Canada, Greenland, & Iceland 2022

  Last night we finished our packing and discovered that one of Angela's suitcase wheels had been forcibly ripped off in the luggage transfer from the shore to the ship in Boston.     I wish she would have noticed it at the start of the trip.   This morning we rose at 6:30am as the ship was approaching the pier.  We dressed and ate breakfast in the Lido expecting to begin disembarkation at 7:30am. So we headed down to deck 2 to wait in the Ocean Bar.  7:30am came and went with nary a word.  Finally BettyAnn came on the PA and said we weren't cleared yet. She repeated this message several times over the next half hour as more passengers crowded the area.  I overheard much grumbling.  At 8:20am I observed 2 Border Agents board the ship using the deck 2 gangway.   Finally just after 8:30 the announcement was given that 'self assist' passengers could now disembark on deck 2 or deck 1 center.  We walked to t...

  Our day in Bar Harbor started out with a mandatory US Border Immigration inspection with a face to passport comparison.  This went fairly fast despite a line that stretched half the length of the ship. We then boarded a large local tender that whisked us to shore.  The Zaandam was hovering nearby, but they were using their own tenders.   To get oriented, we took a $20 trolley tour that was really valuable.  Bar Harbor was once the playground of the rich and famous like Rockefeller, Chase, Guggenheim, and the like.  They all built "cottages" which are really mansions.  Nowadays those that survived are boutique lodging or other businesses.  Other smaller houses built in later times filled in the gaps and now it's a "middle class" area per our guides. We then walked Main Street in a light rain before stopping for a lobster roll lunch.  It was yummy, but I liked the Halifax version better. We then walked some more until our 3:15 bus excursion t...

  Today's stop in Halifax was another nice stop, but there was not near enough time to take much in. We reviewed the options in our walking app, GPS My City, and there were two walks.     We settled on one that involved walking up to the Citadel fortress.     Along the way we visited St. Mary's Catholic Basilica.     It's a pretty simple church inside, but has magnificent stained glass windows.     Upon reaching the Citadel, we paid the admission fee ($10.75Cdn each for seniors), and watched a changing of the guard before entering the courtyard.     We spotted a platoon of 'soldiers' carrying sticks so we followed them up in the wall where they drilled the procedures for firing the cannon.  Later at noon as we were walking down George Street, they lit off the cannon. We both jumped as did a nearby worker.    Back at the fort we watched a bagpipe and drum presentation and toured the Army museum and the regimental ...

  With an hour time change backward last night, we easily rose in time to attend BettyAnn's 9am coffee chat.     Only this time it was hosted by her boss, Benny, the entertainment director.     The big take away from this session was her description of how the Cruise & Travel Director has changed.     Now the Cruise & Travel Director reports to the Entertainment Director.     Her principal duties are to make public announcements, introduce World Stage entertainment, & read the teleprompter during the EXC talks.       In the next hour she presented the EXC talk on Finding Happiness.  Then she hosted the ASK THE CAPTAIN session.  The big take away from that session was that there was only one Covid case among the crew this cruise.  He refused to provide statistics on passenger Covid case counts other than to indicate the case numbers were declining currently and that they had peaked durin...

  Today we visited the third new country for us on this voyage: St. Pierre & Miquelon.     It's a group of 3 major islands that are nestled below Newfoundland.     They are not part of Canada, are French speaking and heavily subsidized by France. It's France's toehold in the Western Hemisphere.   We tendered to shore and did a 10 minute walk to the ferry dock where we had a chartered passenger ferry to Sailor Island. This small island was once home to  the fishing industry and cod fish were dried on the island.  The island now is an open air museum with well curated paths, houses and other buildings, and signage.   We spent a couple hours there before taking our chartered ferry back to St. Pierre.   Back at the dock we walked to the nearby park and boarded a chartered coach for a couple hour island tour.  After the tour we walked around the town and chatted with Ann & Frank a bit before walking back ...

  What wonderful day this day turned out to be!     We arrived in St. John's Newfoundland after passing through a VERY narrow passage into a large bay.     Fortunately there was a docking location right in the heart of downtown and right behind a US Coast Guard cutter, Bear.     We had a pre-booked 3 hour excursion with McCarthy's Party and we exited the ship and made our way to the pickup point.     There were about 17 of us on a small tour bus van and our driver, David Welshman or 'Dave' greeted us with a friendly smile and we were soon on our way.     We picked up a few people at local hotels besides our group.       We headed out of town to Spears Point where there is a lighthouse and WWII gun emplacements.  The scenic views were spectacular. Afterwards we drove down to Petty Harbour which is a quaint little fishing village and now a popular tourist and vacation attraction. From there we visited Signal H...

