Escape Nov 12 - 19 Sailing: The Good, the Bad and the Meh!

[david_sobe]

Thanks for sharing a very detailed and thorough review.

Its a pet peeve of mine when people walk out of a show. Its so disrespectful to the performers. You are on a cruise....where are you going that you cant sit still for one hour. Even worse to take your kids to an adult show and then walk out because of language. I hate to say this but PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS.

 

Ok , just had to get that off my chest.

 

Glad you had a good time.

Edited November 26, 2016 by david_sobe

[Royal Crown Cruiser]

I was on the November 12 – November 19 Eastern Caribbean sailing of the Norwegian Escape. The itinerary included three sea days (Sunday, Monday, Thursday) and three ports of call. They were St. Thomas (Tuesday), Tortola (Wednesday) and Nassau (Friday). I sailed with my girlfriend. We are seasoned cruisers with over 20 cruises between us. We stayed in cabin 11679 which is an inside aft cabin. We chose an inside for two reasons:

 

1) We don’t spend much time in our cabin

2) Inside cabins are so dark that we sleep very soundly.

 

The 11th deck met our main requirement of being sandwiched between two other decks that are exclusively cabins to help minimize any noise disruptions (unfortunately our nearby neighbors made this difficult at times. More on that later.)

 

I’m not going to write a full review but rather a bullet point listing of the Good, The Bad and the Meh!

 

The Good

• Overall friendliness of the crew – everyone was very helpful and made you feel like a valued cruiser.

• The UBP. Not just good but great. It was so convenient to just hand the card over and not deal with all the slips of paper and reconciling your account. We got our money’s worth on the deal. Like most folks, we received it free and only had to pay the 20% gratuity.

• Tyler the Cruise Director was outstanding. A super talented guy with lots of energy and a good sense of humor. He was extremely visible. He even sat in with the Howl at the Moon guys on Friday night and played drums for several songs. Boom-Shaka-Laka!!

• The Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. NCL has really stepped up their game. Not only did NCL provide the usual spread of coffee and pastries but they also served fruit smoothies and assorted chocolates in addition to the attendance of several of the officers and CD Tyler.

• For the Record: The Brat Pack was right up our alley as we both graduated from high school in the 80’s. It did not disappoint. The show runs one hour and 27 minutes but flew by. A note to parents: It is rated PG16 so that means a few F-bombs, sexual humor and mature themes. We saw several parents leading their young children out after the first 10 minutes.

• Popcorn shrimp and chicken nachos appetizers on the lunch menu at Taste and Savor dining rooms. Get them both. Do it.....you’re on a cruise.

• Spice H2O on deck 17 aft is a great place to spend your sea days. Spice H2O is an adult-only area with loungers, two hot tubs and its own bar. There is also a grotto area with waterfalls to cool off. Most importantly ......it is nice and quiet. Some folks like the music and action of the main pool area.....not us. It’s so much more relaxing to be able to have a conversation without having to yell at each other. WORD OF CAUTION: Get there early as the place fills up quick.

• Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos is a rocking good time. Great music and fun banter between the performers and crowd. I like how they played a good mix of crowd favorites like Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline but also deeper non-traditional dueling piano cuts like Interstate Love Song by the Stone Temple Pilots and In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. Outstanding!

• Our favorite bar was Mixx which is situated between the Taste and Savor dining rooms on deck 6. It’s a great place to have a drink before a show and people watch. Joao De La Cruz is a great bartender. GF said he makes an outstanding Moscow Mule.

• The Awesome 80’s Party should not be missed. We danced.....we sang......we played air guitar! WE HAD A BLAST!! Cruise Director Tyler and Assistant Cruise Director Andre guided the crowd through a musical tour of the 80’s with all genres represented......pop, dance, hair band metal, rap.....you name it. Don’t miss it.

• The chicken dishes in the Taste and Savor dining rooms. I loved the Chicken Kiev and both the GF and I enjoyed the Chicken Parmesan. The Herb Crusted Chicken Breast was also delightful.

• CALLING ALL BEACH LOVERS! If you want to visit one of the greatest beaches in the world then take the NCL excursion “Escape to Jost Van Dyke”. It is a 45 minute catamaran ride aboard the Rebel Yell from the port in Tortola to the White Bay, Jost Van Dyke. They drop you off right by the Soggy Dollar Bar which has free beach chairs and serves the most delicious beach drink...the Painkiller. The sand is soft and fluffy. It rained a little while we were there but we stayed in the water and drank our Painkillers in the rain and loved every minute of it. Rum punch is served on the ride back to port to put the exclamation point on a fantastic excursion.

• If you want to hear a bunch of Frankie Valli/4 Seasons’ songs and some corny humor then make sure you make it to Oh What a Night! We saw the show in the Escape Theater on Day 5 (Tortola) as opposed to the The Supper Club which has several showings at 6 PM.

• I liked the light system in the cabins for “Do Not Disturb” or “Make up My Room” Basically; you switch on a light from inside your cabin for either setting. No more placing a tag on your door handle.

