Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Food and food service was the best!  

Entertainment was not very good

Communications was not very good as being a first timer on the ship and not being told that everything had to be reserved in advanced

Getting on the ship wasn't as long as getting off the ship. When the cruise was over, depating the ship took 4 hours. If your at port canavral grab a porter to check you out of the port and save 1.5 hours. Overall the cruise was great!

I will never, ever sail on this cruise line again.  Everything on this boat was chaotic.  It seemed the Garden Café served the same food every day, we could not get into the shows as they were already booked up before we boarded, there was no other entertainment except the casino (which I can do when I get home), and  disembarking this boat was a total disaster. 

We didn't get what we paid for  very Heart Broken lady died from to much alcohol we went to Nassau and not the private island.We never got off ship because we waited for the private island we never went to..Very upset & will not cruise Norwegian again. This was a very expensive balcony room and we save a long time to take this trip we are 73 and 75 ...

This was a wonderful cruise! Enjoyed the shows,the food,and the friendly service. The whole experience has two ugly black marks. The staterooms have what looks like a camper style shower and porta potty. Some people didn't seem to mind but I found it beneath the ships standards as everything else was so well done. Getting off the ship and out of the port, not the Epics fault, is a disaster. The port really needs better organization and planning. Leaving stateroom by 8:30 and finally able to get a taxi out of the port at 12:39 ruined the great mood I woke up in. I blame the port for that. Just know that going in. I was unaware. It will have to be an incredible offer for me to sail on the Epic out of Port Canaveral again

We were really excited about going on this trip, BUT We were quickly disappointed. The elevators stayed packed and it put everyone on edge. Customer service was horrific! You had to track someone down to get you a drink and then when you placed your order they seemed put out to do it. We had the ultimate drink package but it didn't include bottled water, juice or coffee like other boats do.

my husband drinks crown royal and by Wednesday several bars were out keep in mind, They had it for sale upstairs!

We found the guest service reps were even snippy, and the whole thing just put a sour taste in our mouths. This was our first and last Norwegian cruise.

Good Food. Enough to do while at sea. The design of the rooms was awkward did not like how the bathroom set up was with the glass doors.  Also I think that the curve in the middle of the room took away space.  I would recommend the cruise.

I booked a Large Balcony Stateroom and had a beautiful picture of it on my profile on the NCL website.  However upon checking in I discovered my Stateroom looked nothing like the photo!  I was very disappointed to find I was assigned to a hard walled balcony with a porthole.  I immediately contacted guest services who told me to come back after sailing.  While awaiting sailing time, I called NCL guest services and explained the situation and told them to put a complaint in writing on my account, which I was told did happen.  After sailing I returned to guest services only to be told I could not be moved since the ship was completely booked.  Based on this, I very likely will not be returning to sea on an NCL cruise.

This is the actual photo from my profile on the NCL website:

However, this is a photo of my actual Stateroom:

The best part of the cruise was  the entertainment.  Burn the Floor, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Cirque  Dreams were all fantastic.  The food was really good at the specialty restaurants and buffet was really good too. Ultimate beverage package is the way to go! Bowling was a unique experience as was the Ice Bar.

As for the service, we were not impressed.  Our cabin steward didn't talk unless we spoke to him. Kept the cabin ok but as for personality, left a lot to be desired. We thought being a big ship the service would have been a lot better. Needs improvement.

It was interesting to get to visit the off-shore ports of British Virgin Islands, U S Virgin Islands, and Nassau, Bahamas.  This was our first time in this area of the Atlantic Ocean.

We were amazed at the size of the Norwegian Epic ship.  It held and estimated 4,000 guests and some 1,200 crew.  It looked like a large floating hotel.  It functioned much like that also.  Imagine that many people moving around, trying to board and disembark, and trying to eat or use the sun deck at the same time.  It was an "experience".  

Since the cruise was intended for "Freesailing" we were pretty much expected to plan our own activity schedule.  The programming seemed oriented towards drinking and gambling on board.  Those were not of interest to us, so we did a lot of sun bathing.  Shore excursions were primarily beach and/or water activities.  Again not our thing, so we did disembark and walk around the port areas to see the territory.  

We did have a balcony room and we spent a lot of time on the balcony watching the sea and port areas and adjacent ships.  We enjoyed the balcony immensely.  

Our room was clean and spacious for the two of us.  The Room Steward did a super job keeping our room made up.  He was very friendly and helpful.

We did learn one thing during this experience - we would not take another cruise on such a large ship.  

What a mess getting on and off this ship.  Worst experienced in any of our cruises.

Food has gone on the cheap since our last Norwegian cruise.  No lobster without an upcharge for the whole week.  Only food in Cagneys rated top quality with us. Our mini-suite was a poor waste of space.  Cleaning of cabin varied from 10 AM to 4 PM during the cruise.  Main entertainment was terrible and offensive.  Design of ship allows outside space only around the pools.

