Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...

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melsea
Senior Second Officer
Senior Second Officer
Posts: 576
Joined: February 2013

Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...

#1

Post by melsea »

Sea Days

18th May.

Sunny & warm.

Quite a lazy day of just getting my bearings. One place I did find and made a point of going to was the Crows Nest. I had put an invite for any passengers from this site on here before we set sailed to meet in the Crows Nest at 11am. So there I was and I waited a good half hour before I decided to move on as it looked as though no one was going to turn up. No one seemed to enter the crows nest that looked like they were looking for anyone so this was my cue to move on.

In the evening we had our first of four Black Tie dress code and by the looks of things most had adhered to it, although I did notice someone had been turned away but I couldn't see clearly as they were to my left as I was going through the double entrance of the restaurant, all I saw was the back of their head.

19th May

Another sunny and warm day.

Today we had the Peninsula Club Baltic & Ligurian Tier Luncheon. We didn't have breakfast as the luncheon was at midday and we have found it is too much do have breakfast.
We had on our table a young lady whose job was in Human Resources her name was Kate and her job is varied. Can't quite remember the details. The other passengers on our table were nice and we chatted about the cruise we are on and looking forward to the rest of the ports. The lunch itself was very nice indeed and it was a different menu to the ones we had last year which was a relief as I was hoping it had changed and it had. So thank P&O for that. It wasn't until towards the end of the lunch that one of those on our table mentioned that the Loyalty & Cruise Sales Managers had not come around the tables or even made a speech which they have done on all the other lunches we have had. Not sure if this was an oversight or something they have decided not to do anymore. Can't quite decide if this was an own goal by P&O.

20th May. Gydnia, Poland

Sunny & very warm.

The alarm went off at 8am, turned it off and went back to sleep for a bit. When I did get up I went to the Belvedere Buffet for breakfast. There were a good number of people already there so finding a table with spare seats looked as though it was going to be a problem but I did find a table that would seat 4. It wasn't long before I had someone share the table. An older lady of around 70 to 80 years was escorted by a waiter who carried her tray. We had a nice chat and as it turned out this was her first cruise, her daughter who has been on a few cruises, will now not go on any other type of holiday and had said to her mother (the lady I am talking to) why doesn't she come away with them on a cruise and so here she is and she is most certainly having a lovely time and finds the pace most agreeable. She was very impressed with the check in at Southampton. So I said to her, so you are a virgin cruiser, she chuckles and said yes I suppose I am. She told me that her and her late husband lived in Singapore for three years in the 1960's and they came home to the UK in 1968 the year before Singapore had gained independence. Their passage home was on a ship which was paid for by the company he worked for and they enjoyed the journey stopping at various ports along the way. So this was a nice beginning to my day, you can never know who you'll be chatting to or what their illustrious history will be.
Breakfast all done I went back to the cabin to pick up my bag for my wandering on shore.
When I was in Bruges I had got talking to a lady who is travelling alone on the ship and she had said of today's port that if I wanted to join her and a couple of others I was welcome to join them, so this I did. We all got on the shuttle bus and I noticed that my cruise card had not been scanned when I got onto the bus. The journey into Gydnia was about 10 mins max. There were five of us, I was the only one that was not a solo traveller. We were given a map of where we were and again the map was marked where we had just been dropped off. We made our way towards an area that would lead us to somewhere we could stop for coffee & cake. But before this happened we got chatting to a local lady who just so happen to be an English teacher, her English was very good and this was the reason. She was so ecstatic to be able to speak to English people of a language she teaches. She told us about where to change up some currency as Euros & Dollars would be difficult to use. So one of the others exchanged some euros and when we found somewhere to have coffee she paid and we gave her the money in Euros. We found a small shopping centre although there was a larger one a good 20 minutes or so away. It was here where we all went our own way to have a wander. While looking around this centre I looked in what was an impressive shoe shop, it was massive. Alas nothing in my size, size 2.
Anyway I left there and as I was walking back towards where the shuttle bus dropped us off I came across a small grassed area that had a number of seats, including deck chairs and it was here I spotted staff from the ship using the free wifi here. I managed to log for a brief while. I needed to check my emails for details of a project I shall be doing in July, more of that another time. At this time no such email was there. Also I wanted to check to see if I had an email from the Russian tour company I shall be going with in St Petersburg, this is because President Putin shall be in St Petersburg while we are there and there are likely to be changes to tours at the last minute as they are with P&O tours. I have not as yet received anything about the visit of Putin. I guess I will find out on the day. Right next to this little park is an odd building that has be attached to an old building and doesn't appear to be anything to do with the building next door either as there were no doors going into it. It was a modern building that went up 7 floors which I walked up, god that was a long way up. Catching my breath at the top there is a platform that's juts out and it serves as a viewing station. There was a periscope for you to look at and as you panned it, signs in the view finder told you what you were looking at. There was no fee for this and in fact it was a nice thing to do. I noticed in the distance there was a walkway type of place towards the sea so when I descended from the platform I made my way over there. On my way I went pass a church which had a very familiar statue of a pope, it was of course Pope John Paul II. It was adorned with flowers and candles at its base.
I came across the walkway which I found out leads to the Southern Pier, it was very clean & tidy and a nice walk. On the way back as I walked down one side of this walkway named as the Pomorskie Quay there were various boats, two of them were tall ships and another was a destroyer called the Blyskawica. The other boats were called the Dar Pamorza the most famous Polish tall which travelled around the world & the Dar Mlodzieży. When I got to the where I had started I wondered where people were going to my left. I made my way over and went through the Marina Gdynia which I learnt later is the biggest & most modern yachting harbour in Poland. Having crossed the harbour I came across a white beach which had quite a lot of people on it. By this beach there is the Seaside Boulevard which is 2 kilometres long. I didn't walk very far before I decided to head back to the ship but not before I made my way through a rally lovely park on the way. This sea port may not have a lot going for it but it is quite pretty and is very welcoming & clean. It's actually a very pleasant place to have a wander especially if the sun is shining, I could imagine it would not be so nice if it was raining which you can pretty much say about most places.
I made my way back to where the shuttle bus dropped us off. I didn't have to wait long. Just before I got on one of the people counting people onto the bus had scanned my cruise card as at this port there was a charge for those who were not on the select cruise fare of which I was not. In the Horizon it mentioned that the fare was 'adult single £3. Everyone had to be on board by 4.45. I got back about 3.30pm.
I had decided to make a purchase of the the Hydropool spa package of a 3 day pass for £60.
Tonight the clocks were to be put forward so it will be GMT +3.
The port tomorrow is another place I have not been to Klaipeda, Lithuania. So more adventures to come...

The 3 boats will become clear as the cruise reports progress..

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Meg 50
Senior First Officer
Senior First Officer
Posts: 2266
Joined: January 2013
Location: sarf London

Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...

#2

Post by Meg 50 »

melsea wrote:


The 3 boats will become clear as the cruise reports progress..
and the heatwave?
Meg
x

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