Bermuda and New York City on the Magic - September 2019

fredandkell

I'd rather be cruising
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
Myself, my husband, and our two kids, ages 12 and 9, took the 5-night Bermuda cruise departing from NYC. We booked our Bermuda trip while on the Med sailing last summer, so we waited 14 months to go. While shopping for airfare to NYC over several months, I noticed the price was high and it continued to rise – turns out, we would be in NYC the week of the UN Assembly.

Days 1-3: New York City

Central Park and Times Square

We flew to Newark and took a taxi to our first night hotel, free on points, the Residence Inn Weehawken Port Imperial across the Hudson in New Jersey. The hotel was great – new, directly by the ferry terminal, a true 2-room suite, and free breakfast. We took the ferry across ($33); it drops you just south of the USS Intrepid. The kids really enjoyed the ferry and approaching NYC this way. The ferry company has a free bus system that you can take from the terminal to various places in midtown. We rode the bus to 57th and 5th, ate an early dinner/late lunch in the Plaza Food Hall, then went to Central Park, where we did a horse and carriage ride ($55) and walked around. We wanted to rent a rowboat at the Loeb Boathouse but being a Sunday the line was crazy long so we skipped it. We took the subway to Times Square to let the kids have a brief look at it, then taxied back to the ferry and the hotel.

Highline and Tenement Museum

The next day, we took our luggage on the ferry and rode the ferry bus to our second hotel, the Best Western Hospitality House. This being Monday morning, and the start of the UN Assembly, the traffic was INSANE. Many streets were blocked off. Our hotel was at 49th and Lex, but the bus had to drop us off at Rockefeller Center due to road closures. After dropping off our luggage, we rode the subway to Hudson Yards and did part of the Highline. We were underwhelmed by it, honestly, and it was very hot (over 90 degrees) so we abandoned ship early and took a taxi to the Chelsea Market for lunch. We then took the subway to the Tenement Museum, where we did the Sweatshop Workers tour. We had read “One of a Kind Family” to the kids (about a turn-of-the-century Jewish family who lived on the lower East Side) and they have studied Ellis Island at school. My husband and I really enjoyed the tour. The kids liked it, but I do think it was a bit subtle for their tastes. We went back to the hotel and checked into our room. It was FABULOUS. Also booked on points, it was a STEAL. It was a penthouse suite with living room, dining area, kitchen, separate bedroom, and a huge balcony. They had stocked it with free snacks for us. This is my new go-to NYC hotel!! Perfection!

Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, 9/11 Memorial

The next day, we subwayed down to Battery Park and boarded the ferry for the Statue of Liberty. We had bought crown tickets months in advance, so we were able to take the 169 stairs to the inside of the crown—this was really cool. We then went to Ellis Island, which has dramatically changed since I was last there in 1999. There are very few artifacts there now and it’s very reliant on the audio tour, so it too was a bit subtle for the kids, but I do think it helped cement the immigration story in their minds. After disembarking, we took a taxi to the 9/11 memorial site. My son had been saying he wanted to go to the top of the new World Trade Center, but after seeing how tall it was in person he chickened out.

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These are the stairs you climb to get to the crown! A workout! :)

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Ellis Island arrival hall

Days 4-9: Disney Cruise

Empire State Building and Embarkation

The morning of the cruise, we got up early and took the subway to the Empire State Building. I had heard that getting there when it opens is the best way to beat the lines. We got there at 8:30 (it opens at 8) and the lines were no problem. By the time we had left around 9:30, the lines were significantly longer, so the early bird definitely gets the worm! We really enjoyed the Empire State Building and were able to see the Magic from the observatory. I have heard that Top of the Rock and One World Trade Center both are better, but having been to neither, I can’t compare them to Empire State, but the whole family really liked the Empire experience.

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View of the Magic from the top of the Empire State Building

We took a taxi from our hotel to the port. Our PAT was 11:30. We got there right at 11:30 and boarded the ship by noon. It was very quick and painless. We ate at Cabanas and went to our rooms, 1050 and 1052, connecting oceanview staterooms on deck 1. We had stayed in 1051/1053 last year on the Mediterranean and decided to try across the hall. We did like the portholes, but the oceanview rooms are more noisy – I could hear people walking above me in 1050, a child crying next to me in 1050, and most annoying, a metallic dragging sound that occurred below me several times per night. 1052 seemed moderately quieter than 1050, but we prefer 1051/1053 for the quiet factor despite their lack of portholes. I also like the inside rooms’ layout better, with the bed at the back instead of the front of the room.

