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Caribbean - Eastern cruise review

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Ship was beautiful BUT......

Item: Norwegian Escape
Rating: 2
Author: jdfinancial

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

jdfinancial

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 12

Overall rating:

2 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 21, 2015

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10136

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Service was terrible. We were a party of 10. We were one of the first few hundred people on the ship and the first thing we did was try to book dinner at one of the specialty restaurants. ALL BOOKED! Then we tried to get tickets for a show. ALL BOOKED!! We had the all you can drink package, well no servers to be found on pool decks, which means that we had to get up and go to a bar. Which means, so did everyone else. The lines were terrible. We did NOT get to see any shows and the only way we got to eat at the steak house was to go in at 9:45 pm to eat. Not accommodating for large groups at all. This was our 19th cruise but only the second with Norwegian, its pretty safe to say we wont be back on Norwegian again. It's to bad since it was a beautiful ship.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Cabin was nice

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

5 out of 5

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

5 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

3 out of 5

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45 Comments

sugar64 8 years ago

I been on 7cruises I never had a bad cruise theirs always somethings you might like better on from one cruise to another.i only been on a Norwegian one time it was the dawn I love the staff and entertainment . am so excited to go on the escape on ncl am taking my mom for her 75th birthday.

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kb1313 8 years ago

Satisfy

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kb1313 8 years ago

Yes I did, I came expecting nothing. It's a hard thing to do after you've been on as many cruises as I have. I open my mind to new ships because they're never perfect. If you're traveling with kids don't cancel, they'll love it. For adults it's fun to see your kids have fun. By March the ship will be fixed. Every new ship gets bad reviews. The drinks from the bars aren't super good but enough to

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knurse1124 8 years ago

I am hoping it gets better by may. I have until March to cancell. so you had a great time on escape kb?

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kb1313 8 years ago

Yes all of what you're saying true, I thought the same things too. Service was lesser than I expected. Just come without expectations as I do every cruise. Being ignored by bar tenders I can explain, it's because other people who have been waiting far less than you get their attention first. That's my biggest pet peeve b

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knurse1124 8 years ago

I understand vacations take some planning I am just saying that when I booked the ultimate dining package I didn't realize I had to know where I wanted to eat before I go. it just doesn't seem very freestyle to me. freestyle in my definition is eat when you want and to not be on a schedule. I could even look past that but I am not liking the reviews that every is giving about slides being closed, poor service, being ignored by bartenders.

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kb1313 8 years ago

Knurse, first of all vacations take lots of planning. You don't just book a plane to Aruba and not book a hotel. You don't book a hotel in Rome but not buy a plane ticket. I like booking restaurants before hand so when I'm on the cruise it's stress free. It's the things you do to make it more worth it.

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kb1313 8 years ago

First of all, you can pre book your reservations prior to the cruise. Same with entertainment. I went to the bar to get all my drinks, I wasn't expecting someone. It only took about three to four minutes for a drink at the MOST. You book ahead with more people.

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judychadwell 8 years ago

This is my 10th cruise and my 7th with NCL. We were on a NCL cruise in July and never had a problem just walking in to a restaurant and getting seated without a reservation. Course we eat between 5:30 and 6pm and Cagney's was only about 20% full at that time. Worked great as our "home time" made it even later. A trip is what you make of it and we have never been disappointed with NCL!!! 😀😀

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knurse1124 8 years ago

I was actually thinking about doing a Disney Alaska cruise. I have 2 boys ages 12 and 9, do u think they would be entertained? wasn't sure if it would be too babyish for 2 older boys?

