Locust Point is the name of the neighborhood that the Baltimore cruise terminal is in. It’s easy to find, look up Ft. McHenry and head west. We picked the Courtyard Marriott hotel because, like I mentioned earlier, we could literally walk to the cruise ship. We had planned on having dinner the Friday night before the cruise at Diamondback Brewing, with its large beer list and great looking brick oven pizza. As we reviewed the site, we realized they were closing for a private event so we had to pivot. We walked down the street a bit and found Barracudas Locust Point Tavern. Here we found a great pizza, a really good french dip sandwich, some good beer, and a fun atmosphere.

We swung by The Cellars Wine & Beer Shop to grab our two bottles of wine before heading back to the hotel for the night. The next morning we met up with Kelly and Phil, who had gotten in late the night before, and indulged in a northeastern staple for breakfast, Dunkin Donuts. We were hoping to find a gap in the rain to walk over to the cruise port, but time ran out so we set out. There was a staircase at the back of the parking lot that led us under the highway bridge and then across one street and we were walking into the port. We had to stop and show our IDs and passes to a guy who grunted at us, expecting us to know that meant “Hi, I work here and I need to check your information”. It took us about 15 minutes to get through the check-in process and then up to the Viking Lounge to meet up with Mike and Lisa and kill some time before lunch.

The weather never really cleared up, rain and fog persisted and the whole itinerary that we had prepared to sightsee on the way down the Chesapeake Bay was for not. We thought we’d at least get to have the same view of Ft. McHenry that the Royal Navy had during their bombardment of the fort in the War of 1812, but the water facing side was mostly earthworks, which just looks like grass hills. We did sail past the remains of the Francis Scott Key bridge.

Vision of the Seas

Lunch in the Windjammer was interesting, the first thing we noticed is that the layout is a good deal different than most Royal Caribbean ships we’ve been on. There is a buffet line right at each entrance and the crew consistently shifted which entrance they were using to moderate the line length, which regularly spilled out into the hall.

After lunch we dropped our bags off in the rooms and Miranda got a glimpse of her birthday cake that one of her friends had ordered to surprise her on the ship. We set off to explore our new home for the next five days. This was our second time sailing aboard a Vision-class ship, the first one being Rhapsody of the Seas back in 2024 on an Eastern Caribbean trip. Things we noticed right away were that the Schooner bar was skinnier, this apparently caused trivia to be held in the oddly named Some Enchanted Evening Lounge, which was surprisingly larger than we expected. The Crowne Lounge was a dedicated area, rather than carved out of the Viking Lounge like on the Radiance-class. All-in-all, everything just felt a little cozier, which was nice, but it also made us wonder what our trek out into the open Atlantic would feel like the next day.

That night we went to trivia and it was packed; we didn’t love our chances of winning any of the trivia sessions on this trip. We went with an early dinner time on this cruise, 5 pm like a bunch of old people, but it worked well with the schedule. We did find the first of, what would be, a handful of ducks on the cruise and attended the Welcome Aboard show that included the first of two comedians on the trip.

Our full day at sea was spent lounging, eating, drinking, and attending trivia, just the way a day at sea is supposed to be. The seas weren’t as bad as we were envisioning them being and the sun even came out in the afternoon. After dinner we hung out in the Schooner bar for the first of several piano shows from Anselmo Boles, who mixed some good music, comedy, crowd participation, crowd heckling, and his own bit of music improv for a pretty entertaining show. Luckily he was playing several times, so we were never lacking for a good option in the evening.

Bermuda - evening

Our day in Bermuda began like the previous day, mostly because we weren’t actually scheduled to arrive until 2 pm. We started the day like any other at-sea day, breakfast, trivia, lounging. As noon approached, we caught site of land. The announcement from the captain came about an hour later and a few things started to make a little more sense. We were approaching St. George, on the northeast side of the island, even though, in our minds, we should have been going right in for the docks on the northwest side. Turns out that Bermuda is surrounded by coral reefs and there’s a defined channel that large ships have to navigate to get in. So even though we could see the beaches, we were still nearly two hours away from the ramp dropping. This is pretty important, so don’t forget that for later.

The first impressive site we got was Fort St. Catherine, protecting the north tip of the island. This was on our itinerary from our cancelled cruise, so it was interesting to get to just float on by. The pilot boat came out as we passed St. George and our speed slowed significantly for the rest of the way. As we approached the Royal Naval Dockyard, we could see the Norwegian Aqua parked for its 3-day stop here. The next big landmark was the Keep, the fortress that has protected the dockyard for over two hundred years, although the last thirty have been as a museum.

Our plan was to get off the boat as soon as possible and try to catch the water taxi that’s scheduled to leave at 2:15 pm, but as we sat on the deck and waited for clearance, we saw the water taxi leave at 2. Plan B was to catch a regular taxi to Hamilton, which we did for an advertised cost of $60 for six people. Our cab driver pointed out several sites along the way including the worlds smallest drawbridge and Horseshoe Bay. Our first stop was the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, however our price ended up being $70, so don’t trust the sign at the dock, confirm your price with the driver.

Bermuda - Morning

The next morning we were up at 7 am for breakfast and then we walked off the ship a little after 8. The nice thing about overnight stays are that you’re not waiting in line to get off the ship. We took the short walk to the Keep, only to find out that it didn’t open until 9 am. We’d passed several shops on our taxi ride the previous day, so we started heading to those and were greeted by similar 9 am opening times, some were even 10 am! Bermuda stays busy, as far as we could tell, there’s at least one ship in port every day, you can tell no one is orienting their hours around them. More people were leaving the ships, so we started following the crowd. Our first stop was a pottery shop that had some interesting pieces. We wandered into a corner store but didn’t find much there, then we happened upon something calling itself a mall that opened at 9. By this time we decided to wait it out, and once it opened, we found that it was a collection of souvenir shops. Some shirts, dresses, and a mug were procured before we decided to call it and head to the Keep.

