bluesea777

The lifeboats are tucked in so you should be able to see the sea below from your balcony anywhere on ship.

Actually I’m on the STAR sailing in CALM seas enroute to Akureyri Iceland from Longyearbyen Svalbard! Fantastic cruise so far all way from Tromsø Norway. But we have friends housesitting for us and they have been having good weather albeit some rain.

After seeing the two itineraries, I would pick the Escape one - more southerly route, and warmer!

With 30 NCL cruises under our belt, and 7 TAs .... We prefer smaller ships (like Pearl et al) for port intensive/few sea days, no matter how long the cruise is. For the TAs with lots of sea days we prefer bigger ships - Epic and above - more space, more dining venues, bars, activities, etc. We did one TA on the Jade (sister ship to Pearl) and we found the ship a bit too small for the 14 days TA with many sea days. But we went on the Jewel (another sister ship to Pearl) for 19 days Singapore to Sydney and loved it.

Means the rescue/medevac helicopters cannot land, so they use cable/winch to ferry people up/down.

Not with the Samsung Galaxy A models - they do not have pop out for the SIM cards!

That was what our friend did last year, but be careful the free wifi are often unsecured. He is so happy with his new S phone now that he'll enjoy it more!

No, Airalo will NOT work on Galaxy A models, at all!! Get the S model, Airalo works on these S models. Last year a friend cruised with us and he had the A model and Airalo didn't work and we found out the A models do not support eSims. This year, he swapped his phone with a S model and we were able to load Airalo on his new phone and get it to work. We fly out in 3 days' time! May I add, my DH, DS, his GF, other friends and myself included, use Airalo a lot and they work good! We are able to reuse the eSims when we revisit the country or region. Just buy and activate the top ups. When you're on the airplane and on airplane mode, turn off the active esim first and turn on the next esim (make sure you've named each esim accordingly, e.g. Home, USA, North America, Europe, Portugal, etc). This way, when you land and turn off the airplane mode, the esim kicks in (usually a minute or 2) and you're good to go. We are in Bermuda, BTW. Our ISP/Cell offers unlimited roaming at $13 per day - no thanks!! - and we need to make sure the Home esim and data are completely turned off before we land in foreign country or we get incurred the first day's roaming charge!

Place towels on floor around overflowing toilet and when wet, take photos with your phone and go down to Guest Services and show them the photos.

One way cruises are OK I think, but maybe they charge taxes on R/T cruises out of Barcelona. I read about this (the R/T ones) last year. Our son will be on the Escape R/T Barcelona this coming November.

Escape’s last dry dock was in Oct 2022. Maybe they’re revising her itineraries and possibly home-port.

The world's most Northernmost botanical garden is not in Akureyri but in TROMSO, Norway, that is way above the Arctic Circle. About 99% of Iceland is below the Arctic Circle.

No, better to switch to the week after. No embarkation/disembarkation fiasco.

@jrt.mom @tcmagnum Available only on Epic, Breakaway, Getaway, Escape, Joy, Bliss, Encore, Prima, Viva. Older ships do not have dedicated Studio Lounge or Studio cabins.

Prima is DOCKED ... first visit to Isafjordur this year, and first time docked. No, correction: it's Prima's first time to Isafjordur ever!!

Great review and pictures! Can you please enlighten us on your travel from Venice Mestre to Trieste? Would love to read about it, asking for a friend (and ourselves!). Thanks!

Simple extension cord - 2 prong ones: Woods 603W 15-Foot Cube Extension Cord with Power Tap; White - Amazon.com Only ship I didn't need to use an extension cord was the Viva ((also Prima). My 15' extension cord is always in my carry on bag along with my CPAP.

Our fave is #462 and we take the unopened bottle home to enjoy.

Yes, and also did you go grey or change your hair colour/style since the last time you cruised? I’m for re-inputting the details every time we do online check in.

Thanks @KeithJenner to pointing out that I wasn't entirely correct with what I posted. I was posting what was coming out of my memory but now I've seen the deckplans for Escape I would like to correct what I said. That 5 O'clock place (now Syd Norman Pour house) on deck 8 is directly below the expensive deck 9 Club Balcony cabins ... so noise was a real factor that the M* occupants complained bitterly ... so whatever venues going on in that place had to be during the day and finish early. This occurred during the Escape's maiden TA voyage back in 2015 that we went on.

Always on local time.

Which ship? We’re eying at the Sky one! Great review again. Glad you enjoyed the Viva.

I saw that on NCL for the first time a few days ago, and thought about you. It makes sense that they switched the dis/embark port from Tromsø to Copenhagen. Also the other ports in Norway are good! Alaska is great, but better on smaller ships. We did b2b on Spirit (with longer port hours) last year and it was wonderful. If we do it again it’d be b2b again with Glacier Bay thrown in. 5 weeks to go for us … Svalbard here we come!

Forget the early check in time, leave luggage at hotel and go out to sightsee and have lunch. Then return to hotel to retrieve luggage and head to the ship at around 2-3pm. By then you’ll be breezing thru the check in and get on ship in no time, and your cabin will be ready. Ships do get crowded from noon until 2 pm with ppl milling around ship with hand luggage waiting for their rooms to be available.

It's the Gem's turn ... Great views of the 2nd day of SailGP from OL!