Norwegian Epic Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My wife and I just completed an Eastern Med Cruise on the Norwegian Epic. We have done a number of NCL cruises, and this was our first on the Epic.
The food in the Garden Cafe was good and we ate all of our on board meals there. Gluten free options were not marked and we found no gluten free desserts or breads. A posted sign indicated that you need to request gluten free bread, but all there was only gluten free sandwich bread. There was a good selection of vegetarian options, and the salad bar was much better than we have seen on other NCL ships, but there is still room for improvement.
We found the layout of the ship a little different than our previous cruises, with the Garden Cafe forward instead of aft, the fitness rooms aft instead of forward. The cruise was also different in that with two embarkation ports, and no complete turnover of the passengers, some of the normal process of embarking and disembarking were changed. There was no general announcements of which group was departing, so you need to be more aware of when you needed to depart.
Cabin Review
Inside
Our cabin was an inside room and was small as a result, but had a good layout and we were comfortable. The layout does differ from standard layout with the toilet on one side of the room and the shower on the other. Our cabin steward, Sergio, was one of the very best that we've had, and was quite helpful. We also learned that the cruise tip of taking a couple of battery operated tea lights to use as nightlights was extremely useful.
Port Reviews
Rome (Civitavecchia)
Transfer from Airport to Port takes about an hour. NCL's buses are good.
Barcelona
All excursions were cancelled because of the unrest. Spent the day on the ship trying to find things to do. Less activities than a normal day at sea.