Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

It might be a good idea to start letting passangers know that they need to make reservations to see the free shows asap.  We were not told until we showed up to see the comedy the first night and were turned away at the door.  At that point we went back to our room to make our reservation but all days and events were already booked up with the exception to the dinner and show that was $39 a person.  The cruise overall was good but as a first time cruiser on this particular ship I was disappointed to miss out on all the "freestyle" events.  Needless to say this may be our last Norwegian cruise. Hopefully this is not the policy on all their ships.

My favorite part was the water slides they were so fun! Also i really liked the food they had and the entire ship was very very clean! The staff was as well very nice.

We enjoyed this cruise very much although, as always for doing something the first time, it was a little confusing at first.  Overall, the quality of food, service and accommodations was extremely good.  Our steward who took care of our room was extremely friendly and helpful.  His name was Greg and was from the Philippines, and we enjoyed our conversations with him.  He was very helpful in getting a mattress top because the mattress was very hard and proved to be extremely uncomfortable for my wife who has a very bad back.  After the first night she was able to sleep better.

Being a cabin for persons with disabilities, it was larger than most to accommodate the scooter we rented and that was a very important part of the trip.  The balcony was great and we enjoyed sitting out there and watching the wake since it was at the back of the ship.

The main concern I have is the confusion for us which we found on arriving to the port and dropping off our luggage.  There were no wheel chairs available at the drop off area and we were told that we could get a wheel chair only after we went through security (which turned out to be after the second round of security, and that was only temporary until a service agent finally got a person to assist us getting on the boat.  I believe there should definitely be some assistance for persons with disabilities when we drop off the luggage before parking the car.  My wife was able to walk a little to get through the first security and luckily we found her a chair to sit in while a parked the car and returned to get through the second round of security.  THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY TO ORGANIZE THIS! 

I would definitely recommend the Spa Suites....My husband and I relaxed every morning in the thermal pools.  The food and entertainment were amazing on this ship, would definitely recommend the dueling piano's bar those guys were great.

The ship was beautiful.  We were traveling with out father-in-law who has peripheral artery disease & walking and/or standing is a problem for him.  Everyone was very helpful getting a wheelchair & getting him on the ship really quick.  We had to rent a scooter for the 3 days for him that we found was quite expensive.  The beds were too short.  Other than that the rooms were very comfortable.  Food was excellent.  Staff were very friendly and very helpful.  

The cruise was great. The only down side is that the ship is so big, you have to have reservations for some entertainment, and it booked too quickly for us to see. Aside from that, no complaints! I'd go again in a heart beat.

This is the first time that we have sailed with NCL, having sailed a few times with Royal Caribbean (RCI) and Carnival. 

The Epic is a very large, very brown ship. What does that mean?

The ship has 4000+ passengers and it feels like it, nearly everywhere is crowded, but not everywhere. Brown, well shades of brown seems to be the color of choice its a bit like a huge UPS van, that to me, made everything rather bland.

Let's go through the ship experience.

Getting on the ship was easy and well managed. There are a wide variety of bars and restaurants on board which is good, but the bars are nearly all clustered to gather, which increases the sense of it being crowded. 

We only ate in the main dining room, called Taste and that was pretty good. The food was decent and the service very good and friendly. The variety of food was mainly American in style, we prefer a more international selection. The passengers were mainly American aged 30 upwards, with a scattering of other nationalities and ages.

Our balcony cabin, looked brown, but quite nice, however, it was cramped, felt more cramped than RCI. Much has been said about the bizarre arrangements of the shower and toilet. For some strange reason they separated them, so one is on one side of the cabin and the other on the opposite side, both behind frosted glass, so all can be seen, heard and smelt through the cabin, sorry about that, but that is the truth. The sliding doors are noisy, so you will wake anyone else up in the cabin if you use it at night. We found the bed short, hard and uncomfortable. I am 5'10 and my feet hung over the end of the bed very easily.

The buffet bar was very crowded all the time but the food was OK.

I found the service friendly and good and officers were seen about the ship often, but not one of them spoke to us.

Here is a tip: humans are predictable in their behavior, so if you want to avoid crowds, remember that and look for alternative places and times to do things and look for the quiet places on the ship. It works! Think about when will most people eat, go at a different time. Do people really explore or just go where the others are? The latter, so explore and you will find some great comfortable places.

So in summary, a good cruise experience on the whole, but we feel that Royal Caribbean is better, NCL is definitely better than Carnival in our opinion.

I hope this helps.

Very few common areas with a a view of ocean or even sunlight.

The ship seemed extremely crowded.  

The staterooms are very cramped.

It's hard to get bar service - all bars are very crowded.

The entertainment staff is dismal.

The Escape Room was great.

The food was above par.

We were on a four day cruise and the entire time it was cold, rainy and very windy. We barely were able to sit at the pool.  In Nassau the sand on the beach was blowing so hard that we had to leave after about  one hour.  Also, we were supposed to go to the private island, which was canceled because of the weather. We ended up docked at the port in Nassau until the following afternoon. The only day we were able to sit outside comfortably was on our way back to port...that is until the wind started blowing hard again.  It was my daughters first cruise and she was mostly looking forward to going to the beach.

The cruise ship was nice and we enjoyed several of the activities, especially the Ice Bar. We understand that the cruise line can't do anything about the weather, but it was very disappointing.

Highlights:

1 - Food was very good across the board

2 - Room Service was excellent

3 - Music entertainment was very good.  We enjoy dancing together and there were multiple venues for that.  Love the dining room with dance floor (Manhattan's).

