Back to Back Sailing on The Beautiful Pearl - A Special Journey

[AKR2011]

There is an ice cream shop next to the caves, so we stopped by for a snack afterward. We then jumped on a bus and a ferry back to the port area. We buy Christmas ornaments when we travel and I found one in the port. I also grabbed a rum cake made with Bermuda Goslings Rum to try. There was a Vegan Festival going on by the dockyard too. While researching Bermuda I learned that they eat a lot of raisin bread there. I tried to find some but could only find banana bread at the Vegan Festival. That was a good snack, though. The festival had drumming and dancing in traditional costumes, and that was a lot of fun to watch

 

It was getting really hot, so we just continued to wander around the dockyard.

Eventually we went back to the ship to shower and enjoy the activities on board.

[AKR2011]

There was plenty to do for those who stayed on the ship today:

 

[AKR2011]

We had a new friend in our stateroom again! I played some Tribond, Alex joined me for Ring Toss, and then we played the first round of Progressive Trivia. It was just the two of us and we only had 9 correct answers, but there were not a lot of teams. Progressive Trivia isn't usually popular during port days. We went to O'Sheehan's for dinner after and were quite hungry since we didn't really have lunch - just ice cream and banana bread. We decided to just order a bunch of appetizers and always order the wings plain and extra crispy with buffalo sauce on the side. I've read all the complaints about the wings, and I will say that the wings themselves were not horrible. However, the sauce was more like a BBQ than a Buffalo. We could not finish them. Pretzel bites, nachos, and dip were all great. We then headed to the Pure Variety Show. This one does not have a plot, but the singing and dancing are pretty great, and there are sets and costume changes. I especially loved the ballet parts. That blond singer was still not our favorite, but we had a nice surprise when Elvis came out and let us know that he would be performing in the Legends show later in the week Afterwards Mojitos were calling, so we headed up to Sugarcane for drinks and some Settlers of Catan on my tablet.

 

We wandered into the atrium after and enjoyed some of Seaside Duo's show before heading to bed. They were our favorite musicians on board, and we started to make it a point to get to as many of their shows as we could. The bartenders and wait staff in the atrium were especially fabulous. I tipped often and received many AMF's with Jameson as well as Irish Mules with Jameson. I am definitely more of a whiskey girl. The crew also loved Seaside Duo just as much as the guests and would be singing and dancing along too. This was such a great day, and we still had another in Bermuda.

 

I am going to end it here and will pick up again soon. Thanks for all those following along. Please let me know if you have any questions. I am always so thankful to everyone here on Cruise Critic and like to pay it forward by posting reviews afterwards. I have to get back to work tomorrow but will try to post throughout the week. This is going to be a long one since it is a back-to-back after all...

 

[cruiservictor]

Thank you so much for all the time and effort you are putting into this. And, I am so glad to be able to see your great pictures. 

[AKR2011]

Thank you all for your patience! The Cruise Critic Team has deleted the posts without photos and I hope to get another day or two up later tonight. I appreciate all of your encouraging words and will reply as well later ❤️⚓️

[AKR2011]

OK, I am back for a bit tonight to get another day or two in. We were still in Bermuda on Day 4, and you can bet that I was up for another lovely sunrise! This was an overnight and we could get on and off anytime we wanted. After enjoying the sunrise I woke up Alex and we grabbed a quick breakfast up at the Garden Buffet. The Washy Washy crew on this ship was awesome! They had a singer and guitar player up there who truly made my day each time I walked through. So many different songs! I would sometimes go in just to fill my water bottle and listen to them. They were midship, so if you don't like the songs, just go in from the aft entrance.

 

Today we had a lot of plans. The day before I forgot to mention that we were going to hike at Paget Marsh Nature Preserve, but we were on the wrong end of the island for that and super hot after the caves. We decided to go today instead and took the 8am ferry to Hamilton. It was right on time and a quick walk to the bus terminal where lost of buses were waiting. I knew that we needed #7 and we jumped right on. Our driver was great and told us a bit about the island on the way since we were seated up front. We were dropped right at the entrance and planned to hike here and then to the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute when it became really hot again. It was only 8:45 when we approached the gate at Paget Marsh...and it was closed. It was just a short gate so we decided to just go over it. Perhaps it was there to stop bikers and cars? At least this is what we thought.

 

Once down the hill and entering the preserve, we saw construction. I did research this spot prior to coming to Bermuda, but I guess I didn't read up on it enough. They were replacing foot bridges and the nature preserve was closed! We were very sad and headed out to catch a new bus.

