LIVE: Emerald Princess, Boston to Quebec, August 28, 2024-September 7, 2024. Geoherb

[geoherb]

Last night was a bit rocky. I wouldn't have minded a bit more. The ship had to go a bit faster to make up for leaving Halifax late. 

 

We made it to Sydney on time this morning. We were at breakfast. There's a lot of vibration as the ship maneuvered toward the pier. The Patter talked about the possibility of having to tender "due to the unpredictable wind conditions in Sydney." Fortunately, we did not. We are docked at the far berth. The Norwegian Gem is docked right beside the Big Fiddle, blocking our view of it. My plan is for us to go ashore after lunch--to the Island Folks Cider House. I went there two years ago on my cruise to Greenland and enjoyed a flight of four different ciders.

 

I had the blueberry pancake special in the dining room. They were so-so. I won't order them again if they're offered this cruise, but I will try them on another cruise.

 

And we finally won at trivia. Just the two of us were playing as a team. There were more people there than I thought would be for a port day.

 

[geoherb]

5 minutes ago, LewiLewi said:

Hi Geoherb,

  you mentioned that your cabin on Caribe deck is in front of forward stairs. Is it quiet? Someone on CC said that they could hear music from the theater a few decks below in their cabin which was C220. I am booked in C210 for a future cruise, should I look for another cabin?

 

I couldn't hear the music the first night. That's the only night so far where I went to bed before the second show in the theater.

 

They're having the Island Deck Party ('80s theme) tonight. The show times have been moved up to 7 and 9. The production show in the theater is "Disco: Blame It on the Boogie."

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

39 minutes ago, LewiLewi said:

Hi Geoherb,

  you mentioned that your cabin on Caribe deck is in front of forward stairs. Is it quiet? Someone on CC said that they could hear music from the theater a few decks below in their cabin which was C220. I am booked in C210 for a future cruise, should I look for another cabin?

Popping in here to say that if your cabin is directly against a bulkhead where the room numbers change from X200 series to X100 series, you will hear noise from the Princess Theater up to Baja Deck. That is because there is a hollow area above the Princess Theater stage where scenery is pulled up and stored that goes up to Caribe Deck. It basically becomes an echo chamber and any noise from the theater (or the scenery itself in rough seas) reverberates in there. If you are not against that bulkhead, you’re probably okay as long as you are above Deck 8. 

[LewiLewi]

35 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

I couldn't hear the music the first night. That's the only night so far where I went to bed before the second show in the theater.

 

They're having the Island Deck Party ('80s theme) tonight. The show times have been moved up to 7 and 9. The production show in the theater is "Disco: Blame It on the Boogie."

 

Tonight would be the night to determine whether you can hear noise or not from the theater. Please let me know. 

 

38 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

I couldn't hear the music the first night. That's the only night so far where I went to bed before the second show in the theater.

 

They're having the Island Deck Party ('80s theme) tonight. The show times have been moved up to 7 and 9. The production show in the theater is "Disco: Blame It on the Boogie."

 

 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

@geoherb What is Chow Chow? Thank you. 

[geoherb]

2 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

@geoherb What is Chow Chow? Thank you. 

 

It's a pickle relish. In Nova Scotia, it's usually made with green tomatoes and onions. Where I'm from (North Carolina), it usually has cabbage and green and red bell peppers, too.

[memoak]

19 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

It's a pickle relish. In Nova Scotia, it's usually made with green tomatoes and onions. Where I'm from (North Carolina), it usually has cabbage and green and red bell peppers, too.

You will find it on the Ploughmans lunch on board

[me@sea]

Take good care of the ship, I board on Saturday :)

 

Any insight into Thermal Spa?

 

Have a great cruise! Loving your LIVE reports.

[geoherb]

The weather in Sydney was not great this morning. The fog gave way to a steady drizzle. We stayed on board the ship. After trivia, I participated in the 60-second Frenzy game. I competed in moving coffee beans from one saucer to another using chopsticks. I got 46 in the first round. Another contestant tied me with 46. We had a playoff. She managed to get 84 the second time around, while I fell short by one with just 83. We both got wine bottle stoppers. 

