Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

Et 18-dagers eventyr av Alex & Dan Les mer

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Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
Topelino’s Terrace
29. februar 2020, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
On our last morning in Disney, Dan finally got out or a brief run around hourglass lake. Obviously that was a stupid idea, because you always have less time than you think on your last morning anywhere. We left our luggage with the hotel and headed out for our breakfast.

We had decided to finish our time at Disney with breakfast at the new Topelino’s Terrace restaurant, on the top level of the recently completed Rivera resort. The restaurant has large picture windows and a terrace; being high up and on the Eastern edge of Disney World, it offers views of many of the major landmarks. To the south can be seen our hotel (Art of Animation) and Caribbean Beach; to the south west Hollywood Studios’ tower of terror is clearly visible; west south west the Animal Kingdom tree of life and expedition Everest can be seen. Looking further north the Swan & Dolphin and yact/beach club resorts can be seen; directly to the north west Epcot’s world showcase and most of future world can be seen (although Space Ship Earth is obscured by the opposite wing of Rivierra).

The meal is a beautify themed breakfast with Mickey, Mini, Donald and Daisy who are each practicing different forms of art in the Riviera. It begins with a bowl of pastries, the bowl is designed to look like a paint pot, with breadsticks shaped to look like paintbrushes sticking out from the top (sadly the pastries are not plants). The vegan breakfast is a wild mushroom scramble (which is more like an omelette in appearance) with a tasty vegan sausage, potatoes and a house bend of fruit juices.

Mickey provided a great finish: he spotted Baymax on Alex’s t-shirt and performed the robot’s trademark ‘blahlalala’ fist bump. A final ‘flight’ back to Art on the Skyliner to collect our luggage marked the final end of our time in Disney.Les mer
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The Silver Meteor
29. februar 2020, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
There were a few complications with checkout, and a mixup between the wait staff at the restaurant had delayed our departure, so we were running fairly late by the time we arrived at the Kissimmee Amtrak railway station. Fortunately although we were technically past the posted deadline, we were allowed to check-in our luggage (which we weren’t allowed to carry on ourselves). The station is very unlike those in Europe, with no raised platform - just a concrete pathway with some shelters and an office beside the tracks.

Train departures are a bit more of an all hands on deck affair on the US national railway, with only two departures in each direction per day. Well before the train arrived, the platform staff directed the dozen or so passengers joining the train to a point on the platform which the train crew had let them know had seats available, tickets were inspected as passengers boarded and we were told which seat number to take. Although not significantly bigger than a British train, climbing up from ground rather than platform level made it seem quite imposing and strange.

The train was rolling almost before we had found our seats, leaving at 13:30 (4mins late); despite the fact that its one of only 4 trains a day it was dispatched quicker than most British trains which have hundreds of passengers getting on an off in a relatively disorganised throng. The train runs all the way from Boston, and takes more than 24 hours to complete its journey, in consequence the seating is spacious with lots of legroom for the benefit of those sleeping onboard (there also sleeping berths in other cars). There was a buffet car onboard, but with small chance of a decent vegan offering, we had used the last of our Disney dining plan credits to get some hummus and vegetable boxes from the marketplace fridges at Art of Animation.

From Kissimmee, the track runs south as far as the town of Sebring, where it turns to the south east passing through huge areas of Florida’s famous orange groves towards the Atalntic coast. From West Palm Beach the track turns again, this time due south to complete the journey to Miami through the essentially continuous conurbation that follows this part of the coast. The service arrived nearly an hour early, pulling into the Miami station just as the sun was settling low to the westward horizon.Les mer
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Miami
29. februar 2020, Forente stater ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
Due to a series of mess-ups with the taxi company, between collecting our baggage and waiting for our taxi we were hanging around the station for about two hours. It took about 40minutes to reach Miami’s South Beach, passing first through slightly ramshackle looking suburbs and then the imposing skyline of Miami’s down town. Finally we crossed the bridge to south beach, which is across the water from Miami’s cruise port

We had booked a night at the Beacon hotel, one of the art deco style hotels South Beach is known for. The hotel’s name is illuminated in neon and a live Jazz set was being performed on the porch. The room was fairly spacious and well appointed, but still felt small after our suite at Disney, leaving us a little apprehensive as to how we would do in the smaller cruise ship state room. Quickly though we were heading out to walk along ocean drive and see more of the art deco architecture it is know for.

Ocean Drive on a Saturday night is a loud party scene; live jazz and loud, bass-y DJ sets blare from various bars merging with the growl of Americian muscle cars crawling along in the traffic. Each venue’s music is distinct only as you pass directly by, blending into the bewildering cacophony of sound. The tourists out to see the buildings were juxtaposed oddly against bar patrons in their club/dance attire.

