CookieShip

I think I'm on the same cruise, anyone know which days they'll offer the laundry special? A pillow case really helps to cram more into that paper bag.

Does anyone know when the $20 special would be offered on a 15 day cruise?

We used it last time on a shorter cruise, clothes were fine, but my boyfriend was missing a pair of shorts.

5 hours ago, oliver35 said:

I had the soda package last year on the escape you just show them the card DO NOT hand them the card you will get charged for the soda that happened to me at o'sheehan's had to go to gust services to get it taken off.

 

At the bars, showing them the card was enough. At sit down places, they sometimes took the card and sometimes they just needed to see it. I didn't get charged extra when they took it.

56 minutes ago, julig22 said:

you can ask for a full can

I believe soda package only comes from their spray gun into a glass or a plastic cup depending on the venue you're getting it from. They can get two at a time.

I got a fairly quick response, sent on 10/26 and they added the benefit on 10/30.

However, it's only half the benefit.

I'm solo in the cabin, but I paid 50% "solo supplement". I put in quotes as they were offering 50% off for 2nd guest (yes I've never seen that before, just 3rd and 4th), so in my eyes I've paid a full cabin fare. We'll see what they say.

More than one device can use the internet, but it is limited to one device at a time. You can kick the other connection though.

My BF had the internet package last time and we ended up sharing it to leave each other messages on Google Hangouts vs buying the NCL app package on top of it. I hated the NCL app running all the time and it seemed to be a battery hog. 

We both had issues with their internet portal signing in on our different model Chromebooks. 

Are all of you in one room?

When I booked a family trip with two cabins, I had to sign up myself and then someone else in the other cabin to be able to check in and all that stuff. Though I did not use a TA that time.

Then on the final morning, each person got their own invoice, even though all were on my CC. 

Forgot to mention in my trip report that we experienced this on the 10/6 sailing. 

A little annoying, but I signed out 2 towels after breakfast in the buffet one day. We exchanged them through out the trip and I turned them in the last day. 

I don't know if you need to turn them in the same place you got them (on Deck 16 pool area vs gangway off the ship). 

And one person can sign out a bunch of towels, a mom lady had like 5-7 of them when I was exchanging one time. 

I was on Escape earlier this month, on the return from Bermuda we were going "full steam" in already rough waters to beat a storm. My Fitbit recorded me as doing 100 flights of stairs that day!

Didn't get an amenities confirmation, but they did call after I emailed a second time after not hearing back except the auto reply. I could also see it under my edocs. They broke up the OBC between me and my cruise partner even though only I own the stocks.

OBC is nonrefundable, cannot be used towards DSC either. I used towards some CruiseNext vouchers. 

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

 

The bus driver was correct. Dockyard to Horseshoe Bay requires 14 zone tickets from the Dockyard. It is the number of zones you go thru and it is over 3 zones from the Dockyard. 

 

I have mentioned elsewhere that the Bermuda  minibus drivers have become greedy. They used to leave when they had nine or ten passengers when they had 12 to 15 capacity minibuses. Now they have 30 seat minibuses and won't leave until they fill. So I have been taking taxis if I can get 3 or 4 people to share.

Thanks for confirming about the bus, I'm prepared for next time.

Just a quickie trip report since it was my second time on this cruise. I went on the same itinerary just a few months ago.
Had an inside cabin 13 aft. I was hoping to upgrade to a balcony, but that didn't happen. Should of booked it outright as the balcony prices actually increased as we got closer to the cruise date and I did not win via bidding. Last time I was able to upgrade for just $75pp! There was some type of casino at sea event going on, which may have had to do it.

We took a bus to the Port Authority in NYC and was able to split a cab with another couple also going to the cruise terminal. It was amazing that the cabbie actually got 4 big adults and our luggage into his little (Prius) cab? I didn't think it would work, but it was only just a little snug. We got there about 11:15 AM.

