grandmaR

I am sure you will be able to see something worthwhile, and he will be able to get you back to the ship in a timely manner. You might take the ferry in to Hamilton and meet him there and go from there back to the ship so that it wouldn't be just out for two hours and then back to the ship. You can ask him if that would be possible.

A private guide certainly can do that kind of tour and I think most of the cars have A/C although we've always been in November when it wasn't that important.

Blue flag guides (and taxis) have the rate set by the government. It is $50/hour for one to four people. A tip of 15% on top of the base charge is appropriate. The Blue flag guides undergo an extensive training program. Some guides will quote a higher charge per hour - maybe they are including the tip as some people don't think they should tip.

If you book a taxi for an island tour it will be the same rate as the blue flag guide and you usually book for at least three hours

Taxis will wait when you take time to visit an attraction or plan to take your lunch. However this waiting time will count as part of the total time for which you book the taxi. While having lunch or snacks during your tour, you can invite the driver to join you, although it's not necessary. But if you invite him, then a general courtesy would be to pay for his bills.

As to how long it will take - it will take as long as you have the energy for it. Driving does take some time in Bemuda as there is traffic and no superhighways.

As to what to see - that depends on your interests. There are interesting things that you can see from a car, such as the two lighthouses - St Davids and Gibbs LIghthouse (you don't have to climb them), the Royal Navy Cemetery (burials of the British Navy dating back to 1700), the smallest drawbridge, the Heydon Trust Chapel, South Road along the shore, past Horseshoe Bay, Warwick Long Bay, and all the famous beaches, Waterville which is a garden with a pond in the shape of Bermuda, Fort Hamilton, Ft Catherine, St George (the town, St Peters, Somer's Garden, the abandoned cathedral etc), and there is also Collector's Hill and Verdmont which is a Bermuda National Trust property, the Botanical Gardens with Camden House - and the Cenotaph and Sessions building, and the cathedral in Hamilton.

We had Lewis for a day and a half and I found him very helpful.

We did not have a tour, as we have been to Bermuda five times previously including spending a week there twice. But I had specific places we wanted to visit and I decided it would be better to get a guide than to try to take a taxi. Lewis not only took us to those places but found others that I didn't know about and also when there was a question about something, he called around until he found out the answer.

I am sure any of the blue flag guides would work well. Lewis met us wen he said he would, and he answered emails.

The Hog Penny is Bermuda's oldest pub and we have eaten there although it was some time ago The Hog Penny came to my attention when Rachael Ray ate dinner there on her $40/day show on the Food Network. She had Chicken Marsala curry which was $18.95

We've also had lunch at the Lobster Pot which was recommended by our guide in 2013 The sign at the entrance said 2-3 lb lobster whole boiled $79.00 We didn't have lobster. Bermuda fish chowder is a dark soup so I had the fish chowder $7.00. Bob had,the Lobster Bisque $7.50. Then he had a lobster seafood slider $13.75 and I had Peach Melba $7.50.

I have also seen, but not eaten at

Flanagan's Irish Pub (Bermuda's only Irish Pub)

Lemon Tree Cafe - sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts with a lemon flavor.

Paradiso Cafe - It is said that this serves the most irresistible pastries in town

Fresco's in Chancery Lane

Tuscany Restaurant

Port of Call Restaurant or Bistro 2 which shares the same place

The Spot - a local place which attracts off-duty police, construction workers etc.

The easiest thing is to take the ferry in to Hamilton. Very short ride across the harbor It only takes 20 minutes of one way ferry ride and the ferries are frequent - about every 20 minutes on weekdays

There is also a ferry to St. George (Orange line) but it operates during the summer season only (i.e. usually second week of April to first week of November). The service is only from Monday to Friday (no service on the weekends). It is a 35 minute ride and the schedule is restricted

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday:

Departs Dockyard: 9:30 11:30 14:00 16:30

Departs St. George: 10:30 1:00 15:30 17:30

Tuesday, Friday:

Departs Dockyard: 9:15 11:15 13:15

Departs St. George: 10:15 12:15 14:15

I am trying to add a photo of the decal

This photo is from inside the van

And this is an authorized guide ID

The only ones really authorized to give tours are the Blue Flag drivers. The blue flag drivers can charge by the hour. The regular drivers charge by mileage and waiting time. I investigated both and concluded that the tour drivers were cheaper than the regular taxi drivers even though I didn't need an actual tour as I knew where I wanted to go.

