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Blount Grande Caribe, Islands of New England, August 19-25, 2017


rafinmd
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I leave home today for Rhode Island where I will board the Grande Caribe on Saturday for a 6 day cruise on Blount’s Grande Caribe visiting Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, New Bedford, MA, Block Island, and Newport.

 

This will be my 16th ACCL/Blount cruise, and several times I have stayed in the solo cabin. I’ll have a companion blog with mostly the same text and more pictures although I will link to a few pictures on this thread:

 

https://solocabinchallenge.wordpress.com/

 

I’ll also try to answer any questions here.

 

Roy

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Getting to Warren

 

I left home Wednesday afternoon. The drive to the Philadelphia area was pretty easy with few traffic hassles. although patterns in the Philly metro area of NJ were a pain locally.

 

I left for Rhode Island about noon Thursday after walking in the Red Bank Battlefield, across the Delaware from Philadelphia Airport. It was the site of a Revolutionary War Battle in 1777 that maintained a blockade on British occupied Philadelphia and gave Washington a breather to set up camp in Valley Forge.

 

The drive up the NJ Turnpike and across the George Washington Bridge was easy but travel through New York and the western half of Connecticut was pretty close to a rolling parking lot. I had planned to arrive at my hotel near TF Green Airport around 6 but it was closer to 8.

 

Friday was mostly relaxing with a walk in the Warwick City park and lunch with one of the nicest resources on Cruise Critic's Holland America Forum. She had turkey; it was veal for me, both great choices. From lunch on it rained pretty steadily in the Providence area.

 

Packing and preparation to go to the port today was interrupted by 2 fire alarms but all is done and I'll be leaving momentarily for the drive to Warren. My first Blount Cruise I flew in the day of the cruise and took a taxi to the port; it's around the northern end of a bay but not bad.

 

Boarding starts at noon.

 

Roy

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Day 1, Saturday, August 19, 2017, Board Grande Caribe,

 

I slept for me really late (7AM) but was out of the hotel by 7:30 for my walk which was to TFGreen Airport. The only other time I’d been there was for my first Blount cruise in 1996. There’s a parking garage right next to the Rodeway with a walkway to the terminal. It’s a very small terminal but there’s a long walkway to a commuter rail station with service to Providence and Boston. It’s on the main Northeast Corridor but the sign indicated connections with Amtrak were at Providence.

 

I returned to the hotel about 8 and started checking internet matters, but was interrupted about 8:45 by a fire alarm and a full fire department response of about 5 units. All clear was about 9 and I stopped at the breakfast bar for toast before returning to work. A second alarm convinced me my priority needed to be packing.

 

http://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/fire.jpg

 

I left the hotel about 11:30 for the drive to the port, spotting one of American Cruise Lines ships docked in Providence. I arrived at the port at noon; unloaded the bags, and gave my car keys to one of the staff. The car will be at the port but they might need to move it in the event of a flooding storm.

 

http://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/packed.jpg

 

I was escorted to my room about 12:15. I’ve stayed in the interior solo cabin (14C) several times

and it really has not changed since my last visit. No extra space but it fits me well.

 

room1.jpg

 

Most of the staff is new to me. The most familiar face among the group is Chef Donovan. Lunch was a cold sandwich buffet and was served at 12:30.

 

The passenger safety briefing was held in the lounge at 2:00. I’ve seen the video many times; it was followed by remarks from Captain Patrick Moynihan who is new to me. He’s been with the line about 4 years. He explained that the drastic changes in our itinerary are due to schedule conflicts at Martha’s Vineyard where there was only 1 day we could get our dock. We are pretty close as a result to doing the itinerary in reverse, starting rather than ending with Block Island. We do not overnight there; we had planned to spend the first evening in Cuttyhunk on the way to Nantucket but will now stop in Newport on the way to Block Island.

