My Travel Advice and Hints Part 2 - Clothes, Gypsies, Ships & Trains

In this post I am answering some of the other questions I have been asked about some of the practical things involved in my eight-month journey.

I do hope you find my responses helpful, or at least interesting. 

Didn't you get tired of wearing the same clothes day after day? 

To be honest, no I did not. I didn't care about that at all. I just regarded them as practical necessities and detached myself from worrying about looking fashionable or smart. I was going an adventure, not on a catwalk! 

What was important to me was being in fresh, clean clothes each day, and suitably attired for the occasion. For example, when I visited the magnificent Grand Mosque in Oman, I bought and wore a suitable headscarf in the Muslim tradition, and ensured that the only flesh that was showing was my face. That was expected of all visitors and I wanted to show my respect for their traditions. In many Catholic cathedrals, you were meant to be dressed very modestly - no shorts, no bare shoulders. So I ensured that when I visited places like that, very little of my body was visible - not that I ever go around flashing my cleavage or midriff or legs anyhow . . . 

I also covered myself from head to toe, though with lighter garments, when in tropical countries where there were mosquitoes. 

How did you manage your clothes when you were going to so many different climates? 

I still could not carry much, but I did bring a bright-red heavy-duty raincoat, a down-filled jacket, a very warm scarf and a woollen beanie for the coldest places, and tee-shirts, two pairs of light 3/4 length pants and a sunhat for the hottest places. On very cold days I simply wore many layers. My fine merino wool tops were fantastic for that. 

I did not bring an umbrella, because truly, when you are in a crowded place, umbrellas pose far too big a risk of poking someone in the eye. I hated it when fellow travellers waved their umbrellas near my face! You needed to concentrate on where you were placing your feet on wet cobblestones, so your feet weren’t caught up in the gaps between them, and did not need to be looking out for umbrellas instead.

  

Which ocean liner or cruise ship did you like best? 

I have been told that an ocean liner is a double-hulled vessel that travels around the world. A cruise ship is single-hulled and simply keeps cruising around a particular region in a given season.

My journeys on an ocean liner and cruise ships were as follows.

• ‘Queen Mary 2’ is classified as an ocean liner belonging to the Cunard line. I travelled on it from Sydney to Naples, Italy, via Asia and the Middle East for exactly 2 months - 60 nights (61 days) then later from Southampton to New York - 7 nights, or 8 days.
• ‘Celebrity Reflection ’ is classified as a cruise ship and ultimately belongs to the Royal Caribbean line. I travelled on it from the port near Rome to Naples  - 10 nights.
• ‘Navigator of the Seas’ is classified as a cruise ship and belongs to the Royal Caribbean line. I travelled on it from Southampton to the Baltic Sea and back - 12 nights,  then later on two back-to back cruises from Southampton to the Mediterranean Sea and back for a total of 28 nights.
• ‘Celebrity Solstice’ is classified as a cruise ship and ultimately belongs to the Royal Caribbean line. I travelled on it from Vancouver to Sydney - 27 nights.

Each ship is a top-of-the-range ship. In many aspects, both positive and negative, these four different ships are very similar. They all: 

• have friendly, obliging, very hard-working staff, who hail from around 60 different countries;
• have similar bathrooms and other facilities in the cabins;
• push you to ‘Buy, Buy, Buy’ in their shops;
• charge the earth for drinks, even a bottle of water;
• offer specialty restaurants at additional charges that are quite high (when you have already paid for meals in their multi-level dining rooms and smorgasbord areas);
• have formal nights for which you dress more formally if you eat in the dining room, and informal nights when you wear smart casual;  
• offer spas, massages, beauty treatments and a range of services in their hair salons, not to mention acupuncture, etc., at exorbitant prices;
• expect a considerable amount for gratuities; 
• offer a range of shore excursions at quite high prices;
• provide a range of entertainment, activities and lectures;
• operate on a cashless system, working on the basis that your room key card also serves as your credit card and your security card for leaving and re-boarding the ship at ports; and
• carry about 3000 passengers. 

