LOUIS AURA (ex-ORIENT QUEEN) Part 5

Wednesday 18th September 2013
We were on the Bridge early this morning ready for arrival in Rhodes.

Here we are in Rhodes

Just ahead of us

It was another hot day and there was time for deck breakfast before we set off for the Port Gate for 8.30 a.m. We are booked on a Land Rover Safari Tour for the day, which sounded good fun. Their website promised an exciting itinerary and that is what it proved to be. Our driver collected 4 more people locally and we headed south to Cape Prasonisi first, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean. It was amazing to see the landscape and the windsurfers enjoying their sport – a lovely place for a coffee break and walk.

The Aegean meets the Mediterranean

Save Prasonisi

Drying Octopus

Next it was back in the Land Rover to head up the south western coastline, which included many miles of off-road driving – an uncomfortable ride at such a speed, but the end result was Margaritaville. This was a unique castaway style of bar set amongst 26 miles of deserted beach. We could relax, beach-comb, write the date in the sand and enjoy a wonderful beach picnic under the shade of the beach hut.

Margaritaville

The sea

Bottle tree

Shoe Tree

Then it was on to the village of Siana, to sample the locally made honey. We could also try the local ‘firewater’ called Suma, which proved memorable!

Village church

The interior was unexpected

After another dirt-track and road journey we were glad to arrive in the Embona wine region, to visit a distillery, which again proved fascinating. The samples were generous and ensured many sales in the family-owned winery.

The route up to Embona

Grapes for Suma

Fermentation

Some of the workings

Then it was down to sea level and around the Rhodes island coastline back to our port, after the exciting day that had been promised.

Blue Horizon was just leaving

On the walk back to the ship from the port gate I could see a familiar sight: ORIENT QUEEN II. She was previously the VISTAMAR, which I sailed on in 2011 from Bergen south to Cuxhaven, and really enjoyed, so I walked across the quayside for another look. I was able to go to Reception and have a chat with someone there, who had previously worked on LOUIS AURA ex-ORIENT QUEEN, but I was not allowed to go and visit the Music Salon again for security reasons of course. I was given a couple of brochures for Abou Merhi Cruises, as Mr Merhi now owns this second ORIENT QUEEN; he had chartered and then sold our ORIENT QUEEN to Louis Cruises, but apparently liked the name and used it again on the VISTAMAR after he acquired that.

Orient Queen II

Marmaris Express about to leave, with the Pilot disembarking after just 2 minutes!

Back on board we could watch LOUIS OLYMPIA sail, and then go and prepare for Gala Night on board our LOUIS AURA.

Louis Olympia leaving Rhodes port

Orient Queen II

Panagia Skiadeni

Gala Night preparations up on Venus Decks 1 and 2

Wearing our Gala Night attire on the Bridge seemed a bit unusual but the Captain was doing the same, ready for his Captain’s Cocktail party. We left Rhodes and enjoyed the departure, then went below to prepare for the evening ahead.

We queued with many other passengers for the ‘Meet the Captain for a photo’ and then continued into the Stars Show Lounge for the Captain’s official Introduction to his senior Officers and Department Heads.

Louis Aura Gala Night

This was followed by another wonderful dinner in the Mermaid Restaurant with numerous courses of delicious Greek food.

Ships seen: Blue Horizon, Orient Queen II, Marmaris Express (with the 2-minute Pilot), Panagia Skiadeni of Dodekanisos Seaways


To be continued....

Island Escape 3rd April 2012, Part 3

Tuesday 3rd April 2012
Today is ISLAND ESCAPE day, hooray, and the reason for coming to Palma. I am booked on a 7 night cruise – Spirit of the Mediterranean – her first cruise of the season after her winter lay-up in Cadiz. I took the local bus to the cruise terminal area, crossed the road, and entered one of the terminal buildings. I had been here a couple of times before so passed the Acciona ferries desks, went up the escalator and the man at the overhead walkway looked at my passport and ticket and waved me along. I was about to board the ship at the overhead gangway when the security man realised I had no boarding card. Apparently I shouldn’t have been able to get that far without the vital boarding card, so I was guided to the ship’s Reception desk to explain how I had got there, and was finally issued with a boarding card. Well, at last I knew my cabin number. I never did find out where the cruise ship terminal check-in part of the building was, but it certainly wasn’t obvious… Most passengers were on the fly-cruise holiday, so had arrived from the airport by coach, and were delivered into the Terminal buildings, but I was one of very few passengers who were booked for a ‘cruise only’.

My cabin 5855 was an inside for single use, with another berth up out of sight. It was cold and had a duvet, pillows and towel on the bed, just like a ferry. Oh, I forgot, this ship started life as a ferry thirty years ago. This trip was to be casual cruising, on a fascinating ship, and promised to be most enjoyable.

