Not very Live, but a blog nonetheless - Harmony OTS August 26th

[Joe01]

Hi all, was on the Harmony this past week for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean sailing. Arrived home less than 24 hours ago, from the cabin on Harmony to my apartment in Glasgow it was about 22 hours worth of travel so definitely tired. But it was a great trip.

I'll review the trip in it's entirety, but to give some context first - this cruise came about as my sister was working in a Summer camp in America for 2 months, and the opportunity to go on a Caribbean cruise after she finished came up. I didn't have my summer vacation booked so I figured why not. On this one, I travelled solo for 4/5 days, visiting Boston, New York & Miami before finally meeting her for the cruise.

Itinerary was as follows:

• August 21st - Fly from Edinburgh to Boston
• August 22nd - Full day in Boston
• August 23rd - Amtrak from Boston-NYC, dinner & evening in Times Square
• August 24th - Fly from LaGuardia to Miami
• August 25th - Full day in Miami
• August 26th - Embark Harmony of the Seas
• August 27th - Perfect Day at CocoCay, Bahamas
• August 28th - Sea Day
• August 29th - Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas (stayed on ship)
• August 30th - Philipsburg, St Maarten
• August 31st - Sea Day
• September 1st - Sea Day
• September 2nd - Debark Harmony/fly from Miami-JFK, overnight to Edinburgh
• September 3rd - Arrive back in Scotland

Most definitely a packed 2 weeks, lots of fun had! Next up is the day by day blog/review.

[SweetPea]

What a jam-packed trip! Looking forward to heading about your travels!

[Joe01]

Monday - August 21st

The day started at 9am with an Uber from my apartment in Glasgow all the way to Edinburgh Airport, this journey takes about 45 minutes. After checking in my suitcase and going through security, I went to the Plaza Premium lounge in the airport for a couple of hours. I managed to catch the last of their breakfast offering and enjoyed the views of the planes coming in and out:

The flight was DL123 from Edinburgh to Boston, we left around 1.30pm. This was a good flight, for the first time in a while, I lucked out in having a vacant seat next to me, and was near the front of the plane by my standards (row 19). I highly recommend Delta if you travel to Scotland from the States, their transatlantic product is far better than United IMO. They use 767s as opposed to United's crap 757s so it feels more spacious, the planes feel up to date (with USB chargers) and the service is usually pretty good.

After around 7 hours, we landed at Logan Airport. Unfortunately, this is where things got a little pear-shaped, as most of the booths were closed, meaning that we had a queue of about an hour, I was definitely thankful that I walk fast and was near the front of the plane, otherwise it would have been longer. It took so long in fact, that my suitcase had been taken off the belt and was literally sitting there waiting for me at the baggage claim.

Then it was into a taxi to my hotel in Boston.

[Joe01]

Due to the long queues, we were stuck in rush hour traffic so the journey sadly took even longer yet again. And I forgot that I was in America and almost didn't tip the driver (since we don't usually do that here) .

But finally, I arrived at my hotel - the DoubleTree Boston Bayside. This was decent, a standard DoubleTree fare, cookie for check-in and all. My room was a decent size and perfectly comfortable for the two nights I spent there.

A downside was that the hotel was a bit out of the city, had to take the MBTA red line into the centre from JFK/Mass to Downtown Crossing. In typical tourist fashion, I didn't know how to use the ticket machines or ticket barriers. Then it was through to the train. Sadly this is where I have to give Boston a thumbs down, the red line gives this city a bad, bad name. Perhaps I'm spoiled coming from Western Europe but I've never seen a more underinvested, decrepit subway system in all of my life. And the train took ages to go about 4/5 stations, it kept stopping for no reason.

Finally into the centre area, I walked around for about 20 minutes until it started raining really, really heavily. Even as a Scot, it was brutal.

 

Needless to say, I ended up going into the nearest restaurant I could find - a place called Back Deck. They had an interesting twist on some American items. But I was just glad to be out of the rain and to have some food: 

 

[Ampurp85]

Yeah having taken the tram and buses in Scotland and in a lot of European countries in general, the American transit system leaves a lot to be desired.

That looks like white bread, grilled chicken, and a pickle.....please say it taste better than it looks.

[JVPIII]

That seems like a great trip. I look forward to hearing about your adventure.

[Joe01]

17 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

That looks like white bread, grilled chicken, and a pickle.....please say it taste better than it looks.

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one...

The menu labelled it as "Chicken Tenders".

[teddy]

17 hours ago, Joe01 said:

A downside was that the hotel was a bit out of the city, had to take the MBTA red line into the centre from JFK/Mass to Downtown Crossing. In typical tourist fashion, I didn't know how to use the ticket machines or ticket barriers. Then it was through to the train. Sadly this is where I have to give Boston a thumbs down, the red line gives this city a bad, bad name. Perhaps I'm spoiled coming from Western Europe but I've never seen a more underinvested, decrepit subway system in all of my life. And the train took ages to go about 4/5 stations, it kept stopping for no reason.

The MBTA is always an adventure....and never the adventure you're looking for

https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/03/03/video-mbta-rider-nearly-hit-by-collapsed-ceiling-panel-at-red-line-station/