Fantastic MIRACLE to Bermuda - 9/27 LOTS of photos & food porn warning

[JaniceB]

I love the pictures of the beaches. How tricky is it to drive the moped to these beaches? I thought it might be safe since we would not be going to Hamilton on the mopeds.

[cruisenanny]

Ok, I'm back from my mundane chores of life.

So, as I said before, we took Jill's tip & headed to Fort Hamilton BEFORE we left via South Shore road & the beaches.

Here are quite a few photos taken at the fort.

Gorgeously manicured grounds

Great place for a nap!!

[Buffettfan 225]

Next we will ride all the way out to the eastern tip of the island, another 5 minutes or so, to the Ft St Catherine & glass beach area (we didn't stop there this trip, but last time we were there, the sea glass was plentiful & old).

Now I understand draw for Bermuda. The photos are awesome, especially your dock view from ship. How enjoyable. The closest I had seen Bermuda before was on House Hunters International.

Do you recall what "glass beach" area is called? I got hooked looking for sea "beach glass" last cruise and never been to a beach where it is known for it. Thanks.

p.s. Anyone know what months are best for weather cruising in Bermuda ? Just looking for sun and at least 72 pleasant. Thanks.

[cruisenanny]

I love the pictures of the beaches. How tricky is it to drive the moped to these beaches? I thought it might be safe since we would not be going to Hamilton on the mopeds.

 

I think if your hubby knows what he is doing & is comfortable about staying left, you would be just fine. We just have to be very cautious of the islanders on the motorcycles, they come up on you fast & furious and pass with complete lack of judgment, imho..

Don't miss Hamilton, it is nothing to be worried about, especially if you are there on a sat or Sunday, very little traffic & a lot of good stuff to see. Just not a lot of shopping on Sunday, but I don't go to Bermuda to shop so I think it is great:D

[Buffettfan 225]

One more post for all you late night readers.. A bit of midnight snack food porn:p

Fountainhead Cafe goodies

And the mile high cakes

Of which I had to try a piece of, was excellent! WAY too big though..

And the special occasion cakes you can order

Thanks for taking photo of prices--always wondered the cafe prices. Heard the carrot cake was worth it..,just when to fit it in when I haven't been grazing and hungry. The strawberries look good too. Did ja ever notice the lack of strawberries on a ship?

[cruisenanny]

Now I understand draw for Bermuda. The photos are awesome, especially your dock view from ship. How enjoyable. The closest I had seen Bermuda before was on House Hunters International.

Do you recall what "glass beach" area is called? I got hooked looking for sea "beach glass" last cruise and never been to a beach where it is known for it. Thanks.

p.s. Anyone know what months are best for weather cruising in Bermuda ? Just looking for sun and at least 72 pleasant. Thanks.

 

May/june & Sept/oct will have the temps you are looking for. Water will still be COLD May/june & it is hurricane season Sept/oct.... I always prefer to take my chances with sept/oct, but many will not agree with that.

If glass beach has another name I don't know it, sorry, it probably does though. If you look at my main photo of Ft St Catherines, it is way to the right, out of the picture frame, but within walking distance I would say. Down the only main road there.

[cruisenanny]

Still at the fort and going to head down into the "enchanted" garden area that Jill was so fond of when she visited last month.

There were some spooky DARK starways here. I snapped a photo down the stairs of one to see what my flash would reveal.

and again

Headed down into the garden "jungle" area now

[cruisenanny]

Down in the garden now.

There are random roosters & chickens everywhere on the island & here was no exception.

Two more photos overlooking the Hamilton area from the fort, and then we were off to the beaches.

[Delta Dear]

Thank you for all of the lovely pictures. We are leaving on Oct. 16 and will have one full day in Bermuda to see as much as we can see. The following day we leave at noon, so that will be a Dockyard continuation... I know I'll cover it both days.

 

My husband has some mobility issues with walking distances. As long as there are places for him to sit and rest, he's fine. I know the Dockyard has benches, I'm sure we can find places to sit in Hamilton and St. George, probably, but I do wonder about the accessibility of beach areas.

 

We are not beach people, but would love to see the lovely beaches. Are there some that are only accessible by walking uphill to get to ?

 

I think we will probably use the ferry, the buses and/or taxis to get around to see the sights. We're still making a list of the things we absolutely want to see. Your pictures are really exciting to us. Can't wait to see and read more about your trip.

[cruisenanny]

So we snapped a few beach photos, decided not to swim today. It was getting late & we were thirsty & hungry. Checked out the NEW South shore Swizzle Inn for (just one when on the scooters) an ice cold beer. Fine for our purpose but NOTHING like the original Swizzle Inn over towards St George. Convenient spot though for sure, a brilliant place for them to put a second location & I'm sure it does well.

