Escape, May 5th and May 16, B2B, Live Review

[Grumpella]

This will be my 24th (and 25th) cruise, and my 9th (and 10th) on NCL.  I have also cruised on Carnival, Royal, Celebrity, Holland, Princess, P and O and MSC.  This is my first B2B.

 

I will be in a solo inside cabin.  This is my first cruise as Platinum, so I am looking forward to the priority embarkation, priority tender at Cannes, free laundry and 2 specialty dinners.

 

I will be focusing my review on the excursions I take, as I find that information is often lacking or difficult to find.  I don't go to any shows or activities or bars, so there will be no information about that. lol

 

 

My plans:
Palma-  Let's Take a Selfie, NCL excursion

Cannes- Best of the Riviera, italytours.eu

Livorno- Cinque Terre, italytoursharing

Rome- Off the Beaten Path- Hilltop Towns, 
            NCL Excursion

Naples- Amalfi, italytoursharing

Messina- Small Group- Highlights of 
                Taormina, NCL excursion

Valletta- City of Knights and Medina,
               NCL excursion

Corfu- Mons Repos Palace and Corfu
            Town, NCL excursion

Dubrovnik- Dubrovnik at Leisure,
                   NCL excursion

Split- Ancient Salona and Trogir 
         Medieval City, NCL excursion

Next cruise:

Split- Split Old Town and Trogir
          Medieval City, NCL excursion

Dubrovnik- Scenic Dubronik by Land
                   and Sea, NCL excursion

Corfu- Small Group- Timeless Villages and
            Scenic Drive, NCL excursion

Messina- Savoca and Forza D'Agro: The
                Godfather Tour, NCL excursion

Naples- Amalfi, italytours.eu

Rome- Striking Hill-Top City of Orvieto,
            NCL excursion

Livorno- Best of Tuscany, italytours.eu

Cannes- Best of the Riviera, italytours.eu
 (this tour is a repeat of first week, but it has a little bit different stops due to Grand Prix in Monaco)

Palma- Palma in Depth, NCL excursion

Barcelona- Scenic Barcelona with Airport
                   Transfer, NCL excursion

 

I will be looking for the elusive cookies.  lol  I hope to find them in the Solo Lounge.  I certainly will be asking.

[Rusty Shacklefjord]

On 4/24/2024 at 1:43 PM, Grumpella said:

Cannes- Best of the Riviera, italytours.eu
 (this tour is a repeat of first week, but it has a little bit different stops due to Grand Prix in Monaco)

I’ll be on this one on May 24. I confirmed that Italy tours was skipping Monaco when I booked the tour because NCL did not offer any Monaco tours that weekend. 
 

I am curious to know how the tender process goes when you have an external tour group. Thank you in advance for sharing your experience.

 

Also, NCL emailed that they would modify arrival/departure times for several stops for May 16. Did they modify your May 5 cruise, too?

 

[Grumpella]

Yes, May 5th was also modified.

 

I notified Italytours so they are aware of the changes, they have forwarded to their logistics team.

 

If you book an NCL tour, your don’t need a tender “ticket”. I suggest you pay attention on the app the day before Cannes, to see if the book tender tickets button is not grayed out. I have seen it sometimes happen in the afternoon of the day before, but usually at night.

 

I am Platinum, so supposedly I can join the line at any time. Lol

 

So glad only 1 tender port.

[cruiselover19811981]

I will be following your review. We will be on the Escape for the second time in July for a 9 day itinerary out of Rome. Our first cruise on the Escape was in 2016, and it was our children's first cruise. They were 6 and 8 at the time. We loved the Escape for its Caribbean itinerary, it was new at the time,  but we look forward to experiencing it again in the Mediterranean now 8 years later. 

 

Will you be eating in the MDR at all? We will appreciate all of your shares information. We wish you a fantastic B2B upcoming voyage! 

 

 

[Grumpella]

First, thank you for the well wishes, some people on here are so mean.  lol

 

Yes, I will be eating in the MDR most nights, except for my 3 specialty dinners.  I don't like the buffet, I like to be waited on.  And I will be eating 2 breakfasts in there too, as most days the  ports are very early.  

 

Honestly though, I'm not much of a food critic.  I'm not too picky about food, I can eat pasta, pizza, fries, etc.. all the time. lol

 

I will definitely be hitting up the Gelato and the Bake Shop.

 

And 1 thing I am going to try that I have not done yet is O'Sheehan's for breakfast.  I like their lunch (and the carrot cake).  

[cruiselover19811981]

Thank you for your reply.

 

Your plans sound fantastic. You will certainly have a busy itinerary.

 

My family and I will be curious about breakfast options on your early morning port days, as we do not have one day at sea and we like to avoid the buffet whenever possible. We look forward to hearing about the breakfast at O'Sheehan's. 

