Wonderful 10 day European cruise
Norwegian Epic Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 9
Helpful Votes: 113
10 Night Greek Isles: Santorini Mykonos & Florence (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 29, 2024
Ship: Norwegian Epic
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10120
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 19 days ago
Review summary
We thoroughly enjoyed our 10 day European cruise with the Norwegian Epic. Make sure you give yourself plenty of extra days either on the front or back end of this cruise to spend in Rome. This was a vacation of a lifetime with many lasting memories!!Embarkation
We had a 12:30 arrival time and it went smoothly
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The main dining room was fine not great. We mostly ate at the buffet for breakfast and it was the same every morning and pretty boring. I did like that they had congee on the buffet. NCL offered us 2 free restaurant options and we picked Cagneys and Moderno. Moderno and Teppanyaki should have been our first choice because they were the two best in our opinion. We did enjoy late night snacking at the Irish pub every night. For lunch we ate off the ship every day!!
Onboard Activities
We were so busy touring everyday off the ship so we did not try any of the ship activities.
Entertainment
I am giving the entertainment a five star mostly because of the show Burn the floor which was the best stage show I have ever seen on any prior cruise. Howl At The Moon for dueling pianos was absolutely fantastic. We ended up going a couple of nights because the three piano players were so entertaining and lots of fun!! We saw the Beatles band in the big Epic theater which was just ok but I think they sounded much better in their smaller room where they played most nights but due to the fact it was so small we never got in to hear them play. We all thought the magician was horrible and a waste of time!! We were not happy with the fact that for a 10 day cruise they only had one comedian on board and she only had a couple of shows that were a repeat show. We love Carnivals punchliner club where we can go and see great comedy every night with a good rotation of comedians.
Children's Programs
No children with us
Service and Staff
We read so many bad reviews prior to sailing on this ship about how unfriendly and over worked the staff was. We absolutely disagreed with this and found the staff to be exceptional and always friendly. They were such a hardworking group all around the ship. Some of them went above and beyond always with a smile on their face!! Our room steward Giri was the best!!
Ship Quality
The ship design was not great! I did not like that there were only elevators in the front and back. I missed having a great big beautiful center atrium area with glass elevators and beautiful stairways. The ship might be showing its age but it did not bother me. I found everything clean including all the bathrooms.
Cabin / Stateroom
We were all expecting our rooms to be terrible after all the horrible reviews we read prior to boarding!! I am happy to say we actually really like the room except for the short bed. My husband is 6’4 and the bed was to short for him but for me it was fine!! The mattress was to hard for our comfort. As for the bathroom layout that everyone hates so much we absolutely thought it was fine and so did our travel companions. I loved having a shower with a glass door instead of a flimsy shower curtain which never stays closed while you are showering and water gets all over the bathroom. My tall husband had plenty of headroom in this shower also!! The sink was tiny but we had lots of vanity storage around it. The room had a lot of storage. We opted for a smaller balcony but it still was larger than most ship balconies. Our room steward Giri was the best!! We told him not to bother cleaning our room a couple of days and just asked for a couple of clean towels and his little face lit up with joy!! Going forward I will continue to do this because after all I can make my own bed and if it gives the hard working room steward just a little less work then why not!! They deserve a small break from everyone!!
Ship tip
Remember you are on a vacation!! Count your blessings because not everyone is as fortunate!! If you can’t have a good time on a cruise and every thing you right is negative then you are probably a person who just can’t be pleased!!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We gave ourselves 2 extra days In Rome prior to sailing and thought it was the best part of our European trip. We should have stayed 3 days at least. We had a couple of private tours which were wonderful!! We had a private 3 hour tour of the Vatican which I highly recommend. We booked a small group private tour through Viator called Skip the line Vatican and our tour Guide Marle was the best. We also decided to book a 3 hour private golf cart tour with turtle tours. Since my husband does have some walking disadvantages this was the highlight of our entire trip!! Our guide Paulina made our trip to Rome so magical!! We got to see all of the highlights in Rome and her knowledge of Rome just amazed us!! We stayed at the Hotel Nazionale which was an exceptional 4star hotel!! We did 3 transports with Rome Cabs. Definitely use this company!!
We did the Opa tour through NCL. This tour and day was so long and exhausting. I highly would not recommend this tour for anyone with walking disabilities. They rated this tour a level two so we saw a lot of people struggling with canes and one lady with a walker and in the end other passengers had to help the lady with the walker get back to the ship, they told her it was fine to take this tour but it absolutely was not doable !! We waited about an hour and 45 minutes in a line to catch the lift back to the ship, which was exhausting after an already long day!!
We booked an outside excursion with cruise planners called exclusive Athens with free time in Plaka. This was a wonderful excursion and our tour guide was marvelous. Some of our group decided to climb the acropolis, but we decided to go to the Acropolis museum, which I highly recommend. We paid 15 euros per person.
We did book a tour through Cruise planners called Mykonos old and new. We spent too much time walking and riding on a bus around on this tour and I wish we had just stayed right there in the port because the port was beautiful with plenty of shopping and good restaurants.
We ended up walking to the downtown area, which for us was too far. We should have taken a taxi or the local bus to downtown. The downtown area was beautiful with lots of shopping and great restaurants.
This was my third favorite port . Pulling into the port was absolutely stunning with two forts on each end and so much to look at. We ended up catching a taxi right outside of the port for €50 each and our taxi driver was excellent and spoke Great English. When we got back to the port, there was so much to see and do right there at the port. The town was beautiful!!
Sicily was my second favorite city with Rome Being the first we end up booking another excursion outside of NCL with cruise planners. The tour was called, touring the cities of Castelmola and Taormina. we had a smaller bus and a smaller group so for anyone with walking disadvantages, this was a perfect excursion. The views and the cities we visited were absolutely amazing and I highly recommend this tour. Our tour guide Sofia and our driver Nino were the best.
We went with an outside excursion company called Cruise planners because we wanted to go up the Amalfi coast and this was the only excursion company we could find to take us up the coast. We were a small group of eight and we all were in a limo minivan. Time was limited so we were only able to make two stops. We choose Positano and Sorrento. Both of these cities were beautiful!!
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy
We went with an excursion with NCL called Florence on your own basically it was a bus tour to Florence and then five hours of free time right where they dropped us off in the main circle. We found a golf cart tour company and the driver took us around Florence and showed us all the highlights!! This was great choice for us!!
Disembarkation
Easy and fast
Traveler Photos
