snooper1225

Sounds fun!

Good to hear!

7 minutes ago, hallux said:

I just walked around the port area.  It wasn't the most pleasant port day I've experienced, it rained on and off for much of the visit.  Not to mention that it was a 6 am to 1 PM stop.

Covid?  Seemed like no issue.  As of right now I'm feeling perfectly fine, better than I can say I was after my cruise this time last year, which resulted in adding 3 days to my vacation.

 

I don't have an exact number, I know they had around 5,000 the week prior (1400 or so kids) and that we had about 1,000 fewer.

Thanks for the review!  What did you do in Tortola?

Also wondering if you knew how the Covid situation was?

4 hours ago, susanf31 said:

Sailing on Escape 1/15.  We just got a new letter from NCL regarding our upcoming cruise.

 

It's basically a very lengthy letter saying - we are SO happy you are cruising with us even though we can't guarantee anything will be open or that we will actually stop in any ports.  

 

 

NCL.pdf 57.77 kB · 135 downloads

I'm on this cruise as well!  One thing that's confusing me now is the letter states you need a passport.  Ours are both expired but my travel agent said at booking a birth certificate would be sufficient, does anyone know for sure?

thank you,

Thank you for the review! 

How was the entertainment crew, cruise director?

9 hours ago, jrbeccles said:

NCL Escape cruise 01/03/2020 synopsis 

 

Just got off the Escape after five days. Below is a briefing of what I thought 

 

The Ship 

We were on the Escape in 2015 when she was brand new. And you'd be hard pressed to see many signs of wear on her. A few rust spots on the balcony, and our bathroom sink had a small crack in it. Apart from that she looks great. 

 

The Crew 

Of course, the most important subject. The Escape crew were the absolute best. Super nice, very helpful and I think they’d do anything to help you. We hang out at the bars and the bar tenders were brilliant. Wait staff in the dining rooms fantastic, room steward a bit shy but did a great job. This is my third cruise since September and the other two ships crew were very nice, but Escape fell over themselves to help you. 

 

 Cabin 

Had a balcony room 9878, which I highly recommend. Large outside balcony with a slant, and right next to the elevator and easy ride up to Garden Café and two flights down to the Manhattan dining room.  

 

Masks and passenger count 

I was only (very politely) reminded once about not having my mask on! It's so easy to forget. Almost no one abused the policy that I saw. Once you get used to it it's really no problem. There were 1400 passengers on this cruise. I asked and they expected 1600 but with so many flight problem and folks cancelling at the last minute, the actual number really went down. It's going to be hard to get used to a full ship again.  There was a good size contingent of late 20’s early 30’s on board who partied hard at the pool and got a little rowdy at some spots late at night, but they were just having fun.  Rest were my age (mid 60’s) and enjoyed the quite bars like Mixx and especially Prime Meridian bar by Cagneys. However, we had a lot of fun with the crazy bartenders at the Atrium bar while we played Trivia.  

 

Food 

We only ate at one specialty restaurant, Moderno, which was great but way too much food for me! But fantastic meats and staff. The other four night we ate at Manhattan, where they had live music which was lovely. Menus there very good, lots of choices, and absolutely no waiting for food. Just a few minutes after we ordered the starters showed up. I'm sure that has to because of low headcount and full waitstaff. In fact, on the last night, we asked the waiter to slow down the delivery of food so we could listen to the band and enjoy the experience. Wine steward also showed up right away. We had the drink package, and he got us lovely wines that were in the package. 

 

Embarkation 

This process was in my humble opinion a bit Mickey Mouse. We arrived at 9.45 and dropped off the luggage. Then we were directed the “three tents”.  First tent checked your passports, vaccination cards, and were asking you to have your CVS barcodes ready. These are the barcodes you get when you do your check-in process, and you'll get an email from Minutecliniccare. Print these out and take them with you to speed up the process. Second tent is where they scan the bar code and administer the test ( well you do the test and they watch). They give you a card with the time off the test and then you go to the third tent. Here is where it got a bit strange. They tell you that 20 minutes after the time on your card to raise your hand. What they didn’t tell you is they were expecting you to check your email where you get the results of the test. Worked fine for three of my six travel companions, but I could not get my  CVS website to open up, and my other two friends are 80 years old and have flip phones and don’t have a clue. I asked the NCL attendant that surely there must be someone in the tent who gets the results. But apparently not. So, the guy (who was nice) just said we were ok and gave us the arm bands that showed we passed the covid test! 

Then across the street to a “normal” check-in process. Its 10.45 now, and they said we would start boarding at 11am. I have no idea what happened but we didn’t start boarding until 11.50.  It’s a long long walk so if you have some who has problems get a wheel chair. Went right to the muster station, got scanned, and then had lunch at Savor, and straight away you could tell how nice the staff were going to be.  

 

Activities and Ports 

We are easily amused. Like trivia a lot, and bar hopping. We live in Florida so no sun for us thanks. There was plenty to do. They did cancel the big shows and replaced them with smaller 45-minute events at the Supper Club. We did the Beatles Tribute, Bamboozled (its hard but fun). The only thing we did not like was the Howl at the Moon piano show. WAY too loud and a they players constantly reminding you to give them money. Not fun, and there was plenty of great music around with having to shell for cash. Smoked cigars at the cigar bar room – very nice. No martini tastings unfortunately, but boring mojito and beer tasting every day. Mojito bar empty all day. NCL needs to realize that mojitos were fad, and almost no one drinks them anymore. I expect no one from NCL Corp sails on the ships and are clueless. 

Cozumel is Cozumel. We just got off and walked around a bit, and the ladies enjoyed exploring the large grocery store near the ship. Had some $2 Coronas and back to the ship.  

The bad news was on the morning at Great Stirrup Cay, the captain said they had been refused entry by the Bahamian authorities. I can only guess it was because there were cases of Covid on board, but I have no evidence to back that up. So, they quickly printed up revised dailies, and it was still a nice day, if not a bit chaotic for the activities staff, who tried their best.  

 

And yes, lighting strikes twice. In 2015 when we were on the Escape, someone jumped overboard at about 9pm one night. The crew went into full emergency mode, and after some time launching lifeboats and the ship circling, they found the person. So, imagine our surprise when we were sitting at the Skyline bar, and heard over the intercom “Code Oscar port side”, and the ship stopping. We knew that Code Oscar stood for Man overboard. Long story short it turned out the object people though was a person jumping overboard was a big party balloon! 

 

Synopsis 

We had a really good time on this Escape cruise.  Lots of good food, drinks, music, and activities in the Atrium. Dancing for the wife's until 1am every night, so they were in heaven. Not NCLs fault that the island was closed. Wearing a mask, no big deal.  Highly recommend it!! 

 

9 hours ago, TNcruising02 said:

For people who are cruising in January or February, have you made a decision on going or cancelling?

 

Our cruise is on the 15th on the Escape and we decided to go for it.  If it gets cancelled, we will choose a refund instead of FCC.  We are meeting family members and have decided to make the best of it.  We do appreciate being given a choice of a full FCC.  

What are you doing?

My husband and I are on this cruise as well.  Unless NCL cancels, we're just going to go.  This is just crazy, it's day to day

Is bringing bottled water onboard allowed? Is there a limit?

I apologize if this has been covered already

Wow, great deal, have fun! Did you book through Carnival or no?

I have been wondering about the cars that are already parked at the port in Charleston. Wouldn't that be considered zone A which was supposed to be evacuated? I hope the passengers don't come home and find their car flooded. That would be awful.