Nth Pacific

Friday 12^th September     Day 4        CRUISE DAY (Day 1)

Yahhhh.  It’s cruise day!

Vancouver was wild with cruisers today!  Four ships in. Three at Canada Place and us at Ballantyne. The lobby of our hotel was full on luggage – ALL with either RCCL luggage tags or RCCL departure group tickets.  Pretty funny.

We had to call past Avis (to retrieve Andy’s glasses) and the place was a zoo. At least 20 groups lined up to collect cars.  And most of them had departure group  tags from RCCL!

We taxied to Ballantyne Pier and saw our beloved Radiance waiting patiently for us.  

We did arrive at a bit after 11am so the pier was not chaotic at all.  We were quickly through all the lines (priority and a walker) and to immigration. Then it was my turn to cause the fuss.

5 years ago we had a passport ‘mishap’ which resulted in us having to ditch our plans for a few days in Denali National Park, fly from Anchorage to New York and get new passports.  Then fly back to Anchorage.  Bottom line - - I flew into USA on one passport, and flew out on another. Now every time I enter the US, a flag goes up and after 20 questions the supervisors send me through. But not today!  We were sat on the ‘naughty chair’ and waited 20 minutes while they conducted an ‘investigation’. 

SAD FACE!

Final I was allowed through. Yah! Needless to say Andy did have a few laughs at me, saying things like “IF they let you on….” Something to do with payback I believe.

All was good; we were onboard by around 11.45.

Roast beef roll at the Park Cafe and time to settle in. I’m guess I will have a trip to the naughty room as well as our bottles of champagne are in one suitcase.

All my wondering about “Has the Radiance got the unlimited internet package?.....…”  Well, I have just been to guest services and guess what????? NO PACKAGES!!!  75 cents a minute flat rate (Until the 17^th).  I politely explained that this will not do. There was another couple there at the same time with the same issue.  They are starting up a business and cannot be without the Internet.  I don’t need it I just want it!  Poor guest services girl will get back to us as the bosses are out.  We did come up with a simple solution so I’m sure all will be fine.

There was one lady down there wanting a new room and her husband was too tall for the shower!

Sail away was lovely.  The harbour is spectacular and it was great to see all of the things we saw in the last few days from the other angle.  There was all the usual fun on deck with drinks etc.

BAD luck if you do not stop at the end of this run!

There was a big crowd on the Lions Gate Bridge cheering us of as we went under. There really is something special about sailing under a bridge. We sailed out of the harbour, then down the bottom of the Inside Passage(?), along side Vancouver Island to Seattle, then a right hand turn out to open ocean.  Pity it got dark now as that would have been lovely.

We did sail next to a large snow covered mountain for a long time cannot have been much further south than White Rock, so I’ll have to look later.

The sunset was spectacular with great colours.

We had a fantastic night in the Concierge Lounge.  Andy nearly had to have a punch up with Karen over the corner, but he won.  Well they were having a joking discussion telling each other that JD said it was their corner.  Then JD walked in gave Karen a cuddle then gave both of us huge cuddles and told Andy that he was about to put a sign saying “Andy’s Chair” in the corner.   Yahhh!

We spent time with lots of people and had a great time.

Day 5 Cruise Day 2  At Sea

We started off the day with the Captain’s Breakfast.  This used to be the Captains reception for Suite guests and was a casual nibbles and drinks on the first morning with Captain Sindre. Now it has changed to the Captain’s Breakfast reception.  We did arrive a bit early due to a technical difficulty associated with turning the clocks back an hour – or NOT.

It was a very grand affair. It was held at Giovanni’s Table and was a formal sit down meal. Each table sat with an officer and feasted on delightful treats – pastry’s, yogurt parfait, cooked to order eggs with many additions such as mushrooms (but not normal mushrooms – specialty dinning mushrooms).

We sat with Marius, head of the Hotel and a lovely guy. He runs the biggest department of the ship, 850 staff – rooms, room stewards, laundry, kitchens, bar service, medical – basically everything apart from driving the ship, keeping the ship running and security!  He told some funny stories and is a lovely guy.

