Norwegian Escape Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Just returned from the NCL Escape and Eastern Caribbean stops.  This was an amazing trip - both the new ship and itinerary.  The Escape was everything expected - Best Ropes course on sea, best waterslides on the sea, the SPA was ultra amazing, great food and entertainment - always plenty to do.  The stops at Tortola, St. Thomas, and Nassau were top notch.  Wish we had more time in Torlola with the selected excursion.  But overall - one the best cruises I've been out of 17.  Would do this again!

loved the ship except for the smoke, which permeated throughout the floors.  The crew was wonderfully accomadating to those who spent The Chanukkah celebration away from the family,  Kudos to the Chef for providing matzah alps for dinner.

The ship and the food were great. We love deck 8 the waterfront deck. There was never a problem finding a chair, either by the pool or in the cafe. The staff were wonderful. This was our 21st cruise and we love NCL.

Food in the buffet is awesome!  The balcony was the right size to sit and relax if there was a lounge chair a nice nap would have been wonderful with the sea breeze.  I love to cruise with NCL everyone is very accommodating

This was mine and my significant others first cruise. I was very impressed by the size of the ship, the size of my room including balcony (much larger bathrooms than other cruise ships), and the ability to explore the whole ship whenever you wanted to. I didn't know what to expect other than the fact that I was going to have a great vacation no matter what. 

Let's talk about some of the positives first...

Food. Dining rooms were great! Cagney's (a la carte) was amazing and the service was good throughout all of the dining rooms including Taste, Savor, and the Manhattan Room. Freestyle dining was great too. Come to think about it, I would never want to sit at the same table with the same people like other cruise lines since you might get complainers, who act as a rain cloud on a blue sky day. I am not a big fan of buffets, so I always hated making my way up to the 16th deck for that headache. Now if buffets are your thing, then you will be all set. One thing to be aware of. The hours for breakfast and lunch for the waitstaff dining are only available for about 2 hours. 

Rooms. We had a stateroom with a balcony on the 13th floor. It was even better than what we expected. The room didn't feel cramp at all. A balcony you could actually walk around on with 2 chairs and a table to admire the great view. The bathroom was much larger than I expected. I thought it was going to be a toliet/sink/shower all cramped together, but you had plenty of elbow space and a nice sink with room to store all your personal needs. The closet was decent sized and we were provided 20 hangers which was great. Staff made sure room was clean and ready every day.

Activities. Ship had tons of stuff to do. So much, that we didn't get a chance to do everything! After Midnight and Million Dollar Quartet were amazing. Water slides were fun. Howl at the Moon was just as great on this ship as it is on land (and not as raunchy. Think more like JellyRolls at Disney). Brewhouse is a great place to unwind at the end of a long day too. Better half says the Mojito Bar (Mango) was the best drink on the ship. No matter your age, there is always something to do. The excursions were great! The sail and snorkel on St. Thomas (that takes you to St. Johns) is well worth the money. That crew was fun to be with.

Packages. IF YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE ONE THING AWAY FROM READING THIS REVIEW IT'S THIS...PURCHASE AS MANY PACKAGES AS POSSIBLE!!! We had the drink package which is well worth it if you are going to have more than 4 drinks a day. Drinks range from $8-$12 for normal, well drinks so it's much easier to just take that out of the equation. We also purchased a dining package for 3 specialty restaurants which was worth it. Cagney's is worth 2 trips alone. If you want to use the spa, buy the package! Since so many patrons buy the all-week spa package, they only offered individual spa packages on days that we were in port. IF YOU PLAN ON GOING TO THE SPA, BUY THE WEEKLY PACKAGE! Plus it's worth it. Very relaxing and quiet.

Now some items that need some love...

Pool area. 4000 cruisers. 1 tiny pool. If spending time by a pool is a major thing for you, I would recommend NOT going on this cruise ship. Yes they have 4 hot tubs (1 kids only), but the whole pool area is a free-for-all cluster-bleep. Chairs are stacked millimeters from each other, and basically on top of each other, 1 bar that is extremely busy so waiting for drinks takes time, and located right next to the buffet. 

Location of shops/restaurants. I don't think they thought out some of the placements of things. For example, we ate at La Cucina (which was great), a nice, sit-down, upscale setting. Right next door is the 5 o'clock Somewhere Bar, which has karaoke and loud patrons. Not exactly the ying and yang combo you're looking for. The casino is just a mess. I love to gamble, but the whole casino is smoking, and the smoke leaves the casino into other places (such as O'Shehans and La Bistro to name a few). Table games have a higher minimum then I'm use to, and the casino staff wasn't too friendly. Many of them didn't even say hi to you let alone try and make small talk.

