My review of the Escape Jan 20-Feb 3 Embarkation day

[cathi007]

I will start out telling you a little bit about our group. There were 12 of us sailing together, all from New Milford CT. We are a group of 6 50 something year old friends, all married couples. My daughter, her husband and their two children ages 3 and 14 months. We stayed at the Watson Hotel in NYC the Saturday night before, as bad weather was headed our way. I highly recommend the Watson, excellent hotel. Embarkation was the worse ever I have seen. I even talked to people who had 72 cruises under their belt and they said the same. Ship was supposed to sail at 3:00, hubby and I didn't get to board until 5:30!. This was supposedly all due to the fact that the cruise before had a few hundred people sick with the Norovirus. While I appreciate the cleaning that was taking place, better communication would have been nice. We were told to report to the port at 10:30, it was a disaster. Once we got on board it was even worse, and I am not one to complain. Our cabins were not going to be ready until after 10 pm, so 4200 people were stuffed into the buffet and a few other areas. It was just crazy. Finally an announcement was made that we could drop our carry on's into the rooms, but they were not ready for us to stay in. We dropped our bags off and headed to La Bistro, where we had dinner reservations. Dinner was good, but service was very slow. This would be a theme for the fist half of the cruise, because in the buffet the crew had to serve you, so any extra crew were either in the buffet or cleaning the ship. I didn't mind, as I knew our rooms weren't going to be ready yet anyway. Finally at 8:30 we started sailing, only 51/2 hours late, not bad for all that was going on. We went to our rooms at about 10 pm. There was no coffee makers, no robes, no ice, no soaps, no books/magazines. It was bare minimum, as everything had to be sterilized. We met Anthony our cabin steward and he was amazing from day 1!!!! These crew members work so hard, they were all awesome the entire cruise :). BTW we had 5 mini suites and mine and my daughter's were connecting. I loved the extra large bathrooms, and the rooms were a bit larger than the regular balcony rooms. Also the balcony was a bit larger. Perfect for us. We went to bed, as we were all wiped.

[cathi007]

The next day we went to the buffet for breakfast, which was a nightmare, lol. I realized that people on January cruises do not like children. I can't tell you how many people were downright rude, because we had children. It made me very angry. One day my S-I-L was waiting for an elevator. When the elevator came, a women pushed in front of him and tried to close the door before he could get in with the 14 month old in the stroller, this seriously would be a common occurrence. There were many people that were awesome too, but I was very disappointed in how many were rude. The buffet was a mad house and people were also being so rude to the crew. None of this was their fault, and they were all working double duty. We ate our breakfast and then went to explore the beautiful ship. The ship was awesome!!!. For lunch the 12 of us ate at O'sheehans,  which was a lot of fun and the food was good. We next hit the shops, just to see what was available. We all went to the show After Midnight at 10 pm. It was pretty good, but I started falling asleep towards the end, as it got boring to me. After the show we stopped by the casino to make our daily donation. I ended up not doing bad, but hubby....not so much, lol. The next morning it was pleasantly warm. We were so excited to sit out in the sun. We got a couple of lounges on deck 17 near the bar and enjoyed the sun....and some frozen concoctions. BTW we had the drink package and we purchased a 7 night dining package. We were a group so we enjoyed free gratuities. We spent the day out in the sun and my Daughter took the 3 y/o to the splash zone.  The 14 month old was in the stroller sleeping. She is an exceptionally amazing baby, who never never cries. She isn't walking yet, a she was a premie, so she is super easy. The 3 y/o is a typical 3 year old boy. He is potty trained, so he was able to enjoy the splash pad. On that day he met a little friend from the UK, so he enjoyed his time. Later on in the day we played Deal or no Deal in the Atrium. I won 50.00 and a free photo, so it was a good day for me. For dinner that night we went to Savor. We had a pretty good meal there, but I was too stuffed for the desert. After dinner we visited our friends at the casino, where we donated. We play either Let it Ride, or Three Card Poker. We do love to gamble.

[Shidah]

Enjoying your review so far!  I too love to gamble, but slots since I don’t know any table games.  How were the slots on board?

[Costa canary]

Your right ,embarkation was a disaster we arrived just after 12 and were pretty much standing up for the next 5 hours even when we went to the buffet we had to stand in the aisle and eat as everyone had camped out there and were not going to move even after they had finished eating ! 

What I would also like to agree with are all the staff on board were absolutely fantastic, even with there vastly increased workload not one of them failed to remain happy and smiling at all times , 10/10 

 

Getting off the ship was almost as bad , we were the last to leave , about 10.15 and it took us an over an hour and half before we got to the pavement outside the terminal, I loved NY but I don’t think I want to use the Manhattan cruise terminal again , it can’t cope with the big ships 

 

despite these issues ( which weren’t that much of a problem) we had a great time