Presently, for 1-4 passengers, taxi fares cost $8.00 for the first mile and $2.80 for each additional mile, based on a taxi charge formula set by Bermuda's Transport Control Department (TCD). This does not include a tip, of between 15 percent and 20 percent

Midnight to 6 am also Sundays & Public Holidays rate +25 percent more per taxi

Because the "blue flags' were counterfitted, I think an actual Blue Flag driver will have a windshield decal

Yes the guides should be tipped.

I disagree that there isn't much to see in Hamilton, but agree that the ferry is better unless you want to stop someplace between Kings Wharf and Hamilton to see something like Gibbs Lighthouse or the Somerset drawbridge (smallest). You can also get to the drawbridge in Somerset village by ferry.

Things to see in Hamilton - includes Albuoy's Point, Fort Hamilton, the Bermuda Historical Society Museum which is in the National Library, the Bermuda National Gallery which is in the City Hall, the Birdcage, Butterfield Bank (coin collection), Cabinet Building, Cenotaph and War Memorial, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity (Anglican), the Cathedral of St. Theresa (Catholic), Par-la-Ville Park, Perot Post Office, Sessions House, and Victoria Park. And of course there is shopping.

The tour isn't with Denis.

I went to Sydney with my granddaughter to get on a cruise. We arrived July 6th and left July 9th. This is what we did. The ferry to Manley the first day. The hop on hop off bus and the Australian Museum the second day (and could have done more except for the phone problem), the Tower and the aquarium the third day.

Getting Over Jet Lag" Sydney Travelogue

Night view from our room

Neither my granddaughter's phone nor my phone work.

I went back in my emails and I was supposed to dial a number before I left the US and it wasn't the number that the Verizon rep gave me when I talked to them on Friday before I left. But I talked to the Concierge here in the hotel and he said Verizon says they have such great coverage in Australia, but they really don't, so maybe that's not what it is after all. He said he didn't know that much about AT&T. He gave me the locations where I could buy a local phone or a phone card. But I think I have gotten along without a cell phone for most of my life and I can do it again. I think though I will get something for my granddaughter because she's used to having a cell.

July 6, 2012

Aid to navigation (ATON) in the harbour

When we disembarked, one of the flight attendants was wheeling my 'wheelchair' and then she handed over to another lady who was dressed just the same and gave me what looked like a scooter without a steering column. And I must say she had a terrible time with going around corners. She also had to have help going up the jetway.

I changed some more money and we went through customs and immigration. the wheelchair lady went in the express line each time. Getting our luggage the Luggie came out first and the lady started piling things on a cart. None of the rest of the luggage came for a long time, but eventually we got it all and it was all put into the taxi. The driver was Lebanese, and had lived in NC in the Greensboro area.

The fare to the hotel (which was the Intercontinental Hotel Sydney) was $54+ and included several tunnel and freeway tolls. I paid him in some of my newly acquired cash. I asked and apparently one does not tip except 10% in restaurants and there was no extra charge for the luggage.

The bellman took the luggage and took it to our room and we checked in. Our room was ready - we are on the 23rd floor and we have to use our room key to get the elevator to stop at our floor. We have an automatic window closing button by the bed. I got my granddaughter's plug to plug in and she recharged her electronic items. There was also a converter plug in the minibar.