Once we paid our entry fee and began to wander, we noticed a sign that one doesn’t expect to see in a stone fortress…. “Dolphin Quest Bermuda”. We followed the signs, and sure enough, there were dolphins. The lagoon that once provided an area for convicts to bathe now houses a bottlenose dolphin pod. These dolphins have a habitat outside the lagoon, that they reach through an opening in the fortress wall. When we got there, several groups were suited up in the water playing with the pod. We took pictures and a few videos, but we were on the clock, so it was time to move on.

Construction of the Keep began in the early 1800’s to fortify English holdings in the Americas after the loss of the American Colonies. It defended the entrance to the bay until 1995. The big house in the middle hosts a museum that includes information from Bermuda’s early days, colonial life, the history of slavery on the islands, and exhibits about more recent times as a tourist destination.

The armaments of the fort include everything from 24 and 32 pounder cannons, all the way up to 9-inch counter-bombardment guns. We were able to get right up to the walls with nothing but a little barbed wire here and there, which didn’t actually feel like was intended for us. There was a sign about goats, assuming that’s their lawn mowing service.

Baltimore - Day 1

We arrived to the dock in Baltimore about an hour and a half late. Not bad considering how long the transfer took. We had a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant while we waited for the call to disembark. We were looking for that sweet spot between the end of the folks doing the DIY approach and the first group of folks that had left their bags outside their rooms the night before for assistance. I’m not sure if we found it or not, we might have actually cut in front of a few hundred people in a gap created by some slow people, but there are advantages to being on the lower decks.

We bid goodbye to Mike and Lisa, who were continuing their month-long road trip and we hailed an Uber to head into the inner-harbor district to drop our bags off at the Candlewood Suites we had booked for a couple of nights. We’d been warned that Baltimore wasn’t the safest of places, but that it should be ok if we stuck to the inner-harbor area and didn’t stay out late. There were plenty of people just loitering around our hotel, we learned later that there was a homeless shelter just down the street and we were primarily out there as it was opening or closing. Our first stop was the Federal Hill Park with its imposing position overlooking the inner-harbor.

That evening we stopped by a local dive bar called Peter’s Pour House for a beer but ended up staying for dinner before calling it a night. We were introduced to the National Bohemian, also known as Natty Boh, the local run of the mill light beer that was a welcome change from our usual heavier beers. The food was good and the crowd was lively for a dive bar, but not too lively.

Baltimore - Day 2

Our second day in Baltimore began with a hardy breakfast ahead of a lot of walking and breweries. Luckily there was a recommended restaurant just around the corner, David and Dad’s Cafe. The interior looked like it used to be an old bank brank. They’ve got a good size menu, fast service, and good coffee. Our walk began by heading east towards the massive brick tower in the distance. Six blocks later and we were standing at the foot of the Baltimore Phoenix Shot Tower, built in 1828, and for twenty years it was the largest structure in the US. Its sole purpose was to create lead pellet shots for muskets. The molten lead was dropped from the top into a water basin. By the time it splashed down, it was perfectly smooth, round, and cooled. There was also a police officer memorial at the base of the tower that we explored.

As we continued on, towards Fells Point and our next stop, the Star Spangled banner Flag House. We learned a lot about history of the early flags of the US, the women who made them, and the unique place in history of the 15 stripe flag that was made for Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812. We toured the house, the museum, and watched a short film on the topic before heading into Little Italy on our way to our first beer stop.

Our first beer stop was the Ministry of Brewing. Strangely enough, one of the bartenders at Peter’s Pour House had said this wasn’t one she liked, but we decided she was crazy. Situated in the former St. Michael’s Church, this brewery was our favorite drink stop of the trip! The beer selection was great, the shirts were clever, and the ambiance of drinking in the pews of a nearly 200-year-old church was pretty cool. We had a couple of flights while we were there, enjoyed the surroundings, and grabbed a couple of shirts.

baltimore - day 3

Our last day in Baltimore began with breakfast at Miss Shirley’s Cafe for the best pancakes in Baltimore (although they said the world). Their special was pound cake French toast so we had to go with that too. To walk off breakfast, we swing by the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, a screwpile supported lighthouse that once stood in the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patapsco River. It now calls the inner-harbor home and was part of the Historic Ships pass that got us access to the four museum ships. This was not only a lighthouse, it was a home to a family and an assistant for almost a hundred years before the coast guard automated it in the 1940’s and then finally retired it in 1988.

We kept walking towards Fells Point for another 15 minutes and passed by one of the harbor trash collectors known as the Trash Wheels. There are four of these deployed all over the harbor to keep river and rain runoff from inundating the waterway with refuse. At this point we said goodbye to Phil and Kelly, they were catching an earlier flight and we still had a few hours to kill. We continued along the coastline of Fells Point through the small parks, walking paths, and warehouses that have been reclaimed as condos and apartments. It really is a beautiful part of the city and it shows why we hear several times that we’d be fine if we stuck to the inner-harbor area on our trip.

We eventually turned north through the Broadway Market, which was in full swing on a Saturday morning. It looked like there were plenty of booths with crafts, second hand clothes, and it all ended at a building that housed stands with fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and other grocery items.

It was now our turn to head towards the airport, but we had one stop worked into the schedule, Heavy Seas Beer. We’d seen their offerings all over town, but their locations weren’t within walking distance, so we got an Uber there, grabbed lunch from the food truck outside, and hung out at the taproom while planning our next trip. We each got a flight and then a follow up beer as the place started to pick up with Saturday afternoon patrons. As our departure time got closer, we called another Uber, got to the airport and headed home.