NCL Escape Review - 8-Night Sailing - Aug 20-28

[Sunshine2U]

So we finally get on to the ship. The washy washy team and some other crew are singing and dancing as we came off the gangway but we were then left to walk part way down the deck before entering mid-ship deck 7, the casino. I thought this was a rather odd way and odd place to first board a cruise ship. Disney does this the best. When we boarded the Wonder into the main atrium they announced our names and we were welcomed aboard like royalty. Speaking of Royal, boarding the Oasis of the Seas right onto the Royal Promenade was amazing. It really gets you excited about your vacation. Boarding the NCL Escape was simply without any fanfare. While I enjoy the concept of Freestyle cruising, this was just too casual. I was really hoping for the WOW moment as you enter the ship.

 

This was exactly our reaction - especially the comparison to Disney. Absolutely awesome cruise but we came in through the back door.

[kackles]

How big of an issue was it to get the room assignments changed? We are doing the same with our kids but we are not in connecting rooms and was hopeful we could get things switched once on board.

[Pher4Real]

I was on Escape end of May/June this year.... I MISS HER!!! Your photos are bringing back soo many great memories :)

[Shawnkat]

How big of an issue was it to get the room assignments changed? We are doing the same with our kids but we are not in connecting rooms and was hopeful we could get things switched once on board.

 

 

It was actually quite easy. The agent in the terminal at check-in wasn't able to do anything. She just recommended multiple key cards. But that would mean my 16 year old son would be carrying a duplicate of my wife's card with the UBP. I don't think so.

 

Once on the ship we went straight to guest services (deck 6). After explaining the situation and confirming that we had connecting cabins, the agent said no problem and switched the room assignments and issued new sea pass cards. I'm not sure if the connecting vs non-connecting rooms are the issue. I know from other cruise lines they are usually okay with this for connecting cabins, side-by-side cabins and even cabins that are directly across from each other.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[Shawnkat]

I was on Escape end of May/June this year.... I MISS HER!!! Your photos are bringing back soo many great memories :)

 

 

Thank you.

It's only been 10 days and I already miss her as well. I'm ready for another vacation!

[kackles]

It was actually quite easy. The agent in the terminal at check-in wasn't able to do anything. She just recommended multiple key cards. But that would mean my 16 year old son would be carrying a duplicate of my wife's card with the UBP. I don't think so.

 

Once on the ship we went straight to guest services (deck 6). After explaining the situation and confirming that we had connecting cabins, the agent said no problem and switched the room assignments and issued new sea pass cards. I'm not sure if the connecting vs non-connecting rooms are the issue. I know from other cruise lines they are usually okay with this for connecting cabins, side-by-side cabins and even cabins that are directly across from each other.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

 

Thanks

[Yankee123]

Great start - I am following also. Hopefully we will sail NCL Escape soon.

[Natmom]

Following along!

 

We are surprising our kids (13 and 16) at Christmas with an Escape cruise. We have been on the Disney Dream and Disney fantasy with the kids and my husband and I went on the oasis on our own. I hope that the Escape is a great trip for our family. My daughter and I both have celiac disease, Disney was incredible and the oasis was terrible so I have my fingers crossed that the escape is better than the oasis in that department.

[Shawnkat]

Following along!

 

We are surprising our kids (13 and 16) at Christmas with an Escape cruise. We have been on the Disney Dream and Disney fantasy with the kids and my husband and I went on the oasis on our own. I hope that the Escape is a great trip for our family. My daughter and I both have celiac disease, Disney was incredible and the oasis was terrible so I have my fingers crossed that the escape is better than the oasis in that department.

 

 

Thanks for following.

 

We surprised our kids with the Disney cruise when they were younger. They didn't know until right before arriving at the cruise ship terminal. Disney is really in a class of its own. The level of service and attention to detail is amazing. So sorry to hear that Oasis was a disappointment. For us it was the best cruise so far. I'm sure you'll have a great time on the Escape.

