LIVE from the Escape...

[amygutman]

thanks for a wonderful start to what sounds like a great vacation....after a month in Paris, and being on multiple cruise ships - if you are still excited about travelling, that means your adventurous spirit is getting absolutely spoiled!

on the escape june 17th for my own birthday (and anniversary) party - mazel tov to you and your father!

warm regards, amy

[havanadaydreaming]

Can you post as many bar menus as possible? I am trying to find out if certain drinks are under the $15.00 UBP limit. In particular, woodford reserve and gentleman jack bourbon/whiskey, painkiller, and bacardi mojitos.

l don't remember Woodford but I know Knob Creek on the rocks was a $22 pour on the Escape. in 2016.

 

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[myparks]

Following, Sailing out on the 6th of May

[dexddd]

looking forward to your review. I am on in August. If you can post the dinning room menus that would be awesome and on what nights they are. I am getting a dinning package for 4 nights but would like to book them on nights were the dinning room isn't appealing.

 

 

 

Thank you. Have a great time.

 

Unless things have changed, the MDRs have 14 menus that they rotate through.

[xitappers2bx]

So I don’t know why, but the spacing is messed up. I’m trying to conserve my Internet as much aspossible, with two sisters at home with a menagerie of kids (and tripletbabies) Internet is for keeping tabs on them. In Bermuda I’ll try and fix the spacing, but really, I know I’m anoutstanding writer (it’s my birthday today, so you can’t argue against that) but if you can’t bear the spacing issue, youcan read this later and it really will not hurt my feelings.

 

Alright, back to vacation…

 

It would appear that this will not be a cruise where I willbe sleeping in. Which is fine, althoughI hope to catch something comedy-related while here.

 

Monday, breakfast. Ihave to say, I’m really not a breakfast person and really enjoyedbreakfast. They have all the typicalbreakfast foods, of which I don’t eat most, and some out of the world hashbrowns, some perfectly ripe fruit, and they offer both crispy and not crispybacon. I am so not a bacon person(really, don’t eat much pork), and it was delicious. My parents joined me for breakfast, and theyseemed to love it as well, and then I brought cereal and milk back to mystateroom for sleeping beauty.

 

We wandered around a bit after getting ready for the day,checking out the Deal or No Deal game, checking out the line for bingo, andthen going to get lunch before the CruiseCritic Meet and Greet.

 

Lunch was exciting because I found the Indian food. I didn’t eat Indian food until right beforemy 30th birthday; I had this whole list of 30 things to do before Iturned 30, and expanding my food horizons was one of them. Thanks to that foray into Indian food fouryears ago I have become a bit of a food snob in a very general sense, and theBug has been able to expand the foods she likes while criticizing those shedoesn’t. On the Epic last year, theIndian food was by far the thing I loved the most, I would start with that forlunch, and then end with something new just to try and did not see that therewas an Indian station here. Turns outthe Indian food is with the Asian food. I should have known that, and now I do.

 

Lunch was delicious. There was the burger bar, with great looking hot dogs (no clue ifthey’re beef or not, but I will be finding out today), some pizza, the mostridiculously good chicken fingers, and fruit with some desserts. The Bug started with breakfast “appetizer”and then moved to lunch food. She’s alittle goofy in that, she has to eatbreakfast before moving to lunch.

 

After lunch we met at the District Brewhouse for the CruiseCritic Meet and Greet. I don’t reallyhave anything to compare it to, but my mom said she had never seen a M&Glike that, and the people who attended seemed extremely happy. They had all of the exec-level officers whichwas really awesome, and they were giving out beer (and soda) and snacks toeveryone. The Cruise Director spoke a bit, and it was a really awesomehour/hour and a half. A lot of peopleshowed up as well.

 

After the Meet and Greet we had about an hour to kill andthen a slot pull. This was my first timeever doing a slot pull, and I’m not really one who loves slot machines, but itwas fun to mingle with others.

 

On our way to Bingo from the slot pull we walked past theAtrium and saw they were playing Deal or No Deal. My dad, who really wanted to play (and thereis a game today that we are going to do) sat down and we all ended up watchingthe second half of the game. I didn’tcatch this on the Epic last year, but it was such a blast, and even though weweren’t playing, it was awesome. So weare definitely doing this today. I cando whatever I want today, not only am I on vacation, I’m officially“mid-thirties.”

