My Week on the Escape 10/28/18 - 11/4/18

[ljrfrm]

We went to the Escape Theater to see Bob Brizendine - "The Magic Cat Himself".  If he happens to be on your ship, OMG, go see him. He is hilarious.  His show is much more about comedy than his magic tricks (which were good too) but we were laughing up a storm.  We had a great time!  Following his show, we stayed for the traditional NCL farewell song. Our friends had never seen this so I definitely wanted to stay for it.  The seas had died down so much but we were still rocking. It was funny at one point when all the staff was on the stage, we rocked to one side and they all leaned that way simultaneously.  I guess you had to have been there but it was funny to see.  

 

We were down towards the front of the theater so it took us forever to get out. Once finally out, we wandered to the Atrium to see the Battle of the Sexes.  There was no way were were going to get chairs and it wasn't worth it to us to stand so we moved on.We hadn't been to the mojito bar on the cruise yet, so we went by to pick up drinks.  With drinks in hand, we walked around a bit and then discussed our next stop.  We hadn't been to Howl at the Moon yet (weird, as we usually are there most nights on other cruises) so we decided to hit Headliners.  We stayed for about an hour.  I ordered a Cosmopolitan and gave the server my card.  He came back a few minutes later and told me I had the wrong card. The card was for someone named "Matthew". How did that happen? Usually when the servers return the card, they always look at the names, and will read the name outloud to ensure they return the correct one.  The server told me I needed to go to Guest Services immediately to request another card.  That would then cause my initial one to be deactivated so nobody could use it and buy anything.  I was not a happy camper. Not at all. Has anybody seen that Guest Services line on the final night of a cruise? 

 

In all my cruises, I have never needed a replacement card - this is a first and I couldn't figure out how it happened. I used my card for the mojito no problem.  I left Headliners (everyone else stayed and they just saved my seat) and went to guest services to wait in line.  While in line, I pondered what happened.  I realized that my friend actually used her card for the mojitos so that last time I used my card was at the Brewhouse.  Aha! That's it!! I gave my card to the server for my Red Light District and asked my husband to get my card back while I went to pick up the deck of cards.  He must have gotten the wrong card back. This is his fault!!  I was so happy - now he couldn't say anything about me being wrong about the couples massage. Now, I have something on him too!  The guest services line actually moved quickly and I also lucked out that the line wasn't too long.  Later, I saw it was much longer!  They printed me out a new card, deactivated the old one and also looked at my cabin charges to make sure nobody had used my card.  I wish I could have told them I didn't spend the $187.62 on the hot stone massage, LOL.  There were no charges on my card and my guess is it was still at the Brewhouse.  At this point, I'm wondering if Matthew is in line with me also, getting his new card.  I later asked my husband about the card, he didn't look to confirm the name on it because the server seemed so sure that it was his. The funny thing is the server was from Vibe and he had been calling my husband by name all week - and it wasn't Matthew.

 

Once I had my card, I returned to Headliners where I finally enjoyed my Cosmo and sang along with everyone else.  It's always a good time there.  Our friends were tired so decided to head up to bed.  We decided to leave too - although I knew I wanted to make a stop on our way back to the cabin. I just had to go to O'Sheehans one more time.  I ordered wings and they were finger licking good again.  I was stuffed full but I just had to do it. I ordered dessert.  I ordered the Brownie Cheesecake and ate every last bite.  I sure went out in style.

 

I pretty much rolled out of the restaurant and back up to the cabin. We had quickly packed most of our clothes earlier in the day but we needed to finish putting everything else in.  We got everything packed up other than a small duffel bag we left out for our pj's and toiletries.  I added the last few items and we put our luggage out into the hallway. That's it.  The final sign that the cruise is ending.  We went to sleep knowing in the morning we'd be back in NYC. I was unsure with our late departure from Bermuda (the Captain told us that wouldn't delay our arrival) plus the bad weather all day, if we'd arrive back on time or not. I guess we'll see.

[ljrfrm]

Today we needed to "fall back" and push our clocks back one more hour for the end of Daylight Savings Time.  I need to correct one thing in my trip report.  I wrote that yesterday morning my IPhone changed the clock back itself and being confused about time.  Well, I was the one that was confused.  It wasn't yesterday morning - I had to manually change the time.  This last day - our day of disembarkment - was actually the morning I was completely confused.  My phone hadn't changed on it's own at all - so I didn't expect it to do so this morning. As I had done every other time, I manually pushed my phone back one hour. That was a mistake.  My phone, even though still on airplane mode, knew it was back in NYC and totally had a mind of it's own.

