Norwegian Escape 7/1/18 - My review with pics

[NY cruiser 75]

Now I know food is a very subjective topic. So this represents my opinion. Normally, I don’t really complain and eat whatever is served to me, but the food that was served to me tonight was not good. The spring rolls were ok. The Vegetable Pad Thai had no taste and I couldn’t eat it. Boston Cream Pie dessert was ok, a little dry. For a meal that took over 3 hours to eat and was included in the cruise fare, it was not good at all. Quite a disappointment from Moderno’s the night before.

 

It was dress up or not night, and everyone looked presentable, we decided to take a professional picture. At first we weren’t sure the photographers were still going to be available for pictures since dinner took so long, but we made it in time. We had to wait a bit since there were several families in front of us waiting for pictures as well. After pictures, the kids wanted to go to their clubs, so my husband and I had a drink while we waited to pick upour daughter at Splash Academy. It soon became custom for us to go straight to the buffet after we get her for French fries and ice cream.

 

We made it to the cabin to find the evening’s towel animal.

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Day 3 – AtSea

Started the same as the previous day, with the exception that we slept in a bit longer. By the time we left the cabin it was almost lunch time. So we made our way to the Atrium first, in time for Destination Trivia

 

 

Then we headed to Deck 19 and met with my family at the lounge chairs. We decided to head to the buffet for lunch then back to the chairs. Our outdoor activities were short lived since we were sailing through some rain.

This was a big gripe I had. The ship is large and I already felt packed. But now that people had no choice but to go inside, you could barely move around inside. The kids went off to the kids clubs, at least they were entertained. We stopped by the Atrium and watched Hip Hop Dance class for a bit.

 

And stood around for Harry Potter trivia

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Dinner tonight we were split up from the rest of my family. My brothers had reservations at different restaurants. I decided we would go to the buffet for dinner hoping they would have a better selection for dinner. Also, they were advertising that it was Family Fun day in the buffet so we thought the kids would enjoy it. There was a person dressed up in a shark costume taking pictures with kids, and someone making balloon animals. O’Sheehans was having prime rib that evening, but the prime rib was also in the buffet, it was ok.

 

After dinner, we dropped my daughter off at Splash Academy and my son went off to Entourage. We were going to try our luck to see if we can get into one of the shows. For The Record: The Brat Pack was about to start and we were lucky enough to get in. I’m glad we made it in because this was the last night they were showing this show and it was fantastic.

 

 

After the show, it was still early to pick up the kids so wewent to the Atrium and they were in the middle of a pyramid game show. It was packed already but we stayed and enjoyed the rest of the show.

 

After the pyramid game show, we walked around the ship for a bit. Since the next day was the 4th of July, it looked like the ship was getting ready to celebrate.

 

[NY cruiser 75]

So now my husband and I decided that we were hungry. We didn’t really eat that much in the buffet for dinner, so we decided that we were going to try out O’Sheehans for the first time.

 

 

 

 

I wish we had come here sooner. The food here was good. I really liked the chicken wings. The artichoke dip was ok and the nachos were good. This was the first meal since Moderno that we actually enjoyed. And we only had appetizers.

We picked up our daughter from Splash Academy, headed to thebuffet for fries and ice cream, then to the cabin to see what towel animal awaits for us.

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Day 4 –Bermuda

 

I woke up early because I was excited that we were finally arriving in Bermuda today. I walked to the window and was surprised that we were still not docked. I could see land in front of me, so I knew it wouldn’t be too much longer before we dock and can get off the ship. I woke everyone up and we quickly dressed and headed to the buffet to meet up with the rest of my family for breakfast. The plan was to take the $7.00 per person minivan to Horseshoe Bay. The announcement was made while we were eating that we have cleared whatever process the ship needs to go through and people can begin to leave the ship. We finished our breakfast without rushing, the beach wasn’t going anywhere.

We disembarked the ship and immediately there were Norwegian photographers waiting to take your picture. They had someone dressed like Uncle Sam (since it was the 4thof July), a dolphin and someone dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow. We took pictures with them all; I didn’t buy them, but enjoyed taking the pictures.

 

Somepictures when exiting the ship

 

[NY cruiser 75]

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a few hours at Horseshoe Bay. It was stunning. The sand was soft like powder and the closer you were to the water, the pinker the sand looked. But it was very cloudy and windy. The lifeguards actually shut down half of the beach because the waves were too strong. While we were there, we basically stayed in the cove to the right. The water was calm, although it was rocky,the water was still crystal clear and you could see schools of fish, larger fish and even a horseshoe crab in the water with no problem.

