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Cruise Reviews

Island Cruises

Island Escape

Escape The Island Escape

Escape the Island Escape	1 of 1 people found this review informative

Reviewed By: Gowing, Norwich on 16th Jul 2010
Cruise Line: Island Cruises	Times cruised before: 3-5
Cruise Ship: Island Escape	Sailed: July, 2010
Destination: Mediterranean	Age: 46-55
Cabin: Balcony	Occasion: Annual/regular holiday

The Island Escape is an old ship in need of a facelift and an update, but is is clean and tidy. The crew and staff work hard to keep it this way, but when the crome plate has been polished away it's had to get it to shine any more. The crew and staff are really top notch, they are cheerfull and enthusiastic about thier work and the ship and will do everything they can to make your trip enjoyable and trouble free. The cabin crew are wonderfull even tidying up after two 16 year old boys. The food onboard is fair. There is always a good variety of main meals to suit most tastes, but the choices are failry bland and do not really exite the taste buds. Make sure that you ask for a decent portion as they tend to intially be on the small side ( two slices of roast meat from the carvery is all you get unless you ask for more). Most of the food is precooked and can be a bit dry and overdone if it has been hanging about for a while. Take advantage of the freshed cooked omelette and pasta bars where you can, and you be pleased with the results. It is a bit of "chips with everything" type of dining which seemed to be quite agreeable to most people on board. The snacks and deserts were generally of quite a good standard. We had two cabins:- A balcony on deck 9 ( there only about a dozen of these). These are situated towards the stern of the ship on both port and starboard sides and the actual balconies have been added as an extra at a previous refit. They are only two decks above the main disco/dance floor and can be quite noisy until midnight, so if you like to go to bed early these are best avoided. An inside twin ( again on deck 9), this also suffered from the noise from the disco/dancefloor. Both cabins had a constant vibration from the engines all the cruising time, bearing in mind that this was at night the rattling caused from the vibration became a bit intrusive, various bits of card were used to stop bits of the cabin ceiling from rattling. You had better like getting up early in the morning as when the ship came to docking at the various ports the vibration became 10 times worse with the whole ship shaking fit to fall apart. These where both cabins at the aft of the ship so I am unable to say if things are as bad in the forward cabins. The one small "swimming" pool struggles to cater for the number of passengers on board and the shower by the pool just about works. There are plenty of bars on board all with a differing style so it it easy to find a place to relax in the evening and the waiters do not pester you to much about buying drinks. The drinks at £3.10 for a pint of lager and £1.60 for a can of coke are not over the top. The entertainment is varied and of an enjoyable standard ( although the judges on certain TV shows may not agree), it is all good clean clap along fun, a bit corny in places but most people seem to enjoy it. Shore excursions are quite pricey and in my opinion do not represent good value for money ( a family of 4 can easily spend £200 a day on excursions). If you have the confidence to do your own thing I would recommend that option. There are some very good value local excusions which will give you the same experience at a lot lower price. Overall you get what you pay for and this is not an expensive cruise, so you will not get all those little extras, but it represents resonable value for money. If you want to try this as your first taste of cruising then fair enough and most people we chated to were happy to have another trip aboard, However if it all a bit to "holiday camp" for you do not be put off. There are a lot of better ships out there where the noise is less, the cabins bigger and more comfortable and the food and entertainment more enjoyable.
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1 of 1 people found this review informative

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Opinion: Agree Comment by troman, norwich (13 Aug 10 22:23) about this REVIEW

You got it all in one, cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear!! staff work so hard to keep the standards up, but the ship is tired, in bad need of a refit, the toilets were disgusting and in some the panels were swollen with.....well.....i hope cleaning fluid. Enjoyed the entertainment in the evenings, and the bas prices were good.

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Comment by mcguire, dunfermline fife (18 Jul 10 15:40) about this REVIEW

HIYA yes cant beet the old girl still got some go in her yet.

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Opinion: Agree Comment by Byrne, Durham (17 Jul 10 17:27) about this REVIEW

I have to agree with most of this review as we cruised on Island Escape AND Independance of the Seas earlier this year . Little V Large in ships sizes if you like ( 40k tons v 150k tons. We found ISLAND ESCAPE TOPS in most areas as follows :- 1 Staff friendlyness, 2 Atmosphere on board 3 Cost of Drinks and extras-4 Standard of Entertainment. 5 Best Overall value.......We found INDEPENDANCE TOPS for 1 Food choice, 2 Ship facilities,3 Cabins. Given that Independance of the Seas built in 2008 v Island Escape which is built in 1982 its not a fair comparrison. If you have a cabin in the aft end of the ship you will get noise on arrival in port but overall weighing up Age of ship and value for money good old Island Escape wins hands down. So in my view "Little beats Large" . If you are booked on Escape this year enjoy it.

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Comment by Gowing, Norwich (17 Jul 10 21:22) about a COMMENT by Byrne (17 Jul 10 17:27)

I have also cruised RCL on the Navigator of the Seas and found this to be a wonderfull ship, but it is more formal and as a larger ship it has loads more facilities. As with everything in life its all about choice and I would personally choose the larger of the two ships. I am sure that the Island Escape will be enjoyed by many thousands of people until it goes for a bit of work later this year ( November I was told by a crew member). It is not a BAD ship its just that I prefere something a bit bigger with more facitities and perhaps a bit more formal.

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Comment by Byrne, Durham (17 Jul 10 23:20) about a COMMENT by Gowing (17 Jul 10 21:22)

Yes I appreciate you prefer a more formal larger ship with much higher prices for drinks and lots of dressy uppy nights where the men can been seen parading up the promenade looking very swish.... but the Island Escape dosnt advertise formal agenda. Why do reviewers always go for the "Holiday Camp" tag. You know what you are getting with Island Escape and by the Way the DISCO is on DECK12 . Its called the LOOKOUT and it will not disturb passengers unless you are in it !. You Cabin was under the Beachcomer at the aft of the ship so its a touch missleading to complain about noise from the disco.

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Comment by Gowing, Norwich (18 Jul 10 21:48) about a COMMENT by Byrne (17 Jul 10 23:20)

Wherever the noise was coming from I can assure you that it loud and clear, it could of course been the band performing in the bounty lounge which is on deck 8 and was directly below our cabin. I am not criticising the lack of the formal agenda on the Escape, quite the opposite, I very much understand the dressy uppy nights are not to everyones taste, you only have to look at the number of people who opt out of these nights on other ships. All I was trying to do was be informative to people who perhaps had not cruised before and would be unsure what to expect

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Comment by North, Huddersfield (17 Jul 10 10:19) about this REVIEW

Good informative review - I just don't understand how this following comment gets the staff 2 stars and I quote ;- " The crew and staff are really top notch, they are cheerfull and enthusiastic about thier work and the ship and will do everything they can to make your trip enjoyable and trouble free. The cabin crew are wonderfull even tidying up after two 16 year old boys" - if that is 2 stars what is 5 stars for the price you paid ?

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