Jay Peak Tram and Trails

Posted on June 23, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

tram view from the top of the peak

There is quite a network of trails going up the side of Jay Peak between Jay Peak Resort in Vermont and the top of the mountain. When the tram is running it goes all the way up to the top. Some of the trails also go to the top so the upper trails don’t necessarily have to be reached on foot when the tram is running. There are ski lifts all over the mountain too, but none of them go all the way up like the tram does. None of them were open in the off-season when we were there either. Though some of them are quite steep, there are trails under the lifts so you can hike to the tops of many of the lifts or go up one trail and then find lots of others while you are already up on the mountain.

top of a ski lift

Jay Peak is mainly a ski resort, but when visiting during other seasons the trails are available for hiking, and some for biking as well. They have trail maps in the lobby showing the hiking trails. The trails start on the peak side of the lodge near the tram, but there isn’t any signage indicating what are the official hiking trails there and what isn’t. Some Nordic ski trails start in the same general area. Their entrance is far better marked, though up on the hill it’s just colored numbers for them the same as for the hiking trails. The ski runs have name signs all over the hillside. There are a lot of different ski runs on the hill. Some ski runs go through the forest and are marked as ungroomed glade trails with a warning not to ski them alone.

entrance to a glade ski trail

glade ski trail in the fall with leaves instead of snow

If you hike up the mountain you may come across trail intersections with the numbers shown on the hiking trail map. These are often accompanied by signs for other trails saying which trails go which direction. This would be more helpful if the trails on those signs were indicated on the hiking map, but they are not because they are ski runs so the names don’t help any for figuring out where you are on the hiking trail, or in some places whether you are actually even still on a hiking trail at all or have ended up on one of the Nordic trails or a ski run.

Trail or ski run?

This of course means you have a lot more ways to get back down the mountain than indicated on the hiking map, but it also means you may not actually be on the trail you think you are. The ski runs generally go down to the lodge, often with a view of it from higher up, so if you get lost or just want to get back quicker that’s a good way to go. They’re not hard to find since there are ski runs pretty much everywhere. Unlike the hiking trails which are far more limited, poorly marked, and much harder to find.

ski runs without snow make steep, but hikeable trails

As previously mentioned, the tram goes all the way to the top of the mountain, but the numerous chair lifts only go partway. It’s not too far to hike to the top of some of those lifts if you don’t mind a sometimes steep uphill hike. Hiking all the way to the top where the tram goes would be steeper as well as farther, which is why the upper trails are marked as the most difficult on the hiking map. Distances between trail markers and the distance of each named trail would be really useful information, but it is not provided. Trails under ski lifts are obviously not the intended hiking trails, but some of the ski runs are not right by the lifts so it’s not always obvious if those are ski runs or trails unless you see a sign.

Not the top – it’s just one of the supporting towers for the tram to the left and a ski lift to the right up on what looks like the peak in this view. The actual peak is behind it and higher.

I hiked two kilometers up a ski run the second day I was there, which put me higher on the mountain than the tops of the ski runs where I’d gotten to by trails that weren’t directly under them the day before. 2k definitely seemed closer to what looked like the top than to the lodge, but the higher you go the steeper it gets. The hiking trails up that high on the map approach the peak from an angle rather than more or less straight up like the ski runs, but they are not well marked. I never found either of the hiking trails that goes all the way to the top of the peak, just lots of signs naming many different ski runs.

up on what looks like the top until you get there and find out it’s not even close

As you hike up it often looks like you are nearly there, but at the top of the next rise you see it is actually farther than you think. Then when finally reaching the top of the peak you can see from some of the ski runs you see that the actual peak is across a valley and up on another rise still quite some distance away.

you don’t want to find one of these ticks

The woods are beautiful, but they carry tiny dangers in the form of ticks. After a couple days of hiking up the mountain I found a tick on the back of my shoulder. Maybe not fully engorged, but enough that it had probably been there since the first day, which put it over the 36 hour danger zone for the possibility of contracting Lyme disease. It had black legs so was likely the bad sort of tick that carries it (deer tick). We live where there are no ticks and have no experience dealing with them but found another guest there who knew how to twist ticks out with tweezers.

lower tram station

My only prior experience with a tick was about 30 years ago of the not disease carrying kind (wood tic) in Minnesota. There they burned the tick’s back end so it would pull its head out and not leave any mouth parts behind. Either times have changed as people learn more about them, or it’s the different sort of tick or area of the country because all the locals or people from anywhere that has ticks that we talked to in Vermont said if you do that it regurgitates and you don’t want that because of more likelihood of contracting Lyme disease. Some recommended 2 or 3 weeks of doxycycline just in case and others said wait and see because the doxycycline tears up your stomach and makes you extremely sun sensitive.

on the top of the world (or at least the top of Jay Peak)

We sent a photo of the tick to our home medical clinic, who of course have no experience dealing with ticks and they did a prescription for one dose of doxycycline as hopefully a preventative and then said watch how it heals because if it heals from the inside so it looks like a bullseye or if I get sick then to come in. Apparently you have 4 weeks from a tick bite to treat for Lymes before it can spread beyond the bloodstream to cause what could become permanent issues. The symptoms for getting sick from it are about the same as Covid or the flu though so that would make it hard to tell.

trail sign at the peak

After I got home a friend of John’s contacted a doctor who is a leading expert on Lyme disease and he gave me a 3-week prescription for doxycycline, which meant I was on it a couple weeks later when I went on a Caribbean cruise. Having to avoid sun in the Caribbean is not the best of situations, but better than risking Lyme disease. I got a full-body UV blocking swimming suit, which is handy for snorkeling anyway as it eliminates the need for sunscreen over a large portion of the body. That’s a bonus for the ocean because most sunscreens are very harmful to coral and Caribbean coral is rapidly disappearing. Luckily reef safe sunscreen does exist, but that doesn’t mean everyone uses it. The full body UV blocking swimsuit has an advantage over any sort of sunscreen because it won’t wash off or wear off so you can stay out longer without worrying about getting sunburned. Great for all water sports, not just snorkeling.

tram at Jay Peak

The tram up the mountain was closed through the beginning of our stay, but opened the day I found the tick. The sun shone brightly that day, the first time since we had been there. Having both wanted to go up the tram and no more desire to hike in the woods we took the tram up after the tick was removed.

view through the tram window

The ride up the tram is probably beautiful any time of year, particularly so when all the leaves are in their finest fall colors. At the lower part it looks steep when you look up the hill from the tram, but relatively flat looking down. I can attest from walking up it that that is an optical illusion because it is all steep when you hike up it.

it looks like the tram is nearly to the peak, but that’s just the first peak, not the real peak

What looks like the uppermost tower from the lower part of the hill is really only partway up. The tram goes over the part where the land drops lower a bit after what looks like the peak from lower down, then rises up again behind the little valley that they called the bowl before it gets to the actual peak.

upper tram station

After the bowl there’s a steep rise up the last bit of the mountain. The upper tram stop is just below the highest point of the mountain. The actual peak is jagged rocks so the station is next to it.

plaque at the top of Jay Peak

Once out of the tram there’s a stairway and then some rocks to climb to get to the actual top of the peak. A small plaque marks the spot. Little puddles in the rocks from recent rain resembled tide pools, but without little sea creatures. The trees are all evergreens up that high, and the ones in the rocky top are all stunted and small like little bonsai trees.

recent rains left little pools in the rock

On a sunny day the view is excellent. If the top of the mountain was shrouded in fog as it had been much of the two previous days there probably wouldn’t be much view at all. Especially at the times where from the lodge you couldn’t even see that there was a mountain there at all. The day we went up if you stood in the right spot by the lodge where you could see that second peak you could see all the way up to the tram stop on top, and from the top you could see all of the surrounding area well beyond the lodge.

view of the next peak over from Jay Peak

When we first got out of the tram though sunny there, on the far side fog rose from a hollow covering the next peak over, which was quite close by, but the other 3 directions were clear and sunny. That fog rose and drifted away while we were there, leaving that side clear as well.

people are taller than the little trees at the top of the peak

The views from the tram and from the top were well worth the price to ride it up there. The building at the top had a restaurant in it, but like most everything else at that lodge it must be for ski season only as it was closed. Some people ride the tram up and then hike down. The upper portion of the hiking trails that go to the top are quite obvious from up there. Having no desire to set foot in that woods again I took the tram back down. The views are better from the tram than from the trails anyway.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

Saint Martin Island Tour

Posted on June 16, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of the cruise dock from the bottom of the zip line

After finishing an early morning zipline excursion in Saint Martin on our visit there on Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas, we had time to do something else since the ship stayed in port most of the day. The taxi stand had several tours of varying lengths, of which the per person price dropped with the addition of more people. We tagged along with 6 people from P&O Britannia, which was the other ship in port that day. They were on a 14-day cruise out of Barbados.

tour van and driver

The van was pretty spacious with a separate seat for each of the 4 couples. At capacity it could have held 15, but their tour prices only went up to 8 so they are apparently not intent on crowding people in, which makes for a nicer tour.

entering France (we were actually leaving, but the signs were for traffic going the other way)

