Stealthdog

Food. Overall the food on board was really good quality. Specialty Restaurants - we prefer to have dinner almost always in the specialty restaurants so we don't get disappointed. For us, the food is the most important part of a ship. Going on board, my favorites from previous NCL sailings were Le Bistro and Cagneys. My least favorites were Moderno and Teppanyaki. Cagneys was our only disappointment with the 14 trips we had....though we probably should have given them a second chance. Teppanyaki is an incomplete because we never went. If we were with a large group we may have considered, but we just skipped it completely. Rankings for the Specialty Restaurants (just my opinion and some we only went to once): 1) Le Bistro. Best specialty restaurant on board the ship. Everything was great. They had inside seating and outside seating. We sat inside every time because it was a busy area where people are always walking by and gawking at the gingerbread house. Everything in Bistro was outstanding and you can't go wrong with any choice. I did the standard escargot and onion soup almost every time. The most interesting decision was the way they present the endive salad (looks like a particular sex toy). Every main was outstanding, as were the deserts. 2) La Cucina. I don't think I have ever rated an Italian restaurant near the top on a cruise ship. Everything about it was outstanding. It had the best service from any of the specialty restaurants and I loved being able to sit out on the waterfront to eat. The food was a little better in Le Bistro, which places La Cucina in a close second place. I don't think you can go wrong with either. The appetizers aren't that exciting, but the pastas were outstanding and the main entrees were all very good. I think my favorite was the Osso Bucco. If we were going back on the Escape and only had 2 Free at Sea Dinners, we would choose le Bistro and La Cucina. 3) Moderno. Like La Cucina, I was surprised to put Moderno this high up a ranking. The quality and temperature of the meats were the best I have ever had at a Brazilian Steakhouse. Awesome job! There was very little salt (which is often a problem at these types of restaurants) and they bring you exactly what you ask for. The salad bar is still limited (compared to land restaurants) and the service was noticeably slower the second time we went (the restaurant was full), but the experience on the Escape changed my perception of Brazilian Steakhouses on a cruise ship. I would go again without hesitation. 4) Bayamo, Ocean Blue. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Ocean Blue, its just Bisto, Cucina, and Moderno were all awesome. We would have no problem going to Ocean Blue every night if the other three above were not there. I'm not a huge seafood lover, but there was plenty of options for me to choose from. The appetizers and soups/salads were all outstanding. The only meal Eric didn't like was the Cioppino (soupy meal with 5-6 different seafood meats in it). 5) Food Republic. Tough call between Food Republic and Pinchos, but the ambience and location for Food Republic makes it better in my opinion. Food Republic is ALOT of food, so go hungry. Its tapas style ordering but many of the dishes are much larger than tapas style servings. We enjoyed most things on the menu and were really tempted to go back a second time, but we just liked the Top 3 too much. 6) Pinchos Tapas. Pinchos is a very solid choice from a food perspective. It was equivalent to some Tapas restaurants we have been to before on land. We were the only ones eating there (it was during a lunch), and that may have biased my perception on its ambiance. Everything we ordered we really enjoyed. For a restaurant this low on the rankings to have really good food is a reflection on the restaurant team on board. 7) Cagneys. Sadly, one of the favorites from other ships ended up at the bottom of my list. We only gave it the once chance because there was such a variety of options on board and several of the restaurants were so much better, that we were happy skipping it. The appetizers were ok (eric didn't like the salad because it had too much dressing), but the entrees were the disappointment. Cagneys was the only time on board my filet came out overcooked. Id assume they use the same kitchen as Moderno, so its a little surprising and maybe an outlier. If we went a second time, I would have gotten the Porterhouse.....but a couple next to us got that and it looked like it was really fatty and a poor quality of cut. So, that was really the driving force behind not going back a second time. Inc) Teppanyaki. To us, its more about the experience and not the food, so we decided to skip it. I'd give a collective A- to the specialty restaurants on the Escape. There is so much variety to choose from and almost everything was worth the price. My favorite individual specialty restaurant remains 150 Central Park on the Symphony of the Seas.

