Escape Inaugural, Hamburg to S-Hampton, photos, menus, & stuff, part 1&2

[caseythegr]

There's no upcharge for anything in the Haven Restaurant. And I don't know if it's because they had a lot of food, but our servers kept offering us more and more food. When I said that the surf and turf was some of the best I'd ever had, I was asked, "would you like another one?"

 

Thank you! Can't wait to try it.

Laurie

[sunrise&set]

Loving your review and all of the photos! We're booked in an H5 in February! So happy to see some pics already of the H5.

[Carnac767]

I can't see the photos! :( Saw all of them on the first and third page - but now this is all I get for page 2. Are they available on photobucket??

 

Looks I'm getting squeezed by Photobucket.

[Carnac767]

Okay, I had to get some bandwidth from Photobucket. The pics should be back now.

[Carnac767]

Love your photos and the info you have provided! Do you happen to have a picture of the Haven breakfast menu??

 

The one thing I forgot to do was get a picture of the breakfast menu. Mea culpa. It's almost identical to the one in Cagney's on the Jewel Class.

[happy cruzin]

The one thing I forgot to do was get a picture of the breakfast menu. Mea culpa. It's almost identical to the one in Cagney's on the Jewel Class.

 

 

No problem. I figured it was the same as we've had in the Haven before - but I spent today collecting menus for those traveling with us. Was just going to put it with the rest.

 

It will surface...I'm sure! [emoji6]

[happy cruzin]

Okay, I had to get some bandwidth from Photobucket. The pics should be back now.

 

 

Yes they are!! Thanks [emoji4]

[Oceanwench]

Nice to see the photo of the HC cabin.

Wish the cruise lines would not put those high mattresses in these rooms.

Always have to get yet to make adjustment for DH, who cannot transfer onto a high mattress.

 

Was there a roll-in shower?

[Carnac767]

No problem. I figured it was the same as we've had in the Haven before - but I spent today collecting menus for those traveling with us. Was just going to put it with the rest.

 

It will surface...I'm sure! [emoji6]

 

Actually, I was wrong. I do have a picture. It will be up soon.

[Carnac767]

I mentioned earlier that we had to meet at the Concierge desk this morning at eight to get processed through UK customs. So we had to get up much earlier than we wanted in order to have breakfast first. The first thing I did was check the navigation channel to see where we were.

 

There we are, the little arrow between the E and R in Amsterdam.

 

Haven breakfast menu. For those of you who've had breakfast in Cagney's, it should look very familiar. In addition to the menu items, there is also a buffet, featuring fresh fruit, yogurt parfaits, hard-boiled eggs, assorted yogurts, and various deli items (cold cuts and cheese.) Our friendly server Adrien was waiting for us when we were seated and immediately provided us with two pots of English Breakfast Tea. This morning DW picked the Tahitian Vanilla Challah French Toast, along with bacon. I was sorely tempted to have steak and eggs, but decided to zag with the waffles and fresh berries, plus bacon.

 

The waffles. I thought I'd taken a picture of the French toast but can't find it. Regardless, the breakfast was excellent.

 

We arrived at the Concierge desk a few minutes before eight, along with the rest of the Haven guests who were not EU citizens. I should have mentioned that we were asked to have our passport with us. Once we were gathered, we were escorted by a member of the concierge staff down to Deck Six aft to Savor, one of the Main Dining Rooms. There we stood in line for about five minutes, waiting for our turn to have our passports stamped by UK immigration officials. That was that. From there we went forward to the Guest Services Desk to get checked in for the one day. As I think I mentioned, in the U.S. the first two sailings of Escape were marketed as a two day cruise from Hamburg to Southampton and then a one-nighter from Southampton. In Europe the first sailing was sold as a three-nighter. So our status was as if we were doing a back-to-back cruise. Ordinarily, guests in suites on a back-to-back are checked in and get their new key card from the concierge. As I already said, we weren't getting much help from the concierge desk this time. It only took five minutes with guest services to take care of this little chore, though.

[happy cruzin]

Actually, I was wrong. I do have a picture. It will be up soon.

 

 

Awesome....thanks!!

[Carnac767]

Our next scheduled event on this day was our Meet and Greet at eleven. We wandered about the ship in the meantime, just trying to take it all in. I wanted to get the mandatory been-there, done-that tee shirt from the ship's store. I was the only one that had that idea, except for everybody else on the ship. The store was mobbed. I mean you could not possibly shoe-horn in one more person. I gave up. Some things of note: there were no sales of bottled booze for the duration of the cruise. I believe this was because we were sailing from one EU country to another. For the same reason, there was a 25% tax on everything sold in any of the shops aboard the ship. This markup didn't seem to deter many people. The shops are scattered about Deck 8 toward the aft third of the ship. The usual suspects are represented: jewelry, watches, alcohol (which you couldn't buy), photo accessories, clothing (lots of Izod products), hats, tee shirts, and the typical drug-store type products: toothpaste, razors, and the like.

 

Food Republic Menu. The price is right.

 

 

The grill at Food Republic. Note the iPads. You use these for your order.

 

Interior entrance to La Cucina, which midship on the port side of Deck 8, right by the forward elevator bank

 

La Cucina

 

Tobacco Road, which advertises itself as Miami's oldest dive bar, now taken to sea. It's opposite La Cucina and slightly further aft.