Saint Martin has a Dutch side where the cruise docks and airport are, and a French side which is larger. Back in history both sides had salt ponds where they harvested salt and they also grew crops. Now the economy mainly depends on tourism. Although each side belongs to a different country people pass freely from one side to the other with just signs at the side of the road to indicate where one country ends and the other begins. There’s no formal border crossing.

map of Saint Martin

The van driver talked a bit about island history, putting a different spin on the story of the Dutchman and Frenchman starting at the same point and walking around the island in opposite directions until they met up again, drawing the boundary between the points where they started and finished. On an island with a total of 37 square miles the French side has 21 and the Dutch side 16. This driver said that the reason the French side is bigger is because the Frenchman swapped out the Dutchman’s water for rum so the more rum he drank the more breaks he took while the Frenchman walked along nonstop, giving that country the largest portion of the island. We’ve heard the story of dividing the boundaries that way before, but not the bit about the rum. With both the cruise port and airport in modern days the Dutch got the more lucrative side even if it is smaller. The Dutch spell the island Sint Maarten, and the French Saint Martin.

lots of iguanas

The van headed over to the French side, some of which was still recovering from hurricane damage. Most places looked fine, but some had damage or were surrounded in debris. We took a brief stop for a view of a bay where people sometimes go with their yachts. Next he stopped at a small roadside stand. They had t-shirts and other touristy stuff for sale, but their big draw was the iguana wrangler. One of the people working there provided food and water for local wild iguanas and there were a lot of them taking advantage of the easy meal. Also a bunch of small lizards like skinks or geckos. Besides the herd of iguanas next to his booth, there were more hanging out in the nearby bushes along the shore of a lake. They probably made more money each day in the iguana wrangler’s tip jar than they did selling tourist trinkets.

parasailers at Orient Beach

Next we went to Orient Beach, which the driver said was partly clothing required and partly one of the French side’s famous nude beaches. Everyone had their clothes on in the area where we parked. If someone was staying at that beach long enough to have time for it they could rent personal watercraft, go parasailing, or ride around on big blow-up things towed by a boat. We were not there long enough to take advantage of any of those things other than to take photos of other people enjoying them – and to realize it’s been a long time since we’ve been parasailing. I’d love to go again sometime, but it’s been awhile since we’ve seen it offered anywhere where we’ve been staying long enough to do it.

little bar at Orient Beach

We could see kiteboarders and windsurfers farther down the beach in the distance, but there weren’t any where we were. There were lots of beach umbrellas and a little beach bar where 2 drinks cost just a few more dollars than the price of one drink on the ship.

small jet at Maho Beach

We saw lots of island scenery on the drive. A shopping stop in the French capital of Marigot was on the agenda, but when we got there all the parking was full so we just drove through and didn’t stop. The last stop was Maho Beach where people go for plane spotting.

Where’s the beach?

Maho Beach was quite different than it had been the last time we were there. Last time it was a big beach with a tiny beach bar and a surfboard standing out on the beach with the times large airplanes were expected to fly overhead. This time it was a tiny beach with a huge bar and lots of other shops.

plane schedule for the day

There was still a surfboard listing airplane times, but it’s inside the bar now. A hurricane had gone through the Caribbean and into Florida just a few days before our cruise started. On the way to Maho Beach our driver said the storm had taken all the sand away and he wasn’t kidding. Where much of the beach had been there were just large rocks piled up next to the road and then water. The large rocks are probably there to keep the road from washing away in a storm. There was also double fencing along the airport to keep people from getting all the way up to what used to be the only fence where crazy people would stand to get blown to the beach by departing jets despite signs warning they might get killed or injured doing that.

there’s even a pool in the shopping complex now

Last time we were there people were all in beach chairs waiting for the arriving jets to get the close-up of the underside of an airplane photos and videos, but this time there was no beach under the airplane’s path, just rocks and water. We had just a short time there on the tour, but did see one jet fly in. Not the giant KLM plane that is the highlight of that beach, but not the smallest of planes that lands there either. Our driver did say that the sand will come back and there will be a beach there again.

kayak by the water behind the iguana wrangler’s stand

Following our visit to Maho Beach, the taxi brought us back to the cruise port. We saw more of the island this time than on any previous trips. We did not stop in Phillipsburg or drive through the main part of town where tourists go, but from the outskirts where we went it looked like there was construction going on to repair things from a previous hurricane. On our last port stop there the town looked pretty bedraggled from hurricane damage followed by no tourist dollars to provide income to fix anything through covid, but after having ships there again for awhile by now it has had some time to recover. The tour guide did not mention anything about any new damage in Phillipsburg from the storm that passed through just before our visit.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

Posted in Caribbean, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Royal Caribbean, Wonder of the Seas | Tagged cruise, island tour, photos, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, travel, Wonder of the Seas | Leave a comment

Bahama Barrels: Winemaker for a Day

Posted on June 9, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

ships docked in Nassau

Our 11-day cruise on MSC Meraviglia made two port stops at Nassau, Bahamas. On the first visit John booked tours for us through Vacations to Go, who sends out a list of tours you can book through them at the port stops when you use them to book your cruise. These tours are generally at a lower cost than ones booked through the cruise line, but typically don’t provide transportation from the port. That was not an issue for us in Nassau as both the tours he booked were at Graycliff Hotel, about a 15-minute walk from the ship. He wanted to do the wine tour, but since I don’t even like the smell of wine or most other fermented things, I did not want to join him for that. Not wanting to leave me out when I said to just go by himself, he booked me for a chocolate factory tour, which turned out to be an excellent experience. Since I did not accompany him to the winery he was kind enough to write a blog about it. The winery is called Bahama Barrels.

courtyard in front of the winery

Bahama Barrels offers a unique opportunity to become a winemaker for a day.
Actually though, this is not wine making but rather wine blending, tasting and
learning.

inside the winery

The winery is housed in a quaint, historical 1937 church built by the Sisters of
Charity Academy and convent. Locals say the building went from one kind of spirit
to another. The winery is also part of the historical Charleston and Heritage
Village across the street from the historic Graycliff Mansion and belongs to the Graycliff Hotel.

stainless steel vats of aging wine line the back of the winery

Unlike most wineries, Bahama Barrels does not grow their own grapes because of
the climate, soil and mostly lack of fresh water. Instead of growing grapes they
have partnered with several vineyards from around the world. Each vineyard they
partner with adheres to Bahama Barrels strict, proprietary methods of turning
grapes into wine. Wine barrels from these vineyards are shipped to the winery in
containers. Upon arrival to Bahama Barrels the wine continues to age before
blending and bottling. Several varieties of reds and whites fill barrels or vats
throughout the old church property.

wine tasting & blending note sheet and sample labels

After quick introductions, a very charismatic young lady named Ravelle Dean
smiled and said, “I have a strict rule for this class, don’t waste any of my wine!”
Everyone laughed and then sat down on the tall wood bar chairs surrounding the
red wine-stained long wood table. Six small beakers along with one tall, 750 ml
beaker sat at each spot in front of the chairs. Five other wine enthusiasts join me
at the table with smiles waiting for the first taste of wine.

the wine class gathers around a table

Next, Dean asks several questions about wine to gauge the level of knowledge of
the students. She then explains her vast experience as a winemaker as well as
apprenticeships in several other spirits. Clearly this young lady knows her wine –
and has the experience from working, learning, and qualifying as a Master Wine
Maker.

the guide mixes John’s custom red wine blend

Each small beaker she explains, will be filled with one of the wines they
offer. Each participant tastes, grades and jots down notes about each wine tasted.
Not everyone tastes the same wine because participants are asked if they like dry
or wet sweet wines. As we learned, dry wines have less residual sugar in the wine while sweet or “wet” wines contain more sugar during fermentation. Surprisingly I thought I did not like dry wines until tasting and learning more about wines.

another participant filling their custom blend

Dean expertly guided the group through each of six wines, both white and red
varieties. By the third or fourth beaker everyone felt the effects of good wine.
After our sixth sample we began the process of blending the different wines into
the large beaker. Twenty percent dry red wine, 15 percent wet white wine etc.
Everyone created their own blend from trial and error until their own unique blend
pleased their individual palate. After everyone had their custom blend formulated
Dean and other staff members began pouring the formulas together to create the
blend. They also provide a custom label to create our own named bottle. The class
included one custom personally blended bottle per person except for a couple of
people that earned a second bottle by correctly answering wine questions, which I did.

a happy wine blender shows off his custom blended wine

Once the correct formula of wine went into the bottle, we sprayed nitrogen into
the bottle to keep air out followed by corking it and applying the seal to the top. Bahama Barrels saves each custom formula for everyone who has taken the class. If anyone ever
wants to order another bottle of their special wine, Bahama Barrels can blend it
and put the custom label on the bottle. These personalized bottles make excellent
gifts.

