My Cruise To Bermuda

In the summer of 2002, I took my favorite traveling companion, my nephew, Matt on a cruise to Bermuda.

I find him to be my most charming traveling companion because he sees the world through a child’s eyes.

For him, everything is an adventure.

We left Boston from Black Falcon Pier and sailed to Bermuda.

Once we docked in Bermuda, we booked many shore excursions.

The first shore excursion was to Hamilton by a horse and buggy. The town of Hamilton was beautiful with its pastel pink, green and yellow buildings.

Hamilton is spotlessly clean and has a cheerful ambiance.

A glass bottom boat trip was our second shore excursion. We could see the coral reefs through the glass bottom. We could also see many species of tropical fish.

Matt was very interested in everything and his enthusiasm never wavered throughout the trip.

Another shore excursion was to spend the day on a pink sand beach. These beaches are pristine. When you go swimming in them, you can see the bottom very clearly. There is no silt.

We also enjoyed exploring the ship. The ship had a casino, a theater, six restaurants and a 50′s diner.

My nephew was still animated on the way home.

My Trip To Florida and the Bahamas

I took a cruise to Florida and the Bahamas with my favorite traveling companion, my nephew, Matt.

The trip originated in Boston where we took a bus to New York.

Our ship was the Norwegian Dawn. When I first saw the Dawn, I was struck by the immense size of the ship.

The first thing we did was to participate in the safely presentation which was held in the ship’s theater.

We took our life preservers with us to the lecture. After this safety presentation, we went on a self-directed tour of the ship.

There were many restaurants on the ship and a variety of kinds of restaurant. During the cruise, I became quite fond of cold fruit soups.

Our first port of call was Port Canaveral. I was surprised by the size of the port. I hadn’t realized that it was so large.

Many large ships were docked at the port.

When we went ashore, we visited an outdoor memorial to the Challenger crew. Seeing the memorial brought back the shock and profound sadness I felt when the tragedy occurred.

From Port Canaveral, we traveled to Miami.

In Miami, we went on a bus tour of the city. I was particularly interested in seeing the home of Gianni Versace.

From Miami, we sailed to the Bahamas.

Once there, we went on a tour of the island.

We were supposed to go to a cookout on an island the cruise company owns.

Hurricane Katrina was responsible for that part of the cruise being cancelled.

All too soon we were back in Boston. It was a wonderful trip.

My Cruise To Hawaii

In 2008, I took my favorite traveling companion, my nephew, Matt on a cruise to the Hawaiian Islands. Getting there was not easy. We flew from Boston to Chicago. Our connecting flight was to fly from Chicago to Honolulu. We nearly missed the connection. Our Boston to Chicago flight was delayed landing in Chicago. As a result, my nephew and I had to run through O’Hare terminal to get to our connecting flight. It was a wild run. It reminded me of the old O.J. Simpson commercial where he runs through an airport terminal. When we landed in Honolulu, we were transported by bus to the dock where we boarded the Pride of America. Once on the ship we were escorted to the Presidential Suite and introduced to our butler. It was wonderful to have a butler; he booked all of our shore excursions. The room had a large living room, a bedroom, a full bathroom and a balcony with a hot tub on it. The ship was spectacular with many different restaurants serving many different kinds of cuisine. The ship also had a casino, swimming pools and a theater. We went on many different shore excursions. One was to the Botanical gardens. There were many exotic flowers there including the lobster claw. The most memorable shore excursion was the trip to Volcano National Park on the big island of Hawaii. There live volcanoes spew molten lava from their craters.