50 Days on Sapphire Princess

[NSWP]

Great pics of some nice looking vessels, they actually look like ships, not floating blocks of flats !!

[Docker123]

On 12/18/2018 at 11:18 AM, SeaDog-46 said:

Entertainers - Apart from the ships permanent cruise entertainers - visiting acts that were onboard just a few days were varied & quite numerous & some quite good.

Unfortunately there was the usual over amplification & drowning out of some acts by the band.

At a few ports where we left a bit later Folkloric groups performed before departure.

The stand out visiting act was Jeff Stevenson a comedian from London who had been in show business since his teens.

He does the Cunarders around Australia in the summer. He was so popular after 2 shows before Rome - they got him back after Rome for another.

 

Jeff Stevenson is great. Very funny, and plays clean.

 

To a heckler, or over enthusiastic contributing audience member:

 

”I’ve seen you on the telly. Interference.”

 

[SeaDog-46]

Another One ---

 

Australian Quarantine on Jeff's arrival  -  Got any fruit?

Jeff  -  Ah!

Got any fruit?

Jeff  -  Don't they feed you blokes? 

[SeaDog-46]

Couple of blocks of flats on powered barges :---

 

MSC Divina [2012] @ Tenerife - 139400 gt - 3502 pax dbl. & over 4000 max. A lot less space per pax. than SP.

 

& the biggest, making SP look small @ Barcelona - Symphony of the Seas - [2018] - 228,021 gt.

 

Nice rear end views for Les.

[MicCanberra]

I think I prefer the Symphony of the seas look over the others but yes, all very large capacity ships.

[SeaDog-46]

At Tenerife saw a local ferry - Hobart built Incat Wave Piercing Cat hull #56 [2000] -  Volcan de Teno 6360 gt. 

 

At Lisbon - P&O Aurora & the interesting cruise ship, the 5 masted full rigged ship Royal Clipper [2000]  5000 gt Star Clippers Sweden. Originally built in Poland & modelled on famous Flying P Windjammer  Preussen  [1902].  She is the largest square rigger in service.

[MicCanberra]

Great pics again. I did the bass strait a few times when the Sea cat was running, 3 1/2 to 4 hours across, Port Welshpool to George town, cannot believe they got rid of the service.

[SeaDog-46]

Our first day of good weather at Valletta we were in port with Les's old friend Arcadia.  Not sure why but she recieved a 6 gun salute from the cannons on arrival.

At Rhodes - a lovely interesting walk ashore port, the Ex Cunard Princess - 17496 gt Golden Iris, berthed near us during the afternoon.  Built in 1977 & christened by Princess Grace, she is now operated by Mano Cruises, Israel.  40 odd years old & still looking good.

At Piraeus a small cruise ship Marella Spirit was near us on the breakwater berth.  Looking very quiet but in good condition with nobody to be seen onboard.  When returning onto SP I saw that the name had been changed to Mare S - a sure indication she was off to be scrapped.  A previous HAL ship there is a recent post by Copper on HAL boards about her.  Now in bits at Alang I think.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

1 hour ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Our first day of good weather at Valletta we were in port with Les's old friend Arcadia.  Not sure why but she recieved a 6 gun salute from the cannons on arrival.

 

Thanks for another interesting post.The Med is a great place for  Shipspotting . Your post about the guns sent me off to Wikipedia, fascinating history 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saluting_Battery_(Valletta)
The battery is now open daily, and guided tours are available. Gun salutes are fired every day at 1200 and 1600, and cruise liners visiting the Grand Harbour can also commission six-gun salutes
 

[SeaDog-46]

David - we found Valletta a very interesting port & easy to get around the old town just by walking off the ship. Also it is not so hot or busy during the SP repositioning time of year.

A few hundred metres from the berth there is a lift to the Upper Barracca Gardens. 1 Euro  & free return - buy tickets from attendant so no requirment for exact money coins. At the top the very pleasant garden behind the saluting platform.  Walked around the old town & came back to listen for the 12:00 gun.  You can watch for free from above but hard to get near to railing & many people not able to watch did not know it was about to go off.

HOHO buses on Malta also good if you have seen the city before.

 

[MicCanberra]

4 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Our first day of good weather at Valletta we were in port with Les's old friend Arcadia.  Not sure why but she recieved a 6 gun salute from the cannons on arrival.