Back in the room the noise from our ocean facing window was considerable, so we watched an episode of Picard until we felt sleepy enough that the noise no longer mattered (and as a bonus we were now only one episode behind).Les mer
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Beacon Hotel, Miami South Beach
1. mars 2020, Forente stater ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
We we woke before dawn to a much quieter hotel. We took advantage of our ocean view room by watching the sunrise over the beach before getting up to date with Picard (a necessary precaution as we’re confident nowhere on the planet could be more dangerous in terms of encountering plot spoilers). We packed and watched a little of the running event going on on Ocean Drive that morning, before heading out for coffee.

South beach is known for the Cuban-style espresso coffee, popularised by the large community of Cuban emigres that settled in the area following Fidel Castro’s rise to power. We headed to a small Cuban cafe near the hotel. Entering was like stepping back in time; the most striking anachronism (to a British person) was the wooden rack of branded cigarette packets prominently displayed behind the counter, followed closely by the old mechanical cash register. The cuban-style coffee did not disappoint; it was strong, but relatively delicate for an espresso coffee.

Ere long, we were back at the hotel waiting on the porch for a taxi as patrons of the hotel restaurant ate breakfast and birds played on the parasols. The taxi ride As we he gentleman driving pointed out landmarks as we went, indicating homes of celebrities and the sites of events in the city’s history. A sea plane swooped low over the bridge as we were crossing from South Beach to downtown Miami.Les mer
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Port of Miami
1. mars 2020, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
When we arrived at the pier the dockside was all bustle and confusion, with luggage piled everywhere and ragged lines of tourists were stretched out everywhere with no immediately apparent purpose to them. The still and imposing shapes of the row of cruise ships in the port stood in contrast to the maelstrom of people on the quayside. More interesting though was the array of amazing t-shirt slogans, luggage and props making Star Trek in-jokes, leaving no doubt about whether we were int he right place.

The lines to board were long, and to be honest seemed unnecessary (as there was no use of any virtual queue system) but a mere couple of hours after arriving at the port we were closing the gang plank to board Explorer of the Seas. As we started to look around the lower few decks to find our cabin we were delighted by the various bits of theming - Qua’ plagh (the Klingon pub), Quark’s Casino and pictures of Jean Luc Picard in a napoleonic naval uniform on the walls. Soon we had added to this by placing our custom sign on our stateroom door; it showed our names and the compartment number for our stateroom which I had worked out by looking at deck plans and applying the TNG tech manual.

The numbers in the sign are 14 because its the 14th deck counting from the top (ventral) most deck; 5 because it is in a long section (as opposed to a saucer, neck or nacelle), another 5 because it is in the 5th of 9 equally sized sections along the length of the vessel (starting at the bow) and 18 because it is the 18th compartment in the section (which I counted as even to port side, odd to starboard).Les mer
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MV Explorer of the Seas, Off Miami
1. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The cruise kicked off with a launch party on the pool deck; each of the celebrity guests introduced themselves. The ship was scheduled to sail away during the party, but was a little late departing. The agenda for the cruise was packed with so many cool events, in addition to the standard experiences of a large cruise ship, you couldn’t possibly do them all, so when the ship did get underway in the early evening we were already immersed in Star Trek activities.

Our first evening’s activities included queuing up to get into the gift shop for limited edition cruise merch, getting our photograph taken with Vaughn Armstrong (the actor who has played more characters in Star Trek than any other other), Jeri Ryan (7 of 9) and John Delancie (Q). We had our first dinner in the main dining room and were pleasantly surprised to find that a vegan menu is provided - it even has that rarest of things to find on a vegan menu: choices from more than one option.

We followed dinner by seeing Anson Mount (Captain Pike) and Marina Sertis (Commander Deanna Troi) give a beautiful performance of Love Letters: a drama charting the tumultuous, life-long and mostly long-distance relationship between two friends and lovers through their correspondence. As host of the cruise, which falls in Voyager’s 25th anniversary year, Kate Mulgrew gave the ‘key note’ show the first evening in which she discusses her books and losing her parents. The dress theme for the evening was Starfleet pyjama party - Dan wore a Starfleet Academy t-shirt and weather, with shorts; other costumes included the Toy Story alien onesies, an awesome voyage home Spock and every kind of star trek dressing gown.Les mer
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At sea north of Cuba
2. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Our course overnight took us south-south-east from Miami, by the morning we had turned to follow Cuba’s northern coast which remained just below the horizon as we progressed toward our first destination. Three of our four port calls (other than Miami) were in a relatively small patch of the north eastern Caribbean, spanning just 370Km, but the first of these was around 1,500Km from Miami; in consequence our first full day of cruising was spent at sea, completing one of the two long legs entailed by that itinerary.

First thing with the sun still sitting low to the cloudy horizon, Dan headed up to deck 12 to use the jogging track, only to find it closed due to high winds. After a brief exploration, he returned to the cabin with coffees, so not an entirely wasted trip. After breakfast with a couple of US Navy Veterans in the dining room we ran into the first major discord of the trip - which event to go to. We decided to divide: Alex went to ‘the Well’ podcast (because it had Brent Spiner) and Dan to Dr Erin McDonald’s Astronomy 101 through Star Trek session.

