u/quesoandcats

I did a 7 night cruise to Cozumel, Roatan, Harvest Caye, and Costa Maya and I had a blast! This was my first cruise and I had no idea what to expect, but this subreddit was super helpful for preparing!

The food was a LOT better than I was expecting. Online reviews for Escape's food seemed pretty split, but I loved basically everything I ate. The buffet was pretty meh, but I just ate there on embarkation day because it was the only thing open for breakfast. The Manhattan Room, Savor, and Taste were all delicious, I highly recommend the shrimp linguine alfredo. O'Sheahan's was surprisingly good too; the fish and chips was especially tasty. The American Diner was about what I was expecting, its basically non-union Johnny Rockets. Tasty but nothing to write home about. I only ate there once.

I did specialty dining at La Cucina, Cagney's, La Churrascia, and Bayamo, and the food blew me away. I left dinner every night stuffed to the gills, and I really liked the option to dine on the promenade. Sipping a cocktail while you watch the ship pull away from port and the sun start to set is very vibey, it felt like I was on the Titanic(good).

I do think La Churrascia didn't do enough to distinguish itself from Cagney's. It was delicious, but at the end of the day it was a bunch of (delicious) steak and side dishes, same as Cagney's. One of the Vibe bartenders told me that when the ship goes to drydock this fall, they will be expanding Cagney's to fill the La Churrascia space, so it seems I'n not the only one who found La Churrascia was superfluous. On the plus side, they did a great job with the tableside meat service even for those of us dining outside. I never had to flag anyone down or gesticulate through the window to get more picanha. But if I had to do it over I'd probably choose Le Bistro or Food Republic over La Churrascia.

The Vibe Beach club was so worth it, Alvin and James freaking rocked. It was so nice to know I could stop by and get a drink or chill on a lounger without having to fight the crowds on the pool deck. (and boy was the pool deck crowded!) One thing to note is that it does get quite windy on the top decks, and there were times when it was too windy for the staff to deploy the umbrellas. So if you want guaranteed shade, grab a seat at the bar or spring for a cabana.

The entertainment options were a bit of a mixed bag but overall good! Choir of Man was amazing (definitely worth seeing), the Crew Talent Show was cute and fun, but the stand up comics were pretty meh. I saw Mike Head's 18+ show and he started strong, (I think he was at his best when he was doing crowd work!) but fell back on a lot of tired stand-up tropes about vegetarians, trans/nonbinary people, and fat people. None of it was super offensive or rude, the takes were just stale and very much what you'd hear from any other "edgy" stand-up comic. By the end of his set I half expected to hear how there's too many milk options at coffee shops, or how much airline food sucks lol

Cabin-wise, I did half the cruise in a solo studio and half in an inside room, moving cabins because of a leaky pipe in my studio. Having the extra space in the full sized room was nice, but honestly I liked the solo studio way better. Despite being smaller, you could tell that the layout was very intentionally designed to maximize the small space. I'd like to get a balcony next time I cruise, but I would happily do another week in a solo studio no problem

I’m in a solo studio on the Escape right now and this is the second day I’ve woken up to a bathroom floor covered in water. Spoke to guest service twice yesterday and they assured me they’d fix it. I woke up early this morning to use the bathroom and the flooding was back. Talked to guest services again and they put me in touch with the deck steward, who was very nice and said he’d get a plumber on it right away. Hopefully they can fix it for good!

Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be dirty water or sewage (clear, no smell) but still, it’s pretty gross and makes it hard to use the bathroom in my stateroom. Is anyone else dealing with similar flooding right now?

Highly recommend the full film if you haven’t seen it. It’s like if *Brazil* was set in Victorian-era Canada

I like that they recognized how loaded and weaponized that term can be, and tbh I really prefer the show’s version. But the way they shoehorn it in is just very like, “performatively shaking our heads so the audience knows we know you shouldn’t call women that unless they say it’s okay”

If port matters, it’ll be the port of Miami! This is my first time, cruising and I requested disability access because I have multiple sclerosis. Apparently this translates to “wheelchair boarding” for Norwegian.

I just feel awkward because I don’t use a wheelchair in daily life. I can walk just fine most of the time, and don’t anticipate needing a chair on the ship. It’s just that standing unassisted for more than a few minutes is difficult for me.

So I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what to expect? Is it gonna be like the hospital where they make you stay in the wheelchair? Or will they be fine with me just using it as a seat when the line isn’t moving?

Edit: thanks everyone!

All I know is that basic troop squads went from 50ish points to 70ish points. I saw someone mention that it had something to do with how recon or terrain works in the new edition? Or maybe they were talking about the new spectre squads?

Going on a solo cruise next month and my mom is convinced that I’m going to fall overboard and die lol, I’m trying to show her that the railings are quite tall but I can’t find any pics with humans for scale

Like I get that she’s trying to make a broader point about European colonialism tying into the modern day riots in Northern Ireland, but these are basic facts that you need to get right if you’re going to report on this.

If you're confused at how quickly the Marsie identify has coalesced, I think you're missing how powerfully unifying outside violence against your community is. This season has paralells to real-world revolutions through history, and I think the writers are definitely going for a 19th century labor-vs-capital metaphor. But I also think the recent anti-ICE protests in Chicago and Minneapolis provide a good analytical lens.

When you feel like your community is under siege by an outside, occupying force, solidarity and a unified identity can develop very quickly. It’s something I’ve seen a lot of over the past year. I'm a lifelong Chicagoan. During Midway Blitz, I got involved in anti-ICE protests after I saw live-streamed video of federal cops at Broadview beating an unarmed teenaged boy. Thousands of other people did the same, many of them recent transplants or students without strong ties to the city.

Every time a major surge or high profile incident happened, we were flooded with volunteers who wanted to pitch in and help. The amount of "normies" (apolitical folks who just wanted to keep their heads down and live their lives) grew with each successive wave. Some of the most effective and dedicated rapid response teams were made up of people without strong local ties, or people who had never been involved in any sort of political movement.

To me, the escalations this season have felt very natural. I think the showrunners have done a good job showing how these revolutionary movements start with a small, dedicated cadre of people (like Silvio and Ed), and slowly grow overtime to include more normal, everyday folks as the accidents, incidents, and atrocities pile up. Some of them are people like Alex or Lily who saw something they can't unsee, some of them are people who tried and failed to keep their heads down (Miles, Dmitri) or thought the leopards would never eat their faces (the MPKs who defected).

Obviously it’s not a perfect metaphor, but I do think it’s worth considering.

My summer cruise itinerary includes stops in Mexico, Honduras, and Belize, and I saw that NCL recommends bringing a mix of USD and local currencies to pay for things