What’s the Manchester Escape Lounge Like in the Afternoon?

We had the opportunity to visit this lounge in the Easter Holidays on a long weekend break to Lisbon. We assumed (hoped) given many of the schools were on the 2nd week of the holidays it wouldn’t be full of children and we were right.

It was fairly busy when we arrived but we found a table in almost the same spot as our February breakfast visit to the Escape Lounge. Checkin had been quick and easy and although I’d booked from 15:00, because TAP only open their bag drop 2.5 hours pre flight we actually reached the lounge about 15:40, and we were still given a full 3 hours. This looked to be a benefit as our flight was showing as delayed.

Hot food was, of course, available. I started with minestrone soup with garlic naan bread (interesting but nice). Then the sausage and mash (with gravy) was my favourite along with a slightly (for me) over seasoned tomato pasta and rice. Plenty of cheeses, fruit and a few muffins and pasties.

Hot drinks are available from a self service machine or help yourself to teas and soft drinks. It’s bar service at this lounge for alcohol where I started with a Prosecco - which isn’t usually served from a tap but this one is. Apparently it’s a slightly sparkling wine to allow this. The gin and tonic I followed it with was good.

The view is about the best of any of the lounges. None are great as you can only see the end of the apron, but you can at least see out and see something.

For the price it’s definitely worth it in my books. I’ve now (at long last) tried breakfast and daytime here and been impressed with both and usually it’s the cheapest of the lounges. Next time we fly the lounge is included (1903 Lounge!) but the following trip were booked back into the Escape Lounge. However, that’s less than 2 weeks after the 1903 rebrands to “Executive by Escape” so I’ll probably upgrade that booking to see what’s changed.

But I’d not hesitate to book the Escape Lounge again - it’s definitely better than the T1 Escape Lounge and better than the T2 Aspire Lounge. And if you overlook the cheap sparkling wine and the lack of ice cream it beats the 1903 especially on price.