Trip Report - Escape May 6

Hello all. I have been able to accumulate a wealth of knowledge from these boards over the years and would like to give back just a little bit.

I just returned yesterday from the May 6th sailing of the Escape to Bermuda out of NY. I won't make this too long but will hit on the highlights of our trip. If you have questions, feel free to ask :)

We had a group of 5 for this cruise and we were in two separate cabins. There was myself, my wife, my 16 year old son in one room and our (slightly) older good friends, who could almost be our parents in the other room. We both had inside rooms in the very back portion of the ship. Our cabins were actually inside / inside cabins. We had to walk all the way to the back of the ship then come back in the middle. Our friends had the drink package but we opted for the 3rd / 4th guest sail free as our son was a semi-later addition.

All of us are from Columbus, OH and we drove into NJ the day before.

Pre-Cruise:

Our friends have never been to NY so we decided to drive into the city early and pass by some of the famous sites. Freedom tower, central park, empire state building, etc and then circle back onto the Hudson Parkway and into the terminal. I was lucky enough to find out about the 5 borough bike race a couple days before we left. To make a long story short we had to scrap the city tour idea and we moved our hotel to get an easier entry into the city. We ended up staying in Parsippany thanks to a fellow cruise critic member. We stayed at the Hyatt House Parsippany East and got it on Saturday for $122 including taxes for each room. The hotel was fabulous! The lobby and the room were extremely clean and the rooms were HUGE. We booked a queen bed and there was a pullout for our son. The room included a kitchenette with stove, microwave, fridge, dishwasher, etc. The bathrooms were large and there was a flatscreen tv as well. The beds were pretty comfortable (for a hotel). We were hungry so we walked to Annabella's Italian. We had pizza and subs. We highly recommend this place. The food was very good and the owners daughter served us. After dinner, we took a stroll through the neighborhood that behind the restaurant and enjoyed a little fresh air.

More to come shortly:

Can't wait to read more! We board this Sunday. Can you discuss the disembarkation? I am worried about getting off the ship with a 7 month old reading the other tread that disembarking in Manhattan, especially the Escape, has been terrible.

Can't wait to read more! We board this Sunday. Can you discuss the disembarkation? I am worried about getting off the ship with a 7 month old reading the other tread that disembarking in Manhattan, especially the Escape, has been terrible.

We did the express disembarkation and it was not that bad. They offered two different luggage tags for express and the rest for normal departure. Green was to leave around 7:45 and Orange at 8:00am but really didn't matter. In the Manhatten dining room, they have aisles that snake all around. At 7:15 there was already a decent sized line so we got into the line. Nobody checked luggage tags, color, etc. The line was really first come first serve. They used chairs as barricades to create the aisles and you can use them to sit down while waiting for disembarkation. Once we went through customs, I did get to peak at the luggage that was being brought in and it looked similar to Miami's operation.. chaotic but normal.

Subscribed! Looking forward to your review! We are leaving July 22nd!

Can we opt to stay on the ship for a while to let the disembarkation crowds dissipate? Or does everyone have to be off by a certain time? We live in NJ and are taking the train home, so we are in no rush to stand in lines if we don't have to.

Can we opt to stay on the ship for a while to let the disembarkation crowds dissipate? Or does everyone have to be off by a certain time? We live in NJ and are taking the train home, so we are in no rush to stand in lines if we don't have to.

9 or later, many times in Mia, you could walk right off...best to wait if you can.

Can we opt to stay on the ship for a while to let the disembarkation crowds dissipate? Or does everyone have to be off by a certain time? We live in NJ and are taking the train home, so we are in no rush to stand in lines if we don't have to.

Yes you can for a while. I can't remember the specific time but they want you out of the room by a certain time. You can hang around some of the public areas if you're one of the last ones off. We arrived very early at the pier and by 9:45 almost everyone was off.