It was our first cruise so we didn't know what to expect.  Overall we had a great time.  The ship was beautiful, our stateroom was comfortable and spacious, and our steward (Mhark) made it extra nice to come home to our "petting zoo" each night. :) The food - OH THE FOOD!!  There was always something new and plenty to eat every day.  We ate at Mortons twice using a dinner package. Both times were fantastic.  Our servers were simply amazing!  The care and service we received throughout the cruise was exceptional. Everyone works tirelessly for our benefit. I would offer just a few suggestions to enhance the experience even more: 

  1. The spa's floors pose a safety hazard and should have traction added.  We used the spa every day, and slipped on the floors every day.  My wife even fell down once.  With so much water present, it's a no brainer not to have slippery tiled floors, but that's what's there.  Be careful!

  2. It would be so nice to see the ship's position on the TV in our stateroom, but that wasn't available (or way too hard to find).

  3. Walking through the ship ultimately takes you through the casino.  If you're a non-smoker, prepare to walk through a haze to get from one side of the ship to the other.  Especially unpleasant when going to, or coming from a meal.

Finally, UnitedCruises took very good care of us too.  They were attentive when I had questions about the reservations process, and answered all my questions.  Really super customer service.  I'd recommend them to anyone and will likely use them in the future.  

We're grateful for this experience and look forward to another cruise soon.

the room staff was exceptional... the design of the ship and areas was great...

entertainment was fantastic...

Think the web needs to give a better concept visually of the ship. It would allow first stepping onto the ship to be more oriented and move this great mass.

once everyone was moving around well the it didn't feel so over crowded.

a lot of the dinning and food staff seemed a little over whelmed and worn out.  many did fantastic...

the convenience and location of our inside stateroom 12 deck forward the best peaceful and relaxing the food at the specialty restaurant was awesome for us being platinum members we were very well spoiled easy embarkation to disembarkation we love Norwegian Cruise line

This was our 4th Norwegian cruise and our first (and last) cruise on the Epic. Although a beautiful ship, it is not well designed or managed for the large number of passengers. All venues and restaurants seemed over crowed and the staff seemed less friendly than previous cruises.

We enjoy Norwegian's free-style dining but restaurants required reservations that were often not available. Although the technology was there, the different methods of making reservations did not work well. Food was good, about the same as previous cruises. We had a 3 meal dining plan which is good because the optional restaurants can be very expensive.

One bright spot was the cruise director, Pedro. He was very friendly and funny.

Next cruise will be on one of the smaller ships - the Pearl has been our favorite so far.

Specialty Dining was Great.  Overall a good cruise!

There were 11 of us cruising together.  We all agreed.

Smallest rooms in all of the ships cruising the Caribbean.

Between us we have been on over 60 cruises.

Rooms were Terrible!!!!

BJ"s  should tell everyone about the small rooms on the NCL EPIC

Both inside and balcony.  Small, poor lighting, sink in the cabin, not in

the bathroom.  No NCL cruises from Port Canaveral until the Epic is gone.

I've sailed on most lines many times and while the room was fine, the food was great, I felt crew to passenger ratio was inadequate and the facilities/layout/passenger handling processes need improvement.  My observations are as follows:

The port slip size, traffic flows, etc are simply not adequate to handle a ship with this many passengers - we drove right up to the unloading area and waited an hour before we were directed to a spot where our shuttle could unload.  We then stood in what seemed to be a very unorganized line wrapping several times around the baggage handling area for another almost 2 hours until we got to the security and eventually the check-in desk, got our room keys and could head up to our room.  We got to the elevators and waited another 30 mins before we could get on one to go up.  I thought it might just be the business of everyone boarding but found long lines and wait times to be the norm throughout the cruise.  From constant lines from elevators, to dining, shows, going in and out of ports, etc.  There were shows we couldn't see, activities we couldn't do and services we couldn't take advantage of.  My advise would be to make reservations for everything you might want to see/do online ahead of your cruise but you should still plan on fighting crowds for all the first-class, first served dining opportunities, for activities, loading/unloading exercises at embarkation, each port, disembarkation, buffets, elevators, bars, casino, etc. etc.  From my experience, you will find yourself standing in a line, waiting for something for no less than 8 hours during the week.  You may also find yourself unable to do or see something's onboard or participate in certain shore excursions as well.  In short, I think they need to repurpose certain areas, change assanger flows/processes and extend activity hours, number of shows, and/or increase crew/decrease passenger count to make the cruise more enjoyable.

Need to redesign your bath area in the cabins, poor design.

Your meals in the dining room need to be upgraded.

Need to get your personnel in the dining room better trained in serving the customer.

I would not suggest someone take this cruise.

great entertainment; fair food quality in main dining; great food in specialty dining.

Minimum # of characters is stupid for this review 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

got emough now?

This was our third Norwegian cruise and the staff was super friendly and professional, the shows and entertainment was fantastic(except the comics, who were really bad), and the dining was great.  Unfortunately, we failed to look closely at the cabin layout prior to arriving.  You have no separate bathroom.  The teeny-tiny, hard to reach and often clogging sink is in the room at the end of one bed.  Yes, you can sit on the bed and brush your teeth.  The toilet and shower are on each side of the door and have a thin piece of frosted acrylic for a door.  There is very little privacy..... very very little.  If you are sharing a cabin, make arrangements to have the cabin to yourself when nature calls or otherwise it will be as if everyone is sharing the experience with you..... The cabin layout makes this cabin tighter and more cramped feeling that any cabin I have stayed in and I have sailed 4 different cruise lines.  Outside of the cabin, the ship is very nice and the staff made it enjoyable.