More Average than Epic
Norwegian Epic Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean
7 Night Western Mediterranean (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 18, 2016
Ship: Norwegian Epic
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 11080
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 years ago
Review summary
We had high hopes for our 7 day Western Med cruise. First impression: What is that huge stain on the sofa in the cabin and what will I catch when I sit there? For being only 6 years in service, the ship itself seemed tired and worn and in need of refurbishing.
Excursions were mostly good, given the prices we paid. One bad excursion (Aix & Avignon) due to a terrible tour guide and passengers that ignored return times. Biggest issue with excursions was in-port times of this cruise. We usually had to leave the ship at 7:15 and would return before sailing to next destination by 6-7PM. That meant getting up at 6AM each day to shower, find breakfast, and meet our tour group. Not my idea of a relaxing vacation. Would have been ecstatic if NCL would have just staggered their arrival/departure times by 2 hours. An 8 or 9 AM start would have been much nicer for a tour.
Food and shipboard entertainment was fine. Nothing remarkable, but its a cruise and they have to prepare thousands of meals.
On board internet systems are a joke - don't count on it. Their system kept deleting our account information almost daily, which meant a trip to stand in line (along with everyone else) for the one guy able to reset internet access for the whole ship.
It was a nice trip - saw amazing sights, but didn't really live up to the "vacation of a lifetime" experience we expected.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy