luckyinpa

depends on what you enjoy. it's not the biggest set of caves but it's beautiful. if you can get to caves around your home sometime, they may be bigger and better. or not. so this may not be a unique thing. if you cant ever get to caves like this at home id say it's a must see since you are already in bermuda. assuming you dont have other must see things like a day on the beach etc that take up your time.

On 5/20/2024 at 8:45 PM, dbrown84 said:

but now that I think about it, this was before chip credit cards.  I probably don't need to do travel alerts anymore with chip cards.  I probably just do it now out of habit 

it's impossible to do travel alerts on many CCs i have. they say you dont need to

just as fyi here are some estimated times between points (grotto bay is near swizzle and the jungle) and the full bus schedule is on the PDF. but between grotto bay and st geo is about 20 minutes on the bus. and if you ever stayed in st geo and missed the ferry it would be a 1 hour bus back to the hamilton station. but that ferry runs later to the dockyard. especially on the nights they have the special event in hamilton in summer.

https://www.gov.bm/sites/default/files/Bus_Schedule_EFFECTIVE_31January2022.pdf

newbies be aware to look at your account the night before you get off the ship. nothing is available without much effort post cruise

19 hours ago, Notch8 said:

LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN THE BACK OF THE DESK DRAWER!!

 

I guess we need to stop ragging on MSC for not providing facial tissues!!

 

But they lose points for not putting them in an obvious place!!  🤣

we were in YC and found tissues in our cabin and felt like king of the world because of the posts we read on here that they werent available.   didnt get so lucky in the casino though

the circle is where i entered the jungle but as you can see there are many other ways to get in the jungle. the bus dropped us off at swizzle and we walked down the hill. maybe 5 minutes at most. i never walked from the crystal caves but seems very walkable especially with that apparent path at the back of the caves that heads to the jungle.

19 minutes ago, Scottdalfonso said:

Just wanted to thank you guys for the Tom Moores Jungle info. I had no idea, and now after a few youtube vids, it's the thing my wife REALLY wants to do. SO since the ferry to St George doesn't run when we are there, i guess a ferry to Hamilton then a bus or cab to the Swizzle inn area for a walk around the Tom Moore jungle paths, then we will head back to Hamilton for a stroll through Front street, maybe a late lunch then ferry back to the dockyard to either wander around or go back to the ship. Then the next day after we have our scheduled boat tour, we can do the horseshoe beach area, or just chill around the port and do the mini golf thing. 

my gf was glad she never saw pics of vids as she loved the surprises at every turn.  but i figured some people on the forum would benefit from seeing the lure of the sights and still appreciate getting to them.

if you ever get to halifax canada rent a car and drive to peggys cove lighthouse. then spend hours climbing up and down the rocks next to the ocean. to me, thats fun!  im out of shape and still enjoyed the adventure of figuring out which rock i could get to next (without falling down a hole) or how to get somewhere cool to see the different angles. see how vast the amount of rocks are to climb. im a couch potato at home but on a cruise i love doing stuff like this!

17 minutes ago, eagletwo said:

Sad to hear about the filet. My wife has ordered the filet 3-4 times each cruise in the YC and she has loved it. Hope it will be ok on our upcoming Seashore cruise.

1st lunch on board Mera and got the burger and didnt eat it.....decided to go to the pool deck buffet and we ate all lunches there the rest of the week including most breakfasts. that outdoor buffet is very good. loved the salmon and other variety of choices

2 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

Having a late departure of 8:00 pm is to accommodate European passengers arriving on afternoon flights and then being able to board those Bermuda cruises. 

they werent following that on the april cruise  we departed at 4

the filet in YC was below average. i wont get it again. just had supermarket filet here tonight and was better. they need to fix that issue. got it 2x on 2 different days to be sure it wasnt a fluke.

ive never been on the island but the 2 lines for buffet sound horrible.  im spoiled by coco cay. at least 4 or 5 'food islands' and never waited behind more than 3 or 4 people on any trip ive been there.

im assuming YC is much better on the island

i didnt bother with any match before my 1st cruise but 2 weeks after i got back i booked another thru my TA. i got my 5% off from MSC and my TA had about 9 percent OBC for me.

1 hour ago, Anastas617 said:

How did you like the Bermuda cruise? Did you just have 2 days in port?

 

Never been to Bermuda, but I love the Meraviglia and am looking forward to it. 

