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NOTE: A photo collection which illustrates this article may be elicited by clicking: Cruise to South Africa: Images and Impressions. Southern Africa: Images and Impressions. South Africa to Victoria Falls: Images and Impressions. A voyage to West Africa had been on my priority list for a long time and the appearance of the new Pacific Princess on the horizon meant this was the time to go. The ship has had good reviews and it is always exciting to try a new ship and a new itinerary. I had cruised on the former "love boat" Pacific Princess and enjoyed it so I figured its namesake would do as well. It might be interesting to note for cruisers intending a trip to Africa and perhaps a bit of inland adventure that immunizations are part of the cruise and these issues have to be addressed before departure. First, there is the Yellow Fever vaccination which is good for ten years and effective from the 10th day after primary vaccination. Completion of this process has to be recorded on a validated International Certificate of Vaccination and may be required for entry into certain countries. Then there is the updating of shots such, as in my case, an influenza vaccine, Polio vaccine, Pneumonia Vaccine booster, Oral Typhoid vaccine plus taking along antimalarial and antidiarrheal pills to be used as needed. The list is long but for an extended stay, it should be considered as required. If this is not enough for precruise preparation, attention has to be given to obtain the required visas of countries such as Brazil, Ghana and Togo (for Americans). About fifty passengers showed up in Fort Lauderdale without the Brazilian visa and were denied boarding. In my case, the documentation sent by Princess Cruises clearly indicated a Brazil visa was a requirement but others may not have been informed and others may have thought that they could just stay on the ship and miss the Fortaleza port visit but no one was allowed on the ship if they needed the visa and did not have one. Those that missed boarding in Fort Lauderdale had to visit the Brazilian Consulate for processing and then fly to St. Kitts to join the ship at that point. Incidentally, the Ghana and Togo visas were obtained by the ship and the cost of some $20 each were added to the shipboard accounts automatically. I had been watching a series of hurricanes visit Florida as the departure time drew near but I figured they would not be a factor; however, about five days before boarding the vessel it became apparent that Hurricane Jeanne, which was in the Puerto Rican area, might indeed threaten the smooth sailing of the Pacific Princess. A report from one of the passengers mentioned that the ship, which was about to transit the Panama Canal bound for Fort Lauderdale, had already announced that due to Hurricane Ivan's intense damage in the Grand Caymans that Ocho Rios would be visited instead. One had to wonder what kind of impact another hurricane might have on this upcoming voyage. Incidentally, it was interesting to watch the progress of the ship as it headed to Miami by checking the ship's webcam every so often. I flew into Miami four days before departure and proceeded to rent a car and drive west on the Tamiami Trail, Route US 41, to experience the Everglades and the air sleds run by the Miccosukee Indians then drive south to Key West along Route US 1 out to sea. The weather was excellent and the accommodations at Key Biscayne made the few days both memorable and pleasurable. Driving through Miami Beach and up to Fort Lauderdale to drop off the car at FLL and a shuttle to the ship all made life easy. Wed 22 Sep Fort Lauderdale departure 1700. The registration process around noon was quick and the ship at first glance appeared to be an excellent choice. In fact, that first impression never changed throughout the trip and I have to congratulate Rennaissance for their skills in the design and fashioning of the ship. It never ceased to please. One of the first onboard announcements by the Captain pointed out that Hurricane Jeanne to the east would be a factor in our voyage so we would take the southern route from Florida to skirt the northern shore of Cuba and use the Bahamas as a sort of buffer from the adverse winds of Jeanne. The route was excellent, although it added some extra 200 miles to our itinerary, and we had just a bit of rolling for about a day but no other effects. The voyage had started on a good note. Thur 23 Sep at sea. One of the initial places I visited this morning was the swimming pool to see how suitable it would work for a bit of exercise. It was tiny but about normal for a ship of its size. I found that I did visit the two jacuzzies on either side of the pool as much as I used the pool. The dance floor at the Cabaret Lounge was a nice size and the dancing lessons used the area so that aspect was covered. The Pacific Lounge had an even larger dance floor so that added another aspect to the dance picture. The food service was essentially in the Club Dining Room which was most suitable although there were a few alternate restaurants, the foremost of which was the Panorama which was handy for breakfasts and the occasional lunch. So much for the essentials. Fri 24 Sep at sea. The days at sea are most welcome at the start of a voyage. The last few days before a long cruise are always filled to overflowing for the final lurch to get on the ship and it always seems to leave one a little winded. In any case, the ease of shipboard life after days of preparation is very much to be desired. |
| Caribbean |