 

I did have a back-up plan, and I will share that in my next post...

[AKR2011]

The other hiking spot that I researched in Bermuda was Spittal Pond. It was not very close, but I knew that us #1 would take us there. We just had to catch that bus. So we went out to the bus stop and I looked at the map to make sure that we were heading in the right direction. A bus pulled up and told us to cross and go back to the bus terminal in Hamilton. Then the bus that stopped there explained that it would be easier to just get off at the hospital and then get Bus #1 to Spittal Pond He gave us a transfer ticket so it wouldn't cost anything extra. This driver explained that Bus #1 left the terminal at 9:15, and by going to the hospital a couple stops back, we would not be at risk of passing it. This made sense, so we went for that. It was about 9:00 now, so I thought we would be still making good time.

 

Well, buses are not as reliable as they should be in Bermuda, unfortunately. We waited at the hospital with a local woman who was coming out of her overnight shift and wanted to go home. She also needed Bus #1, which by the way is a very long route that runs through much of the island. It's also the only one that goes to Spitta Pond.

 

The ride from the bus terminal in Hamilton to the hospital was supposed to be 7 minutes, and remember that the bus was scheduled to leave said terminal at 9:15. It was almost 11am when Bus #1 finally pulled up to the hospital. We were really bummed about wasting time but kept our feelings to ourselves, After all, this poor nurse just worked an overnight and was also stuck. She said that this is the norm on the island.

 

About 20 minutes after we got on the bus, we made it! But will Spittal Pond also be a bust? Stay tuned!

 

I do have a couple of photos from Hamilton itself. I wish we had more time to spend here.

Edited September 4, 2023 by AKR2011

[AKR2011]

Spittal Pond was open and all was well in the world! This place is a gem and I highly recommend it. The path meandered up and down, over rocks and onto overlooks by the ocean. The path had the pond on one side and the ocean on the other, and there were lots of cool things to see along the hike, including many interpretive signs. I highly recommend this hike! It ended with a farm and took about an hour and a half for us, but you could probably finish in an hour. You see, DH Alex is a birder. Not someone who enjoys bird watching. He is a real citizen scientist with the binoculars and ornithology apps to boot! My job is to use E-Bird to input the birds as he calls them out, use Audobon if he has questions about any new feathered friends, and use Merlin to listen for birds when asked. These are just a few of the apps that Alex has and I'm just a scribe who likes to hike. We break for birds a lot. Sadly, it was later than we wanted, so it wasn't too active for birds. However, the hike made up for that. I'm going to go ahead and let the photos do it justice. 

[AKR2011]

I slipped on a rock at one pond on our hike, but it wasn't too bad. Make sure to wear sturdy shoes here. I was too hot in pants the day before and wore a dress with my Crocs Boat Shoes. They're not the worst option and would have been just fine at Paget Marsh, but sturdier shoes would have been better here at Spittal Pond. We thought my fall was the most dangerous part of the day, but sadly we were wrong.

 

Spittal Pond is one long trail and not a closed loop. Sadly the other end of the parking lot does not have a bus stop. We should have walked back through, but it was so late in the day already and I didn't want to waste time. So, we walked on the side of the road trying to get to a place with a bus stop. They're all over, so it shouldn't be hard, right? Well, this is true, but there is not much of a shoulder on the roads in Bermuda and no sidewalks either. Buses often scraped the bushes as they drove and we really thought that we were going to die walking on the road. We made it a graveyard and a worker there pointed to a bench that was a bus stop. There was only a stop on one side of the road and not the direction we needed for the museum, but we took it just to get out of there.

 

Once again, it took a long time for a bus to come and it was getting super hot. Once we did get on, we made the sad choice to skip the museum and head back to the port area by ferry again. It was disappointing, but it gives us a reason to go back for sure.

 

While waiting for the ferry back to port, I saw a bakery close by and popped in for a cold drink and snack.  I got some water bottles to fill our bottles up and grabbed a fruity slushie kind of drink too. I asked about raisin bread, but they only had gingerbread. That was quite delicious I will say. We then took the ferry and ended up back at the port area around 3:00. Not wanting to make the day more of a waste, we opted for mini golf.

 

Alex and I LOVE Mini Golf and play wherever we travel. Bermuda Fun Golf gets great reviews, so we had to try it out. Each hole is a miniature version of a famous hole, and Alex was familiar with many of them from a golf game that he used to play. We had a great time here! It did rain for about 20 minutes, but it felt very refreshing. We were close to the ship and headed back after. It wasn't the day that we planned, but it was still a very fun day.