4 - Kudos to "The Manhattan Band".  Great music and enjoyable.  Our favorite band on the boat

5 - Stage shows, comedians and Cirque show were all very good.  Great talent, good lighting, music and sound was excellent

Suggestion:

1.  Stage Shows were excellent (Burn the Floor and Pricilla Queen of the Desert), but we felt the content of the Pricilla show was a little to edgy for a general cruise ship audience.  We heard many similar comments from  other folks (people we didn't know - just chats on the cruise).  A more mainstream show would be more appropriate and better received by the majority of passengers

2.  Stay on St Thomas was too short (8am-2pm).  Made the port stay feel a bit rushed and could not enjoy as much as St Thomas has to offer.

Enjoying my friends and family on the cruise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE THE DRINK PACKAGE

This ship had only 2 locations if you wanted some peaceful time on deck. One location provided no shade and said it was an adult area Deck 15. The other location on Deck 18 the top deck which of course is the smallest had no shady areas. There were only three restaurants and the buffet area that did not charge extra for meals. The two restaurants provided the same menu each day offering limited choices. The buffet offered huge choices but was like a cattle call with not enough seating to accommodate enough passengers at the various times. The wait staff and bar personnel were outstanding. Entertainment was very good. Would I cruse again with NCL not because of the above reasons.

Our favorite part was the friendliness of the staff.  Everything else could use improvement!  Our trash was not picked up twice and dirty towels were left in the bin once.  One could hear every word the next door neighbors said on their balcony like it was magnified.  We have not ever experienced anything like this before.  The location of the Casino was offensive and dangerous because it was also a throughway from the main dining room and the theatre.  It was difficult to find the library and we never did find the sports activities!

Attention to detail from the crew and officers! Meals and show were great! Days on the water to ports were entertaining. Excursions were great Zip lining on Tortola ,Scuba  Coki Beach dive center, looking forward to next year!

Everything about the Epic is big...too big.

The food was excellent. The lines to long.  Not enough seating.

The Specialty Restaurants were excellent....hard to get reservations.

The entertainment was good...hard to get reservations...EVERYTHING is a reservation. 

You could smell smoke on three decks...you have no other way to get certain places.

Getting on and getting off were a hassle. 

I expected better from NCL.

The only good part of this cruise was the Cerce Dinner Show. The highlight of my cruise. The food was good at the Chinese Dinner. Most other places were not fine dining. Even the ones i paid for. I lost 200.00 that was supposed too be refunded too me when we added a room too reservation too start with and was told on board ship too take it up with Miami. Too top that off a show i had reservation for was cancelled and never was i told or made other arrangements. All in all i woul not recommend this cruise too a friend or family and would not take it again myself unless it was given too me. I have cruised 5 times before this one. I was put under the kids zone too..... never informed of that either. This cruise sucked. My son broke his foot, on the steps you make us pay for medical...... 

My favorite part was the entertainment, otherwise I was not impressed with this cruise.  Standing in line for everything from food service, elevators, bar and grill was terrible. We stood in line for over 45 minutes (2nd in line) to get into the "Taste" restaurant - this is absolutely ridiculuous. Even when we went to Port canaveral to board the ship; the ship was late due to weather (no one can predict this) but we stood in line for 4 hours; then we were let into a holding area for another 2 to 3 hours and finally boarded the ship.  When we asked if we could be supplied with bottled water (a minimum request); we were told it is not our responsibility.  The food was not impressive; my husband was very sick from the Italian restaurant; as well as I was quite sick from Lasagna in the "Taste" restaurant. My balcony room was good, and very pleased with room service.  This trip has left both my husband an myself not wanting to go on any other cruises. The person from your company that booked our cruise had made a terrible error in our destination as well.  As well when we booked our snorkel adventure for the private island when we arrived on the ship we were told that the underwater statutes, etc were destroyed last year by a hurricane (2016) - we booked the adventure within the last two months before the cruise then I only received the cruise credit of $60 not the converted refund of $80 (which I paid Cdn). I am very disappointed in this cruise.

The ship is a really cool ship but when the ship is full you cannot get access to the restaurants or the shows.Paid for the dinner packages they were sold out the entire cruise. I would recommend going on a smaller ship with less people.Buffet was dried out food with tons of preservatives that make you blotted. 

The rooms & housekeeping staff are great on this ship & that is all. The rest of the staff are rude. There is was no phone service not even the ship phones worked. The internet didn't work. Do to this we were unable to get ahold of our business & lost some very large sales. We did have the internet package & had our phones (3) linked with the Epic & they didn't work, everyone on the ship had the same problem. We had seen food on the floor & watched workers (staff) look at it & keep on walking like it wasn't even there. Service on ship was slow & sloppy. We were very disappointed in the ships' service. Thankfully the people traveling with us are not letting their sailing, are not going to let them not try another NCL cruise. We will NOT reccommand the EPIC to anyone.

The Thermal Spa Suite and Jamaica made my trip amazing. The specialty restaurants were a great bonus, but the complimentary dining was very good too. The Crew really makes the Norwegian Freestyle Cruising work, because they go out of their way to make accommodations that make your stay great. The Spa staff, and room attendant Mark on deck 14 made the cost of staying on the Spa floor well worth the money!  The negative experiences I had did not involve Norwegian at all, but complaining people can be annoying. People should keep in my mind that the ships are huge and if you don't like people this is not a vacation for you!