PaulInPGH

Thank you for the awesome review! Although we've been on a lot of NCL cruises, our upcoming sailing on the Escape will be a first for us. It was interesting hearing about your experiences at the various places to eat on the ship, but it seems that you had some trouble booking your specialty restaurant dinners on board. Was specialty dining mostly booked already by the time you got to Headliners to make reservations? We booked our cruise long after the booking window for specialty dining opened, so there's really nothing available to pre-book online....getting a little worried that we won't be able to get reservations for two anywhere!

 

 

 

Kathy

I was a bit concerned about this myself, because we saw the same thing when we went to book restaurants (probably tried booking about 2 months prior to sailing). Other than Moderno, which was available, all the other restaurants were showing no availability for parties of two. I called NCL and was told they only make a certain number of tables available for pre-booking, and that we should have no problem booking once onboard.

That turned out to be true; we were able to make reservations without any problems on the first day of the cruise. You may need to be a little flexible with your dining times, but you should be able to reserve the places you want without a problem. Even when we missed our initial reservation at Le Bistro, they were able to get us in the following night with no problem with same-day notice. Things do seem to fill up though, so if you know what nights you'd like to eat where, and can book it all as soon as you get onboard, that is certainly preferable.

P.S. No reservation required for the fantastic Pinchos! Just sayin'.

Cheers.

Such a great review! Did you write about your trip to Europe? I’d love to read it if you did.

 

 

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Thank you. Yes, I did write a review of our Europe trip. The link is in my signature.

Unfortunately, I got a bit overwhelmed with that one, and I lost steam about three-quarters of the way through. That's one of the reasons I made sure I wrote this entire review before posting it, as I didn't want to leave it unfinished again.

But writing this review has inspired me to go back and finish writing about that trip. That vacation was too fun not to completely memorialize. So if you see a review from September of 2017 suddenly show up at the top of the message board, you'll know it's me.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Thank you Very much Paul!!! I’m a Pittsburgh girl myself, married to a Jersey boy, now in Central PA. We leave on Sunday for Bermuda on the Escape, and your review was very enjoyable and enlightening :D Thanks again!!!

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm sure you'll have an awesome time on the Escape. Watch out for the ghost!

Cheers.

Thanks Paul!

You're very welcome, and thanks for reading!

Cheers.

So, that concludes my vacation recap. Thanks to all who read, and I hope it was useful and entertaining. If you have any questions/thoughts/want to chat about anything in particular feel free to drop a comment.

Until the next cruise,

Paul

Day 10: Homeward Bound

As is our custom, we opted to carry off our own luggage during disembarkation, and it thankfully went much more smoothly than embarkation. We set our alarm for 7:30, and we were off the ship and in a cab by 8:15.

We initially planned on swinging back for another round of Zabar’s, but between the rainy weather and pulling luggage behind us, we decided to skip a second round of amazing coffee cake, and we instead headed straight for Penn Station. We grabbed a quick bite, and we spent the couple hours waiting for our train catching up on real life.

The train ride home was largely uneventful, aside from the terrible weather we rode through the whole way home. We got soaked when we got off the train in Alexandria, but we managed to secure an Uber and we were soon pulling our wet suitcases into our apartment building.

On the whole, we had a fantastic trip. Minor inconveniences like those we faced on the Escape never interfere with our ability to enjoy our vacation. That being said, I think we will try some of the more midsized ships next, similar to our favorite cruise to date on the Dawn. I’m sure, though, that if you choose to sail on the Escape, you will have a fun, memorable vacation!

Our final balcony photo.

We finished the night at the District. We were so full from dinner, though, we simply enjoyed Piano Manny and opted not to stuff anymore booze in our stomachs.

Thankfully, we had the foresight to pack earlier that afternoon, so when we arrived back at the cabin we had some time to enjoy our balcony one last time before finally, unavoidably, sadly heading to sleep.

Up next, Day 10: Back to reality.

After getting showered and changed, we spent some time bidding farewell to some of our favorite places and people on the ship. For us, this was primarily Cellars (and the very nice server we chatted with every evening), the District, and Tobacco Road. Orly was playing music at Cellars again, and we enjoyed a few final glasses of wine before heading to Cagney’s for our last night dinner.

But before dinner, there was one last item I wanted to consume again. Of course, I’m talking about the Scotch eggs from Food Republic. We stopped at the District for a pre-dinner beer, and an appetizer course of delicious Scotch eggs.

By now, the ship was rocking and rolling in some stormy weather. We were seated all the way at the back of Cagney’s, looking straight out the large aft windows. This was a great seat, except that being so far aft meant we could feel every single roll and bump, which made for an unusually exciting meal. The food at Cagney’s was excellent, as always. I particularly enjoyed the potato soup (this was a big trip for me and soup).

This was our day for O’Sheehan’s, as we dined there for lunch, as well. We revisited some of our classic favorites, knowing it would be a while before our next NCL cruise. We also played three more games of air hockey, of which I won none. Sigh.

