bzzltyr

They definitely werent on last week.

Can anybody confirm if the escape has crepes at the buffet and what night?

Every night, but they are on the back part of the buffet by themselves so they are easily missed. Great spread of options to go in them as well, fruits, nutella, chocolates, whipped cream, etc.

Cruise Day 1: (dont worry this will be my longest post because it all blurs together after this)

We got onboard around 11. There was a pretty small line to get thru and then we were ushered into an elevator to go towards the waiting area. That elevator was being led by someone taking a group of Haven passengers thru. So we stayed in their group, not knowing any better and ended up in a special Haven area that had nice couches, snacks, flavored water, etc. Once we got there we realized we were in the wrong place. My wife kept saying outloud "I dont think we are supposed to be here" (she'd be the one who tells the teacher they forgot to assign homework). I shushed her and told her to be cool, I enjoyed the comfy couches and flavored water. Then they came to board us before everyone else. I figured for sure some alarm would go off when they scan my card telling everyone I was poor and shouldn't be there, but they let us on. Someone guided us to the elevator and escorted us up to the Haven level. It was there we made our break. They said "no you have to register with the Haven first" and we said "oh were not with them" and they looked at us very puzzled and moved on. So for a brief few minutes we had the ship all to ourselves. Here's the emptiest that deck looked all week:

I had read that it was a good idea to bring swimsuits in your day bag so you could swim while everyone was waiting for your rooms. This was a genius idea. It was the least crowded pool and slides for the rest of the week. As soon as the slides opened (noon I think) we did the aqua racer slide non-stop for a half hour with no line at all. The only downside to that was my son insisted he wasnt hungry before swimming, but after an hour and a half he was starving. By then the buffet was a zoo and we had to wait for a spot to open up (we were "damp", so I didnt think a sit down restaurant would be appropriate). I didnt know at the time that it was considered ok to grab a plate at the buffet and take it back to your pool lounger, that would have been easier.

After lunch our room was ready so we headed down there. We arranged for a bath chair to be in our shower to accomodate our daughter before hand. They told us thru the accessibility line that it was a full chair with a back. It wasn't in the room when we got there but our steward was very nice and went and got it. I was very dissapointed that it was just a small stool as the only option they had. My daughter can't hold herself up, so that meant I had to hold her upper body balanced while my wife bathed her. Considering the tight space this was very difficult all week.

The muster drill was a total joke for us. Our spot was o'sheehans on 7. SOO many healthy people taking the elevators. we had to wait for 15 minutes for a elevator open enough to fit my daughter and wife on. After that we returned to our rooms and watched sailaway from our balcony. I loved our balcony, my only complaint was there wasnt enough space in the room to get my daughters wheelchair around the bed to the outside. So I had to carry her over our bed to put her out there.

For dinner we ate at Taste, one of the free restaurants. We had no reservation but went earlier and had no wait, got a seat right by the window.

The kids ended up eating off the kids menu, though my sons "kids" cheeseburger I swear was the same size as the adult cheeseburger lunch portion. They liked their food. We each had the shrimp pesto pasta which was phenomenal (only 3 shrimp though). We each got a different dessert and swapped around, best way to do dessert in my opinion. This Apple crisp thing was the winner though:

After dinner we explored the 6/7/8 area of the ship and settled in with the rest of our group at the 5 o'clock somewhere bar. This is where I met my bartender Ciprian who would become a regular presence for the rest of the week. The bar has karoake until about 7 each night, then a band for a few hours. Most the time Karoake is pretty dead, but the band brought in a good crowd. I drank every option on the menu over the week (most the first night) and I loved almost everything. The cococobana and 5 o'clock somewhere drinks were by far the best non-margarita drinks they had.

We were feeling good when we left, on our way past towards our room passed the Mojito bar which I had heard so many good things about. I wasnt a fan of the only mojito I ever had but I figured it would be worth a shot since the Famous Bong was making them. I'm sorry to say I still cant enjoy a mojito, citrus and mint just dont go together to me at all.

Got the kids to bed and messaged with my brother in law who was still up that neither of us were tired. We have both had very hard years at work and needed this trip so bad. I think we tried to decompress a years worth of stress into the first night. This was dumb. We went to the District and enjoyed their piano player Beau. I would actually rather watch him than the Howl at the moon guys, if you ever get shut out of howl at the moon for crowds see if he is playing. He's very entertaining. By about 2:30 am we decided to eat again and went to O'Sheehans. I'm sure we were a mess but the waitress was very nice. I figured the food would suck that late, but it was perfect drunk food. Here's our spread:

Got to bed around 3:30 with the drunk spins and the boat rocking so bad. This is a horrible combination. Don't get drunk until you have your "sea" legs. I didn't puke but it was a nightmare of a night from there.

