Wine Menu From Medallion App March 2023

This is the Wine menu you can order from with room service from Sapphire Princess 2023.

Preparing to Travel

 

As excited as I am to be cruising again.  Cruising during Covid does take a bit more planning.

I am sailing as enrichment lecturer on a 16 night Canada Greenland Cruise.  

Last week we received notification from Princess that due to the length of the cruise everyone would require a booster dose of the vaccine. So now you need the initial Covid two dose (or one J and J) and one booster. 

This was provided two weeks prior to departure.  Now both of us have our first booster.  So we are good, but others who may of not gotten the booster would have to hurry and get it.  The 2nd booster has just come available to my age group recently in Nova Scotia.  But they are also asking us to wait until the Fall to get the 2nd booster for better protection.  So we are waiting for the 2nd shot till then.

We have scheduled our Covid test.  Thankfully getting tests for travel is much easier and much less expensive than when we did our travels in the Fall where the prices were crazy and slow.  

Now we are doing a test through On-Point Testing at a prices of $16.99 each.  We can do it from our home via Zoom.  We did similar in April and took no time and much cheaper. If you are not from the US, take note they require a US address to put in your booking but they told me just to put any address in the US, so we used the hotel address we are staying at.

We decided to drive down.  Airfares just kept getting higher and higher and higher.  $900 each to fly to New York!  Are you kidding me.  Plus who wants to risk their luggage not arriving before a cruise.  And since we can drive (takes about 14 hours) we will.  Plus add on baggage fees, night accommodation in New York, transfer to hotel, transfer to ship, transfer to airport after cruise.  Well it ended up being cheaper to drive.  Plus this give me an excuse to shop on the way back!

Actually we are trying out the NS Cat ferry that runs between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor.  Will save us 6 hrs of driving each way and 2 tanks of gas.   And it will be much more enjoyable sitting on a ferry for 3.5 hours than driving for twice that.  It isn't cheap but they had some specials and we jumped on it.

We will overnight and then travel the rest of the way to Red Hook, Brooklyn pier the next day.  Unfortunately we are going to have to park at the pier.  It is pricey but very convenient and we don't have any other option.  But still cheaper than flying!

We have the ArriveCan App already installed on our devices with all our vaccine information already in it.  All we have to do is update it prior to boarding with the health questionnaire.  

Take note that with the ArriveCan app no one really physically checks it.  It is connected to your passport and border patrol know who has done the app and who hasn't.  I say this because once we were reentering Canada and the agent didn't even ask to see the QR Code we got from the App.  I asked and he said no need I can see here from your passport on the screen you did the app.

So now I need to go and do another run thru on a few of the presentations.  Yes I keep procrastinating.  

Thanks for following! 

The Lotus Spa Services

Here are the scanned Lotus Spa Services menu with description and costs from the Royal Princess February 2016

Web Links for Mediterranean

We are heading out soon for our big Mediterranean adventure.  

I will be blogging as often as I can and I like to provide detailed information for others in case they are interested in visiting or doing a similar tour or using similar transportation/guide.

Since I need to ration web time, I write my blogs off line and then copy and paste it to a new blog and then just upload it.  This takes minimal time.

Since with many tours/sites I like to provide a web address for others via a link in that blog and since that requires even more web time to go to the site and then copy/paste that link, I am preparing this blog.

Here I will list all the ports where we have planned something with links to the company's website or pertinent information.  I will then be able to just use a link to this blog on each port day blog easily without using much web minutes.

Hope you understand, not sure I even understand.  

Rome:
Accommodations are at the Green Apartments
Car service from airport is Civitavecchia Cab Services 
Vatican St. Peter's Tomb Booking site
Colosseum Upper and Lower Tour booked thru Ticket Italy Site
Vatican Night Tour Site
Cooking Class Site - Cooking Class In Rome with Chef Andrea
Train from Rome to Civitavecchia - Italia Rail

Great information for getting around Rome and the Port - Ron in Rome

Livorno:
Train to Lucca with  Italia Rail
Transportation with Tau Touring
Accademia Tickets

Ponta Delgada, Azores:
Festi Tours

Kusadasi:
VIP Ephesus Tours Link

Venice:
Bar and Nibbles Tour with Allesandro link
Dodge's Palace Secret Itineraries Tour link


Rick Steve's Guides 

Dominica February 3, 2015

Can you believe it is already February 3^rd?  We still have two weeks to go on this vacation and we are loving it.

We are to dock early at 7 am so the alarm goes off at 6:30 and we dress and head up to the Horizon Court for some breakfast.  The place is busy with people getting some food to start out their day.

Back down in the cabin we are getting ready for our day.  Today we are getting the chance to go to the Kalinago Territory to the Barana Aute (Village by the Sea).  The Kalinago is the original name of the Caribe Indian Tribe, but they go by their original name not the name that was given to them by the settlers. 

We booked an excursion thru Antours again.  We have used them many times and Anison the owner is always very helpful and professional.  He had arranged for transportation to the Village for $45 per person for the seven of us.  We would have to pay our own entry into the Cultural Center though.  To read about past trips with Antours click here.  

But as we are getting ready I notice we are at the pier but the boat is still swaying and I can feel the thrusters kicking in.  Bing bing bing and the Captain comes in over the PA in the cabins to announce that sadly the port is going to have to be cancelled.

The reason is the ship is very long and the wake is pushing the ship to and from the pier and the ship even when tied up is moving up to a meter away from the pier at one end and then crashing back into the dock.  I head down to deck 7 to take a look, and oh my.  I have never seen this before.

The Captain said it would be way too dangerous to put the gangway out.  If the gangway was out and the ship moved back the whole gangway could fall and that would be tragic.  Not to mention the damage that ship and pier would take by this too.  Here is some video of what was happening.

Okay change of plans, we put on our swimsuits and head out to the top deck for some sun.  The place is busy but we don’t have too much trouble getting some lounge chairs.  But after a few hours the sun is so intense and the place is crowded that we head in.

We are definitely feeling the crowds… you see when a ship is on a scheduled sea day people sleep in, they make plans, they are have a routine.  But when a forced sea day is put upon us we have to regroup and people are not sure what to do.  I am surprised at how many are angry that the port was missed. 

Bernie suggests a pizza from Alfredos and I agree, what a great idea.  Daniel our server works in Alfredos during the day so we sit in his section.  He recommends a pizza for us and we agree.  It was great too.

The new Patter has come out and Lisa and her cruise staff have done an amazing job filling it with new activities. But both of us decide to head back to the cabin to watch a movie.