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| The Ponant Ship docked at Cartagena, Spain |
The Ponant company did not make a good early impression. Their processes and procedures were lacking. No one official was collecting the luggage at the dock to transfer to the ship! Since most of their customers were collected at the airport in Malaga, we were the small minority boarding the ship on our own. Then, when they finally located the luggage on the dock, someone misplaced the key to the luggage scanning machine. It was like a keystone cop adventure to get our luggage.
They also insisted I hadn’t filled out all the ‘forms’. When I showed my paperwork completed on their website, they shrugged and shoved a form in my face. Well…. we all know I don’t suffer fools gladly, and just because they were French didn’t deter me. I was cutting and not shy about using some of my best (non profane) words. The poor crew guy had obviously never experienced such a blast of displeasure about the vaunted Ponant cruise line.
I realized the next day I had taken out my displeasure and anxiety on the poor guy, so I apologized sincerely to him. I’ve tried to be super nice to all the crew since showing my ass on the embarkation because I know how hard they work and how long they are away from home. Some of the crew, especially those on the bottom rungs of service, are away from home (usually the Philippines) for months at a time. At least on THIS ship, I didn't feel they were overworked like they seemed to be on ships with more people aboard.
The boat is beautiful. Windows are sparkling clean. Elevators arrive instantly. You never have to wait for anything. Our balcony cabin is huge. The food is magnificent. At the last luncheon, they had a whole roast suckling pig! I couldn't eat any although it looked delicious, because I felt sorry for the pig. I can only eat meat when I can't see the face.) The 'complimentary' alcohol is extremely drinkable. You never wait to get on and off the boat. That’s what you get when there are only 180 people competing for the services.
This ship is small enough to get into some smaller ports. That became very apparent when we were able to cruise the Corinth Canal. (More about that later.) The Captain and all his officers are around all the time. Sometimes, I wanted to ask, "Who's driving the boat?" Unfortunately, I became acquainted with the ship's doctor in the middle of the night. I got tourista (that's usually an ecoli infection). It took me about 36 hours to stop throwing up and having diarrhea sometimes simultaneously! I finally got well. At that point, several members of the crew were inquiring about me, and the bartender sent me (unsolicited) a special tea he concocted using ginger and lemon. I did miss a couple of excursions - one of which I was really upset about - the trip to Olympia. We will have to use Drake's pictures instead of mine.
Of course, I took a million, zillion pictures during the entire trip. Here's an overview of the trip: Fredericksburg to NYC; weekend in NYC; fly to Madrid for three days; bullet train to Malaga (Spanish seacoast town); got on the Ponant ship; 11 days cruising the Mediterranean; Athens for three days; fly to London; six days in London; fly back to NYC; train back to Fredericksburg.
