Adventures of Beth and Dan: Cruising with Prince Christian

Unlike most days for us we were up early by 6 am as the captain had shared with us the day before that we would want to take in all the beauty of Prince Christian Sound as we made our way through this scenic and amazing waterway heading toward Isafjordur, Iceland. The weather was around 45 degrees and unless you were in the sun on deck you moved inside. We watched at first from our balcony and then soon realized that to take in the entire expanse of our surroundings we would need to go out on deck 9 with the open back Lido pool area. We dressed in layers, which we have done on most days, with our gloves, hoods and scarves and headed out with cameras. The captain had announced the night before that if there were any weather warnings we wouldn’t go this route because the sound can be narrow with unforgiving rock boundaries; there is no room for mistakes! I had to almost force myself to stop taking photos at one point and just take in the beauty.

Preparing us for the journey there were several lectures about the area and on the day of the transit our EXC gal, Jessica, narrated which was broadcast on outside decks, inside on deck 10 in the crows nest and also on the forward camera channel in our rooms.

After a few hours of capturing as much as we could on film we headed inside for some breakfast. This was our first time since we boarded on July 30th that we actually went to the lido for breakfast. We split a made to order omelet and had hot coffee and tea. Even inside we couldn’t take our eyes off the scenery. The sound has many fingers that take off the main channel. It seemed almost a miracle that they could navigate this area and map it due to the many rivers that took off from it. There are still a few natives that live in remote villages along the waterway. They of course have no cars; only boats that they use for fishing and for getting from one place to another although it is a LONG way to get out of the sound by their small motor boats. As our ship approached their village banks one by one they began to make their way up along our sides with their children waving wildly and giving us those bright smiles. A few even had their dogs with them in the boats. There are supply barges that come by every so often bringing them necessities but their life is simple, challenging and often times lonely. I can’t imagine growing up there or living there but I bet they look at us and have similar feelings.

The weather held for most of the day with lovely sunshine in the cold air. At 3:00 pm we made our way from the tight channels of the sound into the open ocean where we saw more gigantic icebergs and marveled at the vast and quiet vista before us.

At three they were to have hot cookies and hot chocolate on the bow. We went with a few other couples down to the area feeling the extremely cold wind coming toward us through the hallway but once outside we all looked at each other and decided no cookie or drink would be worth the wind whipping our faces with freezing shards of ice! There were only probably 8 brave souls attempting to wait for it so we made our way back in and traveled the 7 sets of steps up to the Lido to get our own hot drink. The weather became much more uncomfortable now without the protection of the sound. We felt the boat rock and roll. We decided we would all have dinner together at 5:30 in the Lido and then skip the nights entertainment which was a trio of three men we had heard before, The Knights, who were nothing special.

The next day we spent at sea still making our way to Iceland. The weather seemed to get colder and rougher at sea. A new performer Annie Francis was on stage. We opted to skip it too.

That night was to be the Orange Party! Yes, I know you are asking “What is an Orange Party”? That’s what we said too. I bought an orangish scarf at Goodwill before we left and Dan found a kind of orange shirt ;). We understood that the Dutch heritage is celebrated with the color orange. There wasn’t anything special for dinner and the crew didn’t dress differently till we went to the BB King stage area where they had snacks that were specially prepared for the celebration. Many of the passengers had the orange theme going for them; one even had an orange wig on! We enjoyed the music with a packed house of party goers. By 9:00 we headed back to our cabin and set our clocks forward another hour.