DAY 4 OF VACATION BUT DAY 2 IN BERMUDA:

I was up at 7:45am and it was time to get the family up and moving. I didn't want to waste a single moment of this beautiful day.

We headed over the the buffet and ate in the kids area where you could get your food easy and quick.

Once we were done getting our bellies full, we headed back over to our rooms and I seen the room steward in the hallway. I knew that meant it was time to get my zip-lock baggie full of ice for our soft cooler full of POP for the day.

We headed off the ship at 9am and once again, took our obligatory picture for the photographer (do they just stand out there all day taking pictures?).

This time the hubby caught the pirate off guard and grabbed his sword and threatened to chop off Sakari's head if he gave us any problems. The guy couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't a scary pirate after all.

Here are my plans for this nice Monday day in Bermuda...I had hoped at least.

DAY 2 

9:30am orange ferry over to St George (45 minute ride)-3 tickets (or 2.75) 

FERRY SCHEDULE (ORANGE):

Leaving Dockyard Leaving St George

9:30 3:30

11:30 5:30 

10:15 Arrive at St George and proceed to Visitor Center for stamp

HOP ON HOP OFF BUS: 

$6/pp x 2 = $12.00 (kids free) Runs every ½ hour 

10:30 Bus to Unfinished Church 

11:00 Bus to Tobacco Bay 

11:15-2:15 At Tobacco Bay 

TOBACCO BAY CONCESSIONS:

Jerk platter w/peas & rice or mac & cheese or fries & slaw $17

Hamburger & fries $12 

Beer $7 ($35 bucket) 

Frozen $10 for 12 oz and $15 for 20 oz.

Umbrella and lounger combo $25 or $15 each.

 2:30-4:00-Hop on bus to Achilles Bay (Fort St Catherine Beach)or walk 15 minutes, there is a path from the parking lot next to Ft St Catherines to the beach at Achilles.

4:00pm-leave Achilles Bay bus to Alexandra Battery Sea Glass beach 

5:30pm Catch ferry back to dockyard (3 tickets or 2 & $2.75 child)

 6:15 arrive at dockyard

(Sunset is 8:25pm)

Check out our Ferry over to St George here:

We had decided to catch the HOHO bus over to Tobacco Bay

After our time at Tobacco Bay, it was time to adventure some more...over to Achilles Bay

Now onto the move beautiful beach ever...St Catherine's Beach

We caught the HOHO bus back to town and got off just in time to check out the Unfinished Church:

We decided we would just walk back down to Kings Square since it was downhill. Man the roads in Bermuda are skinny with no place to walk in certain areas. I can see why they say it's so dangerous at times to walk along the streets.

We quickly made it back to Kings Square and stopped at a grocery store on the corner for some drinks and snacks. The hubby went in as well to purchase some cigars. He likes to have a black & mild while on vacation and he came out and told me that the prices in the store for things were no higher than what they were at home. I was shocked but glad.

I watched the buses go by that we were to catch going to Hamilton...one after another. I kept thinking that we really needed to get down there and get on one of the buses.

Now I have to say that we DID get back to King Square in time that we could have made the last ferry back to the dockyard (I think it was 5:30pm) in plenty of time, but I had planned to take the bus over to Hamilton and search for a camera store for either a battery charger or a new Olympus camera. I was told by many people both on the ship and in the dockyard that IF there was a camera shop to be found, this would be where it is at. So I was on a mission!

I walked in the store to get directions on where the next bus stop was AFTER the hubby, once again, ask the lady bagger in the store, then came out saying she said "just down the street". UGH! Which fricken street? We are on a corner...it goes 4 different ways.

I went in to ask and she pointed which street and gave more of a description. 

We walked down the street to the area that she said and spotted the pink pole. There were only 2 benches along the sidewalk and they were both in the hot blazing sun. We sat and waited and waited and waited. I checked my schedule for all 4 of the buses that run from that area and head toward Hamilton and all the times that were noted there hadn't been one bus that came by.

One by one the family members started moving across the street to the shade. I decided to stay put because I was afraid that the bus would come, everyone would be over there and it would keep on going or if it did stop, I didn't want to have to try to battle getting across the road in traffic and missing it. So we waited, and waited some more.

