Bermuda Cruise

Recently, my husband and I left the comfort of our house with it's solid, steady floor to live in a room only slightly larger than our bathroom with a rolling, swaying floor for five days. And to top it off - we paid money to do this. Yes, it was a furniture cruise, but we still had to pay some.

And to top it off even more - Hurricane Ida met up with us and rocked our world even more!

We went on our first cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship,
called Explorer of the Sea.

I love experiencing new things, so that fact alone made it a good five days. Some of the highlights included having time to relax with Jerry and time to be alone. Another great perk was having an array of good food to choose from each day and having a wonderful waiter serve us and then someone else clean up!

Yes, they had excellent not-so-healthy food also, but I must have been too busy devouring the chocolate to remember to take pictures of it.

Cruising from Bayonne, NJ to King's Wharf, Bermuda (located about 600 miles off the South Carolina coast) took from 5PM on Saturday to about 8AM on Monday. The water was slightly choppy and while Jerry felt great - I did not! I was nauseated whenever I went outside and/or in a room with windows - which is awful, because I love being outdoors :( I tried to go on the outside decks every few hours, but whenever I did, I got sick. Thankfully the waters were calmer around sunset on Sunday, so we went on the front deck to take some pictures.

Formal dinner night

I looked forward to seeing Bermuda again - I had been there about fourteen years ago with a girlfriend to run a half-marathon (ah ... back in the day!) Bermuda is often referred to as one island, but is actually made up of over 100 islands, with the main area being about 21 miles long and 2.5 miles at it's widest point.

Aerial of Bermuda - courtesy of Wikipedia

The weather was so-so for the 30 hours we were there - temps in the high 60's and very windy. Not great beach weather, so we rented a scooter and toured the whole island.

Bermuda is beautiful!

Love the color of the water - which is visible from most anywhere.

 

Traveling home, as I mentioned Ida showed up - for about half of the 30-hour cruise, the waves were between 9 and 11 feet high :( Not happy sailing. I looked at my lovely dinner entree and couldn't eat more than a bite - thanks to the waves.

While feeling lousy on the ship, I thought about the first sentence I wrote in this post and seriously wondered about my mental health. Why was I subjecting myself to this?

Now that I'm back home on solid ground ... what's my take? Did I enjoy the cruise? Yes. The service was great, food was delicious and meeting new people was fun (from as far away as CA and as close as Lancaster, PA :)  Will it be my first choice for a vacation? Don't think so. The casino took up a large portion of the ship - I don't gamble. The nightly shows were good, but nothing I felt a need to see. There's a bar in every corner and while I love a good glass of wine, I have no need to hang out in a place where most don't know or care about limits.

Did I enjoy having time to travel?  YES! Will I travel again?  Duh ... 

And if I ever go a cruise again - I'd go south further, so I'd have warmer temps. It was almost too cold to sit by the pool most days and too windy to play miniature golf or tennis (which I'm lousy at anyhow!)

I didn't work-out as much as I thought I would, because I felt lousy more than I thought I would! In Bermuda, we walked a lot one day. I walked the track on the ship one day when it was calm enough to and I cycled and worked out at the gym one time. (I don't like gyms, especially in swine flu season - I must have used a hundred of the disinfecting wipes while there)

My favorite picture ... taken at Tobacco Cove

All in all - how can I not be thankful that I got to see this in person and now have a picture to remember it by?

For more pictures ... see my Bermuda Album on facebook