Victoria

 

We entered Canada this morning and were welcomed by an Indigenous Peoples dance, as our ship was the first cruise ship of the year.  I have a short video, but am only posting this picture of it.  The weather was cold and VERY windy.  We docked in a rural area, quite a ways from the city of Victoria.  It was overcast and rainy all morning (as you can see in the picture on the right), but the sun came out in the afternoon.  We walked 100 yards to the visitor center and gift shop, then hustled back to the ship, because it was so cold.  Earlier we had planned to take a 10 minute walk to a pretty park, but that short walk convinced us to skip it. 

We ordered burgers for lunch before I played Goofy Golf (I lost).  We followed that up by sharing a large piece of Black Forest cake as an afternoon snack.  YUM!  

I must admit getting 10 beers (as part of ou Elite package) for a 6 day cruise is a lot. Looks like I'll have 5 left over to donate to the crew. 

Dinner tonight featured Surf and Turf, a filet plus some shrimp.  Yum!  We both had that, but forgot to take a picture so you get pictures of our deserts: Baked Alaska and Apple Pie ala mode.

Tonight's production show was  "Let Me Entertain You". a new show we had not seen before. It had a lot of familiar songs in it, but also a number of unusual ones.  A give-away on the age of the audience was that everyone sang along on "Sweet Caroline"!  

We are all packed up and have set out our suitcases to be picked up.  Tomorrow we catch a Princess shuttle to the airport for our flights home.  Due to the 3 hour time change, this will be a long travel day.  

Astoria

We had a cold and very wet day to visit Astoria, but most of our 4-hour excursion time was spent on the bus which was good. Our excursion headed down the coast to two resort towns, SeaSide and Cannon beach.  So we did not see much of Astoria.  We had a very good tour guide who kept it interesting during the 30 minute bus rides. 

Our first stop was the town of SeaSide, OR. We had 45 minutes to walk around so we headed for the Promenade (a 3 mile along walkway along the beach) and took a few pictures of the very wide beach (see picture on the left).  The sand on the beach was extremely firm so I hardly left a footprint as I walked on it. The beach was so hard that our guide said it was quite safe to drive cars on it!  You can also see the large waves that were crashing onto the beach on the picture on the right.  We then did some shopping before heading back to the bus.  

Next was Cannon Beach, where we had a short stop to take pictures of Haystack Rock, a large volcanic rock that was pushed up from under the earth. It is accompanied by two smaller rocks known locally as the Needles. If you zoom into the picture on then right you can see some very tiny people to show how big this object really is! We then moved into town where we were dropped off for lunch and shopping.  By this time, the rain had pretty much stopped.  Mary and I enjoyed delicious bowls of clam chowder at a local restaurant, followed by a chocolate and marshmallow dessert crepe. The bus ride back to the ship was uneventful. 

Mary had a special treat at dinner this evening!  Floating Islands, her favorite princess dessert was on the menu!

Tomorrow we sail to Victoria.  No special activities planned, but since we are the first cruise ship to visit Canada (Victoria or Vancouver) we are being treated to a special indigenous peoples welcome.

Sea Day #2

 

Last night we were surprised when our cabin steward knocked and presented us with two 10 ounce candy bars!  Earlier in the cruise we received a “how are we doing” survey.  I filled it out and, among other things, mentioned that we missed getting the chocolates on the pillows each evening.  Apparently someone did read my note and responded! 

After breakfast, I tied for first in the Speedy Sudoku contest and won a magnetic wall clip.  Later, I played bridge while Mary went to a talent show presentation by the crew followed by a humorous cooking contest between the head waiter and the head chef.  You can tell is was put-on when the head waiter beat the head chef, as that would never happen in real life.

Easter dinner featured a ham entree, which I had, but with scallops on the menu, Mary could not resist getting that one. They had Chocolate Lovers Delight on the dessert menu, which I enjoyed.   

We are really enjoying our wait staff, as they are taking very good care of us.  As a result, we are eating nearly all our meals in the dining room, breakfast included! That is quite a change from the past where the Horizon Buffett was our main place for our meals. 

