Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

We loved our cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Line's ship, the Epic. The ship is huge, but very easily maneuvered. There are plenty of elevators to take you to your destinations. The restaurants are wonderful. Not only does the food look great, it tastes great too. We have been on many cruises and the food on this cruise was superior. Our accommodations were extremely comfortable, with ample space to keep everything neat and nice (couldn't believe the size of our shower---so roomy).  The service was outstanding, as were the ports, excursions and the entertainment. We just had a wonderful time.

This was our first cruise.  I went with my wife and her family.  The port calls were good.  We did a couple through NCL and a couple on our own.  I wish the ship had a larger pool; one you could swim a lap in.  I enjoyed the freestyle dining and the entertainment.  My biggest gripe might be small - the elevators were slow.  Many people waited for five minutes, while most just used the stairs.  We had a mid-ship interior room.  The stateroom was nice.  I expected more than frosted glass for the bathroom.  Frosted glass for the shower was fine however. 

All in all, it was a great first cruise, but my wife's family are veteran cruisers and expected the perks that goes with that.  This didn't dissuade us from enjoying ourselves.

This cruise on the Norwegian  Epic was beyond my expectations. From my accommodations  and the whole experience on the boat ,I would highly recommend this cruise. The price was reasonable, and being able to make payments was a plus. Although I did not book my excursions thru Norwegian. I found them to be a little pricey.Overall the cruise ship,the entertainment and all staff were excellent.

This was our second cruise ever so I can't help comparing with our first one (On the RC Navigator of the Seas). About the same ship sizes and both were in Europe at the same time of the year.

The positives:

- BEST positive was Tricia from !!! First one I'll call for our next cruise. 

- The food!!! Really amazing. Lots of choices and great quality

- The itinerary was just perfect. great ports of calls.

- The entertainment was top notch (I found the Circus at 40,00$ a little pricy both worth it)

- The iConcierge app and interactive panels around the elevators. If you don't know what's going on on the ship, you seriously have an problem. Very easy to make reservations.

The negatives:

- The ship was designed by engineers and not architects. They really tried to fit too many things on the EPIC and you feel trapped/crammed everywhere. No huge Atrium, small theater (MUST RESERVE), smaller dinning rooms with low ceilings, smaller state rooms.

- We never felt like going out for a walk. There's just the top deck where you dont feel trapped

- The only "wow!!!" factor was seeing the ship from outside. Up until the last day on the Navigator of the Seas we had the WOW factor every time we went trough the Atrium or entered the dinning room.  

- The staff looked a lot less happy than our first cruise.

- Can't go in front of the ship ("I'm the king of the world" is not an option). Basically you can't have a front view without a bay window (expect on the quiet area deck). 

Conclusion:

Happy with the cruise? Yes

Would I sail on the EPIC again? Probably as a second choice.

Great value for money? Yes    

My husband and I loved our cruise on the Epic.  The food was excellent, and with three sides of glass in the Garden room (buffet style) we hated to go elsewhere to eat, though we did enjoy a few meals in dining rooms.  We loved having a balcony, both while in port but also if I would wake up during the night I had somewhere beautiful yet private to read or watch the moon over the waves for a while.  Entertainment favorites were Blue Man Group, Cirque, and Graffiti.  Tours were excellent though tiring, but there was so much to see.  After several days of architecture, ancient sites, and statues, we enjoyed a scenic tour of Majorca.  (Our feet appreciated that break also.). Temps in October were low to mid 70s.  Perfect for being outside.  We started in Barcelona and had 5 days there first.  The subway system is fantastic and we could stay in a hotel in a non touristy area but one block away was the very efficient subway to everything we wanted to visit.  We fell in love with their balconied buildings and anything Gaudi built.  

This is a very nice cruise ship, nicely decorated and has great shows.  My only slight negative would be for the cruise director to pump more people to attend the activities.  For instance, the white hot party was o.k but on the Jade it was standing room only and everyone looked forward to it because of how it was pushed as the place to be.  Also, I've never been on a cruise where Kareoke had only 4/5 participants plus didn't have variety list of songs. The ship had a variety of activities and classes to take like the different dance lessons but know one hardly showed and I think it's the cruise director job to pump it up(spark the people with alot of self energy).  I'm 50 but still want to be aroused for enjoyment. I am an avid cruiser so I've seen alot more energy than was displayed here but overall it was still a wonderful cruise.  Food was good, shows were excellent, and great atmosphere.

