7/22 - 7/29 Escape Family Vacatioin

Hello fellow cruisers! I couldn’t resist reliving my amazingvacation. This is my 4thcruise, all with NCL. I’ve been on the Getaway twice and the Escape twice now.I think I’m a megaship whore and having started with NCL, I don’t know that Iwould be as happy on another line that would force me to dress up or eat atappointed times with weirdos (stranger danger!). Summer vacation means it’s me, my mum, andsister, Megan. Pops stays at home taking care of my dog as he isn’t a vacationperson (I can’t comprehend this). Thismarks my mum’s 3rd cruise and Megan’s 2nd. We typicallyarrive the day before a cruise but in this case, it was cheaper to fly in onThursday and I decided that we’d use Friday to sightsee as my mum and sis hadn’treally seen Miami beyond the airport and cruise port. Feel free to skip thatpart. This was a Western Caribbean itinerary, we did it in December and love it. It's Honduras, Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. I've also done the Western with the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel but this one is better because I'm not a fan of Nassau.

If you’d like to see pictures, please go to my vacation FB page Mandy’s VacationPage at: https://www.facebook.com/mandy.harris.946179?hc_ref=ARSu0D1-ChnbRvKJEWHLHDC2cZDvSrSCC5nJeQoBnbtxE2ZbzaG40lIUyUNMIW6A7Fg. I haven't posted comments of them yet but that will come in time.

Caution: This is going to be long and I have a bad habit oftyping slower than I think so occasionally I might miss a verb or other crucialelement in a completely formed sentence.

Hotel

I had points at Hyatt so we stayed at the Hyatt Place at theMiami airport. I wanted to do the Hyatt Centric in South Beach but they onlyhad King Rooms that were small and couldn’t fit a rollaway for a 3rdperson. Damn you little sister! Anywho, Hyatt Places are generally nice becausethey are newer hotels and convenient for business travel. They have freebreakfast but it was a clusterf*ck on Friday morning and we waited in a longtime to get just add water eggs and waffles. In the past, we’ve stayed at theHampton Inn at the airport because I have a lot of points there as well. Theirfree breakfast situation is crowded but more tolerable than the Hyatt. If Iever stayed longer again, I would choose a hotel closer to South Beach. Wespent a tidy amount on Lyft going back and forth.

Miami – Friday 7/21

I had a stress fracture in my foot that went undiagnosed fortwo weeks (long story) and once it was discovered, I was put into a boot. I wasat an epic level of butthurtedness about wearing the boot but I made it work.We initially thought about doing a Hop on/Hop off tour of Miami but with theboot, I knew it would be hot and I wouldn’t want to walk that much. So wedecided on a Just Duck tour. It’s a 90 excursion and $32 for adults and $26 forseniors. We chose the South Beach one so we could see Star Island and OceanDrive. This tour was so much fun and I highly recommend it. Our tour guide’s namewas Richie and he was hilarious. He’s tried to get in with the cruise lines asa comedian but it hasn’t worked out yet. The tour provided great information (Ilove random knowledge and trivia) and I love art deco architecture and Richiemade a point of showing it. Once we went into Bicayne Bay we got to see thehouses on Star Island and Shaq was sitting outside and waved to us. I think itwas a curse because it immediately started to rain right after the wave. Thiswas no 2 minute South Florida rain either. This was like a monsoon. Richie wassuper prepared with all the right music to narrate this trip and immediatelyplayed the Benny Hill theme song as we got soaked to the bone. Eventually therain slowed down and we continued the rest of the tour. Since we were so soaked, there was no way wecould go to dinner as is so we had to go back to the hotel to change (at thebargain price of $40 roundtrip on Lyft).

Our dinner reservation was at Yardbird in SoBe. We have beento the one in Vegas and because Megan hadn’t been to it, we decided to checkout the Miami outpost. It’s a southern food joint. We had deviled eggs for anapp, our entrée was fried chicken, mac n cheese, greens, and a biscuits, andfor dessert, we split Nutella beignets. Overall the food was great and we atelike pigs. The mac n cheese was a bit more watery than I like it and the greensweren’t as good as when we had them in Vegas but still, it was a satisfyingcomfort food meal.

