Bermuda Cruise, 2023
It’s not everyday you get the chance to sail to a new country on a cruise ship. When my mom asked if I could go on a family cruise to Bermuda, I didn’t even check my schedule- it was an immediate yes from me!
Bermuda, a small self-governing British territory, is an island over 1,000 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Bermuda
To begin our adventure however, we first had to drive to the port where the ship is docked; New York City. I piled into the car with my family and we drove several hours to our first destination.
After driving through the Lincoln tunnel and navigating our way through the narrow, crowded, (dirty) streets, we finally found a parking spot beside the cruise ship. Before getting onto the ship, we went
through customs and all that jazz. As we’re standing in line, we notice other cruisers coming off the cruise ship right as we’re about to get on! The efficiency that the crew was cleaning rooms and readying the ship for the next several thousand vacationers was very impressive.
I finally manage to ditch my luggage and climb onboard the massive ship. Once onboard, my brain immediately switches to vacation mode. With my newly acquired drink card/ID/room key, I easily slip into paradise.
Slowly drifting, wave after wave
Being in NYC, the views of the various towers are awe-inspiring. From 16 floors above the Hudson Bay while sailing away to the vast ocean blue, the views were even more incredible.
We were eager to start feasting on the notoriously good cruise-ship food, so we made our way to our reserved table in the back of the ship. We had a panoramic view of the vast ocean blue behind us, and I’m put in a state of deep relaxation.
After finishing up dessert, I noticed the sun was quickly setting. I hurry to the top deck and manage to capture the last few moments of daylight on the vast expansive sea.
The First Day
The first morning is my favorite part of vacation. You have the whole week ahead of you, you’re catching up with distant family and friends, and everyone is in the best mood. To top it all off, I love sitting down for breakfast. Luckily, the same goes for my Pap, who I'd meet for breakfast almost every morning. I stuff myself with a hearty breakfast of eggs benedict and head to the room to change into cruise attire.
There’s thousands of people on this ship, but only so much room on the top deck for swimming and laying out in the sun. Many people woke up early to reserve a lounge chair for their first day, and the place is packed, but I’m not worried. The sun is shining, it’s warm, and I'm on a big boat in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. I make my way over to the salt water pool to hang out and wait for the other 31 family members to make their way out into the sun.
The Top Decks
The main deck serves a kid area, the adult salt-water pool, hundreds of chairs laid out in rows, and a live band on a small stage. The kids area consists of what seems like a small water park- dump bucket and all, a salt water pool and two hot tubs. Just one level up are the entrances to two slides. I hit the first innertube slide the previous day, before we even pulled out of New York harbor. The second body slide wasn’t open yet, but every dude aged 15-55 was eagerly waiting.
I’d only gone down a body slide like this once before, and that was quite literally a decade ago. I remember the adrenaline rush it gave me back then, and I'm excited for another endorphin rush ASAP. I hit the shower to “lube” my body up for the slide, and I run up the stairs to join everyone in line.
The body slide line is half-hanging over the edge of the boat, and warranted some of the best views. It was a tiny bit scary standing on the spiral stairway at one of the highest parts of the ship (and a lot a bit scary for a few others!) but it was also very beautiful. It gave a direct look at the ocean water below, which emitted a vibrant, healthy ocean blue under the shining sun above. I lift my head higher and I'm met with an incomprehensible vastness. My view is one-half light blue sky filled with white puffy clouds, and the other half a deep, full blue color with a psychedelic, never-ending pattern of waves bouncing up and down.
I shake myself from nature's trance and find out I'm up next in line for the body slide. The attendant unlocks the capsule and motions for me to step in. I carefully enter the tube and align my feet on to the feet painted on the platform. The attendant shuts me in and my heart is racing. I remind myself this is just what I wanted just a few minutes earlier! I see the attendant speak into his walkie-talkie, and press a button on the control board. I hear the sound of pistons coming to life, and next thing I know I'm dropping 50 ft down and out over the ocean in a plastic tube. A “whoo-hoo!” and a few seconds longer, and I come to a standstill in a small pool of water, with family members pointing cameras at me. I feel alive and I'm ready to go down again!