 

Bingo. So this wascrazy; this was the game where they name the Queen and King… and as someone whodoesn’t win very many things, I 100% was not expecting to be named the BingoQueen. And then they called my name andI thought I was going to pass out. Thelast thing I want to do is get up on stage in front of however many people werethere, but it wasn’t that bad, and I didn’t die. And now I get to play bingo for free allweek, which the Bug thinks means shegets to play bingo for free all week. It’s a good thing she’s so cute. Bingo was a lot of fun; at home we play once or twice a month and itdoesn’t feel as much fun as it did on the ship. The prices were a little high, but it’s fun and that’s all thatmatters. I’m not a big gambler, bingo iswhere my “casino” dollars go.

 

After Bingo we had some time to kill before dinner, but Iwanted to get showered etc. So I took asuper hot bath, and then a shower before getting dressed for dinner atModerno.

 

Monday night was the dressy up night, and I thought welooked great. I’m feeling pretty beat upfrom a crossfit comp I did Saturday, so it felt nice to feel pretty while my quadsare dying and my shoulders scream at me. We go to dinner, and it was really surprising to see how many peopleshowed up in t-shirts, flip flops, and shorts. On the Med last summer in the specialty restaurants it seemed as thoughpeople dressed up. It would appear tonot be the case here. It’s not somethingI would let ruin my vacation (now that would be stupid), but it was something Inoticed, and was sort of surprised about. I know there are a ton of people out there who this would ruin theirvacation, so be forewarned.

 

Dinner itself was stupid good. We got there right when they opened, and theappetizers were good, and fortunately our server, Rakesh, reminded us that weshould not fill up on that, because there is a lot of meat coming our way. I think because we arrived early they werestill finishing up the cooking, so while we had lots of the many steakvariations, and my parents enjoyed the lamb, it wasn’t until towards the end ofthe meal that the chicken came out and by then I was stuffed. The best part of the meal was when thegentleman with the pineapple came out. The pineapple is by far my absolute favorite thing. First, he brought me a fresh one, then wasmore than happy to give me extra slices, and then when I wanted anotherserving, he loaded up my plate with amazingness. If you’ve never had the pineapple, itsbasically the meat of the fruit, covered in brown sugar (I think) and baked sothere’s this stupid good glaze on the outside. They cut it just like they cut the meats, and you 100% have to tryit. I could have just eaten thepineapple for dinner. Dessert was alsogreat; I had the chocolate coconut tres leches cake that the Bug was absolutelynot going to try, but she did, andshe absolutely loved it, so being the kind and generous mom I am, I shared itwith her. My mom ordered tea, and sharedmy dad’s banana meringue (pretty sure I spelled that wrong). We explored some more after, took somephotos, and my mom went to play craps.

 

For many people, this is where the night started… for me, we’regetting towards the end. We did end upwandering around a bit more because our steward wasn’t done in our rooms, butwhen we got back to the room and he was still there we just hang out on thebalcony, and enjoyed the cool evening, the sound of the waves, and the fact thattomorrow (today) was going to be all about me and whatever the heck I wanted todo. I have been taking photos too, sosometimes tomorrow (Wednesday) in Bermuda I’ll figure out how to upload themall.

 

Today (1 May) is my birthday, so if you're glum waiting for your cruise, in my honor, do something nice for someone, and make their day better. It'll help turn yours around too! :) And if you do something nice for someone, I really would love to hear about it!

 

 

And oh yeah, I’ve finished my first book of the trip.

[CazV]

Happy Birthday... I hope you have a fab day! :)

 

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience with us and I'm looking forward to seeing your photos.

 

(Don't worry about that spacing issue!)

[Deb and Jack]

Happy birthday enjoy Bermuda :)

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Forums mobile app

[BirdTravels]

How is your first-time Cruise Director Zach dong?

[bromleypod]

So I don’t know why, but the spacing is messed up. I’m trying to conserve my Internet as much aspossible, with two sisters at home with a menagerie of kids (and tripletbabies) Internet is for keeping tabs on them. In Bermuda I’ll try and fix the spacing, but really, I know I’m anoutstanding writer (it’s my birthday today, so you can’t argue against that) but if you can’t bear the spacing issue, youcan read this later and it really will not hurt my feelings.

 

Alright, back to vacation…

 

It would appear that this will not be a cruise where I willbe sleeping in. Which is fine, althoughI hope to catch something comedy-related while here.

 

Monday, breakfast. Ihave to say, I’m really not a breakfast person and really enjoyedbreakfast. They have all the typicalbreakfast foods, of which I don’t eat most, and some out of the world hashbrowns, some perfectly ripe fruit, and they offer both crispy and not crispybacon. I am so not a bacon person(really, don’t eat much pork), and it was delicious. My parents joined me for breakfast, and theyseemed to love it as well, and then I brought cereal and milk back to mystateroom for sleeping beauty.

