The Celebrity Century is a 5-star floating hotel. Decks 3 and 4 house the crew. Passengers with possible need of medical attention also may request Deck 4. On Deck 7 the crew has a pool that is not visible on the map of the ship. Mike and I have an inside cabin on Deck 5. It is a standard cabin with 3 closets, (2 closets for hanging clothes and 1 closet with shelves and drawers. A safe is behind the dressing table mirror. We do not use the safe or the mini bar fridge. I often shower in the health spa after morning exercise but our bathroom is spacious for a ship and kept very clean, just like our bedroom. The crew and wait staff are generally foreign and 3rd world. Our stateroom attendant is Zainal Hassan, an Indonesian. He delivers a pitcher of water and an ice bucket twice a day.
We attended every talk with Milos Radakovitch, a former NPR personality, a scientist from California who arrived in America as a young boy with Serbian parents.
During our first 5 days at sea I went to a Hula class every morning at 9 am. The teacher, June was so pleasant that the steward told me if she were any more pleasant they’d have to drug test her. She made each Hula movement come alive. Our graduation was the last day before we arrived in Tahiti. June and another excellent cultural speaker, Kalani Brady M.D. left the ship to return to Hawaii when we made port. They both really enriched my trip and further built appreciation of Hawaiian culture and navigational and astronomical knowledge.
June taught us to express so much with Hula. I loved it. We hitchhiked, pulled in fishing nets and put hand over hand and wiggled our thumbs like fish (Uma Uma). We mimed eating (kau kau) food (lau). Lau Lau leads to the familiar word, luau. We gestured little grass shack, beach, ship, wave. If you raise your arms too high it is a tidal wave. Swimming strokes go to the left or right. A center stroke means to ride a horse. Love is shown by crossing arms left over right. One very true lyric “Where I live there are rainbows.” stands out. I never saw so many rainbows in all my life. Life cycle is mimed by crossing hands in front of the pelvis to show birth and raising them to show aging. When the hands reach the top death is expressed. With our fingers crossed we show that upon death we turn into stars. Umi is the call to move hips around in a circle. Kick is the call to swing hips left to right. Huli is the call to turn. Hula was great for me emotionally. I’d hula again any time.
We crossed the equator enroute to French Polynesia; a pollywog is someone who has not crossed the equator. We received Equator Line Crossing Certificates from our ship’s Greek Captain Isidoros Karamaounas.
Announcements are read in English, then German and no other languages. I met a French-speaking Swiss woman and a Spanish woman but they obviously do not represent populations that warrant officially broadcast language translation. Among the passengers are people of color from the west coast of North America and also Australia. I am friendly with a female Haitian medical tech from Chicago in exercise class, a Japanese-Canadian couple who are accountants in Victoria, British Columbia. They only attend exercise class when they cruise. I like a Hawaiian pediatric intensive care nurse named Jean (I met 3 women named Jean on the ship.) from California in hula class.
Our dinner table has 7 diners, all Australians except for us. The Hawaiian word for family, ohana comes to mind since we shared our evening meals including Thanksgiving with these folks. Ivey and Jean are widows and travel together. Trevor and his wife, also named Jean join us for dinner faithfully. One night Jean was sick so Mike and I sat Trevor in between us. He is hard of hearing, says little and has Parkinson’s. He is retired from Australia’s only and oldest nuclear research facility. His hearing loss is due to rifle shooting competitions. Ivey is lively, shapely and attractive for her 72 years. She was widowed by 2 husbands; one died at age 30 of cancer and the next had a heart attack at age 42. Her father was a successful Jewish business man but changed his name to Jones and her mother forgot what his real name was. Ivey’s 50 year old son is bipolar and she appreciated my suggestion to put his inheritance in a trust. Ivey’s girlfriend Jean is watching her weight and usually goes to exercise class every morning at sea. Jean told me how recently her son’s father died suddenly from a heart attack shortly after a lung cancer diagnosis. He thought he was so healthy while he puffed on cigarettes until it was too late. Jean is sad that her x-husband’s second wife will get his entire estate and that their son losses his inheritance due to this negligence. The father’s spoken intention was to leave something to their son. No wonder people hate step-mothers. It is simply not in a man’s nature to go to a lawyer and work out a will. Mike and I took care of our estates for our children. Thanks to our proximity to UAW Legal, our will is complete and our children are assured their respective inheritances. If I mention money too often in this Blog it is to tell the reader that our travel is affordable. We are not spending on bottled water, booze, souvenirs, etc…. We are not spendthrifts and our retirement savings are untouched.
