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Escape 4/2 - 4/9: Solo Edition!

EleventyBangBang

By EleventyBangBang,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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EleventyBangBang

EleventyBangBang

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Just came back from my first cruise ever. I stayed in a solo studio cabin. I had the UBP as a perk, and purchased a four-credit UDP. I had an amazing time (thanks in no small part to the reading I've done here on Cruise Critic prior to the trip! :cool: ) So, with those caveats in mind:

 

Embarkation/Day 1:

 

I showed up before 9 AM, gunning for a Vibe pass. It was a bit of a chaotic scene and I wasn't really sure where to go. (In hindsight, I now realize that these people were all just getting off the ship from the prior week, and I was one of the few people just arriving.) I asked around and eventually found a porter to give my bag and case of water to. He asks me, "So do you have a donation for the bag man?" His ominous tone implied that my bag would be handled by some sort of Mafia-esque organization and that bad things would happen to it if I did not provide an adequate tribute, see? I gave him four dollars.

 

At about 9:30 they let us in to Terminal C. I was near the front of the line. I checked in, got my card, and went upstairs to the holding area. There were probably only about half a dozen people up there. I think to myself, this is great! Surely I'm guaranteed a Group 2 number when they start handing them out! Right? ...which is... when, by the way?

 

Some time passes and more people trickle in. I get up and use the restroom, and when I come back, I see someone holding a Group 4 card. :eek: Somehow I managed to walk right past the guy handing out group cards at the stairs. I beg the guy to let me in with Group 2. He says that if I take care of him, he can get me in. Group 2 starts lining up, and he nods at me from across the room like a scene out of a spy thriller. I get in line, give him a 20, and it's off to the races!

 

I'm walking as fast as I can up the gangway, pushing past people as politely as such a thing can be done under the circumstances. I see a couple ahead of me doing the same thing. We finally reach a bottleneck. I say, "We're all going for Vibe passes, aren't we?" The girl says, half-jokingly (but half not) "Yep, and I will cut you if you get in front of me!"

 

We get down the stairs on the way to Guest Services. I say that I heard we're supposed to go to Headliners. They aren't sure about that (I think they might have suspected I was trying to intentionally mislead them or something.) As we approach the Atrium area, we see another group of about a dozen people break from the Guest Services desk and run to Headliners like a school of frightened fish. "Follow them!" We get in line at Headliners, and I am issued my number: 45. Success! :D I didn't get to see how many people were in line behind me as the line went out the door and around the corner. I just assume the rest of the numbers were handed out.

 

I then go stand in line to make comedy show reservations, as I had read beforehand that this was a good idea. As it turns out however, this was unnecessary in my case, as I'll explain below.

 

Remembering the advice from here about avoiding the buffet on the first day, I head up to Margaritaville for my first lunch on board. It was pretty much deserted. The fish and chips were very tasty.

 

At this point, I should mention that I've recently lost a substantial amount of weight. I've been eating low carb at a caloric deficit for the last six months, lots of bland chicken, broccoli, etc. and this cruise marked the end of that phase in my fitness journey. So, I guess what I'm getting at here is that, following that process, pretty much every single meal I had aboard this cruise seemed like it was the best f'ing thing I've ever eaten in my entire life. I'm definitely not a foodie snob. I'm easy to please, as far as food goes, I guess, would be the takeaway point from all of this.

 

After some exploring, it was time for the muster. It was a muster, whaddyagonnado. I couldn't help but think that in the event of an actual emergency, their muster plan probably wouldn't work very well. After the muster, I went up to the Vibe for sail away, and met Robert and Rommel. (Hope I spelled those right.) Great guys, best bartenders on the ship, no question.

 

At 6 pm, it was time for the nightly solo meet 'n greet. (henceforth referred to as the "Support Group".) This is not only for everyone in a studio, but for anyone else traveling alone in a larger cabin. The first meeting was at Tobacco Road, just because anyone not in a studio wouldn't necessarily be able to get into the Studio Lounge. After that, it was in the Studio Lounge, and the door would just be propped open for the duration.