Directly afterwards we met back up in the main theatre, where the Voyager panel in which Kate Mulgrew, Garant Wang, Jeri Ryan, Tim Russ, Roxanne Dawson and Ethan Philips discussing their time recording Star Trek Voyager, was just getting started. It’s rare to see so much of the cast assembled, but a special effort had been made for the 25th anniversary of the programme’s premier. Following the Voyager session we skipped the T-Shirt assimilation party to make our first trip to the Windjammer Cafe to grab some lunch before we got into the busy afternoon and evening schedule.Les mer
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At sea north of Moa, Cuba
2. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
By 13:00 we made had made another tough decision: to attend the Discovery panel, rather than Gate’s McFadden’s choreography session. At the panel Ethan Peck, Anson Mount, Wilson Cruz, Mary Chieffo and Kenneth Mitchel discussed the continuing voyages of the United Starship Discovery. They were all full of praise for Sonequa Martin-Green who plays Burnham and for the quality of the sets, which it seems are much more complete and immersive than on previous series.

From Discovery, at Dan’s request we headed to the diversity panel, hosted by Gaaaays in Space; the discussion with Wilson Cruz, Johnathan Del Arco and Robb Pearlman had a particular focus on queer representation in Star Trek. The Gaaaays in Space representation in the audience was strong and the whole session had a strong sense of gay/queer identity; Dan admitted to feeling a little out of place at times, then guiltily wondering if this is how gay friends feel almost all of the time in a world that is often heteronormative. From the panel, we headed to The Second Coming, a play starring Denise Crosby and John Delancy; it was a fun play but much shorter than the 1 hour running time that was billed.

We were feeling hungry by this time and headed to the dining room for dinner; we were seated with Kimberly, a passenger from Charleston (the one in South Carolina, not the one in Cornwall). Kim had studied at the London School of Economics, and Dan was amazed to find someone who leaned in rather than glazed over at the mention of the grey economy - in fact it turned out it had played a major role in her dissertation at LSE. Kim and Alex were kindred spirits in their mutual love of board games. The food was good and we all chatted away for some time, before agreeing to go to the evening show together.Les mer
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At sea, south west of Grand Inagua
2. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
On a visit back to our Cabin to fetch we found an unexpected gift from the organisers: a poster featuring each celebrity guest on the trip. As evening fell we headed to the aft end of Deck 5 for our picture with Kate Mulgrew; she had been in panels or photograph sessions with her fellow Voyager cast almost continuously since the 11:00 Voyager panel, and had not long started on the 2,000 or so photos guests were to have with just her, which were due to continue well into the late evening. It was pretty clear the brutal schedule had left her a little tired, but she was none the less very pleasant.

We cut through the casino enroute to the evening’s Star Trek Rat Pack show, and after well over a decade of the smoking ban it was strange to be in an enclosed public space where smoking was going on. The rat pack show comprised Casey Biggs, Jeffery Combes, Vaughn Armstrong, Ethan Philips and Max Grodénchik performing classic show tunes with lyrics rewritten by Max. Its a fun show, with Casey, Vaugh and Ethan breaking out their guitar, harmonica and saxophone are various points - but its the words that seemed to be the real crowd pleaser for the Star Trek audience.

We closed out the day by heading to the atrium above Studio B to get a look at the costumes for the night’s theme of Captain Proton. There were some amazing “Satan’s Robots”, Chaoticas and Captain Protons; Kimberly asked for a picture of a passing Guinan. There were even some clever ‘mash up’ costumes, like a half-proton, half-Han Solo; I guess jetpacks are no substitute for a good blaster at your side. Between the exploring the substantial 15 deck ship, and the dense schedule of events we were pretty tired, so we said goodnight to Kim and all headed back to outstate rooms.Les mer
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At Sea, North of Hispaniola
3. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
On the morning of the 3rd the wind was still high enough to keep most of the upper decks (running track included) closed, so no running on deck again.

After breakfast in the Windjammer we headed to the Doctor’s Panel, where Wilson Cruz (Doctor Culber), Robert Picardo (Emergency Medical Hologram) and Gates McFadden (Dr Crusher) spoke about their roles. They all discussed the trials of star trek medical props and ‘blinkies’ not blinking, as well as arguments with directors over whether its ok to abandon patients as soon as the Captain arrives to advance the plot. Gates McFadden had a great story about the odd experience of a surgeon speaking to her as though she were a real-life medical colleague whilst he prepared her for emergency surgery.

By the time the panel finished the ship was approaching its first port call, and we headed straight from the panel to the meeting point for our first shore excursion. The marina at Punta Cana is a calm stretch of water protected by sturdy harbour walls, it is however very small meaning Explorer had to anchor off the shore. This placed the vessel in the Mona passage, a straight which connects the Caribbean sea to the ocean so we were continuously buffeted by Atlantic waves, only slightly diminished by the scant shelter afforded by Cape Engano to the north.

