Results tagged “Trivia” from East Asia 2017

Got woken up at 05:54 by a ship's horn blasting. Then at 06:00 the next door neighbours had an alarm go off (we have a double room, and we can hear the neighbours talking through the door). So no hope of getting back to sleep. So got up and looked out, and we were still in the Yangtzee river (we were meant to have docked at 05:00). We didn't end up docking until around 07:00, so was able to watch the whole thing from our balcony, including seeing Quantum of the Seas docking just before us. The terminal is way out on the Yangtzee River, not on the smaller river in the city that for some reason I was expecting to go to.

Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal

Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai

We had breakfast delivered so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds in the buffet. It was a bit average, although it didn't help that I'd let it get a bit cold while watching us dock.

At 9:30 we disembarked. We had to go to the theatre to get allocated a coach group, and then we got off the ship. And walked into a hall of chaos. We were mixed up with people who were leaving the ship for good, so they were all trying to sort out baggage. And suddenly we lost everyone that had the coloured stickers. We did eventually go out the right exit and through a security check, but then outside there was one solitary sign saying where the Cunard tours were going, but after going that direction the signs stopped and everyone was going outside but there were no coaches out there and we had no idea where to go. Eventually I saw someone with a sticker and asked them and she said she was just following her guide, so asked the guide and she said she was looking for the coaches as well!! Gah!! She asked someone though and it turns out they were around the corner. We were almost the last to board our coach, so that was very stressful.

Also, random camera died. It's been a bit funny with the memory card since I dropped it in Hong Kong Disneyland a year ago - the memory card mechanism got a bit screwy, and the door for the memory card and battery always looked like it wasn't sitting flush. Well as I was getting off (after having downloaded the SD card before we got off), it decided it didn't want to work at all - couldn't read the card - reinsert. Fricken sigh.

And it was raining. And the coach windows were steaming up.

The tour we had was "Free time in three sites" which was described as they give you a map and you have time to explore three different parts of Shanghai. Except the map they gave us was a general tourist map of a huge area of Shanghai. No actual detail of any of the places we went to. So that map was completely useless.

Our first stop was in the financial district, and they gave us an hour and a quarter from 10:45 to 12:00. Which might have been enough to go up either the World Financial Centre, Jin Mao tower or the Shanghai Tower, as they are right next to each other, but Stu wanted to go see the Oriental Pearl Tower. But that's a fifteen minute walk away, twenty to twentyfive if you take a wrong turn or want to stop and take photos. So it was about 11:15 by the time we got there. Which isn't enough time to go up it. Well, it might have been, but only if there were no queues, but you can't tell that from the outside. So we didn't go up it. Instead we went to Starbucks. Yay. Did I mention it was raining? I wanted to go to the bathroom, so found one downstairs, but there were was no toilet paper. I knew this was a possibility, so had brought tissues. But they were in my bag upstairs at Starbucks where Stu was waiting, weren't they. Fricken sigh.

Looking across to the Bund from Mingzhu Roundabout

Disney Store

Mingzhu Roundabout

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Walked back along the sky bridge thingie back to the coach.

Shanghai World Financial Centre, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower and other Shanghai buildings

Our second stop was in the "Old Town" which is a mega tourist trap. Old buildings are all shops and tea houses and I would have enjoyed it except we hadn't had much for breakfast so I was starving and low blood sugar which meant even trying to find something to eat was too hard (no English subtitles pretty much anywhere so there's all this random food you have no idea what it is). Eventually we found a popular dumpling place and had some xiao long bao. Felt infinitely better after that, so we went to the Yu Gardens to have a wander around. Even though it's not very big it's like a little rabbit warren of passages and gates and completely disorienting with a new view through every turn. Would have enjoyed it more if we didn't need to be back at the meeting spot in time for our departure. We got toffee fruit on a stick on the way out which was a bit of fun.