Since we were on deck 13, we had to walk way into the back of terminal for check in. I hadn't gone that far back before so I wasn't sure if we were even heading into the right direction until we finally see a sign indicating where to check in. Check in was easy, but I didn't get one of the dailies. Not sure if they are suppose to give one automatically or not, but many others seemed to have them. Went to the desk to try to obtain one and one lady took the last two. She would not share her second copy which she later just gave to her husband. We had a short wait before we could board the ship, but checking the timestamp of my photo in one of the mdr, we were seated by 11:59AM! I learned to avoid the buffet and it was easy to just go down one deck when boarding aft so the long terminal walk worked out just fine. We had a little lunch and did a little exploring towards the forward area of the ship to get to the box office to get those reservations in! I didn't get to do Escape the Big Top last time and really wanted to try it out this time. 

On the first sea day, I did the CC meet up and the cabin crawl. The forward family oceanview was ridiculous! It has an odd circle window on the front of the ship, but the space in the room insane. In front of the main bed was enough space to play some twister! Then there was a partitioned off couch area as well, which could sleep one. There were other cabins, including havens, but that was the room that impressed me the most. 

One of the things I wanted to do was try the volcano nachos at Margaritaville. So we decide to do that for an early dinner. The nachos looked great,just like the mouth watering photos I had been seeing. However, they tasted so very disappointing. I would not get those again. There wasn't anything to really bring the "volcano" across, thought there be some spicy cheese to do that. Outside of that, the bottom was soggy. There was a poor quality chili on the chips. 

We took it easy the second sea day.

First day in Bermuda we had good looking weather so we made the trip over to Horseshoe Bay. Decide to take the bus there since since I have some of the tickets from the last trip. Bus driver did say I was suppose to use my 14 zone tickets instead of 3 zone tickets? I'm not sure if she was right since it was only 5 miles from the Dockyards and I had previously seen it was 3 zone from other posts here. There was also a large wedding party from the ship trying to get on the bus. I think most of them made it on with the bride/groom opting to take a taxi. 

I did some snorkeling in the little shallows on the right for a bit. Perfect spot for a weak swimmer like me. I got to see a variety of fishes in the little area. We decided to head back to the ship to get cleaned up from the beach. There was an air conditioned mini bus waiting for passengers, an older couple was already on it. We wait and wait for the mini bus to fill up, I'm sure at least half an hour has passed (who knows how much longer for the older couple). A number of the passengers get off to try to get a taxi back to the ship, finally a smaller and non-conditioned mini bus driver offers to take all of us now (9 passengers). Boyfriend was not feeling well and weather was looking not so good, so we decide to take it easy after getting back to the ship.

Second day in Bermuda, it is pouring rain unfortunately. We take the ferry to St George and hope for the best. Still pouring by the time the ferry gets there and boyfriend still isn't feeling great, so we head back to the ship. The weather starts looking a little better, we get some meds for the boyfriend at the Dockyard Pharmacy (it also has an ice cream shop and other miscellaneous things for purchase) as well as walk around inside the mall. 

Getting back on the ship, we stop by the atrium bar for some drinks. They are about to start Apollo 11 and introduce some ladies who actually worked on the Apollo 11 project which was pretty cool. I can't recall their names, but they worked at RCA on cameras that were used on Apollo 11. Boyfriend goes to rest and I do some more exploring around the dockyard by taking the little train/tram thing around. The sun is no joke and I end up getting a bit sunburned from not re-applying sunscreen. 

That evening, we go to the Escape the Big Top in the Supper Club. They request your party arrive together as you'll be split up into groups as you arrive. It seemed each group had about 8 people in each. I had heard before this was more of series of puzzles, which is accurate. It's not a physical escape room and you're not just working to solve all the puzzles, but also to solve them before the other teams (seemed to be about 10?). I found it enjoyable, our team worked well together, and of course we won! We had just under 10 minutes left. The prizes were pen and badge clip holder thing.

Last day in Bermuda, I had planned going to the museum just beside the ship and seeing the dolphins. At the moongate, near the ship is also a tour that leaves at 9:30 on Friday. There isn't much of a crowd so I join. It's about 45 minutes and walks around the Dockyard a bit. The tour ends somewhat near the clocktowers of the mall so I wait for tram to take me over to the museum. Quite a bit to see and the dolphins are a plus. I was surprised by the number of cannons all over the place. I head back to the ship, they have refreshments (in addition to the smalls drinks and cool towels, they also had ice pops and jello) as we get onboard. The ships has a timely departure from Bermuda at 3. We try to catch a sunset at sea later, but clouds are in the way. 

