Shanghai day 3 and heading home

Day 3 and after another buffet breakfast we are off to see one of the ancient water villages! We didn't know before we were travelling here that Shanghai is called the Venice of China! 

The concierge had tried to convince us that we should do this as a tour but I baulked at the $160pp that was being charged. We knew which train line to take and were confident that we could find our way so we went it alone!

Great idea since the train was less than $1pp each way in the end :p

We went to Qibao and walked through the old town. 

We found lots of food on sticks which we were hanging out to try. We had a yummy lunch there, chicken for both of us this time (no not the whole birds, they actually grossed me out).

We tried some cakes and a flat jelly coated in sesame sweet before heading back towards the station where there was a huge shopping mall. We window shopped for a while and tried an iced coffee (dear God Vietnam, teach China how to make coffee!) before getting back on the train into central Shanghai to revisit a shop we had seen the day before.

Not realising that we were travelling at peak hour we got a shock to see the train station had so many people it was packed like a sardine can but since the trains were coming every 90 seconds there was no pushing or rudeness and we got on a train without much effort.

Dinner tonight just feels too hard, so many days, so much food, so many decisions. I am just tired and don't feel like thinking about it so we go to Macca's. Yep, cheeseburger and chips and a coke. Easy.

Final day and we are prepared to go home.

Buffet breakfast (of course) and a final walk around Nanjing Road. I forgot to mention we were right on Nanjing Road, the most famous shopping street in Shanghai! I still failed at finding something to buy though :/

We head out and within an hour it has gone from 28 to 36 degrees! As we had both dressed in jeans ready to fly out it was a little too warm!

We are checking out at 2 and our transfer is arriving somewhere between 2 and 3 so we just lounge around the hotel room and make sure our luggage is properly packed and weighed.

2pm comes and we check out and sit down to wait for our transfer. 3pm...3.10pm...3.15pm...no transfer. So Nathan grabs our paperwork and heads over to the Concierge to get them to call the company and find out what is going on. A few minutes on the phone and he is back with a really worried look on his face. “Please tell me our flights are booked for June 21^st?” Of course they are! I pull out our tickets and show him! Our accommodation was also booked til the 21^st so the plane must have been too!

Remember I mentioned that our TA was crap? Well she just got crapper. She booked our transfer for the 20^th. Yes she did. And apparently they came the day before and thought we were a no show. And now they had no car to take us to the airport.

Luckily we still had some cash on us, a quick conversion at the Reception Desk and we had enough for a cab to the airport! Concierge got a cab within minutes and we were on our way.

Shanghai airport is great. So clean and open and again the processes were just so simple. We had one final meal and it was excellent as usual. No nasty airport food here, this was restaurant quality.  Wandered in and out of the duty free shops and Nathan bought me a Panda beanie, so cute and it will be packed for the next snow trip.  Another awful iced coffee to wash down the sedatives and then onto the plane we went and we were off home.

I have not been a fan of QANTAS since they screwed us around on a ski trip a few years ago but this trip they were okay.  The planes are a decent size but I do wish the seats would recline a little more, it was hard to sleep upright all night.

We woke up in time to be fed breakfast before we landed in Sydney, we just had a quick one night stop in Sydney that isn't worth talking about and then a final flight to Port Vila.

18 days of bliss comes to an end! This truly was an Amazing Asian Honeymoon and thank you all for coming along on the journey with us!

Until my next trip...goodnight!

Shanghai Day 1 and 2

I forgot to mention the fog! It was so eerie! We woke up just before dinner on the final night, looked out the door and saw nothing! We were in fog so thick that we couldn't see anything past the balcony, couldn't see the water...every few minutes the Captain would sound the foghorn and it was just so creepy!

We wake on the final morning and head to the MDR. No idea how long it will take to disembark or get through Chinese Immigration so we figure we should fortify ourselves with one last MDR breakfast ;)

If only we had been seated with some of the lovely people we had met at other breakfasts but this morning we met the mother of all whiners! She spent the entire meal (over an hour) recounting every complaint she had made prior to and during the cruise! OMFG! If Nathan had not ordered something already I would have got up and asked to be seated elsewhere. As it was I closed my ears and ignored her as much as possible. Thank God she finished before we did and had left the table by the time the Captain announced that we were running approximately 1½ hours late due to the fog of the night before and hitting heavy traffic coming into Shanghai that forced him to slow down. I'm sure her world would have imploded at that moment!!

