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Oh, that's awesome! I was only about 7 when I visited Land of Oz. Yes, it was in good condition and we had such a good visit! So many memories! I kept telling Liz, "I remember that!" and I made her look at pictures from my first visit before we left. Some of it was destroyed in the fire. Some of it was vandalized. Some of the artifacts went missing, including Dorothy's gingham dress. The balloon ride was lost except for a single balloon which was accidentally found in the back of a storage building. It was a wonderful day and a beautiful area! They are open weekends in June and October, I think. Yes, parking at his house sounds like a great option. I don't know if Norfolk will become a busier port. It's definitely the closest option for us but I know we will still continue to fly to FL so we can go to the further out ports that just take too long to reach from Norfolk. Thanks so much for reading along!!

October 8th – Bermuda We got up earlier than the day before. Our ship was supposed to dock at 9:15 and we had to meet our shore excursion group at 9:30. The weather was BEAUTFIUL! I was so glad this would NOT be a repeat performance of our first trip to Bermuda. We headed to the Lido buffet. Bacon was back on the menu today. I decided to try to croissant again. Again, it was weirdly completely tasteless. Again, I couldn’t eat it. What’s up with that, Carnival?!?! I usually love those croissants! I give up! While we were eating the ship was docking. Ryan was keeping everyone informed of the docking progress. We finished breakfast, dashed back to the room to grab our things and headed downstairs. When we reached the stairwell on Deck 10, Ron said “duck”, so I did. He said “duck” again and I ducked lower. At that point he cracked up, pointed and said, “There is a duck!” lol Oops! I really thought I was about to be hit in the head by something! He’s still cracking up about that. We were cleared to go ashore and we immediately headed down to the gangway to meet our tour group. Let me stop here and say that we usually book our tours through Carnival. We have booked privately from time to time, but I really like the security of knowing that if we are delayed, the ship will not leave us. I have been very grateful for this fact at least three other times! That would also be the case today. The tour we had booked was included a cave exploration, cave swimming, cliff jumping, snorkeling, lunch and ice cream. It was going to be a full day! The tour was supposed to last 6-7 hours and we were in port for 8 hours, so we were thinking we’d have time after we got back to grab our port of call magnet and a t-shirt. The tour company was called Hidden Gems. Our tour guide was Millet. I think that was actually his last name but it was what was written on his name tag so we’ll go with that. There were twelve other people besides us, all in their 20’s and early 30’s. We were, again, the old folks. We were taken to a 15-passenger van. It was clean and well kept. Each seat had a matching backpack. In the backpack was a helmet with light, sun umbrella, flashlight and two bottles of water. We were instructed to put anything we might need or want into the provided backpack and leave our belongings on the van. We met our van... ...and immediately headed out. We started off. Millet told us the ride would be about an hour. We were going up into Hamilton and almost as far as St. George’s but not quite. We saw it from a distance. LOL Along the way, Millet told us about the different things we were seeing. We crossed the world’s smallest drawbridge, passed Gibbs Hill lighthouse (although it was mostly obscured), we passed Horseshoe Bay, etc. Millet explained about the colors of the houses. We already knew from our last trip that it was a law that the roof of each house had to be painted white concrete for water collection. Bermuda does not have a fresh water source and water desalination is very expensive, so they collect rainwater to use for showering, laundry, etc. They are very careful to conserve water since it is somewhat limited. They are also careful about pollution. For the most part, the houses are neat and well kept. There is very little litter along the road or in yards. On the whole, it’s a very clean place. I think we Americans could take a lesson from the Bermudians! Lots of pretty water scenes as we drove along The world's smallest drawbridge Expensive resorts Marina Very large cemetery Residential area Notice the white roof? All residential buildings must have this roof for water collection. As we traveled and Millet narrated, it became apparent that most of the stories eventually wound up being about him and his many exploits. We passed a military building with soldiers in fatigues in the front. He told us that he was a decorated military officer. They were saluting as we went by. He was pretty sure they were saluting him. He had studied in Boston. He had worked at the Pentagon. He had gotten to know Michael Douglas from when he visited the island. He had seen Michael Jackson when he had visited the island. He