schmoopie17

Been to Omaha many times. Had a son at Creighton, so had many (excellent) meals there. But I would never order fish in a town known for its steaks.

That would be my preferred plan, as well. However, the basic beer menu on NCL is pretty pathetic. Unless you're on a ship with a District Brewhouse, your choices are extremely limited.

We did those exact same tours with italytours.eu and I completely agree with your assessments. We did, however, go to both Monaco and Eze, but the grumpy (no offense, @Grumpella) tour guide was a bit of a turn-off. Maybe you had the same guy.

We had decided to stay on the ship for our stop in Cannes in a couple of months, as we have been there before...plus it's a tender, which we hate. However, I may need to re-think that plan now...although Mrs. Schmoopie may veto it.

As others have said, you can avoid noise by choosing strategic locations. However, you may still have noise of another kind if you choose a balcony cabin on the Prima. Our cabin, as well as many others that have been reported on CC, had a constant loud rattling of the wall containing the balcony door. It seems to be a congenital problem with that generation of ship, as I've also read reports of this phenomenon on the Viva, as well.

Carp? I think you misspelled another word...

Good old NCL. What is wine "testing"? You ask the wine questions to see how smart it is?

Okay, now you've done it. We were in Cannes in 2022 and we did the excursion to Nice, Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze. We're stopping at Cannes again in September and we had planned to make this a "sea day", since we had been to Cannes and we despise tendering...plus our cruise has no "regular" sea days. We figured we'd have the ship to ourselves. But after seeing these pictures, (excluding the dog pooping sign) it's very tempting to jump ship that day. We'll see what Mrs. Schmoopie ultimately decides (although she still has some mobility issues, and from what I've read. Le Suquet can be challenging for the mobility challenged.

In my post earlier in this thread, I mentioned that we were charged taxes on drinks in all four of our Spain ports in November, 2022. What I didn't mention was that this was a TA, so it definitely was not a R/T Barcelona cruise. In fact, it originated in Rome/Civitavecchia.

The paparazzi are more vicious and aggressive than the mamarazzi.

I have an itch to get back to Europe. We're going in September. Proof that I can itch without mosquitoes. And if they're there, what's a little extra itching?

Cannes is in France. Marie Antoinette is French. Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake." Enough said...

You took the words right out of my mouth. (Sorry for the saliva). We have had ports dropped after final payment with ZERO compensation. While I feel your disappointment, at least you got something. More than most people get.

I honestly cannot remember the last time we had dinner in the buffet. We've always had great food and service in the MDR and Specialty Restaurants. For us, the buffet is an occasional quick stop for chocolate croissants and coffee at breakfast...or a couple slices of pizza at lunch to take to the pool...or a take-away cone of tasteless ice milk. Other than that, the buffet is an afterthought.

You won't be sorry. The Escape is a great ship...been on her once and going on her again in September. Good luck whatever you decide.

Absolutely correct. The average NFL game probably has at least 85% of the attendees living in that city and/or state. The Super Bowl is a whole different animal. The vast majority of attendees will be coming from somewhere else, disrupting transportation, restaurants and most other services. The morning of the game should be a zoo. If the port is nearby to the stadium, as you say, I wouldn't touch that cruise with a 20-foot pole. Especially with the need to fly in no later then the day before and the cost of hotels and flights. Unless you're locked into that date for your cruise, I'd look elsewhere.

All those darn smokers at Spice H20 up to no good again...

I might have said she keeps re-HASHing the same subject.

Sounds like one of the magicians on NCL made it disappear and then re-appear. Oh wait, none of the magicians are "that" good...

If I ever consumed that much gelato and granita, brain freeze would be a thing. Of course, many on CC have accused me of having a frozen brain.

In looking at the Joy for an upcoming trip, I notice that some of their balcony cabins are labeled as "PrivaSea" on more than one website. In researching "PrivaSea" I see several such cabins on the Gem (and possibly other older ships). The balcony is actually like an enclosed area...almost like a Cove balcony on Carnival, and much different than the open space of a "regular" balcony. On the Joy, all of the "PrivaSea" cabins are on the corners where the ship bends, just out, or whatever. All of those cabins are depicted as angled. An example is cabin 11806. I assume that's why they're called "PrivaSea", due to the neighbors having a more difficult time looking into your balcony. But we've had angled balconies before on the Escape, and I don't see where those cabins are called "PrivaSea". I just want to make sure we wouldn't be getting an enclosed balcony if we end up picking one of the Joy's angled "PrivaSea" balconies.

Matador and Grass Clippings are my two favorites.

I agree that Free at Sea is a misnomer. It's not Free...and half the time you're not even at Sea. How about "Not Really Free and sometimes you're Docked"? Nah, doesn't flow off the tongue. But, it's still better than paying by the drink (especially if you're like us and one of the main perks of cruising is the drink package.) Trust me, we get more than our money's worth.

@Sugar Magnolia What did you do in Messina? We'll be there in a couple of months and there seems to be nothing to do there except look up at the mechanical clock. I've seen clocks before...even mechanical ones. I grew up with a cuckoo clock, after all. We're probably going to end up in Taormina, along with 95% of our fellow Escapites...

Speaking of which, it looks like the Escape is sitting in a parking lot. Maybe it's just me. It usually is.