My friend Sara and I signed up for a 11-night cruise of the Eastern Caribbean islands, originally scheduled to leave Thursday night (December 22, 2022) and returning on January 2, 2023 morning.
The Eastern Caribbean islands are favorite cruise ports for many of the large cruise lines. Originally our 6 Ports of Call (not counting New York City) were (1) Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), (2) San Juan, (3) St. Thomas, (4) Philipsburg (St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles), (5) St. John’s (Antigua), and (6) Tortola (British Virgin Islands), then back to New York City. Four of these days will be sea days. Our New York City Port of Call is at Pier 88 at 48th street and 12th avenue on Manhattan’s West Side, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal.
Our ship is the Norwegian Gem, one of the larger cruise ships I’ve been on. As a rule I like the smaller cruise ships but we wanted to go during the holidays and this is what was available.
Below is a photo of the Norwegian Gem grabbed from the Internet (NOT my photo), taken in 2018 in Italy. Just a reminder of what our ship looked liked, so I don't forget.
The Norwegian Gem is the fourth ship in the Norwegian's Jewel class, her sister ships are the Norwegian Jade, the Norwegian Jewel, and the Norwegian Pearl. All the ships in this class are similar with one primary difference being the giant murals on the sides of their hulls.
The name Gem stems from the beautiful art work on her hull, all gem stones.
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| Above: Norwegian Gem in Italy, 2018. |
Day 1 and 2: December 22/23, 2022: (Thursday/Friday): Pier 88, Manhattan Cruise Terminal
But
our cruise hasn't started off all that smoothly, actually it hasn't
really started yet, the cruising part that is. We had hoped to have
sailed by this time but the “unseasonably cold weather” hit New York
city. Our planned sail time on Thursday was postponed due to the
preholiday winter storm (Winter Storm Elliott) that hit New York. The
city was pummeled by wet and windy weather, the winds and waves too high
for the ship to sail. So I don’t have a lot to report at this time,
plus the WiFi is almost non-existent. I’m having trouble emailing and
even texting.
Our current estimated sailing time is now Saturday morning (24th) at 9 am.
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| Above: Map from the Norwegian Cruise Line website showing our originally scheduled stops. |
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| Above: A photo of our ship, the Norwegian Gem, showing where our cabin is located on Deck 5. Note, NOT my photo, taken from the Internet. |
Below is a photo of part of our cabin on Deck 5. In the window you can vaguely make out the Regulus I cruise missile that was recently restored. An Allison turbojet engine powered this missile. I worked for the Allison Engine Company at one time. But not when this engine was designed, that was before my time, way before my time.
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| Above: Part of our cabin (5008). |
Below are a few more photos, all taken from our ship moored at Pier 88.
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| Above: Yours truly getting ready to board the Norwegian Gem. |
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| Above: Photo taken from our ship looking at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Pier 86. Shown in this photo is the British Airways Concorde. |
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Day 3: Saturday 12-24-22: Finally leaving New York
Today is Saturday and our ship is finally sailing towards the Caribbean Islands, our ship left Pier 88 this morning around 6:45. It was still cold, about 9F, there was steam coming off the water, and rainy.
Our ship will now be heading straight for St. Thomas, so we will be skipping the Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) and San Juan port of call as originally scheduled. We will be at sea now until Tuesday afternoon (27th).
I did take a few photos this morning as we were leaving, these will be the last land photos I will be able to take until we get to St. Thomas.
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| Above: A photo of the Statue of Liberty as we sailed by, a little blurry as my iPhone didn’t get a good focus on the statue. |
The photo below was taken as we were going under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, this bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the United States, 60 feet longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. Once we passed this bridge we entered the Lower New York Bay and into the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Above: Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. |
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| Above: Another photo taken through the window of our cabin showing the ocean getting kind of rough. Whew, this is gonna be a ride! |
The boat in the above photo is the Pilot No. 2 out of New Jersey, one of the two station boats, the Pilot Boats New York (Pilot No. 1) and New Jersey (Pilot No. 2). The boats are part of the Sandy Hook Pilots Association that provides pilotage services to ships entering or departing the Port of New York/New Jersey on a 24-hour basis, 365 days of the year in all weather conditions.
Days 4 ans 5: Sunday & Monday (12-24-22 & 12-25-22): At sea
Sunday (Christmas Day) and we are out to sea. Nothing new to report for today other than waves and more waves with 40 mph winds, and eating, drinking, sleeping and feeling frustrated over the lack of WiFi (can’t send photos and barely able to send text, can’t send text to android phones at all). The lack of WiFi may get even worse as we are about to enter the Mythical Bermuda Triangle. :o)
At our pier in Manhattan another Norwegian ship was moored and also delayed by the winter storm, the Norwegian Getaway. The Getaway is much larger than our ship the Gem, according to the Norwegian site the Getaway holds 68% more passengers than the Gem. And the Getaway is even “small" compared to other cruise ships.
