Norwegian Epic Review

Sadly Disappointed Overall

Review for the Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Epic
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aecan
6-10 Cruises • Age 30s

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Sail Date: Sep 2014
Cabin: Mid-Ship Inside

My fiance and I were excited to cruise the Mediterranean on the Norwegian Epic, one of the largest cruise ships out there. It was my second cruise (first one to Europe), although my fiance has cruised many times in his life (probably around ten times). I will start by saying that neither of us, especially me, are hard to please. In comparison to past cruises, however, we were both disappointed in the cruise ship itself, although many of the ports redeemed the vacation. Throughout the cruise, we and all the other guests we conversed with were very sad about the quality of the cruise overall. First of all, the food. We mainly dined in the Manhattan Dining Room for dinner and the Garden Cafe for breakfast and lunch. The menu for the Manhattan Dining Room contained the same items almost every night. We are used to seeing different items on the menu each night, so this was quite disappointing. Not a major issue for me, but my fiance was looking forward to lobster and the dining room never offered it during the cruise (which he said had never happened in his 15 plus years of cruising). The food was okay but usually sub par, and as I said, the selection was quite small. Buffet food was alright, but definitely not up to the standards of even Carnival cruises. The couple times we ordered room service it took over an hour to get to us and was stone cold. There were also a variety of restaurants to choose from, which we did not indulge in due to a budget, however our friends who did dine there were not impressed. Also, maybe a small complaint to some, but we were surprised there were no formal dining nights. We both brought nice clothes because every ship seems to have at least two formal nights during the week, but this was not the case.

Next, the activities. The daily itinerary of things to do on board was very lacking. We were used to cruises with fun competitions, seminars, comedy shows, a wide selection of music/dancing shows, etc. Although they have a comedy club there were no comedy shows the entire cruise, which was a huge disappointment to us both. The other shows were overall sub par (the Legends show was really terrible). We did enjoy the Blue Man Group and the Dreamgirls show, but that was about it. We found ourselves trying to kill time during the at sea day and at night, it was so boring! We spent most of our time in the casino or hot tub just waiting to get to the next port. Another small complaint is the lack of TV channel options. On past cruises we were used to at least ten channels to chose from. This cruise only had about ten channels, with only three or so in English, and they repeated the same shows daily. When you're trying to kill time due to a lack of on ship activities, this can be annoying.

One of our biggest complaints was feeling of disconnect between staff and cruisers. Although a few staff members were up to the task, most were very rude and didn't seem to know what was going on half the time (cruise director included). During one of the shows, the cruise director stood directly in front of my seat the entire time and didn't notice she was completely blocking my view until the show was nearly over, and didn't even apologize! Staff told us conflicting things about ports and activities, everyone seemed very disorganized. On past cruises, staff members made an effort to learn our names and say hello, didn't get this on Norwegian.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Inside

Cabin IB

The cabin was nice, we liked the extra closet space and the overall layout of the room. Bed could've been comfier, though. Also, the TV channels were very lacking (only three or so in English and the shows constantly repeated) and the TV was at a fixed angle so that you could not view it properly when laying down in bed (seems like a small complaint but it bothered us the entire time).

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