Review: NCL Escape 6/17-6/24

[SolocruiserMA]

Hi All,

 

Here are my thoughts about the cruise. I am a 36 year old gay male professional who lives outside Boston.

 

Ship: Big, spotless, well laid out, extensive things to do, lots of small venues, good connection to the sea.

 

Cabin 5103: Tiny interior cabin, no drawers for socks etc. Far below decks, good exercise with many stairs. I chose interior rooms as I dislike light whilst sleeping.

 

Food: Some yummy suprises, one miss, café pot de crème in the Manhattan Room. Utterly revolting. La Cucina was better than I last remember, Food Republic was so good I ate there 3 lunches. Though, I was getting sick of the buffet by then as well. May have influenced my feelings a bit.

 

Venues: Brewhouse was my favorite by far, no kids and more subdued with a beautiful view. Disliked Skyline Bar, the latin trio that played there were far too loud even for this 36 year old guy. Plus there is a odor of smoke from the near by casino. I wished the FOD meetings were held elsewhere. Liked Spice H2O. No kids were great.

 

Embarkation/disembarking: Very quick and efficient. On the ship at 11:10 and self disembark at 7:50.

 

Overview: I will not sail on her again. The reason is this, I disliked the size of the ship which necessitated far too much planning on my part. The sheer number of people wanting to attend events coupled with the intimate venue sizes were not compatible. I dislike having to reserve a comedy show 4 days early just to avoid a stand by line where the vast majority of folks did not get in. I would vastly rather get there a half hour early to get a seat.

 

I will stick to the smaller ships from now on. Just my personal preference. I can see how you prefer this bigger ship if you had kids.

[JamieLogical]

I am curious how the smaller ships feel *less* crowded with people. I was on the Escape in February and the Gem earlier this month. I am not sure what capacity the ships were at, so that may have played a role. However, I had FAR more issues with late reservations and standing in line on the Gem than on the Escape. We made specialty dining reservations our first day on board and the only time slot we could get for Moderno was at 9:00 pm on Friday (we sailed on a Saturday). We had to do 5:00 reservations for La Cucina and Cagney's. We had to go in shifts to get food at the buffet because there were NEVER any tables. We'd make multiple passes up and down the whole cafe until a table freed up, one of us would grab it and hold it while the other went and got food. Then by the time the second person was back with their food, the first was already done eating. From 20-30 minutes before they opened for dinner until after 7:00 every night, there was a line out the door for Magenta, the MDR. It blocked that set of elevators, so you had to avoid that whole area around dinner time.

 

On the Escape in February, we rarely had to wait for a table at the cafe, never had to wait for a table at the MDRs, were able to make specialty dining reservations through the touch-screen kiosks without issue, and rarely ever felt"crowded" except at some of the pool deck bars at certain times of day. We did make reservations for the comedy club the second night they had a show there, because like you mentioned, the first night had a standby line.

[LrgPizza]

Oh no! That sucks about the line for comedy. We were on her a few weeks ago, never made reservations, and were never in line more than 5 minutes before getting a good seat. Maybe your comedians were better. LOL! Agree about District Brewhouse and Food Republic being favorites. It's my favorite ship so far, but I like the biggies. It's good that NCL has something for everyone. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!