Tonight’s show was “Do You Want to Dance” which is one of our favorite shows.  Lots of great songs, accompanied by dance.  That included an Irish dance where the dancers' movements were a bit fast for Mary's camera to catch. 

On to Astoria, with our fairly rough seas and an all-day rain in the forecast.  

San Francisco

We had a very enjoyable day in San Francisco.  The ship docked before 8:00 am and All Aboard was at 5:30 so we had lots of time to see the city. Mary took these pictures of Coit Tower and a pretty sunrise over the Bay Bridge as we pulled into the harbor.  

About 11am we started walking into town, headed toward Pier 39.  After Mary did some shopping, we went to look at the Sea Lions.  They were quite noisy, and Mary got this closeup of 3 them having an intense conversation.  

After leaving Pier 39, we headed to Boudin's for a clam chowder lunch .  It was very tasty, and I enjoyed the bread bowl as well. 

Next up was a visit to Ghirardelli Chocolates for some souvenirs.  

Then it was time to head back to the ship.   It was a fairly long walk, and we ended up walking well over 3 miles today.  My  step counting app registered just over 12,000 steps today.  

Then it was time to grab a beer and head for a hot tub.  Ahhhhh....

Dinner tonight started with chilled Banana Rum soup and featured Prime Rib.  Yum!  After dinner we headed out on deck to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  Many members of the crew were out on desk. We later realized this might be the only time they got a chance to see it.  

Tomorrow is another sea day as we head to Astoria, Oregon.

First Sea Day

 Today was a sea day, as we slowly headed north to San Francisco.  The morning was rather uneventful, as we got up, had breakfast in the dining room, then went to a lecture about San Francisco. I left the lecture early to play Speedy Sudoko, but Mary stayed on to hear it.  

Then things got interesting when before lunch, the captain came over the PA system and said how a crew member was injured and required medical evacuation, and a Coast Guard helicopter was being dispatched from Los Angeles.  I was able to get a spot on deck 18 at the back of the ship to get pictures of the process. On the left is the patient being hoisted, and on the right, the Coast Guard rescue person (a.k.a "swimmer") being lifted back to the helicopter.  It was all very intriguing to watch, as the entire process took about 25 minutes. 

Tonight was Formal Night, and lobster tail was on the menu at dinner.   YUM!  They also had garlic shrimp which we had as an appetizer.   The production show tonight was Bravo, featuring  singers along with dancers.   Another very good Princess production!

Tomorrow we visit San Francisco.  No excursion as we've been here a few times and are planning to walk along the wharf and enjoy lunch at Boudins. 

Sailing out of Los Angeles

 

Today went very well.  Mary caught this picture of the sunrise out of our hotel window.  We could see our ship from the hotel so I took a walk and took this picture of our ship, docked just ahead of the USS Iowa.  It was neat to see the two lined up like that!  

 

We had plenty of time to get ready in the morning, the shuttle driver to the ship was early, and embarkation was super smooth, with no measurable waiting!  We had all our travel documents preloaded so we sailed through the expedited check in and were told we could board the ship!  The whole process, from leaving the hotel to getting into our room, took just 30 minutes.  After that we had lunch, then walked around the ship, watched the safety video, and checked in at our muster location.  The atrium was beautiful as always.  

The sail-away was interesting.  We had to wait for a large container ship to dock across from us before the ship could move.  Then it had to turn around, and talk about tight parking -- the stern of our ship came within 20' of that ship as we swung around!  We then sailed past the USS Iowa as we headed out to sea. 

No food pictures tonight, but we both enjoyed Pina Colada chilled soup, our entrees, and dessert. 

Tomorrow is a sea day so lots of on board ship activities.

