Month: December 2009

Contributed by: filbert Friday, December 18 2009 @ 07:00 AM CST

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-three

December 10 (Thursday, Day 43, Crossing the Equator) –

Empty water glass

We got up and Snookums went to Muscle Mix and then Cardio Tai Chi (it didn’t make a lot of sense during the class, either!) and ate a leisurely breakfast with two fellow exercises. During breakfast the Restaurant Manager talked to her about last night but she told him that Filbert was writing a letter and to talk to him. For once it wasn’t Snookums that was having the issues! Filbert typed a two-page letter, printed it and had the front desk deliver it to the General Manager, the Food & Beverage Manager (he already received two other letters from Snookums regarding different topics) and the Restaurant Manager.

More after the jump . . . We got up and Snookums went to Muscle Mix and then Cardio Tai Chi (it didn’t make a lot of sense during the class, either!) and ate a leisurely breakfast with two fellow exercises. During breakfast the Restaurant Manager talked to her about last night but she told him that Filbert was writing a letter and to talk to him. For once it wasn’t Snookums that was having the issues! Filbert typed a two-page letter, printed it and had the front desk deliver it to the General Manager, the Food & Beverage Manager (he already received two other letters from Snookums regarding different topics) and the Restaurant Manager.

We crossed the Equator at 11:18 AM today. The Equator Crossing Ceremony will be held tomorrow afternoon. We didn’t go to the one on November 6 when we crossed from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere, so maybe we’ll have to go to tomorrow’s.

While we were on our way to lunch the Cruise Director stopped us to follow-up on a comment that Snookums had written about the port lecturer and how the port lecturer didn’t lecture about any of our ports. Lorraine, the Cruise Director, informed us that Regent has changed the way that port information is delivered and that Destination Services (the shore excursion people) are in charge of port information and that the guest lecturer is in charge of talking about the broad geographic area or whatever he/she wants to talk about. The lecturer we had onboard from Mumbai to Cape Town talked about the ports since he wasn’t aware that Regent’s policy had changed. The lecturer that got on the ship in Cape Town was aware of this new Regent policy and therefore never spoke about Rio, Salvador de Bahia or Fortaleza but instead spoke about Brazilian coffee and the Rio 2016 Olympics. Lorraine told us that Destination Services could give us the lecture/information we were looking for. Yeah, right.

After lunch the Restaurant Manager approached us and offered his apologies. (While we were eating we saw him lurking outside the restaurant and thought he might be waiting for us.) Filbert told him about the letter and about his two major gripes (lack of service for tables on the outside edge of the restaurant and that it seems like the wait staff is focused on getting plates on and off the table with no regard for the guests’ satisfaction) and the Restaurant Manager thanked us for letting him know. Snookums noticed at her breakfast that her water glass never got below half-full before it was refilled which had never happened on this cruise before so we think the word is out about us! As Filbert said, it took a month for us to throw a stink.

After being stopped by the Restaurant Manager, we decided to go to Destination Services to schedule our lecture on Barbados since that is what the Cruise Director told us to do. Well, the girl at Destination Services didn’t know anything about that and could only read us what was printed about the shore excursions. This didn’t surprise either Filbert or Snookums and we went to the Front Desk and left a message for Lorraine to contact us. It just doesn’t make any sense to us for a cruise line to not have a lecture about the ports of call, but that’s what Regent has decided to do.

The Internet was still down so Filbert wrote some of his book and Snookums read her book. Filbert attended the 4 PM “Cocktails with Charlie Cook”. Lorraine called Snookums and explained that she didn’t really know what was going on with the port lectures. (Okay, that’s not what she really said, but Snookums couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say other than she’s not in charge of Destination Services and her job is to deal with Entertainment, which includes the lecturers.)

