Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Love NCL and their beverage package. This ship seemed to have lacked the usual level of excellence NCL provides. The staff were less informed and often gave conflicting information. The food in the no extra money restaurants was only good, not great. The tenders used on the stops was chaotic and unorganized, resulting in long waits on both shore and from the boat. 1 and 1/2 hour wait one time. Drink lines at times were rediculously long. Need more staff. 

I have been on over 20 cruises with various lines including NCL.    The experience on the NCL Epic was unique and second-rate.    

The ship holds 4100 passengers.    One strategy to optimized space relates to the cabin layout.    When you open your cabin door you walk between the toilet and shower stall.    The toilet and shower both have sliding semi-translucent doors.   The arrangement is functional, but can be uncomfortable when answering the door or desiring privacy.  

The public spaces on the ship struggle to support the large passenger capacity.    The solution is a reservation system that can be accessed with the television in the cabin or at the box office location.     It important to make your reservations early in the week or risk missing a show.     Speaking of shows, Priscilla; Queen of the Desert, a story about two drag performers and a transgender woman traveling across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret, was an unusual show for a family cruise.   To be fair the production quality was spectacular, but it was not kid friendly.  

The food service was just bad.     At closing time, I watched the main buffet staff literally pull food pans from passengers that waited in line and dump it in the trash.     The main dining room could not service my wife’s and child’s gluten free requirements.       The service staff was not aware of the ships wine purchase program.    The waiters were slow to clear the table of plates.   Water glasses were not serviced.     Securing a glass of ice tea was a challenge.     The quality of the food was hit and miss.     Too much focus has shifted to the buy up dining options in the cruise industry.

At the islands, waiting for a tender requires a good book and a comfortable chair.

When visiting the NCL private island, I recommend taking the last tender.    Grab a chair on the beach and monitor the line.

NCL is a good cruise line.    I traveled on the NCL Dawn this summer and would rebook tomorrow.      The Epic and staff just need to be scrapped.

It all started with the port that can't handle a ship the passenger size of the Epic. Lines to get in line. Lines at the bar, lines at the buffet and lines at the restaurants. Some of the staff was over worked or at least they acted like it. I've taken the Epic before and loved it but I doubt we will ever cruise on it again. Even guest services had a line that was beyond the length of the room before they called in additional staff to help. The time you spend in line is time away from enjoying your vacation. Our cabin boy was great and the entertainment was great. The islands we visited were very good ports of call. We also got sick with the flu. We washed our hands at every opportunity and still ended up with a bad case of the flu. I won't blame this on the epic as it could have been the plane but we still were very sick for 24 hours or more each. On those days we stayed in our room and didn't expose anyone else. We had fun but the lines made it ridiculous.

The voyage was delayed purposely by the captain so we could witness a launch of a satellite from Cape Canaveral. That was an amazing sight to behold. Another check off my bucket list!

The Epic itself I would not recommend. The room

 configuration is unique and creates for very short beds. At 5'7" my son's feet hung over the end. Also, if you get specialty dining and have not signed up before you embark, it is difficult to get a reservation. With the assistance of Olivia and my son's gold status we were able to get our three specialty dining opportunities. We went to Cagney's twice and the Brazilian steak house the third time. The Shanghai restaurant is excellent and Noel served us well.A couple of issues with the ship: this was the first cruise after their transatlantic and the ship still had Barcelona time, some of our pictures even said they were taken in Barcelona. Also the shower had mold and the hair dryer overheated. When I called housekeeping they said to call back another time. I texted my son's and they went to customer service who then sent an on call person and the messyshe received was we wanted our room turned down. By the end of the week the crew was more interactive and animated. Not sure if it was related to the time difference. Three great shows in the theater: "Burn the Floor", "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" and the three comedians. 

The showks in the dueling piano place were good. The one magician you could not see his tricks. He needed to be on a higher platform.

The housekeeping and wait service was gone down greatly over the years. We had  issues with our room attendant. Many issues were not addressed until the fifth day. Utilized items were not replaced until the fifth day as well. Medicine went missing after my initial complaint with the front desk. 

