14 Days on the Escape...A Review of a Great Time

[AKR2011]

 

Hello all,

 

I’ve been back for almost a week and missing the warm sunshine so much. I really wanted to write a review as a thank you to all that have written them in the past. The Escape is beautiful ship, and the advice on here prepared me so much for my two weeks on board. I also have a special reason to thank Cruise Critic. I booked the Escape in Early Spring of 2017, and I was doing well with saving my pennies. Then the following October, Cruise Critic had a contest where they were giving away a $3000 NCL Gift Card. Of course, I entered every day…and I won! So yes, real people do win these prizes. Six $500 cards were shipped, and I was told that they would start decreasing in value at the end of 2018. Good thing I already had this cruise booked! I continued to save and hoped to spend extra money doing cool things in ports and buy a big dining package (We just had the UBP). I look forward to sharing with you all, as this was one of the best vacations we have ever taken.

 

Some Background:

My name is Ashley, and my DH is Alex. This was our 5^th NCL Cruise. We have looked into other lines (and are excited about Virgin Cruises coming out soon), but the NCL product continues to work for us. We are happy, so no need to change that. This was out third cruise out of NY in the late fall, so we knew what we were getting into. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, expect cold weather at the beginning and end, but beautiful in-between. This was also our second 14-day. Like so many, our first was a 7-day (too short, Alex said), then a 9-day (still too short), and a ten-day (You guessed it, still too short). Our 14-day on The Dawn was just about perfect, but it was a little small for that long of a journey. We couldn’t WAIT to try out a bigger ship. Although things weren’t perfect, we were overall VERY happy. I did my bests to take photos, but I admit, we were having too much fun! I also feel weird about taking food photos, so I didn't take a bunch of those, but there are so many reviews on here highlighting the food, drinks, and menus.

 

Getting to Manhattan:

We live in Upstate NY, and there are many ways to get to Manhattan. Leaving our car at the port was pretty pricey, so I opted to get on a bus. Leaving the car in port would have been over $400, and the bus for the two of us was $180. We still had to drive an hour to catch the bus, but I’m glad that we tried this option. Not sure if it was totally worth saving the money, but it was convenient.

 

Embarkation:

Getting on The Escape was very smooth. Once we got off the bus, the porters grabbed our things and we walked in to join the queue. It was around 11:30, but we were on the ship by noon. I felt like security balked at us a bit, but everyone else was friendly, and like I said, the line moved really fast!

First Things First:

Thanks to Cruise Critic, I knew that The Box Office would be our first stop, and Alex went along with this despite being hungry. There were only two people ahead of us, and we were immediately handed a list of all of the entertainment on board. Next door at The Theater they were showing Book Club. I mention this because that movie showed at least 8 times! I’ll chat about movies in a bit though. Back at the Box Office, I already had a spreadsheet prepared, so I knew where to fill in the gaps. We got everything that we asked for (something every night including things that we didn’t need to book) and then asked to be directed to Savor/Taste.

 

I love that Mixx is right outside the main dining rooms! We always like to have a celebratory drink, and limoncello martinis were calling our names! Then we were immediately seated at Taste. One of my weird traditions is always getting Fish & Chips at Embarkation Lunch. EVERY TIME. A few cruises ago I started adding a pretzel roll with it so that I can make a sandwich. So good! I always love the main room for lunch. The nachos, hummus, tomato soup, leg of lamb, burgers, tuna salad (you can get that on a pretzel too), and peanut butter cheesecake are some of my favorite things. Our waiter said that menu will be changing soon, so look for that.

After stuffing ourselves, we wandered a bit around the ship and started grabbing drinks in all kinds of places. I was excited and don’t normally have so much so drink, but hey, this was vacation! Almost two years of planning, and we deserved it. Once rooms were ready, we headed up – drinks in hand. Luggage was already outside too! This was the smallest inside I have ever stayed in (#12631), and there was an awkward pole outside the door. Not a huge deal, but my water bottle clunked it everything I came and went. The room location itself was great – middle of the ship, and Deck #12 was perfect. Never more than 6 decks in either direction to get to where we wanted to be. I can do stairs, but 6 flights is my typical sober limit, 4 flights tipsy, and 2 flights if I’ve had far too much to drink. You may be wondering why an inside? Well, we always feel like we don’t need to pay extra to see the sun or have a balcony. We prefer to be outside on the open decks as much as possible.

