Budapest Hop On Hop Off Bus

Posted on September 1, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Hop on Hop off Bus in Budapest

When you’re with a group of people with no specific plans on what to do, or who don’t all necessarily think all of the same things sound fun, or you just want an easy way to explore a new place, the Hop On Hop Off bus generally works. There’s usually a variety of options for things to do depending on which stops you decide to get off. If you just want a tour of the area riding it around the entire route to see what’s there or just to see the scenery that works too. These are especially useful if there are a lot of busses running so that there is never a long wait at the stops. In Budapest the busses came by every 10-15 minutes.

We met with some friends in Budapest before our Viking river cruise with maybe a vague idea of things we might do, but no definite plans and not really any idea of what there was to do in the immediate area. The hotel where we stayed sold tickets to the HoHo bus, and said there was a stop fairly nearby. It didn’t cost much more for a 48-hour ticket than for a 24-hour ticket so we went with the longer one. The stop nearest our hotel happened to be stop 1 on the route. As per the 10-15 minute expected interval between busses we did not have to wait long – in fact one showed up right about the time we got there.

Viking ship by the Chain Bridge in Budapest

We didn’t stay on it long though. The very next stop was the Chain Bridge, which was on the must-see list for some of the group. There were a couple Viking ships docked next to it so we figured we had found where our boat would dock in a couple days when it would be time to board. Later we saw some more Viking ships on the other side of that bridge, and noticed that besides those two the last email they sent lists the Elizabeth bridge as another possible docking place. At least they included a phone number to call if you can’t find the ship. That was how they phrased it anyway, but calling to see which dock it is actually on before searching all over for it is probably a better idea. We ended up seeing it docked by the Chain Bridge in the first spot we saw a Viking ship on the day before our cruise so we knew where it would be without having to call when we were ready to board.

Chain Bridge

We walked across the Chain Bridge and found another HoHo bus stop on the other side. There was a castle on top of a hill, but the bus stopped at the bottom. A funicular went to the top, and also some funny little blue castle hill busses, who had a 4-stop tour up on the top of the hill. Hop on Hop off runs the castle bus, but it is a separate tour with an additional cost. We wanted to ride the funicular up, but the wait for that was 50 minutes so we decided to go early the next day before it got such a long line.

bus by the Chain Bridge

The next bus that came by had a better layout than the first one and nobody else on it so we got much better seats there. The first one had an open top, but all of the other ones we saw both that day and the next had roofs over the second story, which is definitely better for winter in Hungary. We didn’t go up to the top, but pretty much everyone else who got on that bus did so we had the lower floor mostly to ourselves.

The bus stops by Margaret bridge at Margaret Island. After people get off for that stop and the bus starts moving again the optional spiel you can listen to on the ear pods they give you mentions all sorts of things to do on that island including a Japanese Garden. It would really make more sense to let people know what is there before it stops to let people off instead of after the stop when it’s too late to get off. If anyone decided they wanted to do any of the things there they would have to either get off at the next stop and walk back or ride the bus all the way around until it got back to that stop. Neither is really a good option since it is a long way to the next stop and it takes a long time to make the whole loop. There is a shorter loop for the green route, but we were on the longer red route.

book wagon seen from the bus

We decided to ride it all the way around and see what all the options were for all of the different stops.  At stop 9, Heroes’ Square, it came to a place with a whole line of HoHo busses with some other busses mingled in. We were told we had to leave the bus we were on and go to the one at the front of the line. Since everyone on all the other busses was told the same thing it was pretty crowded. The first one filled and left so we got on the second one. Instead of the nice padded seats the previous one had on the new bus the seats were lower down and cold plastic so not nearly as comfortable.

parliament building

The internet said the parliament building was closed, but the bus guide said it was open. One of our group really wanted to go there so after completing the circuit we got off in front of an eatery called Titiz since that was the stop closet to the parliament building. It’s a bit of a walk and google maps kept changing its mind about the directions after we got about halfway there so we just headed toward the river and came out right where we wanted to be. Turned out the internet was right for a change, the buildings were closed. That doesn’t prevent taking pictures from the outside.

shoe memorial

After that we walked down to the riverbank. There is an area with a bunch of shoes that is a heartbreaking memorial from World War 2. It consists of many pairs of shoes. We saw a shoe memorial in China where the shoes were bronze and expected something similar, but the ones in Budapest are the real actual shoes off the feet of Jewish people that were lined up on the riverbank near the end of the war when the Nazis were running low on bullets. They were all tied together and one was shot. That body fell in taking the rest along with it to drown. The shoes from those people’s feet are now on the riverbank where the people were standing. Some are adult shoes, but the sizes go down to toddler feet. People could walk to the parliament buildings from stop 2 at the Chain Bridge and see the shoe memorial on the way.

Titiz cafe

From the shoe memorial the closest stop was stop 2 the one on the Pest side of the Chain Bridge where we had first gotten off, which is stop 2. Google maps said it was an 11 minute walk back to the hotel from there which would have been the choice I’d have made if it were just me since that would take far less time than riding the bus all the way around again since some people were ready to go back leaving other stops for the next day. Another option would be crossing to the other side of the Chain bridge and picking it up at stop 16 where we started the full circle from and skipping a bunch of it, but while we were all deciding what to do John called an Uber, which got us to the hotel in about 4 minutes instead of the 10 google maps said a car would take. It also only cost $4.

Turkish tea at Titiz

If we had been looking at a map we’d have realized we could have just gone to stop 3, which was nearly as close to our hotel as stop 1. Stop 1 is listed on their map as St. Stevens Basilica, but it is not actually at the Basilica. Stop 3 is listed as Jozef Attilla St. and is near the Budapest Eye.

On the second day we took an Uber to the funicular early in the morning before the HoHo bus started running in order to beat the crowd. There were a couple people at the ticket booth when we got there, but no line and only a short wait until one of the cars of the funicular was down at the bottom and ready to go. There is a restroom near the lower station, but it is of the sort you have to pay for. There was a sign pointing toward one at the top as well, but I don’t know whether that one is paid or free. Free ones are available in some restaurants and coffee shops around town if you stop in for a drink or something to eat.

funicular

A funicular is a cable railway system on a steep slope where two cars counterbalance each other as one rises and the other descends. This system of two cars balancing each other is what distinguishes a funicular from an inclined elevator, in which a single car operates individually. The top station of the funicular is right at Buda castle. It doesn’t cost anything to walk around the castle grounds, which is pretty expansive. It also has an excellent view.

Buda Castle at sunrise

By the time we finished walking around the castle grounds and came back down the funicular it had gotten late enough that the Hoho bus was running for the day. We weren’t at the stop long before one came by. They ran every 10 minutes or so, but one always seemed to come by quicker than that.

Budapest Eye

That time we stayed on the bus until we got to the stop near the Budapest Eye, which is a large Ferris wheel with enclosed compartments along the lines of the London Eye. It was not scheduled to open for about half an hour after we arrived with an opening time of 11am that day. Being winter and with a temperature right about freeing level we were all cold from the day’s activities so far so we were all happy to go to a nearby coffee shop for a hot drink while waiting for the eye to open.

Budapest Eye

It was not very busy so they only filled a few compartments, then ran the wheel up and loaded a few more on the opposite side. For some reason they ran a whole ride with just a few people on it even though there were still some waiting at each of their 4 stations so we had to wait for that round to complete before we could get on.

on the Budapest Eye

It doesn’t take long to load when they’re just putting a few people at either end so it wasn’t a long wait for our ride. This one does not run continuously, rather stopping to load and unload and then running around several times before taking on the next batch. If there was a crowd it would take quite some time to load and unload all of the compartments.

view from the Budapest Eye

From the top of the wheel you can see over all of the nearby buildings. We could see the top of St. Stephen’s Basilica, the tallest church in Budapest at 96 meters. This is the same exact height as the parliament building. Both of these two tower over everything else in the city as nothing is allowed to be taller than the parliament building. The church was allowed to be equal in height to symbolize that the government is not above god.

view with a balloon in the distance

We also saw a hot air balloon from there, though rather than a free-ranging balloon as it appeared from that distance it actually turned out to be a ride that is tethered to the ground. It just goes up and down without leaving that spot.

paddle wheeler seen from the river cruise

The hop on hop off bus ticket includes a short canal cruise so we next got off at the stop they said was closest for that, which was stop 13. Stop 2 at the Chain Bridge is actually closer as well as right on the river so they probably just want people to walk by all the shops near stop 13. The brochure doesn’t actually give much detail about what is at or near any of the stops. Sometimes the ticket person on the bus announces things and sometimes the recorded spiel will tell you if you listen to it. The ongoing spiel has a variety of language choices. Neither spiel nor ticket person are completely reliable though because sometimes the spiel rambles on about things that you have no idea what or where they are and some of the ticket people don’t say anything. It would be nicer if they got rid of all the advertisements taking up much of the space on the brochure and replaced them with close-up maps of each stop and what could be found nearby or at least listed what was there rather than mainly just the street name or square where it stopped. And not say the bus stops at a particular attraction when you can’t even see it after you get off the bus and actually have to walk there and find it on your own.

