Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

One of the most often asked questions for guests sailing with Princess out of or into New York is "what cruise pier do we go to?"

Not surprising, because your cruise personalizer says Manhattan or Brooklyn.  And it never does identify which one.

I have sailed in or out of here probably 20 times.  EVERY time we are at Brooklyn Cruise Pier.

Even when it was a port stop for the day on trips south or north it was Brooklyn.

Here is a map of the ports location.

Address is 72 Bowne Street, Brooklyn for your GPS.

Once here shuttles to airport are nearby.  Taxis, ride sharing services and personal pickup. Even the port parking is right there.  The ferry to Manhattan is a short walk from the terminal.

I hope you found this useful.  Like and share if you did.

Next Contract - Caribbean Princess

I can formally announce that I will be the Destination Expert onboard the Caribbean Princess for the Canada New England cruises.

From August 4 to October 19.

Also for the amazing Greenland cruise!  

What is great is I have port talks for all our stops but also some interesting enrichment presentations that are reflective of the areas we are visiting.

Care to join us? 

Halifax Sail In

Well I did crash very early!  But at 1 am after 4 hours of sleep the rocking of the ship and all the creaking that comes with it woke me,  yes there is movement.  I have done this itinerary to Halifax numerous times.  Today we are experiencing a bit of weather which makes the sailing a little rough.  Now I say a little rough but I am sure many would it is really rough.  

Drawers would slide open, bathroom door creeks open and slam closed.  Until I am tired of hearing it and get up and close it.  Bu truly the feeling of being rocked to sleep is very comforting to me.  And trust me I have experienced much much worse seas.

So I lay in bed, as Bernie softly snores.  I am jealous of how easy he can sleep through anything.  I read!  Love that I cam read undisturbed on a cruise and I anticipate a few books being read this voyage.

But I put the book away when my eyes start to get heavy.  But!  Do you think my mind would shut off?   Nope.  I am running thru parts of my lectures in my head.  Ideas to add to them enter my thoughts.  No I can't add more, or could I.  I will need to find some wifi to figure some things out but if I can I will.  

I do dose off for a while longer but the next time I open my eyes it is 6 am so I quietly gather a few items, dress and sneak out.

We don't dock until 8 am but I have never been awake for sail in so I thought I would like to get some pictures.

Light rain is falling but the wind on the open decks in the open ocean is brisk!  

I walk thru the World Fresh Marketplace, grab an egg (which sadly was cold) and a roll and a mango fruit smoothie.  I take a seat in the aft area as it is very quiet here and I want to leave the prime seats for the guests.

Once again the crew are so attentive and helpful.  My coffee cup never sees the bottom as it gets constant refills before I can even ask.  I forgot to get ketchup but the lovely waiter says no sit, I will get it for you.  Oh, can I take them home with me.

The sun (I know it is there somewhere) slowly rises.  But rain is in the forecast.  But the earth is happy to get it after such a long period of extreme heat.

Day One - Sea Day

Clocks went forward an hour and we are now on Atlantic time.  It appears many guests are thrown off by this.  Many are up and about and surprised by the time.

We dress and head to the dining room.  We sit with 2 other couples (getting a private table for two is almost impossible)  but we are okay with sharing.  One couple from San Diego, the other from Virginia.  

Breakfast was very good.  I started with the fruit plate then a bowl of rice crispies with banana.  Service was very impressive.  The lady next to me wanted very crispy bacon and when he delivered her plate the waiter was concerned as he knew she wanted crispier bacon.  He ended up coming back with even more bacon to see if this bacon was better, without her even asking for it.  That is great service.

It is cooler, but then again we are out on the Atlantic.  But there is a storm coming and I know Nova Scotia is in need of some raing.

I was outside in my blouse and I was ok when out of the wind.  But someone from somewhere very hot would find it cold.  Had to laugh when I heard someone complain about the cold weather.   We are at sea heading to Greenland.  Not sure what they were expecting.

I will take this time to cover the demographics of this cruise.  Definitely older.  A lot of seasoned cruisers.  However there are a handful of kids, but not many.  A lot of people in their 60s and 70s. and and a lot much older, but young at heart.  I think the disco is going to be quiet this cruise.

After breakfast I head to the cruise critic meet and greet, that was very well attended. We had a large group that chatted on the boards and were quite helpful.  Some officers attended, but not like pre Covid.  I stuck around until they started talking about private excursions, then I left.  Note this is a no no!  Sure you can do private excursions but don't do it in a large setting on board where the ship's crew are around.  

