Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

the worst cruise ever  room to small  didn't stop in  jamicai  because said it was to windy but a another ship what in 20 min later  most of the staff was rude  food in buffet was gross. elevator keep locking out or had  to wait on them all the time .teenage getting away with smoking and drinking in the smoking area would not take a cruises with Norwegian if I didn't aready  have a cruises book with them hope the breakaway is better

On boarding process 2 1/2 hr wait no water no communication no shade. They waited on the bus and hr for transfer to the dock. No Hanukkah at all even though the cruise is advertised as such on ncl.com. no communication about the Tenders and reservations.  Told we need in day 1 welcome info that large parties need a reservation but when we call told only after 830 at night . Room vent covered in dust/ clogged. No enforcement of the no holding chairs on the pool deck after 2 hrs. No enough staff to assist the guests. Lack of power for the staff to help guests with issues. I heard "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do" over and over. Canceling our excursion because it wasn't finished, even advertising it and allowing us to book and pay for it without it being done. And then we don't find out until the excursion tickets are delivered to the room.  Lines with lines at guest relations and the shore excursion staff had only 2 people at the desk. They closed early at 9:00pm, we had to leave our to talk -see 830 dinner reservation-to discuss the shore excursion issue. Nickel and dimed for food menu items, even in the "complimentary" ( not so much since we paid for the cruise) dinning rooms there were up charges for certain menu items. Denny- customer service assistant manager- couldn't make the reservation for dinner so we once again ate late ...children disappointed by missing Jamaica..but not as important. App works poorly. Difficulty trying to reach other parties. No notification sounds when receiving a text. No updated information on app. No times for kids activities in the Entourage, no times the stores close . Teen lounge not available for teens hang out in. Why have a,teen lounge if you can't use the teen lounge except for the planned 11:30pm parties. No way to link 1 family in 2 staterooms. Kept the accounts separate when they should have been blended. Waited in line to pick up photos, got to the front of the line, then told I had to move to another line and wait. Poor signage and directions. Never printed our friends photos that they paid for! They tried to get them 4 times and then had to leave the ship. Save your money and go on a different cruise line. Very Disappointing!

I enjoyed my time with NCL, this Christmas break.  I enjoyed good food and company and was able to get some much needed rest.  I stayed in a balcony and felt the rooms could be larger to accommodate room to move around.  

This was our first cruise with Norwegian and it seemed to be riddled with issues:

- continuous shaking by the ship was keeping us up all night like someone continuously shaking us awake.

- bathroom design did not provide privacy at the sink and the sink was too small and water was splashing everywhere.

- after repeated reports that our sink was clogged, finally after 3rd day, the sink was fixed.

- 2 adults in our party were not given UDP (Ultimate Beverage Package) cards at check-in and they made spend our vacation time at Guest Services to remedy.

- while taking photos with one of the photographers on the evening of Christmas, the photographer left us because their camera was malfunctioning and another photographer did not take their place (we liked the particular background).

- when we tried to purchase pictures on the day of departure before 10:00 am, we were told we could not even though it was advertised to be available at that time.

- suddenly the room key did not work and we had to wait for security to fix the issue at our door.

- suddenly one of the persons in our party with a UBP card was denied at the bar to get a beverage.  We had to spend our vacation time at Guest Services to remedy.

- on departure day, we were stopped before leaving the ship to tell us there was a balance of $0.85 that had to be paid out-of-pocket even though we had a credit card on file.

- the bartenders seemed to make virgin drinks often instead of adding the full shot.  Once when they were told about this and asked to add the alcohol, they seemed to be put out and would drown the drink in alcohol out of spite to the point it overflowed and made a mess.

This cruise & ship were the most unorganized chaotic experience.  Very ill prepared; from boarding which took 4 hrs., it took min. of 1 hr. to get off/return from excursions,  no amenities offered for missing a port of call (no Jamaica)-no plan "b"

workers with our daughter 4 wanting a blanket, couldn't get specialty dining that we paid 4 til last nite, holiday decorations were poor, our cruise consisted of waiting on line hours out of the day-as a result of poor management-I was told 4,500 passengers ma'am-they knew that prior to leaving-be prepared!   4 hrs. to board

is outrageous missed bon voyage send off.   When we stopped @ ports of call other cruise ships docked beside us (no lines from Holland or Disney).  We were at Port Canaveral 12:30 & didn't get on the ship til 4:30-was told to go to Deck 15 to get lunch-get there was turned away told you must go to deck 6  for orientation get there-told we got there too late you must come back tomorrow-are u kidding?  At that point we had nothing to eat since breakfast.  We were now worried about the rest of the trip & with good reason.  Never again Norwegian-they can't hold a candle to Princess!  So many other passengers complained as well-one couple we met were on their 15th cruise & said it was their worst.  We met a couple from Holland who advised in advance the wife was in a wheelchair & were assured no problem but there were when getting off the ship.  So when friends & family asked what we did on our cruise we said wait on line, wait on line, wait on line!

