Norwegian Escape B2B Review: July 23 - August 6, 2016

[davidwar]

We just returned from a 2 week back to back voyage on the Escape. The first leg was from July 23 - July 31 and then the second went from July 31 - August 6. That in itself is part of the story as the trip was marketed by NCL as a 14 day cruise, but it was really an 8 day cruise followed by a 6 day cruise. I know, you say "what's the difference?" but alas, there is a difference, which I will get into later.

 

 

I have been a Cruise Critic poster and reader for years, but this will be my first full review. I also always go to the Meet n Greets and on this trip, I got to go to two of them!

 

 

First a little about our group. My wife and I are in our early to mid-50s. This was our 12th cruise, 5 of which have been on NCL, but we haven't been on the line since 2007. Most recently we sailed on Royal Caribbean with one Carnival trip and two Princess cruises when we were first married, over 20 years ago.

 

 

We took our two daughters, a 17 year old, who just graduated high school, and our younger daughter who turned 14 during the first week of the cruise. We also took my wife's mom who is a very spry 75 and has been on 2 other cruises with us. Finally our 25 year old niece came along with us on her first cruise.

 

 

I'll write this in stages and I hope to cover just about everything that we did, but feel free to ask me questions as I go and I will try to answer them. We had 2 adjoining balcony cabins (9292 and 9290), which I'll also talk a little about.

 

 

FLIGHT TO MIAMI

 

We live in NJ and flew to Miami the same day as embarkation. I know some folks prefer to get in a day in advance, but we were looking to save a little money. We booked a 6 AM flight on American (ourselves, not through NCL). I don't like to leave anything to chance, so we arrived at the airport at 4 AM. Luckily we are only about 20 minutes from Newark. Apparently just about everybody else had the same idea as there was a pretty long line to check in. Everything went fine until I tried to go through security with a duffle bag that I have used as a carry-on numerous times, but the officer said it was too big and I had to go back and check that bag for an additional $35. What a joke. Fortunately they did not make me go to the back of the still long line.

 

 

Everything with the flight went fine, except the crew was definitely not happy to be there so early in the morning. They were a bit surly to a lot of the passengers. We got in on time, about 9:30 AM, and attempted to pick up our baggage. My opinion is that the Miami airport has to be one of the dumbest designed airports in existence, at least the terminal we were in. Based on the instructions were given by the crew we turned right when we got out of the plane (should have went left). We then had to walk what seemed like a mile (with my MIL who needs to have a hip replacement) to go up an escalator to take the little monorail to where the baggage claim was and then go down an another escalator. Bad, none or confusing signage all around. Say what you will about Newark, but you don't have to deal with this sort of crap.

 

 

Once we got our baggage our original plan was to get a van or 2 cabs to get to the ship. However, the NCL transport guy was walking around and saw the luggage tags on our baggage and asked if wanted to go on their bus to the ship. He told us it would be $16 per person (first charges on our onboard account), but we wouldn't have to worry about our baggage. That was fine with me. We were all a little beat up already so we went for it and I'm glad we did. We were at the cruise terminal within 20 minutes. Nice comfortable air conditioned bus.

 

 

CHECK-IN AT THE PIER

 

We got to the pier and were assigned to Terminal B. First glimpse of the Escape is indeed impressive and she is huge, especially compared to the three or four other ships that were in port that day. We went through security and got online to check in. We went to the Latitudes line as most of us were members and to my surprise there was no advantage to this as the line for this wound around and got us to the same spot as the people who were not members.

 

 

We had a bit of difficulty checking in because we would not all use one account or credit card for the charges. I had my wife and two kids on my card. Mom had her account on another credit card and my niece the same. Also in order to take advantage maximum of the promotions, the travel agent had me and my 2 daughters in one room and my wife, MIL and niece in the other room. At least that is what she told us. We just would switch off once we got onboard. My wife and I took one room and my 2 kids, my MIL and niece took the quad. I did ask if all the cards could open both rooms. No dice. This was a little crazy as I had to open the other room to get into ours throughout the trip.

