Norwegian Escape Review

4.0 / 5.0
3,047 reviews

Good cruise, but sad outside deck experience

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Escape
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ransomgray
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2017
Cabin: Mid-ship Balcony Stateroom
on our way out of Miami to sea
balcony with comfortable chairs and a small table
in one of the main dining rooms for breakfast
fantastic steak at Le Bistro (French theme restaurant)
docking in St. Thomas
you can compare these two NCL ships, with the larger Escape on the right an
Snorkel trip from Tortola to Norman Island -- amazing!  This is after the s
huge and amazing fresh prawns in Cagney's steakhouse
The 32 oz Porterhouse steak at Cagneys.  Huge anbd amazing flavor - perfect
Just one fo the many amazing deserts.  This is a chocolate lovers dream.
Sailing into Nassau.  First island we saw tall buildings.
Beautiful strip of land protecting the harbor.
Public beach not far from Port, you see the ship in the distance.  We stopp
our last sunset sailing from Nassau to Miami

The ship is very new, and absolutely beautiful. While it was a bit daunting to think about being on a ship this size with over 4000 passengers, for the most part the experience was good with lots of options for entertainment, eating and drinking - with the only drawback the difficult experience we had in the common open areas with pools that were insanely crowded and noisy, and impossible to find lounge chairs and about 5 umbrellas (only slight exaggeration) for everyone on-board to share. Now to be fair, we were in the "economy class", and if you were wealthy enough to spend the considerably higher price to stay in the Haven, you got your private sun areas which I can only guess were much better than we had to fight over (they had high walls and would not let us rabble inside even to peek at).

The highlight - the restaurants were outstanding, both the main dining rooms and the specialty dining options. Service and food was excellent for the most part. We tried all the main dining rooms (there are 3) and 4 of about 13 specialty dining options. Moderno (Brazilian steak house, specialty dining) was outstanding - the salad bar was one of the best I have ever found at a restaurant like this, and the meat items that came to the table were all good (if you don't see the popular grilled pineapple, be sure to tell them to bring by). Le Bistro (French specialty dining) was the most disappointing setting with no view to outside, only a view to a central open area which I thought made it feel more like a place at a strip mall rather than fine dining, but the food was outstanding, some of the very best I experienced on the cruise. Savor and Taste are virtually identical main dining rooms with a view to the outside with outstanding service and very good food which we used for most of our breakfasts and for 2 dinners. Manhattan is the larger main dining room with two story ceiling and dance floor, but to be fair the service there seemed a bit strained, it was very crowded, and the music was a guy and his electronic music box and nobody on the dance floor. Cagney's (specialty dining steak house) was my overall favorite - great good, great service, and a great room with a view to the outside (even outside seating). La Cucina (Italian specialty dining) was overall disappointing given this was included as part of a Romance Package we purchased. Because of that we found all kinds of restrictions we had no warning when we bought in terms of how many courses we could have (could not have a pasta course, salad course, and main -- only one of those three, a small appetizer, and dessert) and when my wife picked her favorite item she learned that this was too much, we could only pick entrees that were under a certain dollar amount. This felt really stingy, and our romance glow took a hit (nowhere in the description of our package did it saw we would be treated like a poor 3rd cousin). To add insult to injury the service was inattentive even though the room was half empty (now we know why). We brought a bottle of very good champagne to celebrate, but found we had to constantly reach way over to the enormous bucket, drag out the bottle, and pour for ourselves. I would pass on this specialty restaurant, you have better options. The 24 hour all inclusive restaurant, O'Sheehans, was ok in a pinch if you are truly desperate, but again disappointing. The menu is very basic, the food was boring with very little attention to quality or presentation. The nachos for instance were a handful of chips with cheese whiz squirted on top and very little extras - we looked around to see if we got a bad batch, but all appeared to be like ours. The artichoke dip was tasteless with a sauce that was like some instant bechamel that was nasty. The bbq wings were tasty, but I got two tiny slivers of celery that I would have tossed out instead of plating. My advice, only use this room if it is truly the middle of the night, you desperately need food, and don't care what it is. To be fair, I never tried it for dinner as there were so many better included or specialty dining options. The bars and lounges were amazing, all great staff, decent selections, and so many to choose from. My favorite was Meridian between Moderno and Cagneys - where I could have a great drink with lots going on all around and the wonderful smells of steaks.

Our balcony room was very cramped, but well appointed. To get past the end of the bed to the balcony was hard, I swear you had less than 12 inches space, and I kept bumping the bed and waking my wife when I got up early and wanted to sit on the balcony. The sitting space was just that, sit but don't stand or nobody can get by you. But everything worked, and was nice. The shower was the usual phone booth, drop the soap and you have to get out of the shower to pick it up. No plug near the bed, so I had to get an extension plug which was awkward to string across the floor as a tripping hazard for my wife so I could use a medical device for sleeping. And the TV seemed possessed, having to try many times to get it to do anything you wanted. The mini fridge was even smaller than the tiny cube I had in college, and while I took nothing we get a sizable bill for things we never took. To the credit of guest services, they adjusted without any complaint after waiting in line with a bunch of others having end of cruise account issues and would have rather spent in the real bar or watching the sunset My advice, have them empty the mini bar at the start, fill it with what you want, and then no dance at the end of the cruise for the mythical purchases. If you need a drink, any time of the day or night, there are great options minutes away, or you buy some items at the shops to stock on your own.

Cabin Review

Mid-ship Balcony Stateroom

Cabin BB

Nicely appointed, but very very tight space. To walk past the bed to the balcony was difficult without bumping the wall or the bed. Bathroom was very clean and well appointed. Temperature controls worked well. Lighting was great, but wish there was a low night light option in the room. Electrical was only available at desk, had to get an extension cord to use medical device while sleeping which posed a tripping hazard for others having to use the restroom at night. Balcony was decent sized and plenty of room for two chairs and a small table.

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