A HAVENly week on Escape - January 16 - 23, 2016

We had a great week aboard the newest ship in the fleet, NCL Escape, and now we are ready to start a pictorial review of our experience aboard this megaship.

Introduction.

We are both 40 and typically cruise by ourselves with the exception of last summer when we were joined by family members and friends on our Alaskan adventure. This was our ninth NCL cruise (10th overall) and definitely one of our best cruises ever. This was our first consecutive cruise in the month of January as we enjoy getting away to a tropical destination during the winter.

Booking and planning

We booked this cruise back in April 2014 and made some changes to the reservation when NCL announced the free style promotions back in December 2014. Initially we reserved our Haven spa suite with a $300 OBC, but thanks to a great promotion we ended up having the completely free (gratuities paid by NCL) UBP, UDP, pre-paid daily gratuities as well as $350 OBC. We also joined AARP (No, you don’t have to be 50 to join), and were able to save 5% of the cruise fare. Lastly, we also received 10% cashback from Discover by booking directly with them. Overall, we got a great deal on our spa suite considering all of the perks, discounts/cashback bonus and the unlimited access to the thermal spa suite.

Although we were very excited about the Escape, planning for this cruise was put on hold for a long time because it was almost two years away. Additionally, we also had other vacations planned including a trip to China in the Summer of 2014, cruises to the Western Caribbean in January 2015, an Alaskan Cruise in the summer of 2015, and finally a trip to Barcelona in September 2015. Overall, with some much going on it was soon time to depart to Miami to board the beautiful NCL Escape.

Can't wait for the rest of your review. We are on the Escape in Haven room 18104 in September.

Can't wait to read the rest of your review guys!!

Regards,

Your Haven friends from VA!

Arnie & Ria

BTW..we just got home yesterday (after 2 cancelled flights) and were greeted by 30+ inches of snow! Want to turn around and go back!

Can't wait to read the rest of your review guys!!

 

Regards,

Your Haven friends from VA!

Arnie & Ria

 

BTW..we just got home yesterday (after 2 cancelled flights) and were greeted by 30+ inches of snow! Want to turn around and go back!

Hi Arnie,

Great to hear from you. We also got home on Tuesday afternoon. Our Sunday night flight was cancelled and we were re-scheduled for Tuesday morning with a layover in Charlotte.

Please give our best to Ria and let her know that we are thinking of her.

Johan and Brian

Wow, what a deal you got. Sorry about your delayed trip home. Sounds like all of our vacations. Seems we have no trouble getting to the vacation but always have trouble getting home.

Looking forward to more

Planning and traveling to Miami

The last few weeks prior to the TA provided us with some great pictures of Escape and those who sailed before us shared a lot of information about the new restaurants, the menus and everything Escape. In order to maximize our time on Escape, we booked all of the shows and dinners 100 days prior to sailing. Additionally, I compiled a schedule for the week to make sure that we visited all of the restaurants and bars (especially the new ones) onboard. Stay tuned to see if we visited every bar and almost everything speciality restaurant onboard.

Having a cruise right after the holidays is great because the holidays take so much of your time, which helps to speed up the usually looooooooooong wait for an upcoming cruise. Since we have visited Miami several times before, we did not plan for an extended pre- or post-cruise stay so we decided to fly in the night before the cruise and leave the same night of disembarkation. Prior to our early evening flight from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale, we decided to have dinner at the airport and no dinner would be complete without the first drinks of the vacation.

Our flights from Baltimore to Philadelphia and then Fort Lauderdale were both early. I used the time wisely and managed to do some work while also enjoying some gin-n-tonics. Dear Partner (DP) read and enjoyed a few glasses of wine, but who is counting - we are on vacation.

Upon arriving in Fort Lauderdale, I found out that one of my suitcases had been left in Philadelphia. By the time we finished filling a report it was already midnight and they told me that they were going to try to have my luggage sent to Fort Lauderdale first thing in the morning. However, since we were departing from Miami I requested that the missing baggage be sent to Miami where it would be easier for us to pick it up in the morning. A request was placed to have the bag sent to Miami, but they informed me that it was not guaranteed and that the best thing I could do was to get up before 6:00 am :mad: to telephone the baggage service in Philadelphia to ensure that the request had been received. As you can imagine, I couldn't sleep that night. After only getting about 2 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4:45 am to call the Philadelphia airport to see if the request had been received. I tried, and tried, but nobody picked up. At 6:00 am, a very nice lady picked up the phone and told me that all of my messages had been received and that they were working on finding my bag so that they could put it on the 7:30 am flight to Miami. What a relief! Luckily, my bag was found and it was placed on the 7:30 am direct flight from Philadelphia to Miami. If all went well, I should have my bag before 11:00 am and could be onboard by noon enjoying a nice lunch at the Haven restaurant.

