Live From the Summit, 8/7 to 8/31, from an Aqua passenger viewpoint

[BunnyLebowski]

On 8/20/2022 at 3:36 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Just checked with guest services and the passenger count on this cruise is 2,030 or about 90% full at double occupancy. As a side note, we personally have not seen one child yet on this cruise.

Hi I’m on board right now with my 2 teens. I asked at the kids club and there are about 50 passengers under the age of 18, and 15 of them are teens. Agree, I also haven’t seen many kids on this trip. I don’t think you take your kids on a voyage like this unless they are exceptionally well behaved and can reliably entertain themselves. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Just now, Norwaylady said:

Ken, since you have a iPhone SE you either need to get e new one:) or you need to download an app for photo. The app will allow you to adjust the shutter speed. NightCap and Slow Shutter Cam app works well on SE for aurora borealis. 

If your going to get a new phone, the iPhone 12/13 mini has a good camera and the phone is still small,

 

We just looked at each of those apps and are going to definitely download the NightCap app! As far as upgrading to a new phone, as soon as the batter starts getting flakey in my current one, we’ll definitely check out the minis as well.

 

 Thank you so much for your insights! 😁 
 

Edited August 22, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Just now, law chick said:

Hi I’m on board right now with my 2 teens. I asked at the kids club and there are about 50 passengers under the age of 18, and 15 of them are teens. Agree, I also haven’t seen many kids on this trip. I don’t think you take your kids on a voyage like this unless they are exceptionally well behaved and can reliably entertain themselves. 

Thanks for the update. I agree, as the days have rolled on, we have been seeing a few teenagers at the game shows as well as other places around the ship. In contrast when we were on the Princess Regal last month in the Med on three 7 day B2B cruises, there were over 400 guests considered as the 3rd and/or 4th passenger in a cabin. Add to the fact the drinking age onboard in the Med was 18, there were a lot of “happy” teens, who probably just graduated from HS, on those cruises! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

Went to a couple of interesting lectures today, one about the brain -

 

 

 

 

and the other about Explorers of Iceland and Greenland. 
 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after dinner we went to watch the Majority Rules Game Show which is always fun! Then it was off to the theater to watch Craig Meyer present his Tribute to Elton John, which was another great performance!

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 5 - Aug 23 - Cruising Prins Christian Sund in the afternoon
 

  

 

 

[upwarduk]

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

This evening after dinner we went to watch the Majority Rules Game Show which is always fun! Then it was off to the theater to watch Craig Meyer present his Tribute to Elton John, which was another great performance!

 

 

 

 

 

The Elton John tribute act is obviously popular.

We had one on Silhouette on 11th August. Certainly not the same person, as ours was dressed in Black & White( one leg black one leg white).Eddy Jenkins introduced him by saying he had lost his luggage on the plane, so please excuse what he was wearing!😱

He was very good.

Edited August 23, 2022 by upwarduk

[Ken the cruiser]

Went to a couple very interesting lectures  this morning while we’re waiting to arrive this afternoon at the Prins Christian Sund. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AstoriaPreppy]

On 8/12/2022 at 6:30 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

This evening after another tasty dinner in Blu, it was off to see the production show, Intimate Broadway Cabaret. But IMHO I have to say we must have been spoiled by the E and S class production shows (since cruising started back) up because the shows we’ve seen so far on the Constellation (in Dec) and now on the Summit have just not been up to Celebrity standards. But, like I said, that’s just my opinion.

 

Just got home from Iceland after taking the NJ- Reykjavik leg of your journey. I've enjoyed reading someone else's perspective on the cruise, and thought I'd chime in.

 

Re: the shows, I could not agree more... the production shows on this Summit sailing were borderline unwatchable. The singers especially seemed to have pitch problems throughout, and the one time a singer did not, it was clear she was lip syncing. 
 

On 8/13/2022 at 1:14 PM, wallysdtr said:

Our favorite DJ from the Constellation signed up to be on the Summit.  Can you tell me if DJ Sly (aka Eli) is still on the Summit?   he was so great and played all the songs you wanted him to play.  

 

The DJ was listed in the dailies as DJ Eli, but doesn't sound remotely like the DJ you had. This guy didn't engage with passengers, would hold up his hands and dismiss people, refused to take *any* requests (even in the Sky Lounge club at night), and was generally horrendous to the guests. Seriously, one of the weirdest and worst cruise ship DJ encounters I've ever had.

 

On 8/13/2022 at 7:31 PM, wrk2cruise said:

I thought I saw it reported that 1600 passengers were  Elite or higher.   Wonder how the priority tender will work?  Maybe I got the number wrong?

