I couldn't ESCAPE the ESCAPE fast enough NO more NCL

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 4

Overall rating:

2.4 out of 5
Norwegian Escape

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: July 02, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8154

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

Truly one of the worst cruises I have ever been on, I have been on 18-20 cruises over the last 25 years and have sailed on multiple cruise lines and NCL used to be my favorite.....but COVID and Corporate greed have changed everything about this cruise line. EVERYTHING, and I mean everything was lesser or scaled back. Start with embarkation, you have a time, get to the terminal and at 1130 in the morning all of previous passengers are still standing around waiting for buses to get out of there. After that confusion, still 1 HR to get onboard this ship. And that was the good part of the cruise. OVERcrowded, never could get an elevator on board, Room stewards now only come once a day, well mine didnt even come once a day, had to call to get towels a couple of days. No water pressure and scalding hot water only, could not even rinse mouth from brushing teeth for fear or burns. Reported it once and never responded to at all. No turndown, no animals, no ice, no nothing. Dining rooms served room tempature to cold food EVERY night, I understand you get a bad meal here or there but not on this ship. Everything tasted and seemed like it was made hours before. Buffet as an option??? No way, cold hamburgers and hot dogs and the same dry piece of meat at the carving station for a whole week No Variety at all. As for the bar wait staff.....forgeddddabout it. You have to get your own drinks this whole cruise, they charge me $200 per person bar staff gratuities for the drink package and come to find out I am the bar staff. Where's my $200 back NCL. Now lets address their Fun Island Stirrup Cay. Ok its JULY in the Caribbean and its 90 degress with 80% humidity and Norwegian Cruise Line doesnt even have enough chairs or shade for the passengers on THEIR ship. Absolutely unforgiveable. Disembarkation was just as bad and if you booked your AIR thru them you know you have a problem. Absolutely bottom of the barrel last minute flights, 2 of our traveling party got home at 5am because all they book is the cheap 8pm flights out of Fort Lauderdale so if you have any delays your are going to sleep overnight in the airport. After contacting my rep for NCL they didnt even really apologize let alone offer any compensation or future vouchers or what have you. I am going elsewhere, it has to be better.

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5
All the food was room temp at best. Buffet is awful now just hamburgers and hot dogs and pizza for kids. A carving station with cold beef is available too,,,,we all asked HOWWWW can it be cold under a heat lamp with 4000 other passgenger, but it was.

Teppanyaki

5 out of 5

Cooks were great, a lot of fun, worth the price.

O'Sheehan's Bar and Grill

5 out of 5

Fantastic food and service here, best venue on the ship for food

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

2 out of 5
No more bar wait staffs, you have to get everything yourself

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5
Old and tacky decore, location was great. No Water pressure, only hot scalding water

Ship tip

Way to big and busy for the amount of employees

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

3 out of 5

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

1 out of 5
This place is just awful and that dirty dolphin park you have to go to is depressing

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

3 out of 5
They dont stay long enough to do anything here

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

4 out of 5
Beautiful beaches

Great Stirrup Cay (Cruise Line Private Island), Bahamas

1 out of 5
The cruise line doesnt even set up enough chairs or shade to go on the Island, stay on the ship and enjoy yourself.

Disembarkation

1 out of 5
45mins with your bags winding thru the ship
Was this review helpful? 4

12 Comments

Cruiser1995     10 months ago

I. Agree. With. Every. Word. I could have written this review myself. I was shocked at the food temperature. On land in the states this would have been health code violation after another. Multiple room temperature dinners in Manhattan, and Taste. Tha so goodness for O'Sheehans and Le Bistro. Those two were fantastic. We are going back to RCCL and hearing food things about MSC. Not going to be convinced by a good sale again.

jeffburleson    1 year ago

Glad you enjoyed teppanyaki! We stuck with all specialty dining and find it’s totally worth the extra money!

CruisedudeNY65    1 year ago

I agree. They are trying to make up for lost time and they have me looking elsewhere. Thanks for the review

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing

willwork4cruz    1 year ago

How did you get your own bar drinks?

AuntPinkie    1 year ago

Appreciate your detailed feedback. Sorry this cruise didn’t meet your expectations. Most cruise lines have cut back since the restart. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll return to what they once were.

NJCruiseGuy    1 year ago

Try Carnival. No negative reviews for them.

maer17    1 year ago

Yeah. This story have a hollow ring to it. It got me when he complained about the decor of the room. Smh

cruising2004    1 year ago

So you were disappointed with your cruise.

CruzeFan    1 year ago

Cruising during one of the most popular weeks of the year is never a good idea.

javawoody    1 year ago

Appreciate your comments

dbric36    1 year ago

Wow, I must have been on a different ship 🚢

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