Last Sea Day

We are well on our way to New York City and going about 19 mph. The sea was pretty calm this morning, but at noon it was "glassy smooth" as you can see in the picture on the right.  The only time I recall experiencing seas this smooth was in the Baltic Sea where there are no ocean swells.  By 4pm we are seeing some small swells, but the ship is riding very smooth with no noticeable motion.

We completed our initial packing this afternoon.  That task was completed after dinner when we added our dressy clothes to the suitcases before setting them out.  We have Princess transfers to the airport and a mid-afternoon flight, so we will not be rushed in the morning.  We just need to get to the ship's departure lounge by 9:00 am.  

Dinner tonight was fabulous!  Shrimp cooked in a garlic-butter sauce, followed by prime rib, with baked Alaska for dessert!  The prime rib portion was huge and we both forgot about taking a picture.  Oh well. What a nice send off dinner.  Much better than the landfall turkey dinner we've had so many times in the past.  

We are scheduled to arrive at 7am tomorrow morning.  Suitcases are packed and put in the hallway where we will next see them on shore. It's been a very interesting 10 day cruise, with 5 of those days in port!  But we got to see Bermuda, enjoyed great service on the ship and smooth sailing.  What more could we ask for?  

Bye, Bye Bermuda

Today was originally scheduled to be our only full day in Bermuda so nearly everyone had excursions booked.  Ours was a boat ride to Hamilton with a walking tour and time for shopping. The picture on the top right is the famous Bermuda Clock tower on their Parliament building. 

We also visited a beautiful  Anglican cathedral (bottom left)  and enjoyed a Rum Twizzler (the national drink of Bermuda) on the ride back to our ship.

In general it was a pleasant ride to town and a pretty good walking tour, but it was hot and we had already done our shopping yesterday, but we looked and did buy a couple more gifts and souvenirs. 

After we got back to the ship we enjoyed a pizza lunch. 

Sail Away was scheduled for 4pm with All Aboard at 3:30.  From our balcony we watched late comers heading for the gangway. An excursion bus rolled in at 3:25 so those passengers made it on OK. However at 3:35, they announced that two passengers on one cabin were not on board!   So we watched - and waited - and watched some more.  But they never did show up!  Shortly after 4pm, the ship cast off lines and headed for New York.   I feel sorry for the couple that missed the boat, but the ship did all they could to accommodate them.  

This evening's dinner was Surf and Turf.  YUM!  Steak and Lobster, and both were excellent.  As s special dessert, the restaurant manager made Cherries Jubilee for the passengers in Reserved Dining.  

What a nice way to end the day.  

Tomorrow is a sea day as we said at near full speed (21 mph) for New York City. 

Bermuda, Day 2

We had a simple plan for the day :  Buy two all day transportation passes and "see the island".  This turned into taking two busses all the way from  where we are docked at the Royal Naval Dockyards to St George's in the east.  Getting there would involve taking the #7 and #1 busses, then returning using the #10 or 11 busses to Hamilton, then a bus or ferry back to the ship. We expected this to take about 5 hours. 

On the menu at breakfast, we were pleasantly surprised to see Princess' special french toast, which we both loved in the past - and did again today.  

Next we bought our transportation passes and headed out.   It's very hard to describe the roads in Bermuda. Very narrow and nearly all are lined by greenery including flowering shrubs.  At times it appears you are driving in a rain forest!   Unfortunately pictures of these roads were not possible. 

We made it to St George's OK in time for lunch.  It was a very quiet town and we ended up being the only patrons at a restaurant.  We then headed back to Hamilton, the capital city.  Here are a couple of scenic pictures.  It's hard to get good pictures from a moving bus!  We passed some pretty, and, due to the hilly terrain, very challenging golf courses.

Hamilton was nice.  Since we'd been on  busses all day, we decided to take the ferry back to the ship.   We were able to do some shopping while we waited for over an hour for the ferry, having not checked the ferry schedule before making this decision.   The picture on the right is the waterfront, and I think you know the two people on the left. 

Tomorrow we have a morning catamaran excursion, then at 4pm we start to head back to New Your City. 

Arriving at Bermuda

We were greeted by smooth seas this morning.  No special activities on the agenda, just breakfast and Sudoku, followed by lunch.    At 1pm we could finally see Bermuda.  As I wrote this at 3pm, we were waiting for a ship to leave so we could dock.  The NCL Aqua and Virgin of the Seas were taking up the two dock locations.  The Aqua finally departed so we were docked and cleared to go ashore by 4:30. 