Now I have another understanding. When we first got on this ship we didn't care about being seated with others for breakfast and lunch, we had met some interesting people on our previous cruises and are always up for a chat. In the first few days on this ship we did see people insisting they would wait for a table for two rather than share and we thought they were being grumpy or silly. Nope, next cruise I will be one of those people! While we met some great ones the majority were just whiners! Such a sense of self entitlement and their constant negativity just wore me down :/

Even now I am on the cruise forums and some of them have reappeared, complaining about how their cruise was ruined by this, that or the other!

But back on track!

We went back to our cabin to wait for an update. We had selected self assisted disembarkation so our luggage was still in our room and we could just grab it and walk off the ship as soon as the gangway was opened. About 40 minutes later we got the call and about 10 minutes later we were off the ship and walking through Immigration! So easy!

Immigration was smooth and uneventful and we walked out into the terminal to see our names on a piece of paper, our transfer was waiting for us and whisked us out and onto a bus that was transferring us out to the parking lot where his van was waiting.

The drive from the marina to our hotel took about an hour and we got to see a lot of Shanghai on the way.

This place is huge! But the pollution is awful :(  The smog is so thick that they sun doesn't shine through and everything is seen through a haze.

By the time we got to the hotel my eyes were burning, my nose felt stuffy and the back of my throat scratched.

Not letting this stop us we dropped our bags at the hotel and headed straight out to find the nearest train station. Using our amazing Leyland skills we mastered the train system and went to the Shanghai Aquarium, the 7^th largest in the world.

After a quick lunch we then jumped on a HoHo for a tour around the major sights from the comfort of the top deck of a bus. The tour took a couple of hours and then we headed back to the hotel to figure what to do for dinner.

The hotel had a number of restaurants but the menus were westernised and we wanted to experience real Chinese food so we went out and found a place that turned out great! The only writing we understood was Dim Sum so we knew it was going to be like Yum Cha in Australia!

The menu had pictures so that helped! Nathan and I chose 5 dishes and one noodle dish and waited for the waitress to come back....and waited...and waited...all the waitresses were so freaked out by our presence that none would come and take our order!

Finally the manager came over and with pointing and finger indicating how many serves were ordered our meal :)

First 2 dishes come out and we are off to a great start! Then the 3^rd comes out and it is not a Yum Cha sized serving, it is a tureen with enough food to feed 6 people! Oops! 

Then the next dish was just as big! By the time the noodles came out we were praying that was all we had ordered but there was one final dish to come. 

We ate and ate and ate and every bite was amazing but we barely made a dent in the food. We felt so guilty but we couldn't possibly eat it all so we admitted defeat and left the table to go and pay the bill. We tried to let the manager know how good it was and we thing we succeeded. The bill came to about $48. We could have fed 10 people.

Day 2 in Shanghai and we head down to the included buffet for breakfast. Now I could easily eat Asian breakfast forever, pass by that bacon and those eggs and just give me the dumplings and the buns!

We have already decided that today we will go to the Shanghai Technology Museum so we head back to the train station. We loved the public transport in Shanghai, efficient, clean and so cheap! Incredibly easy to get around, get tickets, get on and off.

I wish the picture above was clearer, these were the happiest fish I have ever seen!  Lol huge smiles!

After the Museum we head to Yuyuan Gardens which were stunning! We spent a couple of hours wandering around and every turn had another surprise. You could walk through here and miss so many of the intricate details on the roofs and buildings but we delighted in finding them all :)

We found a place that sold food on a stick and both got a stick to try. Mine was pork and they stick a little bread roll on the end so you can make a sandwich as you pull the meat off! So tasty! Nathan got the chicken version and loved it. We were amused by a woman with an American accent berating her boyfriend as he was ordering one and saying she couldn't believe he was buying what was probably 'rat meat'...if that was rat I want more!

