Escape Review - Haven and Western Itinerary Cruise - Aug 5-12, 2017

Here's JoJo photobombing me and Kev...

Then Tyler comes out...

They hand out glow sticks and encourage everyone to move forward to the front of the dance floor. I think all of the entourage kids were there and everyone jumps up and down. I thought the music was great and it was really fun. Does no one dance any more though? It literally was everyone jumping up and down. (I'm showing my age, right?) I can only jump for so long. We stayed about 45 mins then went back to our room. On our balcony on the 12th floor - you could hear the party only slightly. Maybe if you were higher - might be a problem but it wasn't for us.

Steps walked today...11,515! I was in the water alot though without fitbit so it was probably much higher. (At least that's what I told myself as I had another piece of cake)~!

I originally had Teppanyaki booked for Friday but we wanted to eat in the Haven our last night so I asked the conciege, Leah, if we could switch to Teppy tonight. She told me to go see the maitre'd at the front desk right at 6:15p.

Oh no, no, no.

The concierge (or assistant) is supposed to do that kind of stuff. When I was on Escape, I had to change a bunch or reservations (that included some non-Haven family with us) and Adrian or his assistant took care of everything. They either handled it right there over the phone or called me back on my stateroom phone to confirm the changes and to make sure that the times were correct.

Oh no, no, no.

 

 

 

The concierge (or assistant) is supposed to do that kind of stuff. When I was on Escape, I had to change a bunch or reservations (that included some non-Haven family with us) and Adrian or his assistant took care of everything. They either handled it right there over the phone or called me back on my stateroom phone to confirm the changes and to make sure that the times were correct.

Well to be fair, she called to arrange us to go at the first seating and I went down myself to ask for the 7:30 seating because we weren't ready at 6:15. Honestly, I had a difficult time asking people to do things for me. Same thing with the butler fiasco. I probably should have called him on day one and had him meet with us and tell him what we wanted. I will do better next time if I get the chance to be in the Haven!

Thanks!!

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Great photos...thanks for posting them.

Thanks for the review. I have question though. I thought booking a Haven room included a pass to the spa. Was I not included with your room?

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Only the Haven Spa Suite room includes the spa pass. I think those are on the spa deck 16.

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A little background - last year....we went to Aruba to celebrate my 50th birthday with extended family. The short version is...it was a disaster. We got robbed, had to move the places we stayed three times and I spent my birthday on a pullout couch. :) I wanted a do-over!

I can relate to your Aruba experience. My wife and I flew down about 20 years ago (wow, am I that old?) for a Thanksgiving vacation. I must have caught something on the plane because the first night I started not feeling well. It kept getting worse over the next couple days until we finally had a doctor come in and I was diagnosed with Bronchitis. So my first bit of sightseeing was taking a bus to the hospital to get prescriptions filled.

After a couple more days I was feeling well enough to go down to the beach and have some fun. One day later it started pouring and didn't stop for the rest of the week. Of course Aruba is a desert island so their drainage couldn't handle it so there was about a foot of flooding as the bus took us to the airport to leave.

Luckily there was a James Bond marathon on TV that whole week. :)

The plan is to go back there next spring so the locals might want to prepare for the worst.

Very nice review! Stayed in the Haven last October and it was a wonderful experience.

Thanks for reviewing. We sailed the Escape last year on the Eastern Caribbean route. Going again in 4 weeks on the Western route.

 

The plan is to go back there next spring so the locals might want to prepare for the worst.

Well, I hope your Aruba experience is much better the next time! We loved it there...it's gorgeous but it started off bad. Once we got to the mid week and had a nice place to stay...it improved. The police told us because it's a short boat ride from Venezuela, they have a high crime rate especially in the private houses. The resort areas are safe.

Have a wonderful time on your cruise. We thought this was maybe the best vacation we've ever had!

Day 7 - Last day...Day at Sea!

