Escape Mid Ship Interior Room Dec 5 to 12

[dragoncruise2015]

We have 4 adults travelling on the Escape on Dec 5 to 12. We arrived in Miami a day early and stayed at the InterContinental Miami.

 

Embarkation:

We took UberXL from the hotel to the Terminal C for the Escape. We arrived at the terminal at 11:00a.m. We went through security checkpoint in about 15 minutes. There were about 30 counters opened to issue cruise cards. So another 15 minutes we have the cards. Then we were given a Boarding Group Number 10 card as we went up the escalator. The crew would announce the number so that passenger will be boarded in the assigned group numbers. The waiting area had tea/coffee/orange juice/water. When we received the group number 10, they were already boarding group 6. It took another 15 minutes to get to group number 10. Once we were onboard, we went to our rooms, but we found they were not ready until 1:00p.m. to 1:30p.m. or until announcement. So we walked with the carry-on bags to the Garden Buffet for lunch. There were passengers, but we found the tables very quickly. Tips, it is a lot easier to find tables at the aft. Also the A/C was cooler at the aft.

 

Rooms

We were staying at the mid ship interior stateroom. If you have problems with sea sick, the mid ship is where you want to be. The mid ship interior stateroom is small. It only has one chair. The twin beds can be placed together or separately. The luggage are stowed under the beds. The closet is small but it should be enough from summer clothing. There is a electronic safe for valuables. The bathroom is nice. We are a clean freak. There are floor drain behind the toilet that is connected to the stand in shower drain. We used the shower head to hose down the toilet with hot water.:D There is liquid soap dispenser in the sink. The shower has the liquid dispensers for soap and shampoo+conditioner 2 in 1. The ventilation is weak in the shower. The mirror fogs up easily. We left the bathroom door open and turned the A/C to max cool (hit the snow flakes button) to remove all the moisture quickly. There is a hair dryer under the desk. The room card needs to be inserted near the door to have electricity in the outlets. We found that out when our walkie talkies took unusually long to charge. There are 3 lights displayed at the outside of the door. Green light is for "Make up the room". Red light is for "Do Not Disturb". White light is for "At home". The house keeping services the room twice, one in the morning and one in the evening.

 

Restaurant

We ate at Garden Cafe, Cagney's (twice), Moderno, Le Bistro, Manhattan Room, O'Sheehan late night snack. We had the Ultimate Dining Package for 4 days. It was a free promotion that we chose when we booked the cruise. We made all the reservations 2 months prior sailings. We never had any problems about waiting to be seated. We were seated within 10 minutes of the time. We didn't see any "close for private function" in the restaurants that we visited. Only Le Bistro and one other may be La Cucina requires long pants and shirts, but no restaurant requires full suit and tie. However you should dress accordingly use your common sense. Wearing flip flop to Garden Cafe is ok, but doing that in Le Bistro, you are just putting everyone in difficult position.

Garden Cafe

We ate there for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and late night snack. There were great selections. You can't expect Four Seasons, but it is not Old Country Buffet either. There were Seafood Night, and Prime Rib night. We were disappointed that the Seafood Night was mainly cocktail shrimp. When we arrived at 5:00 p.m. to check it out, there were some big ass shrimp like 6 to 8 inches long with shell on next to the pile of peeled cocktail shrimp. The area were cordoned off with chairs as the dinner time stars at 5:30p.m. But we were not hungry at the time and came back at 7:30p.m. Guess what? No more big ass shrimp, only the peeled cocktail shrimp. They were very good, but we should have waited to grab a couple big ass shrimps to eat as snack and came back later for dinner. Tips, if you like big ass shrimp, grab it at 5:30p.m.

Cagney's

Excellent. We booked this place twice. I had a 32 oz Porterhouse. My brother had a 32 oz Prime Rib Bone-in. My parents went with steam whole lobsters. The second time we had Australian rack of lamb, Surf & Turf. The entrees are unlimited as well as the sides and appetizers. When I had the rack of lamb, I ordered a second Steam whole lobster. There were two servers, one main and one as assistant for drinks, serving us four. Service was top notch.

Moderno

Excellent. The filet mignon just melted in my mouth. All of them were medium rare, the way it should be. However, my father doesn't like the medium rare, the server quickly asked the kitchen to cooked up the medium and brought it over. The rack of lamb was a little gamey where the Cagney's rack of lamb was not. There appetizer has cocktail shrimp, salad, etc... Service was also top notch.

Le Bistro

Excellent. I tried the lamb chop, but I just didn't like the French method of cooking the lamb. However, the eye opener was 32 oz Ribeye bone in. I shared some of that with my brother. My father ordered the whole lobster with some sauces. My mother ordered the sea bass. We ordered twice the appetizers; we ordered the escargot and mussels. The on duty manager came by to see if we were happy about the service. Service was top notch. There were two servers working on our table.