Aside: We went back to the hotel to freshen up. We always carry one hotel key each, just in case we lose one and as we exit the lift Nathan says he'll race me for the key. His is in his wallet in his pocket. Mine is in a pocket of my backpack on my back. We reach the door and I reach around my back, feel for the key, get it out and swipe the door open. Nathan says “How did you do that so fast! Oh, just like taking off a bra I suppose.” Lol

Tired from our long day of walking we decided to try another local restaurant near the hotel. Nathan had seen their ad playing on the side f the building while we were eating breakfast so we knew they actually were a Dim Sum restaurant!

Nevertheless I only let Nathan order 3 dishes and one rice dish. Every bite was again amazing and the “soup bags” were the best! The whole meal came to $8 and we were stuffed full.

After dinner we had a booking to see the Chinese acrobats from the Shanghai Acrobatic School and Troupe at the Shanghai Theatre! I was so excited! This was my must do for Shanghai and I had been looking forward to it for months!

We caught a cab to the Theatre as we didn't have much time and arrived just as the first act was starting.

The acrobats didn't disappoint, I was in awe of their strength and agility. One young acrobat could get to his feet from the splits just by sliding his feet towards each other, I was stunned!

We decided to walk to the nearest train station and get a train back to the hotel rather than take another cab as it was a lovely evening and we had not seen any of that area of Shanghai.

Jeju, South Korea and our final night onboard the amazing Mariner of the Seas

The alarm screeched us into awareness at 5.30am. This is pain! After the late night last night I can think of nothing worse!

No choice though. In the weeks leading up to the cruise there were some political issues happening in this region, not just the tension between North and South Korea but the tension between China and Japan as well. This led to some timing changes being made and one of them was a drastically reduced visit to Jeju.

If we want to see this island at all we have to get up as the ship is here for a mere 5 ½ hours starting from 6am!

So, dragging ourselves to the dining room, I can barely stomach a coffee but also order a slice of toast and get a bowl of Granola (my new favourite cereal) as we are walking today and going to need some energy.

We get off the ship as soon as possible after the quickest breakfast ever and meet up with a Norwegian couple that we had breakfast with on another day. We decide to share a cab into the centre of town to visit the markets as our first stop. The guy (sadly I can't remember either of their names!) tells us he was born here and this is his first visit back since his parents moved to Norway when he was a baby.

The markets as usual are amazing. I wish there was some perspective so that people can see the size of these freaking apples, seriously they were as big as grapefruits! And the grapes were the size of plums! We saw black eggs and passed stalls with kimchi and the smells made my mouth water! I love Korean food and wish we had been there at a meal time so I could have sampled some of the stuff we were seeing.

We had a map and decided we would just wander along, Jeju is small and we figured we could see the main attractions on foot.

As we were heading towards the Cloud Bridge I saw some more of the stone statues that seemed to be everywhere, I walked over to take a photo and Nathan grabbed me and stopped me, I was about to walk on a snake! Got it in the picture as it was leaving....

The Cloud Bridge was a bit scary, it rocked as we walked so I had to wait til there was no one on it and got across as fast as I could. We then headed to Dragons Head Rock. It was a pretty walk but nothing spectacular. When we got there we saw quite a few tour buses with people from the cruise. We had seen this was a tour and I am so glad we didn't pay for it! Dragons Head Rock was underwhelming to say the least and I am happy we went there for free!! The mermaid statue was more interesting and was unlisted ;)

We decided to take another route back to the ship and an amazing smell drew us to a little hole in the wall selling what looked like waffle sandwiches! We decided to order one, I think it cost us around $1.50, and it was two waffles spread with a fruity flavoured paste and filled with cream, stuffed with chunks of chocolate and strawberries...oh my...Nathan and I shared it and wished we had bought one each! Yum!

We made it back to the ship with about half an hour to spare and had time for a nap before heading to the MDR for our final lunch on the ship. Sadly we were seated with whiners again so Nathan and I just chatted to each other and enjoyed the awesome food once again.

After so little sleep, lots of walking and a huge lunch we went back to bed and slept away rest of the day!

Final night in the MDR and we draw our dinner out a little longer than usual. The regulars are there but the dining room is very empty compared to the other nights so the waiters don't have as much to do and are happy to linger and chat.

