Escape, Escape - Two Times the Escape. Live Review B2B NCL Escape, Dec 9-16 & Dec 16-23

[Stealthdog]

We ate at Pincho for lunch yesterday.  Because we ate at the supper club one night, we had one spare dining package.  Don’t eat at the supper club - just go to the show without dinner.  Even if you eat at the buffet or MDR, it will be better than the fixed menu at the supper club. 
 

We were the only ones there, so it doesn’t appear many use their dining packages on lunches.  It’s the same menu for lunch or dinner.  
 

Pincho is tapas style food, similar to Food Republic.  People with the dining package get to choose 4 items from the menu.  Unlike Food Republic, all the items were appropriate tapas size plates, so it didn’t feel like it was too much food for us. 
 

The quality was ok - very similar to the land-based tapas restaurants we have been to, but the menu is a lot smaller than what we are used to.  The bacon wrapped dates, chorizo, and beef skewers were the stars for us.  The bacon wrapped lamb was the more interesting and fun - similar concept to lamb lollipops. The garlic shrimp was the only miss - had a very strong shrimpy taste that overwhelmed the other flavors they were trying to introduce.

 

If you have several dining packages and looking for variety, Pincho is a good option.   It’s a solid restaurant - I think we did prefer Food Republic (if only because the atmosphere and views were great), but we might do Pincho again on cruise 2.  

[macewank]

10 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

We ate at Pincho for lunch yesterday.  Because we ate at the supper club one night, we had one spare dining package.  Don’t eat at the supper club - just go to the show without dinner.  Even if you eat at the buffet or MDR, it will be better than the fixed menu at the supper club. 
 

We were the only ones there, so it doesn’t appear many use their dining packages on lunches.  It’s the same menu for lunch or dinner.  
 

Pincho is tapas style food, similar to Food Republic.  People with the dining package get to choose 4 items from the menu.  Unlike Food Republic, all the items were appropriate tapas size plates, so it didn’t feel like it was too much food for us. 
 

The quality was ok - very similar to the land-based tapas restaurants we have been to, but the menu is a lot smaller than what we are used to.  The bacon wrapped dates, chorizo, and beef skewers were the stars for us.  The bacon wrapped lamb was the more interesting and fun - similar concept to lamb lollipops. The garlic shrimp was the only miss - had a very strong shrimpy taste that overwhelmed the other flavors they were trying to introduce.

 

If you have several dining packages and looking for variety, Pincho is a good option.   It’s a solid restaurant - I think we did prefer Food Republic (if only because the atmosphere and views were great), but we might do Pincho again on cruise 2.  

 

I've seen a lot of people say not to waste a dining credit here and to just pay for the meal a la carte since it's pretty cheap small plates.  Would you agree?

[Stealthdog]

Last night we did our first repeat restaurant and ate at Bistro.  It was really busy (last night and everyone trying to finish their packages I guess).  
 

The food was great again.  I got the escargot again and mushroom soup. The mushroom soup was good, but I liked the onion soup much better.  Eric got the steak tartar and loved it!  He also got the endives, which had a very…..interesting presentation. 😂

 

For the main, I got the duck this time and Eric got the tenderloin.  The duck was very good quality - not too fatty and was cooked perfectly. For him the filet was the best cooked we had (slightly better than Bayamo).  
 

For deserts, I got the poached pear and Eric got the chocolate cremeux.  I guess if there was one portion of the dinner that we liked the least, it was desert.  The pear was a fun concept and looked great.  The chocolate hardened in a way the made it feel like a local ice cream plate.  It wasn’t bad, but for a place like Bistro, I’m looking for someone a little classier or more elevated. 
 

We used our platinum voucher and got a bottle of Tempranillo that we tasted at the loyalty wine tasting event.  We didn’t finish it and they are holding it there for Sunday (next time we will be at Bistro).

 

Sorry - looks like I took some pictures with the wrong hand and they ended up upside down. 
 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Stealthdog

[Stealthdog]

26 minutes ago, macewank said:

 

I've seen a lot of people say not to waste a dining credit here and to just pay for the meal a la carte since it's pretty cheap small plates.  Would you agree?

I’d say it depends on how many credits you have.  Overall we had 7.  If we had 2-3, no we wouldn’t have used it and could have tried it ala cart using some of our nonrefundable OBC.  The value with the dining package is probably not with the small plate restaurants.  We didn’t try Moderno or Teppanyaki, but credit is probably good for them. 
 

if you have more dining credits and want to change it up, or if you are ordering 3-4 items per person, it may be worth using a package on it.  The menu i posted has the Ala carte costs, so I would add up and make that decision on what is best for you.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Stealthdog

[Stealthdog]

1 hour ago, macewank said:

 

I've seen a lot of people say not to waste a dining credit here and to just pay for the meal a la carte since it's pretty cheap small plates.  Would you agree?