Because of the sailing delay our ship is offering onboard credit as well as a discount on a future cruise as compensation for the 2 missed ports of call (Dominican Republic and San Juan).
Monday, still out at sea.
Day 6: Tuesday, 12-27-22: St Thomas (US Virgin Islands)
Sara and I finally made it through the Bermuda Triangle safely, our ship docked Tuesday morning at St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) at Charlotte Amalie in the Havensight Harbor.
When we landed Tuesday we were excited to walk on land again after two days on the sea coming from New York city. And it was nice to have cell phone service again and we were told there was good local WiFi. I didn’t know I was a WiFi addict until now. I’m so stressed, Scott texted I should join WiFi Anonymous.
Anyway, Sara and I walked around in the area around the ship and joined a family from Cape Verde for a tour, which was half the price if we had booked a similar tour through the ship. Our tour vehicle was called a taxi, but was an open air tourist van. We made 3 stops climbing to the highest peak in St. Thomas, called Mountain Top.
Our first stop was a spectacular view of the harbor and surrounding islands. The 2nd stop was at Drake's Seat, more wonderful views through some haze including Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands and Virgin Gorda, the third-largest island in the British Virgin Islands. The third stop was at Mountain Top, the home of the world famous banana daiquiri. We each had a banana daiquiri at 10:30 am, they were very good.
On the way back down the steep windy road we came to the town of Charlotte Amalie which had a few Government buildings and more shopping. Shopping is the official pastime of the islands. Then we went back to the shopping area near the pier and the mostly unsuccessful quest for WiFi. We found a bar that gave us WiFi for the cost of a drink but that was later in the day after a frustrating quest and not enough time to do the email and the downloads.
We had a fun show on the ship and a tasty dinner, and then the ship left for Saint Martin (French: Saint Martin; Dutch: Sint Maarten) in the Dutch West Indies.
Below are a few photos from today.
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| Above: This photo is from the ship’s camera shortly after we docked, NOT my camera of course. |
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| Above: This photo is of Sara and me at a colorful sign at the Havensight Harbor. |
The following 3 photos were taken from the Charlotte Amalie Overlook, about halfway from the Havensight Harbor and the Magens Bay beach.
The first photo below shows the Havensight Dock, the closest docking spot to Charlotte Amalie and within walking distance to the main town of St Thomas. The ship on the left (front) is our ship, the Norwegian Gem. The 2nd (middle) ship is the Norwegian Escape but I don’t know what the 3rd ship is.
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| Above: Havensight Dock. |
The next photo is just a general view of Havensight Harbor and surrounding islands.
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| Above: Havensight Harbor. |
This next photo is a bird's-eye view of Magens Bay Beach, said to be one of the world's most beautiful beaches and I believe it. 1.5 miles long, beautiful indeed, full of local folks as well as tourists, with music every so often.
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| Above: Magens Bay Beach. |
Tuesday night our ship left Havensight Harbor, and our next stop will be St. Maarten, scheduled to arrive early Wednesday morning.
Day 7: Wednesday, 12-28-22: Sint Maarten
Wednesday morning we landed in Sint Maarten, the Dutch side of the Saint Martin island. We were looking forward to this stop as Sara is a first generation American of Dutch heritage and speaks the language.
What makes this island unique is that it consists of two countries. The north side is the French side of the island and is called St Martin. The south side is the Dutch side of the island and is called Sint Maarten. The scenery that we saw was nice but didn't come close to the scenery I saw at St. Thomas. The town of Philipsburg was organized along the beach. Some of the sidewalks were still covered with sand blown up from the recent hurricane.
Below is a photo of yours truly at the colorful Welcoming sign at Sint Maarten.
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| Above: Diane at Sint Maarten. |
Below is a photo of the part of the beach area in Philipsburg.
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| Above: Beach area in Philipsburg. |
Four big cruise ships were in port this morning, our ship, the Norwegian Gem, was the smallest. The other three ships were the P&O Cruises Britannia, the Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas and the Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas. The Wonder of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage. The Harmony of the Seas is the third largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage. I’ve included a photo below that I took of the ships. From left to right are the Norwegian Gem, the Britannia, the Wonder of the Seas and the Harmony of the Seas.
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| Above: 4 ships at the Port Sint Maarten, our ship on the far left. |
Plus at Port Sint Maarten they have a Live Streaming Webcam, so also below is a screenshot from that webcam, annotated with the names of the four ships.
