Sea Day Delight

We had our first spectacular day at sea, warm temperature, smooth
seas, lots of sun. We changed our closet from winter to summer. I
was able to do some reading.

As I entered the pool area which was used by many guests for the first
time today, it reminded me of the Wyncote House pool.

We were buzzed by a North Korean helicopter today but no shots were
fired.

We strolled the deck and I wore my hat for the first time. On Living
The Dream, there is a no turn around policy if your hat blows off.
However, Princess Cruise Lines has placed at strategic locations on
the open decks, buttons to alert the Captain in the event your hat
blows overboard.

Greetings from Vladivostok

Tuesday, September 29, 11:30pm Ship time, 8:30 am East coast time

We had a beautiful day in Vladivostok which is the capital of the southeast asian region and the Pacific termination point of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest continuous rail line in the world. The stations here and in Moscow, the other end, are the same. It takes seven or eight days to get to Moscow by train, 7 hours by air. It is cheaper to go to Alaska by way of Moscow, Zurich, New York then Alaska (the long way) than from here to Korea to Alaska.

That's our ship, Diamond Princess, in the background.

The population is 700,000, not counting Chinese workers. Teachers snd doctors are not well paid. Women retire at 60. Men at 65.

In Vladivostok cars drive on the right but cars have the steering wheel also on the right. Many cars are from Japan. But we drive a lot of Japanese cars in the U.S. and the steering wheel is on the left. They buy used cars from Japan, where they drive on the left.

There are very few traffic lights here. At big intersections, cars trucks and buses just muscle their way through as there are not stop signs either. Traffic moves slowly. Maintenance is also an issue. At home, when a road is repaved, manhole covers are raised. Not here.

Steps to the "Eagle's Nest" viewing area are crumbling.

And if you don't like your kids, let them play near the railing.

We visited a submarine and being tall would present many head banging opportunities and the beds would be too short.

The periscope really works.

We visited a few churches and the Regional Historical Museum with really ugly fish and other creatures, old books, a live cat, big old guns, hidden steps to trip every visitor and more. We asked our tour guide if there were Jewish people in Vladivostok and she said she did not know any. She had lived abroad in Ocean City, NJ and visited NYC, Phila., and Washington DC.

Fancy Bus.

There was an old beggar woman outside a church. One of our group gave her some money and a younger woman (her pimp??) came and took it from her. I was not able to catch that action on camera.

We are at sea tomorrow and set the clock back an hour tonight. We have not had two days in a row in the same time zone yet.

Next stop: Busan (Pusan), South Korea.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Standing tall in Japan

Monday, September 28, 6:00 pm ship time, 5:00 am east coast time

In Muroran yesterday, we took a tour which took us to Sapporo and the Historical Village of Hokkaido, featuring reconstructed buildings from the olden days. The historic village was OK but we preferred the Folk Museum in Oslo. Very short English explanations. We had to remove our shoes to enter the buildings which were sparsely furnished but interesting. The doorways were very low, about eye level for me. I only knocked my head once. There were slippers available if you wanted to use them and my shoes looked comical next to the little slippers.

One thing looked odd: these old structures had little fire pits in each room. I asked a guide how they dealt with the smoke. There was a vent in the roof but no chimney. He said many structures were made of straw and the smoke made the straw stronger but was not too good for people. In one big building used by fishermen, there was loft and the women slept in the loft, men on the first floor. It was probably warmer in the loft. After the women climbed up, they removed the ladder.

Our tour guide passed around her wedding picture while we were on the bus. She is wearing a white hat. The hat is to hide her horns. Women have horns. (Of course) After the wedding the bride discloses her horns. She had been married for 20 years and has no children but her husband is like a child.

I asked our guide to tell me more about the horns because there could be different interpretations. She gave an example: "He comes home late "Grrrr."" Laurie asked if the wedding kimono is handed down from mother to daughter but it is rented for around $2500.

The divorce rate is around 20%. She speculates it is because weddings are so expensive. Arranged marriages now are around 10%.

They do not have a bed in their three room apartment. They have a room with a tatami mat. At night she rolls out bedding on the floor directly. In the morning they roll up the bedding and can use the room for other purposes.

