Muerz

I was just looking at the April 2019 departures and saw that contrary to the past year, they don't have a megaliner departure on Saturday anymore for 7 day trips to the Caribbean. This departure has now been replaced by the Star. When did this happen and why? Was looking forward to doing such a trip (like the previous two years) but it now looks like I have to look for something else...

I‘ve been to Hong Kong recently and saw the Genting Dream. When I first saw her, I was almost sure that I was seeing the Norwegian Joy as it looks like a carbon copy of the Breakaway class.

How similar is she really to our beloved NCL ships? And if they are really close, why were they allowed to build them this way?

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What was your experience getting off the ship? Was it chaotic? Any tips as to how to get off quickly? We are on it now and need to be off quickly. Thanks for any help you can give.

Not chaotic at all. We did self assist because we had a flight out of MIA at 12:30 pm. We had breakfast at 7 in the Buffet which was less busy than on most other cruise days. We then headed down with our luggage which was slightly inconvenient because all the elevators were always full. But once we were down on deck 7, we joined the line and were off the boat in about 5 minutes. I guess most people that did self assist were already off by this time. Immigration was rather fast but there was one officer out of the three working that gave several passengers a hard time. We were at the airport I would say by 8:45 am.

What ruin did you see in costa Maya? And did you book it thru NCL? I have Chiccoben booked in costa maya. Was hoping to have more details if that' what you did

Yes, we went to see Chacchoben. I believe those are the only ruins you can see in Costa Maya. We actually did not book on the ship as we were thinking we could do this excursion cheaper once we were off the boat. Turns out we were wrong as the entire port area is owned by a private company doing all the excursions and activities and operating all the bars, restaurants and so on. No other tour operators were to be found. So we used one of their 300 „last minute excursion desks“ on land and booked for the same price we would have paid onboard. We only had to provide our cabin number, present cabin keys, then sign a slip and the excursions were booked on our ship account. As said in the main review, they showed us a price list and since we were on the Escape, the price was more expensive than if we had been on other ships. The tour itself was well organized. Free water upon boarding the bus. Drove an hour to the ruins, 10 minute bathroom break once we arrived, then a walking tour to see the 3-4 temples that they have actually excavated. 15 minutes shopping/bathroom break unce returned to the parking lot and an hour ride back to the port. The ruins themselves aren‘t as spectacular as other ruins you can visit in Cozumel for instance.

Again, I should have done proper research before the cruise and maybe I could have found an alternate company that doesn‘t have offices in the private port.

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I wonder if the “rooster guy” is on the Bliss? Was on the Getaway 2 years ago and he was so funny!!

 

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Rowen (washy-washy) and Rooster guy (if you think about a middle aged MDR waiter from Indonesia) were both on the Escape on 4/7.

I was on the Escape on her second to last cruise out of Miami from April 7th to April 14th. This Western Caribbean cruise was my second trip aboard of this gorgeous ship after an Eastern Caribbean cruise on her almost the same week last year.

I just wanted to share a few things about the trip, so thanks for reading and maybe a few questions some of you have will be answered by this report.

First of all, let me start by the most important thing of any vacation: Our family of six had a terrific time on board. I'm by no means as frequent a cruiser as most of you on this but I have to say that I really love this ship. It is tons of fun and so well designed. Whether you’re looking for a quiet space to read and watch the ocean go by or for a high energy party spot, you'll find it on this beauty as she offers something for almost everybody.

We had three different balcony cabins during this trip and we all liked our cabins a lot. We each had the UBP and SDP included. I was in cabin 14298 and I loved the extra space this balcony cabin provided - unfortunately I did not use it very often. The H2O parties upstairs didn’t disturb us at all in the evenings and we were able to sleep even with the balcony doors open. Our other cabins were on deck 9 forward and on deck 15 forward right next to the bridge. One of our cabins wasn't well cleaned and the housekeeping department had to start all over (kids toys and peanuts under the bed, toothpaste on the mirror...). They were very apologetic about this issue and sent chocolate covered strawberries to make up for it.