Sat 25 Sep, 1000/1900. St. Kitts is a relatively small island some 25 miles in length and shaped somewhat like a fat baseball bat with the thinner handle pointing to the southeast and ending with a circular island called Nevis that seems like the dot in an exclamation point. The island complex is still heavy in sugar cane and an island tour will surely make this evident. I had been around the island previously so I managed to get a ferry for the hour-long trip to Nevis and get to the marvelous Pinney's Beach which was completely without people! To be more explicit, I swam on the rather long beach closest to the small town of Charlotteville rather than the northern end which houses the out-of-sight Four Season's Hotel. The intervening area is bordered by an uninterrupted strand of coconut trees and extremely photogenic. The return ferry was fortunately available to return to St. Kitts in plenty of time to board the cruise ship before sailing from the abbreviated visit to this two-island nation. Sun 26 Sep, 0700/1700. Dominica still remains as one of the most vegetated islands of the Caribbean with lush forests and relatively few roads. The ship moored in Roseau, the capital and largest port in the island nation. It is easy to conduct a self-guided walking tour of the city's historical district; however, I rented a taxi to drive up to the usually visited Trafalgar Falls area and even got a chance to swim, or rather bathe, in the cold stream emanating from the falls. The area is very scenic and not far from Roseau and an easy ride. Mon 27 Sep, 1200/1800. Port of Spain, Trinidad is a thriving port city; however, the tourist soon looks outside the city for added attractions. I rented a taxi with some friends and we quickly drove through the alleged largest rotary/roundabout of about a mile around the Queen's Park Savannah in the heart of the city before we headed north to the Maracas Beach area where I had a little swim from one of the island's nicest beaches. We inquired about visiting some of the panyards where the steel drum, or steel pan, bands practice but were informed that they really only hit their stride during the period before Carnival in February/March and were not now in evidence. We also drove as far as we could to the west to Chaguaramas Bay which was the site of a US naval base that apparently can still be used by US forces should an emergency arise. The area abounds in bays, islands and some good beaches. The taxi driver incidentally was named Aleem Muhammad who was delighted to be compared to an American boxer of the almost the same name. He had spent quite a few years in the US and conducted a most enjoyable and informative tour. The island has quite a large East Indian population. Of course, one has to purchase some great Trinidadian rum and a few bottles were brought on board with no dissent from the Pacific Princess authorities. Tue 28 Sep at sea. The dance lessons continue to be a highlight of the ship's activities. The initial sequence of dances started with the merengue and continued with latin rhythms such as the samba, rhumba and cha-cha. This pattern lasted throughout the Caribbean and South America. |
| South America |
Wed 29 Sep, 1200/1800. Devil's Island, French Guiana is a very small island, one of three forming the Isles de Salut just about nine miles off the French Guiana coastline near Kourou which is itself the site of the European Space Launching Activity. The ship anchored off Isle Royal which is the main administrative center of the ex-prison colony and still the site of the museum and lone hotel in the islands. Only about a half-dozen inhabitants live full time on Isle Royal with a few small ferries carrying visitors back and forth to the mainland for the one-hour run. The third isle is St. Joseph's Island and was the site of prison cells for most of the prisoners. The prison colony was considered a place of no return, not only because of the difficulty of escaping but because sentencing of more than eight years meant that the prisoner would have to spend the rest of his life in the colony or on the mainland. All the islands are much more lush than in the convict days and are now actually very pretty to view even mindful of their previous grim history. There are some monkeys, agoutis and a variety of birds, including macaws, pheasants and peacocks on the islands but not much else. A few hours visit is just about right for most cruise visitors as a walking tour is about all one can manage on Isle Royal. Thur 30 Sep at sea. The days at sea are delicious in my opinion. Aside from sleep deprivation, there are no negative aspects of spending time on a cruise ship after a port visit or two. The sea days permit one to try the many ship activities which in my case includes trivia, some mild sports events, dancing, attending the evening production shows and a few games. One, of course, has to be selective as the quality of the events and shows vary considerably and one has to be flexible in choosing alternate attractions. Fri 1 Oct at sea. A word about Sabatini's alternate dining on the Pacific Princess. A pair of tablemates celebrated an anniversary there one evening and found it a vast disappointment sort of across the board and they commented that the evening meals in the Club Restaurant are superior from their standpoint. In any event, the evening meals are delightful and consistently so. Other of our tablemates tried the second optional restaurant, the Steak House, and found the meals there to be excellent although I saw no reason to try them. Sat 2 Oct, 0800/1700. Fortaleza, Brazil is a good sized port in northeastern Brazil and is noted for the many beaches it has to offer both east and west of the city; however, right in the city the beach situation is different. Pollution dissuades use of the main beach in the center of town and the beach to the east, Playa do Futuro, is considered dangerous because one can be easily mugged especially on