Generally Disappointing, Rating only a FAIR overall
Norwegian Epic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 15, 2018
Ship: Norwegian Epic
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
We were booked on the EPIC cruising out of Port Canaveral on Dec 15, 2018. This cruise was to celebrate Christmas as well as our anniversary. Our first upset was during the check-in process. We had brought two bottle of wine. We were given a choice of paying $15 each to allow us to bring the wine on board or to have the wines confiscated and returned to us at the end of the cruise. In our experience with cruising, all of the other cruise companies have allowed us one bottle of wine per passenger before a corkage fee was imposed. Later, when we got to our cabin, there was no "welcome on board" material, such as the daily newsletter and the ship map. Clearly, this material is critical to understanding the layout of the ship and the activities of the day. Later I was able to find the guest services desk. The clerk had just finished with a passenger and the counter was clear in front of him. I walked up to him and said, "Hi. Excuse me." He looked back at me and said, "I don't believe you were standing in line." I simply replied, "Do you have a map of the ship?" He handed me a map and said, "Here." After walking around a huge unfamiliar ship trying to find a place to locate a map that should have been supplied automatically, I didn't appreciate being chided by a desk clerk half my age. Upon returning to my cabing I was able to get somebody on the phone to request the newsletter. It arrived at my cabing after dinner. We went to dine at Manhattan the first evening. The table we were seated at had a soiled tablecloth. When I pointed it out to my wife, she said, "Don't say anything because we don't want any more of a disturbance with them changing the cloth or changing our table." I didn't feel that our first day on board went very well. Other things: One morning we went to the full service restaurant for breakfast. I ordered the smoked salmon with cream cheese on a toasted bagel. When the dish was served, the bagel was so tough, I could have used it to repair my shoe. I literally couldn't bite through it. When I go to a sit-down restaurant, I expect the food served to me is going to be fresh. I don't think that is an unreasonable expectation. We had eaten at O'Sheehan's several times. This is the Irish pub style restaurant on board. Each time when the food arrived, it was barely warm. I, as well as many people I know, like freshly cooked food to be served at a reasonably hot temperature. While at St. Thomas, after having come back from being in port, we went to O'Sheehan's and were seated . After a lengthy wait our order was taken but water was never brought. We continued to wait. Finally, after a HALF HOUR WAITING, I had to ask for water. It was brought with our food (which was luke-warm). Another time we went to the Shanghai Noodle bar. We ordered pork dumplings and shrimp dumplings, and a noodle dish. The dumplings arrived unsusually fast. When I bit into one, I thought, "Wow, this is very cold." It was then that I realized THEY HADN'T BEEN COOKED! We immediately left the restaurant. My wife received a $50 spa gift certificate to be used toward any 50-minute or more face or body treatment. When we went to the spa to make a reservation, she chose the ELEMIS Deep Tissue Massage / 50 minutes. The woman at the counter said that the coupon couldn't be applied to that choice. Clearly, this is contradicting the terms of the coupon. My wife just said to me, "That's enough of this nonsense. Cancel the reservation." I was hoping to treat her to a massage session as an anniversary gift, but that didn't work out. Also, this is the first cruise we've been on which didn't have a lobster night. In summation, I don't think that these negative experiences should have happened. Not with the staffing and reputation of a ship such as the EPIC. I wasn't truly satisfied with my time on board. I really feel that all of NCL's policies favor NCL and not the passengers. Not my idea of customer service or satisfaction. To be fair, I must mention that the redeeming factor of the cruise was the entertainment. All top notch.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
You should have kept looking.
Ports of call
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Disembarkation
4 Comments
beachgal360 5 years ago