 

We ate pizza and salad for lunch up on the Lido Deck. The couple sitting beside us at the World Fresh Market Place were interesting. It's their first Princess cruise. They went to the new cruisers event, and she won Elite status for the length of the cruise. She's not very impressed with our Elite benefits. The best for her is the minibar since they did not have the package. She said she's not planning on trying the laundry because she's heard the clothes shrink. (I haven't found that to be true.) She really did not like the event at Skywalkers. They went last night when the featured hot item was chicken nuggets. She said she heard one woman say, "Even my grandchildren wouldn't eat those." She thinks Princess needs to up its game. I agreed, saying that another tier needs to be added. There are too many at the top now. On Norwegian, it takes 700 points to get to the top level (one point per day/double for Haven and suite passengers). 

 

After lunch, I walked up to the Island Folk Cider House. I got there right as a small tour group from the Norwegian Gem was getting there. The women headed for the restrooms. Their kilted guide talked about the history of the area some and the history of kilts. I got to listen for free. They then got three samples of different ciders. I had ordered a flight of four. Only one of mine was in their grouping, but I had tried the other two when I was there two years ago. I had rhubarb, blueberry, passion fruit, and mojito. The flavors are subtle. One of the cider house employees talked about the way they make the cider and do the flavors.

 

The surprising thing to me was that the guide handed out paper maps and said the tour ended there. I felt surely he would lead them back to the ship, although it's not that far or hard to find. Someone in the group asked about a book store. He said it was on the map. He reminded them that their all-aboard time was 4. It was already after 3 at the time. 

 

 

[geoherb]

10 hours ago, LewiLewi said:

Tonight would be the night to determine whether you can hear noise or not from the theater. Please let me know. 

 

We went to the second show of "Disco: Blame It on the Boogie." There's nothing going on in the theater after that. They're holding the '80s party in Club Fusion at the back of the ship.

[CruisingThroughRetirement]

On 8/28/2024 at 1:30 PM, geoherb said:

Checking in was a breeze. We received our medallions in the mail a couple of weeks ago. They had a small area for priority passengers. It was set up with little pastries, water, orange juice, coffee, and hot water for tea.

The priority passengers area, is that for Platinum and Elite level passengers?

[geoherb]

The weather cleared for my walk back to the ship. There are several small shops and individual crafts people's displays at the port for Cape Breton souvenirs. I made it back in time to join my regular trivia teammates for an exciting game. We were so close--in second place.

 

We watched sailaway from the Promenade. Once again, several of the bars were closed until after sailaway. I wonder what they'll do during our overnight in Quebec City. We tried to get drinks at Crooners, but never caught any server's attention and gave up.

 

After sailaway, I tried to order a glass of the Babich Black Label Pinot Noir at Vines. The server said it was not available and offered a substitute Pinot Noir from Chile. It was a poor substitute. He did not know who the maker was. I could have asked they guy behind the bar to show me the bottle but didn't bother. The reason for going to Vine then was to take photos of the menu for someone in one of the Princess Facebook groups. Here it is. There are several nice choices that people with Plus can try--if they have them available.

 

 

[geoherb]

11 minutes ago, CruisingThroughRetirement said:

The priority passengers area, is that for Platinum and Elite level passengers?

 

Just for suite passengers and Elites. I'm not sure if they had a separate area for Platinum passengers or not. 

[geoherb]

I enjoyed dinner at Michelangelo. I had the minestrone soup, an appetizer portion of penne arrabbiata, and the wild mushroom lasagna. Italian night is good for #MeatlessMonday. I had tiramisu for dessert. I didn't take a photo of the soup.

 

We went to "Disco: Blame It on the Boogie" after dinner. It's one of my least favorite shows because of the amount of lip synching they do. We got to sit in the reserved Premier seats--after waiting until they made the announcement five minutes before the show that all seats were available. Once again, it was not packed. I've been amazed that the guest performers are drawing larger crowds than the production shows.

