Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Cruise Lines

We joined the Epic in Barcelona having flown out the day before via Easy Jet, beware of rip off taxi drivers taking you to the docks! Embarking was great, really quick we were onboard within 20 mins of arriving at the dockside, while the cabins wern't ready until 2 this gave us time to walk round and explore the ship, the garden cafe is a good place to eat. The cabin was excellent, we had a midships balcony cabin and couldn't fault it, there was one bulb not working when we got there and this was fixed in minutes. There is ample storage space in the cabin the bed was excellent and the shower huge. The ship overall was great, we had read bad reviews about the food before we went but they must have been on a different ship, not once did we have a bad meal either in one of the many resturants or via the free room service. We tried to do a different bit of the varied entertainment every night and while in the most part we did, the Fat Cats Jazz lounge was the best for us, though the Blue man Group were a real laugh. The trips were okay, Florence on our own was good, though beware if you are eldery as its a long walk from the coach stop to the city, Rome escorted was good but very busy lots of walking and toilets were rare! Sorrento on your own for half a day was not worth the money, we had 1 hour and 20 mins in the town for a 3 hour round trip. Value for money was good except for the cost of bottled water onbard which is a rip off. Also there was no papers which surprised me as it would be simple for the ship to do and the one time I get to put my feet up and read one is on holiday. A great boat, we would go back, a great holiday with brilliant food and pampering like I've never had.

This was my first cruise. The ship is huge and there were an awful lot of people on board! In fact nearly 5000 passengers and about 1700 staff. The staff were very polite and helpful; in some cases they were particularly pleasant if you got to interact with them, the more so as the week went on and we got to know each other. Dining - a lot of variety but slightly disappointing that additional charges charges were levied in some restaurants although it is fair to say that this did create a bit of "exclusivity". The main buffet restaurant was something of a rugby scrum. If you are British you will want to take your own tea bags and make sure you take you own pasteurised milk as this was simply not available - only that awful UHT stuff. Breakfast became a whole lot better after we had gone out and bought these items. There were looks of surprise from the staff who did not really appreciate how the British like and need their tea. We had to ask them to warm the pot - which they did willingly even if they did not really understand why! Off-boat activities were expensive and involved a lot of travelling by road. I think the secret of cruising is to choose your route carefully and visit ports where you do not need to travel a lot. I suspect a smaller vessel would be a little more intimate; big is not necessarily the most beautiful