Thanksgiving on the Escape

[chrislo]

Hi everyone. I will apoligize in advance because this review is so long and doesn't have any photos.

 

We are normally Carnival cruisers but this Thanksgiving we decided to give NCL a try and so we booked on the Escape from 11/19 – 11/26. We are a family of 3 so this review will be from my perspective with my 11 year old sons thoughts added.

We flew into Miami on United from Newark Friday afternoon even though it meant my son had to miss an extra day of school. I am so glad we came in early as our luggage did not make it onto the plane even though we arrived at the airport 3 hours early. As we were waiting for our bags to come off the carousel I received the dreaded text from Untied letting us know there was a problem with our luggage. Fortunately it was confirmed on the next flight and we were offered the option of having it delivered to our hotel. Since it was only going to be another hour we decided to wait and eat in the airport and collect our bags ourselves. Luggage finally in hand we headed to our hotel the Hyatt Regency Miami. There was a bodybuilding competition going on in the hotel that weekend but since we were only there for 1 night it did not disturb us at all. We were even upgraded to a large suite with beautiful city views. It was an early night for us and we were in bed by 9:00pm. In the morning we had the breakfast buffet for $20 per Adult. The food was fresh and the staff was always replenishing the dishes. They had the usual buffet offerings of fruit, pastry, bacon sausage, pancakes, French toast and eggs. No omelet station. Check out was fast and easy allowing us to be at the port by 11:30.

Check in

We only had 2 rolling duffle bags so we decided to carry our bags on board instead of checking them with the porters. This was the first place where I noticed a difference from Carnival. Check in was so fast and easy. From taxi drop off to sitting down to lunch was 30 minutes. We were given boarding group 7 but they were already boarding group 5 so our wait was only a few minutes. I don’t know if this was a normal boarding or we just got lucky but we were impressed. This definitely set the tone for our trip.

Room

Once our cabin was available at 1:00 we grabbed our bags and made our way to our Aft View Cabin 12308. We were prepared to carry our bags up but as we walked by the elevator doors opened and were empty so we hopped on. This was a great cabin with the bed by the balcony. I was initially concerned since there was only a double closet in the cabin and I am used to the triple closets on Carnival but as I put our things away I was surprised by how well everything fit. There was an empty draw under the couch which we used to store my sons things and everything else went in the closet.

On Carnival I always found the room to be warm even with the air set as cold as possible, this was not the case on the Escape. I never had to pull out my fans and actually felt cold enough at times to use the blankets.

When I was reviewing this cabin I read some people had problems with noise from the parties in Spice H2O which go until midnight however I never heard any noise. My husband mentioned that he heard a very faint thumping late one night but it wasn’t enough to disturb him. Our balcony had 2 lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a small table. Be sure to close and latch the balcony doors fully or your air conditioning won’t work. We also never noticed any soot on our balcony and left our bathing suits out to dry nightly.

Food

We had the UBP as it was one of the “free” offers at the time we booked. We never take the beverage package on Carnival, it is not worth it to us ($1,100) as we only have 3 or 4 drinks a day. The “free” UBP was worth it to us even though we had to pay the $200 service fee. I was prepared to pay for my sons drinks so I was surprised when every bartended gave us his virgin drinks free. I always made it clear the drinks were for him and I frequently order a drink for both of us at the same time. I don’t know if this is standard practice but since it was consistent I assumed it was.

My son is a picky eater so he only ate from the kids menu and we were never charged for him in any of the specialty restaurants. I overheard a lady at guest services complaining about being charged full price for her son at one of the restaurants so I will stress that children are not free unless they order from the kids menu. They will either pay the a la cart price or the full cover charge.

The Garden Café was much more organized then we are used to. I never felt like I was waiting on a long line and the food was always fresh and hot or cold as expected. We ate breakfast in the Garden Café every morning and I always got the Eggs Benedict. If you have had eggs benedict from a buffet before you know the egg always ends up hard boiled. I don’t know how they did it but the eggs always came out perfectly runny and being able to add the hollandaise sauce myself allowed me to add as much or as little as I wanted.

We only ate at Food Republic once and I had high expectations based on everything I read. We ordered the Pad Thai, Pumpkin and Duck dumplings, Pastrami and Sauerkraut dumplings, Short Rib and Corn dumplings and Pork Belly and Scallion dumplings. I loved the Pumpkin dumplings and felt everything else was just ok. Nothing was bad, it just didn’t wow me. My expectations may have been too high. Service was great and our food came out timely. We arrived just as they opened for lunch so that may have been why our service was so fast.

