Norwegian's New Flag Ship The Escape

I recently took a cruise on Norwegian’s newest ship the Escape and while my overall experience was awesome, I think I’d like to start out with a few things that annoyed me. First the music in the atrium. It’s not that I don’t appreciate music, in fact quite the opposite. I can even appreciate loud music. I’ve seen The Who twice which at one point was dubbed the loudest concert performers of all time, to the point of causing permanent damage to Pete Townsend’s (the band’s lead guitarist) hearing but, I digress. Across from the Atrium are the Guest Relations, Excursion and Cruise Next desks. If you happen to need information from any of these while an activity is happening in the Atrium, be prepared to shout and say “I’m sorry I didn’t get that” a lot. Next, room service. Room service for almost every cruise line is complementary, but not on the Escape. There’s a $7.95 charge each time you have milk and cookies delivered to your room, or whatever your little heart desires.  While spa treatments on most cruises are extra, access to the sauna and whirlpools inside that spa area are usually free. Again NCL has chosen to add a charge for this. Prices are $54.00 a day but only on port days, or $219.00 for the week. You can purchase a balcony stateroom that has access to the spa but that comes to about the same as the $219.00 weekly charge. Access to the spa does not include extras such has stone messages or facials.  You can expect to pay more for those treatments, but in fairness, as I stated earlier that’s typical.

 

OK.  Enough with the negativity, Moriarty.  On to what I did like; which was most everything. First Embarkation; embarkation took less than an hour from arrival to the port to throwing my carry-on on to my stateroom bed. Disembarkation was equally as pleasurable. Getting off at each port was easy and well organized. Which I gotta say is pretty impressive for a ship of this size.

 

Dining.  Something I was prepared to be annoyed with, but ended up loving was Margaritaville. When the ship first set sail, Margarittaville was set up to be complementary, but after it’s transatlantic voyage, they switched it to al la carte due to long lines and wait times. The prices were extremely reasonable. Volcano Nachos are $8.00. Trust me when I say one order is plenty to satisfy at least two people. I’m not a drinker so I ordered the virgin options of their classic drinks. They comped my drinks almost every time. Thank You Joey Buffet! All of the staff were extremely knowledgeable, friendly and very approachable. This was true for the crew of the entire ship. Other than Margarittaville I only ate at one other specialty restaurant which was Teppanyaki.  The experience there was great. For a small $25.00 cover charge you get great food and entertainment. I learned the key to good food that night is there’s no such thing as too much butter. Osheehan’s, which is complementary, has some of the best buffalo wings I’ve ever tasted. The Garden Café was pretty much the same as every other cafeteria style restaurant’s on most cruise ships. While I worried about crowds, there was no problem with that.  I easily could serve myself.  The main dining again was typical of all other cruise lines. I think I ended up eating at Osheehan’s for dinner more often than the main dining areas. The only drawback is that it’s across from the Atrium so again quite loud, which made it difficult for casual conversation.

 

Entertainment.  Entertainment on this ship is top notch. I was able to attend both the Million Dollar Quartet and After Midnight. Both shows are phenomenal. All I can say is if you have the chance to see either of these productions and don’t, you are definitely doing yourself a disservice. The comedians were hilarious. I didn’t attend the adults only shows, past experience has proven that it’s not my cup of tea, but the early shows were great and fun for all ages. In the main theatre they had a viewing of Jurassic World in 3D which was enhanced by the rocking of the ship. Loved it!

 

Accommodations.  My wife and I stayed in a balcony stateroom starboard side forward. We loved the room, but there was less storage space than most cruises I’ve been on, and I didn’t like the fact that life jackets were not in the room. You know, it just bugged me a little. The chances of actually needing one is somewhere in the neighborhood of one in a million, but I just like knowing that they’re there. Friends that were cruising with us were staying in inside cabins. There’s no actual seating in those cabins, but I think that’s fairly typical. While on board we had the opportunity to sneak down into the studio section. What a brilliant idea. Not only does Norwegian provide rooms for singles, but a place for them to hang out together. Again, brilliant!

 

All in all this is a beautiful ship with tons to do. I would highly recommend this to anyone. For me NCL gets an A+.