Quinn’s Brain, aka QBrain

These comments were written for my TA, so they are very focused on the service side of the the hotels and cruise. This is probably not of general interest.

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore

We were very happy with the Ritz overall and I think we made use of more of the hotel services than we normally do when we stay at a hotel.

My wife is really picky about her pillow, and her taste in pillows might actually be unique. She wants a pillow that is almost flat, but she doesn’t want to sleep without a pillow. She travels with a pillow, but the travel pillow we brought ended up not being good enough. We requested a slim pillow and the butler arrived with a thick foam pillow. After explaining what we wanted to him directly, he came back with a child’s down pillow (I assume), which worked great. Odd request satisfied.

We ate in the restaurant 3 times, and although they have an interesting idea of what an omelet is, the food was very good. Considering the humidity in Singapore, I was impressed with the pastries on the buffet. There was a problem with the service in the dining room between regular lunch and dinner. We were eating lunch around 3pm as were two gentlemen from Australia, and for about 15 minutes service completely stopped while all the service staff were at the back of the restaurant having a meeting. Eventually one of the Australians got up and fetched someone to close his bill because he could catch anyone’s, other then me, attention. Service at breakfast depended on seating location. Sitting in a high traffic area meant a full cup of coffee always, while sitting on the outskirts of the room might be a repeatedly empty cup. Overall the food was good and the service was hit or miss.

We also ordered room service, which can be a challenge with gluten free restrictions. I placed an order with a fair number of changes from what the room service menu specified, and everything came up as ordered without error.

I do not think the staff at the Ritz Singapore quite get service. They are trying really hard to provide good service, but they lack the leadership and experienced staff to set the example of what that is. I was never worried that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted, but it seemed like almost every staff interaction, the staff fumbled around trying to provide the service. Nothing was simple and effortless when dealing with the doormen, reception or the random staff in the halls.

Two simple examples. First, when walking down through the lobby, there are six staff members and three ask about my day, in series, about 10 feet apart from each other, as I walked by. I laughed at the third as I had just repeated myself once. Second, I was going to get on the elevator and one of the staff gets in my way trying to hold the elevator door for me (actually happened a couple of times). I don’t remember the details of the check in, but I do remember that I wondered if we were ever going to get to go to sleep.

One example really frustrated me. Brook was suffering from exhaustion having gotten little sleep since starting the trip. So the goal was to get her from the Ritz to the ship (aka bed to bed) ASAP. I went downstairs and checked out, but I needed to keep my keys so I asked if I should leave the keys in the room or bring them back to the desk. This actually took a while to explain, but I wasn’t offered a standard procedure, which surprised me. She wanted me to drop the keys off at the desk, no problem. I went upstairs, gathered up Brook, and the plan was that she would drop off the keys while I got a cab to the cruise center. As I got off the elevator with Brook, we were intercepted by a doorman, who was happy to take our bags but once I told him we wanted to go to the cruise center at the harbor front, he completely stopped. He double checked about 5 times what I told him and I finally gave up and told Brook to go with him and get a taxi I would drop off the keys. I go to drop off the keys, explain to the girl that I have already checked out and was told to drop off the keys, she is baffled. The girl who processed my check out originally frees up and takes my keys, so the problem was solved.

All minor things that were comically except for the checkout experience.

This is an awful lot of detail about some very minor issues and we would happy stay at the Ritz Singapore again.

InterContinental Hong Kong

I was impressed with everything about this hotel. If I have a complaint it is that I didn’t stay another day. The service was flawless, smoother than Seabourn even. The room was very nice and surprising large considering we were in Hong Kong. The view was very impressive. Not that we had time to take advantage of it, but the location looks great for shopping as well as easy access to the ferry for heading into central. We very much want to return to Hong Kong and stay here.

Seabourn

Seabourn was a joy. We have taken 1 Royal Caribbean and 4 Princess cruises, all 7 days and usually about day 5 I am bored and ready to go back to work. For some reason I was never bored on the Pride, and I really didn’t DO anything.

We definitely made use of the dining services and ate in the dining room for every meal we could. Dining with Brook is usually a chore because of the need to research the restaurant before hand and go over the menu with a waiter who may or may not care once we get to the restaurant, and then hope for the best that flour doesn’t accidentally get dumped in an otherwise gluten free dish. Brook NEVER got sick the entire trip. I am amazed and you have no idea how hard it to go 2 weeks cooking at home without some form of cross contamination happening. Early in the cruise, we asked for table 38 because we liked Imre (waiter), who would just stop by and go over the entire menu telling Brook what she could have off the menu, what needed to be modified and how it could be modified, and what there really was no hope for. The kitchen had gluten free bread for Brook which Damir (assistant) thought to have lightly toasted for serving with dinner. I am a bit of a foodie and there were a few dishes that I was so impressed I couldn’t believe I ate it, let alone on a ship. There was a potato crisp served with the first lunch where I am still shocked that a potato crisp had that much flavor in it. Brook’s favorite dessert of all time was a half dozen fruit sorbets at Alan Wong’s in Honolulu, and that is the dessert that she judges all desserts against. The mango sorbet (she tried most of the sorbets on the ship) was deemed Alan worthy and was the only dessert she ordered more than once.

