First time review on NCL Escape - Sept 24 to Oct 1

Just came back from NCL Escape! I’ve been on this forum for many years, first time writing a review so please bear with me if I missed anything. Feel free to ask me any questions and hopefully I will be able to answer them as it is still fresh in my mind.

A little background about our group. We’re from Toronto, Canada, and this is our 6th cruise, first time with NCL. Sailed previously with RCL (4 times) and once with Carnival. My DH and myself are in our 30s, with 2 kids (4 and 6), along with my parents and brother. This was a birthday cruise for my DD and myself and since we have 2 small kids, most of the activities we did on board are kids related.

Pre-Cruise: Arrived in Miami on the evening of Sept 23, we booked Comfort Suite Miami North as our pre-cruise hotel. Once we got our luggage, we gave the hotel a call and they told us to go upstairs and look for the hotel shuttle. There was a lot of people also waiting for other hotel shuttles so you need to pay attention to your shuttle and flag them down. The hotel was very nice and clean, but nothing much nearby (only McDonald and Subway). The complimentary breakfast in the morning was good with eggs, sausage, cereals, yogurt, etc. One of the downside was that since we arrived late to the hotel, the free shuttle to the pier were mostly booked, only with either early or late time slot left. We decided to take the 9:45am free shuttle to the pier the next morning.

Embarkation Day: We arrived at the pier around 10am, we saw a lot of people standing in the terminal from the last sail waiting for their taxi/shuttle. Security check was a breeze and we were at the boarding area not too long after. Since we arrived so early, I believe we waited for probably 1 hour, until 11ish we finally boarded. We were probably the first group on board, the staff told us to go upstairs to Garden Café for lunch, I don’t think the dining room was open yet at that time. My parents and brother joined us later that afternoon as they flew in the day of. My first impression of the ship, everything is nice and new, but not as open and doesn’t have the wow factor as RCL, especially the Oasis Class.

Kids Program: We went to the Splash Academy to register our kids, my DD turned 4 on Embarkation Day and DS is turning 6 next month, therefore they were still in the same group (3-5 in one group and 6-9 in another group). I’m glad that they were in the same group so they can be together. I have to thank the kids program staff on such a wonderful kids program! They had different themes each day (princess/knight, pirates, jungle, glow party, kids parades, etc.) My kids asked to go back every single day! My kids had so much fun on the Escape that they said they didn’t want to go back home.

Aqua Park & Waterslides: We did the family slide many many times! It was a bit slow for the adults as my DH got stuck in the middle of the slide and had to push himself down. I absolutely loved the Aqua racer! My DD just passed the height requirement of 40” but I didn’t allow her to go on it because she was still a bit too small and would probably fall through the bottom of the float. The pool in the kids section can get crowed at times, I also saw babies with swimming diapers in the pool when they had signs that said kids who were not potty trained cannot enter. Staff did not enforce it as they clearly saw it but didn’t say anything.

Kids Rope course: There were 2 rope courses, one for kids and one for adults (more of the adults later). My kids loved the rope course. The structure wasn’t high, probably around 2 feet above ground, including many paths/obstacles and 2 ziplines. Parents will have to be inside the area to help the kids with the zipline as they need to be pushed. My kids spent a long time in this area, probably because it’s their first time doing something like this.

Adult rope course: It was very windy up there! Even for me, who’s not afraid of heights was a bit hesitant to walk over the edge as I was scare the wind might blow me away. The rope course on the Escape were like treetop trekking, including 2 ziplines going over the edge of the ship like you’re ziplining over the water. I enjoyed the rope course very much. Tip: Go towards the end of the cruise as the line and wait will be shorter.

Pool: There was only 1 tiny adult pool on the pool deck, not enough to accommodate the crowds. We didn’t spent a lot of time in this area as it was always very loud and crowed. We only went to the hot tubs for a bit after the waterslides with the kids. There were only 2 hot tubs in this area, one is adult only, therefore always filled with people.

Food/Service: We dined at all 3 dining rooms, Garden Café, O’Sheehan as well as Food Republic and Le Bristro. Food were excellent in the dining room, however service was very slow! First night we ate at Manhattan dining room and took us probably 3 hours. Tip: Tell your waiter that you need to leave by a certain time, that will move things a lot faster. We celebrated my DD and my birthday on the first night, the waiters brought out 2 cakes and sang happy birthday, my DD loved the attention and had a big smile on her face. All 3 dining rooms offer the same menu each night, however after the very slow service on the first night at Manhattan, we didn’t go back there for the rest of the cruise, we ate at Taste and Savor instead. Seafood buffet was the 2nd night of the cruise at the Garden Café, there were shrimps (lots of shrimps), clams, mussels, not much other seafood selections. The crepe section at the buffet is a must, very yummy! O’Sheehan’s wings and nachos are very good, I tried all their flavours and they’re all very good. This is a good place for a late lunch or late night snacks, looking down at the atrium for some game shows. All you can eat prime rib was on 2 or 3 nights at O’Sheehan. Since we were craving for sushi, we went to Food Republic one evening to snack before going to dinner. Their portion was small and meant to be shared, we ordered spicy tuna roll, California roll, ramen, soba and grilled squid, all very yummy! My DS was especially impressed with the California roll we had to place an extra order for him. Lastly, Le Bistro was a disappointment, food was just average but probably we had high expectation since this is a specialty restaurant. We will probably not going to go back to Le Bistro on our future sailings.

Stateroom: We had a mid-ship balcony room 10216, just a couple rooms away from my parents. Very convenient as my kids can go over to the grandparents easily. Since our kids are still small, we told our room steward no need to pull down the bed from the ceiling. Our DD co slept with us and DS slept on the sofa bed. I walk passed a few rooms with the ceiling bed down, the railing of the bed doesn’t go all the way around the bed, it might be dangerous for small kids. As for our room steward, my comments were that we had better ones on RCL. We did not get to know our room steward that much, he didn’t come over to introduce himself. Unlike RCL, we chatted with our room steward, knew where he/she from, with more interpersonal relationship. We usually tip additional to our room steward, but not this time. There were 2 days he took our beach towels and forgot to leave us new ones, we had to call customer service, also was rushed out of our room on debarkation day because he needed to clean our room for the next sail.

There was one small thing that I’m not impressed about NCL, although it was small but they should have done it better. On the way walking out the ship in St. Thomas, there was a dolphin mascot at the exit, my kids ran to take pictures with it, however they only allowed pictures from the ship photographer, as soon as I took out my camera to snap some photos, the dolphin turned its body, put down its head and ran away. I thought it was just coincidence but it happened to all the parents who wants to take pictures of their kids! I understand that the cruise line wants you to buy their photos, but it doesn’t have to be that obvious! It kind of pissed me off that we were here on vacation and this dolphin turned its back on us when my kids just wanted to take a photo.

Overall we enjoyed this cruise on NCL Escape and already put down 2 deposits for Cruise Next. We’ll sail again in a year or 2!

Thank you for your review! I will be sailing on the Escape soon and appreciate your comments about your trip.

In cabin 10216 was the bed by the balcony, or by the closet?

In cabin 10216 was the bed by the balcony, or by the closet?

The bed is by the balcony, the sofa is by the closet.

Thanks for the reply☺

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Thanks for the feedback.