We selected a cruise on board the Norwegian Escape because it fit our limited time availability and was priced well especially for Norwegian's newest ship. We really enjoyed ourselves except for one big problem. First the good news is that the food and entertainment were very good. Our family of four (my husband and I and our two teen daughters) mostly ate dinner in the included dining rooms or at the buffet and the food was very good. Granted there were a few misses and it was not 5 star gourmet fare but quite decent none the less. I would rate the food about a B+. The entertainment was excellent. My husband and I really enjoyed After Midnight which is based on the Broadway musical of the same name. The singing and dancing was spectacular but our teen daughters weren't quite as enthralled by this production perhaps because of the time period and music genre. My husband and I also really enjoyed both the dinner and the tribute to the Jersey Boys at The Supper Club. Our daughters didn't see this show. It was especially nice in that it felt as if this show warranted an extra fee but we were very happy that it was included in the cruise. The comic we saw wasn't so good however. He did this bit about the funny things school children write and proceeded to show everyone a slideshow of school children's school papers and it just wasn't that funny. The cabins were comfortable and clean (mattress and pillows to die for). The ship is new clean, attractive and well laid out. We all enjoyed the ropes course and walking the plank (very scary). The pools could be bigger.

The big complaint we have is that there were not enough activities to do beyond the shows and sports activities. They need some arts and crafts and especially more activities for teens. Our family often gets cabin fever on sea days but much less so on Royal Caribbean's ships as there are many more things to do. The Norwegian Escape had surprisingly little to do besides eat, see the shows and do sports activities. You need more than this in my opinion. My suggestion to the cruise line: offer more spa packages that are affordable (my girls and I love visiting the spa but the costs on cruise ships are so prohibitive that we often don't visit the spa while on cruises considering all the money we had already spent on the cruise itself), more interactive games and game shows (more than for just couples) with participation from audience members, cooking classes, fruit carving classes, arts and crafts and better movies. All in all we had a very nice time on the Norwegian Escape but the cruise line could make it much better without significantly adding to their costs if they would take my simple suggestions above.