TrixieBel

11 hours ago, Globehoppers said:

Yes, perspective.

 

Coronavirus is spreading significantly faster than SARS, its death rate for the same initial period if higher, and its infection rate in significantly higher.  This is not something to take lightly.  It is killing young healthy people in addition to those with low immune systems.  

 

Checked yesterday and surgical respiratory masks in the US are extremely scarce.  Plus, they are made in China...!

It will be a while until the REAL prevalence/incidence and % death rate is known. There are problems because China is not recording ALL people that have/had the virus because they can only record those that present for care; and people don’t present for care unless they are pretty sick. People with a milder version may just stay home and never be counted on the stats. 
 

This means that the % death rate may be significantly over-stated. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cambodia has now been completely removed from the 1 March Sapphire Princess sailing out of Singapore too. Replaced with a second night at “Bangkok”. 

Cambodia excursion changes? 

We are on the March 1 cruise out of Singapore around Asia. Have signed into my account this morning and found that our (pre-paid) excursion has disappeared and there are no excursions showing at all for Cambodia (Sihanoukville). No refund showing in our on-board account either of course. 

Thanks for doing this - we are on the ship in early March. Looking forward to reading about your experience. 

Looking forward to the stories of adventure..

Really enjoying your report. Thanks for taking the time to do it! 🚢 

Thanks for this. I found it interesting because we’ve only done two cruises so far - both on NCL. And our next cruise is in March 2020 with Princess.

We LOVED both of our NCL cruises (balcony around Hawaii, and The Haven to the BAHamas our of NYC) and I’m a bit nervous that our Asia cruise on Princess (aft balcony) won’t measure up. 

Your comparison son has given me hope that well like Princess.  👍

The QT Hotel in Sydney is great if you like something high quality but a little different. It’s in a heritage building right across from the beautiful QVB building in the city. Worth checking it out 🙂 

A better description for non-Australians about climbing Uluru might be:

In recent years there has been political recognition in Australia that the European settlers who came to the country in the 1700-1800’s did much harm to the original inhabitants of the land - the Aboriginal people. While the Aboriginal people are still very marginalised and many are disadvantaged, autonomy over the  traditional lands that hold deep meaning for them is being recognised. Because of this, the climbing of Uluru will no longer be permitted as “the rock” is very sacred to them. 

Tourists are still welcome to travel to see Uluru, just not to climb it. 

Personally, I think that if you have a chance to go see it, the time of year is moot. Yes it might be hotter in January, but you’ll be in air conditioned vehicles and able to keep hydrated. And in places like Sydney (where I live) it’ll be gorgeous summer weather for enjoying the harbour and beaches at their best. ❤️

We are Sydney”ites” travelling next year. Can you please add:

01 March 2020 … TrixieBel … Sapphire Princess … 11nt Asia out of Singapore 

thanks 😃

Well done!

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Just check the different cancellation rules for bookings made in different countries. We have booked both our NCL cruises through a US based PCC because of those different rules. Glad we did because we had booked a third cruise and had to cancel and because we had booked through the US system there was no cancellation fee :-)

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Don't forget that if you need/want to get in a lift quickly... work out which way most people are going (up/down) and then get in a lift when it's going the other way, even if it's not the way you want to go.

It'll just be a little longer ride for you, but you'll already be in the lift when it goes past the floor you got in on [emoji847]

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Subscribed! We know how well our daughter with special needs and special dietary needs was treated recently, so can't wait to read about your experience.

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BirdTravels is so right. There is little shade and the sun is brutal. We enjoyed the cabana and its fresh water shower.

When I went to the bathroom I saw a family with young children "cowering" in a bus shelter up the back by the bathrooms. They looked sooo hot :-(

The large cabanas were all closed the day we were there. They already had workmen working on them to upgrade them. From the info I saw coming out on the boards, it looks like they will have everything bigger and better by the time the island reopens.

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We had a small one last week. The view, the shade, the shower, the food - all made it so worth it!

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Thanks for your kind comments everyone!

Our last day was pretty full. It's now after midnight and hubby and I are awake because he had to call our bank in Australia and cancel our credit card. Seems that somewhere along the way today our card was skimmed and someone was having fun without us in Vegas this evening. Welcome to New York!

Anyway, we sailed in at sunrise to some beautiful views of the city.

Debarkation was pretty relaxed for us. We were out of the cabin before 8am; had a relaxed breakfast in Moderno; met Elvina down on deck 7 in the theatre; and then walked off and we're through the customs check and out in a taxi pretty quickly. To make it a quick process you definitely want to get a porter - the line for those without porters was long.

We did indeed visit ground zero and we went through the memorial museum. Very sobering as I well remember the event and the media coverage at the time. It was late night in Sydney on 9/11 and hubby and I were in bed watching The West Wing. There was a breaking news announcement about a situation in New York and we were a little confused about whether it was real or part of the episode of The West Wing...

We made a stop at Sephora to shop for our older daughters birthday, and we bought tickets to the matinee of Cirque du Soleil - Paramour at the Lyric Theatre on Broadway.

Our room at the Sofitel has a view of this pretty building...

And we finished off the night with dinner at a little Italian restaurant Ceci, that has gluten free pasta and pizza.

If not for the credit card issue, it would have been the perfect last day.

We are off to the airport early in the morning for a 12.5hr flight to Dubai, a 2hr layover, and then a 13.5hr flight to Sydney. Arrrgh...

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Thanks for your kind thoughts everyone...

