NCL Escape to Bermuda May 19 2019: A Detailed Trip Report with Photos!

[cksv]

Looking forward to your review! I’m from San Jose and might be doing this cruise next month depending on last minute pricing. Thanks for the info about the noise at Kimpton Ink48. That was a top contender but not so much now. Do you know if the noise only occurs for the rooms with queen beds? My gf and I would book a king so might not be an issue if those rooms face a different direction.

[andychris]

Thank you for your review!

[PelicanBill]

13 hours ago, conandrob240 said:

It actually isn’t that hard.There’s a train station right in Newark which can take you directly to Penn Station NYC. No train change involved. And for a drive that could take 2 hrs if you hit it wrong with traffic-it’s a great 20 minute option.

Not trying to be disagreeable but that is exactly what I described. You don't go to Newark to do this. 

1. Take the Airtrain from your terminal to the Newark Airport train station. Buy ticket from Kiosk.

2. Choose a NJTransit or Amtrack train to Penn Station New York (not Penn Station Newark) Buy ticket from Kiosk.

3. Take a cab to your hotel or the port. (you may need to search for elevators to avoid stairs)

That requires 4 transitions of your luggage vs. 2 with a car, and figuring out two train systems and kiosks to buy tickets plus the taxi.  Total cost is about $5+$13+$15=$33 so it's much cheaper if you are willing to do the 3 steps. There are turnstiles to navigate with cruise luggage and I often see people fail to do so with a lot of luggage- then their ticket is used and it is a hassle. I don't recommend this for newcomers to NYC unless you are familiar with and comfortable with mass transit.

[conandrob240]

Your description makes it sound way more complicated than it is. It’s an airport tram which has no cost and is a single loop so it’s not like you’re going to get lost. There are easily accessible escalators and elevators. Then one train. Penn Station isn’t the greatest but there are always elevators you just have to maybe look a bit. Depending on where your hotel is, the final step may not even be needed.

[basicprincess24]

Day 2 - Embarkation

 

We woke up excited on Sunday morning because it was cruise day!! But first, breakfast. I love bagels, so getting a good bagel while in New York was definitely on my list. We took a quick Lyft ride to Liberty Bagels Midtown.

 

 

 

Sean got a Jalapeno Cheddar Everything bagel with plain cream cheese.

 

I got an Everything bagel with plain cream cheese.

 

Matt got the Jalapeno Cheddar Everything bagel with Bacon Sriracha cream cheese, and Grace got the Rainbow bagel with Birthday Cake cream cheese.

 

They were all really good!

 

We made our way back to the hotel via Lyft, grabbed our suitcases, and checked out. One of the big perks of staying at the Kimpton Ink48 is the short distance to the port. We walked one block, crossed the street, and we were there! We arrived just about 10am, and it felt a bit busy outside, but we quickly realized everyone was still leaving. We found the bag drop on level 1, then took the escalator up to level 2 for check in. There was no line for security, and no line at the check in desks, and we were sitting in the terminal waiting with ship cards in hand by 10:20am.

 

 

 

We got a group 10 boarding card. They called group 1 at 10:45am, and we were on the ship by 11am.

 

Our first stop was the box office, where we booked Choir of Man and two nights of comedy in Headliners, and confirmed our After Midnight reservations that we had made online before the cruise. Next, we headed up to the buffet for a quick lunch. Sean and I aren’t really buffet people, but it’s become our cruise tradition to do lunch there on embarkation day and enjoy a glass of sparkling wine. So that is exactly what we did! (Apparently we were still too excited and completely forgot to take any photos - woops!)

 

After lunch, we got some frozen drinks at the outside Vibe bar. This bar was not at all crowded, and there were even some comfy chairs to sit in to enjoy our drinks! Sean got a mudslide and I got a pina colada.

 

Here I am, happy to be on the ship, with the boys ordering their 2nd drinks at the bar.