 

I woke up on my own around 5:15 am and wondered where we were.  We weren't moving.  Or were we??  I wasn't sure but I fell back asleep again and woke up when my husband woke me as he was looking out the curtain beyond the balcony.  Where were we?  What time was it?  I looked at my phone and it said 6:15 am.  6:15?  What are you thinking?  Get back to bed!!! We weren't due in until 8:00 am. My husband told me we were docked. What?  That early?  I was going to wake up and watch us pull in.  My husband told me it was 7:15 - not 6:15. I guess my phone did change on it's own.  And, we also arrived early. I didn't expect that.  Not with the weather and waves we had yesterday. As I posted yesterday, we turned the TV on just to confirm the time - I was so confused.  Our friends told us they did get up and watch us pull in and she said the city skyline was beautiful.  Too bad I missed that - I could have gotten up when I thought it was 5:15 am.  Oh well.

 

My husband and I got dressed and ran up to the Garden Cafe to grab some coffee.  We only had one coffee pod with caffeine in the cabin - and neither of us wanted to grab one of the two Decafs that was there.  What good would that be??  We had planned to meet our friends at 8:30 in Taste for breakfast.  However, it dawned on me that the restaurants may have an 8:30 am cutoff  (I knew that was the time we needed to leave our cabins also) so we walked by the restaurant quickly to confirm hours.  Yes, we did need to go to the restaurant by 8:30 so I tested our friends, and we arranged to meet up at 8:15 am.  We returned to the cabin and packed up our last remaining items into our small duffel bag.  Once ready, we met our friends and went to Taste.

 

As we made our way to the elevators to head down to the restaurant, I saw a giant line of passengers waiting for the elevator. Nobody wanted to take the stairs because of their heavy suitcases.  Wow - time to take the stairs. Tip: If you plan to self-disembark with heavy bags, take the elevator early!!! We arrived to Taste and found no line - and we were seated immediately.  For our last NCL meal, I ordered muesli (of course, pancakes, bacon and hash browns.  And, of course....lots of coffee.  The muesli was weird today - it was not soggy/soft at all and was quite crunchy. It was still good - but not muesli.  It was like eating granola cereal.  Of course, I still ate it all. There were no "Good Morning Girls" today - this morning was all about getting us off the ship. That said, we still had awesome service.  Soon we were the only party left - and the team was clearly getting the dining room ready for the next set of passengers.  My friend craved a cinnamon roll though, and we asked it it was possible.  While she didn't think she could find any, she ended up coming back with a large plate full of many of them.  She was awesome - thanks!! We asked her if we were in the way if we stayed put -  it was so much for comfortable waiting there than in the Atrium or other public area. She told us no problem, so we hung out for another 15 minutes eating the cinnamon rolls.  At about 9:30 we picked up our bags and headed out of Taste.  

 

Just then, we heard the announcement for our Grey tags.  About 10 minutes early.  What perfect timing though.  We headed down and off the ship.  It was so simple.  So easy.  I couldn't believe it.  By 9:45 am we were not only off the ship, we already had our bag and were walking through customs.  15 minutes - start to finish. Not bad.

[ljrfrm]

Once we were off the ship and through customs, we followed the signs out of the terminal towards the taxis.  To our left, we saw a sign that said "Porters".  We didn't need a porter so kept going - I did later learn that if you go that way, they have taxis also.  Paying a bit for porters and a taxi may not have been a bad idea. It was crazy nuts trying to get the taxi.  We walked straight and out of the terminal, arriving to a crosswalk.  The taxis were across the street. As we were crossing the street, and man who was helping to get us across yelled, "Don't take transportation from these men. They are not yellow cab approved". There were a bunch of men in the middle of the crosswalk asking "Do you need a taxi".  I appreciate the heads up, and we told all the men "no".  I knew we needed a yellow cab.  One man told me he would take the four of us to Penn Station for $70.  $70 - you've got to be kidding me. I may have tourist written all over my face -but I'd sooner hoof it the whole way than pay even half that amount.  This morning was the NY Marathon and we had been a bit worried that we might have some issues.  While we were at breakfast though, we were able to pull up a map and it didn't look like we would have any problems.

 

We made it across the street and towards the yellow cab line.  A man came up to us and asked if we needed a taxi. He looked legit.  He told me he had a yellow cab.  AND, he told me he had a van which would fit us all in.  He said "I have a yellow cab". I asked him how much.  $40.  Uh, no again!!!  We looked at the yellow cab line and saw a van in line - about 4 cars down.  We walked up to him and he pointed us back towards the front of the line.  I know they had to go in order, but we needed the van (there wasn't anyone else there right then so we knew that van would go to us). So, we went back to the front of the line, and waited for him to pull up to us. We climbed in and by 10:10 am we were at Penn Station.  Even with the craziness of finding the taxi, it was only 40 min from standing in the Atrium to arriving at Penn Station. The total for our trip was $9.30.  A bit better than that $70 fare I'd say. We tipped him very well - as it was such a short trip - poor guy. Plus, he was a nice guy and we had lots of bags.

