Day 4 ~ We arrive in Bermuda!

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Here we are, we are arriving in Bermuda! As if the trip hadn't been wonderful so far, we were finally arriving in our port. Yes port. This was a new concept for us! How would we like it? To be honest, until about three weeks ago the idea of a cruise to Bermuda had never crossed my mind. I'd known people who had gone to Bermuda, known friends who'd even done similar cruises - but never did I ever consider one myself. It just seemed, well a bit boring to me! For me cruising had always been about the ports. Waking up somewhere new everyday. The variety, the experiences. Where was the excitement in spending THREE whole days in one place? Well, we were about to find out weren't we?

I mentioned we booked this trip fairly close to our departure date, and I'm a planner. This didn't give me a whole lot of time to plan. This threw Alex and Megan for a loop! They kept asking what I had planned. Didn't I have any tours booked? What were going to do? Well, I had a general idea, and did have one "scheduled" activity. But I figured the rest, well we'd wing it! And we did and we had a BLAST!!!

We woke up Wednesday morning to a beautiful day. It may have been slightly cloudy. I think I remember someone on the dock commenting that it wasn't a great beach day, but the sun was shining most of the day and it wasn't raining! Seemed nice to me!

We were on the port side of the ship, which this time was docked not facing the port. But here is a picture of the port from he starboard side of the ship, on our way to get some breakfast.

Now, when I say I didn't have a plan, that's not exactly true...I knew pretty much what I wanted to do during our time in Bermuda. I just didn't know exactly how to go about doing it or if we'd add to it. I had read some reviews of others who had done this cruise, I had some notes and I had a Bermuda guide book in hand...and I hoped that we could just figure it all out. One thing I knew for sure is that I wanted to be off the ship early and get the transportation pass. The transportation pass gives you unlimited access to the buses and ferries throughout the island. We decided on the 3 day pass since we weren't exactly sure what we'd do on Friday. In the end, we could have made do with the 2 day pass. But that was fine. We had breakfast in the Garden Cafe and were off the ship shortly after we were allowed to be. We purchased the transportation passes right in the terminal, remember cash only! And we headed straight for the ferry to Hamilton. 

And yes, we did stop for the pictures as we got off the ship. We're silly like that!

Who wouldn't want a picture with a giant dolphin?

The ferry is easy to find, there's a large sign

And getting off the ship early on the first day, there was absolutely no line. We waited for about 10 minutes for it to come with a couple from our ship. They had been to Bermuda 10 times. They gave us a great run down of some not to miss highlights!

We sailed off on the ferry to Hamilton. It was a nice smooth ride. 

Our plan from Hamilton was to take the bus to the caves......

And I sort of knew which bus. But where would the bus be?  Well, as luck would have it, when we got off the ferry, there was this great sign right there telling us how to get to the bus terminal! We, like several other people snapped a picture and started walking!

I had a bus schedule, and the ferry schedule and we were good to go. We decided on the 10 or 11 bus, and had no problem. And the bus drivers are super nice. Just ask when you get on if they are going where you want. And they will let you know when they get to your stop. 

Our driver dropped us off and gave us directions on how to get to the caves, just a short little walk. And he told us how to take the bus back to Hamilton too!

Next up, our visit to Crystal and Fantasy Caves!