Take 2: Our Norwegian Escape Experience - June 24th Western Caribbean

So yesterday I started a review, but several users reported difficulty seeing the photos in my posts. For that reason, I'm having the moderators take down my original post, and will start anew on this thread. Enjoy!!

Where, oh where do I start? My wife and I booked this cruise over 400 days in advance. With our 10th anniversary approaching we decided to splurge (for us anyway :D ) on a great vacation for just the two of us. After clearing the dates with my in-laws so they could watch our two boys, we pulled the trigger on a sailing date just a few weeks after our actual anniversary date. What follows will be my poor man's attempt at a Gambee/TheDougOut/CruiseLifeRick style review of our fantastic trip aboard the Escape!

My wife and I are in our early 30's (34 is still early, I don't care what you or my wife say), and met while in college. After getting married we spent a handful of years living in Colorado before moving back to the Midwest to be close to our families. Now, 10 years into our marriage, raising two wonderful boys and juggling work schedules (I'm in insurance and she's in healthcare) we decided this Escape would be the perfect excuse to relax, recharge, and just generally spend some precious time just the two of us.

After booking and in true over-planner fashion I jumped on Cruise Critic and began exhaustively (some in our party of two might say obnoxiously) researching the Escape and all it had to offer. I had initially booked us in an interior just to act as a placeholder while we looked further into possible stateroom upgrades. Having been on only the Sky (in 2012 and 2015) before this cruise, I knew we were in for a considerably different experience. About 9 months out from the cruise we decided that we had been able to stuff enough under the mattress to afford to upgrade to a balcony. I went back and forth considering a spa balcony (with one of the angled balconies still available) and an aft-facing balcony since they were priced identically. After much hemming and hawing, we decided on a spa balcony with the thermal suites perk.

Then, a handful of days and additional hemming and hawing later, we moved again to an aft-facing balcony, finally settling on cabin 9920 with its massive balcony. To the credit of the online agency we booked through, they never once gave the impression that they were annoyed with our wishy-washy (washy-washy?) cabin choosing process. We settled on the UBP and Shore Excursion booking incentives and garnered some extra OBC from both the agency and NCL too.

With that behind us, we booked air travel, coordinated a rental car for our day-before-embarkation arrival in south Florida, arranged for a hotel stay, and began an agonizingly long countdown to the end of June.

After cramming in some family fun the weekend before:

(mud runs are my idea of summertime fun), we cleaned up, packed the boys' bags, and ran them up to South Dakota for a week of fun with my in-laws. They went boating, fishing, ATVing, saw movies, and basically didn't miss us at all from what I could tell.

After dropping off the boys, dropping the dog off with some friends, and finishing packing, we got a solid four hours of sleep in before heading off to Eppley Airfield here in Omaha, Nebraska.

Our Southwest flights took us through St. Louis, so we had a decent sized layover in St. Louis to clear the cobwebs and make a concerted effort to wake up. It was about 7:30 when we arrived in St. Louis, so Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, and basically any place serving food or drink were overrun. I'm not normally a "wait in line for 30 minutes for coffee" kinda guy, but desperate times you know...

Now, fully caffeinated and finally starting to wake up a bit, we boarded the flight to FLL, re-watched The Martian (I had just recently finished reading the book finally) to kill the time, and arrived in FLL around 1:30 PM. With all bags safely arriving (YAY!!) we made our way to the Thrifty counter to pick up our rental convertible for the day. I had surprised my wife with a mani-pedi in downtown Miami, so we hit the open road (anyone living in south Florida knows that "open road" and "south Florida" are words that don't belong in the same sentence) and headed south.

GPS led us to the right address, but the spa/salon I had booked the appointment with was inside one of the downtown condo buildings, so it was a little trick to track down. I had booked Stacy for the mani-pedi, but what I didn't tell her was that I decided to get a bit out of my comfort zone and book a pedicure for myself too. I eased my way into the massaging chair and quickly left my doubts and insecurities behind. It was a fantastic experience all around.

