I Think The Salt In The Ocean Air Shrinks Your Clothes –Dawn Review 9/6 - 13

[brucelegs]

Who: Mary-Ellen and Rich, 50-somethings from New Hampshire

 

When: NCL Dawn Boston to Bermuda September 6, 2013

 

Where: Aft Balcony 10230

 

The Plan: A relaxing vacation. We are not show people and not too much for the casino (although we did make a very small contribution via the slotplay coupons ordered online earlier in addition to the NCL slot deal). The only show we did was one of Tim Kaminski’s comedy shows and loved it and him! We brought our snorkeling stuff with us planning for a beach day followed by a day in St. George’s and ending with a day split with small shopping in Hamilton and the Dockyard.

 

Embarkation: We had an easy drive down from NH and arrived around 11:30 AM. Dropped Rich off with the luggage at the port and Mary-Ellen headed to the parking garage ($16/day). Had 2 carry-ons with us – one a rolling cooler with a few sodas, water and 3 bottles of wine, the other a wheeled beach tote with essentials – medicines, CPAP machine and swimsuits for hitting the hot tub early before the other two pieces of luggage would arrive to our cabin. Easy-peasy filling out of medical questionnaire, registration and pick up of our key cards. We were in group 12 and walked on the ship a little after 12:00 and headed directly to the Venetian for lunch rather than the crowded buffet.

 

Room: After lunch we headed up tour our cabin to drop off the carry-ons before the muster drill. The balcony was huge! Two loungers, a chair and a small table (we later brought out the taller, larger one from the room to enjoy meals alfresco later in the week). I was writing a note for Mario our room steward when he magically appeared to welcome us onboard and introduce himself. What a treat it was to have him as our steward! We asked to have the fridge contents removed and to please keep our rolling cooler filled with ice out on the balcony – when we returned 90 minutes later all was done! The room had the flat screen TV, queen sized bed and very small nightstand with shelf to be used for the CPAP machine (top of the nightstand was approx. 9” X 15”) and the loveseat that can be turned out for another cabin mate to accommodate 3 in the cabin.

 

There was one outlet by the vanity area (bring a power strip – ours had space for 5 plugs we used to charge electronics and to use the CPAP machine) and one more in the bathroom. Ladies, the hairdryer is plenty powerful enough for even the thickest of hair like mine. We also had an over the door shoe pocket to use on the bathroom door which was a necessity to keep things organized (makeup, sunscreens, lotions, etc.). Out Latitudes party invites were on the desk along with our ship pins and slot coupons.

 

Food: We pre-purchased the 3 specialty restaurant deal online and booked ressies for them before we left. Rich will follow up with food comments later in the thread.

 

Transportation tip:

Upon arriving in Bermuda Sunday we headed to get bus/ferry tickets. Since we knew we would not be going back and forth throughout the island too much the best deal for us was to get the 15 tickets for $30 instead of the 3 day passes for $35.00 each. These tickets are not mentioned on the bus/ferry info flyer but are available when you ask and saved us $40.00 by doing this. They are good for all zones and transport either bus or ferry. We only used 12 of the 15 tickets.

 

What we did on the island:

 

Sunday Horseshoe Bay - after getting off the “special” bus we made the long walk down to the beach area and headed left away from the crowded area. There is no shade at Horseshoe but there are chairs and umbrellas for rent – we however brought our little Coleman cabana easy to set up/take down weighs just 5 pounds and packs into a zippered pouch about 5” X 20” – instant shade and good for a nap. We brought our snorkel equipment but TS Gabrielle was reforming so we did not snorkel too much due to the roughness of the ocean waves. The waves were strong but highly entertaining! We did have quality time at the beach.

 

 

 

 

Having our fill of sunshine we hit the showers/changing rooms at the main area of the beach and took advantage of the gentleman who runs the “To the Top” van = $2 per person to bring you back up to the bus stop area (well worth it).

 

 

 

Monday St. Georges –a leisurely, scenic 40 minute ride on the ferry. Rich had a walking tour document he had printed out and we used part of that as our plan. We hit St. Peter’s Church, an interesting Bermuda Art Museum, the fun dunking of the wench at noon, followed by lunch at the White Horse (Bermuda fish chowder was on the must do list).

 

 

St. Georges has this little tram for $15 that does a 30 minute ride around St. Georges. This was really great to give you an overview for a future visit – many of the streets are cramped together and it can be difficult to get your bearings and it is very hilly.

 

 

Tobacco Bay is a must do for us when we return in 2015 (heck maybe sooner). I learned about Bermuda’s role in the Civil War (there is a great museum operated by the Bermuda Trust near the Town Hall that has a small admission ($5) and is worth a visit.

