Escape From Miami - Kinda, Sorta "Live From" - October 7-14, 2017

[Krazy Kruizers]

Got behind but caught up this morning.

Great reporting -- love the pictures.

[poona1]

POA, I have been reading this review from day one...very hilarious and awesome reporting..thanks

[Bluenoser47]

We did not make it into the parrot cages (oops. "wildlife habitats.") The people in front of us managed to stir the parrots in a frenzy. If you have ever been to the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disney, imagine the part where the gods are angry and the birds go into a frenzy. Only it's not audio animatronic. There's no happy singing finale. Oh, and the birdies have developed a taste for human flesh.

 

It was a crazed whirlwind of canary yellow, toucan green, and shrieking. In short, it was great.

:'):')

Having been to both places I can picture this in detail. I think this is my fav post...they would have escorted me out for laughing so hard at the idiots who stirred up the birds...nature is awesome:cool:

[ggTexasGal]

You're welcome! I'm always happy to provide a chuckle.

 

At this point we are on "page 29."

So, I'd guess that would be the absolute minimum number of laughs, chuckles, and

drink-spitting outbursts you have provided (so far).

Many, many Thank You's for your welcomed humor and knowledge!!!

[sjnyc323]

Great review. Loving it!!!

 

 

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[psac]

There's a Jeroboam of Veuve Clicqout on display outside the restaurant. There's also a Jeroboam of the widow's wine in the wine bar.

 

A 3 oz tasting of this Champagne is on the dinner menu at Le Bistro. It's $13 on the dinner menu.

 

See attached:

 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s88/sh/c9e5e278-65cd-4b7f-8883-f64a7c719e93/c28110f57be26e518a38388d421b0315

 

Obviously, $13 exceeds the $15 per drink limit, so it's not available. (The video of our servers explaining how $13 is greater than $15, is priceless.)

 

We found the food at Le Bistro to be excellent. We rank it in the top two restaurants, food wise, on the ship.

 

More on the food to follow...

 

 

 

>> Obviously, $13 exceeds the $15 per drink limit, so it's not available.

 

 

Ummmm...... what? :)

[Tommy3putts]

More Math homework from POA1.

[POA1]

Okie dokie... My cold seems to be trying to wind down, so I should be able to get a bit further along today.

 

So....

 

Back to Dinner at Le Bistro:

 

We had a 7:30 reservation and were seated promptly upon arrival. We ordered our pre-dinner drinks. For DW and I, it was the French Manhattan: Deward's, Chambord & Angostura Bitters ($13.95.) Le Bistro's signature cocktail was the best received yet by our tasting panel. AlexandNessa & DBIL had a Latiitudes Platinum complimentary bottle of wine. She was already drinking Pinot Noir, Estancia from the by the glass list, so we opted for the Beringer's from the Platinum list.

 

After a few minutes, our server returned with a bottle of..... Estancia Pinot Noir. (When I ordered, I both pointed to the list and clearly pronounced the wine's name. The two wines aren't exactly near one another on the list. They don't sound alike, yet here we were.) We refused the wine and she returned later with the correct bottle.

 

For starters, DW ordered the Escargots A La Bourguignonne: Baked Escargots With Herbed Garlic Butter $5.99 while I ordered the Feuillete D'asperges Vertes Aux Fruits De Mer: Seafood Medley And Green Asparagus With Puff Pastry And Lobster Bisque $7.99.

 

For our mains, DW ordered the Canon D'Agneau Ron Puree D'Haricot Tarbais et Jus Provencal: Provencal Roasted Lamb Loin, Tarbais Bean Puree And Fava Beans $18.99. I opted for the Sole Grenobloise: Dover Sole Sautéed In Lemon-Caper Butter With Croutons $19.99

 

For dessert, she had the Napoleon A La Noisette: Hazelnut Napoleon Of Flourless Chocolate Cake, Praline Crunch And Gianduja Cream $4.99 and I chose the Tarte Tatin: Warm Apple Tartlet With Vanilla Ice Cream $3.99

 

In addition to AlexandNessa's Pinot Noir, we supplemented with some wines by the glass to (a) match with our food, and (b) win the prize for the most stemware on the table - family division.

 

Huskerchick pronounced the snails to be "Outstanding" or "Yum! Tasty!" on her personal rating scale. The seafood medley was quite good, but the puff pastry wasn't up to the rest of the dish

 

Both are entrees delivered and desserts were quite good. Ironically, the apple tarte had much better puff pastry than the appetizer course did.

 

We finished with coffee (DW) and cognac (Remy Martin V.S.O.P, a $1.95 upcharge.)

 

The menu is here, but I know that some of the items on the paper copy from the restaurant manager aren't quite right.

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjJ5eJ4Zc1Lf4iD9kp8cZ6TwoEQ9XviblE/

 

I spotted this when I saw that the menu I received contains the Cote De Boeuf, a 32-oz Certified Angus Beef Ribeye Steak for Two, Carved Tableside and Served with Bordelaise Sauce, Sauteed Wild Mushrooms and Seasonal Vegetables for $34.99. AlexandNessa and Huskerhick were all excited to split this dish. (They are some beef lovin' women.) That particular steak was not on the menu.

