Stealthdog

The Escape Casino is one of the better casinos we have seen on a cruise ship.  It is also one of the larger Casinos we have seen on other ships/cruise lines.  Its location (center, Deck 7) is the perfect spot to get to the Casino from all the dining and entertainment (non-pool deck) on the ship.  Over the two weeks, Eric played craps a little, but the majority of our time in the Casino was with the slot machines.  The table games looked like they got busy mid-late evening.  

There was a very wide range of slots and poker machines available on board.  Some of the more popular slots were often occupied, so you could tell which machines people like the most.  We didn't see any slot poll groups on either cruise, which is usually fun to watch.  The bar in the Casino is fairly large but got a little crowded later in the evening when the area turned into 18+ only and live music was being played.  It was nice hearing live music while in the casino (I'll discuss the entertainment on a separate post).  Servers were constantly available throughout the casino to get drink orders if you didn't want to go to the bar.

It looked like there were sections of the casino that was non-smoking (many of the slots had non-smoking signs on it), but I'm not sure that was followed.  We have been in casinos that were so overwhelming with smoke that we didn't spend any time during peak times - I wear contacts and large amounts of cigarette smoke can dry my eyes really quickly.  That was never the case on the Escape.  The amount of smoking/smoke in the casino was much greater in the first cruise than the second cruise, but never got to the point that we needed to go.  I still prefer a non-smoking casino, but it was well in the manageable range during our two weeks.  

You can print out slot slips or leave them on a digital account on your room card that you can access at any slot machine.  I liked that they gave both options - we are more old school and I like to print out my slip every time I leave a slot machine.  There were a few times that I swiped my card to sign off the slot and the balance was applied to the digital account.  One precaution is to make sure you don't leave the ship with a slot balance on your room card - we checked on the last day and printed up the balance on a slip to cash out with the cashier.  

The casino had the normal activities you will see in most cruise lines - slot and card tournaments, lottery, scratch cards, and NFL games where you guess the score each team has by quarter.  The slot tournament was the only one we participated in - Eric did it the first week.  There were multiple rounds and some of the highest scorers from each round qualified for the finals (they capped the # qualifying for the finals and the winner of every round didn't qualify).  It seemed to be a very lengthy process and we prefer these types of things to be immediate, so we didn't try it again. 

The staff in the casino was fantastic - the players club booth and the cashier.  Both were very quick in service.  Eric ended up qualifying for Pearl Status in the casino on got free water cartons in the casino on the second cruise - which seemed to be the biggest perk to us.  They did give him $100 OBC on the second cruise and comped some of his spa/shop purchases.  Note - do not use your points to gamble with.  Eric didn't realize it and used his first couple of hundreds of points on the slot machines.  

Compared to other ship casinos, I'd give it an A-.   From service to game variety, its a great casino.  

All the laundry is done, the holidays are over, and I'll close out this review with the end of cruise thoughts.  The goal is to complete this by the New Year.

Remember, that these are only the thoughts of one person, and my experiences or likes/dislikes can be much different than others.  And the uniqueness of doing a Back-to-Back gave me the perspective that experiences can even differ from cruise to cruise on the same ship.  I did not realize how much the other passengers impacted the feel of a ship until the 2nd leg of this B2B.

This morning we packed up our toiletries, clothes from last night, and a few other things we didn't pack and went to Savor MDR for breakfast while we waited for our number to be called.  It seemed like disembarkation started earlier than the planned time, with the self-assist guests getting an early start.  Yellow tags (our color) were called about 10 minutes early, so we headed to Deck 7 aft and proceeded off the ship.  It took about 20 minutes from the time we left Savor to collect our luggage, clear immigration, and leave the pier building to wait for Eric's brother.  After we got picked up, leaving the port had high traffic - portions of the road had multiple mergers and traffic from different piers loaded onto the same road.  Once we cleared the port area, we got home fairly quickly (with a short detour to First Watch for brunch to thank Eric's brother for picking us up).