 

 

When I looked at the cards, I immediately noticed some problems. Nothing earth shattering. My card did not have my UBP indicated. That was on my 17 year old's card. She quickly perked up, but I had to disappoint her and tell her that I was going to get it switched. We all were supposed to have a 6 meal specialty restaurant plan. Four cards were fine but my card (again) did not have any shown and my younger daughter's card had 12! So I asked the young lady behind the counter to correct them, but as luck would have it, her computer was down. She told us we would have to go to Guest Services. No big deal to me.

 

 

I believe we were group 21, but I was not concerned as I had no plans of making the mad dash to get Vibe passes that I've read so much about. Also, in that terminal they don't call even numbers, only odd, so it went 9, 11, 13 etc and we were called. I would say it took about 20 minutes to get onboard and I thought it would be a good idea to get the card situation straightened out before we even went to lunch.

 

 

I'm going to end it here for tonight as it's getting late. More tomorrow.

[Yorkvillain]

Nice start. Looking forward to the rest.

[Kealy]

Following along, looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

[Heronymous]

Curious to hear what you experienced with the "not really a 14 day cruise" thing as we're taking the exact same B2B on the Escape next week. I'm curious if we have to get off and back on as I've been told two totally different answers by NCL... And have read conflicting accounts on here as well. What was your experience?

 

 

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[CruisinHarvey]

Following along. we board on August 20th for the 8 day.

[jdmerck]

Following

[davidwar]

Curious to hear what you experienced with the "not really a 14 day cruise" thing as we're taking the exact same B2B on the Escape next week. I'm curious if we have to get off and back on as I've been told two totally different answers by NCL... And have read conflicting accounts on here as well. What was your experience?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

OK. I was going to talk about this later, but you forced it out of me as I want to answer in time for your trip next week. Yes, you do have to get off.

 

On the day before the end of the first week, we received in our stateroom a packet which explained what we had to do. First, you have to fill out the customs form as you would at the end of the trip (and which you will have to do again the following week). We did not have to bring our luggage as we were keeping the same staterooms. I'm not sure what you would have to do if you were switching.

 

You are also given stickers to wear which say "I'm still on vacation". These serve no purpose as we found out later. You don't have to wait for any color luggage tag to be called. You just follow everyone getting off the ship. This is a little weird because alot of the staff is lined up saying goodbye. (No! We're coming right back!). There are a few excursions for Miami which we did not do. If you do one of those, you have to get off around 7:30 and maybe that is a little more organized.

 

We decided to walk off around 9 and go to a local Target as we needed to replenish some supplies. By that time there wasn't much luggage left in the big terminal and we were able to walk right up to customs. The first thing the customs guy asked was "where is your luggage?" and we had to explain to him what was going on. He looked at us a little suspiciously but put us through.

 

We then flagged a cab (van since there was 6 of us) and went to Target, which I looked up and found one that was supposed to be only 3 miles from the terminal. The cabbie took the scenic route and $20 later we got there. Getting a cab back to the pier from the mall (I forget exactly where it was; it also had a Marshalls) was no small feat and we finally flagged 2 cabs because one cab couldn't fit all of us. This cost us an additional $40 ($20 per cab).

 

Upon arriving back at the terminal at around 11:30 (I had to guess to go to the same one we went when we arrived a week earlier. There were no signs and no instructions in the packet we were given as to where to go.), we thought we would be able to show someone our cards and just get right back on. No such luck. We had to go through security with our bags from Target and go to the area where the newly arriving people were on line waiting waiting to check in. Again, no sign saying pointing us to any special line. We showed one of the attendants our stickers and they waved us past the checkin crowd, but that put us in the line in back of all the people who were in the walkways with the clear windows waiting to board the ship for the first time (after their group numbers were called).

