Date: Friday, May 3, 2013 - Friday, May 10, 2013
Type: Travel, Vacation
Cost: $$$$$
Planned By: Both
Adam and I have been on two cruises together. Cruising is a great type
of vacation because the ship plans almost everything for you. The prices are reasonable and you get to see some great places. Therefore,
for this year's vacation we decided to plan our third cruise together!
We really enjoyed departing from Baltimore last year because
we were able to save a lot of money by driving. It is only a six hour
drive which is very doable. So we searched for other cruises out of
Baltimore. We wanted to travel somewhere neither of us had been so we
were happy to see that Royal Caribbean had a ship leaving from Baltimore
and going to Bermuda! We booked our cruise on the Grandeur of the Seas
for early May as our family vacation and anniversary celebration.
Day 1:
Embarkation was slow at first because they
didn't open the lines until about 1:00. Because we got there around noon
we were close to the front of the line and got on the ship before two.
We immediately ate lunch, got a drink, and checked out our room. We booked an inside cabin, and it was pretty small. It had a nice little couch, a
king size bed, a flat screen TV and the smallest shower I had ever seen.
There wasn't much storage, but we were fine with our accommodations.
Next, we attended the muster drill (which went smoothly) and the sail
away party!! It wasn't as much of a party like we had experienced
before, but it was still fun! We got our luggage fairly quickly, and
unpacked. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. We ate every dinner
in the Main Dining Room. Having a three course meal every night was
fantastic. The starters, entrees, and desserts were all very good. I
wish I could eat in a cruise ship main dining room every night, but then
I'd probably gain a lot of weight. The first headliner show was a
comedian, and he was very funny.
Day 2:
Day 3:
We slept in. It was very very nice
to sleep in. We got breakfast and laid in the sun. Then had lunch, and
our ship docked in Bermuda at 3:00 PM. Somehow we were two of the first
twenty people off the ship. For this short day on the island we decided
to explore the Dockyard. First, we got a drink at the Frog and Onion
Pub. Adam got one of their brewing company's beers and I got a Golden
Frog cocktail. They were both good! Then we walked through the
Clocktower Mall. There was some interesting shops, and we even found the
official tip of the Bermuda Triangle in there. After the mall, we took a
long but scenic walk to Black Bay Sea Glass beach (I found directions
on
cruisecritic.com).
This beach was amazing. I knew from my research that it was full of sea
glass, but I didn't realize how large the glass would be and how much
there really was! We took a few pieces back with us. Last, we went to
Snorkel Park during happy hour which got us in for free (normal $5 per person). We got a drink
and sat on the patio and watched the water. We got ready and headed over
to dinner, then got a martini, and attended the Love & Marriage
show. This show was our favorite because it uses
audience participation. It is like the Newlywed Show, and it was
hilarious!
Day 4:
This was our full day in Bermuda
and we wanted to make the most of it. We each got a two day
transportation pass, which let's you use any public transportation for
two days. We hopped on the ferry to the capital city of Hamilton. We
walked around Front Street and looked at all the nice shops. Then we got
lost while trying to walk to Fort Hamilton. Eventually we carefully
read the map, and found it. It was a pretty cool fort with above ground
cannons, underground halls, and a dried mote with flowers and trees.
Then we walked around a park and read part of a story about Tiny the
Tree Frog. We never figured out what happened to him, but we thought the
park was beautiful. Next, we caught the number 10 bus to the Swizzle
Inn for lunch. We shared a pizza and a jug (pitcher) of their famous Rum
Swizzle! The pizza was delicious, and we were really excited for it
because our ship DID NOT have 24 hour pizza available!!!! The Rum
Swizzles were very strong and very tasty! We loved this place, and would
definitely return if we ever find ourselves back in Bermuda! After lunch
we got back on the bus and headed to the historic town of St. George.
We walked around another park where we found beautiful flowers and a
great moongate that we took a picture inside of (I read online that its
good luck to take pictures in moongates in Bermuda). Then we walked
around King Square and the harbor. Then we set off to find the
Unfinished Church, but instead found St. Peter's church which was also
interesting to walk through. We got lost trying to find the Unfinished
Church and just decided to look for Tobacco Bay our last St. George
destination. It took us awhile to find it, but we succeeded. It was a
gorgeous beach! Beautiful rock formations and clear blue water! We
didn't stay too long because it was hot and we were tired. On our way
back to the harbor to catch the ferry guess what we found... The
Unfinished Church! It was unfinished, but cool, and also in bad shape so
we couldn't wander inside. We made it to the ferry and enjoyed a nice ride
back to the Dockyard and our ship. We got back to the ship ahead of
schedule so we took advantage of everyone being off the ship and swam in
the pool that we got all to ourselves! Then we got ready, went to
dinner, and skipped the show (a magician) because we were exhausted!