 

If you could also share crew info e.g. cruise director, captain, etc. that would be appreciated. 

 

[bedfordmom]

Just off of the Escape tender tix were available at midnight two days prior. I have Sapphire status so got the first tender. . Ours was particularly chaotic as we were 6  hours late leaving Barcelona due to being last in queue to fill up w gas so all ship excursions ca

[Grumpella]

How did you get the first tender? In the app? On the onboard screens? At cruisenext?  Thanks

[Grumpella]

Sorry, I could care less who the captain, cruise director, etc. are, so I will not be noticing. Lol

 

[Jldevlin]

Just off the Escape 16 day Transatlantic.    Our 39th cruise and 12th with NCL.   Food is subjective as we all know. We are not picky but i like to eat !!! We found the food and the choices in the dining room to have been good to great !!. We have been on cruises where it has just been okay. This one we had trouble picking what to have because we wanted so many things on the menu but cant eat as much as we think we can. Service was fast and our wine glasses were never empty. It was a full ship and only felt that way in the Atrium where people camped out there all day and you could not get a seat ever.   Choir of man was a great show and one of the 3 comedians was funny..Casino was pretty good to one of us. Overall a really great cruise.

[Grumpella]

     I am flying out Friday on the "dreaded" Level Airlines, lol.  It is a direct flight from JFK and was $ 450 cheaper than the next cheapest flight, which was not direct.  

 

     I received an offer for $ 200 to upgrade to Premium class (there is no first class) on the way to Barcelona, which I happily accepted.  I had to pay another $ 39 to select my seat, but they refunded the $ 34 I paid to select my previous Economy seat.

 

     Their website is not the greatest and I was not able to originally select a seat in Premium class.  I did learn by calling their Customer Service number that while I have a booking code for Level Airlines, I also had a booking code for Iberia Airlines, which is a different booking code number that I did not know about.  I was able to use this other booking code on Iberia to select my seat in Premium and pay for it.

 

     If this flight s#&*ks, I will blame my husband who suggested it.  lol

 

     I am staying at a hotel near the airport, as I arrive late in the afternoon, with a free shuttle.

 

     I will be taking the free shuttle back to the airport in the morning for the NCL transfer, which starts at 9 am or 10 am or 11 am, depending on who answers the phone at NCL.  lol

 

     This will be my first time taking the NCL transfer to the ship.  I have taken the transfer several times from the ship to the airport and have been happy with the service.

 

     

[Grumpella]

The Level flight was very good. They did weigh my carryon, which I have never had done before.

 

I arrived back at the airport at 9 am for the NCL transfer. The first bus left at 10 am. We arrived at 10:30 to the pier and were brought right in to check in. I went into a separate line for Platinum check in and then boarded the ship immediately after, at 10:45 am.

 

Eating lunch now in Taste.

[Grumpella]

I did go to the Cruisenext desk (which was not open when we boarded) to find out that Platinum members (and other people who bought Priority Tendering as part of the priority package) go to the Supper Club to leave for the tenders from there, no ticket needed.
 

The luggage arrived at 4 pm. 
 

The Lets Take a Selfie tour from

NCL from Palma was pretty good, we spent an hour in Valldemossa, which I like. There were some good stops and some stops where there wasn’t much to see. Lol. One of the reasons I picked this tour was that it was 6 hrs, while other tours were 4 hrs. I give the tour a 7 out of 10.

 

I ate breakfast in the MDR the next morning. See menus.

[schmoopie17]

We were on the Escape for a TA in November, 2022. We will be back on her this September, for an itinerary very similar to yours. Will be following along with your trip report.

 

O'Sheahan's for breakfast is pretty much our go-to. Never a line, service is quick. I usually get the French Toast (which is strange because it always has like just one or two raisins in it...and being a raisin hater, that's fine with me. Don't end up with a pile of nasty raisins on my plate.) 

 

Mrs.Schmoopie always gets some egg dish (I also hate eggs, so I can't tell you exactly what she gets).

 

Give O'Sheahan's a try...you'll probably like it. If not, you didn't hear it from me.

[Grumpella]

I was able to get on the first tender to Cannes from the Supper Club meeting location.

 

The Best of the Riviera was booked with italytours.eu, which is a sister company of Spain Day Tours. I have since learned that italytours.eu subcontracts out their tours through VIP Tours. So my actual tour was with Jerome from So Nice Tours, sonicetours@gmail.com.

 

Jerome was fantastic, he was very nice and very knowlegeable. The tour was great, I give it a 10. Monaco is very beautiful.

[schmoopie17]

8 hours ago, Grumpella said:

 

The Best of the Riviera was booked with italytours.eu,

We did this exact tour with them 18 months ago. The tour was great, but our driver was pretty grumpy. You would have loved him 😁.

