NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

Thanks to all on here for all the great info you post!

Here's my tiny review with things we learned added in.

Jan 13 - Western From Miami

Sea/Falmouth/Grand Cayman/Sea/Great Stirrup Cay (cancelled, continued to Nassau to stay overnight), Nassau

Port Notes:

We didn't book any excursions in advance, planning for beach days if weather allowed. It didn't really allow.

Falmouth - Wandered the port shops, read the historical signs, looked at the scene outside the security gates and based mostly on our young kids, decided to go back to the ship for lunch and played on board for the afternoon.

Grand Cayman - Walked the streets a bit and then eventually managed to hire a taxi for a private tour. 5 ships in port = taxi/bus chaos when getting off the tenders. Very confusing and frustrating to deal with. Everyone wants to get you on a bus for $20 per person to hit the highlights. Ended up paying $96US per hour for a private taxi to take us where we wanted. Was really nice - stopped in Hell, bypassed the Turtle Farm and instead took a tour of the nicest homes/yacht clubs on the Island. Dropped us off at the back entrance of the Westin. Ate lunch at their outdoor restaurant, was a beautiful location and great food. They would not rent us towels for the beach, for hotel guests only. Took a cab from there to Camana Bay ($20US for 5 people) which was awesome - nice shops to wander around, kids played in a big splash fountain. Cab back to the tenders was another $20US. Be wary, traffic really backed up bad with so many people trying to get back to the tenders for various ships at the same time. Got in a long line for our tender and were happily surprised to find NCL staff walking the line with water, cold wash cloths and little cups of jello for the kids. Fantastic! Favourite port, would go back for sure.

Great Stirrup Cay - Harbour stayed closed so we bypassed and went to Nassau a day early and stayed overnight.

Nassau - First afternoon we wandered the area around the ship, checked out the straw market (left pretty quickly), went to see the Colonial Hilton in case we wanted to beach there the next day. Weather didn't support paying $79 per adult (with $40 food credit) plus $40 for the kids with $20 food credit. Other option was to book a Day Room for $249 with no food credit. Day 2 in Nassau we stayed on board and had a great time when the sun came out and most passengers were off the ship. Did the water slides too many times to count with no wait.

Ship Notes:

Ship was in beautiful condition and really well maintained. Very very clean. Staff ranged from pleasant but doing their job to over the top nice and helpful. Mother in Law was travelling with us but in a separate cabin by herself. Learned by chance on day 3 that her room attendant had been calling her each night around 9PM to check in that she was ok and didn't need anything. She though we were getting the same calls! Her room attendant also gifted her a bottle of champagne. Very impressed.

Before the cruise I didn't really understand how divided the ship feels. You spend most of your time going to Decks 6/7/8 or up to 16/17. We were in a very forward cabin which meant we spent most of our time moving down and mid/aft for food/drinks/activities. We rarely went forward except for the big theatre (twice). I don't feel you necessarily need to pay for mid, but next time i would likely go for an Aft cabin.

The Escape also feels like it should have had a set of mid elevators. Only having forward and aft elevators means a lot of waiting at key times. We heard very few complaints, but this one was common. We figured out two elevator tricks early on: 1) There are four sets of buttons at each elevator bank, but they aren't all linked together! Pressing a button on one side only does the set you pressed and the one directly behind you...walk over and hit the other ones too. 2) At certain times (post sail-away party, tendering, disembarkation), the elevators are jammed trying to get to lower decks. Your best bet is to jump on an elevator going up and ride it full circle to get down.

Drink Package - we had the drink package as a free bonus for the two adults in our room and therefore were not forced to buy a soda package for the 5 and 7 year old. Everything stated on here before stands - the drink package is great to have, but in no way would we have justified paying for it. Also - in our experience, this is how bartenders throughout the ship, including the dining rooms, handled what we termed the card for drink ratio. Scenario 1 - Order two alcoholic beverages - bartender asks for one room key. Scenario 2 - Order three alcoholic beverages - bartender asks for two rooms keys. Scenario 3 - Order two alcoholic beverages and one soda - bartender asks for two room keys. As mentioned earlier, Mother In Law travelling in separate cabin with us had no drink package and intended to pay out of pocket. When on her own, sometimes she would be charged for a soda, other times (O'Sheehans for example) it would be comped. O'Sheehans waiter told us on the first day that her soda was on him, but not to necessarily expect that everywhere. In practice, we could use our two cards at any time to order drinks for ourselves and her, either alcoholic or not.

Wifi - Purchased the 250 minute for $125 package to be able to check in at work. Tried before buying it to see if iMessage would work on our iPhones as some had mentioned, but it did not. Discovered by accident that after buying the wifi package, logging each of our devices into the paid wifi, then logging back out, iMessage would work and continue to work. We could message each other and those off the ship. Could not send images by iMessage or it would bog down and stop working for that conversation. Great discovery.

All in all, a great trip and a super ship. Lots of fun, would certainly consider doing it again.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you for your review! We will be on the Escape next week so your review was very helpful about Falmouth and Grand Cayman. Interesting about Nassau. I wonder why you just didn't have an extra sea day with GSC being closed.

Question, did you notice if the casino remained closed when you went to Nassau early? Or did they manage to have it open 'regular hours' which would have been right after sail-away from GSC?

Appreciate the feedback.

Just returned from one week on the Escape. Am now a gold Latitudes passenger. Must say I was a bit disappointed in the cruise. Public areas were always crowded. About one-third of the major activities take place in the Atrium and there are not enough seats as well as all the Guest Services areas are there and with all the noise from the activities one cannot hear or speak clearly when accessing these services (Shore Excursions, Bar, Coffee/Pastry shop, etc.) We paid for an upgrade to book a mini-suite and once on the cruise were told they do not have mini-suites (what the hey???). So the cabin we ended up with was actually smaller than the original one we had booked. Really angry about that. The food was exceptional with prime rib four nights of the seven! as a choice. The shows were quite professional and entertaining. I will not cruise this ship again. I believe I am a smaller ship person.

Just returned from one week on the Escape. Am now a gold Latitudes passenger. Must say I was a bit disappointed in the cruise. Public areas were always crowded. About one-third of the major activities take place in the Atrium and there are not enough seats as well as all the Guest Services areas are there and with all the noise from the activities one cannot hear or speak clearly when accessing these services (Shore Excursions, Bar, Coffee/Pastry shop, etc.) We paid for an upgrade to book a mini-suite and once on the cruise were told they do not have mini-suites (what the hey???). So the cabin we ended up with was actually smaller than the original one we had booked. Really angry about that. The food was exceptional with prime rib four nights of the seven! as a choice. The shows were quite professional and entertaining. I will not cruise this ship again. I believe I am a smaller ship person.

What cabin # did they put you in?

The Escape actually has a good number of mini-suites. Are you saying that they put you in a Balcony cabin but you had paid for a Mini? Did they give you a Mini-suite cabin number and then move you to a Balcony? I've been in both, and there isn't a lot of difference except the bathroom is slightly upgraded.

Thank you for your review! We will be on the Escape next week so your review was very helpful about Falmouth and Grand Cayman. Interesting about Nassau. I wonder why you just didn't have an extra sea day with GSC being closed.

 

Question, did you notice if the casino remained closed when you went to Nassau early? Or did they manage to have it open 'regular hours' which would have been right after sail-away from GSC?

Thanks for the question - to be honest, I didn't notice! Sorry.

This is EXACTLY what causes elevators to be overcrowded. You are basically telling anyone on a floor above you who is trying to go up "screw you, my desire to go down is more important than yours to go up". Does it work, yes. It is extremely inconsiderate and rude, absolutely.

Thanks for your input! Having just spent a week on the ship I thought I'd provide feedback on what the real experience was like for us. Based on the comments I heard throughout the week, this isn't what causes the overcrowding. It's more a case of supply and demand at the busiest times. Before this we were on the Disney Fantasy which had a similar number of passengers, but three banks of elevators at forward/mid/aft and didn't have the same waits at busy times.

In a perfect world everyone would stand in line in the order they arrived and take the next elevator that arrives in perfect harmony. Sadly, at the few extremely busy times, that isn't the case. We were travelling with someone who has mobility issues and hard time standing for long periods, so the constant flow of full elevators was a challenge. To be honest, I thought the folks who got on the elevators to transfer between one floor seemed inconsiderate but at the same time, they might have their own issues with the stairs, who am I to judge? In the end, this is only an issue at a few key times as I mentioned, otherwise the elevators were generally fine.