We stopped at a rest stop, the rest room sink was about 4 inches above knee level for me. Then I came across a french fry vending machine which I could not pass by. Fries cost $3.80 and had a salt packet in the box. They were hot and a little soggy but worth it.

At lunch we were offered only water, orange juice or diet coke to drink. Lunch was served in a hotel banquet hall, the best part was that it was fast. The toilet seats in the ladies room were heated and the toilet offered sprays to clean you off after completing your business. (So I was told). The ladies room at the historic village offered a hole in the floor or one "western" toilet. (So I was told). The only unusual thing I noticed in the men's room was knee level sinks. Sorry, no photos.

The Japanese written language is made up from a combination of Chinese and two other language's characters. I was told but could not name the other languages. Some Chinese characters are the same in China and some have different meanings. There are 50,000 characters in the Japanese language but only 3,000 are commonly used. On a keyboard you type a character for a sound and since many characters share that sound you choose the character you want from a list. It is very slow.

Sapporo is a large city with about 1,600,000 residents. Smoking is not allowed on the street.

We visited a big store which was like a department store but the departments were all owned by different companies. By contrast, in a mall each company has it's own store. The Japanese are meticulous dressers, very fashion forward. It was easy to pick out the foreigners. As you can see, we had a spectacular day.

Yom Kippur evening and morning services were very good. Our Rabbi, Harold Kudan, is from Illinois. We have no Torah (or torahnim) on board but do have prayer books. Our congregation is 25 strong and we meet in the wedding chapel. It has been an easy fast but the concluding service is not to be held until sunset (naturally) so moving the clock forward yielded no benefit. We lose another hour tonight.

Tomorrow: Vladivostok

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

PS: I may have missed some email addresses so if you know of anyone who should be receiving these please forward their address to me or refer them to my blog where these may be posted also. http://smillerdadtravels.blogspot.com/

Ultimate ships tour

I had signed up for the Ultimate Ships Tour which separates the men from the boys with a $150 fee, purely an idea for revenue generation by Princess (as stated by our guide), but also in a very worthwhile tour. Ships tours used to be free, but this was also much more extensive. First, you need to sign the ultimate liability release, which indicates you may be subject to all sorts of hazards: smoke, chemicals, falls, impalement on sharp objects, loud noise, etc. My kind of tour. Except for one major detail, no cameras or video for "security reasons." They claim they don't want their competitors to learn their secrets, although I pointed out their competitors can learn all their secrets for $150. We were accompanied by security the whole time and there were only 8 of us. Remember the lottery for the 12 spots? Easy to win one of the 12 spots with only 8 lottery players.

The tour began on the bridge, and was hosted by the Captain himself,
Dino Sagani. The bridge is pretty impressive with floor to ceiling
windows all around. They have typical navigation equipment just a
step above what you would find on Living The Dream. It was
interesting to hear the career path to become a Captain. He started
his nautical career painting the hull. The captain told some
interesting stories which I will spare you from, but if you threw the
ship into reverse "crash" mode it would take a mile to stop. We were
asked not to push any buttons. Better to steer around an obstacle.
Smoke alarms went off constantly and were investigated. Usually
someone showering with the door open.

These are photos of the "free" photos that came with the tour. Try to pick out the important person (other than me) in each photo. Good. Now try to filter out the seven unimportant people in your mind.

Next we went inside the funnel with the Staff Captain, #2 in command. I was disappointed that they did not serve cake in there but it does smell like “chips” (fries) because the kitchen exhaust hoods vent out there as well. They take pride in how clean the engines run and inside the stack there are vibrators which keep soot from accumulating. The Queen Mary had a fire due to grease buildup in the stack so they clean those stacks often. There are two jet engines up there, one of which could power the entire ship but they don’t use them because they suck up so much fuel. What look like jet engines when you look at the stack from the outside are just for appearance and are empty inside. I’m not sure why they took us up there but the photographer got a picture. The stairs were steep, narrow and slippery and it was cold.

