We Escaped! Best Cruise - review with pictures

[marci0914]

How do you book the thermal spa pass? Can you book it before you get on the ship?

[umtigerfan1]

Do you remember the hours of the Thermal Spa and are you hassled much on additional services?

[brookie848]

The movies included in the show were Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful (had to look that one up, because I remembered watching it, but not the name).

 

Oddly enough, the were able to integrate all the movies into one story line that was easy to follow, especially if you were familiar with the movies. The actors/singers played multiple roles, but yet they all fit each of the roles perfectly. The musicians were amazing - especially the sax player! I caught myself singing along more than once - much to DD's dismay.

 

They also merged Say Anything in with Some Kind of Wonderful. There was also some St. Elmo's Fire thrown in as well. While those weren't John Hughes movies, they qualify as Brat Pack movies.

 

We loved this show. The best decision we made was to eat before we went to the show. Not necessarily because the food was bad, but so we could give our attention to the show. Of course, once this moves to the main theater, that will no longer be an issue.

[jbetten1]

Question about the kids club for your 11-year-old son. Was there a length of time that your son was required to stay in the club? On our recent Star cruise they had to stay in there for a minimum of two hours.

 

Generally, they have to stay 2 hours, but because he was 11, I was able to authorize him leaving after 1 hour when I registered him for the kids club. They do write down the time he checked in on his name tag so that they can keep track of how long he's actually there.

[jbetten1]

How do you book the thermal spa pass? Can you book it before you get on the ship?

 

We ended up upgrading to a spa mini suite, so the weekly pass for the adults (no one under 18 was allowed in the thermal suite) came with the room. You can book online pre-cruise for $199. I did notice that they weren't offering the online deal a few days before the cruise date. Booking online was about $20 cheaper than waiting to do it on the ship.

 

Also, on port days (not sea days), they do sell daily passes for $54. Not sure how many they offer or if they ever sell out of these.

[jbetten1]

Do you remember the hours of the Thermal Spa and are you hassled much on additional services?

 

From what I recall, it was open from 8am-10pm. We generally, spent a couple of hours there before dinner - usually sometime between 3-6pm.

 

We never got approached about any additional services. Just handed our key card to the person at the spa front desk & off we went to enjoy the thermal suite.

[jbetten1]

Here’s a few more details, some tips and pictures from our amazing Escape cruise.

 

PREPARING FOR THE CRUISE:

I’m a planner – you know the kind of person who reads all the online reviews, stalks the live reviews (thanks to TheDougOut, Yorkvillian and CinAndTheCity – best way to get excited for our cruise was to read these reviews!), looks at all the excursion options, reads the freestyle dailies, makes spreadsheets, etc. Yep, that’s me. After numerous family vacations, DH and the kids have learned to just go with the flow of what I put together (love that about them).

 

Booking the Cruise: The kids absolutely loved the Alaska cruise, so I knew I wanted to introduce them to a Caribbean cruise. After much research and one booked and cancelled cruise on RCCL’s Liberty of the Seas, last September we booked the Escape for the March 26th sailing – our spring break. My DH would also be turning 45 during this cruise – an extra reason to celebrate with a cruise.

 

Dining and Show Reservations: We received the UBP as part of the perks when we booked and splurged on a 3-meal UDP. I knew we wanted to try at least a few of the specialty restaurants. We loved the anytime dining concept on RCCL and took full advantage of it during our Alaska cruise. After all, how am I supposed to know what time everyone will be hungry months before I even start my vacation? But after reading all the reviews here, I knew I had to at least book the specialty dining to make sure we got in to the ones we really wanted. So about 2 ½ months before our cruise date, I went online to make our dining reservations for Cagney’s (last night of our cruise) and Teppanyaki (for DH’s birthday dinner). Darn it! I couldn’t find any reservations for 5 people. The only ones available online were all for 2, 4, or 6 people. Now, I knew that NCL holds back reservations so you can make them once onboard, but the planner in me couldn’t handle that much “freestyle.” Only option was to call NCL. After talking to the NCL rep, I made the reservations for 6 people and would change it to 5 (according to her, easier to delete a person than add one) once I was on board. I ended up also booking all of our MDR reservations – figured we could either change those too once on board or just cancel them and show up at a different time and wait for a table.

