KeithJenner

You got the answer you wanted, which is the main thing. Have a great cruise.

Easily done. I almost did the same. 🙂

You mention free at sea plus in the thread title, but your question seems to relate to the standard free at sea offer. Its probably worth clarifying to avoid getting conflicting and incorrect information, although it is probably too late now as a lot of people just reply to the original port without reading the thread.

Just a quick comment on the tours. We are taking 5 in total. The Gibraltar and Cádiz ones already mentioned, a Caves of Neria tomorrow, hop on hop off in Palma and the transfer to Florence. The total cost of all 5 on those was £128 (around $150) for the two of us. My preference in a port is to do it ourselves, but sometimes a tour gets you places easier. Given those prices it just makes sense sometimes.

Yeah, you did ok. I don’t regret doing the tour as we also had time in Cádiz, but wouldn’t have regretted missing it.

We are enjoying a quiet evening in tonight. Just nipping down to The Local when we need a top Up. Dinner today was in Indulge. I’ve heard that it is difficult to get a table there but we had a choice today at about 7.30. I ordered Indian, which was really good. We will be back a few times. It was a bit cold in Vibe this afternoon, as it has been for most of the cruise. We soon decamped down to the Local. Another great day.

I’ve got to say that I really liked Cádiz. We had a great few hours just wandering around. My wife has always really enjoyed seeing interesting flora, and has a particular interest in palm trees. I also enjoy seeing them and we joke that you can keep us occupied for ages just by planting a few trees in a garden. Cadiz was perfect for this. Lots of really interesting and different trees. The rest of the town was really nice as well. Certainly somewhere that I would like to revisit. Here’s some pictures of various trees: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6UY04tIWWN/?igsh=MXF4YjA1emcxZ3N2Yw== And here’s some other Cádiz pictures: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6UZBciITVB/?igsh=MWpvZXB1cnBrM2V1ag==

I missed yesterdays dailies, but here are todays. I’ll try to remember to scan day 2 when I get home.

I thought it may have been. I’ll try to keep an eye out in other ports as well.

Today is Cádiz. We dock right in the city and had originally planned to stay there but we added the “White Villages” tour, which we are currently on the coach back to the ship. The tour was ok. You go to two villages, Vejer de la Frontera and Conil de la Frontera. The first was nice, but the second was less picturesque. They are really small towns rather than villages. Personally I think there are many nicer places that we have visited in Europe (Rhodes, Santorini or just about anywhere in the Baltics, for example). We enjoyed the your but wouldn’t say it is essential. When we get back to the ship we are going to head into Cádiz for an hour or two. It looked very nice when we drove out this morning. Here are some pictures from Vejer de la Frontera: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6TKueFIAdU/?igsh=Z2szMHFobzd1azg2

A few notes on the ports so far. As I mentioned yesterday we did a NCL your to avoid having to queue for the cable car. The tour was well worth it for the money. My biggest issue was that as the tour didn’t start until 2pm we didn’t have time afterwards to go into town, which we would have liked. However the rain was only just stopping when we set off so it was fortunate that the tour was a little later. I’d certainly recommend that as a way of getting an overview of Gibraltar.

In my experience the vast majority of pubs in the UK have Guinness on tap.

Someone had asked on a different thread about the availability of taxis in port. I didn’t notice them yesterday in Gibraltar, but there were a few today in Cádiz, right outside the port building.

Dining: We went to Food Republic on embarkation day. I’ve only been to Food Republic once before, on the first Escape transatlantic in 2015 when it was a favourite. The menu has changed quite a bit since then but we really enjoyed it. The food was good and the service excellent. We probably won’t get back there on this cruise but will prioritise it on future cruises. Today was Le Bistro. My wife isn’t a big fan but I’d go there just for the Escargot, Food was great today. The service was good too, although we didn’t see the wine steward after the starters even though I’d said I would be open to recommendations. It wasn’t a problem as we just ordered more Veuve from our server but it was disappointing that he went missing. Other than that it’s been The Local for breakfast and lunch today which were both good. We have walked through the buffet once on the way to Vibe and it was packed. I’m glad that we won’t be needing to find a seat there at all.

Vibe: I really wasn’t sure about this beforehand. I think I mentioned that it was a fairly last minute addition. Im pleased we got it. There is a decent group in Vibe and we all seem to get on well. It is live to have our little area during the day. We haven’t yet taken food from the buffet to Vibe, mainly because of the weather but plan to tomorrow for breakfast and/or lunch. I’ll report back. we had a chat this afternoon about vibe in other cruises and decided there always no reason for it on our Joy cruise in September. We could have done without it on this cruise too, but I think that it would be needed for us on a Prima class ship on a summer itinerary. If we were doing this same cruise in the summer then we would certainly buy it.

