Cruises have ended….We’re in Boston to see my cousin tonight…

Moonlight on our last night on the Greenland cruise. Thanks, Tom, for the good photo!

At the moment, we are sitting on the sofa in our Embassy Suites Logan Airport hotel. I just made a cup of decaf coffee to enjoy while listening to the Garage Logic podcast on Tom’s laptop with TV news in the background, showing the ravages of  Hurricane Idalia. We’re sad for the people of Florida but glad we got out of there when we did over one month ago, on July 28.

So much has transpired since we left Florida, having had the opportunity to visit Norway and Greenland, two locations we never imagined we’d see when our journey began almost 11 years ago. It is 11:30 am, and we managed to get into our room early due to our Hilton Honors membership and Expedia VIP status.

We each received a certificate like this at the end of the Greenland cruise.

Thank goodness we didn’t have to wait to get the room until the official check-in time of 2:00 pm and had no choice but to wait in the lobby. This is much easier. We’re a little raggedy after a tiring morning disembarking the ship. Our luggage numbers were 22, meaning we couldn’t exit until around 9:30.

We had our last meal on the ship, breakfast at 7:30, grabbed our carry-on luggage from our cabin, and headed to the Sky Lounge on Deck 11 to wait until our number was called. At that point, we had no idea what time we’d be outside to grab a taxi or Uber to Alamo Car Rental at the Logan Airport to pick up the car we rented in order to make our way to Cousin Phyllis today for our 5:00 pm dinner reservation in Stoughton, a 55-minute drive from here.

As we were sailing away from Halifax, Nova Scotia., we spotted this Holland America ship.

Thus, we’ll leave here in about four hours to begin the long trek in rush-hour traffic to meet Phyllis at the restaurant in time for our much-anticipated get-together after almost nine years since we last saw her at the end of another cruise to Boston. It will be wonderful to see her again.

Once outside the cruise terminal, we had a little trouble getting an Uber, but finally, one appeared, and we were on our way to Alamo. I waited with the bags in the rental car parking garage until Tom returned with the papers, and we were assigned a car. Within about 45 minutes, we were on our way to the nearby hotel. Again, check-in went smoothly when I pressed for a room now rather than at 2:00 pm check-in.

Immigrant statue at the port in Halifax.

After getting settled, I decided it was time to prepare a post when we could not do so yesterday. I had blamed it on the ship’s WiFi, but this morning, I got an email from our hosting company, Hostinger, taking full responsibility for the problem. Now that we’re back up and running, we should be able to post going forward until we leave the US in October, about six weeks from now.

Feeling exhausted after the last few days, I don’t feel motivated to write a newsy, informative post about where we sailed in the past few days since our previous post. Mainly, we sailed in the North Sea toward the US with little incidents other than massive fog and the necessity of the captain sounding the fog horn a few times each hour.

A dessert at the last dinner aboard the ship.

The seas were otherwise smooth and uneventful, which made the final few days pleasant. We had lots of fun with countless passengers we met.

I stopped doing the post when I desperately needed a nap. After laying on the bed under the covers, I fell asleep for about 20 minutes and felt refreshed. In less than two hours, we’ll drive to Stoughton. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be at the airport at 5:00 am for our Delta flight to Las Vegas, pick up the rental car, and head to our hotel in Henderson.

Tom’s pork loin dinner last night on Celebrity Summit to Greenland. The food was ok but not great.

From there, we’ll prepare our next post. and in a few days, start adding the photos we couldn’t add while on the first ship to Norway.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, August 30, 2013:

Everything I own, except six pairs of shoes in a smaller bag, is to be sucked into the Space bags. For more photos. please click here.

Day 7…Greenland Cruise…Currently in the Labrador Sea, heading to St. John’s Newfoundland…

Labrador Sea - Wikipedia
Here is a map of our upcoming destination.

Labrador Sea

The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It connects to the north with Baffin Bay through the Davis Strait. It is a marginal sea of the Atlantic. Wikipedia
Area324,712 mi²
Mean depth6,227′
Coordinates61°N 56°W / 61°N 56°W
Depthabout 3,400 m
Max. widthc. 900 km (559 mi)

We are at sea today and tomorrow, heading toward the island of St. John, shown in the above map at the bottom right of the mainland. Once we arrive on the island, we’ll add more information about it. If the weather is decent, we’ll get off the ship and take some photos.

Greenland…

Last night, once again, we dined at a shared table for eight in the Cosmopolitan dining room, enjoying conversation among the tablemates that went well into the evening. Afterward, we headed to the Rendezvous Bar and then to the Sky Lounge for another night of Silent Disco.

We were both tired after staying up late many nights and ended up heading off to our cabin by around 10:30, both looking forward to a good night’s sleep, which we accomplished, feeling much more alert and energetic today. We love cruising and socializing so much that we stay up late on cruises, often not returning to our cabin until after midnight.

Greenland…

Are we enjoying this Celebrity cruise as much as the previous Azamara? Socially, yes, but there are a few issues on this cruise that we have discussed among ourselves several times. One, the food isn’t as good as it was in Azamara. The menu options in the dining room, where we prefer to dine each night, are limited.

Last night, Tom noticed only one meat option for dinner: coq au vin, which he doesn’t care for. He picked at his plate, eating only small bites. The other three options were all vegetarian. By no means are we vegetarians. Also, my special order didn’t go as planned.

More Greenland…

I have to order the next night’s dinner in advance on this and other ships due to my special diet of meat and vegetables without starchy sides and sauces. You’d think this was easy to accomplish, but it is not. All I am looking for is food in its natural state without vegetable oils but flavored with some spices to avoid being bland and unappetizing. This has been tough to accomplish on this cruise.

On the Azamara cruise, the food was much better. With fewer passengers on Azamara Journey at 587, compared to over 2000 on this ship Celebrity Summit, it was easier for the chefs to prepare special meals that were delicious. Here, it doesn’t seem very easy for them to get it right.

More Greenland…very desolate but interesting nonetheless.

The first several nights, my meal was swimming in butter. When I asked for less butter and more spices, they over-spiced it, and last night, it was so salty I couldn’t eat it. I quietly let the head waiter, who attends to special orders, know the food wasn’t good, but only quietly when we were leaving the restaurant. I am not one to make a fuss in public.

Graciously, I explained the dilemma, and he promised it would be better tonight. If I’d mentioned it during dinner, he would have pressed me to order something else, and after a big lunch, I didn’t care about getting an entirely new dish while everyone at the table waited for me to eat before ordering their dessert. It just doesn’t matter that much to me to make a spectacle.

That’s all I have for today, folks. We are continuing to revel in the delightful scenery and socialization aboard the ship. The cruise ends in Botson in six days on August 30.

Be well.

Photo ten years ago today, August 24, 2013:

There was no post on this date ten years ago. The internet was down.