My View: NCL Escape - Did she top the charts?

We just returned from a great week on Norwegian Escape as our last summer fling before school starts. Since there are currently many excellent reviews in progress regarding this ship, I will try to keep this one relatively “short and sweet” for those who just want the nitty gritty. After the summary, I will elaborate with "too many” pictures. I will also try to throw in some tips (highlighted in red) that we picked up on our cruise, as well as from other reviews on Cruise Critic.

As always, it is with great regret that my cruise countdown now says:

So, I will answer the question from my title in this post so that I don’t hold anyone hostage with my review :D

Norwegian Escape really surprised us and definitely became one of our top 3 cruise experiences (21 cruises down… MANY more to go). I have to specify that I refer to “cruise experiences”, not cruise ships. As far as ship build and layout, Escape is probably in 5th or 6th place, as there are a few things we just did not care for, and the staff can not do much to change these.

First, the positives that stood out:

For cruise experiences, Oasis and Allure are still in the lead for us, but Escape did exceed those two ships in two areas:

1. The buffet restaurant:

The Garden Café, by far, exceeds other cruise ships we have experienced (inlcluding ships from Costa, Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean). Not only is the layout much better planned than on other ships, the food was of excellent quality and variety. You can actually find great tasting veggies and tender meat every day. We truly did not find anything in the Garden Café that we did not like, or that was not cooked to perfection. My favorite was the ‘crêpe station’ treat, which I enjoyed almost every night. The hours of the Garden Café were also very accommodating, as it stayed open until 9:30 at night. Early morning, there was always a small selection of continental breakfast items, if you are an early riser.

2. The live entertainment quality:

The Norwegian Entertainment group has a knack for finding true musical talent (not just “singers" who can belt it out on stage). Most of the musicians on Escape were highly professional, with excellent singing voices, intonation, and true interpretation of the songs. Most of them had the ‘it’ factor. We LOVED “Port Royal” and "Dualing Pianos", and enjoyed the bands in the Manhattan Dining Room.

The staff on Escape went out of their way to make this a fantastic cruise experience. Most crew members were also very accommodating and friendly. Our Cruise Critic meet and greet started off uniquely, with staff members mingling with the individuals attending, making sure we were enjoying our cruise, and asking us to let them know if there was anything they could do to make our cruise experience better. I could also tell they were sincere. When I post pictures of them later, you will see the genuine smiles of people who seem to enjoy their jobs. Jovo (pronounced "Hovo") does an excellent job as hotel director, and gave us special treats during the week. He has a mailbox, (will post a picture later), for any individual to contact him on the ship. He really wants to make sure every cruiser has a voice.

The only negatives on this cruise are primarily related to the ship layout. Some of these have been mentioned many times over on these boards:

1. Small pools (main pool measures around 29 feet by 15 feet - as measured with my flop-flops in a somewhat scientific attempt) - only one pool where kids can swim.

2. No direct view of the water from the balconies (looking down onto the waterfront roof and then the lifeboats).

This is a view from our balcony - 10882:

3. Constant smell of stale smoke, especially in the area of La Cucina, Le Bistro, the shops, and the beautiful chandellier. We did find an area in the atrium where it was not that bad, and enjoyed the atrium entertainment from the far corner by the windows (adjacent to the coffee shop).

4. The walls are thin! For the first time, we could hear our neighbors and people talking in the hallway...and we were not in a connecting stateroom. Our neighbors were not even exceptionally loud, but I could clearly hear them at times - word for word. It only bothered us the last night, when people tend to "party" to enjoy their last night. The other nights, noise was minimal during sleeping hours.

5. There is a little room for improvement in the Garden Café regarding the lines. Since there are plates at both sides of the serving stations, the lines were very confusing. This was especially a problem when lining up for omelettes and crêpes. There really should be a sign and arrow, saying “line starts here”, or a sign to say the line always goes ‘clockwise’ (or something like that). Although ‘clockwise’ can be quite confusing if you don’t have ‘port and starboard’ straight :D

Some other things we loved:

The ropes course

The slides (especially the one with tubes)

The real Andes minty chocolate for Latitudes (Wow! No cheap inedible imitation fake)

O’Sheehan’s Pub

Unique activities (like learning to make balloon animals, painting shirts for glow party)

Washy-washy-entertainment (you had to be there)

Sinks by the Garden Café with great soap (the hand sanitizer had a strong chemical smell which put me off my meals, so I just used the sinks)

Variety of free restaurant choices

Great desserts (contrary to many reviews I read) - I will elaborate on food in the rest of the review

Creative minigolf course

Excellent customer service at the guest services desk

Supper Club (Great meal) with "Oh, what a night!"