We had hurried to the meeting point for our shore excursion, but found ourselves waiting whilst the crew decided if it was safe to go ashore, looking through the portholes the sea seemed calm, but the tenders were bobbing like little yellow corks betraying extent of its motion. Some of the assembled guests were allowing their agitation to show and Chase Masterson, celebrity host of one of the day’s excursions, took to the stage in an attempt to smooth things over deploying her self-deprecating sense of humour. We used the extra time to grab a snack, before finally we were led down to the gang plank to board the tender.Les mer
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Monkeyland, Dominican Republic
3. mars 2020, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
The water felt a little choppy, but the ride to quay was pretty uneventful landing us on a beautiful resort area with neat restaurants, massive yachts in the marina and a band playing traditional (or perhaps just stereotypical) Caribbean music. There was no time to look around, as we were soon on a bus passing through towns of single-story corrugated metal buildings and overtaking scooters carrying families of 6, a sharp contrast to the opulence of the marina. It took about an hour for the bus to cross the flat region around Punta Cana and begin climbing the solitary mountain covered in rainforest where we would find the Squirrel Monkeys.

After a quick briefing (repeating what we had already been told on the bus) it was time to step through the disinfectant ‘sheep dip’ and meet the squirrel monkeys. We all lined up around the edge of paved area among the trees and in turn we were handed bowls of chopped fruit and vegetables - the monkeys swarmed over us to get the food, climbing on heads, arms, shoulders and wherever else they could get purchase. They ran along the entire line of tourists, and sensation of dozens of paws stepping on us as they dashed along was an extremely strange but wonderful experience.

Once the swarm had abated we followed the short series of paths to its end at a wide area that looked out over the valley, being careful not to step on the monkeys’ tails as we went. The monkeys were infuriatingly uncooperative when it came to having their picture taken, but that didn’t stop everyone from trying, soon though it was time to head back. Dan ended up engaged in conversation with another passenger about the roles of HM the Queen, the House of Lords and the House of Commons in the British system of government; Alex made the only rational response to this and fell asleep.Les mer
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The Mona Passage
3. mars 2020, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
By the time we arrived back at the Marina we were considerably late for the posted ‘last tender’ time; fortunately (because nobody had explicitly told us this) tenders were still running. We don’t know whether the last tender time was a clever lie to make sure people made it, or the continued operation was due to the late disembarkation, but we were still relieved when we saw them. We happened to run into Kimberly on the dock and we rode the tender back together.

As we cleared the harbour walls it was apparent that the sea had grown much choppier since our disembarkation; it felt more like a rollercoaster as the boat pitched steeply and swooped down the reverse side of the waves. Dan whittered on throughout about how stable this type of boat is, how he had been through worse in the Norwegian sea and that it would be better when we were getting off because we would be under Explorer’s lee by then.

Being tossed around in a small boat seemed like a great way to get set for dinner, so the three of us headed to the main dining room, where we found ourselves seated with some Romulans. As we were ordering from the vegan menu, we had been asked the previous evening if we would like to order ahead (as it takes longer to do those orders) - due to some sort of mix up though, as the dinner progressed it became apparent that we were being served one of /everything/ on the vegan menu. This was pretty funny, another time it might have been very funny, but we had picture sessions with Brent Spiner and Roxanne Dawson to get to, so eating our way through all that food was getting us quite flustered. In the end we excused ourselves before dessert and rushed off for pictures so quickly that Dan left his backpack behind.Les mer
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Mona Passage, off Purto Rico
3. mars 2020, Caribbean Sea ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
By the time we had our pictures taken, we arrived about half way through the evening’s main show: Star Trek squares. Its a an odd hybrid between a quiz show and tic tak toe (0s and Xs), for which we didn’t entirely understand the rules. It seems that the contestant gets the square or not based on whether or not they are correct in agreeing or disagreeing with the celebrity in the square’s answer to the quiz question; that seems to make it really easy if the celebrity gives a silly answer… but perhaps we were missing something.

After squares we, we called back to our cabin to get into our clothes for the night’s party theme and found another gift: cool Star Trek the Cruise IV over the shoulder bags. When we arrived at the party venue we were ahead of the event for the first time since the morning: the previous event (the Enterprise Blues band's show) were finishing their set. After a couple of numbers the stage was set for band 47 and a huge horgon statue was placed in the centre of the room to begin the Risaian Festival of the moon.

