Multigenerational 50th Anniversary to the Western Carribean
Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 35
7 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 24, 2017
Ship: Norwegian Escape
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10756
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 7 years ago
Review summary
It was a terrific family experience with something for everyone and the opportunity to have nightly dinners together. The ship's crew was outstanding, upbeat, and eager to please! Lot of activities, great food/drinks, and land experiences. Perfect weather every day along with calm seas! From 7 to 74, the trip was a huge success!Embarkation
it was quick, easy, courteous, and welcoming.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
There was an abundance of restaurants, and we tried to explore most of them. Our family of 10 used Complimentary Dining (Garden Cafe, Savor ,Taste, Manhattan Room, O'Shenans) as well as 3 Speciality restaurants ( La Cucina, Teppanyaki, and Le Bistro). We always ate dinner together but sometimes ate breakfast/lunch as individual families. Our dining experience was particularly good! The selection in the Garden Cafe was incredible, the food was always fresh, immensely varied, and the coffee, hot. As a Speciality Restaurant, the food in Savor was not as good as in Taste or Manhattan. We were a little disappointed in Teppanyaki ( our chef and bland food), but La Cucina was great and Le Bistro was outstanding. It never ceased to amaze us how good all the food and food service was, considering there were over 4,000 people being served every day. Meals were served promptly, courteously, and with great attention to family choices. We were even given a beautiful cake for our anniversary by chef Cyril! And, I think our grandchildren had molten lava cake for dessert nearly every night. If there is one dining recommendation, we all felt the Children's Menu needs more quality foods, salads, vegetables, fish, and meat choices. The same "fast food" was on the menu each night. Our dining experience was one of the joys of the trip! And , we were very pleased with the drink packages we purchased for the adults.
Onboard Activities
I think our family did nearly every activity possible on the ship...fitness, walking track, rock-climbing, water tubes, rope course, pools, theatre, atrium, night clubs etc. and they loved it all!
Entertainment
The quality of the shows was outstanding...After Midnight, For the Record and some of the Comedy shows. However, our group would all recommend having some more family friendly, current productions that guests of all ages could enjoy. The last night performance in the theatre was great and it was fun to meet the crew afterward. The Newlywed Game in the Atrium was hilarious! And, the Cruise director, Tyler, was terrific!!!
Children's Programs
Our younger children (7,9,10) were signed up for the Kids Club, but did not really spend any time there. Our older one would meet there and then sometimes do ship activities, but would most often just meet new friends there and enjoy being with them. The Atrium Cupcake Demo was not very good....Chef would have been fine by himself, but having a poor "side-kick" was not complimentary to him or to her...not good.
Service and Staff
Day after day, with the exception of one, every single staff member was OUTSTANDING! From Christine who helped us with a dining issue the first day, to Juliana who tried to get us one more Speciality Night Evening at week's end, to Chef Cyril in Le Bistro who came out to talk to diners, to the activity fellow who helped my husband who was stuck in the water tube, to pool attendants, to the group who welcomed us with fresh towels after daily excursions, to Tyler , the Cruise Director, to each and every table server and Cafe attendants...they were terrific! The weak link was our cabin steward. Our family had 3 contiguous rooms and on the first day, not one of the 3 had been made-up by 5:30 at night even though the sign had been lit since about 8AM. When we asked about it, a neighboring steward said he thought our steward might be sick. When we called room service, they said someone else would come do our rooms. Obviously we were very concerned about our own steward. When we saw her the next day, and for the next 3 days, we asked her how she was. She would usually answer,"better or ok". We were very understanding about her situation, but throughout the trip, she had a definite "attitude" issue. We were not sure if she was physically ill, had family issues, was homesick or what the problem was, but she was downright "snippy" with us and all of us in each of the 3 rooms, dreaded asking her for anything. she didn't replace our bathroom glasses for 3 days, and when my husband asked, she snapped at him. Whatever the issue, she needs to have some mentoring to understand how important a good attitude is. I should add that 2 of our 3 rooms were meticulously kept by us and that the third was neater than most others.
Ship Quality
We were extremely pleased with the ship's cleanliness and design. Everything was always in tip-top shape!
Cabin / Stateroom
We rarely cruise, and this was our first time on NCL and one of her newest ships. Our cabins were spacious with plenty of storage which was easily accessible. Our cabin, the elevators, the common spaces and the whole ship were immaculate. We really appreciated the crew's effort to keep it so.
Ship tip
"Go for It! And, "take your family....the more the merrier!"
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We go to South Beach often as we have relatives there. We love all the activities and easy accessibility to everything. We did not do any excursions there.
Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
We did not stay in the port itself as we hired a guide for our family of 10 for the day. We went to the monkey farm, held the monkeys and the sloths, had the macaws sit on our shoulders, ziplined, rented a boat and snorkeled. Great Day!
The island was very nice but we were disappointed not to be able to cave tube as we originally planned. Our grandchildren loved the zipline. But one of the things my husband and I like to do best is explore new areas and as nice as the Island was, we were not able to do more than take the ferry to Placencia. Also heard a number of complaints from other passengers about not being able to use our keycards for food and drink. Unfortunately the pool had to cleared toward the end of the afternoon as someone got sick and there were jelly fish in the ocean that day too. I must add that all the natives we came in contact with were very nice.
If interested in shopping, there was quite a selection of goods with no pressure to buy (that was nice). Fun to watch the dolphins. We went into town and everyone was pleasant there as well.
We took a cab to Chankanaab Park. What a gem! Pristine and the experience of a lifetime with all of us swimming with the dolphins! Great day!
Disembarkation
Excellent! We ate an early breakfast , out of our cabins by 8:30 AM took our own bags and all went quickly and smoothly. The only slight delay was getting an elevator...we purposely went "up" before we went "down" so we could get in one. We were off the ship and in a cab before 8:50.