 

Per the Captains Club rep, the number of elites was around 900. I now take "an officer told me onboard" rumors posted on cruise critic with a grain of salt after multiple people reported officers had told them Labadee was overrun by squatters and the beaches were full of pirates several weeks before we stopped there earlier this February. 🤣 

 

On 8/15/2022 at 1:31 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

This afternoon we went to the Karen Grainger & Craig Meyer Matinee Show and had a great time!

 

How did you get seats to the matinee?? We showed up 20 minutes early and the theater was packed to capacity, including standing room. 

 

On 8/16/2022 at 7:59 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

There are some folks posting on this cruise’s Roll Call, which you can check out, that tested positive early on and are saying they were allowed to stay in their cabin. 

 

Quarantined passengers were kept in their cabins. We know of two people who tested positive on day three, and the numbers increased throughout the 12 days. Our hallway on deck three became littered with room service trays and dining room menus in the doors, and the maitre'd from our 8 pm MDR seating vanished one night because he also oversaw room service and it wasn't going well. We did notice that one night the evening's menu was Tuscan Grill, so at least that was a nice surprise for the quarantined guests. 

 

On 8/19/2022 at 12:53 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

But for those folks waiting for a taxi after getting their luggage, they weren’t having such a good time. From our estimate a taxi was coming every minute or two while we were sitting in the bus waiting to start our drive around Reykjavik.

 

The taxi line was *INSANE*. When we disembarked, I found friends near-ish the front, who said they'd already been in line for well over an hour. We were hundreds of people behind them, so I checked with the taxi dispatch woman and she told me the 40 minute uphill walk with our bags to our car rental was a much better idea than waiting in the line, which would take several hours. 

[CGinMTL]

On 8/22/2022 at 4:59 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

This morning around 7 am there was a medical evacuation. Hopefully the person is alright. 
  

Million dollar shot

[Ken the cruiser]

I was going to merge the pictures I took on my iPad and iPhone while cruising through the Prins Christen Sund and then post them together. But I think I’ll just post them in two batches. Here are the ones taken on my iPhone. 
 

 
Whale!! 😂

 

 

 
“Greenland” Gulls on an iceberg!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

 

How did you get seats to the matinee?? We showed up 20 minutes early and the theater was packed to capacity, including standing room. 

 

For potentially high octane shows like that one, we usually get there at least 30 minutes early and play cards until showtime. 😁

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s just a few more pictures I took with my iPad that I thought had some pretty scenery plus one that shows where we were at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after dinner, we went to watch the Yes-No Game Show in the Rendezvous Lounge. Then it was off to the theater to get some good seats for soul singer Charity Lockhart and her tribute to Aretha Franklin.

 

 
Then it was up to the Sky Lounge to watch a late night mini production show, Reigning Rocks with the Summit singers and dancers. 
 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 6 - Aug 24 - Qaqortoq, Greenland

  

 

 

 

[canderson]

On 8/16/2022 at 12:55 AM, letsgogogo said:

Close!  Riesling is the grape. Kabinett, Spatlese, and Auslese are industry legal categories which indicate the level of ripeness (and sugar levels) the juice has prior to fermenting. German wine regions are cold. So ripening is the challenge. Higher sugar in grapes means higher ripening and higher (relatively) alcohol content. This has nothing to do with sweetness of the wine. It also doesn’t necessarily indicate quality. Lower sugar means higher acid which makes for very food friendly wines. Higher sugar juice has lower acid which can sometimes mean wine that lacks a crispness. Dry styles and sweet styles are made with all 3. (There are actually more than these 3 categories.) Main difference is stopping fermentation early maintains the sugars for sweeter wine.  Fermenting all the way means a dry wine as all the sugar is converted to alcohol. Icewein is something else altogether. Grapes are left on vines to ripen until fall frost hits. Highly concentrated sugar is retained when the frozen grapes are pressed. This makes a lovely syrupy dessert wine. 

You've left out BA and TBA at the top sugar end, especially important to those with a sweet tooth!

 

Most German wine regions are not typically "cold".  I know.  I've worked vineyards in the Traben-Trarbach / Wolf / Brauneberg areas along the Mosel, and until nearer harvest, it's definitely t-shirt weather.  The trick - The best regions have warm days and are moderated at night by coolness.  The microclimates really make a huge difference, especially above rivers.

 

A Prädikat wine does need to meet a minimum overall quality standard in addition to the necessary brix (German 'Oechsle').  Qualitätsweinprüfung requires this.  So while no guarantee of top quality, it shouldn't ever be plonk, either. 

