A HAVENly week on Escape - January 16 - 23, 2016

[mimi'sgirl]

Great pictures...the islands are beautiful! Hope to watch Tortola sailaway from our balcony

[jmele999]

 

By the time we left the wine bar it was already dark out so we went back to our cabin to get ready for dinner.

 

 

Snacks from the butler.

 

Next - Brenda Braxton Live - A dinner show

[jmele999]

Brenda Braxton Live - A dinner show

 

Instead of doing a traditional dinner tonight we decided to book the Brenda Braxton Live Show. It is a dinner show ($29.99 pp or $15 upcharge if you have the UDP or SDP). Here is a brief description about the show.

 

 

The show is only held once per week in the Supper Club because Brenda Braxton is also one of the cast members in After Midnight.

 

 

 

 

[sjnyc323]

This might be a really silly question. Sorry about that. I noticed that the Haven food looks mighty delicious and is only for Haven guests. Is some of the same food available in the regular dining room as well or is it a completely different menu?

 

 

Different menu

[sjnyc323]

Great review thanks for sharing

[saigonsister]

Great review and really beautiful photos! I have been to all of those places but never really captured it the way that you did.

[jmele999]

One of the best perks of the Haven is that you are escorted to all the shows so that you can get good seats without having to wait in line. We met David, the concierge, in the Haven lounge at 7:45 pm and he escorted, via a private elevator, a group of about 20 of us down to the show on deck 6. Immediately after arriving at the show we were all seated in the front row.

 

Even though the show does not start until 8:30 pm, you are asked to get there by 8:00 pm so that you can be seated and they can start taking drink orders and serving appetizers.

 

A dirty gin martini to start the evening.

 

Duck rillettes, serrano ham croquette with piquillo pepper coulis, and mushroom cappuccino with bacon foam.

 

Ricotta lobster salad with caviar and creme fraiche and roasted baby beet salad with truffle pearls.

 

Crispy skin halibut with heirloom tomato confit.

 

The first three courses were served prior to the beginning of the show as a band played live music.

 

[jmele999]

For entrees, we both ordered the beef tenderloin, but it was not very good (sorry no pictures). DP thinks that it was overcooked because we ordered the tenderloin medium well, but I think that it also had something to do with the quality of the beef.

 

Pistachio cream with dulce de leche rosette, mango pot de creme with raspberry coulis and meringue pieces, opera cake with mocha and chocolate glaze, and blackberry French macaron.

 

With the exception of the beef tenderloin, all of the food served that night was very good. We also enjoyed the performance by Debra Braxton. The show and the dinner was definitely worth the $15 upcharge.

 

After the show we went to the Haven bar for some drinks.

 

 

 

End of Day 5.

[jmele999]

Day 6 - Sea day # 3

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2016 by jmele999

[sjnyc323]

Yes, it is David Contreras. No sure how much longer he will be onboard as the other concierge is on vacation right now. David is great. We had him as our concierge a few years back and it was great to see him again.

 

 

David is on until 3/12/16 then going to the Breakaway

[Trobrah]

Does anyone happen to know David Contreras' email address. My DW and I will be on the Breakaway in May. When we first started sailing NCL David was Alex Forbes' assistant.

Thanks,

Jay

[Prada Cowboy]

I so wished Alex Forbes would be still with NCL!

I guess Adrien will be back on the Escape then!

[jmele999]

Day 6 - Relaxing day at sea

 

With the exception of going to see the For the Record Show, we had no plans for our last day at sea so we decided to have a relaxing day at the spa, the Haven and enjoying some of the onboard activities.

 

I got up before DP and went down to the atrium to get some pictures. While the atrium is a great space, it is definitely too small considering the number of guests and the size of the ship.

 

 

 

After returning to the cabin, we made some coffee and tea and enjoyed the view from our balcony.

 

 

We then went up to the Haven restaurant to enjoy a relaxing breakfast.

 

 

While having breakfast two crew members stopped by the Haven restaurant to wish everyone a good morning and to deliver brownies.

 

 

[jmele999]

Salmon frittata.

 

We spent most of the morning in the spa and then went walking around the ship to visit some of the areas that we had not visited before. We also tried the ropes course and one the waterslides - they were both fun.

 

Spice H2O (above) and the grotto (below)

 

 

 

Ropes course

[tmcmom]

Were they singing "I'm a Little Teapot"??? :p Sorry, couldn't resist... back to the great review :o

 

 

[Yorkvillain]

Were they singing "I'm a Little Teapot"??? :p Sorry, couldn't resist... back to the great review :o

 

Lol. Either that or "head, shoulders, knees & toes (knees & toes)".

[RM25483]

Lol. Either that or "head, shoulders, knees & toes (knees & toes)".

 

Haha, no, they had to hold their hats on... the wind kept blowing them off!

 

They were adorable. Something along the lines of (try to hear them in unison, with extremely cheerful sing-song voices in your head), "Special Brownie! Only for today; different tomorrow!"

[cruisinforfun9]

Great review! Thank you!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[jmele999]

Haha, no, they had to hold their hats on... the wind kept blowing them off!

 

They were adorable. Something along the lines of (try to hear them in unison, with extremely cheerful sing-song voices in your head), "Special Brownie! Only for today; different tomorrow!"

 

You are correct. "Good morning, Special brownie! Only for today, different tomorrow.

[jmele999]

Great review! Thank you!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks for the kind words. Hoping that others can benefit from it.

[hansolosmom]

Love your review and all the pictures.

Also have to say your schedule is beautiful. I love a planner :)

And the Philly baggage handlers are the worst, so I'm glad you got your bag.

 

Question on the Haven. It seems like you guys got to the pier a bit after the first group went on board. Did they escort you up or did you just go up with the masses?

[TheDougOut]

While having breakfast two crew members stopped by the Haven restaurant to wish everyone a good morning and to deliver brownies.

 

I LOVE those girls. I ran into them often, and couldn't help but smile.

 

They brought us "special muffins" at the Meet & Greet on our sailing...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[jmele999]

Day 6 - Relaxing afternoon and the blizzard of 2016

 

We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the Haven and the spa. In the middle of the afternoon, some of the guests in the Haven started taking about the blizzard of 2016 and how Baltimore was supposed to get 30 inches of snow. As I went down to the concierge desk, there was another guest (our Leesburg friends) already using David's phone trying to re-book their flight back home on American Airlines. They told me that it had taken them almost an hour to re-book their flights and that I could just continue talking to the agent that they have been talking to so that I could re-book our flight home. After 10 minutes, I was able to change our flight home from Saturday night to Sunday night (more on the storm later on).

 

We went back to our room to get ready for one of the most anticipated shows of the cruise - For The Record; The Brat Pack Live at the Supper Club, and found some delicious treats from our butler.

 

 

Before the show, we decided to stop by the District Brew House and enjoy some drinks.

 

 

 

The Cannonball and the Retribution. Both drinks were good, but DP picked the better drink (cannonball)

 

The Jackhammer and the Funky Monk. The Jackhammer is a great after dinner drink while the Funky Monk is a very tasty, refreshing pre-dinner drink.

[jmele999]

Love your review and all the pictures.

Also have to say your schedule is beautiful. I love a planner :)

And the Philly baggage handlers are the worst, so I'm glad you got your bag.

 

Question on the Haven. It seems like you guys got to the pier a bit after the first group went on board. Did they escort you up or did you just go up with the masses?

 

We got there late so we waited a few minutes in the Haven lounge and decided to escort ourselves onto the ship (but somebody showed us where to go).

[jmele999]

The District Brew House is a great space. I especially love the comfy chairs, the furniture and of course, the drinks.