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The view out one of our portholes of NYC as we were leaving

We left shortly after the 4pm muster drill. It was cool sailing past the Statue of Liberty. Our dinner started before we went under the big bridge (the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, I believe) so we didn’t see that. Our dining rotation was ARRLA. The did the show in Animator’s Palate, culminating with Sorcerer Mickey’s arrival, despite it being only a 5-night cruise. This was our first time in the classic ship’s Animator’s Palate, since we went to Cabanas that night on last year’s Med cruise. We liked AP on the classic ship much better than AP on the Dream—less ADD/loud/overstimulating, IMHO. We saw the live Rapunzel show in the theater, which was still very good and the same as the Med cruise.

Day at Sea/Halloween Day

The next day was a sea day. The seas were calm most of the cruise—we did have moderate movement the first and last night while we were in bed, but during the day, it was super smooth—no complaints here, even though there were tropical storms in various places in the Atlantic and Caribbean. The weather was also lovely for the entire cruise. It was a tiny bit chilly leaving NYC but overall very warm and conducive to being on deck. Unfortunately for me, I had woken up in the night with a sore throat which I believe was allergies, so I spent the day moping around and taking vitamin C, etc. The husband took the kids to do things around the ship. This day was the Halloween day, so the kids dressed up in their costumes for dinner. My husband and I did not bring Halloween costumes and we were in the VERY minority – almost all the other adults dressed up, so for those asking if adults dress up – the answer is a resounding YES!! That night was the Rapunzel dinner show, which is so cute—I hated that I felt so bad during dinner, as last time I did the dance with the kids, threw “insults” at the ruffians, etc. This time I just muscled through it and went to bed. My husband took the kids to the trick-or-treating afterwards, which all 3 of them felt was too loud and overstimulating. When I booked the cruise, it was not yet declared a Halloween on the High Seas sailing; that was added later. Personally I don’t think Halloween adds much to the cruise; the kids don’t need more candy! The pumpkin tree in the atrium was cool, but overall I didn’t care about the HOTHS aspect.

Horseshoe Bay/Dolphin Quest

The next day we arrived in Bermuda. Thankfully I rallied and felt back to 80% or so. We took the $7 shuttle to Horseshoe Bay, very easy to find. The drivers (and everywhere else on the island) take US dollars. Horseshoe Bay was GORGEOUS. It may have been the prettiest beach I have ever seen, including places like Hawaii, Jamaica, etc. To the right there was a small cove, good for little kids and snorkeling. Definitely bring water shoes as this permits you to do some walking and exploring over coral/rocks. To the left, it was simply spectacular. Please do not just stay in the middle of Horseshoe Bay – walk to the left! Around every corner was cool rock formations, pools, ocean “waterfalls” caused by rock placements, etc. The pink sand is very subtle but very cool, when you pick up a handful you can really see the pink. They have a very mediocre restaurant there (fried junk/hamburgers) and semi-reasonable chair/umbrella rentals. We really wished we could have stayed longer, but we had a 3:30 Dolphin Quest appointment that we had to make it back for. We took the shuttle back, then walked to Dolphin Quest, which is very close to the ship. I had booked our Dolphin Encounter online directly with the company, which saved me $40/pp as compared to Disney (for the exact same thing). I also saw on the website that they have a 10% discount for AAA members, but I was unable to claim it during the online booking process. I did put a note saying that I was a AAA member, so when I arrived, they asked me to see my card, then refunded me $79 on the spot, so I ended up saving $69/per person by booking direct, with AAA, as compared to booking via Disney. It was super fun and lasted 45 minutes. There were only 4 people in our group and we got lots of individual time with the dolphins. The kids loved it. We walked back to the ship and had Rapunzel’s again that night, minus the dinner show. My daughter and I went to Twice Charmed, which I had not seen before. It was cute with some neat special effects. It was our least favorite of the 3 shows, which is not to say it was bad, just that if I had to rank them, it would be my least favorite. Definitely worth seeing at least once, though! While we were at the show, my husband and son went fishing off the pier. The Disney side of the pier did not allow fishing but the other side (where Royal Caribbean was docked) did. They caught 19 fish in an hour! When re-boarding the boat, Disney confiscated his fishing pole, ha! We didn’t realize you couldn’t bring one on board. He had a collapsible fishing pole that they had missed the first 2 times through the X-ray machine but saw this time around. We picked it up again on disembarkation day.

