Getting ready for our Transatlantic:
Getting ready for this cruise was a real pain in the ass. First, we thought this would be our first cruise post-pandemic. But, we saw several great cruise start up deals, and so this is actually our fourth cruise at the (hopefully) ending of the pandemic. For many months prior, we were unsure if the cruise would be cancelled. In addition, we had to comply with the United Kingdom’s (UK) entry requirements which changed many times during 2021. We booked flights on United, and had to comply with their requirements, and schedule changes. A lot of the documentation could not be finalized until 48 hours prior to entering the UK. Requirements eased somewhat in October, with the UK required test changing from a PCR to Lateral Flow test, which is less expensive. So, the terms we are traveling under for the UK is buying and paying for a day 2 lateral flow test which is to be taken on or before day 2 in the UK, and the arrival day is day 0. We will be leaving the UK on day 1. Not sure if we will take the UK test or not. This test has to be purchased from an approved UK provider, so we had to find a provider that would mail the tests to our hotel, which we did, at a cost of about $50. After purchasing the tests, the seller emails you a number which has to be entered on the UK’s required “passenger locator form” (PLF) which cannot be completed more than 48 hours before arrival in the UK. Then, we have to complete United Airlines travel ready forms, giving the information from the PLF, uploading a copy of our vaccination card as well as the usual passport information. We completed all of that on Sunday, October 31 in preparation of our November 1 flight that arrives in the UK on November 2. Princess sends us a very confusing email implying we have to take a COVID test 48 hours before embarking. In addition, Princess is testing everyone at the port. So the email says one thing, but if you go to the Princess website, it does not require a COVID test 48 hours per boarding, just the test at the terminal. Until we are on the ship, the anxiety over whether we have done everything is still there.
Itinerary:
11/1 – 2/21 Fly from Ft. Lauderdale to Southampton, England
11/3/21 Board Regal Princess
11/4 – 5/21 Cherbourg, France
11/6/21 At Sea
11/7/21 Vigo, Spain
11/8 – 9/21 At Sea
11/10/21 Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal
11/11 – 11/16/21 At Sea
11/17/21 Disembark Ft. Lauderdale
We have heard that the ship is not stopping in Bermuda because of “congestion”. What makes this interesting is the ship is registered in Hamilton, Bermuda. We find out our itinerary has changed, with an overnight in Cherbourg, France on November 4 to 5. Our other ports have been pushed back a day, so we’ll be in Vigo, Spain on November 7, and Ponta Delgado, Azores, Portugal on November 10. One thing we have learned in cruising in COVID times, is to be flexible and nothing is written in stone.
November 1, 2021: We got up early, ran a few errands, and left very early at 11:25AM for our 3 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale to catch our 6:15PM flight. We are flying from Fort Lauderdale to Washington Dulles, with a couple hours layover before flying from Washington Dulles to London. We took our time driving, stopping to get something to eat and top off the gas tank, but arrived in Fort Lauderdale about 3:00. Google maps was crazy, and kept changing our route. Finally we decided to just follow the road signs to get us to the airport.
The United person checking us in checked all our documents, asked for the PLF, but really was not familiar with the UK requirements regarding testing. The UK does not require a COVID test to enter the UK if you are fully vaccinated, which we are. So I pointed to the section that states US vaccinated don’t need to be tested before entering the UK, she prints our boarding passes, we check our bags, and prepare to wait for our flight. Dave has passes to the United Club, but we decide to use them when we get to Dulles. The flight is full and they are looking for volunteers! The entertainment set up is poor – the controls are on the armrest and we keep changing stations each time we use the arm rest, which is often. I gave up and played games on my iPad. It seemed like a longer than 2 hour flight ☹️.
Waiting for our next flight, the time has flown by. As I sit here in the United Club at Dulles, drinking wine, I think it was a good decision to save our passes and use them here at Dulles. We boarded, and Dave has got us United premium plus tickets, which I think was the old business class. There is a first class section on the plane, and those seats are like cubicles, so you can actually lay flat. Our seats do not lay flat, but we have more room than economy, and we get better drinks and food (although Dave would disagree on the food). I ordered fried chicken, and it was actually chunks of chicken in pasta. Dave got a ravioli pasta, which he did not speak highly about. We watched a movie and I actually got some good rest for a few hours (it was a 7 hour overnight flight).
