So I tripped across a great deal on a Norwegian Dawn Boston to Bermuda cruise ($847pp including the unlimited beverage package & taxes, with obstructed oceanview) and wanted to go. My husband declined, and my father declined, but my dad’s girlfriend, Sue, said “Sure, why not!” and so our ladies cruise was born. If you are interested in the video recap, here is the link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CZ34Qv3dUQ.
Thursday, October 14th, 2015
We would be sailing out of Boston, so Sue had to fly to me for a change. She arrived into Bradley airport around 1pm, and we headed directly toward Boston. Our sailing wasn’t departing till tomorrow, but we had made a last minute decision to book a cheap hotel outside of Boston, since Bradley airport is an hour closer to Boston than my house is. So Red Roof Inn Framingham, here we come! The hotel was fine, basic bare-bones accommodations, but the price was right and we aren’t picky. We had dinner at the Margarita’s across the street. Red Roof Inn’s website claims it’s walking distance, which it is, but crossing that road on foot would get you killed, so we drove there. We passed the remainder of the evening playing some cribbage (apparently I had the bright idea to bring a travel cribbage board more than once, because I found two of them packed in my luggage). Bedtime, we sail away tomorrow!
Friday, October 15th, 2015
We were up fairly early, so I popped over to the Dunkin Donuts to grab some breakfast before we left. We checked out and hit the road. Traffic actually wasn’t bad, so we arrived at the pier ahead of schedule. GPS is weird in Boston, due to the tunnels, so you are best to print out some directions before you head there, otherwise you’ll have the delightful experience of turning the wrong way and having to drive in a giant circle to correct it. To get to Boston’s pier, you make fourteen turns off the highway, then drive (deliberately) all the way past the pier and circle back. The circle back is where we hit the traffic jam, as well as our only rude encounter the whole trip. The signage is nonexistent, and the plan was to drop Sue off with the luggage at the entrance while I went to park, so at the first opportunity I pulled over to the left lane, and some lady started yelling at me that the lane I was moving into was for taxis. I tried to ask for clearer directions for when I could pull to the left for drop-off and she was just exceptionally rude in response, as well as not helpful. Anyway, eventually I got further up and found the right spot, dropped Sue off and headed to the parking garage. I made it to the turn for the garage and a cop flagged me down to the overflow parking lot instead. It’s right on the water, and offers no protection from the elements. My poor car! Oh well, nothing to be done about it.
Check-in was very smooth, and we were soon awaiting the call for us to begin boarding. We probably waited for half an hour, but then again, I had planned for traffic, which we didn’t hit, so we were ahead of schedule. As soon as we boarded we headed to the Venetian for lunch, and by the time we were done they had announced that staterooms were ready, so we headed there. As I mentioned, I had booked an obstructed oceanview, which meant we’d have a lifeboat in front of the window, but it was also a sideways cabin, and I was looking forward to seeing how the alternate layout worked. It was fantastic! Room 8082 on the Dawn is notably larger than the typical oceanview room, and the window lined up with the opening in the covered lifeboat, so we could see straight ahead with no problem. It’s actually the only room in a small jut of hallway next to the hotel closet. There was some minor noise on occasion, but nothing to keep us awake at night, and as long as you made sure the drapes were fully shut at bedtime, there was no disturbance from the exterior lighting. One other thing of note is that upon arrival in the room I received a letter from the concierge, letting us know we had been given VIP status, including the privilege of breakfast & lunch at Cagney’s. Hooray! This was done as a thank you for my organization of the cruise critic meet & greet, which would take place on Saturday.
We had some time left before the life boat drill, so we decided to pop up to the Biergarten for a cocktail. Might as well make use of that unlimited beverage package! We spent some time on deck and then headed to the lifeboat drill. After the drill we decided to stop at Gatsby’s for a quick martini, but it was insanely packed (apparently everyone had the same idea), and we opted to skip it. We let the foot traffic clear and then headed back to the Biergarten for sailaway. In a neat turn of events, one of the passenger’s kids worked on the fireboat, and they treated us to a spinning fountain show as we left. So cool! We headed to Aqua for dinner, and then spent the evening checking out the casino and the live entertainment around the ship. Sea day tomorrow!
Saturday, October 16th, 2015
We had some breakfast at Cagney’s (delicious!) and then headed to General Knowledge Trivia, where we did terrible. At 11am we had our cruise critic meet & greet, which I had organized. I have set this activity up several times, and this was the lowest attendance I had ever had. I would say only about 50% of the people who rsvped actually showed up, which shouldn’t have been that surprising, considering that the roll call had been extremely quiet. Still, Norwegian did a great job, and most of the officers made an appearance. After the meet & greet we went back to Cagney’s for lunch, but we were actually still so full from breakfast that we barely ate anything. We aren’t really pool people, so we spent the afternoon at the casino. We left to get ready for the VIP cocktail party at the Star Bar, which was another nice event. I had wanted to catch Band on the Run in the main theater, but the timing didn’t work out and I missed it. We opted to grab a quick dinner at Blue Lagoon, from which we could hear Jose & Patti performing in the atrium. Another stop at the casino and then we called it a night. Bermuda tomorrow!
