Cruise

Wow, has it been a long time since I wrote a blogpost. Anyway, here is one. I just came back from the 8-day cruise to Alaska and Canada from Seattle. I was onboard the cruise ship Norwegian Jewel, with my family and new cousin. What makes this cruise particularly interesting is having a toddler to look after.

The COMPANY

NCL is 50% owned by Star Cruises, which always seems to have a cruise ship docked in Tsim Sha Shui. We didn't choose them particularly, it was just that they had the best sailing itinerary.

The SHIP

- The Norwegian Jewel was built in 2005. Jewel's sister ship Norwegian Pearl caused a power outage in Northern Germany while still under construction. I read this from a news article yesterday. The Pearl was featured in this cruise documentary: http://www.hulu.com/watch/64392. They make it look a bit better in that, but you get the idea of what a great system they run 24/7 on the ship. Norwegian Jewel is essentially the same except they have a climbing wall at the back of the ship.

- You can see the Bridge Cam of the Norwegian Jewel online.  http://www.norwegiancruises.com/fleet/jewel/webcam.htm
I used this aboard the ship to see if there was anything interesting ahead.

The ROUTE

The ship set sail from downtown Seattle, Washington in the US. We cruised up the very calm waters of the Inner Passage, only heading out to the Pacific on the way back. It was really a very calm route with almost no big waves above 1.5m tall and some sort of land always visible.
The best part was navigating the narrow canyons of the Tracy Arm, Alaska. 

The SECURITY

Even though there are security cameras in most public areas, security checks only happen whenever we get on or off the ship and includes metal detector, x-ray screening and ID check by a security guard.  It takes 5 seconds - way faster than any airport check.They seem more interested in catching passengers who bring their own booze. How? They give your bottle a swirl and watch the bubbles.

The SCHEDULE

"Freestyle cruising" is the company "Norwegian cruise line"(NCL)'s way of saying you can do whatever you want, whenever you want on board. You get a daily newsletter "Freestyle Daily" of the day's schedules, special offers, showtimes, shore excursions and those notices for switching time-zones. Very effective public communication, old style.

On shore, we tend to be on a tight schedule (6-7 hours on shore), so there was only time to hit the best parts of the town/wilderness before heading back. This often made tours necessary. I though it was quite enough fun, but not nearly enough time to sit back and relax.

The SHORE

Alaska is just awesome, period. I just wish I had time to climb all those mountains with snowy peaks and build cairns on the top.

Stuff is generally cheaper there than in similar stores in HK. However, some stores owned by the cruise ship companies are to be avoided.

The guides all know how to crack some jokes, know the history and specialties of the place, and even happy to stay in contact, after a brief chat or Q&A. We met some guides who are actually upstanding members of their communities, like radio host or local bus driver. They just know the whole place, people, prices and history.
Some guides are not local, but love the place so much they have to go there every summer. With them, we shared the common appreciation appreciation of the land and nature. "It's the adventure, stories and solace."

Despite the awesome unlimited food supply onboard, I enjoyed supporting local businesses, trying cakes and pies from the cafes recommended by the locals. I think it's not about quality - quality was about the same, but the warm coziness and smiles that comes from that local business proprietor and not an employee. Sometimes, it's the icing on the cake that matters.

The FOOD

No cruise would be complete with the all-you-can-eat food (not free... it's included in the fee). We mostly ate at the buffet places, because those are simplest for the toddler, with the most choices.
The other restaurants are pretty good too. Some are free and others require a cover charge. Personally, I didn't think the cover charge was worth it for most restaurants, but all of them have some really good dishes.
In all, there is so much food I was having a spoonful of each just to try all of it.

The best food was probably the dessert specials, pool grill, Indian food and steaks. The desserts just keep coming and one spoonful of everything was enough to make me fat. Indian food was awesome because there are quite a few Indian chefs who really know how to make good curry and lots of people who try it. The pool grill was especially exciting, with Alaskan salmon chowder.

The worst was the Chinese steamed fish - it looked Chinese but the fish was too hard (I don't think they had a Chinese chef). Almost everything else tasted better than the land average.

The SPORTS

It makes great sense to talk about sports after food - with an estimated intake of 5000 calories in total, I had to burn it all out. I tried out the sports on the ship, especially the ones I didn't do on land, like the shuffleboard. The pool was good fun and lukewarm despite the freezing deck with sweeping winds, except it was a bit too small for swimming and had lots of splashing kids. Running around the ship (about 366 yards of track) is lots of fun. But best of all, the air was fresh and crisp, compared to the almost musky and polluted in Singapore and Hong Kong. I actually want to breath it all in.

The CREW

Crew come from all over the world, though there are a lot from the Philippines. There are about 1000 crew in total, which means a crew to passenger ratio of about 1 to 2.5. I was actually quite surprised at this, but then a cruise ship is technically a small floating city with engines. Crew were all very nice, hardworking, professional people, despite the very long working hours and as I heard, no holidays for 10 months of the year. I'm impressed at how they can keep up their quality day in and day out.

The COUSIN

Having a toddler living along makes life more interesting. The toddler always demands set meal times, napping times, milk times... and toddlers can be very punctual. (Someone taught him to read the watch, so he knows the time!) He listens to no schedule but his own.

Pushing him around was really lots of fun. But the best part was trying to understand how this little guy learnt his vocab so fast. He knows words from Cantonese, Mandarin and English, but prefers to speak Mandarin. It is amazing to speak to him and then hear him use the same words, calling us by names. We didn't have to directly teach him.

It's fascinating to return to the child's point of view, because that's how I can retrace my own path of development.

The GUESTS

Most people on board have a decent sense of humor and fun. It was easy to strike up a game of shuffleboard on the deck, or a game of Bridge in the games room. However, Americans being Americans, the personal space is pretty large, so one can't bump into others without some kind of apology or remark. It is very freestyle and I think what that does is let us decouple from the world for 8 days.

The INTERNET CONNECTION

Internet was much faster than I thought, though it did cost me about HKD $6 per minute. It wasn't fast for youtube, but surfing was just fine from any part of the ship.

By the end of the 8 days, I did gain less than 1kg, which I thought was pretty good given all that awesome food averaging at more than 5000 calories a day. On the other hand, I think I burned about 4000 calories in the gym, running around the ship and sports.
Actually, I skipped lunch on the way home and only started to feel hungry at dinner-time. I can conclude that it is a great idea to fast a little and let the existing food go completely through first.  

I learnt a lot in a short time about human development and Alaska. I can also say that I've been to Canada since I crossed the border from Alaska. We didn't stay very long in Alaska, but maybe it was the best balance between experience and learning about my new cousin.