Escape, May 5th and May 16, B2B, Live Review

[Grumpella]

This will be my 24th (and 25th) cruise, and my 9th (and 10th) on NCL.  I have also cruised on Carnival, Royal, Celebrity, Holland, Princess, P and O and MSC.  This is my first B2B.

 

I will be in a solo inside cabin.  This is my first cruise as Platinum, so I am looking forward to the priority embarkation, priority tender at Cannes, free laundry and 2 specialty dinners.

 

I will be focusing my review on the excursions I take, as I find that information is often lacking or difficult to find.  I don't go to any shows or activities or bars, so there will be no information about that. lol

 

 

My plans:
Palma-  Let's Take a Selfie, NCL excursion

Cannes- Best of the Riviera, italytours.eu

Livorno- Cinque Terre, italytoursharing

Rome- Off the Beaten Path- Hilltop Towns, 
            NCL Excursion

Naples- Amalfi, italytoursharing

Messina- Small Group- Highlights of 
                Taormina, NCL excursion

Valletta- City of Knights and Medina,
               NCL excursion

Corfu- Mons Repos Palace and Corfu
            Town, NCL excursion

Dubrovnik- Dubrovnik at Leisure,
                   NCL excursion

Split- Ancient Salona and Trogir 
         Medieval City, NCL excursion

Next cruise:

Split- Split Old Town and Trogir
          Medieval City, NCL excursion

Dubrovnik- Scenic Dubronik by Land
                   and Sea, NCL excursion

Corfu- Small Group- Timeless Villages and
            Scenic Drive, NCL excursion

Messina- Savoca and Forza D'Agro: The
                Godfather Tour, NCL excursion

Naples- Amalfi, italytours.eu

Rome- Striking Hill-Top City of Orvieto,
            NCL excursion

Livorno- Best of Tuscany, italytours.eu

Cannes- Best of the Riviera, italytours.eu
 (this tour is a repeat of first week, but it has a little bit different stops due to Grand Prix in Monaco)

Palma- Palma in Depth, NCL excursion

Barcelona- Scenic Barcelona with Airport
                   Transfer, NCL excursion

 

I will be looking for the elusive cookies.  lol  I hope to find them in the Solo Lounge.  I certainly will be asking.

[Rusty Shacklefjord]

On 4/24/2024 at 1:43 PM, Grumpella said:

Cannes- Best of the Riviera, italytours.eu
 (this tour is a repeat of first week, but it has a little bit different stops due to Grand Prix in Monaco)

I’ll be on this one on May 24. I confirmed that Italy tours was skipping Monaco when I booked the tour because NCL did not offer any Monaco tours that weekend. 
 

I am curious to know how the tender process goes when you have an external tour group. Thank you in advance for sharing your experience.

 

Also, NCL emailed that they would modify arrival/departure times for several stops for May 16. Did they modify your May 5 cruise, too?

 

[Grumpella]

Yes, May 5th was also modified.

 

I notified Italytours so they are aware of the changes, they have forwarded to their logistics team.

 

If you book an NCL tour, your don’t need a tender “ticket”. I suggest you pay attention on the app the day before Cannes, to see if the book tender tickets button is not grayed out. I have seen it sometimes happen in the afternoon of the day before, but usually at night.

 

I am Platinum, so supposedly I can join the line at any time. Lol

 

So glad only 1 tender port.

[cruiselover19811981]

I will be following your review. We will be on the Escape for the second time in July for a 9 day itinerary out of Rome. Our first cruise on the Escape was in 2016, and it was our children's first cruise. They were 6 and 8 at the time. We loved the Escape for its Caribbean itinerary, it was new at the time,  but we look forward to experiencing it again in the Mediterranean now 8 years later. 

 

Will you be eating in the MDR at all? We will appreciate all of your shares information. We wish you a fantastic B2B upcoming voyage! 

 

 

[Grumpella]

First, thank you for the well wishes, some people on here are so mean.  lol

 

Yes, I will be eating in the MDR most nights, except for my 3 specialty dinners.  I don't like the buffet, I like to be waited on.  And I will be eating 2 breakfasts in there too, as most days the  ports are very early.  

 

Honestly though, I'm not much of a food critic.  I'm not too picky about food, I can eat pasta, pizza, fries, etc.. all the time. lol

 

I will definitely be hitting up the Gelato and the Bake Shop.

 

And 1 thing I am going to try that I have not done yet is O'Sheehan's for breakfast.  I like their lunch (and the carrot cake).  

[cruiselover19811981]

Thank you for your reply.

 

Your plans sound fantastic. You will certainly have a busy itinerary.

 

My family and I will be curious about breakfast options on your early morning port days, as we do not have one day at sea and we like to avoid the buffet whenever possible. We look forward to hearing about the breakfast at O'Sheehan's. 

 

If you could also share crew info e.g. cruise director, captain, etc. that would be appreciated. 

 

[bedfordmom]

Just off of the Escape tender tix were available at midnight two days prior. I have Sapphire status so got the first tender. . Ours was particularly chaotic as we were 6  hours late leaving Barcelona due to being last in queue to fill up w gas so all ship excursions ca

[Grumpella]

How did you get the first tender? In the app? On the onboard screens? At cruisenext?  Thanks

[Grumpella]

Sorry, I could care less who the captain, cruise director, etc. are, so I will not be noticing. Lol

 

[Jldevlin]

Just off the Escape 16 day Transatlantic.    Our 39th cruise and 12th with NCL.   Food is subjective as we all know. We are not picky but i like to eat !!! We found the food and the choices in the dining room to have been good to great !!. We have been on cruises where it has just been okay. This one we had trouble picking what to have because we wanted so many things on the menu but cant eat as much as we think we can. Service was fast and our wine glasses were never empty. It was a full ship and only felt that way in the Atrium where people camped out there all day and you could not get a seat ever.   Choir of man was a great show and one of the 3 comedians was funny..Casino was pretty good to one of us. Overall a really great cruise.

[Grumpella]

     I am flying out Friday on the "dreaded" Level Airlines, lol.  It is a direct flight from JFK and was $ 450 cheaper than the next cheapest flight, which was not direct.  

 

     I received an offer for $ 200 to upgrade to Premium class (there is no first class) on the way to Barcelona, which I happily accepted.  I had to pay another $ 39 to select my seat, but they refunded the $ 34 I paid to select my previous Economy seat.

 

     Their website is not the greatest and I was not able to originally select a seat in Premium class.  I did learn by calling their Customer Service number that while I have a booking code for Level Airlines, I also had a booking code for Iberia Airlines, which is a different booking code number that I did not know about.  I was able to use this other booking code on Iberia to select my seat in Premium and pay for it.

 

     If this flight s#&*ks, I will blame my husband who suggested it.  lol

 

     I am staying at a hotel near the airport, as I arrive late in the afternoon, with a free shuttle.

 

     I will be taking the free shuttle back to the airport in the morning for the NCL transfer, which starts at 9 am or 10 am or 11 am, depending on who answers the phone at NCL.  lol

 

     This will be my first time taking the NCL transfer to the ship.  I have taken the transfer several times from the ship to the airport and have been happy with the service.