Escape to the Great White North - Day 8

Reporting on route to home, I-78 New Jersey

Well, the storm raged on last night. We attempted to go to sleep early, but all the clanging of the balcony furniture made it very difficult. Here's a pic of said furniture this morning.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…

Fortunately, Mindy remembered that our travel jackets came with little ear plugs. We popped those in, and all was right with the world.

This resulted in us getting up very early--we were packed and down at the buffet by 6:30 or so. According to the disembarkation schedule, the group that was taking their own luggage off the boat (including us) would be able to do so starting around 8:15. So we decided to kill some time by walking around the decks-- not so fast! They had already blockaded the stairs on the floors that are used to disembark, which is basically where you'd want to walk. We also saw that the line was already getting pretty long--keep in mind this is still an hour and a half before we're supposed to be able to leave.

So we made our way back to the room, double checked everything, and headed out. It's a little complicated handling multiple rolling bags down narrow corridors, but we made it. We had planned to simply walk those bags down one flight of stairs, but again they were already blocked off. Over to the elevator, where we ended up having to go up to 16 (where everybody was heading for the buffet) and then back down to 7.

So we worked our way over to the back of the line where there were probably 100 or more people already there, with their many bags.  At that point, we started to check our phones, since we now had access again. But less than 10 minutes later, the line was moving and within 10 minutes we were off the boat. This was still 45 minutes or so earlier than we thought. The customs process was perfunctory at best--just a facial recognition screen and off you go.  We managed to find our way to the elevators to get to the parking deck--perhaps the cruise industry could invest in this newfangled technology called signage.

By 8:00, New York City was in our rear view mirror, and we were on our way. The trip across NJ and PA was uneventful, except for a family issue that forced us to be less leisurely.

I got your fall foliage RIGHT HERE!

And that's about it. We REALLY enjoyed the cruise. The service was exemplary, the food delicious, the ports of call very interesting--and we got some time without the internet.  I even read a book (on my phone, but baby steps).  There's things I want to change about my everyday life going forward, and we WILL cruise again—even considering the bout of COVID we experienced afterward (we’re much better now, thank you).

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

Escape to the Great White North - Day 7

Reporting from LAT 42.10, LON 67.35--The North Atlantic

We woke up pretty early--somehow skipping the "nightcap" paradoxically resulted in better sleep?  Back to the buffet...

They had a “yogurt bar”, where you could add all sorts of stuff.

Take it easy on that Cool Whip, Uncle Harry! (a reference no one under 55 will get).

Wandering back to the room for a shower, we stopped to get Mindy her "flattened penny". These are the old timey machines where normally you put in two quarters and a penny, and then turn a crank which embosses and design on a now oblong penny. You generally see them in touristy areas today. In this case, you tapped your room ID on it and then cranked. While it accepted her card, no amount of furious cranking generated a penny. So we had to get a technician to come over, who just handed her a penny in the design she wanted.

After a shower, we thought we'd sit out on the balcony but it was very windy out there. Not at all restful. So we went out on the waterfront where things were quite a bit calmer and found some chairs.

After a while, we heard an announcement from the captain that we're rolling into a storm and a gale warning this afternoon. So I doubt we'll be outside after lunch. We're actually okay with that--we've had wonderful weather almost the entire trip (warmer than anticipated), and if you're going to have bad weather, you want it the day you're at sea.

Lunch at Savor/Taste. We had salads--I had taquitos, while Mindy had her favorite, the Monte Cristo sammich. We also had some drinks—I got an Old Fashioned, while Mindy had a glass of wine. The drink package was included, and darn it, we were going to use it!

A view of Savor and/or Taste.

On the way back to our room, we saw packets of sickness bags by the stairs--they clearly think something is coming.

The ship is swaying a bit, but it's nothing like our first cruise, where you could see the horizon going up and down out the window. It's more like being rocked to sleep. The bigger issue is the wind--the dividers on our balcony are shaking like a leaf, and there's a hissing coming from the balcony door, due to pressure differences.

We spent some time packing--as always, we brought way too much stuff. You can choose to leave most of your bags in the hallway the night before disembarking, and they'll whisk them away to a collection area at the dock, but we think it would be far faster if we just roll them out ourselves (famous last words).

Things were still rocking and rolling, so we holed up in our room for awhile, watching random stuff on TV--an episode of Scrubs, Firefly, and a Frank Capra documentary.

Time for dinner, back to Savor/Taste.  Mindy had cheese soup and stuffed pepper, while I had scallops and shrimp fettuccine alfredo--plus dessert.

Onto a stage show--"The Choir of Men"--or at least we thought we were going to see that show. Bad weather and the shaking of the ship canceled it, so they replaced it with I guy who does a comedy juggling act (although I'm not actually sure I'd want to be a juggler when the ship is swaying back and forth). We had actually thought about seeing the juggler earlier in the week but were too tired that night. So it's good news/bad news. The juggler was good, if a little blue for an early show (not that we minded).

We finished off the evening with our first mojito.

I would drink this again.

That'll do it for the final full day of the cruise. Tomorrow--disembarkation and a long drive.

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth