Eiansmomma

We're also sailing on Sunday. We plan to use to public transportation as well. I think we'll postpone Horseshoe Beach until later in the week, or maybe head there in the afternoon. How late do the busses run back to dockyards?

I'm wondering if we should switch days. Originally I planned for us to do the beaches on Wednesday and Dockyard on Friday.

I saw a bus schedule on here somewhere.

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I leave for Bermuda on Sunday and we plan on using public transportation. I'll try to update everyone when we get back!

# 7 is NOT non stop .

I've read about a "express bus that goes directly to Horseshoe Bay non stop...they are marked "special" and the fare is the same as the #7 bus. I mis-spoke...sorry.

So I guess I'm trying to find out if the "special" bus she is talking about is the "new shuttle", the #7 or the "express special bus"

Just back on Sunday.

 

On Wednesday, we had a private excursion and on Friday took the ferry to Hamilton, so I can only comment on Thursday.

 

We left the ship around 10:30am. We bought bus tokens and walked over to the bus line. The line for the special bus was long. We estimated it would take us two to three buses to get on. We waited for 15 minutes without seeing a single bus.

 

So my family of 4 took a taxi. It cost us $8pp to Warwick Long Bay, same as the shuttle rate.

are you referring to the "special bus" as the new shuttle that goes to HSB or the #7 non-stop to HSB?

I agree.

If Biker had 10 tokens and there were two of them, that's 5 tokens apiece. One token each way only makes for 2 1/2 trips somewhere.

 

Just in case you didn't know, children under 5 are free and ages 5-16 are half price.

Our youngest just turned 5, the other two are 8 and 12.

We used tokens ( I got 10 for $40 ) our last time in Bermuda .

 

They worked out way cheaper for us and I still have a few left for next time .

we have a family of 5 (I think our youngest is free). I would rather stick with my transportation pass and have unlimited "rides" and not have to worry about tokens etc.

I'm following this! We leave on Sunday for Bermuda! We are getting the 3 day transportation pass and was planning on taking the #7 from dockyard because the shuttle fee is too expensive for our family (it would almost equal our 3 day pass).

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We have a whaler rented for 6 hours. Going to do some snorkeling, fishing and hopefully some beach hopping. Were planning on bringing drinks and snacks with us. It would be nice to find a place to dock if we get hungrier!! I'm looking forward to this!

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You must walk to the left to the other end of the beach.

I'm wondering if we should start our day at Warwick and walk back towards horseshoe (will the bus drop us off at Warwick). I'm thinking ahead to food and beverages etc

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After coming down the hill to Horseshoe which way should we walk on the beach to find the oath that connects the other beaches? We have given ourselves a whole day to explore and swim that area.

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Passports are recommend in case you need to fly home.

We already know this (I mentioned in my original post that we know it's safer and smarter to travel with them). We are working our way up to getting them for all 5 of us. Just takes $$ to do so. We currently have 2 out of 5 with passports! We will all have them before our cruise in Feb 2015!

They only time we have needed a passport for Bermuda is when we fly there for a land vacation

that's what I thought! I just wanted to double-check because it would really stink if my kids had to stay on the ship :p

I have a question regarding entry into Bermuda. Someone on my Roll Call said they called the Bermuda consulate and found out the following.

"I would have no problem getting onto the ship or returning back into US with the use of an EDL (enhanced drivers license) BUT, Bermuda WILL NOT accept an EDL for entry."

I believe that is only the case if the cruise is NOT a "closed-loop cruise" - correct?

I have searched cruise critic and everything I have found said that you do NOT need a passport to travel to Bermuda on a "closed-loop cruise" so I thought I would throw it out here. My husband and I are traveling with Passports but the kids are traveling with their Birth Certificates. I know it's safer and smarter to travel with Passports (we are working on them for all of us). We are leaving from Bayonne and returning to Bayonne.

I'm glad I brought bottles with me. Yes it's convenient to bring a glass of wine back to the room but my own bottles really came in handy when the kids were sleeping and I couldn't get to a bar. Also came in handy when I was in my "comfy clothes" and wanted a night cap on the balcony.

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On our last cruise I was having a serious craving for a "salty snack". The price tag for such items on the ship were outrageous!!

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Good for you.

 

Now remember to get nice family pictures on those nights, try to put money aside for one of the professional shots, because they do a really great job even though they are pricy. They will work with your family posing you and they usually have a lot of different backgrounds to choose from throughout the ship.

We had awesome family pictures taken on our last cruise! We bought one of our whole family and one of just the kids! Well worth the $$

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but just wanted to say thanks to the OP for posting these pics. This cabin came available not long before our sailing, so being able to see all these pics to help make the decision was invaluable.

 

 

 

Paying it forward, I've got a Photosynth of the balcony here for anyone who wants to get an idea of the size, and how much of a view you really get with the corner FV rooms:

 

 

 

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=c7ad1339-6a67-47b9-84c7-1960facb41b8

 

 

 

We really enjoyed this room (especially the balcony) last week :)

I'm going to check out your photosynth now! I'm so glad you bumped this - we have 9197 on our next cruise (same room as this but on the opposite side of the ship). I see us spending a lot of time on that balcony. We have never taken advantage of room service before but we plan to eat breakfast from room service on our veranda every morning!

