Blow me to Bermuda - A 6 night Dream from NYC to Bermuda Oct 21-27 2023 (Updated 12/09)

[greensombrero]

Merlin had it right in Sword in the Stone, Bermuda is a great place to visit!



Just got off the 6 night NYC to Bermuda sailing which means its trip report time. This was quite possibly our favorite cruise yet and a top contender for best vacation ever. Why write another trip report? Well I have a few goals for this one:

• Talk about exploring Bermuda on our own. There aren't many TRs about Bermuda and the ones I've seen don't talk a lot about exploring the island. We had a great time doing so and thought I'd share what we did and how it went.
• My sister joined us for this sailing, her first on Disney and first cruise with her kids. It was my first time sailing with extended family and sailing with a first timer. After 6 cruises it is easy to forget things that a first timer would want to know. Hopefully I can share a few I observed along with what I learned sailing with another family, it was a lot of fun.
• I haven't read a lot about sailing out of NYC. While Disney isn't in 2024 they may again and there are other cruise lines. So I'll share what I learned about sailing from and visiting NYC for the first time.
• Finally writing a trip report is good post cruise therapy for me since I have a long wait until our next one.

For those who haven't read one of my trip reports before my crew consists of me, the Dad who said he'd never set foot on a cruise ship, but now has a major cruise and general travel addiction. Joining me was my wife who fortunately also loves Disney, cruising, and traveling. It really helps because we do sacrifice many other things and make real efforts to prioritize travel for our family. Hard to do that without a supportive spouse. We have 4 kids we share our adventures with: DD 15 (almost 16 which is scary), DS 13, DD 11 and DS 8.

For this trip my sister joined us with her husband and two boys 10 & 5. She also loves to travel and they've done a fair amount as a family but aren't big Disney vacationers. They only visited Disneyland for the first time as a family about a year ago and other than a Carnival cruise right after they were married they haven't cruised. However they've seen how much we love it and they were interested in cruising with us.

At the time those discussions first started we had our spring break cruise on the Wonder planned and had also booked a 4 night on the Magic out of San Diego for fall break. I was originally super excited to try the Magic on the West coast. However as we talked she really wasn't interested in a Baja Mexico cruise because that was where they went with Carnival and they wanted to go somewhere new. I started wondering if I really wanted my next two cruises to go to the same spots. I love sailing from San Diego but have to admit Mexico isn't the most exciting destination though we did end up loving our excursions on our spring break cruise. We didn't know that though at the time.

Well I made the "mistake" of looking again at itineraries over our kid's fall break. I knew we didn't want to sail out of Florida again and wondered what else might be available. That's when I noticed a 6 night from NYC to Bermuda. I've always thought sailing into/out of New York harbor would be epic and I'd never been to New York City. Bermuda sounded like a cool destination especially the idea of an overnight in port and 3 days to explore an island. This was after our 2022 fall break cruise so we had a placeholder. I realized using it and switching to this itinerary instead of the Magic from San Diego wouldn't require much more of deposit. So I quizzed the family. They all loved the idea of visiting NYC and Bermuda so we did it. I wasn't sure if my sister would join us at that point but she did end up deciding to.

Our first time on the Dream was a 3 night and at that point we weren't sure we liked the bigger ships. We loved our 7 night on the Fantasy though and so I was excited about giving the Dream another try with more time to get to know the ship. We decided to book the same connecting rooms we had on the Fantasy, deck 8 midship verandah, 8080 and 8078 because we loved the location and the ships are so similar.

My sister though decided to try an ocean view on deck 2 both to save some money and she gets quite motion sick and thought a lower deck may help. We've sailed both with and without a verandah and are happy either way. For this one we thought we might enjoy the verandah and did though spoiler our next cruise we are back to ocean view. My opinion is either can be an enjoyable cruise and my sister was happy with her room as were we with ours.

With that background I thought I'd do a couple planning posts for those interested, one on NYC and one on Bermuda. I'll separate them so you can skip if you aren't interested and jump right into the trip. With that in mind here is an outline for this trip report.

Itinerary

Planning for New York
Planning for Bermuda
October 20th - NYC Travel Day
October 21st - NYC Embarkation
October 22nd - At Sea
October 23rd - Bermuda, Saint George & Hamilton
October 24th - Bermuda, Horsehoe Bay Beach Day
October 25th - Bermuda, Running from Tammy, Enjoying the Spa at Sea
October 26th - At Sea
October 27th - NYC Disembarkation, Intrepid Museum, Top of the Rock
October 28th - NYC Empire State Building, Wicked on Broadway
October 29th - NYC 9/11 Memorial, Natural History Museum
October 30th - Heading Home

 

[iloveeeyore]

Yay! I've been waiting for this TR, I can't wait to read about your trip! Bermuda is one of our favorite spots.

 

[greensombrero]

Planning for New York

This would be my first time to New York City and I quickly realized I had a lot to learn and figure out. My wife had been once in high school on tour but that is a totally different ball game so this would be new territory for us. The first two things I realized I'd need to figure out would be airfare and hotels. We knew we wanted to come in the night before to minimize missed school. My kids had a whole week off but the cruise left on Saturday. So we'd have to fly in on the Friday before and miss a day. We also knew we wanted to spend some time in NYC. The cruise schedule made this pretty easy getting back on Friday so we could spend the weekend after exploring the city.

Flights, Hotels and Transfers

We booked the cruise a little more than 10 months out so I figured we wouldn't want to get airfare right away. Most things I've read recommend waiting until around the 6 month mark for domestic flights. However I had no context for what a reasonable rate to New York would be. To make things more complicated there are multiple airports in the area. Delta is our preferred airline and JFK is a hub for them but they do fly to Newark and there were La Guardia options. I used Google Flights for the first time to track flight options.

Hotels also proved to be more complicated than usual. We are locked into Marriott brand hotels with my rewards status with them. There are of course a lot of Marriott brand options in New York. What I quickly learned though is that hotel prices in New York are pretty crazy especially compared to Florida. Additionally rooms with two queens are not very common in New York, doubles seem to be the norm. Forget finding a reasonable suite type option to accommodate our family of 6 in one room. The Marriott Marquis in Times Square did have a family suite option with connecting rooms but double beds and a much larger price tag than I wanted. I originally grabbed a cancellable reservation there to at least have something.