John gets ready to cork his wine

The length of the class was listed in the tour booking as an hour and a half, but ended up taking nearly three hours. Their address is: 8-14 West Hill Street, Nassau, The Bahamas, and is super easy to find using google maps. I gave this tour a five-star rating.

sealing the bottle

John’s tour was scheduled to start half an hour before mine, but since it was also supposed to take half an hour longer we expected to finish at the same time and set a meeting place in a row of colorful swinging tables outside the winery. I wandered over to the chocolate shop a bit before my tour was to start, but since I ended up with a private tour they went ahead and started early. It took a bit longer than the scheduled hour so I thought John would be waiting for me when I came out, but he was nowhere in sight so I went to the meeting place expecting him to come out soon.

row of swinging tables in front of the winery

Instead I received a text saying his tour was running late. An hour later after having sent him 4 texts that went unanswered I finally sent one saying I was heading back to the port because I wanted a shower before dinner and wouldn’t have time for that if I waited any longer. That text also went unanswered, as did an attempt to call him before I left. I got all the way back to the port and through security – which had a very long line – and was nearly to the gangway to get back on the ship when he finally sent a text saying his phone hadn’t beeped for the texts (neither had mine, but I checked it often to see if any had come through) and he was ready to go back to the ship. He had hoped for me to escort him since he’d had a bit much to drink during his tour, but since I was already there he had to find it on his own – which he managed to do just fine since it’s an easy walk.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

Posted in Caribbean, Guest Blogs, Meraviglia, MSC, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged Bahamas, Meraviglia, MSC, Nassau, photos, travel, wine, winery tour | 1 Comment

The Family Cruise

Posted on June 2, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Quantum of the Seas in Icy Strait Point

For the last couple years my Christmas gift to my mother has been to take her on a little vacation. She doesn’t need any material things. Time spent together, experiences, and memories are more important. We stayed in cozy little Airbnb cabins near parks with good hiking trails and enjoyed our short getaways, but this past Christmas I decided to do something different. I booked a cruise instead. I also included one of my sisters in the gift. She has watched my dog and businesses while I travel many times as well as being there to take care of the needs of other family. My other sister knew about the booking long before Christmas and was in on some of the cruise plans with me. She also invited her two daughters to join, though they made their own booking in a separate cabin rather than bunking with the other 4 of us. So it became a 3-generation cruise.

the family – Linda, Jennifer, Barbara, Ruth, Melissa, Lois

We chose an Alaska cruise out of Seattle as that is the most convenient port for what started out as most of us, but ended up as only half once my nieces joined. Since Barbara and her daughters all live in the middle of the country they would have to fly no matter which port it was so it didn’t make much difference to them. We all ended up converging at mom & Linda’s house the night before and taking a shuttle to the dock. We had a boarding time of 10:30am, and the girls at 11:00, but everything from 10-11 was all in the same line so we were able to board together. This was the easiest boarding I’ve experienced since Covid. No long lines outside waiting to get into the port- not that there is room for that in Seattle anyway. We went right in without a line, got checked in and then went upstairs to a big room where some people were sitting in the seats waiting to board while others were lined up by the door so they could get in first. They opened the boarding about the time we got there and it didn’t take too long to get the line moving so we got onto the ship fairly quickly.

mom arranged our spare wall magnets into flowers

The cabins weren’t going to be ready until 2pm, but the girl at the check-in desk had said we could drop our stuff in our room before then. We were going to do it first, but they were hounding everyone to check in at the muster station immediately after boarding rather than doing it just whenever during the first few hours onboard like it usually has been since they stopped doing the crowded muster drills when cruises started up again after covid. As it turned out it was a good thing I still had my stuff with me. Key cards were at the rooms so they wanted to scan the boarding pass rather than the key card at the muster station and my phone picked that time to say the ones in the app were not available. Luckily I had paper copies as a backup in my backpack, which I had not needed to pull out until then. Their cabin being on a different deck, the girls had gone to a different muster station elsewhere. We dropped our stuff off at the cabin and then met them in the buffet for lunch. They still had their stuff with them, not having been told at check-in that they could drop it off. We went to their deck to drop it off and were just about back to the main hallway when someone from the crew spotted us and asked if we were on a back-to-back cruise since we had come down that hallway before the cabins were officially opened. She seemed a bit miffed that we had been told we could drop stuff off at the cabin. Apparently if it had been someone onboard who said so they might have been in trouble, but the people out in the port don’t work for the ship and there’s so many of them they’d never know which one it was anyway. We hadn’t seen anyone on our deck, but maybe that was the only one where dropping stuff at the cabin was actually allowed.

it’s sort of like a trundle bed except both sides are the same height

Once the cabins opened and we had a bit more time to look around we were a bit puzzled by the lack of an outline of a drop-down bunk in the ceiling of what we booked as a 4-person room. We expected there to be either two bunks or one bunk and a couch bed, but it turned out that rather than bunks or couch beds that just sleep one person, Quantum of the Seas has a bed that slides out from under the seat of the couch turning it into a double bed. Which meant Barbara and I had to share a bed as we had already decided to give mom and Linda the actual beds while we slept in the secondary accommodations. The other beds started out as one, but the steward split them into two with a small nightstand in between. When night came ours was set up with two quilts folded over like sleeping bags which gave us a bit of separation. Barbara had the inside and managed to get in and out without crawling over me. Mine started with the folded edge of the quilt to the outside, but I flipped it over so the open end was where it was easy to get in and out of without bothering her. Though it was smaller than my bed at home I actually had more space because Barbara is not a bed hog like my dog Piper, who always manages to sprawl out during the night leaving me waking up on just a few inches at the edge of the bed every morning.

North Star nearly up

We had a deck 3 oceanview cabin while Mel and Jen had a balcony on deck 9. Both were near the starboard aft so they were in the same general area of the ship, theirs was just up higher. We had booked one near a public restroom thinking that might be come in handy with 4 people in a cabin, especially if someone took a long shower or when we were all returning from shore at the same time. We expected that restroom to be in a hallway near the elevator like every other public cruise ship bathroom, but instead it was inside the casino. A casino that the app and even the printed daily cruise ship newsletter said was non-smoking, yet apparently that did not apply on cruises leaving from American ports so it did get pretty smokey sometimes. Besides being open on both ends it had an open stairway right into the promenade deck so no containment for the smoke at all. It did at least have a good ventilation system that would pretty much clear out the smell overnight when there wasn’t anyone in there. Luckily there were other nearby public restrooms just a flight or two of stairs away on the next two decks above us.

green duck blending in with the fake foliage in a planter

I brought 3 ducks each for everyone to hide, figuring that was enough to make it fun, but not enough to overwhelm anybody that wasn’t into cruise ducks since I didn’t expect any of them to know about them before the cruise, and they didn’t. They all thought that was a good number too and had fun hiding theirs.

Barbara found a pink duck in a planter in the solarium

Barbara found one duck that someone else had hidden so we weren’t the only ones onboard hiding ducks. All of them had disappeared whenever we went back to check if anyone had found them. One of mine didn’t even take long enough to go back for. I saw some large letters on an empty stairway, set a little duck in one of the letters, and had just stopped to take a photo of it when a young couple snuck quietly down the stairs above me. I didn’t see them in time to slip away before they saw me so of course they stopped to see what I had been taking a photo of before I left when I saw them coming. I hadn’t gone too far to still see them and watched the girl take the duck. Silent no more, she went the whole rest of the way down that stairway loudly chirping happy words I could hear from several decks away. I have no idea what she actually said or what language she was speaking, but from the tone of her voice I think finding that duck made her day. Which was good because making someone happy when they find one is the whole point of hiding ducks.

Linda, Mel, mom & Jen in the North Star

Most of the time we all had dinner together, and sometimes breakfast too. Sometimes we all did things together on the ship like taking a ride up in the North Star, a pod unique to Royal’s Quantum Class ships that rises up 300 feet in the air for an excellent view. Most of us also tried the skydiving simulator. We all went to a couple shows together, and for most of us the favorite hang-out spot was the solarium. Walking around and exploring the ship is always fun too, which we all did alone and in various groupings.

it’s easier to get a good photo when Barbara & I have our eyes covered since we’re the least photogenic

When I cruise with my husband we avoid photographers like the plague, but when cruising with my sisters we always get a photo package. I was really glad I had bought it online before the cruise because the onboard price was more than double. I did pay $10 extra to get them put onto a flash drive because their standard is to email them and besides coming out as better quality on the flashdrive, on our last cruise the email they sent only contained less than half of the photos so if we hadn’t had a flashdrive we’d have been missing most of them. On that one they’d added the flashdrive free because we hadn’t hit the max number of photos we were allowed, but I kind of had a feeling this one wouldn’t have done that, though it didn’t matter anyway because we actually went over and had to weed some out.

Gondola at Icy Strait Point

The first port stop was at Icy Strait Point, a place none of us had been to before. We got lucky and had a beautiful day, which is really nice at that port since the highlight is a gondola up to the top of a mountain. There’s also a really awesome zipline down, or you can go back down the gondola. With or without the zipline you get unlimited rides on the gondola, which is great since most places you just get one ride up and back. After we got back to our room on the ship my mom and I saw whales really close by right out our cabin window, which really brightened up her day after a bad reboarding experience.

