Norwegian Escape 7/1/18 - My review with pics

Hi all.

I recently sailed on the Norwegian Escape, July 1-8, out of NewYork to Bermuda. This was my 10th cruise, 2nd on Norwegian, 4 on Carnival and 4 on Royal Caribbean. We were a large group celebrating my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, 22 people in total.

This is my first post like this with pics, so please bear with me while I figure it all out.

Let me start by saying that I had high expectations for this cruise. I spoke to a lot of people that have sailed on the Escape and have all said wonderful things. Since I already had a Norwegian cruise undermy belt (NCL Jewel, 2011), I was aware of how freestyle dining works, I knewabout extra charges for some restaurants.

In my opinion there were more cons than pros.

Pros

Cabin was large and spacious

Drink package was worth it

Aras (from Croatia, sorry if I misspelled his name) from Cruise Staffwas great, great personality, fun to be around and he would always talk to us when he saw us around the ship

O’Sheehans – food was always good

My kids really enjoyed Splash Academy and Entourage

The ship is beautiful and clean

Cons

Food was not good unless you paid extra for a specialtyrestaurant (IMO)

Needed reservations for everything (restaurants, shows)

They did not allow gratuities to be removed from youraccount until the last day

Elevators are nearly impossible to get on, especially earlyon in the cruise

In cabin TV selection is horrible

Iconcierge app was horrible

Ship is very large and packed and you feel it. Crowded everywhere you went.

Casino was awkwardly positioned, not in its own room. Slot machines lined the hallways and youcould smell the smoke from anywhere close to the casino

Entertainment could have been better

Day 1 -Embarkation

Half of our group met at my parent’s house the morning of sailing and we had breakfast together before our mini bus arrived to take us to the pier. It was about a 45 minute ride to the pier (they live in Staten Island). Since it was 10:00 am and on a Sunday, traffic was minimal.

Our mini bus

When we arrived at the pier, the other half of our party wasat the pier waiting for us so we were all able to check in together. Since my dad was in a wheelchair and my brother gave a hefty tip to one of the porters, we were taken to a separate line and bypassed waiting. Check in for us was quick and easy. When we were all checked in we took the customary Welcome Aboard photo and were on the ship a few minutes later.

Our cabins weren’t ready yet. I was going to set up a cash account, so I needed to head to guest services, the rest of my party were hungry. I suggested that they go to the main dining room to avoid a swarm of people, but I was outvoted and told my family I would find them at the buffet when I finished with guest services. When I arrived at guest services thankfully,the line was short. A few minutes laterI handed over some cash and was on my way to meet up with everyone else to eat.

The buffet was a madhouse. There was no way that we were all going to get tables near each other, so my family was scattered. I was able to get a table near most of my family and made my way to the look at the food. It was organized as far as the stations of food. They had a station for burgers and fries (which was the most popular), salads, soups, sandwiches. I was hungry at this point so I didn’t really look what every station had to offer. I just grabbed a burger and made a small salad and headed back to my table to eat. The one thing I will say was they had a selection of burgers, not just cheeseburgers. They had a black and blue burger, cheeseburger and pulled port burger. My husband was disappointed that they didn’t have any turkey burgers available; he doesn’t eat red meat so this wasn’t appealing to him.

One additional thing I will say about the buffet, they did not change the selection. It was the same food for lunch everyday. We were tired of the same things after the second day.

While we were sitting down for lunch, we were all trying to figure out the Iconcierge app. When my brother first told me about it, I thought it was great. A perfect way for us to communicate with each other, especially since we are so many people. I spent $9.99 for my phone, my husband’s phone and my son’s phone ($30.00 in total) and was disappointed with the app from the minute we installed it. It never worked. I would send my brother a text in the morning and he would receive it in the evening. This defeated the purpose of us having the app and trying to coordinate. After the 3rd day, we gave up in trying to use the app and tried our best to let each other know where we would be. That seemed to work better than the app.

After lunch, our cabins were still not ready, so I decided that now would be a good time to register my kids for the kids club. We headed down to Deck 5 and to Splash Academy. There were a few families there but we didn’t have to wait long and registration was quick and easy. My daughter received a bracelet that she had to wear for the duration of the cruise. She is 8 so she was a Seal in Splash Academy. My son was able to get registered there as well, even though he is 13 and he would have to go to Entourage on Deck 17 for his activities.

By the time we were done with registering the kids, the announcement was made that cabins were ready. This worked out for me since my cabin was also located on Deck 5. We made our way forward and had no problem finding the cabin. This was one thing about the cruise that I really liked. My cabin (5742) was spacious for the 4 of us, plenty of room to store our suitcases. It was a bit narrow to get past the master bed, but we got used to it quickly. The kids were disappointed with the TV selection and quite frankly so was I. On our last NCL cruise, there was a dedicated channel for kids, the Escape didn’thave that. So the kids were limited with what they could watch while we were in the cabin. I know it may not sound like a big deal, but when you have kids that are waiting for you to get ready, it would be helpful if you can keep them calm by watching something they enjoy. Instead, it was hit or miss with whatever programming they were showing at the time.

