NCL Ship 1995

[Dreamer04]

On Sept 16 1995, DH and I cruised to Bermuda for our first anniversay. I cannot remember the name of the ship. It left NY harbor every Saturday. Any ideas?

 

 

 

Ursula

[dougnewmanatsea]

Your ship was DREAMWARD.

[Dreamer04]

Your ship was DREAMWARD.

 

Thank you so much!!! It was driving me nuts!

[JudyOh]

We sailed on the Dreamward to Bermuda from NYC in July of 1995!

[Mark]

Wasn't NCL also using the Westward and then the Crown on that run back then? I remember being on both the Westward and the Crown on the run back in the 90s. The Westward was one of my favorite ships since there was so much space everywhere for passengers since she was designed for Royal Viking Line to do long ocean cruises similar to the Crown.

[dougnewmanatsea]

Wasn't NCL also using the Westward and then the Crown on that run back then?

Yes, these ships were also used by NCL.

 

The first ship used on the NYC-Bermuda run was WESTWARD... Then followed by DREAMWARD, then NORWEGIAN CROWN, then NORWGEGIAN SEA and then once again CROWN which is the current ship on this route.

 

I think both WESTWARD and CROWN were nicer ships than DREAMWARD though she was actually a very nice ship, at the time she was in my opinion one of the nicest mass-market ships and indeed nicer, I think, than anything Royal Caribbean or Carnival had. I visited her sister WINDWARD and honestly I thought she seemed a bit too nice from NCL (who were financially struggling at the time)! Unfortunately in 1999 these ships were stretched, greatly increasing their passenger capacity, reducing space per passenger and (in my opinion) pretty much ruining their appeal.

 

Of the four ships NCL used to Bermuda SEA was by far the least desirable; I sailed in her when she was SEAWARD and while it was good cruise she was nonetheless a cheaply built ship which even at less than ten years old looked tired and worn. Moreover she had some of the tiniest cabins I have ever seen, including my award for all-time worst cruise ship bathroom (when you showered the whole bathroom - which was about the size of a phone booth - got wet). As one clever person remarked, the cabins on that ship were "so small you had to go outside to change your mind" :rolleyes: ! Nonetheless despite such indignities which, I think, we would never tolerate today, we had a good time. But he was certainly inferior to DREAMWARD and not even in the same league as WESTWARD or CROWN... Indeed it was rather a farce that they replaced their best ship, CROWN, with their worst ship, SEA! Even more ironic is that they were both built in 1988 - but worlds apart in every other respect.

 

If I were to guess I would say WESTWARD was used on the Bermuda run in 1991-1992, DREAMWARD in 1993-1996, CROWN from 1997-1999, SEA from 2000-2002 and then CROWN again from 2003 on... But that's me guessing, I may be a year or two off in some instances.

 

The only reason I know offhand that in 1995 it was DREAMWARD which is that I sailed to Bermuda in HORIZON that year and we were berthed next to DREAMWARD in Bermuda. Indeed I think we followed the exact same itinerary.

 

In 1995 the following ships sailed from NYC to Bermuda:

HORIZON (Celebrity)

MERIDIAN (Celebrity)

DREAMWARD (NCL)

SONG OF AMERICA (Royal Caribbean)

 

HORIZON and DREAMWARD were Saturday departures, MERIDIAN and SONG OF AMERICA were Sunday departures. All ships berthed both at Hamilton and St. George except MERIDIAN which berthed at King's Wharf as her draft was too deep to berth at the other ports.

 

For the ship herself, MERIDIAN would have been my first choice but as we wanted to berth at Hamilton and St. George, not King's Wharf, we took HORIZON instead. Of course in those days HORIZON and DREAMWARD were both new ships, but at the time Celebrity was a considerably more upscale product than NCL besides which we were loyal customers of theirs back in the Chandris era, which was just then coming to a close. (Our next cruise was on NCL, in SEAWARD... My one and only NCL cruise so far, though I have visited other NCL ships over the years.)

 

Today there is only one ship on the classic New York to Bermuda route, none other than NORWEGIAN CROWN. There are also Celebrity's ZENITH and Royal Caribbean's EXPLORER OF THE SEAS from Bayonne across the river in New Jersey. (EXPLORER of course is a mammoth ship and can only go to King's Wharf... And in my opinion should not be let into Bermuda at all, but that's up to the Bermudians and apparently they've deemed her suitable.)

 

Meanwhile, there is NORWEGIAN MAJESTY from Boston - she used to be ROYAL MAJESTY and has done the Bermuda run from Boston every single summer season of her life; that is, from 1992 on. NCL bought her in, I think, 1997 and didn't tamper with a winning system! Apparently despite the many newer and flashier ships on the block she has gained quite a following up in Boston. She too (not yet an NCL ship) was in Bermuda during that HORIZON cruise. We also saw MERIDAN out at King's Wharf (where we went one day, just to see what was there - at that time, not much). I can't recall seeing SONG OF AMERICA. In those days there were no Bermuda cruises from places like Philadelphia or Baltimore, so those five ships - four from NYC and one from Boston - were the only regular callers.

 

And finally there is Royal Caribbean's EMPRESS OF THE SEAS, the "baby" of the fleet, from Philadelphia... Not a bad ship but I don't much like Royal Caribbean and she is absolutely awful in heavy seas (which can be encountered on the way to Bermuda of course) so even if I were down in that area I wouldn't take her.

 

Oh yes, and GRANDEUR OF THE SEAS from Baltimore too, another big one (but not as huge as EXPLORER) that again, only goes to King's Wharf.

 

So let's see, that's six regular callers in Bermuda up from five a decade ago. But GRANDEUR and EXPLORER are far bigger than anything that went there then...

 

But the biggest difference of course were the fares - I think in 1995 they were about twice what they are today. Pretty amazing, but sadly Bermuda is not in demand as much as it once was, and in particular they are having a devil of a time attracting the upscale visitors that used to be the staple of the Bermudian tourism industry. These days I think more and more are going to places like Europe instead. And as for the lower end of the market, well, they prefer cheaper, warmer places. All a pity, really, as Bermuda is so nice.

 

Today they even are allowing flights from a low-fare carrier (JetBlue) and even more stunning, the occasional call from Carnival ships, a line who for so many years they steadfastly refused to accept as their passengers were not deemed "the right crowd"! How times change...

 

Anyhow, I'm rambling... If you're still reading this you must be a very patient person ;) ! I really do like Bermuda a lot and haven't been there in a decade now so it is high time to return! And of course a cruise is the only way to do it. I was looking forward to seeing MSC operate from NYC to Bermuda in 2007 but that is not happening :( ... So I guess if I take a cruise to Bermud any time soon, it will be in NORWEGIAN CROWN. Not that there's anything wrong with her of course; indeed she seems a very nice ship and, I think, perfect for this run.