[AKR2011]

After Mini Golf we followed the green footprints on the road back to the ship, and once there we found our latest friend being enjoyed by my traveling monkey George. We then headed to Progressive Trivia, where Emilie and Luca met up with us. We did much better tonight and were tied for 2nd place by the end of the game.

 

We all went to dinner in the main dining room together and shared stories from our days. It was so great to be with friends passing photos back and forth over yummy food and drinks. We ate a lot but passed on dessert and instead went out to walk and enjoy the sunset together We popped into the Buffet after for some cake and then grabbed drinks and headed to the theater for Comedian Jose Sanduy. It was his adult show, and to be honest he was not great. There was a big bit in there about the military that just lost us and overall he was just not funny. Luca and I both admitted that we were falling asleep by the end. However, we were energized after to go to Bliss for some games and Karaoke. We met an awesome bartender there with a sense of humor that was much funnier than the comedian. It wasn't too packed, but we left after about an hour out of pure exhaustion. Tomorrow was a much-needed sea day...

 

[AKR2011]

I will be back later for another day hopefully. For now, I have a virtual game night to attend ♥️⚓

[AKR2011]

I forgot to post yesterday's dailies. Sorry about that!

 

[AKR2011]

Day 5 of course was supposed to be Bermuda, but since we left Bermuda at 8am, it was really a sea day. I didn't take a ton of pics today, but I walked into the Buffet that morning for the morning Washy Washy singers and noted that there was both soft and crispy bacon. My mom is the only person I know who likes her bacon soft, so I sent her this photo letting her know how happy she would be next week on the cruise.

 

After breakfast, I played the Sudoku Challenge and Trivia with CC and Raymond while enjoying some lovely morning cocktails. The crew running activities were just awesome, especially Zoran and Tim. Our Cruise Director was Will Oliva, and he did fine at the game shows we saw and with speaking at the end of shows. However, we didn't see him much around the ship. He just meh to us. Although he shares his last name with NCL Cruise Director Alvin, they are not related and have never met. Will was an assistant earlier this year I was told, and I think he was just covering while Cruise Director Carol was on leave. She was covering The Pearl in the spring and returned this week. Will was just fine, but he is no Richard Matic - the greatest Cruise Director we have ever sailed with and have gone on two trips with. One day we will get back on one of his ships!

 

As usual, we played a lot of games together today and we also played the Ring Toss Challenge. On The Pearl, you collect signatures for the games. Then you redeem them for prizes on the last night of the cruise. We ate lunch in Summer Palace today since it was Lunch Menu #3 with my favorite peanut butter cheesecake. We also drank many cocktails throughout the day and while playing games. This time we made it to The Great Outdoors and really enjoyed playing outside. I had to switch out games in the room downstairs and found our new friend of the day. Eventually, I also went to Deck 6 for cocktails and grabbed a Grasshopper. I used to be able to get those in the atrium bars, but I guess they are trying to streamline the menu there. You have to go to Shakers now. The day was going by nice and slow, which is my favorite kind of day on a cruise.

[AKR2011]

Here is the Day 5 Freestyle:

[AKR2011]

We got dressed for dinner at Le Bistro and met Emilie and Luca for the last night of Progressive Trivia. We ended in second place overall and were gifted decks of cards. Alex and I have a large collection of NCL cards, but this was a new deck, so that was nice. Luca noted that we looked nice enough for a photo and the atrium has a slideshow of random landscapes in-between photos. She grabbed us a photo in front of the screen. If you don't want to pay for a photographer to take your photo at a fancy NCL backdrop, just use the atrium! New backdrops every 30 seconds or so.

 

We had our Platinum dinner in Le Bistro tonight, and I was excited for Escargot and the chocolate dessert that I love. I used to get the Fruits de Mer every time with shrimp and sea scallops on a puff pastry, but that was discontinued. They then made it a smaller appetizer without the puff pastry, and I would pay to upgrade that to an entree size. Sadly, this is gone too. I instead had lamb, which was a common trend on this cruise, and it was even better than Cagney's. Of course, we had the chocolate sausage-looking desserts too. I prefer mine without the sauce, but I was able to get photos of both of our desserts. This was a fantastic day for sweets. I skipped dessert a lot of the time, but today was both my favorites!

 

After we rolled ourselves out of dinner, we listened to Seaside Duo sing the 80s before going to the 1969 show. As always, the duo was fantastic! We would have stayed, but I knew that we had to see 1969 after reading the reviews on it. This was in Spinnaker while the theater had Jose Sanduy doing family comedy. After the adult show put us to sleep the night before, we knew to skip this one.

