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

[JGmf]

6 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

We walked in, saw that half the stone loungers were occupied by people and the other half were occupied by books and/or towels (which have no squatting rights) so I did a heel-turn back to the spa desk to request that someone address it.

 

Did staff clear anything away from the lounger-hogs so you two could get spots?

[OrcaGirl]

11 minutes ago, JGmf said:

 

Did staff clear anything away from the lounger-hogs so you two could get spots?

They did! Someone came in a couple minutes later, just as I was heading to the steam room. By the time I came back out, five loungers were miraculously available, instead of none. 🤣

 

Of course, people started saving them again within the hour, and by the time we left all the chairs were once again occupied by either people or towels.

 

 

[OrcaGirl]

I didn’t sleep particularly well last night (slow speed + lack of waves) so I was awake around 12:30am or so when I heard a Code Bravo (🔥) announcement out in the hallways. 

 

I wasn’t overly alarmed until a second announcement maybe five or ten minutes later, when a crew member made an announcement piped right into the cabins for response crews to proceed to fire zone whatever on deck 4. I gotta think that was a mistake on his part to have that broadcast loudly into the cabins.

 

Another ten or fifteen minutes later, there was a third and final announcement, this time by the captain and only out in the hallways. He basically said “this is the captain, everything is fine” like four times. Must have had some panicked calls from guests.

 

And then I fell back asleep.

 

When I eventually woke up again, I grabbed coffee and dragged the husband up to the buffet for breakfast. And guess what I spotted?!?!

 

 

Just kidding, there were still no hash browns.

 

We returned to the cabin and watched some weather roll in before heading to the spa for our couples massage appointment.

 

 

I got the aroma stone therapy, he got the deep tissue; we were both very happy. (But damn onboard massages are crazy expensive. With the exchange rate, I’m guessing that came out to $600CDN for two people for 50 minutes. I’m justifying it as my birthday gift to myself.)

 

The sun came back out by the time we were finished up with our massages.

 

We changed into swimsuits and headed into the thermal spa. Eight of the stone loungers were occupied by towels, so once again I headed right back to the desk. Unfortunately the dude spa manager wasn’t as effective as the lady spa manager… I saw him walk by a few minutes later with an arm full of towels, but after five minutes in the pool, all unoccupied-by-an-actual-person stone loungers were still (or once again) covered in towels.

 

 

And the steam room was closed for maintenance. Boo.

 

Not the best thermal spa experience, and we bailed after 45 minutes. We’ll try again later.

 

For lunch we headed to Food Republic to use up our last dining credit.

 

 

We ordered the butterscotch miso pork belly, pork belly bao and the miso chicken. All were amazing. We ended up ordering another round of the pork belly bao as our fourth item. 

 

 

 

 

The menu seems more streamlined that on past sailings, but everything was delicious and the husband loves the high counter seats with a view.

 

 

Random observations:

 

The massage tables were possibly the most comfortable in the world. They should rent them out at night for people (i.e., the husband) who find the NCL beds uncomfortable.

 

 

We changed time by one hour last night (to get back on NYC time) and will be changing by one hour again tonight (stupid Daylight Savings). 

[OrcaGirl]

After lunch we headed back of the room for a nap (him) and pre-packing (me)…

 

Then we figured this was our last chance to try the ropes course, so we dug out our closed-toe shoes and headed up top.

 

Alas we missed the memo that tank tops weren’t allowed, which gave me just enough time for second thoughts as the husband ran back to the room for a tshirt.

 

That course is intense! 
 

 

 

 

We grabbed a pina colada and BBC and headed down to the Atrium for a round of trivia. Except what was billed as “catchphrase” trivia, I thought would be like here’s a catchphrase, write down who made it famous; instead it was more like “sayings” trivia where you figure out a common phrase or idiom through combinations of words and visuals.

 

The husband was hankering for a treat, so we headed up to the buffet. It was officially “snacking” time, so only one side was open but he was excited to see the elusive cookies and I was delighted to see a scones section. But whipped cream ≠ clotted cream.

 

 

And there was a pretty decent-looking taco bar set-up. The husband has strong feelings about taco bars, and he will be sooooo sad if it’s not still there for dinner.

 

 

Then we decided to try the spa again. The manager must have seen me come in because he was on the spot within seconds… except he was standing in front of SEVEN out of sixteen lounge chairs covered in towels/belongings but not occupied and did nothing at all. He chatted for a few minutes about how he had removed towels from three whole this morning… and then walked away without doing anything about these ones.

