My View: NCL Escape - Did she top the charts?

[APDMOM]

Thanks for all the positive comments and for following along! I will respond to a few questions and post all of day 4 next.

 

:)

[APDMOM]

Loving your review new to cruising we got our first on the dawn in March I'm hoping someone does this kind of review from her. You said you've done the dawn. I'd love to hear your opinion of that ship I do understand it's had a recent dry dock and things have changed but I enjoy your attention to detail which is awesome for first time cruisers.

 

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Hi, James! I did a similar review of Dawn in January 2012. Yes, much will have changed, but if you are interested in my "back then" info, some of this may be helpful:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1540036

 

Also, I had a thread with many Dawn pictures here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1536934

 

We really enjoyed the Dawn also. We just prefer larger, newer ships. However, if the price is right we will gladly go on Dawn again. :)

[APDMOM]

Great review! I remember reading your Royal reviews, and am interested in your NCL review. We've been on Allure as well, but with pricing I am always looking at others and the Escape catches my eye. It looks fantastic for kids with the waterpark areas (younger and older kids).

 

One question...how do you find the entertainment compares to Oasis/Allure? That's the one area I wonder if I'll be disappointed if we stray to NCL...especially after Allure.

 

Hi, LuCruise,

 

We really look for family friendly entertainment on a ship. I found the talent on Escape much better, and the entertainment in public areas was great. However, they did not have many family friendly shows in the main lounge. We did not even go to The Brat Pack, since it is PG 16 - Based upon some reviews, I decided it is not my cup of tea. So, to us, the Royal Caribbean shows are better - you cannot beat the ice shows in my opinion :) I just wish Royal Caribbean would get better lead singers...

 

Oh, we also attended the comedy and magic of Harry Maurer - it was very poor compared with the comedy/magic shows we have seen on Royal Caribbean.

 

So, although the overall entertainment is better on Royal Caribbean, we were adequately entertained by the public area musicians (especially Port Royal and Howl at the Moon).

[APDMOM]

Loving your review! December can't get here fast enough. Thank you for taking the time to share pics. I loved the water slide video. Now I'm not so afraid [emoji15]

 

Definitely nothing to be afraid of :) It is slow and fun! (Now, I cannot report on the aqua loop - that was too scary for me to even attempt. :eek:

[James_Elmore]

Thank you much appreciated you do good work!

 

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[APDMOM]

Good morning, Day 4!

 

 

Hello there, little island in the sun! St Thomas must be close...

 

[APDMOM]

Let’s take a walk this morning on deck 7 and 8:

 

Tip: If you plan on eating at Le Bistro, be aware that the ‘outside’ seating is in the atrium, below the Casino. You will have a lot of foot traffic, noise, and some smoke from the Casino. If you want a more quiet atmosphere, ask for the inside seating. We did not eat here, but just observed these issues as we passed close to people trying to have dinner and conversation. Note in the second picture where the rope is right up to the table. People walk, and sometimes linger right by those tables.

 

 

 

Bayamo, Sugar Cane Bar and the Tapas Bar are on deck 8, so it is one deck above the casino. It is also close to the open area, so smoke does travel up here during casino open hours. Don’t get me wrong. It was not extreme (I experienced much worse on Carnival Liberty by the casino), but if you are sensitive to the smell of smoke, just be aware.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM
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[APDMOM]

Unfortunately, Bowling at O’Sheehan’s is not free. It will cost you $5 per game. It was not a high priority to us. If it were free, we probably would have played at least a couple of games on port days. I just did not want to spend $5 this time.

 

 

 

 

We liked eating in this back area of O’Sheehan’s. There are some larger booths that can accommodate 6-8 (depending on how crowded you want to be). There are also booths for 4-6. If we did not sit on the barstools overlooking the entertainment in atrium, we preferred this section.

 

 

One note on O’Sheehan’s: The bar is not the best. We bought a couple of DOD’s there, and quickly realized they were pretty weak. They also did not know how to make a good peach long island iced tea. The Atrium Bar became our preferred venue to get a Drink of the Day.

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

On the topic of drinks: We did not get the special Unlimited Beverage Package. Our guarantee cabin did not “include” this. If we did want to add the special, we would have had to book a higher category balcony for about $650 more. It was therefore not worth the ‘upsell’ to us.

 

The prices of drinks were much higher than I remembered, but the Drink of the Day was still okay at $9.38, gratuity included. Drink glasses were smaller than Royal Caribbean’s, for those who are familiar with RC drinks...

 

Here is a sample of the menu at the Atrium Bar:

 

 

 

PS: For those who are interested, the large latte was $4.66 (gratuity included) at the Atrium Café. That does not include any syrup or flavoring.

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM
tips, add PS

[APDMOM]

Moving on with our ship tour:

 

The Cellars Wine Bar: (Deck 8, across from Pincho Tapas Bar)

 

 

 

 

 

Tobacco Road: (This is an area I think they can clean better. There is a permanent stale tobacco/smoke smell. I don’t know what Royal Caribbean uses in their Cigar Lounge, but they do a much better job of cleaning out the stale smell)

 

 

[APDMOM]

On another “drink” note: In 21 cruises, this is the first time we did the ‘free' liquor tasting… Yes, it is free, but we could not resist this… $40 cruise budget set-back! We bought two Sheridan’s Coffee Liqueur. Oh so good (and a nice souvenir)!

