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Review: NCL Escape (9/24-10/1)

tmcabee

By tmcabee,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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tmcabee

tmcabee

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In honor of all those who took the time to submit reviews in the past (which helped me immensely in planning our trip) I just wanted to post a quick review of our cruise from last week. In short, we had a great time and look forward to booking another cruise next year! I won't go into a day-by-day review, but will hit the highlights and try to cover various topics of interest. If anyone has any specific questions, I'll be glad to answer if I can.

 

Background

 

This trip was for myself & wife (early 40's), kids (boy, 8 & girl, 11), and father/sister-in-law. This was the 5th cruise for my wife and I, but 1st cruise for the kids. Also, 3rd cruise (I believe) for father-in-law and 1st for sister-in-law.

 

We love cruising and have done 2 in the Caribbean (RCCL), 1 in Alaska (Celebrity), and 1 in N. Europe (RCCL). All those were between 2000-2007 though, so things have changed a little bit.

 

Planning

 

Back in April, we started planning a vacation for Fall break (this last week of September). We thought about going to Disney World (would have been our 3rd trip), but then my wife mentioned a cruise and the kids wanted to try it. I was worried about the cost, but with the great deals that NCL was running (3rd/4th guests free, UBP/SDP perks, etc), it was much more affordable than a week at Disney, and about 1/2 or 1/3 of the price of a Disney Cruise. At that point, I was sold and we booked it! I read all the reviews on the board and tried to familiarize myself with the ship beforehand. Thanks again to all those who came before us!

 

Embarkation

 

We drove down from Atlanta to meet my wife's family in central Florida, then drove to Miami the next morning, getting to the terminal around 11:45am. I dropped the family and luggage off on the curb, and parked in the garage. As noted elsewhere, parking was $20/day ($140 for the week) in the parking garage at the port. Simple to get in/out though, paid with credit card at machine on exit.

 

After parking, I just walked back across and entered the terminal. They gave us health forms to fill out, which took a few minutes. There was a relatively short line to check-in and get key cards, but we didn't even wait that long since one of the agents noticed my father-in-law with a cane so we were whisked away to a priority line. About 5 minutes later, we had our cards and (after the obligatory photo) were boarding the ship. This was around 12:30, I believe.

 

We entered on Deck 7, near O'Sheehans. Everyone was hungry, so we went to Taste (or Savor...can't remember) on Deck 6 for lunch. Good service, good food, was pretty quick. The kids wanted to go checkout the buffet, so we rode the elevator up to Deck 16 and they made the first of many trips to the soft-serve ice cream machine.

 

Cabin

 

By this time, the rooms were ready so we went to check on "home" for the week...category BE cabin 13718 (balcony, forward). It was quite a walk from the aft elevators (from the buffet)! It's even a decent walk from the forward elevators, but as much as we ate/drank this week, the exercise was probably a good thing. We enjoyed the room...nice size, balcony was bigger than I expected...room for 2 chairs and a little table. We didn't spend much time out there, but it was nice to have the sliding door open sometimes to hear the waves, especially at night. We had the big near the balcony, and the couch/desk was closer to the bathroom/closet. At night, our steward (Patrick...he was great!) pulled down the pullman bed from the ceiling over the couch, so the kids had their own bunk beds. They took turns on top/bottom bunks, and both said the beds were very comfortable. I thought the big bed was extremely comfortable as well. The bathroom/shower was spacious, as cruise cabins go. I'm pretty big (6'1", 250 lbs) and had no trouble with the shower size. TIP: I'll re-share the tip I picked up on another review, the secret to high water pressure is to turn the knob on the left to start the water and THEN press in the little notch on top which releases a lever and allows you to turn it back much farther.

 

Restaurants

 

Garden Cafe (buffet) on Deck 16 we used mostly for breakfast & lunch. The kids also ate dinner there pretty much every night before going to Splash Academy. There was a good variety, and we always found something to eat. It's setup as a big circle, and the elevators come up in the middle, near the front of the buffet, so there are 3 exits when arriving via the aft elevators. There are various stations (hot bar, salad bar, deli/cheese, Asian, burgers, pizza, pasta, desserts, beverages, etc) that are on both sides. During peak times, all stations are open. During other times, one side was usually closed for cleaning, etc. They had various "action stations" along the buffet for freshly prepared food as well. Omelets/eggs for breakfast, pasta/salad for lunch/dinner, and carving stations for meat as well. As many have mentioned, the back of the buffet (near the aft windows) had deli sandwiches & paninis for lunch, and dessert crepes for dinner....freshly prepared. My daughter LOVED the pasta station, getting pasta and alfredo sauce almost every night, while my son felt the same about the cheese pizza. They both enjoyed the ice cream (both soft-serve and scooped) every day. We would come here every night around 10:30 for cookies & milk as well...big hit with the kids.

