Semi-live from the Escape | NYC to Bermuda and back again | October 29-November 5, 2023

[OrcaGirl]

Our excursion today was the “Caves and Waves” tour.

 

 

We got checked in and placed on a tour bus. The ride to the caves was about 45 minutes, and the driver pointed out various sites and sights along the way.

 

The caves themselves were awesome. It was high tide so the floating boardwalk was up and even regular height people had to duck frequently… the poor 6’5” husband and the other actually tall people had to really get low to avoid bonking their heads. (Many more photos will be posted on my Instagram Stories.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After emerging back to the above-ground world, I had just enough time to run to the washroom (but not the gift shop 😢) before being herded back onto the bus.

 

Another short bus ride took us to the Clearwater Beach, where we spent two hours. Our first stop was the beach bar, for two incredibly strong pina coladas and two hot dogs…. Alas, the fish sandwiches weren’t available. The only food available were hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries.  Guess I’ll have to go out in search of fish sandwiches tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. We didn’t bother renting chairs, just laying down our NCL towels and popping a squat on the sand. I dipped my toes in the water, but didn’t swim. The temperature was lovely, at least by Canadian terms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was around this time that my phone decided it needed a vacation too, and overheated and shut down. 🤷‍♀️ 

 

Our tour left the beach at 2:15pm for the drive to St. George’s for the NCL ferry back to the Escape. We got to St. George’s with about 30 min to wait for the ferry. The line was already long so we just found a bench on the waterfront until we could see the ferry approaching.

 

 

We boarded, grabbed seats on the upper, outer deck and settled in for the ride back to Dockyard.

 

 

 

Random observations:

 

Check your tour numbers. Four people were removed from our bus since they were on a different tour.

 

Our (white) guide really wasn’t comfortable answering a Black guest’s question about when the African population was brought to Bermuda. The verbal gymnastics he performed to avoid saying slavery or enslaved peoples was actually pretty impressive. (The answer is 1617, I looked it up once back on the ship.)

 

Also maybe don’t tell your passengers about how you lost your ambulance driver license for speeding (twice) before we even leave the dock.

 

Free wifi provided by the tourism association was available at the bar and near the ferry stop in St. George’s.

 

At least one dude from the Escape didn’t realize the ship had changed to Bermuda time last night, and didn’t understand why everyone was lining up at 1:45 for a 3:15 ferry. ⏰ (It was 2:45…)

[laudergayle]

6 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

completely forgot to change the time on my phone before bed last night, so I woke up at 8:20am when I really meant to be up at 7:30am.

Yes…I did that last year and almost missed our excursion.  It didn’t occur to me that since the phone was on airplane mode that it wouldn’t automatically adjust.

 

We sail the Mexican Riviera this weekend.  I have made an index card with the days snd time zones since there are so many.  We will go from EDT to PDT to PST to MST to CST to MST to PST back to EST all in 8 days!

 

I’m really enjoying your posts…thanks.

[JGmf]

53 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

I dipped my toes in the water, but didn’t swim. The temperature was lovely, at least by Canadian terms.

 

I assume you are referring to the water temperature.  Did anyone go in for an actual swim?  (Not sure if I should bring my bathing suit or not for my cruise to Bermuda next week...)

[OrcaGirl]

32 minutes ago, JGmf said:

 

I assume you are referring to the water temperature.  Did anyone go in for an actual swim?  (Not sure if I should bring my bathing suit or not for my cruise to Bermuda next week...)

Oh yeah, the husband and several others went for a swim. One dude was swimming really far out.

 

Most of the others described the water temperature as ‘brisk until you got used to it’…

[OrcaGirl]

(This is going to be a little out of order.)

 

We got back to our cabin around 4:30pm, which made for a long day. The husband chose a disco nap over trying to rush to make the 5pm Thriller dance class. (He’s a former Thrill the World participant so he takes his Thriller dancing seriously. If you don’t know what that is, search for it on YouTube.)

 

We had dinner in one of the main dining rooms. Taste? Savor? I don’t know. 🤷‍♀️ 

 

I had the roasted beet salad and he had the Caesar. Both good.

 

 

For our mains, I had the pork loin after remembering how good it was on the Bliss, and he had the shrimp fettuccine Alfredo. Neither of us could finish our mains; my pork slices were huge and way too thick, and I could only finish one, and his pasta looked like a nicely sized portion but was deceptively large.

 

 

Dessert was the lava cake for him and the tiramisu cake for me. Both excellent.

 

Before heading to the MDR, we also perused the buffet. Much like Celebrity, it seems like NCL is scaling the dinner buffet waaaay back, and just over half of the buffet was open.

 

But the highlights were the Halloween-themed desserts and displays.