My original plan was to fly in the night before the cruise based on our school break schedule. The kids would miss one day of school before fall break but that was reasonable. I thought we might just stay in an airport hotel because they were less expensive and had better room options. Then we could transfer from there to the port. Transportation I thought might be easier from the airport. I kind of hoped Disney would offer bus transport like they do in Florida from the airport. I later found out they do not do that in NYC though I think they would arrange private transfers for you.

Once my sister booked she spent a bit more time exploring the Marriott site and found a Fairfield Inn in Midtown Manhattan that offered rooms with two queen beds. So I grabbed a reservation there for our post cruise nights. Two rooms there was quite a bit less than the family suite in the Marquis. As it would turn out it was a great find. I spent a lot of time on Google Maps exploring NYC and what was around the hotel. It was one of my most useful planning tools.

As I watched airfare I found fares coming back on Sunday were a lot more than other options. We looked at lots of options but ultimately decided to fly home on Monday and just have the kids miss one more day of school. This saved us on airfare and allowed us to have 3 full days in NYC post cruise. Once I found a fare I thought looked good I just grabbed it and booked. It was a bit early per some of the blogs I've read but I don't think I ever saw a lower rate on a decent schedule. We ended up on a direct flight to JFK. I love that Delta lets you adjust without change fees now. As things progressed we were able to move to an earlier flight the same day coming in and a bit later flight coming home. I'm always a bit nervous flying in just 1 day before the cruise in case something goes wrong. So I was happy to get on the first flight of the day seeing there were several more after. I figured this increased our options if anything went wrong.

As we got closer I realized especially with the two hour time change we'd have enough time after arriving we'd want to do something our night before the cruise. The airport area hotels didn't offer many options and it didn't seem to be the best place to be exploring. So I decided to see if we could scrap together enough Marriott points to book a night in Manhattan before the cruise. It ended up being doable to be at the same hotel we'd use post cruise.

I'll put a quick review in here for the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Times Square South where we stayed. It is one of my favorite Fairfield Inn experiences ever. I would definitely stay there again. That is based primarily on my overall experience there but not every aspect was perfect. The location ended up being super convenient, within walking distance for the family of most of the things we wanted to do and close to Penn Station and subway lines for everything else. The staff was incredible, especially the bell staff. We had to store luggage several times and they were great about it despite having a lot of fellow guests doing the same thing. A family of 6 has a lot of luggage and they were super helpful and handled it really well. We also got some really good info from the front desk staff.

The hotel was nice, clean and well maintained though the rooms were small. That shouldn't be surprising in NYC though. I was just happy to have two queen beds even if there was very little space around them. Storage was also lacking and it was a bit hard to find space for all the luggage but we made it work. They didn't offer connecting rooms but kept us right next to each other. I just loved coming back to a hotel room I felt was clean and where we got a good nights sleep each night. We had no noise problems in our rooms.

A couple cons to be aware of though these didn't take away from my overall experience. There were long waits for the elevators at peak times. The Fairfield is on the higher floors and a Springhill Suites on the lower floors. They have separate elevators servicing each so you have to be sure to go in the right elevator. Being up high was great except taking the stairs weren't a reasonable option from the 24th floor. Free breakfast was included but it was a mad house with so many guests and being combined for two hotels. We love bagels and were in NYC so we never tried eating there and got bagels from a great place around the corner instead.

The last con is that like any big city NYC has its problems. The location was central but there were also all the big city problems like homelessness, drug use, etc in the streets around the hotel. We never felt unsafe and didn't have any experiences where I was uncomfortable that my kids were around but it was an eye opening experience for them. My son is convinced he is allergic to weed after smelling it while walking around. I'm not opposed to him having that idea. I was expecting to see those sorts of things in a big city but if you aren't prepared or want to avoid seeing anything like that I don't know if there may be better locations to stay.

Part of why we invest in travel is to expose our kids to the wider world both good and to help them be grateful they don't experience the bad every day. I did really appreciate the front desk clerk though who recommended we walk down 9th avenue instead of 8th when heading towards Times Square. It was a better walk than what my sister said they saw on 8th when they first arrived.

Probably worth calling out so my narrative makes sense that my sister and her family did stay at the same place as us but they came in earlier and left earlier than we did so we didn't spend a lot of time in NYC together.

This is getting long but a couple more planning points worth sharing. The first is that I quickly realized traveling around the city with luggage would be a problem. While there is a train from JFK and then a subway I didn't want to do that with kids. The port was actually walkable in my mind per Google Maps but again not with luggage. Obviously there are taxis and Uber/Lyft but those are all hard with a family of 6 and luggage. As we got closer I started looking into private van transfer options and eventually found Precision NY. I think I found them on a Google search at first and saw they had good reviews there and on Trip Advisor.

They were not a very inexpensive option but not totally outside what I've paid before for private transport considering everything is more in NYC. I liked that their rates were inclusive of gratuity and they offered a first time discount. We could get a van for us and our luggage from the airport to our hotel. Then transfers to and from the port and then to a hotel we planned to spend the night at near the airport Sunday night. I wasn't thrilled with the cost but my wife really didn't want to be stressed splitting up in two cabs or Ubers. She said it would be worth it to her to just not have to worry. We also realized my sister and her family could share it with us to the port and she offered to contribute. At this point we had decided not to do any Disney excursions so I had the money I had saved for that available and just pulled the trigger. One of the best decisions we made. As we rode from the airport to NYC for the first time my wife said it was worth every penny. More on that later. Definitely give them 5 stars, one of the best private transfer experiences I've ever had.

Quick segway when we decided to stay Sunday night and fly out Monday I didn't want to spend the money or points on a night in Manhattan just to leave early for the airport and fight traffic. It was less expensive and ended up much less stressful to move to another hotel Sunday evening that had an airport shuttle. We ended up at the SpringHill Suites New York JFK Airport/Jamaica. We were only there for less than 12 hours since we checked in fairly late after enjoying the city all day and then up early for our morning flight. However it seemed like a great airport hotel. The rooms were "normal" sized for a SpringHill Suites property and my 8 year old immediately reacted he wished we'd stayed there the whole time due to the large rooms . If only they had instant transport downtown.

The free airport shuttle was ready right when we asked and got us to the airport with no issues. They had breakfast available early and it was a decent free hotel breakfast. The desk staff wasn't super friendly but we had minimal interactions. I'd stay there again but our experience was very limited.

New York Activities

The other thing I should comment on real quick is how we planned our activities in New York. We wanted to do all the iconic touristy things. We did a City Pass once before someplace else so I looked at it pretty early on. Since it covered most of the things we wanted to do I figured it might be a good option. The big challenge was we really only had 3 days in New York. I had to spend quite a bit of time on Google Maps trying to figure out if we could reasonably move between the different activities to fit everything in our limited time.