We decided to leave before it started to rain, so we headed back to where the vans were. We did have to wait about 20 minutes before the van left. They wait for the van to be full before leaving. We could have taken a taxi back and leftright away, but we weren’t in a rush. And if it was to rain, we were already seated in the van.

[NY cruiser 75]

When we arrived back to the ship, we decided not to go to the pools. Instead, we showered and changed and were interested in some activities onboard before dinner. The first thing we did was the Family Balloon Twisting.

 

It was really cute. The counselors showed parents and kids how to make a sword, puppy and a hat.

Next we had some time to kill before dinner, so we took the kids to O’Sheehan’s to see if bowling was available. Luckily, both lanes were open. It costs $6.00 per game to play.

 

The kids played and they enjoyed it. I was glad that they were able to do it.

On the way to dinner, we noticed they changed the lights

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Dinner tonight was at Teppanyaki. We had a reservation in advance of the cruise. This was the restaurant that my husband was looking forward to the most. We had been on Teppanyaki when we were on the Jewel a few years back. He enjoyed it then and was hoping for the same result tonight. It did not disappoint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner was delicious. My husband thinks this was the best food on the whole trip. Me, I personally liked Moderno more, but this was a close second. Tonight’s dinner took about 3 hours also. And we let the maîtred know that we were celebrating my parent’s 50th anniversary so when dessert came, the staff came over and sang to my parents, and presented my mom with a rose and cake. It was really nice.

[NY cruiser 75]

After dinner, I wanted to take some formal portraits with my husband and kids before they went off to the kids clubs. We gave my son a curfew tonight of 10:30 because my husband wanted to go to Headliners to try to catch a comedy show. After 11, the comedy shows are 18+. We went to the cabin to see what towel animal awaited us.

We didn’t have a reservation but we were lucky to get in, the venue was packed. The show lasted about an hour and the comedian was really funny. I was glad we went.

[NY cruiser 75]

Day 5 –Bermuda

Today we were in Bermuda again and didn’t really have anything planned. Most of my family was going to Elbow Beach, but I didn’t feel like going to the beach again. I’m very pale skinned and the sun and I don’t mix well. We decided that we would get off the ship and walk around the dockyard and if it was possible, catch the free NCL ferry to St. George.

 

We decided that we would try O’Sheehans for breakfast since we were tired of the buffet and liked the food they had for lunch/dinner. I think this was a good decision. The breakfast menu is limited, but it’s different from the standard things they offer in the buffet.

 

 

 

Omelet

 

French toast

Country platter

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Happy that we made the right choice for breakfast this morning, we ate then made our way off the ship. I noticed that there were no photographers waiting today. We walked around for a few minutes and ran into the Clocktower Mall. This mall is not like any of the malls I’m used to going to, but we did stop at one of the stores and picked up a few souvenirs for friends.

 

 

 

[NY cruiser 75]

We checked the ferry schedule that Norwegian offers free to its passengers to St. George. I didn’t want to be gone for too long and I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to make it back in time before the last ferry back. I did not want to get stuck on the opposite end of the island with the only way back a very expensive taxi ride back.

 

 

 

[NY cruiser 75]

We made it back to the ship and showered and changed. There was trivial that we wanted to try before dinner. When we were all dressed and ready, we headed to the atrium for Movie Poster trivia.

 

 

We were so close this time. We came in 2nd place. We thought we had it, but are determined to win a trivia on this cruise.

 

After trivia we had some time to kill and went to O’Sheehan’s for dessert before dinner.

Tonight, dinner was at La Cucina. My family is Italian, so I’m going to be super critical of this meal, just because I know what’s Italian and what it should taste like. This food was good. Definitely better than the buffet,but not better than Moderno or Teppanyaki.

[NY cruiser 75]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fried calamari

 

 

 

 

MozzarellaCaprese

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Gnocchi in pesto sauce

 

 

 

My daughters pizza and French fries from the kids menu

 

 

 

 

Tortellini

 

 

 

 

Vulcano di Capelli

 

[NY cruiser 75]

Scampi alla Griglia

 

 

 

Suprema di Pollo Arrontolato con Prosciutto di San Daniele

 

 

Espresso

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday cake for my husband and son

 

[NY cruiser 75]

After dinner, the kids went off to the kids clubs. My husband and I hung around poolside because there was going to be a Pirate Parade that the kids from Splash Academy were putting on.

