Overall, I felt like I wasted a lot of money going on this cruise. Not crazy about the food. I kept wondering, "Is Norwegians staff allowed to cook with salt?" The activities are very limited especially considering we were stuck on the ship for three days at sea. I felt like the captain could have updated us sooner on the changes of the itinerary instead of hours later. While I know we are limited on options that we had due to being stuck on the ship, the delay in communication caused us to feel really trapped on the ship rather than on vacation. The best activity they had on this ship was comedy but that was limited to 3-5 hours at night and it was not every night. The space for the comedy show was too small to hold all the cruisers interested in being there. Tip for the future: If ever trapped at sea for more than a day, please provide better activities for people to do. This was my first Norwegian cruise and I absolutely regret it. Everything about this company is money driven. Allow us to bring our own water at least instead of paying 3k for a cruise and forced to drink filtered sea water and from your juice fountains. Specialty dining is a very inconsiderate thing when your guests are provided only 3 real options for "complimentary" dining. I should've just flown to each of these ports instead of cruise to them. It would've been sooo much cheaper and less harassing. Also, ponchos should be complimentary as well as sea sickness pills/patches. And why is their a charge for room service? Why even go on an overpriced cruise ship when you can save so much money going to each place individually, you're not restricted of your freedom because you're stuck on it, and you have way more options when it comes to boarding and food. I have went on many different cruises but Norwegian has left a very very very bad feeling for me when it comes to cruising. Oh, and keep in mind their customer service phone line is only available for pre-cruising, not post-cruising. So, after you spent your money, they are not interested in hearing about your dissatisfaction or them having to reimburse you for anything they did on their side unless you email them! Still waiting on a response from my email, btw.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
There were staff who were being very rude.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
We were forced to drink filtered sea water which is tap water. When we requested to bring in our own water to avoid sicknesses, we were told it is not allowed. Drink packages are required to be purchased directly from the cruise line. Very money driven company.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Not enough activities to do on the Epic. All the ship mostly had was a rock climbing corner, fitness center with mostly treadmills, overload of lounges and bars, one movie theater, a casino that stunk up the entire 5-7 floor of cigarette smoke, about 3 "complimentary" restaurants (which means you paid for it), 6 specialty dining restaurants which you will not be allowed to enter unless you bought their package, a spa next to the fitness center, and multiple stores.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
Not into the music they kept playing and the worst part was it was so loud, it was hard to get away from it. There were live soft porn performances by some of their dancers which were inappropriate for children.
Children's Programs
I don't have children so I didn't focus on this. I noticed they had a splash pad area though.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
This area needed work. I found many times that the staff were rude and unwilling to assist with the simplest of things. There were about 10 out of 100 that seemed friendly and personable.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
The layout was nice. I always find appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into these cruise ships. Crew members tried their best to keep the ship clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
Balcony cabins are long and tight. Shower is very small. If someone is over 200lbs, there's a high chance they will not be showering during this cruise. Also, if you're claustrophobic, good luck to you! Otherwise, the balcony outside was nice because it peered over the ocean. Beautiful private view in our room of the ocean. Didn't like the joint twin beds to make up a potential king bed. This room is not suitable for two couples. There's no way to move around in the room when the couch bed is open. There's a curtain/blind separating the sleeping area and shower and the separate stall for the toilet.
Ship tip
The Epic geared towards a less family friendly experience. They need better activities to do on this ship especially if the boat is going to be stuck on water for more than a day. seemed to have a lot of party people and the activities were
The DR seems to be very high on crime. I was worried if this is safe for tourist. There's about 3 police officers on each corner of the tourist areas of Puerto Plata. We went on the Puerto Plata Highlights and Golden Beach Escape. This tour was supposed to be 4 hours long but because of the Epic having engine failure in one of the engines, we were only allowed 2 hours for this tour. The tour guide that we had was Alex. Well Alex seemed very friendly, I feel like we didn't get our true value out of this tour. We walked around to about five different sites which were main tourist attractions (5-10 walking blocks of painted walls, a church, shopping areas and sight seeing) and drove to an area with a mountain type of monument and then we were taken to the beach. We told Alex we did not want to be on the beach but he insisted that it was part of the tour, so we weren't too crazy about that. Overall, I'm not sure about the safety of the Dominican Republic as I mentioned, although Alex seemed very determined to make the experience safe. Although, I wasn't a fan of the homemade rum he was trying to give us. Hopefully, this remains to be a safe place for people to go to.
St Thomas, overall, is a beautiful place. I recommend the Heights and Sights - Mountain Top & Skyride to Paradise Tour. Our tour bus driver was Nilsa. She was awesome.
The British Virgin Islands is such a beautiful place. While it's obvious that the island is struck in with poverty and they are highly dependent on tourism, our experience was nice. We went on the Discover Tortola tour. Our driver called himself Ricky Bobby. He was a very nice person, but I think the drive was a very risky drive and he drove so fast that most of the time we were worried about falling off the mountains. The British Virgin Island is a very hilly place on high mountains and they don't have a lot of guardrails so it was a rather scary experience driving on those roads that are extremely narrow and shared by locals who are driving from opposite direction. Nevertheless, the different islands are so beautiful and truly breathtaking. While the British Virgin Islands is not as well developed as Saint Thomas, I definitely recommend traveling to the British Virgin Islands just to have that experience of being on the island.
Captain decided it was not safe to go to the Great Stirrup Cay for fear of the boat being damaged by Storm Rafael. While that was a very careful decision on the cruise lines part, we were never offered any type of reimbursement or compensation for the inconvenience or for the lack of port. Instead Norwegian Epic staff insisted on Cruisers to focus on their shops because they we're putting items on discounted prices. Again, I felt like this Cruise Line was strictly focused on making money and not focused on valuable customer service and repeat customers.
Seems you spent your entire cruise complaining about everything. Personally, when i cruuse, no matter how much i paid for it, or what issues come up, I make the best of it, and not complain endlessly to the point I ruin the cruise, instead of the little petty issues that come up. My advice is to enjoy your next cruise more and complain less.
*Cruiseline.com is not a booking agent or travel agency,
and does not charge any service fees to users of our site. Our partners
(travel agencies and cruise lines) provide prices, which we list for our
users' convenience. Cruiseline.com does not guarantee any specific rates or
prices. While prices are updated daily, please check with the booking site
for the exact amount. Cruiseline.com is not responsible for content on
external web sites.
Contact us
Submitting...
Need help from a personal vacation planner?
Loading...
Find the perfect cruise with weekly tips and cruise deals for as little as $30/night!
Sign up for weekly cruise deals
Join other subscribers and get the best
cruise deals of the week in your inbox every Thursday.