[POA1]

The French Manhattan, aka "Paris."

 

[POA1]

While the food at Le Bistro was excellent, the service was at a pretty glacial pace. In addition to the wine error, we also had plates going to the wrong place. I'm not quite sure what contributes to the overall slowness, but it's very noticeable. We're certainly not the type of people to rush through dinner, but the pace of meals up to this point moved at about the speed I would have expected the escargot to move before they gave their lives for DW's appetizer. We made no special requests and no one changed up the composition of their dishes.

 

We would gladly eat at Le Bistro again - for the food.

[POA1]

>> Obviously, $13 exceeds the $15 per drink limit, so it's not available.

 

 

Ummmm...... what? :)

 

Yes. You can get the French Manhattan for $13.95 under the UBP but the 3 oz pour of Veuve at $13.00 is not allowed. The logic is that three ounces is not a "glass" and you can spend up to $15 per drink or glass or wine. However, they have small pours of the other by-the-glass wines - and you can order those without a problem.

[POA1]

 

Both are entrees delivered and desserts were quite good. Ironically, the apple tarte had much better puff pastry than the appetizer course did.

 

 

Sony about that... It should have read:

 

Both OUR entrees delivered and desserts were quite good. Ironically, the apple tarte had much better puff pastry than the appetizer course did.

[POA1]

I haven't really touched on breakfast much. Our go to spot was O'Sheehans for an omelet. The service was good as was the food. We prefer a sit down, table service breakfast.

 

We wound up in the Garden Cafe once because O'Sheehans was on a half hour wait and the dining room had just closed. Poor timing on our part.

 

DFIL preferred the Garden Cafe for breakfast. There's a certain satisfaction to be had from walking around and seeing your choices, I suppose.

[POA1]

Information on the Internet Plans on the Escape. I pre-purchased the Unlimited Plan (basic) which was fine for my needs. The images aren't great but the Department of Scanning Things would like to to know that the original print quality was for crap. They did the best they could. They're only human! Now, back off!

 

 

 

 

If you look at the individual images, they should be easier to see. I resized them to 1,280 pixels wide. You may have to right-click and select "View image" in your browser.

Edited October 20, 2017 by POA1
Because I could.

[POA1]

The unlimited Internet worked well and stayed connected as I roamed hither and yon. There was the occasional hiccup when switching devices, but the system allows you to kick a logged in device off, so that helps.

 

Occasionally, I couldn't hit the RADIUS server for authentication, but that only happened a few times.

 

I did not download the SpeedNet "accelerator" app or software because I read about people who could not get it to uninstall. I thought the speed was fine for my needs.

[AlexandNessa]

I too have come down the dreaded cruise cough, so I'm just catching up also.

 

I'm sorry you hated Moderno. Again, we've only been on the smaller ships and with just the two of us. And we've learned at this point to just tell our servers the cuts we want (lamb, ribs, chicken wrapped in bacon only). We did not do that this time with our larger party since that complicates things a bit and of course everyone should try everything they want.

 

Moderno is a personal favorite for the salad bar alone.

 

I know this isn't a popular opinion, but we should've sent you to Food Republic and we could've stayed at Moderno. Batman and I were not huge fans of Food Republic and decided we would only dine there again on the first night, which is half off for Haven guests.

 

I agree with the overall sentiment that our dining pace was really off this cruise. Not sure if that's due to our larger party (which would be ridiculous) or the larger ship.

 

I will say that Batman and I have never had an issue on the Dawn, Gem, or Breakaway so the dining experience this time was disappointing.

 

Also, you gave Batman credit for escorting our DFIL back to the room during After Midnight. That was kind. Batman hated it. A lot. And was more than happy to leave. I'm glad I got a pass on this one. :)

 

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[POA1]

Tuesday morning found us docked at the pier in Harvest Caye, NCL's private island in Belize. Both images below link to larger size versions, suitable for framing.

 

 

We had a Private Luxury Villa rented for the day, thanks to my DSIL's and DBIL's tireless banging of the refresh button while waiting for the Harvest Caye excursions to load. AlexandNessa's group had several villas booked. They do not preassign villas, so we needed to all get to the excursions office on the island at the same time if we wanted to get all the villas in a row.

 

 

Each villa holds 6 people for the low, low price of $699. There's a surcharge for persons 7 through 10, at which point you max out. I'm sure someone will come along to correct me if that's inaccurate. We had some villas with more than six people and some, like ours, with fewer than six. We would up adopting someone to bring our villa up to a full complement of 6 guests. (Little did I know that later that evening, she would be mischievously ordering shots of Fireball cinnamon whiskey at Howl at the Moon.)

 

 

[POA1]

I too have come down the dreaded cruise cough, so I'm just catching up also.

 

I'm sorry you hated Moderno. Again, we've only been on the smaller ships and with just the two of us. And we've learned at this point to just tell our servers the cuts we want (lamb, ribs, chicken wrapped in bacon only).