 

We wandered around a bit after getting ready for the day,checking out the Deal or No Deal game, checking out the line for bingo, andthen going to get lunch before the CruiseCritic Meet and Greet.

 

Lunch was exciting because I found the Indian food. I didn’t eat Indian food until right beforemy 30th birthday; I had this whole list of 30 things to do before Iturned 30, and expanding my food horizons was one of them. Thanks to that foray into Indian food fouryears ago I have become a bit of a food snob in a very general sense, and theBug has been able to expand the foods she likes while criticizing those shedoesn’t. On the Epic last year, theIndian food was by far the thing I loved the most, I would start with that forlunch, and then end with something new just to try and did not see that therewas an Indian station here. Turns outthe Indian food is with the Asian food. I should have known that, and now I do.

 

Lunch was delicious. There was the burger bar, with great looking hot dogs (no clue ifthey’re beef or not, but I will be finding out today), some pizza, the mostridiculously good chicken fingers, and fruit with some desserts. The Bug started with breakfast “appetizer”and then moved to lunch food. She’s alittle goofy in that, she has to eatbreakfast before moving to lunch.

 

After lunch we met at the District Brewhouse for the CruiseCritic Meet and Greet. I don’t reallyhave anything to compare it to, but my mom said she had never seen a M&Glike that, and the people who attended seemed extremely happy. They had all of the exec-level officers whichwas really awesome, and they were giving out beer (and soda) and snacks toeveryone. The Cruise Director spoke a bit, and it was a really awesomehour/hour and a half. A lot of peopleshowed up as well.

 

After the Meet and Greet we had about an hour to kill andthen a slot pull. This was my first timeever doing a slot pull, and I’m not really one who loves slot machines, but itwas fun to mingle with others.

 

On our way to Bingo from the slot pull we walked past theAtrium and saw they were playing Deal or No Deal. My dad, who really wanted to play (and thereis a game today that we are going to do) sat down and we all ended up watchingthe second half of the game. I didn’tcatch this on the Epic last year, but it was such a blast, and even though weweren’t playing, it was awesome. So weare definitely doing this today. I cando whatever I want today, not only am I on vacation, I’m officially“mid-thirties.”

 

Bingo. So this wascrazy; this was the game where they name the Queen and King… and as someone whodoesn’t win very many things, I 100% was not expecting to be named the BingoQueen. And then they called my name andI thought I was going to pass out. Thelast thing I want to do is get up on stage in front of however many people werethere, but it wasn’t that bad, and I didn’t die. And now I get to play bingo for free allweek, which the Bug thinks means shegets to play bingo for free all week. It’s a good thing she’s so cute. Bingo was a lot of fun; at home we play once or twice a month and itdoesn’t feel as much fun as it did on the ship. The prices were a little high, but it’s fun and that’s all thatmatters. I’m not a big gambler, bingo iswhere my “casino” dollars go.

 

After Bingo we had some time to kill before dinner, but Iwanted to get showered etc. So I took asuper hot bath, and then a shower before getting dressed for dinner atModerno.

 

Monday night was the dressy up night, and I thought welooked great. I’m feeling pretty beat upfrom a crossfit comp I did Saturday, so it felt nice to feel pretty while my quadsare dying and my shoulders scream at me. We go to dinner, and it was really surprising to see how many peopleshowed up in t-shirts, flip flops, and shorts. On the Med last summer in the specialty restaurants it seemed as thoughpeople dressed up. It would appear tonot be the case here. It’s not somethingI would let ruin my vacation (now that would be stupid), but it was something Inoticed, and was sort of surprised about. I know there are a ton of people out there who this would ruin theirvacation, so be forewarned.

 

Dinner itself was stupid good. We got there right when they opened, and theappetizers were good, and fortunately our server, Rakesh, reminded us that weshould not fill up on that, because there is a lot of meat coming our way. I think because we arrived early they werestill finishing up the cooking, so while we had lots of the many steakvariations, and my parents enjoyed the lamb, it wasn’t until towards the end ofthe meal that the chicken came out and by then I was stuffed. The best part of the meal was when thegentleman with the pineapple came out. The pineapple is by far my absolute favorite thing. First, he brought me a fresh one, then wasmore than happy to give me extra slices, and then when I wanted anotherserving, he loaded up my plate with amazingness. If you’ve never had the pineapple, itsbasically the meat of the fruit, covered in brown sugar (I think) and baked sothere’s this stupid good glaze on the outside. They cut it just like they cut the meats, and you 100% have to tryit. I could have just eaten thepineapple for dinner. Dessert was alsogreat; I had the chocolate coconut tres leches cake that the Bug was absolutelynot going to try, but she did, andshe absolutely loved it, so being the kind and generous mom I am, I shared itwith her. My mom ordered tea, and sharedmy dad’s banana meringue (pretty sure I spelled that wrong). We explored some more after, took somephotos, and my mom went to play craps.

