summary of trip at sea
...well i wouldnt have missed this i can tell you but it would not be every-ones cup of tea thats for sure(the main thing that really gutted me looking back was the ship being two weeks late at the start which means we have missed the big golden jubilee celebrations in london on the last weekend ie june 2nd ).....if you were going to do it to see heaps of things on land....forget it....take a bus trip....but if you want to see a working ship in action , this is the way to go....when we dropped jr and 2mp off in cypress and easy rider off in salerno , we were the only passengers left on board for the rest of the trip and we thought that we might be adopted into the crew environment a bit closer but this was not the case.....the italian officers remained friendly but distant at same time if you get the idea....in fact you could say that italians are quite big on mood swings , even chabal with whom we have had most to do with is like that....one day you can pass him and hardly get the time of day and the next he will come and find you to point out something of interest (one day i was up on the top deck looking over the side minding my own business when he shot up alongside me in a ford focus and said to jump in he was going down into the bowels of the ship and thought i might like a ride ! )....mostly the body language of the other italians is that passengers are a pain in the arse...and they insist on addressing you in english and calling me sir and kate maam(as in ham)....i have an italian phrase book with me and had gone to pains to learn all the basics like hello , goodmorning/afternoon/evening...count to 10 etc and i tried answering them in that way for a week or two but in the end i decided to fight fire with fire and threw that away and answered the italians english with a bit of kiwi (howsitgoin.....gidday...seeyalater etc )and generally stayed a bit aloof myself and this seemed to work a lot better except that i allways use the italian on the cook as he is most impressed and i dont mind greasing around him....i alternate between "complimenti al cuoco" (compliments to the chef) and " era squisito" (that was delicious)....the officer we got on best with was jessie the philippino second mate who has good english and of course joselle our messman ....i overwrote the italian phrase book with philippino andwe had some real laughs as whatever you said in philly jo-jo would sing-song it back to you at least once with much laughter so wasnt wasted and i rather hoped it was annoying the crap out of some of the goory italians as well...as i got the impression that they feel superior to the phillies and probably cant understand that we dont (as afterall , we are "pacific" people !!!)
..so here some tips if you want to go grimaldi cruising.....firstly find out from namesake if booking thru him (or me if you are booking direct ) as to what vessel you are going to be on(this is one of the best) and more importantly...who is the master....im not putting real names in this blog but woody is regarded as being one of the best and walrus is very friendly but the atmosphere was very much more restrained after they changed....jr came up to england on the grande britagna and he said that the captain on it was an 18 carat arshole so you want to avoid the likes of him or would spoil your trip
......if bookings are light and you have any like minded friends who might like to go too you would be best to make up a party as you need to have enough passengers to get a bit of "passenger power"....but bare in mind that it is a long trip so make sure you dont take friends with you who will turn into enemies before you get back.....
dont forget to take binnoculars and a world atlas.. and do some homework on the countries you are passing....get a phone modem for your laptop that will take sim cards as i kick myself for not doing that as you are often in cellphone range of compatible networks when at sea and also when you are alongside but cant get off.....while on the subject of phones....take your telecom one and it will automatically go onto global roaming but try not to use it except in emergencies as it is not cheap....a few days before we left nz i got a new phone as i knew the old cmda network was closing while we were away...i specifically asked the pea-brained woman from whom i bought it (no prizes for guessing what south otago shop ) "do i have to worry about it down loading stuff from the internet ?....." oh no says she just dont log on and you will be ok".......well fortunately not long after i arrived in the uk i got a text from telecom telling me "welcome to telecom global roaming" etc etc and a number to ring for prices so thought i should do that to see what the rates actually are.....got straight thru to telecom (india of course )...a well spoken gal gave me all the prices and also emailed them to us as well.....then she said 'are you aware that your internet device on your phone is not disabled ?"....i repeated what i was told in good old balclutha and she said....not so , it will do updates if you dont disable the function said she and would i like her to do it for me ....yes says i and i thought i wont say anything nasty about punjabies ever again !!