Norwegian Escape

What a wonderful cruise

One of the best cruises I have taken! The crew were amazing, looking after everyone! The buffet members were so busy and made sure everyone was well looked after!! The entertainment members under Jack Gow were great! Loved Howl at the moon! They were amazing!! Rumours was a fantastic show and Choir of Man was so very good. Loved them all! I think Jack is the best cruise director that we have had!! Randy in the savour dining room was awesome. Professional but funny! He looked after us very well. At the adult pool Mary Jane (MJ) was fantastic she made sure we were hydrated at all times! She was so pleasant and we enjoyed her company! Karl at the Atrium bar was superb! Funny and very attentive! Sammy our cabin Stewart took care of us and made sure we had everything that we needed! The entire crew on this ship are so hard working and very pleasant, always with a nice smile and a hello! The members that work the tenders are very caring and made sure everyone got off and on safely! The one thing that was missing was a place to get a coffee/tea and cookies or small pastries later in the evening. The buffet closes at 9:00 and O’Sheenan’s have dessert but not cookies or something light. We had a great time on the Escape with lots to do and lots of laughter!!

1ST transatlantic adventure NCL Escape NO REGRETS

What a great experience! We enjoyed the ship and the itinerary was exceptional. Basically, we had two vacations in one, a Mediterranean cruise and a Caribbean cruise to boot. We are transatlantic converts. You need to pay for it and go for it! No regrets. Our cabin was perfect and in the ideal location. Close to the stairs and elevator but not too close. The bed was super comfortable, the bathroom more than adequate and we didn’t even use all the storage and I am an over packer! The best parts? The live music provided daily really added value especially on sea days. We purchased the dining and booze package and while we have no regrets we wouldn’t do it again. The included food and drinks would be enough for us. We purchased the thermal spa and we’re not sure we would do it again. The Choir of Man was a highlight! The comedians were the lowlight.

Mediterranean cruise October 2024

This was my 17th cruise. Fifth on NCL. Thought maybe the ship was too big (4000) but it was ok. Loved the ship. And the staff was great too Itinerary was perfect with lots of ports to explore and excursion staff made it easy to get off on time. And our weather was perfect Ship was full but never felt too crowded Really loved Syd Norman’s pour house as the band was fantastic Music was great as was all the entertainment I loved this cruise so much I am doing a similar one on NCl next October The price was fair and excursions were $$/ pricey but worth it We did use Italy tours for 2 excursions Also you save money in airfare when starting and ending in the same city and we love Barcelona. We flew in the day before and stayed in Barcelona 3 days at the end of the cruise

One of our top 3 cruises out of more than 45!