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jdfinancial 8 years ago

As far as service goes, DISNEY is by far the best mainstream cruise line. Since our kids are now 18 and 20 we have not been on Disney for about 7 years. They both want to go back. We are thinking of doing Alaska on Disney next summer. Our last five cruises have been on Carnival newer ships and had great experiences on all of them. The only bad experience we had with Carnival was on one of there older ships and it was a 4 day cruise. We were actually on the Breeze when it was stuck in ST. Martin. It was one of our best cruises! We were treated GREAT and had three extra days in St Martin. We also had some really good experiences with RC and MSC cruise lines. We have been on enough cruises to know how your supposed to be treated while your on vacation. Unfortunately, Norwegian didn't deliver.

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jdukette 8 years ago

Jdfinancial: I agree with you. My work requires me to take conference calls, scheduled meetings and make appointments. I don't want to put my vacation schedule in my outlook calendar and set reminders on my phone. The problem is, they have the ship incorrectly staffed they need more prep cooks and waiters. Also they did not create larger public gathering areas for the amount of guests aboard.

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cruisincouple06 8 years ago

again knurse it's all a matter of opinion with what u may or may not like versus someone else...u have been on 3 cruises...good for u so then u should know what to expect then...I've been on 6 and 2 more in 2016 I'm not totally experienced but sure do know what to expect

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knurse1124 8 years ago

I love the concept of freestyle not the concept of having to make reservations for every single thing on a cruise. it is ridiculous to have to decide what time you will be eating before you get on a ship. yes it is considered freestyle if you eat at buffet every night or mdr. but what about people who have the udp. oh and by the way I have been on 3 cruises and it really doesn't require a whole lot of "cruising experience" to know that freestyle is being portrayed as a reservation free worry free concept and that is not what it is.

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cruisincouple06 8 years ago

knurse1124....really...obviously you arnt to experienced in cursing ....freestyle doesn't mean u don't need to do a thing ...holy crap, really take some responsibility on your part....if you wanna eat at the same time and with same people and server that's on u...me personally I would rather not if I wanna eat at whatever time and where ever that's what I like and that's freestyle ...reporting at the same time and same place isn't in my opinion ...lately you have been jabbing about stuff and it's all a matter of opinion...like u said earlier u are a single mom who has to bust your butt to go on vacation....well don't we all...so if I gotta wait a lil longer to eat and get waited on....who cares I'm on vacation

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JusMe 8 years ago

It is not a vacation if I have to pre-plan what and where and whay time I eat. how do I know what day I may feel like the Steak House ? How do I know what night I want to see a show? That's not vacation, that is work.

I also agree that NCL has bad service and does not really seam to care once they have your $. The two worst cruises I have been on were NCL. giving us a lower cabin category then we booked and then telling the TA,, sorry the ship is booked, that is the cabin they get( we reserved 3 lower beds and got bunk beds). Service in the MDR and even the pay dining rooms managed to screw up 1 or 2 peoples orders of our party's dinner or served part of us and the rest sat for 15 min till we got our dinners.

These are not things that ruin a vacation but they are enough that NCL is the bottom of the bucket when I book a cruise.

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bush7602 8 years ago

And you can cancel reservations once on the ship if you change your mind. We moved some of our reservations around on our last cruise bc the ship was undersold and nothing was completely booked ever. But that's not likely to happen on the Escape bc it's new and popular.

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bush7602 8 years ago

In the end, no one HAS to book anything ahead of time. But if you don't, you need to know going onto the ship, many people did already book dinner and shows already -- so you're taking that chance that you won't get all the experiences you want. Part of the fun for me is booking everything online ahead of time knowing when I step on the ship it's done and I can head straight to the pool & relax.

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sbjimmyg 8 years ago

We've always been fine eating at the late seating when we cruise. So this will be a new experience. We got all the restaurants and times we want by booking early.

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sbjimmyg 8 years ago

I think 'Freestyle' means you can change what time and where you want to eat everyday instead of being stuck eating at the same table and at the same time.

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sannaw 8 years ago

You are right on planning ahead, no one should have to plan before they get on board.... I talked to my Cruise Consultant and he said that they are only allowed to book 50% of Dining Reservations before the Ship sails.

