31st July

31st July Sea Day Partly cloudy Temp 29c
I have some excitement to report. Last night the wind blew up quite a lot causing some movement of the ship so much so that as the noise was keeping me awake I decided to take a sleeping tablet. Just prior to me going to sleep there was a call over the ship's PA for a person from the Engineering staff to contact the bridge. Betty tells me that we got a call on the phone at 2am to ask if we were OK. (Not sure what this was about but will tell you more soon). A little while after this she heard what she thought was a plane circling us. I slept through all of this. Eventually all went quiet and she went to sleep. A bit of background. I don't think I have mentioned this before but if at any time we go out on our balcony and leave the door open we get a call from the bridge to say are we OK because our fire alarm has triggered. Last time it happened Betty queried why this should happen all the time. They promised to get it checked out. This morning before we left for breakfast a technician came and changed the detector with what looks like a new design we will see what happens tomorrow when we will be on the balcony during the Panama Canal transit. When we asked the technician what happened last night he told us that someone on a yacht was injured and as we were the closest ship we went to their aid. A helicopter was also sent out but as the wind was strong it could not do a rescue so a boat from the ship was lowered and the person is now on board and will be taken off in the Panama. People in cabins at the stern of the ship were disturbed when they prepared the back deck in case the helicopter had to land there. How exciting and I missed it all.
The port talk this morning was for Mantra for which we had not booked a tour so we were interested to hear what there is to see there. We are now booked on a tour.
Entertainment wise tonight in the Princess Theatre was. Production show called Vintage Vegas and you guessed it the costumes were great, as Bob on our table said what there was of them. The dancers have improved a bit but the singers stole the show with music of our era. The night was topped off with the group having hot chocolates.
Should anyone like to you can see us going through the locks in the Panama Canal by tuning in to www.pancanal.com We go through the Gatun lock at 8.50am the Pedro  Miguel lock at 12.35pm and the Miralores lock at 3.20pm all are Panama time which is 15 hours behind Melbourne time.

30th July

30th July Bonaire Partly cloudy Temp 29c
We were safely alongside at 7am and we were docked on our side which is always nice. Today we had a tour booked which did not leave until 12 Noon which would mean either an early lunch or no lunch. We elected to have the later but to have a big breakfast. We had bacon & eggs instead of our usual cereal and fruit.
About 10am we went ashore for a walk in the town which is about 100 meters from the ship. The town is not much more than one or two streets as far as shops are concerned. We did however find a nice coffee shop which had fast WiFi and I was able to update some of the Apps on my iPad. We now have another Frig magnet to add to our collection. We originally thought we would just put the magnets on the Frig in the garage but they have now taken over and I am going to have to think of a more suitable display.
Our tour met on the dockside as often the afternoon tours do. They were using Toyota Coasters today so there was only about 18 on our bus. Our guide was born in Iraq, she came to Bonaire on a holiday  and stayed. She spoke very good English with an American accent and was very good. After a short tour of the town we headed to the North end of the island along the coast. This island is famous for diving and you can see why, the sea is so blue and clear. There is a reef of course. We passed quite a few groups who were obviously diving. At the end of the island is Goto Lake where if you are lucky you can see flamingos. We were lucky and saw about 4 quite close. In the same area is the oil facility. Oil is shipped in, blended and shipped out again. Because near Bonaire the sea is very deep they can get big tankers in. From here we turned inland to Rincon the oldest village in the Caribbean, it was first settled by the Spanish. Most of the countryside on this tour reminded me of the country between Adelaide and Port Wakefield it is very dry with lots of cactus growing. In fact they make Whiskey out of the Cactus juice. We did not try any but those that did said it was like fire water. Along the way we stopped at a house which years ago belonged to the King but now after falling into disrepair is being resorted by the locals. We returned to the ship with a half an hour to spare before the ship sailed for the Panama Canal.
Coral has spent the day in her cabin today as she has the dreaded Dawn Princess bad throat. She has been getting room service for her meals. We hope she improves by tomorrow. At least we have effectively 3 sea days now as we go through the Panama Canal etc.
Tonight we were entertained in the Princess Theatre by Jade Milian & Sam. Jade sings like Whitney Huston and Sam who is her husband backs her on piano. The DP orchestra also played. She sang one of my favourite songs "One moment in Time" Apart from being a little too loud we all enjoyed the show. Jan particularly as Whitney is a particular favourite. Bev & Ian have not been to dinner for the last 3night because the menu was not suitable, how ever they came tonight.