 

 

 

Tuesday Hamilton and the Dockyard – Captain Paul came on the speakers early to let us know that Garbielle was moving faster than expected and we would need to be back on the ship by 2:30 instead of 5:00 (his plan was scrapped later in the day – more later). We took the 9 AM ferry to Hamilton - a nice 20 minute ride for a bit of quick shopping. As we all know you will not find bargains in Bermuda like other islands, but there are some things you cannot find easily in the US so we shop. We hit a few shops for shirts and general browsing and then headed back to the ferry to finish up shopping at the Dockyard. Many folks will tell you to visit the shops at the Clocktower Mall where you can find cheap souvenirs (unfortunately mostly made in China). I prefer to support the locals and visit the Bermuda Rum Cake Factory (free samples too!), the Bermuda Glassworks (great glass ornaments, jewelry and vases) and then to the Bermuda Marketplace by the Frog and Onion Pub near the ship. Locally made items including jewelry (you can see them creating the pieces in front of you), the various sherry sauces, fish chowder to bring home and enjoy and even honey made by Bermuda beekeepers.

 

What we did on the ship:

Our CC meet and greet was scheduled for 10:30 AM on the first sea day (Saturday). Unfortunately the cooking demonstration with chefs was at the same time and we missed the gathering but did catch up later to sign up for the slot pull set for Thursday. The cooking demo featured some sushi, an apple dessert from the Le Bistro menu and the Mussels in Pernod appetizer also from Le Bistro. We were given recipes for them and a couple more – it was an enjoyable activity for those who are interested in cooking.

 

On our last cruise we did the Pub Crawl so we skipped it this time but we tried to take advantage of Margarita Madness each time it was offered throughout the cruise. Most of our time on the ship involved hanging in the hot tubs, the occasional donation to the casino and walking around. We did play the free bingo card and purchased the $20 pack of strip card thingys at the comedy show which also included 10 raffle tickets for the free cruise drawn on the final sea day. We also had raffle tickets from our liquor purchase. We were just 2 numbers off on the liquor raffle, 2 numbers off from the mega raffle and a mere 5 numbers off on the free cruise (we decided to get a few Powerball tix on our way back to NH on Friday)

 

The hot tubs varied greatly in temperature – one night the one on deck 13 way up front was blazing hot. The others by the pool were like bathwater one night and then the next a comfortably hot temp.

 

Interspersed during the week were two Latitudes appreciation events that we attended – never pass up a free drink and snacks. Captain Paul spoke at the first one Saturday afternoon. He is a lovely man and quite entertaining. Speaking about Captain Paul – he was very good at communicating what was going on with TS Gabrielle. Originally we were told to be back on board Tuesday at 5PM, then that morning he changed it to 2:30 thinking we could hightail it out of port before the worst of the storm. However Mother Nature had other plans and it was impossible to safely navigate the channel out of port (or even to drop the lines if you happen to watch the video at portbermudawebcam.com), so we spent Tuesday night safely tied to the pier during the howling wind and rain. The ah-hem “bakery bags” were placed by the elevators in case someone was in need through the night. Outside it was pretty severe - I was waiting for Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel to show up. However the ship remained pretty stable – I did not feel too much movement at all in our aft balcony. For those who are in awe of what nature can do, I found it mesmerizing and took a couple of videos of the waves rushing over the walkways on the pier. You could leave the ship if you wanted to and walk around (and some folks did for the experience of walking in those strong winds), but it was all aboard at 8AM for leaving around 8:30. Our departure was very smooth amid the remaining rough waves.

 

Later Wednesday night we felt as if we had crashed a wedding party – a Portuguese band did a 2 hour concert by the pool. Many of The Image Band’s fans had made group t-shirts for the cruise – they were very good and we had a great time watching and enjoying the group.

 

Do not miss Tim Kaminski’s comedy show. The man is sharp and extremely entertaining involving many members of the audience for his show.

 

Soozy was our cruise director. We had not heard of her before the cruise so perhaps she is one of the newer CDs. It was refreshing to see women in this position and those of Shopping Consultant and Latitudes consultant. Another difference from our last cruise on the Dawn – there seemed to be much fewer announcements during the day.

 

Disembarkation:

We chose the last color tag of green at 10AM. I was up around 6:00 to watch the sail into Boston and then went up and got coffee to bring back our cabin and enjoy on the balcony one last time. We finished up packing the carry-ons, said our goodbyes to Mario and headed up to the buffet for a bit of breakfast by the pool until our color was called around 9:40. We found our luggage easily and retrieved the car from the parking garage to get on our way to New Hampshire.

