thatjoeguy

Is a Mini Suite worth the $200pp extra cost? Bathroom looks nicer in mini suite. Thoughts?

It depends on whether you value the money or vacation time more. For us, having the double sinks was nice to get ready at the same time, and we don't really have the time to get away for another vacation with the money we could save in a cheaper room, so the upgrade is worth it to us.

Hi y'all! I've heard so many rave reviews about this venue, I'm excited to try it when we're on the Escape. Any recommendations for what dishes are especially good?

 

Is there a 'best time' to go? We haven't got reservations yet, I'm waiting for your suggestions. (we're Haven guests, so I believe we can get in upon request...?)

 

Thanks in advance!!

On our sailing in January, it always seemed fairly empty, likely due to being the only place not included in the SDP. We went twice in one day (dinner, then dessert) and were able to just walk in each time. That said, it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. We didn't end up going till the last night, which was a mixed blessing, because our bill would have been much higher if we'd known just how good it was at the beginning of the week. It's one of the few times when absolutely everything I tried (there were 5 of us, so over half the menu) was really good.

I assume that also means if I made a reservation for 6, and we actually have 7, they will add a chair? (The largest table size available was 6)

Maybe, maybe not. Not all tables can accommodate an extra setting.

Okay, you're right, I should have said "the cabins aren't really THAT much bigger than a balcony TO JUSTIFY THE PRICE DIFFERENCE. That's the part that is "just my opinion though." Actually, I suppose the entire post is the part that's just my opnion, not just the penultimate sentence.

 

Yes, the aft-facing penthouse compared to a typical balcony DOES have significantly more space - but it comes with a HEFTY price increase also! Not all of the pertinent cabins are available on OP's sailing for comparison, so I looked at the week following just to get numbers. For three people, including cruise, taxes etc, and gratuities:

 

Inside cabin 129-150 sq ft $2475-2505 (what OP is currently booked in)

Oceanview cabin 161-218 sq ft $2955-3205

Balcony cabin (guaranteed, midship, family, large balcony) 207-245 sq ft $3055-3155

Aft-facing balcony 229-332 sq ft $3355

 

Haven courtyard penthouse 328 sq ft $6497

Haven aft-facing penthouse 655-824 sq ft $6997

 

So you're correct, and if the comparison was between a Haven COURTYARD Penthouse and the Haven AFT-FACING Penthouse, the size would be a big difference for a _relatively_ small price difference.

 

But compared to an inside cabin the OP is currently booked in, she could upgrade to a balcony or even a non-Haven aft-facing balcony for $500-1000 more. (Those are both available on her sailing.) To upgrade to a Haven aft-facing penthouse would be nearly $4500 more! (And that isn't even showing as an option on the website for that sailing.)

 

To me, it is not THAT much space to justify nearly tripling the price. I acknowledge that the perks of the Haven are SUBSTANTIALLY more than just cabin size... I realize my original post was somewhat vague, but when you're starting with a price around $2800, I would consider $4000 to be well within my original qualifier of "unless you REALLY upgrade..." ;)

 

***All numbers are based on the current prices online for the sailings of 9/11/16 and 9/18/16. I recognize that upsell prices could vary and might make the difference in prices LESS than the numbers here. And if anyone got an amazingly better deal, then you rock and that's awesome for you. :)

Well, going from maximum inside space to minimum AFP space, you're increasing your space more than four fold for less than triple the price. If you booked the largest AFP, you're looking at half the cost/sf. Price per square foot is actually lower in either case.

Million Dollar Quartet is light years better than Legally Blonde. This is amazing news for you.

Having seen both, I'd take Legally Blonde over MDQ in a heartbeat. LB is such a fun show.

Hello,

 

I'm planning on boarding the Norwegian Escape March 12-19th for Spring break and wanted to get a better perspective of the nightlife onboard. From my understanding there is no dedicated nightclub on the ship and the new "Skyline" bar is acting as that main amenity. Although there are several bars and lounges I haven't seen any locations which plays dance music and accommodates a DJ (besides Skyline and H20). For those that have sailed on the Escape how is the night life throughout the ship (compared to epic, breakaway, or getaway)? Is the "Skyline" bar or "H20 Spice" as active and fun as "Bliss" on some of the other ships? Or is the omitted club something which will be missed onboard?

 

Any info or tips would be greatly appreciated.

