Stealthdog

There are a total of 4 ships in our port area. The RCL ship, Celebrity, and Viking. We are towering over the Viking ship. The irony of being on a Norwegian ship looking at a Viking ship flying the Norwegian flag made me break out in laughter….it shouldn’t be that funny. 😄 It is a colder and windy day in port - Great Stirrup Cay would probably be similar, so not a great beach day anyways. Eric and I decided to stay on ship and do some of the active things we haven’t done yet. We played a game of horse (our tradition on cruise ships) in the sports complex and tried a round of bocce. Eric decided to do one last, unplanned spa appointment. That will give me time to get the hero comment cards done. We ate breakfast in Savor MDR and Emilia, the assistant maitre D at La Cucina and Savor surprised Eric with an avocado toast. If anyone in the Haven is missing their toast this morning, sorry. 😂

Someone already linked my review that has written comments. Here are the instructions they will send to your cabin.

Yesterday we also did the loyalty wine tasting again. It was the same wines as last week, so nothing new for us. We will provide this recommendation to NCL in post cruise surveys: Swap the days of the loyalty wine tasting and the ship tour. The ship tour is on the first sea day (Day 2) and the wine tasting is the last sea day (Day 6). The wines being tasting are available at the speciality restaurants with the loyalty dining voucher with the bottle for dinner. It would make sense to have the tasting earlier so people can try them and know which bottle they want to order with their dining voucher. Similar concept - the Ship tour goes to the theater with a tour of the dressing rooms by the Choir of Man producer. It would probably be a more fulfilling experience if people saw the Choir of Man first before doing the ship tour so they could ask the producer better questions. View of the Manhattan dining room from the wine tasting in Moderno. It looks really nice and would be where we would want to go for dinner in the MDR.

Last night we had our 3rd dinner in La Cucina, and it was another outstanding experience, really solidifying La Cucina as our 2nd favorite restaurant on the Escape. Because the wind was so strong, no one was eating in the Waterfront. The only new items we tried this time were the calamari appetizer (Eric) and the lasagne pasta (me). The lasagne was outstanding - it can be ordered as an entree size which would be really filling. Even the pasta sized portion was huge. The flavors were outstanding. It is a little heavy though - so if you are looking for something lighter, try a different appetizer/pasta. Eric got the aglio olio with shrimp (off menu) and I got the osso bucco again. We both finished the might with the tiramisu, which is the best desert in La Cucina. Italian restaurants usually aren’t high on our specialty dining lists, but the La Cucina on the Escape is fantastic.

This was the first time I have ever seen a ship doing a docking (RCL ship), so that was really cool. We got to see where the the ropes come from to tie to the pier. And they had this huge hand thingy waving to us as they passed to their pier spot. 😂

We are docked in Nassau. All clear was given about an hour ago for people to leave the ship. We are within sight of Atlantis and Paradise Island. We have been to Atlantis twice for weeklong stays and Nassau several other times on cruises, so we probably won’t leave the ship today. The RCL Freedom of the Seas pulled up next to us. Atlantis is awesome for anyone who has never been there. It’s a huge water park with several sea animal experiences (dolphins and stingrays). Our favorite thing to do is to just lay in tubes in the lazy river for hours at a time. Nassau as a port is common in Caribbean cruises. It’s not a particularly exciting stop, but there is always a lot of water based activities to do, either through the cruise line or private tours. NCL added two tour options for passengers for today - combos of water and land tours. We have done a water tour around Paradise Island before to see the big mansions en route to local snorkeling. We have never been to the Baja Mar resort in Nassau and that’s on our list of things to try.

