20230423 Celebrity Silhouette cruise - Day 4/21 Royal Dockyard, Bermuda

Celebrity Silhouette cruise day 4 - Getting the royal treatment in Bermuda

Trip day: 4 / 21

The day started early, or that was what was supposed to happen - docking by 7AM.  It certainly might have, but we didn't get out of bed until 8AM so we'll take their word for it.

Today, we find ourselves docked until about 5PM at the Royal Dockyard in Bermuda.

 The purple "A" on the map marks the Royal Dockyard

But before we get into today, I promised that if there were more shenanigans last night, I'd report on them this morning.  Shenanigans were had, so here we go.

At 10pm, we attended an adult-themed game show called Frisky Say It.

If you've ever played Heads Up, then you get it.  One person faces the audience.  A word or phrase - decidedly adult in this case - appears on the screen.  The partner must get the person to say it without using any part of the word, using rhyming words, starts-with letters, etcetera.  The first team went and scored nine correct in three minutes.  Then it was our turn.

Arlona was guessing and I was giving the clues.  We failed miserably with only five.  To be fair, others in the audience agreed that the words we have to get were significantly more difficult.  The first team had words and phrases like tampon, cramps, boobs, missionary, and such.  A couple of ours were friends with benefits and Jason Mamoa. Anyway, it was all good fun.  Several others went as well. The winners got the traditional bottle of cheap bubbly that we don't like, so no harm, no foul.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

We ventured off the ship planning to take the ferry over to Hamilton.  We figured on walking around and doing a little shopping. 

A friendly guide explained that while we could do that, this being Sunday, most of the shops in Hamilton were closed but all the shops here at the Dockyard were open. We changed our plans and decided to just walk around the dockyard.

Our Celebrity Silhouette

Being a British territory means traditional red phone booths - they accepted Bermudian and US coins as well as credit cards

The clock tower at the Clock Tower Mall

Arlona spotted this strelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the wild banana or giant white bird of paradise (I looked it up - I don't know specific plant names!)

The Silhouette

Anyone who knows Arlona knows she has a thing about touching the water wherever we go. Lucky for her, there is a huge ramp at the Dockyard, making it easy to dip her hand.

She reported that it was warm and nice

Before boarding, we took advantage of the free shuttle that takes you around the Dockyard.  It stops at the ship, the visitor center, Diamonds International, the Clock Tower Mall, the pharmacy, and the museum.  It was a quick ride and essentially took us back over the area we had just walked.  Still, it was a nice day and we enjoyed the ride.

As we were walking back to the ship, NCL's Norwegian Pearl came into port, docking tail to tail with us.

Checking their itinerary online, it looks like they left Boston two days ago, will be docked here for four days, and then make the two-day sail back to Boston

As we hopped on the elevator to go to our room, another man had a vest on with the same logo as the one I had on my shirt.

Of course, that meant they were also Villagers.  We asked and yes, they also live in The Villages.  The other two folks on the elevator started laughing as they were also Villagers.  In fact, folks at the game show last night came and talked to us as they also live in The Villages.  If I had to guess, I'd say there are potentially 20 or more Villagers on this cruise.  Funny how that works.

When we were in town, we noticed distinctive white birds flying around.  They had extremely long tails.  We asked a guide and they explained they were Bermuda longtails - a national symbol for Bermuda.  When I looked them up, I found that while they are locally known as Bermuda Longtails, they are actually White-tailed Tropicbirds.  It is nesting season and it is a sure sign of spring when they do that here in Bermuda.  In the winter, they spend their time well out in the Sargasso Sea.  They were fun to watch and listen to.

This afternoon, we tried our hand at trivia once again.  There were a lot of literary questions and that's certainly not our sweet spot.  The failures:

• Jacob Black is the featured character in what Stephenie Meyer book series?
• Twilight - we hated the first movie and never read the books
• Who authored Hunger Games
• Only saw the movies - it was Susan Collins
• What was the first sport televised in the US and in what year?
• We got baseball but were way off on the 1939 broadcast
• Which planet has the most moons?
• We debated between Saturn and Jupiter and chose Jupiter, which is correct, but the host's answer was Saturn
• What year did Dexy's Midnight Runners release the song, Come On Eileen?
• 1982 - we guessed 1984
• Who acted as Superman in the movie Superman Returns?
• Brandon Routh - no ideas, never saw it
• What state's constitution is thought to be the longest in the world?
• Alabama - Alabama's Constitution is some 388,882 words long and it's believed to be the longest such document in the world. Its massive length is due in part to its 892 amendments
• How many points are on the Statue of Liberty's crown
• Seven - we didn't think and guessed 13
• Where is the original of Van Gogh's Starry Night?
• MOMA - Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC
• Yann Martel's novel won the Booker Prize in 2002 - what was it?
• Life of Pi
• Where was table tennis invented?
• We thought China, it was England
• How many legs are on a lobster?
• We stupidly said 8, but we should have known it was 10 as we've had this question before

So, it was a poor showing and the error in the last question certainly didn't make a difference.  We're smarter - yeah, that's it, we're smarter.

We also stayed for music trivia and did surprisingly well naming male artists/bands and songs. We didn't win but made it respectable.

Dinner tonight was a little disappointing. once again, we dined in Blu.  The service was impeccable as always, but the menu variety is seriously lacking.  We opted for some items from the main dining room menu - always an option for Blu.  The New England chowder was running and not creamy and thick like a chowder should be.  The Steak Diane was tough with strings and grizzle that made it all but inedible.  We've read complaints about the reduction in the quality of cruise food, and this certainly underscored that unfortunately, it seems to be true.  And, as long as people are willing to pay for crap, why would the cruise lines spend more money to offer anything better?  It's a shame because it marks the end of what was a terrific way to travel.  At least the luxury lines still seem to listen and we're looking forward to our Viking and Oceania cruises later this year.

We caught yet another lovely sunset before heading to the martini bar for a nightcap or two.  

Next up - six straight sea days en route to Cork, Ireland.