Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

I did not enjoy this cruise.  The Epic is a poorly designed ship.  I admire NCL's attempt to think outside of the box, and certain features were well-designed.  For instance, I liked the open atrium area, along with the "lookout" point over it from the Irish pub, as well as the waterslides.  The flip side is that there is very little space on the upper decks for passengers.  My favorite parts of a ship are usually the outside decks on the bow and stern, but on Epic, these are not available.  Most of the bow is reserved for "Haven" customers (with the exception of the fully-enclosed buffet area), and the stern is blocked by a giant movie screen.  Other puzzling elements are the two-story window looking over the stern in Manhattan dining room, the bathrooms overlooking the water on the pool deck, and the insufficient number of elevators (8) for a ship holding 4000 people.

Other than the design of the ship, I give the crew credit for trying to manage the ship at full capacity, though the hostesses at the main dining rooms require a serious attitude adjustment.  Even then, many crew members (e.g., bartenders) seemed listless and disinterested in serving passengers. Few crew members seemed interested in doing more than the minimum amount of work.  "Average" was the best we could expect, though I recognize they aren't used to dealing with ships at full capacity.

This is my third cruise with NCL, so I know they can do better; otherwise, it would definitely be my last NCL cruise. 

holds too many passengers for the size of its facilities. Everything seemed crowded. Couldn't walk anywhere without shoulder to shoulder crowds. The elevators were the worst. There were not nearly enough of them. We had wait times of 5-10 minutes each time we needed one. Also the elevators were only located fore and aft none midship so it was a long walk from almost all cabins to get anywhere. 

No gorgeous stepping lobby, but plenty card game tables, good theater, good foods restourants (except Japanese Teppan & Sushi, Chinese) 

The ship too big it is easy for finding out the ship where located in the harbour.

But the most impressive thing, still Spain.is Marine Kingdom in the Mediterranean and Spanish Islands, they have big enough port faclity for this big ship.

 This was the first visit to this country, my image in my brain, it's for bull fighting and Don Quixote, that was nonsence. every anchorages looked like Wikiki Oahu, newer big glass buildings and palm tree roads, except Tangier Morocco.

At Chiristmas, New year season, majority were Spanish + Portugal speaking people, over 2000/4100.(capacity 4200), the entertaiment manager Jill (Edinbourgh born lady said), she speaks Spanish. Everlasting spring Canary Islands、you need swim suits and T-shirts.

Booked this cruise for a holiday family vacation. Booked everything from the actual cruise, to flights, airport transportation, and shore excursions through Norwegian. Needless to say that this was not an inexpensive vacation. 

When we arrived at Barcelona the airline did not bring four of six luggages from Miami. Although, it was the airline who did not physically place the luggages on the plane, I did no business with the airline and Norwegian should have more control of making sure luggages get to the city of port. Four people boarded the cruise chip with no clothes.

When we went to guest services, they refused to take any responsibility and offered $200 onboard credit. $200 for four people/ 3 room reservations. We had no other choice but to purchase clothes at the gift shop. As if the fact that they carry no real variety of clothes, any decent sweaters for the cold, and no undergarments, a shirt was approx. $80 and pants no less than $120. Norwegian refused to give us anything other than $200 onboard credit for the entire cruise for four people without luggage. 

When I asked what the policy was for lost luggage and onboard credit, they said it was $200 per room/reservation. When I explained that we had 3 staterooms, Aminta, the guest services manager, said that she would have to get back to me. After chasing for her, she said we were not applicable because we had only made 1 bag claim (well, of course why complicate things and make 1 instead of 4). 

I had to cancel shore excursions because my grandfather did not receive his medication and could not walk anywhere due to heart problems. In addition, he was feeling short of breath and we had to visit the medical center on board. After explaining the situation, they still charged us with the consultation and cost of medication. 

I spent more time at the guest services desk than anywhere else on the cruise. The staff did not seem to make our serious luggage problem a priority. We had to check in regularly to make sure they would reach out to the airline/airport to check on the status of our luggages. 

After four days without any clothing, we received our luggages to find out one was still missing. I called Tamera De Beer, one of the guest services coordinator, to find out Norwegian had been giving the airport/airline the wrong information about the last luggage. One person did not have luggage all cruise long because of the incompetence of the Norwegian's staff. 

In addition, reserving specialty restaurants was impossible. We managed to get one dinner at 5:30 PM and not at the restaurant of choice. Restaurant service was poor, even when the restaurant was not at maximum capacity. 

Overall, the worst cruising experience I have had. 

The Viking Star and Crew make it difficult to return to the other cruise line venues. The accommodations are superb, meal presentation excellent, and the crew and staff pamper the traveler. 

The only issue that we had was due to conflict on Corsica which was beyond the control of the cruise line.  As a result, we did not travel to Corsica which forced us to have to visit a port and city that we had seen before.  It was unfortunate but unavoidable.

The rest of the cruise was amazing and we will are already in contact with Viking regarding our next cruise.  

I was disappointed.

1. The food was sub par

2. Main option other than assigned dinning was the buffet on 1 floor. This made it entirely too busy & crowded.

3. The worst was the miss marketing by MSC. They made it seem as the ONLY options for the Barcelona & Marseille was from MSC & charged 8.90€ for adults & 5.60€ kids for Barcelona, 15€ & 8€ for Marseille JUST for the bus ride off the boat. The FAILED to mention less than a mile from Port in BOTH cases there was FREE transport from Marseille & 3€in Barcelona. I spoke to several people who didn't want to spend the extra 50-100$ to leave the boat.

4. The customer service from the service desk was terrible!

I will say the waiters & cabin attendantS were wonderful

Beautiful ship

BUT

Sorry MSC epic fail

From the booking experience to the disembarkation, it was difficult not to be disappointed with this trip. MSC does not allow electronic tickets to be printed if booked from elsewhere and if I wasn't a frequent cruiser, I would not have contacted for my tickets. (I shouldn't had have to!!). Embarkation stated 3pm, however, we could have boarded much sooner. Our first excursion was cancelled and I wouldn't have found out until the morning of if I didn't check on my tickets. (cancelled for lack of English speaking passengers) We booked yacht club suite tickets and we encountered to most rude staff at the concierges desk that we could imagine. 98% of the passengers were from Europe and this is who they cater to. We booked an excursion at every port and most were huge disappointments. Palermo, Genoa and most of Rome are not worth getting off the ship for. Malta, Barcelona and France were nice. Italy for the most part is in decay and resembles Greece. Food from the Yacht club private restaurant was hit or miss and the regular buffet is terrible . The casino staff was great, however, if you play table games, you are in for a big disappointment. Very limited selection of games and only a few tables... all in all, we would never take this cruise again and certainly not with MSC.

This was our first cruise in a long time - we really enjoyed it.  The staff was very friendly and they understood English.  The staterooms were very comfortable and well-kept.  We slept well!  We had perfect weather and calm seas! The ship had many activities for our family of four to choose from and the nightly shows were outstanding.  The food was varied and phenomenal at all meals.  We loved the multiple courses at dinner! I am perplexed at the low reviews on the food.  I will say a couple of tips - wait until you are on the boat to decide if you want to purchase a drink package. There are more options offered after you are underway.  (Without a package, you do have to pay for drinks - specifically, soda at lunch and all drinks at dinner.) We did get a drink package and thoroughly enjoyed trying all the different coffees, the chocolate bar, and the alcoholic drinks.  Also wait until on board to decide on excursions because more options are offered on board than on the web.  But, even so, the cruise excursions are expensive, compared to what you can arrange on your own at the ports. As to internet, plan on not having it.  The ship provides it but for a fee that you won't want to pay.  Finally, if you take a Christmas cruise, be aware that where ever you stop on 25 Dec, the monuments you want to see will likely be closed.  So, for example, we docked in Athens on 25 Dec and the Acropolis was closed.

