Day 5 - Freeport, Maine

Thursday 28th September

Today we gave up being tourists and just became shoppers, mostly looking for bargains.

Spent the morning in Freeport, notably at various L.L. Bean stores.  This is the signature store for the town, all sorts of outdoor wear and equipment.  Managed to just look most of the time, but some essentials just couldn't be resisted.  A few other stores caught our attention too.

A short drive to South Portland to visit the Maine Mall for more shopping in some different stores and to have a late lunch in the food court, Chinese this time, again nostalgia dictated.

Weather today still sunny all day but much more comfortable in mid 70's.

Then back to motel for the evening.

Day 4 - Lincoln, New Hampshire to Freeport, Maine

Wednesday 27th September

After a fair breakfast off on the road again.

Today first part of journey along the Kancamagus Highway, a National Scenic Highway.

Made several stops at overlooks, with great views of the White Mountains, leaf colour at these higher elevations getting quite good for so early in the season.

 

Also stopped down by the river, not a great deal of water but plenty of boulders.

 

Stopped for late lunch/early dinner at Friendly's, just had to have a Tuna Melt and an ice-cream sundae, just as good as we remember.  We figure it's about 25 years since our last visit to Friendly's for the same meal, since then we have had to make our own copy at home, still a favourite.

Pressed on to our motel in Freeport for the evening.

Day 3 - Manchester, Vermont to Lincoln, New Hampshire

Tuesday 26th September

Better breakfast at this motel, not too difficult to improve on yesterday's.

And so back on the road again.  Off up through the Green Mountain region.  More delightful quiet roads in delightful countryside.  Tree colour definitely coming along nicely and everywhere wild asters in various shades decorating the roadsides along with other unidentified wildflowers.

 

 

Stops today included one to view one of the famous covered bridges and one for the Quechee Gorge overlook.

 

 

Weather started this morning with mist, very soon burnt off for another record breaking hot day, again up close to 90°F.

Last part of the journey to Lincoln through the White Mountain region following the Lost River Gorge.

After booking in and unloading off for dinner at Enzo's Pizzeria.

Day 2 - Kingston, NY to Manchester, Vermont

Monday 25th September

Started with the motel breakfast.

Then off we go, nice drive through back road America, nice little towns and pretty countryside and forests.  Just the way we like our U.S. road trips, just like the old days. 

 

Made a couple of stops one for provisions, just the essentials, bananas, cans, doughnuts and crisps!  And the other to view the Halloween pumpkins for sale, everywhere is getting ready decorating their porches, nice and early!

 

Another scorching day, even hotter 90°F over 32°C.

Tonight's motel a bit oldie worldie.  Out for dinner before relaxation back at the motel.

Day 8 and Day 1- Red Hook Cruise Terminal, New York to Kingston, NY

Sunday 24th September

Very early start today, red sky at dawn just as we berthed in New York.

 

Finished packing last bits and after breakfast, waited in our appointed lounge for our call to disembark the ship.  Once called soon off and found our luggage very quickly and joined a queue of 1 person, waiting our turn to go through immigration - guess what we were through in about a minute.  Joined our bus taking us to Newark Liberty Airport (EWR) took just over 90 minutes.

After drop off took the AirTrain to Dollar Car Rental.  Picked up a Nissan Rogue, very much a Qashqai in disguise.

And so off up the highway and with very little trouble made it to our first night's motel.  Quite a bit of autumn colour starting in the trees.  Weather in the 30's all day, very hot.

Dinner in the restaurant just adjacent to the motel followed by watching the  NFL on the TV.

Day 7 - at Sea, en-route to New York

Saturday 23rd September

A day at sea, weather not too good to start with but improving.

Spent the day on and off packing and getting geared up to start our land trip tomorrow.  Not much enthusiasm to do much else.  Weather never really dragged itself out of the doldrums, foggy with fog horn blasting interspersed with occasional semi-clear spells, though very mild all day.