 

My advice would be, if you're traveling solo, and want to have company for the trip, go to ALL of these meetings. Pretty much by about day 2-3, there was a core group of about a dozen of us that had formed our own little "clique" of sorts. There were other solos that came and went throughout the week, we'd see them once and that was it. (If you really do just want to be alone for the duration of your trip, you can certainly do that.)

 

Also, I can't say enough good things about Sharon, the solo coordinator. This would be my next point of advice specifically aimed at solo travelers (and contrary to the usual advice for everyone else): Don't pre-book dinners and shows. Sharon will make calls and schedule dinners and shows for the group. These are usually at Taste/Savor/Manhattan, as they don't want to put "peer pressure" on those who may not want to do the premium dining. But I still thought that the "free" dining was outstanding. If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have bought a dining package, as it made me feel like, now I have to go use these credits, instead of just playing it by ear and going with the group. Day 1 was Taste (or maybe Savor, I never was able to keep them straight.)

 

After that, we went and Howled at the Moon. I don't really remember a whole lot. I was pretty tired anyway and had already drank more in one day than I had all year at this point.

 

No towel animal today. I guess it was just more of a towel sushi roll.

 

Day 2:

 

Breakfast at the buffet, and after a brief rest to let the food settle, off to the gym. It was a madhouse, difficult to find free weights/machines. But I eventually managed to cobble together a rudimentary "Pull" day. Met a fellow gym bro and we did our best to make deadlifts in the Smith machine work. I guess it worked okay if you went with kind of a stiff-legged sumo style. Couldn't handle any cardio though - with the drinks the night before, I only made it about 3 minutes on the treadmill and decided it would be to everyone's benefit if I didn't continue.

 

Showered up and went to Vibe for the rest of the afternoon, and had several Drinks of the Day, the Cherry Lime-Aid. By this point, I'd kind of settled into somewhat of a daily "routine", hang out in Vibe until 6, then grab "one for the road" and head to the support group. Dinner at Savor (or maybe Taste, I was never able to keep them straight) followed by After Midnight, arranged for us by Sharon. They seated us in the Haven section. Entertaining show, the performers were very talented, although I found the story difficult to follow. This may be due in part to me already being very tired and having already had more to drink in the last two days than I have in the last two years. Rommel from the Vibe was serving us drinks at After Midnight, and he recognized me. Yep, he's that good.

 

After that, more drinking of course. It's only Day 2 and the evenings are already kind of starting to blur together in my memory. I think we ended up closing down Skyline. My giant stack of ones that I brought for drink tips isn't so giant anymore.

 

Still no towel animal today. I was starting to feel un-loved. :(

 

Day 3

Largely a repeat of Day 2. Breakfast at the buffet, gym, shower, lunch was O'Sheehans IIRC, and then off to Vibe for the afternoon for many Drink of the Day Rebellious Fishes, followed by the solo support group. Sharon arranged the Brat Pack for us. I had already reserved it on this day, so luckily I didn't have to change anything. Great show. If you are a Gen X'er like me and grew up watching these movies, this show is an absolute must-see.

 

The waiter at the Supper Club managed to lose my key card (with detachable lanyard clip attached). This is really the only thing that "went wrong" on this cruise, and it's a very minor thing, but I had to go get a new card made (and then THAT one didn't get me into Vibe, so I had to go back again). Even though I still have the new card that looks exactly the same, I feel like I lost a souvenir... and of course now my lanyard is useless because the detachable clip is gone. I think I was just annoyed because the waiter didn't even try to go look for it... just immediately, nope, if I didn't give it back to you, then it's gone, go to guest services and get a new one. But, again, if that's the worst thing that went wrong on this cruise (which it was) then that's really pretty minor.

