Bermuda Adventure 2024 - Days 2 - 3

We rocked and rolled all night long. Monday afternoon the seas started to flatten out. The swimming pools looked like wave pools with the pool water sloshing up and down two feet or more at the end of the pool. The kids pool was packed but there was not a single person in the adult pool. The go cart track was open so Oscar and Jack went out on the track together. The go carts only go twenty miles per hour. Probably a safety precaution to keep carts from flying off the ship. They are eighteen decks above the water. The arcade kept Parker and Eleanor entertained until the pool opened. Priscilla went to the spa and I stood in an endless line to get my internet issues resolved.

You cannot get any higher than deck 18.

We decided to go to a western BBQ restaurant for dinner. I called the concierge twice to make a reservation. No call back. We all me at a bar on deck six and I went to the restaurant ahead of our group. When I arrived at the restaurant it was empty. They were thrilled to have a party of nine. So much for concierge service. It was a great meal and a four piece country western band rocked it all night.

Oscar and Alison enjoying the evening. JP in the background.

After dinner Rachel and Priscilla took the kids to bed. The four of us went to the Social Comedy Club. The comedian knew his audience and had numerous jokes about cruising on Carnival Cruise Line vs NCL. He said you know you are on a Carnival Cruise when you are afraid to walk down the hall because they are full of gang bangers and watching them doing drug deals in front of you. That brought a round of laughter. He also told a story about a family that took their son on a Caribbean cruise to celebrate his release from drug and alcohol rehab. What a good idea to take him on a ship with twenty bars and Caribbean islands where you can buy every drug you want. His mother came in the room just as he jumped off the balcony. She immediately called emergency services and they sounded the man overboard alarm. Five minutes later they cancelled the anlarm and said it was a false alarm. Turns out the man jumped off his balcony and landed on the lifeboat boat one deck below. He was such a loser he couldn’t even jump off a cruise ship and hit the water. There you have it. Cruise ship humor.

Rachel and Priscilla enjoying a mimosa.

Overnight the seas were almost flat. We picked up our Bermuda harbor pilot at 7:30 am and were tied up to the Royal Dockyard on Ireland Island by 8:15 am. We had our first view of Bermuda as we entered the harbor. We are tied up across from the fort and national museum. This where Eleanor and Parker will swim with the dolphins.

View of the fort and governor’s mansion across from our stateroom.

Priscilla and I had breakfast in our stateroom as usual. It is just so pleasant that way. After breakfast I met Alison, Oscar and Jack ride on the ferry to St. George. The ferry provides a close up look of the shoreline. Passengers began arriving an hour prior to departure. We arrived about thirty minutes early. The line seemed to wrap around for ever. Once everyone was onboard there weee still about 100 empty seats. This is a really big ferry. The entrance to St George’s harbor is very narrow, probably only 100’ wide and very long. Inside it contains a huge well protected harbor. Small cruise ships can visit there. St George is the oldest consistently occupied British settlement in the new world. It was first occupied in 1609.

Here is the town crier in St George. He is a wealth of local knowledge.

Here is an update on discovery of the islands. In 1505 the Spanish thought the island was inhabited with demons and other evil things.  The called it the isle of devils. They heard the strange sounds from the cahow bird at night that they had never heard before.  That's why they never claimed the island for Spain, and they warned future sailors to avoid the place.  They did let loose several pigs on the island in case of future ship wrecks there would be a food supply.

Years later in 1609 a British supply ship bound for Jamestown wrecked on the island during a heavy storm.  Unlike the Spaniards, they couldn't leave until they built a two new ships with the remains of their old ship. That took them 10 months and they learned to like the place. The feral pigs provided a food source. They claimed it for Britain then sailed on to Jamestown.

View from a restaurant in St George.

After a short visit in St George I took the same ferry back to the ship. I had planned to watch Eleanor and Parker’s dolphin encounter at 2:00 pm at the museum.

Here is the ferry boat Spirit of St George departing the Royal Dockyard.

I went to museum where the dolphin experience is held. There is a large pond in the center of the fort called the keep pond. It is accessible through a tunnel in the fort wall. In the past supplies were brought into the fort by water. In the ordinance building they stored 4,680 kegs of gun powder.

The canal through the wall of the fort brings seawater into the pool for the dolphins. JP, Eleanor and Parker put on their wetsuits and entered the pool. The dolphins swam around close to them. They petted the dolphins and then held their flippers and danced with them. Then they held out their hands and the dolphins laid their head in their hands and then the dolphins kissed them. That was a true dolphin experience.

Parker dancing with a dolphin.

Tomorrow we will go on a snorkeling trip on a catamaran.