 

We ended up with a booth on the side in Spinnaker, and it was okay seating, but sitting center is definitely best. No photos or videos are allowed, and the show is truly fantastic! They play commercials from 1969 in between their sets and sing some of the best songs from that year. Costumes are great and the three featured singers are the Legends from the show later in the week. All three were great. The dancers are not a part of this show, but they weren't really missed at Spinnaker. It's also the best place for this show. While seating was limited and it was standing-room only, the floor was perfect and the screen came down for the commercials in the middle. It is not to be missed!

 

We grabbed some drinks after the show and then went to bed. I will note that most nights at 10:30 The Atrium played a movie. I could never sit through one that late, but we were often there drinking or playing games when the movies started. They always passed out bags of popcorn and leftover bags were left at the bar for anyone who wanted more. While some cruise lines charge for popcorn, it is a nice gesture to pass out the bags, even though they are a bit small. It was a nice evening snack before we headed to bed on multiple nights.

 

I will pick up Day 6 tomorrow night if possible. Today was a full day back at work and I am a bit tired. Thank you to all following along. Please let me know if you have any questions ♥️⚓

Edited September 5, 2023 by AKR2011

[Socalev]

Thanks for the great read.  Look forward to reading more.

[LauraAnneC]

Thank you for posting such a great review!

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thank you for taking the time to post your review and pictures. We love Bermuda and have been traveling there since the 1970s. All the best

[Augustsunshine]

Really enjoying your review and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to do them!

[cruiseny4life]

On 9/3/2023 at 7:38 PM, AKR2011 said:

I love walking laps around the promenade while the sun is rising. I signed up for a free trial of Pandor Premium a couple weeks before we cruised so I could listen to sea shanties on my morning walks. I even had a cruise playlist made that took us from home to Albany on that first day. I don't think I'm keeping this service after the trial is over next month, but it was lovely to have all my music ready for offline listening.

I don't think I could survive without Pandora Premium!! 

[AKR2011]

18 hours ago, Socalev said:

Thanks for the great read.  Look forward to reading more.

 

12 hours ago, LauraAnneC said:

Thank you for posting such a great review!

 

12 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. Thank you for taking the time to post your review and pictures. We love Bermuda and have been traveling there since the 1970s. All the best

It is a beautiful place! I now understand why people return over and over again. It may even be a posssibility in 2025. Just waiting for those itineraries to be released!

 

5 hours ago, Augustsunshine said:

Really enjoying your review and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to do them!

Thank you so much! 😍

 

3 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

I don't think I could survive without Pandora Premium!! 

Did you know that Pandora is blocked in Canada? I jumped onto the wifi there at one point during my second leg and could only play my offline music. The app explained that Canada blocks lots of things such as Pandora. I was a little shocked but thankful for the music that I had.

[AKR2011]

Last Sea Day for this leg! I'll go ahead and post the Fresstyle first. It was very odd not to end the cruise with a sea day since tomorrow was Bar Harbor. As usual, there were plenty of activities to do and the weather was lovely too. They really packed a lot in for such a small ship. I remember sitting with a couple people in Spinnaker who had previously only sailed on Carnival. They were upset that there was too much to do and they didn't have time to eat. I guess Carnival has a show opposite dinner and not much else during those evening times? Not the case on the Pearl, with programs all over the ship all night long. You have to make a lot of choices and you could not do it all.

[AKR2011]

This morning I was up early again, but not 5am early, so that was a relief. I started walking and listening to my shanties when I realized that my feet were quite sore. I looked down and saw that I had the dreaded swollen cruise ankles. I was walking a lot and drinking a lot too. I was also consuming a lot more food than I ever do at home, which is why I was trying to walk so much. Anyway, I didn't walk for super long and went to get Alex awake. He was complaining about congestion and my first thought was Covid. I'm one of those weird unicorns who has never had a positive test (I do test a lot since I'm exposed a lot in the mental health field) or even been sick since 2019 (Knock on some wood, please!). Alex had it once last summer and was sure that what he had was not Covid and just a cold. He took some cold meds that I brought for emergencies and joined me for breakfast.

 

We spent much of the morning in the atrium with the 10-Minute Mystery and Trivia, then the Battle of the Cake Masters. I love the cake show and Luca was a new cruiser who I decided needed to see it. It's on a lot of the ships. The Executive Chef, Cruise Director, and one lucky audience member decorate the same cake and have a contest. I really liked Chef Rodney. He was super personable and fun. The audience member was someone who owns a bakery, and she was fun to watch as well. If you've seen the show before, then you know that the Cruise Director always steels the show, and Will did a nice job here. This was the first time that no alcohol was put on the cake and the CD didn't dump an entire bottle on the cake. Still, it was quite entertaining. I was sad when it wasn't on the schedule the following week. I would definitely go back again!

