ON BOARD THE GRAND PRINCESS

This is Monday the 26th of May 2008 when we are scheduled to embark on our cruise ship, the newly furbished Grand Princess, as opposed to the same one we all cruised with at the Baltic region in 2005. After a good breakfast at our hotel, we wait for our arranged transport to the ship’s pier which is some 70 over kilometers away, a journey which takes almost an hour to reach there. As expected we are at the pier around 1130 am and already there are a lot of people queuing up to board the ship. Like in past four times cruise experience we have had with the Princess cruises, the embarkation procedures are meticulously and efficiently done to ensure all get on board smoothly and without any hassle. We choose not to carry any luggage with us, knowing that it will be a long walk up the deck before we reach our own allotted cabin. So, what actually happens is, the very moment our bus is spotted by the ship’s embarkation staff, we are advised to just proceed to the check-in counters leaving all our luggages to be carried to our respective cabins by them. For Ainul and I because we have gold cruise card we are given a special checking counter which speeds up our entry process. The same goes with Sabri and Nuruaini. But for the rest of our party, they all go through the normal entry process and even for them too , there is no hassle and before long, we are all in one party group marching into the ship. This time around our cabin is at Emerald E 302 which is on deck 8. All our party members, with the exception of Wahab and Nona are on Emerald. In fact Sabri and Nuruaini’s cabin is besides ours, whilst the rest are a little distance away from us but along the same corridor. I find out later on the distance of our corridor from end to end is 315 meters !

Our cruise ship captain is Nicholas Carlton, born in England in East Anglia and educated at Framlington College, Suffolk. He began his career with the Princess Company as a Navigating Cadet in 1970 and qualified as a Master Mariner in the City of London in 1980. He has voyaged all over the world and spent many years sailing in the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean. His first command was the original Pacific Princess, TV’s Love Boat and in addition to Grand Princess he has been in command of Sun Princess, Dawn Princess, Regal Princess, Crown Princess, Tahitian Princess, Royal Princess and in Australia, Pacific Sky. Nick, his wife Raquel and their son James have homes in Secret Harbour, Western Australia and Suffolk, England. A qualified Private Pilot since his teens, his leisure interests include flying, sailing and water- skiing. Thus in short, we feel indeed very safe to be in this magnificent ship to be in the hands of one who is so well experienced in the Princess series of ships. Amongst the ships mention, Ainul and I are proud to have been in the Crown Princess ( the Bahamas cruise ) and the Sun Princess ( the Alaskan cruise ), not forgetting the Grand Princess ( Baltic cruise ) and the Emerald Princess ( last year’s Mediterranean cruise ).

As usual, my first responsibility to the group is to ensure that we get to seat together for dinners at a specially reserved table and at the Botticelli restaurant which is the special one for reserved seating only. It is unfortunate that we cannot make the reservation earlier from KL due to uncertainties in the actual number of persons joining us. However I feel confident that I will be able to secure this for us like I had done in the past in the same manner then. To my disappointment, I fail this time. Hence I inform the group that we can still dine together but it will be be at the all-time dining at the Michaelangelo or the Da Vinci restaurants. Table reservation can be made at this dining area but it has to be done daily. This then becomes my daily duty for the rest of the cruise !

As usual, prior to sailing, we are mustered for a special safety session with the ship’s Cruise Directors crew team to familiarise ourselves with the emergency drills to abandone ship in the event of an emergency and the proper use of the life jackets when left in the sea . Everyone is expected to carry with them his or her lifejacket from the cabin and meet up at the Grand Princess theatre hall for emergency briefing by the cruise personnel. All in all this exercise is great fun for everyone since this is the first time ever that we get to see and meet up with the other passengers on board.

At these sessions past and pre4sent, I cannot help seeing the episodes of the movies " The Poseidon Adventure" and others of similar nature depicting sunken ships. Of course I also pray that Allah will protect and avoid such happenings to us always.

everyone is expected to carry with them his lifejacket from his cabin and meet up at the Grand Princess theatre hall for emergency briefing by the cruise personnel. All in all this exercise is great fun for everyone since this is the first time ever that we get to see and meet up with the other passengers on board.

