At sea between Shanghai and Okinawa: The DrsC did one of those ‘forever’ flights yesterday - 13 hours from L.A. to Shanghai. We came to board the M.S. Coral Princess for a 32 day cruise back to Los Angeles.
We thought this was a so-called “repositioning cruise” where the ship line is moving the ship from one region to another to get ready for a cruising season there. We were wrong.
Instead, this cruise is part of a ‘circumnavigation’ of the Pacific. It left from LA and went north to Alaska, along the Aleutian Is. and down to Japan and Korea and ends in Shanghai. That was the first half.
Now we’re doing the second half. It visits Okinawa, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, and back to LA.
Some random thoughts....
Did you ever notice how various smells evoke memories? It isn’t just folklore, BTW, it been shown to work. We got into an elevator in Shanghai, smelled mildew, and said to each other, “Yep, that smells like the Orient. It brings back memories of living, traveling here.”
People in this part of the world make interesting wardrobe decisions that you’d rarely see in the West. I noticed a young woman wearing a nice short dress, who had nice legs, and was wearing athletic shoes and sweat sox with the ensemble. OITO, only in the Orient.
This part of the ocean features oil drilling rigs, we’ve passed several today. Must be relatively shallow seas, what the Navy calls littoral waters. Shipping is somewhat common too, these are busy sea-lanes.
The movie selection didn’t impress much on our flight, so I binge-watched the entire 10 episode first season of Game of Thrones. An amazing amount of nudity and on-camera AC/DC sex happening ... and the airline didn’t delete it. Lots of gore, too.
Almost all cruise ships have the buffet as the top rear enclosed deck; “almost all” but not this one. Here the buffet is top enclosed deck forward. Why? Who knows? It’s an outlier.
There are things various cruise lines do well, or poorly. Now we’re noticing the contrasts between Princess and Holland America. Holland does better libraries, ice cream, and room service breakfast. Princess does better on entertainment and ship decor. We’ll notice other contrasts as the days go by.