Margaret Bridge and Margaret Island

Regardless of which stop the hop on hop off boat dock is approached from it’s going to be a little bit of a walk because dock 6 where the boat was is in the middle of an area without direct access from the road and trolley tracks above. The trolley goes right past it, but does not stop in that area. It’s a fairly short boat ride down one side of the canal up to the Margaret Bridge with a turn there and then down to the Elizabeth Bridge and then back to where it started – about a 45-minute ride.

We didn’t get off at any of the other stops, but there are 20 of them on the red line. The green line only has 6. It’s surprising how many signs on various buildings are in English. Not all of them, but considering that is not the main language in Hungary we didn’t really expect any. A lot of people in many of the various non-English speaking countries of Europe do know how to speak English though so quite a few tourists probably find it helpful.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Grand Turk Beach Day

Posted on August 29, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

whale statue

Grand Turk

Grand Turk is the capital island of Turks and Caicos and the largest island in the Turks, but there are two in the Caicos island archipelago that are bigger. Turks and Caicos together make up a country which is also an overseas British territory, though they use US dollars for their money. English is the official language, but some residents speak Spanish or Haitian Creole. The cruise port at Grand Turk is the only cruise ship port within the Turks and Caicos. Annual rainfall is about 21 inches. Average summer temperatures run from 85 up to the mid 90’s F (29-35 degrees Celsius) from June to October. From November to May the average temperature is 80 to 84 degrees (27-29 degrees Celsius). Water temperature in the summer is 82 to 84 degrees (28-29 degrees Celsius) and in winter about 74 to 78 degrees (23-26 degrees Celsius).

Grand Turk Cruise Port

The port at Grand Turk has a dock with space for two large cruise ships. If one comes in while another is there the dock is closed while the second ship approaches and until it is secured. Anyone from the first ship is stuck onboard or onshore, wherever they were at the time the dock was closed. There was a bin near the ships where people could dispose of any questionable substances before walking down the dock and a sign on the dock that said Carnival passengers would be subject to inspection by a sniffer dog.

swim-up bar at Margaritaville

The port in Grand Turk has plenty of things to do right where the ship docks. There’s a beach where people can swim, snorkel, or sunbathe. Local beach bars line the area next to the cruise ship beach and people can get drinks or rent beach chairs at them. There’s often locals offering things to do like banana boat rides from shore as well. The cruise port area has shops, restaurants, and a flow rider. It costs extra to use the flow rider, which you can book onboard as a shore excursion even though it is right at the port. There is also an extensive Margaritaville with an expansive shallow pool with swim-up bar and cabanas. You have to pay to use the cabanas. Margaritaville also has indoor bar space and a logo shop. It’s one of the port’s most popular attractions.

Apollo display

There’s also a display about an Apollo splashdown right by the beach. Next to the shopping area there’s a taxi stand for people who want to go off exploring on their own. There’s usually a place to book local last-minute tours available in the port area as well.

whale themed bar near the statue

A whale statue on the beach is a favorite photo spot for a lot of people. Next to it there’s a whale-themed bar with food.

beach with beach chairs

Day at the Port in Grand Turk

We’ve been to Grand Turk on several cruises, but rarely leave the port. It’s a good spot for not spending any money, though you could also spend a lot without ever leaving the port. Things changed a bit between our last visit and this one. There were both more free beach chairs scattered about out in the sun and more of the sort with shade that you have to pay for.

fish and rock structure just beyond the rope

The far end of the swimming beach used to have the most underwater structure for fish to live in so it was the best snorkeling area. On this visit several water trampoline things had been installed in what used to be the prime snorkeling spot within the roped off swimming area of the beach. There were numerous schools of tiny fish near the beach. Farther out in the water the fish got bigger. Just when you get to some big rocks perfect for snorkeling over to see way more fish you get to the rope marking the end of the swimming area. You can’t go beyond the rope so all of what would be the prime snorkeling spot is roped off. You can see fish at the edge of that structure from within the rope, but there’s a lot more beyond the area where people are allowed to go.

Out of the water the beach was pure sand, but at the waterline it got rocky. Not little rocks in the sand, but the entire bottom was mainly rock with a bit of sand covering. Enough to make the ground uneven so it is easier to swim over than to walk on, but not enough to make a lot of places for fish to hide.

shops at the port

I hadn’t really checked out the shopping area at this port before our port stop there on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam. My sister wanted to check out the shops so we first went out for that figuring to go back to the ship to change and put away anything we might buy before going snorkeling, There are a lot of shops selling overpriced clothing and jewelry, as well as some with souvenirs, but none with any sundries or other practical things for people who may have run out or forgotten to bring them.

We wandered around the shops awhile without finding anything we actually wanted to buy. They did not have anything that my sister was looking for, nor did we find anything we wanted that we weren’t specifically looking for. We went back through the duty-free shop which is where you go to get back to the ship intending to change and come back out. Just as we got to the door to leave port security closed off the way out off by pulling one of those barrier strips across the exit just as the people directly in front of us were about to pass through the exit. The security people would not let anyone else through. That is how we found out that people are not allowed on the dock if another ship is on its way into port even if that ship is not yet close enough to actually see it. There was no ship visible, but one was on its way there. They had to clear the dock area before it could come alongside. It took awhile before it finally arrived, and awhile longer before they finally let anyone back out onto the dock. We’d already looked at everything we wanted to see onshore so we just sat on the edge of an unused cabana that people are supposed to pay for and waited until we could go back to the ship. We were not the only ones doing that and nobody made any effort to chase anyone away. That was the only place with shade.

Carnival Freedom coming into port

We watched the ship come in and dock next to ours. After awhile they let people who worked there walk down the dock, but it took longer before passengers from either ship were allowed to go to or from the ships.

By the time we got back to the ship it was lunchtime so we had a salad before going back out to snorkel. The other ship was Carnival Freedom on a round-trip cruise out of Port Canaveral. It’s a bit bigger ship than the Nieuw Amsterdam so things got a lot more crowded, but we still managed to find beach chairs to put our things on while we went out to snorkel. It turned out to be somewhat disappointing since most of what there was to see was beyond the rope now so we didn’t stay as long as we otherwise would have.

just a small section of the Margaritaville pool

The pool at Margaritaville which had been too cold to give a try on my last visit was warm enough to swim in this time. It’s a shallow pool, but deep enough to swim. The flowriders got going once the Carnival ship arrived. They were off when it was just our ship. In general Holland America isn’t much of a flowrider type crowd. The passengers off the carnival ship were for the most part considerably younger. You could guess with probably about 90% accuracy which ship any given person was from by their age, though there were a few gray hairs with carnival towels and a handful of younger people with Holland America ones. Partly due to the cruise line, but also because of the length of the cruise. Ours was 3 weeks whereas the Carnival itinerary was just one. In spite of the sign on the dock we did not notice anyone getting checked by a sniffer dog even after the Carnival ship arrived.

FlowRider when it was closed with no water running

Ship’s Excursions Offered on Grand Turk

Although there is plenty to do right at the port in Grand Turk, there are other things to do on the island if people want to leave the port area. For those looking to book organized tours the Nieuw Amsterdam offered quite a variety of excursions there. The list included jeep, ATV, or dune buggy adventures, several snorkeling options, semi-sub or sailboat excursions, touring by hummer, duck boat, tram, or golf cart, a trip to a private beach house, or a couple bus tours of which one ended at a beach and the other included a painting class where people could paint their own masterpiece for a souvenir. The snorkeling from an excursion would probably be a lot better than what’s left now at the beach. We have done excursions there a couple times. Once a power snorkel and the other a semi-sub.