NCL APP (Norwegian iConcierge) works with free wifi

The hairdryer... more about that later

Will we cruise Escape again? If the price is right, absolutely! We got this cruise on a last minute deal, booking a “guarantee” balcony. We were very happy with our assigned location! Regular prices for next summer are too high for this ship in our opinion, but if we get another last minute deal, we will cruise Escape again. For us, a deal on this ship would constitute a total price under $3,000 for 3 in a balcony (taxes included).

That is my review in-a-nutshell. This is the end for the speed-readers who are not interested in pictures and details. :)

For those who want to know-it-all, this was the teaser for what is to come during this next week. I will be back tomorrow with details.

 

2. No direct view of the water from the balconies (looking down onto the waterfront roof and then the lifeboats).

 

This is a view from our balcony - 10882:

 

 

 

 

That photo!!

Full Definition of vujàdé: a feeling that one has seen or heard something before, albeit under the influence during an aimless wander.

Thanks, tagging along.

I'll be tagging along to help get through the next three weeks.

We are under 90 days now for our next Escape! When we returned from our January cruise we immediately booked the next one. Looking forward to the rest of your review and pictures. Thank you:D

2. No direct view of the water from the balconies (looking down onto the waterfront roof and then the lifeboats).

There are other balconies for that such as the ones on deck 8 Forward.

5. There is a little room for improvement in the Garden Café regarding the lines. Since there are plates at both sides of the serving stations, the lines were very confusing. This was especially a problem when lining up for omelettes and crêpes. There really should be a sign and arrow, saying “line starts here”, or a sign to say the line always goes ‘clockwise’ (or something like that). Although ‘clockwise’ can be quite confusing if you don’t have ‘port and starboard’ straight :D

It's meant to be more "hit and run" style. People dip in, grab what they want, and zip out. There isn't really a line except for the "made to order" items.

Awesome review

Loving the style

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Keeping my fingers crossed that the "details" include the Dallies. Would love to see updated Dallies...were sailing on Escape 10/22...can't get enough details!

Love your reviews! Can't wait for more!

Looking forward to this review! It will be our first time on the escape and we are booked in 10882, so particularly interested in your cabin review and thoughts on location. Not sure how I fell about that downward view from the balcony - thoughts?

Keeping my fingers crossed that the "details" include the Dallies. Would love to see updated Dallies...were sailing on Escape 10/22...can't get enough details!

Me too. I'm sailing 9/24 and would love to see some newer dailies.

Nice review!

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Looking forward to this review! It will be our first time on the escape and we are booked in 10882' date=' so particularly interested in your cabin review and thoughts on location. Not sure how I fell about that downward view from the balcony - thoughts?[/quote']

 

The view was only a bit of a surprise the first day. We quickly got used to it and enjoyed the view the rest of the cruise. It is not that bothersome at all. We definitely prefer aft cabins, but this ship price range was a bit high, so we took the guarantee. I will post cabin pictures and comments tonight. :)

Thanks to all who are reading along, and for the kind comments! I do have the Freestyle Dailies, and will add those - hopefully by Saturday. I will continue the review later this afternoon.

First Day: Miami

We had a very easy drive to port, since we spent our week before the cruise at a resort in Weston. When we did our online check-in, DH got 11 a.m. as arrival time. During the process, all those slots disappeared, so DS and I got 12:30. We figured they would not turn anyone away at the port, so we just showed up early. We got to the port right at 11:00, dropped off the luggage and parked in the parking garage. Due to many mixed reviews about off site parking, we opted for the convenience of port parking this time.

We were assigned Terminal C. I read many negative reviews about this terminal, but did not experience anything negative about the terminal itself.