 

They had the standard beverages (tea, lemonade, water, flavored water, coffee, milk, etc). Since we had the UBP (will cover more later), there was also a bar at the front of the buffet where we could get sodas, beer, etc. Mimosa's were nice with breakfast, but in general, I mainly used the bar for the occasional Mt. Dew. Yes, it was Pepsi products...but I'm a Mt. Dew fan so it worked for me.

 

As for crowds, it was really only bad on the last day (when EVERYONE is trying to eat at the same time before getting off the ship). May have been bad on the first day too, but we didn't go then. Most days, I had no trouble finding a seat somewhere. TIP: On hot days, move towards the back as the front opens to the pool decks and it gets a little warm up there. If you sit toward the back, it was quite cool (and usually less crowded). Good views all around...

 

O'Sheehan's, which is the 24-hour pub on Deck 7. We also ate a few breakfasts there. It was very quick as well, and I typically ordered an omelet with bacon/sausage and coffee. if you just want the basics, this is a quick/quiet option to the buffet. We ate one dinner there as well, but did not enjoy it as much. The service took a little long, and it was quite loud (it's right next to the Atrium area, which I'll cover later). I also had a few "late night snacks" there, which was good to have that option. After hearing so many good reviews on the wings there, I was a little underwhelmed the 2 times I tried them. Maybe I just got a bad batch though. Honestly, we were so full from all the meals on this cruise, I didn't get to try this place as much as I thought I would!

 

Manhattan (Deck 7) + Taste/Savor (Deck 6) - The complimentary dining rooms were all good. Manhattan was a bit loud as they had live music there. We preferred the quieter atmosphere in Taste/Savor, but they were smaller and tended to have a wait a few nights (after a show, etc). It just depends on what you like...they all have the same menus. As noted elsewhere, things like lobster and ribeye steak do have an up-charge at these restaurants. Still, enough good choices each night to find something for everyone.

 

Cagney's (Deck 8) - We had the SDP promo, so this is one of the 3 specialty restaurants we visited. We could order multiple apps & salads, one entree, and multiple deserts. I got the tomahawk ribeye, which was massive! After all the apps and salad, I couldn't quite finish it...but it was close. No lobster on the menu (anywhere that I saw, other than as up-charge). The "surf'n'turf" had shrimp instead. Overall, a good meal, but don't think I could justify paying extra for it, if I didn't have SDP.

 

Le Bistro (Deck 6) - Our second specialty restaurant, french food. It's very small, and doesn't have any windows to the outside. Not knowing this, I had booked on the night we sailed away from Tortola, hoping to get a nice view as we ate. :( Oh well. It was a great meal. I had ordered the ribeye again (sensing a theme here?) Even though it was listed on the menu as "for 2", our waiter checked with the manager and they let me order it solo. :) While it was good, it was over cooked (I had asked for medium-rare). I'm sure they would have made another one, but I didn't want everyone else to have to wait. The star dish, as it turned out, was the peppercorn tenderloin, ordered by my father-in-law. It looked incredible, and all who tried it raved about it. I guess father really does know best! I'll be ordering that if I'm ever in Le Bistro in the future. Still, as with Cagney's, I don't think I would pay full-price here, but it's definitely worth a SDP visit. And, also like Cagney's, no lobster on the menu. It was the best of the 3 specialties we tried.

 

La Cucina (Deck 8) - Our last specialty, the italian restaurant. I had not originally planned to eat here, but my in-laws wanted to try it. It was good, no complaints, but nothing outstanding from my perspective.

 

I did make reservations for the speciality restaurants online, and would recommend doing so...especially for Cagney's and Le Bistro. If you want to wait until boarding, make sure to do so on the first day. If you really want Taste/Savor as well on certain nights (after shows, etc), it may be worthwhile to make reservations there as well as they tend to fill up at certain times. However, we did not make any reservations for Manhattan/Taste/Savor, as we just weren't sure what we would be doing all the time. Never went hungry though...that's for sure!

 

UBP

 

We really enjoyed this promo! It was nice to have wine with dinner every night, which I wouldn't ordinarily do. It was also nice to try various frozen drinks and "drink of the day" drinks throughout the week, which I wouldn't normally try. Was also useful in "The District" brew pup, as I tried many different draft and bottled beers this week. Mimosa's for breakfast, sodas at lunch, smoothies...the list goes on. I never ordered anything that wasn't covered completely. I think there may have been some top shelf items that were't covered, but I never had an issue there.

 

Now, there is NO WAY...IN THE WORLD that I could EVER justify paying full price ($1,300 for the 2 of us?) for this package, but it WAS worth the $200 in gratuity. As long as you have 2 drinks per day, it's worth picking it as a promo. Otherwise, you may be better off picking something else. As mentioned in other places, they DO charge tax (< $1) on drinks while in Miami and on sail away until you get to international waters, but no biggie.