Alex wore her Trader Sam dress and Dan wore the Hawaiian shirt with a Star Fleet insignia pined to the pocket; the subtle-ish Disney designs attracted the attention of Disney fan Jesse who was there with her sister. It turned out Jesse’s day job was on the Disney cruise line; she talked to us about differences on the Disney line and how shocked her colleagues were that she was cruising for for fun. Jesse, was heading to Europe for work, and had an ambition to visit all the Disney parks world wide, so Alex shared some thoughts on Disney Sea in Tokyo and Dan some of the nerdy details about Disneyland Paris

We sat on some stools overlooking the dance floor and people watched for a time, whilst Alex sipped a cocktail served in a hollowed out pineapple. After a dozen or so songs and a few drinks we did the obvious next thing: headed to the library for a game of Star Trek Fluxx. After the game, which Dan definitely did NOT dither over, it was finally bed time.Les mer
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San Juan, Puerto Rico
4. mars 2020, Puerto Rico ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
By now beginning the day with Dan fetching coffee from the cafe on Deck 5, had become established as the routine. Over coffee we decided what to do with our morning; Dan decided to go to the ‘behind the episode’ session on directing with Roxanne Dawson, whilst Alex opted for some more time in bed.

Dan ran into Kimberly at the directing session, we had been expecting to see her at the party the previous evening, but it seems her pre-party nap had turned into more of a sleep. As the session kicked off and it became apparent Roxanne intended to screen the entire episode Riddles (her directorial debut) Dan felt a little short changed (other talented celebrities were doing all-new shows elsewhere on the ship after all) but that soon changed. Its rare to really watch an episode (as opposed to just listen to the story whilst going about other things). The opportunity to ask the director a question really focuses things; choices like the one scene that uses hand-held camera jump out in a way they don’t normally (even with nobody pointing it out at that time).

When Roxanne re-took the stage, she spoke for only spoke for about 20 minutes, out of her 60 but she got a lot across with the time. She spoke about the value of not knowing how unusual it was for women to direct in the 90s, and her explanation of coverage and episodic direction finally joined the dots with remarks other directors had made in their DVD commentaries. In the mean time, Alex had found that Kate Mulgrew’s interview was being streamed on the in cabin TVs; with a long day ahead that seemed like a great way to squeeze in an extra event.

No time to hang about; we had a walking tour around old San Juan booked and its hosted by Nana Visitor.Les mer
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Old San Juan
4. mars 2020, Puerto Rico ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Soon we were at the meeting point in the theatre at the forward end of deck 3. This time heading ashore was just a case of stepping out onto the wharf which projected out into the azure blue water of the San Juan bay. Although we had been among Caribbean islands for days, our passage and other ports had all faced the Atlantic; the water in this sheltered bay was somehow more Caribbean in character.

Nana Visitor and her husband appeared among us; she was extremely sweet and immediately asked Alex if she was wearing sun screen, showing an earnest and heartwarming concern about Alex’s pale skin. San Juan is a large city covering several small islands, peninsulas and a substantial area of Peurto Rico’s mainland - we had landed on isla San Juan, the smallest of the islands and tour buses took us on a short hop to the opposite (northern) shore to begin our tour. We began at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a 16th century fort and UNESCO world heritage site; the local guide talked us through moments in it history from Sir Francis Drake’s attack in the 1500s through to pointing out the naval gun emplacements added to defend the harbour during the World Wars.

The top of the battlements had great views over the bay and isla San Jan; a large iguana was sunbathing on them (Dan quipped that he was there for the Star Trek cruise because he had guest starred in the episode lifeline). The tour then meandered through small streets which retain a strong Spanish influence, back towards the harbour, the Caribbean heat and humidity really hitting us for the first time the entire trip. There were a couple of minor culture shocks like a gentleman selling crumbs to feed the pigeons (a practice banned in London decades ago) and a police officer directing traffic whilst armed with a pistol.

The tour, which had lasted a little under two hours broke up once we were in view of Explorer (plus another two large cruise ships). Nana was kind enough to pose for a selfie with us, before we headed to the ship.Les mer
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San Juan Bay
4. mars 2020, Puerto Rico ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Not fancying our chances of finding tasty plants to eat ashore, we headed to the windjammer cafe for lunch and virgin coladas. Between the heat and the late nights we were feeling pretty sleepy, so we followed that with coffee and a look at some of out fellow travers’ door decorating efforts. After that we tried heading up on deck for some air and a view of the bay, but it was no substitute for sleep and we spent a good chunk of our time in Puerto Rico napping, emerging around 18:00 (about an hour before we were due to leave port).

A little before 19:00, and after a quick trip on deck or some last pictures of San Juan, Kim was kind enough to join us for dinner again. This time dinner went off less like a Fawlty Towers sketch and we were on time for the evening’s show: John Delancie’s Dover Trial play. Its a court room drama based on real court transcripts concerning the teaching of ‘intelligent design’ in science classes. Stopping back in our cabin to into our outfits for the evening’s heroes and villains party we found another gift from the organisers: cruise baseball caps.

