Norwegian Epic Review
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I’ve cruised about 15 times. This was my first NCL cruise and my last. It was my 20 yr old 3rd cousin’s first cruise and she has sworn off cruises thanks to the Epic. It was my 1st cousin’s 2nd cruise with NCL and though she has not sworn off cruises, NCL is no longer on her list.
Entertainment:
The free shows Blue Man Group and Legends in Concert are fine and very well done. The Epic Theatre is very comfortable and all seats are great. But that’s it for unpaid nightly live entertainment unless bad karaoke, repeated trips to Second City, or lounge singers are your thing. The $ Circus of Dreams was well worth the cost for some amazing performances (though the constant blowing of whistles is a bit much). But the show needs to be re-named so folks do not think they are getting a Cirque de Soleil experience. It’s more reminiscent of a small traveling European circus troupe. Pay the $39 for preferred seating because the up-close-and personal feel is what makes this show very special. Since you are sitting at long dining tables, get there early to request sitting closer to the action. Sit further back, and you may have a lot of heads blocking your view unless it’s an aerial act. It was quite thrilling to feel the wind hit you that’s generated from the spinning roller skating couple! The surf and turf food is okay here, nothing special, so don’t go for the food. Second City is fun but in a terrible locale where posts block the view. Also, you sit in high chairs and the performers onstage are lower than you. Thus, you are blocked by a lot of heads. There are TV monitors, but they are pretty useless as they are along the walls and impossible to see thanks to the high chairs and bodies that fill them. And after 2 nights of Second City it got old. The public movies shown are from the 80s. Groundhog Day? Please! They are also shown at the oddest times like 7pm when folks are at dinner or a show. The free in-room movies are better and newer (like Gravity), but no time schedule is provided, so catch-as-catch-can.
Cabin Review
Mini-Suite with Balcony
The toilet and showers are frosted glass enclosures separated by the foyer that takes you in/out of the cabin. If sounds of your roomie’s bodily functions do not bother you, you will be fine. Otherwise, frequent the more private public facilities. A curtain can be drawn to separate the shower/toilet area from the rest of the cabin. But once curtain is closed, this cuts off the ability for your roomie to go in/out of the cabin door (it also cuts off the room's return air vent) . To make maters worse, the Do Not Disturb/Makeup cabin/etc. wheel is outside the cabin, so that you physically have to go into the hall to change it. Not cool if you are not ready to expose yourself to the world just yet. Th shower is huge for no real reason. And once you figure out how the shower works, the water temperature continually fluctuates from warm to scalding.The vanity is right up against the bed. The sink is a very small bowl where I splashed plenty outside of it while shaving. The protruding faucet caught all shaving cream, toothpaste, etc. Inadequate small light above the sink. No wonder so many women on the ship looked like their makeup was a la Baby Jane Hudson. While I appreciate the thought of separating the sink from the toilet/shower area, the sink could have been directly on the opposite side of the room away from the bed. My cousin and I needed the bed separated into two singles. In other ships' setups, that would mean placing a nightstand between the beds. On the epic, beds separate by mere inches. Several nights, I rolled over and kicked/hit my cousin! I woke up with a backache every morning, unlike at home. The handle on our sliding glass door came off the first time we used it (repaired the next day) and the mini-fridge gave off heat that my cousin could feel when sleeping on the pullout couch (we complained but this was never fixed as the interior of the fridge was warm, too). We had problems the first night with the room temperature, but it was fixed in 2 days.