Cruise Stories

Carnival Radiance

Posted on March 10, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Radiance in Cabo

Carnival Radiance launched as Carnival Victory in 2000. It was renamed Radiance in 2021 following an extensive makeover. Renovations included the addition of 115 staterooms, a water park, updating decor, and updating many of the ship’s food places and other venues. At double occupancy the ship holds 2984 guests with a maximum passenger capacity of 3400. Maximum capacity of a cruise ship is how many people they have lifeboat space for rather than the most they could stuff into the ship if all the staterooms held as many people as possible for each cabin. Crew numbers about 1100. The ship is 893 feet long and 116 feet wide which is significantly smaller than Carnival’s largest ship, the Jubilee, at 1130 feet long and holding over 6000 passengers. My first impression of Carnival Radiance was too many people for the amount of public space available. Considering the renovation added 115 staterooms, that’s a pretty good explanation since that reduced public space while adding more passengers.

atrium

The centerpiece of the ship is its atrium. At its lowest level on deck 3, a popular bar sits in the central space. It was generally filled with people all day long. The atrium extends all the way up the ship with a skylight at the top. Decks 4 and 5 have public spaces surrounding the atrium with a fancy stairway running from deck 3 to deck 5 within the atrium. Decks above that have an open area above the atrium with a view down to deck 3 and of the glass elevators running up one end.

piano bar

The ship has a lot of different bars which is mainly what it has for public space, especially within the interior of the ship. The Red Frog Pub is pretty spacious and often hosts activities throughout the day. The smaller Piano Bar also occasionally hosts some activities. The third bar in the same area is the Alchemy Bar which is fairly small, but has seating by windows that is usually full of people whether the bar is open or not.

looking down on the atrium from a higher deck

Space at the back of the ship on a deck of otherwise all public areas on deck 5 that would generally be some sort of lounge on most ships – and in fact is on the similarly laid out Splendor – is just more staterooms on this one. It feels like they are trying to stuff as many people as possible onboard, which they probably are, but then there aren’t enough places for all those people to go. Teenagers tended to hang out in the space between stairways as other than the arcade or kid’s club they had nowhere else to go inside of the ship.

breakfast buffet

Some of the hallways between spaces aren’t very wide either, particularly where people wait in line at Blue Iguana on the burrito side in an already too narrow walkway heading into the buffet between the Blue Iguana and its seating area. Even without the line of people waiting there’s barely enough room for scooters to pass through. Seating at the buffet can be hard to find during busy times even when adding all inside and outside tables anywhere near there including those on the next deck up. Besides the buffet and Blue Iguana, deck 9 (the Lido deck) is also home to Guy’s Burgers, Pizza, and Big Chicken. Guy’s Pig and Anchor barbecue sits on deck 10 above the pizza and chicken places. There’s also an upstairs Italian place on deck 10 inside above the buffet called Cucina del Capitano that is free at lunchtime, but costs extra at dinner. Other pay-extra eateries include the steakhouse, sushi, chef’s table and a seafood shack.

production show in the theater

The main theater – called the Liquid Lounge – is nice, but small. Considering that part of the renovation included shrinking the theater to make room for more staterooms the fact that it is small is not surprising. The seats in the lower area are movable so they can rearrange them for different shows or remove them to use that space for other things. Having a flat floor there means that there is no drop from any seat to the one in front of it so sitting in the ones along the sides of the theater is a better choice for seeing shows since the ones in the balcony type area along the sides have a good drop from one row to the next. The back of the theater has a big bar.

comedy show in the theater

We saw a show there where almost none of the floor seats were facing the stage, but they had a lot of extra things extended from the stage where much of the show took place. The lower seats were arranged around those. That show had a lot of singing and dancing and some drone lights. Drone lights in a cruise ship show used to be unique to Symphony of the Seas, but apparently they have gotten easier to program or just more popular because we were recently on a Princess ship that had drone lights as part of a show as well. Radiance had them going for quite awhile and in changing colors where sometimes they were all the same color and sometimes all different colors. Maybe drone lights are the new aerialists. Years ago we saw an aerialist on a Celebrity ship and they were the only ones with any so it was new and different and unique. A few years later practically every ship had at least one show with at least one aerialist. They’re still around, but getting scarcer now. It’s probably not as easy to expand the drone lights though and they haven’t done so nearly as quickly. They can’t fly on regular GPS on a moving ship so they have to be programmed to something internal. At a comedy show we saw later in that same theater all of the lower seats were arranged in rows facing the stage and there wasn’t any of the additional apparatus for the performers to spread out onto, just the regular stage.

hot tub on the Serenity deck

The ship has 10 full decks and 3 partial ones. Only one of the full decks and two of the partial ones have no staterooms. Seven of them have at least some outside space, but there are very few deck chairs in the shade. There are a lot of deck chairs, just mostly out in the sun (or whatever the weather may be.) On the Serenity deck the one space that is under another deck where there is good shade is taken up by a bar. There are some shade structures in places, but they don’t fully shade anything.

main pool area on the Lido deck

The Lido deck has two pools and 4 hot tubs. There’s one additional hot tub on the adults only Serenity deck on deck 14, which is really deck 13 since deck numbering goes straight from 12 to 14, skipping 13 as is usual on American cruise ships. During our cruise hot tubs in the Lido deck pool area were best avoided as there was nearly always someone with a diaper baby in them even though that’s against the rules for any pool on all cruise ships for obvious reasons. The one on the Serenity deck was free from babies, but the water was not very warm. The others probably weren’t very warm either since normal hot tub temperature would be too hot for babies. They could have solved that problem by turning the heat up.

thermal suite

The thermal suite in the spa had a good number of the heated ceramic chairs, which were a different style than usual and not as ergonomic. It also had a sauna and steam room, but no pool or hot tub of any kind. The closest was the outside hot tub on the Serenity deck one deck up, which would have been nice if the water had been warmer.

inside spa cabin

Our cabin had a few things wrong with it like a drawer that didn’t close and a closet you had to fight the door to open. It was also the least magnetic ship we’ve been on, at least since we started bringing magnets. Even our super strong magnetic hooks couldn’t hold anything up on the cabin walls. Doors couldn’t hold magnetic decorations other than the strip around the door where only small ones fit. It was definitely not our favorite ship. More public spaces, shady deck chairs, hotter hot tubs, and a pool in the thermal suite would have improved it.

gluten free spaghetti carbonara

The dining room we were in was nice. It looked pretty new and did not sport the wild décor that Carnival ships of the Victory’s era generally had. Most likely it was completely redone when the ship had its makeover. On Carnival gluten free and vegan options are available on the dining room menu without having to order in advance like on most cruise lines. There’s a whole separate menu for them in the app if you scroll past the main menu and the wine menu. The paper menu in the dining room doesn’t show those options, but anyone without the app could ask the waiter about them.

waterslides and splash park

Things to do onboard besides the pools and hot tubs include waterslides, mini-golf, a ropes course, basketball court, games, casino, and relaxing in deck chairs. Scheduled activities included trivia and other games, dance lessons, yoga, Pilates, and other gym stuff, theater and comedy shows, movies, scavenger hunts, and music in different venues around the ship. Thery had some lectures on jewelry and gym and beauty stuff, but those are intended to get people to buy things so don’t really count as entertainment. There’s a lot of things they do to try and get people to buy stuff. A lot of space in the daily Fun Times was taken up by stuff for sale rather than stuff to do while important things like the all-aboard time on sea days was not displayed anywhere obvious if at all in the Fun Times.

one of the upper front bows

There are a few secret areas on the ship that very few passengers find. Decks 6, 7, 10, & 11, all had doors at the end of the front cabin hallways that went out onto open bow areas. There was a stairway between the bows on 6 & 7. There are lower bows too, but they were for crew only. Most people don’t know about it so you don’t often run into anyone else out there. Everybody knows about the outside promenade down either side of the ship on deck 3 which has some deck chairs, but the deck above also has an outside walkway on either side.

outside promenade on deck 4

People go there to check in for muster stations, but most aren’t aware that passengers can go out there during the cruise too. At least they were allowed to during our cruise. Passengers are only allowed on the sides though. Crew can go farther back. It feels like you are somewhere you aren’t supposed to go, but any crew we ran into were friendly. On the Splendor which had the same feature passengers were not allowed in that area, but on the Radiance when it was open for people checking into their muster stations we asked. The crew guy said we could go there so we gave it a try. The few crew we ran into were kind of surprised to see passengers, but nobody said we couldn’t be there. Not even the officers.

stairway art

Stairway art on the back stairs was sea creatures. Each level had something different. Various types of fish or on one it was seahorses. The middle stairs had water scenes. Beaches or islands or something with bodies of water. The front stairway was sunrises or sunsets over water scenes. All tasteful and nothing weird like we have seen in stairway art on some ships. The ship in general looked a lot more modern in the décor than what was typical of Carnival ships when it was built so it was likely all redone when it changed from Victory to Radiance. It used to seem like odd or ugly statues were a requirement on all cruise ships, but we have seen a lot less of them lately and did not notice any statues at all on this ship so either there weren’t any or they didn’t stand out enough to take note of them.