November 2, 2021: Before landing, we were given a breakfast of an egg sandwich and yogurt. It is a long walk after getting off the plane to go through passport control. Dave made it through on his first try. In my case, I almost had to wait in another line because my passport was not being accepted. It is just a machine, and you put in your passport. It compares your passport picture to your real life image, and mine kept getting rejected. I was told to go stand in another line, but Dave flagged the monitor and she let me try again, and again! Finally, it accepted me and we were able to move on. We got our luggage, which had been set aside by this time because it took us so long. We walked through customs which is literally walking through. There is a sign to go one direction if you have something to declare, and another hallway to pass through if you have nothing to declare. Finally, we are out into the main area of the terminal, and after some looking, we find our driver which we had prearranged through a company called Smith’s. He was a very nice man, driving a Ford Galaxy, which is actually similar to a small SUV in the states. Ford does not sell this model in the US. The driver chatted with us for our two hour drive to Southampton.
The hotel, Ennio’s, is in an old building, and I think there are only 5 rooms. Apparently it was not damaged with the bombing in WWII. We arrived around 1:00, and normal checking time is 3:00, but they told us our room would be ready in about 10 minutes. We had great plans to go outside, walk around the city and explore. But we hit the room and put our feet up and chilled for about 3 hours. We napped a little, but mostly just watched TV and rested. About 4:00, we decided to go out and walk a little bit before dinner. It is nippy outside. We are very close to the cruise ship port and saw where we will be going tomorrow. We saw some plaques honoring Jane Austin, and we walked through a little park. Then we headed back to the hotel, as it was a bit chillier than we were dressed for. We have plans to meet up with some people from cruise critic for dinner at 6:00, but I told Dave that I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the only ones that show up. We rested in the room until 5:45, and then took a 5 minute walk to the Duke of Wellington Pub, which we found out is 801 years old.
There were another group of cruiser from our ship there, and we chatted with them for a bit. Unfortunately, as I suspected, none of the cruise critic people showed up, except Dave and me. We had a decent pub dinner. I had cod, peas and chips (French fries), and Dave had shrimp scampi which was not like scampi we get in the states. His shrimp were breaded and fried, and he got chips and peas as well. Dave drank a Chardonnay, and I drank Swordfish beer, which is a dark beer.
After dinner, we came back to our hotel, had some sambucca, and went to bed!
November 3, 2021: Woke up in Southampton to 32 degrees! Brrrrrrr! We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and took a taxi to the port, which was less than a mile away. We dropped our luggage and got in line to wait to get our COVID test. After the test, you wait some more for the results. From the time the taxi dropped us off to actually boarding the ship was an hour and forty minutes….a long time to just be in line or waiting. As we checked in, we were asked if we had our French vaccination certificate. We did, but only because I had seen it discussed on cruise critic.
Once onboard, it was time to eat (seems like always time to eat or drink on a ship!), and we got a sandwich from the International Cafe. The International Cafe is one of our favorite places on Princess ships. We are noticing some differences between Princess and Celebrity, which we liked better on Celebrity. Embarkation was much quicker, no masks required, buffet was easier to navigate, no place to put your drink in the theatre (you had to hold it), escargot is not offered every night at dinner, etc. We basically explored the ship in the afternoon, listened to a piano player in the piazza, went to dinner in the evening, watched a “yes or no” game show, and went to see a comedian in the theater in the evening. We lose an hour tonight sailing to France, so we went to bed fairly early.
November 4, 2021: We ordered room service for breakfast as we have an early tour, meeting at 7:30am. We were running a little late, but Dave knew we weren’t docked yet. We got to our meeting place on the ship, and the crew told us to wait in a lounge for an announcement as the ship had not docked yet. After about 20 minutes, the captain announced he was unable to dock because of high winds, and he may not be able to dock until noontime. Since we lost an hour of sleep, we went back to our stateroom to rest.
About 10:00am we get a message that we are going to dock, and we are to meet for our excursion at 10:35! This is really good news. Our excursion goes to Mont Saint Michel which has been on Dave’s bucket list forever. Mont Saint Michel is in the English Channel, and in ancient times, could only be reached when the tides were low.