Day 6 - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Friday 22nd September

Berthed in Halifax, busy spot, three other Cruise Ships in port with us. 

 

Local Boy Makes Good

 

Let the early crowd clear and then went ashore to walk along the waterfront boardwalk.  Stopped for coffee and doughnuts and then continued to the Maritime Museum.  All sorts of sea and boat exhibits plus two main features.

One regarding the Halifax explosion.  On 6th December 1917 two ships the Imo and the Mont-Blanc collided.  The collision caused enough sparks to set the Mont-Blanc alight, she was carrying fuel and munitions, the crew abandoned the ship and it drifted ashore.  It then exploded, killing 1650, injuring 9000 and totally destroyed one square mile of the surrounding area as well as seven ships.  The injured and survivors were left without adequate shelter as 12000 buildings were destroyed and nothing for miles left undamaged.  That nights blizzard didn't help matters, but as soon as possible a huge relief operation was started,  Recovery started slowly but soon most of the damaged area was reinstated.  The Coroner for the town who was the son of the Coroner who dealt with the Titanic disaster used the same method of collection of personal items in numbered bags.

 

Personal Items and Book of Commemoration

 

Another regarding the sinking of the Titanic.  All sorts of information plus original relics on display.  Local vessels which were used to search for any survivors and the dead, this meant that most of the dead brought ashore arrived in Halifax and of these those not claimed by their families were buried in the local cemetery which we visited on our previous stop here.

A Pirates Fate, a Napoleonic Prisoners Bone Ship and a Titanic Relic

 

And so back to the ship.

Tonight's production show "Magic to Do".  We saw this show last cruise but it was very good again, even if the magic tricks would be better if seen from much closer. 

Day 5 - Saint John, New Brunswick

Thursday 21st September

Berthed right in town, a really nice sunny day. So off ashore for a walk round the town.

 

Wandered along the harbour front, called in at the New Brunswick Museum to see all sorts of exhibits about local area.  Logging and shipbuilding featured, plus a wildlife section with emphasis on whales.

 

 

Continued up through town to view the Victorian Square, historic buildings and churches.  Strangely large number of wasps about, otherwise a very nice town with very friendly locals.

 

Some unusual postboxes

 

This evening attended the Captain's Circle Cocktail Party for a couple of free drinks and a few nibbles.  As suspected this cruise has far less regular cruisers and only 187 Elite and 476 Platinum.

 

 

Day 4 - Day at Sea, Not Bar Harbor, Maine

Wednesday 20th September

Rudely awoken this morning with the Captain announcing the cancellation of our call at Bar Harbor.  Weather forecast to be unsafe for our anchoring and tender operations.  A great disappointment as it's a delightful example of small town America and a call we were looking forward to.

So day at sea, weather after early fog cleared up into a very pleasant calm day.  Just passed a pleasant day at sea, no sign of any bad weather here.

We will arrive in Saint John, New Brunswick this evening about 11pm.  Gangway will be available to go ashore, can't imagine there being many takers.

This evening's production show "Sweet Soul Music", the title I thinks says it all.

Day 3 - Boston, Massachusetts

Tuesday 19th September

Founded in 1630 and now Massachusetts State Capital. Situated at the mouths of the Charles and Mystic Rivers.  A mixture of old and new steeped in American history.  Home to many universities, sites of national importance and the "Sox".

This morning on our approach to Boston, berthed mid-morning.

Today we are taking the Old Town Trolley hop-on-hop-off tour.  Apart from the shambolic organisation by the shore excursion department delaying matters we achieved getting on a trolley.

The route took us round Boston via the Boston Tea Party site, then to the Old North Church area where Paul Revere started his famous midnight ride and on up to Charlestown Navy Yard.  Here we got off to visit the USS Constitution, America's oldest commissioned warship.  She having been built in 1797 and involved in action against the British in 1812.  She remains afloat and has just completing her latest refit.

