Semi-live from the Escape | NYC to Bermuda and back again | October 29-November 5, 2023

[haynesra]

Thanks for your wonderful review. We are going on the Escape in a few weeks so your review was very good timing and info. We will definitely hit the Food Republic and Pincho's. (Also disappointed about the hashbrowns!!)

 

Finally hope you both don't have Covid and start feeling better soon!

[JGmf]

Thanks a lot for your review.  I tag-teamed into the ship when you were disembarking and definitely share a lot of your critical observations and opinions:

 

-Yes, buffet is VERY disappointing as a dinner option.  We didn't starve, of course, but it's seemingly not what it was.  The selection is very poor for vegetarians and pescatarians.  (We went there after the Supper Club Rat Pack show as didn't really eat the food served there).

 

-The Food Republic was hands-down way better than the other specialties we visited, La Cucina and Bayamo. 

 

-Definitely smelled pot and saw smokers where they shouldn't have been.  Not good.

 

All that said, it was a good trip for us.  Someone cooked, cleaned, and plowed me with drinks for 5 days - that's pretty great.  Looking forward to the next one!

 

 

[D_And_K_gocruising]

@OrcaGirl did I miss one of the dailies?  Just curious if Friday was the last one?  Figured there would have been 1 for Saturday also.   Or did I just miss it?   Thanks!

 

[OrcaGirl]

1 hour ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

@OrcaGirl did I miss one of the dailies?  Just curious if Friday was the last one?  Figured there would have been 1 for Saturday also.   Or did I just miss it?   Thanks!

 

Oops, looks like I missed one in all of the last day shenanigans. I’ll see if it saved to my Dropbox correctly.

[OrcaGirl]

A-ha, there it is…

 

Belatedly, here’s the Freestyle Daily for Day 7:

 

escape-day7.pdf

[D_And_K_gocruising]

2 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

A-ha, there it is…

 

Belatedly, here’s the Freestyle Daily for Day 7:

 

escape-day7.pdf 1.9 MB · 0 downloads

You rock!  Was just curious if Choir of Man was only 2 nights.. And appears it was.  Only showing available for 2 nights on our upcoming cruise.  Thursday and Friday of a Sat-Sat cruise.. Friday night at 9:30 just doesnt seem like a good idea lol.. 

 

[OrcaGirl]

5 minutes ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

You rock!  Was just curious if Choir of Man was only 2 nights.. And appears it was.  Only showing available for 2 nights on our upcoming cruise.  Thursday and Friday of a Sat-Sat cruise.. Friday night at 9:30 just doesnt seem like a good idea lol.. 

 

 

It was two shows each on two nights, same as it was on the Encore when we sailed her. It's a great show, well worth attending.

 

[Daruma]

On 11/3/2023 at 1:33 PM, OrcaGirl said:

 

...  I went to grab an unoccupied stone lounger (it just had a rolled up towel pillow as they often do in the morning) only to have a guy two loungers down shoo me away. Apparently his nowhere-in-sight daughters were using them. I explained the whole ‘staff said no saving stone loungers’ but he was adamant and I’m a good Canadian who doesn’t like a confrontation...

 

 

Been loving your review... given that I can be a confrontational a$$, I'd have just laid down on a lounger and prayed that he'd have tried to do something about it, lol. 🤣😂

[luvtoride]

10 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

It was two shows each on two nights, same as it was on the Encore when we sailed her. It's a great show, well worth attending.

 

I agree!  The Choir of Man was an outstanding show.  We saw the late show (9:30) on our sailing and the energy of the crowd was amazing (let alone the performers).

We met some passengers who didn’t see the show.  What a pity!  

[D_And_K_gocruising]

16 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

It was two shows each on two nights, same as it was on the Encore when we sailed her. It's a great show, well worth attending.

 

Oh, no, I figure it's well worth it, I'm just surprised it appears the show times for our cruise are the last 2 nights of the cruise.. Especially the last night.  That part just seemed weird to me.   Maybe it's common.  

