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

geoherb

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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10 hours ago, tetleytea said:

This "Greenland" cruise is rapidly sounding like an At-Sea cruise.  I can't believe you missed Nuuk.

 

It's a good thing that I love sea days. Someone said the ship missed Nuuk in 2017 and 2018 as well. I haven't looked it up, but I'm sure someone posted about it at the time. 

The dining room was not at all crowded last night as I thought it would be for the second formal night. Most men were wearing a jacket and tie, some were wearing jackets without ties, some were wearing ties with dress shirts but no jackets, and a few were wearing dress shirts without ties or jackets. I only saw one in a casual shirt in the Palm Dining Room while I was there.


The menu had lots of tasty options. I had an appetizer size portion of gnocchi with mushroom cream sauce and then the lobster tail with Louisiana style crab cakes and the chateaubriand. The waiter brought me the whole shebang with the lobster tail and crab cakes and the beef at the same time. I moved the lobster tail meat and crab cakes to the same plate with the beef and let the waiter take away the extra plate. Two couples at my table had both as well, although they split the beef. The table was pretty crowded with plates for a short time. One woman ordered the kingklip. She said it tasted very good. She also had the mocha bar, which she said was delicious. I’m not a fan of coffee. I had the peach daiquiri sorbet.


Caroline Miller’s show before dinner was great. She has tweaked it a bit since I saw her perform it last December. She still bills it as “Judy, Julie, and Me” and features lots of songs by Judy Garland and Julie Andrews. In December she included Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and a song from Into the Woods in a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, who died a couple of weeks before my cruise. Last night’s show ended with a new humorous song she said was written for Kristin Chenoweth. 


After dinner, I went to see ventriloquist Phil Hughes in the theater. Lots of people were laughing at his jokes. I stayed for 90 percent of the allotted time, but left toward the end. He was doing a bit where he had three people on stage to be his puppet. I’ve seen better ventriloquists, but perhaps it was that I was just tired. I fell asleep before 11.


I am planning to eat in the buffet this morning for breakfast and then go down to the Crown Grill to wait for tendering to begin.
 

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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17 hours ago, Acorns Away said:

We just learned that we will not be going to Nuuk and will stop in Nanortalik instead.

Please post info when you get there.

 

I had an enjoyable morning in Nanortalik. I was on the first tender over at 7:30. There's a tourism office down the road to the left from the tender dock. The museum and church are that direction also. The tourism office was open, but I was too early for the museum. It has several original buildings, so I was able to read the signs on them. I continued up the road toward one of the mountains. I could see people walking up it, so I continued after the road gave out.

 

It was a pretty strenuous hike. I made it three-quarters of the way up the mountain. I was hiking with a widower I met at a meal earlier in the cruise who sat across from me on the tender. We got to a point where a couple of people had decided to stop and rest. There was a great view of the town and ship at that point. The trail got tougher past that point. I decided to go on, and they turned around. I could see a family from my ship ahead of me. I ended up turning around before catching up with them.

 

There were lots of rocks, boggy areas, and holes to watch out for when hiking. I also saw lots of pretty wildflowers blooming. There are no trees. I came back to town on an easier route after coming down from the mountain. I took a lot of photos of the icebergs in the harbor on the tender ride back to the ship. I ended up spending about 3 hours in Nanortalik, walking a total of 6 miles. 

 

The clouds were coming down lower, so I'm glad I hiked while there was still a good view from the top. By the time I rode the tender back to the ship, I couldn't see the top of the mountain.

 

Lots of people were waiting for tenders when I returned to the ship. I picked up a snack at the International Cafe and talked with one couple who were waiting. I gave them the map I had picked up at the tourism office. During our conversation, the husband mentioned going on the Island's world cruise next year. I've met several others on this trip going on that cruise. That's when I noticed their Elite medallions. I asked them why they were waiting down in the Piazza instead of Explorers. The husband said that a crew member told them there wasn't a difference in the wait. They were in group Y, and the tender that had just left was group N. They went upstairs after I told them the wait wasn't as bad there. It will be interesting to find out how long it was for some folks. I'm planning on getting on one of the first tenders again tomorrow in Qaqortoq. 

