Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

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.

Stopped at the leaving for airport because of account balance ( credit card was supposed to be linked)  Stateroom key card not working, it took long time and many calls to get fixed. Medical center staff behave careless once visit for kids bumping in head at pool.

Norwegian Epic is probably one of the best choices a person can make for a cruise on the Mediterranean sea. Everything is super, service, entertainment, interior, cabin, everything is perfect. Very very large ship and this freestyle cruise is a very good concept. 

I didn't think the food was as good as the cruise I went on many years ago, but having choices was awesome, the staff was mostly attentive, appreciated the spa and relaxing especially in the hot saunas and steam rooms!  The shore excursions were excellent, had a few better guides than others but overall really good.  I don't like the 18-21% increase but realize that's what comes with it.  Enjoyed the activities, watching or participating, wish it was warmer for the pool activities but still tried it and was a blast!  ( I dont have pictures downloaded yet to send)  Thank you! 

Everyone onboard and associated with NCL was friendly and helpful. The entertainment was exceptional! We even went to some of the shows twice. We saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Burn the Floor (twice), Cirque de Dreams, Graffiti Classics (excellent), Howl at the Moon (3 nights), and several other musical groups. We found "Taste" restaurant to have best quality and service; wish we would have gone there more. O'Sheehan's food was good but service was very, very slow. We would have loved to see more dancing (professional and amateur) especially in Atrium area. 

The room was nice-size was average. Nicely quiet and the bed was comfortable. 

The excursions were exceptional! We had excellent tour guides and were thrilled with everything we did and saw. We took the excursions "Pisa and Florence on your own", "Monaco and "Monte Carlo", and "Capri, Sorrento, and Pompeii". You don't get to pick your tour guide, but if you get Claudio in Naples (Napoli) you will be in for an educational and fascinating day of some of the most beautiful cities in Italy! 

Unfortunately, our trip even included a visit to the medical facilities (medical issue), but even there, we were seen quickly and appropriately, and the staff was very friendly and professional. 

Overall, when it was time to leave, we couldn't wait to talk about what our next NCL cruise would be! 

As usual it was very nice cruise with NCL. It the 5th time cruising on NCL. The only negative was that shows were repeated but other venues were offering very good entertainment.

The ship itinerary  was amazing . The ship was beautiful, clean. The staff professional ,friendly and helpful . The  food and specialty restaurants were excellent. The only negative was missing not being able to see the last port .

Having done 6 cruises in the past, one of them being with NCL (Hawaii), This was the second to last in overall experience. The ship, although reasonable new, was tacky and the food not really great. Also, the whole Freestyle cruising thing was too casual, border lining a Cancun resort, with too much salsa music going on for an European cruise destination.

I will go back to Royal Caribbean. Sorry NCL.

Overall just average. There were some good and some not so good things about this cruise. The ship is very large and overall nice. It holds 4,100 passengers. The not so good:  The elevators. The elevators do not accommodate the number of passengers and during busy times, generally two are not working. We spent a lot of time waiting for elevators and then only to find them too crowded to enter.  

The shows were wonderful, but you have to get reservations in advance and thus can't really "plan as you go", so much for freestyle cruising. If you don't have reservations, you can generally get in, but must wait in a long line.

The food was pretty good, except at the Garden Cafe Buffet. The up-charge meals were good and the general dining rooms had good food and OK service. The buffet food was not good.

Most of the service staff were good and friendly, but overall there seems to be a bit of a morale problem.

There was always a line for the Service Desk.

I don't think I would go on a ship this large again with so many people. It just didn't provide the atmosphere I enjoy on a cruise ship.

We booked our cruise with very short notice. was a great avenue to get fantastic savings on our cruise. Harry Kroll was EXTREMELY helpful as I have never been to Europe. He was able to provide the guidance that I needed to assure a great trip. I would certainly book again with and Harry Kroll. The cruise itself was AMAZING! We have been on a total of 4 cruises and I would put Norwegian Cruise Lines at the top of the list with Disney Cruise Lines on the lines that we have been on. Both my wife and I enjoy drinking adult beverages :) and we loved the beverage package. I automatically thought that we were going to be limited to the house offering of liquor, but no, we were able to upgrade to top shelf liquor and it was included in the package. In fact, I tried to exceed the limit in many cases, but couldn't do it. I definitely recommend , Harry Kroll and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

We loved all aspects of the cruise.  The ports were great except Palma Majorca. We love NCL and love the service and attitude of the employees.  Their shore excursion pricing is outrageous.