We then spent another couple hours just relaxing in the spa, knowing that our time onboard was coming to an end. We eventually said goodbye to our favorite relaxation area, and we wondered how we’d do future cruises without spa access.

After leaving the spa, we ended up spending a couple hours enjoying our balcony. We found robes in our closet, which I believe were only provided because we had a spa balcony. We put on the robes and finally popped the bottle of Champagne we’d been saving all week. Sitting on the balcony in our robes and drinking our Champagne was one of my favorite memories from this trip.

Day 9 (Cruise Day 7): One Final Relaxation Day Before Reality Hit

We managed to sleep in long enough to miss breakfast at the Garden Café on the final sea day, so we opted to try our luck at O’Sheehan’s breakfast. This is usually one of our go-to breakfast options on cruises, but this O’Sheehan’s had left a little to be desired. Sure enough, we didn’t get several of the breakfast items we ordered, confirming that this O’Sheehan’s was definitely the most disappointing of the many we’ve frequented over the years.

After breakfast, we discovered an air hockey table near the O’Sheehan’s bowling lanes. This is one of our favorite cruise pastimes, and we proceeded to play three games (of which I managed to win one!). Considering the fact that I’m visually impaired, I count this as a major life achievement.

Like star athletes after a big game, we needed to cool down and relax following our intense air hockey matches. We headed up to the spa and worked out our strained muscles.

Our evening stop at Cellars had a bonus accompaniment to the wine that evening; Orly was playing jazz guitar from 7:15-9:00. We again enjoyed relaxing with a few glasses of wine (plus cheese), all the while listening to Orly play.

Since Margaritaville was so filling, we again decided to skip a full dinner. We instead revisited Pinchos and tried a few new items we’d overlooked during our previous meal there. When you dine there, DO NOT miss the beef skewers! They’re skewers ofpieces of steak and potatoes covered in an amazing beef stock sauce and a chimichurri type sauce. It was so good, we ended up ordering seconds. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

We again spent a relaxing evening listening to Piano Manny and Orly, drinking Retributions at the District and Getaways at Tobacco Road. I’m nothing if not predictable.

With only one day of vacation left, we were loathed to go to bed. We wanted to pack as much vacation enjoyment in as we could. Unfortunately, our late night stamina isn’t what it used to be, and we were once again back in our cabin and slumbering by about midnight.

Up next, Day 9: One last day at sea.

Allow me to pause here and tell you a spooky story, and why we believe our cabin was haunted. The first night onboard, we’d asked our cabin steward to fill our ice bucket in order to cool our complimentary bottle of Champagne. We ended up not wanting to open the Champagne the first night, and the steward dutifully kept it cold for us each day until we wanted to enjoy it.

However, every single night, in the wee hours of the morning, the ice bucket would make a very loud clang noise, as if someone forcefully put the lid on the bucket. This happened seriously every night, though I didn’t have the foresight to check whether it happened at exactly the same time each night.

After the fourth night of this happening, I jokingly mentioned to my wife that maybe it meant our cabin was haunted. And here’s where things get interesting: This particular afternoon, while my wife was showering, she was startled to see writing on the shower wall. According to her, the writing said FY DIE, which to me either means F-you, die, or we had a ghost with some particularly ominous thoughts about the upcoming fiscal year. She also said it kind of looked like the word DEVIL. Needless to say, she was weirded out, especially when she tried washing it off and it just reappeared. We had no additional ghostly encounters after that, but it was definitely spooky!

Really enjoying your review. Did you have to make reservations on the free ferry?

Nope. It was a first come, first served kind of thing.

Not really in the mood to explore the grotto any further, we hopped in the Spice H20 hot tub, which was nice and empty on this morning in port. We enjoyed almost a half an hour of private hot tub use before it began to rain. Wanting to save our beach bag from getting soaked, we hopped out of the hot tub and sought shelter from the storm.

We made our way back down to the pool deck and grabbed a couple of loungers under an overhang and protected from the rain. We went back to the pool deck because there was an activity in the Daily at noon that interested us, or so we thought. The Daily listed a “Born in the USA Video Concert.” To us, this meant they would be showing a Bruce Springsteen video concert on the poolside screen. This seemed to make sense—a ship leaving from New York would probably be full of passengers from New Jersey, for whom a Springsteen video concert would be something fun. But, sad to say, this was the greatest case of false advertising I’ve ever come across. There was a video concert, but where the Born in the USA part came in, I have no idea. Instead, it was random live performances by a variety of bands, none of which were Springsteen. It was weird.

The only way to cheer us up after such a letdown was a delicious lunch, so we headed back up to Margaritaville to relive the glorious lunch we had earlier in the week. Everything was as good as the first time, and I stuffed myself to the point of bursting.

Day 8 (Cruise Day 6): An (Almost) Private Cruise Ship

Because we ended up going to the beach on Wednesday, this left us with no plans for the final day in Bermuda. Rather than spend more time on shore, we decided to stay onboard and enjoy a quiet ship.

