LIVE: Caribbean Princess to Canada and Greenland, August 15-31, 2022: Geoherb goes solo again

[geoherb]

I made it to LaGuardia on my early morning flight. It left Raleigh around 5:30 and made it to the gate around 7:20. It was a great flight, only half full. I had a seat with no one beside me. My luggage was waiting for me at the luggage carousel. There were a half dozen Princess reps there as well. Another half dozen have shown up since.

 

We are waiting for the shuttle buses to start taking passengers over to the terminal. The supervisor is emphasizing to the other employees to tell passengers that we're better off here than waiting over there.

 

The itinerary for the cruise is three ports in Canada and three in Greenland and lots of days at sea. It's a 16-day cruise. We will stop in Halifax and Sydney on the way to Greenland and St. John's on the way back. The three ports in Greenland are Nuuk, Nanortalik, and Qaqortoq. I've only been to Halifax out of these ports, so the rest will be new to me. 

 

There's a great roll call thread going for this cruise with hundreds of posts. There's also a very active Facebook group.

 

I am hoping the internet works well enough for me to make daily posts here. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. The ship will be sailing on 10-day Canada/New England cruises for the fall after this cruise, one way between New York and Quebec and vice versa. 

[phabric]

Glad you had no problems getting to the Princess agents.

 

Will be looking forward to your review.

[Cruzin Grandma]

Looking forward to your Live posts.  If possible, please ask about ultimate balcony dinner and if there are plans to restart this soon.  Thanks and enjoy your cruise!  

[LImom]

@geoherbIf you get a chance, can you  tell us how the shuttle to the port was in more detail as I have family member doing that next month and would like to tell them what to expect and where to go . Thank you in advance. Hope you have a great trip.

[dog]

Following-

 

let us know what they check when you are embarking- negative Covid test, vax, ArriveCAN etc.

 

enjoy

[voljeep]

Bartenders, etc in VINES? 

Current Production shows?

we cruise on CB in November, and well aware that who/what's going on now can very easily change

[cnd crsr]

Have a great cruise!

 

We did that itinerary in 2019. Hope the tendering in Greenland is more organized now.

[LawDog61]

Looking forward to your reports.  You do a great live on board. Thanks for sharing!

[Tedferg]

How do you find a Facebook group for this?

[Pluto_fan]

Looking forward to following along!  Thanks for sharing your trip with us

[Syracusefan44]

My wife and I had to cancel due to testing positive for COVID19 last week.  We will make our 4th attempt to take our bucket list cruise to Greenland in 2023.

 

We are disappointed to say the least but looking forward to seeing your posts/photos.  Have a great cruise. 

[dickinson]

Will be following your posts on this Live from.  Have a great cruise!

[pompeii]

3 hours ago, cnd crsr said:

Have a great cruise!

 

We did that itinerary in 2019. Hope the tendering in Greenland is more organized now.

We were also on the 2019 voyage. For the Greenland ports, unless you are on a ship excursion, my advice is to get up and down to the tender meeting place as early as it opens.  We did that and had no problems getting ashore. Passengers who waited an hour or so faced huge lines and some never even made it ashore. 
 

With that said, we loved Greenland and it was well worth getting up early. Have a great time!  

Edited August 15, 2022 by pompeii

[geoherb]

The wait for the shuttle bus to the port was ridiculous. There are a lot of angry passengers. The Princess reps did not know anything other than to say that they hope the buses would start showing up soon. I was prepared to wait until 10 or 10:30, knowing that my flight had been very early. I took the supervisor's advice and went down to Dunkin for a bite to eat. By that time, it had been five hours since my breakfast bowl of cereal. I started this thread afterward and played the daily free tournament on Bridge Base. Surely, I thought, the buses would start soon.

 

I was wrong--very wrong. Fortunately I started talking to some very nice people in the crowd. One woman talked about how she was also looking forward to lunch in the dining room. She likes the appetizer with grilled vegetables. I was going to have the vegetarian ravioli. Around 11, I said it may be possible to still make it on the ship in time. By noon, I had given up. She and her husband went to reconnoiter the situation downstairs. They encouraged us to join them outside. A small crowd of 20 had gathered there. The supervisor was constantly on her phone, standing in the bus lane looking for one of the buses. One finally showed up at 1. Upstairs, I'd estimate the crowd had been up to 200 people. The supervisor said they were expecting 750 today.

 

Earlier, a couple of the lead reps started taking down names and cabin numbers of people who wanted to give up on the shuttle and take a cab. They said they would be reimbursed for the cost of the shuttle tickets. I plan to be anyway. I visited passenger services as soon as I got on the ship. One of the pursers took down my cabin number and said he would make sure I got the credit. A mother-daughter pair we talked with decided to go the cab route. I ran into them at the International Cafe. They were happy with their decision, although they only got to the ship about 20 minutes ahead of us and still too late for lunch in the dining room.

 

The ride over was not too bad considering that traffic backed up a bit in spots. Our bus driver was 72 years old and had lived in Brooklyn his whole life. He said he started driving buses 50 years ago. That's a long time to work. The ride over took 40 minutes. He pointed out some sights along the way. When we got to the port, they said we could leave our checked luggage under the bus and the porters would take care of it. At least that saved me a few dollars for not having to see one in person.

