Norwegian Epic Review

First time cruiser

Review for the Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Epic
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SR1212
First Time Cruiser • Age 40s

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Sail Date: May 2014

I wanted to write a review because i had read so many between the time i booked which was in January and when i cruised which was just a couple days ago. I was nervous because i had seen mixed reviews regarding the ship, staff and food. This was our first cruise for me and my wife and we loved it! The ship is huge in site. I read alot of reviews that said you would do alot of walking on the ship because of its size, not true. We stayed near the back of the ship and it never took more then a few minutes for us to walk from our room to the front of the ship at any time.  And that was walking at a leisurely pace. It was VERY easy to get from point A to point B. Actually, i thought the ship seemed alot smaller inside then the look from the outside. Taking the elevators at times could be hard, but it wasnt every often we ran into this problem.. and if we did, we took the steps, which were no problem. The inside of the ship is beautiful, everything about it is modern and clean and new. I read many reviews that said it was run down, i looked purposely for things that might have looked worn and found nothing. Another thing i read was you felt the amount of people that were on the ship. I did not feel like there were 5k people on the ship during my stay. I am someone who can get annoyed pretty easy and thought i would run into that problem and never once did i feel like there was alot of congestion, not even at the buffet. Food- i thought was good, nothing spectacular but good. We only ate at the buffet, manhattan room, taste and O'sheehans. The buffet had plenty of options and they would do different themes each night, I actually thought the buffet had the best food out of the other 3 we ate at. O'sheenans pot pie is great as everyone else has mentioned, that was all i would get from there. My wife got the tuna sandwich and it was good as well. The crepes at the buffet cant be missed, they are sooo good!

The cleanliness on the ship is great as well, the staff is constantly keeping on top of cleaning up dirty tables and they have plenty of people with hand sanitizer as soon as you walk into the buffet or get on or off the ship. I ALWAYS saw someone in the bathroom cleaning. Nothing was dirty about this ship. The staff is VERY friendly, our cabin steward was so personable and nice. He would always say hello every time he saw us and have conversations with us. If we needed something, he was ready to help. I only encountered one waiter that wasnt very personable and that was on our last night in the manhattan room. Entertainment- We saw legends in concert and blue man group. Both were ok, i preferred legends more, prince was the best out of the three. I could of done without seeing blue man. Maybe I just dont get what their act is lol. I read alot of people dont like their pool situation and i do understand where they are coming from. Im not a pool person and do not like to swim so it didnt bother me at all, but there are 2 little pools, which make no sense and don’t give a lot of room for swimming. I always found there were plenty of chairs and loungers to relax on by the pool area. I loved the outdoor area where you could sit and eat or drink, watch the ocean and hear live music being played on deck 15. our room- we had a balcony room and it was not tight at all for 2 people. I found there to be plenty of room, i never felt cramped, i was expecting the room to be small but it was a good size. the bathroom situation was good for us, im not sure why people complain about it. its 2 separate areas, so what? the shower is a nice size, our bed was comfy but i could see why someone who is tall, would find it small, cause their feet would for sure hang off the bed. There is plenty of storage space, its pretty amazing how you can utilize just about every inch in that room and all your stuff be hidden and not laying around to be in your way. Since neither of us had ever cruised before, we were nervous we would be sea sick at some point so we brought a ton of stuff just in case, you cant even feel the ship move, you would never know you were on a ship unless you looked out the window.

Last thing, the reviews on the horrible smoke problem from the casino- I HATE the smell of smoke and am allergic to it, I did not have any problem, I don’t know if a lot of people just didn’t smoke on the ship we were on or Norwegian does a good job at hiding the smell. I don’t remember once being bothered by the smell of cigarettes. I hope this helps anyone who will be cursing on this ship.

Cabin Review

great location, nice size for 2 people, tons of storage space and our cabin steward was the best!

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