July 2^nd 2025

Newport, RI

Newport is a tender port, and you needed tickets to get onto the tenders, so we decided to spend the morning in the Commodore Club and only go ashore once the crowds had dissipated. It is so easy to go up one flight of stairs to the Commodore Club.

Although we don’t have the best view from our balcony, the stateroom is certainly in a good position on the ship. We are on deck 8 midway between the A and B lifts. This places us in close proximity to the spa, library and the Commodore Club. What more can one ask for? We are also one deck above the Kings Court, but that’s not my favorite place at all.

There were a few other people in the Commodore Club, but we were able to get great seats near the windows, with a good view of Newport and close by sail boats. It had been raining quite hard, but the rain stopped, and the sun made a brave attempt at shining through the cloud cover.

The Commodore Club has had a recent makeover, and unlike the previous makeover, this one is a huge improvement. Gone are those amazingly uncomfortable and unattractive white chairs. They have been replaced with very comfortable and colourful chairs. One could very easily take an afternoon nap in them. The man sitting next to us was indeed taking an early morning nap.

The lovely map tables remain.

At 12:30 we went down to the Royal Court Theater to see what the situation with the tenders was. There was still a long wait as although there were 4 tenders going back and forth, the coast guard had instructed that they had to slow down, so now the journey was taking 25 minutes instead of 15. No worries, we sat in the theater reading until our tender ticket number was called, and we headed down to the aft pontoon to board our tender.

On our previous visit to Newport, it had rained all day, and the crossing to the dock had been very rough. Not so today, although it was still overcast, there was no rain, and we had a long but calm ride to the dock.

It was time for lunch, and there is no shortage of restaurants near the dock. We chose to go to the Black Pearl, where we had enjoyed a great meal on our previous visit.

I had a work-related Teams meeting which I didn’t want to miss, so had to join the meeting as we were waiting for our table in the restaurant. The meeting went on throughout our time having lunch, but I can listen and eat a lobster roll at the same time, so all was well. Luckily, I didn’t have anything to add to the meeting, so I didn’t need to unmute and explain the raucous noise in the background. Brian had a homeowners association meeting when we were in the Souk in Marrakech and as we negotiated our way through the chaos of the Souk he was happily chatting away. Luckily, we didn’t get lost in the side alleys of the Souk.

Lunch and my meeting ended, and off we set on our shopping spree. We had done a pretty thorough exploration of Newport during our previous visit, so we decided to concentrate on purchases. There is a liquor store (Veuve Clicquot and Laphroig), pharmacy and supermarket all in easy walking distance of the tender dock, so we were in good shape.

Newport is a really lovely town, we enjoyed our walk, our provisions safely stowed in our back packs.

We had thought it would take a long time to catch the tender back to the ship, but although there was a long line at the dock, things moved very quickly and soon we were on the tender and back on board.

The group Clique played for our sail away, and it was lovely to watch all the sail boats near us as we sailed out of the port.

It was a great sail away. I had really enjoyed our first port. The weather was good, and we sat out on our balcony enjoying the sea air. The lifeboats did block our view, somewhat but they also blocked the wind, so I had no complaints.

With much force Brian was able to finally open our bottle of free champagne. On further reading of the label it would appear that it really isn’t champagne as although it is French, it probably isn’t from the Champagne region. Anyway, it actually tastes really good, much better than Pol Acker and the Cunard prosecco.

It was wonderful to sit out on the balcony and relax. This is definitely one of the great pleasures of cruising.

I love the specialty restaurant, Bamboo, so we decided to dine there tonight. We had a table by the window and could see the lights of the mainland in the distance between the inflatable life rafts. The food was a wonderful as ever, and we had a great meal.

The entertainment tonight was a group called “You’ve got a Friend” who sing Carole King songs. I love Carole King, so it was a treat to listen to her music and learn about the history behind her songs.

There were chocolates on our bed again tonight. I can get used to this.