The internet is $50 for three days, and is a LAN cable instead of wireless but works fine. My granddaughter put the scooter together like a champ, and we organized ourselves and went down to the Concierge desk. He recommended the Manley ferry and said that the round trip was $14 each. When we went out the entrance that they told us to go to, it turned out that there was a small step. When we lifted the scooter over it, the light started to blink, but we solved that by turning it off and turning it on again.

We scootered down to the docks and one of the people there directed us to the ticket office (we were at the ticket machines) and the ticket lady asked if I didn't have some kind of disability card or senior card. I said 'no I had only gotten here this morning'. She laughed and asked how old my granddaughter was and when told she was 12 said that she was a child and could ride for less.

Then we got ourselves into the right area to get on the ferry. The sun was shining but there was some wind and also rain sprinkles. The ferry proved to be easy to board but I couldn't get anywhere to see anything on it because except for the first deck there were stairs. We were hungry so my granddaughter got a sandwich and I got a donut from the concession stand and he said I could leave the scooter there.

So we went up forward. It was windy and rather chilly and I was sorry I had taken the lining out of my coat. We saw the Opera House and the bridge, and I took a lot of photos of lighthouses. As we went across where the harbor entrance was, the ferry ran into some rollers which bounced us around a little. I took a photo of my granddaughter from the ferry with the opera house.

On the way back to the hotel we saw an aboriginal playing a diggery do and a fire juggling man getting ready to mount his unicycle. I decided to go in the car entrance of the hotel as I can't do a step each time. We came back and plugged in the Luggie and then I found that the LAN cord wouldn't reach me on the bed. Eventually we rolled the bed nearest the door over to the other wall so the computer cords would reach and that meant that my granddaughter has the bed near the window and TV which works out better for her. (I'm not that interested in seeing TV shows)

End of the first day

View from the window of our hotel room

The room has a closet with an iron and my granddaughter has hung her suit bag in the closet. There is a long window seat bench, and there are two shades that can be pulled down. I haven't tested the inside one to see what it does yet.

I could not figure out how to flush the toilet - my granddaughter had to show me. It is a silver thing sticking out of the wall and I wasn't pushing it hard enough - you really have to put some muscle in it. She came back and said the scale was way off as she weighed much more than it said, and we figured out that it was in kilos and not pounds, sonot really off at all.

There is a tub and shower of course, and a window from the bathroom to the bedroom, plus a drawer, which I have put my pill box into. There are bathrobes in the closet and a big minibar.

There are two double beds, a big TV and a long desk. There are so many light switches that it is hard to figure them out - some of them are for the plugs to be turned off.

It was cold - the thermostat was set at 20 deg C, so my granddaughter turned it up to 23 deg.

After we got back from the ferry ride, my granddaughter and I played a game on the TV, and then she fell asleep while I wrote my email. I asked the desk to give me a 6:00 wake up call so we could get something to eat, and they did. My granddaughter was hard to wake up. I think we will have to discuss how she wants me to do that. But we did get up and go down and went to the bar to get a snack. My granddaughter had chicken quesidillas and boardwalk fries and three glasses of water. I had cranberry juice and a club sandwich.

Then after we talked to the concierge and got pamphlets for tours and discussed the phone situation, we came back up and my granddaughter went back to bed which is where she still is. Just so you know - it was 3:16 in the morning when I wrote that.

July 7, 2012

Queen Victoria

Later, I woke up and took some photos out the window of Sydney at night (top photo). I realized that I had turned off all the outlets where things were charging, so I went around in the dark and turned them all on, wrote some emails and then went back to sleep. I let my granddaughter sleep until she woke up.

We both got showers and I called housekeeping to get my bed made up with the head at the foot so I could do the computer in bed with my feet up. My ankles have swelled from the plane trip, but not as much as they have done before and are getting better. I also ordered breakfast from room service but there is a $6 fee for that. We saved the toast and croissants and some of the fruit and the granola bars from the breakfast.

Since I had decided that I would just buy my granddaughter a phone, we got directions from the concierge and took the scooter out to go to the phone store. We went about 5 blocks to the phone store. Two steps up to that.