[Sand and Seas]

Great start and can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing your review with us. It really helps us get ready for our next ESCAPE:D

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for your review so far, can't wait to read the rest. We are headed out in a few weeks!

[jeninthecity]

Following. Enjoying so far. Thanks!

[Grumpy'sGurl]

Great Review! We are coming on down for our first foray off DCL and bringing the teenagers - so very interested in your perspective.

[buckeye rob]

Great review. Sorry we didn't get to personally meet you at the meet and greet and slot pull, but..... continue.... Agree with embarkation. What a disaster. Could it have had anything to do with crew changeout ? Seems like people kept disembarking until 4:00. :confused: Regards Gerry.

[Shawnkat]

Great review. Sorry we didn't get to personally meet you at the meet and greet and slot pull, but..... continue.... Agree with embarkation. What a disaster. Could it have had anything to do with crew changeout ? Seems like people kept disembarking until 4:00. :confused: Regards Gerry.

 

Thanks Gerry. No worries about the M&G, there were a lot of people.

 

I'm not sure about the crew changeout and if that was the reason for the delay. Sounds plausible. Once we were on board, I didn't care anymore. We went right into cruise mode. :cool:

 

 

-Shawn

[CruisinForeverYoung]

Our itinerary was different from the typical Escape 7-day Eastern sailing. In July and August there were three 8-day sailings. An extra day means an extra port. In our case the itinerary added a stop at St. Maarten in addition the usual St. Thomas, Tortola and Nassau.

 

While I do have copies of all the Freestyle dailies, I won't post them since our itinerary was for a limited time. If anyone needs any copies, just let me know.

 

After lunch we headed to Entourage to register our teens. Although the club seemed to offer an interesting variety of activities and events, neither of our kids really took part. Once they made some day 1 connections, that was it for the week. The new group hung out and did their thing. Typical of teens and to be expected I suppose. Our only request was that we eat dinner as a family, which we did. :)

 

The muster drill was at 3:30 PM and by 4:00 PM we were moving. Goodbye Miami. See you in 8 days. Time for some sail away fun and more exploring!

 

The kids hit the pool right away and then we tried the ropes course. It opened after muster and not on day 2 as I mentioned in an earlier post. Make sure you are wearing closed toe shoes and don't have anything loose on you or you won't be able to enter the ropes course. My wife looked like a Sherpa while she was left holding all of our stuff. But she would rather that than do the course. It's not her thing. :eek: Me, on the other hand, love thrills and this was no letdown. Truth be told, as my kids were moving through it quickly, I was moving more slowly. Some of the obstacles are quite scary for a big guy. Once I cleared the first level I was more comfortable and moved through the second and third levels mush faster. Lots of fun!

 

We had dinner at Savor. Or was it Taste?... I all remember is that is was the other one from where we had lunch.

 

 

I started with the mixed greens with avocado salad followed by the shrimp risotto. The salad was good but I had low expectations for the risotto. A good risotto is a test for any chef and any kitchen. Needless to say, a risotto from a MDR kitchen on a cruise ship with 5,000 passengers should probably come with a warning. I did say I love thrills (and food)! To my surprise and delight, the risotto was really good. Not amazing but certainly better than I expected it to be.

 

 

