Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Sea Days

Cruise Day 6

Thursday, July 27, 2023

For some reason, we were very tired this morning and slept in until after nine.  The weather outside was very foggy and would stay that way all day.  During foggy weather, the ship blows its horn every two minutes to warn other ships in the area that we are here.  There is a whole procedure that goes on between ships in foggy weather to prevent collisions, and of course now, most ships have radar also.

It stayed foggy almost all day as we sailed towards Greenland.

We ate a late breakfast and spent the rest of the morning reading.  We went to lunch late thinking it wouldn’t be crowded, but we were wrong, it was very crowded.  There was a special station for Mexican food in the Lido Buffet today that we planned to try, but when we arrived, we found a long line waiting to be served so we decided we weren’t that excited to have Mexican food.

After finishing lunch, we made our way to the World Stage for a presentation on the Vikings exploring and settling in Greenland.  We arrived just before it started and found almost every seat taken and had to sit way over to the side up in the balcony and could barely see the stage.  The first time we went to one of these lectures there were plenty of empty seats right up until it started, but I guess that’s no longer the case, so we’ll have to get there early in the future.

After the lecture we returned to our room and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.  We did sign up for a ship excursion in Nanortalik, Greenland that was previously unavailable.  The cruise director had mentioned it in his afternoon update, so we quickly booked it, and it was lucky we did as it filled up quickly.  It is called “Among the Icebergs” and, as the title suggests, is a boat ride out in the icebergs.

We had dinner and visited the casino as usual and once again got back to our room near eleven despite the fact that the Rolling Stone Lounge was dark tonight.  I know this doesn’t seem too late, but normally on board we like to be back in our room before ten, so we have time to relax and wind down before we go to bed otherwise we end up sleeping too late in the morning.

Cruise Day 7

Friday, July 28, 2023

When we woke up today, the fog was gone, but it was raining with heavy winds and large swells.  This has been a very calm cruise so far, but the ship is really rocking and rolling this morning, and it is also very cold.  It was so windy we could barely get our balcony door open and in fact, I actually thought something was wrong with the door until Val told me to push harder.  Luckily for us with all this added ship motion, neither Val nor I get seasick so we kind enjoy the increased ship motion particularly if it’s at night when we are in bed. it sort of lulls you to sleep.

Today was a pretty slow and relaxing day.  We had our usual breakfast in the Neptune Lounge and spent the rest of the morning relaxing.  Yesterday, the Lido Buffet was very crowded at lunch which was surprising.  We usually don’t go to lunch until after 1:00 PM when it is usually less crowded, but the doesn’t seem to be the case on this cruise.  Today we decided to go a little earlier and went to lunch at 12:30.  It was a little less crowded, but that might have been because some people are feeling a little seasick from the rough seas.  It was also very cold in the Lido as wind kept blowing in through the doors to the outer deck.

After lunch we headed to the World Stage for another lecture about Greenland.  This time it was about Nanortalik where we will be in a couple of days.  It was an interesting lecture and we have been enjoying these lecturers.  The lecturers are Tim and Daphne Terrell who, as you might guess, are a husband and wife team.

The World Stage is on one of the lower decks, and while we on our way to the lecture we noticed that the swells were much larger than how they looked from our balcony.  After the lecture I decided to get my camera and go out on the promenade deck, but unfortunately when I got there the outside doors were all closed off and passengers were not allowed outside due to the high seas and winds.  I did get some pictures of the high waves from a window looking out, but it wasn’t the same thing.  Val took a movie with her cell phone that I added below.

The rest of our day was spent relaxing until it was time for dinner.  The only thing I accomplished today was updating the blog.  It was dinner and the casino as usual, but I will say one thing about dinner, so far on this cruise the food has been very good.  On our Grand Africa cruise, the food quality was inconsistent with a very good dinner followed by a not so good one, but we have had consistently good food on this one.  Tomorrow we’ll be arriving in Greenland, and we're looking forward to that.

Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada

Cruise Day 5

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

We woke up to gray skies and the prediction was for thunderstorms later in the day.  This is another port we visited in 2016 and here is the link to that blog post.  We didn’t have anything planned for our day in Corner Brook, so we had a leisurely morning until we decided to go ashore around ten and explore the town.

We had to sail into a long inlet to get to Corner Brook.

We got off the ship to a welcome sign and music being played to entertain us.

We got off the ship and got in line for the provided shuttle into town.  The line was quite long, but once the bus arrived it moved quickly.  We were dropped off in the center of town at the town square across from city hall.  There were some vendors selling their wares in the square, so we wandered around there checking out the various booths.  There was also a local musician playing music, so we listened to him for a while.

The shuttle dropped us right in the center of town next to city hall, the library and museum.

There was also a craft fair going on.

We walked around town, but there wasn’t too much to see so we returned to the square and visited the local museum.  We spent quite a bit of time going through the museum and found it very interesting.  The early settlers here had to be very hardy as it was a very harsh environment.

The museum, the town library and the city hall are all connected, and we had been told that there was a good view of the town from the top of city hall, so we went looking for that.  We found the elevator with some help from a very friendly employee and went up to the roof.  Much to our surprise we found a rooftop garden with benches and seats where you could enjoy the views in a peaceful environment.  While we were there, we felt some rain drops and decided it was time to get back to the ship.

They must have been expecting us.

 

 

 

The roof of City Hall.

The view from the City Hall rooftop garden.

The City Hall rooftop garden.

 

 

 

Sure enough, as we went outside, we started to see lightning and hear large peals of thunder.  We had our rain jackets with us, but the rain was just a sprinkle, so we didn’t get them out.  It looked like everyone had the same idea as there was a long line waiting for the shuttle back to the ship and we missed the first one, but it was followed by a second and we got on and were on our way.

It was a short drive to the ship and the rain was still light, so we checked out some of the vendors around the pier.  As I do in most places we visit, I found a t-shirt I liked and bought it, but other than that we didn’t find anything of interest.

By the time we got back on the ship the rain had started to come down heavier and we were treated to quite a lightning and thunder show from our balcony.  We headed off to lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading.  I downloaded all of our pictures for the last few days, got caught up on the blog, and backed everything up.

Corner Brook is situated inland at the end of a long inlet that was somewhat like a fjord.  We sailed out of Corner Brook around 5:00 PM and enjoyed the scenery as we made our way back out to the Atlantic Ocean.  It would have been quite spectacular if the sun had been out, but the views were still very nice.

We sail away from Corner Brook.  The smoke is coming from a wood pulp mill.

It is 22 miles from Corner Brook to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and open waters.

 

Our last look at Corner Brook.

We had dinner and spent another late night in the casino before returning to our room.  On this ship (the Zuiderdam) there is something called the Music Walk that starts with classical music in the Explorer’s Lounge, then a blues and rock and roll venue called the Rolling Stone Lounge and finally, next to the casino, there was an area called Billboard Onboard.  We really like the Rolling Stones Lounge as they have a good band playing good music, but while we are in the casino all we can hear is Billboard Live that is essentially two guys playing and singing at two pianos playing popular music from various eras.  That might have been alright, but in our opinion, neither of them can sing very well and the music is a little loud and grating while we are in the casino.  It seems to be a popular spot though and others like it so to each their own, but even though they are playing songs we like, they just don’t sound very good to us, so we spend our music listening time at the Rolling Stone Lounge, but we can’t help but listen the Billboard Onboard while we are gambling.

We were originally scheduled to be in Red Bay, Labrador tomorrow, but due to a problem with the certification of the tender dock, we will be skipping Red Bay and tomorrow will be the first of two sea days before we reach Greenland.  We have another time change tonight as we move the clocks ahead a half hour to get us on Greenland Time.