Terrible food too many extra charges!

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 52

Overall rating:

1 out of 5
Norwegian Escape

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 18, 2016

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 14886

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

The ship was a nice ship. Not as fancy as other ships I've been on. It's a little plain on the inside. It's not wide but it is very tall. The pool area does not have enough room for many chairs on the area where kids are allowed. If you don't get up very early to save a chair you won't get one.  The pool area in the adult pool has plenty of chairs. They do stack up the chairs very early in the afternoon so if you are expecting to go relax by the pool after dinner that's not happening. The buffet food is ok the first two days then after that it's the same food over and over. They have nice pastries at the beginning of the cruise then the old pastries are kept going on the buffet. So expect very hard pastries after the second day. The biscuits they served at breakfast were so hard you can't eat them. The same breakfast is served every day. They do occasional make you a crepe at dinner. Those were very good. You just tell them what filling and they make it for you. They do have icecream on the buffet. If you want gelato be prepared to pay extra to eat from that shop. Also, they have a bakery shop that is extra. Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville is on this ship but costs extra. O'Sheeham's is a bar and grill that serves complimentary food. We ate here a lot. It was the best food on the ship. The buffalo wings were good up until the fourth day. Then they were very tiny and misfigured wings that were not as tasty. We bought an excursion for St. Thomas. It was called St. John Champagne Catermaran Sail & Snorkel. It was very nice but beware. If you think your going to get to snorkel a few hours you won't. The total time you have to snorkel or chill on the beach they take you to is only one little hour. It's very pricey for one hour of fun. When you go to Nassau don't listen to any of the drivers at the port area. They will try to get you to a beach of their choice and charge you crazy amounts when most of the beaches there are free. You just have to find a free beach and get a taxi on your own. We had a medical emergency onboard this ship. The captain decided to slow us down to a crawl for an entire day to wait on the US Coastguard. Then when it finally arrived in the late afternoon the ship completely stopped for several hours. So we were very late getting to the next port so we got a refund for our excursion we had booked.  Our cabin was nice but we had a very loud neighbor next to our cabin they would wake us up every morning at 1:00 am fighting and screaming. We couldn't wait to get home to sleep after seven days of that. Don't let them fool you when they say you can eat at the complimentary dining room as dressy or as casual as you want! We walked in and my husband had a sleeveless shirt and they said he'd have to change shirts before we could go in. I mean you have women walking around in whatever and he couldn't wear a sleeveless shirt. We just walked over to O'Sheehan's and had dinner there instead.  We went to one show and it was just ok. It wasn't kid friendly even though there was no rating on that particular show. So we didn't attempt to see the other show that was PG16. Overall this ship was terrible. We didn't enjoy it at all. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5
Complimentary food was terrible. Bland and not flavorful. Almost every dessert consisted of some sort of flan or bread pudding. We didn't like any of the cakes they had. They were very tasteless. They had cupcakes for the kids at the Splash Academy kid party at the cafe but the cupcake was terrible. No flavor. Only the icing was good enough to eat on it.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
Show was not good. Water slides were hardly ever open. When they were it was too crowded.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
The ship is too narrow. Not a lot of room.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Cabin was clean and view from balcony was nice. Bathroom was big enough.

Ship tip

Be prepared to dish out more money if you go on this ship. There is not much complimentary. Terrible ship.

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

3 out of 5
Traffic is a nightmare!!!

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

1 out of 5
Very small island that has nothing.

Nassau, Bahamas

1 out of 5
A lot of locals try to rip you off. You may pay way more than you should to get to a beach.
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12 Comments

myangel0508    8 years ago

This cruise was amazing

thecrusiecorner    8 years ago

This review is so upsetting! Sorry you ended up with the wrong cabin. Newsflash there are about 2000 cabins! Don't write a horrible review because then someone who would really enjoy this cruise won't now!!

Cruiseylady    8 years ago

You may wanna try the Queen Mary the next time

askoleern    8 years ago

We had the best time on this ship no matter what Dagirlamanda says

rushour15    8 years ago

I went on this cruise April 30-may 8th and absolutely loved it me, my sister and mom very first cruise. And the to enjoy was an undwratatement. The staff were excellent and super friendly. We ate at O'SHEENANS but majority of our dinner was at buffet, sinner was different every night except for the grill and Asian cuisine, but note: they did switch somethings up on there. OMG...Silas, Cruise director was wonderful and acknowledged us all throughout our cruise to make sure all was well. Our stateroom Steward was awesome as well. We did not do excursions due to my mom being 73 and on cane however, we did a tour on all three islands. My favorite Island was Kokie Beach in St. THOMAS and our tour guide was excellent and even gave us 2 hours on the beach. So salute to the NCL Escape Staff, planning next trip daughter wants to go next year for her sweet 16.

bkharrington    8 years ago

Hush up- all cruises are amazing- pick all you want to be negative- cruises still rock- maybe you didn't realize the packages up front- I sailed 1st when I was 5 on NCL- been on NCL, RCL, Hawaiian American, Carnival, Disney.... They all have their goods and bads- have a glass half full- look for all the good-.... Having a medical degree I will leave you with this- accidents happen

Katiemae80    8 years ago

There was a medical emergency on the June 25th sailing. The captain did go slow like he said. I didn't mind if it meant the person got the help they needed. We did get a shortened time in Nassau. But things happen. I liked being on the ship more than Nassau anyway. I had a fabulous time on this cruise.

annie1301    8 years ago

I was on this cruise and there was no medical emergency.

myangel0508    8 years ago

Medical emergencies happen, they suck for both, the ppl directly involved and indirectly. My grandfather had to be airlifted off a ship in Alaska due to suffering a stroke and subsequently died.

beerman2    8 years ago

And to complain about a medical emergency on board is pretty heartless/selfish! If you've been on fancier ships you should certainly know that sleeveless shirts for men are not allowed. Nor are they on any other ship.

myangel0508    8 years ago

Agreed and online it tells you what the attire is for the dining rooms. You also complained about all the ports :( doesn't seem like cruising is for you.

TNTGreen    8 years ago

A lot of complaints. Cruising is not for everyone and it sounds as if you're one of them. As far as the sleeveless shirts for men you will experience that on all cruise lines in the dining room at dinner. I saw people getting turned away on Carnival 2 months ago. Before booking any cruise you have to research your ship: what's free and what's not so you are prepared going in.

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