Does the Escape have a "behind the scenes" tour?

[myra711]

I've always wanted to do one of these....

If there is one, is it only available to Haven pax? Alas, that isn't me!

[easyboy]

Check this youtube video:

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[mking8288]

Money talks as long as you don't mind paying, Haven guests don't get a free tour. Platinum Latitude members get a shortened tour. Paid one is open to all and longer on sea day, about $80 p/p, must wear closed toes shoes for safety & involve walking, standing & up/down some stairs, i.e. stairs in backstage. Check Freestyle Dailies & ask/sign up with Excursion Desk.

 

via Nexus 5X Oreo 8.0 w Tapatalk, VPN secured.

[myra711]

Thanks Easyboy! How did you sign up for this? And how much was it?

[WashyWashyHappyHappy95]

What's the thrill of seeing a huge laundry facility?

[myra711]

Money talks as long as you don't mind paying, Haven guests don't get a free tour. Platinum Latitude members get a shortened tour. Paid one is open to all and longer on sea day, about $80 p/p, must wear closed toes shoes for safety & involve walking, standing & up/down some stairs, i.e. stairs in backstage. Check Freestyle Dailies & ask/sign up with Excursion Desk.

 

via Nexus 5X Oreo 8.0 w Tapatalk, VPN secured.

 

 

:) Thanks!

[myra711]

What's the thrill of seeing a huge laundry facility?

 

The logistics of running such a large resort is interesting to me, and hopefully to see a little bit of how the crew live, too.

I guess I'm just nosy!

[BirdTravels]

I've always wanted to do one of these....

If there is one, is it only available to Haven pax? Alas, that isn't me!

No free tours for Havens.

 

$80 gets you a 2 hour lecture on the cruise line and tour of the laundry, galley (with free photo), environmental and theater. Sign up at shore ex desk. Done on sea days. They discontinued the bridge tour after tee roost attacks in Paris a few Years back.

[fstuff1]

Check this youtube video:

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

thx!

 

note: free tour for platinums, not the $80 tour

[Halifax Dude]

Just off the Escape and did the Platinum tour. It was about 90 minutes long, but not very informative. Listened to the stage manager drone on about the current shows (not one peep about the technical side of the theatre, which would have been interesting), then viewed the laundry facility, galley and what they call the I95 (long corridor that connects all of the crew areas). I was looking forward to the tour, but it was pretty boring. Definitely not worth any cash.

[Loonbeam]

The paid tour is different than the platinum tour, you go to a few more places. Other lines do it better but it's still interesting.

 

If I recall correctly, we went backstage at the smaller venue, the laundry, the galley, the butchery, the recycling room... I've done a bunch of these on different ships, they start to blur together.

[david_sobe]

We did the behind the scenes tour on Getaway. It is expensive and I was not expecting much but boy was I wrong. I really liked going behind the scenes in the kitchen, garbage, laundry, entertainment and even going into the bridge. We got to see where the crew eats at their own cafeteria. But the reason for the high price is the photo they give you ($45 value easily). They took a photo of everyone separately working in the kitchen with a chef's hat on. NCL frames it in one of their professional photo package books. Every member of your party gets their own separate professional photo in one of those books. Very cool IMHO. I would have really enjoyed the tour more but I was so hung over that morning :eek:

[MadeInDetroit]

I did the platinum tour on Epic last January. Don't remember seeing any theater spaces, but I do remember the Tomahawk steak they pulled out of the reefer to show us! Is it true no one serves those any more? We'll be on Escape next month, love to get one.

[timf2001]

No free tours for Havens.

 

$80 gets you a 2 hour lecture on the cruise line and tour of the laundry, galley (with free photo), environmental and theater. Sign up at shore ex desk. Done on sea days. They discontinued the bridge tour after tee roost attacks in Paris a few Years back.

It's disappointing Norwegian doesn't include the bridge tour. It's obviously a corporate decision, as I did the tour on Royal Caribbean this summer and they included the bridge (but not the theater). That was the highlight of the tour and it included a peek into the officer suites.

[ncklhaus]

Just off the Breakaway yesterday. The Platinum Behind the Scenes tour was at 10am on Saturday, the Meet and Greet (which I organized) was at 11am. We went backstage in the Breakaway Theatre, saw the lifts and told how they change sets between Rock of Ages and Burn the Floor (a 3 hour process done at midnight), saw the giant bank of LED screens they used (really cool), then saw the dressing rooms with all the costumes and the sewing room with all the machines and the wiggery. Again really cool. We had a Q and A with the stage manager who was really informative.

After that we went to the laundry area. It was an unbelievable experience. I had no idea how huge this area was. I've got a bunch of pictures from there. No pictures were allowed during the theatre part. The Laundry Master came and showed us around there and answered lots of questions as well.

After that we were going to go to the galley, which was what I wanted to see most, but it was almost 11am and I needed to get to the Meet and Greet. They escorted a few of us that wanted to go there out from the laundry area and to the Meet and Greet.

They did offer a longer paid for tour on Thursday (the last sea day) for $79, but I didn't choose to go. Maybe next time.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for sharing the video.

Keith

[Clarea]

Check this youtube video:

Thanks for the link.:)

[dexddd]

I did the platinum tour on Epic last January. Don't remember seeing any theater spaces, but I do remember the Tomahawk steak they pulled out of the reefer to show us! Is it true no one serves those any more? We'll be on Escape next month, love to get one.

 

The places you go was pretty consistent for us but the last trip they swapped stage and dressing area for the environmental area. I guess they figure people find the stage and costumes more interesting than garbage and recycling.