 

At about 2pm, Jacky the cruise director made the announcement that rooms were ready, and we headed to our cabin. Here is our balcony cabin, room 9876. This is aft, on the starboard side. This was great location - we were so close to the aft elevators, so we felt like we were close to everything.

 

 

 

 

Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet, so we just dropped off our carry on bags and headed back out to explore the ship more. We quickly found what would become our favorite space on board, the District Brew House.

 

Sean is big craft beer fan, so he really loved having so many different choices. His first beer of the cruise was the Due South Caramel Cream Ale.

 

I’m a Jimmy Buffett fan, and a margarita fan, so I went to grab a drink from the nearby 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar, on the waterfront. This is the aptly named 5 O’Clock Somewhere!

 

Before too long it was time for the muster drill, and we made our way to our station at the Taste restaurant. Once that was done we headed upstairs to grab a spot to watch sailaway. We got spots behind the wind screens up at Margaritaville since it was a little chilly on deck.

 

 

Sailaway from Manhattan really is amazing. We passed by Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After sailing under the bridge, we went back to our cabin to find that our luggage had arrived. We unpacked and decorated our doors.

 

We relaxed for a little while and enjoyed the view from our balcony. This was our first cruise with a balcony cabin, and I think this was the point where we decided we were hooked! I totally get the balcony love now.

 

We met up for a late dinner at the Manhattan Room around 8pm. Matt started off big, and ordered 4 appetizers! Gumbo, mozzarella ravioli with lobster sauce, crab cake, and potstickers.

 

Sean started with the crab cake, and the gumbo. My appetizers were the cheese plate and the Greek salad. I've ordered this greek salad on 3 straight cruises, and I never remember that it doesn't come with lettuce! Always throws me off when they bring it out. For our main courses, Sean got the shrimp scampi.

 

I had Chicken Piccata. This was delicious!

 

For dessert, we both had the chocolate lava cake, my favorite NCL dessert. (The food photos get more consistent as we go, I promise!)

 

After dinner, we went back to District Brew House for drinks, and enjoyed listening to the piano player/singer, Joanne Rochell. She was taking requests and encouraged singing along, so it was almost like a mini version of Howl at the Moon. Once her set was over at 11pm, we headed to bed.

 

This evening's towel animal. Anyone know what this is? Penguin?

 

And here is the daily from Day 1.

 

Coming up - a day at sea!

[basicprincess24]

On 6/4/2019 at 8:20 PM, cksv said:

Looking forward to your review! I’m from San Jose and might be doing this cruise next month depending on last minute pricing. Thanks for the info about the noise at Kimpton Ink48. That was a top contender but not so much now. Do you know if the noise only occurs for the rooms with queen beds? My gf and I would book a king so might not be an issue if those rooms face a different direction.

Great to see another Bay Area cruiser! Glad you're following along. Definitely wait for that last minute pricing, I know ours dropped significantly in the last few weeks.

 

When when checked in, the front desk made it sound like the noise was only an issue for that room type since they were on that side of the hotel. Requesting a higher floor might also help alleviate the noise issues.

[basicprincess24]

Day 3 - At Sea

 

One of my favorite parts of a cruise is early morning coffee overlooking the ocean. So, this day, Sean and I were up early to take advantage of the coffee and pastries set out on the Waterfront.

 

I believe they do this at multiple spots along the Waterfront, we enjoyed the setup at the 5 O’Clock somewhere bar this morning.

 

We met up with Matt & Grace at 8am for breakfast at Taste. Nothing beats a leisurely dining room breakfast on a cruise! Sean had the seasonal fruit salad

 

And the French toast

 

I had the half grapefruit and eggs benedict, which we seem to not have a photo of (it looked like eggs benedict! lol)

 

After breakfast, we found four lounge chairs up at Spice H20, near an umbrella since Grace prefers shade. This early, there were plenty of chairs available, and the bar was just opening. We enjoyed the sun and just relaxed with a few frozen drinks until it was time for lunch. We went to O’Sheehans and enjoyed buffalo wings, spinach dip, and Chipotle Chicken Sandwiches. All the food was really good, but everything came out at once. We noticed this every time we ate at O’Sheehan’s - just not as coordinated as the MDRs with timing.