 

 

Since our Newport dock wasn’t available until 6PM and it’s only a 2-hour sail we delayed our departure until 3 and took a scenic swing past Bristol on the way down; then sailed past Newport and Captain commented on the sights on the way back into the dock.

 

http://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/sundeck.jpg

 

We did not take our life jackets to the passenger safety briefing. Captain Patrick is following the lead of some other Blount Captains and warned that early in the cruise there would be a muster drill. It happened about 1 ½ hours after leaving with a practice “fire” in one of the cabins and it was not just the passengers mustering in the dining room but also accompanied by the crew stretching a line in that passageway. We passed under the Newport Bridge a little after the drill.

 

http://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/newportbr.jpg

 

There will be a J-class yachting race later in the week and several of the boats were practicing around the harbor. We tied up at 6 at the Newport Yachting Center next to 2 huge yachts.

 

http://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/jclass.jpg

 

The first dinner was at 6:30. Blount has a single dinner seating with no assigned tables which run from 4-top to 8-top. I was at one of the 8's with 4 Texans and 2 from nearby Westminster MD. The choices were cod or steak; I went for the steak and gelato for desert.

 

http://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dishes19.jpg

 

After dinner I took a walk into Newport which was extremely crowded in the evening.

 

As my parting shot It seems to never be too late to learn something new. There is only 1 place in the world where you can see two summer white houses at the time. Not only 2 white houses but consecutive presidents from different parties. The Eisenhower summer white house (once home of the Fort Adams commandant) is right next to the Bouvier estate used as a summer white house by John F Kennedy.

 

Roy

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Day 2, Sunday, August 20, 2017, Block Island, Rhode Island

 

Thank you Oahucruiser.

 

At 5AM things were very quiet. I took my first cup of coffee up to the lounge and checked emails and worked on writing. At 6:30 someone said “that yacht is moving” but I could see it still tied up. It was us that was moving, although very silently. We passed the ACL ship moored at Ft. Adams and continued heading out to sea.

 

The shallow draft Grande Caribe can get to many unusual places but it can be a handful in rolling seas and that is what happened this morning. Some people did not show up for breakfast and a few that did left early.

 

Founder Luther Blount was found of saying “Give then everything they need and nothing that they don’t”. When he passed away in 2006 his daughter Nancy took over and has gradually added a woman’s touch to the line. I remember traditionally having a basic knife, fork, and a spoon set at meals bu t noticed a much more generous setting at my first dinner. In addition, the traditional “menu” was fixed (in case of problems with the menu we made alternate arrangements with the chef); now there is a choice of entrees at dinner and we get little slips at breakfast to choose our dinner entrees. Some things do not change; breakfast and lunch are still served family style as in the platter of eggs benedict served at breakfast. Midway through breakfast the seas started to calm down.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/family.jpg

 

For me this is the day where the change in itinerary carried the biggest down side. I had my church in Nantucket picked out and think I could have been on time or nearly so for the service. My quick internet research came up with just St. Ann’s Episcopal on Block Island and the service started just as we were due to arrive. As we approached Block Island I found that we were going to New Harbor while the church was at Old Harbor on the other side of the island, and there were boats at our dock so we didn’t get a gangway set up until 9:45. I listened to a recorded sermon I had and read some of the day’s bible readings but didn’t actually get to a church.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/newharbor.jpg

 

Our marina was actually in kind of a remote part of New Harbor and it was a bit of a walk to the main area of the town. Including stops I. walked for about an hour,

 

The ship provided an afternoon shuttle to Old Harbor, chartering Mig’s Rig, a 10-passenger van for the afternoon. She mostly dropped people off at the ferry dock but was willing to take people other places if needed. The island has a permanent population of just over 1000 which swells to about 20,000 on busy weekends. Scheduled small plane service is available as well as private boats and planes but most people probably arrive by ferry. The biggest ferry carries cars and runs all year (Early morning runs are reserved for fuel and other hazardous materials) and there are several seasonal catamarans serving other towns and also serving New Harbor. A ferry was preparing to leave just as we were dropped off.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/oldharbor.jpg

 

I walked around Old Harbor for about 45 minutes with a variety of primarily tourist oriented stores, I walked out the street where the Episcopal church was but it was apparently some distance from town as I never saw it. At the end of my walk I did a bit of shopping and then stopped by a little stand for pistachio ice cream. As I walked back to the taxi stand Mig’s Rig was just pulling up.