We put all of our things inside and organized the best that we could. This is where packing cubes really come in handy. Some of the shelves were awkwardly shaped or not very deep, but my cubes fit well on them. We also packed extra hangers. I’m sure we also could have asked for more, but they were light enough. On two-week cruises, there just aren’t enough hangers for our needs.

Muster, Dinner, and Entertainment:

There are only 5 muster stations on The Escape, which seems crazy! We were assigned the atrium, and it was PACKED! Luckily, like all NCL musters, it was short and sweet. Afterwards we went outside to Spice H2O for sailway. That Grotto, man! GORGEOUS!! And we got some views of NYC too.

 

Dinner tonight was at Cagney’s. I have never had a bad steak there, and tonight would be no different. YES, THEY HAVE RIBEYE! I know that was debated a bit the week before we left. It was far too much food, and we didn’t have room for dessert, but it was all delicious.

 

We finished in time to catch the opening show. Unfortunately, it was not great in our opinion. Lots of video advertising for the acts and not so much the acts themselves. We were disappointed. On a more positive note, we left and headed to Howl at the Moon! I couldn't wait and hoped that Alex would enjoy the show...He did! We stayed until 12:30am and drank a whole lot. Day 1 was complete, and we were ready for a sea day and warmer temperatures. Vacation had really begun!!

 

*I will post more tomorrow when I have some time. I just wanted to get this going for you all. It won't be as extensive as some of the other Escape reviews, but I hope that you'll stick with me.

[JerseyMom]

Thanks so much for the detailed review!  I will be sailing on the Escape next month and I can't wait to read the rest of your review.

[AKR2011]

11 minutes ago, JerseyMom said:

Thanks so much for the detailed review!  I will be sailing on the Escape next month and I can't wait to read the rest of your review.

Thanks for following. Are all of my photos showing up? I always seem to struggle with that on here.

[mking8288]

Perfect timing for us ... thank you for sharing.  

 

First two uploaded pix (gift cards & calendar grids) are fine, the others aren't - not on a desktop nor in tablet/smartphone (Chrome browser) - might want to check & re-post (max of 30 minutes to fix it - or, just amend/re-post them ... 

Edited December 14, 2018 by mking8288

[BirdTravels]

Glad you enjoyed the Escape. Thanks for taking the time to review!

[JerseyMom]

23 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Perfect timing for us ... thank you for sharing.  

 

First two uploaded pix (gift cards & calendar grids) are fine, the others aren't - not on a desktop nor in tablet/smartphone (Chrome browser) - might want to check & re-post (max of 30 minutes to fix it - or, just amend/re-post them ... 

I am on a desk top at the moment and I am seeing the same thing as mking8288.

[LinnieRed]

Loving your trip review! Thanks for taking the time. 

[cathi007]

I was impatiently waiting for someone to post a review on the first 14 night of the season. I sail her on Jan 20th, which is the Southern 14 night. I will be following your review and look forward to everything you have to say, thanks 🙂

[AKR2011]

THIS IS A RE-POST IF #1 TO TRY TO GET MY PHOTOS IN. I WILL TRY TO UPDATE LATER TODAY.

 

Hello all,

I’ve been back for almost a week and missing the warm sunshine so much. I really wanted to write a review as a thank you to all that have written them in the past. The Escape is beautiful ship, and the advice on here prepared me so much for my two weeks on board. I also have a special reason to thank Cruise Critic. I booked the Escape in Early Spring of 2017, and I was doing well with saving my pennies. Then the following October, Cruise Critic had a contest where they were giving away a $3000 NCL Gift Card. Of course, I entered every day…and I won! So yes, real people do win these prizes. Six $500 cards were shipped, and I was told that they would start decreasing in value at the end of 2018. Good thing I already had this cruise booked! I continued to save and hoped to spend extra money doing cool things in ports and buy a big dining package (We just had the UBP). I look forward to sharing with you all, as this was one of the best vacations we have ever taken.

