If you have never been on a sea cruise, sign up for one now. For the life of me, I don't know why I didn't do this much earlier. I should have gone on such a vacation when I was working. It is a great way to de-stress and after a week on board, I'm sure I would have gone back to work fully refreshed. Well, I can't do anything about that now but it's never too late to enjoy a cruise holiday. Almost 95 per cent of the passengers on board our cruise ship, the MV Arcadia, are retirees and very senior citizens. I think the average age of passengers must be around 70 years old. The three of us (my wife, my brother James and I) must stick out like sore thumbs. I would like to think we look relatively younger but the more likely reason is because about 98 per cent of the passengers are "kwai los." Quite a few of the passengers are in wheelchairs and they have no problem moving around the ship. There are six elevators at the bow and aft (front and back) of the ship. So don't worry if you are not in the best physical condition, or you think you are too old to travel. This ship is very handicapped friendly. We had many concerns before we joined this cruise, and top of our list is price. Fortunately my brother James managed to get a special promotional package from a travel agent in Launceston, Tasmania. We paid about A$2,000 each for the 16-day trip from Sydney to Hong Kong, with stops at Brisbane, Yorkeys Knob, Alotau (Papua New Guinea) and Manila. That's a bargain, considering the usual price is A$4,000. On top of that, we are given an onboard credit of £220 each or A$445 for us to spend. That means we are paying only A$1,555 each (about RM4,575). That works out to be RM285 a day. Where can find a hotel with such rates?
Videos:
1. Rise and shine
2. St John's Cathedral, Brisbane
3. Sailing along on the high seas
4. Heading into Yorkeys Knob
5. Bat-mania​
6. Arcadia, ahoy!
7. Welcome to Alotau
8. Goodbye Alotau
9. Crossing the Equator
The Arcadia, which is one of eight luxury liners belonging to P&O Cruises, started its world voyage from its home port of Southampton, England. The Sydney-Hong Kong stretch is the fourth leg of its world cruise. Standing at over 10 storeys high, this mid-sized ship can accommodate 2,094 passengers, and is served by a crew of 866. The vessel is an awesome sight. Even though I know it is big, seeing it for the first time still left me speechless. The other attractive point about the Arcadia is that it is an "adults only" ship. That means it is for people who want some peace and quiet. If you want to take your children along, choose from one of the five "family friendly" ships in the fleet. A sea cruise is so much better than flying if your holiday involves a few destinations. Just keep your luggage in your cabin. You don't have to lug them from one hotel to the next. Going through immigration is also so much easier on a cruise. The officials get on board a few days earlier and the checks are done before we arrive at the port. What's more, the ship's crew will fill up all the forms for you. All you have to do is just sign on the dotted line. How about that?
Videos (Manila)
1. Welcome to Manila 1
2. Welcome to Manila 2
3. Welcome to Manila 3
4. The Manila Cathedral
5. San Augustin Church
6. The Manila Hotel
7. Bon voyage, Arcadia
What else do you get for your RM285 a day? Every meal is free, all five of them. Many hotels just give you a complimentary breakfast. There are five restaurants in this ship but you have to pay only at the two specialist restaurants -- Sindhu and Ocean Grill. That's where your onboard credit comes in handy. We had most of our meals at Belvedere, the buffet restaurant on Deck 9 or 9th floor. Breakfast is totally English but there is a wonderful variety for dinner, with different country theme meals every night. During this trip we got to sample Aussie BBQ, Carribean, India, Oriental, Tropical, Mexican, Best of British, Eastern Mediterranean, Italian, Country & Western, Thai and Filipino cuisine. Unfortunately, it is all wasted on me because my taste buds are dead but if you love food, this is the place to be. Tell me which airline can offer you something similar. However, I will miss my English breakfast of toast, bacon, sausage, red beans and mushrooms when I get home. The restaurant also serves late supper right up to 6am. Being Penangites, we wanted to get our money's worth, but on most days we were full after having just three meals. Age, I guess. I tried the late supper twice, and on both occasions they were because I had skipped dinner. We made it a point to go for morning exercise regularly and long walks after some meals to burn off those rich calories. Three laps around the ship on Deck 3 is equivalent to 1 mile. I don't think that helped much. My 50 minutes on the gym's treadmill only burnt up 190 calories compared to about 500 calories acquired just from the English breakfast alone. If you prefer ala carte and don't want to pay, there is the Meridian restaurant. You can go for club dining on one deck where you can make reservations. Or you can just show up at specified times for freedom dining at another deck of the restaurant. We tried the freedom dining once, and once is more than enough. It was too formal for me. We feel more relaxed and comfortable at the Belvedere's buffet dining. What's more, the service there is just as good and the waiters are so friendly. We were invited to a blacktie dinner hosted by the captain. You guess it. We avoided it. Just as we skipped the blacktie dance, too. If you like snacks, there is Caffe