Post Dinner, we walked the shops of Lincoln Avenue and sinceit was still early, we didn’t want to go back to the hotel yet and we weresaving our livers for the ship so we decided to see a movie. Went to see GirlsTrip and it was a riot. Perfect movie for a girls night and drinks. After themovie, we wandered around the shops more and then went back to the room to takea hair dryer to my boot.

Saturday, 7/22 – Cruise Day!!!!

We woke up around 7:30 on Saturday completely geeked becauseI think I booked this cruise in October 2016 and it was finally here. Weskipped breakfast and check out was smooth and easy. We got a Lyft within twominutes of our request and got to the terminal around 10:30. I do love checkingin at this time because it was a complete breeze and we didn’t wait foranything other than the wheelchair. With the boot, I have a hard time withsteps and/or ramps because they make me go off balance and I requested awheelchair. Oh, before I go further, we had a mid-ship balcony with the UBP,and 3 day UDP. Megan got the Corks and Caps drink package because the UBP priceis out of control. Back to check-in…..once the wheelchair came, we waited about15 minutes before they boarded those of us with rickety bodies. We were on theship by 11:30 which is a record. Nothing opened until noon so we sat in theAtrium and waited for the bar to open around 11:45-11:50 and then thecelebration began.

At noon, we hit up Taste or Savor for lunch. We aren’tbuffet people. We hate the crowds up there and it’s more fun being served.Lunch was tasty (I do love the fish and chips on the ship) and uneventful. Whenwe were finished, we heard our boy Tyler Gray announce that the cabins were ready.Sidenote: We love Tyler, this is our 2nd cruise with him at Directorand he was awesome again. His energy and sense of fun are infectious. I knowsome people think he’s annoying but I like the high energy especially afterbeing stuck with this poor girl that was the CD on the Getaway in December…shewas going to be CD on the Joy and her personality was probably very appropriatefor that ship but it was blah for us. We (my fam) are kinda loud and wildethnic folks.

We went to the room and here comes the first adventure. Iread a review a few weeks ago on another site and someone swore they had bedbugs in their cabin. That’s my nightmare because I travel so much that I sawthat review and immediately bought spray from Amazon. In my mind, I was goingto be the Orkin man making sure nothing penetrated our room. What I didn’t mentionis that I didn’t check the bottle before I packed it and some of it spilled outof the ziplock bag and got onto my pajamas. The stuff reeked. I always send myclothes to be pressed since it’s 50% off and I never feel like ironing onvacation so I also sent my pajamas and wet clothes from the Just Duck tour tobe washed and dried so they didn’t get musty. Back to bed bugs: we tore thebeds apart to check the mattresses and I thought they looked clean and then mymom saw something. I died. Then I lookedat it and it didn’t look like one to me but we called Housekeeping anyway. OurSteward, Ali, was at our room within 1 minute. I’ll talk about his greatnesslater. He looked at it and confirmed that it was NOT a bed bug but looked liketobacco from a cigarette. He explained that they are required to check the bedseach day thoroughly so that they can minimize the chances of having bed bugs.It made me feel better but upon leaving the room to go to our muster drill,Mummy sprayed the living **** out of the room. I’m sensitive to smell and guesswho barfed up their lunch libations? This girl here. Barfing will be a running theme.

My only complaint about cruises is the muster drill. I understandwhy it’s mandatory, I just get irritated that people show up whenever the hellthey want making it last longer for those of us that are on time and then Ihate that it’s so crowded when it’s over. I rented a scooter because I didn’tknow how my foot was going to be. The scooter was a toy for the most part butit was helpful after muster because there was a really nice person that helpedme get on an elevator quickly.

Post muster, we finished getting our clothes together to bepressed and went to the spa for the raffle. Last year Megan won $150. Thisyear, didn’t her name get called again and she won a $100 certificate. I washappy for her because she’s a teacher and doesn’t make a lot of money (I paidfor her cruise for her Christmas gift, I paid for her flight for her birthdaygift). She saved up for the thermal suite but had said she didn’t have themoney for a massage. Well, didn’t that work out!

