DragonOfTheSeas

The history teacher in me couldn't help myself. HaHaHa Here is a map that shows the area of Boston in 1630. [dark green] You can see it was a much smaller land mass. You can see how small the neck of land that led to Boston was and why they needed to be warned that the British were coming. All of the light green has been filled in since then to enlarge the city. This is Boston now. The red line is the Freedom trail. It is very walkable as long as you can handle brick sidewalks. There are red bricks embedded in the sidewalk so you can follow along. It is a 2.5 mile route if you want to do the entire trail. I got this map from a sign near Faneuil Hall. From there to Boston Commons is a very doable walk. We take an Uber/taxi up to the USS Constitution. I saved my pics of Faneuil Hall for this history posting. Peter Faneuil was a very rich Boston merchant that made much of his wealth on the slave trade. [here is sidewalk marker] He built Faneuil Hall and gave it to the city. It was the site of many important historical meetings, especially during the times leading to the Revolution. [Not my picture] It is a National Park Service site. [no fee] It has a nice gift shop [covers the entire first floor] and public restrooms. OK--I'm done. 😁

Here are a few areas for activities around the ship. The first one is the sport court that is used for basketball and pickle ball. This morning at 9 o’clock when I was getting ready to leave the ship there was a couple out there playing pickle ball. I was impressed. 😊 thr rock climbing wall they are changing the Astroturf on the putt putt golf course. So it’s closed right now. This is the children’s water feature and play area

I read on another thread that the top 20 pinnacles have access to the suite lounge. I just think that’s curious. It’s certainly a way to reward those pinnacles who have earned pinnacle two or three times over. I do feel that the food is generally good on the ship so far. But there have been a couple things that were not. The chicken sandwich on yesterday’s lunch menu was very dry and the tables near us all left it totally on their plate. One table even called over the maître d’. to show him. DH planned to order that, but after he heard them talking, he picked another entrée. My pulled pork barbecue was good.

I took a taxi with another couple to the Quincy market. I like that star because you can see the national park service, Faneuil Hall, the Quincy market, and the ships at Long wharf. DH and I have been to Boston many times. You can believe that since we’re both history people. So there’s really nothing that we NEEDED to see today but it’s such a beautiful day. I had to be out and look at the water. you can see that some of the trees here are green, but others are pretty colorful. Quincy market is a good place to go if you’re hungry or if you want to buy some souvenirs. On the outside of the building are lots of little kiosks but they’re still in closed. So even if it’s a rainy day this is a good place to visit you. Inside you’ll find some fast food type restaurants just about anything you could possibly want to eat.

We didn’t go up to the Crown lounge on our first night. But we did go last night. They had a nice snacks out. Shrimp, meatballs, hors d’oeuvres, etc. Several waiters took drink orders. You had to use your card to count against your drinks that are complementary. they had opened up the partition to the Viking Crown lounge. Which is called the vortex on this ship. we did not go until after 6 o’clock. We specifically picked that time so early dining passengers would have left. That usually makes the lounge less crowded. And there were more than enough seats for everyone.

Thanks for the clarification. I don’t want to provide that information as I said, I just heard some of it. I was not in a place where it was easy to hear.

Welcome to Boston. Here are just a couple of shots that I can take from the ship. We are docked at what used to be known as the black falcon cruise terminal now it’s the Flynn terminal. We are right across from Logan airport. there are two other ships with us here on this dock. We have the serenade of the sea and then this small ship that I can’t read the name. and here are two city views. You can see that there’s still a lot of green in the leaves so maybe will be able to see some color. We were worried that it was gonna be past colorful leaves on our stops.

I wasn’t listening carefully to the announcement when he made it, but he made some reference to this was a trial. So it may be just for this particular cruise or it may be that they’re trying and in general for Royal Caribbean I don’t know, but I agree with you outside is better than inside.

DH and I decided we were going to make a donation to the cruise ship. So we headed down to the casino. The interesting thing is they made the announcement yesterday, that none of the outside decks will be smoking decks with the only place to smoke on the ship is in the casino. It’s not very busy right now and it’s not very smoky but I’m not sure what it’ll be like later in the cruise when people decide they want to play.

One interesting bar is the pitstop. It is just outside the cinema location. It has lots of TV screens and around bar. I would think this is going to be really popular come World Series games. it seems a little empty right now.

I was delivering some gifts from a gift exchange this morning on the forward cabins, and I was surprised how much rockier it was there than our cabin, which is very near the centrum. And last night shortly before we went to bed, there were two or three, rogue waves, because all of a sudden a closet doors started opening and closing. But then that was it. I thought that was kind of unusual. but I agree this has been a very calm ocean so far. The people are complaining about the motion of the ocean on this cruise. They should be in a storm. Ha ha ha.

Yes, I noticed earlier we were only going 10.7 kts and thought that was very unusual.

There was a lot of discussion on the FB group for this cruise about hiding ducks and hoping to find ducks. There must be a couple hundred ducks 🦆 being hidden. I am terrible at finding them. I have only ever found one. 🥲 On one cruise a friend gave me a pity duck. From my gift exchange I got three of them. The large crochet duck took lots of work. I brought the skeleton duck to put on our cabin door on Halloween 🎃. yep, it is silly—but I will be on the lookout just the same.

Here is our position. You can see all of the ports in the first map and our route better in the second one.

