(Also) Just Back from the Escape--January 6

Well, home to 23 degree Northern Virginia. We just returned from an overall very nice trip on the Escape. As always with these reviews, Your Mileage May Vary, etc. etc. This was our second cruise, after being on the Jewel in late 2014. We are generally "go to Grand Cayman for a week"-type Caribbean travelers, or spend a couple of weeks in one or two European countries. But our college-age kids had breaks that made this a convenient trip for all of us. My wife and I are in our mid-50s. For this trip we had a mini-suite with large balcony (M6 class/Cabin 8722) and each kid had a single cabin with small balcony. (We had done the aft large suites on the Jewel but everyone wanted to spread out a bit more this time and we decided we didn't need the extra space plus the Haven was already sold out.) So, here are our thoughts and experiences:

• We flew down to Miami a couple of days early to jump start our relaxation. Good call: it was 15 degrees and snowing when we left Dulles, so "chilly" Miami seemed pretty darn good. We stayed at a nice hotel in South Beach; ate at Joe's and Prime Italian, saw the sights and had a very nice time. Vizcaya and the Lowe Art Museum were favorites. Uber worked flawlessly, including getting us all to the terminal. (Our family joke is that the Army invaded France in 1944 with less luggage than we take on vacation.)
  
• Boarding was a breeze. We got to the terminal about 10:15; the lines were short; we were in boarding group 1, and were on the ship by 11:15.
  
• Our cabin was very nice. Bathroom had two sinks and a great stall shower with multiple shower heads; hot water was instant. Bed was very comfortable; closet space was just fine, and drawer/cubby space also fine. Suitcases fit under the bed. Decent sofa and a sort of vanity, which my wife found to be a good touch. Balcony was great; 2 chairs and a table plus 2 lounge chairs and a small table between them. USB charging ports on both sides of the bed as part of the light fixtures. No electrical sockets near the beds; at another poster's advice I brought an extension cord for my CPAP, which turned out to be a good move. Otherwise, room felt a little tight, but no problem.
  
• Cabin steward was great. Made up the room promptly; always left plenty of towels during the day; could not have been nicer. I don't know that a modest tip on the first day didn't have something to do with it, but in any event service was great.
  
• We are not sit-by-the-pool people, which was a good thing, because the pools looked like zoos. (More a comment on the size of the crowds than the people.) My major (and only modest) dislike was the sheer size of the ship and the feeling, in some places, of being crowded. I knew going in the size of the ship and the number of passengers, and by the time was reserved the Haven was sold out, so no fault of NCL, but...wow. We saw a lot of lines, but luckily not for what we were doing, most of the time.
  
• We did specialty dining every night. In general, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, especially compare to what I remember of the Jewel. Bayamo was our favorite; we ended up there three times. (There is a small surcharge on top of the dining package.) It was the only restaurant on the ship I would pay to eat at on shore. Le Bistro was tasty, but felt like someone's idea of a French restaurant who had only seen French restaurants on TV. Cagney's tried hard; the side dishes and the apps were closer to a "real" steakhouse than the steaks, which were limited, I think, by the need to freeze enough beef for a week. Our kids like the Japanese restaurant; La Cucina was Ok. Moderno was also OK but not close to a Fogo de Chao or similar concept on shore. We all generally ate breakfast at different times. I found the Garden Cafe uncrowded early (630-700 or so) and with both a good range of choices and pretty good breakfast food, particularly if you like diner-type breakfasts. I was told it got extremely crowded (like, nowhere to sit-crowded) later in the day. My wife and kids did room service breakfasts a couple of times and were disappointed at the portion size and temperature.
  
