Norwegian Escape Review

Good, not great; stop trying to SELL! SELL! SELL!

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Escape
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GeorgiaLawyer
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation
Service

Additional details

Sail Date: May 2016
Cabin: Balcony Stateroom

We drove to Miami from Georgia the day before and stayed in Miami Friday night. Parking at the port was empty because it's absurdly over-priced. We paid for off-site parking which was adequate. We boarded at 1:30. The elderly woman was very nice, but unbeknownst to us, screwed up our check-in which would come back later to result in big problems.

Our cabin was very nice (this was my wife's first cruise, and the only other ship I've been on was in 1968 aboard the SS Lurline, a Matson Line ship from Los Angeles to Hawaii when ship travel was far different). We had cabin 8710, which is the very first cabin forward on Deck 8. The balcony was almost as big as our room. It was very quiet, except when docking (I assume this is normal). It wasn't spacious, but I assumed this would be the case. It was a very long walk to our cabin, but that was fine. The balcony was really nice, and the cabin steward was excellent.

The first day we ate at the Garden Café because we really didn't know what else to do. Norwegian seems to take a "you'll figure it out on your own" approach to first-time cruisers. We didn't book much in advance. Later we mostly ate at The Manhattan Room at night. Since we dressed formally for dinner, I felt as though we got better than average service (including visits from ship's officers each night tableside). We didn't take advantage of the specialty restaurants, mostly because we felt like we were being $20'ed and $40'ed to death all over the ship. O'Sheehan's was a bit of a disappointment (more later on this). We had the Ultimate Beverage Package (Thank God, or we would have spent another $2,000). It was hard at times to get a drink (especially at H20), but the bartenders learned my drinks quickly, Having to pay extra at dinner for an espresso was ridiculous (although the ship's Laundry Officer visited our table and gave us a card for free laundry service which was nice and unexpected).

Cabin Review

Balcony Stateroom

Cabin BX

We had cabin 8710, which is the very first cabin forward on Deck 8. The balcony was almost as big as our room. It was very quiet, except when docking (I assume this is normal). It wasn't spacious, but I assumed this would be the case. It was a very long walk to our cabin, but that was fine. The balcony was really nice, and the cabin steward was excellent.

Port Reviews

Miami

Miami was okay. Mostly just the place the trip started and ended.

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