As to the itinerary, I liked the stops in Jamaica where I did the Zipline/Dunn’s Waterfalls combo tour, in Costa Maya where we decided to see the Mayan ruins and the beach day on Cayman Island but I couldn't care less about the stop in Nassau. I for one would have preferred a stop on one of their private islands or even an extra sea-day to stopping in Nassau. I booked the tours aboard the ship as I didn’t have enough time to search for alternate tour operators beforehand and once you get aboard there's so much to do that you always take the easy way and book their own tours. I found both tours to be too expensive and hated the fact that the same tour operator charges less for the same tour when you arrive on other ships. Costa Maya for instance would have been 5$ cheaper if you were in port on the same day on the Pearl and 10$ cheaper if you arrived the day after on a Carnival ship. As for the waterfalls in Jamaica, they are stunningly beautiful but I hated the way they organized the tour where you had to follow a guide and a videographer. I wish I could have climbed them on my own and wouldn’t do the tour again because of this.

- Boarding seems to be easier in the terminal that serves even floors as we were on the ship almost half an hour earlier than the rest of our family which boarded in the other terminal - this despite them having ahead start of almost 15 minutes!

- The food was very good during our cruise. I did 5 specialty restaurants in order to use up my non-refundable onboard credit and my dining package...

• Cagney’s food was good as always. I had the porterhouse while most of my family had the Filet Mignon. Next time around, I’ll order the filet as well because the filet part of my porterhouse was really tiny. We had the lobster bisque as a starter and I wished it would have been slightly warmer. What really upset me was the slow service. The drinks we ordered came with our second appetizer and the sauces that we wanted with our steak were completely forgotten and only came when we had already finished our meal.
  
• Teppanyaki had awesome food, way better than Benihana for instance. There’s only one thing that I would change at this place: Introduce a Salmon/Steak option like most land based hibachi restaurants have. Unfortunately: drink service was again really, really slow. We only got our first round of drinks when the chef started cooking. Okay, rounds two and three came faster but by then it already was almost 10 pm.
  
• Moderno’s had great meat and also an excellent starter buffet. I loved it, just like I loved it on the NCL Star and on my previous NCL Escape cruise last year! Service became good once a few other patrons started protesting very loudly and called the service manager (on the last night of the cruise). Until then service was again really slow. I don’t get why people don’t seem to love this place as much as Cagney’s next door. The meat is the same quality and prepared by the same kitchen. It also looked to be rather easy to get reservations here.
  
• Le Bistro was a rather disappointing experience for someone who has French cuisine on every corner – but then again, I’m based in Europe. To me, the menu was most unappealing of all the specialty restaurants. I decided to cut Le Bistro on my next NCL cruise.
  
• La Cucina was for me hands down the best specialty restaurant onboard. It had the fastest and the friendliest service out of all the restaurants. The food was excellent as well though I preferred the menu they had on the Star last year (better pasta selection as far as I’m concerned). Same as Moderno’s, it did not look that busy during my entire cruise and I was able to walk in on a sea-day without reservations.
  
• I liked the main dining rooms food better than last year but the service was often overwhelmed or even outright bad. Out of the three places, Savor had the best service, Taste on the other hand was amateurish at best. Breakfast in the MDR is a 90-minute affair which is too slow paced for me. It might work well for other people (and for that matter even for me if I had my daily newspaper with me) but it didn’t work for me during this trip. Easy orders like OJ and coffee or even a pot of hot milk often took 15-30 minutes which is simply unacceptable. Those who ordered specialty coffees were off even worse. Even by asking to get all the food at the same time it simply wasn’t possible to get croissants or toasts, or cereal together with our hot dishes. They really got to figure out a way for better training. Same thing in the evening. Why not simply put a nice bottle-type carafe of iced water freshly on the table the moment you are escorted to your table? This would free up the workload of the waiters, allow them to get you real drinks faster and at the same time be more convenient for almost all guests.
  
• O'Sheehans had fast service and you can’t beat late night chicken wings but except for the wings and the Caesar Salad with salmon, the food was a bit dry in my opinion. I like the fact that they replace O’Sheehans with another concept on newer ships. I also wish they would start offering boneless wings.
  
• My family thought that Food Republic was terrific and well-priced. I cannot give an opinion as I did not eat there.
  
• The Buffet was great, just like I remembered. I think that on this particular ship the buffet is better than the main dining room. There are so many choices and the space itself is so well laid out. Someone who doesn’t like this buffet doesn’t like buffets at all. I have one minor gripe: it would be nice if they changed a few options on the breakfast buffet every day instead of serving the same options during the entire cruise.
  

- Drinks were watered down on the pool deck but great in the Sugarcane Mojito Bar, the bar between Taste and Savor and in Tobacco Road. I loved the Jalapeno Cucumber Mojito and had one every day. I also loved the District Bar where Iwas able to sample tons of different beers from all around the world. Dad had a good connection with the guy working the buffet bar and said they prepared some of the best cocktails onboard. Bar service was rather fast except for H2O which was really busy for all their party nights and the bar next to Cagney's.

