Back from Bermuda on the Crown 7/1-7/8

[jbassman]

Guys, just wanted to let everyone know that I got back from a great trip to Bermuda! :)

I read some rather negative reviews about the Crown for a couple of people who went out on June and was a bit worried before leaving. Fortunately, just about everything met my expectations or exceeded it. Food was fantastic onboard. We ate every meal on the ship even except for one time we used the "Dine Ashore" program which was $5 per person. This was definitely worth it considering we were far from the ship, over by Kings Wharf, and wanted to give the local food a try.

The weather was perfect the entire time. First day was at St. George and we hit Tobacco Bay Beach - and apparently so did everyone other tourist as the small beach was packed! Not totally worth it in my opinion but was a good starter. Next 3 days we were in Hamilton. Despite many warnings we rented a scooter. I am so glad we did as it was soooo quick to get around. Those who have driven a scooter on vacation before should not worry too much about renting these in bermuda. Just be careful and drive on the left!

The ship's staff were all pleasant and seemed aiming to please. Like I said the food was great. We dined at all restaurants except Le Bistro - this was because we tried to book a resevation for Le Bistro but it was totally full for the remaining 2 nights. The Yacht Club and Seven Seas and Cafe Italia Dining areas were A++++. Pasta Cafe and Chopsticks were OK. Ordered a bottle of wine for the 2 of us...that lasted for 3 nights meals. Not a bad deal IMHO - cant do that at any restaurant outside of cruising!

If anyone has questions let me know and I will be glad to help:D

[jackdis]

Thanks for sharing about your trip. Did you rent the scooter for one or two days? If two, what do you do with it overnight? Does it stay at the place you rented it from?

 

Where did you eat for the Dine Ashore program?

 

Can you make a ressie for Chopsticks or the Pasta Cafe for the first night, or the night of the first day at sea? Do you do that when you get onboard on Sun.?

 

Last one - is Tobacco Bay within walking distance of the ship in St. George? If not, how did you get there?

 

Sorry about all the questions. Hope you don't mind. Thanks!!!:)

[SAYHEYRENEE]

It would be best when you arrive on the ship to go to the casino at 3pm and book Pasta Cafe and/or Le Bistro. As they were harder the last few days. I went to Pasta Cafe once and LeBistro twice. I enjoyed dinner in the buffet a few nights too. One night was Chinese. I can't recall when.

 

Tobacco is walkable but it is all up hill. We did it and it was about 10 city blocks. We walked all of St George in one big circle. All the way to Battery Beach Park. St George was our favorite and we decided to go back there a second day.

[jbassman]

Hey jackdis,

 

We rented the scooter for 2 days from Oleander costs about $50/day but they also charge a manadatory $30 insurance charge. It includes a full tank of gas which lasted us for the entire rental. As far as parking the scooter, we parked it literally right next to our ship docked in hamilton. There is a plenty of parking there and the rep from oleander rentals will point that out to you. It is right after a large pink building/parking garage. There was no problem parking it anywhere in Bermuda. I traveled to Kings Wharf, a few of the beaches and Hamilton without any problems.

 

We ate at Freeport Gardens (reviewed in Fodors) for the Dine Ashore. This is over at the Dockyard. All the Dine Ashores are priced fix menus. You actually get the menus along with the coupons in your cabin so you can peruse it at your leisure. We order the fried fish and it was quite good.

 

As far as the first night reservations I am not sure...I am pretty certain if you go to the reception desk you can ask about it after you check in. But do make your rsrv's as early as possible as they do get booked.

 

Tobacco Bay Beach is within walking distance from the Port @ St. George. We did walk there and it was about 15-20 minute walk. Wasnt too hard to find as there are a couple of signs but defintely get a map at the visitors center and ask the locals. But chances are there will be several others walking in the same direction. Also if Tobacco is too crowded walk 5 minutes further down the road for a much larger nice swimming beach right past Fort St Catherine's....

[jackdis]

Thanks so much for the information!!:)

[newmexicoNita]

Guys, just wanted to let everyone know that I got back from a great trip to Bermuda! :)

I read some rather negative reviews about the Crown for a couple of people who went out on June and was a bit worried before leaving. Fortunately, just about everything met my expectations or exceeded it. Food was fantastic onboard. We ate every meal on the ship even except for one time we used the "Dine Ashore" program which was $5 per person. This was definitely worth it considering we were far from the ship, over by Kings Wharf, and wanted to give the local food a try.

