Norwegian Escape Cruise Reviews - Reviews

First this ship is definitely not as kid friendly as it is portrayed to be. Traveling with teenagers and there were way too many adult only areas. Even the main pool where all of the activities was adult only. The layout of the ship was not very good either. It did not flow well at all. Everything was very cut-up. Also, the majority of the staff were not very friendly at all. On previous cruises with other lines the staff were like friends for the week and even learned our names to be personable. This staff just went about their work with minimal interaction.  The only great staff were on the sports deck and ropes course. They were excellent. 

The best part of every cruise is to do it with friends. We loved going on the Escape.  It is a big ship and for that reason we never felt crowded.  The food was outstanding and the entertainment was the best we have experienced on any cruise. The best excursion was the zip line in Roatan. No high scary platform jump offs and the guides were exceptional.  Kudos to Kevin (the assistant director of hotel services) and also Marsha Lewis (Chef's Personal Assistant).  Both of them were personable and took the time to talk with our group. The inside cabin was the smallest cabin we have ever had.  It needed some drawers for clothes.  Overall, highly recommend this cruise and the Norwegian Escape.   

You are never going to completely satisfy everyone - we had a group of 18.  Overall I would say the experience was wonderful.  I heard a few opinions that the ship was too large; some prefer a more personal feel with a smaller ship.  Some don't enjoy excursions and some do - its a matter of personal preference. 

My experience was great - I had as much to do or as little to do as I wanted.  I loved Harvest Cay's pool.  Certainly the pool on the ship did not compare and that is one of the points I would make about the Escape - for a ship of this size the adult pool was way too small and there were never enough chairs for everyone.

Food was awesome in every dining area; entertainment was top notch.  The ship was clean.  I would kick up the service a bit.  The staff seemed a bit tired - my feeling is that service has dropped a bit since the beverage packages have arrived.  Staff does not have to be as service oriented to get their gratuities.  We tend to take care of our servers that are providing that extra touch to us one on one. 

I'll keep cruising and NCL and 411 stay on my list!

We enjoyed our experience on the cruise. Loved the friendly staff, pretty good food, and all the activities on the ship. Some downsides included a terrible 80's party due to reportedly DJ being sick. But what made it pretty bad wasn't necessarily the inexperienced DJ who filled in, but the cruise director's assistant.  At most events he sang karaoke over the songs we were dancing to. At some point it became not about us being hyped up and entertained. But the assistant behaving in attention seeing behaviors. The same occurred during the glow night.  suggestion would be for the cruise director to lead the evening ship parties, so it doesn't become all about the assistant cruise director.  

The best part of my cruise was sharing with my family; enjoying dining and entertainment .

The excursion in Cozumel for a day at the beach resort was especially   enjoyable.

Loved Norwegian Escape!   The food and entertainment were great.   We ate in the Manhattan Dining Room, the French restaurant, the Italian one and the steakhouse....all were wonderful.  Only complaint was Harvest Caye.....not much to do on the private island and disappointed that there was no snorkeling.   

Norwegian Escape cruise was perfect from beginning to end. Great accommodations,  food,  service,  shows,  excursions.  Easy on and off.  Especially enjoyed the Brat Pack show. Le Bistro,  Cagneys and La Cuchina were top notch culinary menus.

The ship has very limited elevators, and water is not included in the beverage package, and several people had given different information, and don't like the fact that 3/4 of the restaurants on the ship you had to pay additional fees. We did like our excursions, and plenty to do on the ship, and food was good.

Always wanted to try a larger ship but prefer the smaller ships as it's a better experience overall in my opinion.  I've been on this same itinerary before but out of New Orleans and Tampa.  Disappointing was Harvest Cay in Belize, NCL's new private island.  Roatan and Cozumel were great as always.  See my comments below.  I've seen a lot better service on previous cruises I've been on with NCL.  My favorite ship in the Norwegian fleet is still the Jewel.

