Norwegian Escape Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I was skeptical with the cruise because of past reviews but it was a blast.  We were with 5 other families and the only crowded areas were directly around the pool area.  Kids had so many choices to keep busy with the ropes course, putt putt golf and their favorite ping pong.  Bathrooms were always clean and never a wait which I thought was amazing because of all of the people aboard.  Food in every restaurant was delicious.  The only disappointing part of our cruise was we were not able to port in the Bahamas.   There was a medical emergency the during the night  which we had to go way out of our way to get the person to a helicopter by Puerto Rico.  We had plans on meeting a group of people at Atlantis but we had to stay at sea to get back on schedule for our cruise.  Hoping the person who was in need is alright though but a little sad we couldn't stop at that destination.  That was one of the reasons we booked the cruise.  

The only complaint I have is the daily charges.  I would rather pay for that when you pay for the cruise rather than getting the additional charges for us was $284 at the end of the cruise.  Seeing the charges as the trip goes on makes you a little more not wanting to spend money on other items.  We had the food and drink package which was nice.  All Inclusive destinations are more in my favor because it seems like you are nickel and dimed all week on the cruise.

I booked this for my family's vacation for spring break. I have been on a cruise but my son had not. It has been my past experience you pay your fare that includes your room and all food on board. I understand I have to pay taxes and port fees that was charged the day I purchases our tickets. The room itself was fine  except the hard bed and the ship was nice, but that being said I have many complaints. I read Nowegian's website before I booked this and thought I was prepared for all costs. I knew there were some restaurants that had surcharges, alcohol and sodas cost extra. I even knew the cost of parking at the port. We start the cruise to find out of the 28 restaurants on board only 5 were included with my fare.  If you wanted steak or lobster in the complimentary restaurants you had to pay an additional $20- $25. The menus seemed limited and the buffet served a lot of the same items everyday. Also the service in the restaurant was terrible, I always had to refills for my water sometimes to the point that I had finished eating before I got a refill. Only 4 of the shows were complimentary the rest you had to pay extra. I do not have endless pockets to pay all of the extra fees. I feel that I did not receive what I paid for. We were even charged a daily fee $13.50 per person per day for what I was told for housekeeping when Norwegian's website states a gratuity is not required. I felt I was nickel and dimed to death. Also there was a medical emergency on board and as a result we skipped our last port, I am understanding of the emergency but I paid for 3 ports but only received 2 and feel that I should receive a partial refund. The port taxes were collected for Nassau  but were not given back even though we did not port there. Some of the contests were funny and Silas did a great job hosting the shows. The four days at sea was beyond boring, the 3rd day I was ready to jump off the ship and swim back. You can only swim so much and most of the events on board was Norwegian trying to sell me something. I would never cruise with Norwegian or would I ever recommend it to anyone.

The cruise ship is very nice and the dining options are great.  However, the service was not what we expected as we have been on several cruises.  Also, the pool area is very small for the number of people that are on the ship -smallest of any ship we have been on. In addition, the noise from the plumbing in our unit was not good - you could hear every time someone in another unit flushed or ran water. We will not go on this ship again.

Beautiful ship, housekeeping excellent, food ok as a bit of disappointment on the selection and having to pay for some. The free entertainment was good, but again a charge for some. The Virgin Islands were awesome, never made it to the Bahamas as there was a medical emergency rescue that diverted the ship off course in the early morning.  Nobody knew until mid-morning that our sail to the Bahamas was called off and another day at sea was the plan. No real good activities to do being at sea in lieu of the Bahamas

My 8 days at sea were relaxing and interesting. The best part was meeting new people. I also appreciated being recognized as a bachelor guest and placed near other single people. The highlight of my day was sitting in a hot tub with a beer in one hand. On a final note, the activities were fun. Everything from the water slides to the dances were to the movies in the ship's atrium made for a trip without even a moment of boredom.

The specialty dining was superb with great service

The swimming area is way too small for 4200 passengers and the water riduculously cold - this is shwon by hte samll numbers of adults swimming

After Midnight disappointing - approx 25% of people left during show - too repititious

I wouls not liked too have been in a cabin any further aft as the boom boom noise of the parties would have been very annoying

New ship - everything clean. Not our favorite NCL ship.  Food in the main dining rooms was fair, buffets excellent.  The Italian Restaurant (La Cucina) was excellent. Too many supplemental charges, example, the Main Dining Room for certain meals) - some game shows had a supplemental charge. It seems like everything is based on charging the cruisers extra money for items that were previously no charge. 