Jean spoke as if she were warning me, trying to shock me out of denial. I asked her how old he was when he died. I said in that case I get 8 years with Mike. Mike thinks he’s got 25 years to go; his relatives are long lived. I am determined to enjoy my life and mind my own business about Mike’s smoking since if I die before he does then I worried over nothing. Meanwhile Mike bought a carton of cigarettes at the ship’s duty free store for $18. This is the only carton Mike has ever bought because he tries not to have more than a pack of cigarettes on hand. Taxes on cigarettes in Australia were recently raised by $3 so now a single pack of 40 costs between $15 and $18. Public health matters in Australia per the advertising we see.
On Day 5 of our cruise we were informed that we do not have visas on file for Australia. Our Air Treks ticket agent said that she would apply for them but we do not have them. We spent $11.25 or .75 per minute on the internet to request electronic visas for Australia. Celebrity insisted that we get these visas before we might get to an internet café in Tahiti. The web site Celebrity sent us to charged $20 per visa. Mike said, “Get it done.”, so we got visas for Australia. If internet were not so slow I would have asked Sarah at Air Treks to get our visas. This $51.25 expense is a minor casualty of too many trips stacked up against each other. I had my focus on visas for Vietnam and India. Otherwise we buy a tourist visa at the point of entry. We even have our photo ready.
Meanwhile we are paying the ship’s automatic tipping charge. Unlike other cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean which constantly and annoyingly exhort passengers to tip the crew, Celebrity bills us $11.50 per day. The bill for tips will be approximately $414. One Australian couple told us that they requested to be removed from automatic tipping. I find it a relief of conscience not to be worried that I might slight any service person. Under the program we pay our waiter, Ryan from the Philippines $3.65 per person per day. He has a wife, a 9 year old and 2 week old daughter that he won’t see her for another 3.5 months but he speaks to them via internet every day, he told us. Navarro, his assistant waiter is from Honduras and earns $2.10 per person per day. The restaurant management gets $1.00 per person per day. The stateroom attendant gets $3.50 per day from each of us.
We do not have a single woman attendant to tip. When I realized this I spoke to the ship’s desk and asked why. Coincidence, I was assured. I asked my table companions if they have a female stateroom attendant. All 7 said “No”. I asked Ryan, our waiter how many females were waiters. He said the crew had one female head waiter and 3 assistants (out of over 200), down from 5 assistants. Females in a position to earn tips are scarce indicating gender discrimination. Females in cruise ship customer relations are plentiful but then they are similar in class to passengers. They might be our daughters so no barrier is broken there. I raised the issue in a public question and answer session with passengers and the Cruise Director, the Captain and 3 executives. About 300 passengers were in the theatre asking various questions. The most popular issue raised was that the ship provides passengers no laundry facility and the ship’s laundry is very expensive. I asked about the lack of females and they said they were 25% of crew. I said females are not working in positions where tips are paid. The ship’s executive in charge of hotel services went so far as to say that these jobs are too hard for women. The cruise director, Ian Crisswell interrupted to say that newer ships are different. Each ship has a unique character. I let it go with that but I wrote a pointed comment about the executive who is limiting women on the ship. Other departments have women and lots of women work in the kitchen but woman are rarely receiving tips.
One day a sous chef (chef in charge of chefs) gave a galley tour. He is from India. He said that he worked in Dubai for 4 years and then in a hospital in Kuwait in 4 years. He was hired by Celebrity through an agency and has been with Celebrity for over 9 years.
Food is so central to a cruise and the menus are vast. Forgive me since discussing food can be so tedious or cause the reader to wander off for a snack. When we enter the dining areas, a crew member squirts antibacterial hand sanitizer on our hands. For breakfast I like grilled bananas in a sweet sauce. The dish does not have a label so I don’t know if it is called Bananas Foster. The Australians were really impressed to see bananas because they cost $14 per kilo since a storm wiped out their crop. I like a Swiss cereal called muesli instead of oatmeal or griths, same a grits. I add berries and a fig to my muesli. Fresh fruit like pineapple and melons ring my chimes. From the pancake counter I choose blintzes. I like lox with onions, capers and tomato on a toasted bagel. For lunch I find myself going to Asian Delights, mostly Indian food that is not as good as Rangoli’s in Auburn Hills. I wrote that they could serve better Indian food as a comment too. For dinner the menu has an always available standard menu (like escargot, Caesar salad, lobster bisque, prime rib) but mostly we order from the unique daily menu. I usually follow the head chef’s suggestions from Celebrity corporate. Bavaroise must be Bavarian; it is a deliciously subtle sauce with maybe a coffee flavor served only one time with a torte. Australians explained their confusion since what Americans call appetizers, they call entrees. Tips are included in Australia. They were shocked when cab drivers demanded tips in Honolulu.
