TenForward

I have attached an image of the NCL ferry schedule for assistance planning your time in Bermuda. Thanks to Sail Bad the Sinner! I used my computer's "Print Screen" function to print mine out.

 

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/SailBadtheSinner/media/bWVkaWFJZDoxMjc3MTU1MDI=/?ref=

Thank you for this!

You're guaranteed to get a lounger. The lounger is also under an umbrella if so desired. Said lounger is also padded and covered in terrycloth. None of these three things are for certain in Spice H2O and the third is impossible since they only have the normal generic loungers that are prevalent all over the ship except in Vibe and the Haven. There is also a camaraderie that develops between those that decide to utilize their membership privilege. And of course, fruit skewers, fruited iced water, warm baked cookies. And shot o'clock.

And private hot tub (and misters) :p

On my cruise in October 2016, DH and I planned on arriving early for passes after reading the boards here. Well we had a few small disasters and didn't get to port until 10:30, Group 7. Still, we made our way straight to Headliners and obtained passes, no problem. There were a good 20-25 left (we could see the stack of envelopes they were taking from).

To answer someone else's question, yes, all parties must be present to purchase.

Which ship is that on?

 

 

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Sorry, that was on the Escape.

Free coffee and danish available for early risers on The Waterfront near The Wine Cellar.

Photo kiosk at The District.

Late night snacks at the buffet - little open faced sandwiches are delicious!

My one and only cruise was last October on the Escape. The ship was bigger than I personally wanted, but the Waterfront, bars/restaurants and general decor of the ship were perfect so we booked it. Crew were all friendly and helpful. I do think I'd prefer a smaller ship but I'm still not willing to give up the Waterfront Space...it was heaven. And after the first 2 days crowds smoothed out. Except by The pool. Never by the pool. Way too small. The slides were fun and DH loved the racer. He went several times. Enjoyed every meal. Mini suite was well appointed and comfy. We enjoyed our cruise. It won't be our last!

Thanks for your feedback and support! I'm still hoping to post more pics tonight but Photobucket is no cooperating :(

Jay West - I didn't use wifi on the ship... we took the UBP and SDP. Unfortunately, most reviews of the wifi have not been good. Oh, I did try using the iConcierge App but could never get it to work - that could have been my phone's fault, IDK. Crashed every time.

Sorry, I had hoped to post more yesterday. For anyone still reading...

Our first morning we had coffee on the balcony – so relaxing! And the blueberry muffins through room service are delicious! We saw dolphins jumping alongside the ship (thank you little boy from a nearby balcony for yelling that out or we would have missed them). A little while later we saw a shark skimming along the top of the water – that was cool. And creepy. We noticed on the navigation channel that we were taking a more southerly route, just offshore from Cuba. This was likely due to Hurricane Nicole. I found I really enjoyed having the “View from the Bridge” (muted) whenever we were in the cabin.

We attended the cc M&G at Cagney’s. It looked like a good turnout of about 30 people (maybe more). Thank you SeaShark for setting that up! The Washy-Washy guys were there and boy did they put on a show! Senior Officers attended and were more than happy to answer questions. One of them was celebrating a birthday so we had a ‘new’ cakey-cakey song…

Since our cabin was pretty far forward, we were conveniently just a few decks down from Vibe, but FAR from the buffet. *Newbie Tip*: We quickly learned it’s much easier to travel Bow to Stern using the cabin corridors (follow those fish!) and then popping out into the hall to take the stairs or elevator. I appreciated that the carpeting changes color when you reach the stairs. Little things like that made it easier to navigate.

That night was dinner at the Supper Club to see the Frankie Valli tribute – great show! We thought the dinner was fine but not quite enough so we hit the buffet later that night.

We’re Giants fans and they were playing that night so we stopped by the District to check things out – it was early yet, around 5:00, I think, and asked about watching the game later. We were told no, they would be having music that night (music was listed on the Daily as well) and we were bummed that such a great spot to watch a game would not be showing it! The Daily showed the game was being shown Pool Side and I thought that could actually be fun -- watching the game under the stars on the big screen. (We learned the next day that they DID show the game at District and it had a great turnout with lots of cheering and yelling and just fun rivalry. We were really bummed we missed it!)