To make things a bit more complicated after Covid most places have reservation systems and required or at least recommended you reserve an entry time. We found some like the Intrepid Museum, Natural History Museum, and 9/11 didn't seem to enforce them very tightly from what we saw, that may depend on the day. While others like the Empire State Building and Top of The Rock did. Ahead of time though I had no idea and figured I'd need to plan our reservation times to give us enough time to travel, eat, etc with kids.

Fortunately Google Maps is awesome both at giving you a sense for walking times and subway/public transit times. I talked things through with my wife to consider meals and how long we may want at things. While I modeled things out in the months leading to our trip we didn't actually commit to the City Pass until a couple months out. We had to buy it to start making reservations. I didn't want to wait too long and run into trouble getting reservations. Ended up buying it on Sept 1st so little less than 2 months out and that seemed to be perfect timing. We had no issues getting the reservations we wanted.

The one other thing we really wanted to do was see a Broadway show. We love live theater especially my wife, oldest daughter and I. I would have loved to see lots of shows but cost and time meant we'd have to pick one. Originally I wasn't sure if we should but my wife convinced me it would be silly for us not to while we were there. So when I got some bonus money we pulled the trigger pretty early on and got tickets to a Saturday afternoon performance of Wicked. I think it was pretty close to when they went on sale for October. We bought the end of April.

I know there are different ways you can get deals on show tickets. However given our limited time, large family and the fact we really wanted our show to be Wicked I opted to just buy them direct in advance. We ended up with really good seats and I don't regret it at all. My musical theater, choir and orchestra teenage daughter would tell me seeing Wicked and then going to Ellen's Stardust Dinner after was the best day of her life. Hearing that from a teenager is really great for a Dad so I would definitely do the same thing again. I'd love to go back though with more time and see if I could see more shows by doing last minute tickets some day.

That was a bit longer than I originally intended but covers all the relevant planning details for NYC. Hopefully someone finds it useful. If not hopefully you skipped it and got on to the more interesting stuff.

 

[greensombrero]

Yay! I've been waiting for this TR, I can't wait to read about your trip! Bermuda is one of our favorite spots.

Oh wow you found it already. I was hoping you would. I'll try and get past these planning posts quickly and onto the good stuff. I just wish I had found more info on sailing from NYC and Bermuda so want to share what I learned in case it helps anyone else.

 

[Flossbolna]

I loved your last trip report, so am excited to read this one! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[greensombrero]

Planning for Bermuda

The cool thing about taking a cruise to Bermuda is you don't have to worry about flights, hotels, airport transfers etc. You just wake up one morning in a beautiful island! Originally I thought with 3 days in Bermuda we'd see it all but I quickly realized there is a lot to do there and we'd have to prioritize.

We always start by looking at the Disney excursions but there was only one port adventure that really called to us. My kids thought the Hidden Gems adventure sounded cool. We ended up booking it for our third day in Bermuda. The thinking was we could more safely explore on our own the first two days but having an excursion the last day when missing the ship would be a huge problem would be safer.

However in early September we saw they moved our excursion from day 3 to day 2 presumably because it was too long to really fit on day 3. We would overnight only one night and after day 2 in Bermuda go out to sea for fireworks and come back the next morning. I didn't understand why but we weren't scheduled to return until after 10 am that third day which didn't leave enough time for the excursion. Since we weren't really going anywhere I'm unclear why they scheduled such a late all ashore time.

We didn't want to do the excursion on day 2 because I really wanted that morning free to go for a run on the island and my wife liked our plans for the day. So we cancelled the excursion and decided to do everything on our own. This freed up some budget and in the end I'm really glad it happened as it did because we wouldn't end up with a day 3 due to tropical storm Tammy but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

One thing that interested us from that excursion was a stop at some caves. As it turns out there are a couple caves in Bermuda. The more famous ones which were actually not on that excursion are called the Crystal Caves. We decided that was something we wanted to go to on our own. While you can just show up it was the one thing I reserved in advance. They only take reservations two weeks in advance and I had to make a phone call to arrange it. It was super easy though, no credit card required, we just picked a time. That way when we arrived we wouldn't have to just wait for the next available tour time with space which they warn can involve a wait if they are busy.

Most of my planning in Bermuda involved Google searching to find sites that talked about the island, looking at Google maps to get a feel for where things were and reviewing the bus and ferry schedule. It seemed Bermuda would be pretty easy to get around on public transit (and it was). You can pay per ride but buses require exact change. It is nice that the Bermuda dollar is tied to the US dollar and USD is accepted everywhere. We planned in advance though to just buy a 3 day pass which would give us unlimited rides on the ferry and bus.

I did kind of plan things out based on the bus and ferry schedule but I loved that our time in Bermuda would be pretty flexible and we could just go with the flow. The bus schedules are not very exact, they just tell you when the bus leaves the first stop and rough travel times to major stops. Google Maps was great for the island but did not include public transit planning likely due to the "flexible" bus times. It was okay though because the only real thing we had scheduled was the caves our first afternoon and of course getting back to the ship for all aboard. We did want to do dinner onboard on day one but it was awesome with the overnight to know if something crazy happened it wouldn't be a big deal.

With that background I think it is time to jump into how things actually turned out.

 

[greensombrero]

October 20th - NYC Travel Day

I love all the planning leading up to a trip and this one involved more planning effort than any of our prior vacations. It felt pretty surreal though when we finally got to departure day. Our flight didn't leave until almost 10 am but we wanted to ensure we got to the airport with plenty of time to get breakfast and handle any unexpected delays. My kids are all early risers and I knew they'd probably be up earlier than needed. So I set a 6:45 AM departure goal and we were out the door before then.

We just park at an offsite airport parking place and everything went smooth arriving to the airport. Security line was a bit longer than normal but not too bad. Our biggest delay was getting our order from Panera Bread which was quite busy early in the morning. Before we knew it though we were actually on the plane.


Someone was excited and someone else didn't really want to be in the photo. With 4 kids you give up on perfect pictures of everyone .

This was one of the longest flights we've taken and I knew people would get hungry so we brought fully loaded snack bags for everyone. I actually thought maybe I'd consider buying food on the plane but even paying for it they really don't offer anything appealing anymore. Those days of food on a cross country flight are a distant memory now.

