11/21 - 11/28 Thanksgiving Escape to the Caribbean: A review with pictures

Hi all, I just got off the Thanksgiving Escape and it was marvelous. Just like with my previous review on the Breakaway 3 months back, I will be posting a review again along with pictures for those interested. I am at Miami International Airport now and unfortunately, they only give 30 mins of complimentary wifi so I will need to be efficient in that 30 mins when it comes to uploading photos and posting and etc. Will be posting more and more in the upcoming days. I did a lot on the cruise so definitely a lot to talk about :)

Quick background: I am a 27 year old Asian American, NCL Platinum, traveled with parents and we stayed in the Haven Courtyard Penthouse on deck 18.

I hope you guys will enjoy this review!

This was our 4th time cruising out of Miami. I think Miami is a very gorgeous city so it’s always a treat to be able to fly down here and cruise out from Miami. We are from the San Francisco Bay Area so we flew from SFO to Miami. This was actually our first time flying to Miami International Airport as we would always fly to Ft Lauderdale Airport. We actually flew down 2 days early just to enjoy the city.

Looking up at the beautiful Norwegian Escape

So as mentioned above, we stayed in the Haven Courtyard Penthouse on deck 18. We arrived at the Port around 11:30ish and waited at the Haven check-in room at terminal B. We were actually supposed to go to Terminal C to check-in but my dad forgot about that and I didn’t catch that until later on. The Haven guest waiting room felt pretty cramped compared to the waiting rooms in Venice, Seattle, or Manhattan Terminal. Then again, when we were traveled in suites and leaving from Venice and Seattle, they were both Jewel-class ships so there weren’t as many people as on the Escape. After like half an hour, we were able to board the ship. I actually didn't take any photos of the Haven waiting room as I just wanted to get out of there lol.

This was actually our 3rd Thanksgiving cruise in a row. In 2013, we took the Breakaway, Getaway in 2014 and then Escape this year. As to say, we all took Thanksgiving cruises on ships during their inaugural year.

After getting onboard, first thing the waitress (they no longer have your butler take you onboard I don't think) does is take you to deck 17 in the Haven to meet Adrian the Concierge. I thought Adrian made a great impression on me and he definitely seemed genuine. However, I didn't use the Concierge at all as I had already done all the reservations for specialty dining.

Meeting Adrian Bica, our Concierge for the Haven.

Other than Adrian, there was also a Concierge Assistant that assists Adrian as the Escape Haven has a LOT of guests. After telling us about the Haven, we then went to our rooms as we just wanted to leave our luggage in our room and get to lunch. By this time, we were getting hungry so it was good timing for us.

Our Courtyard Penthouse. We actually had the same room on the Breakaway so I knew what to expect. Was it just me or did the balcony seemed longer on the Escape than on the Breakaway?

If there's one word I can use to describe the Haven, it's "gorgeous!" The Breakaway Haven was also nice but the Escape Haven is just on a different level. When I walked into the Haven, I was just stunned from how beautiful it was. Now I have seen videos and youtube videos of the Escape Haven before the cruise but to see it in person was something completely different.

The gorgeous Haven.

Unlike the Haven on the Breakaway/Getaway, the Escape Haven is 3 stories high (deck 17 and 18 = rooms, deck 19 = sun deck). There was also an elevator too and that just made everything look so gorgeous. It really exemplifies the 'ship within a ship' concept.

More of the Haven Courtyard

Pool area. I love those lounge chairs.

Haven restaurant. Also gorgeous.

Haven Restaurant (outside). What's cool about the Escape Haven restaurant is that you can also dine outside granted there was little wind or not super duper hot.

Great start. Looking forward to the rest.

Great start. Looking forward to the rest.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more!

Thank you for the great start and for posting the pictures. I love looking at them and reading the reviews. Keep is coming.

I was on the Getaway Thanksgiving 2014 and just booked Her for Thanksgiving 2016.

Thanks for reading. I will post more once I can get more than half hour of wifi. Typing on phone can be a bit slow while using my laptop is a hundred times more convenient when it comes to posting photos.

I read an Escape review thread last night in which one person replied "you only talk about what you did. I wanna hear more about other things." For me, I definitely want to talk about stuff like fitness center, different restaurants, ropes course, cruise director and her staffers, events and etc as I was able to experience those things. Last thing I wanna do is talk about things in depth based on what I heard from others or simply things I didn't do or experienced. For example, I didn't catch any of the shows (not into them) nor did I go to Savor, Taste, or Manhattan Room so I definitely won't be commenting on those.