 

 

 

 

 

And later in the evening, we went back to the buffet so the husband could have another crepe.

 

 

 

 

 

[OrcaGirl]

I’ll have to finish up Halloween shenanigans and post the Freestyle Daily in the morning; the wifi is 💩 right now.

[mking8288]

36 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

... Much like Celebrity, it seems like NCL is scaling the dinner buffet waaaay back, and just over half of the buffet was open.

 

But the highlights were the Halloween-themed desserts and displays.

The grass isn't greener on the other cruise lines either - this is true as we sometimes wondered about NCL's cutback and changes.  Fewer options & choices not just at dinner time, also evident at lunch and breakfast in the buffet, some of it subtle but diehard NCL cruisers do see & recognize the necessity.  

 

We're on 2 NCL Halloween cruises, at least 1 was on the Escape and the crew really do put out the efforts to showcase.  Amazingly, by tomorrow morning, the extra sets will be gone & everything back to the regular "routine" displays again. 

 

Enjoy the reports & reports, thanks for taking time out to write, post & share.  Just FYI, tomorrow evening & Thursday, the "ride" will be a bit bumpy sailing away - good call by the Captain to modify the itinerary schedule   Do go to O'Sheehan's to check out things out, including the new "wings" and perhaps, their late night offering (like breakfast - simplified)   

[brookie848]

I'm enjoying this report!

 

You have to wonder if the staff enjoys creating all the "fun" stuff for the holidays or if it is just an additional task to them that takes extra time. I could see it going both ways -- but it certainly looks fun in the pictures.

[OrcaGirl]

Day 3 Freestyle Daily:

 

escape-day3.pdf

[OrcaGirl]

Halloween was a blast and I’m so glad we decided to stay on the ship instead of going for the revised sunset catamaran.

 

Not to be immodest, but I was especially happy with how my costume turned out.

 

 

 

 

I didn’t manage to sneak onto the bridge but several crew addressed me as Captain and/or saluted. 🫡

 

So many people were dressed up, either in full costume mode or in something at least thematically on point. I can’t even narrow down my favourites. But the family of King Triton, Ursula, Sebastian and Flounder with little baby Ariel in the stroller was fantastic, and I loved the two Mrs. Ropers from Three’s Company. 🤣

 

 

 

And many of the crew were in full costumes, especially in the casino. I saw Chucky, the Joker, flappers, priests, escapes prisoners, and more.

 

We did a few tours of various bars, drinking and people-watching. The casino opened around 9pm and was packed.

 

 

We went to the haunted house in the Supper Club, and well… I loved it, I thought the crew did an amazing job and it was appropriately scary for all but the youngest kids. Except… I’m married to a very jumpy 54-year-old. (We went inside a haunted house on our second date, and he ended up throwing me into a wall. Reader, I still married him. 🤷‍♀️) The haunted house was A BIT TOO MUCH for him. At one point he stepped on a poor crew member (in fairness, he was already sprawled on the ground) and then near the end he got a jump scare just after another crew member said to watch his step, and he ended up tripping and banging up his knee and one toe pretty bad. 😫

 

 

So yeah, we declared a moratorium on all future haunted house visits.

 

After that we hobbled around a bit longer and eventually made our way up to H20 for the costume contest. Unfortunately it was a bit too crowded for my liking, and the wind was really starting to pick up (I feared for the safety of my Captain’s hat, all $9.99 of it) so after failing to find a good perch for my Just Ken to rest his poor leg, we decided to bail.

 

If anyone was there and knows who won, I’m dying to know!!!

 

We did one final lap across the Atrium and then retired to our cabin for the evening. This Barbie needs her beauty sleep.

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by OrcaGirl
Forgot photos 😂

[justhappy]

Loving your review! And love your Halloween costumes.

All the Choir of Man shows I’ve seen have the gay character. I too hope they didn’t change that.

I’m sad to hear still no hash brown sightings 😬 I hope that changes before January!

If you ever have an issue in the buffet please find Lilibeth Espinosa, she is amazing and is a very special lady.

She usually supervises the buffet.

If you see her tell her the Mals and Snows send their love.

[dmms]

Literally laughed out loud at your Halloween posts! Too funny 😁 

Your captain Barbie costume is amazing - agree the Ariel gang was impressive too.

Really enjoying reading your live posts - vey entertaining!

Our Halloween was so lame compared to yours - below freezing temps and only only 4 brave trick or treaters🤨

Thanks for sharing with us poor unfortunate souls currently not on a cruise ship 💕😎

[OrcaGirl]

Good morning from Bermuda, part 2.

 

 

We slept in after all the Halloween shenanigans, and it was 9:30am by the time I headed down to not-actually-a-Starbucks.