The weather was perfect the entire time. First day was at St. George and we hit Tobacco Bay Beach - and apparently so did everyone other tourist as the small beach was packed! Not totally worth it in my opinion but was a good starter. Next 3 days we were in Hamilton. Despite many warnings we rented a scooter. I am so glad we did as it was soooo quick to get around. Those who have driven a scooter on vacation before should not worry too much about renting these in bermuda. Just be careful and drive on the left!

The ship's staff were all pleasant and seemed aiming to please. Like I said the food was great. We dined at all restaurants except Le Bistro - this was because we tried to book a resevation for Le Bistro but it was totally full for the remaining 2 nights. The Yacht Club and Seven Seas and Cafe Italia Dining areas were A++++. Pasta Cafe and Chopsticks were OK. Ordered a bottle of wine for the 2 of us...that lasted for 3 nights meals. Not a bad deal IMHO - cant do that at any restaurant outside of cruising!

If anyone has questions let me know and I will be glad to help:D

 

1 bottle of wine, 3 nights my are you heavy drinkers. LOL

[ddoll]

I'm confused: I thought you could only make Le Bistro reservations for the next night. Are they now allowing you to reserve for the week?

[SweetpeaOne]

Thanks for sharing your info. Glad you had a good time..

[family cruisers]

when we went last october we booked the first day for whatever day you wanted... Will hopefully do the same this coming trip.

I'm confused: I thought you could only make Le Bistro reservations for the next night. Are they now allowing you to reserve for the week?

[ddoll]

Wow. Good to know, thanks. I would have missed out had I waited.

[ripcurl2151]

i would definitely recommend getting scooters. my brother and i rented them for 3 days. i couldn't imagine having to wait for a bus or ferry to get around. we explored almost every road on the island and all the forts and beaches. if the beach you are at is too crowded, just keep driving along the shore. there are a ton of tiny little beaches that most tourists don't know about.

[SAYHEYRENEE]

Nope, it definitly was changed this year on the Crown. Believe me I tried by becoming friendsly with the reservation girl-lol. The only time in advance is a very large party-cause they have to accomadate.

[NYCFTC]

Thanks for the review. I'd love to go to Bermuda on my next cruise. I saw the Crown docked as I was leaving on the Spirit on the 1st. I was wondering where it was going.

 

Did you feel a lot of movement on the Crown? I noticed that it was quite a bit smaller than the Spirit.

[jbassman]

We saw the Spirit as well when it was pulling out of NYC!

The Crown is a smaller ship, as a result on occasion we did feel some of the waves on the ship, more so on the way back, but nothing major to feel sea sickness. Everyone on the boat seemed to be in good spirits and not affected by it either

[pr0pel]

How hard is it to drive a scooter, especially with someone behind you? I'm a pretty good car drive but I'm afraid I might scare my wife since it will be my first time on a scooter. I can ride a bike but I doubt that counts :)

 

BTW, once you got a scooter, how did you figure out where to go? I'm planning to be on the Crown for the 8/12 sailing.

[ddoll]

How hard is it to drive a scooter, especially with someone behind you? I'm a pretty good car drive but I'm afraid I might scare my wife since it will be my first time on a scooter. I can ride a bike but I doubt that counts :)

 

BTW, once you got a scooter, how did you figure out where to go? I'm planning to be on the Crown for the 8/12 sailing.

 

Well, I'm the passenger on the moped, my DH is the driver. It's something you either feel confident with or not. You will be given lessons before you leave and you can opt out at that point if you feel it's not for you.

 

My DH had driven motorcycles in his teens and picked the moped up fairly quickly. I help him by pointing out which way to go and watching out for other vehicles. It is hard for the passenger to lean WITH the moped, like you would on the back of a motorcycle. It feels like you're going to fall. I just bury my head in DH's back until I get used to it. :o

 

As for where you're going, you really just head in one direction and end up seeing pretty much everything along the way. It's not a very big island.

[jbassman]

In regards to scooter driving, my first time was back a few years when we did a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas. Really you need to have good balance, so if you ride a bicycle it is surprisingly similar. However, from what i have found, turning on a scooter does require more of a lean than actually turning the handle bars, especially when going at faster speeds...but you will pick this up as you ride.

