Escape Review: First Time Cruiser, 10/8-10/15

[TenForward]

Hi everyone, There are many fabulous Escape reviews out there so I plan to be brief…but if you’re anything like I was leading up to my cruise, you read every one with anticipation, looking for any little bit of insight and really just to ease (or add to?) your excitement until your day. :D I’ll post some pictures but they’re pretty basic, taken with my cell phone.

 

As the title says, it was my first cruise (for DH too) so we have nothing to compare to other than past vacations in general.

 

Some background – DH and I are in our early 50’s and have enjoyed many beautiful beach vacations (we love to have our feet in the sand and can stare at the ocean for hours on end). We booked this cruise back in March for our Anniversary in October. We’ve been together 30 years (married for 10) so wanted to do something special to celebrate.

 

After 7 months of planning, waiting and planning some more… the countdown had begun! Just 4 days left… and now Hurricane Matthew was forecast to hit a hairs-breath north of Miami... After receiving an email from our airline telling us we could make changes without penalty (we were scheduled to fly into FLL from NJ on Friday night) we decided to rent a car and drive a westerly route (with a stop at mom’s in SC) to FL. We were afraid if we waited, our flight would be canceled and then we’d miss our window to drive. We got a GREAT deal from Enterprise for $10/day rental with unlimited mileage and no drop-off fee for our one way rental. We paid $34.00 with taxes, etc.

 

We left Thursday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. and got into SC at 5:00 a.m., slept until 10:00 a.m.; gave mom a hug and were on our way again. We had no trouble at all with finding gas (I’d heard there were some issues with gas stations being out in FL) and hit only a little bit of rain/wind. We took Alligator Alley across to Miami, arriving about 1:30 a.m. When we were almost there, we learned our flight from NJ left as scheduled :p Ah well…it was nice to see mom – even for a minute. We also got an email from the Upsell Dept. offering us an H7 Haven Penthouse for $500/each. I think that’s a pretty good deal (??) but we decided not to do it. It was our first cruise and we just wanted to experience it -- and we weren’t really sure what we’d do with a butler, LOL.

 

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard/Brickell – nice, convenient and reasonable. Our plan was to be up early and to port by 9:00 because I’d read so much about VIBE and we really wanted this to be part of our cruise experience.

 

Long story short – Morning calls from credit card company about possible fraudulent charges and getting VERY lost trying to return the rental car in the a.m. – we finally arrived POM at 10:30 a.m.

 

 

Frazzled and annoyed, we were holding our “Boarding Group 7” pass and grumbling through our “Welcome Aboard” photo, LOL. It had already been a looong couple of days and what was supposed to be fun morning had started out pretty stressful. BUT, we finally had our first cup of coffee and before we could even finish we were being called to board – yay!!

 

We went directly downstairs to Headliners to get in line for *fingers crossed* Vibe passes.

 

 

On board, Vibe passes secured, it was time to finally relax! We settled into the waterfront with our first drinks (UBP) and to send a few final texts before we lost contact…

 

 

A few pictures of Vibe… [next post as it says I have too many pictures already] What a great place to relax – misters, shower, hot tub, private bar and these nice loungers. And of course, the great guys who took care of us, Rommel and “Minion”. Rommel was leaving the ship on 10/15 for his 2 month break. Good for him!

 

We explored the ship a bit before it was announced cabins were ready. We went to ours -- 13790 and unpacked before heading to muster. An early dinner at Pincho’s (delicious!) and then we watched Sail Away from Vibe. What a gorgeous night!

 

 

DH likes to relax at night with a decent glass of port (non-existent on the ship), a good cigar and a book. I had hoped he’d be able to take advantage of the Cigar Bar for this in the evenings while I explored the ship or sat on the balcony. Unfortunately, the Cigar Bar was packed with very drunk cigarette smokers... not what either of us envisioned. That space is just too small for that many people. We decided we'd look for a new spot tomorrow.

 

A nighttime snack in the buffet and we were ready for bed. It had been an exhausting few days!

 

This was likely my longest post… I have a few more comments and pictures I’ll post tomorrow. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them if I can.

Edited October 24, 2016 by TenForward

[TenForward]

Vibe:

 

 

 

 

[easyboy]

Great start on a review of a first time cruiser. Will be following along.

[StlGal]

Great start! Interested in hearing more from a "newbies" perspective. Thanks for sharing!

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for taking the time to share your review with us.

[SMSACE6]

thanks for your review. I am looking forward to reading more:)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[TenForward]

Sorry, I had hoped to post more yesterday. For anyone still reading...

 

 

Our first morning we had coffee on the balcony – so relaxing! And the blueberry muffins through room service are delicious! We saw dolphins jumping alongside the ship (thank you little boy from a nearby balcony for yelling that out or we would have missed them). A little while later we saw a shark skimming along the top of the water – that was cool. And creepy. We noticed on the navigation channel that we were taking a more southerly route, just offshore from Cuba. This was likely due to Hurricane Nicole. I found I really enjoyed having the “View from the Bridge” (muted) whenever we were in the cabin.