Our tour didn’t start until about 11:30. It is a 2 hour bus ride. Finally we could see the abbey in the distance. It is huge, built on a rock, with mud flats all around (the tide was out). Our bus has to park quite a distance away – maybe 2 miles – and then we catch a shuttle to get us closer to the abbey, which drives on a bridge built above where the high tides would otherwise flood access. After getting off the shuttle, we still have quite a distance to walk to get to what used to be a little village which is at the bottom of the abbey. Now, all the houses have been turned into shops and restaurants. It is very quaint looking, but actually a tourist trap now. You walk through the village on an incline, and then start climbing stairs to get to the top of the abbey. There are lots of stairs to climb – I think I read about 285 stairs. Inside, it has all been built of stones, over several centuries. There are many very large rooms, a cloister, a writing room, as well as the church and rooms for the current monks living there. I believe our guide told us there are 9 monks currently residing there and it is a mix of men and women. Because of our late start, our guide moved pretty quickly, but the tour itself, including the climb, took about 2 1/2 hours. We were suppose to have an hour of free time to get lunch and visit the shops, but because of the late start, we were only able to grab a sandwich on the run which we ate while waiting for the shuttle to take us to the bus parking lot. Dave and I walked ahead of our group and caught an earlier shuttle so we could visit the bathrooms. As we were leaving, one lady who had a cane, but was from our bus, was walking toward the bathrooms. In my mind, I thought she was going to be late to get to the bus. Sure enough, she never made it. I’m afraid she got separated and lost. We were all on the bus except one person. The lady obviously had trouble walking, and was traveling alone. Our guide left the bus twice and tried to find her, with no success. I’ve been worried about her and kinda blame the guide as I felt she was rushing us a bit. We didn’t leave the abbey until after 5:30pm, and got back to the ship about 7:45pm. A long day, lots of climbing, and worried about the lady ☹️.
From the historical site brochure: The long history of Mont Saint Michel is thought to date back to 708AD when Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, had a sanctuary built on Mont Tombe in honor of the archangel. The Mount soon became a major focus of pilgrimage. In the 10th century, the Benedictines settled the abbey, while a village grew up beneath its walls. By the 14th century, it extended as far as the foot of the rock. An impregnable stronghold during the Hundred Years’ War, Mont Saint Michel is also an example of military architecture. It’s ramparts and fortifications resisted all the English assaults, and as a result the Mount became a symbol of national identity.
Following the dissolution of the religious community during the revolution and until 1863 the Abby was used as a prison. Classified as a historical monument in 1874, it underwent major restoration work. Since then, work has gone on regularly all over the site. The result is that visitors can now experience the splendor of the abbey that people of the Middle Ages regarded as a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem on earth, an image of Paradise.
Mont Saint Michel has been listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO since 1979.
The abbey of Mont Saint Michel is a unique building: it’s plan is unlike that of any other monastery. Constrained by the pyramidal shape of the Mount, it’s medieval builders wrapped the buildings around the granite rock. The abbey church, situated at the top, sits on crypts that create a platform designed to take the weight of a church 80 meters long.
The building known as the Merveille, often regarded as the jewel of the abbey’s architecture, is is evidence of the architectural artery of its 13th century builders who succeeded in perching two blocks of 3-story buildings on a steep, rocky slope. This required very precise technical calculations. On the ground floor, a narrow side aisle of the sellae acts as a buttress. Above that the supports of the first two storers of the western building are stacked on top of one another. Finally, the structures became progressively lighter toward the top. On the outside, the building is supported by powerful buttresses. The layout and architecture of the building is influenced by guiding principles of monastic life. The rule of Saint Benedict, observed by the monks of the Mount, dictated that their days be devoted to prayer and work, so the rooms were organized around these two activities, and the space reserved exclusively for the monks to respect the principle of an enclosed order. Again, faithful to this principle, the rooms set aside to receive the laity were put on the ground floor and first floor of Merveille. The construction of the abbey of Mont Saint Michel therefore confirmed to two major imperatives: the requirements of monastic Lire and the constraints of topography.
