CamaCama's Family Vacation on the Escape 11/21/2015 (Detailed PICTURE Review!!!!!!)

Just back a few days ago from our Escape Thanksgiving cruise. I’m so excited to write this review… for the last two years I’ve been pretty active on this site and the detailed reviews that some of you put together have helped me plan the greatest cruise vacations. I love lots of pictures and videos so I figured I’d give back and do a detailed review. Especially since the Escape is so new and we’re a young family sailing with young kids plus our parents so we have a few different age groups to get different perspectives. I’ve been researching and collecting all kinds of fun stuff in my vacation folder for months and tried to plan the best I could for everyone in our group... some things went as planned and some didn't which is expected when you're traveling with a stubborn 2.5 year old.

About Us

Me - age 35 (Jess)

Husband - age 36 (Len)

Daughter - age 6 (Sienna)

Daughter - age 2.5 (Mila)

Mom - age 60's

Mother-in-law (MIL) - age 60's

Father-in-law (FIL) - age 70's

We had such a blast on our last cruise (RCI Liberty of the Seas 4-day which left on Thanksgiving day 2014) that we figured we’d make it an annual T-day vacation from then on! Len and I both work full time (so does my mom) and Sienna is in 1st grade now so I wouldn’t want her to miss too many days of school in a row so it works out perfectly with only having to miss 3 days (2 for Sienna) for a 7 day vacation during thanksgiving week.

We are all very active and like taking advantage of all that the ship has to offer that’s free. We just aren’t the type to do much of the “extra cost” stuff on the ship, really never felt the need to. There is usually enough included that we are happy, but this is our first time on NCL (freestyle) so…………… read on………..

Booking

We booked back in Jan or Feb 2015. It was the last day of some kind of “sale” and prices hadn’t shot up yet (shortly after we booked prices went up up up and were double what we paid from then on) and we got a pretty sweet upsell – more on that below. I was debating between the Getaway and Escape and since they were the same price we decided that since the Escape was so new we’d try it! We’d never been on a brand new ship and especially not the 4th sailing of one (2nd 7-day)!

Rooms

Originally, we got 3 inside rooms all next to each other on Deck 10. Even booking 10 months out, there were no connecting inside rooms left and it would stay that way. I checked daily, sometimes even twice a day once final payment had to be made to see if any opened up and no luck. BUT about 2 weeks before sailing I decided to just try calling the NCL upsell department. Prices had gone down a little for balconies (but still way more than what we paid for an inside) so I figured I’d give it a try. I was told they were not doing any upsell offers for this sailing since it was almost sold out… but the girl put me on hold for a few minutes and said they’d make an exception and we could move to balcony rooms (connecting!) for $300pp (3rd person free) so 300x4=1200 total. I got her down to $250pp so $1000 total. I had her hold it and called my TA, and she got us the deal plus gave us extra OBC from her! We also got them to give the offer to my in-laws and next thing you know we have 3 balcony rooms next to each other (2 connecting). 9292, 9294 and 9296, aft side-view on a hump. PERFECT location with the main atrium 678 right below us. Everything we did pretty much was aft so it worked out perfectly.

I took almost 2,000 pictures so get ready… ON TO THE REVIEW!

YAYY pics are working!!!! (right?? right??? please say yes!) Thanks for all the help and now I can finally continue!!! :D:D:D

YAYY pics are working!!!! (right?? right??? please say yes!) Thanks for all the help and now I can finally continue!!! :D:D:D

Yes! :D (...and no problem.)

DAY 1 SATURDAY - MIAMI EMBARKATION

We live in South Florida (my mom flew in Friday night from NY -- after her afternoon flight was cancelled and they put her on an 8am sat morning... she had to come into ft. Lauderdale instead of west palm to get here -- but all that matters is that she got here the night before, no way risking that morning!) so it was a quick 1 hour drive to the port of Miami. We wanted to leave at 9am but ended up on the road about 9:20.

First glimpse of all the ships in port (Escape at very front)

We pulled up to the curb and dropped all the bags off and realized we forgot one really important thing... UMMMMMMMMMMM WHERE'S THE STROLLER?!

I actually had a very detailed packing list but just didn't put the stroller on it and guess what, it was completely forgotten about. Ok fine, we'll check on the ship maybe they rent them? Anyway, not letting that get the best of us... the guys went to park the cars in the parking garage ($20/day I think it turned out to be) and we gave the luggage to the porters and crossed the street into the security building.

