Escape New England-Canada Sept 10-17, 2023 updating Semi Live rev 3.0

[MeriToT]

2 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Going to continue to travel with the lighter Chromebook as the HDMI output is usable, and I figured out the "override" options for the newer LGTV currently used on the Escape.  Sea days are great and with the choice to cast offline video content of choice, that is backup entertainment on the go - with the smartphone, tablet and/or iPad/iPhone.  

 

Every time I sail, I look for options along these lines; I'm sailing this exact ship and itinerary in a month, so would love to know how you made this work. 🙂

Edited September 15, 2023 by MeriToT

[Steelers0854]

Pictures don’t do this justice. What an incredible opportunity to have this view that people literally pay millions for. Lemonade out of lemons. 
 

[mking8288]

La Cucina tonight for dinner, using our Platinum vouchers for 3 cabins, 6 of us. This is where we are (still) limited to 1-1-1 plus dessert 😳🙄🧐 but, not going to give the server a hard time ... they insisted that I had reservations only for 2. Errors on their part when we changed from Moderno to here.  Mistakes are human, computer data keyed in improperly & I wasn't given a new slip on Sunday.  An imperfect world and universe.  It's a busy early evening but not as if they are at 100% max seating. 

 

Otherwise, a good meal - beef tenderloin, medium - perfect, as was the salmon. Lamb shank was tender but presentation wasn't, again - subjective & personal. 

 

 

[mking8288]

Lower Manhattan's skyline - a beautiful evening, a bit chilly & windy, glad to be out of harm's way as Lee continues to spin north toward the Canadian maritime ... as is, folks shouldn't need to deal with flights being cancelled or delayed from the hurricane.  CC friends of ours left JFK on a non-stop at 10 AM this morning & texted about an hour ago that they just landed at HNL - Aloha 😎

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's Freedom Tower, to our generation, it will always be the World Trade Center, Tower 1 and 2 ... not to forget, the Vista Hotel annex on West Street. 

[Sugar Magnolia]

5 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

That's Freedom Tower, to our generation, it will always be the World Trade Center, Tower 1 and 2 ... not to forget, the Vista Hotel annex on West Street. 

 

 

It was like missing two front teeth 🥲

I try to remember the stores that were there...the old PATH station...so that I Never Forget.

 

[AmyJA]

Beautiful NY skyline pictures everyone. 

 

Thank you.

[mking8288]

@Sugar Magnolia I hear you, here's one that us old New Yorkers surely remember & recognize from our times ... although I think they're gone before the first WTC bombing in the underground garage in 1993, I was working on Fifth Ave then.  Friends at the NYS Dept of Labor were on the lower 40'ish floor - the public cafeteria was among the best kept secret then.  Alexander's - on the southeast corner concourse. 

[mking8288]

There's no indication onboard the Escape this evening, from the bridge, captain or CD, CruiseNext, steward or others, that the ship can proceed to dock at Pier 88 around midnight or 1 AM, shortly to thereof - and pax can go ashore or disembark early.  Day 7's FSD has us listed as being at anchorage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mking8288]

Picked up our Yellow luggage tags by flashing our Latitudes Sapphire & Platinum cards at CruiseNext  ... easy to repack everything tomorrow for Sunday morning's disembarkation.  Other color tags were DIY pickup near Guest Services, except for NCL bus transfers & tour-airport drop-off.

 

 

 

 

[njhorseman]

45 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

There's no indication onboard the Escape this evening, from the bridge, captain or CD, CruiseNext, steward or others, that the ship can proceed to dock at Pier 88 around midnight or 1 AM, shortly to thereof - and pax can go ashore or disembark early.  Day 7's FSD has us listed as being at anchorage.

Vista and Silver Shadow are docked at MCT and will be tomorrow, with Carnival Venezia...about the same size as Escape...due in the morning for a turnaround. There's no room for the Escape until Venezia leaves.

[JIMESOPUS]

Jewel of the Seas left and it appears to be returning, wonder why it even ventured out there.

The current state of waves

 

 

 

[njhorseman]

5 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

Jewel of the Seas left and it appears to be returning, wonder why it even ventured out there.