 

For many people, this is where the night started… for me, we’regetting towards the end. We did end upwandering around a bit more because our steward wasn’t done in our rooms, butwhen we got back to the room and he was still there we just hang out on thebalcony, and enjoyed the cool evening, the sound of the waves, and the fact thattomorrow (today) was going to be all about me and whatever the heck I wanted todo. I have been taking photos too, sosometimes tomorrow (Wednesday) in Bermuda I’ll figure out how to upload themall.

 

Today (1 May) is my birthday, so if you're glum waiting for your cruise, in my honor, do something nice for someone, and make their day better. It'll help turn yours around too! :) And if you do something nice for someone, I really would love to hear about it!

 

And oh yeah, I’ve finished my first book of the trip.

Well I have been at work today and being that I am a healthcare professional I have helped many people already today and it’s not even my lunch break yet! 🤪. Happy birthday!!!

[Indykitten]

Happy birthday (belated by one day now, I believe)!

 

Thank you for the review. No worries about the spacing issue, I appreciate you taking the time.

We board in 12 days and I can't wait. Eager to see what kind of trouble you get into today - that's what sea days are for!:halo:

[spellkast]

Happy birthday! What a great place to spend your special day!!! :D

[exoticprincess]

Thanks so much for the live review! We leave in a few weeks and I've been waiting for reviews :)

 

If you get the chance, could you please see if Bermuda transportation passes are available on the ship? I've read mixed reports about them being available at shore excursions.

 

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Hi I was on escape last week , no transport passes on ship, you can get them outside at transport building down pier.

 

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[klfhngr]

I'm finewith the spacingissue, love yourreview anyways! :) Keepemcoming!

[exoticprincess]

How is your first-time Cruise Director Zach dong?

Hi I was on Escape last week, Zach is awesome, he is so layed back and funny, personable. He was great reminds me of a Jim Carey look alike, serious when needed and full of spunk. I was concerned being new , but he absolutely pulled it off !

 

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[mkmaj]

Hi I was on escape last week , no transport passes on ship, you can get them outside at transport building down pier.

 

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Thank you!

 

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[gmazz]

xitappers2bx...enjoying your review! Sounds like you are having a great time so far. It's our turn on 6/3 so the excitement is building as we are getting closer.

 

Anyway, Happy Birthday! Today is my oldest daughters birthday to :D

[barb65]

Happy Birthday! Enjoy your special day. Daughter and myself will be on June 3 sailing to celebrate my June 7 birthday (77 years old/yikes!)

Sailed the Escape last May and liked her so much that when we heard the Escape was going to NYC it was a no-brainer to book it. We live in Pennsylvania and only a five hour drive to NYC. Yay! No flying!

Anxious to hear about your likes/dislikes about Bermuda.

Edited May 1, 2018 by barb65
removed symbols

[shof515]

does the ship do anything for a birthday?

[Sweeney75]

A belated Happy birthday. Thanks for the review

 

 

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[boopsahoy]

So 2 of my bids say expired and the other says processing-I think that means I got the upgrade fr tom balcony to Haven Forward facing balcony! EDOCS havent changed yet though.....Is this what others that got the upgrade saw?

[CazV]

does the ship do anything for a birthday?

We celebrated two birthdays in our solo group last year on the Epic. They leave you a card in your cabin that you take to whichever restaurant you are dining in that evening and they bring out cake and sing Happy Birthday... it's a nice cake, but nothing fancy. :cool:

[McFins]

Happy Belated Birthday! Congratulations on being selected as Bingo Queen. Thanks so much for your entertaining and informative posts. Have a fantastic vacation.

[NJbeachMom]

So 2 of my bids say expired and the other says processing-I think that means I got the upgrade fr tom balcony to Haven Forward facing balcony! EDOCS havent changed yet though.....Is this what others that got the upgrade saw?

I got an email

[boopsahoy]

I got an email

 

Just got an email and my edocs are changed-woohoo!

[BirdTravels]

Hi I was on Escape last week, Zach is awesome, he is so layed back and funny, personable. He was great reminds me of a Jim Carey look alike, serious when needed and full of spunk. I was concerned being new , but he absolutely pulled it off !

Cool. The Escape's prior cruise director, Scott, terminated his employment and career in the cruise industry at the end of the Caribbean season.