Maddysdaddy

We'll be going in August. IS the walk pretty descent?

The walk is quite short - about five or six blocks once you leave port. You turn to the right after leaving the port exit - walking straight until you hit Senor Frogs, and the hotel is pretty much right behind that.

There were none when we were there a few weeks ago.

With how the beach is sheltered on both sides, unless a vendor walked through the hotel lobby, I'm not sure how they would even gain access.

My favorite coffee experiences on the Escape were sitting in the Atrium in the afternoon, and wanting to take a break from "adult beverages" with a nice cup or two of plain black coffee while doing trivia with my family.

The response from the servers and the bartenders was that if I wanted a cup of coffee I would need to go up to the bakery counter and order one and pay for it. Alternatively, they would bring me a cup of coffee with Baileys in it for free, since I had the UBP.

Let's just say that one of those options worked better than the other.

For me, it was well worth sailing Disney when my daughter was 7, but was less so when she was 10.

I knew that I was paying a significant premium for Disney 'magic', both in the ship and in the kids' clubs, and for age-appropriate shows in the evening. Was it worth it? Yeah, I think it was.

By the time of our second cruise, she had little interest in going to the clubs and preferred to lay on deck reading books and listening to her iPod, so that was one less checkmark in favor of Disney.

That being the case, we just sailed on NCL in a 'large balcony' mini-suite for about half the cost of what an oceanview room would have cost on Disney, plus we had the unlimited adult beverage package included in that cost.

Were the evening shows 'great' from her perspective? No, not really, so we only went to a couple, but she is at the age that going to the karaoke bar and the dueling pianos bar, was actually a lot of fun for her and she had a blast singing along at those venues.

As I've posted a million times on this board and others, Disney can charge what they want to, because (I assume) most people are like my family, where a DCL cruise is something that you do one or two times, after which families outgrow what DCL has to offer. The other cruise lines want to create affinity and life long customers - Disney doesn't. It's a matter of "Take your kids and we'll see you again in thirty years when you take your grandkids".

Just sailed on the Escape in an M6, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Not so much for the larger washroom, but for the massive balcony, with three loungers on it.

Would I pay significantly more for a mini-suite with a normal sized balcony? Probably not. But not having to fight crowds for drinks and loungers on 16 was fantabulous. Walk 60 seconds to 5 o'clock Somewhere, stock up on drinks, bring them back to the room and lay in the sun. That's a vacation.

Just on the Escape over Easter. Didn't do the ropes course, and the only time we tried the slides was when we came back early from our day in St. Thomas (around 2 pm) because my wife had to call the mainland for a job interview.

At that point, the wait for the drop slides was about 10 minutes, and for the tubing slide, from the time we got in line to get a tube to the time we entered the slide, was probably 20-25 mins.

Didn't see any. And the roped-off area next to the beach is fairly small - if they do have them, you'll be paddling in circles.

Did it two weeks ago. Quick walk from the port. Nice enough beach. Decent food and drinks. So-so wifi (if you ask very, very nicely at the Front Desk when you check in, they might give you the password for free, rather than charge you $12 for it). 5 ships in port and there was plenty of room, even with us not getting there until about 12:30.

I was up on 16 most mornings between 6 and 6:30 to hit the gym, and there were already a lot of 'saved' loungers at that time of the morning, even though the sun was barely up and the staff were oftentimes still setting the loungers out.

Made me happy that we had an M6 with three loungers on it (started off with two and asked our room steward if he could get us a 3rd), so we didn't have to deal with the craziness.

Stayed at the Intercontinental two weeks ago. 10 minutes (tops) to the Port. Nice hotel (although I certainly didn't think it was nice enough to rate as one of the top hotels in Miami on Tripadvisor), which was in a great location about five blocks away from the Bayside(?) mall and the American Airlines Arena.

I wouldn't pay their rack rate (or even their "special" rates from their website) for the experience, but we booked far enough out that we were able to lock in a really good non-refundable rate of about $150/night, which was about half of the promo rates they were offering for the same nights.

The Escape was the fourth ship into port last Friday, with Carnival following close behind. I assumed the worst, in terms of crowds, and that given our late arrival, we'd have issues finding loungers at the Hilton (we had pre-purchased day passes).

