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We had originally booked "Wine Lovers-- The Musical" (lunch), "Choir of Man" (dinner), "Brat Pack," "After Midnight," and the dinner cabaret/supper club with Melinda Doolittle. Wine Lovers, CoM, and the Melinda Doolittle show all involved upcharges since they were in the supper club and included meals.

After Midnight was wonderful, all vintage "Cotton Club"-esque old jazz numbers, we thoroughly enjoyed it... It was a bit slow to start, but ended strong and had an incredibly talented cast. Melinda Doolittle also performed in After Midnight, so we got a chance to catch her and so enjoyed her performance that we booked her (pricey) supper club show for later in the week.

Wine Lovers was our first upcharge show in the supper club. The show was cute/OK, but the meal was not so good... One had no choice of selection, there was a fixed 3-course menu and you got what you got. Unfortunately, what we got was pretty "eh" to our tastes... The first course was a salad with roast duck, I'm not a fan of duck to begin with and it was tough and gristly. Second course was beef medallions--cooked properly to order, but tough and flavorless. The dessert, however, was on-point (a cappuccino cheesecake, I'm drooling just thinking about it!)

After our so-so lunch experience at Wine Lovers, it kind-of put us off to future experiences in the supper club venue... To have to pay extra $$ for a meal, which may or may not be something you wouldn't want to eat in the first place, for the privilege of seeing a show which should otherwise be included without an upcharge, was a bit irritating. So we ended up canceling our reservations for Choir of Man and the Melinda Doolittle show, based solely on the upcharge/fixed meal thing. (There's plenty other entertainment to be had onboard that doesn't include an upcharge!)

We ended up skipping out on our Brat Pack reservation because we opted for an early bed that night, so I can't comment on that show.

However, the ABSOLUTE highlight of our week was the "Howl At The Moon" dueling pianos in the Headliners venue. They played a 4-hour gig 4 separate nights, and we ended up catching them every night they played, for at least an hour or two... Those guys were INCREDIBLE. Three performers, usually two onstage at any given time (one rotating out for an occasional break), but it was often all three of them onstage together. The talent in those 3 performers just blew us away-- they took requests and seemed to have no limit on what they could play. And not only on pianos! Drums, guitar, fiddle, you name it... They played everything from Billy Joel to Eminem... At one point one of the guys did an aria from an opera... Country, pop, classic rock, show tunes, cartoon theme songs, EVERYTHING. They weren't shy about fishing for tips along with requests, but they totally earned it-- the first night they would get song requests stuck to $1s and $5s, but by the last night, people were ponying up $100 bills with their song requests, the guys were THAT good.

It was also the show/bar where the other ship performers came to hang out on the last night, and at one point a couple other guys from one of the other shows took the stage to do a hair-raising rendition of Aerosmith's "Dream On"... Omg, I seriously get goosebumps just thinking about it.

I'm not sure how long this particular Howl at the Moon crew is onboard, but Matt, Chris, and Steve were freaking amazing. Not. To. Be. Missed.

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On the Escape last week, I asked for a slice of cheesecake to go from one of the MDR's... The server happily got me a plate with my cheesecake, complete with a cover, and another server went out of his way to get me a fork rolled up in a napkin to take with me.

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SPECIALTY DINING

We picked Moderno, Bayamo, and Le Bistro for our specialty options.

Moderno was FABULOUS. BF loves Brazilian steakhouses, but it was my first time experiencing one. The salad bar was incredible, but a little too incredible-- we tried so many things on the salad bar that we barely had any room for the meat courses afterwards! (Rookie mistake, lol...) If I had it to do over, I'd pass on the salad bar altogether... The meat offerings were superb, though salty. (I think I drank more water at that meal than any other.)

