Kdiamond55

Great review and I love hearing about new people experiencing Bong! 😀

Been on both, I would pick the Escape simply for drink package and more nightlife in general. I found the Oasis/Allure completely dead after midnight. Both are great though you can't go wrong.

I was only on it for a 3-day so far, but I was on a 7-day on Getaway and it was the same setup, the club on deck. It was pretty busy but I wouldn't say it went until 2am. I definitely think it being on deck has something to do with it, I know myself personally I got annoyed with my long hair blowing around in my face and I didn't last long. The one cool thing is that they have the huge screen and a lot of space to dance so it does seem like a good party atmosphere. Hey, if you and your crew take it over I'm sure it will be fun. :)

The Plantation bar makes great specialty martinis. I always felt that place is a well kept secret with great bartenders...never too busy around 7 during prime time before dinner.

The Sky is a fun boat without children...small but enough to do for the adults for a weekend. The private island is a lot of fun and we always tend to get overserved there, haha! Have a great time! Oh and happy 40th! My 40th comes later this year too!

Only 1/3 of reservations are online. Once you get on board you can book, or not. Aside from maybe one or two dinners we wanted with our kids so we prebooked, my husband and I always wing it and have never been turned down at a specialty restaurant.

My daughter is going to turn 13 the day after we set sail Can she go to the teen lounge the first night? Or does she have to wait till she is actually 13? What are people experiences with this? Thank you for your input!

She can go the first day...since she has a birthday on the cruise they will allow her to pick which club (kids or teens) she wants to go to. But once she picks one she can't move back.

That sounds like a great plan to go to Margaritaville when you embark. I might just do that instead of getting annoyed at the Buffet.

Glad you had fun!

Mine says "Adult ultimate beverage package" but I'm sure it's the same thing.

Did you happen to book through a TA? Sometimes they word things differently.

My son turns 13 while we are on our cruise and they give them the option of going to either club but he has to pick one and stick to it for the entire cruise (we pretty much deal with it every year since we always cruise during Spring Break). He decided to stay down in the 10-12 group since some of the kids we are going with are still 12. My daughter has been in the teen club for 2 years now and she loves it. There is plenty to do and she met kids right away either time. She will like it and believe me, my daughter is shy too and she did just fine!

Next month

I've been on mostly Spring Break cruises with my kids and they never waited more than a couple of minutes for slides...and those cruises have hundreds of kids on them. Your kids will have a blast, don't let the Debbie downer reviews get to you. The Escape is awesome and your kids are at a great age to enjoy it.

I agree with the OP. If its just required for a quick styling on short hair, then it is fine. I have very long thick hair and at home with my pro dryer it takes 20 minutes. I made that mistake once and I will never make it again. I ended up having to go to dinner, etc., with mostly wet hair because after 30 minutes I still wasn't getting anywhere!

That is hilarious that readers found you at the port.

Thank you, this was so entertaining.

You must put together one of those auto photo flip books on one of the photo websites (can't advertise LOL) and see your whole trip at lightning speed!

Have a safe return.

Loving the review! And I see BONG! That makes me happy.

Bong on the Escape at the Sugarcane Mojito Bar makes an amazing spicy raspberry mojito! Never had anything quite like it...he muddles everything together. So good!

Sounds like a cool little gadget but as the OP says Downy Wrinkle Releaser does work pretty good and it smells good. I also have my hair straightener iron with me anyway so I am able to also use that for the deep wrinkles so if you have access to one of those, that's another idea.

I also roll my clothes in my suitcase instead of folding which helps too!

Gosh it has been so long since I did a bar set up now that NCL does UBP! I almost forgot they exist! Glad you got the info you needed.

I was on a quick 3-day on the Escape in November, and my husband and I were at The Cellars every night and there was rarely anyone else in there with us...maybe 2-3 people tops. I will be back when I go in March.

I don't get why it wasn't busier, but I wasn't complaining. It was a cool little place.

If you like cab, the Michael Mondavi they have there is amazing!

I think they had to make it a la carte - anytime we tried to go near it (we went when it was an included restaurant) it was always a 1-2 hour wait. It also created big lines and traffic jams because of where it is situated (right along the jogging track and where the stairs are to go to the slides/pool area). So while I understand why it makes some people mad I can understand why they had to do it.

That said I did get a chance to get a margarita from the bar and they are pretty good!

Nice job so far! We have stayed at the W before a few times, but we had a condo room (at some point some of this hotel was supposed to be sold as condos) so our room was maybe newer and never saw any of the issues you had. The lobby is dark but it is a nice hotel...definitely one of the nicer on Ft. Lauderdale beach. Their freebie shampoos and soaps and stuff are great (I think they are Bliss products?).

Living here in South Florida, I can tell you this crappy weather is not the norm for this time of the year. We have been miserable! it has pretty much looked like it was out your hotel balcony for weeks on end.

Love the Escape, getting ready to head out on it again, looking forward to your review.

I've read this entire thread and my only takeaway is that MIL is being a pain in the ass. Leave her behind.

Hahahahaha. I can't disagree with you there. Thanks for the chuckle.

Thanks for reading along. I'm glad you liked the photos.

 

It is definitely doable. You will probably need to crawl to squeeze in, if that is fine with you then you can definitely do it.

Thanks for the info. My husband is also a big dude and I was wondering about that. I'm looking forward to the Baths. Thanks for your review from one South Floridian to another (even though it doesn't feel like So Fla right now LOL).

I never said I was doing them a favor. I said I wanted to pay full fares for everyone plus another double fare for one person to have another cabin in order to satisfy everyone's comfort and keep the family and kids together. I was wondering the legality of it. I don't like it being implied that I was trying to get something undeserved for free because if you had read everything you would see that was not my intent in the least.

If this boat had connecting mid ship suites...well, problem solved.

However we can't all squeeze into a suite because there isn't a suite mid ship. Yeah we are being a little dramatic but who doesn't want to make their mothers happy? ;)

Apparently this thread has caused a whole movement to get 'scammers' exposed to NCL. Maybe they should train their PCC's not to allow and actually book minor children in connecting cabins if it were indeed unallowed. I don't even think there are enough connecting cabins to suites on any given boat that would make a huge impact on service or take away from any of the enjoyment from other suite passengers anyway. But that's a whole nother argument for another day, and it wasn't even the question being asked here anyway.

We can definitely stop the arguments and judgments now. I have my answer. Thank you everyone.

How mid ship are you looking? The suite that is 11030 or 11530 would be under the start of the lido deck, almost mid/front. Might not be that big of a difference if you can select the very back of those suites verses midship?

 

We stayed in 11024 and used both the mid and front elevators. But didn't feel like we were "front" like we did on one of cruises on deck 5 forward when we felt everything.

 

The haven is kinda midship if you choose one of the front haven rooms. Have you looked into that? Haven uses midship elevators. Although probably just the same difference back from midship as 11030 would be forward from the exact center :)

The Haven had nothing connecting that I saw but I see what you mean about 11030 and 11530 being sort of mid ship.