I then went to Trivia and joined up with some others. We had fun and did well. It’s a progressive trivia that will run on all sea days – so there were some very competitive groups there.

Then I went to a morning talk session called “Behind the Stripes”.  Each day they interview an officer. Today was Captain Malcolm Rodger. He is only on the ship until Hawaii filling in after Sindre left and the new Captain comes to take over.

He told us that he is from the bottom end of Vancouver Island and he waved as he want past at 11pm last night. He did say that he DID NOT go close to land for the wave bye. (Concordia joke).

He has been with RCCL for 13 years and came from the Canadian Coast Guard where he started as a deck hand and worked his way up to Master. One of his favorite moment has been sailing a huge RCCL shop past his old boat and waving and blasting the horn to his friends on board.

He was the 2^nd Officer when Radiance was being built and sailed it back to Fort Lauderdale from Germany during storm season.  It was still being finished off on the voyage. They had one craftsman on board, the guy making the mosaic in the main dinning room. It was schedule to be finished while still in Germany.  This guy was terrified of ships and suffered terribly from sea sickness. To keep him healthy enough to keep working they set up screens around the pool tables and set up a bed for him on top!!!!! For the non Radiance sailors they are gyroscopic table that self level. Worth over $100,000 each. He would sleep, then work for about 4 hours when he would became too sick to continue, then would go back to his bed on top of the squillion dollar pool table. Apparently the only ships with these tables are Radiance class and a few oil rigs!!!!

The biggest seas he has ever been in where with the coast guard, in a boat, where they had to do a rescue to a sinking boat in 70 knot winds (hurricane force), running sideways to the storm. They were rolling 45 degrees across the face of the storm. To put that into perspective, the Radiance puts the stabilising wings out, at 1 degree of roll.  Cannot quite comprehend how that must have felt – both physically and emotionally.

He joined RCCL as ‘he is more of a meet and greet guy”. His passion is training staff to be safe. He said that he had spent too much time cleaning up bodies and wanted to work at the other end to prevent things happening.

He also talking about being an inventor and that he has a few patents and has some items in production development.

As a kid he wanted to be an astronaut.  He is a ‘Treky” and even has a pair of Captain Kirk pj’s – and had a photo sitting in the captains chair wearing them.  He thinks that it is so amazing that in the 60’s Star Trek showed us that one day in the distant future all people would have personal communicators in their pockets.  And now we all do!

His wife and one daughter are travelling with us on this trip.

Great session!

Then I went to a food show thingo – but it was more an add for Samba grill.

After a fun evening in the Club we went to formal night.  

This photo is NOT formal night.  It's the show!

Sunday 14^th September    

Day 6 Cruise Day 3  At Sea

The morning started off with the Meet and Mingle. It was held in Quill and Compass at 9.30am but once again had no meeting or mingling. The room had every one sitting facing the front, cruise director staff then chatted for 25 minutes about the cruise, how tendering would work etc, drew the raffle and ended. Then people left as the meeting clashed with lectures, trivia and more.  I did win a bottle of wine though!

I then went to Trivia, we had fun again.

The Behind the Stripes talk today was Captain Wendy.

So…just in case you don’t know – Captain is a RANK, Master is a POSITION. At present Radiance has two Captains on board. Captain Malcolm and Captain Wendy. Captain Malcolm holds the position of Master (Boss of the ship and THE Captain) and Captain Wendy hold the position of Staff Officer (second in charge). BUT the person in charge of the ship – the MASTER is known as Captain.

This is regardless of rank. A good example of this Captain James Cook was at the rank of Lieutenant but was called Captain.

Back to Wendy.  She also comes from Vancouver Island and has been with RCCL for 12 years. She came to the company with the rank of 2^nd Officer and has worked her way up to Captain. Her background is from commercial fishing boats (like Deadliest Catch boats) and also on uba rich private yachts.

She said that RCL is very strong on equal opportunity and in the ranks it is very genderless. There are 4 women captains in the fleet.

She loves Radiance class best as it “Is elegant like a cruise ship should be, fits into all the ports and is a Gas Turbine so very eco friendly”.  She has worked on all class of RCCL ships.

