NCL Escape Review July 17-24, Italy, Greece, Croatia

[Bluestar01]

Slightly late to post the review. This was our cruise from Rome, Italy. 

We are family of 4, including two teen daughters, although cruised before on NCL as well as RCCL, but first time in Europe. Also first time made air travel arrangements through NCL. We went to Rome a couple nights before. The flights arranged by NCL were good, just one connection flying out from CVG however, for some reason we didn’t get to know the final flight info till 30 days out. 
We had booked pre cruise nights stay at Hotel Alberto Santa Chiara upon recommendation from CC members and that was the best decision. Very nice hotel and very convenient to all major attractions within walking distance. We had booked a taxi service through the hotel for transfer from FCO to the hotel, most reasonable quote compared to some I found online, it was€75 in cash to the driver. There were plenty of nice restaurants near the hotel to dine, eat gelato, get baker fresh items etc.

from the hotel to the cruise port we had booked limo service through Rome Chauffeur for €150, again reasonable compared to other places we had looked online. The limo driver was very prompt and friendly and knew English, otherwise, the language was a bit of an issue everywhere. At the port the check in process was very smooth and very quick. We had taken Covid tests through emed online proctored service on the day we left from home which was 3 days before the cruise departure, which was great because we could do it from comfort from our home, just had to get up super early 😀 

 

 

[Bluestar01]

The most recent cruise ship we were on was RCCL Allure, Escape felt a bit smaller but definitely much manageable. The elevators were at right places, and the cruise ship was at 3400 passengers compared to 5000. Having sailed on NCL cruise ships earlier, we were familiar with the AFT, FW, dining rooms, theater etc layouts. Our cabin was a family balcony midship, close to the elevators and on port side. It was typical balcony cabin with typical NCL interior. I like their extra shelves under the TV area 

about for keeping things away. NCL has started giving out complementary 2 bottles of water for their latitude members as compared to champagne bottle we have received in the past 🤔

 

in spite of less passengers the pools were always crowded and the hot tubs were always full of young kids and teens, even in adult area, sometimes even in Spice H2O, neither the travelers were following the rules nor the employees were enforcing them 😡

 

As soon as we got on board we went to the garden cafe for buffet lunch. The spread was good covering everything from deli meat, hot stuff as well as Indian and Asian fair. 
 

more later

[mapleleaves]

yay , a trip report !  Thx for taking the time to post.  Look forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

[Bluestar01]

Just in short, the first day at sea was a success, no hiccups, the cabins were ready promptly at noon, the luggage arrived by late afternoon. Our family decided to spend time on the rope course, and just touring the ship. Sail away was at prompt 6 pm. We had dinner reservations at Le Bistro which was excellent as usual, in fact this time around all specialty restaurants were a notch up in service and food quality. We were told because of less # of guests the crew could spend more time.

 

The next day was a day at Sea, after morning walk, we went to Savor for breakfast and that was a bit disappointing, the waffles my daughter ordered were very chewy even the banana was overripe. The service was a bit slow. We spent the morning at the casino, in the arcade area at O’Sheehan’s and the afternoon by the pool, in the hot tub, doing the slides etc. The beverage service at the pool and at the atrium both were really good. My husband likes to attend the art auctions, which had some nice art work, but mostly the same and we also attended latitudes exclusive reception. Few officers were greeting the guests there, eg hotel manager, cruise director etc. There was also a presentation by cruise next crew. We had lunch at the buffet and dinner at the seafood specialty restaurant, Bayamo. Food was ok there, the ambience was nice, but the fish was overdone. The Sugarcane mojito bar by the restaurant has the best mojitos ever. One thing is with the beverage pkg we could also get soda and although we had beverage pkg just for us we could still get soda for our daughters. I don’t know if this is new, or just limited to Europe cruises, because haven’t seen that one before. 
The teen club, entourage as well as Splash academy for younger kids was open on the ship, but heard from other fellow passengers that they were short staffed and never had enough space. The teen club had some scheduled activities such as the dodgeball game, ping pong tournament etc but mostly the teens just gathered around in different parts of the ship.overall the organization was poor. 

