With the car clean and ready for return, Teresa turned her attention to me
I needed a hair cut, before we got on that ship. Teresa had spotted a barber shop and made me
pull over, she spoke to the barber and he said come straight in now. We parked
the car under the eye of a Black female parking attendant and I shot in. Now this barber was born in Greece, he was 72
years old and had lived in Cape Town all his adult life, got his ticket and
worked there ever since. He was born on one of those small Greek Islands called KOS, when I told him I
had been to that very Island and stayed there and what a lovely little island
it was (known as a party Island) I am sure I could see a tear in his eyes.
After he fiddled with my hair , he
started to cut every hair in and around my ears and nose I better stop chatting
or I will not have a blade of hair left
on my head. Back at the car the female
was still standing there waiting to calculate the parking payment of 3.5
zar, the hair cut was 70 zar very cheap
to Australian haircuts.
It took well over 80 min to move through the cue and board the ship.
Once on board we went straight to the cabin to check it out, it was quite
roomy and every thing was laid out to welcome us , then off to the upper deck
to eat.
Having sailed with about six different Cruise lines we were quite
interested on how MSC compared.
Most things are much the same, but drink like wine, beer and soft drinks a
quite a bit cheaper, all still attract
that 15% extra fee.
The lunch and dinner service in the dinning rooms, no drinks are supplied
what so ever, you must buy the water, coffee, tea or go without. No hot
chocolate at all.
Teresa finds most fruits she wants,
but, will tell you their not much selection and if you want any delivered to
the room this attracts a extra fee of USD 4.50. unless you have sailed with
them before a few times then it's free.
We were wait listed for the 1st dinning room sitting and we given that
sitting, on a table of 12. Ten are from Australia and 2 males from
Germany. One couple are from Perth and
the others are from Queensland or NSW.
We all meet for dinner at 630 PM, and as the meal progresses, and the
wine is consumed it gets very very loud indeed.
The food is very good with a good selection and they do have a lot of
fish on the menu. No free Ice cream on
deck you must pay usd 2.30 for a cone ,bummer.
MSC are a bit light on entertainment and we have only seen one show called
Storm and it was very good indeed. The
other nights you must make your own entertainment, but, to be fare we have only been on three nights to date.
Our first port of call was Walvis Bay in Namibia, as we had been here before
we went for a walk, around one edge of the lake then, into the town, to find a
Internet cafe, from there we brought a
few goodies and returned to the ship.
The ship just like all the others had several tours that were over priced for
what you get, but plenty of people buy
these tours, even though you can do exactly the same tours for a fraction of
the price once you get off, on shore you are mobbed by tour operators and taxi
drivers all trying to get you.
19th April. They had another show
last night a opera type concert at the Teatro San Carlo it was packed , and
very popular, It not the normal type of show we would pay to see, but it was
very enjoyable and a new experience for us.
Last night at the dinner table one of the German males (a old man about 85
) revealed that this cruise was the 164th cruise he had done, he started
cruising in 1958 and he produced a hand written list of all the cruises with
the ships names and dates. This cruise
with MSC is his 58th cruise with this line. and the third cruise with them this
year. When asked which is the best
cruise line to sail with he said Costa (thats the Italian shipping company that
tipped that ship over)
We are now into the second day at sea of six days in a row, and have plenty
of time to wind down and relax, We try to keep away from the pool as some of
the sights you see there are just plain horrible. The ocean has had a so called
chop to it, but , this ship, although only small, sails through it all with
very little movement. The weather has been quite cloudy and a dark overcast
sky, but no rain. Wonder whats on the
menu tonight!!!!
21st April We are now past half way
of our six straight day at sea.
yesterday the temp was over 27 deg c and the most popular place on deck
was pool side. All programmes on the TV
have gone (no news etc for the last two days) Have not seen any other vessels
what so ever.
Saw flying fish yesterday trying to get away from the ship, no pirates
boats yet, but, any thing could happen as they are active in this part of the
world.
Found out yesterday that you are allowed to have one glass of free water
with lunch and dinner. A Irish couple told us this at lunch after we noticed
they did not produce their ship card to pay for two glasses of water. They travelled to Cape Town six month ago on
the same ship, have spent 6 months in the warm weather of South Africa and are
now returning home for summer. We tested the free water last night at dinner,
and it worked.
22nd April Drama on board. It must
be some thing with us sailing the Atlantic Ocean, yesterday they did a search of
the ship for a missing person, we were never given all the facts, but, they did
turn the ship around and back we went and my GPS showed that we had slowed
right down and were doing a box type
search. A woman had gone missing and several rumors were around, however, we
had lunch with a German couple (Hans and Mummy) today who knew all the facts,
as the missing woman was within their tour group and from their dinner table.
She was about 55 years old and had actually been missing for three days and had
given her clothes, shoes and other items to other guests, she was travelling on
her own and had been divorced. They said she was very depressed. Once again we
have all been shaken by this event. king
Neptune was on board, but out of respect the whole event was cancelled.
We are well and truly settled into
a routine now and every thing just seems to be planned around meal times. The entertainment on board differs from other
cruise lines, they don't have single
entertainment type shows, but more like concerts and full production shows, all
the shows we have attended have been very enjoyable and very good. They do not have any art on display and no
art auctions
Teresa is a bit disappointed with the CRAFT activities as they only have a
class on needle type work and another on how to tie knots, a lot of time is spent just relaxing and
reading from her ipad and her new i phone.
I was going to post to the blog from on the ship, but at USD 22 a hour to
use the Internet, we decided that we best find a Internet cafe when on shore.
24th April. It' now 6 days in a row at sea, with no TV
news channels what so ever. The world could have ended Ha ha we know nothing,
we have had a few showers of rain, and we have started to see 3 or 4 boats and
all the talk on board is now Dakar our port of call today.
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| Farm stay Route 66 |
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| all images until photo of ship were taken on Route 62 |
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