 

Venues/Bars

 

Atrium - This is the main "common" area on deck 7, although it has a 2nd story and opens up to O'Sheehan's on Deck 7. It's the area where they have all the trivia contests, movies, game shows, etc. There is a bar in the back, and flanked by guest services, etc on the other side. For the most part, we didn't care much for this area as it was a little "unorganized"...chairs scattered everyone, and folks who kind of camped out there all day, which made it difficult to get seats for the things you wanted to attend. This is probably normal though. TIP: You should familiarize yourself with this area and come up with a plan if there's something you want to see. Show up in advance, and if too crowded, maybe try to bar stools overlooking it from Deck 7!

 

The District - The famous brew pub you've probably read much about. They have a lot of different beers, and this is normally where you can catch NFL games on Sundays, plus Monday/Thursday nights. One of the best moments for me was watching the Giants/Redskins game on Sunday there. There were a few big TV's in the middle and the Giants fans on one side, while Redskins on the other..complete with jerseys, etc. I'm not a big NFL fan, but was fun to watch them antagonize (in a fun way) each other while everybody had many beers. However, at night, the music they played there (live or canned) was a bit loud for my taste. I wanted to go there, have a beer and conversation, but it was just a bit too loud. If I could make one comment to NCL in general, it would be to have at least a few somewhat quiet venues.

 

5 o'clock Somewhere Bar - I only made it out a few times, just to see the famous Chocolate Cowboy. This bar is on Deck 8, outside on the waterfront, just behind Tobacco Road. He did not disappoint...wish I had found time to get out there more often.

 

Margaritaville Bar - It's in the restaurant on Deck 17. I did not eat there...only used the bar in back. The bartenders there were great...enjoyed many a frozen drink. Try the Havana & Banana's drink...and I don't even like bananas!

 

Splash Academy

 

The kids really enjoyed this program. They have sessions most days in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings, usually breaking for lunch/dinner. They also had a late night (10:30pm-1:30am) session you could pay extra for, but we never used it. The kids only went a few days in the mornings/afternoons, but I believe they went every evening. There was always something fun going on, and they slept good every night. Of course, that could have been from the cookies/milk we got on the way back from picking them up...we were on vacation after all!

 

I don't know the details of what they did (as parents don't go inside), but they told all kinds of stories about games, crafts, and adventures. On the last sea day, they even came out and performed a circus in the Atrium...good fun!

 

Sports/Pools

 

The kids and I both did the ropes course, which was fun. I only did it once, as I'm afraid of heights and could not wait to get down. I'm glad I did it though. The kids loved it and did it multiple times. Maybe we were lucky, but there wasn't really a line most of the time. We also enjoyed the mini-golf, bocce ball, shuffleboard, and ping pong on board. The kids did the family tube slide, as well as the slower (yellow) water slide. I don't believe they tried the drop slides, as they were afraid of getting stuck. :) The only pool I used was the one between the water slides. It was about 5.5' all the way across, which was perfect for me. I only went there on port days, so never more than 1-2 people in it then...I just found the one shady spot in the corner and enjoyed a frozen drink. The kids enjoyed the pool as well, along with the kids splash area next to it. I did not try the main pool (although it looked crowded on sea days), nor the H2O area, as it was "adults only" during the day.

 

Shows

 

We only saw 3 shows....Brat Pack (which was good, especially if you like 80's films/music), Harry Mauer (the magician...nice show), and one of the Comedy shows. I had pre-booked the Brat Pack, but the others are not available to book until you board. I will say that I messed up by not booking those as soon as we boarded (or at least, sometime the first day). Times were hard to come by after that, but we were able to catch the shows. Apparently, there is more than one comedian on the ship, so we only saw one since I had waited too late to book. TIP: Something I wish I'd paid more attention to...book all your shows ASAP on the first day. I had read this in other reviews, but somehow we just didn't end up doing it. Still, we saw enough to be happy...

 

Ports

 

I can't comment on them, as I never left the ship. With free food and drink at my disposal, how could I leave? My sister-in-law, daughter, and wife did get off a St. Thomas and Tortola to do a little shopping & sightseeing. But for me, port days just meant not waiting for an elevator and having the pool to myself. My little guy followed my lead and together we ruled the Escape on port days! :)

 

Disembarkation

 

The worst part of the cruise! Just because we didn't want to leave. We picked a color corresponding to the time we wanted to leave, packed our bigger bags the night before and put out in the hall. If you wanted to participate in the "carry off" program (taking all your bags with you), you had to leave by 8:45am, or wait until after 10am. The restaurants were open until 9am (and you had to be out of rooms by 9am), so we slept in as much as we could.

