Cruise Review: Escape From New York, Sept. 2-9, 2018

Thankfully, we managed to be seated at an inside table at Le Bistro this time. We proceeded to have a lovely meal, occasionally chatting with a very nice couple at the table next to us. The food was good, though a bit short of great. The exception was the French onion soup, which was crazy delicious. I also really enjoyed my wife’s butter-poached shrimp, though she (rightfully) thought they were a bit rich. We’re off to Paris for a week in November, and this definitely put us in the mood for a Paris getaway.

Since we were both quite full and had no more room for drinks, we decided to make our way to the cabin for some post-dinner relaxation before bed. We enjoyed some quiet time on our balcony (night time is my favorite balcony time), and then we hit the sack. We had another busy day of doing nothing scheduled for tomorrow, and we wanted to be well-rested for that.

Up next, Day 5: I’m now in a relaxation coma.

Me, enjoying Le Bistro.

Day 5: A Full, Vigorous Day

Just kidding; we did absolutely nothing again. It was glorious.

We got the time change correct this time, which only meant we got up even later than we’d planned when we slept in that morning. We had no hope of making it to either the Garden Café or O’Sheehan’s for breakfast, so we ended up having lunch for breakfast. We ate at O’Sheehan’s and I packed in a few more of my favorite wings. A weird breakfast, but very vacation-y.

Our first stop of the afternoon was back at the spa. We didn’t get enough relaxation time in yesterday, you see, so the only solution was to once again laze around on those padded loungers.

Strolling over to Spice H20, we were saddened to note how many more people were there at a time when it wasn’t 9:00 in the morning. Still, we enjoyed cooling off in the grotto, which is a little more elaborate than the one on the Getaway. There are more waterfalls, which is very refreshing, but which make it harder to enjoy a drink while cooling off.

After our dip in the water, we found a couple of loungers in a shady spot forward on deck 17. These chairs were in the shade, but close enough to the pool bar for us to grab some frozen drinks. I enjoyed my first frosé, which, as the name suggests, is frozen rosé. The wine lover in me rejoiced at this adult slurpee; it became my new go-to poolside drink.

We spent a very enjoyable hour or so just sipping our drinks and reading, all the while listening to the reggae band play music by the pool. I will say, though, with the exception of the wine tasting, this cruise seemed very lacking in activities when compared to other cruises. Or maybe I should say, it lacked activities we wanted to partake in. On prior cruises, we typically played a lot of trivia games or name that tune type games. All the events on Escape felt centered in the atrium and seemed geared toward mass group participation, so we missed that feeling of gathering in a smaller venue for things like trivia. I guess this comes with the territory of a larger ship, but it seemed particularly noticeable on this ship. I don’t want to say this left us with a feeling of boredom, because we very much enjoyed the many hours we spent just doing nothing, but we did feel a little bit like we had nothing to do during the day. Folks who feel more comfortable in very large group settings may find it more to their liking.

Wow, I was curious where that cruise ended up. Did you guys stop in any ports? It's crazy, because we had our phones off the entire cruise, we didn't even know about the storm until the day we got back. I'm sure that must have been less than ideal, but hopefully you guys still enjoyed the trip. That's the nice thing about sailing one of the larger ships; there's enough onboard to keep you occupied for a week. I'd hate to be in that situation on one of the smaller ship with fewer onboard options.

Not wishing to hijack your excellent review, but as you asked the captain booked it down to FL and we stopped at Pt. Canaveral which is essentially a bus station for those wishing to visit Orlando. Next day we visited GSC (Norwegian's Island stop) which we enjoyed. Then we sailed east and north behind the storm back to NYC. It was mostly all good.

Didn't get to Bermuda so I'm looking forward to visiting vicariously through your upcoming installments.

For second lunch, we decided to try Margaritaville on deck 17. Now, put aside all your notions about Jimmy Buffett and believe me when I say this: the food here was fantastic! There’s a $14.99 cover charge (plus 20% gratuity), but it’s worth it. Everything we had was great, but the standouts, for me, were the conch fritters (outside of Grand Cayman, the best I’ve ever had), the Key West Fish Sandwich (former Florida boy here, I know good fish), and the Volcano Burger. Margaritaville was my second favorite dining experience on the ship…more about my first favorite coming momentarily.

