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.

Last Sea Day Of Hawaiian Cruise

   Today was day 5 of the crossing from Hawaii to Mexico. Tomorrow we will be in Ensenada which is at the northern end of the Baja Peninsula. We managed to fill most of the day between exercise and eating!

   We were up early enough to try Tai Chi again. I still don't feel the life force after each movement but I suspect that that would come with more practice. That was followed by the last zumba class of the cruise. It was another good class with the same instructor that we have had the last few days. We stopped by the Onboard Outlet Sale but we did not find anything. When we do a crossing they always has the tees on sale but because this ship is doing another Hawaii run, no bargains were available. The culinary demonstration followed. It showcases how some of the food is made. Today they made a pasta, a shrimp dish and black forest cake. The comedy comes with the head waiter pouring the entire salt shaker into the pasta to “give it some taste”. Same with the garlic! It is always an entertaining time and follows the routine that we have seen before.

    After our seafood lunch (huge prawns), we attended the review dance class where we did the Merengue, Cha Cha and the Rhumba. It is too bad that we have not had a dedicated time to practice with the cruise staff teacher there to help out. The classes were much better than others that we have attended in the past. Then we sat in on the Ensenada Mexico port lecture. They get 1or 2 cruise ships a day during the season and the port looks like it is very tourist friendly. She also mentioned that the winery tour we are taking is excellent with plenty of free samples. We passed the line dancing while in progress and had a nice cup of tea.

Ready For Dinner

    This ship has not had a few of the set piece entertainment that we have seen on other ships. The pub night entertainment put on by the staff was not scheduled. We have seen it recently on other ships. The rock and roll night as well as the western line dance night are also gone. Both of those were very tired and need to be scrapped or updated.

  The night was full of entertainment. There was the comedic impression of Mike Wilson who was very fully. Our Scottish friends did not like him but admitted they did not get some of the jokes. Funny we felt the same way when the British comedians performed when we sailed around England. The venue was packed even though we arrived 25 minutes early. We got the last seats in the lounge. Dinner (baked Alaska night) was followed by a musical entertainer. He was good but you needed to enjoy a particular type of humour. A full night! We tour the winery tomorrow! We will follow in a Carnival ship into the port.

Lazy Day At Sea

8-12 Foot Swells

    Finally a day to rest! After 4 days of touring, 3 of which were full days of touring we had a day to take it easy! The schedule for the ship reflected that as the number of activities in the morning were limited. We skipped a big breakfast and managed to make the 10 am lecture! The talk was part of the enrichment series dealing with the development of the Hawaiian Islands from a geologic point of view. It included the volcanic eruptions and the Pacific hot spot. A walk on deck followed but there are restricted areas. There are very large swells and the ship is rocking a bit. We did got away at 6 this morning and as promised the storm is having an effect. The swells are classified as rough with 8-12 foot swells. The storm is expected to kick up the swells for the next 2-3 days before they subside.

     A quick lunch and it was time for Zumba. The cruise director taught the class and it was not zumba gold. There was way too much jumping for me, especially since the ship is rocking it's way towards Mexico. It shutters and tosses out huge sections of white water. After that we looking in in the line dance class and then rested before out formal night snack arrived.

    We had the Captain's Circle party tonight at 5 pm. That is the earliest party that we have even had because the group was split into 2 parties. There are 510 Elite on this cruise which is far lower than other cruises that we have been on. We had an idea that it was fewer Elite on this cruise. The Captain is a Canadian who lives in Vancouver but grew up in Alberta. When we met him we introduced our self as being from Windsor. Immediately he said the Spitfires! Apparently he is a huge hockey fan and follows the game closely. We did have a few drinks which is different than in the past. Usually you get one and done as far as drinks go. After the party, we wandered about until dinner.  Lobster was on the menu.

  The production show was “I Got The Music”. We have seen this show a number of times. That ended the Lazy day at sea.

