Escape Review 5/28 - 6/4

[Mandy412]

It seems so lame to write a review about the Escape after Gambee broke the internet with his amazing breakdown. That being said, I need to re-live this trip because I am sad it's over.

 

Background: This cruise was made possible by my Mummy’s play at Caesars. We were gifted an inside room but upgraded to a balcony. So this trip consisted of me (Mandy), Megan (my sissy), and Colleen (Mummy). This is my second cruise, first being on the Getaway last Thanksgiving and first for Megan and Mum. I’ll do this review in sections:

 

Pre-Cruise Stuff:

 

If you aren’t familiar with Uber, get familiar with it. It’s an affordable and fast way to get around Miami without worry about being long hauled and ripped off. The night before the cruise we stayed at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon near the airport. They have a free shuttle to the hotel from the airport but next time, I will take an Uber because it takes forever for the shuttle to come around, we waited probably 45 minutes for that puppy as we must have just missed it.

 

The Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon is clean with friendly staff. It’s in walking distance to stores so it was easy to get water for the cruise at Walgreens and there are food places in walking distance even though we uber’ed it to Café Versailles for Cuban food. The only drawback to the hotel is that we had to switch rooms as there was a family freaking playing Chopped in their suite and fried some damn chicken in their room and stunk up the entire floor. When we told the manager, he wasn’t surprised, apparently these people are living their while relocating and cook stinky food all the time.

 

On to the important stuff!

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation:

 

Embarkation was a breeze as we arrived at 11am and there was no line at check in. Big difference from when I checked in on the Getaway and waited 45 minutes in line. We were assigned Group 12 which was fine as we had no interest in spending on the Vibe passes. They started calling numbers promptly at noon. It was nice getting on the ship early and taking advantage of everything before sailaway. I think we drank everywhere at least one time Saturday afternoon.

 

Disembarkation was a clusterf*ck. I don’t know what was up with customs but someone was in a bad mood and the line sucked. We knew something was up when they suspended the Walk Off program mid-way and restarted it about a half hour or 45 minutes later. It took us 90 minutes from lining up to get off the ship to getting outside to catching our ride. We waited and waited and waited because customs was backed up. No bueno. On a positive note, the customs officer we had was soooo good looking. Megan flirted and I died laughing.

[Mandy412]

Cabin:

We had room 14770 which was a great room as it was not far from the elevators. Mum needs her knees replaced and had major back surgery last year so walking long distances and standing for long periods is rough on her. I’d definitely choose this room again for location. This is a balcony room and we had no issues with having enough room for 3 adults in it. The bathroom had enough room for one of us to shower while someone else was brushing teeth, etc. There was a good amount of room to totally unpack even though Megan didn’t and just pulled out her suitcase everyday. Mummy and I completely unpacked and we needed more hangers but otherwise had more than enough space for our things.

 

TIP: Take advantage of the laundry special on day 1 like I did and get your clothes pressed for 50% off. I think it was $17 for me to get all of my clothes pressed and it was well worth it because my mom and sis cheaped out and then played hell getting an ironing board. It took 3 tries to actually get it and then who feels like ironing on vacation?!

 

Food/Drinks:

 

Mum and Megan had the UBP/UDP. I bought the Corks and Caps and 4 dinner specialty package since their special was only for 2 people (boo hiss). I had the UBP on the Getaway and loved it but no way I was paying $79/day for it and I don’t really drink liquor. Beer and wine are my thing so the Corks and caps was perfect for me and I do believe I drank my worth (and then a lot more). Now I asked a few weeks ago about mimosa being on the corks and caps plan and you guys were right, they are not included which makes no sense since Corks and Caps covers sparkling wine and juice. Just not together in a glass. I had a couple of nice waiters hook it up so I didn’t have to do it manually myself.

 

In terms of food, the specialty places blow the regular dining rooms out of the water. On the Getaway, I only ate in the main dining rooms and thought the food was fine. It is but now having had Le Bistro, Cagneys, Teppanyaki, and La Cucina, the regular food seemed like catered food from a wedding. Okay but nothing special.

 

The service at all places was amazing. I don’t know what else some of you want. These people work their butts off and most have such a good attitude. I was happy with everyone. We didn’t have problems in specialty or MDRs with receiving drinks/food in a timely manner.

 

If I can figure out how to upload pics, I’ll do some food porn pics. The lobster at Le Bistro was heavenly and the one I had at Teppanyaki was HUGE. I had a veal chop at Cagney’s that was perfectly cooked and tasty. The creamed spinach there lacked seasoning but everything else was top notch. As for La Cucina, we’re Italian and live for Italian food. For those that said it was like an Olive Garden, you’re nuts. Was it the quality of my Nonna’s food? Nope but it sure wasn’t as bad as Olive Garden. My favorite thing there was the grilled polenta with mushroom sauce as a side.

