Joining the Enchanted Princess

     We made it to the ship today. I was up before the alarm and we had the rental car packed last night so we were ready to go early this morning. I was up before 5 so I had all the house chores done by the time Judy was ready to go. We left around 5:15 and were in Lauderdale before 11 having stopped for breakfast. We drove around 300 miles to the port. I made a mistake and ended up going right to the ship. No problem, so we stopped and dropped off the luggage, gassed the car and had it back to the Hertz drop off (right outside the gate) in quick time. We grabbed a cab for the short ride back to the ship.  Boarding the Enchanted was easy as everything had been submitted through the app.

  After dropping our carry on in our cabin, we headed to the made to order pizza venue for lunch. We needed to wait for a table but we did have a very nice meal. We also tested our drink package – diet soda for Judy and of course a beer to go with the pizza. Then we did a walk through of the ship, trying to get a good idea of the layout. There are many redesigned areas on this ship and you can tell it is bigger with more space in the popular areas which you would expect.. There seems to be more “space” We also discovered that we did get a tour we had requested. However the app thing sucks as you try to do something and it just grinds away. For example we tried to find out what dining room we are scheduled for but needed our room steward to get that info. In any case, luggage was in our room, we unpacked, did the safety briefing and were ready to sail by the afternoon. We were a bit late on that count.

   At the sail away deck party they announced that there are 2700 guests on the his ship that holds over 3600 so we were correct in thinking that it is "empty". Of course they did the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle. Some of the other songs had line dances associated with them but we could not remember how they go. Judy did manage a big Margarita and loved it.

  By dinner time we were beginning to feel the effects of a long day. There were 2 other couples at the table. Apparently we will not be at the same table every night – maybe. We have a set time but not a set place. Service seemed very slow. I hope that it was just first night confusion. After we did go to the show. The comedian startled slowly but got better as he went on. We did find out that there are over 500 Canadians on this trip. We met 2 today. We did not check out any of the music venues as the early start finally caught up to us. Our first time change is tonight.

Ready to Sail

  Finally we are ready to cruise again. It has been a few years since we have been able to take to the high seas. First Covid cancelled a trip to Europe. Then in the fall of that year our second cruise was cancelled. Finally we were scheduled to go cruising last fall but a bike accident made us put that one on hold. So here we are ready to go again! We are going on a Transatlantic repositioning cruise. We have many crossing of the Atlantic but this one has a few ports that we have not been to and will give us a better opportunity to explore the south coast of Spain

Itinery

This will be cruise number 26 on the Princess Line. It is a 14 day adventure starting in Fort Lauderdale and ending in Barcelona. The first 9 days are at sea except for one port, the last few days are port heavy.

The Enchanted Princess carries 3600 passengers, has 19 decks and is 1100 feet long and has only been sailing for about 18 months. It is one of the newest designs for Princess ships. We have a balcony on the Baja deck. The ship has all the familiar venues including the International Cafe, the small food bar in the atrium which is where we like to gather for daily tea and small meals. We really like the dedicated made to order pizza restaurant in the atrium. However it has many redesigned areas and new names for places on the ship.

It has been a interesting time preparing for this cruise. Like many cruise companies we must use an App to prepare for this trip. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It remains to be seen how it works this time. This ship uses the Medallion Net. No more cruise cards for drinks, leaving the ship, etc. The Medallion transmits the info. If you walk up to a bar, the bartender sees your picture and has your name and probably what you ordered last time. We used this system that last time we sailed in 2019.

We have rented a car for the trip to Lauderdale and will simply drop it off at the port. That will be Thursday morning.

Home After The Greenland Cruise 2019

   Going home after a cruise is never the easiest of days. We were up early and expected to be off the ship by 8. There was a bit of a delay leaving as they unloaded the baggage of the 3000 plus passengers but when they started, all went very quickly. Clearing U.S.

Statue Of Liberty

customs was very quick. Gone are the declarations that we use to fill out! No need to mention if you were in transit or not. Passports checked against the database, stamped and away we went. We were on a the bus from Brooklyn to Newark airport before 9, waving good bye to the statue of Liberty. The bus headed out of New York, which avoided all the traffic. By about 10 we were checking in at the

New York From The Ship

Porter desk and had arranged an early flight out of New Jersey and connect to an earlier flight to Windsor. It saved an extra 3 hour wait in the airport! Of course we enjoyed the wine Porter serves on the flights. We were watching something on Utube and we almost missed out flight to Windsor. We heard our names being paged!

