Tricia’s Travelogue

I think I’ve figured out why sea days are our favorites.  All we do is eat, fool around on our iPads, and relax. No cooking or cleaning!  Oh, and Charlie spends time in the casino.  This time, he played on MY sea pass in order to earn points towards a free cruise.  As it turned out, I now have TWO free cruise credits. (He won the first one on the first cruise.) Yesterday I was also on a ridiculously long winning streak in Candy Crush (yes, I’m still playing). I’ve won 242 levels this week so far.  I’ve also read eight books and am close to finishing a pair of socks. So, we’ve both had a great time! Here was last night’s sunset. And here’s the requisite photo of our towel menagerie, created by Cleo, our attendant. Yesterday and today we walked on the outside deck for exercise, and Charlie captured this selfie on the helicopter pad. For lunch today we tried Johnny Rocket’s for the first time, and we enjoyed it, especially the chocolate shakes! Tomorrow we’ll disem...

 This morning we boarded a boat for the trip over to Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda.  It was a very breezy trip, with everyone holding onto their hats! It wasn’t too bumpy, though, or maybe our nightly Bonine tablet kept us from feeling queasy. The trip took about 30 minutes, and our guide pointed out houses where Mark Twain stayed and one where the illustrator of The Wizard of Oz lived. Leaving the dock Approaching Hamilton We walked all around the shopping district, and Charlie found a shirt he liked.  We weren’t due back to our boat until noon, so we enjoyed a nice brunch at a small place downtown.  The weather was perfect again, but cloudier than yesterday. I forced Charlie to pose for this one. We also enjoyed seeing all the flowers.  The marigolds at the Queen Elizabeth Park were gorgeous! We were abled to walk inside the Anglican cathedral, which was beautiful. The boat ride back to the port went smoothly, and we were ready to put our feet up for a whil...

The seas continued to be rough, so much so that the captain explained that the loud clanging noise we heard at the front of the ship was the anchor swaying and hitting the side of the ship! We heard it over the music of the show last night, and people with forward cabins were complaining in the Facebook group that they couldn’t sleep! We’re mid-ship and couldn’t hear it, thank goodness.  The show was good, with very talented singers and dancers, so we were glad we’d attended. This morning we enjoyed being in 75 degree weather on our balcony as we approached Bermuda. The ocean is a beautiful aqua-blue. We headed out about 10:15, but the elevators were so busy that we ended up walking down from deck 10 to Deck 1!  There’s a nice area close to the port with shops and restaurants that we enjoyed exploring. The flowers are amazing! For lunch, we went to Bonefish Grill (not the chain!) and enjoyed everything we ordered. The sun is very strong, and we both bought long-sleeved tees, h...

Apparently it takes our ship about 40 hours to reach Bermuda, as we won’t dock there until 10:30 tomorrow morning. We moved ahead one hour last night, so we’re now two hours ahead of 3/4ths of my readers. We went up to the top deck lounge for sail away yesterday afternoon, and I took a panoramic photo of the city as we left to head back into the Atlantic. We also got to see the pilot boat arrive to pick up the local pilot who helped our ship out of the channel. I didn’t get a pic, but saw a good video on our Facebook group. It must take nerves of steel to step from the ship to the tiny pilot boat! We went to Sabor for dinner. By now we’ve sampled most of the menu and have our favorites, and the staff knows us. Charlie went to the casino afterwards and had a good time. He has earned over 400 points on this cruise since then.  This morning we went to the Loyal to Royal event again, mostly for the free mimosas! Here’s the count of members by category.  (We’re Diamonds.) The seas ...

Yesterday afternoon we went to the ice show, which was as entertaining as always. The skaters were mostly young and all were athletic.  I wasn’t quick enough to get many good photos, unfortunately, but here’s one. They served us “elite” cruisers adult beverages, which we enjoyed. It’s always really cold for the ice shows, but this time I wore my fleece!  We had a nice dinner, again at Chops, which we’ll visit a few more times on the second cruise. The ship was really rocking last night! We didn’t sleep very well due to the bed rocking so violently! As we approached the port this morning, Charlie took these photos. At 9:00 a.m. we had to gather with other back-to-back cruisers in a lounge for reprocessing. About 9:45 they gave us our new room cards and walked us to the Security area (off the ship), where we just had to have our photos compared to the one taken at embarkation.  Then they led us back onto the ship, and we were able to go straight to our rooms. We’re in the s...