The staff at Beauty Energy Salon & Spa took great care of us! Cuban coffee and snacks were provided while the ladies pampered our feet and her fingers.

http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae226/tripleboom/photo%205_6.jpg

Hey! You got your witty title. :D

all photos seen

With the polish on her fingers and toes dried (I chose to skip the polish on my toenails) we headed back out into the heat of the day. Fortunately we only had to walk a couple of blocks to our next activity. A few months prior I had purchased a Groupon for the two of us for the Jet Boat Miami experience. It did not disappoint!

Here's the boat used for the tour:

We were quickly seated on time and headed out into the bay.

Nice start!

Once out on Biscayne Bay they really open up the throttle! We sped through the bay and completed a number of complete washout stops before heading out toward Star Island and taking a brief bayside tour of the homes of celebrities located there. Once that was wrapped up they spooled the engines up again and let us have it all over again. As the pictures suggest, you will get wet on this tour.

So much fun!! Here's some GoPro video of a few of the washout stops we went through to give you a better idea of the experience:

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Hey! You got your witty title. :D

Ha! So I did :D Would rather the first had one smoothly, but what can you do?

all photos seen

Excellent! Thanks so much for confirming!

Great so far! Thanks for going through the hassle to fix the pix.[emoji106][emoji41]

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After a long morning of travel followed by a long afternoon of activity, we headed to our hotel over in Kendall, Florida. Kendall had the one hotel in the area that I could book on points, so Country Inn & Suites - Kendall is where we headed! While not terribly convenient to cruisers, the location is still wonderful. Located right near the Palms at Town & Country shopping area, we had the choice of a dozen different restaurants near the hotel. Knowing that we were going to be well fed for the week ahead, we opted for a light supper at Sweet Tomatoes and then headed back to the hotel to reorganize suitcases, get our porter tags on the bags, and finally get some much needed rest. Big day ahead of us as we were set to board the Escape the next day!!

For months and months I was certain that we would go to port early and snag Vibe passes for the week. But after reading other reviews about the usability of the area when at sea and during high winds, plus the growing number of people describing the cattle drive style run to Headliners, we decided it just wouldn't be worth it to us to start the vacation off with such a high stress first day. I might have felt differently if we were on the eastern itinerary with three sea days, but I just wasn't sure we could justify the stress when we'd likely be so busy it'd be tough to cram in enough time to truly enjoy the Vibe.

So, with that in mind we had a great night's rest at the hotel, and allowed ourselves to relax, have a sit down breakfast, and then head out. The rental through Thrifty was picked up in FLL, but we paid the extra charge to return the car to MIA, and then take the complimentary Thrifty shuttle to the port. All told the Thrifty 1-day rental of a convertible cost us less than $70 and included our transportation to the port. I thought that was a killer deal.

The shuttle wound its way to Dodge Island and as we came to the end of the entrance loop, the Escape finally came into view.

We crawled toward the terminal, our driver found a good place to park, helped us with our bags (Thanks Thrifty!), and the porters took care of our five (eep!) bags, and we headed into the terminal to get checked in. We zigged, zagged, and about 12-15 minutes after entering the line we were checked in and heading upstairs at about 11:30. We were handed a Boarding Group #7 card, and realized we had about 30 minutes to kill with a couple thousand of our closest friends.

Shortly before noon they started calling groups for boarding, and by a little after noon our group # was called, and we started heading up the gangway.

We enjoyed one more step on U.S. soil...

... and then BOOM! We're officially on vacation!!

We made a pact the night before that if we took our sweet time in the morning, arrived when we felt like it, made our way to Headliners, and found that there were STILL Vibe passes available, then that would be the sign that we should do Vibe after all. So we took a leisurely stroll to Headliners, passed the battered and beaten bodies of the victims of the Boarding Group 1 stampede a few minutes earlier, and found a sign outside of Headliners indicating that Vibe was in fact sold out. No problem. We instead bought the SPD (Specialty Dining Package includes three evenings of dinner in specialty restaurants) so we could invest some of that Vibe money into three quality meals over the next few evenings. With SDP purchased and reservations made, we headed over to Taste to grab lunch and to avoid the buffet line madness of embarkation day.