    Our pick up in Windsor was waiting with the added bonus of dinner. Where can you get a service like that! Yvonne and John are the best!

Thus ended our New York Greenland New York cruise. I think that in the future more ships will be going to the area. We were the largest ship (passengers wise) to ever stop in the 3 ports. As cruise lines look for new destinations, Greenland will grow into a popular destination. It is exactly what we imaging without the glaciers and the large icebergs. Those areas are found in the more remote areas further north and inland.

     Princess has changed many of the familiar things we have come to expect. Whether it was the number of passengers or the ship itself, the large number of Elite and others who have sailed on Princess before commented on the changes and the way things worked out. Until next time!

Last Day At Sea Before New York

       Today was our last day of the cruise. The seas have remained very calm for the entire 16 days and the weather got warmer as the day went on. We made it one last time to the meditation and zumba sessions. Both zumba instructors were very good blending regular zumba with gold for those who needed it. After that the activities were a bit sketchy as they have been for the entire cruise. We skipped the culinary demonstration and galley tour but did make the rounds of the another Onboard outlet sale. I think they have had one every sea day! Combined with tea and a muffin, that filled the morning.

    We took the morning break as chance to pack most of our things. That went quickly! After we skipped line dancing but went to the Ballroom dance class where we reviewed some of the dances taught. The old saying use it or loose it certainly is true for the steps taught but we enjoyed ourselves. The class was a lot smaller today so we were not bumping into people. We hurried and got into the dinning room for lunch just before they closed. The Voice of the Ocean Finale was right after that. They have the turning chairs, judges (?) who pick 2 of the finalists and then select 1. The audience then selects the winner electronically! Winner had 71% of the vote. She was really good.

   We spent the rest of the afternoon packing and getting ready for dinner. The show this evening was a Country Singer from Nashville. I think it was the first time we had seen a country singer as a headliner. He did mostly older country songs.

Dinner was excellent as we said good bye to those friends and then headed to the final show of the evening. Surf and turf for the final night. It was the comic from last night who we enjoyed very much. He entertained for a full 45 minutes. We did get our luggage out about 30 minutes late but they were still collecting.

    Another time change tonight and off the ship around 8 am tomorrow. The ports have been very good and worth the trip. We did not care for the way the daily schedule was put together. We noticed many changes to the way Princess does things. Everything seemed to be an effort to save money. Perhaps it was just this ship and this cruise.

Off The Maritimes Provinces

    We had another 30 minute time change last night which means we were up early enough to get to breakfast. We made it to the meditation and zumba sessions as has become our pattern on sea days. After that the day gets fragmented. We have talked to many Princess cruisers and all complain about the same things. One lady this morning said that this is the worse run ship she has been on. We know what the problems are – scheduling – but have not heard of why it is the way it is. One couple at breakfast said that they had to rush dinner to get to the early show which we are constantly reminded is for the late diners like us! The cruise itself has been good – especially the Greenland part – but the daily sea routine is not that good for our liking.

 

Our Table

  They had another shopping sale at sea. They have piles of tee shirts left over from their time in the Caribbean last year and are trying hard to unload their stock. I have replenished my supply – twice. The enrichment lecture was moved to the middle of the day for some reason which means we had an opportunity to go to it. He was a Hollywood writer with stories about the film and TV industry. Today the topic was New York. The whole talk was about Ellis Island and there was nothing about the film industry. It was the only lecture that we were able to attend since it the talks ran at the same time as zumba. We managed to get to the pub lunch and then headed to the cha cha dance lesson and more Effy jewellery events.

   

Tonight's Dessert

Tonight was a formal night with the Captain's farewell party – scheduled at the same time as the comedian in the Princess theatre and our dinner time. Actually the comedian was quite funny. He is from New York but he did joked about Canada. He was among the better of the acts that we have seen. Dinner was excellent as it always is on formal night. Lobster was on the menu! The rest of the evening was a game show called the Marriage Game. It was quite funny as well. They asked questions of 3 couples. Newly weds, mid marriage (35 years) and over 50 years marriage. Some of the answers were quite hilarious. We also received our leaving time and departure instructions. We will be off the ship by 8 am!