 

They did not mention the wine I had in my backpack when it went through the security screener, and I did not see a table set up to declare extra bottles. There was not really a separate line for priority boarding, but a rep sent me to the shorter line when I asked and showed her my medallion. They asked to see my passport, proof of vaccination, negative Covid test result, and ArrCan. But some people had not done the ArrCan yet and they were still let through.

 

From the time I got off the bus to getting on the ship was under 15 minutes.

 

My cabin is an inside on the Riviera Deck. My minibar contents were not already set up, so I called room service to save someone a trip by letting the woman who answered what I wanted. She said they did not have Perrier, only club soda. That will do.

 

My cabin steward introduced himself. He seems very nice. He warned that laundry will take 72 hours. That's better than the four or five days I was afraid it might take. Someone mentioned that there are 550 Elites on board. I'm betting the number is higher. I'll find out eventually from the loyalty and events director.

[geoherb]

4 hours ago, cnd crsr said:

Have a great cruise!

 

We did that itinerary in 2019. Hope the tendering in Greenland is more organized now.

 

I hope so as well. The Captain's Circle notice I received in my cabin said that we can receive priority boarding by going to the Crown Grill. 

[geoherb]

4 hours ago, Tedferg said:

How do you find a Facebook group for this?

 

I searched Facebook by ship and date. Someone on our roll call thread mentioned there was an active Facebook group as well. The meet and greet tomorrow morning is for both groups. I doubt all 350 people will show up, but the organizer got them to move it to the Island Dining Room so that there will be room for lots of people.

[geoherb]

1 hour ago, Syracusefan44 said:

My wife and I had to cancel due to testing positive for COVID19 last week.  We will make our 4th attempt to take our bucket list cruise to Greenland in 2023.

 

We are disappointed to say the least but looking forward to seeing your posts/photos.  Have a great cruise. 

 

Sorry you're not joining us. I hope you have mild cases. I saw several people post on the roll call and Facebook threads saying that they had to cancel in the past couple of weeks for various reasons, including the woman who was organizing the meet and greet and several of the activities.

[Syracusefan44]

55 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

Sorry you're not joining us. I hope you have mild cases. I saw several people post on the roll call and Facebook threads saying that they had to cancel in the past couple of weeks for various reasons, including the woman who was organizing the meet and greet and several of the activities.

Thank you.  We are both starting to improve but still have weakness, coughs, and a sore throat.  We dodge a bullet for 2+ years but were exposed to someone at a family wedding last weekend.  Have a great cruise.  I hope someone was able to get our cancelled excursions in Greenland (RIB boat, fjord, home visit, and hot springs). 

[railman]

Sorry you had an issue with the airport shuttle. We live 30 miles from the port and took a local car service. Got to the port around 11:00 and was on board by 11:45.  Looking forward to the M&G tomorrow morning.

[Tedferg]

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

 

I searched Facebook by ship and date. Someone on our roll call thread mentioned there was an active Facebook group as well. The meet and greet tomorrow morning is for both groups. I doubt all 350 people will show up, but the organizer got them to move it to the Island Dining Room so that there will be room for lots of people.

OK thanks

[geoherb]

Bars of soap are gone. There's a liquid soap dispenser at the sink as well as a lotion dispenser. The fragrance is described as eucalyptus and sea salt. It smells more like gardenias to me. A woman ahead of me in line at the handwashing station at the buffet sniffed it and said that she wasn't going to be using it. I'm glad I brought a bar of soap for the shower, and I had an old bar from a previous cruise in my Dopp kit. 

 

My cabin steward said they did not have any Elite bathroom amenities. He did offer to search for a bar of soap, but I told him not to bother--and that was before finding the little bar for the sink. Even after calling room service about the mix of beverages I wanted, the word had not gotten around to the steward delivering them. But she wrote down the assortment I want and said it would be delivered.

 

My cabin is right under the pool. I can hear the music and dancing from the sailaway party. I'm heading up there to watch us leave New York City in a minute. Thankfully, this will not be an everyday occurrence. 

[Kitty Ellas Mom]

Following.  I hope you have a great trip!

[san diego sue]

We were on this cruise in 2019. Friend of mine flew in and also waited at the airport for a very long time. We flew in the night before and stayed at an airport hotel and morning of the cruise took car service. Much more convenient and for two people cheaper than Princess.Sometimes cruising out of Brooklyn we just take a cab when at the airport. Convenient.

We fly to JFK.

[EllieinNJ]

Looking forward to your review 

[geoherb]

Sailaway was great. We got to see a beautiful sunset since the ship did not leave until 7:30. I figured out the herd of elephants I could hear from my cabin were the dancers right above me. They did the sailaway party from Neptune's Reef and Pool area. MUTS is at the Calypso Reef and Pool. 

 

I went to dinner after we passed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It was a nice table for 8 with a couple from Florida, a couple from Iowa, a couple from South Carolina, and a solo woman from California. The food was good. I thought there would be plenty of time to eat and make it to the show. I was wrong. I skipped out on dessert to go see Doug Funk's show. I don't know if I've seen him before or he was just telling old jokes that other comedians also tell. I left about halfway through.