Live from NCL Escape 05/28-06/04/23 Miami to DR/St. Thomas/Tortola/GSC

[Seas2mountains]

Dinner at Bayamo last night was delicious and it was a great option for our companions to experience specialty dining. 
 

Our son and his fiancée wanted to eat outside and I’ll admit I was a bit reluctant thinking it was going to be too windy or too hot but it was actually a perfect evening for the weather. 
 

Appetizers/Salads.  Shrimp Trio, Blazing Shrimp - my husband’s favorite, Tuna, Beets and Goat Cheese, Crab cake and Wedge Salad -thankfully  served cut up for our grand daughter, Scallops. 

[Seas2mountains]

Entrees were Seafood Linguine, Grilled Fisherman’s Platter, Salmon, and Cioppino. 
 

Everyone reported excellent food and a lot of food was shared. 
 

Sides shown are steamed vegetables and au gratin potatoes.  

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Seas2mountains

[Seas2mountains]

Cioppino 

[Seas2mountains]

I don’t remember all the actual dessert names but all were delicious. Our granddaughter was a big helper for this course as she gets credit for helping three of us finish our desserts plus her own. 
 

One was a strawberry sorbet, an apple dessert, key lime pie, and a chocolate mousse cake like the one in Le Bistro. I didn’t get a photo of the basil sorbet. 
 

She was telling us the gentle rocking of the ship was making her feel tired during dinner. She was not tired after dessert and was ready for the kid’s club aka Splash Academy. 

[Seas2mountains]

Our granddaughter loved her short experience at Splash Academy. She said we picked her up too early and asked to return for longer times today. 
 

I’ll try to get a count of passengers and kids later this cruise. We see kids but not too many kids. 
 

We enjoyed the talented musician in the District Brewhouse and listened to the band playing in the atrium while we got a snack before bed at O’Sheehan’s. 

[hallux]

A tip on the dailies - in the NCL app when you open the FSD you should have an option to download it.  This downloads as a PDF, you can do that and then post the PDF rather than taking 6 pictures.

 

At least that's how it works on Android, and what I did for my cruise in March.

[Seas2mountains]

13 hours ago, vacation44 said:

I thought UberXLs were guaranteed to sit at least six  plus luggage.

We thought so, too. 
 

The driver showed us he had a third row but that row was folded down to fit our bags. 

[aroundtheriverbend]

2 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

We can report that the amazing Haven bartender, Made, from the Getaway is now on the Escape until October. We ran into him on deck 6 as we were ending our evening. We really wanted to book the Haven for this cruise as the prices were somewhat reasonable for us for one cabin but not for both cabins. Plus, we wanted to be close to our family members. 

Yay, we are on NCL for the first time on June 25 sailing, staying in the Haven, looking forward to getting to know Made very well!  🙂

[aroundtheriverbend]

3 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

Good morning from Great Stirrup Cay! This was scheduled for Saturday, June 3rd, but we have some itinerary changes. We actually love this change as it’s fun to start out the cruise by going to the beach on the first full day. 
 

Our family members are reporting that yesterday was a 10 out of 10 or even 11 out of 10 so that’s my excuse for failing to give updates yesterday. I’ll go back to report on the embarkation and first day.  
 

We didn’t get our granddaughter to bed until after 11pm but she is still adjusting from Mountain time zone so that’s not too late for her.  

Curious to hear about the itinerary change, they just sprung it on you at the port??  Is the whole cruise flipped?  Wondering how that impacts things you book on sea days like spa appts., independent tours etc.....  thanks so much for your report, glad you are having a great time!!

[Seas2mountains]

Here is the updated itinerary. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

6 hours ago, aroundtheriverbend said:

Yay, we are on NCL for the first time on June 25 sailing, staying in the Haven, looking forward to getting to know Made very well!  🙂

He is an excellent bartender. I’m not sure if we should be embarrassed or flattered that he remembered us and our names. 🫢😬

[Seas2mountains]

We had a wonderful day at Great Stirrup Cay. 
 

One man asked us how many ships were there today. He almost didn’t believe us when we said everyone on the island was from the Escape. He pointed to the RC ship at Coco Cay and didn’t realize it was a different island and cruise line. 