The other thing I forgot to mention is only 3 of the specialty restaurants are open for lunch (on sea days it looked like).  So if you have an extra dining you can’t use for dinner, your options for lunch are Food Republic, Pincho, or American Diner.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Stealthdog

[Stealthdog]

At District Brewhouse waiting to be taken off and brought back on the ship.

[Stealthdog]

And we got back on board by 10.  We just needed cabin card and passports.  They brought us down to immigration where we were recleared to board back onto the ship.  There are elevators for people with mobility issues.  Two of the West End Guys were with us, so it was fun to chat with them. 
 

None of the reservation places are open until 1100.  I picked up a daily for day 1, and we will head to the box office to get ready for Cruise #2!

[Stealthdog]

Day 1 Daily.

[Stealthdog]

All reservations complete.  It’s easier and quicker when you have a head start!

 

There is a new supper club show this cruise.  The Box Office wasnt open yet, so Cruise Director Jack took my sheet for the reservations.  He suggested we see the new show (Rachel Dudt) in the Supper Club. 
 

For specialty dining, we are doing Bistro x2, Cucina x2, Moderno, Bayamo, and Food Republic.

 

We signed up for the loyalty wine tasting event, but will skip the behind the scenes ship tour (which we did first cruise).

 

Dec 16-23 Entertainment schedule attached (you can get it at the box office).

[Stealthdog]

Time to avoid the madness at decks 6, 7, 8 with all the new cruisers boarding.  It’s fun seeing the excitement of everyone as they are getting on board and checking out the ship.  Off to gym I went (only one here).

 

The next series of posts will be just for the first cruise and I’ll do them in 4 categories - Good, OK, Bad, and Ugly.  I’ll do an overall roll up of the ship, restaurants, entertainment, etc at the end of the second cruise.

[Travelicious]

2 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

At District Brewhouse waiting to be taken off and brought back on the ship.

Love the shirt!  Thanks for sharing your cruises.

[catgags]

Thanks for all the info! Can't wait for my Escape B2B in February!!

Best time to escape the bitter cold in Upstate NY!!

Have a wonderful cruise! 

 

[Stealthdog]

The Good (Dec 9 - 16)

 

Service was great.  
- Once we overcame the cabin communication issue, everything was great.  We saw the cabin steward multiple times a day - it time out his birthday was a couple days ago, so I hope he gets some time to celebrate off ship.  The deck steward was also very visible.  Anything we needed or asked for, they took care of it.  Really pleasant experience.

- restaurant service was also outstanding.  With the exception of slow service one of evening, everything was quick, food correct, and several checkins every meal.  Very pleasant and eager severs, even though they undoubtedly had some challenging customers they always had a smile on their faces. 
- special shoutout to Aida, an assistant Maite D at one of the specialty restaurants. We saw her at Osheehans the first day and at another restaurant another.  If you see her, have a chat and she will give you some ship recommendations. 
 

Specialty Restaurants.

- Overall outstanding.  Disappointment with Cagneys, but really enjoyed the rest.  For pay restaurants, the ones on the Escape collectively better than most cruise ships we have been on.  I think our favorite is still Oasis Class speciality restaurants on RCL, but I don’t hesitate to recommend several of the restaurants on board NCL.

 

Entertainment. 
- we care more about the theater show type activities and they were good to awesome.

- in the theater both the Four Sea Sons act and Choir of Man was outstanding.  Highly recommend both of the those shows.  We care more about the signing entertainment, so didn’t care there was no traditional production show with dancers. 
- the concept of the Supper club was great.  We will skip the food in the future, but the shows are worth making reservations and checking out.  
- Howl at the Moon was always fun, and there always activities to be done in the Atrium for trivia.  Lots of opportunity for karaoke as well.
- We never participated in the pool deck activities or the Pour House, so really no comments about those activities. 
- Overall, there was never a shortage of things to do on board.  You can pack your schedule as heavy or light you want. The NCL Escape is well run, which is a testament to the Cruise Director and outstanding entertainment team. 

[Stealthdog]

The OK (Dec9-16)

- Internet.  The internet service is ok and good enough for most of what you need.  We got the unlimited service with streaming and it was good enough for us.  We were able to log in to our regular game apps without problems and use video calling on apps with mostly no issues (on occasion  we would lose connection).  If you are trying to work from it, or stream a lot of content, it may not meet your needs.  It isn’t then best internet we have had on a ship, but it was good enough for us. 

- Sanitation.  There are regular hand sanitation spots around the ship.  They could place more.  Many of the stations regularly ran out of hand sanitizer.  Particularly as we enter flu season and COVID is persistent, it’s something they should probably invest more in.

