Moving To Halifax

   We are sailing along up the east coast on our way to Halifax. The schedule had very few things to do. We did Zumba first. The leader was in a full zumba mode and it certainly was not gold level as we have seen on ship before. It was a very a hard work out. Judy loved it. The ship scheduled the enrichment lecture at the same time and it was the only real activity of the day. There was very little to do after the exercise. We went to the “big” sale, nothing there. The we went to the lecture on the ports which turned into a commercial for the Effy stores. The only part that we heard about the ports was “ we have some interesting tours planned”. We did the waltz ballroom dance class and had the pub lunch.

 

Eating Noodles!

    Bravo production show was in the evening. We had seen it before. It was formal night with the waterfall followed by the Captain's speech. All activities were “planned” at the same time.

    The ship pushes the “medallion” system at every point. Gone are many things like an introduction of who the cruise staff are, activities that do not involve shopping, etc. For example formal nights in the past were really played up. Narry a mention. The production show ended after our dinner start time. The last was while e were eating. I hope that the time change as we go on.

     We did go to the comic and he was very funny! We had not seen him before. After, we managed a glass of champagne but missed most of the Captain's speech. Being formal night, chocolate journey was served for dessert. In all a good meal.

Halifax tour tomorrow.

Joining the Caribbean Princess

   We made it to the ship today. Breakfast and another stroll in Central park was enough to get us to our 11 am pick up time. Our drive was waiting for us – boy is having a working cell phone the berries! There was a bit of panic (me) when we tried to open the safe to get our passports, etc. Apparently when I punch in the code to lock it, my fat fingers hit the wrong numbers. So of course it stayed locked! This was about 20 minutes before our pick up. A quick call and hotel security showed up immediately and we were back in business! Stressed gone, ready for a ride to the terminal.

    Driver was great, luxury SUV was nice and cool. 30 minutes later we were in Brooklyn. Funny thing, nobody was in the check in terminal! We were early and expected a huge crowd. Nobody was here. We were among the first to get on the ship. The usual paperwork was there but we were surprised with a small shipboard credit added to our account and a 2^nd specialty dinner. Who knows where that came from!

NY Skyline

About 2 hours later the announced that the cabins were now ready. We had moved in right after getting aboard. Daisy our steward did not say anything then as our room was ready. On this ship they have what is called Medallion service. No more cruise cards, nothing but a tablet device to unlock doors, etc. Everyone carries a tablet and you scan your small Medallion to order, buy, etc. That was our check in. Of course you can sign up for the full service but I don't want to gamble in the room, order drinks to exotic locations in the ship, etc. All we want is internet which is the elite perk. When I tried to log in, error occurs. It will work out but it took the edge off a neat new gadget that they flog for $20 a day! I would rather order a Manhattan! Finally the fast internet was working. The ship was in refit recently and they have upgraded many areas of the ship. The food court and the food choices are looking very modern.

From The Ship

   The rest of the day was spent as usual. Tea in the International Cafe, safety demonstration and more wandering. Our fixed dining is the late sitting at 7:15. That is the earliest late dinning time we have ever had. Menu tonight included the welcome aboard prime roast dinner. We always look forward to that! We did not even come close to seeing the comedian as our server was slow as is usual for the first night.

   We went right back to our cabin as there was little going on around the ship. Our luggage had finally arrived. We were among the first to get aboard and the last to receive our luggage! Go figure. Sea routine tomorrow!

Big Bus Tour of New York

     Today was tour New York by Big Red bus day. We were out for over 12 hours which made for a long tiring day. We had a big breakfast in the hotel, then headed for the Rockerfeller Centre to go to the Top Of The Rock. It is an observatory about 70 stories up that is north of the Empire State Building. We had been up that one before. This one gave us views all the way back to lower Manhattan (World Trade Centre) as well as north to Central Park. Unfortunately it was not the best day for photos.

South From Top of the Rock

    From there we headed to Times Square to pick up the Big Red Bus hop on hop off tour. It takes about 2 hours to do the complete cycle. “Luckily” it was Sunday and we were told that the traffic was not that bad! We had decided to only get off at the site of the world trade centre. A new tower is up. We walked the grounds which is a total dedication to 9/11 except for a new structure holding many stores.

