Caribbean Cruise

Allure of the Seas

Our drive back from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale was uneventful and with the aid of the GPS the car hire (the "rental" we were reminded by American people we got to know a little later) return at the airport was a piece of cake. The only issue was the time. Once we figured out that any cruise ship transfers from Fort Lauderdale airport to Port Everglades (where the cruise ship was berthed) had long gone and caught a taxi, we were getting awfully close to the boarding time cutoff. Although not last we reckon we were probably in the last 20 passengers to check-in and board the ship before the captain closed the gangway.

Allure of the Seas berthed in Philipsburg, Saint Martin

There's many words to describe Allure of the Seas - the most obvious one is massive! If you haven't seen the Mighty Ships documentary about Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas recently, a brief description might help give you a feel for what it's like aboard. Allure (sister to Oasis) is currently the largest passenger ship in the world (while the design length of the Allure is the same as that of her sister, 360 metres, she is actually some 50 millimetres longer than Oasis). She has 2,700 staterooms on 16 passenger decks and courtesy of Central Park and the Boardwalk a large proportion of the cabins are verandah suites..With her funnels fully extended she reaches a massive 72 m above water line. (The Sydney Harbour Bridge has a mere 49 metres clearance at mid-span.)

Verandah Suites above the Boardwalk

With such a large number of passengers the quality and variety of entertainment is excellent and we enjoyed a live performance of the musical Chicago, a water based acrobatic performance in the and a contemporary musical/acrobatic performance called Blue Planet.

We were treated to a Ricky Nelson tribute show featuring his twin sons Matthew and Gunnar Nelson called Ricky Nelson Remembered.  The performance is montage of music and video that tells the story of Ricky Nelson's short but extremely successful musical career. From 1957 to 1962, Nelson had thirty Top 40 hits, (more than any other artist at the time except Elvis Presley and Pat Boone). Nelson's chart career came to a dramatic halt in the wake of The British Invasion however in 1972, Nelson reached the Top 40 one last time with Garden Party. Ricky Nelson was killed in a plane crash in 1985.

Matthew Nelson, Ricky Nelson, Gunnar Nelson

Central Park, Royal Promenade and the Boardwalk are just three of neighbourhoods you may have heard about. (There are seven separate neighbourhoods on the ship.)

Central Park is a tranquil outdoor space combining trees and landscaped vegetation, winding paths, park benches, shops and a cafe. This area is open to the atmosphere (but protected from the strong wind created by the ships own velocity) so what ever the weather is doing it's happening in Central Park.

Central Park

Central Park as night

Central Park bench

Central Park at night near forward lifts

 The Royal Promenade is a bustling main street minus the vehicles (well actually there is one car) and the Boardwalk includes amongst other things a carousel, and the AquaTheater (a pool based amphitheater).

Royal Promenade

The Caribbean Sea is often frequented in August by hurricanes and this year was no exception however this year Hurricane Irene was a whopper. The Captain decided to sail to the north of the storm and we headed for St Thomas (US Virgin Islands). We skipped the Bahamas until the return trip (subject to the amount of damage experiences in the meantime). In the end Irene had no significant impact on our cruise however many of our fellow passengers who came from North Carolina all the way up the east coast (incl. Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey and New York) were very concerned about their properties and the cancelled flights as the hurricane effectively shut down most east coast airports.

Hurricane Irene over the southern Bahamas on August 24

The highlight of this cruise for Roger was the visit to Princess Juliana International Airport (also known as Saint Maarten International Airport) which serves the Dutch part of the island of Sint Maarten. Never heard of it? In that case you're probably not all that interested in watching and marveling at great big beautiful flying machines landing and taking off.

Arriving aircraft approach the island on the last section of the final approach for Runway 10, following a 3° glide slope flying low over the famous Maho Beach. Pictures of low flying aircraft were first published in magazines in early 2000. The thrilling approaches and ease of access for shooting spectacular images, made the airport one of the world's favorite places among planespotters.

Corsair 747 nearing threshold

Maho Beach

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That's all for now BUT before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " Florida " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)

Florida

Florida - our sixth and final US State this trip. Of course now that we've "signed up" we can never totally leave the USA now as they have our fingerprints on file forever.

We continued the relentless pace (thus contributing to the delay posting this and earlier stories) with a day trip down the Floria Keys to Key West, car hire up to Orlando to spend four days at the Disney All Stars Music Resort, a three day pass into Disney World and a day excursion to Kennedy Space Centre the return to Fort Lauderdale to board Allure of the Seas (the world's largest passenger ship and finally departure to Istanbul Turkey via Frankfurt aboard an Airbus A380 - the world's largest passenger aircraft.

