Europe - Western Europe Cruise Reviews

We have sailed on five different Norwegian ships as well as many other cruise lines. All The crew members on the Epic were the best of the best. The concierge ( Elvina De Menezes) was the best we have ever experienced. She went way above and beyond what we expected. The Haven Suites along with all the perks made our cruise very enjoyable. We ate at a different specialty restaurant each night and loved each meal.

A friend and I sailed on the February 14 cruise to Canary Islands.  We were thrilled with our single studio cabins!  Finally, somebody is taking note of the single person who wants to travel, have privacy, and not pay double!! 

The ship was huge, but the signage good and we found our way quite easily. We especially liked the "quiet" area on  deck 18 for reading and sunning.

The food was very good....the Noodle Bar is the best in my opinion, next to Taste and then the specialty restaurants Le Bistro and Cagneys.  We noticed that the wait staff at the speciality restaurants was a bit haughty. In fact, we returned to the Bistro the last night and I specifically asked not to be assigned to a particular waiter's table...she was that bad!

The ports were just ok...That probably had more to do with the ugly, cold, rainy weather we encountered in the Canary Islands than anything else. The Moroccan tour we took was booked through the ship,.....it was fine, except for the obligatory stops at the rug shop, "spice market," and tea house.  Furthermore, our guide had a photographer along who took pictures and then tried to sell them to us on the bus on the way back!  As a result of that tour, we canceled all of our other booked tours and saw the ports on our own via Hop On/Hop Off bus. The tour situation is not good....they are much too expensive for what you get...A Hop On/Hop Off kiosk on the ship would be appreciated.

I wish that Norwegian would do more lectures on the ports we are approaching. Also, would appreciate more and better information on how far the city is from the dock, etc.  We are basically stopped at a pier and it is each for his own. I would appreciate prior information.

This was the third Norwegian cruise my friend and I have taken in the past three  years.....we return mostly because of the single cabin situation, and the family suite situation on the older ships. We also love the fact we can eat any where we want and we don't have to take an elaborate wardrobe!

All and all, a lovely, relaxing cruise.  We met people mostly from Europe.

We did enjoy our cruise but felt we had too many days at sea where NCL works hard to sell you more stuff. Food was ok except at the upscale restaurants where it was very good. Probably worth the splurge, especially the Brazilian steakhouse, Moderno. We had an excellent meal there and great service. We also loved the Cirque De Soleil show. It was incredible to be so near the performers. My husband was included in the clown show so that was fun. We recommend sitting on the main floor rather than up above in the balcony as it made us feel we were actually part of the entertainment. All of the entertainment was first class so that was a real plus. The ports were all very interesting too and we did several shore excursions which were great.

Now for the bad stuff. The state rooms are very small. Weird bathroom configurations with a pod for the toilet and another for the shower. Barely enough room in the toilet pod and it was sort of see through and not sound proof. Crowded public spaces, especially the restaurants. We always ate fairly early so didn't have too many issues but there was a long line each time we were leaving. Not a fun way to spend your vacation time. You also had to make sure you booked all of the entertainment ahead of time to be able to get into even the free shows. Service was just ok. We were in a group of six and something was always not correct with our dinners. It always got fixed but slowly. I personally would not travel on this ship again. Too big and crowded feeling and I don't like the feel of being held hostage on a traveling Las Vegas for that many days.

Excellent cruise itinerary.  NCL's Free Style cruising is very good.  Flexible dining options and casual as you choose.  The Epic is a very large ship more like a floating hotel than a grand ocean liner.  It has no open sundeck that circles the ship.  The design is more cut up, but that helps disperse the 4000+ passengers and makes it feel less crowded.  The stateroom was excellent.  Service staff is good and food is good but not "exceptional".  Overall a very good package.

While the ship was well appointed it lacked the necessary staff to properly handle the number of passengers.  In addition common spaces in lounges and bars were insufficient, despite their number, to accommodate the crowds especially in the after dinner hours.   Dining experience in the dining room was good for those of us who made our reservations in advance.  Portions were larger then those on other cruise lines although many choices were repeated.   The Garden Cafe was overcrowded and it was extremely difficult to find seating.  Entertainment was good but the variety of shows was limited.  This was our second sailing on Norwegian Cruise and doubt we would ever return again.

The cruise was excellent. The staff in terms of friendliness and attentiveness is second to none. The ship was immaculately clean. The ports were interesting (much better then the Caribbean) and the weather was in the sixties.

The ship itself was built without much thought or planning:

In the Beatle showroom there are oversized chairs for 25-30 with the other 170 people standing

The showroom seats 650 on a ship with over 4000 passengers.

The main lobby seating is totally inadequate for the events. Sit on floor or stand.

And, of course there is no bathrooms in the stateroom. There is a cubicle for washing, there is a cubicle for shower and there is a cubicle toilet.

