Wedding Party at Sea

Although I've booked a lot of honeymoons and even a few weddings at sea, what I truly love is getting involved with an entire group of wedding guests who are attending the wedding AND sailing off with the honeymoon couple.  I've enjoyed planning special events for years; among the events I've planned are dinners for the Prime Minister of Turkey, ship inaugural events, catered dinners for VIPs on the rooftop of the American Express building , yachting parties for VIPs (i.e. CEO of Macy's, Head of the Senate Banking Committee, President of MTV, etc.) during the America's Cup Races, mayoral campaigns, sales meetings around the world ... well you get the idea.

Planning a group cruise with a wedding lets me take all that special event experience and put it to use for my own business.  I've seen a number of "Wedding on Board" parties that end with the reception.  Then the guests go off to enjoy their cruise, and maybe they plan a couple of get-togethers on their own.  Blah... boring, conventional, vanilla.  This wedding is going to be MEMORABLE (as every wedding should be).  The bride is gorgeous, the family is a bunch of fun, and the friends are live wires.  Now this is an opportunity!


We have an itinerary of activities just for the wedding guests including a cocktail party (natch), private group shore excursions, adventure hunt on board, a wrap party on the last day at sea and gift bags (this is where I'm going all out with travel-sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner, hand sanitizer & mouthwash personalized with labels in the wedding theme color and with the Bride & Groom's names - as well as a few subtitles). The group is big enough that I decided to travel with them ... I'll be their private cruise director so the wedding couple and families have no worries, just ask Dorothy.

I think it's nice to welcome the guests aboard with a gift they can use during the cruise, and who doesn't need a toiletry kit, water bottle, sunscreen, sewing kit, document holder, coupon for FREE semiprecious necklace and earrings, etc.?  Did I mention that the company name and toll free phone number will be on each of these items?  Well, I AM trying to promote myself!  Thank goodness for my background in marketing & advertising, although in the past when I did this it was with Other People's Money.  I love OPM.  This time it's my money - that really changes the equation.

I've also come up with a plan for the bride & groom to get free drinks - I can't give it away just now, but the B&G are all over it!

The reason for all this?  When others on board see how much fun we're having, maybe they'll ask who is the genius behind all this fun.  Maybe the guests will have such a memorable time that they'll tell all their friends about me.  Most importantly, however, is that the bride and groom - and their families - will have the most special cruise I can dream up for them.  That's satisfaction in itself.

I'm going to try to do similar for all large groups (25 cabins or more) in the future - it's worth it to make sure they have the time of their lives!

We sail on April 29th and I'll be blogging every day if possible.  Between all the activities, the shore excursions, the ports of call I haven't seen before and the mandatory gym time I always commit to on a cruise I could miss a day here or there.  But there WILL be blogs, there will be fun, there will be weird souvenirs of the day, and there will be pictures.

Oh, and I've started my diet.  Figured that if I went public with it I'd have to stick to it. I've got 66 days.  Would love to drop 15 lbs.  - that would be 1/4 of a pound a day, 1.59 per week.  20 would be even better (swimsuit wise) but that would be 1/3 of a lb. a day 2.12 a week. I've watched The Biggest Loser for years, but can't spend four hours a day in the gym.   Help me along!

I'm so excited ... can't wait until the 29th of April!

The Disaster Could Have Been Avoided

Great Article from CruiseMates .... and what I want to know is: What about all the other ship's officers?  Chief Officer?  Second Officer? Safety Officer?  Chief Engineer?   I know the Captain is God on a ship, but really ... weren't any of the disciples there?

What the Media is Missing in Concordia The Concordia incident is the worst tragedy in modern cruise industry history. But most of the focus has been on the actions of the captain abandoning a sinking ship, as well as a chaotic situation due to an uninformed crew. What has been completely overlooked is the sequence of events before the grounding of the ship.

Is this enough to sink a ship?

Everyone on that ship should have been saved, with all of their possessions. The biggest mistakes (yes, plural) the captain made happened long before he ran away.

Costa Concordia is structurally identical to the Carnival Splendor - the ship that went dead in the water off the coast of Mexico two years ago. But in that case the captain sent up a Mayday immediately and Carnival rightly chose to keep everyone onboard and tow the ship to safe harbor. Those people were inconvenienced, but they didn't suffer, and they survived in whole. I now fully understand the SOLAS "ship as a lifeboat" concept.