Later last night we watched a little bit of the Howl at the Moon.  It was only about 1/4 full - most people were probably packing to get their suitcases out or having an early evening.  We moved towards the Atrium and realized we missed probably one of the funniest shows on the ship - the Movie Sketch Comedy Game Show in the atrium.  We passed through at the very end, while they were giving the answers to questions 16-20.  It was hilarious - the entertainment team does an outstanding job.  If you are all packed, already had dinner, and looking for one thing to do the last night - go see this Movie Sketch Comedy Game Show.  You won't regret it - we regret we missed almost all of it.  Its probably worth getting to the atrium a little early to get a good seat on the 7th deck overlooking the atrium.

We left Moderno a little after 730 and headed to the theater to catch the Rachel Dudt show.  We missed the first ~15 minutes of the show, so only caught the second half.  She again sounded really good, but it just seems like an incomplete show.  She was on a huge stage by herself - no musicians, no band, nothing.  Seriously NCL - if you want her shows to be successful, give her a pianist...a guitarist...anything.  At the end of the show, representatives from housekeeing, restaurant, entertainment, etc were brought up to the stage for a thanks for their service to the passengers.  It was well deserved - I'm going to go through my photos and notes this weekend, but this might have been the best ship crew I have seen and that is a testament to the leadership on board.

Finishing up Day 7 and disembarking thoughts.

Day 7 we decided to go to Moderno for a second time.  It was much busier at the restaurant than the first night we went, with people likely trying to use all their dining packages.  Because it was busier, the service was alot slower than our first dinner.  It could also have been that the waiter was not as experienced.  If you go to Moderno, ask to be seated with Julius.

This time around the salad bar was much more difficult, with several items being empty.  We watched the chefs repeatedly refilling items in the salad bar, so they were trying to keep up.  But, for us the salad bar is kind of a one time thing at the beginning of a Brazilian steakhouse experience, so we got what we got.  The main event (the parade of meats) is more important to us.

Once again, we were very impressed with the quality and preparation of the meats.  We could hardly detect any salt used, which is very uncommon for a Brazilian steakhouse.  Often they are overloaded with salt.  Also, the seasoning on the meats were nicely done and we could taste everything, particularly the rosemary on some of the cuts. 

Overall, the temperature, quality of meats, and seasoning of the cuts of meat at Moderno are superior to any experience we have had at a land-based Brazilian Steakhouse.  The choice of meats is more limiting - about 1/2 of what comes out in a land-based restaurant.  The salad bar is also more limiting.  We were very hesitant to go to the Moderno on the Escape because of an experience with Moderno on a different NCL ship.  But, the food at Moderno on the Escape is a homerun and worth the trip.  Well done.

56 minutes ago, slavetoabunny said:

Disembarkation was a breeze.  We'll be home by 9:50.

We just got home.  Was a bit of a bottleneck trying to leave the pier.

For those on the December 23 Holiday sailing, they already started disembarking 20 minutes ago, so get ready to get on your ship!  We left it mostly intact….maybe a few dents here and there!

We are back in port (pier 10), with all the others in their normal positions across/next to us.

We switched our luggage tags - Cruise next has the yellow tags for early disembark for lattitude reward members. It’s only 15 minutes difference, but anything to help with our grueling 1 hour ride back to Orlando. 😁

I’ll complete the Day 7 review when I get home today and over the next couple of days will transition from a live (stream of thought) review to a post cruise(s) review style,  Topics to be covered will at minimum will be:  specialty dining, evening entertainment, ship crew, itinerary, casino, gym/spa and activities, onboard credits and onboard account, reservations processes, and the overall ship design and feel.  If anyone wants another topic, let me know!

12 hours ago, 4Collinson said:

Hi. I'm on the Escape in a few weeks and was wondering if they are serving hash browns?  I can't eat eggs and don't like the breakfast potatoes.