 

Woke in the morning, ate at the PACKED buffet at around 8:30-8:45, then grabbed our carry-on bags from the room and waited in the line to get off..maybe 5-10 min. We easily found our color-coded bags and went through customs in about 2 min. The family waited on the curb with the bags while I walked to the garage, paid the parking fee in machine with credit card, and circled back to pick everyone up. It was all pretty smooth and uneventful.

 

Overall

 

It was a great cruise! The service was wonderful. I never waited more than a minute at a bar waiting for a drink. I was afraid that the popularity of the UBP perk would have caused issues with this at the bars, but never had a problem. The bartenders at every bar were awesome and seemed happy to get you whatever you wanted.

 

The waiters were great in every restaurant. It was a bit slow to eat dinner (usually 2+ hours for the 4 of us), but we were never in a rush so it didn't matter. Plus, we had wine and enjoyed all the courses (sometimes extras!), as well as dessert and coffee, so they probably felt no rush to get us through. In the buffet (and everywhere really), they were always cleaning! I never felt like we had anything to worry about as far as germs, etc. Plenty of sinks/soap around, and there were plenty of crew members always clearing tables and making sure there were enough plates/glasses. I also liked that the silverware was already at the tables...you didn't have to worry about getting enough forks, knives, etc.

 

Our room steward (Patrick) was awesome. He made a point to introduce himself on the first day, which I always appreciate. We didn't really make any special requests, but our room was cleaned each morning/afternoon (depending on our schedule) and turned down every night while we were at dinner. It was my wife's birthday, so the night before we found balloons and streamers in the cabin when we came in after dinner! I don't know what we did to deserve it, other than that was the day of the Cruise Critic gathering and we had mentioned it to the housekeeping officers there when they asked if we were celebrating anything. We also found chocolate covered strawberries a few nights in our cabin. At least, my wife said we did. By the time I got back to the room, there were just empty plates. :) The only "odd" moment we had was the first night around 10:45pm. My daughter had accidentally walked into a pole up on the pool deck while coming back to the room and had a pretty good bump on her forehead. We wanted to get some ice, so went down to the medical center. They gave us plastic bags, but had no ice and said to call housekeeping. We called from the room, but no one ever answered. I ended up running down to the closest bar and got ice. In the end, no big deal...the bump went away by morning and all was well. It was just a bit disconcerting that we couldn't reach anyone. Oh, and as it turns out, they do make sure to fill the ice buckets in the room each night...so I should have just looked in there! It was the first night though, we were still trying to figure everything out.

 

We only had 2 other "complaints", although not major. First, as I mentioned before, most venues were, what I would call, "loud". I expect the pool area to be that way, but would have enjoyed other places (Atrium, District, Manhattan Room, etc) a little more if the volume had been turned down just a bit. Second, the casino was kind of "in the way". Unless you like casinos, I guess. :) It was smack in the middle of Deck 7, and had some slot machines scattered down nearby hallways. Unfortunately, where there's a casino, there's the smell of smoking. While not a huge deal, I would rather have that somewhere "out of the way" so I didn't have to see/hear/smell it just to walk from the theatre to dinner. But still, those were minor bothers...there are probably others who feel the opposite.

 

To sum up, we loved the Escape. I can't compare it to other big ships (at least, anything since 2007), but it didn't feel "too big". The food was good, the drinks were good, the service was great, the kids had a blast, and we had a wonderful family vacation.

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detroitlions

detroitlions

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Enjoyed your review. I am going to book this in the spring of next year.

Can you give any more details on the District this was the bar I was most interested in.

Do they have a band everynight or just music?

Oh this year on the Star I noticed with the UBP they had formed lines for drinks I thought that was a great Idea cause last year on the Getaway it was just folks all shoved in with no order.

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tmcabee

tmcabee

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Enjoyed your review. I am going to book this in the spring of next year.

Can you give any more details on the District this was the bar I was most interested in.

Do they have a band everynight or just music?

Oh this year on the Star I noticed with the UBP they had formed lines for drinks I thought that was a great Idea cause last year on the Getaway it was just folks all shoved in with no order.

 

It varied at the District during the evenings. A few nights they had football, and most other nights had a piano/keyboard performer. I think one night it was just music. As I mentioned, for both the performer and music, the volume was about 2-3 levels above what you could listen to and also carry on a conversation. In the afternoons (when it was open), it was a little more pleasant.

 

I didn't take any pictures, but just doing a Google image search turned up pretty good results:

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=ncl+escape+district+brew+house&espv=2&biw=1430&bih=800&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUst65o8bPAhVHOiYKHcclAtYQ_AUIBygC

 

Great views, and a nicely themed area!

 

I never had a problem ordering with the UBP, either at the District or elsewhere.

