NCL Escape - Trip Home ;o(

NCL Escape - Trip Home

PLEASE NOTE: This review has nothing to do with Maraloha Travel. This cruise was for the purpose of the Reunion Cruise Group that I do every year in dedication and heavy advocacy for Travel Agents. It is also for purposes of giving insight to cruising and my personal experiences. Call your travel agent for more information about experiencing your first or future cruise.

OMG!! The cruise is over ?!?!?!. NOOOOOO.... Here we are in Miami and I can't believe I am leaving my fellow TA's. JC and I had a great time and gave JC some ideas into what travel agents do even though I am sure he had a pretty good idea. Its great getting together with others to brainstorm and get more refreshing ideas and/or remember the old ones that worked!

Debarkation is one of the easiest processes (at least in my experience). Left the bags out the night before, there are off the ship and at the pier waiting for us to pick them up, and having a relaxing breakfast before we head down to meet Pam (our Concierge) to have Priority Debarkation. Love this part. We can stay on as late as we possibly can and at 9:30AM we walk off the ship, skipping the line (priority) and go get our bags. Perfect! 

Grab the porter to get our bags and off we go to get a cab. Well... this was a bad idea. Should have called an Uber... The Uber would have cost us $12.00 to get back to the Hotel, or maybe a little more. The taxi was $40.00!!! Uck...but it was raining hard and I just wanted to get to my car at the hotel and unload the luggage. As expected, we get to the Hotel where we stayed prior to leaving for the cruise, no damage to the car, and right where I left it. Awesome!

So now, both of us tired as we didn't get much sleep the night before...I start the drive home. We reminisced about some of the great times we had, the interesting people we met, the experiences at the island, and bounced around some ideas for our next Reunion cruise!

Thanks so much for those who joined us on the 5th Annual NCL Reunion cruise! The Reunion Committee will be continually working hard to get the next one ready and will give you details as soon as it comes available. 

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you.  

Thanks for joining us on this memorable journey!

STAY TUNED FOR INFORMATION ON THE NEXT REUNION CRUISE COMING SOON!

#dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun, #NCLEscape, #Reunioncruises

NCL Escape - Day 7 (Nassau, Bahamas)

NCL Escape - Day 7

(Nassau, Bahamas)

PLEASE NOTE: This review has nothing to do with Maraloha Travel. This cruise was for the purpose of the Reunion Cruise Group that I do every year in dedication and heavy advocacy for Travel Agents. It is also for purposes of giving insight to cruising and my personal experiences. Call your travel agent for more information about experiencing your first or future cruise.

I can't believe this is the last day of our cruise. We will be in Miami tomorrow so we have to make the best of it.  This is going to be a long post so get out the coffee and buckle up!

Before this cruise, I had spoken to our Representative for Atlantis Paradise Island so that we can get a tour of this enormous place. So, we set up a time and a meet at around 1pm.  I brought with me about 4 other travel agents so that they could get the same opportunity.

So we dock in Nassau at around 12:30pm and we met up with Tony and the other travel agents towards the market entrance.  It was really gloomy and damp out, no sun, so we grabbed a taxi and went to Atlantis to meet our Rep at Coral Towers.  We met up with our Rep. at 1:30pm (she is awesome!) and we all made sure that we had water and our walking shoes.  We all knew that this was a huge property and we had a lot of walking to do.

First stop: Crush which is a nightclub and entertainment center for Teens 13-17.  Next we walked through the shopping area, thru the casino and then onward to The Dig.  The Dig is a walk through replica of the lost city of Atlantis which exhibits an array of exotic marine life.  Absolutely breathtaking and gorgeous!  The fish and marine life were beautiful and some like the the groupers were SO BIG!! WOW!  It is definitely something not to miss!

    

Our Rep then took us to see the rooms of the hotel at Royal Towers.  As Travel Agents, we need to get an idea of what these rooms and accommodations look like so that we can fit the right client to it, and of course, perks!  Some of the rooms we saw were beautiful, spacious, comfortable with all the finishing touches.  They were expensive, but worth it as you can see from the pictures!

  

Now walked out of Royal Towers and took the free shuttle (which is throughout the property, free of charge, for everyone to visit all the areas of the island) and stopped at The Cove Atlantis.  This Hotel is more for the relaxation, quite and surreal atmosphere, away from the hustle and bustle and touristy part of the other hotels on the property.   I really enjoyed seeing this hotel and the rooms.  Just in case you didn't know, people this hotel ONLY has suites and no standard rooms!  In addition, there is almost a Starbucks Coffee in every hotel at this property!  SCORE!! I don't know about you but I LOVE STARBUCKS!!! LOL

     

So far, the group is getting a little tired because not only have we walked for a long period of time, but we still had more to go.  JC and I didn't care.  We were excited to see this place!  So after seeing The Cove Atlantis, right next door was The Reef Atlantis.  This particular property has studios, suites and penthouses, however, these can be bought like timeshares!  Its all the luxuries of home in the Bahamas!

       

Since we were so close by, I was so dying to see the dolphins!  So our Rep was able to bring us to see them at the Dolphin Cay.  We could not touch or swim with them, but you can watch them interact and play.  So now it was getting pretty late and it was time to head back to the ship.

   

There was so much to see that we only had time to take some snapshots of areas as we were walking through.  We did not have time to eat or really go swimming but we did see Atlantis from some great heights, able to take some close up pictures and of course, got a great shot with our Rep!! We love her and thank her so much for taking the time out of her busy day to give us a tour.  I know that when our TA's book their clients they will know exactly how to do it and do it right!  Here are some of the best pictures I think of Atlantis (We took over 100 photos and they don't do it justice!  You have to see this place for yourself so call your Travel Agent today! (hint.. hint)

            

JC and I were pretty tired when we got back on the ship and unlike last year, we had plenty of time to make it back without the worries of the ship leaving without us.  Princess and Carnival ships were there as well and we were going to be the first ones to leave.  Here we go... through the NCL dancing line:

Now back at the cabin, we get another beautiful gift from Sean.  

So for our last night on the ship we decided to eat at Teppanyaki - the Hibachi restaurant.  I was not really thrilled as my past experience with this restaurant is that most chefs cook with a lot of garlic butter.  However I do remember one Chef that was excellent when I was on the Dawn, John.  

So we get seated and what a surprise!  The whole cast of The Brat Pack and the staff from the Perspective Studios.  What a treat! That was definitely the best highlight of the evening!  They were great and so much fun to be around and the Chef was JOHN of all people!!!! I couldn't believe it!  The food was fantastic and I feel like kicking myself in the ass for not eating here every night!  Not salty, garlicky, or oily!!! Loved it and I was sooooo upset that of course, my last night on the ship I discover this.  But, that is ok... at least we had a blast!!

So all good things must come to an end but at least this one was one for the history books!  We had a great time and we will miss all the people we have met and had fun with.

Tomorrow we are in Miami and one last entry for our adventure home....  

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you.  

Thanks for joining us on this memorable journey!

#dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun, #NCLEscape, #Reunioncruises