The staff was overall impressive. It is obvious that a lot of the staff are new, but the redundancy in how the dining room is managed means that the worst the passenger experiences is pepper being cracked from the wrong side of the plate. Watching the interplay of the staff in the dining room was very interesting.

I was frequently asked about how I like being the youngest on the cruise and I did point out that there was an 18mo on the cruise. The biggest difference between us and the other couples on the ship is that we are not at a point in our lives where taking two weeks to cruise in Asia is easy. I am sure the average age on the 7 day cruises are much lower than the 14+ day cruises for this reason. Being the youngest cruiser actually was not very noticeable to me.

As for the facilities on the ship, everything was quite adequate. The suite was an impressive use of space, there was plenty of storage and the shower was good sized. The gym only seemed to be crowded in the morning and then was empty for the rest of the day and had enough equipment to keep me entertained for an hour or two the days were doing something in port.

The one negative was the wireless access to the internet. The wireless did not work in the staterooms the entire trip. The computer guy came down to my stateroom to try to get my laptop to work the first day at sea and could not even after trying his own wireless card. He said he would give me a call and let me know what he figured out, but I got no call. Later, someone told me that the wireless wasn’t working anywhere but in the business center, and when I took my laptop to the business center, it connected fine. I left the computer guy another message with reception about the problem. No response and I was never able to connect to the wireless from the stateroom the rest of the cruise, but if I took my laptop down to the business center, it would work fine. The other problem was that it always seemed like two of the four computers in the business center weren’t working.

We have no idea about the nightlife on the Pride. We were always up for early breakfast, but never caught a show or had after dinner drinks. I don’t feel like we missed anything.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: General | Leave a comment

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper -copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

The car met us at the hotel at 5:45am, which meant we got up around 4am. Nothing like starting a long day short of sleep. The car was waiting for us when we went down to the lobby. I was quickly met by a doorman for my bags, which I promptly handed over so he could load them in the car, and I was met at the front desk with “Mr. Quinn, how was your stay?” before I said anything to her or handed over my keys. I am not sure how she pulled that off, I can think of a number of ways to do it, but it is a very nice touch. Checkout was painless and we hopped into the car for a long drive to the airport. It was early enough that there was no traffic, so we arrived at the airport quite early.

We head to Cathay’s First/Business Class check in line, and there are 4 guys in yellow vests and a Cathay rep. The rep asked if we were flying business and we said yes, but the yellow vest guys didn’t hear, or didn’t understand, so we were blocked. They quickly looked over to her and she nodded to let us in and we were the only people using the First/Business check in area. The rep had some trouble printing our boarding pass for the LAX-DFW flight and had to go to another computer to get it to print, but we walked away with 3 boarding passes and a lounge invite to Cathy’s First class lounge each. I was very excited to see Cathay’s first class lounge.

Security was yet again a breeze at Hong Kong, but it took like 25 minutes to walk from checkin, ride the train, and finally find The Pier First Class entrance. We had breakfast (buffet) in The Heaven, which was great for me, but the eggs were in a hollowed out roll, so Brook could only eat fruit. The coffee was AMAZING. After a quick breakfast, we hung out in the lounge and watched some swimming on TV. I actually got to watch Senior Circuit coverage from the Austin meet in Hong Kong when I don’t think that coverage is broadcast in the US. The bathrooms were individual rooms with their own toilet and sink in side the restroom. Didn’t ask to see one of the shower rooms. Overall, the First class lounge is very nice.

Hong Kong to Tokyo is a regional flight, so there are only two classes of service. The seat is very much like American’s domestic first class seat, but the seat is cloth instead of leather. I prefer Cathay’s seat over American’s, but Brook prefers American’s. No idea why either of us have much of a preference, so more research must be required.

The service on this flight was much smoother than the Hong Kong Singapore flight and the food was better. Even though the flight left at 9:45 it was a lunch service. I went with the Chinese option, and while I don’t remember what exactly it was, I do remember that I enjoyed it and ate most of it. All 3 of my previous meals on Cathay, the main was barely touched it was so bad. Based on my experience from the flight over, I knew I would feel better if I passed on the wine for the most part and focused on staying hydrated. I drank lots of water as well as a couple cans of coke on this flight.

