Escape Inaugural, Hamburg to S-Hampton, photos, menus, & stuff, part 1&2

[hpecorari]

17126 is a handicap H5 cabin, two door down from ours. It was also vacant and left open, so we nipped in for a peek.

 

Thank you for sharing this. This is the room my SIL and I have been assigned for our Escape cruise - so it was really nice to see.

 

I take it the beds do not separate?

 

Harriet

[packercruising]

These are awesome, thanks!

[fabnfortysomething]

just to point out the champagne toast at the meet and greet was courtesy of Cherie and Kyle not NCL

 

I've just spotted an awful picture of myself which illustrates why celebrities just pretend they are having a conversation when cameras are about!

[BritChickBN1]

Loving your review. Thanks for sharing.

[Carnac767]

Nice to see the photo of the HC cabin.

Wish the cruise lines would not put those high mattresses in these rooms.

Always have to get yet to make adjustment for DH, who cannot transfer onto a high mattress.

 

Was there a roll-in shower?

 

Yes, there is a roll-in shower.

[alishac]

Loving your review and all of the pics! You mentioned that the day spa passes were $44--were they selling them for any day of the cruise, or just sea days?

[virginia beach girl]

Your pictures and review are just awesome. Thanks so much for taking the time to do all of this! I'm so excited to get on the ship January 23rd!

One question, in the Haven restaurant or lounge do they have one of those coffee machines that grind the beans and you can choose espresso, cappuccino and regular coffee? I love the Nespresso in the room but don't always want plain espresso and would love to be able to have other coffee options.

[SuiteCruisin14]

Thank you so much for the recap of the cruise. We totally enjoyed meeting you and the other CC members sailing.

 

We too 200 photos and have not had time to sort them.

 

Hope to see you on another cruise.

 

Lynda & Lyle

[GolfMom321]

I am LOVING your review! Brings back all the nice memories we have of our 2 days on Escape. And for some strange reason, I only took about 3 photos, so yours are jogging my memory! And I love the food porn--I guess my next trip on NCL will have to be in the Haven!

 

Hope your simulator trip is not too awful. Looking forward to more when you get back.

 

Best to Sarah--it was so nice meeting you both, and we really enjoyed our pre-dinner drinks at the Hafen with you.

[OceanDreaming2]

 

An NCL executive who is traveling aboard NCL Escape for the inaugural. I didn't catch his full name but DW says his first name was Claus and he was Norwegian. What, a Norwegian at Norwegian? Regardless, he also welcomed us aboard and talked about how excited NCL is about their new class of ships.

 

The mystery man is Klaus Lugmaier. His official title is Regional Vice President Fleet Hotel Operations. He's a great guy!

[ksslms]

Thanks so much for a great review and pics! First time seeing photos of a standard H5 cabin! We are excited enough to start packing now.

 

Any pictures of your balcony? Also, any pictures of the humidor smoking room near the Tobacco Road bar?

 

Thanks again!!

 

Ken and Le'Ann!

[Keith.W]

Great review, Glad to see my cabin made the review and it looked rather clean. I haven't stopped looking at cruises since i came back. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming what a great cruise critic group it was :)

[sherakay]

Thank you so much for sharing all your pics and experience!

[Carnac767]

Loving your review and all of the pics! You mentioned that the day spa passes were $44--were they selling them for any day of the cruise, or just sea days?

 

The spa passes were available for each day, even the port days, on this particular sailing.

[Carnac767]

Your pictures and review are just awesome. Thanks so much for taking the time to do all of this! I'm so excited to get on the ship January 23rd!

One question, in the Haven restaurant or lounge do they have one of those coffee machines that grind the beans and you can choose espresso, cappuccino and regular coffee? I love the Nespresso in the room but don't always want plain espresso and would love to be able to have other coffee options.

 

I don't think they have those type machines available in the lounge or restaurant. You have to order those type of coffees.

[Carnac767]

Hi folks, well I'm finally back and I'll try to get this finished. Next on our cabin crawl was a spa suite and I have a few photos.

 

 

 

 

[Carnac767]

Our group next toured our cabin but you've already seen enough pictures of it. We also arranged for the group to get a tour of the Haven. The only caveat was that no pictures be taken of any guest in the Haven without their permission. An H2 Owner's Suite with Large Balcony was available for us to visit. Nobody was staying in it, but there was an NCL photo crew from their marketing department shooting advertising footage. They were happy to let us wander about.