Warwick Long Bay

Jobsons Cove, more here on our 3rd day visit

[jmwg49]

I am so glad you got to go and see the "jungle" in the moat at Fort Hamilton! Did you love it??? I thought it was a great little find!!! Mind you, we went when Hurricane Maria was passing over, and the trees above were swaying and it was rather eerie! Did you see the orange cat that lives there????

 

My husband went down those dark stairwells and into some of the 'chambers' in the dark, just using his flash! Ummmm....no thanks!

 

Still enjoying your review!!! Keep it comin'!

[cruisenanny]

Thank you for all of the lovely pictures. We are leaving on Oct. 16 and will have one full day in Bermuda to see as much as we can see. The following day we leave at noon, so that will be a Dockyard continuation... I know I'll cover it both days.

 

My husband has some mobility issues with walking distances. As long as there are places for him to sit and rest, he's fine. I know the Dockyard has benches, I'm sure we can find places to sit in Hamilton and St. George, probably, but I do wonder about the accessibility of beach areas.

 

We are not beach people, but would love to see the lovely beaches. Are there some that are only accessible by walking uphill to get to ?

 

I think we will probably use the ferry, the buses and/or taxis to get around to see the sights. We're still making a list of the things we absolutely want to see. Your pictures are really exciting to us. Can't wait to see and read more about your trip.

 

The dockyard has a cute trolley train that pulls right up to the ship area & makes 3 stops throughout the dockyard area, it is free and saves A LOT of walking.

The south shore beaches are all downhill from where a bus would drop you off. Problem is, you must walk back up that hill to get to your bus stop again..

I'm sure there are other options that would be better for you to get to, just not on the south shore.

ENJOY your trip:)

[cruisenanny]

Back to the dockyard & ship for lunch & a NAP!

Gem was still in port with us, she left a few hours later

And the gorgeous Carnival Miracle

AND my much needed lunch!! Haha this was one of the few times all week that I was ravenously hungry! Lyndamyr, if you are reading, I am here to tell you that they had BEAUTIFUL carved meats at the international station every day of the week. Today was French & I believe this was carved pork. OOPS, I sliipped with the gravy:eek: lol It was excellent, also on the plate was a piece of delicious pot roast, yummy potato au gratin & a roll that was even better than it looked. I was super impressed with the international lunch buffet the couple of times I tried it this week.(I am usually not a fan of cruise ship buffets)

[H82seaUgo]

nice pix!

 

i have to go eat after seeing those pix of the cakes, and then i will be back to read!

[Buffettfan 225]

Still at the fort and going to head down into the "enchanted" garden area that Jill was so fond of when she visited last month.

There were some spooky DARK starways here. I snapped a photo down the stairs of one to see what my flash would reveal.

and again

Headed down into the garden "jungle" area now

That is spooky all right- no way a clausterphobic person would go.

[cruisenanny]

After a nice looong nap, were had to go fuel up the scooters, took another putt & then had to turn them in (in case we were leaving in the early a.m., Oleander worked with us & was aware of what was going on). After turning the scooters in we took a leisurely walk back to the ship & snapped a few more pics.

On our short ride before turning in the scooters I snapped some pics of one of my 3 favorite churches at dusk. I was thrilled with these two photos.

and a few photos on our walk back

We stopped here for a drink before getting back on the ship. I will just say the drinks were grossly overpriced & the bartender on duty was not a very nice guy, to put it mildly. So I snapped a pic of the name so at least you all are aware.

[cruisenanny]

I am so glad you got to go and see the "jungle" in the moat at Fort Hamilton! Did you love it??? I thought it was a great little find!!! Mind you, we went when Hurricane Maria was passing over, and the trees above were swaying and it was rather eerie! Did you see the orange cat that lives there????

 

My husband went down those dark stairwells and into some of the 'chambers' in the dark, just using his flash! Ummmm....no thanks!

 

Still enjoying your review!!! Keep it comin'!

 

Hi Jill! Yes I did love it down there, sadly, no orange cat greeted me. Hubby wasn't there with me at the time I was taking the dark stairway photos, so there was no way in h*ll I was going down there!! lol

[cruisenanny]

So when I loaded my photos to photobucket (my first time) they appeared all out of order. I planned on the order of my photos jarring my memory for the review..... So, nbd, BUT I cannot remember what we had for dinner that night & nothing in my pics is reminding me. To hold you over, cuz I know you all must be dying for some food porn by now... Here are a few random room service photos taken over the course of the week. Everything we had from room service was very decent. Just a heads up, they will NOT deviate from the menu in any way. For example, they have a turkey sandwich & they have a BLT. I asked them to put turkey on my BLT, No go. So I ordered both lol

reuben ( you can see they forgot the saur kraut, hubby didn't mind too much)

grilled cheeeeeese-y

Chicken fajita wrap

and chocolate cake so sinfully good that I would gladly pay $20 for a slice right this minute

I think MAYBE this what I had for dinner that night. Either way it doesn't matter, you're going to see all the food pics one way or another. At the end of this review there will be a couple wrap-up posts. One to cover any food porn I have missed along the way, yay! Another for ...... all of our towel animals, I know some of you will appreciate them! And lastly, there will be another post that an even smaller group will get a kick out of............ cruise toes/feet:p lol Fair warning everyone!