had conversed with “kings and queens” when they visited the island. He had spoken with presidents, entertainers, musicians, etc. and they had used his first name in each instance. On and on it went. I’m sure some of it was true but I’m not sure how much was embellished and how much actually happened. If you’re a fan of the show “Survivor” you will probably remember Phillip Sheppard. If you don’t remember it, you can probably find videos on You Tube. Millet reminded me SO much of Phillip! They even sounded alike! In my mind, he will always be Phillip. Still, he seemed very knowledgeable about the island and gave a great commentary on what we were seeing….minus the extras. Here is the military building. I didn't actually see anything salute but apparently, they did. Our first stop was at the edge of Tom Moore’s jungle. We all got out, grabbed our assigned backpacks and headed out for a short 20-minute hike. It was mostly level and easy walking although there were a few places that were steeper and rocky. We came out into a clearing. Millet instructed us to stop and put on our helmets. We were given hair nets to protect the cave. He explained how to use the lights on the helmet. The first setting was simply a light for illumination. The second setting was green which was supposed to mean that you were OK. The third setting was red which meant that you were in trouble. After everyone had helmets in place, we continued our walk to the mouth of the cave. We began walking to Tom Moore's Jungle The terrain was a little more wooded in some places but certainly not bad Walking through the jungle with our borrowed matching backpacks. I thought the backpacks were a very good idea. Beautiful scenery! Phillip....I mean Millet....telling us about how the area became Tom Moore's Jungle Out of the woods and into a clearing This guy! Millet told us about this pool and the fish who lived in it. It was only a few feet deep. Such a pretty pool....right in the middle of the clearing. Our "proof of life" picture before we entered the cave. LOL The cave opening from the path And here's where we went in The opening of the cave was pretty small, and the stalactites were very low. I was glad for my helmet because I DID hit my head more than once. We all made our way into the first chamber. It was much larger inside. The entrance “hole” was deceptively small! It was so beautiful and fantastic! The formations were massive. There were other “holes” and passageways all around the main chamber. Millet told us about different people who had visited the cavern. The most interesting story was about Jim Henson. He told us that when he had taken Jim Henson into the cave, he had shined his light into one of the holes and looked in. It revealed a small passage into a larger chamber. At that point, the idea for Fraggle Rock was born. We all looked into that hole, and I could see the similarities. My kids LOVED Fraggle Rock when they were small. If you watch the opening theme song from Fraggle Rock, the Fraggle is going through a small tunnel into a larger room in a cave. The whole thing is accessible from a little hole in a house. Other than the fact the opening WASN’T in a house, I could totally see the size of the hole and the small tunnel were very similar. Inside the large room of the cave Fraggle Rock hole! It's actually a lot smaller than it looks in this picture Here we are in our hair nets with our helmets More cave formations As we were milling around this large chamber and taking pictures, another proposal and engagement happened! Apparently, this is the cruise for love and engagements! Everyone clapped and offered their congratulations. The ring was beautiful. Millet suggested they put the ring back in the box and put it somewhere for safe keeping, so it wasn’t lost in the cave since it hadn’t been fitted yet. In this case, I thought that was excellent advice! We climbed into a much smaller chamber. It was not only closer in width and depth, but the ceiling was also lower. Millet demonstrated how you could play music on the stalactites. It was so cool! We had the opportunity to play a note or two. I loved it! Millet explained that he had a close friend who was a musician who had played with Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Boston, etc. He had requested that this friend come and play a song on the stalactites for Millet’s personal Facebook page for Christmas. That is an interesting idea for sure. Since the stalactites are constantly growing and the earth is always expanding and contracting somewhat, I wonder if stalactites would be true to tune enough to do that? It didn’t occur to me to ask at the time. IMG_5175.MOV IMG_5175.MOV (No idea how to get rid of these videos! Sorry! I didn't even realize they were videos until I uploaded) Here's Millet playing the stalactites. It was awesome! More to come in just a bit!!

Wow! They did it every single night for us. Maybe it's because we had assigned dining. I guess another reason to make the switch. LOL Like I said, I don't mind, it's kind of fun but maybe not every single night. Thanks so much for reading along!

