Norwegian Escape Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I loved this cruise, with the exception that you had to make reservations for most dining restaurants and shows.  These reservations also need to be made BEFORE you cruise or you will most likely be on  a waiting list or a late time.  I find that the freestyle dining is a great concept, but I actually prefer the older cruising style where you met new people at your dinner table every night and could see shows as you choose.  I have enjoyed building relationships with fellow vacationers on past ships, but with this set up and because of how large the Escape is you are lucky to see the same person twice!

Lots of stuff for kids to do. Food is pretty good, service at points could have been better but overall a,great trip. Balcony cabin for 3 was plenty of space. 

It was my first time cruising alone and I was a little apprehensive,  Jesy the solo coordinator quickly put my fears to rest and offered his service for meals, entertainment, excursions and shopping.  It was the vacation of a lifetime.   The ship was magnificient, clean with all the amenities you could possibly want,  food was excellent with many choices to please every palate.   Staff was excellent, eager to please and more then willing to assist as needed. 

Have traveled with 3 other lines & this was our first with Norwegian. The 'Escape' truly was...an Escape from the ordinary into luxury. Very pleased with the ships layout. Free style dinning, very cool. Cabin was larger than most for only being a balcony. Loved the decorating color scheme. Bath/Shower area more than adequate (shower could use a foot rest - ladies shave their legs in the US) Abundance of happy, friendly staff. Great shopping on board. Photographers do a lovely job. Very smooth sailing (I recommend the lower decks....less sway). A cruise director that made everyday fun and the food....ahhhh the food.

Try as many of the specialty on-board restaurants as you can...everyone was worth it (but also reminded me of the special menus on other lines that were featured on 'theme' nights) The entertainment was top notch. The bartenders, for the most part, very, very good. On a busy night anyone can get grumpy....wish I could have bought a few a drink. The casino was action packed...and guest actually winning...have seen other ships hold onto the cash to much.

Drawbacks:

Could use another pool (understand that something's had to go to fit in all the hoopla for 'the Haven' guests...but really, are we going back to a separation of classes here...think Titanic.)

The adult only 'sunning' area, was very nice...think Playboy's famous grotto. But a small pool would have been just as nice.

Disembarkation...hmmm...very confusing. Could have included information in the daily flyer delivered to the room. Don't think you need to attend a seminar to properly get luggage...just give me some printed instructions. Thank God for the  'guest services' button is on the phone.

A music selection on the TV would have been nice...Pitbulls 'Free' got a little old after...oh say...the first 10 minutes.

The NEW tipping policy....ok, we'll just go ahead and add 13.50 per person PER DAY to EVERYONE'S invoice...regardless of the service you received...and everyone is happy.  Hmmm, what?? I would have gladly given my room steward more..the man must have lived under the bed because my room was ALWAYS well cared for....but perhaps the daily fee went to someone I never saw? or a grumpy bartender...not cool. Also could have provided a few envelopes in my cabin..just in case I wanted to leave a little extra to those that went the extra mile.

I had a great time at the cruise, and the service I received from Raquel (my cruise sales associate). However, I was promised the dinning package. I never received it. It took at least an hour every day dealing with guest services which was really problematic. Nobody could solve the problem. I end up forgetting about it because I didn't want to ruin my vacation but it was dissapointing.

This was our first Norwegian cruise.  We have been on several other ships by Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Costa and Carnival.  The ship was beautiful and the food was great overall.  The level of service was disappointing on all levels.  Most specifically in the dining rooms.  No eye contact and missed many requests.  Felt as thought we had to wait for everything...buffet, lounge chairs, drinks, dinner etc.

No rules enforced on ship (smoking, underage drinking, disembarkation) which caused unnecessary chaos.  Public areas were cramped, no where to sit.  Bars cramped.  Not a good ship for kids 13-21.  Fine for smaller ones.  Many things were ala carte.  Not what we expected.