To my surprise, the pool and beach loungers at the hotel were 'maybe' 1/3 full (full availability on the beach, and about 2/3 full around the pool). The lack of other registered and day guests was fantastic.

My answers are in light blue.

I just completed the edocs process, and part of that process was to select an arrival time. I got an 11:30-12:00 arrival time. Is that an indication of the boarding group priority?

 

That was the arrival time that I had for my family's cruise on the Escape last week. Based on what I had read on CC, we showed up at 10:30 and went right through security and check-in. Took the escalator upstairs and there were so many people already there, that we ended up being part of boarding group 16. I don't specifically remember looking at my watch as to what time our group was finally called, but think it must have been after 12:30, since we didn't even have a chance to sit down for lunch before the announcement was made that the rooms were ready.

 

In St. Thomas and Tortola, is there anything to do within walking distance of the ship? Trying to decide on shore excursions, but don't want to spend too much on excursions. I thought about checking out the Sky Ride.

 

Very little to do in Tortola. In St. Thomas, according to my Fitbit, it's about 1.7 miles from the ship to the town, and it's a very easy walk along the water. Both times we have ported in St. Thomas, we've done an excursion in the morning and walked to and from the town in the afternoon.

 

Can you bring bottled water onboard without any problems?

 

Yes, but the water on board was quite good. We only brought a half dozen bottles in our carry-on just to take on excursions.

 

For entertainment onboard, options are the Brat Pack and After Midnight. Any opinions on these shows?

 

I'm in my early 40's and loved the Brat Pack (although the food was not great). My wife, who is much MUCH younger (you're welcome, babe) enjoyed the music, but didn't have as much of a connection to the movies as I did. Our daughter is about to turn 12, and her only exposure to John Hughes is via Ferris Bueller (which they do a couple of minutes on) and P,T&A (which they didn't touch). She was bored stiff.

 

In terms of After Midnight, I love Jazz and really enjoyed the music. My Wife was less enthused, as most of the songs were not what you would consider 'standards'. My daughter has been in dance for years, so appreciated that part of the performance.

 

I do have to say that I have never seen an audience as rude and inconsiderate as that at After Midnight. People getting up and down during the performance to go on alcohol runs. Kids running up and down the stairs with no parental intervention (keeping in mind that the show is definitely not geared to their age bracket, so I don't blame them for being bored - I blame their parents for not monitoring them). People talking and playing games on their phones... I found the whole experience quite disrespectful to the performers.

My Wife, Daughter and I had dinner at the Manhattan Room on the Escape three times last week (with a full ship), and arrived at various times between 5:30 and 8:30. We had no issues being seated immediately at a 4-top.

If you have a larger group, I'd think about booking a reservation, but for 4 or less, if they weren't needed last week, I can't imagine that they're ever needed.

As with a poster above, we were in Nassau on Good Friday, and also had booked day passes at the Hilton.

After reading all of the posts on CC about how dangerous and unsafe Nassau is, and how you'll be hassled by vendors and people selling drugs, I had prepared myself and my family for the worst.

Have to say that the walk to and from the hotel was absolutely fine. Yes, there were vendors trying to cajole us to come in to their stores, but a "no thanks" worked just fine. Quite frankly, I found the vendors much, much pushier in St. Maarten (an earlier cruise), than in Nassau.

Of all of our port stops, I always felt the "safest" in St. Thomas (not that I have felt particularly unsafe in any of them), but had a very illuminating discussion with our Kansas ex-pat server at a restaurant we stopped at for lunch, who told us about how unsafe the island became after dark, with all of the gangs/drugs and corrupt police officers.

All that to say that no matter where you are, if you stay in busy areas during daylight hours and keep your wits about you, you're probably no less safe than being in any major North American or European city.

Holy smokes was the internet ever slow on our cruise last week.

I assume that because the ship was full with what I was told was an abnormally large number of passengers under 18 (told 1900 - not sure how reliable that number is), that there may have been heavier than usual usage, which slowed the entire system down.

Because of responsibilities to my office and clients, I needed to go online every hour while onboard to read and respond to emails. During those times when I was actually able to connect (75%), downloading messages through Exchange was painfully slow, even when logged on through the computers next to the Atrium, and not from my laptop in the cabin or from my phone at various places around the ship.