Sunday, October 17th, 2015
We were due to arrive in Bermuda at 1pm, and by a lucky coincidence we were going to be there just in time for the final race of the America’s Cup World Series. Not enough time to get over to Hamilton before the race, but I was hoping to be able to see it from the top deck. But before all that we had breakfast at Cagney’s, and then went to Friends TV Show Trivia with Andre. Andre was by far the best trivia guy I’ve even met on a cruise ship. He did several themed trivias throughout the sailing, and they were all fantastic. For Friends trivia, he had still shots from the show that he displayed on screen, and then asked questions related to what you were looking at. I’ve seen every episode of Friends umpteen times, and there was still a lot that I didn’t know. So entertaining though! Lunch again at Cagney’s and then back to the Biergarten, where we hoped to see the race from. Unfortunately the entire race course was encircled by other boats watching the race, so we weren’t able to see anything. With that in mind, we opted to go ashore and check out King’s Wharf. We had planned to visit Calico Jack’s, a floating pirate ship/bar, but it wasn’t docked in its usual location. I suspect it had been chartered for the day due to the race. We took the tram to the Clock Tower Mall and worked our way back to the ship from there. We checked out the entire mall, as well as all the shops on the way back (Clayworks, the Pharmacy, the Rum Cake Factory, the Glass Blowing Factory, etc). We did also check out the mini golf course, but in the end decided not to play it. We stopped in at the Frog & Onion Pub, where we had a round of cocktails and some soft pretzels & dip, mainly because I wanted to try the famous Bermudian Rum Swizzle (once was sufficient for me, they are not to my taste). When we finished up there we headed back to the ship. We had some dinner and then went to Gatsby’s for a bit, where we caught Allen Roman’s Eagles tribute show, and then visited the casino briefly before calling it a night (while docked in Bermuda, the casino doesn’t open till 9pm). We heard a rumor sometime today that it had snowed in Boston. Snow! In mid-October!
Monday, October 18th, 2015
We had just enough time to grab breakfast at Cagney’s before taking the ferry over to Hamilton. I did grab our concierge, Patrick, to make one very minor complaint: one of our favorite cocktails is Licor 43, and it’s listed on the drink menu in every bar, yet not one bar on the ship had it in stock. To add insult to injury, there was a stack of about 400 bottles of Licor 43 for sale in the gift shop. Couldn’t they re-allocate a bit so the bar would be stocked? Patrick said he’d look into it, and let me know what he found out. Anyway, for the ferry there is a booth at the pier where you buy your tokens, and then you use them to pay to board the ferry. It’s about a fifteen minute ride over to Hamilton, and on the way over it began to rain a bit. We chatted about the weather a bit with a nice local who mentioned that he worked in the back room at Flanagan’s Irish Pub. We checked out downtown Hamilton for awhile, and then had planned to have lunch at a restaurant on Front St called the Pickled Onion. Their bar opened at 11am, and they started serving lunch at 11:30, so we headed upstairs to the bar (most of the restaurants on Front St are on the second floor). In the half hour we were there the bartender said exactly two things to us: “What can I get you?” and “Are you all set?” She was just completely lacking in anything resembling personality, and so we decided to eat elsewhere. In fact, we ended up at Flanagan’s Irish Pub, and while we never saw our friend from the ferry, we had a great time! Food, drinks & service were all excellent, and we told the bartender our tale of woe from the Pickled Onion. About ten minutes later he came back to us and asked us to repeat the story for a guy who was now adjacent to us at the bar, which we did, and it turned out our new friend worked at the Pickled Onion. He told us the barkeep who had been working (Maureen, I believe her name was) had been there for twenty plus years and wasn’t always the most pleasant person to deal with. He felt so bad for our experience that he bought us a round of shots to make it up to us – really nice guy! The other interesting thing about Flanagan’s was that the restrooms had TV screens installed over the faucets at each sink. I guess it would come in handy if you came in to watch a game and needed to use the facilities, but still, kind of weird.
After our extended lunch we caught the ferry back to King’s Wharf, and headed back to the ship. The water was extremely rocky on our way back, and in fact we had a message on our voicemail in the room that our Bermuda Triangle Night Cruise scheduled for that evening had been canceled. Unfortunate, but probably for the best considering the weather conditions. We weren’t hungry at dinnertime, so instead we went to Classic Rock Name That Tune, which we did very well on, although not good enough to win. After Name That Tune we went to the casino, and then later went to the Blue Lagoon for a late snack. Last day in Bermuda tomorrow!
