Norwegian Epic Review

Very Impressive Ship, So-so cruise

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Epic
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1958CubsFan
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Aug 2015
Cabin: Balcony

Although it was called "Rome to Rome", it was obviously "Barcelona to Barcelona."

We began with the NCL land tour which was farmed out to a local third-party group. We saw more on private local tours on our own than we did on the NCL third-party tours. The bus from the hotel to the port was loaded with third-party passengers prior to permitting the NCL tour passengers to board. The ship was big and impressive, and we thought Wow there would be all kinds of activities 24/7. What a disappointment! Restaurants closed at 10pm. If you wanted something after that, you were left with room service for an additional fee. It seemed like the bus-boys were in a competition to see who could gather the most used plates and glasses the fastest. Set down your fork to get a drink of water and in would come a hand to grab the plate -- even though there was still food on it. It was almost like they had a quota of used plates and glasses to fill every meal. The entertainment was the worst we have found on any cruise to date. The performances were less than an hour. There were no musicals, just a bunch of copy-cat singers and dancers. There were no comedians, not even the old-timers who used to be in Las Vegas. The one magician got on half-way through the trip and kept telling us about all the great things he would be doing on the final days before the ship reached Barcelona again. Of course, we were off the ship by then. The shore excursions were so-so, no better than you can find on any other cruise by one of NCL's competitors. The presentation about ports that we would visit was given on the next to last day of the cruise -- so no help there. On previous NCL cruises there was interaction with the captain -- not just the photo op. The balcony cabin was nice, but with the sofa for a third passenger to sleep on it was crowded and difficult to move through. The mattresses on the bed were half ovals rather than rectangles. This meant unless you were sleeping on your side one of your feet was hanging off the bed. One high point was Cagney's Steak House where we enjoyed several good dinners. There was no laundromat, but there was a laundry service. Our return flight was at 5:20 pm, yet we had to get off the ship at 7:00 am to get on the bus for the airport. Strangely we found someone about 3 hours after we got there wandering around the airport with an NCL sign to pick up the next load of passengers. Seems NCL could have put us, and others, on the bus this fellow brought to pick up the new passengers. In summary, I would say that if I were to cruise this venue again, I would spend a few more dollars and book it with a competitor. If you have a family, it is probably a very good cruise. If you are under 45, it was probably a good cruise. If you are older than that, book with another cruise company.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Nice cabin, but crowded with the huge sofa. I would rather have had a couple of nice chairs in the room. The balcony was great! I would rather have had two standard twin mattresses pushed together instead of two half ovals.

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