29th July

29th July Sea Day Sunny some cloud Temp 27c smooth sea.
The Port Talk today was about the Panama Canal. As we have already been through the canal in 2010 we decided to have a sleep in and a late breakfast. Later I went to Evon's lecture "Pirates, Privateers & Bucaneers". She told us a lot about pirates through the ages, particularly the recent one off the coast of Somalia. Did you know that Julius Caesar was once captured by pirates and held for ransom of 25  talents. He told them they did not realise who they had captured and gave them 50. They released him and he then got his legions to capture them, they were crucified and his money recovered. I am not sure how true all this is but Evon told us.
Today we had lunch in the dining room with Pam & Peter a couple who were on our dinner table on the World Cruise 2010. We have kept in touch with them since then by email and just missed meeting up with them last year when we went to Nth Queensland. Coral came with us. Also on our table was Evon the lecturer. Pam was able to show Betty how to use Facebook with Candy Crush. Both of us did our walks around deck 7 this afternoon.
In the Vista Lounge tonight was a comedian Gabe Ableson who was quite good.

28th July

28th July St Lucia Some Cloud Temp 27c
St Lucia is an island which is part of the Lesser Antilles. It has a population of approx 170000 and it's capital is Castries where we docked. It has been fought over by the British & the French with each taking control 7 times. Eventually Britain made it a colony. It is now an independent member of the Commonwealth with the Queen as it's head of state. Today we chose the ships tour 110A which left at 9.30am. Unfortunately due to a mixup Coral was not on the same tour. Our tour took us first to St Marks a colonial mansion where we were given a tour of the house plus refreshments including some Rum Punch. The views of Castries form here were spectacular. Next it was onto another lookout over looking Marigot Bay another beautiful stop. This bay is used during hurricanes as a place to shelter yachts. Next we visited Caribelle Batik where we had a demonstration of Batik dyeing. Finally we went to a rum distillery for a tour of the plant plus the opportunity to taste over 20 different rums. Needless to say we did not try all 20 but we did try the Banana Cream, Coconut Cream and the Nut Cream and we are bringing a bottle of each home with us. Coral says even though her tour was not the one she booked it was a good one and she enjoyed it.
For entertainment tonight we went to the Princess Theatre to listen to Antonio Salci a pianist perform with the Dawn Princess Orchestra. He was very good and they were queued up to buy his CD afterwards.

27 July

27th July  Antigua Sunny Temp 29c Feels very warm.
Antigua Sunny Temp 29c Feels quite warm.
A little bit wobbly during the night but it calmed down as we approached Antigua. We took our time getting up today because only tended to walk into town and nothing opens before about 10am particularly as today is Sunday. We have done the only tour that appeals to which is to Shirley
Heights and Nelsons Dockyard. Bev, Ian & Coral have taken this one.
We walked off the ship to the town through the throng of taxis drivers all trying to sell you a drive around the island. Quite close to the pier is a all full of shops selling normal tourist items and a lot of clothing. In one area there is barely room to walk between the stalls. As usual we managed to get our souvenir plate & frig magnet. Jake we looked for a Pirate card to send to you but could not find any.
For those of you who may not have been to Antigua it is in the centre of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean and it is the largest of all the English speaking Leeward Islands. Nelson's Dockyard was a British naval yard used extensively by Lord Nelson. Shirley Heights has commanding views of English Harbour & Nelson's Dockyard. It was originally built as a signal station to alert troops of approaching ships.
Bev & Ian must have worn themselves out today because they did not come down to dinner. Our entertainment tonight was in the Princess Theatre to listen to Bobby Brooks Wilson take us down memory lane. He traded a bit on his father's reputation who had wrote songs for other singers as well as performing himself. Bobby did not quite make it. He tried to impersonate some other singers but he would have been better to just sing.