At Rhodes - a lovely interesting walk ashore port, the Ex Cunard Princess - 17496 gt Golden Iris, berthed near us during the afternoon.  Built in 1977 & christened by Princess Grace, she is now operated by Mano Cruises, Israel.  40 odd years old & still looking good.

At Piraeus a small cruise ship Marella Spirit was near us on the breakwater berth.  Looking very quiet but in good condition with nobody to be seen onboard.  When returning onto SP I saw that the name had been changed to Mare S - a sure indication she was off to be scrapped.  A previous HAL ship there is a recent post by Copper on HAL boards about her.  Now in bits at Alang I think.

Valetta is a great port, and the cannons go off at noon each day which can be a bit of a shock if you are not expecting it. Great pics again.

[bvm49]

John: Loved your report. What a coincidence! We're doing the same 2 cruises in reverse in March / April - 48 days - in 2019. We've done the Suez twice before but there are several new ports this time. The Canary Islands cruise has all new ports. 

 

I've been following your roll call for ideas. You may have seen my recent post warning about the infamous "Richard", the T/A who 'took everyone for a ride' on his tours - hope you didn't get caught with him.

 

Thanks again for all your work and great photos.

Brian 

[rosegirl93]

Sea Dog 46

 

i notice on our Cruise Personliser that a special note seems to be made (compared with previous cruises), about vaccinations for the Regal cruise in 2020:

 

TRAVEL DOCUMENT, VISA AND VACCINATION DISCLAIMER

This information is provided as general guidance. Because governmental and medical vaccination requirements and recommendations change periodically you must check with your travel advisor, government authorities for the countries you will visit and/or medical professionals to determine or verify the actual requirements and recommendations at the time of sailing. Princess assumes no liability for the passenger's failure to do so.
Failure to present required travel documents, visas or vaccination certificates at cruise check-in will result in denial of boarding without refund of the cruise or cruisetour fare.

 

Did you have anything specific you had to do pre-cruise with vaccinations to ensure boarding?

[SeaDog-46]

rosegirl93 - there were NO vaccinations required for the Sapphire Princess cruise that departed Southampton 21st Oct. 2018.

Regal is doing a couple of different port I think, but you will not have to get the rip off Indian visa.

[SeaDog-46]

bvm49 - Brian - I did not get caught with any Richard tours as I thought they were a bit of a hard sell from the start.  Did meet him & thought he was a bit of a "sergent major" with his tour people & after Cochin was suprised to learn that with his professed expertise their visa was wrong in India.

See photo of Wadi Rum tour - reason I would not go on it. Jeep tour in Toyota pickups.

Your west bound cruise has a few different ports.  I really liked Rhodes - but you are not going there.

On the Canary cruise we unfortunately missed Funchal due to weather, but enjoyed the very different Lanzarote with its moonscape.  Tenerife we walked ashore & may have found the only Maccas without wifi.  The HoHo bus is good in Las Palmas & Lisbon - both easy walk off ports.

If you would like to e/m -  [ jmnhs95 ]  at the usual g mail.

In Southampton a good walk up the High Street will bring you to West Park & Titanic Engineers monument.

John

[bvm49]

39 minutes ago, SeaDog-46 said:

bvm49 - Brian - I did not get caught with any Richard tours as I thought they were a bit of a hard sell from the start.  Did meet him & thought he was a bit of a "sergent major" with his tour people & after Cochin was suprised to learn that with his professed expertise their visa was wrong in India.

See photo of Wadi Rum tour - reason I would not go on it. Jeep tour in Toyota pickups.

Your west bound cruise has a few different ports.  I really liked Rhodes - but you are not going there.

On the Canary cruise we unfortunately missed Funchal due to weather, but enjoyed the very different Lanzarote with its moonscape.  Tenerife we walked ashore & may have found the only Maccas without wifi.  The HoHo bus is good in Las Palmas & Lisbon - both easy walk off ports.

If you would like to e/m -  [ jmnhs95 ]  at the usual g mail.

In Southampton a good walk up the High Street will bring you to West Park & Titanic Engineers monument.

John

John: We did a Wadi Rum ship tour (one of the few that we've ever done!) earlier this year.  Several passengers had difficulty climbing into the back of these ancient pickups as the tail gates were rusted up. As usual I was a bit disappointed with what we saw on the limited ship tour. Interestingly, after suffering a dust storm for most of the day; it rained in the afternoon!

 

Our daughter visited Rhodes a couple of months ago and loved it! Even though we've cruised the Med 5 times before, we've never had the pleasure of seeing Rhodes.