elevator repair or maintenance

One of the elevators was closed for maintenance for a couple days. On deck 6 it had a barricade around it and there was a roll of cable on the floor within the barricade. Good that they are replacing it if it’s necessary, but a bit frightening that they need to when it had been open and running just the day before. Hopefully it was routine maintenance done long before there’s any danger rather than having something seriously wrong on the verge of failure. It worked fine after it got fixed.

duck trading mailboxes

Duck trading mailboxes are getting more popular on cruise ships. People put ducks in them and other people come by to trade their ducks for the ones in the mailboxes. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Some people just raid what’s there and don’t leave anything. We saw 8 duck mailboxes on this ship. Several of them looked like maybe the people had their own 3D printers and made ones similar to the little yellow ones people buy, but better. Sturdier and a bit bigger on one and a better design on the others. People have been hiding rubber ducks around cruise ships for years, but the duck mailboxes are fairly new. Most of them were small enough to fit on the little magnetic strip around cabin doors, but ours were too big. Mine had enough super strong magnets that it actually stayed on the wall, though it tended to slide down a bit when people opened it. On the next ship we went on with normal magnetic walls it never budged when people used it and in fact held so tightly it took a lot of effort to pry it off the wall. John’s didn’t have as many magnets as mine and had to be tied to a rail that ran along the wall on the Radiance, but has no problem sticking to the wall on other ships.

shore tenders picking up passengers from the ship

We had one tender port on this cruise. People who don’t have priority tender booked their tender tickets in the app, which meant they didn’t have to wait in a long line to get them. We had priority so we just had to go to the right place at the right time. Since we didn’t have to book ours through the app I don’t know how well the app reservations worked or how people who didn’t have the app got tickets. If it worked well it would definitely beat waiting in a long line. Cruise ship apps often have issues, though we didn’t have any problems with it on this cruise. The people next to us at dinner could never even get the menu to come up, though I think that was more the people than the app. Excursion tickets and info are also in the app rather than printed tickets, but you just need your key card to check in so excursion tickets aren’t actually necessary.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Carnival, Radiance, Shipboard Life | Tagged Carnival, cruise, cruise ship, photo, Radiance, travel | Leave a comment

Nuku’alofa Tonga Island Tour

Posted on March 6, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Nuku’alofa

Approaching the port in Nuku’alofa on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga on Holland America Noordam, we saw a pilot boat keeping pace with us for awhile. Whether the same boat had dropped off our pilot or not I don’t know, but eventually a somewhat distant cargo ship going the other direction came much closer and the pilot boat either picked up or dropped off a pilot there. Soon a red tugboat appeared to guide us into port. The ship backed up for a bit, spun a few circles, then remained relatively stationary for quite some time. Waiting to clear customs or for permission to dock or something. Only the people in control of the ship and port knew for sure.

tugboat helping the ship to shore

After watching our ship take an excruciatingly long time slowly inching into the dock, it took quite a while to get it tied up there as well. Finally all was done and the gangway popped out from the side of the ship so people could get off. Of course even as they had announced not to clog up the elevators and stairways to the gangway as the ship was docking there were people who think the rules don’t apply to them headed there. The cruise director repeatedly announced for people to go wait in public areas away from the stairways and elevators, but that never stops the me-first-I’m-more-important-than-everyone-else crowd. This cruise seemed to have more than its share of entitled people.

cruise ship dock

We waited a bit to go down to the gangway after the announcement saying people could get off the ship and by that time there was no line. We had no plans for this port so were hoping to find a last-minute tour. Most of the booths along the pier were selling the sort of things made from materials that have some restrictions and require declarations when passing through customs in both Australia and New Zealand so that probably hampered their sales since all the passengers were disembarking in either Australia or New Zealand. Lots of shells or things made from shells, wood, and other natural products. There were some things like t-shirts and such that would not have any customs issues, but they were quite overpriced.

busses and taxis at the end of the pier

One booth was labeled tourist information. They had maps, brochures, and signs for a bus tour and a diving tour. Farther up the way a sign pointing into a large gravel lot said lava tour this way, but we did not go that way to see what it was all about. Down near the end of the walkway there were all sorts of people offering last minute island tours. In USD for a bus of 39 people it was $35 per person. In a 6-8 person van or 17 person mini-bus it was $50 each, or for a private taxi tour $150 total for the tour, which for 2 people came out to $75 each. The cruise ship’s bus tour shore excursion around the island at this port was $70 per person so for nearly the same price we got a private tour, opting for the taxi since it would leave right away and all of the others would stay and wait for more people to show up before they would leave – plus with the private tour we could take whatever time we wanted at each stop without worrying about what anybody else was doing, and it could stop in places where a larger group couldn’t go.

Three Headed Coconut

First we went to a tree called the 3-headed coconut. It even has its own sign next to the tree. It’s a very unique coconut palm that branches out into 3 tops instead of the usual one top on a palm tree. The driver said it is the only one in the south pacific like that, and that it naturally grew that way rather than as a result of damage.

vendor both by the blowholes

Next we went to the Mapu’a Vaea Blowholes. The name means whistle of the noble. Other than locals with booths set up to sell their wares, we were the only ones there, having arrived before any of the other tours left the pier. There were several blowholes of varying sizes right there, and more visible up and down the coast. They did not all go off at the same time. Sometimes they just made a little splash, but with a big enough wave the splash would get quite large.

the shelf and drop-off ran down the entire shoreline

As was the case by the blowholes, a lot of the shoreline that we saw on Tongatapu had a bit of shallow water at the shoreline, with a sudden dropoff at the edge of a coral shelf. Waves crashing into that feature created the blowholes along that shoreline.

Mapa’a Vaea Blowholes

At some point we drove past the old royal palace, which the driver pointed out as we went by, but we didn’t stop there. The current royal palace is in the capitol city where the ship docked.

Captain Cook monument

We stopped by a Captain Cook monument, commemorating his landing site on the island. Captain Cook seems to have been everywhere. We saw monuments to him everywhere we went from Hawaii to Australia. That monument was just a small roadside attraction, but every tourist bus, car, or van that went by stopped there so it was pretty crowded.

Anahulu Cave

The best stop on the tour was Anahulu Cave. I’m sure no cruise ship bus would ever go there. Especially not from this cruise. On the Noordam they closed the lowest level of the glass stairway to the Atrium because 4 people fell down it the first week of the cruise. It’s an old ship and people have used that stairway for many years, but the ones on our cruise couldn’t handle it. Those sorts of people would never make it through a cave full of uneven ground and stairs of different lengths and depths both in and on the way to the cave. Good thing we were not on a cruise ship tour. I love caves and was very happy to see this one.

cave entrance

At the entrance we first had to go down a stairway carved into a bit of a hill and then duck down to go through a short tunnel of rock to get inside the cave as it was only a few feet tall there. Once fully inside the ceiling opened up way above our heads where even the tallest person could stand up fully and still have a vast amount of space above their head. That entryway alone would be enough to keep the cruise ship tours out, not to mention steep and narrow pathways winding their way through the cave.

formations in the cave

The cave had a few low-level lights so people could find their way through, but not so bright as to ruin the effect. We were the only ones in the cave the whole time we were there, though a couple people had just left the cave and were headed to the nearby beach when we first arrived. Another advantage of taking a private tour.

inside the cave

We could hear bats in the biggest room of the cave. Sometimes one would fly around, but they were too small and too fast to catch with the camera. The numerous stalactites, stalagmites, and other cave formations were stationary though so we could take pictures of them.

cave pool

After some ups and downs and twists and turns along the narrow pathway through the cave we reached a stairway into a deep blue pool. The taxi driver had mentioned that swimming in the cave was allowed. It looked like it would be fun to snorkel there and see what was under the water, but we were not dressed for swimming and had no snorkel gear with us so we just admired the pool from the path. We did not test the water temperature, but considering it was in a cave it was likely on the chilly side.

beach by the cave

A trail veering off from the one to the cave entrance led to a nearby little beach which had a pretty cove. It looked like the shallow part by the shore probably went out to the edge of a shelf and then dropped off deeper just like at the blowholes only without such a big splash, but we weren’t wearing anything we wanted to get wet and did not investigate that.

tree over an ancient rock monument across a field from Ha’amonga

Part of the drive took us along the shore where coral restoration is in progress. The road ran close to the water there and lots of little pathways led from the edge of the shore out into the water and then stopped.