We were on the Escape in January. Skyline functions shockingly well as a Bliss substitute. Although one part of it is open to the rest of the ship, it feels much like a contained club. We had multiple nights there past 2 am. The deck parties at Spice are, obviously, fantastic as well, though they end a bit earlier.

How busy is the gym, particularly the weights area? Will I have to fight people for a pair of dumbbells or is it a ghost town?

It's always been somewhere in the middle whenever I've gone. I've never seen all of the machines (or benches) full at the same time, but I've also never seen everything empty at once either. I feel it's usually a quarter to half full, so I occasionally had to wait for a machine, but never long.

For the aerobic machines, the "good" ones (in front of the windows) tend to fill up first, and I think there's been a time or two when all of the (for example) treadmills were full, but there were still bikes or ellipticals empty.

I am going back next week because there was a deal too good to pass up. ...I used to travel Disney and no longer do because they are twice as much as everyone else. And I chose this cruise because the deal was half the cost of rccl and ncl's normal price.

It seems the most important factor to you is the cost of the trip. The line has to make up funds from somewhere.

With so many changes, it seemed you could not possibly implement more policies that would grab another nickel from my pocket. Feeling safe, I again began looking into booking my first trip with you only to be surprised, or not I suppose, to find that you now will substantially raise both your beverage and dining packages. I'm sure this isn't the first time you've heard this, but you are never going to win converts from other lines with this nonsense. Beyond the price increases and everything else, is the simple fact that you are making those of us who are considering your product completely gun shy with all of these random changes.

Um...prices aren't static in the world. Milk is more this year than it was last year; that doesn't mean I'm never buying milk again. My house is worth more than it was last year. I make more money than I do last year. Things change.

Besides, I've had fairly good luck with the NCL changes. For my January cruise, I booked with the UBP when it was all included. Between booking and the trip, they raised the cost of the UBP and also made the cruiser cover the service charge. Neither of those affected me. NCL also changed the terms of the UBP so that it covered drinks up to $15 instead of $11. That did change for me as well. So...changes go either way, and NCL applies the positive (to the customer) after you've booked. That's nice to do.

I have been on 12 NCL cruises in the last 2 years and the majority of the time bar service has been very slow. Either I am unlucky or you are lucky. Maybe both.

What bars are you used to off of the ship? I usually have much shorter waits at the bars on the ship than I do at a busy bar or club back home.

Thanks for this post, I've never considered drink package before, math never added up, female and get off at ports and mainly drink wine with meals and go on ships that allow a couple bottles. But, fun to try when just pay gratuity, hopefully I don't overdo and feel bad, 3 glasses of wine is usually one too many but think I pour big! Anyway, I notice very high end beer and pretty nice cocktails allowed on the program but I was a little concerned good wine might be tough to find (i.e. If they price it just above 15 and don't allow paying differnce). Where did you find good wine on escape? I'd imagine the wine bar but do the specialty restaurants also have good wine priced just below 15?

The Cellars on the Escape (where we met every night before dinner) had over 200 different wines available, and over 100 different available by the glass. Of those 100+, I only remember 3 that were above $15. For those, as stated below, you only pay the difference. We'd often order wine there to take to dinner.

Hey all. We're heading out on the Breakaway in May with the mostly free UBP and (for the first time) the 4 day SDP. We'll probably use one of the nights for the $10 Cirque show, which leaves us three more. We got a surprise last-minute reservation at Teppanyaki on our last trip with a group of friends, and have done Moderno several times (enough that DH didn't want to do it on the last trip). On our cruise last year we also did a chef dinner type thing with Geoffrey Zakarian at Ocean Blue, though we've never been there to just order off the menu. We went to La Cucina several years ago, but they've since changed menus several times.

After giant block of text, on to the question: Where should we eat with our remaining 3 nights? Part of me wants to be fiscally responsible and try the three "normal" a la carte places (Le Bistro, La Cucina, and Cagney’s) and be done with it. Thoughts from anyone on here? Are any of the extra upcharge places worth the cost? Also, what's the best thing to get? Thanks all!

What is absolutely ridiculous is that you can get an expensive can of beer with it but you can't get a cheap can of cola. You have to get a cup, half full of ice and half full of watered down and sometimes flat cola.

You can order it with no ice (DH often does so) and it still comes out cool. I've never had it come out flat.

