Yet another “live from” report...Escape - 1/20 - 1/27/18

[candigirl41]

Nice review. Sounds like a great time.

 

Candi

[zencruisers]

Enjoying your review!

[packer99]

Why are you opting out of gratuities? All those behind the scenes people are getting jipped.

[thesteno]

Yet another live trip report... from the Escape. it’s coming... but for now, my internet is spotty, so I’m going to have to take a page from Trump’s book and “keep you all in suspense for a little longer” :)

 

in the meantime, if you have questions, get ‘em ready.

We have a balcony on our cruise coming up and curious how the captain docks the ship. Is your room even or odd number, and do you have sunset or the dock yard? Either is beautiful, I'm sure, but just curious if we'll be seeing sunsets from our balcony. We are even numbers. Thanks! - oops! I just realized you were in the Bahamas and not Bermuda. They must reposition for the summer months. Sorry! Enjoy!

[robmac330]

We have a balcony on our cruise coming up and curious how the captain docks the ship. Is your room even or odd number, and do you have sunset or the dock yard? Either is beautiful, I'm sure, but just curious if we'll be seeing sunsets from our balcony. We are even numbers. Thanks! - oops! I just realized you were in the Bahamas and not Bermuda. They must reposition for the summer months. Sorry! Enjoy!

 

 

 

Even in Bermuda it doesn’t always alternate. A lot comes down to requests from the Harbor master in conjunction with any shipboard training that NCL is looking to conduct. We were on Dawn in August and they docked port side two weeks in a row.

 

Also, with the positioning of the Royal Naval dockyard, it’s closer to an East/West setup than a North/South, so balconies are like to at least get some sun during the day

 

 

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[jazzydiver]

Let us know what hours the ship will be in port in Costa Maya and especially in Cozumel. I'm on the ship next week, and if we have the same detour, I'm curious how that works out!

[rch3232]

Why are you opting out of gratuities? All those behind the scenes people are getting jipped.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

[marktwothousand]

Y’ALL

Day 4 & 5

 

I AM gonna try to look into your questions as much as I can. Now they we have an at sea day Friday instead of tomorrow, I’m hoping to look into all that information then.

 

After my last post, yesterday (Tuesday) was mostly a blur. Did some hot tubbing and chilling most of Tuesday. Also Smoked far too many cigarettes, which for me is a lot, since I don’t smoke aTall back home LOL. When 11 PM came around, i realized I hadn’t eaten anything. I closed out the night dancing at Skyline and gorged on some food at osheehans before bed, because well, I guess food is necessary sometimes right? But it wasn’t enough, I ordered pizza room service after that.

 

This morning (Wed - day 5) I woke up with a pizza box on the bed and one slice left. I picked up the phone to see if someone I knew was going to port...and then realized, I didn’t have a voice! LOL. Slowly but surely the voice has started to return and by tonight it is almost all back. Crossing my fingers it will be good for tomorrow.

 

So it’s looking like this is going to be a “ship-only” vacation for me. I haven’t done any ports and don’t plan to. Today I spent the afternoon in the hot tub recovering from yesterday’s shambolics. I was lucky to get a tour of the Haven by some people I met on board. The halls in the Haven have a pleasant fragrance about them and their spa stateroom had beautiful finishes and a small jacuzzi in the bedroom. They also have hand phones in their room that work all over the ship, like the staff phones. The entire environment in the Haven is very serene and pleasant. I am still a party person so I don’t know i’d make much use of the facilities but maybe one day I’ll try it.

 

To round out tonight, I ordered dinner room service (didn’t feel like dealing with crowds) and then attended the Thriller dance competition in the Atrium. Tonight, planning on attending the 80s party and hoping it will be as good as the one on the Epic was.

 

Likely to call it an early night after the 80s party because GLOW is listed as tomorrow night’s party and I missed it on the Epic. Hoping the last of my cold will go away and my voice will be back.

 

Saving the ropes course and slides for our new Sea Day Friday...

 

Also tonight, I complained to the Internet manager that I lost 30 minutes because my log out didn’t work earlier this week and he credited me with an hour :)

 

Came home to my turn-down to see another plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. That’s the third one this trip, LOL. I guess someone on the staff likes me :)

 

Wish I had more for ya...but today was a day of recovery more or less and that’s all I have for now! Toodles

[MaryBethV]

Did they give a reason for the port changes mid-cruise?

[robmac330]

Did they give a reason for the port changes mid-cruise?

 

 

 

This is nothing more than speculation, but watching the LPGA tournament from the Bahamas the seas look quite rough. Maybe the likely skipping of GSC combined with no berth space available for an overnight in Nassau led for the audible to be called. Truth be told I’d be thrilled if Escape skipped GSC and Nassau in favor of Mexico when I’m on board in March.

 

 

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[Oceanwench]

Did they give a reason for the port changes mid-cruise?

