JOURNEY TO THE ESCAPE or Planes, trains, Taxis & A Cruise Ship! - "LIVE/ALMOST LIVE"

[Carnac767]

We were also on this sailing and had a great time. The roll call was a fun bunch. We're spending a few more days in the UK before flying home. Enjoying your perspective, Kiki.

[kikki21]

Right here's goes, it's time to start the review properly, now that we've had time to digest everything about our journey and the Escape!:)

 

We flew out 2 days prior to getting on board - it was a very early morning flight from our local airport which thankfully offers us a large range of flights to a lot of different places in Europe which makes getting to a cruise a lot easier and cheaper! :D

 

We had actually already booked 2 nights in a Hamburg hotel but then the flights to Hamburg went up dramatically in price and when we looked into it, it was FAR cheaper to fly to Berlin for 1 night and get the train to Hamburg the following day so we hastily booked the flight, changed the hotel booking to 1 night in Hamburg and added a hotel in Berlin!

 

This made out trip even more exciting as we'd heard a lot of great things about Berlin so we were finally going there!

[Keith.W]

Great review, look forward to the big review :) really enjoyed meeting you guys :) Just home today and already looking at the escape for late May early June

[kikki21]

Great review, look forward to the big review :) really enjoyed meeting you guys :) Just home today and already looking at the escape for late May early June

 

Hehe Keith you addict! I dont blame you though - we really enjoyed the Escape - we are going to stick with our booking for Celebrity's Reflection for Miami in April next year but it gives us an option to go for the Escape in the future as I LOVE Miami!!! :D

[fabnfortysomething]

Hi

 

loved meeting up with you 2

got off Escape this morning and a torturous 5 hour train journey home

 

will be doing our own review soon to relive our really fun cruise

[kikki21]

Hi

 

loved meeting up with you 2

got off Escape this morning and a torturous 5 hour train journey home

 

will be doing our own review soon to relive our really fun cruise

 

Aww loved meeting you both as well! :)

 

Our train journey home took about 3 and a bit hours so don't envy you those extra hours but at least you had another day and night on the Escape to make up for it!!! :D

[aubreyc1988]

Did you get a chance to tour the Vibe? Thoughts? Do you remember the hours of operation?

 

Thanks

[kikki21]

The first part of the review always takes a long while to set up as a/ I am editing my photos then b/ I add them to my personal Facebook page and then c/ I add them to Photobucket to share them onto here - which is why it takes so long!

 

We had to get up at an ungodly hour for me - 3.20AM - so that we could taxi to the airport for 4.30am - we wanted to be there early so that we could shop a bit for toiletries after the fiasco of last time where I ended up throwing away quite a few toiletries as they refused to accept a slightly larger see through bag for them!

 

I now aim to get them at the airport - however RANT ALERT! The Superdrug store at East Midlands Airport has really tiny aisles that everyone wants to get down with their carry on luggage and can't because they are TOO small and this is a newly designed area of the airport - maybe it was designed for extra small people but it's just basically not good!!!

 

The Duty Free area has large aisles - hmmmmm!!!! Yeah I got some items from there too - and with that we were almost ready to board our flight to Berlin.

 

East Midlands Airport now has extra gates added = 17 to 23 and yes we were at gate 23, the furthest away, up at stupid o clock and already walking a marathon!!!

 

 

We always use priority boarding on Ryanair and reserve our seats - handy travel tip!

 

And with that, we were off and after a pleasant flight, we were soon descending over the cities of Brandenburg and Potsdam....

 

 

Pretty lakeland living near Berlin....

 

 

Final approach to Schonefeld Airport in Berlin

 

Edited October 29, 2015 by kikki21
Photo format

[kikki21]

As we wanted to maximise our time in Berlin, we decided to take a taxi from the airport - it cost 38 Euros to get into Berlin City Centre - the airport at Schonefeld is about 40 mins away and there was quite a bit of traffic on the roads plus roadworks - the taxi driver drove fast!!!;)

 

I had booked a hotel near enough in the centre of Berlin in the Potsdammer Platz area as it was central to all the sights we could see in 1 day and by a happy accident, the hotel has a 2 star Michelin hotel right inside it - oh dear -we would just have to try it out!

 

We like all sorts of different foods and we do like all sorts of different restaurants, they don't have to have a Michelin star but if they do then we will treat ourselves! More on that later!

 

I totally recommend the Mandala Hotel in Berlin - the service was excellent! We couldn't check in as it was 10.15am as it was a bit early but they took Martin's phone number and said they would ring when our room was ready, in the meantime, they would store our bags and we could start our visit!