 

Thank Mother Nature that high sugar does NOT always mean low acid.  In fact, the perfect classic lieblich style German wine is the one that backs up the sweet with some real acidity.  Not every climate is capable of producing both at once, since in most climates, acid does drop significantly with the increase in sugar.  The best German vineyards in a decent year will get you both the residual sugar and acidity levels.  (More on that later).  I relate it to sweet-and-sour pork.  Nothing worse than a sauce that's all sugar and no sour.  Besides, if you plan to age a Prädikat Riesling (and a pox unto those who say "Whites don't age"), you have to start with with some structure - and the backbone here will be the level of acidity.  I'm still opening up absolutely lovely 1994 Riesling Auslese here to serve with roast pork or just to sip.

 

Agreed, none of the classifications for Oechsle should be construed to indicate residual sugar level after fermentation.  Troken (dry) and halb-troken (half dry) wines are often made by continuing the fermentation process, creating higher alcohol but drier wines from Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese graded grapes.  I've found there's a limit to that, though, using a yeast typical for Rieslings.  Pushing it until the alcohol stops/kills the yeast isn't all that hard.

 

What I personally do not like is a dessert wine that anyone would call grape syrup.  As noted above, it is possible to achieve both high sugar levels and moderate to high levels of acidity in a good year in the best of German wine growing areas.  The cool temperatures at night seem to be the key to this, because you don't get this result elsewhere.  FWIW, it seems possible in only a small area of North America - definitely NOT California, where IMHO they shouldn't even try to make a Riesling dessert wine, and definitely isn't possible in all wine growing regions of Germany, either.  Even a TBA or an icewine, in a good year, will produce a lovely, balanced result.

 

[abbydancer2003]

45 minutes ago, canderson said:

You've left out BA and TBA at the top sugar end, especially important to those with a sweet tooth!

 

Most German wine regions are not typically "cold".  I know.  I've worked vineyards in the Traben-Trarbach / Wolf / Brauneberg areas along the Mosel, and until nearer harvest, it's definitely t-shirt weather.  The trick - The best regions have warm days and are moderated at night by coolness.  The microclimates really make a huge difference, especially above rivers.

 

A Prädikat wine does need to meet a minimum overall quality standard in addition to the necessary brix (German 'Oechsle').  Qualitätsweinprüfung requires this.  So while no guarantee of top quality, it shouldn't ever be plonk, either. 

 

Thank Mother Nature that high sugar does NOT always mean low acid.  In fact, the perfect classic lieblich style German wine is the one that backs up the sweet with some real acidity.  Not every climate is capable of producing both at once, since in most climates, acid does drop significantly with the increase in sugar.  The best German vineyards in a decent year will get you both the residual sugar and acidity levels.  (More on that later).  I relate it to sweet-and-sour pork.  Nothing worse than a sauce that's all sugar and no sour.  Besides, if you plan to age a Prädikat Riesling (and a pox unto those who say "Whites don't age"), you have to start with with some structure - and the backbone here will be the level of acidity.  I'm still opening up absolutely lovely 1994 Riesling Auslese here to serve with roast pork or just to sip.

 

Agreed, none of the classifications for Oechsle should be construed to indicate residual sugar level after fermentation.  Troken (dry) and halb-troken (half dry) wines are often made by continuing the fermentation process, creating higher alcohol but drier wines from Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese graded grapes.  I've found there's a limit to that, though, using a yeast typical for Rieslings.  Pushing it until the alcohol stops/kills the yeast isn't all that hard.

 

What I personally do not like is a dessert wine that anyone would call grape syrup.  As noted above, it is possible to achieve both high sugar levels and moderate to high levels of acidity in a good year in the best of German wine growing areas.  The cool temperatures at night seem to be the key to this, because you don't get this result elsewhere.  FWIW, it seems possible in only a small area of North America - definitely NOT California, where IMHO they shouldn't even try to make a Riesling dessert wine, and definitely isn't possible in all wine growing regions of Germany, either.  Even a TBA or an icewine, in a good year, will produce a lovely, balanced result.

 

I'm not going to quibble with you about who can make a good dessert wine, but the temperatures in Northern California, including the Napa valley, are warm during the day of the growing season and up to 30 degrees cooler at night.  One of the things I love about living here.  (I'm about an hour and half south of Napa, but our temps are the same.)

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

You've left out BA and TBA at the top sugar end, especially important to those with a sweet tooth!

 

Most German wine regions are not typically "cold".  I know.  I've worked vineyards in the Traben-Trarbach / Wolf / Brauneberg areas along the Mosel, and until nearer harvest, it's definitely t-shirt weather.  The trick - The best regions have warm days and are moderated at night by coolness.  The microclimates really make a huge difference, especially above rivers.

 

A Prädikat wine does need to meet a minimum overall quality standard in addition to the necessary brix (German 'Oechsle').  Qualitätsweinprüfung requires this.  So while no guarantee of top quality, it shouldn't ever be plonk, either. 

