7 reasons NCL Escape is one of my favourite cruise ships, and why you should cruise on her!
Before taking my first cruise, I had absolutely no idea what the cruise industry was all about. From the second I stepped onboard my first cruise ship, I completely got it, and fell in love with a new way of travelling and seeing the world. My first ever cruise was onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship - Escape - and it's an experience that I’ll always cherish. Thanks to this trip with Norwegian back in 2018, I completely fell in love with the cruise industry, and have been so excited to tell everyone EVERYTHING since (and that bring us to here, at FraserAtSea.com!).
Before I get started on the ship and also the 7 reasons I love cruising onboard NCL Escape, please do consider supporting my content creation journey by SIGNING UP to receive my FREE newsletters - you can do that by clicking here and popping your e-mail address into the box. Also, come over to YouTube and check out my channel - I’d love to have you over there, in order to continue showing you the world by sea!
Anyway, shameless plug over - let’s get started thinking about this ship!
Let’s begin by talking about the ship - she’s a beauty, isn’t she? Norwegian Escape launched to the market back in 2015, so was a fairly new ship when I first cruised on her. Infact, since launch, she’s even been refurbished. The ship was last refurbished in 2022 - to be honest, I couldn’t see a huge difference between my first experience back in 2018 and what I saw during my 2023 cruise - I’m assuming it was mostly cosmetic updates, rather than any huge onboard changes. The ship has a Gross Tonnage os 164,998, a length of 1069 feet, and has over 2,000 cabins/staterooms onboard, so by no means a small ship - infact, she’s pretty huge!
Another key point we should discuss now is the art on the outside of the ship - stunning, isn’t it? This masterpiece was painted by Guy Harvey, and is over 1,000 feet in length, going all the way from bow to stern. If you’d like to learn more about this artwork, you can do so here.
So, you know that I hold this ship close, but why? Let’s run through the 7 reasons why I love cruising on this ship, and why I think you should seriously consider her for a future cruise!
1 - It’s SO chilled onboard, thanks to NCL’s ‘Freestyle Cruising’ concept
Don’t worry - I’m not about to hit you with lots of marketing speak, but what is ‘Freestyle Cruising’? Well, NCL word this perfectly - it’s ‘cruising just the way you want it’. You can dine when you’re hungry, rather than having yourself fixed to ‘set dining times’, and you can cruise entirely on your own agenda. I love this way of cruising - yes, there’s a place in the market for the more ‘regimented’ cruise lines, but Norwegian are playing the field perfectly with the Freestyle mentality, helping cruising to appeal to a whole different audience.
Over the last few years, it’s been interesting to see other cruise lines also try and adapt to be a little more flexible. On one of my recent cruises, I was amazed to see traditional-cruise specialist Cunard offering more flexible dining options onboard - is this a sign of things to come, largely thanks to players like Norwegian Cruise Line? Well, I guess we’ll need to wait and see, but really positive for starters - well played, Norwegian!
2 - Cruising solo? On here, it’s absolutely not an issue, infact it’s a LUXURY!
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll already know that one of my biggest peeves about the cruise industry is how sub-par some of their treatment of solo travellers can be - why should someone travelling on their own have to pay the full fare (and sometimes even more) than 2 people travelling on the same ship, with the solo often in a worse cabin?! Ridiculous! Well, not on Norwegian Escape.
Not all of Norwegian ships have a solo concept quite like how it works on here (yet) but, as a solo on Escape, your Studio (solo) stateroom will be in a section of the ship that the rest of the passengers onboard can’t access - in my opinion, this already makes the experience feel so premium, with those outside trying to peer through the locked corridor door to see what’s going on inside. In this closed-off, private section, you’ll find all of the Studio staterooms, and you’ll also find the Studio Lounge. What’s this? Well, it’s a lounge (with snacks, coffee and drinks!) that can only be accessed by other solo travellers, creating an environment where it’s just not awkward at all to walk in on your own - pardon the pun, but everyone in there is in the same boat! If you would like to hear more about travelling solo with Norwegian Cruise Line onboard Escape, and also check out the Studio Lounge, you can do so in my YouTube video below!
This is my full review of taking a solo cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line.
Each time I’ve been on Escape, I’ve been a solo traveller. Their solo programme on this ship really is fantastic, with a dedicated ‘solo host’ responsible for ensuring you’re having a great cruise. You can expect organised dinners, seats at the shows, meet ups every day to check in - I’m such a HUGE fan!
3 - The food is fantastic!
I’ll always remember boarding my first cruise and unpacking my snacks into a drawer, and then getting to the end of the cruise and re-packing them to take home - I’m not sure why I thought I might need snacks on a Norwegian cruise - how wrong I was…! I’ve found the quality of food (and availability of food) to be absolutely fabulous onboard this ship, with it available for almost the whole day/night (I think it tends to stop about 3am before restarting again about 6am or so). You’re going to find it difficult to build up the feeling of hunger on here, which is great - you’re on vacation!