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tmcabee

tmcabee

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Thanks for the review! Very interesting. Did your kids watch the Brat Pack show? I heard it's PG14 with a couple of inappropriate scenes. I'd like to go with my kids 9 and 12 but I'm not sure how inappropriate the show is!

 

Great question! No, we did not bring the kids to this show, and I'm very glad we didn't. NCL did put up many signs saying it was inappropriate for minors. While that kind of warning may not always be warranted, in this case it certainly was. If you remember those films from the 80's, they were pretty sexual in nature and contained adult language. Both those were very prevalent in this show...not something I wanted to expose to my kids (8 & 11).

 

There was a couple next to us that ignored the warnings and had a 6-7 yr old girl with them. About 15 minutes in, Mom disappeared with the little girl...I'm guessing Mom thought better of it and took her to Splash Academy for the evening. :)

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Don't Look44

Don't Look44

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In honor of all those who took the time to submit reviews in the past (which helped me immensely in planning our trip) I just wanted to post a quick review of our cruise from last week. In short, we had a great time and look forward to booking another cruise next year! I won't go into a day-by-day review, but will hit the highlights and try to cover various topics of interest. If anyone has any specific questions, I'll be glad to answer if I can.

 

Background

 

This trip was for myself & wife (early 40's), kids (boy, 8 & girl, 11), and father/sister-in-law. This was the 5th cruise for my wife and I, but 1st cruise for the kids. Also, 3rd cruise (I believe) for father-in-law and 1st for sister-in-law.

 

We love cruising and have done 2 in the Caribbean (RCCL), 1 in Alaska (Celebrity), and 1 in N. Europe (RCCL). All those were between 2000-2007 though, so things have changed a little bit.

 

Planning

 

Back in April, we started planning a vacation for Fall break (this last week of September). We thought about going to Disney World (would have been our 3rd trip), but then my wife mentioned a cruise and the kids wanted to try it. I was worried about the cost, but with the great deals that NCL was running (3rd/4th guests free, UBP/SDP perks, etc), it was much more affordable than a week at Disney, and about 1/2 or 1/3 of the price of a Disney Cruise. At that point, I was sold and we booked it! I read all the reviews on the board and tried to familiarize myself with the ship beforehand. Thanks again to all those who came before us!

 

Embarkation

 

We drove down from Atlanta to meet my wife's family in central Florida, then drove to Miami the next morning, getting to the terminal around 11:45am. I dropped the family and luggage off on the curb, and parked in the garage. As noted elsewhere, parking was $20/day ($140 for the week) in the parking garage at the port. Simple to get in/out though, paid with credit card at machine on exit.

 

After parking, I just walked back across and entered the terminal. They gave us health forms to fill out, which took a few minutes. There was a relatively short line to check-in and get key cards, but we didn't even wait that long since one of the agents noticed my father-in-law with a cane so we were whisked away to a priority line. About 5 minutes later, we had our cards and (after the obligatory photo) were boarding the ship. This was around 12:30, I believe.

 

We entered on Deck 7, near O'Sheehans. Everyone was hungry, so we went to Taste (or Savor...can't remember) on Deck 6 for lunch. Good service, good food, was pretty quick. The kids wanted to go checkout the buffet, so we rode the elevator up to Deck 16 and they made the first of many trips to the soft-serve ice cream machine.

 

Cabin

 

By this time, the rooms were ready so we went to check on "home" for the week...category BE cabin 13718 (balcony, forward). It was quite a walk from the aft elevators (from the buffet)! It's even a decent walk from the forward elevators, but as much as we ate/drank this week, the exercise was probably a good thing. We enjoyed the room...nice size, balcony was bigger than I expected...room for 2 chairs and a little table. We didn't spend much time out there, but it was nice to have the sliding door open sometimes to hear the waves, especially at night. We had the big near the balcony, and the couch/desk was closer to the bathroom/closet. At night, our steward (Patrick...he was great!) pulled down the pullman bed from the ceiling over the couch, so the kids had their own bunk beds. They took turns on top/bottom bunks, and both said the beds were very comfortable. I thought the big bed was extremely comfortable as well. The bathroom/shower was spacious, as cruise cabins go. I'm pretty big (6'1", 250 lbs) and had no trouble with the shower size. TIP: I'll re-share the tip I picked up on another review, the secret to high water pressure is to turn the knob on the left to start the water and THEN press in the little notch on top which releases a lever and allows you to turn it back much farther.