Charlie Cook in the Observation Lounge

At 6:05 PM we decided to attend the 6 PM Seven Seas Society cocktail reception so we quickly put on our formal clothes. And it was Filbert who wanted to go! What’s up with that? Must be Internet withdrawl. We got there and the receiving line was still going strong so we weren’t even late. 88% of the passengers on this cruise have sailed with Regent before. While we were there both the General Manager and the Food & Beverage Manager told us that they got Filbert’s letter and would talk to us tomorrow. Filbert ordered a Manhattan and Snookums ordered a water with lemon. When the cocktail waiter delivered the drinks, he said “You’re the one that doesn’t like green limes” since Snookums commented to the Restaurant Manager earlier in the day that the wait staff still doesn’t know the difference between a lemon and a lime and it’s getting really old to teach them. Neither Filbert nor Snookums thought that the waiter should have made his snide remark, but so be it! At least Snookums got her yellow lemon.

We went to dinner and had excellent service – imagine that! Then we were doubly surprised when we came back to the room and found that the Internet was up and we got to set our clocks back. Yippee!

December 11 (Friday, Day 44, Cruising the Atlantic Ocean) –

Christmas Cards and tea in the Observation Lounge

Snookums went to Fabulous Abs and then Cardio Groove while Filbert went to two back-to-back lectures – “How to Make Positive Lifestyle Changes” and “Brazil: Development vs. Diversity”. He sits in the very last row of the large theatre with his laptop and surfs the Internet during the lectures and doesn’t necessarily listen closely. His comment about the Brazil lecture was “It was the standard eco-babble.” Snookums also did two loads of laundry on two different decks. She got even more of a workout in by checking the machines every so often on multiple floors.

There was no joy in Voyagerville, for the outdoor barbecue had been cancelled

At 2:30 we attended the “Equator Crossing Ceremony”. It started pouring rain at 2:20 but that didn’t stop Filbert from standing in the rain with his waterproof camera taking pictures. This is a ceremony where King Neptune converts Pollywogs (someone that hasn’t crossed the Equator) to Shellbacks (someone that has crossed the Equator). Lots of food is smeared on people and then they kiss a fish and ultimately jump in the swimming pool to get cleaned up. It looked like split pea soup, spaghetti noodles and ketchup were some of the foods used this time. With the added 2” of rainwater, the actual wood deck on Deck 11 is looking like a flood area with lots of debris (i.e. food) in it. The crew isn’t going to have much fun cleaning this up. They don’t normally have to contend with standing water on the deck due to plugged up drains (from the food!). But, they’ll get it cleaned up and tomorrow no one will even remember that there was crud all over the deck. By 3:30 the sun was shining brightly.

At the court of King Neptune:

Raining on King Neptune’s Parade

The King of the Sea, brings some with him

Our friend, Erin the Pollywog, wonders if this is a good idea

Erin wonders further

What are they doing to the pollywog?

Death by spaghetti

And off to the shower!

KISS THE FISH!

The remaining pollywogs become shellbacks

We went to Marilyn Maye’s tribute to Johnny Carson prior to dinner. Marilyn Maye is a cabaret singer who appeared on Johnny Carson a record 76 times and Johnny nicknamed her “Super Singer”. She has a 1 hour and 45 minute stage show that she cut down to 45 minutes for our show that mixed her live singing with clips from the Tonight Show. She sure doesn’t look like she’s 81 years old!

Our dinner was a dinner for the people participating in the PTV at Sea program with Charlie Cook (political analyst). When we entered La Veranda, we were told to sit at the empty middle table for 6. This happened to be the table reserved for Charlie and his wife, Lucy, and we had a great dinner with them. Snookums has eaten several breakfast with one of the producers of the PTV at Sea program so when we entered La Veranda he said “Snookums, will you go sit at that empty middle table?” and she did to help him out. Little did she know that he was making it special for us! We had a great time chatting with the Cooks–studiously avoiding politics for the most part, talking instead about families and other suitable dinner-table talk.

Next: Turtles and puffers and rays! Oh, my!

