Escape 4/7-4/14/18 - my quick review!

[Muerz]

I was on the Escape on her second to last cruise out of Miami from April 7th to April 14th. This Western Caribbean cruise was my second trip aboard of this gorgeous ship after an Eastern Caribbean cruise on her almost the same week last year.

 

I just wanted to share a few things about the trip, so thanks for reading and maybe a few questions some of you have will be answered by this report.

 

First of all, let me start by the most important thing of any vacation: Our family of six had a terrific time on board. I'm by no means as frequent a cruiser as most of you on this but I have to say that I really love this ship. It is tons of fun and so well designed. Whether you’re looking for a quiet space to read and watch the ocean go by or for a high energy party spot, you'll find it on this beauty as she offers something for almost everybody.

 

We had three different balcony cabins during this trip and we all liked our cabins a lot. We each had the UBP and SDP included. I was in cabin 14298 and I loved the extra space this balcony cabin provided - unfortunately I did not use it very often. The H2O parties upstairs didn’t disturb us at all in the evenings and we were able to sleep even with the balcony doors open. Our other cabins were on deck 9 forward and on deck 15 forward right next to the bridge. One of our cabins wasn't well cleaned and the housekeeping department had to start all over (kids toys and peanuts under the bed, toothpaste on the mirror...). They were very apologetic about this issue and sent chocolate covered strawberries to make up for it.

 

As to the itinerary, I liked the stops in Jamaica where I did the Zipline/Dunn’s Waterfalls combo tour, in Costa Maya where we decided to see the Mayan ruins and the beach day on Cayman Island but I couldn't care less about the stop in Nassau. I for one would have preferred a stop on one of their private islands or even an extra sea-day to stopping in Nassau. I booked the tours aboard the ship as I didn’t have enough time to search for alternate tour operators beforehand and once you get aboard there's so much to do that you always take the easy way and book their own tours. I found both tours to be too expensive and hated the fact that the same tour operator charges less for the same tour when you arrive on other ships. Costa Maya for instance would have been 5$ cheaper if you were in port on the same day on the Pearl and 10$ cheaper if you arrived the day after on a Carnival ship. As for the waterfalls in Jamaica, they are stunningly beautiful but I hated the way they organized the tour where you had to follow a guide and a videographer. I wish I could have climbed them on my own and wouldn’t do the tour again because of this.

 

- Boarding seems to be easier in the terminal that serves even floors as we were on the ship almost half an hour earlier than the rest of our family which boarded in the other terminal - this despite them having ahead start of almost 15 minutes!

 

- The food was very good during our cruise. I did 5 specialty restaurants in order to use up my non-refundable onboard credit and my dining package...

 

• Cagney’s food was good as always. I had the porterhouse while most of my family had the Filet Mignon. Next time around, I’ll order the filet as well because the filet part of my porterhouse was really tiny. We had the lobster bisque as a starter and I wished it would have been slightly warmer. What really upset me was the slow service. The drinks we ordered came with our second appetizer and the sauces that we wanted with our steak were completely forgotten and only came when we had already finished our meal.
  
• Teppanyaki had awesome food, way better than Benihana for instance. There’s only one thing that I would change at this place: Introduce a Salmon/Steak option like most land based hibachi restaurants have. Unfortunately: drink service was again really, really slow. We only got our first round of drinks when the chef started cooking. Okay, rounds two and three came faster but by then it already was almost 10 pm.
  
• Moderno’s had great meat and also an excellent starter buffet. I loved it, just like I loved it on the NCL Star and on my previous NCL Escape cruise last year! Service became good once a few other patrons started protesting very loudly and called the service manager (on the last night of the cruise). Until then service was again really slow. I don’t get why people don’t seem to love this place as much as Cagney’s next door. The meat is the same quality and prepared by the same kitchen. It also looked to be rather easy to get reservations here.
  
• Le Bistro was a rather disappointing experience for someone who has French cuisine on every corner – but then again, I’m based in Europe. To me, the menu was most unappealing of all the specialty restaurants. I decided to cut Le Bistro on my next NCL cruise.
  
• La Cucina was for me hands down the best specialty restaurant onboard. It had the fastest and the friendliest service out of all the restaurants. The food was excellent as well though I preferred the menu they had on the Star last year (better pasta selection as far as I’m concerned). Same as Moderno’s, it did not look that busy during my entire cruise and I was able to walk in on a sea-day without reservations.
  