Nighttime Shenanigans
The night time adventures on the ship were just as fun as the daytime adventures. The general theme most nights would be to go to a nice sit-down dinner, then make our way to different shows and comedians the ship had to offer.
But my favorite night-time activity was to be had on the dance floor. I love dancing, and there was certainly no shortage of boogers on this trip. Grandparents and kids alike were having fun dancing in every direction you looked. They would rotate the party from one deck to another, but after 11pm everyone (that was over 21 years old) flocked to the social club. The cycle of staying at the club until 2 am and waking up at 7 am for breakfast wasn’t exactly sustainable, but I managed for a few days while on vacation.
Bermuda
One morning I woke up and looked out the closest window to find the boat docked along the western end of the island of Bermuda! I quickly inhale breakfast and link up with the family to make our way to the Horseshoe Beach.
Once we exited the boat and touched dry land, we took a bus from the port to the beach for only $7/head. Horseshoe Beach is the biggest tourist beach in Bermuda, but it doesn’t matter. I haven’t explored any of the island yet, so for the cheap price the plan sounds good to me.
As we make our way into the island, my first impression of the island is bright, beautiful, and hot. The houses are all painted soft patel colrs that appeal to the eye. The roads are tight, and they drive on the left side of the road, which threw me for a loop initially. I hadn’t expected that, but being British-owned it checks out.
We finally unload from the bus and stomp a hundred yards to the sandy beach. The water is crystal clear, there’s volcanic rock formations carved out by the relentless motion of the ocean, and the sand is tinted pink! The whole scene is beautiful, and I wonder what it would take to live like this every day.
Before I get too carried away by excitement, I make an effort to protect myself from the brutal sun. I’d been preparing my base tan the whole summer up to this point, so sunscreen isn’t needed. Unfortunately I compromised myself by putting coconut oil on my shoulders and nose “because I read it has a small amount of SPF.” After only about two hours in the sun (peak sun might I add), I realized my mistake as I sought shelter from the sun under a rented umbrella.
We do some walking around, marveling at the rock formations and checking out the little caverns and pools cut away by the water. After the whole family’s been sufficiently beat down by the sun, sand, and waves, we head back to the cruise ship for dinner.
If I hadn't mentioned it before, dinner is another one of my favorite parts of the trip. I sit down with family and friends in a fancy restaurant where we order as much food as we want. I always started with a glass of white or rose wine, followed by two or three appetizers, an entree, and one or two desserts. The portion sizes were small which was very convenient, and despite the abundant environment, I still made a conscious effort to keep my food waste to a minimum.
Excursion Day
We scheduled one excursion for this trip, which gave us plenty of time to go exploring on our own. I woke up the next morning and with my cousin and our two friends, and we headed off on our own adventure into the depths of the island. We start by getting a ferry boat to Hamilton, a small town near the heart of Bermuda. From there we get a cab ride to a place known as “Blue Hole.”
This small “hidden” cove feels magical, and we have it all to ourselves! We snap beautiful pictures and take videos of us jumping into the clear, cool blue water. The water is refreshing- an excellent balance to the increasingly hot sun. We spy crabs clinging to rocks and colorful fish swimming beneath our kicking feet. We swim around and admire the rock formations surrounding us, and speculate as to what may lay in the depths of the underground caverns found here and tunneling all across the island.
We get our fill of the Blue Hole and start making our way over to Crystal Caves, a short ten minute walk away. This is a popular tourist attraction, but we can’t get reservations for a tour at the time we need. We skip that and decide to make our way to the Swizzle Inn, famous for creating the “island drink” called the Rum Swizzle.