After the raffle, we went to La Cucina for dinner. I think I’vealready written a monologue about it so I’ll condense it. It’s not the bestItalian I’ve ever had but it’s certainly not the worst (that award goes to theOlive Garden). There was a quartet of friends sitting behind us at La Cucinaand somehow on a ship with a millionty people, we were sat next to them 3 moretimes over the week.

My dessert was gambling with a side of gambling. My littlemeager status moved up this trip which is surprising since I only cruise 2x ayear. I received $100 of onboard credit with this status upgrade which wascool. Off to the casino to win big and retire and start booking Haven rooms!Not 5 minutes into slot play, doesn’t Miss Megan hit for 407 dollars? Our housenumber is 407 so it was quite the cowinkydink. I was thrilled for her andthroughout the week, she stuck to her budget and never did touch that money.

We lasted until 10:30 and then we were sleepy from all theaction (getting old sucks). The smell in the room wasn’t as strong thankgoodness. Sidenote: During the bed bug debacle, I gave Ali $20 for being a painin the ass with that as well as sending out so many clothes. We gave him moreat the end as he was the best steward we’d ever had and worked so hard. I swearyou get better service when you grease their palms at the beginning of thecruise but then Ali was so genuine, I think he does a good job because he takespride in his work. He was a vacation hero.

Lastly, we received a bottle of sparkling wine for hittingSilver Latitudes status. I was glad it wasn’t a bottle of Andre but it scaredme. Cheap sparkling wine can be a helluva headache so I didn’t open it. But I drankquite a bit of prosecco when I was out and about so it was probably the samething. Hehe. Casinos at Sea also sent us chocolate coveredstrawberries which hit the spot for a sweet treat before drifting off to sleepin those huge twin beds.

Day two to be continued.

Not sure why but a lot of your words are showing up stuck together. Might want to edit that if you are cutting and pasting to this forum. Probably a forum glitch.

Great report so far! I'm enjoying your sense of humor :)

Looking forward to you blog 🕺🏾

Following. Thanks!

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Not sure why but a lot of your words are showing up stuck together. Might want to edit that if you are cutting and pasting to this forum. Probably a forum glitch.

Thanks for the heads up, I did write it in Word. I won't do that for Day Dos.

Great start! We will be back on the Escape next month so love hearing your views. Do you recall the name of the current Executive Casino Host? (I spend some time in there too;))

Great start! We will be back on the Escape next month so love hearing your views. Do you recall the name of the current Executive Casino Host? (I spend some time in there too;))

Darn it! They listed it on the card with the strawberries and I didn't take a pic of it so I can't remember. It had the whole team of hosts too. Maybe I shoved it somewhere, I'll look in my gambling purse just in case.

Day 2 - Day at Sea

We decided to have a leisurely morning and ordered fruit and pastries for breakfast to keep us from having to get up to eat at Taste or Savor or keep us away from the hornets nest known as the Garden cafe. Living in Pittsburgh, sunshine can be tough to come by (I recently had my Vitamin D tested; Low is 30 whateverunitofmeasuretheyuse and mine was 15.9) and having breakfast on the balcony in the sunshine was perfect. I always enjoy passing the coast of Cuba and watching the channel that shows you where you are.

I should have saved my Freestyles because some of the details are a bit hazy. I want to say we went to play a trivia game but I'm not 100%. We also hit up the casino and played a bit. Around noon we decided that pastries didn't go far and it was time for lunch. We hit up Food Republic. We went last year and enjoyed it and were not disappointed this time either. We got there at the right time as we got the last table and the only seating left were singles at the bar where you can see the staff cook. I know some people are against paying for food since food is already bundled into the price of the cruise. I refuse to eat at Margaritaville because it was supposed to be free and now it isn't plus, I've eaten at the one in Vegas and it's not that exciting. Oh and I was jacked when they got rid of the Flamingo Grill to put that crap in. Okay back to my point, Food Republic is worth the money. If you are an appetizer person that likes eating a little bit of everything, make this a priority. The short rib dumplings are yummy as are buffalo shrimp.

