My first transatlantic cruise on the Norwegian Epic was a fantastic vacation and I’ll definitely be cruising more of these itineraries in the future. Having said that I came away with some things I would want to do different next time.
Transatlantic Cruising
As I just mentioned I will definitely book more transatlantic cruises in the future. But I will make sure they’re not so late in the season. Our first week was cold (and wet much of the time) which greatly impacted our enjoyment of the first few ports and the city of Barcelona.
Even though you have longer days to enjoy cruising with a westbound itinerary, my sleep cycle was out of whack with day after day of gaining an hour. I think the Eastbound trek might be better for me (and no overnight flight to Europe!).
Cabin
I was impressed with the storage space inside our tiny inside cabin. We managed fine with the space and weird bathroom setup. Having said that, I don’t think I’ll go inside on such a long trip again. It would have been nice to be able to look out from our cabin and have some natural light. I don’t know how people do an inside cabin on a world cruise.
Food
As you could tell from my posts, we enjoyed some very good food and very little so-so items. I did notice cutbacks though from our Epic sailing just two years previously. Where was the prime rib! Instead of having prime rib on the main dining room twice in a week like we did in 2017, we never saw it on the menu. I did hear they had it in the buffet one night.
The specialty dining options were all good (with the exception of inconsistent steaks in Cagney’s) and I would definitely make sure to get a package if not a free perk in future NCL cruises.
Service
With few exceptions service is fantastic on Norwegian and the officers are super responsive. I don’t know why I couldn’t get my distilled water delivered for two days, but one call to the housekeeping director got that resolved quickly.
Our experience was definitely above Carnival’s and even or better than Royal Caribbean.
——–
We’ll definitely sail Norwegian again but want to do different ships. I have two future cruises for next year already booked including my first Eastern Mediterranean itinerary.
Leave a Reply