I will start by saying the ship was absolutely beautiful and is very well maintained. The staff was mostly helpful and extremely nice. The food was about the same as we have seen on other cruise lines, nothing that stood out. That being said, there were several experiences that left me disappointed. First, Escape holds over 4,200 passengers, which made it feel like Christmas at a shopping mall most of the time. It seems that Norwegian just stacked the decks higher to fit more people but did not provide sufficient public space to accommodate those people. The pool deck was a nightmare. Unless you got there by 8am there was no way you were getting a lounge chair near the pool. You had to settle for space on the higher decks, far away from the pool, which is not very convenient for people with children. In addition, the Escape offers only one pool that is open to children, and it is the smaller of the two pools on deck. The larger, more open pool near the music is adults only. The kids pool was tiny considering there were probably over 1,000 kids on board. It is also very closed off and parents can only see their children if they stand on one side, which is also a walkway so it is a bit crazy. There are 4 waterslides, but only 2 are open to children under 100 lbs. The ropes course was great, but the line to get on took about 45 minutes. It also goes over the mini golf area, which made it hard for people to play golf because parents were walking around the course looking at their kids on the ropes. My children normally love to go to the kids club on ships but this time they did not want to go back after the first night. They said it was very chaotic and they all got separated into different areas from their friends we were travelling with even though they were the same age.

As for dining - the food was okay but the buffet was extremely crowded and frustrating. The options for the "free" food were very limited. There are at least 10-12 places you have to pay to eat in, but the only dinner choices are the main dining rooms of O'Sheehan's which were all very crowded. The staff did a good job of seating our large party on most nights, but one night at the "Taste" dining room it took us nearly 3 hours to eat dinner. 45 minutes before we got drinks and nearly 2 hours until our main course arrived. The manager said he would "take care of us" the next night but he was nowhere to be found. We were also approached by the assistant food and beverage manager one night when he overheard us talking about the poor service at dinner and promised he would "send something special to our room"....which we never received.

On other cruise lines we have been able to just show up for the entertainment and watch the shows without reservations. On Escape, you have to book ahead of time (because there are so many people), and sometimes the shows were sold out. You also needed to pay to watch some of the shows (wine lovers musical and choir of man). They also offered a lot of programs such as towel folding demonstration and cupcake decorating, but all of them were in the atrium near customer service and there was not enough space for everyone who wanted to participate. This was especially frustrating on the last sea day when it was too cold to go outside. While they did offer a few different things each hour, they were all very crowded. Read more