For the party we both went with Original era Starfleet uniforms: a Science division commander for Dan, and an Operations division lieutenant or Alex. There was an another amazing array of costumes, every flavour of Starfleet uniform was joined by Ghost Busters, Storm Troopers, the Fifth Element and Ursula from Dinsney’s Little Mermaid among others. Dan said “what’s shakin’ Dix” to a passing Dixon Hill, and was pleasantly surprised to be offered their business card, which they had made as part of their cosplay. We met back up with Kim to people watch and nibble party snacks, before retreating to the quieter Q bar a few decks up for a drink and a chat.Les mer
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Buck Island
5. mars 2020, De amerikanske jomfruøyene ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
At 07:00 Explorer was passing through the West Gregerie channel into the Baye de Grigri on the southern side of St Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands. This being our earliest port call, and the previous night’s party having been well attended the promenade was quiet on the morning coffee run, but soon the ship was waking up and we were rushing to the 08:00 meet up for our day’s excursion: snorkel and sail, hosted by Robert Piccardo. We sat in the theatre scoffing a breakfast of pears and vegetable wraps and reflecting that carrying on past 01:00 again might not have been the wisest.

We headed out to quayside a few hundred meters from where Explorer was tied up, where a large catamaran with its sail furled arrived to take us on our trip. Soon 120 unshod trekkies, Robert Picardo, his family and our all girl crew were on the 40 minute or so boat trip to Buck island. Robert was very clear that we were to be careful as he only treats fictional patients (although technically that may mean he can help with a real injury as long as it belongs to a character you’re method acting?). Soon enough we were jumping in to Turtle Cove; there were some gorgeous turtles to be seen but sadly the reef seemed like it might have been adversely affected by environmental issues.

We moved onto the adjacent Shipwreck (Mouillage) Cove, home to the wreck of the Cartanza Senora which can be clearly seen despite being 45feet down. The vessel was launched during WWII as a freighter, scuttled in suspicious circumstances (probably related to some disreputable dealings in Colombian agricultural products) during the 1970s, dragged out of the shipping lanes and then washed up to her present position by a Hurricane in 1989. When we arrived a group of SCUBA divers was on the wreck, sending up constellations of sparkling bubbles.

Soon it was time to head to the main island of St Thomas so Robert could get to rehearsal for a play later on; we stood against the rail at the aft of boat (taffrail?) drying off in the bright Caribbean sun whilst rum punch was served. When we arrived back in harbour the wood of the wharf was warm enough that Alex ran to her shoes (which had been laid out on the shore for us to collect).Les mer
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Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas
5. mars 2020, De amerikanske jomfruøyene ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
We ran into Kim on the quayside and made arrangements to meet up for the next show, but after swimming for the first time in years and on the back of a not entirely satisfying breakfast it was high time to return to Explorer to refuel in the Windjammer cafe. After food, we headed back to the state room for a shower and to watch some Voyager (which was showing round the clock on the TV). We headed back on shore for half an hour or so towards the end of the ship’s time in port; mostly the shops in the harbour sold diamonds, but there was a neat shop that sold textiles made from bamboo fibre and was playing No Doubt was on the stereo - much more Dan’s kind of place.

Dan decided to head up on deck for sail away time, which was just ahead of William Shatner’s show (he had joined the ship in St Thomas); from deck 12 there was a great view of the bay, and Star Trek II was showing on the pool screen. Time to go to Shatner’s show rolled around with no sign of the ship moving off, Dan met back up with Alex and found seats on the upper level, Kim walked in on the lower level but we caught her attention with a wave and she joined us. William Shatner’s style is… unique, this particular show seemed to be almost entirely unstructured - the memorable moment (perhaps not for the best reasons) was when a member of the audience asked Mr. Shatner to have lunch with her mum (which he declined to do).

As we left the show we walked along the outer deck to avoid the crowds; the Virgin Islands were still visible, but falling quickly astern and we paused to watch the seabirds fishing in the ship’s bow wave on the way to the dining room. For the first time we were seated near a port hole and the birds could still be seen outside as the sky darkened, but our attention was soon captured by the vegan creme brule on the menu and a conversation about the economies of Caribbean islands.Les mer
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At Sea, off Puerto Rico
5. mars 2020, Caribbean Sea ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
After dinner Alex and Dan attended Max tonight with Chase Masterson; it isn’t what you would call a polished performance but Max and Chase have great rapport with their audience. It was mostly a light hearted show, but when they performed a number they used to perform with the late Aron Eisenberg Max was visible moved.

We met Kim again for Nevermore: an evening with Edgar Alan Poe; its a very energetically performed one man play staring Jeffery Combes, lit throughout in a way which imbues it with the texture of a sepia photograph. Combes reads Tell Tale Heart and (I think) To Hellen whilst in character as Poe, broken up by scripted interludes of raving at Poe’s contemporaries to the audience and speaking to figures from his life who are supposedly watching from the stalls. Poe becomes drunk and unhinged throughout the performance, it reaches its crescendo with a performance of The Raven which passes through tormented and manic, before descending into the haunted, despairing state where the show concludes.