Having a passenger behind you is a little bit different as now there is additional weight which can throw off the balance if they are moving around. But once they are on and you get accustomed to the weight it isnt a big deal driving around.

If you havent driven a scooter before definitely do some test runs by yourself before hand. Like the previous poster said, you will get some lessons, but honestly, it is very easy to pick up.

When i was preparing my trip to Bermuda I had every intention to just purchase all day bus passes for myself and my wife, especially after hearing people on the boards (not just this one) mention about seeing tourists with road rash from scooters. But once we got to Hamilton it didnt seem so intimidating and thought of having to wait for the buses and having them stop at each bus stop didnt seem to appealing so I vouched for a scooter.

Also, the car drivers overall I found in Bermuda to be quite forgiving. We even got lost on our first day to horseshoe bay beach and asked a guy in a car where it was and he actually gave us a personal escort and lead us right to the beach! So we did find the Bermudians to be quite hospitable.

One other thing, while looking on the map things seem quite far, it really isnt too bad. To give an example, we had taken the ferry with our scooter over to the Royal Navy Dockyards that took about 20 minutes from Hamilton. We then drove the scooter back to Hamilton and had a great tour of the island in around 30-40 minutes. We actually stopped at several places along the way so this is a guestimate but fairly accurate. I would actually highly recommend doing the same thing.

[electricron]

i would definitely recommend getting scooters. my brother and i rented them for 3 days. i couldn't imagine having to wait for a bus or ferry to get around. we explored almost every road on the island and all the forts and beaches. if the beach you are at is too crowded, just keep driving along the shore. there are a ton of tiny little beaches that most tourists don't know about.

 

I highly recommend you don't rent a scooter. On every cruise I have taken, I've seen scooters involved in nasty looking wrecks while riding in buses, vans, and taxis. What's worse to think about, is that most of the scooter riders were tourists, whose insurance isn't in effect in foreign countries.

 

Of course, everyone thought they couldn't get into an accident. Thousands of dollars out of their pockets, if not serious injury or death, was the result.

[Dolphins]

Scooters on narrow Bermuda roads, many without shoulders and rock walls on each side are strictly for the young and reckless. Buses are inexpensive and much safer.

[e.durban]

As convenient as the scooters are, I've gotta go with the naysayers. Bermuda roads are narrow, nowhere to pass, lots of tight, blind corners...only worse thing would be to ride a pedal bike on those roads! Every year a tourist or two is killed in scooter accidents and it would be a shame for your loved ones if you were this year's victim!

 

Dolphins has the best alternative: those wonderful pink buses! Clean, on-time, polite/helpful drivers...and those giant windows that make every trip like a sight-seeing excursion...(Just leave your thong at home, they prefer your beachwear covered up, as they do everywhere else off the beach in Bermuda...)

 

David

[TorontoTL]

Hi NCL folks. I've mostly traveled with Princess and we're very close to booking this cruise. The Crown to Bermuda seems to have some good prices lately and I think we'll bite. We've been to Bermuda before so you don't need to sell me on the island itself. I am a bit concerned about the ship though. What kind of condition is it in and how are the cabins? Having never sailed with NCL I also don't know what to expect in the dining rooms. Will I like the food in the dining rooms compared with Princess? Do I really need to go to the specialty restaurants because the main dining room food isn't as good or is the quality and variety day to day in the main dining room good?

 

In terms of scooter riding, my partner and I ride scooters in Canada daily. We have a car for the winter, but in fact I ride then too, as long as there is no snow or ice on the roads I will ride my Vespa and not drive the Lexus. Riding a scooter is pretty darn easy. However, a bit of advice if you want to ride in Bermuda or anywhere for that matter. Brake to slow down before you enter a turn. Other thing, your front brake needs to do most of the braking and the rear does less of it. If you brake with too much rear brake you are likely to cause the rear one to lock up and you'll go down and slide, not fun or good. If we go to Bermuda we will be renting the scooters. The first time I ever rode a scooter was in Bermuda over 10 yrs ago and I got hooked on riding them.

[bev77]

The scooters are fairly simple to ride, I ride behind my husband when we go to Bermuda, were there 2 years ago, on the Crown and will be there again on the 8/12 sailing too. You can get a map at a tourist center, it's easy to get around, can't get lost. any questions, ask.