Mini Review, Escape 10/7

Much of this is copied and pasted from what I put on the roll call.

Background:

FYI- our travel party was myself, my DH, our lovely babysitter aged 20something, DD 6 and DS 2.9.

My 15th cruise, DH's 11th or 12th. We've sailed most major cruise lines and a couple luxury ones.

We had a Haven 2 bedroom suite. We were disappointed with the itinerary change from Eastern to Western but certainly able to keep things in perspective (first world problems, no?) and made the best of it.

This was my 5th port stop in Cozumel within 12 months (on only 3 cruises- long story) and probably my 8th or 10th overall so at least we knew what to do :) Roatan wasn't new but it'd been a while. Costa Maya has changed since we visited almost 10 years ago. Harvest Caye had a great splash pad for the kids but otherwise the water was murky, the sand was unbelievably coarse with large chunks of sharp shells, and overall unimpressive except that I did feel relatively safe going around with my 2 young kiddos.

Don't feel like writing a full review so I'll hit the highlights:

Great:

Haven was really nice experience (mostly because the rest of the ship was a zoo- introvert hell)

Bed was very comfortable- one of the only cruise ship beds I found almost as comfy as home

Bathroom with shower and tub overlooking ocean was really incredible

Celia (Cecelia? Not sure) Spanish woman with cool glasses in wine bar helped us pair sherry with tapas- one of the highlights of our trip

Miroslav and Emir at Haven bar EXCELLENT! Emina a great waitress too.

Good:

Priority embarkation was nice (hard to find and still something of a significant wait if you are there with cranky toddlers)

Priority disembarkation nice (only used once)

Haven restaurant tasty, well appointed, nice staff (BUT SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW)

Variety of venues was impressive- we don't get out much but it was nice to see how many places one could go

Splash Academy was much enjoyed by our 6 year old

Bad:

Sliding not very soundproof door between our bedroom and living room in Haven 2 Bedroom suite. Kids noisy in morning and NOT romantic.

Lighting on outdoor tables at Pinchos and Bayamo (maybe others too, didn't check) was like eating in Kmart.

Splash park for young kids was nice but half of the toys were broken, completely nonfunctional. Not cool.

Why is there no outdoor casual dining facility? On Disney and others there are at least some places you can grab a snack or lunch for the kids while still in a bathing suit.

Why is the children's pool 5 foot deep?

We went to Spice H20 for about 10 minutes one morning. I could not find out what time it was (typical problem on the ship) so went to the bar. After being ignored for several minutes I finally interrupted the bartender and asked what time it was- he informed it that it was "something like 11, I don't know exactly." Most people asking the time aren't usually looking for a rough estimate. When I pressed further for an actual time (which I imagine was posted on the computer about 6 inches from him) he refused to look. So weird. I finally just asked a passenger with a wristwatch. I mean, I get that they want you to relax and enjoy your vacation, but if you are asking the time you might just need to know so that you can be somewhere at a certain time.) Like, back to Splash Academy to pick up your kid before they start charging you at 12.

Elevators- not enough for such a large ship with so many passenger floors. Honestly we usually just walk almost all of the time on cruises but not possible here with so many decks and such tiny feet trailing us. (See remarks about 2 year old.)

Awful:

Why is the area around Le Bistro and higher decks filled with smoke from the casino? It is truly horrible. I am traveling on Escape with my mom who has lung problems in Feb- no way she will be able to tolerate this. terrible engineering and planning. We were going to eat in LB like we did on the Jade in January but there is no way this is possible for her.

Atrium and buffet just way too crowded. We watched newlywed game in the atrium and it was a mob scene- the other couple times I passed through in the evening it seemed equally as crowded. I only walked through the buffet once on accident and not even at meal time- it was nuts. My husband took the kids there for juice and it was crazy. Our nanny tried to take the kids there for a meal early on and even being the relaxed spirit she is, said she wasn't going back.