They said that both our phones were locked and suggested we go to the phone person to get them unlocked. So we scootered over there and he didn't open until 11:00 on Saturday. What to do? In the end, we rambled around the area and took photos until 11:00. Then the phone guy said he could not unlock my phone that it was the wrong frequency. He could unlock my granddaughter's but it would wipe everything off it, and she didn't want that. So we went back to the store and got a pre-paid phone with $30 worth of minutes on it. Then my granddaughter called her mom - her parents were taking a motorcycle trip and were with my husband Bob in Leonardtown and it was evening there

Going back to the hotel and the scooter had a hard time on the hills but we made it back to the hotel and came up and put the scooter on to charge. Then we ate the toast and croissants, and started out without the scooter to walk to the HOHO (hop on hop off bus). We stayed on the bottom because I wanted to switch to the Bondi tour bus in just 4 stops. We switched and went up top - it was pretty cold up there.

After about an hour up there we got to Bondi, and went back downstairs. We got off at the Australian Museum stop about 3:30.

We went into the museum - I had a coupon for 20% off out of a book I got at the airport. We got a wheelchair and my granddaughter pushed. We saw the native birds and some minerals and the Aboriginal art. After we shopped in the bookstore there we turned in the wheelchair and got back on the Sydney bus.

Here I made a BIG mistake. I got on the bus at the wrong stop. So instead of getting on at stop 5 which would have taken us around to the hotel at 11, we got on at 14 and had to go all the way around to stop 1 and then go to 11.

Oops.

It gets dark here about 5 and it was too dark to take many photos from the bus. I got the driver to let us off opposite stop 11 so the only place we haven't been is to stop 10 which of course is the Opera House. I was really tired and I think my granddaughter was too.

We turned in the umbrella that the concierge lent us, and hobbled up to the restaurant. I was too tired to eat anything much so I had a little steak. My granddaughter had the buffet. For a child's buffet it was $45.00

We were both in bed by 8:30.

I got up about 4 am to go to the bathroom and didn't push the silver thing in the wall hard enough. I picked up a glass to get a drink and realized that the toilet was stuck running and went to fix it and the glass slipped from my hand and hit the tile floor and shattered into multiple small shards.

I went carefully back to bed and called the Instant help and they sent someone up to clean it up.

July 8, 2012

We got up and decided not to have breakfast -my granddaughter ate some Pringles, and we both had some dark chocolate. We got organized and went down to the concierge desk and made a reservation for lunch at the Sydney Tower for 11:30, and also bought the cheaper on-line advance tickets for the Aquarium

We got into a cab to do a couple of last minute drive-by's. Went out to the Opera House which we missed yesterday and drove across the Sydney Bridge.

When we got to the other side, I could see the lighthouse and the lightship that I had missed because they have been moved to the Maritime Museum. The cab driver took photos of us with each of our cameras.

When I asked the cab driver about a dog statue he said, he never noticed it before. We got to the Sydney Tower about 11:10.

Lunch in Sydney Tower

Sydney from Sydney tower

My granddaughter is getting good about getting the scooter put up and taken down. We scootered into the tower and up to the fourth floor where the restaurant desk was. Unlike in Seattle and Toronto and Dallas, this tower does not allow you to the observation deck from the restaurant - you have to pay that separate.

We were too early, so we walked/scootered around and looked at the shops. We saw all kinds of miniskirts which my granddaughter and I agreed Barb (her mother/my daughter) would never wear. Then we went up to the restaurant and ate. It took 90 minutes for us to do a complete circuit. The weather was gorgeous and clear and sunny. I had fixed my camera as to the size photos it was taken and I was much happier with them. We saw the lightship and lighthouse from there too.