 

After lunch, we were apparently tired from the morning relaxing, so we headed back to our cabins for a nap. We met back up at 3:30pm to try out the ropes course. Sean and I were looking forward to the ropes course since it was 3 levels and generally larger than the courses on Getaway and Breakaway. Unfortunately, it was too windy so only the 1st level was open, and no zip lines were available. The staff said to come back while we were in Bermuda, so we made a note to return while in port.

 

We met for a pre-dinner drink at the Cellars wine bar, which was a bit disappointing. We were handed the same wine list as in the MDRs. I think this is one area where NCL could improve, with the beverage package, you’re pretty limited. If you drink Pinot Noir, for example, there is only one included option. I’d like to see a few more choices included.

 

We had dinner at the Manhattan Room at 6pm. We had about a 5min wait to get seated this night, and the crew were encouraging guests to go to Taste or Savor for no wait, but we weren’t in any rush! Sean started with a Caesar salad - he loved this crouton!

 

I started with Beef Barley Soup (I know this looks like coffee - I promise its soup!).

 

For entrees, Sean had the Hake, which he gave rave reviews.

 

I had the Parmesan Pork Chop, which I would definitely recommend, it was delicious.

 

 

After dinner, we grabbed grasshoppers from the Mixx Bar and hung out for a bit before our show for the evening, Choir of Man, at 10pm.

This was an amazing show! There’s not really a plot, but that was ok. The cast is super talented and I would say this is not-to-be-missed!

 

We then headed back to our cabin for the night to find our friendly towel animal!

 

The daily for our first day at sea.

 

 

 

 

Coming up - another day at sea!

 

[Gershep]

Great review looking forward to the rest.

[cheeseclan]

Thanks for the great review and all the pics.  This will be our first cruise on NCL and first time to Bermuda.    

 

Am I reading correctly that i need to make reservations for the shows?  I did make reservations for the 3 specialty restaurants but did not know we had to do shows.    Also we had to do a little bit later dinner times than normal for us.  Can we possibly change them once on the ship?

[Arzeena]

On 6/5/2019 at 8:49 AM, PelicanBill said:

Not trying to be disagreeable but that is exactly what I described. You don't go to Newark to do this. 

1. Take the Airtrain from your terminal to the Newark Airport train station. Buy ticket from Kiosk.

2. Choose a NJTransit or Amtrack train to Penn Station New York (not Penn Station Newark) Buy ticket from Kiosk.

3. Take a cab to your hotel or the port. (you may need to search for elevators to avoid stairs)

That requires 4 transitions of your luggage vs. 2 with a car, and figuring out two train systems and kiosks to buy tickets plus the taxi.  Total cost is about $5+$13+$15=$33 so it's much cheaper if you are willing to do the 3 steps. There are turnstiles to navigate with cruise luggage and I often see people fail to do so with a lot of luggage- then their ticket is used and it is a hassle. I don't recommend this for newcomers to NYC unless you are familiar with and comfortable with mass transit.

Excellent explanation. Thank you!

[basicprincess24]

9 hours ago, cheeseclan said:

Thanks for the great review and all the pics.  This will be our first cruise on NCL and first time to Bermuda.    

 

Am I reading correctly that i need to make reservations for the shows?  I did make reservations for the 3 specialty restaurants but did not know we had to do shows.    Also we had to do a little bit later dinner times than normal for us.  Can we possibly change them once on the ship?