Beautiful cruise ship!

Excellent food!

Your staff is simply unbelievable.  Excellent service, very polite, courteous and extremely hard working.  Please make sure auto-tipping goes to your staff.

Pool chair etiquette:  The ONLY item I can suggest for improvement is to educate passengers on pool chairs.  I would do this during the safety presentation when ALL passengers are present.  The practice of setting a towel, or bag on a chair to "reserve" in the AM, to not return for many hours is something you should not be allowed, and inform passengers that their items will be removed if not used for 1-hour.

There is only so many chairs above deck, and seeing chairs not being able to be used for hours on end while other paying passengers wandered around was disappointing and frustrating.

Entertainment options were an A+.

We loved the comedians, burn the floor dance show, as well as drag queen show (cant remember the name).

Would have loved to see the Jamaican band play sooner and longer on 15th floor as they were the best band on the ship!!!

I would recommend your cruise line to anyone who would listen, simply fantastic!

The biggest disappointment was the lack of enforcement of "adult only" areas.  No place was sacred.  Kids in the casinos, the bars late at night, adult comedy shows... They were everywhere and allowed to harass you.  The adult pool area is near the teen club and they refill their drinks at the bar.  They also have up charge prices in the dinner menu (tacky and seemed like a racket).  The staff is not very friendly.  We got a great deal on this cruise and might cruise Norwegian again, but not the Epic.  

Our family loved every minute of the cruise, both the well appointed ship, the courteous crew, the fab entertainment, the great restaurants and our onshore excursions!

Everything about Norwegian tops the other cruise lines!

The cruise was great but with a few issues. Room I was in was warm, had temp as cold as it can be but it will not get to that temperature.  I mean it was a little cool at times but for most part it was a slight warm. Food was great except the complimentary Chinese restaurant the waitress never came back to check on us for a refill on beverage and we never got our desert so we left. Also they need better entertainment cause it was mediocre. I mean u have parties but it ends early cause people leave or not show up cause of no good dance music to attract people . Other than that it was a good cruise and it's good for a family cruise and I would recommend it for that purpose.

The cruise started out as a great deal. The price was less than the Royal Caribbean with the free drink package and 3rd person free. The problem is when you get on board, there are lots of needed extras that are not needed on other cruises. The inability to communicate with your family was unacceptable. The Internet restrictions were also unacceptable. The rooms were so tiny that we struggled to get ready when all 3 of us were there. To get to almost anywhere, you were required to walk through the casino which was not good for my daughter due to her breathing issues. I will not say it was the worst vacation, however, there were a lot of hidden charges that I didn't anticipate which would have made the Royal Caribbean the better value. Lesson learned....you always get what you pay for. 

The food options were great and plentiful. But the disembarkment was long, ALL the elevators were painfully slow the entire cruise, and the room attendant NEVER gave us enough towels. Even when we went to hunt him down for towels, he never seemed to have enough. My sister and her family said they had the same problem. Their room key cards also got de-magnetized because they keep them all too close to their cell phones. (Something that should have came with a warning upfront.) But the entertainment venues and casino areas were nice on the cruise.

What a great cruise! The Norwegian Epic is HUGE and we were worried it would be crowded with over 4000 souls on board - but Norwegian has it all worked out.  The activities are throughout the ship so everyone is not all crammed into one space.  The only show we saw was 'Priscilla' and it was FANTASTIC!  Best show we've seen on a cruise!  The shopping on board was nice, but there isn't much to buy for an infant or toddler.  There were many restaurants to choose from and the ines we visited were very good.  The rooms are nice and roomy.  However, I won the BINGO game our first day and won an upgrade to THE HAVEN!!  We spent the rest of the cruise in a 2-bedroom suite with all the amenities that come with being In the Haven!  Thank you, Norwegian, for that opportunity!  The ports - we had 3 stops.  The first was Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  We had the whole day there, but there wasn't an excursion we wanted to do so we shopped for only an hour before being done and returning to the ship.  The next day we had half a day at St Thomas, USVI.  We (as well as many other people we spoke to) wish we had a whole day there instead of Tortola, as there was so much more to do.  We did the Champagne Catamaran Cruise to St John and snorkeled.  Great time, great people, but that was all we could do in the timeframe.  I personally missed shopping on St Thomas.  Our 3rd port was Great Stirrup Cay!  And by far the BEST port on our trip!  This private island is truly paradise!  Get there early as the chairs fill up by early afternoon.  Again, thank you, Norwegian, for a wonderfully relaxing trip to start our Christmas holiday! 