 

We sailed away at 5 circling New Harbor’s lagoon and then going out to sea for the 5-hour sail to New Bedford. We had the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail party from 6 to 7. The seas were again rolling us pretty strongly but not quite as much as in the morning.

 

Dinner was a choice of cod or roast pork with caramel gelato or pineapple upside down cake. I went with the pork and cake and we witnessed quite a nice sunset towards the end of the meal.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dusk0820.jpg

 

An evening movie was shown in the lounge although I did not go.

 

My parting shot will be a personal one. I have a brother in Des Moines and a nephew in San Diego. When I disembarked the Zaandam in late April I visited my nephew and my brother was planning to be there as well, only to be waylaid by a broken leg while playing golf. We thought he was healing a month later when he was suddenly attacked by a nasty infection. For a while it looked so bad there was a possibility of infection but the wound responded to treatment although healing has been very slow. I spoke with him this afternoon and there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. He hopes to be walking in early September and in a position to visit when I change ships in San Diego September 30. He also resumed long shelved talks of doing something for my 75th birthday next year. Thank goodness for a bit of long awaited good news.

 

Roy

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I sure hope that your brother's leg infection clears up soon and he is able to walk and play golf again. I play a lot of golf and we have been in the golf business for a long time and this is the first time I have heard of someone breaking their leg while playing golf.

If you have a chance, can you post a picture of the whole ship? I am assuming it must be a very small one, and your cabin seems to be really tiny.

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Thanks, Carol. I'll try to post a picture but it won't be today. For a while they were running a gangway from the top (totally open) deck because the dock was up to about the middle of the next deck up. If I don't get a chance to get a good picture I'll post one later from a previous trip.

 

Roy

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Sorry your sea conditions have not been that good, but at least not continuous. Do you have a window in your solo cabin? I know you do lots of interior cabins - so not a big thing for you.

 

Hope your schedule and local happenings match up better in the coming days.

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Carole, my cabin is very much inside. Unlike larger cruise ships, Grande Caribe does not have tv in the cabin so the old trick of turning to the bow camera channel does not apply.

 

My location is almost perfect. The deck with the dining room and my cabin is at the same level as the tender hatch on larger ships, and I'm within a foot or 2 of the center line of the ship so any motion is really minimized.

 

At sailaway last night (5:30pm yesterday, not 3AM today) the Captain advised we may hit some swells on the way to Nantucket but the ride was smooth as silk.

 

Roy

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Carole, my cabin is very much inside. Unlike larger cruise ships, Grande Caribe does not have tv in the cabin so the old trick of turning to the bow camera channel does not apply.

 

My location is almost perfect. The deck with the dining room and my cabin is at the same level as the tender hatch on larger ships, and I'm within a foot or 2 of the center line of the ship so any motion is really minimized.

 

At sailaway last night (5:30pm yesterday, not 3AM today) the Captain advised we may hit some swells on the way to Nantucket but the ride was smooth as silk.

 

Roy

 

I'm disappointed to hear that, I thought I might have an alternative, if I got on one of the two ships Caribe & Mariner.

 

Road Scholar/Elderhostel used to offer that particular itinerary, but never had the time and money at the same time. Then they switched to another cruise line and it was no longer available through therm. Maybe one day I'll make it, but it's easier with a group.

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Day 3, Monday, August 21, 2017, New Bedford, MA

 

New Bedford is a small city (Population 95,000). It carries a nickname “The City that lit the World”. While that moniker suggests electricity it is based on whaling and extraction of whale oil. It is home to an impressive whaling museum and the National Whaling Historical Park. We actually pulled into the port about 10PM Sunday night and the American Star was docked around the corner from us but it was gone by morning.