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californiagirl

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Thoroughly enjoying this virtual cruise!  Your trip report is getting me excited for my upcoming cruise.  Thank you again!  I received my medallion yesterday for my Alaska cruise on 9/4.  I’m relieved since the word on CC is that in Seattle the line to board is 2 1/2 hours if you are not in the green lane with a medallion received at home.  

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Acorns Away

Acorns Away

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On 8/24/2022 at 9:46 AM, geoherb said:

 

I had an enjoyable morning in Nanortalik. I was on the first tender over at 7:30. There's a tourism office down the road to the left from the tender dock. The museum and church are that direction also. The tourism office was open, but I was too early for the museum. It has several original buildings, so I was able to read the signs on them. I continued up the road toward one of the mountains. I could see people walking up it, so I continued after the road gave out.

 

It was a pretty strenuous hike. I made it three-quarters of the way up the mountain. I was hiking with a widower I met at a meal earlier in the cruise who sat across from me on the tender. We got to a point where a couple of people had decided to stop and rest. There was a great view of the town and ship at that point. The trail got tougher past that point. I decided to go on, and they turned around. I could see a family from my ship ahead of me. I ended up turning around before catching up with them.

 

There were lots of rocks, boggy areas, and holes to watch out for when hiking. I also saw lots of pretty wildflowers blooming. There are no trees. I came back to town on an easier route after coming down from the mountain. I took a lot of photos of the icebergs in the harbor on the tender ride back to the ship. I ended up spending about 3 hours in Nanortalik, walking a total of 6 miles. 

 

The clouds were coming down lower, so I'm glad I hiked while there was still a good view from the top. By the time I rode the tender back to the ship, I couldn't see the top of the mountain.

 

Lots of people were waiting for tenders when I returned to the ship. I picked up a snack at the International Cafe and talked with one couple who were waiting. I gave them the map I had picked up at the tourism office. During our conversation, the husband mentioned going on the Island's world cruise next year. I've met several others on this trip going on that cruise. That's when I noticed their Elite medallions. I asked them why they were waiting down in the Piazza instead of Explorers. The husband said that a crew member told them there wasn't a difference in the wait. They were in group Y, and the tender that had just left was group N. They went upstairs after I told them the wait wasn't as bad there. It will be interesting to find out how long it was for some folks. I'm planning on getting on one of the first tenders again tomorrow in Qaqortoq. 

Thanks.  I'll now be interested in hearing about Qaqotog.

I hope RCL has priority waiting areas for the tenders, but with 230+ pinnacle members on-board, it may not matter.  Oh, to be a lowly D+.

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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The internet was totally down last night with an error message popping up. The days will be a little mixed up consequently.

 

They held the British pub lunch in the Coral Dining Room yesterday from noon until 1:30. I was surprised to see the dining room open on a port day. They also had afternoon tea. The Coral Dining Room will be open today as well for lunch and tea. 

 

The pub lunch menu was split pea soup, ploughman's lunch, fish and chips, bangers and mash, chicken curry, Scotch egg, bread pudding, trifle, and jam roly poly. I had the chicken curry and jam roly poly. The four other people at my table had the fish and chips. Two of them also had the soup. I had the chicken curry and jam roly poly. The chicken curry was very good. The jam roly poly was a bit dry. I ate about a quarter of it with the custard and left the rest. 

 

The longest wait for a tender to leave the ship that I heard from someone was three and a half hours. I heard waits of up to two hours to come back to the ship. I hope to be on the first or second tender over to Qaquortoq and plan to come back to the ship before the lines start getting bad.

 

Last night’s menu in the dining room was not very appealing to me. The main courses included octopus steak, turkey pie with sweet potato crust, guinea hen, beef fajitas, and an Asian noodle dish with beef and a star anise flavored broth for the second pasta option. I ordered the salmon from the always available side of the menu. The scallop ceviche appetizer tasted very good. Three of the people at my table ordered the turkey pie. None of them said it was good, and all of them left a good bit of it. The dish did not match the menu description of being in a wine-cream sauce. It was a spicy tomato sauce instead. One man ordered the octopus and said it was good. The woman beside me ordered the chicken breast and said it was very tender.