A Day In St. John's Newfoundland

       After a very calm night we entered St. John's on a absolutely perfect day. Sunny and

Entering The Harbour

bright with a glass like ocean. We were up early to see us go by Signal Hill. We were off the ship early although nothing was open because it is Sunday. We walked around the main street and stopped at the war memorial park. The last time we were here a few years ago, we tried to go to the Crow's Nest Bar. It opened in WW2 (1942) and was a frequent location for the Canadian Navy personnel who safely made it back here after escorting the convoys across

Crow's Nest

the dangerous German submarine waters of the north Atlantic. It has a German submarine periscope! The bar was under renovation the last time we were here. The club is now opened but it does not open on Sundays! Closed again. It is a member's only club but visitors seemed to be welcomed!

Harbour Scene

     We walked up to the Basilica which dominates a ridge that overlooks the city. It has many stained glass windows in it that are currently being restored. After we headed up to Signal Hill which was about 2 miles away. After hiking in Greenland, the hill was fairly easy. Being Sunday besides the 3000 visitors there were many families out enjoying the day with their kids and walking their dogs. The top of the hill was packed. I think every ship and private tour stops there. We toured the tower then started down the walk back to the city. The trail follows the edge of the hill before it ends in the city. We counted about 950 steps to get down. Of course there are many sections of the trail that do not have steps.

   

From Signal Hill

We walked down the main street looking for a Tim Horton's. We did manage to find a bar that was just starting to fill up. Being mid afternoon, we went in for a sit down and a drink. It was a good way to end the walk! Time was moving on so we returned to the ship and grabbed some pizza for a later afternoon snack. A rest and shower later we headed to the Princess Theatre for a production show.

Resting On The Walk

     We arrived 75 minutes before the start. The doors were closed and there was already a line up. Of course we got in and grabbed our favourite seats in the last row. We started sitting there years ago during the late show so we could sleep if the show was boring! We wanted to see the show because we could not remember if we had every seen it before. Once it started we knew we had never seen it before. It was called Fantastic Journey. It did not have any type of story line but was very modern and high tech in its presentation. They did 2 songs that we have danced to - Poker Face (lady gaga) and Taylor Swift - Shake. Some people did not like it but it was worth the effort to go early.

     The rest of the evening was the usual routine of dinner and then wandering around before heading to the cabin. We get another 30 minutes back tonight! Yea

Off The Newfoundland Coast

     We are already off the coast of Newfoundland getting close to St. John's. The weather today remained cool with the fog horn blasting all night. As the day progressed, we could see the ocean again as the fog disappeared and the temperature warmed. We had a 30 minute time fall back last night which resulted in waking up early this morning. We did have time to have breakfast and get to the morning meditation. We had done this with the same cruise director last year. It is a chance to step back and relax before we started the day. Of course zumba followed the relaxation.

    The photo department filmed an entire video based on the Greenland experience. It was

Up To Skywalkers

shown in the Princess theatre. I assume that it will be used to promote the area in the future as this cruise is already on the books for next year and perhaps the year after. I think that Greenland will be the go to area in the future. We were not able to even begin to find a seat as there was a lecture in there before and people simple stayed. The people who saw it said that there was very little on the ports and heavy on the pilot and captain. We went to our favourite seat and had a tea and a sweet.

    We had the ramen noodles again for lunch followed by the Foxtrot dance class. The count is very much like the 2 step which we need to learn! It was a good class and the teacher was extremely competent. The good instructor made the dance enjoyable. We were in the Club Fusion so we did get a seat for a lecture that was billed “The da Vinci Code”. The lecturer is convinced that he unlocked the secrets of the Mona Lisa painting. The entire hour had little to do with the painting except for the start and the end. He did not do a very good job of explaining his points. He kept saying this theory is a fact. We remained skeptical about the whole “secrets” he revealed. He did make some interesting points about things like the similarities of the pyramid like structures around the world. He absolutely did not believe that aliens were involved. For us that ended the day until our evening.

 

At Skywalkers

 We made our way to the elite lounge early enough to enjoy the view from deck 17. That was followed by a Princess theatre show with the singer from the other night. Again she sang songs from pop, broad way and opera . All were excellent. It was Italian night in the dinning room. We had pasta with plenty of garlic! After dinner we dropped by the “Rock and Roll Dance Party” and it was basically the same as we had seen in the past. Tomorrow we will tour St. John's but do not have a detailed plan of what we will do other than get a Tim Horton's coffee. The weather should be sunny! This is our last port of call for this cruise.