Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

There were many thing about the cruise experience that could have been better. The first is the internet café. It was over priced and the computers were slow which increased the amount of money you were charged. Secondly, we were informed that on our last day we could pay cash for our balance. However, the ATM machine was conveniently turned off. There were no power outages. The next is the Mandera Spa services that we received. Staff member Farah was exceptionally professional and my sister really enjoyed her spa time. However other staff members were not so professional. I received a hot wax of my chin which the cost was $15- that is reasonable. She said she wanted to shape my brows. She plucked a few only a few hairs of my eyebrows and charged me $50 for that. That is outrageous. It is my fault that I didn't say anything about it sooner. The receipt kind of through me off guard. Further, the spa did not inform us neither was it visibly published that if you can not keep a spa appointment you will be charged 50% for the service anyway. I know the spa is separate from "Norweigian" however, they are operating a business entity on the ship and should be more flexible to customers who have legitimate excuses for not keeping appointments. What women doesn't want a spa treatment? I had a reasonable excuse why I couldn't but the assistant manager didn't want to hear it. I was exhausted and my feet were swollen like two balloons from walking on cobble stones and hills for 4 hours. I was then told to come and speak with the manager of the spa, which I had to walk so far from my stateroom to get to. The manager and I came to a resolution and she was professional and helpful. The Assist. Manager was rude to me and my sister. Fourthly, the "washie washie" girls who sprayed you when you entered any eating establishment and at the entrance of the ship. They did not give you an opportunity to manually hold your hands under the sanitizer machines that were there. They just rudely sprayed you as you came in. Norwegian did not inform us on their website that this would be taking place. I understand that it is convenient and hygiene is important, however violating a person's personal space is unacceptable. Next I had put some items in the refrigerator. When I came back to my stateroom the refrigerator was locked and my items were left out to spoil. Why????? Again we were not informed that the cleaning staff locks the refrigerator. When booking my stateroom on that was one of my request to have a functional refrigerator so I can put my things in it. I do not drink alcohol only shifted it to make room for my things. The cleaning crew was apologetic and the manager even called to apologize and he explained that this was procedure on the last day to lock the refrigerator. Again, we were not informed in advance of this procedure. Lastly, the ship had a lot of children on it. Running into people taking over the pool area. The adult pool was so small and crowded at the back of the ship, a little tiny space you could enjoy because you had to walk between two ping pong tables and watch out for flying balls. We never got in the pool. Next, the gratuities charge. This charge should be included in the package not in addition to the total cost of the expensive cruise. We were informed of this in advance but it would have been nice to included with the package just like the insurance. No one wants to go on vacation and have additional fees added at the beginning of the trip, and then additional charges for restaurants as well. The accommodations were tight but clean. Lastly, there were some good things about the ship. The crew was excellent and efficient. Our staterooms were clean and the linen was clean and smelled good. The food was excellent, the music and performers, such as Nathaniel the piano player and singer were talented (give him a bonus), and the activities were fun and great. The cleaning crew of the stateroom always greeted you and called us by name. We were impressed that a ship can have three cruises at one time. We've never experienced that before and were impressed with that. All of the staff had smiles and were working very hard to make everyone on board's experience pleasant. In the future I will be more proactive to find out more about the policies of the ship and additional fees.

1. Very good foods and room service as well, friendly staffs, guest service is good, nice staterooms and sun deck 19 is so great. 2.Allowed smoking in casino area is not good, not so good entertainment. 3. We do hope to cruise again in Norwegian Cruise someday. 4. I would recommend this cruise to some of my friends.

We were in the royal suite which was the largest suite on the boat. It was very nice, modern and luxurious however, the tempterature in the master bedroom never really got cold. The crew made several attempts to remedy the situation and it did get better, but never cold. Otherwise a very nice trip. Crew was great. entertainment was so so. Food was generally good. Chops restaurant was excellent.

This cruise was taken for the itinerary and the fact that it was "round trip". The Epic was a larger ship than I generally care for, but the fact that it was aimed at a younger age group felt OK, as I was traveling with my 18 yr old granddaughter. Overall, service was very good, but everything was crowded and noisy. I was disappointed in a few things such as almost no library, just one bookcase, and there were no church services.

