Land Ho!!

April 30, 2010

Today we arrived in the Azores, docking in the port of Ponta Delgada. Skies were overcast and the temps were in the mid 60s. The average temp here is about 63 degrees year round. The Azores are a part of Portugal and are located 800 miles west of Lisbon. The island of Sao Miguel is lush and green from an abundance of rain.

Our tour today took us around the island where we visited two port towns and greenhouses where they grow pineapples. They only grow them for their island, not for export. The pineapples are small. We also went to the top of a crater to see two lakes in the crater. One is blue and one is green, however we couldn't see them because the clouds obscured our view. Bummer :(

We now are back at sea until Sunday, when we will arrive in Lisbon.

Day 4 at sea

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April 28, 2010

Today is a partly sunny day with temps in the upper 60s . The seas are good to us again and we slept quite late. We are having trouble getting adjusted to the loss of time and we'll be changing the clocks ahead an hour once again. Yawnnn.......

We lunched in our favorite place on the ship, the International Cafe. Great coffee drinks, international teas and baked goods and sandwiches. There is always some sort of entertainment in the Piazza to enjoy along with the food.

We took a nice walk on the promenade deck and tried to get on the cycles in the gym, but all were taken...so we went out on the sun deck, grabbed a lounge and watched "Young Victoria" on the MUTS (movies under the stars). We had dinner in the dining room with a nice group of people and went to the Explorers Lounge to listen to the band.
It was pretty good.

We have met a few people that are on the ship just to get back home. They were victims of the ash cloud that had flights cancelled in the US. They are from London, Stockholm and Copenhagen. They gave us valuable tips for visiting their cities.


Day 5 at sea

Another day, another hour...sheesh, enough already. They say there are more to come, but they will give us a break tonight. We will arrive in Ponta Delgada, Azores tomorrow and we are now on their clock. The time spread between the east coast and this part of the world is 4 hours.

It has dropped to 65 today and the skies are overcast with some peeks of sun. The seas are very calm. We can't believe how easy this crossing was. We had breakfast outdoors at the aft pool enjoying the wake of the ship.

The day was so nice we also watched "The Lovely Bones" on the MUTS screen. We had hot chocolate and fresh made chocolate chip cookies.

Day 3 at sea

April 27, 2010

Today was partly cloudy with an air temp of 68 and water temp of 69. Seas are still 3-4 ft. and are considered slight. Today the pools were quiet as the cooler weather kept many exploring other things to do . The covered pool was a comfortable place to read and relax or soak in the hot tub.

The captain informed us that we have sailed 1509 miles so far and have 1362 miles to go. We have moved the clocks forward one hour twice so far and we will do the same again tonight. I guess this is slow motion jet lag :)

We went to a port lecture today about our first destination, the Azores. The port lectures will be given by an NYU professor of European History. He also happens to be a Catholic priest.

Tour de Pools

The Sanctuary pool-adults only




Neptune pool-The party pool:)




The Terrace Pool- adults only



The covered conservatory pool

Day 2 At Sea

April 26, 2010

Another sunny, mild day with temps in the 70s and 3-4 foot seas...How cool is that?!

We learned some interesting facts today when the captain gave his daily update..The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest ocean covering 41.1 million miles of the Earth's surface. It is named after the Greek god, Atlas. Beneath the Atlantic lies a mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is about 990 miles wide. Several peaks rise above the water and they are the islands of Bermuda and the Azores.

After breakfast, we walked about the ship getting a glimpse of the daily activities aboard and taking some pictures to share. Then we relaxed by the aft pool, had lunch and a brief nap. We then went to the movies to see Old Dogs starring John Travolta and Robin Williams. We enjoyed it.

Tonight was formal night and we sat at a table for 8. One of the couples we recognized from our South Pacific cruise as we had dinner with them on that cruise also. We also met other people from the same cruise yesterday, but we never met until last night.

After dinner we went to see a comedian magician. He was ok, but we have seen much better.
Now for the pictures.......things to do at sea....


Pour champagne into the tower of glasses





Take a nap :)



Visit the library or internet cafe


Visit the art gallery

Shop sales :)



Vegetable carving

Day One At Sea

April 25, 2010

We awoke to a nice day and good seas. Wave heights are 3-4 ft. The air temp is 73* and the water temp. is 75*. It is very humid. We are 365 miles away from Ft. Lauderdale with only 2,515 miles left to Ponta Delgada in the Azores.

We had breakfast in the dining room today and enjoyed our table of 8 so much, we were the last table to leave. The waiters dropped all kinds of hints that they were now closed but didn't want to hurry us:). Hopefully we will have many more pleasant meals with our fellow world travelers.


As new Platinum level cruisers, we get 250 free minutes of internet service this cruise. What I didn't realize is that was per person!! So we have 500 minutes!!!. That basically is free internet. Yippee....and added to that we each got 30 more minutes for signing up before midnight last night.

Went to see a pianist by the name of Linda Gentille perform tonight. She was a protegee of Liberace. She was excellent!! She performed movie songs and did Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for her finale. She was quite funny also.

We took some pictures today as we walked the promenade deck.





Those gym workouts are paying off:)

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

April 23, 2010

We picked up our rental car, had breakfast and headed down interstate 95 to the Hampton Inn. We like this hotel because of its location ( one mile from the port and 2.5 miles from the airport) and the fact you can park your car for up to 2 weeks for only $20.00! We rented a car to return to the airport and caught a shuttle to the hotel because we will be gone for three weeks. We will rent one when we come back to get home.
They have courtesy shuttles to both places plus it is a nice hotel.

Today was sunny and windy and we got some pictures of the 8 other ships that departed.

We will be at sea for 5 days before arriving in the Azores.

Here we go again!


We are about to cruise on the Star Princess again, this time visiting Northern Europe. This cruise will be 18 days and will include stops in the Azores, Lisbon, Portugal, Vigo, Spain, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Oslo, Norway, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. This will be our first Atlantic crossing and we will be at sea for 5 days.
The cruise begins on April 24 and I will begin my posts and pictures on Saturday.