Cruise 2025

Celestyal Discovery cruise ship

Narda’s notes in italics – Terrell whatifs

26 November

Leaving our Dutch home exchange after six-weeks see previous blog. https://neuage.me/holland2025

We left Jos’ apartment late in the morning. Took the bus to Utrecht Central then the train to Schiphol and from then, after a too long wait to our transit hotel, Radissan Blue, which turned out to be a lovely stay. I had a great dinner I have never had before, spareribs with a great sauce.

We slept well in good beds and good breakfast. Then the shuttle went back to the airport. We checked our bags electronically.

Flight to Athens. We booked a driver in advance, and he drove us to our overnight stay at 140-150 kilometers per hour in 60-70 kph zones. Quite terrifying. and he was sick! which later , we think, spread to us. We slept well at our little BnB. The host dropped us off at a nice restaurant, where we had a really good meal.

this was not it

Next morning he deposited us at the Lavrion Cruise Terminal for the cruise ship. We had some incorrect information and arrived far too early. We met some lovely ladies from Colombia, which was really nice. It was very cold. But finally, we could get onto the ship at around two am.

28 Nov- 05 December

A beautiful ship! We loved it. We got a great dinner, sitting with our new Colombian friends. These buffets are a treat.

Later we made another friend, We went the amphitheater and watched an ABBA tribute which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We thought there were no many people. Terrell said “there is no one here”. And a voice piped up “I am here” this was Sherry that started another friendship. We discovered our mutual love of India. Lots to talk about.

While the singers sang ABBA, the ship left the harbour.

(Terrell here) Transformation – “Consciousness transformation refers to profound shifts in how individuals perceive reality, themselves, and their relationship to the world. It often involves moving beyond habitual thought patterns into deeper awareness, compassion, and purpose”  CoPilot AI

Amsterdam to Athens was easy. A month later starting this I barely remember then, now. However, I remember arriving in Athens late in the day. We had paid for a taxi to an Airbnb in the Lavrion area to be close to the cruise port. Nothing is as you believe it will be watching YouTube clips and reading blogs of those who have done the trip. Lots of advice on the internet but nothing compares to the actual act.

Our driver standing there smiling tip worthy (he was hoping) with our name on a board. At first he seemed normal – driving carefully through the airport – then he hit the freeway. End result the drive was supposed to be a bit over an hour; we did it in about thirty minutes. Posted signs along the way were between 60-80 k/ph. Occasionally in fear I would look at his speedometer which gleefully read 140 – 150 and a few times 150 k/ph. I was having dreadful thoughts of us flying across the freeway; one of us dead the other crippled for life. It was raining with load thunder and lightning overhead to make the fear factor multiplied.

Years ago, Narda and I had been hit in the rear by a large truck doing 70 mph on a freeway in Alabama and were knocked across a couple of lanes, landing – resting on a large barrier between north and south freeways in our crumpled car. Then we waited for the ensuing pain which never came as we did not get hurt – I waited for that pain for when our driver would miss a corner. Narda said later she had the same thoughts.

After we got settled in our Airbnb the driver took us to a restaurant and he ran two stop signs without even looking either way. Is this how people drive in Greece? I think we will take a bus or maybe a camel next time. On the cruise the following week we met others who had a similar experience.

Friday morning up early for our cruise which was to leave at eight pm. I checked with ChatGPT to be sure all was on time – it happily informed us that the ship was leaving at 11 am and boarding time was at 9 am. We frantically gathered our belongings, found our host and said we had to get to the ship right away. There were two women from Kazakhstan also at the Airbnb who did not speak English – but somehow, we communicated with them that we had to all get to the ship. The car was small we had too much shit – so did they – we all managed to squeeze in with suitcases on our laps as well as filling every space we could find in the car.

At the cruise port no one was there – ChatGPT had lied – or tricked us – or was having a lend of us. There were a few people who showed up after us making about a dozen of us at nine am being told we could board after two pm. There were no seats in the place, so we dragged some benches in from outside. Then we were told to come back at two pm. I found a Wi-Fi connection and an Uber-type of shop nearby to deliver coffee to Narda and me and three women from Columbia, making me a temporary hero of the dawn. At two pm – five hours sitting in a yucky waiting room hundreds of people went charging to the check in counter. We got in line as many more pushed in front of us which pissed us off so we left the line and went in front of everyone to be next at the counter. See we can be pushy too.