Norway Reflections

We did see a sunset on our last night on the ship.   But now we've been back for a few days now, and are getting settled back into normal life... Back to cooking our own meals, making our bed, and missing the mountains.  Speaking of mountains, check out these pictures (which are only a small subset of the ones I took) : https://photos.app.goo.gl/s9eZaQcRFp7PRyMs9  Three of those are Panoramas which I wasn't able to send from the ship, so click the little circle-arrow in the middle of each panorama picture to scroll right and left to view it. You can also zoom in to see more detail.

Overall Mary and I agree this was a fabulous cruise. The ship was great (we loved our convenient cabin location on the pool deck), and the food and service were outstanding.  I was surprised that Princess only offers this itinerary once a year.  They have several others that go as far north as Geiranger, which is one of the more spectacular fjords,  but only once do they go to North Cape.  Some smaller Norwegian lines do sail there throughout the summer. 

More to come when Mary publishes her trip album which will completely cover our trip.  But I wanted to add this post with the links to the Panorama pictures to help you appreciate the beauty of these fjords.  

Cruise Day 14 - Sea Day #4

We had a quiet day, a few games to be played, meals to eat, and, unfortunately, suitcases to pack.  I did win a few medals and some nice Sapphire princess coasters as well, in shipboard activities. Mary was happy to have some sun on our balcony today.  Also, we received our Arctic Circle Crossing certificates.  Very cool and this came as a surprise as we did not expect them. 

We enjoyed Pub Lunch (traditional British pub food) today.  I had Bangers and Mashed while Mary had Fish and Chips.  In the afternoon we passed a large field of oil rigs along with some large windmills (for generating electiicity). This is one example of the many that we spotted.

We will actually have a sunset tonight at 10:25 p.m. with sunrise close to 4:00 am tomorrow. After several days without seeing the sun go down, that will be different.  

I do not expect to blog tomorrow as it will be a very long day with our flight home.  It’s been a great cruise.  I plan to do a retrospective blog on Sunday or Monday with some additional pictures.   Many thanks to Mary for being my blog editor!

Cruise Day 13 - Bergen

Mary and I had an excursion scheduled, but cancelled it and went into town on our own.  This worked out well as we had a very good shopping experience. Click on the picture to enlarge it to see where we shopped.  Pretty cool!  

Bergen is a pretty town and seems to be quite pedestrian-friendly. While our ship docked in a commercial port, a shuttle took us part way to town, and then it was a fairly short walk to go the rest of the way.  Brrygen (the name for “old Bergen”) is a picturesque lineup of quaint shops, including the Schjott store along the old harbor.  Lots of tourist and souvenir stores. 

After we got back and had lunch, there was a Longest Putt contest which I was fortunate to win (I have a total of 4 medals now!).  That was followed by a Fastest golf Play contest where I tied with another guy by making putts in all 7 holes in 1:17.  That contest won a Sapphire Princess coaster for Mary.  

Tonight we enjoyed a Lobster dinner in the dining room. There were no King Prawns  included with the lobster as in previous years, just a lobster tail on a bed of rice.  It was delicious!  And to top it off they had Mary’s favorites Princess dessert - Floating Islands.  YUM!  

A sea day tomorrow as we head back to Southampton for our flight home on Saturday.

Cruise Day 12 - Alesund

We had a morning “City Drive” excursion around Alesund today.   Our first stop was a very nice aquarium. We arrived before it officially opened so we got to see the morning feeding of the seals.  Mary also got a picture of this cute otter posing for her. 

Next we visited an outdoor museum which had a lot of thatched-roof cabins from the past several hundred years.  Some were dated back to the 1600’s.  A nice job was done of showing the progression of house development over the centuries.  It resembled what we see when we visit Greenfield Village (in Dearborn, MI), but with much older buildings. 

We walked around Alesund afterwards. It is very picturesque, having been totally rebuilt with a common building design after the entire downtown burned in 1904.  The city leaders at that time showed a lot of initiative to decide this when rebuilding the city. 

Just as we were getting ready to head to dinner, we had a surprise.  From our balcony I spotted an unusual boat.  It was a fireboat that started pumping streams of water into the air as we left our dock!  That’s a first for us, to experience a sendoff like that.  

Bergen tomorrow, then…..