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

GoAndHaveFun

By GoAndHaveFun,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Cruise director and her staffers

 

The Cruise Director (CD) was Julie Valeriote from Canada. I have heard so much about the famous Julie so it was definitely a treat to finally have her as the Cruise Director. I thought she was a fantastic CD and she was always cheerful and had a smile on her face. I also like at events, she really tries to get everyone into it. She was also a fantastic host at events and it's pretty obvious she has done this for many years as she comes off as very natural. I definitely like that she would also attend events as well instead of just letting the assistant cruise director and staffers host the event. I remember one event in particular (Latin dance night), I attended it by myself as I wanted to check it out despite I know nothing about Latin dances. Jesy, one of the staffers, was teaching us some basics and eventually, we needed partners. Julie was kind enough to be my partner while Jesy continue to taught us how to dance with a partner. I love it when the CD and the staffers are involved in the event instead of just standing in the back (typically at the bar) chatting amongst themselves and waiting to be dismissed or to leave. I also like how this is the 4th time I have had Jesy as a staffer. I believe he remembered me from the Breakaway 3 months back.

 

The Assistant Cruise Director was Alvin Oliva from the Philippines. I definitely liked how he remembered me after Norwegian's Night Out as I was one of the first people on the dance floor and then just having a good time. And every time I would see him, we would greet one another. The other cruise staffers would also do the same every time I run into them. As I said in a previous post probably 2 pages back, it's a really good feeling when we are remembered by someone. It makes you feel more like an individual instead of just another face in the crowd. One staffer that really stood out to me was Rommel as he was very charismatic and full of jokes. He was also a fantastic host during trivia, even if there were like less than 15 people in attendance.

 

For a lot of people, it doesn't matter who the cruise director is as they probably make very little impact on their vacation. For me though, I attend a lot of events so I always hope for an awesome CD and friendly staffers. However, despite being someone who attends a lot of events, I do wish we had more opportunities to really interact with the cruise director and his/her staffers. It always seems like the only time to really interact with them is right before a game show, party or trivia. Don't get me wrong, they are definitely friendly (most of the time) but I have also noticed they have a tendency to stick to other cruise staffers and chat amongst themselves.

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Is there a charge for the coffee and treats at The Bake Shop?

How late is the Spa open? I'm under the spa in Deck 13 and I'm wondering if it'll be noisy under there.

Thank you for a terrific review. Love the photos. Will sail on the Breakaway next week. :D

 

Yes there's a charge for the coffee and treats. I only know the macarons are $2 as I got them almost every day while a small cupcake was like $1.50. I actually don't know how late the spa is open as I didn't go there during my cruise.

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barnacle_boy

barnacle_boy

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Thanks for the reply. I will have to have the macaroons because I had some last year in Paris, for the first time and they were awesome. I am so excited! :D

 

 

The macaroons onboard are hit and miss, but there are several flavors that come quite close to something you'd might find in a good pâtisserie. The passion fruit macaroons were delicious! They brought back some happy memories I have of the macaroons from the Parisian Ladurée.

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texangal39

texangal39

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Following and enjoying your review! Also, we enjoyed meeting you and agree on the cool coincidence of our first night dining together and how much we saw each other on board -- we may have seen you more than you saw us being that you were involved in so many activities! [emoji2]

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sjbdtz

sjbdtz

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I have actually never heard of this claim! I can't imagine the dealers would enjoy being trapped in a room filled with smoke and they probably prefer the open space now. I have a feeling if the player is VIP or Golden, the Pit Supervisor or any of the casino supervisors isn't gonna tell the person not to smoke as the supervisor doesn't want to risk upsetting the player.

 

 

The room they were proposing was HUGE, and would have targeted ventilation. Now however it seems they've reversed course and are making the NON-smoking section in that same designated area. No idea why.

 

But let me assure you, there were smoker VIP / Golden players on the Transatlantic, and they were absolutely told NO smoking.

 

 

.

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Following and enjoying your review! Also, we enjoyed meeting you and agree on the cool coincidence of our first night dining together and how much we saw each other on board -- we may have seen you more than you saw us being that you were involved in so many activities! [emoji2]

 

It was very nice meeting you, your husband, your daughter, and mother (whom I never saw again after M&G lol). I forgot if I asked her myself...did your daughter enjoy the cruise? I imagine she wasn't old enough for Entourage yet but also wouldn't wanna go to Kid's Club.