Today, we had a later start - enjoyed some coffee on our balcony and felt like were still full from last night so we skipped breakfast. We decided to go to the main pool deck for a little while. We found some chairs forward port side under cover right past the pool. It was a gorgeous sunny day and didn't feel overly hot or humid. The pool wasn't very crowded and they had some Jimmy Buffet music on so we sat on the ledge for actually quite a long time! They had an ice carving show and then we stayed for Tyler's aqua challenge to watch those antics. I think we sat there, had some drinks, and watched for about 3 hours! Great people watching spot too. I really like the adult pool deck but it really doesn't stay "adult." There were kids in the pool and hot tub. I didn't see the "adult part" enforced pretty much anywhere on the ship.

Went back to our room, had some of the snacks left for us. Every day we had sandwiches of some type, cheese tray, fresh fruit, and some type of dessert treat. The boys went to ride some slides and I read on the balcony and tried not to think about fast approaching reality!

I found out later that Kevin went to see Deal or no Deal and he was supposed to meet me for bingo. A note about bingo...I don't usually play. I'm not a big gambler at all. To me, the best part of bingo is the first 5 mins before it starts when you have that anticipation of maybe winning. :D I have to say...I got sucked in by the hype. At the one comedy show, we bought some of the tickets for the free cruise win that would be awarded after game 2 of bingo. It worked. I went. lol Hey...someone has to win the free cruise, right? If you go, go early...at the beginning of the card sale time. It was PACKED! Unfortunately, we didn't win but Jason from NJ won the free cruise. He and his daughter were very excited. No one won the $5000 jackpot but they kept going and the pot was up to $1100 for the winner. Since no Bs were called for most of the game, there were about 20 people who eventually won and split the pot. Nothing for us...but it was fun and the cruise director staff made it fun.

Went back to get ready for dinner in the Haven that night. I love that you don't need any kind of reservations in the Haven at all. You just go when you want to have dinner. We also like going to the Haven lounge for drinks before dinner. Bong had our snacks and drinks for us and a few more cow jokes!

Dinner was amazing as always with great service.

Dessert was pistachio tart with chocolate ice cream and I got the pear crumble again...love that.

We had our favorite, Paolo, as our waiter plus Maria, the maitre'd visited us and we made sure to get pictures.

They were our vacation heros this trip! We really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing about their families. Both are soon leaving (in Sept) to go back to see their families for 2 months. Paulo will be on the Getaway and Maria will be back on Escape. Look for them!

After dinner, Kevin wanted to go to the casino for a while and Dan and I walked around the ship taking some pictures.

Here are some late night - everything is deserted because people must be packing now- pictures of the ship:

Haven pool courtyard:

Haven lounge:

Spice H20:

Deserted grotto:

Main pool deck watching Rogue One

Kids pool area:

First time I ventured up to the sports deck....

Bocci court

Headed back to the atrium - had to get my cruise ship Christmas ornament. I have one from each ship I've cruised.

Decided I needed to go here because I meant to all cruise...

I had the ginger one and Dan had the Woahito. Both very good.

Went to Headliners for Howl of the Moon but iby then, I"d had enough. Dan and Kevin stayed and I was back to the cabin. Sat on the balcony - it was a beautiful clear night filled with stars. I'm gonna miss this backyard!!!!

Steps walked today...9517...but a lot of pool time and undocumented steps. I'm sure it was more! ;)

DIsembarkation day.....time to get off, go back to reality, and ruin all your nice relaxation with difficult airline travel....;p

Haven guests get priority disembarkation. We could walk off if we wanted to carry all of our luggage starting at 7:30am or we could put our luggage out night before by midnight and then be escorted off the gangway between 8a-9:15am. We chose that option.

We had to have one last breakfast at the Haven - Tahitian Vanilla french toast with berries. Then we went down to the lounge and walked off the ship around 8:30am. Pretty easy to walk off and find our luggage and the Washy washy guy was there and singing his song one last time. Our flight wasn't until 4pm so we decided to rent a car and we headed to Ft Lauderdale to a hotel that we love there called Sun Tower Hotel and Suites. We've been there several times (most recently in March for a quick leave the snow getaway). Pretty small, not very fancy place but they have an oceanfront restaurant with wonderful food and an awesome view. For $25, he let us use chairs and an umbrella also. We didn't have a lot of time but it was a quick beach break and nice way to spend time until our flight.

Difficult to tell in this picture but the water was crystal clear blues...