The chief engineer gave us a little talk in the engine control room. You could see the actual engines on a video screen, but that’s as close as any guest is getting to the engine room. They do make their own water but not by reverse osmosis, they use evaporation and the water is clean and absolutely pure. Then they pump it full of chlorine. The engineer was nervous because they were almost out of fuel. They filled up in Vancouver about two weeks ago and he just wants to get to Muroran tomorrow to fill up again. Did you know the ship goes faster at night? Do you know why? Diesel generators drive electric motors which drive the props which rotate inward which is unusual. Inward rotation gives a smoother ride but uses more fuel. He says 75% of the cruise fare goes toward fuel. Most ships use outward rotating props so the ship uses less fuel but guests vibrate more. At night, when guests go to bed, they turn off their lights which allows for more electricity to power the motors so the ship goes faster. (If you want to get to your destination faster, turn out your lights.)

When the engineer was on loan to Cunard, they had to make a run to England and were waiting for four truck loads of meat before they could leave. The trucks were late, then later, finally arriving at 3am. They loaded all the meat, cast off, then hurried up to keep their schedule, but waiting for the meat ended up costing $1,500,000 in extra fuel. He thought the guests should have eaten more fish and skipped the meat.

We met the Chief Purser who toured us around the food storage areas, food prep areas and galley. We went into the meat freezer which was 35 degrees below zero. Indeed, it was crisp, especially in my short sleeve shirt. We didn’t spend too long in the freezer as frostbite was not on the release. It was all very impressive and they have about 250 guests with special dietary requirements which gum up the works but they work hard to accommodate them. They had a roll making machine which was very cool and I deeply regret I have no video of. Two guys prepare all the fish, they grind all their own hamburger, it just goes on and on. Fresh vegetables come on in Korea and Hong Kong, frozen food comes from the US.

Next stop was the laundry. More massive machines. Two guys feed in a washed, wrinkled bedsheet and it comes out the other end pressed and folded. Another guy was pressing dress shirts, maybe three or four a minute. Jaw dropping. Pants on another machine. They were reupholstering chairs, all incredible.

Print shop, not too unusual although the offset plates are no longer metal, but come out of a laser printer. They do a lot of printing and do their layout in Pagemaker. Two guys run it all.

The photo lab uses all digital cameras but print with chemicals, not ink jet as you would think. They say the quality is better. Every photo is hand approved before printing, 18,000 per cruise average.

On to the theater. More cool stage stuff but a movie was going on (Marx Brothers) so they couldn’t demonstrate the lifts and other special features. Then to the dressing room. One for men and women, no time to be shy. Each dancer has a “dresser,” men who ready the costumes and help the dancers with the quick changes. The dressers all have other jobs on the ship but help out with the shows. There is a two year wait to be a dresser. The costumes are made in Los Angeles and they had seamstresses who altered the costumes for the dancers but got off in Whittier so everyone has to stay the same size for the next 8 months. Try that on a cruise ship.

I could go on and on but it was a really great tour, even though I have been on many bridge tours. The ship appears to be very well run and efficient.

We are in port in Muroran, Japan tomorrow so I get a day off from exercise. My arms are killing me.

Tonight we pick up yet another hour. And get this: Tomorrow night, Yom Kippur, we LOSE an hour. Ha!

No internet tomorrow so you can turn your computer off. It's a Japanese thing.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

In a fog

Friday, September 27, 2:15 pm

A reader asked if the other guests at our table think we are
"wakos." We do have some meals with random guests who appear
mystified by the attention lavished upon us. It's like we're
celebrities. The Maitre'd is personally overseeing our service which
is handled differently than the other guests at the table. We have
dined with others guests with special dietary requests but they may
not have discovered the magic of a little palm grease, which I intend
to keep applying since it works so well. As for dinner, we have a
private table for four so we can invite guests as we like, and our
guests already know about Laurie's special diet. We are in the open
seating dining room so we just tell them what time we intend to arrive
the next day and our table is ready for us. Last night we dined early
to catch a show after dinner and they were quoting guests an hour wait
for a table for two but we sailed right in to our table.

The trouble is, even with palm grease, I can't imagine getting this
level of service anywhere in the future. They literally can't do
enough for us. It's comical. Tips are charged to our shipboard
account daily so I don't think the managers are shown enough
appreciation. The ingredients for Laurie's juice are delivered to our
cabin daily where we can prepare it with the Vita-mix we brought
along. (We were told by email that we would not have access to the
ship's juicer which was reserved for staff only.)