Stay tune cool cats!

We will be in the Haven next week! Can't wait! Was the Haven restaurant dinner menu the same every night (other than a chef's special)? How crowded was the Haven restaurant for dinner? Looking forward to the rest of your review!

I was on the Getaway Thanksgiving 2014 and just booked Her for Thanksgiving 2016.

Did you have fun on your Thanksgiving Getaway cruise last year? I was a big fan of Joel Sanchez, the cruise director at the time.

We will be in the Haven next week! Can't wait! Was the Haven restaurant dinner menu the same every night (other than a chef's special)? How crowded was the Haven restaurant for dinner? Looking forward to the rest of your review!

The menu was the same every night. For dinner, the Haven Restaurant was never really crowded. Whenever I had a craving for lobster, I would just go and be seated asap. Breakfast on the other hand, it will be crowded on sea days.

Did you have fun on your Thanksgiving Getaway cruise last year? I was a big fan of Joel Sanchez, the cruise director at the time.

 

 

 

The menu was the same every night. For dinner, the Haven Restaurant was never really crowded. Whenever I had a craving for lobster, I would just go and be seated asap. Breakfast on the other hand, it will be crowded on sea days.

Yes, Thanksgiving cruise was one of the best I have ever had.

Yes, Joel is one of the best CD's.

Yes, Thanksgiving cruise was one of the best I have ever had.

 

Yes, Joel is one of the best CD's.

I had a lot fun on that cruise as well. I do wonder where Joel is now. From the Officers 2015 list, it seems like Getaway's CD is JC Sanchez (aka not Jersey Boy Joel) and he wasn't on the Breakaway as of 3 months ago. I would definitely love to have him as Cruise Director again as he was very charismatic and genuine.

So for my review this time, I am gonna try to split things up such as my thoughts on specialty dining, ropes course, fitness center, and anything else I frequented and experienced.

Butler and cabin steward

Our butler was Naveen from India and Maribeth from the Philippines. Naveen was awesome and I loved running into him in the hallways. Whenever he sees me in the hallway, he would call out my name even if he's like 30 feet away. He would also tell me how he saw me dance on tv and my simple response was "wait, when?" as I attended a lot of different parties and events like the Escape Dance Class (aka the Dancing with the Stars show). Maribeth was also awesome as she would also always greet me in the hallways when I am still like 10 feet away. Both were also cheerful and that was nice to see.

Sofa bed I slept on. I feel that for the King sized bed, perhaps they can make that smaller and give me (the 3rd person) a slightly bigger bed :D

What was also amazing was I ran into our previous cabin steward and butler from when we were in the Haven on the Jade 5.5 months ago. Miller was our cabin steward on the Jade and I remember reading an Escape review on here talking about a Miller being a Haven cabin steward on deck 17 so I just had to find out if that's the same Miller from Jade. I then went to deck 17 on the 1st night and I immediately ran into him. At first, he greeted me with 'hello sir' with his back turned towards me. I then asked "do you remember me Miller?" He then said he did and asked if brother is traveling with us this time. My brother had cruised with us on the Jade but not this time on the Escape. Miller then said we were in room so-and-so on the Jade but I honestly forget our previous cabin numbers. I then left for a couple minutes and recall that I indeed took a photo of our Jade cabin number on my phone. I then pulled it up, went back downstairs to deck 17 to find Miller again to ask him repeat what he thought our room number was on the Jade. Sure enough, he said the exact room number that was displayed on my phone as I showed it to him. I then chatted with him for a couple minutes and I told I also remember Rufino was our butler on the Jade. That was when he told me that Rufino is the nightshift butler here on the Escape and if I wanted to see him, I can simply place a food order at night. I actually didn't run into Rufino until the last night of the cruise and it was also very nice running into him. The following will be something I will probably mention a couple times throughout my review and that is that it's a very wonderful feeling to be remembered by others.

Enjoying your review.

Keith

Fitness Center

The layout is still similar to the Breakaway/Getaway as free weights are still on one side while the cardio machines are on the other side. However, there are also a couple differences and I actually like those differences. For one, both rooms are no longer separated from one another by a wall with panes of glass. Instead, they are separated by like 3 feet glass thus making the fitness center pretty open. Another big difference is in the layout of the free weights section. The dumbbells are to the immediate left in front of the big mirror while the cable machine with pullup bars are in the back next to the row machine and lat pulldown machine. Meanwhile, the Smith Machine also has its own space. What I HATED about the Breakaway/Getaway gyms was that the dumbbells, benches, Smith Machine, and cable machine with pullup bar were ALL in the same area! That meant that the moment there were more than let say 4-5 people wanting to use any of those equipment, everything would feel really cramped. I like that on the Escape, every weights equipment had their own space so everything just felt more open. For me, whenever I was resting from my set, I would sometimes walk across into the cardio section just to look out the window and gaze at the sea. The only time I would felt a bit cramped was when I was using the bench furthest to the right and someone wanted to use the curling bars rack that are also located to the right when facing the dumbbell area.

