The Great Escape - a critical review

[wilmingtech]

Bits and Pieces -   Here I will leave all the little things and notes that I missed throughout this review.  Mostly because I couldn't go back and make edits.  Also I'll wrap up with a summary of the week.

 

Wi-Fi & Cell  - Between my wife and I we had 300 minutes (5 hours) of free internet from the FAS package that came with our booking.  I did not use any of it until the last 2 sea days.  I've used NCL's FAS Wi-Fi before so I am familiar with how it works.  1. Airplane mode (Even if you are in port and connected to cellular)  2. Connect to the Wi-Fi.  3. Once you are connected to the Wi-Fi you can use the NCL App (You'll be on the ships inTRAnet) 4. To connect to the inTERnet you need to go to the "digitalseas.io"  webpage and specifically "log into" the inTERnet.  You can get to the digitalseas.io webpage by either clicking on connect to the internet in the app, or your phone or laptop should redirect to that page automagically to get you online.  I found it easiest just to bookmark and go there to sign in and out of the internet.  

ProTip - If you do not log off the internet from the digitalseas.io page and wait for it to show you that you logged off, your timer just keeps running.  So if you are sitting at the bar waiting for your wife to join you to go to the show and you are browsing and she comes up and says lets go and after the show you realize you did not log off, you just lost 2 hours of internet. 

Cruise Critic is "Free" on the inTRAnet but its so slow it's unusable.  When you are on the internet itself it works fine for web pages and email but it's not fast at all.  I think I often had less then 1mb download speeds and 2mb upload speeds as I checked each time that I logged in and it seemed to be consistent.  The latency always seemed to be the issue with ~700-1000ms and the initial connection and download was delayed by up to 10 seconds at times.

On all the Islands (EC - DR, St Thomas, Tortola) we had cellular data, calls and texting for free with T-Mobile.  St. Thomas was definitely the best experience of the 3 as it is in the USVI.  It was consistent coverage where we were at in DR but slow and Tortola was hit and miss depending on where we were on the Island.  3 out of the 7 days we were on the ship we were able to get caught up on email, send texts to family and friends and make calls if we had to without issues.

 

NCL App - This works like an App from 2010.  Its about that good.  Like the ship design, its clunky and not well thought out.  It does help with some things but I really challenge NCL here to use their own products or bring in a new outside company to help with this.  It was like this pre-covid and I was hoping that post covid they would have spent some down time in their offices working on making it better but I am guessing that didn't happen.  Rather than a revamp it feels like they just added more stuff to it.  Things I did like were the ability to make reservations from the app right when I got on the ship, looking at our reservations daily and taking a quick look at the daily schedule and what was currently happening on the ship.  It's not horrible but certainly could use some love.

 

The TV - What is it with cruise ship TV's?  How hard is it to get all of your 16:9 TV channels to be 16:9 and fill the full space of the 16:9 screen?  When clicking through the channels some were full screen 16:9, many were pillar boxed and squished and others were strangely window boxed.  I have no idea what they are doing on the technical side of things but again it feels like all the other NCL products where its a great idea but at some point it just gets missed and no one pays attention.  The onboard TV menu to access the same things in the app was nice.  Clunky on a TV screen but we were able to make our reservations for our tender (that never happened) without too much fiddling around.

 

Room Power - There is a card in a slot as you come in the door.  When that card is pushed down the power in the room (Including the outlets) is ON.  When that card is pulled up the power (Including the outlets) is OFF.  Pro Cruise Tip - This card also turns on and off the "At Home" indicator light on the outside of the room, letting the room steward know if you are there or no.  So if you do not pull the card out, the steward may think you are in the room.  You don't have to pull the card all the way out, just lift it up enough to get the lights to shut off.  Its on a 1 minute timer as well so they will not go out right away.

 

Stinky Dad - It s a small room and sometimes when dad has to go he can stink the whole place up.  We found that when dad stinks it up, if you leave the bathroom door and the balcony door open at the same time and then slowly open the cabin door it will create a wind vortex and suck the stink right out to sea.  Be careful though because the vortex is really strong and can take the door right out of your hands or make it almost impossible to open the cabin door.