Ha’amonga

Last we went to see an ancient monument called Ha’amonga, which is easier to remember as humongous. That works since it is quite large. It’s been there since around 1200 and is said have been built either for an ancient king as a gateway to his palace or for astrological purposes. It is constructed from 3 slabs of coral limestone. Each slab weighs 30 to 40 tons. In the local language the structure’s name means Maui’s Burden, due to the belief that as the stones are too heavy for a human to handle the monument was built by the god Maui. How it was built and the actual purpose remain a mystery. It was in a small roadside nature reserve with mostly grass, some trees, and other small stone monuments.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call | Tagged cruise, island tour, last-minute taxi tour, Nuku'alofa, photos, Tonga, travel | Leave a comment

Maho Beach Revisited

Posted on March 3, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

yellow plane

When we took our granddaughter Hannah on a Caribbean cruise, the one thing she said she wanted to do was see the airplanes at Maho Beach at our port stop in Saint Martin – which is actually Sint Maarten since both the airport and cruise port are on the Dutch side of the part Dutch and part French island. There was also another teen and her mom with us so we had a group of 5 on this cruise.

airplane coming in for a landing

Princess Juliana airport sits just across a narrow road from Maho Beach so when airplanes come in for a landing they fly very low over that beach. People like to go there to get photos of the underside of airplanes flying directly overhead.

don’t be stupid

There’s a warning sign on the fence next to the runway because people used to hang onto that fence when planes took off and get blown off by the jetwash, which resulted in injuries for some people. Now there is a secondary fence where they’d likely get blown into barbed wire if they tried that.

airplane approaching the beach

The first time we went to Maho Beach it was a big beach with a little beach bar. There was a surfboard standing upright out on the beach with the day’s schedule of all the large airplanes landing there. The beach had lots of space for people to relax in beach chairs and wait for planes to fly overhead. Some people went in the water.

once the planes get close they fly over quickly

The next time we saw Maho Beach some years later there was practically no beach at all. People perched on the rocks next to the narrow road to watch for planes. The once small bar had morphed into a giant bar attached to a shopping area with a pool. Someone there said that a storm had taken all the sand away, but it would come back so we didn’t really know what to expect this visit.

plane over the beach

Symphony of the Seas was the 4th of 4 ships to arrive so the port was quite crowded when we disembarked the ship. The line of people waiting for water taxi tickets was so long that they probably could have walked to town quicker than waiting to buy a ticket and then waiting again for the water taxi. The shops were full of people too. When we got to the taxi stand there was quite a long line. Most of the people want to go to Maho Beach so they filled van after van of people going there and the line moved fairly quickly. The fare was for a round trip so we were given wristbands that would allow us on for the return trip and told where to meet the vans from that company since there were others at the beach.

little beach by the Sand Bar

As to be expected by the constant stream of vans heading there, Maho Beach was pretty crowded. The original Sunset Bar now has the surfboard that was once out on the beach enclosed within the bar, but it still has the schedule of the days large airplanes written on it. Another bar called the Sand Bar which was on the other end of the shopping area also had a surfboard, but theirs had a menu instead of the airplane schedule. Both bars have some covered seating area, but the Sunset Bar is on the side where the airplanes land. There was a small bit of beach by the Sand Bar that had no crowd, but would also not have the airplane view that the beach on the other side of the Sunset Bar has.

girls with coconuts

Both of the bars serve food. The Sand Bar had a little stand selling coconuts for drinking coconut water from, and it also had ice cream.

Maho Beach

There was a lot less sand at the beach than on our first visit, but more than on our last. It was still a tiny beach with big beach bars and some shops. There was a bit of sand below the rocks along the road that passes by the end of the runway this time, and some within the rocks as well. There wasn’t much beach so a lot of people sat in the rocks or on the cement barrier between them and the road. Others stood or walked in the road, which barely had enough room for cars going opposite ways to squeak past one another so the multitude of people slowed the traffic considerably, sometimes stopping it entirely.

the cement barrier by the road is where a lot of people sit

The bit of the beach directly in line with the runway was solidly filled with people so we found a spot on the cement barrier a short distance from there. The two teen girls went out into the water for a bit and we all saw a lot of planes and a couple of helicopters. Small private planes come in between the larger commercial planes so there are a lot more landings than what the schedule on the surfboard shows.

small plane

Instead of going to Maho beach, people can take excursions on a boat that will hang out in the water under where the planes fly over so they can see the low flying aircraft without ever setting foot on the beach. There were several boats out in the water, but they did not come close to the beach so it was safe for people to swim. The girls said the swimming was good, which most likely meant that the water was warm since they more hung out in the water than actually swam, as was the case with most of the people in the water.

distant plane

Looking out over the water and in the sky beyond, the first clue that an airplane is coming is distant lights on the horizon, which eventually materialize into a plane. They start out as a distant speck, but it doesn’t take long before the plane is over the beach and gone. From the viewing area at the edge of the Sunset Bar or the beach adjacent you get a bit different perspective, but still a good view.

pool in the shopping area

The little pool in the little shopping area looked kind of like nobody ever used it. Which is likely the case since there is a beach there. One of the shops on the side by the parking area sold sweet treats and for awhile they had free samples.

beach and shops in Phillipsburg by the port

If you want a beach for beach purposes there are better ones on the island. There’s a really nice one right at Phillipsburg by the port which people can get to by water taxi or on foot. For snorkeling there are other better beaches elsewhere on the island. For parasailing and water toys there’s Orient Beach on the French side. Taxis aren’t as easy to come by going anywhere but Maho Beach, but there was a separate line at the taxi stand for people who wanted to go elsewhere so it is possible.

American Airlines plane

Maho Beach is all about the planes. If you want to see planes fly close overhead it’s the place to be. Otherwise not. The beach is small and very crowded. Our taxi van driver said it’s the smallest beach on the island, though likely it’s also the most popular one because of the airplanes headed into the runway across the street.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Caribbean, Ports of Call, Royal Caribbean, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged Airplane Beach, criuse, Maho Beach, photos, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, travel | Leave a comment

Saint Lucia Segway, Sightseeing, & Beach

Posted on February 27, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

people line up on the dock for their excursions

With an excursion title like Segway Sightseeing & Beach, you might think that would include sightseeing on Segways, riding them on the beach – or both, but it was actually neither. When the gangways on Enchanted Princess finally were in place allowing people to start heading out to the dock nearly half an hour after the shore excursions were supposed to start meeting we went out and found our tour, which was divided into two nearly equal lines. There were an odd number of people so one group had an extra. The other group was given black wristbands and ours sparkly silver. A little bus loaded them up and took off while we waited for a van. Somehow we still managed to arrive first, then had to wait for the other group to get there for instructions on how to ride a Segway. A lot of the people there had ridden them before, but we had not.

segway guide with off-road segways

As it turned out these were not city Segways. They had big offroad tires as we were to ride them on a rough mountain road suitable for small 4-wheel drive vehicles, though the bus did manage to struggle to the top. Instructions included how the segway worked with foot sensors and how to safely get on and off. Also how to make it go, stop, and turn. It stops and goes either forward or backward due to body positioning, which also controls the speed. Turning is done with the long handle that extends from the foot platform up to where it has the handlebars.

riding segways on a mountain road

The other group started with practice rides while we went off to their bus for the sightseeing part of the tour. This bit had many stops, none of which were at viewpoints, attractions, or historical landmarks. Instead they were all at places where various plants grew by the roadside. We had a driver and a guide so the driver stayed in the bus while the guide got out and then came back in with samples of various plants, mostly herbs. He also talked about other things growing along the roadside that we could see out the windows like banana, papaya, mango, soursop, and other things.

segway tour at a viewpoint

Things he brought back included oregano, lemongrass, bayleaf, a seed that is made into castor oil, something called moringa, and other things I don’t remember. One of them purifies water, but that’s one of the things I don’t remember what it was called. The oil from the bayleaf works as a natural bug repellent, and the soursop can help cure health issues like cancer, infections, parasites and other things. Moringa is used for nourishing hair and skin, treating swelling, protecting the liver, treating stomach upset, fighting foodborne bacterial infections, and improving eye health. They also mentioned something that fights against autoimmune diseases, but I can’t remember if that was soursop or moringa or something else. Most likely the soursop.

view of Rodney Bay

Our bus ride ended at the top of a mountain where the other group was gathered at a lookout point. They had ridden the segways up the mountain and we rode them down. We were near Rodney Bay, but that particular lookout had a view in a different direction. Lower down the mountain we looked out on Rodney Bay.

old WW2 bunker in Saint Lucia

At the top of the mountain there was an old American bunker left over from World War 2. Saint Lucia is an independent country that is part of the British Commonwealth, but they had American outposts there during the war. We passed two more bunkers on the way down the mountain.

posing at the viewpoint

After seeing the view and the bunker we all had a chance to practice a bit on the segways in a wide spot that was probably used for parking. Once everyone got the hang of it we headed down the hill in a line with each person to stay 6 feet back from the one in front of them. That’s to give you time to react if the person in front slows down or stops so you don’t run into them. They can set a maximum speed on the segways, which they had at fairly slow for going down the mountain. On the way down we had a couple stops at viewpoints, one of which had a smaller bunker than the one at the top, but bigger than a tiny one we passed by in between.

riding the segways back to their shop

At the last view stop while they distracted everyone taking photos of each pair of people (and one single guy) they adjusted the segways so they could go faster since it would not be so steep the rest of the way. Most of the ride had been on a rutted gravel road with patches of overly large rocks as sticking out of it, but near the end where the roads were less steep we went through a field and along a bit of some paved roads before reaching the place where we started by the tour company’s office.

beach at Rodney Bay

After the Segway part of the tour we went to the beach at Rodney Bay, which is a large sandy public beach. You have to pay to use a beach chair. The going rate was $10 each, but we got 2 chairs under a beach umbrella for the $10 instead of just one chair. People come out from the little beach bars to see if you want food or anything to drink. Other people wander by and try to sell you necklaces or coconuts or whatever else they have. One didn’t have anything to sell and just begged. The people selling things move on to the next person if you say no, but it took a whole lot of noes to get the beggar to go away.

