Cruisin 4th of July to Bermuda

[BorgataBabe]

On Friday I just booked our family vacation, leaving from NYC, 7/1-7/8 going Bermuda on the NCL Escape. I feel like it is hard to compare what you get on a land vacation versus when you cruise especially with kids. I have been doing a lot of research and in the end we booked our 3rd family cruise through NCL.

I did get a good deal through Casinos at Sea on the cabin I am in. They comped me and the 2nd passenger and for an additional $500 for me and 2nd passenger, I have a balcony cabin for 3 people that is costing me less than the other inside cabin for two. It is a great deal especially since the week I am sailing is the highest peak week.

The Escape looks a little different than the Breakaway and Getaway which I have also been on. We are all very excited now that it has been booked, 98 days to go.

I will post pictures once we come back.
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[zeus]

BB, sounds like a fantastic trip! I am sure you will all have a wonderful time.

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[Mauretania]

I want to go to Bermuda! I'm looking forward to the pictures when you return.

[BorgataBabe]

I want to go to Bermuda! I'm looking forward to the pictures when you return.

This is our 2nd time going to Bermuda, it’s a beautiful island, Horseshoe Bay Beach is amazing, will definitely have lots of pictures.


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[Gypsy]

We love the Escape, sailed on her twice, good choice and I highly recommend a spa pass!!

[BorgataBabe]

We love the Escape, sailed on her twice, good choice and I highly recommend a spa pass!!

I was actually thinking of getting the spa pass for my 20 year old daughter. She loves all of that, we’ll be with our boys in the daytime and wouldn’t be able to use it much.


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[clemi]

BorgataBabe what a wonderful cruise vacation you have planned. I enjoyed Bermuda when I visited there many years ago, always wanted to go back. Congratulations on your plans!

[Elf70]

It sounds like an awesome trip. I have great memories of cruising with my boys when they were teens. So much for everyone to do. What a great family vacation you’ll have.

[BorgataBabe]

It sounds like an awesome trip. I have great memories of cruising with my boys when they were teens. So much for everyone to do. What a great family vacation you’ll have.

Thanks, I agree, there is a lot for all of my kids age groups to keep them all entertained.


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[Nhcris]

That is going to be such a great cruise! Awesome choices on ship and itinerary!

I'll be looking forward to your report and will live vicariously through you :)

[Stephiede11]

Awesome plans, can't wait for you write up when you get back.

[BorgataBabe]

It’s the night before we embark, getting everyone packed and getting ready to bring our furbaby to the dog sitter tonight. We are all sad that we have to leave her but I can’t let my dog stop me from taking vacations.

I will try to post pictures before we leave NY tomorrow and I’ll see if I can get WiFi in Bermuda but I won’t make promises.

Looking forward to lots of relaxation and hoping not to think about work much, I had a terrible dream about the office last night, my brain won’t let that place leave me alone.

Looking forward to the mojito bar and The District Brew House, which everyone always gives good reviews on. Also excited to have my first balcony room on a cruise, this is our 6th cruise.

Hoping not to go too crazy in the casino since I don’t plan to cruise again too soon but I know it will be hard to control my urge not to gamble at night.

I will definitely do a TR once I am back home next Sunday.


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[Elf70]

Have a fabulous time! Hope you can relax and forget work for awhile. Safe travels.

[Jen Jen]

Have a wonderful family cruise! If you hit the casino good luck!

[zeus]

BB, I hope you guys have a fabulous time on your cruise! Get some good pics to share in your TR. And what the hell are you doing still thinking about work for? Drink heavily. It causes me to forget shitty things and people.

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[Nhcris]

Bon Voyage Borgatababe!! You are going to love having balcony. Have a wonderful time and please do relax!

Looking forward to hearing all about it!!

[Gypsy]

Bon Voyage! I highly recommend Howl at the Moon, it’s dueling pianos and we had so much fun. You can come and go as you please, but I actually spent more time in there then the casino last cruise!

[Gypsy]

Bon Voyage! I highly recommend Howl at the Moon, it’s dueling pianos and we had so much fun. You can come and go as you please, but I actually spent more time in there then the casino last cruise!

[sondor]

Have a great time

[BorgataBabe]

Bon Voyage! I highly recommend Howl at the Moon, it’s dueling pianos and we had so much fun. You can come and go as you please, but I actually spent more time in there then the casino last cruise!
Gypsy, thanks, I definitely want to go there, hope I do like it so much that I pass on the casino.


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[Nhcris]

@Gypsy (https://jokerswildforum.com/member.php?u=65), thanks, I definitely want to go there, hope I do like it so much that I pass on the casino.


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YES! Howling at the Moon is so much fun I think you two will love it!

[Laurie]

Have a relaxing vacation!


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[LowAndSlow]

Have a wonderful time. Bermuda is on my bucket list. Have only heard great things about it.

