Norwegian Escape Review
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We have sailed Disney and CCL, this was our first NCL and we were very pleased. The ship was very modern and clean. We spent a good bit of time in the casino and had a great time. Won some, lost more :D We spent our outdoor time at Spice H2O which was crowded but we were always able to find a chair somehow. Love love love the Grotto/water feature area in Spice H2O. No pool in Spice is considered a con, but with the grotto you really don't need it. Nice bar area up there as well. Seemed to be a lot of smokers in Spice bar area though which I could've done without. Garden Cafe buffet was consistently good, we tried most of the specialty dining and several of them were DELICIOUS. Our faves were hands down Bayamo, Teppanyaki, and Cagney's. Service was wonderful all over the ship.
We went to both evening shows the Escape theater and left both early. They were fine but we have good Broadway shows where we live and it didn't compare. Entertainment in common areas was also so-so. We would sail NCL again for sure, in fact we're sailing on the Norwegian Sky to Cuba in October!!
Cabin Review
Aft-facing Balcony Stateroom
Second time for an aft-facing cabin for us and we love it! So private and big views towards both sides of the ship. Bigger balcony than on the sides of the ship. We were on the 15th deck directly below Garden Cafe. We could hear chairs scraping the floors above our heads at mealtimes but it didn't really bother us. We could DEFINITELY hear AND FEEL Spice H2O partying into the wee morning hours and if you are a light sleeper or have small children you probably wouldn't like this. We just cranked our sound machine up and went on to sleep. The cabin had plenty of storage space, good lighting, great A/C. I have read about soot on the aft balconies and I did notice a thin layer on the side of the glass facing the water, but none ever on the deck.