NCL Escape Review - 1/13/16-1/20/16

[Island_Chica]

Hi everyone. We are just back from the President's Week sailing on the Escape. Honestly, I did not take many pictures, but will post a handful at the end of my review. Our party consisted of my family of four (mom and dad, plus boys aged 4 and 6) and my mother. This was our first time on NCL, our other trips have been on RCI (4 cruises) and Celebrity (1 cruise).

 

My family stayed in a Mini Suite with Large Balcony, cabin 8126 on port side. My mother stayed in a studio cabin on Deck 10.

 

The mini suite was a great cabin. I found the storage room plentiful for our family of 4, and the bathroom in that cabin was a great size. Much larger than any cabin bathroom I've had before, even in the Royal Family Suite on RCI's Freedom of the Seas. The balcony was enormous (picture to be posted below), with two lounge chairs, a dining table and two regular chairs. We requested, and were given, two extra chairs so we could eat breakfast on our balcony.

 

This sailing was very kid-heavy. I think there were 1200 on board? At any rate, my children loved Splash Academy. My 6 year old in particular could not wait to go back and begged to go every evening. The circus they performed in the theater was adorable!

 

The waterslides were awesome - we only did the tube slide and the yellow twisty one - our children were too small for the drop ones. Our kids also enjoyed the kid's water playground. Tip: lay down on the yellow slide to get some speed.

 

I thought the food on this ship was far better than anything I've had on RCI. I'd say it was on par with Celebrity when we traveled with them in 2011. I was certainly impressed with the buffet offerings. We dined at a few specialty restaurants: Teppenyaki, Le Bistro, Moderno and La Cucina. Of those, La Cucina was by far my least favorite. Food on par with Olive Garden in my personal opinion. We loved the other three.

 

During our time in St. Thomas, we took the ferry to St. John and spent the day at Maho Beach and enjoyed lunch at The Beach Bar in Cruz Bay. We've done many land-based trips to St. John so we knew the drill and our timing was perfect. We arranged a private land taxi to Red Hook to make the 9am ferry and took the 3:45pm ferry back to Charlotte Amalie.

 

In Tortola, we arranged a 1/2 day boat trip with a company called TRC Boat Rentals. We were picked up at 9am and went to Jost Van Dyke and Sandy Spit. We'd done both before and had a great time (albeit a bumpy ride!).

 

We stayed on the ship in Nassau as we've been several times before. We enjoyed the slides without any wait and went over and over again.

 

As I've cruised so much on RCI, comparisons are inevitable. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by this ship and by NCL in general. I wasn't crazy about her the first two days, but once people settled into their routines and it got less crowded I really enjoyed myself.

 

There were some things I didn't enjoy:

- It is true, the main pool area is really too small. There simply isn't enough sunny space. I wish they'd have left that marketplace area out and added more deck space.

- The kids splash area is GREAT, but there isn't adequate space for parents to sit and observe their kids. Same with the kids pool.

- Not the ships fault, but some kid pooped in the kid's pool on one of the sea days. It was gross and closed the pool for the duration of the day (understandably). PEOPLE - if your child isn't potty trained, they don't belong in the pool.

- I really feel like RCI has mastered the flow of people better. This ship has several congested areas, mainly around O'Sheehans and the main pool. It did not ruin my time aboard, but I did have some moments of frustration.

- The ride was a bit rough. Seas were high during our week, but I felt as if this ship might have more motion than I've experienced before. I don't get sea sick, so fortunately it didn't affect me, but my 4 year old did get sea sick one night (he only vomited once and we were rocking hard, so I'm sure it wasn't norovirus). It was early on in the cruise, maybe the 2nd night?

- Very few crew members in the food/bar service areas smiled, but were friendly enough if you stopped to talk to them.

- In contrast, we really enjoyed the crew in the kid's club and the casino. This ship has some fun dealers if you talk to them.

