This was a lazy sea day which we spent by the outdoor pool and then catching up on reading and pre-blogging typing so that I’m ready to update the blog when the WiFi returns. It was also a good time to research our next stops.
In the morning, we had spoken for a while to one of the waiters in the pizzeria. She confirmed that the ship would be in dry dock for two weeks in Singapore after we have left it and then do some short cruises around Thailand and Vietnam before moving back to Sydney in October for their summer season, doing cruises out of Sydney, mainly to New Zealand and back.
Those who have got on at Hong Kong to replace the 400 or so who left the ship there are noisier than those who left and suddenly we feel that the number of teenagers on board has risen considerably.
It’s getting ever hotter as we sail steadily towards the Equator. It’s now too hot to eat outside, even in the shade. The temperature outside is lovely during the morning but it then gets really hot by lunchtime and even the air conditioning around the ship struggles to cope.
As the days go by, it’s increasingly clear that we Brits are in a real minority and that the vast majority of passengers on board are Australian. The ship is positioned to serve that market in both the winter and summer months. One surprise on this cruise is the lack of any other cruise ships. The only other ones we have seen have been part of a group called Aquarius, which seems to serve the Asian youth market for what is probably school holiday cruising. The other surprise is the number of birds we play host to when a long way out to sea. Some days ago it was the odd pigeon or two, whereas today there is a host of swallows flying all round the ship as we cross the sea between Hong Kong and the Vietnam coast.
We had our loyalty event today. We arrived a few minutes early to see people queuing to get in. We found somewhere comfy to sit while the queue grew and grew. The joke between us was that, far from being an exclusive event, it was beginning to look as if half the ship would be there. The event began and they announced that there were indeed 903 people at the two events that evening – in other words about half the ship! Princess boast that the Captain’s Circle is “the best loyalty program at sea” but we’re not sure how that can be. We’ve been given no on board credit on this cruise and the only discount booklet we got when boarding was rubbish compared to such as RCI as it didn’t include discounts on any products we would normally buy. The event was clearly a one-drink-only party and getting that single drink was quite a challenge as there weren’t really enough staff to be able to serve all the guests quickly enough. It was probably the worst loyalty event we’ve been to. The canapés were all pastry-based and the mini sausage rolls were among the more appealing items – no sign of smoked salmon or caviar.
There was little real news for them to impart, except to say that they have had a very successful season with Sun Princess alternating over 12 months between Japan-based and Sydney-based cruising, so much so that they will be bringing in a second ship in support next season. They also announced that they would be using a ship to run cruises out of Singapore to such as Thailand and Vietnam and also down towards Australia, visiting such as Bali.
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