Had this captain called Costa when he first hit the rocks this entire event would have gone entirely differently.

The first obvious mistake Schettino made was not checking the charts for the route he took near Giglio. We know the ship made a similar sail-by last August. Reports say he was given the coordinates by a colleague, but he reportedly went off that course, and did not check the local charts.

Next mistake: there are usually several people on the bridge; a navigator, a watchman and the person steering the ship - not always the captain. All of them had to have known when they hit the rocks. At that point the ship should have been stopped to check the hull integrity.

We know the ship was sound for at least 40 more minutes. Was the ship going to sink from the damage that was done? It is unlikely because of the fully watertight sections. If the ship had been stopped slowly it could have been towed upright to safe harbor and everyone evacuated. This is the "ship as the lifeboat" SOLAS protocol adopted in July 2010.

But the ship continued on at full speed for 40 minutes before Schettino took action. It is said he stopped the ship, dropped the anchors to stabilize her, turned her around and then headed to shore. With an already damaged hull these are aggravating measures. Once again, he should have stopped the ship and raised a Mayday.
The captain turned the ship to the left to return to Giglio, but unlike cars which lean in on turns, ships lean out. The meant the ship was listing to the right, towards the shore. As it came in closer the current pushed the keel out and the ship tipped into the rocks. Had he turned the ship the other way the outcome might have been different.

But the ship appears to have been further damaged when it keeled over - making it take on water even faster, and once the water breached the open decks it filled very quickly until it stabilized. It is actually surprising, but a testament to the bouyancy of the ship, that it has not already sunk to the great deep.
This already indentifies three points were it is likely Schettino made bad decisions and violated statutory procedure. And while the media is focused on Schettino abandoning ship, in fact his most egregious acts - leading to loss of life - happened long before left the ship.

Was the Crew Uninformed?
No, they were abandoned. I am a former crewmember who knows that every crewmember is assigned a duty for boat drill and given instructions for that duty only; solely to make sure passenger lifejackets are fastened correctly and lined up in neat rows to board the lifeboats.
Crews are trained by a staff of safety officers whose sole job is to handle emergencies. A ship this size should have between six and 12 safety officers. Training is predicated on the presence of these officers to run the lifeboats. It also assumes the ship will be upright, according to SOLAS standards, so all lifeboats are available.

Where were the safety officers at this point?

Why wasn't the ship left in an upright position for evacuation?

Why is no one asking these questions?
The answer is that the safety officers were likely on the bridge - checking the ship's stability and waiting for the captain to take action. Do you think the captain told them he was going down to get on a lifeboat and escape the ship? Or did he say "Wait here, I am going to investigate the situation,"? How could he get away if they had not been left on the bridge?
Next - the media is not reporting Costa is a multilingual cruise line. All ship operations (including safety drills) are conducted in Italian, German, French, Spanish and English in that order. In addition there were natives of Brazil, Korea, India and more.
Plus, this ship picked up passengers in four ports on this itinerary (this does not happen on U.S.-based cruises) and with a 24 hour window to hold a boat drill, the ship had decided to delay the drill for 696 people just boarded in Civitavecchia until after even more people were scheduled to board in Savona.

Is Costa to Blame?
No. Any ship's captain has full discretion over routing decisions. They are the ruling class in the open sea. This captain chose to sail by Giglio without telling Costa. He chose to continue at full steam for 40 minutes. He then chose to turn the hobbled ship and head back to Giglio without sending a mayday. Reports say he didn't call the "home office" until the ship was already crashed on the shore. The captain also failed to give the abandon ship signal. There are a lot more details to be revealed here - and what amazes me the most is what the media is not asking about the events leading up to the grounding, like "Was this a sinking ship?"

Are Cruise Prices Going Lower?
I read a report this morning that a certain web site owner says "Cruise Prices Headed Way Down." While I don't disagree this will happen short term, experience has shown that experienced cruisers are fully aware of the industry's safety record, which is far better than flying or driving. People do not stop flying after air or car accidents. Therefore, any discount in prices will be short-lived and mostly confined to Costa. Operations at other cruise lines remain as safe as ever.

So, if there are bargains to be had - grab them while you have the opportunity.