During dinner, a proposal happened just a few tables down from us. I didn’t realize what was happening at first until the gentleman went down on one knee and people whipped out phones. It was very sweet. She said “yes”. We stopped by their table on our way out of the dining room to congratulate them and admire her beautiful ring. There was comedy scheduled to begin in 45 minutes or so. We went on to the comedy club to get seats while they were still available and waited there. There were two comedians this night. Both were pretty good. One of them, Manny Oliveria, I had heard before on a different ship. The other was Julie Scoggins. Manny likes to wander through the audience and talk with people. One of the first people he spoke to was a kid near the front. He asked the kid about his parents. He said his dad was a cop. Waiting for the show to start I couldn't get a clear picture because of the low lighting and movement. Manny, of course, had to come and then talk to Dad. He got a lot of mileage out of that interaction for the rest of his set. After we left the comedy club, we went to the Showtime Theatre for the production show, 88 Keys. I had never seen this one before. When we got there, the pianist from the piano bar was playing and singing. He was REALLY good! Hi name was Brad. I can’t remember the last name. We enjoyed listening and sometimes singing along until time for the show. I liked this production show better than most of the others I have seen. The Playlist cast did a good job. Toward the end, the pianist came back out and they finished up with a couple of sing along songs. I enjoyed it very much! It was nearly time for the Halloween costume contest and deck party, so we went up to Lido to join the fun. There were quite a few people who had dressed up. There were two different sets of Three Blind Mice, the entire cast of The Wizard of Oz and my personal favorite, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Superman and Wonder Woman were declared the winners and the dancing began. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - I didn't figure out what they were doing quickly enough to get a good picture The Wizard of Oz is my all time favorite movie so, of course, I loved this one. I got to go back to the Land of Oz this year in Banner Elk, NC for Autumn in Oz. I had visited the Land of Oz as a little girl in 1974 when it was an active amusement park. Now it's only open a few weekends a year. It brought back a lot of memories......so I loved this group! Here are a few photos from the Land of Oz.... Walking the yellow brick road Glinda was always my fav The Scarecrow was a lot of fun. We were supposed to be pointing to our brains. LOL So the party kicked off an everyone started dancing, including us. It was a lot of fun! Ron and I are not typically good dancers, and we don’t have many opportunities to dance but we have learned some of the line dances and we do enjoy doing this occasionally. We did a couple of the typical dances….Cupid Shuffle, Cha Cha Slide, Wobble, etc. After dancing for a little while, we went inside to get some ice cream. We were pretty tired and still needed to gather things for Bermuda the next day since we had to be off the ship fairly early. We called it a night and returned to the cabin. Here are the Fun Times for this day Funtime 2-1.pdf Funtimes 2-2.pdf

Since the time had changed coupled with the fact we were tired AND I hadn’t slept well the night before, we were up a little later than normal. The clock said 9 but, of course, it felt like 8. Still, that’s late for us. We got up, showered and headed to Lido buffet to find some breakfast. Overall, the food was fine all throughout this cruise. Not spectacular, not terrible, just fine. This was a sausage day on the Magic. Like I said earlier, we’re not huge breakfast eaters. One of my weaknesses, though, is bread and especially croissants. I am that girl who can eat a slice of bread straight out of the bag for a snack and be happy about it. I was looking forward to one of the breakfast croissants that are always available each morning. They’re my favorite part of a Carnival breakfast. This morning, the croissant was weirdly tasteless. I mean, it really had NO flavor whatsoever. You couldn’t even taste salt. It was very strange. I couldn’t eat it. Everything else was OK. I decided it must be a fluke and would probably be better the next day. The lemon poppyseed muffins made up for it. After breakfast, we went back to the cabin for a minute and headed up to the ropes course. We always enjoy those! Each ship has pretty much the same obstacles, but we don’t care. It’s always fun! There’s nothing quite like being up on the course, looking out and seeing nothing but water in every direction. I took the Ravenclaw duck with me and set it out on the way. Water, water everywhere! Look at that blue sky! Dropped off the Ravenclaw duck We ran into Jeremy from our muster drill. Of course, he remembered us! (well….maybe not but still WE remembered him!) It probably isn't a surprise at all that we "ran into him" since he'd already told us he worked at the ropes course. LOL We chatted with him a few minutes while we got into our harnesses and away, we went. When we started there were very few people on the course, but it was starting to get busier as we were finishing. One of the ships photographers was on deck and was taking pictures of people on the course. She took