Food & DINK
We travel. We eat. And we travel to eat.
Cruise Day 7: One Final Relaxation Day Before Reality Hits
We managed to sleep in long enough to miss breakfast at the buffet on the final sea day, so we opted to try our luck at O’Sheehan’s breakfast. This is usually one of our go-to breakfast options on cruises, but this O’Sheehan’s had left a little to be desired. Sure enough, we didn’t get several of the breakfast items we ordered, confirming that this O’Sheehan’s was definitely the most disappointing of the many we’ve frequented over the years.
After breakfast, we discovered an air hockey table near the O’Sheehan’s bowling lanes. This is one of our favorite cruise pastimes, and we proceeded to play three games (of which I managed to win one!). Considering the fact that I’m visually impaired, I count this as a major life achievement.
Like star athletes after a big game, we needed to cool down and relax following our intense air hockey matches. We headed up to the spa and worked out our strained muscles.
This was our day for O’Sheehan’s, as we dined there for lunch, as well. We revisited some of our classic favorites, knowing it would be a while before our next NCL cruise. We also played three more games of air hockey, of which I won none. Sigh.
We then spent another couple hours just relaxing in the spa, knowing that our time onboard was coming to an end. We eventually said goodbye to our favorite relaxation area, and we wondered how we’d do future cruises without spa access.
After leaving the spa, we ended up spending a couple hours enjoying our balcony. We found robes in our closet, which I believe were only provided because we had a spa balcony. We put on the robes and finally popped the bottle of Champagne we’d been saving all week. Sitting on the balcony in our robes and drinking our Champagne was one of my favorite memories from this trip.
After getting showered and changed, we spent some time bidding farewell to some of our favorite places and people on the ship. For us, this was primarily Cellars (and the very nice server we chatted with every evening), the District, and Tobacco Road. Orly was playing music at Cellars again, and we enjoyed a few final glasses of wine before heading to Cagney’s for our last night dinner.
But before dinner, there was one last item I wanted to consume again. Of course, I’m talking about the Scotch eggs from Food Republic. We stopped at the District for a pre-dinner beer, and an appetizer course of delicious Scotch eggs.
By now, the ship was rocking and rolling in some stormy weather. We were seated all the way at the back of Cagney’s, looking straight out the large aft windows. This was a great seat, except that being so far aft meant we could feel every single roll and bump, which made for an unusually exciting meal. The food at Cagney’s was excellent, as always. I particularly enjoyed the potato soup (this was a big trip for me and soup).
We finished the night at the District. We were so full from dinner, though, we simply enjoyed Piano Manny and opted not to stuff anymore booze in our stomachs.
Thankfully, we had the foresight to pack earlier that afternoon, so when we arrived back at the cabin we had some time to enjoy our balcony one last time before finally, unavoidably, sadly heading to sleep.
As is our custom, we opted to carry off our own luggage during disembarkation, and it thankfully went much more smoothly than embarkation. We set our alarm for 7:30, and we were off the ship and in a cab by 8:15.
We initially planned on swinging back for another round of Zabar’s, but between the rainy weather and pulling luggage behind us, we decided to skip a second round of amazing coffee cake, and we instead headed straight for Penn Station. We grabbed a quick bite, and we spent the couple hours waiting for our train catching up on real life.
The train ride home was largely uneventful, aside from the terrible weather we rode through the whole way home. We got soaked when we got off the train in Alexandria, but we managed to secure an Uber and we were soon pulling our wet suitcases into our apartment building.
On the whole, we had a fantastic trip. Minor inconveniences like those we faced on the Escape never interfere with our ability to enjoy our vacation. That being said, I think we will try some of the more midsized ships next, similar to our favorite cruise to date on the Norwegian Dawn. I’m sure, though, that if you choose to sail on the Escape, you will have a fun, memorable vacation.
This is the end of our cruise to Bermuda and New York vacation. If you enjoyed reading about our travels, head over to our Travel Page to find many more of our delicious travel adventures.
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