Escape Family Review April 9-16, 2016

[scrappinannie]

Hi, everyone! My family and I are just back from our first family cruise with the kids on the Escape and just wanted to give our review as prior to cruising I couldn't find a ton of reviews that were from families with younger children. We sailed last week, April 9-16, out of Miami for a week in the Eastern Caribbean. We visited St. Thomas, Tortola, and Nassau.

 

First a little background: My name is Andrea. I'm a 39 year old wife and mom of 2. We live in SE Michigan with our kids and dog, Lacey. Hubby (41) and I have been on 3 cruises total. 1 with Carnival and 2 with NCL. Our last cruise was on the Epic in December of 2014. We loved that boat and the cruise was wonderful and as soon as we got off we knew we had to bring the kids next time. The whole freestyle concept had us sold and we knew it would be perfect for us and our young kids.

 

Our son is 6 years old and in kindergarten. He loves anything Minecraft and is totally into Super Heros, Ninja Turtles and playing hard. He's an early riser but also early to bed, so many nights one of us would take him back to the cabin while the other went out with our daughter. Generally he's a happy boy but sometimes his tempter gets the best of him, especially when he's tired.

 

Our daughter is 9 years old (going on 27!) and in 3rd grade. She loves to read, dance, play softball, and boss around her brother. ;) She's very social and likes to play with her friends and dress up. Only these days some of her dressing up makes me raise my eyebrows and wonder how long until I'll have to give her the "that's too short, to see through, not appropriate for a 9 year old" talk. Ugh, girls.

 

As a family, we have traveled to Disney World several times, up North in Michigan, Tennesee, and hope to visit Hilton Head this summer. In fact, we were going to go to Aruba for our Spring Break (around Easter) but due to a number of factors we couldn't make it happen, so we booked this cruise instead. We are still hoping to get to Aruba sometime soon, but we sure did enjoy our cruise. As for the cruise....

 

We had booked flights out of Detroit on Delta for the morning of the cruise. I did not want to do this, but hubby couldn't get out of work on Friday and we didn't necessarily want to take the kids on a late flight, so we ended up with an 8am flight to Miami on Saturday, April 9th. In April, I wasn't too concerned about the weather, HOWEVER, the night before we left, our area got 6 inches of snow! Yes, you read it right, SNOW! While snow isn't unheard of at this time of year, to get more than an inch or 2 is, so we left our house at 5am on Saturday with several inches of snow on the ground and a temp of 27 degrees. Guess I would not be wearing my sundress and flip flops. Luckily, our flight was not affected and we left on time and arrived in beautiful Miami just before 11. We walked right off, found all our luggage and used

Uber for a ride to POM. It would have cost $13 for all of us, but hubby had a referral from a friend of his so he got this ride for free. Yay! Good way to start vacay.

 

We arrived at POM terminal C by noon. I had selected a noon embarkation time, so while there were a ton of people inside the terminal itself, getting in and through security was pretty painless and quick. We were in boarding

group 23 or 24 and only sat for a few minutes before our group was called. We were on the ship by 12:30 and were able to head straight to our cabin to drop off our carry ons. We had a family mini suite on deck 10, cabin 10976 starboard. Our room steward was cleaning as we arrived, but welcomed us in and asked if she could get us anything. We said no and got out of her way then headed to the Garden Café for lunch.

 

About our cabin.....it was very nicely appointed. Our bed was by the balcony and the kids had the sofa bed and bunk over it. I was a bit worried about putting a kid up on the top bunk as the railing did not look very big, but we never had a problem. In fact, we all slept great every single night of the cruise. Beds were super comfortable, pillows were nice and plentiful, and we always found everything cleaned and refilled. The storage was ok for our family, but really having one more closet of some sort would really go a long way in making the cabin truly family friendly. Our kids are little and so are their clothes....so I can't really imagine older kids and teens having to get stuff out of their suitcases (which we stored under the bed) every time they needed something out of them. And hooks....we could have used a few more hooks on that wall across from the bathroom for bags and such. Otherwise, our cabin was great. The bathroom set up is awesome!! Last time on the Epic hubby and I were on top of each other....that whole cabin was so much smaller. We really didn't feel cramped in this one at all.