 

 

 

My little pirate

 

 

After the Pirate Parade, my husband and I checked out Howl at the Moon dueling pianos in Headliners. It was good, but really crowded, so we didn’t stay too long.

 

 

We hung around until it was time to pick our daughter up and take her the now customary French fries and ice cream. Then on to the cabin to see the towel animal for the evening.

[NY cruiser 75]

Day 6 –Bermuda

Today was the last day in Bermuda. The ship was set to leave at 3:00 pm. I had no intention of leaving the ship today. I saw all that I wanted to see in Bermuda already so I wanted to take advantage of a nearly empty ship. Today was very low key. We started with breakfast in the buffet and then headed straight for the hot tub. Just as I suspected, it was empty, this made my daughter very happy.

My daughter with the hot tub all to herself

 

A beautiful view from the ship

 

 

[NY cruiser 75]

After time in the sun and hot tub, we decided to go to O’Sheehan’s for lunch. We ran into my dad, son, brother and nephew already eating.

 

BBQ wings

 

 

 

Chili dog

 

 

 

Chipolte chicken sandwich

 

 

After lunch we dropped our daughter off at Splash Academy and my son went off with his cousins to see if they can conquer the Escape Room and ride the slides for the rest of the afternoon. Not wanting to be in the sun anymore, my husband and I looked to see what was going on inside that might be interesting. We had a drink and watched the Bachata Dance Class.

 

 

Immediately following the dance class, The Choir of Man appeared and performed a song. They were really good from the one performance.

 

 

My husband and I looked to see if the show was available and were surprised that it was still available. The only problem was the show comes with a cost of $19.00 per person. I would have loved to see them, but I was aggravated with NCL at this point and the constant nickel and diming. I’ve been on many cruises and have never had to pay for entertainment. So I refused to pay to see them, at least I got to see them for one song.

 

We picked up the kids and got ready for dinner. Before dinner, we had time to try our luck at Star Wars trivia.

[NY cruiser 75]

We were not the only ones at this trivia. The Atrium was packed. I know nothing about Star Wars, my husband and son were the ones that thought they would get everything right. Turns out, they asked some really obscure questions, and we weren’t even close. But it was a good effort.

 

Dinner tonight was with the entire family again in Taste, one of the complimentary restaurants. We again had another 3 hour dinner. We were split into 2 tables again and actually, my table was finished pretty quickly. But the staff knew both tables were together and since we were celebrating my niece’s birthday, they held our dessert back so that we could finish at the same time.

 

After dinner, we decided to go to the show, After Midnight. I had high hopes for this show since The Brat Pack show was really good and the Hip Hop Dance class we saw in the Atrium earlier in the week, was being taught by one of the dancers in After midnight. We all tried to make reservations through the iconcierge app, but none of us were successful (I already said the app was terrible). We decided to go anyway and take our chances. Fortunately we were all able to get in and were able to get seats next to each other for the show.

 

 

This show was not as good as The Brat Pack. Don’t get me wrong, the singers were good as were the dancers. But the show itself was boring. A few of us fell asleep during the performance.

By the time the show was over we were all exhausted, so we just headed straight to the cabin to go to bed and see what towel animal awaited us.

[NY cruiser 75]

Day 7 – At Sea

Today was the last day on the ship and we were at sea. I had already decided that I had enough sun and wasn’t going to try to go to the pool. The water was rough and you could feel the ship moving a lot. In the afternoon, it rained so some of the outside activities got moved inside and made the ship very crowded.

 

We had a late breakfast at the buffet.

 

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After breakfast, my daughter went to Splash Academy and my son went off with his cousins. My husband and I caught trivia in the Atrium.

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We did better than we thought, but didn’t win. Not sure what to do next, we caught a presentation on the history of the wristwatch.

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It was more of a sales pitch for what the gift shop offers than anything else. But since we didn’thave anything else to do, it was good time filler.

 

 

We had lunch then we dropped our daughter off at Splash Academy. Today the kids were going to put on a show in the theater showing off all of the circus tricks they learned over the week in Splash Academy. It was really cute and when the younger kids came out (like 3 and 4 year old), they were so cute, they stole the show.

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We gathered the kids and got ready for dinner. Before dinner we wanted to try our luck at the final trivia of the cruise, and this was the one we were looking forward to most because we knew we would do best in this category, Superheroes and Villains.