The flight was quite smooth and uneventful, just like I like them. I ended up working quite a bit on the flight just to try and get ahead as I'd be coming home right before busy season. The free wifi on Delta is nice. While what I was doing didn't really require internet access I ended up having some people reach out and it was nice to be able to have some text based conversations at 35,000 feet.

My only complaint was the weather coming in to New York was not great. We really couldn't see anything through the clouds until right before landing. I had hoped to maybe have some interesting views as we came in but oh well.

My sister flew in the day before us and she warned me how big terminal 4 is at JFK. She also warned me about traffic from the airport to the city. I fly into LAX quite a bit for work and thought I knew about traffic but I was about to learn NYC is next level. I knew everyone would be hungry and thought having a reservation would be nice so a few weeks out I made one at Carmine's in Times Square. It showed up in a couple restaurant recommendations for families in NY and had good reviews. I also figured when in NY we should eat some Italian food. I was really glad it wasn't until 7:45.

Our flight was supposed to land right before 5pm but we were in 30 minutes early or so. We'd need the time between the walk from our gate to baggage claim and for the drive in. Everything went great with our airport transfer. They texted me and because we both were on iPhones I got the text while we were in the air. Finding our ride was pretty smooth and what a ride it was. We got one of the party vans for our transfer. Everyone thought it was pretty cool.



Between the nice ride and how well our driver handled the crazy traffic my wife commented arranging the private transfer was worth every penny. The traffic really was pretty crazy. Our driver said part of it was the time of day but also the rain wasn't helping. It took us about 80 minutes from JFK to our hotel which was a lot longer than I had expected.

Check in at our hotel went smooth and we quickly headed out to dinner. We had a few minutes to check out Times Square. It really is an experience to stand there and take in the chaos and stimulation from all sides.



That first night in NYC was pretty overwhelming. I don't know what I was really expecting but it is a bit of a shock to your system the first time you see it. We had just a enough time and ducked into the Disney store in search of something familiar and maybe some special NYC merch. Unfortunately the only thing they really had was a Statue of Liberty Minnie. Probably for the best we weren't tempted to buy anything. It was nice though to get out of the chaos for a minute.

We then walked over to dinner. They were busy but with our reservation we practically walked right in. I'm so glad I thought to find a place we could make one. I failed to take any pictures of the food and really should have. Carmines is family style Italian food. It is designed to share but we didn't really understand what they meant by big portions. When our waiter heard our order he asked if we wanted a lot of leftovers and helped us adjust which was really appreciated.

We don't eat Italian out much because we can make it at home and a lot of the places around us just aren't that good. My wife cans pasta sauce made with tomatoes from our garden every summer and during the pandemic she learned how to make homemade pasta. So we have a pretty high bar. Carmines was good food and we really did enjoy it. The amount our waiter had us order was just about perfect though I think my 13 year old son surprised him by devouring so much, he loved their parmesan chicken.

As it turned out my sister had less luck with their dinner plans and they ended up pivoting and doing Chick Fil A. Sometimes you just have to get food quickly for your kids. They were near by though so we met up and walked back to the hotel together. We were all tired after the travel day and excited for the next morning. I think I actually captured this on our drive from the airport but there is nothing like seeing those double zeros in the count down.



Up next, it's Embarkation Day!!!

 

[MalvernPa]

Hi. We were on this cruise too. We enjoyed it thoroughly. We will missed NYC next year. So we booked for 2024 the Magic for Halloween and the Dream for Christmas, both from Ft Lauderdale. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thank you.

 

[greensombrero]

October 21st - NYC Embarkation

I slept as well as I ever do the first night in a new place right before something exciting like a cruise. That's another way of saying I was up every few hours. Fortunately though it wasn't due to the hotel being uncomfortable or noisy. Our hotel included breakfast but I had noticed a bagel place with good reviews on Google maps just around the corner. We all love bagels and trying real New York bagels was high on list. So I headed out with my sister for my first New York bagel adventure.

We loved 34th Bagels & More. They were great bagels, friendly staff, never super crowded and reasonably priced. One of the things I loved at the two bagel places we ended up trying was how they had huge piles of their flavored cream cheeses in the deli case. I'm assuming they mixed and flavored them onsite, much better than the packaged stuff. It was a perfect distance for a little early morning walk. Everyone loved their breakfast and bagel runs became a thing for our post cruise stay as well.

Everyone wanted to just chill at the hotel and we did have some luggage shifting to do. So we planned not to do anything that morning. This was our first cruise as Gold and the first time I didn't get our PAT right at midnight. We were camping that evening which is a whole story in and of itself. I waited until we got home the next afternoon and was pleasantly surprised we got an 11:45 PAT which was perfect. With my sister having a later one I figured we'd show up just after 11:45 to see if they were past the early rush and we could all just board together.

Before that though I had another bit of errand running to do. I got sent to find a drug store to get some batteries for our battery powered door decoration lights. My wife had forgotten to pack the batteries. My oldest son forgot his headphones and hoped for some inexpensive earbuds for his phone so he could listen to music. So I checked my friend Google Maps and saw their was a Walgreens over in the train station.



I've been a lifelong fan of trains. My Dad has always been a toy train collector and he definitely passed some of it on to me. So I was happy to walk over and explore the train hall and Penn station. I liked the architecture, lots of fun architecture in NYC. I found what I needed and enjoyed my walk back.

It wasn't long before we were headed to the port. We didn't get the party van to the port but once again Precision NY provided a good condition van and great driver. Once again I was glad not to have to navigate driving in NYC. It wasn't that far to the port but not walkable with all our luggage and plenty of traffic and craziness in the streets.

Once we got to the port though I think it is the most efficient embarkation we've had. Once we dropped our luggage it was a pretty much continuous line right onto the ship with no actual waiting around. No one was checking PATs or boarding groups at that point so my sister and her family could board with us. It's a bit of a blur now if we did security first or visited the check in desk first. My sister commented she was glad she could just tell her kids to follow their cousins and she didn't have to figure anything out. While no wait was nice it did feel a bit intense just going from thing to thing with no break. Based on my photo time stamps we were onboard at 12:40.

I had envisioned a bigger moment boarding and seeing their reaction to entering the lobby of a Disney ship for the first time. Instead it kind of snuck up on us and we were suddenly there. I will say we noticed the Disney ship smell in the gangway just before boarding. It sure smells like home to us now!

Once onboard we headed up to Cabanas for lunch. It was pretty busy and with a group of 10 it was a bit tricker to find a place to sit. We managed to snag 3 tables fairly close together. I took the first shift watching our stuff. If you've not cruised before, when you board any backpacks, luggage etc you carry with you will be with you until your rooms are available later, usually 1:30 - 2pm.