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Horseshoe Bay (quality of pic diminished b/c phone was in waterproof case--photos do NOT do it justice)

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Dolphin Quest

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Fishing off the pier

Boat Rental/Snorkeling/Fishing

The next day, we took a taxi to H20 Water Sports to rent a small boat. They had a special where if you pick up the boat by 8:30, you get a free hour and also 2 free snorkel sets. Since we had our own snorkel gear, we got 2 free fishing poles instead. The guy renting the boat was pretty vague on directions, and we thought we were heading to the shipwreck HMS Vixen, when in reality we went much further and ended up back to Horseshoe Bay, which is well outside the “allowed” zone to rent the boat. Oops! Since we had been there the day before, we recognized our mistake, turned around, and went back. We found the shipwreck (finally), fed the fish bread (very cool, there are thousands of them that just follow the boat), and then saw a Disney excursion of snorkeling. We pulled in the same cove that Disney was using and snorkeled and fished about 50 yards away. The water was gorgeous and the kids loved it. We dropped off the boat and again had a bit of a snafu – H20 Watersports is located in a cove, around a corner, and you CANNOT see it from the water until you are right on top of it. Thankfully my 9-year old recognized a “pirate” ship he had noticed on the way out and helped us find the place to drop off the boat. So while we had a great day, if you do rent your own boat from H20, realize that a) the shipwreck is very close to the rental facility and at high tide looks like a brown rock, NOT a sunken ship (which is why we missed it the first time), and b) LOOK AROUND YOU extensively as you leave for landmarks, boats, etc. so you can recognize where to drop off on the way back. We paid $205 for 5 hours of the boat and spent $57 on fuel. Disney charged $145/pp for a 2-hour snorkeling excursion, so this is a significant savings, but you do have to navigate on your own, which is manageable but was a tad stressful at times. H20 called a taxi for us and we boarded the ship. That night was Pirate Night, and all 4 of us dressed up. The kids and I finally made it to Pirate Night (on our 4th DCL cruise!) – we just are not night owls. We all thought it was just OK—too many songs and dances in the lead-up to the fireworks. We all agreed that seeing it once was enough.

Day at Sea/Disembarkation

The next day was a day at sea. I finally worked up the nerve to try the Aqua Dunk this time (I think my 9-year old rode it 40 times, haha!). It was fun-slash-terrifying at the same time. I saw the live action Lion King (amazing) and the live action Aladdin (OK, I prefer the cartoon) in the movie theater. We saw Disney Dreams that night in the theater, and it was really cute—we esp. liked the “Under the Sea” musical number.

Disembarkation the next day was very easy—we always do the express walk-off with our own luggage. Customs took 2 minutes. We walked across the street, where there was a line of taxis, and took a taxi to JFK, which only took 35 minutes (the driver said that NEVER happens) with plenty of time to spare for our 11:55am flight home. Overall it was a great cruise, and I would highly recommend Bermuda. I would love to go back there for a land-based/resort vacation. The island is very laid-back, elegant, noncommercial, and unspoiled—it felt very different than say, Nassau.
 
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Glad you enjoyed your cruise. I will do this cruise someday, I need to see Bermuda!
We were getting off after our cruise and had to deal with the UN traffic.
A taxi driver asked us if we knew about the UN meetings when we decided to go to NYC, we were like no, we just got off a cruise and had no idea. He said yeah its a week of nightmare traffic.
 
I worked in Manhattan for 11 years and live in NJ/NY my whole life, I have never been to Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island or Empire State Building. It’s funny that when it’s right there we don’t take advantage of these iconic landmarks.
I am glad you took advantage of your time in NYC.

Horseshoe Bay is beautiful and I am glad you found the coves. DH and me love taking a walk in that directions. We rent chairs and sat on the main beach. We did eat at the restaurant and had the blackened fish sandwiches, which were pretty good. I like the fact that Horseshoe Bay has everything you need, rentals, bathrooms and food (and a bar).

Bermuda is one beautiful island.
 
Bermuda is a British Crown Colony, so you get that sophisticated but laid back vibe.

The Cayman Islands also have that British connection and with the huge banking industry make it also very nice, clean and laid back.

Both islands do not have the poverty you see in some Caribbean island and I know Bermuda is not in the Caribbean. Lol
 


Thanks for taking the time to write the report - there are so few posted about the Bermuda cruise. We have this cruise booked for October next year but my DH is on the fence a bit for a couple of reasons: We thought we could extend the holiday by adding on 4 days in New York but my husband is not really sure he will be able to cope with the craziness. We also prefer port days over sea days so not sure if the time we have in Bermuda will be enough. It will be however the only way we will ever be able to afford to go to Bermuda ( we are from the UK and prices for flights and land based accommodation are horrendous!) and it does look so pretty. Also like you, we are not fussed in any way about HOHS. I especially loved your report on the NYC portion of the trip. We always spend a week somewhere before or after our cruises and that can add just as much to the memories as the cruise. Was that part of your trip really hectic or could you find some quiet spots somewhere? I went to NYC about 25 years ago when I backpacked the East Coast and I can remember it was a bit of an assault on the senses!

Hopefully your trip report will help me to persuade DH to do the cruise and we will get to experience Horseshoe Baytown. Your photos were stunning.
 
