Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

If you like privacy when using a toilet in your room, do not go on this cruise. There is an opaque glass door between you and anyone in the room. 

Very few quite areas on the ship. Small library was open and next to a bar.

Need to make reservations to see shows.

Blue Man Group was good, but only major show on ship. Main theater was small. Other lounge areas were small and not laid out very well.

Ship layout and look reminds me of ships from the 80's. Ship felt crowded, unlike the Royal Caribbean large ships. 

On other cruises there is a place to get free coffee and snacks on a lower level. Not so on the Epic. You had to pay for this or go back up to the buffet level.

Swimming pool deck was crowded. Chairs were held by some people all day even though they were not using them.

To many overpriced restaurants.

Ship was designed and built in France and Norwegian won't do that again.  All their new ships, Getaway, Breakaway etc.... are German.   The ship is big but big enough so there is room.   However, the ship is not laid out well with extremely small pools (just large hot tubs really)  due to design flaw in weight.  (Center of ship is weak).  Same problem does not allow any midship's elevators.  So, elevators are slow and crowed and there really  is no pool except for dipping.  Entertainment not nearly as good as some other Norwegian ships.   Food is excellent but you will want to spend 300.00 or so on specialty restaurants. (20-40 each)   Also, tips are added at 12.00 each per day.  With no excursions you will likely have a 500-700.00 ship's bill.  Check for available credits of 100.00 each plus 50.00 from Cruise first.   Despite the French doing their best to mess things up,  it was 86, sunny and perfect every day and you have 10 bars and 8 restaurants within 500 feet of your stateroom; what's not to like!

So I popped my cruise cherry with the Norwegian Epic. I also did it solo, my first solo-travelling experience. I was apprehensive about going alone in the beginning but had a ridiculously good time all the same.

The ship was more than I expected: -very clean -99% staff friendly and helpful -food was above average, excellent sometimes -plenty for a solo-traveler to do

My only qualm with the ship was the main entertainment shows.. but it's more of a personal thing than a problem with the cruise. I'm not a big fan of Blue Man Group or Cirque du Soleil shows and they both happened to be the main attraction shows. The other shows were pretty interesting however.

I took a man for whom I do caregiving (he had a MAJOR stroke 4 years ago) on this cruise last week.  He is mobile, but severely brain damaged.  From the moment I booked the cruise with Kim Jones at Cheap Cruises to the time we got home, the cruise was one of the MOST BLESSED experiences I have ever had.  Kim was ULTRA accommodating and she will be my first contact for all future cruising.  But that was only the start!!  The crew on this ship was AMAZINGLY KIND & HELPFUL to me (and him) the entire trip!  I particularly would like to call out our room steward, Junmar, our servers in the TASTE restaurant, Edward Caletero and assistant, Dinielle, and the Jimmy Buffet entertainer, Barrie Cunningham.  THANKS TO ALL FOR SUCH A SPECIAL EXPERIENCE!!! NCL IS THE WAY TO GO!!!!!!!

Shows were fantastic!  Food was wonderful as always.  Water slides looked like such fun, wish we had the kids with us.  Will recommend this cruise for my grandchildren.

Wanted to try  cruise company. I still say the best food is on Carnival. There was a lot to do while we were at sea and we enjoyed each of the days. Best cruise activity team we have ever met. Loved the Blue Mam Group and Cirque I'd Dreams and dinner. Service in main dining room was Ok. 

I have never before sailed on a ship with 4,100 passengers.  So many people that you have to book your shows in advance.  Our cabin had a balcony but it also had a toilet in one corner, a shower in the other and a small sink in the middle.  I prefer a cabin with a separate bathroom.

This was the largest ship we ever booked. You must make a reservation for every thing you do, even going to the shows in the theatre. (We never saw a show) Dinner in the three main restaurants is a disaster. The lines are out of site. Trust me, they want you to eat in the specialty restaurants.

Look, This was our fourth Norwegian cruise. We like the cruise lines, my problem is with the size of the Epic.

Signed by a cruise vet with over 35 cruises.

The cruise itself was good -- however the ship itself being 4 years old appears  rundown. Our cabin door was stuck, the hairdryer holder was broken, the carpet needed cleaning, The mirrors were dirty, the wood work hat pieces missing and dirty.  All in all the cleanliness left a lot to be desired it is no wonder that the cruise lines are experiencing illnesses. When I compare the NCL Star to the Epic, there is no comparison -- The star is an excellent absolute clean ship.  The Epic staff does not seem to be well motivated or led to do their tasks.  To me it appeared to many crew members standing around around doing nothing. The door leading to the balcony not only was stuck but also had rust on the bottom.   

