Our party consisted of my 21 year old, a friend of his 22, me and DH (56 and 63), my parents, both 80, and my godparents (both similar in age to my parents). We had three of the large balcony cabins (nine aft on the starboard side) with my godparents due to a last minute booking getting a regular cabin on the main balcony a few doors down. I would recommend the Starboard side on the Escape for the St. Thomas, BVI, Nassau cruise for the best views while you are in port. This worked out great for my dad and others who stayed on the ship, in particular, and was enjoyable for all of us for looking out while arriving in port.
For my immediate family DH, me, and DS, our last cruise was four years ago on Carnival out of San Juan. We also in the past 20 years have done two other Carnival Conquest class cruises.
In general we were happy with the Escape ship and the NCL cruise and found very few negatives. Although as others have pointed out for this week -- rain and rough seas for our first two days at sea are unusual and not what you would expect in March in the Caribbean. I personally would take this into account in all of the reviews you read of the Escape for the March 4th week because face it, people expect sun and great weather in March for the Caribbean and on any ship rain and rough seas are going to damper the experience. And rough seas and rain for the Caribbean in March is an outlier experience. I'm just happy that is was a big boat with quite a bit of indoor activity options and a big enough boat that no one in our party got seasick. Definitely constant rain, wind, etc. for two days at sea is not as fun as nice weather whatever the ship. At least for the second half of the cruise the weather was great.
Thumbs Up items for the Escape:
-- The area that everyone was most impressed with was entertainment and night time activities: After Midnight, the Brat Pack (Many in our party weren't expecting much out of this and were delighted with this), and Howl at the Moon were outstanding. Even our 20 somethings loved Howl at the Moon. The Frankie Valli tribute and comedian were good. // Carnival's entertainment with the exception of their excellent comedians is something you could easily skip. The NCL entertainment is definitely worth doing if you are half way inclined.
-- We were all impressed with Tyler, our cruise director. Boy he has a lot of energy. We were impressed with how with the rough seas and with the last minute change of shows -- After Midnight (a show with considerable dancing moves had to be canceled for performer safety), other enjoyable entertainment options were put in for us to enjoy at the last minute. We opted for a night at Howl at the Moon, which is a blast and an option that is enjoyable to do even for more than one night -- dueling pianos with comedy and singing along -- audience requests and favorites they regularly do -- show goes on for four hours, so come in and out.
-- Our 20 somethings were really impressed with the water slides and rope course. They also enjoyed using the hot tubs at night and met some nice people there. They did some hanging out with people they met in the karaoke club too and enjoyed the arcade quite a bit also.
-- Maybe this sounds lame, but boy did we have fun playing shuffle board on deck 7 with our 20 somethings too.
-- DH and DS in particular liked the NCL décor more than the Carnival Conquest class ship décor (perfectly fine, but purposely flashy). They liked the more subdued look of this ship.
-- DH and I loved not having to pack any formal clothing. We just threw in some jeans to wear at dinners. Refreshing and easy. We found that many guests, though, even in our own family like it when everyone has to dress up for dinner.
-- Food in general was good and service in general was good. Everyone liked the main dining rooms, and everyone went gaga for Cagneys (the steak house). We all really like Le Bistro too and that was DH's favorite (He's the foodie in our group too). Our service at the Italian restaurant La Cucina was really slow and we weren't as impressed with the food there either. With a complaint, the manager there made sure we would get free drinks at our next specialty dining place just by showing his card (none of us were on the unlimited beverage plan). We do have tons of great Italian options in our home town too. My parents and godparents for the main dining rooms and buffet complained that food was not always hot. DH, DS, and I didn't really experience that as a problem. Our 20 somethings didn't go hungry either. I saw them getting late night snacks at the buffet or O'Sheehans the 24 hour restaurant regularly. We had the free at sea promotion for dining and just did the three upcharge dinners -- Cagney's, La Cucina, and Le Bristro and other than those ate at complementary restaurants the rest of the time.
We knew these things in advance, so really can't complain but didn't like them:
-- They didn't let us open up the doors between our balconies. We had two of the cabins adjoining which was nice, though (first time for that) and we got our son a key to our room and his grandparents room to make popping in easier. I'm glad we got the larger balconies as we could get three or four out on one of our balconies at the same time for visiting which was very nice.
-- On a really big ship like this, we had to make reservations for a lot of the entertainment and for our dining when we wanted six or eight of us to eat together, even in the main dining room. That was worth doing for dining, so we never had to wait.
-- No Diet Coke or Diet Doctor Pepper for me -- can't get it on the ship and can't bring your own on. I found though that I'm not as addicted to those as I thought. And I did even break down and get Diet Pepsi (I got four of those on the cruise -- not too bad for someone who is a soft drink addict). And at two out of the three ports I enjoyed drinking Diet Coke off the boat.
-- We all to some extent missed the standard dining time in the main dining room and getting to know our wait staff.
-- DH and the 80 somethings in our group too said they loved the cruise, but would opt for a smaller ship next time. This though was the case of the 20 somethings picking the ship and inviting the rest of us along, and I think for that age group, a big ship with some of the bells and whistles is a lot of fun for them in particular.
Conclusion:
How can I possibly complain when a vacation my 21 year old wants to do happens to be a perfect choice for my 80 year old dad with more limited mobility also. Dad loves to sit out on his balcony and loves everything close due to more limited mobility (dining and entertainment). We had a lot of great extended family visiting time also.
We really enjoyed all of our Carnival cruises too. The entertainment is the main area (other than comedians - Carnival really shines with theirs) where NCL really comes out ahead. Also, for the older crowd in particular, we never have had issues with cold food on Carnival and they had some of that on this cruise. It was nice for us to try something a little different and do a different line. Variety is the spice of life sometimes.
My family is not super experienced in terms of doing lots of different cruise lines, but in general think of different experiences on different lines in general having a lot in common. My parents who have done MSC, Princess, Holland America, Carnival, and others in general think that too.