 

The sun rose on the opposite side of the harbor as I headed up on deck.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dawn0821.jpg

 

Breakfast this morning was spinach cheese quiche (I passed) and sausage. The ship offered 2 tours (1) a morning walking tour including the whaling museum ($16) and an afternoon walking tour of the fishing docks. I passed on both the tours and walked around the city in the morning making a lengthy stop at the library. While the ship has free internet it is not very reliable and some of the sights I need to use are not available so the library was the right thing at the right time.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/librarynb.jpg

 

On the way back I stopped at the National park visitor center and looked around. One exhibit that caught my attention was a poster describing the profits of a whaling ship. Of a typical profit of $75,402, $19,793 went to the ship owner, dwarfing the $1,885 to the Captain and $1,331 to the mate. That left $52,593, presumably for the crew but the crew was listed as $133. If each got 133 that would make a crew of 395 which sounds very high although there were probably supervisors and the likes who would get more than that.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/profit.jpg

 

The lunches so far have been soup and sandwiches not really to my tastes. I’ve been eating very little and topping lunch off with ice cream. There were many choices in Block Island but not a lot in New Bedford. I asked about ice cream at the National Park Visitor Center and they recommended a place near the ship; as I walked back it seemed to be deserted.

 

The port provided a shuttle taking people around town and it pulled up right after lunch. I asked about ice cream and the guy said “no problem”. A couple got in after me headed for the National Park Visitor Center which they had learned was giving out eclipse glasses. I was dropped at the place I checked earlier and it was now open. The black raspberry ice cream was very good. I then walked over to the Visitor Center and the line was 2 blocks long and appeared to be moving very slowly.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/icecream.jpg

 

In New Bedford the eclipse ran about 1:30 to 4 with the greatest coverage about 2:45 (about 78%). I returned to the ship and tried the 2 cards and pinhole trick from the sundeck. The image was very small but I could clearly see a crescent of sun about the size and shape of a moon at one quarter, One couple from the ship got tired of waiting and saw some people going by with glasses and borrowed theirs, then returned to the ship, another had gotten glasses prior to boarding and I looked through theirs. The sun was yellow and larger but pretty much the same view. The couple in the van returned and said there had been just 1 pair left after they got their glasses. The shuttle driver had offered to wait while I bought my ice cream. If I had taken him up on the offer they would have missed out.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/glasses.jpg

 

After the eclipse I took a walk on the fishing pier. There were sure a lot of boats tied up. Many were just sitting there but there were also a lot of people chipping paint, painting, and welding.

 

I had missed a schedule change. Sailaway was 5PM on the printed itinerary but 5:30 on the activity board and I was for a while wondering why we were not leaving. The lines came down promptly at 5:30 and we made our way out of the harbor which is guarded by a gate which is closed during very high tides. It would be a very short trip to Cuttyhunk. One thing quite different about Blount is that with no key cards things are a bit different leaving the ship. There is no "ding" of a card as we enter and leave. There is a display board with a plan of the ship; it's either metal or has hooks for the location of each cabin. As we leave the deck hand at the gangway puts a washer on the space for our cabin (or a magnet for a metal board) and takes it back as we return.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/taagboard.jpg

.

Dinner was chicken parmesan or broiled lobster tail and key lime pie. I try to remember to take pictures of the food but forgot about the pie until I was half finished. We started to tie up in Cuttyhunk as the desert came.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dishes21.jpg

 

Cuttyhunk is a tiny settlement; I believe 40 permanent residents which swells to a couple hundred in summer. It is served by a passenger (not car) ferry and most residents walk or use golf carts or bicycles. I walked into the village but there was really nothing there. It was primarily a place to tie up for the night and we left about 3AM.

