rlpboy

I'm glad everyone is having a great time on this cruise! I just read orca's post and she has eaten at a few places we haven't tried yet so we will try to his those the next couple of days. Hopefully we have better luck moving forward. I appreciate all of your comments. You've all been a huge help. Thank you! 🙂

Hi All! I have used this board for years but have never contributed. Now I really need some advice! My family is currently on the NCL Epic on a transatlantic cruise that originated in Orlando and is ending in Rome. Although we have done 7 or 8 NCL cruises over the years (plus more on all of the other major lines) this is our first cruise since covid. This cruise has simply been terrible. It is so shockingly different from any of the other cruises we have done that I find myself scratching my head trying to figure it all out. First and foremost, the food is simply gross. Much of it borders on inedible. Every meal on this ship we have taken a bite of something that we either had to spit out into our napkin or simply choked the bite down and sent the dish back. The garden cafe (the buffet) has had the same menu for each of the twelve days we have been on the ship. I thank God for the pizza because that has been the one consistently ok thing to eat. The specialty dining has been fine but all of the other meal options have been adequate at absolute best. In my family's opinion, the meat has significantly declined in quality with steak that is full of tendons and very rubbery chicken. I would like to add that this low quality meat has been served in all of their restaurants. The other thing that has really surprised us is how rude the staff is! Once again, something that I never thought that I would write. The crew on cruise ships has always been shockingly polite. In fact, I have always found that they are almost too polite as I have seen guests treat staff members poorly. I feel like the staff is trying to get revenge on this particular trip! The staff is shockingly rude to a point that some members are looking at guests with disdain. For example, I went to the front desk to ask a question about the food and I simply asked the girl working "has the quality of the food gone down a bit since covid". The only reason I asked was because we were trying to figure out if we wanted to purchase more of the "cruise next" vouchers and if the food was like this on all of the cruises we really aren't interested. The young lady working looked so irritated and rudely replied, "ask them at the restaurants". This and several other issues have actually had me questioning whether I should leave the "service charge" or contest it. I have never not left the full amount. In fact, I have always left additional money for particular employees that I felt went above and beyond. All in all, the food sucks. This is the dirtiest ship we've ever been on. The gentleman that cleans our room has left dirty dishes in our room more times than I can count. The staff is rude. Oh, and 3 times I've been told someone will call me back from the front desk and no one ever has. There is so much more I could add, but in the interest of brevity, I will leave it at that. Is this what cruising post covid is like? Thank you all for any advice you can offer.