Beat the cost of staying connected on a cruise

Although I'm a fan of ditching technology in favor of zipping through the jungle, romping in the ocean, climbing a temple or just quality relaxing when cruising, sometimes there's just no avoiding the need to check in with the office or the family.  That said, this article gives some worthwhile tips on saving money when staying connected.

 Beat the cost of staying connected on a cruise

But really, try to keep the sun tan lotion off the keyboard!

Elderly Couple Forced Off Seabourn Ship

This from Travel Weekly: 

Seabourn is standing by its decision to force an elderly couple to disembark the Seabourn Sojourn on May 12, after the wife missed the ship’s mandatory passenger safety drill before departure from Lisbon.

The California couple had booked a 20-day, three-leg cruise from Rome to Hamburg, and had participated in the drill when the ship left Rome on May 4. At the start of the second leg from Lisbon, another drill was announced and held, per industry policy.

But the 84-year-old woman wasn’t feeling well, and since she had participated in the drill before leaving Rome, she decided to skip it. Her 90-year-old husband attended both drills.

Within an hour of the Lisbon drill, the two found themselves standing with their luggage on the pier as the Sojourn sailed off. 

Whoa ... wait a minute.  There has to be more to the story.  Lets not rush into judgement until we hear Seabourn's side.  This is a company renowned for its outstanding service and attention to detail.  It's the kind of cruise where they can't do enough for you and don't allow tipping.  Seabourn - please pitch in.  The story above is so "un-Seabourn-like" that it doesn't go down easily.

Emergency Airlift, Fun By the Pool, Winning in the Casino and So Much More

A day at sea can be relaxing, calming, serene and peaceful … or you could be with this group.  In that case a day at sea would be wild, funny, at times loud and certainly festive.  With several guests having barely recovered from the wedding, the Bloody Mary’s started to flow at about 8:00 AM.  The day dawned clear and sunny and everything was going as it should, happy campers, great time – rock on.

About 10 AM there was an announcement from the Captain that an emergency evacuation would necessitate turning the ship around so that the Coast Guard  could airlift a passenger for medical treatment.  Not something I see every time I cruise!  Most of the happy campers stayed put and kept doing what they were doing. Not moi, I’ve never seen this; I grabbed my video camera and went for the money shots.  The ones I could sell to the news at eleven guys.  I guess we were out of helicopter range, so the ship made a U-turn and piled on speed for an hour and a half while the crew prepared the aft deck for a helicopter landing.   

It never occurred to me how much work this entailed.  Security and crew members piled up over 200 lounges and tied them down so the rotor wash wouldn’t blow them around, they pulled down the lights strung from the funnel to the stern, roped off sections of about four decks to keep the decks clear, and kept back the curious (guilty as charged – I’m a cruise specialist, I need to know these things).  

First a reconnaissance or escort C-130 plane came over the ship, then the chopper circled the ship once (making sure the landing area was clear – I guess?) before they came in a second time and landed.  The escort C-130 circled the ship throughout the operation, which took about half an hour. It was fascinating to see these guys helping us out.  What professionalism!  It made every person on the ship proud of our Coast Guard, they really are there when you need them. Videos when I get back to land, they're not exciting enough - I didn't get the money shots - to spend half an hour uploading them.  Internet connection on ships is VERY slow, and expensive.

The excitement over, it was back to the pool and the party.  From what I understand some of our crowd closed the disco at about 3:00 AM.  I wouldn’t know, after the Captain’s night dinner of lobster and prime rib I wandered around the casino a bit (so far my crew has won over $850 between them), took in part of the comedy show, and called it a night at about 10:00.  Oh to be young and bullet proof again!

Carnival is known in the industry for its towel animals.  Here’s the towel animal of the day:

Cozumel up next and while some of the group will go off swimming with dolphins, a good number are heading for Carlos & Charlie’s.  Party on dudes!