This was our first time on Norwegian and maybe more importantly our first Caribbean during hurricane season. We stayed in South Beach for 3 days before the cruise began and enjoyed that area very much. While researching various cruises we both were excited by everything we saw on the Escape. We took a taxi from our hotel in South Beach and within maybe 15 minutes we were dropped off at the port terminal. Embarkation went very smoothly and also very quickly.

After being welcomed aboard we walked around deck 7 a bit. Our cabin would not be ready till 1-1:30 pm. We decided to have lunch at O'Sheehan's. They were very busy and our order was taking a while. Our server brought us a plate of nacho's and said our meals would be out shortly. And so it was. My wife got the Reuben sandwich and I got the chicken fritata's. Lunch was very good. A good start to our cruise. Shortly after lunch our cabin was ready. We headed up to the 13th floor. This is the first cruise ship we've ever been on that didn't skip the 13th floor. Oh well with our fingers crossed we easily made it to our cabin. On all floors Norwegian has fish swimming on the floor. The direction they are heading is always towards the front of the ship. That's a neat tip. We got a balcony cabin. The overall size seemed nice although the closet was very close to one side of the bed. It was kind of difficult to unpack and put your clothes away. There were a few cabinets with shelves on the desk. The shelves were not very deep but we managed. There was also a small couch by the desk. The balcony was small but there was 2 chairs and a small table on it. The bathroom was bigger than I thought it would be primarily due to the size of the shower.

We very much enjoyed the food on the ship. We always had breakfast at the buffet known as the Garden Cafe. The variety of choices was pretty good. There was 2 omelette stations on each side which helped speed up getting one. O'Sheehan's was also open for breakfast as were 2 of the small complimentary dining rooms. There were quite a number of specialty restaurants on the ship. Some of them charged a fixed fee to cover service. Most of them however were Ala cart pricing. That could very easily and very quickly get very pricey. We decided to try Pinxto's, their tapas bar and also the Food Republic which was Asian fusion with a slight Latin mix thrown in. They also had a wine bar that we went to several times on the cruise. To us this was one of our favorite areas on the ship. The selection was impressive and the wine steward, head steward and wine master were all very knowledgeable. We really enjoyed all of their recommendations. Read more