By mid-morning on Norwegian Escape, there can be several different vacations happening at once. The pool deck is busy, someone is heading to trivia or a game show, teenagers have found other teenagers, and plenty of people are doing absolutely nothing on their balconies.
That turned out to be one of the things I liked most about spending a week on the ship.
We spent seven nights on Norwegian Escape on an Eastern Caribbean cruise from Miami, with stops scheduled in Puerto Plata, St. Thomas, Tortola and Great Stirrup Cay. We had a balcony cabin and were traveling as part of a much larger group, although most days weren’t organized around keeping everyone together.
On Sea Days, there were so many activities available, sometimes it was hard to choose. You could go from breakfast to a cake decorating show (which somehow was hilarious), decide to sit outside for a while, meet someone for lunch and then discover there was a game show you wanted to see.
We did have some cell service on the ship, but we ended up borrowing a small whiteboard from a friend and put it outside our cabin so people could leave notes, or we could say where we were headed. This was a fun way to meet up with others in our group. The cabin phones and voicemail became another way to make plans.
My daughter thought this was fantastic. She’d come back to the cabin and find a message from a friend asking if she wanted to meet up to swim and then get dessert at the buffet. At one point she suggested we should get phones like that at home.
I explained that we used to have them. They’re called landlines. I also pointed out that her cell phone can technically be used to call people and leave voicemail. That apparently isn’t the same.
Dining on Norwegian Escape
One of the things I like about Norwegian Cruise Line is they have flexible dining – which they call Freestyle Dining. This means you do not have to sit at the same table in the same dining room with the same people every day at the same time for dinner. (When my best friend went on her honeymoon years ago, they went on a cruise and had to sit with strangers and she had to dress up in old bridesmaid dresses. I’m glad that isn’t the standard cruise dining set-up anymore).
For our cruise, we had two large group dining reservations together in the Manhattan room. We also had two specialty dining credits, so we reserved those restaurants ahead of time. Other than that, we left our dining options open until the day of and then decided what we felt like.
The Norwegian Escape offers quite a few complimentary dining options as well as specialty restaurants (which cost extra or can be included if you have specialty dining credits). This is where looking at the NCL app ahead of time can be helpful. Dining reservations open up months before sailing, and the most popular restaurants and times can fill up. If you really want to go to Cagney’s on departure date (for example), make sure you check the app and make a reservation as soon as you can.
We really enjoyed all of the food on our cruise. For our specialty dining, we tried Moderno, the Brazilian steakhouse. We had a group of 5 that ate together and we all enjoyed it immensely. While we were raving about all the different meats they brought to us, my sister-in-law (who doesn’t eat meat) was raving about the amazing salad bar. She was 100 percent serious.
Food Republic, an Asian Fusion restaurant, is the other specialty restaurant we tried. It was a quieter, more relaxed meal but just as memorable. It’s designed for sharing, which made it fun. This picture shows how good it was – and this was for two people!
Complimentary Dining Favorites
O’Sheehan’s Pub (Breakfast)
This became one of our go-to spots. Quick, casual and perfect for port mornings. O’Sheehan’s is open 24 hours a day, but in the evening it can get pretty crowded. I loved going there for a delicious, quiet breakfast.
American Diner
Fun diner option with great burgers. This was a really fun place to go to lunch.
Main Dining Rooms
There are three main dining rooms, all with the same menu but slightly different vibes. You can reserve ahead of time, or if you have a small group and want to walk in, you can usually be seated with no issue.
Dessert
Somewhere along the way, we got into the habit of ordering dessert at practically every meal (because why not, you’re on vacation!) and discussing which restaurant had the best one. The mint chocolate mousse and Black Forest cake were both strong contenders.
Shows, Activities and Entertainment
Entertainment was one of the biggest surprises for me. There were a lot of options, and it was good!
On our sailing, The Choir of Man was playing. I had heard it is a good broadway-style show and you should go if it’s available. I didn’t know much else about it. Our entire group of 100 people went the first time it was offered and there was so much laughter and enjoyment. When it played again a few days later, a bunch of us went again. We even waited around afterwards to get pictures with the cast.
There were also comedians, live music, game shows and activities throughout the week. One quieter afternoon we did Bamboozled, an escape-room-style activity, and unfortunately didn’t solve it. We still had fun.
Then there was Deal or No Deal. Passengers could buy cards and play along from their seats, and at one point I was one digit away from being called up to play. If I had only bought one extra card, that could have been me!
Our Favorite Port Days and Excursions
Some of the best dinner conversations happened after port days, when everyone met back on the ship and compared what they had done.
My daughter and I had gone from St. Thomas to St. John on a champagne snorkel excursion, which sounds quite sophisticated when you say it like that. There was snorkeling in clear water, time at the beach and champagne on the catamaran afterward.
There was also a champagne gun.
Apparently, nothing says elegant Caribbean sailing quite like standing on a boat while someone shoots champagne directly into your mouth.
Those port days were a big part of the week, and they’re one reason I’d research excursions before a cruise rather than waiting until I was onboard to start looking.
There were a few experiences we specifically wanted, but not every stop needed a big paid excursion. Our Puerto Plata day was intentionally simple, and hanging out at the pools and lazy river at Taino Bay ended up being one of the most relaxing days of the trip.
There’s much more to say about the excursions themselves, but that deserves its own article.
Would I Book a Balcony Again?
For a seven-night cruise, I recommend a balcony if you have room in your budget. It gives you somewhere private to sit outside with coffee, watch the ship pull into port or just get away from everything for a while. On a ship with plenty happening in the public spaces, having your own little outdoor space is nice.
Our particular cabin did come with one problem: it was above Syd Norman’s Pour House, and at night it was loud enough that we needed earplugs.
That didn’t make me regret the balcony. It made me realize that next time I’d spend more time looking at the deck plan before choosing a cabin.
Don’t just look at the cabin category or how close it is to the elevators or pool. Check what’s directly above and below it too. You can use Norwegian Escape’s deck plans to compare cabin locations.
A Few Things We Didn’t Love
No trip is perfect, and there were a couple of things worth noting:
- The main pool deck could get really crowded, and it wasn’t always easy to find a chair. No one under age 18 was allowed in the main pool, and the nearby kids pool didn’t have chairs near it.
- We missed our stop at Great Stirrup Cay due to rough swells and tender boats not being able to run. This was a big disappointment at the time. That said, Norwegian has since completed a dock at their private island, so this shouldn’t be as much of an issue going forward.
Would I choose Norwegian Escape for a Cruise?
I really enjoyed our week on the Norwegian Escape and would go again in a heartbeat. My daughter and I still talk about all the shows, the food and our days in port. Even with seven nights onboard, there were plenty of things we never got around to trying.
Interested in Booking a Cruise?
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