 

The evening program was a dice game of Left, Right, Center; I was walking in Cuttyhunk at the time.

 

As my parting shot I tend to be impressed by heroes who are not the usual. On my afternoon walk I passed a memorial to some people I think are now just about completely consigned to history with modern electronic navigation. We normally think of light ships as a safe job but they did not offer much refuge in the event of a storm and a monument at the end of the fishing dock pays tribute to them. Thank you for helping keep the mariners who helped explore our world away from danger.

 

lightship.jpg

Roy

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A reader on Cruise Critic asks:

 

If you have a chance, can you post a picture of the whole ship? I am assuming it must be a very small one, and your cabin seems to be really tiny.

 

Photo gcnantucket was taken from the tender on the way back from Nantucket:

gcnantucket.jpg

 

If it looks like the pilot house was kind of dropped on deck that isn’t really far from the truth. Grande Caribe’s next cruise will be through New York’s Erie Canal, a waterway crisscrossed by bridges hanging just 20 feet over the water. When the ship goes through the canal the pilot house is lowered to the deck below, and all the antennas the canopy and everything else are knocked down to just a few inches above the surface of the deck. All of the controls are either pneumatic or electrical with a bank of lines that loops down from the bridge and rides with the pilot house down to it’s new home. The photo control shows the lines as viewed from the bow below the bridge:

 

 

control.jpg

 

The photo “mariner-down” was taken a few years ago on a cruise from Rhode Island to Chicago, just after we had completed out transit of the Erie Canal in Oswego NY. They had started setting the ship back up for open water travel; the fencing around the passenger portion of the sun deck and the stairway housing would not have made it through the canal while still up but it gives a basic idea of what the ship looks like in canal mode. This was on the Grande Mariner which is an almost identical sister to the Grande Caribe.

 

mariner-down.jpg

 

Here’s a bit of a size comparison with a couple of other ships. The numbers come from marine traffic dot com and are the tonnage length and beam (meters):

 

Grande Caribe 761 tons, 54 x 12 meters

Grandeur OTS 73,817 tons, 279 x 36 meters

Amsterdam 62,735 tons, 238 x 32 meters

 

I think Cruise Critic only allows 3 images so this will only be a link for a final photo. Caribe-front is a head on shot but the light seemed to be significantly better than for the photo showing more of the ship

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/caribe-front.jpg

 

Roy

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I'm disappointed to hear that, I thought I might have an alternative, if I got on one of the two ships Caribe & Mariner.

 

Road Scholar/Elderhostel used to offer that particular itinerary, but never had the time and money at the same time. Then they switched to another cruise line and it was no longer available through therm. Maybe one day I'll make it, but it's easier with a group.

 

I'm not quite sure I'm following here. If the issue is the inside cabin, that's not a necessity here. I learned as I made my reservations that all of the lowest category now come with no single supplement, the same as the price I paid.

 

Roy

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I'm not quite sure I'm following here. If the issue is the inside cabin, that's not a necessity here. I learned as I made my reservations that all of the lowest category now come with no single supplement, the same as the price I paid.

 

Roy

 

Yes, that good to hear - no single supplement.

 

I have to have some indication of the outside - whether a window or a bow camera. At home, I have lots of clocks - most of them on batteries and of course windows. I can't even begin to imagine a completely shut-off room from the outside.

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Roy, that is indeed a small ship, and must not have any of the amenities that we expect. Does it have any kind of pool for hot weather?

One thing, a ship that size can really go a lot of places that the big ships cannot, and you get more of the feeling of actually being at sea. We used to have a 35 foot cruiser and I loved feeling the waves. Those mega ships that are more like floating hotels do not interest me at all.

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Day 4, Tuesday, August 22, 2017, Nantucket, MA

 

We left Cuttyhunk at 3 and were passing Martha’s Vineyard by the time I went up to the lounge at 7. Despite the Captain’s predictions of possible swells the ride to Nantucket seemed very smooth. We dropped anchor about 8, just under a mile from shore.