 

Tip #1: Make as many reservations online as possible. I felt much more relaxed knowing we had dinner reservations for each night, even if they were for the wrong number of people.

 

I also booked our main shows – Brat Pack (using one of our UDP), After Midnight and Million Dollar Quartet. You can’t make any of the comedy show reservations until you board and you don’t need reservations for Howl at the Moon – you just show up at Headliners to watch the duel. So all you loyal NCL followers know what happened to our Million Dollar Quartet reservations right? A few weeks before the cruise, NCL moves the show to the Getaway and adds Vocal Overdrive. NO! That’s one of the shows I really wanted to see. Ok…time for plan B. I changed a couple of dinner reservations (which by the way, you can only do through a NCL rep – there is no way to do it online) and added in the new show Vocal Overdrive (the only available time online conflicted with our dinner reservation).

 

Tip #2: If you really want to see a show, then book the shows first, then make your dinner reservations. Each show only plays a couple of nights during the week (at either 7pm or 10pm). If you are making online dining & show reservations for the same night, there has to be at least 90 minutes between your dining time and the show time. Otherwise the site won’t let you make a dinner reservation within the 90-minute window, even if the dinner really shouldn’t take that long. Plus, build in some time to get to the show from dinner (seating for the show usually starts 20-30 minutes before the show time).

 

Birthday Package: As a surprise for DH, I ordered the Birthday Package ($35) complete with balloons, streamers and a cake to be delivered on the day of his birthday. I decorate the house for each birthday so I wanted to do something similar while we were on the cruise. Figured, this package was a way better option than packing balloons & streamers in my suitcase.

 

Julius, our room steward, set up the decorations and delivered the cake on Sunday morning while we were out of the room having breakfast. I was genuinely surprised at how nice they were for the price we paid. The balloons lasted all week and the cake was delicious – had a whip cream frosting (yum!). NCL also sent DH a birthday cupcake (sorry didn’t get a picture before DD ate it!). Here’s some pictures of the room decorated & the cake.

 

 

 

 

Our Rooms: We originally booked 2 forward balcony staterooms (category BD) that were next to each other on deck 14. With 5 us (including a teenage daughter!), I really wanted the 2nd bathroom versus the family stateroom with only 1 bathroom and no balcony. The drawback is that when you book 2 rooms, there has to be an adult booked in each room. Ok…we split up the adults (DH in one room with oldest DS and me in the other with DD & youngest DS). We will figure out sleeping arrangements & key card access once onboard. We still got to keep the UBP perk for the adults in each room and the oldest kids each got the unlimited soda package.

 

For the month leading up to the cruise date, I kept watching the availability of the spa balcony rooms (Haven was way out of our price range). After reading the reviews on the thermal suite, I knew that it was something both DH and I would enjoy. I could book the thermal suite pass online for $199 per adult (no one under 18 allowed in the thermal suite), but a bigger room and bathroom would be a plus. The Wednesday before our cruise, as an early birthday present for DH, I upgraded us into the last 2 available spa mini suites with balcony (category M9) on deck 15 (SCORE!) – rooms 15162 and 15164. The rooms were still next to each other, port side (which I had read was great for watching sail away from Tortola), and just a few doors down from the stairwell and elevators. Just one flight up to the pool deck & easy walk down to 678 Ocean Place.

 

Airport & POM Transfers: Whenever we travel, we always run into a wait at the airport to get a taxi big enough to fit all 5 of us and our luggage. Sometimes we even have to end up taking separate taxis. We really wanted to avoid that this time. After looking at all the options, we decided to go with QLS for transfer from the FLL airport to the hotel (pre-cruise day), from the hotel to POM and from the POM to the FLL airport. It was easy to get a quote and book the reservations online through their website. The drivers showed up on time & were very courteous. We always got a call from QLS confirming our pick up time and the location of the shuttle. Highly recommend using their services for any of your transfer needs.

 

Tip #3: Avoid the hassle of finding taxis at the airport or POM and pre-book your transfers.

 

Planning Spreadsheet: I wanted to maximize our time on the ship and didn’t want to miss any bars, food or experiences everyone had been raving about, so I put together a spreadsheet detailing our reservations and all the must try foods and drinks. Thanks to jmele999 for this great idea!

 

 

The blue highlighted boxes were for dining reservations I needed to update/change once onboard and the green highlighted boxes were for comedy show nights – I needed to make those reservations once on board.

 

Stay tuned to see what we actually crossed off the list.

 

Ok…I’ve read all of the forum posts, reservations are made, planning spreadsheet, boarding passes and luggage tugs are printed out, bags are packed. We are ready!

 

Next up - getting on the ship.

[Heather1972]

Generally, they have to stay 2 hours, but because he was 11, I was able to authorize him leaving after 1 hour when I registered him for the kids club. They do write down the time he checked in on his name tag so that they can keep track of how long he's actually there.

 

Good to know. My son wasn't a fan of being locked into "kiddie prison" for 2 hours on the Star, so he didn't really utilize it.

[billfish]

We are on the Escape May 21 with our 21 year old Grandson. I like you have read all the reviews and most recent ones. like yours have been very positive. Looking forward to the rest of your excellent review

[jbetten1]

We are on the Escape May 21 with our 21 year old Grandson. I like you have read all the reviews and most recent ones. like yours have been very positive. Looking forward to the rest of your excellent review

 

After the initial reviews came out, I started panicking that I had made a huge mistake booking this cruise. Even thought about cancelling before the final payment was due. So GLAD we didn't. It truly was the best cruise we have been on thus far.

 

It's hard not to have fun on this ship! Enjoy your trip!

[StephRefreshmentsNarcotic]

Great review! Your intro made me laugh when you said "this ship has it all" because it reminded me of Stefon on SNL. LOL

 

 

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[300dtc]

Can you comment on the availability of wines by the glass in the restaurants or specifically in the Mondavi wine bar? Thank you!

[LakeWobegon]

Great review and info. We rebooked for March next year and are extremely excited. I am a planner too and like to consider all other options so I was looking at the Harmony of the Seas too (10 story water slide) and the Getaway and Epic but my daughters (8) said, Dad, no one else wants to go on another ship but you. We're going on the Escape. lol.

[hjcp]

Thank you for the review. Getting excited now

 

 

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[tycup]

Just a couple of questions.

How was the buffet?

How were the main dining rooms (Taste, Savor, and The Manhattan Room)?

What kind of stateroom did you stay in, and how did you like it?

Did you get a beverage package, and if you did, did you recieve a souvenier cup?

Edited April 9, 2016 by tycup

[Driberif1]

Was on the Escape 4/2-4/9 and we must say this review is as accurate as we could describe it ourselves! We booked almost 8 months prior and we read a lot of the reviews and got nervous a little bit but now realize the negative comments only could have been from people that would not have been happy no matter what. With so many people making negative comments about shows and dining times being booked we planned ahead and made every reservation we possibly could before the sail date and to our surprise once we got on it was ridiculously easy to do anything you wanted and go anywhere pretty much anytime! We made our dining reservations for later times and each night we decided to try to get in early and our longest wait to "walk in" instead of our reservation time was less than 5 minutes. We went to the comedy show "4" times! (3 at headliners and 1 in the showroom).

We were also worried about ridiculous wait times to get drinks because everyone had the drink package and no matter how busy the bar seemed to be we never waited more than 30-45 seconds to have our drink order taken.

We have been on a few Norwegian cruises now so we should have known better to listen to the negative reviews because each cruise has been as close to perfection as it gets!

We can definitely give some good and bad advice on the excursions but we have already left a long enough "reply"!

Edited April 10, 2016 by Driberif1
Spelling errors

[Choozin Croozin]

Thank you for your review. We are thinking of "jumping ship" and trying the Escape out, but I kept reading negatives and wondering whether the things people complain about would matter to us. Smoke would bother me. DH smokes cigars. We have been loyal to Royal and are now diamond, but their prices for 2018 are insane. We do have the Harmony booked for March 2017 so not sure how that will be going from Harmony to Escape. Anyway, I, like you am an extreme planner and have a lot of research to do yet.