Since twice being prescribed iron pills to ward off anemia, I look for dark leafy greens. Every day our waiter Ryan asks us how is the food. One day craving greens I ordered the vegetarian main dish Spinach Ravioli. The portion of spinach did not fill a tablespoon (and the cheese gave me gas). In my comment card I request kale, Swiss chard, rapini, mustard greens, dandelion greens and turnip greens. After reflecting upon my trite list of what I like to eat on the ship, it occurred to me that greens are missing from the ships menu. Mike says that I don’t really write in so much as I write lists but writing lists leads to considerations like noting the omission of greens.
What does the crew like to eat? The crew’s meals are Indian, Jamaican and Filipino cuisine. Unserved leftovers are served to crew. The kitchen prepares a 10% overage on any given dish and within 4 hours that is served to the crew. What is thrown out is ground up and fed to fish 12 miles off shore.
While I was touring in the galley, Mike went to an engine room discussion but it was not live and actual. The talk he heard really referred to newer ships than the 30 year old ship we are on. He just saw photos and layouts. The charge for a live and actual tour of the ship is $150.
Every other day or so while at sea I attend the 7 am exercise class with 30 minutes stretching followed by 30 minutes of abdominals. I did not go every day because my abs and legs got sore. I am soft from missing my gym and exercise routine. The ship’s classes are run by a fitness coach tag team, Nicoletta from Hungary and Eric from New Zealand. I attended Nicoletta’s talk on How to Increase Metabolism. She spoke to a dozen women and one man. She got us to raise our hands about setting exercise and weight loss goals. She usefully divided exercise into 2 types, cardio and resistance. Examples of cardio are exercises that leave someone breathless and sweaty like jogging, spinning (a vigorous bike ride) or elliptical workout. Examples of resistance are stretching, abs, light weight lifting, a walk on deck or stair climbing. Nicoletta asked, “Which category of exercise best increases metabolism?” The answer is resistance. Resistance causes a slow burn and really raises metabolism. Then she went on to divide physical goals into exercise, diet and detox. She concluded by selling a $35 work up and then consuming blue-green algae in order to detox for $100 – 200 per month for 180 days.
Liz on the Celebrity Century on the Sea after visits to French Polynesia, only 3255 nautical miles to Sydney
We visited 4 islands over 4 fast days, Tahiti’s capital, Papeete, then Morea, Raiatea and Bora Bora, 3255 nautical miles away from Sydney, Australia.
We dashed into Papeete to drop off laundry for $25. The laundry saved a sunscreen blouse so it was worth it to me. Then we sent out the Blog. Sending out the Blog took 90 minutes and cost $13. We are annoyed that we did not send Ray Volpatti in 5 Dock, Australia a note to say to expect us on Nov. 30. The French impressionist Paul Gauguin is the biggest celebrity to ever touch Tahiti but none of his art remains in Tahiti because it is too valuable. Gauguin’s dwelling place is a tour we missed.
The water in Morea with the mountain back drop is why we came to French Polynesia. It is utterly beautiful. In Morea the Celebrity Century anchored in Baie d’Opunoho (Volcano Bay) and tenders took us to shore. We paid $5 each for a quick cab ride to a resort with a nice beach with a reef and gorgeous fish. I wore my prescription goggles and saw the reef and fish clearly. The trigger fish bite (because we were too close to their houses)! We also got sunburned for the first time so far this trip. I hope it is the only time. I wore my sunscreen shirt over my swimsuit but my thighs are slightly burned and my face feels warm. Maybe in Singapore I will look for the type of swim clothing Europeans (especially children) wear with long sleeves and short legs. Thank you to my family member who (I wish I remembered who) for Christmas gave me a tube of Bull Frog face crème. I’ve worn it before but let my guard down today. Mike’s chest got pink but he is tough and ever uncomplaining. We looked down from Morea’s volcano Belvedere to Baie d’Opunoho and Baie de Cook. Captain Cook got here too, not just to Hawaii. After our relaxing beachside morning and after noticing that we’d gotten too much sun we hired a cab driver to take us around for a mere $30 each. Mike made sure we did not dawdle so the driver, Mattie could get more fares. As he said he had to make a living once so he knows what it is like and they don’t get a ship there every day. Hence the saying, someday when my ship comes in…
To illustrate how related French Polynesian and Hawaiian languages are “Thank you” in French Polynesia is “Moraro” instead of “Mahalo” which they say in Hawaii. I asked our driver Mattie if Morea wanted independence from France and she said no, that the French do a lot for the islands, just that the French are not friendly. One explanation for French interests is that the French tested their nuclear weapons on neighboring islands so out of guilt and vacation enjoyment they built infrastructure like narrow paved roads.