Utilization of the ultimate beverage package was restricted by lack of wait staff and long wait times in general dinning rooms (may have been intentional). When attending shows in the main theater there were only two wait staff for the entire theater.

Many guest missed the ability two visit two ports because the tender process was so unorganized. 

At restaurants you would be seated and 30 min would go by prior to having a waiter even take your drink order.  Inconsistent supply at different bars and restaurants. 

I love the cirque dinner show. It is our favorite. We had been on this ship before but it didn't seem nearly as crowded. We found this trip way over crowded and did not enjoy it as much as before. The crew seemed very rushed. Specialty dining sold out in 2 days so we paid for a dining package and had to fight to use it. Overall it was a decent trip. 

Overall it was very good and just what I expected. More shows on the schedule would help a lot. The shows were all booked full by the second day. My steward was excellent and very attentive. After waiting to be seated in the Manhattan or Taste restaurants for 20-30 minutes, I could see that there were several open tables available as we walked to our table yet there were many others still waiting to be seated. Once in the dining room though, the service was excellent!

This is the 3rd cruise we have been on, and the worst cruise experience. We purchased this with the $1000 onboard credit, and free wifi. When we arrived we were told we did not get either. The staff was not helpful, just treated like they did not care. The stateroom was clean, the stateroom steward was OK. We ate at the Garden Cafe during the cruise, the food was not good, most was overcooked and dried out, condiments were out for several meals. Like the evening they served shrimp but had no shrimp sauce. The assistant maitre D were crabby to the wait staff. There were only 2 small pools for swimming, rest of the deck was taken up with waterslide, and 6 hot tubs. We would not recommend this cruise line, there are much better.

 It was a really nice time and a really beautiful ship. I am previously a carnival cruiser but I have enjoyed the Norwegian experience. The entertainment was way better than on Carnival, not even close.  I was not however impressed with the free style dining, I like to know what time I'm going to dinner and get to know my waiter, and really experience the same dinner with the same people every night.  The other thing I did not like was the huge long line to get on the ship it took hours and it was really disorganized. There was only three lines to get through security but there were eight booths so I don't know what happened, but I didn't like it.  As a suggestion I would have liked to seen an  intermediate or advanced salsa, cha-cha and merengue class, for a couple who know how to dance already, and I would've liked to seen a more advanced "canvas by you" for people who really know how to paint but that's just a suggestion.  Overall it was a pleasure thank you 

It took three hours to get to on the ship! Help! Overall food and bar service was very slow. The Priscilla show was awful! The bathroom pods in the room are a joke. The rest of the ship is beautiful. The disembarkation process is very unorganized! But other than that, it was a nice cruise. 

Favorite part was the unlimited beverage package. Without it, we would have gone insane. We met some great bartenders who crafted some new delicious cocktails as well! Lets starts off, this was my first cruise in Port Canaveral and with my children. The Port was extremely unorganized and took over 2 hours to board, and almost 2 hours to disembark. The Epic only had 3 shows, 1 of which had to be paid for...no thanks. The childcare was only open for a couple hours at a time, kinda hard to get them in at exactly that time to maximize the time. Saunas and spa area all had to be paid for to use it. The wait times at the Manhattan and Taste were all around an hours to 2 before we got food, thank God for iPad's and kindles. The food was delicious though. Our room was tiny, the toilet door and shower door (both separate) were basically transparent. I would not go back on the Epic.

Embarkation and Disembarkation was really bad experience.

the cabin was not clean and sheets were not changed even once during 7 days cruise

the food selection was really good and above expected.

The show burn the floor is excellent

Ship is too big for old people to navigate.  Some of our party had to take rests to get from the cabin to the buffet.  Shows tickets were never available.

Food was great in the buffet.  Dinner at 2 1/2 hours took too long.

Bars and specialty restaurants were excellent.  Had a balcony room and it was well laid out and plenty of storage.  Housekeeping provided excellent service. Good entertainment.  Very clean and bright.  Everything was well scheduled and communicated.