The worship of Saint Michel: Saint Michel, head of the heavenly militia, was of great importance to Medieval religious sensibility. In the New Testament, Saint Michel appears in the book of Revelation: he fights and defeats a dragon, symbol of the devil. To medieval man living in expectation and dread of the hereafter, Saint Michel was the one who led away the dead and put their souls in the balance on the day of the last judgement. Very widespread in the East from the 4th century, the worship of Saint Michel only appeared in the West in the late 5th century with the building of the first sanctuary at Monte Gargano (Italy) in 492. Around the year 1000, churches and chapels dedicated to the Saint proliferated all over Europe, often on the top of hills or promontories. After the Hundred Years War, devotion to Saint Michel took on a special dimension q because of the resistance of the Mount against the English. Finally, this worship expanded rapidly with the Counter-Reformation, for in the eyes of the church, it was only the warlike angel who could fight against the Protestant heresy. In Christian iconography, Saint Michael is often depicted holding a sword and a set of scales. Popular traditions and cults have made Saint Michel the patron saint of knights and of all guilds associated with arms and scales. The statue that stands on top of the belfry has the traditional attributes of the archangel. It was made in 1897 by the sculpture Emmanuel Fremiet and commissioned by the architect Victor Petigrand who wanted to see the new 32-meter steeple suitable crowned. The statue was restored in 1987.
We climbed almost to the top of the Abbey – just not the tower at the very top.
We were able to go to dinner late, about 8:15pm. After dinner, we stopped by Vines, the wine bar, for a nightcap. It’s in the atrium, so we were able to enjoy the music in the atrium before heading to bed.
November 5, 2021: The ship stayed overnight at the port in Cherbourg, France, giving us a 2 day visit at this port. The extra day is a replacement for not going to Bermuda. Our plans were to walk around Cherbourg independently, but when we get up, it is only 48 degrees, windy and overcast. Too cold for us to get off the ship. So we went to a trivia game, a pyramid game, and the theatre to see AJ Clarke. He is a talented vocalist and pianist, and was entertaining. We also spent some time in the Wheelhouse Bar listening to a pianist and a nightcap in Crooners Martini Bar listening to a guy playing the guitar. In the martini bar, Dave gave the waiter the ingredients for a Black Forest martini. It wasn’t quite the same as Celebrity’s, but Dave liked it.
November 6, 2021: Sea Day! Not much to do but relax. We found out a few days ago that our world cruise next May, 2022 was cancelled. We spent a lot of the day checking other cruises to see what May be available if we take Princess’ offer of bonus Future Cruise Credit of 110% of what we have paid to date, or if we should just get a refund. We decide there will be cruises we want to take, so we are going to apply for the 110% bonus future cruise credit. We also found out that the shore excursions gave us a 30% credit on our Mont Saint Michel excursion because of the shortened time we were allowed. We also found out we are each getting a $100 credit because we will have extremely limited internet from here on until we get home. So I will probably have to finish my blog from home. This evening was a production show in the Theatre, Bravo. These are always very entertaining. This one did not really have a story, but beautiful costumes, dancing and singing. After the theatre, we went to Crooners martini bar for a nightcap, and to listen to AJ Clark, the talented pianist and vocalist, who will be playing most evenings in Crooners.
November 7, 2021: We have an excursion today in Vigo, Spain, “Gourmet Galicia”. We are so happy that we don’t have to meet until 10:10am for this excursion, which gives us plenty of time for breakfast and a little relaxation after breakfast. We have a little walk when we get off the ship to a catamaran. A bit cool for a ride on a catamaran- who expected it to be in the 40’s!!! The local guides keep telling us what a beautiful day it is – and today it is nice that we have bright sun. But it is still cold. Amazingly, Dave and I are bundled up enough that we sit on the top of the catamaran, out in the open for most of the ride. Our guide points out local landmarks and talks about the region. He shows us beds where muscles are grown, points out what was a Citroen factory (I think it’s Chrysler now), and says they’ve also build Peugeot and Toyota.
They used to fish for whales, but that industry was forbidden, I think in the 1980’s. But fishing is still a big industry here. We cruise around the Bay of Vigo and he points out towns along the way. It is very scenic, and while it is not crowded today, in November, I imagine there are many tourists here in the warmer summer months. There are several beaches, but not any people on the beaches today (especially with the temperatures under 50 degrees). We do see a couple of rowers. One of the boats has 10, yes, 10 rowers, which I have never seen before! It is about 11:00am, and the water is a bit rough. Dave spotted a boat with 2 rowers, but I never got a good look at them.