Jen in the ifly skydiving simulator

A little girl tried to crowd past us at the security check, which I really wouldn’t have thought anything of, but the guy running it made her wait because our stuff was already on the conveyer and you have to go through in the same order as your stuff. I was at the conveyer trying to fetch my mom’s cane and our other stuff while she walked through, but her watch made the security thing beep. Instead of asking her to take it off and walk back through like normal they asked her to take her shoes off, which caught her off-guard. She complied too quickly and would have fallen if she hadn’t caught herself on the next conveyer over, which wasn’t running. The whole thing upset her. Meanwhile while I was reaching for the cane the little girl had gotten through security and tried to grab my mom’s bag right off the conveyer. I saw her reach for it and snagged it just before her hand got there. Then when we were leaving that area she came up to me and tried to say the bag was hers, but it was definitely my mom’s. That particular bag was not something the girl could have mistaken for her own even if she’d had anything on the conveyer, which she hadn’t. Besides having mom’s things sticking out of the top, the cloth of the bag itself was a unique pattern that nobody else would have because mom’s sister made it for her about 10 years prior for a trip they took together. I guess that little girl really liked that bag. No idea where her parents were through all of that. We’ve never had anyone try to steal anything from us on a cruise ship before.

totem pole in Sitka

Slightly before the cruise we got a notice that our port stop in Skagway had been changed to Sitka. We’d had an excursion booked in Skagway, the only one that all 6 of us were going to do together. There wasn’t anything suitable to replace it with in Sitka so we just ventured out on our own. We all left the ship together, but before we even got near the shuttle to town we passed by someone with a sign for a sea and land tour. It cost more than most of us wanted to spend, but the girls jumped on it. They enjoyed the sea part more than the land part. They saw sea lions and an otter, but no whales. The rest of us took the shuttle into town and walked to the totem park. We also walked up to the old Russian church, but it was closed so we just took photos from outside and Barbara bought some nesting dolls at a little shop near the church.

Sumdum Glacier

On a couple previous cruises we’ve been supposed to go to Tracy Arm for glacier watching and ended up going down Endicott Arm instead because Tracy Arm was blocked by icebergs. Those ships both made it all the way to Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm. This ship was scheduled to go down Endicott Arm, but didn’t even get halfway through before it turned around. They didn’t make any sort of announcement about that so we all thought it was going in rather than out until Melissa said she’d been out on the upper deck early in the morning when the ship did a 360. She didn’t realize at the time that it was bailing on the glacier, but since she had internet when she finally got enough signal to check a map app it confirmed that we were leaving Endicott Arm rather than heading toward the glacier. The other ships I’ve been on that made it to the end were considerably smaller. We did see a glacier on the side of a mountain which I’m sure was Sumdum Glacier, the name being a great source of entertainment on a previous cruise. As in I went to Alaska and saw Sumdum glacier, which of course when spoken people hear as some dumb glacier. I can’t find anything that mentions any other glaciers besides that one and Dawes in Endicott Arm and the mountains in my photo look the same as the ones in other photos of Sumdum Glacier. There is an offshoot of Endicott Arm called Fords Terror where an early explorer named Ford was trapped for 6 panic-stricken hours until the tide changed so he could get back out. We probably didn’t make it far enough down Endicott Arm to get anywhere near that though.

Mendenhall Glacier

In Juneau the girls had booked a kayak excursion and the rest of us figured we’d go see what the booths on shore had to offer. Last time I was there they had all sorts of things, but this time they pretty much just had whale watching or busses out to Mendenhall Glacier. One had a sign for a trolley tour of the town. The girl in the booth said that wasn’t running that day, but they had a combo that did a tour of the town and went out to the glacier. We had all been to the glacier before on previous trips, but didn’t have anything better to do. She said the trolley would be running that tour, but the trolley was really a bus that looked like a trolley rather than an actual trolley. The town part of that tour was just the bus driver talking about stuff on the way to the glacier, though it did stop at a giant whale statue on the way back. Not surprisingly, the glacier is smaller every time we go there. We saw some kayaks near the glacier, but it wasn’t the girls. Their tour didn’t get that close. Kayaking to the glacier is something I’d like to do someday.

Linda and the whale

Our last port was supposed to be Victoria. We haven’t ever booked an excursion there before, but this time the 4 of us were going to go to Butchart Gardens while the girls did something on their own. Watching out our cabin window on the way to Victoria, the pilot boat passed by right under our window bouncing in waves that looked a whole lot bigger splashing over that little boat than they did compared to the cruise ship. The boat went out of sight before it got to where the pilot gets on the ship, too close to the ship for us to see it from our window. Many ports require a local pilot to guide the ship into port. Pilots have to get on and off ships in all kinds of weather to and from their little pilot boats. Soon we could see Victoria from our cabin window, and a Norwegian ship already docked there. We sailed past it, circled around, and sailed past again. Time came to go meet at the theater for our excursion and we were just outside the theater door when the captain announced that he and the pilot had decided it was too stormy for the ship to get into the dock. I’d never heard of a ship not making the stop in Victoria before. Maybe it happens and I just don’t know about it or maybe that ship is just too big for Alaska cruises. The bigger ships never used to go there.

solarium at night when there’s nobody there

When you cruise you have to be flexible. We had the turkey dinner we thought we were going to miss and had one last evening to hang out in the solarium. Or should I say terrarium as the girls referred to it because lounging on deck chairs in the solarium reminded them of lizards sunning on rocks in a terrarium. All it took for us to know that’s where they were going immediately after the announcement of the cancelled port was a message containing nothing but two emojis – the sun and a lizard. 🌞🦎

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

Posted in Alaska, Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life, USA | Tagged Alaska, cruise, cruising with family, photos, Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, travel | Leave a comment

Spruce Railroad Trail

Posted on May 26, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

sign at the trailhead

Olympic National Park on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula sprawls across the majority of the interior of the peninsula as well as including some areas of the coast. Ecosystems in the park include everything from rugged glacier topped mountains to ocean beaches. Temperate rainforests fall into the mix as well as lakes, rivers, and less rainy forests.

wildflower

On a short getaway to Lake Crescent with my mother, we decided to take a day hike on the Spruce Railroad Trail. This paved and mostly flat trail runs alongside Lake Crescent for much of its 4-mile distance. It’s also a small section of the much longer Olympic Discovery Trail, which runs along the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. The trail was once a railroad line for taking spruce logs from the forest. Tunnels are the main reminder left of its railroad past as there are no tracks or abandoned trains to be seen along the way. Being part of the Olympic Discovery Trail may be the reason why the Spruce Railroad Trail is one of the few trails in the Olympic National Park that allows dogs.

long tunnel east entrance

We started at the trailhead at the east end off of East Beach Road, which was close to the cozy little Airbnb cabin we stayed in near the tiny town of Joyce. The trailhead has a paved parking lot, vault toilet, and an entrance to the trail. There are a few small hills near that end of the trail, but it soon levels out once it gets to the lake.

buggy bands

I happened across a bin of something called buggy bands one day at a store and since they only cost a dollar each I gave them a try. We didn’t see any mosquitos on the trail, but the gnats wouldn’t leave us alone. The buggy band package did say it was for mosquitos, but at the park near my house which is full of them they don’t seem all that bothered by it either. One even landed within inches of it with intent to bite – stopped only by a quick slap insuring it would never bite me or anyone else. So my take on the buggy bands is that bugs are not bothered by them. Which is unfortunate since wearing a little bracelet is preferable to dousing oneself with chemical bug spray. I have had pretty good luck keeping mosquitos away with a dryer sheet in my pocket. Apparently there is something about dryer sheets that they don’t like, and mine are of the unscented variety so it’s not the smell.

waterfall

We saw a little waterfall with lots of rocks and vegetation that looked like it had been there quite awhile. A bit bigger one farther down the trail had nothing but bare dirt around it appearing to be in the middle of a recent slide.

tunnel or punchbowl

One spot along the trail offers a choice of an unpaved dirt side path leading to the Devil’s Punchbowl or a long dark tunnel on the main path. Both are highlights of the trail so when doing an out and back taking one each direction gets both of them in. We took the trail on the way out and the tunnel on the way back. The trail winds around with some ups, downs, a few narrow places where the edge has fallen, and some going over big rocks so it’s not for anyone with any sort of balance issues or other walking problems. For everyone else though it’s pretty much the best section of the trail. Besides some great lake views, that area had the most wildflowers and a lot of the little sorts of plants that grow on sheer rock walls.