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The trivia was scheduled to start at 5, but didn’t get going until 6 because they were showing the FIFA World Cup game in the Atrium (it was moved due to the fact that it was raining outside and they still had to show the game somewhere). I didn’t mind so much, I just ordered a drink and patiently waited. Our patience paid off, we finally won at trivia. At this point, it wasn’t about the prize; it was that we won (although I appreciate the mug and koozies too).

 

 

We headed to the buffet for dinner. They had the same selection, but tonight they had grilled items also. It was pretty much the same stuff, but some grilled steak, ribs were added. It was ok. After dinner we headed over to the theater to try to reserve seats for us and the other members of my family for the Farewell Show. The theater was packed. There were seats that looked available, but we were told that they were being held. We weren’t able to get seats for ourselves, let alone all 22 of us. So we were disappointed that we couldn’t see the show. For a ship this size that holds over 4,000 people, the Escape Theater only has a seating capacity of 800. NCL should have 2 shows to try to accommodate more people that may want to see the show. Instead 3,200 people didn’t have the opportunity to see this show.

 

 

Instead, we dropped our daughter off at Splash Academy for a pajama party and our son went off with his cousins while I went to the cabin to make sure everything was packed and ready to go. We had to have our luggage outside our door by 11 and I wanted to make sure I had everything.

 

 

Our finaltowel animal

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[PTC DAWG]

Did you make it to see Beau in The District? I hope so...

[NY cruiser 75]

Day 8 –Disembarkation

I woke up early because I couldn’t wait to get off the ship. The sun was coming up and we still weren’t’ docked, but was happy to see us cruising by lower Manhattan

 

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We double checked the cabin and opted to go to Savor for breakfast. I think it was a good decision, we weren’t in a rush and it was located closer to where we could disembark. I feel that we did get off the ship a bit sooner than others again because of my dad being in a wheelchair, we didn’t have to wait on a long line. We made it to the area where the entire luggage is, and surprisingly found all of our bags quickly. Cleared customs and we were back in our minibus before we knew it.

Final Thoughts

I had a good time on the cruise because I was with my family, but the fact that the food was subpar (in my opinion) unless you paid extra really bothered me. The cruise wasn’t cheap; you shouldn’t have to pay extra for decent food.

When we initially booked the cruise, we were offered 2 extras for ‘free’. We chose the 3 specialty dining and the unlimited drinks. What they don’t tell you is that you still have to pay tax and gratuity on the free options they offer you. I have a problem with that because if they are charging you for gratuities automatically, why are they charging an additional gratuity charge? While I do think the drink package is worth the cost, I hated that we were charged over $200 for gratuity before we set sail.

My cabin was great; it was large enough for the 4 of us. We were never on top of each other. I had ample space to store my suitcases. As opposed to my brother who had a balcony cabin on Deck 9 and he couldn’t fit all of his bags in the cabin (he had to store a bag in my parent’s cabin).

I love cruising, but I think this itinerary spent too much time at sea. Bermuda was beautiful and I would like to go back again.

This was my second cruise on NCL. I liked them when I cruised with them on the Jewel. I’m not sure if it was the large size of the Escape, or if NCL made changes since the last time I cruised with them, but I’m not sure I would cruise NCL again. I feel that they upcharge for everything. I’ve never had to pay for entertainment on a cruise ship so I was taken back when I saw a cost associated with The Choir of Man. For a ship that carry’s over 4,000 passengers, they should offer more show times for whatever shows they have. Onboard activities were a bit boring. Not every day is going to be sunny where you can spend your day at the pool.

Thank you.

[PTC DAWG]

Fair enough..you had a big group. I think that would complicate matters...I know it would to me..like herding cats.

 

The Bride and I were on the Escape in April out of Miami. We had one 5 minute rain shower the entire cruise. I know that helped with everything.

 

As to the tips on the drink package, I have a hard time understanding anyone's issue..18 bucks a day for alcoholic drinks is quite the bargain..and no slips to sign, no tip to figure..although a buck or two here always helped.

 

You did good with the pics too, this being your first rodeo...good work.

[PelicanBill]

No envy from me for herding 22 people! And sorry you did not know the drink package requires gratuities as a charge but it's still a great perk. Enjoyed reading your review and hearing your views. I do enjoy the buffet but do get tired of the same food so enjoy the specialties and dining rooms too. Rarely had bad food on NCL. Enjoyed your story of winning at trivia and following all your shipboard activities.

 

Curious... how many were in your brother's cabin? Never had trouble storing my suitcases under the bed and in the bottom of the closet.. plenty of room unless he didn't understand how to get them under the bed, or had about 8 suitcases maybe!