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

[Johnsr420]

The Haven was nice. That said, if you remember, we were in Vibe with you! Seriously, the Haven is great but kids take over, making it less than enjoyable at times. We were happy to have Vibe passes for the duration of our B2B.

 

Best decision we made on this cruise was getting Vibe passes for 2 weeks. It was part of the reason it was such a great vacation. Met some lovely people and have made friends for life. The bar men there are exceptional and know everybody's name on day one and join in on all the fun and jokes.

[CruiserRob]

Being in Vibe can cause you to explore a lot less.

 

The hours just slide by when you are in the Vibe. The first time, I completely forgot about the water slides :mad:

[easyboy]

Enjoyed following your posts davidwar.

[cincicruisers]

Great review.

 

Did you eat in any of the specialty restaurants?

[davidwar]

Great review.

 

Did you eat in any of the specialty restaurants?

 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Yes, we ate at 6 of the specialty restaurants.

 

La Cucina - solid Italian restaurant. I had a veal shank. Quite tasty.

 

Le Bistro - we forgot we had a reservation and arrived late. The choice was between waiting until 9:30 or sitting outside in the concourse. It was a little noisy, and my chair was somewhat uncomfortable, but the food was delicious. I had the Lobster. Since my 14 year old couldn't find anything to her liking and had macaroni and cheese, the server did not take one of our UDP allowances. I thought this was nice.

 

Moderno - this is the Brazilian restaurant where you eat meat served on skewers. Very good. Just don't load up on the salad bar before (which also has sushi) or you won't have any room for the meat.

 

Cagney's - Wonderful Porterhouse steak, which was huge.

 

Teppenyaki - the Japanese restaurant, like Benihana. Probably the best of all the restaurants. Between the rice, soup and the meal, I felt like I was going to bust walking out of there. I had the steak and shrimp. To confirm some questions by other posters, lobster is no longer on the menu.

 

Bayamo - Sorry, this was a disappointment for me. The food was average and definitely (to me) was not worth the upcharge of $15 per person (even if you had the UDP).

 

Service in all these restaurants was above-board. They went out of their way to make the experience special.

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for the review and all the great info!

[davidwar]

Thanks for the review and all the great info!

 

No problem. Have some comments on a few more things, maybe this evening.

[davidwar]

The Cabins

 

We had 2 adjoining balcony cabins on the 9th floor about 2/3 toward the back (aft). I thought the rooms were fine. My wife and I took one room and my 2 daughters, my niece and my MIL took the other, which was a quad (had a berth that dropped down from the ceiling. Regarding opening the balcony divider, we asked the room steward as soon as we arrived and he opened it right away without hesitation.

 

This location was great as it was right near an elevator bank (no real waits for an elevator the whole 2 weeks) and it was one floor above deck 8, which had some of the specialty restaurants and bars.

 

Our room had the bed right next to the closet and yes the space between the 2 is quite tight, but nothing that caused any real inconvenience. Most of you have read about needing a key card in a slot by the door if you want the electricity to stay on in the stateroom. I bought some old credit size cards from home thinking they would work, but they didn't so I went to guest services and asked for 2 blank key cards which did work. I had to do this twice because for some reason the room steward took the cards a few times.

 

I understand that NCL wants to save energy, but this whole thing was an annoyance. I can understand if it just turned the lights off, but it shuts off all power including air conditioning. Also shuts down the USB ports on the lights so you won't be charging your devices. I'm on vacation. I don't want to deal with this stuff.

 

The bathroom, particularly the shower was somewhat larger than on most ships I've been on and the water pressure was better than on other ships. The balcony was average to small, enough to fit 2 regular chairs and a small table. Having the divider opened made the balcony larger of course. The bed was very comfortable.

 

The TV selection was as usual on a cruise ship few and far between. They have 4 news channels (equal opportunity I guess - MSNBC, Fox News and BBC, as well as CNBC). There is another channel that has some fairly recent movies and another with some TV reruns. There are the usual channels which advertise shore excursions and another that shows the ships' game shows (not so Newlywed Game, Battle of the Sexes, etc). Oh, there is another channel that shows Pitbull singing on the ship on a loop.

 

Our room steward Danilo was great. Very cheerful and friendly. I am a firm believer in giving the room steward a little something upfront especially since we had 2 rooms and there were six of us ($50 right when he comes in and introduces himself) and a little more at the end, over and above the daily service fee that you are charged. He was very appreciative and we did not have to worry about anything throughout the 2 weeks. Trust me folks, this works as I have done it on most of our cruises. We asked for extra towels, pillows (bathroom and pool) and my wife asked for an iron and an ironing board which we were allowed to keep for the whole cruise. No problem. Room was always straightened out nicely (we are a little sloppy). He also made us towel animals every night.

[17cruisesnsl]

We booked a b2b in Jan/Feb 2017 and I read you left the port area, but do you know approximately how long your fellow b2b passengers waited to reboard?

 

My mom is in her late 80s and requires wheelchair assistance boarding and disembarking, so I am wondering if anyone knows how that will be handled? If they drop you off in a lounge and come back later or you stay with the wheelchair? Since I won't be dealing with luggage, I would be happy to push the chair, although I doubt that is permitted

 

NCL Staff is wonderful in providing assistance but until this planned cruise, we've disembarked, pouted and gone home.

