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Let me hear you say yeah! - my escape nov 11-18 review w/ dailies!!!


Coreysgrl06
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Hello fellow Cruise Critics!

I am (unfortunately) back from my Escape cruise. I keep trying to use my room card hoping my balcony and drink package will magically appear again but oh well here we go! This is my first extensive review so bare with me. I lived on Cruise Critic for the past year researching for my cruise and trying to get every little morsel of info I could. Let me introduce myself...

My husband and I are in our early 30's with two little monsters. We are from the East Coast and couldn't wait to escape the cold and feel that Miami heat. We were celebrating our tenth anniversary with 3 other couples. One couple was also married on the same day, same year. The second couple just celebrated their first year anniversary. And the last couple, we met them for the first time through mutual friends have also been married for ten years. So it was a week of celebrating.

I swore off Norwegian after our last cruise on Epic eight years ago. I hated our room, the food and entertainment, in a nutshell. But....after looking at Escape online I was intrigued.

FRIDAY 11/10

FLIGHT- The best deal I found for flights was on Southwest. For the two of us it was $487. But we had to fly into Fort Lauderdale. So i downloaded Uber and Lyft to get us to Miami where we were staying.

This was my first time flying Southwest and I loved it. It was super easy to check in. I got in boarding group B. It was surely a different process than I'm using to but I loved being able to pick my seats and have two free checked bags. We had no problem finding a seat together. I was intent on getting my window seat and it was easy! We got our customary half a can of soda/juice and a small bag of honey roasted peanuts and Wheat Thins. Not much but it was free so I'm not complaining. I totally recommend Southwest.

So while my husband waited for our bags to come out of baggage claim I was searching my phone for an Uber or Lyft. I hadn't used either before so i was going to use my first time code on either. Most times Lyft was about $5-$8 cheaper so we only used Lyft that first day and night. It was $41 to get to Miami. Our Lyft driver scared the crap out of me. I feared for my life the entire ride. He was a TERRIBLE driver. He almost hit a car and the guard rail during our lovely trip to the hotel. I made sure to leave a nice little review for that ride.

Now our HOTEL...I searched quite a bit and settled on the brand new Hampton Inn Miami Airport East. It just opened October 28th. It is directly across from the Miami Airport so it would've been nice to fly into that airport but I like to save money. The hotel is nice new and most importantly clean! The staff is friendly and helpful. We checked in easily and got a room on the top floor (5th floor). We had a view of the next door hotel which is the Hyatt Place. The room isn't initially impressive. Typical Hampton Inn room. The bathroom was nice, a little narrow but good for two people.

The breakfast in the morning was good. I always look for a place that has free breakfast, one less thing to think about. I'm glad i did in this case because there wasn't anything within walking distance. The hotel is right off a major road and it's very busy. The hotel does have a shuttle that will take you to restaurants (fancy or fast food) within a three mile radius but they said it goes from 4pm-11pm. Doesn't make sense to me. We reserved their shuttle to get to the cruise port. Make sure you do that asap before it fills up. The other thing that didn't make sense to me is the availability of the shuttle. They only over 9:45am or 12:45pm shuttles. We reserved 9:45pm because we were due to be at the port at 10:30am. Even though we were outside on time the first shuttle filled up quickly. So we waited about three minutes and another shuttle pulled up and took the rest of us. We were about fifteen minutes away from the port.

I would stay at this Hampton Inn again. Beds were super comfy and it wasn't congested. No major issues.

To get aorund we used Lyft liberally. We went to the nearby Walgreens. We both needed sunglasses and gum. My husband needed a travel cologne and I needed tape for our cruise tags. I bought the Cruise Critic tags but they wouldn't stay so i put tape around the tag to keep it in place. That Lyft trip was $6 each way. Super easy.

NIGHTLIFE- That night we met up with our friends at a rooftop lounge called Rooftop at Eleven. One of our friends discovered it. There are multiple signs on the highway saying it's open 24/7. The Lyft ride cost $11 to get there. We had never gone to downtown Miami so we were excited. I'm from New York so I'm not fazed by much. But if you're not a city dweller you might be a little nervous going into this part of Miami. There were a lot of homeless people. A lot of garbage and dimly lit streets. It was the glossy pretty side of Miami. Our Lyft driver dropped us off in front of the building even though it was clearly not the correct entrance to use. It was raining but we got out anyway since he was so insistent. One of the men roaming the streets actually helped out and told us to go to the back of the building. That was where we should've been dropped off. :rolleyes:

You can reserve tickets to get in if you want but they aren't necessary and they are free.