Our connection in Tokyo was tight and I let my wife know that I really wanted to go through immigration before going to the bathroom. We would be among the first off the flight, and if we headed straight to immigration we would have a short wait, but if she insisted that we stop at the restroom first, we would be behind everyone in coach. She agreed and were through immigration in about 30 seconds with no line. Security was similar and we were in Tokyo airport proper!

Boy, what a let down. Hong Kong has big beautiful open spaces. Narita is crammed into as little space as possible, both vertically and horizontally. We head to the gate to make sure we know how to get there and how long it will take, before looking for the lounge. Brook was looking for some Japanese makeup and stopped in a couple duty free stores not finding what she was looking for before we headed back to the lounge. Now heading to the lounge required getting back on the tram, and Brook made sure I was aware that she was not happy we were getting back on the tram and I was an idiot. (Brook edit: this is because the tram is a slow, rinky dink affair that was so not the high tech tram I had expected out of Tokyo – I was feeling quite let down) So we are looking for the lounge after our glorious tram ride, and there is another duty free shop. She stops in and they have some of the stuff she was looking for. She is very excited to have this cool new makeup that can’t be bought in the US, but I am still and idiot. At least she isn’t grimacing anymore. I find the lounge and the first thing she says is, “If you would have told me we were looking for the Japan lounge, I would have told you there was one on the other side.” So I ask her if she means a Sakura lounge or a First lounge?

Brook didn’t note the difference between the first class lounge and the business class lounge but she is in full on IamInAnAirportCranky mode (Brook edit: he is a bit oversensitive to this IMO). We are not leaving Narita before I play with the automated beer pouring machine in the JAL First lounge!

Back to the story. I don’t want to argue, I start looking for the lounge entrance again. Found it. We walk up to the Sakura desk and are quickly told that we have access to the First lounge and she will escort us to the First check in, which is almost 10 steps away. The First reps quickly admit us and let us know that there are no announcements. There is only about 25 minutes until boarding starts, so I drink a coke, drink some water and since no one else has used the automated beer pouring machine for my entertainment, I have a beer. The automated beer pouring machine was worth riding the tram 3 times.

It is time to head back, and luck would have it, the tram is waiting for us as we come down the escalator. The reason this tram sucks so bad is that you can see it out the window and it is SLOW to move, slow to open the doors and slow to close the doors. If you couldn’t see how slow it was, it wouldn’t be bad at all, because the max wait for a tram is about 5 minutes. A couple of moving walkways would replace the tram, but I think something in the Japanese psyche requires autonomous over practical.

We get to the gate and of course they aren’t boarding! Plane is there, crew is there, passengers are there and American has cranial rectal inversion as usual. American frustrates me because they can’t seem to do anything on time and their staff is apathetic.

The flight starts boarding about 20 minutes late, and I have the new Flagship first class seat to play with. The first thing that shocks me is the complete lack of privacy in a new first class seat. I don’t care much about the IFE (Infight entertainment), but it seems like the same one that Cathay uses for regional business which I think is a 4″ LCD from 1997. Oh well, the lounge was cool.

Now someone comes around pseudo introduces themselves. I have heard nothing but Mr. Quinn for the last 18 days, and now some guy comes by and says “Michael? Hi, I am going to be taking really good care of you on the flight today.” Friendly enough guy, almost seemed like he cared about his job, but I wish he would have done a better job introducing himself.

American is being judged compared to Cathay Pacific and Seabourn, but American doesn’t even know they are in a service industry, so it isn’t really fair.

Let’s compare the Cathay international business seat to American’s international first seat. Most people will disagree with me, but I like Cathay’s business seat better. If you are claustrophobic, American’s seat is going to be better for you, but if you want privacy and a nice IFE, Cathay business is the way to go. With the arms up on the American seat in bed mode I thought was tighter than the Cathay business seat. With the arms down, the bed is still not wide enough to keep your arms from falling off the bed, and at 6′2″ 170lbs I am not a wide guy. I did like that there was more space under the ottoman so my backpack didn’t have to go in the overhead and that the seat was very easy to exit at all times if you wanted to get up. I don’t hate the American seat at all, I was just disappointed that the “first class” seat wasn’t leaps and bounds ahead of a business seat.

After the milquetoast introduction the guy did really take good care of us. He told us all about how the chair worked without making us feel like idiots, managed the services well and took care of things in the background as they were needed. The food was probably the best airplane food I have had. The wine sucked, but that worked out to my benefit since I wanted to focus on staying hydrated.

I can’t say I got a good sleep on the plane, but all in all, the flight went very well and I did get some rest.