[Bluefox]

4 hours ago, Bluestar01 said:

The teen club, entourage as well as Splash academy for younger kids was open on the ship, but heard from other fellow passengers that they were short staffed and never had enough space. The teen club had some scheduled activities such as the dodgeball game, ping pong tournament etc but mostly the teens just gathered around in different parts of the ship.overall the organization was poor. 

ugh! This scares me because we had a terrible time getting our kids into Splash Academy on Getaway last month. I really want to book another cruise but this is the kinda thing I don't want to have to deal with on vacation. It was pretty stressful, the kids love it and get very depressed if they don't make it in. The que and the app were a mess. I found this post by search "Splash Academy" and was hoping to see better reviews on another ship, but I fear this is now a company wide issue... 

[Bluestar01]

On 7/31/2022 at 1:54 AM, Bluefox said:

ugh! This scares me because we had a terrible time getting our kids into Splash Academy on Getaway last month. I really want to book another cruise but this is the kinda thing I don't want to have to deal with on vacation. It was pretty stressful, the kids love it and get very depressed if they don't make it in. The que and the app were a mess. I found this post by search "Splash Academy" and was hoping to see better reviews on another ship, but I fear this is now a company wide issue... 

unfortunately you are right, this maybe the case for at least sometime now. Last yr we cruised on RCCL, first cruise post Covid, and my cousins daughter wasn’t eligible for vaccinations yet and mostly wanted to spend time in kids club, due to vaccinated unvaccinated restrictions on board but because of staff issues, the no of children on the ship as well as limited capacity due to Covid mitigations she hardly got to be there, spent a lot of time in her cabin instead. Hope all this gets better soon.

[Bluestar01]

Moving on...

This was a port heavy itinerary with a stop at a port all remaining days. 

 

Day3: Dubrovnik, Croatia

This was our DIY port. After reading through CC and tripadvisor etc we were comfortable with DIY. There was a shuttle from port to Pile gate cost Euro 15/pp according to rep at guest services and he gave us the sticker to ride the shuttle and wrote down our cabin# but I don't remember paying them or seeing anything in our invoice and also I feel it should had been 15kuna/pp, Yes, Dubrovnik has different currency, we were adviced to get some, but we didn't just used euros or card while at the port. The shuttle took us right in front of the entrance to the old town. It was very crowded and once entered the old town we bought tickets to walk the city walks, now this is something I never read anywhere to be this expensive but it was 250 kuna/pp. The walk of the city walls was very interesting, magnificant, and tiring at the same time. It took us 1.5-2 hrs to complete the entire walk, later after eating and roaming around int he old town we got out and walked to the trolly attraction, where the cable car takes you to the top of Mt. Srd. There were amazing views fromt he top of the mountain. After coming back fromt he cable car we walked downhill to the beach asking for directions to several people. Finally ended up at Banje Beach resturant where after buying a couple drinks we got  access to the restrooms changing as well as could sit there right by the Adriatic Sea. 

 

Day 4: Corfu, Greece

Another DIY port for us.

We were told that there are taxis out there as soon as one gets off the port that can take to the town center for 10Euros/pp, however, although there were several taxis there the rate was whatever they quote you, we waited till we found someone who was ready to go for 10 euros/pp. At the city center there were different ways to got to the old fort and the new fort, somehow we ended up climbing the new fort first and also browsed through several shops for soveniers etc. While chatting with a couple of local young ladies we were told to go to Kontogialos beach which was most popular with locals, or Gluyada which is more touristy, however none of the taxi drivers we asked around would take us there. It was also very difficult to find a taxi. Finally we ended up going to Dassia beach, which wasn't bad either, just a bit pebbly, but plenty of lounge chairs available for rental. Luckily the taxi driver was very nice and he gave us his# to call him when we were ready to go back to the ship. Food and the service at the beach resturant was good as well.