So much for linear thinking... as a birthday surprise, my wonderful wife booked us on the Norwegian Dawn's "Bermuda Run;" we returned yesterday. We had a great time and had an unexpected opportunity to really experience some of Britain's oldest overseas territory. Since I completely geek out over maritime history, waking up to find our cruise ship docked next to the Dockyards, the former Headquarters of the British Navy's Western Atlantic and West Indies Station, was incredibly cool. Bermuda's pink sand beaches and history make for a great vacation spot. We will definitely be back to dive some of those wrecks!
Having said that, anyone interested in joining the Dawn on her Bermuda Run should be aware of a few things.
Good news first: most of the crew onboard are excellent and do an amazing job responding to very... discerning passengers from the New York metro area. We ate at Cagney's Steakhouse twice, five days apart; the maitre'd and waitress remembered our names, the deck we were staying on, and our preferences for seating, drinks, and cooking time for steaks. Granted, we do not look like most passengers onboard and we tip above the included gratuity for good service, but I can't get a restaurant in my neighborhood to get my drink order right. If I owned a restaurant, I'd have poached a full shift from the Dawn. Our cabin stewards were by far the the best we've had on now eight cruises and I would make the housekeeping section head a manager in any land-based hotel. Finally, the musicians and entertainers onboard are a cut above other NCL ships, particularly the Jade (where it was actually painful to wait for dinner anywhere near the piano lounge). I hope NCL recognizes what they have and we wrote S.T.Y.L.E. cards to call these people to their attention.
So. Now that I've sung the praises of Bermuda and the hardest working crew at sea (and I sincerely mean that), on to the parts where Bermuda and NCL need to get their acts together. Since this was a spur-of-the-moment, found-a-cheap-fare kind of trip, I frankly wasn't planning to blog at all. Just post some pictures and raise a Dark and Stormy to the island. Cin had even pre-booked a shore excursion for each of the three days we were supposed to be in port. We were hoping to be the people we usually make fun of being herded about on luxury motor coaches. However, the Dawn's Shore Excursion Staff was having none of that.
We arrived in our (very nice) balcony stateroom to find that our Horseshoe Beach Transfer had been cancelled for "logistical reasons." For those of you who aren't familiar with these things, a beach transfer is a roundtrip on a bus to a famous beach. Period. It requires only a bus, driver, and usually one or two crew members to make sure all the cattle... er, guests get off and at least 90% of them get back on at the end of the three or four hours. "Logistics" in this case requires nothing more complicated than a phone to a local bus company, preferably prior to advertising the trip on NCL's website. Nevertheless, the Dawn's crack team of travel experts couldn't pull it off.
Instead, we bought a Transportation Pass, picked up a bus and ferry map, and went out to the South Shore Beaches on our own. The walk down to Horseshoe Bay is a bit steep, but an enterprising Onion offers one-way van service for $1 (going down) or $2 (coming back up). We had a great time and I can't recommend these beaches enough. Most of them are connected by sandy paths through the volcanic rocks, so if one is too crowded for your tastes, then just keep walking. If you get to the nearly mile-long Warwick Bay and still can't find enough room, you're too picky. Or the two of you should just get a room!
The second day we were in Bermuda, we had a Discover Scuba Diving excursion. The tour was operated by Nathan and Melissa from Fantasea; they did an outstanding job properly preparing us for scuba diving and were very attentive under water. I cannot praise these two highly enough since the experience convinced Cindy to get SCUBA certified! (Compare this to the last time I tried this- in St. Maarten- where she got hypothermia and motion sickness from bobbing up and down for an hour in deep water off Ft. Amsterdam after the "guide" became disoriented underwater and led us out to sea.)
However, the Shore Excursion staff had overbooked the DSD trip and didn't inform Fantasea that they would need another instructor (after a few reports like our St. Maarten fiasco, PADI only allows 4 non-certified divers per instructor). So while 8 of us went out, the other two were left to entertain themselves at 9 Beaches Resort; when our group finished, most of us went to the beach or the snack bar to wait for the last two guys. To our surprise, we were gathered up and led out of the resort to a van, operated by West End Minibuses. (It is not clear to me whether Fantasea or NCL initiated this land pickup since Fantasea had delivered us to the resort by boat). Still curious as to why we weren't waiting for the two still in the water, we barely had time to register that the driver stopped a few steps from the entrance to pick up two locals. (When we discussed this trip afterwards, most of our group said they were unconcerned at the time since the driver obviously knew the two young men.)
To make a long- frankly, horrifying- story short, one of the guys was stoned/drunk/high and repeatedly cursed "American, Canadians, all them f*cking foreigners" and made obscene threats to the women in our group, especially to Cindy who had the terrible luck to be sitting in front of him. Only when two of us began to get out of our seats did the driver put him out at a gas station. Cindy was visibly shaken and we both spent the rest of our time in Bermuda looking over our shoulder. While NCL did refund our excursion fees, I never received an explanation of how this happened in the first place. I did hear from other passengers that some young Bermudians are unhappy with the influx of tourists, especially white tourists, but I don't know if this is truly a pervasive view or if we just ran into a drunk.
Finally- and this is what most irritates me about the Dawn's Shore Excursion team- the third excursion we had booked was an Exclusive Yacht Charter. When we saw our beach transfer had been cancelled, we immediately went to make sure our yacht charter was still on or if we should book something else. We were reassured that no matter if someone else signed up or not, we would still be sailing- if no one else signed up, we would have a private tour of Bermuda! Since we were cruising to celebrate my birthday, we were really excited. Until we heard on Thursday night that our yacht had been cancelled for the next morning due to "lack of interest." When we protested to the Assistant Manager, we were told we had been given the wrong information earlier. After some arguing, we were offered two tickets on a "booze cruise, so don't worry about kids. Beer pong keeps them away. I had a great time last month." Beer pong at sea. Great.
"Ok," I asked the Assistant Manager, "so, where does the party boat take us?"
"Drinking."
Sheesh. We gave up and took a bus to Church Bay for the day.
Today's Message:
- Enjoy your time on the Dawn.
- Treat the crew with respect and you'll get excellent service.
- Ignore the Shore Excursion Staff.
- Bring cash with you for a multi-day transportation pass, good on the buses and ferries, and explore on your own.
- And don't get anywhere near a minibus!
No comments:
Post a Comment