     The food was good, better then average in the main dining rooms. The specialty menu's are to limited and needs to have some change or variation.

     The shows were very good; the Circus show was fabulous, Priscilla was excellent, as was  Burn the Floor.

Wait service in the free main dining rooms was atrocious. Wound up serving ourselves every day for almost every meal up at the Garden Café on Deck 15. Food & service there was great. Atrium & Epic Theatre are both very small. Very surprising for the size of this ship. You need to make reservations ahead of time to see the different shows each night. Inconvenient. Plus if you've already seen all the shows, there could be nights you don't see any entertainment since it's a duplicate. Especially if you're doing a back to back itinerary. If there are any free promotions & you are doing a back to back itinerary that lasts longer than 15 days, ask them what the added cruise cost would be to book the segments separately. That way you'll still get the promotion. Even upon inquiry before hand we were not offered this option & lost getting some pretty substantial freebies! We found out after the fact by the Future Cruise Team that option should have been made available to us by their Cruise Agents when we called to inquire about it. Frustrating! The TV channels are awful. Basically you see soccer, MSNBC, BBC & the same movies over & over again. And they cancelled a shore excursion without giving us any notice. We were given the tickets for the excursion in our packet but on happenstance we noticed on our onboard account you can look at from your TV a Shore Excursion Credit. When we inquired as to what that was they said "Oh yes, that shore excursion was cancelled. Would you like to book something different?"  I'm glad I didn't show up for the original one with nothing else planned. I would have been LIVID!!! Also they got rid of the Blue Man Group show & replaced it with some production Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Let's just say it's NOT family friendly & the acting was so-so. Disclaimer-They DO warn you if you're easily offended you shouldn't see the show. Then why are you having a show at 7:00pm & 9:00pm? Aren't "offensive" & "adult only" shows on at 11:00pm & later on cruise ships?!  I could have not gone & wouldn't have missed a thing. The Cirque Dreams show was very good though. But get the Premium Seats & get there very early to get a good spot! It seems NCL is creating two classes of people on this ship. The Haven Suite guests & the other people. There are sections only the Haven guests can go to including pools, restaurants & sectioned off places in the Epic Theatre. I understand Royal & Celebrity cruises also has special events & smaller lounges for their higher paying guests too but it's not as divisionary there. They still have to eat with "the little people". I did get a good price deal on this cruise & thoroughly enjoyed all the locations I was able to see but will think long & hard before I take another cruise with NCL. I'll look to see if another cruise line has the same or close itinerary in the same price range. I'm willing to pay a bit more for MUCH better food quality, entertainment & service.

Food overall was less than satisfactory...Seven dinners @ the specialty restaurants helped bail out "food deficiencies"...Entertainment was fabulous...Shows were better & longer than on most ships...The combination of cruise critic shore excursions when added to 21 straight rainless days also enhanced our cruise...In addition, the stylings of Ian West, @ Shakers piano bar helped mellow out the evenings. Being w/the Weisbergs, lifelong friends, also made this trip more memorable.

Excellent Entertainment

Liked Studio/Dining Options

Best Dining Service @ Taste/liked the Irish Pub/food

Best Service/Friendly staffs were the Hostess' at the various restaurants

Inconsistant Service throughout ship/same w/taste of food

Epic is simply larger/more expansive, but nothing unusual/different

Some venues could not accommodate passengers for such a large ship

Better services for hard of hearing, i.e. closed captioning for movies/TV

Insufficient Port Information; has postings at guest services and atrium screen, but would be nice to have PRINTED information, including getting around the port city, etc.

Overall, an excellent cruise. The Norwegian Epic, crew, food and ocean view balcony were fabulous.  We had free dining and drink cards which allowed my wife and I access to all specialty restaurants and drinks throughout the ship. The crew were always friendly and helpful. There were several excellent specialty restaurants and numerous cocktail bars to serve our needs. We took shore excursions at all ports and they were all quality.  Our ship couldn't stop at the port for the Rome visit due to rough weather and the Captain's concern over possible damage to the ship while docking. This added another day at sea (nine days total) which gave us time to read or enjoy the many activities on the ship.