We just returned from an excellent 10 day cruise on NCL Escape around the med sailing mainly to Italian ports but also to France, Malta & Mallorca. We booked a cruise only deal directly via NCL. We booked our own flights via BA from London Heathrow. We took an early morning flight on the day of the cruise. We got to Barcelona at around 10 30am. After a short wait at immigration, we picked up our baggage and took a taxi straight to the port. Prices are fixed at €45. We were at the port before 11.30am. Dropped off our luggage and had to queue for about 5 to 10 mins to go through security. Once that was complete, we were guided to priority queue for check-in as we are Sapphire latitude members. We got our cruise cards and were asked to board straight away. We were onboard before 12pm. Definitely one of our fastest check ins at Barcelona cruise port. Cabins were not ready as ship was being deeply sanitised due to a GI bug in the previous cruise. Hence we looked around this massive ship, had a drink by the pool bar and then went for lunch at the buffet. Food was being served (rather than self service) which we didn't mind. Lots of choice and plenty of seating as we were one of the first ones to board. After lunch we further explored this lovely ship. Most bars and restaurants were on decks 6, 7 & 8. The waterfront area with outside bars & speciality restaurants were on deck 8. This was our preferred area of the ship. Our favourite bar, Brewhouse, was on this deck as well. It served around 15 to 20 beers on tap which we hadn't seen on any NCL ship so far. Deck 7 had more bars like O'Sheehan's (which also served complimentary food all day), casino and Manhattan dining room which was our favourite main dining room. The theatre was also located on this deck Deck 6 had guest services/shore excursion/cruise next desks. Also atrium had a huge screen whereby many activities took place & films were shown. The other 2 main dining rooms were also on this deck together with other bars and venues like headliners lounge & supper club which was a complimentary venue where you could dine and see a show at the same time. However needed to be booked in advance. The top decks had a couple of pools, 4 water slides, a rope course and plenty of outdoor bars. Also, huge area to sunbathe as plenty of sunloungers everywhere. Since we had sunny warm days through out our cruise, the outdoor areas were always busy especially on days when ship departed earlier in the afternoon. Our balcony cabin was located on deck 12 which was ready around 3pm. However we didn't get our bags till after the ship had set sail around 5.30pm. Our cabin was lovely with plenty of storage and seating area. A decent size balcony and bathroom with a glass shower door which we prefer compared to shower curtain. The TV was small but adequate. As our cabin was close to aft elevators/stairs, it was easy to get to upper decks or to bars on deck 8. We usually used the stairs rather than the elevators. Our room steward, Nada, was excellent and always kept room clean and tidy. Room is only serviced once in the morning. However we often saw him servicing rooms till late in the afternoon. Apart from one day, our cabin was usually done by the time we came back from breakfast or when we got back from our excursion/time in port. As I said before, every single port day was warm and sunny despite the time of the year. Our first stop was in Cannes which was a tender port. Tendering was very efficient and organised. As we were Sapphire latitude members, we had to meet in a lounge and guided to our tender boat. We were at port in 15 to 20mins. We didn't have an excursion here and spent the day walking around in the sun around this lovely, clean city and it's beach area. There were no queues on our tender back to ship around 2pm. The next day we docked in Livorno where we were going to be overnight. On the first day we did a viator excursion to Lucca and Pisa. We had to take a shuttle to town (which costs €7 each). Don't understand why port doesn't offer free shuttles and doesn't let anyone walk around the port area so taking a shuttle was compulsory unless you did a ship shore excursion which were overpriced. Our viator tour was excellent and we paid only €35 each for a 7hr tour and they dropped us back directly to the ship. Unfortunately they are not allowed to pick up from ship. On the second day in Livorno we stayed onboard. As we didn't have a sea day on this itinerary, we decided to treat this day as our 'sea day'. We enjoyed relaxing on the open decks, using the pools, water slides, spa, etc. We had a lovely relaxing day and enjoyed ship's amenities. The day after we were in Civitavecchia. Most people did long tours to Rome but as we've been to Rome.few times before, we decided to explore Civitavecchia on foot and it was another lovely port city. Got back to ship for lunch and relaxed in afternoon. Another very warm, sunny day so spent afternoon by the pool/waterslides and also did the rope course which was excellent as it had around 3 ziplines as well. The next day we were in Naples and took a ferry to Capri. Had a lovely day taking in the views of this beautiful island which is a must see. Messina in Sicily was the next stop where we did a ship excursion which was good but in future we would prefer just exploring on our own rather than being with 50 other people on the coach. In Valetta, Malta we had another beautiful sunny day just like all the previous days. We walked around this amazing city, exploring various areas which we had never been to before. This was our 3rd visit to Valetta. We also managed to see 12pm firing of the Cannon ceremony which we hadn't seen before. The next day we docked in Cagliary in Sardinia. Once again we did a ship tour of this city. The first part of tour was great (seeing the beach, flamingoes etc.) but the walking tour during the 2nd part wasn't as good as it was a very large group and people went missing an the tour. The guide kept counting the number of people during the tour and trying to locate those missing. In future, we would rather explore on our own. The last port before returning back to Barcelona was Palma De Mallorca where we did a hop on hop off bus tour which was reasonably priced. Stopped at the cathedral and the castle which were both amazing. As our flight was later in afternoon on debarkation day, we did a ship excursion to Monteserrat in the morning which was awesome and were dropped off to Barcelona airport around 12pm. We really enjoyed all the food on the ship. We normally went for breakfast to one of the main dining rooms which had a good choice of food and generally service was quick too. Buffet breakfast was great too and had a large selection of vegetarian options however it did get very busy early mornings on this cruise as most grabbed a quick bite to eat before setting off on their long excursions. Hence we preferred to dine in one of the 2 main dining rooms which were open for breakfast. For lunch, we mainly went to buffet, twice at O'Sheehans and once at American diner. Food at all these 3 places was great. There was ample choice of vegetarian food including excellent Indian cuisine in buffet. Pizza was great too. Food in buffet was served (rather than self service) until 3 days before end of cruise. Somehow we preferred being served. O'Sheehans had limited choice of veggie food but you could ask for any sandwich or burger without meat. Same with American diner which had a veggie burger option which wasn't on their menu. For dinner, we dined mainly at Manhattan but also dined a few times at one of the smaller main dining rooms. Service was great in all but we really enjoyed the service we received in Manhattan. Although food menu is same in all 3 dining rooms, we somehow enjoyed it much more in Manhattan. The ambience of Manhattan is great too. Moreover they have a live 2 person band playing there at certain times. We also dined at 3 speciality restaurants. These were Bayamo seafood place, the French restaurant & the Italian restaurant. Food was good in all 3 places but somehow service didn't seem as good as Manhattan. In fact the French restaurant service was very slow and the wine steward seemed completely uninterested. We also once went to Supper club and although it had limited menu, we really enjoyed the food, service and entertainment on offer. Talking about entertainment. I must stress that we really enjoyed most of the entertainment on Escape. The highlight was 'Choir of men' which is an excellent show. One of the best shows on the high seas. We liked it so much that we went to see it twice. We also saw a comedian, a violinist and 3 woman British band called Divalicious (I think) who were excellent. We saw them in 3 shows including one in supper club and enjoyed each one of them. All the parties held in H20 were excellent especially the Halloween party, ABBA night and Glow party. Service was excellent everywhere and all the staff we interacted with were always courteous and happy to help. Staff in various bars (especially Brewhouse, & whiskey bar) got to know us by first names and greeted us with a smile every time we went there for a drink. As one of our latitude perks, we dined with the officers one evening and this was interesting. We dined with couple of junior officers and had a good time conversing with them. We also went for a complimentary wine tasting event which was OK. Timing was not right as it was at 2pm when ship was in port. We just made it in time for the event. On the whole we had a superb time on this amazing cruise. Everything ran like clockwork. We docked and left port according to ship schedule. We had excellent weather at all ports of call. Food and service was outstanding. This was our 12th NCL cruise and we also sailed on Prima last year which was also a brilliant ship. However, overall this was certainly our best NCL cruise. Highly recommend it!