Vivo. Just pay for your choice of coffee or tea. The great selection of cakes is free. As can be expected of an English liner, you can watch live football matches in the comfort of your cabin. They showed EPL, German Bundesliga and Champions League matches but no FA Cup and Spain's La Liga. Still, three out of five ain't bad, right? An important part about booking a cruise is the choice of cabin. Trust my brother to make the right choice. Our cabin, D081, is on Deck 5 in the middle section of the ship, on the starboard side (for you landlubbers, that's the right side of the ship). Oh yes, our room has a balcony. Our cabins are made up twice a day and we have an excellent cabin steward in Victor, a guy from Goa. He is quietly efficient and quick to respond to our requests. Victor takes care of 19 cabins but he acts like a personal steward for many of us. From our cabin, we can see the sun rise over the horizon every morning. With its rays striking the ocean, I cannot imagine anything more spectacular. This is a rare sight for city dwellers. And the balcony is a great spot to watch the ship coming in to dock and sailing away from a port. At Alatou port, we had a ringside view of natives welcoming us to Papua New Guinea. That was all we saw of that country as we didn't feel like going ashore for a hurried day trip. There was a bigger and more lively welcome reception from the Filipino cultural troupe at the Manila port. The Filipinos gave a farewell sendoff for the ship later that evening. It was just as colourful and equally enthusiastic. Again we had a box seat view of the event from our balcony. The lifeboats are immediately below our balcony. You would think that it will make us feel safer but it is really not necessary. From the moment you step on board, and throughout the journey, you are assured that safety is a high priority. We had a safety drill immediately after boarding. We were shown where to gather during an emergency and unlike planes, here we get a chance to try on the lifejacket. There was a security threat drill for the crew on March 11 and passengers were encouraged to take part. Here we were shown how to walk (baby steps!) to the evacuation exits. The whole trip was not incident free. There were two fire alerts, one on March 8, at 3am, involving a lift, and the other at 7.15pm on March 14 involving excessive smoke coming from the incinerator. Both cases were dealt with swiftly. If you are afraid of being seasick, the midsection of the ship is the best spot to be in. No problem here, too. It was smooth sailing all the way. Sometimes you forget that you are on board a ship. Our next big concern was whether we will be bored during the long journey. When we told friends about our cruise, the common response was: What will you do for 16 days on a ship? Well, plenty! You are spoilt for choice when it comes to activities. They spoil you and cater to almost all tastes and interests. For starters, there is a different movie every day. We watched almost all the movies. There are six screening times but we stuck to the 12.05pm slot. As there are limited seats in the cosy screening room, you have to book your seats even though it is free. In fact, it is so cosy that I fell asleep on a few occasions.
Videos (Hong Kong)
1. Welcome to Hong Kong 1
2. Welcome to Hong Kong 2
3. Welcome to Hong Kong 3
There is a different live performance every night at the multi-level Palladium theatre. Look at the variety of acts. We have seen performances by an Australian aborigine cultural troupe, a ventriloquist, a classical pianist, a violinist who plays beautiful gypsy and Irish music, a West End musical singer and a voice impressionist. And they have a very talented in-house entertainment group, Headliners Theatre Group, which gave us three great shows featuring the music of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, the Blues Brothers and Queen. The last performance we watched at the Palladium was a West End production of the Simon and Garfunkel story. What a way to end our voyage with songs I love so much from the 1970s. Then there are the talks on various and sometimes unusual topics. I attended three -- The story of Titanic's lost perfumes, Jack the Ripper: The suspects then and now, and Pilotage in the Great Barrier Reef. There was one talk which I regretted not attending -- The wilder women of Jane Austen's era. As expected, there is always a party or get-together every day in some part of the ship. There was one which I found rather interesting when the ship crossed the Equator on March 11. It involves an initiation for Pollywogs, the nickname given to sailors who haven't crossed the Equator. The party held at the Aquarius Pool at 2pm was well attended. Three groups of passengers bravely volunteered to be initiated into this select group. When the ship finally crossed the Equator at 5.20pm, it was marked by just a simple announcement over the public address system. "This is your navigator. In a short while, we will be crossing the Equator." He then started the countdown. "5, 4, 3, 2,1. We have crossed the Equator. Sorry there was no bump. Welcome to the Northern Hemisphere." We had to adjust our clocks three times, first at Brisbane on March 4 and later on March 14 and 15. Each time the clock was turned back an hour. If you are into sports, there are facilities for deck quoits, shuffleboard, tennis, basketball, golf driving range and table tennis. I am embarrassed to say we did not use any of these facilities except for table tennis where my brother and I played for a few minutes.
