Wonderful itinerary on a nice ship. The staff were fabulous as we've come to expect from NCL. As is always the case, we wish there'd been more time spent in some of the ports, but that comes with the territory. Will definitely book on NCL again for a future European cruise.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Super easy - no lines, no wait.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
We did not eat in any of the dining rooms. We did eat breakfast daily at the buffet and it was good. We dines in some speciality restaurants and they were excellent.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Bingo is always fun on NCL. The fitness center was nice, but despite the signs, there were children there. We love using the hot tubs, but for some reason, they were never actually hot.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
"The Choir of Man" was amazing...the rest of the entertainment was good too. The various music acts were plentiful and there were some other great shows in the Escape Theater.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Service and staff are always excellent on NCL. Our room steward was really nice and everywhere we went on the ship, we found the staff to be top-notch.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ship design is great. Things seemed quite tidy onboard.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
The cabin was roomy, with a large bathroom and full-size shower. The beds were comfortable. Upon entering the cabin however, there was an unpleasant smell (as if someone had smoked in the cabin). Housekeeping did come and sanitize the cabin which helped.
Santorini was lovely. We had a great lunch. Taking the lift too late in the day can be a problem because of long lines, so we were sure to leave a couple hours before "all aboard" time.
Jumped on the Hop-on-Hop-off to get us into downtown Athens and explored. It was a nice day. Had a great lunch, did some shopping and walked around a lot. We'd already done the Acropolis on another cruise, so saw no need to tour it again.
Corfu was nice, but our excursion included lunch and the lunch went on a bit too long. It cut into our free time. If we return, we'll just make our way to the main square and walk around. There is a really cool fortress there and we did get to explore it a bit. Mons Repos, was interesting as well, but the tour spent too much time there.
The greatest surprise of this trip was Malta. It was our favorite stop. What a fascinating place it is...with interesting history, nice people, great food and excellent shopping. I wish we'd had more time there.
The views were great, but the city itself was dirty and most places were closed. Had a bad experience in a restaurant here... If we ever stop in Messina again, we won't get off the ship.
Took a tour to Sorrento and Pompeii...both were great stops. The pizza here wasn't;t as good as we'd expected, but the Delize Limone was amazing and made up for it.
Thanks for your review, we were on the same cruise and loved it too, definitely looking to book on the Escape again when it’s back in Europe. We were also very pleasantly surprised with Valletta and would go back again.
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