[CTslotters]

Have an amazing trip! You will love the balcony, after our first balcony cruise we decided we can't not have one on future cruises!

[clemi]

Have a wonderful cruise BorgataBabe!

[Luckylinda123]

Enjoy your cruise just forget about work for awhile

[Pat]

Sounds like a great trip with the family. Looking forward to seeing the pictures when you get back. Bon Voyage

[Penguin]

You all have a great time.

[BorgataBabe]

Having drinks, will take some more pics and post after I’m done my Long Island Iced Tea.
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[Mimi]

Have a blast you guys!!! Perfect time to getaway, it's hotter than hell!!!

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[RiverSong]

Wishing you and your family a wonderful cruise....bon voyage

[foamy]

Have fun and stay out of the triangle


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[Hoofy7]

Have a great trip!

[Reen]

Have a wonderful time and good luck at the casino!! My brother, sister in law and nephews are on the same cruise! They are with a big group of friends! Wish I were on the cruise also.

[BorgataBabe]

Have a wonderful time and good luck at the casino!! My brother, sister in law and nephews are on the same cruise! They are with a big group of friends! Wish I were on the cruise also.

How funny, we could have slotted together every night if you were on there.


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[Reen]

How funny, we could have slotted together every night if you were on there.


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Hope to see you soon in AC! Enjoy your summer, and get some rest today!

[BorgataBabe]

So once we left port last Sunday I lost connection pretty quick. We had an awesome time, although I will admit that my middle child soon to be 16 next week drove us a little crazy. I guess it’s just a phase and he had no one to hang out with since he would not check out the teen club.

Anyway, it only put a very slight damper on my trip. I love, love, love Bermuda and would consider a Bermuda cruise every other year.

The weather was beautiful every day except for yesterday, it rained most of the day and the water was a little choppy. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the size of the ship but we never felt like it was too big.

We enjoyed both complimentary shows, For the Record (it was like 6 John Hughes movies wrapped up into one show) and After Midnight (this was a Cotton Club themed show). Then last night they had a magician, Matt Johnson who was really good. We did go to Howl at the Moon (the dueling piano players) and that was fun too.

Our favorite drink this cruise was the Brugal Ginger mojito at the Sugarcane Mojito Bar, I discovered this drink on day 2 and drank many everyday.

For me the casino was not nice most of the trip, then last evening I made a comeback and I am now coming home with 2/3 of my BR. I was almost broke yesterday.

I am just going to post a bunch of pictures with Casino hits in between. If anyone has any questions specifically about this ship please let me know.

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Sailing under the Verrazano Bridge.
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Slow rolling after losing early on and of course that’s when I get a 200x bonus.
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My daughter at Horseshoe Bay Beach.
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I think Horseshoe Bay Beach is beautiful, I love all of the little caves and rocky formations along the beach walking to Warwick Long Bay Beach.
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If you zoom in at the middle of this picture, you will see the crab that blended right in with the rocks.
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[foamy]

What a trip very nice.


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[BorgataBabe]

Part 2 of the photo dump...

View of our ship from the ferry we took to Hamilton on Wednesday night.
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It is nice to dream...
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Gombey Dancers at the street festival in Hamilton.
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Not the best picture but the only one I took of our balcony room.
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Decent win but still a loss this day.
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View of one of the slides from the bottom of the ship, it is clear and really awesome when you go through this slide.
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[zeus]

BB, glad you guys had a nice family vacay! All of the pics are fun to see. And nice going recouping your losses to bring home the majority of your BR. I believe you and Jimmy need to drop the kids off at the house and head to AC for an overnight getaway. [emoji3] Thanks for sharing!

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[BorgataBabe]

Part 3 of the photo dump...

We spent our 2nd day in Bermuda at Clearwater Beach which is in St. David’s, close to St. George’s. NCL has a free water ferry to St. George’s from Dockyard but it took an hour on the ferry. We actually took a cab back which still took an hour but we didn’t feel like waiting for the last ferry.
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This hydra bike we rented was a lot of fun.
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[BorgataBabe]

I’ll finish a little later, we have to pick up the pup[emoji190]❤️


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[Laurie]

Great pictures!! Glad you had a fun getaway :)


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[Elf70]

Wonderful pictures. Glad you had an awesome cruise.

[Jen Jen]

Glad you had a lovely cruise! Looking forward to more pics.

[clemi]

Great to hear you had a wonderful cruise BorgataBabe!

[DK528]

Beautiful photos! I'm glad you got away from the stress of work and had a great trip.

In the photo you posted of Manhattan, you can see my apartment building :) Always get a kick out of that.


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[Curlyd]

Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful pictures. Glad you had a good time. I consider it a win coming home with any B/R.

