Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Nice Itinerary and port stops

Service was fair at bars but poor when it came to waiter/waitress (especially pool side).

Guest services wait lines was terrible (2x over 24 min).

Food was good, but not great.

Entertainment was poor (sold out shows and charging for shows).

Very big ships = long lines.

Staff was friendly but seemed overwhelmed.

Management was very effective in hiding when needed.

This was our first cruise and we loved it! Norwegian Cruisr Lines does a wonderful job of planning activities throughout the day and night, as well as shore excursions. Our cabin was clean and spacious and we loved having a balcony. 

Overall it was a nice cruise but not the best I've been on. Did not like that there was only one dining option at 10pm. One restaurant with about 5 menu choices. It was a newer ship which was great. We had a balcony room which was nice and spacious. Our housekeeping lady was the most helpful and pleasant. Other workers we dealt with were not as knowledgeable or helpful. Some of the activities did not go as planned or did not commence at the times listed on the schedule. The food was okay. Ship was clean. Ports of call were great.

My wife got really sick while on the cruise. To make a VERY long story short- she was asked to leave the ship because the ship didn't want to treat her, and it was easier for them just to dump us in a foreign non-english speaking hospital- so the moral is just don't get sick on a cruise!!!!!!!

We were hesitate about this vacation after it was rescheduled and several changes to entertainment but  enjoyed every minute! We started with the 7 day land tour by Gate1 Tours. Our tour guide, Emanuela, was number one in her field!  She spoiled us all week by escorting us from Venice through Florence and Rome. She scheduled all tours, some lunches and dinners. We saw everything Norwegian advertised. The tour guides for our excursions on Norwegian Cruise were good but found they gave us a lot of facts and information but generally left us at the location to tour by ourselves and then brought us back to the ship. All the specialty restaurants were included for us and we enjoyed all of them. The were excellent!

Let me start by saying that overall my experiences at each Port was incredible.  The guides for the tours were very knowledgeable and made the Cruise experience tolerable.  Norwegians Free Style Dining means that unless you are willing to pay extra you only have 2-3 options for eating and only at select times.  Also the food is mediocre at best.  Also if you book the spa they automatically add a gratuity fee before you even have service.  My appointment started late and I did not get the full 50min I paid for. Don’t waste your money on this.  Also if you call for Room Service the on-hold message is “You will be DEALT with shortly”.  The crew was not knowledgably overall and very rude most of the time.  Also if you try to exchange US Dollars for Euros they first off turn your $400.00 US into $396.00 + charge a fee and the exchange is well below the current rate – best to either use your bank before or go to an exchange at any port city. Also we met several people that had even worse experiences than ours and were not happy either.  I will NEVER cruise with Norwegian again.

Had an awesome experience on Norwegian Epic and met a lot of great people. It was a beautiful modern ship and clean!

The staff is wonderful and very very friendly. The only drawback is that there were a lot of people due to a couple of weddings. Ohh and the food in the Manhattan Room was not great but whatever, there are plenty of other restaurants that you can choose from.

If you are a young couple or enjoy a big party, than this is the ship for you. I felt like we were at one big party and everyone was involved and enjoying themselves. I particularly enjoyed how the staff decorated the ship for Halloween and some of the staff were dressed up...this made me smile.

The sites were amazing but I highly recommending doing your research for the best excursion deals and do not book an excursion everyday, try doing Hop on Hop Off tours in between. If you do an excursion everyday you will be exhausted and wont enjoy the ship that much...that's my opinion of course! :)

NCL Epic tendered in Cannes, France.  