Someone was excited!

Thank you for doing this. I love reviews and pictures!!!

It was about 10:45am at this point, we waited for the guys to meet us in front of Terminal B and we went through security (no lines) quickly. We went to check in and again no lines!!! We breezed through check-in in minutes and got our cards and were sent to a waiting area in the terminal with an embarkation card. We got Group 6.

As soon as we sat down (easily found seats together in the back corner) they called Groups 1 and 2. Sienna wanted to write about how excited she was and I just looked around with envy at all the parents with the kids IN A STROLLER! Sigh.. but M&M's seemed to do the trick to get her to sit still for a little haha.

Then with about 10 minutes or less in between each number they called 3, then 4, then 5, then 6 THAT'S US!!

Almost on!!

Sienna wait up!!

We entered on Deck 7 and balloons lined the hallway by the elevator.

I have a video of this but now I need to figure out how to post that! haha

I'm not going to do a whole ship tour as others have already done it and there are tons of pics from the inaugural sailing, etc and they're all the same. I'm going to focus more on what our family did throughout the week.

The ship smelled so new! We explored Deck 7 a bit and came across O'Sheehans, which we'd come back to for lunch one day.

Still on Deck 7 we walked through the Casino (which we'd be back to several times throughout the cruise) and found the gorgeous atrium chandelier!

Then we went up a level to Deck 8 to where the shops are, the photo gallery area, Bayamo and the mojito bar.

Following. Thanks for your review. Sailing on the Escape soon and my 8 yr old is already super excited!

Meant to post this earlier but this was our 7-night itinerary.

Thank you for doing this. I love reviews and pictures!!!

You're welcome! Tons of pictures of our adventures to come..

Following. Thanks for your review. Sailing on the Escape soon and my 8 yr old is already super excited!

She should be... Sienna LOVED camp and all the activities on the ship! Lots more info/pics coming tomorrow..

Thank you for the time and effort you're putting into this.

I am booked for May and I wonder how it will compare with the Breakaway. Unfortunately, most of the groups I follow are reporting a somewhat mix/negative experiences. Hoping to hear some positive things about the vessel.

Like you I am booked in an interior room, this is my first since my first cruise :eek:. Looking forward to read about that as well :)

Great review so far! Can't wait to see the rest.

Enjoying your review. Thank you for posting one. Do you have a copy of the MDR children's menu to include?

Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us. You make me feel like I'm almost there. My husband tires of my excitement, so it's nice to share with others. We sail in February.

Kim

Loving the review so far. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the great review, looking forward to the rest.

DAY 1 CONTINUED...

One more picture of the atrium... and while I'm on this topic this is one of the only complaints we had of the ship's design (this and the pool area but more on that later). The atrium consists of decks 6, 7 and 8. The casino takes up most of deck 7 and there is lots of smoking going on. It's funny because the slots say "thank you for not smoking" when you put your card in but everyone was smoking (which I expected). Now, I love gambling and only do it on cruises once a year and I know the smokey smell goes along with it and that's fine with me. I've never been and never will be a smoker but for the few hours I do go into the casino I can deal with the smell. I'm never around it otherwise. BUT whoever designed this ship didn't think that the smell of smoke from deck 7 would stink up the entire atrium and elevators in that area? It just always smelled like old smoke even when the casino was closed. A casino should always be enclosed... just my opinion on that. Otherwise, it's an amazing area of the ship... wow factor for sure.

There was a penny souvenir machine that I promised Sienna we'd do one day. It costs $1 and you just have to swipe your card.

Since it was about 12:30 at this point and the rooms weren't ready we decided it was time for lunch. We headed up to the Garden Café (buffet) on Deck 16 since that is the easiest thing to do with the kids. Lots to choose from, nice views, it was a great first lunch!

The kids first lunch

My first lunch... pretzel rolls YUM!!!

Loving your review!

Thanks for taking the time to post.

More! More!:D

Those are the sweetest little girls! Your photos really capture their vacation excitement, so nice.

After we ate we didn't hear any announcements that rooms were ready so we headed down to Deck 5 to Splash Academy. Sienna was so excited for "camp" especially after seeing how great it was. She's in the 6-9 group "SEALS" and they had some really fun things going on all week. Mila is 2.5 so she's in the "GUPPIES" group and seemed excited to go (copying her sister maybe?) but stay tuned for what actually happened :rolleyes::p

Long hallway coming from aft elevators...

Great artwork on the walls