 

 

Keith on the H2 balcony. It seems the ship designers took away the large balconies from the H6's on the -Away class to make the Owner's Suite balconies much larger.

 

H2 Balcony

 

 

 

Small side balcony on H2

[Carnac767]

 

 

 

[Carnac767]

Our last stop on the crawl was at Cherie's Aft Penthouse. She has stayed in the same penthouse location on other -Away class ships and had the following observations about this one: first of all, the balcony is about half the size of the aft Haven balconies on the other ships. This cabin also has no interconnecting door with the adjoining balcony cabins. In the past, she has also booked the adjoining balcony cabin with her H6 (Search Nalagh and you'll see how you can do this.) We're doing the same thing on our 2017 cruise on Getaway. We've booked one of the aft H6 and the adjoining balcony with the interconnecting door. Our son and daughter-in-law are booked into our H6 as the third and fourth free guest, with Haven privileges; and they're also booked into the balcony cabin next door, so they can have their own private sleeping quarters. They can come and go into the aft cabin through the adjoining door.

 

Cherie and Kyle, our ever-gracious hosts had also put out food and drink for our happy group. We had a very, very good time. Again, thanks Kyle and Cherie.

 

In case all of that cabin crawling made you hungry

 

 

 

Bendy Man supervises the champagne

 

 

[Carnac767]

Cherie sports her awesomely deluxe Haven bathrobe

 

 

Cherie, Kyle, Marie and Chris

 

Surely beats working

 

 

 

Whoa, that's a looooong way back to our cabin. Fortunately, the little fish still point the way to the bow

[Carnac767]

We had reservations for the nine pm showing of "The Brat Pack" at the Supper Club on Deck 6, which is just forward of the forward elevator bank. We'd made our reservations on the NCL web site about two weeks for the sailing. The cost was about $35. We were only able to get one photo of the Supper Club.

 

 

If you're not down front, it doesn't really matter, because the performers move about throughout the Supper Club. Acoustics are excellent, so you won't miss anything no matter where you sit.

 

The meal was a set menu. We weren't given a choice. The first course was an hors d'oeuvre of five small things, of which I've forgotten every one. The bottle of wine we had with dinner, in conjunction with all the champagne at Cherie's might have had something to do with this. The main was beef short ribs and a panko-breaded giant prawn, complete with the head and tail. Dessert followed that. More on that later.

 

The show was based upon a mashup of The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire and Say Anything. It started out with four performers, two male and two female, in school detention with the unsympathetic teacher (just like the Breakfast Club.) The performance was excellent. The five stars of the show have great voices and capable dancers. The backup band was also quite good. If you're easily offended by young actors in their underwear and generous use of profanity, you probably won't like this show. All in all, it was an enjoyable and entertaining show for us.

 

The only negative of the show was the food. The presentation of the meal was high class. It's just that the result was lacking. My wife doesn't care for red meat, so she gave me her portion of short rib. It was nothing but a large square of fat. Because the show was in progress, we were trying to autopsy our shrimp in the dark. By the time the tail and head were removed, you were left with about a one-inch length of shrimp. Needless to say, DW was still hungry when the show ended. Thanks goodness for the little sandwiches at the cabin crawl.

[Nalagh]

Great review! The truth comes out...our 3 day group drank all of the Prosecco on the ship. :p

Edited November 16, 2015 by Nalagh

[Keith.W]

Great review! The truth comes out...our 3 day group drank all of the Prosecco on the ship. :p

 

Not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing ;)

 

Thanks again Cherie and Kyle for your hospitality. Ye really did pull out all the stops for us and i cant thank ye enough. It was great to finally put a face to the names. Hopefully will see ye both on board soon again some time :)

[fabnfortysomething]

Not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing ;)

 

Thanks again Cherie and Kyle for your hospitality. Ye really did pull out all the stops for us and i cant thank ye enough. It was great to finally put a face to the names. Hopefully will see ye both on board soon again some time :)

 

oh yes we did our share to run down the prosecco stores!

 

what a great crowd and would love to sail with you again

[Carnac767]

Great review! The truth comes out...our 3 day group drank all of the Prosecco on the ship. :p

 

Happy to do my part. Thanks again, Cherie. It was a blast.