Devil’s Punchbowl

It’s a bit of a walk to the punchbowl, which is a little cove surrounded by towering tree-covered rock walls. It’s separated from the main lake by a bridge. A still deep blue pool reflecting the greenery of the rocks above seemed quite misnamed. It looked like it should have been called serenity or tranquility pool rather than devil’s punchbowl. Perhaps on a stormy day waves crash onto the rock walls and churn back or something to earn the moniker it has, but not having seen it in a storm I can’t say for sure. After the punchbowl the trail continues on and connects back to the main trail on the far side of the tunnel.

scotch broom may look pretty in bloom, but it’s a non-native invasive species

For most of the distance along the main trail the land drops steeply to the lake on one side and rises even steeper up forested hills on the other. Unfortunately there was a lot of scotch broom alongside the trail. Scotch broom is a non-native invasive species that doesn’t take long to take over an area and crowd out the native vegetation, which is not a good thing for anything that lives there and depends on native plants for food. I hiked that trail again more recently and someone had removed the scotch broom from the side of the trail, but there were little ones starting to grow again as well as bigger ones up on the steep hillsides where nobody could reach it. It’s good that someone is making an effort to get rid of it, but they’re fighting a loosing battle if they can’t get rid of the ones on the hill above the trail. Less than 10 years ago the sides of highways 104 and 101 between Kingston and Sequim were lined with wild rhododendrons blooming pink every spring. Now the sides of those highways are yellow with scotch broom and it’s hard to spot one of the few remaining wild rhododendron bushes.

lupine just starting to bloom

Although there were more wildflowers as well as more variety of them on the trail to the punchbowl, there were some on the main trail including a small patch of lupine near the bare dirt waterfall.

trailside logs

There were not any benches, picnic tables, or restrooms to be found alongside the trail. Other than the occasional large rock the only place to sit for a rest, snack, or picnic was the logs lining the sides of some bridges or spots where the trail was right at the edge of the lake unless you happened along a level enough log near the trail in one of the few patches of relatively flat ground. Stopping even briefly meant being swarmed by gnats, some of which followed along even while we were moving the first time I went there, though on the second visit we didn’t see any.

fungus covered tree

After hiking 4 miles we came across a dirt road paralleling the trail, which a not 4-wheel drive car struggled down and parked where the road ended. That area was well below the main trail, but had a trail leading down to it. It looked like there wasn’t much down there but a pile of logs and a trail sign. There were some signs facing for people coming from the other direction announcing that this was the Spruce Railroad Trail. The paved trail continued on from there. We initially thought that was the trailhead for the other end which was supposed to be 4 miles from the other trailhead and turned around to head back, but later thought that the actual trailhead must have been a bit farther down because when we got back we saw a sign at the beginning of the trail that we hadn’t noticed on the way out. It said next restroom 4 miles and we had not seen any in the vicinity of the signs or dirt road at the other end. Going back there again another time with my son and grandson we walked nearly a mile beyond the small parking area at the west end with the Spruce Railroad Trail sign on the dirt road leading to it, and then back on the Olympic Discovery Trail which paralleled the dirt road and never saw any other sign of a trailhead other than that small dirt parking area. The pile of logs was gone, but the sign for the Spruce Railroad Trail was still there. From the trail itself there are just signs indicating where the Spruce Railroad Trail part of the discovery trail begins on that end. No sign anywhere near the trail, dirt road, or parking area of the restroom some websites say is at the trailhead on the west end of the Spruce Railroad Trail, but that spot is 4 miles from the east trailhead as well as having signs for the trail both in that parking area and on the paved trail so it must actually be the trailhead for the west end. The trailhead on the east end off East Beach Road is definitely the better choice. It’s paved, has paved roads leading to it, and actually does have a toilet.

short tunnel

In addition to the long dark tunnel there’s a much smaller tunnel, which you can see all the way through before even setting foot in it. The long one not so much. The long one has some white posts marking the edges of the pavement at regular intervals along the way, which guide you through the tunnel even if you don’t have any light. If you stray beyond them it’s rough ground. A sign outside the tunnel recommends using a flashlight, but I didn’t have one and following the white posts was enough to get me through. My mom had a tiny light that was probably worse than nothing. It must have reflected off the puddles on the floor making them look like bumps rather than water to her so she kept heading to the actual rough ground trying to avoid what must have appeared to her to be worse. Going through it on the second visit without any lights worked much better for everyone.

tunnel entrance

I went in a dark cave once with a camera I used to have that I could point at a cave wall which I couldn’t see at all and it would light up a little patch and take a perfectly clear photo that I could later see what I hadn’t seen while in the cave. The camera I have now wouldn’t do that. Photos taken with it in the dark tunnel just looked like a couple white spots in the dark so that was disappointing.

kayakers on Lake Crescent

For most of the hike we didn’t see anyone else other than some kayakers out in the lake, but both going out and coming back we saw several other groups of people fairly close to the trailhead so most of them must not go too far. Mostly we saw people walking, but there were a few on bikes and some with a dog. Horses are allowed on that trail, but we saw neither horses nor any of their droppings so horseback riders may not use it much. Which is understandable. Paved trails weren’t my preferred choice of places to go when I had horses. Overall it’s a nice trail with some scenic lake views. The second time I went there I brought my dog and we saw lots of other dogs near the trailhead, but not farther out. That time someone had added poetry signs, which we also saw in some other areas of the park. We only read one and immediately wished we hadn’t, wondering why on earth anyone would post such a disgusting and disturbing story about a kid venturing inside a nearly dead beached whale looking for its heart. We would have much preferred informative signs about the area, the plants and animals found there, and history of the place.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

Posted in USA, Washington | Tagged dog friendly hike, easy hiking trail, Olympic National Park, Spruce Railroad Trail | Leave a comment

Snorkeling in Aruba

Posted on May 19, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

the snorkel boat heading back to the dock with Celebrity Constellation in the background

Our port stop in Aruba on Celebrity Constellation started with an early morning excursion, meeting in the theater at 8:15 am. When our group number was called we went out to the port where we found someone with a sign for our excursion. The other excursions out there all left on busses. Ours walked down the port a ways, crossed a street, and went to a marina for boats much smaller than a cruise ship. A catamaran waited on the nearest dock. We saw sea life before we even got on the boat. A crab was crawling around on the dock. It went over the side once like it was going back into the water, but then it crawled back up and scuttled around on the dock some more. Bigger than a little beach crab, but nowhere near eating size.

tube sponges in the shallows

Usually sail and snorkel excursions make a pretense of raising the sails and then proceed to their destination under engine power. They do often sail for real a bit on the way back. This one said the mainsail was broken so they’d just be putting up the jib (smaller front sail) and going under engine power. They did say they might use just the sail for a bit on the way back, but I don’t think they ever actually did. People generally book these excursions for the snorkeling anyway.

fish and rocks at the bottom of the sea

The boat went about 40 minutes up the coast of the island to an area where the shore was lined with hotels and resorts on sandy beaches. The first stop was near to shore in a fairly shallow area with some rocky structure on the bottom. There was a bit of small coral and some sea urchins in the rocks. The waters teemed with fish.

school of sergeant majors

Upon entry right from the boat we landed in a giant school of tiny fish, each maybe an inch long. Later a school of striped sergeant majors showed up, something that used to be present in droves every time we went snorkeling, but that I hadn’t seen recently.

swimming with the fishes

These fish were quite friendly. They came right up to people and swam all around them. We were literally swimming with the fishes, only in a good way.

blue fish

There were also some other fish that tended to stay closer to the bottom. I even saw a lionfish hiding in the rocks, though it doesn’t belong there. They’re from the south pacific and Indian oceans and are a non-native invasive species without any predators to limit their numbers anywhere else.

our boat and a pirate ship

There were several other boats nearby. One modeled after an old pirate ship and another identical to ours other than the name Rumba, while ours was called Fiesta. They said to be sure to get on the right one as they don’t go back to the same place.

another boat from the same company

The water in that area was fairly clear, but did have some sediment floating around in it. There was not much coral, but unfortunately a lot of the Caribbean is that way now since coral there is at over an 80% loss. Visitors to the region can help by not using chemical sunscreen or other products that harm coral. Reef safe sunscreen offers better sun protection to the user as well as not harming nature so that’s a win-win product.

diving under the water in the shallows in a full-body UV swimsuit

Or you can go a step further and wear a full-body UV suit for snorkeling and other water sports, which not only eliminates the need for sunscreen in any areas covered by the suit, but also provides the best UV protection so the wearer can stay out longer without getting sunburned. It’s a win-win for both the wearer and the environment.

John on the slide

The boat had a slide on the back, which was optional as an entry for snorkeling, or just available to slide on for fun after coming back to the boat and removing the snorkel gear.

small bit of a big ship

The second stop was in the same area as the first, but out deeper, over the wreck of a large world war 2 German ship. This ship was intentionally sunk by its own crew rather than hand it over to the Dutch. Once we got there I realized we had seen the same wreck before the last time we had a port stop in Aruba.

sea life on the wreck

The snorkel boats stop right over the wreck, several of them at a time. There’s plenty of wreck left to snorkel over because it is far bigger than any of the snorkel boats are. You can only see a small portion of it at a time when snorkeling over it. The sunken ship stretches on for quite a distance. There’s some sea life growing on it. It has patches with tube sponges and small corals, but not as much life as expected for a wreck that has been there since the 1940’s. Fish like structure and there were fish swimming around it too, but not as many as there had been in the shallows.

fish and shipwreck

The water over the wreck was darker since it was deeper, and also murkier than the water near the shore, but the wreck was still visible. The current was strong enough that the crew did not want anyone to use the back exit or slide that stop so nobody would get taken out to sea. Using the front one meant swimming against the current toward shore along the wreck going away from the boat, then the current would bring you right back so if anyone got tired they’d get back anyway.

a bit of the sunken ship

The instructions were to stay to the front of the boat. I stayed in the area where they said to be. John didn’t pay attention when they gave the instructions and he went along the side and to the back of the boat, coming in the back entrance they had said was only for emergencies if someone got carried back there by the current. He said that area had the best stuff to see so apparently I missed out by staying in the area where we were told to go.

seagulls flying around the snorkel boats

After we got back on the boat a flock of seagulls came to circle around it. On the way back to the dock they served rum punch and other drinks, which these sorts of excursions usually do. Their rum punch was considerably stronger than most.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023

Posted in Caribbean, Celebrity, Constellation, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged Aruba, Celebrity, Constellation, cruise, photos, shipwreck, snorkel, snorkel excursion, travel | Leave a comment

The Inside Outside Cabin

Posted on May 12, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Boardwalk

I’ve had inside cabins, oceanview cabins, and balcony cabins – once even a mini-suite- on past cruises, but on Wonder of the Seas we had something completely different. An interior cabin with a balcony. These unique cabins are found on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class ships. Ships of this class have two inside areas that are open to the sky from one of the lower decks all the way up – Central Park and the Boardwalk.

