The cruise was quite the experience this week. The first hiccup came at the airport in Miami. When I landed, I discovered that my flight to Newark had been delayed until 9:30pm. In general, that would not be a problem but my concern was that the flight would be cancelled and I would miss meeting my daughter for the cruise the next day. After several ticket changes, I managed to get booked on the next flight out to JFK. Problem one solved. The next issue was getting from JFK to the hotel in Newark. As much as the Northeast brags about its’ excellent public transportation, trust me when I tell you that getting from JFK to Newark on public transportation is near impossible at 11pm. If I took the train, it involved at least 4 transfers, with my luggage, at midnight in New York City, by myself. No thank you. The buses were equally as difficult. Finding a transfer company last minute was also impossible. So, taxi it was….$220.00 later, I arrived at the hotel in Newark. For those of you thinking, “Why didn’t she use Uber?”…Uber was the same cost as a taxi! Luckily, the next morning’s activities went smoothly and after a quick stop at Walmart, my friend and I arrived at the cruise port and boarded the ship. My daughter boarded shortly after and I did an ugly mom cry and gave her a huge hug. As we pulled out of port, we passed right by the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge so standing in the cold wind was worth it. The cruise was a bit odd as the only stop on the cruise was in Bermuda. Bermuda is only around 800 miles from Jersey so it logically should take a day to get there. This itinerary had us at sea for two days, in Bermuda for 3 days and then at sea for the last day. So basically, we rode around in circles the first two days to be “at sea”. The next challenge on the cruise was the constant battle to not be run over by wheelchairs, walkers and Rascal scooters. I was the spring chicken of the cruise and I swear at least 85% of passengers were over 80 years old. I definitely got in my steps for the week because trying to take the elevator and not get my toes run over was impossible. As for ship activities, I did a lot of trivia. The music trivia was hilarious as the DJ was from Jamaica. He started out the week with songs by Beyonce, Lizzo and Drake. When I pointed out to him that most of the crowd in the room was 85 years old, he finished the week with songs by Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra. Smart man! Our favorite activity was the ABBA sing-a-long because who doesn’t love a great ABBA song?
Once we arrived at Bermuda, we spent the first day walking to Glass Beach. As expected from the name, Glass Beach was covered in glass that had been tumbled by the water and sand. It was quite beautiful and we found a small cemetery on the walk back to the ship to close out the day. Our second day, we took a taxi across the island to St. George. Trying to compete with NYC, the taxi cost $107.00 for the ride! Our driver told us that Bermuda was very rich and had no poor people and no trash. That statement was just before we passed the new airport that had been built on the landfill. So much for no trash. I also do not believe that a country where basic houses cost more than $1 million dollars has no poor people. They had them hidden somewhere! St. George consisted of a couple of blocks filled with restaurants and we had a deliciously overpriced lunch before heading over to the other “city” which was Hamilton. Our taxi driver to Hamilton announced she could cure cancer by teaching people with cancer to not worry about things in their life. She also seemed to have a prevention for dementia which involved coconut oil. She gave us her card just in case we were ever in need of cancer healing since we might have dementia and might not remember her name. I promise I do not make this stuff up! Hamilton was your usual cruise ship town with lots of shopping so after a quick walk around, we hopped on the ferry back to the ship. On our last day, we ventured back over to Glass Beach and enjoyed a cool swim before leaving port to head back to Jersey. Getting back to Cartagena was just as adventurous as getting to Jersey and after delays on the Jersey end, I made it to Ft. Lauderdale about 11:30pm, took an overpriced Uber from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to the Miami airport, spent the night at a hotel and made it back to Galt the next day. I would like to point out that my taxi ride from the Cartagena airport to the marina was $5.00. Every bit of travel was worth it, though, because having my adult child trapped on a ship for a week with limited internet was amazing! While I was gone, Bill was a busy man. He finished the benches and completed the bimini/dodger rebuild which looks rust-free and sturdy! Now my job is to paint all the panels and get them looking clean and new. He has been troubleshooting Larry the Lehman who is currently not cooperating. It seems as if all our boat projects are taking more time than usual because we have a deadline looming. We leave for Brazil this week! Once again, no blog for the next three weeks but hopefully Brazil will provide us with wonderful things to report! As you welcome summer, we will be spending winter in Brazil…so strange! Sorry! Not many pictures of Bermuda! I was too busy enjoying the company.
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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