New York
This Caribbean cruise was a bit different from others we have taken - it started in New York and visited Bermuda. The port of embarkation allowed Lisa, an old friend of Patty's and her family to join us, along with our daughter Julie and her husband Matt.
We all met at the ship in the Brooklyn Shipyard. The cruise was to be nine days and would be followed by a 4th of July weekend in Manhattan for Craig, Patty, Julie and Matt.
As the ship pulled out from its dock we made sure to take pictures of ourselves with the New York skyline in the background. Matt and Craig of course wore the newly minted LA Lakers 2010 NBA Championship shirts.
Craig and Julie can be seen here with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
The last major landmark passing out of the New York harbor is sailing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
One of the really special places to view a sail away is in the Skywalker Lounge, high above the stern of the ship. Here Matt and Julie are enjoying a sail away buffet for experienced Princess cruisers.
The sail away snack was shortly before we all got together for our first meal. Yes, eating is large part of each and every cruise.
Here we see the entire group: Frank, Matt, Julie, Patty, Craig, Millie, Lisa, and Frankie.
Second night out was a formal night and here we see Craig & Patty outside their cabin, heading for dinner again.
Bermuda
In Bermuda the group split in two with Craig & Patty and Matt & Julie
each getting a day pass travel on the ferries or busses for the day
we were ashore. We browsed shops, with Patty and Julie purchasing Lili
Bermuda fragrances (locally produced perfume) in Hamilton, before boarding
a bus to take us to the northern part of the island.
The country side was like a tropical England and the bus wound over the spine of the island and up along the eastern coast line, past a spectacular golf course.
There was a bus stop right in front of the caves we wanted to see. We got off, Julie & Matt grabbed a bite to eat, then we began our journey down into the Crystal Cave.
This first cave was 99 steps down, after a long sloping walk down into the opening. There was a wooden walkway across the freshwater lake at the bottom of the cave. This was a spectacular walk, with stalactites and stalagmites covering the length of the cave. The growth of these structures is measured in fractions of an inch over thousands of years.
After
about 30 minutes we climbed out of the cave and stopped in a waiting
area before heading to the 2nd cave
- Fantasy Cave.
The Fantasy Cave had steep steps directly from the entry area shown.
While this cave had a smaller lake, the walking path wound around the
edge and into an area of crystals and small bodies of water that were
quite different from the Crystal Cave.
Finally,
we climbed out of the 2nd cave, walked back to the bus stop, and boarded
a bus headed for the northern city of St. George. This was much more
like a medium sized English village.
However, we didn't have too much time to wander and shop before the last ferry left to take us back to the Royal Navy Dockyard, where our ship was secured.
Before boarding the ship we did visit the Frog and Onion Pub to try
a local drink and purchase a Bermuda t-shirt.
With
a day-and-a-half at sea, we had plenty of time for a discount shopping
day for Lisa, Patty, and Millie. One of the dining rooms is turned over
to selling sale items and clothing from previous cruises during part
of the day.
This was also Frankie's 9th birthday and we celebrated it properly at the evening's dinner.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
On our arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico the group split up into three parts. Matt and Julie took off on their own to investigate the area around the ship and wound up at Castillo San Felipe del Morro; while Lisa, Frankie, Frank and Millie took one bus tour of the El Yunque Rainforest and Craig & Patty took another bus on the same tour.
El Yunque Rainforest
The
tour traveled up highway PR191 curving up 2000ft in the bus shown here.
Part way up we stopped at the Yokahu Tower and climbed to the top to view the eastern part of Puerto Rico spread out before us.
Our
bus stopped at a tourist point well up the mountain to let us explore
a trail that crossed a waterfall and meandered down through the rainforest
for about ½ mile, ending at La Coca Falls.
It was a gorgeous walk, giving us an inkling of the lushness and density
existing in a rainforest.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro
Matt and Julie, meanwhile, were exploring an old Spanish Fort that guarded
the San Juan harbor. It was difficult to get into the fort from the
land side and really forbidding trying to scale the walls from the seaward
side.
They
explored the cannon mountings, the turrets supporting musket fire, climbed
the walls to view the ocean, mounted the narrow staircases soldiers
needed to navigate and move around, and peered through the gun turrets.
