OrcaGirl

You'll find that a few words in Indonesian, Tagalog/Filipino and Indian will come in handy.

Squeeeeee, I asked Santa for four Captain's Club points for Christmas, and he sent me FIVE!

I'm so glad to hear that it's not just me thinking this is weird. I was looking at a cruise on the Edge in May 2024; the price for two people in an inside cabin guarantee, with taxes and port fees but without the 'all included' extras, is $2,006CAD total for two people. Really great price for Alaska. But I was planning to go solo so I adjusted the occupancy down to one person. And now the price is $2,974CAD for one person. Again, without the all-inclusive extras. Perhaps the difference is that for booking solo an inside guarantee was no longer available, so it required picking a specific inside cabin, but it's still incredibly frustrating and confusing. If it was a matter of paying the double-occupancy $2,006CDN for one person, I'd take it. But paying an extra thousand dollars? Nope.

Was on her in May and the laundry rooms were open, with free laundry soap and dryer sheets, although that part may have changed since then.

Does anyone know if we get back any Ensenada port fees as OBC?

In fairness to OP, perhaps they are more familiar with Celebrity Cruise Lines, where you can earn a few loyalty program points without actually taking a cruise. But on Norwegian, nope.

Are there any opportunities for actual scuba diving while on this itinerary?

There were supposedly 88 steps down to the floating platform; the husband didn't think it was that many. The guide actually commented that the brief ramp section is usually harder than the stairs themselves on the way up. There was at least one woman on our tour with a cane, and she seemed to manage them pretty well.

Hilarious typos aside, did you happen to keep digital copies of the Freestyle Dailies? I'd love to see them.

We ordered four things to share between us, which you should be able to match up to the photos in my thread: Mixto de Quesos & Charcuterie - this was large, definitely good for sharing, a couple of cheeses, a couple of meats, sliced apples, and some caramel-but-not-really-type dip, the waiter didn't explain what was what Patatas Bravas - five small pieces of potatoes, very good, the husband could have finished that dish on his own and easily ordered another Panceta - one piece of pork belly on a piece of bread, sooooooo good, a little hard to split, would have gladly ordered two or more of these Gambas al Ajillo - garlic shrimp in butter, with a few pieces of toasted baguette, this was very good and easy to share between two people, didn't feel I needed to order another

I'd previously eaten at Food Republic on the Encore and Bliss (including this summer), and yes, the menu was quite a bit smaller this trip than in the past. I immediately noticed that the Tijuana street fries were no longer on the menu, same for one of the sushi rolls I had in the summer.

It was two shows each on two nights, same as it was on the Encore when we sailed her. It's a great show, well worth attending.

A-ha, there it is… Belatedly, here’s the Freestyle Daily for Day 7: escape-day7.pdf

Oops, looks like I missed one in all of the last day shenanigans. I’ll see if it saved to my Dropbox correctly.

Sorry for the delay on my final summary. We got home late Sunday night, fell right into bed... and then woke up sick the next morning. COVID tests are showing negative thus far, but we're both miserable with coughs and sore throats and so... much... mucus. One weird tidbit: on Monday when I started to unpack, I noticed that my AirTag was no longer on my luggage. I checked Find My Phone... and it showed as being at a house on Long Island. I checked again just now, and it's at a McDonald's restaurant in Stamford, Connecticut. Not sure why someone would steal an AirTag, but it also seems very unlikely that it felt out of its holder and into the possession of someone else. So anyway... Top three highlights of this cruise for me: 1. Spending lots of time in the thermal spa, which was clean and in great condition 2. Visiting the caves in Bermuda, very cool 3. The specialty restaurants, but especially the pork belly dishes at Pinchos and Food Republic and the petite filet at Cagney's The three things I'd change if granted magical powers: 1. The heated stone lounger chair hogs in the thermal spa 2. The lack of variety in the Garden Cafe buffet (and the lack of hash browns!) 3. The lack of interesting evening entertainment (Choir of Man was great, everything else was pretty blah) Funnily enough, I got an email from NCL today "welcoming" me to Latitudes Platinum and telling me all about the great benefits I can now enjoy... despite enjoying many of them on the Escape. 😂 Next cruise for me is the Bliss to the Mexican Riviera in February 2024, and I'll be watching for other threads from the Bliss in the meantime to help with my own planning.