An aside: RCI introduced mandatory gratuities in March of this year and many people have been angry about it. I have read so many forums where people have loudly proclaimed that they ALWAYS tip and it's ALWAYS over and above the recommended amount and blah blah blah but the reality is that tips are given on the final night and on the final night on virtually every ship a lot of people just don't make that final dinner. They book the specialty restaurants or go to the buffet or get room service. So on the final night the dining room is empty and they don't need to look at the waiters who have served them all cruise as they walk out without paying a tip. The mandatory gratuities was supposed to end that but RCI gave people an out. They could, if they wanted, go to Guest Services and have the gratuities removed and then hand out gratuities (or tips) as they chose. The emptiness of the dining room that night suggests that many did just that :/

We loved the service that we got from Michael and Elizabeth. We had prepaid our gratuities as one of the conditions of My Time Dining and were happy with that. We also wanted to give them an extra tip to show our gratitude for the service they had given.

There were other staff that were good (like our room steward Joel who we also left an envelope for) but these two were a cut above the rest and made every meal an occasion, not just for us but for all the regulars that sat with them every night. I was very pleased to see that almost every single one of them came back on the last night and their area was almost full while most of the rest of the dining room was almost empty.

At the end of the meal we managed to get a photo and thank them again :)

Off to the Savoy Theatre for the Farewell Variety Show and then bed for our last sleep on the ship.

I am sad to have to leave but excited as well because tomorrow we arrive in Shanghai!

Sea days have become my favourites!

It seems strange to me that after 3 cruises where the ports were the main reason for being there, I am now understanding what people mean when they say they cruise for the ships.

I know I have said it before but this ship is just amazing!

We feel like we are running out of time because we haven't experienced everything on this ship but at the same time we have been going non stop since the weeks leading up to the wedding and now we are getting tired!

I was looking forward to another sea day as we have only managed to have lunch in the MDR twice this whole trip. I have mentioned the salad bar that is set up in the MDR for lunch before and I was craving another one of these amazing salads and the all you can eat fresh prawns with RCI's spicy cocktail sauce. This sauce is soooo yummy with a hint of horseradish, much better than the ordinary cocktail sauce that I make at home.

Anyway after the “sleeping in and needing to have breakfast at the Windjammer” debacle, we decided that we would set an alarm for the mornings and wake up no later than 8.30am for the remainder of the cruise. This got us into the dining room and with our breakfast ordered before the cutoff of 9.30am.

We got chatting to a great group and ended up staying in the dining room talking until we noticed the tables being set for lunch around us!

After our leisurely breakfast we went up to the mini golf range for a rematch, we managed to tie this one!

This was our last chance to have a go at the rock climbing wall but we just weren't feeling it this morning and decided we would try and come back for the afternoon session ;)

A bit of slobbing around and we were suddenly at lunch time again!

I finally manage to get the amazing MDR salad with prawns while Nathan branched out and ordered something from the menu and for a change I even got dessert :) After all we only have one more day here even though there are two sleeps :(

After lunch Nathan wanted to go and check out the Blackjack tournaments. While he doesn't play he is fascinated with the game and even looked at lessons while we were on the ship.

Nothing bores me more so I took the opportunity to go to the cabin and catch up on some blogging. We had been so busy and I was worried that I would start forgetting things if I didn't get them written down!

Nathan came back to the cabin around the time I was finishing up so I made a quick trip to Windjammer to get a stock of flavoured waters and then we decided to watch a movie and nap until dinner. Shame about the rock climbing wall but if we really want to do it I suppose well have to go back! ;)

Dinner felt a bit sad as we knew that it was our 2^nd last meal. Michael was in fine form and brought us an even bigger plate of vegies than usual and Elizabeth was pretty heavy handed with the wine top ups. We chatted to our neighbours again, it was nice to be seated near the same people but not have to share a table and make small talk if we didn't want to.

Dinner was followed by another show in the Savoy Theatre and tonight RCI dished up it's first dud!

Now the magicians were pretty lame but we managed to stay for the whole show, this time after squirming for 15 minutes I couldn't stand it any longer and told Nathan we were leaving! He got up with relief and as we were walking out we looked behind us to see we had started an exodus!