A few "Weird Souvenirs of the Day"

Limiting myself to only one "Weird Souvenir of the Day" can be very difficult, but since I wouldn't want you to miss out on some of the retail opportunities offered in Central Europe, I've compiled photos of several souvenir possibilities that didn't win a spot in my daily blog.

I'll start with fashionable head wear found in Budapest:

 Then there is cooking attire offered in Passau:

 And some fun shoehorns in Regensberg:










 Not to be outdone by important home decor accessories, which I might have found in Vienna, but am not sure.

Hope you all get your Christmas shopping done on time, I did!

Budapest

Budapest actually consists of what used to be two different cities, Buda on one side of the Danube, and Pest (pronounced pescht) on the other.  The Chain Bridge uniting them was built by one of the Hapsburgs (Joseph, I think) because he was in Pest when his mother was dying in Buda on the other side of the river.  Since it was the middle of the winter he couldn't cross the Danube, due to ice floes, and was unable to get to see her before she died.  Being a King of virtually unlimited resources, he decided that wasn't going to happen again, it was time for a real bridge, and 20 years after the bridge was completed the two cities became one.

Although the country of Hungary is about the same size as the state of Indiana, it seems that warring factions have been trying to conquer it since, well, since I couldn't quite make out when. I think it was first the Turks, then the Ottomans came and burned the place down, then the Magyars (I probably have this in the wrong order), several fortresses have been built up and then blown up or burned down, the Hapsburgs ruled for about 500 years, but then came the Germans and the Soviets drove off the Germans but then they forgot to go home for 50 years.  It's really very confusing.  I'll have to read more about it, the guide had a pretty thick accent (but his English is 100% better than my Hungarian).

It is a city of beautiful palaces, bridges, opera houses, monuments, academic and parliamentary buildings, contrasted by bullet holes in many of the buildings and rubble or ruins from whoever last tried to seize it.  These guys have had a tough time of it over the last 1500 years, but they just keep trudging on.

There is one very disturbing monument, the shoe monument, which commemorates where the Nazis lined up Jews in on the bank of the Danube and had them take off their shoes, then shot them so their bodies would fall in the river and be carried away. Just another tragedy amongst so many, but this memorial is very poignant. There are a number of other monuments to those who were lost in the Holocaust, but this one really brought it home.   I know I'll never be able to truly conceive of the horrors, there is absolutely nothing in my personal life I could begin to compare it to - I've never lived through years of terror and brutality - but this monument spoke to my heart.


On to happier thoughts.  Now who would have thought to bring a bathing suit to Budapest in December?  Silly me!  There are three thermal spas on the Buda side that are very popular.  If I were going to stay here any longer a bathing suit would have to be my next purchase.

As it is, I'm going home tomorrow morning VERY early, my cab will be here at 5:45 AM, so I've said all I'm going to say for tonight.  I don't even have the energy to download the weird souvenir of the day.  But maybe I can do it during my layover in Philadelphia tomorrow.

To those who have read my blog, thank you.  I hope it helped bring the experience to life for you and that you'll have the chance to do a similar trip in the future. 

Things I've Learned About "Christmas Market" River Cruising

Probably not a comprehensive list, but a couple of useful facts (I hope).

• Don't expect non-stop onboard entertainment, you have come here to visit different cultures, not to be amused by stage acts, ice skating shows, parades, etc. 
• Learn as much as you can about the countries you will be visiting in advance by following suggested reading guides, or even renting pertinent movies.  We visited the home where Oscar Shindler was born, "Shindler's List" - for example - would be an excellent movie to watch before coming over.
• Pack one or two "dressy" tops - although the formal evenings on board are not as sartorial as they are on the large, ocean-going vessels, it's nice to have a sparkly top (for the women) to go with a pair of dark slacks.  Other than that it's not about fashion, it's about warmth.
• Bring a long coat for Christmas Market Cruises - lot's of outdoor time, legs get cold. It can also be rainy or snowy, so a pair of shoes that are meant for those conditions is a good idea.  But maybe buy gloves, scarves, hats or mittens at the Christmas Markets - you'll need them and they make a good souvenir.
• Thank you Mom for insisting I take your travel umbrella.  As usual, you were right.
• The staff will bend over backwards to help you in any way they can - and they are very adaptive to changes in conditions.
• Leave more room in your suitcase (applies to almost everywhere I travel). 
• There's always more to see than you have time for.  But do everything you can.
• Unlike ocean cruises, you can book returning air flights that depart early in the morning; many passengers are on a 2:45 AM bus to the Budapest airport (ouch!).
• Buy travel insurance, it looks like mine will cover at least some of my losses from being pick-pocketed!
• Googling information isn't very helpful (to me) if the answer comes up in Hungarian.