 

Restaurants

 

Garden Cafe (buffet) on Deck 16 we used mostly for breakfast & lunch. The kids also ate dinner there pretty much every night before going to Splash Academy. There was a good variety, and we always found something to eat. It's setup as a big circle, and the elevators come up in the middle, near the front of the buffet, so there are 3 exits when arriving via the aft elevators. There are various stations (hot bar, salad bar, deli/cheese, Asian, burgers, pizza, pasta, desserts, beverages, etc) that are on both sides. During peak times, all stations are open. During other times, one side was usually closed for cleaning, etc. They had various "action stations" along the buffet for freshly prepared food as well. Omelets/eggs for breakfast, pasta/salad for lunch/dinner, and carving stations for meat as well. As many have mentioned, the back of the buffet (near the aft windows) had deli sandwiches & paninis for lunch, and dessert crepes for dinner....freshly prepared. My daughter LOVED the pasta station, getting pasta and alfredo sauce almost every night, while my son felt the same about the cheese pizza. They both enjoyed the ice cream (both soft-serve and scooped) every day. We would come here every night around 10:30 for cookies & milk as well...big hit with the kids.

 

They had the standard beverages (tea, lemonade, water, flavored water, coffee, milk, etc). Since we had the UBP (will cover more later), there was also a bar at the front of the buffet where we could get sodas, beer, etc. Mimosa's were nice with breakfast, but in general, I mainly used the bar for the occasional Mt. Dew. Yes, it was Pepsi products...but I'm a Mt. Dew fan so it worked for me.

 

As for crowds, it was really only bad on the last day (when EVERYONE is trying to eat at the same time before getting off the ship). May have been bad on the first day too, but we didn't go then. Most days, I had no trouble finding a seat somewhere. TIP: On hot days, move towards the back as the front opens to the pool decks and it gets a little warm up there. If you sit toward the back, it was quite cool (and usually less crowded). Good views all around...

 

O'Sheehan's, which is the 24-hour pub on Deck 7. We also ate a few breakfasts there. It was very quick as well, and I typically ordered an omelet with bacon/sausage and coffee. if you just want the basics, this is a quick/quiet option to the buffet. We ate one dinner there as well, but did not enjoy it as much. The service took a little long, and it was quite loud (it's right next to the Atrium area, which I'll cover later). I also had a few "late night snacks" there, which was good to have that option. After hearing so many good reviews on the wings there, I was a little underwhelmed the 2 times I tried them. Maybe I just got a bad batch though. Honestly, we were so full from all the meals on this cruise, I didn't get to try this place as much as I thought I would!

 

Manhattan (Deck 7) + Taste/Savor (Deck 6) - The complimentary dining rooms were all good. Manhattan was a bit loud as they had live music there. We preferred the quieter atmosphere in Taste/Savor, but they were smaller and tended to have a wait a few nights (after a show, etc). It just depends on what you like...they all have the same menus. As noted elsewhere, things like lobster and ribeye steak do have an up-charge at these restaurants. Still, enough good choices each night to find something for everyone.

 

Cagney's (Deck 8) - We had the SDP promo, so this is one of the 3 specialty restaurants we visited. We could order multiple apps & salads, one entree, and multiple deserts. I got the tomahawk ribeye, which was massive! After all the apps and salad, I couldn't quite finish it...but it was close. No lobster on the menu (anywhere that I saw, other than as up-charge). The "surf'n'turf" had shrimp instead. Overall, a good meal, but don't think I could justify paying extra for it, if I didn't have SDP.

 

Le Bistro (Deck 6) - Our second specialty restaurant, french food. It's very small, and doesn't have any windows to the outside. Not knowing this, I had booked on the night we sailed away from Tortola, hoping to get a nice view as we ate. :( Oh well. It was a great meal. I had ordered the ribeye again (sensing a theme here?) Even though it was listed on the menu as "for 2", our waiter checked with the manager and they let me order it solo. :) While it was good, it was over cooked (I had asked for medium-rare). I'm sure they would have made another one, but I didn't want everyone else to have to wait. The star dish, as it turned out, was the peppercorn tenderloin, ordered by my father-in-law. It looked incredible, and all who tried it raved about it. I guess father really does know best! I'll be ordering that if I'm ever in Le Bistro in the future. Still, as with Cagney's, I don't think I would pay full-price here, but it's definitely worth a SDP visit. And, also like Cagney's, no lobster on the menu. It was the best of the 3 specialties we tried.

 

La Cucina (Deck 8) - Our last specialty, the italian restaurant. I had not originally planned to eat here, but my in-laws wanted to try it. It was good, no complaints, but nothing outstanding from my perspective.

 

I did make reservations for the speciality restaurants online, and would recommend doing so...especially for Cagney's and Le Bistro. If you want to wait until boarding, make sure to do so on the first day. If you really want Taste/Savor as well on certain nights (after shows, etc), it may be worthwhile to make reservations there as well as they tend to fill up at certain times. However, we did not make any reservations for Manhattan/Taste/Savor, as we just weren't sure what we would be doing all the time. Never went hungry though...that's for sure!

