Date: March 2-3, 2007
Location: At Sea
Next Port: Shanghai, China, March 4-7
Report: We’ve had our first spat of not so great weather. It’s been getting cloudier, foggier and cooler these two days as we head north towards Shanghai. Not toomuch out of the ordinary to report…gym workouts, various lectures on China, games with friends, and good conversation in the lounges and over dinner.
On Saturday evening there was a themed “Welcome to China” pre-dinner party in the Constellation Theater. The decorations included Chinese lanterns, parasols and a pagoda on the stage. There were ice sculptures along with caviar and shrimp stations. Phil and the quintet played for dancing. The highlight was an appearance of a Chinese dragon on in-line skates. After almost knocking over the pagoda and running off the stage edge, it became apparent that the dragon was just Capt. Dag and Jamie once again cutting up!
We had a very enjoyable dinner with Lars Olsson, the Hotel Director; Julia, a new acquaintance; and Phyllis and Eddie, whom we first met in the check-in line at the Four Seasons in Miami. (It’s hard to believe that meeting was almost two months ago!) Lars is a very gracious host and we had great table conversation. Lars said he was familiar with this journal and could almost submit it to the offices in Miami as his “trip report.”
It was interesting to hear about some of the purchases guests have brought on board over the years and the ensuing storage problems. He currently has two 11-12 foot tall wooden giraffes resting in a vacant guest suite. There are some vacant rooms on this fully-booked segment because we have had 10 people leave the ship over the course of our voyage due to medical problems. Currently there are 575 guests on the Voyager (and 450 crew). The normal suite capacity is 700, but we have a significant number of single passengers.
Tomorrow (Sunday) we will pick up the harbor pilots before noon and hopefully dock up river in Shanghai by 4:30 p.m. We are looking forward to sailing by the Victorian, colonial buildings on the Bund and the “Jetson City-looking” Pudong skyscrapers on the other side of the river.
We were here with our family in August 2005, but only for a very short time. Shanghai is an amazing place and one we want to get to know better during our three and one-half days here. I might not file another report until our sea day on March 8, enroute to Hong Kong.
Photos of our cruise are available at the web site:
picasaweb.google.com/larryworldcruise
Photos from the Welcome to China Reception have been added.
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