 

The line was real long and I was getting a little steamed. I didn't feel we should have to go through this. I corralled someone and explained our situation and asked if we had to wait on this line. First he said yes, and told us that we should have been back on the ship a few hours before, even though the packet said we didn't have to back until 3!

 

Some other guy saw what was happening and told us we did not have wait on this line. He told us to go to some other door where there was no one waiting and we were able to slip past the crowd to get back on. All in all, I would describe this experience as disorganized to say the least. There are no signs, the letter in the packet was not clear and as you can see, we were getting conflicting instructions from the folks on the ground. There should be a better procedure for B2B parties. I'm not sure how many other B2Bers there were, but I did run into a few other people. I'm not sure if they had the same experience we did.

[Clarea]

Following along.:)

[Lupush]

Thank You for taking the time to post your review. Enjoying thus far.

[Heronymous]

OK. I was going to talk about this later, but you forced it out of me as I want to answer in time for your trip next week. Yes, you do have to get off.

 

 

 

On the day before the end of the first week, we received in our stateroom a packet which explained what we had to do. First, you have to fill out the customs form as you would at the end of the trip (and which you will have to do again the following week). We did not have to bring our luggage as we were keeping the same staterooms. I'm not sure what you would have to do if you were switching.

 

 

 

You are also given stickers to wear which say "I'm still on vacation". These serve no purpose as we found out later. You don't have to wait for any color luggage tag to be called. You just follow everyone getting off the ship. This is a little weird because alot of the staff is lined up saying goodbye. (No! We're coming right back!). There are a few excursions for Miami which we did not do. If you do one of those, you have to get off around 7:30 and maybe that is a little more organized.

 

 

 

We decided to walk off around 9 and go to a local Target as we needed to replenish some supplies. By that time there wasn't much luggage left in the big terminal and we were able to walk right up to customs. The first thing the customs guy asked was "where is your luggage?" and we had to explain to him what was going on. He looked at us a little suspiciously but put us through.

 

 

 

We then flagged a cab (van since there was 6 of us) and went to Target, which I looked up and found one that was supposed to be only 3 miles from the terminal. The cabbie took the scenic route and $20 later we got there. Getting a cab back to the pier from the mall (I forget exactly where it was; it also had a Marshalls) was no small feat and we finally flagged 2 cabs because one cab couldn't fit all of us. This cost us an additional $40 ($20 per cab).

 

 

 

Upon arriving back at the terminal at around 11:30 (I had to guess to go to the same one we went when we arrived a week earlier. There were no signs and no instructions in the packet we were given as to where to go.), we thought we would be able to show someone our cards and just get right back on. No such luck. We had to go through security with our bags from Target and go to the area where the newly arriving people were on line waiting waiting to check in. Again, no sign saying pointing us to any special line. We showed one of the attendants our stickers and they waved us past the checkin crowd, but that put us in the line in back of all the people who were in the walkways with the clear windows waiting to board the ship for the first time (after their group numbers were called).

 

 

 

The line was real long and I was getting a little steamed. I didn't feel we should have to go through this. I corralled someone and explained our situation and asked if we had to wait on this line. First he said yes, and told us that we should have been back on the ship a few hours before, even though the packet said we didn't have to back until 3!

 

 

 

Some other guy saw what was happening and told us we did not have wait on this line. He told us to go to some other door where there was no one waiting and we were able to slip past the crowd to get back on. All in all, I would describe this experience as disorganized to say the least. There are no signs, the letter in the packet was not clear and as you can see, we were getting conflicting instructions from the folks on the ground. There should be a better procedure for B2B parties. I'm not sure how many other B2Bers there were, but I did run into a few other people. I'm not sure if they had the same experience we did.

 

 

 

Thanks for the info, sorry to push it out sooner than expected but it's much appreciated! I'll be prepared to deal with the chaos then. I guess that's the whole closed-loop cruise thing... I wonder what happens if you don't get off the ship? Anyone ever try it? Lol

 

 

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[sid_9169]

There is no option of not getting off the ship. Anyone doing a back to back must, at the very least, debark and clear customs first. I believe the OP ran into trouble because he chose to leave the port area entirely (*not judging, just an observation)

 

Most people who do a back to back get off, go through customs and immediately get back on the ship...

