Norwegian Epic Review

4.5 / 5.0
4,409 reviews

NCL Epic Repositioning Cruise May 2014, Miami to Barcelona

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Norwegian Epic
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Big Piner
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2014

The ship was full which is unusual for repositioning cruises.

Pre-Cruise. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Brickell the night before the cruise. It is about 10 minutes to the cruise port. It is near shops and restaurants in Brickell. They have a shuttle to the port for $5 per person. You need to sign up for the shuttle the night before. The shuttle ride went smoothly.

Epic Check In. We arrived about 11:30. You immediately hand over your checked luggage to the porter. We then proceeded to the check in area. There were no lines. We showed our passport and cruise documents and then proceeded inside the terminal where we went through security and received a health questionnaire. We filled out the questionnaire immediately and proceeded to the check in desks. They take a credit card to secure onboard purchases and take your picture. (I believe they immediately put a hold charge on your credit card for $300. If you want to use cash or a debit card you have to go to guest services to get that worked out.) You are given your access key card that is to be used for everything you do on board. We then proceeded to a terminal waiting area where you are put in groups to board the boat. By 12:30 we were sitting in a restaurant having lunch. At 1:00 you can put your carry on in your stateroom. If you need to do anything at guest services on Deck 5, they are open. We didn’t need anything, but it is the place to upgrade your cabin, handle your onboard credit, get posh passes, etc. We then walked around the ship to get oriented. Most of the common areas are on Decks 5, 6, 7.

Cabin Review

Cabin. We were in 13289, an aft-balcony cabin. They are much smaller than they appear. We chose one with the bed near balcony. You can differentiate where the bed is by looking at the floor plan online and noting where the curve in the wavy wall is. The wall will be curving out from the room and the bed fits in that curve. We didn’t want the bed near the door, because the toilet is literally beside your head. The bathroom setup is as weird as reported. Both the shower and the toilet have semi-opaque doors and there is a curtain separating them from the rest of the cabin. The sink is small, but we didn’t have any problems with it. There is a lot of storage. A decent sized closet, drawers underneath the couch, several cabinets and shelves, storage above the bed and storage behind the upper couch cushions and suitcase storage underneath the bed. There is only one electrical outlet with 2 plugs. We brought a plug-in that expands one plug in to three. The balcony is spacious enough for a lounge chair, two regular chairs and a small table. The bed is a queen size, firm and pretty comfortable, although very short. The cons of this particular part of the ship is when people smoke on their own balconies, the smoke comes right back at all the balconies. Norwegian needs to look at putting all the smokers on one side of the ship. Also, we were 2 decks below the outdoor Spice Dance floor. A couple of nights they played music that vibrated the cabin until 2 am. Take some time to really look at all the deck plans and what might be over or under you in terms of noise.

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