 

Some Background:

My name is Ashley, and my DH is Alex. This was our 5^th NCL Cruise. We have looked into other lines (and are excited about Virgin Cruises coming out soon), but the NCL product continues to work for us. We are happy, so no need to change that. This was out third cruise out of NY in the late fall, so we knew what we were getting into. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, expect cold weather at the beginning and end, but beautiful in-between. This was also our second 14-day. Like so many, our first was a 7-day (too short, Alex said), then a 9-day (still too short), and a ten-day (You guessed it, still too short). Our 14-day on The Dawn was just about perfect, but it was a little small for that long of a journey. We couldn’t WAIT to try out a bigger ship. Although things weren’t perfect, we were overall VERY happy. I did my bests to take photos, but I admit, we were having too much fun! I also feel weird about taking food photos, so I didn't take a bunch of those, but there are so many reviews on here highlighting the food, drinks, and menus.

 

Getting to Manhattan:

We live in Upstate NY, and there are many ways to get to Manhattan. Leaving our car at the port was pretty pricey, so I opted to get on a bus. Leaving the car in port would have been over $400, and the bus for the two of us was $180. We still had to drive an hour to catch the bus, but I’m glad that we tried this option. Not sure if it was totally worth saving the money, but it was convenient.

 

Embarkation:

Getting on The Escape was very smooth. Once we got off the bus, the porters grabbed our things and we walked in to join the queue. It was around 11:30, but we were on the ship by noon. I felt like security balked at us a bit, but everyone else was friendly, and like I said, the line moved really fast!

First Things First:

Thanks to Cruise Critic, I knew that The Box Office would be our first stop, and Alex went along with this despite being hungry. There were only two people ahead of us, and we were immediately handed a list of all of the entertainment on board. Next door at The Theater they were showing Book Club. I mention this because that movie showed at least 8 times! I’ll chat about movies in a bit though. Back at the Box Office, I already had a spreadsheet prepared, so I knew where to fill in the gaps. We got everything that we asked for (something every night including things that we didn’t need to book) and then asked to be directed to Savor/Taste.

I love that Mixx is right outside the main dining rooms! We always like to have a celebratory drink, and limoncello martinis were calling our names! Then we were immediately seated at Taste. One of my weird traditions is always getting Fish & Chips at Embarkation Lunch. EVERY TIME. A few cruises ago I started adding a pretzel roll with it so that I can make a sandwich. So good! I always love the main room for lunch. The nachos, hummus, tomato soup, leg of lamb, burgers, tuna salad (you can get that on a pretzel too), and peanut butter cheesecake are some of my favorite things. Our waiter said that menu will be changing soon, so look for that.

After stuffing ourselves, we wandered a bit around the ship and started grabbing drinks in all kinds of places. I was excited and don’t normally have so much so drink, but hey, this was vacation! Almost two years of planning, and we deserved it. Once rooms were ready, we headed up – drinks in hand. Luggage was already outside too! This was the smallest inside I have ever stayed in (#12631), and there was an awkward pole outside the door. Not a huge deal, but my water bottle clunked it everything I came and went. The room location itself was great – middle of the ship, and Deck #12 was perfect. Never more than 6 decks in either direction to get to where we wanted to be. I can do stairs, but 6 flights is my typical sober limit, 4 flights tipsy, and 2 flights if I’ve had far too much to drink. You may be wondering why an inside? Well, we always feel like we don’t need to pay extra to see the sun or have a balcony. We prefer to be outside on the open decks as much as possible.

We put all of our things inside and organized the best that we could. This is where packing cubes really come in handy. Some of the shelves were awkwardly shaped or not very deep, but my cubes fit well on them. We also packed extra hangers. I’m sure we also could have asked for more, but they were light enough. On two-week cruises, there just aren’t enough hangers for our needs.

 

Muster, Dinner, and Entertainment:

There are only 5 muster stations on The Escape, which seems crazy! We were assigned the atrium, and it was PACKED! Luckily, like all NCL musters, it was short and sweet. Afterwards we went outside to Spice H2O for sailway. That Grotto, man! GORGEOUS!! And we got some views of NYC too.

 

Dinner tonight was at Cagney’s. I have never had a bad steak there, and tonight would be no different. YES, THEY HAVE RIBEYE! I know that was debated a bit the week before we left. It was far too much food, and we didn’t have room for dessert, but it was all delicious.

 

We finished in time to catch the opening show. Unfortunately, it was not great in our opinion. Lots of video advertising for the acts and not so much the acts themselves. We were disappointed. On a more positive note, we left and headed to Howl at the Moon! I couldn't wait and hoped that Alex would enjoy the show...He did! We stayed until 12:30am and drank a whole lot. Day 1 was complete, and we were ready for a sea day and warmer temperatures. Vacation had really begun!!

