Norwegian Epic Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We cruised last month on the Norwegian Epic.The trip was arranged by Linda Mangione @ cruises only.

Prior to the cruise, Linda spent a great deal of time assisting us in finding the best package and balcony room. She was always available for questions before and after the cruise.

The cruise was wonderful. There was so much to do on board the ship and the entertainment was great. Our room was  standard but well kept and comfortable. Our fear that embarkation and disembarkation would be difficult because of the many passengers was unfounded. We encountered few long lines. An extra plus was the free style disembarkation which means that the passenger can disembark with their own luggage at their own time (prior to 9am). This meant not having to  place your bags out in the hall the night prior to the cruise end or having an assigned time of disembarkation.

We enjoyed this cruise and the ports of call (all wonderful).

although it was a step up for NCL the epic was disappointing in food quality and variety. the tours were very expensive although they were generally good. I would not pick this line if same route was available on RCL

Too big. Haven was nice but benefits not explained well. Concierge was the best. David Contreras. Day house keeping was great. Night not so, as when they were called to advise how to use the hot tub in our room things went from nothing to horrible as the butler starting pushing buttons when the vents weren't covered and water went everywhere including drenching me and the butler from head to foot. After he left and another came in I spent an hour wringing towels into the shower. This was not reported to the concierge until we reported it. They gave us a $400 credit and we were satisfied. In addition, we bought a premier dining package not knowing Haven guest had free meals at their select restaurant. That would have saved $238. As for rating the speciality restaurants, the Brazilian, Cagneys Steak house and the French were good. The Kubuki restaurant was too small, waiters could barely get by, the artiste was passable but not superior and the food was overcooked and very chewy which calamari and lobster should not be.  Finally as mentioned earlier Alix Myers did well putting the package together but once the payments were received seemingly lost interest. I know she went out on disability after being struck by lightning thru the phone and recommended a karen LaRue for followup but we received no benefit from that referral.

We have taken cruises with other organizations. We found Norwegian to be a very good choice. Staff, food, facilities were excellent. Room was always clean and neat. Only a few "little" things could be improved upon. I love having a banana in the morning, however was very disappointed when I found nothing but rotten bananas or no bananas at all. It would be nice if Norwegian Cruise Line would provide city maps of ports of call. I understand that they make money by selling shore excursions but some people (like us) enjoy exploring on our own. Cruise did not provide any sports information. No daily flyer and no tv channel with scores. I understand I am on a cruise and I am not asking for "live feeds" of games ..... only yesterdays scores. Bottom line. Great cruise experience .... give me a decent banana, a city map, and yesterdays scores and you will get 5 stars next time. Gary

This was my first Norwegian cruise. I have only taken Carnival cruises before and in general, I preferred Carnival. One thing Norwegian gets right is crowd control; I never had to wait in a line my entire cruise, including embarking and disembarking. Other than that, I was not really impressed with Norwegian. The food was so so and heavy. I did not think the pay for restaurants were all that special. My cabin was very small and the bed was excruciatingly uncomfortable. I really hated my  extra large balcony I paid extra for; it should have been sold as an obstructed view due to the fact that instead of a glass enclosure, we had a steel bulkhead. It was impossible to sit on the balcony and see water; that has always been a favorite part of  cruises for me. However, we took this cruise to see Europe and it was wonderful to awake in a new country/city each day. We took the Capri Island of Romance, Ultimate Rome and Pisa and taste of Tuscany tours and thought the tour guides were phenomenal (and  I am not a tour taking kind of person). Our Capri tour started late and uses were not ready when needed so that was a drag. But our lunch and  the tram to the top of Capri were amazing. I thought I had purchased exclusive Rome, vs Ultimate Rome but turns out they were the same price so maybe I picked wrong. The difference seemed to be lunch. But our tour guide Elinora was excellent and enhanced the tour immensely; she made the long day ad crowds worthwhile. Pisa and a Tuscan winery were a nice respite the next day; once again, we loved our guide Laia. The winery was delightful and picturesque and Laia showed us parts of the town of Pisa we would not have normally visited. We had enough tours by Cannes and Palma so we just bummed around on foot. I recommend taking the shuttle to the center of Palma since it is a long walk into town with little to look at. All in all, I am glad I went but if I go back, I will probably not cruise Norwegian.