Embarkation:

So we left the hotel in Parsippany around 8am and went directly to the terminal. We drove over the GW Bridge and were directed to the top level. I was originally intending to go to the lower level, however; I am not familiar with NJ freeways and ended up in the wrong lanes. Oh well. The exit for Hudson Parkway is on the far right hand side of the bridge and is literally right at the end of the bridge. This route was recommended by a fellow cruisecritic member so thank you. It was actually very easy. The terminal is a couple miles down the parkway on the right. We pulled into the terminal, went up the hill, paid our $280 then proceeded to the rooftop on pier 88. We were greeted by security and his his four legged friend. We were instructed to turn off the car and remain in the vehicle. The dog sniffed around and we were ushered through, we parked and unloaded our bags.

We arrived early enough that we were able to see the Bliss and the Escape parked on either side of pier 88. It was really cool seeing hte sister ships with the manhatten skyline in the background.

This is where it got a little confusing. I'm not sure if it was because we arrived so early or what. There was nobody to take our luggage so we carted it into the terminal and got into line. It was at this point we realized there were porters outside at the street level so we were finally able to take our bags and get rid of them. We then ended up getting into a wrong line because the signage is not the greatest there. Once we dumped our luggage we were funneled into the checkin line where we had no problems checking in at all. We got zone 6 and went to find a seat. Sometime around 10am they announce the coast guard is conducting drills and embarkation will be delayed. It wasn't a huge deal until the terminal area was completely filled and standing room only. Eventually, they even stopped checking in people and made them wait outside until boarding began. Boarding eventually started around 12:30 - 12:45 and we were onboard around 1pm.

More to come

I'm very interested to read your thoughts on this cruise. We were on the Escape the week before you and found a couple of things lacking, so looking forward to hearing your experience.

Looking forward to read more. Thanks.

Waiting for more. Very informative read so far.

Hi- thanks for your review- can I ask - I usually take the elevator up to the second floor (where the taxis arrive_ and give my bags there is that what people can still do? I am hestiant leaving them at ground level

Following!

Hi- thanks for your review- can I ask - I usually take the elevator up to the second floor (where the taxis arrive_ and give my bags there is that what people can still do? I am hestiant leaving them at ground level

The rooftop is strictly for drive ins. At ground level were taxis, uber, lyft and car services. I'm not sure if there are taxis on the 2nd level, sorry.

Day 1:

We ended up going to the main dining room for lunch as soon as we boarded. I would highly recommend doing that to stay away from the crowds at the buffet. Everything we ate for lunch was very good and the service was excellent. After lunch, we decided to take a walk around the ship to orient ourselves. My wife, son and I were on the ship two years ago when it was only 6 months old so it didn't take us long to get our bearings. Our friends though took almost the entire week to get familiar with the ship.

Due to the Coast Guard drill onboard, everything was a little delayed. The rooms weren't ready until around 2-2:30. The muster drill occurred at 3:30 and actually went fairly smooth. It was quick and painless. Our muster station was in the Manhatten dining room. After muster, we all headed for the exit and into the cold NY air. Sail away only ended up being delayed by about 10-15 minutes for the coast guard drill. We were delayed another 15 minutes by some kayakers who decided to take a break in the middle of the Hudson river. The pilot boat had to go tell them to move. After that they decided to meander off to NJ and we were able to sail.

Sailing out of NY is an experience that I really enjoyed. A fire boat (at least that's what it looked like) was spraying their hoses as we left and followed us for a while. We passed the SOL and then under the Verrazanno bridge and shortly thereafter said goodby to the USofA.

At 7:30 we had reservations at Moderno. We ate there two years ago and it was one of the best meals I've ever had so we were expecting a lot from dinner that night. This time.... not so much. We really enjoyed the salad bar and the waiter made a good impression right off the bat. The meat products just fell a little flat this year. There were not many people in the restaurant. There may have been a total of 5 tables occupied. It took quite a while for the meats to come around and there was a lot of time in between servings. I remember two years ago, we were served almost once a minute. This year, we had to wait sometimes over 5 minutes for the next skewer of meat. Even the meat we were served, didn't have the flavor that I remember. The only exception was the lamb chops, which were fabulous. On the positive side, we realized about now that the waiter is the same waiter we had two years ago. He was fantastic and unfortunately I don't remember his name. What triggered our memory is that he kept calling my 16yo son Pretty Boy. He did that two years ago too. Overall for Moderno, the waiter was good but food service was slow and quality average.

We did not do any shows or anything the first night. We were all tired and went to bed early.

