Our cruise was amazing, we LOVE Norwegian. We will definitely be cruising on The Norwegian Epic again.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
The port was very nice and clean. The wait time was a bit ridiculous. We were supposed to have appointment times for check-in. However, this was worse than the year before when we didn't have a specific time to check in. We stood on the stairs for over an hour with our carry on luggage and a 4-year-old for over an hour. Security check went quickly, but then we stood in line for another hour and a half to check in. All staff was friendly, but this process was not well managed. The year before we at least were able to sit down, unburden ourselves with our carry-ons, and let the kid move around a bit. This embarkation process needs A LOT of work.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The buffet was wonderful. The food was always fresh and the correct temperature. Always clean and well maintained. The dining rooms were beautiful and the food was amazing. I can't say enough about how professional and attending the entire wait staff was to our needs. We have excellent experiences each evening in any dining room we chose to attend. Taste was our favorite. A little hint for any wait lines, if you let them know you are willing to sit with others, you will get seated VERY quickly. Some of our best nights were meeting new friends while sharing dinner together.
Spiegel Tent - Cirque Dreams and Dinner
5 out of 5
Intimate and beautiful. A great show!
Atrium Bar
5 out of 5
This is the best bar on the ship! Excellent staff and good strong drinks.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
With a child cruising with us, we, of course, took part in the water park. The "Toilet bowl" slide was his favorite. You must be 42" to ride the slides, so be aware before traveling with a little one. Our little guy barely made the cut. They only have a certain number of innertubes for the toilet bowl slide, so there can sometimes be a line, but it moves quickly. The green water slide was favorite #2. You are usually able to ride over and over without much of a wait. If you just want to slide, again and again, go for the purple waterslide. Never much of wait for this one.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We saw 3 shows while aboard the Epic. 1st: Burn the floor. It was fantastic! Costumes were beautiful, dancers were amazing, and the singing was shockingly great! Try to get there at least 30 min prior to any show to get good seats and a drink. The bar line is a bit daunting close to show time. 2nd Priscilla Queen of the Dessert. Hilarious and wonderful! If you don't do research prior to cruising, THIS IS A DRAG SHOW! MEN IN COSTUMES. We were so furious with all the rude people that would get up and leave mid-show. We enjoyed EVERY second of the show, but not so much the ignorant people sitting around us. 3rd- Epicurean. This blew our minds. Definitely worth the extra cost to see this one! Don't pay for the floor seats though, we did and did not get floor seats. The balcony seats we did get were wonderful! The performers in this show will amaze you! Especially if the boat is rocking. lol
Children's Programs
5 out of 5
I wish I could give this 10 stars! We were VERY nervous to allow our child to do go to Splash Academy. This was his 2nd cruise and he is nearly 5 but we were still apprehensive about letting our child stay with people we did not know on a cruise ship. We went to the open house just to see if he could play with other kids while we waited and were instantly put at easy. He was given an armband with his muster station, name, and other info to wear the entire cruise. Then we gave them our own password for pick up. A parents cruise card and the child's cruise card had to be present with the said parent at pick up along with the secret password. They knew our names and his name after the first stay! The little kids do not leave the splash academy area. The stay was caring, loving, and attentive. We would let him go play there for a few hours each evening which worked out amazingly! He got to have fun, and mom and dad got a nice date night dinner. He was begging to go back each time and wanted to check the schedule to see what they would be doing each night. I'm a nervous mom when it comes to him, but it really turned out to be a wonderful experience!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
We received excellent and happy service on the entire ship. Great crew and staff!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ok folks! Do your research before you cruise! I heard so many people complaining about the room layout. It's no secret this ship has uniquely designed cabins. We happened to love this design. If you are sharing a cabin with someone you should probably be able to use the restroom around that person, just saying! All the complaining really got annoying. Especially when we like the layout of the cabin. The cabin design is one thing that attracted us to this ship. We will be cruising Epic again!
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Cabin 13055. We had a balcony mini suite with a bath tub. We LOVED LOVED LOVED our cabin. The design was amazing. We had no issue with the bathroom, and prefer this design to standard cruise ship cabins. I'm unable to load any photos because of size, but this room was EPIC! Our balcony was very large, we had 2 chairs and a table on our balcony. The bed was very comfortable. The bathtub was a plus because of our child. Tons and tons of storage and closet space! We were a little nervous about being near the stairs and elevator, but this ended up being a huge bonus! No noise and we were just one deck below splash academy and 2 decks below the cafe, bar, and pools. This was a huge convenience for our family. Also, don't miss out on seeing the bridge viewing room located on deck 13!
I love Jamacia, but I did not really enjoy Falmouth. We didn't feel very safe and spent over $100 to go to a beach 2 miles from the ship. I had to even write this review because I LOVE Jamacia so much!
This was our favorite stop of the entire cruise! Easy to get on and off the ship. There are 1000s of lounge chairs (Tip: don't go to the 1st section when getting off the ship, go to the farther beaches. Also, there is a bar on the top of the hill between the last 2 beaches that was not busy at all). The swimming, snorkeling, and sunbathing here were amazing. The best day we had on the beach the entire trip! I would have been happy to stop here multiple times this cruise. :-)
The porters are a racket and extremely rude! Our 4 year old got pushed around multiple times by these people. Again with the insane lines. I understand 4000 people are disembarking, but this was a bit of a cluster. Finding our luggage was not so bad, and once in the line for customs, things moved very quickly. It was the in between and people cutting in line that were the issue.
If you are doing speciality dinning it might be different. This is for restaurants like Taste and The Manhattan Room. If you just go to put your name in, let the hostess know and we were set immediately every time. The first night we were told a 2 hour wait to eat at taste.
When you go down for dinner, just tell them you are open to sitting with other people. Everytime we got sat immediately, even when there was an hour wait! We met some of the most amazing people this way and had a wonderful dinner with no wait to boot!
This was good to know about dinner we like sitting with other people. When I signed up for late dinner it ask how many was in our party and just the two of us.
Thank you. Yes we just got back 2 weeks ago.
The weather was perfect and the lines for the slides were minimal. The longest we wait even for the toilet bowl slide was about 10 min tops (That includes waiting on a tube).
The staff at Splash was outstanding! Our kid loved every second. I highly recommend it!
Great review. Nice to hear that it was mostly a positive experience. I really appreciated the details on splash academy (traveling with two teens and an 8yr old) and the water slides. My fear was that it would be a half hour wait for each 30 second slide.
If you don't mind was your cruise recent?
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