 

UBP

 

We really enjoyed this promo! It was nice to have wine with dinner every night, which I wouldn't ordinarily do. It was also nice to try various frozen drinks and "drink of the day" drinks throughout the week, which I wouldn't normally try. Was also useful in "The District" brew pup, as I tried many different draft and bottled beers this week. Mimosa's for breakfast, sodas at lunch, smoothies...the list goes on. I never ordered anything that wasn't covered completely. I think there may have been some top shelf items that were't covered, but I never had an issue there.

 

Now, there is NO WAY...IN THE WORLD that I could EVER justify paying full price ($1,300 for the 2 of us?) for this package, but it WAS worth the $200 in gratuity. As long as you have 2 drinks per day, it's worth picking it as a promo. Otherwise, you may be better off picking something else. As mentioned in other places, they DO charge tax (< $1) on drinks while in Miami and on sail away until you get to international waters, but no biggie.

 

Venues/Bars

 

Atrium - This is the main "common" area on deck 7, although it has a 2nd story and opens up to O'Sheehan's on Deck 7. It's the area where they have all the trivia contests, movies, game shows, etc. There is a bar in the back, and flanked by guest services, etc on the other side. For the most part, we didn't care much for this area as it was a little "unorganized"...chairs scattered everyone, and folks who kind of camped out there all day, which made it difficult to get seats for the things you wanted to attend. This is probably normal though. TIP: You should familiarize yourself with this area and come up with a plan if there's something you want to see. Show up in advance, and if too crowded, maybe try to bar stools overlooking it from Deck 7!

 

The District - The famous brew pub you've probably read much about. They have a lot of different beers, and this is normally where you can catch NFL games on Sundays, plus Monday/Thursday nights. One of the best moments for me was watching the Giants/Redskins game on Sunday there. There were a few big TV's in the middle and the Giants fans on one side, while Redskins on the other..complete with jerseys, etc. I'm not a big NFL fan, but was fun to watch them antagonize (in a fun way) each other while everybody had many beers. However, at night, the music they played there (live or canned) was a bit loud for my taste. I wanted to go there, have a beer and conversation, but it was just a bit too loud. If I could make one comment to NCL in general, it would be to have at least a few somewhat quiet venues.

 

5 o'clock Somewhere Bar - I only made it out a few times, just to see the famous Chocolate Cowboy. This bar is on Deck 8, outside on the waterfront, just behind Tobacco Road. He did not disappoint...wish I had found time to get out there more often.

 

Margaritaville Bar - It's in the restaurant on Deck 17. I did not eat there...only used the bar in back. The bartenders there were great...enjoyed many a frozen drink. Try the Havana & Banana's drink...and I don't even like bananas!

 

Splash Academy

 

The kids really enjoyed this program. They have sessions most days in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings, usually breaking for lunch/dinner. They also had a late night (10:30pm-1:30am) session you could pay extra for, but we never used it. The kids only went a few days in the mornings/afternoons, but I believe they went every evening. There was always something fun going on, and they slept good every night. Of course, that could have been from the cookies/milk we got on the way back from picking them up...we were on vacation after all!

 

I don't know the details of what they did (as parents don't go inside), but they told all kinds of stories about games, crafts, and adventures. On the last sea day, they even came out and performed a circus in the Atrium...good fun!

 

Sports/Pools

 

The kids and I both did the ropes course, which was fun. I only did it once, as I'm afraid of heights and could not wait to get down. I'm glad I did it though. The kids loved it and did it multiple times. Maybe we were lucky, but there wasn't really a line most of the time. We also enjoyed the mini-golf, bocce ball, shuffleboard, and ping pong on board. The kids did the family tube slide, as well as the slower (yellow) water slide. I don't believe they tried the drop slides, as they were afraid of getting stuck. :) The only pool I used was the one between the water slides. It was about 5.5' all the way across, which was perfect for me. I only went there on port days, so never more than 1-2 people in it then...I just found the one shady spot in the corner and enjoyed a frozen drink. The kids enjoyed the pool as well, along with the kids splash area next to it. I did not try the main pool (although it looked crowded on sea days), nor the H2O area, as it was "adults only" during the day.

 

Shows

 

We only saw 3 shows....Brat Pack (which was good, especially if you like 80's films/music), Harry Mauer (the magician...nice show), and one of the Comedy shows. I had pre-booked the Brat Pack, but the others are not available to book until you board. I will say that I messed up by not booking those as soon as we boarded (or at least, sometime the first day). Times were hard to come by after that, but we were able to catch the shows. Apparently, there is more than one comedian on the ship, so we only saw one since I had waited too late to book. TIP: Something I wish I'd paid more attention to...book all your shows ASAP on the first day. I had read this in other reviews, but somehow we just didn't end up doing it. Still, we saw enough to be happy...