If I had to pay by the minute, I too would have been hugely upset, which was the reaction I saw from many, many people trying to connect on the NCL computers.

While people were way, way offside in freaking out at the individual sitting at the help desk (is the expectation that they have some sort of magical powers which will make the connection faster?) - I do sympathize with the frustration of seeing your expensive minutes tick down while absolutely nothing is happening.

All to say, that if you need to access the net while onboard (and trust me, I wish I didn't), I strongly recommend the unlimited package - even though it's ridiculously expensive. You'll be paying more to save yourself the stress of counting minutes.

Sailed on the Escape a week and a half ago. We arrived at the Port just before 10:30. Went through security and were checked in by about 10:45. Headed upstairs and were put in boarding group 16 - it was close to a two hour wait by the time we actually set foot on the ship.

. Actually, if you go to the outside 5 o'clock somewhere bar a couple of times, it's hard to get Yum to stop pouring them.

Sailed the Escape last week, and 5 o'clock became my family's bar of choice, as we were staying in an M6 on deck 8. Yum and Curly are the absolute best - great bartenders and extremely friendly.

At certain bars across the ship, the staff were less than friendly (I'm looking at you, Atrium), but 5 o'clock and the mojito bar (Bong) were great, and we kept returning to both.

Just left the Escape and took my almost 12 year old daughter to the show.

There was little in it that she hasn't been exposed to - a bit of 'bad' language and guys in their tighty whities, being the worst, but other than a brief bit from Ferris Bueller, there was nothing else in the show that she knew. Quite frankly, while my wife and I loved it, my daughter was bored.

In hindsight, if given the choice between crashing in the cabin and reading a book or going to the show, she absolutely would have skipped it.

Thanks to all for your responses.

Hi all.

Coming from a city where Uber is not yet running (ongoing bun fight between the company and the city regarding licensing and insurance), but have downloaded the app for when we are in Miami.

Are there any issues using an Uber to get to Port and then from the Port to the airport after disembarkation? I only ask because I know that some cities have banned Uber's from airports. If it's going to be a problem, then I'll just use a cab.

Thanks.

Yes - there is free wifi! They give you the code when you check-in and purchase your pass. It was sporadic on the beach but worked very well in the restaurant area (outside).

Thank you so much for your quick response. As much as I wish I could disconnect from the office while on vacation, that can't happen. At the end of the day, I'd still rather be dealing with email while on a beach than at my desk.

For those of you who have gone to the British Colonial Hilton, can you tell me whether there is free wifi on the beach (or in the hotel). Thanks.

We didn't get our blue towels in our room on Getaway last year. We asked our host for them because I was afraid if I went up on-deck to the swap spot they'd flag me and charge me. When we returned from excursions and the slides we had our towels wrapped around us back to the room. So we left them with the other used towels and our host left us clean/fresh blue towels along with the bath ones.

 

I don't think we ever did an exchange on-deck. I wonder if you could check-out more than 1 blue towel per person with a room key swipe then turn them back in also with a room key swipe.

Sorry what???? They track your towels with your room key and charge you for them if they're not turned in? Are they afraid people will steal used towels?

Of all the information I've read about NCL on CC over the last year, I have no idea how I've missed this...

not having to grab your towel from the room when going to the pool (you just get them wherever and you don't have to trade it in for clean ones)

Sorry - we're DCL people who are going on our first NCL cruise in a few weeks - if you go to the pool, you have to take the towel from your room? They don't have stacks of towels and drop bins for used ones on deck? How do you get clean towels?

It is likely that they will separate Valentine's Day from Pirate night because in the past they have had some minimal special things for V day. Having both on the same night would be a mess. Past things have included a flower for the ladies at dinner or heart shaped candies on the plates at dinner....don't fit well with Pirates.

I defer to your greater experience on this particular issue, but my hunch is that they probably wouldn't make any changes.

We sailed over V-day two years ago and, as you noted, other than the flower and some chocolates at dinner, there were no special activities or other recognition of the day, during the evening.

There were a few special presentations during the day (I remember the Master Chocolatier from ? company being onboard and doing a demonstration and tasting), but nothing special at night.