So we go up to the rooftop. It's beautiful. Despite rain it was covered and not cold. We were led into the restaurant that's on the rooftop and it's also beautiful. They have small plates (tapas) on their menu. It's overpriced but everything was so good. You're going to pay anywhere from $14-25. I noticed all the waitresses were wearing tiny outfits but I ignored it and just thought "Hey we are in Miami!' More on that in a bit...

Ambiance was great. Drinks were amazing and strong! The cooking area is open which was cool. They had a lot of TV's around with sports. The staff was really cool and helpful and very flirty.

So the waitress says she's going to comp our entry into the lounge/club section on the first floor. We thought that was really cool. We got a personal escort by one of the bouncers to the first floor. We walk in and the smoke hits you first. It's thick and strong. Then we start noticing it's mostly men around. And no typical "club music". Then we start noticing girls dressed in bathing suits (more like string taped together) and then there's a pole in the middle of the floor with a young lady dancing around. I looked at Yelp prior to this visit and saw nothing about strippers. And no one ever said anything to us. They must've thought we knew what we were in for. We quickly exited and laughed the whole way out. Our night ended with an epic round of UNO and setting the alarm for tomorrow.

More to come later...

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Sorry for the delay but life with kids happens...I have to say depsite all the mention of freestyle cruising this was the least freestyle for me. Call me a nerd but I did make a basic spreadsheet detailing our entire week. I had to in order to keep up with all my dining and entertainment reservations. We had a group of 8 so I had to make changes on the ship the first day so that spreadsheet was a life saver. But how about we get to the boat?

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SATURDAY 11/11- We were up early, had our breakfast and were downstairs in time for our shuttle. After a little wait we arrived to the port at 10:15am. We needed to be in Terminal B but B and C are within walking distance. We dropped off our bags to the porters, tipped them. My husband at the last minute decided he didn't want to carry his duffel bag around the ship so we asked for a tag and the porters have plenty. And yes our bags were successfully delivered to our room. We got on a short line, got in the building, made our way through security, filled out our medical forms and got on line. Two years ago we left out of Fort Lauderdale and we were stuck on long lines with no organization. This time beginning of Miami was a breeze. We were at a representative's desk maybe within five minutes. We went upstairs and received boarding group 9. No we were not in the survivors race to get Vibe. We took our picture, sat and waited until 11:30am when our number was called! Again everything was easy. We walked on to the ship greeted by a DJ and our beloved Washy Washy lady dancing next to him. I did miss walking into a grand atrium like I have on last cruises but it wasn't a big deal. They had balloons set up as you walk in. You walk into Deck 7 right in front in front of the Escape theater. We went to the Garden Cafe to have lunch. It wasn't as crazy as most make it seem. It is true that if you walk to the back of the buffet you'll find seats easier and that's also where the bar is so Win Win!!I

Next up first meal...

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GARDEN CAFE- We didn't have any interest in having our first meal in any of the dining rooms. I didn't notice any staff forcing you into the buffet like past reviews have mentioned. They only suggested it. We automatically went there for lunch. A lot of people but not super hectic. One of the reviews I read mentioned going to the back of the ship for better seating in the buffet and that was consistently accurate. I did like the setup of the buffet. If you keep walking in a circle you will find the same food on the other side. The lines were never terribly long or slow. Also there were staff set up at certain points to act like traffic cops. In the mornings if the omelet station was getting backed up they would kindly ask you to walk down to the next line to keep things flowing nicely. I didn't encounter many people trying to cut in just to get one item. If it did happen the person was polite and at least said excuse me. I don't know if it was just my sailing but we encountered so many nice individuals sailing with us. There was one tiny issue but I'll get to that later.

The breakfast selection was amazing every morning. So many options for everyone. The lunch selections at times were underwhelming but we always found something to eat. We surely didn't go hungry on this cruise. My favorite thing was chicken fingers and honey mustard. They were always so good and they would disappear quickly. Also the chocolate chocolate chip cookies and regular chocolate chip cookies during the snack hours were to die for. The ice cream was watery so we didn't enjoy it at the buffet. It was much better in the main dining rooms.