This is EXACTLY what causes elevators to be overcrowded. You are basically telling anyone on a floor above you who is trying to go up "screw you, my desire to go down is more important than yours to go up". Does it work, yes. It is extremely inconsiderate and rude, absolutely.

The elevators get overcrowded because at certain times there are more people wanting elevators than there is elevator capacity. The very few people who do this trick make no difference whatsoever.

Thank you for your review! We will be on the Escape next week so your review was very helpful about Falmouth and Grand Cayman. Interesting about Nassau. I wonder why you just didn't have an extra sea day with GSC being closed.

 

Question, did you notice if the casino remained closed when you went to Nassau early? Or did they manage to have it open 'regular hours' which would have been right after sail-away from GSC?

Oh also - no idea why they choose to go right to Nassau. Our room attendant had been on for a few months and said it was a first for him. They also credited us each $6 which we assumed was due to the change but was never clarified.

Oh also - no idea why they choose to go right to Nassau. Our room attendant had been on for a few months and said it was a first for him. They also credited us each $6 which we assumed was due to the change but was never clarified.

That is odd they went to Nassau right away. I see from someone else on your sailing they mentioned that and I commented. Usually they circle slowly to Nassau and arrive at 6 p.m.

That is odd they went to Nassau right away. I see from someone else on your sailing they mentioned that and I commented. Usually they circle slowly to Nassau and arrive at 6 p.m.

Yeah, I had just come in from our balcony, watching the waves crashing, to say that I think we're bypassing when they announced it. Funny thing was there was another cruise ship hanging around off GSC. Not sure what it was but we passed them and left them behind on our way to Nassau. Pulled in around 1PM.

On the airport bus in Miami some folks from the Carnival Glory told us they only got into Falmouth, missed Grand Cayman and spent a few very rough days at sea.

We were on this sailing as well, casino was open on that day we were supposed to be at GSC, it also remained opened the next day in Nassau which I found interesting. My dad enjoyed that and entered a few poker and blackjack tournaments and won.

This was our first NCL experience, and there are certain pros to it (food was better than previous cruises), I think overall I preferred sailing on RCL Harmony, Oasis and Allure in terms of megaships.

The escape felt extremely crowded at times. Especially the pool deck areas. If they somehow could squeeze one more pool in there (perhaps on sundeck), it would be a bit better I think. Adults general pool was super super crowded on the nice sea day we had. The shopping deck was also very very crowded at night, and as pp mentioned the elevator situation was rough. We landed up taking the stairs alot with our toddler to avoid waiting meltdowns, which was tricky. Not so great for my dad who has mobility issues, once took 45min to get on a elevator. Not sure how they could fix that, maybe even one or two elevators somewhere midship might help as pp mentioned.

Customer service standpoint, there were some really nice staff on board, and then there was some that were nearing the end of their contract and were pretty grumpy. One bartender at the deck 17 bar had some chip on his shoulder, arguing with people on whether they asked for soda or sprite in their vodka soda for a few min. Buddy, let it go. lol. The female cruise director was pleasant, but a little dull personality wise, she seemed too rehearsed like a television anchor. The male assistant cruise director had much more natural energy, initially I thought he was the CD.

We were on this sailing as well, casino was open on that day we were supposed to be at GSC, it also remained opened the next day in Nassau which I found interesting. My dad enjoyed that and entered a few poker and blackjack tournaments and won.

 

This was our first NCL experience, and there are certain pros to it (food was better than previous cruises), I think overall I preferred sailing on RCL Harmony, Oasis and Allure in terms of megaships.

 

The escape felt extremely crowded at times. Especially the pool deck areas. If they somehow could squeeze one more pool in there (perhaps on sundeck), it would be a bit better I think. Adults general pool was super super crowded on the nice sea day we had. The shopping deck was also very very crowded at night, and as pp mentioned the elevator situation was rough. We landed up taking the stairs alot with our toddler to avoid waiting meltdowns, which was tricky. Not so great for my dad who has mobility issues, once took 45min to get on a elevator. Not sure how they could fix that, maybe even one or two elevators somewhere midship might help as pp mentioned.

