Norwegian Escape Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My family and I had an awesome trip on the Escape during the week of July 16-23. I was traveling with my husband (51), daughter (12), son (11), mother (81), sister (52) and brother-in law (54). We were able to find something for everyone to do on the ship and had a great experience. We did participate in the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet which was held in Cagney’s Steakhouse on Sunday. This gave us an opportunity to meet a few people and we saw several of them throughout the cruise.
Embarkation
We live in Central Florida so we chose to drive down to South Florida the night before the cruise. On Saturday, we made the quick drive to the Miami port and were able to quickly find a parking spot in the garage. We had arrived around 10:30 and our official check-in time on our edocs was 12:00. As soon as we left the garage and went across the street, a porter took our luggage, so we did not need to bring it into the terminal. Terminal B was listed on our edocs so we made a quick walk over to the terminal and went through security. We had cruised with NCL twice about 13 years ago so we were able to use the Latitudes check-in line which had no wait time. We were given a boarding pass for group 5. We were then directed to waiting area on the next floor. It looked like there were still some passengers and crew leaving the ship. In the waiting area, there was orange juice, water, and hot tea available. We were able to download the NLC app while in the terminal. We boarded the ship when our number was called and headed to Savor on deck six for lunch as the rooms were not ready yet. I found the check-in process to be much quicker and the waiting area to be a little nicer than our most recent cruise out of Fort Lauderdale with Celebrity.
Cabin Review
Family Balcony Stateroom
We had a family balcony on deck 9 (9220). The bed was located by the balcony. The couch made into a bed and there was another bed above the couch that pulled down from the ceiling. My daughter was able to stay with my mother in her cabin so we did not use the pull down bed. There was a closet with shelves, hangers, and a safe by the bed. There were also two small cabinets located next to the desk that could be used for storage. There were several shelves in which you store things in the bathroom. There were liquid soap and shampoo/conditioner dispensers in the shower and another soap dispenser by the sink. The bathroom is small but did not seem as confined as ones on other cruise lines. Our luggage fit under the beds so we did not have to have them out taking up space in the room. The balcony had two chairs and a small table. The bed and pillows were comfortable. The sofa bed seemed to be a little hard, but my son did not complain about it. We rarely saw our cabin steward but the room was always made up twice a day and supplied with fresh towels. There was always a towel animal on the bed each evening. Overall, the cabin was comfortable and had ample storage for three people. I’m not sure we would have had enough storage for four people. The mini-bar takes up a lot of space. If this were eliminated from the rooms, there would be ample storage for four people.
We did receive champagne and chocolate covered strawberries in our room, compliments of the hotel director, on Sunday. We received the strawberries again on Monday and truffles on Friday. This was a very nice touch that we really appreciated.
Port Reviews
Tortola
Tortola was a new port for us. We went on the Tortola by Land and Sea Tour. We met our tour guides at the end of the pier and boarded a boat that took us for a tour around the Tortola and the neighboring islands. We enjoyed this part of the tour, but it was raining which limited the visibility. The boat took us to the other side of the island where we walked through some small shops and were able to get some water. The land part of the trip was on open safari buses. We went up some very steep and narrow roads on this tour. There seemed to be quite a bit of traffic on these roads. At one point, a truck came down in the other lane and there was only about few inches between our vehicles. There is a stop at the top of the mountain for a refreshment and restroom break. We were brought back to the pier and walked through some of the shops along the pier before going back on the ship. Tortola was interesting to see, but we did not enjoy it as much as St. John’s Island. It seems to be a little dirtier than St. Thomas.