In the months between now and February 7, the world is going to read and hear a lot about Sochi. The Russian city is host of the next Olympic Winter Games, now that you ask, and it's showing up here today because seven cruise ships will be on the scene masquerading as hotels.
Construction on Sochi hotels is behind schedule, as construction of something almost always is for Olympic Games. The solution — one which was voted down at the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver — is to bring in the accommodation armada.
The first thing that occurred to us was…they do know this is the WINTER Olympics, don't they? Vancouver, with its West Coast marine climate, was a different story because ships come and go all year long. A small check on Sochi enlightened us…the 
same thing happens there. It's a port on the Black Sea, where many Russian tourists go for summer vacation and, now winter athletic events, where sea-level daytime temperatures in February run about four to eight degrees above freezing.
Sochi can accommodate cruise ships as large as 3,000 passengers. The estimate is that 50,000 to 60,000 visitors will use them during the Olympics and, no, there's nothing wrong with the math. Not everybody goes to the Olympics for the entire two and a half weeks, so it makes sense that many people could be accommodated by changing the sheets every few days.
The second thing that occurred to us was…which ships. So far, it seems to be a closely guarded secret but secrets about ships that big don't stay that way for long. Most cruisers would want to know what the ships were before booking rooms. However, 80 per cent of the visitors staying on them are expected to be Russians, who are not as into cruising as we are in the west, so maybe it doesn't matter.
But as people who love cruise ships, we're just kind of curious.
Aren't you?
Golden Princess
3 nights
October 21, 2013
Los Angeles (return): Ensenada
Inside: $229
Cost per day: $76
www.princess.com