  Our 7am arrival came way too early on this Sunday morning. So we didn't get up until the tender operation started.     We took time for breakfast and then packed up and headed down to the tender deck.     We were last on the tender and we were sitting right next to the edge as the tender slammed into the tender platform.     Then we had rushing water pass by us as the tender plied its way to the shore.     Once on land we headed off to walk to the Fox Point lighthouse which was about 1.5?miles away.     We passed by a PBY Catalina that was displayed in a small park.     The views at the lighthouse we very nice.     There was a nice souvenir shop and the owners built it themselves as a retirement project. They come up here every summer and work the shop, live in their trailer, and then return for the winter in their home in St. John, Newfoundland.   We then walked to the other end of town and bought some so...

  This was another packed sea day.     While it was foggy and chilly outside, we certainly had lots of activity today starting with the coffee chat.     This morning's chat featured Andrew Grose, our Canadian comedian.     He related that he refused gigs on cruise ships for many years.     Finally, the agent prevailed and booked him on a Princess ship. He did the gig and came back home and contacted his agent asking what they thought of his act.     Was I any good?     "What did they think of you?", the agent responded. "They want to sign you to a 9 month contract!"     Andrew delivers fast, clean, and very funny comedy.     He noted that he's now booked through the end of 2024! He has two stock and different shows that he and his wife have written.   He has a little unicorn (Ramsey) that travels with him and he takes pictures of the unicorn in worldwide locations.  People pay $5/month...

  We woke up to the TV screen view of the final entry of the ship to its mooring in the tiny bay dotted with large icebergs (one was half as long as the ship and another one third the length of the ship).     With such a small town we didn't feel the need to immediately tender to shore.     So we ate breakfast and packed a simple picnic lunch.     We tendered to shore and walked clockwise around the island.     What was striking was the brightly-colored houses and buildings much like we saw in Iceland. The people look a lot like we've seen in Alaska and Russia and northern Japan.     The area looks a bit poor and I'm sure having 2,000 guests from a cruise ship show up helps the local economy. We saw one taxi and there are no tour buses here.     It's the 'ankle express' or one's mobility scooter that is the cruiser's transportation. The town ambulance was a small white Land Rover 4x4.   There were many residents selli...

  Today ended up being another really packed sea day as we made our way across the North Atlantic to our only stop in Greenland on the westbound portion of our voyage.     The morning started with the coffee chat with BettyAnn and the Human Resources Director, Hundt.     He's a large Dutch man who was interesting to listen to. This was followed by an EXC talk in the Main stage about the fishing industry in New England and the Canadian Maritimes. Dr. Douglas then did a reprise presentation on Volcanoes.   After lunch Dr. Douglas presented a talk on photography.  This was followed by a meet the artist presentation featuring the BBKing All Stars which was really interesting to learn more about these musicians from a genre we generally don't watch because it's so loud.   The evening entertainment was the Step One Dance Company with their show Humanity which played before a packed house. We then listened to the Billboard Onboard pianists and BBKin...

  Overnight we definitely had 'motion to the ocean'.     On this first and unplanned sea day the stormy seas and wind continued through the day.     What was bad about missing the port actually turned out for the good in that we got to see some new EXC programming on Nordic themes.     When I went to the Lido, I passed by the Grand Opening of a new small slot machine area on the starboard & aft side of the casino.     In between the two talks I was updating my blog in the Lido using a small folding  Bluetooth keyboard for the first time this trip.  Normally I peck out my entries with my left pointy finger on my iPhone's on screen keyboard, but using the keyboard is much faster.  Three separate crew members approached me out of curiously about the keyboard and I shared where to find it.   After the second talk, we watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty movie on our stateroom TV which had Icelandic scenes...

  I love it when we have a late arrival to the next port.     This was the case today when we arrived at Reykjavik at 10am.     I slept in and got up around 9am in time for my customary breakfast.     We had a Golden Circle Plus tour scheduled with Your Day Tours as organized by another passenger, Jan.       As the ship entered the calm waters of the harbor on this sunny day, we could see the Azamara Pursuit cruise ship already berthed.  As we arrived the ship slowly rotated to be facing out to sea which makes the scheduled evening departure. The captain and his crew slowly parallel parked the ship behind the Azamara Pursuit ship.  As is customary, nothing is felt when the ship finally touches the dock.  What was unusual at this port was that they have a small tractor with a powered windlass that a worker winds the throw rope around and the machine pulls the line ashore.  The longshoreman then affi...

  Due to a cancellation we were able to obtain two seats on a private excursion to the Hoffellsjökull     Glacier. That's the good news. The bad news was the ship arrived at 7am and we needed to be on the first tender.     This translated into getting up before 6am!     But we did it and were first at the tender holding area on deck 1.     We met the tour organizer, Jean-Pierre, along with rest of the group and we made the first general tender.   On shore in this tiny town of 400, we connected with the local tour operator and we walked up the slight incline where our expedition vehicle was waiting for us.  Essentially it was a HIGHLY modified Mercedes Sprinter van that rested on huge oversized tires suitable for going off road. The tire pressure can be changed on the fly!  I thought to myself: cool! And I probably verbalized it.  We paid the tour operator and climbed up into it.  We only were a gro...