I didn’t see any hash browns. 😔

Everything appeared to be breakfast potato style, at least in the MDR and Osheehans.  We walked through the cafe buffet a couple times and I didn’t notice hash browns there either.

I prefer hash browns to the breakfast potatoes too.  I would talk to the maitre D or supervisor of whichever restaurant/buffet you plan to have your breakfast and see if they can accommodate. 

Disembarkation details for Port Canaveral.

Casino at Sea info and casino events, for those interested in casino activities.  We did mostly slots on board, Eric did a little craps.  I’ll do some casino posts after we get home.

Day 7 daily.

There are a total of 4 ships in our port area.  The RCL ship, Celebrity, and Viking.  We are towering over the Viking ship. The irony of being on a Norwegian ship looking at a Viking ship flying the Norwegian flag made me break out in laughter….it shouldn’t be that funny. 😄 

It is a colder and windy day in port - Great Stirrup Cay would probably be similar, so not a great beach day anyways.  Eric and I decided to stay on ship and do some of the active things we haven’t done yet.  We played a game of horse (our tradition on cruise ships) in the sports complex and tried a round of bocce.  Eric decided to do one last, unplanned spa appointment.  That will give me time to get the hero comment cards done. 
 

We ate breakfast in Savor MDR and Emilia, the assistant maitre D at La Cucina and Savor surprised Eric with an avocado toast.  If anyone in the Haven is missing their toast this morning, sorry.  😂

On 12/15/2023 at 12:29 AM, WhenIsOurNextCruise said:

Does anyone have b2b experience they can share regarding Port Canaveral?  We board on Sunday and are curious how it will work.

Someone already linked my review that has written comments.  Here are the instructions they will send to your cabin.

Yesterday we also did the loyalty wine tasting again.  It was the same wines as last week, so nothing new for us.  We will provide this recommendation to NCL in post cruise surveys:

Swap the days of the loyalty wine tasting and the ship tour.  The ship tour is on the first sea day (Day 2) and the wine tasting is the last sea day (Day 6).

The wines being tasting are available at the speciality restaurants with the loyalty dining voucher with the bottle for dinner.  It would make sense to have the tasting earlier so people can try them and know which bottle they want to order with their dining voucher.

Similar concept - the Ship tour goes to the theater with a tour of the dressing rooms by the Choir of Man producer.  It would probably be a more fulfilling experience if people saw the Choir of Man first before doing the ship tour so they could ask the producer better questions. 
 

View of the Manhattan dining room from the wine tasting in Moderno.  It looks really nice and would be where we would want to go for dinner in the MDR. 

Last night we had our 3rd dinner in La Cucina, and it was another outstanding experience, really solidifying La Cucina as our 2nd favorite restaurant on the Escape.  Because the wind was so strong, no one was eating in the Waterfront.  
 

The only new items we tried this time were the calamari appetizer (Eric) and the lasagne pasta (me).  The lasagne was outstanding -  it can be ordered as an entree size which would be really filling.  Even the pasta sized portion was huge. The flavors were outstanding.  It is a little heavy though - so if you are looking for something lighter, try a different appetizer/pasta.

Eric got the aglio olio with shrimp (off menu) and I got the osso bucco again.  We both finished the might with the tiramisu, which is the best desert in La Cucina. 
 

Italian restaurants usually aren’t high on our specialty dining lists, but the La Cucina on the Escape is fantastic.  

This was the first time I have ever seen a ship doing a docking (RCL ship), so that was really cool.  We got to see where the the ropes come from to tie to the pier.  And they had this huge hand thingy waving to us as they passed to their pier spot. 😂

We are docked in Nassau.  All clear was given about an hour ago for people to leave the ship.  We are within sight of Atlantis and Paradise Island.  We have been to Atlantis twice for weeklong stays and Nassau several other times on cruises, so we probably won’t leave the ship today.  The RCL Freedom of the Seas pulled up next to us. 