The next thing we have to do is to choose and book our offshore excursions. Since we have new friends on board, we take them to experience and do the bookings themselves. After all, everyone is not bound to go to the same places anyway. True enough, this becomes evident at the reservation counter. Not all the places that are on offer remain available by the time we book. Nevertheless we all manage to get the choices left available and these more or less do meet each person’s choice. Thus done, we take a short tour of the ship before we all go back to our respective cabins to have a short rest before our first dinner on board.

We have our first dinner together that night and it is just fun for all of us. The food choices as expected is excellent and everyone seems to enjoy this dinner. This is the first time I learn that our Dr. Zubaidah, better known later as just Zubi, enjoys delicious desserts. For Ainul and I we are always very choosey on these since we do not really like sweet stuffs. In fact we would rather go for the fresh fruits or even the cheese board instead. Dr. Rahim enjoys the sea food entrée and it is not suprising because the prawns served are really big and fresh. Dr. Bahari and wife seem very careful and meticulous in their food choices . They are a very religious couple and tread on food very carefully indeed. As for the rest of us, we just want to enjoy everything, barring any pork dishes or servings of course. But the person who really relish on these food is Mahatun. She seems to enjoy everything making it money worth all the way, I suppose.

Our after dinner show for the night is the Grand Adventure Showtime, featuring the Grand Princess singers and dancers and also clever comedian Tom Briscoe. The show is hosted by the Cruise Director James Ibrahim with the musical back up by John Wolfenden and the Grand Princess Orchestra. As a point of interest, the persons that make life enjoyable on board all these cruise ships are the Cruise Directors, whose sole role is to conduct and manage all the entertainment activities on board. On our ship this time around is James Ibrahim, although we never get to know if the "Ibrahim’ here is any indication that he is a Muslim if at all. An Aussie boy who loves sports, James never planned to work in entertainment. Completing a Business degree and fitness accretations, James was sure his future lay in either of these industries. However, an opportunity to work as Sports Manager with P&O Cruises sparked his seafaring interest. He eventually worked his way up to Cruise Director in 2003 and has since worked on various Princess ships. James is also actively involved in non-cruise avenues, such as TV roles in Australia, and Emceeing national events for companies, such as Hewlett Packard and Telstra. His hobbies include reading, health & fitness and playing guitar. Right from the start of our first "meeting" with him at the Princess Theatre on the night’s initial performance at the place, we know that we have a good guy looking after our enjoyment on board this Princess.

As expected again, it is a magnificent show starter for all of us. Whilst the rest including Ainul have an early night, I decide to exploit the night’s activities and entertainment outlets and ends myself at the Karaoke Power Hour in the Explorers Lounge. I made the initial impact on the audience with my rendition of "Love is a many splendoured thing". From that night onwards I made some new friends , amongst who is a Canadian couple Larry and Joyce , whose main hobby is gambling at the ship's casino, besides karaoke . In fact later on, the three of us, spend late nights at the Horizon Court on Deck 14 where food is served buffet style twenty four hours daily.

Our initial activities on board has been such that we little realize when our ship anchors off to sail to its first destination of our twelve day cruise for Livorno, Italy.. This has indeed been a great and exciting day !

During the night the ship sets to various courses easterly across the Lingurian sea. Early this morning it makes approaches to Livorno, following the traffic separation scheme to embark its pilot. The pilot is the most important navigator for the passageway to any port for docking purposes and he is always the local pilot of the designation. With the pilot onboard we make a sharp turn to port as we enter the port passing between the breakwaters, with the town of Livorno on our starboard side. The Port of Livorno is a major ferry port for the North Coast of Italy with ferries leaving for Corsica, Sarrdinia, Spain and North Africa at regular intervals.

This morning the 27th May, our ship anchored at the Livorno pier at 5.30 am. This is our first port of call

( TO BE CONTINUED )