Norwegian Epic Review
Norwegian Epic - inefficiency and disorganization
Rating by category
Additional details
This was our first sailing with Norwegian and will be our last. Nothing about this cruise line compares to others like Disney or Royal Caribbean. Three months prior to sailing, it was nearly impossible for us to make dining reservations at any of the specialty restaurants so our Norwegian cruise consultant suggested we wait to make them until we got onboard. We followed his advice (against our better judgment) and when we got onboard there was no availability at any of the restaurants for the entire cruise. After much back and forth and a lot of teeth-pulling with the restaurant manager, we were able to get into Moderno. The restaurant was very good but it was only about 1/3 full and there were only 2 other tables there that were not Norwegian crew! So why is it so hard to get a reservation if the restaurants aren't full and why are crew members taking up restaurant space at the specialty restaurants if paying guests aren't able to get in?
We felt very nickel-and-dimed the entire cruise - EVERYTHING was extra it seemed. And the things that were not extra were so mediocre or crazy crowded.
The balcony cabins were extremely cramped and poorly laid out. Our cabin attendant only cleaned our room about 1/2 of the days and once he put a sheet and pillow on the sofa (which was how they turn it into a bed for the 3rd person) on the first night, it stayed for the entire cruise. So we had no where to sit for the whole cruise.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony
Ridiculously cramped for a balcony cabin. The design of the cabin is such that the split bathroom is right inside of the door, the bed/TV/counter is in the middle and the closets and sofa/3rd person bed is by the sliding glass door. There is NO space in between the foot of the bed and the counter/TV to pass through. And our cabin attendant put a sheet and pillow on the sofa the first night and did not take it off for the rest of the cruise (despite our asking for our cabin to be turned back each day) which left us no place to sit inside the cabin at all unless we wanted to sit on someone's bed. There was no way for 3 of us to be in the cabin at the same time unless we were sleeping - it was impossible for us to pass by each other to get from one end to the other. And forget about bathroom privacy - it doesn't exist. The rest of our party stayed in an interior cabin across the hall which was actually laid out much better and appeared more spacious than the balcony. If I had known that - I would have saved us thousands of dollars and just booked two interior rooms.
Port Reviews
Tortola
We got off the ship and just grabbed a taxi to Cane Garden Bay Beach. About 20 minutes and $8/person for the ride. Very family friendly. $15 to rent two chairs and an umbrella for the day. There are several restaurants on the beach for lunch/drinks/restrooms. Watersports are available. Sand and water were beautiful.
St. Thomas
Grabbed a taxi to Coral World Ocean Park. $9/person for the taxi ride which should have taken 20 minutes, but the taxi driver insisted on taking another group to Maegen's Bay Beach first so our ride was more than 45 minutes.
Coral World was just ok. It was small and uneventful - not nearly as good as Cayman Turtle Centre. The sea lion show was interesting. They have a small handful of stingrays to look at, a few turtles and some birds. You can touch a starfish. The underwater observatory was not as good as we hoped. We did not get a chance to go to Coki Beach which is adjacent to Coral World, but it looked like a nice beach.
Great Stirrup Cay
Get an early tender if you want to get a chair (or multiple) by the beach. Plenty to do on the island. The water and the beach were very nice. The line to get drinks was just like on the ship - long and slow-moving. Plenty of water activities - snorkeling, foam mats, etc. The buffet lunch was decent enough - pretty standard ship stuff.