After lunch, we went and camped out in the Atrium because Deal or No Deal was happening and seating there is competitive. You'd think Benny Hinn was in the library healing people because all these old people in wheelchairs can suddenly stand up and grab a seat from under you and 10 minutes before they were struggle walking out of bingo. Sidenote: Last year, there was a piano player named Darren and it was kind of dorky but really talented; I missed him this trip and I swear he always played right before any of the games. Deal or No Deal was so much fun this day because a guy actually had $1000 in his case and won it. The poor woman in the 2nd game did horribly. I don't think she even won $10, it was painful to watch how bad her luck was.

As part of our day of leisure, we went to the thermal suit for some r&r. I felt like a beached whale from Food Republic but oh well. Our timing all week at the suite was great and we scored heated chairs each time. I love the thermal suite and have done it on all of my cruises. It is totally worth the extra $200 to me for a few reasons. 1. There's no kids 2. It's quiet-ish 3. SNOW ROOM; I wish the Getaway had one as I use the heck out of it on the Escape. I hate cold weather but I've been doing cryotherapy and find it refreshing and the snow room is the same. 4. It's good bankroll preservation. Man, I wish I knew who was reading this...I met some characters in the spa that I'd love to talk **** on but I guess I'll use discretion.

For dinner, we went to the Manhattan Room. We requested to sit far from the stage because it's too noisy to talk when you are close to the musicians. The service was very good. I read some many people complaining about service but our servers were very good and the managers did a great job of filling in any gaps and helping as necessary. I've now come to the conclusion that those people that don't think NCL provides good services must want indentured servants. The food was good; Megan and my mum got prime rib I believe and I went rogue with pork loin with beans and rice. I had low expectations but the pork was moist and flavorful and the beans were as well.

Back to the casino for gambling and I won $315 on a penny slot. Not a huge win (I've won quite a bit more on past cruises) but I was thankful for it. As it ended up with gambling, I kept winning $150 here and $200 there to the point where it covered so many of the tips I gave out in Miami to Lyft drivers, the tour guides, etc. I even came home with half of my money and I used cash to buy a few gifts for myself. We also listened to Groove Addiction. They are like Groove International on the Getaway except Addiction has a female lead. She's a great singer and had the crowd really engaged. One of the nights, she was so into it that she had boob, pit, and ass sweat going. It was impressive but I bet she felt like a sewer. I tried to capture pics of the sweat, see the FB page.

That's all I remember for our day at sea....before bed, we'd usually watch tv (I tried to ban news because I needed to detox from social media and current events for my mental health) and I was disappointed that this trip, we never caught any episodes of Locked Up. I love that **** show of a program.

Next up, Day 3 in Roatan with my friends!

Following along.

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Great start! We will be back on the Escape next month so love hearing your views. Do you recall the name of the current Executive Casino Host? (I spend some time in there too;))

Currently Exec Host is Carey Louis

Tracy

Been trying to see your photos on Facebook but I can't get into them

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Been trying to see your photos on Facebook but I can't get into them

 

 

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I thought I had it open. Let me check the settings. Thanks for the heads up! Okay the pics should be open to everyone. Can you check again and let me know if you can see it?

You rented a scooter? From where....? Did you have a handicapped cabin?

Day 3 - Monday - Roatan, Honduras!

We got up early and went to TasteSavor (I never know which I went to so that's the new name). for breakfast. I typically like to do my own excursions but having read about Honduras and safety, we booked the Tabyana Beach Break. We did it in December and liked it. When you get off the ship, it's a tad crazy trying to keep up with the right person to get on the right taxi so pay attention.

