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

[CruzeQueen2]

4 hours ago, geoherb said:

Here is today's Patter. The rumors about afternoon tea are true: they're not having it on port days currently. I remember when they made the change to choosing not to serve lunch in the dining room on port days several years ago. We still miss it sometimes, especially in the Caribbean when we get back to the ship in time for lunch or don't leave at all.

 

Someone mentioned that the line for afternoon tea yesterday was to the piazza. I did not go.

 

I recall that the afternoon tea that I have ordered for my cabin is best on Caribbean P. I have also ordered it recently on Royal. Better selection and presentation on your ship. Enjoy!

[Priszm]

6 hours ago, Megamixer said:

We will be getting onboard on the 31st when you arrive back in NY.  I realize you're going a bit further north than we will be but can you give me an idea about clothing for going ashore.  Is it warm enough to be comfortable in shorts or should I pack more jeans and long sleeved shirts.  I looked at temps for all out ports (yesterday) and the highs and lows were low to mid 70's during the day and low 50's at night.

We got off in NY on Monday.  I brought a pair of leggings, a light rain jacket, a few t- shirts, and tank tops (and shorts). It rained in Saguenay, Charlottetown, and Sydney with Sydney also being pretty windy. I wished I had brought a couple more t-shirts and one more pair of leggings. 

[Megamixer]

41 minutes ago, Priszm said:

We got off in NY on Monday.  I brought a pair of leggings, a light rain jacket, a few t- shirts, and tank tops (and shorts). It rained in Saguenay, Charlottetown, and Sydney with Sydney also being pretty windy. I wished I had brought a couple more t-shirts and one more pair of leggings. 

Thanks all for answering. I think I better replace some warm weather things for cool weather clothes. We live in southern AZ and unlike the snowbirds that wear shorts all winter, I'm usually all wrapped up and cold when it gets down to 50. I just looked at pictures from an Alaskan cruise that was the last of the season and I was wearing mostly flannel shirts with a light jacket 😔.

[riffatsea]

I just got upsetting i news from  a  couple on board your cruise who have come down with covid

They were supposed to continue with us on the next cruise boarding on the 31st but may not be allowed,to continue as,they  are quarantined now

Any idea how many people on board are sick?

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

I just got upsetting i news from  a  couple on board your cruise who have come down with covid

They were supposed to continue with us on the next cruise boarding on the 31st but may not be allowed,to continue as,they  are quarantined now

Any idea how many people on board are sick?

That’s 2 weeks away. Isn’t quarantine 10 days total?  They should be able to continue.  Maybe they can check with medical.

 

Hope they are doing well.

Edited August 18, 2022 by PacnGoNow

[geoherb]

13 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

I just got upsetting i news from  a  couple on board your cruise who have come down with covid

They were supposed to continue with us on the next cruise boarding on the 31st but may not be allowed,to continue as,they  are quarantined now

Any idea how many people on board are sick?

 

They're not releasing numbers. I found out on my first cruise back a year ago that there was Covid on the ship only because one of my trivia teammates had gone on an excursion that had a passenger later test positive. Everyone on the excursion bus received a letter and got tested. I'm not sure how they're treating close contacts these days.

[milogurd]

On 8/15/2022 at 5:30 AM, geoherb said:

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. 

@geoherb Your next task is to teach us how to pronounce Nuuk, Nanortalik, and Qaqortoq.

[edinburgher]

A man from Alabama sat at my table this morning for breakfast. I did not get his name. I know he's going on the world cruise next year on the Island Princess.

 

Geoherb I checked with our friends and they are not doing a world cruise next year.  They said there are others from Alabama on the RC plus perhaps more amongst other pax.  Too bad.....

[coo359a2]

9 hours ago, riffatsea said:

I just got upsetting i news from  a  couple on board your cruise who have come down with covid

They were supposed to continue with us on the next cruise boarding on the 31st but may not be allowed,to continue as,they  are quarantined now

Any idea how many people on board are sick?

Were they able to quarantine in their cabin or did the go to the Aloha deck cabins.   That deck is blocked mid to forward on the port side.

on all our cruises since November, no numbers of Covid cases were ever given out via announcements- just guesses from passengers 

[geoherb]

Dinner last night was very good. I shared a table with a couple who keep kosher and another man. It was interesting to hearing their experiences with dining. They have to order their main courses the night before from a list the head waiter provided them of what the ship has available. It was a couple of dozen or so various options. Last night, they had stuffed cabbage, filled with beef, served with mashed potatoes and green beans. Their meals came wrapped up in plastic in a TV dinner plastic tray. They ordered salads and fruit off the regular menu.

I had the shrimp and scallop appetizer, the beef satay appetizer, and the red snapper served with bok choy and rice.

After dinner I went to a game show called You Be the Judge. Gareth divided the audience into seven different “juries” to decide cases. He presented eight different cases that happened, from a woman who was upset about her nose job to a man who wanted to adopt his wife as his daughter. We had to decide as a team whether the court ruled for or against the plaintiff. It was fun.