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kcharretier 8 years ago

What's the point of "Freestyle" cruising if you have to plan everything. That defeats the purpose of a "supposedly" stress free cruise.

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knurse1124 8 years ago

folks jc financial is not complaining they are giving a review. do any of you not expect great service on vacation? one of the reasons I fell in love with cruising is the fact that you don't need to make dining reservations and show reservations. obviously these things need to be addressed instead of just lowering our standards. jc is not the only one stating these same problems, read cruise critic. I am totally seeing the decline. they are now charging to eat at margaritaville whereas it was complimentary before. if you all are okay with a subpar experience then by all means continue to make the executives and investors of this company rich. bottom line is cutbacks are being made at the expense of the consumer.

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jdukette 8 years ago

Once NCL became publicly traded. It stopped being about providing a great experience and became all about profits. I cruised with NCL before and after they went public and its apparent that the board members are incompetent. Now they just nickel and dime you to death and try to do it with less staff.

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jdukette 8 years ago

First of all if I want burgers and fried chicken and be happy I don't have to pay 1400 a ticket to do that.I live 10 minutes from one of the top ten beaches in the US. When you purchase a cruise you expect a certain level of service that is the norm for the industry. I spent a week on the escape spending hours on deck 16 watching my kids play,not once was I asked if I needed a drink.

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sannaw 8 years ago

Thanks so much! !

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bush7602 8 years ago

An excursion can sell out too. Many times the popular ones do.

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bush7602 8 years ago

They don't have to be...but you run the risk of a show being sold out or not eating dinner at the time or restaurant of your choice. If you're okay going with the flow and taking that chance...this is typical of pretty much any cruise line not just NCL. I like to book it all ahead of time so I have no worries or wasting time with reservation booking while in the ship.

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sannaw 8 years ago

So all your Dinners and Excursions.....need to be booked before you even board?

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bush7602 8 years ago

The key is to book shows and food prior to boarding the ship. I learned this after my first cruise. All pre planning is done and you can enjoy the ship the minute you step on it!

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skibm69 8 years ago

What do you expect, you had 10 people

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bmac614 8 years ago

I don't get how a lot of people can say the food could ruin their vacation. Hell I'd be fine with burgers and pizza for the week. I'm there to relax and have fun. Not there to eat. We're not experienced cruisers, only 2 so far, but that is how we feel

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bmac614 8 years ago

That's why I like to read the negative reviews. Gives me a good chuckle. All you really need to do is read the reviews about the escape. You would be set for a while...... So many negatives about that ship. I know it's new but still

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jj44 8 years ago

someone should start an app posting just ridiculous cruise/resort reviews. it makes for good comedy!!

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bmac614 8 years ago

I saw a post earlier today about how they felt screwed they didn't get compensated for it being to windy to port.

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jj44 8 years ago

couldn't agree more!!

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bmac614 8 years ago

They r funny as hell to me. Complainers will be complainers. They will find the smallest things. Some people feel it is all about them and screw everyone else

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lexicamille 8 years ago

a vacation is what u make of it and quite frankly most of the reviews on here r pissing me off. These people sound like they're not even trying to have fun.

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beerman2 8 years ago

Wow had to get up to get a drink! 90 days out YOU could have made reservations and possibly avoided the STRESS!

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bmac614 8 years ago

Oh same here. The best one to me is too many people or lines to long. Who cares lol

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jj44 8 years ago

lol some of the complaints just crack me up. you would think these people spent $10000 on a vacation

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bmac614 8 years ago

I was just thinking the same thing jj44. The nerve of the staffers to not be there hand and foot

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jj44 8 years ago

oh my! you had to get up and go to the bar?? lol

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lexicamille 8 years ago

u know u can book all those ahead of time. It takes some planning.

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courtncuz 8 years ago

which cruise line do you consider the best?

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Other reviews of this sailing

Staff was not prepared, service was disappointing.

our first cruise/ new ship

A bit Disappointed