We did get on to the ship at 3ish and dumped our stuff into our room and found ourselves with a tray of food from the amazingly wonderful buffet. Forgetting I was a diabetic and I had eaten sometime in the past I ate more and more until we were barely able to drag our sorry asses to our cabin for a later afternoon nap, but who is looking at the time. In reality we were on some other time zone, so it was a justifiable nap time.

ABOUT THIS CRUISE. Yes, it was absolutely the best and we most definitely would do it again. But here is the thing about our cruise. We booked in via Flight Centre in Adelaide months ago. We have not used Flight Centre in the past, figuring we could do better on our own. However, we got stuck on getting our flights to Amsterdam and they got us there was a three-day free stopover in Doha which we told about in the previous blog post. I found this really groovy and great cruise. However, with weeks to go before leaving for Amsterdam, we were informed by Flight Centre that our two-week cruise was now one week. No reason was given. Doing a bit of research, we discovered no other cruises were going through the Red Sea past Yemen and Somalia at this time.

(For their repositioning voyages to the Arabian Gulf in November 2025, both ships sailed through the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait unoccupied (without passengers) as a safety precaution. Passengers disembarked in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the ships continued empty to Abu Dhabi to begin their Gulf seasons. Re. the internet – Google).

We were not told at the time this. Just that the second week had been cancelled. Bottom line was that we scurried around and made alternative arrangements like flying Jeddah to Abu Dhabi then to Dammam. More of that later days before leaving on our trip to the Netherlands. We got our second week’s money back but still would have liked to have stayed on board.  The Cuban actors stayed on board, but the Filipinos had to fly home from Jeddah and re-join the ship four days later in the Gulf.

• Vessel Attacks and Casualties: In July 2025, two cargo ships with large Filipino crews, the MV Magic Seas and the MV Eternity C, were attacked by Houthi rebels and sank. While all 17 crew members of the Magic Seas were safely repatriated, the attack on the Eternity C left some Filipino seafarers dead or missing, with some believed to have been taken hostage.
• Government Action: In response to the escalating danger, the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) issued Advisory No. 21, series of 2025, ordering a total deployment ban on Filipino seafarers for vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Just to repeat… Transformation – “Consciousness transformation refers to profound shifts in how individuals perceive reality, themselves, and their relationship to the world. It often involves moving beyond habitual thought patterns into deeper awareness, compassion, and purpose”  CoPilot AI

By six pm we realized it was dinner time and found ourselves again at the buffet with loaded tray-repeats. Damn! We had not eaten for hours. The ship was still hours from leaving. After too much food and my sugars passing “I am going to kill you” levels we did the required safety check struggling with our life preservers to the point someone had to help us get them on for the demonstration. It is obvious that if the food doesn’t kill me we will sink straight to the bottom of the sea with our life jackets happily floating out to the nearest island without us attached.

Then there was the announcement that the evening entertainment would start at nine pm. We went to the large theatre about eight pm. I didn’t see anyone so we thought we would sit there and wait in the darkness until things began to happen. I said to Narda, “there is no one here”. I heard a voice in another section say, “I am here”. Narda being lady-social sat next to the “I am here” body. After a while I went over to Narda and the body because they seemed so engaged in conversation. “India” was what I heard. The body, Sherry, I learned, was a total India lover, from Dallas. She had lived in India, all over, many times, many years. While they were going on about their love of India along came Mr. Entertainment-Director. The first thing he started talking about was the Rosicrucian’s. I mentioned I had spent a decade in a cult-order that was sort of a Rosicrucian’s sidenote. For example, the head of our Order (The Holy Order of MANs “Masters Illuminated Knights of Spirit”) claimed to have been a 33 or whatever the bloody number is – the top of it all, apparently, grand master or some sort of illuminated person who was able to bring people into the seventh-solar initiation – illumination, which is claimed I was brought in to in 1970 in the Order in Hawaii and the ninth solar initiation – self-realization, which the Order claimed they brought me into when I was in the Baltimore Centre in 1975. Don’t know, something happened then that was quite transformative at that moment. Not sure if I believe any of this anymore. Actually, I am sure I don’t believe any of this anymore.