 

I definitely try to participate in as many activities as I could as I figure it was better than sleeping in or soaking the sun (not really into that). However, sometimes I still feel that there's a stigma with attending events or activities by yourself. There can be direct judgment (like that one time in which the DJ referred to me as Mr Lonely after questioning why I was there by myself for a music trivia on the Pearl...smh) or the judgment can be more subtle like cruise staffers never chatting with you at events (but they chat with others instead who were there with family or friends) or they made remarks about how you attend like all the events but said it in a negative way. These are just my observations from when I would attend events on the different NCL ships.

 

The room they were proposing was HUGE, and would have targeted ventilation. Now however it seems they've reversed course and are making the NON-smoking section in that same designated area. No idea why.

 

But let me assure you, there were smoker VIP / Golden players on the Transatlantic, and they were absolutely told NO smoking.

 

 

.

 

Ah yes, I remember there was absolutely no smoking during the TA cruise. I wonder how those Golden/VIP guys reacted?

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sjbdtz

sjbdtz

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Ah yes, I remember there was absolutely no smoking during the TA cruise. I wonder how those Golden/VIP guys reacted?

 

 

Some of us are NON-smokers. We were quite happy.

 

Our friends, are smokers and were less enchanted.

 

 

 

Stephen

 

 

.

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CalLuvsCrusingToo

CalLuvsCrusingToo

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Can't believe the Casino got soooooo smokey from the week inbetween the TA which was Nonsmoking, and when we got on.

Just goes to show you how fast it can Go BAD.

 

K- Just wanted to tell you, Lots of people appreciated your Upbeat, Join everything attitude. Never mind being a Solo. We all enjoyed meeting you and even thou we didn't formally run into you again? I saw you being the Good sport you are at many events.

 

Guess we were in the Party pooper catergory, and just a spectator.

 

I go to Vegas solo alot, and am perfectly happy attending solo as my other half can't go as often as me. So the alternative is stay home, or go Solo.

I've gotten used to it, and its fine.

 

Keep doing what youre doing! Its fantastic.:):):)

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Can't believe the Casino got soooooo smokey from the week inbetween the TA which was Nonsmoking, and when we got on.

Just goes to show you how fast it can Go BAD.

 

K- Just wanted to tell you, Lots of people appreciated your Upbeat, Join everything attitude. Never mind being a Solo. We all enjoyed meeting you and even thou we didn't formally run into you again? I saw you being the Good sport you are at many events.

 

Guess we were in the Party pooper catergory, and just a spectator.

 

I go to Vegas solo alot, and am perfectly happy attending solo as my other half can't go as often as me. So the alternative is stay home, or go Solo.

I've gotten used to it, and its fine.

 

Keep doing what youre doing! Its fantastic.:):):)

 

Aww, nice to know others appreciated my 'go and have fun ;)' mindset. I definitely met awesome people and sometimes randoms would remember me from either Dancing with the Stars or some other party like Norwegian's Night Out or Awesome 80's Party. It's like I want others to realize that they can also have a lot fun if they are traveling solo or with parents. I know some activities are definitely out of people's comfort zones (like the Dance Clash aka Dancing with the Escape Stars) but they can still have fun by participating in other events and just trying to be active on the ship.

 

You know, other than the waitresses and the bartenders, I didn't really chat with anyone in the Haven (besides one kid that was a pathological liar...and he was also my neighbor too :eek:) because people in the Haven didn't seem all that friendly but the coolest Haven folks I met weren't staying on deck 17 or 18. Instead, they were siblings staying in a Haven aft suite on deck 14 and I only met them because I saw them a lot of events I went to like trivia, a dance class, and karaoke competition. I remember after an event, I would be like "hey, see you guys at ____" as I knew they would attend...and they did.

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Thanks for taking time to post all the pictures and give a great review. To be honest I was getting a little nervous with so many other negative reviews that it was refreshing to see a positive review. Thanks

 

I see it as some people are either super hard to please or perhaps they are HARDCORE RCI/Carnival/Disney/Princess/Celebrity/etc cruisers trying NCL for the 1st time so the whole time they were just looking for negatives as NCL doesn't have this while _____ cruise line has this. I am not saying they are all like that but I have definitely read reviews on here in which it was clear the person DID NOT give NCL a chance.