Supper Club - Rachel Dudt. We saw Rachel Dudt at the supper club last night, without the meal. She is an outstanding singer. We heard some negative feedback about her theater show earlier in the cruise, which we didn’t go to. With the Other Guys departing tomorrow, Rachel Dudt will probably be the best show in the supper club moving forward. You can tell she has a theater background. Her final song from Wicked may have been her best one. She is hands down the best female vocalist on board. NCL - give the woman a band. This was the first performance we have seen on board where there was no live band, so it felt like her show was missing something. With a live band, her Supper Club show will be great. I imagine her Vegas shows were awesome. We would go see her again. Her voice and presence is perfect for a lounge environment. Not sure what people didn’t like about her theater show, but her Supper Club show is worth seeing.

It’s official, GSC cancelled and replaced with Nassau (6am-130pm). Eric has given me a future vacation credit for a beach weekend in a Florida location of my choice for MLK Day weekend as a makeup for our beach days getting canceled for my Bday cruise. 😁

Missing GSC is a bummer because I love the private islands and we haven’t been to GSC yet. But, we are kind of treating this B2B a little like a floating resort, so we will survive. Besides, I got 2 CruiseNext Certificates so we will have a chance again. Though I do like certainty (well, as much as I can get) and itineraries with tender ports may be low on my wish list for future cruises.

I finally was able to spend the rest of my non-refundable OBC. We really wanted to avoid scrambling tomorrow to make sure it was all used. Eric’s mother is in for a surprise with a nice post cruise present. Who am I kidding - she gets perfume every time we cruise, so no surprise. 😂

What are your thoughts on the wings? I liked them much better on previous NCL sailings, but am begrudgingly eating them. I already have next Tuesday circled on my calendar to go to Miller’s Ale House for a wing night. 😂

Not sure if you got this, but after 12 days, I finally found the officer board. They had one in the crew section I saw in the behind the scenes tour, but no photos were allowed. I finally have some time to catch up on these other reviews!

Disembarkation instructions were put in the Day 6 Daily. On Deck 6 by guest services they provide the 5 timelines for disembarkation on Saturday. Luggage tags are available at a couple places near guest services and you can choose which time you want to leave the ship. We decided to go with Purple (approximately 830). We didn’t want to do easy walk off because we do have 3 pieces of luggage. 730 appears to be the first time (tentatively) for freestyle disembarkation. It appears passengers with NCL transfers, excursions, and post cruise packages will get disembarkation instructions and luggage tags sent to their cabins.

I haven’t heard any announcements. Do you know if the app had previously said GSC and now says Nassau? All the excursions are still being sold for GSC. I’ll do some snooping once we get ready for dinner.

Day 6 daily.

My ranking of breakfast on board: 1) O’Sheehans 2) MDR 3) American Cafe 4) No breakfast 5) Garden Cafe It’s not that the food is bad in the cafe, it’s the hygiene issues for us of seeing people sneeze or cough into their hands and then handle serving utensils, or pick up items from the trays with their fingers, eat it in line, then get some more. There is also no salmon or avocado in the cafe (at least the days/times we have been in there). We prefer going to the buffet cafe off peak hours when there are fewer passengers.

After dinner we decided to see if we could get into the late showing of the Supper Club. We saw the 4 Sea Sons show in the theater the first cruise, but missed the Divas tribute in the Supper Club, so wanted to give that a try. There were plenty of seats when we got there and you are able to see the show without the meal (which we didn’t like when we tried it on the first cruise). The Divas show is another lounge act, with a performer singing songs from famous divas over the years (ie Donna Summer, Whitney, Tina Turner, etc). The selection of songs was a bit odd for us - the singer covered a couple of Alicia Keys songs and an obscure Rhianna song. I’m not too sure many people consider Alicia Keys a diva 😂 and it may be been a better choice to do a Rhianna song the audience knew. Her voice was really suited for those Alicia Keys songs and they were her best ones. There are two musicians in the act and they were both very good. I give the singer credit for trying to do a wide range of diva song, which is really challenging. The act may have been better if there were a couple of entertainers performing (like the Other Guys in their West End act) because it may have allowed a better tailoring of songs to different singers’ strengths. Overall, we love the Supper Club concept and the lounge feel to the show. We are going again Day 6 - we already have reservations. If you want to check out the Supper Club and only plan to go to one, I would probably recommend seeing a different show. Ask Cruise Director Jack or someone from the entertainment team for a recommendation.