The two swimming pools are always packed, so we stayed away. There are, of course, other ways to spend your time, and exercise your hands in the process. You can shuffle cards in the two rooms reserved for card games. Or you can park yourself at the slot machines in the casino. Perhaps, you are the type who likes to exercise his arm lifting beer mugs. You can do so at any one of nine bars and lounges. Another chance to use your onboard credit. If you like to spend some alone time, there are deck chairs all over the ship. Don't worry if you didn't bring a book along. There is a library where you can borrow from a wide selection of books. Of course, I came prepared with my Kindle eReader packed with all the books I wanted to read. I even pictured myself reading from it while relaxing on a deckchair. I managed to do that only twice, once on my cabin's balcony and on the other occasion at a covered place on Deck 3. On both occasions I dozed off after reading for a few minutes. I am not as brave as the kwai los who prefer to relax on a deckchair on the top deck where they can get the full blast of the sun. I had a pleasant surprise when a fellow passenger handed a James Patterson book to me. He was sitting next to us in a restaurant and overheard me talking with my brother about the author. "Just return the book to the library when you finish reading it. Or you can just keep it," was all he said. There is an exchange section in the library where you can drop off your paperback books for fellow passengers to read or pick up books you fancy. Nice idea, right? I am quite sure it won't work in Malaysia. Very few givers and hardly any takers. The library also lends out DVDs but they assume you carry along an old fashioned laptop with an inbuilt DVD player. So how did we spend the total of £670 credit given to the three of us? We bought two tours, paying £38 each for the Leisurely Brisbane package and £49 each for the Charms of old Manila. We wanted to buy The Great Barrier Reef tour package but you had to book early and we did not. It was all sold out even though it cost £163 each. This is a good package as they take you out to a floating platform where you can view the underwater beauty of the Reef. Or You could also go scuba diving to explore this wonder of nature. There were free shuttle services into Cairns from Yorkeys Knob, so we spent the day wandering about the town. Did I mention there is no free wifi on board? It is a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. After all you are supposed to relax on this cruise, so for some it means no smartphones or Internet. I can't be cut off from the outside world completely, so I used my onboard credit to buy the cheapest plan -- £35 for 100 minutes. I used that up very fast, so I got to relax after all. After buying some souvenirs at the ship's shops, the three of us were left with a grand total £1.07. More important, we did not have to fork out extra money. I had a slight regret on this trip. I lost a Mont Blanc pen when I attended one of the talks. Thank god, I have a few spares back home. I also lost a cheap T-Shirt which I bought for A$6 in Cairns. Either it got mixed up with another passenger's laundry or it blew overboard where I left it to dry on my balcony. Now I am on a lookout for someone wearing a cheap brown T-shirt and using a Mont Blanc pen. Finally, we arrived at Hong Kong at 5.30am on March 17, after travelling 16 days and covering a total of 5,059 nautical miles. Would I go for another cruise? Most definitely. The world cruise sounds exciting but it involves travelling 115 days and it cost about £16,000 or nearly RM100,000 each. Maybe I should set my sights lower. I hear St Petersburg is beautiful and worth visiting. And the cruise from Southampton to St Petersburg, with stops at Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen, costs only £1,499 or RM9,000. This is much more within my means, so I guess I better start saving now.
Photos:
Arcadia
Brisbane
Cairns
Alotau (Papua New Guinea)
Manila
Hong Kong