Norwegian Escape - March 4 to March 11 (live) - with kids - previous cruise was Oasis

[alpineapa]

Enjoying the review! I'm disheartened to hear that the smoke smell is so bad on the Escape. The stink is something that bothers my entire family, and I'm considering whether to ditch this cruise or not. On a scale of 1-10, how bad is the smoke situation on decks 6-7-8, and how often to you find yourself having to go through there? If I can avoid smokers, I'll do it; but if it's a constant walk through a disgusting area, no way.

 

I asked my wife as she really gets bothered by this and she said that on decks 6 and 8 maybe 5 out of 10 and on deck 7, maybe 8 out of 10. You need go to through these decks often....several times of day. I did ask her if it would prevent her from booking the ship again and she said no so it's not a deal breaker, but really unfortunate NCL didn't plan this better.

[alpineapa]

Day 5.......Tortola......Sun is finally out :)

 

 

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[alpineapa]

 

 

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[ksmcdonald]

Looks beautiful today in Tortola! My son and his girlfriend are on this cruise so I've been following along. They text me yesterday and said they were very disappointed with the weather. They've been feeling seasick most of the time. Glad it looks like the weather is improving.

[alpineapa]

 

 

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[alpineapa]

Cane Garden Beach.....we grabbed a taxi...8 per person, maybe 15-20 'adventures' drive. Beach Chairs are 5 and 5 for umbrella. As you can see from pictures very busy so not a place to sit back and relax but great place for kids. Water is rough today given the bad weather recently but kids enjoy jumping the waves. Happy with our decision to come here. Lots of taxis available to go back and little shops for souvenirs

 

 

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[alpineapa]

 

 

Kids just love the ropes course....spent another hour there this afternoon after an hour at the splash park. Again, line was very very long BUT, you don't need to do the line for the kids course, you just go in front and they will put the harness on as the kids course is not busy at all.

 

 

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[Sun-Sand-Palm-Trees]

Thank you for the review. Could you please comment on their internet plans -- is their new "freestyle choice plan" available (social chat for $35/week)?

 

 

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We paid $189 for the week (not including streaming). It was $27 a day.

[alpineapa]

We paid $245 for the premium internet. Connection is "ok", I was able to watch a bit of Netflix, but it was spotty.

 

 

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[alpineapa]

Last night, we had dinner in the Manhattan room. I like the live music concept but it was much louder this time. Didn't bother us, but I can see how it could bother some people. Service was slow again.

 

 

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[alpineapa]

On the first day, we went to the arcade and twice we swiped the air hockey machine to play, it charged us but the puck didn't come out. Charge was $5. This morning, since I was grabbing coffees next door and since no lineup, I stopped to ask for the charge to be removed. She didn't believe me.....she said usually machine won't charge you if it does not work. She said she would look into it later. I had over $2k in charges on the room and only questioned $5 and she gives me that attitude, really?

 

 

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[alpineapa]

 

Day 6 - at sea - beautiful morning!

 

I think we will be doing main dining room for relaxing breakfast and then splash park/ropes course.

 

As a side note, yesterday it was impossible to get a chair by the splash park. I considered being one of those guys and reserving one this am, but decided not too since we don't really use them. There is a big edge close by you can drop your stuff and then you can simply sit inside the water park on the inside edges. (There are a few "safe" spots" where you won't get sprayed but be careful, hehe

 

 

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[nancydow]

Great review! I'm in the Escape in about two weeks and it's making me excited!

 

Can you please snap a picture of the Officers (usually outside the theater or main dining room)?

 

Thanks for the great review! Can hardly wait for the rest!

