Full Circle with NCL

My husband & I started our cruising experience in 84 on the SS Norway- talk about first class experience.  We then took the Norway again after it was refurbished in I believe 96, again wonderful experience.  Our next cruise was on the NCL Sea and I called that the bucket of rust - food awful - service poor - ship full of rust and that ended my cruising with NCL.  We then went on a Princess Cruise - didn't impress us. Then on a Holland American cruise which was a big snooze fest - then found Royal Caribbean and we are almost diamond plus members in their loyalty program. When they brought the NCL Sky back a few years ago I booked a short cruise on that one but had a couple of co-workers come back from a cruise and said it was awful, so we cancelled and continued sailing on RCL.  We looked at going on another RCL cruise but found this one and I am so Happy we did.  It has been the best cruise ever!!!!

Ship - We have been on the Oasis which has a lot of guest so I am comparing this to that ship.  The big difference was that the Oasis has the Promenade where the Escape has pockets.  We loved the cleanliness of this ship to have so many people onboard it was ALWAYS spotless. The one thing I noticed on the Oasis vs. the Escape is that guest on the Oasis appeared rude, would bump into you yet we never felt that confined, only a busy times e.g. boarding, shows ending, leaving ship..

Entertainment:  TOP NOTCH - I loved The Company Man in the Supper Club, what a wonderful group.  The Rat Pack - on the record - was such a delight. The only complaint about that is they could have left out the colorful language as it was not used in the original movie and really did not add to the show, especially when the younger children were in attendance.   I really cannot remember the name of the first show but loved the dancing (old age).

I heard a lot of complaints about guest not being able to see some of these shows as they were filled.  But then you hear someone say they went two or three times to the same show that people were not able to get into.  I would hope they have some kind of system where they insure that every guess on the cruise that wants to see a show has at least 1 chance. We were not able to see some of the smaller shows because they were always booked.

FOOD:  ON RCL we started to purchase the dining packages as the food in the regular buffet and dining room has really gone down in quality. So when we booked this cruise we purchase the three meal plan and this was a BIG MISTAKE.  The food was awesome thru out the ship - we never once went to The Manhattan - the regular dining room.  The Buffet, O-Sheehan, Taste had great food and a great selection, sometimes food was cold but it was still great tasting. The Japanese restaurant Teppanyaki is worth the additional cost, the food was fresh - the staff was wonderful and it was an enjoyable meal.

CASINO - like most ships the are tight with the slots but I did see some big winners and they were very happy!

CABIN:  We had a mini-suite and it was a beautiful cabin.  Our room steward was very good and the towel animals were awesome.  I did get to see a room in the HAVEN and boy if I was younger and had a bigger budget I would like to experience that once in my life.

THE BIGGEST CON: Boarding procedure for this ship.  On the Oasis it took less then 1/2 hour - This boarding process was very confusing and people we standing out in the heat of the day just to get into the terminal.  We had someone in a wheelchair in front of us and they had so special procedure in place to help them or if they did it was not used.  I would give this part of the cruise only 1 star.

OVERALL:  We had the best cruise of our over 20+ cruises and looking forward to our next one hopefully Nov. 19th to the Panama Canal.

Thank you NCL for listening to your complaints and making the changes needed.

Chris & Jim 14790 4/29/17