scubacruiserx2

  A couple more photos from Bermuda . The lighthouse and the Eclipse from the the top of the Fortress . And a view of the Eclipse from the ferry just ahead of the storm . Click twice on the photos to enlarge them .

7 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Yes I see I have read that NS review. What a bout your AFT Vista on the previous NS? Do you have a link to that one?

Understood re the 6D MK1 issues. My 6D MKII is still in tip top shape after 7 years of heavy use.

I bought a separate camcorder SONY 53 for our Panama Canal cruise.

 

Norris

  We do Norris . We didn't enjoy our first cruise on that one when          it was new . Maybe it was the Spring Break crowd or the fact that I was the odd man out with a large group of hostile women toward men . Anyhow , we miss the Pinnacle Grille Breakfasts on the newer Pinnacle Class . We prefer the Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam size and dining wise .

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

Joe, Arctic on the NS (deck 7 aft Vista) is June 15, 2025 from Rotterdam (14 day sail). We have Club Orange for that one and will get to spend 4 days in Amsterdam.

 

Norris

  Thanks Norris ,

 Our original plan was to do the NS in August this year .

 It looked rainy the next day so we did the bus ride around the island .

 We stopped for the smallest drawbridge in the would but it didn't need to open .

The Crystal caves . It was raining so we ducked inside literally .

Leaving Bermuda for the Azores . The small ship was the Pacific Princess - The Love Boat .

3 hours ago, Bimmer09 said:

Joe, I see that I already followed the Nieuw Amsterdam. I'm reading it again. I see they moved you from the deck 5 Neptune to 7132 on your second week. I booked the equivalent on Noordam which is 7142 and on this December's Rotterdam have 7130 Aft Wrap Neptune. The only non-Neptune I've booked is the Arctic Nieuw Statendam as we have a Vista instead- didn't think we'd spend much balcony time there.

Rudi Sodamin has been moved to Princess to help rescue their food-that's the reason we didn't book another Princess cruise after our past 2 Christmas sailings. 

It was the food vlogging videos that got me interested in trying HAL Pinnacle Class.

 

Did you buy the Canon D90 for the 4K video?

 

Norris

 There were several reasons for the purchase , 4 K is one but my pocket Sony has 4 K and a quieter zoom . The old 6 D is heavy and 9 years old + the mode dial cover and eye piece kept falling off . The mode dial piece I crazy glued but it got stuck in the auto function .

 The D 90 is lighter , touch screen , 32 .5 mp , shoots sports @ 10 fps , 45 point auto focus and has a joy stick and a better sensor .

 I know that you have seen our Nieuw Statendam review but you may want to review it again . We really liked the spa and had a Vista suite on that one too .

 Where and when is the Artic cruise to ? Our next HAL is a family cruise on Thanksgiving this year on the NA .

7 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Oops- Joe and Pat!!

Norris

 No worries . 9 of our past cruises have been HAL and 1 Princess and 1 NCL all suites except the Neiuw Statendam . So if you have any HAL questions , fire away . PS got a new Canon to learn the D 90 . Good call on the aft corner suites , our favorite was on the Zuiderdam a sister to the Noordam . The largest covered balcony .

 A small walk around the Connie circa 2009 .

Deck 10

Solarium

Ocean liners special dining

Food at Ocean liners

Unknown deck greenhouse

Deck 4

Grand Foyer

Main Dining Room

  Welcome to South Florida in the Spring !

Today 91 F = 32.7 C heat before a cool front and some rain

 Tomorrow 73 F = 22.7 C to 52 F = 11.11 C ( known as French fries in a Volleyball game score ) tomorrow evening .

On 3/15/2024 at 2:25 PM, Bimmer09 said:

I got an email this morning offering up some new Pacific Coast/Mexico HAL cruises and was instructed to book one pronto. Neither DeckChairQueen nor I have sailed HAL before and yet now I find we have 3 bookings. The cruises show on the HAL website so I didn't bother getting in touch with our PCC. Snagged an aft-wrap Neptune with HIA and booked online.

Ketchikan and Victoria are the only ports we are familiar with from our Princess sailings.

Anyone else get the email and book? We are on the 7 day Noordam April 19 2026. She also has a sailing in October 2025.