Day 5:
The ship was scheduled to leave at 6 PM. We
took our second transportation pass and rode the #7 bus to Gibbs Hill
Lighthouse. We climbed to the top of the lighthouse and had a beautiful
view of the island. We couldn't go out on the open ledge because it was
extremely windy, but there was an inside ledge to see the view from. There
are 185 steps up to the top, but periodically there were floors with
information about the lighthouse which we found interesting. We bought
some souvenirs at their shop and went on our way. We got back on the #7
bus and took it to Horseshoe Bay Beach. This is a huge pink sand beach.
The water was choppy with lots of waves, but we ventured in, and had
lots of fun wave jumping! I saw online that that all the south shore
beaches connect, but I forgot my map of the trail/beaches so we just
decided to wing it. The first couple beaches were easy to walk to, and
easy to find the walking trail. All of the beaches have amazing lava rock
formations along the side. After a couple beaches we ended up rock
climbing around and on these formations to get to the next beach. At one
point it was very dangerous, I cut my tow and I wanted to turn back, but Adam was
persistent and we made it. I'm glad we did because the next beach was
Jobson's Cove which was breathtaking. The sand was extra pink and the
water was a lighter more beautiful color blue. The last beach was
Warwick Long Bay, and I was very happy to have finally made it. Overall
it was treacherous, but a wonderful adventure!! After our walk we got
back on the bus and headed back to Dockyard. We wandered around a little
bit, got pictures of things we missed previously, and took a ride on
the courtesy train shuttle. We got back on the ship in plenty of time
before departing back to Baltimore. We got ready, went to dinner, then
watched the show.
This night's show was "All Access" featuring the Royal Caribbean singers
and dancers. It had a nice variety of music and dancing and we liked
the performance. Then we rushed up to get our martini before ten.
Day 6:
This
was our second at sea day. Royal Caribbean didn't have very many
activities for our age group planned. It seemed like they had a ton of
activities for children, teens, older teens, families, and senior
citizens. Not much was going on for young adults. We mostly laid out,
took a nap, and ate this day. One of the fun things around the ship to
do is the rock climbing wall. We both tried it out, and had a lot of fun
with it. Neither of us had any trouble making it to the top. This night
was the second and final formal dinner of the cruise. We got dressed up
and went to dinner. We went to the Temptations Tribute show after
dinner.
It was a good show, and we knew about half the songs, but it definitely
wasn't our favorite so we went up to the Viking Crown Lounge and had a
couple martinis. We weren't exhausted this night so we had
some fun taking random pictures around the ship while everyone else was
asleep. Then we tired ourselves out and went to sleep.
Day 7:
This was our last day and it was also a sea
day. We spent a lot of time eating and laying in the sun. We watched the
International Flag Parade on the pool deck. A bunch of the crew came
out to carry their countries' flag to celebrate, and I thought it was
really cool to seem them all so proud. Surprisingly, there were only 23
crew members from the US! Later, we went to the Broadway Trivia and got
14/20 questions right. Then we went to our last dinner, which was
delicious as always. We also went to the farewell show, which had a
comedian who was funny but focused on jokes for an older crowd. We said
good-bye to our favorite bar tenders with one last martini in the Viking
Crown Lounge and sat in the Centrum and waited for the Aerial Show. I
have never seen an aerial show, and it was amazing! I was fascinated and
extremely impressed by their ability to do some of those moves! We made one last trip to the late snack buffet and went to bed (I think we went to this ever night for nachos and burgers).
We got off the ship early on Friday, and were on the road by 7:30AM. We got home to our precious baby, Obi around 1:30PM.
Overall,
it was a great vacation. We enjoyed the ship even though they didn't
have a lot of activities for us. We loved Bermuda, and will probably try
to go back someday. We are very happy with the entire experience,
and can't wait until our next vacation.. too bad we have to keep working
in order to go on another one!!!
If you would like to read about our previous vacation on the Carnival Pride check it out
here.
