Hello from the ms Noordam.

Saturday Morning (revised Sat. afternoon); April 5, 2008 (fourth post of this trip)

A bit of a correction about our location in Bermuda. King's Wharf is on the north east end of the hook on the west side of the island.

I started drafting this post while we were in the middle of the Atlantic. At the current time, we are still on the ship, but docked in NY waiting to disembark. We will probably not be able to post this until we get our connection at home.

This was a different kind of cruise. Going to and from Bermuda took one night and one day at sea each way. Once we got to Bermuda, we did not move, and essentially used the ship as a fancy hotel. We really took it pretty easy on the cruise. We went to the SPA each day and did some walking around the King's Wharf area almost every day.

On Tuesday we bought a round trip fare to Hamilton on public transportation, and rode the bus into town and the ferry back ($16 total). The bus trip was quite an experience!. The roads are very narrow and twisty. Because Bermuda is a British Colony, they drive on the left side of the road. All of this, coupled with some very aggressive (but courteous) drivers, make for a thrill ride equal to most any Disney “A” ticket ride! The bus takes about an hour and the ferry is less than ½ hour.

The weather for most of our stay was pretty good. It was in the high 60's and sunny. Thursday it was rainy, but we had not planned to do much.

Probably the disappointment of the trip was that I was not able to dive. Everything was booked up.

The number of Stampin' UP! Cruise earners were considerably less this year. 394 demonstrators earned the trip (we think that last year the number was over 600). A few folks cashed out, so there were 341 demonstrators on the ship. SU booked the complete ship, so it was not full. They did offer employees the trip (they had to pay) and several demonstrators had additional family members with them. SU also apparently donated 185 rooms to Iraq Veteran's and their families.

Some of the statistics on the Noordam:

• Length: 935

• Guest capacity: 1979

• Crew: 819

• Tonnage: 81,769

• Engines: 5 diesel engines and one turbine for a total of 84,000 HP

• Fuel used per day: 80,000 gallons

• Potable Water Production per day: 450,000 gallons

Our first SU cruise was also to Bermuda. It was in a smaller ship and the cruise was very rough, with many folks having severe sea sickness problems. This cruise was also pretty rough at times. Even though Pat had a patch, she still felt pretty queasy last night.

As always, we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise! The event next year is not a cruise. Instead it is a week at an Hawaiian resort. Because of our extensive travel in the bus, it is very unlikely that Pat will meet the requirements for that trip. We have had seven great cruises and we cherish those trips.

Update: We were among the last to leave the ship, but that was not an issue as we have a fairly late flight (5:30PM). We got to the airport just after noon, but the Frontier desk did not open until 2:30. We found a place to eat lunch and we are now in the boarding area (3:00 PM). Since we have some time, I cracked out an bought a WiFi subscription to post to the blog and do some other things.

That is all for this post and this trip. We will start posting again late this month when we travel to Iowa.

Hello from King's Wharf, Bermuda.

Jim and Pat on Bermuda Cruise

Monday evening; March 31, 2008 (third post of this trip)

We are located here.

As you can see from the satellite view, we are at the east end of the island.

First, let me make a few general observations related to this trip:

1. The weather has been a bit brisk (with the humidity, that translates to cold) on most of the trip. This includes our first day here in Bermuda. While not really cold, it is quite windy and certainly not shorts weather

2. NY is expensive. As we noted, we paid over $200 per night for our hotel, and at the Sheraton where Stampin' Up! put folks up, the cost was over $300 per night. Meals were about twice what you would expect in Denver.

3. Taxi rides are almost always a white knuckle experience! Unlike meals, taxi rides seem to be reasonably priced (less than $20 to go several miles in Manhattan).

4. Side walks and streets are in generally poor condition, with lots of uneven surfaces. Most of the sidewalks have steel plates next to the building that cover basement storage access. These plates often have raised edges that make walking a challenge.

5. Traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian, is generally very heavy. It is hard to walk on sidewalks because of all of the obstructions and people. In spite of crowded sidewalks, people seem to get around very well.

Getting on the ship was mostly painless. We took a taxi from the hotel, and were able to handle the luggage pretty well. We got to the dock early, so we were able to get to the sign-in area without having to wait in line. However, the person checking us in did not have a clue. She got our records so messed up that we had to be shuttled off to the supervisor area to have them get things squared away. We just discovered that my picture appears Pat's ship record and vice versa. It will be a real challenge to get on and off the ship. Tomorrow we will try to use each others card and see if that works.

Our room is on the stern (back) of the boat. Our balcony looks out the back (see photo below). This is kind of neat. The balcony is longer than normal, and we can see on both sides of the ship.

View from our balcony

We sailed from Pier 90. The route takes you down the Hudson River and past the Statue of Liberty (see Photo).

Sunday was our day at sea. Stampin' Up! had a general meeting, but the rest of the time, we were on our own. I went to the Spa and Pat did some Stampin stuff. Today we went to the Spa early and then walked around King's Wharf for a couple of hours. We decided not to do any formal paid excursions, and that helped us justify the cost of the Spa for the week. The Spa has a very large hydrotherapy pool, several steam rooms, a sauna, and luxurious heated ceramic lounges. It is very relaxing and we feel pampered.

I hope to do a dive later this week (we are here for four days). The ship does not offer a diving excursion, so I will have to book one on my own. We got some information today and it lists only one dive shop, in spite of the fact that this is supposed to be a great diving area (lots of ship wrecks from several centuries ago).

We are the first ship into Bermuda for the season. It appears that the island may not be fully geared up for tourists yet. On the positive side, we are the only ship in this port, so it is not crowded.

That is all for this post.