Someone posted on the Royal Caribbean board that they are returning due to a medical emergency.

[mking8288]

Bonus pix of Deck 5 - Splash Academy, near the Taste Private Dining Room, accessed usually via Deck 6. 

 

 

Deck 5 Fwd has most of the Oceanview cabins, the larger Family OV midship like ours, and a small # of accessible Insides, Oceanview & accessible Family OV.  They are close to or closer to the Fwd elevators - motorized scooters or powered wheelchairs are taken by stewards to specially designed area for charging, and not obstructing the hallways or corridors, which endangered egress and in the event of an emergency. Have seen 100% compliance on the Escape and items blocking the hallways, i.e. baby strollers.

 

 

 

 

 

These 2 Family OV cabins, starboard side would be the "closest" to the staircase and near the elevators, around the corners.  Unlike most NCL ships, medical center is on the upper deck - 13 Fwd. 

 

Both Deck 5 but often Deck 4 is used for tendering, with gangways access, depending on tides & the terminal's berth set-up, etc.  Pier 88 in NYC used Deck 7 with dual gangways. 

 

P.S.  We are basically in a "dead-end" or one-way corridor, unless it's for emergency egress, to exit thru crew-only passage - Deck 5 Midship, starboard side - Cabin 576X with an entire bank of Family Oceanviews.  It is quiet and with little foot traffic, except for crew members passing thru the area at all hours of the day (mostly) - white space across from us shown on the Deck Plan are storage, mechanical & electricals, etc. - besides Splash Academy & Guppies Nursery.  

 

Typically, in the late evenings (before midnight) - we do hear machine noises coming from below our deck (Level 4 ??) as if small motors or engines, could be garbage disposals being run for about 2 or 3 minutes, sometimes can be heard during the day when we are in our cabin.  Just something to be mindful of, if one is considering booking these cabins.  Not sure if the same can be heard port side, just FYI - nothing that's truly annoying, however.  

Edited September 16, 2023 by mking8288

[mking8288]

@JIMESOPUS  based on that graphics showing the current sea state of wave conditions in the Atlantic, wondering how the Norwegian Sky is doing this evening - isn't she transiting and making a high speed run southbound out of her modified Quebec to Boston sailing ??   Hopefully, they charted a course heading to "punch" thru the hurricane system safely or else, they could really be rocking & rolling ... 

 

Looking at Windy App - 15' to 20' waves, large swell and strong/gale force wind conditions await - conditions can be quite challenging for the "smaller" ships like the Sky.  Any more data on your end or thoughts on this.  

 

Meanwhile, Jewel of the Seas in-bound with the medical emergency apparently turned around again, now heading out to sea or open ocean again ... perhaps, did a medevac or transfer by boat ?? (looking at CruiseMapper) 

Edited September 16, 2023 by mking8288

[dexddd]

15 hours ago, SuzyKyu81 said:

Hi Everyone! I really appreciate the live posting for this. I’ll be on the October 15th sailing. It's my second cruise ever and first time solo (My first cruise was way back in 2011) and was starting to get nervous sailing during Hurricane Season. Reading your daily adventures (especially how Lee is impacting the cruise) is really putting me at ease.

 

Thanks again!!!

We'll be sailing Mera same day.  Think we have both ships in Port, anchored, at Newport.  We'll wave.

[dexddd]

13 hours ago, mking8288 said:

 

 

Not to worry, checking the countdown clock for our next cruise with a land stay prior, just about 2 months out ... This "short" 7 days cruise was going to be warm-up for the Fall (and, perhaps Winter) - get our annual medicals done, dental work and then - start packing 😁 

 

DW said, it's a shame she'll have to resume cleaning our co-op apartment, laundry & other odds & ends.  I have to worry about provisioning, cooking and taking out the garbage, etc.  When you are on a cruise, it's someone else's "problems" for the duration.  

With your DW working in housekeeping and you in galley and environmental, do you ever cross paths?

[Steelers0854]

The rumors of our being able to pull into port overnight unfortunately were greatly exaggerated. However, the captain was nice enough to spin the ship so the people on the other side are able to get the beautiful view.

 

a cool, cloudy morning. 
 

