Escape recap 2/10/18 - 2/17/18

Just returned from our wonderful escape on the Escape. A little background, my amazing bride and I just experienced our 10th cruise. We cruise every year on the same week, we have explored Norwegian, Princess and RCL. The majority of our adventures have been on Norwegian and Princess. We cruise to cruise, ports are secondary in importance. The experience for us is the disconnect from the world and to enjoy our time together without distractions. I'm calling this a recap of our adventure, not a review. I am not an expert at ship design, I am not an expert at food creation or the logistics of serving 4,000 + people in a 4 hour window. I am not an expert at entertaining and occupying 4,000 + people confined to a vessel sailing in the great oceans of our world of which we have no control. This was our first adventure on a "mega-ship, which we were excited to experience. I have to give credit were credit is due. The reason we chose the Escape was the awesome DougOut review on the ship, awesome awesome review!

Embarkation - We arrived via Uber at the port early, 10:00 am. We knew we were early but we are patient people that like to think we understand the big picture in how things work. We were on the ship before 11:30, one of our best embarkation experiences to date.

Cruise experience - Great ship, very good condition. By far the best directional signing of any ship we've experienced. This is the largest ship we've sailed on yet we never felt lost or mis-directed on this sailing. This ship had the little things like the sign indicating the floor along with forward of aft. Made life much easier on figuring out how to get to where you wanted to go. The digital screens were very helpful also. Overall the crew on this sailing were the best we've ever encountered. Our room steward was very good, our bar staff was awesome. Kudos to Dexter at the pool. Jay at 5 O'clock Somewhere and Henry at Tobacco Road. All well exceeded our expectations and not only took very good care of us but became friends that we hope to see again. They were all awesome! Our stateroom (balcony on deck 15 aft) was nicely appointed. To us it felt smaller than others we have had in the past, but we are fortunate to really enjoy each others company so we like to bump into each other! The bathroom was very nice, largest shower we have had yet. Storage was adequate, after all we only had enough gear for 30 days for a 7 day cruise.This ship is huge, it did leave us missing the intimacy of a ship slightly smaller. We have sailed on the Sun x 2 and the Dawn x 2 so I feel we have the experience needed to say this ship not only is huge but feels huge too.

Dining - food is totally subjective, all I can say is we didn't starve and most certainly didn't loose weight. We enjoyed every meal. The only comment is the Garden Cafe can be busy, especially in the morning. When your on a ship with 4,600 other passengers it gets busy. Understand when you book on a ship this size with this capacity it's going to feel busier than a ship with 2,000 to 3,000 passengers. I read "reviews" with negative comments about how busy the ship is and I just scratch my head. What are you thinking, your on a ship ship that has 6,000 people in total, of course its going to be crowded! We had a majority of our dinners in the Manhattan Room and loved every dinner. The food was well above average and the environment was exactly what we were seeking. Ching, our Maitre d was not only awesome but made our cruise adventure exceptional. She has set the bar very high for adventures to follow. She gave us the experience that we seek, she is a very special person.

Entertainment - we don't do shows, sorry no news on these. Our only thought on this cruise was due to the ship size we felt we missed a lot of things. There are so many talented people working to entertain us, we wish we had more time and energy to enjoy them all.

Overall we really enjoyed our way too of short time on the Escape. It is a wonderful ship that provided us with wonderful memories and afterall isn't life all about making memories. I have to be transparent and say we will not be taking another adventure on the Escape, it's size and capacity is just not our cup of tea. When you sail on a ship with 4,600 people your going to notice that there are a lot of people in small spaces at times throughout your voyage. If you don't like being around a lot of people than I would say don't pick this or any other megaship. Bottom line is it's a big ship with a big capacity.

Thank you so much for your review! I can appreciate the fact that although you like smaller ships, you had a good experience on this larger ship as well. I too like the smaller ships, had the best time on the Jewel to Alaska, but my adult kids like the larger ships and I did love the ropes course on the Breakaway. I think there's something to be said for both types of cruising. I'm looking forward to our upcoming voyage on the Escape!

Excellent feedback, thanks!

I greatly enjoyed your review.

Thank you.

Keith

Thanks! Will be on Escape in 2 days. Did you try the slides, ropes, etc? Any shore excursions? Do you know if the ship was at full capacity? I chose to cruise in Feb thinking there may not be many kids because of school but I guess that doesn't matter much anymore. I'm not concerned about it, just wondering.

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Thanks for your recap! I'm looking forward to trying her out over the summer; I've been on the Gem and Breakaway. It is due to experiences like yours that I decided to book a spa balcony for this trip, in the hopes/expectations that having a quieter and less crowded spot will counteract the crowds. It is so helpful to hear people's experiences.

Thank you for your review. We will return to the Escape in April and hoping to find Orly Penate is still onboard. He’s a great guitarist often playing in Brewhouse or at Tobacco Road. Do you happen to know if he is back on the Escape?

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Thank you for your review!

I'll be on the Escape in Oct! :)

Thanks for your feedback! We will be on the Escape for the first time later this year. This cruise will be more about the ship than the ports for us so cant wait to explore it.

Thanks for your review. I will be sailing on the Escape this summer, looking forward to it.

UKWildcat - the slides are a lot of fun! The tube slide is somewhat tame but fun. The drop is a wow! Just make sure if you do the drop slide that you don't have any jewelry with you and none means none. My bride had to remove a post earring to ride the drop. Luckily an awesome couple was headed to the tube slides and took her earring and met us at the bottom! No to shore excursions. We have sailed enough where we enjoy doing our research ahead of time and just doing our own thing. We did find an awesome spot in Grand Cayman on the water walking distance from the tender dock. If you would like fresh seafood (like they are cleaning the catch from the morning and cooking it for you) on the waterfront at a beach bar it's awesome. Of course we can't remember the name but just start exit the tender dock and head to the left. You'll come across a little beach and it's right next to that. Good place, great food. I was told by a crew member that there were 4,600 passengers on this voyage, the following voyage has 5,000. Both would be considered full I believe. We have cruised this same week for 10 consecutive years and have never had as many kids as this trip. The diversity of passengers was really interesting and fun, many different countries represented. Very fun!

Manning 18 - yes Orly Penate was playing each night at Tobacco Road, amazing guitarist!

Manning 18 - yes Orly Penate was playing each night at Tobacco Road, amazing guitarist!

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Manning 18 - yes Orly Penate was playing each night at Tobacco Road, amazing guitarist!

Thanks!

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We are on Escape tomorrow, appreciate this recap :)

In regards to feeling crowded on a mega ship with so many people - you should consider a cruise on an Oasis class ship. It's opposite of what you would think, it almost never feels crowded and actually feels a lot more airy and spacious than smaller ships with less guests. So while you say not to sail a megaship if you don't want it crowded, I think you would find yourself very surprised. I don't consider Escape a mega ship, personally - for what that's worth.

I've never sailed NCL before, so I'm very much looking forward to Escape. Sounds like we'll have a great time and I'll expect it to be a bit crowded at times.

BNBR - Have a great cruise!

Just to clarify ............ my recap focused on some negativity voiced by other "reviews" that were in my opinion complaining about some of the crowds you encounter at times on a ship this size. It was/is in no way to infer that it had a negative impact on our adventure, we loved every minute of it. We all have likes and dislikes, things that float our boat or are not exactly our cup of tea. My bride and I would sail the Escape again, just not our first choice and we felt it is due to the amount of people on the ship. We could be totally wrong about this, we have just not experienced that in 9 prior cruises. We smiled and laughed everyday, met a bunch of fantastic people both crew and guests and are now at home in the cold and snow wishing we were on the Escape!

Just to clarify ............ my recap focused on some negativity voiced by other "reviews" that were in my opinion complaining about some of the crowds you encounter at times on a ship this size. It was/is in no way to infer that it had a negative impact on our adventure, we loved every minute of it. We all have likes and dislikes, things that float our boat or are not exactly our cup of tea. My bride and I would sail the Escape again, just not our first choice and we felt it is due to the amount of people on the ship. We could be totally wrong about this, we have just not experienced that in 9 prior cruises. We smiled and laughed everyday, met a bunch of fantastic people both crew and guests and are now at home in the cold and snow wishing we were on the Escape!

I think it's the nature of this sized ship. To me, they are more of an in-between. More like oversized "large" ships. The true mega ships like Oasis are redesigned from the ground up which is why they handle the volume of passengers so incredibly well. The Escape and even the Vista, they are still the older designs, just a bit bigger with a lot of people on them, so I can picture it having some crowding issues. We are in the Haven so I don't suspect it'll be a concern for us, but I'm very curious to see how crowded it feels in the public areas.

Thanks for your thoughts! Going on the megaship Getaway soon and am interested to see how it feels!

Thanks for the recap.

On Escape now. Definitely not a mega ship or remotely comparable to a ship like Oasis. It' a lovely ship, we will have a great time, but this ship feels like a normal ship to me. Totally different class.

The beauty of life, we all have a different opinion

Nice review and recap. We have been on the Getaway AND Spirit (much smaller ship) and will be on the Escape in a few weeks. I prefer the pool setup on the Spirit than the Getaway, but heard that the Escape has a different pool setup than its sister ship the Getaway. What did you think? Cheers!

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The pool setup seemed smaller than other ships we've been on. We always were able to find a spot to sit around the pool in the shallow water. Chairs proved to be challenging at times. Quick tip is we would put our beach bag with our gear on a bench next to the music stage. We tend to sit on the edge of the pool more often than not and this worked out very well. Doing this gave chairs to others.

As of 9:30 in the morning couldn't find a chair anywhere. Pool area nowhere near big enough to accommodate the passenger count. Pj has some good advice I'd say with using the bench. The waterfront is also a good spot if you don't need the actual pool.