[bernard530]

On 5/28/2023 at 7:10 AM, Seas2mountains said:

As it was after 4pm now and we had breakfast many hours ago, a few in our group were getting hangry so we walked to a restaurant we tried in the past and liked with great views of the river, Casablanca. This is close to the Marriott and Doubletree. 
 

https://www.casablancaseafood.com/restaurant/

 

But unfortunately, they didn’t open until 5:30pm.  My husband remembered another restaurant in the area from a past work trip, Mike’s, so we walked there. While the service was a bit slow as seems to happen these days, the food was excellent and was hot. The prices were really reasonable. While they had outside seating, the views didn’t exist due to construction and we thought it was too hot to eat outside anyway. Mike’s is on the 9th floor of a condo building called the Venetian. 
 

https://mikesmiami.com/miami-mike-s-at-venetia-food-menu

 

We walked along the waterfront to the Publix to find a few last minute items and some snacks - okay truthfully for cheese. I don’t think my husband has survived too many days in his life without cheese preferably Tillamook cheddar. We have even visited the Tillamook cheese factory in Oregon about two years ago. 
 

Publix is located about two blocks from the hotel. 
 

Next, it was time for our granddaughter to get time in the pool. She quickly made a friend who was in her same grade and said she was 8 years old. Kids are so funny sometimes. Our granddaughter told her new friend that “technically” she was 8 years old. Well, she does have a birthday in about a week but we all smiled trying to figure out how she “technically” was 8 years old. Lol. 
 

 

 

Thanks for posting suggestons for dinner. I'm staying at the JW Marriot so this definitely helped

[quagmire0]

What's the main pool situation like?  One of the biggest complaints I've seen scanning the reviews is how crowded the main pool area is.  Second biggest complaint seems to be lines for drinks as well.  We're sailing in July, but won't be in the Haven.  First time on Norwegian.  Reviews seem to be pretty mixed, but everything you've reported so far seems good. 😄

 

[Seas2mountains]

6 hours ago, quagmire0 said:

What's the main pool situation like?  One of the biggest complaints I've seen scanning the reviews is how crowded the main pool area is.  Second biggest complaint seems to be lines for drinks as well.  We're sailing in July, but won't be in the Haven.  First time on Norwegian.  Reviews seem to be pretty mixed, but everything you've reported so far seems good. 😄

 

The ship is really crowded especially in the main pool area and in the atrium.  We liked the entertainment in the District Brewhouse the last two evenings and had no problem getting drinks. It’s also not too crowded there, yet, as I think many people don’t know it’s there. 
 

When the bartenders noticed my tip money at the pool bar, I got served quickly. But now we are in the atrium at peak times 7-9pm and there are many people in line for drinks and a few servers in the area.  The atrium is packed. I just flagged down a server and we will be sure to tip him so he will come back. 
 

My husband keeps saying that he can’t wait to get on a smaller ship with few crowds. 
 

We had another great day despite the crowds on a sea day.  People seem really happy and the crew is working hard to provide excellent service in all restaurants and bars. 
 

The internet is too slow to upload photos and the daily so I will try tomorrow. 

[Seas2mountains]

Daily - Day 3

[Seas2mountains]

Daily - Day 4

[Seas2mountains]

As mentioned, we are having a fantastic cruise but do notice the very full ship.  We had a great dinner in Manhattan on Monday night.  It is a little frustrating that there are no separate lines for those who have reservations.  We had reservations for 5:30pm but had to wait about 10-15 minutes with the mob of people waiting to be seated. They never asked if we had reservations or not. 
 

I do recommend getting all restaurant reservations made for specialty dining when boarding as they seem to be quite full and you may not be successful later at trying to get a reservation. 
 

We dined at Teppanyaki last night. When we entered, we were asked if our granddaughter wanted to eat from the children’s menu or order from the adult menu and pay the charge. We had purchased specialty dining credit for her so we selected the adult menu.  There were two other children at our table who ordered from the kid’s menu but were given the vegetable, a bowl of rice, shrimp and they shared their parents other food. Our granddaughter really liked her Chicken Udon noodles but it is a tough decision to select the adult menu when so much food sharing was allowed and I was surprised to see the kids who didn’t select the adult menu were given the vegetable, bowl of rice and shrimp.   
 

To avoid the crowds, we are eating breakfast in Taste or Savor and ate lunch there yesterday during the at sea day.  
 

Here are some breakfast photos. 

[Seas2mountains]

On 5/29/2023 at 10:30 AM, aroundtheriverbend said:

Curious to hear about the itinerary change, they just sprung it on you at the port??  Is the whole cruise flipped?  Wondering how that impacts things you book on sea days like spa appts., independent tours etc.....  thanks so much for your report, glad you are having a great time!!

