Month: March 2024

Rose up super early for a Safari game reserve that is 2.5 hours away

Aquila game reserve, modern way of doing safari, combining safari with spa 😎

I guess you figured out by now this is a very touristy safari with no guns or tents, but it did gives us a glimpse of what the real thing is like….

Wine country : We never knew South Africa is a major Wine country, we do not have time for a wine tour but we bought some (2 actually as the ship only allows one bottle per person) South African wine at a very good price…. Met a traveling wine connoisseur from US who confirmed that South Africa wine is indeed pretty impressive

We love Capetown!! Besides the beautiful sceneries , everyone we met is professional, calm and amicable….. They all exudes sense of pride of their beautiful country… Its amazing to see them come to this after all that they have been through, their history written in blood and tears…

Another country we will surely be back again for longer stay!!

Last glimpse of South Africa is the Robben island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years there in prison…. People here spoke of him with such adoration… He really brought South Africans together and leap frog south Africa forward in world stage

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by this view from our ship 👇

Table mountain, one of world 7 wonders of nature framing Cape Town

Once again we lucked out with a beautiful weather today, people told us it was raining and foggy last couple of days… Also  we lucked out with our pick of a 9 hour small group tour on TripAdvisor

Boulders beach Penguin colony

Lunch at Simon Town

Cape of good hope

Bo-kaap houses

Dinner at V and A waterfront

By the end of the day we both logged 20000 steps and completely exhausted after sightseeing for 10 hours straight….. Cape Town is gorgeous!! Glad we had another day to check it out….. Cant wait….

Jessica our lovely destination specialist did a special at the Theatre and invited 6 crew members from South africa to talk about their country, what to see and what to eat, giving the next port we are visiting a lot of immersive texture… Cant wait to arrive in Cape Town tomorrow

Meanwhile, today is the day that guests presents the results of their endeavors during sea days… There’s painting, there’s pop choirs, there’s harmonica, there’s ukelele… Busy day….

Today is the day we “flash mob dance” the unsuspecting audiences at their nightly Princess Theatre performance….. There are about 40 people participating and every one is excited…. To me it’s the process that is most fun.. The practices, the rehearsing, the chit chats…. Like minded people get together to dance and exercise and have fun….

Last night’s production show was especially more exhilarated as it is their last performance on this ship and everyone gave them a standing ovation… P was able to snap a selfie with them as they line up to say goodbye at the exit..

We really appreciate every single crew and entertainer on this ship doing their best to make this cruise magical

The risk of piracy…. Horn of Africa is considered as high risk area for piracy… But someone in the know told  us that pirates had no interest capturing cruise ships since they do not want to be in charge of feeding so many people 😆… They rather deal with cargo ships… That surely makes us feel very safe… So the eating goes on since it is our biggest defense against piracy.

A passenger on the ship drew pictures and put a limerick/poem at the back and send it to the cruise director who shares it with us almost daily…. Cheers to creativity!!

Woke up to this gloriousness….

The ship is turning southwest towards Cape Town…we had circumvented half of the globe now, but few stops on this 1st half with many sea days…. The second half will be different, once we hit the Mediterranean it will be port stops almost every day, we will be yearning for sea days in between just to give ourselves room to digest what we had experience….

We got a new captain in Mauritius, the old captain’s contract is up…kind of miss the old Captain Cataldi who is from Italy…. He is relatively young and we always see him around, at the plaza or the buffet, very unassuming and amicable…

I am sure the new captain Paul Slight from Wale is going to be great as well…. Princess hires amazing people who always seem to enjoy work and make sure passengers had a great time…

Speaking of that, Ladies and Gentlemen.. The King is alive!! Elvis is in the building 😎…..tonight’s performance at the theater is by a talented young man name Dan Middleditch whose rendition of Elvis and his songs is spot on, his charisma and energy mirrors Elvis’s and he brings the house down…. I actually saw him at the buffet this morning saying hello to everyone and thought why is Elvis at the morning buffet, am I awake ?!