 

No cabin speaker - On other ships we have been on there has often been a speaker in the cabin you can turn on or off so that you can hear the announcements.  We did not seem to have one on this ship and had to open the door to hear the announcements in the hallway when they made them.

 

No Observation Lounge - There was no lounge anywhere on the ship that had panoramic views of the ocean.  Not even in the Haven.  We really missed this as it has always been one of our favorite places to be on all of the previous ships we have sailed.  One of the places we did like to hang out for a drink while we were on the water was the District.  This was probably one of our favorite venues to spend time in other than the waterfront.

 

Best Bar & Bartender - Hidden in the upper decks of the forward port side of the ship are 2 hot tubs.  There is also some seating as well and this is where you will find the entrance to The Vibe.  We did not have access to The Vibe but there is a little bar right at the entrance and this is where we found to have the best drinks.  If "Oliver" is there, tell him you have read all the reviews online and that they everyone is talking about "Oliver" as the best bartender in the NCL fleet.  He really was a great bartender and everyone on our cruise that were sitting there agreed it was the best place to get a drink.  Pro Cruise Tip - The stairs up to this area were often corded off because of the wind and waves but you could go up to 17 in the elevator (Only time we took it) and walk right out onto the deck and even though the signs said it was closed, the bar there at the Vibe was open and there were a handful of people sitting around drinking and using the hot tubs.

 

Overall Wrap Up - It was really nice to be on a ship at sea again.  We all had a wonderful time and as critical as I have been about the ship, I had no regrets and honestly the service from NCL was superb in the dining, bar and in our stateroom.  We loved Tortola, St. Thomas seems to be a standard stop for any Eastern Caribbean port and we could take or leave the DR.  We had a good bit of waves heading out and heading back which all seemed to be contributed by the big storm that came through the east coast the week after our cruise.  It did not bother us at all, we enjoy the waves but I will say after the first sea day the number of people out and about for the remainder of the week were much less than on Vacation Day.  The Escape was an odd bird.  This sailing seemed to be alot more older, retired, drinking, local FL cruisers than what I have seen on our past cruises.  There was a point at Choir of Man where they were ramping up the audience and people were getting into it and my daughter and I looked down the row and there was not one face under 65 in the entire row, not one of them were smiling or clapping or singing along.  My son said that the NCL person who was running Entourage said there were only 170 teens the week we were on the ship compared to over 800 for the next week.  

 

Winners -  Syd Normans house band, Moderno and The Choir of Man.

Losers  - The smokey Casino, The ships layout and lack of an observation lounge and Howl at the Moon.

 

Would we sail the Escape again?  Probably not.  If you like drinking, gambling, smoking and eating then the Escape would probably be a great ship for you.  The smoke and no observation lounge would keep us from booking on this ship again.

 

PS - On the way home in the car my son pulled up some Fleetwood Mac on his spotify account.  He put on the Rumors album to relive his night at Syd Norman's and stops about halfway through the album and says, "Dad, I think the Syd Norman's band sounded better than Fleetwood Mac"

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by wilmingtech

[wilmingtech]

Epilogue - "The Spa"

 

On Day 6 we ended up with an additional $200 of OBC from NCL for the cancellation of Great Stirrup Cay.  With less than 48 hours to spend it, I told my wife and daughter to go get passes for the spa and they could have special time on the last day of the cruise.  So that is what they did.  Keep in mind that this is a story that was told to me and I was not there so I may not have all the details 100% correct.

 

I got to see them at lunch and they were laughing and had so many stories to tell but really didn't want to say anything until dinner when we were all sitting down and they could give us the full experience of what they got to do in the spa.  I was intrigued.

 

The two of them had a great time using the heated loungers, going into the salt bath and using the sauna and steam rooms.  Sadly the therapy pool was closed because of the waves we had on that last day.  But the thing that really got them was how poor the conditions were in the spa and that the customer service from the NCL representatives in the spa was just awful.  It was so bad they could only laugh about how poor it was.  

