canuckgal33

Do you get any type of disposable hair covering before you put their helmets on??

In order to answer this question that comes up EVERY year. What was the Thanksgiving dinner menu like??

Well my husband had pizza, rice and pasta and my daughter had a hamburger and fries...so they wouldn't be able to answer that question..lol. But luckily...I had the traditional Thanksgiving meal and it was good. I had turkey, stuffing (they were these little round balls with raisins), mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and 2 pretzel balls (not traditional, but I have to eat one or two at every meal).

There was some sort of pumpkin dessert, but I didn't eat it...too full. lol

We just got off the Escape...we did the Thanksgiving cruise. I thought I'd share how it went for us.

We (husband) and I are in our mid-40's, daughter (14) and my parents (they actually surprised us by just showing up while we were eating lunch on the ship). I'd been pestering them for months to join us...lol. Best surprise ever. It was our 4th NCL cruise...we'd been on the Pearl and the Epic before.

FOOD/DRINKS

We had the UBP...I'm not a huge drinker, but I certainly put it to good use on the cruise. Drank a lot of these Toasted Almonds...lol

Only time we had to wait for a while to get a drink was at the sail-away party...we went down to the 5 o'clock Somewhere Bar and it was packed. But everywhere else was fine. The fastest place to get drinks seemed to be the Atrium Bar.

We ate mostly at the buffet. No complaints...could always find something good there. We had lunch at O'Sheehans once (delicious fish and chips) and dinner at The Manhattan Room (it was just ok...nothing super special). We were seated right beside the band that was playing and it was waaaaay too loud...like we couldn't carry on a conversation with each other. Tried twice to get into Margaritaville for lunch, but the wait was over 1 hour, so we decided not to.

We did try to book a few dinners at the specialty restaurants while on the cruise...but they were full, so we didn't get a chance to try any of those.

ENTERTAINMENT:

Loved Million Dollar Quartet (had some sound issues...couldn't hear the actors during speaking parts at all). After Midnight was just ok for me. My husband loved it and my daughter hated it. The actors in both shows were very talented....great singers and the dancing in After Midnight was amazing.

Saw Howl at the Moon often...always great. Also really liked Tenors of Rock. Didn't know about that show until we were on the ship.

Played lots of Bingo and Deal or No Deal (we actually won $200 on our card when it was in the theatre...so that was super exciting). Hated when Deal or No Deal was in the atrium. Too small...hard to see. Actually didn't like anything when it was in the atrium and we did lots of games/trivia. It's small and if you are sitting far back, you can't see because of the overhang (floor of O'Sheehans). The staff actually brought in folding chairs so people could watch some of the shows. There was a dancing competition at the beginning of the cruise (can't remember the name)...but it was hilarious. My daughter thought it was the highlight of the cruise.

Daughter loved the ropes course...went at least 3 times. She was scared to try the drop slides...she saw someone have to use the trap door....thought it was mortifying for them. lol. I tried the slide with the one with the inner tube...it was fun. Never seemed to be long waits for the ropes course (she got on right when it opened). It sometimes got backed up for people walking the plank. All the outdoor areas are amazing. It really was a beautiful ship.

PORTS:

We usually schedule something in every port....some type of excursion. This time I just wanted to take it easy. If we wanted to stay up late and sleep in, that was ok. I didn't want to have to be up at a specific time to do an excursion...so we decided to get up and make our way to a beach. Seemed like a good idea with a teenager (they can be FOUL when they don't get enough sleep...lol). It worked well for us.

St. Thomas...we went to Coki Beach. We'd been to Megan's Bay before, so we wanted to try something different. It was PACKED. Like 4 chairs deep packed. Hated how busy it was. Couldn't even walk down to the water because there were so many people. But, the water was amazing, great place to snorkel. We only spent about 3 hours there and went back, shopped a bit and ate a late lunch on the boat.

Tortola...went to Cane Garden Bay....AMAZING!!!!!! It was also crowded but we weren't packed in like sardines. Beautiful beach, great food. One of my favourite beaches by far.

Nassau...just got off and shopped.

SPA:

Splurged and got the spa pass with my mom. It was just ok...I think they are still working out the kinks. lol. The whirlpool was cold. It was closed several times when we were there. The loungers weren't super warm at the start of the cruise...but they must have fixed that because they were warm the last two days. There was also a lot of hammering from either above or below by the loungers. Lots of saving of the loungers....I was there for about 2 hours one day, and saw 3 loungers that had a towel on them and no-one used them. Loved the salt and steam room. The snow room was super cool....except the one time we went in there and someone had PEED ON THE FLOOR. No idea what would possess someone to pee there.

ROOMS:

We were in 13880 and my parents 13726. Rooms were great. Lots of storage. Comfortable beds. Loved the USB ports by the beds. Seemed warm at night, even though we had the temperature all the way down, but then when we woke up in the am, it was FREEZING. We like it really cold when we sleep, so it might not be a problem. Loved the Do Not Disturb and Make up Room lights.

STAFF:

Great staff. Very friendly and very funny (loved Joey and Paquito...they were hilarious). Room steward was amazing...man they work hard. Atrium bartenders greeted me by name (that's scary...lol...I must have drank way more than I thought I did...lol).

Overall it was a fantastic cruise. We are fairly laid-back people...so we mostly go with the flow....there was some mix-up with the shows...the order was changed or the days were switched or something. And then they had technical problems one day so the show was late starting. I heard a lot of people complaining about stuff like that on the ship....but it didn't bother us. Probably the complainers are the ones that wrote their name in pee in the snow room. HAHAHA! KIDDING!! Since it's a new ship and has only been out a few times, we were prepared for some issues...so we were pleasantly surprised how smoothly everything went.

I'm happy to answer any specific questions!

Not to hijack...but similar question...what about those really delicious non-alcoholic slushy type drinks! I could drink 10 of those a day. The piña colada one is so good. Does anyone know if they are included??

We just did this last week and we loved it. There was some confusion coming off the ship because they changed of their recent name change...so we lost about 45 minutes waiting around.

It was about 1/2 hour drive. The resort was very nice. Great beach with nice sand. Lots of available chairs. Not a huge swimming area but it was fine. They have a large rocky area just past the ropes and there are loads of fish that you can see. We spent a little time in the pools and they were also nice.

Large buffet with a great selection. There was also a grill that served burgers and wraps.

They picked us up at 2:15 to go back to the ship...it was just us (group of 11) and we asked to get picked up at that time so we could shop.

I'd totally go there again....we really enjoyed it.

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We didn't make it there last week on the Pearl.

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We just went to Paradise Beach this past week. I think there were 6 ships in port and it was very busy. We didn't arrive until 11:00 so it was kind of hard to get chairs....but we did find them.

The sand is very coarse....it's hard to walk in (you sink down in it) and it kind of hurt my bare feet. The water was nice but it has some very rocky areas. The water toys were good...my daughter loved them. The weather wasn't the greatest....it was windy so there were a lot of waves. I feel like you have to be a pretty decent swimmer to get from one toy to another out there....it's deep and you can't walk from one to the next.

The whole wrist band thing was confusing. We bought one for $12 and then all the kids that wanted to use the water toys bought another $12 wrist band...so they paid a total of $24 each. They said it was a $2 entrance fee and then a $10 credit for the food. Here's where it got confusing....we went up to the bar to order food/drinks and they said we couldn't use the "credit" up there...we had to order it directly from the guy who sold us the wrist bands and gave us the chairs. We had a hard time tracking him down because it was so busy. We did eventually find him and ordered without difficulty. We had some delicious guacamole!!

The pool was nice...very big and clean! I liked the day overall...I just thought it was a bit confusing but maybe I just hadn't done my research about how it worked. I'd go back again....just maybe not when there are so many ships there....it was wall to wall people.

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That's awesome! Thanks for sharing! I loved Maho Beach and can't wait to go back!

We had Ronald....he was very good. Funny and super knowledgeable. It was a great tour!