Next - Waiting for the missing luggage and embarkation

Can't wait to hear more! Love that schedule and can't wait to see how it all worked out for you.

Love your schedule

Keep it coming please

Can't wait to hear more! Love that schedule and can't wait to see how it all worked out for you.

Thanks. I don't think that we actually met while onboard, but I hope that you also had a great cruise.

Love your schedule

 

Keep it coming please

Thanks. Will continue posting today.

Sorry for the delay, but photobucket has been down all day and I have not been able to upload any pictures.

A few more details about my missing luggage.

We arrived at the airport promptly at 10:30 am to pick my missing luggage, but the flight was delayed until 11:20 am. My missing suitcase was on that flight and we were on our way back to the pier by 11:20 am. We arrived at the pier at 11:40 am.

I am going to stop here until I have had a chance to upload more photos.

Can't wait to hear more

Wow

So organized with a schedule. Glad the suitcase was recovered and made the trip. Cant wait for more. I also know the frustrations of booking and waiting almost 2 years to cruise :eek:

Enjoying your review/report.

Keith

Great start...looking forward to the rest of the review.

Kudos to you for finding such a great deal. Some day I am going to figure out how it is done.:D

Looking forward to more.

Sorry for the delay, but photobucket has been down all day and I have not been able to upload any pictures.

 

A few more details about my missing luggage.

 

We arrived at the airport promptly at 10:30 am to pick my missing luggage, but the flight was delayed until 11:20 am. My missing suitcase was on that flight and we were on our way back to the pier by 11:20 am. We arrived at the pier at 11:40 am.

 

I am going to stop here until I have had a chance to upload more photos.

Johan,

We are eager for your next post! We took the family on the Jewel in March 2015 and your review was our guidebook, now we are the Escape in March 2016 so if you can't finish your review, I will never decide what to do in Tortola, what bars to frequent (family life makes it hard to every one), or if Howl at the Moon is appropriate for kids (12, 10, 8). Please help!

Johan,

 

We are eager for your next post! We took the family on the Jewel in March 2015 and your review was our guidebook, now we are the Escape in March 2016 so if you can't finish your review, I will never decide what to do in Tortola, what bars to frequent (family life makes it hard to every one), or if Howl at the Moon is appropriate for kids (12, 10, 8). Please help!

Thanks so much for following along. I plan to have the full review completed within a couple of weeks.

In terms of Howl at the Moon, I did not see any kids after 10:00 pm. We walked in during one of the comedy shows around 8:00 pm and there were kids in the audience.

Embarkation

So let's continue with the review.

We arrived at the pier at 12:40 pm and there was almost nobody around. Throughout the morning there were several reports from fellow cruisers that the disermbarkation process was very slow and that the check-in process was also affected.

The check-in process was very fast and we were onboard within 20 minutes. Personally, I was not impressed with the Haven check-in and waiting area as it is a very small area located right after the security check point.

By 1:00 pm we were onboard enjoying the views of downtown Miami from our balcony.

We dropped off our carry-on luggage in the room and went up to the Haven restaurant for lunch. The Haven restaurant is a very elegant yet comfortable space.

Please note that the service in the Haven restaurant can be slow and that there are no restrooms on deck 18. However, we found the service and the food to be excellent throughout the week.

I was happy to see that NCL has decided to bring back the chilled soups as an appetizer. They are great. For appetizers, DP had the caesar salad and I had the peach chilled soup. Our entrees were the goat cheese galette and the scallops. Both of them were excellent.

After lunch we went back to our cabin to see if our luggage had arrived and had a chance to meet our butler Ahmad.

The muster drill was scheduled for 3:30 pm and we wanted to get a drink before that, but all of the bars closed promptly at 3:00 pm. After the drill, we went to the Haven for the sailaway celebration.

Well, nothing like that on the non Haven levels, that's for sure. Looks great.

Loving the review! Almost feels like we were there with you... cus we WERE! It was great hanging out with you guys during the week. Looking forward to more pictures and details.

I recognized that 1st picture right off the bat, break-time at the Baths. :)

- Your Haven pals, Jed & Misa

Loving the review! Almost feels like we were there with you... cus we WERE! It was great hanging out with you guys during the week. Looking forward to more pictures and details.

 

I recognized that 1st picture right off the bat, break-time at the Baths. :)

 

- Your Haven pals, Jed & Misa

Hey Jed and Misa - Thanks for stopping by and for helping us create some great memories.

Before continuing with the review, here are the dailies for day 1.