Dinner at the Dragonfly Cafe
Craig,
Patty, Matt, and Julie met up in the late afternoon and decided to eat
dinner ashore - the ship left at 11:00PM. We chose the Dragonfly Fusion
restaurant within walking distance from the ship - highly recommended
by one of the ship's crew. It was just about the best dinner any of
us has ever had and Patty intends to return on her next Caribbean adventure,
in December. The drinks were exotic and the food prepared in a way the
best chefs would appreciate.
St. Thomas - American Virgin Islands
B.O.S.S. Underwater Adventure
The next day we were in St Thomas and Craig, Julie, and Matt left on a tour that had them riding undersea jet bikes and snorkeling. The underwater pictures are somewhat fuzzy, but the experience was definitely unique. The bikes were powered by a tank of air and stayed about 8 feet under the surface - held up by floats on 8ft cords. Hand controls allowed us to go left or right, faster or slower, and herded by three scuba divers.
When we finished our 30 minute ride, our scuba diver herders took out another group and we got about two hours of snorkeling in about 26 feet of water.
Here we see Craig circling some coral on the
sea floor and lots of sea turtles, fish, and anemones.
Grand Turk - Turks & Caicos Islands
Our final stop was Grand Turk and the cruise ship Carnival Miracle again docked along side of us - they had followed us from San Juan, to St. Thomas, and finally here. Grand Turk is a small island that is mainly a place to stop, swim and shop at a bazaar at the end of the long dock securing the two cruise ships.
Craig, Patty, Lisa, Julie, and Matt spent a fair amount of time imbibing sprits at a large Margaritaville containing a dance floor and swimming/wading pool.
Back to New York
The
final two days were at sea and we relaxed, taking it easy on the camera
- recording only Lisa and Patty's meeting for tea and our last dinner.
Finally it was time to say goodbye, the last night being full of shared
fun and anxiety that this was going to end for half our group.
Manhattan, New York
The
next morning we sailed into New York, past the Statue of Liberty again.
Craig, Patty, Matt, and Julie were going to stay on in Manhattan for
the weekend and
they took a limo to their hotel - The Envoy Club - a timeshare on 1st
Ave and 33rd St. We could see the Empire
State and the Chrysler buildings from the roof. It was equally interesting
for Matt and Julie to look down 33rd
St leading to the Empire State and down at 34th
St at typical New York residences and businesses.
We arrived in New York Friday morning and we were going to leave Monday evening. The map shows our - mostly walking - tours throughout the next four days.
Day One
This, our first day in the city, we walked to the Empire State and rode to the 86th floor (the top for tourists).
Of course we include the obligatory shot of ourselves at the top of the Empire State.
Our pictures include one showing the Caribbean Princess, with the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge behind her, loading up passengers for the next Caribbean cruise - look between the skyscrapers on the left side of the picture.
Also, here is a photo of the lower end of Manhattan.
Our day included walking to Times Square, then visiting the Inglot
cosmetic store there. This store is the only one of its kind in the
United States - at this time - and a friend of Patty's really wanted
some cosmetics from there. Of course both Patty and Julie shopped as
well. We crossed the street to the M&M store and the Hershey store in
the following block, then walked from Times Square back to our hotel.
Matt wanted to take us to dinner at the Plaza Hotel, where he said there
was a fabulous new restaurant, The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English.
We took a cab there (our feet needed the rest) and the dinner was as
good as he had described.
A
very unique place, there were several different cooking stations, with
seats and specialties for each. We could order
anything
from any of the specialty places and watch how that specialty place
cooked their food. The Plaza is on the south east corner of Central
Park (5th Ave & 59th
St) and, full and happy, we decided to walk slowly home. First we visited
the Apple Store, across the street and underground, and browsed all
the new electronic stuff available. Finally we walked down 5th
Ave and across 34th St - some 26 blocks.
Day Two
For
day two we started out walking to the United Nations on 1st
Ave and 49th St. Here we went through
the public part of the building and took a photo in front of a famous
sculpture called Sphere Within Sphere - we had seen another copy of
this in Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland on a previous cruise.
Matt just couldn't avoid posing with the gun on the grounds.
