Escape: Dec 3-10 Review

[eatdrinkfly]

Just back from a great cruise on the Norwegian Escape... thank you so much to everyone that answered questions and posted reviews, we picked up some great knowledge that really helped out in our planning.

 

Here's a (somewhat) brief overview of what we experienced... I'm happy to answer specific questions about our trip, so please feel free to post them to me!

 

Our crew: 7 of us in 3 mini-suites.

- husband and I (we're pretty frequent cruisers)

- husband's sister, her husband and 2 boys 14 & 11 (first cruise, frequent travelers)

- mother in law (first cruise - does not travel often)

 

Embarkation: no issues to speak of... arrived around noon, waited maybe 15 minutes in line and then boarded straight away. rooms were not ready yet, so we headed to the buffet. got the announcement around 1:30pm that the rooms were ready.

 

Staterooms: we loved the mini-suites! having that big bathroom was awesome and my husband and i loved that we could actually shower together like we would at home instead of in shifts. our balcony was a nice size, as was the stateroom. beds comfy, steward did a great job keeping the ice stocked and the space spic and span. for the first time cruisers, they were pleasantly surprised at the cabin size and even the quad occupancy group didn't feel overly crammed in. the younger kid loved the top bunk.

 

Specialty Dinning: we all had the 4-dinner package. pre-booked La Cuccina, Le Bistro, Moderno and Teppanyaki. husband and i also ate in Bayamo, Pincho (tapas while we were in the wine bar one night), Margaritaville (cheeseburgers for lunch) and Food Republic.

IMO, the best meal was in Bayamo. just excellent from start to finish. But, the whole family loved the other meals we had together, La Cuccina & Le Bistro deemed the best for food, but Moderno and Teppanyaki ranked high for entertainment value. The rest of the crew mostly ate in the buffet or O'Sheehan's and said the food in the specialty dinning was noticeably better by a large margin, which I agreed with.

The only specialty dinning that was a "miss" for us was Food Republic. I was so excited to try it after reading rave reviews, but we were very disappointed with the quality & taste and thought the price point was pretty high compared to Pincho (also "small bites" style tapas). Full disclosure, we come from a city was some of the best Asian cuisine outside of Asia, so maybe our standards were too high. But in particular, the sushi seemed crazy expensive; $7-$10 USD ($10-$13 CAD) for a roll that we would have paid $5 CAD for at home seemed outrageous.

The Margaritaville Burger was definitely the best burger I had onboard - totally worth the $6.99 and we loved that we could get Land Shark Lager with it.

 

Regular dinning: O'Sheehan's, Manhattan Room and buffet. we had one dinner at Manhattan room and it was far and away the worst dinner of the trip. Not necessarily "bad food", but noticeably less in quality than specialty dinning and really salty. great service though. Buffet was solid, IMO one of the better cruise ship buffets I've had. O'Sheehan's wings were SO GOOD! The Jamaican Jerk was a favourite, but the Buffalo were a good choice as well. breakfast there was nothing to write home about... and the sandwiches and burgers were fine, they did the job but were kind of like food-court food.

 

Bars: We all had the drink package, and the MIL & SIL preferred blender drinks, which not every bar had. Sometimes they had to try 2 or 3 different bars to find one that would make a mudslide or a bushwacker... was a little weird that one place would make one thing in a blender but not another. was confusing at times.

Wine selection was decent, husband and I really liked the Cellars wine bar and had an excellent server there; Vincent that made suggestions and had great service. We paid the extra couple dollars a few times for a better glass of wine and were happy with that.

District Bewhouse had a solid selection, definitely the best i've seen on a ship. we loved having access to all the local Florida beers that we never see at home... this was a big win for husband and i.

One weird thing - the last sea day, there were no bars open before noon. We sat infront of the bars on deck 8 waiting for them to open... and we were not alone. lots of people looking for a drink around 11am and onwards. Seemed odd that on a sea day they would open so late. Also, most were closed by 11pm or midnight... we got chased out of the wine bar and the mojito bar a few times because they closed.

Also, we were annoyed at the "samplers" not being included in the bar package. Like, there was a mojito smapler with 6 mojitos for $16.95 that was not included in the package - you didn't even get the discount of $13, it was full price. But if you ordered 6 full mojitos that were listed in the sampler, you could get them for free because they were only $9 each. made no sense! Same thing with the beer in District. The mini beer sampler was not included, but you could get the full size beers for free. Anyways, we were annoyed because we ordered the mojito sampler thinking that we'd only have to pay $4, but we got charged $18 with service charge. total rip off (especially since they were gross and we didn't drink them).

Also, it's insane to get charged $2 for an espresso, but if you just order a coffee in a specialty restaurant, they make you an americano for free. so... not putting the water in costs $2? no logic there either.

 

Ship: i really do like the mega ships, and for the new cruisers, it really wowed them and i think it was the right decision for our group. the kids LOVED the teen club and splash academy. we really only saw them for meals, they had so much fun. even the older one who isn't as easy to make new friends as the younger one had an awesome time. the ropes course, plank & zip line got top marks from everyone that tried it. biggest complaint was the pool area being super busy and a lack of deck chairs. i just sunned at Spice H2O or on my balcony and wasn't bothered by the crowds. cruise ship pools are like human soup to me - i avoid them at all costs. the waterfront was a hit with the adults, we all sat there with books and relaxed during the sea days, nice and quiet with bars nearby and a little shade.

 

Ports: St Thomas was a beach day - we took a taxi to Sapphire Beach and hung out there for the day. took a brief look around the shops near the port after, but that was about it.

Tortola we did the NCL excursion; Escape to Jost Van Dyke based largely on the reviews here and it was awesome. hands down the favourite thing of the cruise for everyone in the party. the catamaran ride was fun, the beach absolutely flawless and the painkillers at the soggy dollar bar delicious. we really couldn't ask for more and we'd do it again in a heartbeat. we went on the early departure at 7am and were so happy we did... it gets busier later and we left around the time the sun was getting really hot, which was probably smart for my poor skin.

Nassau we did a tour around with Cheryl's Tours that was suggested on the Bahamas forum here. It was good, we had a delicious conch ceviche and a nice rum tasting. good way to kill the day and we saw some sights, but i'm really not a huge fan of Nassau, so in the future i'd probably just stay on the ship if icouldn't avoid this port altogether.

 

Overall: we definitely converted some new people to cruising, the kids especially. everyone had a good time, loved the food for the most part, the service, the rooms, the ship ect. I think in hindsight, I might have tried to find an itinerary with more port days, but i really did want to show them this ship specifically, so that was the trade off. but it was the first vacation i've done with the in-laws and no one killed each other, yelled, fought or had any major issues, so i'll consider it a giant win. :)

[Clarea]

Enjoyed your well-written review, thanks!

[L1211]

Thank you for your review. Sounds like a fun time.

[chicail16]

Thanks for the review!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[easyboy]

Glad your kids enjoyed your wonderful cruise. Thanks for sharing your experience.