several of us. We have lots of elegant night pictures but none on the ropes course that Ron hadn’t taken with his Go Pro so that’s the photo from this cruise that we opted to purchase. Hanging on for dear life OK, I've got this now! He's my hubby, partner in crime AND my BFF! The wind was still a little chilly, so I opted to run back to the room and put a shirt over my shirt. We then played a round of golf. Much better! He won, of course. And here's a picture of the one and only picture we bought during this cruise. After finishing the ropes course, we went down to Ocean Plaza for some trivia and games. We always enjoy these on all our cruises. I knew there were no “solid gold plastic ships on a stick” anywhere in the fleet at this time but I didn’t care. It was still fun to play. We have the ship on a stick from every ship we’ve sailed except for Sunrise last October and now Magic. (Boo! LOL) On our way into Ocean Plaza Ron found a duck. There was a small child sitting with her parents across from us and we gave the duck to her. This was the first of four ducks we would find this cruise. I usually take one home and put the rest back for someone else to find. The second duck we found was in an elevator. It was a ghost duck. That’s the one I took home. Ron found a duck! Ready to play some trivia! This little guy came home with me. The first game was a version of Win, Lose or Draw. We paired up with another family. Holly would be our artist, and her husband named our team…..Stinky Cheese Weasels. OK! Let’s go with that! LOL We played for a while but eventually lost to the other team, appropriately named “The Winners”. They were giving out mini-Jenga games as prizes this time. We stuck around for another trivia game, but I don’t remember the subject matter. After that, we decided to go to lunch at Cucina. Cucina del Capitano becomes the pasta bar on sea day lunches. We usually try to go there at least once. It was basically empty. There were about four other people eating there besides us. I ordered the chicken alfredo. Again, it was OK. Just OK. I’ve had lunches at Cucina I thought were excellent. This one wasn’t bad….just OK. Still, it did the job, and I wasn’t hungry anymore so I can’t complain. After lunch, we were ready to relax for a while and headed out with our Kindles to find a couple of deck chairs. It was warmer than the day before and the weather was pretty much perfect. This bodes well for good weather in Bermuda! We stayed out on deck for a couple of hours reading and relaxing, then got our magnet at the shop. It was close to 4pm by that time. We stopped in Ocean Plaza for some Halloween song trivia. Living my best life When trivia was finished, we went up to our room to get ready for dinner. This night would be elegant night. We didn’t get any elegant night photos other than the ones we took ourselves. Our new table assignment was on the upper dining room deck. Much better or, at least, much less exciting! The service was a little slower than the night before but still adequate and the food was good. We both had prime rib and I enjoyed another melting cake, which is my favorite. When we went back to our room this little guy was waiting. Elegant night More to come later....

Ok, I know I posted once but I have to post one more time since i’ve Finished reading the whole review now. Thank you, thank you for taking the time to write this. You are hysterical and always make my laugh. Your nighttime prayers are the BEST! Looking forward to reading about Vista!

After our tour, we decided to go back to Lido for some dessert and then to our room to unpack. Lemon meringue cake was available. So was funfetti cheesecake. Choices, I know. I choose BOTH! We knew our luggage had already been delivered! LOL We had booked a cabin on the Lido deck this time. We’ve kept experimenting with cabin locations on our cruises to see if we have that one “sweet spot” that works well for us. So far, we’d never stayed on Lido. I usually try to get our cabin sandwiched between two “residential” decks to eliminate noise as much as possible. We were able to do that with a forward Lido cabin. It was convenient to walk out of our cabin and already be on the Lido deck but if we wanted to go to one of the lower decks we had more of a hike. We rarely use elevators. I believe we have concluded that we’re pretty happy almost anywhere but the middle decks, 5, 6, 7 and 8 seem to be a good “in between” for us…which is appropriate because they truly ARE “in between”. We went to our room to unpack. We unpacked, talked with Gusti for a minute and opted for morning service. We grabbled Kindles and our first duck of the cruise and went up to Lido to find a clamshell and read a while. It was wonderful to relax and enjoy vacation. Ron MIGHT have fallen asleep for a few minutes but we’re not confessing. To hear him tell it, he’s simply “resting his eyes”. This was just before he "rested his eyes". LOL I like to bring one cruising duck for each day of the cruise. I try to do something cute with them to make them special. I know the cruising ducks are silly, but I still enjoy making them and “hiding” them. It makes me smile. I hope it makes others smile, too. Since we were sailing in October and had a four-day cruise, I decided to make Harry Potter ducks for each of the four Hogwarts houses. On this day, I set out the Hufflepuff duck. Our sail away time was 5:30. Since that time was