After getting showered and changed, we had just enough time to stop at Cellars for a pre-show glass of wine before heading to the theater for the Brat Pack at 7:30. Ok, upon further reflection, it was actually two glasses.

The Brat Pack was very enjoyable, even though I’d never watched any of the movies. I did know almost all the 80s songs though. The same can’t be said for everyone, as a ton of people left this show mid-stream. I guess if you’re not of a certain age the show might not hold much appeal, but we were still surprised how many people chose to leave.

Behind the bar at Cellars.

Because of our large lunch late in the afternoon, we weren’t ready to commit to a full dinner. This led us to our favorite food onboard the Escape at Pinchos!

We sat outside, and, while it was warm out, it was still very nice. It was very quiet, and it was the perfect setting to enjoy some small plates and some excellent wine. Even though we didn’t think we’d need a full dinner, our first round of orders was so delicious we couldn’t help but go back for more. Hands-down, this was our favorite food on the ship and is well worth a visit (and we’d visit again in only a couple days).

My wife's favorite item at Pinchos.

After a wonderful meal, we wanted to find some evening entertainment. We wanted to go to the Howl at the Moon dueling pianos show in Headliners, as we really enjoyed it on our cruise on the Getaway. Unfortunately, the place was absolutely standing-room only by the time we poked our heads in at 10:00. If you’re planning on doing this on your cruise, I’d suggest lining up EARLY!

We ended up at Tobacco Road, where we encountered the single most talented performer we’ve ever seen on a cruise. His name is Orly Penate, and he’s one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard. I play guitar, as well, and have even played professionally, so I consider myself a good judge of musical talent. If you get lucky enough to have this guy on your cruise, go see him and you will be blown away!

We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours just listening to Orly kill it on guitar and knocking back Getaways. Eventually we made it back to our cabin and hit the hay, excited for Bermuda the following day.

Up next, Day 6: Pink sand, and even more delicious food.

Not wishing to hijack your excellent review, but as you asked the captain booked it down to FL and we stopped at Pt. Canaveral which is essentially a bus station for those wishing to visit Orlando. Next day we visited GSC (Norwegian's Island stop) which we enjoyed. Then we sailed east and north behind the storm back to NYC. It was mostly all good.

 

Didn't get to Bermuda so I'm looking forward to visiting vicariously through your upcoming installments.

Very interesting; thanks for sharing. I'd assumed the cruise would have shifted northward for stops in New England and Canada. I hope you get a chance to get to Bermuda; it was very nice with excellent food.

What a fantastic review! :D

The frosé sounds like just the thing on a hot day! Were you able to find it anywhere other than the pool bar?

 

My wife's favorite item at Pinchos.

White anchovies! My favorite too!

Norris

. We had another busy day of doing nothing scheduled for tomorrow, and we wanted to be well-rested for that.

One of the funniest and truest lines I ever read on Cruise Critic.

What a fantastic review! :D

 

 

The frosé sounds like just the thing on a hot day! Were you able to find it anywhere other than the pool bar?

I don't recall seeing it anywhere else. It's very possible they have it at the bar at Spice H20 since they typically have the same selection as the pool bar, but we never got drinks there on this cruise so can't say for sure.

The ship didn’t allow passengers to begin boarding until about 11:30, which also seemed a bit later than other cruises we’ve been on. This can certainly vary from cruise to cruise, not to mention from terminal to terminal, but it became a sort of theme for this cruise throughout the week: things that are typically done faster/better on other ships (or in this case, other ports), just seemed a bit off on Escape.

Newbie question....are you given a boarding time/group or is at a free for all? I wasn't sure if it was different on one of the bigger ships.

Great review! Love your style (and i'm seriously craving pizza right now!!)

White anchovies! My favorite too!

Norris

Yeah, my wife loved these. I was more obsessed with the beef skewers and the Gambas Al Ajillo, myself!

One of the funniest and truest lines I ever read on Cruise Critic.

Thank you! I do miss that beautiful, doing-nothing cruise vibe. I try to get that mindset going here in real life with minimal success.

Newbie question....are you given a boarding time/group or is at a free for all? I wasn't sure if it was different on one of the bigger ships.

 

Great review! Love your style (and i'm seriously craving pizza right now!!)

After 4 NCL cruises I'm still not sure whether there's any logic to the boarding process. They ask you for your expected check-in time when you complete the online check-in process, but I can't say whether this matters at all once you get to the pier. You are given a boarding group number when you arrive, but it seems to me like that's based on when you arrive and how many people arrived ahead of you and has nothing to do with what you pre-selected during online check-in.