After taking part in Jeffery’s well deserved standing ovation, we passed through the main Promenade where the Gorn’s Galactic Gala was going on; an amazing array Starfleet dress uniforms were on display, making Dan’s best duty uniform which he had put on earlier look a bit shabby by contrast. We grabbed drinks and then headed to the library to play a game of Star Trek Fluxx with Kimberly until it was time for the screening of Star Trek: Picard.

Alex decided to turn in, but Dan couldn’t resist seeing a star trek episode premier with a huge group of fans. The episode was shown with an intro and epilogue from Jonathan Del Arco (recorded before he left the ship in the US Virgin islands) and finished to the thunderous applause of a thousand or so sleepy Star Trek fans.Les mer
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MV Explorer of the Seas
6. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
The ship was heading back West towards Miami on its second long leg at sea. Dan started our second sea day with a run - the first time the running track had been open whilst at see in the voyage so far. By this stage of the trip we had figured out that some sessions were being streamed on the in-room TVs, so we watched William Shatner’s second show over the coffee Dan collected on the way back from running. We headed out around 11:00 for “The Many Face of…” where Casey Biggs, Vaughn Armstrong and Steve Rankin performed songs and told stories in the main dining room, including how Casey adlibbed Damar's dying words.

We spent the next 90minutes or so on the ‘Search for Spock’ scavenger hunt all around the ship; once we got the hang of it the clues were falling into place at a steady pace. We also stopped off in the museum at the foreword end of deck 5; we thought there might be an item in there, but its (perhaps unsurprisingly) harder to get Dan out of a room full of cool Star Trek stuff than getting him into one. Everything went pretty smoothly until we had just one Spock left to find - we were sure it was in the Casino, and we even asked a dealer questions about card games to make sure we had properly understood the cryptic clue but it took about half an hour to physically find it. The hunt was great fun, although it might have been better on the first sea day (as a way of getting to know the ship) and it would have been really nice if the hardest to find Spock wasn’t in the room full of smokers.

The scavenger hunt complete, we went to get our photograph taken with Robert Picardo, he was very pleasant (Dan pitched him the idea of putting on the Tempest on the next cruise). At lunch there was were finally some good vegetable available, and shortly after we tucked in Max Grodenchnick and his family sat down at the next table. We finished out the rest of the afternoon watching more Voyager on the in-room TV.Les mer
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Explorer of the Seas, Pool Deck
6. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We were very firmly in the latter part of the Star Trek convention which is also a cruise and so far had stuck almost entirely to convention-type activities, so we decided drag ourselves out of the stateroom and spend some time on the pool deck. Dan tried the ‘flow rider’ surf experience for a few minutes before it closed, then onto the pool (which we were surprised to find was salt water). Finally we spent some time in the hot tub (although sadly the bubbles weren’t working) where we chatted with a frequent cruiser, until we had to excuse ourselves for a 18:15 dinner appointment with Kimberly.

Dan had two mains at dinner, so we arrived slightly late for the 20:00 “Name that tune, ask Siri edition” in the schooner bar - which was a little frustrating because our 3 person team (the Transatlantic Alliance) scored 100% on all the questions we were present for. When it came to mark the quizzes we swapped our answer sheet with a couple of borg (a sentence I never thought I would say) - Dan was super pleased with himself when he successfully set the whole bar beating out the rhythm of ‘we will Rock you’ when it was time to mark that one. Our efforts put us in the top 5 but missing out on the win to a team that got 100% including the two songs we missed.

We stopped by our cabin and found another gift from the organises: luggage tags shaped like the EMH’s autonomous emitter, before heading to the night’s show: a live reading of the script for Devil in the Dark. The classic episode starred Gates McFadden as Captain Kirk, Ethan Peck as Mr. Spock and Denise Crosby as Doctor McCoy; it was directed and narrated by Roxanne Dawson. Dan was quite excited to see an actress portray Kirk… the production was a bit more light hearted than expected, Gates did a terrific version of William Shatner’s trademark pause, Robert Picardo did some great 4th wall breaking Improv and Ethan Phillips was delightful as the Horta.Les mer
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Q’s Costume Party
6. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
The evening dress theme for the second sea day was Q’s Costume Party - “only your best and most impressive costume” and it did not disappoint. Before the show we had gotten into our outfits so we could head straight to the party: Alex wore her Sally dress, Dan wore his operations uniform again and Kimberly wore a Star Fleet Academy, Red Squadron sweater. As cool as those are they were lacklustre compared to many of the efforts on show.

Walking along the promenade we encountered an amazing Borg and Quora from Tron Legacy/Uprising. Suddenly the ship was populated with Andorians and Cardassians; a Klingon and a Telarite sat at the bar in Qagh plah, the ‘Klingon’ pub on the promenade.
When we reached the main dinning room, the hub of the party, we found a Cylon Centurion from Battlestar Galactica, the mutated form of Geordi La Forge from ‘Identity Crisis’, a whole gaggle of yeoman Janice Rands and a drag Deanna Troi.