O’Sheehan’s was also someplace we only ate at once. We had a late lunch after we came back from Tortola and they were very busy. We got a seat right away but it did take some time for a server to come and take our order. I had the Chicago Dog and the Potato Leek Soup. My son had the Thai Chili Wings and the Fish and Chips. My Chicago dog was great and I would have gone back for another but we didn’t like anything else. It might have just been our menu selections but we decided not to try again as we enjoyed the offerings in the Garden Café.

We enjoyed Cagney’s twice and both meals were excellent. For appetizers we had the crab cake, lobster bisque, beet and goat cheese napoleon, shrimp cocktail and tomato salad. All were good but I would highly recommend the napoleon. Entrees were the Filet Mignon and the Porterhouse. The filet was always cooked perfectly but the Porterhouse was rare when my husband asked for medium. We should have known it would be a problem since the waitress asked if he wanted it rare when he ordered. We had the Chocolate Fudge Brownie for dessert both nights.

La Cucina was our favorite and we also ate here twice. For appetizers we had the Mozzarella di Bufala Caprese, Spinach & Ricotta Tortelloni, Asparagus Risotto and the Lasagna which were all very good. Entrees were Filet Mignon with Gorgonzola, Sautéed Veal Medallions, and Shrimp Fra Diavolo (they did not have lobster). The veal was just ok, it needed more seasoning. For dessert we had the Tiramisu, Panna Cotta alla Vaniglia, Ricotta Cheesecake and the Chocolate Tart. I loved the Panna Cotta and could have had that for every course. I did not care for the Chocolate Tart because it had a raspberry jelly under the chocolate and I didn’t care for the jelly.

Moderno was much better than I expected and the salad bar was very good. I don’t think I would come back here again as I preferred the salad bar to the meat.

Teppanyaki was fun; you go more for the show than the food. No lobster on the menu, surf and turf was steak and shrimp. Even though my son ordered from the kids menu the chef still offered him some of everything. I thought that was very nice.

We ate one night in the main dining room Savor. The food was good I would have been satisfied eating there every night.

Overall we preferred the food and service on the Escape over all our Carnival cruises. This is where my son disagreed. He is a very picky eater and struggled to find things he liked. So if you have a picky eater here is his recap. They only serve chicken tenders not chicken nuggets. The pizza has green stuff on it (parsley and oregano) and the macaroni and cheese is just ok some nights and not cheesy enough other nights. The fries, ice cream and chocolate chip cookies are all good.

Misc

This was the first ship I have been on where it was difficult to find chairs in the sun. There seemed to be plenty of shady areas but if you weren’t out by 8 a spot in the sun was hard to come by. On the first day we were at the pool by 9:00AM and could only find chairs in the shade so going forward I went and got chairs at 7 when I woke up and had my husband and son come get me for breakfast when they were ready. This way our chairs were occupied except for short periods when we ate breakfast or lunch. On the plus side this gave me some quite time to sit and read while I waited for them.

I was originally surprised to see life guards at the pools until I got in and realized how deep it was. The lifeguard/security was strict about kids jumping in and rough housing in the pool. These are not pools for unattended children or poor swimmers.

The ropes course was open every time my husband and son wanted to go on, I think it was only closed for a short time one sea day because of wind. Shirts must have sleeves (no tank tops), you must have closed toe shoes (no sandals or flip flops) and you must be completely dry. My husband’s suit was a little damp and they wouldn’t let him on. They did let my son wait at the top of the line for him while he went to change and then my husband was able to go right back to the top and join him. There was a photographer who took some great pictures of them which we bought.

Even I was talked into going on the tube slide and have to admit it was fun and not as scary as it looked. None of us tried the drop slide but you could hear people screaming all day long as they were dropped.

We had extra on board credit this trip so I let my son go to the arcade which I don’t usually do. They have the typically games like skee ball, and air hockey as well as a number of machines where you win prize tickets. I suggest staying away from the ticket games the prizes you can trade your tickets in for are worse than you normally find.

We never buy photos when we are on Carnival and actual avoid the photographers because the system for finding your photos is terrible. I really liked how NCL puts all your photos in a binder so you don’t have to hunt around the walls with everyone else to find yours. Since I could find my photos I made my family pose over and over again until I finally got some family shots we all agreed looked good. We ended up getting the 10 photo package and a 3D crystal.

I had downloaded the IConcierge app on my phone but never could get it to work so we finally gave up and did everything by the TV in our room.