Our LA Dallas flight is a good 5 hours after our Tokyo flight, but there is an earlier 757 with space in first that we want to run and try to make. So we race off the plane from terminal 4 to the international terminal (whose idea was it to land an international flight at terminal 4?) through immigration (no line since we were first off the plane), through security (luckily a short line) and down terminal 4 looking for a DFW flight with space. Strangely, after racing around, we couldn’t find the 757 flight. We head up to the Flagship Lounge, where we are stopped by one of the Admiral’s club reps to interrogate us for a good 10 minutes about why we would buy a Zuca before finally getting into the Flagship Lounge and talking to a flippant AAngel. She was making fun of people coming in after us, but in full speaking volume. Very unprofessional for someone working in the first class lounge. She checks and says that we would have to standby at the gate, but everything is full. This baffles me, as I know that 757 had 7 open seats in First yesterday. Once a computer opens up, I check expertflyer to see what is going on, and there has been a hardware change. The 757 has been replaced with a MD80, thus 50 seats just disappeared. No wonder everything is now oversold by a lot (I saw 38 standbys for coach on one flight).

The Flagship Lounge, not impressed. The Flagship is supposed to be a step up from the Admirals Club, and the lounge itself is not nearly as nice as the Admirals Club in Terminal D at DFW. Now if I would have gone across the hall to the Admirals Club at LAX, it probably is a better space and it does have free drinks.

Other than feeling a little crowded until the Narita flight left along with most of the people waiting in the lounge when we arrived, it wasn’t a bad place to spend 5 hours in an airport. I grabbed a nice shower. The restrooms left something to be desired space wise. Two urinals and one stall in the men’s room is pretty small given that the lounge is a first class lounge and as crowded as the lounge was when I first got there. The lounge experience itself was not bad, just not first class.

I really don’t like how American manages delays. I am in the lounge and I keep checking the gate that we are leaving from. On time, gate 42A. From the Flagship Lounge, 42A sits right in front of the window, and I keep looking at the plane thinking it looks awfully small for a 757, but the right size for a 737 and it has been sitting there for a LONG time for a flight that hasn’t started boarding. The plane pulls away from the gate about 10 minutes before boarding is supposed to start and I freak out thinking that I have my watch set wrong. Check a lounge computer and I see my time is good, and boarding is still set for that gate. I go down to the gate at the “you must be at the gate at this time or risk being left behind” which on Cathay means the plane is half boarded, but with American… We get down to the gate, wrong gate. Find the right get, 20 minute delay. The plane arrives 20 minutes after boarding was supposed to start, so this 20 minute delay is how they say an hour. American manages an hour and 10 minute turn and we leave an hour late. I am tired and cranky at this point and have very low expectations for the quality of this flight crew.

The flight crew met my expectations. I now have no more expectations sitting up front than I do sitting in the back. No beverage offered before take off, not that I care, but it is an example of the crew shirking duties. First is full up, and the pilot is trying to make up time, so I expect service to be hectic. It wasn’t, they just cut corners. Towels, drinks from a cart coach style (one in the front working two rows, one in the back working the next two rows), meal from the cart coach style, done. And I mean done. The flight attendants chatted up front until the very last minute to the point I didn’t think the first cabin would be cleared of glassware before we landed. They cleared the cabin with about a minute to spare. Totally disappointed in this crew, they totally didn’t give a shit about the service side of their job. American should consider installing vending machines on their planes as it would set appropriate expectations for service.

The captain did a good job. We hit the gate about 35 minutes late. I can’t ask for much more than cutting a 2.5 hour flight down by 25 minutes making the trip in record time for us.

Back to reality.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

We booked a private tour and the tour guide, Michael, met us at the ship with Sunny our driver. This was our first private tour and it is really the way to go. The plan was to tour from 9:30 to 5pm. We moved pretty fast through what was planned and we were exhausted from not getting any sleep the night before due to the rough seas, so we wrapped up at 3pm and headed to the hotel.

From the ship we headed to the dry markets. The dry markets contained all kinds of dried goods, the main focus seemed to be on dried seafood. I like a lot of strange things but I don’t get dried seafood. Apparently the Chinese do because there are tons of stores dedicated to selling dried everything.

Next stop was a temple. I am burnt out on temples, but we got a good explanation of the bazillion gods that are worshiped, incense burning, prayer sticks, etc.

Moving on to the wet market. The wet market was not what I thought it was. I thought it was the seafood market, and it is, but the wet market is anything that isn’t dried. So there is fresh meat of all kinds, fruits and vegetables and tanks of fish. I didn’t have any Hong Kong dollars on me, or I probably would have tried durian finally. Oh well. Very interesting to see everyone shopping for dinner.

The weather was supposed to be stormy, but it turns out they were completely wrong and we had blue skies in the mid 70s, so up to Victoria Peak we went to look down on the city. Victoria Peak had a mall (or two) in addition to the normal look out type paths that you would expect. On the way back down, we pulled off the side of the road to see one of two horse racing tracks. Horse racing is very popular in Hong Kong because the Chinese love to gamble

We head to Aberdeen for a sampan tour and we were supposed to eat lunch at Jumbo. We took our tour and took pictures in front of Jumbo, but decided to go somewhere else since the main part of Jumbo was closed for renovations. Instead we head over to Repluse Bay to have lunch at Spices. You might have guessed from the name, but we went all the way to Hong Kong and had Indian food. It was good, but the choice was made because it is so difficult for Brook to eat Chinese and they really have no idea about Celiacs in Hong Kong yet.