Or to give it the AI slant: “Rosicrucian initiation is a progressive system of mystical rituals and study within various Rosicrucian orders (like AMORC), designed to unfold spiritual potential through symbolic dramas, esoteric teachings on cosmic laws, reincarnation, and spiritual science, guiding members from basic philosophical understanding to advanced spiritual mastery, with stages often involving private lessons and public temple degrees. These initiations demonstrate universal principles, building inner wisdom and spiritual connection, moving from studying spiritual concepts to experiencing profound inner transformations”

SO not only was this dude in the Rosicrucian’s but he was from (The main, and largest, Rosicrucian organization’s world headquarters are located in San Jose, California) Romania – a hotbed of such mystical stuff. To make it even more trippy our new acquaintance lives in Transylvania. Farout. For the next seven days he seemed to be in front of me talking mystical stuff. Telling our little group: Sherry, Narda, Klaus from Germany about his initiations – something about spending three days in ice and snow barefoot and other stuff. Telling us how humanity was bound this way and that way and we all with our “sight” covered. Me, remembering a lot of the Order Mystical talk was able to converse. I told him I had been an avid astrologer (we talked about Esoteric Astrology re. Baily type) but I no longer believed in any of this and in fact was an atheist. I told him my wife of 25-years had convinced me to live in the moment. I used to do astrology charts for the day. Being married to someone who believes all this esoteric is a big of nonsense has helped me live in the moment without interpretations of previous lives or next lives of anything but now. Mr. Activities Director said his wife didn’t follow his beliefs either. I suppose I consider this all transformative in the sense that I have not spoken with anyone for decades about such stuff. Now weeks later I am back to my ‘what was all that?” though interesting. Also, interestingly Narda and have been planning a trip in 2027, for my 80^th birthday through eastern Europe and we have Mr Entertainment’s information to visit in Romania. Ion, our amazing entertainment director speaks seven languages and says he can understand several more. He said we should look up Robert J. Gilbert https://www.gaia.com/article/robert-j-gilbert-his-life-and-legacy to get more insight into Romanian Rosicrucian stuff.

Of course, the rather other bigger or maybe equally as big – no bigger, transformation was the day after we left the cruise when I would discover at the age of 78 that I have a brother – a brother from a different mother but a brother of sort, we seemed to have shared the same father. All that later.

On to Sherry. We hit it off like cosmic twins woven from some similar fabric of who could believe we have so many similar views, especially nutrition. To a bit of Narda’s boredom we had great talks about smoothies that we did identically, kale, almond milk, oils (coconut oil, avocado oil, hemp oil, flaxseed oil) protein powders, fruit, etc… our fixation with thinning hair what to do (I mix four oils including essential oils and do daily massages) and exercise routines. So Narda had her ear about India and me about food. We spent the week as a team. Then we had the three women from Columbia. Often it was five females and me, I would refer to them as my five wives. In consciousness only of course. Sherry was a fun person and had a lot of great stories and was a world traveller. She had booked the cruise two days before it is leaving. She said one day, in Dallas, she wanted to go on cruise that passed Egypt and looked online and so our cruise and booked it and fly to Athens the next day. She did the tours in Egypt- including a day on a camel but we stayed on board that day. More of that later.

The evening entertainment was the Cubans doing ABBA, called Mamma Mia! Narda of course, sang along and seemed thrilled. Sherry being from Dallas was kind of interested. Me? I had never heard of ABBA in the 1970s as I was a California and etc music liking person of the 1960s stuff like Jania Joplin, Mother Earth, Creedence Clearwater, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, Dylan, Jimi, Doors and those great folks. I heard of ABBA in the 1980s in Australia. Saw the movie with Narda I think on TV. Never very impressed. But there seemed to be many happy people on board singing along. I was glad when it was over and time to sleep.

The reason Mama Mia! was so innovative was that it was the first jukebox musical that had a story (other than the musicians’ lives) and that used the songs as a normal musical would to move the story forward. Andersson and Ulvaeus took songs that had no real meaning and figured out a way to meld them with a book. That’s from the internet not from me.