[skittl1321]

22 hours ago, Daruma said:

 

Been loving your review... given that I can be a confrontational a$$, I'd have just laid down on a lounger and prayed that he'd have tried to do something about it, lol. 🤣😂

I'd just have laid down and said "I'll move when they get back".  We all know they aren't coming back anytime soon.

 

I actually did this once on the Carnival pool deck, when a person was saving a group of like 8 loungers during a very crowded deck party and I was visibly pregnant (1 day short of being denied boarding, so like 23 1/2 weeks?).   She glared at me, but thankfully 2015 Carnival passengers were not at the "fist fight with a pregnant woman" level yet.  (They might be now...man things have gotten insane on cruises.)  No one came in the 30 minutes I sat there.

Edited November 15, 2023 by skittl1321

[D_And_K_gocruising]

@OrcaGirl

Hi, me again 🙂  Have you eaten at food republic previously?   The menu it has on site appears to be cut back from just a couple of months ago.. ie: dont see edamame, the corn on the cob, think a couple of sushi things gone, teriyaki chicken .. Do you recall if they were still available and for some reason just not on the online menu anymore?  Or were they gone if you recall.

[OrcaGirl]

2 hours ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

@OrcaGirl

Hi, me again 🙂  Have you eaten at food republic previously?   The menu it has on site appears to be cut back from just a couple of months ago.. ie: dont see edamame, the corn on the cob, think a couple of sushi things gone, teriyaki chicken .. Do you recall if they were still available and for some reason just not on the online menu anymore?  Or were they gone if you recall.

 

I'd previously eaten at Food Republic on the Encore and Bliss (including this summer), and yes, the menu was quite a bit smaller this trip than in the past. I immediately noticed that the Tijuana street fries were no longer on the menu, same for one of the sushi rolls I had in the summer.

 

[dmrrn73]

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading about your trip. We are tentatively planning a Cruise to Bermuda in May on the Joy. I have been to Bermuda a few times and love it but haven't been since about 2008.

 

The only NCL cruise I have been on is the Gem in 2013. That one was basically good but service wise not as good as I had heard NCL and the Gem specifically were. Turns out our cruise was largely all brand new crew so that explained things. 

 

Question- the caves, I have been but it has been like 23 years. Was it a lot of steps or were they just ramps/bridges? 

[OrcaGirl]

1 hour ago, dmrrn73 said:

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading about your trip. We are tentatively planning a Cruise to Bermuda in May on the Joy. I have been to Bermuda a few times and love it but haven't been since about 2008.

 

The only NCL cruise I have been on is the Gem in 2013. That one was basically good but service wise not as good as I had heard NCL and the Gem specifically were. Turns out our cruise was largely all brand new crew so that explained things. 

 

Question- the caves, I have been but it has been like 23 years. Was it a lot of steps or were they just ramps/bridges? 

 

There were supposedly 88 steps down to the floating platform; the husband didn't think it was that many.

 

The guide actually commented that the brief ramp section is usually harder than the stairs themselves on the way up.

 

There was at least one woman on our tour with a cane, and she seemed to manage them pretty well.

[nbbell]

On 11/4/2023 at 10:05 PM, OrcaGirl said:

Honestly, this is the first time a NCL buffet has disappointed me so much (aside from the hash browns issue.) On recent cruises this past year on Celebrity and Princess, I kept telling my companions how much better the NCL buffets were.

We were also on this cruise and this is our 14th NCL cruise and we agree the buffet was very disappointing. We also missed the navigation channel as well.

[Niffernay]

On 11/2/2023 at 2:04 PM, OrcaGirl said:

And then you should buy your wife a treat for having digital versions of your passport in her Dropbox

Good to know that my over-planning might pay off some day.  Digital versions of all of our ID's in DB as well. 🤪

 

At the risk of getting chastized for responding to a 4-month old post, thanks for the review.  I'm over-planning for my cruise on the Escape in January. 😎