Yesterday we docked at St. John about 10:00 a.m., and the windchill was in the upper 30s! We didn’t pack clothes for that kind of cold! The wind was blowing hard all day, so we decided to stay on the ship. Our side of the ship faced the dock and town, so we had a good view.  We observed the long line waiting for the hop on, hop off buses, and people complained about long waits at other stops, so we felt okay about deciding to stay aboard.  We spent some time in the suites lounge, where I knitted and eavesdropped (pretending to be Miss Silver?). We also saw this old-fashioned sailing ship, one of the excursions, but it was too windy to use the sails.  We had dinner at Giovanni’s Table and were surprised to see so few diners there. Charlie opted for the Caprese salad, and I enjoyed my eggplant Parmesan appetizer. The full moon from our balcony was lovely! Today is a Sea Day as we head back to Port Liberty where most people will disembark. It will be interesting to see how b...

The seas were rough last night, but thankfully not until we were in bed. We did stagger around our cabin a bit this morning until we docked. It is SUPER windy here today, and our time on shore felt very cold. I wish I’d packed a hat and gloves! Here’s our balcony view, the non-port side. That’s George’s Island with the lighthouse and Fort Charlotte. We ventured out about 10:00, walking 20 minutes or so down the boardwalk (and into the wind), then found a sunny spot to sit and admire the view while waiting for the restaurant to open. There was a monument for “Le Grand Dérangement,” when the French Acadians were deported by the English starting in 1755.  Some Acadians made their way to Louisiana, the forebears of today’s Cajuns.  Halifax is also known for receiving the remains of passengers lost on the Titanic, and 150 were buried here. If we were dutiful travelers, we’d have gone to the museum about it. Instead, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Water Polo.   First, our server ...

When we docked in Sydney early this morning, it was pouring rain, in the low 50s, with 30 mph winds. Mercifully, all that changed before we left the ship about 10:15.    While it was still windy enough that we had to hold onto our hats, it was sunny and in the 60s.  There’s not a lot TO Sydney, which has about 30,000 people and lists “call centers” as the primary business.  But we walked 5000 or more steps and enjoyed being outside.  Celtic music was playing as we left the ship, and we all had to take photos of the giant fiddle at the port. Here’s a view of our ship from the Main Street. Here’s a view from our balcony, with the giant fiddle on the right, followed by a view in the opposite direction. The only pub we saw was mobbed, with a long line of our shipmates waiting for seats, so we returned to the ship for lunch. The gangway goes up at 3:30 today, before we head south.

I’m not sure I’d call it a “Grand Suite,” but it’s a very nice space!  I meant to post these pics yesterday, since it was a quiet Sea Day.  Here’s a view from the doorway. The living room, with plenty of seating. The huge bathroom—the tub is so deep that I can barely climb in to shower! A view towards the balcony, with a small table and chairs, as well as two loungers. The weather hasn’t been conducive to balcony sitting, though Charlie did nap on the lounger one day.  I failed to get a picture of the sleeping area, but the bed is very comfy, and the area includes a desk/dressing table and several drawers.  We’re about to walk into Sydney to explore a bit of Cape Breton Island, our northernmost port. More later!

This cruise ship has traveled more slowly than others, probably because the ports are fairly close together.  We left Boston about 6:00 last night and arrived in Portland just after an interesting sunrise.  Back to last night — we enjoyed a very good dinner at Chops. Our server, Margaret, was excellent.  She thought the petite filet would be too small for me, but I assured her it would be fine. We both had wedge salads, and we also splurged on dessert, as their warm flourless chocolate cake is so good. Charlie had a fun time in the casino after dinner (meaning he won). This morning we stayed on board until about 10:00, then walked into the cute town to a brunch place Charlie found on the Open Table app.  It was the Eighteen95, in an historic building that formerly housed the Maine National Guard. We had a fireside table, very nice after a chilly, windy walk! I was a couple of bites into my meal before I remembered to take a pic! Charlie ordered the special, smoked sa...