We again breakfasted in the Garden Café, which was still surprisingly busy for a day when many people were in port. Still, compared to a sea day, it was a delight. After yet more omelets, we made our way to the pool deck to enjoy the pool sans crowds. As I mentioned previously, this is really the only way to enjoy the pool on this ship if you don’t want to be pressing up against random strangers as you swim.

We enjoyed swimming in a quiet pool for a while before making our way up to Spice H20 to enjoy some quiet time in the grotto. Unfortunately, our peaceful grotto morning was interrupted by the single most disgusting thing we’ve encountered while on a cruise. As we were walking through the various sections of the grotto, my wife spotted a used condom stuck on one of the rock walls. Needless to say, this grossed us out. My wife alerted a crew member, who seemed none to enthused about the task of retrieving the thing, but they did address it promptly. This was just a reminder that on land or on sea, some people are simply disgusting.

Such a fabulous review !!!

Thanks very much. This one has been fun, because rather than take notes during the trip like I did for my last couple reviews, I did this one on pure memory.

That look darn uncomfortable!

 

It’s how I feel with most booth seating - table at armpit height [emoji45]

 

 

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It flat out sucked. There was not only the height issue, but the hard marble really killed my back/butt! There are some places with food worth that kind of pain, but this place wasn't one.

Relaxing in our cool cabin, not to mention a cold shower, was a must. We eventually felt cool and refreshed, and we yet again headed out to enjoy some pre-dinner drinks. As was our habit, we enjoyed a couple glasses of wine and some Manchego cheese to wet our appetite for dinner.

Dinner that evening was at Moderno. We love these types of restaurants on land, but we weren’t that impressed when we dined at Moderno on our Getaway cruise a few years ago. We decided to give it another shot though and we were rewarded; the food was very good, and we had a great time stuffing ourselves full of delicious meats (and amazing pao de queijo).

Our early morning caught up to us, so we decided to make it an early night. We spent a little quality time just relaxing and reading in our cabin before falling into bed.

Up next, Day 8: Enjoying a quiet ship.

Wahoo at Wahoo's.

When the tour finished up around 12:30, we were in need of some lunch, and some shade. We made our way over to Wahoo’s and yet again I dove head first into a bowl of fish chowder. In case you’re keeping score, the offering at Wahoo’s was our least favorite of the chowders we tried. While it had the most actual fish in it, it lacked the spicy complexity of the chowders we had the day prior. We did enjoy a lot of very fresh wahoo, and that was excellent.

After lunch, we popped in a couple of the shops surrounding the square to buy some souvenirs. I purchased a shot glass (which I buy on all of our vacations), and we bought some tasty-looking sauces to take home, including the sherry pepper sauce used in the fish chowder. My wife is working on coming up with a fish chowder recipe to try here at home and I can’t wait.

The ferry back to the Dockyard was scheduled to leave at 3:00, so we got back to the dock at about 2:45, but there was no ferry in sight. There was, however, a huge line with absolutely no shelter from the sun. The ferry ran late, and I sweltered. Weeventually made it on the ferry by about 3:15, and I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to be inside. The overall temperature that day was probably only in the mid-80s, but there was absolutely no cloud cover. The sun was very intense, especially standing in that long ferry line for half an hour.

More scenes from St. George.

St. George.

The trip to St. George took about an hour, putting us in St. George at about 10:00. Our plan for the morning was a walking tour of historic St. George. The guided tour is provided by the St. George’s Foundation and takes place Monday through Thursday and Saturday at 10:30. The tour is $15 per person and you do not need to book it in advance; just buy your tickets at the Visitor Information Center next to the Town Hall.

The walking tour was great, and I’d definitely recommend it. My only complaint is the tour was billed as lasting an hour and ten minutes, but in reality the tour lasted about two hours. While it was great that the guide took his time and gave us a lot of interesting information, the day was extremely hot and, thinking the tour was only an hour, we neglected to bring extra sunscreen. And, stupidly, I left my hat back in Alexandria. I’m sure I would have gotten more out of the experience had I not been worried about the sun melting my face off.

The longer-than-expected tour also cut down on the time we had to do other activities in St. George. We were also hoping to ride a horse and carriage around the historic town, but we ended up not having time to do that because of the extra time we spent on the tour. It didn’t help that the horse and carriage tour provider no longer provides half an hour rides.

Day 7 (Cruise Day 5): A Ferry Ride to the Surface of the Sun, I Mean St. George

This being the only morning of the trip we had a scheduled activity, we endeavored to get up at an early hour. My wife had the good idea to utilize room service for breakfast, giving us a little more time to get ourselves together after a late (for us) night the previous evening. The room service breakfast was surprisingly good. We breakfasted on our balcony and enjoyed customized omelets and some breakfast pastries.

We made it off the ship in time to take the free ferry to St. George provided by NCL, which is located just off to the right once you leave the terminal building, not to the left where the regular ferries dock. The ferry left at 9:00, but I’d advise showing up at least a bit earlier, as there was quite the line to get on a very crowded ferry.