 

Epilogue:

As we were driving back home Friday morning, Rich comes out with this gem: “I think the salt in the ocean air shrinks your clothes”. Sure go ahead and think that sweetie…

[NMLady]

Thank you for the review.

My husband says that when you get home the clothes in the closet have also shrunk. Wonder what causes that? :)

He thinks maybe being in a dark closet shrinks the clothes.

He says he's noticed that a lot of his clothes that have been in a dark closet for quite awhile have shrunk.:eek:

[Da-Painter]

Thanks for the great review, glad you had a good time of it, makes me 'can't wait' for our next cruise. :):)

[emcelh]

Thank you for the review.

My husband says that when you get home the clothes in the closet have also shrunk. Wonder what causes that? :)

He thinks maybe being in a dark closet shrinks the clothes.

He says he's noticed that a lot of his clothes that have been in a dark closet for quite awhile have shrunk.:eek:

 

No question about it.

[BlueJai]

Great review, thanks for posting! Welcome back.

[Tyskie]

We too were on the same cruise..................and your review was perfect! :D Sorry to have missed meeting you at the M&G. We didn't do the slot pull this cruise. It was a great group.

 

re: Soozy we were told she indeed was a "fill-in" CD. She's actually in administration where she hires (and I would imagine fires) the CDs. There was some sort of scheduling problem and it's her job to step up to the plate so to speak if she can't find a replacement. I think that's why Natalie (Cruise Consultant) did a lot during the different events as she was part of the cruise director staff prior to her becoming a cruise consultant. It's nice to see they promote within the ranks. :)

[Chesneygirl]

Thanks for your review!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!!

 

I especially loved your tip on the Coleman Cabana. I am definitely purchasing one of these for our next cruise...What a GREAT idea!! :)

[dtiger]

Great review, I was also on this cruise and loved it. The Captain was great at informing us what was going on with the storm.

[jdvmd]

Wonderful review! Thanks!

[macimoo1]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. I was pretty excited because we have the same cabin booked for January 2014! This will be our first aft and it sounds like we chose well! We were on the Dawn last February and enjoyed her enough to book the exact same cruise over again. Was there much movement in the aft (storms not included)? Need to know how much extra Bonine to pack!

Thanks again and glad you had such a nice time!

[brucelegs]

macimoo1 - you will be just fine in that aft cabin. Hardly any movement even with the storm. Hubby only took one bonine the entire week just in case. It is a great cabin - we ourselves have it booked again next April!

[Highboy90]

Nice read. Thanks for sharing. :)

[Barb Nahoumi]

Thanks for sharing your review. We love the Dawn and Bermuda, looking forward to returning soon.

 

Were singers Jose and Patti on board? They were on our cruise last year, and were better than many of the stage shows. I skipped bollywood in order to attend their performance in the atrium.

[Tyskie]

Thanks for sharing your review. We love the Dawn and Bermuda, looking forward to returning soon.

 

Were singers Jose and Patti on board? They were on our cruise last year, and were better than many of the stage shows. I skipped bollywood in order to attend their performance in the atrium.

 

They were and they were excellent! I agree, better than the stage shows:D

[Tyskie]

Was there much movement in the aft (storms not included)? Need to know how much extra Bonine to pack!

 

We were in the aft on deck 9 - first time for us and I was amazed at the lack of movement. Funny thing, you could feel the movement in the bathroom more so than the bed/balcony area :)

[Arubamoose]

Outside it was pretty severe - I was waiting for Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel to show up.

 

This comment just had me almost spit out my coffee onto my monitor!!

 

Priceless.

[ShelleyQT]

[Quote: There is no shade at Horseshoe but there are chairs and umbrellas for rent – we however brought our little Coleman cabana easy to set up/take down weighs just 5 pounds and packs into a zippered pouch about 5” X 20” – instant shade and good for a nap.

 

 

 

Endquote]

 

After an awesome Bermuda cruise last year, this summer we took a land-based vacation to Bermuda. We had recently bought the Coleman tent and carried it with us everywhere in Bermuda. It was a godsend! It zips up to make a changing room too. Everyone who saw it was "green" with envy! I definitely recommend it, and can't wait to use it again when we sail the Dawn in July 2014.

 

Thanks for the review!

[Bandit 10/10/09]

I will be in the same room soon on. 11-1-2013. Thanks for the review

 

Julie

[jdvmd]

This is the one cruise where I saw a lot of people bringing their own chairs/umbrellas/coolers. Horseshoe Bay charges $16 for an umbrella and $16 for a chair. You are must better bringing your own if you can.

[SnootieTootie]

Great review, thanks!