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Posted in Caribbean, Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, Ports of Call | Leave a comment

Food on Holland America Noordam

Posted on August 22, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Dining Room

Dining Room

The dining room on the Noordam was usually good for breakfast or dinner, but lunch not so much. Between very slow service at lunchtime, quite limited menus, and food that wasn’t that good the Lido buffet was often the better choice. The first time we tried lunch in the dining room the menu said pork chop, rice and veggies. It said nothing about breading. The pork chop showed up with breading so thick around a very thin bit of meat that the breading accounted for most of the thickness of the entire pork chop even though neither the item title nor the description on the menu had mentioned any breading at all. John ordered grilled cheese with gluten free bread and each slice of bread was the thickness of two slices. It was just warm bread rather than toasted and the mountain of cheese inside was not melted at all. He also asked for French fries with ketchup instead of potato salad and initially they brought potato salad with no fries or ketchup, though they did bring those later. The dessert was good though. We had lunch there one other day and it was better.

gluten free pork dinner

We’ve not had much luck lately with ordering specifically gluten free food on ships and started out on as you wish dining where you can come any time while the dining room is open rather than at a specific set time on this cruise where it’s even harder so we just tried to order carefully this time. We’re not celiacs – I just have limited tolerance issues and John avoids it because of its inflammatory nature so a little bit won’t hurt us. That worked fine until one night when nothing on the menu without a lot of gluten in it appealed to me so I asked if they could make that night’s pasta gluten free. They did, but then brought the menu ever after to pre-order the night before for the next day’s dinner. It did actually open up additional options for the dinner courses since any breaded or pasta dish would be special made gluten free, but they didn’t make any of the menu desserts in a gluten free version.

flourless chocolate cake

They had standard options for gluten free of flourless chocolate cake, crème brulee, or the sorbet flavor of the night. They could do a gluten free fruit crumble too, but pre-ordering meant not knowing what kind of fruit it would have. Ice cream would also be an option for anyone who didn’t also have lactose issues, but dairy upsets my stomach more than gluten does unless it’s a lactose free version which ships rarely have. So in the end pre-ordering gluten free meant better dinner choices, but a lot of repetition in the dessert. After the first couple weeks or so people who tended to show up at the same time and sit in the same area every night were assigned times and tables rather than keeping everyone on the as you wish dining so we ended up with a table for six by the back window. Another couple we had made friends with also was assigned to that table. The last two seats sometimes had people in them and sometimes not.

Canadian Thanksgiving

We happened to be onboard during Canadian Thanksgiving, which is mid-October instead of late November like American Thanksgiving. One of the dinner options was turkey, with a meal pretty much the same as what would be served for American Thanksgiving.

afternoon tea

They had afternoon tea every day in the dining room at 3:00. Each table gets one or more little stands of sweets, scones, and tiny sandwiches and of course everyone has a cup of tea. Some days they would have a theme such as Indonesian tea rather than just regular afternoon tea. We did not ask for anything gluten free there.

Mariner Lunch Dessert

Mariner Lunch

Holland America has a special lunch in the dining room one day during each cruise that all return cruisers receive an invitation to called the Mariner Lunch. If there are too many people onboard qualified to attend they will have it on more than one day with some people invited to each session. The same menu is repeated in that instance since the people are different. There’s a limited menu with food that is upscaled from the usual dining room lunch fare. Some ships have better options than others. This one wasn’t my favorite with just beef, seafood, or a breaded vegetarian option for the main and the dessert was some sort of deconstructed something. The captain always gives a brief speech. The cruise director also did on the Noordam. At previous mariner lunches we’ve attended there was a tile picturing the ship at each place setting, but there weren’t any on the Noordam. Just the food. There’s not a dress code specified, but people usually dress nicely to attend. We did get tiles later in our seamail box, but rather than the usual one of the ship these were a 150 years commemorative tile. Maybe they changed that so that all of the repeat passengers get a tile and not just the ones who attend the Mariner lunch.

chicken dinner at the officer’s table

Officer’s Table

One night at dinner one of the dining room staff stopped by our table to say that we along with the other couple that regularly sits at our table had been invited to sit at the officer’s table a couple days from then. We don’t know why they pick who they pick to sit there, and prior to that didn’t even know that they had a table assigned for that purpose on a regular basis. One of the other officers we talk to sometimes mentioned having a dinner like that to go to one night, but we really hadn’t thought anything of it until we were invited. It’s a big round table and has a different officer with different guests each night.

dessert at the officer’s table

Besides the four from our regular table there was another couple there. The officer was a young engineer named Thomas. He said they sign up for that, it’s not something they are forced to do so the officer involved is someone who wants to be there. He was quite interesting and informative. He was from Amsterdam and said since the ship is flagged in the Netherlands and he is from there he has some perks to his contract like the pay for a year being spread out monthly rather than just while at sea for a steady income.

vegetarian starter

Like the bridge crew he works 3 months on and 3 months off, usually returning to the same ship each time. When changing ships they have a 2-week orientation period to the new ship that is not required when returning to the same ship as each ship is a bit different even when of the same ship class – more so the older a ship gets. The menu for the evening at that table is the same as for everyone else in the dining room and the participants are expected to dress nicely for the evening. The officers have a drink allowance that is apparently more than they would ever spend on themselves so they buy drinks for anyone at the table who wants wine or some other specialty drink with their dinner.

duck starter

We were also allowed to invite officers to our table and did a few times with various people we had met on the ship. That gives them a chance to eat in the dining room that they might not otherwise have and they always have interesting tales to share.

pastries at the breakfast buffet

Buffet

The buffet didn’t have a gluten free section, but the pizza station had gluten free items for the asking. In the morning it’s the waffle and crepe station and they could make gluten free crepes or toast and had gluten free muffins available as well. Later they could make gluten free pizza and had some sort of gluten free dessert out where people could take it. Usually just jello or a flan thing or sometimes the same flourless chocolate cake the dining room served. You could ask for gluten free cookies. They had some really good chocolate chip ones that were also dairy free, but quickly ran out and then they just had butter cookies.

Phad Thai and veggies at the lunch buffet

Besides a variety of beef hamburgers, the Dive-In poolside grill offered beyond beef patties, a veggie burger, and a chicken burger among their options as well as one with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. They also had gluten free buns available for the asking.

nachos from the taco bar

Next to the grill in the pool area there was a taco bar that had a variety of different fillings and toppings. It had chips as well as tortillas and taco shells so people could make nachos, burritos, or fajitas there as well as tacos. It was a good place to get lunch and never had a line.

tables at the Lido Buffet

Canaletto

Canaletto is an Italian themed specialty restaurant at dinner time in a section of the Lido. The surcharge there is less than at the Pinnacle, but there still is an extra charge to eat there, which we did not do.

Pinnacle Grill

Pinnacle Grill

Holland America’s upscale restaurant, the Pinnacle Grill is often popular on short cruises, but on a cruise where people are booked for 34-48 days or longer it’s pretty hard to keep a pay-extra eatery full every day. Dinner saw a few more people, but even then walking past  often meant seeing numerous unoccupied tables, though more people than at lunch time. When we originally asked about reservations at first they said they weren’t sure if they could get us in because the computer system was down, but once we said it was for lunch rather than dinner they said no problem. They weren’t kidding since on the two days we had lunch there only 2-3 other tables had guests.

chicken lunch at the Pinnacle Grill

At less than half the cost lunch is a bargain compared to dinner. It’s not the same menu. The do have gluten free bread and buns available on request and they did sub a gluten free bun for John’s burger. Food there is a bit more upscale than the free venues offer. There are more options for mains than in the dining room at lunch, but not a very extensive menu for sides and starters and far fewer choices than at the Lido buffet. The dinner menu has more options.

coconut trifle dessert

The first time I had a salad for the starter that would have been better without the funky-tasting cheese. The prawns on my second visit were better. It was supposed to be bruchetta, but I ordered just the prawns without the bread. The chicken on my first visit was a bit on the tough side, but tasted good. On the second visit I had a chicken salad for the main. Both times I had the coconut trifle for dessert. It was tasty and not anything you could get in any other places onboard. Trifle as I remember my mom making when I was a kid had cake in it, but the Pinnacle version did not. It was more of just a layered pudding, in the American sense of the word pudding. You can’t go wrong with coconut and chocolate though, two of my favorite things.

