The overall rating for this review of three is falsely inflated by the good ratings of the ports that had nothing to do with Norwegian. I would not recommend Norwegian cruise lines, and I don’t plan to use them again.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation was great. My mother-in-law is on a cane, and they pug her in a wheelchair and took us to the front of the line. Saved us probably a couple hours of standing in line with 3 people on canes, so that was nice.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Based on experiences on other cruise lines, we were disappointed in Norweigian’s food and beverages. The quality of food was not good, and we expected really good. The breakfast buffet was the same every day, but was probably better than most of the rest of the food. The coke always tasted like Diet Coke or worse.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Most of the activities cost money - bowling, games, etc. My husband and father-in-law used the spa. Luckily we had onboard credit, because their services are really expensive. They also try to sell you additional expensive products. They had my father-in-law buying almost $400 in products, and he didn’t even know it. Luckily my husband caught it and told them no.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
Very few stage shows. The main one was repeated on two nights, and you had to have reservations for it. The magician was ok - I didn’t feel like that was wasted time. They had a singer who was ok, but I would have rather been somewhere else. There were a lot of Beatles things, but we don’t really care about the Beatles, so we didn’t go to any. We were really excited to see they had a comedy club, but they didn’t have any comedians, which was a big disappointment. We are used to having good, nightly entertainment on cruises, and this was a real let down.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
We ordered a water package. The refrigerator was supposed to have a water in it you could purchase, but ours didn’t. Our room steward put a price tag on one of our waters after we put it in the refridgerator. He also wouldn’t let me put my things where I wanted them. He constantly moved things, including mixing up papers that I had separated for a reason. There was apparently not enough staff in the dining rooms. Dinners took around two hours due to all of the wait time. We are used to cruise staff that seem happy to be there and happy that you are there. That just didn’t seem to be the case on this cruise. We felt like an imposition. We were given incorrect information by different people, leading to misunderstandings and issues.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
It could be difficult to get from one place to another. We helped a couple who was trying to find an elevator to deck 5. The gentleman had a disability. The staff would only tell them to use the escalator, so they eventually tried it, and he almost fell down it, and would have if we didn’t happen to walk by right then. We told them where the elevator to 5 was, when the staff couldn’t be bothered to. It was frustrating that pretty much all of the balconies looked down on the lifeboats. This should be mentioned when booking. We like to look down on the ocean, and we looked down on other balconies and lifeboats. There weren’t many outside areas, making the ones that there were loud and crowded.
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
The cabin was extremely narrow, making it difficult to move around in. We couldn’t even roll our full sized suitcases past the end of the bed - had to lift them over to get them to where we need them to unpack and stow them. Toilet broke 3 times, and we weren’t putting anything in it that wasn’t supposed to be there.
We had an excursion in the morning that met before the luggage tags were available, and by the time we were able to get them, a little after noon, the ones we wanted were gone. We wanted to get off as late as possible, as we couldn’t check I. To our hotel until 2. The rest of debarjation went well. We were able to get wheel chairs for my in-laws, which they really needed. When we got out of the terminal, the staff also helped get us a taxi, which was much appreciated.
I've been on the Epic and had a great time. As far as dining goes, unless I was at a group table, dinner never went beyond 1 hour. I dont recall seeing escalators on the Epic, there is stairs and elevators only. It seems to me you spent more time complaining about your cruise than enjoying it, so perhaps cruising isn't for you.
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