Boston to Bermuda with Young Kids: August 15, 2014--TONS of photos

[pathubia]

Our town doesn't start school before Labor Day so we used to cruise the last week of August. That way my daughter wouldnt have to miss school. There were still lots and lots of kids on board then. My daughter (21 now) is still friends with kids she has met on cruises. She went to a party with one of them last month. (Benefit of Boston to Bermuda, tons of local families). I am guessing there will be small handful of kids in Sept and October, too.

 

 

 

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Edited September 1, 2014 by pathubia

[lolavix]

We arrived at Aqua around 8:30 and we got lucky. I do think that we had more of a chance of being seated given that it was on the later end of dinner and we were only two instead of five.

 

This is the first night that the service seemed to be slower than it had been. There was another couple seated at the same time as us, right next to us, who were also waiting a very long time for any sort of acknowledgement from our server. DH flagged down the manager after about 15 minutes and inquired about our server, and thankfully, one materialized soon after.

 

DH had some sort of gnocchi appetizer. It sticks in my mind because the night before, gnocchi was my entree so I figured it was a creative move with leftovers. I don't remember my appetizer; I probably had some sort of soup like French Onion. I do have photos of our entrees, though, so maybe that makes up for it?

 

I had orecchiette pasta which came with five meatballs. I only ate two! The pasta was OK, just with marinara sauce.

 

DH had some sort of barbecue plate...ribs, sausage and something else with some broccoli and sweet potato fries.

 

I know in the past NCL had a Chocolate Buffet and that now they had replaced that night with Chocolate Night. Tonight was that night!

 

 

What would you choose? This was a tough decision for the two of us.

 

I wound up selecting the beetroot chocolate cake (not the volcano, since I had already had that twice).

 

and DH selected the white chocolate raspberry mousse.

 

Both were pretty good, although I think the ice cream on the volcano helps make it a little less dry. (The cake wasn't dry enough to be ruined, but more dry than the picture looks, if that makes sense.)

 

We then decided that the kids needed to have some chocolate desserts, too, since they weren't with us. We ordered some chocolate Nutella pot de creme, which was like pudding and it was packed up for us to bring back to the room. We also brought some hazelnut milk chocolate bar which was like a firm pudding cake, and the opera cake, which was like tiramisu with the layers but I'm guessing it wasn't considered tiramisu because it lacked mascarpone. (No pictures of these last three.) Everyone seemed to enjoy them.

 

DS2 enjoying the pot de creme. Can you tell it was scavenger night at Splash Academy?

[lolavix]

DS1's scavenger make up:

 

In the picture of DS2 in the last post, you can see one of our friends for the evening:

 

Everyone loved this guy:

 

And we also had:

 

The kids got ready for bed and DH was comfortable reading a book. I decided to go back out and attend

in the Spinnaker.

 

Selecting some contestants:

The couple raising their hands in the foreground did not get selected.

 

There were three couples, and if you wish to play, you need to be married, you need to be willing to play (both members of the couple) and you need to be willing to answer every question. I obviously couldn't play and I was :D about that.

 

Our game had one couple married for six years, one for nine, and one for sixty! As you can imagine, the couple married for sixty years was very interesting. The game is very much like the newlywed game, but without the newlyweds (in our case). One couple did very well answering the questions and got most of them right. I asked DH some of the questions the next day and I don't know how well we would have done...we probably would have gotten about half right.

 

I stayed longer than I anticipated. I thought I'd only be there a few minutes, but wound up staying for the entire show. When I got back to the rooms, everyone was asleep, including DH. Really, it was only about 30-40 minutes, not hours. I sat on the balcony for a bit and enjoyed the quiet, and then climbed into bed myself.

 

One more full day at sea! This trip is flying, even if this review is not.

[lolavix]

pathubia--We went the absolute last week we could go without bumping into school, which started for us last week. DD had met some new friends at a camp she went to this summer, and one of those girls cruised last week because her town doesn't start school until this week. We kept thinking that too bad we weren't on that cruise with them, until we learned that they had to depart Bermuda early due to the possible hurricane/tropical storm. It's nice your daughter kept in touch with friends she made on previous cruises. I think that is one benefit of cruising from Boston. Lots of locals!

[lolavix]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lolavix]

 

______________________________________________________________

 

I awoke early today--maybe a little after 5. Part of this was due to the time change backward, so still early, but not rooster-early. I laid in bed for a bit, and then realized that I could go take a walk and see what the ship is like when mostly everyone else is snoozing. I also figured I could get some pictures of the ship without passengers, which I've already shown way back at the beginning of this review.

