Thoughts on NYC to Bermuda cruise this November

[njhorseman]

17 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

I think you are looking at the week before ours, which is different and does have the shortened port time.  The itinerary for November 10-17 says we arrive Tuesday the 12th and depart Friday the 15th.  More importantly, The Port of Bermuda's schedule agrees with this.  Being NCL, though, I would not put it past them.  We have been burnt a couple of times and no longer trust NCL with our more important trips.  This is an inexpensive getaway to use up some FCC so no worries.

I'm looking at the itinerary currently displayed on ncl.com for your cruise. Both your cruise and the previous week's cruise are shown having identical Sunday to Sunday itineraries. 

Perhaps ncl.com is wrong or perhaps they've changed the itinerary since you booked. 

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, Captain-John said:

 

Lucky you! Do you have any more information about this offer? I assume it's not for everyone and may be loyalty tier or based on residence etc... but still seems like a good deal to randomly pop up.

No more information. All I know is I received an e-mail. I actually deleted it without reading it until I read that some had received an offer of 15% off. That's when I went to deleted and read it. 15% off for 2024 cruises added to my latitudes account, book by 9/30.

[Travelling2Some]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

I'm looking at the itinerary currently displayed on ncl.com for your cruise. Both your cruise and the previous week's cruise are shown having identical Sunday to Sunday itineraries. 

Perhaps ncl.com is wrong or perhaps they've changed the itinerary since you booked. 

Yes, I do see what you are saying and that is a change from what I saw just a few days ago.  See my Post No. 21.  No clue what the truth will be.  The itinerary they have posted now is not what we booked and not what my reservation paperwork shows.  I have a sinking feeling that we are about to be sucker punched again.  Notice that they still advertise "3 overnights in port".  Maybe they think people can't count or maybe they are just that sloppy.  On the one hand, if they are pulling back on our time in port by a whole day I would not think they would still be selling excursions for that day (Tuesday).  On the other hand there are glaring discrepancies now compared to what they posted previously, including selling excursions for a time that we will have already left Bermuda on Friday.  Frankly, they appear incompetent, which I guess is a tad nicer than dishonest.

[Travelling2Some]

3 hours ago, DSCBDA said:

HI--- I live in Bermuda and thought I would jump in---

 

November can provide gorgeous weather here.  Obviously not as hot as the summer but very warm days in the sun and coolish nights. Evenings--- light sweater-weather or a hoody are just fine.  Services are typically reduced just a bit but as long as the cruise season is running you will have plenty of support to get around and see the sights.   Water might be chilly---but manageable especially if you are coming from somewhere cold and already into Winter-mode.

 

Here is the 2024 ship schedule that you can check out to give you an idea of what cruise traffic might look like!  Safe Travels!

 

https://cloudfront.bernews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2024-Cruise-Ship-Schedule.pdf

 

Thanks for the port schedule.  It does show a difference in time in port between my November 10th sailing and the previous sailing.  But, as NJHorseman points out the intineraries on the NCL website have now been changed to show both cruises have the identical shortened time in port.  I have no idea what the truth is!

[shof515]

30 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

 Frankly, they appear incompetent, which I guess is a tad nicer than dishonest.

 

thats how i feel about my upcoming cruise on the breakaway in 2 months. when i look at the official port schedule,it does not match Norwegian website nor my booking confirmation.  its been like this for many many months. seems a tad bit of false advertising

[DSCBDA]

10 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Thanks for the port schedule.  It does show a difference in time in port between my November 10th sailing and the previous sailing.  But, as NJHorseman points out the intineraries on the NCL website have now been changed to show both cruises have the identical shortened time in port.  I have no idea what the truth is!

Hi All--- I would probably recommend just speaking with an NCL Customer Service person as I'm not exactly certain that Government updates this schedule on a daily basis.  It is launched usually in November/December of each year so it could very well be outdated if NCL is not informing Ports well in advance of the cruise date.