- I do feel like the free beverage package led to a lot more drinking than I've experienced on ships before. I'm no prude about it and drink myself, but I saw a few drunk, swaying parents picking their kids up from the kid's club, and I saw several couples drunkenly arguing/screaming at one another.

- My six year old got a stomach bug the night we returned home. The rest of us are now waiting. I presume he picked it up in Splash Academy, I know stomach viruses run rampant among the little ones.

 

Overall, we had a great time and I'd sail NCL again in a heartbeat.

[Island_Chica]

Here are a few photos:

[eynsteinp]

Thanks for the review. Glad you had a good trip. When you talked about the swaying of the ship do you think it had more to due with the seas or the ship?

[iceman2a]

Thanks for the review!

 

A couple of questions about your cabin. I am in 8136 in May.

Did you notice any noise from the theater below or from the

"waterfront"?

Was the excess motion you felt due to the fact the cabin is

so far forward?

 

Thanks again!

[Island_Chica]

It'd be pure conjecture, but I'd say the seas played the biggest factor in the motion. It can get rough out there in February. In fact, the night before Nassau was really windy and rough. I could hear waves crashing and see sea spray on the 8th Deck. The next morning all the furniture near the railing, the railing itself, and the walls were covered in salt.

 

As for the cabin location, not a peep from the theater or the waterfront. 8126 was an exceptionally quiet cabin. Our neighbors (8124) said their balcony door didn't seal properly and it made a "whistle" sound when the winds picked up. But we had no issues.

 

Yes, you feel a bit more motion forward, but it would not stop me from booking that cabin again. The location was really great.

[TheDougOut]

Nice review - thanks for sharing!

[luvdznee]

Thank you so much for your review. We will be on the April 30th Escape sailing and are also considering taking the Red Hook ferry over to St. John. Which private taxi did you use to get to Red Hook from the cruise dock? Thanks!

[Island_Chica]

Hi there - we used Wheatley's Taxi Service: http://www.wheatleytaxiservice.com/Pages/default.aspx

 

They were easy to work with, on time and the van was very nice.

[projectorguy1]

Hi everyone. We are just back from the President's Week sailing on the Escape. Honestly, I did not take many pictures, but will post a handful at the end of my review. Our party consisted of my family of four (mom and dad, plus boys aged 4 and 6) and my mother. This was our first time on NCL, our other trips have been on RCI (4 cruises) and Celebrity (1 cruise).

 

My family stayed in a Mini Suite with Large Balcony, cabin 8126 on port side. My mother stayed in a studio cabin on Deck 10.

 

Wow - Small world! My wife and I were in that same cabin the previous week! I promise you, we didn't leave the stomach bug behind! We also LOVED the room and location...So close to everything, but really quiet and secluded...LOVED the HUGE balcony - I put up a hammock! :-)

 

We noticed the salt buildup too, but really didn't notice excessive motion in the ship. I thought the Getaway had more motion honestly...kind of a shudder, I'm assuming from wave impacts, and the natural frequency response of the structure.

[Rob0519]

You wrote:" It is true, the main pool area is really too small. There simply isn't enough sunny space. I wish they'd have left that marketplace area out and added more deck space."

 

We were on the Escape in November and do not remember seeing anything resembling a marketplace on the pool deck. Is this something that was added after the inaugural cruise?

 

Additionally, I thought the steak I had at LaCunina was equal to anything at Cagney's and well above Olive Garden quality. I can't speak for their pasta dishes though.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the review.

[Keith1010]

Great review.

 

Keith

[beerman2]

Thanks for the info on TRC boat rentals/charters. Researching our options to get to JVD for a few hours.

 

How long did it take to get to JVD?

[BlueHonu]

We were on last week too. The 1st few days were pretty windy. I talked to someone that was on the other NCL ship at Tortola. They said that their ship was tossed around quite a bit. Had like 2700 people on their cruise.

This was our 1st NCL cruise. Have been on 8 Carnival cruises. We thought the food was great. Buffet lines were reasonable for the amount of people.

