Three months away is a long time, but the memories are fresh – well, fairly fresh and probably an opportune time to sum up.
I’ll not dwell too long on the UK month, other than to say we thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather was great (just three patches of rain in 30 days), the company was great (especially the family) and the food was as good as anywhere. Somewhat surprisingly for some, the service and friendliness in shops, cafés and restaurants was also most impressive. Prices, particularly in the larger supermarkets, including their non-food outlets, were a lot cheaper than we expected and it is only the cost of petrol which makes the UK seem expensive.
Driving in the UK is still a revelation compared to NZ, as generally, they keep left except when overtaking and apart from the southern end of the M1, where they seem to have installed a load of average speed cameras (revenue collectors), traffic moves pretty quickly and safely. Given the proliferation of speed cameras in the towns, there seems to be far too many sleeping policemen/speed bumps, meaning extra pollution and poor fuel consumption. Parking is a bit of an issue in some places and thankfully, back at our home base, they have abolished the paid parking for the first two hours, which is an application of common-sense. Within the City it is a different story and most travel by bus and the car parks always have spaces. With even the local buses now having free WiFi and on most routes, buses about every 10 minutes at worst, no wonder.
The middle section of our trip was the 14 day Emerald Princess Baltic’s Cruise. We loved it! Sure the Emerald is bigger than the Dawn and a bit less homely, but for a cruise where most days were in port anyway, the ship assumes less importance than on a long cruise with loads of sea days.
I compared the Diamond Princess with the Dawn way back at the beginning of 2012. Much of what I wrote then still holds, as the Emerald is similar. Not identical, but similar. In terms of the deck 5 area, the Emerald boasts an International Café which we enjoyed, but the secondary entertainment lounges, just like the Diamond, are disappointing.
Where the Emerald really scored over the Dawn was the theatre. Far more modern. A larger production cast and good scenery made the Dawn look drab by comparison.
The destinations were excellent and the only down sides were a couple of Princess tours where the guides talked non-stop and bored us to death.
Northern Europe’s life style isn’t so different from what we are used to. I’ll cover that later.
Having a few hours with brother Malcolm between transferring from the Emerald to the Dawn Princess was a bonus and an opportunity to visit the National Motor Museum.
Hopping aboard the Dawn was like returning home. Loads of people we already knew from past cruises and three of the entertainment staff just made is so easy to slot back in. It wasn’t long before we caught up with those we’d met previously at Alana’s dance classes (and on then to those great fun evenings in the atrium). The one sour note of the whole cruise was the deck 7 atrium area... Putting the same self-centred and rather arrogant pianist in there last year for 90 days was bad enough, but having to suffer again all the way back to Auckland was just one factor in deciding to cancel next year’s second half.
To his credit, Cruise Director Mark was well aware of the feeling of those who were not sycophantic choir members (the pianist also runs the passenger choir) and did his level best to get other musicians in there for dancing, even if only for a couple of hours most nights. It helped, but whereas in 2011 and 2012, those who’d been to a dance class in the morning were encouraged to come along in the evenings and practice, so the group continued to grow. Without that continuity and support, the dance group didn’t grow at all this time, which is shame. We are convinced the deck 7 bar takings would be well down on 2011 and 2012!
As you may well have read from the blog, this leg of the cruise didn’t really inspire us to repeat it next year. Too similar and unlike the Med last year, it was much cooler once we’d left the Panama Canal than we expected. With Easter Island cancelled and nothing more than a sedate trundle around Pitcairn Island, a history of the ship never managing to get passengers to Easter Island, we felt that the ten continuous days at sea and basically most passengers indoors, wasn’t ideal.
Those who made the trek to Machu Picchu thoroughly enjoyed it and for them, it probably made the itinerary worthwhile.
As always, the on board staff were superb on both cruises and our Elite status giving us free laundry and a fair few internet minutes, makes continuing with Princess attractive.
Over the last three years we have been fortunate enough to experience various different cultures and seen some of what is behind the glossy brochures. Looking at a white sand beach resort for the wealthy on Antigua for example, is one thing. Seeing the poverty one street back is an eye opener. Those on benefits in NZ, UK, Aus etc., moaning about their lot in life, need to check out Peru and other countries where there is no dole money. The eldest son pays for the upkeep of his aged parents, the eldest daughter looks after them and if a brother loses his job, they all chip in to help him out. So on the streets, in the traffic queues, you get people trying to sell you tea towels, drinks, sweets, water. Anything to make a dollar.
The Baltic cruise we loved, as we probably identify with the people rather more than the Caribbean, the Arab States, South America, the Pacific Islands, even the Mediterranean.
We now look forward to doing Sydney to Southampton on the Sea Princess (sister ship to the Dawn) next year. Hopefully, we’ll be catching up with even more old friends but the last word has to be a massive thank you to Darryl and Sue from Adelaide, for the fun, the laughs and even 2 trivia wins!
POST SCRIPT
We have booked for the Royal Princess round Britain 12 day cruise July 20th 2015...
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