Ship condition: I’ve heard stories of noisy cabins and things like that but haven’t seen or heard any issues. That could be due to our location (deck 9 aft), but it all looks fine to me Staff: they are busy, we know that there have been cutbacks and I’m not going to argue either way on that. We have noticed some changes over the past few years. Personally I’ve no problem with just one cabin service a day. Our room steward has done a good job. Maybe bar service is a little slower, but the service overall is fantastic. These guys work so hard for us and do a great job. There already a number of servers who know up and have a good idea of what we may order. Not complaints here and there are some cruise hero forms ready to be completed. The waterfront: OK, I know that not what it’s called, but if always will be to me, just like I said we would go to o’Sheehans for a beer after dinner today. Anyway, it’s very nice. We walked around when it was quiet (a bit cold and just after all aboard), and it was really nice. I bet the Soleil bar can get busy, which would be a problem, but on a day like today it as very nice. Nehatives: call me a cheerleader if you want but I can honestly say thay I can’t think of one right now. Perhaps thats a product of the beer , but I’m really pleasantly surprised by how much I like the ship. Maybe the fact, as mentioned earlier that it can be a bit of a pain walking through venues, Oh, and they could have a Starbucks on the upper decks. But these really are minor issues. All is really good so far.

OK, so I telly need to deliver on this live report thing. I’ll blame the internet, but I’ve really been too busy enjoying myself anyway. Lets have a catchup. Firsly, and most importantly, what’s the ship like? This does actually surprise me a bit. I’ve read a fair amount about the Prima class, and I wasn’t expecting to be a big fan. However, after two days I love it. Positives; Staterooms: we are in a mini suite (using the diamond upgrade from a balcony. The room is noticeably more spacious than equivalent rooms on other ships. The overall feel: ok, so I’ve had a few beers, and I really don’t nderstand this stuff, but all the spaces are very open and light. I’m probably talking garbage but I’m a standard customer rather than a designer and the ship feels very inviting to me. Everywhere is just… you know… just nice, The Local (and probably other bars): I love the idea of o’Sheehand on the older Breakaway class ships (and the Epic). This also applied to the early ones that were called the Local. But the location, by the atrium, often made it a bit of a disaster if you just wanted to spend some time at the bar. The Local is a great bar. We have spent the time after dinner there both nights and have loved the conversations with other cruisers that just couldn’t have happened at the old location. As a result of o’Sheehans being so good we haven’t yet tried Metropolitan or Belvedere, but I guess they are similar.

Very quick answers. The internet seems pretty good. I’m not doing much on it but it seems to be a decent speed. I was planning on doing Gibraltar by ourselves, similar to what you are considering. However I heard that the queues for the cable car can be long so we ended up doing the NCL city under siege tour instead (without the cable car). It was fairly cheap with the free at sea discount and was pretty good. The rock is quite big so you would potentially be restricted on how much you would see if going by yourself.

Just got back onboard and enjoying a mudslide in Vive before going to Le Bistro for dinner. I will catch up properly later, but for now here’s some pictures from Gibraltar https://www.instagram.com/p/C6RQ3FhIEta/?igsh=MTNpa2o4Y3d6N2E4MQ==

I’ve been struggling to load the Cruise Critic site. So haven’t been able to update since yesterday. Just managed to load it now, so I’ll just leave a link to some Monkey pictures from Gibraltar. https://www.instagram.com/p/C6RCCJrobGV/?igsh=MTNmNXp2azJreXp2eg==

Quick check in. We boarded fairly early. There have been long queues at the terminal all day because of the port authorities checking everyone’s passports before entering. It took up about 30 minutes to get in but I think the queue has been over an hour all day. Departure will be a bit delayed as a result. Firat impressions are that I really like the ship. I see a few of the annoyances that people have mentioned (having to walk through venues to get places for example), but also quite a few positives. Vibe is really nice and I’m pleased we made that decision at the moment, We had a snack at Indulge for lunch and it was pretty good. I’ll do a more detailed report later (or maybe tomorrow morning), but here are the day 1 dailies.

You are just making a reservation for a number of people. The system doesn’t know who you are booking for, so your only limit is the table sizes that are available. Mke sure you book any fixed fee places (Moderno or Teppanyaki) first as the system doesn’t always pick up that you have free at sea plus and may try to charge you for any places with a fee after you have reserved your first two meals, which could get expensive for 6 people. If that did happen then get one of the other people in a different room to try.

Yes, I've said that on both my posts on this subject. As I said in my last post, I wouldn't try this if a rejection would mean having to pay a la carte prices. I'd much rather play safe and know what's going to happen when I turn up, and what it will cost, even if that is a bit more than it would cost if I got lucky.

Depends on the ship. Looks like you are on the Prima where theatre entertainment should be bookable 21 days out. For smaller places like Sid Normans you have to queue. The queue starts fairly early apparently and you may need to be there an hour early to have a chance of a seat.

It is specifically not allowed by the terms of the latitudes vouchers in that it states that the vouchers can't be used in the same restaurant. This is often interpreted as meaning that a couple can't use both vouchers in Cagneys, for example, but I think that they are actually talking about the situation we have here (both vouchers being used at the same time). That isn't to say that the staff won't actually allow it, but it may be a risk if they don't and you end up having to pay for meals you weren't expecting to. If they don't allow it then you probably won't have much luck arguing it as it is specifically not allowed. Personally, I wouldn't risk it if it could mean having to pay for the meals a la carte. Absolutely agree with your final paragraph though. As long at the other perks work out (ie you don't end up paying the tips for two beverage packages that aren't used) then this can work well.