I've been on 15 cruises. This was hands down the nicest ship I have been on. Great amenities, great shows, food above average with a very fun cruise director. 4,000 people on a ship had me concerned but it was so big didn't seem to matter. My one compliant is Norwegian has the most poorly designed inside cabins I have ever seen. Literally no space for clothes other than the closet which my wife and I had to share and kept bumping in to each other. Only other options are in bathroom or nightstands by bed. The closet folds up and block the TV when it is open!! Whoever designed the rooms was drunk. Roatan Honduras had one of the nicest beaches I have seen in the Caribbean. The new private island on Belize was very nice (pool area) although ocean was murky. Had to use ship board card on island but they did not honor prepaid drink cards..what?? All in all a fabulous time.

There were a number of things I really enjoyed aboard the Norwgian Escape. There was a fair number of activities, I loved the dueling pianos and the theater productions! What I didn't care for was that most activities were in the atrium, not the theater which meant there wasn't enough seating and it created a road block midship.

They other thing, as a personal preference only, was that I wasn't a fan of the open eating. I like having a dinner time and getting to know the waiter/waitress instead of cafeteria style. But the food was delicious!

Cruise was really nice, and ship is beautiful and very well maintained.  Great selection of restaurants and bars and lounges.  If  you go, you must eat one day at the FOOD REPUBLIC (Amazing food , all priced ala carte but so worth it) The only low part of our cruise was the wait staff in TASTE and SAVOR were both really slow, and we were always having to re ask for things we had ordered, and water glasses were almost always empty. Also we recommend carrying in a drink with you, cause if you order from person inside, you will get your cocktail half way thru your meal, so slow.  And only other downside was the rude and very inattentive staff in the Garden Café, most would not answer any questions you had regarding what a food is, etc, just look at you and turn away.  And the ones working the floor area refilling plates and such would bump into you or just come barreling down the food aisle so you had  to get out of there way.  Always seems to be mass confusion in Café Area, like no one was on the same page as to what to do, when to do it, etc.   The food on the other had was really pretty good for buffet style cooking, good variety and food was always hot and fresh. Bars were great, and all the bartenders were heavy pourers so drinks were always good.

My husband and I have been cruised...a lot. We've tried Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but once we tried Norwegian, we've never looked back. We are now Gold members and the perks of sticking with Norwegian are pretty nice!

Had a wonderful vacation on NCL.  The ship was spectacular.  Staff was fabulous. I feel their Embarkment and debarkment process does require attention.    Not smooth or well communicated.      Getting to our shore excursions was very clumsy as well.

The ship was absolutely gorgeous however they definitely needed another pool. Food was amazing!! Different theme every night. The excursions were simply breath taking! Loved it!

Where to Start??? From the start of loading onto the ship everything was smooth and organized, the staff was always pleasant and welcoming, making you feel more like family than guest. The Unlimited Beverage Package is worth every penny, the food was amazing even in the main dining rooms, the entertainment was great, with the exception of the After Midnight show,  but most of all WE LOVED THE SUPPER CLUB!!    

the whole ship with beautiful, crew was excellent.  all facilities was always clean, just had a wonderful experience overall. enjoyed all activities that I participated in, lots of things to do and places to see on board, never a dull moment.  enjoyed the art auction, Manhattan dining room had wonderful food and not having to dress up unless you want to is great.  O' Shea was very nice to have a place to hang out after hours.

Loved the whole experience with only a minor complaint.

I'll get to the complaint later...

The Escape is an awesome ship.  The food was exceptional, the staff was so very friendly and accomodating.  The entertainment, from the comedy shows to the broadway shows, the movies on the back of the ship, all were outstanding.

Loved the ropes course!  The tube/water slide was awesome, and the Tube water slide was amazing.  My wife and I are just shy of sixty years old, but very young at heart!  Thumbs up to NCL!!

