NOTE: All ratings are based on the VALUE of the cruise ship and where NCL places itself in the cruise ship lineup. They are also from spending 21 days aboard the Epic 7 in the MED and 14 doing a transatlantic crossing and time in the Caribbean. This is also my 40th+ cruise and I have been on 12 different cruise lines so I have a little bit to compare to.

Boarding was pretty painless, lines in Barcelona were non-existent when we arrived and it took us less than 10 minutes to check in, receive our Key cards and get onto the ship. There was only one snafu, instead of checking us in for our back to back cruises they only checked us for the first cruise. Little did we know that they had no record of our 2nd cruise (more on that latter.) 8 out of 10

Staterooms – we had cabin 12157, an outside midship balcony. The biggest pluses were lots of storage and closet space, we showed up with two large suitcases and a large carryon stuffed full with clothes and there was ample hanging and storage space for 21 days on board a ship. The second thing we loved was the bathroom, the shower, commode and sink were all separate areas so someone could be using the shower and the other could be using the toilet. The biggest negatives were 1) the bed which was very short, my feet hung off the end and 2) the cabin was narrow so you had to coordinate passing between the bed and dresser/TV area. I also heard complaints about dim lighting in the cabin, while this was never a problem for me I could see it being a problem for those who like bright lights. 7 out of 10. Read more