My extended family is considering a Bermuda cruise for next summer out of New York or New Jersey. Anyone have any insight on favorite cruise line / ship/ best time/place to book from? Haven’t been to Bermuda in over 20 years …excited!! Thanks!!
What is the age range of the family members? Are you likely to need children’s clubs for the sea days?
I went on Norwegian out of NY last June to Bermuda. The nice thing was leaving out of NY and the skyline view, right past the Statue of Liberty and easy for us to get too from Long Island as we took the Long Island Railroad and grabbed a cab from Penn Station. Not big cruisers but wanted to travel on a ship out of NY and wanted to go to Bermuda. The itinerary is good as you land in Bermuda at 8 AM on Wednesday and depart on Friday at 3 so you have 2 plus days to tour Bermuda and that is really all the time you need as the island is not all that big.
The bad thing about Norwegian was that the ship is very large so you needed to pre-plan everything, dinner reservations, etc. The really bad thing was the design of the ship with an open atrium and the location of the casino. As people can smoke in the casino, the smell of smoke pervaded the atrium and for the most part you had to walk through the atrium daily to get to one of the dining rooms or the library or wherever. Plus they used the atrium for group gatherings for games and the noise level was deafening. Not only did the smell of smoke pervade the area, the level above the atrium had a pub open to the atrium and people were able to sit and yell down to the those playing the games. Since the majority of people had unlimited drinking packages there was a lot of drinking and rowdy people.
@“Snowball City” …ages will vary from 12-80…so the kids will need activities. Thanks!
@bookmama22 …thank you for that tip about the smoking. I visited one of the Connecticut casinos once and will never return for same reason. The smell in our “non-smoking” room was unbearable. Do you recall what ship that was? Do all Norweigan have same layout?
Norwegian Breakaway sails to Bermuda. If you rent scooters for a day make sure to leave Dockyard and go to Somerset Long Bay for a swim. The sea turtles there were amazing when we visited family last month in Bermuda.
Celebrity has non smoking casinos. I thought it was a no smoking cruise line but when I tried to google it, it said smoking permitted in some outside places.
Maybe someone can clarify this.
My S has taken a number of cruises with Carnival and I think he said they will have a new ship leaving from NY next year and going to Bermuda. May be worth looking into.
Cruising on Celebrity in a few weeks Will report back!
In my opinion, bigger is not better. Smaller ships with 2,000 people or less are more pleasant than the larger ones, which can have 4,000 plus passengers. Usually the larger ships add many more cabins, without increasing pool and sun deck space by much. Older folks would prefer less walking on the smaller ships as well.
Norwegian is a great choice for all age groups. Disney has its own island, which is a highlight of their cruises.
Phone ate my long reply and the draft.
Look into Azamara. Their ships are smaller, buffet is civilized, tips are included in the fare, wine and beer included yet no one gets drunk, easy boarding and disembarking in ports, etc.
They are starting Bermuda next summer.
Looks like I told a lie. Their offerings were not as extensive as I had hoped.
Should have mentioned www.cruisecritic.com . They have in-depth reviews for pretty much every ship and itinerary you can think of.
We cruised the last week in July on Celebrity Summit from Cape Liberty (fancy name for Bayonne, NJ) to Bermuda. Sunday to Sunday, in port from 8 AM Wednesday through 3 PM Friday. The Norwegian Breakaway was docked next to us in Bermuda.
There didn’t appear to be a huge number of kids on the cruise, but we did see several kids’ programs that looked low-key but fun (preteen girls learning line dances, a group of boys maybe 10-13 making their own pizzas one night and talking about video games). The comedians were fine for all ages. Pools were geared more to adults than kids (no water slides, lots of hut tubs, wave pool, etc).
Food was very good, ship was super clean (it seemed like we were constantly passing a staff member wiping down a bannister or vacuuming a hallway or cleaning windows), and we thought the service was excellent.
Re smoking: the casino was smoke free. The only place that I saw guests smoking was a back corner of the pool deck that had tables and ashtrays. I don’t know how the air circulation system worked, but it was very good. The only time I smelled more than a trace of smoke when walking past that area was the day it rained, and even then it wasn’t bad.
We wanted to travel before the heart of hurricane season, and late July worked well. Weather was ideal (85 degrees, sunny and humid in Bermuda), seas were a bit rough (but I think that’s typical on that route). We’re in the Philadelphia suburbs so Bayonne was great because we didn’t have to drive into Manhattan; the terminal is easy to reach, well staffed, and parking (we used a remote lot with shuttle bus) seemed totally safe.
About 6 years ago I surprised my D with a Bermuda cruise out of NYC right after her finals (she was in desperate need of a break) we sailed out of NYC on the Norwegian Dawn. The ship was great, the trip restful. There wasn’t a ton to do, like on some other itineraries or ships we’ve been on, but for our needs it was super. The biggest disappointment for us with Norwegian cruise line, was their “restaurants” (free-style cruising) - most cost extra $ p/p (not a lot) BUT we didn’t understand that if you wanted to eat at a reasonable hour you needed to reserve far in advance (as in the day you embarked). Frequent Norwegian passengers knew this and the rest of us were left in the dust. So that was a drag. Do a lot of research and I second Cruise Critic for all your specific questions about specific ships.
BTW, Bermuda is beautiful. We found that many passengers go off to the all-inclusive resorts for those few days the ships are docked.
Royal Caribbean also goes out of Bayonne, NJ. Good choice for family groups- lots of activities for kids.
Yes it is the Norwegian Breakaway that departs from the pier in midtown Manhattan to Bermuda. Celebrity is out of Bayonne. There were people with young children, lots of teens and young adults and regular adults on this cruise. As with most cruises there is lots to do if you want to do those activities or not. We had an oversize balcony so that the room was a big bigger. Our balcony came with two lounge chairs and a small table and chairs. The regular balcony rooms only had the table and chairs. The issue with the Breakaway is the overall poor design of the ship. On any other cruise ships that I had been on, Princess, Holland America and Celebrity, the casino was located somewhere else either in the front or back of the ship. There is an enclosed smoking area on the Breakaway right on the pool deck but everytime the glass door slid open the smoke wafted out and it was unfortunately located in front of the toddler wading area. The ship was very large but the pool was the size of a postage stamp, likewise the gym. Impossible to use the gym early in the day before breakfast. The sauna/steam room were not part of the gym. They were part of the spa. In order to use you had to buy a 7 day spa pass, per person. With Norwegian it seemed that things that used to be part of a normal ship were off-limits unless you paid for a “package”. I will say that the ship was very clean. No issues with that.
@happy1 …I think I found it! Wow!! 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2017/02/08/carnival-horizon-bermuda-cruise/97653600/
@LuckyCharms913 …sounds like a great time! Thanks for sharing!
Also look at the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas out of Bayonne, NJ. We went on her sister ship, the Quantum, a few years ago and it was really fun for a big family group. It’s one of the bigger, newer boats. It is sailing to Bermuda now, but we went to the Bahamas.