 

People were coming back on board wearing rain ponchos and various plastic bag-type coverings. ☔️ 

After rousing the husband, we headed to The Local, I mean, O’Sheehan’s for breakfast. We were seated in the bar area and eavesdropped on the morning trivia while having our breakfast.

 

 

 

 

Based on the weather, we decided to head to the thermal spa for the rest of the morning and then reassess later if we want to try to head out to the Dockyard or St. George’s for a late lunch.

 

 

They’ve been doing crew drills all morning, and for the first time in all my cruises it’s involved the thermal spa staff while I’m actually in the thermal spa. Good to know they check all the saunas and steam rooms when an abandon ship order is called. 

 

Random observations:

 

The maître d at O’Sheehan’s wouldn’t seat us in the main dining area because my husband was wearing a tank top. And yet I was also wearing a tank top, as were the women behind us who got seated no problem, so what’s with the double standard?

Today was the first time this trip that I’ve seen people chair hogging the stone loungers in the thermal spa by leaving their towels or cover-ups… tsk, tsk…

 

Someone had way too much fun last night; I thought I heard a bang/crash sometime around midnight, and woke up to this right outside our cabin.

 

 

Mudslides may be the perfect spa drink.

 

 

[graphicguy]

2 hours ago, brookie848 said:

I'm enjoying this report!

 

You have to wonder if the staff enjoys creating all the "fun" stuff for the holidays or if it is just an additional task to them that takes extra time. I could see it going both ways -- but it certainly looks fun in the pictures.

I asked that same question on a BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR during a Christmas Holiday sailing a few years back.  The galley went "all out" for their presentations.  The Chef who conducted the tour said they loved it, as it breaks up the monotony of preparing and presenting the same dishes all the time.

[brookie848]

7 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

I asked that same question on a BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR during a Christmas Holiday sailing a few years back.  The galley went "all out" for their presentations.  The Chef who conducted the tour said they loved it, as it breaks up the monotony of preparing and presenting the same dishes all the time.

I thought that might be the case...sometimes a chance to do something different can be welcome. And if they really enjoy the decorating it gives them to opportunity to go all out. It also helps that I think the cruisers really appreciate it all.

[OrcaGirl]

Day 4 Freestyle Daily:

 

escape-day4.pdf

[skittl1321]

On 10/31/2023 at 12:51 PM, OrcaGirl said:

I may be misremembering, but I swear last time there was one character who was explicitly gay, which wasn’t a part of this production. I sincerely hope that wasn’t excised due to any anti-LGBTQ2A sentiment. 

 

 

I saw it on the Encore at the beginning of October, and the character was there. It was, however, an incredibly brief mention, not like a plot point, so maybe you missed it?  (They also looked for both men and women in the audience when pointing out potential dates for the bartender; and in the two times I saw it, they didn't always bring up the same gender to dance with background characters for various songs, so the men dance with other men;  though the pina colada and the slow ballad were both women who came up, and likely always are?)

I hope they didn't change it; and since they license the show, it seems like it would be hard for NCL to just change script points?  

[bluesea777]

Loved Halloween on NCL ships!! We have memories of that on 4 ships.

 

Fantastic costumes by the passengers and crew.

 

 

[OrcaGirl]

By the time we started thinking about drying off and heading out, the rainy weather had rolled in. So we decided to skip the ferry to St. George’s and scrounge for lunch on the ship instead. Glad we had our one good day of weather yesterday for the excursion.

 

Don’t think the husband is going to be able to try the ropes course today. It’s supposed to open at 3pm, but I don’t see that happening.

 

 

 

Lunch was fine, but I do miss the wider selection on the Bliss/Encore. 
 

 

The bread pudding was [chef’s kiss] though.

 

 

We stopped by the O’Sheehan’s arcade area for a quick game of Space Invaders. That was intense, and the husband destroyed me. 
 

 

 

Then to the Atrium for general knowledge trivia. It was very busy, and we ended up sitting on the floor. 

 

 

We ended up scoring 16/22… not our best, not our worst, but not good enough to win any prizes.

 

Interestingly, NCL seems to be going the way of Celebrity in that you now accumulate points for each activity you win, and then exchange them for a prize at the end of the cruise. (On my Bliss cruise in June my friend and I won a deck of cards outright for winning one trivia session.)

 

The weather had lightened up a bit, so we went for a short walk through the Dockyard, on the hunt for a souvenir t-shirt for my mom.

 

 

 

Once that was acquired, we hustled back to the ship ahead of the next wave of rain, and back into the thermal spa.

