Birthday trip
Norwegian Epic Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 63
7 Night Western Mediterranean (Barcelona Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 13, 2019
Ship: Norwegian Epic
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Overall a great trip except for how we were treated and mostly how I was treated over the excursion removal from the manager but all was great !!Embarkation
Fun and easy.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Oh Sheehan's is the best bar food from a cruise ship!!!
We went to Noodle Bar the second night and it was amazing
Also amazing was La Cucina... They have gnoochi!!!! And Cagney's steakhouse!
All 5 star !!
Onboard Activities
Cavern club
Arcade room at Oh Sheehan's
Honestly, because the port days are Soo long by the time we get back we are so tired we just eat, drink and relax. Haha
Entertainment
We went to the cavern club because we love the Beatles and it was so much fun!! They did a wonderful job!!!
Also went to the dance competition on the ship on the atrium. It was like dancing with the Stars. It's was funny and good entertainment!
Service and Staff
First of all, our Steward Felix was awesome. Also this other lady who helped to bring our food from Garden Cafe back to our room because there were no seats available , was awesome too.
The main problem was with the guest services staff. So heading back to Cannes after taking a Norwegian excursion to and from Monaco, good. The bad? Coming back and passing Nice it started to pour rain. Mind you this has been going on already for quiet some time. Pouring rain. Now the weather is not an issue. But me, an intellectual, had a problem with how the staff responded to the situation. No one had any tents up. No one offered umbrellas or ponchos. Also I must add that they told us it would be sunny but mostly cloudy, no rain. So majority of people dressed for the weather. With the pouring rain and no tents and waiting for tenders to come back, im drenched and my boyfriend got drenched but I'm the one that ended up getting sick. Didn't get to do anything that night, luckily for Palma we got to sleep in but then we just went to get Tapas and some fresh air then back to the boat. But the true problem lies with their customer service team. My boyfriend goes down there because I'm resting. He explains the situation and the lady goes " well .. uhhh. We can't control the weather." Well no duh but it's not the weather it's how you responded to the situation. Unsatisfied with the response. I go down there. (Because we wanted these charges removed) I talk to a gentleman and he said it's fine we can take care of it and remove the $125/pp of the excursion but you will have to come back in the morning and talk to onboard credit. I left satisfied because the gentleman helped me more and was more concerned than the lady. Today I went there and the manager of the shore excursions needs to be let go. He was unbelievably rude about the situation. First he said " ok I will give you on board credit of 350 . I said ok so I don't have to pay that from the balance. And he said yes I will take out 150. I was like woah wait you just said it's 350 now it's 150 so what is it then because that's unacceptable for you to low-ball me like that after everything that has happened. And the best part at first he also said oh miss I can't help you because the people who handle coming back on board on tenders is HOUSEKEEPING. HOUSE KEEPING?! are you serious!!!! This is laughable because I work in hotels!! This isn't housekeepings problem!! It's the shore excursions problem and how Norwegian handled the situation leaving people without shelter and getting drenched on. Then he got mad at me for being upset on how he is lying to me over the phone about him low balling me and my clarifying that I am to not be charged and that I would like an updated Invoice imeddiately ( so I know I'm not being screwed over), because the lady at the desk said I would have to wait an Hour. Which is bs because I know that's not true. Again, being a hotelier this isn't how guests should be treated, I don't treat my guests in this way at all. Also this manager yelled at me, almost cutting me off saying OK MAM HAVE A GOOD DAY BYE HOPE YOU FEEL BETTER. Like excuse me? You're the MANAGER. You do not get to treat people like that. You don't have empathy for your guests?! And you want to be in this line of service? CUSTOMER SERVICE. the whole experience was appauling.
Ship Quality
Pretty ship! Many people have a problem with the bathroom layout but if you're tiny like me it doesn't matter hahha my boyfriend on the other hand wasn't thrilled about how much smaller the toilet was but everything else was nice. Everything around the ship was clean and maintained well !!
Cabin / Stateroom
All was nice. Had a nice, non obstructed view on the 8th floor. Only issue was how small the bathroom was for my boyfriend but he managed.