 

*I will post more tomorrow when I have some time. I just wanted to get this going for you all. It won't be as extensive as some of the other Escape reviews, but I hope that you'll stick with me.

Edited December 14, 2018 by AKR2011

[zencruisers]

Thank you for taking the time to do a review. Looking forward to reading more.

[jimbri]

Looking forward to the rest of your review and photos!

[cruiser123!]

Excited for your review.   So far so good.  🙂

[rwf1]

Great review so far!  Thanks for sharing!

 

[mking8288]

OP,  good job re-posting those photo - links working.   

[PhillyTravelBug]

Great start and congratulations on the winnings! Talk about stress free.

[BigNance]

Great looking review and pics! Looking forward to the rest.

[AKR2011]

So Many Sea Days!

As I was getting ready to start my review, I tried to grab all of the daily's to remember everything that we did on our Sea Days...and I can't find anything before Day 5. That being said, I will summarize a bit in this post, but they were all sea days until day #6 for us. There was a helicopter landing/rescue on Monday night that took almost 5 hours. An older guest died and needed to be lifted, and then there were two crew members that were burned in the boiler room I believe? This is hearsay from another guest. Anyway, this "rescue" took a LONG time - longer than intended. So while Day #3 was scheduled to be Port Canaveral at 1pm, we weren't cleared until the evening. We were allowed off the ship until 1:30am, but Alex and I decided to stay on board. Honestly, we had free food, drinks, and entertainment right on the ship. We originally wanted to get to Merritt Island National Refuge Center so that Alex could do some birding and I could hike, and we were going to rent a car, but I'm glad that we opted not to do that. We never would have made it in the dark. No worries for us, just another sea day. But the captain also announced that Great Stirrup Cay was canceled. This was a bummer. We hadn't been since 2011 and were looking forward to exploring on our own. Again, more birding for Alex and hiking for me. It's vacation, it's fine, but 5 full sea days can be a lot.

One thing I LOVE about sea days is getting up early and enjoying a nice breakfast. The above photo is me with Alma, one of my vacation heroes. She greeted me every morning at Savor and gave me the same nice table by the window each day. When Alex was up early enough, he would join me too. She always knew us by our names and checked in with us. One of the best! In fact, all of the staff in Savor were incredible. I never went to Taste after that one Embarkation Lunch, just because I started to get to know and enjoy the Savor staff.

 

Every sea day started off very much the same for me. I'm an early riser, and I like to walk. All of the smaller ships have a nice promenade. the Escape does not, but deck 8 almost allows you to do a full circle. I would do 8 horseshoes or so each morning before getting breakfast, and then I started doing full circles by walking inside the ship and back out again. The jogging track up on top was super small and in an awkward spot, so I started getting joined by them as the cruise went on. I usally wlaked from 6-7am and watched the sunrise. Then I would read a little until Savor opened at 7:30. The one downfall of an Inside is never really knowing when you're waking up (you can't see the sun), and even worse for me, I forgot my watch and never did find one that I liked enough to buy. However, I made the most out of my days at sea.

 

I always went to the Atrium after breakfast to get my first drink of the day. There was another passenger that was always there with me, and we started to get to know each other as the cruise went on. My drinks varied, but they were always yummy. Then I would grab a chair and play the Big Screen Sudoku that happened each day at 9am before 9:30am trivia.

 

Monday, November 26th

The first full sea day, I met Canadians Kelly and Royce, and we immediately hit it off. We were Trivia/Atrium Buddies the rest of the cruise. I would save them seats each morning, and they would save seats if we wanted to join them in the afternoon.

After Trivia on the first day, Alex met up with me at the Skyline Bar outside of the casino for a game of Empires at Sea. It's a HUGE board game, and we contemplated even packing up, but we are gamers, and this was the only big game that we brought. I really wanted to play it at sea, and Alex said that we could do it as long as it went in MY luggage. We chose Skyline that morning since that was the best bar that was open and had a table. It was also next to the District Brew House where the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet was scheduled. Boo on my part, not having a watch and being really into the game, we played straight through the meet and greet! Soon it was time to afternoon trivia up there, and Kelly and Royce joined us. Skyline wasn't the best place to play Trivia, but it may have been better than the cramped Atrium. It didn't have Trivia again until the last sea day, though.

