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Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 32
7 Night Bahamas & Florida (New York Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 27, 2019
Ship: Norwegian Escape
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 15850
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
Be prepared for bland dry food. it is not what it used to be. Expect large crowds everywhere. I thought I would never say "bigger is not better" but in this case give me the smaller ships.Embarkation
Because of a Coast Guard inspection everything was chaotic. This is not NCL fault. Considering how many people got there at the same time NCL did well. You were given a boarding group number and told they would call. People around us had groups 44,45,46 and when the loudspeaker called group 2 a gasp came across everyone. I then witnessed the strangest thing. Checking the line going on to the gangway it was single file in groups of 2 or 3. At this pace everyone would be there for days. People just got up and walked on this ship right past the checker. Orderly yes, did it overwhelm the security at the ship when you board? No. So maybe they could pick things up a little.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Main Dinning room: Very good. Buffet, O"sheehans were poor at best. We have done many cruises and the only complaint that I had for the food was the bacon did not taste like bacon. This cruise the only complement I had was the bacon. Everything was dry. On Italian night at the buffet they had everything you would want except sauce. To get tomato sauce you had to drain the sauce from the meat ball pan. The chicken was very dry. The deserts were bland. Our party of 6 kept testing the deserts every night even after eating in the dinning room we would head up for a snack. EVERY desert was bland. Soft Serve Ice cream was wonderful but they could not bland that down any as it comes pre packaged. O'Sheehans has changed the menu was horrible. I tried the Hot Roast beef and the Turkey sandwiches twice and both times they only gave about 2 tablespoons of gravy. I asked for more gravy and it was not brought. There is no lettuce at the buffet. NONE. spinach greens and other "loose" floppy leafs. If you want a crunch to your salad you will not get it. The salad dressings were watered down everywhere. Jimmy Buffets was great. Teppanyaka was also very good. Dolce Gelato was excellent but it is hidden in a corner. We did not find it till the 5th day
Onboard Activities
I have to say that the "chair savers" got what they deserved. only 1 day did we not find chairs. Great that they have a significant amount of chairs in the shade. Staff was there to assist and get drinks and pick up used plates. One small pool for such a large ship? We only got in once as it was packed all the time. The slides are great. Bad feet so I did not do the ropes course but watched and everyone enjoyed it. They even have a kids rope course. I am going to bring up this point in two areas, activities and entertainment. They use the atrium for events. So do the smaller ships but the smaller ships have a larger atrium. So many times we could not even get through to the front of the ship because they tried to stuff 1000 people into a very small area with limited chairs to do an event. The smoke from the casino one floor up billows through all three atrium decks so be prepared as it is very bad.
Entertainment
The Elvis impersonation in the atrium was awesome but it was so crowded you could not move. Chior of men was not as good as I was led to believe. I am music knowledgeable from the 60's through to 2000 and still only knew 3 of the songs. They did interact well with the audience. That was great. Could not get into anything else as everything was booked.
Service and Staff
My goodness. NCL got this right. We tipped our waitress in Cagneys well and our room steward very well. They were so appreciative. They deserved it all. I know the cruise lines do pay staff well but they still work hard. Coming back on the ship from Nassau they ran everything through the x ray machine which is not an issue. The security person wanted to check my wifes shopping bag and though not an issue no other security jumped in to help her and it held up the line for 5 minutes.
Ship Quality
Atrium is way to small. That is my largest complaint. Smoke travels through 3 decks. We intentionally got a room at the elevator in the rear on the 15th floor (15850) so I could get my wife breakfast in the morning and get it back to the room. Easy to do. But when you are on 16 at the pool and you want to get down to your room you must go through the Buffet to get to the elevators or go all the way to the front to go down and walk back. Twice the buffet staff stopped us thinking we were going to use the buffet. Spice H2O was the best. Shame they left it off the Encore.
Cabin / Stateroom
Even though it was below the pool deck we never heard a thing. Our cabin was one of the first to get cleaned as the steward parked his cart outside the room. It was a pleasure to see his face every day. There is still smoking going on out on the decks and there is not much you can do about these inconsiderate people so I do not blame NCL. tracking it down would have been a nightmare. The room had lots of storage space and even large suitcases fit under the bed. Great bathroom and shower. Two nights the air conditioner did not work well but every time I went to talk to someone about it I noticed that it was working again so I suspect it was something we were doing wrong. Great comfortable bed and a very clean room.
Ship tip
Be prepared for the fact that the food is not as good as it used to be.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We always cruise out of NYC. we drive 12 hours and stay in Times Square and drive to the port. Traffic was heavy this time but that was expected with so much going on that weekend. Parking did not cost as much as in the past. There is so much to do in NYC
We did the shopping years ago and once was all you need. There is not enough time to do anything else that would make it worth your money so we stayed on the ship. Got some pool time.
Great Stirrup Cay (Cruise Line Private Island), Bahamas
it took forever to get off the ship with the tenders. Worse coming back. The Pearl was also in port that day so we had to share. The cabana was expensive and I expected more. it was also far away from everything.
Be prepared that the shopping staff in the stores and the straw market are not just aggressive as in the past. They are almost assaulting following us down the street, mocking me cause I would not let my wife buy a "wrinkle remover" machine for 1000.00 I was truly ashamed of how these people act. Getting of the ship was easy.
Disembarkation
We picked self disembarking. They did not tell you the process until all the tags had been taken. Nor did they tell you where to gather. We went and got in line at 6:30 on deck 6 finding out we had to carry bags down to deck 4. No one checked your tags so just get in line. The plus was there were staff to assist getting your suitcases down the stairs. Going through customs was so easy now with facial recognition. getting out of NYC was easy on the GW bridge.