Aside from the Itinerary, we absolutely loved the Norwegian Escape.  Things you should know.  We have never had a bad cruise and is the only service we have every used. We are Upstate, NY folk and escape the cold every Feb or early March. We have Sailed Norwegian for past 3 cruises because #1 Better Entertainment, #2 Better food, #3 Staff helpfulness/friendliness. The only negative we heard from other customers was Norwegian "Nickels and Dimes you". We heard complaints from HAVEN passengers that it was over-run by unruly children and parents did nothing about it because they felt they paid that huge rate and could.  We were thrilled not to have the Haven. We, as older adults not sailing with children did not want to hear any screaming or crying. I love children, but wanted peace on my vacation.  We had a Spa balcony that we could have lived without but enjoyed...no children. The Vibe is something we can not live without.  Suggestion to Norweigian...forego the Haven area (we heard from several that at least on this cruise, it was a nightmare) and create more Vibe areas.  That's what people want!  Our happy place was found in the Vibe but it was $99 per person and it is limited and you only get it if you are one of the lucky 1st come first served. We were lucky and arrived 1st and new where to go to get the Vibe passes.  We paid extra per person for the Specialty Dining for 3 nights, which was enough.  The food was fantastic except for the Supper Club. Only the small portion of meat was good, but we left very hungry and had to indulge at the Café too.  The For the Record Show at the Supper Club was worth it. Happy to see they are moving them to the Theater  We liked the atmosphere of the Supper Club, but good GOD Norwegian...change the food!! We felf extra paid food money should not have been used for that. We loved Moderno, Cagneys and sandwiches at Margaritaville.  Had to pay around 14 plus tip for Margaritaville.  Did it, but could live without it.   Don't miss Million Dollar Quartet.  Howl at the Moon was better on the Epic.  Still good though.  On the Epic went three times and on the Escape only a couple of hours.  Bring your own coffee pods for in your room...not K cups if you love coffee. Norwegian has the worst coffee ever. Bitter, Bitter, Bitter. Add 1/2 cup hot water helps.  Overall the Ship was fantastic and the staff were the best ever bar none.  We loved our Steward Rosario on floor 15 forward.  Our cabin was perfect! 15140 and not far from the elevator.  We hardly felt like we were moving. Suggest new cruisers get midship or forward rooms.  The Casino area was EXTREMELY SMOKEY!!! They need to do something about that. I love Blackjack but they hardly had the non-smoking Blackjack area open.  It still stunk over there. Ugh!  Don't get me wrong though, LOVED this ship overall and here it is: If you are a couple, get the Vibe, Splurge if you can to get the Spa Balcony, You don't need the Specialty dining because there are enough options, especially the Manhattan Room-excellent.  We don't drink enough for the Beverage package, but it was included, so he drank a few beers and I had one-2 frozen drinks per day and one glass of wine.  If you are a major drinker...hold out for the free beverage package they offer.  Ports-Tortola frankly sucked! St Thomas was nice but we have done this about 3 times now so just shopped, and Nassau many stayed on the ship.  I LOVE Norwegian.  No desire to change cruiselines although have heard Royal Carribean does not "Nickel and Dime" you.  We will try them some day to compare.  We have already scheduled our next cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway for our Honeymoon with another couple and will definitely return to the Escape when they go to their new itinerary.  Hope this helps someone.  Wish Norwegian would review this and change their coffee and reimburse us for the Specialty dining only in the Supper Club-the worst! Everthing else was perfect!

The ship layout was awkward with small pool area.  Casino should be smoke free. Service was excellent and food and atmosphere in specialty restaurants was FANTASTIC!  Main dining room was VERY NOISY.  Overall service and ship were nice.

My yearly group of 20 to 30 cruisers desired to try a brand new ship and new cruise line for the majority of our cruisers.  The  ship was beautiful.  The staff was helpful and friendly and tried very hard to please..  Those were the best two things about the cruise.  The free dining experiences  need tremendous improvement.  The staff there seemed insecure in training, food wasn't desirable.  If we had desired a variety of pay restaurants we would have stayed home and done so we chose the free dining.  Entertainment in the theatres two shows was totally unacceptable in language rating and sexually suggestive.  The first preview show was good ad well as the last night of staff performance, which was the best show. They could have saved a lot of their expense by letting the staff perform all week.   Basically the 20 of us were bored and disappointed.  The new ship talked to you in creaking all the time.  I've never in my 20 years of cruising experienced constant swaying as was on this ship.  It will be some time before we choose to try Norweigian with my group again.  

Boat was crowded, charged extra for shows, front line service staff were great, free drinks was the best... Was very boring at times...I'll personally stick to Royal Caribbean

The Norwegian Escape truly knows how to please!  The 7-day cruise we just completed on the NEW Escape with stops in St. Thomas, Tortola and Nassau were a welcome time of exploration and relaxation.  The cabin was so comfy, and after experiencing over 27 cruises on 5 different lines, I would have to say the state room comfort, as well as the greatly improved bathroom size were quite welcome! Make sure and include Vigin Gorda/The Baths National Park as one of the Excursion offerings on Tortola. My dear friend Surabhi and I hiked through the cave-like massive boulders right on the water's edge that revealed a beautiful aqua, white sand beach at the end.  Breath-taking for sure.  The trek, well worth it!