25th July

25th July Sea Day Beautiful day Temp 28c Sunny with some could smooth sea.
I will try to continue to write my blog using the iPad. I have found I can cut and paste into the blog when on line so I can compose off line to save those valuable online minutes.
Port talk today was for St Lucia. We did not have a trip planned for there so we were particularly interested to hear what she had tosay about the island. We have now booked a tour on the same one as Coral.
At 11am. there was Part 2 of the JFK lecture so Ian & I stayed in the theatre and our good ladies went to get us a coffee to go. They did not stay for the lecture. For the Port talk we have quite a row as all the people on our dinner table now sit together. Each saving seats for the others. The JFK lecture continued from his election to President, with details of his affairs, the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuban Missile crisis. We heard more about  how ill he was and how it was covered up. He was not the golden haired boy some of us thought him to be. She did go into his
assassination quite a bit and show evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald definitely did the deed and something I did not know was that when he was arrested he shot a policeman. Once more we spent the rest of the afternoon with Betty sorting her photos and me reading although I did go for a walk around deck 7 it was so nice out there that I kept going for 5 times.
As I think I have previously mentioned the singers and dancers all got off in New York and a new group got on, with a new set of shows. Tonight was their first show called "Oh What A Night" There are 4 singers and 6 dancers in this group. We gave the singers 10 out of 10 but the dancers need more work, they were a little untidy. One of the singer we have seen before when we were on the Round the Pacific cruise. Also tonight there was a later show in the Vista Lounge with Shirley Dominguez a Harpist playing with the   Ships band. Before her show there was the opportunity to dance to the music of the band so we went to do so. Afterwards we thought we would stick around to listen to Shirley and were glad we did she was very good. It all made for a late night, Midnight before we got to bed.

25th July

26th July
We have had a computer melt down so unless I can fix it I will not be continuing this blog for the rest of the trip.

I may try using my iPad to send.

24th July

Sea Day Sunny partly cloudy Temp 27c Moderate sea.

As is quite usual on sea days after breakfast we went to a port talk by Narelle Froude this time about Antigue our next port. As we have been there already we have decided to just do our own thing there. However it was good to be reminded about the area. Coral and most of our table are doing the tour of Nelson’s Dockyard and Shirley Hieght which is what we did.

We have new lecturers onboard and Ian & I went to the fisrt one today at 11am. Evon Anderson will be giving a series called “History & Maritime Series”  The first one is part one of “John F Kennedy” She told us lots of things about JFK which we did not know and have only been made public recently. She started with his childhood and detailed all the illnesses he had. He was quite a sick person almost from birth. He was always in competition with he elder brother who was being groomed by his Father to be the President. The family were mega rich and were able to buy their way anywhere. Joe Kennedy gave funds to President Roosevelt who gave him the plumb job of Ambassador to England,  only to sack him later when he did not need his money. JFK went to Harvard University and probably gain entry through his Fathers money. He wanted to join the forces but was rejected because of ill health however after his Father  called one of his high ranking friend JFK was admitted and we all know he commanded  a torpedo boat. After many girlfriends he of course went on to marry Jacqueline Bouier. (not sure of the spelling). As we all also know he eventually became President with the help of a huge PR campaign. While he was President he had numerous affairs including the well know one with Marilyn Monroe. Jackie apparently was aware of a lot of them. They certainly led different lives to us. Tomorrow we will get part 2 of this lecture.

As usual on sea days we met Coral for lunch at 12.30pm after she had been to Bridge lessons. Another new lecturer is Peter Anderson who is doing an astronomy series but as this does not appeal to either of us we spent the afternoon reading and sorting out photographs. At 5pm I went to another lecture given by Geof Gray called Political & Economic Series. Geof has spent a lot of time in the Australian Diplomatic Corps and today talked about his time spent in New York. It was a very interesting talk but I wished it had been on before we went to New York rather than after we had left.

Our entertainment tonight was in the Vista Lounge to see Michael Ziegfeld a Comic-Ventriloquist who was very funny with his Jewish humour. The usual gang then when together for hot chocolate before bed.