I think there are 10 rowers, and 2 holding balance. The coach is in the motorboat.
We are served some appetizers on the boat: white local wine, Albariño, which is very good, bread, a meat “pie”, and muscles. After about 1.5 hours, we reach our destination, Bayona (Baiona), another cute town on the bay. We did a little walking tour on the town and our guide told us the “Pinta” vessel, of Christopher Columbus fame, docked here in 1493 in Bayona after visiting the Americas. He showed us the spot where the boat tied up to a big rock, and the well where it took on water. We visited a little chapel, which I believe was built in the 1500’s. We were on the main level and we looked up to see two nuns watching from the second level. It sounded like a service was being piped in, but we did not see any other worshipers. We proceeded to walk up to the Parador Conde de Gondomar, a medieval fortress, and to the adjacent hotel for our gourmet 3 course lunch.
We had to choose our entree, and Dave and I both chose the Galician fish stew “Caldeirada”. I thought it was very good, but Dave’s fish had a lot of bones. Other people at our table had the pork loin, which looked very good, and the people choosing that entree said it was very good. We were stuffed after eating. They were generous with the wine and we had several refills. After lunch, we headed back to the catamaran. Our guide did not eat, but did partake of the wine. On the ride back to the ship, he rambled on quite a bit!
Overall, it was a very pleasant day, and I really enjoyed the tour. I felt Vigo and Bayone were really neat towns, and I would have loved to spent more time in both of them.
We have two sea days ahead of us before our last port in the Azores, Ponta Delgada.
November 8, 2021: Today is the first of 2 sea days before we reach the Azores. We are scheduled to get a rapid COVID test this morning at 8:00am, so we could not sleep in. But we gained an hour last night, turning back our clocks one hour. We will gain 4 more hours before we reach Ft. Lauderdale. We went to a destination presentation on the Azores, which is our next and last port. There are 9 islands that make up the Azores. Their main product is pineapple. The presenter said the island is not heavily touristed, but is a refueling stop for cruise ships. We went to the evening show in the theater. The performer was E. Sarah Carter and she played the violin, and sang a little, too. She was entertaining, but probably would not go to see her again. Afterwards we went to Crooners to hear AJ Clarke on the piano.
November 9, 2021: This day was a total waste for me. I was sick and spent the whole day in bed. I did t know if it was something I ate or… COVID…..☹️. Late evening, about 6:30 PM, I called the medical facility and the nurse came and gave me a PCR test. After about 40 minutes, I received the call from the medical facility …. my test was negative 😁! Since I hadn’t eaten all day, we went to the buffet and I had a little to eat. I was still very tired, went to bed, and got about 10 more hours of sleep. Poor Dave just hung around the stateroom all day, even though I told him to go out and do something.
November 10, 2021: Our last port before Ft. Lauderdale – Ponta Delgada in the Azores. The Azores are comprised of 9 islands, formed from volcanos and lava. We are on the largest island, Sao Miguel. Sao Miguel is known for its rich volcanic soil and nurtures a multitude of tobacco, tea and pineapple crops. It is very green and the temperatures average 75 in the summer and 50 in the winter, so everything grows here. It never snows and they never get a frost. Ponta Delgada is the capitol of the Azores.
We have a ship excursion today and have to meet in the theatre at 8:00am. Fortunately, I’m feeling pretty good. We walk out of the terminal and get on the bus with about 31 other people, but it is a big bus, so not packed. Dave and I usually try to sit in the back of the bus because everyone else sits near the front. Sitting in the back let’s us space out better.
Our first stop is Ribeira Grande, the islands oldest town featuring Portuguese influenced architecture dating from the 16th century. There is a picturesque river that runs through this town.
We walked around this town, and looked inside one of its chapels.
I believe our guide said 95% of the population is Catholic. There is a statue here of a priest, Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, who lived 1522 – 1591, and wrote a detailed historical and geographical description of the archipelago’s of the Azores, Madeira, and Canaries. His writings are still used as a reference today.
The second stop was at Pico Do Ferro overlook, with a panoramic view of the volcanic Furnas Valley. It was a bit of a hike up to the overlook, but it was worth the effort.
