Miracle 9/11/11 Review -- Cruising with a 10 month old!

[tiggerman101]

I wonder why I just noticed this review? It was good to meet you guys. You got a great shot of the back of my head!

[SoundDawg]

I wonder why I just noticed this review? It was good to meet you guys. You got a great shot of the back of my head!

 

It was good to meet you and Wade as well!! You probably didn't notice because I didn't start writing it until last week! Not as good as your reviews but it is helping with the winter blues!

[SoundDawg]

We headed back towards the docks for what was advertised as the dunking of the wench! When we got there the town crier had just tied up the wench as well as the town drunk. I did a double take when I realized the poor guy tied up was Stu from our roll call!

 

 

After convicting the wench for numerous offenses she was rolled out over the sea and repeatedly dunked!

 

 

 

 

 

It was very funny and had a lot of crowd interaction. Luckily the town drunk was released and not subjected to the dunking! Although with the temperature as hot as it was I think he would have taken the dunking with pleasure!

 

At this point we had about 30 minutes to kill before we were to meet folks from the roll call to jump on a bus to head to our Blue Hole Cave excursion. Just enough time for a diaper change and to grab a couple of cold drinks.

[Cruzin 1025]

Video of the Ducking. Sorry for the poor quality. It's too bad you can't hear the town crier, mayor, and wench talking. They were hilarious! Our own town drunk wasn't half bad himself. :D

[SoundDawg]

I only made it half way through this review and couldn't take it anymore! Just booked another 8 night on the Miracle leaving September 3!! Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau!

 

More on the review tomorrow!

 

Thanks for reading and commenting!

[Cruzin 1025]

I only made it half way through this review and couldn't take it anymore! Just booked another 8 night on the Miracle leaving September 3!! Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau!

 

More on the review tomorrow!

 

Thanks for reading and commenting!

 

Woohoo! One of my favorite itineraries! We leave Sept. 1 heading to GT, HMC, San Juan and St! Thomas.

 

Sent from my Sprint Samsung Epic using Tapatalk

[golfadj]

Video of the Ducking. Sorry for the poor quality. It's too bad you can't hear the town crier, mayor, and wench talking. They were hilarious! Our own town drunk wasn't half bad himself. :D

 

 

Personally I thought the town drunk was the star of the show.

[golfadj]

We headed back towards the docks for what was advertised as the dunking of the wench! When we got there the town crier had just tied up the wench as well as the town drunk. I did a double take when I realized the poor guy tied up was Stu from our roll call!

 

 

After convicting the wench for numerous offenses she was rolled out over the sea and repeatedly dunked!

 

 

 

 

 

It was very funny and had a lot of crowd interaction. Luckily the town drunk was released and not subjected to the dunking! Although with the temperature as hot as it was I think he would have taken the dunking with pleasure!

 

At this point we had about 30 minutes to kill before we were to meet folks from the roll call to jump on a bus to head to our Blue Hole Cave excursion. Just enough time for a diaper change and to grab a couple of cold drinks.

 

The town drunk and the duckee had a lot of fun with the town crier talking about his drinking and her carousing before the ducking.

 

At the end both of them came up to me and thanked me for helping out with the fun. I wanted to do the Hamilton version of it but the weatherman conspired to not let that happen.

 

Was a great day capped off with a group outing to the caves most of which we are still looking for.

[cruisecrazy928]

Thanks so much for this great review! I love the pictures, especially of your little one. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[SoundDawg]

It was about 12:30 now so we headed to the bus stop in order to meet our group for our journey to Blue Hole Caves. We were suppose to meet at 1:00 at Tom Moore's Tavern. The path to Blue Hole was suppose to be behind the tavern. When we got to the bus stop we found a bunch of the roll call folks waiting for the bus as well.

 

 

 

Now about the buses in Bermuda. They are not large and do not allow full size strollers, only umbrella strollers. The streets are very narrow and curvy and I think the drivers have trained with NASCAR's best. We told the driver we wanted to be dropped off at Tom Moore's Tavern and he told us it was closed. We understood that but were going to Blue Hole Caves. He said he would take us to the caves. We said no take us to Tom Moore's. The caves he wanted to drop us off at had a fee and the whole point of this group excursion was to see the non-touristy stuff for free! He stopped where we requested and then we realized we better be right about this cause we were in the middle of no where!

 

 

We started walking down this long dirt driveway until we finally came upon the tavern which was indeed closed. Everyone started looking for the hiking path with little success. Luckily for us, an employee pulled up to the tavern and with his guidance we were pointed in the right direction.

 

 

After a short walk we were faced with a gate. It seemed it was there to keep vehicles out but had sort of a zig zag entrance for people (and barely a stroller)

 

 

A sign said we were now in Tom Moore's jungle. It was really hot now because there was no longer a breeze in this jungle.