[Nhcris]

Beautiful pictures!! You make me want to go back. Right now! Looking forward to more.

[irisheyes]

Really enjoing your pictures! Have never been on a cruise and love seeing what it is all about! Heard that the Escape is a really nice ship.

[BorgataBabe]

Photo dump 4...

Got the puppy, went food shopping, starting the wash and just had dinner with my MIL. By the way, my hubby mentions to her that the kids were each tough at times and says we could really use an alone vacation and she said sure, go away. So it looks like we will be booking Vegas the first week in October!

Last day in Bermuda we stayed at Dockyard because we had to be back on the ship by 2 pm. We went to Snorkel Beach, it is a manmade beach but it does the trick for a half day.

The two older kids stayed on the ship and slept and we just took our little guy and me and him went kayaking, it was a fun last day.
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Bye bye Bermuda...
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On Saturday afternoon it was raining and I went to the casino early, I started losing again and only had $200 of my BR left and figured what the hell, I’ll bet $5.28 on 88 Fortunes and hope to get a good hit. We’ll luck went my way, I got a bonus and had a $480 line hit, bonus ended at $520.
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From here I got a few more good hits and I ended up coming home with 2/3 of my BR. I was so happy and ran out of that casino before I lost my money back. We really only went to the casino for 1.5-2 hours a night and I gave myself a $200 a day BR. Seems like NCL changed their tier points system and now you have to earn 5,000 tier to get to the next level. That is way to hard for me to earn in one trip where I am not spending 5+ hours a day in the casino.

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Pulling back into to dock at NYC this morning.
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Well Dorothy, we aren’t in Bermuda anymore, look at that water!
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[BorgataBabe]

BB, glad you guys had a nice family vacay! All of the pics are fun to see. And nice going recouping your losses to bring home the majority of your BR. I believe you and Jimmy need to drop the kids off at the house and head to AC for an overnight getaway. [emoji3] Thanks for sharing!

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My husband already worked his mom today and we are going back to Vegas in October, hold the kidney stone!


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[BorgataBabe]

Beautiful photos! I'm glad you got away from the stress of work and had a great trip.

In the photo you posted of Manhattan, you can see my apartment building :) Always get a kick out of that.


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It was nice being away from work, I definitely did some soul searching this trip. I’ll see how this next week back from vacation goes and will play things out from there.

Also realized I put on enough weight in the past year eating my way through stress that I got tired easily this trip. Need to not only begin eating well again but need to exercise too and start doing something about my stress level. No job is worth the amount of stress I have been under.

I love NYC, my husband and kids know if I could afford to live in a house in the City, I would be there tomorrow!


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[BorgataBabe]

Really enjoing your pictures! Have never been on a cruise and love seeing what it is all about! Heard that the Escape is a really nice ship.

I hear a lot of bad reviews from some cruise travelers, saying the ship is too big and they have to wait too long for the elevators. I can say there are a lot of people so you have to claim your pool chairs early in the morning but we had no complaints, I loved the ship.


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[michelelovesvegas]

What a nice get away, comeback in the casino and Vegas to look forward to! Traveling with 3 teenagers is tough! I did many trips with mine (4 of them!) by myself and at least one if not two or maybe all, would really try me. Now, they talk about the trips as the best times of their life, go figure.

I hope you can figure out away to reduce the stress. Life is too short and finding a balance goes far for your health and sanity.

[BorgataBabe]

What a nice get away, comeback in the casino and Vegas to look forward to! Traveling with 3 teenagers is tough! I did many trips with mine (4 of them!) by myself and at least one if not two or maybe all, would really try me. Now, they talk about the trips as the best times of their life, go figure.

I hope you can figure out away to reduce the stress. Life is too short and finding a balance goes far for your health and sanity.

I hope they look back one day and cherish these trips we have went on.

You are so right about life being too short, I have definitely been thinking about a lot of things lately.


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[DK528]

It was nice being away from work, I definitely did some soul searching this trip. I’ll see how this next week back from vacation goes and will play things out from there.

Also realized I put on enough weight in the past year eating my way through stress that I got tired easily this trip. Need to not only begin eating well again but need to exercise too and start doing something about my stress level. No job is worth the amount of stress I have been under.

I love NYC, my husband and kids know if I could afford to live in a house in the City, I would be there tomorrow!


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I'm sorry this past year has been so stressful for you,BB. I know stress eating all too well.

Good luck with trying to set better boundaries at work. I know I'm terrible with it :(


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[Mary9915]

Thanks for the pictures and the cruise trip report BB. It looked like a wonderful vacation!

[Laurie]

So cool you and Jimmy are going to have a Vegas trip soon!

[BorgataBabe]

Btw, for all of the Real Housewives fans, Gia Guidice was on the ship, seemed to be with a friend’s family. Very cute and my daughter talked to her on the elevator once.


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