On September 5th we boarded the Caribbean
Princess at Southampton for our return to New York City. For us, it is a large ship, probably the
largest we’ve been on, our preference being smaller cruise ships. This ship has a gross registered tonnage of
113,561 tons, holding a maximum of 3,573 passengers and 1,227 crew. Its length overall is 946 feet, merely 100
feet shorter than the Chrysler Building in New York City. It went into service in 2004 and it is
showing its age; I understand it is going in for refurbishing this coming
spring. It needs it. Being an old salt, my first order of business
when we got into our room was to inspect the sliding door to our balcony,
knowing that was the only barrier between us and potentially high winds and
pitching seas. Although on the 9th
level, I have seen seas that big in our travels. The door could not be locked. I examined the door hardware and it was
completely corroded. A sliding, unlocked
door in heavy seas is a serious hazard, so I called the desk and to their
credit they promptly sent up an engineer who took the door apart and
replaced the entire mechanism. I just
wondered how the previous guests failed to note that.
Some other negatives was a library which was devoid of
books– and with a full ship and people everywhere –I did my reading in our
cabin without the constant interruptions from the activities director – “the
casino is open!” or “try your luck at bingo!”
But, admittedly, the Princess Cruise line, like many of them, is trying
to appeal to more of a mass market, endeavoring to squeeze every last buck out
of each passenger. The entertainment in
the theatre was pedestrian, although they did have a couple of production shows
which, for a ship, were decent, including one dedicated to classic Broadway
shows. These were high energy and
enjoyable.
But, please, spare us the comedians, the hypnotists, and
the jugglers, etc. We never went to
those. Actually, the best entertainment was
a cocktail timed performance of a violinist and a guitarist who played
classical and Great American songbook pieces in the atrium. But try to find a seat with so many people!
Nonetheless, our choice of making this voyage was
predicated on the itinerary and the timing, not the ship itself, especially
with multiple ports in Norway and Iceland, two of our favorite places visited
in prior trips. So what follows is
primarily a photographic record of our 17 day crossing.
First stop after 229 NM (nautical miles; 1 NM = 1.15
Statute Miles) journey overnight was Rotterdam.
Very little of the old city is left because the Nazis bombed it into
submission in four days in 1940, the Netherlands surrendering after witnessing
the carnage. So the city was rebuilt,
most in a stark modernist and utilitarian style, a city now of contrasts.
Then onto Bergen, Norway, 572 NM. We had booked a side tour by boat of the
fjords but after seeing Alaskan fjords on two different trips, this was a bit
of a disappointment, but still beautiful.
The best part was the city itself and its architecture.
Still, some of the most beautiful photos were ones on the way to the fjords.
After, lunch at seaside, from the sea,
to the table.....
Children on their way to school ...
A short 182 NM trip took us to Flam, the highlight of
which was a trip on the Flam railroad and a brief stop at the Flam Kjosfossen
Waterfall.
Along the route an amusing sign.
Flam is a picture post card town.
Then 100 NM onto Lerwick, in the remote Shetland Islands
of Scotland. The was to be a tender port
and although the ship dropped anchor, due to Gale force winds and heavy swells,
the Captain announced he could not commence tender operations, a great
disappointment, particularly to the Scottish couple we sat with during lunch –
their second such cruise to this destination and neither time could they
disembark because of weather.
Thankfully, my telephoto lens brought some of the countryside into view.
A 686 NM journey over the next few nights brought us to
Akureyri, Iceland. It was FREEZING there. The highlights were the Godafoss Waterfall and their
small but interesting botanical gardens (yes, a botanical garden in Iceland)!
Akureyri to Isafjordur was a 171 NM journey from hell -- a
head sea of up to 27 feet, with a 40 MPH head wind. But well worth those moments of fear, as the
small town of Isafjordur (a year round population of less than the ship’s
passengers!) had some of the most picturesque scenes, captured here:
Another 196 NM to Reykjavik.
We were last there in 2012 and enjoyed the 12 hour
“golden circle” tour and saw that wonderful part of the country.
This time around we wanted to spend some time
in the city itself but again there were near gale winds and it was a raw,
drizzly day, not ideal for walking around.
We did disembark but after ten minutes outside we disappointingly headed
back to the ship.
Also, that evening we
were told that the ship could not leave port because it was pinned to the dock
by wind.
The following day, we needed
the assistance of two tug boats to pull the ship off the dock and turn it
around.
And so began a five day 2,300 NM direct passage to
Boston. It was a relatively benign
journey across the North Atlantic. I
noted that at times the ocean temperature was 41 degrees and at one point we
passed within a couple hundred miles of where the Titanic went down. Not much chance of surviving in such waters,
hypothermia would be only minutes in those waters. Those ocean days were great for reading,
attending some lectures, going to a specialty restaurant aboard, courtesy of
our travel agent, and just staring out at the ocean.
In Boston we spent a wonderful day with our son, Chris,
who took off from work, to walk the Boston seaport with us, have lunch by the
water and just enjoy being together.
At night we passed Nantucket and Block Island where we
used to take our own boat in my salad days and then finally south of Long
Island, into New York Harbor, under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, to our dock
in Brooklyn, the dawn greeting us, the Brooklyn skyline in the foreground. There our son, Jonathan, met us with our car
and we began our drive back to Florida.
I’d recommend a Transatlantic crossing for the
experience, but this one, our fifth, will be our last. Our first was on the original
QE2 in 1977. The ship was built for
speed, for a crossing, no stops, and a throwback to a transportation era now
long gone. In many ways, that was the
most exhilarating crossing, subconsciously experiencing it as a multitude of
prior generations did -- days at sea only, and then arriving at a distant shore.