A few things that could be improved: 

General dining was mediocre at best.  Most of the 16th floor food was cold and not very fresh.  No round the clock specialty dining such as deli sandwiched, pizza, Asian (such as I have experienced on other cruise lines). 

Boarding process was slow and difficult.

De boarding process was slow and disorganized.

Pools were too small and uninviting.

Staff was generally pleasant, but not particularly outgoing or helpful (I think this may have been due to the language/culture differences).

Need to produce printed maps of the ship. 

Overall, our group enjoyed the cruise very much and would recommend it.  The price was reasonable and there were no "surprise" charges.   However, a few improvements (as listed above) could make this an "A" rated experience.

Brent Gregory

l liked the single studio room VERY Much! What a great concept for those who are widowed or single or just traveling solo. And the price was reasonable vs, other cruise lines. A++++++ for that.

Not a huge fan of free style dining as this was the only thing offered. There were wait lines, and many times our entire group (13) could not sit  with one another. And when we requested a waiter, that never happened either. So a little disappointed in that area. Food was above par- entertainment was excellent. Casino dynamic was just not there....dealers were not overall very friendly, had a couldn't care less attitude. I'm very spoiled by Carnival and their staff's desire to get to know you by name and they still rank higher for me overall. 

1. Would not Recommend Norwegian Cruise Line to others.

2. Embarkation and Disembarkation at Port Canaveral took way to long and in both events there was virtually no communications from Norwegian or its crew.

3. Stateroom still needed cleaning after getting in at 2:30 PM, Embarkation process started at 10:30 AM.

4. Taste and Manhattan main dining rooms very inefficient service and in Manhattan Dining Room; Starter was wrong, Entre was incorrect, Cocktails wrong, dessert wrong and I did not appreciate arguing with waiter that all was incorrect as he stated it was what I ordered.

5. La Cuccina  service terrible.

6. Le Bistro service and food excellent.

7. Cagney's very good.

8, Bar and Lounge service wholly inadequate; often times took 15 minutes to place order and 15 minutes to receive order.

The only good thing was the food. We waited over 2 hours in line to get on the ship .The muster drill was over when we got on . All our other cruises had the drill after all passengers were on board. The entertainment was in areas where you had noise from other venues and a lack of seating . Hair dryer did not work right . Cabin was not cleaned as well as it should have been .Some of the room service {we did not use } items from other cabins were left in the hall all day . All the music on this ship was blasting . You had to almost yell to be heard . We talked to at least a dozen other passengers and all agreed this ship was terrible .

Overall crowds were staggering. We knew we were going on a LARGE ship

but crowds everywhere. We are very experienced cruisers, were on 3 other NCL ships.

Frowned upon having to pay for shows, and stand in line for tickets.

Perhaps meant for the young at heart.

This is the first cruise review I have ever written. I have been on NCL a few times and have loved the cruise line. This cruise was different then any cruise I have ever been on. While the variety of restaurants was fantastic, a few times the service was not so good. It took for ever to get our food and they messed up our orders. Our cabin steward was so good the entire time, he just never exchanged our wet beach towels. I'm sure he would have if I had asked.The worst part of the cruise was trying to get a drink. We never had a waiter come to where we were sitting, to take our order for a drink, the entire cruise. We had to go to the bars to get one, and the wait times to get your order taken was at least 10 minutes every time. These poor bartenders were running their butts off. It just seemed like the entire ship was way under staffed.

Way too many people for the crew to handle. Embarkation and disembarkation was a disaster. Way too long for both. I followed the line off the ship down to customs and out the door without my luggage. No signs indicating where to go for luggage. Had to find a porter to get me back inside to find the suitcases, then had to go through customs again. More paperwork. It took 2 hours from time we left the cabin until we reached our car. They charge for entertainment. $29 for regular seating and $39 for premium seating. I have never had to pay to be entertained. The ports of call were nice. It rained in St. Thomas which curtailed activities.