We have sailed Carnival 4 times and Royal Caribbean once so we were excited to be trying NCL. Embarkation was a breeze and the staff in the terminal were awesome. We were lucky enough to be the first ones on the ship. The Epic is not only massive, She's a beautiful ship. They had the staterooms available at 1:30, A half hour before they said they'd be so that was nice. Our stateroom had the largest balcony we've ever had. The curved room was different but very welcoming and lots and lots of storage space, So much in fact that we didn't even use it all and we had 10 days worth of clothes.The curved bed was a little small but bearable. I liked the separation of the toilet and shower.They only had one tv channel for tv shows but as one ended the next one wouldn't come on for 15 to 20 minutes. Not a huge deal as we only watched it for late night viewing until we fell asleep.

As I said, We've sailed 4 times previously on Carnival and loved it. We made the mistake at first of comparing NCL against Carnival (which is something we said we wouldn't do... RIGHT!) We were hoping that the Epic would live up to the high standards that we were used to on Carnival and i guess you could say just a little apprehensive.We were on a beautiful new ship but as we looked off the stern there was the new Carnival Breeze. Kept saying "keep an open mind" and in the end NCL won me over. My wife is still on the fence although she did have a great time.

The muster drill was completely different than what were used to. They had everybody gather in different lounges, In the theater and dining venues and without life vests.Our cabin steward Reggie was great. Very accommodating, Professional and always with a smile.We absolutely LOVED the freestyle dining concept but missed having the same wait staff every night.The Manhattan room and the Taste dining rooms were beautiful. Even though we missed the same wait staff every night having a different table each time we dined was a nice change.The dining room wait staff was fantastic, Friendly and eager to please.I had read reviews that the wait to get into these rooms were long. We never waited more than 5 minutes.The 24 hr restaurant O'Sheeans had a great day menu but minimal selections on the late night menu.We didn't dine at any of the specialty restaurants so I can't comment on them. Read more