• I liked the main dining rooms food better than last year but the service was often overwhelmed or even outright bad. Out of the three places, Savor had the best service, Taste on the other hand was amateurish at best. Breakfast in the MDR is a 90-minute affair which is too slow paced for me. It might work well for other people (and for that matter even for me if I had my daily newspaper with me) but it didn’t work for me during this trip. Easy orders like OJ and coffee or even a pot of hot milk often took 15-30 minutes which is simply unacceptable. Those who ordered specialty coffees were off even worse. Even by asking to get all the food at the same time it simply wasn’t possible to get croissants or toasts, or cereal together with our hot dishes. They really got to figure out a way for better training. Same thing in the evening. Why not simply put a nice bottle-type carafe of iced water freshly on the table the moment you are escorted to your table? This would free up the workload of the waiters, allow them to get you real drinks faster and at the same time be more convenient for almost all guests.
  
• O'Sheehans had fast service and you can’t beat late night chicken wings but except for the wings and the Caesar Salad with salmon, the food was a bit dry in my opinion. I like the fact that they replace O’Sheehans with another concept on newer ships. I also wish they would start offering boneless wings.
  
• My family thought that Food Republic was terrific and well-priced. I cannot give an opinion as I did not eat there.
  
• The Buffet was great, just like I remembered. I think that on this particular ship the buffet is better than the main dining room. There are so many choices and the space itself is so well laid out. Someone who doesn’t like this buffet doesn’t like buffets at all. I have one minor gripe: it would be nice if they changed a few options on the breakfast buffet every day instead of serving the same options during the entire cruise.
  

- Drinks were watered down on the pool deck but great in the Sugarcane Mojito Bar, the bar between Taste and Savor and in Tobacco Road. I loved the Jalapeno Cucumber Mojito and had one every day. I also loved the District Bar where Iwas able to sample tons of different beers from all around the world. Dad had a good connection with the guy working the buffet bar and said they prepared some of the best cocktails onboard. Bar service was rather fast except for H2O which was really busy for all their party nights and the bar next to Cagney's.

 

- Senior crew was way less visible than on all my previous cruises – NCL, Celebrity and Carnival combined.I did not see the Hotel Director once and the Cruise Director Scott was a sleeping pill. I did not care for him at all and I wish they would give the ship back to Andre Gaffney or to Vincent Teschel which would fit the vibe of the Escape way better than this guy. The buffet maître d', Moises Fernandes, on the other hand was such a gem and knew what real customer service should be about. I tip my hat to this guy and wish all the restaurant managers would work as hard and provide as good customer service as he did.

 

- Entertainment was great fun in a few venues. We all loved the District Bars pianist, the comedians and even the big parties in H2O. We'd seen the main theater shows last year and don't care about them. I honestly would prefer a few Carnival Cruise Line type shows (love and a marriage...) in the main theater as I think the Atrium is too small a venue for some of these events. I wish they would promote the washy-washy guy as he is easily one of the most fun and prominent staff members aboard the whole ship. Let him do a kids show in the Atrium or let him be part of the entertainment staff during the big parties. His talent is wasted in the small role he currently has.

 

- Service on the other hand was the weakest we had experienced on any cruise yet. While I only had to deal with one single unfriendly staff member (a barkeeper in the bar next to Cagney's), they are terribly slow in most of the food and beverage venues of the ship. I wish NCL would spent a bit less money on Pitbull endorsements and glitzy TV advertisements and invest some of this money in their staff training as the crew aboard the Escape definitely needs better training. I don’t know if these service issues were an isolated case because perhaps they had to relocate some of their former crew to the new Bliss? But the issues were a fact during our cruise and many other cruisers reported experiencing the same problems.

 

-There’s one thing that I cannot really comment on: crowd levels. I had the impression that the ship was a little bit more crowded this year. The shops and shows were always rather crowded or even full in the evenings. They even had to install extra seating in the atrium during the early evening shows – something I hadn’t seen last year. The casino and the skyline bar had a nice following as well almost all day/night long and the same thing applies to the H2O parties and the open air decks during the sea-days. On the other hand, the hot tubs and pool areas seemed to empty rather early on this cruise. I was often the only one using the pool area after 5pm and the water slides didn’t seem as busy as last year. I also never had trouble getting good quiet seats at the buffet. I talked to some guy that said he had heard the passenger count was 800 people lower than on the cruise the week before (the one over Easter weekend) but I couldn't validate that claim with an official source.