 

 

So if the spa staff aren’t interested in enforcing their own policies, we decided to just do it ourselves. We moved towels and kicked aside flip-flops and claimed two seats. And then took our towels with us when we rotated on to the pool or steam room, like the rule-abiding Canadians we are.

 

The spa started to clear out between 5:30pm and 6pm as people left for dinner, so there was no need for any cage fights over the only two free loungers. (Ironically it also got louder. 🤷‍♀️)

 

We decided to maximize our last spa session for this trip (spa closes early at 8pm on the final night) so we stuck around until our stomachs started grumbling around 7pm.

 

Random observations:

 

I’ve heard more renditions of Baby Shark this cruise than ever in my entire life.

 

I’m guest 1 on our booking, and I’ve got the higher status. So why do all charges go on my husband’s account and how come all ‘special offers’ delivered to our stateroom are addressed to him?

 

Just had the most spa-nerd fun idea: on my next cruise in February, I should create a spreadsheet that captures the number of stone loungers that are occupied, available or being ‘saved’ by someone at the top of each hour, and work out the average usage rates, ‘wasted’ time when no loungers were available, peak times when staff should deployed to remove towels, et cetera. Bet the spa staff would love that data. 🤣

 

 

Stone loungers to me:

 

[ellenw]

Good on you for trying to get the "saved" loungers cleared! Rules are rules!

 

Food Republic is one of my favs. Have done it on Escape and Joy. And one dining credit is definitely enough food for two. It's all sooooo good. 

[brookie848]

2 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

I’m guest 1 on our booking, and I’ve got the higher status. So why do all charges go on my husband’s account and how come all ‘special offers’ delivered to our stateroom are addressed to him?

 

Where does he stand alphabetically compared to you?

 

On our cruises, my husband is Guest #1 on the booking (and he pays for everything), but he never gets anything in his name. They are always addressed to the third person in the cabin and me. All of the NCL mail we get to our home is addressed to the third person in the cabin (even though they don't live with us).

 

Initials are DF (3rd person), BG (me) and KG (husband).

[OrcaGirl]

Argh, no taco bar at dinner. It felt like slim pickings again.

 

Honestly, this is the first time a NCL buffet has disappointed me so much (aside from the hash browns issue.) On recent cruises this past year on Celebrity and Princess, I kept telling my companions how much better the NCL buffets were. 🤥

 

At least the husband got a final cherry and Nutella crepe.

 

We headed up to the jogging track to walk a few laps (I’m doing a November 30x30 challenge).

 

Then we headed back to the cabin to finish packing and set out our luggage before bed.

 

Random observations:

 

Smokers are jokers. Two young women were vaping in front of the ropes course, several people were smoking cigarettes while standing in the jogging track away from the smoking area, and there was a distinct aroma of pot wafting up to our balcony earlier. 

 

And why do cruise ships so often put a designated smoking area right next to a jogging track?!? They are very incompatible.

[OrcaGirl]

Good morning from New York.

 

 

Another 💩 night of sleep. According to CruiseMapper we were supposed to enter the New York harbour around 3am, but with the time change, I had no idea if that was true, and although I poked my head out onto the balcony occasionally through the night, I didn’t catch the Statue of Liberty.

 

When I did finally get up, I still had no idea what time it was. The NCL App was no help. (My phone did adjust for the time change; the app was two hours off).

 

 

I grabbed coffee, and thought about stopping in at the onboard credit deck to have someone explain some confusing shore excursion charges and refunds, but the line was too long and I just didn’t care enough to wait.

 

I spent a few minutes drinking coffee out on the balcony until it was time to wake up the husband. We threw a few final things into bags, and then headed down to Savor for breakfast.

 

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.

 

 

We then hung out in the Atrium while waiting for our ‘Light Blue’ disembarkation call.

 

The call came a bit early, around 9:35am, and we were heading down the gangway and off the ship by 9:41am. Baggage collection and immigration was easy (facial recognition for the win), and before we knew it we were crossing the street away from the Escape.

 

 

We walked up one block back to the Ink48 hotel, thinking it’d be easier to get a Lyft there. It may have been less chaotic, but it still took a really long time for our ride to show up due to traffic congestion.

 

We used the app Bounce to book a luggage storage location near Penn Station; like AirBnb but for your luggage. It was $25USD to hold three bags for five hours.

