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bebberjean Cruise Review on Norwegian Escape on Mar 25, 2017

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review

Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 73

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Norwegian Escape

Sail date: March 25, 2017

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Hmmmm, what to share! Their boarding process worked well for us. Once we were checked in, which might have taken 20 minutes in line to get to the counter (we arrived at the time NCL had given us) we waited maybe another 30 minutes before our # was called to board. We boarded the ship through the casino (no drinks). We didn't get that WOW impression but, we also weren't ran in like cattle! We had an inside cabin on deck 12 which was, as we expected, small. The thing you need to know is there are NO DRAWERS. Also very few shelves and they were only about 6" deep. Bring one of those closet organizers that hang on the closet rod. I like the freestyle dining BUT, I think between freestyle dining and prepaid gratuities the service in the dining room has SEVERELY DECREASED! We ate in both the Manhattan and Taste dinning rooms and felt neither gave the quality of care we had experienced in the past. No getting to know your waiters!! Maybe I don't like Freestyle as much as I thought!! Our cabin steward was fine, room cleaned and beds made. Nothing over and above. Again, we wondered if the prepaid gratuities had anything to do with this. We did give our steward an extra tip which I wonder if we should have since he didn't do anything extra. How do we motivate them to earn the extra and not expect the extra? The buffet was good. The quality and flavor of the food was good. Honestly the food on the buffet was every bit as good as in the dining room. If you don't mind serving yourself, eat in the Garden Cafe. Can't help but wonder if NCL isn't trying to push us into paying extra for the specialty dining options if we want quality service and food?? The Waterfront looks like it would be amazing if dining in the specialty dining restaurants. What is up with desserts??? Their desserts were BAD!! Both in the dining rooms and on buffet. If they hadn't had ice cream, guess we would have gone without!! I ate one dessert, Coconut Cream Cake, that was good!!! We ate several times in O'Sheehan's. The service was AWFUL every time!!! The food was good. Their wings were great!! They had one dessert that was OK at best! Prepaid gratuities isn't working well for the passengers, I do understand why they are having to do it this way. For ourselves, we pay less in gratuities this way but the service we are receiving is far less than we had received in the past!!!! The Beverage package is nice but, once again, the service has really decreased! In our 7 day cruise I don't think a waiter asked us more than 3 times if we needed a drink (unless we were sitting at the bar). Before we almost got to know the waiters!! The Escape has such a large passenger capacity and only has 2 pools, one adults only until after 5:00pm (oh, and a private one for the Haven passengers, I think) and the other VERY SMALL!! Again, the Escape has such a large passenger capacity, the deck loungers are too few! If you aren't on deck by 8:00 am, you are not going to get a lounger!! Part of that is because people get their lounger, put their towels on them and then leave. They may not be back for hours and know one controls this. Need less cabins (smaller passenger capacity) and more exterior deck space!!! We thought their entertainment was maybe a 3 on a scale of 0-10. SINGING, SINGING, SINGING!!! We did the self assist when getting off the ship. This worked, for us, GREAT! We were off the ship within 30 minutes once we started. So much easier. No hunting for your luggage!! Will I go on Escape again ??? Maybe next time I'll go back to the smaller ships???
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