We did see a lot of buses, as a matter of fact I counted 7 buses, going the opposite direction. At one point another couple came to wait at the bus stop and you could tell they were turned around and not use to driving on the opposite side of the road and the man had her convinced they were on the wrong side after seeing about 3 of the buses go by. They finally went over when the next bus came and talked to the driver, who told them all of the buses going in that direction would eventually turn around and head back to Hamilton. WHERE WERE THEY GOING? I mean it had been over a hour that several had went by and they sure haven't turned around and came back.

We had seen the Hop on-Hop off bus pass us at least 10 times and the last time he shouted out of his window "They will be here at 6:15pm...just 2 more minutes"...but yet it was now 6:20pm. LOL

They finally came at 6:25pm and right off the bat they were giving us a hassle and attitude. "This is a public bus, you must have clothes on". They insisted that we all put shirts and shorts on. Sigh. Ok, I get it, but I was tired, hot and getting cranky from sitting in the sun forever.

We got on, there wasn't hardly anyone on the bus, the a/c was blasting and we spread out and relaxed....until the very next bus stop, which was in the opposite direction of the grocery store...and EVERYONE in the city of St George got on. Like seriously! We bunched together and people were standing. YIKES! I'm so glad we didn't go that way to the bus stop. We would have ended up standing for the ride.

Pictures along the way:

The walls along the side of the road. I seriously don't know how the bus drivers, shuttles, and cars don't hit them. They are so close!!!

Poor Sakari was so tired and she fell asleep with the bobble head thing going on. I had to take out the towels and do a make-shift support system for her up against the window to keep from breaking her neck. Poor thing.

We continued along and I continued with the pictures.

The hubs was sitting on the other side of me and then a local next to him and then Brayden after that. See, we always find a way to split Brayden up...even if we have to use a local to do it. hehe

I got to talking to her and started asking her about a camera shop. She was naming off the ones that she thought might be able to help me. Most were stores with tvs and cell phones but she knew of one that did carry cameras...just not sure what kind. Then she broke my heart by telling me that all the stores in Hamilton (and pretty much all over the island) close at 5pm. I had did all this for NOTHING! Now I was not only tired, cranky, hot but ticked. Why do they close so early????

We chit chatted all the way back to the terminal and she was super nice. She was born and raised here. She talked about how bad the crime had gotten...contrary to what you hear everyone else talking about what a great island it is with hardly any crime. Hmmm. She talked about how most people hold down 3 jobs in order to pay their rent. She gave us pay ranges, children working and what their base pay is and told us that unless you are a doctor or a nurse, you won't be able to afford a place to rent alone without working several jobs. She told me that nurses start out at about $60/hr. She said one of her jobs was a nurses assistant. She talked about her life growing up. It was really nice to ride the rest of the way to Hamilton with her and hear her stories. I love stuff like this and getting to know a local.

Once we got to the terminal I ask her which direction to the ferry and she offered to walk with us. She also wanted to show us where the camera stores were she had been talking about just in case we had time to come back tomorrow to look for one.

I guess this was their shopping mall for Bermuda. Too bad it wasn't open.

The Post Office:

She pointed in the direction we needed to go and head across the street to get to the ferry and we parted ways.

OMG!!! I JUST NOW NOTICED WHAT WAS IN THAT PICTURE!!! THE POLICE DIRECTING TRAFFIC BIRD CAGE!!! I DIDN'T EVEN SEE IT OR REALIZE IT WHEN WE WERE THERE UNTIL RIGHT NOW. Geesh! Mitsugirly = failure. Sigh

I thought the street walk signs were neat. They looked almost like the auto traffic signs but were a little smaller and had a person on it.

We crossed the street and Kendra points at a statue for me to take a picture of. At this point I'm almost tired of taking pictures and disappointed, but I did it anyhow.

We left the guys standing in front of the ferry terminal at 7:15pm and headed to the restrooms one last time which happen to be on the other side of the building. We took the LONG way around and when we came out discovered it was just right around the corner in the opposite direction of the ferry.

When we got back around, the guys were gone and the ferry was there! YIKES! They had went looking for us. Geesh. We went ahead and got on the ferry and before long waved them down. They thought we were magic genies at this point for already being on the ferry and they never even seen us pass by. hehe

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Here's the map of where the bus terminal is compared to the ferry terminal. It's a very short walk and the way the local took us was even shorter.

The ferry was pretty empty and there were a few mopeds on it.

On our way back to the dockyard (about a 15 minute ride)

I was never so happy to get back to the dockyard and see her smiling at us. It was a very long day and much longer than it should have been considering the last few hours was nothing but a waste.

On the way back to the ship, we spotted this.