blow up things at the beach

The far end of the beach had some large blow-up beach toys like slides and things anchored in the water. According to our guide there would be a bit of coral and some fish in that area. The waves that day were quite large with breakers sometimes rolling higher than a person is tall so entering the water meant timing it well if you didn’t want to get bowled over. There was also a pretty strong undertow. Once you get past the area where the waves swell and break over it wasn’t so rough.

big waves breaking on the beach

Over at the end of the beach by the breakwater next to the beach toys the waves weren’t quite as high or strong, but still fierce enough to churn up a lot of sand. All of that sand made for pretty murky water with little to no visibility. I tried to snorkel, but could barely see my own hands. If there were any fish in the area they would have had to come right up to me within inches of my eyes in order to see them so it really wasn’t a good day for snorkeling. It would have been a good day for boogie boarding, but there were no boogie boards there.

relaxing on the beach

I gave up on the snorkeling since there was nothing to see but sand-colored water. Relaxing on the beach chair with a pina colada worked well instead. Until the really big wave came underneath all the way to the top end of the chair and got my shoes that were sitting under it all wet. The tide was on the way in, but that one wave was the only one that came up quite that high. A couple others came up under the foot end of the beach chair, but no more went all the way under it.

After a couple hours on the beach the bus took the group back to the port. It was a fun excursion. It would have been nice to have a group half the size and ride the segways both up and down the mountain, but that wasn’t the way this excursion worked.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Caribbean, Enchanted Princess, Ports of Call, Princess, Shore Excursions | Tagged Caribbean, cruise, Enchanted Princess, photos, Saint Lucia, Segway, travel | Leave a comment

Carnival Splendor Spa Balcony Cabin

Posted on February 24, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

spa balcony cabin 1114

Our cabin on Carnival Splendor was spa balcony cabin number 1114 on deck 11 where there was just a small row of cabins on each side. This was the highest cabin deck on the ship and the hallway it was in had a door right out to the splash park and waterslides. It was also right next to the spa and gym so quite handy for a spa cabin. The majority of Splendor’s spa cabins are on deck 10. You can tell when you get to the spa cabins in the hallway on deck 10 because the carpet changes. On deck 11 they are all spa cabins.

thermal suite dry ceramic chairs

Spa cabins come with unlimited use of the spa’s thermal suite throughout the cruise for the first two people booked into the cabin. You have to buy the same thermal suite package anyone not in a spa would have to buy to use it for any extra people in that cabin. You also get discounts at the spa, but they often have sales that are better than those discounts and you can only use one or the other, not both. The first two people in the cabin also get 2 free fitness classes. Spa cabins are also supposed to have upgraded amenities. We booked it because we got an upgrade offer that was cheaper to upgrade to the spa cabin than it would have been to buy the thermal suite package separately. The Splendor’s thermal suite has a pool, heated ceramic chairs, a steam room, and relaxation area.

balcony door and window

Unlike previous balcony cabins that we have had, this one had a window by the door instead floor to ceiling glass on the entire outside wall. Being the top level of cabins it also did not have a balcony above to provide shade or shelter over the top of our balcony which was mostly open to the sky. The balcony had 2 chairs and a small table. The room sleeps 4 and we had 3 people in it,

balcony with a view of the Sydney Opera House at Circular Quay in Australia

The mattress on the bed was much better than what the Luminosa had. This one actually felt like a bed and was quite comfortable, whereas the bed on the Luminosa felt a lot like sleeping on the floor. We had just disembarked from the Luminosa a day before embarking on the Splendor.

drop down bunk

The cabin had a drop-down bunk that folds down from the ceiling and also a couch bed so either was an option for our adult daughter who came on this cruise with us. She chose the bunk. Cruise ship bunks are pretty comfortable, I have slept in those before on a few ships. The bad thing about the bunk is there is never a shelf or anything to put things like a phone on. It did have a little light though. Carnival only cleans once daily so there is no putting the bunk up for the day and down at night. Once it’s down it stays that way. It’s not really in the way of anything, but it is above the couch so people have to watch their heads when getting up from the couch so as not to bump them on the underside of the bunk. The ladder to the bunk is removable and it was in the way when attached to the bunk so we hung it from a picture on the wall during the day and put it back on the bunk at night.

cabin 1114

The room was pretty standard size for a cruise ship balcony cabin, though it had more storage space than the average cruise ship cabin. It had 3 closets, a desk, 4 small drawers in the desk, and 2 large drawers under the couch. One closet started out all shelves, but there was an extra bar and the shelves drop down so it was easy enough to reconfigure it so we each had a closet with some hanging space. Life jackets took up the top shelf of two of the closets. The safe in this room was in a cupboard under the desk rather than in one of the closets as they usually are on cruise ships. There was also a small refrigerator in a cupboard under the desk. The desk also had a bit of shelf space underneath. There was space enough under the bed for all of our suitcases even though there was some extra bedding stored there.

the bathroom has 2 sets of 3 shelves by the mirror

The bathroom had 3 shelves on either side of the mirror, one large and two small on each side. The shower had combo shampoo and conditioner and separate body wash. Spa cabins are supposed to have upgraded amenities so you would think we would at least get separate shampoo and conditioner. but we did not. The sink just had a bar of soap, no liquid soap or hand lotion. It’s nice having the extra set of 3 shelves in the bathroom. A lot of ships just have them on one side of the mirror, but both the Splendor and Luminosa had 3 on each side, though some of them were smaller than the average bathroom shelf.

with 3 people it doesn’t take long for a cruise ship cabin to look lived-in

Each of the 2 nightstands by the bed have a small cupboard for storage and a lamp with a couple USB ports. The desk has one American and one Australian outlet, which are not next to each other making it easy to use both if you have an adaptor to whichever is not yours or if (like us on that trip) you have people in the room from both countries. Our daughter got the Australian outlet to herself and I put an extender with 3 outlets into the one American one so we could at least plug in 2 things at a time. Most plugs are too wide to plug 3 things into it at once, but two is better than one.

magnets are very useful on cruise ships

There are 2 built-in hooks on the wall. Magnetic hooks allow a whole lot more things to hang there. We also have small magnets for keeping the paperwork organized. Magnets are very useful on cruise ships. Most have magnetic walls. The doors are usually magnetic as well, and sometimes even the shower structure. Magnetic shower walls make it really easy to add extra clothesline if you need it. Like most ships, this one had a small clothesline you can pull across the shower.

cabin artwork

Artwork in this room was several Japanese style paintings in the main cabin and a black and white tile in the bathroom that pictures 2 men in front of a house.

art tile in the bathroom

The scene on the tile sort of looked like maybe something shady going down.

homemade duck exchange mailbox

Our door was probably the most popular one on the ship. We had 3 duck exchange mailboxes on the door since there were 3 of us in the room. Being so close to the waterslides we had a lot of kids coming to trade ducks in the afternoons. Unfortunately there was one small boy who just kept taking them without putting any new ones in so other kids would come to trade and find nothing there. We had to put the boxes up high out of his reach when he started taking all of the ducks as soon as we put any out, which also made it hard for some of the other kids to reach. That one boy took more than 20 ducks without ever leaving a single one. It just takes one person to ruin things for everybody. In spite of that, we still managed to get more ducks in the mailboxes than we found around the ship.

the steward’s towel turtle was pretty similar to the ones I make

Our steward left a new towel animal each day. At the end of the cruise we left her one along with a tip and a duck. We also hid a couple ducks in the room in places a steward isn’t that likely to look so a future guest in the room can find them. We try to leave a couple for future guests in our cabin on each ship, though we have never found any left in a cabin by prior guests. Some people say they leave one in the safe, but I would imagine the steward checks there to see if anything was left behind so those would not still be there for the next guest.

Carnival Splendor at Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Carnival, Splendor | Tagged Carnival, cruise, photos, spa balcony cabin, Splendor, travel | Leave a comment

Bamberg Walking Tour

Posted on February 20, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

colorful buildings in Bamberg

Bamberg, Germany

Bamberg, Germany spreads over 7 hills where the Regnitz and Main rivers meet. Each hill has a church on top, mirroring ancient Rome. It is known for the historical buildings in the old town with buildings from the 11th to 19th centuries and for its arched bridges and Rauchbier – a smoky beer made in the region. People from our river cruise on Viking Skirnir who tried it said it tasted like ham. The city was founded in 902 and was the capitol of the Roman empire during the reign of Emperor Heinrich II starting in 1007. Both the emperor and his wife were buried in a cathedral there. The 11th century Bamberg Cathedral has 4 towers and many stone carvings. Later the city was ruled by bishop princes which were bishops of the church who were also the rulers of the town.

linden tree in a rose garden in winter

There was previously a US army base in Bamberg, but it closed in 2014. Bamberg’s climate is temperate and rainy. Average temperatures range from winter lows in the high 20’s F to summer highs in the upper 70’s F. It can snow in the winter from December to February. The average rainfall is about 34 inches per year. Historical buildings are the main tourist attraction, but there are also museums and a rose garden. The old town was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993 and contains Gothic, baroque and Romanesque architecture. Bamberg is in the upper Franconian region of Bavaria.