We saw two shows last night, both of which were very good. They have
a pickpocket on board, Bob Arno, who relieved at least 10 guests of
their wristwatches, eyeglasses etc. on his way into the room, then
called the owners up on stage for further humiliation. He put a watch
back on a guests wrist and had it off again instantly. He took off
neckties and even a shirt which I can't imagine how he did because the
guy was wearing a jacket over it. He doesn't use ladies at all and
evidently wallets are off limits too. He claims to do work for police
catching pickpockets and showed some videos of other pickpockets at
work so we can better protect ourselves but I don't think your wallet
is safe anywhere. I now suspect that's what happened to my wallet in
Spain years ago. He is doing another show tonight which we may attend
because he was pretty funny. I'll leave my watch in my cabin.

This morning's 7:00 stretch class (more like 8:00 because we picked up
another hour) was one of the best ever. I could touch the floor after
the class which is really rare for me. We've got to run out of these
extra hours at some point unless they have a time machine on board.

We played duplicate bridge and I don't think we came out on top
although we did have top board a few times. One husband was pissed at
his wife because they scored bottom board against us on a hand she
played then he played a contract and we set him two tricks. Another
top board for us. (A good thing) That part was fun. Not every hand
went like that though.

14107 feet deep

We'll be 20 miles off Russian islands tonight in thick fog. 25 knot
winds, 5 foot seas. Fortunately we can barely hear the fog horn in
our cabin. Last year in Alaska we were right under the horn and heard
it quite well.

It's 52 degrees and very foggy now.

Partly cloudy is the prediction for Muroran on Sunday

As far as bridge, we came out 10 out of 14 yesterday, not bad
considering a few blunders on my part.

We just had lunch with a couple from West Palm Beach. They are very
nice and we had some interesting discussions. She has just cured
herself of IBS and has been symptom free for two months.

More news tomorrow.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Special Cuisine

Now I know it is the height of "tourist" to photograph cruise ship food, but this cannelloni was made just for Laurie from her raw cookbook. It is stuffed with nut cheese and was delicious, even to me. Laurie couldn't finish it last night because they also made her a big bowl of soup. She expects to see the leftover portion at lunch today. Their specialty restaurant chef is making her special dishes every night. This cuisine is better than what you could get at Pure Food & Wine in NYC. All this after they refused every one of her special requests by email before the cruise. Now, it's not organic, but it is raw and this dish had to take at least an hour to prepare. We're trying to meet the chef today to thank HIM for his exceptional effort. Last year, Regent cruises would not deviate from the menu at all.

I signed up for the "Ultimate Ships Tour" which filters out the riff-raff with a $150 fee. It does come with a chef's jacket and robe from the spa (just what I need to haul home) but may (I say may) include the engine room. It is a four hour experience with admittance by lottery but only 8 people (maximum 12) have signed up so the odds are good.

Gained another hour last night. I think we pick up 7 hours along the way. We picked up 4 on our way to Anchorage. We'll really pay when we fly home.

Interesting ship tidbit. Our mileage is 90 feet per gallon.

We are past the Bering Sea.

Its''s 51 degrees 74% humidity, a little chilly to read on the balcony.

16 knot winds, seas slight, 1.5 to 4 feet.

Distance from Whittier: 1945 miles, 1220 miles to Muroran, Japan our first stop. Average almost 22 mph.

Our position at 11:55 am local time: 53 degrees 09 minutes North, 164 degrees 35 minutes East. Closest land: 11, 480 feet (ocean floor).

We're off to lunch so we can be at Duplicate bridge at 1:15. Busy busy, but I am getting some reading in. I bought Edward Kennedy's "True Compass" in Anchorage and it is a good read so far.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

We're so far behind we're ahead

Thursday, September 23, 2009

Picked up another hour last night but lost an entire day. We cross the international date line today and now we are ahead of you. The Staff Captain, second in command, gave a very interesting lecture today on navigation and weather. Laurie slept through it (at the lecture, Bonine effect). We're skirted the typhoon and the only effect has been rough following seas and overcast skies. The ship's stabilizers actually reduce drag by keeping the ship level. They do not prevent up and down motion bow to stern, just the side to side motion. With our cabin mid-ship we feel very little of that, just a gentle rocking. No ill effects and I haven't even heard of seasick passengers.