The NCL Epic ship is attractive after its recent facelift. However, unfortunately, the overwhelming memory of the ship is a very negative one. The bathroom situation is utterly unacceptable. The toilet and shower are individually enclosed with a glass wall and door. You step out of both into the small room foyer entrance. There is no bathroom per se. Each component is separate. The sink is "in" the room itself.  Even though there is a cloth curtain, essentially there is zero privacy to use the toilet and shower.  This is uncomfortable and awkward if one is traveling with a friend as I was. But I was also traveling with a couple who has been together for years and they, too, were very upset about the bathroom (or lack thereof) in their room. The room also was tight due to the presence of a  large curved couch which I assume would have served as a third bed had one been needed. It was in the way and proved to make the room much too tight for 2 adult women to share, especially when one was blow drying hair or applying makeup at the small vanity area. The shows were good, especially the Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Beatles shows. The food in the specialty restaurants was very good, especially Cagnys Steakhouse. The rest of the food options were all good, standard cruise ship fare. The onboard entertainment offerings were barely satisfactory. With so much time at sea, including 3 straight days, there should have been more fun (free) options which would not have required payment. Thw lack of options drove me to spend about $500 in spa services. I understand the passenger language barrier challenges, but would have appreciated more games or entertainment options than pay-in bingo, blackjack and poker tournaments, moreover when  bingo cards were pricy at $39-59. We were unable to make our stop at Tangier due to weather, which was not NCL's fault, but many passengers were inconvenienced and no extra onboard perk was offered in exchange. The demographic was older folks, few children and virtually no 30-somethings. The passengers were mostly Russian and Asians. In short, the ship was nice, the shows and food was good, the at sea entertainment was lacking, the cabins too small even though we had a balcony, but the bathroom situation was horrible and cast a pall on the trip. I would not recommend the NCL Epic for this reason.

This ship has 4400 passengers, 1700 crew, is 19 stories and a theater that seats only 800.  That explains a lot.  They have crammed every space to put more people on board and the theaters, to bars, to dining rooms can't handle the capacity with the grace and excellence expected on a cruise.  It is TOO big and the rooms inconveniently have glass showers and toilet areas with little privacy other than a curtain rather than a bathroom enclosed area.  No bank of center elevators cause walking up to 15 to eat or down to 5/6 for dinner shop etc. a bit tough on the legs for stairs with many older passengers who needed the limited elevators.  Staff is great but the flaw lies in the design trying to put too many passengers on a big beautiful ship that the venues can't accommodate. Although have taken NCL before and may again, I will NOT ever take a ship with this design. 

The itinerary was fantastic. Tangiers was only so-so, but I got a chance to stand on the African continent. The other stops were very nice, I never took an excursion, just wandered the towns to get a local feel.

The ship itself is a marvel, with 17 decks there was plenty to see and do. I invested in the Spa package on the 1st day and it was well worth it. Sauna, hot tubs and steam rooms with plenty of places to relax and enjoy.

The food was really good, I dined in the buffet for the most part and it was very high quality for buffet dining. The specialty restaurants were good as well, especially the Brazilian steakhouse. I did feel a bit rushed at the end of my meal as I was dining alone and people came up every 2 minutes or so to ask if I needed anything else.

The studio suites are brilliant. Lots of single travelers (mostly retired) who like to have fun.

We chose this particular cruise for the destinations; Morocco and the Canary Islands were places we had not yet visited. We booked a Haven Spa suite admittedly  without fully undestanding what "spa suite" actually meant.  In my world, "suite" connotes roomy accommodations with a place (perhaps a desk) to work or at least a place to sit and relax.  In reality the spa suite consisted of a strange round bed and a jacuzzi tub at the foot of it.  There wasn't even a chair in the room (unless you count the chairs on the veranda).  The bathroom area was separated by a flimsy curtain.  Each time the toilet was used the light came on  and stayed on for several minutes--a real  annoyance in the mIddle of the night.  Our steward and butler were great; they kept our room well cleaned and stocked with Nespresso coffee.  The Nespresso coffee maker was a nice touch!

The ship itself is enormous, however there are  no real places  to sit and relax that are not connected to some sort of bar.  It is as if every square inch of the ship is devoted to accruing revenue.

The excursions were well planned and executed.  The highlight for us, the Alhambra, went off as planned and was worth the 9+ hour day.

We like the Garden Buffet very much.  The food was imaginative, plentiful and the pleasant staff worked tirelessly to keep the tables clean. The other restaurants were more average in quality and service.

We saw one show, Prscilla, Queen of the Desert and found it entertaining and very professional.

It was our first, and most likely last time taking one of the "mega-ships".  They really are just too big; we always felt a little embarrassed when returning to it at the end of an excursion.