 

Food:

We got the UDP for 3 nights when we booked this cruise, so we had Cagney's, Teppanyaki, and La Cucina. Had wonderful experiences at all 3. Never felt rushed or ignored and most of the time they made it a priority to get the kids' meals out to them first so they weren't waiting. We also enjoyed our meals in Taste/Savor and Garden Café never disappointed. It could get crazy in the café at times. Not sure why they put the salad dressings before the lettuce or why buns are smack dab in the middle of the burger/hot dog bar, but it makes it a big cluster when people are cutting you off to grab a bun so they can have it before they get to the burger. And of course, some people just have no clue how to maneuver a buffet line. It's an international mystery! lol

 

We did not spend much time hanging around the pool. We never could find any seating nearby, so all three sea days I just plunked our stuff on the bench across from the main kid's pool...it's not like we were going to be sitting much anyway. Our daughter spent most of her time in that kids pool and our son in the splash area. We made it onto the family tube slide and loved it. The yellow slide was way slow, but my 6 year old didn't seem to mind. Hubby, in the mean time, could have written a book in the time it took him to make it down! lol We did not do the drop slides. We did play the mini golf and hubby and daughter did the ropes course twice. They loved it! Arcade and bowling were expensive, so very little time was spent there. I think my son played one game of bowling and they both did a little of the arcade games but not much.

 

Kids went to the kids club (Splash Academy) a few afternoons, but would rather spend the time with us at the pool or playing Bingo. ;) We didn't win a damn thing, but not for lack of trying! The Escape Casino was very tight, or at least we thought so. As for the kids club, the kids seemed to enjoy it when they went. The Survivor night was a big hit with our kids. The only complaint we had was that the details regarding the final Splash Academy Talent Show was not made very clear. We kind of cleared our whole afternoon/evening to make sure the kids were in the kids club by 2:30 so they could participate in the show at 3 only to be told they couldn't because they didn't attend the mandatory rehearsal earlier in the morning. When I looked back on the dailies, it did mention practicing for the show, but it did not mention that is was mandatory and that if you wanted to be in the show you HAD to come to practice in the morning. We were a little bummed, but kids quickly got over it.

 

As for the entertainment on board, we loved all the comedians. The comedy and magic show was wonderful and the kids loved it, too. We were mostly at the 7 or 9pm PG-13/family shows. Some of the material went right over the 9 year old's head and usually the 6 year old fell asleep at some point, so we were pretty safe. ;) We went to Howl at the Moon several nights and we just really enjoy the venue and the music/comedy. We saw the welcome entertainment show and weren't totally impressed my the musical talent onboard so we did not get to any of the musical style shows. But the crew variety show was fun. Brenda Kaye the Hypnotist was brand new to the Escape and began her shows the day we boarded. Hubby and daughter went to the first show she had in the supper club and really enjoyed it. We went as a family on the last day of our cruise and I thought it was just ok. As this is a show that involves and revolves around audience participation, the show is only as funny as those who are participating. I felt the last group was kind of boring. And hubby and I thought one guy was faking it, as his movements and reactions were way exaggerated and it almost appeared as if he was responding before Brenda Kaye even told him what to do. It wasn't bad, just not as funny as I was expecting it to be.

 

Now, the parties....Norwegians really do know how to party! We attended both the 80s party and the Glow party with the kids. Both were phenominal and good times were had by all. The Glow party is nicely done, from decorations, to glowing cocktails and light sticks, CD & staff in brightly colored party gear and party music. We had a blast! I just wish it was either earlier in the evening or they had a family version earlier and an adult version later. A 10:15 start time is not family friendly. Not that it has to be, but this is NCL's most promoted party at sea. One we really wanted to go to as a family and we couldn't fully enjoy it cause our son fell asleep before it even started (we had watched a movie on the big screen before the party and just stayed in Spice H20) and our daughter, while having a good time, didn't like how loud the music was or how packed the dance floor got. The kids did have their own version in the kids club earlier in the evening, but it was advertised for kids only, not families.

 

Ports: We visited St. Thomas, Tortola and Nassau. All were new ports for us.

 

St. Thomas: We went to Coral World/Coki Beach on our own, and then on our way back to the pier we had them drop us at Paradise Point so we could take the tram up and have a late lunch. The morning was beautiful, but rain moved in after we left Coki and it was on and off for the rest of the afternoon. The kids enjoyed Coral World. What a beautiful place! The views were amazing. Coki Beach was nice, too, but crowded and we are not a fan of wall to wall people, which it was. Kids had fun playing in the sand/water, but hubby and I agree it is probably not the best beach for us. We did it mainly as a convenience since were already at Coral World and kids wanted to swim, but we didn't like being on top of others, even in the water it was crowded.