The beaches in the Repluse Bay area are very nice, but Michael pointed out that a lot of people in Hong Kong don’t know how to swim as parents have been telling kids that they are not old enough to swim until after they are 18!

Michael had recommended that we also stop by Stanley Market, even through it was not included on our itinerary, but Brook was about to fall asleep, so we called it quits and headed back to the hotel. From Repluse Bay to the InterContinential was a little less than an hour, so we really didn’t have that much more time that we were scheduled to tour anyway.

I am really glad we did this. It might not seem like we saw much, but most of the value in the tour was chatting with Michael about Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is visually stunning if you appreciate cityscapes, and the InterContinental sits right on Victoria Harbor in Kowloon looking out at down town Hong Kong. The view was worth every penny and the excellent service and great room were just bonuses. There is a laser light show every night at 8pm between Hong Kong and Kowloon that lasts about 12 minutes, so we wanted to stay up for that. For the most part, we spent the 4 hours just looking out the window. We did manage to go downstairs to check out the pool and we did manage to eat some food, but for the most part we just gazed at Hong Kong.

Before the trip, Brook wasn’t interested in Hong Kong all that much, which was one of the reasons we only stayed one day. It was both of our favorite city after spending the day there.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

4/21 Dock Halong Bay late in the day

Cruising into Halong Bay is just amazing. The bay includes 1969 islands and the island keep appearing out of the mist as we cruise toward Cai Lan, the major port on Halong Bay and the largest port in north Vietnam.

4/22 Halong Bay

Halong Bay kayaking tour! The pictures tell a better story than I could. Kayaking was hard because the kayaks had stuff growing on the hulls from being left in the water, thus they didn’t glide.

We took a junk out to a floating village that had the kayaks, kayaked for a couple hours, ate lunch on the junk, explored the caves in one of the islands which is pretty much hollow, then toured the bay via junk at a leisurely pace for a while. It was all about the scenery and Halong Bay is amazing.

Lunch was a hot pot which is like a Vietnamese fondue. In the center of the table is a pan of boiling broth and you have a half dozen plates of raw meat and vegetables along with sides of spring rolls, soup, noodles and rice. The meats were beef, shrimp, squid and white fish. The main vegetables looked like spinach and kale, but I am not positive. The broth was pretty mild and since everything on the table was easily identifiable to western eyes, the meal was popular. The beer was served warm, which was not popular.

If you have not had fondue, or only had cheese/dessert fondues, meat fondue is done by taking small pieces of raw meat or vegetables, spearing them with a stick and cooking them in boiling broth. The hot pot is the same thing, except no sticks for spearing. Things are fished out with chop sticks or a slotted spoon.

One interesting thing kept happening. When we were on the junk, other boats would pull up to the junk and try to sell things. Once successful salesboat pulled up to us and a little girl hopped on the boat. The junk is a rather large boat that has an enclosed (with windows) first floor and an open second floor. There is a ledge around the boat, and this little girl goes running along the ledge stopping by each window to see if the people sitting inside want to buy anything from her.

Thus ends the random snapshots from the 8 hour Halong Bay tour.

The rough seas start almost as soon as we leave the bay but calm during dinner. Had a nice dinner with lots of wine. After dinner the seas got rough again and I throw up the nice dinner and lots of wine after a couple hours bouncing around. I was worried that this wasn’t going to make me feel better, but after this, nothing was sloshing around in my stomach and I felt much better. This is the first and only time I have actually gotten sick on a cruise. I have felt bad through rough weather before, but this little ship moves a lot more than the super cruise liners.

4/23 Cruise to Hong Kong

Rough seas. This was not a good end to our cruise. Managed to eat breakfast, feel sick during lunch and eat dinner. This was the first dinner where my wine glass was never “refilled”. I might have had a quarter a glass of wine that night, in anticipation of rough seas. The seas were rough and I didn’t feel sick to my stomach thanks to lots of ginger and almost no wine, but it was still too rough for me to fall asleep. Other than eating, I don’t think I left the room and it was a long sleepless night after dinner.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

I took a tour that Brook called the random village tour. She went on a shopping tour where they take you to a bunch of reputable places including places to get custom clothing. She got a silk jacket.

The random village tour is fairly accurate for the first half of the day. We start off driving to a village in central Vietnam and visiting a kindergarten. Other than there not being any air conditioning and the kindergarten being a completely separate school from everything else, it was pretty much exactly what you would expect a kindergarten to be. The kids sang us songs, there were cartoonish characters decorating the walls, and a hammer and sickle done in colored flowers on the playground. I don’t remember that last part from my kindergarten, but it has been a while.