 

I walked around for about an hour. If you lean toward being an early bird, I would recommend trying this at least once. It's really relaxing and it shows the ship in a different light.

 

On my way back to the room, I stopped at the Garden Cafe to get one of those chocolate-filled pastries. All that walking had built up my appetite.

 

The weather did not look promising, although it was pretty.

 

I went back to the room around 6:20 and DS2 was in bed with DH, walking Spiderman or some other movie. A few minutes later, everyone was up so we got ready for breakfast and then hit the Garden Cafe.

 

Turns out that a lot of folks were also up early, probably due to the time change.

 

The kids set up shop in the Garden Cafe. I know I had pictures of the empty cafe earlier, but here is one of them in action.

DD almost looks too big for the table, at age almost 11. As I've mentioned, it worked for them (and us) and they enjoyed having their own table.

 

After breakfast, it was still too early for anything, even Splash Academy. We decided to take a walk on Deck 13 and see if we could play shuffleboard. We also noticed that there was a storm off in the distance, and it was likely headed our way.

 

We were in luck, because no one else was around (and it wasn't raining yet)!

 

Here is DS1 walking through the chess game. He wanted to play, but shuffleboard won out.

 

We had never played shuffleboard, but DS1, DD and I had watched the people the day before so we knew the scoring. We needed a little bit of practice with actually playing.

 

[lolavix]

Turns out that DH was the only one who got any scoring in before it started to really rain in earnest. We decided to abandon our game because not only was it raining, it was actually on the cool and windy side and we didn't want to have to change our clothes completely (and have nowhere to dry them as even the things I had been trying to dry for days on the balcony and in the shower clothesline were still slightly damp).

 

By now, though, it was almost 9 AM, so we headed up to Splash Academy. The kids, DD in particular, were anxious to get there since it was the last day, and there was circus practice for the afternoon's show.

 

 

We checked them in and decided to go look at the photos in the photo gallery and perhaps start to whittle them down. The realization that we didn't really have all that we wanted hit us, and since we had already purchased the package, I mentioned that we should probably try again tonight to get a few more family photos. I had seen a huge teddy bear which some of the kids posed with, and since my kids had each brought a favorite, I thought that might take a fun photo, for them to pose with theirs and the huge bear.

 

We made some decisions but obviously nothing final yet.

 

We went to the Spinnaker, where there was going to be a Q & A session which included the Captain. We got there early and found some comfy chairs to sit and relax for a bit.

 

Today's Q & A included

 

Sarper, the Hotel Director from yesterday's Q & A, Captain Teo, and Chief Engineer Patrick.

 

We did not get the handout I posted for Day 6, which included a lot of facts about the ship, so there were a bunch of questions based on material on that handout. There were a lot of questions for Patrick and Captain Teo, since people were interested in the inner workings of the ship. DH asked a question about the green initiatives. The topic of weather came up, and the captain promised us that the afternoon would be better, since these types of storms that we were having right then usually blew over quickly. I hoped he was right!

 

The session lasted about 30 minutes, similar to yesterday's. If you are at all interested in the ship, I would recommend attending one of the sessions as they are fairly informative.

 

We then took a stroll through the casino. DH was tempted to play, but in the end, opted not to. We watched for a bit and then moved on to look at the art up for auction. We weren't going to participate, but they did have some works we admired.

 

For attending, we were given a free reprint of a painting called "Fence Line":

 

 

I had forgotten that I was also given a reprint the day before, when I played "Deal or No Deal". I'll add that one here--"Afternoon with Polly II".

 

 

 

It was around 11:30 by now and we debated what to do. Splash Academy closed from 12-2 for lunch, and I knew that the kids would need to get back there by 2 to ready for the circus. There was a towel animal folding demonstration that I wanted to attend at 1:30, and we still needed to get our last souvenirs in the gift shop.

 

We picked up the kids and decided that I would take them to lunch and DH would take a nap as he wasn't hungry. Rather than navigate the Garden Cafe, we decided to go to the Venetian for lunch. The kids and I really enjoyed that location, and they were hoping to bump into their favorite server from Sunday night.

 

They weren't disappointed. Clive was there and he joked with them for a bit before we were seated way back, near the huge windows with the aft view.

What is it about looking at the wake that is almost mesmerizing?