PRE-CRUISE:

Our ship left January 2, we flew in at midnight on the 31st. I had never been to South Florida before so I wanted a day to check it out. This was short sighted as I WAY underestimated New years eve hotel prices. Anything in Miami was RIDICULOUSLY priced (shady run down motels in bad neighborhoods were going for over $300 a night). We ended up using Hotwire for a Hotel (Hampton Inn Hallandale) in Hollywood Beach area, that was across from the Gulfstream casino/mall. Nice hotel, and good area, but very expensive for a basic hotel due to the Holiday.

Before the Cruise we made these kits each of our families. I got the idea after reading on here. I considered adding a extension cord, but after seeing the Escape has USB plugins on each night stand I decided not too. We didnt end up needing it. It also helped we coordinated who brought medicine so we didnt all bring the same stuff. The magnets and Lanyards came in most handy (I should have brought extra lanyards, they are so cheap and towards the end of the week they started tearing from taking your card out so many times). There was hand sanitizer everywhere so that was probably the least helpful. And that Poo Pouri works! Two sprays before you go and most the smell is gone.

Great review, I especially appreciate it because we usually go to all inclusives, our last experience was horrible which is why we will be boarding our first cruise in just over a week. I am really sorry to hear about your daughters experience. I have friends with various disabilities, and it's always infuriated me when people treat them differently. I can't imagine how I would feel if they were flat out ignored. I'm glad despite this you were able to enjoy your first cruising experience.

May I ask what your buffet secrets are? I have also been all over the message boards to learn as much as possible before we leave, but haven't read any buffet tips :)

The Buffet secret was to keep going around the back of the boat. The way it's set up was there is an entrance halfway thru the buffet so it's easy if you come in from the pool side to get to that entrance and think it's done. Thats what my family did and came back with not a ton on their plate. So after I skipped past that entrance and came back with burgers, pizza, etc. they were all lost. The back usually has less crazy seating too (and the crepes station if you go for dinner).

Hello! First off I've gotten so much helpful info from these boards in the last year that it made my cruise so much better. So hopefully some of this can return the favor to someone. My family teased me for having so much about this ship memorized six months before we left. So on day one when I came back from the buffet with a bunch of good food they couldn't find on their buffet trip I had to point out "Oh reading message boards for tips isn't so bad now is it". I may have sprinkled in a few expletives, but you get the point.

In future posts I'd like to put a daily rundown of what we did and how it went (and pictures if I can figure that part out and you dont mind pics of my family because I rarely take pics of just things), but for those not interested in that part let me do a overall review from our viewpoint.

About us: I'm 35 and shared a room with my wife, son who is 8, and daughter who is 15. My daughter is disabled in a wheelchair. We normally spend our vacation somewhere in Mexico at a mid-range/cheap all-inclusive type resort. I saw a cheap cruise offer almost a year ago, shared it with some family and we all decided to try it out to mix it up. I live out west so flying to these islands is crazy expensive. My wife keeps wanting to go to Atlantis so I thought this was a great way to see a few places and see if Atlantis would be worth the extra money we normally pay on vacation (spoiler alert: it isn't). Also in our group was my sister and her family (kids 7 and 2), my in-laws and step sister/sister's friend (ages 16), and my sister's in laws (retired in their 80's). So if you have any questions about those age groups let me know.

We had a normal balcony room forward side of 10. We've never really needed accessible hotel rooms since our daughter is still on the small side, and norwegian doesnt have one single Accessible room that sleeps 4 with a balcony. So we booked a normal room thinking we'd be fine. This was a mistake. Norwegian to their credit offered up a solution ahead of time and I didn't take them up on it, so it's my mistake, not theirs. (Though seriously a ship for 4,000 people and they couldnt make one handicap accessible balcony sleep four people?). If you have a stroller or wheelchair try and get a room close to elevators to avoid this.

Overall Impressions from someone who has never been on a cruise:

Most everyone in our large group had a blast. I left for this trip pretty down on Norwegian. I would call myself a "value" vacationer. We like to take a few trips a year, but it's always where I can find a good deal. I didn't react well when I paid for features that changed and got more expensive. Taking away the nick characters and ninja turtles, Carlos bake Shop, adding fees to eat that were advertised as free doesn't sit well with me. I didnt see why I would trust Norwegian with my money again if they advertise a product one way and give you something else.