 

Customer service standpoint, there were some really nice staff on board, and then there was some that were nearing the end of their contract and were pretty grumpy. One bartender at the deck 17 bar had some chip on his shoulder, arguing with people on whether they asked for soda or sprite in their vodka soda for a few min. Buddy, let it go. lol. The female cruise director was pleasant, but a little dull personality wise, she seemed too rehearsed like a television anchor. The male assistant cruise director had much more natural energy, initially I thought he was the CD.

From reading the other post, it appears Tyler left as CD and they brought Julie on as CD.

Thanks to all on here for all the great info you post!

 

 

The Escape also feels like it should have had a set of mid elevators. Only having forward and aft elevators means a lot of waiting at key times. We heard very few complaints, but this one was common. We figured out two elevator tricks early on: 1) There are four sets of buttons at each elevator bank, but they aren't all linked together! Pressing a button on one side only does the set you pressed and the one directly behind you...walk over and hit the other ones too. 2) At certain times (post sail-away party, tendering, disembarkation), the elevators are jammed trying to get to lower decks. Your best bet is to jump on an elevator going up and ride it full circle to get down.

 

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

1) The reason the elevators are not linked is that on the Escape elevators are separated to go to different floors. At the top of each elevator, it says 4-16 or 4-17, or 6-19 (yes one of the forward elevator goes to 19). If you press all the buttons then all the elevators stop on that floor even after you've gotten on and are gone. Pressing all buttons defeats the purpose of having elevators designed to be more efficient. It would work better if people picked one side and waited a few minutes.

2) We opted to go down the steps and leave the elevators for disabled guests instead of riding up to get down at busy times. This saved us time too.

Thanks to all on here for all the great info you post!

 

Wifi - Purchased the 250 minute for $125 package to be able to check in at work. Tried before buying it to see if iMessage would work on our iPhones as some had mentioned, but it did not. Discovered by accident that after buying the wifi package, logging each of our devices into the paid wifi, then logging back out, iMessage would work and continue to work. We could message each other and those off the ship. Could not send images by iMessage or it would bog down and stop working for that conversation. Great discovery.

 

All in all, a great trip and a super ship. Lots of fun, would certainly consider doing it again.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Did not know this - thank you for the info - will definitely try it next time!

Thanks to all on here for all the great info you post!

 

Here's my tiny review with things we learned added in.

 

Jan 13 - Western From Miami

 

Sea/Falmouth/Grand Cayman/Sea/Great Stirrup Cay (cancelled, continued to Nassau to stay overnight), Nassau

 

Port Notes:

 

We didn't book any excursions in advance, planning for beach days if weather allowed. It didn't really allow.

 

Falmouth - Wandered the port shops, read the historical signs, looked at the scene outside the security gates and based mostly on our young kids, decided to go back to the ship for lunch and played on board for the afternoon.

 

Grand Cayman - Walked the streets a bit and then eventually managed to hire a taxi for a private tour. 5 ships in port = taxi/bus chaos when getting off the tenders. Very confusing and frustrating to deal with. Everyone wants to get you on a bus for $20 per person to hit the highlights. Ended up paying $96US per hour for a private taxi to take us where we wanted. Was really nice - stopped in Hell, bypassed the Turtle Farm and instead took a tour of the nicest homes/yacht clubs on the Island. Dropped us off at the back entrance of the Westin. Ate lunch at their outdoor restaurant, was a beautiful location and great food. They would not rent us towels for the beach, for hotel guests only. Took a cab from there to Camana Bay ($20US for 5 people) which was awesome - nice shops to wander around, kids played in a big splash fountain. Cab back to the tenders was another $20US. Be wary, traffic really backed up bad with so many people trying to get back to the tenders for various ships at the same time. Got in a long line for our tender and were happily surprised to find NCL staff walking the line with water, cold wash cloths and little cups of jello for the kids. Fantastic! Favourite port, would go back for sure.

 

Great Stirrup Cay - Harbour stayed closed so we bypassed and went to Nassau a day early and stayed overnight.