 

 

 

The hotel is just across the road from the Sony Center which we didn't get to see!

 

[kikki21]

By doing my research, I discovered that there was a viewing platform very near to our hotel - it was actually near enough on the doorstep!

 

We like stuff like this and it's even better on a lovely, sunny day - the attraction is called Panorama Punkt and it claims to have the fastest lift in Europe to take you up 24 floors to the top - where there is a 2 storey viewing platform and a cafe.

 

The building itself seems to have copied design ideas from the Rockefeller Centre in New York, the look inside and out was very similar.

 

 

The green area to the right of the photo is the Tiergarten, some of which contains the famous Berlin Zoo.

 

 

The Holocaust Memorial

 

 

The iconic Brandenburg Gate

 

 

Views of East Berlin and the TV Tower

 

 

Part of the Berlin Wall

[kikki21]

Did you get a chance to tour the Vibe? Thoughts? Do you remember the hours of operation?

 

Thanks

 

The Vibe area was still being finished off in Southampton and furniture put into place when we toured round. I do have some photos of that area. There seems to be a lot of places to enjoy the sun onboard the Escape although it looked a nice area, the conditions in the cold of Southampton meant that no-one was using that area but it looked good to chill out in the Caribbean. Can't remember the hours of operation!

[kikki21]

 

Love locks attached to the wall.

 

 

Panorama Punkt selfie!

 

 

West Berlin views

 

 

Modern buildings and greenery together!

 

 

The long glass building in the middle of the photo is the Arkaden shopping mall.

[mianmike]

Great review. Love the photos!

[kikki21]

Great review. Love the photos!

 

 

Thank you! [emoji4] there's a lot more to come! I was falling asleep editing/writing last night so had to call it a night!!!

[kikki21]

Probably one of the most iconic buildings in Berlin is the TV Tower in East Berlin - we wouldn't have the time to visit on this occasion but it's lined up for next time! There is a restaurant at the top which revolves 360 - we love stuff like that!

 

 

Love this photo!

 

 

We decided to go into the cafe and have a bite to eat - we'd not really had time for breakfast and we shared a panini on the fight to Berlin, we needed our energy for all the walking round we would do today - we actually ended up walking over 7 miles today! :eek:

 

 

Well once I had spied the Black Forest Gateau in the cafe - that was it - I was cut a monster slice lol! It looked heavy but in actual fact, it was very light and very tasty!

 

Hubby had the roast vegetable quiche - which he enjoyed - we ended up sharing the quiche and the cake! This place is lovely for an early morning viewing or at sunset and they also serve alcohol too!

 

 

After our early brunch and drinks, we decided to move on and explore more of Berlin.

 

 

The brown office block is the building for Panorama Punkt.

[kikki21]

 

Great buildings all around Potsdammer Platz.

 

We headed off in the direction for the Brandenburg Gate - admiring lots of buildings along the way.

 

 

We had bought some souvenirs in a lovely gift shop - we collect mugs and fridge magnets of our travels when Martin got a phone call to say our room was ready!

 

We decided to go back there & then, have a freshen up and continue our travels. I had booked the least expensive room type at the hotel, a City Studio! When we got to the hotel, they told us that they had already sent up our luggage to the room which was a nice touch - we also checked out that our reservation at Facil was ok for this evening and yes all in order!

 

 

The bed part of the studio.

 

 

Office area complete with iPad and dvd player, huge luggage store area, a kitchenette and a huge bathroom! Wow - we were impressed by the room!

 

It was time to explore again, this time we decided to go across Leipzig St to get to Checkpoint Charlie, up Friedrich St, to Unter den Linden, then to the Brandenburg Gate and back down to our hotel.

 

 

[kikki21]

 

There were many impressive buildings plus museums and shops on this street.

 

 

Another big shopping mall!

 

 

We finally got to Checkpoint Charlie - we had been told there's not a lot there to see but it is of course a very historic place, there is a museum and exhibitions close by - we just wanted to see the actual spot.

 

 

The actual Checkpoint Charlie with a McDonalds right behind it!!!

 

We then walked back up Friedrich St which has a lot of the high end fashion shops on it plus a Galeries Lafeyette - we didn't go in there ( another next time!)

 

 

[kikki21]

 

Unter den Linden is another famous street in Berlin - it's a wide boulevard and there are cafes to one side of it.Plus some fancy cars!

 

 

The Hotel Adlon is also very famous as a lot of Hollywood's A listers come to stay here when they are in Berlin - it is also the scene of the Michael Jackdon baby dangling incident.

 

 

The Brandenburg Gate - a symbol of freedom when the Berlin Wall came down.