Evening Entertainment. There is a really solid range of entertainment on the Escape, and how the ship is designed helps distribute people to those locations. The star of the ship was obviously Choir of Man. Its one of the couple Broadway/Off-Broadway quality shows I have seen on a cruise ship (the other was on Disney). Its phenomenal. This is something everyone should make an effort to see. There is no traditional "production" style show with dancers (with multiple costume changes) and 4-6 singers. I was perfectly fine with that, but if people are expecting more traditional cruise entertainment, it isn't there. Choir of Man is the closest it gets. I loved the Supper Club concept on the Escape - it gives a great lounge feeling and all the seats are great to see. The execution needs help. The first show we ate the dinner. The food was mediocre and because the show is only 45 minutes, it was also rushed. We had just finished our main meal when the show ended. People were streaming out of the venue while the servers were still bringing deserts, which was awkward. The support seems to be missing for the singers as well. The last show was just a female vocalist singing with recorded music. There are so many things NCL could do better to make the Supper Club experience better. Put a piano on the stage and have lounge music before and after the main entertainer starts and finishes and extend the dinner portion from 45 minutes to 1 hour, 15 minutes, so you dont need to rush the food as fast. Give the singers a live band so they aren't signing to pre-recorded music. Make the food better in quality - after the first show, we didn't bother eating at the Supper Club the 2nd and 3rd times because the food just wasn't good. Howl at the Moon. This was one of my favorites on board and we went a couple of times. If you go more than once, there is a good chance you will be hearing the same songs again. But, its a fun time where you can just sit back and listen to a few singers perform alot of song favorites. Pour House. For the first leg, it seemed the venue wasn't large enough for demand. But the second leg, it was easy getting in, so its probably the right size. Eric loved the rock music concept and show we saw. I don't know if it was an Escape venue thing, was just a one-night thing, or was a just me (and Eric) thing, but the band was too loud. There were several songs we couldn't hear the singers because of the band. A couple of guests in front of us wore earplugs, which made us realize that we need to have earplugs on our permanent cruise packing list (they don't take up much space and we may never use them, but we will bring them on all future cruises). It took a couple hours after the show for my hearing to readjust back to normal. Like the Supper Club, I love the concept and it gives alternative entertainment options on a large ship, which is great. Comedians and other Theater Singers. There are several opportunities to see comedians in the theater (and other smaller venues) over the course of the cruise. We saw one show and it was ok. It was better than some comedians on other sailings, but not as good as others. Comedy will probably change cruise to cruise as the comedians come and go. The Supper Club performers also did shows other nights in the Theater. The Other Guys (who left the ship when we did) were outstanding. The other performances were ok.....more like filler if you didn't have any other plans and wanted to a sit down show. Other music. With the exception of the pianist who performed in the Brewhouse, we found the other bands/entertainers on board average or below average. There was entertainment at times in the atrium and in the casino bar. It was standard cruise ship activity and nothing that made me think that we had to go see them again at their next show because they were good. NCL puts its entertainment money on the theater shows, supper club shows, and pour house, and that is perfectly fine. Overall, I'd give the evening entertainment a B on the Escape. One thing the Escape is really lacking compared to some of the other cruise lines and newer class ships is technological innovation and even more outside the box entertainment. I liked the variety on the Escape, and Choir of Man was one of the best shows I've seen on a ship, but I think NCL should push the boundaries more.

Here are the showtimes for the Dec 9th and Dec 16th sailings. I can’t answer the question on seating on Viva vs Escape. I can say my B2B taught me every cruise (even on the same ship) is different. The first leg the Pour House was incredibly popular and it was always packed. The second leg it wasn’t as popular and there were seats available even after the show started. A med cruise is also going to be different than a Caribbean cruise (a lot more Europeans) so that could also affect how popular it is. Pack earplugs if you see a show on there.

Yes - they have nightly shows (the big ones twice a night). Getting in depends on your sailing. On our first cruise of a B2B, people were waiting in line 1-2 hours before the doors opened. On the second, we walked in 15 minutes before the show started and got good seats. If you want to go regularly, keep an eye on how popular it is your sailing - you may have to wait in line to get seats.