 

~ Nancy :)

 

 

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[alpineapa]

Great day! Spent the am at the ropes course, splash park and yellow slides.......had lunch at Margaritaville (I had BBQ hamburger and wife had fish and chips, both were great). After lunch, we did a repeat of the morning

 

 

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[alpineapa]

For dinner, we went to the Japanese restaurant. It was a lot of fun, the kids really enjoyed the concept. Both my wife and I enjoyed the food. They did forget to bring our kids food (they ordered from the kids menu) but they quickly brought it out after we reminded them. This one sells out really quickly so I would recommend you do the reservation as soon as you window opens.

 

 

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[Mac4YYZ]

Enjoying the review! I'm disheartened to hear that the smoke smell is so bad on the Escape. The stink is something that bothers my entire family, and I'm considering whether to ditch this cruise or not. On a scale of 1-10, how bad is the smoke situation on decks 6-7-8, and how often to you find yourself having to go through there? If I can avoid smokers, I'll do it; but if it's a constant walk through a disgusting area, no way.

I was on Escape in late February and didn't notice it at all.

 

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[alpineapa]

My wife and daughter went to the family glow party last night. It was a spice H20 and they said it was a lot of fun

 

 

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[alpineapa]

 

 

Another sunny morning! We are supposed to arrived at Nassau at 12h15 and all aboard is 6h30. Our plan is to go to Atlantis. We used Marriott points (35,000 points) and booked a room which will give us 4 bracelets. We don't intend of going to the room at all but this was a cheap option for Atlantis and likely we wouldn't have gone without this option since not there a long time.

 

We also picked up our luggage tags this morning. Earliest is 9am unless you're walking off the ship with your luggage. Our flight is at noon so 9am will give us plenty of time.

 

 

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[alpineapa]

We went to the ropes course this morning...as a heads up, you need 1 adult per kid in small ropes course area. I tried the adult one this morning. It's fun (great views) so I recommend trying at least once. We're getting close to Nassau, looking forward to Atlantis. Our plan is to grab a taxi and then go straight to the splash park once we check in/get our bracelets.

 

 

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[alpineapa]

We might do the fairy from our way back from Atlantis....does anyone know how long it takes and how often it runs? Do we simply walk from the Atlantis to the Marina?

 

 

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[alpineapa]

 

 

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[usckatieh]

Love the review and the comparisons to Royal! I'm a previous RC cruise going on the Escape with kids this summer and your info is super helpful! Do you happen to know the height requirement for the big ropes course?

[alpineapa]

We took a cab to Atlantis......$4 per person....approx. 15 minutes. We had booked a room using Marriott points. We went straight to the check in counter which is where the taxi drops you off and had our room keys within 5 minutes. They give you vouchers for bottles of water. We never actually went to the room, we simply went straight to the water park. We went to a towel hut to grab towels and our bracelets. It's a bit of a walk so I would say we got off the boat at around 12h30 and didn't get settled in until around 1h15. We did a good 3 hours of water park, walked around a bit, saw the aquariums and then took a cab back. Shopped a little and then back on the boat. For sure this would not have been worth it if we would have paid cruise ship excursion but since we used Marriott points it only cost us $67 resort fee so it was VERY worth it as the kids had an amazing time. When we got on the boat, we went straight to margaritaville as we wanted a pre-dinner nacho/beer, but we were very disappointed that it had closed at 5pm. Then we went to the room with the hopes of ordering nachos via room service, but none on the menu so I went down to O'sheehan's to grab wings and nachos BUT learned that they don't allow take out (I wanted to bring them back to wife and kids to end on balcony/relax). So out of luck for pre-diner snack.

 

 

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[alpineapa]

Love the review and the comparisons to Royal! I'm a previous RC cruise going on the Escape with kids this summer and your info is super helpful! Do you happen to know the height requirement for the big ropes course?

 

 

Over 48 for big ropes course and under 48 for small one.

 

Over 40 for yellow and tube slides.

 

As a side note, many kids who were around 46-47 simply went up on their toes to reach 48 and they allowed it.

 

 

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[alpineapa]

In Nassau parked next to Harmony......looks like a beautiful ship.....I think it will be our pick for next year.

 

 

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