 

 

After freeing ourselves of our luggage, we walked down Broadway all the way to the lower east side.

 

Our destination: Crif Dog, which we’ve been returning to since our first trip together to New York more than 15 years ago.

 

 

And I was delighted to find they still have Ms. Pac-Man.

 

 

 

 

After downing a tsunami dog and a chihuahua dog and a frozen cranberry martini, we rented a couple of CitiBikes and rode down to the tip of Manhattan and back up the waterfront. Such a beautiful day, and it was neat seeing some of the NYC Marathon finishers biking or limping home.

 

 

 

We picked up our luggage and took the train from Penn Station to Newark Airport. In retrospect, with three bags, we should have just taken a Lyft.

 

Our flight has been delayed 90 minutes, but we’re happily enjoying that lounge life with cocktails and snacks. And we might grab Shake Shack to take on board. 🤣

 

 

Spoiler: we ordered and ate Shake Shack, and then ordered more Shake Shack to bring on board.

 

 

Random observations:

 

Seemed like a lot more people that usual opted for self-assist disembarkation, but the elevators were packed and so lots of people were trying to carry multiple very large/heavy suitcases down the stairs with varying degrees of success. 

 

The cruise wrap-up video playing in the Atrium didn’t include any footage from Halloween, just the usual pool shenanigans, Glow party, etc. 😔 

 

We didn’t attend either the Mr. Sexy Legs or Perfect Couple games, but the videos of them have major Carnival vibes.

 

I could not have picked the captain out of a lineup or even recall hearing his name before this final morning. (For comparison, I’ll never forget Captain Tasos on Celebrity who was so visible and personable.)

 

[luvtoride]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:03 AM, OrcaGirl said:

Well that was cool.

 

We were split into three groups for the tour; our guide Marcus was delightful and funny.

 

We were taken first to the theatre’s backstage area and main dressing room. No photos allowed but we got to see the costumes for Choir of Man and all of the rubber ducks the cast had acquired. Apparently this cast is on board until early December and then they switch out with a new cast. No hints dropped about NCL’s future shows or planned replacements for the big Broadway numbers, though there was a lot of agreement that Six is amazing and it’s bad that it’s being dropped.

 

We visited the crew gym and crew lounge, and got a peek inside the crew mess (but couldn’t go in because it was being cleaned).

 

Visiting the laundry was cool (although actually pretty hot and humid 🥵). So many towels!! I wish my lowly-silver husband had been able to join the tour, he would have loved seeing that and probably offered to jump in and help with the folding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been on galley tours before on other cruiselines, but it’s always a neat thing to see it in operation. (Although I’m genuinely surprised we were allowed in a food service area without masks in the COVID era.)

 

 

We got a sneak peak at some of the chocolate creations for Halloween tomorrow.

 

 

And there was soooooo much bacon. Yum.

 

Unfortunately we were going a bit overtime and were hustled past the galley board so I didn’t get a chance to take close-ups of each day.

 

 

 

The tour ended right outside the Savor and Taste dining rooms for those who wanted breakfast.

 

Instead, I grabbed an Americano for Sleeping Silver Beauty and a mimosa for me and headed back to the cabin.

 

 

 

Random observations:

 

The instructions for the tour didn’t say no beverages, but they weren’t allowed, so I had to chug the last of my iced Americano before we set out.

 

Yesterday the husband was insistent that the Escape wasn’t as long as the Bliss or Encore, but Marcus told us it’s actually the longest in the NCL fleet from end to end.

 

Just guessing based on appearances, but I think I was maybe the second- or third-youngest Platinum guest on the tour, at least in our group. Yay for those triple-Latitude cruises last year.

 

 

[luvtoride]

Sorry, meant to ask, was the behind the scenes ship tour complimentary due to your Platinum status?  We’re going to Bermuda on the Escape this Friday, so I’m reading your trip posts with great interest. Thanks for posting!  
And just one more question…does “the husband” have a name?  LOL 😂 if you reveal in future posts (I’m only up to your first morning ship tour) please don’t spoil me finding it. 
Brian 

[luvtoride]

On 11/4/2023 at 9:24 AM, OrcaGirl said:

 

 

We were seated and the husband promptly spotted a cruise duck, despite knowing nothing of the tradition.

 

 

 

Is hiding and finding ducks on NCL cruises a “thing” too?  We’ve heard about this tradition / practice on Royal Caribbean which we will be sailing with our kids and grandkids over Xmas and are preparing for (ordering holiday themed ducks from Temu or somewhere).  
 