People who boarded the ship after we did were given a paper with the itinerary changes. We found out because we heard announcements being made for tender tickets for GSC and they kept saying we would be there on Monday. 
 

It did cause a problem for the spa appointments and we did notice the spa was busy when we went there after 2pm on Monday the GSC day.  I’m sure this will be a problem for anyone who has independent travel for Dominican Republic as that was also changed. 
 

 

 

 

[big al]

I really appreciate you posting this as we will be on the Escape 12/9/23..just got off the Joy 4/27 after a 12 day cruise..super cruise...the Joy was also sold out @ 3800 passengers..we didn't have a problem going to our 5:30 dinners at the Manhattan Room..maybe because it was very early..our 5 specialty dining dinners @ Ocean Blue, Cagney's, Teppanyaki, Le Bistro ( outside on deck 8..fantastic!!), and the Food Republic were all amazing..loved the Local too..Reuben & chicken salad sandwich there were great along with the fish & chips..thanks again!

 

Big Al

Edited May 31, 2023 by big al
added sentence..

[Seas2mountains]

After we arrived at GSC, we decided to get on the tender at about 9:45am which was after all tender ticket groups were called. When we arrived at the theater which is where people were told to wait for tenders, we noticed it was nearly full with people being directed to sit in seats. Several passengers were heard yelling at crew about waiting for over an hour and they were going to be late for their swimming with the pigs excursion. The crew members kindly explained that the shore excursion team members would try to accommodate the schedule issues due to delays with the tenders.  We asked about priority boarding due to our Sapphire status and were directed to the Supper Club and were told we could board the tender as soon as boarding started. There were some swells impacting the boarding process so they were holding until things were calm. We could see it wasn’t safe to board as we could see how much the tender was moving up and down. Within a few minutes, the seas were calm and boarding continued.  We had no issues returning to the ship and enjoyed the great weather on the island. Our granddaughter initially wanted to eat lunch on the island but then decided she would prefer to eat on the ship after showering and changing clothes as she didn’t like the idea of eating while wearing a wet swim suit. We agreed and enjoyed a not too full Garden Cafe. 
 

We have not experienced any capacity issues with Splash Academy.  Our granddaughter loves hanging out with her new friends and is enjoying the activities. We tried to pick her up at 10pm but she asked if she could stay longer so we went back closer to 11pm to get her. 
 

She was hungry for a snack when we picked her up so a stop at O’Sheehans worked out well as the food came out fast. 
 

Yesterday at breakfast I knew she would enjoy a croissant since it is one of her favorite pastries besides donuts.  I asked for one for her but they brought a basket with three croissants. She bit into it and said, “I just love a good croissant.” The crew members are so kind to her and continue to ask her if she likes her food and if they can bring her anything.  
 

While the internet has been a challenge at peak times, we have been successful with using FaceTime for our granddaughter to speak with her Mom. We are also able to use iMessage to sent texts on devices that are on the ship wifi but not on a wifi package. 

[quagmire0]

Thanks again for the info.  It's good to know that 12 and under can eat the kids menu for free at the specialty dining.  That helps in our case, as 4 of us got the one free dining meal and 2 (who are both 12 and under) didn't.  So, that opens up our options for not having to pay too much out of pocket for the youngest two.  Now I just have to decide whether paying ~$42 per person per meal is worth it for adding two more specialty dining meals.  Seems like it's not, unless we're looking at Teppanyaki, Moderno, or Cagney's.    I can probably do any of those as our one free meal and then do something like Food Republic a la carte.  

[depplep]

Really glad to find this review. We're on Encore in October, but this is our first NCL cruise so I'm reading all the reviews that I can before then. I hope this tropical storm that's headed up the coast doesn't affect you.

[big al]

8 minutes ago, depplep said:

Really glad to find this review. We're on Encore in October, but this is our first NCL cruise so I'm reading all the reviews that I can before then. I hope this tropical storm that's headed up the coast doesn't affect you.

I was on the Encore Jan.'22 and it was great...don't miss the Observation Lounge on deck 15..perhaps the best public space I've ever seen on any ship..Beatles show fantastic..dining outdoors on deck 8 also super...beers in the district Brew House great...

[depplep]

Definitely looking forward to the Observation Lounge. I find it strange that it has a buffet.?? Hopefully we can dine outside without freezing.