Bermuda NCL Spirit Notes
Tuesday, May 19th
One of the CruiseCritic members asked about the spa's hours - it's open 8am to 10pm. They say the "Universal Gym" is always open so I believe that is the treadmill area. You can run any time of the day or night!
I finally went to bed about 1:30am when Bill and Sarah got back, but then Bob woke me up about 8am for some reason. I like to get 8 hours of sleep. I ate a few of the melon things he brought me and then went back to sleep until about 10am. Then I woke, showered, we popped in to say hi to Bill and Sarah who were heading up to breakfast. Then I headed up to the lobby area, near Champagne Charlies. There's a little window nook there that is perfect for sitting in, watching the ocean and doing internet work. Of course it would be MUCH better if I could do it from my room at night while Bob watched TV - because now I "wasted" 2 hours of my trip catching up on all my email and work that had backlogged! I should have stayed at the task much longer too, but Bob wanted to get out to the beach and Bill, Sarah and Liam were out there already. So I only worked for 2 hours before I called it quits and headed down to the room to change.
We put on our swimsuits, snorkel tops (long sleeved to prevent burns), grabbed our gear and headed out. When we got there the trio were on the beach but Bill and Sarah promptly headed into the water to snorkel together and I romped around with Liam. He was so cute! He spent a long time at the "showers" just playing with the water and having a ball. When Bill and Sarah came back Bob and I headed in, while they went into the water with Liam. After a while of snorkeling Bill came out to join us and took us over to the rocky area to the left, by the "Yellow pole". BILLIONS of fish. Little yellow stripey ones. Big blue ones, big red ones. Medium sized whitish ones. It was great, and they came really close to you.
Finally we headed in to shore. As we got to the sand, a lady near us told us that she'd just been stung by a man of war. She had tried to swim away from it but it got her anyway. We'd seen one on shore earlier and Bob and I were looking up every 3 seconds to make sure we were not near one. She was going to go ask at the desk if they had a lotion or something to help with it.
We all packed up and headed back towards the ship. As we reached it, we saw at least 10 man of wars clustered around the back of the ship. There are a lot of them around! At the customs line, we once again ran into the woman who had been stung. By now she was crying from the pain, and the crew came right over to help her through line and towards the doctor's office. She said not only had she been stung twice but she'd fallen on the rocks and cut herself too. I think she'd lost a flipper as well. All in all, it is very important to look around VERY often while swimming and snorkeling to make sure the entire area is clear of the jellyfish.
We got out of our wet clothes and then Bob and I went right back out again with the postcards. The security man (very friendly!) at the dock area said that stamps could be found not at the visitor center, but at the little gift shop to the right, on the way to Snorkel Park. We went to the gift shop and sure enough they sold us stamps for postcards going to the US. We stuck them on our cards. Now they directed us to the nearest mailbox, which was in front of their "mall". This meant going around the little harbor in the center of town, up the other side, and into the building on the right. This is the mall. The mall is an L shape and at the other leg of the L facing the water is the actual "front" of the mall, with a bright red mailbox. In went the postcards, and we were set!
We walked back to the ship along the water, taking photos of ships and things. We did swing by the marina to see if there were any late evening fishing runs but there was no bulletin board or anything to easily find people to go out with. That seemed odd to me in such an obviously tourist area. The person manning the shop there simply pointed us at their website for more information, but with the prices for internet access we decided not to bother.
When we got back on board Sarah, Bill and Liam were all zonked out from the long day at the beach so we offered to eat first, and then I'd take Liam so they could eat in peace. We headed up to the Japanese restaurant. We ate at the regular part of the restaurant (i.e. not the sushi bar) but even so I ordered sashimi
as part of my menu choice. There were other ladies present who did not understand this was "all you can eat" for the one entrance fee. We helped them out with the menu. To start with I had the crispy pot stickers which were a little gushy inside, but quite good. They were made with vegetables, not the traditional pork. Bob had the pork bun which was large and good. I had the orange beef which was delicious, a great flavor. The presentation of the sashimi was beautiful, with the items designed into roses. Bob had the wok charred beef which he loved and the lamb which was also great.