Thanks for taking the time to write the report - there are so few posted about the Bermuda cruise. We have this cruise booked for October next year but my DH is on the fence a bit for a couple of reasons: We thought we could extend the holiday by adding on 4 days in New York but my husband is not really sure he will be able to cope with the craziness. We also prefer port days over sea days so not sure if the time we have in Bermuda will be enough. It will be however the only way we will ever be able to afford to go to Bermuda ( we are from the UK and prices for flights and land based accommodation are horrendous!) and it does look so pretty. Also like you, we are not fussed in any way about HOHS. I especially loved your report on the NYC portion of the trip. We always spend a week somewhere before or after our cruises and that can add just as much to the memories as the cruise. Was that part of your trip really hectic or could you find some quiet spots somewhere? I went to NYC about 25 years ago when I backpacked the East Coast and I can remember it was a bit of an assault on the senses!

Hopefully your trip report will help me to persuade DH to do the cruise and we will get to experience Horseshoe Baytown. Your photos were stunning.
New York is definitely hectic and busy but that’s part of its charm/identity. My kids really liked it (it was their first time visiting). If you want to stay somewhere less crazy consider downtown Manhattan/financial district or Lower East Side. Avoid staying in Times Square. I do recommend staying on the Manhattan Island somewhere just for the sake of transportation and easy popping back to your room for rest. Alternately, you could stay somewhere like Brooklyn and focus your whole trip in that borough (eg Prospect Park, Coney Island, aquarium).

I wish we had one more day in Bermuda but you do what you can. To be honest, we definitely could have leveraged our first day there much more. If it had just been my husband and myself we would’ve gone back out after dinner so we really could’ve seen more of the island especially if we weren’t trying to get back in time for the early dining or the dolphin experience. I do think two adults could definitely do a lot more in the two days than our family of four.
 
I wish we had one more day in Bermuda but you do what you can. To be honest, we definitely could have leveraged our first day there much more. If it had just been my husband and myself we would’ve gone back out after dinner so we really could’ve seen more of the island especially if we weren’t trying to get back in time for the early dining or the dolphin experience. I do think two adults could definitely do a lot more in the two days than our family of four.

I had the impression from my research (which I admit was limited as I didnt think we were going out in the evenings since we had two young ones with us anyway) there there wasnt much to do in Bermuda past 5 pm other than restaurants and bars. I know there were the after dark boat tours as well. Did you find other things that would have been open?
 


I had the impression from my research (which I admit was limited as I didnt think we were going out in the evenings since we had two young ones with us anyway) there there wasnt much to do in Bermuda past 5 pm other than restaurants and bars. I know there were the after dark boat tours as well. Did you find other things that would have been open?
I didn’t research any so I don’t know, sorry!
 
Just read your fantastic report, after booking a last minute cruise for Bermuda this Oct. We live an hour from NYC, no flights involved
Looking forward to Horseshoe Bay, Hamilton and relaxing. We will also not be dressings up for Halloween!
Do you recall the cruise director and club host?
 
Just read your fantastic report, after booking a last minute cruise for Bermuda this Oct. We live an hour from NYC, no flights involved
Looking forward to Horseshoe Bay, Hamilton and relaxing. We will also not be dressings up for Halloween!
Do you recall the cruise director and club host?
Cruise director was Trent. Not sure about "club host," as honestly, I don't know what that position is? Is it like a nightclub thing? (If so, we are in bed usually by 10pm every night, haha!).
 
Cruise director was Trent. Not sure about "club host," as honestly, I don't know what that position is? Is it like a nightclub thing? (If so, we are in bed usually by 10pm every night, haha!).
adult entertainment at night, sometimes trivia, usually on deck at sail-away-party, etc
 
We were on the Magic British Isles Cruise this past September and were fortunate to have "Tony from Spain" as the host of many of the evening adult entertainment activities, he was a lot of fun!!
 
Just read your fantastic report, after booking a last minute cruise for Bermuda this Oct. We live an hour from NYC, no flights involved
Looking forward to Horseshoe Bay, Hamilton and relaxing. We will also not be dressings up for Halloween!
Do you recall the cruise director and club host?

I was also on this cruise and it was indeed “Tony from Spain”.
 
Just debarked the Magic today after a wonderful, but too quick, cruise to Bermuda. Lee is the new cruise director onboard and he is fantastic. #tonyfromspain is still on board as well. Jonathan, formerly the staff captain, is now Captain of the Disney Magic.
 
What is Express walk off & how do you sign up for it?
No signing up. Just dont put your luggage out the night before debarkation, get up and have an early breakfast in Cabanas (or no breakfast if you arent a breakfast person), stop back by your room to grab your bags and go to the assigned lounge to wait for the announcement. You need to be able to handle all of your luggage through the entire process. So if you grossly overpack or are not fit, express walk off may not be right for you.
 

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