Staff. Not impressed. I worked in customer service for over 12 years including Walt Disney World and Universal Studios which specialize in outstanding customer service. I wasn't expected to be pampered, or being wow'd, but I would have just like standard service. Most of the staff doesn't know anything except the area they are assigned to work. Not a lot of smiles. Bartenders were 50/50. Some were good. Some were lousy. When at dinner, better order more than 1 drink because once you order the first time, you won't see a drink server again during your meal. Some were complaining how much they had to work, etc. The entertainers were all great, but most of the other staff seemed miserable most of the time. 

We upgraded 2 days before our cruise date. We got our paperwork from you, . We received the the wrong cabin key cards. It took us 2 days to get our certificates for the dining and laundry. We had a hard time getting reservations for dining. It took us 4 days before we got our bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. We talked to them every night. Other than those problems, we had a great time. We loved the comedy shows, the howl in the moon, and the Million Dollar Quartet.

The Escape is a beautiful ship but has some issues to work out. The food was great-beautiful presentation and tasted fantastic.

At times I thought there could have been more crew to help out in dining rooms. The ones there seemed overtaxed. 

The shows we saw were all very good. The reservation system left a lot to be desired. I also don't like the idea of charging for shows. Seems to be a new trend of charging for every little thing.

internet was slow but haven't found a ship with good internet yet. You use all your minutes up waiting for it to work.

i loved the whole Waterfront concept. It was a great area to find a quiet spot to read or nap.

It was just OK.

Everything's Extra. Drink package, extra... Dining Package, extra... Shows, extra, even a behind the scenes ship tour, extra... If you have the dining package, good luck! Reservations were booked up on day one. If you eat after 9PM, good luck, everything closes by then except for buffett. No matter what time we ate, the service was just horrible. It took forever to get drinks, food, even butter!

Lines everywhere. With a ship this big, and full to capacity there's lines everywhere. Lines to bathrooms, bars, dinner, lunches, buffet, pool chairs, towel exchange, etc...LINES!!! You want to attend the comedy club, well you will be standing outside because it's full. You want to watch the "main event" in the Atrium, good luck they brought out a ton of chairs and it's still full.  I don't think they realized how popular some things were going to be (new voyage) and were underprepared for the number of people. I'm sure this will work it's way out as they get more comfortable with how this large ship functions.  

Elevators...wow, you'll see what I mean if you are on the ship. They just don't work. You wait forever for an elevator. Half are parked on different floors, others just are slow. You stop at EVERY floor up and down. The only time you don't have to wait is at 3am. They have 8 forward and 8 aft, but look at which floors they go to. Some go down to four, others stop at five, some go up to 16, others go up to 20, pay attention! It took me a few days to realize that you need to walk to EVERY button and press up or down to call ALL of them, not just the one you pressed. Holding the floor, or close, or both doesn't work, sorry.

Bathroom placement, wow this didn't make a whole lot of sense. The bathroom locations were so confusing. In the casino, walk a mile down to go the closest bathroom. Up at Margaritaville, walk to a single handicap bathroom, or around the corner for a tiny bathroom by the pool, or downstairs for a larger one. Just very strange where they were and how to get to them. 

The crew was friendly when walking around, but many bartenders acted like they were doing you a favor. The drink package says two drinks per person, but they kept asking for everyone's card! Made no sense if you ordered two drinks. They can't leave the tab open either. Every time they have to re-swipe your card, so it took even longer to wait for them to run the card, and return it. Highly inefficient.  Mixed drinks were too inconsistent to be "Super".  Some missing ingredients, some proportions wrong, some too strong (not a bad thing) some to weak. Some bars had some beers, others didn't. That's the other thing, some bars weren't included in the drink package. It's so confusing!

I thought NCL was known for their towel animals. I only had two in the seven days.  When I came into my cabin they were worth it, they even went as far as to put my sunglasses on the penguin. But would have been so much better coming in to different animals every day. One of the couples we went with didn't get any, and the others had to ask but only received on the last day. 