• We all had the drink package. Good points: almost all cocktails, and most top shelf brands, fell under the $15 allowance. To go a step up was a very minor cost, if you wanted something else. Cocktail lists were a good mix of classics and "trying a little too hard to be clever," but the bartenders would make anything you wanted. Martinis (Gin!!), Negronis, and Bloody Mary's were very good. Also good: you could get 2 drinks at a time, so someone (me) could go to a bar and get one for myself and one for my wife. And the wines by the glass under $15 were also...decent. Bad point: Either the bars were understaffed most of the time, or NCL was trying to slow down the "free" drinks they were pouring, but drink service was very slow. Not always, but before and during dinner especially. If you ordered a drink upon sitting down for dinner, it often didn't arrive until you were in the middle of your appetizer, even if the restaurant was not very crowded. What we ended up doing was ordering a drink and waiting until it arrived before ordering our food, and then each ordering two glasses of wine at the time we ordered the food, just to ensure some even pacing. A minor inconvenience.
  
• Entertainment was mostly very to pretty good. The Supper Club at a good Broadway singer (Tony award nominee); the After Midnight Cotton Club show as outstanding; the live music in the bars was good. The comics...not so much. But we had fun.
  
• We booked our own shore excursions, rather than use NCL. That resulted in very small groups; talking to people who used the NCL excursions, we felt pretty good about that choice; I was told some of the NCL groups were huge. We were part of a small Duns River Falls trip, which was a lot of fun, and our guide took us to a very off-the-beaten path place for lunch. (I am sure she got something back from the jerk shack, which was no problem for me; it clearly was not a tourist place.) On Nassau we went to the Marley Beach Resort for the day; small beachfront hotel and bar/restaurant. There only 2 others from the ship there, and maybe 15 guests in total. It was a wonderful time. On Grand Cayman the kids and I went for a two tank dive with Lobster Pot dive center, which we had used before on the island. Great diving.
  
• We rented a small cabana on GSC, which was (for us) a good idea. Any GSC excursion rental gets you an early tender, which was important. The cabana was nice, and the island was fun. One negative was that another NCL ship was there at the same time, which cut down on the tendering speed and made the island more crowded. But overall a good time. (It was raining hard as we were tendering in, and we considered just going back to the ship. I am glad we stayed; the weather improved quickly and it turned out to be a nice day.)
  
• We all got Thermal Spa passes. Great choice; it was a quiet, peaceful place on the ship. Well worth it. The heated and regular loungers facing the sea, and the whirlpools and saunas were great.
  
• We all had various spa treatments (massages and my wife and daughter had facials). Good spa; prices comparable with spas ashore and quality of personnel high.
  
• Gym was good, especially when I started ignoring the rule (my bad) about not using the spin bikes except in a class. Since there was only one class a day, the other 23 hours the bikes just sat there. No one ever said anything, so I didn't feel too badly about rule-breaking.
  
• Pet peeve: I like a cigar now and then, and almost every cigar bar I have been in does not allow cigarette smoking. (No value judgement; the two smoke sources just don't go together). The Escape's cigar room allowed all smoking, which I felt really took away from the experience. Not sure if it was just a rule not enforced (yes, I see the irony after my spin bike rule-breaking), but I felt it was a negative.
  
• The ship had a good wine bar; I was surpised it was hardly ever crowed. Very good selection under the $15 allowance, and great pricing on bottles over the allowance, if you wanted to go outside the drink package.
  
• The photo purchases were smooth and the quality high.
  
• Favorite bars: Mixx; District Brewhouse (because of the live music); the nice bar between Cagney's and Moderno, and the wine bar.
  
• Getting off the ship was a breeze. We killed a little time in Miami and then easy Southwest flight home.
  

If we cruise again, I don't think it would be on as large a ship, and if we didn't have the kids with us, I think we would either do the Haven, or maybe try Windstar or one of the next-step up lines. But it was a great week, and we all had a very nice time.

Thank you for your review.

Very much enjoyed your review. Did you spend much time on your large balcony? Would the M6 (Mini w/large) have fit 3 or 4 loungers with room to walk around? We have been in the B6s just above those. Our B6 balcony was 70 sq feet which was great for the two of us but we were envious of those large M6 balconies below.

