Bermuda's Horseshoe Bay and Church Bay

It took 48 hours to cruise from San Juan to Bermuda. 

We made the most of our sea days, including the Elite Wine Tasting and other treats found during ship life on Island Princess.

As Captain's Club members, we received invitations to the Elite Wine Tasting.

As usual, we enjoyed the presentations and fine wines but didn't retain much information about exactly what we tasted.  Something I found odd at our table was a couple who chose to wear masks, although after their first sip they seemed to forget that they were terrified of being in public.

We arrived around 3 PM to a sunny afternoon at Bermuda's Royal Naval Dockyard.

En route, Princess staff revealed that at our arrival, public transportation would be shut down for an annual meeting of the bus drivers' union until evening, which also meant the popular ferry wasn't running.

Passengers from the Norwegian mega-ship that was also in port had not been informed.  Many of their passengers were in a rage as we stood in line at the information shack to buy bus tickets for the next morning (so we could get an early start) as well as glean further info on the situation.

We could have pivoted to take a taxi to Church Bay, but it turned out that there was a shuttle that would take us to Horseshoe Bay, a beach Julie had penciled in for the next morning. 

The shuttle dropped us just a short walk from the beach.  Unfortunately, the transportation situation resulted in the snorkel cove being jammed with people who jumped at the same opportunity.

We didn't see many fish in our respective swims, so we decided to ditch the crowds and walk down the beach to an uncrowded stretch.

Swimming in warm tropical water makes us happy.

I body surfed the small waves, when they occasionally swelled to a point where they could push me toward shore for fifty feet or so.

Click here to hear the waves in Julie's short video of Horseshoe Bay.

With an overnight stay in port, many cruisers took advantage of the opportunity to wine and dine in Hamilton.

Julie and I headed back to the ship for another terrific evening of dining and entertainment onboard.

We got off to an early start in the morning with pre-purchased bus tickets in hand to catch the first bus.

At a stop close to Church Bay, the driver pointed us to the right trail to get to the little cove known to have great snorkeling but can reportedly become overcrowded.

I think it was about a half mile walk up and down a hill, which might be a challenge for some people, but it is well worth the effort.

Only one guy was at Church Bay when we arrived, and he was in the water most of the time.

There were never more than ten people on the beach at any given time.

We staked out a spot in the shade on what was destined to become a hot day.

Click here to see how deserted Church Bay was on the day we visited in Julie's short video.

You'll note we found a lot of kelp on the beach beside the turquoise water.

That is understandable, because it would be difficult for beach cleaning crews to access Church Bay daily.

An unlikely tree grew atop a rock formation.

In terms of volume of fish, the snorkeling was not as good as at Bermuda's Tobacco Bay, which we've snorkeled several times.

Church Bay was home to some of the largest brightly colored fish we've ever seen, including huge clown fish that must have been four feet long.  They were much bigger than the tropical fish my dad bought at Tex's Tropical Fish in Belmont Shores who swam in the big aquarium in my childhood home. 

Going between the warm turquoise water and the beach was terrific.

We were worn out before noon, happy to let the sun dry us so we would be ready to ride the bus back to the ship.

There were only two other couples on the beach as we spent our last minutes basking in the sun.

For some reason those couples decided to sit between us and the ocean to have a loud conversation about growing up on the Jersey Shore and appliances they own.  Really odd.

We finally decided to retreat a few minutes early up the stairs, because there was a picnic table overlooking the ocean on the way to our bus stop.

Scanning the schedule, we seemed to have a twenty-minute wait, so we walked across the street to a shaded bench for buses going the other direction, toward Hamilton.  We had time to take a detour to lunch, but as usual, free cuisine of the ship beckoned with its Siren's Song.

Not long after we sat down, a bus went by going our way, too fast for us to cross the street in time to catch it.  That meant we had an extra thirty-minute wait.  Note for next time: Google Maps' Bus Times are not accurate outside Hamilton.

While I intended to go ashore after lunch to walk around the Royal Naval Dockyard, I didn't make it back off once I was comfortably ensconced.

We sailed away 24 hours after we arrived, enjoying the cruise back to Brooklyn where our voyage had begun.

During our decades of travels, we've been on more exciting, educational, challenging or mind-expanding trips, but this was a relaxing, luxurious cruise that returned us home refreshed and ready to make the most of life.

That certainly is more than sufficient motivation to take a cruise.