Pinnacle Bar

Bars

There were some specialty drinks available at only one bar, but most things were offered at all of them. The coffee bar at Explorations Lounge and the one in the Crows Nest made specialty coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, which could be spiked if desired. They could also make other bar drinks at the Crow’s Nest, which was both a coffee bar and a regular bar. The Atrium Bar down on deck 1 by guest services and shore excursions looked to not be used any longer as it was void of anything to serve and never had anyone there, but all of the other bars on the ship had hours that they were open. Cruise ships always have lots of bars. Noordam had the Sea View bar, Ocean bar, Lido bar, Pinnacle bar, and bars at the Rolling Stone lounge and Billboard Onboard entertainment area.

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Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Saint Thomas Two Island Snorkel and Beach

Posted on August 15, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess from the snorkel boat

Long before our Caribbean Cruise on Enchanted Princess we booked an excursion for our first port stop in Saint Thomas that was to have a bit of a tour on Saint John and then go to Trunk Bay for snorkeling. I’d had this same excursion booked on a previous cruise on a different line only to have it cancelled shortly before the cruise started. This time it was cancelled about an hour before it was to start while we were in the midst of getting ready to go. Trunk Bay is supposed to have excellent snorkeling and we’ve never been to Saint John so that was quite a disappointment. We took a last-minute replacement for a different excursion that was a 2-stop snorkel and beach tour. The excuse for cancelling the first excursion was that it was too stormy for snorkeling at Trunk Bay, but we later found out it had been dead calm there that day so they probably really were just short of the minimum amount of people required for the excursion and hoping someone would sign on last minute, then canceling when they didn’t. Our back-to-back cruise stopped at Saint Thomas again the second time around so we booked that excursion again figuring to take the ferry over and get there on our own if it got cancelled, but it was actually stormy that day so we didn’t end up going then either.

view of ships in Saint Thomas from the snorkel boat

The new tour met on the dock shortly after the time scheduled for the original one. From there we walked just shy of a kilometer to where a catamaran was docked. Not the sort with sails that often do snorkel excursions. This one was called a fast cat. We were far enough back in the line to be the last ones to get seats in the covered area rather than the open area out in the sun, where nobody sat until the shady seats were all full. On the way back some of the people from the inside moved out there though.

snorkel boat at the first stop

The crew of this vessel were all young and female. Probably early 20’s other than the youngest deckhand in the fleet, 3-year-old Nai Nai, Captain Jen’s daughter. Gigi was quite the performer. Her rendition of all the rules and how-to’s for the tour were far more entertaining than any of the ship’s comedians at the comedy shows. The other deckhand Rosi seemed to have all the worst chores (like cleaning out the toilet if people threw paper into it instead of in the garbage where it belonged.)

dark fish in the rocks

The first stop was at Buck Island, which is a bird sanctuary so nobody is allowed on land. There was already another boat there when we arrived, with the area around it full of people from that boat. We were told we could go anywhere in the little bay between rocky outcroppings on either side. Over on our side the water was pretty murky.

colorful fish in the rocks

Out by the boat there was nothing but seagrass and the occasional fish. Closer to shore there was more structure and more fish, but the water was pretty murky there too so it was hard to see them. Since the other side was so crowded with people from the other boat I never went over there, but the people who did said the water was clearer on that side. It had more fish and even some small corals so the other boat definitely took the prime spot.

beached boat wreck

After an hour at the first stop the boat moved on to our second stop, a sandy beach on Water Island. There was a beached boat wreck in the rocks on one side of the bay. Lots of boats were anchored there. Some occupied and for others it appeared to be the moorage where they stayed when not in use. Especially the unoccupied one with the giant rent me for charters or tours sign.

beach at Water Island

The beach there had lots of amenities, but other than the restrooms everything came with a cost. Beach chairs, water toys, even a volleyball had a rental cost. We were there for an hour in which people could have a drink or a meal, rent a beach chair or water or beach toys, or go swimming or snorkeling.

snorkel boat anchored at the beach

The boat anchored up quite close to the beach, but there was a drop-off just beyond the shoreline. The foot or two at the edge of the water was shallow, but after that a very steep little hill went down a couple feet. It wasn’t far from shore to the boat ladder, but the water at the ladder was waist deep – at least on me.

The beach had a roped off swimming area, but you could go beyond the rope when snorkeling rather than swimming. Out between a couple buoys beyond the rope was where the boat crew said turtles hang out. I swam out there and did find a turtle, but the water was so murky I could barely see it. The crowd of people hovering over the turtle made it impossible to get close. If the water had been clearer I would have stayed out there and looked for other turtles, but since it was so murky I could probably pass over one without even noticing it was there I went to the side of the bay where it was rocky to look for other sea life.

sea urchins in the rocks

There were urchins and corals among the rocks, but in order to see them you had to be among the rocks as well and there wasn’t a lot of water to pass safely over the rocks without risking damaging the corals or damaging yourself on a spiny black sea urchin so I didn’t stay there very long.

time to get back on the boat

John hadn’t wanted to snorkel again at that stop so I met him on the beach and we just walked along the water’s edge until it was time to go back to the boat. It was quite a pretty little beach.

serving up the rum punch

After the first snorkel stop and on the way back to the ship the pitchers of rum punch came out. Most snorkel excursions in the Caribbean end with rum punch. Occasionally land tours serve it as well, though it mainly seems to be a boat thing.

Nai Nai with the tip jar

The snorkeling wasn’t that good on this excursion, but the boat crew made it fun. Instead of waiting to collect tips as people exited the boat or setting out a tip jar, as we approached the dock they had adorable little Nai Nai walk around the aisles of the boat with a tip jar. Apparently that was her job on the boat crew. Smart move. I bet that probably came close to doubling their tips. People who hadn’t had any money out like they were going to give them anything on their way off the boat were digging through their stuff for money to put in the jar for Nai Nai.

medallion in a waterproof bracelet

Once the boat docked we all walked the nearly one kilometer back to the ship. The walk passed by a lot of shops so if anyone felt like shopping along the way they could. I am so going to miss the medallions Princess has when we sail on a different line and it’s back to fishing through my stuff to find a ship card instead of wearing the medallion in a waterproof bracelet. Since the medallion is waterproof there’s need to take it off for snorkeling or any other water activity which is really convenient on a Caribbean cruise.

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Posted in Caribbean, Enchanted Princess, Ports of Call, Princess, Shore Excursions, USA | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Rain Forest Canoe in Ketchikan

Posted on August 8, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

canoes at the dock

Prior to our Zaandam Alaska cruise, John booked a fishing excursion in Ketchikan and I booked one called Rain Forest Canoe & Nature Trail. John booked this cruise on a whim because he was missing Alaska after having spent a dozen summers working as a fishing guide for a lodge there. On the ship’s fishing excursion he’d be on the other side as the customer with someone else as a guide. Apparently most cruisers aren’t into fishing though because just like most other cruise ship fishing excursions he’s booked in the past, this one got cancelled for not enough people booking it. Finding fishing charters from other sources doesn’t necessarily work with cruises either since their timing may not coincide with the ship’s time in port, as was the case with this one.

map of Ketchikan

Unlike Juneau where the shore excursion staff didn’t notify anyone of cancelled excursions and we found out our sea kayaking had been cancelled when going out to check in for it, he was sent a notice the day prior for the fishing excursion cancellation so he booked the one I was on instead. In Juneau we ended up doing a whale watching tour from the only last-minute excursion booth still open by the time we found out our kayaking had been cancelled. Every single one of the 17 people on that tour was from an excursion that had gotten cancelled without notification just like ours, though most of theirs had involved flying in either a seaplane or helicopter which were cancelled due to weather. We were told the Juneau kayaking one was cancelled for rough seas but the whale watching boat left from the same port where the kayaks were and it was calm there.