approaching, we ran back to our cabin and to drop off Kindles. It didn’t take long to clean up just a bit for dinner, which would immediately follow our sail away. We stopped at one of the bars on the way to our room to pick up our water and drop it off in our room. Ryan Rose was our cruise director. He was a lot of fun. By the time we got back he was already on deck and the singing and dancing was just getting started. We went up to Deck 11, found a place on the railing and watched Norfolk slip away behind us. I knew we had to sail either under the Chesapeake Bay bridge or over the tunnel section and had hoped to see that but, alas, we didn’t make it to the bridge before dinner or darkness. We went down to dinner. It was getting darker. I never did see the bridge whenever we reached it. Maybe next time. Dinner proved to be interesting that first night. We typically have early assigned dining, and we always request a table for two. Sometimes that request cannot be honored the first night. This was one of those times. We were seated at a table for eight. I had been thinking about switching to Your Time Dining since the app now made everything so convenient. Tonight’s dinner would help me decide that, going forward, this would be a good idea for us. Still, comedy ensued and this is what happened: We were the first ones seated at our table. We hadn’t been there long with another couple arrived. You must admire people who are genuinely happy people. Those people are happy whether they’re sober or drunk. It was apparent that this couple had been drinking prior to dinner. I guess it really hadn’t caught up with them until that time because the longer we sat there, the more obvious it became. We chatted a few minutes and two other couples showed up to join us. Everyone was really nice, and we enjoyed talking. They told us about their families and where they lived. They all lived in the Virginia area and were cruising because Norfolk was close for them. We were the outsiders from a distant land. One couple had cruised before, the other two were first time cruisers. The server came, brought bread and took our orders. I had veggie lasagna as a starter followed by brisket and melting cake for dessert. Ron opted for soup and a quesadilla and a steak. He had ice cream for dessert. As dinner started, the couple who’d had a bit too much to drink started to get a little louder. At one point she asked me if I needed to go to the bathroom because she wasn’t sure she could make it on her own. I politely declined. I hadn’t been asked to go to the bathroom with “the girls” since junior high. Maybe I was missing an opportunity by declining. Hmm…… She talked it over with her husband and he decided to go with her so she could make it back since she was a little unsteady and was afraid of getting lost. I really did feel kind of bad about saying “no” but I also really DIDN’T want to go to the bathroom with a stranger! When they returned, dinner had been delivered. They had each opted for a steakhouse selection. I’m pretty sure they didn’t realize that they were being charged extra for the steakhouses options. They ordered more drinks and we all settled in to eat. One of the other ladies at the table commented that the steaks looked good. The drunk lady pushed her plate toward the other lady, a total stranger, and offered her a bite. It was a nice gesture for sure. The other lady politely declined. The singing and dancing started. The others at the table were very enthusiastic with singing, dancing and twirling the napkins over their head. (That part always bothers me! I can imagine all kinds of small pieces of food flying out of those napkins!) The singing and dancing is OK, I guess but I kind of wish they wouldn’t do it EVERY night. Still, to each his own! Near the end of the singing and dancing and just before dessert arrived, our new friends apparently thought it was a great time for a make out session. I appreciate that even though they’d been married for a long time they still loved each other. The situation, however, was now uncomfortable! It was funny, though, and how often do you see THAT in the main dining room. Dinner and a show! At this point, we had finished eating and were ready to move on to other activities. I confess, in many ways it was one of the most uncomfortable dinners I’ve ever had the privilege of eating. In other ways it is something we will remember for years to come. I don’t mind eating with new people, but this was a little over the top. Ron agreed that Your Time was going to work better for us going forward. It was now completely dark outside. We needed to walk around a bit to let dinner settle. On deck five, you can walk from the sides all the way around the back of the ship. We were apparently just leaving the Chesapeake Bay as you could see lights fading into the distance and the harbor pilot boat was pulling away. Yay! We were underway! We wandered around for a bit and stepped back inside. We intended to stop in the Carnival shop to get our ship magnet, but it was jut too crowded. We did stop in Pixels to get our loyalty pins. It was after 9 at this point and we went to the main theatre for the Welcome Aboard Show. It was the typical content…two couples, strap the box with the balls on the guy and he has to shake them out. The thing that made this interesting was one of the husbands. There were two couples, an older couple who had obviously done this