Bridge over the Regnitz River by the old town hall

The Main River has always been important to Bamberg. In the Middle Ages it was the starting point for shipping on the Main. Now it is the northern starting point of the Main-Danube Canal, built between 1960 and 1992 to connect the Main and Danube rivers. This canal is the reason our ship was able to sail all the way from Budapest to Amsterdam as we started on the Danube before passing through the canal to the Main, which later joins the Rhine.

waterfront buildings

The much smaller Regnitz is the other river flowing through Bamberg. Houses alongside the rivers are pricey real estate.

disembarking for a visit to Bamberg

Bamberg River Cruise Port

In Bamberg Viking Skirnir stopped briefly in an industrial area outside of town to let people off the ship for a tour. From there busses took everyone into town where we were let off next to the concert hall. Return busses came to the same spot several hours later, but did not return people to the same port.

lowering the gangway

The return busses briefly took the autobahn to a logging yard in another town where the ship arrived shortly after the busses and stayed long enough to put the gangway down and let everyone onboard. Another ship awaited those same busses to take their people to town, who would then meet their ship which was doing the reverse tour of ours from where we were originally let off.

concert hall

Bamberg Walking Tour

From the very modern concert hall where the busses let people off, local guides waited with passengers divided into 8 different groups.

tour guide

Our guide took us along a river first to a building that had once been a slaughterhouse, built along the river’s edge – in the edge of the river rather than on the land next to it.

old slaughterhouse

Bamberg’s old town has the original historic buildings rather than replicas like many other towns as they were not destroyed by World War 2 bombings as happened in so many other German towns. Bamberg had no major industries or Nazi installations so it wasn’t worth bombing.

the old town hall sits in the middle of the Regnitz River

The old town hall from Medieval times sits in the middle of the Regnitz River on a tiny island. Rumor has it the citizens of the town built it there because the bishop prince who was the ruler at that time would not let them build it on his land – and all the land was his so they built it in the river instead. The bishop ruled over everything the people did and having a town hall represented some small bit of control of their own lives for the common folks. It was in use as the town hall for 350 years before being replaced by a new town hall in 1736. It’s a museum now.

cobblestione street

As with many ancient German towns, Bamberg has some narrow cobblestone streets in the old town area.

cathedral with mismatched architecture

Up a hill from the bridge crossing the river by the old town hall there’s a large cathedral that has Roman style architecture at the bottom, and gothic at the top because the people changed styles when they had it partly built. This is the church where the roman emperor and his wife are buried.

model of the palaces and cathedral

The cathedral sits on one corner of a square that has 2 palaces surrounding it. There is a little model of the entire complex, which is much bigger than the buildings you can see from any one place.

renaissance palace

Next to that sits a Rennaissance style bishop prince’s palace, which was not the style a later bishop prince wanted so a baroque palace of twice the size sits next to it. That one is in an L shape rather than a horseshoe because they ran out of money before they could tear down the renaissance palace to finish it – so the guide said going baroque made them go broke. Of course that saved the earlier architecture.

roses blooming in winter

There were roses still in bloom on the outside of the rose garden by the palace.

view from the rose garden

The rose garden had a view overlooking the town from the wall at the edge of the garden.

small building in the inner court

Behind the other palaces there were a older half-timbered style buildings which is the inner court from 1475 that once housed the residential and farm buildings of the court.

big building in the inner court

Many of the buildings in that area of town are original to medieval times, though some had their facades replaced with baroque style during the era of a prince bishop who wanted everything modernized to baroque which was the latest style of the time. The baroque period lasted from about 1600-1750. The people were incentivized to change the facade of their homes due to a tax break for doing so, though the buildings remained as their original half-timbered structures beneath the baroque facade.

market stall

Down on the other side of the river is the main shopping area of the town, near to where there are market stalls going down a street parallel to the river, but up a block or two rather than on the river itself. These stalls sell mainly produce and other things for locals as these are just a market and not a Christmas market.

Christmas market

There was a Christmas market just beyond there that had a big tree and a few little kid rides among the stalls selling ready to eat food and other Christmas market items.

paved street

The city is much bigger than just the old town. Other areas have paved streets and traffic. Enough people ride bikes that there were some street lights at crosswalks that showed a bike rather than a person or just a colored light.

buildings in Bamberg

Many of the buildings look old even if they are not in the old town area.

pathway by the river

There’s a bridge next to the concert hall with views of the river, and just down from it a pathway that runs along the river from there to the next bridge. It’s a fairly short walk, but scenic with the river along one side. On the other side it looks like a little public park on the end near the concert hall, then is divided into what looks like separate little private yards. With the river on one side and a road on the other there are no houses attached to those yards, but perhaps they go to some of the buildings across the street.

view from the square between the cathedral and palaces

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged Bamberg, Germany, photos, river cruise, travel, Viking | Leave a comment

Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum

Posted on February 14, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

two self-portraits of Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands and died July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, France. He was the oldest of 6 children. Working as an art dealer’s apprentice starting at 16 brought about admiration of some painters and his interest in art. Rejection by a London girl and an unfulfilled desire for human affection and to serve humanity eventually brought about his dark side. He worked for a time as a teacher, preacher, and missionary before giving away all his belongings, sinking into despair, and discovering his calling as an artist.

church painting

His style changed over the years through both learning and the influence of other artists. Color was very important to him and his understanding of it improved through observing other artists in France. Some disturbing letters at the museum show a women hating or fearing side of both parties, him and a person he mentored.

sunflower painting

During time spent in a mental institution he painted a lot of pictures from what he could see through the bars of his cell when he wasn’t allowed to go outside. The sunflower paintings which are among his more famous came from time he spent living in a yellow house in Arles, France. There are sunflower paintings displayed at the museum in Amsterdam. Paul Gaugin lived with him in that house for a short time and two of the 5 sunflower paintings hung in his room.

The Starry Night (internet photo)

The starry night which is one of his most famous paintings was done in the mental asylum in France. This painting is not at the museum in Amsterdam. It is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He spent a year in the mental institute where treatment consisted of baths twice a week.

painting of a farm and field

The museum sticks with the long-believed tale of Van Gogh cutting his own ear off after a fight with Paul Gaugin who was living with him at the time, but in the 1990’s, letters were found about a pact of silence between Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin opening up a new theory that it was actually Gauguin – an accomplished swordsman – who cut off Van Gogh’s ear. According to this theory it was due to shame on Van Gogh’s part for attacking Gauguin in the first place and guilt on Gauguin’s for cutting off the ear that they never said that it was actually Gauguin who cut off Van Gogh’s ear with a sword.

painting of a tree

At the end of his life he lived with his brother Theo, who is the person he was closest to throughout his life and the one he corresponded with the most. Theo was an art trader. While living at his brother’s house, Vincent Van Gogh painted 75 paintings in 70 days then shot himself in the chest and died a couple days later. His brother Theo died of illness a year later. Theo’s widow is the main one who sold his paintings and made him famous. His art career only spanned one decade, but he made hundreds of pictures.

almond blossoms

His almond blossom painting was done for his newborn nephew, son of Theo and his wife Jo. This painting is at the museum in Amsterdam. Not all of the artworks in the museum are his. Some are from people who influenced him or were close to him.

central stairway

The museum has an open center with a stairway running up through the levels. There’s also an elevator available. The gift shop is on a lower level, with paintings on the top 3 levels of the building. In the open space in the center different paintings take turns being projected onto a wall.

Van Gogh museum

The outside of the museum it is a modern glass building. You can rent a headset for audio or just go through the museum without it. There is something about the paintings near all of them. With some it’s just a small sign saying who painted it, but at least one in each section has either part of his life story or an explanation of how those paintings relate to him if they are not his own. There’s a little headphone symbol anywhere that has audio available.

vase of flowers

Some exhibits are not paintings. There’s a microscope that shows things close up, like sand mixed with the paint on one scene. You don’t have to actually look through the scope to see it as there are real-time lighted displays of what is in the microscope on the wall that are whole lot bigger than the microscope view.