Honestly though I returned from the Cruise a total Norwegian Fanboy. It's not that those things don't bother me still, it's that there was so much to do that I never missed them. I wasn't in my room long enough to order Room Service, so I couldn't gripe about the charges. I walked past margaritaville twice the whole week, I don't know when I would have had time to eat lunch there. Every night that Daily guide waiting for us in our room was like a present, there was so much to do and not enough time to do it all. Hard to be mad when you are too busy having fun.

I'll dive into more detail later but here's my quick overall best/worst of the trip as a whole.

Good:

-Food was way better than any all inclusive type place I've been to on land. Drinks were much better quality as well.

-Entertainment staff was phenomenal. They had so much going on each day and almost all of it was a blast.

-Service in general was very good.

-So much to do on board. I didnt even get to some of the things I was looking forward too.

-Waterfront. Even though there are crowds everywhere the Waterfront rarely had many people on it. If you need to take a break from the sea of people, that's the place to do it.

-Other than elevator waits the ship was very easy to get around on a wheelchair.

Bad:

-Waiting for elevators and seeing how many people who walk fine would take them for two floors.

-Those hallways back to your room in a wheelchair. Our room was towards the front and it was rare to go that far without encountering 2-3 of those cleaning carts that we couldn't fit around and had to move. Those hallways being another six inches wider would have been so nice.

-Cultural differences on people with disabilities. That's all I can chalk it up too. Workers were amazing to me and my wife on the ship. My son got great specialty drinks and attention everytime we were out. My daughter got ignored. I've never dealt with this before anywhere (in Mexico the opposite happens). The first night we went out to dinner they sat table for four, brought four menus to our table and handed one out to myself, my wife, our son, and turned around and left with the fourth menu (my daughter is physically disabled, she can read and understand just fine). I thought that guy was just a Ahole, then a new waiter came along and took our three drink orders and turned around to leave before I caught him and gave him her order. I thought this was a one off but it happened in every place we ate for every meal all week. I talked to one of the managers about it and he was sympathetic but it happened each meal at every restaurant. I dont think these people had rude intent, it was just so odd to me because I can't recall that ever happening in a restaurant before anywhere.

-Ship movement. We felt it move a lot each day. My wife didnt get sick sick but I'd have a hard time talking her in to another cruise because she was uneasy about it the whole time. Also Drunk spins are the worst when the boat is rocking (again my fault, not Norwegians).

-Bingo was pricey! My wife and sister love to play Bingo and planned on playing twice a day each day. Most bingo sessions one card will run $40. "Budget" bingo is $20 for one card. This is a lot more than they ever pay here.

That's all for now, I'll break down each day in more detail and hopefully anyone interested will find something helpful.

iconcierge was well worth the $7 for keeping in touch. The key is to follow the message. It will say sending or SENT in Red. It will move over to delivered once the message gets to their phone. So sometimes messages would get lost, and you would need to retype. As someone else said 90% of the time they delivered right away. The App was also great for using the account review, and the "whats going on" button for seeing that day's schedule.

Gonna be boarding the escape in a couple weeks and was wondering what everyone's experience was with the motion on this boat. I have heard you feel it more on this shop. I have sailed on the Carnival Liberty and Splendor and did OK without any meds.

 

Did you take anything to help with any motion sickness? What is the best to take if you plan on consuming alcohol in the evenings? Thanks in advance for any replies.

Just got off saturday. The ship movement can be felt a lot. None of our party got sick sick from that, but quite a few of us had uneasy stomach's. Let me tell you drunk spins on a moving boat though is like a nightmare that won't end, so until you get your sea legs after a day or two don't burn the candle too brightly that first night or two (I know from experience man).

We went with scopolamine patches which worked well (dry mouth side effect is a good excuse to have a drink), and these chewable meclizine tablets. Both worked fine.

thank you for your review, one question: are the arcade video games still for free or have you to pay for them now?

They are definitely pay for. Probably the most expensive thing we did all week that wasn't pre-paid. Very cool games but pricey.

Hello,

We are a group going on our first cruise on the Escape next week. One of the groups in our party is my niece and grandparents who will be sharing a room. They are flying in from different places hours apart. Can my niece (who is 21) check in and board the ship without her Grandparents present? Otherwise she will end up waiting in the terminal area by herself a few hours.

Thanks!

There are "leader boards" One for the cruise and one for all time. I think the all time was 44 on my 14/11 cruise:D

 

Good luck and cheers

44? What am I supposed to do after tuesday....

We've sailed the Getaway and absolutely loved it, sailing the Escape on 1/2 and my boys are 7 & 9 so I say give the Escape a try ;)

Nice, my son is 8 and will be on the 1/2 cruise.