Tabyana Beach is very beautiful. The water is fairly calm and it feels so cooling against the heat. I like this beach for a few reason; 1. They have security watching over your things 2. They have chairs out and included in the price (Magen's Bay in St. Thomas pissed me off because it was a pain to get a chair). 3. Bar service is fast and the drinks aren't very expensive. 4. The vendors cannot come up to you in your lounge chair. They have the stay near the water so they can hit you up as you get into the water but if you are laying in your chair, you can do it in peace. I don't mind the vendors because I'm a softy and they are so poor. I made a couple of friends last trip and kept in touch via Facebook. Unfortunately one of them has sugar mama dreams. The kid is 23 and had I been a fast ass lil heffa as a kid, he could be my child. Anywho, I'm currently trying to tell him I don't need my groove back. Plus, if I want a poor boyfriend, there's plenty of American guys in my back yard. I know it's evil but I can't lead this poor kid on. Moving on, lunch is included and it's bbq chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, and beans and rice. Last December, the food was okay but this time, the chicken was damn near petrified and I choked on it. So dry and flavorless. It turned me off so i had my lunch in the form of limes in a Corona. We lasted about 3.5 hours at the beach before we tapped out. Since we don't get much sun in Pittsburgh, my mom and I are kind of scared of getting burned. My sister lives in VA and gets lots of sun so she doesn't have that problem.

Back on the ship, we took a disco nap and then got dressed. We went to the Waterfront to have drinks before our dinner at Bayamo. Dammit, who told everyone about how awesome the Waterfront is? it was much more crowded than previous cruises. We were able to get drinks and good seats to watch sailaway. I'm in awe of the Captains and how they navigate these ships out of small areas. Parts of the port are pretty shallow so it's just amazing.

Bayamo - We didn't try this the last time but since I received $100 OBC for going up in my casino status, I figured why not try it out. Overall it was good. I would not recommend using this as a Specialty Dining Pick because they have all these added fees that make it not worth it. The price for the food wasn't that bad so it was better in my opinion just to pay the a la cart price and get more bang for my buck at other specialty restaurants. The cost for 3 starters and 3 entrees was $88 including tip. It was good but not great, I think Ocean Blue on the Getaway is much better. If I cruise on the Escape again and I probably will, I would skip this.

After dinner, the plan was to go to the Atrium to watch the Newlywed/Not so Newlywed game show but it was packed and we missed out on even getting a folding chair. Damn, guess that means I gotta gamble. hehe. Monday was also Norwegian's Night Out and all the photographers are out in full force. Here's my commentary, there were quite a few family reunions on the ship and it's nice to see generations of families getting pictures together. Then, you have the couples that did the most. Some of these women showed up in the Citi Trends finery (for those outside the US, Citi Trends is cheapo clothes that if you sneeze too hard, your clothes will be in shreds on the floor). In addition to wearing loud, cheap clothes, some of these women swore they were on America's Next Top Model taking serious photos not smiling. Or the photographer would have them contorted around their boyfriend and they gazed into each others eyes so totally in love that I was ready to puke. You are probably thinking, wow, this b*tch is jealous of love. Why yes I am! I want a guy to take dangerously in love pictures together. Honestly, I'm boring and like pictures where people smile and are happy. The model type shots make me laugh. <end of commentary>

I've read so much about After Midnight and we missed it last year probably because there's a gambling addiction and we likely blew through the reservation. This year, I was determined to see it because so many people have said they didn't like it. Begin commentary: I really enjoyed After Midnight. If I had any criticism, it's that they probably could shave off a few minutes and make it last around an hour. I felt the same way about Burn the Floor. It's good but it gets long because it's the same thing. The premise of After Midnight is a tribute to the Cotton Club and performers of that era. They used poetry from Langston Hughes and jazz music from many of the greats like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. There is no plotline, it is a celebration of the time and what was happening during the Harlem Renaissance. My recommendation is that you should not go to this show if a) you don't like black people b) you don't like jazz music or tap dancing c) culture isn't your thing and you'd rather way Transformers than a musical and d) you don't like black people. I sat in the back with my scooter and within 10 minutes of the show starting, people started pouring out of the theater. I've never seen anything like it and I go to musicals and plays alot. You might think I'm playing the race card but honestly, I saw people leaving after an hour with kids asleep (this was the 10 pm show) and I totally get that. (Also, I've made the mistake of reading comments on political stories online and found out that there are a lot of people that really just do not like black people.) An hour is about long enough and if you have little ones that are asleep, you want to get them to bed. I don't have kids so I don't know much about them but I would think they would like the tap dancing but the rest might be a little boring to them. Other than that, as soon as a number was finished, people with and without kids would start leaving. Of those of us that stayed, we really enjoyed it and it got a standing ovation. The cast was really talented and the musicians were as well. I highly recommend the show if you are into musicals and jazz. It will be interesting to read others' take on the show now that I have a frame of reference. <end of commentary>

