KeithJenner

I've flown into and out of Rome a few times, and never had any problem at all. The biggest issue we had on disembarkation day was that they were only using one small door to exit the cruise terminal, so there was quite a queue for everyone to get through the exit with their bags. It took us about 15 minutes from getting to the gangway to leaving the terminal. I don't recall ever having that issue before. We booked a flight at 12.55. There was an earlier one (at about 11am) that we could have caught, but I wanted a relaxed morning. We had a transfer booked for 12 and got off the ship when they started to get a bit insistent about people leaving at around 8.30. Our driver was waiting for us and we were checked in for our flight and through security before 10am (luckily the BA desk opened a bit earlier than usual). The airport itself seemed relatively quiet. We have lounge access so didn't spend much time in the main terminal, but when walking to the gate it all looked fairly quiet. We could have easily made the 11am flight if we left the ship a bit earlier. As usual at Rome, all very quick and easy,

It’s amazing how much it seems to bother some people that others have different preferences.

I think you’re getting confused between venues/cabins. Syd Norman’s and the Club Suites with large balconies are both on deck 8, so one can’t be above the other. The Large Balcony Club Suites are above the theatre backstage area. Directly above Syd Norman’s/Cavern etc are some standard balcony rooms, as is the case on the Breakaway and Getaway (and most, if not all of the Breakaway plus class), so this wasn’t a first time on the Escape. I wonder whether you are thinking of the District Brew House, which was a new venue on the Escape and I have some vague memories of noise issues being reported from there in the past.

As stated by others, the NCL rep was wrong (surprise, surprise). You can certainly book the same restaurant multiple times if you want. There has been some confusion regarding this area. The terms of the latitudes meal state that the two vouchers can't be used in the same restaurant. However, I think that what they are trying to say is that you can't get a group of four people and take the two vouchers to try to get a meal for four. Whilst I haven't tried it, I'm fairly sure that a couple could use them both in the same restaurant on separate occasions. In addition, for a time after the reopening after Covid, the online booking system didn't allow you to book the same restaurant twice, but it could be done over the phone or onboard. Now it sometimes does seem throw up an error if you try to duplicate a restaurant online, but for my past couple of cruises it does actually allow it, even if it didn't look like it worked at the time. So, basically, typical NCL confusion. However, you can certainly book places twice (we have done so on some of our past few of cruises, including the one that finished a couple of days ago).

Joy for us. We were looking at the Sky, especially as it is a longer cruise, but went for the Joy as we wanted more dining options and the shorter cruise gives us some extra time for Quebec and Montreal at the end. From memory the Sky was the better itinerary though. It was a tough choice.

We flew home yesterday and were back at work today. Back to earth with a bump. Next cruise is New York to Quebec in September. Looking forward to it already.

Yeah, that’s got to be a good couple of hours to Tarifa, especially on any sort of bus. We went as far down as Trafalgae on our tour and it was slow work getting back, even taking into account the detour to Conil. Personally (and we have travelled quite a way from port on occasion), I don’t like the sound of that at all. I would go that sort of distance if I was driving the whole way myself in a hired car, but not relying on transfers and ferries.

The Marathon was on when we did this, so it was a bit disrupted, but my understanding was that we were dropped off at roughly the usual place. The coach dropped us off near the Ponte S. Niccolo where there is a bit of a loop in the road that the coaches can drive round to drop off or load up. They then walk you as a group to Piazza di Santa Croce which seems to be the meeting point for many tours. It is about a 5-10 minute walk depending on the speed of your group.

Same for us. It was really handy. Motril is a port in that area where a shuttle was required to get out of the port. I wonder whether they got confused between the two.

This discussions comes up regularly. If you book online pre cruise then all discounts apply correctly, but if you do it onboard then they don’t. Every single time it gets discussed on here we enter into this confusion as to whether people are talking about doing it pre cruise or onboard.

It is the same set up as the Jade, but the Jade has more tables in Teppanyaki (from my recollection)

A quick catch up on yesterday. Despite having been to Livorno a few times we have somehow never managed to get to Florence before. We aren’t big art lovers, and you are unlikely to find us in an art gallery anywhere, but we do appreciate architecture and history and we loved Florence in the end. We took the NCL Florence on your own tour, which was basically a ride to the city and back (with the obligatory messing around that loading 40 people onto a bus always involves. We had about 5 hours there which was adequate for an introduction. We booked tickets to Giotto’s Campanile (the bell tower next to the Duomo) and it was worth the 414 steps to the top for the views. Some of the stairs are narrow and you use the same ones to go up and down which was a challenge at times. After that we grabbed a great lunch and then spent a few hours just wandering the streets. Next time we will probably try to go inside the Duomo and also climb up to the viewing area up the hill across the river. Our coach stopped there briefly on the way back to the ship (so we could grab a picture from the coach) and the views looked spectacular. Once back onboard we had a final couple of hours in Vibe which was very nice and then dinner in Indulge and a few drinks in the Local, Currently waiting for our flight at the airport, and sulking a bit. 🙂 Here’s some pictures from the Campanile: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nwn08ohw6/?igsh=NTE1cHgxNXIwdHll And two sets of pictures from Florence. Instagram only allows 10 per post and I couldn’t narrow them down that much: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nxCtdooO6/?igsh=MTdueXB5NHAxZGVudg== https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nxK_nIL28/?igsh=MWQyMGx5MjE1dm5ncg==

Activities were certainly more limited than on previous cruises. When our son was younger we used to stay onboard sometimes and there was quite a lot going on. There were quite a few things that didn’t seem to be open until later on the Viva. For example, we didn’t have particular plans to do the go carts but would probably have done them on one of the days we stayed onboard if they had been running during the day, but they weren’t whenever we checked. However, it wasn’t something I was really looking at much as our preference when onboard during the day is to find a quiet place to read or have a drink. I didn’t really keep up with posting the dailies, but will try to get them all uploaded (probably on a separate thread) later this week. It is worth you checking through them to get an idea what is likely to be open.

Yes. Apparently it was finished this week and I think they may be opening soon. Apparently it was quite noisy during the transatlantic.

We rarely use the MDR, and only went there once on this cruise (Hudsons for breakfast), so we aren’t the best people to advise. I believe that Commodore is the more upscale of the two.