Escaping to Bermuda - June 2018 Trip Report!

[tatibus0913]

Great review! I'm cruising on the Escape in three weeks!

 

Thanks! It's a great ship and Bermuda is just gorgeous!

[tatibus0913]

Wednesday, June 20th: Bermuda

 

Before I start posting about what we did in Bermuda, I should tell you what the original plans were. As I mentioned before, I love vacation planning. I do a ton of research, read reviews, make spreadsheets, etc. I like to have as much in place as possible before the trip so that we can just enjoy vacation without having to make decisions about we’re doing. So the plan was originally something like this:

 

Day 1 - Shipwreck Snorkeling booked through NCL in the morning, head out Harbour Nights in the evening

Day 2 - Jetskiing with Somerset Bridge Watersports, Horseshoe Bay Beach

Day 3 - Catamaran tour and snorkel though Restless Native

 

Now, I will say that I knew that if the weather was bad, this would all change, especially with the Shipwreck Snorkel since it was out in the ocean over the Montana and Constellation wrecks. But, the weather was pretty much perfect when we arrived in Bermuda so I thought we were good to go. Now back to the review!

 

It was a picture perfect day in Bermuda! We arrived in Bermuda and were so excited to have our balcony face the dockyard area.

 

 

Once the announcement was made, we disembarked around 8:15am. We had to meet our tour at 8:50am but I wanted to snap some photos before everyone was off the ship.

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

We walked around for a bit and then headed back to the end of the pier to meet our tour. This was the first time I had ever booked an excursion through the cruise so we found the person holding the sign to check-in. We waited for a few minutes with the rest of the tour, and then boarded the boat.

 

Once everyone was settled on the about - there were maybe about 20 of us - our captain / tour guide told us that he had just received a call that the waters were too rough around the shipwrecks and we wouldn’t be able to snorkel over them. But they offered an alternative tour where we could do the glass bottom over a different shipwreck and then snorkeling elsewhere. Obviously we were disappointed but it was a gorgeous day so went for the alternative tour.

 

As he drove around, he pointed out what we were seeing and talked about living in Bermuda. He did a great job explaining everything as he drove the boat around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

After a little while, they had us all go down to the lower level, where the floor had glass panels. We were right over the HMS Vixen wreck, and the captain drove around a few times so that we could all see everything underwater. It was really cool to see how the coral was growing on top of the wreck! There was also a ton of fish in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

Once we were done at the shipwreck, we headed back upstairs to head towards the snorkeling area. We had a nice view of both ships.

 

We arrived at the snorkeling area, which I think was called Deep Bay. It was directly across from the ships. We hopped in the water and were off. They do make you use a pool noodle to snorkel, but it didn’t bother us. We saw some coral, plants and fish. We even saw a couple of turtle but they’re too quick for photos!

 

 

 

 

 

[Geauxboy]

Is it bad that every time my phone vibrates with a notification from cruise critic I hope it’s an update to this report??? And subsequently drop what I’m doing to check it out. Asking for a friend....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[tatibus0913]

Some more snorkeling photos for your enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

We snorkeled for a bit and then just floated around on our pool noodles, enjoyed the warm water. The ocean is not this warm in New England!

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by tatibus0913

[tatibus0913]

We headed back to the boat, and were given rum swizzles.

 

 

We headed back to the dockyard and I was able to get a great photo of the Escape!

 

 

Here’s the thing, we really enjoyed this excursion. It was a great alternative since we couldn’t go snorkeling over the shipwrecks. However, while we were snorkeling, a couple of catamarans pulled up into the bay as well. I realized that this was the same area we would be at on Friday. While we had a great time, I didn’t want do this twice (and pay for it twice). As we were drinking our rum swizzles, we decided that we would cancel Friday’s excursion since it was before the 24 hour deadline. Did I feel awful cancelling an excursion for a local company? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it’s our vacation. I emailed the company, who replied and issued the refund the next day.

 

After I sent the email, we decided we would head back to the Escape for lunch and figure out what else we could do. Everything except for the jet ski tour was flexible.

 

Back on board, we grabbed from lunch from the buffet and I finally remembered to take a picture! Not the most exciting plate of food, but it was good! We also sat outside and had a great view during lunch.

 

 

While we had lunch, we came up with a new plan. None of the other excursions through NCL appealed to us and a lot of the others seemed to stay in the same area. We hadn’t originally planned to go to St. George since we went last time we were in Bermuda, but we decided to go since NCL now had the free ferry. We decided we would do jetskiing and St. George on Thursday, and Horseshoe Bay on Friday. It meant a little bit of backtracking on Thursday, since the jetski company was not in the dockyard but we had enough time in the morning to get back for the ferry.

 

With our new plan in place, we went back to our room to shower and get ready for the rest of the day!

[tatibus0913]

We headed out to the Dockyard to walk around before the 3:45pm ferry to Hamilton. It really is a beautiful port. We stayed pretty close to the ferry area since we didn’t have a lot of time but we stopped in a couple of stores and the Bermuda craft market while we took photos.

 

 

 

We headed over to the ferry area around 3:25pm since there was already a line. We had purchased tokens earlier that afternoon from the visitor’s center.

 

 

3:45pm came and went, and the ferry arrived a little after 4:00pm. At that point, the line was extremely long but it was a big ferry so hopefully everyone got on.

