Oh, the Places You'll Go!!

As I was working on my Christmas list this year, I decided to make a picture album for two couples who are our best friends.  We have been traveling together for the past twenty years and have made memories all over the world.

Some of our favorites are the "man-on-the-street" interviews that Charlie and Jim have done from Rome to Hawaii, to Cape Cod and all over the world.  These are all spur-of-the-moment, funny interview on where we are and what we are doing.

There are so many memories - like the "I, Snorkel Bob" incident in Hawaii when the David, Charlie and Jim convinced a store clerk that they were from a television station in Chicago and wanted to interview Snorkel Bob, a Hawaiian icon.  We got out of Dodge before Snorkel Bob could get to the store. 

There are memories of the train trip through Italy where the trains went on strike three times in the ten days we were there.  And, we all will never forget our getting on the wrong train that we thought would take us to Florence, but we ended up in Naples.  Needless to say, our (Charlie's) Italian needed some work.

So, I made an album of our trips over the years.  You can see it by clicking here..  To say that we have had fun over the years is putting it mildly.  I guess what we cherish the most is the lifelong friendship that we have with these folks.  Thanks for the memories, David and Linda B and Jim and Linda T.  To quote Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the places you'll go!"

Delayed

We travel a lot.  Some of our travels are for fun and vacation; some are for business.  Yesterday was a business trip.  Charlie and I were speakers at the Home-Based Travel Agency/LeisureWorld Conference in Atlantic City. 

We woke up at 5:30 am to start a long, long day of travel.  Our flight wasn't until 10:30, but we had to take Liesel, our Schnauzer, to our dogsitter, then muddle through rush-hour traffic for almost 30 miles back to the airport in Nashville.  No problems.  We got to the airport at our required "two hour prior to departure" time of 8:30.  Zip, zip, zip.  We were through security in record time.  Great way to start the day.

Then, things started to fall apart.

About 45 minutes prior to our scheduled departure, an announcement was made that air traffic control in Philadelphis had given us a ground hold in Nashville because of weather.  We now would not depart until 11:00 am.  At 10:30, our original scheduled time of departure, we had another announcement.  The President was in Philadephia, and we now were delayed because we could not land there until air space had been cleared for commercial aircraft after his departure.

Finally at 11:20 we boarded our plane.  This time we sat on the tarmac in Nashville, again awaiting clearance from air traffic control in Philadelphia so we could land when we got there.  At noon we finally left.

Great.  We would only be two hours late, which, of course, made us late for the trade show that we were supposed to be in that afternoon.

The flight was uneventful UNTIL we reached air space coming into Philadelphia.  Then we rocked and rolled.  Literally.  The tornado watch we had in Nashville the day prior had turned into storms that were hanging over Philadelphia.  So, we bumped and grinded our way through this air space...for an hour...as we circled Philly waiting to land from all of the air traffic that was backed up from the morning delays.

Finally, we landed in Philadelphia two hours and forty-five minutes late, and we still had an hour and a half drive to Atlantic City.  Oh, well, the best laid plans.......

If you didn't know, the game, Monopoly had all of the streets named after the streets in Atlantic City.  We drove down Atlantic Avenue to our hotel, the Trump Taj Mahal.  And, this morning, we crossed North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio Avenues to get to the Convention Center on Michigan Avenue.  At one point we were on Baltic Avenue.  Our hotel has Virginia Avenue on one side and Boardwalk on the back overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  As we were walking on the Boardwalk tonight, we both had flashbacks to The Sopranos and the scenes of Tony looking out to sea as he stood on the boardwalk.

Tomorrow we head back to Nashville, and with any luck the President will stay home, the weather will be clear, and we won't be delayed again. 

Ch..ch..ch..changes!!

When we opened Just Cruisin' Plus on Jan. 4, 1988, there were so many cruise lines operating that it was impossible to know which ones went where.  The days of preferred suppliers was extremely important.  As travel agents, we had to be very selective in which cruise lines we would support and which would support us.

Over the years we have seen change and more changes as cruise lines have taken over other cruise lines, completely changing the face of today's modern cruise industry, then some of these going bankrupt.

The first was a shock when Princess Cruises gobbled up Sitmar and changed the names of all the Sitmar ships to "something" Princess.  Then, Royal Caribbean bought Admiral Cruises, followed by Chandris Fantasy, which changed the name of this cruise line to Celebrity Cruises.  Premier Cruises (The Big Red Boat) purchased Home Lines, taking their one ship (Royale) cruise line to three ships.  Holland America Line bought Windstar Cruises, but have sold this arm in the past couple of years.  Majesty Cruises was purchased by NCL and all of their ships were then named Norwegian  "something". Then, NCL went on their buying spree and purchased Royal Cruise Line, Orient Cruises and Royal Viking Line.  The Royal ships were moved into the NCL fleet; the other two cruise lines kept their names, but eventually went out of business.  Then, Princess took over Cunard.  Dolphin Cruise Line was purchased by a holding company, and their ships became Regal Cruises. Carnival got into the buy-out frenzy and now owns Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises and Cunard Line in the United Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe; Iberocruceros in Spain; and P&O Cruises in Australia. Radisson merged with Seven Seas and became Regent Seven Seas.

Then there were others who were not as lucky.....American Hawaii, Commodore, Premier, American Family, Regency, Epirotiki, Delta Queen, Pearl, Sun Line, Bermuda Star, Dolphin, Ocean, Regal, Windjammer, and Renaissance to name a few.  These companies all went bankrupt or just ceased operations.  The Renaissance ships have all resurfaced today as Oceania Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, and a couple of Princess ships. 

