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    NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    Hi..great info. We're sailing on the Escape Marchh 3. What was yourr favorite show?

     

    Hey!

     

    We (including our 7 and 5 year old) really enjoyed After Midnight. We weren't sure going in, but our kids really like anything involving live music and the amazing dancing kept their attention for sure. We also went to the show on the last night that featured the life of one of the main performers from After Midnight. We basically stumbled on this show after hearing a performer from another show mention at one of the Q and A's that they had gone to it every week for 9 weeks and thought it was the best thing on the ship. It was very entertaining as well and we didn't realize it was like the end of trip show, with a big video montage at the start etc etc.

     

    The other show we all really enjoyed was the dueling piano's show. We went one night when they played from 8:30 to 12:30 (!) at the comedy club. Kids were allowed in until 11PM. We stayed way longer than we expected, watching three different performers take request after request. It was a lot of fun and was standing room only all night long.

    NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    That is odd they went to Nassau right away. I see from someone else on your sailing they mentioned that and I commented. Usually they circle slowly to Nassau and arrive at 6 p.m.

     

    Yeah, I had just come in from our balcony, watching the waves crashing, to say that I think we're bypassing when they announced it. Funny thing was there was another cruise ship hanging around off GSC. Not sure what it was but we passed them and left them behind on our way to Nassau. Pulled in around 1PM.

     

    On the airport bus in Miami some folks from the Carnival Glory told us they only got into Falmouth, missed Grand Cayman and spent a few very rough days at sea.

    NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    Thank you for your review! We will be on the Escape next week so your review was very helpful about Falmouth and Grand Cayman. Interesting about Nassau. I wonder why you just didn't have an extra sea day with GSC being closed.

     

    Question, did you notice if the casino remained closed when you went to Nassau early? Or did they manage to have it open 'regular hours' which would have been right after sail-away from GSC?

     

    Oh also - no idea why they choose to go right to Nassau. Our room attendant had been on for a few months and said it was a first for him. They also credited us each $6 which we assumed was due to the change but was never clarified.

    NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    This is EXACTLY what causes elevators to be overcrowded. You are basically telling anyone on a floor above you who is trying to go up "screw you, my desire to go down is more important than yours to go up". Does it work, yes. It is extremely inconsiderate and rude, absolutely.

     

    Thanks for your input! Having just spent a week on the ship I thought I'd provide feedback on what the real experience was like for us. Based on the comments I heard throughout the week, this isn't what causes the overcrowding. It's more a case of supply and demand at the busiest times. Before this we were on the Disney Fantasy which had a similar number of passengers, but three banks of elevators at forward/mid/aft and didn't have the same waits at busy times.

     

    In a perfect world everyone would stand in line in the order they arrived and take the next elevator that arrives in perfect harmony. Sadly, at the few extremely busy times, that isn't the case. We were travelling with someone who has mobility issues and hard time standing for long periods, so the constant flow of full elevators was a challenge. To be honest, I thought the folks who got on the elevators to transfer between one floor seemed inconsiderate but at the same time, they might have their own issues with the stairs, who am I to judge? In the end, this is only an issue at a few key times as I mentioned, otherwise the elevators were generally fine.

    NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    Thank you for your review! We will be on the Escape next week so your review was very helpful about Falmouth and Grand Cayman. Interesting about Nassau. I wonder why you just didn't have an extra sea day with GSC being closed.

     

    Question, did you notice if the casino remained closed when you went to Nassau early? Or did they manage to have it open 'regular hours' which would have been right after sail-away from GSC?

     

     

    Thanks for the question - to be honest, I didn't notice! Sorry.

    NCL Escape Tidbits Review - Jan 13/2018 sailing

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    Thanks to all on here for all the great info you post!

     

    Here's my tiny review with things we learned added in.

     

    Jan 13 - Western From Miami

     

    Sea/Falmouth/Grand Cayman/Sea/Great Stirrup Cay (cancelled, continued to Nassau to stay overnight), Nassau

     

    Port Notes:

     

    We didn't book any excursions in advance, planning for beach days if weather allowed. It didn't really allow.

     

    Falmouth - Wandered the port shops, read the historical signs, looked at the scene outside the security gates and based mostly on our young kids, decided to go back to the ship for lunch and played on board for the afternoon.

     

    Grand Cayman - Walked the streets a bit and then eventually managed to hire a taxi for a private tour. 5 ships in port = taxi/bus chaos when getting off the tenders. Very confusing and frustrating to deal with. Everyone wants to get you on a bus for $20 per person to hit the highlights. Ended up paying $96US per hour for a private taxi to take us where we wanted. Was really nice - stopped in Hell, bypassed the Turtle Farm and instead took a tour of the nicest homes/yacht clubs on the Island. Dropped us off at the back entrance of the Westin. Ate lunch at their outdoor restaurant, was a beautiful location and great food. They would not rent us towels for the beach, for hotel guests only. Took a cab from there to Camana Bay ($20US for 5 people) which was awesome - nice shops to wander around, kids played in a big splash fountain. Cab back to the tenders was another $20US. Be wary, traffic really backed up bad with so many people trying to get back to the tenders for various ships at the same time. Got in a long line for our tender and were happily surprised to find NCL staff walking the line with water, cold wash cloths and little cups of jello for the kids. Fantastic! Favourite port, would go back for sure.

     

    Great Stirrup Cay - Harbour stayed closed so we bypassed and went to Nassau a day early and stayed overnight.

