June 4, 2024
Time to roll the dice!
Our ship embarking date and sail has again shifted out, due to the DNV inspections. Late yesterday, we were informed they have to make one additional retrofit on the Ship propellers in dry dock and this work will take 10 days; therefore, our new boarding and departure date is June 15th out of Belfast. This propellor change had been previously grandfathered by DNV with prior ship owners. It was due to be done at our next maintenance stop and thankfully the parts had already been on order. Villa Vie filed a grievance with DNV regarding this, but bottom line is, we have to do now. Villa Vie ownership has been fantastic in communicating all this to us. Their staff has scrambled today to come up with a contingency plan to give us all an alternate to camping out in Belfast. There are roughly 300 passengers waiting to embark, most are in Belfast now and others like me are scattered around.
My choices at this point are:
1) Keep the rental car I have from Belfast and continue to stay in Cork at Edel's or visit more of Ireland. Edel'scommitments in Cork start again on 6/8. But I could stay here until 6/15.2) Return to Belfast, swap out some of my luggage, turn in rental car and go on trip to Canary Islands with fellowpassengers in waiting, Villa Vie is working out all-inclusive details now.3) Return rental car in Belfast or Dublin and get a flight to Hamburg Germany and go visit my friend Tom who was supposed to join me on cruise on 6//16 in Hamburg. Villa Vie has yet to announce where we will be sailing on the new embarking date of 6/15, so not sure if my planned catch up with Tom will be impacted.Right now, I am leaning to option #2. The Canary Islands will be more beach like weather / locale, and it will be good to start connecting with the other passengers. Also, I don't expect any real beach spots in the planned itinerary much before late September and everyone knows I am a beach lover at heart. They have signed me up for all-inclusive now, for planning purposes, but I am still reserving option 3 if it looks like Hamburg, Germany is being removed from itinerary.Suppose to have more details later tonight or tomorrow.So for now, stay tuned!
R
We spent our last day in Adelaide exploring the downtown. It was an easy and convenient, 1/2 hour train ride from the port into the CBD. The University had a lot of interesting architecture and it was a nice quiet Saturday to walk around. The River Torrens runs through the campus and provides a many pathways to enjoy.
In the parking lot of the Cube there was another bonus art installation, and this one was much better known by me, Dr. Seuss !
The d'Arenberg Cube in the famed Barossa Valley w as the draw for me here; the wine tasting was an added bonus! The 15M AUD Cube was built in 2017, from the vision of 4th generation winemaker, Chester Osbourn , who likened the solving of a Rubik's cube to winemaking. The avant garde glass, concrete and steel visitor center is 5 stories tall with the top floor tasting room offering panoramic views over the McLaren vale vineyards, the Willunga Hills and the Gulf St. Vincent . The other floors house the Alternate Realitites Museum , a contemporary art gallery, bars, a fine dining restaurant, a virtual reality experience and a wine sensory room. There is currently a Salvador Dali Universe exhibit on a 2 year lease, with some of the artist's sculptures and graphics.