KeithJenner

You should have no problem. I’ve made part payments quite a few times though the app (including twice on this offer) to get Cashback and never had any problem. £300 off our upcoming cruise is very handy.

At least you got there in the end. I’ve been lucky in that I have always had cruise fare payments that I could make to get the credits, so I’ve never tried doing what you did. It sounds as messy as I had feared.

I've flown into and out of Rome a few times, and never had any problem at all. The biggest issue we had on disembarkation day was that they were only using one small door to exit the cruise terminal, so there was quite a queue for everyone to get through the exit with their bags. It took us about 15 minutes from getting to the gangway to leaving the terminal. I don't recall ever having that issue before. We booked a flight at 12.55. There was an earlier one (at about 11am) that we could have caught, but I wanted a relaxed morning. We had a transfer booked for 12 and got off the ship when they started to get a bit insistent about people leaving at around 8.30. Our driver was waiting for us and we were checked in for our flight and through security before 10am (luckily the BA desk opened a bit earlier than usual). The airport itself seemed relatively quiet. We have lounge access so didn't spend much time in the main terminal, but when walking to the gate it all looked fairly quiet. We could have easily made the 11am flight if we left the ship a bit earlier. As usual at Rome, all very quick and easy,

It’s amazing how much it seems to bother some people that others have different preferences.

I think you’re getting confused between venues/cabins. Syd Norman’s and the Club Suites with large balconies are both on deck 8, so one can’t be above the other. The Large Balcony Club Suites are above the theatre backstage area. Directly above Syd Norman’s/Cavern etc are some standard balcony rooms, as is the case on the Breakaway and Getaway (and most, if not all of the Breakaway plus class), so this wasn’t a first time on the Escape. I wonder whether you are thinking of the District Brew House, which was a new venue on the Escape and I have some vague memories of noise issues being reported from there in the past.

As stated by others, the NCL rep was wrong (surprise, surprise). You can certainly book the same restaurant multiple times if you want. There has been some confusion regarding this area. The terms of the latitudes meal state that the two vouchers can't be used in the same restaurant. However, I think that what they are trying to say is that you can't get a group of four people and take the two vouchers to try to get a meal for four. Whilst I haven't tried it, I'm fairly sure that a couple could use them both in the same restaurant on separate occasions. In addition, for a time after the reopening after Covid, the online booking system didn't allow you to book the same restaurant twice, but it could be done over the phone or onboard. Now it sometimes does seem throw up an error if you try to duplicate a restaurant online, but for my past couple of cruises it does actually allow it, even if it didn't look like it worked at the time. So, basically, typical NCL confusion. However, you can certainly book places twice (we have done so on some of our past few of cruises, including the one that finished a couple of days ago).

Joy for us. We were looking at the Sky, especially as it is a longer cruise, but went for the Joy as we wanted more dining options and the shorter cruise gives us some extra time for Quebec and Montreal at the end. From memory the Sky was the better itinerary though. It was a tough choice.

We flew home yesterday and were back at work today. Back to earth with a bump. Next cruise is New York to Quebec in September. Looking forward to it already.

Yeah, that’s got to be a good couple of hours to Tarifa, especially on any sort of bus. We went as far down as Trafalgae on our tour and it was slow work getting back, even taking into account the detour to Conil. Personally (and we have travelled quite a way from port on occasion), I don’t like the sound of that at all. I would go that sort of distance if I was driving the whole way myself in a hired car, but not relying on transfers and ferries.

The Marathon was on when we did this, so it was a bit disrupted, but my understanding was that we were dropped off at roughly the usual place. The coach dropped us off near the Ponte S. Niccolo where there is a bit of a loop in the road that the coaches can drive round to drop off or load up. They then walk you as a group to Piazza di Santa Croce which seems to be the meeting point for many tours. It is about a 5-10 minute walk depending on the speed of your group.

Same for us. It was really handy. Motril is a port in that area where a shuttle was required to get out of the port. I wonder whether they got confused between the two.

This discussions comes up regularly. If you book online pre cruise then all discounts apply correctly, but if you do it onboard then they don’t. Every single time it gets discussed on here we enter into this confusion as to whether people are talking about doing it pre cruise or onboard.

It is the same set up as the Jade, but the Jade has more tables in Teppanyaki (from my recollection)

A quick catch up on yesterday. Despite having been to Livorno a few times we have somehow never managed to get to Florence before. We aren’t big art lovers, and you are unlikely to find us in an art gallery anywhere, but we do appreciate architecture and history and we loved Florence in the end. We took the NCL Florence on your own tour, which was basically a ride to the city and back (with the obligatory messing around that loading 40 people onto a bus always involves. We had about 5 hours there which was adequate for an introduction. We booked tickets to Giotto’s Campanile (the bell tower next to the Duomo) and it was worth the 414 steps to the top for the views. Some of the stairs are narrow and you use the same ones to go up and down which was a challenge at times. After that we grabbed a great lunch and then spent a few hours just wandering the streets. Next time we will probably try to go inside the Duomo and also climb up to the viewing area up the hill across the river. Our coach stopped there briefly on the way back to the ship (so we could grab a picture from the coach) and the views looked spectacular. Once back onboard we had a final couple of hours in Vibe which was very nice and then dinner in Indulge and a few drinks in the Local, Currently waiting for our flight at the airport, and sulking a bit. 🙂 Here’s some pictures from the Campanile: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nwn08ohw6/?igsh=NTE1cHgxNXIwdHll And two sets of pictures from Florence. Instagram only allows 10 per post and I couldn’t narrow them down that much: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nxCtdooO6/?igsh=MTdueXB5NHAxZGVudg== https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nxK_nIL28/?igsh=MWQyMGx5MjE1dm5ncg==