Morea’s currency is French Polynesian Francs. An image of a Morea mountain shouts out “Bali Hai” from the musical and movie South Pacific on their 50 franc coin. South Pacific was actually filmed on Kauai and after seeing the Wiamea Canyon, that makes sense but nonetheless, Morea is stunning with dramatic mountains plus the water with reef lines causing various shades of blue, a thrill like sea water in the Bahamas. Mattie pointed out an archeological site for the first temple in French Polynesia. Mattie said that she attends a Protestant church. She said they have solar but we did not see any panels in Morea or anywhere else in French Polynesia. Her vehicle’s gasoline smelled dirty and we worried that it is black market gasoline and not properly refined. She pointed out a large shrimp farm and drove us through a pineapple plantation so we were satisfied with our brief island trip.
After Morea the ship stopped at Raiatea. It was Sunday and the day of rest is taken very seriously. We got up early and took the first tender to shore for a 25 minute trip. The few natives there looked discombobulated because we arrived where we were not expected. A woman told us that our captain was a wimp for not going into their port, that is was sufficiently deep. It was hot. We looked around in an air conditioned grocery store and an appliance store with toys. Truly Mike was tired and probably fevered by sunburn. When he did not want to rent a motorcycle, I knew it was time to go back to watch football. Raiatea is relatively prosperous and they do not need us. They export vanilla flavoring and Tahitian Noni. Tahitian Noni is not to be confused with the cheaper Hawaiian Noni that is sold by Costco. Noni is an awful tasting and extremely expensive guava juice that is marketed by a pyramid scheme. I went to a Noni party in Metro Detroit 10 years ago. It was full of testimonials as to Noni’s cure all properties (rheumatism, macular degeneration, muscles, nerves, etc..). The sales implication was that Tahitians simply are not ill and only recently built a hospital and their phenomenal pain free 100 year life expectancy is due to Tahitian Noni. (I believe in good tasting Michigan cherry juice instead.) I was happy to return to the ship and have a day to rest.
The ship stopped at Bora Bora the next day but we took our time going ashore. We took a $25 per person tour in a truck. Our native driver and guide Bill had a heavy French accent and was hard to understand. He said something about adoption and being raised in Marseilles but he did not seem to have a wife or children of his own. We were 4 couples; 2 Australian and another American couple from Florida. The Florida wife proudly described their happy union (I thought I was the only one to talk like that). They recently married the second time after both being widowed and meeting at their 50th high school reunion. Her husband, Bob sat next to the driver to more easily get his fat self in and out of the truck. Bob told me that he booked the cruise once they lowered his price and assured them an ocean view suite with a butler. (Some people do not like to hang up their clothes, I guess.) Mike talked to him long enough to discover stiff political differences over John Kerry so they sat apart after that. Bill told us that Bora Bora had 25 hotels but lost 5 since 2008 due to downturn.
We saw their defunct Club Med. I stayed in a Club Med in Port St. Lucy, Florida with Ben in 1994 and we both loved it. New York TV played a commercial over and over, “The Club Med vacation, the antidote for civilization…” The Club Med staff taught the guests’ children to give shows for their parents. Ben was a circus acrobat and then sailor in South Pacific. Club Med clients were very loyal and expected to return year after year. I told them that I was moving to Michigan and as far as I could tell people in Michigan vacation in Michigan. An elderly lady from France said that Michigan was like France in that regard, such a beautiful place that residents did not leave it. Bob reported that Club Med went bankrupt 3 years ago. Club Med was triple financed, that is a crime and that the assets will be tied up in court for years to come.
We saw thatched bungalows for the St. Regis, Sofitel and Meriden hotels. When I asked Bill about solar panels or solar energy he did not know. Bob dismissed solar as too expensive. He said that they do better by turning over bottles and caulking the bottle ends into ceilings to catch light. Poor places like the Philippines afford very little electricity. Implied is that how they see at night is simply not affordable and without merit. We stopped at a bar called Bloody Mary’s. Then Mike asked the driver Bill to take us up the mountain and so Bill took us up a really rough dirt trail with a great view. Female passengers were terrified of flipping over and we worried that we hurt Bill’s tip.