 

Nassau - First afternoon we wandered the area around the ship, checked out the straw market (left pretty quickly), went to see the Colonial Hilton in case we wanted to beach there the next day. Weather didn't support paying $79 per adult (with $40 food credit) plus $40 for the kids with $20 food credit. Other option was to book a Day Room for $249 with no food credit. Day 2 in Nassau we stayed on board and had a great time when the sun came out and most passengers were off the ship. Did the water slides too many times to count with no wait.

 

Ship Notes:

 

Ship was in beautiful condition and really well maintained. Very very clean. Staff ranged from pleasant but doing their job to over the top nice and helpful. Mother in Law was travelling with us but in a separate cabin by herself. Learned by chance on day 3 that her room attendant had been calling her each night around 9PM to check in that she was ok and didn't need anything. She though we were getting the same calls! Her room attendant also gifted her a bottle of champagne. Very impressed.

 

Before the cruise I didn't really understand how divided the ship feels. You spend most of your time going to Decks 6/7/8 or up to 16/17. We were in a very forward cabin which meant we spent most of our time moving down and mid/aft for food/drinks/activities. We rarely went forward except for the big theatre (twice). I don't feel you necessarily need to pay for mid, but next time i would likely go for an Aft cabin.

 

The Escape also feels like it should have had a set of mid elevators. Only having forward and aft elevators means a lot of waiting at key times. We heard very few complaints, but this one was common. We figured out two elevator tricks early on: 1) There are four sets of buttons at each elevator bank, but they aren't all linked together! Pressing a button on one side only does the set you pressed and the one directly behind you...walk over and hit the other ones too. 2) At certain times (post sail-away party, tendering, disembarkation), the elevators are jammed trying to get to lower decks. Your best bet is to jump on an elevator going up and ride it full circle to get down.

 

Drink Package - we had the drink package as a free bonus for the two adults in our room and therefore were not forced to buy a soda package for the 5 and 7 year old. Everything stated on here before stands - the drink package is great to have, but in no way would we have justified paying for it. Also - in our experience, this is how bartenders throughout the ship, including the dining rooms, handled what we termed the card for drink ratio. Scenario 1 - Order two alcoholic beverages - bartender asks for one room key. Scenario 2 - Order three alcoholic beverages - bartender asks for two rooms keys. Scenario 3 - Order two alcoholic beverages and one soda - bartender asks for two room keys. As mentioned earlier, Mother In Law travelling in separate cabin with us had no drink package and intended to pay out of pocket. When on her own, sometimes she would be charged for a soda, other times (O'Sheehans for example) it would be comped. O'Sheehans waiter told us on the first day that her soda was on him, but not to necessarily expect that everywhere. In practice, we could use our two cards at any time to order drinks for ourselves and her, either alcoholic or not.

 

Wifi - Purchased the 250 minute for $125 package to be able to check in at work. Tried before buying it to see if iMessage would work on our iPhones as some had mentioned, but it did not. Discovered by accident that after buying the wifi package, logging each of our devices into the paid wifi, then logging back out, iMessage would work and continue to work. We could message each other and those off the ship. Could not send images by iMessage or it would bog down and stop working for that conversation. Great discovery.

 

All in all, a great trip and a super ship. Lots of fun, would certainly consider doing it again.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Hi..great info. We're sailing on the Escape Marchh 3. What was yourr favorite show?

Hi..great info. We're sailing on the Escape Marchh 3. What was yourr favorite show?

Hey!

We (including our 7 and 5 year old) really enjoyed After Midnight. We weren't sure going in, but our kids really like anything involving live music and the amazing dancing kept their attention for sure. We also went to the show on the last night that featured the life of one of the main performers from After Midnight. We basically stumbled on this show after hearing a performer from another show mention at one of the Q and A's that they had gone to it every week for 9 weeks and thought it was the best thing on the ship. It was very entertaining as well and we didn't realize it was like the end of trip show, with a big video montage at the start etc etc.

The other show we all really enjoyed was the dueling piano's show. We went one night when they played from 8:30 to 12:30 (!) at the comedy club. Kids were allowed in until 11PM. We stayed way longer than we expected, watching three different performers take request after request. It was a lot of fun and was standing room only all night long.

Thanks for the information. Im coordinating our cruise for 28 people. I'll pass your note along to them!!

Great information about your Grand Cayman stop. Very unusual indeed to proceed ahead with going to Nassau.

Also curious about what cabin you booked originally and what you received.