9 am tues to 3pm thurs. was great! friendly people and you can ask the bus drivers to stop where you want to go if you dont know where to stop. 19 bucks for a one day pass to the ferry/bus system. we knew we just needed a ferry ride the one day and its 5 bucks each way. cash is ok for that. Make sure you find out before you go what you need. saw people very confused when they got to the front of the line.

the bus system is so easy that you dont need a ship excursion unless you do it the last day and are worried about return to the ship. there are touristy things near the dock but taking the ferry to hamilton and st george really opens up possibilities. we had the most perfect weather of any of the dozen cruises ive been on and i know it will never be that way again so i appreciated it pretty much 70 ish every day. zero rain. no crazy winds.

restaurants are more than our hometown but thats because everything is imported. matter of fact i had more variety in my local store than they did in bermuda. was shocked to see some basic things like the very local iced tea here, in bermuda. but in different countries i like to buy unique brands/kinds of potato chips.

pick just a handful of things to do. cant do it all. this will be my 4th trip. hope to get a few more things under my belt or just relive the fun ones. for me thats the jungle and swizzle in. mini golf is good the last day when you wanna stay close to the port

i believe  they thought lower 70s was cool and kept the doors open instead of turning on the mini splits. i noticed many, what appeared to be natives, wearing coats i would only wear in winter. so i guess 70 is cold for bermuda. humidity was very high so those lower 70s were somewhat miserable to walk around in. reinforced my plans to never take a summer cruise as im very heat averse. will be back end of september and hope it's cooler

5 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

We are going in September. Would you suggest the st george line going and hamilton returning to dockyard?  Can you elaborate on the Tom Moore jungle experience?  How long to do?

I devoted one day to St George and one day to Hamilton so I cannot say how returning from a different ferry would work out. But I do know that Hamilton has more frequent ferry times.

i just returned from the 6 day bermuda cruise and when i saw one more day for 400 bucks cheaper than the 6 day, had to book it, plus love the night lights. 

41 minutes ago, nferr said:

 Just relax and enjoy your cruise. If something is not affecting you why bother? 

i request cruisecritic apply AI so when anyone asks if shorts are allowed in the MDR or YC, that AI automatically inserts your quote 🙂

2 hours ago, Scottdalfonso said:

Thank you all for this info!  @luckyinpa, I really appreciate that info, I had no idea about the little caves and will definitely look into that!! 

 

It takes research and luck to find unique things. I had a little bit of both. Here are some examples of what you could find in the jungle

17 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Cost you about what I would expect. I probably would have had lunch in town at Wahoos or The Wharf. Tobacco Bay is typical beach food not what I would call a restaurant. We walk from there to town and have lunch. Next to the fort we used to stop at Blackbeard’s Hideaway which is next to the fort. There are plans to renovate that restaurant and reopen it. 

we had plans to eat in town but the walk from ferry to the fort was difficult and it was very hot. like 70 degrees. could never do that in summer.  unsure who owns the fort but as it's a food desert there, opening just a small stand with drinks and quick eats they would make some money.

they were setting up a special event there and was plenty of booze but i didnt see any water bottles or i would have bribed one of the workers

4 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Was it expensive? 

i didnt think so given the island and hotel we were at,  28 each  for our fish sandwiches. and yum.  included side caesar salad as well. the view was great and we needed to cool down for a while. drank all their water i think!  also if i was a beach/pool person the st regis looked great but i think they start 800 a nite for the rooms.  id rather spend 800 a nite on my cruise cabin 🙂 

also i dont know if i mentioned it but if you are at tobacco bay this is a very short walk and i havent eaten at tobacco bay nor ever been in that restaurant but it appears st regis is a bit more upscale. and maybe even cooler

xr-bdaxr-03-24-lina-lunch-menu-11673.pdf

move up to YC.  had well behaved kids, one was maybe 5 or 6, no issues. and it's just a fun place to be especially with the pool buffet. it's a wonderful place to be! we never have sat on any pool deck on any ship. just dont like that crowd no matter who makes it up. but i understand to most people being at the pool is the holy grail of cruise life. we did walk the deck once since it was our first Mera trip. seemed like every other cruise line.

my only real bad memory is at customs after we got off the ship one woman wanted to block the lane to wait for people behind her and the agent told her she cant wait there then they got into it really bad. . the passenger was definitely an inconsiderate person. it was a choke point and to stand there with luggage would be stupid. probably dangerous.

on the ship the only 'anomaly' i noticed is more of i think french speaking people. never remember so many on any cruise ive taken.

regarding here and on other forums, the super negative crazy passengers is just something i never noticed. maybe in september ill enter the buffet just to see what it's like. seems like a fascinating experience (insert mister spock eyebrow look here)

fyi capital one had no fees on my Mera trip 2 weeks ago.

and you never need to let cap 1 know where you are. they put all charges through!

avoid the filet on mera.  2 weeks ago tried it 2x and it was average at best. our supermarket filet we make at home was better.

you must try the lunch buffet on the pool deck. the salmon and other things were very good. we didnt even do lunch in the restaurant but one time. it was the 1st day and the burger was ghastly. didnt eat it. the food on the buffet is superior. you can eat healthy or not there. one reason we rebooked is that pool buffet. was fantastic sitting up there eating and being outside

loved mini golf 2 weeks ago. 15 pp and its 3 series of 9 holes. very cool ocean views! must do!