 

Back on the bus continued past the "Cheers" bar and Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team.  Our next stop was at the Prudential Tower, the plan being to lunch at the food court we visited previously, but it was gone, oh disappointment.

 

Continued back on the trolley through Boston and back to the ship.

 

The weather had been overcast all day with very low cloud shrouding to tops of skyscrapers but quite warm and only some rain first thing.

Captain's sailaway announcement included information about Hurricane Jose which is 200 miles south of us and heading north.

Day 2 - Newport, Rhode Island

Monday 18th September

Newport, Rhode Island is a millionaires playground, town is surrounded by mansions, many classed by the owners a summer cottages, and the harbour full of very expensive yachts and cruisers.

At anchor this morning so it's tenders to get ashore today.

We had a nice little ride ashore in a local boat which was supporting the ship's tenders in people moving.

Enjoyed a stroll round the town without any great plan or purpose, just nice to be here.

 

Soon returned to ship by tender, very crowded, and after a coffee went up to Skywalkers Lounge to take in the views.

This evening went to the theatre for "Encore", a show with the Princess Orchestra, the Princess Singers and Dancers supported by a guest soprano.  Mainly classical and operatic numbers, very well presented and performed with a very effective background scenery.

Day 16 and Day 1 - New York, New York, USA

Sunday 17th September

Awoke this morning docked at Red Hook, Brooklyn.  This is the end of our first cruise.  Views from the ship over Governor's Island to the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.  Weather a bit misty but very warm and humid with plenty of sun.

 

Today we are moving staterooms, their system is supposed to make it easy to do so but it is plagued with delay and frustration, especially here in New York because of extra Coast Guard and Immigration procedures.  Still made the move in the end just in time for our Transit Passenger processing by the US authorities.  This meant getting off the ship and joining the queues for immigration and customs.  We did think we would stay ashore and take the ferry over to Manhattan but just couldn't quite face the hassle so instead managed to bypass most of the queues and got back on board the ship.  Really nice couple of hours on board in the sun before the new passengers started boarding, there only being a few back-to-back sailors this cruise.

Took it easy this afternoon and evening while all the new folk crowded out the ship finding their way around, always hectic the first day, seemed very different with new passengers and a huge number of different crew.

Enjoyed the sailaway from deck, lovely evening sailing out of New York with fine views of Manhattan skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty.

 

Day 15 - at sea

Saturday 16th September

Really strange weather today, most of the day a low fog with blue sky above and a very glassy sea below.  But despite the odd weather a lovely day just to sit out on the balcony in the (mostly) sun.  A few sightings of dolphin and one unidentifiable fin passing by.

 

 

Day 14 - Halifax Nova Scotia

Friday 15th September

Weather a bit dull first thing but looks good for later.

Our excursion today is on the Old Pink Bus Hop-on-hop-off.  Bit of a queue for the bus, but not too bad considering four cruise ships in today.

Our bus was actually white, but all the HoHo buses are 1960's London Routemasters painted bright Pink, Blue, Green and White.

 

 

Rode the bus for a while and made our first stop at the Citadel.  This being an Historic Fortress built on a high point overlooking the town and harbour.  At his post at the entrance was the tallest guard you could imagine.  All sorts of military artefacts and different events going on including the Noon firing of a cannon and a lone piper playing from the walls.

 

Back on a different bus, a Pink one this time, continued round the town to the Fairview Lawns Cemetery.  This stop is to view the gravestones of (most of) the victims of the Titanic disaster who were buried in Halifax.  Guides provided by the bus company for 'doing the graves' with background stories and extra information.  The cost of burial and gravemarkers being paid for by the White Star Line.  The layout of the graves representing the prow of a ship.

One grave of note is that of Ernest Edward Samuel Freeman, secretary to Mr Bruce Ismail.  The extra cost of the non-standard marker paid for by Bruce Ismail, some say only because of a guilty conscience, he having escaped death by getting into one of the last lifeboats and leaving his secretary to perish.  We hadn't realised that when 'ships' were sent out to search for any remaining survivors they found no one alive.  Having only taken 150 body bags with then they buried all the rest at sea.