 

I am on my own for most ports on this cruise but I did book tours in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. We had 60 signed up for today’s tour which was divided among 3 small buses. There are many boats and yachts anchored in Nantucket harbor and several companies provide shuttle services from the dock to shore. ‘Blount contracted one of the services to shuttle people to shore and back. The tenders also carried 20 people and I was on the first one. It was about a 5 minute walk from the tender landing (Straight Wharf) to the tour pickup point which was also headquarters of the Island’s transit system.

 

The tour was all on the bus except for one stop at a lighthouse view where I totally missed the photo. It was a big loop around the east end of the island and along with some very impressive mansions we saw fairly large open areas (a conservancy group owns quite a bit of land) and some cranberry bogs.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/nantucket.jpg

 

I had 3 maps, none of which I would call really good but between the 3 of them found the public library and went on line for a while. It was a beautiful and stately building dubbed the Athenium and had quite good internet. I then walked around town for a while and got a start on lunch. It became a dairy lunch if not a very healthy one. Most of the places I saw did not suit me but I did find a nice ice cream shop and got a small cup of mint chip. Their idea of small was not the same as mine but I still enjoyed it. I finished with a little time to spare to make the 1PM tender back to the ship. The wind was starting to pick up a bit and they had a bit of trouble keeping the tender next to the ship but was aboard about 1:10. The ship’s lunch was just breaking up but I was able to get a glass of skim milk.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/tender.jpg

 

I spent a quiet afternoon on board I think even getting in a nap (not intentional). Everyone was on board with the 4PM shuttle but we still pulled in the anchor and set off for Martha’s Vineyard as planned at 5:30. Captain indicated we would have a bit mor sea than on the way in; it felt like quite a bit more to me. Dinner was steak or mahi mahi, desert was pecan pie which I passed on in favor of one of the ship’s delicious cookies.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dishes22.jpg

 

We dropped our anchor in Martha’s Vineyard as dinner ended; we have a dock but it is no available until early morning. The evening entertainment was the movie Jaws which was filmed in Martha’s Vineyard.

 

Today’s parting shot will be a wish for a healthier season than pre-season for the Baltimore Ravens.

 

Roy

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Ray,

 

Do they have a salad bar or green salads available [lunch and dinner]?

 

So the captain's more and the ice cream shop's small - were understated - at least by your standards. :D

 

I love reading these reports - gives a good idea of this particular itinerary. Thanks.

 

Carole

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A little more about amenities:

 

The Grande Caribe does NOT have a pool. Most of the North American itineraries do not really get much into hot weather but there is definitely no pool. The Caribbean itineraries are more water activity oriented. What the ships do have uniquely is a bow ramp that folds down from the bow of the ship permitting visits to remote beaches. Depending on the setup the ramp may end on shore but I've also experienced "wet landings" where the ramp ends in 1-2 feet of water walking directly into the surf. I do not have a photo from an active ship but here's one from the Mayan Prince, retired about 20 years ago.

 

mayanprince.jpg

 

There has never been what we would call a fitness center. Within about the last 5 years 2 stationary bicycles have been installed on the back deck.

 

ex-bikes.jpg

 

I think elevators are virtually impossible since the bridge clearance would not permit overhead machinery or even a landing on the top deck. Each ship since my first ship (Caribbean Prince) has had a stair chair on the interior stairways.

 

stairlift.jpg

Carole, no salad bar but they do provide some kind of pre-made salad at each lunch and dinner.

 

 

Roy

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Day 5, Wednesday, August 23, 2017, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

 

We had a bit of drama overnight while I was sleeping. A woman developed severe leg pains that friends and crew both thought could be a clot. Since we were tendering she was taken ashore on the skiff; the Cruise Director stayed with her until about 7AM.