 

If you have specific food/drink questions, just ask!

 

Ship activities:

Tyler Gray was the cruise director and we loved him. He was high energy, approachable, funny, and you could tell he loved his job. I have a picture with him. I didn’t get to take advantage of any of the activities on the Getaway because I was with a group of 40 for a wedding and there was lots of family stuff my best friend had to do. This time, we did a lot and had a ball. Don’t miss the Newlywed/Not-so-Newlywed game show and the Ultimate Dance Off. Between Rommel and Paul Newman along with the cruise passenger contestants dancing, I almost peed my pants laughing.

 

I tied with a woman on Michael Jackson trivia (19 out of 20) and won a prize! I missed the 80s party which was my fave on the Getaway because my sister had a headache (boo hiss) but I know that was fun. We played Deal or no Deal twice and that was an affordable fun game. Bingo on the other hand is entirely too expensive. We played it twice….The only reason we played it a second time is because I won $1304 on a penny slot and got my first hand pay (yay). The other thing that sucked about bingo is that kids can win off free cards.

 

We also watched the teppanyaki demo and the towel folding demo which was fun. We listened to piano music with Darren quite a few times which sounds boring but he’s a nice kid and I was living for his clothes (he wore ponchos and long sleeved hoodies with dress pants and dress shoes).

 

Golden Octaves was great and we listened to the Soul Music Experience with Robert and he did a Prince set (Prince is my all time favorite) and omg, it was amazing. When they did Purple Rain, I could have cried, the guitarist was so good.

 

We went to two comedy shows with Frank and he was hilarious. We did one with kids and one kid free and both were great. I was surprised at the level of talent for a cruise ship but that just shows I’m a cruise novice. ☺

 

Spa/Thermal Suite:

We pre-purchased 2 of the 3 thermal suite passes and got the last one on the first day. It worked out that we had to go to buy it because they told us about a raffle they were having at 6pm that night. We went and Megan won a $150 spa certificate! I was so happy for her. While we weren’t planning to do any spa treatments since the thermal suite is more than enough, they had a special on massages that you got an extra 25 minutes free if you got it Saturday night/Sunday morning. Then my sister got a facial with her certificate and once I hit on the slot machine, I broke down and got a facial as well. We did both on port days to make our money go farther.

[BirdTravels]

Thanks for starting your review. Looking forward to reading more about the cruise. Where was your balcony room?

[Mandy412]

The snow room was working and it was heavenly when we floated between the sauna and steam room and the snow rooms. Interesting thing was that I complained about the amount of chlorine in the hot tub on the Getaway and it seemed much less on the Escape. I met a woman in the Salt Room that had spoken to a spa attendant that confirmed that there is less chlorine used in the Escape’s hot tubs than on the Getaway. So does that mean the Getaway passengers are inherently more funky to require the extra chlorine?

 

So the day we left Tortola, we did our sailaway from the heated seats in the spa and it was a lovely view backing out. There are more heated seats on the Escape and we were always able to get one, usually not together but we got them.

 

 

Ports:

 

We went to Magen’s Bay in St. Thomas and it was breathtaking. The sun also lit our a$$es up! We got sunburned and poor Mummy is still radiating heat from her back. I didn’t think the crowds were bad at this beach and RC and Carnival were in port as well. We did trip on our own and it was $8/person for the cab and $6 for entry to the beach but it was well worth it.

 

It was overcast in Tortola and rained a little so we walked around the pier and window shopped instead of hitting up Cane Garden Bay. I’m sure this is going to be beautiful when it’s finished but there’s not much to do.

 

It’s my second time in Nassau and I’m over it. We paid to do an NCL excursion, the Discover Atlantis and Beach Break. It was $89 and wayyyyyyy overpriced. So it was a holiday in Nassau that day and there was a parade going on so we waited forever to get out of the cruise port to get to Atlantis. Once we got to Atlantis, it’s beautiful and we headed to the beach. The beach is lovely but I was tired of getting hucked by people selling drinks, junk, and other stuff. You’re trying to relax and they never freaking stop. It’s annoying and then you feel bad because you know they’re probably poor and need the money but I don’t want cheapo anklet. Ugh. Anyway.

 

So if anyone that was at the beach is reading this, I wonder if you saw the Colleen and Mandy bite the dust show? When we were at the beach in Nassau, we went in the water and we didn’t even go in far but the water was aggressive and flung our fat a$$es like rag dolls. Then it pulled us back out and I finally was trying to get up and got knocked down again. Long story short, lifeguards had to help us get up. I know it must have been a sight. I lost my Prada sunglasses but luckily they washed in and the lifeguard got them for me.