 

Weather. Gale force winds they said.

Friday was a sea day - originally our Nassau day - and it was horrible weather all the way home.

Rough seas, rain. The ship was really rocking!

[rbschultz]

It was great to meet you Mark. I too, overindulged and will be detoxxing for quite a while.

[MacCruising2018]

Questions:

Hotel Director?

Cruise Director?

Is the Chocolate Cowboy at the outside 5 O'Clock Somewhere bar?

Any chance for Freestyle Daily pics?

 

Thanks and enjoy your cruise!

John

Hope Mark doesn't mind me jumping in.... Dan Dan is the current CD. I didn't see the Chocolate Cowboy all week although I was on the lookout, however, I didn't realize he was stationed at 5 o'clock and didn't stop there (but just about everywhere else).

 

Weather. Gale force winds they said.

Friday was a sea day - originally our Nassau day - and it was horrible weather all the way home.

Rough seas, rain. The ship was really rocking!

 

I'm still rocking! That was a rough last sea day/night until we got into port. 🤢

[marktwothousand]

Day 5 (night), 6 & 7

Ok, I’m going to try my best to scope my memory.

 

Great to meet You too RBS! You looked like you were enjoying yourself!

And ya, maccruising, up until yesterday I was still feeling the rocking too and I’ve been back home since Saturday.

 

The 80s party was an absolute blast. Like OMG. This is THE best party IMO, better than Glow and all others. the performances were just hilarious and at least 2 people I knew got dragged up on stage as Tina Turner and Madonna. They really do a good job of this event. My Madonna friend was having a good time, but after that craziness, he said he won’t be showing his face at Spice for the Rest of the trip.

 

The next day (Costa Maya I believe) I took it easy. The weather was fantastic so, Someone phoned me to do the Ropes course, so we did that. It’s pretty fun but much of the sections are closed due to renovations (I think). Glad i did it because it was CLOSED Friday with the high seas.

 

The glow party was an excellent production but I liked the 80s better. I think a break night between 80s and glow would have been a good idea by NCL because I was just too spent by the time the glow party came around. they handed out red/blue flashing foam glow sticks (1 foot long) and glow necklaces. Called it a night by about 1:30 as I was too done in and my voice was mostly gone and I couldn’t communicate.

 

Friday (day 7) I went to customer service to remove my auto-grat. It was hassle-free. I then attended the cruisenext ports and ships presentation in the atrium. The bliss looks really exciting and I’m tempted to go on it. After that, it was directly to the engineering Q&A in the theatre. The officer talked about how water treatment worked on the ship and how they clean out the dirty water, he brought a bottle of treated water and said “this is what the water looks like after it’s treated. It’s the same water that went down the shower and in the toilet Bowl. It’s alright to drink but it would taste like sh#%”. The crowd loved that one. So what I take it to mean is that: our drinking water is still all procured from SEPARATE drinkable sources (ie. not the stuff he showed us), but the ship still cleans all the waste water before ejecting it. But from what I understand, we do NOT drink the ship-treated wastewater. (Its drinkable, but only by minimum standards) the ship is simply treats wastewater so that it is clean when sending it to wherever it goes next. This is consistent with how cities deal with wastewater.

 

We also covered the stabilizers. As others have said, we were in rough seas for the last two days. Although nothing fell off the shelves, doors and hangers were clanging and I was jolted out of my sleep a couple times because of a couple of “snapbacks” the ship experienced. It was not scary but I found it a little difficult to fall asleep. The officials said the ship can handle listing up to 65 degrees before becoming in danger.

 

I spent the rest of the day in the Spice Hot tub chilling out with some music and chatted with other cruisers (two CC members from the M&G) from Germany and the US. It was cool and windy, you had to watch your drink not blow away, but Being in the hot tub was nice. I had a snack at o’sheehans overlooking the atrium where... voila! they did the first airing of the “Cruise in Review” video. I’ll try to post it if I can in a separate post later. This was one of the highlights of my day because they pretty much caught clips of ALL the party people from all the events. It really reminded me what a fun time I had.

 

Picked up my complimentary photos (ended up taking 4 home... we had 10 available free) and then went to Dinner at Manhattan...it was prime rib night at o’sheehans but I had it at Manhattan instead. Said goodbye to the ladies my family dined with all week. Then It was off to say bye to some people I knew on the (very windy) waterfront and then closing night at Skyline. My travelling family member came with, and we had great fun doing the Wobble and all those other fun dances they do. After they left, I hung out and chatted with people. Meant to do some gambling but the tables closed by 1 :(. The lights were on at skyline by 1:45. After some roaming, playing in the video arcade and sad goOdbyes, I called it a night by 3:30. It’s interesting because thruout the cruise, I had all these Separate groups...one group of ladies I dined with every day, another cocktail group I ran into daily at Skyline and Waterfront. Then my late night party people from spice and skyline. And of course my buddies during the day in the area overlooking the main pool at Waves.

