We are to board Queen Elizabeth at Yokohama, the most populated city in Japan. Once again, we threaten our ability to stay cool while negotiating a train station, with 4 bags, looking for a service, platform and ticket. All was achieved without profuse sweat and we stood on another packed train, on a mid Sunday morning, for 30 minutes, before taking a taxi from downtown to the dock. Boarding a ship is like a gathering of hoarding clans as people emerge from differing worlds to arrive in one common bond!
I’ve had three Cunard experiences, having dreaded the first. I took my Mum to NYC for her 75th, coming back transatlantic, on QM2. My fears of 5 days with octogenarians and purple rinses was dispelled by Uma Thurman checking in, in front of me!
I enjoyed the space, it’s enforced by geography but the mental process is one of unwinding and finding a level, once achieved, sorted. Now enthused, Angelka and I did 7 days in the Norwegian fjords on Queen Victoria, the smallest, and newest. Further enthused, we did a North Sea trip to Bruges and Paris for four days on QM2.
This trip is different, it’s 16 nights of which 7 are at sea, without port stops. The room we’ve been allocated doesn’t work, it vibrates. It takes 12,hours to sort out, given it’s a full ship, which we both sleep in it’s entirety, as it’s a completely blacked out room. We like the “stateroom” we’ve been moved to and also change our dining time, the new arrangements work and 24 hours in we are settling in and very happy to have this period of very little coming up. You can be as social as you like, choosing a multi place table or, just yourselves. One thing we soon realised is that this is to be an older guest. We’d not factored in that a 14+ days trip would make it impractical for most that work. The guests are mainly Antipodeans, Canadians, Brits and Japanese. This makes the cuisine options more interesting, as well as activities on offer. A bit like golf, I thought cruises/voyages were for the older generation. Previous trips dispelled that myth, however, this one is more stereotypical.
On the second day, also my birthday, we stop at Aomori. This is a small city, reminiscent of Reykjavik, it’s cooler as we’ve travelled north. On the dock are a band, loads of school kids and a throng of well wishers. This is the maiden visit by such a big ship and the town has rolled out the red carpet. I went ashore to take some pictures before breakfast and was given a calendar by a lady telling me it was free, “thank you and welcome!”
The town is surrounded by snow capped mountains, populated by dramatic architecture and its wonderful to leave the ship to greet the excited school kids.
The area is renouned for a cherry blossom festival which runs for three weeks and it’s sake industry, a little like the wine lands near Cape Town, the festival attracts tens of thousands from all over the country. While it finished two days previously, there’s still more than enough beauty on show with the dramatic backdrop of Mount Usa, doing a passable imitation of Mt Fiji! The bus journey to, and from, the festival park takes you through an area that produces most of Japan’s apples as well as seeing spring starting to take off, every shade of vibrant green from new leaves and shrubs. It was quite surprising to see so many solar farms, given that the temperature was low 50’s and spring was only just beginning, in the first week of May!
Back in the town and a meander around its grid layout, we find a coffee shop, innocuous in appearance, however, the proprietor is a barista of note and makes a superb macchiato and flat white for his two surprised guests. One of the locals proudly shows us a newspaper article with our host showcased on the front page, result. We depart long after dark, however, the town has turned out and a hundred screaming kids waving a pair of glow sticks is a delightful sight, and sound!
The next day, we stop at Sapporo. Cunard are going a little Ryanair here, as it’s actually Muroran, 90 minutes from Sapporo by train. No matter, again, a maiden visit with the locals there to great us, press ganged in to information people, shuttle buses to town and school kids to write your name in Japanese. This is Haikkado, the most northern island of Japan and our last stop before 7 days at sea to get to Juneau, Alaska.
Every stop involves tours which take in the local hot spots, in this case relevant as it’s hot springs. As veterans of thermal eruptions we decided to avoid the crowds and go off piste. I have to admit I find it soul destroying to be on a bus tour with contrived comfort breaks in an area of shops, or stalls and traipsing around like a sheep behind a guide. Yesterday, our guide, Kimi was a nutcase, who regales us with how much she likes to drink, and, how she got sacked, as an English teacher, for teaching her students by using Beatles lyrics, edgy rock and roll in the late 60’s, early 70s! It’s classical music now!