Zaandam in Ketchikan

This was the rainiest Alaskan cruise either of us has ever taken, with rain at every port and most of our time at sea as well. It did clear up near the glacier on the day we went to Endicott Arm, with the sun actually making an appearance at the glacier, but other than that it pretty much rained the whole time we were in Alaska other than a sun break in Carcross, Yukon during an otherwise rainy excursion.

gift shop on the pier

Check-in for this excursion was about an hour after arrival in port. We went out a bit early and had we not had rain gear on just walking to the closest gift shop on the pier would have left us drenched to the skin. This excursion was definitely a good test for my rain gear, and it passed. The raincoat was one that I bought at the gift shop on the ship because they were having a 75% off of everything Alaska related sale. Not that people couldn’t use a good raincoat at other destinations, but they were part of the sale anyway, and much better than the one I brought from home. We still got to the check-in a bit early after checking out the gift shop so we waited under the overhang on the side of the visitor’s center because the covered area by the front door was already full of other people staying out of the rain while waiting for their excursions.

a few people in a giant canoe

The large canoe holds around 30 people and they need at least 6 to run the excursion because any less wouldn’t be enough to paddle it. We had 6 people from the Zaandam, and one came over from the Grand Princess since she was the only one on her ship to sign up for that excursion so we ended up with 7 people – plus the guide for the canoe made 8. The Grand Princess left Vancouver with us and was at all of our port stops. The excursion to the Yukon we took in Skagway had people from the princess ship on it too.

a former whorehouse

Dolly’s House Museum on Creek Street in Ketchikan

We were taken up to a lake in the woods in a van on roads that were paved at the start of the ride up there and gravel closer to the lake, with plenty of potholes either way, though the van driver did his best to avoid as many as possible. The lake was called Harriet Hunt Lake, named after the person who ended prostitution in Ketchikan. Dolly of Ketchikan’s Dolly’s House Museum fame probably didn’t like Harriet Hunt at all. Prostitution was banned in Ketchikan in 1953 and Dolly’s house shut down in 1954. Dolly died in a nursing home in Sitka in 1975.

guide and a giant mushroom

When we first got out of the van the guide showed us a giant mushroom she had found. One of the red poisonous sort that looks like it would make a good smurf house. Amanita Muscaria it’s called. It’s hallucinogenic so some people make a tea out of them or eat dried ones, but an overdose can be deadly because they do contain toxins. There was a large selection of mushrooms as a centerpiece for the snacks table at our canoe destination so our guide wasn’t the only one working that excursion who had a fascination with mushrooms.

the jeep group in their canoe

While we were still in the parking lot waiting for paddles, life jackets, and for those who didn’t have their own, raincoats to be passed out a whole bunch of jeeps came down around the end of the cul-de-sac where the lake was, and then back up the hill a bit parking in front of the van we came in. They were from another excursion involving driving jeeps on mountain trails as well as the canoes. They had twice as many people as we did. While just a couple of our group opted for the excursion raincoats, nearly all of the jeep people wore them so they almost all matched in their canoe full of people while we were a mis-matched lot in a less-than-half-full canoe. I was very glad I had my own rain gear because by the time they got around to handing out the raincoats anyone who hadn’t already been soaked before they got into the van would have been pretty wet by then.

dock at the beginning of the journey

The bottom of the canoe was full of too much water for anyone to totally keep their feet out of and I didn’t have boots so my feet got pretty wet even though I kept them out of the puddle as much as possible. At least I had wool socks. Wool keeps you warm even when it gets wet.

dock we paddled to

The guide aimed us toward a dock a down the lake a bit from where we started. Along the way we saw what looked like people stuck near the shore in an unmoving jumble, but our guide said they were moving a dock that they weren’t using. Paddling a dock across a lake with a couple canoes is pretty slow going so it didn’t look like they were moving, but they were gone by the time we went back so they did eventually get to their destination.

campfire in the shelter

We beat the jeep people to the dock. We did have a bit of a head start, but also a whole lot less people to paddle the canoe. There was room at the dock for both oversized canoes to tie up. A stairway and boardwalk led to a covered platform in the woods with a table and a firepit area with a fire going. The camp cook who was already there and working had some snacks on the table and chowder, hot chocolate, and coffee on the fire.

cold shivering little mouse livened up after getting warm by the fire

A little field mouse huddled near a split bit of log next to the fire. The camp cook said he’d found it in the garbage can. The mouse was not looking to good at first, a shivering little unmoving ball of fur. It looked injured or ill, but was apparently just really cold because after it warmed up it scurried around pretty fast and looking quite fine when the log it was hiding behind got moved. It nibbled on a goldfish cracker someone gave it, then took a few more down through a hole in the wooden platform, presumably to its nest. It came and went a few more times before disappearing for good. That was the only wildlife we saw there. It was a cute little mouse.

snack table at the camp

After snack time the jeep people who were on a tighter schedule than us took a walk on the boardwalk trail into the woods while our guide told stories of local lore and some of her past adventures while waiting in hopes the rain let up a bit before we went for our rainforest walk. The jeep people came back from their walk and left to paddle their way back to the jeeps. Eventually the rain slowed down some so we took our rainforest walk.

bridge on the trail

The trail there is all boardwalk through muskeg which she said a person can sink into like quicksand if stepping in the wrong spot, though she did often leave the trail to talk about various things in places where the ground was solid. In some spots there was just water alongside the trail on both sides. It had some bridges crossing over tiny to small creeks.

the guide and the big tree

The vegetation seemed to mainly consist of skunk cabbage, hemlock, spruce, and ferns, though there were other plants including huckleberry bushes. The excursion blurb mentioned carnivorous sundew plants, but we were not shown any. There were a lot trees with fungus growing on their trunks, some of the trees still living and others not. Many of the trees had roots way above the ground where the nurse tree they had grown in had rotted away leaving a root cave under the tree. The biggest tree was about an 800-year-old spruce which was huge, living, and had a much smaller tree growing on top of a giant root sticking out of its trunk. Clover the guide said the little tree was an offspring of the big one and symbiotic in that they would share nutrients with each other as needed.

skunk cabbage by the trail

The rain stopped shortly after we got back from our walk so we had a dry time paddling back to the dock we had started from. Well dry from above anyway. The puddle in the bottom of the canoe had grown considerably deeper than the already giant puddle it had been at the start so not really any dry place for feet.

tree with fungus on it

Like most things this excursion would have been better on a nice day, but on trips like this one if you don’t do anything in the rain you won’t do anything at all so good rain gear really helps. For that excursion some good leak-proof rain boots also would have been useful. We still had fun anyway, even with all the rain.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Alaska, Holland America, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, USA, Zaandam | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Passau, Germany

Posted on August 1, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

street in Passau

Passau, Germany

Passau sits on the German side of the border with Austria at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers giving it the nickname Three Rivers City. The city is famous for its gothic and baroque architecture and a historic fortress on the top of a mountain. German is of course the language of the country, but many people also speak English. The population is about 50,000. The University of Passau has over 10,000 students. Passau has a moderate maritime climate. Average temperatures vary from winter lows in the mid 20’s F to summer highs in the upper 70’s F. Currency is the euro. Hitler lived in Passau as a boy and during the second world war there were a lot of Nazis there as well as a couple small concentration camps nearby – a part of their history the town’s residents would just as soon forget. Passau is one of Bavaria’s oldest cities, founded by Celts over 2000 years ago.

houses across the river from the bus stop in town

Passau River Cruise Port

Viking Skirnir docked about 2 miles from the center of town tied to another Viking ship that we passed through to reach shore. It is common for the river boats to dock that way, though at previous ports ours was the one at shore that other people walked through. Whichever one is leaving first goes to the outside even if they have to move to let the other one in. There were many other boats docked in that area, though we also saw some docked closer to town. There are numerous different river cruise companies, most of which we never knew existed before seeing their ships while on our Viking river cruise. We only ever tied up to other Viking ships, none from any of the other lines. One ship docked right in the main part of town next to where we got off and on the busses from our port. Our dock was in an industrial looking area.

cobblestone streets and a pink church

Passau Walking Tour

Viking river cruises include a free shore excursion at every port. The included tour for our port stop in Passau was a walking tour. It started and ended with the bus ride from the port about 2 miles to the center of town. The bus let us out next to the river where we met up with the tour guides for each group. People are divided into smaller groups for the tours so there are not so many people for each guide. The town has historical buildings and very narrow cobblestone streets. They look like walking paths, but cars do drive on them.

painted cobblestones

The one we started out on had colorful squares painted on some of the cobblestones at the center of the road, with some leading to doorways of shops. Down near the river all of the lower floors are shops rather than residences because floods will sometimes go quite high on the buildings so nobody lives at the bottom.

each line represents a different flood

There are high water marks painted on the sides of the buildings in some places. The guide said that the colorful squares led to businesses. They did head into some doorways along that street, but not all of them. Other than some branching a short distance up connecting streets to a doorway, this was the only street in town with the colorful squares.

doorways on a cobblestone street

Doorways normally have at least one step above street level, even in places above the flood area. Our guide mentioned that this was because back in medieval times occupants had a tendency to dump their chamber pots into the street and nobody wanted that coming in their door.