I can't say that the act was bad but she was definitely geared to the Asian demographic on the ship. RCI had expected that the greatest percentage of guests would be Asian and had booked one of their favourite entertainers. When it turned out that the greatest percentage were Australians a few changes were made but this woman stayed. I'm sure her show would have been fantastic if we could have understood Chinese!

Not to worry, on to other things!

I had heard a lot of things about a show called Quest that RCI have on every cruise. I had read that there were usually people that did very embarrassing things to win on this show. The cruise director, Jimmy Rhodes, had reminded everyone earlier that he was hosting Quest later in the night and telling us we shouldn't miss it so Nathan and I went along to watch. Or so we thought ;)

They say what happens at Quest, stays at Quest and seriously, after being there I can see how some people would not want anyone to know the things they do! It was freaking hilarious and we loved every minute!

We were seated in Studio B, where the ice skating rink is and a timber floor had been laid over the ice as a stage.

First Jimmy separated the audience into teams, we fell into Team 3. He then asked for a male and female from each team to come up and be the Captains. Of course Nathan and I did not volunteer as we were determined to just be spectators.

The rules of Quest are easy. Jimmy tells the Captains they must come to him with an item and their team number. First item...a bobby pin...people are scrambling through their hair and handbags, throw the pin at the captain who races up to Jimmy with item and team number in hand...points are awarded to each team depending on the order they get to Jimmy (there are 5 teams). Another item, today's Compass, another item, a tissue, a man wearing lipstick and so on. Music is playing and teams can get extra points if they jump up, start cheering and clapping and making as much noise as possible every time Jimmy yells the words 'we're having a breakout!'. Nathan is the first person to hear the call and flies out of his seat, the rest of our team follow his lead and we win the first 10 bonus points!

It starts to get harder! A piercing that is not in an ear, a girl from our team runs down and flashes her bellybutton while the captain waves our team number. One of the other teams hasn't got a single person that has a body piercing so the captain runs over and spreads her legs indicating she can show one if he wants...Jimmy declines quickly and awards her points! It was fake but caused hysterics!

Two socks, both with holes in them! Ewww...

A female with a tattoo I could have done but there was another girl closer to the edge of the stage so I didn't have to. A female doing splits had a woman from our team run down and do them, she was 68 years old! Amazing!

By now Nathan and I have forgotten we are spectators and we are having a ball, our friends Val and Sal were right behind us and Sal had managed to win our team points by ripping off his belt and getting it to the captain in time to win that item.

Next call was for 2 bras! One woman threw her bra to the captain and I looked around to see where the other was coming from...nope...no one was answering this call...f&%k...ripped off my bra and threw it to the captain and we managed 2^nd on that one!

The final call was for a man, wearing nothing but underpants, a womans bra, high heels and lipstick...by then everyone has lost it and the guys are hamming it up big time.

Our team came third overall and I thought I was going to lose my voice from the cheering and singing. If you ever go on RCI, do yourself a favour and go to Quest, such a fun night!

We go back to our cabin exhausted but still laughing, we need to get some sleep as it's after midnight and we dock in Jeju, South Korea at 6am tomorrow!

Cruising to Okinawa, Japan

After a nice relaxing night watching another act in the Savoy Theatre, an a Capella group called Metro that were very good, followed by seeing our new friends Val and Sal take part in the Love and Marriage Show it was time for a sleepin again! This time however we slept a little too late and missed breakfast in the MDR.

While on P&O I always preferred breakfast in the buffet but on this ship it is not my favourite place at all :(

9.45am and it is jam packed! Not a seat to be found and people walking around with plates of food and nowhere to eat it. We were about to give up when a couple got up from a table near us and we managed to get there before anyone else!
Nathan and I aren't really breakfast eaters but everyone knows I have to have at least one cup of coffee before I can feel human in the morning. Unfortunately the stuff they serve in the buffet doesn't fit the description I have of coffee, it was bloody awful! A couple of pieces of toast with marmalade was my substitute and as the morning was basically over we just lounged around our cabin watching movies again. Most people know I haven't watched TV in years but we came across a channel here that I really like, or at least one show I like, it's a cartoon called Dragons based on the movie How to Train Your Dragon. I managed to squeeze in about 4 episodes of this show before we went for a very late lunch.

