Founded in 1966, Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), part of global cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (which also owns Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises), is the third-largest cruise line in the world in terms of cruise passengers. NCL has become well-known for its colourful ships featuring a pop-icon style painted hull.
Norwegian Escape® offers the ultimate playground at sea for all ages. Take hanging out to new heights on the ropes course and dare to walk the plank, which extends eight feet over the side of the ship.
A beautiful ship with plenty of top class entertainment and activities if you want them .
Good choices are first class and the itinerary on t hi s cruise was just what I wanted
It was largely what we were expecting - re: accommodation and entertainment. We thought the food offerings were not very good. As it was an Alaskan cruise we were expecting at least a salmon and crab evening. I thought the buffet would be a bit like the Las Vegas offerings but standard was pedestrian. However, food cooked well and presented nicely. Enjoyed being able to eat in three speciality restaurants and our favourite was the French restaurant - that we really liked. Staff on board all brilliant.
Entertainment very loud so we avoided the shows after the first night. Evening music in the main bar was excellent when it was a guy called Randon, otherwise not so good.
Port side tours were good. Organisation and communication excellent - never felt left to find out important information for ourselves - daily newspaper listing all activities. Very impressed with that.
We would probably not choose an American cruise company again. We are definitely European and our cultures seem so different!
Fantastic round trip cruise from New York up to Halifax. The entertainment was good and the cruise co-ordinator made sure everyone was having a great time. We missed the Beatles bar that Epic had and there wasn't quite the same amount of choices when it came to watching tribute bands/entertainment, but Staff were really friendly and accommodating and did their best to make our trip an enjoyable one. The stops were really interesting and we saw plenty of wildlife - would definitely go back to Boston as a separate trip too as we simply didn't have enough time to see everything. Gave us a taste of that side of America and Canada and we would definitely recommend the cruise and the location. Just booked our 4th cruise with Norwegian around the Med and back on Epic so looking to compare our last few trips and see what has changed.
British Isles, France, Netherlands and Belgium 11-night cruise
Having had more than 35 cruises across several cruise lines (including Holland-America, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, P&O, Marella and others), this for me was one of the worst.
The quality of main dining-room meals at dinner was poor with a sluggish service to match (often two-and-a-half hours for a three-course serving). So the service was so poor that towards the end of the cruise, I gave up and decided to eat in the buffet!
Very many of the on-board activities seemed aimed at extracting as much money as possible from guests.
And the entertainment was hit-and-miss. A good British magician/illusionist but a less-than-funny comedian.
Edinburgh and Dublin were good destinations, but both involved time-consuming tenders as well as transport from harbour to city centre. Docking at Belfast, too, was a bus or taxi ride from the city centre, or even the Titanic Exhibition (which was one of the highlights of the cruise for me).
Had another fantastic cruise with Norwegian, great staff, entertainment, brilliant food, with a disappointment in the Bahamas. So as typical Norwegian, staff and food fantastic, the shows are brilliant, however our 1 island stop was a disaster with everything on the Island closed for Good Friday. Everyone was boarding taxis to the town centre and getting there to find everything closed, so felt a bit of a rip off with none of the drivers saying so. Went to Norwegian's private island for the first time also which was amazing definitely would return there. All in all it was a great cruise with a great company in Norwegian.
The cruise was from Auckland to Sydney with ports in NZ and Tasmania en route. The ship itself was smaller size and older but very nicely refurbished. Weather was mainly fine en route except for 2 very rough days in the Tasman sea. I am a single traveller and the Norwegian website would not allow me to book the 3 speciality restaurants as encouraged pre embarkation. The package of Freedom at Sea was dining time and table size as required daily so there were no pre booked tables for singles. The meetings for the 35 or so sole travellers were at 5 pm every day which didn’t really suit me. Similarly the fitness classes tended to be very early morning too. The two main restaurants were fine in terms of food quality but the menu was rather repetitive. The speciality restaurants offered variety of choice. I avoided the buffet as even though staff were encouraging passengers to sanitise their hands, many just walked past and ignored them. I have been on larger ships where buffet items were served rather than hundreds of people using the utensils. The staff were invariably pleasant and helpful with the exception of some excursion staff who yelled instructions at people patronisingly and made the waiting experience needlessly stressful. My main concern was the lack of any dress code at all save that men must wear long trousers in the French restaurant.In the lounges and at dinner, many passengers had not even changed from daytime casuals and shorts ,caps and t shirts were considered acceptable. I guess this was just the wrong cruise line for me as I had made an erroneous assumption that it would be like Olsen. The vast majority of passengers were American and Canadian who perhaps prefer a more informal atmosphere. The entertainment on this American owned liner was very poor indeed to my mind though seemingly enjoyed by others. Two poorly choreographed and screechy song and dance shows plus Mr Penguin, a magician and an unfunny comedian. The lounge entertainment was dire too with the exception of Leon , an excellent young entertainer. So I chose this cruise for the itinerary but the anything goes atmosphere on board just didn’t suit me. Norwegian have some great cruise routes but the onboard experience was disappointing and I would be very hesitant to travel with NCL again.
Ship was spotless and crew were fabulous. Entertainment lacklustre, food only OK. Itinerary 8 out of ten, however port timings disappointing. Booked complete package including hotels and transfers, these were all very good. Also had more at sea which worked very well for us, very good value for money overall
This was our 5th cruise with NCL (all on different ships) and whilst we had a good time, we were slightly disappointed with the Joy. The food was not as good as we have had on previous NCL cruises and the entertainment on offer was decidedly "underwhelming"