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| Above: Screenshot from the port webcam. |
Below is another screenshot from that webcam, just zoomed out to show more of the harbor.
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| Above: Another screenshot from the port webcam. |
The Wonder of the Seas has the "tallest slide at sea" called the Ultimate Abyss, and I would love to go on that water slide.
Sara and I didn't rush but we were among the first wave of passengers into town. We stopped at the Amsterdam Shoppe so Sara could look for Dutch Gin. They had it and she got to talk Dutch to one of the owners. In Phillipsburg along the beach were stores and bars.
Below is a photo of some of the wildlife we passed after leaving the ship.
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| Above: Iguana we passed. |
Below is a crop of the above photo, giving a closer look at the Iguana.
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| Above: Iguana, crop from above photo. |
We found the Sint Maarten Museum, small but interesting with info about the Arawaks and the Caribs that Columbus encountered, the indigenous groups.
The highlight of the day for me was a man looking at faded photographs on the wall of National Heroes. One photo was of his great grandfather that he'd never met and another of his great uncle that he had met. He grew up in Sint Maarten but had lived in Holland for 8 years and had moved to Aruba. He and Sara had a grand time speaking Dutch.
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| Above: Local man viewing some of his relatives on the National Heroes Wall. |
Later we did some shopping and headed back to the ship. After lunch I went out in search of WiFi, found a little for $7 an hour. Then it rained like it can only rain in the tropics. Wave after wave. I managed to get back to the ship between waves with only wet feet. After that pretty much the same; drinks, show, dinner, and then back to our cabin.
We left Sint Maarten Wednesday night and headed for St. John's, Antigua.
Day 8: Thursday, 12-29-22: St. John's at Antigua
We arrived Thursday morning at Antigua, docking at the Antigua Cruise Port in St. John's harbor. Once again we moored next to a larger cruise ship, this time the Celebrity Millennium.
The photo below is a screenshot from a camera at the port that captured our ship, the ship on the right. The ship on the left is the Celebrity Millennium. Just throwing this screenshot in for no special reason.
Below is a screenshot of the path our ship took from Sint Maarten to St. John's. I was asleep so I don’t know what this was about. The screenshot is from Cruise Mapper, an online ship tracking site.
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| Above: Crazy path our ship took. |
Below are some additional photos from the day.
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| Above: A photo of Antigua Cruise Port area, taken from our ship. |
Below was a
little surprise in our cabin from our cabin steward. Cute eh? We call
the elephant Delilah. The cabin steward did a monkey also, the monkey's
name is, you guessed it, Samson. Towel art is amazing.
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| Above: Delilah the elephant. |
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| Above: Photo from the cemetery at St. John’s Cathedral. |
Below is a photo of the gate to the Botanical Gardens. We went there because Sara is a volunteer at the New York Botanical Gardens.
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| Above: Gate to Botanical Garden. |
Below is a photo of scripture from the Rastafarians at the Botanical Gardens. I
love the “Sin is the root of all evil” sign. I thought it was the
definition.
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| Above: “Sin is the root of all evil” sign. |
We left St. John's Thursday night heading for our 4th and last stop in the Caribbean, Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands. We will arrive there Friday morning.
Day 9: Friday, 12-30-22: Tortola, British Virgin Islands
This morning our ship arrived in Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands, our 4th and last stop in the Caribbean on this cruise. The ship started the thrusters (small propellers that help maneuver a boat sideways, while docking or mooring) at O-Dawn-Thirty and we were cleared to leave the ship by 5:30 am. Way too early for me, but it was so noisy Sara and I got up anyway.
Sara and I finally left the ship about 9:00 am, 81F degrees, 80% humidity, we would have left earlier but we had to wait for it to stop raining. Tortola appears to be very clean and organized. Sara and I had a mission. Yep, another Botanical Garden, the Joseph Reynold O'Neal Botanic Gardens. This one was good, it is affiliated with Kew Gardens in southwest London. Some folks from England are coming next month to work here.
Growing up in Florida I recognized a lot of the plants, they had snowball vine and another snow something. I had Google identifier on my phone so I am now a professor of botany. I recognize one plant as the same as we had in our front yard in Florida, Hibiscus tiliaceus. It was small but lovely and of course Sara had a fabulous time, I mentioned yesterday that Sara is a volunteer at the New York Botanical Garden.
As we left the gardener told us about a shuttle that would take us to the Government Museum. We went to the corner to wait and sure enough it came. As we were traveling along at a high speed of 3 mph, a lady we met while waiting said "rain's coming.” The driver got out and pulled down plastic zippered panels. It was toasty with all the locals and us.
