Norwegian Escape Review
Rating by category
Additional details
Please keep in mind this review is rather dated and some events, destinations etc. may no longer be offered. We decided to take this cruise because a couple close to us was going so we thought it would be fun to join them.
Pre-Cruise
We flew in the day before and had made reservations to stay at the Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel, a hotel we have stayed at previously. However, shortly before our departure, we were notified by the hotel that our room was being repaired due to hurricane damage that had happened in the not too distant past. As a result, the hotel made arrangements to move us to the Hilton Miami Downtown, which was more expensive but the Marriott made up the difference. The hotel was acceptable but the couple we were traveling with was staying at the Marriott and they were not moved. However, we certainly understood their reasoning and didn’t complain about it. We did overhear members of a large wedding party upset because half of their group had been moved to the same hotel we had been moved to, while the other half stayed at the Marriott. The move made a mess of their wedding plans. The hurricane damage certainly made a mess of a lot of traveler’s plans.
Cabin Review
Mid-ship Mini-Suite with Balcony
NCls mini suites are basically a regular balcony room with an oversized restroom. We liked the room and enjoyed the additional space in the restroom. However, the balcony was very small and it made it hard to navigate around the furniture.
Port Reviews
Roatan
We just shopped and dined at Roatan Bay Island, Honduras. The cruise next to the pier is very limited and you can exhaust it in short order, which we did. We spent only about two hours here.
Harvest Caye
Loved this port as we spent the majority of the day here. Had we known it had such a great beach we would have come prepared to spend the entire day there. We shopped and ate at the Landshark Bar and Grill, which was quite good.
Costa Maya
This was my least favorite port. We had 2 other cruise ships in port besides ours and it was very crowded. It was very hot and humid on the day we arrived and you literally sweated through your clothes within minutes of arriving. I could have dealt with that but at almost every shop you passed by there were vendors yelling out to you to buy something. I have dealt with that on other cruises but not to the magnitude we dealt with it there. The vendors were very aggressive. Prices were very high so we didn't buy much here. We eventually found a place to have appetizers and drinks and then returned to the ship.
Cozumel
We just shopped and dined there near the port. We had been here before but our cruise ship stopped at a different port. The place we had visited on a prior cruise was at that different port so we had to take a cab to get there. We asked several times for directions to the Pandora store and each time we were given directions to someone else's store, not Pandoras. Be forewarned that if you venture too far away from the port you may be putting yourself at risk. We did that and wound up in a questionable area where we definitely didn't feel safe. We quickly turned around and came back to the port area.