It's definitely over the top. I too spent 10 days on the Escape, and aside from a few issues (one quite major) I had a great time. I don't agree with all of the changes that have been made, and in the public venues, they really did seem short staffed, but the staff that we interacted with were great.

 

I think if you stuck to the 2 or 3 points that really didn't agree with you, you would have more people read and comment back, and not just dismiss you.

 

Sorry you had a bad vacation, nobody wants that.

See even the lady who got her ass burned off had a better cruise than you. If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about how vacations are often what people make of them then I don't know what does.

Thanks for your reply! No, we're not cancelling now that I've seen plenty of good reviews!:) I think the initial ones I read were from the Atlantic crossing and also the short sailings they had before beginning the 7 nights. I know we'll have fun, we don't get bent out of shape over little things, especially on vacation! I'm super excited to try the ropes course and water slides myself! :)

 

My youngest son is 12 years old and easily over the height limit, but he's not 100 pounds yet. That seems like a funny weight if the height limits are listed as 40 and 48 inches. He really wants to do the drop slides along with the others! Maybe they'll let him do it, it's not like they'll have a scale to weigh everyone.

 

Thanks again for your review and fun pictures!

The weight is because that's whats required to have enough momentum to shoot up that hill on the slide after the drop. If he doesnt weigh 100 pounds he will get stuck in the slide.

If you don't have enough speed/inertia to go past one of the loops that goes upward. Our DD got stuck her first time on BA. Seems to happen to people right around the low end of the weight limit (100#).

Thank god that wont be a problem for me then.

I find reviews valuable, I rely on them heavily. But I have to look at a large group of them and see the kinds of things they complain about first. Those early complaints were on things the ship wouldn't normally deal with or could control. There were negative points for rain, not having tea in the room, port issues (having to load up your own bags for 2 night cruises), running out of specific drinks on a 11 day transatlantic, etc. So right off the bat all of those go out the window. Right now it seems the areas of concern are around crowds, waiting for drinks, and eating. Hopefully that's fixed by the 200 additional people they brought on in the last week, and time of everyone to get used to working with each other and get in a normal rhythm. Reviews in a month will be much more telling.

I also look at the direction they are heading. A little over a week ago the reviews were only 20% loved it. Now it's 43%. Between the small sample sizes and normal hiccups you will see the overall #'s fluctuate a lot over the next few months.

ordered a hamburger and fries even at the John Hughes show

Is this why you don't like kids, they eat all your food?

We are crushing on Jan 2nd on the Escape. We travel a lot and my almost 3 year-old is like a mini-grown up, so loves shows, restaurants, music etc. She is always well behaved so easy to take along everywhere with us. Is it unlikely we'll use the nursery onboard as it looks a bit babyish for her (she'll be just a few weeks away from turning 3 when we sail annoyingly).

 

On our last cruise (Carnival) she joined us for everything we did - listening to music in the evening, all the shows, all the dinners.

 

I wondered what was and wasn't 'children welcome' on the Escape? Can she come along to Howl At the Moon, for example?

 

Thanks!

I'll have a two and a half year old nephew on that same cruise, we could set them up on a blind date??

Thanks SO much for the wishes, as well as the enjoyable/fun pre-cruise info you offered in your online postings, which I followed with great interest.

 

Doing FR tomorrow (the Nassau day when I'm staying onboard to continue plundering the ship), and I'm looking forward to it. :) You definitely left your heart there last week.

 

I boarded this ship with anticipation it would have a few glitches during its new 'teething' phase. With minimal exception it has exceeded ALL expectations. I'm only bummed that it's a short sailing . . . but I'm back onboard next February, so will have a better chance to experience even more.

 

.

Did they say how many is aboard your cruise ship and how crowded it is? That's my biggest concern and question left. The TA only had about 3,000 people and the weather was screwy, I'm curious how the ship holds up space wise once it's completely full.

If you are concerned about the changes, you absolutely, positively should cancel. That's the only thing that matters to NCL, and until those of you who dislike what's going on start voting with your $$$ nothing will ever change.

 

I can't imagine NOT cancelling if you have a chance. You must cancel.

It's not that easy though. There are flight costs, hotel costs before the cruise, etc. that are already booked. I would like to vote on this with my pocketbook but its likely going to happen in the form of not going on a cruise with them after this. I have too many non-NCL costs in to this vacation.

And that, in all of this, is the red flag statement. :eek:

 

 

The District's space on Escape was cabins on the -away ships. NCL made the change thinking that this would be a better generator of revenue for the space. However, if this ends up being a lounge, reading room, hang-out, etc where people sit around all day, a UBP change is going to be the BEST outcome.