 

[memoak]

10 minutes ago, geoherb said:

The weather cleared for my walk back to the ship. There are several small shops and individual crafts people's displays at the port for Cape Breton souvenirs. I made it back in time to join my regular trivia teammates for an exciting game. We were so close--in second place.

 

We watched sailaway from the Promenade. Once again, several of the bars were closed until after sailaway. I wonder what they'll do during our overnight in Quebec City. We tried to get drinks at Crooners, but never caught any server's attention and gave up.

 

After sailaway, I tried to order a glass of the Babich Black Label Pinot Noir at Vines. The server said it was not available and offered a substitute Pinot Noir from Chile. It was a poor substitute. He did not know who the maker was. I could have asked they guy behind the bar to show me the bottle but didn't bother. The reason for going to Vine then was to take photos of the menu for someone in one of the Princess Facebook groups. Here it is. There are several nice choices that people with Plus can try--if they have them available.

 

 

As long as they have the Edemedes Zin within the Plus package I am a happy camper 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

5 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

It's a pickle relish. In Nova Scotia, it's usually made with green tomatoes and onions. Where I'm from (North Carolina), it usually has cabbage and green and red bell peppers, too.

Thank you. That sounds quite tasty. 

[geoherb]

10 hours ago, memoak said:

As long as they have the Edemedes Zin within the Plus package I am a happy camper 

 

I'll ask for a glass of that tonight.

[HotRoot]

Overnight in Quebec City only one bar will be open on each deck.  It is a Canadian law.

[memoak]

3 hours ago, HotRoot said:

Overnight in Quebec City only one bar will be open on each deck.  It is a Canadian law.

That applies to all time while you are in a Canadian port. It surprised us the first time we encountered it

[JordanF]

On 9/1/2024 at 4:36 PM, geoherb said:

A few minutes ago, they made an announcement that one of the tour buses to Peggy's Cove had mechanical problems. The replacement bus had made it to pick up the people, but they're about an hour away, delaying our sailaway.

Whoa--a reason to favor ship's tours.  If I believed in conspiracies, I would say that Princess sabotaged the bus just for that reason! 🤪

[TM]

3 hours ago, JordanF said:

Whoa--a reason to favor ship's tours.  If I believed in conspiracies, I would say that Princess sabotaged the bus just for that reason! 🤪

Really?  The way I read the post was that it would have been a Princess excursion that was delayed with a broken bus.  Princess does not wait for private excursions.  Unless you were being facetious - why would Princess want to sabotage a bus?

Edited September 3 by TM

[Colorado Coasty]

5 minutes ago, TM said:

Really?  The way I read the post was that it would have been a Princess excursion that was delayed with a broken bus.  Princess does not wait for private excursions.  Unless you were being facetious - why would Princess want to sabotage a bus?

I think the point he was trying to make is that they waited because it was a Princess excursion and that they would have not waited for a private tour. And maybe Princess might be tempted to sabotage a bus to sell more of its own excursions.

[phabric]

If the ship has to wait for a late Princess excursion, sometimes the ship has to go faster and use more fuel to get to the next port on time.  There is no benefit for the ship to sabotage any excursion, Princess does own the tour companies vehicles.

[Colorado Coasty]

11 minutes ago, phabric said:

If the ship has to wait for a late Princess excursion, sometimes the ship has to go faster and use more fuel to get to the next port on time.  There is no benefit for the ship to sabotage any excursion, Princess does own the tour companies vehicles.

It's not rocket science, if Princess can convince more people that it is saver to purchase Princess excursions they make more money. Nobody believes that they would actually sabotage a bus, but the premise is valid.

[JordanF]

1 hour ago, TM said:

Really?  The way I read the post was that it would have been a Princess excursion that was delayed with a broken bus.  Princess does not wait for private excursions.  Unless you were being facetious -

Oh, I meant that Princess would do that to its own excursion so everyone could see how the ship really does wait... But of course they didn't, but I bet everyone on that broken down bus was really happy it was a Princess excursion.