I think a lot of first timers, my sister included wondered what they should carry on versus check with the porters. We've really tried to cut down what we carry on. The key things are documents, prescription meds and anything you really want to have until your luggage shows up at your room which usually is around 4pm. It wasn't warm enough to consider changing into swim wear and hitting the pool deck right after boarding. So we really didn't need much but the way we were packed meant all the adults had backpacks and mine was pretty full from our travel day still.

Back to lunch at Cabanas, I'm not sure if I've just learned what is good, or if the food quality was better overall but this was my favorite boarding lunch in recent memory. The food on the cruise overall was great but I definitely enjoyed the food in Cabanas on this cruise more than on some prior ones.

After lunch I ran down to see about adding my sister and brother in law to our Palo brunch reservation. We didn't have trouble getting one ourselves right when the Gold window opened but of course being first timers we couldn't add my sister to our reservation. They were all full long before their booking window. I was hopeful given that most tables are for 4+ we could easily add them. I was sent down to Enchanted Garden where Sasha was handling Palo requests. He said they were totally booked up but he managed to make it work. I was excited we'd all get to do Palo brunch together.

After that errand we were all going to check out the kids club. However we noticed the tape blocking the rooms was down. So I made a quick stop by our cabin to leave my backpack and take a picture of the skyline from our verandah.



I couldn't get enough of the skyline our entire time in New York. It really is pretty spectacular from almost any perspective.

I always love checking out the theming in the kids club and always see something new.



The Star Wars theming on the Dream is always a favorite





I love how all the buttons can be pressed and the toggle switches can actually be toggled. As a kid I would have loved playing here.



Of course flying the Millenium Falcon is always a favorite activity. It was fun to see all the kids enjoying it together.

After the kids club luggage starting arriving so it was unpacking time. We signed up for several exchanges onboard and I was in charge of doing the magnets for our magnet exchange. I headed out to put them on doors. I stopped by the pool deck for a run to the soda station and noticed they had a photographer out doing shots with the skyline. Like I said I couldn't get enough of it.



I love that Disney has been putting photographers in new places and offering fun new photo ops on our last couple cruises. There would be several different options on this one as well. I went down to get my family to do a family shot but unfortunately we missed the photographer. I should have asked them how long they'd be there.

When I got back I helped hang the lights and finish up our door decorating. They seem to get more elaborate every cruise.



At some point I took a walk through the lobby when it wasn't busy to get a photo of my favorite duck.



I think this is my favorite lobby statue maybe because Donald is my favorite character. The one character photo I really hoped for was one of Donald by his statue. I thought I saw it in the navigator later in the cruise and ran down and waited in line only to find out it was Donald in front of the stairwell only They don't ever do a formal meet and greet in front of his statue I was told which is a real missed opportunity I think.

Before we knew it it was muster drill time. This was our first time with a station in the theater since the return of the classic drill. It is much more comfortable to be seated in an indoor location. Though I still prefer watching the safety video on funnel vision after doing the virtual check in. Definitely wish they could have kept the virtual muster but oh well.

I just a couple photos ago showed off the front and back of the awesome cruise shirts my wife made. I helped just a little bit with separating some of the vinyl but it was really her project and she did a great job. She used her silhouette to cut out the vinyl pieces and we printed the front picture of Merlin on iron on vinyl.

I think the muster drill is a good stopping point for this post. You don't really feel you are cruising until it is done and after the vacation really starts.

Up next the NY sail away we'd all been waiting for, and it didn't disappoint, plus a shinier Golden Mickeys and our intro to our favorite serving team to date.

 

[greensombrero]

Embarkation Day Part II

After a mildly entertaining muster drill (a good drill leader goes a long way) we joined the crowds heading up to the Sail Away party.



I'm not a huge Sail Away Party fan but it is a fun way to kick of vacation and I like the energy. For this cruise though the real sail away would be once we started down the Hudson.





I love how the sun makes the torch golden in this photo. I'm not much of a photographer and don't know how to use my phone's fancy camera very well. The sunset was cool but I think it made adjusting to the light a bit difficult and if I knew what I was doing I probably could have taken better photos.



It is worth commenting our verandah was on the starboard side so we knew we wouldn't see the Statue of Liberty. We watched the sail away from deck 4 which was awesome. It wasn't very crowded and it was easy to cut across the ship. There was great scenery on both sides. I highly recommend deck 4 for sail away watching. I'm actually glad we were on the starboard side too because it meant we'd pass the Statue of Liberty coming back in the early am where we could see it from our verandah at a time I didn't really want to leave our room.

The sail away for this cruise was a big draw for traveling to New York for a cruise and it really didn't disappoint. It lasted a little longer than I thought it might. We were able to see most if not all of it before the show though we got a little tired of standing on deck 4 by the end. I think I was back in my room when I grabbed this shot of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. The little rainbow was cool to see.



The show this night was The Golden Mickeys. I was slightly surprised because the last few cruises we've been on didn't have a Broadway style show the first night. Historically we haven't liked the Golden Mickeys. It seemed kind of dated and our first exposure to it was right after it came back post pandemic and I don't think the cast had really done it much at that point. With late dining we had show first and I was a little nervous we might not be done with the scenic sail away before it started. For the Golden Mickeys I figured I wouldn't care too much if we had to miss it.

We enjoyed the show a lot more on this cruise than the last two times we saw it. Part of it was that Captain Minnie has now replaced Bob Iger. I have nothing against Bob but that scene needed updating and Captain Minnie is a great replacement. I also felt like the cast and our Ensign Benson especially were really good. So while I went in saying I'd be okay missing the Golden Mickeys I'm really glad we sailed away on time and we were able to make the show!

After the show most of the family went shopping. I didn't see anything but one shirt that peaked my interest. I've learned you are best off grabbing something if you like it, you can always return it but sometimes they run out. While everyone else finished up shopping I wanted to run up to the spa.

I've never been to the spa onboard before. I wouldn't really consider myself a spa person and I haven't really wanted to spend the time/money before. However my company has this employee peer recognition program where we can give each other points which can be exchanged for gift cards and other rewards. I had accumulated quite a few points and saw Disney gift cards were now an option. So before the cruise I realized I could get a massage "paid for" by my coworkers and then some.