Me and my boyfriend went on this cruise and I felt that it could have been better.  This was my first time sailing NCL.  I have sailed on Disney before and Disney was way better than this one.  For one, there were not enough activities on the boat.  I am an African American and I did not find the entertainment to be diverse enough or the food.  I found every ethnic dish except the ones that cater to African American and West Indian cuisine.  There was Asian, indian, French and every other food imaginable, except ours.  The live band played latin music almost every night and it was nice at first, but redundant by the end of the trip.  I also did not like some of the staff at the Craps table in the casino.  There was a young man there who didn't watch the table closely and if we weren't paying attention, we would have lost our money.  We had to keep reminding him to pay us every time we won.  I also did not like the fact that our time spent our Palma de Mallorca was cut in half.  I feel that NCL needs to let people know about hidden fees and shuttle fees and any other itinerary issues at the ports, before hand.  When we arrived to Cittivecchia, we had to catch a train into Rome. The train ride was over an HOUR long! I also did not like the mandatory gratuity service fee that we have to pay every day.  I will tip for good service, but I don't want to be forced or told what to tip, especially for services that have yet to be tendered. I don't think it's fair.  I may want to tip more than the mandatory $13.50 daily fee, but because I'm being forced, I'm turned off from tipping additional money.  I don't remember Disney doing this ever!  If it weren't for the port stops in the other cities, I wouldn't have enjoyed this cruise.  The ship lacks diverse entertainment and activities and music.  There is a lack of comedy shows and live performances.  However, they will find any and every reason to charge you for all sorts of hidden fees.  I don't think I will be sailing with NCL again.  They have to improve greatly in all of the areas I mentioned in order for me to return again.  Not pleased at all... Not diversified enough.

This was my first cruise and I was very impressed by the ship and the excursions. It was hectic but we did get to see many beautiful places.  I was a bid overwhelmed by the ship and all the people aboard and would probably next time choose a smaller ship and maybe not so hectic a schedule.  However, there was always plenty to do and the shows were very good as well as the places we ate at. The crew members were extremely polite and accommodating.  I was extremely impressed by them. 

Very Disappointing! The change of itinerary changed the trip to not what I wanted to do and the compensation was not adequate. Not getting Latitudes credit of benefits was puzzling. The overall experience was disappointing.  The cabin did not meet expectation because of the balcony impairment. Service from our Cabin attendant was the high point of the cruise. The food was cold when served as a rule. Lines and waiting for everything is not a vacation. The shore excursion was OK but lacked value. The staffing, organization, and systems did not seem adequate for the number of passengers.  The rude and not helpful interaction with half the staff offset the other half's great service. The whole thing was not what I expected from Norwegian. It was a great disappointment which was matched with an indifferent response on every level. Hard to understand the marketing for return business.

It was a very enjoyable experience and we had a great time. The crew, as with all Norwegian crews, were really great. Very helpful and enthusiastic. Would highly recommend this cruise and any on Norwegian

Very disappointing.It started at Souuthampton,we had ordered three .wheelchairs,we sat in the lounge for ninety minutes.It took another thirty minutes to take us to the cabin.We next had a lifeboat drill,without life jackets.After travelling from London we were all Hungary.This proved too be very traumatic,with one blind passenger and two who are informed it was impossible for us to get a seat.The service in the Taste restaurant was poor,we were served coffee and on many occasions we would wait five minutes for milk.My friends and ourselves have travelled with Orient Lines and Norwegian Cruise Lines many times and this was nowhere near your usual high standard.Our overall impression is the ship is too big and is not suitable for disabled passengers.

We enjoyed the food, all of the ports, the specialty restaurant Shanghai, the ice bar, and our steward was outstanding.  Some problem areas:  my luggage did not show up until 11:00 the first night.  We ate at the bar restaurant and finally left because of the delay in receiving our food.  There simply wasn't enough staff to handle the number of seats in the bar area.  While the staff we encountered was very helpful,  they seemed overworked.  I do not think there were enough to handle the 4100 people on the ship. The employee/guest ratio on the larger ships is much less than on the 2200 passenger ships we have used in the past.

The cruise started off with some negatives as they changed the start date from Sunday to Monday and took off Malaga as a stop - they did offer to compensate financially, but the change not appreciated and we missed out on Malaga. The ship itself was very nice and clean with great activity options including water slides and a climbing wall. However, there were limited activities like dance classes or gym classes that we usually do on cruises. the person running a napkin folding workshop knew one fold, and that was it. He could not even follow the directions fro the other ones - although the line dancing was fun with a very enthusiastic teacher. Much of the bar staff was rude, although that's where the mixed bag comes in. We had some wonderful waiters and some rude ones, a wonderful bartender and rude waiters, and all of the room attendants were extremely friendly and did a wonderful job - always greeting us by name or a cute nickname and left fun towels creations on our bed each evening. Disembarkation and re-embarkation were quite smooth. So, a fun experience, but a mixed bag as far as quality of cruises.