The chef prepared Laurie's dinner last night from the raw cook book she loaned to him and it was excellent. I order off the menu and the food is good (occasionally excellent) but I don't think I'm packing on any extra pounds in spite of the french fries.

Exercise classes are packed to the point of excluding guests. Better get there early. We met a couple near our age from West Palm Beach. Haven't had a meal with them yet so we don't know their whole story. I don't think we have met anyone who is still working, but so far that's just a small sample. Met a couple at lunch (he was a constant bearer of bad news, very negative) who is getting off in Beijing and taking a two week river cruise. 95% of guests are significantly older than us.

Must get to dinner, more news tomorrow.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

Still Cruising Along

Monday, September 21, 2009

Our Maitre'D and Food and Beverage manager try very hard to meet
Laurie's modest needs in the dining room. The application of a little
palm grease the first night led to almost embarrassing service at
lunch yesterday. I was seated at a table for 8 awaiting Laurie's
return from a spa service. She arrived a little late and we had only
one half hour before we had to leave to get to duplicate bridge.
That's another story. The waiter had not taken the table's order
yet. To make a long story short (a real challenge for me) I was
finishing my dessert before our table mates had been served their meals.

We couldn't actually play duplicate because it would have cut into our
yoga session scheduled for later that afternoon so we played "social"
bridge with a couple instead. We are meeting some interesting folks
on board. We have not yet met anyone from our generation.

It is interesting how Princess marketed this cruise. In europe, it
was sold as a Vancouver to Beijing cruise, those folks didn't even
know it was going on to Bangkok. We were told 1000 passengers got off
in Whittier and 600 got on. The ship is comfortable but it is funny
how they are always looking for an extra buck. They charge for most
exercise classes, free classes are at undesirable times. I think they
charge as a way to limit participants. At the free stretch class, it
was packed, paid yoga had about 9 participants. If you want a
treadmill, be prepared to wait a long time. The "Princess Patter"
listed fruit smoothies at a particular bar at 11:30am. I planned to
meet Laurie there. I was in line as they served the first customer.
The server told her it was $3.50 and she told him she didn't want it
and the rest of the line disappeared. There is plenty of free food on
board.

I took a brisk walk on the deck which gave me a chance to use the coat
I had brought along, and use my handy anemometer.

I think the typhoon has been downgraded from a super typhoon and the
ride has been pleasant. We attended a lecture on Japanese history
which provided the opportunity for an excellent nap.

We're meeting a couple we met at temple in anchorage for lunch today.

By the way, we roll the clocks back an hour every night which is a
very good idea. Twenty five hour days should be standard. Makes it
easier to catch that 7:30 stretch class. Never take this cruise in
the other direction. We'll lose an entire day when we cross the
international date line but who would even notice unless it was your
birthday.

UPDATE

In typical Miller style, we closed the dining room. Movie time in
half an hour. Don't think popcorn is an option but I have other
snacks. The attentive service continues. The chef borrowed Laurie's
raw "cookbook" last night to see which dishes he has all the
ingredients for. They wanted to make her sweet potato sorbet (?!?)
but needed to add sugar which nixed the deal. Stevia would not be a
suitable substitute for reasons they tried to explain to me but I
could nor comprehend. Something about ice crystals.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

On the way to Whittier

Our bus coach ride to the port took us along the scenic Seward highway which we drove to Anchorage after our cruise last summer. Laurie slept through it again. As tempting as it is to take pictures from a bus coach window, my experience is that they are not too good.

Still plenty of glaciers but you may want to hurry if you want to see them.

We enjoyed services last night. Spouses of board members introduced themselves and they had name tags for everyone, even us. I think that's a better idea than tickets. If someone didn't have a name tag they would stand out. The temple just celebrated it's 50th anniversary and they were the first in Alaska other than a short lived congregation around 1900. The people we spoke with were long-term Alaska residents, 30+ years. We asked what the winters were like and they are not too bad. It only gets to 40 below for about a week in January. He described the air as “crisp.”. Crisp!?!? I think your lips would be crisp, or your breath could be crisp, solidify and fall out of the air if it wasn't stuck to your crisp lips. I'm loving the Florida summer humidity. A few people remarked on how tan we were. Especially when compared to frosty the snowman, sure. There are indoor ice skating rinks here (heated?) so we can have tanning salons in Florida.