I sometimes read reviews of cruise line food that only cover the Speciality (pay extra) options, but I found both the ‘extra’ and the ‘included’ options on this ship to be wonderful. Two tips in particular from me - (1) you must go and try Cagney’s Steakhouse - you’ll get one of the best steakhouse experiences at sea in there - trust me, and (2) you must go and eat the chicken wings at O’Sheehan’s Bar & Grill - they were some of the best chicken wings I’ve ever eaten (and shamefully, I’ve eaten a few in my time, so would consider myself a good judge…). Here’s some pictures of both the food I enjoyed at Cagney’s, and also the amazing wings…
4. The Entertainment is always on point!
I’ve been on some ships before where I leave the room at the end of the show thinking ‘yeah, that was pretty decent for a cruise ship’, but that just simply hasn’t been the case for any of the entertainment I’ve experienced on Norwegian Escape. Ok, I’m not a huge fan of comedy clubs, so tend to not frequent that venue on here, but if we’re talking about stage shows, and other entertainment throughout the day, NCL are doing so well on here!
One key bit of advice that I would offer you is that it’s important to check, as soon as you board your cruise, which entertainment you’re going to need to book, versus which you can just turn up to if you fancy it on the night. It’s super easy to do this - I found a leaflet in the Studio Lounge after I boarded when I nipped through for a coffee, but you can also collect from the Box Office desk outside the theatre. Here’s a photo of that bit of paper, to help you understand what I’m referring to here:
This does mean that you’re going to have to be pretty organised, as you’re going to be asked on day 1 of your cruise to commit to things on days 4/5/6 etc, so it’s worth pencilling in some time to sit and review this leaflet with your travel party right after you board the ship, just incase all of your fellow passengers beat you to it!
Staying on the topic of entertainment, can we talk about stage shows? During my cruise, ‘Choir of Man’ was showing on Escape, and it was AMAZING! I love when a cruise line brings on entertainment that leaves the crowd pumped, and just allows them to have a great time - this is exactly how I’d describe this show. Top tip from me - if this show’s playing on your cruise, go there nice and early - they were inviting the audience up onto the stage for a free beer on my cruise. Who doesn’t LOVE a free drink?! To contextualise this, it’s not weird at all - the show itself is set in a bar, so it makes perfect sense to be setting the scene using beer, ha!
5 - the top deck on Escape is AMAZING!
Ok, we need to talk about the top deck on here. If you’re looking for a cruise ship with a blissfully quiet top deck area, this ship probably isn’t for you. If you’re looking for a ship with LOTS of action outside on the open decks, then keep reading! The choice of facilities up on the open decks on Escape really is fantastic - here’s what’s on offer up there, and it’s all included in your cruise fare, so you can forget about building up a really ugly bill out here - let the kids (or your ‘inner kid’…) run wild!
Ropes Course
Waterpark, including free-fall slides (yes, those terrifying ones where the floor drops from under your feet…)
Mini Golf
Swimming pools & Hot tubs
An Adult-only sun deck with water grotto
A sports court
I honestly love the top deck facilities on this ship - good luck squeezing it all into a Sea Day on here!
6 - Norwegian Escape is a great ship for both cold weather and warm weather cruising
Sometimes, it’s really clear when a cruise ship has been designed for warmer climates. You can usually tell this because, when it’s a little colder outside, the inside areas of the ship feel SO busy. I’ve often found this with some European cruise lines (I won’t name them here) - it rains outside, and the venues inside become impossible to find a seat at, as everyone’s flocked indoors. If I’m honest, this was one of my concerns before cruising onboard Escape this time - I’d only ever experienced this ship out of Miami for Caribbean cruising, so I feared that cruising out of New York City and up into Canada would mean the indoor sections would be crushed full of people if the sun wasn’t shining (which it wasn’t for a large amount of my time onboard…!
However, not the case - this ship seemed to handle crowds really well. One of the great things about this ship from the point of view of colder itineraries is that it’s got some great vantage points for views - the top deck is really tiered, so it’s easy to just jump up a deck to get a good view looking over the top of everyone, or you can head down to the Waterfront (the outdoor Promenade on Deck 8) to get an even more peaceful view of the action. I do wonder if this ship would ever do Alaska - while it’s designed differently to the likes of the Encore (the ship currently serving Alaska at the point of writing this post), I do feel it would be a strong choice.
7 - ‘Free at Sea’ makes cruising with Norwegian really transparent - no huge onboard charges!
One thing that I really hate when on holiday/vacation is counting how much money I’m spending. Obviously we need to do it (if only we had unlimited amounts of money, eh?), but I just hate it. It’s for this reason that, before I took my first cruise, I started to use all-inclusive hotels for my holidays - I love the mentality of ordering what I like, when I like, and the cost already being covered. This is where NCL’s ‘Free at Sea’ comes in.
‘Free at Sea’ is a package offered by Norwegian Cruise Line to help guests enjoy their cruise to the full - taking this package will allow you to enjoy drinks, speciality dining, excursion discounts, wi-fi and a few other perks. If you’d like to learn more about the ‘Free at Sea’ package, click on my YouTube video below, or head over to this post. Here, I discuss ways for you to spend money on your NCL cruise, and taking the ‘Free at Sea’ package is one of those ways!
Hopefully this post proves useful in helping you decide if a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line, and on Escape, would be one that you’d consider - I’m totally sold on Norwegian’s product, and I LOVE Escape as a ship. I’m always happy to answer any questions, so do come and find me on YouTube and leave a comment on a video if you’ve got anything you’d like to ask! - just search ‘Fraser at Sea’ if you haven’t already connected with me over there!
To learn more about cruising with Norwegian Cruise Line, check out my other posts on this cruise line here!