Warnemunde? Why does it say: 'Wilkommen in Kiel'?

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Today's final comedy word: Erklärungsnot (n.): This is nothing to do with a running nose but the state of having to quickly explain yourself.Erklärungsnot (lit. Emergency explanation) refers to the exact moment you are caught with your hand in the till and forced to think on your feet. Unless you're a good liar, the results of Erklärungsnot are usually unbelievable and silly, like the old favourite: "My dog ate my homework" Only use this excuse if: a) you have a dog and b) he's a bit partial to Maths or History GCSE coursework!!

From St Petersburg we headed straight down the Baltic. The day after St. Petersburg was a day at sea or as they refer on board, a navigation day. We did see land briefly around tea time. This would have been the Swedish Island of Gotland, on our portside.

We received another letter today. This time inviting us to an exclusive cocktail party in the Teatro San Carlo at 5pm. Tonight is the second gala evening of the voyage. As tomorrow we arrive in Copenhagen where one thousand passengers are leaving the ship, it will be
interesting to see who goes to the trouble of tuxedo or ball gown the evening before disembarkation!

Today, the navigation day, was as good a day as any to play Bingo. Roisin had signed up a few days ago but it was cancelled at the last moment due to lack of interest. Today however, the 'Bingo bongo' as it is affectionately known in these parts, it to be played on deck. Despite the chill in the air and the threat of rain, the game was well attended. These games can be an ordeal as the rules of the games are explained in six languages. The card has twenty five squares of which the centre square is free. Along the top of each column of numbers is a letter that spells out the word ‘BINGO'. When a number is called it preceded by the relative letter, for example B-11, N-43, O-75 etc…There is only one game of Bingo but the winner has to have a full house. Today's jackpot was €300. Not to be sniffed at. Roisin got off to a terrible start only picking off two numbers in the first ten called. However, she then went on a roll. The numbers were now coming thick and fast. When I say fast I mean one every fifteen seconds once it has been called in all major languages! Roisin needed only one number N-43, when N-40 was called.‘Beengo!' was repeated several times. There were three winners of this particular game each picking up €100. Unfortunately, lady luck was not quite with us on this occasion. I guess I'll have to ‘defriend' her on Facebook now!!

Most cruise ships have a system whereby gratuities are automatically added to your on board account. The cruise companies recommend that you don't tip individual members of staff. On the European cruises, MSC apply an €8.50 per day per person ‘service charge.' Depending on the length of the cruise, this can mount up to a considerable chunk of your
spends. These charges, however can be cancelled as they are still classed as voluntary although you have to opt out rather than opt in. In our case we tend to cancel one charge and keep one. In other words, modify the charges by 50%! (MISSING)I did this at reception and with no fuss the assistant tapped away on the keyboard of a PC terminal and said: ‘All done'. MSC also support UNICEF and each passenger is debited €1 on their on board account unless they wish to cancel. As the assistant was adjusting our service charge I leant over the counter and said: ‘The UNICEF donation is OK. That can stay.' She looked up from underneath her glasses and gave me a look that said: ‘Well thank you Mr Rockefeller! We'll make sure your €1 is put to good use!!

The final quiz of the cruise was call ‘Brain Buster'. It was for teams of up to six and each team were given the name of an MSC ship. We were teamed with a German couple from Lubeck and an Irish pair from just north of Dublin. There were only ten questions in this session and all were multiple choice. All the questions were displayed on a big screen. The drawback was that each question was not just a brief sentence but a full paragraph!! ‘The Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel and built for the World Fair in Paris in 1889. There are 3 stages to the Tower and it has nine lifts that takes an average of 4 minutes and 30 seconds to ascend to the top. Including the mast on the top of the tower, how high in metres is the Eiffel Tower?' All questions were of similar length. The multi choice answers were also read out six times. The quiz took almost 1 ½ hours to complete. We scored 8/10. There were four teams that scored an impressive 10/10. Oh! No! A tie break!! To cut a long story (a VERY long story) short ‘Who wrote the Count of Monte Christo?' No multi choice this time. Now we were down to two teams. Next question was about some cave in the Dominican Republic that holds historic significance. The question was who discovered it in 1923? The answer was a Shepherd!! Neither team got it right so thank heavens that common sense prevailed. Both teams were declared joint winners or else we could have been in for a very long evening!!

This was the final quiz. The only issue I have with these quizzes is the amount of hand clapping that is done between each question!! The organisers seem to want to fill every gap with loud music. The irony was that with the exception of the Brain Buster'all the other quizzes were music quizzes anyway so you had loud music followed by more loud music whilst you wrote your answer down!! Perhaps this is part of the test. A bit like the Krypton Factor. In order to show that I was there to have fun and not to be overly competitive for a cheap plastic key ring, I managed to tap my foot, and in a few instances it was almost in time with the music!!