Then a few weeks before the cruise they started offering length of cruise Rainforest Room passes in the app that we could pre-purchase. I've also been super intrigued by the Rainforest Room but never taken the time to investigate it. Of course during our pandemic era sailings it was a different set up so I haven't had that many opportunities. So I decided I'd cash out all my points at work and get another gift card and go all in on experiencing the spa this cruise.

I figured though that I should go figure out for sure where the spa was and find out how I could use my Rainforest Room pass. It wasn't busy and they explained to me how it all worked so I'd know as I hoped to go first thing the next morning. After my spa run I had just a minute before our first dinner in Royal Palace.

I love the main menu in Royal Palace and was excited to start our cruise there. My 8 year old was extra excited because he loves the escargot and couldn't wait to show off for his cousins by eating it. As it turned out we also had the best table. A big round one in the center of the restaurant with this awesome chandelier right above us.



Now we've enjoyed all the servers we've had on our cruises. Some we've connected with more than others. Some have been more experienced and "better at the job" than others. Sometimes we liked the main server or assistant better than the other. I think this cruise we may have gotten the best serving team yet!

Wayan and Dana were just an incredible team! We both connected and had fun with them both and they were both good at the job. Surprisingly we found that Dana was on her first contract but she seemed to really know what she was doing. She was also from Latvia which my daughter found fascinating as we haven't met any cast members from there before. Wayan was from Indonesia which is a bit more common country in our experience. Anyhow we loved spending time with them each night. The only con to our serving team was we rarely saw and never got to know our head server. To be fair I only remember two head servers in 6 cruises that really made a connection with us. Not a big deal, I think those with allergies or special needs have more interactions with the head server and it matters more for them.

I never remember to take food pictures but I noticed I got a couple this trip. I love lots of items on the main Royal Palace menu but the French Onion soup is definitely a highlight for me.



It was extra good on this cruise, maybe the best I've had onboard. I also got the lamb and really enjoyed it. Actually as I recall I got the lamb and my son got the chateaubriand and we split so we could each have some of each. They would have happily brought us both but we knew we didn't need that much food but we were both torn on what to get. So we each got one and split. It worked out great. Of course for dessert I had the grand mariner souffle which is a favorite dessert.

After a wonderful dinner we had a new friend in our room.



Our stateroom host Panca was also great. I think the best stateroom hosts are ninjas. You almost never see them yet your room always looks great but whenever you need them they are just magically there. Service was top notch all around this cruise for us. I went for my customary evening tour of the ship. I love the ocean at night.



We definitely felt some motion on the ocean after we left the coast. It was pretty rocky all night. Nothing really worse than we've experienced before but definitely on the rocky side of things. Our last few sailings have been pretty smooth but not this one and it would last through most of the next day. Fortunately I seem to have gotten my sea legs and it really didn't bother me. I had my sea bands on but later in the cruise I'd get them wet and just stop wearing them. I do think it woke me up a couple times but I still slept well. We did have an hour time change that night to get on Bermuda time.

Up next a Sea Day, my first Spa Day and How well do I really know my sister?

 

[iloveeeyore]

So glad you had a beautiful sailaway! Peter and I went on a Celebrity cruise to Bermuda in June. They embark from Bayonne, much further south in the harbor, so sailaway isn't nearly as impressive, usually. But sometimes, if all the variable conditions are favorable, the captain will sail north and do some scenic cruising around the harbor before turning south to sail under the Verazzano. We had such luck in June, so got a nice treat! We didn't go up the Hudson at all, but came as close to the southern tip of Manhattan as conditions allow. We live here, and this harbor...the history, the views...never gets old!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip. We loved the Dream in April. Haven't gotten to my report yet, but still hoping I will do one.

 

[greensombrero]

Hi. We were on this cruise too. We enjoyed it thoroughly. We will missed NYC next year. So we booked for 2024 the Magic for Halloween and the Dream for Christmas, both from Ft Lauderdale. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thank you.

It was such a great cruise! After cruising from NYC I really hope Disney brings it back. Not sure when we'd do it again since it isn't close to us but I'm so glad we did and think it is great for everyone to experience. Since there really isn't a truly close port for us we've tried a bunch of different ports and it is fun to experience different ones. We loved sailing from Miami hopefully Ft Lauderdale is equally great for you! I want to get back on the Magic at some point but our next is the Fantasy. Thanks for following along!

So glad you had a beautiful sailaway! Peter and I went on a Celebrity cruise to Bermuda in June. They embark from Bayonne, much further south in the harbor, so sailaway isn't nearly as impressive, usually. But sometimes, if all the variable conditions are favorable, the captain will sail north and do some scenic cruising around the harbor before turning south to sail under the Verazzano. We had such luck in June, so got a nice treat! We didn't go up the Hudson at all, but came as close to the southern tip of Manhattan as conditions allow. We live here, and this harbor...the history, the views...never gets old!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip. We loved the Dream in April. Haven't gotten to my report yet, but still hoping I will do one.

Bermuda is some place I'd love to get back to and would consider taking another cruise line to get there at some point. I didn't realize there were different cruise ports around NYC but it totally makes sense. My sense of geography for the area was really off before this trip.

It really is fun to get a harbor "tour" on your cruise. Saved us from feeling we needed to take one of the sight seeing boats. I don't know if I could live in NYC but I sure loved visiting it and would like to come back. My company has a small office in NYC now so maybe I'll have to come up with an excuse for the company to send me there on their dime. Glad you are enjoying the TR!

 

[greensombrero]

October 22nd - At Sea

There is nothing like a sunrise at sea.



Normally I start my sea days with a run on deck 4 but I actually slept in just a little bit (yes 8 am is sleeping in for me) and grabbed this from our verandah and then headed up to breakfast with the family. I was so excited to see they were starting this cruise off right. They had Mickey Churro Waffles on our first morning onboard! I'm not a huge churro fan but those churro waffles are perfection!

After eating them I decided I really wanted to have a second breakfast before Cabanas closed. So then I went and put in a good run on deck 4 so I could excuse having some more. After getting cleaned up I dropped my youngest in the kids club and my oldest actually asked me to go with her to check in at Vibe. I'm not sure why she wanted me to come with but a teenager asking me to go somewhere with her I wasn't going to turn down. I always think Vibe on the Dream/Fantasy is such a cool space. After I was able to get my second round of those churro waffles before Cabanas closed for breakfast.

I actually ran into my sister and family up there and my brother in law shared a funny story worth repeating. He was wearing a Pizza Planet shirt. One of the cast members asked him, hey I've seen a lot of people wearing those shirts, is that a good pizza brand? He then had to tell them it was from Toy Story . Not all the cast members are Disney movie experts.