Thanks for the info, sorry to push it out sooner than expected but it's much appreciated! I'll be prepared to deal with the chaos then. I guess that's the whole closed-loop cruise thing... I wonder what happens if you don't get off the ship? Anyone ever try it? Lol

 

 

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[MrsPugwash]

Following along 😎 Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

[davidwar]

There is no option of not getting off the ship. Anyone doing a back to back must, at the very least, debark and clear customs first. I believe the OP ran into trouble because he chose to leave the port area entirely (*not judging, just an observation)

 

Most people who do a back to back get off, go through customs and immediately get back on the ship...

 

I didn't think you were judging me and you are right, there is no option to just stay on the ship. (We would have done that if we could.), but there were definitely other people doing what we were doing and they did offer excursions which would return you to the ship much later than when we got back. My point was just that there should have been a better procedure in placed.

[cincicruisers]

Following

[Grumpy'sGurl]

Subscribing! We are new to NCL ( jumping ship from DCL) and are very interested in how your teenagers made out. Did they like the teen club and activities. How about the shows? Thanks for sharing!

[davidwar]

Subscribing! We are new to NCL ( jumping ship from DCL) and are very interested in how your teenagers made out. Did they like the teen club and activities. How about the shows? Thanks for sharing!

 

My teenagers chose not to take advantage of the teen club or activities geared toward them. It's just the way they are. They still had a good time. I did see many teens who were at the club and they seemed to enjoy it. While I'm at it, we didn't do the water slides or the ropes course either. I chickened out.

 

We attended both the main shows offered on the ship, "For the Record: The Brat Pack" and "After Midnight". The Brat Pack as you may have heard is a mashup of alot of the John Hughes 80s movies (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, etc.). The performers and the band were very talented and did a lot of songs I'm sure you would recognize. There is a fair amount of cursing so if you or your kids are not comfortable with that, beware. I saw several families bring little kids and it definitely was not for them. I would say I liked it, not loved it as opposed to my teenagers and my 25 year old niece who thought it was great.

 

"After Midnight" was great as I love swing/jazz music from the 30s and 40s. It is set in the New York Cotton Club of that era. No real plot, but more of a revue. I can't understand how some people on this board have said they were bored by it. I would say it is probably one of the best shows I've ever seen on a cruise ship. To me it was Broadway quality. I live near NYC and I go to a good share of shows so I know. The band was tight and there was great singing and tap dancing. Very talented performers.

 

For these shows, you need to make reservations as the theater compared to other ships is smaller. You can do this online before your cruise or try to do it onboard on your room TV or one of the many kiosks they have on the ship. Get there a half hour before they start to get a good seat. The seats by the way have air conditioning vents on the back which blow on the person sitting behind you. I thought this was quite clever!

 

We did not see any of the other shows ("Winelovers: The Musical" or "Tribute to Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons"). The 4 Seasons were named after a bowling alley (now torn down) in our town. We saw a ventriloquist (my wife got into the show) and a couple of the comedians who were very good. The comedy club (Headliners) is small and you also need to make reservations or you can wait in a standby line, which we did and we did have to stand throughout the show. You have to wait until you get on the ship to make reservations for the comedy club.

[ccndfw]

I didn't think you were judging me and you are right, there is no option to just stay on the ship. (We would have done that if we could.), but there were definitely other people doing what we were doing and they did offer excursions which would return you to the ship much later than when we got back. My point was just that there should have been a better procedure in placed.

 

We did a back to back previously and didn't have to go thru all that. We were the last ones off the ship and only had to wait in the terminal for about 10-15 minutes and then were the first to reboard. We had the same packet, but there was a designated meeting place where someone escorted us off the ship. Once off, they waited for us and escorted us back to reboard before the normal boarding started. We weren't staying in the Haven so we assumed they did this for all B2B cruises.