 

We attended the cc M&G at Cagney’s. It looked like a good turnout of about 30 people (maybe more). Thank you SeaShark for setting that up! The Washy-Washy guys were there and boy did they put on a show! Senior Officers attended and were more than happy to answer questions. One of them was celebrating a birthday so we had a ‘new’ cakey-cakey song…

 

 

Since our cabin was pretty far forward, we were conveniently just a few decks down from Vibe, but FAR from the buffet. *Newbie Tip*: We quickly learned it’s much easier to travel Bow to Stern using the cabin corridors (follow those fish!) and then popping out into the hall to take the stairs or elevator. I appreciated that the carpeting changes color when you reach the stairs. Little things like that made it easier to navigate.

 

That night was dinner at the Supper Club to see the Frankie Valli tribute – great show! We thought the dinner was fine but not quite enough so we hit the buffet later that night.

 

We’re Giants fans and they were playing that night so we stopped by the District to check things out – it was early yet, around 5:00, I think, and asked about watching the game later. We were told no, they would be having music that night (music was listed on the Daily as well) and we were bummed that such a great spot to watch a game would not be showing it! The Daily showed the game was being shown Pool Side and I thought that could actually be fun -- watching the game under the stars on the big screen. (We learned the next day that they DID show the game at District and it had a great turnout with lots of cheering and yelling and just fun rivalry. We were really bummed we missed it!)

 

Anyway, still on Sunday night, so DH and I went to Wave’s bar a deck above the pool to scout out a good viewing spot for the game when the Captain made an announcement that there was an emergency and there would be a helicopter evacuation. The Coast Guard arrived making several (5 maybe?) attempts flying around the ship for about 15 minutes before actually flying directly overhead for the evac. The blowback was crazy – sending ashtrays, cups, napkins, all flying across the deck. The helicopter hovered above the helipad at the bow but didn’t land (I thought it would)… instead it dropped a rope & a basket. They made two trips with the basket (not sure why the 2nd basket unless for family member) and then the Guard Member climbed up the rope and they flew off. Everyone on deck waved to the departing helicopter and family – as a way to say – hope all’s well, or God Speed – along those lines. It was sad to think what that poor family was going through. I was a bit surprised they hadn’t asked passengers to vacate that deck – or at least head aft while this took place. Perhaps it’s just logistically too difficult to do but it seemed like one wrong move and there could have been a really big disaster.

 

 

 

We ended the night back on our balcony with our eReaders and just enjoying the sound of the waves.

 

 

Monday

 

Early morning coffee on the balcony (did I say this was my favorite spot to be?). Spent the day in Vibe and chatted with some very friendly people from all over – many of them drove in as well, some from Chicago and Minnesota!

 

I found the best free coffee onboard is set-up on the Waterfront near Wine Cellars

 

 

Dinner at Moderno. Food was delicious and service was excellent. I love Caipirinha’s and the Strawberry one was fabulous! We have a Rodizio Brazilian steakhouse near us and enjoy going there – I’m going to see if they’ll make me my new favorite drink :D

 

Chocolate Covered Strawberries in our room from the Hotel Director. We got another delivery later in the week with more strawberries and chocolate candies and another tray of goodies from the guys in Vibe.

 

I noticed a lot of motion that night with ship. Fortunately didn’t feel nauseous but things were moving pretty good.

 

Tuesday St. Thomas

 

 

We took a taxi to Sapphire Beach $20.00 for the 2 of us. Rented chairs and snorkel gear. The beach was nice, not too crowded but it started pouring after about an hour. Everyone crammed under the tikihut bar and just hung out with drinks for 30-40 minutes until it stopped. DH loved the snorkeling there. He saw tons of cool fish and 2 eagle rays.

 

Back to the ship and Food Republic for dinner. As other’s have noted – there’s some really delicious food to be had here. Newbie Tip: When you pay (using the tablet thing), it automatically adds not just the tip; but an extra tip as well. So just be aware of that. We are good tippers, my husband especially will go way over for good food & service, but this kind of thing is annoying. Adding in the tip, fine. It’s easier for everyone. But adding in Additional Tip? Nope.

 

We wanted ice cream from the Dolce place on the Waterfront but it wasn’t open. We only found it open once the entire cruise, so up to the buffet for a dessert – or two!

 

Back to the balcony for reading and waves.

 

One thing we noticed (and were prepared for because of reviews here) was that there were masses of people *everywhere* – but that only lasted for the first 2 or 3 days… then they seemed to practically disappear.

 

I loved just standing Aft and enjoying the view:

 

Edited October 25, 2016 by TenForward

[JillL]

Following... great review so far!

[easyboy]

That was a pretty good turnout on your M&G. Following.

[Jay west]

Following...how is the wifi on board?

[laedw]

I am following along. I love your pictures. I, too, will be a newbie on this ship so I'm taking notes. Thank you for your review.

[TenForward]

Thanks for your feedback and support! I'm still hoping to post more pics tonight but Photobucket is no cooperating :(

 

 

Jay West - I didn't use wifi on the ship... we took the UBP and SDP. Unfortunately, most reviews of the wifi have not been good. Oh, I did try using the iConcierge App but could never get it to work - that could have been my phone's fault, IDK. Crashed every time.