We plan to eat twice at Bayamo on our cruise later this month, so nice to hear you enjoyed it so much.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

Thanks for sharing your experience. We also prefer private shore excursions for less crowd.

Appreciated your review! We love all the specialty restaurants including Bayamo. The Hotel director — Mr. Deepak — is outstanding. From Another cold person in Virginia - Ha.

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Where in NOVA are you?

We just moved to Leesburg last year after living in Vienna for many years. How about you?

Very much enjoyed your review. Did you spend much time on your large balcony? Would the M6 (Mini w/large) have fit 3 or 4 loungers with room to walk around? We have been in the B6s just above those. Our B6 balcony was 70 sq feet which was great for the two of us but we were envious of those large M6 balconies below.

 

We plan to eat twice at Bayamo on our cruise later this month, so nice to hear you enjoyed it so much.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

The weather was pretty variable, so we probably didn't spend as much time as we would have otherwise. We were out there a fair amount--it was very nice. I think more than two loungers side by side would have been tight; the balcony was more a rectangle than a square. But in our opinion worth it.

I never understood why Bayamo was not busier. We never saw more than three or four tables occupied. We felt it was hands down the best restaurant on the ship. BTW: It is a four course meal, and between the "modern asian" theme and the portion size, two appetizers plus a main plus desert does not feel like overeating (and we are not large eaters). The cocktail list is creative without being crazy, as well. Bayamo is near the mojito bar, which can get noisy towards the end of happy hour, so if you eat before 7 or 7:30, try to get a table near the windows or in one of the quieter nooks. Also, they have a few tables for 2 outside, which is very nice, weather permitting.

Thanks for the review!!! We are actually fans of the megaships and have sailed on the Escape 3 times (total of 16 NCL megaship cruises so far).

Thanks for your comments!

Appreciate the feedback.

The weather was pretty variable, so we probably didn't spend as much time as we would have otherwise. We were out there a fair amount--it was very nice. I think more than two loungers side by side would have been tight; the balcony was more a rectangle than a square. But in our opinion worth it.

I never understood why Bayamo was not busier. We never saw more than three or four tables occupied. We felt it was hands down the best restaurant on the ship. BTW: It is a four course meal, and between the "modern asian" theme and the portion size, two appetizers plus a main plus desert does not feel like overeating (and we are not large eaters). The cocktail list is creative without being crazy, as well. Bayamo is near the mojito bar, which can get noisy towards the end of happy hour, so if you eat before 7 or 7:30, try to get a table near the windows or in one of the quieter nooks. Also, they have a few tables for 2 outside, which is very nice, weather permitting.

We were also on this cruise and ate at Bayamo the first night - the food was very good, worth the upcharge however, we felt that the location was undesirable. For an elegant restaurant with an upcharge, it should be not be in such an open area with a very popular bar as part of the restaurant. It ruined the ambiance a there was a very happy, boisterous group at the bar while we were having dinner at 7:30 pm.

Well, home to 23 degree Northern Virginia. We just returned from an overall very nice trip on the Escape. As always with these reviews, Your Mileage May Vary, etc. etc. This was our second cruise, after being on the Jewel in late 2014. We are generally "go to Grand Cayman for a week"-type Caribbean travelers, or spend a couple of weeks in one or two European countries. But our college-age kids had breaks that made this a convenient trip for all of us. My wife and I are in our mid-50s. For this trip we had a mini-suite with large balcony (M6 class/Cabin 8722) and each kid had a single cabin with small balcony. (We had done the aft large suites on the Jewel but everyone wanted to spread out a bit more this time and we decided we didn't need the extra space plus the Haven was already sold out.) So, here are our thoughts and experiences:

 

• 
   
  
• We flew down to Miami a couple of days early to jump start our relaxation. Good call: it was 15 degrees and snowing when we left Dulles, so "chilly" Miami seemed pretty darn good. We stayed at a nice hotel in South Beach; ate at Joe's and Prime Italian, saw the sights and had a very nice time. Vizcaya and the Lowe Art Museum were favorites. Uber worked flawlessly, including getting us all to the terminal. (Our family joke is that the Army invaded France in 1944 with less luggage than we take on vacation.)
   