My cabin 5885

Atrium art work

Island Escape's funnel

The cool pool

ISLAND ESCAPE was built in 1982 for the Danish Company DFDS’s Scandinavian World Cruises, as a car cruise ferry from New York to Florida and back, and named SCANDINAVIA, at 26,748 tons. For those passengers who wanted to go to the Bahamas, they then had to transfer to smaller ‘feeder’ ships from Florida to their destination. Inevitably this caused delays and problems and soon DFDS moved the ship to their Copenhagen-Oslo service in December 1983, although this lasted only until January 1985. She was then sold on to Sundance Cruises as STARDANCER, until January 1990, when she was sold on to the Admiral Cruises group which in turn was absorbed into the Royal Caribbean group, and rebuilt as VIKING SERENADE as a true cruise ship. Finally, in early 2002 she was transferred to the newly created Island Cruises, which was set up by Royal Caribbean with the British company First Choice, and renamed ISLAND ESCAPE, and this was the ship that I joined.

At 40,132 gross tons, she can carry 1740 passengers in 771 cabins, with 10 passenger decks. Aqua and Bronze decks have cabins, with Coral Deck having the Guest Relations desk and open atrium area. Beside this is the entrance to the speciality Oasis Restaurant, offering dinner at £14.99 per person, with waiter service.

Oasis Restaurant light fitting

Oasis Restaurant

Diamond deck above has The Island Restaurant aft for casual dining, and more cabins, and Emerald deck above has The Ocean Theatre, Casino, Arcade (slot machines) and Sundowner pub, plus cabins. Flamingo deck 8 has the Café Brasil aft, a small Library, the Bounty Lounge and an off-set dance or entertainment area, with more cabins forward. Sun deck 10 aft has the Beachcomber buffet restaurant, which proved very popular, plus the open deck with pools, bars, and raised walkway above it. Above again is The Lookout, with its almost circular aspect, bar and small dance floor.

Reception

Casual cruising began with casual lunch, where we noticed lots of pork dishes on the menu, with a varied choice of starters, mains and desserts. The coffee was flavourless, but Café Brasil provided the answer for this, although at an extra cost. That evening casual dining continued in the main Island Restaurant, with the buffet food supplemented by waiter service for water and other non-alcoholic or alcoholic drinks. Because I had booked this cruise early, I had been given a free-drinks package. Departure from Palma was at 11 p.m. so we were all on deck for music and singing.

A ferry-style Ladies Toilet

Ships seen: Island Escape, Costa Romantica, Baleares’ Abel Matutes, Baleares’ Visimar One, yacht carrier Artisgracht.

Wednesday 4th April 2012
Today we have a lovely calm day at sea, so time to explore the ship, enjoy the casual lunch (more pork dishes) , the Captain’s Chat in the Theatre with the Cruise Director, tea at 4 p.m., and to watch the ‘Biggest Splasher’ competition in the pool – rather them than me, as the water looked extremely cold. A Boat-Building competition was launched (their pun intended) beside the pool, to make something capable of carrying a 6 pack of canned drinks, from things found on the ship. Children had face painting to enjoy, and a yellow-breasted little bird flew around and above the ship, and I took a photo of him on the deck beside my steamer chair; such are the pleasures of being at sea.

Watch the birdie...

That evening we found on Deck 9 forward stairs an interesting display of items, plus a John Maxtone-Graham diagram from one of his books, which included ARANDORA STAR, VISTAMAR and other interesting ships. The sea outside the ship was like a millpond.

Ships seen: M N Colibri

Thursday 5th April 2012
It was still very cold in my cabin, as the thermostat didn’t appear to be working and was permanently set at cold, but I obtained a second duvet eventually so all was cosy. I remembered some things from the Captain’s chat: that we were using only one of the ship’s two screws, going at an economic 17-18 knots, as we use about two tons of fuel an hour, and at $800 per heavy ton, this is important with an annual fuel bill of $2 million.

Mega Express and Girolata

Today we called at Ajaccio, in sunny and warm weather, which was ideal for coffee on the waterside, followed by steamer chairs on deck for a lot of the day in port. Tea was enjoyed against a background of ballroom dancing music in the Bounty Lounge. We are now traversing the Straits of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia, and doing a comfortable 17.5 knots.

Island Escape

Old names

Island Cruises logo

Newly installed balconies - not to my taste at all

Ichnusa, built in 1986

Paglia Orba heading into the sunset

Dinner was enjoyable, with more ferry reminders in the shape of pork meatballs, and dining companions who had lived in Cape Town for many years, travelling there on ATHLONE CASTLE, EDINBURGH CASTLE and PENDENNIS CASTLE, so we had moments of nostalgia for Union-Castle Line and their lavender-hulled ships. The couple had recently returned from a 30 day cruise on MARCO POLO.