 

 

[kikki21]

We then visited the close by Holocaust Memorial - it is basically constructed of stones of all different heights and the ground is also at different levels to create a sense of the unknown.

 

 

The TV tower again.

 

 

Amazing structure!

 

 

And with that - we walked back to our hotel to have a bit of rest and to get ready for our special dinner tonight at Facil!

[NMLady]

...

 

We had to get up at an ungodly hour for me - 3.20AM - so that we could taxi to the airport for 4.30am - we wanted to be there early so that we could shop a bit for toiletries after the fiasco of last time where I ended up throwing away quite a few toiletries as they refused to accept a slightly larger see through bag for them!

 

I now aim to get them at the airport - ...

 

The TSA is often really adamant about 3-1-1 which stands for 3 oz sizes or less in a ONE quart ziplock, one bag per person.

 

I go online to http://www.minimus.biz and order from their travel size items.

[kikki21]

The TSA is often really adamant about 3-1-1 which stands for 3 oz sizes or less in a ONE quart ziplock, one bag per person.

 

I go online to http://www.minimus.biz and order from their travel size items.

 

Flying from the UK you have to have liquids under 100ml - they have never been that tight in how much you can pack in the bag but the last time, they were so I took the bare minimum that I can get away with & I think with our next holiday will just buy them when we get there!!! :)

[kikki21]

We do like our food & we are fortunate to eat out a few times a year at Michelin starred restaurants - to date we hadn't found a rival to our favourite Michelin starred restaurant - Nottingham's Sat Bains, so we were going to see what this chef, Michael Kempf could do! :)

 

We could choose from either an a la carte or a tasting menu - we chose the tasting menu and we could choose either 4,5,6,7 or the full 8 courses - we went for 6!

 

You don't have to have the same course so a bit of mixing goes on! :)

 

 

We were also given a few complimentary dishes to start and then one of the best tasting dishes I've ever had arrived - the Caesar Salad was just amazing!

 

 

I also had an unusual spicy curried pumpkin dish with some sweet elements, really enjoyed it!

 

 

I wasn't a big fan of the beef dish - it tasted good but I just wasn't wowed by it, however the venison dish was excellent!

 

[kikki21]

Dessert was also soooo delicious, flavours of carrot, blackberry and vanilla!

 

 

The complimentary petit fois were all sooo tasty - we even got a cake which we couldn't eat so they got a box for it and we could take it back to the room. We put it in the fridge........

 

And yep, we forgot all about it the next morning and it stayed in the fridge, hope someone ate it. Gutted!!!

 

We concluded that it was an excellent meal - despite not being wowed by the beef dish, everything else along with the service was top notch AND that the chef was a match for Sat Bains!

 

It was a very long meal - we were booked in for 7.30pm and I don't think we left till 10.30pm or so! It had been a very long but great day - we were ready to sleep and get another day closer to the Escape!

[kikki21]

We woke up relatively early on the Saturday morning, got ourselves all packed and ready (minus the chocolate cake - sob! :mad:) and met up with my cousin Renata and her little daughter Jordin, nearly 3 who came to our hotel - it turned out that she only lives 10 minutes drive away from the hotel so that was handy.

 

We decided to have breakfast at the one of the many cafes in the Arkaden shopping centre. My cousin also very kindly agreed to drive us to the main train station as it was close by and on her way home too! Result!

 

She's lived in Berlin for 13 years now and she was very happy to have met up with us!

 

 

The train was a little bit late (we thought everything ran on time in Germany!) but my cousin told us this was definitely an urban myth!

 

She waited with us till we got on the train - it was a bit confusing which carriage we were in initially but we managed to find our seats and off to Hamburg we went - the journey took an hour and a half through pleasant countryside and wooded areas.

 

 

We caught a taxi at the train station and it was a relatively short journey to our hotel in the St Pauli area - the Hotel East.

 

It was also great that we were staying there as it was a short walk to the Hotel Hafen, which was the scene of our Cruise Critic pre cruise meeting!

 

Back to the Hotel East - wow what a quirky hotel! I booked the standard room category!

 

 

Huge bath/shower combo in the room!

 

 

We decided to get ready and head out early and do a minor bit of exploring before meeting for drinks at the Tower Bat for 6pm.

 

[kikki21]

We decided to have a drink at the hotel first - they had a good choice of cocktails - I had a raspberry mojito!

 

 

The hotel used to be a factory building - really converted stylishly into what it is now! This is the restaurant.

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

Part of the bar area - the place was packed when we returned from our meal later on - it was also quite noisy - we could hear some noise in our room!

 

 

We walked across the Reeperbahn streets and came to the harbour front.