The ship was beautiful- the rooms with the balcony was so spacious & plenty of room for storage. The food was excellent and most important the staff was incredible. Our steward was the best you could ask for. The only disappointment was the entertainment. Very little variety in the main theater- teh shows were repetitive. I dont like the additiona;l charges for "specialty" restaurants or the "circque de soleil". Otherwise it was a wonderful experiance!

I enjoyed the cruise and the room was very comfortable, the food was good and the staff was courteous.  The only complaint I have is regarding the flight arrangements.  Whoever made the flight arrangements left me too little time for connecting flights, causing my luggage to be delayed and left me no time for an excursion in Rome due to early flight out.  It was a shame to be in Rome with my granddaughter and not be able to show her any of it.  If I had it to do over again, I would definitely use a travel agent to help me plan better.

It was our second and most likely last cruise with NCL.

We stayed in one of the Heaven Suites in Aft Section on deck #12

Big mistake!!!!

The whole section was vibrating during the sailing, so for the two first two night we could not sleep.

To go to the Haven section up to the front portion of the ship was an unpleasant walk through the deck 15.

I must tell that the ship is build on a cheap, hardware and woodwork are not fit properly.

Entertainment: Only two shows are OK: "Circus and dinner" and "Blue man group", the rest is BS.

Food: Food in main Dining and The Gardens is dreadful,  I strongly suggest to buy a specialty restaurants package.

There are 4,000 people on board, many of them with kids, so be ready: the kids are going to be everywhere, including the restaurant where you are having romantic dinner!!!!

That's what it means - FREE STYLE CRUISING!!!!!)))))

This journey cannot be put into words.  Listen up everyone!  Take this  CRUISE and you will

never regret that you did.  YOU WILL LOVE LOVE LOVE IT.

Love the Capitan!  He is an amazing man!

Largest ship we have been on.  Lots of people is my only complaint.

We really enjoyed this cruise. The whole itinerary was beautiful. The cruise ship was in pretty good shape. The rooms were great we stayed at the family suite stateroom and it was great the carpeting could use some replacement and movement within the room was a little difficult as it's tight but other than that everything was wonderful. We would have really liked to have halal options on the cruise ship since there weren't many vegetarian options we got stuck eating a liot of fish thourhgout the cruise trip which got boring after sometime.

The activities were great, we really enjoyed the cirque dream show, although the blue man group wasn't that great.

Rate the boat a 4/5

Food 4/5

Service 4/5

Rooms 5+/5

Good itinerary.  Would recommend taking it out of Rome instead if you can (you can board this cruise in Rome or Barcelona).  The reason is that Rome is a 3-4 hour round trip from the boat and Barcelona is a port city.  If you board in Rome then Barcelona is an excursion without the 3-4 hour trip.  Drinks less expensive than Royal Caribbean and Carnival.  Food was way better than RC and Carnival.  Specialty restaurants excellent.  Recommend Cagney's for Steak and the hibachi restaurant.  Regret we didn't try the Ice Bar.  Heard it was "cool".  We are sworn off of Carnival and will have to think hard about RC after this experience.

Great cruise to italy france and spain.Dinner great. very much ok!  Staff are very nice and work hard at keeping everything clean. I would go again in a heartbeat!

Norwegian rates at  the bottom  of the cruise lines . Everything  seems to be centers around how  much can they charge extra for that  other cruise  lines include. Poor food (at least you  don't  need to  worry about putting on weight).

Freestyle means sign up and wait for shuttles entertainment  and 5$ frozen pizza,s. Everything on this  boat seems to shout institutional cheap.

First and last cruise on  Norwegian.

It took me 35 years to get my wife on a ship - and now I have a "cruise junkie" on my hands! The Norwegian EPIC is a magnificent ship. We were amazed how each and every crew member couldn't do enough - they were the living definition of "service". The destinations and excursions were fabulous (and exhausting). I highly recommend this cruise.