I start with the good things, very nice cabin, clean, and confortable. Good shows. Staff not friendly at all. Food very poor variety. Service bad. Most of the machines were not working, like to get ice, coffee or water. During the buffet, staff was not cleaning tables. Disrty tables all the time. For breakfast no variety. No milk sometimes, no more buffet after 3pm. only cheesse pizza. Sandwich service, one person making sandwiches taking hours. At the restaurant, you have to ask for water like 5 or 6 times, they don't care. very slow service. People at the reception had no patience. Lack of information in all the ship. You didn't know where to go to exit the ship in every port. TV progrmas not good only news, if you wanted to watch a movie you had to pay $7.50 euros. The adults pool, full of kids, jumping and screaming. I could keep going on and on. Advise, do not book Costa. Princess is number one.

Excellet iteniary, but perhaps packed too tightly. should have been 8-days cruise. good food, in the regular restaurant...very good food in the specialty ones.

1st time on a cruise, really loved the experience everyone was so helpful and attentive. Cruise itself is nice super clean and the food is really good. They always had something going on so if you needed to party after dinner there was lots of options. This was my 1st cruise experience but not my last. Highly recommend this cruise

We enjoyed this cruise very much, not only is it a newer ship, with more to offer such as good size gym,casino, and water slides, but entertainment and cabin staffs were wonderful! The only downside was the dining service, service at The Taste (one of the complimentary main dining hall) was terrible! Wait staffs looked mad and not wanting to work there. The internet department staff was very unfriendly too - very impatient with our problem. We only ate at Taste one night and never went back there. We've been on many cruises, including Royal Carribean, Holland America, Disney, and Celebrity, I am sad to say Norwegian's service is the worst.

staff is not attentive, ship is very dirty from the staterooms, to the restaurants, to the public areas. staff does not care and has no clue what service is they are loud and abnoxious talking over each other right in front of guests in the restaurants, etc. horrible experience, would never cruise this ship or Norwegian again.

This is the worst cruise that my family and I have been on. We have been on many cruises but this is the worst. Before booking our vacation, we were going to book our mediterranean with Royal Carribean , but decided to try Norwegian this time. Not all your staffs were that bad, but we experience with multi times with one of your staff name Everlynn Woo for our everning dinner. Our group have 12 people, therefore we have to waited for our table, but by the time that you have our table ready she was rushing us to be seated. While we were waiting my girlfriend decided to have her family photo taken with the photo stand. MS Woo, was rude and very impatience with us. I have never been treated by any staffs with other cruises all those years. By the way my girlfriend family, this is their first cruise and they have the worst terrible experiences. They will never cruise again because your services and food!!!!!

The Epic was one of the best ships I have been on. Rooms (on balcony) were spacious as were the showers. Really liked the design of the rooms. Top notch service.

Reka, our cruise specialist was excellent.. superb... she was always there to communicate with us.. unfortunately, we weren't able to enjoy the $250 hotel we reserved in Barcelona due to my husbands illness..we had allowed us 3 days to get to Barcelona..so we were able to get to Barcelona.. but not in time for the hotel stay.. and the main reason of booking this cruise was to visit/meet my husbands remaining family in Florence.. (he was just diagnosed with alzheimers) unfortunately, the ship couldn't dock in Florence due to weather so our chances of meeting them are not likely.. very disappointed..

Sailing with Royal Carribean on Liberty of the Seas was a gateway to the treasures of Spain, France and Italy. All the ports were places I have always dreamed of visiting and now I have. The ship, entertainment, tours were all exeptional. The entire ship staff were friendly and helpful which made the entire exprience a joy.

I had the most enjoyable cruise. Each port was awesome. The people and staff of the NCL were fantastic! A little cool in the mornings but got warmer during the day. France was very cold! It was excellent and would take another cruise w/NCL.

The staff was soo great! The food wonderful. The ship very very clean! We liked the entertainment but not the reservation process. I Prefer just picking every night at will.

The cruise is very fast paced- not much time for day activities on the boat, but lots of entertainment at night. Really appreciated being to see all the sights- would not have been able to go to so many ports without cruising. Loved the cruise!

We enjoyed the cruise very much. After a few days in Barcelona to get used to time change, we boarded the ship and had a wonderful time. All the staff were courteous and very helpful. Our stateroom was kept very clean and we enjoyed spending the week there. The food in all the on board restaurants was excellent. The only down side was the buffet. The food was left out too long. We got around that by ordering room service which was prompt and very good. All in all an excellent cruise which I would highly recommend to family and friends.

