We wake up this morning and immediately feel a change in the weather. Gone is the heat and humidity we have been whining about. The temperature is in the high seventies. The other condition we notice is that of the sea. It is active, with nine-foot waves pushed by a stiff wind coming right at the ship. Apparently the ship has been contending with this adverse sea condition all night. Once again, we are thankful that our stateroom is amidships where the pitching of the ship is felt least. In fact, we find it quite soothing and seem to lapse into comas every night by 9 PM! This is a day to stay out of Horizons in the bow of Deck 10 for that reason.
We are heading for Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. We will anchor off of Ha Long City, which is the closest port to Hanoi (The picture that heads up this post will give you an idea of the place). As it is 743 nautical miles from Saigon, we are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, Saturday, at 1:00pm or so. We will anchor off of Ha Long City until Sunday at 5:00pm.
Every day at noon, the Captain comes on the public address system and gives us a message. It is usually nothing but the weather, where we are and when we are expected to arrive at our next port. Today he starts off just like all the other messages. At the end of the routine stuff, he pauses and we all think that is the end.
But no, he isn’t quite done. He adds that, due to the rough sea conditions, winds and currents, we will not arrive in Ha Long Bay until 6pm rather than 1pm tomorrow.
Now normally, a delayed arrival is no big deal when the original time was as late as 1pm. Not this time. There are Junk Cruise of Ha Long Bay excursions scheduled. Some are three-hour cruises, but there is also one overnight cruise costing people $800. All these excursions are scheduled to leave at 2:15pm as we are supposed to have arrived an hour and fifteen minutes beforehand.
And these are not your ordinary harbor cruises. Ha Long Bay is designated as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Everybody on the ship, and that most certainly includes Cathy and Steve, have been looking forward to traveling around this magnificent bay since we left Miami. Ha Long Bay has within it 1,969 islets (small islands), islets so numerous that over nine hundred of them don’t even have names. They are primarily limestone, and the bay has achieved its present state after 500 million years.
The minute he signs off, everybody aboard starts thinking “What? Really? &%$# !!” Instantly, the people who are always first to complain are already heading down to Deck 4 to storm Destination Services and raise hell. Within five minutes, Cruise Director Leslie Jon is back on the PA system pleading with people not to badger Destination Services, adding that they are working on rescheduling all of the excursions affected and will notify all of us when arrangements have been made.
Now normally, Mr. and Mrs. Transportation understand that, you know, stuff happens. But maybe not so much this time. First of all, in this instance, Oceania did not build in any extra time in the event of weather delays, even though a third of the passengers were scheduled to take a tour as soon as the ship arrived. C’mon guys. Build in a few hours. The worst that could happen is that we arrive early.
Secondly, the bridge officers that had figured out that there was a problem (probably hours before the noon announcement) did not think to let the poor people in Destination Services know that this delay was going to happen before they notified the passengers. They found out when we did, and that left them flat-footed when the angry entitled ones began to jump up and down demanding that they do something.
It is rare that we do not bend over backwards to completely sympathize with the operations side of this ship, having seen a thousand examples of how weather can raise havoc with transportation plans. Let’s now see how the hospitality side of the ship deals with this problem. The ball’s in their court – again.
But at least this evening we are in for a special treat. As ATW guests, we are given some very special treatment from time to time, mainly in the form of exclusive events. Tonight is one of them, a Captain’s Dinner at either Toscana or the Polo Grill, the two high-end restaurants. Days before, we receive our table assignment, and have drawn Table 26 in Polo Grill.
The dinner is to begin at 7:00pm, and the theme is the Chinese New Year, celebrating the Year of the Dog. At lunch, sommelier Lupka had told us that the staff is busy decorating the restaurants for the occasion, so we are very much looking forward to this occasion.
And indeed, the staff has outdone themselves. The tables are adorned with clever centerpieces (including a toy dog that waves his paw), everyone has souvenir chopsticks and special menus, and, of course, a fantastic meal is served. We are seated with Sue from New Jersey, Bob and Brenda from Arizona, and the ship’s Chief Electro Technical Officer Ivaylo Papazov, who we jokingly called “Electro.” It was a very fun evening – a very good end to a not so very good day. Tomorrow we will see what magic Destination Services has performed for all of us. Cathy and I are confident they will solve the problems created by this unfortunate delay.
