exploring the Marina Bay Gardens and Hotel, and today, we started hearing Christmas music in the buffet.  I guess it’s a reminder that it is indeed time to think about getting back home to family.  We have two sea days and then it’s time to disembark to Singapore and prepare for our long flight back home.