Roisin had been, throughout the course of this trip, ticking off the privileges that should be enjoyed by Black Members of the new MSC Voyagers Club. So far MSC have delivered all without prompting. Next on the list was an MSC Voyagers Pin badge, awarded to customers who move up the ladder from one level to the next. So it was off to see Elena, the MSC Voyagers Club customer relations manager.She advised us that the pin is only for members who moved up a level since the introduction of the new loyalty programme. As we have been black members for some time, we are not entitled to one. Oh well, we weren't going to make a commotion. It was worth a try. Elena told us this as she walked across to a drawer, hidden out of view. She came back with two boxes and added:‘…but as you are the only two British Black Voyagers club members aboard and I like you, here, I make exception…but don't tell anyone!!!' (I've just realised that by blogging this experience, it is not really within the spirit of ‘not telling anyone'!!)If Gianni Onorato is reading (and I know he likes to follow the blog from time to time!) this didn't happen, it was all a dream and I woke up in the shower!

The show tonight was called Fantasticats and is an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ground breaking musical: CATS. Like all of MSC's shows on this trip, it was a pot pourie of variety. Memories was the big hit that the lead singer performed amongst lots of well choreographed dancing. The Ukrainian balancing men had another role in this production and once again, similar to their ‘tin man' part from early in the voyage could only muster half a costume. In this instance, a zebra stripped leggings and a bit of grease paint. Surely there must be more in the MSC ‘dressing up' box than an animal more accustomed to the Serengeti than a back alley in New York City!! I don't even remember a zebra being in CATS!!

As over 1000 guests were leaving in Copenhagen, the Animation Team performed their traditional ‘Cha ciao' A Thank you and Farewell performance immediately after Fantasticats. Once the cast of Fantasticats had taken their final bow, Michael Jackson's We are The World fired up. The lights dimmed and the Animation Team, all dressed in black entered the stage. Each member of the team have a florescent letter suspended around their neck. The careful manoeuvring of the letters spell out ‘THANKYOU'. A flip of the letters and as if by magic DANKE SCHöN appears. And so it goes on, a shuffle around and another flip of letters then OBRIGADO appears just above MERCI. Finally, another shuffle and a tug on the chord to release the final letter MSC SINFONIA lights up the stage… then another chorus: ‘We are the world, we are the children, We are the ones who make a brighter day so let's start giving' I have now seen this finale nine times and it still brings a lump to my throat every time.

Just before the lever is pulled and the theatre rains down ticker tape, a representative from each nation on board the MSC parade down the auditorium and on to the stage. This is one of the few times that engineers, offices, waiters, cleaners, spa workers sing side by side for a common cause.

On the eve of arriving at a new port, the Daily Programme will provide a few paragraphs of the history, geography and main attractions. I have no problem in admitting that from time to time I have plagiarised some of the official write up. Bearing in mind that the Daily Programme is available in six languages, Roisin spotted something regarding the Copenhagen write up that may translate literally from Danish to German but I'm sure the Cathedral of Copenhagen and the National cathedral of Denmark known in Danish as ‘Vor Frue Kirke' is not known in English as ‘The Church of our Mrs'!!! (A quick google of Wikipedia would have even shown this as the Church of Our Lady!!)

05.09.2015
Distance from St Petersburg to Copenhagen = 665 nautical miles

Total distance travelled = 1463 nautical miles

We arrived in Copenhagen just before 12 noon. The crossing from St Petersburg had been smooth. This is our last port before returning to Warnemunde. If it's one thing that this cruise has demonstrated it's that the weather (which has been, for the best part, pretty crap!!) is not the sole factor of the sea state. Looking out across the quay, neither Rosin nor I recognised the landscape from our last trip. My research told me that Langeline, the place where we docked last time and is only a short walk from the Lilla Havfrue, the statue of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (or, to translate via the MSC little book of direct translations: the Little Sea Mrs!!), is now only used as a transit port. That means to say there are no embarkation or disembarkation facilities. As we were losing 1000 or so passengers today, we must have been in the Nordhavn Oceankaj, a couple of miles further down the coast. We had planned to walk to the Little Mermaid and then on to Kastellet, one of Europe's best preserved ‘star' fortresses in the form of a pentagram with the bastions as its corners. Both of these places we had already visited but it would have been a nice walk. Rosenborg Palace, the Danish royal residence until 1710 was also on the agenda. We were even prepared to walk the extra couple of miles as a result of docking in Nordhavn Oceankaj but, it was raining, and raining hard. The weather had once again made our mind up for us. Unfortunately on this occasion we didn't have a plan B so we moved straight to plan C. Then we realised we didn't have a plan C either!! What we did have though was free Wi-Fi in the port building!!

A queue had already formed by the security scanners, all waiting to disembark. We decided to put another ‘Black Card' perk to the test. We flashed our credentials to the official who immediately opened the guide rope that enabled us to queue hop. Preferential disembarkation they call it!While waiting to go ‘shore side', Michele, the Deputy Purser passed by. He was one of the Senior Officers present at the Black Voyagers Club Members get together a few evenings ago. He acknowledged us and stopped to tell us the latest news. Apparently high winds are expected this evening and for that reason, the ship will not be docking at Warnemunde but will be diverted to Kiel. There will be a free shuttle from the ship to Warnemunde. I told Michele that we need to get back to Hamburg.‘Oh! In that case, you're already halfway there!' Michele announced with the grin of a Cheshire Cat. ‘The shuttle will take two hours to Warnemunde but you are probably only one hour by train from Kiel to Hamburg.' Now my geography of Germany is not that bad but Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony are two of the German regions I am not overly familiar with. Kiel and Hamburg lie in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony respectively!!