We went to the mid level of the dining room to people watch the dancing crowd. Up there, we ran into (as far as we know) the only other Welsh passenger (a gentleman from Bridgend (Pen Y Bont) who by a massive coincidence was wearing basically the same uniform as Dan (except he had made himself a Commander, whilst Dan was wearing Lt. Commander’s bars). We drifted off to Q Bar, where karaoke was in progress; Kimberly finished out the night by dueting “Can’t Fight this feeling” with another passenger.Les mer
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The Northern Caribbean
7. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
A little before 09:00 Dan headed up on deck for a run, the Bahamas could be seen just peaking over the horizon and a brisk cross wind swept the unsheltered areas. Dan ran about 3Km worth of laps and then returned to the cabin with coffee where we planed to watch the 10:00 talk (behind the episode ‘Through the Valley of the Shadows’ with the cast of Discovery) but unfortunately it wasn’t being streamed.

Our first successful activity of the day was the 11:00 autograph session with Chase Masterson. She seemed pleased when Dan asked her to sign one of her audio plays (the sleeve from his copy of ‘Doctor Who: The Shadow Heart’) and hinted that she might be appearing in more soon.

It was a little after noon when we headed to deck 11 for lunch; by this point Explorer was in Freeport awaiting permission for people to go ashore. During our leisurely lunch in the Windjammer John De Lancy passed by our table, followed later by Ethan Philips and Jeffery Combes walking together, so we were glad take our time, work on our journal and people watch. This was the only port where we hadn’t booked an excursion, so we were in no rush to go on shore and it was after 14:00 when we finally walked down the gangplank.Les mer
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Freeport, Grand Bahama
7. mars 2020, Bahamas ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Although there were a smattering of souvenir shops adjacent to the wharf, it was much more like landing in the industrial docks at Newport or Harwich, than the piers in the picturesque down-towns of isla San Juan or Charlotte Amile. Rough concrete and chainlink fencing dominated the view in most directions, some of the nearer docking berths occupied by cargo ships whilst the only other passenger ship in sight was about 2 kilometres up the harbour at the shipyard, apparently undergoing some sort of maintenance. We ran into Kimberly in the port and wandered around the shops for 30minutes or so discussing the conch shortage, why the Bahamas had so much Jamaica themed merchandise and mulling the possibility of buying some extra luggage.

This was probably the port where booking an excursion had been most necessary, there being nothing of note accessible by foot from the wharf. On the other hand, the day’s overcast weather and limited time wasn’t really conducive to a relaxing day in the Bahamas so taking the time to chill with no commitments suited us.

We reboarded the ship well before the ‘Back From the Dead’ panel which was scheduled to go on whilst we were still in port. Right at the opening Jordan Hoffman (host of many of the sessions) dropped a massive spoiler for those that hadn’t seen the latest Picard episode yet, causing the only (well deserved) ‘boo’s of the trip. In the talk Denise Crosby, Garet Wang and Wilson Cruz disused their returns from the dead; the most memorable moment was a question from an Irish solider who asked a question about Wilson’s portrayal of PTSD.Les mer
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The Home Straights
7. mars 2020, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Explorer departed Freeport making a fraction of her usual speed so as not to arrive too early in Miami, which was now a relatively paltry 170Km away across the North-West Providence channel, and then the Straights of Florida. The three of us paid a visit to the Next cruise lounge and dallied with the temptation to book next year’s cruise then and there - fortunately Alex was there to act as the voice of good sense. At dinner, we shared a table with a couple from the bay area in California with whom we chatted about Star Trek the Animated series; the husband was charmingly apologetic for merely liking Star Trek, rather than loving it like his wife.

Our first show of the evening was Garet Wang’s ‘Forever Ensign’ stand-up comedy; it was strange to see him making fart and knob jokes but to his credit they were really funny. Many of the other celebrity guests were in the front rows; Denise Crosby briefly reprised her role as chief of security to deal with a heckler. Heading over to the main theatre, Marina Sertis introduced ‘inside the actor’s studio with Brent Spiner’. Brent opened with some stories, then the bulk of the show consisted of Brent interviewing William Shatner. The interview didn’t always flow as one might hope; when Mr Shatner brought that up Brent quipped quite accurately (and more than a little cuttingly) that ‘its not the questions that are the problem’.

After the show we scrambled back to the cabin to put our luggage out by 23:00 as we had been instructed, before rounding out the last night with another game of Fluxx in the library. The designers of the Star Trek Fluxx games were onboard and we did search about for them, following a lead to that they might be in the Cafe on the promenade. The Fluxx inventors were nowhere to be seen, but we did find the Entertainment Cruise Productions team already well advanced in changing the decor ready for their next voyage: the 80s Cruise underscoring that our voyage was over.Les mer
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