Muroran has little to commend it for a tourist. It’s an industrial town so, we take the train to Sapporo to, at least, have a beer at the brewery. We must have all liked the unique silver can that was all the rage in the early 90’s? However, once there, it was too big an excursion so googled best coffee in town and headed off in the general direction to, eventually, find our hole in the wall coffee bar. It was complicated! Once you’ve found it, you are confronted with choosing between four different types of milk. This was only bettered by the toilet seat, that had 6 separate buttons as well as what appeared to be carpet, on the rim of the seat! The coffee compensated. This city was home to the Winter Olympics way back when. A chilly 13C protected the snow on the peaks of the enormous mountain range, surrounding the city. The train journey is of similar length as Birmingham to Euston, it’s nice to watch the world go past, observing the differences as well as getting out of ship mode. Most houses are two stories and appear prefab, or, at least, plastic cladding over a wood frame, sat on a concrete plinth. They have flat roofs and it’s all very formulaic, apart from the colour of the cladding. I’m not sure if this is a cost factor, or the need to be earthquake proof. For a nation of 120 million, there’s a surprising number of green spaces and parks, all of which have fitness opportunities. The fields are all prepared, impeccably, the planting/growing season, it’s as if this area is a cocked spring waiting to be released by.... Spring!
It is a great joy to watch the connection of strangers that the ship’s arrival creates. The school kids are enraptured by these foreigners, how exotic to find out where they come from. Once they know we are from Africa their eyes wide still further. There’s one group of high school kids offering to write your name in Japanese calligraphy, trying out their English and insisting on photos. When the ship leaves at 9.30pm, it’s pitch black but the dock is awash with lights, waving, singing and a band playing. A few hundred guests are reciprocating, it’s a great connection.
Time to slip away from life’s reality and become suspended within the QueenElizabeth cocoon! It’s 3000 nautical miles to our next stop, the earth’s crust is some 30000ft below is, we lose one hour a day as we head for the International date line, before gaining one hour a day! The Captain, a lady from the Faroe Islands, has decided the time change shall be at 9.00am, rather than 2.00am, normally. It’s quite disorientating, you leave, after breakfast, at 8.59 and it takes you over an hour to get out of the dining room. There are a multitude of things to do, a daily diary that involves over 60 things, competitions, services, instruction, demonstrations, talks, exhibitions, soirées, tutoring plus the cinema, pub, gym, library, spa, bars, tea rooms, cafes, buffet..... I’ve taken to running around deck 3, there are 12, but this one is an unobstructed loop and three circuits is a mile. I ran for half an hour and expected to see if gone 6+ Km’s, however, the Apple watch says 17kms! I’m running at the speed I cycle at, however, when I see the map of my route I realise that because I’m running in circles the gsm in the watch is tracking the ships route, and speed!
You have the same table for dinner and get to know the staff. Ionel, is the Rumanian head waiter, Alvin and Hector, our waiters are from the Philippines and Alexander, our sommelier, is from Serbia, but lives in Bali. They all engage, especially the second sitting when they can relax a little. We’ve seen family photos, Ionel’s sister lives in Cape Town and has become a firm friend, he also knows a, sadly departed, friend of ours, Simon Wall, who virtually lived on Cunard and we share stories of our common bonds!
Losing an hour at 9.00am means you are not in the mood for lunch, there is an afternoon tea at 3.00pm when the white gloved waiters emerge in a procession carrying tea, sandwiches, scones and patisserie, in that order, on the dot of 3.00pm. It’s as much the ceremony and, the tradition, that makes this such a unique experience!
It’s a strange environment, it’s timeless, while there is the internet, it’s seems less of s crushing importance to be “online”, it’s quite expensive so you have to manage your minutes. I’ve read a book by Imran Khan called “Pakistan”, a remarkable insight to a religion, country and culture I know nothing of and had dismissed as a destination by a prejudice I’d developed by osmosis! I loved it, have broken down that prejudice and feel more informed, I’d never have picked that book up on terra firma! Sleep becomes more predictable, a black out room with nothing to see, changes your expectation, we slept until 10.45 am one morning, sheepishly turning up for lunch and hour or so later. I blamed Ionel for putting catnip in our coffee to quieter us all down!
There is TV, however, what’s the point? Given that you are disengaged, do you really need to know the minutes, life onboard is about the headlines, the copy becomes an irrelevance.
You become aware of the significance of the grey and pink pound. There is a very clear recognition of the LGBT relevance. Cunard has always been attractive to the gay world, they have a meeting point and appointed hour should they wish to. You can book other voyages onboard, with incentives and discounts, there’s always a queue!