before and a younger couple who were first time cruisers. The lady seemed pretty coherent, but her husband was barely upright and looked dazed. Ryan asked her how many drinks they had. She said one. Ryan said, “I think you’ve definitely had more than one.” She replied that she had one, but he’d had several. Still, even in his inebriated state, he gave the game with the balls everything he had to the point where he even managed to make a puddle in the floor from drooling. He was hysterical! That’s dedication. I don’t ever remember laughing so hard while watching that game. They need to give this guy a prize for bringing the comic relief! Ryan Rose, our cruise director, with the "ball" game Check out Ryan's shoes! It seemed like this cruise was a bit “rowdier” than normal…..not in an aggressive, fighting kind of way, just in a “talk and laugh very loudly and be openly staggering drunk” kind of way. Hey, you do you, Boo! There were a LOT of first-time cruisers and a LOT of people who lived within an hour or two of the port. I don’t think there was necessarily any correlation between those things. I think, in general, that the shorter cruises tend to be a little livelier. As long as it isn’t directed at me, I’m very much a “live and let live” type of person. The fact that so many people were from the local area and were on their first cruise bodes well for the acceptance of Norfolk as a regular embarkation port. It was around 11pm. We were tired. We went back to our room to go to bed. Ship time was jumping ahead by one hour on this night. Copies of the Funtimes from Embarkation Day (hopefully these will open if you click on them!) Funtimes 1 - 1.pdf Funtime 1-2.pdf

Our tour continued inside...... Here are a few from the Atrium area Atrium from deck 4 with Patch the Pumpkin standing guard I just liked this light fixture! Looking down into Atrium lobby from where we lived on deck 10 Looking down from deck 10 again Check out those Fantasy class lights! Skylight Patch the Pumpkin Atrium lobby Halloween decorations throughout October Atrium lobby And other locations from around the ship..... Showtime Theatre (muster drill demo was in progress) Upper level of theatre Pixels was sort of scattered out on Deck 5 They still print out some pictures..... ....but also have them available on tablets. Weird, I know! Pixels Steakhouse Steakhouse interior "Bridge" to Punchliner Comedy club Piano bar - the black tile is a walkway through to the comedy club. In my opinion, this isn't a good design at all! (More on that later) More piano bar Red Frog Promenade - with sushi to the left Promenade Java Blue - may I recommended the lemon meringue cupcake!?!? Ocean Plaza - lots of music and trivia here and it's also additional seating for Alchemy Bar Ocean Plaza Casino - the casino is guarded by a number of possessed rabbits in hats. You can tell they are possessed from their glowing blue eyes Casino Northern Lights Dining Room So at this point, our tour was pretty much complete. Back to our story in the next post!

As usual, we went to the top and worked our way down. We skipped the areas where muster drills were still being held but managed to photograph everything else. This was our first time on a Dream class ship but all the ships, which the exception of Mardi Gras, have a very similar layout and we had a really good idea of where everything would be located. Since it was October the ship was decorated for Halloween and Patch the Pumpkin was standing guard in the Atrium. Here are some pictures from the sports decks Water Works Slide entrance Looking down onto Lido Slides Walkway, seating and funnel - Deck 11 Ropes course and mini-golf Ropes course and mini-golf Basketball court Looking down onto Tides pool from deck 11 Outdoor exercise area Ropes course and mini-golf Water Works Here's a few from Lido Lido pool, loungers and big screen Lido pool Pool deck Covered seating on deck 11 overlooking Lido More Lido, pool deck and big screen .....and now some from Serenity Walkway Shaded (somewhat!) loungers Loungers and hot tub Clamshell After this I moved inside......starting in the next post.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your reading along and your kind words. I was raised by story tellers and writing is something I've always enjoyed. Cruising is my favorite pastime. It is a good fit. LOL Shout out to another Mountaineer! It's kind of funny, you were born in WV and moved to NC. I was born in NC and moved to WV. LOL I don't remember it since I was a baby. I was born on Fort Bragg. My parents lived there with me until I was about nine months old when my dad left for Vietnam. At that time my mom decided to move home with me and we've been here ever since. My brother-in-law lives in the Concord area. I'm honored that you've read all of my reviews. I feel like I'm learning a little more each time!

Thank you so much and thanks for reading along! That is a photo of the actual test we used. The way it works is there is an app and a website that you must use. You go through the app and website and it connects you to an online test proctor. You follow their instructions and take the test. After it is finished, they email you the results. There are several good YouTube videos of people using these actual tests. We've had good success with them thus far.

Awwww....that makes my heart happy! Thank you! I love talking with kindred spirits! Thanks for your kind words!

