adivineeternity

Yep, just don't be rude and obnoxious and call their money "funny money." On my Bermuda cruise, I was behind a lady doing that at one of the little stores in the Dockyard. She was requesting US money in change, but she did it by saying, "I want real money back, not that funny money." Some people just have no idea how rude and insulting they are being, lol.

Lol what? Some people are truly ridiculous. Hope that lady never tries to go to basically anywhere else.

What is the exchange rate for Bermudian $?

It's an even 1:1 exchange. Bermuda ties their dollar to ours (US Dollar), since so much of their tourism comes from the US. Makes it easy, since the vast majority of places accept US dollars and will give cash back in US dollars. If you want to collect Bermudian money (as my boyfriend and I did), you can also request small bills. Their money is pretty.

Which bus would I take from Gibbs to get to Horseshoe?

You can take the #7 (or whichever goes along the South Shore Rd). It's not a horrendous walk, either, maybe 20 minutes, so if you are feeling up to it you can walk. Just beware that the drivers are crazy and there are no sidewalks.

We walked last year and it wasn't all that bad.

167 days to go until James and I return to Bermuda on our beloved Breakaway.

That is waaay too long, and saying it in months and days doesn't help.

*sigh*

We went towards the end of September last year on the Breakaway and aside from one day it wasn't too rocky. Since the kids were back in school, the crowds weren't too bad, either. The pool was still pretty full, but we weren't concerned about that as we mostly just wanted to do the waterslides. If you book a cabin with a balcony, even better because you can always just relax there if you need to get away from people for a bit. The waterfront on deck 8 was also a great option, we found, for a quiet stroll at many times during the day.

Hmmm. As someone who came to NCL with DCL background I'm a little sensitive to the crowd that warns of "nickel & diming." We booked three weeks ago and have already seen the 18% thing and now the room-service thing. --- We're a bit worried about what is next.

 

We will miss dressing up and set meal times' date=' but are anticipating Getaway's water slides, ropes course, etc. will show it to be a great product.

 

But we have two concerns. (1) that we will see more costs added & (2) specialty dining will become less "special" as more folks are picking UDP.

 

We have til 3/1/16 to PIF, though... So I'm just keeping my eyes on these pages. :)[/quote']

 

Just so you know, they do a thing called Norwegians' Night Out, which is a very optional dress-up night. Last year it appeared to be pretty popular on our sailing; we saw tons of people all dressed up. Then again, there were a lot of people dressed up every night, getting photos taken by the ship photographers and all that. It was quite fun. We dressed up 3 different nights, with our dressiest night being for a dinner at Le Bistro. Lots of good times.

It was free last year and, as of now, there hasn't been anything announced stating otherwise. So yes, it is free.

Unless they change it. Hopefully they don't.

Pretty much how I feel. They could have handled things better, for sure, rather than springing changes on people the way they did, but a lot of the changes I don't really mind. I loooove that Shanghai's is going to be complimentary on the Breakaway and am going to reserve judgement about this room service thing until I can see the menus and read the final decisions on cost, etc. If I think it's worth it, then I'll use it. If not, it'll be just like last cruise when my boyfriend and I went to a buffet each morning to eat. Since last cruise was nearly perfect in every way, I don't actually consider that a big deal.

NCL, and specifically the Breakaway's Bermuda runs, are an incredibly perfect fit for what we want with our Bermuda vacations (I'm assuming we'll cave and do this one many more times in the future). We're both still very much looking forward to our cruise in September and moving forward with high expectations for it.

Every time I've looked, the Breakaway has turned out to be the best option for us by a VERY long shot. We don't have to cross into NJ to catch the ship, so our commute to the port is cut down to a third of the time versus, say, Celebrity. We get the max amount of time out of all the various lines that go at the best time of the week (I won't do Dawn to Bermuda because I don't like the idea of getting in on a Sunday and not having as many options for what to do that day, on top of it sailing from Boston). Pricing is eh on most sites, but I book through an agency that does a points-based rewards system that saves me hundreds.

Much as I do agree that NCL has made some bone-headed decisions in the past couple of months, I'm still probably going to choose them until an equal or better option comes along for what my boyfriend and I want out of our cruises.

I've been tempted multiple times to create an excel spreadsheet comparing the prices/amenities of similar cruises across multiple lines, just out of curiosity. Or because I get incredibly bored on a regular basis and that usually winds up with me looking up all the vacations I'm interested in taking.

There is NO CHARGE for the noodle bar on Breakaway and Getaway, per the webinar today.

 

The list on the webinar was this:

 

Gem - Orchid Garden

Pearl - Lotus Garden

Jewel - Chin Chin

Jade - Jasmine Garden

Dawn - Bamboo

Star - Ginza

Spirit - Shogun

Pride of America - East Meets West

Epic - Shanghai

Breakaway - Noodle Bar Menu

Getaway - Noodle Bar Menu

AH! Yes! Thank you for this. My dearly beloved boyfriend would probably be a lot more excited at this news if he wasn't sick right now. Very glad they have done *something* really awesome. We will both be enjoying Shanghai's on the Breakaway multiple times in September.