[JillinCalgary]

I loved this review thank you! Your family sounds very much like mine.. my husband and I and our three children (16, 14 and 12) 2 boys and 1 girl lol I expect we will spend our time similar to you! Great pictures.. We are very excited :-)

[Megali]

 

Planning Spreadsheet: I wanted to maximize our time on the ship and didn’t want to miss any bars, food or experiences everyone had been raving about, so I put together a spreadsheet detailing our reservations and all the must try foods and drinks. Thanks to jmele999 for this great idea!

 

 

The blue highlighted boxes were for dining reservations I needed to update/change once onboard and the green highlighted boxes were for comedy show nights – I needed to make those reservations once on board.

 

A kindred spirit! I'm many months out from my cruise, but I've been thinking about how I best want to organize my spreadsheet and this is perfect!

[minidonuts85]

I really enjoyed your review! We're contemplating a Spa Mini-Suite ourselves. Any pics of the balcony? Was it fairly quiet where you were located?

 

Thank you! :)

[Siked2Sail]

Can you comment on the availability of wines by the glass in the restaurants or specifically in the Mondavi wine bar? Thank you!

 

I would love to know this too. I have seen threads about the Wine By They Glass being greatly reduced. Not sure if this is true on the Escape. Any input appreciated?

 

Thanks!

[Belle2002]

Here’s a few more details, some tips and pictures from our amazing Escape cruise.

 

PREPARING FOR THE CRUISE:

I’m a planner – you know the kind of person who reads all the online reviews, stalks the live reviews (thanks to TheDougOut, Yorkvillian and CinAndTheCity – best way to get excited for our cruise was to read these reviews!), looks at all the excursion options, reads the freestyle dailies, makes spreadsheets, etc. Yep, that’s me. After numerous family vacations, DH and the kids have learned to just go with the flow of what I put together (love that about them).

 

Booking the Cruise: The kids absolutely loved the Alaska cruise, so I knew I wanted to introduce them to a Caribbean cruise. After much research and one booked and cancelled cruise on RCCL’s Liberty of the Seas, last September we booked the Escape for the March 26th sailing – our spring break. My DH would also be turning 45 during this cruise – an extra reason to celebrate with a cruise.

 

Dining and Show Reservations: We received the UBP as part of the perks when we booked and splurged on a 3-meal UDP. I knew we wanted to try at least a few of the specialty restaurants. We loved the anytime dining concept on RCCL and took full advantage of it during our Alaska cruise. After all, how am I supposed to know what time everyone will be hungry months before I even start my vacation? But after reading all the reviews here, I knew I had to at least book the specialty dining to make sure we got in to the ones we really wanted. So about 2 ½ months before our cruise date, I went online to make our dining reservations for Cagney’s (last night of our cruise) and Teppanyaki (for DH’s birthday dinner). Darn it! I couldn’t find any reservations for 5 people. The only ones available online were all for 2, 4, or 6 people. Now, I knew that NCL holds back reservations so you can make them once onboard, but the planner in me couldn’t handle that much “freestyle.” Only option was to call NCL. After talking to the NCL rep, I made the reservations for 6 people and would change it to 5 (according to her, easier to delete a person than add one) once I was on board. I ended up also booking all of our MDR reservations – figured we could either change those too once on board or just cancel them and show up at a different time and wait for a table.

 

Tip #1: Make as many reservations online as possible. I felt much more relaxed knowing we had dinner reservations for each night, even if they were for the wrong number of people.

 

I also booked our main shows – Brat Pack (using one of our UDP), After Midnight and Million Dollar Quartet. You can’t make any of the comedy show reservations until you board and you don’t need reservations for Howl at the Moon – you just show up at Headliners to watch the duel. So all you loyal NCL followers know what happened to our Million Dollar Quartet reservations right? A few weeks before the cruise, NCL moves the show to the Getaway and adds Vocal Overdrive. NO! That’s one of the shows I really wanted to see. Ok…time for plan B. I changed a couple of dinner reservations (which by the way, you can only do through a NCL rep – there is no way to do it online) and added in the new show Vocal Overdrive (the only available time online conflicted with our dinner reservation).