 

Thanks

[davidwar]

We booked a b2b in Jan/Feb 2017 and I read you left the port area, but do you know approximately how long your fellow b2b passengers waited to reboard?

 

My mom is in her late 80s and requires wheelchair assistance boarding and disembarking, so I am wondering if anyone knows how that will be handled? If they drop you off in a lounge and come back later or you stay with the wheelchair? Since I won't be dealing with luggage, I would be happy to push the chair, although I doubt that is permitted

 

NCL Staff is wonderful in providing assistance but until this planned cruise, we've disembarked, pouted and gone home.

 

Thanks

 

I don't really know, but it sounds like the process is alot easier if you choose to go right back onto the ship. The note they sent about it said you might have to wait up to 2 hours. If I were you I would find out about it as soon as you board. I'm sure that if they know in advance that you have someone in a wheelchair, they will do what they can to make the process easier.

[Saltney]

The Cabins

 

Our room had the bed right next to the closet and yes the space between the 2 is quite tight, but nothing that caused any real inconvenience. Most of you have read about needing a key card in a slot by the door if you want the electricity to stay on in the stateroom. I bought some old credit size cards from home thinking they would work, but they didn't so I went to guest services and asked for 2 blank key cards which did work. I had to do this twice because for some reason the room steward took the cards a few times.

 

I understand that NCL wants to save energy, but this whole thing was an annoyance. I can understand if it just turned the lights off, but it shuts off all power including air conditioning. Also shuts down the USB ports on the lights so you won't be charging your devices. I'm on vacation. I don't want to deal with this stuff.

 

I used a fuel bonus points card with no issue at all in my cabin. All the sockets have is a push contact (I know I broke one accidently on the Epic) so any card should have worked in the slot.

[Saltney]

We booked a b2b in Jan/Feb 2017 and I read you left the port area, but do you know approximately how long your fellow b2b passengers waited to reboard?

 

 

If you decide you aren't going to disembark in Miami, all B2B have to meet in the Theatre at around 9:30-9:45 at which point they make you wait for approx 1 hour whilst they try to gather all the B2B who haven't already disembarked. THis is a long process which they did by manually shouting out cabin numbers instead of using the available technology to scan people's cards. The person in charge didn't seem to know what was going on or what he was doing and kept shouting the same numbers over and over again when the passengers had already shown themselves to staff.

 

You then get escorted off the ship into the port building and made to queue and wait again (they even made us walk in a clear circle we felt like prisoners). After around 40 mins, We were finally escorted down to the gnd floor to finally show our passport and immigration forms which took 5 mins. then were escorted back to the port waiting room to be allowed back onboard after another NCL could definitely improve on this process.

 

We probably got back on board a bit after 11:40.

[17cruisesnsl]

Thank you. Will definitely check when we board.

[Jana60]

I've never done a back-to-back on Norwegian but the changeover process on Carnival only takes about 30 minutes. On Carnival you meet in the lobby walk to customs as a group and hand them your custom certificates they hand you your new sail & Sign card which they have already prepared and walk you back on board where you get your picture taken for your new sail & Sign card as you into the ship. They then take a picture of you in front of a banner that says something advertising the cruise line and they give you those pictures free at the end of your cruise. They then give you champagne. Usually the entire group are sharing a few bottles but on my last back to back I was the only 1 cruising back to back and they just kept refilling my glass until the entire bottle of champagne was empty so I was really Tipsy at Sail Away.

[starfishee]

 

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.

 

What time did you arrive? We went on this cruise back in January and I honestly cannot recall what time we arrived, or what group we were in. I just recall we were on the ship by 1:30ish... I'm curious for our next cruise. Thanks!

[ozscot01]

Enjoying this review very much and will be following along.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[davidwar]

What time did you arrive? We went on this cruise back in January and I honestly cannot recall what time we arrived, or what group we were in. I just recall we were on the ship by 1:30ish... I'm curious for our next cruise. Thanks!

 

I think we got there about 11 or 11:30.

[toddcl]

New to NCL. Previously sailed Oasis of the Seas twice. Looking to book this ship for May of 2017. Following your thread here!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[starfishee]

I think we got there about 11 or 11:30.

Thanks!;)

[disneygirl]

As for the "mixed drinks" this must be ship wide because I just came off the Gem and they had Bahama Mama, LI Tea's, Painkillers and maybe Margherita's already mixed.

 

On the Gem we had Cesar, he was fantastic and similar to your Cowboy. He remembered us from day one and when he made drinks we actually had to ask him to add some juice or soda, because they were STRONG!

 

UBP is the best way to go and for us we went from New York down to the Bahamas and even when we were in port in the Bahamas we were also charged a tax for any of those beverages.

[SullytheBFG]

We did a B2B in January on the Escape. You all meet in an advised area, get given a sticker that says still on vacation.

 

We were all escorted off cleared customs with the filled in form and then taken back on board again. It probably took 30 minutes.