View of Auvers

Another exhibit is about colors. It talks about him learning how to use them and shows yarns that he used to determine color for a painting without wasting expensive paint to decide. One room of the museum had self-portraits of Van Gogh.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Posted in Day Trips, Europe, Port Cities, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged Amsterdam, Netherlands, photos, travel, Van Gogh Museum | Leave a comment

Hike at Magellan’s Strait Park

Posted on February 13, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

hike at Magallan’s Strait Park

In Holland America Oosterdam’s shore excursion descriptions the hike at Magellan’s Strait Park is billed as a visit to a national monument at Fort Bulnes and a walk through a native forest and coastal shores. Fort Bulnes is the first Chilean settlement on the Strait of Magellan, located 40 miles south of Punta Arenas. The drive is one hour each way from the port. Bulnes was founded in 1843 by 22 adventurers who claimed the Strait of Magellan for Chile and named the area after the president of Chile at the time, Manuel Bulnes. The fort was originally built to protect Southern Chile and the Strait of Magellan from getting claimed by other countries. The fort tour includes a visit to a church, chaplain’s quarters, the jail, powder magazine, post office, and stables.

view from the trail

The excursion blurb said the forest walk passes through the best viewpoints of the area. It ends at a visitor’s center with great views and will provide a drink which is a specialty of the region called a calafate sour. It didn’t mention that the drinks provided on cruise ship excursions don’t contain the traditional egg foam on top – probably so as not to sicken people with raw eggs.

hiking through the woods

The advisory notes say to wear comfortable walking shoes and dress warmly in layers for unpredictable weather. Waterproof and windproof clothing is recommended along with hat, scarf, and gloves. The minimum age is 12. We saw very kids on the ship younger than that onboard. Actually we saw very few kids of any age on this cruise.

bridge at the bottom of a steep hill

The weather forecast on the day of our hike was for rain and wind, though not so much wind as the gale expected on the day we were scheduled to visit that port. The itinerary changed to go a day early as it would be too rough to tender to shore the day we were supposed to be there.

wild fuchsia

We dressed per the forecast figuring even if it didn’t rain, raingear would work as a windbreaker as well. The weather was cloudy on the way over in the tender and during the bus ride to the fort, which was about an hour away. The road ran along the shore. First we passed by a bunch of rusted out hulks half sunk along the shore. Then we went by a whole bunch of what looked like abandoned hulks rusting offshore. The guide said those were actually Chinese fishing vessels who were there to wait out the coming storm. They aren’t allowed to fish in Chilean waters or come ashore, but they let them sit out storms there because they would sink in open water. They do their fishing in international waters.

Along the way the guide gave us little bits of history. We passed by a monument that was a marker of the center of the country of Chile – if you count Antarctica as part of Chile. Apparently they had claimed it as their own before the international treaty was signed for it not to belong to any country. Though they did sign that treaty along with everyone else they still kind of consider it part of their country. There was also a statue of the Virgin Mary there because she’s their patron saint of the sea and he said pretty much everyone living in that area works on ships at some point in their life.

saggy roofed building at the fort

We passed by a lot of pretty good-sized fishing boats up on shore. Some for maintenance and repair, but others just for storage. The guide said they put them on shore when not in use. They don’t have cranes or anything to get them there either. Just a lot of people and maybe a pick-up truck with a rope.

view from the fort

The fort is a replica of the original because the first one was burned down by a mutineer who went there on his way out of the country just to do that. He got caught later because instead of leaving the country straight away he stopped again to do further damage elsewhere. At that time the punishment there for mutineers was public dismemberment.

fort entrance and the original building

The original fort was built to defend Chile’s claim to their part of Patagonia and the Strait of Magellan. The first people to arrive used up a lot of the wood they had brought with them for building a fort in repairs of their ship along the way so they had just enough left for one building – and no nails. They had an engineer from a Nordic country along with them who taught them how to stack log walls by making grooves in the corners where they could fit one log into another. Much like the Lincoln log toys only on a much larger scale. That is how the stronghold was made, which was the first building at the fort.

church at Fort Bulnes

Later other people came with more supplies so most other buildings are made in a more traditional manner. The church is still registered as an operating church. People can rent it for a wedding venue if they want. It would have to be a pretty small wedding since it’s a very small church.

sod building at Fort Bulnes

At some point the settlers learned how to make sod buildings by drying bricks cut from the soil and stacking them. There’s still one small building like that there, though some of the sod does not look to be in the best of shape.

cannons and the monkey puzzle tree

There was a tree that looked like what’s called a monkey puzzle tree at home. The guide called it something else, but said it was the same tree. Something not native to that particular spot, but a sacred tree to the original inhabitants of the area. It comes from the high mountain regions of Patagonia. The one there was planted by the early settlers. In Chile it’s called pehuen. It is also known as piño araucaria and pino chileno. The scientific name is Araucaria araucana. I don’t remember which name the guide used.

stockade

A tall skinny building was the jail or stockade. It’s made Lincoln log style like the first building which was also tall and thin, though not quite so much as the stockade. The guide said the most infamous prisoner was the fort’s blacksmith whose original crime was not wanting to do much work. Considering the people there were generally cold and starving and had a long walk just to fetch water it’s pretty understandable that one would not feel like working too hard. His punishment was to work double shifts and sleep in the jail. After awhile his wife complained about it and got in a shouting match with the person running the fort. He kicked both her and the husband out of the fort. The blacksmith was a violent man so fearing harm to the wife people went looking for them and found her dead by the river due to a blow to the head with a blunt object. The blacksmith was then sent back to the city as a murderer.

boardwalk leading from the fort to the trail

After about half an hour at the fort the group was gathered up to start on the hike. Anyone not wanting to walk was given the option of taking the bus to the visitor’s center. Some people actually took them up on that even though the hike was the main part of this excursion and there was a different tour that just went to the fort and visitor’s center without the hike. One guy said it he booked it intending to hike, but couldn’t due to an injury. Maybe the others just didn’t like the weather as it had been raining on and off while we were at the fort.

start of the trail

The hiking trail was mostly a narrow single file sort of trail through the woods. There was a very short level bit before the first steep downhill. It was mostly up hills and down hills from there. At the start of both this hike and the one we took at the previous port stop in Puerto Chacabuco we were told the distance was about 2K, but the first one was over 3K and this one more than 4. I didn’t mind since I often run farther than that on hilly trails, but it was farther than what some of the people were accustomed to walking.

clover and burrs

Some of the vegetation resembles familiar things. What looked like an ordinary patch of clover turned out that all of what looked like dead blossoms were actually burrs. They stick onto whatever they touch, but were soft rather than prickly like they looked and were easy to pull off. The clover may have actually been clover with the burr plants growing within it.

There were daisies that the guide said are native that looked exactly like the non-native invasive oxeye daisies we have at home, though they are not actually the same variety of daisy. Everything is native somewhere. The oxeye ones came from Europe. There were also dandelions or something that looked exactly like them. Dandelions are not native, but are an invasive plant in Patagonia. They also had some sort of species of beech tree. Fuchsias grow wild there too. There were also all sorts of plants that don’t resemble anything familiar.

burls in the trees

Some of the trees had big burls on them, which the guide said were caused by a fungus. The tree encapsulates it to protect itself, then the fungus works its way out so the tree makes another capsule. They can pile up into pretty big burls, which the guide said make beautiful ornamentation for wood products when split open.

bridge on the trail

At the hike we took in the previous port of Puerto Chacabuco there were two types of calafate bushes, one with thorns on the stem and the other with thorns on the leaf. One was a darker shade of green than the other. One made sweet berries while the other had berries that were kind of sour and seedy, though they were still edible.

Calafate berries

On these tours the guides always stop here and there to talk about things. One of the stops on this tour was at a Calafate bush. The tale from the indigenous people of the area, of which there were several different tribes, was that a girl named Calafate from one tribe fell in love with a boy from a rival tribe. When the two kept sneaking off to see each other even though it had been forbidden a shaman from the girl’s tribe turned her into a bush. When the boy saw that the berries were the unusual color of her eyes (something like a blueberry) he died of sadness right next to the bush. The shaman then felt badly because it was true love and not just a passing teenage fancy.

steep hill on the trail

I thought he was going to then say that the girl was the bush with the sweet berries and the boy turned into the other type of calefante bush that we had seen at the previous port, but apparently that area just had one type because he never mentioned the other one. The tale just ended with the boy dying by the bush.

on the trail

During most of the hike it had stopped raining and the expected wind hadn’t kicked up so it was a bit warm in raingear even though I did not wear a heavy jacket or anything underneath since the temperature wasn’t all that cold. It did rain off and on though. Usually about the time I took the hood off and unzipped my coat it would start to rain and then stop shortly after zipping back up and putting the hood on again.

visitor’s center

Near the end of the hike after leaving the shelter of the forest we hiked on a very narrow trail at the edge of an exposed hillside overlooking the water. We were getting close to the visitor’s center when the expected wind finally kicked up along with heavier rain than we’d had previously. That was the sort of weather we had expected and dressed for. Even though there was just a short distance left anyone without raingear was soaked through by the time they reached the visitor’s center. From then on it kept on raining fairly heavily until we got back to the ship, but once we made it into the visitor’s center we were inside other than when going back to the bus and then from the bus to the tender.

whale exhibit in the visitor’s center

From the trail there was a ramp up to the visitor’s center. It was quite dark when first going inside. Turning left into a hallway, we passed a giant lighted whale display, which explained the darkness of the surrounding area. A different hallway in the visitor’s center had glass cases with models of sailboats.

gift shop

The main room had a gift shop in half and a café in the other half. Of course it had a gift shop. Every attraction everywhere exits through the gift shop even if you’re outside in the middle of nowhere. At the far end of the café on the opposite side of where people order stuff they had a table set up with the promised calefate sours, a local drink made with the berry from the bush. The alcohol in it is pisco, a local brandy to Chile and Peru. Snacks provided were little empanadas and filled croissants.

It rained the whole bus ride back including a rainy walk to the tender. Since it rains a lot in that area hitting some during the trip is to be expected. We got lucky in Puerto Chacabuco with one of their 50 or so sunny days for the year. In spite of the rain it was still a fun and interesting tour. Wearing the recommended rain gear for the hike definitely paid off.