Next we stopped (about 200 yards away) to tour an ancients house. Vietnamese worship their ancestors, and the ancients house is a temple in your house that up to the last 3 generations can be worshiped at. Ancestors beyond 3 generations have to be worshiped at a family temple, which was the next stop. To my untrained eye, the only real difference is that the family lives in a house, but not in the temple. The designs are remarkably similar, and the financial situation of the family determines the size of both the house and the temple.

After the random village, we went into Hoi An, which is an ancient city that has been turned into a shopping center Saw another ancients house, a temple to the gods (I don’t know a better name for it), saw how silk is made from the worm to the clothes and saw a cool covered bridge. Apparently I totally missed half the city, the part that had all the shade.

We also stopped at a marble shop, one that make the huge pieces all the way down to the trinkets. Pretty cool, but apparently since some of us just walked inside, we missed watching them carve the marble around the back. You can see the Marble Mountains from the shop where the marble used to be mined. The mining has recently stopped so that the mountains don’t disappear, and now most of the marble is imported along with other stone.

Brook’s shopping tour went to all the places my tour did except the random village, but she got to see the tree lined drive of Hoi An, the stone carvers in the back of the marble shop as well as lots of custom clothing shops and a silk embroidery shop. I am glad I saw the random village, but joining her on the shopping tour would have been quite fun.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

4/17 Ho Chi Minh City day one

Brook goes shopping with Wendy and Barbara. Brook reports she had an amazing time learning the ways of international bargaining from Barbara.

Virtuoso dinner – We sat with the Prothro’s. Driving to dinner and driving back from dinner with Siagon all lit up was probably the highlight of the tour, although it was a short bus ride, we drove through district 1, the original Siagon, and district 3 (?) where the ambassador’s mansion was. The night started with several traditional dances including a fan dance. Each dance was traditional to a different region or ethnic group of Vietnam and the dancers (always the same six) skill varied individually by dance. Interesting, but nothing amazing. The best dance was probably the royal tea dance where the dancers clicked tea cups while they completed the dance. Apparently, during the real dance, they also pour tea for the royalty.

The food was pretty mediocre. The appetizers were probably the best dish, a fried spring roll served with hot mustard. On the way to dinner, our tour guide told us that the local beer was 333, pronounced ba-ba-ba, so I ordered that with dinner. The beer was also quite good, and I believe we were served the export version, which has a higher alcohol content. There was one dish that I have had at home, beef wrapped around a spring onion. The dinner’s version also included cheese, but was a poor substitute taste wise. I question the authenticity of the evening’s dinner, as Asians tend to be lactose intolerant and don’t eat cheese. Over all I was happy with the evening, just not the food. Brook ate almost nothing as she did not want to risk a glutening.

4/18 Ho Chi Minh City day two Mekong delta tour

The Mekong Delta tour was great. Our tour guide was very informative and was full of interesting information when asked questions. This was the most informative tour I have been on, either because I already had an interest in the subject and paid attention, or the tour was just that good. There were three food breaks during this tour, which was interesting. The first food stop was at a Vietnamese candy shop where they make puffed rice and other candies. Everything was good, but I especially liked the ginger based candies because of their bite. Puffed rice is very similar to popcorn in taste and rice crispies in size and texture, and it is used to make a treat that is a less sweet rice crispy treat. Lotus and jasmine tea was served with the candy and was quite good.

The second stop at the ancient house the snack was just fruit, jack fruit, pineapple, grapefruit and baby bananas. I don’t really like jack fruit, but it was a little sharper in flavor compared to the night before. The grapefruit was a bit dry, but I am sure it must be late in the season and they are drying out. The flavor was bitter, but not strongly sour. The pineapple was a nice example of a ripe fruit.

The final meal was the lunch. Lunch included elephant fish spring rolls in rice paper, spring rolls filled with some meat wrapped in rice noodles and deep fried (quite good), steamed or boiled shrimp (over done by my taste), seafood hot pot soup (fish balls were great, squid good and shrimp overdone), rice and bananas. Almost no one in my group cared for the food, so I was able to indulge in what I liked. This hot pot is a communal bowl of soup over a flame at the table, which is different than the hot pot at the end of the trip.

The boat part of the tour was a little disappointing just because my expectations were different than what I actually experienced. The Mekong is a very wide river with a lot of traffic, but I was expecting that traffic to be forced down to a much narrower space. The floating market was especially disappointing because I think we were too late. Almost all the boats were selling sweet potatoes and it was completely uncrowded.

The candy store stop was very interesting. The rice is puffed to make the candy and the husk that falls away is used as fuel for puffing the rice. It is very efficient.

