Seas2mountains

I just saw your response after posting about Howl at the Moon dueling pianos. There is the fabulous Antonio who is on and we really enjoy his extensive song choices and his musical talent. We know many people like the dueling piano format but we prefer the one piano player who gets the audience involved like we experienced in the District Brewhouse or like is done in Magnums on Jewel class ships.

While I mentioned that we miss the District Brewhouse piano player for entertainment that we really liked on the Encore and Bliss at the end of the evening, we did enjoy the dueling pianos in Headliners last night but still prefer the format used in the District Brewhouse of one piano player. These performers were very talented and as usual, there are so many entertainment options even when we had a night in port.

We will leave Bermuda this afternoon. We have not heard anyone discuss any changes to the five day cruise to Bermuda scheduled to leave on Thursday. If we do hear of anything, I’ll share the info as we know this is stressful and unsettling for those on the cruise later this week. Here is the Day 9 daily.

We had a beautiful day arriving at Bermuda! We used the thermal spa as we were docking and it was nearly empty. We have had no issues getting access to the heated tile lounge after the first day which was an at sea day as chairs have had great availability after day one. With the weather being perfect, we took advantage of a gentle breeze and had dinner at Ocean Blue which was delicious again. We are struggling this cruise with being able finish our meals and hate to waste the food. Thanks to many others who have posted about this on CC, we were able to use our La Cucina/Moderno Latitudes Platinum and above dinner voucher at Ocean Blue. Thank you NCL! This is a wonderful option! We are also thankful to those who posted in the past about the Premium Plus beverage upgrade. This is the third cruise we have enjoyed trying high end wines and cognac for my husband. A glass of Veuve Clicquot was refreshing and nicely paired with appetizers at Ocean Blue. Pictured below are scallops, blazing shrimp, repeats of us ordering beets and clam chowder soup again, plus entrees of Halibut and fried fisherman’s platter. The sides are the super yummy Brussel sprouts, au gratin potatoes, mushroom risotto and creamed spinach. We failed once again to be able to consider dessert with all of that fantastic food.

I don’t think they do @dpemd If I see a beverage menu with the list that shows another diet soda, I’ll post it. Here is what is on the NCL website.

Thank you, @cruiseny4life It was quite strange. We received an update from the Haven concierge that the security team and officer were involved and would be sure to watch this person. As you said, we have no idea if it was a mental health issue or alcohol or what.

We had something strange happen when we were in the Bliss lounge last night listening to Prelude Duo. Another passenger decided to approach us after he left the dance floor and gestured for us to go dance. Despite us shaking our heads No and motioning for him to leave, he would not stop. Then he decided to sit at our table and got really close to my husband to ask why we weren’t dancing. My husband told him we wanted to listen to the music. (We had danced to a few songs earlier but we don’t know if that man saw us dance or not.) He then told my husband that he wanted to speak to me alone. My husband said No and asked him to leave. When he refused to leave our table, we got up to leave and that’s when the creepy guy finally left. We did ask the bar tender to call security if the guy came back. The bar tender encouraged us to file a security report. When we walked out of the lounge to use the restroom during the next music set and when we went to leave, we saw creepy guy speaking to two different women who appeared to be sitting alone in the casino. We did go to guest services and did file a report with security. They asked us to contact security if we saw the man again. We were able to describe the clothing the man was wearing and gave the time range when he approached us. Our big concern was that creepy guy did not respect the word “no” and had no respect for personal space with how close he got to my husband’s face and how he continually wanted to shake his hand. I hope he is not ruining the cruise for other people. We were feeling like we needed to watch for him so we decided to end our night earlier than planned. The Haven 2 bedroom suite is spacious and very comfortable so it was not horrible but was unfortunate.

I think previous Bermuda cruises impacted by hurricanes have gone to Canada. Maybe pack warm clothes to prepare for an adjusted itinerary? Wouldn’t you lose all funds paid or did you get travel insurance that would cover a late cancelation like a cancel for any reason policy? I’m sure the crew will do all they can to make any cruise enjoyable.

Yes, agree. Crew are all saying they actually look forward to having a full ship again for that sailing.

We have been back to the spa everyday as we purchased a pass for the entire cruise. The crowds have been very light after that first day and there have been plenty of heated spa lounge chairs available. There are no life guards in the spa but there are spa staff members in there who are constantly wiping the floors. We have not been to the spa before 10am to see what the crowds look like at that time of day. And we agree with you that this is so frustrating to see people reserve those heated chairs who walk away and don’t touch the chairs for an hour or more. I wish their belongings got removed or there was a system to assign the chairs for a period of time. You are welcome. Enjoy your cruise, too!