The food was beyond perfect.  Many times in the "buffet" section of any ship, (always on the very top deck), you feel like you are eating "last-night's" creative leftovers, not on this ship.  What a selection-and the Indian food, authentic and flavorful!

Can you imagine waking up every morning and going up to the Garden Café for breakfast and being serenaded with a "Good Morning Song" by the staff?  What a refreshing start to any day at sea! We made almost daily use of the well-equipped gym and was floored to see the large selection of "TechnoGym" equipment they had.  Pro's know that's the best equipment out there!

The only two things that were slightly disappointing, and admittedly, they were only minor; was the high pressure sales job the Massage Therapist in The Spa used to get me to buy products, she would not let up!  The second head-scratcher was the 2 circular open floors of casino/drinking and gambling that were directly in the center of the ship with no area (except the public areas) for the cigarette smoke to escape! All you could smell on floors 5, 6,7 and 8 was cigarette smoke!  Talk about a poor design.

Overall a great memory and we SO appreciate Tina LoRusso of always giving us the best deals and exceptional service.  We value her experience and expertise.  Thank you and TINA!

KIMBERLY RUBY- Alpine, CA

We thought the ship was great and well maintained.  The crew was working hard to please.  Was not happy with more "pay" items, especially the entertainment.  Booking for the entertainment was easy, but had to do it early to be sure you got a reservation.  If you didn't want to pay for the entertainment and had already seen the complimentary shows, there were a few nights where the only thing to do was attend the crew game shows.  We never had a disappointing meal while on the ship, it was all served with a smile and was excellent.  The one time I questioned how the dish was made (and I was right that it was missing an ingredient), I was offered another without hesitation.  I would have liked to see "adult" time specified for the rope course, zip line, mini-golf, ping pong, etc. as the children on board made available time to enjoy these activities very, very small -- especially on the "at sea" days where there was not much else to do. 

Although the elevators were many, they were very small and did not accommodate many people so there were long waits to catch an elevator that was not full.

We enjoyed everything about Norwegian Escape cruise. Excellence = the service on the ship, the food in all venues we ate in, and the cleanliness overall. We absolutely had no complaints about anything. Keep up the good work!

Everything was amazing during the entire trip from check in at the port of miami to the disembarkation process which is so organized. At the terminal they serve complimentary coffee, water, and juice while u wait, which was about 30 minutes. We registered the kids at the Splash Academy as soon as we boarded , which is very convenient,  the kids love the splash academy they do all types of themed activities with them , face painting, circus games, pirate day, Hollywood stars, balloon puppets,  etc. We ate at the garden cafe buffet breakfast everyday and always found tables , and we were a party of 10! You just have to look, don't be lazy! They have all types of food and different themes, asian, infian, seafood,,etc. And there are servers walking around the garden cafe taking your DRINK ORDERS as well!  There is soft serve ice cream cone machines all day and night! And hard ice cream with toppings which you may request as well. We ate at all the complimentary restaurants Manhattan, taste, o'sheehans, and Savor.  They were awesome! Yes it takes about 2 hours from start to finish, but for a group of 10 including 3 kids and drinks and 3 course meals,,I would say that's excellent!  Everyone was so friendly, there was even a wine expert who comes to the table and pairs your wine with the food. The manager at Savor came over to check if everything was ok, he even ordered dessert for the kids. On my birthday they brought a cake and sang happy birthday!  Service was exceptional everywhere we went.at the pool we never had a problem finding chairs for all of us! And we never got up early to save chairs btw. We always went out around 10am and found lounge chairs in the pool area, and bartenders going around the entire pool area.. we spent most times in the jacuzzi and they would come and take our drink orders there and keep refilling them as well. And this was with the ultimate beverage package!  Drinks were strong, there was every kind of liquor and they even suggested different drinks.there is a jacuzzi for kids and adults and another for adults only. And the main pool is for adults only until 5pm, but there is also a kids pool next to their splash area.  The water slides are awesome,  the requirements for the aquaracer and yellow slide is 40 inches and 2 people can go down at the same time, for the aqua loop slides it's 48 inches and 99 lbs minimum and 300 lbs maximum.  The aqua loop drop down slides were open every day from 10am to 6pm. There are also 2 Jacuzzis and the grotto in spice h2o which is mostly  empty in the evenings.  The sail away parties are the best, the cruise director comes out and dances with the crew and it's so fun! Our room steward was amazing.  He would put chocolates on the bed, have ice in the bucket everyday, restock everything,  and even tucked my daughter's teddy bear in her bunk bed. He even greeted us by name each time we were in the hallway.  2 of the bartenders at the pool bar were from the Epic and recognized my husband, ,even after a year! The ropes course is so thrilling and scary but fun to do, I actually walked the plank and did the zipline. We love every part of this ship, from the skyline bar,o'sheehans wings, the video arcade, food republic, the waterfront, district Brewhouse to the selfie camera stations! Lol. Our cabin was an interior for 4 people, but we only went to change for dinner and sleep, so the rest of the day we were outside,discovering and enjoying the ship. I seriously don't understand any of the negative reviews on here at all. It's a gorgeous ship with excellent food, entertainment and service.  The only ones who got a welcome back to the ship at every port were us! They had fresh beach towels, little cold washcloths with scented oil, ice water, juice and music and dancing of course waiting for us ! Oh, and at the garden cafe for breakfast as we entered, they sang and clapped and played a little guitar....it was the best "good morning" happy happy we could've ever gotten! We are Norwegians for life, as we love feeling free to dine where we please, when we want, dressed how we want! It's our vacation, and we made the most of it. Love the Escape! Sad to leave and miss it already. .