Aquarium

Aquarium

Then we were to scooter to the aquarium. We went straight down Market Street to the harbor, but it was not clear how we could get down to the aquarium which was on another level altogether and it seemed nothing but freeways. I asked a group of guys and they were puzzled too and suggested that maybe the hotel there would have a lift down to that level. So we went to the hotel and asked. They said that we should go up on the bridge and then take a lift down. Two of them walked us all the way to the first lift. They went up with us and then walked us part way across the bridge and pointed to where the lift down was (lift = elevator).

The concierge said we should not get into the ticket line to buy tickets but that there would be a shorter line for those who had tickets already. The aquarium was a zoo (that is it was very crowded) - multiple children and strollers and families. But we had a good time and my granddaughter was glad she didn't have to push the wheelchair. They gave her a scavenger hunt to do but she didn't find everything and at one point she stopped for something, and I didn't and she didn't know I had gone on. A good lesson for me.

We ended up at the gift shop and they gave her the chocolate prize anyway even though she hadn't found the scroll.

My back was hurting me even sitting down and I was thinking we would get a cab back to the hotel.. But how? So we did the lifts in reverse and ended up on a one way street with fast traffic. We figured out that if the cab had the light on, it was free. We went up a block to a stoplight, and there was a cab in the middle of traffic stopped at a red light. My granddaughter refused to go out there, so I got off the scooter and walked out into the street and knocked on his window, and he maneuvered over to the curb. She had the scooter collapsed by then so we got in and went back to the hotel. and went up to our room. I was not really hungry, but my granddaughter wanted to eat so I ordered a hamburger for her and a sandwich for me and a banana and croissants for the morning. We also figured out how to make tea.

I went to sleep and woke up about midnight and went down and paid the rest of the bill (just the food things and the internet) in US dollars. The exchange rate right now is $100 US to $121 Australian.

My granddaughter was up when I got back - she said I was loud. But I asked her to turn off the TV and she didn't hear that, so I don't think I was that loud.

Thanks so much for the info.

 

Have printed and will be ready. I have time to plan. :rolleyes: :D

If you are going to take a bus or ferry, get the tickets before you leave the area of the ship - I think there is a ticket office on the dock. You can get a one day or a three day pass which works on both of them.

Fort St. Catherine is in St. George's, not the Dockyard.

Oops - the first time I went to Bermuda and the first time I went on a cruise ship, we docked in St. George. My bad.

I think Ft St Catherine can be left out of a first tour in that case.

Depending on what you want to do and the weather, I would suggest having the guide pick you up at the ship and go by the wall of ship logos, the smallest bridge, Gibbs Hill Lighthouse and Elbow Beach and the Botanical Garden (visit Camden) to the Flats where you visit the Aquarium, and then go back to Hamilton for the rest of the day shopping and then take the ferry back to the Dockyard. At the Dockyard you can go to Fort St. Catherine and the Maritime Museum.

Alternatively, go from the Flats to St. George and have him let you off there. Then take the bus back to Hamilton. Or if you can do it and it if is running, take the ferry either to or from St. George.

I've been to Bermuda enough times that I know generally where I want to go and what I want to see and do. I stayed in St. George for a week and in Hamilton for a week when I came by air, and we've done four cruises which went to Bermuda. I've already been to the Maritime Museum (2x), the Bermuda Aquarium, Zoo and Museum (3 or 4 times), St Peters in St. George (3 or 4 times), Ft. St. Catherine (2x), the Somerset smallest bridge (3x) the Botanical Garden (2x), Camden, Perot's Post Office, the Historic Society Museum, and Spittal Pond nature reserve.

So I mainly take a guide because I can't rent a car, I'm sometimes subject to vertigo issues which makes a motor bike not a viable option, I can't walk well enough to use the bus, and taxis are more expensive.

I have used two guides and once I told them generally what I wanted to do, they were quite helpful and informative. The first one - Duke - is no longer in good health so doesn't guide anymore. The second one Lewis Foggo was really helpful with my scooter and thinking of places which were in the category of what I was looking for but which I did not know. And if he did not know the answer, he would phone someone who did.

