December 16th Escape Quick Review

Crystal caves:

 

The famous shoe tree:

 

Photo of the ships in port that day:

 

Photo I took while on tender back to the ship at GSC:

 

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Love your honesty in this review ... you tell it like it is.

Question - when and how do you book your tender time?

 

 

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Love your honesty in this review ... you tell it like it is.

Question - when and how do you book your tender time?

 

 

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You can book tender times from either your Stateroom TV or any of the electronic boards near the elevators. If I recall correctly, I was able to book it 2 days before arriving at the port.

 

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Loving your review! We were on the same sailing and I wondered about the lights on the balcony as well. We also couldn't get reservations at certain restaurants and just walked up to LaCucina one night and were accommodated immediately. Agreed with you about the saltiness of certain items at Moderna but we enjoyed ourselves there.

Did they use the ships life boats for tendering or were the tenders from the island?

Did they use the ships life boats for tendering or were the tenders from the island?

QuoteOn our sailing, they used tenders from the islands, big boats.

Regarding the tendering to Great Stirrup Cay. I was on the same cruise the following week (12/23) and they were definitely doing something different. I tried to book a tender reservation on the in-room TV, but all the times said 12:00 AM. We knew we wanted breakfast before we got off, so I didn't book anything. The next morning we got up at about 8:00 and went for breakfast. At about 8:30, they announced that they were starting to board Group 1. We walked out of Savor and just got into the crowd going down the stairs. They didn't stage anyone in the Theater. We walked down to Deck 4 and there was a line but it was moving at a pretty good clip. We went through security and they scanned our cards and, to our surprise, said have a nice day! We proceed to board one of two large tender boats and we were on the island by 9:15. Nothing was open yet, but we claimed our clam shells and settle in for a nice day on the beach. By 2:00 we had enough and meandered back to the tender dock, where we got on a waiting tender and we were back on the ship by 2:45 and in the Thermal Spa by 3:00. Guess we just got lucky!

Regarding the tendering to Great Stirrup Cay. I was on the same cruise the following week (12/23) and they were definitely doing something different. I tried to book a tender reservation on the in-room TV, but all the times said 12:00 AM. We knew we wanted breakfast before we got off, so I didn't book anything. The next morning we got up at about 8:00 and went for breakfast. At about 8:30, they announced that they were starting to board Group 1. We walked out of Savor and just got into the crowd going down the stairs. They didn't stage anyone in the Theater. We walked down to Deck 4 and there was a line but it was moving at a pretty good clip. We went through security and they scanned our cards and, to our surprise, said have a nice day! We proceed to board one of two large tender boats and we were on the island by 9:15. Nothing was open yet, but we claimed our clam shells and settle in for a nice day on the beach. By 2:00 we had enough and meandered back to the tender dock, where we got on a waiting tender and we were back on the ship by 2:45 and in the Thermal Spa by 3:00. Guess we just got lucky!

 

Just curious...were there any other ships sharing the island with you? The Sky was also at GSC during the week of 12/16/17 - hence the slow tendering process.

Just curious...were there any other ships sharing the island with you? The Sky was also at GSC during the week of 12/16/17 - hence the slow tendering process.

 

No other ships for us. That island must have been packed if two ships were using it.

Did they use the ships life boats for tendering or were the tenders from the island?

 

The tenders were from the island. I was wondering why we couldn't use the lifeboats like how some other ship (ie. MSC Divina) was.

I loved this review and your pictures are great! It’s nice to read an honest review without it being overly dramatic.

Danny6514,

Thanks for a great review! We will be going on the Escape for the first time in March with my two boys. We haven't sailed with NCL in about ten years so many things are new to us that I'm reading about. The Crystal Caves tour sounds really interesting. Did you book that through NCL ? Or with a tour guide who you found once you docked? Also, did you find that there was a lot of walking involved doing the Discover Atlantis tour? My nephew is coming also and he has mobility and heat intolerant issues.

Thanks for your help!

Thank you for the great review! Can't wait to be back on the Escape in a couple of weeks!

Danny6514,

Thanks for a great review! We will be going on the Escape for the first time in March with my two boys. We haven't sailed with NCL in about ten years so many things are new to us that I'm reading about. The Crystal Caves tour sounds really interesting. Did you book that through NCL ? Or with a tour guide who you found once you docked? Also, did you find that there was a lot of walking involved doing the Discover Atlantis tour? My nephew is coming also and he has mobility and heat intolerant issues.

Thanks for your help!

 

NCL didn't offer the crystal cave tour so we booked online with Majestic Tours (http://www.majestictours.ky/tours). At Atlantis, the whole tour was walking, but mostly within the resort. There were some stairs here and there, but nothing overly tiring.