Manhattan Room

Excellent. We originally booked the table at 8p.m. I went to the restaurant to see if we could change to 6:30p.m. as there was a show at 8p.m. The host told us to just come in at 6:30p.m. When we arrived, we were seated within 10 minutes. We were there on the last night of the cruise. There was a live band playing. We ate sensibly on this dinner as we felt we all gained some pounds as the pants felt a little bit tight. The server informed us that the Ultimate Dinning Package does not cover the a la carte portion of the menu. The Surf & Turf, and the Steam Whole lobster were $19.99 and $24.99. No big deal, we had that 3 or 4 times already. We ordered the NY Sirloin and Salmon as entrees. Service was top notch. There were two servers working on our table.

 

Margaritaville (NCL backfire)

We didn't go there partly because of changing to not part of complimentary.

The second reason is that Garden Cafe is just right below that. You can eat all the burgers and fries you want plus all other unhealthy stuff for free.

We didn't see any line because there were empty tables there.

 

Tips. Even though the restaurants are fully booked because you are too lazy to book them prior to the sailing; you should also just show up and wait for it. I can't say that for the Teppanyaki because of limited space and time. We never find that interesting anyway because they are mostly fried rice. We saw many empty tables around us because many a$$holes booked them and not show up. The only way to cure these inconsiderate selfish a$$holes is to charge them the one full credit of UDP for each party of the booked table for no show.

 

Shows

We saw the Million Dollar Quartet and After Midnight.

I like the Million Dollar Quartet more than the After Midnight. There is nothing wrong with the performers in both shows. It is just my taste gear towards the MDQ.

The sound equipment are top notch. Every note comes through the speakers clearly and not distorted.

 

Ports

St. Thomas, Havensight point

I went to Scuba Diving 2 Tank Certified booked through NCL. I booked it onboard as I didn't know what the weather would be like. NCL contracted Underwater Safaris USVI dive shop. The dive shop had its boat next to the Escape. It took only 5 minutes to get out of the Escape to meet the dive group at pier. We then go straight to the boat. The boat took us to crown bay pier to pick up another 2 NCL cruise passengers. Then we went to Buck Island dive site shipwreck.

My brother and parents went to Coki Beach and Coral World Ocean Park also booked onboard.

 

Tortola

We didn't go on any excursion. The shops at the pier were under construction. Only a few shops were opened. We didn't venture very far and reboard the ship.

 

Bahamas

We originally planned to go the Atlantis Aquaventure, but it was raining. We then just go with the Discovery Atlantis. When we returned to ship, we were given a nice warm welcome by the crew and the cruise director was on the stilts. Loud music was playing, towels and drinks were handing out. Disney and MSC cruise were also there. The passengers on the MSC starboard side balcony were looking at us. Those passengers were probably thinking why the f we didn't have this. We also had towels, drinks, and music when we reboard the ship at St. Thomas and Tortola. But at Bahamas, NCL went all out to welcome us back. It maybe that NCL wanted us to get back to the casino ASAP as that was the last night on the ship.

 

Amenities

Rope Course

My brother and I like it. But the third level was never opened, maybe I just missed it. The crew keeps saying the wind. The plant were also closed most of the time.

 

Slides

I didn't try the slides.

 

Pool

The pool is too crowded. I never tried it.

 

Arcade room

The games are new since it is a new ship. The Star Wars game is worth a try, but it is $3.00 per game.

 

Miscellaneous

The daily newsletter is a must read item. It is delivered to your room every night. All the important information such as shows time of all the activities are listed.

 

Time zone changes

There would be a time zone change to one hour ahead when going to St. Thomas. Consequently, there would be one hour slow when returning from St. Thomas to Bahamas.

 

Disembarkation

On the day before the end of the cruise. The newsletter lists the information regarding the process. The color coded luggage tags corresponds to the time of disembarkation depending of the travel arrangement. We chose the latest departure time of 9:30a.m. with light blue color tag. All luggage must be tagged and placed outside of your room by 11:00p.m. the night before. However, I didn't see them picking them up until about midnight. You can carry all your luggage if you want. But if you mess up in the middle of it like you run of gas carrying all the luggage, you are on your own. NCL cannot help you, but will pray for you. Thanks to all the hardworking union workers according to the newsletter. That also explains why I had to move my luggage to the conveyor belt after I put it on the weight scale and paid a fee of $25/bag at the American Airlines check in counter. We didn't wait for the announcement for 9:30a.m. disembarkation to line up. We started to line up at 9:00 a.m. There were two lines one in aft and one in forward. One of the lines was much shorter, so we went with that. About 20 minutes, we were out of the ship and in the baggage claimed area. There were color flags in the baggage claim area that correspond to the luggage tag color code. Still there were many luggage within the each color code. Why couldn't someone make a neon green or pink luggage? We spent 15 minutes to play

"Where's Waldo?" Then we spend another 30 minutes to go through the US CBP where that were only 3 to 4 counters open.

 

Overall

There are just so much to write and hope you find them useful. There are so many things going on that unfortunately that we can't be in every one of them. Every staff/housekeeping greeted us like "hello", "how are you?", ...etc. I saw review saying that the staffs are inattentive or rude that really worried me as this was my first time on the cruise. I have never experienced that. Perhaps it’s the way you ask and how the answers that you would get.

Feel free to post questions as I will try to answer them.

Edited December 14, 2015 by dragoncruise2015

[Keith1010]

I enjoyed your review/trip report.

Keith

[TheDougOut]

Great review... thanks for taking the time to share your experience!