Jim and Kim's Travels: A Relaxing Day in Bermuda

We enjoyed several sea days en route to Bermuda from the Azores with wonderful sunrises and sunsets. A God sky...

One day the ocean was incredibly calm. We had never seen it like this before...not a wave.

A spectacular sunset...

Here we are, in the early morning hours, coming into Bermuda around the north end of the island.

Around Fort St. Catherine...

Isn't Bermuda a skinny little island?

We docked at the port of West End. I'm sure I have an identical photo last year. In the background there is a completely fortified area, which was once Britain's largest naval base outside of the United Kingdom.

On the right is the former Commissioner's house built in 1827 for the Commissioner of the Dockyard. It's now a national museum with displays of local history and culture.

We had no plans for the day. We had an extensive tour when we were here last year, and Barb and Ed had been to Bermuda a couple of times. We decided to just walk about the shops in the dockyard and also find a Wi-Fi area. We saw this boat being lowered into the water with a very neat piece of equipment.

Many of the former naval buildings are now shops and restaurants. We could see damage on the roof of this building from two very recent hurricanes that had swept through Bermuda.

Our mission was accomplished...stores investigated, Wi-Fi found so we decided to head back to the ship. Look at how crystal clear the water is. This pirate ship, Calico Jack's, would soon be the source of some entertainment for those on the port side of our ship.

The Emerald Princess...I'm sure I probably took an identical photo last year as well.

Back on board, we headed to the hot tub to enjoy a bottle of wine. We bought a wine package for the first time and we realized we had some serious wine-drinking to do in the next few days. The ship just seems to blend in with the beauty of the port.

We were getting close to sailing time and we stood on our balcony and watched the latecomers. It's quite a long walk to the ship. And then we saw these couples staggering along. They had been on the Calico Jack's ship having a few too many rum punches. The girl in the front on the right is an employee of Calico Jack's. She was holding up the lady in yellow whose legs were like rubber. The lady's husband is behind her, still clutching his drink. He dropped his glasses and then he lost his hat, but he still had his drink! It was quite funny to watch.

And then it was time to go...

These guys on jet skis were having a blast...

Doing donuts...

And flying across the waves...

We had two more sea days before the cruise would end in Fort Lauderdale. The full moon as the sun set...

And the next day, a spectacular sunrise. It looked like the sky was on fire.

The sun starting to come up...

Here are a few photos taken around the ship. We went up to the Elite lounge once or twice. There are now so many "elite" people that it was difficult to find a table. Barb and Ed with Jim...

Our cabins were close to the back of the ship. This was always a nice quiet area, if you were lucky enough to snag a chair.

Formal night...we keep saying we are going to save a lot of weight in our luggage by ditching formal nights, but it hasn't happened yet.

We normally had the same table and waiters each night. Our waiter Roland was going home the same day we were after almost 10 months on board. We were really happy for him. They work so hard on the ship. Barb and Ed; Roland and me; Josie, Larry and Jim.

Roland and his second-in-command, Pastor. Sometimes some of the staff will change their names to make them easier to pronounce. I asked Pastor if that was his real name and he said "Yes, ma'am. Just like the preacher." They were wonderful and the reason we went back to that table most nights.

For some reason, we ended up with free vouchers to Sabatini's, one of the specialty restaurants. That night after dinner we all had dessert, except for Ed who said he would pass. So this was our yummy dessert...