 

Disembarkation

 

Sad times, but I was still quite sick with my cold and ready to go home to my own bed...you know the feeling. after 3 hours sleep, I got up at 7:25, and was out of my room by 7:40. Outside by 8:10 and at the FLL airport before 9 AM. Lineups were REALLY LONG but they moved constantly and from room to land it was about 30 minutes. Now that I’m home I had to take some time off work due to my cold and have filed my claims for delayed baggage and the “wrong way” Lyft Ride from FLL.

 

Still planning to post dailies and Q&A when I have a chance.

[zencruisers]

Thank you for the review!

[Beach Life 1]

Why did you remove the gratuities?

[sid_9169]

"Friday (day 7) I went to customer service to remove my auto-grat. It was hassle-free." That's a pretty "nonchalant" way of saying "I basically decided to stiff all of the hard working crew because I'm cheap like that..."

[marktwothousand]

I give money to the people who I directly interacted with and who made a difference.

 

Maid...personally put cash in her hands daily and a bonus at the end of the trip.

 

 

And For Bartenders and wait staff...minimum $1 per interaction.

 

Never left the room without a pile of $5s and $1s. It’s nice to see money going directly into their pocket than having a middleman and who knows how it’s apportioned. I made a point of bringing lots of small bills on board just for this purpose.

 

We need to move away from a gratuity system in favour of fair and equal wages for equal work, but as long as That system is in place, I want to direct money accordingly.

[marktwothousand]

Just uploaded the Cruise in Review video filmed by me from the Atrium.. quality not so good:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YfibttYrWAPc1_SViDdRyjnZndCfAhPF/view

[Beer Belly]

Sounds like a blast. Thanks for the review, we are on countdown to my first cruise. We have my sister who is traveling solo, so I'm feeling more confident she'll do fine after reading about your adventures.

[packer99]

I give money to the people who I directly interacted with and who made a difference.

 

Maid...personally put cash in her hands daily and a bonus at the end of the trip.

 

 

And For Bartenders and wait staff...minimum $1 per interaction.

 

Never left the room without a pile of $5s and $1s. It’s nice to see money going directly into their pocket than having a middleman and who knows how it’s apportioned. I made a point of bringing lots of small bills on board just for this purpose.

 

We need to move away from a gratuity system in favour of fair and equal wages for equal work, but as long as That system is in place, I want to direct money accordingly.

 

So the person who cooked or plated that nice meal, or stocked the bar so the bartender could work just got screwed out of $$. I get the statement, equal wages for equal work, this is why the gratuities are added on, so all the employees get a fair share. They all work hard, whether you see them or not.

[marktwothousand]

So the person who cooked or plated that nice meal, or stocked the bar so the bartender could work just got screwed out of $$. I get the statement, equal wages for equal work, this is why the gratuities are added on, so all the employees get a fair share. They all work hard, whether you see them or not.

and you’ll be surprised to hear, I agree with YOU...but if that’s how it’s supoosed to work, there should be base service charge that is not removeable, or, have it included in the fee. It not be adjustable or removeable or in any way discretionary. Otherwise it’s not fair and equal for all.

 

what I will likely do next trip, is slightly reduce the charge and give a portion of the tips to individuals in case and leave the rest on my file.

[rch3232]

I don't care how much cash you tipped, removing your pre-paid gratuities while getting great service is pathetic.

[marktwothousand]

I’m really sorry you feel that way. As members of Cruise Critic, We need to hold the cruise industry to account, not just for the standards they provide to us as customers, but for the way these billion-dollar corporations pay their workers. We need to call on them to make these fees mandatory, and include them in fares.

 

These workers deserve to be paid the same at the end of the day, whether customers decide to keep the auto-grat on there or not. If we all decide to withhold the auto-grat, the cruise industry will finally have no choice but to integrate this into their fares, lose money, or pay workers less. Those are the options.

 

Ultimately, I am not the one who is withholding wages here by making the decision to hold the auto-grat...that is up to the cruise line to decide.

[Beer Belly]

I’m really sorry you feel that way. As members of Cruise Critic, We need to hold the cruise industry to account, not just for the standards they provide to us as customers, but for the way these billion-dollar corporations pay their workers. We need to call on them to make these fees mandatory, and include them in fares.

 

These workers deserve to be paid the same at the end of the day, whether customers decide to keep the auto-grat on there or not. If we all decide to withhold the auto-grat, the cruise industry will finally have no choice but to integrate this into their fares, lose money, or pay workers less. Those are the options.

 

Ultimately, I am not the one who is withholding wages here by making the decision to hold the auto-grat...that is up to the cruise line to decide.

Whether I agree or not doesn't matter, I can see your point. How many of us tip the Waiter / Waitress at a restaurant, and not the cook or dishwasher ?.