Final night in Le Bistro. I repeated my meal of escargot, French onion soup, and filet. Eric got escargot, French onion soup, and lobster thermidor. We both had the marquise chocolate desert, and the waiter brought us the marrons et clementines desert because that was the only one we still hadn’t tried. The lobster is an up charge menu item and comes as a very large whole lobster. Eric loved it. The marrons is a Bavarian cream type of desert. It wasn’t too rich and it is something we might have gotten if we back another time. The marquise is probably the safest desert option on the menu. Overall, all 4 nights in Le Bistro were fantastic. They have indoor seating and outdoor seating on deck 6. We sat inside all 4 nights because we didn’t want a constant stream of passengers walking by us while we ate. But if you like people watching, sitting outside the restaurant may be more your style. If you only have a one to a few dining vouchers/packages, I highly recommend Le Bistro. It’s probably the restaurant you will most likely find something that you will enjoy. Note - for those with the AMEX Platinum dining perk, make sure to specify when checking in that you are using the French Dining voucher with AMEX. The default at the restaurants appear to be to use your dining packages. If you use a dining package for Le Bistro, you will have to go back again for the French Dining Voucher. Always use your French Dining AMEX perk first because it’s not transferable to another restaurant on board.

There was one runner - she sprinted the first length of the pier and then started walking when she reached other passengers. It looks like there are several late NCL tours getting back, so other passengers are either responsible or lucky. The ropes are still tied too, so maybe there are more tours that still haven’t returned.

T minus 4 minutes. Ready to toast any pier runners. Don’t disappoint me today!

We had no requirement for visas. I think the best source for visa requirements can be found from the Dep of State website that provides requirements by country. This is probably our 8-9th Caribbean cruise and we (US citizens) have never needed a visa. It may depend on your nationality. Leaving the ship while in port, all we have needed was the NCL stateroom card and a government issued photo ID - for both the east and west ports.

We still haven’t seen any eggnog on board. Maybe we are missing it, or it will be something available on the next sailing.

It’s a little hard because this 2nd leg was incomplete with Grand Cayman being cancelled - so it turned into 2 ports vs 3 ports. Cayman was the only stop where we had a planned excursion, so that was impacted as well. I think I like the eastern ports better, but this 2nd cruise has a much better vibe on board. But we are also enjoying the extra time on board this 2nd cruise with the port canceled. Let me think on it more and I’ll post something at the end specifically on itineraries. Our favorite Caribbean cruises for itinerary are Southern ones that go to the ABCs, Barbados, and Cartagena.

Sun came out around 3 and it turned into a beautiful day in port. Lots of great pier watching options - Spice H2O and the whole deck 17 area. We are still going to plan to watch from the balcony.

We got off board after breakfast in the MDR. We ended up turning around and getting immediately back on the ship. 😂 The port area isn’t as nice or developed as many other Caribbean ports. They have a several shops in the secured port area. Each shop looked like they were selling the same exact merchandise and they were a little aggressive with sales. We were thinking about walking to the little downtown area or the beaches across from the ship, but with overcast skies we decided to go enjoy an empty ship. They do post taxi prices for various locations of interest (attached), but they seemed fairly high. If we come back to Ocho Rios we will book an excursion through the cruise line or a private company. Doing it on your own didn’t seem like it was a value option, especially if you need to factor in taxis. Back on board we got tea and coffee to try to spend my nonrefundable OBC. Eric tried his luck at Mario carts in the atrium. I’m working on my reviews in the gym again. Early afternoon on a port day - the gym is mostly empty. So if you find other times too crowded and aren’t doing an excursion or leaving the ship, early afternoon on a port day may good a good option. I have a great view of the port and am watching the party ships 🚢 The only other ship in port with us is the NCL Epic. I did find an officer board near one of the stairwells (only took me 12 days 😂) - posted below.