Next up was Bayamo, which was a $12pp upcharge on top of the SDP. We were cool with that, since I love seafood... However, sadly, Bayamo was probably one of the worst meals we had all week. I ordered the king crab legs for an appetizer, and the seafood trio for my meal... The crab legs and lobster tail were obviously from frozen (to be expected), but the lobster tail was tough and overcooked; plus, there was a wadded-up chunk of aluminum foil on my plate, about the size of a pencil eraser-- I'm assuming at least a portion of my meal had been cooked in/on foil, and they hadn't bothered to check the plate before sending it out. The mashed-potatoes side was half-composed of an un-mashed chunk of solid potato. The food was OK, but not great; had it been one of the regular restaurants, I wouldn't have thought much of it. But, not only was it a specialty venue, but one with an additional surcharge above and beyond the SDP-- I was expecting a bit more quality control and attention to detail than what we had.

The icing on the cake at Bayamo was when our server was clearing the table before dessert-- she reached for the salt and pepper shakers next to my water glass, missed, and ended up sticking her entire finger into the water in my water glass. (No biggie, we're on a moving ship, mistakes happen.) She said sorry, but then she just removed the S&P shakers, leaving my now-fingered water glass on the table! It wasn't until she came back later, and I had to ASK for a fresh glass of water, that she thought to replace it. (Again, not the level of service I'd expect from a premium specialty restaurant.)

I did end up calling the Bayamo restaurant manager later that night to voice my concerns (I'd grabbed her card from the hostess stand on our way out), and she apologized and graciously offered to refund our $12pp service charge, which I thought was fair.

The next night, BF and I were seated in the Mixx bar area, enjoying some cocktails, when the ship-wide F&B manager was making rounds and approached us to ask how we were enjoying our experience thus far. I was honest and told him that we'd been having wonderful experiences everywhere, with the exception of Bayamo, and I'd spoken to their manager already and she offered to refund our upcharge-- however, the refund hadn't posted yet. The F&B manager immediately took a note pad from his pocket, took down our details, and went to a nearby hostess stand; he returned a moment later to assure us that our refund had indeed been processed, and he handed us one of his cards, on which he scribbled a note giving us a voucher for two comped meals at Margaritaville. Totally unexpected and certainly not requested, but much appreciated-- that's great customer service!!

Our last SDP meal was at Le Bistro, which was lovely. BF had the mushroom soup, which was probably the best mushroom soup I have ever tasted-- and that's one of my favorites which I often order when I see it on a menu. SUPERB.

Last but certainly not least, we did enjoy our comped lunch at Margaritaville on our final sea day... It was phenomenal! The volcano nachos were possibly the best nachos we've ever had, and the burger was everything a burger should be and then some.

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We had the UBP and the SDP, and considering that I suspect most of the rest of the passengers also had the UBP, I was surprised we didn't see more drunk people onboard... Honestly I only saw one person completely obliterated, and that was around 7pm the first night of our trip. With that being said, most of the bartenders we encountered looked frazzled, overworked, and not exactly friendly-- of all the crew onboard, I saw the fewest smiles from the bartenders. None of them were RUDE by any means, just very harried and looking to get their jobs done as quickly as possible.

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Once onboard, we headed right to one of the touch screens near the elevators to book our specialty dining and make our show reservations. (No need to go and stand in line at the box office, or anywhere else for that matter.) There are TONS of touch screens all over the ship; there were lines at the ones closest to where we entered the ship, but we went up a couple decks and easily found available touchscreens.

Once we were all booked, we headed to Taste (or was it Savor? I always got them confused) for a relaxing lunch. Service was prompt and attentive, food was OK (we ordered a burger and a cheese steak), which was fine because we were starving, lol!

After a leisurely lunch, we headed up to Deck 10 and got there just a few minutes before they opened the hallways to the cabins, at around 2:30.

Dinner on our first night was at the Manhattan Room, which would become our go-to dinner option on our non-specialty dining nights. Overall, dinners in the Manhattan Room were quite nice! Served hot, cooked properly, not overdone... I was very surprised to find the fettuccine Alfredo to be perfectly al dente, really spot-on. Our only complaint in Manhattan, which would later prove to be consistent elsewhere in the dining venues, was that any beef dish (steaks, medallions, etc) was always properly cooked and served medium rare as ordered, but all 3 times we had beef, it was tough and flavorless despite being cooked exactly to order. By the middle of our trip, I just stopped ordering beef altogether.