Me and Stu having dumplings for lunch at Yu Garden

Bridge in Shanghai Old City

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Stu with fruit on a stick at Yu Garden

Fangbang Middle Road

Our third stop was at the Bund. In the rain. I didn't even get my big camera out for the last two stops (I took Stu's random camera which he's barely ever used since he uses his phone). Got some pics of the city from the Bund, then wandered most of the way down and back. Would have been sooo much nicer without the rain.

Me and Stu in the rain in Shanghai

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Bund

Shanghai skyscrapers

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund Bull

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

Then back to the coach by 16:20 (actually we left a bit early because everyone was tired and over the rain and just wanted to get back to the ship).

Scooter raincoats

Getting back onto the ship was a lot easier than getting off it. Just walked straight in and through security and had our passport photocopies scanned on the gangway and straight back onto the ship.

Quantum of the Seas departing Shanghai

Looking towards the five Queens Grill suites, and The Verandah restaurant on deck 8

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8 while berthed in Shanghai

Terrace pool in the evening

Chilled out in the room for a while then went to the pub and had a drink and played the trivia again. We got 17/20 this time, but again a table got 20/20.

For dinner Stu had Indonesian chicken salad, cod with oxtail sauce (weird right?) and rocky road (which was a chocolate mousse not rocky road). I had cream of chicken soup which was lovely, steak which was nice enough but a huge meal - much bigger than they normally serve, and creme brulee which sadly hadn't been blow torched so was just liquid on top.

Then crashed into bed.

Woke up at 06:00. Blerf.

Got ready and downloaded photos, blogged etc. Had breakfast around 09:45.

After breakfast Stu started up some washing, and I did a wander all around deck 7, including the Princess and Queens Grill which are normally off limits to plebs like me, but they didn't mind me going in to take some photos while noone was in there.

Deck 7 promenade, starbooard side looking aft

Bow end of the deck 7 promenade

Spare propellers at bow of deck 7

The very front of the state rooms and public areas and bridge of the Queen Mary 2

Deck 7 promenade

Three laps around the ship on deck 7 is just over a mile long, two laps is just over a kilometre

Deck 7 aft

Deck 6 pool

Deck 7 promenade, starboard side

Inflatable life boats on deck 7

Deck chairs on deck 7, unfolded and with cushions

Looking aft at around deck 9 from the starboard side scenic lift

Princess Grill restaurant

Princess Grill restaurant

Princess Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Queens Grill restaurant

Came back to the room and we watched the port info on Shanghai while our washing dried.

Current position of the Queen Mary 2 on our stateroom tv

View forward from our balcony

We had lunch in the smaller aft Kings Court which doesn't have as much choice as the big one, but it did have pizza.

Took another walk around deck 7, this time with the sweetie.

Me with the spare propellors

The Grand Lobby

Flowers in the Grand Lobby

Me in the Grand Lobby

We also had a look at the games area. It's mostly people playing Mahjong, but also scrabble and rummy tiles. There's a corridor for games on both port and starboard sides. On one side there was a jigsaw nearing completion, while the table on the other side was empty.

Left there, and I tried to get an audio headset thingie for all the "Maritime Quest" info boards around the ship, but apparently they don't have them at the moment. ?? Something to do with them being out of date?? Some lame excuse anyway.

So I went back to the jigsaw and helped them finish it. Then around the other side someone had started a new jigsaw. So I helped with that until 16:45, so I could then join the sweetie to watch Passengers. It wasn't too bad, just a bit of Hollywood fluff really.

Illuminations Theatre

Illuminations Theatre showing the planetarium dome retracted

Back in the room afterwards I brought the GPS inside and download all its tracks since departing Hong Kong.

Then it was time to get ready. We headed to the pub again, this time in time for the pre-dinner trivia. We didn't officially play, but if we had we'd have gotten 18/20. There was one table that got 20 though, oh well. Collected some questions for our next trivia night. Not that I want to run another damned trivia night, but some people can't help themselves but win it!!

Then into dinner. Stu had the parsnip soup, guinea fowl and toffee pudding. I had prawn cocktail (very small serving), sole (not bad, my alternative choice after I found out the steak dianne was using minute steaks), and the toffee pudding.

And finally into bed.