My husband & I were so disappointed with this cruise. We have been on many cruises & found this one was not what we have been use to. We took my sister-in-law with us as she had never been on a cruise, as well as recommended Norwegian to two brothers & their wives. We arrived at port & waited for entry. Two employees started to call off numbers for entry to ship without a microphone & few could hear so the # was yelled from person to person, eyebrows rose, it was not professional. The 7 of us decided to eat at the opposite of Manhattan. The meal was awful. I had a omelet, hashbrowns, & toast. It was cold , two little round patties for potatoe, as well as others french toast, etc.were not good. We had terrible service. We gave a small coffee pot to our server as we all were empty & I'm not sure he could understand English as he never offered more cof.

Next It seemed not enough chairs by the pool. The pool area staff in charge of activities were pathetic. I wanted to get up & help them. This did not include, Zumba leader, singers, dancers mainly activities such as airplane making & flying, etc. The second city performers were not professinal. Could'nt understand the host & not much response from audiance. Walked out as well as others. I have never walked out of any performance. The Blue Man group was enertaining as well as Adell & Aretha. We have been use to finer productions. We have loved comedy on the ship. Not much on this ship. The deal or no deal hosts thumbs down. Only saw the cruise director a couple of times. We always felt like we got to know the staff, as interacted so well with all. The food was good at the buffett & ate there a lot. Unless you payed extra we heared the provided dining was not that great. We loved our cruises to Alaska, Hawaii, Carribean, Mexican Riviara, Ontario to Boston. I would not recommend this cruise & really are not sure we will cruise with Norwegian again.

So much to do great food, great restaurants. Only negative is large Capacity means a crowd that service struggles to catch up with. But a great time especially for kids.

Overall the cruise was great; however, the service is lacking compared to other ships. Little service at the pool and it took 40 minutes to get a drink at the casino!They could also have more entertainment.

1 st of all I have been on 11 NCL cruises, and never did we get treated like this before. We are kosher, and notified them right as we booked.They made a whole to do about getting an approval and an email saying we were approved and  having to bring the email to the dining room in order to get kosher food or it could not be guaranteed.

Which we did and they had no idea why we needed that. We ordered our dinner meal when we got on the boat. 

the 1st night they could not find our order, we sat for 3 hours before anyone came over to tell us this. The waiters never came to see if we were ok, never came to tell us they could not find the order, then the maitre d"came over to us,  after I kept complaining said well its the 1st night and they are very busy. I told them it should not matter since it was not the 1st night as a grand opening or first sailing ever. We asked to get salmon wrapped in tin foil and baked potato wrapped in tin foil, which we have gotten in the past on NCL and all other lines.They said they could not do that because other people will see it and want it and I said to him your regular customers have great food to eat , are you crazy! 

We had no food the 1st night, we ordered with the assistant matre d for the 2nd night, and when we went to dinner, it took 2 and a half hours to bring our order, which was wrong! We traveled and sat with my in laws who were not kosher and their meal took about 2 hours. NO ONE EVER CAME OVER AFTER THEY BROUGHT THE FOOD OR IN BETWEEN COURSES TO SEE IF WE NEEDED ANYTHING,MORE WATER,ETC (for my in laws, because we did not have courses, they just brought everything all at once-salad,soup,meal and dessert- which was horrible). I asked the asst maitre'd to have the head of restaurants get in touch with me , he never did!!!!

The following day we did not get to pre order because we were at port all day, when we went to the dining and saw a different maitre d from Jamaica, he was very nasty. He was mad because we did not pre order and we said we would just take salmon doubled wrapped in tin foil, with vegetables and potato the same way .He kept saying over and over we needed to pre order,it was as if he was not going to get us served. I also asked for salads on  paper plates, we got chopped romaine lettuce ,nothing else. All of which came at once close to 3 hours later.

The next  night  we did pre order and again it took close to 3 hours to get to us and most of it was not what we asked for. My husband was so aggravated and said we were lucky we were even served. To have to feel like that on a cruise is terrible!!

The following night  we were in port and forgot to pre order,we sat in the same section of the Taste dining room and got the same lovely maitre 'd. Again he was annoyed that he even had to deal with us, he told us since we did not pre order, it was going to take at least 3 hours, we told him it did not make a difference since when we do order it takes that long and is usually wrong!

He also kept saying how busy it was  and my husband asked if we should come back later, which he did not answer  My husband also said just bring whatever you feel you can bring we are not picky. He starting getting extremely nasty and we told him we do not want to fight, we will sit however long it takes, which seemed to make him even madder!

Over and over throughout the cruise all we heard was how busy it was, and your  staff can not seem to handle it, the waiters we had, had no bus staff, the maitre 'ds look to ignore or run from you ,unless you hunt them down.

Why do you have  a ship with 4100 passengers f you are not equipped to handle it!!!

They brought our food out on regular plates and said (meaning salad and pasta) they ran out of paper plates, we told them to look again and what do you know 40 minutes later they came out with new food on paper plates, same thing happened with avocados, they ran out and we said to look again and out they came with it.

