NCL Escape Review - 4/2/16

[Gameck]

I never have posted a review before but after reading so many on the Escape, I decided to post one. This is first time with NCL after many cruises (10+) with RC and Carnival We (wife, teen - 16) cruised 4/2 out of Miami and stayed in a Guarantee Balcony Room on 10th floor. We had the UBP and 4SDP.

 

Embarkation - very smooth, flew in morning of cruise, took MJS transportation from FLL to POM. arrived at POM at 11:30, on ship by 12:15, hardly any waiting time, everyone was super nice. Grade here was A.

 

Room - Balcony room 10112 (forward), plenty of room, two chairs and table on balcony, sofa/sleeper, storage space limited to closet, plenty of room for three. Impressed with size of bathroom, larger than other cruises. love the glass shower door - kept water off floor. Did feel motion throughout cruise and very noisy. Whoever posted about hangers making noise was correct. Grade here was B.

 

Food - specialty dining was great, ate at Cagney's twice, the Japanese Steak house once, the Modero (brazilian) steak house the other. All were excellent. Big difference from specialty to complimentary. Also ate in the Taste, Savor, and Manhattan Room. Manhattan was better than other two but none of the three compared to the specialty restaurants. Did enjoy O'sheehans and Garden Cafe. Plenty of selections and surprisingly not too crowded. Overall food quality was good and comparable with other cruise lines. Again the Specialty was well worth package. Grade B+

 

Beverages - we had the UBP, it was great. Bar service could not be better, did not wait for a drink even by the pools. Bartenders were excellent, friendly and funny all over ship. Grade A.

 

Ship - very large but spaced out well. Never felt crowded except on deck with pools. Sea days very crowded and tough to find chairs for people after 9:00 am. I was out there at 7:30 am each day - have learned over many cruises. Good to see NCL marking saved chairs and removing items after thirty minutes. They did this each sea day. Ship was modern, clean, and electronic maps were everywhere to help. Not use to having to schedule everything from entertainment to meals, but adapted. App helped but had some bugs. Overall ship got an A. Did not smell smoke except Casino.

 

Casino - spaced out - did not enjoy the Blackjack minimum of $15 - especially to watch dealer get 20 or 21 all the time, still say automatic shufflers and line up cards in sequence. Other than that, spacious and smokey. Grade B.

 

Ports - St. Thomas - did a shopping/tour/beach with Sunny Liston

Tours - awesome, had Sunny as driver, he was great, great music, went to Sapphire Beach - great beach, snorkeling, amenities, awesome views on tour.

Tortola - short time there so just did some shopping off the boat, not much time there.

Nassau - did a private boat for fishing and Snorkeling - awesome day - Bahama Boat Tours - basically had a private day to do what we wanted. Five of us on the 28 ft. boat. Ports grade B

 

Entertainment - We did the shows (Vocal Overdrive and After Midnight) and comedians and Howling at Moon. Comedians were great, did the 11:00 show, wish the room was bigger, very crowded. Howling at Moon was awesome, again same room, need more space. Vocal overdrive was a disappointment - they just were not good. After Midnight was good - could tell performers worked extremely hard and were having fun. Not much entertainment for a boat this size. Grade here was B.

 

Debarkation - probably the easiest on any cruise I have been on - we check our bags night before, waited at breakfast for our color and was off ship in 15 min. It was great. MJS transportation was there to get us to airport. Grade A.

 

Overall - Great cruise - good to see new ship - no major problems as people have described in other reviews. Bought two deposits for future cruises so NCL sold me. Very comparable to other lines. You can watch what you spend as far a "nickle and diming you". Overall experience: B+

 

Sorry so long

[beerman2]

Thanks, very nice review!

[Clarea]

Excellent review for your first post, thanks.

[willise]

Blackjack minimum is $15 now? On the Getaway last year, there were $5 tables!

 

I guess that may be one other activity I won't partake in :(

[Sissaaaaaa]

Blackjack minimum is $15 now? On the Getaway last year, there were $5 tables!

 

I guess that may be one other activity I won't partake in :(

 

Yes - it was the same on our March 5th Escape cruise. I refused to play because of the absurdity of it!