I will start from positives. * The stuff is polite and generally does the best to help * The ship is clean. Spa has great - large and hot, steam room (actually 3 or 4 rooms) and dry sauna (see also below) * Food in the dining rooms is generally alright (see the cons below). * Reasonable selection of wine. Mostly the wine is from CA (you are in Europe guys, you can have France and Italy wines tax free) but the selection is alright. You are not going to see anything exclusive on the wine card. Now the cons. * Carnival changed one of the ports 3 or 4 weeks before departure and let us know via e-mail. We did not pre order anything (no rented cars, hotels, excursions) so it was not an issue for us, but I can imagine that some people were annoyed. * Service gratitude is mandatory, it is part of the bill and for 10 days trip it is $100 for a person. In our case $300 or ~10% of the total cost. For many people on the ship it was a nasty last day surprise. Consider that you can get a cabin for $600 or less and $100 add on looks significant. * Swimming pool was closed. Carnival credited $100 to compensate the missing swimming pool. The ship is just after $150mil renovation. This was second trip after the renovation and name change - used to be Carnival Destiny, now Carnival Sunshine. Money well spent guys, ah? * Phone in the cabin did not work 3 days. We have spent a couple of hours with an electrician in our cabin. It was not great joy. Again the ship is after $150 mil investment. * In my case all spa services was included - this is called spa cabin. The spa costs $160 if you have to buy it. This is the largest steam room I have ever seen. I visited the sauna every day and I never met anybody there. What a waste of 50 feet long room full of 70 degree steam. Drop the price to $60 and may be people will start to come there. * The last day started at 5 (five) AM when the ship radio called the first 'zone' to get out of the ship. They want the ship to be empty before 10AM. There is not much to do in Barcelona, 6AM Sunday. Barcelona airport is not bad, but it is not the best place for the family with small kid either. Our flight was 2PM. So you can imagine. * 1.5L bottle of water costs $3.5. The bottles wait you on the table. If you drink the water you pay. * Photo services are pushed very hard and extremely expensive. A photo for $15? Luckily the kid hates to be shoot and we did not buy any photos. * Low hanging lamps in the restaurants and dining rooms are simply dangerous and wait for an accident. * One show (from 4 we have seen) was alright. Generally the shows are low quality. Nooman (manager/director) is a nice guy and probably does the best under circumstances. I can not call trivia an evening show especially if it repeats day after day. Lectures in the spa are not a show either. Food - I intentionally put as a separate list. * Do not waste time to visit 'restaurants' like 'el capitan cusine' or sunrise. JiJi is somewhat better, but still is not there. $12/person they charge to visit one of those places + 15% mandatory gratitude. In Italy/Spain you eat very good for this kind of money. * Dear Carnival chief, tomato paste is not a required ingredient in any fish/chicken dish. I have personally tried very good dishes which did not contain any tomato paste. Does it sound like a shock to you? Believe me such dishes exist. Seriously though you put too much, you put it everywhere. Not all your customers are Americans. And not all North Americans eat only ketchup. * The 'Sunrise' restaurant you are assigned for the dinner is a beautiful place to visit. Service is excellent. It is worst (I am not kidding) place on the ship to eat. Chief does his/her best to create an expensive dish which you do not want to try again. From four dishes we tried 3 were bad. * Dessert. You expect the dessert to be delicious. This is not the case on the Carnival ship. The desserts remind average US restaurant. Not fast food chain dessert mind you. It is better, but not by much. Is the review too long already? I can add more, but I guess at this point you got the picture.

first of all this was an amazing trip, my wife and I celebrated our 30th wedding aniversay and we were not disappointed. Europe is beautiful, the weather was pretty good except in France were we caught rain, but even that was cool because we were able to enjoy some expresso and Crepes "Delicious" the ship time was also alot of fun, the food was delicious, the service was great. the only issue we had was our stateroom, the first two nights there was a terrible noise that no one could pin point so they moved us to another cabin, this was a hassle but we would rather sleep than to not move. our next room there was a horrible smell in the restroom, we complained about it but in this case nothing was done, again since it was contained in the restroom we just grinned and beared it. i wish our room accomodations were better but overall the cruise was great. i was hoping that Carnival management would of cared more about taking care of us but i guess they were too busy to talk to us. you hear of all the night mare stories of Carnival Cruises but except for these two major things we might travel again with this cruise line. we will see.

i would have wished for the restaurant (main dining facility for 4 nights that we were seated at) to have more than just italian as its theme. and a few of our servers werent very helpful in describing foods we had never had before. smoking was everywhere and atrocious.