Is epic’s cutomer service / wait lines for everything really that bad?

[cheeseheads4ever]

My DW and I have cruised Celebrity the last 5 cruises in 2 years. It is getting to be the same thing every cruise on Celebrity.. Just wanted to try something different. Having never been on Norwegian I thought maybe a change to try Epic would be a good thing.

I stated in a January review of Celebrity Equinox the whole cruise felt off. Only a 4 nighter and maybe that was it. I found wait times for drinks were ridiculous and crew was understaffed in all bar areas. Just not the Celebrity touch we have grown to expect, but after reading the first 6 reviews on Epic it sounds even worse than Celebrity. Is Norwegian really that bad? Cruisers are complaining about every aspect of the cruise and its not just the one disgruntled cruiser who they can never make happy. It seems like most of the cruisers are unhappy with the January cruises on Epic.

This is kind of scaring me off from cruising Norwegian.

Any thoughts from recent cruisers that actually like Norwegian?

[sarahc78]

Interested for responses...we’re in the same boat our last handful of cruises have been on celebrity. They were actually all wonderful cruises but we wanted to try switching things up. I’m nervous we made a bad choice because of all the negative reviews. I’m especially worried since I convinced our group to try NCL [emoji51]

 

 

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[irishgal1970]

I had been on Celebrity three times before trying Norwegian (Epic). I personally didn't find the lines to be overly long. The biggest difference I think you'll notice is the noise/activity level. There's a lot happening on the Epic, and depending on the week there are a lot of kids. If the one thing you disliked about Celebrity is the lack of nightlife, you won't be disappointed.

 

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[Vyhanek]

Th Epic is getting some consistently horrible reviews, embarkation is taking 1 1/2 hours, dinner reservations are lost, really long wait times for drinks, bar service intentionally slow, the complaints are consistent.

 

I was on the Epic 2 years ago and it was wonderful. I had lobster for every dinner, there were no long wait for anything, no need to get to the theaters an hour plus in advance. I'm booked again on the Epic in a couple weeks.

 

I want to think it will all be fine but when you see consistently, recurring issues on the reviews it makes you think the Epic has a serious problem.

[trivimp]

I was on the Epic last week and never waited more than a minute or so for a drink. The only time I encountered a line was for the escape room, where it took a while to get everyone's card swiped, and they had a mixup with our reservation. Everything else was pretty much like every other cruise... sometimes there's a crowd, but they still get the orders out reasonably fast.

[jroe4567]

I was on the Epic in January and have been reading the recent reviews. This was our 3rd cruise (my first was on Royal Caribbean, second on NCL Spirit). The entertainment and food options were great. It was only two of us, but we never waited longer than 20-30 minutes to eat in either of the MDRs. We had the UBP so we would just grab a drink and would then be seated soon after. I knew in advance about the bathroom situation, wave-shaped rooms and short beds, and those didn't bother me at all (we did pull the mattress away from the wall to lengthen it). Lighting wasn't great over the sink in our balcony cabin but that was my only issue with the room. Walking through the smoky casino was annoying. Entertainment was fabulous. Never waited longer than 5ish minutes for a drink. I didn't care for the larger ship (preferred the Spirit) but I would definitely sail on her again for the right price.

[cheersforbeers]

We were on NCL Dawn January 17, Jewel January 16, Epic January 15 and were extremely pleased with all of them.

On the Epic sometimes there was several people in line at customer service all with the same requests, trying to remove the service charges and questioning there bills a lot.

Other than that we didn’t have any problems with dinner, drinks, shows or reservations.

Food was great IMHO.

Depending on the time, sometimes it was difficult to find seating in the Garden Cafe for more than 2.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

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[BirdTravels]

We have cruised on the Epic 7 times and never had any problems. We have sailed on NCL megaships a total of 16 times and never had any problems. We have also sailed on RCCL megaships and not experienced any issues

 

And, we are sailing on both NCL and RCCL megaships over the next two months, because we have never had any problems.

 

There are those who long for the "good 'ole days" of 1000 passenger ships with gowns and tuxes, where you have to reserve and pay rental for deck chairs. Not us. We want to be on vacation.

[llollipoppi]

I was on the epic in January and never queued for anything. Seated straight away anytime I went to the main dining room.

 

Had prebooked any shows so problems there. Always had a drink when I needed one.

 

Only lines I saw were for guest relations!

[Oakman58]

When I was on the Epic there were lines but it really wasn’t all that bad. You’re going to be on a ship with 4000 other passengers so expected some lines. Unless of course you have a concierge to take care of things for you. A lot of the posters on this forum stay in the Haven category cabins so their experience is completely different from what the rest of us slobs experience.

[DakotaDisneyLover]

There were 13 of us in 4 cabins that sailed the Epic Christmas cruise a year ago. The ship was completely full. We had a great cruise! Food, drink and entertainment was great. We made specialty dining reservations before we left, and adjusted them as needed once onboard. All 13 of us were either seated together, or at two tables beside each other every time, no problem. We got into every restaurant we wanted to; they were very accommodating. Some shows we had reservations for, some we went into the no reservation line, and always got in😊. Did we have to wait for a drink sometimes? Yes, but it wasn’t terrible-after all, we are on vacation time! Room: We had 2 adults and a 16 year old son in a balcony room. It worked just fine for us, and we are used to roomy cabins on the Disney ships with split bathrooms! My complaints about our Epic cabin would be: It could have been a bit cleaner - there were finger prints on the walls, etc. Our steward wasn’t the best, and we had a hard time getting toilet paper replaced, a light bulb replaced (the room lighting is bad to begin with), a light burned out mid cruise and it never did get replaced even after I reminded him twice. The sink and bathroom setup was just fine in our opinion. Misc: We all really enjoyed the variety of restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. Lots to choose from and top notch! I will also note that the Epic did a great time celebrating Christmas - decorations, shows, carols, etc. but it wasn’t over the top. As others have said, the elevators are busy, but we like to take the stairs for exercise, so not that big of a deal to us, and patience helps. We really had a great week on the Epic!

[wdsted]

Th Epic is getting some consistently horrible reviews, embarkation is taking 1 1/2 hours, dinner reservations are lost, really long wait times for drinks, bar service intentionally slow, the complaints are consistent.

 

I was on the Epic 2 years ago and it was wonderful. I had lobster for every dinner, there were no long wait for anything, no need to get to the theaters an hour plus in advance. I'm booked again on the Epic in a couple weeks.

 

I want to think it will all be fine but when you see consistently, recurring issues on the reviews it makes you think the Epic has a serious problem.

 

 

 

Folks on CC love to pile on the Breakaway and Epic for reasons I don’t understand. We’ve been on both about 3 times and none of those cruises were any different from the others we’ve taken. All were great. We’ve never had a lost restaurant reservation, we’ve only waited for a drink at pool bars on sea days, we’ve never had any major complaints, and we’ve never had to arrive an hour early for anything. And I’ll guess we’ve been on more NCL than 99% of the folks who are endless complaining and exaggerating their on-board woes. As for free lobster every night on Epic two years ago, no way.

 

 

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[cheeseheads4ever]

Thanks everyone maybe we will reconsider. Great to hear some positive feedback too.

[KeithJenner]

Quite often on these forums people state that they have to stay in the Haven as they hate “crowds and queues”.

 

My reaction is always “what crowds and queues”. I suppose I can recall times when it does get fairly busy in specific places so maybe I get the crowds bit, but queues? I just don’t see them.

 

Perhaps it’s where you go? It certainly isn’t difficult to avoid all these queues though. Many of us manage it.

 

 

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[trician24]

We just got off the Epic this past weekend and loved it. Yes, there were some crowds but mostly when everyone was coming back on the ship from port or when the main shows let out. You learn to navigate around it. I would not let this deter you from the value you get on the Epic. We already booked next year's cruise on the Epic again because we had so much fun and loved the vacation :hearteyes:

[gmbhardy]

We just finished our second cruise on the Epic and we loved it. The ship has a lot of positive attributes - the balconies are twice the size of the Breakaway and Getaway - the outdoor buffet is great in the morning for breakfast - Spice H2O has a pool, tiered seating and it’s own BBQ buffet - service and entertainment is on par with NCL’s other mega ships - the cost of the cruise is usually cheaper than the other big ships and I prefer to fly into and out of Orlando as the airport is nicer and pre and post cruise accommodation is less expensive.

[bmwman]

Th Epic is getting some consistently horrible reviews, embarkation is taking 1 1/2 hours, dinner reservations are lost, really long wait times for drinks, bar service intentionally slow, the complaints are consistent.

 

I was on the Epic 2 years ago and it was wonderful. I had lobster for every dinner, there were no long wait for anything, no need to get to the theaters an hour plus in advance. I'm booked again on the Epic in a couple weeks.

 

I want to think it will all be fine but when you see consistently, recurring issues on the reviews it makes you think the Epic has a serious problem.

 

The reason is it is consistently below par and the rest of the fleet!

[tel1024]

We were just on the epic at the end of January and loved it. Everything I’ve seen complaints about I never experienced on the ship.

 

We also went to a couple shows and got to the theater within 10 min without reservations with no issues

 

 

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[cheersforbeers]

We were just on the epic at the end of January and loved it. Everything I’ve seen complaints about I never experienced on the ship.

 

We also went to a couple shows and got to the theater within 10 min without reservations with no issues

 

How did that happen, you must be royalty or something like that. LOL

Glad your cruise was a great experience