Ponta Delgada is a small city of around 70,000 people located on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. Situated west of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean, this area has been continuously inhabited since at least 1444, when small fishing villages were established around the islands. In the early part of the 19th century, Ponta Delgada was of significant economic importance to Portugal and at one point was actually considered the third largest city based on economic strength and population. The farm land surrounding the city at one point had a major citrus industry, trading extensively with the United Kingdom. Continue reading →
Norwegian Cruise Lines
Communications From a Cruise Ship
One of the things we’ve quickly grown accustomed to in the 21st century is the ability to communicate with just about any person, any time. We’ve also grew used to the idea that whatever information we want is at our fingertips pretty much instantly. Our cell phones have more computing power than the computers that landed the Apollo capsules on the moon, and we take that for granted. Continue reading →
Fitness Aboard a Cruise Ship
For most cruises, use of the fitness center (gym), jogging and walking tracks, and wellness classes amounts to a token effort. We say this because the length of an average cruise is short enough that missing your normal daily workout during your cruise won’t have a major impact on your overall health. Continue reading →
Journey Across the Atlantic, An Introduction
As an introduction to this week’s series of blog entries, we thought we would start by explaining what’s to come. We’re on a cruise ship that left Miami Florida yesterday evening. We were scheduled to leave at around 5:00 PM, but the ship actually left the dock at around 7:15PM. We were loading supplies until that time. Not to worry though. We’re crossing the Atlantic and there’s plenty of time to make up our lost couple of hours before our first stop in Ponta Delgada, the Azores. Continue reading →
Port of Miami
We’re on board the Norwegian star at the port of Miami. This was by far the easiest boarding we’ve ever done on a cruise ship. We dropped our luggage off this morning at 11 AM and took car rental car back to the airport. We then boarded a shuttle bus and came back to the cruise terminal. Once back at the cruise terminal it only took 20 minutes to board the ship including check in.
Seven Day Caribbean Cruise
Last month (November, 2013), we made a quick cruise to the Caribbean on one of the Norwegian Cruise Lines ships, the Norwegian Dawn. It’s one of their older ships, but we had a purpose in mind. First, we have never sailed with NCL before and we’re planning an Atlantic crossing next May with them. Since the Atlantic crossing represents a reasonably big expenditure on our part, we wanted to see if they were up to it. Continue reading →