Anyway, still on Sunday night, so DH and I went to Wave’s bar a deck above the pool to scout out a good viewing spot for the game when the Captain made an announcement that there was an emergency and there would be a helicopter evacuation. The Coast Guard arrived making several (5 maybe?) attempts flying around the ship for about 15 minutes before actually flying directly overhead for the evac. The blowback was crazy – sending ashtrays, cups, napkins, all flying across the deck. The helicopter hovered above the helipad at the bow but didn’t land (I thought it would)… instead it dropped a rope & a basket. They made two trips with the basket (not sure why the 2nd basket unless for family member) and then the Guard Member climbed up the rope and they flew off. Everyone on deck waved to the departing helicopter and family – as a way to say – hope all’s well, or God Speed – along those lines. It was sad to think what that poor family was going through. I was a bit surprised they hadn’t asked passengers to vacate that deck – or at least head aft while this took place. Perhaps it’s just logistically too difficult to do but it seemed like one wrong move and there could have been a really big disaster.

We ended the night back on our balcony with our eReaders and just enjoying the sound of the waves.

Monday

Early morning coffee on the balcony (did I say this was my favorite spot to be?). Spent the day in Vibe and chatted with some very friendly people from all over – many of them drove in as well, some from Chicago and Minnesota!

I found the best free coffee onboard is set-up on the Waterfront near Wine Cellars

Dinner at Moderno. Food was delicious and service was excellent. I love Caipirinha’s and the Strawberry one was fabulous! We have a Rodizio Brazilian steakhouse near us and enjoy going there – I’m going to see if they’ll make me my new favorite drink :D

Chocolate Covered Strawberries in our room from the Hotel Director. We got another delivery later in the week with more strawberries and chocolate candies and another tray of goodies from the guys in Vibe.

I noticed a lot of motion that night with ship. Fortunately didn’t feel nauseous but things were moving pretty good.

Tuesday St. Thomas

We took a taxi to Sapphire Beach $20.00 for the 2 of us. Rented chairs and snorkel gear. The beach was nice, not too crowded but it started pouring after about an hour. Everyone crammed under the tikihut bar and just hung out with drinks for 30-40 minutes until it stopped. DH loved the snorkeling there. He saw tons of cool fish and 2 eagle rays.

Back to the ship and Food Republic for dinner. As other’s have noted – there’s some really delicious food to be had here. Newbie Tip: When you pay (using the tablet thing), it automatically adds not just the tip; but an extra tip as well. So just be aware of that. We are good tippers, my husband especially will go way over for good food & service, but this kind of thing is annoying. Adding in the tip, fine. It’s easier for everyone. But adding in Additional Tip? Nope.

We wanted ice cream from the Dolce place on the Waterfront but it wasn’t open. We only found it open once the entire cruise, so up to the buffet for a dessert – or two!

Back to the balcony for reading and waves.

One thing we noticed (and were prepared for because of reviews here) was that there were masses of people *everywhere* – but that only lasted for the first 2 or 3 days… then they seemed to practically disappear.

I loved just standing Aft and enjoying the view:

AdoraBelle, I'm so sorry you were ill on the cruise. Thanks for letting us know how they handled things. I hope you're feeling better and you were able to enjoy most of your time on the ship.

Vibe:

Hi everyone, There are many fabulous Escape reviews out there so I plan to be brief…but if you’re anything like I was leading up to my cruise, you read every one with anticipation, looking for any little bit of insight and really just to ease (or add to?) your excitement until your day. :D I’ll post some pictures but they’re pretty basic, taken with my cell phone.

As the title says, it was my first cruise (for DH too) so we have nothing to compare to other than past vacations in general.

Some background – DH and I are in our early 50’s and have enjoyed many beautiful beach vacations (we love to have our feet in the sand and can stare at the ocean for hours on end). We booked this cruise back in March for our Anniversary in October. We’ve been together 30 years (married for 10) so wanted to do something special to celebrate.