Now, the one and only complaint!  The theatrical as well as the comedy shows are advertised as NOT requiring reservations to attend.  Upon arriving at the entrances, this didn't seem to be the case.  The stand by line did, however, serve our access the first couple of times.  Thanks in a BIG way to a Mr Jose, for taking pity on us and allowing us in without waiting a terribly long time.

Overall, still a fabulous week.  Wanted it to go on longer.

We have already, and will most definitely continue to recommend NCL!!

TWO BIG THUMBS UP!

My husband & I started our cruising experience in 84 on the SS Norway- talk about first class experience.  We then took the Norway again after it was refurbished in I believe 96, again wonderful experience.  Our next cruise was on the NCL Sea and I called that the bucket of rust - food awful - service poor - ship full of rust and that ended my cruising with NCL.  We then went on a Princess Cruise - didn't impress us. Then on a Holland American cruise which was a big snooze fest - then found Royal Caribbean and we are almost diamond plus members in their loyalty program. When they brought the NCL Sky back a few years ago I booked a short cruise on that one but had a couple of co-workers come back from a cruise and said it was awful, so we cancelled and continued sailing on RCL.  We looked at going on another RCL cruise but found this one and I am so Happy we did.  It has been the best cruise ever!!!!

Ship - We have been on the Oasis which has a lot of guest so I am comparing this to that ship.  The big difference was that the Oasis has the Promenade where the Escape has pockets.  We loved the cleanliness of this ship to have so many people onboard it was ALWAYS spotless. The one thing I noticed on the Oasis vs. the Escape is that guest on the Oasis appeared rude, would bump into you yet we never felt that confined, only a busy times e.g. boarding, shows ending, leaving ship..

Entertainment:  TOP NOTCH - I loved The Company Man in the Supper Club, what a wonderful group.  The Rat Pack - on the record - was such a delight. The only complaint about that is they could have left out the colorful language as it was not used in the original movie and really did not add to the show, especially when the younger children were in attendance.   I really cannot remember the name of the first show but loved the dancing (old age).

I heard a lot of complaints about guest not being able to see some of these shows as they were filled.  But then you hear someone say they went two or three times to the same show that people were not able to get into.  I would hope they have some kind of system where they insure that every guess on the cruise that wants to see a show has at least 1 chance. We were not able to see some of the smaller shows because they were always booked.

FOOD:  ON RCL we started to purchase the dining packages as the food in the regular buffet and dining room has really gone down in quality. So when we booked this cruise we purchase the three meal plan and this was a BIG MISTAKE.  The food was awesome thru out the ship - we never once went to The Manhattan - the regular dining room.  The Buffet, O-Sheehan, Taste had great food and a great selection, sometimes food was cold but it was still great tasting. The Japanese restaurant Teppanyaki is worth the additional cost, the food was fresh - the staff was wonderful and it was an enjoyable meal.

CASINO - like most ships the are tight with the slots but I did see some big winners and they were very happy!

CABIN:  We had a mini-suite and it was a beautiful cabin.  Our room steward was very good and the towel animals were awesome.  I did get to see a room in the HAVEN and boy if I was younger and had a bigger budget I would like to experience that once in my life.

THE BIGGEST CON: Boarding procedure for this ship.  On the Oasis it took less then 1/2 hour - This boarding process was very confusing and people we standing out in the heat of the day just to get into the terminal.  We had someone in a wheelchair in front of us and they had so special procedure in place to help them or if they did it was not used.  I would give this part of the cruise only 1 star.

OVERALL:  We had the best cruise of our over 20+ cruises and looking forward to our next one hopefully Nov. 19th to the Panama Canal.

Thank you NCL for listening to your complaints and making the changes needed.

Chris & Jim 14790 4/29/17

We loved our Norwegian Escape cruise.   Celebrated our Honeymoon/Birthday.

The Cruise Director and his staff were exceptional.  Really enjoyed all the activities.  The spa was amazing the food was exceptional.  Overall we can't wait to enjoy Norwegian again.