Again, we’re met with disappointment as the restaurant hasn’t opened for business yet. We’re on a time schedule, so we dejectedly make our way back to the port to await the next ferry. We meander through some shops and find some neat trinkets before we head back towards the ship. Our excursion starts at 2pm, so we’ve got time for lunch on the boat before our next event.
The Excursion
Our excursion starts off on a boat headed by a few people in their late 20s, loving life in luxurious Bermuda. All 31 of us climb aboard along with about 20 other people we didn’t know but would love to share the boat with. We pull away from the dock and make way to our ultimate adventure destination: cave snorkeling and cliff jumping.
We pull up to a gorgeous area, they pass out snorkeling gear to everyone and tell us to jump in. We kick around with the flippers, attempt to breathe through the snorkel mask, and make way to shallower waters. The snorkeling was super cool, especially when I looked down and saw an old motorbike 15ft below me! There were a few fish hanging around, and one of the local guides showed a few people where his “pet” lobster lives.
We swam around in the crystal-clear waters, but soon found ourselves all swimming over to the where the real fun was- the local cliff jumping area.
I’ve done my fair share of jumping off elevated surfaces into the water, but it’s still a nerve-racking every time. We’re about 40 feet above the water, and looking around at my aunts, uncles, and little cousins, I thought “this might be kinda high for some people.” But as I watched everyone start jumping off one by one, I quickly became impressed with the relative ease at which they plunged into the water.
Once everyone had their fill of adrenaline rush, we made our way back to the boat for the drink we missed earlier in the day- the famous rum swizzle! The obvious drink of choice consists mainly of rum and fruit juice (pineapple and orange?) and was served to us jungle juice style reminiscent of my college days- from a big orange gatorade cooler poured into red solo cups. It turned into the ultimate excursion party.
Final Island Day
We wake up on our final morning at Bermuda with only a few hours before the ship departs back for the states. The cruise ship is situated on the far side of the island, so our range and potential to-do list is limited. Luckily there’s a few cool spots we hadn’t checked out that’re only a 20 minute walk away.
This adventure party is small- just my mom and I. Our first stop is Glass Beach, and it would soon be obvious how it got that name. When we walked down to the rather small beach, there were shards of glass everywhere, mostly from broken bottles. But it was OK- the broken glass has slowly been worn down by from years of sand, waves, and rocks. The pieces are smooth and colored in shades of green, brown and blue.
We leave Glass Beach and start walking through a path in the woods. I become particularly interested in the plant life around me- there’s hundreds of aloe and snake plants growing all by themselves. These plants are cherished by many people back home to decorate their homes, and here they are just growing wild and doing their own thing..
We continue on, steal a glance at Theo’s cove, then cross the street for the next attraction: the Royal Naval Cemetery.
Standing from the entrance, I'm taken back by its beauty. The beautiful valley full of old gray and white headstones, surrounded by dense forest, is a marvel. My mom and I walk through the only clear path, and we gawk at the descriptive headstones marking soldiers who died from disease, drowning, or other unfortunate circumstances of island life.
We walk through, pay our respects, and arrive on the other side in front of Lodge Point Park. There’s not a whole lot going on here, but it’s nature, so we check it out anyway. We walked to the edge of the park against the water and find big beds of coral reefs just chilling in the clear, crystal-like waters.
By now the sun is reaching its hottest point, and we’ve got our fill of adventure for the short day on the island. We call it another successful day on the island and top off our morning walk with some shopping at the tourist shops.
Final Hours
As much as I hate to say it, the party can’t last forever. We spend the rest of the day out in the hot sun on the top deck of the ship as we head back to the east coast.
Everyone knows vacation is coming to a close, and with that the remembering of friends, pets, and homes to attend to back home. When we wake up the next morning in NYC harbor, we don’t waste any time packing up our things and stepping back onto US soil. We bid our farewells and good-lucks to family and friends, and we all go our separate ways.
It was a fantastic trip that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I'm grateful to have gone with such a great group of family and friends. The trip opened up my world view just a little bit more, and I would 10/10 visit again in the future.