We've had our last dinner - in Le Bistro. And, it was as brilliant as it should be. The signature cocktail in there had chambord and bitters and I had to have two...

The food was great - French onion soup for hubby and I, artichoke heart with roast veges for RJ; roast lamb for hubby, duck l'orange for me (sort of a "pulled pork" type version), and what RJ is now calling "monster prawn" for her. The monster was of course the lobster! And don't forget it's gluten free...

After dinner we wandered along to the final show which was two dancers - dancing, acrobatics, and a bit of magic.

Then back to our cabin to finish up the packing and to find this from Terence...

We are opting for the regular disembarkation for Haven travellers - between 9-10am meet the concierge on deck 7.

Then its find a cab / Uber to take us to the Sofitel for the last night of our holiday before flying back to Australia on Sunday.

In NYC tomorrow we are planning on seeing the 9/11 memorial, Times Square, and a show.

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Thanks for your input Patricia. It certainly does sound like the chef in Teppanyaki had no idea what sodium is!

I saw the mermaid and said "hi".

I've spent some quiet time on the top deck of the ship today after hearing that my Uncle died overnight in Australia. He was the last of my father's siblings: 6 siblings all born in India and England between 1916 and 1930, and named with names starting with H.

My uncle sailed the world, from India to England as a child, and then after finding the love of his life in the ruins of Germany after WWII, they sailed from England to Australia as $10 immigrants. He was a lovely man and we should be back in Australia in time for his funeral next week.

On another note, the Murder Mystery Lunch was very funny and a great way to spend lunchtime on the last day. It was $20pp additional and well worth it with the entertainment and the lunch. Here's me in Le Bistro enjoying it.

We are starting to pack our bags now. After admiring the towel creation waiting for us after lunch today.

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Ha. May want to name which ship (if you are willing) so other Haven folks can avoid disease this week. :)

Gem... We are on our last day, so if anyone was going to get sick I think it would have happened by now. [emoji849]

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I'm here in Haven now. I posted earlier this week about the child who thought the courtyard was their own private one...

The kids this week have been - kids. They have played in the pool (with parents either in there or nearby). They have made kid noises...

But on the whole it's been not intrusive, and still relaxing in the courtyard.

Only thing I've avoided this week has been the m&m and jelly baby jars on the sideboard in the courtyard. The kids all just run up and dig their hands in to get some [emoji33] But, we have our own bowls in our cabin so I'm not missing out [emoji12]

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Today is our last day at sea.

I've put together our gratuity envelopes and we'll be handing those out today. For those interested, I've apportioned them as $100 each for the butler and special diet coordinator; $70 each for the concierge and cabin attendant; and $25 for the Haven courtyard attendant. For us, with our horrible exchange rate that's a LOT of money, so I'm hoping no one gives me grief over these numbers. I thought long and hard about what was fair... Hubby doesn't really "get" the whole gratuity thing so was happy to go with what I suggested after I read all the gratuity threads on here.

It's after 9am and I'm still tucked in this comfy bed. No hurry to get up. Hubby delivered me a coffee and a couple of pastries from the courtyard.

We are off to the comedy / murder mystery lunch in Le Bistro at 12pm, so I've no need to be up before 11.00ish???

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And now for our at sea day, Thursday. I have to apologise about the lack of alcohol in this one. Our livers just could not face much today... [emoji17]

I started the day with an 8am spa massage session. It was my big treat for the week and was the 100 minute "marathon" with full body massage and facial. It was very relaxing and I floated out of there feeling very refreshed and with my face all plumped up. I need a new moisturiser anyway so grabbed one from them to give them a bit more income!

We relaxed by the Haven pool for a few hours before heading for lunch at Cagney's as per usual for Haven. From memory, RJ's gluten free option was the chicken caesar salad with no croutons and a couple slices of gluten free bread. I can tell you, the gluten free bread is very good onboard. Nice "real bread" texture!

For the afternoon we just hung around our cabin mostly although hubby did head off to the under $500 art auction - where most items seemed to be more like over $1000.

Then, I met him and took him on a mystery tour to the bridge viewing room that he hadn't known existed. As an engineer by degree he loved the bridge and the duplicates of the radar etc that were in there. All those numbers made sense to him! As a research manager for clinical trials and currently for dementia research, those numbers meant not so much to me [emoji849] Oh, and no photos allowed of the bridge.

Dinner last night was Teppanyaki. We turned up on time to find a very disorganised restaurant hostess at the entrance. Honestly, you'd think that with doing this EVERY DAY she'd be very efficient. But it was like it was her first time - weird.

Anyway, once we were all finally grouped and seated the service was good. Our chef was definitely the quieter and less outgoing of the four in the room, but we still had fun.

He cooked all of RJ's meal first before starting on food for all the rest of us. He kept saying I'm doing this for "the gluten free" out loud though. Might as well have just stuck a big red sign on RJ's head because it made her and me pretty uncomfortable. If any of our table mates ever read this, please accept my apology that your meal was slightly delayed by that process...

We all went to the 70's show in the theatre that we all enjoyed immensely. RJ knew a lot of the songs because the service provider she goes to back home does an annual show and quite often use music from that era for dance / performance pieces.

Hubby and I dropped RJ back at the cabin to shower and tuck into bed, and hubby and I headed out to the Spinnaker bar for the comedy session, and then back to the open air bar at the aft of the ship for a cocktail to finish off our night.

Terence excelled himself tonight in the towel department...

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Very nice photos.

Thanks easyboy... They are all just iPhone ones.

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Hers our towel animal from last night:

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