This was our family's fifth cruise and the second one with Norwegian.  We did not like the design of the cabins with the shower on one side, the toilet on another, and the rest of the cabin separated by a curtain with the smallest sink right in front of the bed.  In one cabin the mattress smelled like piss which had to be changed.  The cabin also smelled of smoke.  As a matter of fact, the theater always smelled like smoke, when we went there for a show or to exit the ship during our tours.  Pictures with the captain was a disaster.  We were told in advance that he does not shake hands.  He not only did not shake hands, but he barely acknowledge us, he had a bad attitude.  Even my children commented on his attitude and the attitude of the rest of the staff. It was obviously that the poor customer service and bad attitude displayed by the staff was a reflection of the leadership.  We wrote a letter to them addressing all the issues we had, they sent us a poor reply only addressing the handshaking comment, indicating that it was policy for the staff not to shake hands.  This was a 30 minute photo session, it would not have killed the captain to shake hands and immediately sanitize or wash his hands after the session.  But even if he did not shake hands, he should have had a better attitude by addressing the guess who came to take pictures with him. My daughter had an appointment with the hair stylist and she was late.  We had another appointment with the photo studio and wanted to see a show, we had to change our scheduled and missed the show. The stylist barely apologized.  The service at the complementary restaurant was always slow with staff who had poor attitude.  We saw waiters picking their nose or not covering their cough.  The cruise was not what we were expecting.  All of our other cruises had happy staff who provided great service.  Our cabin attendant was the only one who provided the service we associate with cruising.  The operator always provided bad information after putting the caller on hold for a very long time each and every time.

We enjoyed the cruise on the Rotterdam.  This was the second cruise on a Holland American ship during a period of 18 months.  On the first cruise from Venice to Istanbul and back to Venice, we noticed the quality of food on the ship was not what we have always expected on Holland America.  On the last cruise, we noticed the same lack of quality.  Is this what we will be experiencing on future cruises with Holland America? 

The Norwegian Epic was an enormous cruise ship. It had 17 levels and held 4,000 passengers. The basic problem with the ship was Norwegian did not hire enough staff. The following are a few examples of my experience that back up this comment. We were 8 women traveling together. We often spent our afternoons on Deck 16 at the H20 bar. There were often 20-30 people at that bar and it was staffed with only 2 bartenders. Very rarely was anyone available to come to your table to ask if you wanted anything so you had to go to the bar and wait for at least 5-10 minutes to get a drink and longer if you wanted a frozen mixed drink. The same was true at the bar across from Sheehan's, the Irish Pub. If you wanted a drink, once again no one came to you, you had to go to the bar and wait. This bar too was very crowded so waiting 10-15 minutes could happen.

The day we were arriving in Gran Canaria, we had a confirmation that we were on a Shore Excursion, however, tickets were never delivered to our cabin. Considering that we had two days at sea and one in Morocco prior to Gran Canaria, we should have received our tickets, but we never got them. On the evening prior to arriving at Gran Canaria, I went to the Shore Excursion desk, but they were closed. So I went to the customer service desk and they advised that they couldn't do anything about it and that the Shore Excursion desk would be open at 6:00 a.m. The day we arrived at Gran Canaria. I awoke early because our excursion was to leave at 9:15 a.m. and I wanted to have the tickets prior to the shore excursion meeting time. There was no one at the Shore Excursion desk that morning and I was told to wait by the Epic theater where staff would be to assist. No one arrived until 8:30 a.m. and initially told me there was nothing they could do. Finally, someone else arrived and told me to follow him to the Shore Excursion desk. They were finally able to either print new tickets or give me the tickets they never delivered to my cabin. I do not understand how NCL could allow no one to be at the Shore Excursion Desk when Shore Excursions were happening and guests may need help or assistance.

Our cabin steward was excellent, our cabin number was 11287 and I am sorry that I cannot remember the steward's name, but it was something like Katut. Although he was very good at his job, our cabin was in great need of repairs. Our telephone did not work. Our headset did not allow us to talk to anyone and although I could hear a message, I could not call anyone back. This took 3 days to repair. On the first day at sea, I noticed that I could not change the channel on our TV. I reported this to our cabin steward and to customer service at their desk. This also took 2 days to be repaired and numerous wires had to be replaced in order for it to work. On the next to last day of the cruise, our TV and both 110 outlets died. This time our cabin steward was able to report it and it was taken care of within a few hours. NCL needed more staff working on the electrical problems as I understand there were many on board. 

For these reasons I could not rate the cruise with more than a "good" rating.

Rotterdam ship was very clean and quiet throughout the ship unlike Norwegian ships which are noisy everywhere. Staff extremely polite and anxious to please. When we booked we did not realize we would get $450 ship credit each. That $900 completely covered our daily gratuity, two tours, wine,  and a couple of watches for my wife. Nice to owe nothing at end of cruise. 

It was a very enjoyable experience and we had a great time. The crew, as with all Norwegian crews, were really great. Very helpful and enthusiastic. Would highly recommend this cruise and any on Norwegian

We enjoyed the food, all of the ports, the specialty restaurant Shanghai, the ice bar, and our steward was outstanding.  Some problem areas:  my luggage did not show up until 11:00 the first night.  We ate at the bar restaurant and finally left because of the delay in receiving our food.  There simply wasn't enough staff to handle the number of seats in the bar area.  While the staff we encountered was very helpful,  they seemed overworked.  I do not think there were enough to handle the 4100 people on the ship. The employee/guest ratio on the larger ships is much less than on the 2200 passenger ships we have used in the past.