The 2012 35-Day Hong Kong-Athens Cruise, Oceania ms Nautica, 4 of 6

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Four

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

May 6 (Sunday, Day 31, Aqaba, Jordan; continued) -

We're ships of the desert, you know.

Another major site was the Theatre. It is carved into solid rock and can seat 7,000. Although it looks Roman, the Nabataeans built it in the 1st century AD and each seat has a seat number carved into it. (It was, however, apparently impossible to photograph -- Filbert.)

The 2012 35-Day Hong Kong-Athens Cruise, Oceania ms Nautica, 3 of 6

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Three

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April 28 (Saturday, Day 23, Mumbai, India; 1 INR = $0.02; $1 = 51.66 INR) -

Indian Navy submarine, out for a weekend cruise around Mumbai Harbor

Since we are not that fond of India, we didn’t get off the ship. The ship left Mumbai at 5 PM.

The 2012 35-Day Hong Kong-Athens Cruise, Oceania ms Nautica, 2 of 6

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Two

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April 21 (Saturday, Day 16, Phuket, Thailand; 1 THB = $0.03; $1 = 30.81 THB) -

Shrine

Snookums woke up, showered and almost fainted. She had to sit on the toilet until the bright white lights dimmed. Snookums returned to the doctor at 8 AM for another temperature check and her temperature was normal but her blood pressure was 85/62 which is very low for her. She still didn’t feel well, either, and decided not to go on the Phuket tour. Filbert and Snookums had booked a Phuket tour with six other people and Filbert went since it needed to be paid for and there was nothing he could do for Snookums. Snookums stayed behind and watched movies. (This was the one tour that Snookums really wanted to do on the cruise since it involved riding an elephant.)

The 2012 35-Day Hong Kong-Athens Cruise, Oceania Nautica

April 6 – May 14, 2012

Text by Snookums, Pictures and Webification by Filbert

This is the table of contents for the online version of our trip journal. Here are the chapters:

Part One - Home to Hong Kong and on to Singapore

Part Two - Phuket, Thailand to Mumbai, India

Part Three - Mumbai, India to Aqaba/Petra, Jordan

Part Four - Aqaba, Jordan to Safaga/Luxor, Egypt

Part Five - Safaga, Egypt to Haifa, Israel

Part Six - Haifa, Israel and home.

The 2012 35-Day Hong Kong-Athens Cruise, Oceania ms Nautica, 1 of 6

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part One

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April 6 (Friday, Day 1, Flying to Hong Kong) -

Snookums woke up feeling better than yesterday when she had a temperature of 99.5°, felt nauseous and had a headache for most of the day. Super Shuttle picked us up around 9 AM and we got to the airport and enjoyed sitting in the American Airlines lounge for a few minutes before boarding the flight to Chicago. We ate our Target salads that we brought with us and the flight went by quickly. We had to clear security again at O’Hare since our Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong was flying out of the international terminal. We spent about one hour in the Swiss Air Lounge since we were flying business class. We used American Airlines miles for our one-way tickets from Kansas City to Hong Kong. Economy class was going to require 40,000 miles per person and business class was 55,000 so we went with the 55,000 mile option (plus $30 per person for taxes). Had we purchased the ticket, it would have cost $3756.90 per person. Flying business class also meant we had lounge access. It was too bad we ate on the flight to Chicago since the spread in the Swiss Air Lounge included oven fried chicken, hot pasta, salad, fresh fruit and packets of Oreos and Fig Newtons.

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Nine

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February 10 (Friday, Day 14, At sea) -

Snookums and Pat slept in until 9:15 and then showered. Pat ate a light breakfast of muesli while Snookums read on the verandah. The sun was out and the sea was calm. Then Snookums realized that Mom might get a 100-day medallion at the 11 AM Mariner reception and had to logon to try to verify it. She failed and decided to ask the concierge at Neptune Lounge if Mom was on the list. She was!

Snookums went to Mom’s room at 10:00 AM and opened up the door just a bit to see that it was pitch black and Judy was still sleeping so she didn’t go in. She returned to Mom’s room around 10:30 AM and now everyone was up but still in pajamas. Snookums made sure that Judy knew that Mom was going to get a copper medallion. Everyone said that they were attending so Snookums let them get dressed. Snookums and Pat arrived at the event at 10:45 in order to secure good seats.

Captain van Zaane, Mom with her copper medallion, Hotel Manager Stan Kuppens

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Eight

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February 9 (Thursday, Day 13, St. Maarten) -

We woke up and it was raining (naturally!). It didn’t stop us, though, from heading out to meet with our private tour guide, Joyce Prince ($375). And the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. The five of us found Joyce and her nice big van and she started by taking us on an island tour. Then she dropped off Pat, Judy and Snookums on Front Street so they could get their two Diamonds International charms (sunglasses and clock charms) and the Effy pendant and took Mom and Dad on more of an island tour for twenty minutes or so. When the five of us met up again, we went to the butterfly farm ($12 per person) and spent a nice hour there. It was supposed to be handicap accessible and for the most part it was, but due to the heavy rain that had occurred earlier in the day, Dad’s wheelchair wheels got stuck a few times in the mud and had to be manhandled out. Snookums found a 10 cent (Euro) coin, too, at the butterfly farm. She was hoping to find a guilder from the Dutch side, but settled for the Euro coin from the French side.

St. Maarten scenic overview

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Seven

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February 8 (Wednesday, Day 12, San Juan, Puerto Rico) -

Snookums woke up around 9:15 and immediately yelled to Pat to wake up since she was going with Dad to the 9:30 AM “Veterans Meeting”. To Snookums’s surprise, Pat was not in the room. Snookums got up and showered and piddled around until 11:00 or so. It was very cool and cloudy and windy and rained a bit, too. Pat came back to the cabin and then Ian, the Travel Guide, announced that a scenic narration would occur as we passed El Morro Fort so we went outside on the bow of the ship on deck 5 to see our approach. It was VERY, VERY windy on the bow but the view was great and the sun was fully out. After we got our pictures, we went to Lido for lunch and ate by the pool. While we were eating, the pool’s retractable roof was opened up the whole way since it was so sunny (finally!). Dad drove by in his scooter and we talked to him for a few minutes before he left for the library and we went back to our cabin to get ready to walk around San Juan.

Dad, Pat and Snookums

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Six

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February 7 (Tuesday, Day 11, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos) -

We woke up at 7:30 AM and waited for our pre-ordered room service breakfast. We had ordered it to be delivered from between 7:30 and 8 AM. The other time it was delivered at the beginning of the time period so we were kind of counting on that since we were going to meet Judy at 8:15 AM. Breakfast finally came at 7:55 AM and the server brought it in and looked at Snookums and said, “You need to write your room number on the order form.” Snookums then pointed to Pat and said, “She filled it out.” Mystery solved! When Pat filled out the room service breakfast form last night she neglected to fill in the room number. She did, however, write down the last name so the kitchen was able to look that up and find us. Whew!

Grand Turk shoreline

The 2012 14-Day Eastern & Western Caribbean Cruise, Holland America ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Text and pictures by Snookums, webification by Filbert

Part Five

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February 6 (Monday, Day 10, At sea) -

Pat and Snookums had their normal breakfasts of muesli (Pat) and oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon (Snookums) but ate it outside since it was finally a bit sunny. Snookums took pictures around the ship before returning to the room to read on the verandah. Mom, Judy and Pat went to the 11 AM shopping lecture to get the coupons for the upcoming ports.