Posted in Holland America, Oosterdam, Shore Excursions, South and Central America | Tagged Chile, cruise, Holland America, Magellan's Strait Park, Oosterdam, photos, Punta Arenas, travel | 1 Comment

Things To Do On Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam

Posted on February 6, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

carved fruit display

There’s always a variety of things to do on a cruise ship. Some ships have more things to do on your own and others more scheduled activities, but they all have some of each. Standard on every cruise ship are things like swimming pools and hot tubs. Holland America Niew Amsterdam has 2 public swimming pools. There’s also a hydrotherapy pool for people who pay for the thermal suite in the spa. The ship also has hot tubs next to the public pools. Usually pools on the Nieuw Amsterdam are open in the daytime for people to swim in as they wish, but occasionally there’s a scheduled event at one of the pools. The back deck pool is always outside, but the main Lido pool has a sliding cover so it can be inside or outside depending on the temperature and weather.

back deck pool

Holland America’s ships aren’t the sort that have waterslides or rock-climbing walls, but they do have a lot of scheduled activities. There are also some things you can do on your own on the ship.

casino

There’s a pretty extensive casino with lots of slot machines and some table games.

ship’s art

Even just exploring all of the public areas of the ship is fun to do. There’s all sorts of different artwork to see while wandering about.

outside promenade deck

The promenade deck goes all the way around the ship, which is a nice feature on Holland America’s ships that not all ships of all cruiselines have. It’s a popular place for people to walk around. There’s also some deck chairs on the promenade deck which are prime choices for lounging in the shade since most of the ship’s deck chairs are out in the sun on upper decks. We spent a few lazy afternoons lounging in the deck chairs with a book and a daiquiri there. We also took quite a lot of walks around the promenade. We did try the gym, but the promenade was preferable for exercise. The gym has a view if you happen to be in the row by the front window, but the promenade has fresh outside air and a better view.

library

A fairly new feature on Holland America’s ships is a new library that has quite a variety of books organized into different sections like romance, sci-fi, mystery, young adult, and non-fiction, among other categories, There’s even a book exchange where people can leave a book they brought and finished and take one that someone else left there. The actual library books of course have to be returned before disembarking the ship.

it’s not really a book of chemistry lessons

I usually just read ebooks in the kindle app on my phone. It’s been years since I read an actual physical book. My sister and I thought it might be fun to read the same book at the same time so we visited the library and found something they had more than one copy of. When my sister picked one called Lessons in Chemistry I said I didn’t want to read a textbook, but she said it was actually a fiction story someone had recommended to her so we started with that one. It did turn out to be a good book. The library had several copies when we checked it out, but none left by the time we brought our copies back so apparently other people liked it too. Next we tried one called Lost in the Never Woods, which turned out to be an odd take on Peter Pan with a dark ending. Not a favorite for either of us. She also read some other books from the library. I read some of my ebooks at times when the phone was a lot handier than an actual book. Which is actually always, but I did find time enough to read two physical books during the 3-week cruise.

art class

Holland America ships have art classes. I had not paid any attention to them on previous cruises, but Linda likes that sort of thing. They offered watercolors, doodling, origami, adult coloring, dam dots challenge, and calligraphy. Watercolors were by far the most popular. We tried everything except calligraphy. She wasn’t interested in that one and I have a hard time writing legibly with a normal pen. Sometimes I can’t even read my own writing. The art teacher was Nora from Norway. She was entertaining as well as talented and made the art classes fun. I was always better at crafts than at art. For the most part Linda’s pictures were better than mine, but I made some passable artwork and there were even a couple times in the watercolor classes where my picture turned out better than hers. The instructor’s samples tended to outshine pretty much everyone else most of the time though. We painted what could be either sunrises or sunsets in the first watercolor class. Cruise ships are a good place to watch real sunrises and sunsets as they are often quite pretty over the water.

sunrise

In the past the art classes were always first come first served. They tried something new on this cruise where people had to go half an hour before the first class of the morning or afternoon to sign up for any classes they wanted to do in that section. Of course the line started forming at least half an hour before that. It was still first come first served since whoever was at the front of the line could sign up for all of the classes for that session if they wanted to. So it just meant people had to spend extra time going to the sign-up rather than just to the class and maybe give up something else they would have liked to do at that time just to wait in line to sign up for something happening later. People could still walk in last minute if space was available, which there often was in the afternoon so we only ever waited in line for morning sessions. On the flip side, if the people near the front of the line filled up the class then people near the back spent all that time waiting for nothing whereas if it was just walk in until all the seats were full it wouldn’t have taken that chunk out of their day to just peek in the room and see no space available. Nobody liked that system, not even the art teacher since it also took extra time out of her day so hopefully whoever’s dumb idea that was in corporate will get enough complaints that they go back to just being first come first served when the class starts.

line dancing at the orange party

Some of the other classes offered included ballroom dancing, line dancing, tai chi, pickleball, yoga, and tech for travelers. We tried the line dancing a couple times. Even if you’re not very good at it it’s really good exercise. Holland America always has an orange themed day once during the cruise. Orange is the color of the House of Orange-Nassau which is the royal family of the Netherlands. On this cruise the orange day coincided with the actual King’s birthday celebration in Holland. On Holland America’s orange day people dress in orange at dinner and then there’s an orange party in the evening. They opened the orange party with line dancing, with dances people learned from the lessons. We only went a couple times to the lessons and only knew one easy dance, but Linda did a pretty good job following along on some of the more difficult ones that came after.

cornhole game

Bridge, mahjong, poker, and pickleball games were all on the schedule. Also sometimes other cruise games like cornhole, shuffleboard, and a series called traditional games that started with an egg walk and had other games to follow with daily and overall prizes. The shuffleboard and cornhole games were out on an upper deck available for anyone to play whenever they weren’t in use for an official competition.

ping-pong tables

Same with the ping-pong tables on the Lido deck. I think pickleball was more scheduled because so many people want to play it, but I could be wrong about that since I haven’t ever tried it. Other games included daily trivia offerings and nightly game show contests.

game show

One night we tried the game show which on that day was a game called Tripod. We’d never heard of it and mainly went to see what it was. It turned out to be a word game. People were divided into two teams which the guy in charge named oink and moo. We were on moo. One person from each team sat in a chair facing the rest of the team. A word came up on a screen behind the two and whichever team’s turn it was had to come up with a one word clue from which they could guess the word. Sometimes one word was enough such as when kangaroo was the word, Australia brought a correct guess. If they didn’t get it in one guess the other team could try to steal. Usually a second clue was enough like when beach didn’t get the right answer adding build from the second team got the right answer of sand castle. Three was the most clues it took, which got the point for that round back to the original team. Oink won by one point.

theater show

Other daily events included afternoon movies, afternoon tea, and nightly theater shows. There was also music each evening at several different bars each offering a different sort of music. Judging from the crowd size the piano bar appeared to be the most popular.

lecture

Previous Holland America cruises we’ve taken had guest lecturers. Some on itinerary-related subjects and others on random things. There were no guest lecturers on this cruise. Instead the cruise director gave several presentations on itinerary-related subjects. She also had a lot of other duties to perform. She introduced the nightly shows and had other activities she was in charge of as well as whatever regular cruise director duties involve. I hope they paid her well since she had to work so hard. She also did the port talks, which on previous cruises were either guest lectures with things about the port or shore excursion staff talking about different excursions offered at that port. Usually some of each. There were also health or fitness related lectures offered at the gym, something the cruise director didn’t have to do since the gym staff took care of those.

just a few of many towel animals by the Lido pool

Besides daily activities there were also some one-time events and activities. The towel animal takeover on the Lido deck on this ship went beyond the usual conglomeration of towel animals covering the Lido deck. They added in fruit carvings, origami, baked bread animals, napkin folding, and a sales event with merchandise from the ships shops set up in booths on the Lido. Eventually they handed out some cake and fruit samples at the fruit carving booth, but it wasn’t open yet when we went through there to see all the towel animals. They were also still working on the fruit carvings then.

bread animals

Other one-time events include cake me away where there are all sorts of fancy cakes at the buffet during lunchtime and chocolate surprise where some of the waiters wander around with trays of various chocolate treats to hand out to people at all of the public areas on deck 2 at a specified time in the evening. They come out with trays all of one thing and then the next wave has trays of a different thing until they get through all of the various little treats. Another day they had a fun carnival on the Lido deck where they had all sorts of different games set up. People could play the various games for fun or to try and win tickets for prizes.

Think the team that built this boat is from Canada?

