NCL Spirit Boston to Bermuda 5/22/09

My buddy and I (both single) will be cruising to Bermuda on NCL Spirit on 5/22/09 from Boston. We are wondering if there are any gay men/women who will be on the same cruise. Would love to meet you and get some suggestions on best beaches and/or things to do in Bermuda. Neither of us have been to Bermuda and I have never cruised before. It will be a wonderful experience for me (I hope). Hit us back if you're on the same ship!

Roland (Ptowngam)

Hello Roland!

I'm sailing the week before you (May 15th)! There's another gay guy from my neck of the woods sailing out tomorrow (May 1st). I sailed to Bermuda last year on the Norwegian Dream (ghost ship in the Bahamas as of this moment). What are you interests and maybe I can help you out! :)

Since you have never cruised before and this is your first. The North Atlantic is rougher than Caribbean waters so I would suggest you bring some sort of motion medication such as the patch behind the ear or bonine pills. It'll help with any motion issues you may have.

~Jake

Thanks Jake for the advice. I am actually quite sea sick proned and have gotten the patch from my doc. Hope the waters won't be as rough as some had told me. My buddy and I are looking forward to hitting some nice beaches and just relaxing. Neither of us is heavy drinkers and won't be needing to hit watering holes, LOL. As for beaches, we were told Horseshoe is a must! We plan to get there by bus, and I hope it's not a difficult thing to do. Have you booked any of the NCL land excursions in Bermuda before? Is any of them worth considering? As far as things to do on the ship, I do plan to sqeeze in a few workout sessions at the fitness center and use the steam room (if there is one). Do they charge for using the pool and steam rooms in the spa? Are there showers there or will I have to go back to the room to shower? Have you met other gay men on the cruise during previous trips? So many questions. Hope you don't mind.

Roland

Hi Roland,

Horseshoe Beach is a must. I've heard so many wonderful things about it. Sadly I'm sailing with my mom again to Bermuda this year and she's definitely NOT a beach person. :cool: There are beaches every where though on the island. You may want to just keep on the bus route and find a more secluded beach if you prefer peace and quiet away from cruise passengers. When you arrive on Sunday you will be the only pax there but as the week progresses more ships will be coming in - right about when the Spirit will be leaving on Wednesday morning. Beaches are the first places you tend to notice that get crowded. There's a beach up by Fort St Catherines in St. Georges that looked very nice and had a restaurant nearby too. It looked out of the way on the West facing shore of the island. (Don't know if it has a name or not.)

The dockyard is very convenient for the water taxi. You're the center stop between Hamilton and St Georges. Passes for both the bus and the water taxi are available for purchase by the water taxi stand. The tickets are cheap to encourage everyone to use BDA's public transit. You'll have no worries getting around the island during the day. At night the island is a pain to navigate around because you have to rely on expensive taxis (after 9PM). Public transit is really scaled back after 9PM.

Last year we did Bermuda on our own with out any NCL excursions. Bermuda is a very easy to navigate island. I would suggest ordering a book online such as Frommers. They give you great walking tours of the three major attractions of the island which are the Dockyard (where NCL Spirit will be at), Hamilton (all the historical highlights) and St Georges (historical highlights too). You can save a bunch of money if you do it that way then booking with NCL. This year we're going to do the more off the beaten path spots we didn't see or by walking to would be suicidal (BDA doesn't believe in sidewalks and walking along the road is not advisable... they don't exactly drive friendly down there to pedestrians).

Our cruise critic group is doing a night time glass bottom boat excursion on Sunday to the Bermuda triangle. It should be a ton of fun. It's on the Sunday night and I can well imagine that there will be nothing going on shore-side since again it's a very conservative island. Sundays not a lot of businesses are open either from what I've gathered.

I've never been on the Norwegian Spirit but every ship I've been on has a fitness area. As for steam rooms... my trusty deck plans tell me they do have them onboard across from the fitness center. Showers might be available in there but I wouldn't hold your breath. You'll probably have to return to the room to do that. Steam rooms are generally free. Celebrity Solstice is the first ship where this was an additional charge unless you were Aqua Spa class.

As for meeting other GLB folks onboard... it's really hit or miss. Some sailings there's a ton of people and other times there are not so many and least year's Dream cruise there was NONE! Our gatherings onboard are code named "Friends of Dorothy". Check your FreeStyle Daily to see where and when they are held. It's usually UN-hosted on NCL. If you're going to find any gay people who want to be known or cruise the area then this is where and when you'd find out.

Feel free to ask more questions and I'll be as helpful as I can be.

~Jake

PS A question for you... what is going on during the July 25-27th in P-Town? Usually every weekend there is some theme and I'm thinking of going then.

Jake: Thanks for all the info. I have printed out some road maps of Bermuda and have a good feel of the bus/water taxi system. I am sure my buddy and I will do some exploring. As long as we get to go to some nice beaches and relax a bit, we'll be very happy!

As for Ptown, I don't live there but I do have their "event" schedule on hand and plan to be there at least a few weekends during the summer. July 22 - 26 is Girl Splash (www.provincetownforwomen.com). July 25 is GLAD Annual Summer Party www.glad.org

Nothing particularly geared towards gay men the time that you're planning on going, but there's always men around in Ptown, LOL.

Roland

Roland - I think I'll pass on that trip to P-Town then! It's already expensive enough as it is and well women's weekend? :eek: Thanks for the information on the event schedule.

As for Bermuda, I'm sure you'll have a great time. I can't wait until the people get back on Friday to talk about it. It seems like there were some intermittent service issues on the Spirit's repo cruise to Boston. Lucky we're not sailing this week. With all these storms around it's kicking up the ocean!

I found the upgrade fairy at NCL and got myself out of steerage and up to a balcony. Plan on surprising mom for Mother's Day with it. :D

Also, I'm hoping to get my hands on their daily newsletters that are put in your cabin (FreeStyle Daily) from someone who is gay who is on this sailing and lives in the same city as me. If you want to know anything entertainment-wise then ask!

~Jake