 The ship was awesome, entertainment was great, food was typical buffet style but decent, resturant food was above average and with nice relaxed setting. The only thing I would have enjoyed is broadcasting the Daytona 500 at least someplace on the ship, instead of all week long soccer ! Granted, it wasn't a deal breaker but certainly would have been nice ! I'm not a big sports fan but do enjoy watching motorsports. I wonder if they broadcast the super bowl for the football fans ? Overall we had a great vacation on the ship. Staff was friendly and ship was spotless !

The ship was absolutely beautiful and the crew outstanding!  The entertainment ( for lack of a better word) STUNK!   Both free nights in the theater had profanity that should have been left out and the After Midnight show was disgusting with nothing but sexual actions and terrible songs which I felt was unnecessary.  One of the songs was a portrayal of the sex act with no words, and that was only one of the disgusting songs.  The food was excellent, however, having to make reservations for the dining room every night was a bit much!   There was nothing for people who didn't drink or want to see shows with no character.  As I said before the ship and crew was outstanding but entainment left a lot to be desired. 

The ship was great except that it had over 4000 people on it.  This made the pool area crazy.  Not great for little kids.  Someone pooped in the pool the first day.  Getting a chair outside is impossible after 6am.  Waitstaff was hit or miss.  One waitress in one of the main dining rooms asked if my wife was having another girl.  She is not pregnant! (was wearing a ruffly sundress...)  FoodRepublic was really good though.  I wish I spent the extra money for a Disney Cruise...

Very nice boat, lots of options great food and service. Very crowed at times, the flow seemed to be contested. The pool and chairs were always an issue. There need to be a better system for get a seats by the pool. Restaurant reservations were hard to change and swap around.  We could have used more time on the islands.  

Tbe boat was new and staff was generally very accomidating. Service was good. Ship had lots to do. My two kids (age 11 and 14) spent quite a bit of time in kids clubs. They enjoyed it. Kids club for adults (Casino) was generally good. Skne people won big amounts. Food was good. Room Stewart was not as good as previous cruises. Boat hit some rough waters and there were some nights that it was really noticeable.  A bit of vibration on lower decks from enginer. I would cruise with Norweigen and on the Escape again 

I booked my cruise back in November over the phone and was told that among the amenities I would be receiving was a $100 on board credit. When I went to check while on board to verify this, I was told there wasn't a credit.  Upon returning to my cabin, I noticed at the bottom of page 2 of my receipt under details was a statement that said I needed to apply online for the credit 21 days before departure...  I have booked with other cruise sites (smartcruiser.com) and didn't have to do this-it was automatic  Neither was I told that I needed to do this.  It seems that the offer of an on board credit is in questionable "good faith" on the behalf of .  I then emailed on their website with my complaint, to which was stated that emails would be replied to within 24 hours.... that was 3 days ago....