Ports

St. Thomas was our first port and we had been here before so this trip we just took a taxi to Coki beach. It was cloudy and rained off and on all day but it was still enjoyable. We paid $5 each for chairs and $10 for an umbrella that we only used to keep our things dry. We ordered 2 drinks and 2 orders of conch fritters for about $30. The fritters came with fries and overall wasn’t bad. My son was able to rent a paddle board for 45 min for $25 which seemed like a good deal and he had a ton of fun. When we were ready to head back they called for a taxi for us. The taxi dropped us off by the stores and my husband went to a bar to get a drink and use the wifi and my son and I went to Pandora. I only recently discovered that the islands have charms that are unique to them so I had to buy one. They recently stopped selling Pandora on board the Escape so if you were looking to get one while on board they only have the Bella Perlina charms and bracelets.

For our stop in Tortola we decided to do a ship sponsored excursion because we read so many things about the Escape to Jost Van Dyke excursion. I am so glad we listened to the reviews. We had a great time even though this was another overcast day. The trip to and from Jost Van Dyke on the Rebel Yell was so much fun but if you don’t want to get wet I recommend sitting in the back. Those of us who sat in the front were soaked. This also is a very fast and bumpy ride so I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone with back problems or who gets sea sick. The island was so nice, the sand was soft and the water was gentle and not to deep. The only problem was we were only in port from 7 – 3 so our time here was much too short.

This was our 2nd time in Nassau and it’s not a port we really like. Last time we were here we walked around town and then stopped at the beach for a few hours. This time I saw a recommendation on Trip Advisor for a private boat tour with Bahama Boat Tours. They had a number of trip options and we decided on the 4 hour tour which was $445 and we would meet 1t 1:00 as we didn’t get to port until noon. When we arrived at the meeting place the captain told us he had another family scheduled for 1:00 at that we were supposed to be there at 9:00am but hadn’t shown up. Fortunately I had printed my confirmation so after talking with his boss we agreed that we would go on this boat and they would bring another boat over for the other family who hadn’t arrived yet. Our Captain for the day was Captain Danny and he was great. We stowed our things in a dry locker and he showed us where to find the water and soft drinks and then asked how we would like to spend our day. We decided we wanted to do some snorkeling, spend some time on the beach and take a turn on the tube. Our first stop was snorkeling and Captain Danny had life vests, snorkels and masks available for our use. Soon my son had enough of snorkeling and asked if we could go fishing. After we arrived at the fishing spot Captain Danny provided fishing rods and bait and showed my son how to cast his line helping him catch his first fish in minutes. We ended up fishing for almost 2 hours before my son got bored and asked if we could go on the tube. This was the part he was most excited about. The water was a bit rough from all the storms so my husband had to go out with him for safety. After this we headed back to the pier and were back on board in plenty of time.

Conclusion

We really enjoyed our trip and are looking forward to another cruise on NCL.

[Two Wheels Only]

As we were waiting for our bags to come off the carousel I received the dreaded text from Untied letting us know there was a problem with our luggage.

 

That might be the best Freudian slip I've ever read on CC. :D

 

I will apoligize in advance because this review is so long and doesn't have any photos

 

I'll post pictures of your balcony, no worries. ;)

 

This was a great cabin with the bed by the balcony

 

I was in the stateroom right next to 12308 (different week, though). Thanks for the bed info.

 

 

^^ 12308

 

This was the first ship I have been on where it was difficult to find chairs in the sun. There seemed to be plenty of shady areas but if you weren’t out by 8 a spot in the sun was hard to come by.

 

For sun, did you try decks 19 and 20? There are plenty of chairs up there but they are not on the pool deck.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Two Wheels Only

[dshefter]

Great review. We will be sailing on the Escape next Thanksgiving with our daughter who will be 14.

[easyboy]

Glad your family enjoyed the cruise. I can imagine how worried you were upon learning your luggage was delayed. Thanks for your review.

 

 

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[The Fun Researcher]

Great review. Thanks! A few questions...

 

What did you think of the decor and the feel of the common areas? Did you go to any entertainment at night? Did you feel like you had enough open views of the ocean? (It appears to me that the pool deck has a lot of areas where you are looking through large glass panels?)

 

We are booked on the Escape for Thanksgiving 2017. Can't wait. Our girls will be 16 and 13 and our son will be 10.

 

Dan

[Sand and Seas]

We really enjoyed your review! It's been years since we had been on another cruise line so very happy to hear you enjoyed the Escape. We were in an aft cabin on deck 12 on our last cruise and loved that balcony.

 

Hope you can get another cruise booked soon....it's always good to look forward to the next one :D

[dshefter]

Great review. Thanks! A few questions...

 

What did you think of the decor and the feel of the common areas? Did you go to any entertainment at night? Did you feel like you had enough open views of the ocean? (It appears to me that the pool deck has a lot of areas where you are looking through large glass panels?)

 

We are booked on the Escape for Thanksgiving 2017. Can't wait. Our girls will be 16 and 13 and our son will be 10.

 

Dan

 

We are booked on the same cruise. Daughter will be 14.