The ancient house is kind of like a museum, but considering the group we were with, a museum like experience was probably more appropriate than actually seeing a real house of someone living on the Mekong. The back of the house is a restaurant, to one side a café and the house sits on a garden containing examples of many of the locally grown fruits, including durian. Sadly, durian was not served for us to try.

The lunch stop was at a large restaurant, at the time was serving mostly tour groups, but was also serving several local families. The restaurant was interestingly decorated, 3 walls were open to the canal and the back wall was a fake (concrete) rock wall. Leaving the restaurant, there were fake (concrete) oversized bamboo plants. This had a very Six Flags quality of construction and I wonder now if the restaurant was a chain and this was part of the theme.

I was very happy I took this tour.

Brook took the Chef shopping tour, and I have heard more about the tour from people other than her. (Brook edit: I did tell him about the large amount of herbs purchased – 10k of cilantro is something to see – the live fish, killing frogs by whacking their heads on concrete then ripping them off, the fact there was no refrigeration other than a bit of ice here and there and how one fruit stall ripped off the Chef and so now he no longer shops there) None of it has been enough to write about, other than it was a very interesting tour and quite a few people weren’t really hungry after shopping in a open market and witnessing the fresh meat. The Chef only purchases live fish and crab as well as fruits and vegetables. To maintain consistent quality, beef and lamb are purchased from Australia, New Zealand and the US only (for the Asia itinerary).

4/19 At Sea

Probably worked out and slept.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

4/15 Ko Kood

This is a sit on the beach day since Ko Kood is a resort island and we are stopping at one of the private beaches for the day.

Open water swim!

BBQ on the beach. Had lunch with Rich and Karen who summer in Idaho (at some mega rich place Brook has heard of but I never have) and winter in Palm Springs.

Brook has brought up Rachel several times with the conversation ending with her telling me to stop bringing her up. She completely disagrees that this is a true statement. So the phone rings about 90 minutes before dinner, and we are invited to a table that Rachel is hosting, I bust out laughing and accept. Brook was not as entertained was I was (though she was still quite amused), but we both knew that she would be an excellent table host and she was.

Dinner with Rachel the assistant cruise director. Regina and Ron from Miami, (Regina and Brook hit it right off, Ron and I were on either side of Rachel), Rod and Gaye from Australia (Rod’s hobby farm is 1400 head), Judy and Barry (I remember nothing about).

We learned all about Imre, the sous chef upstairs who is dating Rachel and pretty much got any question answered about Rachel, the staff or Seabourn that we could come up with. It was a very good hosted table.

4/16 At Sea

Dinner alone. Slept 2-3 hours after lunch and went to sleep fairly soon after dinner. Ended up sleeping 12 in 24 hours. The heat and sun the day before at Ko Kood probably did us in and maybe the tail end of jetlag.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

4/13 Laem Chabang (Bangkok’s alternate port since the red shirts decided to become violent the day before)

Brook wakes up and feels normal. This is the day that the vacation actually begins for me, although yesterday was pretty good.

Today is our first port day and Brook and I have decided to take separate tours, but we have also decided this is a good idea. One, Brook’s shorter tour is probably better for her considering how poorly she has been feeling lately, and two, we will have a lot to talk about afterward.

My tour starts first thing in the morning and lasts all day. I tour ruins in Ayutthaya and the Bang Pa In Summer Palace with some elephant riding in between. Brook tours the elephant rescue ranch.

Although I don’t have pictures of me riding an elephant, the pictures do a better job explaining what I saw than I could.

4/14 Laem Chabang Day 2

Did not go ashore. Worked out, slept.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment

The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip

4/11 First day at sea

Brook woke up in the morning feeling a little better and she certainly looked better. Of course, this was the first full night of sleep for her since getting to Singapore.

We wonder around the ship for a little while and end up at the open air restaurant for breakfast about 15 minutes before the buffet is opened. Of course they are serving coffee and were taking grill orders. Brook ordered some juice and scrambled eggs. I ate a normal breakfast while Brook finished her juice and ate a couple bites of eggs.

We head back to the room, and Brook asks how long she should wait before she goes to the ships doctor, suggesting maybe the afternoon or the next day. The ship hospital has open consultation at 9am and it is about 8:30am, so I tell her that she can wait until 9am and I make it clear she lacks other alternatives.

A visit to the doctor results in a couple of treatments for the symptoms. I believe that Brook’s main problem is lack of sleep caused by her sleep disorder, and the side effect is a feeling of being sick to her stomach without ever being sick. I actually feel the same way if I skip a night or two of sleep. It doesn’t really matter, as long as she gets better and can start to function normally. She was prescribed pepto, charcoal and maybe something else.