 

Back on the bus for the return to the ship.

Just time for coffee and a snack and some sun before the folkloric show, consisting of bagpipes, violins and Scottish dancing.  This area is not called Nova Scotia for nothing.

Tonight splashed out with our on board spend money to eat in the Crown Grill.  Excellent dinner mainly consisting of Filet Mignon, delicious.

Day 13 - at sea

Thursday 14th September

Weather much improved today.  Spent most of the day in the sun on our balcony.  Whales around several times during the day.

Not much else achieved today.  Today is the start of the new NFL Football season and the ship has managed to get the NFL on the TV.  First thing worth watching all cruise!

Day 12 - St John's Newfoundland (and Labrador)

Wednesday 13th September

Originally an outpost for European fishermen, later one of the first British colonial capital.

Clocks back thirty minutes for today - one of the few places in the world in a half timezone.

Weather not too good today, bit foggy, bit wet and rather cloudy.

Regardless went ashore and walked up the hill, and up and up.  Eventually reached "The Rooms", this is a very smart new building containing the museum, art gallery, archive and a coffee shop.

So coffee first on the 4th floor, with great views over the town and harbour.  Then worked our way down through the sections of the museum, all sorts of exhibits, local and domestic life, wildlife, hunting and fishing, world war one etc. etc.  All very interesting and needed much more time than we had.  Did manage to touch a piece of iceberg stored in a cooler, St John's is known as the iceberg capital, so many of them pass the town in the spring, they even have a tourist season for iceberg watchers!

St John's residents seem to love painting their historic timber clad houses in bright colours, certainly cheers the place up even on a dull day.

 

Set off back to the ship in the rain, just too wet for further sightseeing.

Spent the afternoon on the ship just chillin'.

Days 8,9,10 and 11 - at sea

Saturday 9th September

Left Iceland behind and now sailing across to Canada.  Weather overcast today, some rain about.  Almost feels like the weather alternates between sunny and warm one day and then cloudy with showers the next.

Not much going on during today, usual occupations for us, i.e. not much, but we never seem to have much time to spare!

This evening's entertainment in the Theatre is Becky O'Brian, she sings Judy Garland numbers and sounds a lot like her.  She is one of those child prodigy singers who idolised Judy from the age of two, so she says.

Up to buffet for a light supper, and then back to stateroom to catch up on the progress of hurricane Irma.

 

Sunday 10th September

Spent the morning listening to Captain  Martin Stenzel's interview, lots of chat about his career and how the ships are officered.  With other information and anecdotes.  Then quick wiz down to the trivia.

Time for morning coffee and cake, oh woe is me and my waistline.

Again not much entertainment to attract us today.

Formal dinner tonight, so on with the best bib and tucker.  Crayfish followed by lobster tail for one, fruit soup followed by beefburger for the other.

Off to the theatre for the production show, "DISCO - blame it on the boogie".  The name pretty much describes the show's content, a very energetic and entertaining event.  This ship seems to have a larger group of entertainers than usual, so certainly lots going on.

 

Monday 11th September

The Captain made mention of 911 in remembrance of the lives lost and for the armed forces protecting peace.

Day of doing not much at all again, just a bit of trivia and a couple of turns around the promenade.

Buffet dinner today.  Followed by the Captains Circle Cocktail Party free drinks and a few nibbles, always a popular choice.  Most travelled passenger was a lady with 2316 sea days, that's about 6 years 4 months on a Princess ship. The next most travelled couple at 1802 sea days. almost exactly 5 years.  We are currently on 82 sea days!!!!!

Country and Western music trivia and Variety Showtime with Paul Boland, a singer and impressionist.  Afraid I left the impressionist after a few minutes and rejoined the trivia.

 

Tuesday 12th September

If you can believe it think we did even less today.

Outside a foggy day, fog horn going pretty much all day.