We wanted to try a large ship just to see and we loved it. Amazing ship so large we didn't see all ...but what we did experience was wonderful. The dinning  options amazing and delicious. We only went to those restaurants included in the cruise price and loved them. The food was amazing only had one meal I didn't care for . Loved the idea of having over the counter scooped ice cream and frozen yogurt. A person making to,order crepes was a nice touch. He told me his mom taught him. He was so,proud. I made a point of letting kitchen higher ups know although I do think they dismissed my accolades .  As non-smokers we were concerned about smoke in public areas to our surprise and delight !! Hardly ever did you even think there were smokers ( and there were a lot)'on this ship  other ships could take pointers  our last cruise from Barcelona 2 yrs ago .. Not so pleasant .. Unable to spend time in public areas due to the smoke   Staff were gracious and helpful   The only issues we had were ;  1  onboard immigration process prior to disembarking in the UK  a total nightmare 4000(+) mandatory face to face in one day ridiculous  no for thought for elderly, small children , meals missed, no place to sit, congested areas literally waited hours on line !! With no explanation or apology   A total wasted day !! Still waiting for some form of explanation 2 . Lisbon disembarkation  port so not large enough for the number of passengers   Long lines to exit    3.'the disembarkation in Southampton was a nightmare !! Printed information was left in each stateroom explains a,process of self-selecting colored tags with corresponding times to,leave the ship stating "NO ANNOUNCEMENTS" for times will be made just simply leave during the corresponding timeframe ... Aaaaahhhh NOT !' Staterooms needed to be vacated by 9:30am   ....announcements were made !'!! ( huh!!!! ????!)  , limited to no staff direction , as 4000 people tried to find place to "wait" to be called  , people cut in the line ! One person got rather surly with my husband as he and his wife tried to,cut in front of us !' This is Not !!! I,repeat not how one wants to end their vacation. It was awful!!!! 

Never in all our years of crusing have we experience such  an unorganized ill informed disembarkation  !'people missed reserved coach and taxi reservations !! Many of us "walked " to the coach and train stations  as a result of that  and the limited number of taxis !'  We were lucky ! We walked the 20 min and were able to make our reservation into London !! Felt bad for those who were not so lucky! 

The staff was very friendly and were able to accommodate all requests.  The food was great and a wide selection was provided.  The excursions provided were wonderful and the ability to see so many different aspects of the city was a great informative treat. 

Everything was great.  Loved our room 13032, spacious,  the balcony was much larger than expected.  We ate mostly at buffet because the food was spectacular. ..so why change.  Your staff at the wave bar was fantastic.  Wish I remembered the name of the gentleman from Grenada.  You need to clone him....each day he was cheerful, friendly,  A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO HIM.....HE WAS WONDERFUL.  This cruise was on my bucket list..........no complaints.........all was perfect

Best Cruise I've had to date.  Was concerned about the size of the Norwegian Epic ship and moving/serving passengers.  They did an outstanding job!!  Crew was fantastic, food excellent and liquor premium.  Nothing bad to say at all about the cruise.  Looking forward to sailing on this ship again in the future when it changes destination.  Only issue I had was with communication between and Norwegian...a few months before the cruise I was informed that the ship would be in drydock longer than originally planned so they had to push my cruise forward to the next month.  I couldn't make that, so I rebooked for the month earlier.  Everything was fine.  Then about a month later I was informed my cruise was cancelled.  This was after I had to rebook hotels and flights (at a cost to me).  Turned out someone dropped the ball and didn't finalize the dates we worked out.  Everyone was very nice and helpful, but I was getting irritated and felt I was being jerked around.  Almost just cancelled because I was losing confidence that this trip was really going to happen.  After hours on the phone for a second time we sorted everything out.  Including my Ultimate Drink and Dining packages that got "lost" in the rescheduling.  Make sure you run hard copies of all your plans/agreements, because when you are rebooked it all goes away in the website and you only have access to your current plans. After all this....we went on the trip and it was fantastic!   Highly recommend this trip to anyone!!   

did not like the decor  or the low ceilings of the ship. you charge us 25.00 dollars a day then tell us the cabin person is not part of the up charge.

A week cruise and only one sea makes for a busy time.  This is a great way to get an overview of some of the great places on the Mediterranean.  However, each port stop leaves you wanting for more of the cities visited. With some much time in port and off the boat, the time on the Epic must be budgeted in order to enjoy all the Epic has to offer.  With the unlimited dining package, we ate a specialist restaurant every night.  

One major disappointment:  We love the thermal spa.  However on Saturday night,  after a late port day, we were told that the spa was closing early.  I ask the manager to contact me, but he never did.