On Saturday,. we got an announcement that another cruise line went bankrupt - Cruise West.  Click on the link to see the details as reported in Travel Weekly today.

If you think it's difficult to keep up with all the changes in your industry, try walking in our shoes.  When we first opened, the changes were occasional.  Now, we see them almost weekly, if not monthly.  But change is good, right?  Right?  RIGHT?

What time is it?

Today we’re in St. John’s, Newfoundland Labrador. No longer is this province in Canada known as Newfoundland AND Labrador. It’s just Newfoundland Labrador. We were told that the premier wanted to “brand” the area. That’s my kind of marketing guy.


And, what could be better than to be greeted by a Newfie Lab as we got off the ship. She was a beautiful black coated girlie with the most wonderful disposition who let all of us pet her as we headed into town.

We docked literally in downtown St. John’s. Now for anyone who doesn’t know Canada or Canadians, St. John’s is not to be confused with St. John, New Brunswick. Apparently the apostrophe “s” is extremely important here.

We took a sightseeing city tour of St. John’s and saw the oldest standing wooden house in North America. None of the doors were more than 5’7” tall. We also went into a beautiful Basilica as well as the Anglican Church. Both are named St. John the Baptist. One, however, is Catholic and one is Anglican (Episcopal). My good buddy, Henry VIII, was responsible for this split during his reign as king of England.

We should sail back through The Narrows that we came through at light-thirty this morning, and hopefully we can see just how close we were in getting through them.

A couple of more facts about Newfoundland – Newfoundland didn't become part of Canada until 1949, and we had to move our watches back 30 minutes last night. Wonder if we’ll move them back 30 minutes again tonight, or if we’ll move them an hour and a half tomorrow night?

Cock-er-tock

Qaqortoq, you’ll always be

Home, sweet, home to me.

Good ole Qaqortoq

Qaqortoq by the sea!!!

We docked in a very interesting port today – Qaqortoq, Greenland – where it is anything but green. The terrain consists of massive hills and mountains of rock covered in moss. There are no trees, and very little vegetation. Qaqortoq, pronounced “cock-er-tock” means “White Palace” in Greenlandic. There are three languages spoken here – Greenlandic, Danish, and English – although most of the natives speak Greenlandic.

Qaqortoq has a population of 3,400, so when our ship docked today, the town almost doubled its population. Most of the natives are Inuits, like the Eskimos in Alaska. The houses are all painted bright colors – reds, blues, greens and yellows. Our theory on the bright colors is because of the dull terrain during their short summer, and the snow in the winter. The people are very friendly and welcoming.

We stopped in the New Choir Church and their small choir of nine people sang a’capella in their native language. Amazing Grace and Nearer My God to Thee were both recognizable songs in a language we’ve never heard. This sanctuary was small, but the sound was amazing. With no microphones to enhance the sound, the acoustics were perfect.

It was quite chilly today with a high of 41 and a low of 39. We have yet to see the northern lights, but with the clear skies today, we can only hope that when we get out to sea tonight, we’ll be able to see them.

By the way, I must give my friend, David Bohan, credit for the words to the song at the beginning of this post. He never strays far from his roots in Tennessee.

Welcome to the Bergs!

The Goldbergs and the Icebergs, that is…

Today has been most interesting as we cruised the waters off the coast of Greenland. First, there was a wonderful documentary on TV called Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, which was about the 1950s TV series called Meet the Goldbergs. This was TVs first sitcom. What an incredible show! How I wish TV programming today had more shows like this one.

Then, there were the icebergs. We were so surprised today to awaken to bright blue skies and calm seas – so smooth, in fact, that it was like sailing on a lake instead of the ocean. There were whales playing along the side of the ship and seals slipping on and off ice floes. We saw numerous icebergs and small towns along the route. Relaxation was the name of the game today.

The temperatures have been in the low 40s and with the wind from sailing, it was quite brisk to be outside on our balcony, but outside we were. Hopefully, tonight, the skies will be clear enough for us to finally see the northern lights. With any luck, tomorrow, we will dock at Qaqortoq (cock-er-tock). I really think the Greenlanders need to add a few letters to their alphabet. Have they never heard the rule that a “u” should follow a “q”? More tomorrow.

We are sailing...we are sailing...

We are sailing…we are sailing…home again…’cross the sea…


We are sailing…stormy waters…to be near you…to be free.

And, so goes the old song, recently recorded by Joe Cocker.

Sunday was Dublin. Monday was also. We were scheduled to sail from Dublin on Sunday night, but the weather and the seas saw differently. Sunday was a “soft” day in Dublin; soft meaning light, misty rain. But, the winds decided to pick up to 35 mph gale force, and no ships were allowed in or out of Dublin’s harbor. Our scheduled departure on Monday was noon, which was changed to 7:00 pm, again because of the winds.

Our late departure caused us to miss calling in Belfast. Because we had been to Belfast four years ago, this was not a great disappointment. So, our free day was spent sleeping in, reading, watching movies and playing cards with our friends, the Bohans.

Today, we are in the North Atlantic headed to Iceland. Our arrival has been pushed to 2:00 pm tomorrow, but we don’t leave until 9:00 pm tomorrow night, just in time to see the aurora borealis (northern lights). The seas are running about 10-16 feet with a wind across the bow of the ship, so walking is somewhat a feat today. We jokingly say that the only people who can walk a straight line are the drunks. We, however, bounce from wall to wall. Thank goodness for Bonine keeping my nemesis, sea sickness, away.

More to follow tomorrow night from Iceland.