The Cuban actors were so good. They are from ISA Cuba. The ISA (Instituto Superior de Arte / University of the Arts) in Cuba is a prestigious institution that trains top Cuban actors.  This multi-arts university produces many of Cuba’s renowned performers, directors, and creators, shaping the quality of Cuban arts seen globally. 

Bottom line – they were terrific.

29 November Saturday

Lifeboat drill. Learned how to put on life jackets. We then took a nice walk around the town. Bought a few trinkets, Sherry came too. Later we sat and listened to Roberto play violin. Very nice.
Arrived in Kuşadası, Turkey – 7 am – watched coming in – buffet breakfast – some weights in gym – rain day – with Sherry from Dallas and Narda into town bought magnet – watched violin player – dinner with Sherry – Cabaret – to bed ten pm+

Bye-Bye Greece (and your terrible drivers) “Güle güle” (pronounced goo-leh goo-leh) is a common Turkish farewell meaning “go smiling” or “leave happily,” used by the person staying to wish the person leaving well, conveying a wish for a pleasant journey and happiness, like saying “Bye-bye” with a warm blessing.

The name Kuşadası comes from the Turkish words kuş (bird) and ada (island), as the island has the shape of a bird’s head (when seen from the sea).

see our clip at https://youtu.be/IVw6l_6F_Ks?si=iK8FPA1k6c9HPOq0

(information from Wikipedia – I can only trust it is correct – if not it is interesting) Kuşadası was founded by the Leleges (an aboriginal people of the Aegean region, before the Greeks arrived) people in 3000 BC, and later discovered by Narda, Sherry and Terrell not new-age but Neuage. We walked around for the day. It is a respectable place to wander, with some old-shit fort which was being renovated and Sherry and I saved a bird from a cat as the cat was sneaking up on it and we chased the cat away. No praise was given to us for our heroic venture. Overall it is good for a place to wander and get a cheap fridge magnet which I was entitled to collect as Narda’s rule is that we must stay overnight at a place to qualify for a place on our fridge, and I think we came close to the requirement as the ship docked before sunrise, I think.

We went to a small pub like space where Roberto was playing violin. He is one of the Cuban folks staying on board even if the ship is attacked by folks in the Red Sea. He is so good. I have some of him in the video clips so don’t miss that.

The evening show onboard was Cabaret. The Cubans were in fine form as they came out in close to no-clothes at all with lots of frilly show through things and extra provocative acts. The next day at a meal folks said it was a bit too risqué. I said didn’t think it was risqué enough, with the responding comment “you’re man, of course you would say that”. We did notice a lot of people walked out of the show – the Muslims mostly.

The evening dress code that only a few of us paid attention to was ‘ELEGANT / red & black (optional) according to our daily notice. I was pleased that I had brought a couple of my ties. (you would recall that during covid I wore a different tie every day for 187 days – I used to collect ties from op shops around the world as I was supposed to wear a tie at my Dalian China teaching gig for three-years I was there and I had not worn a tie before then so I made it a sort of an art-form. If you missed my covid tie marathon it is at https://neuage.org/iso/

For example, below is a typical outfit though this photo Sophia took of us in Koh Sumuni Thailand on Christmas Day 2025

30 November Sunday
Daily Program – “Sailing the Mediterranean” A sailing day. We hung around on deck with Sherry and we met a couple from Pakistan living in Delaware. We spent the next few days having dinner with them then our add on friend from Germany, Klaus, giving us six at dinner. The evening entertainment was the Cuban folks doing Greek dancing. Narda and I stayed for about half.

01 December Monday

Below six day war 1973 left over – The 1973 war ended in an Israeli victory, but at great cost to the United States. Though the war did not scuttle détente, it nevertheless brought the United States closer to a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis.

“Crossing the Suez Canal” this was what we have been looking forward to for months and it was a great trip. See our YouTube clip. https://youtu.be/BbhvqJVgusY?si=t2FPLSUPPZHgcxBm

The evening show we missed as it was their Grand Circus Show and we had already seen the athletic tossing to and fro of the Cuban dancers from other shows. Instead, we sat around and spent the evening talking with our little group from Germany, Dallas, Pakistan/Delaware.