 

May I ask Americans why putting a card in the electricity slot is such an issue? This has been in Europe for many many years, it saves on electricity. There is global warning....

 

Bong is a lovely bar chap, very entertaining.

[Loonbeam]

It wouldn't be an issue if they had left one outlet off the switch, so you can leave your phone or camera or other devices plugged in to charge and the aircon was set to an energy saver mode, not off (both things more common in europe). On Princess, during a port day, with the sun on our side of the ship the cabin was almost unbearable when we got back on board.

 

 

We did a B2B in January on the Escape. You all meet in an advised area, get given a sticker that says still on vacation.

 

We were all escorted off cleared customs with the filled in form and then taken back on board again. It probably took 30 minutes.

 

May I ask Americans why putting a card in the electricity slot is such an issue? This has been in Europe for many many years, it saves on electricity. There is global warning....

 

Bong is a lovely bar chap, very entertaining.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Loonbeam

[TSUmom]

I am glad I found this review. We are considering a B2B vs a 14 day sailing from San Juan. The price actually looks cheaper doing the two 7 day B2B. I also have two Cruise next Certs so I figured I would use both. Now I just hope NCL can make it a smooth easy process and have a set plan on the procedures.

[L1211]

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!

 

Jumping into the conversation to share our teen's Entourage experience this summer on our June sailing. We brought along a friend so because there were 2 16 y/os I don't think the teen club was as important. But, the girls checked in right away and started to participate the first night. I'd read here that can be important as relationships are formed and it good to be a part of that. Well, my lovely budding young feminist found some of their practices offensive at best. Their orientation explained the importance of participation because of awards presented on the last night. They would be naming "most popular", "best dressed" and so on. Our teen and her best friend are tall, fit athletes- confident girls that find Nike shorts, volleyball spandex, and t-shirts resort wear! DD found being formally judged by her peers on vacation appalling. She's a big hearted kid and thought it encouraged "mean girl" worship. Her words, not mine... She and her bestie did win an award though. They were the fastest team on The Amazing Race. DD was just fine winning an athletic pursuit, beating even all the teams of boys. They loved the Glow Party - called it a "Rave". Enjoyed dancing with the kids the'd met through the club. Not all bad, just a tone she didn't approne of!

[L1211]

The Cabins

 

We had 2 adjoining balcony cabins on the 9th floor about 2/3 toward the back (aft). I thought the rooms were fine. My wife and I took one room and my 2 daughters, my niece and my MIL took the other, which was a quad (had a berth that dropped down from the ceiling. Regarding opening the balcony divider, we asked the room steward as soon as we arrived and he opened it right away without hesitation.

 

This location was great as it was right near an elevator bank (no real waits for an elevator the whole 2 weeks) and it was one floor above deck 8, which had some of the specialty restaurants and bars.

 

Our room had the bed right next to the closet and yes the space between the 2 is quite tight, but nothing that caused any real inconvenience. Most of you have read about needing a key card in a slot by the door if you want the electricity to stay on in the stateroom. I bought some old credit size cards from home thinking they would work, but they didn't so I went to guest services and asked for 2 blank key cards which did work. I had to do this twice because for some reason the room steward took the cards a few times.

 

I understand that NCL wants to save energy, but this whole thing was an annoyance. I can understand if it just turned the lights off, but it shuts off all power including air conditioning. Also shuts down the USB ports on the lights so you won't be charging your devices. I'm on vacation. I don't want to deal with this stuff.

 

The bathroom, particularly the shower was somewhat larger than on most ships I've been on and the water pressure was better than on other ships. The balcony was average to small, enough to fit 2 regular chairs and a small table. Having the divider opened made the balcony larger of course. The bed was very comfortable.

 

The TV selection was as usual on a cruise ship few and far between. They have 4 news channels (equal opportunity I guess - MSNBC, Fox News and BBC, as well as CNBC). There is another channel that has some fairly recent movies and another with some TV reruns. There are the usual channels which advertise shore excursions and another that shows the ships' game shows (not so Newlywed Game, Battle of the Sexes, etc). Oh, there is another channel that shows Pitbull singing on the ship on a loop.

 

Our room steward Danilo was great. Very cheerful and friendly. I am a firm believer in giving the room steward a little something upfront especially since we had 2 rooms and there were six of us ($50 right when he comes in and introduces himself) and a little more at the end, over and above the daily service fee that you are charged. He was very appreciative and we did not have to worry about anything throughout the 2 weeks. Trust me folks, this works as I have done it on most of our cruises. We asked for extra towels, pillows (bathroom and pool) and my wife asked for an iron and an ironing board which we were allowed to keep for the whole cruise. No problem. Room was always straightened out nicely (we are a little sloppy). He also made us towel animals every night.

 

How interesting that they took your balcony dividers down right away. We had 2 large balcony rooms on 9 in June and asked but were told no, it was a fire hazard. Excuse me? My sister was on the Escape one week prior and they opened hers. She was in the Haven so I assumed they just didn't do that for us common passengers. Didn't see that much of the teens, so the shared balcony would have been quite special. Good to know to pursue it harder next time!! Thank you for sharing.