Central Park

The Boardwalk is at the back of the ship on deck 6. The boardwalk itself is home to a carousel, the landing area for the 10-deck ultimate abyss slides, the aquatheater, and some shops and eateries. As well as the skyward opening, there is also open area at the stern around the aquatheater so cabins in this area may get a peek at the sea as well as overlooking the boardwalk.

view of the inside of the cabin from the balcony

Our cabin was above central park, the other open area, located at the center of the ship. Central Park is on deck 8, with open area to the sky above. Rooms line either side like apartments rising above a city. The bottom row on deck 9 have windows, the rest have balconies overlooking the park. Central Park has real plants in gardens along deck 8, with shops and eateries all around the edges. The center has some structures that somewhat resemble greenhouses. They’re skylights to the promenade on deck 5, but one of them is also home to the Rising Tide Bar – sometimes. The Rising Tide is a bar on an elevator that is sometimes located in the Royal Promenade on deck 5, and other times up in Central Park on deck 8. Occasionally it stops somewhere in between at which time nobody can get on or off.

balcony above Central Park

We weren’t sure what having a balcony that’s not on the ocean side of the ship would be like, but booked it because on this particular cruise it was a whole lot cheaper than the ocean view balconies. It was also something different that we’d never had before and it’s always fun to try new things. As it turned out, we loved it. There are some drawbacks, like needing to close the curtains before changing clothes, which isn’t a problem when there’s nothing but open water outside your window, but it had its advantages too.

there’s actually a whole couch between these two closets

While an oceanside balcony is sometimes too sunny or too windy to use, since this one was in an area with walls all around it was sheltered with more protection from wind and weather. Even when the plants out in the garden were blowing around in a wind tunnel effect the balcony itself stayed sheltered. Rain never reached much beyond the railing either, nor was the furniture ever covered in morning dew. I actually sat out on this balcony more than I usually do with normal cruise ship balconies. It had 2 chairs and a table and was fairly close in size to a regular balcony, bigger than some. The cabin next to us had a double sized balcony so they really lucked out. The first few days we thought this balcony always stayed shady and would never be too sunny to use, but it must have been due to the direction of travel because in the ports it did sometimes get flooded in sunshine. It had some sun during travel later in the cruise too, but often still had a shady corner.

some of the cabin’s furnishings

Our view included the garden, the sky, the outdoor movie screen, and the rooms across from us. Music from the pool deck could easily be heard out on the balcony, but in the room with the sliding door shut we didn’t hear it at all. The garden area is pretty quiet at night, but since the outside noise didn’t carry to the inside it may not have mattered. People in the boardwalk area would know better since the aqua show is quite loud. We could hear that from an oceanside cabin near the stern on Symphony of the Seas. I don’t know if the inside cabins have better sound blocking than the outside ones, or if the Wonder has better sound blocking than Symphony, or if the boardwalk cabins are as noisy inside as we thought they’d be when we went for the garden area instead since the boardwalk is a lot louder in the evening than the garden.

cabin from the door

The cabin itself was about the same size as outside balcony cabins rather than small like a lot of inside cabins are. Bigger even than balcony cabins on many ships as it had space enough for a full-sized couch and two separate closets. It seemed slightly wider than the average cruise ship cabin as well with a bit more room between the foot of the bed and the wall than often found in cruise ship cabins. The large-screen TV hung across from the bed with a row of pegs underneath to hang things on. The cabin included a mini-fridge surrounded by drawers so it had quite a lot of storage area. There was a desk with a mirror and a separate full-length wall mirror. While some older ships have just one outlet and no USB ports, being a new ship this one had 3 outlets and 2 USB ports above the desk as well as 1 outlet and 1 USB port on the lamp on each of the two small nightstands.

bathroom

The bathroom was a pretty standard cruise ship bathroom. The shower had the usual clothesline you can pull across like we thought all cruise ships had until coming across one that didn’t. It looks like they’ve cut back on the toiletries though.

good thing I brought my own shampoo & conditioner

Instead of separate shampoo, conditioner, and body wash there was just a shampoo/body wash combo in the shower and no conditioner at all.

magnetic hooks and clothesline

While the clothesline is enough to hang a swimsuit or two, if you do any handwashed laundry in the cabin you need more. Magnetic hooks came in quite useful for something to tie the line to as this shower had structure on only one side. Things did not dry well in that shower though, even with the bathroom door left open so most had to be moved elsewhere to finish drying. Once things were just damp rather than wet I could use those same hooks to zig zag a line along the wall where things could finish drying. Magnetic hooks are also useful out in the cabin for hanging sweatshirts or hats. Other than some really old cruise ships the walls are always magnetic so having some magnets to hang any paperwork you want to keep organized is useful too.

wall magnets

Overall we really liked the inside balcony cabin and I wouldn’t hesitate to book one again.

Posted in Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life, Wonder of the Seas | Tagged cruise ship cabin, garden view balcony, inside cabin with balcony, interior cabin, Royal Caribbean, Wonder of the Seas | 1 Comment

Nassau Chocolate Factory Tour

Posted on May 5, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

ships in Nassau

Prior to our cruise on MSC Meraviglia John booked us each an excursion for our first port stop in Nassau, Bahamas. He wanted to go to a wine factory. Since I don’t like anything fermented including wine he booked a chocolate factory tour for me. Which was great because I love chocolate. Both of these places were located on the same street so we walked there together. His tour at the wine place had other participants, but I got an unintended private tour at the chocolate factory. The tours before and after mine had groups of participants, but nobody else had booked the one for 3pm. An unintended private tour is the best kind because intentional private tours are really expensive, but if it’s booked as a group tour and nobody else comes you still get it for the group price. The smallest group I’d had before was 4 people on a kayak tour in Costa Maya Mexico. These tours were booked through Vacations to Go, who sends shore excursion options when you book the cruise through them so there’s those to choose from as well as what the ship offers. Had it been through the ship they’d probably have cancelled it with just one participant or switched me to a different time that had other bookings. They also would have charged more for the tour and provided transportation from the port, which wasn’t really necessary since it was a pretty easy walk.

entrance to the chocolate factory at Graycliff Hotel

An archway through a wall leads to a grotto-like stairway up to a courtyard with a door into a small chocolate shop.

the chocolate shop sells chocolates made in-house

The tour’s entrance is through the little chocolate shop, located within Graycliff Hotel which owns the chocolate factory as well as the wine place across the street. The shop sells chocolates made right there in the attached factory. There’s a door in the shop that opens to a few stairs leading down to a long narrow room where the tour starts.

standing under a model tree, ready for the tour

The first room has samples of raw cocoa beans and some beans that have partially gone through the process that eventually turns them into chocolate. There were also fake trees showing what cacao trees look like, and that the pods grow on the trunk rather than in the leaves or branches. My guide said each tree only produces pods 3 times in its lifetime so after the third time the cocoa farmers cut them down and plant new ones. These are not grown in the Bahamas so they import the beans from elsewhere. Inside the pods the beans are the seeds of a fruit which she said was edible. That room also contained a stack of aprons and hair nets, both of which were required for people who didn’t work there to go farther into the factory.

shelling machine

On the way to the next room she said the factory (and hotel) was in an old castle. The tile floor in that room was over 300 years old, but the pattern was still bright green and yellow and it looked good as new. They certainly made quality things back then. There isn’t much made these days that would last 300 years and still look nice. There was equipment in that room to remove the shells from the beans after they are roasted. Roasted beans fall apart into cocoa nibs when shelled, though raw ones would stay as whole beans if the shells were removed before roasting.

tempering machine

There were a couple machines tempering the chocolate, one with dark and one with white, which were mixed to make milk chocolate. From this room I was given taster spoonfuls of each the white and dark and also some mixed together into milk chocolate. White chocolate isn’t real chocolate, but rather made from just the cocoa butter separated from the chocolate solids along with sugar, milk, vanilla and a fatty substance called lecithin which can be sourced from various plants used for making oils or egg yolks.