 

For me, this was my 13th NCL cruise so no doubt I am definitely loyal to NCL though I have also been on a Carnival weekend cruise. I remember I thought I saw more similarities with NCL (esp Norwegian Star at the time) than difference. However, I am definitely not one to think "NCL can do no wrong!" as they have also done things I have disagreed with. For example, although I only had Margaritaville once and thought the chicken quesadilla was only ok, I sympathize with people who are angry that NCL has made it a la carte despite Margaritaville wasn't my go-to spot for lunch (Garden Cafe was my go-to spot :cool:)

 

For me, I did experience some negatives on the ship or thought some thing was negative and I will talk about them in my reviews here. For example, I have already brought up a negative of how a solo attendees of events can be perceived in a negative manner by staffers. However, those negatives really doesn't ruin my trip as I tend to look at the picture and just try to go and have fun (hence my username).

 

Thanks for reading my review and glad you are enjoying it!

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Since I will be at sea for 3 days, what are some of the activities you have enjoyed? I heard that the ship gets boring and events are mobbed. How are the shops on board? Thanks for this great review.

 

I enjoyed going to trivias throughout the day, going on the waterslides, use the sauna (in the Haven tho), attending dance classes or any cool event at the Atrium in the afternoon, eat, karaoke in the evening, gym, play ping pong with random guests, shoot hoops and many more. Because it can get very windy during sea days, I don't really recommend the ropes course as they would close off like half of the ropes course and the wind can make everything really scary. I would say the mobbed events are the events at night such as Dance Clash, Not So Newlyweds Game, Jeopardy, and others. As much as I love the Atrium, it can get packed FAST during night events and typically you would have to show up like 15 mins before the game show to even attempt to find an empty seat.

 

The only shop I frequented was the t-shirt and souvenir shop and I liked it. I originally got a t-shirt a size too big and the staffers were more than willing to let me exchange for a smaller sized t-shirt.

 

I feel that the ship is what you make of it and there's always something to do.

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Negatives

 

I have a feeling some of the negatives might apply to NCL in general instead of just the Escape, things I have already previously mentioned or things that were more so with people onboard than with the Escape.

 

Specialty dining like teppanyaki can take almost 2 hours from sit down to end of meal. I love teppanyaki and always have it 2x every cruise but I know I am not a fan of how it can take like 2 hours and sometimes even longer if the other guests are running late.

 

Kids horseplaying around in the Haven was just ehhh. I get that kids will be kids and little kids are definitely awesome but I remember they would have a ball and would run around the pool and hopped over lounge chairs to catch the ball. One kid even tried to throw the ball from deck 17 to the sun deck (deck 19). It even got to the point where Karen, the concierge assistant, had to approach them and tell them that they couldn't do what they were doing. I remember there were times when I would cringed as I was really afraid that one of those kids might trip on the loungers and scrape a knee or break something. When I was in the sauna, these 2 10-11 yr old kids would horse around in there constantly adding more water (thus increasing the temperature inside the sauna) and then even throwing water at me. I tolerated it cuz they were kids but it was just like "....seriously??"

 

Guests in the Haven didn't come off as particularly friendly. I love chatting with people on board (such as Texangal and her family) and folks I met at events (as to say I have no problem chatting with people not in my age range) but people in the Haven just seemed cliqueish and unfriendly. Interestingly, the coolest Haven folks I met were people who weren't staying directly in the Haven (aka on forward or aft suites) as I would run into them at events or wherever.

 

Rain forced the Awesome 80's Party and Glow Party to be relocated. Julie was able to relocate the 80's Party into the Atrium and everything was still fun but for Glow, she could only move it to Skyline Bar (Atrium was showing Thanksgiving football and you DEF don't mess with that!) and the fun vibe just wasn't there for me. It was one of the very few dance party events in which I left early as I didn't find it fun for me (and CalLuvsCrusingToo and TexanGal can definitely vouch for how much I love dancing :D)

 

This isn't really a big negative...parts of ropes course will be closed when it's windy...meaning you won't be able to do the ziplines like the one that curves around the ship. It's because of this that I highly recommend doing the ropes course when you are in port.

 

Casino cashier folks can be rude about me wanting to get change..and there was no one lining up behind me.

