Another Great Cruise on the Escape

Item: Norwegian Escape
Rating: 4.8
Author: sbho

Norwegian Escape Cruise Review

sbho

Contributor Level: Purser

6 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 21

Overall rating:

4.8 out of 5

7 Night Canada & New England (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: October 08, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Escape

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 11 months ago

Review summary

We enjoyed our overall time on the cruise. We enjoyed the Escape last time and enjoyed it just the same, if not more this time. It has a great blend of activities and wide variety of events and things to do.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

The staff at Manhattan port were friendly and made the process easy.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

The food was very good. The buffet was a lot better compared to a few years ago when we were on the same ship. The quality and presentation of the food in the dining room and buffet was superb compared to any of our cruises. The only minor complaint/oddity is this is the first time on NCL that there were many waiters and waitresses for your table. This possibly was to speed the process, but a different person would take your order, and you may or may not see them again, while different people would bring your food (one night we had 5 different people and never saw the person that took our order again, someone totally different appeared to take our dessert order and bring the dessert). Not sure if this was something they were testing but it did feel even more non-personable.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

This is an area of subjective perspective. Choir of Man was excellent as it was last time we were on board. Apart from that show, the rest of the theatre entertainment is lackluster. We knew that NCL cut their other Broadway shows and cut backs as they recover post COVID. It didn't dampen our overall experience, however we have cruised two other lines since the pandemic and their entertainment was just as good prior to the pandemic. I hope NCL will reevaluate their entertainment.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

The service everywhere was excellent from the moment we stepped on board. Though we didn't mind not having 2 daily room cleanings, we did feel that did hinder our interactions with our room steward. When we saw him in the hall it was always a pleasant conversation, however the amount of interactions definitely has decreased due to the once a day cleaning.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Ships is well maintained. We love NCL because of that reason - they maintain their ships and keep them fresh looking.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5