guide mixes white and dark chocolate to make milk chocolate

Even dark chocolate has some sugar added to keep it from being bitter. 70% dark is 70% cocoa beans and 30% sugar, at least in that factory. Higher percentages of darkness is more chocolate, less sugar so of course less sweet, though I thought the small sample of liquid pure dark chocolate without any sugar added that I was given a taste of in a different room tasted good, not bitter like unsweetened baking chocolate you buy in a store.

guide and other workers by a table set for one

In the last room where the tour went there was a paper plate with cups of goodies on it next to a little tray holding a mold and plastic gloves. I had the option to choose which sort of chocolate I wanted and was given a cup of liquid dark chocolate. Dark is always my preference for chocolate. The first step was to pour chocolate into the chocolate bar mold until the guide said it was enough. Then she said to tap the mold on the table until the chocolate spread out evenly to all the corners. After that I could add whatever goodies I wanted from the cups, which included coconut, cranberries, and sprinkles. I used all three.

making chocolates

Next there was a stick there to poke into a marshmallow and then dip that into the chocolate and coat in sprinkles. The two pretzels were then dunked into the cup of chocolate and fished out with a stick just like the one in the marshmallow. After that the leftover chocolate got poured into the cups of leftover coconut, cranberries, and sprinkles. All of that then went somewhere else for cooling.

getting some chocolate samples

There were racks of assorted chocolates sitting in a corner of the room. Other workers would periodically come and take some from the trays to replace ones sold at the store in the front of the factory or possibly to package up into boxes. Or maybe some of each. They just piled up the ones they wanted onto their tray and left the room so I never saw what they actually did with them.

tasty chocolates

While waiting for the chocolate things I’d made to cool I got to sample some of those chocolates from the racks in the corner. The guide said what type they each were, but I don’t remember what flavors she said. They were all quite good.

where in the world chocolate grows

The walls of that room had information about chocolate and chocolate making.

milk chocolate sand dollar from the store

Once the chocolates I made during the tour were cooled they got unmolded and boxed up to take back to the ship. It was an interesting tour with lots of tasty chocolate. I mentioned buying something milk chocolate from the store for John since he prefers milk chocolate and everything I made was dark. She gave me a chocolate sand dollar free off the store shelf for him which was really nice of her. I gave her a $20 tip. She said she’d never had a tip that big before. I replied I’d never had a private tour before. She deserved a good tip. She’d done a great job as a guide and always had a smile. It was a really fun and interesting tour and since it hadn’t cost all that much between the chocolates eaten on site and the ones brought back with me afterword I probably got the price of the tour back in chocolate so it was definitely worth doing. For anyone with a port stop in Nassau it’s an easy walk to the chocolate shop. Just set google maps to Graycliff Hotel and then walk down the street the hotel is on until you see the shop’s archway entrance. I’m not sure if you can just walk in and book a tour at the shop or not, but there are a variety of places to book it online.

Posted in Caribbean, Meraviglia, MSC, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged Bahamas, chocolate factory, cruise, Meraviglia, MSC, Nassau, photos, travel | 1 Comment

Cruising the Middle East

Posted on April 28, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Lirica in Khasab, Oman

After boarding the MSC Lirica in Trieste, Italy and cruising around the Mediteranean for a bit with a port stop in Croatia, and several in Greece, the ship headed through the Suez Canal, which runs through Egypt.

our ship’s tug and the container ship behind us in the Suez Canal

Cruising through the Suez Canal is a unique experience. It’s mostly a narrow waterway where ships follow one another through in a line, each escorted by a tug. A new part wide enough for two-way traffic allows ships to pass one another in that section, increasing the amount of ships that can pass through the canal in a day. One side of the canal has much more greenery and life than the other, which is mostly desert sand.

waiting to go through customs at the port in Eilat

Our first stop after passing through the Suez Canal was in Eilat Israel, where security is heavy and getting of the ship is a major process. We followed that with a stop the next day just across the bay in Aqaba Jordan, where disembarking is the same as the average port stop. By just across the bay, I mean that literally as we could see the port where we had been the previous day from the ship. From the top of the ship in Aqaba you can see 4 countries. Besides Jordan and Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are visible in the distance. We did not know this until our guide on the bus to Petra said so and it was dark by the time we got back so we couldn’t look for the landmarks he said were in each of those countries.

the treasury, the most famous rock building in Petra

The guide also said the border between Israel and Jordan used to be closed, but they have a peace treaty now and it’s not that hard to cross between them. Jordan is its own country now, though in the past it was occupied by others including Ottomans and British. Although Arabic is the official language, a lot of people there speak English. Jordan has many sites of historical and religious significance including Petra. Petra is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the wonders of the world. Even the small portion you have time to see on a cruise ship excursion is amazing.

After Aqaba we had 4 days at sea, during which we found out not only had the crew been going through pirate training while we were at port in Jordan, but there were also pirate protection guards on board who had joined the ship at our first port in Split, Croatia. They were rumored to be from Yugoslavia. All big burly guys, at least the ones we saw.

Each cabin was given a security notice saying that for 6 days we would be traveling through areas considered at risk of piracy and as such we would be under the control and protection of international naval forces. The paper went on to say Blue Code means suspicious vessel spotted, crew members are to start procedures to evacuate open decks. Orange Code means the concern is real and everyone is to leave outside decks immediately. Red Code means there is an emergency and to follow the directions of the trained crew. It also said the outside areas of the promenade deck 6 would be closed for the duration of our time through waters likely to be pirate infested and continuously patrolled by security staff. Balcony lights had to stay off at night and all curtains closed.

map of the Middle East

On all the cruises we’ve taken, this is the first to have piracy warning procedures. Of course it is also our first time sailing past places like Yemen and Somalia. In the event of a pirate attack, hopefully the guards they hire for cruise ships are better than the ones hired by a commercial diving company my son used to work for. When one of their ships was boarded by pirates the so-called guards locked themselves below deck and let the crew get kidnapped. The company did pay the ransom to get them back – and probably looked elsewhere to hire any future guards.

Weather on the sea days was generally clouds and fog with some sun and wind. One day had sun, wind, fog, and rain all within the same hour, though the rain was just a sprinkle. The ports tended to be sunnier. On the second sea day between Jordan and Salalah, Oman, another ship came near and the cruise ship dropped a speed boat which went to the other ship, picked up something, and came back. Normally the only boats that approach cruise ships are tugs going in and out of port, and pilot boats who drop off or pick up the local pilot who guides the ship through the channels leading into and out of ports or through narrow waterways. Another passenger we met who worked out in the gym with the guard crew said he was told the boat picked up guns for the guards, which they would need in case we came across any pirates.

mini golf on the Lirica

Meanwhile with several days of no ports passengers had to entertain themselves onboard. We tried the mini golf, for which you have to sign out one club and ball from staff by the stage in the pool area with your room card so golf equipment was only available during their staffed hours. If each person in the room wants one they have to sign for it individually, you can’t get 2 on the same card. Then you take those to the other end of the ship and up a deck to the course, which has just 7 holes. All the other ships we’ve been on that had mini golf had clubs and balls next to the course for people to use whenever they wanted. The course looked a bit the worse for wear with the astroturf worn out in places, but we still had fun. Some of the holes (which were made from kitchen sink drains) were not firmly in place. One stuck out above the green deflecting balls. The next one someone had used for an ash tray and left cigarette butts in it proving once again no matter where you go people are pigs. (Sorry actual pigs, that’s an insult to you.) Speaking of actual pigs one day they served suckling pig. Poor little babies. They served veal a lot too. Apparently they like eating very young baby animals. Along with organ meats and products of cruelty like foi gras (which is created through force feeding geese as well as being an organ meat), baby animals fall into the category of things I’ll never eat.

we watched the pirate boats from the relaxation area in the spa

The third of four sea days between Jordan and Oman brought us to the choke point where it’s just about 10 miles between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as the Red Sea transits into the Gulf of Aden. There was a lot of boat traffic through that area. We could see a fleet of tiny boats milling about. These boats had people laying down in them trying to hide. As our ship got close the little fleet went from a near standstill to heading straight towards us at a pretty good speed.

modern day pirate ships look nothing like the pirates of old

They were pirates with ill-intentions. Discouraged from attacking our ship by the armed guards patrolling the promenade deck, they suddenly changed course, passed behind us and went on their way realizing it’s not a good plan to try scaling the side of a ship when you’re looking at the business end of a machine gun. Other than the one group of pirates we just saw normal boat traffic like military boats and cargo ships. Of course with all the curtains on public decks and in cabins required to stay closed after dark who knows what may have shown up then. Well the guards and bridge crew know, but they’d never tell and the passengers just saw the one averted attack in broad daylight.

belly dancer in the dining room

The ship had an Arabian theme going that day with a Pharoh’s visit deck party in the morning and belly dancers in the dining room in the evening for extra entertainment, but the excitement and most talked about subject of the day among passengers was of course the pirates.

relaxing on the back deck

Typical of any cruise ship, the selfish passengers (of which there are a lot) stake out deck chairs with towels they leave there all day whether they plan to sit in that chair for any length of time or not. Even the little back decks on the Lirica had more chairs occupied by towels than by people. You can sit out there for hours and these people never return. We laughed one day when it rained a bit and someone had left a paper book on an unoccupied chair. It got wet, but sadly it didn’t rain enough to do any damage. The owner of said book was not there when we arrived and never returned before we left. Like all the other cruise ships this one had signs saying they will pick up towels and things from unoccupied chairs because saving them is not allowed, but they never actually do.

