April 25, 2025 – Friday: We have decided we kinda like breakfast in the buffet because we really do not eat big breakfasts. We are able to get juice, coffee, fruit and maybe a muffin or scrambled eggs and sausage pretty quickly. Sometimes the hard part is finding a table because apparently lots of other people on the ship like a quick breakfast.
After breakfast we attended two lectures by presenters we have heard before.
The first lecture was by William Kramer and is a continuation of his previous lectures on space travel. Today the topic was “Creating Homo Space-ians”. He discussed how rockets and space travel is being explored by private enterprise rather than governments. Unfortunately when Elon Musk was mentioned, there was cheers and boo’s. Poor Elon is taking the fall because people hate Trump. Mr. Kramer mentioned many projects currently taking place as well as future space explorations. He mentioned the Japanese have a space station where I thought the International Space Station was the only one. Some of the space travel could take years, which means babies could be born, grow up and die, before the destination is reached. Their whole life would be on a rocket ship. I guess thats hard for me to understand or maybe even accept! But it could happen sometime in the future.
The second lecture was with Dr. Keith Prichard, who we have heard before. His presentation was “Laughter, the Best Medicine”. He was a psychologist in his professional life, so this was one of his areas of interest. He showed us all kinds of film clips and the audience was laughing. So it was a fun presentation.
We are not big on magicians, but the evening show was a magician. He had a big personality, and did some interesting magic tricks – especially with cards.
Then a late dinner and to bed.
April 24, 2025 – Thursday: After losing another hour of sleep last night, we managed to get up a little earlier this morning. Fortunately, today will be a 24 hour day!
After a breakfast in the buffet, we went to two lectures. The first was with William Kramer entitled “Is there Life Beyond Earth”. I think he called himself an “Astrobiologist”. I think he is a very good presenter. His presented several different experiments being conducted worldwide, not just by US, looking for lifeforms throughout the galaxy. Some of the experiments have been conducted for years whil others are current and being planned for the future. He compared our sun to a grain of sand and said there are so many planets in the universe that you could fill a train of tank cars with grains of sand to represent all the other planets. (Not sure if that sentence makes sense). He said Stephen Hawking had a different point of view: by telling whatever is out there that we are here, we may become their prey! So Stephen Hawking did not think we should be looking for trouble out in the universe, but to take care of earth and what we have here. Our speaker, Mr. Kramer, believes that with the universe as large as it is, it is likely there is life elsewhere.
The second lecture was with John Bailly who presented “Grand Exchange from The Americas to Europe”. (Yesterday was Grand Exchange from Europe to the Americas”). He has a lot of good information, but he throws out so many facts and information that he is a little difficult to follow. This is one of the slides from his presentation which I found interesting, which shows all the origin of agricultural products that are now used worldwide.
We did some walking on the track to get a little exercise. It is pretty windy on the open decks.
We went to the production show in the theater, “Topper”, which we think we have seen before. The singing, dancing, aerobatics and costumes made it entertaining.
We had a great filet mignon in Blu, our dining room. After dinner, we went to the martini bar to listen to a Queen sing-a-long. I sat next to a lady from Canada who doesn’t understand why Trump is causing tension between our two countries…and neither do I. We actually agreed on a lot of things that Trump is doing, such as trying to rid biological men from women’s sports, so it was a good discussion.
April 23, 2025 – Wednesday: Today is a sea day. We lost an hour of sleep last night, so we were not up early. We went to the theater to listen to two lectures.
The first lecture was by a former professor, John Bailly, from Florida International University in Miami. The topic was “Grand Exchange from Europe to the Americas”. He gave lots of information, but almost so much that he was a little hard to follow. His message was that that food, animals, etc. were removed from their native lands and transported to countries around the world earlier than you would expect. Horses, cows and pigs were introduced to North America by the explorers. Spaghetti with tomato sauce is not native to Italy. Noodles were first made in China. Tomatoes were originally from Peru and were tiny – the size of a fingernail! But over time, horticulture increased their size and enterprising Italian cooks adopted noodles and tomatoes, putting tgem together, resulting in pasta with tomato sauce. He had many examples of how animals, foods, traditions, religions spread worldwide.
The second lecture was part 2 about Columbus – was he a friend or fiend. He was searching for gold. Columbus on his journeys brought disease to South America and Caribbean Islands which decimated the native populations, captured people and in effect, started the slave trade. At the end of the lecture, most people thought he was more fiend than friend.