 

Ports

 

I can't comment on them, as I never left the ship. With free food and drink at my disposal, how could I leave? My sister-in-law, daughter, and wife did get off a St. Thomas and Tortola to do a little shopping & sightseeing. But for me, port days just meant not waiting for an elevator and having the pool to myself. My little guy followed my lead and together we ruled the Escape on port days! :)

 

Disembarkation

 

The worst part of the cruise! Just because we didn't want to leave. We picked a color corresponding to the time we wanted to leave, packed our bigger bags the night before and put out in the hall. If you wanted to participate in the "carry off" program (taking all your bags with you), you had to leave by 8:45am, or wait until after 10am. The restaurants were open until 9am (and you had to be out of rooms by 9am), so we slept in as much as we could.

 

Woke in the morning, ate at the PACKED buffet at around 8:30-8:45, then grabbed our carry-on bags from the room and waited in the line to get off..maybe 5-10 min. We easily found our color-coded bags and went through customs in about 2 min. The family waited on the curb with the bags while I walked to the garage, paid the parking fee in machine with credit card, and circled back to pick everyone up. It was all pretty smooth and uneventful.

 

Overall

 

It was a great cruise! The service was wonderful. I never waited more than a minute at a bar waiting for a drink. I was afraid that the popularity of the UBP perk would have caused issues with this at the bars, but never had a problem. The bartenders at every bar were awesome and seemed happy to get you whatever you wanted.

 

The waiters were great in every restaurant. It was a bit slow to eat dinner (usually 2+ hours for the 4 of us), but we were never in a rush so it didn't matter. Plus, we had wine and enjoyed all the courses (sometimes extras!), as well as dessert and coffee, so they probably felt no rush to get us through. In the buffet (and everywhere really), they were always cleaning! I never felt like we had anything to worry about as far as germs, etc. Plenty of sinks/soap around, and there were plenty of crew members always clearing tables and making sure there were enough plates/glasses. I also liked that the silverware was already at the tables...you didn't have to worry about getting enough forks, knives, etc.

 

Our room steward (Patrick) was awesome. He made a point to introduce himself on the first day, which I always appreciate. We didn't really make any special requests, but our room was cleaned each morning/afternoon (depending on our schedule) and turned down every night while we were at dinner. It was my wife's birthday, so the night before we found balloons and streamers in the cabin when we came in after dinner! I don't know what we did to deserve it, other than that was the day of the Cruise Critic gathering and we had mentioned it to the housekeeping officers there when they asked if we were celebrating anything. We also found chocolate covered strawberries a few nights in our cabin. At least, my wife said we did. By the time I got back to the room, there were just empty plates. :) The only "odd" moment we had was the first night around 10:45pm. My daughter had accidentally walked into a pole up on the pool deck while coming back to the room and had a pretty good bump on her forehead. We wanted to get some ice, so went down to the medical center. They gave us plastic bags, but had no ice and said to call housekeeping. We called from the room, but no one ever answered. I ended up running down to the closest bar and got ice. In the end, no big deal...the bump went away by morning and all was well. It was just a bit disconcerting that we couldn't reach anyone. Oh, and as it turns out, they do make sure to fill the ice buckets in the room each night...so I should have just looked in there! It was the first night though, we were still trying to figure everything out.

 

We only had 2 other "complaints", although not major. First, as I mentioned before, most venues were, what I would call, "loud". I expect the pool area to be that way, but would have enjoyed other places (Atrium, District, Manhattan Room, etc) a little more if the volume had been turned down just a bit. Second, the casino was kind of "in the way". Unless you like casinos, I guess. :) It was smack in the middle of Deck 7, and had some slot machines scattered down nearby hallways. Unfortunately, where there's a casino, there's the smell of smoking. While not a huge deal, I would rather have that somewhere "out of the way" so I didn't have to see/hear/smell it just to walk from the theatre to dinner. But still, those were minor bothers...there are probably others who feel the opposite.

 

To sum up, we loved the Escape. I can't compare it to other big ships (at least, anything since 2007), but it didn't feel "too big". The food was good, the drinks were good, the service was great, the kids had a blast, and we had a wonderful family vacation.

What a great review tmcabee! We are going next August (my daughter will be getting married harbourside before the cruise leaves Miami!). Good to know all of that info!!

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racefan1965

racefan1965

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Posted

Tnx for the very informative review. We are booked for the 10/29 sailing and was a little nervous because some review said the food was bad. That's what your on the ship to do right? Eat! But I'm feeling much better & cannot wait. First time with a balcony and splurged on an aft as it's our 10 year wedding anniversary. Hubby & I always said Hawaii to celebrate..but decided every year we're going to cruise instead.

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