Quick Escape/Bermuda recap

[perditax]

Background: Have been on many away class cruises in the last four years. I'm one of the commonly disgruntled posters (disgruntled with NCL's customer-unfriendly policy changes). So now you've been warned that this may contain opinions that are not all sunshine and roses. Your choice whether to keep reading now!

 

Embarkation at the Manhattan cruise terminal was fine. It was large and slightly chaotic, but everyone was friendly. Actually, 'friendly' is a good word for how this cruise went. Everyone was friendly, from the workers at LGA, to the workers at the pier, to the people of Bermuda, to my fellow passengers. Didn't really see a single grouch or rude bureaucrat the whole time.

 

Was happy to be back onboard Escape--my cruise on BA in April was very disappointing (ship understaffed and very dirty, but I was onboard not long after their failed health inspection). Escape is still pretty fantastic. 

 

Food: I did the MDR more times for various meals than I usually do. No problems except for one breakfast when it took 25 minutes for the staff to draw straws and decide who was going to have to be my waiter. (I'm being facetious, they said something about having a staff briefing? Right after they opened for breakfast? No idea.) Food decent to good. 

 

Buffet on Escape was great as always, but they seem to have done away with my favorite dessert station, bread pudding. They had some cobblers, and seem to be experimenting with new stuff like eclairs, donuts, Rice Krispie treats, cupcakes, etc. You just have to know when and where to look. If you see banana cream pie in the dessert cases, grab it, it was very good. They had an Asian night with Peking duck, Turkey and meatloaf on 4th of July, the other usual theme nights, and something I don't think I've seen on an NCL ship buffet before: a really nice looking steamship round of roast beef at the carving station. (I don't mean prime rib or roast sirloin being carved, I mean an old-fashioned steamship round.) Crepe station is still open, but it's erratic and moves around. 

 

Moderno: unchanged. Not worth a la carte prices. Loved the banana tartlet dessert. Fantastic service. 

 

La Cucina: Hadn't been here in a long time. Their 'spaghetti carbonara' is slightly closer to actual carbonara than what they were serving as carbonara a few years ago, but needed more pepper and more pancetta. The filet wasn't good. (The filet in Moderno wasn't good either.) Wherever they're sourcing their tenderloin right now, it's just really not worth your dining package. Good chocolate tart dessert.

 

Food Republic: Yes, part of dining package now. Four items. I got pork and scallion dumplings, Peruvian beef skewers, something else involving bulkogi beef. It was all very good. Coconut mochi for dessert, and this is where I discovered I don't like mochi.

 

Despite some reports I'd read here, prime rib night a O'Sheehan's is still a regular thing. I think they had it three times on this sailing, including first night, third or fourth night, and final night. I have a tradition of having prime rib at O'Sheehan's on the final night. So I went down not long after their dinner hours started (5pm). My waiter told me that the prime rib special wasn't until dinner. I pointed out that it was dinner hours and showed him my watch. He walked up to the podium and looked at the prime rib special sign, chatted with the hostess. Then he went and got a manager. They all went back to look at the sign again. I guess after all this, they decided that there was in fact a prime rib special and that it was in fact dinner hours, and that I hadn't lost my mind. (While they were deciding, the table next to me got their prime rib.) So that was all a little odd, but mostly just funny.

 

Room: solo studio. I was a little let down when I first got inside--throw cushions stained, bed made very haphazardly, toilet flush button cover missing. I shrugged it off. Over the course of the week things improved, and someone fixed the toilet. No towel animals (didn't ask for nor want any). No ice bucket until I asked for one, then I got ice every day.

 

Tech: Wifi pretty decent this trip. Sometimes able to stream Netflix, sometimes not. Couldn't get my travel router to work at first, until I walked around the ship a bit and found an AP that the router could actually talk to, and it was fine after that all over the ship. (For anyone who understands that last part and wants more info, try walking around in the buffet and scanning.) HDMI ports available on TV, easy to change source.

 

Entertainment: I was underwhelmed by Choir of Man. Lots of people complain that After Midnight is just a collection of songs with no real plot, and Choir of Man is the same thing, it's just a different setting (a British "pub"). They also pull audience members on stage and give them beer, which is probably why it's so popular (that and the fact that it's mostly hugely recognizable modern popular/suburban music like "The Pina Colada Song"). The singers might have been having a bad night--one guy was trying to do Hello by Adele and missing the high notes a lot. I left when they were doing a complicated and lengthy on-stage urination sight gag during "Under the Bridge", but apparently everyone else thought it was hilarious, so I guess I'm just not into pee humor. My loss?

 

After Midnight: have seen it before, loved it a second time, especially "Don't Advertise Your Man". It had the best singers I heard on the ship all week.

 

Thermal Suite: this has been a tradition of mine since my first cruise, but I think that was probably my last $200 thermal suite pass. They had so much chlorine (or chlorine-like substance) going at all times that my eyes were irritated just from the air. After being in the pool, even after I got back to the room and showered, the chlorine smell was still coming from my skin. I almost had the (irrational) thought that they have been cranking up the chlorination to limit the amount of time people spend in there. You can smell it as soon as you enter the first long hallway. I don't know, it's also possible I'm becoming more sensitive to smells. 