Internet has been a little iffy. I’ve gotten knocked off two or three times when I’m just posting to Facebook or cruise critic. I haven’t tried to watch a Videos of any kind. I would think the signal will be fairly strong in our cabin. We are on deck, three directly below the Voom Internet center. I tried to edit the posting just above because the emoji’s messed up the line spacing. But it kicked me out every time I tried. But it is a sea day and I imagine lots of people are on their phones and laptops.

As you can imagine weather is a big topic on this cruise. Long range forecasts of more than a few days are not always accurate. For example, the outlook for Boston was for heavy rain and wind tomorrow. They are having that weather today and our forecast is for partly cloudy with a high of 56. I think everyone can live with that. On the other hand, Saguenay is much farther north. We stop there on October 29 on this cruise and Oct 31 on the next. We have a 4.5 hr Back Country and Fjord Tour on the 31st. Here are the two forecast. [Weather.com and Accuweather] These forecasts have been pretty consistent for more than a week. We will see. We might get to see snow.🌨️❄️Glad I brought gloves and a hat.

The decks around the Centrum were pretty full yesterday. The weather pushed everyone inside the ship. One nice thing about this class of ship is that there are so many windows that you can see the ocean even when you are inside.

Welcome to our first sea day. I love sea days, especially on a longer cruise. These two cruises have a good rhythm of a couple of ports and then a day at sea. It gives you time to rest for the next outing/tour. Here are our ports: We generally have a full day in the ports except for Charlottetown on the second cruise. We have an excursion booked on this cruise and just walk around in the afternoon on the next.

The loneliest person on the cruise today was the poor lifeguard at the pool. You can see there were no passengers in the pool. It was cool with a drizzle at this point. I took a couple pictures of the Manhattan and New Jersy skyline. It was not a sunny day, but the view was still beautiful. I did not get a picture of the Statue of Liberty. I will have to get that on the return trip. Tomorrow is a day at sea. I am looking forward to reading and resting.

One of our cruise passengers arranged a gift exchange. This was going to be three groups of seven, so we would buy gifts for the other six people in your group. But the gift exchange morphed into seven groups of seven. Then our leader decided to have a craft session. So these pictures are some pics. I’ll show you the finished product when we’re done if I ever get done. So if the nurse or three years an.🙄🥤

Here are a few random pictures from around Jewel of the Seas. The first few are from the centrum. The R Bar on this ship is much larger than on the Vision class ship. It’s very nice and luckily it’s the closest to us. This is Vintages. I guess it’s a little early for a wine bar.

We got on board very quickly also. We have wheelchair assistance for DH and that usually involves a wait for the staff to help us. But there was no waiting today. The staff member took us to our muster station so we could check in and then up to the Windjammer. We’re having good luck with people helping us. this is a copy of the letter that is in our state room regarding access to what used to be called a diamond lounge and it’s now called the crown lounge. I think access to this lounge is going to change based on the number of people on board who would have access for each cruise. They’re all about saving paper, but the ship printed a copy of the benefits and left it in the state rooms. I haven’t had time to compare this to a previous version to see if there any changes.

Today is cruise day! It is just cloudy and wet right now--but intermittent rain is forecast for the next four days. But a rainy day on a cruise is better than a sunny day anywhere else. 😜 One of the online weather stations mentioned a Nor'easter was going to follows us up the coast. However, I think we are moving faster Here is the view from my window. I reserved a king bed/River view room at the Doubletree Newark Penn. HaHaHa I guess If I had Xray vision I could see the river through the building. No worries. I was too tired yesterday to enjoy the view anyway. We could have driven to the port, but even before my accident we decided to take the train. Parking at the port in Bayonne is $30/day. So, $600 for the 20 day trip . . .and I-95 is full of tolls. We selected 11:30 as our check in time, that was the earliest available. Those that purchased "the Key" got 11:00am. People always ask if purchasing the key is worth it. So here is the breakdown. The Key for our cruise cost $36/day pp. Both people in the cabin need to buy it for all days. [$720 for each cruise] This does not hold much value for me. We already get some internet days free and a BOGO specialty dining each on the first two days of each of my B2B cruise. #6 and #7 below do not pertain to this cruise. So, we passed. For new cruisers and especially on larger ships this offers a better value. JMHO These are the benefits of The Key: 1. The Key designated arrival time gives you priority access into the terminal on Day 1. 2. Carry-on bag drop off and delivery to stateroom. Drop off your carry-on bags in the Main Dining Room until 1:30 pm. 3. Exclusive welcome lunch in the Main Dining Room featuring The Key Signature menu. 4. 20% off at all specialty restaurants throughout your cruise when you make your reservations on Day 1 of the sailing. Subject to availability. 5. VOOM® Surf & Stream 1 Device high-speed internet. 6. Access to the fast lane at onboard activities and private time at the FlowRider®. Activities vary by ship. 7. Priority ship-to-shore departure at tender ports of call. 8. Dedicated seating section at shows in the Royal Theater. 9. On debarkation day, enjoy an exclusive à la carte breakfast and depart at your leisure with Choice Departure. Several of the cruise lines offer a similar program. Carnival has the FTTF [First to the Fun] program.

Thanks for the advice. I love the picture. 😊

These two cruises will be 20 days for us. I really envy the Greenland cruise that was part of your 25 days. One of my bucket list items is to see the aurora borealis. Several passengers on your cruise posted pictures on 2 or 3 nights. I have looked at the weather forecast, and we do not seem to have many clear nights. Hopefully that will change.