 

Norris

  @Bimmer09 on HAL how can this be  ? Congrats on your aft corner and your trips . May we suggest  you and Carole take a look at our last reviews as they may help . 

 And we defected from HAL for a half price cruise in January to Antarctica and Patagonia which blew Alaska out of the water with a suite that felt like home on NCL . 2 balconies , 2 baths , 2 dining areas at the HAL for the price of the aft corner on HAL .

 We ate lunch in Hamilton and took the quicker water ferry back to the ship .

 As we got closer to the city of Hamilton the bus got more busy with kids from school 

We got off at a Park

And a little later there was a Town Crier competition . This video is from 2015

 Horseshoe Bay

 We had to walk around these rocks by the water . Every time a wave would come in it would cover the sand walkway so we had to time it between waves .

We had to walk up toward the road here

There was a pit stop here where you had to climb up a step in order to be seated on the throne  

The area where we ascended to meet the bus

 It takes about a hour and a half to safely navigate the channel to Bermuda , but the crew did a great job with the markers so close sometimes , that it seemed like you could almost touch them .

 But the NCL Dawn wasn't so lucky , in 2015 , she ran aground in Bermuda .

http://fox8.com/2015/05/19/norwegian-cruise-ship-runs-aground-near-bermuda/

 Arrival at the Dockyard in Bermuda

  We had an overnight stay so we purchased a 2 day pass to the public Bus and Ferry to Hamilton for $25 . We hopped the bus at it's origin in the Dockyard and rode to Horseshoe Beach . We had to walk down a bluff to get to the rocks at Horseshoe Beach .

 From there we walked along some of the best beaches that we have ever seem to Warwick Bay where we walked up the hill to catch the bus at the street .

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2535827,-64.8183897,16.77z?entry=ttu

  We had a 2 day cruise to one of our favorite islands - Bermuda coming up next .

 A map of Nassau

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Cruise+Port,+Nassau,+Nassau,+The+Bahamas/Fish+Fry,+Nassau,+The+Bahamas/@25.0658668,-77.3514724,14.06z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x892f7d4a48959425:0x1464342772704690!2m2!1d-77.3398253!2d25.0824406!1m5!1m1!1s0x892f7d2752ea6adb:0xf208e74b33db1629!2m2!1d-77.3583928!2d25.0799068!3e0?entry=ttu

 A quick walk thru of FV 7199 . The door has a private hall that help keep the room quite .

 Lots of closets 

Main BR and looking to the 2nd BR with a sliding door and the balcony

Looking back at the closets and bathroom and big screen TV

Second BR with pull out bed and TV.

 We found a video on Youtube that shows the room after an upgrade that shows it better .

 Our first port was South of us on the next morning in Nassau .

From the ship we could see Atlantis

But our hearts and stomachs were set on lunch at Fish Fry

https://www.eater.com/2016/11/10/13557214/fish-fry-bahamas-nassau

We did take the bus there but someone from there had passed away and the funeral was that day so all the people that normally work there were going to the funeral , so they were closed for lunch .

We went back to the ship and considered the Pirate Museum but we're not big fans of Pirates so it was lunch on the air conditioned ship and a nap instead of the heat .

 8 baby pineapples so far .

11 hours ago, valemart_1 said:

Thanks for the information. What a difference in price! But we couldn´t do without our balcony, we use it a lot and on warm days we like to sit outside and have our breakfast there!

I must sign out now – I have some serious researching to do for our TA and we haven´t booked any shore excursions yet! Enjoy your next cruise!!!

 We certainly understand and share your your love of TA's and  balconies . Our first visit to Europe was on NCL in 2006 and we had a forward facing window , but no balcony . It was a common overlook that functioned as a common balcony , so no privacy or meals there . And so we learned .

 When we took our first TA in 2009 it was from West to East so no red eye flight to Europe . We had booked a balcony on the Celebrity Constellation from our home port of Ft. Lauderdale to London in April . We watched for an upgrade and when they released a Family suite for about $ 300 more we pounced on it . It was our first Aft facing balcony and it was huge , #7199 ! 

In Ft. Lauderdale

And breakfast at sea and room and time to sun ourselves !

 Good morning @valemart_1 . Today is officially Spring with 12 hours of daylight and night here in Palm Beach County . Sunrise and Sunset are 0730 and 1930 . It is 0500 here so I'm still on BA time !

