June 11, four days at sea, we are now at Bermuda

We have just completed 4 days at sea. We really like sea days, this trip has been especially nice as everyday at 10 am or 11 we went to the theatre to hear Sandy talk about something in this part of the world: historical events, historical people, land formations or customs of the people and so much more. David enjoyed learning more about photography using the phone. Most days Bob Ray spoke about a musical person or group at 11am or 2pm. All were very interesting. While we didn’t do the Bridge lessons or playing, we did eat dinner with the Bridge teacher and her husband. We learned that all of the people who do these presentations or give lessons and are not crew on the ship, do not get paid. They do get room and meals (cruise paid for) and may even get some airline tickets. Most are retired of course and just love what they talk about as well as traveling.

Meals seem to take a while and fill up parts of the days and most days we go swimming and then into the hot tub. We do not lay out in the sun as most others do. We sit out on our balcony rarely and have now watched 2 movies this whole time. Of course there is reading, working on this blog and some resting involved and no, we are not bored at all.

We usually go to the shows at 9:30pm and many days they have a different show at 5:45pm before dinner (no other cruise ships we have been on have this schedule). We really enjoyed the entertainment on this cruise line. What we didn’t enjoy was the cold theatre, dining rooms etc as they love air conditioning here. Our cabin is fine as we adjusted the temperature up.

We always eat in the dining room at dinner or in a speciality restaurant and it usually takes more than 2 hours. We almost always had a shared table and we have met many nice & interesting people. At breakfast we rotate between the buffet restaurant upstairs and the dining room downstairs, both formal places and usually an hour and a half. Lunch could be at the informal buffet on the pool deck, the nicer inside buffet or the restaurant downstairs.

Surprisingly, days at sea go quickly. We seem to go down to the theatre 3 to 4 times a day and we don’t even go to any of the other activities. Days in port with excursions are even quicker.

Wednesday, June 10 – We were up at 6am to see the sunrise and then watch as we made our way into Bermuda. It took 2 hours as there is only one way into the harbor through marked channel. We wove between coral reefs. Sadly we heard they had to dynamite some of the coral to make the path. It was interesting to watch us weave through the markers. It was also interesting to watch the houses, buildings and vegetation on land as we passed by. We saw houses on islands that you could only reach by boat. as well as going all the way down the island and then back to dock in the middle at the town of Hamilton. Our ship docked where all the ships used to dock but now we are the largest size able to dock there. We were next to the main road with water on one side and business and housing on the other. Lots of cars, trucks, cement mixers and motorcycles going by and we were lucky to have our cabin and balcony overlooking it all. Great view of docking and then trying to set up the boarding ramp. That day we had ordered breakfast in the cabin and ate in the room and on our balcony so we didn’t miss any of it.

We picked the 3 hour Island tour as it stopped at a beach. We left at 10am and were in a minivan type cab with one other couple. The driver was very interesting and had been born on the island and said he was 80 and a retired PE teacher. He was very interesting but also a bit strong in his options. We drove to the largest and most popular beach, Horseshoe Bay. We passed a beautiful beach first that the driver pointed out but it was almost empty. This beach had over a hundred beach chairs with umbrellas, a large bathroom/changing rooms at the entrance and people renting the chairs/umbrellas and selling the islands most famous drink (organism…. Trying to top the drink they call sex on the beach???). We only had 15 minutes to see this famous pink sand beach. We looked at the beach and then the driver said to go to the right and the locals call it the kids beach as it was calmer, had beautiful rock formations and people were snorkeling there or swimming. They were swimming at the other beach as well as sunbathing in the chairs. Back in the van but so wishing we had known how to get to the beach with our suits on…. If we ever come back here, we were go back to this beach it was so beautiful and even with all the people, looked fantastic.

We then went to a lighthouse at the tallest spot on the island. We had seen it from the ship on the way in but David told me it couldn’t be a light house as it was so far back from the ocean. We looked at the views and went into the gift shop to buy a magnet as this is a new country to us and we even bought a cute t shirt for each grandchild. We don’t buy many souvenirs except magnets and we don’t bring gifts back to people but we couldn’t fail the good grandparents rule to come back without something for the kids.

We then continued on we went over the world’s smallest draw bridge. We had seen a demonstration in one of the talks. A person walking by is asked to pull the board and then guide the mask of the sailboat through. Interesting. We continues on the the end of the island and found the new cruise ship port that had to be built for the newer big ships. There were 2 large ships in port, both about 500 people. Out of the Royal navy port they have taken the historic buildings and put in tourist shops, a history museum, a dolphin encounter and more for the cruise ship passengers and anyone else that wants to go there. We stayed there for 30 minutes, I was disappointed as I thought we were going to another town on the island but this was interesting to see.

We then drove back to Hamilton and the lady in our van had been to Bermudan 45 years ago so the driver drove through the grounds of the hotel where she had stayed. It is now housing some doctors and medical staff with the main building and restaurant not being used. Still beautiful grounds. We returned at 1:25pm, just in time to catch Jackie’s 1:30 tour on the glass bottom boat. Only 1 ticket was left so David went to the ship for lunch.

It was a large boat with 55 passengers built by the drivers uncle and his friend in the 80s. I sat on top for the drive over. I heard a lot about the buildings as well as many famous people who had homes on the Island on the drive over. As we got close we saw many small huts built over the water. They were built with tarps for roofs and they were in bad shape and will soon be torn down. Sad, just like some of the “hotel” rooms in Tahiti/South Pacific that were abandoned. Maybe they just can’ t take the hurricanes. The driver said they were built to be environmental as they take no land but without strong roofs they didn’t last. The government owns them and the land.

The driver/owner’s niece gave the talk at the glass about the coral, fish and ship wreck. She sold drinks and snacks when not doing that. There was a deck hand but he wasn’t related. Everyone went downstairs when we drove over the reef and then over a ship wreck with 4 to 5 feet clearance. It was interesting but no tropical fish, only larger fish and lots of corral. The ship wreck had part of the boat out to the water (the bow?) and had been there for many years after being skullied (sunk) by the British navy. It broke apart when they used dynamite.

We again docked between our ship and a Tall Ship. Another tall ship was anchored in the harbor waiting for us to leave so they could have our space at the dock. Just up the road as we were about to dock, I saw the Bermudan sign so I had to walk over there to get a picture. A lady from the ship had the same idea so she took my picture.

Now 2 more days at Sea before docking at Miami.