[tatibus0913]

Hamilton Harbor was really pretty with all of the boats.

 

 

What we would name our name our yacht if we had millions hehe.

 

 

Front street is really pretty with all of the colorful buildings. We walked around for a while and did some shopping before our dinner reservation.

 

 

For dinner, we had a reservation at the Hog Penny. The menu sounded good and they say that they’re the inspiration for “Cheers”. Being from Boston, we had to check that out.

 

 

[tatibus0913]

We decided that we would split a few appetizers as our meal. We started with rum swizzles, of course.

 

Wahoo bites

 

 

Prime rib sliders

 

Maple wings

 

 

Everything was really good but it was more expensive than we're used to - and we're from Boston so we're used to high prices haha. After dinner, it was just about time for Harbour Nights to start!

[tatibus0913]

For those that don’t know, Harbour Nights is a street festival in Hamilton. They shut down Front Street and vendors setup tables to sell items (usually handmade) and food. We decided that we would start at the end and work our way down towards the ferry terminal.

 

 

We really enjoyed seeing what the vendors were selling. We bought some candles and some hand painted coasters. We also had freshly fried mini donuts for dessert and they were amazing. Do I have a photo? No, because we inhaled them before I remembered.

 

Around 7:30pm, the Gomby dancers came out to perform. There was a huge croud to see them so we could only see parts of the performance but it was a lot of fun. It was great to see the little kids that were performing as well!

 

 

 

 

 

By about 8:00pm, we were done. We had walked through all of the stalls so we decided to head to the ferry terminal. There was already a decent line for the 9:00pm ferry. Oddly enough, the ferry was just sitting there. That was a little confusing because there was supposed to be a 7:30pm ferry back to the Dockyard so it should not have been there.

 

 

Regardless, we waited in line for about 30-40 minutes before they started boarding. By that point, the line for the ferry was all the way back and down the street. It was extremely long. We got on and headed back to the Dockyard.

[dcipjr]

Great review! Bermuda is our favorite spot...we went once on a whim ("Let's take a cruise! The NYC-Bermuda prices are cheap!") and we've gone back many times since. I can't wait until next time. :)

[tatibus0913]

Once we were back at the Dockyard, there was a was a huge line to get back on the Escape. Finally, we were back on board and the elevators were packed. We usually do the stairs but there was no way we were going to walk up to the 15th deck from the 4th. So we decided to head up to our favorite bar and grab some mojitos and wait out the elevator.

 

Then, we decided to check out the late night snack offering at the buffet. I’m not sure if this is something only large ships do, but it was about 10:30pm and the buffet had a decent selection of food out - cookies, desserts, sandwiches and some hot food. Other ships we had been on usually closed the buffet by 9:00pm and O’Sheehans was your only option. Anyways, we enjoyed our mojitos and ice cream. Seriously, only on vacation does that combination make sense.

 

 

We headed back to our room to see the Dockyard all lit up and our new towel animal.

 

 

 

[tatibus0913]

Is it bad that every time my phone vibrates with a notification from cruise critic I hope it’s an update to this report??? And subsequently drop what I’m doing to check it out. Asking for a friend....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Absolutely not :'):'):'):')

 

Thanks for following along! :D

[tatibus0913]

Great review! Bermuda is our favorite spot...we went once on a whim ("Let's take a cruise! The NYC-Bermuda prices are cheap!") and we've gone back many times since. I can't wait until next time. :)

 

This was our second time in Bermuda, it's an amazing island! And to be able to cruise without flying is so convenient!

[tatibus0913]

Alright everyone, as much as I'd love to spend my whole day on Cruise Critic posting this review, I do have to be a productive person sometimes. As I mentioned before, I won't be able to work on the review this weekend - we have plans and need to finish unpacking and doing laundry. We also need some groceries. It's hard to get back into routines after vacation!

 

I hope you all have wonderful weekends and we'll pick this back up next week :D

[hrwi]

Love this review! I'll be going to Bermuda the same week next year.

[AmyJA]

Thanks Jessica. This is how I sometimes find cruises that I want to do or not. So thank you for taking the time.

Edited June 29, 2018 by AmyJA

[baflagg]

Really enjoying your review. We leave Sunday on the Escape, reading all this and seeing the pictures is awesome.

[Eenjinusa]

Thank you for sharing all these details and of course we understand that you have a life outside cruise critic. Have a good weekend and looking forward to your next review. We just arrived in Miami from the Netherlands. We will depart on our cruise on Sunday. Yeah!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited June 30, 2018 by Eenjinusa

[amelia3171]

Your posts are a complete joy to read, thank you. Your food photos are fantastic although exactly 120 days from our next cruise (just booked dining, yay) I am going a little mad craving all my favourite things, 6am uk time and weirdly and sadly nowhere to get yummy wings ;-)

[Beachiekeen]

I believe the passes are $179 a person if you call and book in advance of your cruise, or $199 a person on board. Our passes came with the spa mini-suite that we had so I'm not 100% certain on those numbers. Maybe someone else knows, but I think that's what I've seen on these boards.

 

Oh thank you, I’m sorry, I missed that you were in a spa suite. Looking forward to the rest of the review, enjoy your weekend!

[BlueLadyBlue]

Happy weekend. Enjoy. It’s Canada Day long weekend here and we’re having a heat wave!