Heading Home

Good-bye to our nice neighborhood! Up and out with our Uber to take us to the airport. We had uneventful flights to Denver together and then on to our perspective homes. It was a great trip. My desires to see Greenland have been met!

Boston, Massachusetts

Today we have our "North End Politically Incorrect Food Tour." We got an Uber to take us from South Boston to North Boston. The tour started at the library. There was an interesting mosaic in front of the library, reminded us of Muro a bit. Our guide did not arrive. Several of us were waiting. I finally texted the guide and he said the tour would start at 12, not 11 as previously stated. Stuart and I decided we would walk to a nearby coffee shop to wait. I did not have time for coffee earlier. After coffee and further waiting, the guide Anthony (Flash) showed up. What a surly guy! There was a bit of concern on my part about the tour but it ended up actually being very good. The different foods we had were amazing. Anthony did tell us a lot of old stories about the mob, FBI, different families, and much more. We were stuffed by the end of the tour and headed back to our Airbnb to pack for our departure tomorrow. We saved a half sandwich to eat later in the evening. We played games and went to bed. 

Disembark, Boston, Massachusetts

We were up and out of our cabin by 7:45a. We went to the Windjammer where they were serving breakfast until 8:30a. I had a few bites to take pills with. Stuart had most of an omelet that looked pretty good. They did have an omelet station. Disembarking went very smooth and fairly fast. At last something was well organized! We were off and awaiting our Uber even before our allotted time. It was a quick drive to the Airbnb. However, we cannot check in until 1p. The hosts gave us information about the area. We decided to walk to Deja Brew for coffee and waiting. At least it is not raining! The sandwiches look good so we split one. I ate mine but Stuart wasn’t very hungry after the omelet. We got on our laptops to kill the time and catch up on things.

After Deja Brew we walked back to the Airbnb and entered. We had self-check in. It is small but nice. The bed is comfortable and we have everything we need. We did have a brief rest after unpacking just a few things. We got ready and called an Uber to take us to the Union Oyster House for dinner. We were very excited to eat at this iconic restaurant. John F. Kennedy ate here, it was one of this favorite places to eat. We were sadly disappointed. Service was slow and confusing since they brought appetizers along with the dinner. We did have a cup of clam chowder first, but it was barely warm. The Boston Baked Beans were actually room temperature at best. None of the food was hot. At least Stuart's oysters were cold like they were supposed to be. Overall, it was very disappointing. After dinner we walked around a little bit but it was cold and not much going on around us that we were interested in. Besides it has been a long day and we are tired. Uber back to the Airbnb. We hope our tour tomorrow is more successful!

 

At Sea

Our last day is here. We packed, had special coffee, went to the casino, dinner in Tides, drinks, and then off to bed. We need to be up at 7a and out of our cabin by 8a. Pretty challenging because we have been staying up late and sleeping in every day!

Post Script: I found so many things on this ship to be unorganized. Our cabin was fine, now one has cabin service only once a day on Royal Caribbean, which is fine. I will say, our bathroom towels are so thin and frayed, one needs both your small bath towel and hand towel to dry if you wash your hair! There are some stains on our cabin carpeting, but nothing too bad. Some areas seem quite clean, others are not. The Lido deck is downright dirty at times. Our shoes were sticking to the floor where a drink had been spilled… we thought to check back to see if it was mopped up? Three days later, still counting (never mopped up). Some of the public area bathrooms have overflowing trash. Even if the ship is older and a bit worn, they could keep it clean. The lines to get on and off the ship are ridiculous, even in docked ports. Very poor organization and they don’t seem to change it. Finally in the last port, St. John, they figured out one line getting on, one line getting off. Food has been mediocre for the most part. I have had a few tasty dishes; Tikka Marsala has been a hit both with chicken and fish. Some of the sauces are flavorful but with so many things there is no depth of flavor, just bland.

In the Windjammer buffet, 90% of the staff looks miserable. No smiles, though they occasionally stop to wait on you for a drink or something. Most times we went to get our drinks from the bar for ourselves. 

