Trips, Pics, and Tales

After our day at the caves and the aquarium, we went back to the ship and got ready for dinner. We had pre-booked La Cucina, the Italian Restaurant, for tonight. One of the other items that I did pre-book was the Bermuda Triangle Evening Cruise. Usually I'm not big on ship excursions, but since this was a fairly last minute trip, and we were going to be in port in the evenings, it seemed like a pretty cool thing to do! This excursion got very high ratings in the reviews on NCL, so we gave it a shot.  First our dinner.... I think I already mentioned that every chance we had, we chose the Waterfront seating at the specialty restaurants. We really enjoyed this area of the Breakaway! So, tonight was no exception!  We had early reservations so that we would make our boat tour, so the restaurant was pretty empty. Our server was very attentive. I don't really remember everything we ordered, but I know Alex got a pizza with steak on it for his appetizer and we all thought it was very ...

We had a great time at the caves, and were ready to keep on exploring! We knew the Bermuda Aquarium Museum & Zoo was in this general area and would make a good afternoon combination with the caves. Back on the bus we went! We got on and asked the driver if it was the correct bus, this time heading back towards Hamilton. I asked the person next to me to let us know when it was our stop, just in case! However when we got to the aquarium, the driver announced it and about half the passengers got off with us! The aquarium would better be described as a zoo, and it's fairly small. But it's a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It's right on the water and the exhibits are well maintained. We had lunch there and enjoyed our stay. Of course, we're big aquarium, zoo, animal loving people! Our view while having lunch at the cafe at the aquarium The Discovery Room where you could touc h some sea life. From that point on Alex decided he wanted a pet Sea Pudding, als...

We decided to get the combo ticket to visit both the Crystal and Fantasy Caves. This is definitely a place you can visit on your own, no "excursion" needed. All visits into the cave are done by guided tour so we had just about 10 minutes to wait until our tour started. We started with Crystal Cave. I think maybe Alex might just be a bit tired of all the pictures? He's holding our admission tickets.... Our group was called for the Crystal Caves. I can't remember the name of our guide, and it's a shame because he was really great! He was quite a story teller. He had us hanging on his every word. It didn't matter if he was talking about safety or about how the caves were discovered. He was a dynamic man!  We descended into the caves and he gave us the history and told us about the structures and the water. The caves were quite beautiful. We had plenty of time for pictures.  After spending about 30 - 45 minutes in the cave, we cli...

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 gene...

So, today wasn't too much different from yesterday. Another sea day. However, a lesson learned from yesterday that I didn't mention, get those deck chairs earlier! I did say that yesterday we were a bit slow in the morning, going to the Main Dining Room for breakfast and then the ropes course. Well, yes we did finally find 3 chairs together. It took what seemed forever. And then by mid afternoon the music from the pool was just far too loud for me. We weren't even right by the pool either! I'm not one to mind some music or fun, but the chairs must have been in the direct line of the speakers and when you're trying to read, and relax in the sun, and have a conversation or two here or there, after a couple of hours, of just LOUD music - I had to move. So, I ended up finding 3 chairs on the other side of the deck. Much better! This morning, that would be my plan. The kids slept in a bit, and I went out and got our chairs. I grabbed breakfast at the Uptown Grill and was...