Our third sea day is ROUGH! We're bouncing around all over the place and I'm not feeling great. My fitbit recorded me doing over 150 flight of stairs on this day. The captain was trying to speed us up due to storms so they could go slower when they hit the rougher part of the storms. They had the sickness bags out all over the ship and the apples at the MDRs. We take things easy on this final night of the cruise and pack up for self assisted disembarkation tomorrow. 

We have an early breakfast and then head to 7 with our luggage. We figured we could hang out in the bar near the Manhattan dining room until our color is called (we had hung out there when waiting the Manhattan dining room to open for our muster drill). Little did we know, that is the area where the wheelchair and other assistance passengers wait. Certainly learned for next time. It was a bit lengthier than expecting after we got off the ship and then had to clear customs. The facial recognition was in use, I moved inadvertently the first pass so it turned blue. They had me rescanned again and it was green, then I was able to proceed.
 

The cruise directors don't really impact my cruise that much, but I did find that I liked our last CD Jacky more than CD Alvin. Alvin was just kind of always cracking himself up. Since we didn't have a balcony this time, we spent more time on the waterfront area of the ship. And still plenty of new things to do the ship and in Bermuda where I could probably do this one more time, lol. 

6 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

That depends on where you’re playing on land and the arena setup so I don’t think anyone can make a fair comparison. Put it this way, it’s fun and your on a cruise so ..... Couple times is usually enough.

That is fair, the times I've played on land the environments has have indoors and somewhat dim. It sounds like these are outdoors with natural light and potential wetness? Some of the land based ones have even been on two levels (with ramps).

Guess I'm turned off by the $10/game since that would get you much more play on land. Most of the places offer specials for several hours of play for that price.

I suppose I'll give it a try the next time I'm on a ship with the option. 

How does it compare to land based laser tag? It sure seems like a pricey extra on top of a cruise.

Glad we did the self assisted disembark, even though we had to drag our luggage rather unnecessarily around the entire Manhattan dining room (I know they do this every week so it must be the most efficient way...)

2 minutes ago, meggymay said:

 

Is that 158.40 in drink package gratuities for 1 person? I paid double that, but it was for 2 drink packages. Did I get screwed?

1 person, their 2nd person is a minor so they only have the soda package. 

MC/Visa would be better bets, not to say they don't take Amex. We used one at the Dockyard Pharmacy last week, but there are many places even in the US that don't take Amex. I certainly wouldn't rely on it while traveling. 

It's possible to get it at the Kings Wharf terminal where NCL docks. 

Just ask, we did it second day in port when things were a bit more calm.

The stamp says In Transit. Wish I did it the first time I went too, passport is a little bare, lol. 

Sometimes the waiter would bring my drink (just soda though) and sometimes it would be the wine steward (again, just soda). Some waiters would bring doubles without asking too, which was nice. 

On 10/9/2019 at 8:35 AM, pattymchugh1212 said:

Thank you 🙂 quick question if you have time.  The complimentary supper club shows have to be booked only at the time on the schedule? New to Escape 🙂.  Can not wait! 

You should be able to reserve from the screens they have near the elevators or at the box office. They do fill up fast, but you can also try the stand by line if you don't get a reservation. 

They might become available if someone cancels. 

A very nice review and so cute that you were able to find someone else in the port with you, on a different ship!

Some kind of insulated bottle. Yeti is a bit pricey, Ozark Trail has many options at Walmart for a reasonable price. Much less distraught when I lose one of the latter, lol.  

1 hour ago, aceparty said:

We are a little over 100 days to our cruise. We are past final payment. when do upgrade bids come out?

80 days seems to be when it starts being offered. 

Sounds like it will eventually work, but wouldn't be dependable for something that needs to happen at a certain time (like the conference calls).