After second breakfast with the kids off doing their thing my wife and I decided to check out the Rainforest Room. This was our first time visiting the spa onboard. They offered length of cruise passes in the app a couple weeks before sailing and I scooped them up for us so we could try it out. It was $139 for our 6 night cruise.

For those unfamiliar the Rainforest Room it is an area of the spa you can buy a pass to access. They offer length of cruise passes and sometimes individual day passes depending on capacity. During the pandemic they did individualized reservations. Then when they transitioned back they weren't originally offering passes to buy ahead of time. This was the first time I've seen them in the app ahead of time and they did sell out pretty quickly. They didn't come on at any of the normal intervals either ie not at the normal booking window or online check in, they just appeared and I saw it mentioned in our cruise group and grabbed them.

As for the room itself I would describe it as a splash pad for adults. They have saunas, two steam and one dry which has an ocean view. Then they have two small hot tubs with an ocean view. Then the infamous, and very relaxing heated stone loungers.



I really took one for the team sitting in these so I could report on them here . At first the idea of a stone lounger didn't sound comfortable but I knew people liked them. Let me tell you they are incredible! The ocean views don't hurt either.

Back to the splash pad comment, where that really comes in is with the themed showers. I don't think we really had splash pads when I was a kid but I loved running through the lawn sprinkler that my mom would set up. I really think the showers in the Rainforest room are trying to evoke that childhood feeling but in an adult way. They have different nozzles with different programs that spray various temperature waters, mist, some of them have lights and sounds too. This is in the open area so you are wearing a swimsuit. I had a lot of fun trying out each of them.

They have 4 different showers each with a couple different programs you can select. One of them is dedicated to cold shower experiences and it was fun to go between that and the warm ones. Even some of the warm ones add a cold shot as part of the program. Again it reminded me of the fun my kids have at a splash pad sticking their heads in the various sprayers or waiting under the big dunk bucket.

Overall I really enjoyed the Rainforest room. I'd go back a couple more times before the cruise was over. Was it worth the price tag? That is a bit harder to say. I had the advantage that I paid for it using a gift card from work. I told all my coworkers they bought me a spa pass since it came from our peer recognition program. I don't think I would feel the need to do it on every cruise but if I wanted to ensure I relaxed more or had a lot of sea days I'd definitely do it again.

After our time in the spa I was already in my swim wear so I met up with my daughter for our first Aquaduck ride of the cruise. The line was pretty normal for a sea day so took a few minutes but its always fun. Looking over my notes it was Asian themed day in Cabanas and I got some late lunch that was quite good. I really enjoyed Cabanas more than usual this cruise. I also hung out in Quiet Cove for a bit and somewhere in there delivered fish extenders and lost at Disney Tunes trivia. I discovered my sister really loved trivia and the onboard game shows so it was the first of many trivia sessions together. I'm not great at tunes trivia but find it really fun. My wife and sister though ensured we had a decent finish.

I was really excited to see ahead of our cruise that Buckets and Boards would be onboard. I've never seen them before but heard great things from others and heard them interviewed on a podcast. Because of this was our Halloween night they adjusted the show schedule a bit. The first show was at 4:45. It was every bit as fun as I had hoped. They are hilarious, they really do comedy percussion. For our show there was an ASL interpreter and they had a lot of fun interacting with her and that group trying to make her figure out how to sign things. It was a great example of performers adapting to their audience and it led to some really entertaining moments.

Afterwords we got a family picture at the Pumpkin Tree in our costumes.



I repurposed my Donald costume from when I ran the Disney World Half Marathon in Jan of 2022. It was comfortable and easy to pack. My oldest son wasn't going to dress up until he got the brilliant idea to be a banana. Kind of surprised me but he ended up wearing it.

They had the trick or treating up in Cabanas along with the Halloween deck show. We skipped the show but unfortunately I had to be a good parent and let me kids stand in the long line that went through Cabanas so they could get candy they didn't need. I don't get the thrill of trick or treating onboard, the way they do it is pretty lame in my opinion. It's almost like standing in the buffet line but for candy.

Afterwords I did get to go do some Haunted Mansion trivia which was fun. This is our third Halloween on the High Seas sailing. I enjoy the decorations, especially the pumpkin tree. We missed the lighting ceremony on this cruise. We did really enjoy it on our last one. Aside from that though and some of the themed trivia I don't find the Halloween aspect much of a draw. We end up sailing at fall break because it is a good time for our family but I wouldn't go out of my way for a Halloween sailing. I wish Disney could find some ways to make the Halloween aspects more exciting. Maybe a special menu or stage show?

Dinner this night was in Animator's Palate, always a favorite. I love the menu and I was excited for the Crush show. I missed it on our last cruise on the Fantasy because it was after a long excursion day and everyone was tired and left dinner before dessert. Unfortunately this time I also missed the show.

I wasn't even thinking about it when my daughter asked if I'd go get her sea bands from the room as she was feeling the motion a bit. My son also realized he had misplaced his hat and wanted me to check lost and found while I was out. So I thought I'd go run grab my daughter her sea bands real quick and swing by lost and found on the way. Apparently seconds after I left Crush came and had a great interaction with our table. He was shocked to find out we didn't live near any ocean and got the dining room to send us a "wave". Fortunately I got to see a video of most of it. The bands helped my daughter and I found my son's hat, the counselor's in Edge had it. So I guess it was worth leaving but sad I missed Crush again.

One of the fun things about having my sister on this cruise is that she is much more nocturnal than my wife who always heads to bed early. She wanted to check out the family time game show. I told her it would be like the newly wed game but with family members. Normally it is between a parent and child but we thought we'd see if we could go up as brother and sister. They picked us and it was really fun to play. Unfortunately we over thought a few questions and didn't win but we had a blast playing.

All in all it was a great sea day but I went to bed excited to experience Bermuda the next day!

 

[Ronneeaght]

Yay!! I’ve been looking forward to this trip report! Haven’t been on the boards in a while because we are still on the fence about what our 2024 cruise should be. Nothing lines up great with our kids’ breaks. I was disappointed they aren’t offering Bermuda from NY. We totally would have done one of these six nights this year but our fall schedule had us out of town six weekends out of September and October for weddings and baby showers and the like.

I’m loving your trip so far (what wonderful t-shirts!!) and looking forward to seeing what you do in Bermuda. With our kids being smaller we haven’t made it much past Horseshoe. I’d definitely like to go back and make it to the north eastern side of the island someday.