As soon as we had logged on to the free Wi-Fi we went straight to google maps to get our bearings. This would not be so bad after all. To take our original route we'd spend two hours on a coach followed by three hours on a train, changing at Rostock. There is no guarantee that we'd even catch our planned train back to Hamburg. On the other hand, Kiel is only 1hr 16mins by train from Hamburg, is direct and they run at least every hour. From memory, the train station in Kiel is only a hundred metres or so from the cruise terminal. A quick switch to the Deutche Bahnhof web site to check out the cost. A single ticket is €23. (£16).

Whilst making use of the free Wi-fi Roisin received an email from EasyJet. It recommended that as there is heightened security at Hamburg airport they advised all passengers to arrive early. Our flight is not until 18:50 so we have plenty of time as we will be arriving in Kiel at 8am.We spent quite a few hours in the Copenhagen cruise terminal only returning to the ship for lunch. Candice, one of the entertainment team had been on duty in the terminal all day. This must be tiring handing out information in one of six languages. She was also acting as an info point switching from German to Italian then to French back to Italian and then Spanish just for good measure. Her fluency in all of these languages seemed to come natural.

06.09.2015
Distance from Copenhagen to Kiel= 150 nautical miles

Total distance travelled = 1613 nautical miles

The ship docked, as promised at 8am. Under normal circumstances, you have to vacate your cabin by 7am. Once more, exercising our privileges we decided not to leave our cabin until 10am!! Hopefully, the mad rush will have subsided as most people will have left by then.
However, not knowing the logistics for shuttling six hundred passengers back to Warnemunde, we weren't too sure what to expect.

We bumped in to Candice as we were preparing to leave. Yesterday she wore a blazer and skirt, today she was dressed as a giant smilie face!! Does this woman's talent hold no boundaries? We said our farewells, a quick hug and, most importantly, confirmed she was on Facebook, then for the last time, raised our cruise card to the security detail who scanned the bar code and after a short delay, our pictures flashed on to the screen and we were allowed to proceed.

In no hurry to catch the train we deposited our luggage in to a locker in the train station and went for a wander around Kiel. The canal for which the city is famous stretches almost 100km connecting the North Sea to the Baltic so does away with having to navigate around Denmark. It would have been nice to visit the entrance to the canal but as this was some way out of town, time was against us so we left this for another occasion.

It was Sunday. Most of the stores were closed making the main shopping area somewhat deserted. We decided to head toward the town square. On turning the corner we were confronted with a sea of people all milling around not following any particular rule of direction. Somewhere within the mass of bodies were market stalls. As we passed through the crowds we got glimpses of trestle tables holding everything from antiques to plastic combs and even antique plastic combs!! Some of the sellers just displayed their wares on a blanket on the ground. Many of the sellers look like they were at a bring-n-buy sale while judging from the used pair of trainers next to three DVDs alongside a few dusty looking ornaments as well as the many stalls showing miscellaneous bric-a-brac it felt like we had stumbled on Europe's biggest car boot sale!! Minus the cars!

Nothing much else was happening today in Kiel so we headed back to the train station for our very uneventful journey to the airport.To ‘kill' a bit more time, we ventured up to the observation deck at the airport to enjoy a cup of coffee while sitting out in the sunshine. I spoke too soon. You could actually see the rain as it advanced over the nearby forest and down the runway. It wasn't long before we were forced inside as once again ‘rain had stopped play'.Security at Hamburg airport didn't seem overly heightened and we found we were in position inside the departure lounge at 2pm.Our flight was at 6:50pm. Or so it should have been!!An announcement was made at around 7pm that the easyJet flight from Manchester had been delayed by approximately 1hr 40mins due to a medical emergency. The flight had been diverted to Amsterdam so as the paramedics could quickly deal with the casualty. Roisin, already beside herself with worry, couldn't have gone any more ashen-faced!! As she pointed out, if the flight is delayed any more, that ‘medical emergency' may well be her on the way home. She had probably started worrying about this flight seven days ago when we first boarded the MSC Sinfonia back in Warnemunde.

Ah yes, the MSC Sinfonia. She had spent the past months alternating between the Baltic and the Norwegian Fjords. When it leaves Kiel later on today it will be heading for warmer climes repositioning in Genoa where it will spend the autumn cruising the Med before heading down to Durban for the Winter Season via the Suez Canal and the East Coast of Africa. In May it will sail to Cape Town before heading back to Europe…with at least two British Black Card Voyager Club members on board…!!!

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Comments

[Claire B]

Loving the blog as always!