Those are the only two guides that I have used, and I didn't use them to do a 'tour'.

We really liked Lewis too - he was very helpful

Irons have always been on the banned list - I think curling irons and hairdryers also.

If they give me outlets so that I can plug in my scooter to recharge it and can use my computer and recharge the camera batteries, I would be OK with that. But they don't. There are never enough outlets and they aren't in appropriate places.

I was on Royal Caribbean in November 2013 and they didn't say a word about either item. I do unplug and put away the surge protector and the computer whenever I leave the cabin and I don't think I needed the extension cord there because the cabins are so tiny that I can't get the scooter in unless we have twin beds. I haven't been on Celebrity recently, and I guess the last Carnival cruise was 2011.

If they won't let me have my surge protector, that is one more reason not to do Disney.

There were two of us - me and my granddaughter age 12

On two Disney cruises I had absolutely NO LUCK eating with other people. They wouldn't even seat us with other people at breakfast and lunch. The first cruise they did seat us with a family of five for dinner after I really insisted but the children were either a lot older (high school) or a lot younger (age 6). The second cruise they would not seat us with other people. She met no one of her age until we did the Roll Call meeting on the second cruise

She said the children's groups were either very young and she was ignored or the kids were all in cliques.

While a couple on their honeymoon wouldn't be that concerned with the children's groups, I think they might be surprised at not eating with a group at breakfast and lunch.

I'm a seasoned RCCL/Celebrity cruiser, but 12/7 will be my first Disney cruise (Wonder, Miami, 5 Night Western Carrib stopping at CC and Cozumel), also my honeymoon.

 

Any tips?

Pack before your day at Castaway Cay.

By all means join a Roll Call and try to have a meeting as otherwise you won't meet any of the other passengers because Disney does not have different families eat together.

If you are in Hamilton it will be easier as the main bus terminal is there.

The ferry runs from Hamilton to where the smallest bridge is, and also goes out to the Dockyard.

There are lots of pretty beaches on the North Shore if all you want to do is take photos. I've done photos from the bus, but it is iffy. What else are you interested in besides the photos of the beaches? There's a garden with the islands of Bermuda in a big pond that the guide can take you to. It is really pretty. It is at a place called Waterville

There are also a couple of forts, and in addition to Gibbs lighthouse, there is one on St. David's.

There is a walking tour of St. George that you might like to do.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/5d8a3/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/5d8aa/#TL

You know of course that Hamilton the city is in Pembroke Parish, and not in Hamilton Parish. There is also a walking tour of Hamilton (the city) but I have fewer pictures to illustrate

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/5d9e0/

We did a private tour with a guide in 2011 which was 3.5 hours. (Keep in mind that we had been to Bermuda many times before, so we were just getting the things that we couldn't get to easily on the bus, and we didn't get to St. George at all)

He picked us up at the Dockyard (where the ship was docked), and showed us the wall with all the ship logos painted on it. We paused briefly at the Royal Navy Cemetery (burials of the British Navy dating back to 1700). We drove thru Somerset and he asked us if we had seen the Heydon Trust Chapel, which we had not, so we stopped briefly there. This small chapel was originally a house and dates back to 1616. We crossed the smallest drawbridge without stopping - our next goal was Gibbs Lighthouse. Here we got out and walked around and Bob and I both took photos. We followed the South Road along the shore, past Horseshoe Bay, Warwick Long Bay, and all the famous beaches. Then he showed us a HUGE banyan tree which had taken over a whole block and was trying to cross the road. Our next stop took us by a beautiful nursery with all kinds of flowers, but our destination was Waterville, which was a private residence is now the headquarters of the Bermuda National Trust. Then we went past the Botanical Gardens, Collector's Hill and stopped briefly at Spittal Pond parking lot where there were a bunch of chickens running around. We kept going along South Road, past John Smith Bay Park (a different John Smith) and drove thru Tucker's Town, which isn't really a town at all and paused by the beach of the Mid-Ocean Club. We went thru the Flats and passed by the BAMZ (Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo) which had a new statue of a sea turtle out front - they made it out of the roof tiles when they repaired the cathedral. We went through Black Watch pass down into Hamilton, past Victoria Park and the cathedral, and circled the City Hall and headed for Fort Hamilton. We got out here and walked around. Now we were heading back for the ship - back thru Somerset on the road next to Great Sound