Last night’s show was a singer-songwriter named Mike Mentz. He performed with the Princess Orchestra. I enjoyed his show a lot. He was a very good singer and entertainer.

I started having problems with the internet after the show. I play the daily free tournament on Bridge Base Online. During the week, it’s eight hands of bridge. On board 7, I lost my connection. I managed to reconnect to finish the board, but it wouldn’t give me board 8. I checked the speed of the internet. It was downloading at 0.80 Mbps and uploading at 0.34 Mbps. A few minutes later, after not being able to get to Cruise Critic or Facebook, I tried another speed test and could not get it to come up either.

I called passenger services to ask if the internet was down for the whole ship. She said the internet manager had not told them that and recommended restarting my phone to see if that would correct the problem. I restarted my laptop and still did not have a connection. It was time to go to sleep, so I gave up. I woke up at 7 and it would not connect at all then. I will have cell phone connection today in Sydney, but I don’t want to be away from home without a means of communicating until we get back to Canada in 10 days. 

 

I stopped by the Internet Cafe after breakfast. I signed in on one of the computers there to check to see how it was working. It gave me speeds of 2.75 Mbps download and 17.27 Mbps upload. A woman was complaining to the internet manager that she was not able to get a connection either. I think he must have done something to reset it, because I'm getting it again on my laptop as well, with speeds of 2.34 Mbps download and 2.84 Mbps upload. 
 

[geoherb]

47 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

Were they able to quarantine in their cabin or did the go to the Aloha deck cabins.   That deck is blocked mid to forward on the port side.

on all our cruises since November, no numbers of Covid cases were ever given out via announcements- just guesses from passengers 

 

They still have those cabins set aside for quarantine. It goes from the front of the ship through the 500s. 

[railman]

We were on an excursion today to the Bell Museum.  Fifteen minutes into the ride the bus broke down.  We spent three hours on the side of the road before they got another bus to take us back to the port.  Princess refunded what we paid for the trip plus a additional $100.  Needless to say it was a very frustrating experience.

[coo359a2]

1 hour ago, railman said:

We were on an excursion today to the Bell Museum.  Fifteen minutes into the ride the bus broke down.  We spent three hours on the side of the road before they got another bus to take us back to the port.  Princess refunded what we paid for the trip plus a additional $100.  Needless to say it was a very frustrating experience.

Wonder if your bus was to take us on our tour to Highlands Village.  We were to meet at 12:50 and around 11:30 our tour was canceled due to operational reasons. 

[railman]

10 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

Wonder if your bus was to take us on our tour to Highlands Village.  We were to meet at 12:50 and around 11:30 our tour was canceled due to operational reasons. 

Yup that was the one!  At least we finally got back safely.  They told us they cancelled a tour so they had a bus to get us off the side of the road and back to the port.

Edited August 18, 2022 by railman

[geoherb]

4 hours ago, railman said:

Yup that was the one!  At least we finally got back safely.  They told us they cancelled a tour so they had a bus to get us off the side of the road and back to the port.

 

I'm sorry your excursion did not go well. It sounds horrible to be stuck beside the road in a bus.

 

[geoherb]

[geoherb]

The previous post was today's Patter. Here's tomorrow's Patter.

 

 

[J-D]

7 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

I'm sorry your excursion did not go well. It sounds horrible to be stuck beside the road in a bus.

 

We were also on the excursion today that was supposed to go to Baddeck and the A. G. Bell Museum.  Though the bus breakdown and cancellation were disappointing, most passengers took the situation well and patiently, and gave credit (and a few tips) to the guide and driver for the way they handled the situation.  A local RCMP officer also spent hours with us, helping to keep traffic away from the disabled bus and (later) shuttling some pax back to Sydney in his cruiser. -- J-D

[geoherb]

It was a lovely day in Sydney. The forecast had called for rain, but I only saw a very brief shower around 11:30. I walked through the little downtown area. They were holding a crafts fair at the Royal Canadian Legion. I did not buy anything. There's a nice gallery of locally made crafts on Charlotte Street. I went to the small Sydney museum that's in an old bank building. It has few interesting exhibits on the history of the town. 

 

I walked to the end of Charlotte Street and around the lake at Wentworth Park. It's a nice area but nothing like the Halifax Public Garden. I walked back along the waterfront and up to Eltuek Arts Centre. On the way, I saw Island Folk Cider House. It did not open until noon, and I was there at 11:30. So I headed back to the port. That's when the brief shower passed through. I enjoyed seeing the tables set up by local craftspeople in the building at the port and talking to a few of them, but I did not see anything I wanted to buy.