[davidwar]

Now let me continue where I left off yesterday. You may remember that there were issues with our key cards (UBP on teenagers card, UDP incorrect). So before we even went to eat our first lunch I thought it a good idea to get on the line at Guest Services on Deck 6 to get it straightened out. Plenty of time to eat later and throughout the cruise. While we were on line, a tall guy with the high-ranking pseudo Navy uniform on greeted us and he introduced himself as Jovo, the Hotel Director. He is from Serbia. He asked what the problem was and after I explained it, he told us to have a seat on one of the couches and he would take care of us.

 

Five minutes later he came back with all the key cards corrected and also told me that my unlimited internet plan ($369 for 2 weeks which I had paid in advance; more on that later) was set up and all I had to do was log on and I would be ready to go. All in all a great first impression.

 

FOOD (MAIN DINING ROOMS, BUFFET, O'SHEEHANS)

 

We then decided to go to one of the main dining rooms for lunch rather than the buffet which I anticipated (correctly) would be packed to the nines. Many people don't know that these rooms are open and the staff does tend to try to get you to go to the buffet. Go here instead on the first day; the place was empty and you won't regret it. While I'm at it, for the life of me if you blindfolded me and put me in either Taste or Savor, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They're both very pretty and we had good meals (breakfasts, lunches and dinners) there. Along with the Manhattan Room, they serve the same menus.

 

May as well comment on the food. In addition to Taste and Savor, there is the Manhattan Room which has a band and a dance floor. In 2 weeks I never saw anyone dancing. It does tend to be a little loud, especially if you are sitting close to the band. Regarding the discussions on whether you need a reservation for any of the main dining rooms, we had a party of six each time we went there and we never had more than a 5 minute wait at any of them.

 

In my opinion the food was fine (not off the charts but good and certainly not as bad as some other reviews I've read) and the service was wonderful. The only small difficulty I had one night was that I asked for fries without salt (with the steak frites which they have on the menu every night and was very good) as I had eaten them earlier and they are oversalted. The waiter misunderstood me and brought me the fries not only with salt but what appeared to be 14 other seasonings piled on top of it. After I explained, he brought them out correctly. There are several entrees on the menu that there is an extra charge for. I didn't try any of them. After watching "Hells Kitchen" all these years, I finally tried Beef Wellington one night and enjoyed it. (That will register for anyone who has watched that show)

 

As for the buffet, well, it is what it is, a buffet for 4000 people with a confusing (for me) rectangular layout. If you keep walking around you will pass the same things over and over, but I guess they do that on purpose, kind of like being on the Jersey Turnpike. For a party of six it was often difficult, but not impossible to find a table. You had to go around the rectangle a few times. The servers would clean the tables quickly oftentimes when you weren't finished eating yet. There were also pockets in the dining area where the air conditioning was not working. Not great when it's over 90 on deck. There's a bar there too which I took advantage of especially in the morning to have a Blood Mary. One day I was having some stomach issues, so I ordered a Gatorade for a whopping $3.50 and not included on the UBP.

 

I'm not much of a breakfast eater, but they have everything you can imagine, including baked beans, which I actually enjoyed having at breakfast. Is that a European thing? As for eggs, they have hard boiled (brown shell, somebody told me that meant they were organic) which they need to boil longer. You'd peel the shell and half the white would always come off. They also have the obligatory trays of "scrambled eggs". These are powdered for sure, no way they are made fresh. If you want real eggs, you have to wait on line at one of the omelet stations, which were never that lengthy and were pretty good. There is fruit salad, hot cereal (had cream of wheat for the first time in a while, no lumps) and loose fruit. While the bananas were green, when you peeled them they were kind of overripe. Not a problem for me I like them this way.