 

Random observations:

 

As we approached the ship, I could hear a siren and overheard two crew asking about where the ambulance was supposed to park. 😬

 

An older gentleman was complaining to the poor woman staffing the towel return station about how “in the old days” NCL used to have a tent up with cool towels and glasses of water outside. My dude, we’re lucky it’s not a full-blown hurricane; tons of people are just staying on board, and you’re gonna make the staff stand around in the rain and wind?

 

Still lots of stone lounger hogging and loud voices in the thermal spa. Boo. The spa staff don’t seem to be enforcing the rules very consistently.

[OrcaGirl]

Yay, I got a birthday rainbow! 🌈 

 

[Seas2mountains]

Thank you for taking the time to do a live review and post photos! It is fun to follow along with you.  Thank you for the update on the hash brown situation. It really is disappointing as they are oh soooo good!

 

Have safe travels back and enjoy the sea days.

[OrcaGirl]

We headed back to the room around 6pm to get showered and napped and ready for the evening’s frivolities.

 

We grabbed seats in the Atrium for Sing It If You Know It; very busy again, all of the regular seats and folding seats full and still people ended up sitting on the floor.

 

It was… confusing, at first. And then fun. And then eardrum-perforating… (Seriously, preteen boys should not be allowed to scream-sing YMCA into a mic.)

 

 

My birthday dinner tonight was at Teppanyaki. It was fun and delicious as always but also too much food (as always).

 

 

 

We skipped dessert and headed out to Atrium catching the tail end of an interesting movie trivia game, where one person sees a movie title and has to give the other person clues to guess it without actually saying the title. My husband and I tried to play along while waiting for drinks. I didn’t guess his “not ugly and ugly” clue (Beauty and the Beast) but all he had to grunt was “family” for me to correctly guess The Fast and the Furious.

 

Meanwhile, he correctly guessed “Superman vs Batman” based on my clues of “it’s a bird, it’s a plane; I can’t turn my head; they’re fighting”… 🤪

 

 

We spent a few minutes in the casino, each making a small contribution to NCL’s bottom line, but we were tired and quickly headed to bed for the night.

 

Random observations:

 

I hope NCL switches over to TimePlay trivia eventually.

 

Lots of people have been celebrating their birthdays onboard this trip. Yay Scorpios!!! 🦂 

 

My husband gave me Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with the potato chips inside for my birthday. He knows me well.

 

I got birthday email offers from Princess and Celebrity today, but nothing from NCL. 🤔 

 

The casino area is unpleasantly smoky. Zero stars, do not recommend. And someone was vaping while walking through the main casino thoroughfare which I didn’t think was allowed.

[TYTY]

14 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

We headed back to the room around 6pm to get showered and napped and ready for the evening’s frivolities.

 

We grabbed seats in the Atrium for Sing It If You Know It; very busy again, all of the regular seats and folding seats full and still people ended up sitting on the floor.

 

It was… confusing, at first. And then fun. And then eardrum-perforating… (Seriously, preteen boys should not be allowed to scream-sing YMCA into a mic.)

 

 

My birthday dinner tonight was at Teppanyaki. It was fun and delicious as always but also too much food (as always).

 

 

 

We skipped dessert and headed out to Atrium catching the tail end of an interesting movie trivia game, where one person sees a movie title and has to give the other person clues to guess it without actually saying the title. My husband and I tried to play along while waiting for drinks. I didn’t guess his “not ugly and ugly” clue (Beauty and the Beast) but all he had to grunt was “family” for me to correctly guess The Fast and the Furious.

 

Meanwhile, he correctly guessed “Superman vs Batman” based on my clues of “it’s a bird, it’s a plane; I can’t turn my head; they’re fighting”… 🤪

 

 

We spent a few minutes in the casino, each making a small contribution to NCL’s bottom line, but we were tired and quickly headed to bed for the night.

 

Random observations:

 

I hope NCL switches over to TimePlay trivia eventually.

 

Lots of people have been celebrating their birthdays onboard this trip. Yay Scorpios!!! 🦂 

 

My husband gave me Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with the potato chips inside for my birthday. He knows me well.

 

I got birthday email offers from Princess and Celebrity today, but nothing from NCL. 🤔 

 

The casino area is unpleasantly smoky. Zero stars, do not recommend. And someone was vaping while walking through the main casino thoroughfare which I didn’t think was allowed.

OMG....where do they sell Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with potato chips inside?  That sounds amazing!!!

[schmoopie17]

22 hours ago, skittl1321 said:

the pina colada and the slow ballad were both women who came up, and likely always are?)
 

We saw Choir of Man on our Escape TA last November...hoping it will still be on our Med cruise next September...although it sounds iffy, at best, with the cutbacks.

 

I thought it was ironic that they did the pina colada song (the title of which is "Escape")...on the Escape.

 

[bluesea777]

@OrcaGirl What time is the sail away today?