I think you could do the city of Hamilton by ferry and also most of the Dockyard (assuming that is where your ship docks). And you can do the Aquarium by bus and depending on the time of year, either the bus or ferry to St. George.

The caves and Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, and particularly St. Catherines are kind off off the bus routes. If you started off at the ship and did Gibbs Hill lighthouse and the south shore road (where the buses run less often) through Tucker Town to St. Davids, St. George and St. Catherine, that would take about a half day. Then you could take the bus back through Flatts Village to Hamilton, and then take the ferry from there back to the ship.

If you wanted to do a whole circuit of the island it would probably take a little longer.

Bermuda Island Tours

...

I emailed several drivers about a tour on 5/15 and got several responses. When I sent an email back to the driver's that I did not select -- some were very kind -- still saying they wanted me to enjoy the Island with the driver I did select and to remember them for future tours. I in turned told them I would pass their contact information along. Most names were from reading through this board for recommendations and viewing the Bermuda Attractions and go to Bermuda web sites. This will be my 1st visit to Bermuda so I do not have personal experience on any of their tours, just the email contact. So research , email, ask questions before selecting a guide ;). I'll be sharing my personal review of the guide I did select after returning 5/19.

Enjoy your trips and Thanks for all the posts, I've gotten so much great info for my visit. Please keep sharing.

 

 

Lewis Foggo

lewis_foggo@hotmail.com

 

Robert Minors

VLMinors@onelove.bm

 

Neli Lima-Outerbridge

info@bermudaislandtaxi.com

 

Colin Jennings

colinjenningstaxi@yahoo.com

 

David Fox

thefox@logic.bm

 

Kimmie Mello

soniamello@logic.bm

 

sekai waldron

sekaiwaldron@hotmail.com

In 2011 we had a private tour with Duke, but he is not able to do tours anymore, so I started at the top of this list and contacted Lewis Foggo for our trip on Grandeur of the Seas in Nov 2013.

He is knowledgeable and helpful and flexible - and MOST important - if he does not know, he doesn't just give an answer, but finds out from someone who knows what the answer is. He has books on plants etc in his van, and also a step stool for me to help me get in. He says that the $50 rate has not been approved yet. We had him from 9:30 until about 5 on Monday, and from 9:30 to two pm on Tuesday.

We visited 12 sites that I wanted to go to on Monday and took almost 600 photos, and then on Tuesday he took us to some additional sites that I didn't have on my list because I didn't know about them.

He says that while the blue flag drivers have a decal on the window which says that they are a licensed guide (decal from the inside of the van)

that the Powers That Be find that the decals are too easy to counterfeit. So the REAL blue flag guides also have a blue ID with their photo on it. This is what that looks like.

yes I think that the winter seasons start around the beginning of Nov.

The clock on the TV this morning said 6:15 and my watch said 7:15.

Eastern time changed from Daylight savings today. (Fall back) But Bermuda is in the Atlantic time zone so that is an hour ahead. Therefore the clocks don't change.

I called Guest Services and they said that they knew the clock was wrong - probably because normally when Grandeur goes to Bermuda the clocks get turned back an hour.

Hello everyone. . . Welcome to Day 2 of “LIVE” from Grandeur of the Seas. .....

 

 

A local news helicopter was filming our departure for the evening news (WBAL)

 

 

.

There were three different helicopters. In addition to WBAL there was a police helicopter and one from WJZ

I was surprised - I thought it was all the same helicopter until I looked at the photos.