Internet/App Overall the Internet service and app on board the Escape was fairly mediocre compared to other cruise lines/ships we have been on the last couple of years. The internet was serviceable if you are just looking to surf the internet and check emails. The speed varied between the two cruises and that probably had to do with demographic differences. The speed was quicker the first cruise, and noticeably slower the second cruise - there were a lot more kids on the second cruise and many always seemed to have a device in their hands. The biggest pain was I was constantly getting booted from the ship Wi-Fi, and had to keep logging in. if you need more reliable service or faster speeds to do work or stream without interruptions, you will probably be unhappy with the internet on the Escape. For us, it was good enough….but frustrating. The App needs a complete revamp. It’s just as bad as the app we used on Princess - get a test group and figure it out. We are in the 2020s…… There really wasn’t anything on the app that I used regularly….and that may be partly because I kept getting booted from the ship Wi-Fi, which you need to be logged in to use the app. The best part of internet and data services on the B2B was T-Mobile users have free data service seemingly at every port in the Caribbean. In Mexico, we even had free call service. So every day in port, we turned off the NCL WiFi, took the phones off airplane mode, and had much better service. Other providers (beside TMobile) probably have similar service. Check with your mobile provider to see what is included in travel locations. If you are on a port intensive cruise, I would probably skip buying an upgrade of the Internet on the Escape completely. If it has a lot of sea days, we are 50-50 on whether we would buy an upgrade or just make that call while on board. Combined id give the Internet/App on the Escape a C-. Both are behind most of its peers, particularly on newer classes of ships.

Thanks for joining us! Between you and Eric, you were good for at least 16/20 in just about every trivia....and Eric didn't need to look at me at all because what he didn't know, you knew! 🙂 Hope to see you two in a future cruise!

The Escape Casino is one of the better casinos we have seen on a cruise ship. It is also one of the larger Casinos we have seen on other ships/cruise lines. Its location (center, Deck 7) is the perfect spot to get to the Casino from all the dining and entertainment (non-pool deck) on the ship. Over the two weeks, Eric played craps a little, but the majority of our time in the Casino was with the slot machines. The table games looked like they got busy mid-late evening. There was a very wide range of slots and poker machines available on board. Some of the more popular slots were often occupied, so you could tell which machines people like the most. We didn't see any slot poll groups on either cruise, which is usually fun to watch. The bar in the Casino is fairly large but got a little crowded later in the evening when the area turned into 18+ only and live music was being played. It was nice hearing live music while in the casino (I'll discuss the entertainment on a separate post). Servers were constantly available throughout the casino to get drink orders if you didn't want to go to the bar. It looked like there were sections of the casino that was non-smoking (many of the slots had non-smoking signs on it), but I'm not sure that was followed. We have been in casinos that were so overwhelming with smoke that we didn't spend any time during peak times - I wear contacts and large amounts of cigarette smoke can dry my eyes really quickly. That was never the case on the Escape. The amount of smoking/smoke in the casino was much greater in the first cruise than the second cruise, but never got to the point that we needed to go. I still prefer a non-smoking casino, but it was well in the manageable range during our two weeks. You can print out slot slips or leave them on a digital account on your room card that you can access at any slot machine. I liked that they gave both options - we are more old school and I like to print out my slip every time I leave a slot machine. There were a few times that I swiped my card to sign off the slot and the balance was applied to the digital account. One precaution is to make sure you don't leave the ship with a slot balance on your room card - we checked on the last day and printed up the balance on a slip to cash out with the cashier. The casino had the normal activities you will see in most cruise lines - slot and card tournaments, lottery, scratch cards, and NFL games where you guess the score each team has by quarter. The slot tournament was the only one we participated in - Eric did it the first week. There were multiple rounds and some of the highest scorers from each round qualified for the finals (they capped the # qualifying for the finals and the winner of every round didn't qualify). It seemed to be a very lengthy process and we prefer these types of things to be immediate, so we didn't try it again. The staff in the casino was fantastic - the players club booth and the cashier. Both were very quick in service. Eric ended up qualifying for Pearl Status in the casino on got free water cartons in the casino on the second cruise - which seemed to be the biggest perk to us. They did give him $100 OBC on the second cruise and comped some of his spa/shop purchases. Note - do not use your points to gamble with. Eric didn't realize it and used his first couple of hundreds of points on the slot machines. Compared to other ship casinos, I'd give it an A-. From service to game variety, its a great casino.