 

The first interaction with the ladies was when they got their that morning.  We had come in the previous evening to buy passes for day 7 and were told that you could only buy them in the morning and it was on a first come, first served basis depending on how many people were in the spa that morning.  They would typically only give out about 10 of the day passes.  So the next morning my wife and daughter got to the gym at 7:45 and told the person behind the desk that they were there early so that they could buy a day pass.  The NCL rep told them they would not be available until 8am.  My wife said that was fine, they would just wait in the gym until 8.  She said the person seemed agitated that they were waiting in the gym and after 5 minutes just said - "you can have your passes now".  She said the NCL person made her feel like she was not part of the club and it was a privilege for my wife to get passes.  So they were off to a great start.  My wife decided that she just may be interpreting the person wrongly, so they did not let this bother them but rather they went into the spa and got set up on their heated lounges to read books and enjoy the views of the ocean off the front of the ship.

 

After a while they decided to go an try out the salt bath.  Reports are this did wonders for my daughters breathing and skin.  They really enjoyed it.  After that they went to use the Sauna.  My wife had gone to the bathroom and my daughter had gone to open the Sauna and couldn't get the door to come unstuck.  She noticed a crack along the wood and decided she would go use the restroom.  My wife came back and unbeknownst to her as my daughter had not mentioned anything, my wife tugged at the door and it wouldn't open.  She said she looked around the door and made sure the hinges were on the correct side and it wasn't supposed to slide and/or open in.  So she gave it one more good tug and CRAAAAAACK the piece of wood that had already been split exploded into shrapnel and parts went flying everywhere.  They went to get someone from the Spa to help and immediately they were made to feel like they had done something wrong and on purpose to damage the ship. 

 

After this they went into the steam room.  My wife said that there were just little things all along the way that showed the ships age and that many things were not fixed or repaired.  In the steam room alot of the tile pieces on the sitting area were chipped and sections of them had fallen off and not been replace.  They then went into the Ice room and she said it was dangerously slippery on the floor in there.  Ice had piled up and no one had bothered to scrape it off the floor.  All you would need is a small shovel and clear the path to the seats but she said it was unlevel and slippery.  She did say someone had put towels down on top of the ice to keep from slipping but it just showed that no one from NCL was paying attention.

 

After lunch  they went to the Gym to workout and of course they wanted to use the showers there in the spa because, why not?  So they got thier workout in and headed over to the locker room and showers.  My wife said she tried to open the shower door but it would not open.  She tugged at it a little and then remembered what had happened earlier in the day.  So she went to the desk again and asked for help.  The NCL person seemed highly annoyed at this point that my wife was asking her to come help with the shower door.  The person followed her in and tightly grabbed the door handle and looked at her and said "You have to grab the handle tight and pull hard".  That's exactly what was going through my wife's head when she went to open the Sauna that morning.  The NCL rep was able to open the door and went back to her post behind the spa desk.  As soon as my wife started taking a shower she realized now why the door wouldn't open.  There was no latch or magnet on the door.  So everytime the ship tipped from one side to the other, the door would swing open and she would "eeek" and grab the door quickly shut.  She said it looked like a person may have wedged the door shut with the rubber seal to keep it from constantly open and close throughout the day.  So she finished her shower one handed.  One hand for her and one hand for the ship (door).  

 

Lastly the area where the water and oranges were was just that.  When we have used the spas on ships before they have always cut the fruit and had some other snacks as well as ice water and fruit slices.  You know, just the little things that make it look like its worth the 80$ a day you are paying to use the facility.  But none of that here.  She said the water container was sitting on the counter half full (Assuming because of the motion of the ship) of warm water and a half dozen oranges unpeeled on a plate.

 

My wife and daughter had a great time in the spa.  They really enjoyed it but they said that the service here was unlike any of the service they got else where on the ship. The spa was poorly maintained and it just wasn't up to the level of what they expected a spa on an NCL ship to be.  Really the biggest complaint was the service and it wasn't a single person.  She said it seemed to be the attitude of all the employees at the spa.  As if you were not there to get a treatment then we don't have time for you.  