Alex had eaten breakfast late, so he didn't need lunch, but I needed a pick-me-up, and Dolce Gelato was calling my name! It was pretty good, but this was the only time I bought it. There was plenty of other food on board. It was just convenient that afternoon. 

We eventually made it to the District Brew House later that afternoon and had a great time. JR was singing, and we weren't sold on him at first,  but as the cruise went on we really started to enjoy him. Dinner that night was at Moderno, and we really enjoyed it. The salad bar, as always, was the best one on the ship hands-down. So much sushi, cheeses, cold cuts, lobster bisque soup...I filled up my plate a bit too much and couldn't really eat a lot of the meats. Alex was in his glory, however, and had seconds on a lot of the meats. He was actually adopted from Brazil as a child, so we try to get to Brazilian Barbecues whenever we can. He loves the experience.

 

Dinner was done in less than an hour - no need for dessert, we were stuffed! - so we went outside thinking that the helicopter rescue was over. Alas, it was not, so we went back inside and decided to just line up for After Midnight. I had booked it a few months ago and looked forward to it. However, that theater is pretty small. We had shown up to the opening show half an hour early, and the line was down the hallway. This was pre-booked, but there was still a little line when we arrived 40 minutes early to this one. At the half-hour mark, we were able to get inside and take our seats. I was surprised by how great the bar service in the theater was. Every time we saw a show, we had excellent and quick service, better than any other ship. On the smaller ships, I always got into the habit of visiting the bar first and carrying my drink in. I never had to do that on The Escape.

 

After Midnight didn't have a great storyline - or much of a storyline at all actually - but the dancing was incredible! I am always fascinated by tap, so it was nice to see that featured. The singing was good too, and led by Broadway performer Sharon Wilkins. Once the helicopter rescue ended, we started moving pretty quickly, and we were rocked to sleep. Tomorrow was another happy day at sea!

[cathi007]

Thanks great so far 🙂

[boopsahoy]

I showed my husband your excel chart--He thought I was crazy for making one!

 

We are going on the 14 day that leaves January 6th. Can't wait so I will be following along. Thanks for posting.

[AKR2011]

Thank you to all who have replied! Yes, that Excel Spreadsheet came in handy!! I hand-wrote in all of the shows that I booked on the first day, and it really helped us stay organized. Alex also put the app on his iTouch, but the schedule was not always accurate, so he was frustrated. I don't have anything smart enough for the app, so I never used it. I pre-wrote a couple days, so that's coming up next! It takes a while to import the photos, though.

[AKR2011]

Tuesday, November 27^th

Sea Day #3 was here, and we were happy to be sailing towards Florida and warmer weather. I started my morning as usual with breakfast, Sudoku, and Trivia. Our team never really won General Knowledge Trivia (one team won most of the time), but I did well with Sudoku, and we won a couple of the oddball Trivia Games. Mostly, we loved hanging out with Kelly and Royce. Unfortunately, the prizes were very sad anyway. We like the small ships where you get a signature whenever you participate in a program with the Cruise Director’s Staff, and you get two signatures when you win. Alex and I always went to everything, including dance classes, walk-a-mile, bean bag toss, and goofy golf. We loved getting to know the staff and then turning in our cards at the end of the cruise for prizes. On the Dawn we won these awesome mugs, as well as a few decks of cards, pens, and some other gadgets. On The Escape, there were no signature cards, and they mostly just gave away bright yellow drink cozies. JoJo (one of the better crew members) was nice one morning and gave me a water bottle instead, and one time Kelly and Royce were able to snag some decks of cards to share with us. Eventually we won these card holders that stick to the back of your phone, and they were nice. It was good to see something different if nothing else. Honestly, we never had a chance at winning Trivia most of the time anyway, but we enjoyed hanging out together and learning new things. The disappointing part was most of the Cruise Director’s Staff. Alvin as the Director was GREAT, but his staff was not so fabulous. They lacked enthusiasm and playfulness, and the programs just were not fun. I went to a dance class in the Atrium, and it was 10 minutes long. Really? I was used to half-hour classes like on other ships. And we went to Goofy Golf, but it wasn’t goofy at all. Everyone just had one chance to hit the ball into a cup. On other ships, we would do it backwards, golf around tables, do it blindfolded, etc. This may sound nit-picky, but these silly games are what we love about cruising. We always meet fun people and really get to know that staff. This time around it just wasn’t fun, and we eventually stopped trying to attend this kind of stuff and just did Trivia. There were plenty of other things to do on The Escape for sure, but if we have any negative feedback it's about how the Cruise Director's Staff ran their events. Enough of the ran, though. So many more great things about the ship and the other awesome crew members!

