You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.
The first segment of our around-the-world trip was a 22-night cruise on the Carnival Luminosa, plus one day preceding the cruise. So this is basically a cruise review.
The Carnival Luminosa
We have now lived on this ship on two separate journeys that combined for 52 nights. We know the ship well. It is a good ship. We love the Ocean Plaza venue with its large dance floor and the casino, while not kind to us, is well laid out. The theater is nice. The only issues we have with the ship is the layout of the serving stations on the Lido deck – we have to walk a long way to see what is being served. The ship also needs a laundromat.
Highlights:
The band. As in the previous cruise, the dance band (called “Beauty and the Beat” on this cruise) was terrific. Good musicians, great vocals.
The shows. The entertainment was generally good and the full-cast shows in the theater were exceptionally good.
The watermelon art. Both Marlene and I loved the wonderfully watermelon carvings that adorned the buffet area every day.
Lowlights:
The price of internet. I get a day of internet occasionally – 4 times in 22 nights on this cruise. It was priced at $22 per day on the last cruise but was raised to $30 per day on this cruise. Seemed like price gouging.
The need to insert the room key to play a slot machine. This is a new requirement. Carnival claims that it is to “make sure we get full points credit.” But there was widespread suspicion that our gaming activity was being tracked and slot behavior may have been altered based on our individual gaming behaviors.
This was a busy day. It began early, with me rising before dawn to catch a glimpse of the iconic Sydney Opera House as we docked. I wasn’t disappointed – I got some good photos.
But disappointment – and panic – soon followed when I realized that my phone was unable to connect to the cell service in Sydney. That had never happened before, even in third world islands. To eliminate the suspense, I will tell you what I learned later in the day: older cell phones (like mine) sometimes don’t recognize the cellular frequency used in Sydney. That leaves me hope that it will resume working when I get to Europe. But in the meantime, only Marlene’s phone has service. I have to rely on her phone and its hotspot to do anything – maps, text, email and, of course, blogging. But the hotel has free WiFi and I can use it when there.
Ashore in Sydney
Disembarkation went pretty smoothly. As usual, we took our bags ashore with us. We grabbed a taxi to the hotel. The driver asked us if $40 was ok. When we said that Uber was only $28 he said “Well, you can pay $35 if you prefer.” If we prefer? Yes, we prefer to pay less. Interesting negotiation.
We arrived at the hotel around 9:30am and were surprised to hear that the room was empty and we could go right up. We were even allowed to grab some breakfast. So far this hotel has impressed us. I will give a full review later but Marlene has already complimented me for choosing it.
We then embarked on a day of walking to various sites of interest. Our initial goal was to view the Sydney Opera House from land and we did that but along the way we saw many beautiful parks, interesting buildings and learned of a shopping mall and cathedral and we had to add those to our itinerary. All told we logged 15,000 steps. And we weren’t done – at 11pm we went for a stroll down by the harbor and added another 3,000 steps. A lot of walking on a very full day. We slept well.
Sydney is chock full of beautiful public spaces and public buildings. The New South Wales Library is amazing. If you think that libraries are no longer relevant, just visit this one. It was filled with students doing research and the second floor was a combination of an art gallery and a playground for children.
Art MuseumHuge parkNSW LibraryLibrary usersLibrary galleryLibrary playroom
We walked from the library to the Opera House and got some good photos both there and on the way there. We found the Carnival Luminosa still docked near the Opera House.
Music Conservatorium High SchoolDowntown from the Botanical GardensLuminosa from the Opera HouseOpera House
We wandered the city in search of a magnet for Marlene’s brother Mike and eventually found ourselves at the Pitt Street Mall. That is where I learned that my phone might simply be too old to work in Sydney. We also got some chinese food from the food court. The serving was so large that it fed both of us and we packed up about half of it to take back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel we stumbled upon St Mary’s Cathedral and went inside. We were both completely blown away by what we saw. This cathedral is both HUGE and BEAUTIFUL It is, I believe, larger than Notre Dame in Paris and is every bit as beautiful. Just not as old.
