Cruising The Seven Seas: Dragon's Lair

Dragon’s Lair

14^th July 2011

Compared to normal we had a late arrival in Haifa. Arriving at 10am, crew couldn’t get off the ship until 12, unless they were escorting the tours! Great! David, Camila, Luci and I were hoping to run to the supermarket before going out on tour. However, we didn’t find this out until we were on the gangway and getting called back by senior security who told us to go back onto the ship!

Fede was shooting Sanela who was dressed as the dolphin. Their counts were very low. Sanela wasn’t putting in any effort to get the guests to have their photo taken. Fede was smudging as much as he could but it was like flogging a dead horse! He was getting nowhere. Sandra had more counts on the rail which is a real rarity.

Getting back onto the ship, we went for something to eat before going to the Savoy Theatre to get our tour group. Ritesh, Camila and I who were going on the same tour. Fabio would be going on another a little later on.

Speaking to someone from Explorations! we later found out that I wasn’t on a Spanish tour and Camila wasn’t on a Brazilian (Portuguese speaking) bus. This kind of buggered things up! The South Americans love having their photos taken and will buy almost everything. The Americans and Europeans won’t. We were in for a hard job getting people to have their photo taken.

Meeting my tour guide I asked if he could let everyone know I’m the ship's photographer and if anyone wanted the photo taken, to give me a call. In return Amir asked if I could email him some photos of himself working. Of course I would.

Getting onto the bus, he introduced me saying “We have Lou here, our tour escort and photographer for today so if you want photos, go to her. Call her over.” The more I spoke to Amir, the more I liked him. He was very knowledgeable and a pleasure to talk to. The group I was with on tour were also a delight. Some people were a little off but overall, they were a great bunch.

On our second stop we arrived at one of the places I really wanted to visit. The previous day I’d pointed it out to Luci. Today I got my wish, we were finally at the Bahia Gardens… but could only get a look in from the top. Still, beggars can’t be choosers.

The views from Mount Carmel were breath taking! Grabbing my camera, I positioned myself on the steps where I had a great view of Haifa city and the cruise ship in the background. Smudging like crazy, my image count soon started heading up and up. While photographing guests I was also taking my own photos of the gardens, temple, city and ship. I was photographing everything! The Bahia Gardens are stunning. A real must-see if you ever go to Israel.

Moving on, we to The Stella Maris Church where we spend about 30 minutes listening to our tour guide giving us a somewhat overly informative history of the place. As interesting as it was, the temperature was soaring and the guests were growing tiresome. They wanted to see the places rather than know the history of it all.

We arrived in Acre or Akko, as the Israeli’s call it, and went into the tunnels running under the town, that were discovered only 15 years ago. A lady had a problem with her plumbing and called the plumber. The plumber started pulling up the flooring to get to the problem and came across the tunnels. More and more is slowly being excavated with new findings on a weekly basis. I cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of the tunnels.

You’re given an over load of information while on tours and it’s sometimes so hard to remember it all. Or, put each name to the location.

Going through the tunnel was quite amusing. I was the shortest on the tour and people in front of me where having to bend down to get through the passage ways. Me, being 5’1, I just walked straight through without a problem!! There were two occasions where I had to bend down for a short period of time. At one point I thought an American guest was going to have to get on his hands and knees to crawl through a passage!! He had to bend down for the entire walk through the tunnels. You see, there are some advantages to being a short arse!

Thankfully, the tours in Haifa were only half day compared to the usual 12-13 hour tours. Heading back to the ship, I wanted to get a group photo. I told the tour guide so he could get into the photo as well. He announced the group photo idea on the microphone and even told the guys to stand on the left of the bus. Amir was fantastic getting everyone together. All I had to do is get people to move in and take the photo. Overall it was a great day.

Bahai Gardens, Haifa, Israel

Bahai Gardens and Haifa Port

Our Tour Guide

Ciry of Haifa and Mariner of the Seas

Tunnels of Acre

At about 23.30 Camila called and asked if I was ready for the all crew party. I’d completely forgotten about it!! Climbing into the dress I’d bought in Kusadasi and painting my face as quickly as possible, we were all ready to go. Fabio and Zoran were filling themselves up on vodka and red bull and said they’d join us later. Camila was borrowing my Greek Goddess dress.

I’d never been inside Dragon’s Lair before. It’s the ship’s night club for guests. By 00.30 the place was packed with crew dolled up to the nines and dancing the night away. Of course, being photographers, we took one of the cameras and started snapping away. The drinks were in full flow at crew prices and it wasn’t long until we all hit the dance floor.

At one point Camila and I went back to the photographer’s corridor in search of Fabio and Zoran, they still hadn’t made an appearance.

Fabio thought it’d be funny to give me Stu’s Israel visa “as a souvenir”. Somehow we got onto the subject of Stu and sat around chatting for a bit. Me and Zoran got a bit emotional, well, mainly me. Zoran told me a few things that I didn’t know. I don’t know everything, he’s saving that for another day when he’s sober and can talk properly. It made me understand a few things that had happened but I won’t go into that. Zoran and I sat about in the cabin for about an hour reminiscing about the good times when Stu was around. The random crap we used to get up to during the night, after work.

One thing was for sure, some things might be easier and more relaxed but both Zoran and I really miss Stu. We miss coming back to the cabin after work, sitting about, talking and laughing. I miss the stories from South Africa, random jokes and dancing eyebrows. Picking ourselves back up, we both headed to Dragon’s Lair with Zoran’s missus in tow.

Towards the end of the night, the party was in full swing and a rather large amount of booze had been consumed by most! All the photographer’s along with a couple of the guys from shops and girls from Spa were dancing together in a group.

Later on, everyone had paired up with their other halves. Turning around, David and Regina were slobbering over each other. Looking the other way, Fabio had got his wish and was munching Camila’s face. Zoran was doing the same with his girlfriend.

Whitney tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the side of the dance floor. There was a couple laying on the sofa chairs, drunk as skunks and almost getting down and dirty!! My mouth dropped open before I burst out laughing!!

Everyone was with someone and Whitney and I were the only singletons on the dance floor!! We were the only ones without a guy or girl on the ship. So, making a joke of it, we decided we’d be a couple for the night and spent the last three or four songs dancing together having a giggle. Thierry from Shops kept coming over, dancing on me and getting a little too raunchy. Luckily enough for me, people from Photo and Whitney kept spotting it and dragging me away to dance with them. No matter how much I moved away from him, he’d follow. They all had a good laugh at my expense… and I’m not going to lie. I found it hilarious… he was too drunk to take a hint.

Calling it a night at 4am, I left the others to it and headed to bed. I had the morning off in Ashdod for selling the most GTP and 15 Packages (12 GTP and 7 15’s) and wanted to make the most of it. Hernan also had the day off for taking the most couple shots in Ressi. All in all, it was a fantastic night!!