May 24, 2022 Newport, Rhode Island

Our first port is Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1639. On May 17, Celebrity sent an email, that we did not receive, informing passengers that Newport was cancelled. Then on May 20, we did receive an email that announced that Newport was reinstated to its original day as Bermuda had changed its protocols. We are not docked, but are being tendered, which means taking one of four lifeboats which are designed to also work to transfer people to and from the ship. If you are not taking a tour from the ship, you go to the place where tender tickets are being handed out. When your number is called, passengers make their way down to deck 1, where the platform is to load passengers into the tender boats to go to the designated pier in the port.

This morning at 8 a.m. the temperature was 14°C, a 16 km wind and a thin cloud cover. The interactive function of the room TV note that the ship had travelled 171 nautical miles from Cape Liberty and the anchored position in Newport Harbour was 41°29.35’N and 71°20,70’W. We went to the Tuscan Grille, where Elite Loyalty and higher passengers can enjoy a served breakfast. It is the first Celebrity cruise we have been on since we reached the Elite level. Shortly after 9 a.m., we, with our N95 fitted face masks on, climbed into the tender carrying about 125 people. The voyage was 2.58 km (or about 1.4 nautical miles) to the pier right by the historical Newport town centre.

We walked a block to the closed Information Center and took a map from their outdoor rack.

Our plan was to walk to the Cliff Walk, which follows the shoreline 10 to 15 meters above the water, on the southern edge of Newport. The first three kilometres is largely on a two meter wide asphalted path passing the late 19th and early 20th century waterfront mansions such as The Chanler, now a 20 room hotel, at the start of the Cliff Walk at Memorial; Astor’s Beechwood; Marble House and Rough Point. You have a southeasterly view of Easton Bay looking out to Newport Harbour. You can see the rocks below, but the water was calm today. We listened to many bird songs as we walked, sometimes stopping to photograph a house or the rocky shoreline. Part of the path was being repaired and a one block detour of took us past other mansions. The return road to the Cliff Walk path brought us beside Salve Regina University which has a mixture of mid 20th century buildings and old mansions on its campus. The final 40 meters before the Wetman Avenue exit, where we ended our Cliff Walk, involved carefully navigating boulders, mostly flat on top, to join the next pathway, which had more rugged parts. A man in his seventies was walking along Wetman and told us that he had written a book about the history of the last house that we had seen, which faced the bay. The house is currently being restored with, what he says, is a two million dollar budget.

We walked along residential streets, with no sidewalks for 5 km to Fort Adams State Park where we had a great view of the Celebrity Summit in the harbour with the Pell (Newark) Bridge, built in 1969, in the background. The distance was 5.5 km. Since it was after noon we stopped at the Fort Adams gift shop and bought to share a small package of Blueberry Trail mix, a bottle of water and an Orange Cranberry biscotti which we ate at a picnic table overlooking Narragansett Bay and a replica three masted sailing ship. We decided to forgo a tour of the fort but took pictures.

Fort Adams was started in the early 1850s and completed in 1857 covering 20 acres with a 6.5 acre parade field. It held 468 cannons and 2,400 troops at its peak. During the late 1770s the area was a campsite and staging area for British troops fighting the American revolution. The fort was designed by French military engineer, Simon Bernard and American military architect Joseph Totten. We walked back to the historical city centre, a distance of six km. On the way back, we saw a statue in a small park and investigated. It was of Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Count of Rochambeau of France. He led the 6,000 French troops which landed near that place in 1780 to aid the Americans in their fight against the British. Rochambeau was a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin.

In the old town we stopped at Queen Anne Park. The area had run down in the early 1960s and was revitalized by creating the park and restoring many of the 18th century American buildings in the area. Newport may have the largest collection of 18th century American buildings in the United States.

We were able to board the tender boat that was ready to return to the ship. By 2:30 we were on Deck 10 at the Oceanview ice cream bar, resting after our exploration of Newport. Before dinner, the Ocean Beat band played dance music in the Rendez-vous Lounge. Only four or five couples were dancing so there was room for all. We are seated at a table for two. Our assigned seats at a table of six was reallocated to members of a 25+ tour group. We find the advantage of just us for dinner is that we don’t have to wait for other people to arrive before ordering and don’t have to wait until the last person finishes eating the main course to order the dessert and tea or coffee. We can be finished in less than 90 minutes, in time to either see the main stage act or ballroom dance in the Sky Lounge. After dinner we watched the theatre show Carol’s King’s Tribute Act, but neither of us liked the group’s arrangements of the songs so we climbed the stairs from Deck 5 to Deck 11 to the Sky Lounge to dance to prerecorded ballroom dance music. Larry makes way better ballroom dance playlists. We were the only couple on the dance floor most of the time. There were maybe 15 people in the 300 seat capacity bar. Then at 8:15 the Ocean Beat started their set. They even played a Tango which we and another couple danced to. By 9 p.m., our feet told us to rest.

The daily newsletter of the next day’s activities reminded passengers that overnight to set your watches an hour ahead in anticipation of the visit to Bermuda. It also advised that tomorrow is an evening Chic dress code in the main dining room – Cosmopolitan. That means that women should dress up in cocktail dresses or dressy pant suits and men wear long sleeve button-down shirts and long pants, with a sports jacket optional. There is no longer a formal night, but people can still wear tuxedos and gowns.

As usual, the ship’s internet access is satellite based. The basic package is almost dial-up slow or slower. Therefore, we will load some photos, but only when we can get a land connection that is speedier. In the past, on cruise ships, it has taken over 60 minutes to upload one picture – just too frustrating.

Total steps today 33,376