23rd July

New York Sunny Temp 29c Sultry

We were awake early this morning to enjoy the sail in to New York. Most of the sights of Manhattan were on the Starboard side but we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty and we will see the skyline of Manhattan lit up when we sail out. I have had a cold for the last few days and in growing eye lashes in one eye have made the eye sore so this morning I decided to go to see the Doctor. They open at 8am and I was there about 10 minutes to eight and there was one lady in front of me. After filling the usual form we sat down to wait, others came in and obviously were on return visits because they went in ahead of us. The lady in front of me went in also but I think they forgot me because it was sometime before a nurse did could up and ask me if I was being attended to. He apologised saying that they were short staffed because some were leaving in New York. I eventually got seeing by a Doctor he pulled out the offending eye lashes and loaded me up with medication to fix my cold. I am happy to say I am now much better. As we have been to New York on a few occasions we decided to walk into Time Square (about a 20 minute walk from the ship) and check out the Hoop on Hop off bus, which we did and got talked into paying for all routes at a reduced price. After being told there were no queues to get on we found that the queue at the first stop was about 100 metres long. They told us there would only be a 15 minute wait but it was longer. Their excuse was the traffic and to their credit they did bring along extra buses and the queue cleared. We got a top deck seat with great views of parts of the building which we would not have seen from the ground. Progress was slow because the traffic was horrendous. Although it was hot in the sun we enjoyed the ride. We got off at the Waldof Astora Hotel stop and walked a short way to Grand Central Railway Station which may seem an odd thing to do but we had heard the inside is worth seeing and it was. The concourse hall is huge. There is a great food court there where we had lunch before reboarding the bus at the same stop and continuing back to Time Square for more photos and coffee. There were people everywhere because of course it is school holidays here. Our intention was to get back to the ship in time for me to visit the Air and Space museum setup on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid which was moored next to our ship. However as the time was already 5pm and you would need at least a couple of hours to tour the museum I abandoned the idea. By the time we walked back to the ship we were a couple of very tired and hot people badly in need of a shower which we got. We had previously arranged with Coral for her to come to our cabin for the sail away and we would order room service for our evening meal which we did.

Coral had a mixed day. She had booked on a tour of New York in the morning and there was some mix up with buses. A number of people were disembarking the cruise here and should have been well and truly off before Coral’s tour left but they were not so her tour was delayed by 1 hour which, including the traffic problems made her return later than she thought. She intended to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art but ran out of time which was a little disappointing for her. However the sail out was terrific which was added to by a short spectacular thunder storm with a lighting display. We were warned earlier by the guide on our bus that it could happen because it was so humid. It was a bit of bad luck for the people on the Starboard side because the storm came while we were passing the Statue of Liberty which made photos impossible.

Everyone on the ship appears to be tired after a full day so I am not sure how many went to hear the Harpist Shirley Dominguez at 9pm we did not. As I write this Blog we are now sailing to Antigua where we should be after 3 sea days which has allowed me to catch up.

 The One Trade Centre replacing the Twin Towers.

 Grand Central Station

 Kenny made it to New York

 The Chrysler Building

22nd July

New London Sunny Temp 27c

Overnight we crossed through the of the year advised NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) seasonal management area for the protection of Right Whales, with the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, towards New London. Compliance with the restriction in the area involves vessels of greater than 19.8m to proceed at a speed of not greater than 10 knots during times of the year when Right Whales to be present. As a result of this plus quite a lot of fog along the route we were late getting into New London. This caused a problem with the ships tour because they were also now late leaving. However the Captain arranged for us to stay 1 hour longer in port so most tours did not need to be cut short, including ours. In New London we were able to dock were as when we were last in this area we had to tender in Newport. We chose to do the Breakers Mansion and Newport tour. It was due to leave at 10.30am but because of the delay we sat in the Princess Theatre for over an hour waiting for us to dock and be sent on our tour. Coral did the same tour so we were able to go together. There was a 1.5 hour drive to get to Newport but the route was very scenic and dit was good to get out in the countryside. On arrival at Newport we first went for a tour around the town which is not very large then out along what I would call Millionaires drive as we drove past some magnificent summer homes of the rich of a bygone era. We saw the church where Jacqueline and John Kennedy where married. We saw the mansion once owned by Jacqueline’s parents. Plus a farm still run by the family to look after endangered species. Finally we were taken for a tour of the Breakers which was the summer house (mansion) of Cornelius Vanderbilt who made his wealth owning railroads. The mansion had to be seen to be believed it is reminiscent of one of Europe’s Royal Palaces. Built at a time when most houses only had one bathroom it has 20 and there are 36 bedrooms. We were issued with audio units which gave you a description of what each room was used for which made the tour that much more interesting. If you had the time there was also additional recording giving details of the lifestyle of individuals but we did not have the time to listen to them all. You could easily spend a day exploring the mansion. At the end of our tour of the house we went back to Newport town where we had 1.5 hours to explore on our own plus have a very late lunch. We had been to Newport before and it all bought back happy memories. Betty actually went to see a mansion last time but it was the Elms so it was different this time. I went for a sail on an America Cup boat. We just made it back to the ship before sail time as we head to New York.

Tonight there was another Crew Talent Night were some of the crew showed us there other talents that of entertaining. Again they were all really good and could have careers in the entertainment industry if they desired.