I set foot in Slovakia today by walking over the bridge, but the 24 hour bug I had came back so I can't say more than that I have set foot in Slovakia.  I skipped the tour into Budapest and stayed in bed.  Have also been trying to keep away from other passengers as much as possible. Kind of a shame that I got sick on the way over to Europe, but nothing to do about it but soldier on.  I am looking forward to Budapest tomorrow, even though it won't be with Viking River Cruises.   I'll check at the concierge desk at the Radisson for a 1/2 or full day tour.

Austria - I'll Have to Come Back

Well there's no question about it, Austria is not a place you can see in just one short trip, I suppose no country is.  One day port calls work a bit better for small Caribbean islands, but when you get to countries like Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Japan,etc. well, that's like making a port call in New York and then saying you've seen the United States.

The city of Vienna is one of the most beautiful I've ever visited.  Another monument, palace, memorial, concert hall, opera house, museum, cathedral or statue everywhere you look.  Rococo mixed with baroque and classical styles.  The Lippizaner Stallions, Mozart, Strauss, the Hapsburg dynasty, Schonbrunn Palace, AND the Swarovski Crystal store (ooh ahh). The mountains we passed through on the way here were were spectacular with the fog hanging over them.  Not a bright, sunny day, but the mist coming over the mountains was compelling.


Today started with a city tour in the morning and then I went to Schonbrunn Palace this afternoon.  Of course there was another Christmas Market in the courtyard at Schonbrunn so I filmed the carolers for a little while.  Having spent the last two hours trying to get the video to upload, I'm giving up, maybe I can get it to load on FaceBook. Here's me in front of the palace - yes, it's still cold.

Did I mention the pastries in Vienna?  OMG.  Here's one I saw in a window, it was an actual TV playing inside a confectionery box.

And, of course, there's the Hotel Sacher - home of the infamous Sacher Torte.  Rumor has it that George Clooney is in town filming, wonder if he's staying there.  Nah, probably the Intercontinental.

Sorry there was no blogging yesterday.  Fever, chills, headache but thankfully it was only a 24 hour thing.  I missed seeing Melk Abbey, but due to the revised schedule of the cruise (owing to the low level of the Danube) it was a five hour excursion, mostly sitting on a bus.   I stayed in bed and drank fluids.  Next time I cruise the Danube I'll put Melk Abbey on the MUST BE SEEN list.

And there will be a next time! This has been so fabulous that I am planning a group Christmas Markets Cruise for next year (and I just know that the water level on the Danube will be back to normal - or maybe next year I'll do the Rhine ... decisions, decisions!). 

Back to the ship, and next stop is Budapest, except that the ship can't make it all the way to Budapest (low water levels again) so we'll go part of the way by bus.  We're actually going to be docking in a small town in Hungary (Komarom), from which you can walk over to Slovakia, so I may just do that as I had planned an extra day in Budapest anyway, due to flight departure times.  An unexpected chance to visit Slovakia - who would have expected it?  I'll play it by ear.

Oh you were wondering what the weird souvenir of the day was?  Some lucky family member might just get this in their Christmas stocking!  I'll just have to choose the right victim. Actually, I don't think the souvenirs I've purchased will fit in my luggage and this is giving me concerns.  Maybe a relative will be spared.

The Poor Father With Three Daughters

So once upon a time there was a poor farmer who had three daughters, but he couldn't marry them off because he had no money to give them a dowry.  Well, one Christmas Eve someone sneaked up to a window of the farmer's house and dropped off a bag of gold coins so the farmer had a dowry for his first daughter.  The farmer was overjoyed.

The next year it happened again, another bag of gold coins.  The father was elated that he could marry off his second daughter, but wondered  his who benefactor was.