All familiar stores and restaurants are here, even Red Robin which we passed up in favor of Humpys as recommended by our stewardess. We sat at the counter and watched the action in the kitchen. Food was good but not outstanding.

There is a 2.5 mile tunnel under the mountain into Whittier. It is a single lane tunnel which is shared with a train. Traffic in starts on the half hour going in to town, the other direction on the hour and no traffic when the train is coming. I could not make all this up. The tunnel has only been paved and open to vehicular traffic for 6 years. Prior to that, cars, trucks and buses had to piggy back on train cars. The tunnel was built by the military during WWII and is rough cut. There are 6 “safe houses” built into the side with food and water in event of an emergency. The tunnel closed nightly at 11:00pm so you better not be late getting home from a night out in the city.




Before we left home I called the Whittier post office to see of I could mail stuff home before the cruise started. I called at 11:00 am and asked if this was the post office and was told it would be in a few hours. The answer was "no" because the post office was closed on Saturday and she (the postmistress) was working the ship Saturday and she keeps her jobs separate. There are only about 200 people living there.



I asked the bus driver what the tall poles with reflective tape were alongside the road. They ae used to find the road I'm deep snow. They get around 100 feet of snow each winter. You would think that would keep the glaciers fed. I didn't notice at the time that the road worker was wearing a bug mask.



ON BOARD

Made it to the cabin with all our luggage intact. Our cabin is in a good location at the center of the ship but we prefer smaller ships. Surprisingly, for a ship with over 2000 passengers therte is no card room. A bridge lesson and duplicate are held in a dining room, not the best set-up with round plywood table tops. Classy.

I missed most of the Captain’s statement yesterday as I was on the phone making some farewell calls while I still had service. Interesting that I have better service in Whittier than in Mirasol. Anyway he said something about changing the route due to a typhoon.



Todays Captain announcement just barged into our cabin. We are now 57 degrees 30 minutes north, 150 degrees 53 minutes west. 7 miles from Kodiak island. Speed 22 knots, about 25 mph. 403 NM so far, 2750 to Muroran, Japan Overcast, strong wind from stern, gusting 45 kts, rough seas but following seas, 4 meter seas. They don’t look like 4 meter seas to me but that may be an issue with perspective. Sailing on Living the Dream things may look different than from 9 decks up. I do know that following seas are always a good thing

We are now in the inside passage. Tomorrow morning we enter the Bering sea at 10:00 am. Tomorrow, smoother passing until the next day when we will be affected by a typhoon off the coast of Japan. That’s the part I missed yesterday.



Have to go meet Laurie for lunch. More to say but it will wait until the next installment.

We bought a big package of internet minutes so feel to email us back.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie

If you would prefer not to receive these emails, please reply with cancel in the subject. We won't be insulted. Much.

Welcome to Anchorage

Alaska certainly has some spectacular views. The weather today could not have been nicer. Last year we had some rain. We took a long walk to the Organic Oasis for lunch. I had a free-range buffalo burger with turkey bacon and bleu cheese, Laurie had soup and a salad which she enjoyed. This morning, we found a health food store with a great selection and better deals on some items we had brought from home. There are many healthy food options here but it seems that the locals don't know about them. We met a couple at breakfast this morning who have lived here for 30 years because they hate the heat. Good choice for them.

We are going to Rosh Hashanah services tonight at 8:00 (midnight east coast time). I’ll try not to disturb the other congregants by snoring. Congregation Beth Sholom’s web site is "Frozenchosen."

We ran into Sarah Palin when we returned to the hotel and she posed for a photo with us. Wasilla is not too far from Anchorage but I don’t think I can see Russia from here.

Princess has an office here in the hotel and it’s a good thing we stopped in. The last bus to the ship leaves half an hour before we were told to arrive at the meeting point. Maybe our travel agent was playing a trick on us. I like Anchorage but I’d be pretty annoyed if we had to spend the next 6 days here before we could catch up to the ship in Japan.

This will probably be my last land-based email until China in about 2 weeks. I’ll try to keep you informed about conditions on the ship.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

Regards,

Steve & Laurie