Trip Review w/pics - Bermuda on the Grandeur

Just got back yesterday from 7 days on the Grandeur. I consulted these boards so much while planning for this trip, I felt I should check back in and report on what we did on Bermuda and how it went. Here goes!

We were a large group, 8 adults and 3 kids (7, 4, 10 months). We decided to stick together the entire time we were in Bermuda and to plan our own excursions using public transportation.

Day 1 - arrived in Bermuda at 3:00 and were able to disembark by 3:30. It was brutally hot and humid. 86 degrees felt more like 100 when walking around the dockyard. We walked around the dockyard for about 30 minutes and my BIL pulled off a surprise proposal in the red phone booth by the Frog and Onion.

The plan had been to walk to Sea Glass Beach, but it was clear we could not manage that in the heat with 3 kids. We ended up taking 2 taxis (he promised we'd be able to just hail a cab from the road once we were done). It cost about $13 a cab to get there (well worth it). The sea glass was plentiful and the water was beautiful. FYI, there is now a large sign on the beach warning tourists not to take any sea glass or shells. The kids swam (wear water shoes! My 4 year old son took his off without me realizing it and sliced his toe pretty badly on a rock) and my SIL gathered some sea glass despite the warning. We stayed about an hour and then hiked up the stairs and back to the road.

After trying and failing to hail a cab (they were all either full or ignored us), we realized we would have to walk back to the ship. Took about an hour (a long, hot hour). Google maps says it's 2.5 km and should take 29 minutes, but I'm telling you, it felt like much longer than that. My SIL sea glass was confiscated as she got on the ship. Boo.

Day 2 - We got off the ship about 8:30, bought 2 day transportation passes and stood in line for the first ferry to St. George (9:30). There were already about 200 people ahead of us in line. The ferry holds about 350, so we were still in good shape. Ferry ride was a breeze and we disembarked in St. George and immediately headed to the visitors center to get our stamps for the hop on - hop off bus. Easy peasy. We were directed to the first stop behind town hall and waited about 10 minutes for the shuttle. There is a large shuttle bus that holds about 10-15 people and several smaller cars and vans that they also use. While we were waiting, we saw 6 adults and 5 kids cram into a car. They PACK people in. We were lucky enough to get the shuttle bus and took the short ride uphill to Tobacco Bay. The beach was already pretty crowded, but that was still probably the highlight of the day. There was some pretty spectacular snorkeling directly to the right (if you are facing the beach) among the rocks. We brought boxes of cereal from the ship and the kids LOVED feeding the fish. They literally jump out of the water.

We stayed for a couple hours and then washed up and headed to Fort St. Catherine. We decided to walk instead of waiting for the next hop on bus. Took about 10 minutes, it's very close. The fort was really worth seeing, especially if you are interested in history. My SILs weren't impressed, but I'm still glad we went, there were some beautiful views from the top.

We hiked to the end of the lane and waiting at a bench for the hop on bus to take us to the public bus stop. We waiting for 45 long, hot minutes before a car with two seats available finally came by. Then another 15 minutes for them to come back with the bigger bus. If we had known it would take so long we would have walked or taken a nice swim at St. Catherine's beach right behind the bus stop (which is GORGEOUS and was almost completely empty). We completely lucked out and caught the #11 bus towards Hamilton about 2 minutes after he dropped us off at the bus stop (it runs every 45 minutes). We were hoping to go to the zoo and aquarium, but arrived at 4:05 and they had just stopped tours (closes at 5, last admission at 4:00). We were very disappointed, the kids really wanted to see the sea turtles. But wait, good news! The sea turtles are an outside exhibit just to the left of the bus stop and we were able to spend about 10 minutes enjoying them before the bus came to take us all the way into Hamilton.Then another 15 minute walk to the ferry and back to the Dockyard we went.

Sidenote: My BIL and SIL went off the ship after dinner and had a great time at the Frog and Onion

Day 3: We walked down to the bus stop (directly across from the Frog and Onion) around 8:30 and took the first bus to Horseshoe Bay.

Unfortunately, a huge storm blew in about 15 minutes after we arrived we spent an hour and half standing shoulder to shoulder in the chair rental facility waiting for it to stop. We finally gave up around 11:30 and walked in the pouring rain up the hill to the bus stop. (In case you need a mental picture, all of the above was done with the baby strapped in my Ergo baby carrier). We all headed back to the ship to change out of our wet clothes and eat lunch and then headed back off the ship for the last few hours before we sailed. We bought the kids a few souvenirs and then spent the best $20 of the trip and went to the National Museum. They have a GREAT playground on the grounds and it's directly across from dolphin quest, so we were able to watch the dolphins for awhile as well. Then we walked up to the top of the fort and the views were spectacular!