 

Tortola: We did a dolphin encounter through Dolphin Discovery and it was awesome! We got to touch, kiss, and hug the dolphin then she did some tricks and jumps for us. It was the perfect experience for the kids, but especially for our son. He was apprehensive and after seeing other groups swim and have the famous foot push with the dolphins, I knew we were right to do the encounter. He would have chickened out! Our guide was great, too, and we learned a lot about our dolphin and even got to touch her teeth. Lunch was included with our experience, so afterwards we had lunch before heading back to the pier.

 

Nassau: Wow, Nassau is crazy busy with 4 ships in port! Holy people! We had booked a day pass with the Melia, so we needed to get a taxi to get us there. We found a guy, but had to weave in and out of Nassau traffic on foot to get to his van. It was crazy! But once at Melia....ahh, paradise. What a beautiful, peaceful place. There were several pools, one of which had a waterfall and caves you could walk through. Another was zero entry with a small rapids, and yet another surrounded a big pool bar. The beach frontage is amazing, as well. Nice sandy beach, very few rocks, and soft warm sand....perfect. The water here was very warm, too, and so many shades of blue it's almost not real. There were a few vendors on the beach and our daughter did get her hair braided, but they were not very aggressive and a simple "no thank you" got them to leave you alone.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful cruise. Weather was nice and warm and we really only had one day of rain in St. Thomas. I did notice a bit more movement on the ship, like everyone else, but kind of got used to it. And there was a smoke smell near the casino, but it varied and sometimes it was barely noticeable while at other times it was very obvious. Once outside the casino area, I didn't really notice it at all. Service was good all around. We never waited long for food, never had an issue with getting what we wanted. Kids were always well taken care of. In fact, the one night at Savor our waiter actually cut up our daughter's meat for her when she was having trouble with her knife.

 

It would seem as if some of the earlier negatives people were experiencing are getting ironed out and the staff is getting into the grove of things on this ship. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for following along!

Edited April 18, 2016 by scrappinannie

[Clarea]

Nice writeup, thanks!

[Two Wheels Only]

He loves anything Minecraft and is totally into Super Heros, Ninja Turtles and playing hard.

 

Did he know about how the mini golf was supposed to look?...

 

[scrappinannie]

Did he know about how the mini golf was supposed to look?...

 

 

I know, right?! He did not know and we never told him so he's none the wiser, but it would have been nice if NCL still had ties to Nickelodeon. They don't even have Nick on the TV lineup anymore.

[Nator72]

Thank your for your review. It's very helpful as we will be gaveling with our son who is 10 and a first-timer. So glad you had such a great time.

[stviecruise]

Thanks for taking your time to write ur review :) 3 more weeks tell I sail her cant wait

[Cruzinbabe06]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review!:)

[scrappinannie]

So I forgot to mention a few things....First time reviewer!! lol

 

One is disembarkation once we were back in Miami. We had decided to walk off ourselves with our luggage at 10:00 am as we had a late afternoon flight out and were in no real rush to get to the airport. I had verified with guest services the night before that we would not be needing luggage tags and it would be okay to wait until the last group was called to disembark and they assured me that was fine. We had to be out of our cabins by 9 and breakfast service would also end at 9, so a few minutes before that we took all our stuff and headed down to deck 7 to hang out until our number was called, but upon seeing us sitting, a crew member directed us to the very short line and told us we were free to go now. Okay. Guess we're going. So we were off the ship and through customs shortly after 9. Took another Uber ride to the airport and were all checked in there by 10:30. I know people stress over early flights and everyone suggests not booking any flight out before noon, but I think something around noon would work just fine, especially if you do the earliest disembarkation which starts at 7:45 ish. Cabs and shuttles were plentiful at the port and we had Uber in under 10 minutes from first contact. I mean, anything can happen, but I can see it working. It stunk sitting around the airport all day. Our flight left at 3:55 as planned and after a long day of sitting around an airport we were glad to be home.

 

Second, our cabin steward was wonderful. Upon our request she took out the coffee maker so we could have more counter space and brought us an multi plug cord for hubby's c-pap. 3 outlets in the whole cabin?? Really?? And they were all by the desk, so nothing near the night stand where we needed it. So if you are traveling and need more than 3 outlets, might want to bring a multi plug of some sort.

 

Hubby and I got the Soda packages, kids just drank water and juice which is what they drink at home anyway so that was good. Sometimes getting soda in the Garden Café was a pain, but if I wanted one and knew that's where we were headed I'd try to get it at the bar just inside the café before we even sat down. We had a few adult beverages. Mainly wine and beer and bar service was never an issue.