We were sending origami flowers and cranes over to the sushi chefs and they sent back some more sashimi - this time not in a decorative shape, but lovely cuts of fish. We were stuffed by now but Bob tried the triple creme brulee - gniger, azuki and green tea. They were all lovely flavored but not very "creme brulee" crispy. He also had the warm banana pancake which he liked a lot. All in all a delicious meal.
We began at 6 and finished up about 7:30, when I went and grabbed Liam. Bwah hah hah - he was all mine! First we went up to the buffet where I set out a selection of melons, cheese, jello, ice cream and so on. He loved it. He is great about sanitizing his hands very cheerfully when we go past any of the machines. Then we walked across the top deck area, where he danced to the music by the pool. Over to the other side, where we wandered through the setup for the Bingo game in the Galaxy nightclub area, he liked the music and the star-carpet floor in there. Then going "down down down!" the stairs to 8, where they had music in Champagne Charlies that he enjoyed. All of the seniors were packed in this area and loved talking with Liam and cooing over him. We went down the stairs to the lobby where we ran into Bill and Sarah! It's a small ship in some ways! Liam and I went in and out of the doors, watched the fountain, ran along the deck for a while and went over to the Stardust Theater to see what that was all about. Then it was over to the Casino to explore the (non active) casino and the Maharaja's nightclub area where he loved the textures of the chairs. Now we went back past the Coral Cafe and got some fries and water, which he munched down quite contentedly but in a growingly sleepy manner. We walked back to the lobby and he wanted to be carried, and his little eyes were starting to close. So we went down-down-down the stairs, waving at the toddler in the mirror at each landing, back to the room. A few readings of his book, some listenings to of Beauty and the Beast on the iPod, and he was sound asleep. Bill and Sarah were back about 10:30 and I offered to hang out with Liam while they went out some more, but they were feeling worn down. Bob was pretty much asleep when I went back to our room, so the day wound down to a close!
Tuesday thoughts -
Put on lots of suntan lotion! I've seen lots of burnt people. My thighs got burnt where my swimsuit rode up a little. Sarah's back got burnt. It might seem like "only mid 70s" to New Englanders who are used to needing 90 degrees to be really hot - but here in Bermuda it is always mid 70s and that is always hot. It doesn't get cold at night, there isn't a warm up period. The sun beats down on you all day and can really roast you. Also, watch for jellyfish! I saw parents thinking they were cute things for kids to examine! These things are dangerous. Always look around you if you're in the water to make sure there are none nearby. Getting stung by one is NOT fun.
If you're going into a specialty restaurant, the fee is an entrance fee. You can then have as many entrees as you want, as many desserts as you want, etc. Mix and match. Get two appetizers. Have 3 desserts. Whatever strikes your fancy. I definitely recommend the Asian Fusion menu. But to clarify - there are three "parts" to the Asian restaurant area. You can sit at the bar and have sushi. You can sit at the tables and order from the regular menu - or sushi. Or you can try to get to the Teppanyaki table. There's only one of those (it's the cook-in-front-of-you style) so the times on that table fill up really quickly.
Also definitely snorkel if you can at all do it. The cove is right near the ship, very safe and you see a ton of fish. We had a blast there. Definitely bring a water-safe camera or get a water-safe kit for your existing camera. But be sure to look up REGULARLY for any jellyfish anywhere at all within sight.
The camera we have is a Sony Cybershot and we bought the Sony Marine Pack 40m / 132ft plastic housing for it. You stick the entire camera into this solid plastic housing and seal it in. It has large buttons on the housing that work the camera's controls. You cannot see ANYTHING on the camera display when you're taking a picture :) I kept thinking the camera must be broken or something and that we wouldn't get any pictures at all because of that. However, it does take excellent photos. You just have to trust that you are aiming the camera in the right direction. Take a ton of photos - you'll get a half of fish in some of them, but others will be awesome.
I love the sea slugs :) They are so cute!
For lotion I used the Neutrogena supersport 70 SPF which was *great*. My bathing suit rode up a little and I got a stripe of bright red sunburn where that happened - proving just how amazing the Neutrogena was at keeping the rest of me safe even while snorkeling for over an hour.
NCL Spirit Photos from Tuesday - ?? in total
NCL Spirit Photos - no captions, all on one page (set 1)
NCL Spirit Photos - no captions, all on one page (set 2)
NCL Spirit Photos - from Bob's camera - no captions, all on one page
Bermuda NCL Spirit Travelogue