 

And, I will add that the captain was correct. The rain had dissipated and all was sunny again, although really cool.

[lolavix]

I ordered chicken nachos for everyone to share. I think the boys ordered pizza again, and I have forgotten what DD ordered. For lunch, I got a pasta with shrimp, which was just OK. I am concluding that I don't think much of the NCL pasta dishes.

 

 

About half-way through our meal, DH showed up. This meal took a very long time for a lunch--about an hour and we never were asked if we wanted dessert, so if we had ordered and eaten that, it probably would have been 90 minutes.

 

We all went over to Tradewinds and we bought two NCL magnets to round out our magnet collection. I left DH in line with the kids because it was time for the towel animal demonstration in the atrium.

 

It was pretty crowded. I guess everyone was intrigued by the animals enough to want to see how they were made. There was a screen above the stewards so you could see the animals up close.

 

 

We had two cabins and didn't get a repeat. I wonder how many different animals there are.

 

We saw

 

 

 

 

The snake wasn't one we had seen:

[lolavix]

We hadn't seen a turtle, either.

 

Some take two people!

 

I'm wondering if the swans are for honeymooners.

 

The hanging monkey seemed to be a favorite of many. I know my kids really enjoyed him the evening before.

 

 

We didn't get a frog, nor a dog laying down. We did get seated dogs, though. There seem to be more than one version for some animals.

 

 

Close ups of the ducks and bunny. We didn't get either of these in either cabin.

[AEckhardt]

It's so nice to relive my trips to Bermuda through your review! The first time was on the Dawn, and most recently, the Breakaway. I think I'll be back on the Dawn next year!

 

I has considered going to Tom Moore's Jungle in May, but I hadn't do e enough research and really didn't know how to get there. Your review gives me a better idea, so thank you! Excellent pictures, too!

[lolavix]

If you are like me and figure your kids will enjoy trying out the towel animals, you might be sucked into purchasing the DVD after the demonstration.

 

 

(My kids have watched it and made some animals, so it's really not that hard to do it yourself.)

 

At the end of the demonstration, DH showed up and said he had dropped the kids off at Splash Academy. He said he was going to grab some lunch from Garden Cafe since he hadn't eaten with us at the Venetian. I debated on joining him, but then realized that there was another Deal or No Deal in the Stardust soon, and after that the circus would be held there, so I figured I'd go ahead and go watch Deal or No Deal.

 

I did not buy any cards this time, but I discovered that I brought my card home, so here is the card I used for Day 6 when I did play.

 

You can see some non-matching cases open.

 

And the directions:

 

This session was interesting, because the same woman was randomly chosen for both games. She had purchased three cards, and two of them were winners. She went all the way the first game and won $1. The second game, she chose the same case, and stopped at somewhere between $300 and $400 and wouldn't you know, that case the second time was the winner and had she hung in there, she would have won $1250. Someone in the audience won $200 for playing along as well.

 

After that, I spotted DH in the audience and we settle in for the Big Top at Sea, which started soon after Deal or No Deal ended.

 

Armen was the ringmaster, of course.

 

All the participants paraded across the stage to start the show.

 

My clown DD

 

DS1

[lolavix]

DS2 parading in. Do you think he's at all shy?

 

DD clowning around. No shy in her, either.

Mid-jump

 

The clowns would come out periodically throughout the show and do something. Here they are being silly.

 

DS2 balancing a feather. Who knew he had this inner talent?

I guess if first grade doesn't work out for him, he could actually run away and join the circus??

 

Some other talented kids--mine evidently do not have this inner talent.

[lolavix]

The youngest kids were ferocious lions and tigers. So cute!

 

DD and DS1 managed to twirl lassos.

 

 

We were impressed with these kids, because it's unlikely that any of them came to the cruise with this skill.

 

These guys, though, did come with skills. We were told they were 12-15 years old and learned to do this just this week. No way! Turns out they were professionals who worked with the kids to teach them the skills.

 

Everyone taking a bow.

 

By then, it was almost 4 PM and Splash Academy closed at 5. We could check the kids out right there, which is what we did.

 

Everyone went back to the room for some quiet time. DH wanted to stay out later that night, which meant that at least DS2 needed a nap.

Before they rested, I got a few photos because they needed to wash their circus makeup off.

 

[lolavix]

I wasn't sleepy, so I went out for a walk. I stopped at Garden Cafe for a quick little piece of cake, because I was craving something sweet and didn't wouldn't be for awhile. The cake was similar to the beet root cake I had the evening before at Aqua.