 

Bermuda: There have been a lot of fantastic trip reports and photos of Bermuda lately, so I won't repeat, but I think Bermuda has ruined me for the usual Western Carib itineraries. Beautiful, clean, unbelievably friendly, no one tried to sell me anything. Weather was great. I went all over the islands and felt 100% safe all the time. No one treated me like a tourist, although it's possible I wasn't particularly standing out as one. Even Snorkel Park was cute, and something that people would pay a lot more money to access somewhere like Cozumel. (They were letting US residents in for free on the 4th of July evening, had some bonfires, limbo with free shots, line dancing, etc). 

 

Pax: I had no idea what to expect, having never sailed out of NYC before, but everyone was polite, chill, better-dressed and groomed than I am used to seeing, and a diverse crowd. I noticed everyone was also in better shape/much fitter than I'm used to seeing on cruise ships. (Which in turn caused me to hit the gym more often, although I also walked seven miles on my longest Bermuda day.) Also more 20/30-somethings, including in the studios. A fair number of kids, but they were not in any way overwhelming. Never saw any sloppy drunks, except for one obnoxious twenty-something woman who was being brought through the solo lounge by a friend and was enjoying (drunkenly) making fun of the idea of sad, pathetic solo travelers (even while some of us were sitting there). Hey, if you're reading this, you sounded like a drunken idiot. ❤️

 

But mostly everyone was lovely and in a good mood. 

Disembark: A weird aggravating thing happened: I had my larger suitcase outside my room and tagged (two tags, even) by about 8:45p. Because, you know, I am not a newb at this. When I poked my head out at about 10:30, it was still there, and two other passengers' suitcases were also out right next to it, also tagged same color. Ok, all good. Went to bed later. 

 

In the morning, all the suitcases were gone from the hallway ... except mine. Still sitting there outside my door, still tagged. I mentioned it to my room steward who was passing by. He suggested I hadn't put it out early enough. I politely informed him I had, and that there had been other suitcases near it. He tried to mention the tag color (pink/9:15 ish), and I told him the other suitcases had the same tag color. He offered to call a manager, but I quickly realized that at this point I really needed to do self-walkoff if I ever wanted to see my suitcase again. Fortunately it was still quite early, and I managed to get right onto an elevator, and total disembark took about ... 30 minutes? I was aggravated because wrangling two suitcases alone through a cruise ship is dicey, but I lucked out on the elevator situation (which is usually the worst part). 

 

(If you're sitting there trying to guess what I did wrong to have them not take my suitcase the night before, I didn't do anything wrong. It's a normal TravelPro suitcase, nothing weird about it, 25" (so not huge), zipped up and properly tagged, outside my door before 9pm. (Cutoff time is 11pm.) Sitting there right beside other suitcases that were gone in the morning. For whatever reason, it just got left behind.)

 

I ended up off the ship earlier than planned as a result of doing self-walkoff, and after some interesting contretemps with my car service and the NYPD, still ended up at LGA way early (through security by about 9am, although I have Pre-Check). 

 

So ... that was that, had a nice week, used up my CN certificates, not sure when I'll sail NCL again. But Escape is still a great ship. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by perditax

[PortFees45]

Did you have your "make up room" light on in the evening, or did your room not get serviced in the morning?

 

They'll do it if you ask, but it's not automatic like it was before. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by PortFees45

[PortFees45]

Just now, PortFees45 said:

Did you have your "make up room" light on in the evening, or did your room not get serviced in the morning?

 

They'll do it if you ask, but it's not automatic like it was before. 

Sorry this was meant to be a response to your question re: turndown service on my review. 

[perditax]

1 minute ago, PortFees45 said:

Did you have your "make up room" light on in the evening, or did your room not get serviced in the morning?

 

They'll do it if you ask, but it's not automatic like it was before. 

 

Got service 2x a day every day. Didn't ask. Maybe the solo studio stewards haven't gotten the memo yet. I also tipped my steward at the beginning of the cruise. Dunno. 

 

But yeah, if they're officially down to one room servicing a day ... well, I was already pretty much done with NCL, so there's no point me threatening to be done with NCL over it. 

[PortFees45]

1 minute ago, perditax said:

 

Got service 2x a day every day. Didn't ask. Maybe the solo studio stewards haven't gotten the memo yet. I also tipped my steward at the beginning of the cruise. Dunno. 

 

But yeah, if they're officially down to one room servicing a day ... well, I was already pretty much done with NCL, so there's no point me threatening to be done with NCL over it. 

I mean...I'm no NCL cheerleader, but I can't see how anyone needs their room cleaned more than once a day. 

[Son of a son of a ...]

We had a spa balcony and received cabin service twice a day.  Also, same day turnaround on platinum laundry service.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Son of a son of a ...

[perditax]

50 minutes ago, PortFees45 said:

I mean...I'm no NCL cheerleader, but I can't see how anyone needs their room cleaned more than once a day. 

 

Oh please. Long day in port, then showering/using up towels/dropping off pool towels/maybe taking a nap in the bed. Coming back to a clean room at the end of the evening is a sign of being on vacation for me.

 

I don’t drink but I don’t go into the drink package threads and say “I don’t understand why anyone needs Grey Goose to enjoy their vacation.”