Once ashore, we walked to the shopping area, visited a few stores, and bought some souvenirs. It was nice to get ashore, but it was very hot, near 90 with 82% humidity.  Quite the change from the air conditioned ship! Unfortunately the next 2 days will be similar.  Temp just over 90, but heat index of around 96.  

We took new pictures of our ship (love the palm trees!) and I was able to get one of our balcony.  Look for the curved balconies and we're the second one from the top.  Being rear facing it is partially sheltered from the wind when the ship is moving. 

That's it for today.  Tomorrow we are taking public busses to see Bermuda, going from one end to the other, visiting both Hamilton and St George's.

Sea Day #2

 

There was not much going on today so this is a fairly short post.   Mary captured this pretty sunrise this morning. 

We attended a Bermuda presentation, as well as one called Behind the Scenes: Life on Board a Cruise ship. 

I had not posted any pictures of our ship yet, so here are a couple.   The ship picture on the left was taken from the NYC ferry as we were heading back to the ship.  I normally take a wake picture (I always get at least one! ) from the Promenade deck (#7)  as I walk around the ship.  The Island Princess is unusual in that there are no public ares that access the back of the ship!  So I snuck into the Sanctuary (an extra charge salon) and grabbed this picture. As you can see, we were going quite slow.  You gotta do what you gotta do...

Today was Pub Lunch which we love.  Mary was surprised to find prawns on the menu!

I had traditional fish and chips with mushy peas. YUM!

It was Italian Night n the dining room with Tiramisu for dessert . No shows tonight, but we found out we are arriving in Bermuda at 3pm instead of 5 so that gives us a little longer to look around tomorrow. 

Sea Day #2

 We had a nice, quiet and enjoyable sea day.   A few games, good food and entertainment and lots of time to relax.

The ship had an officers vs guests corn hole competition. Lots of guests against 4 officers.  Due to the large number of guests, we kept getting in each others way so we could not launch bags as fast, so the officers got ahead and won (like they did last time).  

The second contest was Goofy Golf where you putt around obstacles to get the ball in a cup.  We had about 15 people participating and all had a good time cheering each other on. 

It was dress up night tonight (formerly Formal Night) for dinner.  Based on recent cruises I did not bring s suit this time and was still dressed appropriately in a shirt and tie. A few men wore suits, but were in the minority. 

Mary had scallops while I tackled pork ribs. I tried eating with knife and fork, but gave up.  On some foods, you just need to use your hands... The waiter was nice enough to give me a moist napkin afterwards to clean up. 

Tonight's production show was "On the Bayou", a fast paced show set in New Orleans.  It featured many familiar songs set in New Orleans and was vey well performed on a slightly moving stage due to the moderate wave action we are in right now. 

Tomorrow is another full sea day as we head to Bermuda.  A new tropical storm, Fernand, looks to be passing east of Bermuda on Sunday so it should not affect our 5pm Monday arrival. 

Back at Sea

We departed New York City at 8am this morning. As we sailed out, we got a couple of final looks at NYC landmarks - Lower Manhattan as the ship turned around, and a frontal view of the Statue, without Governor's Island in the foreground.  The captain stated in the morning briefing that we may hit some 10' waves today, but so far, the seas have been moderate as we reacquire our sea legs. 

I participated in a longest putt contest. The objective was to putt from one side of the ship to another (in front of a bank of elevators) and see who could make the longest putt.  I won the first 3 rounds, but lost in final pairing by a few inches.  But a good time was had by all. 

Overall, this afternoon the ship is moving quite a bit, but nothing intolerable.  The seas have moderated and they will rock us to sleep tonight...

This evening was an Elvis tribute show, with Dan Middleditch telling stories and singing Elvis songs.  The guy was extremely energetic, jumping around, and running up the aisle, etc.  We would have appreciated a few more songs, but overall a good performance. The Island Princess Band did a good job of supporting his show. 

Tomorrow is another sea day as we slooowly head towards Bermuda.  One concern is a tropical depression is forming just south of Bermuda so we shall see what happens with that since we are scheduled to arrive there Monday at 5pm. 

Day 2 in NYC - Visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

We had a long, but very good day today.  After breakfast we took the ferry to Manhattan,  then walked nearly a mile to Battery Park to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  It was neat to visit this place and we were both a bit amazed we had not done this on earlier NYC visits.  We watched an interesting video about how the Statue came about and the challenges of making it. The people of France paid for the statue while Americans designed, built, and paid for the pedestal that it sits on.  They assembled the 73,000 copper plates in Paris before taking it apart, crating it, and shipping all 179,000 pounds of copper to the USA. I found the underlaying engineering for the sculpting and framing to be quite fascinating - and all done with pencil and ink drawings.