We FINALLY made our journey back to the ship and it had been a long day.

I could tell that the people at the Photo Shop were very disturbed with me for bringing the charger to them daily to charge, but what else was I to do? They really did act like it was such a burden and would make so many snide remarks about it like "Didn't you just charge it yesterday?", "Didn't you already pick it up this morning?" and so on. So this time, as soon as we got on the ship I told Kendra to take it up there and ask for it to be charged. I was hoping a "new face" would throw them off a little. Although she had been up to the photo shop with me before, I don't think they had noticed we were "together" at any point. My fingers were crossed.

We headed up to the room to shower and Sakari wanted to head to the kids club.

By the time we got up there, it was late and the kids and staff were just walking out of the room, all dressed up as Pirates and singing their "We are the Pirates, the mighty mighty Pirates" song. I immediately seen Sakari's face go from a smile to disappointment. She was going to miss out on the parade that she loves so much.

We decided to head to dinner and wanted to eat at the Bamboo Asian restaurant. I knew that this was now considered one of the complimentary restaurants that no longer had a charge. We have always enjoyed eating there on the other ships, but had heard it was a limited menu now. Still...I knew we would find something we liked.

We met Kendra and Billy there. Kendra informed me that when she went to the photo shop they told her first that they didn't have a charger. When she persisted they then said that they had "loaned the charger out". Um...ok. If I knew they did that, I would have "rented" it for a few hours, charged both of my batteries each day and returned it. At this point, my camera is so valuable to me, I would have PAID whatever it took to rent this charger daily for the cruise just to assure both of my batteries would be charged. So now I was bummed again. They did tell her that she was welcome to try back in about an hour to see if it was back by then.

After ordering our food at the Asian restaurant, it was about an hour before our food ever came out. I'm not sure what the hold up was because there wasn't very many people in there to begin with. Maybe 3 other tables that were full.

I took this opportunity to slip out and over to the photo shop to inquire about the battery charger. Once again, they said they didn't have it and had loaned it out. I ask them about their "loaning program" ...just saying and then that's when they said they had loaned it out to a Senior Officer because they needed their camera for the following day. Oh ok. They said it was never brought back.

I did ask why they didn't have any Olympus Tough camera's because every ship I had been on had them. The guy said "We're out of them right now." I ask about the battery charger and they said "We normally carry them for the cruisers to buy and they cost $29.95, but we are sold out of them right now". DO YOU SEE THIS PATTERN WITH EVERYTHING ON THE SHIP?? I just don't get that they are sold out of everything. Sold out of NCL Dawn shirts, sold out of ship ornaments, sold out of stuff animals, sold out of the 5 carton cigarette packs, sold out of chargers, sold out of cameras...what the hell is wrong with you guys??? I seriously ask them this too. I said "You were JUST IN PORT and on the very first day I'm being told you are sold out of stuff. How do you become sold out the very first sea day? Does the person doing the ordering not know what they are doing? Shouldn't they be able to estimate what the sales normally are for this ship? I just don't get it." They guy did say that "Well, when we order something, it does take about a month to come in." Ok, so my thoughts are if it takes a month to come in, you should probably be ordering enough supplies to last you during that month and ordering ahead. It's not that hard!

In the end, my moaning would not change things and I needed to get back to my dinner. They told me I could try again in the morning and try again I would.

I made it back to Bamboo just in time to see our meals coming out finally. 

I have to say that our waiter was not very sociable or friendly. We didn't even see him smile once. We were desperately trying to figure out how to use the chopsticks and ask him at one point and even though each one of us seem to be holding them differently, he just glanced over and said "yea, that's the right way" and walked away. Either he was having a bad night or just didn't want to be bothered for some reason. Then after awhile he came back with a new set of chopsticks and showed us how to do it and it was like his entire attitude had changed. It was weird.

The food was good, not the best I have ever had, but good and filled our bellies.

Almost everyone left after they ate, but I decided that I wanted to try their desert. I had no idea what it was, but I was going to attempt it.

This came out and it looked good. Although I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat the dried things on the bottom of the ice cream (which were some type of fried noodles) and the waiter looked at me, laughed and said "yes, you eat them".

We finally finished our meal at 10:30!!! Man that was a long meal.

We headed back to our room and decided to call it a night. I think this would be the first time in cruising history that I missed a night at the casino. Maybe it was for the best. Just saying...

Our towel animal for the night was a very small bird with big eyes. :eek:

END OF THIS DAY.