The next year the farmer stayed up all night watching the window, but the secret benefactor, knowing the farmer was watching the window, climbed up to the roof top and tossed the bag of gold coins down the chimney where it landed in some stockings that had been left to dry.

So there you have it ... the foundations of another Christmas Legend.

******************

Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Regensburg was cold.  The city marks the northernmost boundaries of the Roman Empire, but by the time the Romans got this far north Roman civilization was falling apart, the emperor didn't have the money to pay his troops, (not to mention that togas don't give much protection against the cold) so the troops pretty much gave up the fort and the Barbarians they had been fighting against took over - thus creating a region known as Bavaria.  Barbarian - Bavarian ... get it?

Part of Roman Wall around the city.

Regensburg was not bombed during the war (WWII) because there was nothing here  of military significance other than an arms factory about 50 miles away.  (Most bombers are accurate within 50 miles.) The only thing that was blown up was an ancient bridge built by the Romans, and that was blown up by the Nazis to keep the American troops from advancing to Regensburg. Damn Nazis, it was a perfectly good bridge for about a fifteen hundred years.

Also went to the Thurn & Taxis Palace, which is still being used, in part, by the somethingth generation of Thurns und Taxis.  The current heir apparent is a race car driver of some accomplishment.  Inside the courtyard was, yep another Christmas Market!!  More gingerbread, ornaments, nativities, angels, etc.  This time there was a bit more handmade stuff.

The weird souvenir of the day looks like this:

haven't figured out the connection with Christmas.

Saturday at the Christmas Market

It seems like it's been a journey of a thousand steps, but I finally walked on board the Viking Prestige yesterday.  HOME - yippee!!! -  for the next week anyway.  Viking River Cruises had  to change  ships (we were supposed to be on the Viking Legend), because the water level in the Danube is unusually low and the Viking Legend has a deeper draft. I haven't heard any complaints.

So finally it was Saturday and finally I was on the ship and the main excursion was to the Christmas Market (what else?) . That was fine with me; I'd gone yesterday, but I came over here to go to the Christmas Markets didn't I? And what woman can resist shopping (again)?

We were all warned to be very careful of pickpockets.  The place was jammed.  We were tighter than pickles in a jar.  Coney Island on a weekend packed.  50 times more people than the day before.  I bought a Christmas thinga-ma-jig and then headed back to the ship's meeting point because I didn't want to fight the crowds.  I don't like Times Square or other enormous gatherings of homo-sapiens.  I need a little personal space.  Stopped in a store to buy a little embroidered patch and when I went to pay for it found that my money was gone.  Just gone.  Not there any more.  Missing. Absent.  Kaput. Vanished.

They DID warn us!  Crap.

It takes a lot of skill to get money from a snapped close pocket inside a snapped closed wallet underneath a zippered and snapped up jacket.  But they did. Turns out I was tag teamed, one guy distracted me in the middle of buying the whatchamacallit, while the other went in for the money. 

So this morning was spent at the police station with a translator filing a report.  I think (read hope, pray, am wishful that) this is covered by my travel insurance, but we'll find that out later.  Nonetheless I filed the report and the lieutenant was cute and very tall, with good posture.  They usually charge you 10 euros to file a complaint but he didn't charge me.  Very cute.  Nice eyes too.  But according to my translator he had a terrible Nuremberg accent.

In the event you believe that this trip is entirely about shopping you are wrong.  We took a tour of Nuremberg today, saw the parade grounds where Hitler rallied his troops, found out why he chose Nuremberg for this and learned a little bit about the architecture of the Nazi regime.  We also visited the old fortress (nobody ever goes  to go to an old city without visiting it's fortress, I mean, without fortresses, castles and cathedrals why would people go to Europe?  I promise, it's not for the weather).  We also learned the reason the road into the fortress bent to the left (because most invading armies were right handed and used that hand for their swords, leaving their right sides unprotected from arrows).  Clever.

Despite being pick-pocketed I did find a weird souvenir of the day for you.  I don't usually equate Albert Einstein with Christmas ornaments, but to each his own.

Tomorrow I might tell you the story about the poor father who didn't have dowry money to marry off his daughters. Yes, this is a Christmas story.

Night!