After 7 months of planning, waiting and planning some more… the countdown had begun! Just 4 days left… and now Hurricane Matthew was forecast to hit a hairs-breath north of Miami... After receiving an email from our airline telling us we could make changes without penalty (we were scheduled to fly into FLL from NJ on Friday night) we decided to rent a car and drive a westerly route (with a stop at mom’s in SC) to FL. We were afraid if we waited, our flight would be canceled and then we’d miss our window to drive. We got a GREAT deal from Enterprise for $10/day rental with unlimited mileage and no drop-off fee for our one way rental. We paid $34.00 with taxes, etc.

We left Thursday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. and got into SC at 5:00 a.m., slept until 10:00 a.m.; gave mom a hug and were on our way again. We had no trouble at all with finding gas (I’d heard there were some issues with gas stations being out in FL) and hit only a little bit of rain/wind. We took Alligator Alley across to Miami, arriving about 1:30 a.m. When we were almost there, we learned our flight from NJ left as scheduled :p Ah well…it was nice to see mom – even for a minute. We also got an email from the Upsell Dept. offering us an H7 Haven Penthouse for $500/each. I think that’s a pretty good deal (??) but we decided not to do it. It was our first cruise and we just wanted to experience it -- and we weren’t really sure what we’d do with a butler, LOL.

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard/Brickell – nice, convenient and reasonable. Our plan was to be up early and to port by 9:00 because I’d read so much about VIBE and we really wanted this to be part of our cruise experience.

Long story short – Morning calls from credit card company about possible fraudulent charges and getting VERY lost trying to return the rental car in the a.m. – we finally arrived POM at 10:30 a.m.

Frazzled and annoyed, we were holding our “Boarding Group 7” pass and grumbling through our “Welcome Aboard” photo, LOL. It had already been a looong couple of days and what was supposed to be fun morning had started out pretty stressful. BUT, we finally had our first cup of coffee and before we could even finish we were being called to board – yay!!

We went directly downstairs to Headliners to get in line for *fingers crossed* Vibe passes.

On board, Vibe passes secured, it was time to finally relax! We settled into the waterfront with our first drinks (UBP) and to send a few final texts before we lost contact…

A few pictures of Vibe… [next post as it says I have too many pictures already] What a great place to relax – misters, shower, hot tub, private bar and these nice loungers. And of course, the great guys who took care of us, Rommel and “Minion”. Rommel was leaving the ship on 10/15 for his 2 month break. Good for him!

We explored the ship a bit before it was announced cabins were ready. We went to ours -- 13790 and unpacked before heading to muster. An early dinner at Pincho’s (delicious!) and then we watched Sail Away from Vibe. What a gorgeous night!

DH likes to relax at night with a decent glass of port (non-existent on the ship), a good cigar and a book. I had hoped he’d be able to take advantage of the Cigar Bar for this in the evenings while I explored the ship or sat on the balcony. Unfortunately, the Cigar Bar was packed with very drunk cigarette smokers... not what either of us envisioned. That space is just too small for that many people. We decided we'd look for a new spot tomorrow.

A nighttime snack in the buffet and we were ready for bed. It had been an exhausting few days!

This was likely my longest post… I have a few more comments and pictures I’ll post tomorrow. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them if I can.

Would appreciate any info on if there are spa specials on certain days, and what those are.

 

Also interested on how timing of disembarkation goes. We are planning to walk-off in a few weeks, and have a flight from MIA at 11:59am.

Husband and I did the walk off this morning. It was a breeze. We left our room at 7:30 a.m. and were in MIA at 8:30 a.m. Our flight was at 11:37 and we had no trouble at all. Skipped coffee on the ship and had it at the A/P. Little place (forge the name) after security next to Pizza Hut has free refills.