They had a lot of do! Activities and events planned from 8am to 9pm. After 9pm the ship just dies. If you are a party animal or want to stay out late, you have two, maybe three bars, and the casino. That's it. The "Spice H20" bar is adults only, until 6pm and then turns into a kids hangout. The Irish pub is open 24/7 but with a limited menu after midnight, and the bar  DOES close for a few hours into the wee morning.  The "primetime" shows they put on the Atrium were the highlight of the cruise. They had gameshows that really brought the crowd together. Highly entertaining and funny! Just show up around five to get your seat for the 8:30 show.

A day is barely enough to see the destinations, let alone a half day. You need more time, but i guess you are aware of the half days when booking the cruse. Our excursion in St. Thomas was canceled and no one told us. We stood around for an hour waiting for them to assist. No one knew what was going on and it was just so un organized. We had to go back on the ship just for them to tell us, sorry beach closed. Very frustrating, and they should have given a discount on another excursion, due to their lack of communication and a waste of our precious time.

As i said before it was just OK. Nothing stood out as AMAZING! Would probably go for a smaller ship next cruse to get a more personal feeling. And bring your dramamine! Fresh out of port the ship was "rocking" so bad that there was a mad rush to the store for drugs and wristbands.  

Also worth noting prices on liquor in duty free cheaper in St. Thomas.

This ship  an amazing  layout with many options for all well into the night .  The food at the buffet was great bit the other four included  restaurants had a limited menu . The food was good but got boring after day 5. Recommend purchases the two dining package prior . St. Thomas is  useless if you do not book a ship excursion but the other ports had lots to offer the non commuted travelers . Virgin gorda baths were amazing . I have been on three other norweigan cruises and a few other lines . This ship was the best by far . It is large so a bit more rocky .... Load up on anti nauseant cures . All in all a trip worth every penny . 

My wife and I were not happy with "anytime dining" There were lines, each time we sat by ourselves. We prefer eating with other passengers, young or old.  The food was not to my taste.  No shrimp cocktail, filet mignon, french onion soup, chicken noodle soup, hot apple pie or peach cobbler. Overall the food was no good. I was annoyed that I had to show my keycard to enter the dining rooms did they think I was a stowaway  The room seemed small for a balcony maybe because the bathroom was larger than normal.  All the staff we met were polite, attentive and very helpful. The ship was clean, attractive. Not enough Las Vegas style entertainment. We are done with NCL

We loved the brand new ship.  This was our first Noregian cruise, but definitely not our last.  Freestyle dining is fantastic.  Even with such a large amount of passengers, it never felt crowded at any venue. Will definitely recommend Norwegian cruises to anyone that will listen!

This is the first time traveling with Norwegian Cruise Line. My prior knowledge of the cruise line was the obvious: freestyle dining. I also considered Norwegian to be one of the higher end cruise lines.

The ship was beautiful inside. It was different than I had anticipated, but still nice. The technology on board was very fascinating. The Food Republic restaurant was incredible with the iPad ordering system.

I was not impressed with the amount of mistakes that staff were making when it came to customer service. I was celebrating an anniversary and had ordered the anniversary package. Upon returning to the room, we found Happy Birthday decorations. The issue was resolved in a friendly manner, however, the initial surprise was ruined. We had also bought special glow cups at the glow party only to return to the room the next day and find housekeeping had thrown them out.

The freestyle was nice, however, it took at least an hour and a half every night for dinner to be served in its entirety. There was a lot of waiting for the food to arrive.

Overall, the ship is very nice. It has many features such as the ropes course and brewery as well as the wine cellar that help take away from the poor order of the inaugural sailings.

First time on Norwegian. Cabins and bath nice and roomy. Lots of storage and cubbies. Very nice view from balcony.

Crew was friendly, but didn't interact with anyone more than once it seemed. Food at MDR was great. Could have skipped the special restaurants. We ate at all of them. Had the unlimited drinks, worked out good for us. No hassle at all using it at all.

Were traveling with our grown son's family. Thought they were lacking in kids activities. Watching kids in playscape was difficult and their pool was a joke and unsafe. Leaving the ship on the last day was a nightmare. Not sure we would return. 

Was not impressed.  Dining rooms were way understaffed.  Even though we had great waiters they were unable to do it all. Needed busboys and bar service staff.  Most people had the UBP and there was vitually no service on Deck 17. I didn't go on a cruise to have to stand in line at a crowded bar in the pool area to get my own drinks. One small adult pool for a ship the size of the Escape was inadequate.  Placement of deck chairs was extremely crowded. I have been on 23 cruises in the past on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Carnival, Cunard and the SS Norway and would rate all of those cruises way above this one. Not a fan of Freestyle. I prefer to see people appropriately dressed for dinner.  Slacks and collared shirts for men not shorts & tees.