 

Tip #2: If you really want to see a show, then book the shows first, then make your dinner reservations. Each show only plays a couple of nights during the week (at either 7pm or 10pm). If you are making online dining & show reservations for the same night, there has to be at least 90 minutes between your dining time and the show time. Otherwise the site won’t let you make a dinner reservation within the 90-minute window, even if the dinner really shouldn’t take that long. Plus, build in some time to get to the show from dinner (seating for the show usually starts 20-30 minutes before the show time).

 

Birthday Package: As a surprise for DH, I ordered the Birthday Package ($35) complete with balloons, streamers and a cake to be delivered on the day of his birthday. I decorate the house for each birthday so I wanted to do something similar while we were on the cruise. Figured, this package was a way better option than packing balloons & streamers in my suitcase.

 

Julius, our room steward, set up the decorations and delivered the cake on Sunday morning while we were out of the room having breakfast. I was genuinely surprised at how nice they were for the price we paid. The balloons lasted all week and the cake was delicious – had a whip cream frosting (yum!). NCL also sent DH a birthday cupcake (sorry didn’t get a picture before DD ate it!). Here’s some pictures of the room decorated & the cake.

 

 

 

 

Our Rooms: We originally booked 2 forward balcony staterooms (category BD) that were next to each other on deck 14. With 5 us (including a teenage daughter!), I really wanted the 2nd bathroom versus the family stateroom with only 1 bathroom and no balcony. The drawback is that when you book 2 rooms, there has to be an adult booked in each room. Ok…we split up the adults (DH in one room with oldest DS and me in the other with DD & youngest DS). We will figure out sleeping arrangements & key card access once onboard. We still got to keep the UBP perk for the adults in each room and the oldest kids each got the unlimited soda package.

 

For the month leading up to the cruise date, I kept watching the availability of the spa balcony rooms (Haven was way out of our price range). After reading the reviews on the thermal suite, I knew that it was something both DH and I would enjoy. I could book the thermal suite pass online for $199 per adult (no one under 18 allowed in the thermal suite), but a bigger room and bathroom would be a plus. The Wednesday before our cruise, as an early birthday present for DH, I upgraded us into the last 2 available spa mini suites with balcony (category M9) on deck 15 (SCORE!) – rooms 15162 and 15164. The rooms were still next to each other, port side (which I had read was great for watching sail away from Tortola), and just a few doors down from the stairwell and elevators. Just one flight up to the pool deck & easy walk down to 678 Ocean Place.

 

Airport & POM Transfers: Whenever we travel, we always run into a wait at the airport to get a taxi big enough to fit all 5 of us and our luggage. Sometimes we even have to end up taking separate taxis. We really wanted to avoid that this time. After looking at all the options, we decided to go with QLS for transfer from the FLL airport to the hotel (pre-cruise day), from the hotel to POM and from the POM to the FLL airport. It was easy to get a quote and book the reservations online through their website. The drivers showed up on time & were very courteous. We always got a call from QLS confirming our pick up time and the location of the shuttle. Highly recommend using their services for any of your transfer needs.

 

Tip #3: Avoid the hassle of finding taxis at the airport or POM and pre-book your transfers.

 

Planning Spreadsheet: I wanted to maximize our time on the ship and didn’t want to miss any bars, food or experiences everyone had been raving about, so I put together a spreadsheet detailing our reservations and all the must try foods and drinks. Thanks to jmele999 for this great idea!

 

 

The blue highlighted boxes were for dining reservations I needed to update/change once onboard and the green highlighted boxes were for comedy show nights – I needed to make those reservations once on board.

 

Stay tuned to see what we actually crossed off the list.

 

Ok…I’ve read all of the forum posts, reservations are made, planning spreadsheet, boarding passes and luggage tugs are printed out, bags are packed. We are ready!

 

Next up - getting on the ship.[/quote

 

 

 

Quick question regardIng the birthday package did you have a choice of cake, we are thinking about doing this but want the cake to the restaurant versus the cabin

[Linzkane83]

Thanks so much for the review!! we are booked and patiently waiting for September 3rd :D

[wildtky101]

Thanks for the review!

 

 

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[ReeeB]

great review! question, can you wear shorts or nice jeans to dinner on the escape?