Ship's tap water is potable but the iced water seems to be extra filtered (same as a cold water cooler tap) and/or at least the ice cubes in it are made from filtered tap water making the iced water of different, imho better, taste.

The reason for that in most water is that the freezing gives the water time to de-gas, removing any excess chlorine that they use to purify the water. You can do the same at home by letting tap water sit out for several hours after taking it from the tap. I'm not sure if the ships use chlorine in their water filtration though. The other reason just could be the cold numbing your taste buds, so the water tastes "cleaner" when you can't taste as much. Either way, the melted ice water is fantastic when waking up.

We can get a free upgrade, as the price dropped quite a bit since our booking, but , is it really worth it?

As our current balcony, is on Deck 12, our preferred location, mini-suite on deck 10.

 

Thanks

DH really likes the minis over the balconies. I have to admit, the double sinks are really nice to give each of us our own space, and the larger showers are pretty great as well. Assuming it's free, I'd totally take a mini (any floor) over a balcony. To him, they're worth the upgrade charge as well.

Hey all. We're thinking of doing a slightly last minute trip on the Breakaway, which would come with the SDP and UBP. I know there's a $7 upcharge for Raw Bar and Wasabi, but I can't find any current menus to see if they're something we'd be interested in. If anyone can pass them along (or any Breakaway stuff that may convince me one way or another) that would be fantastic. Thanks!

Could I suggest that the OP changes "the male or the female" to "a male or a female" so that others like Turtles06 are not offended.

 

Mike

I think the problem is that even though I (male) do the cruise planning, neither my husband nor I terribly enjoy bikini-clad women.

I normally use a Canon t3i, but before the last trip also picked up a Nikon s33. As someone mentioned, it not having the viewfinder took some getting used to, but I really wanted something waterproof for the Virgin Gorda Baths. I did a bit of underwater with it on St Thomas as well. It does as well as one can expect for a $100 point and shoot. :)

someone did comment early in this post that there are lockers :)

From memory, the lockers are at the top of the trails. Unless you're VERY sure of your grip, I wouldn't recommend going through the baths with a good camera without some kind of waterproof case. I left my DSLR onboard and bought a cheap Nikon (ugh) waterproof point and shoot for the trip, and was very glad that I did.

Thanks, everybody. I will try calling NCL next, but others have reported waiting to speak with a live person for an hour or more, so I thought writing was better. That's not true so far. About the fundage itself--I am talking about USD $ money that was taken from my (or DH's) wallets and used to enable on-board accounts for each of us. I am not speaking of any types of OBC here. I am due $67 and he is due $200. If I ever sail NCL again, I will know I have to join that loooooong line on the evening before departure to finalize my account.:eek:

Any reason you didn't use a credit card? No problem in that case.

What ever happened to this program?

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/blog/index.php/2012/07/31/take-that-deck-chair-hogs-2/

That's what they were doing early January of this year on the Escape. It was great.

On our last cruise (Escape, early January) the crew was going around on the second sea day (day 3 of the cruise) and tagging saved chairs with time stamped stickers - after an hour they would remove items left and free up the chairs. This was great, since on the day before (sea day 1, first full day of the cruise) most of the chairs were taken everywhere, not just at the pool.

But if you get double promo plus the $100 casino credit.... I think it is worth it... my wife likes the larger bathroom...

They should get the casino credit either way.

We've been booking the mini-suite over the balcony for our past few cruises, ever since we were upgraded to one from a balcony. (This is the reason I'm hesitant to book in the haven - I'm not sure if DH would be able to go back to the non Suite life.) If you both get ready in the bathroom at the same time, the double sinks are nice. It's also a very nice shower. I believe the main room is also slightly larger in a mini-suite. The last time we booked, I believe it was about $200 more pp for the upgrade - I don't think I'd pay more than that for a week.

There are 2 ways to see The Baths. One way is with the NCL excursion which requires the climb down the steps and then back up the steps. The other way is to take a small boat into the baths and swim into the Bath's beach and then back out. I believe this second method would be less tiring, but more expensive.

From what I've read, swimming in to the Baths is actually more difficult than the hike down and up, due to the currents in the area.

We were a group of fairly active 30-somethings who did the trip, and I don't think any of us found the walk at all difficult. There are some tight areas in the caves, and also some areas that involve climbing.