Just back today from our 10/8 Escape cruise. Rebel Yell was the one and only ship excursion we signed up for. Our JVD trip was set for 10/12 at 7:00 a.m. It was a beautiful morning but unfortunately, the seas a bit too rough (thanks to Hurricane Nicole) to disembark at JVD. Honestly, it didn't look rough to me at all and I'm a chicken in the water, but I totally understand they'd rather be safe than sorry.... [side note: NCL ended up canceling the Baths Excursion due to rough seas]. So after the 40 minute-ish ride to JVD (and catching a teasing glimpse of that beautiful beach, Gertrude's and all those hammocks, we were off to Norman Island and more secluded (calmer) beach. There were very few people and even fewer chairs though we were lucky to snag two. The bar was not open yet but the water was calm and invitingly blue. As NI is much closer to where we were docked, we were able to hang out on the beach until noon before the short ride (about 20 minutes) back to port. All in all a lovely day and money well spent. I'm really bummed though that we missed out on White Bay Beach. It looked picture perfect.

You could do a one-way rental of a van and hit the road now, you'd still make it if you drive through, rotating drivers. You could drive to where there are flights available. You could fly into somewhere south where they are getting flights like Tampa and then do a one-way rental, drop at MIA and cab to the cruise. I wouldn't let this hiccup stop me, your return tickets should still be good.

 

Best of luck!

This is what DH and I just did, only we left yesterday afternoon (from NJ). We are at my mother's in SC (west side) and will be leaving shortly for the drive to Miami following a western route. The cost of the one way rental car with Enterprise was $10/day and unlimited mileage... I couldn't believe how cheap. They said they were repositioning cars to the area so good deal for us! We can still fly home after the cruise and will be refunded the outbound flight.

I guess I just love Andrew more.

 

 

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I have cousins (who are brothers), named Andrew and Matthew :(

We are looking at driving down now from NJ for the 10/8 sailing. Will decide for sure tomorrow morning...

We're flying in Friday evening from NJ. Hoping that will work out, or, if necessary, still have enough time to get another flight in before Saturday Sail Away at 7:00.

Safe travels all.

Not quite as big but these are from September http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51074340&postcount=3

edit for full thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=51085655&highlight=escape

Thanks for the replies... I love hearing everyone's input/experiences - seems I always find something new!

I had heard about the photo booths you could email, etc. but didn't know where to find them. Thanks mnd_brooke, now I'll know right where to drag DH :) Looking forward to the rest of your review.

I'm looking forward to this! I'm a first time cruiser too sailing in 15 days! :D:D Like you, I've been doing tons of research thanks to everyone here on CC. I never tire of reading every new review, lol. We also have a mini suite, on deck 13 and were also thinking of LaCucina for the sail away... were you overlooking Miami or the wide ocean? I'm a foodie so would love to hear more about your meal there (or anywhere!). :)

Thanks for posting! Looking forward to more of your review.

Can't wait to hear more! We sail on the Escape in July. And I too have read Gambee, JW, and JimZim's reviews. Love all the detail in those!!

All great reviews. If you haven't read CamaCama's or VegasChick's Escape Reviews they're also fabulous. Lots of pics.

someone posted the link here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48953648&postcount=3

Haven't stayed there yet but we have reservations at the Courtyard by Marriott in Brickell next month http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/miadt-courtyard-miami-downtown-brickell-area/

We were able to upgrade to a Spa Balcony after final payment for $248.00. Kept our promo's but now have thermal spa privileges, which would have cost us 398.00 + 18% .

 

We were happy paying the extra.

First time cruisers who sail the week after you and have been mulling this idea over... Can I ask what category you were originally in? We have a midship mini on deck 13. The only thing holding me back really is that available Spa Balcony's are on Deck 15 and I'm a bit concerned about noise and/or motion. Any thoughts? The Thermal Spa sounds like the perfect perk for our 30th Anniversary.

Hey, thanks for these recent dailies!

I was on this cruise and while I don't know all that was served since we did this as a snack after dinner in the dining room, we did find lobster claws (used a salt shaker to crack the tough ones), shrimp cocktail, and saw grilled shrimp and a bunch other seafood dishes at the buffet on seafood night. O'Sheehans had essentially a fried seafood basket.

Thanks for the feedback!