On Board, Part I

We are coming to the end of our days at sea, and after four days crossing the Atlantic by ship, I have a clearer appreciation for air travel! Taking several days to do this is a restful, I suppose, but it does get a little boring at times. So, since I have new shore destinations to share, I thought I might show a little about our Ship, the Norwegian Escape.

First of all, this is the biggest damn boat either of have ever been on. It’s like a small city. There are about 4100 passengers and some 1600 crew. That makes the Escape almost the size of city of Talent, Oregon! There are 19 decks on this ship. I’ll show you just a little of it.

Our cabin, as I mentioned before, is pretty comfortable. We are on the tenth floor midship. We have a small but very private balcony. Two people can sit there comfortably. The bed is also pretty comfortable.

There is a nice little couch which could be turned into a twin bed. John likes it. Could that be because its right by the television?

The bathroom has a double sink and a nice large shower. It’s much, more more spacious and comfortable than any ship bathroom we have ever had before.

The are two sections of the ship that are public areas. First are the upper decks, decks 16 through 19. Decks 16 is the most important of these. Most of deck 16 is taken up by the pool. Now, while our current trip is not as chilly as the one we took a few years ago around Cape Horn, it is still a little too cold for most people to want to spend much time lying by the pool. But a few brave souls do so at least on the warmer days. I got up early the other day to show you what the pool looks like without forcing you to look as some shall we say generous physiques.

You will notice the giant waterslides at the end of the pool area. When I first saw those on cruise ships, I thought, ‘How tacky.’ But now that I see them closer up, it seems like brilliant solution to hide the superstructure of the ship, particularly the smoke stacks. Plus, it keeps the kids busy!

There is a special water park at the bottom which even appealed to this senior, well, maybe if it were a few degrees warmer.

The fitness center and the spa are also located on this deck.

Most of the time the gym is pretty full of people. At 5:30 in the morning, though, when I snapped these pictures, most of my fellow passengers were still sleeping.

The café is located on this deck in the stern area. It is absolutely huge, perhaps the biggest buffet I have ever seen. The food there is also surprisingly quite good. Since the passengers are almost as international as the crew, they have to offer a wide variety of cuisines. The Chinese and Indian fare is far, far better than anything I have ever had in southern Oregon.  And it is open between five in the morning and midnight, though the earlier and later hours have fewer offerings. Despite the fact that it serves hundreds of people each hour, it is usually not that hard to find a seat not too far from a window.

The other public area are located on decks 6, 7, and 8. We will take one of the many elevators to get there.

They all have mirrors to make if feel less claustrophobic. Or maybe it serves as a reminder that all those trips to the buffet are starting to show!

The atrium on deck 6 is an open area. All the counters for guest services, shore excursions, and technical support for connecting to WiFi services are here. There is a stage there as well that is in almost continuous use for live music, trivia contests, and demonstrations. We went there one afternoon where we were shown how to carve fruit and vegetables into art.

I should have taken notes. It looked easy when he did it.

There is a huge, baseball-park-size television screen there. Every couple hours the cruise director and one of his minions appears there to tell you what to do to have even more fun.

And if your first thought, however politically-incorrect, was “How gay!” well, you’re right. I think Norwegian’s HR staff must have a table at every gay bar in Manila.

The traditional dining rooms, the ones we associate with passenger ships, at least the ones in the movies, are on decks 6 and 7. These are table service with a fair selection of appetizers and entrees on a menu. Service is very old-fashioned. Like using those crumb scrapers….

In addition to the café and the traditional dining rooms, the Escape also have almost a dozen specialty restaurants. A wide variety of cuisines are offered:  , French, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian churrascaria, Mexican street food.

These are specialty seafood and steak places. Most of these charge extra for food, though the amount is about the same as what you would expect in most American cities.

There are bars everywhere. The larger cruise lines lose money, lots of money, on room and board. These are really “loss leaders,” to use the retail term. The cruise makes up for these with charges for optional items like shore excursions, art sales, and, most of all, alcohol purchases. So every few yards in the public areas you will find a bar.

There are specialty bars as well. Just like many hotels in Las Vegas do, Norwegian offers franchises of a sort, licensing names from existing bars such as Tobacco Road, the famous Miami blues bar.

There are two theaters on the ship. The main theater alternates between their headline act, the British musical group The Choir of Man, and various other acts such as comedians and a magician.

Tomorrow I go on a tour of the crew areas of the ship. This will all be new to me, and I’ll post some pictures to show you after.