NCL Escape to Bermuda May 19 2019: A Detailed Trip Report with Photos!

[serene56]

What time did you get off the ship?   I am looking to go from the Pier to the Amtrak Train station. to go home

 

My available times are 11:05   or 12:50  

 

 

[basicprincess24]

1 hour ago, serene56 said:

What time did you get off the ship?   I am looking to go from the Pier to the Amtrak Train station. to go home

 

My available times are 11:05   or 12:50  

 

 

Our flight was in the evening, so we didn't have anywhere to be, and hung out in the atrium until someone came and told us we had to leave, which was about 10:30am. By the time we got our luggage and got through customs, it was just before 11am. 

[serene56]

1 hour ago, basicprincess24 said:

Our flight was in the evening, so we didn't have anywhere to be, and hung out in the atrium until someone came and told us we had to leave, which was about 10:30am. By the time we got our luggage and got through customs, it was just before 11am. 

perfect    I think we can get the 11am train

 

[Greenpea2]

It’s sad that someone else’s cruise by as fast as your own! I have been enjoying this review very much so thank you! We loved our Bermuda cruise. 

[HowardK]

7 hours ago, serene56 said:

What time did you get off the ship?   I am looking to go from the Pier to the Amtrak Train station. to go home

 

My available times are 11:05   or 12:50  

 

 

I  did the early - take your own bags and was at the Greyhound station by around 8 to 8:15 ( i typically do this). I would think if you requested the leaving time of perhaps 9 or 9 30 (and correct me anyone if I am being too conservative) it would give you enough time to clear customs, and get transportation to Penn station.

However, when arriving to the ship I sometimes saw delays in people getting off the boat from the prior week. 

 

I see you are the Phila area- have you considered the bus as well? I usually get a ticket for around 11 and standby for the 9am one. 

I get a Uber to the port authority, go in and take an elevator down with my luggage right to the bus gate. 

[cruisingbajan]

On 6/16/2019 at 8:38 PM, basicprincess24 said:

 

 

 

I had the petit filet.

 

That is an aptly name entree...Petit indeed😀

 

Edited June 20, 2019 by Bajan Keith

[peteukmcr]

On 6/4/2019 at 5:43 AM, basicprincess24 said:

Day 1 - Travel Day (Continued)

We actually landed at EWR 20 min early, at 4:10pm local time. However, the traffic at the curb was crazy! It took probably 20-30 min for our LyftXL to get through to pick us up. Then, we were in bumper to bumper traffic all the way to hotel in NYC - the trip took about an hour and a half. The LyftXL cost about $75 from EWR to the Kimpton Ink48 Hotel. I had looked into the train prior to our trip, which would have cost about the same for the 4 of us,  but had decided that Uber was simpler. In hindsight, the train might have been the better option considering how long we waited to be picked up and how long we were stuck in traffic.

 

We made it!

 

We saw this Sierra Nevada truck right outside our hotel. One of Sean's favorite Nor Cal breweries!

 

We chose the Kimpton Ink48 because of the proximity to the port, only 1 block from pier 88. Hotels for the night in NYC were incredibly expensive, so we chose to share a room for the 1 night. We booked a two queen bed room, which was nice and modern and sufficient for our one night stay. One note on this hotel - it is located across the street from an event space, and there is a very loud event every Saturday from 11pm - 4am. The two queen rooms face this street, so we were warned at check in about the noise, and they let us know that they have sound machines and ear plugs available if we needed them. No one in our group was kept awake by the noise, but if this would bother you, book a different room type.

 

We had booked 7:30pm dinner reservations at Bea, which was about a 10min walk from the Ink48. I had found this place on Yelp, and we were all impressed. It definitely could be described as “trendy” but the food was excellent. They played loud 80s music, and had old black and white movies projected on the walls. It was a really fun meal, and we'd definitely recommend it.

 

 

 

We all started with cocktails. Sean had the Maracuya Mama, made with passion fruit puree and chipotle tequila. This one was delicious and only a little spicy.

 

I had the Long Life Elixir, made with Cilantro Tequila, lime, and pineapple juice. Also good, but Sean’s choice was better.

 

For dinner, Sean had the Herb Roasted Chicken, which he loved.

 

I had the gnocchi, which came in a tomato cream sauce that was to die for. I was scraping up every last bit of sauce from my plate.

 

After dinner, Matt really wanted to try some authentic New York cannoli, so he searched nearby on Yelp. He found a spot with over 1000 reviews and 4 ½ stars, and it was only a block away, so we headed there next. We all had a good laugh when we arrived at Carlo’s Bake Shop, from Cake Boss. Maybe not the authentic experience we were looking for, but we decided to go for it.

 

 

We got one of each kind of cannoli offered - original, chocolate, and rainbow sprinkle. Pretty good!

Another funny moment happened here. Grace was trying to AirDrop this photo from her phone to Sean, but Sean didn’t remember what his iPhone was named, so when she turned on AirDrop, the only option was iPhone. We figured that was probably it, so she shared the photo with iPhone, only Sean didn’t get it! Someone else in Carlo’s had accepted her cannoli photo! Whoever who are, we hope you enjoyed the cannoli photo!

 

Yum!

 

After we’d finished our dessert, we took a quick walk to Times Square to see the lights and the New Year’s Eve ball and take a few photos.

 

We walked back to the hotel and called it a night, excited for embarkation tomorrow morning!

 

Coming up - New York bagels and cruise day!
 

