Day 16 - Sea day and arrived back in England

Just another day at sea on Friday. Regular schedule, and in the evening they had a ventriloquist as the entertainment and he was really good. He had been a performer on the America's Got Talent television show. Very funny.

Oh, and I took some photos of the library on board the ship.

Day 15 - Sea day. Would we do another cruise?

Another day of looking out and seeing nothing but the sea. It's been much calmer than it was when we did our last three sea days in a row headed the opposite way towards Greenland.

We actually saw some sea life yesterday for the first time. We were on the elliptical machines in the gym overlooking the bow when I spotted three or four dolphins (or porpoises?) in a group off to the side. 

Day 14 - Sea Day... things we have learned on our first cruise

Wednesday was the first of three sea days as we make our way from Iceland back to our starting point at Southampton, England. So, we easily got back into the routine that we are happy with on sea days.

We have to admit, three sea days in a row is about what we are comfortable with. We could do more without any real issue, but we both think that it would start to get a little monotonous.

Day 13 - Lots of waterfalls in Iceland!

We woke up Tuesday morning at anchor in the bay outside the town of Grundarfjörður. Ruth and I have been here before, during our 5 day tour of Iceland back in October 2012, however we were on a bus tour at the time and so we didn't get any time to explore. 

We were happy to return to this area and at least we had the day to get out and see the sights!

Day 12 - Welcome to Iceland!

But, Iceland is not a new country for us. We were here for a really good 5 day visit back in October of 2012.

At the time, we had stayed at the Center Hotels chain in Reykjavik. We had done some promotional work for them, and as a result, the sister of the owner of the chain started reading this blog. 

Day 10 and 11 - Two more days at sea, including a visit to the bridge!

So, we had a weekend at sea with no land in sight both Saturday and Sunday.

And again, we pretty much have a schedule worked out that we're happy with for sea days. Breakfast, internet time, an hour long workout in the gym, lunch, trivia and/or nap time, laundry, dinner, evening show, etc.

But, we had an interesting diversion today!

Day 9 - The magnificent scenery of Prince Christian Sound, Greenland

One of the highlights of this trip was the planned scenic cruise through Prince Christian Sound in Greenland. It sometimes doesn't happen due to fog or bad weather, so when we woke up Friday morning to fog, it wasn't looking good.

However the captain obviously knew more than we did, and as we neared the entrance into the fjord,  things started clearing up and it became a beautiful blue sky day!

Day 8 - The Greenlandic town of Qaqortoq

Given our experience with the tender lineups from yesterday, we planned things a little differently. This time, we were up at 6:00am, went and had breakfast at the buffet, and we were down to get tender departure tickets.

We were a bit surprised that many other people had the same idea, however this time we ended up with departure group 11, instead of group 18 like we had the day before. So, slightly better.

Day 7 - Welcome to Greenland, country #73 for us!

So, lets get this out of the way first... is Greenland a country?

Well, there are arguments for both sides of that question. The United Nations officially has 193 countries in it. However there are other countries that are not officially recognized as countries by the other countries. Examples are Kosovo, Taiwan, Western Sahara, Transnistria, Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, and Greenland. Among others. If you add these all up, it comes to 215 countries.

For our purposes, Greenland is a country! So, with that out of the way, welcome to Greenland...

Day 5 and 6 - Two more days at sea

We have been puttering along at about 35 km/h (22 mph) which doesn't sound very fast, however when you're doing it 24 hours a day, you do tend to put on some distance!

Writing this on Tuesday evening after a total of three days at sea. Wednesday morning we will wake up off the coast of Nanortalik, Greenland where we will spend the day exploring!

July Expenses - Everything just added up!

A little late getting this out, but regular readers will know that we've been busy!

We try and have some laptop time in the morning after breakfast here on the cruise ship, so I'll quickly get our July expense report out to you. July was an expensive month!

Day 4 - Our first sea day

Sunday was our first full day at sea, and we have two more sea days ahead of us before we arrive in Greenland.

So, what did we do all day to keep busy? Well, there is no shortage of things to do. In fact, it almost seemed like there wasn't enough time in the day!

Day 3 - Cobh, Ireland, and this could get interesting!

We had traveled overnight from Falmouth, England and on Saturday morning we woke up at 6:30am docked at the port at Cobh, Ireland. 

For those who don't know, Cobh is famous because it was the last port of call for the Titanic on its maiden (and only!) voyage to New York City.

Day 2 - Falmouth, England and the casino!

We were up at 6:30am because we had a plan.

The ship was visiting Falmouth, England but although Falmouth is a deep water bay, there is nowhere for the ship to dock, so they have to anchor in the bay and use tenders to bring people back and forth.

Day 1 - First Impressions of cruise ship life

We went out in the morning and picked up a couple of last minute things, then back to our room to get packed up. We had been told that they begin boarding at 11:00am, so we could arrive at the terminal anytime after that. Or before, if you want to wait in line!

We didn't see the point of waiting in line, and when we got there at about 11:10am, the terminal doors were open and we were directed upstairs... where we had to wait in line!