New World Trade Centre

    We toured the 9/11 dedicated memorial collection. If you want to see how deep the terrorist act has affected Americans go see this collection. One exhibit had a photograph of every single victim. It is extremely well done and by the time we were in the hall that recalled the events step by step (minute by minute?) we had seen enough. It was very sad. It was like going through the entire tragedy again. Perhaps it was because that day is deeply imprinted on us! The area was very crowded and it seemed a bit “cramped” so you had this feeling of being closed in! We spent a lot of time in there but we could have stayed another hour. Outside are the 2 reflecting pools where the towers stood. In the centre is a deep pit (can't see the bottom from the side). Again very well done. We have been to ground zero in Nagasaki, the site of then atomic bomb blast. The memorial was quite simple in comparison.

   From there we walked over to Wall Street to see the

On The Bus

famous bull which we had seen on an earlier tour. At Battery Park we caught the bus for the return to Times Square. We used our ticket to hop on another tour bus that took us north to the area of Central Park. That is when the skies opened up and we were drenched as sat on the upper open deck of the bus. They did give us rain ponchos. It did cool down the 95F heat index. Drenched, we got off that bus and decided to re ride the main bus. That was a mistake as the rain returned, so we moved to the lower area of the bus. Of course you can't see much from there especially since the rain continued.

   Finally finished touring, had a quick bite and then decided to go back to Times Square again. However not “much” was going on and being a bit tired we decided to end the day still wet from the downpours. We head to the ship tomorrow!

New York, Central Park, Jersey Boys and Times Square

    We were up early for our flight to the big city. A message on our phone said that the 8 am flight was delayed by 30 minutes. Not to worry as we had a 60 minute wait in Toronto anyway. We did get to the airport well in advance (6:30). Yesterday when I did the pre check in, I could not do it. Judy was fine. After 3 tries of not letting me do it, I called Porter and told that there was extra security required for me. Our luggage was opened (fortunately I was there) and the agent went through everything including the explosive swab. Fine. Then it was the security check point. Shoes, watch, belt, wallet, etc. All went into the scanner. After that I had the pat down. It was very through. Even the bottom of my feet. Then the baggage inspection. They checked the inside of my wallet! This was all due to a random check. It was my number that came up. Finally through. Then the wait!

      So our departure was delayed for an hour and when we arrived in Toronto, our plane had already left. So much for time to walk around in New York. The next flight was full and we put on the noon flight. Of course we still had to go through U.S. Customs in Newark. What a start to our New York days.

Central Park

   We had a good bit of humour on the NY flight. Somehow we ended up in seats 1A and 1B. “The front of the plane.” Now that was nice. Porter gave us our glass of wine shortly after take off. About 2 minute later we hit a bit of rough air. Judy and I were holding these full wine glasses away from our seats and the wine was splashing all over us and the floor. She started to laugh. Few things cause her to laugh for a long period of time. I guess that broke the ice about being delayed.

Times Square

Customs was slick. Scan the passport, click a picture and answer the on screen questions and go. Agent was very friendly! I wish crossing into Detroit was like that.       Airport transfer was quick as well. We were at the hotel by 3. We are only a few blocks from Central Park so we did a quick walk in the Park on a very hot sunny day. We did some sight seeing after that and then grabbed something to eat.

We walked to our Jersey Boys show which lasted about 2 1/2 hours with a short break. I found the first part a little slow as they filled in the back story. After that it rolled along nicely. Quite enjoyable. 

  After that we were only about a 20 minute walk from Times Square so we took that in as well. Talk about people. Jammed with people enjoying themselves. We stopped at the Hershey store for a bit of chocolate (samples were being given out) and finally headed back to the hotel. A very long day ended!

New York To Greenland and Back

   After the winter spent in Florida and our quick cruise to Hawaii in February, we thought that we would not look to cruise again until next year. So here we are ready to go again! We heard about this cruise about 8 months ago as it was featured in a weekly article about cruising in our newspaper. When the opportunity to cruise to Greenland out of New York arose, it was too good to resist. It is a bit off the beaten path and we don't think that are many cruises dedicated to Greenland. Other cruises do stop there occasionally.

    This will be cruise number 25 on the Princess Line. This cruise is a 16 day adventure starting and ending in New York. No long trans ocean flights for this one. It has a total of 6 stops. Halifax and Sydney Nova Scotia are the stops in Canada heading north. 3 sea days later we arrive at the first of 3 stops in Greenland. Then we head back to New York with a stop in Newfoundland before getting back to New York. The Full schedule is as follows:

   We have been to Iceland twice but have never explored Greenland. It is a bit off the normal cruise route. In fact this a relatively “new” itinerary for Princess. It only sails there once this year and will repeat it again next summer.