 

 

We kept moving forward. The photographers in our group were in heaven with all the scenery to take pictures of.

 

 

 

[SoundDawg]

At first it seemed like this trail was going to be no problem with the stroller and I just kept doing wheelies to go over the bumps.

 

 

And then we started to come across some areas that had lots of rocks and exposed roots and I had to carry the stroller with DS in it while DW lugged all his other stuff. It was quite the work out!

 

 

At one point there was another path that went off to the left but we kept going straight. After a bit more walking we emerged from the jungle.

 

 

We decided to back track to see where the path on our left went. I was glad we did because this is Blue Hole and we almost missed it!

 

 

 

And how is DS handling this hike through the jungle you might ask....

 

 

[SoundDawg]

After a bit of a break and some picture taking we carried on. Some people started looking for the actual cave they had read about and after some off the trail exploring they found it!

 

 

It was probably not the safest place to be but the explorers and photographers could not resist. Some people took a quick look and then hustled out of there!

 

 

Moving down the path a bit more the photographers found another above ground type of cave and stopped to take pictures.

 

 

 

 

After the picture break we continue on and our path brought us out into the open near the shore eventually turning in to a pave walkway! Thank goodness cause this stroller workout was getting old fast! We were really hoping that the info on the internet was correct and that we would soon come upon the Swizzle Inn because we were all ready for a cold drink!

[sarahc78]

At first it seemed like this trail was going to be no problem with the stroller and I just kept doing wheelies to go over the bumps.

 

 

And then we started to come across some areas that had lots of rocks and exposed roots and I had to carry the stroller with DS in it while DW lugged all his other stuff. It was quite the work out!

 

 

At one point there was another path that went off to the left but we kept going straight. After a bit more walking we emerged from the jungle.

 

 

We decided to back track to see where the path on our left went. I was glad we did because this is Blue Hole and we almost missed it!

 

 

 

And how is DS handling this hike through the jungle you might ask....

 

 

OMG that is just GORGEOUS!!!!!! Did anyone go swimming in there?

[golfadj]

OMG that is just GORGEOUS!!!!!! Did anyone go swimming in there?

 

No we just walked around and admired the views.

[SoundDawg]

To get to the Swizzle Inn you have to cross a very busy road that also has no sidewalks. With a final burst of energy we ran across and up the road to our destination of the Swizzle Inn!!

 

 

The staff were very friendly and put some tables together for us. Menus were passed out and Swizzles were ordered! Some of us also ordered food which was very good.

 

 

DS even woke up to join us and enjoyed some blocks and his favorite snack of vegetable puffs. He sat at the head of the table and entertained everyone.

 

 

We stayed here for some time enjoying our drinks, food and air conditioning. Some people were going back to St. George and others to Hamilton. We decided to head to the ship. We went to the bus stop not knowing what bus we needed to get to the ferry in Hamilton so we asked the driver of the first bus that stopped which bus we needed and he said, "Hop on, I can take you there!" It was about a half hour ride and he was fun to talk to. Very friendly. Instead of stopping at a bus stop, he pulled right up to the ferry dock and let us off! It was almost perfect timing as a ferry was leaving for the dockyard in 10 minutes. Coming back into the dockyard we had a nice view of the Miracle.

 

 

 

We made it back in time to take showers and go to the MDR for another fun night with our table mates.

 

It was a very fun day with some great new friends and a great way to explore Bermuda without all the other tourists. DS and DW had an early evening and I went and made a nice donation to the casino.

 

The next day we were planning on taking the ferry back over to Hamilton and go to Horseshoe Beach. The day will not go as planned......

 

 

[SoundDawg]

OMG that is just GORGEOUS!!!!!! Did anyone go swimming in there?

 

We had hoped to be able to swim but there is not an easy way to access the water. The picture was taken with a zoom lens so you can't see all the bank or overgrowth.

[sarahc78]

We had hoped to be able to swim but there is not an easy way to access the water. The picture was taken with a zoom lens so you can't see all the bank or overgrowth.

Ok gotcha. I have been sitting here googling it trying to figure out how we could get there w/ the kids in May lol.

[SoundDawg]

Ok gotcha. I have been sitting here googling it trying to figure out how we could get there w/ the kids in May lol.

 

This shot is a better explanation of the shoreline and why u really can't go swimming!

 

[sarahc78]

This shot is a better explanation of the shoreline and why u really can't go swimming!

 

Uh yea that doesnt look good at all lol. Thanks!

[SoundDawg]

Our plan for today was to head over to Hamilton via ferry to explore but we woke up to tropical storm Maria bearing down on Bermuda. The Captain made an announcement in the morning briefing everyone on the effects Maria would have on the ship. All open decks were closed. He said the ship was safe docked because the direction of the wind was pushing her against the dock. The ferry system had also suspended all service.

