Nice Ports, Horrible Cruise

Item: Norwegian Escape
Rating: 2.9
Author: Mrenee26

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Canada, New England, New York

Mrenee26

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 33

Overall rating:

2.9 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Canada & New England (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 29, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10142

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

We enjoyed our ports of call but did not enjoy our cruise. We will not be taking another Norwegian Cruise.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

We got to the port terminal early so our lines weren’t that long and went pretty smoothly.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Buffet - food was often cold and lacked seasoning even salt... Main dining rooms were awful, wait staff was not friendly and seemed to not care about our experience- food was disappointing and not luxurious at all!!! We had chicken cordon blue? In the main dining room while the buffet had steak and shrimp? Seems kind of backwards, where usually the main dining rooms have the upscale menu and buffet is usually lesser value. Thankfully closer to the end of our cruise we went to the Manhattan room and we were seated with Allan and he was amazing and made us feel welcomed and special. That is my only reason for the 2 stars!!!

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

We love being part of the game shows and trivia on board our cruises but unfortunately on this cruise most of the game shows/trivia were schedule in the Atruim of the ship and it was ALWAYS crowded and never enough seating. People often fought over chairs and there were many times I had to sit on the floor or just not even partake in the event.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

We really enjoyed the Choir of Man, and Howl at the moon. After Midnight was not family friendly and controversial and many people walked out, I would not recommend that show to continue. Once again, the seating in the Headliners club was awful and never enough room where many people had to stand in the back and near the exit of the venue.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Other cruises I’ve often received wonderful service from our room steward and wait staff. However this cruise was very disappointing and did not leave a lasting impression at all. Only one person stood out to be recognized and that was our waiter in the Manhattan room and his name was Allan!

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

I did not like the layout of the cruise ship, the elevators were awful and public areas were very crowded for the amount of people that were on the cruise. The “promenade” of the ship was mostly specialty restaurants and art gallery - maybe if Norwegian focused more on making their customers feel special and less on how they can make money off of us more people would come back. I however will never take another Norwegian Cruise.

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5

Size and comfort of room was good and I enjoyed the bed next to the balcony because on other cruises I have had the couch closer to the balcony and the bed next to the closet which I didn’t enjoy. However, our room was not that clean. There were finger prints on our sliding glass door to our balcony from the last guest.. the cheap wood doors on the closet shined with dirty smudges and finger prints from many previous guest and clearly have not been wiped down in a long, long time. Carpet was dirty and stained and not even well vacuumed because I found short silver hairs around our room even though I have long brown hair. Our shower did not drain but that was fixed after I called down to house keeping, however something was wrong with our plumbing because the toilets took 5+ flushes to actually finally flush. There were stains on the ceiling of our stateroom as well. It was all and all very disappointing!