Valentine's Day on The Emerald Princess

Valentine Day Party

     Today being Valentine's Day there were some special

Cake

activities on the Emerald Princess. The biggest thing was a special celebration in the Atrium. There was a Group Renewal of Vows Ceremony. Everyone was invited to renew their marriage vows. The band played, they handed out beads and “Love” wrist bands as well as a printed program with the vows printed. The Captain led the entire ceremony. We have see many activities in the atrium of Princess ships and we have never seen as many people in the area at one time. At the conclusions the red and white balloons were dropped and the dancing continue!

 

June and Ed Table Mates

  The weather continues to cool as we are under the same system that is slamming the west coast of the U.S. We are expecting showers by tomorrow. The seas have picked up a bit so we were not able to walk outside again today.

We started the day with Tai Chi! Actually the session runs just before our Zumba class ans since we arrive early we tried it. I think that you need to do it continually to get some benefit from it. We had the same instructor today. It was a good session and she finished with Proud Mary. I smile when they play it.

 

Bonnie and Ed Table Mates

   After the mid morning Valentine's Day activities, we had lunch in a restaurant. We skipped line dancing and went to the Ballroom dance class. She reviewed a few of the dances that we have done during this cruise. The Pop Choir had their short show and then we attended the lecture on volcanoes. By then it was time for our canapes to arrive. The day seemed to go quite quickly.

At Dinner

We were out early for the Farewell Cocktail party but there were no balloons this time. That was for the morning. It was the usual last formal night activities. The waiters did not seem to be as inundated this time. They actually came around a few times. Dinner was (beef wellington) with a chocolate journey dessert. It was very good. The production show was “Disco.. Blame It On The Boogie”. We think we have seen it before. Tomorrow is the last sea day of the cruise. Then Mexico and then the cruise ends.

Mid Point Of Our Sail Back to Mexico

Judy And Curtis

The weather turned cooler and cloudy and the wind picked up to “gale force 7”. We tried to walk on deck but the wind made it nearly impossible. Most people were staying in the ship today.

Ready For Dinner

   We have had 3 different zumba instructors. The one today was mid way between hard and easy. It was just right for me. Perhaps that was because the ship is rocking a bit more and she toned down the routines. So far we have not seen anybody fall! Good thing. At breakfast we sat with a woman that fell in Waikiki. She took a miss-step and fell on her face. She is healing but is black and blue. She had to spend the night in Hospital in Waikiki and flew to the next port to rejoin the ship. You hear about these things happening so we know that it was not just a roomer.

Ready To Eat

   After zumba, we took in the lecture on the development and migration of the Hula from Samoa to the islands. It was interesting to note that originally only the men did the Hula and women were forbidden to even watch. It started as a war dance much like the Maori continue to do in New Zealand. Actually there has been quite an evolution in the dance over time.

     Sweet Home Alabama was the big line dance of the day! Then it was on to the ballroom blitz dance of the day. Today it was the swing. We had seen it at the Stockyard but today I think the teacher was a bit clearer and we could almost do it! We can't wait to try it at one of the dances in the future. The it was on to the Sotto Voce Duo which is the violin duo on the ship. One of the violinists was on the tour with us in Hawaii so we stayed to listen. They play all types of music. Finally we booked a wine tour in Mexico. It was the only thing that was of

Ravioli

interest.

    Tonight we saw a short show by a piano player. She was very good. We had enjoyed her performance the other night. Then it was off to the specialty dining experience that was a gift from our agent at the automobile club. We went to a restaurant called Share by Curtis Stone. He is a chef from Australia who now lives in the U.S. And is on T.V. It was a 6 course meal. The pace was slow and everything is prepared just as you finish one course. There was a starter, salad, pasta, sea, land and dessert.

Dessert

Everything was very tasty – exceptional really. The entire experience took over 2 1/2 hours. We could not have enjoyed it more and afterwards we did manage to see the end of the comedian in the Princess Theatre. The place was packed and every seat was taken. He was very funny. Another clock change is on tap for tonight! The weather is steadily getting worse as the ship has started to rock again. 2 more sea days before Mexico.