We then took a ferry to Ellis Island and saw the main building where the immigrants were received and processed. The picture on the right is the main floor with samples of luggage. The picture on the left is Registration Hall. It was fascinating to learn that each immigrant had to be screened for significant diseases by a doctor.  Experienced doctors only took roughly 6 seconds each to identify who needed further medical screening. 

After Ellis Island we took a ferry back to Battery Park, walked back to pier 11, then took our 5th ferry ride of the day back to the ship.   After 13,000 steps, we had had enough. Since lunch consisted of a hot dog on the ferry to Ellis Island,  we headed to the buffet for a light snack. Mary was thrilled to see peeled shrimp in the salad bar area.  That perked her up!! 

We had an enjoyable dinner again this evening, before retiring to our cabin for the night. But as we got back to the room, we noticed the sun setting behind the Statue of Liberty, so we could not resist a round of subset pictures. 

Tomorrow is sail away to Bermuda at 8 am. 

Day 1 in Port

Today was our first full day docked in Brooklyn. It seems quite unnatural to not have the ship moving at all, but sure beats rocking around in very heavy seas! Princess mostly followed a Sea Day schedule, but with many exceptions.  Lots of onboard activities, but with the gangway open and shuttles available to Manhattan.  The main shuttle was a free round trip to Times Square, but since we were there for 3 days, we had no interest in that. The second option was a free ferry ride across the East River to the foot of Wall Street. More on that later.  Of course you could just walk off the ship and arrange your own transportation to wherever you wanted to go. 

Mary and I did walk off to check out the ferry ride.  After checking that out, we took a short walk to the entrance of the cruise port, but did not go any further in the light rain.  I found that we could take that ferry, walk about 1/4 mile to a bus stop and catch a free bus ride to Battery park where we could take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty.    Since that is one place neither of us has visited, we are considering doing that tomorrow, weather permitting.

Mary caught this cool sunset picture last night so I thought I would share it with you,  We are so very happy to have our cabin on the river side of the ship and not the dock side.  So much to watch passing by.

Speaking of activities, I did both Lawn Bowling and 10 pin bowling today.  I won Lawn bowling and came in 3rd in the 10 pin game. 

Dinner tonight was uneventful.  Mary had chicken breast and I had chicken alfredo.  The dining room manager was making a  shrimp dish sautéed in garlic and butter.  We both had that and enjoyed it very much.  He seems to be cooking a special appetizer every night for the reserved collection diners. 

So that's it for today!  Another port day tomorrow before we head to Bermuda Friday afternoon. 

On the Island Princess

After a quiet morning, our Lyft driver came at 10:00 and took us to the ship.  It was our first ride in a Tesla. We were surprised that the roof was glass, so we could look up at all the tall buildings.  I took a picture as we went past the World Trade Center but it did not turn out very well due to the hazed glass  He then took us across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was also a first for us.  

We got to the ship by 11:00 and, since we had all our documents on file and our medallions, we got to use the shorter lines for xray scanning and security. After that, we walked right on the ship.  Our cabin was not ready yet, but we were able to stash our carry-ons in it and headed to the buffet for lunch. Love that bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce!

We have great views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan from our balcony.  We also have Reserved Collection dining which is a special dining room area, and were very surprised to see the same hostess, Arita, that we had last year.  She recognized us even before seeing our names on her iPad.  Another benefit of Reserved Class Dining is a glass of champagne on sail-away day!  Note the Manhattan skyline in the background.

SURPRISE!  Due to the hurricane, the captain just announced a major schedule change.  No Caribbean ports, but staying in Manhattan for 3 days and doing an extra day in Bermuda.   While in New York, we get a free ferry or shuttle to Manhattan during the day.  So we can remain on the ship or do a couple of days of NYC sightseeing.  

On a positive note, we get 50% of our cruise fare refunded as a future cruise credit and still get to visit Bermuda, which is why we booked this cruise in the first place.   So, in the end, all is well!  

We enjoyed dinner tonight, (salmon for Mary, and pot roast for me) with very good desserts.  Mary's was had mascarpone pie with blueberry sauce while I went for the hazelnut souffle. 

We are debating NYC activities for the next 2 days, but we may stay on the ship tomorrow as rain is predicted from 11am on for the rest of the day. Hopefully Thursday works out better.