Another great talk.

The ocean today is a flat as a tack.  May as well be sailing on a lake!

I was good today and went to the gym!  

Then I went and got a glorious salad from the salad bar in the main dining room. Super. Made to order with dozens of ingredients.

I took my salad as a take away (as I knew I would see the menu and have to eat something on it) and came back to my room.  Just as I finished the salad I looked across and saw a delivery sitting on the coffee table. 

It was a gift from Giovanni’s Table  - a super fancy chocolate desert! Yum.. It would have been rude not to eat it!!! 

AND then when I read the card it also offered me a free champagne cocktail for everyone at my table if I go there – which I will be as I LOVE it. Hard to beat their scallops!

Our rooms are E2's with a connecting door.  The door is down near the balcony so is not in the way but allows us to chat, walk through etc.  Very handy!

Travelling as a D+ is very impressive. Every time I turn around there is something extra. A cheese board, a tray of chocolate strawberries. 

When we got on the letter on arrival that said 45 minutes of internet – but a note today said 60 minutes. So that is nice.

I went to the Crown and Anchor event with Nan and lucky we went as she was top cruiser!  1350 Points.  Pretty impressive!!!! 

She was given a bottle of Moet but doesn't drink bubbles so I got it.  My room is looking a bit like a grog shop. The four bottles of bubbles we brought, the Moet, two bottles of Red as Crown and Anchor gifts and the bottle of white I won in the raffle.  Maybe we need to skip Concierge Club some nights................like that's going to happen!!!!!!!!

The Captain had a chat at the C&A and loves trivia - especially nautical trivia.......

Why do we watch the ball drop on New Years Eve???

Cause before clocks, ships needed to chart their positions using the stars and certain times.  But needed to calibrate times accurately.  So when in ports the harbour master would signal noon by dropping a ball down a tower.

And where do the traffic lights come from???

Ships have red lights on the left, green on the right. If two ships are coming at each other at right angles, the ship from the right must give way to the ship on his left.  So if you saw a red light it had to stop. the green has right of way.  And when towing a barge, the ship has a light hanging off the tow rope. It is orange/yellow and means take care, proceed with caution.  These colours have predated traffic lights by 200 years. 

We skipped dinner tonight!  But did go and listen to Kelly Goodridge, the Piano Guy.  He did Billy Joel tonight and was great.

Tuesday 16^th September    

Cruise Day 5 - At Sea

The seas were up to 5 metres last night.  It was a great sleeping night with the gentle massage of the rocking bed.   We are cruising at 18 knots.

Another relaxing blissful day at sea.  

Trivia.

Behind the stripes lecture.

Todays guest was Marius, Head of Hotel, who I talked about on day two.  He is from Cyprus and runs everything NOT marine on the ship.

Hotel, Food and beverages, Entertainment, Guest Services, Human Relations, IT, Medical, Marketing, Spa, Photography, House keeping, Inventory…….  12 departments.  Busy man.

He has been in shipping for 18 years and 10 years with RCL. HE started as a head waiter and worked his way up.

He said his biggest challenge was doing the season out of Brazil.  Late dinners, bars open to 6am and the ship empty until 1pm! That and missing out on friends and family and the big events in their lives.

On board, crew are from 66 different nationality’s. So it is ALWAYS someone’s Independence Day, or some other celebration they have made up!

He sky dived last year in Hawaii after mis-hearing the guys in the mess after a few beers. He thought they said Diving’ so said he would love to go!  He said that he jumped out of the plane and was so happy, loving the feeling then thought “why are you happy, your shute is not open yet!” But he did love it. (Fool).

I then went to the Crown and Anchor lunch with an officer.  We sat with Lawrence, From NZ via Singapore. A lovely guy and had fun chatting about all kinds of stuff. 

I barely had time for my Nanna Nap today.

For dinner we went to Giovanni’s, which as always was fantastic.  The Scallops did not disappoint. Shamus, the Maître d from Ireland, stopped by and had a chat. And can that guy chat – so funny.

Food was amazing.

Back to the room and another gift.