 

We pulled up our anchor about 8 and headed for our dock in Vineyard Haven, about 1/4 mile from the ferry terminal and tied up to the dock about midway through breakfast. Captain called off the tour since Cruise Director Jenn was still with the patient.

 

We had 2 school buses for our roughly 3-hour drive around the island. (Correction, guide Karen said it was never a school bus; it had been a troop bus). Karen indicated that Martha’s Vineyard is the largest island on the east coast not accessible by a bridge or tunnel.

 

We meandered around about half of the island passing quaint towns and houses from rustic to palatial, making our only stop in Edgartown, where we had almost an hour to explore on our own. I walked around the core of town a bit before noticing a sign to the Edgartown lighthouse about a half mile down one street.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/edgarton.jpg

 

Back on the bus we through the area where Jaws was filmed, took a look at the East Chop Lighthouse and viewed the hospital and some areas severely prone to flooding in storms. We were back just in time for lunch.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/eastchop.jpg

 

After lunch I found the Vineyard Haven Library for some internet activity that wasn’t available on the ship and stopped on the way back at an ice cream shop where the blueberry flavor hit the spot.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/blueberry.jpg

 

Dinner was a lobster with the Captain doing much of the work. They started things off with a charcoal fire in a large metal box and loaded the lobsters in a wooden box the same size. As the coals reached the proper temperature they added packages of clams, mussels, chicken, potatoes, and corn to the mix. Once all was ready bed of seaweed was placed over the fire and then the box of food.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/lobster2.jpg

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/lobster5.jpg

 

Returning to the ship after watching the feast being set up I a yacht docked in front of the ship. While the Grande Caribe was much larger than the yacht it looked to me like the height of the 2 vessels was very similar.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/yacht.jpg

 

Dinner was at 6:30 as usual but we had a bit of a wait after the salad until the main course came off the grill but it was worth waiting for. All the components were put on a buffet table and we were called to the feast one table at a time. Desert was a banana cream tart or mango gelato. I went for both this time.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/thefeast.jpg

 

The evening entertainment was Mark Alan Lovewell, a storyteller and singer of sea chanties.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/lovewell.jpg

 

My parting shot is a bit of a happy ending. Our sick passenger was checked and treated at the hospital and has returned to the ship. Welcome back!

 

Roy

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I'm glad it was nothing serious for the passenger.

 

Does your CD do like on the riverboats [Europe is what I know]? All transportation, arranging all tours and of course public announcements.

 

Last year in Europe with the Rhine and the Rhone flooding and not able to make all ports for docking she [on first leg-ship] and he [2nd leg - different ship] had their hands full, especially with first leg not terminating in Basel, Euro Cup in France, and French workers calling strikes every other day - including phone company workers. What a mess and what a nightmarish job. [A lot of buses were tied up with Euro Cup occurring at many places all over France.]

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Carole, what you describe is pretty close although she splits a lot of the announcements with the Captain, who talks about the places we visit or pass along with the history and so on.

 

Cruise Director handles the tours, keeps the accounts, runs the activities, organizes disembarkation and just about everything else that isn't directly navigation or hotel connected.

 

Your description of Europe takes me back a few years. As you know I do regularly combine cruise lines and had booked a Blount Cruise through the Erie Canal (New York to Montreal) and then the Crystal Symphony down the St Lawrence and back to New York. Hurricane Irene devastated the Erie Canal taking a 50-mile section out for many weeks. Fortunately, Blount had one ship in the Atlantic at the time and the other in the Great Lakes. Both were supposed to be doing the Erie Canal at that time. They had one cruise starting in Montreal while the other started in New York and they fudged the itineraries so they both reached the broken section on the same day. Buses met each ship and we spent the day in Cooperstown New York while the ships were made up for the new passengers and we each continued on the new ship to our destination. Here's the thread I did on that trip

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1490256

 

Roy

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I've heard of exchanging ships in mid-tour - though that hasn't happened to me. The exchanged ships on my tour was planned: One ship on Rhine for 8 days and then transfer over to the sister ship who does the 8-day Saone/Rhone part. You could do either half or the whole thing [in either direction] - taking the whole tour kept you in the same room on both ships - though decorated differently. We only missed Basel and was ahead of the rivers' rising all the way to Cote d' Azur. The next week's group had buses and the ones after that were cancelled until the rivers went back down. We had good weather the whole time, just the rain upstream from us - kept us moving along.

