barbuda

We have sailed on both the Epic and Escape and both were good experiences. My only issue (as stated above) is the bathroom setup on the Epic which is very odd with a sink next to your sofa/bed and just a curtain to close off the bath/shower. Epic has Ice Bar (additional fee) that is fun to experience, and first ship we were on with an escalator. Escape was lovely with a waterfront on deck 8 for lounging in more patio style seating and the drinks flow freely between the bars on each end. Drafthouse was great with lots of selections. If I had to pick one over the other, probably would go with the Escape, but either one would be fine just to be able to sail 🙂

We booked Hotel Miro in Bilbao as it seems to be a quick walk to Guggenheim and area cafes. Looking forward to enjoying a bit of the city before we board ship. Side note, if you are wanting to go to the Guggenheim, they are closed on Mondays (ship sails late Tues so that may be an option to get it in in time).

We have been on both as well, and I would probably choose Escape over Epic mainly due to the room configuration (that bathroom set up is awkward). Loved the waterfront on the Escape and the beer district! Epic has an escalator (first time we encountered one on a ship) that helps moving along versus using elevators. Epic also has ice bar which is a novelty thing to do once. Overall - Escape is the choice for us in this debate, but both have their own unique things.

We did the Escape in July 2022 in the Med/Greek Isles - it was great. Found the ship to be somewhat busy, but never had to wait to get service for drinks, nor wait long for MDR. Ship was about 3/4 full according to staff. Favorite area for us was the waterfront - what a relaxing area and close to the drafthouse and a couple other outside bars along that side for your convenience. We were so busy on shore (lots to see) that we didn't even make any shows. My only other suggestion is if you are intending to use their shore excursions, book them early, or use the on board kiosk for shore excursions as they will tell you immediately how many spots are left (the website just throws an error if they are oversold). We are headed out in mid Sept on the Gem - we know this is a smaller ship, but looking forward to it nonetheless as we are just happy to be cruising to some new ports. It will be interesting to see if the ship fills up during this time frame.

I have had a couple PCC's over the years and 1 was very responsive to all my emails, but has since left. The other (just recently) was super efficient and very responsive up until I booked our cruise for Sept! After I booked I had a couple questions, emailed/vmailed and have never heard back from her. So sad as I thought she would be my go-to for future cruises but I guess I'll just use the chat and hope for the best on the next time I wish to book.

We are also looking for hotel recommendations for Bilbao - arriving Mid Sept and spending 2 days prior to embarkation.

Totally understand the concern of flying in the day of embarkation. We used NCL air last year for our cruise out of Rome. We took the chance and flew in the day of cruise (have to say very stressful on me as there were 6 of us in our family group that I was arranging this whole trip). We had excellent flights in and out of Rome back to Chicago (direct over and only a stop in Lisbon home). We didn't take the deviation in Rome as the cost of hotels and transportation were very costly, so we decided to chance it and it all worked out well. I questioned it many times with PCC and was told they really didn't have any issues with missing flights/cruise. I think flying international might be a bit less of a headache than flying within the states these days as that seems to be more unreliable. With all this being said, we are headed out on another European cruise out of Bilbao Spain in Sept, and due to this being a much smaller airport, we decided to go in 2 days early and the hotel/transportation costs are much less than they were in Rome. All in all, I trust NCL will do their best to accommodate you as I truly think they want to provide the best they can and have you as a return customer. Fly/Sail safe - enjoy your time and RELAX and HAVE FUN!

Its really very easy to get into any of the main dining places at most any time. We were a group of 6 and made most of the reservations for the main dining once on board as we weren't sure how the days were going to go with excursions and such. Never had an issue waiting anywhere.

We were told the day before we were scheduled to go to Mykonos that they were switching days. It was a bit of a scramble to make the switches and to cancel the tour and dinner reservations I had booked, but all worked out fine.

