Confusing Escape itinerary

[purplecow15]

Just realized that our cruise on the  Escape ( September 14-24th Rome to Rome.)  is part of  3 cruises that intersect on some dates that month. There is one

September 10-20th

September 14-24th

September 20-29th

It looks like when we embark in Rome on the 14th there will already be passengers on board. On the 20th some will be disembarking. when we dock in Barcelona  while others are embarking. 

I don’t remember ever being on a ship with that kind of scheduling. Has anyone ever experienced this? Wondering how NCL will handle it. Some will be getting off in port for excursions etc.. while all this is happening.

Edited April 8 by purplecow15

[hallux]

Because there are fewer restrictions on port-to-port transport of passengers than there are in the US I believe this is fairly common on cruises in Europe.

[Asawi]

They are doing the same thing in June. Barcelona 4-14, Rome 8-18, Barcelona 14-24 or something like that. Very confusing! 

[KeithJenner]

Yes, this is very common, especially on this itinerary. NCL have been doing this, originally on the Epic, on Western Med itineraries for about 15 years now.

 

We have done a similar itinerary (when it was a 7 day cruise on the Epic) a number of times. We always embarked in Barcelona, which was the main embarkation port (cruise days were numbered from there and most people embarked there) and it was barely even noticeable from there.

 

There used to be comments on here from

people who embarked in Rome saying that they had issues with things already having been booked or similar, but I think that the numbers of people embarking in each port is probably a bit more even these days so it probably isn’t as much of an issue.

 

There may be a few minor issues but it shouldn’t be a big deal.

[schmoopie17]

2 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

 

There used to be comments on here from

people who embarked in Rome saying that they had issues with things already having been booked or similar, but I think that the numbers of people embarking in each port is probably a bit more even these days so it probably isn’t as much of an issue.

 

We're on this same cruise from Rome...just like the OP. This will be our first cruise as Platinum, which is disappointing because all of the Wines Around the World and Behind the Scenes Tour will already be taken by people boarding in Barcelona a few days earlier. 

[KeithJenner]

5 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

We're on this same cruise from Rome...just like the OP. This will be our first cruise as Platinum, which is disappointing because all of the Wines Around the World and Behind the Scenes Tour will already be taken by people boarding in Barcelona a few days earlier. 

I don’t know what the current situation is, but you may be ok.

 

It could be that they keep some spaces available for people boarding in Rome and there may be a wines around the world during the Barcelona to Rome

leg that you would have first shot at booking.

 

If they have the behind the scenes tour straight after Barcelona (it used to be first day after Barcelona on the Epic, which was a sea day) then again you may be able to book that before others board as well.

[hallux]

7 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

because all of the Wines Around the World and Behind the Scenes Tour will already be taken by people boarding in Barcelona a few days earlier.

But won't you have the opportunity to book those for the days after they leave?  Each cruise booked as a 10 night with their respective embarkation/debarkation ports.  That means you'll have 4 days (20th-24th) without that group of passengers.

[schmoopie17]

30 minutes ago, hallux said:

But won't you have the opportunity to book those for the days after they leave?  Each cruise booked as a 10 night with their respective embarkation/debarkation ports.  That means you'll have 4 days (20th-24th) without that group of passengers.

Do they do more than one of these events? Most cruises only do these once per sailing.

If so, Barcelona boarders would have first crack at them when they board a few days ahead of us..

[purplecow15]

44 minutes ago, hallux said:

But won't you have the opportunity to book those for the days after they leave?  Each cruise booked as a 10 night with their respective embarkation/debarkation ports.  That means you'll have 4 days (20th-24th) without that group of passengers.

Yes,  but we will have a whole new set of passengers that embark on the 20th. I plan to reserve our specialty restaurants as soon as I can and hope for the best.

[The Traveling Man]

We have done a similar itinerary several times on the Epic, sometimes boarding in Barcelona and sometimes in Rome.  With the overlapping itineraries you sometimes may find that certain events are fully booked by "the other guys" before you board, so you'll miss out on those.  OTOH, you'll be ahead of the game for events occurring on the last few days of your cruise when you are able to book them before "the other guys" even board your cruise.  NCL usually schedules things like behind the scenes tours and the complimentary wine tasting just once per week, or in this case just once per ten day cruise.  If you come in toward the middle of "the other guys" cruise you may miss out on some things early in your trip, but that means that you'll be ahead of the next batch of "other guys" for things taking place toward the end of your cruise / the beginning of theirs.  It's confusing, I know, but I hope that helps explain it.