It is amazing that you can be one of 2500 guests and up to 2000 staff and, yet, you can find areas where you are on your own, or in relative quiet!
We cross the International Date Line, during the early morning of Monday 13th, which means we slip back a day to enjoy our second Sunday 12th May! We continue our trend of putting the clocks forward an hour, time flies when you are having fun! It is a little confusing if you are communicating with the world; yesterday, I was talking to my son, Rory, who was 20 hours behind us in LA, today, I’m 3 hours ahead!! If you are onboard and your birthday is May12th, how special is that? It would be quite good fun to have done a Groundhog Day, deliberately living both days as the same day! Little things amuse little minds!
We were invited to a drinks reception recognising “Cunarders”, who are part of the World Club, that’s a minimum of three voyages. One couple were honoured as the most frequent travellers, 1398 days onboard over 30 years. I worked that out to be six weeks a year! They were both British doctors, well paid and great holiday allowance!!
The ships crew use a frequency for their internal phone system. Apparently, this is a high security frequency in the US, and as we are approaching The Aleutian Islands, part US, part Russia, the whole system has to be shut down to avoid a very heavy fine! Words like insular and paranoid spring to mind, along with comb over and orange!
Even though we’ve still got two more days at sea before docking at Kodiak, you do see wildlife, the occasional school of dolphins and, strangely, a solitary seal. One of the celebrity speakers is Conrad Humphreys, who sailed single handed, around the world, taking part in the Vendee Globe. Apart from thinking what an idiot, you are amazed at the ability of the human body, and spirit to overcome whatever nature, and the elements, can throw at you. One of his keels sheared off, hitting something 400 miles of Cape Town, and he repaired it, single handed, with great ingenuity, off Simon’s Town, before re-entering the race 500 miles behind the nearest competitor. He eventually came 9th, of twenty. An extraordinary story!
The day before arriving at Kodiak gives you an idea of what you can get up to, foil fencing lesson, paddle tennis, pub quiz, roulette competition, Tavel tennis, Q&A re sailing around the world, vacariously reading my third book of the voyage, gym.... as well as breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner!
You could tell you were getting closer to land, the aroma of the sea changed, you noticed it was now tidal, rather than a swaying mass, and a lot more wildlife, curious to see this behemoth!
We finally reach land, Kodiak Island, and have docked in a bowl of snow capped mountains, it’s spring, warmer than expected, queueing patiently for the US immigration to process us all, floor, by floor. 2000+ people descending upon a town of 6000, all hoping to find a coffee, nick nack and free WiFi! There are more bears in Kodiak, than people, a golden brown bear. However, some of the people are bigger than the bears! We are in the land of gas guzzling trucks, bakkies on steroids, huge things. We eventually pitch up at the hospitable library at the top of a hill, which reduces the likelihood of a lot of Cunarders being there. A hundred, or so, of us binge on their free WiFi while they offer us tea and coffee, nice people!
There’s a Russian Orthodox Church, a few museums and a couple of streets with the necessary infrastructure, banks etc. wherever you go it’s people from the ship who overwhelm the town. This is the first Cunard ship to go to Alaska for thirty years, the town seems unprepared, by comparison to Japan!
n 1964 there was a huge earthquake in Alaska, Kodiak dropped 5’6” in its level and was drowned by 10, 30’ high waves. If there had been the news coverage we have today, we’d have known about it! It was the second biggest seismic shift ever recorded. Fortunately, it occurred on a Bank Holiday Friday, schools were closed, churches between services and it’s the largest, most uninhabited state. Only nine people lost their lives in the earthquake, however, another 100 died as a result of the tsunami that occurred all the way down the west coast of America.
By the time we are in Anchorage, there’s a lot more evidence and historical documentation. A museum shows footage, such that the news was, as well as a surround shift that rocks your chair, to the same extent, as the earthquake. The film is presented by an actor as a physician. The curator of the museum refers to him “packing some heat”, which could have meant a vacuum flask, or sexual readiness, however, for some reason, he needs to tell us the actor is wearing a gun!