All the laundry is done, the holidays are over, and I'll close out this review with the end of cruise thoughts. The goal is to complete this by the New Year. Remember, that these are only the thoughts of one person, and my experiences or likes/dislikes can be much different than others. And the uniqueness of doing a Back-to-Back gave me the perspective that experiences can even differ from cruise to cruise on the same ship. I did not realize how much the other passengers impacted the feel of a ship until the 2nd leg of this B2B.

This morning we packed up our toiletries, clothes from last night, and a few other things we didn't pack and went to Savor MDR for breakfast while we waited for our number to be called. It seemed like disembarkation started earlier than the planned time, with the self-assist guests getting an early start. Yellow tags (our color) were called about 10 minutes early, so we headed to Deck 7 aft and proceeded off the ship. It took about 20 minutes from the time we left Savor to collect our luggage, clear immigration, and leave the pier building to wait for Eric's brother. After we got picked up, leaving the port had high traffic - portions of the road had multiple mergers and traffic from different piers loaded onto the same road. Once we cleared the port area, we got home fairly quickly (with a short detour to First Watch for brunch to thank Eric's brother for picking us up).

Later last night we watched a little bit of the Howl at the Moon. It was only about 1/4 full - most people were probably packing to get their suitcases out or having an early evening. We moved towards the Atrium and realized we missed probably one of the funniest shows on the ship - the Movie Sketch Comedy Game Show in the atrium. We passed through at the very end, while they were giving the answers to questions 16-20. It was hilarious - the entertainment team does an outstanding job. If you are all packed, already had dinner, and looking for one thing to do the last night - go see this Movie Sketch Comedy Game Show. You won't regret it - we regret we missed almost all of it. Its probably worth getting to the atrium a little early to get a good seat on the 7th deck overlooking the atrium.

We left Moderno a little after 730 and headed to the theater to catch the Rachel Dudt show. We missed the first ~15 minutes of the show, so only caught the second half. She again sounded really good, but it just seems like an incomplete show. She was on a huge stage by herself - no musicians, no band, nothing. Seriously NCL - if you want her shows to be successful, give her a pianist...a guitarist...anything. At the end of the show, representatives from housekeeing, restaurant, entertainment, etc were brought up to the stage for a thanks for their service to the passengers. It was well deserved - I'm going to go through my photos and notes this weekend, but this might have been the best ship crew I have seen and that is a testament to the leadership on board.

Finishing up Day 7 and disembarking thoughts. Day 7 we decided to go to Moderno for a second time. It was much busier at the restaurant than the first night we went, with people likely trying to use all their dining packages. Because it was busier, the service was alot slower than our first dinner. It could also have been that the waiter was not as experienced. If you go to Moderno, ask to be seated with Julius. This time around the salad bar was much more difficult, with several items being empty. We watched the chefs repeatedly refilling items in the salad bar, so they were trying to keep up. But, for us the salad bar is kind of a one time thing at the beginning of a Brazilian steakhouse experience, so we got what we got. The main event (the parade of meats) is more important to us. Once again, we were very impressed with the quality and preparation of the meats. We could hardly detect any salt used, which is very uncommon for a Brazilian steakhouse. Often they are overloaded with salt. Also, the seasoning on the meats were nicely done and we could taste everything, particularly the rosemary on some of the cuts. Overall, the temperature, quality of meats, and seasoning of the cuts of meat at Moderno are superior to any experience we have had at a land-based Brazilian Steakhouse. The choice of meats is more limiting - about 1/2 of what comes out in a land-based restaurant. The salad bar is also more limiting. We were very hesitant to go to the Moderno on the Escape because of an experience with Moderno on a different NCL ship. But, the food at Moderno on the Escape is a homerun and worth the trip. Well done.

We just got home. Was a bit of a bottleneck trying to leave the pier.

For those on the December 23 Holiday sailing, they already started disembarking 20 minutes ago, so get ready to get on your ship! We left it mostly intact….maybe a few dents here and there!

We are back in port (pier 10), with all the others in their normal positions across/next to us. We switched our luggage tags - Cruise next has the yellow tags for early disembark for lattitude reward members. It’s only 15 minutes difference, but anything to help with our grueling 1 hour ride back to Orlando. 😁 I’ll complete the Day 7 review when I get home today and over the next couple of days will transition from a live (stream of thought) review to a post cruise(s) review style, Topics to be covered will at minimum will be: specialty dining, evening entertainment, ship crew, itinerary, casino, gym/spa and activities, onboard credits and onboard account, reservations processes, and the overall ship design and feel. If anyone wants another topic, let me know!

