APHC Cruise 2014

[doctork]

It came into my Inbox today so I think it is current events. I thought it would be good to have some cruise info in the general thread, though later perhaps a separate discussion in the Members' Forum might be good.

This is a two week (14 day cruise) and it is really expensive, though GK is careful to point out that due to the length, it is not really that expensive, as in "lowest per-day cost" since 2005. Yes, as in $500 per person per day, by the time you add in the cost of a Russia visa ($300) and all the extras. The lowest price per person is $3,300, and that is a small inside cabin, of which there are only 5 or 6 in the whole ship.

I still want to go, but gee, more cash expenditures (deposit) so soon? I've barely recovered from the last cruise.

Anyway, here 'tis:

October 8, 2012

Dear Friends,

I never imagined our old radio show would get into the cruise business, but the Barcelona-Venice trip a couple months ago was such a pleasure, we decided to do one more.

So off we go to the Baltic in August.

We'll sail on the 9th aboard the ms Ryndam from the white cliffs of Dover and head off to visit a string of fabulous northern cities, including Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Århus, taking along all the usual suspects and our naturalists and some excellent lecturers, and we'll have a mob sing on the afterdeck as we pull out of Dover, and late-night dances in the Crow's Nest and 7 a.m. choir practice (optional) and more storytelling and lectures about the Hanseatic League and the Revolution of 1917, and a cavalcade of music in the bars and lounges, as the watery world slips by and we take a two-week leave from our ordinary hectic lives. No texting. No email.

Jenny and I did this trip years ago, and the memory is still vivid (in a good way). The thought of walking around Stockholm in August and eating tre slags sild (that's three kinds of herring) at an outdoor café in Copenhagen and walking through the czar's summer palace outside St. Petersburg and the graceful boulevards of Helsinki — that is what is going to cheer me up through the doldrums of March and the book tour in June and the airports and the hotel lobbies and then July 6, the 40th anniversary of the first Prairie Home show, when I am going to feel 103 years old.

A person can get through a strenuous year if you just have something wonderful to look forward to. And I'm looking forward to August 9th and Dover and the walk up the gangway and seeing familiar faces around the Lido pool.

Yrs,
Garrison Keillor
August 9 depart 4:00p Dover, England, United Kingdom
August 10 At Sea North Sea
August 11 10:00a – 8:00p Copenhagen, Denmark
August 12 6:00a – 10:00p Warnemünde (Berlin), Germany
August 13 At Sea Baltic Sea
August 14 10:00a – 5:00p Talinn, Estonia
August 15 arrive 7:00a Saint Petersburg, Russia
(overnight stay)
August 16 depart 6:00p
August 17 6:00a – 5:00p Helsinki, Finland
August 18 arrive 8:00a Stockholm, Sweden
(overnight stay)
August 19 depart 5:00p
August 20 At Sea Baltic Sea
August 21 8:00a – 2:00p Århus, Denmark
August 22 At Sea North Sea
August 23 arrive 7:00a Dover, England, United Kingdom

[doctork]

Booking for the cruise opened this morning, but I did not jump right on it. It is so expensive that I will just have to wait a bit before I can make the financial commitment.

All of the most inexpensive cabins, and all of the priciest suites have sold out immediately. Can you say "polarization" or "inequality"? Even from home-grown Democrat, Mr. Egalitarian himself! Oh the irony.

BTW, I am not looking at either the priciest or the cheapest.

[liriodendron]

Doesn't the ship need a doctor? (Didn't they have one on The Love Boat?) Perhaps you could volunteer your services and get a hefty discount?

[doctork]

Yes the ship has a doctor, but the ship's doctor is hired by HAL, generally on a longer term basis than one or two weeks. And they are usually Emergency Medicine docs, which I don't care for. You know, like having to airlift patients with heart attacks off to the medical center. Oh yeah, I just did that yesterday.

There are numerous doctors on the APHC cruise, though I don't know how many are comfortable with primary and urgent care. Anyway, if I am on vacation, the last thing I want is to be on call 24/7 on a ship filled with (mostly) old people who could get very sick at any moment.

No, either I'll pay the money, or I'll stay home and airlift emergency patients all over the place.

[BoatBabe]

Well, it certainly sounds like a wonderful cruise, and if I win the lottery I'm definitely going. What a fun trip to be able to anticipate.

[doctork]

I see that the cruise is now sold out. Don't laugh at me please (oh well, I won't know if you do), but I have to wonder "Who are all these rich people who can afford this cruise?"

It will be a significant financial stretch for us, and my husband and I both have good jobs. Perhaps the others who signed up feel the same, but it sold out so fast, it feels like everyone else has tens of thousands of dollars just waiting around to decide what to spend it on! I wish!

Am I missing something? Am I the only one who doesn't have a pile of money sitting around waiting to be spent on a cruise? Or maybe most others feel the same as I do, and are figuring "OK here's the deposit, I'll stash away carefully, Christmas will be less extravagant, like maybe the plane ticket to London in a Christmasy envelope, and we'll somehow manage it."

[gailkate]

You're kidding, right? I've been to Toronto.

[Jane]

I'm saving to send Henry to camp this summer. No cruises for me. I went on the first one.

[doctork]

Oct 31, 2013 9:58:17 GMT -5 gailkate said:

You're kidding, right? I've been to Toronto.

I was neither kidding nor serious, I was amazed.

It is a two week cruise, which is a long time to be off work, it is very expensive, and the general public had no advance notice, yet the cruise sold out immediately. And the most expensive cabins sold out first.

So I still wonder who are these people.

[doctork]

So here is the rest of the story:

As y'all know, I did go on the Baltics cruise and shared a cabin with my friend Jean from a prior APHC cruise, so that significantly reduced the cost for me. I countered that savings by inviting my daughter, which sent my costs back up, but not sky high since she was the third person in the cabin, so her fare was half of the "regular" fare. It was a stretch (and a graduation present for getting her Masters degree) but worth it, considering Genevieve got to spend her 30th birthday in Saint Petersburg, Russia. I treated Gen to the airfare by using miles, and Spencer got us a great rate at a London hotel for a few days before the cruise.

Jean is again my cabin mate on the two week Scotland and Norway cruise next month. The cost is actually lower per day, and it has taken a lot longer to sell out. In fact there may still be a few cabins left, haven't checked recently.