We cruised last month on the Norwegian Epic.The trip was arranged by Linda Mangione @ cruises only.

Prior to the cruise, Linda spent a great deal of time assisting us in finding the best package and balcony room. She was always available for questions before and after the cruise.

The cruise was wonderful. There was so much to do on board the ship and the entertainment was great. Our room was  standard but well kept and comfortable. Our fear that embarkation and disembarkation would be difficult because of the many passengers was unfounded. We encountered few long lines. An extra plus was the free style disembarkation which means that the passenger can disembark with their own luggage at their own time (prior to 9am). This meant not having to  place your bags out in the hall the night prior to the cruise end or having an assigned time of disembarkation.

We enjoyed this cruise and the ports of call (all wonderful).

The staff was excellent and the itinerary was exactly what we wanted.  However, the dining room had a group of about 40 who were loud and rowdyand disturbed our dinner to the point we could not carry on a conversation.  They were also banging our chairs as they ran around.

The only excursion we took with RC was a disappointment.  However, the two excursions we took with Shore excursions group were excellent!

although it was a step up for NCL the epic was disappointing in food quality and variety. the tours were very expensive although they were generally good. I would not pick this line if same route was available on RCL

Too big. Haven was nice but benefits not explained well. Concierge was the best. David Contreras. Day house keeping was great. Night not so, as when they were called to advise how to use the hot tub in our room things went from nothing to horrible as the butler starting pushing buttons when the vents weren't covered and water went everywhere including drenching me and the butler from head to foot. After he left and another came in I spent an hour wringing towels into the shower. This was not reported to the concierge until we reported it. They gave us a $400 credit and we were satisfied. In addition, we bought a premier dining package not knowing Haven guest had free meals at their select restaurant. That would have saved $238. As for rating the speciality restaurants, the Brazilian, Cagneys Steak house and the French were good. The Kubuki restaurant was too small, waiters could barely get by, the artiste was passable but not superior and the food was overcooked and very chewy which calamari and lobster should not be.  Finally as mentioned earlier Alix Myers did well putting the package together but once the payments were received seemingly lost interest. I know she went out on disability after being struck by lightning thru the phone and recommended a karen LaRue for followup but we received no benefit from that referral.

We have taken cruises with other organizations. We found Norwegian to be a very good choice. Staff, food, facilities were excellent. Room was always clean and neat. Only a few "little" things could be improved upon. I love having a banana in the morning, however was very disappointed when I found nothing but rotten bananas or no bananas at all. It would be nice if Norwegian Cruise Line would provide city maps of ports of call. I understand that they make money by selling shore excursions but some people (like us) enjoy exploring on our own. Cruise did not provide any sports information. No daily flyer and no tv channel with scores. I understand I am on a cruise and I am not asking for "live feeds" of games ..... only yesterdays scores. Bottom line. Great cruise experience .... give me a decent banana, a city map, and yesterdays scores and you will get 5 stars next time. Gary

Ship experience was great. Unfortunately, the ports are to far from the major cities. It was a two hour bus ride to visit Florence, only three hours to tour and then a two hour bus ride back to the ship. Same situation with Rome.

Great effort was expended to sell us various beverage packages.  We were told we couldn't even get a glass of water at dinner.  I bought a water package.  Each night after that we were given water with no charge against the package.  Wound up with five extra bottles of water at the end of the week.  Another ruse to get euros out of us.  The food was lousy.  I had a couple of dishes that were OK, but none I considered really good.  Tried the veal belly.  YUK!  All of the beef dishes, including the hamburgers, were poor.  I realize now that I'm spoiled on American beef.  The entertainment was weak, also.  Having cruised with Carnival I expected much more, and found much less.  I heard the same comment from others on the cruise about the unexpected slights from Costa compared to Carnival.  One of the excursions we had looked forward to was cancelled because there was no English speaking guide.  It was a wine and truffle excursion.  The language was not really a barrier, but we were not offered an alternative.  The only high point of my time with Costa was the cabin steward.  He did an excellent job.  I will not cruise Costa again, nor would I recommend it to anyone.