Disney World impressed us with its layout, landscaping and size. The Orlando site consists of many interconnected but separate parks, the principal ones being Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Hollywood and Magic Kingdom.

There's also a separate Downtown Disney precinct that doesn't require an entry pass that consists of more shops and restaurants and entertainment.

Tropical fish tank in the Rainforest Cafe

Wild creatures in the Rainforest Cafe

The whole complex of parks and resorts is serviced by a monorail that connects Magic Kingdom and Epcot, a fleet of busses and a flotilla of small ferries that ply the lake system.

We discovered that Florida in summer means a storm every afternoon. We decided not to let a bit of rain interfere with our precious time in Orlando so we ploughed (sloshed) on in our ponchos and wet shoes in all but the most intense downpours.

So what were the highlights? In the Fantasmic performance Sorcerer Mickey battles Disney Villains in a sensational laser and light show featured a montage of scenes and characters from various Disney movies including Snow White and Fantasia using fireworks, water sprays and lasers, fire and explosions and floating sets was pretty amazing.

Fantasmic

Mission: SPACE, a motion simulator ride at Epcot is as close as you can get to blasting off into space without leaving Earth, experiencing what an astronaut might experience during a space flight to Mars. This 2.4G simulation ride is quite intense, more than twice the force of the Earth's gravitational pull) plus accompanying rocket vibration and sound effects launch followed by weightlessness, a slingshot trajectory from behind the moon then the inevitable crisis  of a near crash landing. We were very impressed with the quality of the rides and the equipment used to simulate the experience.

The visit to Kennedy Space Centre was truly an eye opener especially for this pair of baby boomers who literally grew up with NASA Space Program. Standing next to and under an actual Saturn V rocket complete with Apollo vehicles was an awesome experience.

Saturn V Rocket and Apollo vehicles

Saturn V rocket engines

Apollo Command Module

Apollo Command Module after reentry

The Space Shuttle exhibit included Explorer the full-scale replica of a Space Shuttle replica external tank mated to two solid rocket boosters.

Shuttle launch

External tank and solid rocket boosters

Shuttle cargo bay

At the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program just a few weeks ago (following the landing of the 135th mission, NASA had clocked up an amazing 133 successful missions, 99 satellites were deployed and another 17 repair/rescue missions and 622 major payloads delivered. The two notable tragedies, the loss of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 were a constant reminder that mankind is still "crawling" in our quest to travel beyond our home planet.

Welcome home Atlantis

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That's all for now BUT before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " Washington " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)

Washington

US Capital at dusk

The nation's Capital, Washington DC, city of Monuments and Museums (also the place where the President has a little place where he's currently spending time trying to figure out how to reduce the country's inconceivably large debt).

Obama's house

Some blokes fixing the roof of Obama's place

For some reason we were expecting many similarities with Manhattan and of course were we surprised to discover many differences. Except for the places where there is regular watering (eg. the White House Lawns) the place is reasonably dry. In downtown area almost everything closes in the early evening and even the trains stop around midnight. The place seems quite spread out - far more walking involved to get to the nearest station.

US Capital

There are some similarities - the streets and avenue names are mostly letters of numbers and the train lines were colours so we're starting to get the feeling that a Sesame Street education was principally designed to help American kids find their way around.

Just like our experience in New York we were blown away at the quality and quantity of exhibits at all the museums we visited. We "accidently" stopped at the Holocaust Museum and thought a couple of hours would be enough (giving us time for another museum before closing time). Over four hours later we were still captivated by detailed (sometimes explicit), uncompromising presentations that conveyed visitors through post WW1 European politics, and the forced displacement (and later the "final solution") of Jews and other ethnic and religious minorities from German occupied countries during WW2. This was a no holds barred exposition showing how so many individuals, groups and nations chose to ignore what was happening during this awful period in our recent history.

Shoes - Holocaust Museum

The Newseum "where five centuries of news history meets up-to-the-second technology" featured an amazing array of the world's greatest news stories highlighting the personal conflict for news teams as they witness and become entangled in the unfolding disaster occurs including the Berlin Wall, New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, Oklahoma Bombing and the 9/11 terrorist attacks

Eight panels of the Berlin Wall

Remains of the TV Transmitter from WTC Tower

The array of original aircraft, space craft and associated equipment in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is astounding. The SpaceShipOne (see pic below) was the suborbital air-launched spaceplane that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. It now hangs from the ceiling of the museum next to the Spirit of Saint Louis and Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis"

 SpaceShipOne

We also visited many War Memorials but were particularly moved by the nineteen stainless steel statues, each larger than life-size, between 2.21 m and  2.29 m tall. The figures represent a squad on patrol, drawn from each branch of the armed forces. They are dressed in full combat gear, dispersed among strips of granite and juniper bushes which represent the rugged terrain of Korea. This memorial particularly acknowledges the contribution made by other nations including Australia.