that part of the long beach closest to the port and lighthouse. Nevertheless, one can spend the better part of the day exploring the various museums and attractions of this city of more than two-million population. I had been in Fortaleza before so I spent a lot of time ashore merely walking the shoreline and enjoying the Brazilian experience. I always try to down a few caipirinha which is a popular drink that originally was concocted to ward off colds and the flue by blending cachaca, a sugar cane rum in the following recipe: one sliced and crushed lime added to sugar and ice cubes and topped off with cachaca to taste. Cheers. The ship had arrived in Fortaleza on schedule but the federal authorities deemed it necessary to photograph and fingerprint all US citizens and this took until noon to complete. Some passengers requested that they not be processed at all and their requests were approved provided they did not go ashore. The captain seemed to be quite displeased with the whole process but this was not the end of problems for the ship. Apparently a number of crew were detained by the police for specious reasons and as a result it took an extra two hours waiting at the pier before all the detained crew could be returned to the ship. Then about 45 minutes after we departed the port we had to return again to drop off a passenger who had a medical emergency. All in all it was a bad day for the Pacific Princess in Brazil. Sun 3 Oct at sea. The fun and games aboard the ship resumed once we were at sea. There seems to be no end of activities one can find to pleasantly pass the time of day. The most rewarding for me was the team of dance instructors, Mike and Inge from Canada, who started with the latin dances then switched to swing and Nightclub 2-Step, their specialty, for the Atlantic transit. Their manner of instruction was crisp and easy to follow and they contributed enormously to the entertainment aboard the vessel. Mon 4/Wed 6 Oct at sea. These days are a blur of self-indulgence aboard the Pacific Princess and would not interest anyone except my shipmates so I will not attempt any details. Suffice to say that seventeen of the twenty-eight days of the voyage were spent at sea and there is a repetition to the events that does not merit chronicling. |
| Africa |
Thur 7 Oct, 0800/1800. Dakar, Senegal is a thriving port city strategically located at the westernmost part of Africa roughly midway between Europe and South America and midway between Europe and South Africa. It serves as the outport for inland countries in the region such as Mali and is a great entrepot for goods moving in and out of West Africa. The port area is convenient to the city; however, cruise passengers are encouraged to use taxis inasmuch as the street vendors are very persistent and petty crime is rather prevalent. With a few friends, we managed to take the 20-minute ferry to Goree Island, a small but historically important former slave center, which is directly east of Dakar. A self-guided walk is easy enough to see the World Heritage Site and visit the gun emplacements and cliffs that were featured in the film "Guns of Navaronne". I had visited the city on an earlier cruise so I focused on the urban core using a taxi to negotiate the often crowded and traffic-snarled areas even very early in the morning. A number of passengers opted for tours to the countryside and the drive north to the so-called pink lake and sand dune area was particularly recommended. The weather was hot and humid and most visitors thought that the conditions made the day a bit more tiring than usual; on the other hand, I seem to thrive in hot country so I didn't particularly notice but a dip in the ocean would have been appreciated. Six passengers left the ship in Dakar with a variety of physical problems such as a faulty pacemaker or a death in the family that required flying home. It seems that every port sees someone depart the ship for one reason or another. Fri 8 Oct at sea. The day started warm (81*F) and promised to heat up as we had been sailing due south and entered the northern edge of the doldrums with their light and variable winds. A very large school of dolphins, perhaps as many as a thousand by some estimates, entertained the early risers off the stern for an hour or more. Only some flying fish put in an appearance the rest of the day although there were sporadic reports of dolphins or possibly large fish. Tonight the third of four formal nights was celebrated and it is nice to see everyone dressed up as opposed to the very casual dress that is norm for the cruise. The captain visited our table and his presence made the dinner memorable. This was his first cruise ship as a full captain and he mentioned that he had been a staff captain for seven of his thirty-one years at sea. He, of course, was peppered with a million questions but he had all the answers and he delivered them with humor and candor. Nice experience. Sat 9 Oct at sea. The plan of the day, as usual, has something of interest the entire day. I am looking forward to a second lesson in the Nightclub 2-Step dance class and a most interesting series of lectures on Africa being presented by Michael Modzelewski who is an accomplished naturalist and lecturer. Then there is the daily trivia contests, the various shipboard activities and, of course, a dip in the pool. What a difficult life. Sun 10 Oct at sea. Another lazy day at sea to get ready for the next frenetic day in a West African port. Mon 11 Oct, 0800/1800. Tema, Ghana is the country's major port and the seaborne gateway to Accra, the nation's capital. A large group of dancers and drum players met the ship upon arrival and provided a most convivial welcome. They performed on the pier and everyone on the rail had a