Cruise Day 7 - At Sea

The last day of the cruise was at sea, heading back to New Orleans.

Quite a perfect day it was, too.  Taking it easy, going to the hot tub, imbibing adult beverages, and watching a show.

Sadly, we then had to pack up and be ready to go.

This was tempered by having an excellent diner at the French Bistro on board as our final dinner on the ship.

To say it was fantastic is an understatement. Service was the best we had experienced on board and the food was beyond amazing.

I had escargot for the appetizer, and the sole grenobloise for the main course. Quite superb.

 Dessert was the marquise au chocolat. Which was the best dessert I've had in a long time.  A chocolate aficionado's dream.

 Really fantastic food. Norwegian certainly has some of the best food at sea, or anywhere, really.

After that, we took a walk around the ship and we had left the Gulf of America and were on the Mississippi River.

It was a bit foggy out and the tightness of the channel led to ships appearing seemingly out of nowhere to be right close by.

 

Neat to see and it was a very pleasant night to be walking laps of the deck.

Heading back inside, the lights were low in the main areas, and decoratively lit up for the evening.

 

Headed back to the stateroom, and the luggage was already picked up.

In the morning we were back in port in New Orleans.  So we got up, had breakfast, disembarked, and headed to the airport back home.  That had been a great vacation.

Cruise Day 6 - Costa Maya

We pulled into Costa Maya in the morning and hit the pier after 9am.

 No excursions booked so we just wandered around the port area.

The port area is rather lively.

There's flamingos:

 

There's Mayans hanging from ropes on high doing a traditional acrobatic act:

 

Neat to see.

So we wandered around the numerous stores in the port, lots of touristy stuff, sat down at the bar and have some ice cold beverages, and then went back to the ship.

Back at the ship we had lunch at the diner above the pool with some excellent burgers and fries. 

After that we sat in at an art auction.

 Lots of art for any budget from mas low as $300 up to and including an original Romero Britto for $20k. There were quite a few works by Thomas Kincaid, Peter Max, and others.  Fun to watch and learn a bit about art as the auctioneer gave plenty of info about the artists and the works.  

Then it was time to chill at the Skyy Vodka Ice Bar.

 

As the name goes, it's a bar, made out of ice. 

The Skyy Bar is an extra and requires a reservation. The reservation includes 2 drinks. You check in and get a smock and hood to wear to keep warm whie you're in the ice bar.

 

 The bar had a neat seating area:

The ice bar was a fun and cool experience.

Cruise Day 5 - Belize

On Day 5 we arrived at Harvest Caye in Belize.  

 

After another time change and breakfast we headed to the excursion.

Snorkeling the reef.  Checked in did the waiver and got in a boat to take us 

We passed by the Norwegian Gateway on the way to the reef.

 Got out to the reef, geared up with mask, fins, snorkel, and a snorkel vest and jumped in the water. I had brough my own fins, s and snorkel as, after all, I had schlepped them along for the dive so used them on this swim, and they were better than the ones provided from the tour in any case.

Nice bath water temperature water, pleasant sunny day, calm waters, and barely any current at all. A very easy snorkel experience.

The reef was pretty shallow with quite a lot of healthy coral on it.

 Shallow, so not a ton of fish, but the guide would duck underwater to point them out.

Lots of fire coral that needed to be avoided.

 Touching fire coral would suck, and everyone successfully avoided it.

Compared to the dives the amount of ocean life was underwhelming but it was still a fun experience and the corals were rather nice to look at.

 

The tour lasted an hour and the boat came to pick us up and we headed back to the pier. 

On the way we saw some people doing boat parachuting.

 Probably had the best view around.

 Then we went to a Belize chocolate shop and sampled and bought some excellent locally made chocolates.

The sea salt and lime was excellent.

After that we headed back to the ship, got some food, and went to watch a comedy show.  After that we again headed to the Howlin' At The Moon show and belted out some tunes.

Quite a good day.

March Cruise Day 2

Day 2 of the cruise was at sea.

 

It started with  full English breakfast in the Irish pub on board.

 

We wandered around the ship, walked the decks, and had a nice time. 

Lots of things to see and do on board.

Exploring around the ship, we found a niche with a small seating area and lots of plaques commemorating ports the Getaway has visited, as well as a scale model of the ship.

After dinner we went to see a comedy show.

The comedian noted it was his first time performing in the Gulf of America. Yes when you're in the Gulf, weather apps are now referring to it as the Gulf of America - no dead-naming the Gulf now.

It was a good and quite funny show.  We then stayed for the later R-rated comedy show from a second comedian (they would switch throughout the cruise, with one doing the PG show and one doing the R-rated one every other night.with fresh material each time) and it was laugh-worthy as well.

March Cruise Day 1

We flew into New Orleans for this cruise. A nice uneventful flight on Delta got us there nicely.

I had paid for transfers to the ship and a Norwegian Cruise Line Rep was right where the pre-cruise info said they would be.  I had already prepared luggage tags before departure so we were soon on the bus to the ship.

Then we got checked in, boarded, had an on-boarding drink and lunch, and soon the Getaway cast off and we were rolling on the river, taking the Mighty Mississippi to the Gulf of America.

We passed by lots of other ships on the muddy waters of the Mississippi, and saw lots of industry lining the banks.