Just our usual entertainment and that was about it.

Day 7 - Reykjavik, Iceland

Friday 8th September

Capital and largest city of Iceland, about 50% of Iceland's population

Berthed in Reykjavik.   Today's plan was to take one of the bus options into Reykjavik town centre, never actually managed to get there, the weather was just too nice and the temptations of the balcony just too great.  Added to that the Iceland Wear shop just by the ship down on the dock had free wi-fi which reached the ship and allowed, even if rather slowly, internet access for some updates and browsing.

 

View of Reykjavik Cathedral from the ship

 

Very busy evening.  Firstly the Icelandic folkloric show.  Not particularly folkloric though it was Icelandic.  It was in fact Hera Bjork singing with a small group of musicians, she being Iceland's, and previously Denmark's, Eurovision Contest entrant.  Certainly had a very good voice and sang a selection of pop songs, some Icelandic songs and some Eurovision numbers.

Off to the main dining room for dinner tonight, crabcakes followed by scallops for one, melon followed by cowboy strip steak for the other.  Four entertaining American table companions tonight.

Straight after dinner off to the Fusion Lounge to watch a rebroadcast of the opening game of the NFL, New England v Kansas City.  Good atmosphere, mostly US audience, though not as many as might be expected.

Time for bed, but, just as we got back to our room the bridge announced that the Northern Lights were displaying off the starboard bow.  So up we went to join what seemed like the bulk of the passengers to enjoy the display.  Could have been a better display and weather conditions better but all in all the display did not disappoint and was a real bonus to the cruise.

Northern Lights looked much better in real life and on the camera, but you get the idea

 

Day 6 - Isafjordur, Iceland

Thursday 7th September

This morning anchored just off Isafjordur, today it will be a tendering operation to get passengers ashore.

Busy early on while everyone in a hurry gets taken ashore.  As we are in no great rush went to the morning trivia, joined most of our usual team, achieved a good result, just one incorrect answer, but still didn't win!

Once the queue had mostly cleared joined the tender for a very nice little boat ride ashore.  Spent some time walking around the town, not much of great interest but very nice town, very small, must be odd to live here in long dark cold winters.

 

Took the tender back to the ship for a coffee.

Spent most of the afternoon watching the film, Their Finest, entertaining film about the wartime film production unit making a propaganda film about Dunkirk.

Mexican themed dinner in the buffet tonight - delicious.

Day 5 - Akureyri, Iceland

Wednesday 6th September

Akureyri, rhymes with Tipperary.

Iceland is located on a hotspot on the mid Atlantic ridge - an active volcanic area, the only place where the ridge  is above sea level, the  island spans join between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate, spreading at about 2cms per year.

Iceland was settled in about 874 AD by the Vikings.

Akureyri, northern Iceland, ice free port and centre for the fishing industry.

Woke up this morning as we sailed up the fjord to Akureyri.  Lots of passengers getting off to join their excursions, ship much quieter.

Went to the morning trivia, joined another couple and managed to win the prize, a bottle of ship's champagne.

After a light lunch joined our tour group for our excursion.

Off we go, weather holding up fairly well, rather overcast and cool, no actual rain though rainbows in sight so must be some around.

First stop, potty break for all the old folk.  Then straight off to Namaskard  thermal area for wafts of sulphur, steam vents and boiling mud pools.

 

Next to Dimmuborgir to see weirdly shaped lava formations.  A bit of imagination all needed to see the formations as trolls, used by the Icelanders to entertain children especially at Christmas.

 

Just one of Iceland's many 'Trolls'

 

A local snack provided for us at the adjacent Kafe, a tasty bread cooked by geothermal heat underground, served with smoked arctic char and followed by a bit of chocolate cake, all with a welcome cup of coffee.

Then onward to view the pseudo craters, in the only real rain we have seen all day, therefore a short visit!  The craters formed when lava met water and formed bubbles which burst to form circular craters looking just like meteor impact craters.