They had a reprise of the Yes-No gameshow after dinner. I had fun watching it. Rhys and Gareth were the inquisitors. Gareth had a streak of getting everyone out. Rhys had a streak going of not getting anyone out. One woman earned redemption by lasting the whole three minutes last night. She was out in 7 seconds the first time. The fastest failure last night was 22 seconds. That contestant came back at the end and got to pick who she wanted to play against between Gareth and Rhys and whether she wanted to ask the questions and try to knock them out or go again with one of them asking her questions. She chose to play against Gareth and ask him questions. He managed to make it a little past the first quadrant on the clock.


I enjoyed Caroline Miller’s “Diva” show in the theater. There were plenty of seats available for it at the second show. This is a new show that she’s been doing for about a month on this ship. Her divas included Nina Simone, Celine Dion, Musetta from La Boheme, Dolly Parton, Beyonce, and Carly Rae Jepsen. I was expecting Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, and Cher. It was still an enjoyable show. The Princess “Orchestra” and a backing track accompanied her. 


August 25: I ate a quick breakfast at the International Café and prepared to leave. There was about a 5-minute wait for those of us in the Explorers Lounge. I was number 24. Everyone got to go. The first tender out had just people on excursions. I was on the second one. The tender ride is about 30 minutes, including loading and unloading. The little pier in Qaqortoq has room for two tenders at a time. That made things go much quicker. They also had additional tenders in the water compared to in Nanortalik. I saw five at one time. I’m not sure if the sixth one was used or not. 


The weather in Qaquortoq was nice this morning. Someone mentioned a brief shower came through this afternoon. I hiked halfway around the Great Lake. It was boggy in spots, very rocky in others, and fine about half the time. I passed one of the Princess excursion groups. They had a Danish guide who spoke English very well. It was nice to know that they were behind me in case I needed help. But at the crossing for one of the creeks, I decided to explore the trail that went up to a large waterfall. I turned around when I slipped on a rock, deciding it wasn’t worth it. I scraped my forearm a bit. I need to find a map to see if that trail did lead back to town or went farther into the wilderness.


Since I was one of the earliest on the trail, it was like the nature spots on CBS Sunday Morning—nothing but the sounds of nature after I passed the excursion group. There are no trees growing around the lake, so it is an unusual landscape of rocks, the mountains, the lake, and the low-growing plants. 


After turning around, I ended up back at the crossing with the excursion group. The guide was telling them that the hike on the other side was more strenuous than what they had already done and was also longer than turning around. I decided to join several people in turning around there. I ended up hiking most of it with a nice couple from Arizona. She’s an avid birder, but she said she needed to look up some of the birds since they were not familiar to her.


I stopped at one of the grocery stores to see what it was like. Expensive is the word. Of course almost everything has to be imported. The one price I remember was a medium size box of Rice Krispies for the equivalent of around $6.


I enjoyed seeing the rock carvings around the town. I wish I had downloaded a map of the locations and pictures of them to see more. I skipped walking up to the modern church building. It looked like a lot of stairs to get there, but there was a road as well. After my 9-mile hike, I did not want to make the climb from either side. 


The line to get back on the tender was pretty long. But with so many tenders working, it moved fairly fast. They had set up the tent nearby with cookies and hot chocolate. I waited about 40 minutes for a tender. One man fainted while waiting. The ship’s doctor and some staff members were there quickly. He came to, and they helped him to a wheelchair. By the time our tender got back to the ship, he was able to walk off. I spoke to one of his friends who said that he was doing well, although the medical center had not given him a definitive cause for what happened.


Once again, the Coral Dining Room was open for lunch and afternoon tea today. I went directly to the dining room for lunch. I had an appetizer size portion of taglarini with meatballs and the spanakopita. The pasta with meatballs was very good. The spanakopita was not done. I ate the filling and the tips of the triangles. (They make it in little triangles like a pastry.) I skipped dessert. 