 

If this space tilts more toward a lounge and the revenue numbers fall short, it will be much more likely that a) future ships will not have this space, b) existing ships will not be getting this space added, and c) the space will be repurposed on the Escape (think Dawn/Star Spinnaker) to a different space designed to generate the desired revenue levels.

 

 

NCL is going to follow the dollar...our actions (spending habits/patterns) will dictate their reactions.

That doesn't seem quite accurate, doesn't this ship have two more decks than the away ships that are primarily cabins? In that case they have to make more public spaces to distribute some of that space. They can't add two decks of cabin's and the same amount of public spaces on the other ships without causing some serious crowd issues.

To those who say it's the "final straw" if they switch from complimentary to ala cart pricing...bye.

 

With anything new, NCL deserves the right to test it out. If it is not business savvy of them to offer it for free, then they will add a charge. If the crowds on the normal 7-night sailings are still outrageous, they will add a charge.

 

Just like they removed the charge for the Noodle Bar on some ships...they reevaluated their strategy for certain venues.

 

Businesses are allowed to do this as much as they want and in fact, I think it would be unwise of them NOT to do it, if the circumstances are present.

 

I don't get why people have such knee-jerk reactions to things and give an ultimatum.

The problem with changing their minds is that it's not for "bookings made after a certain date". When I booked my cruise I did after being told BY Norwegian that they had free room service, margaritaville complimentary, A Microbrew, Ninja turles golf, Carlos bake shop and nickelodeon characters. Cheap add on restaurants where everything was included for one price. In the time I booked that all of that has either changed for the negative or is rumored to change. Are they going to give me some of my cruise money back to compensate me?

Call me crazy but it seems like bad business to advertise a vacation one way and then change it quite a bit before this. If it was one or even two changes it's reasonable, but they have changed a lot over the last few months, each time to cut costs. I'm glad you are willing to leave blind trust with these guys, but I would never trust a cruise I booked with them again after this experience.

Just posted about the Margaritaville rumor and that more changes were sure to be on the way and sure enough not an hour later the District Brew house rumor is posted. My cruise looks nothing like when I booked back in February. Besides all the monetary changes, Spongebob is gone(grandkids love him), Tortola hours changed (not for the better in my opinion) no free prime rib (can live without it) but the list just goes on and on. This stuff makes me mad. No way will I pay for something that was originally complimentary when I booked. Hadn't cruised NCL in a few years and decided to give them another try on their new ship. Kinda seems like a mistake now. Not a good way to start a vacation. Just can't believe this will be good for business or their bottom line. IMO

I completely relate. I talked my big family into an upcoming escape cruise, we've got 5 rooms and 18 people booked for the Escape Jan 2. A lot of little ones and people who like a good meal. A big part of my pitch was "pay for this now, and then everything is included once you get on the ship, we wont have to worry about splitting up bills, etc". Since we booked this trip here's what's potentially changed off their advertisement off the top of my head:

-Room Service now charged

-Margaritaville possibly going away from complimentary

-Lower priced cover charge specialty restaurants are now a'la cart (which adds up to much higher rates)

-Adding pay items to free restaurants

-Getting rid of Prime Rib night (which moved to pay option)

-Removing separate kid prices from a few restaurants

-Getting rid of Carlos bake shop, replaced generic.

-getting rid of Nickelodeon characters

-Getting rid of ninja turtles mini golf (crushed my son)

-not replacing it with anything close to equal

I dont see what's improved since then but a lot has taken away to me. I dont see this as the value I used too and will be surprised if we take another cruise.

A lot of the smaller brewers don't provide kegs; bottle only

Yeah but it's a hugely competitve industry and there's a million brewers who do keg. I agree, I could see the bottle service moving or going away. But that place has a ton of taplines, and a beer out of any of those is going to be a lot cheaper to Norwegian both labor and beverage wise than a Mojito.

Leaving in 2 weeks for cruise and will be going to st Thomas on the 23rd. It will be myself my husband and my 10 yr old daughter who has special needs. We are looking for a peaceful place where we can relax. I am leaning towards Meagans bay. I believe I read that there are bathrooms and lockers there correct? Can you rent lounges or floats for children too? Most of my family (we are going with a huge crowd) are going to sapphire but I have heard it is very rocky now and the beach is very small due to erosion. Any thought?

I have a 14 year old with special needs and will be in St. Thomas at beginning of January. I would be very curious to hear about your experience when you get back and if you have any tips for us. My daughter is in a wheelchair, already our cruise line has told us she couldn't do any of their excursions due to the vehicle type at St. Thomas being safari like trucks with no place to store her wheelchair. so now I'm stuck trying to find a transportation option that can take us to a beach that is hopefully not horrible to access for her.