 

I checked back in and DD and DS1 were wide awake, so I took them with me. I don't think I posted these earlier, but these are the best shots of the T-Rex pool I have. When I went for my walk this morning, I didn't have the wide angle lens to get it all in.

 

 

 

Everyone looks relaxed, don't they?

 

 

We walked outside for a bit, but it was too cold, so we went back in and hit the library, which we hadn't yet visited.

 

The library is always open, although there are specific hours where you can check out books. The paperback/game shelf is always open, and you can see that someone next to us is playing checkers.

 

We stayed for about 30 minutes, and it was just about time to go back and wake up the sleepy heads. We got the kids ready and headed down to 7.

 

[lolavix]

I had mentioned that earlier this day, we had pulled our professional photos and I had said I wanted a few more taken. This is what we got...We were thrilled with them, and we even had to leave some good ones behind. Considering two of us never seem to take a decent posed photograph, I was amazed.

 

This first one is my taking a photo while the photographer is at work.

 

and the real thing...

DS2 being his silly self.

 

 

This was the idea I mentioned earlier, posing with their own stuffed animals and the big bear.

 

And my favorite of all...

We weren't planning on getting more family photos, but once we were there and had seen another family doing this, I wanted to try it.

 

I think it was this photo which prompted DH to buy the digital copies, so we could make this photo up for the grandparents for Christmas. I didn't argue. ;)

[lolavix]

We finished up and went to the Garden Cafe. DH and I wanted to try to have dinner alone again, so while he steered the kids through the line, I went down to Aqua to see if we could get a reservation. We got one for 40 minutes from then, and were given a pager and a certificate for 2 glasses of sparkling wine or soda.

 

I rejoined them where DH was having a piece of prime rib (I think that is what it was) from the buffet. I got a drink. I don't think I've mentioned the flavored waters here, but we all really enjoyed them; there was strawberry kiwi and mango something.

 

It was now that I noticed that we must be getting closer to land:

and tried not to think about it.

 

The kids finished their dinner in just about 40 minutes, so DH took them up to Splash Academy and I went down to Aqua in case the beeper went off...and it did just as I was descending the stairs to Aqua.

 

They seated me and I waited a few minutes for DH to join me. I was hoping that we'd see the photographer at Aqua but no luck...we ate four dinners in the MDR and only saw photographers twice. The first time, in the Venetian, my DD was in the bathroom so the photographer skipped our table. Our first night in Aqua, the photographer had just passed our table as we were seated and never came back. Oh, well.

 

For the life of me, I can't remember what we ordered...I think DH got another piece of prime rib, because I laughed that this second one was 'prettier'. I think I may have gotten salmon? We each got a glass of sparkling wine.

 

For dessert, I got something I had been thinking about making myself all week long, but the folks at Aqua were nice enough to offer it this night.

 

DH passed on dessert and grabbed a few chocolate cookies at the Garden Cafe, I think.

 

We headed off to see our last show in the Stardust Theater:

They were the aerialists we had been introduced to the previous night in the "Elements" show. We enjoyed the show, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about what we had to do...I forgot to mention that while the kids and I were in the library and DS2 was snoozing, DH was actually packing, and when we returned, I helped him finish. It was a nice surprise that a lot of it was done. I had picked up lavender tags when I took my walk during the early part of quiet time, so our suitcases were set to go, as long as we had them outside our door by midnight. (We still had time, but I just wanted to know they were there). We also wanted to select our photos for our package, so as soon as the lights went up, we bolted out of our seats and headed for the photography station.

 

Fortunately, we had slowly been pulling out our favorites, but now we had the ones from this evening to choose, and as I mentioned, it was difficult to decide. We finally whittled it down to 10 and while DH finished up with the photographers, I ran down to the Spinnaker to get us seats for Second City's Adult Show.

Edited September 2, 2014 by lolavix

[lolavix]

AEckhardt--Glad you are enjoying this review. Tom Moore's Jungle is fun. I would do a search here to read more about it, because I think we missed some with the kids, too. I've seen people refer to a beachy area and we didn't really see that, so I don't think we really walk into the jungle far enough!

[pathubia]

AEckhardt--Glad you are enjoying this review. Tom Moore's Jungle is fun. I would do a search here to read more about it, because I think we missed some with the kids, too. I've seen people refer to a beachy area and we didn't really see that, so I don't think we really walk into the jungle far enough!