[dexddd]

Just off the Escape and did the Platinum tour. It was about 90 minutes long, but not very informative. Listened to the stage manager drone on about the current shows (not one peep about the technical side of the theatre, which would have been interesting), then viewed the laundry facility, galley and what they call the I95 (long corridor that connects all of the crew areas). I was looking forward to the tour, but it was pretty boring. Definitely not worth any cash.

 

Did it overlap with the CC M&G - that seems to be the norm.

[bob brown]

I have been on both the paid tour, and the condensed Platinum tour, in the past, but since they have "dumbed it down", and eliminated the bridge tour, I declined the free Platinum tour on my last cruise. And, IIRC, they offer a galley tour free to all passenger's at some point.

 

I have done similar paid tours on many different lines....all considerably more expensive than what NCL charges...

The best one ever, was on the Carnival Vista....We toured the backstage and dressing room, the galley (where we were treated to some chocolate dipped strawberry's), down to "I-95" to see the laundry, storerooms, environmental area, engine control room, crew mess (dining room), crew bar, human resources (training room), the brig (!), the morgue (!!), both thankfully unoccupied, then finally up to the bridge, where photo's was taken with the Captain, and later given to all of us. At each stop, the department leader gave us a talk, and answered questions. At the conclusion of the almost 4 hour tour, we were given a champagne toast, and received a Carnival bag loaded with logo goodies....Well worth it....:cool:

[shof515]

I have done similar paid tours on many different lines....all considerably more expensive than what NCL charges...

The best one ever, was on the Carnival Vista....We toured the backstage and dressing room, the galley (where we were treated to some chocolate dipped strawberry's), down to "I-95" to see the laundry, storerooms, environmental area, engine control room, crew mess (dining room), crew bar, human resources (training room), the brig (!), the morgue (!!), both thankfully unoccupied, then finally up to the bridge, where photo's was taken with the Captain, and later given to all of us. At each stop, the department leader gave us a talk, and answered questions. At the conclusion of the almost 4 hour tour, we were given a champagne toast, and received a Carnival bag loaded with logo goodies....Well worth it....:cool:

i did the tour on the Carnival Vista cruise, on my tour in the gallery the chef allowed to try some of the cookies. Wow, they are amazing like hot of the oven fresh. soo much better then the cookies at the buffet

 

i never did any kind of tours on NCL yet. I am thinking of doing it on the Escape or i might wait a few more cruises until i turn platinum.

[dexddd]

I have been on both the paid tour, and the condensed Platinum tour, in the past, but since they have "dumbed it down", and eliminated the bridge tour, I declined the free Platinum tour on my last cruise. And, IIRC, they offer a galley tour free to all passenger's at some point.

 

I have done similar paid tours on many different lines....all considerably more expensive than what NCL charges...

The best one ever, was on the Carnival Vista....We toured the backstage and dressing room, the galley (where we were treated to some chocolate dipped strawberry's), down to "I-95" to see the laundry, storerooms, environmental area, engine control room, crew mess (dining room), crew bar, human resources (training room), the brig (!), the morgue (!!), both thankfully unoccupied, then finally up to the bridge, where photo's was taken with the Captain, and later given to all of us. At each stop, the department leader gave us a talk, and answered questions. At the conclusion of the almost 4 hour tour, we were given a champagne toast, and received a Carnival bag loaded with logo goodies....Well worth it....:cool:

 

No free galley tour on any NCL trips we've been on outside of Plat BTS tour.

[Loonbeam]

It's actually Captain's discretion (with the lines guidance being NOT to do it but they can) on many lines (NCL, Princess, Carnival and RCCL at least), but because of security measures in place it's actually very disruptive to bridge operations. Certain equipment has to be locked down or disabled, there needs to be additional security on the bridge, etc. Some lines require a metal detector check for bridge guests now in some cases. Plus, after the Concordia disaster there is a negative impression of guests on the bridge.

 

So in general other than the more social captains, they tend to exclude it. Our best was on Princess, where the Captain (who's name I am blanking on right now but was wonderful), not only allowed tours of the bridge but photos at the wheel AND invited us all into his ready room for snacks and conversation - the tour went almost an hour over because he kept talking). Whereas on NCL the bridge was excluded, on RCCL we got to peek in from a door where they had a tiny roped off section just inside, etc...

 

As to which locations are visited, that's set by the hotel director in consultation with the individual department heads. Certain locations are generally fixed - usually the laundry, galley and some form of food prep, others are often situational or based on the design of the ship and spaces (for example, to use Princess again, on the Coral class, they have a secondary engine room where the turbine is, so they can show that without dealing with any of the access/security concerns of main engineering, but you only see that on those ships. Or on the Escape they said they show the smaller venue as with the way the sets were staged for the current production it was very difficult to move a group through but for a different show they could do it more easily.)

 

Sometimes its just luck, we were on RCCLs Liberty and they were doing service on the ice rink so the person in charge offered to show the guts to the tour that day....

 

It's disappointing Norwegian doesn't include the bridge tour. It's obviously a corporate decision, as I did the tour on Royal Caribbean this summer and they included the bridge (but not the theater). That was the highlight of the tour and it included a peek into the officer suites.

[bob brown]

If they are skittish about actually allowing bridge visits, then I would hope they would include a "Bridge Viewing Room" on future design's (or redesign's)....IIRC, the only NCL ships featuring them, are the Spirit, Pearl, Gem, and Epic......