Besides trying to participate in games with the staff, we had a lot of fun playing our own games. The bar staff at Sugarcane were fabulous, and Mojitos are Alex’s favorite. This was the first day we checked them out, and it became a daily stop. I started feeling like I needed to have at least 3 Mojitos a day – Raspberry Guava, Saturn’s Landing, and the ginger one were my favorites, but Alex and I tried them all. Sugarcane also had good rum punch and sangria. On many days, I know that I had more than 3 drinks here, especially when we played games. Pass the Pigs, Shut the Box, and Yahtzee were our frequently played games at this bar.

Later at the District Brew House, we discovered the talents of Chelsea Reynolds, and man, is she talented! She sometimes was joined by JR too. We started frequenting this bar a lot in the early evenings and always enjoyed them both. We often ran into these fun Canadians and played Farkle while trying drinks. So many beers to discover, but also some interesting cocktails. There’s one with vermouth that we decided tastes like soap. Otherwise everything we tried was pretty good. They no longer have the board where you can take the challenge to drink everything that they have, and the photo booth was broken all cruise too, but it’s still a really fun atmosphere.

Tonight’s dinner was at Supper Club, and I snapped a photo of the menu since I don't think this is circulated much on the boards here. It was the Golden Octaves, one of the show bands on the ship. They were alright, but it wasn’t our favorite show. The food was not fabulous either, and neither of us cared for the dessert at all, but it was a nice venue and we had a good time. The show and food was free, so who can complain?

We decided to have Crepes from the Garden Café before heading down to Howl at the Moon. They were quite yummy. The crowd at Headliners was bigger tonight, but we were still able to get our requests in, and the drinks were flowing nicely too. Alex was loving the show, and we both made it a point to ask for ridiculous things each night…and they went with it! We made both official and unofficial requests, and both were received well throughout the two weeks. FYI: Official Requests come with money. I brought $100 in ones and used them throughout the cruise as both tips and song requests. We didn't tip for every drink or every song, but I was out of singles by the end of the cruise. We headed back very late (when they booted us out), and had a new friend, as well as a revised schedule for the next day since we were missing Great Stirrup Cay. We were ready for another happy day at sea!

[AKR2011]

Wednesday, November 28^th

I forgot to mention that on every Sea Day, Progressive Trivia was held in the Atrium. We were planning to play with Kelly and Royce, but they never made it on the first day. We made new friends with a family from Rhode Island a New Yorker, and we became Team RINY. The first day we were actually in first place, but it was all downhill from there. We had a great time with them, though. Such a fun team! When Kelly and Royce finally made it to Trivia, they created their own team but sat with us. Our team could never beat the one team that won 99% of all of the Trivia games, but we always had fun together.

We went back to the District Brew House before dinner for more games and music, and dinner tonight was in Teppanyaki. Alex wasn’t impressed, but I thought it was fun and a good meal. The other people that were supposed to eat never showed up for their reservation, so we had a private dinner and show. And neither of us ever like the dessert, but we had our fill of food.  Tonight we saw the comedy juggler Jason Garfield, but unfortunately, we weren’t really impressed. It was hard to see him close-up magic, and a lot of the tricks were things that we had seen before. Alex was tired of being at sea and ready to get into port, as was I, but we still had one more sea day to go. Nonethelesss, it was warm, and we were just getting used to this monster ship. There was so much more to do! Back at our room, we had a new friend, and he seemed to be making friends with my traveling monkey, George. Curious George seems to get into my luggage on every trip. Our steward must have liked him too.

Thursday, November 29^th

On this Sea Day, Team RINY was on their own, as we missed Progressive Trivia. It was time for Escape the Big Top! They changed the timing of Progressive Trivia a few times, so we never knew how to plan. Kelly and Royce had signed up for the Escape Room at the beginning of the cruise just like we did, and because we happened to all choose the same time, we opted to skip Trivia and be on a team together. The room itself was not like a traditional Escape Room, and none of the teams actually solved it, but we had a great time and were joined by another super fun family. They had a couple pre-teens, and it was great to play with kids. There were hardly any kids on board at all, so this was nice. Of course I could never give anything away, but I will say that there were a couple red herrings. We expected that, but we wasted a bit too much time on them. Still, we had a lot of fun.

