Enjoyable cruise but not wowed!

Item: Norwegian Epic
Rating: 3.7
Author: GreenFamCanada

Norwegian Epic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

GreenFamCanada

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 44

Overall rating:

3.7 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 06, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Epic

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10324

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

The cruise was enjoyable and the number of activities on the ship were great. The food was very good and enjoyed the Freestyle dining approach but as mentioned above the process for seating and accommodating this approach needs to be improved. The layout of the ship is awkward and feels like you need to go through a maze of floors to get somewhere. Getting on and off the ship would be a lot quicker too if the systems didn't need manual intervention from staff and just allowed passengers to insert their cards instead of having staff do that for you

Embarkation

3 out of 5

This was our first time departing from Port Canaveral and found the transfer process to be less than optimal. Most people have likely been travelling for the day and to get to the transfer area and have to wait again kind of put a damper on the start of the vacation. We had to deal with traffic (accident) on the transfer over and since highway options are limited it delayed our arrival time. I understand that is not Norwegian's fault but would likely be enough for me not to book a cruise out of Port Canaveral again.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Food was very good and enjoyed to Freestyle dining. Was not a fan of lines waiting to get into dinner or the amount of time it took to seat people at the specialty restaurants especially if you had a reservation

Spiegel Tent - Cirque Dreams and Dinner

5 out of 5

Very unique and entertaining show

The Manhattan Room

5 out of 5

I really enjoyed this complimentary dining experience and having the live band playing during dinner was fantastic

Teppanyaki

5 out of 5

Food was excellent and the chefs were very entertaining

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Fitness center was excellent. Water slides were fun. Sports court and rock climbing wall were very good. Pools were too small for the number of people on the ship

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Both the Cirque and Burn the Floor shows were good

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Our cabin steward was excellent and the greeters at the buffet were super friendly. Other than that I encountered too many ship personnel that really didn't seem to want to go out of their way to impress

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Ship was clean but the design is awkward

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Cabin was clean but small compared to our cabins on RC. We were located on the Aft of ship and balcony was much smaller then anticipated as well.