Given all that, the only basis for comparison is the level of services provided, the efficiency and cost of their WiFi and internet support, the appeal of their decor, the range of facilities they provide and the calibre of their entertainment and lectures. On all these points except their WiFi services and internet support, I prefer ‘Queen Mary 2’ . Its staff were exceptionally polite and competent and dressed and behaved more formally. I loved its decor and all the lounges where you could have a quiet coffee without being crowded in. I loved hearing a harp or string quartet or a piano playing in the background rather than ultra-loud rock music that blasted our ears day and night on the other ships. I loved its second theatre where you could see a movie or listen to a lecture in comfort, and even enjoy its planetarium facilities. (On one of the ships you just had a small room with plastic bucket seats for watching movies!)  And I loved its grand ballroom where you could enjoy a very English High Tea in the afternoon, with music in the background, as well as its very English pub. 

The lecturers on Queen Mary 2 were really superb too, and speaking with appropriate  backgrounds. On the other ships they were rank amateurs in comparison, and not particularly qualified to speak on the subjects they were supposed to be presenting. Indeed, their background and credentials were not provided in many cases. 

The decor of ‘Celebrity Reflection’ was most unappealing, reminding me of the 1970s. But I guess this is a personal choice. But between the loud colours and all the kitsch and the loud music, I use to cringe as I walked about. 

However, the WiFi services and internet support on Queen Mary 2 were very inefficient, and its staff actually gave poor, misleading advice in relation to the use of my iPhone, which added considerably to the cost of running it at the time. And yet it was the most expensive. ‘Navigator of the Seas’ provided the most efficient and least costly service, while the IT staff on 'Celebrity Solstice' provided the best help and support. 

How did you cope with dressing for the formal nights? 

I brought a pair of good quality black pants for formal nights and three different tops that were expensive but easily washable. My one regret was I did not bring a long-sleeved formal jacket for nights when the air was quite cold.  

How did the river ships compare with the ocean liners/cruise ships?

The company I travelled with on my two river cruises was Scenic. They were both excellent cruises, though I must say the cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest was more spectacular than the cruise from Paris back to Paris along the Seine. 

I actually wrote a reflection on river cruising compared with ocean cruising after my river cruise for Amsterdam to Budapest. 

In summary, I generally preferred river cruising because:

• we saw and experienced something new up close and personal every day, and so saw and appreciated far more of each country we passed through;
• it was a more intimate setting, with around 120 passengers; 
• you just glide along, and don’t risk seasickness; and
• everything was paid upfront - no extra charges.

 On the other hand:

• paying upfront meant a large part of what I paid was to subsidise everyone’s drinks, which I must say goes against my grain;
• if you need medical attention, you have go to the nearest town;
• it is a far less easy social setting for solo travellers; and 
• the ship and shore excursions are less accessible for people with disabilities.  

I would add that the WiFi on the two ships barely worked, which was a great source of frustration. 

How did you deal with gypsies and pickpockets? 

Their greatest offenders are children under 14, especially in Italy where no child under 14 can be prosecuted for any crime. I was told the gypsies milk this for all they are with.  And they use trains as well as the streets as places to commit their crimes. 

I ensured everything around my back was locked, my handbag was zipped closed with my iPhone inside and clutched tightly in front of me, and I kept right in the middle of my tour groups.

And thank goodness Naomi booked me into the First Class carriages of the trains. The gypsies do not pay out the money for those, so you are saved from coming into contact with them. 

Just the same, a lovely coin purse I had purchased in France, which contained a few euros, disappeared when I was in an Andalusian village in Spain, much to my disgust!  How they managed that I do not know. 

I soon learned that signing petitions was a ploy they liked to use, and that you have to remain very aware of your surroundings at all times.  

How did you ensure you did not miss any trains?

In the main stations on Europe and England, which are all huge, there are many platforms, some at different levels. You only get a few minutes notice of which platform the train will come into, and only 3-4 minutes to get on board. Trains do not wait! So it’s a frenetic rush to catch your train and very stressful if you are managing a lot of baggage as well. 

Since the platform might be at a different level to that of the concourse, and you may not understand all the signs, I found it best to arrive at the station an hour early then walk around to find where all the platforms and their lifts are. I also made sure I found out what was the destination of my train, because it is not on the ticket if you are getting off before the final station, but is what you have to look for up on the electronic boards listing arrivals and departures. Sometimes the staff at the information counter were able to tell me the likely batch of platforms the train might arrive at, to narrow down the hunt.

If I had to collect a ticket as well, I would arrive even earlier, as the tickets queues were always very long.