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| Brilliance of the Seas - home for 13 days for 2,500 cruisers |
Travel is supposed to be educational, and a trip like this - complete
with different languages and strange-looking money - qualifies. You
wouldn't think I'd take pride in buying camera batteries in a Helsinki
store - but I did. Here are some of the things that struck me as
interesting while serving as a slightly naive European traveler as I
went from the United States to Canada to the United Kingdom to Denmark
to Estonia to Russia to Finland to Sweden to Denmark to the United
Kingdom to Canada to the United States:
* Who was the big winner at the end of the Cold War? American business.
We walked into a mall in Tallinn, Estonia, a place that has thrived
since the Soviets left, and saw familiar stores and brands. With a few
superficial changes, the mall could have been in any well-off U.S. area.
That's even true in St. Petersburg. The Cyrillic alphabet does tend to
obscure some names, but McDonald's and Subway tended to jump out.
There's one word that doesn't need to be translated to catch the
attention of Russian shoppers when it is on a billboard: "Sale." And
speaking of billboards there, it was funny to see one of the M-and-M
characters depicted in that format.
* By the way, we visited six capital cities. I believe each one had an
Irish pub, a Mexican restaurant, and a Texas steak house. Nothing says
Denmark like some good ribs.
* It really is true that you can get by in many European cities if you
speak only English. That might not be true outside of tourist areas, but
many service workers could deal with visitors quite well. I was
surprised that many of the kiosks at attractions that had descriptions
in two languages usually used English as the second one - even in
Russia.
* The oddest scene of the trip might have come at the Hermitage, the
famous museum in St. Petersburg. The biggest attraction in one of the
zillion rooms in the place was a painting by Leonard da Vinci. Suddenly,
a large group of Chinese tourists surged around the painting, leaving
me crowded and a little scared. That was a first. I have felt that way
at sporting events, but not in an art gallery. According to veteran
travelers, life in China is of course overpopulated, and that has led to
a different and smaller definition of "personal space" that what the
West usually accepts.
* When we were getting ready to enter the Hermitage, it look us a while
to cross the square to get to the entrance. Our group was there at the
same time the St. Petersburg Marathon was finishing. I recognized the
look of those runners who had taken more than five hours to complete the
26.2-mile distance. It's a universal expression.
Speaking of running, I did it a few times on the ship. On the first sail
day, I used the treadmill - and was reintroduced to the concept of
running on a platform that swayed with the waves. The running track was
better, even when fog made the top of the ship a bit blurry when I
looked at it.
* The best pre-trip advice I received was from someone who said not to
worry too much about money. The ATMs generally are all connected, and
credit cards are accepted in most places. I didn't have the chance to do
much shopping in Russia, but the one souvenir store I entered took
dollars, Euros, and credit cards. It really is a global village in some
ways.
* In most of our European stops, we saw traffic lights that went from
red to red and yellow, quickly followed by green. The only other time
I've seen red and yellow on together was in New England, where it was
used for pedestrian crossings. (It still may be, for all I know.) In
Europe, it's almost like it's a signal to start revving the engine.
* There's a major business opportunity in Europe for a good shirt
designer. Most of the souvenirs we saw in that area were rather boring.
The exception was in Skagen, Denmark, an artsy resort area that had some
specialists in that area and were rewarded by a brisk business.
* I think it's fair to say that it looked as if more people in Europe
smoked than they do in America, but it didn't look like an overwhelming
edge.
* Odd cultural moment: a small band greeted tourists at Catherine Palace. The song of choice: "Yellow Submarine."
* I can't say I ever thought of the Baltic Sea as an Interstate Highway
for ships before this, but it was true. At any given moment, we could
see another big ship - usually a barge - in the distance.
* Cruisers (my shorthand for people who travel this way a lot) love to
talk about the differences in ship lines, but - based on two
experiences, Holland America last year and Royal Caribbean this year -
the similarities are far greater than the differences. Our stateroom was
almost a carbon copy of last year's home. The companies both made
plenty of suggestions to drink, gamble, buy jewelry, and pose for
photographs. Royal Caribbean might have been a little louder when it
comes to promoting its upscale restaurants, ones that charge an extra
fee for dining. Holland America does get credit for handing out a daily
news summary from the New York Times. Without signing up for Wifi
services, which is pricey, it was impossible to keep up with the outside
world - so we didn't.
* Last year we couldn't imagine what it was like to be on the same boat
with 1,200 people. This year we were on a boat with about twice that.
That thought was a little scary, but Royal Caribbean did a good job of
keeping the size of the lines for goods and services down. A little wait
is to be expected at times like getting on board or getting luggage,
but realistically that part was smooth. I will add that the food seemed a
little better on Holland America. I would think feeding half as many
people would provide a bit of an advantage in that department.
* The cruise lines try to keep the customers occupied when they are on
board, particularly during "sail days" when the ships don't go to port.
We often showed up for trivia games, and got to meet some nice people
that way. Those contests were pretty tough to win, and not just because a
few people might have used their phones to look up answers. With the
United Kingdom and Australia well represented on board, some questions
were geared in their direction - leaving some Americans stumped.
At one point in a game, I asked myself the question, "Do I really want
to win a game about identifying disco songs?" I need not have worried,
finishing well back in the pack. There was no such ambiguity about
winning a game all about American history, particularly when it was
played on July 4.
* Most of the time it was hard to know that there were people with some
serious money on the boat, even though you might have guessed that
about people who were more than willing to pay $14 for a mixed drink.
However, at certain points in the cruise economic class became apparent.
That was on the so-called formal nights, when everyone was told to
dress for dinner. Suddenly the children on board, who looked like
typical kids the rest of the time, were in obviously expensive suits and
dresses.
* The first show I saw on our ship featured an ABBA tribute band. I
should have seen that coming. After all, this was a trip that featured a
stop in Sweden, and ABBA made substantial contributions to the Swedish
treasury over the years through record royalties. Besides, ABBA was
popular starting in 1977, which means those in their late 50s know the
songs well - and that's the start of the sweet spot of the cruising
demographic. ABBA songs popped up at other times during the trip as
well.
One act prompted some lively discussion after the show. Was the guy
portraying Elton John in a tribute band actually playing the piano, or
was the guy in the back row doing the work for him? Since "Elton" wasn't
touching the foot pedals, most people guessed he was faking it. The
entertainment star of the trip was a "comedy mind reader" named Mike
McClean, who was quick and clever throughout his act.
* We had only been on a cruise ship once before, and the crowd on the
Alaska trip last year was mostly American. This featured more of an
international cast. It's hard not to bump into strangers on the big
ships, if only because seating at the buffet restaurant is limited and
you have to take any available seat. That means conversations can go in
unexpected directions.
For example, I got plenty of lessons about immigration within the
European Union. A worker from Poland can do better in the United Kingdom
than he can at home, even if he takes less than the going rate for a
skill. That's led to some hard feelings. I asked how Northern Ireland
and Ireland were getting along these days, and was told that while the
people didn't exactly trust each other, it was in their best interests
to get along and so they did so - a little grudgingly.
The conversation could go the other way too. A couple of Europeans had
followed the shootings in South Carolina, and wondered why Americans
didn't do something about this obvious problem. It was hard to explain
to them why American politicians used the mass killings as a launching
point for a discussion about ... the Confederate flag. My guess is that
the political leanings of the group as a whole are more conservative
than the population at large. It costs a good-sized amount of money to
travel this way.
Generally, though, the conversations stuck to travel. The cruising
population is pretty well off and has seen a lot of the world. That
often gives them a perspective and curiosity that doesn't come with
day-to-day life for most. They helped make the trip a memorable
experience.
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