Cruise review Norwegian Escape 1/2/16-1/9/16
Probably a strange way to start a review but please take everything written here with a grain of salt. Being a type A person, I read copious amounts of information before going on our cruise. In some ways I feel as though it “muddies the waters” as I based some of my expectations on the opinions of others, who are probably very different people than I am, with radically different ideas about what is “good” or “bad”. Most of what I would classify as “negative” is, in part, due to my expectations, and reviews like this do exactly that, set expectations.
I’ll try to include suggestions to make your trip better, but again, it’s highly subjective, so please try to go into your experience with an open mind! As a basis of comparison, I’m 39, and grew up cruising with my family as a kid, and have sailed Royal, Costa, and Holland American prior to this. I brought my boyfriend on his first cruise this sailing and was very focused on his enjoyment of this experience!
We were in 15172, a spa minisuite, and we loved it. The décor was so tasteful, browns, blues and creams, I didn’t find it dark at all. This room had the configuration of bed near the bathroom, not my preference but still lovely. The balcony I felt was small, but adequate for coffee in the morning and sail offs. Our bathroom was excellent, I know for some this is not a big deal but we loved the his and hers sinks, glass shower, tile details. I did not find the sheets and bed to be comfortable at all unfortunately, the comforter looks like a nice duvet however it’s a plain polyester comforter and there’s no topper for the two twins put together so there’s a seam in the bed. Our room steward Julius was nice, and I rarely saw him. Cute towel animals made me feel more at home, missing my furry friends! Consider bringing a nightlight and earplugs though, there were times it was louder than I’d have liked but never between say 6:00 pm-4:00 am.
We use Jester sailing company, captain Jim, this was my second time with him, and it was WONDERFUL!!!!
We and probably 10K other people went to the Baths, a smelly ferry (bathroom not working?!) up at the crack of dawn, 2.5 hour travel time to spend 1.5 hours of a crowded beach, we never even did the caves, the line was too long. Thankfully we brought our snorkel gear and made the most of it.
5 other ships in port made even just getting off and shopping a nightmare. we got back on again quickly and enjoyed our relatively empty ship!