 

And after that, more drinking, of course. By Day 3, the evenings are really starting to blur together in my memory. I believe there was more Howl at the Moon action. I don't quite recall honestly. It probably didn't help that I'd already had more to drink in the last three days than I had in the last three years.

 

A towel animal today! It was a crab, and my steward Sari apparently found my sunglasses and used them as the crab's eyes.

 

Day 4

St. Thomas. I had booked the Sea Trek dive helmet excursion at Coral World. That was a surreal experience. You walk around on the ocean floor about 20 feet down I guess, wearing a dive helmet that supplies air. Your hair doesn't even get wet. Schools of fish swim right up to you. The guide finds various other ocean wildlife on the rocks and hands them to you. I handled a... well, I don't know what it was called but it vaguely resembled a very lazy spider-ish looking thing. I brought my Go Pro and filmed the whole thing. All in all, it's definitely worth doing once.

 

Also included was admission to the general Coral World park which contained several exhibits suitable for children. They have a tank with baby sharks in it, a larger tank with a psycho stingray in it (it would spin around in circles when it was fed, which as the guide explained, was not normal behavior for a stingray), turtles, iguanas, and so forth. Actually the iguanas apparently aren't an actual exhibit, they are just part of the wildlife in the area, and they freely wander all over the park begging for food like they were pigeons. The highlight here, IMO, was the lorikeet enclosure. For three dollars, you can buy a little cup of nectar and these birds will land on you and drink the nectar. There was one in the back that was all red, and she was too shy to actually land on people, so I had to just hold the nectar up to her in the tree and she drank from there. The girl selling the nectar explained that this particular bird was actually somebody's pet, and that the owner left the bird to Coral World in their will.

 

After Coral World, I took a taxi to Magic Ice. This is an ice sculpture bar (since there apparently isn't one on the Escape like there is on some of the other NCL ships.) The bartender said that a group of 20 people had just left, however, by the time I got there, I was the only person in there. I took pictures, had my free shot of banana rum, got my souvenir glass, and left.

 

Lunch at the Tap and Still, and back to the ship to shower up and get ready for the solo support group.

 

At this point, I'm counting up my dining package credits and realizing that I need to start using them. So I broke away from the solo group and did Teppanyaki by myself. Entertaining show, should not be missed (even if you're not particularly a fan of that style of food, which I'm not - but it was still very good.) The chef tried to do a trick where he spun an egg on his spatula, then throw it up in the air and catch it in his hat. But it landed (un-broken, even!) in the lip of the hood over the stove.

 

Afterwards, I met back up with some of the other solos for more drinking. IIRC we shut down Skyline again. I don't quite remember. It probably didn't help that I'd had more to drink in the last four days than in the last four years.

 

Today's towel animal was a squid, once again wearing my sunglasses.

 

Day 5

Tortola. I had tried to book the Dolphin encounter, but apparently they were full that day. So I had no actual excursion this day. I went ashore with one of the lovely ladies from the solo group and we had drinks at Pussers, to include a Painkiller shot with souvenir shot glass.

 

I had intended to go up on the ropes course today, but ended up falling asleep in my cabin. I believe I had lunch at the buffet, and spent the rest of the afternoon in Vibe once again. By this point I'm kinda starting to slow it down a bit, I tried the Pisco Punch drink of the day, and enjoyed a complimentary Scooby Snack but ended up settling for Angry Orchards for most of the rest of the trip. Leave me aloooone...

 

Dinner was booked for us by Sharon at the Manhattan Room, which included a surprise performance by a Motown act. I didn't catch their name (it wasn't one of the regularly advertised acts) but I believe it was some of the same performers from After Midnight. Very talented singers.

 

More drinking. At this point, a few of us from the solo group are just bouncing back and forth between Howl at the Moon, District Brewhouse, and Skyline. We also made a brief run at the craps table but it just wasn't happening. My memory is pretty foggy at this point. It probably didn't help that I've had more to drink in the last five days than I have in the last five years. I don't know. Maybe at this point it started averaging out. My giant stack of ones that I brought is starting to look pretty sparse at this point.