We have done many cruises... and our intent on this trip was to see places and things we had never seen.  The ship was a great way to briefly touch the various ports, cities and sites. The food, entertainment and quality of the ship was very good.  We were happy with the service and the quality.

Our room was very small with a balcony. This did not matter so much to us. We stay in the room only to sleep and dress for our next event. The bathrooms have little privacy ( sliding frosted glass doors).

This was very intense trip for us as we booked a tour at every port. Yes, the tours were very expensive... but we decided it was our best option.   Other people that have been to some cities had other means to get around.  One advantage of the NCL tours was that we had reservations at places like the Vatican and could almost walk right in... the general public was lined up for blocks. 

The excursions were well organized and we felt safe ... (not knowing how to find these attractions)  For many of the sites there was an hour just in 1 way travel... The quality varied depending on tour guides, their accents and our ability to hear/understand over the portable radios. 

We are very pleased with our experience and are taking some down time to recuperate from our vacation! 

everybody had a nice experience, great cruise we had fun nice staff, food was great, entertainment show was great, italy france spain wereallnice places

Took a group 0f 11 people, including 2 first time cruisers and with the recent upgrading of the Epic, we found ourselves spending many evenings at the Cavern, which showcased the Beatles. We saw all 4 shows with a different set the first 3 shows and the placed was packed each night. Don't believe the ship expected the crowds as the band announced that the show was moving to the Epic theater on the next cruise week. The bartender Dino was also awesome and we can't wait to return.

First off let me say that the Star Breeze cruise ship and staff are beyond words. The suites were large, extremely comfortable and well designed. The staff always had a smile on their face and you never waited or wanted for anything. When it would get chilly out on deck, there were staff handing off blankets, before you even thought of asking for one. Some of the ports of call were questionable. Why go to Portoferrairo when everything is closed on a Sunday? Why dock at on the side with all of the machines, oil rigs?, train parts, etc. on La Spezia when there is a gorgeous dock we could have been at? Everyone on the boat was not happy about this. It looked like we docked at a wasteland....literally. That all being said, everything was executed flawlessly. Before cruising on Windstar I cruised on Disney, Princess and Carnival. I hated each of them. I finally found my cruiseline in Windstar! Everything is top notch (food is to die for) and no lines ever. Heck we never even waited for the elevator when we opted to take it. The spa was incredible and they never tried to upsell....that in itself is rare, but I appreciate that. The private event in Monte Carlo could (and should) have been much better, but I had high hopes for that and was let down. I am already looking to book another Windstar cruise and have my eye on the one Caribbean ones the Star Breeze goes to as well as Tahiti (sad only the sailboats go there). Windstar just made a lifetime fan out of me, I wholeheartedly recommend and will cruise with them until I die. 

The seven night Western Mediterranean cruise was fantastic. This was my husband's and my first cruise and we could not ask for a better one. The staff was friendly and well organized, the food was excellent, and the entertainment was very good. The ship is so large that even though it was at full capacity it never felt crowded. I loved the free restaurants and our favorite was the Manhattan. We would get there a half hour before it opened (at 5:30 pm) and ask for the back window seat. That way we could watch the ship leave port on most nights. The food was beyond good! 

My only critiques are these: 1) Smoking areas should be far away from public places. We could smell the smoke while we sat in the hot tubs because people would be smoking on the second deck. Also, the casino always smelled of smoke. 2). There should be adult only hot tubs. Children were always running in and out of the hot tubs with excessive splashing. 3) Do not see the Circus of Dreams! I had to pay more for a smaller portion of food (and not as good) than I could have eaten for free. I did choose the regular seats but they were so far under the second ceiling that we could not see a third of the circus which was above our heads. There were many premier seats (15 euros more a ticket) that were under the same ceiling. Those people were not happy. If you really want the best seats you need to pay for the premier seats, get there 45 minutes to an hour early and get the second floor seats (that way you watch the circus below you and you are facing the circus.) All I can say is that the people in our elevator had nothing good to say about their experience.  5) The show Priscilla Queen of the Desert was very sexually suggestive and crass. It was a good production but the subject matter was not family oriented. I know we were warned but I had no idea what the story line was and would not have gone had I known. 

The best show was Burn the Floor. I would have seen it again but it was sold out after we saw it. Wonderful dancing!!!! The two tours we went on were really good (Pisa and Florance on your own and Pompeii). We had a great time and were able to see the sites. We also highly suggest going on the Hop on Hop off buses at each of the stops that you can walk into the port. (Cannes, Palma, Barcelona, and Naples). The bus stops really close to the ship.

We took this cruise for our 35th wedding anniversary. We had so much fun we will not wait another 35 years to take another. I am sold on Norwegian Cruises.