Norwegian Escape Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We booked this cruise 4 days prior to departure based on the value. We had attempted to plan a land vacation for the following week, but the estimated cost kept us focusing on a cruise. RC did not have any close by or in our price range but we found NCL did so we booked. We became a little concerned after booking as there had clearly been some competition on the NCL customer support staff to see who could get our booking first. This lead to a little rudeness, which with explanation we would of somewhat understood, but we had to assume what happened on their end and just shake it off. The next day we received a call from a NCL supervisor asking us about the experience and we knew then something had happened. While we had nothing to do with what was happening the supervisor did provide some OBC which we thought was very generous and began to clear our minds about concerns that did happen during the booking process.
Our travel arrangements were made. We normally travel the day before to the port of departure so we do not have to worry about arriving on time, especially living near Washington DC and know New York traffic can sometimes be a challenge. We chose to drive into DC early the morning of departure and take Greyhound into New York. This really was the only option since I had to work 8 am - 11 pm the day before. We were scheduled to take a 5:55 a.m. bus out of DC but since the driver decided not to show up we were delayed 2 hours before a bus finally arrived to take us into New York.
Despite the delay we still arrived in New York around noon and a quick cab ride to the pier found us ready to check in. The check in process went smoothly and since we had booked so last minute, our key cards had to be printed, although that did not take very long.
Cabin Review
Mid-ship Inside Stateroom
Cabin was comfortable. Furnishings seemed typical for normal cruise inside stateroom. We felt the stateroom itself lacked private storage space. Minimal drawers to put items. The rooms did not seemed to be designed based on storage and to some extent functionality. Our stateroom attendant did a great job at keeping the room in order and clean and was always there if we needed anything. He would always make it a point when he saw us to have a brief friendly conversation. The bathroom was larger than what we expected and for some reason had more than ample storage space. Comparing RC to NCL we would say NCL wins for the bathroom design while RC wins for the stateroom design. Our room was assigned by NCL as a guarantee last minute sale. We were happy with the cabin we were assigned as it was midship and central to the elevators either forward or aft. We did notice that there is a lot more noise from staterooms on NCL or maybe it was just this cruise. We could hear the television in the room next to us and hear people as they walked the corridor, even though we were in a small hallway. We never experienced hearing others on RC, it is almost as if our room is soundproof, we could not say the same for NCL.