Summer Vacation 2008 (1st in a series)

Less than 36 hours from now, I should be off on Summer vacation. Six of us (Gary, me, my kids (Ryan & Claire) plus Gary's sister (Cathy) and his grand-niece Taylor (same age as Claire) hit the road tomorrow at 6 PM. We will be driving down to Baltimore via the border crossing at Buffalo. We expect to arrive in Baltimore at approximately 10 AM Saturday morning to board a cruise ship bound for Bermuda. We have three drivers and plan our drive in shifts. We have booked a hotel room in Mansfield, PA (a college town, just across the State line from NY State) where we will catch some sleep enroute (probably checking in between 11 Pm and midnight) then it will be back on the road at wake up the next morning to complete our drive.

We are cruising on Norwegian Cruise Lines Majesty on a six night cruise. We have two interior staterooms on the Caribbean Deck, ship forward. The Majesty is the smallest vessel in NCL's fleet (a ship's mast had to be sufficiently low to pass under a bridge that spans the entrance to Baltimore's port, which denies access to larger cruise ships). She was built in 1992 and has 870 staterooms to carry a maximum load of 1,462 passengers supported by a crew of 620. She is 680 ft in length and has a tonnage capacity of 40,876.

We will be in port at St. George's Bermuda for 44 hours, spread over three nights mid-cruise. The other days we will be at sea, travelling thru the Bermuda triangle. Fortunately hurricane reports are favourable now that Fay has dissipated after dumping her torrential rains on Florida yesterday. We are hoping for fair weather and calm seas.

Here is our cruise itinerary:

Day

Sat Baltimore - 4:00 PM Sail away

Sun At Sea
Mon St. George's, Bermuda Arrive 3:00 PM to Over night

Tue St. George's In port all day and overnight
Wed St Georges, Bermuda Depart 11 AM

Thu At Sea
Fri Baltimore, Arrive 8:00 AM, Disembark

This will be my 8th cruise and Ryan and Claire's 3rd. For the last three Summers, we have taken vacations at sea. Last year we also cruised out of Baltimore on Royal Caribbean on an 11 day Canada-New England cruise. The Summer prior to that we cruised out of Ft Lauderdale to a few Caribbean ports (also on Royal Caribbean) on a 4 night cruise. This will be Taylor's 2nd cruise and Gary and Cathy are veteran cruises.

Here is my complete cruise history (in reverse chrono order):

LINE SHIP ITINERARY START DATE END DATE (click links to access photos)

PRINCESS DIAMOND -PACIFIC COASTAL REPOSITIONING - 7/05/2008 to 10/05/2008

CARNIVAL IMAGINATION - W. CARIBBEAN - 27/12/2007 to 31/12/2007

ROYAL CARIBBEAN GRANDEUR - NEW ENGLAND/CANADA - 24/08/2007 to 02/09/2007

PRINCESS GOLDEN - EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN - 29/10/2006 to 10/11/2006

ROYAL CARIBBEAN ENCHANTMENT - W. CARIBBEANS - 28/08/2006 to 02/09/2006

CELEBRITY ZENITH - W. CARIBBEANS - 16/03/2006 to 20/03/2006

PRINCESS SAPPHIRE - MEXICAN RIVIERA - 15/10/2005 to 22/10/2005

I will try to post travel updates to this blog using the ship's internet while on board. Stay tuned!