As we walked toward Taste and Savor, a crew member was letting passengers know that "the buffet is open on Deck 16." The not so subtle attempt to steer us up to the madhouse failed, and we headed right in to Taste and were seated immediately. Folks, I can't encourage this enough. Go to Taste or Savor for lunch on the first day. We were seated quickly, our order was taken quickly, our food came quickly, our water glasses were filled frequently, and the food was great! I'm not above the buffet (as my full review will suggest), but this was a perfect way to start our time on board while we waited for the "rooms ready" announcement.

Stacy opted for the Cajun Grouper Sandwich and raved about it. The pretzel bun was especially tasty. I went with a simple cheeseburger, for I am a simple man (simpleton?). Desserts were both very tasty.

Stacy did the peanut butter cup cheesecake

I went for the Orange Chocolate Mousse, which was actually, pleasantly, much more akin to a parfait with devil's food cake pieces at a layer below the mousse.

At the trail end of lunch, the announcement came over the PA that all staterooms were now ready. That announcement came around 1:15 or so. Not bad given that we had boarded just an hour and change before that call! So we left Taste and walked up the aft stairs to Deck 9 and then marched our way to the back of the ship.

We walked through the door of Cabin 9920 and were immensely pleased with what we saw. The interior of the stateroom is well appointed and perfect for a couple like us.

The bedside USB charging ports and light switches were simple but thoughtful additions in the room.

The complimentary sparkling wine thanks to having previously cruised with Norwegian.

The interior was nice, but not remarkably different than any other balcony stateroom on board. I did really like having the couch near the closet rather than the bed. It made filling the closet later on the first night a much easier feat since I wasn't squeezing between the side of the bed and the closet.

But the balcony itself? Well, that's a different story:

Seriously. I knew it was going to be a large balcony based on the aforementioned exhaustive research (the wife was a little quieter about the obnoxiousness of my research now that it had paid dividends), but even knowing what we were in for with this room, I still couldn't wipe the grin off my face. God bless Cruise Critic for all the chatter about aft facing balconies!!

Now what I didn't mention earlier is that we noticed a few odd things when we got to our room.

First of all, when I checked the bathroom I noticed that we had some suite level toiletries from Bulgari. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I believe these nicer lotions, shampoos, and conditioners are typically only found in spa rooms, suites, and The Haven. So that struck me as unusual. Hmmmm...

Furthermore, when I opened up the closet I saw two Haven robes and two sets of Haven branded slippers in there. Now I know that balcony staterooms typically do have robes, but I thought it odd that we had Haven branded robes and slippers in there. Very plush and comfortable too mind you! Hmmmmmmmm....

Finally we started sifting through the number of documents that were in our stateroom upon arrival. There was the daily of course, a few certificates from NCL and our agent welcoming us aboard, confirming our OBC, etc., but there was also one more card: an card from the Hotel Director, Deepak Punia, inviting us to the Captain's VIP Cocktail Party held in The Haven the next evening.

Now I'm here to tell you... I've never in my life been a VIP, I've never been an IP, and there are days I'm not so sure I qualify as a P, so all this red carpet treatment felt a little strange to me. I immediately thought, there's been a mix up. You're not that important, so why are you getting this treatment?? You'd better watch your stateroom account to make sure you're not getting charged for all the niceties. I'm still not 100% sure why we received the invite and special treatment, but as it turns out, this was just the tip of the iceberg...

Actually... I think I should consider a better, less ominous analogy for use while cruising.

Finally, 4 PM rolled around, lines were cast off, the ship's horn blew, and we began to push away from the dock! We were off!

I took note of the bus passing by on the MacArthur. Again, I work in insurance (claims specifically) so the sheer number of ambulance chaser ads on billboards, bus wraps, bus stop benches, etc. is just staggering. Oh well. One final reminder of job security before I leave for vacation.

