We sailed the NCL Escape in January 2016 (our 18th cruise with NCL). We have sailed on the Epic, Breakaway & Getaway. The first thing that I notice were the changes to the public spaces made on the Escape: Ice Bar replaced with Wine Bar, Bliss Lounge (behind the Casino bar) replaced with open lounge & large circular Casino Bar, additional venues (Brewery & Food Republic) added to Waterfront (Deck 8).

The Specialty Restaurants have been converted to A La Carte pricing, which is different than the other ships in the fleet. The ship's Officers are very accessible, since they make themselves available to chat in the Guest Services area every morning. The crew is friendly & helpful; the best in the fleet were pulled to launch this vessel, I suspect. I found the hallways to the staterooms very narrow (too narrow for wheelchair access, in my opinion). The NCL iConcierge app would be greatly improved if it allowed you to set up reminders (we missed shows) & allowed searches for daily activities (we missed favourite activities).

However, this ship is magnificent. It is the 3rd largest ship in the world, but it doesn't have that "walking forever" feeling & your feet don't hurt at the end of the day. NCL has parted ways with Nickalodeon (Dora, SpongeBob, etc.) but the kids didn't seem to care. The Entertainment is "Broadway quality"; After Midnight was excellent & Million Dollar Quartet was as good as the show in Las Vegas. Tortola was a new Port of Call for us; it is still under construction, but I think it will be a nice stop once it's established. Read more