Headed to the airport ...learned our flight wasn't really a direct flight (went through Atlanta to Pittsburgh) - they didn't have the stop listed when we booked because we didn't get off the plane. (blaming Dan for this..lol).

Won't bore you with our airline troubles and flight delays but we got home safely after a wonderful trip by 11pm. I was too tired and too sad to take a picture of Franco's face in the airport. I like his butt much better! :D

Final Cruise Thoughts....(*all just my opinions)

• We loved NCL and the freestyle dining. We put a deposit down for the next cruise. (Wooo hoo).
  
• Loved the Haven - especially the restaurant and the getting off the ship perks. I could live without access to the Haven pool and sun deck. I liked the activity of the main pool but we really only spent one whole day there so maybe it was more crowded earlier in the cruise. The space in the Haven aft penthouse cabin was outstanding.
  
• I was worried about being seasick especially in an aft cabin but I felt very little ship movement except for a few days at the end. I wore a motion patch with herbs and took ginger pills a few times but don't think I really needed them.
  
• The Escape is a beautiful ship and it's impossible to do everything. (good thing we booked again).
  
• Loved all of our excursions. Go early to Harvest Caye!
  
• If you stay in the Haven, call the butler down to meet you to see what he could do for you and tell him what you want. That's why you have a butler. We got lots of food - some of it went to waste (I hate that) because it wasn't something we liked. Also, order coffee to be delivered to your room. Since we were aft, we ran up to Garden Cafe and would bring it back down. (Two Wheels is probably shaking his head at me...lol).
  
• Look on trip adviser and the port of call boards for trip excursions and reviews.
  
• The three of us all think this was our best vacation. We made a pact at the beginning to go with the flow if things went wrong and literally - nothing went wrong until travel home day.
  
• Be nice to the staff. I can't believe anyone has to say that out loud but I witnessed all kinds of stuff. They work so hard and their every moment is about making it a dream vacation for you. I thought the whole ship service was outstanding!
  

Hope you enjoyed traveling with us....I had fun writing and reliving it all.

Firstmickey thanks so much for taking the time to do your review.

My family and I are first timers on the Escape in 7 short weeks to celebrate my dad's 80th and looking forward to a great trip.

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Firstmickey thanks so much for taking the time to do your review.

My family and I are first timers on the Escape in 7 short weeks to celebrate my dad's 80th and looking forward to a great trip.

 

 

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Have a wonderful time! Happy birthday to your dad. Make sure you make a note at the restaurant that day so they can have a cake for him'

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Donna

Thanks so much for posting your review and pictures. I often think about taking the plunge and sailing on a NCL cruise. The ships look absolutely beautiful. I have to ask you about Aruba. We hadn't been on a land based trip since 2014 and just went this July 16 for a week. Couldn't help but notice the increase in security at the resorts on palm beach. Can you share where you stayed? Thanks!

All I can say is you should be ok at a resort or time share versus a private house. Aruba is beautiful and I would go back to one of those places! In fact both the Divi and Costa Linda were extremely kind to us after our misfortunes!

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Great read!! Thank you for your review and your positive attitude! Looking forward to cruising this ship on the Eastern itinerary with hubby and daughter (not in the haven tho - maybe someday...)

We got lots of food - some of it went to waste (I hate that) because it wasn't something we liked. Also, order coffee to be delivered to your room. Since we were aft, we ran up to Garden Cafe and would bring it back down. (Two Wheels is probably shaking his head at me...lol).

Yes, I am! :p

Remember, the aft Butler only works that section. He/she isn't running down and back from the Haven and neglecting other Haven guests. There were probably other H6 guests who wanted coffee just like you did so it wouldn't have been an inconvenience to bring one more set.

As for wasted food, don't worry. The fish that end up eating it are happy to get it.

Great review and photos.

Keith

Yes, I am! :p

 

Remember, the aft Butler only works that section. He/she isn't running down and back from the Haven and neglecting other Haven guests. There were probably other H6 guests who wanted coffee just like you did so it wouldn't have been an inconvenience to bring one more set.

 

As for wasted food, don't worry. The fish that end up eating it are happy to get it.

Will remember that next time! I always consider the first time the learning cruise then you figure it all out!

Thanks!

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Great review - thank you!

Great review. Totally enjoyed the daily read.