My first cruise was in 2007 and this is now my sixth. Over the past 9 years I have certainly taken notice to the cost cutting measures that have been taken by the cruise industry. Yes, some things are blatant examples of nickel and diming, while others are more discreet and hidden. For me, one of the more discreet attempts to cut cost is in the menus being offered. Options in the MDR are rather limited and are not as gourmet as they once were. Lobster has been replaced by shrimp. Rib-eye has been replaced by sirloin. And the list goes on. On course you can still get lobster or a good steak if you want, but it will cost you extra. 9 years ago I couldn't wait to go on a galley tour, meet the head chef and buy the cookbook. No chance today. Not interested. Another example that I noticed with NCL is how they continue to edit their wine list and adjust their prices for alcoholic beverages. Who cares, right? We all have the UBP! The "Ultimate" beverage package limits you to wines by the glass and drinks under $15. The wine by the glass selection has been reduced to just a handful of selections, and none of them really good. In a restaurant you will expect a fairly decent wine at $15 a glass, not so on Escape. Premium drinks that were under the $15 just a couple of months ago have now been adjusted to $16.95-$17.95 so they are no longer included in the UBP. $17 for a pour of 12-year old Glenffidich is a bit steep IMO. You can ruin your own vacation easily if you look for things to complain about. I've come to accept these changes and move on. These are just little details. Your vacation is the big picture.

 

One of my favorite things about cruising is the food. Especially lobster night. It does disappoint me that a lot of lines are cutting back when it comes to food. However, I am an avid Princess cruiser and the one thing i do love about Princess is that in the dining room you can still get your lobster for free. I always place 2 orders of the lobster. I am booked to go on the Jade though in December for a Holiday cruise with 6 other family members. Love your review just waiting for more! :)

[Shawnkat]

We took a break from the sun and pool and had some lunch at the Garden Café, which is the buffet on the Escape. We ate there several times for breakfast and lunch and almost once for dinner. Overall I found the food to be good. It wasn't amazing and it wasn't bad. Some dishes were better then I would expect from a buffet while others were exactly what I would expect.

 

I do not like the design of the Garden Café. I found it confusing. It occupies the entire aft section of deck 16. That said, there are multiple entrances depending on if you are coming from the stairs or elevators or from the pool. If you are coming from the pool, say for some soft serve ice cream or just for a glass of water, you still need to find the right area of the buffet. They weren't that close to the pool side entrance which means people in wet bathing suits and towels have to walk through the regular meal crowd. When I was in a towel, I felt uncomfortable doing this. Sort of that feeling you get when you know you're under dressed. But that's just me. I still did in anyway. ;) I also thought it was dangerous as the floors can get wet and slippery very fast. NCL was good about cleaning though. The washy washy teams were always there to ensure your hands are germ free, and cleaning staff were always tending to the wet floors.

 

My other issue with the buffet is the design itself. There are two buffet lines along each side of the ship. They are mirror images of each other. During peak times both lines are open. During off times only one line is open. Basically they shut down one line to clean it and then prep it for the next meal service. Once done, they do the other side. The buffet line is exactly that, a line. A very long line. It is broken down into stations with the specific prep areas visible right behind it so food doesn't have to travel far. But because of its linear design, it's difficult for one to determine where anything is because you have no good sight lines. The only way to know what is at a station is to be standing directly in front of it. This also means you have to walk the entire length of the buffet (possibly multiple times) in order to know what's on offer before you decide what to eat.

 

This is the only photo I took of the Garden Café. It's not a very good one as I was in motion while taking it. My intention was simply to capture the view. On the other side of the divider on the left were the tables. They are busy but we always managed to find a place to sit. On the right side are the food stations. As you see the traffic is pretty hectic and you can't see any food. That's my son in the towel directly ahead of me.

 

 

On either side of each food station are stacks of plates. This, combined with the linear design, means that there is no designated front or back of the line. People are coming from both sides trying to get to the food. Everyone gets their food and I didn't notice any arguing but just keep this in mind if you think someone cuts in front of you. It may not be intentional but just a result of the design.

 

At all meals there is a good variety of food to choose from. At breakfast there was the usual scrambled eggs, french toast, pancakes, waffles, bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, hash browns, fruit, cereals, etc... There is also a station where you can get omelettes and other eggs cooked to order. No issues with breakfast. The food was good.

 

At lunch and dinner the buffet is completely transformed. There are soup and salad bars as well as a station for made to order salads. There is a carving station with different meats and a cooked to order pasta station as well. Then there are the usual sandwiches, pastas, meats, veggies, potatoes, etc... There is also a station with Asian and Indian food. Some Mexican, too. Overall a very good variety. I just wish the layout was easier to navigate.