 

Today's towel animal was a walrus. It must have been too narrow to actually wear my sunglasses, so it just had little bits of paper for eyes. At one point, I walked by and saw the steward's cart, and saw a whole bag of pre-cut eyes.

 

Day 6

Sea Day. Somehow, I managed to wake up in time for a TRX Suspension class at the gym at 9 AM. I wasn't just hung over, I think I was still actually drunk. But somehow I managed to get through the class. It also didn't help that the sea was getting a bit choppier at this point, so there was some noticeable movement on the ship. I'd put it on par with mild turbulence on an airplane.

 

After breakfast, I did make it up onto the ropes course. I went out on the ledge (made even more interesting by the choppy seas) and pulled the rope, but I think I did it wrong... Are you supposed to turn around before you pull it? Anyway, I never did see the picture that it took.

 

Lunch and off to the Vibe again, as per my usual routine now. I don't remember what the drink of the day was, but it didn't sound appealing so I stuck with Angry Orchards. Leave me alooooone.....

 

Dinner was at the Tapas bar with a couple of lovely ladies from the solo group. Not exactly my favorite style of food, but it was still quite tasty and a good excuse to use one of my dining package credits. Basically, the way this worked was, I used a credit, paid an additional 15$ upcharge, and then it was all-you-can-eat (rather than the usual a la carte per plate.) I'm not sure I actually came out ahead on that deal, but by this point I didn't really care. By this point I'd probably had almost as much to drink in the last 6 days than in the last 6 years.

 

Tonight was the Glow party. I'm not normally a fan of dance/rave style music but Silas did a pretty good job of getting the crowd pumped up. A fun time, and I don't normally have fun at those kinds of things. I have this mental image in my head of a whale passing by in the night sea, seeing this giant, noisy, flashing thing float by, thinking "*** is that?"

 

Today's towel animal was a cobra. Also, Sharon sent us all chocolate covered strawberries.

 

Day 7

Parasailing in Nassau. I'm scared of heights, but I gotta say, I was amazed. This was SO totally opposite of what I expected. You wouldn't believe how peaceful and serene it is up there. Well, if you've done it before, then yes, I suppose you would believe it. But If you've never done it before, then, no, you wouldn't believe it.

 

Afterwards, I went and found the Queen's Staircase, and then had conch fritters at Sharkeez before heading back to the ship.

 

One final Rebellious Fish, as well as a complimentary Jellyfish shot from Robert and Rommel at the Vibe... LEAVE ME ALOOOOONE!!

 

I made a final run at the craps table... and again didn't do so well. (Sorry Grandpa.) I also had to get change from the cashier as my huge stack of ones that I had brought for drink tips was completely gone.

 

Dinner was Moderno, again with a couple of lovely ladies from the solo group. This one I had booked well in advance, and luckily they wanted to go at about the same time. This was definitely my favorite of the specialty restaurants I tried - absolutely amazing.

 

Afterwards, Howl at the Moon again. I wasn't entirely clear on the specifics, but I believe they said their contract is up, so I'm not sure if they are taking a break or going to another ship, or what... But by the last hour or two, they had stopped taking requests completely and the whole thing evolved into a massive jam session including a sax, trombone, and tap dancers from After Midnight, one of the Brat Pack guys, and some of the singers from the Motown show I mentioned earlier, all crowded around the pianos up there. The energy in the room was indescribable - you just had to be there.

 

Disembarkation:

 

All good things must come to an end. I walked off with my lone rolling suitcase. My flight was at 2 pm, so I booked a Miami bus tour which dropped me off at the airport. It was only like 15$ more than a taxi, so I figured what the heck, but... meh. Honestly it was kind of boring and I think I nodded off more than once. I guess I wanted something low-key and simple to start decompressing from this trip, and it definitely was that. If/when I do this again I'm just going to take an Uber. I just started using Uber on this trip, and I just gotta say, this is the way to go. I'll never take a normal taxi again.