This was a great cruise . Great service ,great crew ,great food ! The ship was new and offered tons to do ! Never a board momment . The crew was alwas happy and smiling and dancing too . I hope to go again soon . The only bad thing is if your a non smoker europeans smoke all the time !! I wish there was a smoking side and none smoking side of the ship . Every time i went on to the balcony i choking all of the smoking .   

Very nice experience my room was great a lots of things to do. Very organized and good food. I will do it again. The only problem that they overcharge on the poker table ( 10% per a game). 

Thought the service fee of 12.00 per guest perday  was a little much. Also did not like the way they treated guests who booked excursions with companies other than Norwegian were treated.we weren't allowed to exit on the same floor and on tenders Norweigens got first pick. everything else was very nice.

This was my first time taking a cruise with my wife.  We have been wanting to go on a cruise for years, and decided to do the Western Mediterranean with the Norwegian Epic as my brother recommended it to me.  I was pleasantly surprised overall, with the quality of the food, especially in the main (garden cafe) buffet.  I would definitely recommend this cruise to anyone else.  The only criticism that I have of Norwegian is that the Spice H2O area, which was supposed to be the "Adult Zone" until 6pm daily on the boat, often was not enforced except for on one day.  It was nice, relaxing, and romantic for my wife and I to hang out at Spice H2O when it was the "Adult Zone" and there were no kids present in the pool or hot tub.  Other than that, the cruise was fantastic, and was everything and more than we ever imagined.  I would cruise again with Norwegian.  

We booked the Epic in Europe for our honeymoon and it was an amazing trip. The biggest note worth making is to sign up for shore excursions if you want to "do it all" (either through the boat or through ). We got on the boat in Rome, which we highly recommend, because with 4,000 passengers, only 1,000 are boarding in Rome. In addition, most are spending the day in Rome (the port is actually 1 hour from the city) so you have the opportunity to explore the boat and avoid the crowds.

Bottom line up-front: We felt that this cruise was all about location. The stops, time in port and shore excursions were the reason we would recommend it to friends.

Boat details:

Despite the size, we never felt overwhelmed by the amount of people on the boat. There definitely is not enough pool space, but we had no issues with chairs at 7:30 AM (started filling up around 8:30 AM). We felt day time activities were lacking (esp. with 4,000 guests onboard) and this was apparant during our day-at-sea where the weather was not ideal.

The evening entertainment was fantastic. We saw blue man group, which was great. The ice bar is fun, and we spent several nights at Howl at the Moon signing along with the Dueling Pianos. We were also fortunate enough to be on the boat during the World Cup and the boat was able to broadcast the games in the evening outdoors at H20.

The bathrooms in the staterooms are unique in that they have seperated the toilet from the shower and the sink is in the cabin. It does not leave a lot of privacy, but it does appear they have figured out how to add more storage space, which was a plus.

The dining rooms were our biggest complaint. The lines were enormous anytime after 7:30 (even for two) and the wait staff seemed overwhelmed. They have removed the concept of drink waiters, so waiters and their single assistant are responsible for both. This ends up causing long waits for drinks, meals, clearing tables and coffee at desert (we waited 20 minutes AFTER receiving our desert for coffee to be served multiple times). The food itself was very good and offered a wide-selection.

Itinterary:

In Livorno we did the Florence tour (including David statue) and Pisa tower climb. It was amazing.

In Cannes we just shopped. It rained, but it was fun. The good majority of cruisers seemed to either visit Monte Carlo or walk the streets for shopping.

In Palma, we rented bikes. There are no signs or advertisements, but about 1 mile from the boat is Palma on Bike. There is a bike path along the entire coast and you can bike on the path to the church, beautiful beaches, restaurants and gelato stores.

In Barca, we shared a cab with another couple and visited La Sagrada Familia. Cab is about 20 euro. We highly recommend buying tickets in advance for La Sagrada Familia. The line is very long and times begin selling out. We were able to find Wifi nearby and bought the tickets online :).

In Naples, we did a shore excursion through cruises only for the Amalfi coast and Pompeii. It was amazing. We could not recommend this more as it was our favorite stop.

The ship was Ok,  felt like being in a floating casino.   Food was abundant, but the same in every restaurant.   Drinks were, well drinks.   Everything cost extra so this was the most expensive vacation I ever took - and the value just wasn't worth the money.