Should we be getting ducks to hide on our Escape cruise this Friday (no kids with us this time)? Did you do the duck hiding (you haven’t mentioned it in your posts until this one your husband found)?

 

[boffoboffo]

If you hid that cruise duck in a hole in the back of one of those light thingies on the Waterfront, I’m the one that found it when I was out walking the following morning at 5:30 or so. We were going to hide it again but a little girl walked by and was glad to take it off our hands with a big smile on her face. 

[luvtoride]

BTW, I love CRIF dog but haven’t been there in years.   Special memories of visiting there with a childhood friend of mine who we lost 4 years ago. 😥

 

If you ever have time on a future trip to the NYC area, flying into Newark Airport, ask your Lyft driver to make a detour to Rutts Hut, in Clifton, NJ about 8 miles north of Newark.  It has been rated the best hot dog in America for 6 years running!  

[cruiseny4life]

On 11/4/2023 at 1:53 PM, OrcaGirl said:

When I eventually woke up again, I grabbed coffee and dragged the husband up to the buffet for breakfast. And guess what I spotted?!?!

NOT FUNNY!!!!! Ok, it kind of was. My heart actually leaped for a moment as my brains tried to make that pastry turn into a hash brown...alas, it stayed sweet and flaky. 

[OrcaGirl]

1 hour ago, boffoboffo said:

If you hid that cruise duck in a hole in the back of one of those light thingies on the Waterfront, I’m the one that found it when I was out walking the following morning at 5:30 or so. We were going to hide it again but a little girl walked by and was glad to take it off our hands with a big smile on her face. 

 

That was it!

[OrcaGirl]

3 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Sorry, meant to ask, was the behind the scenes ship tour complimentary due to your Platinum status?  We’re going to Bermuda on the Escape this Friday, so I’m reading your trip posts with great interest. Thanks for posting!  
And just one more question…does “the husband” have a name?  LOL 😂 if you reveal in future posts (I’m only up to your first morning ship tour) please don’t spoil me finding it. 
Brian 

 

That was the free Platinum behind the scenes tour; a paid tour was also available to book.

 

The husband's name can be figured out on my Instagram Stories, but I don't tend to use real names here.

[boffoboffo]

45 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

That was it!

Thank you for not hiding it in the curve of the handrail on the staircases. I guess people who use the elevator think it’s a good hiding place but as someone who only uses the stairs  there was a point where it felt like every time I was going up the stairs I’d find a duck. 

[OrcaGirl]

3 hours ago, luvtoride said:

 

 

We never bring ducks to hide ourselves, but once I explained it to the husband that evening, he had fun spotting them and thinking up places that he would hide one. And then I'd point out why his picks were too hard or not in the spirit of the game. 🤣

[boffoboffo]

Speaking of the Aqua it was about half way through this cruise when my mom decided she’d like to do another cruise to Bermuda in the not-too-distant future. I mentioned they usually have sailings from both NYC and Boston each year so she was intrigued by Boston since she’s never been there before. So I spent an hour or so on the ships wi-fi doing a search for future Bermuda cruises that would have taken a minute or two on any other internet connection that has existed in the last 80 years. There is a Boston-Bar Harbour-Bermuda cruise on the Gem the end of October 2025. She immediately decided we should do that one. I told her we should at least wait until we get home so we can see the price in CAD$ instead of the useless to us USD$.

 

Then a day or two later I was looking again and saw they had 2026 cruises available which were new so I searched again to see if there were other options. It now had the September 2025 NYC-Bermuda cruises on the Aqua, which I was unaware was the new ship until that exact moment. So I mentioned that the identical itinerary to this one was now available in two years on what will be a brand new ship which we know almost no details of except that it has some sort of roller coaster/waterslide she’ll have no interest in trying. She decided Boston was still more interesting to her.

 

Once we got back into Canada yesterday I priced the two options and of course the Gem out of Boston was cheaper, so she said cheaper is better but both are kind of pricey as they’re substantially more than this one was. I reminded her that we wouldn’t be booking this for at least two or three more weeks or perhaps months from now, so she has plenty of time to think about it although prices will probably change by then. 
 

I just got off the phone with her a few minutes ago because she thought she’d call me to let me know that she’d been thinking about it and going on a brand new ship sounds like fun, so now she thinks she’d rather do the Aqua cruise. I reminded her that we wouldn’t be booking this for at least two or three more weeks or perhaps months from now, so she has plenty of time to think about it. 
 