town hall

Most of the many towers throughout the town belong to churches or castles, but one of them was on the town hall, which was built by the common people at a time in history when they got tired of the bishops having all of the power and wanted a bit of control over themselves. They didn’t get a lot of power, but some was better than the none they’d had for centuries. The tower on the town hall signified that small gain of power.

inside St. Stephans cathedral

We walked through several narrow streets, all of which are cobblestone though only the one had painted squares. They are all surrounded by tall buildings. You can see church towers high above the rest in pretty much any direction. There are a lot of churches in Passau. It was not alone in that as pretty much all of the towns we went to had lots of churches. Even the smallest towns we passed along the river had at least one church.

pipe organ at St. Stephens

We worked our way uphill to a cathedral with a Christmas market just outside of it where the tour ended. This was somewhat of a pattern with these tours, ending at a cathedral with a Christmas market. The one in Passau is one of many churches for a small town, originally a bishop’s church done in gothic style. It took 350 years to build and much of it burned down about 100 years later so one side of the church is still gothic outside while the rest is baroque style, as is the inside. Gothic style is upward with pointed arches reaching for the heavens while baroque is symmetrical with horizontal lines. Both are very ornate. Regardless of the town many seemed to have a church or cathedral called St. Stephens, as was the biggest one in Passau. This one had most of the intricacies molded into the walls and ceiling as well as painted ceilings and lots of figures built into the walls rather than gilded with gold like some of the others, though there were some golden things there. It has the largest pipe organ in a cathedral in the world with nearly 2000 pipes and 5 organs – soon to be 7 when the current renovations are complete. They are supposed to finish renovating in 2027. The cathedral also has 8 enormous bells.

booth at the Christmas market

The Christmas market outside the cathedral was of pretty good size with a lot of food stalls as well as stalls selling ornaments, trinkets, warm things like gloves, scarves, hats, and socks, gift items, or other things. This market had a few unique things that looked like they could possibly be handmade rather than mass produced. The majority of the stalls were food and drinks. Long hot dogs seem to be a big thing though these were longer and slimmer than the ones we saw at the Christmas markets in Austria and Hungary and looked more like sausages in a bun than actual hot dogs. Chocolates are also a popular thing at these markets, as is hot wine, which they call glühwein.

cafe by the river

After walking around the market a bit we made our way back down to the river, but got there about half an hour before the bus back to the port was due so we found a little café nearby where we could sit somewhere warm and sip hot drinks while we waited. Even though it was a sunny day it’s very cold outside in Passau in late November.

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Posted in Europe, Shore Excursions, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fly Fishing Patagonia Chile

Posted on July 25, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

fly fishing on the Rio Maullin River

Most of the time people cruising together stick together in port and do the same thing, but it’s certainly not required. If one person wants to do something and the other would rather do something else it’s perfectly fine to each do your own thing. That’s what we did in Puerto Montt, Chile on our cruise to Antarctica on Holland America Oosterdam. Puerto Montt offered a river rafting excursion, which I really wanted to do and John wanted no part of. It also had a fly-fishing excursion. He loves to fish and I don’t. So we each did our own thing at that port. I had a great time river rafting and he enjoyed his chance to go fishing. A lot of times cruise ship fishing excursions get cancelled so he was really happy this one actually happened. The rest of this blog is his story from that excursion.

Chilean flag

Puerto Montt Chile, our first port of the Antarctica cruise, had many things to do. I choose to fly fish the Rio Maullin River in a unique part of Patagonia. Typically, most fly anglers fish the East Coast of Patagonia in a more arid desert-like climate. But here, on the West Coast in Chile, Patagonia has a more forested landscape.

rafts on the beach

After exiting the ship, seven other anglers joined me on a small tour bus that drove an hour through dirt and gravel roads. At the end of the road the slow meandering river emerged from the forest. Four inflatable fly-fishing rafts waited along with guides holding fly rods. Each raft would take two anglers, one on each end and the guide in the middle with oars. Prior to launching the boats each angler cast the fly rod for the guides to evaluate skill levels. Of the eight anglers three choose to use spin rods.

getting ready to go

One at a time, spaced a couple minutes apart, the rafts departed into the slow-moving water. Along the banks native fuchsia plants in full bloom provided a colorful backdrop and reflections nearshore. Some areas also had native bamboo plants that stretched high into the sky. My first cast with the fly landed exactly where the guide pointed. Our guide told us brown trout weighing up to five pounds and smaller rainbow trout would be our target species. Small streamer flies cast and then quickly “stripped” while holding the rod tip just above the water would hopefully attract a bite.

fish on

Some anglers say fly fishing is a sport of a thousand casts, but not today. Within about 20 casts something grabbed my fly, followed by a brief fight before losing the fish. Someone on the boat behind us hooked up too but also lost the fish. As we drifted downstream the guide speaking in broken English would say “change colors please.” With most anglers he would tie on the fly for the angler. In my case he let me tie my own flies onto the light leader. Casting the five-weight fast action IM6 rod was fairly easy for me. This guide company, River Flow Chile, actually had very high-quality rods and gear. The guides were excellent and patient too. These guides knew the river well and pointed out every holding spot where anglers can safely make a cast. Some great looking water had underwater snags and the guide pointed those out and said “no cast.”

little fish

My first fish to the boat only measured about 10-inches but provided a fun fight on the light rod. Mission accomplished, my first Patagonia fly-caught fish. After a quick picture I released the fish. The next fish I landed measured about 16 to 18-inches but we failed to get any pictures of it so you will have to trust my size estimate. All totaled during the roughly four-hour float, I had 11 bites and landed just three brown trout.

fishing flies

The three anglers who decided to use spin gear caught five to 10 fish each. Again, anglers may choose to use fly gear or spin gear. Without question, the spin gear caught way more fish. The angler I shared a boat with did not land a single fish because of his lack of skill. I suggested he try the spin gear but he adamantly said he would rather catch no fish on the fly rod than use spinning gear. If you are a first-time fly angler you should try to cast the fly. However, if you fail at fly casting give the spin gear a try as you will likely catch a brown trout within a few minutes. It just depends on your goals. Most anglers who choose this shore excursion have some experience fly fishing.

wild fuchsia

Even if you don’t have experience fly fishing this ship’s excursion is worth doing regardless of whether or not you ever cast a fly or spinner. Experiencing this amazing part of Patagonia is worth the price. At the end of the float the pickup crew awaits with a lunch spread complete with snacks, sandwiches, water, soft drinks, beer and wine. Overall, I highly recommend this trip. For more information you can call +56 9 9423 2399 or check them out on Instagram at @riverflowchile

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Guest Blogs, Holland America, Oosterdam, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Flamingo Gardens

Posted on July 22, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Flamingo Gardens statue

Our Panama Canal cruise on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam started in Fort Lauderdale. After having nearly missed the last cruise we took from there due to plane delays when going one day early, and recently having a flight to Copenhagen completely canceled so we had to take a different plane the next day, we opted to go two days early this time so there were more options for another flight in case of any issues with the scheduled one. Our booked flight went off without a hitch so we had an extra day in Fort Lauderdale. Looking through the motel’s brochures we found a place called Flamingo Gardens. It was one of the few things to do they had brochures for that was actually near Fort Lauderdale rather than in Miami or even Cape Canaveral. There were also some online options of things to book, but this was a place where we could hang out pretty much all day rather than just for a few hours or less. The address is in Davie, FL, but it was close to Fort Lauderdale.

flamingo pond

Flamingo Gardens is a botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary. It also does wildlife rescue and has a wildlife hospital where the aim is rescue, recovery, and release. Some of the animals are too injured for eventual release so they end up living out their lives in the park’s animal exhibits. They also have some that were at one time someone’s inappropriate or illegal pet that ended up there. Peacocks, ibis (aka bin chickens if you’re Australian) and other birds run wild throughout park.

pelican on a bridge in the aviary

Various different birds live in the aviary which has a big area for some of them with separate facilities for raptors and tropical birds. There were some pelicans and other birds in the aviary. Flamingos have their own flamingo pond area. Flamingo Gardens was established in 1927 and has 60 acres of botanical gardens and wildlife sanctuary.

peacock strutting his stuff

The park has other animals as well. Feral cats run loose, though there are way more peacocks than cats. We met one peacock who seemed to enjoy strutting his stuff and posing for people’s cameras. He initially spread his tail for a peahen, but she ran off uninterested so he started showing off to anyone in the vicinity with a phone or camera and kept on posing until there was nobody left wanting to take pictures of him.