I was on this cruise and had a great time-Looking forward to reading about your experience.

Thanks for the informative review so far... sailing in July, so excited to hear more from people who have been on the NYC - Bermuda sailings. :)

Agree on the Lamp Chops...they were very good...but the rest of the meats we had on the 4/7 sailing were pretty tasty too, salad bar there is excellent..

Day 2 and 3:

I am combining days 2 and 3 because they were almost identical in nature... i.e. rain, cold and windy. We spent almost the entire day 2 inside the ship, eating, walking around, playing games at O'Sheehans, eating, have a drink, eat again (I sense a pattern). On day 3, we actually went outside for a lot of the day because it was a little bit warmer. We huddled up on deck 17 under the awning by the ping pong tables for the day. Around 3pm that day, the sun finally broke through and some people were actually able to get some color on their skin. The highlight of those days unfortunately was the comedian we saw on day 2. Her name was Gina Brillon (I think) and she was hysterical. We loved her style of comedy. If she is on your cruise, go see her. You won't be disappointed. There was also a comedian juggler that we did not have the opportunity to see him so I cannot comment. These two days highlight the biggest disappointment that I had in the trip. As a result of the rain, pretty much everyone was inside in the common areas looking for things to do. I would have expected the cruise director (Silas?) to add some additional activities around the ship to keep folks entertained, but alas, nothing was added. The Escape has a unique setup where most of the activities are held in the atrium. I like the concept and you can see from the atrium 6th deck and from O'Sheehans on the 7th deck. It works most of the time until too many people start crowding in because there's nothing else to do. I guess the bottom line is I was a little disappointed that they didn't try and spread out activities, especially when it was raining.

The only other thing of note is that my son and I went to the family karaoke in the 5 oclock somewhere bar. We actually had a really good time watching. When we walked in there was actually a 2yo singing on stage. Was very cute.

Next up: Bermuda

Any chance you have the freestyle dailies? I'm curious which nights are Howl at the Moon.

Day 2 and 3:

 

I am combining days 2 and 3 because they were almost identical in nature... i.e. rain, cold and windy. We spent almost the entire day 2 inside the ship, eating, walking around, playing games at O'Sheehans, eating, have a drink, eat again (I sense a pattern). On day 3, we actually went outside for a lot of the day because it was a little bit warmer. We huddled up on deck 17 under the awning by the ping pong tables for the day. Around 3pm that day, the sun finally broke through and some people were actually able to get some color on their skin. The highlight of those days unfortunately was the comedian we saw on day 2. Her name was Gina Brillon (I think) and she was hysterical. We loved her style of comedy. If she is on your cruise, go see her. You won't be disappointed. There was also a comedian juggler that we did not have the opportunity to see him so I cannot comment. These two days highlight the biggest disappointment that I had in the trip. As a result of the rain, pretty much everyone was inside in the common areas looking for things to do. I would have expected the cruise director (Silas?) to add some additional activities around the ship to keep folks entertained, but alas, nothing was added. The Escape has a unique setup where most of the activities are held in the atrium. I like the concept and you can see from the atrium 6th deck and from O'Sheehans on the 7th deck. It works most of the time until too many people start crowding in because there's nothing else to do. I guess the bottom line is I was a little disappointed that they didn't try and spread out activities, especially when it was raining.

 

The only other thing of note is that my son and I went to the family karaoke in the 5 oclock somewhere bar. We actually had a really good time watching. When we walked in there was actually a 2yo singing on stage. Was very cute.

 

Next up: Bermuda

Duly noted, one reason a NYC is sail appears not for me....I don’t see how y’all do it.

Good review though, I understand about being stuck inside...

Following! I'll be on the Escape June 3!

Great review so far, good info! Thanks so much!

Can we opt to stay on the ship for a while to let the disembarkation crowds dissipate? Or does everyone have to be off by a certain time? We live in NJ and are taking the train home, so we are in no rush to stand in lines if we don't have to.

10:00am was the latest you could pull on our trip

Any chance you have the freestyle dailies? I'm curious which nights are Howl at the Moon.

I have them all from our 4/29 departure. Howl at the Moon was Tuesday,Thursday and Saturday