 

- There’s one final point I’d like to talk about and that’s the size of some venues. I really love the Escape but if this ship is full, they really have a problem with some of their venues. First off,restaurants: Of course, I don’t have definitive numbers but I guess that almost half of the passengers have the SDP either because they were given it as a free at sea choice or because they bought it. And it seems to me that the specialty restaurants are getting to small for to the number of people they have to serve. Cagney’s was sold out for our entire cruise, as were Le Bistro and Teppanyaki. My family and I tend to eat really late compared to most US cruisers and we still had some trouble getting reservations for our 8.30-9.00pm dining preference. Of course, we did the reservations right off the bat when we entered the ship. If I hadn’t done any reservations or if my dining preference was 6pm (like it seems to be the case for most Americans) then I would have had a lot of problems getting tables at the specialty restaurants. I guess if they further push the free at sea program, they’ll eventually have only a few choices: 1) expand the specialty restaurants by either adding more restaurants or more seats per restaurant, 2) cancel SDP as a free at sea option, 3) reduce SDP from 3 to 2 meals if chosen as free at sea option or 4) limit SDP to one appetizer, one entrée, one dessert in order to expedite service and sit more people per serving. Most of these options don't look too good for us cruisers. The same size problem was observable for the comedy club and the main showroom. I wish they would transfer the late night comedy piece to the Escape theater as it would certainly help the situation.

 

A few suggestions for improvement:

 

- Add a sea-day brunch option like Carnival does. The breakfast offerings at the MDR get a bit repetitive after the first few days.

- Change either Savor or Taste to another restaurant concept with free food – maybe an Asian Noodle house/dim-sum place like they have ont he NCL Star.

- Figure out what to do with both Margaritaville venues.The open-deck restaurant is empty because of the prohibitive cost associated with it. The bar on deck 8 is often closed or not busy at all. The only Margaritaville space that is happening is the Waterfront part of the bar.

- Get help from someone on how to cook a good burger. Carnival has Guy Fieri and their burgers are to die for while the burgers on both NCL ships were blah.

- Learn how to better use the facilities you have, for instance make better use of the Escape theater and use it for events that need a lot of seats.

 

Last but not least, in summary, we all had a blast aboard this ship. We got to learn lots of new people from all walks of life and we enjoyed the ship as much as we did the first time around. There are certainly a few flaws with the ships design if it is near capacity but if you adapt a tiny little bit, you’ll still have an awesome time. NCL on the other hand has a lot of work cut out for itself in the service department. We encountered many problems that really shouldn’t happen and hope that they fix these issues sooner rather than later. Like I said, I haven’t taken as many cruises as some of you but I have yet to experience so many service problems on a single Carnival or Celebrity sailing.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Muerz
Layout issues after copy/paste

[havanadaydreaming]

i agree with the Landshark area on deck 8 never being open. I'm a parrothead and only time I was in there was for a meet the captain and engineer Q&A, which was awesome.

 

escape, and MSC divina, are my favorite ships foodwise. the Escape specialty dining is a notch above.

 

margaritaville had good fried fish but place was always empty due to upcharges. why go there when O'sheehans is free?

 

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[PTC DAWG]

I was on this cruise..I miss Jay and Johnny be good tonite from the 5 o’clock bar, both great guys.

 

Beau on the piano in The District, good times...Agreed..

 

Food Republic was very good, ate there twice, great service etc...

[JerseyMom]

Thanks so much for the review! Interesting about 5 O'Clock somewhere - when we were on the Escape in 2017 it was also closed every time we wanted to go check it out except for the outdoors portion. I also loved La Cucina. Bayamo, before the menu changed, used to be my favorite but La Cucina was my 2nd favorite. Everyone seems to like Tepankayi except me. I found the food to be underwhelming and under seasoned. I also found the jokes to be stale but I do think it would be entertaining for kids.

[BirdTravels]

Thank you so much for your extensive review!

[jdvmd]

Thanks for your comments! Sorry to hear LeBistro was not to your liking. It usually is my favorite. Agree with you that LaCucina is great.

[caddykid12]

Who is cruose director?

[caddykid12]

What ruin did you see in costa Maya?

 

And did you book it thru NCL

I have Chiccoben booked in costa maya. Was hoping to have more details if that' what you did

[skynyrd]

Thanks for your review.

[CRAustin]

I was on this cruise with 50 Casino invites in a spa balcony. I’ve sailed Escape 3x. I had no service issues except breakfast closes at 930 and lunch starts at 12 in MDR. Stupid you can get breakfast in Osheehans until 1045. I had Vibe passes so drinks jacuzzi and lounger chairs a plenty. I went to 5 o’clock some where 3 nights for karaoke wasn’t packed but good drink service. I ate 6 nights specialty restaurants. Bayamo being the best. Booked 630 pm for most nights no problem. Booked in comedy club when we got on. Escape is a great ship with great venues. I never had a problem getting a drink or experienced watered down but I wasn’t on the pool deck. Did Howl at the Moon and Comedy Club both were good. My only gripe is the out of control Casino smoke caused by non players hanging out there to smoke. The no smoking section is a joke. Enjoyed the Escape and will compare to the Bliss which I’m on in June. Was on MSC Seaside 2 weeks prior to Escape in Yacht Club ship makes Escape look dated but a Escape has a funnier atmosphere and more to do.

