It’s Not All Bad

Item: Norwegian Epic
Rating: 4.2
Author: JmcnGyal

Norwegian Epic Cruise Review

JmcnGyal

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 46

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5

7 Night Western Mediterranean (Barcelona Roundtrip)

Sail date: July 28, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Epic

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 17018

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

There are tons of bad reviews, but this is great vacation option for the money. The staff was generally nice and upbeat. The amenities are good and the food is great. Embarkation and disembarkation were a breeze (I couldn’t believe it). Really appreciated their focus on cleanliness by having guests sanitize their hands when coming in from land and going into buffet areas. Entertainment and activities were great, just seemed like there wasn’t quite enough. There were times when we weren’t eating, in casino, or on an excursion and struggled to find activities. My biggest complaint about the whole experience would be other passengers, and NCL can’t do much about that, lol.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Embarkation was soooooooo, easy I was shocked based on other cruise line experiences.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Food was also pretty good and they had great variety throughout the cruise in the main buffet. I think the specialty restaurants we a little overpriced though.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

I wish they had more entertainment options. We look forward to comedy shows and they didn’t have one this cruise. There was only a handful of Bingo games. If you didn’t get dinner reservations or hit the casino, entertainment was tricky.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Glow party was great, Burn the Floor was good, and the Cirque show was pretty good too. Loved the dance classes by the pool.

Children's Programs

4 out of 5

Staff was ok. My youngest did not want to go initially, but by the end of the cruise, he loved it. They had themed activities everyday and ended with a show put on by the kids in the main theater.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

We had the Haven experience so staff was super nice. Butler was not as great as I had hoped, but the rest of the Haven staff made up for it. Rest of staff was mostly great. They all work pretty difficult schedules but yet they still went the extra mile.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Elevators drove us nuts.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Haven Villa

Ship tip

Reserve entertainment and dining before you get onboard

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Cannes, France

4 out of 5

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

4 out of 5

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5

Naples, Italy

4 out of 5

Barcelona, Spain

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Super super SUPER easy.

Traveler Photos

2 Comments

njanders26 5 years ago

Thanks for sharing you experience! I love NCL and is my favorite cruise line. I will definitely have to add the Epic to my list of ships to try 😊

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CruzeFan 5 years ago

Glad you enjoyed it and didn’t let the previous negative reviews discourage you from taking the cruise. Nothing is perfect, but I don’t understand how some can seem to have such a miserable time on a cruise. They seem to be looking for every possible thing that they can nitpick.

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Other reviews of this sailing

Awesome Mediterranean Cruise on the Epic

Whirlwind Cruise