Our boat also had an armed escort.
 

Yes, that's a rather nice machine gun on the bow.

Soon we were in the blue waters of the Gulf.

We started touring around the ship, and in the art gallery I saw a work that caught my eye:

A darn nice painting and going for a nice high price too.  They also had quite a few by Thomas Kincaid and some other big name modern artists.  More on that later.

We had out first dinner at a specialty restaurant, Cagney's Steakhouse, and to say it was superb would be an understatement.  Service was tops, and it is the best steak at sea, easily rivaling, and dare I say besting Morton's or Ruth's Chris.

It was a most excellent and auspicious start to the cruise.

Where I Was Last Week

Blogging was lighter than usual, as I was out of town.

It was time to get away from the cold and snow of Michigan for warmer climes.

Took a 7-day cruise on the Norwegian Getaway to the western Caribbean, spending much of the cruise in the Gulf of America.

To say it was a most fantastic time is an understatement. 

Much more details to relate and many more pics to follow.

London Trip # 4 - Duxford!

On August 9th we got up in a timely fashion, had caffeinated beverages, and headed to the tube station.

First we went to a Station but were told the train line to the north there was down and to go instead to King's Cross Station.  

Arriving at King's Cross, saw some workers with vests emblazoned with Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter Fame:

 We then purchase train tickets to go north to Cambridge.

After some hilarity figuring out how to open the train doors to actually get on the train, we were on our way.

We got off at Cambridge station and then took another train to Whittlesford and walked from there to Duxford.

First it was time for some vittles to get energy so we stopped at The Plough, a pub that has been in operation since at least 1851.

I had a steak and ale pie, and a good Tiger Copper Ale.

 The service was delightful and personal, the food awesome, and the beer excellent. If you're in Duxford be sure to go to the Plough.

Thus fortified, we walked on to IWM Duxford.

IWM stands for Imperial War Museum.  Duxifrd is the site of an airfield first established during World War One.  In World War Two in addition to serving the British, it served as an American bomber base.

So yes, there are aircraft. Several buildings full of aircraft.

Upon entry the first exhibit you see is a fragment of the BF-110E that Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland in his attempt to make a peace treaty between Nazi Germany and Great Britain in 1941. The overture was not well-received.

Quite a piece of history, that.

Then on to the next room, which had some planes that were being temporarily kept as they were being worked on.

This included the most sci-fi looking bomber of the nuclear age, the Handley Page Victor.

The plane has the insignia of RAF Marham, where it was based, on it's side.

It's an amazing aircraft to see up close.

 There's a variety of other aircraft in the room including a Scottish Aviation Bulldog T.1 Trainer.

Never seen either of these planes in person before.

On to the next room we went.

London Trip #3 Meetings and Meanderings

After visiting the Tower we headed back to the hotel as the travails of travel were beginning to sink in.

My room wasn't ready yet but Mr. B's was, so I grabbed a spot on the floor in his room and promptly passed out for an hour.  That rest was badly needed.

 The rooms were small but functional, they would have been a squeeze for two people to stay in but they worked and the location right by Trafalgar Square could not be beat.  My room soon became available and all was well.

Then we headed out and walked by St. Paul's Cathedral:

 

We also saw a Mini-Tardis:

 

It was, however, not in functional condition: 

We continued to walk until we got to The Cockpit pub and met up with Lagniappe's Keeper, who had been gallivanting around Europe and met up with us in London.  We had some beers and dinner and caught each other up on things.

That was the end of Day 1. I had walked 22,000 steps on Day 1, quite a bit more than my usual.  Day 2, being my birthday, required us going to a rather special place to celebrate.

London Trip #1 - Across The Pond

Trip 1 began on August 7 as I met Mr. B and we headed to Detorit's Airport.

We got through security without issue and boarded the plane to London, England leaving Michigan after 6:00 pm.

 

You can put the flight information into Foreflight and see the route they have filed. Kinda neat to see we ere moving along at 450 knots and climbing.

It was a smooth flight, and 8 hours later we arrived on August 8.

We then had fun navigating the tube to our hotel in Trafalgar Square, complete with a transit worker at Heathrow sending us in the completely wrong direction to catch the proper train. 

We sorted that out, and found the right subway train and route, even though the London underground steadfastly refuses to put a "You Are Here" marking on their rather extensive maps of the underground, and headed into town.

We changed subway trains at Paddington Station on our way.

Sadly, No bears were spotted.

We soon arrived at Trafalgar Square 

 

and after walking around went to our hotel and dropped of our luggage as we had arrived way before check-in time.

The adventure had begun.

Back From Blackbeard's

Just back from an excellent week on a Bahamas dive live aboard again with Blackbeard's and on the mighty Morningstar.

Even while a couple of the dive sites were the same, it was a different trip from December.  The Morningstar had a completely different crew on this trip, and they were fantastic.  I also got to meet and be friends with a great new fun bunch of divers.

Weather was actually cooler and wavier than in December, with chilly winds and chillier evening dives. As a result, I got to dive the Eleuthras as well as the Exumas this time.

Saw lots of cool things and cool fish including the friendliest parrotfish ever:

 

I also had multiple neat shark encounters - and not just during the shark feeding dive.  I'm talking closer than during the shark dive.

More blogging on the trip to follow.