 

Thank Mother Nature that high sugar does NOT always mean low acid.  In fact, the perfect classic lieblich style German wine is the one that backs up the sweet with some real acidity.  Not every climate is capable of producing both at once, since in most climates, acid does drop significantly with the increase in sugar.  The best German vineyards in a decent year will get you both the residual sugar and acidity levels.  (More on that later).  I relate it to sweet-and-sour pork.  Nothing worse than a sauce that's all sugar and no sour.  Besides, if you plan to age a Prädikat Riesling (and a pox unto those who say "Whites don't age"), you have to start with with some structure - and the backbone here will be the level of acidity.  I'm still opening up absolutely lovely 1994 Riesling Auslese here to serve with roast pork or just to sip.

 

Agreed, none of the classifications for Oechsle should be construed to indicate residual sugar level after fermentation.  Troken (dry) and halb-troken (half dry) wines are often made by continuing the fermentation process, creating higher alcohol but drier wines from Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese graded grapes.  I've found there's a limit to that, though, using a yeast typical for Rieslings.  Pushing it until the alcohol stops/kills the yeast isn't all that hard.

 

What I personally do not like is a dessert wine that anyone would call grape syrup.  As noted above, it is possible to achieve both high sugar levels and moderate to high levels of acidity in a good year in the best of German wine growing areas.  The cool temperatures at night seem to be the key to this, because you don't get this result elsewhere.  FWIW, it seems possible in only a small area of North America - definitely NOT California, where IMHO they shouldn't even try to make a Riesling dessert wine, and definitely isn't possible in all wine growing regions of Germany, either.  Even a TBA or an icewine, in a good year, will produce a lovely, balanced result.

 

 

That was pretty interesting, especially since I was stationed at Ramstein AB for 7 years back in the late 80s. Thanks! Unfortunately, for me I’m limited to those wines which Celebrity actually has on board on any given cruise. At home in Alabama I enjoy a tasty “low acid” blueberry, blackberry or muscadine wine before dinner. But as you might imagine for some odd reason I have never seen those types available on any of the cruise ships we’ve sailed on. I know, who knew!! So I guess I’m stuck with the Riesling varieties, but only if they are from Germany! But then again I’ll personally take a tasty Moscato over any other wine if it’s available! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Qaqortoq, Greenland! Today, we’re just going to do our walk to the lake and “around” the town again. 😁

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

After breakfast we decided to wait until it got a little warmer and the sun would hopefully come out. 
 

 

And sure enough it did around 10 am. However, it seems a lot of folks had the same idea. 😂  Last week on the previous leg we headed over around 8:30 am and it definitely wasn’t as packed! 😂

 

 

But it’s all good and once we arrived, it was time to look for the creek and head to the lake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a River Beauty Willowherb, according to my new found iPhone Look Up function in my Photo Gallery! 😁

 

  

If you want to practice your Greenland word pronunciation skills, try saying the two words on the building in the background! 😂

 

  

  
For those that missed them when we visited here last week, here are some pictures of the art rock across from the tender station. 
 

 

 

 
As you can see folks are starting to head back to the ship for lunch!

 

 

 

When we got back to the ship, my DW found a hitchhiker on her coat. After a closer look, we were able to determine it is one of the infamous Arctic mosquitos everyone has been taking about! 😂

 

 

Here are some early afternoon pictures of the town from our balcony. 
  

 

 
And finally, we heard a noise out in the hallway and wondered what it was. When we looked, it was a suitcase that had just been delivered. Now mind you we’re in Greenland. It definitely would be interesting to hear the adventure this suitcase had to encounter in order to be delivered today! In any event, I would imagine the owner is a much happier person today! 
 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off head to St John’s, Newfoundland with 2 sea days in between!

 

 

This was one of the biggest icebergs we’ve seen so far!

 

 

[Oville]

Hi, I posted this on Jim’s thread:

 

 

Glad you and Ken finally met.  Between the two of you, your posts helped me heal from a badly strained knee.  While pretty much stuck inside for 10 days seeing your pix and commentary made me feel like I was vicariously sailing with you.  Thanks, Katie 

[Ken the cruiser]

I have to say as we’re sailing away from Greenland, I will miss (sort of) the crazy cool weather we’ve experienced “up in the north country” which has made us even more motivated to book a cruise to Longyearbyen. 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after spending some of our nonrefundable OBC in Le Petit Chef, we headed to the evening show. But first I just want to mention the meal was outstanding and since we are Elite+ we only had to pay $60 pp including gratuities versus $78 pp. 

 

The evening show was with NYC3, who basically sing the songs from the past decade. Unfortunately, we fell asleep though most of it as we pretty much only recognized one or two songs in the set. 😂

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 7 - Aug 25 - Sea day