Nuremberg

Here in Nuremberg the streets all have funny names and the maps don't seem to have anything to do with the street signs.  I eventually found my way from the hotel to the Christmas Market by stopping lots of Germans who spoke a little bit of English. I think the "20 minute walk " I was told it would take by the concierge took closer to an hour. Holding up a map up with the Christmas Market circled helped when stopping strangers for directions.    Having gotten myself there, mostly by people pointing me in the approximate direction, it was fun to see all the millions of Christmas ornaments.  I'm a little skeptical that they are all made in Germany, and suspect that at least a few had the "Made in China" label removed.  Still, the hustle and bustle, the gingerbread, the sparkle, the history of the Angel (in Germany an angel gives out the gifts, not a fat man in a red suit) it's remarkable and cheerful.

Then it was time to go back, and suddenly I realized I had not planned for this.  How to get back?  I didn't even remember the name of the hotel I was in, much less the street (or platz or whatever) it was on, so I couldn't stop a cabdriver and say take me to the mid-grade hotel with the glass front door.  It was just another hotel, there are hundreds of them.  Dilemma.  Could I reverse the route that I hadn't been able to follow to get me to the Christmas Market  in the first place?  It was my only option.  I won't say there weren't some wrong turns along the way, but damn was I happy when that lobby came in to view.  I've had quite a nice long walk today, thank you.

Has anyone seen the little, black cord that says Kodak right at the very end near the plug?  I really need it.  I hate searching for it over and over again, when all I seem to find is my reindeer socks.  It was supposed to be in the plastic bag with the camera.

May have to use my cell phone as camera.

Yesterday's weird souvenir of the day was golf balls: happy face golf balls, American flag golf balls, 8 ball golf balls,  football golf balls, soccer ball golf balls.  No I did not buy any, but if you want them they're available at the Jacksonville airport. 

Getting There

The adventure begins! As we all know, getting there is no longer half the fun.  It’s exhausting, bad for your skin, dries out your eyes and nine times out of ten you’re going to get a crick in your neck.  The food is , well airplane food – ‘nough said.  Your hair will feel stringy and all you’ll want is a shower and a bed when you land.  Added to that I developed a minor intestinal disorder that would have made the transatlantic flight hellish if  couldn’t find a doctor.  Thank God I had a five hour layover in Philadelphia  (which I had previously dreaded) and there was a minute clinic close to the airport.  The taxi driver to the clinic yelled at me for giving him such  short fare (“I waited in the taxi line for three hours for a lousy $10 fare?!)  Welcome to the city of brotherly love.  I’m not sure what he thought my options were, and I did give him a $4 tip, although I should have thrown it at him or given it to him in pennies.

Anyway, got to the Doctor (minute clinic is more like an hour and a half clinic), got prescriptions and was directed to a local CVS “within walking distance”.  That is if you set out in the right direction, which I didn’t.  Half a mile down the thoroughfare (lugging all my bags ) I asked a DHL driver coming out of a DHL building if this was the right  way, he said “No you’ll have to go back the way you came and take a left at the corner.”  (Oh crap.) Off he went … but miracle of miracles, he did a U-turn, came back, and offered me a ride to the drugstore.  I know, never take a ride from a stranger, but he was a DHL employee, I'd seen him come out of the building, I needed to get the prescriptions filled and somehow get back to the airport.  I scanned the back seat for rope, duct tape, garbage bags, meat cleavers and chainsaws, saw that there were handles on the insides of the doors, and gratefully hopped in.  Well Chris drove me to the drugstore, waited for me (no meter running), and then gave me a ride to the airport.  Who would have dreamt it? He wouldn't let me pay him.  I owe Chris a debt of gratitude and will pay his kindness forward.  I did buy him a BIG bag of M&M’s and a bottle of water.

Another piece of good luck – I had a row on the airplane all to myself – three across!  You know how you get to your seat and give the evil eye to anyone boarding after you to keep them from sitting in YOUR row.  Almost never works, but this time it did!  So after some warmish pasta I actually slept on the plane.  The Zurich airport is very confusing.  Several of us passengers needed  to get to Gate A, there was a sign that said Gate A to the right and another sign across from it that said Gate A to the left..  Doesn’t leave you many choices. 

Can’t hook up my camera to my computer yet because the cord is in my cabin and passengers are not allowed in their cabins until 3:00 PM.  So not photos for now, but tomorrow should have several.