Live Review: Escape, July 2-9

[pmk515]

Seeing as how I've never even done a single post-cruise review before, I figure the best way for me to get into this cruise review fraternity is to just do a live one.

 

I cruised the Disney Big Red Boat when I was a child with my family, and my wife and I are now on our 4th cruise together. First one on the Celebrity Reflection for our honeymoon back in January of 2013, next one a year later on the Allure of the Seas also in January for a "whoa...are we still married? Let's take another cruise!" cruise, and finally this past January on the Celebrity Constellation for a 5 night cruise.

 

That last cruise brought us here through very good fortune, because on the last night on that cruise we won a decent chunk of change playing roulette when our numbers just kept hitting and hitting (it was insane and will never happen again). That was enough to get us an balcony on a 3-night cruise that we booked for her birthday. After a month of that, we saw this cruise and it was only a couple hundred extra per person more, soooo.... hey! we have few responsibilities outside of our jobs (and have wonderful family that stays with our dogs while gone) so let's just do a week long cruise instead!

 

My wife (29 as of yesterday) and I (35) had booked a mini-suite guarantee and ended up with a nice mid-ship one on the 15th deck in that lottery. But then I started hearing about this mysterious "upsell" thing that we weren't used to with Celebrity or Royal. But as we read about it we were very interested. Fast forward to 3 weeks our from cruise...we called in and upsold to a 2-bedroom Haven Suite! (#18110 for those interested). Which is gorgeous, more on that tomorrow.

 

Boarding was a breeze and we were on the boat and in the Haven in ~15 minutes after checking in and sipping on either a "fruity" or "minty" drink shortly after that. I went for minty because... well, because I like minty things, I guess.

 

We muttered around for a bit and suffered through the muster drill, then we ate at Cagney's at 6 so we would be at an aft facing table for sail away at 7.

 

...And this is where I was going to try to upload some pictures of our dinner choices and our drinks at various bars during the day/early night, but the internet it being frustratingly slow, so that will have to wait for now. Hopefully it will be faster tonight with fewer people trying to use the network -- wasn't this supposed to be a faster internet by July? I just loaded the Norwegian section of CC and it took 24 seconds.

 

Escape, your internet. Woof.

 

The Mrs. is taking a bath and heading to bed so she can be refreshed and ready to take on the first full sea day from the start. Me? Well, tonight I am going to explore the ship...

 

She is the smarter one of the two of us.

 

Well, I'm off! I will probably eventually end up back at The District where Tom Wolf already entertained the two of us with his rock piano sing-a-longs. So much fun! We will keep seeking him out for sure. And hopefully later tonight when fewer people are sucking up all the bandwidth I'll be able to get some pictures up here.

[mrlddst]

Hope to here more...following

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[eynsteinp]

I am following as well. I am in a room just a few doors down next week!! Hope you have a great time!

[pmk515]

On this evidence, it just isn't going to be a "live picture" review because I simply don't have the patience that Gambee, Doug, and many others have shown these past few months. Waiting to try to upload a picture to then use it on here is beyond infuriating. So I do apologize, but I just can't be bothered with it when I know how easy it will be to do once on the islands with reliable WiFi or back home to do a full pictorial review.

 

 

In the meantime... fantastic story from tonight back down at The District. I got back to there around 11 which was just in time to see a good crowd had formed again for Tom Wolf, but one person is particular stuck out from the crowd. Not because this person was a celebrity or anything fancy like that. No, this was because she was the only person standing and singing to her heart's delight about 10-12 yards from the piano where Tom was playing. "Awesome, she's having a good time. ...What pint should I get?," my mind wondered.

 

I soon learned that this 10-12 yard barrier of respect for the artist's space would not last long after my arrival.

 

Thanks to more quick bar service I soon ordered my pint of choice (Stone IPA for those wondering) and had him swipe my card and then I turned around on my bar stool to see that she was no more than 5 feet from the piano and pointing at him with a menacing look of determination in her eyes.

 

"Oh, this is about to get so very interesting..." I thought to myself. I didn't know what her hazed brain had concocted as a good idea, I just knew I was going to enjoy the result of said concoction...and it wouldn't really be a good idea.

 

I love it when I'm right.

 

The next song, he breaks into a melody of "Can't Buy Me Love" but with the lyrics "I don't care too much for water, water can't get me drunk" -- which are clearly good lyrics for a piano bar scene, but this girl loved them more than anyone should love a cover song. She quickly erases that paltry remaining 5 feet and (unknowingly?) starts to lean on the piano as she is singing "with" Tom and accidentally pushes the piano back into him, and by result, Tom nearly into the wall behind him. He clearly has no idea how this snowballed so quickly.