Fountain near St Mary’sSt Mary’s CathedralSt Mary’sSt Mary’s altarSt Mary’s
After a nap and some cards (Marlene won 2 to my 1) we strolled down to the harbor. We found some interesting people to talk to but were a bit surprised at how quiet the area was. Saturday night and none of the bars had music. Not like most American cities. We strolled on the pier at Finger Quay and admired the many multi-million dollar boats.
Our last two days aboard the Carnival Luminosa and the end of ATW-1. Day 22 was pretty sedate. We had breakfast, then I read and worked on the communal jigsaw puzzle ( 3,000 pieces – NO chance that it will be finished before we reach Sydney). I bought a day of internet because I had no internet in Noumea. I blogged some, then we had dinner at a table of 6 with 4 Aussies. The after-dinner show was a very nice acrobatic show. The same acrobats, I believe, that we saw on the Norwegian Jade. Good show.
AcrobatAcrobatsAcrobat
Day 23 – our last day at sea – we spent time saying goodbye to new friends after breakfast. I had a hamburger for lunch – the only hamburger I had in 23 days. We played cards and, as usual, Marlene kicked my butt. Her count for the cruise: 8 victories for me and 19 for her. Ouch!
After dinner we packed and then made a final trip to the casino where, as usual, I lost. Total casino losses for the cruise for me: $900. More than I wanted to lose, but within my budget.
Farewell cakeOne and only hamburgerFarewell dinner in the dining room
This ends ATW-1; ATW-2 begins tomorrow when we dock in Sydney.
This is #7 of 12 in the series of Coben books featuring Myron Bolitar, professional sports agent, former professional basketball star and occasional detective. In this one he is approached by Emily Downing, a former lover and estranged wife of Greg Downing, an all-star pro basketball player who was a long-time rival, both on and off the basketball court, and a guy who was instrumental in causing the injury that ended Myron’s short professional career. There is no love lost between the two men, but Myron still carries a torch for Emily. She wants Myron’s help in finding a bone marrow donor for her sick teenage son, Jeremy. A doner who is a match for her son was found in the national bone marrow registry, but he can’t be located. Can Myron find him?
Myron wants to refuse. But then Emily drops the bombshell: Jeremy is Myron’s son, the result of a “farewell” hookup the night before Emily and Greg’s wedding.
This relatively simple request and the simple but difficult job of extracting information about the matching donor from the super secret bone marrow registry soon becomes very complicated. The donor seems to be a member of a very rich and powerful family who hasn’t been seen in over 30 years. And things get further complicated when the FBI gets involved. They are looking for a serial kidnapper and presumed murderer who is linked to a disgraced reporter who seems to be linked to the missing scion. Complicated enough?
As with every Coben novel that I have read, the complexity is resolved in a plausible way. But I won’t reveal the details. Was the donor found? Was the kidnapper/murderer brought to justice? Was Jeremy saved? Is Myron really his father? All of these questions are answered in a very satisfactory way.
Coben never disappoints. It is a lively, engrossing read. 8 out of 10.
New Caledonia. Another place that I never expected to see. But, after breakfast with Panama and Amy, we saw it. The city, anyway. I am sure there is much more to the country than what we saw in our walking tour, but we are being very frugal – we still have over 4 weeks to go – so walking around suits us.
This seems to be a nice city. We saw some homeless people and quite a few vacant stores so it doesn’t seem like the economy is booming. But it is not “third world” either.
We did a lot of window shopping a walked up a small hill to a pretty cathedral. And I had a beer at the port. But one of the reasons I got the beer – other than to slake my thirst – was to get access to the internet. New Caledonia was the first place we have visited on any cruise where our T-Mobile plan didn’t give us internet access. Phone calls were also VERY expensive – $4.19 per minute. Text messages were 50 cents each. I sent a few text messages before I realized how expensive they were. We certainly didn’t call anyone.
Us in the cruise terminalCathredal in NoumeaMarlene at the harbor
We were back on board by mid-afternoon. The rest of the day was quiet. I did some reading. We played some cards (I won both games – a rarity).. And, of course, we visited the casino (lose $40, down $810).