 

Final thoughts:

 

Just my thoughts on some issues that I've seen discussed in other reviews:

 

Ship motion: I only really noticed it in small areas (e.g. my bathroom). Everybody else around me said they couldn't feel it at all, until day 6 when the sea started getting a little choppy, then it was "Whoa, I haven't had THAT much to drink yet!" jokes from everyone all day. I pre-emptively took Bonine every day and had no issues. I probably didn't need it. Although, I do have to say, I've been home for more than 24 hours now and I can still feel the motion of the ship. This... this goes away, right? :confused:

2

Timely bar service: Never had an issue. But I never went to the busier ones (e.g. the poolside bar).

 

Pool area: Absolute madhouse. I only passed through there on the way back and forth from the buffet. I never once stopped or swam there, and pretty sure I would have hated every second of it if I had. But to be fair I'm naturally an introvert and value my personal space.

 

Vibe: So much very yes. I would be seriously disappointed if I went again and was unable to get a Vibe pass. I generally don't like being around children and that definitely made a difference.

 

Food: Outstanding all around. But again, to be fair, I had just come off of a diet and have no other cruise experience as a point of reference.

 

Solo experience: Great, and I think if/when I do cruise again, I would stick with NCL for precisely this reason.

 

Staff: Great, with the one lone exception of the waiter who lost my key card in the Supper Club.

 

I would have done this "live" style, but I wanted to make it a point to "unplug" on this trip as much as humanly possible.

 

All in all, 10/10, would cruise again.

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KarenMF

KarenMF

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Great review - thanks for the solo studio point of view. I'm in a studio in June traveling with a singles group, though I am going on my own. I do know a few people in the group, but I usually travel with a friend even for singles cruises. Nice to know that the NCL singles lounge is the place to be in case I need more friends LOL

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HowardK

HowardK

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Hello, great review! I am going in mid-December ( I did the Breakaway 2x and the Epic previously). I have the UBP for the first time and my promo also included the SDP. Were you able to use the SDP with any of the other solos? Typically I only did one specialty meal a cruise, but want to use all 4 next time.

Like you mentioned, I never booked shows/dinners ahead of time. Did you make it to Spice H20 at all?

How did you like the studio itself? I had it on one cruise, a balcony on the last cruise but am keeping a studio for next time- I simply didn't spend any time in the room so can do without it.

I had the same experience where after 2-3 days there was a core group. I estimate around 20% of the people in studios tend to participate with others in the gatherings, meals etc..

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TheDougOut

TheDougOut

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Truly refreshing to hear about the solo perspective! It's sounds like you had a great bunch of travelers... further tempting me to try a solo run.

 

I really enjoyed your writing - thanks for taking the time to share!

 

I'd also be interested to hear about solo demographics, fully appreciating this can change from one sailing to the next.

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paulh84

paulh84

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Great review! That boarding process that leaves you hungry for a xanax lunch was my least favorite part of our Escape cruise. The anxiety in the room is crazy! I refuse to pay/bribe/whatever you want to call it service workers to essentially do their job, but we did make some small talk with the port employee and he very discretely told us we were 'in a good spot' wink wink. Every time someone would walk in his direct to ask a question he would purposely walk further down the roped off hallway and ignore them. I can't say that I blame them though. We're doing Celebrity next and I already can't wait to wake up and have a leisurely breakfast and get on the ship sometime late morning without breaking a sweat or feeling like I'm on the Amazing Race :cool:

 

The bad part about a Vibe pass on your first NCL experience is that it totally ruins you. If we did sail NCL again, especially Escape, I would be seriously disappointed if we had to sit around the public sun decks. Vibe alone would make me rate our cruise from being a 4 of 10 to a 8 of 10.

