It just wasn't for me. I actually went with a friend who booked a flight back before I did. We understood the weather meant more people would be indoors and leaving from NYC meant the waters wouldn't be as smooth. She'd been on cruises many times before though and also said she'll never cruise again.
We shared an inside stateroom in the middle of the ship because I wanted to avoid feeling the ship's movements as much as possible. I took Dramamine when I boarded but still felt unsteady the first full day. The buffet was packed that night, which is expected, and again when I went for breakfast at 8 the next morning.
We also noticed the 1st day that the tickets to 1 of our excursions were delivered but no the other. We went to the desk that evening and asked about them. We were told they didn't have them.but we will get them the next morning. The next evening the tickets still aren't there. Our excursion is for the following morning and we don't want to be stuck in line at the desk in the am right before the excursion so we head to the desk that evening. We're told they don't have the tickets but they'll be delivered in the morning. Guess what wasn't delivered? So we get in the line the morning we docked and they had our tickets.
We get off the ship and onto the boat for a trip to Hamilton. It was supposed to start at 9 but we couldn't dock until 9 and didn't get on board until closer to 930. Then we sit there. The people around me discuss how they've never felt such a choppy ride on a cruise. I'm relieved it wasn't just me and my friend feeling it. Others start wondring aloud why we're still sitting there. It took another 10 minutes to see more guests walking up and boarding. I'm understanding, but we were supposed to be ready at 8:45. It's a bit annoying to be sitting and waiting for people at 9:30. Then the boat starts and the guides starts speaking. None of us in the back can hear anything. We also can't move, unless we stand, because the boat is full. I should have taken the ferry for $4.50 instead. Lesson learned.
My friend wanted to get a drink that first full day at sea and chose a bar that we didn't realize only offered about 8 cocktails. I'm not a drinker but figured I'd get something non-alcoholic. The bartender, possibly fed up with people trying to order anything other than the 8 or so drinks on the menu, was visibly annoyed when she asked for a pina colada. She pushed the menu screen toward her and said no, this is what we have. Not a big deal, we can see how it's annoying to have to repeat yourself, especially after someone walked up behind us and also tried to order a drink that wasn't on the menu. We had no way of knowing just by walking up to the bar though. So, she orders off the menu, gets her drink shortly after, and asks the bartender for change for a $20 bill (so she can leave him a tip). He firmly says, "No." She looks surprised and he says, with a repugnance that I just don't understand, "I gave someone else change, no" and walks away. I have no idea why he reacted that way. The bar wasn't full, what I've typed is the extend of their interaction, and my friend tends to be polite to a fault, likely due to her anxiety.
We ordered the 6 1 liter bottles of after as soon as we got on the ship. We were told they would be there by noon the next day. She was in the room until 1 the following day and it wasn't there. I had come in to take a nap and stayed in the room until I got hungry at about 430 but still no water. I had to call to ask about the water because it still wasn't there. They seemed confused and asked when I ordered the water I told them when, where, and offered to bring the receipt. It was finally delivered a little while later.
Then we went to the other buffet, behind the Local Bar and Grill, and had really good food and service. We went back the following night and it was night and day. We ordered, got the food, and had to ask for our waters twice. (All the non-alcoholic beverages other than water were sold out both days.) Someone finally comes around...with 1 cup of water. Stuff happens, we eat and go.
We go to the spa. Someone hits an alarm somewhere in the spa. We get out of the sauna, with the other guests, and it keeps sounding. The employees eventually say that someone elsewhere "hit the wrong button" so everyone goes back in the saunas. The alarm continued to sound and some guests just left. It stopped a few minutes later so we decided to go sit in the area with the lounge chairs. A few minutes into that there is some kind of continuous loud noise going on behind the wall behind us. It went on so long that I took a video of myself in there with the noise in the background, trying to make sense of what it was. It sounded like heavy furniture being pushed against a wall. I decide that maybe I'll be better off just watching a movie in bed and my friend decides she's going to try to find something to do. She tried texting me while out but I didn't get it. Why? Because the Internet was terrible since night 1, despite my ugrading the wifi package as soon as I got aboard. I had to wait until I was in Bermuda to have consistent access to communication. The same thing happened with my friend. Two different phones, reset multiple times, in different locations on the ship, including out on the open deck and feet from the Internet Cafe, and still had inconsistent service. It was so bad that when I finally decided that I had enough, I went to inform guess services that I wished to disembark and asked about the procedure. They wanted me to email them a flight confirmation and it took me the rest of the night just to book a flight. I had to walk around outside to get service. I then went back to the desk And they said that they didn't get my email. My friend had also sent an email that wasn't received. I tried to email them from the desk,butagain,I had no service.
My friend had previously spoken to a female that worked at the desk about disembarking. When I went, I was assisted by a male that asked that same female some questions as it appeared that he wasn't sure what to do. When she sent him some more else with our passports my friend asked her if we would also be able to get a print out of our charges. (There wasn't anyone in front of her at the time nor was there anyone else in line and she was just asking if it could be done.) This employee looked at her and said, "Isn't somebody helping you?!" In such a disgusted tone,wildly gesturing to the empty monitor here the male employee had been. She then starts muttering in what sounded like Spanish and I said, in Spanish, "she was just asking if it can be done, she wasn't asking you to do it." She ignored that and starting whispering to another male empoyee who happened to walk up and ask if we were being helped at the same time. It was surreal, that employee's attitude wasn't reflected by the other employees behind the desk.
Then there's the alcohol fiasco. I ordered liquor (something not sold in the US that a relative requested) from a shop just outside the ship. They told me it would be delivered to the ship and held for me. This response is going on quite long so I will just say that it took 9 contacts, including 3 people coming to my room, 2 trips by me to guest services, and 4 phone calls from people on the ship, all asking the same questions, the day I disembarked, just for them to figure out that they didn't have the alcohol and I would have to go pick it up myself. They even told me that I might be out of luck because apparently there was a couple from Jamaica that got home on a previous trip and never got the alcohol they paid for. Great.
When I disembarked, my friend also disembarked, another guest was there with his luggage to disembark,and another person in line was informing staff that they were leaving too. We actually had people ask us how we went about leaving because they didn't want to stay either. I don't know if it was fear from the storm, disappointment from having to leave 4 hours early due to the weather, or what, but it was sad.
As I get off the ship, I see the people delivering the alcohol. I asked them if they happen to have my alcohol and they tell me that they have called someone on the ship to have numerous orders, laid out behind the delivery van, picked up. The delivery person said they've been waiting but no one from the ship has come out to acxept the delivery. They found my case but didn't know what to do. It was pure luck that an employee happened to be walking by and they asked that person and he told them if it was delivered then they wouldn't accept it because I was no longer a passenger. He told them they should give it to me since I had the receipt, so they did.
There is so much more,but, I'm sure no one wants to keep reading all of this. Some of it might sound rather petty, but,when it all happened, and more, in a span of 3 days, it was enough. I wanted to see what it would be like to take a cruise versus my usual plane and hotel vacations, and I wanted to visit Bermuda. I will be back to Bermuda, just not on a cruise.
