Norwegian Escape, w/o July 23rd report

[hallux]

44 minutes ago, odie1024 said:

What night was the show as I want to be sure I have my dinner reservations planned right?

It plays two nights, and can change from cruise to cruise...

[wally4ever]

23 hours ago, odie1024 said:

Great honest review.

 

I was on the Escape about 6 years ago and really liked it especially the waterfront area. Clarence (chocolate cowboy) was the bartender and such a sweetheart. I'll be on again in September for the NE/Canada cruise and hoping Choir of Men will still be on the ship. What night was the show as I want to be sure I have my dinner reservations planned right? It does sound like the show was more than one night which helps and do you make reservations once you get on the ship. 

 

I was on the Dawn in February on a B2B and have to say O'Sheehans on that ship was pathetic. Both the food and service were not good and we have been many times on previous ships.

I think they usually try to do the big shows on Sea Days.

[quagmire0]

Just a follow up for anyone thinking about going on the Escape and might be swayed by the negative reviews:  don't.  I actually left a positive review a week or two ago and it's yet to be posted.  Whether it's a conspiracy or not, I don't know. 😄 We had a great time, and any problems we encountered were ones that could be encountered on any line on any ship.  Many of the negative reviews I see seem to be more related to people who aren't used to cruising, and thus are surprised by things that are pretty commonly known. 

[NancyW12]

To the poster who said the Waterfront would be especially good for inside cabin people- THANK YOU! I just got off the 8/6 sailing (inside cabin) and did a sleep, eat, thermal spa, waterfront rotation the full time. I remembered you saying that and followed that instruction. Brilliant!

 

Gonna add a couple of other things- unlike the Haven lady with the live post from my same cruise, I go as inexpensive as possible (the officers did not send dessert snack plates to the inside cabins LOL). I buy the cheapest sailaway cabin on board and a weeklong thermal spa pass, purchasing drinks as needed. This was my third NCL cruise and it wasn't my favorite ship. I think after doing the Pearl, Epic, and Escape (as well as some other cruise lines), that I really prefer the intimacy of a smaller ship, so favorite ship right now goes to the Pearl. Plus, the kids were...a lot of kids. The ship was 100% sold out. If a ship doesn't have a water slide, it generally doesn't have kids- just sayin'. Agree the pool deck was brutally loud and crowded, but the only time I went was to walk from the buffet to the thermal spa at the other end and just laughed internally. All these people shoved 12 to a hot tub or (literally)200 people jammed into a pool and 500 feet away is a calm oasis. hahahahaha.  In the Before Times, there was more abundance displayed on the Epic than the Pearl and I expected that on the Escape- such as the mid-afternoon grill out at the pool deck, the full scale Broadway shows, the Latitudes bottle of wine in the stateroom. But that's all gone in the After Times, so I don't know that a ship's size defines the amenities anymore. I loved Choir of Man and the Syd Norman shows at the Pourhouse, but the rest of the entertainment didn't hit my notes. The performers hinted that they were on two week rotations in and out so whoever goes two weeks from now will have different comics and piano players, etc so my opinion doesn't really hold water.

 

Due to some dietary restrictions, I mostly ate in the buffet. I was surprised that the menus were fairly common on the same night in the dining rooms and the buffet- usually the buffet is a day behind with repurposed leftovers, but not here. The food was excellent! The lighting was all the way up and people eating dinner in their pool clothes and kids running with a soft serve in their hand. If you are on the Escape and want a quieter buffet, go all the way to the back across the aft and it's as quiet as it's going to get. 

 

Shame on me for not researching the ports, so I can't *****- our itinerary was Honduras, Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. I didn't like that at the first three, we were essentially on an island and there wasn't really a local experience to check out independently. You docked and either did the ship's shore excursions, haggled with a guy at the official shore excursion sale point, or walked in the predetermined, prescribed shopping path around similar stores and bars at each port. But that's on me, not NCL, and most of those ports had the other ships docked as well, so any cruise line would have had the same experience.

[hallux]

8 hours ago, NancyW12 said:

To the poster who said the Waterfront would be especially good for inside cabin people- THANK YOU! I just got off the 8/6 sailing (inside cabin) and did a sleep, eat, thermal spa, waterfront rotation the full time. I remembered you saying that and followed that instruction. Brilliant!

I can't take ALL of the credit - someone suggested that on my last cruise, where I stayed in a Studio...