The rest of the day was uneventful, but we did a (very) little walking, got dressed for the evening, visited one of the lounges, and went to the early show. The entertainer, Carlos Nebot, was billed as a singer and guitarist. However, he was very entertaining. His music spanned several genres from Amore to Purple Rain. He sang some song in what I assume was Spanish, also Italian, and English. He had a phenomenal voice and a great range. We really enjoyed his show. Then to a mediocre dinner, and then back to our stateroom.
We lose another hour tonight, but we will set our alarms to try to get going a little earlier tomorrow.
April 22, 2025 – Tuesday: We are in Bermuda today. I convinced Dave to rent a car this visit. It is a tiny electric car, and Dave is not happy with the legroom.
But by having our own transportation, we can go wherever we like. The last time we were in Bermuda, it was a national holiday, and we did not see much. Today we set out to see some sights we missed last time.
Our first stop was Horseshoe Beach to see the pink sand. The temperature is about 70°, so a little too cold for us to make it a beach day, but I wanted to see the pink sand at the famous Horseshoe Beach. So we were expecting PINK sand…and it did have a slight pink tinge, more so when it was wet. The water is a beautiful aqua color, and it is a gorgeous beach. The sand was not as dark a pink as we expected.
Our next stop, which we had to backtrack to reach, was Gibbs Hill Lighthouse. We accidentally passed it and went to Horseshoe Beach first. We do not think the roads have good signage…especially when you are driving on the “wrong” side of the road (You drive on the left in Bermuda).
Gibbs Hill Lighthouse was designed in London and built in 1846, made of cast iron. There are 185 steps to climb to the top…we decided not to make the climb. The grounds were interesting and we had good views from ground level as the base is about 245 feet above sea level. An old weathervane that was originally on top of the lighthouse was displayed on the grounds. It was replaced by radar and the weathervane sits on the ground.
Our next stop was supposed to be Bermuda’s Botanical Gardens, but upon arriving we were told the Gardens were closed as they were preparing for an exhibition.
So next we drove to the Verdmont House, which is an 18th century home filled with antiques. It was used as a residence until the mid 20th century with virtually no structural changes since it was erected approximately 1710. No electricity and no plumbing. Many of the antiques are not original to the house and have been donated or loaned to the current owner, Bermuda National Trust. It sets on a hill with views out to the ocean, and well groomed gardens.
We had hoped to visit a couple more spots, but based on our limited time in Bermuda, and lunchtime, we headed to Hamilton. We stopped in Hamilton on our last visit, but everything was closed, even the restaurants, because of the national holiday. So we wanted to spend some time walking around and checking out the shops.
Because it was lunchtime, we ate outside at Hog Penny Pub. Hog Penny Pub was the inspiration for the “Bull & Finch Pub” in Boston, also known as the Cheers bar. I had a Hawaiian Lamb burger, which was served with the standard lettuce, tomato and onions, but also pineapple slices! I had to add a little salt, but otherwise it was tasty. Dave got Wahoo fish bites. With our 2 diet cokes, it was a $65 lunch, but not unexpected as Bermuda is pricey.
After lunch we wandered around and walked past the Cabinet Building which is where Parliament meets. On the grounds is a statue of Sally Bassett. In 1730 she was burned alive at the stake for being convicted of “suspicion of poisoning several persons”. She maintained her innocence until her death. In 2008 when the statue was erected, it was the first time an enslaved person had been memorialized in Bermuda.
We walked down Front Street and looked in a couple of stores, but the street is mostly lined with restaurants and bars.
After visiting Hamilton,we headed back to the Royal Naval Dockyard where our ship is docked. We had a pretty full day and used most of the time we were allocated in Bermuda.
This evenings show does not look interesting to us, so we tried to find a lounge with music and seats…ended up trying the martini bar where there was suppose to be a DJ – but we did not see or hear him.
We went to dinner and were disappointed with the slow service. We have to find a better time to go to dinner.
After dinner we stopped back at the martini bar for a nightcap, and then to our stateroom. We lose another hour of sleep tonight.
April 21, 2025 – Monday: Another sea day. We went to two lectures: “The Age of Discovery” and “Looking for Life in all the Strange Places”. The evening show was a tribute to Aretha Franklin by Cece Teneal and she was excellent!
She had everyone in the theater dancing at their seats, clapping, and singing along. We have been having a hard time finding seats in lounges where there’s music! Tomorrow we will be in Bermuda.
April 20, 2025 – Easter Sunday. We missed the church service this morning – I forget to check the time. No pictures today.
Pretty quiet sea day for us. Listened to a lecture, “From Chinese Kites to Musk on Mars”, went to show, “Live” which featured the Celebrity singers and dancers as well as some acrobatics. Tonight we lose an hour…I think we have 5 “23 hour” days on the crossing, since we are traveling west to east. I prefer transatlantic crossings from Europe to USA because they are east to west, so we get “25 hour” days.
