We went on the Norwegian Epic in March 2018, and it really wasn't great, not even sure if I would rate it good. It is one of the bigger ships in the fleet, and it was clean and well-maintained. My biggest issue was the lack of service and staff throughout the entire cruise. We apparently made the mistake of sailing during part of the spring break times, and the service was terrible. The ship was close, if not at capacity, and there did not appear to be adequate staff to deal with the numbers.

The line is marketing "Free at Sea" which includes a drink package. The ship/line knows how many people sign up for the package, but don't staff for it. For the entire cruise, it took a minimum of 20 minutes to get an alcoholic beverage no matter where we went. All the bars (pool-side, clubs, and entertainment) always had at least 5-6 people deep waiting for a bartender to wait on them. At each restaurant, it took over 20 minutes to get alcoholic beverages. At Great Stirrup Cay, they let 3,000+ people off the boat and were serviced by two bars (total) and four bartenders. For the entire day, there was a 30 minute line.

And there were very few roaming bartenders working the various areas. For the "adult only" pool at the back of the boat, they had one server waiting on over 100 people and taking drink orders. It was pitiful. I have never had such poor service consistently for 4 days. I don't understand why there wasn't sufficient staff for the amount of people. The previous cruises we've gone on had about half of the passenger capacity as the Epic, but I feel like they had more staff available than the Epic. Read more