Sommeliers (wine stewards) and liquor bar staff are in different departments. The money spent on alcohol on the ship would probably appall judgmental me who thinks that such spending is the height of wastefulness. Sommeliers (wine stewards) and liquor bar staff are in different departments. Boddington’s Beer on the ship is $8. Mike had one on a weekend day when he’d otherwise be at home watching football. He had a beer on the beach in Morea for $4. An Australian at the beach fostered our appreciation for the Morea beach bar staff when we told us that he tripped and spilled his beer. He told that to the waitress when he ordered another beer and she did not charge him. Australians were impressed and said that a free refill of a spilled beer would not occur in Australia.
We tendered back to the ship from Morea with mostly young crew members in the kitchen staff. They must return one hour before passengers. They really like shore days since their work load is less and they have a fun break. A lot more tattoos are on the crew since of course most passengers are retirees. Mike jokes that he is the average age of 64 since there are only a dozen children on the trip. The only passenger that I notice with tattoos is a 45 year old female firefighter from San Francisco.
While we were at the beach in Morea some crew members joined us. I asked one where he was from (my stock question of anyone) and he said Bali. I told him that we will be in Bali on Jan 16 and he said he was going back on Jan 18. He said that deluxe accommodations in Bali are $50 per night. I asked his name and he said Budi. While dining as the ship is pulling away from Bora Bora, he appeared at our table in the fine suit and tie of a restaurant manager. Budiarta from is Bali. He was taken by the complexity of our retirement trip. In his imagination we were returning to our home and then taking another later vacation to Bali. Our dates in Bali are Jan 16 – 22 and Budi made a note. Then we belatedly thought to give our waiters’ captain our card (The Long Vacation/ Liz and Mike Thelen) and asked him to pass the card on to Budi. He told us that Budi is the ship’s Assistant Maître’D, simply the best! So affordable deluxe lodgings in Bali are assured.
Another good piece of travel assistance came from Terry and Sue, Australians from Queensland who advised us to look up “Relocation Camper Van.com”. The site covers both Australia and New Zealand. We expect to fly to Queenstown in the South Island and return with a camper van for the mere cost of returning the van. Terry repeated twice, $1 per day. We want to see the fjords on the South Island and now we know how to proceed. Terry discussed 1424, a book about a Chinese eunuch admiral who explored other lands almost 100 years before Columbus. In turn we told them about Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel. Mike gave them some electronic books. Typically they travel 5 times per year, 3 times abroad and 2 times inside Australia. They will visit Vancouver in a few months and plan to stay with members of ATC (Affordable Travel Club). They really know how to pack light. They toured India and recommend it heartily. They retired by selling their nursery, garden store and restaurant. They did the landscaping for the Sydney Olympics.
After Bora Bora the weather looked weirdly overcast, humid and gray. The ship rocked and bucked hard whereas the previous days had been smooth sailing. One passenger explained to me in passing that we are on a trajectory of wide open seas with no island masses to slow rough seas.
The Celebrity Century prints a news summary every day for the US, Britain, Australia, South America and Germany. The rack for French and Dutch is empty. Obviously we read the US paper and have added the Australian, Canadian and British papers. We know Julia Gillard is the prime minister of Australia. She is not popular with the passengers.
One wire from AAP (Australian Associated Press) says that Qantas has a PR disaster on Twitter. Since our interior flights are with Qantas we are watching them in fear of a strike. The Twitter comment that summed it up was “qantasluxury means sipping champagne on your corporate jet while grounding the entire airline, country, customers & staff.”
The Australians have no clue about the US health care. They have national health care, and a balanced budget. To explain health care in the US, I told about a nurse in my finance class at Walsh College in 2006. She worked 3 12-hour shifts per week in the ER on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In our Monday night class she described her weekend ordeal to explain why she was working so hard to get her MBA. She had had 6 patients; one died, one was near death and she could only walk around and see if the other 4 were breathing. She asked the woman who died why she had waited so long. The woman said that she could not pay for it then and she could not pay for it now. Americans routinely go bankrupt for medical expenses. The Australians said that explains what the trouble is all about.
We crossed the international dateline on Friday Nov. 25 and lost Saturday, Nov 26. We went to sleep on Friday and woke up on Sunday.
The last day we gave away the suitcase with our formal clothes to Zainal our stateroom attendant. He said that the crew donates to poor countries at Christmas. However a ship’ comedian aptly joked that if he donated his clothes to Africans, then they are not starving. Zainal is such a slight man that Jason, a larger man and our table executive is the recipient of Mike’s 2 sport coats, a tie, slacks, belt and shirt in case a passenger needs
such. The ship did pick up a Mayday and take on an injured yacht captain on its way to Honolulu. Otherwise Zainal got most of our clothes since what is too big can be made smaller.
such. The ship did pick up a Mayday and take on an injured yacht captain on its way to Honolulu. Otherwise Zainal got most of our clothes since what is too big can be made smaller.
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