 

While not totally necessary, we like to make reservations where available so that we know we'll be able to see the shows we want to see. For the main production shows in the theater, you could probably show up 10min ahead and get in on standby, but if you want a guarantee, the reservations are nice. You should be able to make these online through your myNCL, but for us Choir of Man never appeared online since it just moved from the Supper Club, and we had to wait until on board. For the comedy shows, the venue is much smaller, so I'd definitely recommend getting a reservation. These do have to be made on the ship.

 

On our sailing, Headliners (the comedy club) was set up to take specialty dining reservations on embarkation day, so if you need to move things around you totally can.

[cheeseclan]

3 hours ago, basicprincess24 said:

 

While not totally necessary, we like to make reservations where available so that we know we'll be able to see the shows we want to see. For the main production shows in the theater, you could probably show up 10min ahead and get in on standby, but if you want a guarantee, the reservations are nice. You should be able to make these online through your myNCL, but for us Choir of Man never appeared online since it just moved from the Supper Club, and we had to wait until on board. For the comedy shows, the venue is much smaller, so I'd definitely recommend getting a reservation. These do have to be made on the ship.

 

On our sailing, Headliners (the comedy club) was set up to take specialty dining reservations on embarkation day, so if you need to move things around you totally can.

Thanks so much

 

[snirpville]

Great review, I LOVE the lava cake. I would have that every night if I could.

[fairygirl1]

Just a heads up- you can call NCL to prebook Choir of Man by telephone.     Not sure how close to cruise  time it needs to be but I just did it for our Upcoming trip to Bermuda. I called my Ncl “person” ( ALWAYS forget their title!🤦🏻‍♀️🤣) and no problems at all!

 I’m LOVING your review- thanks so much! I can’t wait!!

[cheeseclan]

I was able to book Harlem nights online.  Choir man said must be done on board.   Looks like i will have to take care of things once on the ship.

 

Is there a specific place to do this once on the ship?

Edited June 11, 2019 by cheeseclan

[Jenner9]

Thank you for the review and pics. How early do you have to get up for the coffee and pastries on the Waterfront and were those free? Love your nailpolish color by the way!!

[graphicguy]

Great review.  Loving it.  BTW, I loved the HAKE too.

 

Can’t wait to read more.

 

Thanks!

Edited June 11, 2019 by graphicguy

[basicprincess24]

5 hours ago, fairygirl1 said:

Just a heads up- you can call NCL to prebook Choir of Man by telephone.     Not sure how close to cruise  time it needs to be but I just did it for our Upcoming trip to Bermuda. I called my Ncl “person” ( ALWAYS forget their title!🤦🏻‍♀️🤣) and no problems at all!

 I’m LOVING your review- thanks so much! I can’t wait!!

Great tip! Thanks for following along - you'll have a great time! Bermuda is amazing 🙂

 

2 hours ago, cheeseclan said:

I was able to book Harlem nights online.  Choir man said must be done on board.   Looks like i will have to take care of things once on the ship.

 

Is there a specific place to do this once on the ship?

The box office (deck 7, fwd) should be open as soon as you board. Head there to take care of your show reservations!

 

1 hour ago, Jenner9 said:

Thank you for the review and pics. How early do you have to get up for the coffee and pastries on the Waterfront and were those free? Love your nailpolish color by the way!!

We were out at the waterfront around 7am each morning, and it was always there! I'm not sure what time they take it down, but they were still refilling the pastry trays when we were heading inside around 8am.

 

 

[joejoe 59]

Enjoying  reading  your review, thank you.

Makes me really  excited for  our cruise on her next year in the Baltic. 

[taylortime05]

How was the weather?  I would love to go to Bermuda and thought I should wait until June for warmer weather.

[basicprincess24]

27 minutes ago, taylortime05 said:

How was the weather?  I would love to go to Bermuda and thought I should wait until June for warmer weather.

I'll go into more detail in my next update, but the quick version is that we encountered cool & raining mornings each of the 3 days we were docked in Bermuda. By noon or so, it was warm and sunny, but not quite as warm as we'd experienced in the Caribbean, even in December. I love to lay in the sun, and I would have liked it 5-10 degrees warmer. June might be better, but I'm not sure since this was our first time to Bermuda. 