white peacock

The rest of them weren’t afraid of people, but didn’t go out of their way to pose either. We saw one white peacock. He had his tail spread, but wasn’t into strutting and posing for people like the other one. His tail looked like an upside-down wedding dress skirt, and the pattern of his feathers would actually make a lovely wedding dress if done in a more appropriate material rather than actual feathers.

lizard

The brochure mentions free-range iguanas, but we did not see any of those. We did see a lizard on one of the garden sculptures.

cactus garden

There were quite an assortment of different little gardens. Some native plants to the area, others including various flowering plants. There were also orchids, cactus, ferns and some ancient plants, and plants from faraway places.

tram stopped by the cactus garden

A tram ride which had tram cars pulled by a pickup ran every half hour and took about 20 minutes for a narrated ride around various gardens with a brief stop next to the cactus garden by the butterfly conservatory. It stops long enough for people to take a quick walk through the butterfly house. People can also walk those paths out to see the things on the tram tour.

butterfly house

The butterfly conservatory hatches out butterflies and then has a greenhouse type space full of plants where they can fly around, but unlike most butterfly houses they don’t care if these escape since the goal is to increase the butterfly population for pollinating the fruit that grows within the gardens.

bee in the pollinator garden

Just outside of the butterfly house there is a pollinator garden. Bees like it as well as any butterflies that escape to the outside from the butterfly house.

pollinator garden outside of the butterfly house

The land that is now Flamingo Gardens was once a citrus grove, but we did not see any citrus in the area where the gardens are other than some baby hybrid trees of a new variety. The original owners of the citrus grove planted many of the things that make up the gardens on what was then their property in addition to their citrus trees. Butterflies look pretty and harmless, but some had battered wings from fighting with each other.

butterfly in the conservatory

The former owner’s house is a little museum of their time period in around the 1920’s or 30’s. It’s called the Historic Wray Home. A building near there is called the Barbecue Pavilion. The name is deceptive because unless renting it for an event it’s not actually a restaurant. There is a food truck and snack shack near the tram station, which was the only food available in the park. Bin chickens (ibis) hang out at the picnic tables by the food waiting for people to drop stuff. We also saw one peahen and another little black bird hoping for handouts there. We got our lunch at the food truck along with a smoothie from the nearby smoothie bar. I got the food and Linda got the drinks. I expected her to have those in hand and come find me while I waited for our food to cook, but it took just as long waiting for the smoothies to get made as it did for the food so we met in the middle each looking for the other having gotten both things at the same time. There were not any empty picnic tables in the food area so we had to share one with a couple people already sitting there, and then others after they left and new ones came looking for a place to sit.

snake at the wildlife demonstration

The park has a little stadium where they do wildlife demonstrations several times a day. They had a snake, a skunk, and a barn owl when we were there. The barn owl had come there as a tiny badly injured baby owlet and had injuries too severe to ever be released as he doesn’t have full range of motion in his neck. The snake came from another wildlife place that closed down and the skunk had been an illegal pet. She couldn’t survive in the wild without stink glands, which had been removed. That’s a skunk’s only defense. Besides the wildlife talks with several animals they also have some sessions about just one animal – and of course one of those is flamingos.

peacock in a tree

We saw a lot of peacocks up in trees and on top of enclosures that housed other birds. We didn’t see any going up, but coming down it pretty much looked like they jump off and flap their wings to slow down the fall.

tree with air plants

Some of the trees grew quite a variety of air plants, including orchids.

butterfly sculpture

The pathway that the tram takes, which people can also walk on, has a series of different sculptures of glass and metal butterflies, beetles, and other insects like dragonflies. There are also some other decorative sculptures in other areas of the park, but they are made from different materials and not part of the glass and metal series.

dragonfly sculpture

We took the tram tour, but then later walked the trails. From the tram you just see everything in passing other than a quick walk through the butterfly house, but on foot you can see things closer up and stop anywhere that you want to see something more closely or to take photos. The tram has narration so you learn about the things you see as you go by so it’s nice to do both.

footpath

There are some pathways you can go on foot where the tram doesn’t go.

cactus flower

Entry and exit is through a gift shop, which is pretty big and has a variety of things. Flamingo Gardens rehabilitates over 1000 animals a year in their wildlife hospital and runs entirely on money made from visitors, donations, and memberships without any outside assistance.

orchids on a tree

It’s a pleasant place to spend a day and has a lot of different things to see with quite a variety of plants and birds as well as some other animals.

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Posted in Day Trips, Port Cities, USA | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Raiatea Cruise Port

Posted on July 18, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Raiatea

Holland America Noordam docked at the cruise ship port in Uturoa, Raiatea, an island in French Polynesia 146 miles northwest of Tahiti and just under 29 miles southeast of Bora Bora. The dock is right in town with no barriers between the port and anything else as is common in most ports. You do of course have to show your ship card to board, but there are no security gates or anything to pass through first.

view of the dock and a bit of the town from the ship

At nearly 65 square miles, Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands, significantly smaller than Tahiti which is just over 400 square miles. Raiatea is a green mountainous island with waterfalls and hiking trails. Its reefs are popular for snorkeling and diving. The name means distant sky or sky with soft light. It was considered a sacred island and has petroglyphs and other historical remains.

port at Raiatea

Just off the ship there’s shops in an area made to look like a Polynesian village. Also a meeting place for shore excursions from the ship. There are some more modern buildings at the port too. Most are shops or restaurants, but there’s also a tourist center where people can book last minute excursions.

tourist center

The visitor’s center offered pretty much everything the ship had to offer in that port with various snorkeling or lagoon tour options or tours to pearl or vanilla farms.

statue at the port

The area near the ship also has some ponds with purple flowers, grassy areas, and some statues.

flower in a pond at the port

There were a couple people with signs offering random last-minute tours, but most last-minute activities were found in the tourist center. I had planned on booking a snorkel excursion there, but the weather forecast for the day of our visit was horrible. We managed to walk around town a bit before it started to rain, but shortly after we got back to the ship a major downpour came and it rained pretty hard on and off for the rest of the day so we just stayed onboard out of the rain.

fruit market

The area surrounding the port has a lot of tourist shops, but it also has several grocery stores, a fruit market, a pharmacy, and other shops more geared to the area’s locals. You can get some medications without a prescription there for a lot less money than what they cost in the USA. You have to go to the actual pharmacy though. The grocery stores don’t even carry stuff like Tylenol or Advil.

one of the Polynesian buildings at the port

Excursions from the ship included drift snorkeling the coral garden, a boat ride to a motu for a picnic and visit to a vanilla plantation, a land and sea tour visiting the vanilla farm and pearl farm, a pearl farm tour with snorkeling, a bus tour to highlights of the island, catamaran tour to the pearl and vanilla farms, kayaking, a river ride in a  motorized outrigger canoe, and an island tour on a Le Truck island bus.

map of Raiatea

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Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fun and Games on Enchanted Princess

Posted on July 11, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess in Saint Kitts

Cruise ships have daily schedules with all sorts of different activities passengers can choose to watch or participate in depending on the activity or game. Trivia is popular and common, but far from the only game available on cruise ships.

Enchanted Princess offered quite a variety of games in various areas of the ship. The central area called the Piazza hosted things like cornhole, giant Jenga, egg drop and a paper airplane contest.

trivia at Princess Live

Princess Live, a small stage near the center of the ship, often held trivia contests during the day, but in the evening they switched to game shows like one called Yes or No.

Other games were held in various areas of the ship. Sometimes the same game might be in a different venue one day than it was another like carpet bowling which was in the Vista Lounge one time and a lounge called Take 5 another. The Vista Lounge has comedy in the evenings and other activities during the day. Take 5 often hosted private functions since it was fully enclosed unlike many of the ship’s other venues.

cornhole in the piazza

We don’t usually participate much in the onboard games on our cruises, but on Enchanted Princess we tried quite a few. Mainly due to a couple unexpected sea days when scheduled port stops got cancelled due to stormy weather. Or so they said. It was quite stormy the day we were to go to Princess Cays. So much so that ships who had gone to ports in the area that day ended up either damaging themselves and the dock they were tied to or having to leave early before all the passengers were back onboard. Missing that port was a good call. At Dominica on the other hand the water appeared dead calm around the pier that they insisted had too much of a swell for them to dock so people figured they were just spooked by what happened with other ships on that very stormy day a couple days prior to that port stop.