Day 18 was one of the 3 sea days on which I purchased the 24-hour internet plan ($30 per day) so I blogged in the morning. We had no breakfast because we were anticipating a large brunch at the Fahrenheit 451 Steak House – the specialty steak restaurant on the Carnival Luminosa – courtesy of the casino. It was a fine brunch. I had a cheesesteak sandwich and Marlene had steak and eggs. We both had profiterole for dessert. And free mimosas. Thank you, casino. Nice to get something in return for our losses.
I did more blogging before dinner while Marlene watched ice carving. We went to the America Rocks show in the theater after dinner. The preshow featured a fake Joan Jett statue (actually one of the dancers). Great show, featuring the band and the ship’s song and dance cast. Great voices, good choreography.
Ice sculptureFahrenheit 451 brunch“Joan Jett” before “America Rocks”
“America Rocks”
I woke on Day 19 with a cold. Not a bad cold, just an annoying cold. After breakfast I tried my hand at science trivia and did so-so: 13.5 versus a winning score of 19. In the afternoon we crossed the IDL (International Date Line) and instantaneously jumped ahead a full day. I lost at cards in the afternoon (Marlene won both games) and lost at the casino too. Another bad day for games of chance.
We danced a bit after dinner but I went to bed early.
Day 20 began with a trip to Guest Services to retrieve our passports (which we had surrendered at checkin)., then to our caricature appointment. The guy did a good job of capturing Marlene but not so great with me. After lunch we played cards and Marlene continued to whip my ass, winning 3 out of 4. The casino continued to be unfriendly to me, too (down $770) but Marlene had a moderately big win – over $350 on a single spin, no bonus involved. I did get a free drink at the VIFP party for Platinum and Diamond passengers – about half the ship – so the day wasn’t a total loss.
CaricatureMarlene’s winCaptain Vittorio and senior staff
After dinner we viewed the crew talent show – always a highlight of the cruise. Some of the crew are amazingly talented singers and dancers. Makes you wonder why they do mundane work on the ship.
On the road again (where the “road” is the Pacific Ocean), headed pretty much due west toward Australia.
Beauty and the Beat at the Captain’s Party
On Day 16 we had breakfast, then went down to the piano bar to sign up for a free caricature. We will sit for that Monday. We played cards and Marlene kicked my butt, winning all 4 games. There was a Captain’s Party in the afternoon which featured free drinks. After dinner (with Frank and Remy from Australia) I won a few bucks in the casino – just my second winning day in 15. It was nice to win at SOMETHING after being schooled at cards.
CaptainCaptain and senior staff
We watched The Proposal on the big screen at the pool at midnight. The ship clock was set back an hour so we got to bed before 1am rather than 2am. We are now 7 hours behind Florida.
After breakfast on Day 17 I quickly lost $50 in the casino (down $775 now). Not a hint of a bonus even though I was mostly playing 25-cent slots. Disgusting. Then, after lunch and some time in the hot tub and pool, Marlene continued to whip my ass at rummy, winning 2 (to run her winning streak to 8) before I finally won one. Not a good day for games of chance.
Marlene also lost in the casino, burning through nearly $300 before turning things around. Unlike me, she hits bonuses. She got some good ones and ended the evening on the up side.
We walked around the ship a bit before dinner, reacquainting ourselves with the ship we spent a month on a year ago.
Marlene posing on Deck 10Deck 10 above the poolPlaying megachess
We had dinner with a lovely family from Australia – Phil, Nary and cute little Haley. Then we danced.
Mo’orea is a place I have never been. Never even heard of it. But I have now been there. I can check off an item that never appeared on my bucket list.
It is a dramatic island. It looks like the setting for Mutiny on the Bounty – jagged mountain peaks, pristine beaches. I learned that, in fact, it was the setting for one of the Bounty movies. But that dramatic beauty and that bit of movie trivia seem to be just about the only things that make the island interesting.
There is no pier for a large ship in Mo’orea so we anchored in a cove and tendered to shore. Which Marlene and I did after a leisurely breakfast on board the ship. But the port was just a place where jewelry and souvenir trinkets were being hawked. This area is famous for pearls so there was an abundant selection of pearl jewelry. I could have gotten a bottle opener adorned with two pearls. I passed.