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, December 17 2009 @ 07:00 AM CST

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-two

December 8th sunset

December 9 (Wednesday, Day 42, Fortaleza, Brazil) –

We enjoyed a relaxing morning (Snookums attended a fitness class and Filbert worked on the journal) and while we ate lunch, Snookums did a load of laundry. Unfortunately, the dryers on the 7th deck continue to leave black grease marks on our shirts and t-shirts so she had to take them to the front desk and then they get sent to the ship’s laundry and get cleaned properly. One of the dryers was removed for about two weeks, but even after it was put back, it continued to leave black marks. The other dryer does, too, so from now on Snookums will not use the dryers on Deck 7.

The wind turbines of Fortaleza

Muddy water, clear water

We entered Fortaleza harbor, and were greeted by a small forest of wind turbines on a spit of land facing the sea. The harbor had very muddy water, which flowed well out to sea. Although we didn’t see a river, Filbert thought that a pretty silty river must empty into the Atlantic at Fortaleza.

The ship docked at 1 PM and we immediately got on the free shuttle to Fortaleza. Fortaleza is the fifth largest city in Brazil and had a really nice skyline with lots of high rise condos on the beachfront. No shore excursions were ever planned since there was supposed to be an exclusive Regent event at the historic municipal theatre for all guests. However, we received a note a few days ago saying that there was a technical problem with the stage and therefore the ballet couldn’t occur. This really didn’t upset us at all. The shuttle dropped everyone off at the Mercado Central. It’s an open-air four-floor shopping center that has 600 stores selling all types of handicrafts (lace items, leather items, hot peppers, t shirts, etc.). We walked all around it and then left and decided to find a store that sold deodorant since Filbert had run out. The ship sells it, but what fun is that?

Inside Mercado Central

The Metropolitan Cathedral was next to the Mercado and was inspired by the cathedral in Cologne, Germany and has a decided Gothic look. We took the obligatory photo and kept walking in search of a drug store. We walked along one street that had stores that sold nothing but office supplies and then we stumbled upon the block that sold fabric and sewing supplies. Then we finally found a street that had normal stores on either side and sidewalk vendors in the middle. We found a drug store and realized that Brazil only use aerosol or roll-on deodorant. Filbert bought the smallest bottle of roll-on for $1.27. According to the receipt, it was even on sale which made Snookums happy. The process to buy it reminded Snookums of Russia or Beijing. The salesman behind the counter handed us a variety of deodorants. Filbert picked the one he wanted. The salesman wrote up a receipt. We took that to the cashier and paid. The cashier gave us a receipt that we handed to a different woman who then gave us the deodorant. Three workers were involved in this simple transaction – wow!

Metropolitan Cathedral

We continued walking around and Snookums saw a large metal roof in the distance with a bunch of kiosks in front of it. She thought it might be a farmer’s market so we had to explore. It ended up being a clothing market for locals. We went inside the claustrophobic shed and took ten steps before deciding we didn’t need to be there and left. On our way back to the shuttle we still had 1.40 reals so Snookums bought a soft serve ice cream cone for 1.25 real ($0.72). A lot of locals were buying them, too. It wasn’t anything special, but it hit the spot and left us with only $0.09 of Brazilian currency that we left on the seat of the shuttle. We withdrew 40 reals ($22.94) from the ATM in Rio de Janeiro and did a great job of budgeting them.

Mercado Central, on the way back to the bus

Building dressed for Christmas

We got back to the ship and Snookums immediately went to the folkloric dance show that was onboard instead of at the historic municipal theatre. She took a couple of photos and left since all of the singing and commentary was in Portuguese.

The folkloric dance show

Meanwhile, Filbert took a shower and relaxed in the cabin, and noticed that wind-surfers were racing just beyond the harbor. Snookums returned, and sat on the balcony, enjoying the remaining sun until we sailed away at 5:30 PM. Filbert joined her after the sun went down around 5 PM.

Wind surfer races

Fortaleza sundown

The Internet was down all day, and at about 4:30 PM they announced that it would be another 12 hours at least because of “satellite problems.” We’re supposed to watch the channel Fox News has been on – if that starts working, then we’ll have Internet again. Filbert is reduced to muttering darkly, and drinking Manhattans.