The ship was awesome, food was fair and staff was ok (some great, others were sad). My issues were that I was now "obligated" to pay gratuities (or service fees....whatever they wish to call the fees) based on NCL's formula and new rate of $13.50 per day/per person. And I had no idea they wouldn't adjust this on the ship anymore (must send in a form and wait two weeks to get a refund). I prefer to provide such gratuities on MY OWN terms. To make matters worse they charged me twice for my room...so, now I have over $400 held up days before Christmas! In addition, $8.95 for room service at any time of day?? NCL has gotten ridiculously greedy and I think I've sailed my final trip with them. By the way, I've called twice and waited over 30 minutes for nothing- guess I'm not the only pissed customer! 

no good  I buy the ticket . U sale said I had $ 50. in ship credit. but on the ship me and my friend did had  why?  If u did this I can buy the ticket in Vacation to go or u did not say any think

I read a lot of bad reviews about this ship and about Vikings Ocean, but I think Viking was paying attention and they did a wonderful job in this 14 day cruise. The service was as expected from Vikings: Excellent. The ship is beautiful, and very comfortable. We are more interested on the shore excursions than the nightly entertainment, so for us the shows and port talks were good. Regarding the shore excursions the included are mainly a bus ride and a walking tour of the town, with some free time. The optional that we did were great, well organized and very interesting. We did not encounter large crowds anywhere because of the time of the year we went, which made the whole experience great. The food is amazing, the only restaurant that we personally did not like was the Chef's Table, but the rest were great. We were upgraded to a penthouse, but other than a free minibar, I think all the cabins are great. The bed was very good, enough space for all our clothes and more, the bathroom was large enough for both of us to be there. We are even thinking to book another ocean cruise with Vikings again.

The Mediterranean Cruises was excellent. I was jus disappointed from all the deception by Norwegian on the promotions from the website. I was suppose to get this or that promotions plus the on board credits. But it's all lies, I didn't get any. I've already planning on taking two more cruises next year. I guest, I'll look for a different cruise line.

as far as the actual trip was concerned it was wonderful. we spent quality time together and my teenage boys had the best European experience. the ports of call were amazing and we did everything on our bucket list. however the ship itself was a little bit of a disappointment. we didn't find it to be very flowing and/or accommodating. the staterooms were way to small and not set up in the most comfortable way. the reservations for shows were a total inconvenience. the food was not up to par compared to other cruise lines we have traveled with. all in all,the time spent with our loved ones outweighed the inconvenience of the actual ship but unfortunately when when we cruise again I think I will opt for another cruise line instead of NCL. 

This Norwegian ship is different with another cruise ship: We  don't like to register the show that we want to see. Another cruise ship didn't require that, first come first serve, we realized because the Epic theater is small, only has one level.

But the shows were interesting.

If no other option we would travel ncl again.  But rooms are so tiny.  Shop hard to navigate.  Only way is if we get ultimate meal package included so that we could get a decent meal. Service horrible.  They try to get you to tip very frequently.  Prepayment your tips. Theses pets are beautiful so we are glad we went but not alot of other options for this region. Carnival the best. 

We had built up quite an expectation and excitement as we learned more about the ship. We should have picked up on the push towards buying into the specialty restaurants. The complementary food was disappointing, with the focus on quantity not quality. The free food areas also closed early, except for one restaurant, O'Sheehan's., but the menu was the same every night so it got boring. If you want anything else, there's the room service, but you'll be charged for most items (except for basic continental breakfast items) plus a delivery charge of $7.95 on top of the typical 18% gratuity and other fees. The service was lackluster in both main dining rooms from the hostesses and the wait staff. I think a hostess smiled once or twice, but aside from the perfunctory "Good evening," they usually had quite a scowl. One hostess at O'Sheehan's completely ignored my daughter for several minutes even though she stood slightly to the left of the check-in podium. Once done with the previous customer, she immediately addressed the couple behind her. It took a few seconds of awkward eye contact between my daughter and the other couple, before the hostess even bothered to acknowledge my daughter without so much as an apology.  A couple more visits later resulted in not correctly delivering items ordered, denying they were ever ordered. Going to the complementary restaurants do not evoke any pleasant feelings. There was an evening when they seated my family of five at a table only to be told we had to move because no waiter was scheduled to serve that table. Weird, but okay so we moved. A few minutes after got reseated, we saw another group get seated to our old table, and was promptly serviced. The wait times between our courses got so bad that my granddaughter started running the stopwatch on her phone. Average wait time between appetizers to main course and main course to desserts were 23 minutes.  You do get what you pay for. I hope the specialty restaurants had better service at least. 