The next night we did pre order and it did not make a difference since we waited 3 hours. I tried to order from the day before  when we did pre order , peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my son and pasta with garlic and oil. The maitre 'd said I did not need to pre order that since it is not on the menu they  can  just make it when we go in that night ( no  problem). Which was really strange , because that was all my son and myself ate, and the nights we did not pre order they gave us a hard time about that.So when we sat down on the 6th night we said we did pre order , but also wanted the pb and j sandwiches and, the pasta, they complained we did not pre order it!! I  pre ordered salads and they brought us out the largest carrot I have ever seen, I asked if that was for a horse since it was so large , they brought a huge onion and I asked them how was I  supposed to cut it since we use plastic utensils! They brought our pasta and salad out on regular plates, we told them we could not eat it on  those plates we asked for paper, we said we needed new ones , not to switch plates because the food was no longer kosher.  So they came out within 5 minutes on paper, which we know they did not listen and switched the plates. We told them we needed it new and they got nasty.

That is when we really realized , your staff did not care and they were mocking us. I do not know if it was because we were kosher,Jewish and really I truly hope it was not because of that! 

The last night we decided to go  to the Manhattan dining room, where we did not get served the first night. I looked at a regular menu ordered the same salad that was on the regular menu on paper. My in laws salad came out in about 40 minutes. It was now almost 2 hours later with no food! I went to Damadon the maitre d and asked why it takes so long to get a salad that is on the regular menu on paper plate? I said look all around the dining room, all of these people did not preorder their salads, yet they are eating them. Why do you make such a big deal about a pre order when I ordered from the same menus. I also told him we are sitting close to 2 hours, no food, no service again no one came over to see if we needed water or anything.

It was the most awful experience we have ever encountered on a cruise.

We were starving, w e were afraid to ask for anything since we were already treated with such dislike by your staff. We did not understand when we finally were served, why they could not serve us in the same way they served non kosher guests. Meaning they bring first a salad , then a soup and then the entree,. That has nothing to do with being kosher, we have been served normally on other ships and other NCL cruises, this was just awful having everything brought out at once with no room ,it was totally dissatisfying!

We did know you had to pre book the shows. we could not get into any show, my husband went down and waited for blue man group and the girl said  IF SHE DECIDED TO LET US IN !!! How can  your staff say that to a customer???

The next night we went at exactly when the show started and said we just want to stand and see the show, she did not want to let us in, so we just walked in and what do you know you had empty couches, empty bar seats or stools and a few empty chairs! But your staff decides not to let people in!

You never used to charge for movies in the room, my kids would spend the whole night watching movies in their room free of charge, but now you charge  $10 a movie and most other lines its free!!  You play "finding nemo" on the outside screen at 11:15 at night???Pool  you charge $2, which on all other lines is free! I always bring on my kosher wine for shabbos, and was never charge anything, They would not let me bring it on without paying $15 corking fee, even though I told them I have my own cork screw , would not be using theirs since it is not kosher and we need it for prayers for Friday night and Saturday. So I had to pay $30 to bring wine on that I uncorked. You never used to charge for that and other ships let you bring on 2 bottles at no charge.

The last day we had dried blood on our sheet , and my daughter had dried blood on her pillow case ( 2 different rooms) when I went down to complain and saw Alexandrka, she asked if I notified anyone, I looked at her and said why do you think I am here, for that reason!!! She did not apologize , she said it will be looked into. 

No one ever came to look into it and the sheet and pillow caws was never changed!!!!

I had complained to guest services about all of this several times, they just did not care!

I am really a gold latitudes member , you have us  as a silver, I spoke to NCL before we left that they are missing 2 of our cruises,my kids used to be a bronze and one was a silver but since they were under 21 , they lost their points? Since when did you change that program? My son has all of his cards with his latitudes status!!

But being silver of gold latitudes member seemed to get me nothing and nowhere! So what really is the pint, no one even cared enough to try to make us happy. So we are pretty sure neither will corporate!

Interesting enough I sat with a cruise critic on Saturday morning for coffee, he was writing a review, he was not happy with his cruise ,but when I told him our experience he was quite shocked and interested. 

Your line has gotten very cheap ,petty,lousy quality control , beyond awful customer service, it is worse than carnival, I f I had to rate our experience I would say it is a 0!!!

We looked up teh epic online after we got back and it  has pretty bad reviews for service. Do you not care anymore since cruising is so popular now, that you can afford to lose customers, especially silver and gold latitudes members?

This cruise was like being abused, and to have to be afraid to ask for anything, .It was beyond awful!!!!!!!!

We would never go on NCL again, I feel like cancelling the credit card and notifying the NY times and all of the Jewish papers to tell them our experience ( the real kosher experience)!!!!