 

Seating in Tobacco Road

[Carnac767]

The group met in Cagney's at eleven for the Meet and Greet. Cagney's is on Dek 8, aft on the port side. This was one of the most active Roll Calls we'd ever been associated with and certainly the most pro-active. I suppose the excitement of a new ship had something to do with this, but we also had very energetic and creative people driving the process. Most of the senior staff turned up to greet us, including the Captain. The only people missing were the Staff Captain and the Chief Engineer. They'd been called away. A very nice buffet was laid out for us, including champagne and vanilla smoothies. Captain Hoyt welcomed us, thanked us for being there, and stated that NCL pays close attention to the comments and reviews on Cruise Critic. He then introduced the rest of the staff, then raised his glass to toast the ship and us.

 

Roll call gathering in Cagney's. In this photo I can identify Anita, Cherie, Kyle and Petra. Of course, nobody is looking at the camera.

 

Yay. More food. I haven't eaten in thirty minutes.

 

Cherie and Anita welcome the Roll Call and get it rolling even more

 

Captain Evans Hoyt

 

Cheers

[TSUmom]

Enjoying your review and pictures. A great big thank you for posting pictures of your cabin. I having been waiting to see what the H5's look like. We will be staying in 17714, and like you it will be our first time to actually stay in the Haven, we have always had fwd PH's.

[Carnac767]

Julie Varelriote, our Cruise Director. I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. It was low light and I didn't want to use the flash.

 

Hotel Director Sean Wurmhoeringer, from Austria

 

The HD; Jose Contreras--Beverage Manager (and therefore most important member of the crew); Executive Chef Charles Fernandes (2nd most important); I think it's Martin Ivanov--F&B Director; and Cruise Consultant Sherry McKeown, from Canada. Sherry has been the Cruise Consultant on several of our NCL cruises, most recently on Gem earlier in the year. She has an extensive background in photography, travel and tourism (natch), and the culinary arts. She also worked in the front office for the National Hockey League. If you want to follow her travels aboard NCL ships, you should google her blog.

 

An NCL executive who is traveling aboard NCL Escape for the inaugural. I didn't catch his full name but DW says his first name was Claus and he was Norwegian. What, a Norwegian at Norwegian? Regardless, he also welcomed us aboard and talked about how excited NCL is about their new class of ships.

 

DW with Ray, one of our new friends. We first met Ray and his wife at the Hafen Hotel. He's from Southampton and is a former merchant sailor. We swapped a lot of sea stories.

[Carnac767]

Nothing like a lot of mid-morning champagne to work up an appetite. We trooped back up to the Haven Restaurant for lunch.

 

The butter lettuce and pancetta salad. I started with this.

 

The Haven Restaurant's Cobb salad. DW had this for a starter this time

 

Herbed Chicken with Rosemary Jus. This was Sarah's main. I tried a bit of the chicken and it was very good. The sauce was delicious.

 

Linguine with Clams, my choice. It was good but not likely to crack my Top Ten.

 

Banana Cream Pie Tartlets. I had it the day before, too, so I must have liked it.

 

DW went with the Assorted Berries and Mango with Grand Marnier again.

[Carnac767]

Enjoying your review and pictures. A great big thank you for posting pictures of your cabin. I having been waiting to see what the H5's look like. We will be staying in 17714, and like you it will be our first time to actually stay in the Haven, we have always had fwd PH's.

 

You're welcome. We were quite pleased with it and really enjoyed the Haven experience. I think we were spoiled this time because there weren't that many people in the Haven on this short cruise.

[Carnac767]

Okay, so we're on vacation, where we don't have to worry about a schedule. Our next not-scheduled vacation event was the Roll Call Cabin Crawl. We rallied at two at Five O'Clock Somewhere. Once the Merry Band was assembled, we headed off to see some great cabins. Our first stop would be the Studio Cabins on Deck 11.

 

Some of the decor in Five O'Clock Somewhere.

 

Keith, from County Mayo in Ireland, was sailing solo and was gracious enough to show us his studio cabin. The studio concept began with Epic, I believe, and offers solo cruisers an alternative to paying a surcharge for the crime of traveling alone. The studio offers a small but comfortable room and a large lounge, where the traveler has the opportunity to mingle with other solo cruisers.

 

The Studio Lounge

 

Those murals along the walls change, offering various landscapes, giving an impression of a larger space.

[Carnac767]

Studio Lounge passageway

 

Studio Cabin

 

Studio

 

Our next stop was a an inside cabin. I can't remember whose cabin this was, sorry.

[Carnac767]

This is an H7, Deck 14 forward on the starboard side

 

 

 

 

 

[hpecorari]

Thank you for the pictures. I see that this coffee maker is a Nespresso...I wonder if NCL is switching from the Lavazza brand to Nespresso fleet-wide.

 

Also, Sole is supposedly a common brand of LED TVs used in the restaurant and cruise industry (so "they" say :p).

 

Yes, we have this here at home, it is Nespresso but with this machine you can NOT make cappuccino unless they're also giving you the additional extra milk frother machine.

 

Harriet

[Carnac767]

 

Very small balcony on the H7

[Carnac767]

There are still many more cabin crawl photos to post. i'm just out of time for now. I have to head off to Denver for four days of torture in the simulator--semi-annual proficiency check. Once I drag myself home I'll resume the fun. Stay tuned.

[brookie848]

Thanks for this outstanding review of the Haven! Your pictures are great and all of the information you are posting is a great help as I plan our February trip.

[TSUmom]

There are still many more cabin crawl photos to post. i'm just out of time for now. I have to head off to Denver for four days of torture in the simulator--semi-annual proficiency check. Once I drag myself home I'll resume the fun. Stay tuned.

 

Awaiting your return and looking forward to more:D