In dire need of refurbishment

Item: Norwegian Epic
Rating: 1.8
Author: Annemarie20

Norwegian Epic Cruise Review

Annemarie20

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 2

Overall rating:

1.8 out of 5

12 Night Transatlantic: Gibraltar & Alicante (Port Canaveral To Rome)

Sail date: April 07, 2024

Ship: Norwegian Epic

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 16 days ago

Review summary

So so disappointing. Ship is old and in dire need of refurbishment. Staff on the whole quite unpleasant. Ship full so speciality dining couldn’t be accessed as mostly full . Entertainment not the best . I wouldn’t cruise on this ship again

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Previous overnight hotel and transport arranged by NCL. Arrived at port and joined a 2 1/2 hour queue. No seating , no drinks available . No one updating us on wait times. In fact no staff around at all until you reached front of queue

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

O'Sheehans Neighborhood Bar and Grill

2 out of 5

Poor choice of food and poor quality. Staff at bar very pleasant however staff at restaurant check in awful. So unpleasant and actually rude .

Shanghai's Chinese Restaurant

4 out of 5

Nice good, nice staff . Hostess really unpleasant and unhelpful but the rest makes up for it

La Cucina Italian Restaurant

1 out of 5

Staff very rude, especially the manager .

Garden Cafe

3 out of 5

In comparing with previous cruises, food choice not great . Queues for wine and sift drinks, understaffed however , staff very pleasant and helpful in the venue

Epic Theater Bar

2 out of 5

Understaffed, theatre full with few waiting staff . We were unable to order a drink whilst in theatre

Casino Bar

4 out of 5

Nice pleasant staff

Cagney's Steakhouse

2 out of 5

Does not rate being a speciality restaurant . Menu pretty standard. Nothing “ special” most items can be found in the ‘ complimentary’ restaurants . Staff not pleasant at sll. In previous cruises the staff have appeared to try and make it a nice dining experience. This was sadly lacking

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Entertainment

2 out of 5

10 days at sea meant passengers were dependent on entertainment. It wasn’t great . Didn’t help that ship was full and therefore difficult to access the main shows. Quality wasn’t the best . I suspect the best shows are on the newer ships

Service and Staff

2 out of 5

I noticed a huge decline in service. Usually I’ve found on cruises that most staff are very pleasant and helpful with the odd exception. However this was the opposite . So much so there was only 4 members of staff that stood out as really pleasant and I made sure to leave comment cards .

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Was on this ship 5 years ago and it has seriously declined. I guess 5 years in the life of a cruise ship is a lot. Very tired and in desperate need or refurbishment. Patched furniture in rooms, screws sticking out in shower. Deck has rusting paintwork in many places, toilet sinks out of order for whole cruise, one of the engines failed and ship was spewing out thick black smoke that was falling around the pool. Missed a port due to engine problem as we limped to last port .

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5

Old tired, patched furniture, dirty sock under the bed. We tried to lighten the room attendants load by just taking clean towels abs keeping cabin tidy ourselves. We requested room clean 3 times in a 12 day cruise . Poor service, dirty glasses left in room, dirty mirrors , just quite a poor service in general

Ship tip

Don’t. Ship is tired and in need of refurbishment. Not sure if this is what impacts the staff but on the whole, in comparison to other cruises I’ve been on some we’re not only unpleasant but actually rude and offensive

Thumbs up

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

The one thing that went well was the ships procedures to get you off as quickly as possible! Kinda summed up the cruise

7 Comments

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