Greenland: Sea day and Nanortalik

Sea day and Greenland: July 17-18, 2023 

Today was our first scheduled sea day to get to Greenland, so it was our Cruise Critic meet and greet! Our organizer had put together an icebreaker of a grid finding others who had done this or that on the list, which was fun. There was a quick intro of the officers. Then he had prizes of Viking cruise ducks and magnets with a game of guess the answer to the Viking or Norse jokes, awarding one prize per family. NCL provided the first cookies that I had found on the cruise, so I knew this was the time to score them. Later, I did find them in the afternoon on the smaller side of the buffet. The chocolate chip are the best. Oh, yes, and coffee, juice, water, and sweet breads (not that kind; dessert breads -- I can't remember what they are normally called now). We did a group picture that was going to be posted to CC role call, but I don't see it there to share. We also met Steve and Linda who we were sharing a taxi to the airport after the cruise, pre-arranged on the role call and Steve did all the organizing.  

I wanted to see icebergs. As we approached Greenland, I got my wish. Some very interestingly shaped, colored, and cracked ones. 

With mountains in the background. There was a LOT of fog during our cruise, so that definitely killed some of our views of the great scenery. However, I still have TONS of iceberg pictures. 

For a sense of scale, an iceberg through some forward stairs. We went all around the ship for different views: top forward and aft and all around the promenade on deck 7. About this time, they closed off part of the promenade, near below our room, though we could not see it from our windows, for maintenance. So, we had to cut inside near the complementary Asian restaurant and art wall while observing and later walking the promenade. They had some really bad art on this wall. They had better art mid-cruise, but the bad art returned at the end. I guess they sold the good art and had to return the bad art to the wall. We have never tried to buy art on a cruise; I cannot imagine buying art on a cruise. Has anyone ever bought any; how does it work? 

Me all bundled up for iceberg viewing. 

For lunch, we went to the MDR; I believe this was the only day that we had lunch there. I wanted to try the Monte Cristo. It was good and came with fries. For an appetizer, I had the bistro salad, which had ham, cheese, and egg; it was not great. I found the lava cake on the lunch menu, yum! Travis had a soup, hummus, and tiramisu. I think that he asked for hummus as the main, but got both before my main came.  

We had fog from this afternoon to the next morning. It did clear for the iceberg viewing in Nanortalik. 

For dinner, we went to the MDR again. There were crazy line for both the MDR and Ginza at the opening time of 5:30pm. Though they did start seating people before 5:30pm. Carnival's app let you request a table and be assigned one before heading to the dining room; this was really efficient but not offered on NCL. In the Mediterranean June 2022, we found that others did not like to eat early like us, so it was never busy early. Some is also probably due to the ship not being as full then. 

 

Our waiter was awesome and got us through dessert quickly to get to the show early enough to get a seat. Then it turned out that we did not need to be there that early -- just under 30 minutes. It looked like 10 minutes early would have worked fine. Today was the White Magic and Contortionist show. The magician and contortionist are married. His last name was White, so a play on black magic. They were both very impressive. 

Nanortalik, Greenland

The next morning we arrived in Nanortalik, Greenland. This was a tender port. There was a line for the tender; we did not get in line until group 6 was called. Why were they calling tender group numbers so quickly if there was a line? They were tossing people without a tender ticket out of the line saying to wait for open tender to be called. After we got past the line by the art and headed downstairs, the line moved quickly. We were late to port (and then allowed to stay later), which always causes chaos and people eager to get off quickly. Ship excursions on this cruise were crazy expensive. They are always more, but $300-$400 per person -- eek! There was also limited offerings in each port. One group that we talked to noted that they were just as expensive booked independently, but I did not think so. I started booking last December when the Icelandic exchange rate was more favorable against the US dollar, so that made it better.   

We arrived. They only had one tender dock; this became a problem later. This was a very small town and not very touristy. This has pluses and minuses. We set out walking toward our hike up the mountain for beautiful panoramas. We passed by the colorful neighborhood. Many had dogs that barked at us -- scary!   

Up the hill for our views. Travis had a hike map on his phone with GPS to help us (some) from going astray. Look at those views; you can also see the fog starting to roll in too. 

My bug net. I forgot my cap to keep it out of my face, and it got hot. We read a recommendation to get these, so we got some off ebay before leaving. Travis never used his; the flies were driving me crazy. Travis hikes faster, so he can get away from them. 

We made it to the top of the mountain: Quassik. 

Back in town, we headed to Brugseni, a Danish grocery store. Travis found some licorice candy, and we found some to bring back home for the kids. One was caramel and one licorice; caramel was not a hit. At this point, it was raining, so we were a little concerned going into the store wet. It was crowded with cruise tourists. They took Danish Krone; we used our no foreign exchange fee credit card. 

Then we found this church and watched this helicopter land and take off. It was bright red and stood out. Both land and take off because the tender line was insane! Still raining, and we had to wait over an hour to get on the tender. We did make friends with the people in line next to us. Since there was only one tender port, they would have to disembark people from the ship before loading us. It was crazy; there were still people getting off. Some looked like crew, so maybe that was when they were allowed to get off and did not have a choice. When we finally got to the front, we had our NCL served hot chocolate. It was so sweet; they were sharing the hot chocolate with the local kids. 

Since we were back on late and some people were still ashore, we went to Ginza's (which had a line and had been very popular and hard to get into so far); this is a complementary Asian restaurant. It shares space with the a la carte sushi, which was on a carousel to grab what you wanted and wanted to pay for. I had not seen that before. They asked if we wanted to wait for a table or sit at the high seats. Travis said high was fine; this turned out to be at bar where we were side by side. They were counting seats (which were at this point still mostly empty and hard to count) to note who ordered what. I loved these red cups with black inside; though they were hard for the servers to tell if they were full or empty. I had the calami, yum, and Travis's hot and sour soup. 

My sweet and sour pork was good. I have loved the crispy beef before, but last time on the NCL Jade, it was disappointing. So, I did not try it this time. I did not realized that I needed to order rice separately or specifically, so I asked when the server brought the food. She told the waiter, and I almost ended up with two bowls of rice. Luckily, the lady next to us had the same issue and gladly took it. Travis had a Peking chicken noodle bowl. For dessert, I had the five spice chocolate cake, and Travis had something with green tea ice cream. They were okay, but I don't think either of us raved on them. 

Tonight we learned that with the fog rolling in that we were overnighting in Nanortalik and leaving in the morning with hopefully lifting fog. I quickly figured out that an Artic trip is like an Antarctica trip where the Captain has to be flexible with the weather and sea conditions. Part B for tomorrow was Qaqortoq and sailing into a fjord to see a glacier. 

Next up...Icebergs and more sea days 

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