On the way we had to get out at a hospital and walk another block, then press a button on a green fence and supposedly it would open. We did but nothing happened. So I said the magic words "Jose sent me," still nothing happened. Then from the shadows a guard appeared and told us our information was inaccurate, we were supposed to go another block on a different road, but he’d let us in anyway.
We met up with a delightful couple from Long Island. She’s a MD waiting for US residency in Grenada and he’s in a Masters program hoping to get a PhD in psych. Fun, Fun. We waited for the cart but had to walk back to the ship.
And I've learned something very important on this cruise and I have a T-shirt to document it, and that is "If you drink rum before noon you are a pirate, not an alcoholic."
As I write this the ship's horn just blasted, so we are on our way back to New York City, and the silence of the seas for 2-3 days.
We are due back in New York City Monday morning (January 2nd, 2023).
Below are a few photos from today, the first two from the Botanical Gardens and the rest some random shots from the ship.
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| Above: Yours truly at the Botanical Gardens. |
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| Above: Botanical Gardens. |
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| Above: Panorama. |
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| Above: View from top deck of ship. |
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| Above: Another view of the ship. |
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| Above: Leaving the port. |
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| Above: Pilot boat. |
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| Above: Pilot boat. |
The pilot boat in the last two photos had a hard time keeping up with us, with our ship’s wake. Fascinating. The last three photos were taken as we were leaving of course.
Day 10: Saturday, 12-31-22: Leaving Tortola, heading Home
Last night we left our last stop (Tortola) on this Caribbean cruise and headed back to New York City. We are scheduled to arrive Monday morning (1-2-23).
Not a lot to report today, I did go to an art auction, the only art I really liked was $7,600, so I wasn’t a buyer for that. I wonder how I could get some of my art in this arena? I have no photos from the art gallery but there are some nice photos at the Norwegian Gem Art Gallery at the following URL, https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/shiptour.php?r=3405. Once there scroll down and click on images for larger images and slideshow.
Today we were just cruising in the Atlantic Ocean, or perhaps I should say the infamous Bermuda Triangle? As of this writing our ship is about to exit the "Bermuda Triangle." See map below.
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| Above: Map showing our position at the time of this writing. |
The next photo is from the ship's camera, just a view of the bow of the ship and the Atlantic Ocean at the time of this writing. Just thought I'd throw it in to show part of the "Bermuda Triangle."
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| Above: From the ship's camera, in the Bermuda Triangle. |
So far the only thing I’ve seen disappear is the strength of our WiFi signal, with trouble sending text and photos, and even the loss of metadata and resolution (pixel size) in some of the photos. I don’t know if that latter part is due to the WiFi signal, but it’s happening for some reason. It only seems to happen with a weak connection.
About the Internet/WiFi connections on this cruise, as many of you know Internet on cruise ships is provided primarily by satellites, and satellite service is often spotty for various reasons.
I read that if you want the fastest possible cruise WiFi, then head to the Caribbean as WiFi is generally the strongest on cruises in the Caribbean. Something about “...with so many ships visiting the region, maritime communication company SES Networks has placed several satellites in medium orbit above the area in order to create the maximum possible coverage…"
So the article read anyway, but for whatever reason I certainly did not have good Internet/WiFi connections on this cruise. There was major grumbling about the WiFi situation among other passengers also.
But as my friend Martha wrote one day, “Enough of the @##$$$& WiFi”
Day 11: 01-01-23: Sunday: At sea, heading home
Nothing special to write about, just a nice social day.
Day 12: 01-02-23: Monday: Back at Pier 88, Manhattan Cruise Terminal
Not much going on other than I have poison ivy from my visit to the Botanical Gardens in Tortola. The doctor told me what to do about it, but it hurts and itches, and is red and blotchy.
As we docked this morning there was a figure captured by the ship's camera, wearing a long black cloak with a hood, it looked strangely like the Grim Reaper. Whew, I'm glad this cruise is over. 😊
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| Above: Photo from the ship's camera after docking. |
Below are three photos I took from the ship after we docked, just some general photos.
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| Above: NYC skyline. |
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| Above: Note the Vessel at Hudson Yards. |
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| Above: Another photo taken from our ship looking at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Pier 86. Shown in this photo is the British Airways Concorde. |
Cruises are always nice and I enjoyed this one, Sara was an excellent traveling companion. But it's always nice to get home of course.
All these photos can also be found at my Google Photos site at the following URL https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMM6mbkkTmowo0B87aAnTP2ul0BXMjWSCzBhq4l.