I then went to the theater to see Hutch, our Destination Expert on board, in the theater.  Today's talk is 2 ports, Halifax and Sydney.  A lot to cover in 45 minutes.  He was good but our styles are very very different.  

But of course I think mine are better, but then again I need to toot my own horn.

July Report - Lectures Complete

 

Yes I am giving the thumbs up.  And yes I am wearing a sow-western hat. The definition of a sow-western hat is:   A sou'wester is a waterproof hat that is worn especially by sailors in stormy weather. It has a wide brim at the back to keep your neck dry.

I bought this hat for my Newfounland presentation on board the Caribbean Princess.  I thought why not get in the spirit and throw this on when I talk about Screeching in!  Although since I am not an official Newfoundlander I can't conduct the ceremony.

But the whole reason for this post is to just to up date you all that I have been so busy writing and putting my lectures together for this 16 day cruise to Canada and Greenland.

I have completed 6 lectures:

• Pier 21 - Canada's Ellis Island
• Cape Breton - More Than Just a Big Fiddle
• Halifax Explosion of 1917
• Expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia
• Newfoundland - Living on the Rock
• September 11 - The Day The World Came to Town

In all I would say each lecture takes about 40 hours to write and prepare.  Then it is practice, practice, practice.  Trust me Bernie is tired of hearing them.  But truly he is my biggest supporter and is happy to do it.

Then I have spent the last week staring my South America Lectures.  In total there are 19 different ports.  Meaning 19 lectures.  

Thankfully I have 16 lectures already done, and only 3 to write (San Francisco, Astoria, and Victoria).  All the 16 lectures do need to be updated with new information. Especially since it has been a few years since we have been to South America with Covid and all.  Are sites still open?  What are the policies in each country re Covid?  What are current costs for entry to sites, taxi prices, currency. Then Princess has a new template and all the presentations need to be updated with it.  Easy to do, but I do need to go into each slide and just double check things, making sure fonts, pictures, text sizes etc have been altered with the new template.  In all each lectures is taking around 4 to 5 hours to update.

And a lot of note taking for further research once I board the ship.  Clarify port shuttles (cost or free), docks, Covid protocol, Tender protocol and so much more.  I keep a note book with the port name and then the questions below.  Also when we arrive into each port for the first time I have a lot of checking to do.  Prices for transport, taxis?  Uber?  New and updated pictures of things.  Has protocols changed once ashore?  

In all I love doing it!  Many days I sit at my computer and the hours fly by.  But don't get me wrong, I will procrastinate if I can.  I have a big head start for the Sapphire contract, but still a lot more to do.

I still need to finish off the updating of the lectures.  Write the three new ports.  Prepare my binder with each port and the detailed information for each port.  This binder comes with me when I do desk hours so I can assist guest with their answers.

Oh and I am also tending to my garden that is growing like crazy.  Started preserving yesterday some of the veggies.  

Destination Expert - What Is My Next Step

I get the question all the time.  "What about your destination expert lecturing on cruise ship?'

I usually answer the same way "I don't know".

After a great year last year on Princess in South America.  I was really excited to have four contracts to present my port lectures.  Three with Celebrity and one with Princess.

Of course all of these have been cancelled due to Covid.  

For now I am waiting - along with all of you.

For those of you who know me, you know I am an emotional person.  I take things to heart.  You can usually read me just by looking at my face.  At first when all this Covid went down I was like.  Forget it!  I am not lecturing anymore!  I was hurt, angry, sad, frustrated.  But now I have settled down and realize those emotion are okay.  I miss cruising, I miss people, I miss sharing my information, I miss helping others.  

So I am anxious to get back into lecturing when cruising starts back up.  Heck I am anxious just to get back on a ship!

I am a firm believer in going after what you want in life and also let destiny have it's path too.

So I am enjoying life.  I am enjoying the moment.  But I do have to say that in the past few weeks I have been wanting to start writing some lectures.   I am going to expand my lecture series to include more than just ports.

Since I really love Canadian history and I live in the Maritimes I am going to focus on that.  I am going to write some lectures about life in the Maritimes, the history, the people.

These lectures are meant for Canada/New England Cruises, especially those that leave from Quebec City.

How many of you know about the Halifax Explosion?  Pier 21 the gateway to Canadian Immigration?  Coal Mining a Hard Life?  Expulsion of the Acadians?  Africaville?  Port Royal the first British Settlement in Canada?  

These are just some of the titles I am working on with rough outlines.  I don't really plan on doing too much until the Fall when the weather starts to turn, but I thought you might be interested.