We have booked tours for the 3 stops in Greenland. When we first booked the cruise there were no scheduled tours. Princess added a few later. All 3 of our tours involve hikes with about 20 people. We are looking forward to some really interesting scenery.

The Caribbean Princess carries 3100 passengers and was refurbished in May 2019. It will be the 2nd time on this ship. We have a balcony on the Riveria deck. The last time on this ship we did a trans Atlantic out of Houston. 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 .

    As frequent Princess passengers, we are ready to enjoy the perks of being “Elite”.  Free laundry, on board credits, free internet, mini bar and wine tasting are part of it! We did receive paid gratuities on this cruise. Thanks to Stacey our agent at the Automobile Association, we will again enjoy dining in a specialty restaurant!

   We leave Saturday morning August Wednesday 17^th for New York and will spend the weekend in New York before joining the ship on Monday. While in New York we will do the tourist thing including a Broadway performance of The Jersey Boys. It should be fun.

      I hope to report on each day but the New York reports may have to wait until we are on the ship. I try to post in the late evening each day and we only have 2 time changes on this cruise. The posts will be “real time”. We will try to answer any and all emails that we received.

    The ship must be fully booked because we received an offer to give up our spot for a few future perks.  Fat Chance!

End Of Hawaii Cruise

   This is a wrap up of our 15 day cruise to Hawaii. It is a bit late but we have not had much free time since we arrived back in Tampa. We were delayed getting off the ship in L.A. The ship did arrive very early but the clearance of the ship by port authorities was delayed for whatever reason. The first groups were an hour late! Fortunately we did have an afternoon flight so the delay did not really us.

We were told that the delay had to do with Border Patrol but when we got to the agent he asked us when are going back to Canada and when I told him he called us “snow babies”? That was the delay?

    From there to the airport is a short ride. We checked tried for an earlier flight but it was full. We finally arrived in Tampa around 12:30 am Sunday morning. Our ride was waiting for us in the cell phone lot. By the time we got home, unpacked, etc. it was after 2 am. Monday morning.   Needless to say morning came early!

    We had a good time on the cruise. All the sea days in a row (4 going, 5 returning) was a bit different from other cruises. We still managed 5 ports where we took ship tours in all 5. I don't remember ever doing 5 on a cruise before. It was a good way to see 4 islands. No flight between islands, car rentals, hotel rooms, finding places to eat, etc. It sure made for a more relaxing visit but you can't do everything in one day!

Until next time.  Nothing on the horizon just yet!

Wine Tour In Ensenada

    Today was last day of the cruise with a stop in Ensenada Mexico. It is a city of 500,000 people that has growing with the tourist industry. They have a cruise ship here “every” day and today beside the Emerald a Carnival ship was also in port.

First Stop

Wine Press

We opted for a half day tour to 2 different wineries. There is a very large wine growing area that seems to have ideal grape growing areas. The wineries were L.A. Cetto and Casa Dona Lupe. One is very old small operation and the other the largest of the 98 wineries in the area. At both wineries we were treated to wine tasting. At the old winery, we were able to taste 4 wines, had pizza, olive oil to spread on fresh bread, olives and cheese. It was simply a stop with tasting the only thing that we did.

    The second stop was at the largest one of 98 We were treated to a full tour of the winery from where the grapes come in to the final product. The stainless steel tanks were huge! There was a large warehouse with the barrels filled with wine being aged. We had never been on a wine tour where they did such a good job of explaining the entire process. Afterwards, we were treated to 4 more glasses (tasters) of wine; 2 white and 2 red. Again fresh bread and cheese! It was a wonderful tour. When we returned to the bus every person received a full bottle of wine as a souvenir! It was a very nice gift! The guide was a very jovial fellow. He spoke excellent English but never learned it at school. He said he started by finding out what the instructions were to play Nintendo. Once they had cable T.V. He watched all American sit com. Quite interesting. It reminded us of a guide we had in China who learned English essentially the same way.

Wine Vats

  We were dropped off in the downtown area and walked along the stores. It was Mexico. It was a short walk back to the ship. In a square there as an very interesting dance troupe “preforming”. We never did find out the background of the many dancers but they were dressed very colourful “outfits”.

Wine For Sale

Once back to the ship it was time for a light lunch and then packing time. That is always a bit of a downer! As we sailed, the captain announced that we were expecting rough seas and high winds again. The same system that has kept the temperature down and and the seas up will have one last shot at us before we get to L.A. Early tomorrow morning.

    It was a light night for activities. A short show before dinner, a final meal with our table friends and then the “voice” of the ocean show. They pick the best passenger singer on this cruise. An early turn in followed.