I'd like to know which ships Shanghai's will be complimentary on (not familiar with which ships it's on). If the Breakaway is one of them, my boyfriend and I will probably eat there even more than we did last year. In fact, I may not be able to drag him away from the place. I'm waiting to pass judgment on the room service debacle (except how they went about introducing its "test run," NCL can go sit on a cactus for that). Don't mind the increase to 18% on drink gratuities or the increase in drink prices, since I don't drink much, and I'm not really bothered by the not-quite-a-dollar/day increase to the DSC or switching gratuity for specialty dining to when you pay for that (buying UDP or when you go to one).

Really, the only thing that bugs me, personally, is how they're going about introducing things. All at once, springing it on cruisers the way they have been is worthy of a seat on a cactus in my book. Should have been gradual, alerting people well-ahead of time and not in a clump. That's just general courtesy to keep a strong fan-base.

Is Moderno's a complimentary? I don't recall hearing about this location until now.

It was complimentary for breakfast and a pretty darn good spot, as I recall. We ate there on our final sea day and it was all served buffet style. Not packed, even at about 8 or 9 am when we went down, and plenty of hot food to go around. It's a solid option, especially if you're on a lower deck and want a buffet without going all the way up to the top.

They began updating the menus in late 2013 or the beginning of 2014, including trying to add more vegetarian-friendly options. There should be a live chat thing archived on CC that NCL did on it that explains some of the changes and whatnot. I was on last September and do vaguely remember seeing some stuff, but as I'm not vegetarian I didn't pay very close attention.

I love reading the positive experiences online! You're so right that people will very quickly share their bad experiences, but for whatever reason we don't share the good ones. I don't have anything to add, but only because I CAN say that last year on my first cruise the experience was AMAZING, including every single second of service we received from the staff on-board the Breakaway.

So great customer service from the get-go meant not having complaints, which meant not needing to contact them by phone or email. I'd say that's pretty awesome. Can't wait to cruise with them again this year, as a result.

I was in the starboard version of it last year, 10876, and it was perfection. The angled balconies are great for that little bit of extra room you get, the cabin is in a great location on the ship, and it never got too noisy from the staors and elevators or too rocky from the ocean. I tried to grab the same cabin as last year, but couldn't.

I did get 10276, though, and laughed a little when I saw this thread just now and knew exavtly who would be answering questions. Meatball_nyc, I'm seriously thinking I might do the "get a drink upstairs and then sail away party on my balcony" thing since I'll have such a great view going out. My boyfriend really wanted to see the statue of liberty last year, so we missed the entire city. Aside from getting sick, that's the one thing I'd change from my cruise last year. Can't wait to sail in this fabulous cabin!

Thank you all for that information, we are just on a budget. The helmet dive on the first day will be docked right at the ship. When we get back it will be easy to go eat lunch on the ship then venture off to enjoy beautiful Bermuda.

 

How long are the ferry/bus rides? I didn't think it would be that far seeing the island of Bermuda is small?

 

Please, please help me make the most of our time.

 

I also just saw a beautiful place called Admiratly House Park, it looks amazing that we would want to add.

 

Please help us plan our 3 days perfectly with all of our wants:

Helmet Diving

Snorkel Park and Kings Wharf

Gibbs Lighthouse

Jobsons Cove

Horseshoe Beach

Warick Long Bay

The Caves

Tobacco Bay

Admiralty House Park

 

We don't have to stay at the beaches long, unless it is breathtaking and good snorkeling. Please let us know which ones have the best pink sand and snorkeling. Even if we don't have them listed above.

 

We just need help desparately. I am so confused.

Bus rides can be short, like those into Somerset, or they can take an hour or more. Ferries are another great option which can get you to a general area quickly. For example, to get to Admiralty House Park, the quickest way I've found for my upcoming trip is the 20 minute ferry ride to Hamilton and then get on the 4 bus to the park, grand total of a half hour or so. Taking buses exclusively would take much longer. While it is a small island, the buses do still have a lot of stops to make and a lot of ground to cover.

Also, Gibbs Hill Lighthouse is great and can be done before or after spending some time at Horseshoe Bay. It's probably better to take the bus between them, but the walk is about 20 minutes, as I found out last year. Not terrible, but not a safe place to walk with kids at every point as sidewalks are limited. There were six of us walking last year after my boyfriend met some people at Gibbs Hill, but all of us were adults.

Thanks for the info. I shared it with my roll call for the end of September.

Last year we got there at 8:45 or so, lol. At first my boyfriend grumped about waiting two hours and how we could have arrived later, but we saw the line grow more around 10 and he kept his mouth shut cause he hates all lengths of line. We boarded around 11:15 when the lines had really grown and he turned and thanked me for demanding we get there super early. We've both decided sitting in the terminal for two hours, taking pictures, reading, and talking to other early arrivals is well worth being in the first group to board (they basically took everybody in groups 1-7 at once cause it was only about 50 people). We got on immediately following Haven and CAS and whatnot.