Then we vitiated the Terre Nostra Gardens which is a lush garden with many varieties of plants and trees. This was the best stop on this tour. The gardens date back to 1775. Originally a 4 acre summer residence of Thomas Hickling, a Bostonian merchant. He built a simple house with trees mostly from his native North America. None of thes survived except for a native English Oak. The gardens were subsequently extended and developed by subsequent owners. In 1848, the Viscount of Praia purchased the property, expanded the garden and laid it out amidst the water, the dark groves of trees and plantings of flowers. In 1872, his son, the Marquis of Praia and Monforte, introduced additional improvements with gardening experts who helped develop a serpentine canal, grottoes, lush avenues and trails which were then lined with orange trees. Some of the trees from that period were from North America, Australia, New Zealand, China, and South Africa. By 1990, arborists and horticulturists undertook the identification of approximately 2500 trees as well as the planting of more than 3000 new trees and shrubs. The development of the garden has been ongoing with separate sections for a collection of endemic species, a fern garden, a cycads garden, a garden of annual flowers and plants, and a camellia collection. There are water features, including a swimming pool that is heated to 100 degrees F by the natural hot springs, and pools of water that bubble due to escaping gases. The swimming pool looks muddy, but the color is caused by chemicals in the natural hot springs. The gardens now cover 25 acres.
Our last stop was the hot springs. As soon as we exited the bus we could smell the sulfur. Locals use these steaming pools for cooking. The area we visited was about 2 blocks. The pools, or caldeiras were bubbling and steaming. Our guide said one exploded recently, which was something probably like Old Faithful going off, but these do not gush on a regular basis. We stopped at the souvenir shop, where they were giving samples of locally produced liquors. We bought 2 little bottles – blackberry flavored and cinnamon flavored.
We got back to the ship about 1:30, and headed to the buffet because we were hungry. Afterwards, we packed our cooler weather clothes, because we anticipate warmer weather from here home. There won’t be much to write about, as we have 6 sea days ahead of us. Time to relax. Can’t even use the internet as we don’t have any connection. A little frustrating……
We had dinner in the Crown Grill which is a specialty restaurant. Dave had a filet, and I had lamb chops. The meal as a whole was very good, but we ordered asparagus for our side dish, and it was tough and stringy ☹️. By the time we finished our meal, it was bedtime. We gain an hour tonight, and will gain 3 more hours before Ft. Lauderdale.
November 11, 2021: It is Veteran’s Day! A bagpiper plays all the military hymns in the piazza/atrium, which is a nice salute to the US military. It is a beautiful day outside. The $100 per person credit for no internet has been applied to our account, so we sit for 35 minutes waiting for the future cruises lady to make our future cruise deposits…only to find out after 34 minutes that the Captains Club lady next door has future cruise forms we could have filled out. Because of COVID, there are no brochures or forms sitting out. But you would think the Captain’s Club lady could have got off her lazy butt and asked the line of people if they wanted a future cruise deposit form.
I have observed many people who work hard, seem very smart, but don’t understand efficiency. Just my two cents.
Tonight is formal night. We don’t really dress formal, but dress up a bit more than usual. Lobster is on the menu, and I have two tails. Dave chooses Chateaubriand. Afterwards we listen to AJ Clarke in Crooners, the martini bar, then off to our room.
November 12, 2021: The ship is rocking a bit today and the captain says we have gone around a weather system in the Atlantic. He says it may be choppy for 48 hours more! It is another sea day, which normally I like, but not without internet. We still have very limited access and I can’t even read my emails. Apparently we can send emails, but those we receive say “the message has not been downloaded from the server”. Sometime we can read the subject line, but that’s it. Dave found a book to read from the library the morning, and we went to an enrichment talk about Pan American Airlines, and it’s founder Juan Tripp. We will try to catch some trivia, and more music, but otherwise, not much to do. We turn our clocks back another hour tonight, so we will only be 2 hours ahead of Florida. These 25 hour days give us lots of time to relax…too much time. We have been walking around the ship to get some exercise, and it is a big ship, but very few decks actually go all the way around. It appears decks 8 and 9 have areas sectioned off, which I assume are for quarantine purposes.