Anyhow, here's what I think I had for dinner this night. Filet with short rib confit was tasty, the potato was good also.

[cruisenanny]

I guess we turned in early that first night in Bermuda & were up that next morning eagerly awaiting an announcement as to what we were doing. Staying or leaving? We had coffee in the room........ and waited. We had breakfast up on the lido....... and waited. We read our papers for the day and went back up to lido for MORE coffee...... and finally at about 9:30 Captain came on & said we were STAYING!!! Yay woo hoo!! He said we would have bad weather for the day, particularly around 2pm. (would up being a little later than that when the worst hit, more like 3:30 to 9ish, but it was never that bad, just rain really..)

We decided it would be silly to go get the scooters back now, when we would likely have rain all day. We decided we would get them later this afternoon & turn them in the next day by the same time, thus saving about $80 by only having them for two full days instead of three. OK great, so we really had no rain all day so far, headed over the Oleander to get our scooters back around 2:45 & decided to take a short putt before the rain came. Well we rode out a bit, and then a bit further and further. Long story short, we really pushed our luck and had a rather unpleasant ride back in a serious downpour. Bad judgement call, live & learn. Thankfully we both made it back safely, so it was just an adventure. :rolleyes: LOL

My HUGE salad for lunch today! Its obscene, I know. I would like to plead temporary insanity... Steakhouse later for dinner.

OH, and a few bites for dessert, of course. This choc cake was pretty darned fabulous too. I would like credit for choosing the FAT FREE milk.

[Buffettfan 225]

Never having been to Bermuda, can you supply who you chose,where and pricing for scooter rental. Now Bermuda is on my love to cruise to list, and always a warm spot in my heart for the Miracle.

I too like to explore and take photos of the churches. Dominica has a nice one and Curacao. Bahamas not as historical but pretty courtyard with grave makers right in foundation of building.

[cruisenanny]

Never having been to Bermuda, can you supply who you chose,where and pricing for scooter rental. Now Bermuda is on my love to cruise to list, and always a warm spot in my heart for the Miracle.

I too like to explore and take photos of the churches. Dominica has a nice one and Curacao. Bahamas not as historical but pretty courtyard with grave makers right in foundation of building.

 

Sure! We use Oleander cycles and they are located right there in the dockyard. Also a location in Hamilton & St George. The price for one double scooter (can handle two riders, but we get one for each of us) is something like $79 for the first day and in the $40's for the second & third days. They also rent singles for slightly less per day. You can find them online & reserve in advance if you want.

 

OH!! I see you are from Carmel! I have family in Indianapolis & will be spending a week there next month:)

[Buffettfan 225]

Sure! We use Oleander cycles and they are located right there in the dockyard. Also a location in Hamilton & St George. The price for one double scooter (can handle two riders, but we get one for each of us) is something like $79 for the first day and in the $40's for the second & third days. They also rent singles for slightly less per day. You can find them online & reserve in advance if you want.

Thanks--had to laugh--have heard of cruise stories of "death cycles" or "organ bikes", but those look well maintained. It is just the "other"drivers to worry over. Suprised they didn't have big fluorescent orange flags on a bendy pole on back of bike, like here in a state park area we rented scooters.

[cruisenanny]

Thanks--had to laugh--have heard of cruise stories of "death cycles" or "organ bikes", but those look well maintained. It is just the "other"drivers to worry over. Suprised they didn't have big fluorescent orange flags on a bendy pole on back of bike, like here in a state park area we rented scooters.

 

Yes and that's exactly why we rent the "double" scooters for each of us instead of the singles. I prefer to have the option of being able to get out of the way QUICKLY when needed and the singles have very little power.

On a non serious note, the orange flag thing made me laugh out loud for real!!! I don't know why but that mental picture just cracks me up!

And back to serious again, the locals on the scooters & motorcycles know darned well we are there, they just don't care, so do be careful. I have never seen so many riders with what appears to be a death wish. I have been riding in some form or fashion since I was 15, and they still scare me sometimes...

[Oui Chef]

down around and there you are!!! To the glass beach

[Oui Chef]

Mmmmmm-rooster!!!