Tuesday, October 19th, 2015
For our last day in Bermuda we planned to stick around the Dockyard and have afternoon tea at the Dockyard Pastry Shop. The weather was a bit cool and overcast, so we took the tram back to Clock Tower Mall for some last minute souvenir shopping, and then walked over to the Dockyard Pastry Shop. They serve afternoon tea from 2pm-5pm, and that time is firm. We were fifteen minutes early and they literally made us wait till 2pm to order. It was delicious, though, so well worth the wait! In addition to the pot of tea they brought out a three tier silver tray, accompanied by some strawberry preserves and a small pitcher of clotted cream. The top tier had scones, the middle tier had finger sandwiches, and the bottom tier had pastry and cheesecake. The scones were delectable, totally unlike the dry-as-dust quality every American scone I’ve ever tried has. We got to select the types of finger sandwiches we wanted (Cucumber & smoked salmon were the default, but neither of us like smoked salmon, so we opted for tuna instead). The cheesecake was similar to a turtle style, and the pastry was like a crème puff, but filled with a dulce le leche kind of filling. Everything was amazing, and the price was quite reasonable. I’d highly recommend the experience to anyone traveling to Bermuda. After tea we headed back to the ship, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the Biergarten with a couple we had met earlier in the cruise. We set sail from Bermuda at 5pm, so we decided to head to dinner, and then later to the casino, mixing it up with a little Jose & Patti. At some point, though, we stopped by the room and found a voicemail from the beverage manager, letting us know that they had stashed a bottle of Licor 43 at Gatsby’s for us to consume for the remainder of the cruise. Yippee! Two more sea days and then back to Boston.
Wednesday, October 20th, 2015
After breakfast we headed to Harry Potter Trivia with Andre, which I was super-excited about. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, having read all the books and seen all the movies repeatedly, and was optimistic at my chances of winning. Andre, in keeping with his reputation for extraordinary trivia, was in full Harry Potter costume, including a wand which he used to change the screen shots – it was perfect! I teamed up with another die-hard fan, and in the end we came in second, losing to the obnoxious duo of know-it-alls that we had seen argue every answer they got wrong at previous trivias. Losing was fine, but losing to them stung a bit. Anyway, after trivia we spent some time at the casino before lunch. After lunch we checked out Deal or No Deal, and then spent the afternoon up at the Biergarten till dinnertime. This is probably a good time to mention that while Cagney’s for breakfast and lunch was fantastic, and we had generally good luck with Blue Lagoon (love their tomato soup!), the main dining room dinners were unimpressive on the nights we ate there. After dinner we went to see Elements, which was the show where all the crew come out and thank you for sailing with them. It’s always nice to applaud them for a job well done, and I’m glad I caught it. We caught a little Jose & Patti in the atrium, before heading up to the pool deck so I could check out my first White Hot Party! For a variety of reasons, I’ve never actually attended one, and while I see where it can be fun, it’s not my cup of tea. I’m not a dancer, and the music was more trendy/modern than party classics. Lines for drinks were very long, and after half an hour or so I called it a night.
Thursday, October 21st, 2015
For our last sea day we decided to start the day with a lecture on the operations of the Norwegian Dawn, followed by a Senior Officer Q&A. It was actually a perfect combo, where the lecture portion answered a lot of the typical questions from the Q&A, opening up the Q&A to more unusual questions. Then around noon we stopped in the atrium to see Battle of the Cake Masters, which was just as stupid as I remembered it being, so our stop was brief. My main priority was to make it to Star Trek Trivia with Andre, where I learned that I actually know nothing about Star Trek. He was, of course, in full Starfleet regalia, and despite my lack of knowledge, it was lots of fun. We whiled away the afternoon between the casino and Gatsby’s where we had been happily consuming our Licor 43, and then after dinner we cashed in our activity signatures. Every time you participate in an activity they sign your card, and the signatures are redeemable for prizes (we claimed a t-shirt for my husband). A nice evening and we finished up our last day before we return to Boston.
Friday, October 22nd, 2015
Since we had been VIPed, we were entitled to priority disembarkation, so after our final breakfast at Cagney’s we headed to the Star Bar to meet Patrick, who would bring us down a crew elevator in groups. Hands down, Boston was the quickest I’ve ever disembarked a ship and made it through customs. By 8:45am I was in my car leaving the parking lot! We had planned to visit Quincy Market after we got off the ship, but it was downright cold so we decided to skip it. Our ride home was uneventful, with just a quick stop for gas before we crossed back into CT, where I was delighted to pay just under $2 a gallon. We made it home before noon, and that’s where our journey ends. We had a great time, and would recommend both the ship and the itinerary to anybody.