Tv was nice. Wish more to watch. The tv shut off the Upside in the middle of the movie so that was a bummer haha
Ship tip
Book your own excursion!! Get the beverage and specialty dining packages!!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy
I highly recommended doing a tour with Walter Occhini!! I found Walter on the internet after doing some searching and wanting a better tour that day that what was originally booked with Norwegian. What threw me off from Norwegians Pisa and wine tasting was the fact that it would be just a sit down meal with a bunch of people drinking hella wine and not being told about the wine. I'm from California. Near Napa Valley. So if you're serious about your wine, you want the EXPERIENCE!!! Well we got that through Walter. We stopped first at Pisa and did the tower climb . Absolutely amazing. Then we treated ourselves to gelato
... At 1030 in the morning hahaha . After we headed to San Gimangino, a medieval town. It was the most beautiful town ever. The rolling hills the kindness of people, and the weather!! We did some cheese tasting and brought back cheese 😋 . After about and hour and half in San Gimangino we headed to a winery 5 minutes away and had the best service every. Intially tried 3 wines which came with PASTA , a variety of bruschetta and an olive oil tasting!! After that we tried their dessert wine with dessert and another white wine. We left with their sparkling rose and their Chianti. They also have two dogs on property. one was a rescued Lagotto Romangolo, the dogs we want to get one day. Walter picked us up at 8 am and dropped us off at 530 pm. I totally recommend Walter Occhini! Look him up!!
We didn't do an excursion through the ship because it's $$$$$$$$ hahaha . We did do a tour with Viator. Booked last minute but it was a tour to Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi with lunch Included!! It was everything I could have imagined !!! The beauty of the Amalfi coast, the weather!!!!! We got to try lemoncello & we bought it. It's strong!! 32% alcohol ! 😅 I also got to get some spices when we stopped at this little store along the cliff and got a picture with a lemon the size of my head!! And lunch was overlooking the Amalfi Coast it was beautiful. Then when we got to Positano we got the best gelato! Everything about the day was great. It was a small group of us 6. A couple from the ship from Ireland on their honeymoon and two sisters who were just traveling through Italy. We left at 9 and got back around 530. Enough time to get back on board. I recommend this tour from Viator it was about $95/pp
I've spoken with people on here about how to get to Rome so we did the train. Once we got to Rome we went to the trevi fountain, and it wasn't busy at all!! Then we walked around and then got some pizza!! After that we took the big bus hop on hop off until our 1:30 audio guide tour of the Colosseum. It was a beautiful the Colosseum. The entire day was again,everything I could have imagined it would be with great weather again!! THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF !
Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands
Beautiful weather, cathedral and castle. We went to get Tapas at Can Terra. Beautiful day
Unfortunately like how other said. Not very nice to the Americans. Sad because 2 years ago I spent the entire july in France. Traveling to Paris, Loire Valley, Tours Champagne and Marsielle and recieved amazing hospitality
Disembarkation
Smooth
5 Comments
alaricaafifi 5 years ago
@tigerroll I thought the ship was great haha And not sure about cigarettes but they did have a cigar lounge/humidor . My boyfriend thought it was a bit outdated but I liked it. I'd also like to add I've worked in and currently work in older looking hotels so to me how the room/ship looked- it was modern to me haha
alaricaafifi 5 years ago
@ronnieclicks it's how it was handled was the problem and unacceptable response while it happened. How would you feel if your cruise ship did absolutley nothing when you're waiting 20+ minutes for a tender ? It's not drizzling. It's pouring rain. I absolutely want my money back for your bad service of taking care of your guests. When you're in hospitality you bend over backwards to ensure the best trip ever. I got my refund back. But the problem is also how the MANAGER handled it besides the staff.
ronnyclicks 5 years ago
It's a very informative review and sounds like a great time. And I understand that the crew could have set up tents when the weather went bad but I don't understand how you wanted a refund. You went on the excursion. You had a nice time on the excursion. But it rained on the way back to the tenders and you want your money back?