The free weights area.

Cardio section.

Meet & Greet

This was my 13th cruise but FIRST TIME EVER attending a M&G. Before talking about the M&G, I had visited the roll call on here for my cruise and one person said she might had to cancel as she hurt her leg and possibly needed surgery. Fortunately, she was able to delay surgery for the time being thus allowing her to come on the cruise but will need a scooter. Little did I know, I sat at the same table with her family for teppanyaki the first night. I didn't know it was her until the next day when the M&G organizer approached her and expressed how happy she was to see that she was able to come on the cruise despite the recent injury. I would see her and her family throughout the cruise and that was pretty nice. So back to the M&G, we met inside Cagney’s on the 1st sea day. Being my first M&G, I didn't know what to expect. I then sat down at a table that was in the front but for like the first 5 minutes, no one sat at my table! Scooter lady and her family then sat at my table and then we chatted as they remembered me from teppanyaki. One observation I made was that people seemed to be in their 30s and older. I think I was the only person in his 20s that wasn't there with parents. Of course there's nothing wrong with people being slightly older or much older than I am as I can usually interact with people of all ages. The M&G organizer organized the meet and greet while two other gentlemen organized the pub crawl and cabin crawl. I forgot who organized the slot pull but I believe it's the same person who organized the pub crawl. I didn't attend pub crawl as I don't really drink (tho I do love mudslides!!) but I attended the cabin crawl. A quick side note, I was able to get to know the M&G Organizer and she was just a marvelous person. She's a cruise veteran and I can tell her and her family loves cruising and are also very knowledgeable about cruising. I also learned that it was because of her that the free Platinum Behind-the-Scenes tour was moved to the 2nd sea day. Thanks again for that! For the sake of privacy, I have decided not to name the cruise critic folks I met and interacted with. For the cruise critic folks who attended the cabin crawl and reading this review now, it is very easy to figure out who I am based on the brief background I mentioned in the first post of this thread!

Picture from Meet & Greet from when they were introducing the Officers.

Another picture of the M&G with Julie the Cruise Director speaking.

For the cabin crawl, I thought it was nice of others to allow us to check out their rooms. It was definitely nice to see different sized balconies, wheel-chair accessible inside cabins, studio rooms and aft Haven penthouses. I have definitely seen videos of the rooms above but seeing them in person is something else. It was also nice being able to interact with other cruise critic folks as I have always enjoyed interacting with people on cruises.

Studio hallway. Sorry for the blurriness. Sometimes my phone camera can take a bit to focus. I was definitely excited to check out the studio rooms and the lounge as I have never stayed in one.

Inside a studio room

Studio lounge. It definitely looks like a place that allows you to meet & socialize with other studio folks.

A picture of a Haven Aft balcony. It was pretty big. I didn't take a panorama picture of the huge balcony as I typically try not to take pictures when there are a lot of people in the immediate background. This is why other than the picture of the studio room (in which it was too narrow for people to fit in there), I didn't take pictures of the other cabins as I wanted to respect their privacy and didn't want to take pictures of perhaps something that might have contain sensitive info (like a letter containing first name, last name for example).

Meet & Greet

 

 

 

A picture of a Haven Aft balcony. It was pretty big. I didn't take a panorama picture of the huge balcony as I typically try not to take pictures when there are a lot of people in the immediate background. This is why other than the picture of the studio room (in which it was too narrow for people to fit in there), I didn't take pictures of the other cabins as I wanted to respect their privacy and didn't want to take pictures of perhaps something that might have contain sensitive info (like a letter containing first name, last name for example).

Was that 10914? Looks like our balcony from the TA.

Stephen

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Enjoying your review so far! Keep those pics coming! :)

Was that 10914? Looks like our balcony from the TA.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

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I believe this was 14914 as I don't recall going to an Aft Penthouse on deck 10 but I can be wrong. Only thing I really remember was we walked a ton as we would visit midship rooms, then aft rooms and then forward rooms! It would have been very interesting to visit a Forward Penthouse after visiting an Aft Penthouse..the walking!!