Diamond status doesn’t mean much anymore. I do get the 4 free drinks a day, plus a specialty coffee but one gets that anyway with the deluxe drink package. Diamond is no longer included in the special room from 5-8p for drinks. 

At Sea

Highlight of the day was dinner at Giovanni’s. It was delicious. The photos explain more than I can say. Stuart and I agree that the filet here was better than Chops Steakhouse. We indulged in another bottle of Belle Glos with our meal. Games and some chatting with some cruise friends Miles and Alex was part of our day. We went to the casino for some play time.

St. John, Newfoundland, Canada

St. John, Newfoundland, Canada. It is a very rainy day but we ventured out to Quidi Vidi Brewery. This was a fun place and the food was pretty good. Stuart scoffed at the idea my beer was actually brewed with 20,000 glacier water. I want to believe it really was! In addition, we had a beer flight that was pretty tasty. Uber back to the ship to dry out. We played games until dinner. We were supposed to go to Giovanni’s but neither of us are very hungry so we postponed that until tomorrow. We opted for appetizers in the dining room. Tonight she show is Alley Cats. An acapella group that was really very good at the singing, not so much at the humor they tried to interject into the show. Looking forward to a sea day tomorrow!

At Sea

What a drippy, cold day we woke up to! It is raining with a bitter wind. I think this will follow us tomorrow to St. John, Newfoundland. It is in the mid 70’s by afternoon here today but will drop to the mid 50’s tomorrow. I guess we will need to go home to get warm! Today I have a manicure. Stuart spent the morning outlining some talks for futures speaking engagements. The manicure was very nice and after that Stuart and I went to Izumi for an ala carte lunch. It was delicious. The food is served hot and the flavors are tantalizing. After lunch we went to the crew talent show. It is good that someone wants to get up and sing and do other things because there were at least, some entertaining moments. After that it was Phase 10 until we took a break from that, had a café latte with Kahlua and spent time on the computers until dinner. Stuart enjoyed the Hot and Sour soup and I liked the sweet and sour pork the most. There were some entertaining moments in the Centrum, then off to bed. 

At Sea

We are sleeping in everyday because we subject ourselves to cold late nights stay up so late to see Northern Lights. We had lunch and then back to the cabin to update things on our computers and Stuart did a little laundry. He took care of the new forms we need for our stop in Canada. He does so much of the paperwork, I am really getting spoiled and grateful for his assistance.

For dinner we went to the dining room. We mostly try to look at the menu ahead of time so we can decide where we might want to eat. Tonight, we both had the lasagna. While loaded with meat, barely warm, and it had very little flavor. The arancini was barely warm and lacked flavor as well. The best thing about the meal was the minestrone soup and of course, the Belle Glos wine. I did get a decent discount with 20% off having the Deluxe Beverage Package and another 20% off at Diamond level on RCCL. We went to the Schooner Bar but again that loud, obnoxious guy was there so we didn’t stay. They were having 70’s music in the Centrum on deck 4. Since the atrium is open on several decks, we went up to Vintages on deck 6 and played Rummikub and enjoyed the music from there. After finishing the Belle Glos we had an espresso martini. The music stopped and we decided to skip the try at Northern Lights and it was off to bed for us.

Nuuk, Greenland

We were excited about this port stop in Nuuk because we will not be tendered but docked. The lines getting on and off the ship when tendered are grueling. We got all dressed and ready making our way to Windjammer for a bite to eat. We were not sure what we would find in the town. It was time now to inquire about the shuttle into town. I chose not to walk because it is a 30 minute (probably 45 for me), uphill walk into the town. The ship does not have a complementary shuttle, they charge $19.99 for the shuttle. Have I said I am not impressed with RCCL so far this trip? Ok, so let’s get a shuttle ticket, because one must have it before getting off the ship. While in process for this we noticed the extremely long line getting back on the ship. We watched that for a while and it barely moved. Maybe it was a fluke, we will observe for a while and decide what to do. Needless to say, it was not a fluke. Seems they would let about 20 people get on then stop the line and wait a while for the next batch. We collectively decided we enjoyed Qaqortoq enough yesterday and we are not getting off. I am glad we decided that. I asked fellow passengers what was in town and they said, “not much but a couple of souvenir shops” so I think we made a wise decision. 