 

Our train wasn't leaving until 12:05 so we went up to the Amtrak window to see if we could take an earlier train. We were in luck - there were two other trains. AND, we could change to one of them.....for $500 each.  Uh, no thanks.  We found Starbucks, grabbed a coffee, and found a place to sit and read while waiting.  At one point, I went into the bathroom.  That was a mistake. Yuck - it was not a pleasant experience.

 

Our train pulled in on time, and due to being in the right place to get towards the front of the line (we scoped out where we thought the train would pull in and got in line early) we were able to find 4 seats together. The train was packed full.  We had a quick 4 hour trip back to DC - with some gorgeous scenery and fall colors on the way home.  A quick taxi ride to where we parked our car, and a 30 min drive later, we were back home.  Our dog was sure happy to see us.  I think our son might have been happy too.....he had run out of frozen meals so I'm sure he was glad we were home.

 

Edited November 16, 2018 by ljrfrm

[ljrfrm]

Closing thoughts: We loved our week on the Escape. Sure, I could find some small details that were irritating......many typical that others have complained about such as a crowded Atrium, or even bad weather.  But, a vacation is what you make it and we have learned to roll with the punches and enjoy every moment of the cruise.  I find the food great, the service fantastic and the UBP simply perfect. Our cruise was a great mix of sun (well, some days!), fun and lots of calories!  A perfect mix for us.

 

Despite my plans, there are always things that we haven't done. I still have never seen Spice H2O in the daytime, I haven't mastered the drop slide, I've never eaten a crepe on board and I didn't have my warm beach day I was anticipating. That just means that I'll need to do it again!

 

I'm off this afternoon for Key West (lucky me!!) for the week, so I won't have my computer with me. But, I'll do my best to keep up with this thread from my phone and tablet.  Let me know if you have any questions.  On a side note, I've never had a back to back vacation like this before. It comes in handy, as I still hadn't unpacked.  Once I return, I'll be ready to plan my next cruise!! 🙂

[mrsbear60]

Sounds like an awesome time.  Thanks for sharing!

[dcipjr]

Great review! It's been fun following along! Looking forward to your next cruise. 🙂

[Chrislynn55]

We were on the same cruise.....thank you for the wonderful review!

 

[cathi007]

Thank you so much for your amazing review. The Escape is a new ship for me and my first Mega ship experience, so I am looking forward to it. And I definitely want to try the drop slide, but I am going to have to find your review of your experience, I need to read this story, lol. Have a great time in the keys, and I will try to write a review after my cruise. Just one question, do you journal while you are on the ship? I don't think I can remember everything like you do. I am a grandma, so the memory just isn't as good

[rwf1]

That was a fantastic review!  Thanks so much!

 

[ljrfrm]

2 hours ago, cathi007 said:

Thank you so much for your amazing review. The Escape is a new ship for me and my first Mega ship experience, so I am looking forward to it. And I definitely want to try the drop slide, but I am going to have to find your review of your experience, I need to read this story, lol. Have a great time in the keys, and I will try to write a review after my cruise. Just one question, do you journal while you are on the ship? I don't think I can remember everything like you do. I am a grandma, so the memory just isn't as good

Don't let my experience scare you from the slide, LOL.  Do it! 🙂

I take some notes - I use the small notepad that NCL provides in the cabin and write down my meals and brief notes.  I also use the Dailies to help me remember more nighttime details.  I have an old brain too - the kind you go upstairs and can't remember what you went to get.  With my notes I start writing and it's funny the details that will come back -once prompted.

[OceanBlueWaters]

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED your Review!  You are too funny!

 

[Blondyblue]

I have a question...I noticed you said you stayed in the Haven on one of your cruises abroad the Escape. Would you say it was worth it? My husband and I are planning to take the Escape from NY to the Bahamas in March. Wondering if it is worth extra money?

[ljrfrm]

11 hours ago, Blondyblue said:

I have a question...I noticed you said you stayed in the Haven on one of your cruises abroad the Escape. Would you say it was worth it? My husband and I are planning to take the Escape from NY to the Bahamas in March. Wondering if it is worth extra money?

It was amazing and I dream to do it again!! We had an upsell and it was only $500 extra per person. I could never afford some of the Have rates now though without a deal. That said, if you ever have the chance to do it, it’s fantastic!