Marlene in Mo’oraaChurch altarIsland band
The port also featured a small island band, some dancers and, surprisingly, a church. After viewing all of those Marlene said “let’s walk into town.” To which I relied “this IS the town.” We walked a few hundred yards down the road and found a pizza place, a couple of small shops and a supermarket that wasn’t very super. We were back on board in time for lunch.
DancersLuminosa from land
After lunch I blogged while Marlene spun some slots. Then we played cards and she took 3 to my 1. As it was October 1 I backed up my laptop’s hard drive in the evening. Then lost some money in the casino. Down $750.
The second port of call for the Carnival Luminosa was Papeete, Tahiti. I can’t say that Tahiti was on my bucket list because it was so remote that I never thought I would get there. But I have now gotten there. I only saw the city – Papeete – and I think the best parts of Tahiti are the beaches and the mountains, so it probably wasn’t the best view of the island. But I can now say that I have been there.
Municipal Market
Being both frugal and unprepared for this portion of the trip, we did not plan on an excursion. Instead we toured the city on foot, hitting several of the places on Trip Advisor’s list of the best free places to visit. The ship docked very close to the center of the city so we walked just a few blocks to the Municipal Market which is basically a large indoor flea market. We didn’t stay long as all of the stalls there seemed to have implemented “cruise ship pricing” – everything was VERY expensive. We passed by a cute yellow church and fed some feral chickens on our way to the Paofai Gardens, a large waterfront park. We played a bit on the playground there before heading back into the city.
Cute churchFeeding chickenUs with a flowering treeMe, zipliningMarlene, climbingMerry-go-round
On the way back into town we went into the (free) Robert Wan Pearl Museum and learned quite a bit about pearls and pearl farming. We had an opportunity to purchase a string of pearls for $86,000 but passed. Before heading back to the ship we stopped at a cafe and sampled the crepes. Not bad but I have had better. And the service was terrible.
Pearl MuseumPearl MuseumSampling the crepe
We didn’t walk as far in Papeete as we did in Honolulu but still logged nearly 16,000 steps.
We spent time in the casino and, for the first time on the cruise I won money! It was only $10 but I won! Still down $690.
Late night cards were also good for me – I won 2 games out of 3.
The story begins with the mass murder/suicide of his family by the father of Danielle Burton. Killed were Danielle’s mother and her two siblings – a brother and a sister. Danielle was 9 years old and she recalls her father standing in the doorway of her bedroom, drunk, calling to her, then putting a gun to his head and blowing his brains out.
Twenty-five years later Danielle is a pediatric psych nurse (no surprise there) who is still looking for an answer to the question: why didn’t he kill me? Why did he let me live to tell?
As the 25th anniversary of the murder/suicide approaches, there are back-to-back grisly “family annilihation” events which initially appear to be unrelated. But detective D.D. Warren sees some similarities. Both events – in which 12 people died – appeared to be cases in which the father murdered the family and then committed suicide. But there are forensic problems with that simple conclusion. Both scenes seem to have been staged. And both families had children with severe emotional/mental problems. The common denominator seens to be the psych unit in which Danielle works.
Warren is a bulldog who won’t settle for the simple answers. She keeps digging and starts to interview the staff at the psych unit, including Danielle. And no sooner do the interviews start than a child in the unit dies, apparently by hanging herself. A coincidence? It is the first child death the unit has ever experienced. And it, too, seems to have been staged. Danielle becomes a “person of interest” in the ivestigation. But there are others, too.
There is a strong current of repressed sexuality that runs through this book. Danielle and Warren both are desperately horny. And there are some hunky men who are more than willing to minister to their sexual needs – a hot male detective, a rich faith healer and a big, strong “gym coach” psych ward staff member. The repressed sexuality of Danielle is one of the key elements of the plot. Warren’s horniness is just comic relief.
I didn’t quite buy the motive for the murders, but Gardner is skillful in presenting the stories – both the original murders and the ones 25 years later – and she kept my interest.
I think I have read a D.D. Warren mystery before, but apparently I didn’t blog about it. Must have been before 2011 when I started blogging. But I enjoy the books that feature her.