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TheDougOut

TheDougOut

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The bad part about a Vibe pass on your first NCL experience is that it totally ruins you. If we did sail NCL again, especially Escape, I would be seriously disappointed if we had to sit around the public sun decks. Vibe alone would make me rate our cruise from being a 4 of 10 to a 8 of 10.

 

I continue to wonder if this wouldn't be the case for me. I haven't attempted to secure vibe passes yet, but only because our two trips on the BA & BA+ ships have been group cruises where we didn't want to isolate ourselves from everyone else. If it's ever just the two of us, we'd probably go for the passes (maybe just because I'm competitive :)).

 

However, I can't help but question if "my spot" on the ship will forever be the waterfront. I love the connection to the water - the salty air and the sounds of the water rushing by, and the soft music playing in the background. There's never been any kind of crowd issue, and I often had an entire lounge area to myself.

 

I guess time will tell. Just last night I was trying to convince the gf to return to the BA in 2017 for a birthday cruise. I suppose Vibe passes would make an excellent bday gift.

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paulh84

paulh84

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I continue to wonder if this wouldn't be the case for me. I haven't attempted to secure vibe passes yet, but only because our two trips on the BA & BA+ ships have been group cruises where we didn't want to isolate ourselves from everyone else. If it's ever just the two of us, we'd probably go for the passes (maybe just because I'm competitive :)).

 

However, I can't help but question if "my spot" on the ship will forever be the waterfront. I love the connection to the water - the salty air and the sounds of the water rushing by, and the soft music playing in the background. There's never been any kind of crowd issue, and I often had an entire lounge area to myself.

 

I guess time will tell. Just last night I was trying to convince the gf to return to the BA in 2017 for a birthday cruise. I suppose Vibe passes would make an excellent bday gift.

 

I think they have a good thing with the Vibe concept. [Don't read this part NCL] we would pay more for it after doing it once. But they do shoot themselves in the foot. We purposely didn't even consider Escape again for next year given the risk of not getting Vibe passes. It was just too much of a zoo for us. Maybe the Getaway would be better choice since there is an extra port day to eliminate one of the free for all sea days around the pool deck on Escape.

 

The Waterfront is a neat concept and something I felt was really underutilized, as were many venues on the ship. We would hang out down there late afternoon into early evening, but I do need some sun and a lounger during the day. Definitely one of my favorite features of the ship.

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TheDougOut

TheDougOut

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[Don't read this part NCL] we would pay more for it after doing it once.

 

I've wondered this too. It's obviously lopsided in terms of supply & demand. How high would they have to jack the prices before this evens out? When would the number of people willing to pay a higher rate match the intended capacity?

 

Or alternatively... how many more could they sell before the experience is lessened enough to even out the demand at the current price.

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EleventyBangBang

EleventyBangBang

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Thanks for the solo review! I am going solo this summer and it really gets me excited to see reviews like this! Could you comment on the overall age ranges of the solos? Was the "core group" around a certain age?

 

It was a pretty wide range, from 20s to 70s, and from all over the world.

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bobg529

bobg529

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I think they have a good thing with the Vibe concept. [Don't read this part NCL] we would pay more for it after doing it once. But they do shoot themselves in the foot. We purposely didn't even consider Escape again for next year given the risk of not getting Vibe passes. It was just too much of a zoo for us. Maybe the Getaway would be better choice since there is an extra port day to eliminate one of the free for all sea days around the pool deck on Escape.

 

 

 

The Waterfront is a neat concept and something I felt was really underutilized, as were many venues on the ship. We would hang out down there late afternoon into early evening, but I do need some sun and a lounger during the day. Definitely one of my favorite features of the ship.

 

 

 

There are options if you miss out on Vibe, though the Vibe pass is great. Spice H20 is adults only so you can usually get a lounger there. There is also a sun deck up top, but it doesn't have a bar. There is also the Spa pass which is well worth it in my opinion. If you're on the Escape spend some time baking in the sauna and then go straight into the Snow room. When you are done you feel SO invigorated. It's really great![emoji3]

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