Loungers were nearly impossible to find the first few days.

We did have 1 incident in Spice. We sat at a lounge chair, 2 others were being held by 1 towel across both.

Someone else moved the towel and said those people haven't been using them. My wife sits in one, and of course 5 min later the guy comes back and starts a beef. Accused us of moving his stuff. I honestly said. Not us. After some bickering, he left and went about 30 ft away where they had some chairs they were sitting in with friends. I'm not one to cause problems, but really. He wanted chairs one place and lounges another.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Island_Chica]

Hi Beerman - it was a decent ride from the port to Jost. I'd say 25 minutes. TRC was just fine. Very nice guy named Tyrone and his wife Ronnette run the business. Cost for the 1/2 day was just shy of $500 and that included fuel and beer/water/soda. For the 5 of us it was less than ship excursion. The boat was nice, not mint condition but your options in Tortola are limited. I'd use him again.

 

Blue honu - about the chairs... Some people are crazy! I spent about 30 minutes total at spice but I could see it was packed at peak hours. I went up there one day by myself for 30 minutes and read. It was nice but I could only get a regular chair.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Island_Chica

[4Suzyq]

How did your Mom enjoy her studio experience?

[cheapboxer]

I was on the same cruise. As a licensed Captain I spend a lot of time watching the wind speed, wind direction, vessel heading, wave height, wave timing, etc. All this information is on the tv screen in your stateroom.This vessel was pretty impressive handling consistent seas, and wind that were not favorable most of the week. One night the seas were 11.2 feet at 5 seconds. Pretty nasty. Overall not a problem with motion. Did you feel it? Yes, occasionally. Was it a concern or bother my trip? No

 

I was also on deck 8 forward and agree the sea spray did soak everything at times. It was mainly due to the winds off the starboard side blowing 35kts.

 

Our suite with large balcony was very nice. No noise from the theater below.

 

The sun deck (18) filled up pretty quick on sea days, but we were able to find lounge chairs. Walked by the pool area a few times and it was crowded.

 

Tortola: We did the Rebel Yell excursion to Jost Van Dyke thru NCL. They have 2 trips the first is about 7:30 and the second that we took was about 9:30. If you take the early trip you are back very early. The second trip you are back about 2:15. This beach is absolutely beautiful. You have the Soggy Dollar bar, which is fabulous, and just down the beach Ivan's, where Kenny Chesney did a lot of filming and sings about. Cant wait to go back again.

 

In my opinion this stop (Tortola)is not a place to be gambling on private excursions. The ship is on a tight schedule to get to Nassau and there were many reports of the ships leaving people behind. They do wait for there (NCL) excursions to return.

[Island_Chica]

I'll try to answer some of the questions out there:

 

projectorguy - no worries, I don't think you left us with noro in the cabin! Honestly I am 100% sure my son picked it up from Splash Academy. So far, no one else has it (fingers crossed). It's been about 60 hours.

 

4suzyQ - Yes, I think my mom thought the studio was fine. She said she went crazy after about 2 hours in her cabin (unless she was sleeping) so she stayed out of it most of the time. I thought it was a neat little cabin and was perfect for one. The lounge was nice and pretty large.

 

cheapboxer - I agree the seas were pretty nasty during our cruise. I am lucky because I don't get sea sick but I spoke to several people who were ill. I think the ship handled it fine, but conditions were against us. As far as doing Jost on your own, we're all comfortable with different amounts of risk. The stop in Tortola is short (too short, I think) but TRC runs 1/2 day charters from 9am - 1pm. The dock you leave from is literally a 5 minute walk from the ship (maybe less). We were back on the ship before 2pm, so it worked great for us.

[luvdznee]

Hi there - we used Wheatley's Taxi Service: http://www.wheatleytaxiservice.com/Pages/default.aspx

 

They were easy to work with, on time and the van was very nice.

 

Thank you!!:)