My review on the Escape...LOTS of pictures.

My family (I’m 30, wife is 29, MIL and FIL are in their 60s and my son is 3) went on this cruise on April 30th through the 7th. First and foremost, we almost cancelled this cruise as we booked it almost a year ago, and while reading the terrible reviews we were scared. I’m glad we didn’t. Pretty much all of the bad things that we read about, we didn’t encounter. Not sure if NCL fixed these issues, or if it was just petty people that will complain about any and everything (my vote is on the latter). My wife and I travel quite often and usually travel luxuriously via credit card points and miles so we’re accustomed to a higher level of service and comfort. I was pleasantly surprised with the service on the ship. Everything was AMAZING. I honestly cannot remember a single time where I had something to legitimately complain about. Was everything absolutely perfect at all times? No, but it will never be.

Enough with my rant…on to the review!

Embarkation

We live in Miami so getting to the port was obviously much easier than most of you. We got to the port around 10:30am.

Crowd outside the terminal

We were through security and check in area and in the waiting area by 11 and were handed a tag for group 25.

 



 



 



 

The waiting area was PACKED but we were able to find some free area in another small holding area to the right.

They had refreshments (Coffee and Tea) while you waiting which was a nice choice. I didn't have any so I can't comment on the quality.

 



 

The ship is absolutely amazing! You can tell it's new. Before this cruise I was a little weary of cruising because I had been only on smaller, older (cheaper) cruises and this one has really changed my mind completely. The boat is HUGE and even though there's 5,000+ on board, I never felt crowded.

Kids club area

 



 

The room was very well appointed. As I said before, I didn't feel crowded in the room and it was very comfortable with tons of storage space. We were in room 9122, which connected to the in laws room. The room for my son to run around both rooms was great which I'm sure helped with the whole situation.

 



 



 



 



 

Random thought - The TV lineup SUCKS. I mean it's terrible. And I know, I know..."you're on a cruise, don't watch tv...blah blah blah" sometimes it's nice to just lay in bed and catch a movie or a TV show and it's pretty much impossible to do so. It's the same crappy movies and TV shows playing over and over and over.

Great photos! We were on the Escape last week and thought the cruise was Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

On to the food, which might be the most important part of the cruise.

.....Drum roll please......

It was AMAZING.

Be forewarned; I'm not a overly picky eater, but I definitely know the difference between good and bad food.

The buffet was surprisingly good, with A LOT of different options. I can't imagine somebody not being able to find something that they would like to eat.

The a la carte restaurants were great too. We had the dining package so we were able to enjoy a couple of the restaurants.

Cagney's was just OK. It wasn't bad, but it was great either. Everywhere we travel we usually go to a nice steakhouse so maybe we're a little spoiled on amazing steakhouses. Pictures to come.

The churrasqueria is a definite must. The meat was great as were the sides!

And lastly, the Teppenyaki was AMAZING. Pictures to come as well.

 



 



 



 



 

My family (I’m 30, wife is 29, MIL and FIL are in their 60s and my son is 3) went on this cruise on April 30th through the 7th. First and foremost, we almost cancelled this cruise as we booked it almost a year ago, and while reading the terrible reviews we were scared. I’m glad we didn’t. Pretty much all of the bad things that we read about, we didn’t encounter. Not sure if NCL fixed these issues, or if it was just petty people that will complain about any and everything (my vote is on the latter).

I would say it was just petty people. I was on the TA and then a B2B with one week being the same as yours. This is an awesome ship with the best crew. I had no complaints at all.

 



 



 

Here's the ONLY REAL complaint I had about the cruise. The kids food is absolute TRASH.

I know our son is in the minority, but he likes eating real food; not chicken nuggets and hot dogs. The literally do not have any 'healthy' options for kids so we were forced to order things off the adult menu and make it work for him. Like in the next picture, we got him some white rice, steam vegetables and the rotisserie chicken and he gobbled it up!