 

In all my cruises, I have never heard of Tom Moore's Jungle!! I will have to check it out!

 

Your family is beautiful!! Look at all the kids in the Splash Academy!!!! I think there were 10 (at the most) in May!!

[rimom71]

What a marvelous and helpful review! We are less than an hour drive from Boston and have considered sailing on Dawn, but keep getting drawn to the newer ships. Your review has put her back on my radar however!

 

It looks like you all had a wonderful time. We travel with our 8 year old son and have found cruising to be the ideal family vacation; plenty of activities to interest each of us and ample opportunities for "adult time" as well! :)

[lolavix]

Pathubia--The only reason Tom Moore's Jungle was on my radar at all was due to a review here where the writer visited as part of the "Hidden Gems of Bermuda" tour. The photos were cool, and when I showed DH, I knew he'd want to visit, too...thank you for your kind words. There were a lot of kids on board, but I know my three contributed to the "kid-ness", too. :)

 

Rimom71--The main reason we wound up on the Dawn, once we determined "cruise", was its proximity to home. I loved the convenience of it, but I know that next time, we'll have to travel a bit more since we'd probably do a different cruise first before cruising to Bermuda again...I agree that we really enjoyed the mix of activities available, and while the time in Bermuda was more like our traditional vacation times, I have to say that Wednesday and Thursday were such a change for us. Sign me up for another, please! :D

[pathubia]

I would love to check out Tom Moores Jungle, I read up on it today. Unfortunately, I don't think my bf would like it. I will wait till next year and bring my daughter!!!

 

 

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[lolavix]

I made it to the Spinnaker and it was already packed! I figured it would be, though, because of the popularity of the Second City and based on how crowded it was the previous night when I went to the Marriage Game.

 

I found one chair and grabbed it. Unfortunately, that was all I found, so when DH came, he stood behind me.

 

 

There were still people behind us as well. It was more 'listening' to the show rather than watching them.

 

This was the adults only show. The one in the Stardust Theater two nights earlier was family-friendly. There was a family improv show in the Spinnaker the previous evening, which we missed. But they actually made an announcement for people under 17 to either leave or grow a mustache. ;)

 

There was a lot of audience participation and it was entertaining. I'm always amazed at how quickly people who do improv can respond and keep mostly straight faces.

 

Around 11:15, DH ran back to get our flash drive with the digital photos, and the show ended right around 11:25, giving us enough time to get up to Splash Academy to retrieve the kids.

 

This was the only night we had kept the kids out later than the standard time, and it was well worth the $14 for the three of them. That is cheaper than our babysitter at home.

 

The kids came out with autograph books from the counselors. I took a photo of two that we saw a lot at check in and out.

 

It was a pajama party, and Fetch and Jammin' were sporting theirs. And yes, the staff all have fun nicknames, and that last night we learned theirs...but I won't give them away here.

 

Parents: I know some kids don't like Splash Academy, and some cruises might be different with fewer kids, but my three really enjoyed it. It was funny for us to all be together at dinner and have our kids greeting other kids. It took us a bit to get used to their knowing kids we'd never seen before by name.

 

We got back to our rooms and dragged the suitcases outside, after ensuring that we had what we needed for tomorrow morning. They were picked up pretty soon after midnight. I think the stewards wanted to be done with us, too.

 

Our last towel friend:

The kids had this little mouse...we parents didn't even get one this last night.

 

________________________________________________________

 

I forgot to post this days ago. When we went to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet on Day 2, we received a list of officers. I'll post it here now for completeness.

 

 

If you've read this very long review, I still have Friday morning and debarkation information. It's not over yet!!;)

[pathubia]

I don't want it to end!!

 

 

 

 

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[lolavix]

Pathubia---

I don't want it to end!!

Me, neither! Guess we need another cruise.

[lolavix]

 

Say it ain't so!

 

Just for completeness, I'm including the rest of this pamphlet which we actually received on Day 7.

 

 

I had read a lot about this, and I will say that it was nice to select the time we wanted to leave (since we did have to leave). We wanted to take our time, so we chose lavender, which was scheduled to be the last group, at 10 AM. We knew there was no way we could manage all of our luggage ourselves, since the kids aren't all that helpful.

 

 

 

 

The day we were NOT waiting for had arrived. We awoke and saw how close we were to Boston.

 

 

 

We're getting (too) close!