I did love the bathroom in our cabin. I thought the shower/tub was great. The double sink helped a lot. I loved how modern looking it was and hadplenty of space for all of our toiletries.

Some pics of the cabin

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Thanks for taking the time to post!

It was still early and we wanted to explore the sip a bit before the muster drill. I dropped off our bags that we were carrying with our change of clothes and headed out to try to meet up with our family. We met up with everyone by the pool and walked around a bit. I will say, first look at the slides and they looked like so much fun. I had every intention of tackling the ropes course before getting on the ship, but when I finally saw it in person, I didn’t do it. The only thing my daughter wanted to do was go in the pool. I told her that we could go after the muster drill.

We walked in Headliners and saw that there was someone making restaurant reservations. When we booked our cruise, we were given 2 ‘free’ offers and we all chose 3 nights specialty dining and the unlimited drink package. My brother was able to confirm a reservation for all of us at Teppanyaki before sailing, I was able to get a reservation at La Cucina (Italian Restaurant). The one restaurant that my son and I really wanted to try was Moderno, but I wasn’t able to get a reservation before we set sail. I went in to ask if there was anything available at Moderno and was told that I could get a reservation for that evening at 7:15. Perfect. Since the dining package only applies to the first 2 passengers, I had to buy a separate package for my son since I knew he was going to eat the food at the restaurants. My daughter, who is a very picky eater, would just order off of the kids menu, I wasn’t going to spend the money for her when I know she isn’t going to eat the food. Needless to say, my son and I were very excited since this was the restaurant that we most wanted to eat in. And I know that my husband doesn’t eat red meat (it’s a personal choice, not due to an allergy or food restriction), but even he said that he would try it.

Pictures attached are of Spice H2O and the grotto in Spice H2O

We passed the art gallery and they were giving away a free work of art all you had to do was guess the cost of a painting. We submitted our guess and received a pretty picture which my daughter claimed right away.

Some additional pictures of the cabin

Somehow, we got separated from my family, but it was time toget ready for the muster drill. We headed to the cabin first, and then made our way to where we had to go. Our muster station was in the Atrium, one deck up. For a drill that had a lot of people in a single area, it was seamless and went by quickly. They do scan your card when you get to your station, I guess so they could track who shows up and who doesn’t. We made our way to a corner window and listened to instructions.

After the muster drill we walked down a floor back to our cabin. We changed into our bathing suits and headed to the pool. One thing I thought was odd, there were 2 NCL beach towels left for us to use on the bed. I thought it was odd because there were 4 of us in the cabin but only 2 towels were left. I’m sure the cabin steward knew there were 4 people in the room, and was just puzzled why we only received 2 towels. We did get 2 more towels at the towel exchange by the pool.

By the time we made it to the pool, the ship had already left the pier and was on its way to the Atlantic Ocean for a few days. My husband took the kids to the pool while I tried to take pictures as we sailed away from Manhattan, in front of the Statue of Liberty and as we passed under the Verrazano Bridge. Once we past the bridge, I was content with my pictures and made my way to the pool. I saw my husband and daughter in the pool, my son made his way to the slides. I went to go into the pool but my husband warned me that pool is deep. I’m only 5 foot 1 and I don’t know how to swim. The pool started at 5 feet and went as deep as 5 feet 7 inches. So needless to say, I never made it inside the pool. I sat and dipped my feet in the pool but was quickly getting annoyed because it seemed that everyone that was in the pool was hovering by the rails on the side of the pool where I was trying to sit. I didn’t stay by the pool for long. My daughter never wanted to go to the waterpark, which is located next to the pool in the back because it was too small. It looked ok, but to her it didn’t appeal. When I left the pool, I ran into one of my brothers and told him that I was able to get a reservation at Moderno’s for dinner that night; he said that we would just try to meet up after dinner. The rest of my family was going to go to one of the main dining rooms for dinner.

Some pictures sailing away from NYC

We stayed at the pool for a little, but I was able to convince my kids that we should go and start getting ready for dinner. When we arrived at the cabin, almost all of our suitcases were delivered. Only 1 bag was missing, but I had packed a bag with clothes for dinner so we were fine. I started to unpack the suitcasesas my kids got ready first, then my husband. I could hear my kids complaining about nothing to watch on TV as I was getting ready in the bathroom, needless to say, this was a common theme for the next 7 days.

When we were all ready we headed straight for Moderno. We were seated right away. I have never been to a Brazilian Steakhouse before. I understand how they work; I just have never been to one. We ordered some drinks and I ordered my daughters kid’s meal and went to the buffet area to start. My son was not wasting anytime with a buffet; he just wanted meat, so his card was on green from the start.

I came back to the table and was about to eat my starters,when someone appeared at the table offering filet mignon, both my son and husband took a piece, I said I would wait until I ate my appetizers.

I have to say, every piece of meat was spectacular. Perfectly cooked and delicious beyond belief. The filet mignon was our favorite, although the leg of lamb was delicious (and I have never eaten lamb before).