[hallux]

6 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

If you come in toward the middle of "the other guys" cruise you may miss out on some things early in your trip, but that means that you'll be ahead of the next batch of "other guys" for things taking place toward the end of your cruise / the beginning of theirs.  It's confusing, I know, but I hope that helps explain it.

This is what I was trying to get at with my comment @schmoopie17 @purplecow15

[schmoopie17]

29 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

We have done a similar itinerary several times on the Epic, sometimes boarding in Barcelona and sometimes in Rome.  With the overlapping itineraries you sometimes may find that certain events are fully booked by "the other guys" before you board, so you'll miss out on those.  OTOH, you'll be ahead of the game for events occurring on the last few days of your cruise when you are able to book them before "the other guys" even board your cruise.  NCL usually schedules things like behind the scenes tours and the complimentary wine tasting just once per week, or in this case just once per ten day cruise.  If you come in toward the middle of "the other guys" cruise you may miss out on some things early in your trip, but that means that you'll be ahead of the next batch of "other guys" for things taking place toward the end of your cruise / the beginning of theirs.  It's confusing, I know, but I hope that helps explain it.

 

I fully understand that and I don't disagree.

 

My point is, we will be missing out on two of the main Platinum perks on our very first Platinum cruise. I don't know what "things taking place at the end of our cruise" would be of importance in comparison. 

[The Traveling Man]

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

We're on this same cruise from Rome...just like the OP. This will be our first cruise as Platinum, which is disappointing because all of the Wines Around the World and Behind the Scenes Tour will already be taken by people boarding in Barcelona a few days earlier. 

I went back to look more carefully at the specifics of your cruise and the one before yours.  It's possible that you may in fact have some difficulties in booking these activities.  When NCL has operated similar itineraries in the past, they usually had a sea day immediately after Barcelona.  NCL frequently schedules activities like BTS and WATW on sea days, so those boarding in Barcelona would have them on the second day of their cruise while Rome passengers would have them near the end of their cruise.  In that case, it would be the passengers boarding in Rome who would have first crack at making reservations, while the Barcelona guests would play the role of "Johnny come lately."

 

The September itineraries for the Escape have zero sea days.  The most likely time for these activities would be the afternoon of the 17th after departing Malta at 2:00 PM or the morning of the 19th prior to arriving in Majorca at noon.  That means that those boarding in Barcelona would have a four day head start on you for booking activities which likely would occur on the fourth or sixth day of your cruise, which translates to the eighth or tenth day of theirs.  Your best bet is to stop by the Cruise Next desk as soon as you get on board and hope that they can add an additional BTS tour group or wine tasting event if demand warrants it.

[BirdTravels]

7 hours ago, purplecow15 said:

Just realized that our cruise on the  Escape ( September 14-24th Rome to Rome.)  is part of  3 cruises that intersect on some dates that month. There is one

September 10-20th

September 14-24th

September 20-29th

It looks like when we embark in Rome on the 14th there will already be passengers on board. On the 20th some will be disembarking. when we dock in Barcelona  while others are embarking. 

I don’t remember ever being on a ship with that kind of scheduling. Has anyone ever experienced this? Wondering how NCL will handle it. Some will be getting off in port for excursions etc.. while all this is happening.

 

The Norwegian Epic has done that for a while. For the Epic, the primary embarkation port is Barcelona with Rome being the secondary. For a while, they also embarked in France as a third port. The entertainment schedule is geared for the primary embarkation port. The cruise line designates more rooms for Barcelona embarkation, fewer for Rome. It makes getting those Haven upgrades harder. 

[Girr]

6 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

My point is, we will be missing out on two of the main Platinum perks on our very first Platinum cruise. I don't know what "things taking place at the end of our cruise" would be of importance in comparison. 

I did the Rome to Rome via Barcelona last year.  Yes, a lot of the platinum perks slots were booked up on the Rome to Barcelona leg; however, if there's a sea day everything will open up again on the Barcelona to Rome leg. (As BirdsTravels mentioned Barcelona is the primary embarkation port for NCL.)

 

Quite a few of us ended up being able to get signed up on the first leg, but I do know some had to wait until after Barcelona.  Once on board don't delay signing up (if you're in the Haven the concierge will sign you up).

 

While I did enjoy the behind-the-scenes tour enjoyable I was very disappointed in the Wines Around the World.  I don't know if it was because this cruise has limited sea days, but they must have crammed all the Platinum members into one session.  Way too many people, and no controls (checks) on who was there.  

 

 

Edited April 8 by Girr
Adding info.