First of all when we went to our cabin it was not cleaned well. The mirrors were not cleaned, we found lipstick under our bed and something had wasted on the door that was still there. We called to get someone to clean it all up but the first call was ignored so we had to call again and it was taken care of, we did not meet the cabin steward until turndown service so we had no ice until then. We went on this cruise to celebrate our anniversary, these people did not do a thing for us, no cake, no song, no nothing and to top it off we had to have dinner with about 10 screaming kids that were out of control sitting in front of us at one table (The parents put all the kids at a table and they sat at another table and did nothing about their kids) It was the worst anniversary dinner I ever had, we told Dinning Management about it and they promised they would send the cake to our room and have something special  for us the next night, nothing was done. I think the worst thing about this cruise was there were too many kids. I think it was about 2500-3000 some of the crew said. Another thing is they do not have Lobster anymore in the dinning rooms. Also the entertainment was not that great. On other crusies we have taken we had a different show every night this one did not and they only had a few that were free the others you had to pay for. This ship was a disappointment compared to other cruise lines (Royal Carb.,Carnival,Princess,Holland and MSC.yes I have sailed with all these lines.)

Ship was good with excellent shows even though you had to wait in line with a reservation. Third week of January is bad week to cruise on Norwegian. Found out the 3rd week of January is winter break for certain private schools. Kids and teens ran wild with very little discipline from parents, especially in the restaurants. Extremely loud (children yelling) in the main dining room. On buffet, kids would take food, taste and put back on line, no parent around. I have been on a Carnival cruise in July and had no problem with kids.

After many years of cruising on several cruise ships and with multiple cruise lines I can honestly say that our vacation on the Norwegian Epic was, by far, the BEST cruise ship we have been on to date.  The food was varied and delicious--no matter where we ate.  The entertainment was truly outstanding! The staff was friendly, always helpful and seemed to be HAPPY!  We really had a wonderful time!

We had many problems at the buffet, including coffee and other beverages being out most of the time.  The food was not warm on the buffet or in the dining rooms, and was very disappointing.  Our cabin was the smallest we had ever been in, and we have been on most cruise lines (more than 20 cruises).  We had to pay nearly full price for our infant daughter, though she did not eat anything and our room was not bigger to accommodate the extra person.  The disembarkation process was totally unacceptable--we waited in line over an hour to disembark--we have never had such a poor experience.

This was our 6th cruise, second on NCL.

Pros - Entertainment was excellent especially "Howl At The Moon". We went to 2 specialty restaurants and the meals were very good as were the meals in the main dining restaurants. We had a mid ship balcony room. Very clean and loads of storage space. Easy to find our way around and familiarized our bearings on the ship very quickly. Staff was efficient, especially the waiters in all restaurants.

Cons - Too many people compared to other ships. Garden Cafe was like a free for all - steer clear if you don't have kids. A certain religious group were catered to the extent that other passengers were inconvenienced at times. They went into the dining room at 5:30 and sat there till 10:00 using up space making others wait daily. Children constantly cut in lines. It is not up to passengers to maintain order when the parents are too ignorant to do so. Sink was like a spitoon in the dentist's office. Bring a bar of soap - none are supplied - just liquids. Pizza was always undercooked.

Both of these ships were wonderful I did prefer the getaway over the epic simply because it had more deck space on both sides of the ship. The food was extraordinary. I had the ultimate dining package and never once actually ate in the main dining room. I had the studio singles state room and it was small but more than adequate for one person. After all, how much time do you spend in the stateroom. The staff was fantastic. A special shout out to Darwin, the bartender at the Sunset bar on the getaway and Nestor, the bartender at the Maltings beer & Whiskey bar on the Epic. All of the ports I visited were all unique in their own way. One recommendation if you go to St. Thomas take the boat to St. John's if you want a fantastic day at the beach, the beaches on St. John's are far less crowded. All in all I think Norwegian does a fantastic job and I can't wait to go to go agan

My girlfriend and I took this cruise.  It was her first one.  The ship was large and there were over 4,000 passengers.  I felt like this cruise was more geared to the masses because of all the people.  They only had 2 shows in the main theater for the 7 night cruise but they had many other options.  They also had the formal dining room and another restaurant that served the same thing in a slightly more relaxed atmosphere.  They said no jeans or t-shirts, etc. in the main dining room but they didn't turn anyone away.  They seated fast and the service was ok.  The buffet was awesome.  Best I have ever experienced and I have been on almost every cruise line.  The biggest complaint I have is that the ship was very large and segmented.  You can't walk from the front of the ship to the back on many decks including the pool and upper decks and some inside decks without going up or down the stairs/elevator or going inside.  The shops onboard didn't have anything from the ports that we visited.  Only Puma and a few other name brand clothing.  The staff were okay but it wasn't the same experience as with a slightly smaller ship.