[Clarea]

Very well-written review, thanks!

[Muerz]

What ruin did you see in costa Maya? And did you book it thru NCL? I have Chiccoben booked in costa maya. Was hoping to have more details if that' what you did

 

 

Yes, we went to see Chacchoben. I believe those are the only ruins you can see in Costa Maya. We actually did not book on the ship as we were thinking we could do this excursion cheaper once we were off the boat. Turns out we were wrong as the entire port area is owned by a private company doing all the excursions and activities and operating all the bars, restaurants and so on. No other tour operators were to be found. So we used one of their 300 „last minute excursion desks“ on land and booked for the same price we would have paid onboard. We only had to provide our cabin number, present cabin keys, then sign a slip and the excursions were booked on our ship account. As said in the main review, they showed us a price list and since we were on the Escape, the price was more expensive than if we had been on other ships. The tour itself was well organized. Free water upon boarding the bus. Drove an hour to the ruins, 10 minute bathroom break once we arrived, then a walking tour to see the 3-4 temples that they have actually excavated. 15 minutes shopping/bathroom break unce returned to the parking lot and an hour ride back to the port. The ruins themselves aren‘t as spectacular as other ruins you can visit in Cozumel for instance.

 

Again, I should have done proper research before the cruise and maybe I could have found an alternate company that doesn‘t have offices in the private port.

 

 

 

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[NYCGAL529]

What was your experience getting off the ship? Was it chaotic? Any tips as to how to get off quickly? We are on it now and need to be off quickly. Thanks for any help you can give.

[LrgPizza]

What a nicely organized review! I'll be heading out on my 3rd Escape cruise later this month. I've not had La Cucina in many years (since before the updated the menu a few years ago), but if we do a specialty this trip, I think we will pick that one.

 

On all my NCL cruises, there has always been at least one comedy show in the main theater, either late night after the main show ends, or else on an off-night. I wonder if there was on your cruise and you missed it, or if it just didn't happen your cruise? I agree that Headliners can be small and packed.

 

Thanks for getting me more excited about my cruise.

[robin13]

What was your experience getting off the ship? Was it chaotic? Any tips as to how to get off quickly? We are on it now and need to be off quickly. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

If you are talking about getting off quickly at the end of the cruise you need to do self assist. I was on the 4/14 cruise and had an 11am flight to catch so I took my own luggage off the ship. I was in line at 6:50am and they started letting everyone off at 7:10am. I have been on 25 cruises and this was a very easy disembark. I caught a cab and was at the Miami airport by 8am.

[fabnfortysomething]

we used Native choice tour company

[NYCGAL529]

Hi Robin, where did you line up? We were on the breakaway last year and it was a little chaotic. TY, Cathy

 

If you are talking about getting off quickly at the end of the cruise you need to do self assist. I was on the 4/14 cruise and had an 11am flight to catch so I took my own luggage off the ship. I was in line at 6:50am and they started letting everyone off at 7:10am. I have been on 25 cruises and this was a very easy disembark. I caught a cab and was at the Miami airport by 8am.

[Muerz]

What was your experience getting off the ship? Was it chaotic? Any tips as to how to get off quickly? We are on it now and need to be off quickly. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

Not chaotic at all. We did self assist because we had a flight out of MIA at 12:30 pm. We had breakfast at 7 in the Buffet which was less busy than on most other cruise days. We then headed down with our luggage which was slightly inconvenient because all the elevators were always full. But once we were down on deck 7, we joined the line and were off the boat in about 5 minutes. I guess most people that did self assist were already off by this time. Immigration was rather fast but there was one officer out of the three working that gave several passengers a hard time. We were at the airport I would say by 8:45 am.

[NYCGAL529]

Thanks for the help. We were cleared at 7:45 to disembark and we were in our car by 8 am.

[BNBR]

People are so funny about Nassau. You did a beach day in Grand Cayman... but you couldn't do one in Nassau? You would go to the private island for a beach day, but you couldn't do this in Nassau? Even wanting an extra sea day over Nassau... I mean, most of the ship departs and you have it to yourself. It's better than a sea day if that's what you wanted... Lol.

[robin13]

Hi Robin, where did you line up? We were on the breakaway last year and it was a little chaotic. TY, Cathy

 

I lined up across the way from O'Sheehan's on deck 7 (I believe). There were probably 40 people ahead of me but once they opened the doors to get off the line went real fast. Was a very smooth debarkation and customs was super fast. I was wishing that I had taken an earlier flight as I sat at the airport for 3 hours.