The ship is Beautiful. Service was great. Food outstanding, especially the specialty resturants but also the free dining rooms. Plenty to do all day and all evening. Cabin was a good size with an adequate balcony and with traveling with 2 other couples with all 3 cabins next to one another, the divider between the balconies were able to be removed making the trip even more enjoyable. Cruise director was outstanding. Seemed sometime like there were 3 of him. Entertainment was great. What kept the overall experience a 4 star vacation instead of a 5 star was that the ship seemed to be built for maximum occupancy. The main pool area was so crowded it was almost impossible to get into the pool to cool off as it was shoulder to shoulder around the perimeter. At one time there were 20 kids, no exaggeration, in one of the hot tubes in the pool area. There were other options for keeping cool around the ship and other hot tubs also. There also was a kids pool that was not as crowded. With that, though, finding a spot in the sun and not tucked away in a corner involved playing the game of getting out no later then 9am to save lounge chairs with our towels. There  appeared to be some kind of system where members of the crew put stickers with times on them on saved lounge chairs and if they were not occupied within 1 hour of the time written on the sticker, the chair was up for grabs. I am not sure what the correct way of going about taking one of the timed out chairs was, but we did witness 2 occasions where people took it upon themselves to look at the times, find ones that were timed out, and move the towels onto the deck and take the chairs, nearly causing an altercation. With 4200 passengers on one ship, it should be expected to run into some inconveniences.  

Having cruised NCL many times we were excited to cruise on the new Escape, last week. Overall the trip was very good, had a few blips with some service issues, which for NCL was a surprise, so in that respect we were surprised. A few testy servers, poor service in Taste and Savor. But great service in the specialty restaurants and the bar service, especially at 5'00 Somewhere bar was outstanding. Yum and Curly were the best!! Had some bad weather in St Thomas, which cut our beach day short,but a great day in Tortola, with a great driver in Danny, who we met right off the ship. Relaxed in Nassau and enjoyed the ship. Entertainment was fair, the accopella group was good, comics were fair. Liked Howl at the Moon

great people, great service, upper deck is a little crowded during the days at sea, clean ship, great showers, shows are ok, food is good, selection of free food is limited, ship rocked more than others and ocean wasn't that rough

We deal with Dana Moore Wichtoski, who has been our vacation specialist for quite a few years. We have really been happy with the work she has done for us. We told her that we were taking our daughter,son-in-law and our two grandkids on this cruise. She picked this cruise as the one that she thought might be a good fit for what we wanted. I think now that she did a real good job. We were a little bit worried at first because we had never used this cruise line previously. It turned out that there was enough variety on the ship to keep everybody busy and happy. The grandkids had a great time with all the things that they have for kids to do. This was a first cruise for our grandkids, daugher and son-in-law so we wanted to make sure they had a good time. I was pretty impressed with the people that worked on the ship. By the 2nd day of the cruise, the crew that was working in the recreation department were calling our grandkids by their first names and also remembered they were from Michigan. .We also had the assistant maitre d come over to our table and tell us what nice mannered kids we had and she also sent chocolate covered strawberries to both of our rooms. I think it made the kids feel special. When we look for cruises for our self, we don't usally look for all the things that were on this ship. I would say that we probably had as much fun as the kids did on a few of the different options. I would say, I don't know if the shows were as good as some of the other cruise lines we have sailed with. It seems like they had af ew nights of the same shows and I think the variety could have been a little better. I guess because we were more worried about entertaining our grandkids that it was no big deal. I guess if it had been just the two of us it might have been different. I think the only real downside to the whole trip was over acouple bottles of wine that disappeared out of our daughter luggage . All the cruises on different ships that we have sailed with allowed us toble to bring on 2 bottles of wine to drink in our room. We told our daughter about that and she had put 2 bottles in her suitcase. We planned this trip around my daughters birthday and my wifes because one is on the 6th and the other is on the 7th of March. She had brought a bottle for each night. The day before we were leaving for this vacation,  I was reading some of the rules and noticed  it said about the corking fee assessed on this cruise line.  I contacted our son-in-law but he forgot top tell our daughter so low and behold she had already packed it. While boarding the ship, they stopped to pay the corking fee and where told that the crew members would remove the wine and there would be a note in their suitcase saying they could either pay the corking fee then or they would return the bottles to them on the last night of the cruise. They never got the note or the wine..All in all, we were happy enough to sign up for one of their cruise deals where you have 4 yrs. to use it.

Overall a very good vacation for the tired and hungry.  The ship is new so it was very pleasurable with great service and food.  The neighborhood bars on the ship were really nice for specific ambiance and service.  You can't fault any of the on board activities as anyone should find many areas of interest and fun things to do.  The excursions booked through the ship are a little overpriced and you can find the same activities privately cheaper.  We like the duty free shopping both on the ship and in St. Thomas,  so that was very satisfactory.   The demographics didn't fit our preferences totally and I think a little smaller ship with fewer kids on board would have been better for us.   Very subjective along those desires and preferences.

I have been on 18 cruises and this one tops them all.  Great food, entertainment and service.  I have never seen so much to do and see on any other ship.