The ship had some games, activities, dance lessons, exercise classes, trivia, and things scheduled throughout the day. We were told once years ago by crew on the Divina that Europeans generally spend all day out on the top deck, and while a lot of them actually do, there were still a lot of deck chairs occupied by towels rather than people.

The fourth sea day in a row brought wind and waves on a gray day in the Gulf of Aden, which empties into the Arabian Sea – the most wide-open expanse of water we passed through on the middle eastern side of the Suez Canal. The ocean swells meant some movement on the ship, but not enough to bring out barf bags by the elevators or to make people stagger the halls like so many drunks as we have sometimes seen on cruises that passed through rough water.

Themed dinners with like themed late night parties interspersed the cruise to liven things up a bit and have something besides elegant nights to dress up for. This cruise had a carnival night and a white night. Not that many people dressed up for them at dinner and we never went to any deck parties so I have no idea how those turned out. I can’t imagine too big of an attendance though since there never seemed to be many people out and about anywhere when venturing out of the cabin late at night. Having traveled through Europe for 10 days without a lot of luggage before boarding the ship, we barely had anything suitable to wear for formal nights and nothing for any sort of one-use costume.

camel at Wadi Darbat

We had a port stop in Salalah, Oman on a Friday, which is their holy day so a lot of things in town were closed. The town there is not close to the port. We had a ship’s tour and saw lots of camels. Between Salalah and Muscat we had another sea day. The sky and sea were gray and dreary, but the sea wasn’t too rough and it didn’t rain, at least not during the day anyway. It was warm enough for lounging around on the deck chairs on the back balcony. There were several decks with back balconies all interconnected by stairways and at least some of them had stacks of deck chairs so even if all the chairs already out on the deck were occupied by towels we could always get a chair off the stack and find somewhere to put it.

Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

In Muscat we found a cheap taxi-van tour with 4 other people that took us around to see some sights, starting with a giant mosque. We didn’t have any specific plans when we got off the ship and hadn’t really planned to go in any mosques. While I had brought a scarf just in case I needed it for anything, I did not have long sleeves which meant not mosque-appropriate clothing. Outside the mosque under a sign saying not to sell or rent clothes, there was a guy renting stuff out of the trunk of his car so I got something with long sleeves and one of the other ladies from our van got a scarf so we were allowed inside.

dhow boat in Khasab, Oman

Khasab was our last port in Oman, my favorite one there, and one of the best on the entire cruise because the dhow boat tour we took was unique and excellent. The boat had carpets and cushions instead of furniture and it was quite a relaxing ride through the fjords. We saw some dolphins and made a stop for snorkeling. Also attempted some fishing, but nobody caught anything.

Burj Khalifa in Dubai

We had 2 days to spend in Dubai, UAE. The ship overnighted there, and our plane home wasn’t until 2:30am the morning of the day after disembarkation. The first day it rained a bit in the morning, then cleared up, We visited Atlantis Hotel, a souk, Burj Al Arab, and Global Village. The second day the rain dumped buckets in the morning and the trip into town felt more like the uber was driving in rivers than in roads. We put our luggage in storage at Dubai Mall and spent time there and in Burj Kalifa, the world’s tallest building.

camels at Petra

More Blogs About the Middle East

Cruising the Suez Canal, Eilat Israel cruise port, Snorkeling in Eilat, Aqaba Jordan cruise port, Petra, Salalah Oman cruise port, Salalah 4×4 tour, Muscat Oman cruise port, Muscat van tour, Khasab Oman cruise port, Khasab dhow excursion, Exploring Khasab, Dubai Cruise Port, Exploring Dubai, Dubai Global Village, Dubai Burj Kalifa, Dubai Mall

Posted in Lirica, Middle East, MSC | Tagged cruise, Dubai, Israel, Jordan, Lirica, Middle East, MSC, Oman, photos, pirates, travel | 4 Comments

Pelican Peak Zip Line Saint Martin

Posted on April 21, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of Wonder from the top of Pelican Peak in St Martin

Scanning through shore excursions offered and other info while looking for something to do in Saint Martin, I came across an excursion to Pelican Peak Zip Line. On a previous visit we’d tried to get to Rainforest Adventures on the French side of the island, but none of the taxis from the stand at the port wanted to go there. Somebody suggested we might find a taxi in town, but besides the fact that we were the 4^th of 4 ships arriving that day and space in that zipline went by first come first serve, we figured considering how hard it was to find a ride to get there we might not be able to get one back, and probably would be too late to get on the zip line anyway so we did something else that day instead.

trail to the viewpoint

I’d never heard of another zip line on the island until this trip, but that’s because Pelican Peak is a relatively new attraction. Pelican Peak is within walking distance of the cruise port, and they book through the ship. You can also book it directly through the zipline’s website or through outside sources if you want to take a taxi or walk there and find it on your own. Booking through the ship they provide transportation from the port, which was in an open jungle buggy type truck. There weren’t a lot of people in our group, probably about 10, the rest of them quite a lot younger than we are.

viewpoint at the top of Pelican Peak

The transport brought us to the bottom of the zip line where they suited everyone up with a harness that not only attaches to the zip line, it also makes a sort of chair to sit in on the way down. They had lockers there for anyone who had things that couldn’t go with them down the ride, which was big beach bags and backpacks. People were allowed to keep their cameras and they even provided net bags that attached to the vest where people could put their phones to keep them safe and insure they not get dropped on the mountain on the way down – as long as they were left in the bag. Taking it out would definitely risk a drop. We thought it was kind of crazy that the tiny little zip line on the ship didn’t allow so much as a watch on a wrist or room key card in a pocket while the one going down a whole mountainside let people keep their hats and all their jewelry on and take things with them. I suppose that could be because on the ship there are people wandering around the boardwalk below the zipline and they’re afraid of things falling on their heads, whereas the mountainside is covered in trees so you’d lose your stuff, but it wouldn’t fall on anyone.

top of the zipline

After everyone was harnessed up and ready we boarded the jungle bus again for a hairy ride on a narrow winding road up the mountain. The guide narrated things about the area, the island, and historical facts on the way up. The truck stopped near several short trails on top of the mountain. The first and shortest went to a viewpoint of a lagoon that used to be a salt pond. The second went up higher to a viewpoint of the harbor and the cruise ships at the dock. The third went down a bit to the entrance to the zipline.

people on 2 of the 4 ziplines

They had 4 lines running next to each other, but only 3 were in use that day. They let people go with their own group so most went in pairs rather than send 3 every time and split up people who were together, though if people had wanted to go separately to take photos or videos of each other they could have gone alone or in a trio with an unrelated pair. Some of the people in our group took videos of the people before or after them and then shared the videos they took with each other after the ride.

getting people ready for their ride

When it’s your turn to go the workers clip your harness to the line. It’s a hands-free ride with a series of springs to stop you when you reach the bottom. At least hands-free in that you don’t use your hand to stop yourself at the end of the line. There was a handle to hold onto. I haven’t actually seen the old-fashioned sort of zipline where you kept a gloved hand over the line to stop yourself with in many years, though we thought the hands-free stop was quite a clever invention the first time we ever saw one.

two people with sails coming in for a landing

The workers added a sail to some people to slow their descent. John was given a sail and I was not, but he still went down quite a lot faster than I did. There are giant heavy-duty springs at the bottom which stopped me with a little tap, but most of the others flew into it squishing it up tight and crossing over a bit of a gap between the building we landed on and the structure holding the end of the lines, then bounced back beyond the building before coming forward again into a landing on top of the building.

the back of John’s sail is way ahead of me

It was fun, though probably more so for the people who went faster. Speed of descent depends on both weather and body weight. From the description we were given it sounded like we would fly down the mountain so fast there would be no time for pictures, but about halfway down I decided to pull out my camera since I was traveling at a more leisurely pace. I had put a neck strap on it before going to the zip line that morning so there was no chance of dropping it. The camera case was also on a neck strap so it was just a matter of digging that out from under the harness.

view on the way down

After landing there are stairs going down from the roof where people land back to where we suited up at the beginning. We left the gear on the roof and the workers brought it down for use by another group. Other people were awaiting instructions when we went down. Besides being a bigger group than ours, there was also one couple who looked older than we are.

springs at the end

Once everyone was done they took us back to the cruise ship dock. One couple had started out walking because they didn’t know how long the wait would be, but they hadn’t got far before the truck caught up to them and stopped to see if they wanted a ride so they got in knowing that the truck would get them back to the port a lot faster than their feet would.

Posted in Caribbean, Ports of Call, Royal Caribbean, Shore Excursions, Wonder of the Seas | Tagged Caribbean, cruise, Pelican Peak, photos, Royal Caribbean, Saint Martin, travel, Wonde of the Seas, zip line | 2 Comments

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Pelican Peak Zip Line Saint Martin

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