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Now that I'm fully unpacked, time for a review...

BF and I sailed on the Escape out of NYC to Bermuda on 9/2; it was BF's first-ever cruise, my 4th (2 previous on Carnival, one on HAL), and first time in Bermuda for both. We are in our mid-40's.

We took Amtrak in from Central PA and used a car service (Carmel) from Penn Station to the pier. The car service was a much nicer experience than a cab ride and was about $20 including tip, not much more than a cab. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:20am, sailed right through security, got our boarding group card (#29), and waited in line for about 20-30 minutes for check-in. They had only just started calling boarding groups 1-4 when we got in line, but by the time we were checked in, we didn't even have time to use the rest room before all boarding groups were called and we were walking onto the ship. Sidewalk to ship in under 45 minutes, which has been my smoothest boarding experience so far!

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An over-the-door shoe rack is really helpful for those small items that would otherwise clutter up what little surface space there is in the cabin. Also highlighters to note things on the dailies you want to do. Bonus points for different-colored highlighters for everyone in your cabin.

Ditto the previous poster who said to bring a watch... I don't think I saw a clock anywhere on the ship! I kept having to bring my phone everywhere just to keep track of the time.

BF and I aren't buffet people, but on the second to last night we wandered up there because BF had been in a poker tourney and I had eaten without him. We discovered a crepe station at the buffet, it was delicious and apparently it's there EVERY night starting at 6pm! If we'd have known that, it would totally have been worth going up for dessert after MDR dinners.

There are no outlets near the bed, only a single USB outlet on each side. BF needs a fan when he sleeps, so I brought a USB-powered bedside fan for him... He was eternally grateful.

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Greetings! We were on the 9/2-9/9 Escape sailing with you, it was our first time on NCL as well!

Re: booking your shows and specialty dining, there are touch screens all over the ship where you can do this once you board... We saw crowds around the ones closest to the boarding entrance, but just go roaming to some other floors and you'll find plenty of unused ones. No need to go to Headliners and wait in line...

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Skip Horseshoe on Day 1, everyone rushes to Horseshoe as soon as the they get off the ship, and it gets crowded. Go on the second day and it'll be much more peaceful... We got there at noon on Day 2 and it wasn't crowded at all.

It wasn't our favorite beach though... We really preferred Tobacco Bay. The water was glass-smooth, you could see fish everywhere, it had all the amenities you'd need, including Wi-Fi if you had someone along who didn't want to be in the water. The beach itself is much smaller, but being in the water there was SUPER relaxing.

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Also, re: places to grab a bite... Expect everything to be crazy expensive. We had lunch in Hamilton at the Pickled Onion, we each had one beer, one appetizer, and fish and chips... Our bill was $107.

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BF and I just got back from Bermuda on the Escape, we went to Tobacco Bay on our first day and THOROUGHLY enjoyed it. By the time we got off the ship, the free NCL ferry to St. George's had already left and the next one wasn't for another couple hours, so we opted for the public ferry which departed at around 10:30 ($4.50pp for tokens). The ferry ride over was nice, it's a long trip but the ferry itself has comfy seating, great A/C, staff onboard to answer tourist questions, and was super clean. We meandered around St George's for an hour or so before taking a cab to Tobacco (confirm before getting in that it's $3pp, for some reason we got charged $5pp and I didn't feel like arguing).

Anyway, Tobacco Bay is a small beach, but the water is absolutely phenomenal, so calm and clear, you see fish EVERYWHERE. My BF recently tore his rotator cuff and can't handle rough waves, so Tobacco was absolutely perfect. Chairs w/ canopies were (I think) $38 for 2, there's free wifi, and food and a bar within steps of the water. (Quite expensive though, as is everything in Bermuda... $12 rum swizzles and $13? for crappy cheeseburgers.). We took the free NCL ferry back, it wasn't as nice as the public ferry (very hot and stuffy, slower), but free is free.