The biggest competition of the cruise is the ship building contest. People could sign up to build little boats that would later be tested in the pool to see if they could float. I’d only seen that once previously on the Oosterdam Antarctica cruise where there were just 3 entries that people made all on their own. On Nieuw Amsterdam they had boat building sessions with crew to help people make their entries and they ended up with a whole lot of teams with quite a variety of different boats. They had quite a few sessions to work on them before the competition. The boat creating sessions were just for the participants, but the trials were open for everyone to watch.

little ships in the pool on a cruise ship

The ship building competition trials took place in the Lido pool. There were 16 entries ranging from small to quite large. Some of them even had life boats. After introducing each boat they all went into the pool, though the first 8 went in way before the rest giving the later entries an unfair advantage had any sank just from time in the pool, but none of them ever actually sank. They were judged on design and seaworthiness. After floating around for awhile they were attacked first with rubber ducks, which did no damage, then with balls and even a watermelon before several of the crew jumped into the pool to make waves. After that didn’t sink any boats they jumped directly onto the swarm of boats, which sent the Toytanic onto its side. It got eliminated though it didn’t actually sink. One of the many boats in the pool launched a tiny lifeboat which floated around on its own. One entry called Spirit Bear lost its top story, but the crew that was trying to sink all of the other boats placed it back on top and it ended up winning first place. Second went to Landlockeddam, a low to the water neon green ship, and third to Canadam Eh, both of which sustained no obvious damage. It was a fun thing to watch, but some of the people put a lot of effort into building those boats only to watch them get destroyed. A little one called Peace of Ship was used to gather the balls and float them out of the pool during clean-up and even full of heavy balls it didn’t sink, but it didn’t get any prizes.

hydropool in the thermal suite at the spa

Both me and the other lady at our dinner table had birthdays during the cruise, but the dining staff did not bring either of us a little birthday cake or sing happy birthday even though several nights they did that for someone else at other tables in the dining room. It could be that they did not specifically include her birthday in their travel info because although they know the date from your info I think they only celebrate if you mention it. I’m pretty sure my travel agent included it though. They did not make any gluten-free baked goods onboard and apparently don’t have any little gluten free cakes in the freezer or anything and don’t acknowledge the birthday if they aren’t bringing a cake. I’d actually have been fine with a regular cake for that, but cruise ship crews don’t separate limited tolerance from celiac on anyone going gluten free so they would never do that.

hiding a duck

People can make their own fun on cruises too. Hiding ducks is something people do on cruises to entertain themselves these days. Finding them is fun too, but that depends on someone else hiding them. On some ships there are a lot of duck hiders, but on this cruise we may have been the only ones. Even if the passengers on a particular cruise don’t know about cruising ducks it makes the crew’s day to find one – and finding one introduces people who previously weren’t aware of cruise ducks to their existence. That’s actually how we first found out about them, by finding one on a Celebrity ship. Cruising ducks started on Carnival and remains most prolific there. On cruises where people are actively looking for ducks we hide some stealth ducks that take more effort to find, but on this ship we left them out in the open where people not actually looking for ducks could happen across them.

puzzles and games in the Crow’s Nest

One nice thing about cruises is that people can do as much or as little as they want. An entire day could be filled with scheduled activities if that’s what people want to do, but if you’d rather just relax in a deck chair and chill out that’s an option too. I like to do some activities, but have plenty of time for relaxing too. The Crow’s Nest lounge is a good hang out place on Holland America ships. There’s a row of loungers by the front window with a good view, other groupings of furniture, and plenty of tables and chairs for all of the games and puzzles available there. And a bar that had both specialty coffee or other hot drinks and regular bar stuff as well as a few goodies.

Posted in Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, Shipboard Life | Tagged cruise, Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, photos, things to do on a cruise ship, travel | Leave a comment

Majestic Princess

Posted on February 3, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Majestic Princess

We boarded the Majestic Princess in Fort Lauderdale directly after disembarking from Symphony of the Seas in Miami. It used to be easy to do a back-to-back with one cruise in Miami and a second in Fort Lauderdale. After all the two cities are not far from each other. In the past we have just taken an Uber from one port to the other. After disembarking Symphony of the Seas in Miami, there were no Ubers available. We ended up taking a port shuttle to the Fort Lauderdale airport. We got lucky in that particular driver agreeing to drop us at the cruise port after he dropped everyone else at the airport. Apparently not all shuttle drivers would do so. Traffic into the port was horrible, taking an hour to go just a few miles so some drivers probably want to avoid that. The shuttle driver said there used to be a whole lot more Ubers in Miami, but there aren’t nearly as many now because a lot of the drivers got deported. After the Princess cruise we did finally manage to book an Uber out of the Fort Lauderdale cruise port, but it took nearly half an hour to get one and the taxi line wasn’t any better. Odds are a bunch of taxi drivers got deported too.

piazza

Majestic Princess is a royal class ship built in 2017. It is the third ship of 6 in that class preceded by Royal and Regal Princesses and followed by Sky, Enchanted, and Discovery Princesses. Ships of this class feature a large central atrium which is called the piazza. It features open space for 3 decks above the piazza on deck 5, with public spaces like shops, bars, and eateries ringing the edges of all 3 levels. A lot of the onboard activities like games and dancing are held in the piazza.

seawalk

Another feature of this ship class is the seawalk, a short walkway that swoops out along the side of the ship with clear panels in the floor through which people can view lifeboats and the sea beneath their feet.

picture in one of the hallways to cabins

Majestic Princess weighs 143,00 tons with a length of 1083 feet, height of 224 feet, and width of 155 feet at its widest point. It has 1780 staterooms and a guest capacity of 3,560 with 1346 crew. It has 18 decks with the top deck labeled as 19 as there is no deck 13. Passengers have access to deck 4 and above. Passenger areas on deck 4 are limited to the medical center and tender embarkation areas for ports where the ship is not docked. Decks 18 and 19 are not full decks, just smaller sports areas. The decks in between are either public spaces, cabin decks, or a combination of both.

pistachio loveboat heart

Princess introduced a new upgraded menu just a week or two before our cruise. The food was good and the menu still includes some Princess favorites from the previous menu. The chocolate loveboat heart that used to be one of the everyday desserts was only served once, replaced on the everyday menu by a pistachio one. which John really liked. He ordered it several times. I thought the pistachio one was a bit too sweet and prefer the original chocolate one over it. Overall the food in the dining room was quite good and Princess has the biggest and best buffet of all the ships we have sailed on. The ship also has lots of bars and some pay-extra eateries.

Hollywood Conservatory

Majestic Princess has very elegant decor. It had a glassed in area called the Hollywood Pool Club and Hollywood Conservatory that looked like the sort of space that would only be open to suite guests, but it was available to everyone. The other ships of this class we have been on did not have this feature. It was a very nice space that would have had a solarium type feel if it were warmer, but the temperature in that area was kept too cold for people to lounge comfortably on the many available deck chairs in swimwear, especially if they were wet from the pool or hot tub. The hot tubs on that ship were not hot enough either. The curtained off cabanas by windows in the conservatory area were free to use and available to anyone who could get one, which was quite nice since other ships tend to charge extra for similar spaces. There were also board games and tables to play them on in the conservatory area and a bar in the pool area making it a multi-use hangout space.

fountain pool

The ship also has outdoor pools and hot tubs. The raised central pool on the main Lido deck is called the Fountain Pool because it has short fountain shows in the evening where it has colored lights and fountain displays lasting about 15 minutes.

kitchen tour

Princess doesn’t have waterslides or anything like some ships do, but it does have things for kids to do. There are kid’s club activities for various age groups from young children to teens and they can also participate in scheduled activities that are open to everyone, like the galley (kitchen) tour they had one day. There are 2 arcades, ping pong tables, and mini golf. The mini golf is a small space on the very top deck that is more random holes to hit the ball into than an actual course. The ship also has pickleball and basketball courts as well as other games like cornhole.

hallway carpets

For anyone who is at least a little bit observant it’s easy to know if you are in the right hallway for your cabin on this ship. Besides having all of the odd numbers on the starboard side and even on the port side, it also has red hallway carpets starboard and blue port so even if you can’t see the tiny numbers from the elevator/stairway bay you can just glance at the carpet and know which hallway is correct.

Princess medallion in a waterproof bracelet

Instead of ship cards to open cabin doors, scan on and off the ship, and purchase things onboard, Princess has wearable medallions. They come on a lanyard, but other options are available to put them in. They sell a variety of things onboard, but you can also buy the waterproof bracelets on Amazon for a fraction of the price of buying it onboard. These are especially useful for cruises to warm places because you never have to worry about what to do with your ship card if you go swimming or snorkeling. You never have to hunt for a ship card when you’re wearing it either. It even unlocks the cabin door for you before you get there. Medallions also have a sort of creepy, but very useful stalking feature in the Princess app where you can see where your shipmates are in a map of the deck plans.

show with drone lights

We only went to one show on this ship. It was a production show called Fantastic Journey. It was a singing and dancing show with a bunch of fast paced short acts that had nothing to do with each other. Some of the acts had elements that appeared as if they were copied from shows we have seen on Royal Caribbean, most notably the drone lights. Indoor drone lights in cruise ship shows were first introduced in the ice show called 1977 on Symphony of the Seas. I had not seen them on any other ship before Majestic Princess. It’s a lot of work to program them because they can’t use external GPS on a moving ship so they have to be coordinated to a system within the ship.

O’Malley’s Irish Pub

Overall the Majestic Princess is quite a nice ship and we enjoyed cruising on it.

Posted in Majestic Princess, Princess | Tagged cruise, Majestic Princess, photos, Princess Cruises, travel | Leave a comment

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