This cruise, for example, we arrived at about 10:15 and were given boarding group 20! I can't ever remember getting such a high group number, but like I said, there were a lot of people ahead of us that morning. The funny thing is, though, the boarding group numbers don't really seem to mean much either with regard to how long you'll wait to get on board. When they started calling numbers they called individual groups, up to about boarding group 6, I think, with only a couple minutes between each group number. After 6, they said anyone with numbers 7-20 could board. We were happy that we weren't going to have to wait all the way until they called 20, but we couldn't understand how they went from calling one group at a time to calling for like 13 groups at once.

All that is a long way of saying I have no clue.

After 4 NCL cruises I'm still not sure whether there's any logic to the boarding process. They ask you for your expected check-in time when you complete the online check-in process, but I can't say whether this matters at all once you get to the pier. You are given a boarding group number when you arrive, but it seems to me like that's based on when you arrive and how many people arrived ahead of you and has nothing to do with what you pre-selected during online check-in.

 

This cruise, for example, we arrived at about 10:15 and were given boarding group 20! I can't ever remember getting such a high group number, but like I said, there were a lot of people ahead of us that morning. The funny thing is, though, the boarding group numbers don't really seem to mean much either with regard to how long you'll wait to get on board. When they started calling numbers they called individual groups, up to about boarding group 6, I think, with only a couple minutes between each group number. After 6, they said anyone with numbers 7-20 could board. We were happy that we weren't going to have to wait all the way until they called 20, but we couldn't understand how they went from calling one group at a time to calling for like 13 groups at once.

 

All that is a long way of saying I have no clue.

thanks!!

;)Hi! Love your review, waiting for the rest. We have been on numerous NCL cruises, will be on the Escape for the first time in November. Can’t wait to try the Frose. Can you tell me what is in the “Getaway”?

We made it to the theater on deck 7 just after 7:00 and quickly found seats. I would highly recommend making reservations for any show you might want to see because this theater is tiny, especially for a ship this size. It’s only on a single deck, and there seemed to be an unusually high number of seats reserved for Haven passengers.

The show was well worth it. The musicians were fantastic, and the singing was some of the best I’ve heard at sea. The Brat Pack was even better, though, but more on that in a bit.

The show let out at about 8:45, which left us with an hour to kill before our rescheduled reservation at Le Bistro. This was just enough time for us to grab a quick drink up at Tobacco Road, where the Latin duo was playing. We grooved to some familiar songs while I enjoyed a Getaway, which is probably my favorite drink on NCL ships. It’s like a mojito on steroids, and I could drink them anytime, anywhere.

Do you access seating in the main showrooms from the back and need to walk down to the seats like the Breakaway or can you enter from different floors?

MARAPRINCE

;)Hi! Love your review, waiting for the rest. We have been on numerous NCL cruises, will be on the Escape for the first time in November. Can’t wait to try the Frose. Can you tell me what is in the “Getaway”?

The Getaway is a delicious combination of rum, yuzu, sparkling wine, St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, and mint. And now I want one.

Do you access seating in the main showrooms from the back and need to walk down to the seats like the Breakaway or can you enter from different floors?

 

MARAPRINCE

As far as I know, the only entry is at the rear of the theater on deck 7. This is where we entered both evenings, and if there was another option we never encountered it.

Day 6 (Cruise Day 4): Double (Fish Chowder) Fantasy

In keeping with our theme of doing as little as possible while on vacation, we made very few plans for our time in Bermuda. With that general idea in mind, we decided to sleep in on Wednesday morning (enjoying vacation to the fullest), and just head out whenever we made it out of bed.

We ended up getting out of bed around 9:00, which was late enough to feel like a lazy vacation morning, but still early enough to feel like we could get in a full day in Bermuda. We grabbed a quick breakfast in the Garden Café and made it off the ship by about 10:00.

Our initial plan was to head to Horseshoe Bay on our last day in Bermuda, but we ended up changing that plan due to the forecast we saw before we left which called for storms that day. The forecast for Wednesday, on the other hand, looked beautiful, so we made a spur-of-the-moment change and headed out to the beach. This turned out to be a smart move because Friday did turn out to be very stormy. More evidence that it pays to keep some flexibility built in to your plans, where possible.