 

As I mentioned there is also a soft serve ice cream machine on each of the buffet lines. I just realized now that I never had any. I saw it each day and I know my wife had some. It's not like me to say no to ice cream. Strange.

 

There are also multiple drink stations on each line. You can get coffee and tea, orange juice (and I think apple), iced tea as well as regular and flavoured water.

 

Staff worked hard to clean tables quickly so there is a good flow. I also really liked that you didn't need to search for and carry you cutlery with you as you fill your plate(s). ;) Instead they had cutlery rolled in linen napkins at each table that they would replenish all day. Very smart and convenient.

[eatdrinkfly]

*snip*

There is a short jogging track that covers part of the sun deck. It goes right through the chairs resulting in lots of traffic. I'm not a runner but I can only imagine how it must feel having to adjust your pace constantly and weave in and out of people.

 

 

 

as a runner, let me tell you how disappointing this track is.

 

i wish they had done the jogging track on the waterfront level and infact, I will be attempting to do my running on that level in December.

it's pretty deserted during the day and since it runs almost the whole ship length, it's a good distance per lap.

 

hopefully that will work because last year when i tried to run on the actual jogging track, it was a total no-go between the deck chairs, people and the water splashed from the pool area. so many hazards and downright dangerous at times!

 

the best jogging track i've seen yet is with Princess... great signage, very clear route and reasonably long so you don't feel like you're doing a million tiny laps. (my runs are at minimum an hour, so it can be a LOT of laps)

[Shawnkat]

On previous cruises we always had to get creative with how we're going to keep in contact with each other. Usually we'd be leaving messages in our voicemail, or using post-it notes in the room or dry erase markers on the mirror.

 

NCL offers an app that you can download on your phone that you can use while on board. Just make sure you download and install it before boarding the ship unless you have the slower than slow internet package. We all had our phones with us so I made sure everyone had the app installed. Also made sure everyone kept their phones in airplane mode. I don't want any surprises when I open our next cell phone bill. :confused:

 

Once on board, you connect to the ship's wi-fi and activate the app. This is free and does not use the internet. You can use the app to keep track of your account as well as view the daily schedules of activities and shows, etc... Very useful.

 

For a fee of $9.99 per device, you can activate additional features that let you make calls and send text messages between other registered devices. We activated all of our phones and were able keep in contact with each other very easily. Perfect. Money well spent.

 

My only issue is with the wi-fi network on the Escape. It is slow. Given the size of Escape I also expect there are numerous access points and range extenders that are continuously receiving and handing off connections. The result is that the app seems to lose its network connection often and we had to reset and relaunch the app multiple times a day in order to reconnect. The app notifies you if your text message has been delivered or read. However, if the recipient has lost the connection and hasn't reset the app, they won't receive your message until they reset. Certainly a pain but checking the phone and resetting just became part of the routine. You also had to make sure your phone was in airplane mode. I found that when we were in port and I turned on my other phone functions, the app wasn't functional even though I was still connected to the ship's wi-fi. Only once I went back into airplane mode did it work again.

 

Overall the app was really good and allowed us to communicate with each other but it can certainly be improved on. Maybe once the faster network is finally installed the app will have a more reliable and stable connection. I'm curious to know about this for anyone sailing on the Escape (or other NCL ships) in the near future.

[Shawnkat]

as a runner, let me tell you how disappointing this track is.

 

i wish they had done the jogging track on the waterfront level and infact, I will be attempting to do my running on that level in December.

it's pretty deserted during the day and since it runs almost the whole ship length, it's a good distance per lap.

 

hopefully that will work because last year when i tried to run on the actual jogging track, it was a total no-go between the deck chairs, people and the water splashed from the pool area. so many hazards and downright dangerous at times!