front row seat. The vigorous dancing is exactly what one would expect in this land of young inhabitants and their musical greeting was an especially happy one. One cannot but comment how friendly the local people are with visitors. Tema does not have many tourist attractions but Accra (pronounced ah-CRA), located some twenty miles to the west along the coast road, does provide some diversified areas of interest - the national museum, Kwame Nkrumah's mausoleum, tha large open air market and some crafts and arts centers. Normally the short ride from the port takes the better part of an hour due to heavy traffic along the coast road; however, on this particular day the vehicular movement was largely uninterrupted. A group of us hired a taxi and stopped at such places as a coffin-maker who fashions ships, birds or anything a client might want in the form of a coffin. They are not cheap and I would think only a small percent of the people might use them. But they are colorful. Accra contains two or three million inhabitants and is clearly a busy place but so much of the foot traffic clogs the rather narrow streets and the pedlers and shop persons are so vigorous in their quest to sell their goods that walking along the streets is very difficult for the average cruise passenger. I bought a number of things just sitting in the front seat of the taxi with the window open. The traffic is so slow and the sellers so persistent that one needn't get out of the car for casual shopping! We did stop at one of the seaside resorts, the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, and I managed a short swim in their very large and well designed pool while the others were having some refreshments. Otherwise the taxi tour of about six hours left one with the feeling that nothing of significance was missed. Tue 12 Oct, 0800/1800. Lome, Togo would seem to be very representative of the usual aspects of West Africa. It receives adequate annual rainfall and the general area is green with many small houses of no more than one floor in height. Again, as in Accra, the traffic is heavy for the size and number of main streets, the pedestrians crowd the downtown area and the street sellers are unstoppable. One finds a quiet Cathedral, a hotel or even a large shop to get a bit of rest from dealing with the incessant street merchant. The beach along the Bight of Benin is broad and extensive but not very much developed for tourism. A few major hotels are in evidence but for the most part the beaches seem to be pretty but rather vacant areas. When the ship arrived there was a massive number of dancers and drum players and the scene was jolly indeed. One entertainer had an enormous pair of stilts which placed him high above the tour buses and the general scene was most inviting. Dancers and a band also saw the ship off as we departed so the city bent over backwards to give us a warm welcome. Passengers who took the day-long shore excursion to Togoville found they got stuck for hours in the mud holes left in the road from the previous three days of rain. One group even had their bus break down and had to wait for a replacement. As a result they arrived back at the ship late; however, the ship was not appreciably delayed in its departure. Only two or three cruise ships each year visit Lome so the shore excursion process is anything but smooth. Wed 13-Sat 16 Oct at sea. Four more glorious days to enjoy the delightful ship and its diversions. I, of course, seek out world ports and chose this itinerary because of some new ones but I certainly do savor the days at sea. Sun 17 Oct, 0900/1800. Walvis Bay, Namibia is an excellent harbor, centrally located along the Namib Desert coast (map), that only ten years ago was released as a South African naval base and returned to Namibia. Improvements to the harbor to include an extensive pier have positioned the port to emphasize entrepot trade with the inland countries along an improved surface corridor to the east. The barchane sand dunes press in against the landward side of the city while sand spits and lagoons border the Atlantic side (photo). Dune 7 east of the city is remarkably high and a short drive south of the city reveals hundreds upon hundreds of flamingos. The Namib Coast birdlife is extraordinary. A sizeable salt evaporating area south of the city results in a huge stockpile of pure white salt awaiting export. A twenty-mile drive north to Swakopmund provides entrancing views of the dunes and coastline. The tidy little town has an interesting array of old German-style buildings and a very good little ocean museum. Along the way north, a stop at the guano platform island just offshore permits viewing the rare Eastern White Pelican along with flamingos and cormorants. Mon 18 Oct, 1200/1800. Luderitz, located near the southern end of Namibia, is another German architectural relic similar to Swakopmund but it does not have the number of buildings of the latter. Walking around the town is easy enough to do and the landscape of bare volcanic rocks is interesting. I did manage to get a token swim at the small beach near the Nest Hotel on the west side of the town but the temperature was so cold I could only manage rather few strokes. The big industry is fishing and there is a large fish processing establishment at the main pier. At the time we were there, a large dredge with a big helicopter pad was tied up beside us and although the workers at the ship said they could not discuss the vessel for security reasons, it was clear and locally confirmed that the ship was used to dredge the Namibia offshore areas for diamonds. There is a big effort underway to try to capture these diamonds that have been washed out to sea by the |
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