 

Lastly to Godafoss waterfall, a quite spectacular waterfall, best viewed from some quite tricky rocks to clamber over, luckily no accidents among the viewers and luckily no health and safety notices!  Godafoss named because Thorgeir Thorkelsson, who was chosen from among the Icelanders to decide for the whole population whether to retain the Norse pagan gods or to embrace Christianity.  After deciding for the best practical reasons to choose Christianity, that was to save Iceland from being invaded by the Christian Norwegian Kings, and to allow anyone who wished to to retain their Norse gods "in secret".  To prove his commitment he threw all his pagan idols into the waterfall, forever thereafter called Gods Waterfall, Godafoss.

 

And so back to the ship just in time for sailaway.

Then to the buffet for dinner and an almost early night, the day proving rather tiring.

Day 4 - at Sea

Tuesday 5th September

This a scheduled day at sea, not a bonus one.  The weather a great improvement, just a few clouds, lots of sun and light winds, lovely.

Another nice easy day, bit of trivia then morning coffee with a bit of culture, the Elegance Duo (violinists) were playing classical music with a few popular standards in between.

Most of the rest of the day spent on our balcony in the sun watching out for whales.  A very popular pastime, a couple of whales spouts seen during this morning's trivia halted proceedings while everyone crowded round the windows for a glimpse, so many one side I thought capsize a clear possibility.  Not many things can halt the trivia it's so popular.

Anyway quite a few sightings were made from our balcony, nothing near enough for identification of individual species.  And the weather stayed really nice all day.  And seabirds played around the ship to keep us entertained between whales.

 

Spot the whale!

Today's dress code formal, the Captain's welcome and champagne waterfall tonight.  So all togged up made our way to the Atrium for a couple of glasses of free champers and watch the waterfall.

 

The Captain reeled off all sorts of statistics about our voyage most of which we couldn't remember but we will sail about 4337 miles this voyage and the 2989 passengers are made up of 23 nationalities, 1557 from the United States, 841 from Great Britain and the bulk of the rest from Canada and Australia.  How the lone Belgian and the lone Netherlander came to be here alone puzzles.  We skipped the main dining room and had dinner in the buffet.

Day 3 - Lerwick, Shetland Islands

Monday 4th September

100 miles north from mainland Scotland, consists of 100 islands, 15 of which are inhabited.

So close yet so far.

Almost arrived, just outside the inlet heading up to Lerwick, the Captain decided the weather was too bad, and forecast to deteriorate, for him to make a stop at Lerwick, especially as the tenders would be needed for getting passengers ashore.  So no stop and the ship swung round to head south of the islands and to proceed to Iceland.  It seems the low cloud, 40 knot winds and 2-3 metre seas was all too much.

 

A View of Shetland

 

So a day at sea, entertainment team organised all sorts of activities as an alternative to actually being somewhere, sadly not much in our line, so just enjoyed the day.

After dinner went to the music trivia.  All 50's and 60's music so actually knew some of the answers, much better than our usual music result.

Sea stayed fairly rough all day, though not of any concern, and the cloud stayed pretty much overcast all day as well.

Late in the evening passed close to Torshavn but it was not visible.

Day 2 - at Sea

Sunday 3rd September 2017

Nice to have a sea day to allow us to settle in.  Another lovely sunny day sailing up the east coast of Britain, calm seas and light winds.

Luckily not much to do, so enjoyed sun, the buffet and a couple of trivia quizzes.  Amazing how some teams can get 100% correct answers even with very tricky and obscure questions.

This evening off to the theatre for tonight's show.

The show being a new musical developed for Princess Cruises by Stephen Schwartz.  He is most known as the composer of Wicked and several others musicals.

This show, Magic to Do, is a compilation of a number of songs from his musicals made up into a complete production with all sorts of magic tricks and illusions.

All in all very good, excellent singing and dancing with spectacular effects and clever magic.

Weather forecast for tomorrow not looking promising.