This was our first cruise. Not what I thought it would be... The staff did not seem happy at all about being there. They weren't very helpful. Don't get me wrong, a few were but for the most part no! The ship was very croweded. The pool was way to small. You couldn't understand the announcements over the intercom. Even though this was our first cruise.. We had people ask us if we liked it? ( other than staff ) and they said this wasn't what they thought and they have been on several other cruises. Not saying we won't cruise again, just not on this ship or line. 😐

Where do I begin...This was my 5th cruise, first time on Norweigian and I have always heard wonderful things about them but my experience was not good.  Big, beautiful ship but not enough space for the amount of people on board.  Pool and deck area is very small.  There were very few servers in the pool area and on the outdoor decks.  If you want a drink you have to go stand in line at the bar!  I have never encountered such an unfriendly staff before either.  Two people were excellent and that was Dave, our room steward and Ida, a server at the upstairs pool bar.  Anytime I had a question or request I usually got NO!!!!  If you want lobster night you could order it any night in a dining room but you are paying an upcharge of $20-$25 and also on surf and turf.  Room service has a service charge also.  They made fun of Carnival on several occasions but I will cruise on Carnival again before I ever step foot on Norweigian again.  I travel a lot with my family and friends and I am not hard to please but I was very disappointed!  If you've never cruised before and have nothing to compare it to then you would probably love it...IMO.

What can I say from embarkation handled well very impressed, on board quickly! Impressed that they had several different restaurants open instead of the usual crowded buffet area on the first day! We found this to be really thought out! 

Room 8714 deck eight in unusual area but it was really awesome! Very large balcony with two chaise lounges, two chairs larger table! Apparently high end staff have rooms in very front of ship, as we were greeted daily, with acknowledgements and smiles! Nice large bathroom, big shower, double sink as well! We had unlimited drink package, along with specialty dinner package, there was not a restaurant we didn't really enjoy the food! What can I say in general the ship is new very well maintained! The pool area a little conjested as with most ships, but that's to be expected! Yes there is smoke along the casino hallway but that's on most ships again that's to be expected! I ignore most negative reviews, its only what you make it and I always make my cruises happy, fun time!

SHIP AND CREW WERE FANTASTIC AN AMAZING SHIP. CABIN (12286)HAS MORE THAN AMPLE STORAGE AND IS ROOMY, NICE BALC.  NOT SO WITH THE BATHROOM, IT HAS JUST TWO 3 1/2 X 12" SHELVES. CANNOT EVEN PUT A SHAVE BAG IN THERE, VERY INCONVENIENT AND SOMEWHAT THOUGHTLESS IN DESIGN BUT NOT A DEAL BREAKER.  THE SHIP TECHNOLOGY IS POOR, GUEST SERVICES EVEN ADMITTED SO. THE VIRTUAL SYSTEM IS VERY USER UNFRIENDLY. NCL MIGHT WANT TO CHECK WITH DISNEY ON HOW TO DO THIS.

OVERALL THIS IS ONE FINE SHIP AND CREW. THE REASON(S) FOR NOT RATING IT A FIVE STAR ARE: 1. THE "C" IN NCL MUST NOW STAND FOR "CHEAP" THEY CHARGE $7.95 FOR EACH ROOM SERVICE CALL. WE LIKE TO HAVE TEA AND COFFEE AFTER WE RETURN TO OUR CABIN FOR THE EVENING. IT IS NOT WORTH ALMOST $60 FOR THIS KIND OF SERVICE. 2. THE "COMPLIMENTARY" DINING ROOMS IE SAVOY, MANHATTAN HAVE PRICE LISTED MENUS, REALLY. THIS IS NOT ACCEPATABLE. SEEMS LIKE THEY ARE TRYING TO FORCE OR TRICK PEOPLE INTO BUYING INTO THE SPECIALITY DINING PACKAGES THEY OFFER. THESE ROOM SERVICE AND DINING ROOMS CHARGES ARE NOT RIGHT AND THE REASON OUR RATING WAS NOT A FIVE STAR. THIS RATING IS FOR THE ESCAPE BUT IF NCL IS DOING THIS FLEET WIDE, WE WILL NOT BE SAILING WITH NCL IN THE FUTURE.

THE FOOD ON THE ESCAPE WAS ALSO OUTSTANDING. WE ESPECIALLY LIKED EATING BREAKFAST AND LUNCH IN O'SHEEHAN'S. OUTSTANDING SERVICE AND DELICIOUS FOOD. OF THE SPECIALTY RESTAURANTS WE TRIED CAGNEY'S IS TOP DRAWER WITH TEPPENYAKI A CLOSE SECOND. WE DID CAGNEY'S TWICE.

For anyone that has never tried freestyle cruising I'd highly recommend it.  We found our choices of dining, bars and entertainment to be plentiful.  All we needed was the sunshine and it didn't disappoint.  Our three ports were fun, but the ship stood out to be the highlight!

Professionalism and customer service attitude of the crew was exceptional.

Availability and quality of food and beverage was over the top.

It can get a little crowded when there are 3000-4000 people on a ship, but NCL did a great job of planning and organizing to keep things running smoothly!

A most enjoyable vacation.

Cruise was very nice.  Only one complaint......We were on the 15 floor above the pool or close by.  At 5:30 every morning we heard movement coming from the

above floor.  Woke us up every morning.   Hopefully someone can look into this problem.  

We also took an excursion in Tortola very dissatisfied,  It was one of NCL excursions - view and swim in Tortola.  The driver only stopped once for us to take pictures, when we got to the swimming beach we were told we had only 1 hour.  Not worth the money.