He asks if anybody in the crowd knows her.... two gentlemen raise their hands in affirmation... Tom asks for help... none arrives; they just continue to sit in their seats. "OK, then", says Steve Avery. (sorry if you don't get the reference)

 

Tom still looks a bit bewildered how not even 5 minutes previously this girl was just a bit tipsy and dancing/singing to his songs and now seemed to be on a mission to crush him with his own piano with the wrath of drunk Neptune himself. She then grabs his drink off the piano and sips from the straw. She then, presumably as a peace offering and a sign of good will, kindly offers him a sip...from his own drink...after she put her mouth on the straw. He rightfully declines and instead, seeing no other clear alternative, says, "F (full word used) it, let's rock."

 

He proceeded to get this nice lady to air guitar a song or two, dance away from and towards the piano to his vocal commands, and pretty much do his bidding for a good 15-20 minutes. He was the Pied Piper and she was his little mouse and it was glorious for the rest of us.

 

God bless her, because while she may not have the memory tomorrow, there are about 25 of us that will.

[pmk515]

Not as bad thru the CC app. Thumbnails will have to do instead of uploading them and going that route.

 

Pictures carefully chosen to not show her face.

[jimbri]

Enjoy your cruise!

[baryton]

Looks like things didn't take long to get interesting. Following along. Enjoy the cruise.

[CandiceK7187]

Following

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[kackles]

Am excited to follow along. Thanks for sharing your trip.

[zteamtwo]

Following--would appreciate pictures of Haven room.

[pmk515]

Following--would appreciate pictures of Haven room.

Thumbnails work?

 

I apparently left most of the picture taking up to my wife. I'll get some more later today. Uploading thumbnails isn't that bad and wifi much better today.

[pmk515]

We had the meet and greet and bar hop today. Met some great people so it will be fantastic to see friendly faces the rest of the week.

 

The wife and I broke away after stop 3 to hydrate and get some food in our bellies for the remainder.

 

Started out at the mojito bar and the bartender there (I'll be going back for his name) was an absolute machine. We sat down with 15-20 people and all people had a drink within a few minutes as he was making 5-7 at a time.

 

Then to 5 o'clock somewhere where the Chocolate Cowboy entertained everyone with his bar tricks, including one handed push-ups balancing a bottle of rum on his head!

[CruisinHarvey]

I assume it was either Marco or Bong at the Mojito bar. They've been off on vacation. Debbie has been there, while they were gone. Bong is a real character.

[pmk515]

Only real complaint I have so far, granted it is partially my own fault for not fully reading up on the "perk" I signed up for when originally booking, is the internet "package". Even though the beverage package is for two people, the dining package is for two people, and the shore excursion package is for two people.... the internet package is just for one person. Which makes little to no sense in my mind, and I was also told that we could upgrade from the promotional 250 "free" minutes that came with the package to the unlimited the first day of cruising before we used any minutes and just pay the difference (by somebody at NCL's call center), but this is quite clearly not true.

 

So I went from thinking both my wife and I would have the 250 minutes that we could upgrade for about 80 bucks a pop once on board to only me having the 250 minutes and her having nothing unless she used my login information. NCL won here because we both signed up for the unlimited internet plan (her from day 1, me this morning, saving 30 dollars), but still a cheap way to squeeze a few extra dollars out of your customers, IMO. Especially for an internet product that was promised to be upgraded by now but is still rather slow.

 

And I acknowledge a good level of blame lies with me for not fully understanding what I was getting with the package, but my mine gripe is with the promotional offer itself. 250 minutes for 2 people to share over a week is just, well, weak.

 

Related note... I also overheard a patriarch of a family of 4 that was none too pleased about 250 "shared" minutes for his wife, two kids, and himself for the entire week. He made his feelings quite well known to the staff.

 

 

 

But again, this has really been my only complaint so far. Tremendous service, people are remembering our names and always greeting us with a smile on their face. NCL is a business and I get that, so it is what it is, I just don't understand their long game here. It could cause me to not travel on NCL again all other things being equal. Which absolutely has no reflection of the staff on board.

[ggg196078]

See the comedian. SOOOO funny.

Go to 80's party at H20 at night.

See the Hypnotist. Funny.

I was on Escape last week.

[colecandler]

Enjoying the review "buttercup". I'll keep following..

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[CandiceK7187]

Can you update us on how the party patches are working??

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[CandiceK7187]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[pmk515]

Apparently I was just oblivious last night walking through the casino and missed the live card hold 'em poker game. 2/5 NL, which I figure are fair blinds, but the 10% rake kind of makes you roll your eyes a bit.