This was my first Norwegian cruise. I have only taken Carnival cruises before and in general, I preferred Carnival. One thing Norwegian gets right is crowd control; I never had to wait in a line my entire cruise, including embarking and disembarking. Other than that, I was not really impressed with Norwegian. The food was so so and heavy. I did not think the pay for restaurants were all that special. My cabin was very small and the bed was excruciatingly uncomfortable. I really hated my  extra large balcony I paid extra for; it should have been sold as an obstructed view due to the fact that instead of a glass enclosure, we had a steel bulkhead. It was impossible to sit on the balcony and see water; that has always been a favorite part of  cruises for me. However, we took this cruise to see Europe and it was wonderful to awake in a new country/city each day. We took the Capri Island of Romance, Ultimate Rome and Pisa and taste of Tuscany tours and thought the tour guides were phenomenal (and  I am not a tour taking kind of person). Our Capri tour started late and uses were not ready when needed so that was a drag. But our lunch and  the tram to the top of Capri were amazing. I thought I had purchased exclusive Rome, vs Ultimate Rome but turns out they were the same price so maybe I picked wrong. The difference seemed to be lunch. But our tour guide Elinora was excellent and enhanced the tour immensely; she made the long day ad crowds worthwhile. Pisa and a Tuscan winery were a nice respite the next day; once again, we loved our guide Laia. The winery was delightful and picturesque and Laia showed us parts of the town of Pisa we would not have normally visited. We had enough tours by Cannes and Palma so we just bummed around on foot. I recommend taking the shuttle to the center of Palma since it is a long walk into town with little to look at. All in all, I am glad I went but if I go back, I will probably not cruise Norwegian.

The ship was beautiful- the rooms with the balcony was so spacious & plenty of room for storage. The food was excellent and most important the staff was incredible. Our steward was the best you could ask for. The only disappointment was the entertainment. Very little variety in the main theater- teh shows were repetitive. I dont like the additiona;l charges for "specialty" restaurants or the "circque de soleil". Otherwise it was a wonderful experiance!

I enjoyed the cruise and the room was very comfortable, the food was good and the staff was courteous.  The only complaint I have is regarding the flight arrangements.  Whoever made the flight arrangements left me too little time for connecting flights, causing my luggage to be delayed and left me no time for an excursion in Rome due to early flight out.  It was a shame to be in Rome with my granddaughter and not be able to show her any of it.  If I had it to do over again, I would definitely use a travel agent to help me plan better.

It was our second and most likely last cruise with NCL.

We stayed in one of the Heaven Suites in Aft Section on deck #12

Big mistake!!!!

The whole section was vibrating during the sailing, so for the two first two night we could not sleep.

To go to the Haven section up to the front portion of the ship was an unpleasant walk through the deck 15.

I must tell that the ship is build on a cheap, hardware and woodwork are not fit properly.

Entertainment: Only two shows are OK: "Circus and dinner" and "Blue man group", the rest is BS.

Food: Food in main Dining and The Gardens is dreadful,  I strongly suggest to buy a specialty restaurants package.

There are 4,000 people on board, many of them with kids, so be ready: the kids are going to be everywhere, including the restaurant where you are having romantic dinner!!!!

That's what it means - FREE STYLE CRUISING!!!!!)))))

I would recommend this ship and cruise  to anyone who wants a glimpse of Spain, France, and Italy. The LOS is beautiful---very clean, lots to do and has a great promenade. We had a junior suite and woke up to beautiful scenery each day! The Staff was great!!!

I give it 4.5 stars instead of 5 because of the food. The dining room was beautiful and there were other choices of where to eat ....but the "quality" of the food was not what I expected. Not to say that all the food was average.....but much of it was just ok. One complaint I had was that they put mayo on all the sandwiches in the snack areas. We went to the Windjammer, but they did not have the same variety of deli meats. We asked if we could have the sandwiches without mayo and they said they come that way. Also, we went to the dining room for breakfast and they admitted the  eggs were powdered.

I will continue to check out RCI as my first choice for cruising but I think for the price of the  European cruises, there should be more attention paid to the quality and taste of the food. 

Ali S.

This journey cannot be put into words.  Listen up everyone!  Take this  CRUISE and you will

never regret that you did.  YOU WILL LOVE LOVE LOVE IT.

Love the Capitan!  He is an amazing man!

Largest ship we have been on.  Lots of people is my only complaint.

Overall it was a good cruise.  Unfortunately, I felt the staff was not all that helpful or welcoming, they did not seem enthusiastic about another cruise and new guest.  The dinning staff made up for the rest, they were exceptional.