We found communications were lacking on this particular cruise compared to previous cruises with NCL and even on a previous Epic sailing.  We rarely knew port times ahead of arrivals.  Disembarking was especially confusing.  We were told to monitor announcements on our TV, CH 21, but heard none.  Port Canaveral's customs access with regards to getting our baggage (walk-offs) was especially a mess!  We had to wait in the terminal for at least a half hour to access our baggage and proceed to customs.

The bridge should be able to override all TV channels when they make special announcements.

The cruise itself was okay....however for me the floor plan of this ship's cabins for me hurts its review.  I had a large balcony cabin (mid-ship), the shower and toilet are separate from each other.  The shower on one side with a frosted door out in the openness of the cabin and the toilet with a frosted door on the other side in the openness of the cabin.  You can hear everything that goes on in the water closet which is disgusting...I'm not sure who designed the cabins on this ship but they get two thumbs down from me.

Us verging islands and Norwegians private island,people were very nice on the cruise very helpful didn't like hotdogs buns in Shana Gans restaurant fell apart when you picked it up had to eat hotdogs with fork and knife.

Poor, never did this cruise line and never will again.  They charge for everything, service is specialty restaurants was poor, quality of the food in Brazilian style was  poor.  Staterooms are poorly designed, what's with the bath and shower being behind glass doors?  I have been cruising since 1979 and this one has made me rethink my vacations

It was a very good experience.  NCL did a very good job of entertainment and accommodations. I will recommend you to others. The specialty dining was great. The buffet was ok. All of the service persons were awesome. 

My favorite part of the cruise is the excellent service everybody provided.  The food was amazing, plenty of variety.  One thing they can significantly improve is the tendering, it was extremely disorganized and took a long time despite of having to make a reservation for a specific time, which was completely worthless. Will definitely go with Norwegian again. 

First of all almost everyone working on the cruise (with a few exceptions) seemed to be miserable and barely cracked a smile.  Even worse I had particular issues with the chamber maid who cleaned my room who was very rude and intrusive demanding that my boyfriend (who was staying with family in a separate cabin) was not allowed to be in my room which was a single.  She would continue to ask me when I saw her in the hallway "Is he still in there?" and talk as if she had authority over me "We need to talk"  Both of us paid for separate tickets for the cruise and it was really  none of her business if I had visitors in my room.  Very unprofessional and rude.  The food was very disappointing.  Even in the nicer restaurants that you paid extra for were very dicey whether you would get something cooked properly. I ordered pasta with clam sauce one night and the pasta was hard and under cooked and the sauce was like they poured a can of condensed soup on top. There were lots of times I didn't finish my food because it just wasn't good.  Entertainment was okay, some shows better than others.   Overall just okay, but specifically because of the service I would not cruise Norwegian again.   

Cold weather played a big part in our first 3 days at sea.  We could not go outside due to the cold and rain.  The sea's was very rough and made a lot of people seasick including me.  At some points the Customer Service desk was out of medication but after several attempts they finally were able to keep enough in for me to get some.  Even with all of this, the cruise was going well.

We were in a Mini Suite on the 13th floor.  The room was fair sized and the balcony was larger than most.  The bathroom arrangement was okay for us but I can see that it would not be good for other than a couple.  Only problem we had with the bathroom was that there was no fan for odor removal but an open balcony door helped.  Sink in room was nice for one person getting ready while other was in the shower or commode room. Otherwise the room was nice and the storage was over the top.  In truth there was too much storage and some space used for storage could have been used for other space in the room.

The television was a nice size but the programming left a lot to be desired.  There was one free movie channel with mostly old movies on it, one favorite TV station that showed old shows and there was no listing of what was playing.  There were large gaps of time between programs so you had to wait if you wanted to see next program.  They did have 3 news channels and we spent most of our time watching Fox News.  There was option to rent movies on TV for $9.99.

The food was exceptional.  We tried all of the included places and they were all good.  We do not often eat in the buffet but did try it and was very good.  Mainly we ate in the Manhatten Room where you could dance but they didn't always have a band or music so we did not get to dance much. The smaller food service areas were very good for a quick bite  during off hours.  Did not use room service because of the $7.95 charge.  Since I was not feeling well at times this was not good.

Entertainment was okay. Really enjoyed Burn the Floor but other entertainment was not to our liking.  Not very many places to enjoy a quite entertainment.

Port of Calls were run of the mill but did go ashore for shopping.  For once in St. Thomas, did some buying,  You could find beautiful clothes for very reasonable prices. Bought 2 evening dresses for $45.00.  The stop at the private island was mainly for people wanting to swim and sunbath but we did enjoy the shopping but did not buy.  Also, enjoyed the food served on the island. Loved the BBQ ribs and the pounds cakes were to die for.

While we find Norwegian Cruise Lines a cut above we will most likely not sail on the Epic again as we have done it already. Service was good and all staff but one was nice and polite.  They always have a greeting and smile for you.