Norwegian Epic Review

4.5 / 5.0
4,409 reviews

NCL EPIC Cruise Beware

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Epic
User Avatar
irossfam
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

Rating by category

Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Service
Cabin

Additional details

Sail Date: Nov 2013
Traveled with children

November 29th, 2013 our family (2 adults and a 2yr. 10 month old) sailed NCL EPIC cruise ship. We highly recommend to the let buyer beware. Before we get started a little about us. We have been cruising for the past 25 years and have sailed over 45+ cruises on lines ranging from Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL, and Rennasiance. Our cruises have ranged from 7 to 18 days in length with this last NCL cruise being 8 days 7 nights. We have sailed NCL ships 8 times in prior years and expected the service to be up to par as it has been in the past. Our recent cruise on the Norwegian EPIC was less than EPIC in terms of ship maintenance, child care facilities, and guest relations. Our review is as follows:

Prior to selecting NCL for our winter vacation we reviewed our cruise choices in late December 2012 and chose NCL for our 2013 winter vacation. In January 2013, NCL quietly change the child care policy to exclude any child under the age of 3 years. Our son is 2 years 10 months old and was excluded from the child care program and forced into a little 20 x 10 foot room with babies or spending the evening walking the deck with the parents. Basically, we spent the week and every evening on the cruise ship without any child care opportunities.

Our child who attends a learning center private school which stimulates his verbal, intellectual, social, and athletic skills spent the week playing in sub standard child amusement conditions provided by NCL. If you are traveling with a child who is under 3 years old DO NOT expect NCL to provide any child care services and minimal play facilities for your child. Their guppies program lumps 0 to under 3 year old children in a small confined space which is unsuitable for any real child stimulation. There are the occasional 45 minute play sessions your child can have on sea days provided one parent is present. This type of care we found actually is dangerous to the children due to almost 3 year olds running around crawling babies. In short, there are no child care services provided to parents who travel with infants or toddlers.

Cabin Review

Our state room was serviced daily but by the end of our trip we had large areas which dust had accumulated where the attendant failed to dust at all. It was DIRTY. We booked a suite and found the balcony was not cleaned or well maintained as the rust was accumulating along the guard railings, the flooring was DIRTY, and the paint peeling from lack of maintenance. Not to mention, if you apply makeup, please bring you own lighting is the room has limited lighting for makeup application.

previous reviewnext review

Find a Norwegian Epic Cruise from $309

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.