So very long story short, it seems nearly certain at this point that we’ll be booking a sailing on the Aqua back to Bermuda sometime in the very near future. 

[MarKay525]

Hope you arrived home safely. Was interesting to see the cruise through the eyes of a fellow (albeit much younger) passenger.

We're definitely jealous of how quickly you disembarked. We were in the Brown luggage tag group, got called about 8 am and snaked our way through a line for nearly an hour. Then when we got on the NCL transfer bus to LGA, we sat for almost an hour before the bus was full enough for the driver to leave. Once we arrived at LGA, our driver had to turn around three times before he managed to get us to the Delta terminal. Total of 3.5 hours after our luggage tags first called-ridiculous IMHO. (And we sat on our plane for an hour due to a malfunction with absolutely no air flow - we were so happy to finally get home.)

 

Self assist disembark-I agree,  we've never seen so many people dragging 1-2 bags per person off a ship.

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by MarKay525

[Dina7]

Thank you for the great review! Really enjoyed it. 😊

[OrcaGirl]

Sorry for the delay on my final summary. We got home late Sunday night, fell right into bed... and then woke up sick the next morning. COVID tests are showing negative thus far, but we're both miserable with coughs and sore throats and so... much... mucus.

 

One weird tidbit: on Monday when I started to unpack, I noticed that my AirTag was no longer on my luggage. I checked Find My Phone... and it showed as being at a house on Long Island. I checked again just now, and it's at a McDonald's restaurant in Stamford, Connecticut. Not sure why someone would steal an AirTag, but it also seems very unlikely that it felt out of its holder and into the possession of someone else.

 

So anyway...

 

Top three highlights of this cruise for me:

1. Spending lots of time in the thermal spa, which was clean and in great condition

2. Visiting the caves in Bermuda, very cool

3. The specialty restaurants, but especially the pork belly dishes at Pinchos and Food Republic and the petite filet at Cagney's

 

The three things I'd change if granted magical powers:

1. The heated stone lounger chair hogs in the thermal spa

2. The lack of variety in the Garden Cafe buffet (and the lack of hash browns!)

3. The lack of interesting evening entertainment (Choir of Man was great, everything else was pretty blah)

 

Funnily enough, I got an email from NCL today "welcoming" me to Latitudes Platinum and telling me all about the great benefits I can now enjoy... despite enjoying many of them on the Escape. 😂

 

Next cruise for me is the Bliss to the Mexican Riviera in February 2024, and I'll be watching for other threads from the Bliss in the meantime to help with my own planning.

 

 

 

 

[ellenw]

4 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

3. The specialty restaurants, but especially the pork belly dishes at Pinchos and Food Republic and the petite filet at Cagney's

 

 

Pincho's and Food Republic were our favorites on the Escape! When we talked to other passengers about Pincho's, no one was familiar with it. Best kept secret on the ship! Wish it was on more NCL ships. And using one dining credit at each is plenty for two people. I know that some cruisers were told that you couldn't share. We did not run into that.

 

Food Republic on Joy was just as good as on Escape. 

[D_And_K_gocruising]

13 hours ago, ellenw said:

Pincho's and Food Republic were our favorites on the Escape! When we talked to other passengers about Pincho's, no one was familiar with it. Best kept secret on the ship! Wish it was on more NCL ships. And using one dining credit at each is plenty for two people. I know that some cruisers were told that you couldn't share. We did not run into that.

 

Food Republic on Joy was just as good as on Escape. 

Man I am going back and forth now about giving up some of our specialty dining and hitting either Pincho's or Food Republic instead.. Seems like a lot of value there.. Have teppenyaki (sp) Cagney's and Moderno (sp) booked right now.. Highly thinking about dropping Teppenyaki for sure.. And just cant decide on the others.. Since you get 4 items per credit at those places.. Even if they make the 2nd person buy 'something' ala carte instead of just using 1 credit for 2 people.. 

[schmoopie17]

13 hours ago, ellenw said:

Pincho's and Food Republic were our favorites on the Escape! When we talked to other passengers about Pincho's, no one was familiar with it. Best kept secret on the ship!

It was such a secret on our Escape TA a year ago that in 16 days on the ship, we NEVER saw anyone in that restaurant. Seriously.

 

Of course, when you're on a TA with four port stops in Spain, I suppose there is no need to eat tapas on the ship.