This view of the Chrysler Building is from in front of the U.N.
We then walked back to 42nd St and turned west past the Chrysler Building and on to Grand Central Station. We went to a downstairs location where Matt and Julie said people could stand against an arched wall, quite a distance apart, and hear each other whisper. It's true -- you can hear each other whisper. The only problem is that our picture of this location didn't come out enough to include here.
We were walking to meet Lisa for lunch at Mars 2012 - a restaurant at 51st St and Broadway - but as we walked by 6th Ave Matt and Julie got sidetracked by the Farmers' Market there and it was quite a sight seeing all the local produce among the Manhattan skyscrapers.
The
four of us met up again on 6th Ave
- thank goodness for cell phones - and took the subway south to 14th
St; starting our walk through Greenwich Village. Walking down 6th
Ave to 9th St, we came upon a beautiful
local park.
A
couple of blocks east and a couple of blocks south we got to Washington
Park and found a crowd gathered around a contortionist who finally managed
to enclose himself in an 18 inch box. As we left his show we wandered
near the famous Washington Park Arch - scene of many movie shots - and
discovered the sand painter Joe Mangrum. His work was spectacularly
detailed and Matt got a number of shots of him and his work. We have
only included a couple here, but Matt has information on how to contact
him later.
From there we walked south, down Thompson Street and came across a Chess Shop. Since Craig had never seen a store almost exclusively devoted to chess equipment and playing chess, he had to stop in to ask questions. Of course he asked about any Go equipment and found they did have some nice stones and a couple of simple boards. Check out Go here, if you are interested.
We
walked past a Thai restaurant that Julie seemed to like. Since we were
walking to Little Italy, about 12 blocks away, we didn't stop. Our mistake
-- Little Italy turned out to be somewhere we really didn't want to
stop, so we returned to the Thai restaurant on Thompson Street. There
was no front to the restaurant; therefore our picture was shot from
the sidewalk.
After dinner we walked directly east to 1st Ave and took a cab to our hotel. Phew, were we tired.
Day Three - 4th of July
The next morning Patty and Julie modeled their Life Liberty Happiness
tank tops.
We decided to meet later in Central Park, taking taxis there. We realized this was going to be a long 4th of July Sunday and we didn't want to push things early on. Craig and Patty walked up the east side of Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spent the morning wandering through the exhibits. The first was on the evolution of the American Woman, but no photography was allowed - you will just have to visit it yourself.
The picture of Patty in the American Art section is on the north side of the museum.
Matt
& Julie met up with Craig & Patty at the 84th
St and 5th Ave entrance to Central
Park and they
walked
past The Great Lawn to the west side of The Reservoir. The path south
led to the Belvedere Castle, where Matt, Julie, and Craig climbed to
the very top, while Patty remained in the shade, overlooking Frog Pond.
Walking
south and east we passed the Loeb Boathouse and circled around to the
Bethesda Fountain. It was a dog day afternoon, as shown in the views
of people - and a dog - with their feet in the lake. Patty is one of
those people and you can see the Loeb Boathouse in the background, another
favorite movie shot.
We
continued to the southern end of the park and stopped at a pizza place
on 58th street for dinner. Our walk
home included passing Radio City Music Hall and passing through Rockefeller
Center - all the flags and "I Love NY" apples.
We
arrived home in time for refreshments and to await the 9:00PM fireworks
over the Hudson River. Since we were next to the East River, we didn't
know how much of New York's famous fireworks we would see this 4th
of July. Nevertheless we marched up to our roof and joined other
guests in waiting what ever would arrive. While we couldn't see anything
but the highest bursts, these pictures show that it was a unique view
of the city.
Day Four
We
had walked a great distance, taken cabs, boarded the NY subway, and
seen quite a few places over the previous three days. We were leaving
on Monday afternoon, so Matt took us to Chelsea in the morning - he
had a business meeting - and Patty, Julie, and Craig walked around the
Meatpacking District and ended up in the Chelsea Market, a New York
style mall - lots of unique corners and odd shops, taking up almost
an entire block at the corner of 9th
Ave and 14th St.
With our cab ride back, we were ready to say goodbye to New York and end our Caribbean vacation.