  
• Boarding was a breeze. We got to the terminal about 10:15; the lines were short; we were in boarding group 1, and were on the ship by 11:15.
   
  
• Our cabin was very nice. Bathroom had two sinks and a great stall shower with multiple shower heads; hot water was instant. Bed was very comfortable; closet space was just fine, and drawer/cubby space also fine. Suitcases fit under the bed. Decent sofa and a sort of vanity, which my wife found to be a good touch. Balcony was great; 2 chairs and a table plus 2 lounge chairs and a small table between them. USB charging ports on both sides of the bed as part of the light fixtures. No electrical sockets near the beds; at another poster's advice I brought an extension cord for my CPAP, which turned out to be a good move. Otherwise, room felt a little tight, but no problem.
   
  
• Cabin steward was great. Made up the room promptly; always left plenty of towels during the day; could not have been nicer. I don't know that a modest tip on the first day didn't have something to do with it, but in any event service was great.
   
  
• We are not sit-by-the-pool people, which was a good thing, because the pools looked like zoos. (More a comment on the size of the crowds than the people.) My major (and only modest) dislike was the sheer size of the ship and the feeling, in some places, of being crowded. I knew going in the size of the ship and the number of passengers, and by the time was reserved the Haven was sold out, so no fault of NCL, but...wow. We saw a lot of lines, but luckily not for what we were doing, most of the time.
   
  
• We did specialty dining every night. In general, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, especially compare to what I remember of the Jewel. Bayamo was our favorite; we ended up there three times. (There is a small surcharge on top of the dining package.) It was the only restaurant on the ship I would pay to eat at on shore. Le Bistro was tasty, but felt like someone's idea of a French restaurant who had only seen French restaurants on TV. Cagney's tried hard; the side dishes and the apps were closer to a "real" steakhouse than the steaks, which were limited, I think, by the need to freeze enough beef for a week. Our kids like the Japanese restaurant; La Cucina was Ok. Moderno was also OK but not close to a Fogo de Chao or similar concept on shore. We all generally ate breakfast at different times. I found the Garden Cafe uncrowded early (630-700 or so) and with both a good range of choices and pretty good breakfast food, particularly if you like diner-type breakfasts. I was told it got extremely crowded (like, nowhere to sit-crowded) later in the day. My wife and kids did room service breakfasts a couple of times and were disappointed at the portion size and temperature.
   
  
• We all had the drink package. Good points: almost all cocktails, and most top shelf brands, fell under the $15 allowance. To go a step up was a very minor cost, if you wanted something else. Cocktail lists were a good mix of classics and "trying a little too hard to be clever," but the bartenders would make anything you wanted. Martinis (Gin!!), Negronis, and Bloody Mary's were very good. Also good: you could get 2 drinks at a time, so someone (me) could go to a bar and get one for myself and one for my wife. And the wines by the glass under $15 were also...decent. Bad point: Either the bars were understaffed most of the time, or NCL was trying to slow down the "free" drinks they were pouring, but drink service was very slow. Not always, but before and during dinner especially. If you ordered a drink upon sitting down for dinner, it often didn't arrive until you were in the middle of your appetizer, even if the restaurant was not very crowded. What we ended up doing was ordering a drink and waiting until it arrived before ordering our food, and then each ordering two glasses of wine at the time we ordered the food, just to ensure some even pacing. A minor inconvenience.
   
  
• Entertainment was mostly very to pretty good. The Supper Club at a good Broadway singer (Tony award nominee); the After Midnight Cotton Club show as outstanding; the live music in the bars was good. The comics...not so much. But we had fun.
   