• The chicken wings in the O’Sheehans Bar & Grill at 11:30pm were pretty tasty…..especially after a few Moscow Mules. We watched the end of the Sunday night football game there. Sorry, Patriot fans.

• We saw a couple of comedy shows and it just so happened to be Vince Acevedo both times. He’s a really funny guy with a quick wit that really doesn’t have much prepared material but rather just riffs back and forth with audience members. Jay Stevens was the host both times and did a warm up set and was good too.

 

The Bad

• The port of Nassau is disappointing. The town is dirty, the people are rude and the beaches lacking. We will treat Nassau as an additional sea day on any future cruise we happen to port there.

• Late arriving people to shows. Buy a watch and show up on time. I’ll just leave it at that.

• The cabin seemed to lack storage space......especially shelving. Not a big deal just had to be a little creative with the storage.

• I could not get the Norwegian iCONCIERGE app to work on my phone.

• The NY strip steak in the main dining rooms. Chewy and over cooked. Just say no.

• Our breakfast order was not picked up from outside our stateroom overnight on one occasion. We like to hit the gym first thing in the morning so we order coffee, yogurt and pastries to enjoy in our cabin while getting ready. You can’t sweat the small stuff so we course corrected and headed up to the Garden Cafe.

• Noise from nearby cabins. Somebody in a cabin near us fired up the TV at 6 AM every morning and turned the volume up to not 10 but 11 (because it’s one louder). Also, our neighbors were bouncing a ball off their cabin wall one time. C’mon man!

• The deserts in the complimentary dining options leave much to be desired. They are great on the eyes and disappointing in the mouth. The single worst item item was the no sugar added carrot cake in the Taste Dining room. It tasted like motor oil.

• The taxi situation in St. Thomas was chaos. Both at the port and at Magen’s Bay. We had to get off one van and get on another in the pouring rain at Magen’s Bay because they had loaded them in the wrong order. Cruise ships have been coming to St. Thomas for a long time. One would think they would have a better system in place.

•I don’t like the last day of the cruise being a port day. It just feels like it brings the cruise to an abrupt end. A sea day just eases you back into the impending reality.

 

The Meh!

• The production show After Midnight was OK. There were some real show stoppers in the show but a lot of it seemed to drag. Jazz is not my favorite genre of music so that probably affected my thoughts. Hardcore jazz fans may love it. I did like that there was a live band providing the music instead of a prerecorded track.

• The bedding is just OK. The mattress was hard and I woke up most mornings with a stiff lower back. But the most annoying issue was the lack of fitted bed sheets. The bottom of the bed sheet barely came down to the end of the mattress and would ride up most nights.

• The Fitness Center had a lot of equipment but it is of average quality. The treadmills had all kinds of entertainment options but the belts had a lot of drag. The elliptical machines were flimsy. They did have a rowing machine which delighted my GF. The cold towels are a nice touch.

• The ship actually did not sail until 8 PM so it was kind of strange to sail away in the dark.

• The scrambled eggs and poached eggs in the Garden Cafe. Most of the yolks in the poached eggs on the eggs benedict were hard boiled.

• Casino……..who knows? We only walked through it on our way to someplace else.

• Pay restaurants…..again who knows? The food was so good in the Taste and Savor dining rooms we didn’t bother with them.

 

This was our first cruise on a megaship and admittedly was a little apprehensive at first. But after a day or so we pretty much figured things out. The layout and the signage both make it easy to get where you want to go. Another thing we liked was all of the entertainment options. There were so many shows we just couldn’t fit into our schedule. There was a comedy juggler, game shows, trivia contests, Q&A sessions, karaoke....... not to mention all the live music at several of the bars.

 

As I said at the beginning of my review, the crew was outstanding. The level of service was top notch. We had a large organized group on our sailing of hearing and sight challenged folks. We witnessed one example after another of the crew going out of their way to patiently assist them. I saw one bartender use one of these folk’s cell phone to clarify what brand of whiskey they wanted to drink at O’Sheehan’s. We were extremely impressed with the level of professionalism by all of the crew.

 

Two of the most important criteria we judge a cruise by are level of service and entertainment. This cruise only reinforced why NCL is our cruise line of choice as they exceeded expectation on both counts. No cruise is perfect......but overall it was another great cruise on NCL.

 

I’d be happy to answer any questions or elaborate on any of the above comments here or feel free to send me an e-mail at LD_Silver_Cruiser@Yahoo.com.

Hi LD Silver, I sailed on this same ship during that same week. Interesting review you did. I am an usual Royal Caribbean cruiser but the reason I sailed on Norwegian Escape was because of Deaf Blind group. I am sure you've noticed many of them from that group during that week. Anyway, I honestly don't like NCL bec of their poor service (dirty windows, not providing what we needed and so on) and terrible food from Savor. It made me miss RC more. I don't think I'll sail with NCL ever again (or maybe give it another shot if I go with this same group). I will stick to Royal Caribbean which is "my second home" and I'll look forward to my next cruise aboard Allure of the Seas on Jan 29th.

Edited December 27, 2016 by LavCruiser