 

In the afternoon we played Song Trivia and Ring Toss. We also drank a bunch of cocktails of course. Plus more games. Alex and I were doing well in Spades and really loved playing in person since the four of us often have to play online since we are so far away from each other. Alex was feeling a lot better when he was not in our cabin, so that was a relief.

 

We had dinner in the more casual Indigo Dining Room, and I remember having lamb again. It was just about as good as Cagney's to be honest. Then we all went to the Elton John show with Jason Ostrowski. He was awesome! Sadly, he left after our second leg, but if he gets back on a ship again, I highly recommend seeing his show. We really enjoyed him and were very impressed.

 

We hung out in The Atrium after for Seaside Duo, who performed a few great sets for us. Once again, they were amazing. The singer walked up the stairs and through O'Sheehan's at times belting out The Beegee's. So much energy and talent and once again the bar staff were dancing and singing along too. They continued to fill our glasses and then we went up to O'Sheehan's for a snack. Emilie wanted the apple pie and we all enjoyed the pretzels. Emilie was tired and wanted sleep after, but Alex, Luca, and I stayed up a while later chatting. I headed to bed next and Alex joined me a bit later. He came in and said that he was feeling congested again and decided to take more cold meds. I just hoped that he would improve soon.

[AKR2011]

Bar Harbor Day!! We also had to do customs since we were back in the US. Unlike regular cruises when you do through customs getting back to your home port, it's a bit different when you port in the US before going back. We weren't sure what to expect, but we didn't plan a big excursion.

 

Today I slept in until about 7am and Alex and I got up together. He was still congested but wanted to go on our planned hike. My ankles were super swollen today, and I chose to instead explore the port area and search for some compression socks and more cold meds.

 

We had breakfast in Summer Palace and they started calling groups to customs and then the tenders after. Whether you get off or not, you still have to go through customs. If you get off, you cannot come back until everyone has gone through customs. They group everyone by letter with Group A being those with NCL Excursions, B the higher Latitudes Members, and then C through G were all groups based on muster stations. We were Group B but still in breakfast when they called us. We joined group C around 9am and were led to Deck 7 Forward. We walked downstairs and through the casino, then through Deck 6 Indigo for customs. They then led us down midship and onto tenders. It seemed confusing but was actually really organized. Spoiler alert, next week was a hot mess!

 

We were on a tender by 9:15 and arrived in Bar Harbor by 9:45. If you decided to stay behind, there was of course plenty to do:

[AKR2011]

After getting off the tenders, there is a big public bathroom and a small shop with essentials such as coffee and rain gear. Bar Harbor is known for Acadia and is trying to block cruise ships because of all of the people at the park. However, the shops and restaurants in town seem to love cruise ships. I'm not sure what the future looks like of this port, but it was definitely a favorite of mine, so I hope it does not get dropped.

 

There is a free Island Explorer Bus sponsored by LL Bean that does loops to various spots at Acadia, and I researched that Jordan Pond was great for birding. Alex and I had an Acadia excursion the next week, so I didn't feel horrible missing out on this hike.

 

While Alex jumped on the bus and explored Jordan Pond (photos below), I did some shopping. I'm really not much of a shopper, but Bar Harbor is like one of those towns that you see in Hallmark movies. Super cute shops with reasonable souvenirs. I also had my heart set on a Sea Bag. They are made in Maine from recycled sails and I have a tablet cover that I picked up from a nautical museum years ago. I was ready to in a handbag and there is a store in Bar Harbor. That store was set to open at 10, but it was not open yet when I got there. I instead navigated to Walgreens for the compression socks and cold meds. I picked up a $20 hoodie as well, and I grabbed the Christmas ornament. I went back to Sea Bags, but they still were not open. With my swollen ankles, I grabbed a small scoop of ice cream and headed back to the ship around noon.

 

Alex had a lovely day at Acadia exploring Jordan Pond. He reported that the bus was very easy, but they are short on drivers. Most are retired school bus drivers, and he reported that they were very friendly and loved the Bar Harbor area. The hike around Jordan Pond took a couple hours and Alex said that it wasn't too busy. Acadia us huge, so I think the people are quite spread out. There was no admission or anything either, so it's a nice free option. Alex took some beautiful photos: