Our Amazing European Adventure! Navigator of the Seas & Norwegian Epic Review w/pics

[ShellDil]

Thankyou for sharing your fabulous, wonderful trip of a lifetime. We had our 'trip of a lifetime' 5 years ago and I wish I'd done a review of it. It's too late now, some memories have faded and some feel like it was just yesterday but most are still there and your review has rekindled many of them. It's taken me the best part of today to read through the whole thread and I just want to say thankyou for taking the time to share it with us. You have brought back so many happy memories of our trip, we visited so many of the places you did. Our journey was life changing .... literally. We moved house and our new home wasn't ready for us to move into for 8 weeks. So what better way to spend our time than a nice cruise and grand tour of Europe. We (me, DH and 3 kids age 6, 12 & 14) started our journey the very same day we sold our house. We stayed in London, Paris, Barcelona, cruised the Med, stayed in France for a week and then and back to London for a few nights before travelling back to Manchester (UK). LOL I laughed out loud at your planning ... I did exactly the same. For sure, we would not have seen a quarter of the things we did if I hadn't planned. Private tours, ships excursions, trains, ferries, taxis, cars ... you name it we did it! We arrived back in Manchester 3 weeks later exhausted, homeless .... and happy. It took another 5 weeks of hotels and living out of a suitcase before our new home was ready! But our memories (just like yours) will be in our hearts forever and our children still talk about it to this day.

 

My children are always asking me if we can do it again... sadly not :( it cost far too much money. I tell them I would be very happy to plan such a trip ... as long as they paid for it! Perhaps we could move house again ....

 

Wow! Now that's an adventure! I do love the planning stage, it's a good thing right! :D

[ShellDil]

I have so enjoyed reading your review. We too had a similar trip of a lifetime, last September via a Med cruise and land time in Rome, Florence and Venice. I kept laughing at the similarities between our trip and yours. We took Bruno's Food Tour in Rome, and I think we went to the exact same restaurants. We wanted to stay at the Albergo del Senato but for 5 days it was just out of our price range. I kept watching their prices but they didn't get any cheaper!! We used Joe Bananas for our tour of Amalfi as well and we also went to the same restaurant in Positano (by the way it is called La Tagliata -ranked #1 out of 62 restaurants n Positano on Tripadvisor). This day and Bruno's food tour were the top 2 highlights of our trip. We also used Rome Cabs for our airport run. my all time favourite statue at the Vatican was the Pieta. Like you I was so drawn to it. I can't wait to see it again. we also feel the same way as you - Italy has captured our heart. I really want to stop calling this my trip of a lifetime as I want to ensure that it doesn't only happen once, but that soon we will follow our hearts back to Italy.

 

Thank you for such a wonderful review. You are one talented writer and photographer.

 

Now that is funny about all of the similarities! I guess we both have great taste don't we! And I agree that it shouldn't be a trip of a lifetime, because then it would only happen once! We may never travel quite so grand again, or quite so long, but I for sure feel drawn to return to Europe! Someday! ;)

[ShellDil]

Thank you so much for the amazing trip review! I appreciate the hours and hours you spent writing it. I loved reading your reports and seeing your beautiful photos and sharing your trip along with you and your family. Makes me want to pack up and head there today!!

 

 

Thank you! Writing it made me want to pack up and head back!!! ;)

 

 

Thanks for the great detailed review of your European Adventure. Your pictures are AMAZING!!!

 

:)

 

 

Thank you! I actually just had a canvas print made of one from Positano....it turned out great!

[ShellDil]

Hey there everyone! I haven't disappeared or forgotten about the wrap up of my review! I really have lots more I want to say! You know me....wordy! :D

 

But I'm going out of town tomorrow morning, the kids and I are heading to Busch Gardens, VA for the weekend and we won't be back until Sunday. Which of course means I've been swamped trying to get my work done for the week so I could take off Thursday and Friday! Real world practical life getting in the way of writing about vacation stuff again!

 

So, my goal is to either post again on Sunday, or if not Monday! Hopefully no one will forget about me and this review until then!!!

 

Thanks for hanging in and thank you all for the lovely compliments!

[pamletx]

Looking forward to reading the wrap up!

 

Have a GREAT time at Busch Gardens... we loved going there when we lived in NC. It's such a beautiful amusement park!

[jagaul]

Just wanted to send off a big thank you for your review and the photographs! I just stumbled upon it while searching some boards on Cruise Critic last evening and spent hours pouring over every photo and all of your writing. What a wonderful trip you all were able to enjoy. I too feel as you mentioned....like I belong in if not Italy, then somewhere else in Europe. We spent fourteen days there last year going to many of the same locations you visited. And we are so lucky as we are returning again in November. Just a bit over two months from now! Were not planning to do so this year but stumbled upon a deal that was just too good to pass on...so here we are...off again on another adventure! This time beginning in Istanbul Turkey and ending in Barcelona. We loved Barcelona....spent two days there last year so are looking forward to another two days there this year.

I must ask.....are you a photographer by profession? If not you should be. I totally understand your love of recording all the details of these amazing scenes....I do happen to be fortunate enough to have been a working photographer for the thirty plus years and so dearly love being able to get out in new locations and shoot, shoot, shoot. Last year I came home with over 6000 images....and this year will be that many if not more!

Anyway....just wanted to send off a big thank you for such a wonderful narrative and photos from your dream vacation...and again to say.....if you are not a professional photographer you should think about it....you definitely have the "eye" for it!

Hopefully I too will be able to accomplish a review of our upcoming trip.....as last year we returned home and then got busy and never got it done.

Happy Travels!!

[ShellDil]

Just wanted to send off a big thank you for your review and the photographs! I just stumbled upon it while searching some boards on Cruise Critic last evening and spent hours pouring over every photo and all of your writing. What a wonderful trip you all were able to enjoy. I too feel as you mentioned....like I belong in if not Italy, then somewhere else in Europe. We spent fourteen days there last year going to many of the same locations you visited. And we are so lucky as we are returning again in November. Just a bit over two months from now! Were not planning to do so this year but stumbled upon a deal that was just too good to pass on...so here we are...off again on another adventure! This time beginning in Istanbul Turkey and ending in Barcelona. We loved Barcelona....spent two days there last year so are looking forward to another two days there this year.

I must ask.....are you a photographer by profession? If not you should be. I totally understand your love of recording all the details of these amazing scenes....I do happen to be fortunate enough to have been a working photographer for the thirty plus years and so dearly love being able to get out in new locations and shoot, shoot, shoot. Last year I came home with over 6000 images....and this year will be that many if not more!

Anyway....just wanted to send off a big thank you for such a wonderful narrative and photos from your dream vacation...and again to say.....if you are not a professional photographer you should think about it....you definitely have the "eye" for it!

Hopefully I too will be able to accomplish a review of our upcoming trip.....as last year we returned home and then got busy and never got it done.

Happy Travels!!

 

 

Thank you! No, I'm not a professional photographer, but it is something that I would love to pursue! As someone who has been in the field for 30 years, how exactly does someone like me, who has this passion for photography, but not portrait photography, even break into this as a profession? If I could figure out how and where to begin to start selling or marketing even some photos I would be thrilled! If you have any advice to offer, I would love to hear it.

 

And have a wonderful trip! I'd love to see your photos when you return, and hear about your trip! It sounds great! Now that we've been to Turkey, I'd like to visit Istanbul as well!

[Riggy84]

You're going to have a blast! I was hoping to get to my tips on preparing sooner - but I think it may have to wait until next week! :eek: We're heading out of town for a few days, leaving tomorrow morning....so no time to post yet!

 

Sorry to be cheeky, but if you have time before you go, would you be able to put the dailies up? Only we leave Sunday morning and was hoping to see them before I go! Epic dailies have been a bit sparse lately :(

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi ShellDil,

 

Thank you so much for this wonderfully detailed review! Love the pictures and the personal family stories! I know how time consuming this can get -- so again thank you!

 

Have fun in Virginia!

 

Stef

[pampaul]

Wow, I have just spent the last two days reading your entire trip report. Fabulous. Normally I just read trip reports on places that we plan on going to in the near future or one on a particular ship that we will be on.

 

Well, we never really had any desire to go to Europe (well my husband does) but I'm not a very good flyer. I hate it !!! The 2 1/2 hours it takes us to fly to Disney is more than enough for me.

 

BUT after reading all that you have done and have seen your photos, I just might have to suck it up and take a trip like this. Looked and sounded wonderful. I would also do like you and do a 3-4 week long vacation. I mean if I fly over there it would probably be a one time thing so I would try to pack in as much as I could in that amount of time. LOL

 

Thanks again for the great review.

[ShellDil]

Hey there everyone! I'm back!

 

So....where to start again??? I suppose with the ships? I sort of feel like this is a bit of a touchy subject though. People do seem to want to love or hate ships based on cruise lines. But as you can see in my signature, I'm not particularly an overly experienced cruiser, and I'm not one to stick with one line. I've traveled quite a bit, but cruising is relatively new for us. We've mainly done land based vacations until the past couple of years. So all of that being said, overall impressions and comparisons of the Navigator of the Seas/Royal Caribbean to the Epic/Norwegian....

 

First lets go into how we even chose these two ships! As I mentioned, we wanted to go to fairly specific ports, but we also wanted kid friendly ships. As much as we looked we didn't really find one longer cruise that fit the bill for us, so I came up with the idea to do two cruises. That did narrow our choices down a bit because we had to find two that fit time wise now. We really couldn't have a full week in between cruises, just a couple of days. So it seemed like in scouring everything I could find, Norwegian and RCL could match up pretty well! It looked like we could pair the Navigator and either the Jade or the Epic. We probably could have done the Liberty too. But it started getting pretty complicated when we threw that in, and I'm pretty sure it was priced higher than the Navigator.

 

So in mixing up dates, and ports, and prices....the Navigator and Epic won out. Megan was thrilled with the Epic! The cost of the two cruises ended up being approx the same as one longer cruise, for the dates we were looking at anyway. The kids seemed to think the Navigator looked a bit old and maybe would be boring for them, but knowing they'd be on the Epic after seemed to make them pretty happy!

 

For me, the combination of the Western Med and Eastern Med, was perfect. We had no repeat ports, we had 3 days in between to do some land touring in Italy, and I was looking forward to trying 2 more cruise lines!

 

Cost/Booking/Upgrades/Value

Initially we had booked 2 balcony cabin and one inside cabin across the hall for the kids on the Navigator. During the Thanksgiving Black Friday sale I noticed a huge price drop and was able to switch the inside cabin to a connecting balcony cabin for less money than the inside originally was priced! I was much more comfortable with the kids next to us, and accessible to us via the balcony than across the hall.

 

On the EPIC - the cost of 3 cabins was priced much higher. There was really no way we could pay for that, so we booked my parents in a balcony and the four of us in a family balcony. During that same Black Friday sale weekend, I was able to upgrade us to a Family Mini Suite. It was still FAR too expensive to get the kids a connecting balcony. Over $2500 more than the price of the four of us in the same room. The Mini Suite is not a suite, it's a slightly larger balcony room, with a larger "bathroom" area.

 

Overall impression - The Epic cost a lot more for a much smaller feeling space. I'm not sure if it was smaller or not, but it would have been nice to be able to get the kids a connecting cabin for a similar cost. However, they did have the kids sale half price sale which allowed us to get the Family Mini Suite which gave us more space than my parents cabin.

 

Cabins/Cabin Steward

Navigator - The Navigator cabins are pretty standard. We did have one with the flat panel tv so there was a bit more room on the dresser. The bathroom was plenty big, so was the shower - given that it was a cruise ship bathroom! Since we had a connecting cabin we had a chair instead of a little sofa, but that was fine. When we wanted to sit we were on our balcony anyway and we don't mind sitting on the bed to watch TV. We opened our balcony divider to the kids balcony and had a nice big balcony! Huge closet space. With shelves on the side.

 

Our Cabin Steward was very nice. The first day he went over "rules" with us and the kids since they had their own cabin. Nothing harsh, but I thought that was very appropriate! To be honest, I can't remember one of them at this moment. But things that as a parent you would tell your own kids if they are in a room alone. Our cabins were kept very well and we saw our steward often.

 

My parents on the other hand almost never saw their steward, and they were in the cabin right next to the kids! But they never had a problem. And their cabin was kept well.

 

Epic - I thought the design of the cabins was unique. I didn't hate it, but I thought it made for a lot of annoying space. It may be because we had four of us in the cabin, but I don't think so. We had the bed closer to the bathroom. And as I mentioned having the "mini suite" we had about 4 or 5 extra feet in length to the room which was a HUGE amount of space! But there are no drawers. There are a lot of little what I'd call cubby cabinets. Over the mirrors. They're small. And being short, sort of a pain to get to. So, not having traditional drawers, I had the four of our clothes scattered all about the room in these little cubbies! Shorts and shirts and pants and shoes! The closet was perfectly big with plenty of hangars, but it has the two bars, one on the top and one on the bottom, so the clothes hanging on the bottom, drag on the floor and the ones on the top drag on the clothes on the bottom. I don't get that either. Make a wider closet.

 

I totally didn't mind the sink in the room. We never had a problem with water splashing out on the floor. Not a big deal at all. The toilet was no big deal either. The door shuts and there's also a curtain that pulls to separate the toilet/shower area from the room. I had no issues with that part of the bathroom.

 

We had the drop down bed from the ceiling for Alex. Had no issues there. It would be put down and night and put back up during the day. Megan slept on the "sofa" bed which was the sofa that converted to a twin bed.

 

Now what I did have a huge issue with was the shower/changing area being open the the cabin door. I mentioned this in a post earlier - Say someone is taking a shower - which by the way we did have a nice big (longer) shower since it was the slightly larger room). Say you get out of the shower to get dressed. You are now standing right in the entrance way to the room. Let's say your 13 year old son was out and he comes into the room with his own key - and you're NAKED :eek: because you just got out of the shower? WHO in their right mind thought of that? ACK!!! That is the problem I have with the bathroom design. Anyone with a key can come right in. Say the cabin steward comes in because someone changed your little dial outside to say "make up room" ???

 

Ok - get the picture?

 

Cabin Steward - Ours was nice enough, but honestly I felt like we were a burden to her. I think they were totally overworked on the Epic. She looked exhausted. She smiled, but seemed like she was always in a rush. Like she couldn't wait to be done to move on to the next room.

 

My parents, especially my mom, hated their cabin on the Epic. They thought it was way too small. They had to sit on their bed to watch their tv. They couldn't walk past one another because the room was too narrow. They felt the only redeeming quality was the balcony.

 

Overall staff

 

Navigator of all the cruise lines we've been on I can say the Navigator had the friendliest staff I've come across. Every single person we encountered went out of their way to not only do his or her job, but to be friendly. Our dining staff in the Main Dining Room was outstanding - every single one of them! The officers were visible through out the ship and very friendly. Just all around, everyone we met was great.

 

The guest relations desk (is that what it's called?) was very helpful the couple of times we had a question. The line moved quickly. I will say we were charged incorrectly for pool towels on our final bill. As we were leaving the ship I just walked up to the desk, told them we did in fact return the towels and the immediately removed the charge.

 

Epic I got the feeling that the staff on the Epic was just there doing their job. They weren't unfriendly, but they didn't go out of their way to be overly outstanding. I have no memory of a fantastic staff or fantastic service anywhere. There was no bad service or no unfriendly staff, but nothing memorable. It's not a complaint, but it was average. The waitstaff did their job. Everyone just did their jobs. They did them well, but nothing was memorable.

 

 

 

Next up....food, spa services, entertainment...and more!

[Wriggler]

Hi

 

I've loved your review so much and can only agree with you about the size if the cabins on NCL.

 

We cruised with them a couple of years ago and as soon as my youngest opened the door he said "Oh" in such a disappointed way...the room was just soooo small. He slept on the sofa bed and when it was out you had to climb over it to get out onto the balcony - or 'the ledge' as it became known!! :D

 

Carol

Edited August 26, 2013 by Wriggler

[ShellDil]

Spas

 

This may a bit hard to judge since we didn't have comparable services on each, but I'll do my best!

 

Navigator I had one of their spa specials. I didn't intend to have any spa treatments on board. As a matter of fact, I had a gift certificate for the spa on the Epic that my kids gave me for Christmas! I fully intended to save any spa treatments for the epic Epic spa! But one day (as I mentioned in the review) we got back from port and there was a special handed out that was a Happy Hour treatment. It was a shoulder, neck, back, head, foot and ankles massage and a mini facial. I can't remember the price, but I know it was very reasonable. I jumped on that deal! With all of the walking around in the ports and carrying around my camera bag for days and days now, this was heaven! It was about an hour long and it was perfect. It wasn't the best massage and I'm not a facial type of person. But I can't complain. I loved it and it was perfectly relaxing. There was absolutely no sales pitch involved. I would recommend it to anyone.

 

Epic Now, first I will say the spa facilities on the Epic are gorgeous! The whole area is huge and there are the thermal pools and heated chairs. The saunas and I don't even know what else! I mentioned that I fully intended to purchase the week spa pass for Keith so he would have his place to relax - but he didn't think he would get enough use out of it. I did end up purchasing a day pass for him on our sea day. He loved it. He spent the entire sea day in that a spa facility. Had it been sunny he would have been on deck in the sun. But it was overcast and windy, the seas were choppy and it was not a pool deck day. So for him, on that day, the spa facilities were outstanding. That is his thing.

 

The spa services - I gave Megan my gift certificate to get the teen manicure/pedicure. It was basic, she liked it. No complaints there. My mom picked her up, so if they would have tried to sell her anything, I wouldn't have known.

 

My mom however got a hot stone massage on board and ran into some shall we say attitude. First, she arrived 15 minutes before her appointment. She had the slip with the time and yet was told she was late. She had the paperwork with her, and was still told SHE was late. They told her THEY were going to cut 15 minutes off of her scheduled massage because SHE was late! Really? Even if she was late, which isn't late, it's on time because you have to arrive 15 minutes early, they should not be cutting her services. She said they were not accommodating in any way. When she showed them the printout of what time to arrive they didn't even look at it.

 

Then during the hot stone massage, she said the stones weren't really hot, and they weren't left on her during the massage. I've had many hot stone massages. I've always had the stones used during the massage and then they are placed on say my back and left in place while warm. Then they are removed after they cool. She said they weren't. I feel like she had a really below average massage experience - like she'd never get a hot stone massage again (it was her first one) and that the staff there were rude to her. Not to mention that they did in fact cut her massage by 15 minutes!

 

My experience with Hot Stone Massages have basically ruined me for regular massages! To me there is nothing better than those hot stones! :)

 

So I guess my overall feeling about the two ships would be that the service on the Navigator would be better in the spa, but the facilities on the Epic spa are better for just personal use.

 

[ShellDil]

Continuing on!!!

Entertainment

 

Navigator The Navigator had what I'd consider two types of Entertainment that we attended. There were the parades in the Promenade and then there were the shows. Now of course there were the party type entertainment too, but we never made it to those events though. I thought the parades were fun. They were silly but they really fit the ship. Alex and I went to the Welcome Aboard Parade - you can see the pictures in the review. Then Megan and I went to the Circus Parade on the last night. Alex was there somewhere in the crowd and we met up with him at the end. I think we all enjoyed the parade, just like you would enjoy any silly little street parade - only this was on a ship!

 

As far as the shows, the Ice Show was outstanding. The rink is small, but the show was HUGE! The skaters were first class.

 

I thought the rest of the shows were just ok. It was something to do at night. I wouldn't have cared if I saw the shows or missed them. I think I went to a couple, my parents went to one each night I believe and Megan went to most with my parents. She loves a show!

 

Epic I think the Epic excels when it comes to Entertainment! Both in quality and variety. I do however think there's a bit of failure when it comes to actually getting in to see a show! This is where the whole freestyle concept seems to be a bit mixed up. With the dining freestyle yet the shows planned and by reservation you seem to have a conflict. By the time we boarded nearly every show was booked for the week. I was shocked by this given the huge promotion of the freestyle concept!

 

Anyway, on the flip side of this, even when a show was already booked, if you arrived about 10 minutes before the start of the show you could get in if there were seats available. Megan and I were able to get into the Legends show this way. We also were able to get reservations for Blue Man Group for later in the week.

 

I saw Howl at the Moon and as I mentioned in my review I thought this was outstanding! It's not a reservation show, it's a come and go during the performance type event. It is put on a few times during the week.

 

My parents saw Los Locos Ole and enjoyed it quite a bit, but thought the venue wasn't the best for the performance.

 

We enjoyed the Cirque Dreams Dinner Show, but as I mentioned in the review I thought that charging extra for the "premium" seating that we ended up with was not worth the extra money. We also thought the food at the show was good.

 

There were other entertainment options available, but we just didn't have the time to get to them. It was such a port intensive cruise that it just wasn't possible! At least not for us! I feel like there was so much more that I wanted to see at night on the Epic, but I was just beat!

 

I'll have to give the edge to the Epic for the Entertainment for sure. Both in the variety and the quality.

 

[HighlandGirlEB]

Thanks for keeping our holiday feelings alive for as long as possible, so sad this review is over now and I have to accept real life again lol. So glad we met and hope our families keep in touch for a while to come :)

 

Money constraints and work problems have put on hold all dreams of a visit to Rome next spring and another cruise but I have such fond memories of the Navigator this year that I hope it will keep me going for a while x

 

Wonderful review and amazing pics Shels x Well done :)

[ShellDil]

Some more comparisons on the ships...

 

FOOD

 

Navigator Our first dining experience on the Navigator was the Windjammer Cafe right after boarding. My first impression was just overall average. I thought the selection was average the taste of the food average and the seating, well I missed having outdoor seating at the buffet. My previous cruise experiences had been on Celebrity and Carnival and both had buffet seating where you could eat outside. Now, I realize that boarding day, lunch time is often the most hectic time to eat at the buffet, but throughout the cruise my impression of the Windjammer pretty much remained the same. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything that I would get excited over. I tried to avoid breakfast there because it was just far too hectic.

 

I loved the fact that you could get a full, hot room service breakfast on the Navigator. On our early port days, we found this to be a great alternative to leaving the cabin for breakfast! Our meals always arrived hot and in a timely fashion. We enjoyed eating on our balcony as we pulled into port. We never had to rush to finish our breakfast. It was really a great way to enjoy our meals.

 

We also often used room service for an afternoon or evening snack. Keith and I would get the cheese platter and the kids maybe a pizza or Alex, who knows - the kid has a bottomless pit! He'd get cheeseburgers, fries, grilled cheese - you name it! He liked pretty much everything he got.

 

As far as the Specialty Restaurants - We loved Chops - all 6 of us dined there on our first night and had a fantastic meal with excellent service. Everything was cooked well and everything tasted great. Keith and I got to try Portofino's and we both thought it was great. The selection of menu items was really good and the food was excellent. We had no complaints. My parents and the kids went to Johnny Rockets and they liked their meal there.

 

Main Dining Room - we did My Time Dining - never had a problem with seating. We did make reservations, but on a daily basis. We'd either make reservations in the morning before leaving for the day or in the afternoon when returning from port. We had the same table every night, so we had the same staff. They were fantastic. I can not say enough good things about the waitstaff on the Navigator. The food in the MDR was good. It wasn't outstanding, but it was good enough that we never had a complaint. The variety was good, everyone could always find something they liked.

 

Overall we all enjoyed the food on the Navigator.

 

Epic Again - our first meal on the Epic was at the Garden Cafe Buffet when we boarded. I preferred the buffet on the Epic to the buffet on the Navigator. I felt there were more choices available, and I liked that there was outdoor seating.

 

Room Service - we didn't like the room service options on the Epic - there was no hot breakfast option. It was only pastry type things and cereal. So we never had breakfast on our balcony. Pizza was $5, instead of free like on the Navigator, however it was a full size pizza. Not that you always needed a full size pizza! The cheese platter, that we got often as an afternoon snack before heading to dinner - with our wine, was not included in the room service menu, it was now a chargeable item. I'm not sure that we really used the room service much on the Epic.

 

Main Dining Room - I only ate in the Main Dining Room once and I didn't enjoy it at all. I thought the food was bland and the service was bad. It felt like a cafeteria dressed up. It was crowded and loud. I also felt that the menu selections were very limited. I had absolutely no desire to go back to the Main Dining Room (we ate at Manhattan) again the entire cruise. My parents ate in the MDR a few times, mainly because it was included in the price of the cruise, not because it was good. I wanted to try Taste to see if it was any better, but after looking over the menu with Keith and the kids, we passed. There wasn't much on the menu that appealed to us.

 

I sort of felt trapped into the specialty restaurants on the Epic. I felt like if we wanted to have a quality meal that didn't feel like it was in a cafeteria setting then we had to pay for our meal. This bothered me. Especially coming from the Navigator where the MDR felt special. No the food wasn't outstanding, but the service more than made up for it. And as I mentioned the variety was good so I got different food every night. It never felt tired or bad.

 

O'Sheehans - This restaurant is included - it's pub type food. Alex and I had dinner there one night and I think the kids did another night. The food is fine. It's typical pub type food. I found the portions to be very small. Or so it seemed. It was nothing special. The service was bad. We waited probably 20 minutes to have a waiter come to our table, and then once he took our order another 20 minutes to get our beverages. It was a long time to get our food. It certainly wasn't because they were busy.

 

On to the Specialty restaurants - To me this is where the Epic really shines food wise....

 

Moderno - we ate here the first night - if you like meat, you can't help but love it here! We've been to Brazilian Steak houses before at home, so we knew what to expect and they didn't disappoint. The salad bar was good, but when you go you go for the meat!

 

Wasabi - Keith and I ate here and it's the Japanese a la carte specialty restaurant. We thought the food was good. We both got sushi rolls. They were priced very well. I would recommend it!

 

Cagney's - This was our one disappointment as far as specialty restaurants go. It was $30/person and we felt the food was average at best. The service was just ok and we left feeling underwhelmed. Especially given the meal we had had at Chops on the Navigator.

 

Cirque Dreams - I mentioned this during the Entertainment section - but since it's food too - I'll tell you about that here....We all enjoyed the food at the show. We thought it was enough food and no one had any complaints. I wouldn't say the show is about the food, so we weren't expecting much, so maybe I was pleasantly surprised even!

 

Teppanayki - We've been to many Japanese steak house restaurants - this one didn't disappoint! The chef we had was a lot of fun and very personable. And the food was good. Both of my parents are not fans of Japanese food, but they came with us. My mom - well, she thought it was just ok - she's not one to change her mind. But my dad thought it was one of the best Japanese meals he's had!

 

Overall - I thought the specialty restaurants on the Epic were very good, but I didn't like the fact that I felt like to get a good meal I had to pay extra for it! I likely would have gone to most of the specialty restaurants anyway, but I almost felt forced to do so. One positive aspect though was that children 12 and under pay 1/2 price in the specialty restaurants, so Megan's meals were discounted. That helped!

 

I also do feel that we were having amazing food off of the ship in our ports and when we were on our land portion of our vacation. So it made the food on the ship a bit harder to judge. For example, when we had our day in Positano, we had the most amazing lunch - then to come back to the ship - the food would have to be pretty darn spectacular to WOW us! I think evaluating food on a Mediterranean cruise as compared to maybe a Caribbean cruise may be just a bit different!

 

Overall though, for the quality of the food in the value of included restaurants, I'd give the nod to the Navigator. For variety in Specialty Restaurants - if you're willing to pay to eat every night - the Epic!

 

 

[alohagirl808]

Thanks for your amazing review. My "trip of a lifetime" is a Mediterranean cruise and Rome so I loved feeling like I was there while reading your review. Fantastic :)

[ShellDil]

Thanks for keeping our holiday feelings alive for as long as possible, so sad this review is over now and I have to accept real life again lol. So glad we met and hope our families keep in touch for a while to come :)

 

Sure thing! And I'm sure we'll keep in touch! I do honestly want to come to your neck of the woods some day....either by land or on a cruise! Alex would love to do an British Isles cruise next! I'm pretty sure there's a stop in Scotland right? Well, either that or one that goes to St Petersburg....to many places to travel, so little money!

 

Money constraints and work problems have put on hold all dreams of a visit to Rome next spring and another cruise but I have such fond memories of the Navigator this year that I hope it will keep me going for a while x

 

Wonderful review and amazing pics Shels x Well done :)

 

I totally hear you on the finances....I keep doing vacation searches on line and while the actual vacation may not be too expensive, the airfare right now is so much! Multiply that by the four of us and it's more than the hotel or cruise! I was looking at some nice warm weather trips for this winter, but the travel costs to get anywhere are sky high!

 

I'm going to keep looking and I'll just have to re-read my review to relive my past trip! :)

[ShellDil]

Thanks for your amazing review. My "trip of a lifetime" is a Mediterranean cruise and Rome so I loved feeling like I was there while reading your review. Fantastic :)

 

Thank you!

[ShellDil]

This has nothing to do with the ships - but I wanted to mention that I had one of my pictures printed onto canvas, which I'd never done before and it turned out great! I had this one done

 

 

I had it done on a 24" x 36" size that I actually got done with a Groupon, so it was less than half price. I figured if I didn't like how it turned out, I didn't lose much! But in the past I've had some pictures done 16 x 20 and then had them framed and it was pretty expensive. So this was a great deal!

 

Only thing is now, having done this I want to get a bunch more done and create a canvas wall collage...It looks like this

 

 

So now I have to pick 10 pictures to put into it! I have no idea where to start! My idea was to pick one from each country, or city when it comes to Italy. But that's more than 10. Then I have to consider the horizontal/vertical issue based on the layout above.

 

If anyone has any favorites they would like to suggest I'm really, really open to suggestions! I'd love some help with this! I would prefer scenery pictures - I don't mind people, but prefer ones without "us" in them. For example, St Mark's Square at night - fine, there are people in it, but it's a scenery shot.

 

Thanks for any help anyone would like to offer!

 

[goncruzn]

That is a pretty photo and I'm sure looks good on canvas.

 

I also like some of the scenic pictures in Venice. I didn't want to copy the entire post here, but it was post #158, 2nd picture and post #182, 1st and 3rd pictures.

 

Your review was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait for my upcoming cruise on the Navigator!

[joand452]

That's what of my favorite photos. It just took my breath away the first time I saw it!!

 

This was just posted on my Facebook newsfeed the other day: http://diycozyhome.com/create-a-gallery-wall-with-help-of-wax-paper/

 

It's an interesting way to help put up all those individual frames. I had saved it because one of my daughters is always framing and hanging lots of things.

 

Don't forget to come back with a photo of your new gallery!

[ShellDil]

That is a pretty photo and I'm sure looks good on canvas.

 

I also like some of the scenic pictures in Venice. I didn't want to copy the entire post here, but it was post #158, 2nd picture and post #182, 1st and 3rd pictures.

 

Your review was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait for my upcoming cruise on the Navigator!

 

I like those shots too - Venice is where I'm having the hardest part narrowing down my choices. In the other cities I can pretty much pick one or maybe two favorite pictures if I have to, but Venice - I think I could do an entire wall collage of favorites! It was so colorful there! I think I need more walls! :)

 

Have a great trip on the Navigator! Now that we've been back for a few months, I keep thinking about all the things I'd do next time around! If only.....maybe someday!

[ShellDil]

That's what of my favorite photos. It just took my breath away the first time I saw it!!

 

This was just posted on my Facebook newsfeed the other day: http://diycozyhome.com/create-a-gallery-wall-with-help-of-wax-paper/

 

It's an interesting way to help put up all those individual frames. I had saved it because one of my daughters is always framing and hanging lots of things.

 

Don't forget to come back with a photo of your new gallery!

 

That's a great idea to line up the pictures for a photo collage! Thanks! I'm going to save that!

 

I think this whole project is going to be harder than I thought....there's so many vertical shots in the layout I picked and so many of the pictures I'd choose are landscape! Not to mention narrowing this down to 10.....oh boy! :eek:

[inmanfamily]

You have so many fantastic photos! I don't know how you will ever choose between them.

 

I am enjoying the ship comparison. We (myself, DH, DD 14, DS 11) are cruising on Serenade of the Seas to the Med. in Oct. but love exploring other cruise lines as well. We have been on RCCL, Disney, Celebrity, and Carnival.

 

I am looking forward to your suggestions of movies/documentaries that you watched with your family prior to your cruise. We are trying to do some of that now so any tips would be helpful. Thanks for the time and energy you have put into this review!

 

 

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