 

- Communication.  This is close to being in the bad bin, but I’ll put it here. Time changes were confusing and the time on the cabin tv wasn’t always accurate.  The reminder in the daily for the time change back the night before getting back to Canaveral felt like it was small print on the daily.  They should have made it more noticeable and could have done better job of making sure everyone was on the right time (alot of times you can’t hear ship announcements).  The cancelled GSC and extended stay in Tortola after many people already left the ship in Tortola, so many didn’t even know until they got back to the ship.  At that point it’s a little too late to go back out.  The weather is not NCLs fault, but they could have made the call and communicated it before the ship was cleared and anyone left.  We did get a $50 refundable OBC, but they wasn’t communicated either - it just showed up on the on board accounts. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Stealthdog

[slavetoabunny]

We're on board!  Lunch in the Haven.

[Stealthdog]

41 minutes ago, slavetoabunny said:

We're on board!  Lunch in the Haven.

woohoo!  Welcome!  Enjoy lunch and see you onboard!

[Stealthdog]

1 hour ago, Travelicious said:

Love the shirt!  Thanks for sharing your cruises.

hahaha.  He got these shirts just for cruises.  Sometimes there are alot of grouches on a cruise ship and we wanted to have the ability to blend in with Oscar the grouch shirts. 😂

[prov2727]

On 12/14/2023 at 7:56 PM, Stealthdog said:

We got our B2B instructions today (Day 6).  We do have to leave the ship and will be boarded once the ship is cleared by the port.  We went to guest services a couple days ago and they were able to give us a new key already that is good through the end of cruise 2.

THANK YOU!!!

[Stealthdog]

First drinks of the cruises.  Cruise 1 in Osheehans, cruise 2 in MDR.  My go to first drink is always a mimosa.  I don’t remember what I said or did to upset Eric on the first cruise. 🙈

Edited December 16, 2023 by Stealthdog

[wilmingtech]

Curious to know what the seas are like as you guys departed Port Canaveral.

[Stealthdog]

4 hours ago, wilmingtech said:

Curious to know what the seas are like as you guys departed Port Canaveral.

They are iust as bad as our last two days.  Hopefully they get better when we get out of Atlantic.

[Stealthdog]

The Bad (Dec9-16)

 

- Weather.  Nothing a cruise line can do about that, but between Great Stirrup Cay being canceled and the really rocky seas for much the sailing, really put a damper on the cruise.  I love the private islands (Coco Cay is my favorite, followed by Castaway Cay) and was really looking forward experiencing Great Stirrup.  The ship rocking didn’t really impact us, but it had an affect on others.  We saw the hazmat man cleaning what we assumed to be vomit once - I’m sure it happened more times.  I’m hoping for Great Stirrup this week!

- The app.  I just stopped trying to use the app.  I know there are great features on it, like digital versions of the daily.  I think NCL is behind some of the other lines with the ease of and a user friendly shipboard app.

 

- The crowds at the pool.  We aren’t pool people. We live in Florida and have a pool at home in year round great weather, so it’s really not a draw, unless there are fun or interesting activities going on.  Every time we walked the pool deck, it was crazy packed - everything….the pool itself, hot tubs, loungers, and bars.  Not sure if there just isn’t enough space for the amount of passengers on board.  Spice H2O did look great every time we went there and we will probably check that out more this cruise.  

[Stealthdog]

The Ugly (Dec9-16)

- Other passengers.  I was really surprised by some of the behavior of other passengers on board.  I don’t think I have ever seen it on any cruise we have been on.  It wasn’t alot of people, just a small percentage.  Their behavior was something you hear that happens on a certain other cruise line.  Smoking marijuana on balconies and smoking cigarettes on balconies (is not permitted on cruise ships) is just rude behavior that impacts everyone else around you.  The odor pollution was real several days during the cruise. We also saw some loud, obnoxious drunken yelling on occasion, which is not ok in public spaces where others are trying to enjoy.  Fortunately, no physical fighting or brawls. 
 

- My typos.  Eric was reading some of my posts yesterday and he was horrified at the number of typos in my posts.  I tried to explain to him that it’s not easy to post on an iPhone while on the bike at the gym and that after a couple of minutes after a post, I can’t edit it anymore.  He wasn’t having any of it and I will try to do better.  Hopefully the second half of this review will have fewer typoos. 😉

[Stealthdog]

This will mostly close out the first half of the B2B.  If I forgot anything, I’ll bring up at the end.  Moving forward, the focus will be on the second leg. 

[Stealthdog]

Day 1 MDR menus (lunch and dinner).  I’ll try to get pics daily of the menus (at least dinner) so people can have a good idea on what meals are served in the MDR.