 

I'm trying (so far unsuccessfully) to organize a private tour of the moonscape on Lanzarote - very little activity on the roll call.

 

We've done Southampton several times before and loved the Titanic museum.

Brian

[Aus Traveller]

I went on the Wadi Rum tour (Princess tour) this year. The vehicles were much newer than those shown in the photo. They were fairly new air-conditioned twin-cab utes. Three passengers could sit inside. I chose to sit in the back of the ute so I could see more and take photos easily. All the utes had shade covers ('roof' only) so if you sat on the sunny side, the sun did come in. Many of the utes had plastic removable steps to help people get in the back, but mine didn't. Many people got in OK on their own, but I needed a hand to help because the back bumper was fairly high. Once I got to there, I could step over the tail-gate. The seats in the back were timber planks, heavily padded with home-made covers. They were reasonably comfortable.

 

Having done the Petra tour previously, I chose the Wadi Rum tour as something different. It was interesting, but nowhere near as spectacular as Petra. If I go back to Aqaba, I will go to Petra again.

[SeaDog-46]

Any 4WD in open pick up trucks is not likely to be covered by Travel Insurance.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Any 4WD in open pick up trucks is not likely to be covered by Travel Insurance.

That is worth checking into. If that is an exclusion it could be worth sitting in the cab of the vehicle.

[Aus Traveller]

23 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

 

 

Do you know when the above photo was taken? I notice that the passengers seem to be locals (see the head scarves) and not cruise-ship passengers.

 

The Princess tour I was on had probably three times that number of vehicles and they were all nearly-new twin-cab utes with shade covers over the back (rather like the third truck from the left). In addition to people sitting in the cab, we had four to five people in the back of each truck.

[Aus Traveller]

By the way, the Destination Lecturer who convinced many people they couldn't manage the tour to Petra causing them to cancel, scared a lot of people about going to Wadi Rum. He said they would be "sitting in the blazing sun in the back of old pick-up trucks". The reality was that they had the option of sitting in air-conditioned comfort in nearly-new vehicles. He also said the "they would be bounced around in the back as the drivers raced across the desert". The reality was that the drivers drove very responsibly through the sand and the vehicles didn't bounce.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Any 4WD in open pick up trucks is not likely to be covered by Travel Insurance.

There are several countries where tours are conducted in open trucks or 4WDs. French Polynesia and South Africa (game drives) come to mind. Riding in the back of a 4WD or ute is not listed as an an exclusion on the QBE PDF.

[SeaDog-46]

My last Travel Insurance cover said - "Any dangerous activity is not covered" - this included skiing, riding quad bikes & certain motor bikes without a motorcycle license.  Seeing as riding in back of a ute is not allowed under Australian road rules - then they more than likely will not cover an accident when off roading while sitting in back of a ute.

The photo was part of my research on Wadi Rum tour before the cruise. 

As a 4 wheel driver of over 40 years experience - I would not put my life in the hands of another person while riding in any ute -  especially Toyota 4wd vehicles that are not know for there stability.  This also applies to the Desert drives sold from Dubai.  See Youtube footage of these trips.   See attached.

[bvm49]

Our Wadi Rum tour was in May this year conducted by MSC Cruises. The vehicles was mainly old dual cabs but we were told to fill them with 6 persons in the back only. A couple of drivers had small ladders available stored in their cabs. One of the passengers tried to drop the tail gate but it was too damaged to open. The rear bumper was also badly damaged probably from heavy passengers using it to climb into the back - in fact it was coming off the back. One guy slipped off the bumper trying to get out of our vehicle and caused his arm to bleed. Also one vehicle required assistance to start. This was our vehicle below.

Brian

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, bvm49 said:

Our Wadi Rum tour was in May this year conducted by MSC Cruises. The vehicles was mainly old dual cabs but we were told to fill them with 6 persons in the back only. A couple of drivers had small ladders available stored in their cabs. One of the passengers tried to drop the tail gate but it was too damaged to open. The rear bumper was also badly damaged probably from heavy passengers using it to climb into the back - in fact it was coming off the back. One guy slipped off the bumper trying to get out of our vehicle and caused his arm to bleed. Also one vehicle required assistance to start. This was our vehicle below.

Brian

That vehicle looks fairly old, older than any I saw on the Princess tour. And I note that there is no shade covering. The vehicles in the background also don't have shade covering. I wonder whether the tour organiser Princess uses, has newer vehicles and ones with shade covering.