Once again, we found ourselves spending a lot of time at Sugarcane. We also went to Pincho’s for dinner. I LOVE tapas, and Alex is not much of a fan, but he went along. We used a dining credit and paid a $7.95/pp upcharge. Everything was delicious, and the best part was eating outside on the Waterfront. Nothing beats that view and the ocean breeze! Afterwards we walked a few laps and called it a night – missing Howl at the Moon. No Towel Animal since we were back to the room early, but that’s alright. Tomorrow we were finally in port!!

 

I'm also going to throw in a few photos of the chandelier here in case anyone hasn't seen  it. It changed colors at various times, and since it was close to Sugarcane, I was able to snap it during different moments. So beautiful! The ship set-up itself was odd in that there were no mid-ship elevators, just Forward and Aft. 6-7-8 had a lit staircase connecting them in the middle of the ship, and we took those stairs a lot. The chandelier was above that. It worked, but it did seem odd for such a large ship.

[AKR2011]

We had a towel animal in the morning since we didn't get one the night before:

 

Friday, November 30^th

FINALLY, A PORT DAY!!!! We were in beautiful Jamaica, and our tour was the Sun Valley Plantation through Yardie Tours. We used Yardie in the past and knew that we’d have a great experience. This tour was unique in that we were the only one that took it. Seriously, no one else signed up. It was essentially a private tour, and it was a beautiful site. They used to do bananas, but due to disease and labor costs, they switched to coconuts. Our tour began with a glass of fresh guava juice, and then we were led on a walk through the forest, learning all about the fruits and birds at the plantation.

At the end of the tour, our guide brought over a beautiful plate of fresh fruits and fish for us to taste. There was even a plate for our driver! Everything was so yummy! This was a really chill tour, and we really enjoyed it. This is now our second time in Jamaica with Yardie Tours and on a tour that no one else booked. Both have been great experiences, and I'll definitely book with them again. We look off-the-beaten-path experiences, and this one really delivered.

 

We walked around a little after our tour and went to a coffee shop for ice cream and wifi. Then we popped into a few shops, but everyone was super pushy, so we didn’t stay long. I will admit, Jamaica is not our favorite port for shopping.

 

Back on the ship, I worked on my tan while Alex took a nap. There wasn’t a ton going on that we were interested in doing, but that’s alright. We work really hard, and this vacation was all about relaxing. By the time the cruise ended, I had read three books. That night we kept it simple and went to O'Sheehan's for chicken wings. I always order them extra crispy with buffalo sauce on the side. IMO, they just taste better. Service was quick, and we had plenty of time to get to Headliner's for the comedy shows. We had both the 9:00 and the 11:00 booked. First it was Dean Edwards, and then it was Warren B. Hall. The MC who introduced them tried to be funny but really wasn't, but the comedians themselves were pretty great. In case you are unfamiliar with pre-booked shows, they start allowing guests in for stand-by seats 10 minutes before the show, so it's always a good idea to get there half an hour early or so. We never had an issue when we did this. One of the comedians that night actually used us in their act. He asked about skydiving, and Alex and I had a Skydiving Wedding seven years ago. he ate that up and cracked all kinds of wedding/jumping out a plane jokes. It was cute and nothing offensive at all. It made the experience extra personal for us. I know, we're crazy, but that's another story. We like adventures 🙂

 

It was midnight when the second show ended, so we headed to bed. Tomorrow was Grand Cayman, and we were really looking forward to it!

 

I'm going to stop here. I will try to write more either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. Thank you all for following!!

 

Edited December 15, 2018 by AKR2011

[cathi007]

Thanks so much for this. Did you do or hear about canvas and you? It's a painting thing. I really really want to do that, I hope I can get in. Also where and when did you book the comedy club?? Another thing I want to do 🙂

[boopsahoy]

1 hour ago, cathi007 said:

Thanks so much for this. Did you do or hear about canvas and you? It's a painting thing. I really really want to do that, I hope I can get in. Also where and when did you book the comedy club?? Another thing I want to do 🙂

I saw a table with a sign up sheet. You can'y just show up-that was in November so unless its changed.....