21st July

Boston Sunny temp25c

Throughout the night we cruised across the Massachusetts Bay which is a bay on the Atlantic Ocean that forms part of the coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The western most point of the bay is in the City of Boston. A little bit of trivia for you is that in 2006 the port handled over 208000 cruise ship passengers and 81 cruise ship visits.

Today started off with breakfast in our cabin because we had an early tour. We were scheduled to meet in the Princess Theatre at 7.30am. However we received a noticed in our cabin that we also had to be in the Vista Lounge at that time for a face to face immigration inspection. We went down to the Vista at 7.20am to be greeted with a queue that stretched from the Vista to the Princess Theatre which is the length of the ship. By the time the doors of the Vista opened the queue had grown half way back again. All this could have been avoided if an announcement had been made that if you queue up before your scheduled time you will not be allowed to enter the Vista until your allotted time. Then perhaps there would be no queues. Once the process started the queue did move fairly quickly but we were still late for our tour but they waited.

On our tour we headed first to the historic towns of Lexington and Concord where we heard about the battles which took place between the British Troops and the Minutemen. We visited the Old North Bridge which has been restored. The bridge is famous for the “shot heard ‘round the world” which began the American Revolution. Paul Revere fired the shot to warn the Minutemen that the British forces were coming supposedly to arrest the ringleaders of the uprising. On the way back to Boston we went through Harvard University, past many of the Halls of one of Americas oldest and most prestigious universities. We also went through Harvard Square with its shops and restaurants. In Boston we stopped at Quincy Market for lunch. Quincy Market is a long building with an open mall type areas each side. The building is a food court with very little seating. The outside has some eating places and stalls selling odds and ends. We did buy our lunch there which was a roll containing brisket beef and onions served with chips. We shared one and even then there was too much food. Should we return to Boston in the future we will not be going to Quincy Market. From the market we went on a walk to the Congregational Church used by the Minutemen to signal which way the British were going to attack. Two lanterns were put on the steeple and depending which way they were coming the lanterns were put in front or behind. The church was one of the first in Boston and it had separate partitioned off pews for families each complete with a door and some decorated with wall paper. On the way back to the ship we saw many of Boston’s public buildings.

Tonight after dinner we decided to have an early night. Coral says she is going back to her cabin and going out later to listen to the Dawn Princess Orchestra play Jazz. It will be interesting to see if she actually makes it. Tomorrow we will be in New London but at least it is not an early start.

 The Bridge where Paul Revere fired the shot heard around the world

 Paul Revere

 Note the early flag.

Part of the Freedom Trail      

20th July

Sea Day Some Sun Shine Temp 22c Smooth Sea. Formal Night.

Early breakfast today so that we could get to the Church Service. Afterwards we met Pam & Peter in the Atrium because Pam promised to give Betty, Ian and me some pointers on how to play Candy Crush. She uses Facebook in conjunction with it to get extra help. The ships internet connection today was so slow she could not demonstrate so we will have to try it later. Ian & I went to the last lecture to be given by Graham Burns as he will be getting off in New York. His talk today was titled “The Lighter & Darker side of protection” he told us of some amusing incidents like when they were protecting the King of who insisted on driving one of his own cars, a Porshe and they had to follow in a Vauxhall which just could not keep up. Next day a BMW was delivered to them to be used whenever they were protecting the King.

Both Betty & I did some walking around deck 7 this afternoon now that the weather has improved. For the last few days it has been so windy that it would be hard to walk outside.

Tonight we had a decision to make. At 6pm & 8pm Chris Watkins had a show in the Vista Lounge and at 8pm & 9.45pm the Production Company had a show in the Princess Theatre called the “British Invasion” Our dinner time is 5.45pm. if we wanted to see both shows and we did, we could either miss dinner in the dining room and go to the 6pm and 8pm shows or go to dinner and see the 8pm and 9.45pm shows. Tomorrow we have to be in the Vista Lounge at 7.30am for US Immigration and 7.30am in the Princess Theatre for our tour of Boston. I think Immigration will win out. Tonight we finally decided to have dinner in the Horizon Court after going to the 6pm Chris Watkins show. Tonight is a formal night so I avoided having to dress up. Chris put on another superb show and the good news is he is moving to Australia, if you get a chance to see him do so. The British Invasion show was not up to our liking as the music turned out to be 1980s onwards. Coral tells me that they did a good job with the music of Queen. I only recognised the Beatles but then again I do have an OBE. This was their last show as they are getting off in New York and a new group are getting on with all new shows.