Norwegian Escape Review

Could have been great if the service were better!

Review for the Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Escape
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one_beachlvr
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Aug 2016
Cabin: Balcony Stateroom

Being pretty avid cruisers, we chose our cruise for the ship rather than the ports. We travel on all the "mid-scale" cruise lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian) and I have personally been on most of the "next step up" lines as well (Princess, Costa, Holland America, and Celebrity) so I feel like I have good perspective on pros and cons of each. This time we wanted to see one of the newer ships and my kids have never cruised on NCL before so we chose the Escape.

The ship itself is beautiful. We loved every space and had fun exploring this huge ship! There is actually almost too much to be able to even do it all in the 8 days we were sailing if you also wanted to spend a good deal of time in the ports (good thing there is a 14 day option as well!). Embarkation and Disembarkation went quickly and easily. Our favorite thing was the shows. This ship, and NCL in general, definitely takes the entertainment prize when compared to similar priced cruises so if entertainment is one of your must haves, I give it an enthusiastic recommendation. The Cruise Director was great, even a little quirky, but fun and EVERYWHERE! We were also swayed a bit from our love of having the same waiter every night (we've had some great ones) and really enjoyed all the dining choices! And again, you'd have to do the 14 day to get them all in! Teppenyaki, the hibachi style dining restaurant is the must do of all the specialty restaurants and the Manhattan Room is the best free dining option.

The average... our cabin was not spacious but it was OK. In an effort to fit as many cabins as possible in the ship, NCL obvious cut some of them very narrow. We needed a two bed arrangement so a king might not be as bad because the beds will be pushed together but there was only about 6 inches between the second bed and the dresser and this was the passage way to the sofa and the balcony. We are all slim and it was a tight squeeze so you may want to be careful in choosing your cabin. The food wasn't always great but it was at least, mostly good. It's more about the variety with NCL than the quality. The shore excursions were numerous but expensive and the staff weren't particularly knowledgeable about them or, at least, did not do a good job describing them. One of ours was cancelled; I couldn't complete one because the description was wrong (and they wouldn't sell an observer ticket although there was a perfectly fine place for observers), and one had to be changed because we found out none of us could participate (but they were happy to sell it to us anyway!). Lastly, they schedule a lot of similar things at the same time so you'll likely have to be choosing between activities while you'll have dead space where you'll probably wish some of those other things were scheduled.

Cabin Review

Balcony Stateroom

Cabin BX

Very narrow cabin but we did like the balcony, ample enough for two people to share a drink or chat outside. The service wasn't great and we sometimes had messy beds when we wanted to take a nap or no towels when we wanted a shower. The worst thing is that I really don't think anyone much larger than average could possible have moved the whole length of the cabin as the space between one of the beds and the dresser was tiny! I'm slim but have a bad knee and I was challenged getting around the cabin. If you want more space, I'd definitely encourage you to spring for a higher category or give up the balcony and book a larger ocean view cabin (those go fast though).

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