 

Alright.  If you made it this far, you have made it to the end, thanks for sticking it out.  We have one more NCL trip planned in August on the much smaller (tiny) Sun out of Seattle on a 10 day cruise to Alaska.  Really looking forward to that one and I think it will be quite different than most of the cruises (Including Norway) that we have done up to this point.  After that we are on Celebrity in 2025 and possibly another winter cruise again next December.

Edited December 21, 2023 by wilmingtech

[zqvol]

OP needs to find a different line to cruise on or else a different type of holiday altogether.Clearly NCL is not a good fit for him.

[wilmingtech]

1 hour ago, zqvol said:

OP needs to find a different line to cruise on or else a different type of holiday altogether. Clearly NCL is not a good fit for him.

"OP needs to find a different line to cruise on -

@zqvol Curios as to what part of the review makes you think we didn't like NCL?

 

"or else a different type of holiday altogether - 

@zqvol And what part of the review all together lends itself to not liking cruising at all?

 

And after reading the review what recommendations do you have?

 

Thanks!

[Daruma]

13 minutes ago, wilmingtech said:

"OP needs to find a different line to cruise on -

@zqvol Curios as to what part of the review makes you think we didn't like NCL?

 

"or else a different type of holiday altogether - 

@zqvol And what part of the review all together lends itself to not liking cruising at all?

 

And after reading the review what recommendations do you have?

 

Thanks!

 

Meh... it's rare that a vacation goes perfectly, or is perfectly suited, for one's expectations. 

 

I appreciate the good and bad critiques you've provided... and while you've had some critical comments here, (as have I, and I'd wager everyone regarding every vacation ever taken), I didn't twig to anything about you hating NCL overall or a cruise as a type of vacation. 🤷‍♂️

 

We've been going to Smugglers Notch in VT every 4th of July week with my In-Laws/Neices since my now 22 yr old son was 4... none of my neices were even born yet, lol... a few Winter trips too.

 

If I were to review each trip, every one of them would have some bad, and some visits more than others... but it's always been everyone's favorite "type" of vacation and location... with the good far FFFAAARRRR outweighing the bad.

 

Our worst being the week it rained ALL week making outside activities pretty non-existent... boy did we grouse about that week, lol.

[wilmingtech]

6 minutes ago, Daruma said:

 

Meh... it's rare that a vacation goes perfectly, or is perfectly suited, for one's expectations. 

 

I appreciate the good and bad critiques you've provided... and while you've had some critical comments here, (as have I, and I'd wager everyone regarding every vacation ever taken), I didn't twig to anything about you hating NCL overall or a cruise as a type of vacation. 🤷‍♂️

This web site is called "Cruise Critic" is it not ? 😁

 

This was our 4th cruise on NCL.  We have now been on 4 different classes of their ships and we do love the service they have provided on all of our sailings with them.  The food while not exquisite, was pretty good overall.  We enjoyed most of it and the best thing about cruising is if we don't like it we get something else that we do like.  It is fun to try new things and not feel bad about spending money on a plate of food that you are not going to eat or seeing a show and walking out, maybe because there are better things to do.  And we love being on the ocean, exploring new places, great entertainment and throw in all the food you can eat all within a walk from your sleeping room, its our favorite type of vacation.

[cat shepard]

I appreciate all the factual information you have provided. It will come in handy when I cruise on the Escape in February. 

[wilmingtech]

1 hour ago, cat shepard said:

I appreciate all the factual information you have provided. It will come in handy when I cruise on the Escape in February. 

No problem @cat shepardI have learned so much from this site and all the other cruisers out there that I try to give back what I can to spread the love around.  Cruising has people from all aspects of life and each one has things they like and don't like and I can respect that.  I think it's good to get different views from different people and try to decide what will work best for you.  Have a great time in February!  It's really not a bad ship you just have to find where you fit in.