We enjoyed playing Rummikub until dinner time. There was a beautiful sunset at dinner. After dinner it was Schooner bar and Emma singing. When the obnoxious man came in about 10:45p we left for Vortex and the Northern Lights party. Not sure what that was supposed to be but it was just the DJ and dancing, which was fine. When we left there, we were going to take a quick look for the Northern Lights. As we did, someone said hurry to the aft as they are out. We rushed there, but to no avail. We missed them. We found a somewhat sheltered place to stand and waited 20-30 minutes. Since we weren’t dressed for this, we couldn’t last any longer. Off to bed. Not sure I will ever get to see this phenomenon!

At Sea

Today we are at sea for a much-needed rest! We slept in and then did various things to catch up on our computers, house work, games, etc. There were many nice views of icebergs. We really looked forward to dinner with BBQ pork ribs… BUT when we went to dinner, we were told they did not have them. I was a lot more disappointed than Stuart. All I ate today was a piece of cold pizza for breakfast, ugh. I had eggplant parmesan and a side of spaghetti marinara. Stuart had just the spaghetti. It was disappointing. Oh well, we certainly won’t go hungry! After dinner we went to the show which was Kuba. He played 2 rare instruments, but honestly the one we heard was like a xylophone. We didn’t stay for the second one. Instead, we went to the casino. Despite the fact that they allow smoking in there, it wasn’t too bad. We played for quite a while. I lost my allotted funds but Stuart broke even. We were doing pretty well until that last dealer came and he broke the bank. However, it was fun! Off to hopefully see the Northern Lights. Maybe a tiny glimpse but I can’t be certain until I can magnify the photos. 

Qaqortoq, Greenland

Today we have a tour called Town Walk with a local Chef. The line for the tender was huge once again. Finally, they called everyone with an excursion to come to the head of the line. If not for that, it would have taken over an hour in line just to get to the tender. Anyway, we made it. While our guide was a very nice young man, he was not a local chef as indicated on the tour discreption. 

He did give us a lot of information about living here in Greenland and the use of various plants to eat, not just as greens, but to make jam and even pesto! Angelica is a weed looking plant brought here by the Vikings to make these delights. We had the opportunity to taste both the jam and pesto at the small meal that followed the walk, and both were impressively tasty! The lunch was pretty small but it was a lovely presentation. Stuart’s favorite was the Caribou (reindeer). It had a good flavor and looked a bit like steak medallions, just a tiny bit chewy. The greens were my favorite, we both liked the beer. I skipped eating the whale blubber (salsa?) and the melted blubber like oil was not to my liking. I guess one has to grow up with these flavors to appreciate them! It was a walk on our own and a short wait in line for the tender back to port. They truly need better organization on their tender stops. I am glad we will be docked in Nuuk!

 

Angelica: Angelica is an ancient cultivated plant in Greenland. After the ice age it spread in Europe, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. The Norsemen and Vikings knew and used the plant and they brought it with them when they went to Greenland, where it became a vital source of vitamin C which prevents scurvy and other ailments in people as well as animals. According to tradition angelica was given to man by an angel – the archangel Gabriel himself, who reputedly planted it with his own hands and used it as a weapon against plague. This is why the plant’s Latin name is angelica archangelica.

About the greens: They have an experimental trial location by the sheep farming area because it is warmer there. They grew all the greens we ate today; lettuce, cabbage, arugula, and another green I did not recognize, along with red onion, cucumber, and tomatoes. In Nuuk, where we will be tomorrow, they have experimental trials going on there is shipping containers which they fill with soil, sprinkling systems, and the hydropower to operate them. Our guide was unsure of the results. I plan to look into that and read about it later. Here is the website: https://www.norden.org/en/nominee/greenlandic-greenhouse-greenland

Once back to the ship we peeled off our extra layers and went to the Vintage Bar to play Phase 10 and have a drink. We are very tired this evening. There is a show that sounds good but honestly, we are just too tired. Stuart took 2 drinks back to the cabin for us and I went up to Windjammer café and got us a tiny cheese plate. They do have a few different and tasty cheeses on this cruise most days. We decided an early bedtime was in order. Stuart was not hungry but I decided I needed just a bit more and ordered a room service pizza, he did have on piece of that. Then off to bed, the cold weather and my aching legs put me to sleep quite quickly.