[basicprincess24]

Day 4 - At Sea

 

This was our first cruise with two sea days back-to-back. I have to say it was really lovely! We definitely were feeling the vacation relaxation by the end of this day.

 

Once again, Sean and I were up early to have coffee and chocolate croissants out on the Waterfront. (You can tell that this is our daily thing because I only wrote down “C + C on Waterfront” in my notes. Haha!) We headed back inside at 8am to meet Matt & Grace at Savor for breakfast. But first, we all decided to grab pineapple mimosas from the atrium bar!

 

After breakfast, we went up to the pool deck and found four lounge chairs underneath the loop/drop slides. It provided a good mix of both sun and shade to keep everyone in our group happy - we switched chairs throughout the morning as needed! Starting around 10am, chair monitors were placing time stickers on chairs with stuff but no people - make sure you’re in your chairs if you want to keep them. Our goal for this morning was to get on the Aqua Racer slide, so as soon as it opened at 10am, Sean and I headed up the stairs to ride! We took turns going up the slides and staying with the chairs in sets of 2. Definitely don’t miss this slide! You ride down on an inner tube, and you can go 2 at a time and try to “race” - totally recommend. Go early to avoid long lines, by the time it really warmed up around 11:30 the line was building.

 

At 12:30, we changed and then had lunch at Taste, and then headed to the District Brewhouse for the afternoon. The boys grabbed beers, and Grace and I had Angry Orchard hard ciders, on tap!

 

We stayed in the Brewhouse until almost 5pm playing cards and having drinks. We really loved this space, not too crowded during the day, and the big windows allow you to stay connected to the ocean. I ordered one of the cocktails offered, the Sancho Panza, and it was terrible. I really cannot recommend this drink. Instead, I walked next door to the 5 O’Clock Somewhere bar and got a 5 O’Clock Somewhere.

 

We had 7pm reservations at Teppanyaki tonight. This was easily our best meal of the cruise, and our chef was really fun. They all sing classic rock songs and its a really interactive and fun experience. Sean tried the Shaku-Shaku cocktail. He did not like this, said it tasted like pickles.

 

Matt tried the Wasabi cocktail, which was the better choice.

 

Most of the Teppanyaki menu is fixed, so we started with edamame, then miso soup and seaweed salad, all good. Then, the chef makes everyone grilled veggies and garlic rice. Yum!

 

 

For our entrees, Sean chose steak and shrimp.

 

I chose steak and chicken.

 

We all agreed the steak, filet mignon, was the best thing we were served. It was melt-in-your-mouth perfectly cooked and so delicious. For dessert, the two choices were green tea cake and fruit sashimi. We were so full that we all chose the fruit!

 

At this point, we were all in food comas, and headed our cabins for the evening.

 

Here's tonight's friendly towel animal!

 

And the daily for our 2nd day at sea.

 

 

 

Coming up - our first day in Bermuda!

Edited June 12, 2019 by basicprincess24

[serene56]

I am following along.   We are avid cruisers-   30 cruises under our belts since 2000.   Toured the NCL Crown many many moons ago.  Maybe decades ago    thought NCL was not for us   But we really need a change of cruise scenery as those are getting to be the same old same

Booked escape to Bermuda   and I need to know EVERYTHING

[AmyJA]

Just chiming in to say...following. 

[basicprincess24]

17 minutes ago, serene56 said:

I am following along.   We are avid cruisers-   30 cruises under our belts since 2000.   Toured the NCL Crown many many moons ago.  Maybe decades ago    thought NCL was not for us   But we really need a change of cruise scenery as those are getting to be the same old same

Booked escape to Bermuda   and I need to know EVERYTHING

Thanks for following along! If there is something I don't cover, feel free to ask 🙂 We'll (finally) get to Bermuda in my next update.