 

[snowwite]

Yay! I've been waiting for this TR, I can't wait to read about your trip! Bermuda is one of our favorite spots.

Ours too!

 

[snowwite]

Merlin had it right in Sword in the Stone, Bermuda is a great place to visit!

View attachment 807490

Just got off the 6 night NYC to Bermuda sailing which means its trip report time. This was quite possibly our favorite cruise yet and a top contender for best vacation ever. Why write another trip report? Well I have a few goals for this one:

• Talk about exploring Bermuda on our own. There aren't many TRs about Bermuda and the ones I've seen don't talk a lot about exploring the island. We had a great time doing so and thought I'd share what we did and how it went.
• My sister joined us for this sailing, her first on Disney and first cruise with her kids. It was my first time sailing with extended family and sailing with a first timer. After 6 cruises it is easy to forget things that a first timer would want to know. Hopefully I can share a few I observed along with what I learned sailing with another family, it was a lot of fun.
• I haven't read a lot about sailing out of NYC. While Disney isn't in 2024 they may again and there are other cruise lines. So I'll share what I learned about sailing from and visiting NYC for the first time.
• Finally writing a trip report is good post cruise therapy for me since I have a long wait until our next one.

For those who haven't read one of my trip reports before my crew consists of me, the Dad who said he'd never set foot on a cruise ship, but now has a major cruise and general travel addiction. Joining me was my wife who fortunately also loves Disney, cruising, and traveling. It really helps because we do sacrifice many other things and make real efforts to prioritize travel for our family. Hard to do that without a supportive spouse. We have 4 kids we share our adventures with: DD 15 (almost 16 which is scary), DS 13, DD 11 and DS 8.

For this trip my sister joined us with her husband and two boys 10 & 5. She also loves to travel and they've done a fair amount as a family but aren't big Disney vacationers. They only visited Disneyland for the first time as a family about a year ago and other than a Carnival cruise right after they were married they haven't cruised. However they've seen how much we love it and they were interested in cruising with us.

At the time those discussions first started we had our spring break cruise on the Wonder planned and had also booked a 4 night on the Magic out of San Diego for fall break. I was originally super excited to try the Magic on the West coast. However as we talked she really wasn't interested in a Baja Mexico cruise because that was where they went with Carnival and they wanted to go somewhere new. I started wondering if I really wanted my next two cruises to go to the same spots. I love sailing from San Diego but have to admit Mexico isn't the most exciting destination though we did end up loving our excursions on our spring break cruise. We didn't know that though at the time.

Well I made the "mistake" of looking again at itineraries over our kid's fall break. I knew we didn't want to sail out of Florida again and wondered what else might be available. That's when I noticed a 6 night from NYC to Bermuda. I've always thought sailing into/out of New York harbor would be epic and I'd never been to New York City. Bermuda sounded like a cool destination especially the idea of an overnight in port and 3 days to explore an island. This was after our 2022 fall break cruise so we had a placeholder. I realized using it and switching to this itinerary instead of the Magic from San Diego wouldn't require much more of deposit. So I quizzed the family. They all loved the idea of visiting NYC and Bermuda so we did it. I wasn't sure if my sister would join us at that point but she did end up deciding to.

Our first time on the Dream was a 3 night and at that point we weren't sure we liked the bigger ships. We loved our 7 night on the Fantasy though and so I was excited about giving the Dream another try with more time to get to know the ship. We decided to book the same connecting rooms we had on the Fantasy, deck 8 midship verandah, 8080 and 8078 because we loved the location and the ships are so similar.

My sister though decided to try an ocean view on deck 2 both to save some money and she gets quite motion sick and thought a lower deck may help. We've sailed both with and without a verandah and are happy either way. For this one we thought we might enjoy the verandah and did though spoiler our next cruise we are back to ocean view. My opinion is either can be an enjoyable cruise and my sister was happy with her room as were we with ours.

With that background I thought I'd do a couple planning posts for those interested, one on NYC and one on Bermuda. I'll separate them so you can skip if you aren't interested and jump right into the trip. With that in mind here is an outline for this trip report.

Itinerary

Planning for New York
Planning for Bermuda
October 20th - NYC Travel Day
October 21st - NYC Embarkation
October 22nd - At Sea
October 23rd - Bermuda, Saint George & Hamilton
October 24th - Bermuda, Horsehoe Bay Beach Day
October 25th - Bermuda, Running from Tammy, Enjoying the Spa at Sea
October 26th - At Sea
October 27th - NYC Disembarkation, Intrepid Museum, Top of the Rock
October 28th - NYC Empire State Building, Wicked on Broadway
October 29th - NYC 9/11 Memorial, Natural History Museum
October 30th - Heading Home

Thanks for sharing.

 

[snowwite]

Yay!! I’ve been looking forward to this trip report! Haven’t been on the boards in a while because we are still on the fence about what our 2024 cruise should be. Nothing lines up great with our kids’ breaks. I was disappointed they aren’t offering Bermuda from NY. We totally would have done one of these six nights this year but our fall schedule had us out of town six weekends out of September and October for weddings and baby showers and the like.

I’m loving your trip so far (what wonderful t-shirts!!) and looking forward to seeing what you do in Bermuda. With our kids being smaller we haven’t made it much past Horseshoe. I’d definitely like to go back and make it to the north eastern side of the island someday.

Our favorite part is St Georges. You really need to check out the whole island! They had a nice little aquarium as well.

 

[greensombrero]

Yay!! I’ve been looking forward to this trip report! Haven’t been on the boards in a while because we are still on the fence about what our 2024 cruise should be. Nothing lines up great with our kids’ breaks. I was disappointed they aren’t offering Bermuda from NY. We totally would have done one of these six nights this year but our fall schedule had us out of town six weekends out of September and October for weddings and baby showers and the like.

I’m loving your trip so far (what wonderful t-shirts!!) and looking forward to seeing what you do in Bermuda. With our kids being smaller we haven’t made it much past Horseshoe. I’d definitely like to go back and make it to the north eastern side of the island someday.

Thanks for following along! I hope Disney makes it back to NYC in the future, such an iconic place to sail from and Bermuda really is great!

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading! As you'll see I agree with you about Saint George.

 

[greensombrero]

Okay apologize the posts are a little slow in coming. It is busy season at work and had a big project which is nearly complete. I'm going to try and get some more post up this weekend if at all possible. Once we hit the holidays things should hopefully slow down a bit.