Bitterman

$750 fine for 3 rounds and not even a firearm to go with it?  That's a bit ridiculous if you ask me as he was remorseful and it seemed like an honest mistake. But Bermuda has draconian weapons laws.  That being said I double check all my stuff when I travel to make sure something like this doesn't happen.

I've never had a problem with my blood testing supplies, pen needles, insulin, etc., either. I usually will tell the security screener when boarding as a heads up for them. On our last cruise the screener pretty much told me "we don't care, we're not the TSA", lol.

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We did a Canada/New England tour out of NY on NCL last year. We stayed on Ships Time (Eastern Time) the whole cruise. They constantly reminded us not to use local time. Also any excursions that were booked through NCL were also scheduled for ships time and not local time.

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I believe with NCL the casino is open from 9 pm to 5 am while docked in Bermuda.

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12 miles out I believe.

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How is it misleading, and how is naming the boat "just wrong" on Charles part when all that info is provided in the link to the newspaper article?? Damn, some people need to relax.... [emoji849]

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My memory is horrible and I can’t recall if rooms are generally available upon boarding or if it could be awhile.

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Love Bermuda. Beautiful place with beautiful beaches. We've only gone earlier in the season to try to avoid hurricane season. Friends of ours booked a later cruise and had bad luck with a hurricane and never made it to Bermuda, they got detoured to the Caribbean. They did an earlier cruise this year and had no problems and really loved Bermuda.

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Pricing is here:

http://www.dockglass.com/?post_type=product

Yes, you must declare all food products you bring back into the country, but should not have a problem with cakes. Not sure on quantity restrictions but I don't think there are if the items are for "personal" use.

More info here :

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/318/~/traveling-to-the-u.s.---bringing-baked-goods-%28i.e.-cakes%2C-cookies%2C-breads%2C-etc%29

Hope that helps some.

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$7pp? But NCL is trying to sell us an excursion for $45 pp for basically the same thing?!?

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The Dock yard has some nice shops and bars, and of course the National Museum of Bermuda, but for beaches I agree, don't bother with snorkel park. Much better "real" beaches around.

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If it's crowded and you want to get away also consider walking down to the far end of Horseshoe Bay. It connects to a few other small beaches and is a nice walk.

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Here's a couple pics I took at Horseshoe Bay. You can set up close to the water or farther back, there's a good amount of room. You can also wade out in the water a decent distance. As you can see there's no shade really (unless you rent an umbrella :-) ).

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Agreed, tour guides near the Port shouldn't have any problem with US currency.

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The Gem a.k.a. The Goldilocks ship. Not to big, not to small. Just Right. Love the passenger to space ratio and of course Spinnakers lounge.

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Thanks, I drink well water and it is the best. Hate that chlorine taste, I will fill my water bottle in the buffet using a transfer glass.

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Does anyone know if the drinking water on the escape is good? Also where on the ship can you feel up your containers to bring back to your room?

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We bought Brita water bottles with a built in filter and this is another option if like me you don't like to 'taste' your water. I also bring along some lemon flavoring (a dietary essential oil version) to make sure I don't run into taste issues. As a bonus, you can replace the filters in the Brita bottles and use them for other trips where you don't want to be stuck overpaying for bottled water. We use ours at the Disney parks and save some serious $$ on water.

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Do you tip extra in specialty restaurants? We did before. just wondering...Thanks

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I've really enjoyed reading this thread. It's helped make my mind up. I think a couple of visits to La Cucina for us. Do they have Italian waiters in there?

 

Would any of the dining options cover Indian options, I've heard tell this might be the case, possibly in the buffet?

The buffet would be the option for Indian cuisine, although I'm not sure how authentic it really is.

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If you have a party of 3 book for a party of 4. You can also try calling and making a reservation over the phone. Also you can make reservations right when you board, you will have more options then.

Thanks again for all the replies. As someone new to cruising, I have a couple of other questions, if anyone would like to share thoughts on either of the below:

 

1. We aren't sure if we will go to any of the specialty restaurants or not. Guess it depends how happy we are with the complimentary options, which all look good to me! Plus we like to save money when possible. But Cagneys and La Cucina both look interesting to us. If we do go to a specialty restaurant, is pre-purchasing a meal package a "must?" What are the a la cart prices like, if we just go for one night? I noticed that the pre-purchased package of 2 meals ends up being $35 per person, per meal - would we end up spending that much or more if we just go and pay a la cart?

 

2. Being our first cruise, I'm new to the idea of a dress code on vacation. DH and I are usually pretty casual on vacation - jean shorts, t-shirts and flip flops are our go-to's. I like getting dressed up a little bit, DH not so much, so this will be an adjustment for him especially. Am I correct in saying the only time our "usual" clothing wouldn't be appropriate is for dining in the main dining room or specialty restaurants? Just want to make sure we are packing the right amount of each "type" of clothing, especially since we're doing a 7 night cruise.

 

Thanks again all!

Welcome and congrats on your first cruise!! We love the Gem and I'm sure you guys will too.

We've gotten to the port very early before, yes you're some of the first to get checked in and are in the first boarding groups but then you end up sitting around the terminal for quite a while waiting to board. Personally I like getting there 10:30 - 11:00. That worked out well on our last cruise. Yes you will have to wait in the line to get checked in, but it moves pretty quickly. They started calling boarding groups to board while we were close to getting checked in. By the time we got checked in they weren't even boarding by groups anymore and you could get on as soon as you were checked in. We were onboard by a little after 12:00.

Dress is very casual. The only two restaurants with a dress code on the Gem are Le Bistro (the French restaurant) and the Grand Pacific main dining room. Dress code from their website:

SMART CASUAL

Dress smart casual in our more formal dining room or in our more upscale specialty restaurants. For women, it includes slacks or jeans, dresses, skirts and tops. For men, it's jeans or slacks with a collared shirt and closed-toed shoes.

Both main dining rooms offer a wide variety of meals. The buffet is ok too. There is enough variety that you can easily do the whole cruise without going to a specialty restaurant. If you do Le Bistro is our favorite. Cagney's and La Cucina were excellent on our last cruise as well.

Remember to pack a carry-on bag with a bathing suite and any meds, etc., you may need. They called rooms ready at 1:30 on our last cruise but we didn't have all our luggage until probably 6:00 pm.

It's also good to get there a little earlier as you can have some lunch right when you board without it being too crowded. Lots of people head to the buffet but you can also go to the Magenta main dining room, O'Sheehans bar and grill, and they also have burgers, dogs, fries, salads, etc., by the pool area. That's where we ended up on embarkation day as we had nice weather.

Enjoy!

We've been on the Gem twice. Le Bistro was our favorite both cruises. Excellent food and service. I thought La Cucina was mediocre the first cruise but it was really good the second time. Cagney's was really good as well. Half of our group went to Moderno when my wife and I went to Le Bistro and they thought it was good. I haven't tried Moderno personally yet but I love churrascaria's and will definitely try it on our next cruise.

We did Snorkel Park and walked around the Dockyard our last day there for the same reason...to be near the ship on departure day. We got there early and they didn't even charge us to get in. As mentioned, it's man-made and nothing like the south shore beaches but it was fine. Enjoy!

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Hi, I'm sailing on the Gem with 6 others and we'd like to go to Moderno one night. How does it work either when we reserve or when we dine? If I want to reserve a table for us at embarkation will it all be charged to my onboard account? Or will they swipe everyone's card when we arrive for our reservation?

 

Thanks!

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