The egg drop was something John wanted to try anyway, not having anything to do with cancelled port stops. He’d done something similar in school and figured he had a good plan. We saw it on the schedule one day, but when we went to the piazza it turned out just to be sign-ups with the actual contest planned for the last sea day.

chicken man signs people up for the egg drop

After signing up people had the time between then and the contest to make something that will keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped 2 stories into the piazza. A man in a chicken suit handled the registration. On the day of the competition he handed out the eggs and took any last-minute participants. They do not provide anything other than the egg. Contestants have to find the parts to make their contraptions as well as having their own idea for it.

the Effy bag wins for design

When the day came the man in the chicken suit ran the game while a girl was the announcer. First everyone lined up and showed off their creations. The design with the loudest applause got a medal, which was an Effy jewelry bag with air-filled gloves hanging out the top. Other contestants had a man-bag full of bread with the egg in the middle, a pretty little pouch with a garbage bag parachute, a couple last-minute entries consisting of a shoe with the egg wrapped in socks for one and a paper cup for the other. John’s was a cardboard box which had the egg suspended in panty hose in the center plus some air-filled bags and gloves under it. It turned out not to be just a matter of the egg surviving the fall. There was also a target.

parachute coming down

The target looked like a giant fried egg. The winner would be the unbroken egg landing closest to the yolk. Chicken man checked each entry after it landed to see how the egg fared. The Effy bag, shoe, and cup had broken eggs. Of the others the parachute was the only one that actually landed on the target, so she won.

John’s egg didn’t break

For the paper airplane contest each person wanting to participate made their own paper airplane or whatever from the paper provided. The first part involved throwing them from a balcony one deck up and trying to make them go through a hoop. More of them went spiraling down or straight down than anything. One only went as far as the ledge of the balcony it was thrown from and got stuck there. Others flew astray. Several barely missed the hoop. Only one made it through and it was some sort of weird circular thing rather than an actual airplane. Mine flew the farthest, but it was off-course and not through the hoop. The second part was trying to land them on a little runway from the same deck it was on. Several planes landed on the runway so the closest one to the end won. Again a lot of them failed to fly at all, just dropping to the ground from where they were thrown. Others (like mine again) flew well, but not in a straight line and not to the runway.

carpet bowling

We saw carpet bowling on the schedule on the day that was scheduled to be a port day at Princess Cay, but turned into a sea day when stormy weather cancelled that port. Having never heard of carpet bowling before we went to see what that was all about. They had some funny little black balls bigger than pool balls, but smaller than croquet balls that had a color dot on one side. They were not totally round and would turn away from the color dot eventually when rolled. The object was to end up with your ball closest to a little white ping-pong sized ball. The first person each of 4 teams of 2 people took a turn to roll. One ball, one chance per person. After one person from each team went the second one had a go. It didn’t matter if one ball hit another or even knocked the little white ball somewhere else. Just which ball ended up closest to the white one at the end. It would take more than one or two throws to figure out exactly how hard to roll the ball to get it anywhere near where you want it to go. Too light of a throw and it curves off long before getting anywhere near, but too hard and it passes it by and slams into the door or wall beyond the target. Probably a lot of dents in that area from that game. Most people were way off, but one lady seemed to have the hang of it. We were nowhere close. They played two games and in the first one I threw too hard and in the second one too light. Didn’t find that happy medium. It was fun though. Each game had 2 rounds in which the winners of the first round moved onto a final round and everyone else was eliminated. Winners of the championship round got a medal. Then they started fresh for the second game.

They had that game again another day. Take 5 had a lot more open space for the balls to roll in without hitting anything so it was a better place for it than the Vista Lounge had been. A lot more people came that day so there were more people on each team as well as more teams.  Afterword they had a silent trivia in the same room where people just wrote in answers on a sheet of questions sitting on a table by a box of pencils. You just handed in the paper. As far as I know there were no prizes or anything for that. One of the questions was what do you call a group of crows. I told the guy running it, which was the same one who did the carpet bowling, that ravens would be better because everybody knows about a murder of crows, but not so many have heard of an unkindness of ravens. He hadn’t known that either, but said he’d use it for a future question.

bowling with a giant beach ball

Carpet bowling wasn’t the only strange sort of bowling Enchanted Princess had. One day there was bowling in the piazza with oversized pins and a giant ball that looked more like a beach ball than a bowling ball. All of which were much lighter weight than regular bowling things. Probably all of the blow-up sort. A lot of people signed up to play. We each knocked down some pins, which was better than many people who didn’t get any. One lady was ahead of the pack with more pins than anyone else. She would have won, but then the guy running the game let people who didn’t sign up have a turn – except they had to throw the ball with their back facing the pins. One guy managed to tie the lady in number of pins so facing backwards he did better than everyone but her. They had a tie-breaker bowl off and he won.

tossing chopsticks in the 60-second frenzy

Later the same afternoon of the first carpet bowling we checked out something called 60-second frenzy in the piazza. The first round of this involved 8 chopsticks set out in a line. You have one minute to pick up the first one, balance it on the back of your hand, toss it up, and then catch it – underhand not allowed. After catching the first one you then add the second one, do both together, and then work your way down the line so on the last toss you have all 8. If you drop any you pick them back up and try that number again until either getting through all of them or running out of time. For a long time nobody was successful. Finally a guy named Gary got them all. Then nobody got past 7. I was the last one on the list and it was still just Gary. Everyone else had put the sticks on the back of their hand, but I put them on my fingers because you can spread those wider for better balance and also don’t have to toss the sticks as far before catching them. I got through most of them fine, but did drop one somewhere along the line and had to pick it up and do that toss over. Finally got to the last 8 and caught them before the countdown to the last second ended. It was just me and Gary at that point so the guy running the game asked if anyone who hadn’t signed up wanted to try. One lady who was the mother of a failed contestant got talked into giving it a go and was successful using my technique.

catching chopsticks in the 60-second frenzy

Then he asked if anyone wanted to try again. Someone named Gladys tried also using my technique, but her sticks were still going all over the place and she ran out of time even though the guy running it kept picking them up for her. John was the only other person to give it a second chance. He got nearly there, but had to get that last 8. Time was running out so the guy in charge kept repeating the same number on the countdown until he got it with about 5 extra seconds that hadn’t been counted.

second chance

Apparently that was because they needed at least 4 people for the second round since it went in teams of 2. Beer-pong style we bounced ping-pong balls into a cup, trading back and forth between each person on the team. I guess they could have just had me and Gary each do that on our own without a partner though. Once a ball went in another cup got stacked on top until the total stack was 7 cups with 7 balls. We were only up to 5 cups with balls in them when the other 2 finished so we got second place. They got wine stoppers for first and we got coasters for second so nobody got a medal. John was bummed about that. He really wanted one since he hadn’t won a cruise ship medal before. I won one on a previous Princess cruise for a perfect landing in the middle of the runway in the paper airplane contest, which went a lot better for me on that ship than on this one.

passengers vs officers cornhole

They had cornhole in the piazza a couple times. Once it was all passengers and the other time it was passengers against officers. The time it was just passengers teams were even and John was on the winning team so he finally got his medal. Against the officers there were a whole lot more passengers than officers in the game so each officer got 3 or 4 turns for each one turn per passenger. The passengers won and we got medals for that too. John was also on the winning team at the second carpet bowling so he ended up with 3 medals.

yes or no game

One night we decided to go to the game shows at Princess Live instead of whatever was in the theater that night. There was a trivia going when we first got there, but then it went to something called Yes or No. People who volunteered to participate went up to the stage one at a time where 2 people would fire off questions for 3 minutes and if they said yes or no in any language they lost. The were not allowed to repeat the same non yes or no answer either. Most people managed the actual yes or no questions, but got tripped up by random comments designed to do just that. Like them mentioning someting along the lines of the town you were from only saying the wrong one so without thinking people would say no it’s … and lose. Only one person made the whole 3 minutes and that one had a bit of a reprive in the middle of the questions when they first thought he’d messed up, but really he hadn’t. The clock kept running while they sorted it out so he really didn’t have to answer questions for the full 3 minutes. They gave him the winning prize anyway since it was nearly the end of the cruise and nobody had won that game yet – for the entire cruise, not just that night. That prize was a bottle of champagne. The losers got things like a broken pencil, an empty packet that the free Effy necklaces come in, a small piece of string, or other useless items.

medals and coasters

They did have quite a lot of fun games on that cruise. Definitely a bigger variety of different games than the average cruise ship.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Enchanted Princess, Princess, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments