Norwegian Escape Review
4.0 / 5.0
Escape's 1st visit to Western Caribbean, didn't disappoint!
Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Escape
r4golden
10+ Cruises • Age 70s
Rating by category
Cabin
Value for Money
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Additional details
Sail Date: May 2017
Cabin: Family Balcony Stateroom
This will be a 2 part review. You will find my review 1st and then my Wife's impressions. Please enjoy!
This was a family cruise for 10 coming from all parts of the US. We flew in a day ahead of time. Rented a car and stayed overnight at the Embassy Suites Miami Airport. The Embassy suites are a nice bigger hotel 5 minutes from the airport. The rooms are large and clean and they include a full cooked to order breakfast and a nightly happy hour with beer/wine and cocktails. They do however have a nightly parking fee. Here is a tip for those of you that come in a day ahead of time. Don’t book transfers from your cruise line. Rent a car from one of the major car companies (we used Alamo and got a full sized car for $37 total) and they will transport you to the cruise port and return you to the airport after your cruise for free.
We arrived at the port at our scheduled time of 10:30 but boarding didn’t begin until 11 or so. We had group 5 and we were on the ship by 11:45. We went directly to the spa to see if we could get day passes to the thermal suites for the sea days, just to find out they don’t sell them for sea days, just port days, ugh! We also went to the comedy club to change a restaurant reservation and to sign up for the chef’s table. Unfortunately the Escape doesn’t offer the chef’s table and I later found out that it is no longer offered on any of the ships. We then went to Taste for lunch (excellent as always! Try the grouper sandwich). After lunch our cabin was available so we checked it out and did a little unpacking.
Cabin Review
Family Balcony Stateroom
Cabin B2
Cabin- Our cabin was category b-2 #8138. I selected this cabin because it abuts the mini suites with extended balcony category. So even though we paid for a regular balcony our balcony was angled and huge (large enough for 2 loungers, 2 chairs and a table and still plenty of room to walk around. It is twice the size of the balcony cabins with extended balcony and no upgrade charge. The other reason I selected this cabin was it is close to 678 ocean place. In fact the District Brew House and food republic were just down the hall. Our cabin was clean and bright and even though we were near the front of the ship my wife (who suffers from motion sickness) rarely felt ill. We seldom saw our room steward, but our room was always spotless.-----------------------------First of all, I was very pleased with our stateroom (Room 8138). We were on the 8th Floor forward ship in a balcony room. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of storage space in the room for unpacking and our bathroom was better than I had expected (and much better than on our last ship, the NCL Pride of America). This bathroom had plenty of storage space, a trash can and an actual shower door rather than a shower curtain on the previous ship. The bathroom was certainly not a large space, but definitely functional and accommodating for a week-long stay. The mattress was fairly firm compared to what I am used to, but the bedding was comfortable and the room steward would bring extra pillows if requested. This room was a great location on the ship as we were very close to several of the main restaurants and bars, and conveniently located to the elevators and to central point to get to any area on the ship.
Port Reviews
Harvest Caye
Harvest Caye, NCL’s new private island. WOW, what can I say. NCL outdid themselves. It is a fairly long walk down a covered pathway from the ship (over a ¼ mile) and it’s hot and humid, so be prepared. But the island is beautiful. We spent an hour kayaking the lagoon. It’s not very big, or interesting, but fun to paddle around ($25 an hour per kayak). Then we hung out at the swim up bar for a while and went back to the ship for lunch. We like to spend some time on the ship in port while everyone else is gone. Keep in mind everything on the island is not included, so food, drinks, zip lining, etc are all at additional cost. You may also notice that there is no NCL logo’s anywhere on the island. That is because NCL is going to be opening up the island to other cruise lines. ------------------------------Our second port was Harvest Caye which is apparently Norwegian's private island. As soon as you get off the ship, you are in awe over this beautiful destination. It is new, clean, modern and absolutely stunning. There are shops, dining, a gorgeous pool area with a swim up bar and plenty of activities. We rented kayaks and thoroughly enjoyed this activity. The kyaking was in a lagoon rather than out in the ocean, so there was not a very large area to go around, but we still had a great time. While in the lagoon you were there with other kayakers, paddle boarders, paddle boats and could watch the zipliners right overhead. It was very hot and humid that day so having the refreshing pool available after the activities was a huge plus. Any drinks/food on Harvest Caye were additional charges and the drinks were fairly pricey, but the convenience of the swim up bar was worth it.
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