Centenary World Cruise Day 66-67: Sea You Around

March 24, 2023 By Lise Quintana in travel Tags: bad apps, food, medical emergency, rule breaking Leave a comment

Day 66:

For the second time inside a week, there was a medical evacuation. This time, the person was in their cabin, rather than one of the bars, but it’s the same drill – don’t leave your room until the evacuation is over and keep your balcony door closed.

The last time it happened, the Pirate and I were walking down the hall during the evacuation and heard the telltale whistle that means a cabin has its outside door open. There’s always that one person, isn’t there?

Later, we were sitting at lunch in the only big open space on the upper decks we knew of. There are higher decks on either side, and there are wires going from one railing to another over the open space. Before this, I thought that’s where the helicopter would have landed, but realized that couldn’t be it. After dinner, we went for a walk up on deck and realized that there’s an area on the upper deck dedicated to sports – shuffleboard, basketball, putting green (these last two encased in nets). And right in the middle, a gigantic green circle that is doubtless the landing pad. Mystery solved!

Day 67:

Last night, we got surveys in our mail slot. The cruise company asked us to rate the entertainment, the food, the service, etc. The service, the cleanliness, the staff at the bars and lounges all got high marks.

Then there was our assessment of their onboard app. It seems like everything has to have an app nowadays, and on the Cunard app, you’re supposed to be able to see the itinerary for your entire cruise, all your port excursions, and the schedule for the entertainment on board. You’re also supposed to be able to book spa appointments, alternative dining, and port excursions. NOPE. The Pirate and I can’t do any of that. The only thing we’ve been able to do is see the .pdf of each day’s Daily Programme (which is also delivered in paper form to our cabin each night for the next day). And because the ship’s internet is so awful, even that doesn’t load right half the time.

But what I really lit into them about was the food. The Pirate is vegan, and on a normal day, there is precious little for him to eat. At breakfast they have vegetarian sausages and bacon, but they are so overcooked that they’re inedible. At lunch, even things that should be vegetarian often have gratuitous pork in them. They label everything that has gluten, dairy, shellfish – even celery! But they don’t label anything with meat. And if you don’t spot it, or don’t know their jargon for it, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. They also seem to think that “vegetarian” and “vegan” are interchangeable.

Nearly all the baked goods are stale, as though they were loaded onto the ship at the beginning of the voyage and have sat uncovered and unrefrigerated for the last two and a bit months. The sushi’s also got that dry crunchiness that means it’s not fresh. Honestly, all those people who said they gained weight on this ship make me think that their culinary standards are pretty low.

I don’t expect anything to come of it, but we’ll see.

Centenary World Cruise Day 60-62: Sea To It

March 24, 2023 By Lise Quintana in travel Tags: British food, medical emergency, pork, world cruise Leave a comment

Day 60:

We’re halfway through our journey. There are a few indicators – I had packed my pills in four zipper bags of 30 doses each, and I finished the second one. The list we’d been given of all the ports flipped over to the second page. We’re sick and tired of everything on the ship. Luckily, for most of the rest of the trip, we don’t have very many at sea days in between ports. We’ll be circumnavigating Australia, so it’s only a day or two between each stop.

Day 61:

Well, the pizza was delicious, but I spent most of the day in some pretty severe intestinal distress. Funny – I’ve eaten and drunk in places where other folks have turned their noses up at the food, expressing a certainty that we’d get sick, and it never happened. But in Australia – bingo.

We ended up talking to the couple next to us at dinner about food. When we first got here, several people remarked at the fact that they had gained weight while on the ship. I expected the food on this cruise to be a non-stop parade of deliciousness, but…it’s not. Much of the food here is laced with some variety of pork – ham in the potato salad, pork in the stir fry, sausages and bacon and pork roast at breakfast. Since I don’t eat pork, beef, or lamb, my lunch and dinner choices are much more limited than other people’s.

The food is definitely geared toward not just British tastes, but the tastes of older people. Nothing is highly spiced or very well salted, and because they have to feed 2700 people three times a day, some of their practices (like putting out sliced bread and then leaving it out all day) mean that the food isn’t as fresh as one might hope.

We gave our dinner companions the benefit of our discoveries – like the fact that the coffee bar serves kedgeree (rice, smoked haddock, and hard boiled egg with curry and butter) at breakfast, but the main dining room doesn’t. We also discovered that you can’t get decent coffee or tea at the breakfast buffet, and that the lunch in the pub is better than up in the dining room. So now you know too.

Day 62:

For the second time on this trip, there was a medical emergency that necessitated a helicopter evacuation. Early on, I met a couple who had been on several Cunard cruises, and they pointed out that the demographic on these cruises made it inevitable. They said that they always saw at least one ambulance at every port, waiting for someone on the ship. And now I have seen at least one ambulance at every port, waiting for someone.

This is why you have to have travel insurance. The cruise line isn’t going to reimburse you for the rest of the trip you booked, and on a 4-month trip, that can run into a lot of money. But I wonder whether the cruise line has some kind of waiting list so that they can fill the room of the person who’s been evacuated.