We had dinner in “Blu” which is the restaurant for Aqua Class staterooms. I had an almond encrusted scallop for my “starter” and lamb for my entree…I didn’t think the scallop was anything special, and the lamb was maybe a little over done. Dave had crab bisque for his “starter” and salmon for his entree. Went to a game show, and then a lounge. The lounge singer was not very good, so we left and headed back to our stateroom.
April 19, 2025, Saturday: With several sea days on the first of two cruises, there won’t be much to write about. We had no issues driving from our hotel by the Orlando airport to Port Canaveral. Deciding to get a hotel room and leave on Friday instead of Saturday was a good decision. Just a long drive from Englewood. Embarkation was smooth with no lines and no waiting. We were scheduled to board at 11:30AM and we we walking onto the ship at 11:27! A little confused as all aboard time was 2:30PM, sail away was suppose to be 4:30PM and we actually left port about 5:30PM. As the ship was backing away from the dock, we saw a turtle swimming around in the water. He took one look at us and then did a deep dive! As we headed out to sea, we saw a SpaceX boat. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised because we are close to Cape Canaveral.
After dropping our carryons in our cabin, which wasn’t ready yet, we walked around the ship. We are pretty familiar with this class of ship as we have been on sister ships, and maybe even this ship, before. The ships were not open, but I spotted some Mary Frances Handbags that I love to look at because they are so unique – but totally unpractical. Would never fork out the cash to buy one and just have it sit in my closet!
Saturday was our 40th anniversary so we planned dinner in Murano’s which is a specialty restaurant. The service was very attentive! For appetizers, Dave had a Phyllo Baked Anjou Pear and I had Wild Forest Mushroom Cappuccino which was a soup. We both liked our appetizers. Our entree was Chateaubriand for Two. It was very tender and tasty. For dessert we had a sampler which was 7 small portions of something like flavored puddings. They also brought us some chocolates, AND a chocolate cake for our anniversary! We brought the anniversary cake back to our room as we were just too full! After dinner we went to the evening show which was a comedian, Jeff Shaw. He was OK – very energetic!
Then we went to one of the bars and listened to some music wrote heading to bed.
May not be much to write about until after Bermuda on Tuesday, April 22.
4/28/2025 – Friday: We left a day early since it is such a long drive to Port Canaveral. Left about 2:10PM and arrived about 7:00PM. Going to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.
Itinerary:
| Date | Arrive | Depart | |
| Saturday 4/19 | Port Canaveral | 12:00 PM | |
| Saturday 4/19 | Port Canaveral | 5:00 PM | |
| Sunday 4/20 | At Sea | ||
| Monday 4/21 | At Sea | ||
| Tuesday 4/22 | Royal Navy Dockyard, Bermuda | 8:00 AM | 5:00 PM |
| Wednesday 4/23 | At Sea | ||
| Thursday 4/24 | At Sea | ||
| Friday 4/25 | At Sea | ||
| Saturday 4/26 | At Sea | ||
| Sunday 4/27 | Ponta Delgada, Portugal | 10:00 AM | 7:00 PM |
| Monday 4/28 | At Sea | ||
| Tuesday 4/29 | At Sea | ||
| Wednesday 4/30 | At Sea | ||
| Thursday 5/1 | Cartagena, Spain | 8:00 AM | 5:00 PM |
| Friday 5/2 | Palma de Mallorca, Spain | 8:00 AM | 5:00 PM |
| Saturday 5/3 | Barcelona, Spain | 5:00 AM | 5:00 PM |
| Sunday 5/4 | At Sea | ||
| Monday 5/5 | At Sea | ||
| Tuesday 5/6 | Mykonos, Greece | 9:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| Wednesday 5/7 | Ephesus, Turkey | 7:00 AM | 5:00 PM |
| Thursday 5/8 | Istanbul, Turkey | 1:00 PM | |
| Friday 5/9 | Istanbul, Turkey | 11:30 AM | |
| Saturday 5/10 | Santorini, Greece | 10:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| Sunday 5/11 | Olympia, (Katakolon), Greece | 12:00 PM | 8:00 PM |
| Monday 5/12 | At Sea | ||
| Tuesday 5/13 | Rome, Italy | 5:00 AM | |
| Tuesday 5/13 | Rome, Italy | ||
| Wednesday 5/14 | Rome, Italy | 1:20 PM | |
| Wednesday 5/14 | Boston, Logan, MA | 4:25 PM | 8:25 PM |
| Wednesday 5/14 | Tampa, FL | 11.42 PM |