[Travelling2Some]

4 minutes ago, DSCBDA said:

Hi All--- I would probably recommend just speaking with an NCL Customer Service person as I'm not exactly certain that Government updates this schedule on a daily basis.  It is launched usually in November/December of each year so it could very well be outdated if NCL is not informing Ports well in advance of the cruise date.

Thanks again for the input.  Several people on the November 3 Roll Call reported trying to get a straight answer about why their time in port was so reduced, compared to the November 10 and October 29 seven day Breakaway cruises, from NCL without success.  No surprise there, the call center folks never seem to know much.  However, somebody on the November 10 Roll Call pointed out that to see the differing itineraries you have to click through to the page where you choose a cabin type, then click on the words in the upper left corner.  I tried it just now and the difference in the itineraries for each sailing date did, in fact, appear.  A bit hard to find and confusing but it does give me more optimism that our port time has not actually been reduced.

[Travelling2Some]

21 minutes ago, shof515 said:

 

thats how i feel about my upcoming cruise on the breakaway in 2 months. when i look at the official port schedule,it does not match Norwegian website nor my booking confirmation.  its been like this for many many months. seems a tad bit of false advertising

I always put more weight on the official port schedule.  They have no motive to lie.  A cruise line has both motive and opportunity.

[Charles4515]

33 minutes ago, DSCBDA said:

Hi All--- I would probably recommend just speaking with an NCL Customer Service person as I'm not exactly certain that Government updates this schedule on a daily basis.  It is launched usually in November/December of each year so it could very well be outdated if NCL is not informing Ports well in advance of the cruise date.

They update the port schedule often. I downloaded a new version last week. It is dated August 15, 2024. They will also do scratch outs in between.
 

http://www.rccbermuda.bm/Documents/Shipping_schedules/2024 Cruise Ship Schedule.pdf

Edited August 22 by Charles4515

[ontheweb]

I e-mailed our TA and he put on a hold and gave a price, but we decided not to take this cruise. He agreed that there would be a lot of children, but also said that the pools would be closed. We were hoping the cooler temperatures would mean the pools would not be overflowing with children and DW could pretty much have them to herself. But closed pools meant that that plan would not work.

 

We also looked at the November 3rd cruise to Bermuda, but the changed times were a real turnoff. And November 10th is out because we have a small land trip within that week.

 

Oh well, it was worth the try. Maybe we will still find something.

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

I e-mailed our TA and he put on a hold and gave a price, but we decided not to take this cruise. He agreed that there would be a lot of children, but also said that the pools would be closed. We were hoping the cooler temperatures would mean the pools would not be overflowing with children and DW could pretty much have them to herself. But closed pools meant that that plan would not work.

 

We also looked at the November 3rd cruise to Bermuda, but the changed times were a real turnoff. And November 10th is out because we have a small land trip within that week.

 

Oh well, it was worth the try. Maybe we will still find something.

The pools won’t be closed. It will probably bee too cool for many to want to use them but they will be open along with hot tubs. 

 

 I cruised on Breakaway. 

[Gr101997]

On 8/21/2024 at 7:23 PM, shof515 said:

 

thats how i feel about my upcoming cruise on the breakaway in 2 months. when i look at the official port schedule,it does not match Norwegian website nor my booking confirmation.  its been like this for many many months. seems a tad bit of false advertising

Just got off breakaway 5 day with the overnight. When we booked the cruise, it was almost 2 full days in Bermuda. A few months ago they updated our nyc departure time to 11pm so we didn’t get to Bermuda til 1pm. Then on the ship they cut the day 2 departure to 3:30 from I believe 5:30. Really gave you very little time to do anything without rushing around or getting up really early. 

[Crown Vic]

On 8/20/2024 at 11:33 PM, stinkyharriet said:

That’s the trip leaving today, or what’s left of today (11:30pm as I type this).  The Breakaway is still in NYC!  It got here late this morning from Florida and people were saying that 3:30pm was the earliest check in time available.  I’m not sure what time people actually boarded the ship.