We never bring ducks to hide ourselves, but once I explained it to the husband that evening, he had fun spotting them and thinking up places that he would hide one. And then I'd point out why his picks were too hard or not in the spirit of the game. 🤣

That was the free Platinum behind the scenes tour; a paid tour was also available to book. The husband's name can be figured out on my Instagram Stories, but I don't tend to use real names here.

That was it!

Good morning from New York. Another 💩 night of sleep. According to CruiseMapper we were supposed to enter the New York harbour around 3am, but with the time change, I had no idea if that was true, and although I poked my head out onto the balcony occasionally through the night, I didn’t catch the Statue of Liberty. When I did finally get up, I still had no idea what time it was. The NCL App was no help. (My phone did adjust for the time change; the app was two hours off). I grabbed coffee, and thought about stopping in at the onboard credit deck to have someone explain some confusing shore excursion charges and refunds, but the line was too long and I just didn’t care enough to wait. I spent a few minutes drinking coffee out on the balcony until it was time to wake up the husband. We threw a few final things into bags, and then headed down to Savor for breakfast. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We then hung out in the Atrium while waiting for our ‘Light Blue’ disembarkation call. The call came a bit early, around 9:35am, and we were heading down the gangway and off the ship by 9:41am. Baggage collection and immigration was easy (facial recognition for the win), and before we knew it we were crossing the street away from the Escape. We walked up one block back to the Ink48 hotel, thinking it’d be easier to get a Lyft there. It may have been less chaotic, but it still took a really long time for our ride to show up due to traffic congestion. We used the app Bounce to book a luggage storage location near Penn Station; like AirBnb but for your luggage. It was $25USD to hold three bags for five hours. After freeing ourselves of our luggage, we walked down Broadway all the way to the lower east side. Our destination: Crif Dog, which we’ve been returning to since our first trip together to New York more than 15 years ago. And I was delighted to find they still have Ms. Pac-Man. After downing a tsunami dog and a chihuahua dog and a frozen cranberry martini, we rented a couple of CitiBikes and rode down to the tip of Manhattan and back up the waterfront. Such a beautiful day, and it was neat seeing some of the NYC Marathon finishers biking or limping home. We picked up our luggage and took the train from Penn Station to Newark Airport. In retrospect, with three bags, we should have just taken a Lyft. Our flight has been delayed 90 minutes, but we’re happily enjoying that lounge life with cocktails and snacks. And we might grab Shake Shack to take on board. 🤣 Spoiler: we ordered and ate Shake Shack, and then ordered more Shake Shack to bring on board. Random observations: Seemed like a lot more people that usual opted for self-assist disembarkation, but the elevators were packed and so lots of people were trying to carry multiple very large/heavy suitcases down the stairs with varying degrees of success. The cruise wrap-up video playing in the Atrium didn’t include any footage from Halloween, just the usual pool shenanigans, Glow party, etc. 😔 We didn’t attend either the Mr. Sexy Legs or Perfect Couple games, but the videos of them have major Carnival vibes. I could not have picked the captain out of a lineup or even recall hearing his name before this final morning. (For comparison, I’ll never forget Captain Tasos on Celebrity who was so visible and personable.)

Argh, no taco bar at dinner. It felt like slim pickings again. Honestly, this is the first time a NCL buffet has disappointed me so much (aside from the hash browns issue.) On recent cruises this past year on Celebrity and Princess, I kept telling my companions how much better the NCL buffets were. 🤥 At least the husband got a final cherry and Nutella crepe. We headed up to the jogging track to walk a few laps (I’m doing a November 30x30 challenge). Then we headed back to the cabin to finish packing and set out our luggage before bed. Random observations: Smokers are jokers. Two young women were vaping in front of the ropes course, several people were smoking cigarettes while standing in the jogging track away from the smoking area, and there was a distinct aroma of pot wafting up to our balcony earlier. And why do cruise ships so often put a designated smoking area right next to a jogging track?!? They are very incompatible.