I heard lots of people that had cruised on other NCL ships complain about the Escape. Even some of the crew was disappointed. I doubt that I would ever book another NCL cruise. Poor value for the money I spent. 

This ship is incredible, I think NCL has it right with the design of the ship. No feeling of crowding at all, even with over 4,000 passengers, the Waterfront is a great idea, brings things out to the ocean, like a boardwalk. The restaurant choices are very diverse, and all are fantastic, but be sure to book early to avoid disappointment. Lots of onboard activities, different bars, Comedy Club, many different shows. Rooms are very quiet and the ship is very smooth, lots of areas to explore, and then you start to really understand how big this ship really is. There was some confusion on the size of some of the beds, and the suites all DO have King size beds, and it's good to note that the Mini Suites do have the spa shower and large bathroom with double sinks. 

Let me first start out by saying that the ship was absolutely incredible.  The staff could not have been more accommodating and friendly.  The shows were very well done and thoroughly enjoyable. The food was outstanding even at the included restaurants.  Wine, the Musical was a very clever take on a wine tasting.  Now for the downside.  I thought I booked the dining package and confirmed said purchase 3 days before departure with our travel agent.  She told me that everything was set to go.  Upon going to our first reservation at Cagney's I was told that the reservation was not paid for.  After much going back and forth I called our travel agent and she again confirmed that we had the dining package. She was to get in touch with Norwegian and get back to us to rectify the problem.  She never got back to us and we checked with guest services daily to clear up the misunderstanding.  They told us that she never got in touch with them and that we had no dining package.  Again I tried to call her but got a recording.  Explaining my dilemma and the fact that we ended up having to pay for our dinner our La Cucina, I continued to wait for a response.  None was ever received.  Upon returning home, I called her again and she finally returned my call.  I explained my frustration and asked her to resolve the situation.  She told me she would get in touch with Norwegian to find out what happened and would get back to me some time that day.  I waited 2 days and still did not receive a callback. I again called to find out the status of our problem. Again she said she would call me back is 5 minutes.  Two days later I still have not heard a word. I am very surprised by this lack of consideration on  part because the agent appeared very friendly and competent while I was making all the arrangements.  I am very disappointed in the handling of this matter and feel that should have a better handle on  customer complaints particularly during the actual cruise.

 Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The New Norwegian Escape is a beautiful ship.  The food and choices were plentiful!  The fine dining were the best!  The Casino was huge for a cruise ship.........and the entertainment was very good!

There was not enough space as well as a lack of seating to accommodate all of the people who wished to see the show in the atrium. The location isn't ideal either because it is the main walking space for people to pass through to go to anywhere else on the ship. The servers in the dining room were very slow and they didn't come around often enough to see if patrons needed anything else or if they required another meal/beverage. On a more positive note, Veronica in Guest Services was very accommodating when people in our party needed to change rooms. She was able to find a room that was perfect for them. The ship as well as our rooms were very clean and the housekeeping staff was keen to anything that we may have requested in our room.

They charge extra for everything once on board: yoga, spinning, shows, games, behind scenes tour.

It was massively crowded, the rope course and water slides were closed more times than open; when they did open the lines were over an hour long.

The arcade games started at $1.25, bowling $5/ per game - per person.    they charge for pool and darts also. 

They advertised a $20 bingo game -- when we got there it was $40-$60 and that $20 was only for the very last game. 

Dining and excursions were sold out before the 1st day on the cruise - something they do not mention on the site - so book everything before you go - and book it quickly.

the service staff were all very nice, polite, hard workers, and we saw them not only hussling, but I also saw SEVERAL keeping their cool at irate passengers.  Because - there were many upset passengers.     So while the staff did an excellent job - they were not staffed appropriately, and that resulted in LONG WAITS for service.   long.   10-15 minutes before a server even came to your table.  

I was and was with first time cruisers - so I do take ownership that some of this was us not knowing "how to" cruise.     Regardless, the extra costs were just above and beyond what I find reasonable.  I feel NCL should be more informative of what you should expect; mention everything sells out before the first day, list the extra costs as well.   

We did do the research prior, but the information was not out there.  I don't feel NCL is up front about the costs, and that is the biggest disappointment as you cannot prepare.