188... Time is passing, it's just doing so slowly. Maybe once grad school starts...

In regards to my hair, which isn't tameable, anyway: just don't. The wind and humidity will ruin anything you try to do.

So I kept it in a ponytail or bun basically the entire time we were gone, and half-ponytails the rest. Washed and conditioned it almost daily, put in some curl cream, and called it a day.

This is in no way objective, just a warning. Heavy bias awaits thee!

I was a first time cruiser last year, as was my boyfriend, and we chose the Breakaway to Bermuda over all other options because BERMUDA, as well as a few other factors. Maybe we're just not easily overwhelmed or maybe we just got lucky, but we never encountered unmanageable crowds, we found deck chairs in the shade (my skin tone is the one between that of a stereotypical ginger and pasty and boyfriend turns into a lobster if he even thinks about the sun) within five minutes of getting onto the very full, but not overwhelmingly so, pool deck. The pool was full, yes, but we had no real interest in swimming, we just cared about the water slides, which had short lines and friendly people to talk to. We also had 0 problems getting around on the Breakaway, but we, well, I chose our cabin very carefully (deck 10 balcony toward the aft). We got to the port early on embarkation day, were among the first 50 or so regular neophytes to board, and spent probably 2 or so hours walking around and familiarizing ourselves with the lay-out while there weren't that many people aboard. It worked out quite well.

I haven't ever been on the Gem, but my boyfriend's mother has - she did the itinerary you're talking about - and really loved it. This was several years ago, but she said it was very nice, the food was all quite good, the staff was wonderful and accommodating, etc. She can't swim and is terrified of deep water, so they stayed in an Oceanview and she just LOVED it. She also enjoyed the itinerary, although I admit it holds 0 appeal for me since I used to live in Florida (I'd do it as a last minute "hey this costs next to nothing and I really HAVE TO GET AWAY" type of cruise, if no really good options existed).

As for Bermuda, yes. It's amazing. It's gorgeous. Public transportation to get to the beach really isn't all that big of a deal with this one since you get to overnight in-port and are there for so long. The pink beaches along the south shore are incredible and the pink sand is cool underfoot, plus the water is as blue as any Caribbean island's water that I've seen. The people are also very friendly and helpful. We met a lady at Horseshoe Bay Beach who owned a cottage or something that she rented out for vacations and she was telling us just how much she loves having people stay there and how proud she is to be Bermudian. If I hadn't been chest-deep in the Atlantic Ocean I would have gotten her information for possible future trips to Bermuda that don't involve cruises.

Anyway, before I ramble on horrendously, I will say that if you've got at least some patience and a decent sense of humor, you can't go wrong on the Breakaway to Bermuda. It's a little more expensive, sure, but oh gosh was it worth every penny.

The Gem... I want to sail her, but not until I can afford one of the longer itineraries she does into the Caribbean (time is more of a problem than money). You can't go wrong with her as a ship, from everything I've ever read/heard. I'm just personally rather ehh about the FL/Bahamas itinerary. Either way, I hope you enjoy whichever cruise you pick. J

ust beware, if you turn out to be the cruising type, you'll get hooked and next thing you know you'll be obsessed with finding that next amazing deal on that one itinerary you read about because the ship just sounds amazing and OH GOD YOU HAVE TO GO NOW!

Apparently 210. Boyfriend is a bit unpredictable sometimes and decided we needed to book another cruise to Bermuda today.

Thanks for the info as always. So far I don't have anything on my list in the Hamilton area, so I guess I'll have to wait on planning anything there to see if I come up with anything else. We'll see. I know the BAMZ and Aquarium is in the area, but still debating that one. Really not interested in the caves...we've been to so many of them.

OP here, trying to fail a little less at life. Check out Fort Hamilton for things in the area. We went, but only had about two minutes to poke around before it closed and both of us regret not allotting time for it like we did Fort Saint Catherine over by St. George (which was also super cool). Fort Hamilton is a pretty easy (albeit hilly) walk from the bus terminal and ferries/Front Street and sits on top of a hill that offers a pretty stellar view over Hamilton and the water. We caught it just as the sun was falling, slowly, over the horizon, and had we had more time and proper equipment we would have grabbed more than a handful of random snapshots.

Sadly, we didn't make it to Admiralty House Park, as much as both of us wanted to. I was sick 2/3 days we were in Bermuda, including during sail-away, which I slept through, plus the last full day on-board.

Yay! Welcome back!!!

Thanks! My life has gotten progressively crazier and more expensive since I actually started going to doctors the day after my cruise. The kidney infection from October is now being paired with a surgery for January, if I can get in. It's fantastic, let me tell you. I also have oral surgery coming up next week, just to keep me on my toes. Suffice it to say, the cruise was the highlight of my year and thus I still want my written account to remember it by.