 

Sorry to hear about your cold. No worries about Moderno. I knew what I was getting into. The delay in the rodizio making the rounds with the Pasadores only made things worse. Our sides (or, I guess technically "centers") wound up being cold by the time the protein parade started.

 

It's not like there weren't other eating opportunities available. :D

[POA1]

I should also add that the Batman-recommended bacon wrapped chicken and the tenderloin was very good. I think that my anti-churrascaria bias and the pace of the meal played against Moderno.

[POA1]

Some Harvest Caye photos

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2017 by POA1

[POA1]

Second set

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2017 by POA1

[AlexandNessa]

Our group had villas 3, 4, 5, & 6.

 

Stop now if you don't want to read about the cluster that went into booking and securing them.

 

After the hell I went through trying to get concierge to help us pre-book (they wouldn't. I actually have the email from them that says, "book onboard."), Batman wound up being online and seeing they were available to book, and accidentally booked two.

 

Our friends each accidentally booked 4 (it's easy to do because the default is that all guests in your party are checked, meaning each guest gets a villa). If you're keeping up with the math, that means at one point, our group had all 10 cabanas booked. Oops.

 

My one friend promptly cancelled all 4 of her villas, and I kept my 2 so she would get my 10% excursion discount, making the new cheap price 629.10$ Bargain!

 

My other friend immediately cancelled 2 out of the 4 she booked. AND, BTW, shoreside did book her 2 for her. So what the heck??

 

We thought everything was fine, until (after 3 phone calls to shoreside and 4 emails where they told me they would not or could not help me book the villa), shoreside concierge then called our house ... Accusing us of "going behind" (quoting verbatim there) and "booking on our own." She claimed that our request for them to book for us was honored and since at the time we only requested one, they canceled our second cabana for our friends. At this point, the cabanas were sold out, and our friends had released the 4 they accidentally booked.

 

To say I was livid was an understatement, especially since shoreside told me in writing that I was on my own (again, after helping my second friend but not me or my first friend).

 

So I made a call to shore excursions, because at this point I have zero use for shoreside concierge.

 

Not only did shore excursions confirm I had two villas, but they independently gave friend #1 the info that I had two villas, and she didn't even have my booking number. (So feel free to call and ask about random people's booked shorex. Info is free for the taking).

 

Look, I know this was a last minute itinerary change, but this was ridiculous.

 

The logistics only got worse on the ship.

 

Friend #1 who would be using my second cabana for our discount and I talked to concierge onboard.

 

1. We found out that if we wanted the cabanas together, we'd have to check in at the same time as they are not pre-assigned. No big deal.

 

2. I had to justify why I wanted two. Who cares if I wanted to spend the money for a villa each for Batman and me?

 

3. Once we got that sorted, I needed to know names and room numbers of extra guests. Since a family of four was utilizing spare wristbands among 3 cabanas so we didn't have to pay extra per head over 6 people, again this caused added confusion..

 

4. I was told that my villa tickets would be delivered then to my stateroom. Nope. Monday night while we were at dinner, the onboard shorex desk calls our stateroom, asking me to review #2 & #3 again, and to come get my tickets. But, they're only open till 9p. We got the message at 10:30p, and the shorex desk isn't open again till 8a, and I've got everyone meeting at 8 to walk off the ship together so our villas can be in a row.

 

With me so far?

 

So at 7:30a on Tuesday, we went to see concierge and explained the message we received last night. She was furious with the shorex desk and had our butler go their desk to pick up our tickets for us, prior to their opening.

 

Now, if you are STILL with me, we had exactly 24 people in 4 cabanas. Friend #2 (also with 2 villas) got the note that if she wanted to add 4 people to each villa, there was a 45-50$ surcharge per person. She offered this up to two other families of four, who both paid the roughly 200$ surcharge to join the Villa Madness.

 

Now, once we got in and settled everything was great. It was just exhausting getting there!

 

 

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[POA1]

Final set

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2017 by POA1

[POA1]

Wow.... Thank goodness you had the time in the vast wildlife sanctuary, communing with nature to calm you down. ;)

[sjnyc323]

Tuesday morning found us docked at the pier in Harvest Caye, NCL's private island in Belize. Both images below link to larger size versions, suitable for framing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a Private Luxury Villa rented for the day, thanks to my DSIL's and DBIL's tireless banging of the refresh button while waiting for the Harvest Caye excursions to load. AlexandNessa's group had several villas booked. They do not preassign villas, so we needed to all get to the excursions office on the island at the same time if we wanted to get all the villas in a row.

 

 

 

 

 

Each villa holds 6 people for the low, low price of $699. There's a surcharge for persons 7 through 10, at which point you max out. I'm sure someone will come along to correct me if that's inaccurate. We had some villas with more than six people and some, like ours, with fewer than six. We would up adopting someone to bring our villa up to a full complement of 6 guests. (Little did I know that later that evening, she would be mischievously ordering shots of Fireball cinnamon whiskey at Howl at the Moon.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh wow they raised the price. I have villa booked for December and paid $499

 

 

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