Magic – October 2022 Disclaimer: This is more of a “story” than a “review”. This isn’t a list of things I liked and things I didn’t. This is, instead, the story and photos of our cruise. I have shared our thoughts and opinions. Those thoughts and opinions might be different for someone else who was on the very same cruise. That’s OK! Everyone is different and everyone has a different way of telling their story. This is mine. If you prefer a more “technical”, shorter review then I’m not at all offended if you skip this post (or posts) altogether. If you prefer to start reading on the first cruise day, I hope to have that posted tomorrow. But if you, like me, love to read the start to finish adventure and look at the pictures then you are MY people and I’m honored to have you read along. There were big wins (really!) and small losses (boo!) but all of these work together to create our “story”. So….without further ado…….here is MY long Magic (to Bermuda) story! It was a dark and stormy night….and day….and night…and…you get the picture. It rained our entire cruise to Bermuda in 2015. It wasn’t just a little bit of rain. It was RAIN. Continuous and soaking RAIN. It was my one and only trip to Bermuda. Shore excursions were canceled. The ship rocked for days to the point that the drawer in the nightstand beside the bed opened and closed until we finally stuffed a towel in it to make it stop. Lots of other passengers were seasick. Although we did explore some on our own, we really didn’t feel like we “visited” Bermuda. Time to change that! If you haven’t read any of my other reviews, let me take a minute to introduce you to myself and my husband. We are Ron and Michelle, and we live in the beautiful mountain state of West Virginia, just a few miles from the southernmost West Virginia/Virginia border. I am a real estate appraiser and own my own business. Ron, who is also an appraiser, is the Appraisal Services Manager for a regional bank chain. It is sometimes difficult for me to find time to take a vacation during typical vacation months. Since I am self-employed, I tend to “make hay while the sun shines”……literally….while the sun shines, since spring and summer tend to be my busiest times. In light of that, we often take our vacations on the off seasons….January, February, October, November…whenever we can make time to get away. This would be our 11th cruise, ten of which were with Carnival. (The only trip I ever did on Royal Caribbean was that trip to Bermuda.) As I was saying, although I had a good time on our first Bermuda cruise, I would have loved to visit Bermuda when it wasn’t raining buckets. That opportunity presented itself this year. West Virginia isn’t exactly close to any ports unless we drive multiple hours. On every one of our other ten other cruises, with the exception of one, we flew to our embarkation city. This time, Carnival was offering a quick four-day trip to Bermuda out of Norfolk, VA. That’s only about six hours away from us. Better still, we could sail over the Columbus Day weekend, which meant that Ron would only have to use a couple of vacation days instead of a whole week. Sign me up! We had been in the Port of Norfolk once before when we toured the USS Wisconsin. We didn’t realize that the building we were in was next door to the cruise port for Norfolk. In the month we visited the Wisconsin, there were no commercial cruises scheduled. Interesting that we’d already been there once and didn’t even know it! We booked the cruise on the Magic, I joined the Facebook group and started reading on Cruise Critic. I quickly discovered that parking was apparently a very real problem in Norfolk for cruisers. (Turns out it wasn’t but I was going on the information I had at the time.) The parking lot for the cruise terminal is called Cedar Grove. It is about a mile and a half away from the Nauticus/Half Moone cruise terminal. That doesn’t sound so far but it’s a pretty good hike if you’re carrying luggage. According to the website, parking is $15 per day. Again, not terrible. The problem apparently rises with the difficulty in getting from the parking area to the cruise terminal. I had read several stories about people cruising from Norfolk who waiting on shuttles for an hour, huge lines for shuttles and general problems with transport from parking to the ship. Additionally, there were reports of vandalism to multiple cars that were left there during a few cruises. Given that information, we decided to search for a hotel that would allow us to leave our car on their parking lot for the duration of the cruise. I can see that one advantage to flying to the port is you don’t have to figure out what to do with a car. A bit of research revealed that the Holiday Inn Express would allow me to leave my car on their lot during the cruise. I called to confirm that fact. They were super nice. They readily agreed that they regularly had cruisers who left cars there with no problems BUT they did not have parking lot security and would not take responsibility for anything that might happen. Sounds like a plan! I booked directly through the hotel and the rate, with taxes, was $198.56. Not too bad considering that I wasn’t paying for parking at the port. Time ticked by. All of our “lasts” were finally here. Last day of work….last report that had to be delivered….last time to do laundry. Finally, it was time to pack and head out! Woo hoo! Bermuda is one of the few places that still requires testing. We were traveling the day before our cruise, as normal. We left home on Wednesday, Oct 5th. The testing requirement for Bermuda was a little more lenient than the past Carnival requirements and allowed up to 4 days