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CyberCafes Contributing To A Better World
News Around The World About CyberCafes: All Together!
Guess what! A cybercafe in a cruising ship, why not??
Detailed entry: In cruise control I ALWAYS wanted to be the one standing high up on the deck, waving and throwing coloured streamers to the crowds below, a la The Love Boat. Then the captain would sound the whistle and, with Julie the cruise director and Isaac the grinning barman nearby, we'd pull away from the shore.
Only this time, we weren't going to sunny Acapulco, but to the eternal city, Rome.
It's got more shimmy than a showgirl and more bling than a bad rapper, and the Carnival Liberty, the newest cruise ship on the Med, has taken to European sailing like a, well, you know the saying.
Launched in July in the traditional style – a magnum of Moet smashed across the bow – the ship will spend the 2006 European summer cruising to the hot spots of the Med, including Rome, Cannes and the latest Euro must-see, Dubrovnik, in Croatia.
On its inaugural run, we boarded the ship in Monfalcone, northeastern Italy. The send-off was like a modern-day scene from Babel. Guests drawn from every corner of the globe gathered in a marquee where we registered our attendance, handed over the luggage and were thrown a lifeline in the form of a ship's map. Absolutely essential – this is no baby boutique hotel.
The $700 million Liberty stands 72m high (about the height of a 24-storey building) and weighs six times the Eiffel Tower – and that's before any of us had climbed aboard.
The megaship has 2111 rooms and suites, including 10 penthouses, and is home to a maximum of 3700 guests and 1160 staff, the latter drawn from 50 nationalities. Just a casual stroll revealed four pools, four restaurants, a day spa, the internet cafe and a duty-free shopping strip.
While the 13 public decks are dedicated to sun worshipping, eating and drinking, shopping and being entertained, there were another five storeys below us working around the clock, kitchens heaving as they turned out the 20,000 meals daily, and the staff, running, monitoring, delivering, checking, sleeping, eating and relaxing. There's even a wedding chapel and mortuary on board to fully embrace the cycle of life.
From afar, the ship appears as a single entity, gliding through the mild Mediterranean water, but its population is the same as the town that I grew up in. It takes some getting used to.
Amid all that mayhem and the sheer number of people, it was still easy to find a quiet corner, even at the busiest times. But here's a tip – it wasn't at the bow of the ship, where we all took it in turns doing a Kate Winslet from the Titanic, hair flowing in the breeze, gown swirling behind and an adoring, handsome man cooing in your ear. (Even if you have short hair, are wearing bathers and are travelling alone.)
During the day, the hot spots were, predictably, the sun beds that line the top two decks. They were gathered around three of the ship's pools and at the feet of the 65m water slide.
The staff wove in between the loungers, delivering drinks and ice cream, cracking jokes and peering over the side with the guests as we passed the medieval Miramare castle, south of Trieste, and then when the ship pulled through the straits of Messina, at the toe of Italy.
The quiet spots were to be found at a corner table at Harry's, the reservations-only supper club or, in the cool of the evening, along the promenade deck while everyone was climbing out of their bathers and into something more elegant for the night-time activities.
Then, the pace picked up again as the post-dinner crowd were ready to explore the 22 bars spread across the boat or to take in one of the high-kicking, toe-tapping, Vegas-style shows in the 1500-seat theatre. Afterwards, the place to be was the piano bar, where New Yorker Ron Pass belted out the classics while the crowd provided a backing chorus that often threatened to drown him out.
By the end of the day, it was a welcome respite to head back to my cabin (which, incidentally, was larger than my hotel room in Rome) to watch the twinkling lights on the coastline as we slipped past in the dead of the night. If the bridge put it into full throttle, the ship would still only top 23 knots, 42km/h in land-speed terms. I guess it's not called "cruising" for nothing.
According to Carnival, which is the world's largest cruise company, only 2 per cent of Australians have taken a cruise. And for those who think cruising is all about cosmopolitans and the half-hourly rotation on the sun lounger, you're right if you want it to be.
But with these ports of call, it's a great chance to see some of Europe's top sights, including Rome's Colosseum and the Spanish Steps, Florence, Pompeii, Monte Carlo on the French Riviera and one of the Continent's newest (and oldest) hot spots, Dubrovnik, on the glittering Dalmatian coastline.
The ship offers more than 80 guided excursions, but we were content to wander at our own pace through sensational Dubrovnik's old town, with its red tiled roofs and corkscrew laneways.
The main drawcard in the city, where we had a 12-hour stopover, was a tour of the ramparts that span 2km and are up to 6m thick. There were still poignant reminders of the bloody civil war that tore Croatia and its neighbours apart in the 1990s, such as the bullet holes and the continuing sympathetic reconstruction of its churches and homes, but the mood was one of a city on vacation.
We wandered slowly in the midday heat, stopping for a lunch of grilled fish and local beer, refreshed ourselves with a lazy dip in the sparkling, crystal-clear waters that lap against the city walls, before taking a bus back to the ship where it started all over again with dinner, show, piano bar ...
The author was a guest of Carnival Cruise Lines.
Getting there
WHERE: The Carnival Liberty cruises from Rome to Venice, Naples, Dubrovnik, Messina, Barcelona, Cannes and Livorno from May to October, 2006.
HOW MUCH: The 12-day cruises cost from about $1699. Fares include main meals and entertainment. The Liberty also makes 14-day and 16-day trans-Atlantic cruises between Rome and its base in Florida.
TO BOOK: Contact travel agents, call 1300 725 417 or visit www.carnival.com
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