     

    Nassau - First afternoon we wandered the area around the ship, checked out the straw market (left pretty quickly), went to see the Colonial Hilton in case we wanted to beach there the next day. Weather didn't support paying $79 per adult (with $40 food credit) plus $40 for the kids with $20 food credit. Other option was to book a Day Room for $249 with no food credit. Day 2 in Nassau we stayed on board and had a great time when the sun came out and most passengers were off the ship. Did the water slides too many times to count with no wait.

     

    Ship Notes:

     

    Ship was in beautiful condition and really well maintained. Very very clean. Staff ranged from pleasant but doing their job to over the top nice and helpful. Mother in Law was travelling with us but in a separate cabin by herself. Learned by chance on day 3 that her room attendant had been calling her each night around 9PM to check in that she was ok and didn't need anything. She though we were getting the same calls! Her room attendant also gifted her a bottle of champagne. Very impressed.

     

    Before the cruise I didn't really understand how divided the ship feels. You spend most of your time going to Decks 6/7/8 or up to 16/17. We were in a very forward cabin which meant we spent most of our time moving down and mid/aft for food/drinks/activities. We rarely went forward except for the big theatre (twice). I don't feel you necessarily need to pay for mid, but next time i would likely go for an Aft cabin.

     

    The Escape also feels like it should have had a set of mid elevators. Only having forward and aft elevators means a lot of waiting at key times. We heard very few complaints, but this one was common. We figured out two elevator tricks early on: 1) There are four sets of buttons at each elevator bank, but they aren't all linked together! Pressing a button on one side only does the set you pressed and the one directly behind you...walk over and hit the other ones too. 2) At certain times (post sail-away party, tendering, disembarkation), the elevators are jammed trying to get to lower decks. Your best bet is to jump on an elevator going up and ride it full circle to get down.

     

    Drink Package - we had the drink package as a free bonus for the two adults in our room and therefore were not forced to buy a soda package for the 5 and 7 year old. Everything stated on here before stands - the drink package is great to have, but in no way would we have justified paying for it. Also - in our experience, this is how bartenders throughout the ship, including the dining rooms, handled what we termed the card for drink ratio. Scenario 1 - Order two alcoholic beverages - bartender asks for one room key. Scenario 2 - Order three alcoholic beverages - bartender asks for two rooms keys. Scenario 3 - Order two alcoholic beverages and one soda - bartender asks for two room keys. As mentioned earlier, Mother In Law travelling in separate cabin with us had no drink package and intended to pay out of pocket. When on her own, sometimes she would be charged for a soda, other times (O'Sheehans for example) it would be comped. O'Sheehans waiter told us on the first day that her soda was on him, but not to necessarily expect that everywhere. In practice, we could use our two cards at any time to order drinks for ourselves and her, either alcoholic or not.

     

    Wifi - Purchased the 250 minute for $125 package to be able to check in at work. Tried before buying it to see if iMessage would work on our iPhones as some had mentioned, but it did not. Discovered by accident that after buying the wifi package, logging each of our devices into the paid wifi, then logging back out, iMessage would work and continue to work. We could message each other and those off the ship. Could not send images by iMessage or it would bog down and stop working for that conversation. Great discovery.

     

    All in all, a great trip and a super ship. Lots of fun, would certainly consider doing it again.

     

    Let me know if you have any questions!

    NCL Cabin Information Compilation -NO CABIN QUESTIONS POSTED HERE PLEASE!

    in Norwegian Cruise Line

    Posted

    Ship - Escape

    Deck - 14

    Stateroom # - 14710

    Stateroom Category – Balcony

    Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

     

    Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Could hear our neighbours talking loudly through the walls, also when their TV was loud. Sounds of the ship breaking through large waves were also obvious.

     

    Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

     

     

    Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Great view from high up, looking forward you are looking through the support structure for the bridge. We could see the officers working on the bridge at times (they waved to our kids), so if you are in to that kind of thing it was neat. Still a great view.

     

    Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Normal

     

    Was wind a problem? - No

     

    If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

     

    Any specific problems with this cabin? - No

     

    Any other comments? - Cabin feels like a long way from most things. Food and drinks feel either very aft or very far down the elevators from this area of this ship (and they are). Still, a nice cabin and we enjoyed it. Just be prepared (and able) to walk distances.

    35% Canada sale

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Call number 4 after the first 3 last week all said "Revenue" was fixing their system and to call back the next day to get my booking fixed with the 35%.

     

    Today I had to escalate to a supervisor after they 1) told me to call back tomorrow, 2) said it was actually $1000 more expensive when I refused to call back tomorrow. Got the supervisor, he told me the canada discount wasn’t combinable with the kids free offer that was on my booking, that we would lose the kids free by going Canada 35%. Sent him my screenshot of the pricing from last week showing both the canada sale and kids free together and asked why the other 3 callers didn’t tell me it wasn’t combinable…and then found the small print on their page that says it IS combinable…then they decided they would honour the price in my screenshot.

     

    As someone said to me, if you see a good price take a screenshot immediately! I believe if you run our cruise today it doesn't offer the kids free and it's also doing that thing others mentioned where it's dropping back to 30% off.

    35% Canada sale

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Called back this morning, still can't get the 35% applied to my order. Suggested I call back this afternoon because it had already been sent up the ladder. Suggested maybe they could call me back since I've already called 3 times. They took my number...let's see what happens!

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