Tip: Remember to check your boarding pass. There are two terminals assigned to Escape - you will have either B or C. Be sure to show up at the right one :)

A first glimpse of the ship and terminal C:

Security was a breeze. We walked straight to the check-in counter, received our keys, “cheesed” for the pics, and got our assigned embarkation card (Group 22). We were called to board at 11:46 and boarding was overall a breeze:

A very nice surprise is that we were on a new Latitudes level this time! We did not know, since I did not keep track of NCL points. We only had 2 prior cruises on NCL Dawn (one was 11 nights).

Tip: If you are on a Latitudes level that gets a ship pin, be sure to pick it up at the Next Cruise desk. Our first NCL pin:

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

At check-in, we were handed this helpful guide, including tips about the ship. Now, the fish on the carpet did not help me at all. These carpets are only in the hallways where the staterooms are. If you are turned around in a public area, there are no fishy carpets. I did get turned around quite a bit the first few days, since this ship was very new to me. We have been on RCI ships of similar classes for the past 5 cruises, so I had to get used to a whole new layout and signage.

Tip: This ship does have the touch screens to find locations, but not locations that are closed. For example, I had to hightail it from line dancing to the Cruise Critic meet and greet. When I tried to find Cagney’s on the touch screen, it did not show up under dining, as it was closed at that time. I used the old-fasioned deckplans by the elevators to find Cagney’s.

We opted for lunch at O’Sheehans, since DH had a craving for the Rueben (Tip: Ask for extra sauce on the side). I had the shepherd’s pie and DS enjoyed a burger.

While on the topic of O’Sheehans, this was one of our favorite places to grab a snack or a quick lunch. We had one breakfast here, but it was a bit limited (still adequate). Some menu items were hit or miss. The shepherd’s pie was excellent 2 of 3 times I tried it. A third time, it was just okay. I read that the nachos with spinach and artichoke dip was very runny. However, ours was excellent. So, you may hit or miss a good day on any of the menu items. Don't try something you love only once - it may just have been an off day. The apple pie was the only really bad dessert I had on the ship. It was more like an apple gel with very little crumb/crust topping.

Here are some of the menu items from O’Sheehans:

Shepherd’s pie:

Nachos with spinach/artichoke dip:

Chipotle Chicken Sandwich (excellent if you like spicy):

Chicken Fajitas (Also delicious):

Coney Island:

Chicken wings: DS had every kind they offer, and decided Jamaican Jerk was his favorite.

On that mouthwatering note... I have to go cook dinner. I will be back much later tonight (I have a go-kart date with DH).

I forgot to mention: I work between my computer and my iPad on Tapatalk, so I have to edit my posts to add the red color for the tips. (Just in case I forget to highlight the tips).

Thanks to all of you who are tagging along.

I'm cruising NCL Getaway this coming January, and I love reading everything I can find about NCL, as it is our first time cruising that line. I can't wait to read more on your review!

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Following along. Thanks so much for taking time to post. Looking forward to more and glad to hear you have dailies.

Great review do far,can't wait to go in October

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Glad to see some new followers!

Continuing day 1:

After lunch, made a quick stop at the Box Office to add any reservations we could not make before the cruise. There were several shows that had been added, and we especially wanted to add the Supper Club free show (Oh, what a night!). However, there was a long line at the box office and they had just announced rooms were ready. We therefore looked into the Norwegian iConcierge app to make our reservations. The App was not recognizing us as being on the ship yet. We were able to connect to the NCL free wifi to use the app:

I will post more screen shots of the app at the end of the review for anyone who is interested in more detail. When we were finally recognized as being onboard by the app, we were able to make reservations for other shows right there - no need to wait in the line for the box office.

Just tap on the three lines at the top left, and choose Entertainment:

Choose your event and time, and it will add your reservation:

TIP: Make your reservations on the app within the first 24 hours on the ship. Many shows become fully booked with a standby line only. Most shows are free, but there are some that you have to pay for. We only did some of the free shows.

You can also book excursions on the app, and see the Freestyle Daily on the app. Here are a few activities from the Freestyle Daily, as listed in the app:

A tip I forgot to mention earlier, is that we always take a picture of every suitcase we plan to check in. That way we have a picture, should one get lost. Let's go see if our luggage arrived yet...