bluesea777

Hey!! The ship is called ENCORE not Escape 😁

@fstuff1 your title says 4 nights in Bermuda …

Enjoying your almost daily reviews. Please keep it up, and enjoy the rest of your cruises!

I'm in Bermuda ... people need to realize that high surf and very rough seas arrive a couple of days (or so) before the actual tropical storm/hurricane winds. The small craft warning is now in effect for the rest of the week which makes swimming in the sea very unsafe.

We book our own air to get to the port city 2-3 days before sailing. No exceptions.

They check your name, cabin number & latitude from your laundry bag .... and check if your bag is gonna be a free one or not. So ... be aware. P.S. remember it's one free bag per person (of higher latitude standing), not per cabin, per week. Looks like you'll be receiving 4 free bags. Also you don't need to put the coupon in bag, just write your name, cabin # and latitude standing.

Have you done a Transatlantic? If not, come on down and join us on the Viva!! 😁

On the VIVA in Nov, right? 😁 See you in less than 4 weeks!

We were on the Spirit Rome to Dubai just before yours! Fantastic cruise. Crew rotate but they love being on the Spirit so you'll have great time!

@Saberk9 @Anoynmous Phoenix You'll LOVE the Spirit. We were on her for our two Alaskan b2b this past June. She is just right for the port intensive cruises.

We went to AK 3 days pre-cruise last May. Stayed overnight in Anchorage, took the early morning train (GoldStar dome option) to Seward and stayed in Seward for 2 nights. This is what we did, and we loved our pre-cruise stay in AK. We booked it all ourselves. Arrived in Anchorage at noon. Hotel was The Lakefront Anchorage hotel that is near the airport. Taxi was $10 a ride from airport to hotel I think. Hotel is okay - old (but all Anchorage hotels are old) but comfortable and reasonably priced (Downtown hotels are expensive!). Great thing is the hotel offers free shuttle service between hotel and Downtown Anchorage & back. After having been to downtown (twice) we felt we did right by booking cheaper hotel close to airport with free shuttle service rather than in downtown - that is dead after dinnertime. We booked a 3 pm float plane sightseeing tour - 30 minutes long (that was ample!!) - with Rust's Flying Service - inexpensive and fun. The hotel offered free early morning shuttle service (make sure to get to the bus about 20-30 mins before it leaves as it gets full fast!) from hotel to Anchorage Train depot for our 6:45 am train to Seward. This was a fantastic train ride. Make sure to get the Goldstar dome option. Upon arrival in Seward our hotel (Harbor 360) was a short walk, and the train personnel delivered our luggage to the hotel for us (!! Score!). Our room wasn't ready, so we walked around a bit and had lunch. Then we went on the free Seward shuttle to Sea Life - very good! We went to Ray's for dinner - so good that we went back there the following night. The crab legs there were the best we've ever had and were 1/2 the price of the ones in Juneau, Ketchikan, etc! The next morning saw us on the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise (7.5 hours Major Marine) and it was absolutely fantastic! After the fjords cruise we went to Ray's for dinner. After dinner we walked around the marina, so pretty! Next morning checked out of hotel and took the free Seward shuttle to the cruise terminal. Hotel took our luggage to the ship for us! Another Score!! Check-in was so easy - make sure you're there before 11:30 am (when the early morning train arrives from Anchorage downtown) or between 1-5 (before the train from Anchorage airport arrives). Don't get there too early as it opens at 11:00am. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Not on the ship, but it looks like @Rob_H is either busy or not getting good wifi signal, so I'll answer you. They missed both Japanese ports: Hakodate and Sendai before Tokyo because they had to take a longer route from Seward AK - 9 long sea days - to circumvent the two typhoons that were in the Pacific Ocean. These two ports weren't substituted. Next spring two NCL ships will do the transpacific: the Jewel eastbound from Tokyo to Seward in April, and the Spirit westbound from Vancouver to Tokyo via Seward in May. @Rob_H hope you two are well and enjoying the cruise & ship ... haven't seen your post for a while now 😉

@Lvbhappy ditto and we board on November 16, 4 weeks from today! Jim, don't drink the ship dry before we board!! 😁

Just remember that nowadays the Haven can always be full and possibly crowded (and with kids) on all ships that have Haven proper. This is due to winning upgrade bids.

Right on!!

Nvm

Come on ya’ll people, lay off telling the OP the bad points !!! They just want to go on a cruise out of NYC on Jan 2 and the NCL Getaway is about the only ship that fits their bill. Also, it’s the itinerary that is attracting them! From me to you OP the dealbreaker might be this … there are no formal nights on NCL ships … the Cunard ships do. Just ignore them and come to Bermuda 🇧🇲!!!

You might want to order/book a taxi/Uber to take you from NJ to NY Manhattan as the NY yellow cabs do not go to NJ.

Just go on the Getaway on Jan 2! You’ll enjoy the cruise - in your way and style. We have been on 29 NCL cruises and have had lovely time in each of them, we prefer their product. We haven’t had a bad cruise. If things go wrong for us we compensate or say forget it. We receive excellent service and like the food on the ships. We’ve been on Getaway and loved it. Transatlantic from Copenhagen to Miami. I see the bad reviews with a grain of salt and must say that some of them are over the line and not believable. P.S. before booking the cruise I would check the hotels in NYC first …. It’s New Year’s Eve ….

Amen! That's Europe, not North America! If you want water with your meals, ask for it and they deliver a bottle of water that you're going to pay for! We love mealtimes in Europe. 4 weeks to go and we're in Lisbon for glorious 3 days pre-cruise!

@sailingships please! It's CYPRUS not Cypress! You keep reminding me of the Cypress Gardens in Florida that I visited with my folks at age 6 in the 1960's. They had water-skiing shows! 😁

BOTH the Epic and Dawn are in Piraeus on 20th .... Dawn as a Transit stop and Epic as the new Disembark/Embark. The cruisetimetable one has not been updated to include the very recent inclusions.

Remember you’re sailing with 4000 other ppl, not 400.

That’s quite a list of bottles and their prices and it’s not on paper!!

@Dr_Moos welcome to Cruise Critic!