After lunch we headed back of the room for a nap (him) and pre-packing (me)… Then we figured this was our last chance to try the ropes course, so we dug out our closed-toe shoes and headed up top. Alas we missed the memo that tank tops weren’t allowed, which gave me just enough time for second thoughts as the husband ran back to the room for a tshirt. That course is intense! We grabbed a pina colada and BBC and headed down to the Atrium for a round of trivia. Except what was billed as “catchphrase” trivia, I thought would be like here’s a catchphrase, write down who made it famous; instead it was more like “sayings” trivia where you figure out a common phrase or idiom through combinations of words and visuals. The husband was hankering for a treat, so we headed up to the buffet. It was officially “snacking” time, so only one side was open but he was excited to see the elusive cookies and I was delighted to see a scones section. But whipped cream ≠ clotted cream. And there was a pretty decent-looking taco bar set-up. The husband has strong feelings about taco bars, and he will be sooooo sad if it’s not still there for dinner. Then we decided to try the spa again. The manager must have seen me come in because he was on the spot within seconds… except he was standing in front of SEVEN out of sixteen lounge chairs covered in towels/belongings but not occupied and did nothing at all. He chatted for a few minutes about how he had removed towels from three whole this morning… and then walked away without doing anything about these ones. So if the spa staff aren’t interested in enforcing their own policies, we decided to just do it ourselves. We moved towels and kicked aside flip-flops and claimed two seats. And then took our towels with us when we rotated on to the pool or steam room, like the rule-abiding Canadians we are. The spa started to clear out between 5:30pm and 6pm as people left for dinner, so there was no need for any cage fights over the only two free loungers. (Ironically it also got louder. 🤷‍♀️) We decided to maximize our last spa session for this trip (spa closes early at 8pm on the final night) so we stuck around until our stomachs started grumbling around 7pm. Random observations: I’ve heard more renditions of Baby Shark this cruise than ever in my entire life. I’m guest 1 on our booking, and I’ve got the higher status. So why do all charges go on my husband’s account and how come all ‘special offers’ delivered to our stateroom are addressed to him? Just had the most spa-nerd fun idea: on my next cruise in February, I should create a spreadsheet that captures the number of stone loungers that are occupied, available or being ‘saved’ by someone at the top of each hour, and work out the average usage rates, ‘wasted’ time when no loungers were available, peak times when staff should deployed to remove towels, et cetera. Bet the spa staff would love that data. 🤣 Stone loungers to me:

I didn’t sleep particularly well last night (slow speed + lack of waves) so I was awake around 12:30am or so when I heard a Code Bravo (🔥) announcement out in the hallways. I wasn’t overly alarmed until a second announcement maybe five or ten minutes later, when a crew member made an announcement piped right into the cabins for response crews to proceed to fire zone whatever on deck 4. I gotta think that was a mistake on his part to have that broadcast loudly into the cabins. Another ten or fifteen minutes later, there was a third and final announcement, this time by the captain and only out in the hallways. He basically said “this is the captain, everything is fine” like four times. Must have had some panicked calls from guests. And then I fell back asleep. When I eventually woke up again, I grabbed coffee and dragged the husband up to the buffet for breakfast. And guess what I spotted?!?! Just kidding, there were still no hash browns. We returned to the cabin and watched some weather roll in before heading to the spa for our couples massage appointment. I got the aroma stone therapy, he got the deep tissue; we were both very happy. (But damn onboard massages are crazy expensive. With the exchange rate, I’m guessing that came out to $600CDN for two people for 50 minutes. I’m justifying it as my birthday gift to myself.) The sun came back out by the time we were finished up with our massages. We changed into swimsuits and headed into the thermal spa. Eight of the stone loungers were occupied by towels, so once again I headed right back to the desk. Unfortunately the dude spa manager wasn’t as effective as the lady spa manager… I saw him walk by a few minutes later with an arm full of towels, but after five minutes in the pool, all unoccupied-by-an-actual-person stone loungers were still (or once again) covered in towels. And the steam room was closed for maintenance. Boo. Not the best thermal spa experience, and we bailed after 45 minutes. We’ll try again later. For lunch we headed to Food Republic to use up our last dining credit. We ordered the butterscotch miso pork belly, pork belly bao and the miso chicken. All were amazing. We ended up ordering another round of the pork belly bao as our fourth item. The menu seems more streamlined that on past sailings, but everything was delicious and the husband loves the high counter seats with a view. Random observations: The massage tables were possibly the most comfortable in the world. They should rent them out at night for people (i.e., the husband) who find the NCL beds uncomfortable. We changed time by one hour last night (to get back on NYC time) and will be changing by one hour again tonight (stupid Daylight Savings).