I had a lazy afternoon, watching The Duke in my cabin (and sleeping through part of it). I enjoyed it. Anything with Helen Mirren is usually good. I woke up in time for trivia. We ended up missing two, but one team had a perfect score. At least it was not the team made up of players from the past several cruises. Tonight’s specials at the event in Club Fusion were guacamole with chips and chicken lollipops again along with all the usual suspects. I had a light snack since I did not eat much at lunch. 


Tonight’s dinner menu was better than last night’s. I had a caprese salad (but missing the basil) and flounder with baby Alaskan shrimp. Both were good. The quality of the tomatoes surprised me. The flounder came with one little floret of broccoli and three potato wedges. I asked the waiter for more broccoli, and he brought me a small plate of it. Princess is still skimping on serving green vegetables with the main dishes. I had the coconut mousse for dessert. It tasted like a Mounds bar. 


The ventriloquist performed two shows in the theater. I skipped going. I watched the Hollywood You Challenge. They drew two contestants per team to play with a member of the cruise director’s staff, making up two teams. They had several different segments. The funniest was watching each team take a turn at acting out a scene from a specific movie. I participated in a similar game on the Regal several years ago except that we had to freeze in a pose for our movies in that segment instead of acting.


I was going to go to bed, but I ran into two of my 4:00 trivia teammates and stayed for the Top 5 of Everything game show. Gareth showed the top 5 of various things in the world with one missing. We had to fill in the missing item. We had a really bad start, missing the first six questions. We did better later on getting 9 out of 14 right. That was way behind the teams that tied with 13 right. 


My cabin steward has left me a couple of half-page survey forms from the hotel general manager. Both times I mentioned the missing canapés. I received a voicemail yesterday afternoon saying that room service would be delivering chocolates instead of canapés. I have read about people getting them on other cruises. I did not see them on the first or second formal nights. On the CB last December, there was a new canapé menu that had delicious new choices: cured salmon with cucumber, beef crostini, sesame tuna tataki, and tomato and mozzarella on ciabatta. On the Regal in February, they automatically delivered cream puffs each formal night. They weren’t very good, but at least they made an effort. 

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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Wow! Finally got the previous post to go through. It seems like I've been trying for over a day. Some of my friends say they have received a refund for a portion of the cost of the internet. So far, it's only been the people who had Plus who have told me they can see it. If it doesn't appear on my statement by tomorrow evening, I'll ask about it.

 

Today was a nice day at sea. I ate breakfast back in the dining room. It is nicer down there, although it does take a bit of time. I made a paper airplane for the contest. I missed the hoop by about six inches high and to the left. At least my plane came close. Next up was the morning trivia. We did OK, behind the winners by a couple of points. I made it by a demonstration in the piazza by a chef. They were showing off the dishes from the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. I saw him make the shrimp and papaya salpicon from the Crown Grill and the tomato and burrata appetizer from Sabatini's. 

 

I ate a chicken sandwich from the Salty Dog Grill for lunch. It was very good. I went back to the buffet at tea time for some fresh fruit and a scone. I knew there was not enough time to eat lunch in the dining room since the mini Olympics started at 1:00. Today's event was Jenga. I was lucky to be one of the first four chosen. They had two Jenga stacks, with two contestants at each one taking turns. We earned 1 point for each block pulled. Bongs later changed the rules so that people could only pull with one hand at a time. He made a further change to award 10 points to the opposite contestant if the person going up against them knocked the stack down. It's all for fun, but those points mattered to some contestants.

 

I'm more serious about the cruise long progressive trivia. My team is still in the lead. The bad news is that we know we missed several answers today. The further bad news is that Gareth is not going to be showing the leaderboard for the next couple of trivias. I'm just hoping that the teams close behind us also missed at least as many as we did.

 

Dinner tonight had a nice menu. I was originally going to go to the Crown Grill with friends tonight, but they changed our reservation to tomorrow night after seeing the surf and turf on tonight's menu. My filet was cooked perfectly. The shrimp were tasty but not the jumbo ones promised. One man at my table came just for the lamb. He said he and his wife usually eat up in the buffet except when he sees lamb on the menu in the dining room. Unfortunately for him, he had a lot of tough bits to his lamb that he left behind.

