Clay went to the gym for the last time early this morning.
He woke me up when he came back in the cabin after 7am. We were scheduled to
arrive in Newport, RI until 10am so we had nowhere to be this morning. It was
pretty calm sailing overnight. For some reason we came way out into the
Atlantic after leaving Boston yesterday. We looped way out and then sailed
pretty slowly straight back in to get to Newport. I forgot to mention earlier,
maybe because I hadn’t seen it on a map, but when we sailed from Bar Harbor to
Boston the body of water we crossed was the Gulf of Maine. I learned that from
a shore birds exhibit at the aquarium in Boston yesterday. Now you know. So the
sun was shining, some clouds, fairly calm seas and 63F this morning. The high
in Newport today was forecast as 72F. That sounds about right.
Land was visible from about 7am until we anchored. We went
to the main dining room after it opened at 8am. I wanted a final Eggs Benedict.
Since we are asked to out on deck 12 & 13 forward tomorrow by 6:45am,
breakfast may be hit or miss and the following day we have to be off by 8:10am.
So, I figured this was my last chance at a nice calm breakfast. We watched most
of the sail in from Bistro as I enjoyed a coffee. Don’t ask! We also needed to
wait for cabin to be ready for the day. We went to the cabin after we thought
we heard the anchor drop. We never saw a tender leave but after we were ready,
we went down to the tender area. We waited a few moments before they let the 10
or so of us waiting off the ship onto the tender. After we loaded a couple of
busloads of Panoramic Newport tours got on and we were off at 10:30am.
According to the knitting instructor who sat in our section with a tour sign, we
were on the first tender. We never heard any announcements being made about the
ship clearing, or tenders leaving. It was 30 minutes past scheduled arrival
time and we just showed up. Credit to Crystal again, because we remember what a
nightmare tendering was last year here on Oceania. Honestly, we still can’t figure
out how Oceania handled tendering so badly or shuttles in Boston so badly.
Crystal has done it right all along and credit to them for it. Also, we have
not seen on Crystal the preference given to ship’s tours departing the ship
that we have seen on every ship we’ve ever been on before. Nicely done.
The tender ride lasted about 20 minutes. Newport must be the
sailboat capital of the world. We must have been here on a Sunday last year
because it seemed like all downtown was closed. Today was busy and bustling for
the Newport Boat Show. It was like a completely different town. We walked
around the historic old town center. We saw the outside only of Touro
Synagogue, White Horse Tavern, Brick Market, Old Colony House, Courthouse,, Quaker
Meeting House, Trinity Church and St. Mary Church. We had lunch on Bowens Wharf
sitting outside watching the Boat Show. We had some ice cream and walked around
some more before going back and walking right onto a tender before it departed.
We were back aboard Serenity by 2pm and spent the next couple of hours doing
some packing.
We both admit to way overpacking. We wound up doing laundry
about every 7 days and didn’t need at least 30-50% of the clothes we each
brought. It was colder everywhere than was normal for each place on the date we
were there and still we didn’t use all the heavy clothes and accessories we
brought. Something to think about. It is hard to leave at home anything you
think you might want or need later, but you probably need less than you think.
We have dinner in the main dining room for the last time
tonight. Our final dinner on the last night aboard in NYC is at Prego at 6pm.
There is a special NYC New Year’s Eve style party in the Crystal Plaza this
evening around 8 to 9pmm with a balloon drop. It is not a sit down event we are
told. I can definitely pass on that. There is a Simon Bowman show in Galaxy Lounge
tonight at 10:30pm. There is a classical pianist in Stardust. There are 2
popcorn movie showings. We may just go to bed early to be up and out for the
Manhattan sail-in. I can hear the tenders being put away. The last one was
scheduled back at 4:30pm. We should be sailing in a couple of minutes. We had a
beautiful day today.
photos
photos