 

One of the free fall slides wasn't working so lines would be doubled and backed up. Of course, it was also for safety and I know ship happens

 

It seems like some of the cruise staffers would phone it in at events. For events they were hosting, it was like they would leave asap after event was over or they talk amongst themselves during party events. Would it kill you guys to spend like 5-10 mins talking to people who participated in your event? I am not saying buy us drinks or give prizes but instead, get to know us, our names, where we are from and this would make us feel more like individuals and more likely to participate in your next event.

 

Despite listing a couple negatives, they really didn't ruin my vacation as I still had a lot of fun on the brand new Escape. Thanks for reading ladies and gentlemen and be on the look out for my Jewel NYE cruise review in a month :)

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texangal39

texangal39

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Thank you so much for sharing about the trip from you viewpoint. I really enjoyed what you had to say and agree with you on many points.

 

In response to your post:

1. My mom spent most of her time at Waves bar, the casino and the Atrium and O'Sheehan's ... We hardly saw her except for an occasional breakfast, most dinners or at the shows.

 

2. My kid alternated her time between us and the Kids Club -- she said she had a blast, but overall liked the Epic better.

 

3. I hate to hear that you were singled out. It seems contrary to what NCL is trying to achieve by attracting singles. We certainly didn't think you looked "lonely"; you actually looked like a guy who was living it up and enjoying your vacation to the max -- literally squeezing every last drop of fun out of it that was possible, which is awesome.

 

We like people who aren't afraid to live and who are confident and comfortable enough with themselves that they can get out and do things on their own. So, way to go! It sounds like those cruise staffers who may look at you with pity or suspicion have their own insecurities to deal with and they see something in you they don't have.

 

4. My husband and daughter say hello and we wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a great NYE cruise. Hope to run into you again on the Escape or Epic in the future as we really enjoyed your obvious enthusiasm for having fun, your genuine friendliness and your smoking dance moves! [emoji3]

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Thank you so much for sharing about the trip from you viewpoint. I really enjoyed what you had to say and agree with you on many points.

 

In response to your post:

1. My mom spent most of her time at Waves bar, the casino and the Atrium and O'Sheehan's ... We hardly saw her except for an occasional breakfast, most dinners or at the shows.

 

2. My kid alternated her time between us and the Kids Club -- she said she had a blast, but overall liked the Epic better.

 

3. I hate to hear that you were singled out. It seems contrary to what NCL is trying to achieve by attracting singles. We certainly didn't think you looked "lonely"; you actually looked like a guy who was living it up and enjoying your vacation to the max -- literally squeezing every last drop of fun out of it that was possible, which is awesome.

 

We like people who aren't afraid to live and who are confident and comfortable enough with themselves that they can get out and do things on their own. So, way to go! It sounds like those cruise staffers who may look at you with pity or suspicion have their own insecurities to deal with and they see something in you they don't have.

 

And yes, I definitely try to

 

4. My husband and daughter say hello and we wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a great NYE cruise. Hope to run into you again on the Escape or Epic in the future as we really enjoyed your obvious enthusiasm for having fun, your genuine friendliness and your smoking dance moves! [emoji3]

 

I coulda swore I saw your mom one night at the coin pusher machine but I wasn't sure. I am also definitely glad your daughter had fun and would spend time with you and husband as well. I chatted with another couple onboard and they told me their kids would always be doing their own thing and never really hang out with them!

 

And yes, I was indeed trying to squeeze the last drop of fun at like every event I attended as I just wanted to have as much fun as I could those 7 days on board. I do find it interesting how NCL has been trying to target solo cruisers with their studios but yet it doesn't seem like some staffers are particularly interested in interacting with folks who show up solo at events. I just feel that when someone attends a lot of the events or dance parties, the least a staffer can do is learn my name and where I am from. I still had a lot of fun on the Escape but I feel that this is definitely something NCL needs to work on.

 

It would be beyond awesome if I can run into you and your family again on a different ship!!

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GoAndHaveFun

GoAndHaveFun

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Did you go on the zip-line? How was it? Were the lines real long? Do they keep the activities going, while we're in port?

 

Yes, I went on both ziplines! How they had it was first zipline is done at the beginning in which you go from port side to starboard side while second zipline is on the starboard side in which you are ziplining 20 floors above the ocean! They were very fun but a bit scary at the same time. Lines can get pretty long as I recall waiting like 20 minutes. The ropes course is also open on port days and I actually recommend doing it on port days as it would be less windy. Less windy or no wind = they open the entire course.

 

Hope that helps :)

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