 I know you and your husband must be excited about your TA and visit to Portugal and we are excited for you also . I know that you like a good story so I will share one . It's a way that we have got a good room for not much money in the past and it still works today . 

 We were booked on the Star for a trip to Iceland in the same cabin that we had in Argentina - at a higher price from May 18 - May 20th .

 We went to Antarctica instead of course ,  but I decided to try to book the same cruise this morning . The most expensive was a Penthouse balcony SC at $8179 344 sq ' with a 65 sq ' balcony .

 But if we wanted a larger room at a lower price we would pick a Family Suite SP  . $ 5979 for 495 sq ' . So if you wouldn't miss a balcony you could have 100 more square feet for $2000 less !

On 3/12/2024 at 2:32 PM, mexico8 said:

Whatever happened to equality?   A shame about you not being able to list your service in the Daily. Sure not fair treatment. 

 

BTW - love the bird photos and descriptions.   Thank you.

  As an American citizen of the US I believe in the Bill of Rights attached to our Constitution . It has 10 amendments and the first one says : Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 I worked for the National Government ( US Navy ) and the County Government Miami Dade Fire Rescue . I was trained to help ALL people medically and not to discriminate . Thus I honored the Constitution and God and believe in freedom of speech and religion - even ones that differ from mine . I risked my life many times to help people that I didn't know . When NCL ships were in the Port of Miami they followed our countries rules to receive help from us . They do make the rules at sea . But we didn't like being lied to by NCL . We were told a couple of different stories of why we couldn't use the Freestyle Daily .

 1 . Miami is the headquarters of NCL and RCI  and we were told that they wouldn't allow it . I have responded on numerous calls to these places in Miami and they should follow the American law in their property .

 2 . We were told by another authority on the ship that the Freestyle Dailies were pre printed before the cruise and loaded on the ship in BA . This isn't true . When changes at sea were made - the Freestyle Daily reflected the changes . How could pre printed reflect changes that hadn't occurred yet ?

  On my job as a Paramedic I was not allowed to wear a cross or to share my faith ( Christian ) or discuss my faith unless asked by the patient . But I was allowed to pray silently and as the treatment medic I always faced the people when started IVs , or giving meds and when riding in the back of the truck with them to the hospital . If I had a free moment I might bow my head in silent prayer . Many people did ask me to pray with and or for them aloud or silently and I did . Or listened or talked about my savior - if they wanted to . 

 Both my wife and I were raised Roman Catholic , she attending Catholic school until High School . We were not practicing Christians when we met and married . But after about 2 years of marriage I knew something was missing beside my life . I was still an Alcoholic and Drug addict , trying to numb my abusive childhood when I began reading the Bible for the first time in a Fire Station on my free time . One of my coworkers asked me if I was going to heaven when I died . I told him that I thought so . And he told me that I could know for certain . Well I was never taught that in Catechism or Catholic church . So with much prayer and Bible reading I discovered that to be true and accepted the Gift of Eternal Life on September 13 , 1979 . When I told my wife that I was going to heaven she thought that I was crazy , because she was a much better person than I . But she did notice the change in my behavior as I lost my addictions and she too trusted the Lord's promise as well .

 When we went and talked to a Priest he refused to acknowledge that we were even married since we were not married in the RC church . When I asked him if he was going to heaven he said that no one can know for certain . I told him that wasn't the blind leading the blind , and if he as a man of God didn't know where he was going , how could he show me the way ?  Thus we found Jesus and a church that taught his word and haven't looked back except to see where we came from .

  Snowy Egret with it feathers ruffled

 Roseate Spoonbill with Black Bellied Whistling Ducks

 Eagle on the nest

We will rock you

Anhinga swimming

Feed  us

 Working on it's suntan

Sandhill Cranes and chick

Snake bird mode 

Osprey landing and perching

Water lily

 One of my favorite photos of birds was this pelican who had caught a fish . It was going down tail first so it stuck out it fins so the pelican couldn't swallow it . The bird coughed it up and had a few friends waiting for the fish to come out so they could steal his meal . But the crafty bird moved and was turning the fish to go head first . I didn't have a flash so it's hard to see him but the fish is in his mouth ready to go down like Jonah in the great fish .