[CP3o]

Thanks for the review. What sort of fish did you catch on Nassau private excursion?

My family wants to try to catch fish but I'm concerned too hot in June to catch much but if snorkel was a backup plan if not biting.....seems like pairing the two could have advantages. I was hesitant to book charter too far ahead of a seas forecast so have been slow on figuring out Nassau. Any tips appreciated.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[javalsu]

I don't think I've seen a single person say something nice about Vocal Overdrive. It seems to be universally hated.

[Jim The Lizard]

Great review.

[Cruzinbabe06]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review.:)

[Yorkvillain]

Sorry so long

 

Don't be sorry! This was a nice breakdown. I enjoyed it.

[cot427]

Thanks for your review!

 

I'm glad the bar service was speedy and they were controlling the chair issue!

 

Also glad Vocal Overdrive is going away - I don't think I've read one review where people enjoyed it!

[stviecruise]

Thanks for the review I enjoy it :)

[Laszlo]

Not much time in Tortola? Was the ship late? When were where there we docked at 6:45 am and were off the ship at 7am, back aboard at 2:30pm

[Jon in the ATL]

I was on this cruise too with my wife and our two kids. I echo many of the same sentiments of the above review. A few things stuck out to me..

 

 

Entertainment: Aside from the comedians, the entertainment was blah. I was pretty surprised how poor it was. And we cruise a lot and do not expect Broadway quality.

 

Food: right on target on the food. Specialty is ways ahead of the comp restaurants. All specialty were very good that we dined at. Garden Café had a nice selection and don't forget about the crepes at night all the way in the back.

 

Casino: Smoke isn't that bad. Was much worse on Getaway.

 

WOW factor: this ship lacks the WOW factor that many of the new ships have. The WOW factor is different for everyone so take it for what it is.

 

Movement of the ship: I have cruised over 20 times and some cruises had horrendous weather so you expect movement. On our sea day heading to Nassau, we were in 8 ft seas and the ship was rocking very considerably. It was a sunny day so it was not like there were any storms kicking up the wind, but just some chop in the ocean. All day it was going up and down and I couldn't believe how such a large ship moved in a very moderate chop. We were headed at 20 knots so that might have contributed to it as well. So everything that everyone has said about movement is true. The narrowness of Escape and its height is a large contributing factor I am sure.

 

Did we have fun? Of course, we did as we were on vacation! Try it for yourself and you can be the judge.

[Obx_1974]

I was on this cruise too with my wife and our two kids. I echo many of the same sentiments of the above review. A few things stuck out to me..

 

 

Entertainment: Aside from the comedians, the entertainment was blah. I was pretty surprised how poor it was. And we cruise a lot and do not expect Broadway quality.

 

Food: right on target on the food. Specialty is ways ahead of the comp restaurants. All specialty were very good that we dined at. Garden Café had a nice selection and don't forget about the crepes at night all the way in the back.

 

Casino: Smoke isn't that bad. Was much worse on Getaway.

 

WOW factor: this ship lacks the WOW factor that many of the new ships have. The WOW factor is different for everyone so take it for what it is.

 

Movement of the ship: I have cruised over 20 times and some cruises had horrendous weather so you expect movement. On our sea day heading to Nassau, we were in 8 ft seas and the ship was rocking very considerably. It was a sunny day so it was not like there were any storms kicking up the wind, but just some chop in the ocean. All day it was going up and down and I couldn't believe how such a large ship moved in a very moderate chop. We were headed at 20 knots so that might have contributed to it as well. So everything that everyone has said about movement is true. The narrowness of Escape and its height is a large contributing factor I am sure.

 

Did we have fun? Of course, we did as we were on vacation! Try it for yourself and you can be the judge.

 

 

We were also on this cruise. The smoke was only noticeable in the casino (not that bad in my opinion and I'm not a smoker). We ate one night at Le Bistro sitting in the Atrium and didn't notice the smoke that so many have complained about on cruise critic.

 

Bar service was excellent at every bar we went to on the ship. Didn't wait longer than a couple minutes even during the Glow Party in Spice.

 

Ship Movement was noticeable. The area nearest the stern of this ship has this weird, jerky, side to side movement. Very strange. I agree the ship really seemed to not handle the small 8 foot swells very well. Wonder what it would be like in heavier weather.