After dinner we went to “Liars Club” game show, and then to list to AJ Clarke again. We enjoy sitting in Crooners, the martini bar, and listening to him sing and play the piano. Tonight we set our clocks back another hour.
November 13, 2021: After, turning our clocks back another hour, we are only 2 hours different than home. We will have two more 25 hour days. Much better than going the other direction and having 23 hour days! The water is rough, and we were rocking and rolling overnight. Midship is always better, so we will find someplace to sit and hang out. We sat next to a nice couple from Houston at Breakfast this morning, Jack and Barb. We sat next to them yesterday morning, too, which is purely by chance. You are seated in an available table, with many different servers, eating at whatever time you like. In the evening, we ask for the same server, Alex, and his assistant, Ana. They have taken good care of us, and have snagged some bottles of the wine we like for us even though it is no longer available in the dining room.
One complaint I have is even though you ask for something specific, the crew tend to fill your order without advising you that they have made a substitution. For example, I’ve ordered skim latte which is coffee with skim milk, but some servers just use whole milk anyway. When questioned, they told me they only have one milk. Ana, our server at dinner did that, once, with wine. We ordered a specific Chardonnay, and she brought a substitute, without telling us. When asked, she said our brand was not available in the dining room any longer. Dave said he would go out to one of the bars to get it, and then she went and found the one we like. Now she has a bottle in reserve for us.
We attended another Enrichment Lecture on the “Queens of Cunard”. The presentations are in Princess Live, which is a mini theatre, and they are always packed. Probably because everyone on board is internet starved like we are, and looking for entertainment. The presentations are very interesting, however.
November 14, 2021: Another sea day, and we still don’t have internet. We attended another Enrichment Lecture on the Bermuda Triangle. It was very fitting because we were suppose to be in Bermuda today. One of the theories discussed was magnetic aberration. Interesting, because I was sitting on our balcony in the afternoon, and checked my compass app. It showed the ship heading East, which did not make sense at all. Our heading should always be westerly…west, southwest, or even northwest. I even showed my app to Dave and he thought maybe the captain was going around something. I think it was an example of magnetic aberration. We missed the first few lectures from this lecturer, Franz Schneider, and he mentioned they were recorded and could be watched on the stateroom TV. So we watched one from our room about “Avoiding Disaster”. They are all very interesting.
We went to the Crown Grill, a specialty restaurant, for dinner. Dave and I both had Sea Bass which was very good.
Tonight we gain another hour, so we will only be one hour off from home.
November 15, 2021: Our internet is still pathetic. Dave thinks it may be worse than yesterday. We certainly were not prepared to be totally out of contact. We attended another lecture by Franz Schneider, Cruising the First Century. This was not about the first century, but about cruising from about the 1890’s through the 1990’s. More interesting was a presentation by AJ Clarke of “ Music from the Beatles to Baccarat”. I am definitely a fan of AJ Clarke. He has so much information about writers, background musicians, etc. We attended his show in the theatre earlier in the cruise, and he has performed in the martini bar, Crooners, every evening, which we have attended many evenings, including tonight. We also went to the production show in the theatre which was Motown music. It is formal night, so I finally get escargot and lobster. Dave had Beef Wellington.
November 16, 2021: Our last day onboard. We are scheduled to have a COVID test at 9:30am, so we set out clock to get up early enough to have breakfast before the test. I think this test is required by the USA for the ship to dock in Florida and disembark passengers. We are anticipating a long wait with lots of people, but we’re surprised that we literally walked in and got our test, and left. The whole procedure probably took less than 5 minutes. The longest wait was waiting for the elevator to take us from deck 14 where our stateroom is located, down to deck 6 where the testing takes place. After the test, we went back to the stateroom to pack up most of our stuff, except what we’ll need for the rest of the day and tomorrow morning. Then we listened to another of Franz Schneider’s lectures, “Life on the Liners”, which was about cruising in the 1970’s. In the evening, we went to the martini bar, Crooners, to listen to AJ Clarke one last time.
November 17, 2021: We disembark this morning. Getting off the ship was pretty quick. We have “global entry” which is suppose to speed up entry into the USA and going through customs. Unfortunately, there is only one line for people with global entry, and several lines for people without global entry. The result is it takes those of us with global entry much longer to officially enter the USA. But, they let us in, and we make the long drive home.