Enjoying your review so far! Keep those pics coming! :)

Will do! Glad to know you are enjoying the review!

Platinum Behind-the-Scenes Tour

Again, thanks to the M&G Organizer, she was able to get NCL to have the Platinum Behind-The-Scenes tour (BTS) on the 2nd sea day so it wouldn't be at the same time as the M&G on the 1st sea day. For the BTS Tour this time, mom was able to join us as she brought closed-toe shoes this time! We visited the Supper Club, galley, freezer (not for long obviously), I-95, and laundry room. I would say for the BTS Tour, you seen it once, you essentially seen them all. However, I still attend because they are still fun. During the tour, there was this guest in his late 70's (he was there with his wife) and he was quite the character. When we walked past the human-resources window, he went up to the window and said "I am here to apply for a job." And when we were at the laundry room, we saw this impressive automatic towel folding machine that had a gated off area for its feeder that goes up and down. He then nudged me and said "this is the brig!" LOL.

Picture of the galley

I believe this is peanut butter cheesecake. It really smells good when you are at the pastry and dessert section

Thank you so much for the review. Your photos are great and you are so kind to respect the privacy of others.

Food venues

Garden Cafe aka Buffet

This might surprise some people (or not) but my favorite place to go to for food is....Garden Cafe. I love the buffet because I go in, get what I want and what looks yummy, get my diet pepsi, eat, and then get ice cream to-go..and this all takes like 5-10 minutes! Like I know the Garden Cafe would never have 5-star cuisine and that's okay! I am not a picky eater and as long as the food's not too salty or too bland, I am a happy camper! One thing that really surprised me was that I was always able ro find a table despite the buffet was busy. I remember on other ships, it would always take a while to find an open table. One thing I like about the Garden Cafe on the Breakaway/Getaway, Epic and Escape is that with the exception of the round tables and booth tables, most of the other tables are for two and you can put them together to seat 4 if you please. On Jewel-class ships (Jade in particular), they would have a lot of tables that can seat 4 and there would be just one person seating at a table for 4. Because I respect people's space and also like my space as well, I prefer not to sit with someone unless I have previously met them. On Jewel-class ships, I also rather not sit at a table for 4 as I feel that those are more for families than for myself trying to get a quick bite. I also really like the ice cream stations as they make for a good alternative to the frozen yogurt. Seafood night was on the 2nd night and I have never seen such a long line for the cocktail shrimps and others. I also really dig the minute steaks in the buffet. My guilty pleasures are the pizza and the fries. I believe I had the fries just about every time I went to the buffet. They are nothing out of this world but I still love them.

Inside Garden Cafe. I actually didn't take that many pictures inside the buffet as every time I went in, I just wanted to eat and forgot about takin pictures.

Seafood Buffet Night. All you can eat shrimp, mussels, steak and many more!

Margaritaville

So my cruise was officially the last cruise to have complimentary Margaritaville and I only found that out on the last night of the cruise they gonna go a-la carte. I can definitely understand people being upset about Margaritaville going a-la carte as for the longest time, NCL touted it as complimentary Margaritaville on the seas. I have never had Margaritaville (despite loving the song as I would sing the chorus every time I walked past it onboard lol) so I was definitely eager to try it for the first time. I actually didn't try it until day 4 in St Thomas as the lines were always massive on sea days. I had to wait 40 minutes to get a table and then another 30 minutes to get my food (chicken quesadilla and Key Lime pie). The waiter was pretty apologetic about the wait but I really didn't mind as I already read that there would be long lines there. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the shredded chicken quesadilla and I thought the buffet had better chicken quesadillas! The Key Lime pie was very good though! I only tried Margaritaville once as I typically wait an hour plus for dinner at specialty dining already so I rather not wait the same amount of time for lunch. This is why I love the buffet.

Margaritaville! I believe we see no crowd because they probably just closed.

Margaritaville menu

Chicken quesadilla with guacamole, sour cream, pico gallo and Key Lime Pie in the background.

Thank you so much for the review. Your photos are great and you are so kind to respect the privacy of others.

Thanks for reading! And yes I always try to respect people's privacy. As much as I would love to talk about the awesome people I met on the ship, I don't want to just name them and briefly talk about their life story without their permission. Same for pictures too in which I only really take pictures of people in the background if there was a public event going on. I will only name the awesome cruise staffers! :)

Welcome home. The photos are fantastic. Really enjoying this review. Glad to see Adrian on the Escape. He is the best ever.

Loving your review. Great pictures :)