Since we were on Deck 9, we loved the easy access to The Waterfront down on Deck 8. We decided to go check out the scene at the 5 o'clock Somewhere bar down on 8. Clarence, aka The Chocolate Cowboy, awaited us there and quickly provided us a couple of drinks to enjoy as we watched Miami disappear behind us.

See ya Miami!!

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After a quick dinner at the buffet we headed up to the sports deck for a quick round of mini golf. I'm normally the superior putt-putter, but Stacy whooped me this time around. Fortunately it only cost me having to buy her a drink. Hooray UBP!

The sun was going down on our first day on board, but the night was just getting started for us!

That evening we went to see Comedy Magician Ryan Joyce in The Supper Club. The Supper Club just happened to be the venue, so there was no meal served for this 9:00 PM showing. We got to the show about 20 minutes early and were still left with seating in the very back corner of the venue. Even still, we could see most of the stage from where we were seated. The problem is, no one stopped coming in just because the venue was full. Instead, people piled up in the entrance (which was actually in front of where we were seated based on the venue's layout), stood in the aisles, and otherwise managed to get in the way of people who were already in the venue. I honestly don't blame the passengers. The venue was just too small for the show. The show was VERY good mind you, so despite craning my neck around people standing in front of us, we really enjoyed Ryan's show. We were convinced that we needed to go see his hypnosis show in the Escape Theater a few nights later.

After the show let out, there wasn't much else on the agenda. We headed back to the room to discover:

A) Our first towel animal waiting for us.

and B) some Canapés courtesy of... the Hotel Director, Deepak. *pulls up iConcierge app* Nothing on the account summary. Phew!

Not quite ready to give up on the night yet, we headed back out to wander the ship a bit. The nerd in me had one, very important picture to take up one deck above us and on the other end of the ship. You either get it or you don't :D

We headed back down the stairwell to head to The Waterfront. The stairwells had some very familiar looking mirrors that I just knew I had to take a selfie in. This one's for you CruiseLifeRick!

From there we headed to the District Brewhouse where we would find "our spot" in the back couch. The piano player here, Andrew Boyer, is a great entertainer and has a tremendous bass voice. If he's on your sailing, go see him every chance you get. Good brews and good tunes. You can thank me later.

As we left the Brewhouse, I had to make sure I got one, distinctive picture in...

We wandered the whole of the ship for a while longer before calling it. Spice H2O wasn't exactly hopping.

Good night NCL! It's been a heckuva first day!

The photos add so much to the review and they're showing up great now! Nice to meet you at the meet and greet!

Thanks for reposting. I was one of the people who could not see the pictures on your original posts. Great review!

Not quite ready to give up on the night yet, we headed back out to wander the ship a bit. The nerd in me had one, very important picture to take up one deck above us and on the other end of the ship. You either get it or you don't :D

 

 

I get it. Very cool. I will have to have my picture taken with that sign in a couple of months when I'm Escape. Thanks for going through the trouble of starting your review over again. I can see all of your photos and they're wonderful!

Following (again:cool:) Love your pictures!

The photos add so much to the review and they're showing up great now! Nice to meet you at the meet and greet!

Whew!! So glad they're showing up ok now! That was a little aggravating last night.

To answer your question from the original thread, I use the GoPro Studio software available for download from their website to cut the video up into consolable chunks, than upload those clips as unlisted videos to YouTube. Once they're uploaded to YouTube, I assemble the clips into a movie with music, transitions, etc. and publish them as a public video. It's not professional quality work by any means, but it gets the job done!

Great meeting you as well Katie!

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I started reading your review last night in anticipation of our upcoming Escape cruise and quickly backed out once I realized most of the photos were not loading. Thanks for taking the time and effort to start your review over- all the photos look great and I can't wait to read more!

Thanks for taking the time to rewrite your review! I wasn't able to see the pictures on your first post, so it's great to "cruise" with you thru your pictures today! This is getting me more excited for my upcoming Escape adventure!!