Cruising The Caribbean - Norwegian Escape

Several of our stops for the three weeks that we would be cruising were rearranged because of Irma but for the most part our ports were still a go. What I didn't expect was the weather to keep us out. Our seven days on the Norwegian Escape started with a day at sea to be followed by a stop in Falmouth, Jamaica.

Our second morning we arose to see Jamaica before us but, just like a plane waiting to land, our ship seemed to be in a holding pattern. Sure enough, the captain came on the PA and announced that we would not be going into port. The windy conditions and the direction of the winds would not allow large ships to safely enter. He was followed by the cruise director cheerfully assuring everyone of another relaxing day at sea.

The difficult part of having a relaxing sea day we discovered was trying to find a quiet place to relax other than in our room. The ship is laid out almost specifically to keep people in the areas of activity and of course spending. Unlike many other ships where people finally begin to disperse and the crowding of the first day lessens because people tend to find niches and different areas of interest.

It took a while but we discovered the Waterfront area of the ship. Probably its greatest asset at least where we were concerned. The promenade deck is laced with most of the specialty restaurants and they have seating areas outside for when the weather allows. Between the restaurants and bars there are lounge chairs--comfy couches and chairs with lots of padding. And for the most part, it was quiet.

At Grand Cayman we chose not to go ashore. It was an opportunity to take advantage of the pool area and the slides without all the kids around. Bob enjoyed the slide that drops you straight down and then around. He ran out of time to go on the rope course though.

Throughout the week, we found more things to like about the Escape. Our room service did not improve though. It was never serviced until late in the afternoon. The food however even though restaurant service in the main dining was slow was always hot and delicious. The specialty restaurants were excellent. We enjoyed one night dining out with the Brazilian style steakhouse where the grilled meats come to your table on a huge rod and is sliced onto your plate. Another great meal at the French restaurant and a pretty good meal at the Italian as well.

A sunny day at the private beach was a welcome getaway from ship noise. When it got crowded, we ate and went back to the ship.

Evening entertainment was a bit of a hassle to reserve but as the week went on, we discovered that standby usually got you in anyway. Probably the night we enjoyed the most was the dinner theater with a singing quartet. Food was good, music and personalities were fun and enjoyable. Stage productions were great as well in the main theater especially "After Midnight" which was a jazz revue that paid homage to the Cotton Club.

While our stateroom may not have been serviced at convenient times, there was always a towel animal each night. And while I enjoyed the animals, we ended up with a zoo by the time the cruise was over. They never went away. Of course if you read my posts often, you know I love zoos.

Cruising the Caribbean - Norwegian Escape

When you open the door to your stateroom the first day of your cruise you expect everything to be orderly and sparkling clean. There was only one time I ever remember opening a door and not finding a clean stateroom and that was on a Chinese riverboat on the Yangtze when they gave us the key to a storage room full of cleaning supplies instead of our stateroom. Correction made quickly and we laughed about the whole thing.

Now I'm not a terribly clean freak or germ phobe but I do expect that the room I'm going to stay in, the bed I'm going to sleep in and the bathroom I'm going to use are as clean as possible from those just using it a few hours before our arrival. From what I understand, each cruise line has a crew from shore that comes aboard and helps with the turnaround so that it is done quickly and efficiently. 'Nuf said. Here's what happened.

I set down my back pack and began to look around. There were a few suspicious dents in the bed near the pillows that were a bit disarranged. Someone had obviously sat there after the bed was made. I immediately checked out the bathroom which seemed to be okay thank goodness.

On the sofa there were two beach towels just tossed there and the pillows again looked like they'd recently been sat against. Certainly not the neat fluff and position you would expect to make a good first impression. When I sat down and looked across at the mirror I saw two big smudges. Not the kind caused by the swipe of a cleaning cloth.

Just as I was deciding what we should do. A knock on the door came and when Bob opened it a small woman with black hair and steward uniform rushed in mumbling something and apologizing. She had a cleaning rag in her hand and hurriedly began to wipe surfaces.

Okay, so maybe not all the rooms were clean. We set our backpacks on the top shelf of the closet and said we'd let her do her work and we'd be back. I guess she expected to clean that whole room with just that one rag because there was nothing in the hallway to indicate she was going to use other equipment.

When we returned, the room did look better but over the next couple of days we still found pieces of trash here and there that had been left untouched. I know. We should have complained. If I had it to do over again I would. Now, with time to think about it, it truly was unacceptable. After all the horror stories about Noro virus you would think the standard would be raised for the turnaround days to keep things as clean as possible. So--maybe I am a little bit of a germaphobe.