[dexddd]

They have been doing this since at least 2006.  Then a break, then back, mostly on Epic.

 

Even Malta was an embarking port.

 

Barcelona is usually the main port.  Can also affect what rooms are available.

[The Traveling Man]

9 hours ago, dexddd said:

They have been doing this since at least 2006.  Then a break, then back, mostly on Epic.

 

Even Malta was an embarking port.

 

Barcelona is usually the main port.  Can also affect what rooms are available.

The itinerary the OP asked about is somewhat different than what the Epic sailed for several years.  The Escape itinerary this September will be ten days long instead of seven and will have no sea days.  The ship will be in a port each day, although there is one day when it will depart Malta about 2:00 PM and another day when it will arrive in Majorca about noon.  NCL usually tries to schedule things like the BTS tour, wine tastings, CC Meet & Greets, Latitudes parties, etc. on sea days.  On the Escape this September, they probably will have some of these on the afternoon following Malta and others in the morning before Majorca.

[Sailing12Away]

Our very first trip on Epic was like this, and we had no idea until we got on board and talked to other guests. It was very confusing the whole time, and being a Rome embarkation guest we always felt like 2nd class. Everything was geared towards the Barcelona folks, and if I remember correctly even the dailies were for the Barcelona guys. So on our official day 1, the daily said day 4. 

 

Embarkation on the 'lesser' port was a breeze, but getting off in Barcelona for our excursion was a bit chaotic. Coming back onto the ship it took us a while to find a way to skip the line since we already had a key card, and it was crazy. 

 

Friends we had made left midway through. On the Barcelona day you couldn't use an elevator because everyone was traveling with their suitcases and carryons hogging them. We didn't have any status at the time since it was our first cruise, but I would imagine if you're not getting on board with the bulk of people booking activities can be harder. It was impossible to get any room upgrades because of the split too.

 

MSC does it all the time with their med itineraries, so much so that it's put me off completely from booking one. We're just not a fan of the mixed trip thing.

[gotscrapz]

I was on a Europe cruise where people got on in various ports. We were the 1st group boarding in Rome.

[schmoopie17]

Stole this from @OrcaGirlon her trip report of the Epic Transatlantic:

 

 

I checked in at CruiseNext for the BTS tour, and we headed off shortly after 8:20am. Our leader mentioned that there are 900 Platinum and higher guests this sailing, so they had to book a lot of tours across different days.

 

So, maybe there is hope for us, after all. Fingers crossed...which makes typing even more difficult.

[OrcaGirl]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

Stole this from @OrcaGirlon her trip report of the Epic Transatlantic:

 

 

I checked in at CruiseNext for the BTS tour, and we headed off shortly after 8:20am. Our leader mentioned that there are 900 Platinum and higher guests this sailing, so they had to book a lot of tours across different days.

 

So, maybe there is hope for us, after all. Fingers crossed...which makes typing even more difficult.

 

One thing I'll add in: be nice to the CruiseNext team. I've heard multiple people get upset that their dinner with the officers or other perk has been scheduled for a night when they already have dinner reservations or conflicted with show reservations. When soooo many people have Platinum and Sapphire and higher status these days, that must be a scheduling nightmare.

[Sailing12Away]

21 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

One thing I'll add in: be nice to the CruiseNext team. I've heard multiple people get upset that their dinner with the officers or other perk has been scheduled for a night when they already have dinner reservations or conflicted with show reservations. When soooo many people have Platinum and Sapphire and higher status these days, that must be a scheduling nightmare.

Agree. Didn't learn until after our first time doing it that there are different options for many of these activities. Not all, but some. So if you know you have a schedule conflict, kindly ask them if there are other time/day slots available that would work better.

[The Traveling Man]

On 4/11/2024 at 10:18 AM, OrcaGirl said:

 

One thing I'll add in: be nice to the CruiseNext team. I've heard multiple people get upset that their dinner with the officers or other perk has been scheduled for a night when they already have dinner reservations or conflicted with show reservations. When soooo many people have Platinum and Sapphire and higher status these days, that must be a scheduling nightmare.

Agreed.  A time or two when our cruise covered a birthday or our anniversary, we asked the CN team if it would be possible to arrange our Dinner with the Officers for a different night, but we definitely tried to be as polite about it as possible.  We were prepared to forego DWTO if they weren't able to avoid our special day.  Several times, though, we have had to change a reservation we already had made for a specialty restaurant in order to accommodate the plans NCL made for our DWTO.  The key is to remain flexible, remember that you're on vacation, and that most every bump in the road that you experience is a first world problem.  Just roll with the punches.