Norwegian Escape - ‘Oceanview with Picture Window’ Stateroom: My Tour and Review

In this post today, I’m taking you onboard one of my favourite cruise ships: Norwegian Escape, from Norwegian Cruise Line (also known as NCL for short). I’m going to be showing you around a pretty rare cabin today, and this one’s a beauty - it’s an ‘Oceanview with Picture Window’ stateroom up on Deck 10 of the ship. This was the ship that I took my first ever cruise on back in 2018 and, since then, I’ve spent HUNDREDS of nights ‘at Sea’, exploring what this fascinating industry has got to offer. If you’d like to keep in touch, then please do sign up to receive my FREE e-mail newsletters - you can do this by clicking here and popping your e-mail address into the box. Also, come and find me on YouTube - I’d love to show you so much more of the world by sea in video form over there. If you do come over to YouTube, leave me a comment on one of my videos - say hello!

In this post today, I’m going to show you around this cabin so that you can hopefully decide if this is a room you’d like to try in the future, or one that you’d rather avoid. What I will say for now - this room is DIFFERENT to so many others!

The specific room that we’re looking around today is Stateroom 10104, which can be found at the very front of the ship on the NCL Escape deck plans. This is such a key selling point for this room, but more on this shortly. This cabin is considered to be a more ‘premium’ offering than the other ‘Sail Away Oceanview’ staterooms onboard, for one main reason: the view. You’ll find this grade of cabin on Decks 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 so, while they are much rarer than most other cabin grades, quite a few do exist ship-wide, so you stand a decent chance of getting one if you’re keen!

Let’s get started by taking a look at the room itself…

This cabin is really well appointed and offers the same amenities that you’re going to find in the stanard oceanview rooms onboard this ship. However, due to cabin location, you’ve got some really nice features in here that you’re not going to see in other cabins. For example, the angled section housing the cabin TV and additional storage, and also the picture window at the front with even more storage underneath.

Beneath the window, you’re going to find a really fantastic storage area - this would be a great room for a longer cruise, as you’ve got so much storage in here! Here’s what’s going on over by the window:

Being totally honest, although this is an interesting use of space, this area really could be improved. Personally, I can’t think of anything more relaxing than this area being dressed as a window seat, and having the luxury of sitting by your window watching the waves crashing off the front of the ship. However, it’s left bare, and looks as though it would operate better as either a hard seating option, or a shelf - a bit of a missed opportunity, if you ask me!

It’s when you open the curtains (I kept them closed for most of the photos to help me with the lighting in the cabin) that you get a true appreciation of why this room is in a different category to the standard Oceanview staterooms. Here’s the view, which looks directly out over the front of the ship:

Stunning, right?! This is probably quite a useful moment to pause and talk about the cleanliness level of the windows. I’ve heard so many people complaining on cruise ships that they’ve booked a room with a window, but the window isn’t even clean. What you MUST remember is that you’re on a cruise ship in the ocean (this sounds silly, I know, but stay with me…).

This means that your windows are potentially being sprayed with salt water for hours each day, and so it’s almost impossible to keep them spotlessly clean. Yes, most cruise ships will have really strong and robust window cleaning schedules when the ship’s in port, but don’t give Guest Services a hard time because your cabin window isn’t as clean as your windows at home…!

Finally, let’s get back to the room itself and let’s check out the bathroom…

It’s a really well appointed bathroom in here, with everything you’d expect from a typical cruise ship bathroom. A few thoughts from my side:

1) The sink - it’s HUGE! I’ve been on so many cruise ships where the sink is barely large enough to properly wash your hands - not a problem at all in here!

2) The wood - this didn’t photograph too well - I can’t decide if it looks quite ‘old fashioned’ in this picture, but the wood finishing in here around the mirror area was really lovely!

3) Lighting - that huge strip light the whole length of the mirror gave off a really great light - the sort of light you wish could be on you at all times, ha!

4) The shower cubicle - in here, you’ve got a shower (with detachable head), NCL toiletries and a washing line - all pretty standard, but thumbs up from me!

5) NO SHOWER CURTAIN (great news!), but the glass screen does have a strange frosting on it - not sure why this has been done, and I’ve not seen this on any other ships…

So, that’s it - a quick look around an ‘Oceanview with Picture Window’ stateroom onboard NCL Escape. If you’ve enjoyed this post, please do check out my other NCL posts by clicking here, and also come over and support my journey by subscribing to my YouTube channel here.

Have a great day, and happy cruising!