They did! Someone came in a couple minutes later, just as I was heading to the steam room. By the time I came back out, five loungers were miraculously available, instead of none. 🤣 Of course, people started saving them again within the hour, and by the time we left all the chairs were once again occupied by either people or towels.

Catching up on last night… After our ‘workouts,’ we headed back to the thermal spa. We walked in, saw that half the stone loungers were occupied by people and the other half were occupied by books and/or towels (which have no squatting rights) so I did a heel-turn back to the spa desk to request that someone address it. I know, I know, snitches get stitches, but they also get time on stone loungers in the thermal spa that they too paid $$$ for… (Seriously, though, would people feel as comfortable reserving space in the steam room or sauna so no one else can use it?) A few rounds of pool/steam room/lounger later, we were getting peckish and decided to dry off and get ready for dinner. But first: drinks in the Atrium and ‘Music Mania’… I love seeing a couple of preteens absolutely destroy a jerky mix-20s dude who keep flaunting the rules. Then to the Prime Meridan bar for another cocktail and to see if we could request a seat on the Waterfront for our Cagney’s reservation. We were seated and the husband promptly spotted a cruise duck, despite knowing nothing of the tradition. It was another beautiful sunset and the temperature outside was just perfect. Alas, service was not. No blame to be placed on our waiter, I think the kitchen was in the weeds. Cagney’s was as busy as I’d seen in since before the pandemic; we laughed when the wine guy told the table behind us that it was a quiet night. For our appetizers, the husband got (surprise, surprise) another Caesar salad, and I had the ahi tuna tartare. Am I mistaken or did it used to be served with avocado? It was fine, and I liked how they incorporated the ginger right in the dish, but I was missing the balance of the avocado. And then we waited. And waited. And waited for our entrees. It was a looooong gap between courses. (We were seated at 6:29, our appetizers arrived at 7:11, and our entrees arrived at 7:49.) When they did finally arrive, my medium-rare petite filet mignon was perfectly cooked, delicious and tender. And the truffle mashed potatoes were as tasty as always. The poor husband was less satisfied with his striploin; he said it was cooked medium-rare as requested, but didn’t have the Chicago char he’d asked for and wasn’t particularly flavourful. It was also a good ten minute gap between his baked potato arriving and the toppings being brought out, so it chilled quickly. For dessert, we shared one OMG cheesecake which was very good per usual. We found a new place to tuck the duck on our way back to the cabin. I was beat and retired for the evening. The husband headed up to the spa for an hour or so. He noted that both the ambient temperature and the water jets were cooler than usual. Random observations: Next cruise, I need to invest in a nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones for the thermal spa. You know what I would gladly pay extra for? A mini 10-20 minute scalp and/or foot massage while in one of the heated stone loungers. One gentleman several tables away from us at dinner embodied the old adage “if you meet an a****** in the morning, you met an a*******; if you meet a*******s all day long, you’re the a*******.” Every single one of his stories (and there were a lot) was about some jerk or some b**** who done him wrong… Maybe his dining companions found him endearing; we did not (again, we were several tables away but I know who owes him money and who gave him COVID and who sent their steak back three times.) 🤷‍♀️

Day 6 Freestyle Daily: escape-day6.pdf