Why a Cruise to Bermuda?
I would have to say that this cruise to Bermuda is really what inspired me to start to travel more, and to start to document my many adventures.
We love spending time near the water, whether it’s at the beach, river, or lake, and in 2022 we had promised my then 17-year-old son a trip to visit turquoise waters when he was a senior in high school. I remember giving him a travel guide for the Caribbean for Christmas and asking him to do some research and pick an island he’d like to visit. The hope was to take a trip during the summer after he graduated. He had never seen clear water, and my wife and I wanted him to experience it. I mean, when we go to the beach here in New England, if we’re standing in chest deep water, we can barely see our feet. I myself had only seen it once before, 25 years ago, on our honeymoon when we rented a villa in St. John USVI for 2 weeks. That was an AMAZING trip and was very eye-opening for me. I loved the small, empty beaches where the palm trees that overhung the water reminded me of being in a Gilligan’s Island episode. Crystal clear waters where you could snorkel in thirty feet of water and still see the bottom like you were in a swimming pool was a completely foreign concept to me. …and the coral and fish! It was like swimming in a saltwater reef tank. I’m sure I’ll talk about that trip at some point very soon too.
I’m pretty sure that book never left his bookshelf. We waited and waited for him to let us know what he wanted to do, but being the proud kid that he is, he didn’t want to impose on us. I really think he didn’t want us to spend the money on a trip. We looked at it as a family trip where the three of us could go. Kinda like us providing our family with one last big hurrah before he started life on his own.
Fast forward a year since he received the Caribbean travel guide. He had graduated high school and wrapped up his first semester in college. Christmas had come and gone, and we still hadn’t given him the trip we had promised.
Before I met my wife, growing up she had taken several cruises as a child to the Bahamas and she had been trying for a while to convince me to go on one. I guess I had this pre-conceived notion that cruises weren’t for me. I must admit, though, I really didn’t have much to go on. When we were on our honeymoon to St. John, one day we took a ferry over to St. Thomas to explore that island. The ferry dropped us off in Charlotte Amalie and it was like a culture shock. We went from this unspoiled paradise to what was in comparison a bustling metropolis. The main drag, Waterfront Highway, was dominated by tourists from the local cruise ships that were docked nearby and the tourist trap shops that cater to them.
Because of this, I had this idea that cruises just dumped thousands of people off into a busy port for only a portion of a day. By the time that you disembark, get to the one spot that you’d like to spend time, you pretty much have to turn around and head back. It left virtually no time to explore. Many years later, we visited Acadia National Park, and I found that Bar Harbor was the same, except it was a tender port. This meant that the ship couldn’t dock and anybody who wanted to leave the ship to explore needed to wait in a huge, long line to be herded off like cattle to the shore. This just reinforced my belief that a cruise wasn’t for me. I personally would much rather spend a week or two in a particular location, completely absorbing myself in the culture. Whenever I explored a new location, I envisioned myself being an Anthony Bourdain type person who had the time to go completely off-the-beaten-path and explore what truly makes a place tick. Get to know the places, the people, the food, and the culture. It didn’t seem that a cruise was able to check off any of those boxes. …or so I thought.
Since my son didn’t choose a spot to visit, we decided that it may be a good idea to try and see as many spots as possible. This is where I finally was becoming more sold on a cruise. I really wanted an Eastern Caribbean cruise, because I really liked the Virgin Islands and figured it would be a good idea to head back that way. I was also looking at Western Caribbean itineraries. Belize and Roatan seemed like pretty cool places to visit. Many cruises I looked at stopped off at some cruise-owned resort in Jamaica. That didn’t interest me because, like other all-inclusive places, one can’t really venture off and explore due to both safety and a lack of time.
I’m not really sure why, but I never really had any desire to visit Bermuda. I can only think that maybe showing my son turquoise waters meant, in my mind anyway, the Caribbean.
Again, living in New England and pricing out cruises, most of them required the addition of airfare to either Galveston, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Port Canaveral. I started doing research on cruise lines, ships, and itineraries. I really liked Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas out of Galveston. Everything I was reading was telling me to arrive in port the day before departure at the latest. With limited vacation time from work, this was going to be a problem unless we took a 5-day or less cruise. So, I started looking a little closer to home. Most of the cruises that head to the Eastern Caribbean from the northeast are in the 9-12 day area, and again, this was not possible due to work.
But hey, there are plenty of 7-day New England-based cruises to Bermuda. Maybe I should take a look?
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