Back from the Briny
Last year, I thought that a cruise wold make a nice change from the southeast Asian countryside, albeit a short break. I was going to book at the end of the cruise season here in Durban (April) but things got in the way. There are a variety of discounts (partner, pensioner, honeymoon etc.) but the local office said that the best discount was the ‘earlybird’ six month before travel discount.
We booked a cabin with two extra berths which meant that for port tax of R500 each, the extra passengers could have a cheap all-in five day trip. Various kids were taking exams so we took the neighbours. The prospect of sharing a 13 sq m cabin for four nights was a little daunting and the chances were that we wouldn’t be talking to each other at the end of the trip.
Further, a new vessel was due to arrive, some 50% bigger than the old Melody/Rhapsody ships that have been working out of Durban for years. The Sinfonia is nearly 60,000 tons and a fairly meaty ship. It’s also relatively new (2002).
The ship is spotless, the service was impeccable and the staff duly deferential and courteous. The food was of the highest quality and I can recommend any trip on it. The pic is of Rod starting his trip whilst still in Durban Bay.
One area that needs attention however is the check in. I don’t think that the port authorities here can handle 2300 passengers. If ever you take a cruise and up at N Shed, leave someone in the queue with the cases and nip around the end of the shed through the car park with your ticket and get an embarkation number.
We spent over an hour before we joined the queue and our number was 366. Because everything happened so slowly, there was folk with 650 loitering about. With the exception of the lahnie cabins with balconies, all are the same miniscule size (13 sq m). However, they are beautifully fitted out and the bunks that come out over the main bed are full beds in their own right. No 4″ mattresses here! The service was first class from the Indonesian staff. Apart from the tiny ensuite, there is a minibar and TV.
We were away for 5 days and it rained on & off for 4 of those days including a cyclone on the way back. But that’s not the cruise’s fault. The pic is of the brekkie/lunch pigout.
The Food
They feed you and feed you and feed you - early coffee, breakfast buffet, sarmies in the lounge at 10, lunch buffet, afternoon tea, evening dinner and midnight buffet. All offering prodigious, quality choice.
The Drink
Well, this is where they make their money. Big signs and announcements before check in about how liquor is not allowed and will be confiscated if found in your bag. If I go again, I’m going to take a half jack of tea in a whisky bottle and after one of the announcements, pull a disappointed face, crack the top and finish the lot in front of the queue. So, no opportunity is wasted to sell you alcohol and drinks menus are on every table. A round for four is about R100 (with cocktails) - not worth carrying liquor on board for.
The Entertainment
Several lounges have live music every night and there is the theatre at the bow that has two shows a night.
The Passengers
Well, this is the real entertainment. I am not a lover of humanity but a fairly dispassionate observer of it - particularly its more gross manifestations. If you wanted to witness a more determined display of gluttony, then a cruise is probably your best bet. Huge backsides and huge beer boeps staggered to and fro under enormous piles of food. And what is it about women and those little tattoos on their shoulder? They get 20kgs overweight and into their 50s and what was a pretty butterfly is now a large blue smudge. They look like over the hill prostitutes.
On my map the only thing on that plot was the one place where you would expect the inhabitants to know where it actually was - the Mozambique Cartographic Institute - and three of them couldn’t find it. Oh well, the next time. The pic is of the railyard outside Maputo station.
Barra Lodge
The Barra peninsula is 230 miles north and we were due to spend the day there. However, we knew that as the passengers were to be taken ashore in rubber ducks, there was only a 1 in 3 chance that we would get in.
We stood off Barra Lodge at about three miles and eight rubber ducks milled about for an hour before we were told that due to ‘weather conditions’ we couldn’t get in.
Believe that if you will but consider this.
Each duck can take ten (generously) passengers, each of which has to get on it from a platform and don a lifejacket. The trip in is about ten minutes and the passengers get off in the water and remove said lifejackets. Ten minutes back to the boat. Say, a total of 30 minutes per ten passengers times eight. 80 passengers every 30 minutes. I would say that conservatively, 1,500 passengers from the 2,400 wanted to get off, armed with their flippers and snorkels.
This would take around ten hours to get them off, let alone get them back on again. I think the logistics defeated the boat. I didn’t want to stop at Barra but go the 22kms to Inhabane village as a lot did. The pic is the lodge from about three miles out.
Health
Well, we knew it was going to happen, and it did. The first to get seasick (not difficult on the seas around South Africa) was Sonali. The first night she managed starters before dashing out of the dining room. The second night, it got to mains before the hurried exit. The third night, she managed the whole meal with help from drugs from reception. The fourth night neither she nor Sharon showed up (and neither did one of the couples at our table. The pic shows the girls really getting into the cruise spirit.
On the last night, going through a cyclone, there were lots of empty seats at dinner.
Our Waitress
Called Tanya from Roma. Aged 21 she works from 6am to midnight seven days a week for nine months. She gets paid well by Italian standards but it takes something special to be cheerful and professional in the face of passengers that are determined to assert the fact that they are on holiday and consequently allowed to bully the help.
Right, that’s about it. Glad we went. We needed it at this time and was as they say a “refreshing break”. Sonali won’t go again because of the seasickness but only because of that. Who knows??