Desert was just as delicious. My kids stuck to plain ice cream for dessert. The entire meal was perfection. Although my card was turned on red for most of the time, when the servers would come and offer some meat to my husband or son, they would also ask me even though my card was turned to red. Most of the time, I accepted the meat and I was glad I did. I was glad that we were able to get a reservation at this restaurant, and happy that it was ion the first night. The restaurant wasn’t crowded at all. If this was how all of the food was going to be for the rest of the week, I was going to be very pleased.

More pictures from Moderno

Since our reservation was at 7:15 for dinner, there was no way we were going to make the Welcome Aboard show which was taking place at 8:00. So we dropped our daughter off at Splash Academy after dinner and then walked our son to Entourage. My family was still having dinner, so my husband and I decided that we would walk around and see more of the ship.

After walking for a bit, we ran into my family, but everyone was getting ready to go to their cabins and go to bed. My husband and I decided to stop for a drink before picking our daughter up at Splash Academy. We happen to be right by Sugarcane, so we stopped there for a drink.

It was almost 10:30 and we headed down to pick our daughter up from Splash Academy. She had fun and said she was hungry. We headed up to the buffet and saw that they have a late night selection of snacks and food that they put out. So we got her a plate of French fries and soft serve ice cream and she was happy. We had told our son to be back at the cabin by midnight. When she finished eating,we went to the cabin and discovered the towel animal that was left for us. Honestly, we weren’t really sure what it was. My daughter said it looked like apenguin, so we went with it.

Great review so far! We are on this ship in November!

following your review and loving the details:cool: u said u dropped your bags? Ive been asking if the Escape has a specific room to drop bags till cabin is ready, is this what u were able to do? also did u notice if Platinum or CAS boarded first? thx

Following, I was also on this cruise.

Day 2 – At Sea

Today was a sea day and we didn’t worry about getting up early to eat and try to find a deck chair. Instead, we slept in until we woke up. Made our way to the buffet for breakfast and found my family on Deck 19, they were able to find some chairs, not enough for everyone. I put my beach bag and towels down on a chairand put lots of sunscreen on all of us. My son and some of his cousins wanted to go on the slides, so they headed over in that direction. My daughter wanted to go back in the pool, but since it wasn’t too much fun for her yesterday since the pools were deep, my husband convinced her that they should go in the hot tub. She wasn’t a fan at first, but once she was in it, she liked it. We stayed in the hot tub for a while. We were able to watch the Mr. Sexy Legs competition from the hot tub. When we got out, we were hungry and made our way into the buffet since we were close by for lunch. Lunch at the buffet was exactly the same things as the day before. I guess that’s fine, but to be perfectly honest, the food wasn’t that great.

After lunch, we didn’t go back to the pool. Instead, there was a Family Circus event in the Atrium, we decided we would attend that. I’m glad we did it, it wasn’t crowded, we were able to get seats and the Splash Academy counselors were there teaching juggling, plate twirling, Chinese yo-yo and more. After they showed you how they do it, they invited everyone to try for themselves. It was fun.

After the Family Circus, we decided to go back to the cabin, shower and change for dinner. We weren’t going to go back to the pool so why not just change now. After we were ready, my son asked if he can go off on his own for a little. He liked this new freedom that he had where he can come and go as he pleased on the ship. We let him and gave him a time and place to meet us. Since he was going onhis own, our daughter asked if she can go to Splash Academy for a little. We dropped her off and told her we would pickher up before they closed. My husband and I stopped by the Atrium where a game of Deal or No Deal was already in progress. We stayed for a little but decided to keep exploring, we still hadn’t seen all of the ship.

We ended up on the Sports Deck since we hadn’t see the ropes course. We ran into our son who was about to tackle the course since there wasn’t a line.

Right under the ropes course is mini golf. When he came back we asked if he wanted to play a game so we did.

After mini golf, we headed back to the Atrium for Cartoon Character trivia. We didn’t do so badly,we came in 3rd place for this one.

After trivia, it was time to meet up with the rest of my family for dinner. Tonight we were eating in the Manhattan Room. Although the Manhattan Room is one of the complimentary restaurants, we did have a reservation in advance since we were a large party. We did have to wait for all of us to be present before they seated us. We were aparty of 22, but there is no table large enough to fit us all so they had 2 tables of 11 next to each other.

The restaurant was nice and our waitress was nice. But dinner took over 3 hours. No one was expecting dinner to take that long. I was speaking to a member of the cruisestaff later in the week and he told me that any party over 10, the servicetakes longer. I’m not really sure why,but this did happen each time we all ate together.

Thai Spring Rolls

Bruschetta

Vegetable Pad Thai

3 cheese bakes ziti

Almond dessert (sorry I didn't remember the name)

Boston Cream Pie

I will be on this ship in December. I really am enjoying your review and all the pictures of food and menus. Thank you.

Thank you for this great review. We'll be on the Escape in November and really appreciate all the pictures too.