02 December Tuesday

Narda helps the captain by pointing which way to go

“Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt”

We took a bus tour to Sharm El Sheikh. We passed a lot of trucks lined up to take food and supplies to Gaza which is two hours away from the port. After an hour we got off the bus and checked out the under whelming tow, full of tourist shops. Sherry and our Pakistani/Delaware friends went on a larger tour to Luxor, and the Valley of the Kings.

Again – Transformation – “Consciousness transformation refers to profound shifts in how individuals perceive reality, themselves, and their relationship to the world. It often involves moving beyond habitual thought patterns into deeper awareness, compassion, and purpose”  CoPilot AI

Sherry is quite keen on Red light therapy (RLT), often called photobiomodulation (PBM), a non-invasive treatment to simulate brain and all parts of the body. Something we will investigate back in Australia. Who knows? Could be transformative. Sherry, a wealth of information about everything told us about Great Courses Online https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/ so we will continue or begin to learn.

Klaus “turned us on to” his favourite music: German bands post punk; Pink Turns Blue and Black Swan. Not sure if that is or will be transformative for us. However, my hope for 2026 is to progress past 1960’s Joplin/Dylan/Hendrix/Doors etc and try something more up to date. My friend, Dell, in 1972-1974 New Orleans was into German Industrial “music” which sounded like industrial music – machines making noise. Klaus likes that too which make me wonder about Pink turns Blue but when at my next bout of insomnia, I will give it a shot.

03 December Wednesday

https://youtu.be/Mbzkg-I242A?si=iUMPwfFepzvPTsdr 0:

Safaga, Egypt

By this time, I was pretty sick and visited the ship’s doctor.

This would mark quite the time for us. Narda was very ill the last couple of days of the cruise. I luckily was fine, for three days. By the time we had our stay in Aba Dubai and Saudi Arabia (two-weeks) including a day in hospital – this is all next blog, probably after returning to Australia in early January which will include our week on islands off of Thailand and eight days in Bangkok, with Narda’s son, grandson and wife down from Pakistan for Christmas and New Years.

bus into Egypt – bought pyramid after lots of hassle coffee at beach

04 December Thursday
at sea day

05 December Friday
arrived Jeddah – off ship about noon – to Sherry’s at Ritz Carlton – very expensive lunch- taxi to our flat stopped to get cash from ATM 500 SAR couldn’t break it – to flat – slept feeling very sick slept a couple of hours to Pizza Hut – watched Sticky Boots

06 December

Once Again – Transformation – “Consciousness transformation refers to profound shifts in how individuals perceive reality, themselves, and their relationship to the world. It often involves moving beyond habitual thought patterns into deeper awareness, compassion, and purpose” CoPilot AI

Even the towels in our cabin were transformed each day:

Brother new

Dear Terrell, I hope this message finds you well. My name is Robert L Miller from Troy, New York. I now quietly reside in …..l, New York with my wife, of nearly 50 years. I have a long curiosity of my family’s genealogy. Recently, I was compelled to check the year 1950 census. My past searches lead me to several census. The 1940 census record was as far as I could search. This was in 2008ish. There is law that the 1950 census could not be available for 72 years from 1940. For some reason, I clicked on the 1950 census. It was not available to me back then. Terrell, I believe I found strong evidence that we share the same birth father Lawrence Miller. Can you add to this information in any way? Please reach out to me at your convenience and preference. Thank you, Terrell. Sincerely, Robert.

Of course, my adopted brother, whom I grew up with and who died of AIDS back in 1992 was named Robert. So why wouldn’t an adopted brother and a blood brother have the same name? Sometimes life almost makes sense.

Overall this was a great cruise. What made it so good was a couple of things. Firstly, as always it is the folks we meet that makes a place memorable. Our Pakistan friends now living in Delaware we may visit next April when we are in DC. Sherry has already started arrangements to catch up with us in India, The Colombian women have a spare house in their city we can stay in whenever we get there and our German mate Klaus we may catch up with someday and my Rosicrucian mate has invited us to visit in Transylvania Romania how cool is that?

Secondly, two hundred passengers makes a large cruise ship easy to do. We seldom see many people at one time. We foraged at the buffet line for breakfast and lunch and had dinner in a proper like restaurant with white table cloth and served by a waiter three course meals in the evening with our good new friends. We rarely go to inner in Adelaide, perhaps once a month with family so this was a treat.

And yes I would do it all again.