 

On a side note: You cannot take the drink to your cabin. They deliver it the night before you disembark. Our room steward delivered our bottles at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday night.

 

A few shops… I did not take many pics here. It was always busy when open, and hard to get pictures when closed.

 

Tip: On the last sea day, they sell T-Shirts at a price of 2 for $20. They are nice enough quality for the price, and they have a good variety of designs for all the ports you visit on the cruise.

 

 

 

 

La Cucina:

 

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM
Side note

[APDMOM]

Headliners:

 

 

 

Teppanyaki:

 

This is one venue we had planned on splurging on. However, we found the free food options so tasty that we decided to skip. I could not get an inside picture, as the door was closed. I only took one through the window:

 

 

[APDMOM]

Moving on from our ship tour to St. Thomas.

 

Beautiful port and area!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

We had been here several times, so we hopped off the ship just to get a few pictures in our favorite spots. Unfortunately, there were a lot of large yachts in town, so we could not quite get the pictures we were looking for. Here are a few from port:

 

 

 

Around here is where we usually get a nice family picuture with the ship. Yachts were blocking the view this time:

 

 

As we were walking back, our next ship came in :D We will be on Carnival Magic in November:

 

 

Tip: If you want free wifi (with the purchase of a coffee or smoothie), just turn left at the end of the dock, and enter this shopping center. It has a coffee shop with free wifi for customers:

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM
tip

[APDMOM]

That guy is on our future balcony :D

 

 

A view of Carnival Magic from Escape:

 

 

We saw a few seaplanes take off and land:

 

 

Healthy lunch on a cruise? LOL! I opted for a few favorites from the Garden Café. The Empanada was the best I ever had.

 

[APDMOM]

Let’s go straight from lunch to dinner:

 

Manhattan Dining Room:

 

We ate here 3 nights of the week, which is very unusual for us. We normally do not miss an MDR dinner, unless we want to skip dressing up for formal night. The meals in Manhattan were excellent, but the timing of the ship leaving port often seemed to interfere with our dinner reservations.

 

Tip: If you like both sailaway and dining in the MDR, carefully coordinate your dining reservations. We did not have that option, since most of the prime times had been booked. You do not necessarily need a reservation, though. You may just need to wait a while to be seated.

 

Some dinner selections:

 

Steak:

 

 

Pepper pot (great soup!):

 

 

Caesar Salad (comes with Anchovis - DH’s favorite salad):

 

 

Some chicken meal (can’t remember):

 

 

Turkey with stuffing and such: It was good, but not quite as good as on Oasis/Allure

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Tip: If you want to take a course to go, just ask. They will let you take it out with a cover over the plate. Our son wanted to eat in the room one night. DH and I gladly agreed, as it afforded us a date :D Our waiter brought his steak out when we finished our dessert. It was fresh and hot, served on the balcony...

 

Warm Chocolate Lava Cake

 

 

Trifle (another great dessert!):

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Our view at the end of day 4: St. Thomas

 

 

 

We really wanted to get to a forward spot on the ship to catch the full moon rise. We could not find a single way to get forward for the view. These chairs were perpetually blocking the forward area of the ship when the pools were closed. Even in the morning, I could never get forward on the outer decks of the ship. That is one thing that really bugged me, as an avid photographer who loves catching moonrise pictures:

 

[APDMOM]

That is it for now... Working on Day 5 pictures. :)

[Two Wheels Only]

For a forward view, head to deck 19.

[APDMOM]

For a forward view, head to deck 19.

 

 

 

Thanks for the input. However, that is exactly where the chairs were blocking our way (that picture is on deck 19). During the day, you could get there, but it was always blocked in the early morning and evenings. I cannot even think why they would close that area off.

 

 

 

Here is another view of the offending stack of chairs :D

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by APDMOM

[jdmerck]

I am so loving your review and all your tips, we leave in Oct and this will be our first with NCL only have done Royal and Princess so this is helping me...

[wildtky101]

Following along

 

 

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[Two Wheels Only]

I see.

On the other side of 19 (Haven side), the front is open in the early morning. I didn't know that the public side was blocked.

[Hawks LOB]

Tip: I always pack these heavy duty magnets for hats, jackets, wet swim stuff, etc. They work in the room and the bathroom, even in the shower, since most of the walls are metal. To my surprise, the walls by the bed were not metal, so I could not hang my flashlight by the bed. This may also be why we could hear our neighbors. Apparently, NCL builds the room divider walls differently than other ships. This is the first time I encountered a non-metal wall between rooms. This only applied to the wall on the bed’s side. The other one was metal.

 

 

 

Where did you buy the magnetic hooks? We cruised the Escape in April and I tried to find some before our trip, but couldn't find them anywhere! Love your review! :)