[Grumpella]

Cinque Terre with italytoursharing was great, a 10. The driver dropped us off at Manorola and picked us up at Monterossa. We had 5 hours there. I bought the Trenitalia train ticket for unlimited rides for 19.5 euros before the trip on their website. There are long lines for train tickets. You can also buy 1 ride for 5 euros. The train ticket is also good for the toilet at the train station. All of the train stations have toilets.

 

Cinque Terre is beautiful. I got on the train at Manorola and went to Vernazza and then to Monterossa. Vernazza had the best shopping and Monterossa was the most beautiful, in my opinion.

[Grumpella]

Hilltop Towns with NCL was a 5. The first town, Civita di Bagnoregio, was beautiful. It has the very steep bridge into the town. Not for those with difficulty walking. There was also about 70 stairs to get to the bridge and then back again.  This part of the tour was a 10.

 

The next part was a zero, a visit to Tuscania. There was 1 pretty view and every store was closed, the tour guide said they didn’t open until 4:30. This stop was a total waste of time.

 

The tour guides were also very disorganized. The bus driver stopped to pee on the side of the road, lol, and hit several curbs. 

[Grumpella]

I did Amalfi with italytoursharing yesterday, with Julio. A 10 out of 10. Very beautiful. We had 1 hour in Ravello, 1 hour in Amalfi and 2 hours in Positano. Amalfi was crowded, crowded, crowded. Lol  I did prefer Positano and Ravello over Amalfi. 
 

The driving is very scary. Take a tour!! 

[Grumpella]

Yesterday was Highlights of Taormina with NCL, small group tour, only 20 people. NCL does not advertise their small group tours. I only found out because the only option left for this tour was in German and when I called NCL, the lady was kind enough to mention the small group tour. Only 2 of the 10 stops had small group tours. I give the tour a 7 out of 10. Taormina has some very beautiful views of the Ionian Sea. And the shopping was great.

 

The tour guide was not very good. She talked and talked and talked but hardly gave any information. She had us wait in line for 20 minutes for the toilet at the parking garage, neglecting to mention there were toilets on the 6 other levels and we were going up to level 7. I found this out from another person on a different tour.

 

She walked us around for 1 hour and then gave us another hour of free time. I left after the first 1/2 hr of her talking. Lol

 

 So far, the private tours have been much better than the NCL tours.

 

And, I have not seen any cookies. Lol
 

 

[Grumpella]

The excursion to Medina by NCL was a 5 out of 10. There was not much to see at Medina, I thought it was boring. And the views on the way there were not that good. 
 

Valetta was very beautiful, but definitely could be done on our own.

 

The Shore Excursion desk is a joke. It is open usually 5 pm to 9 pm and there is always a 1 hour wait. I strongly suggest you book your tours before the cruise.

[Grumpella]

Corfu is very beautiful. The palace and Corfu town tour was ok, a 5 out of 10. The palace is really just a dumpy place. Lol  The tour guide was excellent though.

 

There have been no specials on laundry service yet. My room steward said alot of people are having laundry done as it is an 11 day cruise, that might be why there are no specials, yet.

[Grumpella]

Dubronik at Leisure was a good tour, they gave us a round trip ticket for the cable car (which costs 27 euros), the shuttle to and from town (20 euros), a coupon for free waffles in town and a map of the area. The tour cost me $22.40 after my $50 discount.

 

The shuttle from the town was the problem. There were long lines and people were just rushing the bus. NCL representative at the shuttle area said/did nothing. We waited about 20 minutes to get the shuttle at 2 pm. I’m sure it will be much worse later on.

 

There were some stalls selling things once we returned to the port. One had good quality tshirts for 10 euros.

 

The town was very beautiful and the shopping was great. I give the tour an 8 out of 10, because of the bull#>%* with the return shuttle. Lol  Taxis were offering a ride to port for 10 euros a couple.

[Grumpella]

 

I changed my tour to the Split Old Town and Trogir today. The tour was very good, a 9 out of 10.  Trogir is a very pretty town to visit. And Split’s old town area is very impressive, especially the palace. Lots of places to shop and eat. The tour guide was great. The only issue I had with the tour was that it ended in town and we had to walk 15 minutes back to the boat, which was not in the tour description. The tour guide told me that sometimes the bus picks the tour back up and sometimes it doesn’t. NCL, cheap bast$#%s!! Lol

 

I handed in my laundry on Monday morning and it was returned on Tuesday night at 7:30 pm. The timing and the presentation was very impressive, this was my first experience with NCL laundry. 
          

[Adventures ahead]

Your tour descriptions are helpful and much appreciated! Thanks!