Norwegian Escape Review
Still a loyal NCL cruiser,but worried about the future.
Rating by category
Additional details
Short summary -
The ship is great, with a lot of smaller venues that could be ideal locations to sit with friends and hang out. Shows and activities are very tough to plan, NCL appears to be struggling with the large ship concept and managing crowds. Most venues are a little too small, you need to make reservations on day one for the rest of the week. Upcharges are everywhere, the supplemental charges used to be limited to the specialty restaurants but have driven down into the small bars for food service and even into the main dining rooms for premium meals.
We have been on seven NCL cruises and I am starting to wonder how long I will continue with NCL on the big ships. A few caveats on the review, we have children so we are always cruising on Spring Break with a lot of other families, our cabin came with Haven access, and we had Ultimate Dining/Beverage packages.
Cabin Review
The Haven Aft-facing Penthouse with Balcony
The cabin was excellent but had a significantly different layout than the Getaway/Breakaway. We had an aft corner suite on Deck 11. The suite has a small master bedroom with a king-sized bed, a large master bathroom, a nice living room space and a second standard bathroom. Our only issue is that we miss the second bedroom on the Jewel class ships, giving up the living room after 7:00pm for the 16 year olds bed. The significant change regarding the room layout is that the bedroom and bathroom are switched on the Escape versus the Breakaway ships. There is no longer a second doorway onto the balcony, requiring either skill sneaking past anyone sleeping in the living room or patience to not use the balcony until that passenger wakes up.
Port Reviews
St. Thomas
We did the Captain Nautica Snorkel excursion, the boats are small so you felt the waves and movement went transiting to the snorkel location and back. The advantage though is that there are only 20 people per group which allowed a little more freedom near the boat and easy on/off the snorkel boat. Turtle cove snorkeling was good, the shipwreck was dull. Take a quick peak at the wreck and take Amanda's advice to check out the rocks and sea life there.
Tortola
Great views from the peaks along the tour. The experience will be affected by your driver and their highlights. The beach stop was good, only an hour is allocated there so not really a beach day.
Miami
Spring Break and the Ultra Music Festival made for some traffic and extra expense when booking a room.