 

Sun decks and pool decks were packed. I'm glad we were able to get Vibe passes. I talked to one person who said they tried to get into the adult pool for a swim but couldn't find a spot to climb down since every available space was occupied. Probably could use more/bigger pools.

 

Overall, had a great cruise!

[Hawks LOB]

I was also on this cruise with my husband and our two boys and we had an excellent time! We chose this ship for all of the waterslides, ropes course, mini golf and other activities to keep us busy. We love the sun and being active outside! This was our first NCL cruise together (My very first cruise was on NCL 30 years ago!), we have sailed Carnival and Princess as a family last year and my husband cruised many times before we had kids. After reading the initial bad reviews on the Escape we almost cancelled, but I'm so glad we didn't!

 

I agree with the review and wanted to add some things we enjoyed:

 

We all loved the waterslides and ropes course! The lines weren't too bad. For the ropes course make sure you are completely dry, have closed toe and heeled shoes, shorts and a t-shirt with sleeves. For the drop slides you can't wear ANY jewelry (including wedding rings), glasses, and nothing in your pockets. Also don't wear a swim shirt, I saw several people get stuck in the drop slide who were wearing them. There is a minimum weight of 100lbs for the drop slide and there is a scale!

 

We did all of our own tours in each port. In St. Thomas we took the ferry to St. John's Trunk Bay and snorkeled. It is a beautiful beach and the crowds weren't bad.

In Tortola we went to an amazing beach called Josiah's Bay and surfed and boogie boarded. My oldest son really wanted to surf so I researched this ahead of time. We took a taxi and arranged a time for the driver to pick us up for our return since this is not a crowded beach where taxis frequent. The waves were great, about 4-6 feet an there was a little surf shack on the beach that rented boards ($10/hr. for a surf board and $5/hr. for a boogie board). You can also take surfing lessons for $60/hr. There were only a couple people on the beach when we got there (in addition to the chickens and kitties) and it never got crowded.

In Nassau we took the #10 city bus to Cable Beach near the Melia resort and went Parasailing. We used JR Action Sports and loved it! They did a great job and made my youngest feel comfortable even with his fear of heights.

 

We had the UBP and the bar service was excellent throughout the week. Our kids loved the virgin Pina Coladas, Miami Vices, Mango Meltdowns and Mudslides! We aren't big drinkers but it was nice having a glass of wine with dinner and tropical drinks by the pool.

 

We loved all of the comedians and After Midnight! We didn't go to Vocal Overdrive because the comments I had read were all pretty poor. The 80s Party and Glow Party in Spice H2O were excellent! I also really enjoyed the band (Golden Octaves?) who played by the pool during the day.

 

We would definitely cruise NCL again and I would recommend the Escape.

[MGH girl]

I'm book in that same Balcony room 10112 and have a couple of questions about it. Is it really far from the elevators and stairs? Do you look down on other balconies? Did you feel much ship motion? Could you look down into the ocean or were the lower balconies in the way? Was there any ocean spray coming up on the balcony? I am thinking I may try to move more midship.

[dogboy]

<snipped>I never have posted a review before

 

Very nice. You do not seem like a Rookie reviewer.

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for all the great reviews! Excited to sail on the Escape soon!!

[stacieps]

In Tortola we went to an amazing beach called Josiah's Bay and surfed and boogie boarded. My oldest son really wanted to surf so I researched this ahead of time. We took a taxi and arranged a time for the driver to pick us up for our return since this is not a crowded beach where taxis frequent. The waves were great, about 4-6 feet an there was a little surf shack on the beach that rented boards ($10/hr. for a surf board and $5/hr. for a boogie board). You can also take surfing lessons for $60/hr.

 

We had the UBP and the bar service was excellent throughout the week. Our kids loved the virgin Pina Coladas, Miami Vices, Mango Meltdowns and Mudslides! We aren't big drinkers but it was nice having a glass of wine with dinner and tropical drinks by the pool.

 

I've been taking notes for ideas in Tortola - this sounds perfect; thanks for sharing.

 

What is a Mango Meltdown? Sounds like it would be good (I'm also making notes for virgin drinks to get with UBP).