We're also staying at Kimpton Ink48 before our Escape sailing in Sept. Again picked for the location and close to Hells Kitchen (a Mexican restaurant on 9th Ave). I was concerned about the construction taking place next to the hotel but that is supposed to be finished in a few weeks, but didn't know about the event space! Thanks for the heads up.

[basicprincess24]

Day 8 - At Sea

 

We slept in a little bit for our last day at sea - Sean and I even skipped our usual coffee & croissants this morning! We met at 8am at Taste for breakfast with pineapple mimosas that we had gotten at the Atrium bar.

 

It took a long time for coffee to make it to our table this morning, and we had skipped waterfront coffee, so I was in need of a caffeine fix after breakfast. I decided to get a vanilla latte at the Starbucks in the atrium - after the automatic gratuity it was $6! It did taste like Starbucks on land, but a little pricey, even at sea. Glad I tried it! And it did wake me up.

 

We played morning trivia in the atrium. There were a lot more teams playing today than there were when we had played a few days ago. We lost by just one point! We then headed to our sea day spot, the District Brewhouse, to play cards for a little while. There was a private event in the space at 12, so we stayed as long as we could, and then had lunch at Savor.

 

To start, Sean had the tomato soup and a spinach caesar salad.

 

 

I had chicken pho and the hummus.

 

 

For our entrees, Sean had the Philly Cheesesteak, and I had the Mahi Mahi Sandwich, which I guess we were too hungry to get photos of! Sean also got the key lime pie dessert.

 

We then went to the theater for the Captain’s Q&A session, followed by the crew talent show and the NCL crew goodbye. Anyone else get teary-eyed when they sing the “You are Norwegian Now” song? Haha! After the show, we headed back to the cabin to pack up, take a nap, and enjoy the last day on our balcony.

 

We met up with Matt & Grace for dinner at the Manhattan Room at 6pm. There was a 10min wait, and we were asked to sit in the Skyline Bar until our they came and called our room number. This was the longest wait we had for dinner on any night of the cruise, and we weren’t in any rush, so it didn’t bother us.

 

To start, Sean had the butternut squash soup.

 

I had the onion flatbread. I don’t know what I was expecting here, but this was strange. It was just onions on a cracker-like flatbread. I guess I was thinking it would have sauce, like a mini pizza?

 

For our entrees, Sean had prime rib.

 

I had the Mozzarella-Basil Stuffed Chicken.

 

For dessert, Sean had the Cafe Pot de Creme.

 

I had Key Lime Cheesecake.

 

We went back to the room to set out luggage and say thank-you to our room steward. And then, we decided we couldn’t just go to bed on the last night of the cruise! We ended up at the mojito bar. How on earth had we missed this bar all week!? The bartenders were so much fun - doing magic tricks and really having fun with all the guests. They also knew a lot of the guests who had clearly found this fun spot earlier in the week. Don’t miss these guys on the Escape!

 

After a quick stop at O’Sheehan’s for some fries and wings, we headed to bed.

 

The Daily for our last day at sea

 

 

[basicprincess24]

Day 9 - Disembarkation

 

I was woken up by something (maybe thrusters?) at 3:30am and I was surprised to look outside and see that we were already pulling into the dock in New York! I was expecting an arrival between 6am and 7am, so I was surprised, but went back to sleep. 

 

Our plan for the morning was to have a leisurely breakfast at Taste and then wait as long as possible before getting off the ship.

 

The only breakfast photo we took today - this was the strawberry parfait.

 

Our flight wasn’t until 5:45pm, and we didn’t really have plans for the day, so we weren’t in any rush. We met up for breakfast at 8am, and then sat in the atrium for a while to wait until the ship cleared. We had phone service, so we sat and checked email and caught up on social media. I wrote down that they were playing really awful music in the atrium during this time - I think it was clearly designed to get you to leave! 

 

At around 10:30am, someone came and told us that they needed to clear the ship and that we had to leave, so we did. The lines weren’t too bad, and we were out on the street by 11am. Now, this is where we started to regret not having a plan. I had hoped that the Kimpton would allow us to check our bags with them for a small fee since we had stayed before our cruise (we had done this before after disembarkation with other hotels), but they don’t allow that. We googled and found CityCoPilot, near Times Square, that would hold bags for the day at the cost of $10 per bag. A little pricey, but it was nice to be free of the bags so we could at least walk around until it was time to catch a Lyft to the airport. We spent the rest of the day walking around Times Square, shopping, and taking in New York.

 

 

 

Matt recreated this iconic moment the The Office. 😆

 

We also stopped in at the Nintendo Store, where we got this little guy. 

 

We grabbed a Lyft back to the Newark airport for a (thankfully) uneventful flight back home to San Francisco.

 

 

I think we learned a good cruise lesson here - always have a plan for disembarkation day! We made the best of it, but in the future we’ll make more concrete plans.

 

And that’s the end of our report! Thanks for reading along 🙂 I hope everyone who is sailing the Escape to Bermuda has an amazing time, I know we did!

 

If you have any questions, or if there’s something you’d like to know that I didn’t cover, just ask!

[peteukmcr]

Thanks for the tip about CityCoPilot as we'll need somewhere to store bags after we disembark Escape before our evening return flight home to the UK.

[Chelleum]

Thanks for sharing! Great review and pics. Will be on the Sept 1st sailing to Bermuda. 

[spethstation]

Great review, with a lot of great photos and tips. Can't wait to sail her in December! Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

[choochoopie]

Going on the Escape to Bermuda the first week of Sep.  Thank you for the review...I enjoyed it!!

[Destaw71835]

Great review!