Preparing for a long cruise
Day 5, Grand Asia 2017
Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017 – At Sea
I booked my last cruise three weeks out. I booked the one before that six weeks before departure from Galveston on the way to Dubai. I love to make last-minute decisions to travel, especially when it is a bargain. This cruise is the exception.
I read about this cruise in the spring of 2016 on the popular website CruiseCritic.com, before Holland America had even opened it for booking. I put down $100 and my preferred cabin number with my travel agency, and once booking opened made a more substantial deposit to confirm my choice. Now I asked myself what to do for the next 14 months of anticipation.
The answer turned out to be getting to know some of my fellow passengers through Cruise Critic’s Roll Call. The website hosts threads on virtually every cruise, divided by cruise line, ship and then specific cruise. Our Grand Asia 2017 roll call thread started as booking opened and by the time we sailed we had about 2,500 posts.
As part of the preparation on Cruise Critic, we compiled a photo book with our pictures as well as hometowns, interests on the ship and email addresses. We also used the Cruise Critic thread to share information about our ports and organize private tours. Many of the participants had visited these ports on previous cruises, and the information they shared helped with the planning. By the time we held our private Cruise Critic meet-and-greet on the second day of the cruise, our number had grown to more than 200 – about one out of every five passengers on the ship.
I spent much of the last six months researching our 30 ports. Again, Cruise Critic helped with its own port information, as well as blogs posted by previous Asian and world cruise passengers. I made use of Excel spreadsheets and calendars to keep track of all the planning. A few weeks out I exchanged money at the bank for foreign currency. I didn’t want to be the person who held up the tour looking for an ATM.
I’ll write later about the challenges of packing for 80 days
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More about Day 5: I woke to cold, cloudy, windy conditions. After my morning watercolor class, I attended another cooking demonstration by Chef Denise Vivaldo. She told us funny stories about working with Julia Childs (“yes, she did drink that much”). In the afternoon, I remembered that I almost forgotten about the Crow’s Nest, a large lounge high in the front of the ship. With comfortable chairs and ottomans, it’s apparently a favorite place for afternoon nappers.
I spent a couple of hours watching the sea go by as I worked on writing exercises from Your Life as Story, by Tristine Rainer. I’m not sure I actually have a memoir inside me, but I am learning a lot from a structured examination of stages and pivotal points in my life. I had dinner with a woman from Santa Fe, a couple I ate with earlier from Virginia and a couple from Canada (“near the falls”). We sat late talking about all the things we have accumulated that none of our families seem to want these days. It’s a common topic of conversation.
Besides Japan, China and Australia, which other countries did you get foreign currency for? Our travel agent thought you could exchange currency at HAL’s front desk but I’d prefer to do this before we leave.
Indonesia, New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore. The ship might have it but I didn’t want to risk it and waste precious port time looking for an ATM for small amounts. I got the equivalent of about $50 USD each, which is probably too much. Ask me again after the cruise, Sue.
I also got a little currency for Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand and Fiji . I didn’t want to be cut short if the front desk didn’t have it or ran out.
Sent from my iPhone
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Sue, to follow up on currency, HAL had it for every port. They said they used the Bank of America exchange rate. If you had leftover from one country, they would not change it directly into the next country. They went to US and then to the new country, so you paid the fee twice. I paid $100 for some money (Japan?) that I didn’t use and got $80 back for it. So after that I just saved it for exchanging at home. But I came home with very little. Nothing like having a local beer just to use it up! I think about $50 for each country was about right.
We had a surprise on the ATM in China a few years back. I had put extra cash in Donald’s Bank of America account before the trip since they had a relationship with a Chinese bank that waived all fees – we knew it would be good for large cities but perhaps not some of the smaller places. Surprise. Donald had a six digit PIN number and Chinese banks only recognized 4 digit PINS so we ended up paying fees out of our account! Our planning didn’t work out. I can see that time spent looking for an ATM might be an issue if you are only in port 6-8 hours.