Embarkation – very quick and easy. No lines and everything goes quick if you have all your paperwork done prior. Do the check in on the app, take a printed copy of neg COVID test, and provide COVID card to check in and you will be good to go thru easily. Excursions A week prior to cruise we were notified that Corfu port was being cancelled. No idea why, but that became a sea day. First stop Santorini. Very busy port and we weren’t able to get any shore excursion as they were all booked. Try to book all excursions thru the app prior if you can as they do sell out quickly. Our issue was we had 6 in our group (3 cabins), and it was difficult to get all of us at the same time to try to book one prior. It would have been nice to know how many spots were available thru the app, but it doesn’t show that. TIP: if you use the kiosks on the ship, each port and excursions show you how many spots available. We just took the lift (6 euro roundtrip) to the top, walked around a bit and had lunch. Then we were told that Athens and Mykonos would have to switch port days due to having too many ships in one of those ports. We had to scramble to switch dinner reservations as well as shore excursions. We had booked Viator for Athens, so we had to cancel and were not able to reschedule for the new day. Fortunately, we ran into someone that suggested we try PK Tours – we did and was able to do a last minute booking for a full day Athens tour. It was fabulous and actually was about half the cost of the Viator tour we originally booked. We did not get to go to Mykonos due to high winds – we couldn’t port. Another sea day. On to Malta. We took the half day bus tour around the island, then did some walking around Valetta. Take the lift to get to the city center (1 euro round trip). We didn’t have to provide any proof of COVID vax when we got off ship (although it said you need to have it available). Super hot here – it was 102 F. Messina next stop. We did the lava wine tour. Stopped at the cameo factory, then a lava flow from Mt Etna, then off to the winery. This is the San Michele winery – there is another tour that calls out just visiting this winery, but that was sold out, so we had to take this one. We didn’t know that it was the same winery – only difference was the two additional stops. Naples – we did the half day Pompei tour. Nice to take this early morning as it too gets quite hot. After the tour we went into city center to have some pizza and brews. Livorno – We did a half day winery tour. Pitti Winery – very nice afternoon. Two in our group also took the Pisa & trolley tour (the trolley is actually a little train like you will see in other ports) in the morning, but were back in time to join us for the winery tour. Restaurants We did Cagneys and Le Bistro for our specialty restaurants. Cagneys outstanding, Le Bistro was good, but not exceptional as it has been on other ships. We noticed that the other specialty restaurants didn’t seem to be used much. La Cacina maybe, but Bayomo, Pinchos, Teppanyaki, American Diner (what a loser place this is = pay for a burger or hot dog when you can get it for free in the café??) all seemed to be vacant most of the time. As for the main restaurants – it should be noted that Taste, Savor, Manhattan will all have the same menu for the day, its just a matter of which venue you want to use. We like Taste venue the best – quieter. If you go to Manhattan, be aware that they have very loud live music playing during your dinner and makes it very difficult to have any table conversation. Somewhat of a joke that you have to make reservations for these restaurants when they really weren’t full. I suggest making as many as you can prior to cruising – if you don’t end up showing up within 15 mins of your reservation, your table will be gone. Not a big deal if you’re a no show, but at least you have the option to go if you want to. Garden Café seemed to always have something for everyone. O’sheehans is great for always having wings and snacks for late night. Bars We used District Brewhouse, Cellars outside on deck 8, Sugarcane Mojito and Tobacco Road the most. All great service. Pool bar gets crazy during the day – so we tried to get drinks in other places. The Mixx and the Atrium bar had slow service and seemed to not have ample stock, so just be patient if you want to go there. Pour House was hardly ever open, but they did have the outside part open for ‘events’ at certain times. Entertainment Another joke that you have to make reservations once on board if you want to go to anything other than Headliners. What ever happened to just being able to walk into the theater or walk out if it wasn’t something you cared to watch. Needless to say, everything was sold out by the time we got there, so we only went to Headliners. Disembarkation – we were first off at 7am due to an early flight back to the US. Everything went very smoothly. Overall we enjoyed this cruise – these were ports we really wanted to see. Sorry we missed a couple, but during these times its difficult to staff many of these excursions and also dependent on weather. I wasn’t as impressed with the layout of the Escape as I was when we were on the Epic, but each ship has its own identity. Ship was about 70% full – about 3100 passengers. Nice space and never felt crowded. What I really enjoyed on the Escape was the wonderful waterfront on deck 8 on both sides of the ship. It is a nice quiet place to relax comfortably and get service. Hope you all enjoy your upcoming cruises as much as we enjoyed ours.

We just came off this cruise on Sunday. I do have all the freestyle dailys, but will need to scan them in. Are you just looking for the time schedule pages?

We just returned from Italy/Greek Isle cruise on Sunday. We used the 2 for 1 airfare and it all worked out great. We flew direct to Rome from Chicago on UA - 1 checked bag free and allowed us to choose a seat in economy plus. We were a bit skeptical as we actually flew in the day of the cruise (left the night before of course) and everything went without a hitch. The way back from Rome, we flew to Lisbon, then Chicago on TAP. 1 checked bag free, and also allowed for us to choose seats. We had no issues with any of the flights. We were lucky - and there were 6 of us!

Thanks so much for the response! We leave in 3 days....one less thing to worry about. Off to get the pre-cruise testing done - fingers crossed our group is all negative!

Wondering if anyone out there has recently sailed on the Escape to Malta and whether or not we still have to fill out the forms on Verifly? I've heard different stories that it isn't needed anymore, yet NCL has it listed as needing the app and getting your vax and neg test uploaded in order to get off the ship.

Thank you for the insight - much appreciated. One other question, did you also have to provide a neg covid test there, or did you just submit covid vax card on the Verifly app? When I submitted my card (as I thought that was all I had to do), it came in with another question about having a neg test.