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Wednesday, June 4th Continued

A Simple Guide to Horseshoe Beach

 

We got off the boat easily as we waited until about 10:00. Essentials: We had a backpack with two Celebrity-provided beach towels, a ziploc of sunscreen, a smaller ziploc for our cash, driver’s lisences, and seapasses. We also took a giant bottle of water and pre-packaged granola snacks in case we needed a little something. I am not a fan of eating fast food at the beach and didn’t want to leave what food we would find at the beach to chance. On the boat itself, there were no lines to exit. Etiquette: I read about this in my guide book and it seemed to be true. Always greet locals with a “Good Morning”, etc., even people you see on the street passing by. It’s not like living in NYC where it’s acceptable not to make eye contact with random people on the street. In Bermuda, strangers will tell you “Good Morning” and it is considered rude not to smile and say it back. Also, officially swimsuits are not allowed on the busses. Of course, everyone breaks that rule, but make sure you have dry towel on which to sit if you are still at all wet. You will be asked to sit on a towel, so just make sure you have one out. Don’t stress your driver out. Last, make sure you have an acceptable cover up on top of your swimsuit.I had read it was a modest culture and from what I saw, it’s true. We had a quick security check of our backpack by Bermudian officials and then we were good to go. Courtesy Shuttle: As soon as you exit the dock structure checkpoint, you are under a covered pavilion. You can wait underneath that area for a courtesy shuttle that will take you over to the busses/ferries and shopping area. The shuttle is a long trolley and it's hard to miss. Note though that the shuttle picks up from just across the road. You may want to go ahead and cross when you see the shuttle in the distance. It’s just nice to be able to wait in the shade. We actually only took the shuttle once due to an unfortunate mishap, but I’ll get to that later. All of the transportation is an easy walk if you don’t have any mobility problems. Our first stop was for transportation passes which are located just to the right when you exit the security check. We waited in a less than five minute line and asked about the ticket booklets. They didn’t have those, but the official told us they could be obtained at the visitor center in Hamilton. Well, that would mean a ferry ride of $4.50 each just to get to Hamilton and then a bus ride to the beach. No thanks. We purchased two $25 transportation passes which are just so easy to use and we at least broke even with them if not a bit ahead. We continued on until we saw a very large color coded signs that gave clear instructions on where things were, however before I could fully even look at it, we were approached by a local who kindly pointed us towards a big pink bus with a line full of tourists in front of it. This was the express bus, he said, and it is the same cost as the regular “local” #7 bus you could take to get to the beach, it just gets there faster as it goes straight to the hot destinations. That sounded good to us. We joined the queue and didn’t wait long before a bus pulled up.

 

 

I also read in the book about etiquette on the island. I have started doing two things because of this:

1) I've been prepping my kids (and husband) on the importance of following the islands customs and beliefs etc.

2) I have started trying to make eye contact with more people here in the States. I have also started greeting more people with a "hi or hello, how are you today" or just a simple smile etc. I'm really surprised at the number of people who DO NOT look at you while passing. And those that do look and I smile at or greet get really nervous and will quickly look away.

Any of the downtown hotels that have a shuttle to Ybor City will pick you up at the train station.

 

 

 

I don't know if they shuttle to the cruise port but it isn't too far.

I've never been to Tampa. What is Ybor City?

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We are working on our February cruise details. Looks like we will be taking Amtrak down from NYC. Does anyone know of hotels in Tampa that will pick us up at the Amtrak station and one that also has a shuttle to the Cruise Port? Thanks!

We just returned from our Summit cruise in cabin 8181 (corner fv). We had 3 teenagers (2 boys/1 girl). Boys slept on pull-out sofa, and daughter slept on other sofa (not a pull-out, but a flip-over). Pretty much wall-to-wall beds -- you cannot get to veranda with beds pulled out.

Not a problem - I'll just climb over them :D nothing is going to keep me away from that veranda!! LOL! Actually, the kids are able to stay up much later than I am these days (my age must be catching up with me). BUT I do enjoy my morning cup of coffee in peace (doesn't normally happen but it is nice to dream)

The expanded menu is for Concierge, Aqua Class and above.

I guess we'll make the best of it and stay away from the scrambled eggs :p

Here ya go :) Will like seeing our cruise shown from the eyes of another person! If you are missing anything or pics of something that you wanted I will look and see if we can fill it in for ya.

 

We didn't make the CC party or most stuff monday and most of tuesday as the rocking of the boat did us both in until meds (tons) starting kicking in tuesday night. Thank god the boat stopped wednesday in Bermuda lol

 

 

Fantastic, thank you! I just saw on the roll call that you didn't get your invite. How awful! I'm sorry that happened.

 

This menu was much fancier than the version we had. We had only the left side available and the entire right side was an up charge and the options for the free things were a lot simpler. With this menu we may not have ever left our room for breakfast! Thanks for posting!

Did you both have different room types? I was wondering because you both had different room service menus. We want to order room service breakfast to enjoy on our veranda.

Check out post 9 here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1962177

 

We were in 9156 corner FV.

It was so roomy, but it wasn't happy when I was thrown up & down the bed due the movement of the ship. We had 40 ft waves in the Bay of Biscay.

That's when I wished I had kept my mid ships cabin!

Oh dear! Well hopefully we won't have that problem. Did you have 5 people in the room? We are traveling with our kids - they will be 12, 8 and 5 when we sail. They would rather be swimming or at the kids club anyway....

Yay, another installment....can't wait for more.:)

 

 

 

There is a sliding door between the bedroom and the sitting areas in the aft/ corner FV cabins and it does close completely. My husband and I had one of those amazing cabins twice on Panama Canal cruises.

We have a corner/aft FV on our cruise in August. I've heard it's amazing and I can't wait to check it out and enjoy it!! We'll be in #9197!

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