THE ROYAL NAVAL DOCKYARD BERMUDA
Greetings from the Royal Naval Dockyard Bermuda.
Located in the Atlantic Ocean just 650 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C., Bermuda has the distinction of being the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. It’s only a 2 hour flight from New York City & Washington, D.C., 2 1/2 hours by plane from Orlando, Florida; and about 7 hours from London. But it took our cruise ship a leisurely 3 days to get there from New York.
Our cruise ship, NCL’s Breakaway, sailed into the Royal Naval Dockyards on the western tip of Bermuda…
where she tied up nose-to-nose with the Celebrity Cruise ship, Summit.
The Summit had been on our tail ever since we departed New York Harbor 3 days prior.
While the Royal Naval Dockyard is at the farthest end of the island, it houses businesses that provide every form of transportation, making exploration of the island by land or by sea very easy and accessible.
Steps from the ship you find tour companies, taxis, ferry boats, scooter & Segway rentals, bus tour companies and water sports vendors. So, it’s not really necessary to purchase shore excursions on the ship, which are guaranteed to be more expensive than those you book on your own. Since the ship stays in port for 3 days you also don’t have to worry about the ship leaving without you if your tour returns later than scheduled, except of course on the last day when it might be prudent to buy a shore excursion from the cruise line. That’s because if a ship-sanctioned shore excursion returns late, they hold up the departure of the ship until everyone is aboard. That is not the case if you are off on your own.
Its location in the warm gulf-stream waters and the many shipwrecks off its coast make Bermuda a must-do for scuba divers and snorkelers. The Dockyard Watersports Centre makes it easy to book those types of adventures.
But NCL was offering a bonus at the time of our cruise booking, a credit of $75.00 a day toward ship sponsored shore excursions. So our son took advantage of that and booked a jet ski tour…
a catamaran sail & snorkel…
and a day at the Dockyard’s Snorkel Park Beach that included the use of paddleboards & kayaks. While the $75.00 credit was nice, it didn’t come close to covering the cost of these excursions, which were considerably more expensive.
The Dockyard is actually quite a happening place, with shopping, restaurants, bars & nightclubs just a stroll away. I read that the Bone Fish Bar and Grill was good, but with all the food and restaurants we could handle awaiting us onboard, we didn’t try any of the dockside food establishments.
This nearby replica of a pirate ship had been converted into a restaurant, bar and swim park.
I loved the historical nature of the Dockyard. The National Museum of Bermuda is housed in the original fort that protected the dockyard. Sadly, it was closed for restoration at the time of our visit. But thanks to an imaginative redevelopment program, many of the historic old naval buildings have been restored and converted into restaurants, a shopping mall & craft market, an arts center and even into residences.
But there is a whole section that has not yet been restored and I found it fascinating and picture worthy.
In 1783, after the American War of Independence, the Treaty of Paris established the 13 American Colonies as an independant nation. As a result, Britain lost control of its sea ports in the colonies. Wanting to keep an eye on those upstart Americans, the Royal British Navy set about the massive task of building a breakwater, wharves, barracks and fortifications on the western tip of Bermuda. The resulting Royal Naval Dockyard became the largest British naval facility outside of the United Kingdom.
And it was from here during the subsequent war of 1812 that a British fleet sailed from these very dockyards to launch a successful attack on Washington.
As we learned during our visit, there are many ways to see and explore the small island of Bermuda. One popular but dangerous form of transportation is by motor scooter or Vespa. While it sounded like a lot of fun, we had heard that because of Bermuda’s very narrow and winding roads, coupled with the fact that as a British Overseas Colony Bermudians drive on the “wrong” side of the road, scooter driving is not advised. That fact became abundantly clear when I peered into one of the crumbling buildings, only to find a Vespa graveyard.
Our decision not to rent motor scooters was further validated when we met these 2 girls who had spent the day in a Bermudian hospital after crashing their rented scooter into a wall.
The island of Bermuda is only 24 miles long and averages about 1 mile in width. It is easy to explore its just over 20 square miles of land and 64 miles of beautiful shoreline. So, as we often do when we travel to a new place, Brad & I decided to take a 1/2 day minibus tour to give us an overview of the island. With 3 days on the island, we figured we could then go back and explore further the places we liked best. By the way, Bermuda really isn’t an island but is actually an archipelago made up of 181 individual islands, the largest of which are connected by bridges.
So stay tuned and in my next post we will explore the beautiful island of Bermuda together.
So there you have it: THE ROYAL NAVAL DOCKYARD BERMUDA
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