Internet problems–Fox News is locked up!

We ate in Compass Rose but left after our salad course was served since service was so bad. Filbert’s water glass was empty for almost 15 minutes and he never received freshly ground pepper on his courses. These are little things, but they get annoying after awhile. Filbert tried to get someone’s attention and after about 10 minutes went to the maitre d’s stand and asked for the maitre d to come to our table. We waited another 5 minutes and left and ate the rest of our meal in our room from Room Service.

Post-sundown rays of light

Next: Internet problems! Empty water glasses! Mass panic!

Contributed by: filbert Wednesday, December 16 2009 @ 07:00 AM CST

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-one

December 7 (Monday, Day 40, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil) –

The Regent Invasion of Salvador de Bahia

We woke up and went on our 4-hour shore excursion that showed a contrast between the old and new Salvador de Bahia. This port city is the third largest city in Brazil with about 3,000,000 people. 80% of them are from African descendants that were slaves in the sugarcane fields. To Snookums it almost felt more Caribbean than Brazilian since the music, skin color, native costumes and art were so different than what Rio had.

Ladies in African dress

A town square, with Regent people

A smart old building

It was 83° and 80% humidity so the weather wasn’t too oppressive. Our bus took us up to the old city and we started our walking tour. Salvador de Bahia has more than 182 churches and we spent a considerable amount of time in two of them. The Cathedral of Salvador was the first church we visited. It’s a former Jesuit church of the city and was built in 1686 and is a fine example of Mannerist architecture and decoration.

The Cathedral of Salvador:

Then we visited the Convent and Church of São Francisco which is a Franciscan convent and church dating from the first half of the 18th century. It is an example of Portuguese colonial architecture and the Baroque decoration of the church is among the finest in Brazil and contains almost a ton of gold leaf.

The Convent and Church of São Francisco:

After visiting the two churches and hearing about their detailed history, we walked for about 45 minutes around the Pelourinho which was the city’s business district in the 18th century. Narrow cobblestone alleys are lined with colorful, restored colonial residences that now house art galleries, jewelry stores and souvenir shops. After this walk in the hot sun we boarded the air-conditioned bus and went to the Museum of Carlos Costa Pinto to look at 3,000 objects collected around the world by a wealthy family. While other people in our group were looking at crystal and silver, Filbert and Snookums found the museum’s snack shop and Filbert enjoyed a Skol beer.

Salvador street

We made it back to the ship at 1 PM and although the ship wasn’t going to leave until 4 PM, Snookums and Filbert decided to call it a day and ate a leisurely lunch before spending what was left of the day napping, reading or surfing the internet. We showered and ate dinner in Compass Rose and even skipped dessert since nothing really jumped out at us. Lights were out by 10 PM.

December 8 (Tuesday, Day 41, Cruising the Coast of Brazil) –

Filbert woke up with a headache and Snookums didn’t feel “right” either. We showered and ate breakfast where Snookums discovered that the doughnuts that look like raised doughnuts with a chocolate glaze are actually more like cake doughnuts (which she prefers) with good quality dark chocolate smeared on them (and not a cocoa and powdered sugar icing). She ate two. Snookums stayed on deck 11 in her favorite place (the big sofas near the pool) and read her book until 2:15 PM when she decided to check on Filbert. Filbert attended the 9:30 lecture about Brazil’s coffee and then stayed for Charlie Cook’s lecture on the 2010 midterm and 2012 presidential elections.

Snookums went to a fitness class and then we enjoyed dinner at Prime 7. The restaurant still didn’t remember our anniversary (which was supposed to be celebrated on November 22 at Prime 7) but our water glasses were kept filled and our orders were correct so we were happy.

Next: Come to Fortaleza! See the wind turbines!

Contributed by: filbert Tuesday, December 15 2009 @ 08:32 PM CST

Via Mises.org[*1]

Because, see, we’re smarter and better people than the collectivists and totalitarians who have come before us. Sure we are.

[*1] http://mises.org/story/3256