We did Horseshoe Beach on day 2, via the mini-vans from the pier, $7pp. (Better than the bus, which drops you off at the top of the hill, leaving a long walk down and then back up.) The beach was much less crowded on the second day, but the waves were definitely rougher, and there were rip-current warning signs posted, so we were a bit nervous to spend much time in the water. Plus, there was a whole lot of floating seaweed around, which would brush up on you in the water and frankly, creeped us out a bit. (I've been stung by jellyfish before, so I'm a little paranoid, lol...)

Personally, I can't see where the sand at horseshoe is very "pink." Maybe at the water's edge where it's wet, but honestly I think it just looks like sand. Nice, fine, super-soft sand, but still.

BF and I agreed that if we ever find ourselves back in Bermuda, we would skip Horseshoe in favor of Tobacco.

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When y'all mention Bone Fish, are you referring to the Bonefish Grill chain restaurant?

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I would think USB would be an easier "sell" than a regular outlet-powered fan, since I assume it draws less power, and I can power it from my external battery if necessary... Am I wrong?

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Sounds like fun! I'm on the 9/2 Escape also and will be on the hunt for some trivia. I'm more of a trivia "generalist" (of the Trivial Pursuit variety), but I'm usually pretty good, and our team won the week on our last cruise. OP, we should hook up!

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I checked the prohibited items list on NCL, no mention of fans. It looks like they have more of an issue with any electrical device with a heating component of some sort. Fingers crossed!

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BF can't sleep without a fan on his side of the bed, partly for the breeze but also for the white noise. I picked up a nice little box fan on Amazon that is powered by a USB plug, rather than a regular wall outlet. Is this something we'll be allowed to have onboard, or will it get confiscated? Any guesses?

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Regarding the rude taxi drivers refusing rides in NYC, I've also had that experience-- hailed a cab, they'd roll down their window, I'd tell them our destination, and they'd just speed off. Had this happen multiple times! My boyfriend (who lived in NYC for years) thinks that's hysterical; he said to NEVER tell them where you're going until you're IN the cab. If they pull up, just get in. They can't kick you out once you're in the car, lol!

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I had filled out the form on their website and didn’t get a confirmation so I sent a follow up email as well. I got an email back saying that I was all set. It seems a little strange that he didn’t take a credit card to hold the reservation but maybe he felt it wasn’t needed since he talked to you on the phone. The credit card is really to just in case you don’t show up, we paid for the jet skis after the tour. You could contact them and ask them to email you a confirmation for your records.

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For those of you who have rented from Somerset Watersports, what was the reservation process? BF and I will be on the Escape in September and were planning on renting a Boston Whaler from them; I filled out the online form but never got a confirmation. I sent an email the next day and got a call from (I assume) the owner last night, he never got my online reservation, so he took my info over the phone and said we're booked, but he really didn't take any of my info other than my name... No fee or credit card to hold, nothing. I thought it was kinda odd; I'm a little nervous that I don't have a confirmation email or anything.

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How comfortable are the smaller whalers for two larger adults? It'll just be the BF and I, but neither of us are petite, lol...

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Following. This will be my first time to Bermuda and I just found out this boat rental thing was even a possibility only a couple days ago. We definitely want to do this also!

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So how does the corkage fee work with wine? Do they take it from you and hold it (hostage) until you want it, then charge you the fee and open it for you?

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Forgive my asking, but I've never heard of an immersion coil... Why would such a thing be necessary? Is hot water not available in Spain or Portugal?

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Food porn! Yes please!

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BF and I are sailing on the Escape on 9/2/18. BF really enjoys playing poker; I know nothing about gambling and usually avoid the casino, lol! Anyway, I might try to gift him an entry into a tournament... How do tournaments work onboard? Are they usually during the daytime, or evening? Any and all poker tournament info would be greatly appreciated!

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