Atlantis is awesome for anyone who has never been there.  It’s a huge water park with several sea animal experiences (dolphins and stingrays).  Our favorite thing to do is to just lay in tubes in the lazy river for hours at a time.  
 

Nassau as a port is common in Caribbean cruises.  It’s not a particularly exciting stop, but there is always a lot of water based activities to do, either through the cruise line or private tours.  NCL added two tour options for passengers for today - combos of water and land tours.  We have done a water tour around Paradise Island before to see the big mansions en route to local snorkeling.

We have never been to the Baja Mar resort in Nassau and that’s on our list of things to try.  

Supper Club - Rachel Dudt.  We saw Rachel Dudt at the supper club last night, without the meal.  She is an outstanding singer.  We heard some negative feedback about her theater show earlier in the cruise, which we didn’t go to.  With the Other Guys departing tomorrow, Rachel Dudt will probably be the best show in the supper club moving forward.  
 

You can tell she has a theater background.  Her final song from Wicked may have been her best one.  She is hands down the best female vocalist on board. 
 

NCL - give the woman a band.  This was the first performance we have seen on board where there was no live band, so it felt like her show was missing something.  With a live band, her Supper Club show will be great.  I imagine her Vegas shows were awesome. 
 

We would go see her again.  Her voice and presence is perfect for a lounge environment.  Not sure what people didn’t like about her theater show, but her Supper Club show is worth seeing. 

It’s official, GSC cancelled and replaced with Nassau (6am-130pm).  Eric has given me a future vacation credit for a beach weekend in a Florida location of my choice for MLK Day weekend as a makeup for our beach days getting canceled for my Bday cruise. 😁

29 minutes ago, wolft927 said:

As far as GSC this would be week 3 of missing but at least you do get another port day even if it’s Nassau. We cruise on the escape 2 weeks on the 6th, would like the private island day but honestly we also love sea days 

Missing GSC is a bummer because I love the private islands and we haven’t been to GSC yet.  But, we are kind of treating this B2B a little like a floating resort, so we will survive.  Besides, I got 2 CruiseNext Certificates so we will have a chance again.  Though I do like certainty (well, as much as I can get) and itineraries with tender ports may be low on my wish list for future cruises. 

I finally was able to spend the rest of my non-refundable OBC.  We really wanted to avoid scrambling tomorrow to make sure it was all used.  Eric’s mother is in for a surprise with a nice post cruise present.  Who am I kidding - she gets perfume every time we cruise, so no surprise.  😂

On 12/19/2023 at 10:32 PM, APDMOM said:

O'Sheehan's lunch:

 

Pretzel bites, sweet chili wings, the Wrangler Burger and the Coney Island Hot Dog.  The Wrangler Burger was our favorite.  I also enjoyed the Passion Fruite Lime Cooler - refreshing and not too strong.

 

TIP: Ask for extra BBQ sauce on the side for the Wrangler Burger.  The BBQ sauce on this cruise has been really good.

 

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on the wings?  I liked them much better on previous NCL sailings, but am begrudgingly eating them.  I already have next Tuesday circled on my calendar to go to Miller’s Ale House for a wing night. 😂

On 12/20/2023 at 10:36 AM, mking8288 said:

Thanks for sharing those pictures, I see one of our favorite HD is back from his Fall vacation ... if you get a chance & have time, please kindly see if you can take pictures of the HDTV display **** of the ship's senior officers, bridge & operations, usually on one of the monitors near Guest Services/Main Theater ... post here,  Mandy loves to compile them & post on the "Where Are They" running thread, a new one to start soon for 2024.  TIA.  The team onboard has earned a good reputation for being one of the best, if not the best, ship within the fleet for services. 

Not sure if you got this, but after 12 days, I finally found the officer board.  They had one in the crew section I saw in the behind the scenes tour, but no photos were allowed.

I finally have some time to catch up on these other reviews!