Last Minute Cruise on The Escape, Couple Questions

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So we pulled the trigger and just booked the Escape out of NY for a 7 night Bermuda Cruise August 4th. I was excited to get checked in today and start making some reservations only to be let down. We were considering buying a dining package but even 30 days out all the decent time slots are booked for most of the restaurants. Is it true the only open up a percentage of booking online and leave a large part for on board booking? Will I be able to jump on the ship first thing and get my desired time slots? Which is 5-6? We like to get dinner out of the way early. 

 

Didn't have the cash for a balcony but we booked a inside. The take all offers with the balcony made it really enticing though. If there were still balcony open close to the cruise and we wanted to upgrade and take advantage of the offers we would have to cancel and re book correct? 

 

I booked through a TA. Can somebody fill me in on how the whole bidding for an upgrade works? Is this something I can do under my ncl online account? 

 

Thanks for the help

[FitchburgWIFamily]

I can't help too much with the bidding/TA thing. 

 

But don't worry about the dining thing.  I have sailed on the Escape twice, both times it was a very full ship (once was spring break and I think the ship was at capacity). I didn't make dinner reservations a head of time.  We were able to get a party of 10 into Moderno on the first night, a party of four into the french restaurant on the second at sea day,  and we were able to call up and get reservations on the last day for a party of 8 at 8 at Cagney's.

 

Try to make reservations on board:  you can do it the first day while waiting for your cabin to be ready: they will have a number of stations set up for you to do it.  Or you can do it any time during the cruise, too.  And even if you don't make them  in advance, you can still do it during your cruise, especially if you are flexible.  People's plans change, things open up, and you would be surprised at what you can get.  You can always call up a restaurant and say "when can you get me in" and see what they can do.

 

We never had reservations for the main dining rooms (Manhattan, Savor, Taste) and never had to wait more than a few minutes for a table.

 

Good luck and have fun on your cruise!

 

 

 

[Two Wheels Only]

Reservations open 130 days out for Haven guests and 120 days out for everyone else. Only about 1/3 of reservations are open online and tbe remaining 2/3 open on embarkation day.

 

Make your reservations as soon as you board or if you can, connect to the ship's wifi while you wait to board and use the app to make reservations.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Two Wheels Only

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Thanks 

 

Getaway was our first NCL cruise a few years ago. I remember boarding and looking at the displays are the restaurant bookings when we first got on and them be pretty open. We made the mistake of waiting and after the first day they were all pretty full. 

 

I not very flexible. I really like to knock dinner out early. We try to stay very active in the evenings so it just make things easier to get dinner done before and of the evening activities ramp up. But like you said we can just jump on and take care of it. 

 

Honestly though after reading the horror stories and about the decline of the quality in the special restaurants I am thinking other wise. The pricing is a little outrageous compared to carnival. The tapas bar and food republic seem like a great option for us though. 

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5 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

Reservations open 130 days out for Haven guests and 120 days out for everyone else. Only about 1/3 of reservations are open online and tbe remaining 2/3 open on embarkation day.

 

Make your reservations as soon as you board or if you can, connect to the ship's wifi while you wait to board and use the app to make reservations.

Good tip

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Also has anybody stayed in an inside cabin on this breakaway class. It seems substantially smaller then any other line. We mostly stay in insides so that isnt a huge issue but from the pictures the lack of storage looks to be a big problem. 

[McFins]

Hi there.  We sailed a couple of weeks ago. As soon as we got on board we made restaurant reservations and had our pick of any of the restaurants for any night for the 5:30-6:00 timeframe. We selected La Cucina, Teppenyaki and Moderno each on a sea day.   All were great.  We didn’t have a reservation but just showed up at  Pinchos at 5:00 ish one evening (a port day) and got right in (in fact no one else was even there ).  Loved it.    

Happy sailing! 

 

[flarad]

3 hours ago, tap_out said:

Also has anybody stayed in an inside cabin on this breakaway class. It seems substantially smaller then any other line. We mostly stay in insides so that isnt a huge issue but from the pictures the lack of storage looks to be a big problem. 

We  had an inside on the Getaway last year July 4th week. It is SMALL. I used one of those shoe racks that hang and it was a life saver. I didn’t do this but afterwards I thought that the packing cubes you can buy on amazon would really help in this situation. 

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1 hour ago, flarad said:

We  had an inside on the Getaway last year July 4th week. It is SMALL. I used one of those shoe racks that hang and it was a life saver. I didn’t do this but afterwards I thought that the packing cubes you can buy on amazon would really help in this situation.  

Thanks for the tip. Pretty sure my wife has one of those shoe hanging racks