Nope! The Breakaway was in Bermuda last week and not Florida. Got back this morning, August 25. The ship was docked next to the MSC Meraviglia. BTW, Bermuda was beautiful as was the weather. The sea state out from NYC and return was perfect for cruising…calm, calm, calm…Cheers…

Edited August 25 by Crown Vic

[mking8288]

42 minutes ago, Gr101997 said:

Just got off breakaway 5 day with the overnight ... cut the day 2 departure to 3:30 from I believe 5:30. Really gave you very little time to do anything without rushing around or getting up really early. 

Welcome back ... the ride itself was at least smooth.  Noticed that last night when I looked at the niece's SOS sailing home to CL on a 7 day FL & Bahamas itinerar ... BA was racing in, doing almost 21 kts with ETA of 02:15 hour arrival.  Any particular reasons given for the early departure to, perhaps a medical emergency ??    Certainly not to sail & sustain, conserve fuel and against the motto "to optimize guest experiences" and in response to guests feedbacks.  

 

Asking for a curious friend.  NCL is (was) selling 4 days Bermuda runs, not even over night stays ... touch & go, dock at 9 and sail at 5, might as well make it a cruise-to-nowhere had US laws allow for non-US flagged ships to do them. 

[Gr101997]

20 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Welcome back ... the ride itself was at least smooth.  Noticed that last night when I looked at the niece's SOS sailing home to CL on a 7 day FL & Bahamas itinerar ... BA was racing in, doing almost 21 kts with ETA of 02:15 hour arrival.  Any particular reasons given for the early departure to, perhaps a medical emergency ??    Certainly not to sail & sustain, conserve fuel and against the motto "to optimize guest experiences" and in response to guests feedbacks.  

 

Asking for a curious friend.  NCL is (was) selling 4 days Bermuda runs, not even over night stays ... touch & go, dock at 9 and sail at 5, might as well make it a cruise-to-nowhere had US laws allow for non-US flagged ships to do them. 

No idea why we were hauling ass. We didn’t leave bermuda til 5:30 bc of late passengers but an hour (on board was 3:30, departure was 4:30) would hardly make that as issue. We did blow by the MSC meraviglia yesterday at sea which left about 90 mins before us in Bermuda. 
 

When I last checked our location around 10pm last night we were off the coast of mid NJ so I assumed we got in pretty early this morning. 
 

It was overall a very disappointing cruise. Probably one of, if not the lowest rated that I’ve ever done. 

Edited August 25 by Gr101997

[Gr101997]

On 8/20/2024 at 11:33 PM, stinkyharriet said:

That’s the trip leaving today, or what’s left of today (11:30pm as I type this).  The Breakaway is still in NYC!  It got here late this morning from Florida and people were saying that 3:30pm was the earliest check in time available.  I’m not sure what time people actually boarded the ship.

They sent us about 20 emails saying we couldn’t even enter the terminal before 3pm and first boarding times were 3:30. People were boarding around 1 as per our fbook group. We got on at 2:45. We didn’t leave the dock in NYC til 11:45 which was awful since we wanted to see sail away. By the time we went to bed it was roughly 2am ship time (we had to add an hour). With kids, the next morning wasn’t fun 

[ontheweb]

9 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

The pools won’t be closed. It will probably bee too cool for many to want to use them but they will be open along with hot tubs. 

 

 I cruised on Breakaway. 

Good to know. I will have to consult with DW about this. She likes to swim laps, hard to do on a cruise ship, but she often tries to get to the pool as it opens.

 

Once we had a hurricane and could not get back to Fort Lauderdale for 2 days. The captain at one point took us closer to land so people could get cell phone service to call their family, airlines, or travel agents. The pool had waves like the ocean. She swam. It was easy one way, and hard the other way against the current. Later, the pools were drained.

[Langham1865]

On 8/20/2024 at 9:24 PM, Travelling2Some said:

We will be on the November 10-17 Breakaway to Bermuda.  I like Bermuda because it has a nice vibe that is very different from the Caribbean.  I don't care for "beach weather" myself.  Much prefer pleasant, cooler walking weather.  That cruise has 3 overnights in Bermuda and we had 1K in FCC.  Haven't been to Bermuda in probably 20 plus years so I'm looking forward to it.

I just booked the same sailing!