Each day they typically had an Asian station, Indian station and Grill selection in the buffet. I can't remember all the specific offerings from each day.

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PROMOTIONS- We had pre paid gratuities, ultimate beverage package and a $50 onboard credit. When we got to our room we had our complimentary bottle of sparkling wine which taste like beer mixed with wine (yum...not).

This was our first time having a beverage package and we loved it! The bartenders were mostly generous with their pour. The drinks were almost always amazing. I loved the Mr. Worldwide and Dale. The mimosas with breakfast in the morning were wonderful as well. Most bartenders were friendly. I found in the Skyline Bar and Atrium it took quite a while to be acknowledged and get a drink. It seems almost everyone has the same package so I understand it may be overwhelming to get all drinks done quickly. Again this did not ruin my trip. It just required a little patience on my part.

THE SHIP- She's stunning but terribly shaky. I read about the shimmy but this was rough so much so that on our last day Great Stirrup Cay was cancelled and we went to Nassau. The waves were rough the entire week. It was funny seeing everyone trying to keep their balance. You'd think it was due to the UBP. The chandelier in 678 Place always caused us to stop and take pictures. It changes colors throughout the day as do the stairs in front of Le Bistro. It's a nice place to get a picture. The theater is small compared to other ships but very nice and seats are very comfortable. There is a bar in the back of the theater and their are waiters who will walk through prior to the start of the show. I noticed only a handful of waiters walking around the pool area. Every area was consistently clean and shiny and new. Even the outside of the ship stood out compared to other ships we were next to that had rust stains and other signs of wear and tear. The Escape is really beautiful, inside and out. The restaurants were also beautifully decorated. We were really impressed with the layout and design.

OUR ROOM- Our room was ready by 1:30 pm. It was room 11274 port side, angled balcony. I would get that room again if I could. I loved having the extra space. It was a little weird being able to see my neighbors from the angled side. We had a view below of the life boats and partially of The Waterfront. I could clearly see the water below and even spotted a dolphin on our way to Mexico. Soon after we got into our room, our wonderful room steward knocked on the door to introduce himself. I know many have complained that they never saw their room stewards but ours was very visible as were the stewards our friends had. We saw Sulihin every morning and evening. He would regularly call out to us by name and ask how our day was going. We really enjoyed him. Our room was always clean.We only requested ice daily and he made sure it was there. And he emptied our mini fridge for us. We had cute towel animals. My favorite was the monkey hanging from the shelf above our bed. I felt like we had adequate storage by the bed, shelf above the bed, two cabinets with shelves, two drawers under the sofa, our closet and a shelf over the counter. We had a lot of stuff but everything fit neatly. The amount of shelf space in the bathroom was the best ever. I loved the space in the bathroom and the shower had a door! The location of the room was great. We only heard a little noise from the pool parties and sailaway party but it wasn't bothersome.

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I set up a folder on Google Drive where you will be able to view all the dailies and any other papers I was able to save.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10D8Y4QSkG1dLpMuqHzSv8TIgIMnToQZ7?usp=sharing

CONTINUATION OF DAY 1- After lunch we walked around the deck. I was very curious about the infamous pool. So many posts have been dedicated to it. It is small for the amount of people. But they have seats inside the pool where you can put your feet in if you want in addition to the two jacuzzis. Very often the jacuzzis were full but one night we got in around 10:30pm and both were empty. The pool and jacuzzis close at midnight. I wasn't interested in being in the pool so the size of the pool or how crowded it was was not an issue. The one time I noticed it was very crowded was on the day they did the pool challenges with Tyler. Everyone was crowding around the pool and many were in it.

Also the chair situation...on certain days it was very cold and windy around lunchtime so there were plenty of chairs and we didn't have any trouble finding them together. On a sea day when we wanted to try the slides it was harder to find six chairs together so we went up a deck and found two by the jogging track and just put our stuff there. I did think it was odd to see so many chairs surrounding the jogging track. It certainly wouldn't encourage you to jog. It was hard just walking past people. We didn't spend a lot of time during the day sunbathing so I don't know if anyone was chair hogging. I enjoyed my mornings on my balcony.