before. We opted to take the tests right before we left. October 5th – Travel Day Wednesday morning we were up bright and early. I always have trouble sleeping the night before we leave on a cruise. It’s kind of like the first day of school. I’m too excited to sleep well! As before, we used the eMed tests. We basically got up, got ready, took tests and walked out the door. Easy peasy! We were on the road by 8:30. First stop was Tudor’s Biscuit World. Tudor’s is a very small chain with most restaurants in West Virginia. Their biscuits are HUGE and delicious. I am one of those people who constantly has to fight with a weight problem so I seldom let go and eat things like a Tudor’s biscuit with bacon and cheese. When I’m on vacation, I give myself permission to NOT care about my weight. Instead, I’m going to eat everything in sight and all the things I’ve wanted to eat for a while. Time to let off steam! I’m on vacation! My vacation starts the minute I walk out the door, so a biscuit was definitely in order. We ate breakfast while we drove. We were just enjoying some time together to talk about nothing and everything. It’s hard to find that time for conversation. Driving is the perfect time to catch up. With a drive time of about six hours, stops for gas and restroom, then lunch, we finally arrived at Virginia Beach about 3:30. The temperature was in the low 60’s. Beautiful day for a drive on I-77 Going into the Hampton Roads Tunnel Up out of the tunnel and you can see military ships in the distance I love the ocean. I love the beach. I love the surf. If I’m at the beach, I’m going to walk in the surf even if it’s cold. I’m like a 6-year-old in that respect. (It would be a shame if I was required to lie down on the sidewalk and throw a tantrum but fortunately, Ron is an agreeable human and didn’t argue! He’s smart like that! As long as HE didn’t have to go into the surf, he was fine.) We drove into the town of Virginia Beach and found public parking. We then walked out to the boardwalk. Ahhh….there it was! It even smelled “right”. It’s hard to explain and I’m sure many of you have lived near the ocean but for me, the first sight, smell and touch of sand is one of those “perfect” moments. Maybe different people see different things, but I see the hand of God and a perfect creation. I see that here in the mountains, too. I suppose all of us are awed by the things we don’t see every day. At any rate, I love it. We made it to the boardwalk! Looking out toward the Atlantic. You can't quite see Bermuda from here.... A ship in the distance You could tell that the water had been up over the boardwalk because of the extra sand. Hurricane Ian had blown up the coast the week before after decimating poor Florida and I suspect the high water and sand were from that storm. We walked for a while just enjoying the beach. We stopped at the pier for a minute but didn’t pay to walk out on it because we weren’t going to be there very long. We just talked with each other…sharing our memories of being there over Thanksgiving in 2020 and just enjoying the rare opportunity to be together without the demands of work. In addition to being my husband, Ron is my very best friend. There’s no one else on earth I’d rather spend my time with. I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and off I went. The sidewalk was cold. The sand was wet and cold (Imagine that!) It was definitely cold! I didn’t want to stay long but the important thing is that I DID go into the surf. It was a moral imperative! Ron wisely busied himself taking pictures so he would not be caught in the fray or the spray. Heading into the surf...wearing a long sleeved shirt, sweater AND jacket! It may not be the best idea I've ever had, but I'm doing it anyway! This is cold! One last picture for posterity and I'm finished After just a few minutes I couldn’t stay in the water any longer. I walked up to a bench, pulled some Kleenex out of my backpack that I’d brought for just this occasion, cleaned up and put my shoes back on. Mission accomplished. Let’s go find dinner! Swimming always makes me hungry! We knew there was a Cheesecake Factory just a few miles down the road, so we headed that way. I really like Cheesecake Factory! The closest one to us is probably Charlotte, NC, which is 3-4 hours away. If we have an opportunity to go, we usually take it! I’m partial to their pasta so we each ordered a different pasta dish and tried both dinners. I ordered chicken Romano and Ron ordered chicken alfredo. Both were really good, but we were only able to finish about half. I had asked Ron if he wanted to just get one dinner and halve it but we wanted different things. It was too bad we couldn’t take it home but….no way to do that. We took a piece of cheesecake to go. He opted for a mango, and I got a peanut butter cup. So many options! So many calories! Fortunately, it’s vacation and calories don’t count right now. We drove about 20 minutes to our hotel; Holiday Inn Express. As I had said earlier, I had called ahead, and they had agreed to allow us to leave our car there for the duration of our cruise. We checked in an went to our room. We got a king suite. It was very nice. There was a living room, bathroom (of course) and separate bedroom. There were television sets in both the living room and bedroom. It also had the typical refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker. I had nothing that I wanted or needed to microwave and neither of us drink coffee so we put our cheesecake in the refrigerator and settled in for the next 15 hours. We watched a little television, ironed clothes and ate part of our cheesecake. We lead exciting lives. LOL More to come..........