Nanortalik, Greenland

Since there isn’t much to see or do in port, we decided to take the tender later after the tender tickets stopped. Like so many things on this ship, there seems to be such poor planning. Yes, they stopped issuing tickets but the lines were huge. We waited over 30 minutes for the 6-minute tender ride into town. Such poor organization! Anyway, we finally got there and enjoyed a walk around the area. Even WhatsInPort had it wrong – there was no tourist office set up at the pier and no maps of the small area. That would have been nice since the ship didn’t have any maps either. We had a brisk walk around with a constant, light sprinkle of rain. It really wasn’t bad and we were comfortably warm as we are dressed in 32˚ Heat clothing. The one café I read about was closed. I did manage to find a postcard at a souvenir shop, and a stamp at the little grocery store, so a postcard is on its way to Sierra! After walking all around we headed back to the tender spot, only to wait in line once again. But we got back safe and sound without waiting too long. We freshened up and went for a bite of lunch at the Windjammer Buffet, the played cards and games. After that it was back to the cabin to catch up on some computer photos and blog. 

There are certainly some beautiful icebergs here! The fog goes in and out rapidly so getting photos can be a bit of a challenge. Dinner was ok in the Tides Dining room. I couldn’t even eat one third of my prime rib, my baked potato was barely warm. Stuart’s Osso Buco was okay, he wasn’t very hungry and it was dry. The food is not a special perk on this ship. I will say the wait staff is warm, friendly, and for the most part pretty fast. There was a beautiful sunset but the windows are so clouded and spotty (understandably so) that the photo is not great. We dropped into the Safari Lounge and listened to the Wave Benders for a while, they were good. Then up to the Vortex to see what is going on up there. Stuart had this Rusty Nail drink with Johnnie Walker Black, which smells and tastes a bit smokey. On to bed since we have a port stop tomorrow and a tour! Looking forward to that.

At Sea

We had a nice day at sea playing games and enjoying different views from the decks. For dinner we decided to go back to Izumi for an ala carte dinner. It ended up costing less than one regular priced menu! I wasn’t very hungry today since I overate yesterday. I had a delicious soup with shrimp/pork wantons in it. Stuart had the Izumi Ryu Futomaki Roll. After dinner we went to listen to Emma sing. However, some guy has become her groupie and talks and talks between songs. It gets old fast. We saw that Vortex Bar was playing Abba Music so we left Schooner’s and went up there. It is a DJ but loved the music and they have a very entertaining bar tender named Feri (he says call him Freddie). We left just before closing to get some sleep for Nanortalik tomorrow! Excited to finally set foot on Greenland!

At Sea

We played games most of the day. There was a memorial for 9-11. Stuart was contacted by a friend from high school, tell him that another friend was on this cruise. Stuart talked with the woman Robin and husband Paul and we met them for dinner at Chops Grille. It was an enjoyable evening. We didn't get together with them again but we did see them around the ship. 

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada today. Sadly, we did not get off. I awoke with my back hurting. I have been to Halifax before, but Stuart hasn't. He didn't care to get off either. We finally left the cabin for lunch and then played Phase 10 until almost 4p. It is raining outside, they said there would be thunder storms but we don't hear that happening. Now it is back to the cabin to each do a few things on the computer and we will head out for dinner about 7:30 or 8p in hopes of avoiding the chaos. First we stopped for a drink before dinner and then on to Tides Restaurant. Our timing more or less worked because the lines were much shorter at 8p. It was Mexican night and pretty tasty. After that we went to Schooner’s Bar and listened to Emma again, then off to bed.

Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

Today we are in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. We had a lovely day walking around and had some delicious fish and chips at the Governors Pub and Eatery. We sat outside with a nice view of the water before us. It is high 60's but when the wind picked up, it was pretty cool. When the sun came out from behind the clouds it was very comfortable. It is a nice port with shops and many things to look at. Sail Away is 4:30p so it was back onboard and playing Phase 10 before getting ready for dinner tonight. 

We thought that avoiding the MDR (main dining room) until day 3 would be helpful in avoiding the chaos that usually happens the first couple of days. Not so much! There were 2 long lines. One for seating for 2 and one for larger groups. If you have a reservation, it doesn't matter since you have to stand in the very same line as everyone else. It makes no sense. Several things on this ship could use a bit of organization!

After dinner we went to the show. It was a production show called City of Dreams. It was very good with excellent singing and dancing from the entertainers. We followed the show by going to the Schooner Bar to listen to Emma again. We stayed up just past midnight... the thought was to get up at a decent hour for Halifax but we will see. 

No photos as the internet is too slow to post them. 

At Sea

Our first full day, it is a sea day. Certainly, time to relax, sleep in, and get our bearings. Stuart got up before me and ate a small breakfast. The seas were a bit rough, rolling mostly. I was not feeling great at first but I took some Dramamine and got better pretty quickly. By the time I was ready it was time for lunch. We had a couple small pieces of pizza from the Solarium Cafe. It is a tiny cafe with just a few things besides pizza. They have the makings for a roast beef sandwich today, a small salad bar, some fresh fruit, and a dessert display. We found a place to sit and eat that, then we went on to walk around the ship a little bit and see the shops and a few other things. After that we found a table and we played Phase 10 until dinner time. 

Sadly, there was a medical emergency and we headed to Halifax for the acute passenger to be taken to a hospital. WE didn't dock but they sent out a boat to remove the ill person. It does not change our times at all. I guess the captain can adjust a little bit. 

We just ate in the Windjammer Buffet for dinner. It depends on what you choose if you enjoy dinner or not. Some of the food is not hot enough in my opinion. It was French Bistro night, but there weren't too many French selections. Anyway, we had plenty to eat. After that we headed to the show, which was a Beatles tribute band of sorts. It was pretty good and we enjoyed that. We went to the early show, so now we were in search of a venue to listen to some easy listening music. We wandered to the Schooner Bar and we did have a surprise! There we found Emma and Zack (now called Rose) at the piano. It was great to see them and they played Africa for us. They were playing 2 pianos at the Billboard Onboard when we were in the Zuiderdam. It wasn't quite the same as Emma is playing and Rose just sits there. I'm not sure what that's about. Off to bed. We want to get up at a decent time to enjoy Sydney tomorrow. 

Let's Get Onboard!

Before leaving for the ship we walked across to the bowling alley again for DW Brewpub. We had wings that weren’t very good. On our way to the port, we saw a lot of people enjoying the beach and many sail boats. It was a pretty quick ride to the cruise port but oh brother, what a LONG line! The ship had their annual Coast Guard inspection and therefore, things got going late. It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to check in and get to our cabin! No welcome champagne, and I will say the dock workers were not very friendly. They kept screaming “keep moving” which of course we were doing. I suppose they were frustrated about the delays as well.

Once we dropped things at our cabin, we walked around the ship to see where things were located. They had a lively Sail Away party, which a few people participated in, we watched and had a beverage, and received our free beverage package cup. We were surprised to see the Holland America Zuiderdam in port. That was the ship we spent 73 days on circumnavigating Africa last year, we watched her sail away. After that it was back to the cabin to unpack and get ready for our specialty dinner at Izumi. 

This Izumi Restaurant did not disappoint. It is nice to be able to avoid the main dinning room on the first day or two, until things settle in and crowds dwindle. 

Getting to Boston

We arrived in Boston with no delays. It took some time to get to the hotel because it was a bit after 4p and it was rush hour traffic. After settling in we walked across the parking lot where there was a bowling alley. There was a restaurant in the bowling alley called DW Brewpub where we split a tasty burger and a huge number of fries we could not finish. Back to bed. Stuart paid for a late departure so we don’t have to get up too early.