Norwegian Escape Review
First Time on Norwegian - Proved to Be a Pleasant Surprise
Rating by category
Additional details
My wife and I cruise a lot with more than 20 cruises under our belt. For no particular reason, we had never cruised on NCL before. We had the opportunity to sail on the Escape as part of a travel agent conference we attended. It proved to be a very enjoyable experience.
Embarkation - We easily found the NCL rep upon landing at Miami airport. We were directed to a shuttle and were immediately whisked away to the cruise port. Our documents were checked and we received our room keys quite promptly. Very impressed until we found there was a holding area prior to boarding the ship. Still, we've had worse. 1 hour to board the ship after arriving at the port will not set any records but, on the other hand, was not terrible.
Boarding the Ship - This was an odd experience. The gangway took us to the 4th deck of the ship. We then had to walk along deck for about 100 feet and entered the ship via a maintenance door. We then passed through a crew area before finally arriving at an entrance to a hallway just off of the atrium. There was no formal greeting of passengers other than someone stating lunch was being served on the 16th deck.
Cabin Review
Inside Stateroom
Don't stay in this cabin if you suffer from claustrophobia. This was unequivocally the smallest cabin I have ever experienced at sea. It was impossible to walk between the bed and the walls making it necessary to crawl into bed from the foot of the bed. There was barely enough space for my wife and I to stand between the bed, desk and bathroom. Shelving was not existent. We had to stack clothes on the floor of the cupboard. This cabin is small beyond belief. Will never do this category again. It really makes me wonder how small the studio cabins must be.