- Senior crew was way less visible than on all my previous cruises – NCL, Celebrity and Carnival combined.I did not see the Hotel Director once and the Cruise Director Scott was a sleeping pill. I did not care for him at all and I wish they would give the ship back to Andre Gaffney or to Vincent Teschel which would fit the vibe of the Escape way better than this guy. The buffet maître d', Moises Fernandes, on the other hand was such a gem and knew what real customer service should be about. I tip my hat to this guy and wish all the restaurant managers would work as hard and provide as good customer service as he did.

- Entertainment was great fun in a few venues. We all loved the District Bars pianist, the comedians and even the big parties in H2O. We'd seen the main theater shows last year and don't care about them. I honestly would prefer a few Carnival Cruise Line type shows (love and a marriage...) in the main theater as I think the Atrium is too small a venue for some of these events. I wish they would promote the washy-washy guy as he is easily one of the most fun and prominent staff members aboard the whole ship. Let him do a kids show in the Atrium or let him be part of the entertainment staff during the big parties. His talent is wasted in the small role he currently has.

- Service on the other hand was the weakest we had experienced on any cruise yet. While I only had to deal with one single unfriendly staff member (a barkeeper in the bar next to Cagney's), they are terribly slow in most of the food and beverage venues of the ship. I wish NCL would spent a bit less money on Pitbull endorsements and glitzy TV advertisements and invest some of this money in their staff training as the crew aboard the Escape definitely needs better training. I don’t know if these service issues were an isolated case because perhaps they had to relocate some of their former crew to the new Bliss? But the issues were a fact during our cruise and many other cruisers reported experiencing the same problems.

-There’s one thing that I cannot really comment on: crowd levels. I had the impression that the ship was a little bit more crowded this year. The shops and shows were always rather crowded or even full in the evenings. They even had to install extra seating in the atrium during the early evening shows – something I hadn’t seen last year. The casino and the skyline bar had a nice following as well almost all day/night long and the same thing applies to the H2O parties and the open air decks during the sea-days. On the other hand, the hot tubs and pool areas seemed to empty rather early on this cruise. I was often the only one using the pool area after 5pm and the water slides didn’t seem as busy as last year. I also never had trouble getting good quiet seats at the buffet. I talked to some guy that said he had heard the passenger count was 800 people lower than on the cruise the week before (the one over Easter weekend) but I couldn't validate that claim with an official source.

- There’s one final point I’d like to talk about and that’s the size of some venues. I really love the Escape but if this ship is full, they really have a problem with some of their venues. First off,restaurants: Of course, I don’t have definitive numbers but I guess that almost half of the passengers have the SDP either because they were given it as a free at sea choice or because they bought it. And it seems to me that the specialty restaurants are getting to small for to the number of people they have to serve. Cagney’s was sold out for our entire cruise, as were Le Bistro and Teppanyaki. My family and I tend to eat really late compared to most US cruisers and we still had some trouble getting reservations for our 8.30-9.00pm dining preference. Of course, we did the reservations right off the bat when we entered the ship. If I hadn’t done any reservations or if my dining preference was 6pm (like it seems to be the case for most Americans) then I would have had a lot of problems getting tables at the specialty restaurants. I guess if they further push the free at sea program, they’ll eventually have only a few choices: 1) expand the specialty restaurants by either adding more restaurants or more seats per restaurant, 2) cancel SDP as a free at sea option, 3) reduce SDP from 3 to 2 meals if chosen as free at sea option or 4) limit SDP to one appetizer, one entrée, one dessert in order to expedite service and sit more people per serving. Most of these options don't look too good for us cruisers. The same size problem was observable for the comedy club and the main showroom. I wish they would transfer the late night comedy piece to the Escape theater as it would certainly help the situation.

A few suggestions for improvement:

- Add a sea-day brunch option like Carnival does. The breakfast offerings at the MDR get a bit repetitive after the first few days.

- Change either Savor or Taste to another restaurant concept with free food – maybe an Asian Noodle house/dim-sum place like they have ont he NCL Star.

- Figure out what to do with both Margaritaville venues.The open-deck restaurant is empty because of the prohibitive cost associated with it. The bar on deck 8 is often closed or not busy at all. The only Margaritaville space that is happening is the Waterfront part of the bar.