Will I go back? Yes, by a weird set of circumstances I am booked again for February with my mom and my daughter. It was an alright trip for a family cruise but I'd never book this ship for just the two of us. YMMV- depends on what is important. If crowds don't bother you and FUN is what you seek- an ocean view room could provide a lot of entertainment for a really great price. We are more interested in peace and quiet so the Haven was nice.

Someone needs to figure the smoke out asap. On the whole this was the smokiest ship I have EVER been on (if smoking IS regulated on outside decks, it is done poorly- usually ships will have a smoking area on certain decks on starboard OR port side, not both- often there was no way to cross on the same floor without going through fog of smoke. It was really pronounced.)

Plus, our bill is all screwed up to the tune of $170- admonitions to "take care of it before you disembark" don't make a lot of sense when the bill isn't printed until 315 am on day of disembarkation and you have an 11am flight from Miami. So, working on that now too. (Apparently now I see there was a stateroom bill channel? Did not turn on the TVs at all except if babysitter was playing cartoons for the kids so have no idea.)

Was on the same cruise, albeit not the Haven. We had Balcony room and I second a lot of what you wrote. Cabin noise- really it was only kids running in the halls. Had one couple next to us that had a FIERY argument at 1am the first night.

I'm going to be THAT guy, but I was surprised that some of parents were non-existent throughout a lot of the cruise. Unless they're in a program like Splash Academy, I would have never thought (in todays world) you'd see very young kids running around the ship alone with 4,000 strangers. There were kids running up and down the hallways at 6:30am. Whatever, but when you had to hit O'Sheehans at 2AM just to get service (exaggerating, a little;p) you want to sleep a little longer than 6:30am. Kids running the ice cream machines in the buffet until they were out. One morning, saw a kid load up two plate fulls of bacon and take off. I think a lot of parents think you are on a cruise and you have a staff of 1700 to babysit. Couple kids were trying to hit the mini-golf balls over the railing... I know kids will be kids, but we saw a lot of 6-10 yr olds running around the ship by themselves and that usually means they're up to no-good....

The SMOKE- terrible. Embarkation day, right away, they load you on Deck 7 right off O'Sheehans and it hits you. I'm pretty tolerable of these things, and love casino's, but it smelt like a dungy Motel 6 smoking room. Was like that the entire time, stale smoke smell in that entire 678 Ocean Place. Beautiful for sure, but smoky, too. So, if you're sensitive to that smell, going to have issues until you get used to it. It doesn't go away, so you'll have to get used to it.

A lot of people on that ship. Theater is wonderful and the shows were great, even the comics were quite good, too. Just every common area is packed 24/7 it seemed. Atrium game shows and entertainment was built for 200 to view, problem is the ship has 4,000+. I guess they count on the other 3800 eating or at a diff show or doing something else. Cruise director Andre and the rec/entertainment staff were very cool, too.

As you mentioned, service was good, but it was so sloowwwwww. Best to have your entire order ready the first time because it could be 10 minutes or more until you see the wait staff again. A lot of the bars seemed to have one bartender (Tobacco Road at 10pm with 100 people in there) and some should have had far more (two in O'Sheehan's during atrium entertainment) which seemed to be common theme throughout the cruise in every establishment.

Same as you the_dylaness, I'd go again for sure, just now have some different expectations than what i did going into this cruise. Guess I ended up doing mini-review myself, but I agree with you on most all of your points!!

Glad you enjoyed your cruise despite some negatives.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for your review/trip report.

Keith

Little kids don't really belong on cruises. And you expected it to be romantic? LOL

Little kids don't really belong on cruises. And you expected it to be romantic? LOL

Not sure I agree... I would never take my kids (at least until they are much older) on an older/smaller/fancier ship. But Escape is built for lots of demographics, one of them being families. If you are booking a room that holds 6 people in three separate sleeping areas, I think it's not unreasonable to expect the master bedroom to be a place that could accommodate romance. But the thin sliding door with no lock (rather than the heavier handled doors that go to a bathroom, or actually the second bedroom) felt more like a partition than a door.