Too Big for Its Own Good

Item: Norwegian Escape
Rating: 3
Author: realirish

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

realirish

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 7

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 03, 2016

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 13870

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

This is a beautiful ship with a crew that outdoes themselves, but in attempting to put as much on board as possible, they have created a situation where there are just too many people for a stress-free experience. The Garden Cafe, which is open 24/7 has lines so long that by the time you circumvent the square setup and fill your plate your food is cold. Lines are long for everything. The atrium, which on the Pearl was large enough for people to engage in the audience participation, was smaller and people stood eight deep behind and alongside the chairs provided. Positive points were that the crew was, as usual, happy and accommodating. The steward for our cabin did a beautiful job and provided us with artistically hand-twisted towel animals each evening. Our recommendation is to take a slightly smaller ship to avoid frustration and massive crowds at every event.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

O'Sheehans was the other restaurant that was open 24 hours. Food was just so-so, except for the prime rib. You like vegetables?...how about one small broccoli floret on your plate? Ate there three times and wasn't impressed at all. Cagney's was a "specialty restaurant" and was another disappointment. Small servings and the lobster bisque was tomato soup with a pinky finger sized piece of lobster. We both sent ours back.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cleanliness was the high point. Design, not so much. Ship is too big with too many people crammed into it. Long, long lines for everything including food. By the time we managed to find a seat everything was always cold. Seating isn't enough to accommodate the number of people onboard. Also, the Garden Cafe has their buffet tables set up in a square. It's a long walk from start to finish to get your meal.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Our stewart was Vincent. He was a delight. Left us a towel animal on our bed each evening. Bottom sheets are flat sheets and don't stay in place thru the night because they're not long enough to tuck under at the foot of the bed. In order to have the stewart do more than just pull the top sheet up and replace the coverlet, we had to rip the bedding apart. The second night when we got into bed both the bottom sheet and the foot of the top sheet were around our ankles. After we made a point of pulling everything free for the cabin re-make, our bed was made from scratch each day.

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

1 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

3 out of 5

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

3 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

1 out of 5

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