We arrive in Bermuda later today and leave tomorrow (Tuesday). It was mentioned that some of the swells we were feeling were from Fiona. Waters seem really calm this morning. We should be ahead of Fiona including getting back to NY by Thursday morning.

We kind of miss the District Brewhouse which was on the Bliss and Encore. We really liked the entertainment option with the piano players. There are so many entertainment options so we are not bored but think that is something we do miss visiting at the end of the night.

We had our mandatory Covid antigen tests today before the stop at Bermuda. it was done very well and NCL did a great job of having something so unpleasant move as quickly as possible.

After the GSC stop, the ship had so many different entertainment options, (see Day 6 daily), it was tough to decide where to go. All areas seemed quite full including many enjoying Gold River Duo by the pool. We enjoyed hearing Prelude Duo play while we ate at Ocean Blue last night. We had a bad Ocean Blue experience many, many cruises ago and were reluctant to try it. We can report about an amazing and delicious dinner at Ocean Blue last night with many familiar faces from the staff at the Haven restaurant. I forgot get photos of our entrees - grilled fisherman’s platter for me and fried fisherman’s platter for my husband. All were prepared perfectly! My husband loved the Blazing Shrimp appetizer. We may need to go back but with the fabulous Haven restaurant, we may need to wait until the next cruise.

Dailies from Day 6 and Day 7

Here are photos from the stop in at Great Stirrup Cay yesterday where the weather was also perfect. You can also see RCCL’s Coco Cay where two ships were docked.

The weather has been beautiful. After doing two Alaska cruises and one Pacific/Mexican cruise this past year, we realized we didn’t pack enough short sleeve shirts as it has been warmer than we expected. We are about a day away from arriving in Bermuda. We slept well last night as the swells are felt and kept rocking us back to sleep. With needing to move our clocks forward an hour, we wanted to keep resting but also didn’t want to lose too much time from our daily routine. Here are some photos taken this afternoon.

Thank you for sharing this info. We gave up asking until seeing your post. Happy to say we enjoyed hash browns today.

I keep forgetting to take food photos but here are a few. We shared a steak last night as after an appetizer and salad, and being able to add lobster tail, we aren’t able to finish our entree. The egg white frittata is really good! All of these are from the Haven restaurant which we love more than we expected. It is neat to see how the Haven staff work as a team and all help guests whether they are assigned to the table or not.

This is our fourth cruise since the Covid restart. We had a great time on the Encore (Aug. 2021), Bliss (March 2022), and Jewel (June 2022). We did not get sick or have any Covid symptoms after any of these cruises but did hear of others who tested positive after the cruise ended. Fingers crossed we will dodge Covid again. We both work in career fields where we have been around people since Covid started so our immune systems may be boosted from contact with others. We have been enjoying a fairly empty thermal spa with the port stops in Port Canaveral, Nassau, and today at Great Stirrup Cay. As we have cruises frequently before Covid, we’ve enjoying these ports but also really like being on the ship when many guests get off. Yesterday, there was an officer Q and A session. One guest commented on how wonderful the staff have been on the ship. We have encountered amazing staff members on this cruise and on previous cruises which is why we remain loyal to NCL as we did not feel the same about a few other cruise lines we tried. One officer did mention that they do use Cruise Critic for feedback. We can attest to several situations where the staff went over and above our expectations such as getting a certain wine we asked about but they didn’t have at the bar where we were listening to entertainment and this morning in the Haven for breakfast when my husband asked for salsa for his eggs and they went somewhere on the ship to get it for him. In both situations, we would have been fine with hearing the items were not available and feel bad they went though so much trouble for us. We do believe in tipping and filling out the vacation hero forms so we are sure to thank them for being so kind. We listened to a great performance by Antonio last night. He and other musicians who play In the lounges are very talented.

Thank you! And thank you for your wonderful live review. We requested four shrimp but the staff was ready to give us six or more. 🙂 Yes, we benefited from your cruise having done customs in Miami as even though you didn’t arrive until 8am or so (correct?) they sure got us on faster than I expected.

The numbers are accurate and consistent with other 5 day sailings that happen over a weekend. I’m sure the crew will be sure you have an amazing cruise.

Ocean Blue, Wasabi and Teppanyaki are open for lunch on Sea Days but do charge - specialty dining packages can be used.