 

The rain stopped quickly and the sun came out a bit, so I decided to walk back up the hill to the cider house. I enjoyed a flight of four. All of them were tasty. It's hard for me to pick a favorite, but I'd probably enjoy a pint of the lemon the most. Along the way, I stopped back at St. George's Anglican Church. When I walked by there the first time, a walking tour was there. I heard a bit of the costumed guide's spiel and then kept walking. This time, I had an opportunity to go inside without a crowd. There was a nice volunteer telling a couple about some of the church's history. I listened in. When the couple left, I had a nice conversation with her for a few minutes.

 

Here's a photo of my flight of ciders as well as the big fiddle at the pier.

 

 

[californiagirl]

I’m so glad you are able to post pictures!  Thoroughly enjoying your reports, thank you.

[coo359a2]

14 hours ago, railman said:

Yup that was the one!  At least we finally got back safely.  They told us they cancelled a tour so they had a bus to get us off the side of the road and back to the port.

Glad all got back safely. Guess our tour had the best bus😀

It is hard when smaller tour companies have transportation problems and not a lot of replacements. We missed out on a Panama Canal tour through all the old locks when the company had a problem with their small boat used for the tour.   

[geoherb]

Last night was enjoyable. I went to the cocktail party for the first time. They're holding it in the Club Fusion due to the large number of Platinum and Elite passengers on board. I asked the loyalty and events manager if they had a list of the specials. She said she only finds out the night before. Last night's special offerings were guacamole and chips and chicken lollipops. Tomorrow night is steak tartare. 

 

Below is a photo of the drink specials offered every night. I had the Mayan mule. It was good. 

 

I had dinner in the Palm Dining Room for the last time. I finally went through the app and made reservations for the rest of the cruise in the Island Dining Room. I could get 6:00 or 6:20 for every night. I was at a table for 10 but only 9 of us there. That makes service a bit slower, but we finished in time for me to make it to the 8:30 trivia without skipping dessert. I had an appetizer size portion of orecchiete with seafood, the vegetarian korma, and diver scallops. My dessert with a fruit plate with a scoop of mango sorbet added. I enjoyed nearly everything.

 

After dinner, I joined two women who had waited with me at the airport for trivia: passengers vs. cruise staff. It was fun. My regular trivia teammate and her cousin joined us a quarter of the way through. We had a good time, although I was outvoted twice with correct answers. On the other hand, I did push for a wrong answer when someone else had the right one. Kristoff gave teams with our answer half a point, because he said the answer had just changed recently. 

 

Trivia took a little over an hour. I got to the theater after the performer had taken the stage, but he was still talking. Dan Delgado was billed as an instrumentalist in the Patter. The app let us know that he was a trumpeter and singer. He performed with the Princess orchestra. I enjoyed his playing and singing, but he talked a bit much between the songs. I overheard one man tell his wife that it was the performance he's seen on a ship in a long time. Tonight's show is Born to Be Wild. It feels strange to have the first production show on the fifth night, but weather happens.

 

[geoherb]

My cabin steward brought back my first laundry order last night. I sent out more this morning. I'm glad it did not take three full days to come back, but I have enough clothes in case it takes up to six days.

 

The loyalty and events manager mentioned that there are around 830 Elite passengers on the ship--that would make us one-third of the total. I'm hoping she'll announce the complete breakdown next week at the Captain's Circle party. They are holding four of them over two nights. They're also having two Grapevine wine tastings on back-to-back days.

 

[geoherb]

The schedule was full of activities that I wanted to go to. My team finally won a trivia this morning with 19 out of 20. Second place had 18. We were given coasters, but the host traded in three of them for the notepad books. He said there were just four of them left on the ship, so now there's just one. I was hoping for a drawstring bag. The one I brought with me from a previous cruise broke.

 

Next up was technicolor music trivia. It was one where people just shouted out the answer of songs and artists that had a color in their name as Kristoff played a snippet. I then went up for the margarita demonstration by the pool. I kept waiting for someone to show up for it, but no one did. A couple were asking the bartender. He told them it had been canceled.

 

I tried the "North Carolina BBQ" sandwich. It was OK, but not like anything I've seen in North Carolina other than what they sometimes tried to pass off as barbecue in a school cafeteria. I had some broccoli, a taste of lasagna, and fruit from the World Market to finish off my meal.

 

Next up was bocce ball. It's part of the cruise-long Olympics. Four contestants played. The player with the ball closest to the little white ball got 15 points, next closest got 10, and third closest got 5. I ended up second and third closest in my tries.

 

[CruzinNoony]

5 hours ago, coo359a2 said:

Glad all got back safely. Guess our tour had the best bus😀

It is hard when smaller tour companies have transportation problems and not a lot of replacements. We missed out on a Panama Canal tour through all the old locks when the company had a problem with their small boat used for the tour.   

Hi Tina!!  I enjoy Geoherb's "live froms" and was following along, and there you are on the same cruise!! It has been too long since we've cruised together.  Hopefully our paths will cross again sometime soon.  Love to Ken.  Meredith