I didn’t see any hash browns. 😔 Everything appeared to be breakfast potato style, at least in the MDR and Osheehans. We walked through the cafe buffet a couple times and I didn’t notice hash browns there either. I prefer hash browns to the breakfast potatoes too. I would talk to the maitre D or supervisor of whichever restaurant/buffet you plan to have your breakfast and see if they can accommodate.

Disembarkation details for Port Canaveral.

Casino at Sea info and casino events, for those interested in casino activities. We did mostly slots on board, Eric did a little craps. I’ll do some casino posts after we get home.

Day 7 daily.

There are a total of 4 ships in our port area. The RCL ship, Celebrity, and Viking. We are towering over the Viking ship. The irony of being on a Norwegian ship looking at a Viking ship flying the Norwegian flag made me break out in laughter….it shouldn’t be that funny. 😄 It is a colder and windy day in port - Great Stirrup Cay would probably be similar, so not a great beach day anyways. Eric and I decided to stay on ship and do some of the active things we haven’t done yet. We played a game of horse (our tradition on cruise ships) in the sports complex and tried a round of bocce. Eric decided to do one last, unplanned spa appointment. That will give me time to get the hero comment cards done. We ate breakfast in Savor MDR and Emilia, the assistant maitre D at La Cucina and Savor surprised Eric with an avocado toast. If anyone in the Haven is missing their toast this morning, sorry. 😂

Someone already linked my review that has written comments. Here are the instructions they will send to your cabin.

Yesterday we also did the loyalty wine tasting again. It was the same wines as last week, so nothing new for us. We will provide this recommendation to NCL in post cruise surveys: Swap the days of the loyalty wine tasting and the ship tour. The ship tour is on the first sea day (Day 2) and the wine tasting is the last sea day (Day 6). The wines being tasting are available at the speciality restaurants with the loyalty dining voucher with the bottle for dinner. It would make sense to have the tasting earlier so people can try them and know which bottle they want to order with their dining voucher. Similar concept - the Ship tour goes to the theater with a tour of the dressing rooms by the Choir of Man producer. It would probably be a more fulfilling experience if people saw the Choir of Man first before doing the ship tour so they could ask the producer better questions. View of the Manhattan dining room from the wine tasting in Moderno. It looks really nice and would be where we would want to go for dinner in the MDR.

Last night we had our 3rd dinner in La Cucina, and it was another outstanding experience, really solidifying La Cucina as our 2nd favorite restaurant on the Escape. Because the wind was so strong, no one was eating in the Waterfront. The only new items we tried this time were the calamari appetizer (Eric) and the lasagne pasta (me). The lasagne was outstanding - it can be ordered as an entree size which would be really filling. Even the pasta sized portion was huge. The flavors were outstanding. It is a little heavy though - so if you are looking for something lighter, try a different appetizer/pasta. Eric got the aglio olio with shrimp (off menu) and I got the osso bucco again. We both finished the might with the tiramisu, which is the best desert in La Cucina. Italian restaurants usually aren’t high on our specialty dining lists, but the La Cucina on the Escape is fantastic.

This was the first time I have ever seen a ship doing a docking (RCL ship), so that was really cool. We got to see where the the ropes come from to tie to the pier. And they had this huge hand thingy waving to us as they passed to their pier spot. 😂

We are docked in Nassau. All clear was given about an hour ago for people to leave the ship. We are within sight of Atlantis and Paradise Island. We have been to Atlantis twice for weeklong stays and Nassau several other times on cruises, so we probably won’t leave the ship today. The RCL Freedom of the Seas pulled up next to us. Atlantis is awesome for anyone who has never been there. It’s a huge water park with several sea animal experiences (dolphins and stingrays). Our favorite thing to do is to just lay in tubes in the lazy river for hours at a time. Nassau as a port is common in Caribbean cruises. It’s not a particularly exciting stop, but there is always a lot of water based activities to do, either through the cruise line or private tours. NCL added two tour options for passengers for today - combos of water and land tours. We have done a water tour around Paradise Island before to see the big mansions en route to local snorkeling. We have never been to the Baja Mar resort in Nassau and that’s on our list of things to try.