My daughter who is great finding deals could not be convinced to participate in the future cruise promotion they run, which she even admitted was a good deal. Our bad experience left such a bad taste that she's not willing to take an NCL cruise again in the near future. She says Carnival has better service and food for even lower prices, but she's willing to spend more with Princess or Royal Caribbean  in order to avoid NCL. 

The ports of call were definitely the highlight of the cruise along with the entertainment staff at Burn the Floor, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Cirque. Kudos to the entertainment staff! 

I enjoyed the cruise.  I wasn't very pleased with the placement of my room - I didn't realize that my room fronted the Spa stairwell - the room was dusty and did not improve - the food in the main dining hall was inedible - we chose to eat at the restaurants with the Moderno being our top choice.  We ate there 3 out of the seven nights.  The only thing I intensely disliked was the fact that you were requested to pay $15 for the shuttle or take a taxi which is what we opted to do.  Other than that I highly recommend this cruise.

Overall the ship is very nice and the entertainment was amazing.  The different locations were great.  The staff on the other hand were rude and obnoxious.

To me, the Epic is one of the worst looking cruise ships afloat. But once on board, her inner beauty really shines. Everywhere we went, the ship was clean and well maintained. The staff is one of the most friendly we have ever experienced. 

Dining: 

We had the ultimate dining package, so we ate dinner in specialty restaurants every night, except for Embarkation Day.

On Embarkation Day we went to O'Sheehan's for the Prime Rib dinner, and it was great. A nice sized portion, and very tasty. 

For Specialty Restaurants, we visited Cagney's twice, La Cucina, Le Bistro, Moderno, and Teppanyaki once each. At every one of them, the food and service was excellent.

We ate Breakfast in Taste 3 times, and every time something was messed up. Either our order was made incorrectly, or something was forgotten.

The Garden Buffet is just what you would expect from a buffet, long lines, food selections that get old after the second time there, food quality that is fair to good, and very hard to find a seat.

O'Sheehan's was hit or miss. We ate there 4 times total. The food was good, but the service was lacking. For instance, we never had an occasion where the waitstaff came by to ask if we needed our drinks re-filled. They sometimes seemed disinterested in what they were doing.

Entertainment:

The only stage show we watched was Priscilla, and it wasn't very good. The music was the best part. The story line, at times, was hard to follow, and the choreography was only fair.

The rest of the entertainment was pretty good. Using the Atrium as a venue for some of the game shows, like The Perfect Couple, didn't work real well. There isn't enough seats, and some of the sight lines are pretty bad. The Epic Theater would be a better choice. For something like Deal Or No Deal or Bingo, where you only need to be able to see the big screen, it works quite well. 

Having the stand up comedian in Headliners is perfect. It's just like going to a local Comedy Club at home. There isn't a bad seat in the house, and being close to the performer makes the experience more intimate and enjoyable.

Some of the traditional shows like Not So Newlywed Game and Quest weren't even scheduled, and sorely missed.

The Epic Casino is very nice. Plenty of tables and laid out quite well. The staff is very friendly and professional. Unlike what many people complain about in reviews, we did not notice any problem with cigarette smoke. It was practically non-existent.

Itinerary:

This cruise is very port intensive, with only one sea day. In Palma there really isn't much to see or do. In my opinion, they could skip the Palma stop, and have another Sea Day after Civitavecchia, or spend a second day in port, as there is way more to see in Rome than you can cover in one day. The rest of the ports are great.

I gave an overall score of very good instead of excellent  because of the cabin layout, the missing shows, and the problems with Taste.