Ships seen: Mega Express, Girolata, Paglia Orba, Saremar’s Ichnusa


To be continued...

Summer 2011 Part 9

VISTAMAR - Day at sea

Thursday 14th July
We have a day at sea, sailing south towards Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the River Elbe. Early morning tea and coffee was available each day but we took meals in the Restaurant at our assigned table, and after breakfast today we had to prepare for Lifeboat Drill at 10 a.m. Every passenger had to stand outside his or her cabin wearing a life jacket, and then wait to be taken to muster stations outside on the deck. There was a roll-call of names and cabin numbers, the usual instruction of what to do in the case of emergency, and then we were dismissed.

4 Deck atrium

Small but perfectly formed

Lots of greenery throughout the ship

Lifting the spirits?

We didn’t want to be involved in the Keep Fit so-called entertainment so decided to investigate the free beer and music (the 4 piece Convoy Band again) to be held out on the Lido Deck by the pool. By this time the weather was deteriorating, as we were heading into the stretch of water between Norway and Denmark (the Skagerrak), and it was windy and cool. The flapping flags above the deck were rigid with the strength of the wind, and the ship was moving a lot, so even the band decided to move inside. Some hardy souls continued to enjoy their drinks out on deck, but it wasn’t comfortable so having filled our lungs with just enough fresh air, we went inside too. I was ill for a few minutes (what a nuisance) but recovered in time to walk into lunch.

Restaurant lunch was very poorly attended, and there were sympathetic looks and remarks from the staff. I took to my bed and had a wonderful deep sleep and met my chums for Afternoon Tea. We had all missed Playing Darts and Shuffleboard but felt better for a rest. As forecast, the ship’s motion lessened; there was still a swell but no visibility.

Hospital waiting area

Card room

Afternoon Tea in the Musiksalon was really well attended so obviously everyone had managed to get back on their feet again ready to enjoy more wonderful cakes and pastries – the Feasting part of the trip continues. The Boutique staff brought some of their goods for sale into the Musiksalon where we were all queuing for dainty food, so I bought a reminder of the fact that VISTAMAR is registered in Venezia – a small item of Murano glass that couldn’t be ignored. Postcards, key rings and photographs of the passengers were on sale in the Reception Foyer at the foot of the atrium, so it felt as if the ship had come alive again with so many people around.

Reception

The next Entertainment started soon after tea, which was a Lecture about the North Sea with slide pictures. The language difference didn’t seem to make a problem as we listened and saw pictures and graphs about tides, sea beds, birds, animals, the coastlines, weather and currents. It was all very interesting until the moment we were instructed about the life cycle of the Danish worm that lives on their beaches. That became so detailed and rather horrifying because of what it eats and produces, that we vowed never to go barefoot on a Danish beach, ever.

Captain Antonio Mattera had invited all passengers to a Cocktail Party so it was posh frock for me and smart gear for everyone as we sat with a glass of fizz in hand in the Musiksalon as the Cruise Director introduced the Captain, who made a speech and in turn introduced his senior Officers. Fifteen minutes later everyone was heading down to the Restaurant for Gala Dinner, in a very happy and jolly atmosphere.

Gala dinner

Gala dinner

The food was enjoyable and then, just before dessert was served, the lights were turned out. Music started, napkins were waved, and yes, the waiters walked in with cakes and fireworks blazing. The catering staff appeared and were introduced en masse to great applause, and then they all went back to work, the lights were turned up and we were served with Baked Alaska. It may have been rather predictable, but there’s nothing wrong with that on some occasions.

Music was provided back in the Musiksalon and then it was Show Time again, with international songs and Anton of the Tyrol appearing with other singers. Later there was music for dancing, Snacks were served to everyone sitting in and around the room, and there was a chance to see a Cabaret Show up in the Veranda Club.

One of the suites

Another view of a suite

Keeping tabs on the passengers

We went for a walk out on the damp decks,


Caring for passengers...

and found out that our speed today had been between 10 and 12 knots. At 7,500 tons this is a small ship and vulnerable to low pressure weather fronts (again/still) as well as sea conditions. Earlier we had been told about future cruises and itineraries for VISTAMAR and how she was going on a wonderful trip across to South America leaving just before Christmas, but I can’t quite see the appeal of this small vessel going across the Atlantic from Tenerife .

I really like this ship and the way she is run and I would certainly consider sailing on her in warmer waters, perhaps on one of her short Mediterranean or Aegean port-intensive cruises. This ship VISTAMAR has an original style and I certainly enjoyed my short cruise on her.

Tomorrow we are due to arrive early in Cuxhaven and then go to Heligoland, so that promises to be interesting.


Ships seen: none

To be continued…