- Get help from someone on how to cook a good burger. Carnival has Guy Fieri and their burgers are to die for while the burgers on both NCL ships were blah.

- Learn how to better use the facilities you have, for instance make better use of the Escape theater and use it for events that need a lot of seats.

Last but not least, in summary, we all had a blast aboard this ship. We got to learn lots of new people from all walks of life and we enjoyed the ship as much as we did the first time around. There are certainly a few flaws with the ships design if it is near capacity but if you adapt a tiny little bit, you’ll still have an awesome time. NCL on the other hand has a lot of work cut out for itself in the service department. We encountered many problems that really shouldn’t happen and hope that they fix these issues sooner rather than later. Like I said, I haven’t taken as many cruises as some of you but I have yet to experience so many service problems on a single Carnival or Celebrity sailing.

Just off the Escape on 4/14. The Irish Coffee was included in every restaurant I ate and was prominently featured on almost every menu.

Just off the Escape, the Mojito flight is 19.95 and the UBP gives you 20% discount. Just order the six Mojitos separately and you get regular sized drinks free instead of paying for try-me sizes... I liked the Jalapeno Cucumber Mojito the most, followed by the Rasberry Guava Mojito.

What if the option to prepay gratuities simply isn‘t available in the account? Also, didn‘t they already raise service charges last year?

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Have you got pictures of the new Bayamo menu?

Any updates about this hotel?

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We have a small family cruise coming up and we have a small problem as to how to best book cabins in order not to overpay for packages we won't use. There's a total of 6 people traveling and out of these six we have two that strictly don't drink. Problem is that they won't share a cabin.

Cabin 1: Grandpa and Grandma (grandma doesn't drink)

Cabin 2: Daughter and Husband (daughter doesn't drink)

Cabin 3: Son and Girlfriend (they all drink)

Considering these two don't drink, we would be much better off booking a guarantee room for them and buy a dining package separately for them and saving more than 500$ at the same time.

How would we best do this? Simply book two cabins with package, one without and swap the passengers aboard? Ask for supplementary cabin keys and do the change without their knowledge?

Thanks in advance for your help!

The bar was always open in the mornings on my Escape cruise last year. They sold sodas and made fresh juices there.

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Following along as my parents are also on your cruise. Thanks for the great pictures :)

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Port side

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Hi!

I'm not sure how to handle this. I have a few days off coming up and found a great deal on a sailing with Royal Caribbean. The problem I have is that I would be alone on this trip. Now when trying to book a cabin alone results in prices that are more than 200% the standard price. Example: interior cabin in double occupancy 649$, same cabin in single occupancy 19xx$, which is almost three times the price.

Wouldn't it be simpler to book a double for 1300$ and just show up alone or are there any tricks to get the website to price it correctly?

Also, why do certain categories disappear when trying to book for a single passenger (almost all guarantee cabin types not available for singles while available for two passengers)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Hi, What time were you able to disembark in Venice on the last day? I have a friend that is concerned about a flight time.

I was in the second general group around 8.30am. The first general public disembarkment was around 8.15 am and I'm not sure but I believe there were two or three groups of elite status members / tour groups before that. I was off the ship in around 15' and there was no wait whatsoever to retrieve luggage or to get through immigration.

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@Muerz - Thank you for your review. After reading it, I decided to book the same cruise for next month! It will be my first time cruising with NCL, after years of being a loyal Holland America cruiser. Great photos!

 

Thanks, hope you won't be disappointed given Holland America is as far as I know a bit more upscale than NCL.

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Can you please tell me how many ports did you have to take a tender?

Not a single one! Sometimes it pays not being on the largest ship [emoji3]

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Great review. My DH and I are looking forward to this cruise in 82 days for our 27th wedding anniversary. I noticed that you said they collected your passport right after security. Did they keep them and if so when did they return your passport to you? Thank you for your review and photos.

Yes, they kept them until day 6 when you could retrieve them in the mid-ship elevator lobby on the floor your stateroom was. If you didn't show up in the timeframe they gave you, they then had a second timeslot in one of their guest service desks. I believe it has to do with immigration in Montenegro which ain't part of the EU.

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Split:

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Dinner at La Cucina:

Carpaccio di Manzo

Spaghetti Carbonara

Ribeye with Garlic Butter

Tiramisu

Martini Flight at Gatsby's

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Athens:

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Port of Katakolon

Shopping street in Katakolon

Ancient Olympic Stadium

Ancient Olympic Ruins

Inside the Museum

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Kotor:

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