We didn’t do much the first day at sea. We had lunch in the dining room, which was quite good, but Brook hardly ate. We were invited to Einar, the Master of Staff’s, table for dinner that night. Dinner was very good, 4 courses, but Brook had to retire before dessert. Dessert took maybe 15 more minutes and when I returned to the room, Brook was ready for bed, but not in bed yet. We quickly went to sleep a little before 10pm.

Dinner was with Einar, Alyson, me, Sue, John, Brook, Mark (Alyson’s son a guitar instructor), Sue’s husband (didn’t catch his name), John’s wife and Alyson’s sister.

4/12 Second day at Sea

Brook wakes up and wants to eat. Finally! We are too early for early breakfast, but head up a little early. Coffee is already out and quickly pastries that Brook cannot eat are brought out. Brook isn’t ravenous, so coffee is enough to entertain her for now. As soon as regular breakfast is ready we head to the restaurant and I get kicked out for wearing shorts. And it isn’t really just shorts, it is shorts that are not Bermuda shorts that gets me kicked out. I head back to the room and put on slacks, a button down and dress shoes. I don’t own shorts that cover my knees, and I really have packed more dress shirts and slacks than anything else because I knew this cruise is rather formal. Still sucked to be kicked out for breakfast and I joke for the next couple of days that I will wear outrageous stuff to the dining room that meets the dress code.

After returning to the dining room, I discover my wife seated and that the assistant maitre d’ (Richard) shows me to her table. He actually apologized to my wife, and she of course told him that it was perfectly alright, we can’t have riff raff in the dining room. The head maitre d’ (Bronson) actually was the one who kicked me out, so I instantly dislike him and like the assistant maitre d’. It is also worth noting that while the riff raff had to change, Brook was also wearing shorts, they just happened to hit her right at the knee and were allowed.

Breakfast in the dining room is good, but there isn’t really anything they do in the dining room that that they can’t do at the buffet.

After breakfast we met with Chef Pascal to discuss Brook’s options for the Virtuoso dinner. The options are that she can take a snack pack, but he does not have anything he can prepare ahead of time given the heat, that will survive until dinner. The general plan is for fruit and nuts so that she doesn’t starve and eat when she gets back. Not ideal, but we are rather realistic about the situation.

No idea now what we did between breakfast and lunch.

At lunch time, I re dress up because I am not going to be kicked out again and head back to the restaurant. We are seated for a second time at table 38, soon after lunch service begins and I watch no less than 10 people be turned back because their shorts are too short. Even an entire table was refused seating. Sucks to be them! Most people take this rather well, and one man actually went out of his way to thank the staff for pointing out the dress code. I still want to kick the maitre d’s ass.

Lunch was good, but the dessert from the first lunch (a carmel cake with carmel sauce) really impressed. The sommelier already knows I am a Pinot Noir drinker. He is my best friend until about the third glass, than he is my enemy. I cannot figure out how to get him to stop filling my glass when I am not looking.

Brook laid out in the sun and I did a tethered swim in the pool. This lasted all of 30 minutes since we decided to do this in the heat of the day during a cloudless hot summer (for Thailand) day. The pool was 90+ and I was probably in the water for under 20 minutes and got out about ready to die. The rest of the afternoon was spent rehydrating before dinner.

Before dinner we went to the Virtuoso cocktail party. When we first walked up the stairs, Rachel, the cruise director was standing there inviting people in. Rachel was wearing a button down exposing a lot of cleavage that Brook talked about quite a lot afterward while accusing me of bringing up the topic.

Upon entering the lounge where the cocktail party was being hosted, Barbara Stein, the Virtuoso host introduced herself. It was quite funny, because she was literally SHOCKED when we introduced ourselves as she was expecting a couple much older than ourselves. As soon as the next couple appeared, we moved into the lounge and met Rod and Gaye. Rod’s hobby being raising cattle which entertained us quite a bit. Being from Texas, we know damn well that 1400 head and 1200 acres is a serious “hobby”. Wendy Stein, Barbara’s daughter quickly introduced herself and double checked that we were going to the Virtuoso dinner being hosted the first night in Saigon. Apparently everyone was going. We tried to sneak out, but just as we were leaving, they started in on the announcements, and since they were blocking the door, we were stuck until the end.

After all the announcements were made, which weren’t too over done, Mark and Dianne Prothro reintroduced themselves. Brook had introduced herself earlier that day when Mark walked by in a Texas shirt.

We finally headed out to dinner, trying to beat what we thought was the 7:45 rush. There is only a “rush” the first night at sea, and afterward, everyone is a bit more laidback in their schedule.

Dinner was just the two of us at a table in the back of the dining room. Dinner was good, and Brook managed to make it until just before dessert to use the restroom. Of course, the staff were very concerned that she got up abruptly and left. Not surprising, Brook is probably one of the few who can’t make it two hours without using the restroom.

After dinner it was straight to bed.

May 2nd, 2010 | Category: Travel | Leave a comment