Anchorage is a new town, it’s development from gold prospecting, along a river known as Ship Creek, (titter ye not!) didn’t really start until the 50’s with it only being recognised by US Congress in 1959, as the 49th state, allowing Hawaii, a few months later, to become the 50th! In the last 30 years it has grown to 300,000, not big by any means yet it’s a little like Dubai. You fly somewhere, to somewhere, via a refuel stop at Anchorage, eg New York - Hong Kong, or Seoul. The surrounding mountains are snow topped, and very beautiful. We got to see an example of how the land sank between two tectonic plates and the ripple effect it created. It must have been very, very frightening to watch/experience. As we’ve headed north the sunset has gone from 6.00pm in Hong Kong to 10.40pm in Alaska. The stunning scenery makes the sunset time much appreciated. One thing we noticed in Anchorage was just how nannied we were by all and sundry. The shuttle coach wouldn’t move until everyone was sat down and had gone through a five minute safety briefing, for a 10 minute ride downtown. The driver’s attempt at humour just made it patronising drivel. The coffee shop had security! I think we are now in the land of the litigious which makes service providers so wary. The people are really friendly, albeit, with provisos. We went for a beer at a craft brewery. I said to the waitress, “so, we are in the 49th state” “No Sir, you are in the Brewery!”
Another day at sea; we travel towards Juneau, the state capital, home, I presume, to Sarah Palin. The initial stage of the journey is along a mountainous shoreline, the next day, plain sea while, the approach in to Juneau is 5 hours of beautiful scenery, the occasional whale, sea otter all in glorious sunshine, it’s just under 50F, however, wonderful to feel the sun on your face, as a lot of the guests are on the top decks taking it all in. We have a go at paddle board, a sort of tennis with table tennis bats, a rally is something worth waiting for!
Usually, it would be raining in Juneau, 250+ days a year, it’s actually an area of rain forest, it looks more alpine that USA! The port is used to these behemoths and there are two ships in today,4500 people, plus crew, arriving in a city of around 40000. There are jewelers everywhere, a reflection of the mineral deposits locally, however, both of us are booked on trips, I’m fishing, sadly, too early for salmon while AD is off “native” kayaking up to the glacier, our fourth on four continents! There are four of us fishing, Capt Redneck doesn’t believe in climate change, “show me the data”! This winter, where they are normally -10 to -20, it’s been 0-5C, the 40 inches of snow has been 6 inches and he’s never seen the lake and the seas so becalmed over winter. I pointed out he had to accept the narrative as he was unlikely to understand the data, which quietened him down. We were bottom fishing, weights taking the line down to the sea inlet floor, 100’ below. We caught some rock fish and some very strange looking fish from the deep, that had porcupine like p**** on all of it’s fins, that gave you a nasty sting! Anyway, a Kiwi, Yank, German and I enjoyed a great 4 hours, or so. The Kiwi is the father to one of the All Black most successful players! The highlight had to be getting up close to a bald eagle, sitting atop a large navigation bouy. We tried to tempt it with entrails, before it flew off, with great sustain with a large fish in its talons!
It’s all downhill from here, no more ports to stop at, only disembarkation in two days time. It’s quite traditional for the chefs to put on a show on the last day at sea. There are some tremendous ice sculptures of an eagle, moose, salmon, maple leaf and bear, to which you add a whole station of cakes, patisseries, and chocolates. Masses of people descend to get the money shot!
We have our final black tie dinner, we’ve been invited to the ship’s officers table, I’ve done my last wash and iron, I’m looking forward to seeing Rory on his 30th, the girls in Blighty and Harry and my coffee machine is Cape Town! We are both weighed down by colds, on our table is to be the second in command of the medical team, I’m expecting to be sent to my room when I first blow my nose!
A really enjoyable evening, the ship’s safety officer is from Sunderland and the lady from medical seems oblivious to my spluttering!
Once you start to pack, as we are on our final day, you are good to go, the scenic cruise in to Vancouver is blighted by fog and it’s chilly to be on deck, our colds also dampen the mood! Having spent over two weeks in the company of the same personnel, it’s sad to say “goodbye”. Ionel, the Head Waiter, is a star and we’ve enjoyed lots of laughs. Alvin, our Phillipino waiter, a Duracell bunny, on speed, Herbert, his assistant, a mass of “welcome”s and Alexander, our Sommelier from Serbia, have all helped make the voyage great. There’s a final afternoon tea, pub quiz etc not knowing when, or if, we’d do it again. Each voyage , each ship, has its personality. It’s a unique experience, however, it’s all about a moment in time in your life....