Activities were certainly more limited than on previous cruises. When our son was younger we used to stay onboard sometimes and there was quite a lot going on. There were quite a few things that didn’t seem to be open until later on the Viva. For example, we didn’t have particular plans to do the go carts but would probably have done them on one of the days we stayed onboard if they had been running during the day, but they weren’t whenever we checked. However, it wasn’t something I was really looking at much as our preference when onboard during the day is to find a quiet place to read or have a drink. I didn’t really keep up with posting the dailies, but will try to get them all uploaded (probably on a separate thread) later this week. It is worth you checking through them to get an idea what is likely to be open.

Yes. Apparently it was finished this week and I think they may be opening soon. Apparently it was quite noisy during the transatlantic.

We rarely use the MDR, and only went there once on this cruise (Hudsons for breakfast), so we aren’t the best people to advise. I believe that Commodore is the more upscale of the two.

Some friends went to Saint Paul on an NCL excursion and seemed to enjoy it. I would suggest going there or Eze rather than hanging around Villefranche based on reports from others, but we still really enjoyed it. We have work on Tuesday so are going straight to the airport. We have done Rome a few times and as we try to get away a few times a year we are always tight on holiday leave.

Villefranche was very nice. There was some sort of event going on from the Nice automobile club, which was quite fun. I’m not into cars, but it was still nice to see them. We then had a walk around town for a few hours. We were going to stop and eat somewhere, but everywhere was quite busy so we ended up just finding a bench to sit at for a while, The weather was very good today so we spent a few hours up at Vibe this afternoon. We probably won’t get there tomorrow as we are in Florence for most of the day, so that is probably Vibr done for us for the cruise now. Dinner was at Hakuzi. We were at a table for 4. We always enjoy Teppanyaki and this was as good as usual. Very enjoyable. As we have an early start tomorrow we are having a quiet night. I’ve been reading on the balcony for a while. A lovely evening. Edit: here’s some pictures from Villefranche: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6i4bukIjK-/?igsh=azl2NHUyYmI2cWl0

According to the freestyle daily it is open 6am-11pm daily.

So, a bit of catching up to do. We went back to Indulge on Barcelona day for dinner. As we have 6 meals in speciality restaurants this leave 4 for the complementary places and I think we will go to Indulge for all of them. We really like it there. The first couple of times I had a curry, but this time we just ordered a few dishes to share. Very nice. Plenty of room in Indulge once again. I’ve not seen it more than half full all cruise. Yesterday was Food Republic, which was our second visit there and again it was excellent. More dishes to share and the food was excellent. I have heard that they used to let you share a dining credit to get four items to share at Food Republic, but we haven’t asked if we could do this. Six items between us is about right. We didn’t do much in Marseilles yesterday. Pre cruise we close Ibiza and Marseilles as our relaxing days. We did actually get off the ship to stretch our legs, and walked for a mile before turning back and were still in the port. There was a shuttle bus to the city centre, which I think was complementary, Other than that we spent a lot of the day in the local and my wife is feeling the after effects this morning. We are a little later than planned getting the tender this morning. We were considering getting the train into Nice but it actually looks like there is quite a bit in Villefranche, so we may just stay there. We have a long day in Florence tomorrow so aren’t looking to do too much today.

It totally depends on what you are doing. If you are wandering around town 5 minutes from the shop then 15 minutes before all aboard is plenty. If we are in Rome and have to get a train to Civitaveccia then I always work out the last train that will work and aim to catch one at least an hour before that.

A brief history of the latitudes meals: Before 2017 each platinum guest got a voucher for a meal for two (in Cagneys or Le Bistro from memory). This meant that a couple got two meals for two. Solos were usually allowed to split theirs to two meals for one. Then in 2017 they changed it to two meals for two regardless of the number of people. This meant that a solo now got two meals for two but they were no longer allowed to split them (as this would have meant four meals). The losers were groups where there were more than 2 platinums as they still only got the 2 meals. There must have been some complaints as soon afterwards the T&Cs were changed to the wording quoted earlier in this thread to allow more meals for these groups. The main change to the meals recently has been to allow them to be used everywhere.

We haven’t heard anything directly about the people that were left behind, but have seen the news report. Im confused about how their bus was delayed due to the weather. Apparently there was quite a downpour, but everyone else’s buses all left on time. Not sure what was going on there.

Sorry, you’re correct. I misread that yesterday and thought it was saying that you only got two vouchers if there were more than two platinums.