 

I will read your previous adventure too. Thanks, Roy.

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Day 6, Thursday, August,24, 2017, Newport, RI

 

Captain had said we would leave Martha’s Vineyard at 2AM. We cannot dock in Newport until 9AM and it’s a 4 ½ hour sail, but he expected some swells on the way and wanted to have the motion while we were asleep. That’s pretty much what happened. We were definitely rolling when I rose at 5AM. In my low, midship cabin it was relatively calm but I did sit on the bed while putting on my trousers.

 

We still had a pronounced roll when I went up to the lounge at 5:45 but my GPS showed us at the entrance to Narragansett Bay. There was red sky behind us about 5 minutes before sunrise but when the sun appeared it was on our starboard flank. I did not notice exactly where we went but

we headed well past the Newport bridge before turning back. It was almost exactly 9AM when we pulled into Waite’s Wharf on the southern fringe of the downtown area. A relatively rare view of the aft of the ship was visible from the marina.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/caribeaft.jpg

 

Surprisingly, the internet was pretty good while we were at sea early in the morning but turned glacial after we entered Narragansett Bay and was still useless after breakfast.

 

The ship offered 2 tours in Newport. The morning tour was an overview of the city and a tour of the Breakers ($50), and in the afternoon there was a sail on an “Americas Cup” type of boat ($125). I have toured the Breakers at least twice and was not interested in the sailboat so I explored on my own.

 

In the morning I walked over to the Newport Public Library and went online for a while, then continued over to the Eastern side of the island and walked about a half mile segment of the “Cliff Walk”. I was back at the ship about lunch time.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/cliffwalk.jpg

 

I only stayed for my usual glass of skim milk at lunch. Those who know me know I have been quite a frequent visitor at Panera since they became my lifeline when stranded in New York after Superstorm Sandy. Newport’s Panera is about 3/4 mile from the dock and I stopped there for my customary chicken noodle soup (and faster internet). On the way back I paused at the main square where the steeple of Trinity Church stood out.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/trinitychurch.jpg

 

When I returned most of the afternoon went into packing for the remainder of my trip.

 

This evening was the Captain’s Farewell Dinner. Grilled Salmon was available but I opted for the prime rib finished off with Strawberry Gelato.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/dishes24.jpg

 

On captains nights on larger ships the captain is likely to introduce his department heads at a ceremony. Captain Patrick introduced about the same number of people but it was the entire crew of 16 (including himself).

 

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/thecrew.jpg

 

Blount does try to book live entertainment in ports where it is available. Tonight we had a performance by Lois Vaughn Jazz, an instrumental duo with vocalist.

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/jazz.jpg

 

I’ll take my parting shot from the “there must be a better way” department. Returning from Panera I picked up Newport’s free newspaper and one story caught my eye. Recently the Jamestown Volunteer Fire Company (just across Narragansett Bay) responded to a mutual aid call for a house fire in Newport. When the emergency was over, the firefighters did not have the cash to pay the Newport Bridge toll and they were not allowed to cross the bridge back to their station until a supervisor was summoned. I shudder to think of what might have happened had their been an emergency in Jamestown while they were waiting.

 

Roy

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OMG on the Jamestown voluntary fire department, Roy. You're right - there has to be a better way :(

 

I've enjoyed your posts. Had company so was following the email updates and didn't have time to come here sadly.

 

I don't think this would be a trip for DH. You've had some rolling seas. I think it would be great, though ;)

 

Learned a lot from your posts about this ship. Very interesting. Thank you so much :)

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