 

[JIMESOPUS]

@mking8288 Was on the Sky sister ship this spring, off the coast of Alaska the Sun was rocking, Carol even commented about it so I knew it was bad. 

Looks like they swung around most of the storm and are slightly south of Boston, but further out than planned. But that has to be some ride.

I have become a devoted fan of Windy, they seem to be one step ahead of the others. I'm watching TD #15, some are already calling it Nigel but not officially named. 

We are sailing to Bermuda on the Merv in two days, looking at Windy I'm planning on the Bahamas, don't know how experienced MSC is with the channel getting in the Great Sound. 

Safe travels to Pier 88

Jim

 

[mking8288]

@Steelers0854  indeed, a bit on the chilly side, long sleeve weather this morning. Saw someone in the atrium last night wearing a down jacket with hoodie 😳

 

The view thru the MDR vs. Sky's live wwbcam, figured they charted a course way east to go around but that ocean looks not happy with white caps & waves, probably strong wind, if below gale force, those in Fwd and Aft on higher decks aren't going to experience a good ride.  Hopefully they'll reach calm sea state soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mking8288]

Day 7's Breakfast - Daily Features

 

 

One of many chairs, worn & seen its better days - new seat cover or replacement ?  There are quite a few of them in Taste 👎 looks bad ☹️ 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by mking8288

[JIMESOPUS]

@mking8288 Another " reference tool " that I use, should also add no financial gain here for me. He has been pretty accurate, especially in the Caribbean.

 

 

[Steelers0854]

Day 6 Sea Day 2 Cont

 

After trivia we got a quick snack at O’Sheehans. DE got fries and I tried the pretzel bites and the carrot cake. The pretzel bites were great, soft not stale, warm and a good cheese sauce for dipping. The real star of the show here was the carrot cake. It was amazing. I love carrot cake and this was one of the best I’ve had. Glad I found it at the end of the trip otherwise it would have been really and lol. It was moist and flavorful, the cream cheese icing had a rich cream cheese flavor. It was everything I want from a carrot cake.

 

 

 

After that we hit the waterfront and relaxed until dinner. DW had preordered the avocado hummus, a salad and the chimichurri beef. The hummus was solid and so was the salad. The beef was the star of the show. Great flavor. Super tender. Delicious. For dessert they did a play off tonight’s dessert and gave her cinnamon baked apples, they were excellent. Really anything other than the Blueberry compote would have been welcomed.

 

 

 

I grabbed the coconut shrimp, baked Brie salad and the chimichurri beef. The shrimp and salad were both solid. The beef was great.

 

 

 

 

After dinner we went to Uptown Boys. Sorry to say they aren’t very good and us along with a bunch of others bailed early.

[Steelers0854]

I’m pretty sure NCL has lost their minds. We thought we would book another cruise on board since we could do CruiseNext and have the 10% offer they gave us. We found a 3 night cruise that aligned nicely with another cruise we were looking at doing and headed down to book that one. It’s in February next year in a balcony cabin. They wanted $1900 for 2 people. For 3 days and that’s with their 35% off promotion. Insanity. For a quick comparison a Disney cruise in the same time period in a verandah (equivalent to a mini suite on NCL) would have been $500 more, total, for 2 additional days, on Disney. I mean I could even do a Princess cruise for a week in a balcony for almost that much. I guess they are getting someone to fork over that amount but I thought that was crazy. 🤷‍♂️

[mking8288]

3 hours ago, dexddd said:

With your DW working in housekeeping and you in galley and environmental, do you ever cross paths?

In the MDR and master suite, usually - she does come into the Study to find the night 🦉 online, 😆

 

Good chance that we are going on MSC in 2024 with NCL's slim choices out of NY, one of the nieces can book a 2 BR YC Suite plus another balcony, so we'll sneak onboard with them ... to help look after their newest baby, the grand-nephew.  Besides, we'll be Diamonds after our next cruise and if they still do status match ... 

[mking8288]

More pictures taken on the waterfront on a sunny Saturday morning. Captain just did his daily briefing from the bridge. River currents remain strong plus the tide, expect to sail up the Hudson shortly after midnight.