After the show, we did the unthinkable and went to the Garden Cafe for an ice cream cone and then off to bed.

You rented a scooter? From where....? Did you have a handicapped cabin?

i rented one from Special Needs at Sea. It's a 3rd party company and they had the scooter in my cabin when I got there. Walking in the boot makes me slow so I got one in case I got tired or I needed to keep up. I did not have a handicapped room and it was problematic. In December, we had one because my mom had had surgery and needed it. Our cabin had plenty of room to store the scooter. This time, I called about a handicapped cabin only a few weeks in advance and they had no rooms that would accommodate 3 people unless we downgraded to an inside cabin (NOPE). We kept our balcony cabin and I stored the scooter in the hallway. When I wasn't using it, I left the keys in the room and told my steward Ali that he was free to enter the room and take the key to move the scooter if it got in his way. We had no problems until the last day. On Friday, they took it and stored it in a locker. No idea why they waited until Friday to do that but whatever.

i rented one from Special Needs at Sea. It's a 3rd party company and they had the scooter in my cabin when I got there. Walking in the boot makes me slow so I got one in case I got tired or I needed to keep up. I did not have a handicapped room and it was problematic. In December, we had one because my mom had had surgery and needed it. Our cabin had plenty of room to store the scooter. This time, I called about a handicapped cabin only a few weeks in advance and they had no rooms that would accommodate 3 people unless we downgraded to an inside cabin (NOPE). We kept our balcony cabin and I stored the scooter in the hallway. When I wasn't using it, I left the keys in the room and told my steward Ali that he was free to enter the room and take the key to move the scooter if it got in his way. We had no problems until the last day. On Friday, they took it and stored it in a locker. No idea why they waited until Friday to do that but whatever.

Thanks for the info.

Bueller?

Bueller?

Is anyone reading? Not sure if I pissed anyone off about After MIdnight. Let me know if you are interested in the rest otherwise, I can stop.

But I'll restart another one in December so you can't ditch meeeeeeeee!

Bueller?

 

Bueller?

 

Is anyone reading? Not sure if I pissed anyone off about After MIdnight. Let me know if you are interested in the rest otherwise, I can stop.

 

But I'll restart another one in December so you can't ditch meeeeeeeee!

Nope. All good. Reading along. We booked After Midnight for our cruise in October. And we saw the previews and are looking forward to it.

Full speed ahead!

That After Midnight comment had me laughing out loud in Panera Bread. You clearly belong to the Millennial generation!!!!

That After Midnight comment had me laughing out loud in Panera Bread. You clearly belong to the Millennial generation!!!!

Noooooo, I'm actually whatever that bootleg generation is between X and millenials that runs from '77 to '83. I promise you I'm not an entitled brat at work. :-)

BTW - If you are posting from MS Word into the web browser version of CruiseCritic, Ctrl+Shift +V should paste without the spaces disappearing.

Your review is both informative and entertaining.

Please carry on Mandy! You are so funny and I peeked at your facebook pictures and love all the pics of you with your sister and mom! So sweet! How lucky you are to travel together!

Bueller?

 

 

 

Bueller?

 

 

 

Is anyone reading? Not sure if I pissed anyone off about After MIdnight. Let me know if you are interested in the rest otherwise, I can stop.

 

 

 

But I'll restart another one in December so you can't ditch meeeeeeeee!

Please continue.

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