 

Miscellaneous:

 

All in all, it was an amazing trip. This solidified my new love of cruising and I bought CruiseNext certificates and can't wait for the next one. Megan and my Mum are converts and bought CruiseNext certificates as well. I was sad I missed the meet and greet.

 

Oh, two other things about food....we called the buffet the slophouse. It was turrible with too much traffic in the mornings. We went once for breakfast and by the time we found a table, everything was cold. We did go there late night for snacks and that was easy and not so crazy.

 

O'Sheehans is nothing special but the wings are good and the breakfast is a better option than the slophouse if you missed the MDR times.

 

We made friends with some of the staff and one young man in particular was just an absolute blast. He was funny and friendly and gave us real insight into what life is like for the cruise staff. It's hard work but they do it with a smile...I doubt I'd be nearly as chipper.

 

I liked the itinerary of the Getaway more with 4 stops. I enjoyed the sea days but one less for a stop would be good. That being said, I didn't care for ending on a port day. I wish Nassau had been Thursday and Friday been a sea day. I can't wait to figure out what our next cruise will be....I wouldn't mind sailing the Getaway again so we will see. I appreciate all of everyone's tips because they saved us money and helped us make the most of our vacation. I'm sure I'll continue to post things as I remember them.

[Mandy412]

Thanks for starting your review. Looking forward to reading more about the cruise. Where was your balcony room?

 

Starboard side Forward. We literally were only 3 rooms away from the Forward lobby with the elevators. It wasn't as noisy as I thought it might be and it sure was convenient.

[Mandy412]

One more thing, my editorial....For those of you reading reviews and are scared, do not be scared. The Escape is a beautiful ship and it's a great time. I don't know what these people want that do all of this complaining. Was there smoke in the casino? Yes, but we are gamblers and are used to it and didn't think it was that bad. The balcony was a fine size for two people. I didn't think it was as small as everyone else but I"m a new cruiser so I'm not used to anything bigger. I think Norwegian has a great product and I love the freestyle concept. Yes, reservations are necessary but you still do what you want, when you want it and I feel like I'm too spoiled to do it any other way.

 

For those of you that think the service is bad, I'm not sure if you want your own slave because everyone bent over backwards to give us a good experience. I mean when we were at Cagney's, one of the managers delivered drinks to our table without us asking...he actually remembered what drinks we had the day before at lunch in Taste and replicated it perfectly for Cagneys. Total amazeballs.

[UFMOM]

Great review! Thanks for posting. We will be on the Escape 7/9. Glad you liked the food. We are eating in the specialties for 6 nights and Food Republic one night. Still debating on the spa pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Ann

[Mandy412]

Great review! Thanks for posting. We will be on the Escape 7/9. Glad you liked the food. We are eating in the specialties for 6 nights and Food Republic one night. Still debating on the spa pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Ann

 

 

Shoot, I forgot to say we ate at Food Republic! It was well worth the money! I love eating lots of different things and everything we tried was delicious. I especially liked the Kimchee fried rice and the short rib dumplings.

[Two Wheels Only]

Cabin:

We had room 14770 which was a great room as it was not far from the elevators. .

 

For informative purposes, was it "bed by balcony" or "bed by bathroom"?

Edited June 5, 2016 by Two Wheels Only

[Mandy412]

For informative purposes, was it "bed by balcony" or "bed by bathroom"?

 

bed by bathroom and closet

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[JimAOk1945]

I enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for taking the time to post your comments. Happy cruising in the future wherever you go!

[Clarea]

Nice review, thanks!

[Keith1010]

Nice review.

 

Keith

[bam1957]

Wonderful review. I appreciate your candor.

[cruisetimeforme]

Thanks for your review, it was interesting. I'm wondering what entrees you ordered in La Cucina as I've never eaten there due to the bad reviews. This time around we've decided to give it a try so we can form our own opinion. Thanks

[Mandy412]

Thanks for your review, it was interesting. I'm wondering what entrees you ordered in La Cucina as I've never eaten there due to the bad reviews. This time around we've decided to give it a try so we can form our own opinion. Thanks

 

I had the spinach and ricotta tortellini and my mum and sis had the rigatoni with red sauce. All of us were full and satisfied. We all got the insalata mista and for dessert, they had cheesecake and I had tiramisu. Yum!

[JessMCee]

Great review! Thanks for posting. We will be on the Escape 7/9. Glad you liked the food. We are eating in the specialties for 6 nights and Food Republic one night. Still debating on the spa pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Ann

 

 

I agree! Great review! We will be on 7/9 too!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[cruisetimeforme]

Thanks Mandy!

[Turtler19]

Great review! thanks for posting! Happy Cruising!

[NancyK]

We leave on the Escape - 9/17 - can't wait - thanks for the great review.

 

Nancy

[Mandy412]

You will adore it!