WW2 Memorial

Korean War Memorial

As we wound up our time in Washington we also said farewell to Mandy as she headed back to Australia.

Goodbye Mandy

Washinton Monument at dusk
(the world's tallest obelisk - standing 169.294m)

Don't forget, your feedback and comments are welcomed and encouraged. (Hi Sonya & Phil and Maureen & Noel - loved getting and reading your comments).

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That's all for now BUT before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " New York " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)

New York

Statue of Liberty - 93m from foundation to tip of torch

New York, New York - plenty of charm and heaps of friendly people that will go out of their way to help you, give directions or just stop and share their Australia story with us. The other thing we love about the Big Apple is that it is such an assortment of backgrounds and cultures reflected principally through a variety of languages spoken and the cuisine.

As you probably already know, hotel accommodation prices are horrendously expensive in Manhattan so we decided to stay in a small first floor apartment in East Village. Whilst far from spacious, our accommodation was spot on in so many ways. Within just one block in any direction we could have easily dined out on cooking from literally all over the world.

Exploring Peru in East Village

Our good friend Mandy flew all the way from Sydney to join us for our week in New York and another 3 days in Washington and we immersed ourselves in as much of what this amazing city had to offer as we could squeeze in. Some of the standard "must do" highlights included catching the Staten Island Ferry just on sunset, circumnavigating Manhattan Island, walking across Brooklyn Bridge, taking in the view from the top of the 260m high Rockefeller Centre Building as the city lights appear and riding push bikes around Central Park. All wonderful memorable moments!

Downtown Manhattan

Brooklyn Bridge

Central Park

Since the Yankee's were playing the LA Angels at home, we there we took the subway to the 65,000 seat Yankee Stadium and tried to understand the nuances of this very popular game. Unfortunately we didn't catch the ball to bring home as a souvenir. The atmosphere at the ground is quite similar to a one day (day/night) cricket match except for the mexican wave. Yankees supporters are very loyal - around 80 - 90% of the patrons come wearing Yankee colours of some description especially caps and shirts. The on-screen content during changeovers is full on entertainment itself with lots of crowd involvement.

Yankee Stadium

The World Trade Centre site is now a massive construction zone as the Port Authority builds the $3.1 billion Freedom Tower on the northwest corner of the WTC site. Rising from its square base and soaring 540 metres into the sky Freedom Tower tapers into eight tall isosceles triangles, forming a perfect octagon at its centre. An observation deck will be located 415 metres above ground (105 stories) with a square glass parapet at 417 metres, the heights of the original Twin Towers. Memorial pools are being completed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of this horrendous act of terrorism next month.

Freedom Tower

We felt privileged to visit St Pauls Chapel immediately adjacent to Ground Zero and were quite moved by the tributes on display around the walls to the volunteering effort that became its focus for almost 12 months following 7/11. We were proud to spot a NSW Police badge amongst the hundreds of badges representing the hundreds of interstate and overseas recovery teams who came to NY to lend a hand.

Rescue & Recovery Team Tribute

NSW Police Badge

Miraculously, this historic church building remained untouched during the collapse of the North Tower despite it being located immediately to the east of this massive structure. Many other adjacent buildings were not so fortunate and suffered considerable damage from the falling debris.

WTC Tower Building Element

The NY Fire Department's memorial is located in the fire station just across the street from the site of the South Tower. Here amongst the many stories of those who sacrificed their lives trying to rescue the occupants of the WTC buildings was a room set aside for people to write and post their tribute around the walls or on the web. Many visitors (especially children) were participating. The collection of remnants of the personal effects, the stories (on video) and the walls filled with photographs of the victims evoked still evoked tears amongst many of the those present.

9/11 WTC Victims

9/11 Victim Memorial

Aircraft window found during search/recovery

We witnessed many dramatic contrasts in this city that never sleeps. Times Square was the most amazing gathering of people. Thousands of visitors were milling around amongst the neon and plasma promoting every conceivable category of consumer item, service or entertainment. The subway also - very modern, clean and information rich trains but appallingly dirty, run down and HOT station platforms and passageways. The reason for the higher ambient temperature as we entered the underground stations was not obvious - please let us know if you have any idea?

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Don't forget, your feedback and comments are welcomed and encouraged. You need to click on the word "comments" below. You can just select "Comment as: Anonymous" if that's easiest but sign off with your name (so we know that you posted the comment).
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That's all for now BUT before you leave -
Have you seen the previous page titled " Las Vegas / Grand Canyon " yet? (click on the link to take you there).