Trivial Nothings

There are just a few updates to the subject of our upcoming Cruise that bear reporting. None of these are earth-shattering, and after reading them you may wonder why I even reported them.

          The answer is easy,

          It’s 4:30 AM and I’m bored, so it’s time to write!

          I find that I need answers to questions that the Cruise Help Desk has difficulty answering. This may be because since that industry took it on the chin that they lost a good portion of their staff, and the newer folks just don’t have the requisite experience to satisfy my need for an answer.

          Or it may be that I ask questions that most folks don’t give a hoot about, therefore, they don’t get asked with any regularity.

          Probably a combination of the two is the answer.

          But it doesn’t stop me from calling!

          I am now an expert at navigating through the Menu that Miss Princess Electronic Answering Voice has waiting for me when I dial the 800 number. One of my favorite parts of the call is identifying our Booking Number.

          I inform the Cruise Answer person, “Our Booking Number is 6 Victor Golf Victor Golf Tango.”

          Or,,,, 6VGVGT

          The way of identifying the alpha part of the sequence with the appropriate nomenclature is an old hold-out from my days flying out of Sussex Airport. In both military and commercial aviation, the name that a letter is given is quite specific. Someone who is not familiar with this sequence would do the same thing, but say something like this, “B as in Boy”, “H as in Hat” and so on. There is a correct way to do this, but you need to know the correct crossover in order to communicate successfully.

          I flew mainly in two different Cherokee 140’s when I was learning to fly. They were identified by the last three alpha-numeric “N” numbers on the fuselage. My favorite plane was “13 Fox”(short for “Foxtrot” which obviously represents the letter ‘F’) So when on the Unicom/radio, it went something like this, “Sussex Unicom, this is Cherokee 13 Fox entering downwind, Runway 3 Sussex”

          I’ll bet that all of us would say  “F as in Frank, D as in Dog” and so on. We would all be laughed out of the Control Tower if we tried that!

          After we get through the Cruise Number Identification Procedure and some additional “Identifying Questions”, we get to the part where I try and unintentionally stump them. Really, I do not ask questions just to see if they have the answer, I/we really want/need to know the answers! Some questions are strictly for convenience. Others are quite important.

          Examples:

                   Convenience Question – “Do you know if among the provided bath accessories if there is a body wash or are there bars of soap?”

          See? Not that important, just wondering, do we want/need to bring body wash with us? It’s a good thing that this is not an important question that needs answering because apparently no one has asked it before so nowhere is it indicated which one it is!

          The suspense is killing us.

                   Important Question – “Is the ‘one device’ per wi-fi package needed to be used for your phone so that you can effectively use the ‘Medallion App’ (that I explained previously) or is there a stand-alone network for the App?” (Thus, freeing up that ‘One Device per package’ for a laptop needed to be used for writing and posting to this blog!)

          That answer was quite nebulous, depending on who we spoke to. I was finally able to ascertain that answer myself by digging up some instructions on how to use the App, that identified which wi-fi network to use for the App (available in Airplane Mode) which means that it is strictly a local network, not needing the wi-fi package.) This answer was quite important because even though an additional wi-fi package could be purchased on board, it would have been an additional $1000 + for a voyage of this length. I would have need to find “$$$ponsors” for the blog!

          One of the “Hanging Chads” of our Excursion Booking Dilemma was Jerusalem. Way back in the beginning I told Paula that Jerusalem was way too important a city to be shuffled around with forty of our new best friends. I decided that we needed a Private Tour and that I would be happy to incur the extra expense since it was my unwillingness to experience it any other way that led us to book an excursion this way.

          This is somewhat of a gamble as since it is not through Princess. They make it quite clear that they have zero responsibility when it comes to getting you back on board in time for departure. I did use an organization that they ‘recommended’ called Tours by Locals and judging by their ratings and comments, we are in good hands.  The first time that I tried to book something though, I hit a wall as the guides were all strictly based in Jerusalem. We arrive in Ashod, a port on the coast which is about an hour away. These guys do not pick folks up at the port. Ouch! I put that one down for a while fully intending to pick it back up more sooner than later. Well, sooner turned into later and it was just this past week that I finally called their headquarters and spoke to a Help Desk person who successfully put me in touch with several Shore Excursion tour guides! These guys are equipped to pick up their clients at the ports and start and end their days accordingly.

          The procedure is that you list the day, port, time, and anything else that may be of importance and the Tours by Locals folks put it out to the appropriate Local Tour Guides who then get back to you with their availability. You then get a chance to sift through each guides specialties, languages, reviews, etc. and pick one that will suit your needs.

          I picked one.

          His name is Aladdin S.

          We are expecting quite the tour!