 

We did dress up for one night for dinner. It was on our first sea day and we had reservations at Cagney's this night. We saw all levels of dress on any given night, so really you can wear what you want to dinner and no one really cares. I think only Le Bistro had a 'dress code" so to speak. This is what is so great about freestyle cruising and we always felt comfortable going into any dining room/restaurant in our shorts and sandals.

 

We had our pictures taken a few times through out the cruise and ended up buying the 20 photo package for $199. I added the USB for $14.95 and it's in the shape of a ship!:rolleyes: When you purchase the USB, a digital copy of the print release is included so you can print your pics at home in any size you want.

[scrappinannie]

Thank your for your review. It's very helpful as we will be gaveling with our son who is 10 and a first-timer. So glad you had such a great time.

 

You're welcome! Your 10 year old will have a blast. There's so much to do onboard and even if he never steps inside the kids club there is still plenty to keep him busy. My daughter really loved the ropes course. You can even zip line and walk the plank while on it, so if he's adventurous that will be right up his alley. Enjoy your cruise!

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your review!:)

 

You're welcome. :)

[Jim The Lizard]

Fun review!. Thanks for writing it up!

[Carolina Girl 99]

Nice review, sounds like your family enjoyed the cruise. We are going on our 2nd trip on Getaway this October, but hoping to sail Escape as well.

 

I live "just over the bridge" from Hilton Head Island, so hit me up if I can help out or get some info for you :)

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your well written review/report.

 

Keith

[scrappinannie]

Nice review, sounds like your family enjoyed the cruise. We are going on our 2nd trip on Getaway this October, but hoping to sail Escape as well.

 

I live "just over the bridge" from Hilton Head Island, so hit me up if I can help out or get some info for you :)

 

The Escape had some early negative reviews and we were hesitant to go on her, but she's a beautiful ship and there's so much to do. We hope to go on another cruise soon, this time with extended family, but getting everyone to agree on a ship is going to be difficult. Breakaway and Getaway are on our bucket list.

 

My brother in law and his wife moved to Hilton Head a year ago and we are thinking of visiting them this summer so I will let you know if we need any pointers. They love it there and are avid bikers and kayakers. Thank you for your nice comments.:)

[tmcabee]

Thanks for your review! I had a quick question, if you don't mind. We are a family of 4 as well (2 kids, 8 & 11) and considering getting the UDP as a promotion, but it only covers the adults. Do you know if there is a charge if the kids come too? I had read something about a "kids menu" at some of the specialty restaurants where they could eat for free, but wasn't sure exactly.

 

Thanks again!

[scrappinannie]

Thanks for your review! I had a quick question, if you don't mind. We are a family of 4 as well (2 kids, 8 & 11) and considering getting the UDP as a promotion, but it only covers the adults. Do you know if there is a charge if the kids come too? I had read something about a "kids menu" at some of the specialty restaurants where they could eat for free, but wasn't sure exactly.

 

 

 

Thanks again!

 

There is no charge for kids in the specialty restaurants as long as they order off the kids menu. The kids menu is the same throughout the ship, so it's the same menu offered at Taste/Savor/Manhanttan Room as it is it say, La Cucina. It's basic kids fare....hot dogs, hamburgers, mac and cheese, chicken strips, etc. They are more than welcome to order off the regular menu, but will be charged accordingly if they do. The one night our daughter did order a steak at Cagney's and we were charged full price for her meal as we were expecting.

[tmcabee]

Thank you! I had one other question. I know the Dolce Gelato shop is ala carte, but do they have any other complimentary areas for soft serve ice cream, etc? I read vague mention of it on the buffet, but wasn't sure if that was only a certain times...if at all.

[scrappinannie]

Thank you! I had one other question. I know the Dolce Gelato shop is ala carte, but do they have any other complimentary areas for soft serve ice cream, etc? I read vague mention of it on the buffet, but wasn't sure if that was only a certain times...if at all.

 

Soft serve was available in the Garden Café almost always. The only time we couldn't get it was early in the morning. Trust me...we tried.:eek: There is also hard serve ice cream and toppings also available in the Garden Café (complimentary) during that same time frame. The Gelato you do have to pay for but it's darn good. I may have had one before the comedy show one night......

[catgags]

Hi

Did you book Dolphin Discovery on your own or is it through the ship?

Glad you enjoyed your cruise! Thanks for sharing!!

Cat