The MDR on this ship is very unique in that it has a salad bar set up at lunchtime where you choose your ingredients and dressing and they toss and plate it for you, you can then add things like prawns, smoked chicken, tuna, prosciutto and Camembert from the salad bar area as well. This is aside from the regular menu items like soups, mains and desserts. The salads were so good that most of the time we weren't even tempted to order anything else. A couple of exceptions were the teriyaki chicken and the tandoori lamb skewers that were on the main menu on various days.

We finished lunch in time to go and watch the screening of The Croods 3D in the Savoy Theatre. OMG this movie is hilarious! Of course it has the teary feel good ending as well but so many great jokes :) If the movie hadn't caught our attention we could have gone to the adult dodgeball competition they were holding on Deck 13, that could have been interesting!

We seem to go from meal to activity to meal to activity, all this food would be terrible if not for the 7 decks between our cabin and the restaurant. Trust me, when you have to walk up 7 decks (14 flights!) of stairs after every meal you burn a whole lot of it straight off! I have a love/hate relationship with these stairs!

And that brings us to dinner!

Tonight was our 2^nd formal night so Nathan and I got dressed up again and headed off for another leisurely meal (we have also been having wine with dinner every night, this ship has a great range of sweet wines and tonight's was a lovely Moscato from Italy!) and the menu tonight featured lobster! We chatted with the people at the table next to us for awhile and then decided to go to the cabin to change into normal clothes before heading off to the show and that was when I had my first crash and burn! Got changed, laid on the bed and fell asleep! Woke up long enough to shower and get into PJ's and back to bed, I obviously hadn't been getting enough sleep and all the food wasn't enough to recharge.

Day 8 dawns and thankfully we didn't sleep in as I was not in a hurry to have to go back to the buffet :p

Today we dock in Okinawa, Japan at 1pm! It is a very short stay, we must be back onboard for sailaway at 8.30pm so we book an organised tour to maximise the things we can see and do in such a short time.
Our tour group is scheduled to meet at 1pm, as the ship is docking, to get organised and then go through Japanese Immigration, who have decided that they must meet every person face to face! I felt sorry for the people that had not booked tours now as they would have to wait for their face to face after all the tour groups were completed. We heard later that some people didn't get off the ship til after 3.30pm :/
We were the first ones off the ship, loaded on bus #1 and headed for the Naminoue Shrine. Not sure what I was expecting but this shrine was a little boring...and we were given 25 minutes to explore before needing to be back on the bus. I think most people were done in about 5 minutes ;)

Next stop was Shuri Castle and this was much better! The original castle had burned down during the Battle of Okinawa in WW2 and had been rebuilt in the early 1990's.

Last stop was Kokusai St, 1.6km of shopping and restaurants! Most of the stores looked like $2 shops but when we reached the original markets we entered the real Japan, street stalls filled with weird clothes and crazy foods and tea shops, fruit and veg, fish and meat.

It was fascinating and we bought some little cakes to share, walnut, coffee, brown sugar and caramel flavours. So yummy!

After the markets we continued to window shop and came across a McDonalds. The place was jam packed with people from the cruise! With all the food on offer on this street they picked this?
We then went to an ice cream parlour and shared a coffee float with brown sugar icecream, another yum! Our final taste of Japan was a filled crepe from one of the hole in the wall restaurants. 3^rd win!

Some of the stores sold the strangest things, would you buy a bottle of water that is called Pocari Sweat? Or a jar of alcohol that has snakes in it? We saw these at every bottle shop we went past! Creepy!!

We met our bus a short time later and arrived back at the ship at 6.45. The dining room was almost empty and we had a smaller than usual meal ;)

The show was another RCI production which we once again enjoyed. Their onboard entertainment is pretty slick and the shows don't go for too long either.

After the show we went to see a game show called 60 Seconds or Less where people had to complete (stupid!) task in under 60 seconds to win lame prizes. We left pretty quickly as there were very few volunteers and we were there to be spectators, not be roped into playing and they were getting too close to where we were sitting ;)