THE SLIDES- I haven't tried a water slide since first grade but I decided to to try these. I watched so many YouTube videos of people who had their Gopro cameras capturing the experience so I was sold. My husband and his friends tried the drop slide before I did just to see how it was. I was curious but very nervous. My husband said they play Hallelujah right before they drop you. He said he felt like he couldn't breathe until he got to the bottom of the slide because of all the water that rushes up. His friend had a lot of water rush into his ear and he experienced some pain for the rest of the day until he could get the water out. I did not try the drop slide after I heard their experience. I did the other blue slide that has one section where you can see the ocean below you. That was incredible! I laughed the entire way down. Make sure when you sit in the tube your arrow faces front. You might do the entire slide backward unless you'd enjoy that more.

INJURY REPORTS- I kept jokingly calling Escape the ship of doom because we kept seeing people passed out, whether at the port or on the ship and on Thursday there was a code Alpha on deck 12 in someone's cabin. Most were older and not drunk surprisingly. On day one, one of our friends was playing basketball on the sports deck. They went to pick up the basketball and hit their eyebrow on the one pole that was not covered in a protective layer. This led to four stitches. They asked him to take a brethalyzer test which he did because he hadn't been drinking at all that day. Because it had to be investigated his medical center visits were covered. Two days later they changed the dressing and then on the final night they removed the stitches. Yes they did have trip insurance but they didn't have to use it.

WIFI- We didn't have this promo but two of our friends did and the husband said it was very slow but his wife said it worked fine for her. They couldn't use it at the same time. They had issues logging in for the first two days and had to keep going to get help. It was reset for them and that also meant their 250 minutes were reset so they ended up with more minutes than what they originally got with the promo. An unintentional hack in the system.

iCONCIERGE- We used the app just to look at the daily schedule and excursions. It mostly worked just fine. I noticed midway during the week the paper Freestyle Daily and the app didn't match up as far as the daily schedule. I relied on the paper and just carried it around with me. We decided as a group to find places to meet up and call each others rooms to plan for the day instead of paying to use the app for messaging.

PORT BEVERAGE TAXES- I never was charged for them. I looked at my TV regularly for charges while in Miami and they never showed up. It does say on the daily that you'll be charged but we weren't.

TV- We spent enough time in our room to check out the TV and I felt like with the limited channels it was still enough. We watched different movies and my husband ordered one that lasted the whole week. I can't complain about it. We were quite busy on the ship so maybe if you spend a lot of time in your room you'd be bothered by the selection.

RESERVATIONS- On Day 1 after lunch we went down to Deck 6 Headliner's Comedy Club where they had a few of the staff making or changing restaurant reservations. I did make a bunch at the 90 day mark but I needed to change a couple once on the boat which was quick and easy. I would recommend you grab what you can at the 90 day mark especially for Cagney's. We had a group of 8 so I didn't want to leave it to chance. Also Deck 7 forward, Escape Theater is where you make your Escape the Big Top reservation. There are two days that you can pick from, Tuesday or Friday, 8:30p or 10:30p. We did Tuesday at 10:30p.

DAY 1 ENTERTAINMENT- We enjoyed Groove Addiction, a female lead singer with a band, by the pool. At night I went to the Welcome Aboard show hosted by Tyler. I highly recommend this show. It wasn't as packed initially as I thought it would be. I think most came late. It was entertaining and got you pumped for the week. We met some senior staff and got a taste of the main shows. I was so underwhelmed by the Brat Pack show. I thought they were off pitch and super cheesy. One of the characters does warn the audience that the show is PG16. On the other hand After Midnight was incredible in their preview so I was excited to already have my reservation for that show Monday.

We ended our night at the Welcome Aboard Dance Party at Spice H20. The entertainment staff is incredible. They are fun energetic and engaging. We had a great time dancing and talking to them. I'm glad we got out on the dance floor instead of standing there people watching like so many were doing that night. We had a ton of fun. The drinks at the bar there are great and they serve you quickly. We saw the grotto but never got in it. I wish we would've enjoyed it one day that week. Oh well next time...

We tried going to Skyline Bar at 12a but it was mostly the older crowd. We left but later in the week we returned and we were glad we did. More on that later...

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