NCL Escape – Italy/Greek Isles 6/30/22 Review

[barbuda]

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.

[jkrelph]

Thank you for the review.   What day were you told Athens/Mykonos switch.  We have a tour booked in Athens to go out to the winery and ruins... Not sure if they will switch around....

 

[Andros]

Thanks for taking the time for your review.  It is greatly appreciated.  We'll sail in Nov.  Glad you were able to enjoy yourselves despite the port changes. 

[barbuda]

14 hours ago, jkrelph said:

Thank you for the review.   What day were you told Athens/Mykonos switch.  We have a tour booked in Athens to go out to the winery and ruins... Not sure if they will switch around....

 

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.