 

At lunch, also a pretty good selection of salads, a carving station (great roast chicken, a deli counter where they had a panini of the day or little tiny slider side sandwiches (chicken salad, tuna). The burgers were OK, in my opinion. They have fries (again too salty). You should certainly be able to find something you would like. They also have a station labeled "Asian Favorites". A lot of what is there was neither Asian, not was it my favorite. We did not eat any dinners in the buffet, but many others did as it was pretty full near dinner time. All in all I'd say the buffet was fine.

 

We went to O'Sheehans for dinner one night. It's a sports bar with food that I believe is open 24 hours or very late. Sometimes they have all you can eat ribs or prime rib, which we didn't take advantage of. We ordered the nachos for appetizers. To me the melted cheese was bland, no crushed up meat and very little sour cream. Most of us had a burger which was OK and some others had either chicken fingers or a grilled chicken sandwich. Think a small step lower than TGI Friday's or Ruby Tuesday's.

CRUISE CRITICS MEET N GREET (FIRST WEEK)

 

One more story before I retire for the evening and I think all you posters/readers will appreciate it. On the first Monday morning, we had our Meet n Greet in Cagneys. It was organized by Roadwarrior 7 (sorry forgot your real name) and his new bride Heather. He told the story how he met Heather on another NCL cruise where they both stayed in the Singles section. This was their belated honeymoon. What a cute couple and I wish them all the best. I did kind of feel bad for them because they seemed to do alot of work getting the meeting set up and I think there were over 100 people signed up and only about 20 showed up. I'm guilty too. I signed up my whole family and only I came. FYI for those who were there, I'm the guy who took the mike and gave some of my initial observations. I have a big mouth.

 

Anyway what always happens at these meetings is that the senior officers show up as well as the Cruise Director and they ask if everything is OK and thank all of us for being such "good writers". Then they leave, but there is always a couple of staff members who stay behind, in my opinion to listen just in case somebody talks about something bad that may have happened.

 

I made sure to tell everyone my story about Jovo and how he helped us. Later when i got back to my cabin(s) there were 2 trays of chocolate covered strawberries, which we also received every day (not sure, this may be because we are silver latitudes members). He also sent us 2 bottles of wine. I like Jovo. Say hello to him, you can't miss him.

[SNJCruisers]

We did a back to back previously and didn't have to go thru all that. We were the last ones off the ship and only had to wait in the terminal for about 10-15 minutes and then were the first to reboard. We had the same packet, but there was a designated meeting place where someone escorted us off the ship. Once off, they waited for us and escorted us back to reboard before the normal boarding started. We weren't staying in the Haven so we assumed they did this for all B2B cruises.

Sounds like you read the packet thoroughly and followed proper procure to a tee. I am also inferring that you did not clear customs during your 10-15 minute wait in the terminal, right? Edited August 12, 2016 by SNJCruisers

[davidwar]

Sounds like you read the packet thoroughly and followed proper procure to a tee. I am also inferring that you did not clear customs during your 10-15 minute wait in the terminal, right?

 

Yes, he followed procedure if you chose to return immediately to the ship. You were given the option of leaving the port area, doing something in Miami and then returning to the ship later, which is what we chose to do and what I was referring to in earlier posts.

[ruthie0704]

Following :)

[LarissaRose]

I did kind of feel bad for them because they seemed to do alot of work getting the meeting set up and I think there were over 100 people signed up and only about 20 showed up. I'm guilty too. I signed up my whole family and only I came.

 

I'm guilty too :( ... I slept through it :eek:

[Jana60]

Do you know what hours the band in the Manhattan plays? I like to dine early but I would love to hear music while I eat.

[davidwar]

Do you know what hours the band in the Manhattan plays? I like to dine early but I would love to hear music while I eat.

 

I'm pretty sure they play as long as the restaurant is open and as with any band, they take breaks here and there. You may love to hear music while you eat, but sometimes it's hard to hear the people you're eating with! It was a pleasant experience though, kind of like being at a wedding reception.

[Sand and Seas]

Can't wait to read more! We have wondered about B2Bs. Thanks for sharing with us:D