Here are my thoughts: If you have young children, seriously consider booking an excursion through the ship or with a service that picks you up at the end of the cruise terminal. We walked our LEGS off just getting back and forth between bus and ferry stops and it really cut into our time on the island. If we were didn't have the kids, we could have just embraced and enjoyed those little walks a bit more. We are extremely lucky that our kids were troopers and walked their little legs off without (too many) complaints and that our baby is pretty mellow and took great naps strapped into the Ergo. Of course, this means I was carrying around a little 20 lb ball of heat in the already hot weather, but still.

If we could do it over, here is what I would have done. Booked a horseshoe bay excursion on Sunday night through the ship. Not much was open on a Sunday, so we couldn't even do any shopping. Probably would have still done the ferry to st. George and hop on bus to Tobacco Bay, but I think we would have stayed longer and taken the ferry back the dockyard and skipped Fort St. Catherine and the Aquarium (which we missed anyway). We could have also taken some time to walk around St. George before the ferry, I was sad we didn't get to do that. The third day, we couldn't have known about the storm, so we probably would have done exactly what we did.

I hope this will be helpful to someone! I'll try to check back and answer any questions anyone might have! I have a few more pics I'll share in the comments.

The sea turtles - this lady was 102 years old!

Horseshoe Bay - gorgeous for the few minutes we got to enjoy it:

The dolphins! Big hit with the kids:

VERY nice review and also nice to see someone come back and post.:)

I'm assuming the gentleman who has the "To the Top" $2 shuttle was not at Horseshoe. Guess he's a fair weather man since I remember him not being there when I was there in the rain.

Seems like they're serious about the sea glass. However, AFAIK, there is no ban on taking some from the beach near St. George so how would they know which beach it came from?

VERY nice review and also nice to see someone come back and post.:)

 

I'm assuming the gentleman who has the "To the Top" $2 shuttle was not at Horseshoe. Guess he's a fair weather man since I remember him not being there when I was there in the rain.

 

Seems like they're serious about the sea glass. However, AFAIK, there is no ban on taking some from the beach near St. George so how would they know which beach it came from?

There was a shuttle that was full, but I think it might have been a cruise to beach transfer. We just booked it to the top as fast as we could.

I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about the sea glass. There is PLENTY on the beach and as many people have pointed out, it's essentially trash. I can understand shells, but the glass thing doesn't make any sense to me. I still have some from our last trip to Bermuda (Alexandria Battery in St. George), so I didn't take any, but it was pretty disappointing to my SIL to have her's taken. She only had about 10 pieces in a small ziploc bag, but they searched her bag and dumped it when she got on the ship. If you are trying to "smuggle" it aboard, I'd probably throw it loose in the bottom of your bag.

Very well done and so nice of you to put this together.

Keith

There was a shuttle that was full, but I think it might have been a cruise to beach transfer. We just booked it to the top as fast as we could.

 

I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about the sea glass. There is PLENTY on the beach and as many people have pointed out, it's essentially trash. I can understand shells, but the glass thing doesn't make any sense to me. I still have some from our last trip to Bermuda (Alexandria Battery in St. George), so I didn't take any, but it was pretty disappointing to my SIL to have her's taken. She only had about 10 pieces in a small ziploc bag, but they searched her bag and dumped it when she got on the ship. If you are trying to "smuggle" it aboard, I'd probably throw it loose in the bottom of your bag.

It may not make sense but we just have to do what they say. Earlier, there was a big controversy about the sea glass with one Bermudian very vocal about it in the local paper. Some claimed that people were taking it by the bucket full. I highly doubt that since so many people have to fly to get to the cruise and wouldn't want all that extra weight. Some even said their "natural resource" was being depleted. Yes, it's formed naturally by the action of the tides but it's trash to begin with.:D

Perfect example of one man's trash, another man's treasure.

Nice review..thanks for posting...good info about the sea glass...

I was on the same cruise (awesome!) and just wanted to add as well that when we docked on Sunday and stepped off the ship, WHAM! The heat and humidity hit you like a brick. Monday was much better and aside from the rain Tuesday morning, it turned out to be a nice day.