 

I skipped going to the show tonight. It was a variety show cobbled together from the guest entertainers (and Caroline Miller). I hope the people who made it enjoyed it. I will miss Broadway Ballroom tomorrow night unless I go to the early show and skip out before it's over. I just saw it a few months ago and am fine with not seeing it again. I'm sure it will still be around in December.

 

They were doing Liars Club in Explorers Lounge. It was pretty crowded. I did not finish dinner until around 15 minutes after it started, and I only caught a bit of it as I passed through. They had two of the Captain's Circle parties tonight in Club Fusion. The line for the early one was to Sabatini's at one point. My party is the first one tomorrow night. The lamb man at dinner said he managed to score three drinks at the early party, so that sounds encouraging. 

 

We gain half an hour tonight so that the ship will match the local time in St. John's on Sunday. I've changed the time on my pedometer. Speaking of which, I walked just 4 miles today. My hamstrings are sore from yesterday's hike. 
 

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Lady Meer

Lady Meer

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We were on Caribbean Princess in July / Aug and am enjoying your posts. We were in club dining and agree with your comments re the lack of green vegetables. After a couple of dinners we asked for an extra dish of mixed veg to share (table for 4) which made our grandson very happy as he loves veg!

 

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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Today is another relaxing sea day. I ate breakfast in the dining room with three passengers who have been at my table before and a new couple. One of the specials was banana nut pancakes. They tasted pretty good, but I miss having real maple syrup like I do at home. One of the women at breakfast was talking about hearing a head waiter talk with the women she had lunch with yesterday about the chef's table. They're meeting in one of the dining rooms this morning to go over the details. So apparently there will be at least one on this cruise in spite of what I was told.

 

My cabin steward left me a note that today is the last day to send out laundry. I sent my last few pieces yesterday. The first two batches came back in 36 hours. The last two batches took 60 hours. It's still better than the 72 hours he warned about initially.

 

The weather looks like it wants to clear. We have seen plenty of overcast skies and fog on this cruise. My hopes for seeing the northern lights were dashed. The weather forecast for tomorrow in St. John's is promising--clearing in the morning after overnight showers with a high of 72 F.

 

I found out my cabin assignment for my cruise that starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. I booked the lowest category of inside and received a slight upgrade to a Cat. IB on the Aloha Deck. I'm glad I won't be back underneath a pool, even though I've been awake before they started moving around the pool chairs on this cruise.

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jsquared

jsquared

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11 hours ago, geoherb said:

He said he and his wife usually eat up in the buffet except when he sees lamb on the menu in the dining room.

This made me chuckle. We check the dinner menu each day to determine whether we're go to the DR or buffet (btw - having it accessible on the TV is awesome!) but my guaranteed 'go to the dining room' dish is Carbonara 🙂 

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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It's been an enjoyable day at sea. My team tied in the morning trivia but lost the tie-breaker question. They had a nice chocolate demonstration in the piazza. The head pastry chef and two assistants did it along with Gareth. After the demo, they passed out samples of chocolate-covered strawberries and other fruits, chocolate mousse, and house-made chocolates. I had a chocolate-covered strawberry and some grapes.

 

I ate lunch in the dining room. I had a seafood quesadilla appetizer and rockfish main course. I did not have time to stay for dessert. The mini Olympics started at 1:00. Today's Patter listed it as Bongani's choice. It turned out to be Score Four. They drew for opponents. I got the college kid. He beat me after about 20 moves. I lasted longer than some of the others.

 

We scored 16 points on yesterday's progressive trivia. Gareth has stopped showing us the leader board, so we're not sure exactly where we stand. I know we did better than the team right behind us, and I did not see any sheets with higher scores. Hopefully, we're still at the top. But today's trivia was really hard. We know we missed several.

 

The mother and daughter on my team snuck out right after the new quiz sheets were out. They helped with the ones they knew and headed to the wine tasting. The daughter had won it for two in Princess prizes. The rest of my teammates and I gave up on getting any more right answers, and I made it down to the wine tasting as well. They sampled a sparkling wine, and Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a dessert wine. I think the first four were the same as on previous cruises, and the last one was new.

 

Even with the better internet speed, it's still taking three or four tries to post things on Cruise Critic and Facebook at times.

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