  
• We booked our own shore excursions, rather than use NCL. That resulted in very small groups; talking to people who used the NCL excursions, we felt pretty good about that choice; I was told some of the NCL groups were huge. We were part of a small Duns River Falls trip, which was a lot of fun, and our guide took us to a very off-the-beaten path place for lunch. (I am sure she got something back from the jerk shack, which was no problem for me; it clearly was not a tourist place.) On Nassau we went to the Marley Beach Resort for the day; small beachfront hotel and bar/restaurant. There only 2 others from the ship there, and maybe 15 guests in total. It was a wonderful time. On Grand Cayman the kids and I went for a two tank dive with Lobster Pot dive center, which we had used before on the island. Great diving.
   
  
• We rented a small cabana on GSC, which was (for us) a good idea. Any GSC excursion rental gets you an early tender, which was important. The cabana was nice, and the island was fun. One negative was that another NCL ship was there at the same time, which cut down on the tendering speed and made the island more crowded. But overall a good time. (It was raining hard as we were tendering in, and we considered just going back to the ship. I am glad we stayed; the weather improved quickly and it turned out to be a nice day.)
   
  
• We all got Thermal Spa passes. Great choice; it was a quiet, peaceful place on the ship. Well worth it. The heated and regular loungers facing the sea, and the whirlpools and saunas were great.
   
  
• We all had various spa treatments (massages and my wife and daughter had facials). Good spa; prices comparable with spas ashore and quality of personnel high.
   
  
• Gym was good, especially when I started ignoring the rule (my bad) about not using the spin bikes except in a class. Since there was only one class a day, the other 23 hours the bikes just sat there. No one ever said anything, so I didn't feel too badly about rule-breaking.
   
  
• Pet peeve: I like a cigar now and then, and almost every cigar bar I have been in does not allow cigarette smoking. (No value judgement; the two smoke sources just don't go together). The Escape's cigar room allowed all smoking, which I felt really took away from the experience. Not sure if it was just a rule not enforced (yes, I see the irony after my spin bike rule-breaking), but I felt it was a negative.
   
  
• The ship had a good wine bar; I was surpised it was hardly ever crowed. Very good selection under the $15 allowance, and great pricing on bottles over the allowance, if you wanted to go outside the drink package.
   
  
• The photo purchases were smooth and the quality high.
   
  
• Favorite bars: Mixx; District Brewhouse (because of the live music); the nice bar between Cagney's and Moderno, and the wine bar.
   
  
• Getting off the ship was a breeze. We killed a little time in Miami and then easy Southwest flight home.
   
  

If we cruise again, I don't think it would be on as large a ship, and if we didn't have the kids with us, I think we would either do the Haven, or maybe try Windstar or one of the next-step up lines. But it was a great week, and we all had a very nice time.

We were in the exact room the cruise before yours - was my CAA card still in the light switch [emoji1]

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Great review---seems like you guys really lived it up and enjoyed a lot of the optional stuff. I prefer to do the same, but wife reigns things in slightly, except in the shopping category.

Also was way less than impressed by the steaks. Sides were small but good. Loved the baked potato soup.

I know a lot of people are annoyed by the nickel and dime charging by NCL, but another way to look at it is they have low base pricing and you can add a lot of exactly what you like while still keeping the price reasonable compared to other vacations---ESPECIALLY for a family.

Also agree the drink package is a solid value (at least when only paying the tip!), but the slow service is really a drawback. My friends and I like to "throw em back" at a pretty good pace, and the slow drink service really deters us from cruising.

Thanks for the report!

We were in the exact room the cruise before yours - was my CAA card still in the light switch [emoji1]

 

 

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Not only was your CAA card still in the light switch, but it was still tied to a credit card. I was surprised it worked all trip, and the daily bottles of Dom and multiple spa treatments for my wife never showed up on our own credit cards! :D