 

But it is live card poker so WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! They can have 10% of my winnings for offering live poker and not that awful "machine" poker where you have to put your hands on a screen to see your cards "flip up". Gross. If I wanted to play online poker I would play poker online. Well done to NCL for having a live dealer and live cards for poker.

 

Given the demand I saw tonight, maybe a 2nd table would be in order, especially considering the 10% rake would earn NCL a fair chunk of change every hour, but I'm not a casino pit boss and I'm sure they know more than I do.

 

Anyway, I'm still up because my adrenaline is still pumping from taking down a good profit from playing against a few good players (and a couple not so good players) tonight.

 

More actual interesting review stuff next...

Edited July 4, 2016 by pmk515

[pmk515]

My wife and I talked a few of my new friends from the meet n greet / bar hop to come to The District tonight to watch Tom "not his real name" Wolf perform. He was again very entertaining and I have henceforth been dubbed "buttercup" as a result of my apparent over-exuberance during that certain The Foundations song. Sorry, I'm not sorry that I have a loud voice that carries when I sing a song I happen to enjoy.

 

Aside from Mr. Wolf, the best part of the evening was Jeannie (I hope I spelled that correctly) as she not only advised on drink choices but made sure they were spot on to each of our specific tastes or she would take them back and fix it. Amazing service from her and I cannot speak highly enough of the job she did tonight.

 

Another special mention is deserving by Sylvia in the Haven Lounge/Bar. The pride she takes into her drinks is remarkable and it shows in their quality. I've had some good Hendrick's Gimlets in my days, but this one just blows others away. She also does the fancy smoke infused drinks that I've read about on previous reviews, I haven't sampled one myself yet, but I plan to do so tomorrow as it is another sea day. Soooo WEEEEEEEE!

[Keith1010]

Following along.

 

Keith

[mking8288]

We have friends sailing very soon on the Escape and disappointed to read that SpeedNet hasn't been rolled out to the ship yet ... maybe, to NCL, it's July, 2016 as in end of July, 2016.

 

On our Breakaway sailing, we had the "faster" satellite internet, but not the newest SpeedNet, our "free" 250 MB minutes plan was based on 1,000 MB (1GB) data used as the cutoff. It seemed other ships are still otffering just time/minutes-based plan and the unlimited day plans, which is pricey.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160606/2ebdad8a2504bc9ba9289ff94e9b9909.jpg

 

Anyway, for uploading pictures - Tapatalk App for iPhones/iPads and Android smartphone work a lot better, if you can download & install that, and switch to it since you pictures are already on the device, and you don't have to worry about the smaller "attachment" pictures. Someone else following your posts also using it and if you open this, you can see the difference in picture sizes - a lot easier to view the graphics.

 

Enjoy your day onboard and thank you for taking the time to share & post. Good luck with the floor action and win some, win big - if you have the free Drink card while playing, make good use of it ... including bottled water & non-alcoholic beverages.

 

Have fun as a week do go past very, very quickly.

[CandiceK7187]

Hi all - wife here so I may chime in with some extra things here and there.

 

Word of advice. Unless you like being woken up at 8am daily by deck chairs being scraped across the deck above....done stay in room 18110. [emoji19]

 

On a better note, but a party patch I think they're 100% effective [emoji322][emoji12]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Clarea]

Following.:)

[UFMOM]

My wife and I talked a few of my new friends from the meet n greet / bar hop to come to The District tonight to watch Tom "not his real name" Wolf perform. He was again very entertaining and I have henceforth been dubbed "buttercup" as a result of my apparent over-exuberance during that certain The Foundations song. Sorry, I'm not sorry that I have a loud voice that carries when I sing a song I happen to enjoy.

 

Aside from Mr. Wolf, the best part of the evening was Jeannie (I hope I spelled that correctly) as she not only advised on drink choices but made sure they were spot on to each of our specific tastes or she would take them back and fix it. Amazing service from her and I cannot speak highly enough of the job she did tonight.

 

Another special mention is deserving by Sylvia in the Haven Lounge/Bar. The pride she takes into her drinks is remarkable and it shows in their quality. I've had some good Hendrick's Gimlets in my days, but this one just blows others away. She also does the fancy smoke infused drinks that I've read about on previous reviews, I haven't sampled one myself yet, but I plan to do so tomorrow as it is another sea day. Soooo WEEEEEEEE!

 

Thanks for your review. We will be on the Escape 7/9 sailing. I was wondering if the smoke infused drinks were available in other bars on the ship or just the Haven bar. I know one is on the menu at Tobacco Road, but wanted to know if there are others and at what bars.

 

 

 

Mary Ann