 

We decided to go out for a bit before Maria arrived and wander around the dockyard. The pier is quite long but they have a free open air trolley that does a big loop of the dockyard from the ship. We jumped on the trolley and got off at the glass shop. I was interested in seeing this shop because my brother is a glass blower in Colorado.

 

 

 

 

Attached to the glass shop was a rum cake shop that had FREE samples. We decided to get a couple of the cakes for our parents. We walked around the dockyard going in to all the little shops. The wind started to pick up quite a bit so we decided to head to the mall. DS could care less about any of this!

 

 

The mall has quite a few small stores in it. We found some tee shirts at a decent price and our traditional destination magnet. While DW was doing some shopping I was sitting in hall watching a TV that had a weather report on. It looked like TS Maria was boarder line hurricane and was going to pass about 70 miles from Bermuda. We decided we should probably head back to the ship before it got worse outside!

[SoundDawg]

When I opened the door to leave the mall I was shocked at how windy it had gotten. I have never felt wind that strong before and could not believe how difficult it was to walk in it. Especially pushing a stroller. As we were heading to the ship it started to rain so we picked up the pace a bit. I think we got back just in time!

 

 

 

 

We went up to the room to dry off and drop off our purchases. I stood out on the balcony for awhile in awe of this storm.

 

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day inside. I really don't remember what we did the rest of the day. Because we were in port the shops and casino were both closed. Which is probably a good thing because I would have made it to the casino at some point!

[jmwg49]

Day 3 at Sea

 

Everyone once again slept great! We had to set our clocks ahead an hour last night which caused me to almost miss the presentation with the Captain. There are no clocks in the cabins and wish I had remembered to bring the travel clock. DS is normally my alarm clock but with the time change that didn't work.

 

Anyway, down to the Mad Hatter's Ball Lounge on deck one I went to meet with our roll call group.

 

I feel the need to stop here for a minute and introduce Howie. Howie was the man who got the ball rolling with all the 9/11 tribute events. He went above and beyond any expectations we had for such a memorable event. He designed and had made the banner, plaque, challenge coin, and luggage tags! It was an honor to sail with him!

 

Howie spoke first and explained to the Captain the meaning behind the Challenge Coin and then presented it to him. Michelle spoke for the CC roll call and then Howie presented the plaque.

 

 

 

The Coin

 

The Plaque

 

The CC Group with the Captain

 

If you would like to see the actual event click on the link below.

 

 

The plaque and coin are now permanently displayed in a case on the ship

 

 

 

Great to relive this wonderful cruise with you Chris! In fact, we are just off the Miracle yesterday, and the plaque and coin were in fact still there in the cabinet for the first day and we were soooo pleased to see it there! However, on day 3 of our cruise, they were "re-arranging" and it was removed. We stopped to ask the crew member about that, and he said they rotate the plaques and other things on a regular basis!

 

The Miracle, by the way, is still in great shape, new Serentiy deck is awesome, and alot of the same crew, including Malcolm "Woo Hoo" Burns....I look forward to reliving this thru to the end! Thanks for taking the time Chris!

[IGottaP]

awesome review.....

[SoundDawg]

Sticking with the theme of trying to do more off the beaten path excursions I discovered a link here on CC that described a scenic walk to Sea Glass Beach. According to what I read, this beach had tons of sea glass on it which translated to broken bottles! The glass was suppose to be very smooth from being tumbled around the bottom of the ocean. Armed with a map off we went.

 

Following the directions we walked through the industrial part of the dockyard. Back in the day, the crew from the different ships that came to Bermuda would paint their insignias on this wall.

 

 

 

It was a very humid and hot day and this road seemed to go on forever!

 

 

We passed some run down housing complex that used to be used for the ship yard workers.

 

 

One of the Segway tours passed us and I really wished we could hop on one!

 

 

We were looking for the entrance to the trail down to the beach but this is where my map and directions started to fail us! Seems this cruise has been full of trail searching!

 

 

 

[SoundDawg]

I think DW was finding it humorous that my plan and directions weren't working the way I wanted as I discovered this picture when we got back!

 

 

We finally find what could possibly been a path so I put the stroller into its well know wheelie position and in we went!

 

 

 

After walking for a bit we got closer to water. There were a couple of guys hanging out and we asked them if we were headed the right way. They pointed in a general direction and we kept going. Out of the brush we emerged at sea glass beach. Its not much of a beach but we were able to collect some of the glass which DW crafted into a great picture frame.

 

 

 

Once again, DS could care less!

 

 

The glass was very smooth and in different sizes shapes and colors. I decided to take a quick swim and DS got to experience the ocean for the first time. He loved it! We couldn't stay too long because we had to get back to the Dockyard so DW could go swim with the dolphins!