 

the best jogging track i've seen yet is with Princess... great signage, very clear route and reasonably long so you don't feel like you're doing a million tiny laps. (my runs are at minimum an hour, so it can be a LOT of laps)

 

I'm not a runner but agree completely. Good luck running on the Waterfront. I was also thinking that it would be the ideal place for a track as it goes around the ship and isn't high traffic like the lido and sun decks.

 

Have you been on the Oasis or Allure? They also have a dedicated track and it's very long, given the size of the ship. One lap is almost a half mile.

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review.

[lor74]

+1 for the Oasis/Allure for running tracks....I think it is my favourite aspect of that class. [emoji125]🏻[emoji125]🏻[emoji125]🏻

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Shawnkat]

While at the pool there was the Mr. Sexy Legs competition. This was hosted by Tyler, the cruise director. I have to say that he did a great job on this cruise. He was always present and full of energy. Lots of fun! He and his staff managed to find 15 male contestants for the competition and 3 or 4 female judges. One at a time each guy had to strut his stuff. There was the usual mix of great bodies, not so great bodies, young, old, somewhat drunk, etc... With 15 contestants this did take some time. It was a lot of fun and was good for some laughs but it definitely is not young family friendly. I'd give it a PG13 rating at best, for some of the guys maybe an R rating is more appropriate.

 

After some time in the sun it was time to shower and change for dinner. I had some time to kill so more exploring was in order. The Escape is a long ship and I found it a bit more confusing to navigate than other ships I've been on. While reading other Escape reviews before our cruise, I remembered that the carpeting in the hallways looks like schools of fish. And the fish always swim forwards toward the front of the ship. When I read this I thought it was cool but didn't make anything of it. After all, who doesn't know which way is forward and which way is aft? Well let me tell you that on more than one occasion I was looking at the fish and thanking them for showing the way.

 

Thanks to TheDougOut and his incredible review the first stop I knew I had to make was to The District Brew House (aka: Home).

 

 

 

 

They have a fantastic selection of draft and bottled beers. I'm actually surprised and a little disappointed that I didn't spend more time here. But when I needed a cold one, it was just one deck below my cabin. :)

 

On the way to most of our dinners we would always pass the Tabacco Road bar. This became our go-to spot for pre-dinner drinks.

 

 

[Shawnkat]

We all had the dining package for 4 specialty restaurants. I made all of our reservations in advance using myNCL. Of course this was only for the four of us and not for my parents since I didn't know they were going to surprise us. When we boarded we visited Headliners where you can look at all the menus and make dining reservations, show reservations, as well as purchase any other special packages (soda, water, wine, etc...). Although we had to adjust some of the times, we were able to change all of our reservations from 4 to 6 people. Easy.

 

Tonight we were dining at Teppanyaki. We've all been to Beni-Hana and other teppanyaki style restaurants a number of times before so we all know what to expect. As usual they put on a fun show. The restaurant has a number of teppanyaki tables & grills in two dining rooms. I think I counted 6 in each. Because there are so many, the restaurant gets very loud. And each chef seemed to be putting on the same show and telling the same jokes. I would have liked to see a bit more individuality and uniqueness, otherwise there really isn't a reason to return.

 

 

 

Sorry for the bad focus. I didn't realize it until it was too late.

 

I was able to create my own combo with filet mignon, chicken and shrimp. No issues or extra cost. Just ask.

One thing you'll notice on the menu is that lobster is still included. There were many posts before our cruise talking about lobster being removed from the menus.

My daughter had the lobster tail with scallops and calamari.

 

 

 

As you can see you only get half a lobster tail, and from a small lobster. I think there were 3 or 4 pieces of meat once it was cooked and put back into the shell. The scallops weren't seared that well.

 

The food was good but just okay, nothing more. Of the specialty dining we tried, we all agreed this was our least favourite. And we all love Japanese food.

[tinkr2]

fun!